Is Distance Learning Right for You

Before you enroll to take classes through an online school, check to make sure distance learning is really right for you. Earning a degree online can be an enjoyable and rewarding experience. But, distance education is not for everyone. While some people thrive on the independence and freedom offered through such classes, others find themselves regretting their decision and wishing they had enrolled at a traditional school instead.Successful and happy distance learners have a few characteristics in common. Compare yourself to the following list to determine whether or not online classes are a good fit for your personality and habits. Successful distance learners do just as well, if not better, without people looking over their shoulders. While some people need teachers to keep them motivated and on-task, distance learners are able to motivate themselves. They realize that they will never be face-to-face with the people who give them assignments and grade their work, but they don’t need others to encourage them. The most successful students are self-motivated and set their own goals. Successful distance learners never (or at least rarely) procrastinate. You’ll rarely find them putting off assignments or waiting until the last moment to write their papers. These students enjoy the freedom of working at their own pace and appreciate the ability to complete their work in as much time as it takes them, instead of waiting for an entire class. However, they understand that putting off their work too often can end up adding months, if not years, to their studies. Successful distance learners have good read ing comprehension skills. While most people learn by listening to lectures and taking notes, the majority of distance learners are expected to master material through reading alone. Although some distance learning courses offer video recordings and audio clips, most programs require that students understand a large amount of information that is only available through written text. These students are able to comprehend texts at the college level without the direct guidance of a teacher. Successful distance learners can resist constant distractions. Whether it’s the phone ringing off the hook, the kids screaming in the kitchen, or the allure of the tv, everyone faces distractions. Successful students know how to filter out the constant disturbances that threaten their progress. They feel comfortable turning down an invitation or letting the machine pick up the phone when they know there is work to be done. Successful distance learners feel alright about missing the social eleme nts of traditional schools. Sure, they realize that they’ll miss out on the homecoming game, the dances, and the student elections, but they’re convinced that the independence is absolutely worth it. Whether they’re mature adult learners who aren’t interested in the fraternity hype, or younger students who get their socialization from extracurricular activities elsewhere, they are comfortable with their current social situation. In place of classroom discussion, they explore the issues with their peers through email and message boards or discuss what they’re learning with spouses or coworkers. If you have few of the qualities of these successful students, you may want to reconsider applying to an online school. Remember that online learning is not for everyone and, while it is an excellent choice for some, others will always struggle with learning independently. But, if, after comparing your personality and habits to those of successful distance education students, you’ve discovered that you have a lot in common, online classes may be the perfect option for you.

The Ethics And Public Policies - 1233 Words

When studying personality psychology, a researcher uses theories, methods, and relies heavily on ethics, reliability, and validity. Using the â€Å"LOTS of data† acronym, personality researchers gather information to study people. These include, L-data (life record data), O-data (observation data), T-data (Test data) and S-data (self-report data). (Cervone Pervin, 2013) Each method has strengths and weaknesses. As well as â€Å"LOTS†, researchers must form a theory to â€Å"decide what to measure and how to measure it (Cervone Pervin, 2013, p. 42).† Theory without research can be speculation and research without theory is gathering meaningless information. Once a theory is made, one can start to gather a lot of data. However, before gathering the†¦show more content†¦By gathering research from observers, such as teachers, parents, and peers, a researcher might find information the individual may not be conscious of when self-reporting. This information is usually gathered by using questionnaires or other forms of rating the individual’s personality. (Cervone Pervin, 2013) T-data, information gathered from experimental procedures, are useful when looking at large studies. Newer technology and large numbers are beneficial to this method. T-data is objective, meaning it measures the goal of â€Å"his/her performance on a task (Cervone Pervin, 2013, p.37).† Finally, S-data, is information gathered when an individual is self-reporting about themselves. Questionnaires are the most common form of S-data. The individual will observe their own personality and report it to the researcher, but S-data has its limitations. Because the individual is self-reporting, they may not be aware of some personal characteristics and fail to report them accurately. Even with this limitation, Self-reports are still widely used more and more today with the advancement of technology and large numbers of diverse samples contributing to resear ch studies. (Cervone Parvin, 2013) Theory, â€Å"consisting of a systematic body of ideas about a particular topic or phenomenon (Cozby Bates, 2012),† is arguably the most important part of research studies. The theory guides which assessment will be used to study which aspect of personality. The information

International operation management Free Essays

string(79) " also be another challenging for the organization \(Process Analysis Model, n\." INTRODUCTION IKEA was founded by Ingvar Kamprad in the year 1943. It started as a small town Swedish furniture company that was founded on the principles low prices and good quality. This simple idea was able to transform the organization along with strategic management and excellent decision making. We will write a custom essay sample on International operation management or any similar topic only for you Order Now It now has over 250 stores and a presence in 30 countries. IKEA has become an international giant with whom local furniture companies have to struggle against. The fundamentals of the organization did not change drastically with expansion however the organization did adapt to the culture and practices in the host countries. The strategy was simple, give the people lower price compared to the peers, allow them to check the quality, do no compromise on the quality, save on costs from every possible angle and make them feel happy about the purchases they made (10 Keys to IKEA’s Low Prices, 2009). This made their brand strong and helped in vertical and horizontal integration and expansion. IKEA maintained strong ties to its home country. Its colors are a representation of the Swedish flag and its name is the initials of its founders name along with the initials of the town he was born in. The organization has used policies that have baffled researchers and lead to various analyst studying its reasons for success. TASK 1 APPLICATION OF THEORIES AND STRATEGIES When IKEA was first created, its owner had the vision of making it an international giant. He had started international meetings and proceeded for a quick expansion strategy of the organization. No other furniture company has had such an exponential growth in only a few years. First, it expanded from a small town to chains all over Sweden. This was not an easy task. The organization had no means of managing so many stores however through the excellent entrepreneurship of its founder, his strategy and global vision, the organization grew strong. The stores’ main concern would be to find ways in which they could decrease costs. They started with lowering electricity costs during day time by opening windows; they used energy saving lights and did not have a large profit margin in the start. They then expanded to Germany, France and other European nations. Once they expanded to other countries, they maintained the same policies and store strategies in every store. This was done th rough impeccable management practices, which further helped the organization open stores in other continents. IKEA’s business model became famous and the store called for publicity. Their process analysis and operational strategies are unique. All of their decisions have been successful and their management of inventory, staff and stores is one of the best in the world. IKEA used to purchase raw materials from manufacturers but after it expanded internationally, it started its own production company. This resulted in saving costs as well as making new designs reach the stores faster with the least amount of compromise on quality (Ikea: How the Swedish retailer became a global cult brand, 2005). They started economies of scale by starting a production company near its stores. These companies were generally located in areas where labor was cheap and it would be cheaper to ship the goods. They also used a very different style of marketing technique which concentrated on making people happy and reaching out on their base emotions. Most of the stores which sold products at lower prices were considered to have cheap quality like Wal-Mart; therefore IKEA had to use a lot of advertising to put the simple message across that the quality was not compromised in the deal. They did so by hosting customer parties, sending free samples, giving huge discounts and maintaining a happy customer care service. This increased their goodwill. They also took active participation in local events and helped the community, increasing their goodwill and sales. IKEA believed in constant innovation which is one of the reasons for its strong presence. It comes up with furniture pieces that are classic and as well as new. This adds to its brand presence along with rotation of furniture so that the customers are never viewing the same thing each time they visit. Another strategy that IKEA came out with was to keep huge inventories in its stores. This would mean more space and more wastage as well as high inventory management costs however compared to the costs of maintaining the stores, the predicted sales were higher. This made them even more famous because they were the only store which was capable of holding huge inventories allowing customers to buy any product by jus t entering the store. They managed to do so by holding flat line products. These products would them have to be assembled by the customer hence they were made in an easy to assemble manner. By holding flat ling products, the organization could store millions of product. These strategies enabled them to increase their market share (Ikea Components is Setting practical Business Targets, 2011). COST ANALYSIS OF CURRENT OPERATIONS IKEA is a privately held organization. It has seen an increase in costs over the last couple of years and is struggling to survive given the recent global recession and low sales turnover. Although its new and innovative strategies have increased sales and helped them earn profits, the margin of profits and the sales turnover has decreased along with increase in the cost of raw materials and operations. An increase in sales from Euro 21534 million in 2008 to a Euro 21846 million in 2009 is considered slow however considering the marking conditions, it is above its peers. IKEA needs to find more ways to cut costs in order to generate healthier results. It has started doing so by creating solar powered lamps etc and using solar power and saving on electricity. Its costs increased from Euro 7078 million in 2008 to Euro 7198 million in 2009. Reducing its costs will also be another challenging for the organization (Process Analysis Model, n. You read "International operation management" in category "Essay examples"d.) OPERATION MANAGEMENT ISSUES IN PRODUCT DESIGN OPERATIONS IKEA is strongly linked to its product and organization design. The process from which production starts until it reaches the stores and makes sales is very commendable for an international giant like IKEA. Although the operation process has been commendable there are still a few loopholes in the process. The main problem concerning IKEA is its inventory storage. Warehousing costs are on the high. The organization cannot afford to store thousands of products for each different store. This would not only mean high cost of storage but also wastages in products. Once the product gets old, it needs to be replaced by other more innovative products. This makes the lifecycle of the furniture short and increases the wastages that the organization will have to incur. Currently IKEA ships the unwanted goods to other stores where it might have a high demand however this not only adds to the risks of no sale but also increases the cost of shipping. Since it produces flat line furniture, the place taken up is not a lot but the store has expanded into all departments of housing and office furniture hence has to bear a high cost of storage. A good option available to the organization is to display goods in the store and ship the goods later to the customers through mail. This would help in preventing storage costs, cost to keep inventory management and save on any kind of wastages. The organization can also concentrate on re using the unsold furniture into other products. Since the organization owns its own production company, it can re use the unsold pieces of furniture and make other innovative products. Currently it does not pay too much attention into re using and re cycling however if it wants to keep costs low it needs to consider this alternativ e (SWOT Analysis and Sustainable Business Planning, 2011). Another Operation management issue with IKEA is that the organization is extremely large. It not only needs to concentrate on maintaining the current stores but also on expansion into other countries. IKEA’s expansion into India and other developing countries is on the hold. It has been extremely conservative in its approach to expansion and trying to be overly cautious. A good example is its indecision over opening stores in China. Once the company decided that China would be a good market, its management was scared to take the risk of entering a market where consumers were traditional and other furniture retails offered cheaper products. However, the expansion went very well and China has been a very good turnover for the organization. The government too was pleased with IKEA. Hence IKEA’s management needs to take more risks and consider global expansion while maintaining the quality of products and service given and lowering costs. By using process model analysis on the organization’s approach to its day to day operations, the following flow chart was developed. A process flow chart is required in order to recreate the design of the organization and understand the process in a simplified manner. The flow chart contains these symbols and meaning: Flowchart The above flowchart shows that there is a lot of time that is wasted in the transportation of the goods as well as in inspection of the products. Waste recovery has not been given a lot of attention as required and time spent on planning needs to be increased in order to develop products that lead the furniture market. Analysis models using classifier analysis, location analysis, cost and duration analysis and resource analysis have shown that the organization has been using all possible forms of increasing business however there is more scope and a lot it can do to improve its current standards. It does not utilize its resources like space for storage, marketing for customers and training employees for better customer satisfaction and higher sales. It is very conservative in its approach to location and store openings and production company locations. It needs to get more aggressive in order to build a stronger more stable and more profitable brand. The overall design of the organization is excellent with importance given on lowering costs; the only problems are inventory management and cautious expansion. MODULE 2 QUALITY MANAGEMENT IKEA’s simple business strategy of low prices has created a lot of trouble for the organization. By lowering prices, the quality of products offered lowered and although the organization has been thriving to maintain its quality it has sometimes been unable to meet international standards. The products are also a little below quality but their quest for lowering prices has also affected their quality of service offered. Customer care does not get proper attention and the workers do not have the time or resources for proper international training (Levine, 2010). The organization is barely scrapping through with the quality required which has adversely affected the business. The sales have gone down and prospective sales from elite consumers have seen a sharp decline. Another noticing factor on quality management is the advertising campaigns that the organization holds. They are unable to research well on the market because of being very cost conscious and have therefore missed out on their target customers in their marketing plan. Because IKEA is an international brand, it not only has to consider international policies but in order to do well in the host country, the organization also needs to pay special attention to the customs and traditions of the host country. It has been failing to do so correctly resulting in profits dwindling below expectations in certain regions and countries like the United States (Levine, 2010). IKEA is a privately held organization, hence information on IKEA is difficult to attain. IKEA follows a very difficult return service with delays and sometimes refusal to take back the goods purchased by consumers. This reflects back on their credibility and goodwill. For any organization that works directly with customers, service needs to be impeccable especially for an international organization like IKEA however IKEA has not been very good with its quality management approach. The organization has however taken a lot of steps to maintain its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and taken many steps to make a difference in the host country. IKEA can take many steps to improve quality. The organization can adopt TQM (Total Quality Management) in its operations in order to ensure quality. It needs to spend money on its processes however the returns it could possibly earn are potentially higher than the costs. The organization needs to adopt a six sigma approach to management and strategically increase the quality of products and service provided. This should increase collectively in all the stores. It has been seen that most of the sales come from EU nations which makes up of about 50% of its sales with only 5% coming from North America. This is a potentially untapped market and IKEA needs to improve quality and assure the consumers of its products and quality so as to increase its potential in not only the markets it already has a presence in but also the markets in which it plans to open stores. IKEA can use the theories for quality improvement in order to manage the quality. Management stresses on the following important principles and theories for quality improvement that IKEA can use to its advantage. 1. Develop customer focus in each step of the process and train employees to provide the best customer satisfaction. IKEA depends on its consumers and it needs to prove to the consumers that they can depend on IKEA as well. Customer focus is very important internally as well as externally in the workings of the organization. 2. Leadership. The international size of the organization makes it difficult for them to manage and lead the process. Leadership is required for each different store and all the leaders need to have a similar set of rules, aims and objectives. This can be done by training each leader of the store together. With the values that needs to be used in the organization. 3. Process based quality management. One theory of quality management states that if each process in the organization deals with the optimum use of resources and time, the overall outlook of the organization will be much different. 4. Decision making approach of the organization needs to change. The management needs to realize that they can no longer be over cautious in their approach if they want to gather all the market share and potential sales if they continue being conservative. They need information that is correct and they need to work slowly because of their mere size but they also need to take an aggressive role in this slow recession filled economy in order to survive and compete. 5. Continual improvement in quality. Quality management is not a onetime approach, the organization has to imbibe it into its day to day workings, control the quality and give feedback on the improvements done. The constant feedbacks would be supplied along with the advantages that the organization achieved due to the process of quality management. IKEA can also use the Crosby theory of quality management which stresses on zero errors, prevention of errors, quality being an adherence to requirement and quality as being a price paid for non conformity. It sets goals for lower period of days so that the results would show, it requires total commitment from the upper management, encouragement to the employees, training given accordingly, creating incentives for high sales, determining the costs for quality etc. TASK 3 IKEA being the world’s leading furniture retailer does not utilize its capacity or use capacity management to its advantage. It uses Data Core Virtual Storage Solutions globally considering its size. The new version uses auto provisioning which is allocation of products to its demand, auto failover which is mirroring and using high availability in its products and snapshot functions which means creating backup for all the information that is feed from all its stores worldwide. The software is the latest and expected to improve the management of inventory. Before the implantation of the software, IKEA struggled with its supply chain management. It sometimes had over supplied products and sometimes there was a lag in products which diminished demand. Since it is not an internet based supplier, it needs to keep a good amount of product as reserves. It needs to create a balance between oversupply and under supply so as to reduce wastages. IKEA has tried to take advantage of the te chnological improvements to sort out its supply chain management. The organization had earlier used JDA system in 2006 to solve its problems in supply chain management (IKEA Services, 2011). For an organization like IKEA the primary concern in capacity management are as follows: 1. It needs a technology that can forecast with a great level of accuracy based on past results and future market environment the market demand and supply movements. This forecasting accuracy will help the organization improve its functions and save millions of dollars in shipping, storage and recycling. 2. It needs an approach that improves the sales forecasts and predicts consumer behavior. The predictions need to be translated into sales figures so that the organization can plan on expansion and innovation. All the departments in the organization are interrelated and using capacity management to its highest level could help create more potential from the other departments as well. 3. Another area where IKEA needs to focus on is the anticipation of problems before they occur. A large organization is prone to have problems in its supply chain management and capacity management however if it is in a position to predict the changes and challenges well ahead of time, it can be better prepared for the threat or even to a certain extent help prevent it. This is an integral part of management function through which the organization can gain further market share and capital. 4. Transportation and logistics methods need to be simplified with each consignment being traceable so that the management can better predict the product whereabouts and avoid loss in transportation. With the rise in fuel costs the management needs to carefully lay out its supply chain management as well as logistics problems. With over 12000 products and 250 stores in 30 countries the organization needs better capacity management solutions (Supply Chain Management, 2006). IKEA store layout is in the form of a maze. The consumers need to walk through different custom rooms build to give them an idea of the product they might like. The stores are therefore multi layered with additional space given for storage. This has proven to be a good thing because this marketing strategy makes the customers view all the products and increases sales. It does however have the following disadvantages: It wastes a lot of its store space It confuses the customers who find it difficult to return to the product they liked before It irritates consumers who are looking for a particular product and have to go through the entire store for it and it wastes a lot of time which consumers do not prefer. However, this marketing strategy is important but it can be improved upon to avoid the above hindrance. There are many other store formats that the organization can select from instead of its free flow layout. An image of the store layouts is mentioned below. Therefore IKEA can select a grid layout or a spine layout to avoid confusion. Having different layout on each store can also be helpful and avoid any wastage of space. Since the organization has 20000 products they need to be displayed in an arranged format with utmost importance given to layout so that they appear attractive for the customers to buy. The lighting also should be set up in a way that enhances the qualities of the products. The benefits of having a store layout are that it helps the customers organize their wants. It has been proven in countless studies that a good display of the products makes the customers more inclined to buy the products. This means that a layout can make or break a sale hence needs attention from the upper management (Waters, 2011). CONCLUSION IKEA has a great future ahead. It needs to take an aggressive role in this market because its sales are now stagnant and costs are on a rise. It has used the best method for inventory management along with supply chain management it can further expand its dominance over the other furniture retailers by becoming a public company instead of staying private and add additional funds to its disposal. The has been orthodox and conservative in its approach to management so far but it needs to change its policies into being more innovative not only in the products it makes but also in the strategies it follows. The company has great potential and a business plan that matches no other organization in the world. It size and its success by far have been commendable. It company also needs to change into being more web based which would reduce the cost of transportation and logistics. It has a lot of potential and a goodwill that precedes every country it decides to open a store in, however marketing is also an important feature IKEA needs to look into. Its current marketing strategies were effective in an expanding economy where people where ready to spend however in this current recession the only way IKEA can make more sales is through advertising its fundamental business objective; low cost. It needs to cash into the recession and increase sales by lowering prices and making its products quality checked. IKEA also has a lot of improvement to do in the customer care area where it is lacking behind due to its policy to lower costs. The organization needs to train its employee so that they are more efficient and better equipped to make a sale. To conclude I would like to add that IKEA has great potential not only in its existing countries but other countries where it does not have any stores. It needs to tap into the sales before some other organization does. BIBLIOGRAPHY 10 Keys to IKEA’s Low Prices. (2009). Personalizing the IKEA experience. [Online] http://www.ikeafans.com/ikea/ikea-why-ikea/10-keys-to-ikeas-low-prices.html [last accessed April 02, 2011] Ikea Components is Setting practical Business Targets. (2011). Business Management. [Online] http://www.bme.eu.com/article/Ikea-Components-is-setting-practical-business-targets/ [last accessed April 02, 2011] IKEA Services. (2011). IKEA. [Online] http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ikea—the-worlds-leading-home-furnishings-retailer—deploys-datacore-virtual-storage-solutions-globally-55257702.html [last accessed April 02, 2011] Ikea: How the Swedish retailer became a global cult brand. (2005). BusinessWeek. [Online] http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_46/b3959001.htm [last accessed April 02, 2011] Levine, R.R. (2010). Theories in total quality management. [Online] http://www.brighthub.com/office/project-management/articles/72443.aspx [last accessed April 02, 2011] Process Analysis Model. (n.d.). IBM. [Online] http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/dmndhelp/v6rxmx/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.btools.help.modeler.doc/doc/concepts/analysis/processmodelanalysis.html [last accessed April 02, 2011] Supply Chain Management. (2006). Ikea revamps supply chain strategy with JDA. [Online] http://www.logisticsit.com/absolutenm/templates/article-supplychain.aspx?articleid=2544zoneid=5 [last accessed April 02, 2011] SWOT Analysis and Sustainable Business Planning. (2011). The Times 100. [Online] http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/case-study–swot-analysis-and-sustainable-business-planning–110-368-5.php [last accessed April 02, 2011] Waters, S. (2011). Types of store layouts. [Online] http://retail.about.com/od/storedesign/ss/store_layouts.htm [last accessed April 02, 2011] How to cite International operation management, Essay examples

Team Leboncoin Final free essay sample

Questionnaire on Lebanon users 19 1. Introduction Buy and sell, Lebanon is a French free ads website born in 2006 and which is now in the top 3 of most visited websites in France with a progression of more than 20% in terms of visitors and pages viewed in 2012. This two figures rate had been the same for 12 months at that time and now the company gathers around 20 million people every month. Through this platform, every user whether he is a professional or not can search or create ads for any type of good. The difference with all the other similar websites is that Lebanon. R is a platform that contains diverse categories of ads: cars, hobbies, employment, services, real estate and many others. Moreover, in order to get a more specific search the website allows you to narrow your research by selecting the exact region you are in or are willing to go to. One of the main asset of the company is that its platform is both simple to use, effective and most importantly free of use. In fact you only have to choose the region where you want to find an ad, enter the title of the good then select the price range or other specifications then click on Search and the research engine will do the rest for you.To talk about its effectiveness, Lebanon. FRR is roving you hundreds of thousands ads every month and these are, of course, updated regularly. Another important point that we can highlight is the ability to contact directly the owner Of the ad via the platform, So that you can basically buy or sell without having to pay any taxes or subscription fees. Illustration of the platform growth between 2009 and 2011 in terms of unique visitors per day. Figure 1 . Platform growth between 2009 and 2011 in terms of unique visitors per day.We can see the rapid expansion of Lebanon. FRR as an expression of French resourcefulness, this state of mind which encourages mutual assistance between people and pushes you find the better solution. This way, the company became the leader in the car and real estate markets because you interact directly with the private seller without any intermediaries. The outstanding growth of the platform which made it one of the most if not the most popular small ads website among French people is the reason why we chose this company to work on. 2. Homework chapters 2. 1 .Business modal analysis: external and internal 2. 2. 1. 2. 2. 2. 2. 1. External analysis Lebanon is an online platform. It has an important function evaluation of market prices for many goods. It main competitor is the US online auction site eBay. Concerning French market, its most important competitors are parvenu. FRR or radian. FRR or eviscerates. FRR. The main value added of Lebanon is that for its creation, it got a very good brand reputation. As a classified site, it is the leader in France with more than as 17 million of view per months. As detailed after (part 2. ), Lebanons customer segment is a French speaking person, looking for buying of selling staff at cheaper prize. The SOOT analysis for Lebanon is: Strengths -Convenient and simple to use -Classified by departments in France A variety of choices of goods and services -Precise target Weaknesses -No secure payment guaranteed -Sellers and buyers are anonymous Opportunities -The use of internet as an essential tool -C to C operation pattern -Purchasing power of the French market The retreats -Government regulations -Competition from other similar websites -Fear from consumers of scam Figure 2.SOOT analysis of Lebanon 22. 1. 2. 2. 2. Internal analysis: business canvas model For the internal analysis, we have create the following business canvas model: Figure 3. Business canvas model of Lebanon There are Strengths and weaknesses for each pare 1 . The customer segment: Strengths: Lebanon have a better localization system compared to e-Bay and Scraggliest and a very good brand reputation. Weakness: it is not available outside of France or for French-speaking persons and persons that dont use internet. 2.Value proposition: Strengths: there is no registration needed, this encourages people to use the website. Moreover, Lebanons customers are very loyal. Weakness: there are not enough categories to classify the search, you have to spend a lot of time for looking. There is no possibility to give mark or appreciation for the one you had deal with. 3. Channels: Strengths: Lebanon is free and easy to access or use wherever you want. Weakness: good quality of the staff you buy/sell is not guaranteed and payment problems are not handled by the company. 4.Customers relationship: Strengths: it is very easy to use, the interface is really intuitive. Moreover, the automatic data base create less work for the staff. Weakness: there is no possibility to call them in case of trouble. There is no English version of the site. Finally, it is impossible to control everything post on the ad. 5. Revenue stream: Strengths: the platform is local, effective, and powerful and contains simple ads. It meet the needs of professional service and consumers. Because it is not charged for ordinary consumers it is more attractive. Weaknesses: the revenue sources still have space to develop, especially to expand the scope of E-commerce. 6. Key resources: Strengths: Lebanon has an amazing increase of its workforce (1 people in 2006, +350 nowadays). For 6 months, there is a new CEO who will bring innovations because of his own experiences, knowledge and skills. Weakness: it only concern the higher salary costs. 7. Key activities: Strengths: it is almost impossible to fraud or to sell illegal goods. It attracts ore and more companies and so increase credibility and reputation. Weakness: the payment is not handled by the website. 8.Key partners prt dilation: Strengths: this is a P to P business, a new way to enlarge the scale of investment into the company. Weaknesses: it is also an emerging industry which still lack in experience; the credit risks and scams. Technology providers consultants: -Strengths: it make good use of the digital tools. It increase the ability of innovation and of data analysis. Professional partners or user by mouth to mouth speaking: -Strengths: provide more products and services and so create more attraction o consumers. Public and welfare organizations: -Strengths: it create a very good reputation for the brand. 9.Costs structure Strength: there is high standard of salary which attract more technical and professional people to join the Lebanon. Weaknesses: not enough fees for the rating system and security guaranteed. 2. 2. Market study and persona development 2. 2. 1. Market Persona During this part, the purpose was to define some marketing persona. It means, to create different profiles of people who use Lebanon. To achieve it, we have followed this methodology: Firstly, preparing the questions: after a rainstorm we have decided which questions we want to ask to people in order to know their behavior on Lebanons website. You can find the questions posted on the annex A Then, finding the market: we have decided on which market we want to focus in order to have a real picture of the population. We have divided the market on several points: age, geographical location, basic profiles of typical buyers and sellers -Conducting the interviews: all of us have interview two persons in different market we have decided previously. Analyzing the results: the results of our interview had allow us to provide tree marketing persona. Here are our results: Jean Bouncer He is a 23 years old student, single and lives in Angers. He mostly uses Lebanon to buy staff. Because he is a sportsman, he usually buys consumer goods related to his hobby (bike, equipment ). He uses the mobile app, generally every month. The reason why he uses Lebanon is because its cheaper and there is a lot of choices. He can be interested in a home delivery because he buys his goods from all over the country Anne Enemy She is a 47 years old married woman who lives in Paris. She has two kids and is a French teacher. Mostly she buys household equipment and sell used hillsides clothes. She always goes on Lebanons website on her computer, generally 3 or 4 times a year.The reason why she uses Lebanon because it is cheaper. She is not interested in a home delivery because she doesnt trust internet payments Justine Dodd He is a 58 years old man, married with 2 kids and 1 grandchild. He lives in Lie and is a car rental. The reason why he uses Lebanon is for both buy and sell staff because of his professional activity. Indeed, he buys old cars or wrecks and sells them after repairs. Concerning Lebanon, he both uses his computer or Mobile app, every day generally. He uses Lebanon because there is a lot of choices and bargain to make.Finally, he is not interested in a home delivery because he doesnt need it. 2. 22. User persona In order to create a typical profile of a Lebanons user, we have made researches on internet. Here are our finding: -Concerning the audience because of age: Audience because of age group Age Audience (in thousands of seen) Reach (in %) 1 5-24 2949 39,8 25-34 3961 50,8 35-44 4441 53,1 45-54 3861 50,6 55+ 4268 37,4 Table 1 : source:http://www. Journalese. Com/media/publishers/audience- Lebanon. SHTML Most people who use Lebanon are middle age, between 25 ND 50 years old.Because of their age, people are not looking for the same thinks: Younger are looking for games, clothes, pets Adults are looking for flats, cars, houses Moreover, the channel of using depend of the age too: indeed, for young people, especially those with higher education use the app whereas mid-aged and old people use it on a computer. -Concerning the geography: Audience because of geography area East Paris 1617 49, 6 West Paris 1767 45, 1 East 1713 49,8 Mediterranean 2221 39,7 North 1522 57,5 West 2461 5 2,4 South East 2565 48, 9 South West 2849 50,2 Table 2: source:http://www. Journalese. M/media/publishers/audience- Lebanon. SHTML People who mostly use Lebanon are on the north and west region on the France. This can be explain by the France history. Indeed, this two regions are close to the sea and to they use to haggle with each other. Lebanon provide use a new way of centralization where they can haggle. Concerning the salary: Audience because of salary Salary Reach (in 70) 0-11999? 1163 40,9 12000-16999? 2134 41 17000-23999? 3475 46, 3 24000-35999? 5939 47, 4 36000-54999? 5010 47,5 55000?+ 1758 43, 9 Table 3: source:http://www. Journalese. Mom/media/publishers/audience- ebonies. SHTML Because of this table we can see that there is no real relation between peoples salary and Lebanons audience. It means that everyone use Lebanon. Off course they dont expect the same thing from it. People who have less money would like to earn money by selling staff they dont need or buy thing with cheaper price. On the contrary, rich people mostly use Lebanon for the pleasure to bargain. All of this results allow us to create a typical user Of Lebanon: For the unprofessional user: he is a man living in north region between 35 and 44 years old with middle revenues.For the repressions user: it is a very little companies with no website or rental company. 2. 3. Proposition of a new business model Today the main issues for Lebanon are: Create a security payment in order to target new market Avoid scams by creating a rating system for sellers Increase footprint in the professional car, real estate market and recruitment network Improve user experience Propose strategy against competitors Remain leading online classifieds website position in France Figure 4.New business canvas model of Lebanon Although Lebanon is very popular in France, concerning the current equines model, it still has some problems. So we propose a new business model includes the recommendations and solutions to make Lebanon better. 1 . The customer segment: For buyers, its important to keep localization but the English version is needed for people who live France without understanding French. For sellers, its a good choice to include more professionals like car dealers, real estate agency and recruiter. . Value proposition: Its important to keep what Lebanon has already proposed, but the development is needed obviously. First, a much clearer category is needed to become more convenient. The website is supposed to present more sub category name. Less a way to develop service also. Second, the website need to be more credible. As an E-commerce and classification website, its really essential to reduce scams and insecurity. Before the transaction, ifs important to ensure the scams are not going to happen.Also, a security payment can be created as for enlarging the service range. Finally, innovation can be proposed as for encouragement for providing more services, like some automatic systems for searching for professionals or to check if the advertisement is fake or not ,which has been created and used by a Chinese localization called 58 Tong Change. 3. Channels: First, a SEE of the official website is needed. Lebanon should become much easier to use. Its a way to improve sales channel. Second, the website should give more support to the e-mail campaign.According to the current situation, ebonies doesnt attach much importance to the e-mails. A good design and more advertisements e-mails are needed as to ensure the customer loyalty. Finally, methods like providing possibilities to give marks and appreciation, or share shopping experiences are necessary. Creation of an online communication forum can be much better. 4. Customers relationship: Providing more ways for customers to communicate with each other, its a way to improve user experience.Whats more, the contact information of Lebanon now is not efficient enough. Its a good choice to highlight the official phone number and the official email and so on. 5. Key resources: Lebanon has the base of online platform and infrastructures. But as to attract more employees, the salary cost is quite high. As for this problem, its necessary to make a reasonable and different salary range for different jobs. For example, the salary for technical and innovative persons can be somehow Geiger compared to the workers. 6.Key partners: Besides the current partners which have already brought benefits to Lebanon, the website should also build partnership with web portals like Yahoo or other French web portals. Its useful to attract more customers and to target new markets. On the other hand, it can be a useful way for the website to become partner with some telecoms operators or other professional sector as to ensure the identity authentication to reduce scams. Finally, creating partnership with other classification websites is also important. Cooperation is another kind of competition strategy 7.Key activities: The main functions Of Lebanon like providing platforms for ads, giving support to deals and ensuring the goods and services are legal are still needed as to maintain the leader statue. However, its good to include more services. And concerning the problem that the payment is not handled by the website, maybe this can be innovated by creating a security payment platform like Lippy. 8. Revenue stream: The revenue of Lebanon should come from three main channels. The first one is from professionals who have great desire and demand.The second is from the sponsors as to present more ads for themselves. The last is from the users who want to stay among the top of the lists longer. Whats more, Lebanon could provide possibilities for users to pay for special services which are not so frequently demanded like wedding celebration and so on. 9. Costs structure: Besides some obligatory fees and communication fees, Lebanon should also spend more on rating system building, the security guaranteed and other innovation activities. 2. 4. CRM strategy Today, customer relationship management has become a true factor of growth for e-commerce.Having one or multiple CRM tools is essential to benefit from a 3600 vision of your customers. This is even more important today when we see an expansion of communication channels and an intensification of interactions between customers and e-commerce companies. This step is strategic for every e-commerce which wishes to: prospect new clients, develop loyalty of existing customers, get a better understanding of those customers and create clusters to target them more easily and efficiently but also to increase customer satisfaction in general.By integrating data linked to your customers, orders or products in your CRM strategy you will benefit from an enriched vision of your clients. All these information are useful in order to have more precise campaigns and then deliver to the identified segments a personalized and relevant message. 2. 3. 2. 4. 2. 4. 1 . Create push notifications for the mobile application of Lebanon. FRR Because mobile phone now represents more and more volume of interactions between an e-commerce company and its customers, the goal of this action is to create different groups of users to send them personalized push notifications.Actually the customer needs attention even after the use of the platform to remind him about offers he checked for example and that loud still be interesting for him. If not to remind him about what he missed or what could he be interested in then use these notifications to get to know him better and ask him about his satisfaction level regarding the platform, the seller or anything that could potentially benefit the company. This kind of attention is the one that can make the difference when it comes to developing your customers loyalty.This way the customer can get back to Lebanon if his use was not fully satisfactory and then the company could add up all this feedback in order to increa se customer satisfaction by making omen changes depending on how much people have one kind of problem. For instance when a customer buys something on the platform he receives a notification on his phone asking him: What did you think of the seller? or Did you have any trouble using the platform? 2. 4. 2.Create an official Backbone page as well as a Twitter account Currently the company does not have an official Backbone page or Twitter account but it does have the Backbone connect button which allows customers to share a specific ad with their friends or relatives. Going further by creating official accounts would argyle benefit the website in terms of interactions with its users but it is also a good way to get feedback, to follow the virtual growth of your platform but also to manage customer satisfaction.