Independent Learning Essay

Why it is important that I understand what independent learning is? Independent learning is a learning method that can be used as a tool by students to help achieve their final goal. It is important for students to understand what independent learning is particularly when planning on pursuing higher education as they will be expected to use their own initiatives while learning a wide range of materials. However, while this essay is to argue the importance of independent learning, it is also important to note that working and sharing learning methods with and from peers also contributes to success. Independent learning can also be described as a method where students acquire a wide range of knowledge. Factors that contribute to this can be self-motivation, keen interest in specific subjects and ability to recognise the importance of success in life. This type of learning could also give students a chance to self-discover themselves and their individual needs as well as their potential s, strengths and weaknesses. Self-discovery is important in a student life specially while attending higher education as it will put things in perspective for the student and helps to set objectives towards improvements that need to be made. The idea of Independent learning should be encouraged more in schools as it could potentially save teachers time as well as give students flexible and more time to catch up on other work activities. In contrast, Independent learning shouldn’t necessarily be seen as a student just working in his/her own at all times (The Higher education academy, 2013). It should be made possible where a situation of group learning is put in place while at the same time individual goals can be reached independently by the students. Typically this way of learning can help students develop a trustful relationship with their mentor. It could also be a way to let the instructor know that his/her student is able to follow the agreed guidance or the type of help the student may require. This is also a complementary way for students to learn how to conduct a research on a specific topic and present their outcome. As a result, students can gain more depth of knowledge in the area of their interest as well as improve in their written and communication skills. Independent learning is also important in developing as well as improving organizational skills. As students are able to self-direct themselves while learning, they should also be able to plot their own path and value their own work in order to compare  themselves to their peers that are on the same level as them (Michie, 2013). Independent learning could also be seen as a way of preparing in advance for lectures or seminars. This as a result could benefit students. For example, it will allow them to focus on any extra or new materials that are covered in sessions as well as gives them the opportunity to ask questions on what they may not be clear about. Some students may argue that Independent learning don†™t work for them. However, it is up to their teachers or mentors to set some guidance to help students understand the importance. Teachers must be able to meet their students half way. It is important to look into their students’ needs and expectation. They should also allow students to perhaps have a trial session of independent study before expecting them to make a direct transition (The Higher education academy, 2013). Developing the habit of Independent learning early on is vital and becomes handy post-higher education. Many employers like to be assured that potential candidates are able to take their own initiatives in completing tasks and confident in working individually without much supervision. From personal experience, I found that Independent learning has been a great tool towards self-discovery and furthermore helped me challenge myself and continue to do so in day to day life; it gave me self-confidence because I found independent learning as a way and guide that puts new experienc e and learning materials into a more transparent setting. It is fair to say that the obvious life skills such as reading, listening, speaking, viewing and presenting are possible to achieve through Independent learning. However it is also possible to gain other personal skills that we could benefit from on day-to-day basis. For instance our social skills, thinking skills and information presenting skills that are vital in our world today. Most of us are able to use our social skills in order to work with others and contribute to our communities in a positive ways. Valuing the way we think is also very important to help us gain understanding and making good judgment and decisions in life. Finally, as an Independent learner it is easily discovered that information skills gained help us in various ways such as the ability to recognise information when needed, ability to ask relevant questions as well as reflect and evaluate our own learning skills. Independent learning simply deduced is learning that is self-directed. In most higher education institutions particularly at university, independent  learning is presumed to be the driving force behind the teaching-learning process (Moore, 1973, pp. 661–679). Students would be expected to dedicate more time studying on their own to get the most out of their learning experience. Furthermore, exemplifying this belief is the growth and success of institutions solely based on independent learning such as the Open University and other distance learning institutions. Thus it is very important to understand and consider this type of approach towards learning when pursuing higher education. Independent learning is also a great option for adult students who may find it difficult to go back to higher education. In today’s world where online courses are available to suite their flexibility and level makes it easier for them to achieve their goal in their own pace (Ictnz.com, 2013). Independent learning is not just limited to pre-lecture preparations or simply being ahead of one’s peers. Learning via this method could potentially help achieve greater academic and social as well as personal successes. These achievements could be in the forms of new research findings or just improving our personal skills while pursuing our passions at a greater level. Reference Ictnz.com. 2013. What are the sklls of an independent learner? [Online] Available at: http://ictnz.com/Inquiry%20Learning/independent%20learning%20skills.htm [Accessed: 25 Sep 2013]. Michie, J. 2013. What is Independent Learning? [Online] Available at: http://jamesmichie.com/blog/2011/10/what-is-independent-learning/ [Accessed: 24 Sep 2013]. Moore, M. 1973. Toward a theory of independent learning and teaching. The Journal of Higher Education, pp. 661–679. The Higher education academy. 2013. Untitled. [Online] Available at: (http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/internationalisation/isl_independent_learning [Accessed: 26 Sep 2013].

Ntt Docomo

NTT DoCoMo i-mode:value innovation at DoCoMo. (2003). Recuperado de la base de datos de UESAN (031397) 16088 INSEADBlue Ocean Strategy lnstitute The Business School for the World18 BOS005 NTT DoCoMo i-mode TM: Value lnnovation at DoCoMo 08/2009-5079 This is a modified version of the original case ‘NTI' DoCoMo i-mode'l'M: Creating a Solution for the Masses' (number 05/2002-5036), written by Yasushi Shiina, INSEAD MBA 2000. Jason Hunter preparad this freely adapted version, under the supervision of Professors W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne and Ben M. Bensaou.It is intended to be used as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrativa situation. Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC i-modeTM is a registered trademark of NT1†² DoCoMo, Inc. in Japan. TO ORDER COPIES OF INSEAD CASES, 5EE DETA! Ul ON ‘! ‘HE BACK COVER. COPIES MAY NOT BE MADE WITHOUT PERMISSION. Every ten years, Japanese companies come up with a new mobile device that shakes the world. Sony's Walkman was launched in 1979 and Nintendo launched Gameboy in 1989. And in 1999, we invented i-mode.I Mari Matsunaga Kouji Ohboshi is a worried man. It's early 1999, and NTT DoCoMo's Chairman is anxiously waiting to hear how the press conference for i-mode- bis company's new mobile Internet system – has fared. He has every reason to be nervous. Although DoCoMo is a leader in the Japanese mobile industry, the market is showing signs of saturation and Ohboshi has gambled a large stake of bis company's future on the development of the new system. The report arrives and bis worst fears are realized: the press conference was a debacle.The launch of i-mode couldn't have gone worse. With only seven reporters attending, i ­ mode's extravagant debut had fallen on deaf ears. Those journalists present were among Japan's least charitable. With the Internet boom waning, reporters were more skeptical than ever. Mobile Internet services ha d failed elsewhere so why should they work in Japan? Why not wait, like everyone else, for the third generation (30) global wireless Internet protocol? Ohboshi knew that unfavorable or- worse – weak press coverage in Japan's trend-driven mobile phone market could spell disaster.Had he made the wrong decision to shift the company's strategic focus? Were bis skeptical colleagues at DoCoMo right? What Ohboshi didn't know at the time was that in the weeks to come, i-mode would become an explosive success. Like the Walkman and Gameboy that preceded it, i-mode was to be more than simply a commercial success – it became a phenomenon. What explains this amazing success in Japan? How did DoCoMo turn a highly competitive industry with declining growth potential into an attractive business opportunity? NTT DoCoMo's Trouhled BirthNTT DoCoMo was formed in 1992 as part of a partial govemment break-up of the powerful Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT) telecom monopoly. Formerly NTT 's mobile phone unit, it was cast from the nest to take over wireless communications sales and operations as an independent enterprise. Kouji Ohboshi, an energetic 60-year-old, was the first CEO of a company whose name DoCoMo is both a play on the Japanese word for â€Å"anywhere† and an abbreviation of ‘Do Communications over the Mobile network. ‘ Interview: Ms. Mari Matsunaga, formerly Manager, Gateway Business Dept. NTT DoCoMo (20 Aug. 2001). Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC 08/2009-5079 Blue Ocean Strategy Institute From the start, Ohboshi realized that DoCoMo had a tough road ahead. The mobile phone market was over-regulated, transmission quality was poor, subscription fees were costly and mobiles were heavy. 2 Moreover, there was a palpable sense that the market had reached a plateau (Exhibit 1). 3 Japan's economic bubble had burst and businesses had cut back mobile phone purchases.To add insult to injury, tough new govemment rules forbade the fledgling DoCoMo to ask NTT for financial assistance. By the end of its frrst year DoCoMo was saddled with a â€Å"1O billion yen loss †¦ and bankruptcy was a serious threat. â€Å"4 Paced with a looming crisis, Ohboshi went for broke, setting out to expand the market by bringing cellular phones to the masses. And he did so with a vengeance. During the next two years, Ohboshi invested 50 billion – a large sum for a company making a loss – to bring DoCoMo's mobile network services to everyday users. 5 His first move was to improve DoCoMo's network.In 1993 the company 1aunched its new revo1utionary PDC (Personal Digital Cellular) standard, bringing crystal clear calls, fewer interruptions and less background noise. Moreover, PDC helped DoCoMo use its limited allocation of radio spectrum more efficiently. Within a few months DoCoMo's PDC standard was adopted by competitor carriers across Japan. By December 1998, it would account for 98. 7% of the Japanese market. (Exhibit 4)6 Next DoCoMo slashed prices. lts high deposit was abolished in October 1993 and subscription fees were cut in 1996.By March 1999 monthly basic charges had dropped 73%, the average charge for a three-minute call on DoCoMo falling 57. 6% in the same period. Once again, the rest ofthe industry quickly followed suit by cutting fees (Exhibit 3). The lust for market share in the mid-90s drove carriers to continue slashing prices to rock bottom levels, even as monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) continued to sink (while monthly average minutes use remained relatively stable). (Exhibit 5) Ohboshi also attracted new customers by reducing the size of the phones.NTT had one of the largest R;D teams in the telecom industry and DoCoMo maintained close relationships with 2 Matsunaga (2000}, i-mode jiken (i-mode: The Birth of i-mode), Kadokawa Shoten. 3The frrst Japanese cellular phone service was launched in December 1979. It was a disaster. The high service fees made the telephones unaffordable t o all but the wealthiest of businessmen (sa/arimen). After putting down 200,000 deposit and a 72,000 subscription fee, users would hand over another 26,000 in monthly fees anda call charge of 280 for every three minutes.Moreover, the service area was limited, the sound quality was inferior to pay phones, and you had to be physically fit: first generation cellular phones weighed 3kg and were carried over the shoulder. With the stimulation of government deregulation and subsequent technological innovations it took a full 1O years before cell phones became increasingly attractive to mass consumers. Carriers and telecom equipment manufacturers worked closely to improve both the usability of the phones and the quality of transrnission. Rightly, they believed that reducing the size of handsets and extending their battery life were crucial improvements.By the end of 1998, the weight and the battery life of a standard phone reached 68g and 330 hours respectively (Exhibits 2 and 3). 4 Interv iew: Mr. Kouji Ohboshi, Chairman, NTT DoCoMo 5 Ohboshi (2000): DoCoMo kyuseicho no keiei (DoCoMo: Management ofrapid growth), Diamond Sha 6 Tadashi Aoyagi (2000): Daisansedai keitai business: nichibeiou no nerai (The third generation cellular phone business: Aims of Japan, US and Europe}, Ric Telecom (exhibit 19) Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC 2 08/2009-5079 elecom equipment manufacturers. 7 Ohboshi leaned heavily on DoCoMo's engineers and its suppliers to reduce the size of phones and extend their battery life. Although DoCoMo was feeling the effects of deregulation, it made the best of the gains offered by the new competitive environment. Within ayear of Ohboshi's drastic measures, DoCoMo was still Japan's largest mobile telephone carrier, and its revenues and net income had soared. 8 By March 1999, DoCoMo's sales revenue ballooned to ;v;3,118 billion with a net income of;v;205 billion, and market capitalization topping out at ;v;11. trillion- about 60% of the size ofits parent co mpany, NTT. (Exhibit 8) The Wud, Wb'eless East NTT DoCoMo's emergence, together with deregulation, technological innovation, price reduction and the launch of new services all contributed to the rapid expansion of the mobile phone market to mass users in Japan. In a 10-month period during 1998, the market grew by an estimated 8 million users, bringing the total number of subscribers to 39. 8 million in January 1999- fulfilling 87. 2% of Japan's total wireless market. (Exhibit 1)9 Competition for market share in the late 1990s was cut-throat.Deregulation continued apace and by 1998 a flood of large foreign carriers and equipment manufacturers had entered the fast-growing market as the government lifted the last remaining limitations on foreign investment (Exhibit 4). 10 Competition was equally fierce in the drive to offer new services. J ­ Phone shrewdly targeted younger users, launching the first SMS (short message service) and information services via the J-Sky Web package. Using a similar approach, DoCoMo introduced the wildly successful ‘Pocket Board,' a well-designed yet inexpensive mobile with email and game functions. 1 By January 1999, the wireless market in Japan had experienced seven years of rapid expansion (Exhibit 1), with every third person owning a mobile phone. Although the size of the market was still small compared to that of fixed lines, its annua1 average growth rate of 7 DoCoMo inherited from NTI c1ose re1ationships with four 1arge Japanese suppliers (NEC, Fujitsu, Matsushita Communications Panasonic and Mitsubishi Electronics), who worked closely with NTI DoCoMo to break through technological barriers.This network soon became known as the ‘DoCoMo Family', since its products were sold under the NIT DoCoMo brand, and the only way to identify the manufacturer of a cellular phone was to look at the first letter of the product number (e. g. , ‘N' for NEC). These relationships gave NTI DoCoMo considerable advantage especially once its PDC standard was accepted as the only one in Japan. 8 It rernained the nation's leading carrier; however, at times DoCoMo's market share dropped below 50% due to fierce competition. The growth in subscribers was attributed to the increase in personal users. However, churn rates (subscriber termination rates) were also increasing, showing that customer loyalty was vulnerable in the new environment. 10 Airtouch acquired a 10-15% stake in the J-Phone Group of companies and offered its technical expertise; Motorola, a US electronic products manufacturer invested in the Tuka Group of companies. 11 For their part, DDI Cellular and IDO improved the quality of transmission substantially by adopting the US-based cdmaOne digital protocol.Although these services attracted new customers, these numbers were not significant enough to boost growth or change the structure of the market. Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC 3 08/2009-5079 —–y- Blue Ocean Strategy Institute 68% was a stounding compared to the anemic growth (1. 5%) of the ftxed line market. Yet despite general optimism in the market, Ohboshi was once again getting nervous. .A. fter Victory, Tighten your Helmet StrapHis marketing background had taught him that, â€Å"fast growth means fast maturity, and faster speed for the market to move from maturity to saturation and then to decline†. 12 The market was once again moving to saturation both in the number of potential new users and in capacity as available radio bandwidth increasingly limited market expansion. lt was time for action. To survive, Ohboshi believed that DoCoMo needed â€Å"to create a new market, not by adapting to changes but by creating the changes through positively transforming their corporate strategy†. 3 Ohboshi told his employees that DoCoMo had to shift from simply increasing the size of the voice-based wireless market, to creating new value for customers. Shortly afterwards, in July 1996, the company formerly a nnounced its new strategic focus: ‘from volume to value. ‘ Volume to Value At the heart of Ohboshi's â€Å"Volume to Value† focus was non-voice-based wireless data transmission. With the explosion of Internet use during the late 1990s (Exhibit 6), DoCoMo realized that the use of e-mail and the web was quickly becoming a cornerstone of everyday life.From new market and social psychology research, Ohboshi was convinced that, â€Å"the daily needs and wants of the people in a mature society like Japan would shift from physical goods to communication, information, knowledge and entertainment†. 14 Not only did the Internet offer new opportunities for ftlling customer demand, it also solved one of Ohboshi's greatest concerns: an increasingly congested radio spectrum. In contrast to traditional voice conversations that are sent via dedicated spectrum airwaves, Internet traffic is dispersed in small packets across the network to be eassembled at their destination ( e. g. , a user's telephone). IfDoCoMo created an alternative mobile Internet network based on packet ­ switching technologies, it would completely circumvent the burdened voice network. Within a year, DoCoMo was building one of Japan's ftrst nationwide packet-switching networks. 15 The mobile computing team was strengthened and soon new products and 12 Ohboshi (2000) 13 lbid. 14 Interview: Mr. Kouji Ohboshi, Chairman, NTT DoCoMo 15 This system wou1d not on1y ease the use of congested radio spectrum capacity, but a1so serve as the basis for 3G services.Despite the optimistic market expectation and technological developments, the prospects for the 3G technologies were not necessarily bright. Although similar new data communication services attracted customers (e. g. , WAP services in Europe), they had not proved to be adequate enough to boost the market, and it was feared that the same might be true of 3G cellular services. The introduction of new 3G technologies would also create h uge additional costs for carriers, which had already incurred more than l trillion yen capital expenditure over the past few years (Exhibit 7).Furthermore, competition would increase as other intemational carriers competed in a single global market. Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC 4 08/2009-5079 services were introduced- albeit not very successfully- culminating in 1997 with the  · 10 e ­ mail service' (customers could send and receive 2 kilobytes of data for a mere 10). 16 Although these early Internet initiatives were not big profit-makers for NTT DoCoMo, they created a new market by attracting customers who had never used cellular phones or e-mail before.As one of the team members involved in developing mobile computing services pointed out, â€Å"Our intention was not to develop and introduce new products into the market, but to create and introduce new ways ofusing our traditional wireless services. â€Å"17 The New Wireless World In January 1997, Ohboshi asked Keiichi Eno ki, a former electrical engineer and DoCoMo's new Director of Corporate Sales, to plan and launch a new mobile data communication service for the mass market embodying his †volume to value† strategy. 8 He later reflected: About ayear after we started launching new mobile data communication services, revenues from such new services increased to constitute 5o/'o-6% of our total revenues. With detailed marketing research and advice from externa/ consultants, 1 felt a need to further boost these new services and asked Enoki, whom 1trusted, to head a project speciflcally targeting the mass market. 1 assured him that he would have full discretion in choosing his staff and in using funds worth 5 billion yen, which is a lot of money. 9 Enoki would have his work cut out for him. DoCoMo had a new strategic focus, but after two long years Ohboshi's team had yet to match vision with performance. Enoki had to create a winner. He was tasked to develop a mobile phone service that would advance the Internet in the same way the Sony Walkman had advanced the stereo. But how? â€Å"I got the first hints from my family,† recalls Enoki. â€Å"At that time, the pager was at the peak ofits popularity. My daughter used the number pad as a form of data communication.My son could play a new computer game without reading the instructions. Their ability to adapt to 16 In addition to these measures, Ohboshi and his successor Keiji Tachikawa, (then Vice-President}, set up a small project team within the Corporate Strategy Planning Department, and very soon the first proposal for NTT DoCoMo's ‘Vision 2010' was drafted. The year 2010 was deliberately chosen as ‘it will be the time when wireless telecom technologies will make nnovations from 30 to 40 and also the period of 10 years is the longest possible for reasonable predictions to be rnade in a fast-changing environment' ‘Vision 2010' forecast huge opportunities for mobile telecom services in enrichin g personal lives and in supporting global corporate activities. In particular, it saw a greater role for mobile data services in fulfilling the needs of women, senior citizens and medica! systems, important to a society characterized by a lower birth rate and an aging population.In addition to these market projections, it also emphasized the need for DoCoMo to cooperate with other companies to expand the wireless telecom market, and summarized DoCoMo's operations towards the year 2010 in five key concepts or ‘MAGIC' for short (Exhibit 9). 17 Interview: Mr. lrukayama, Mobile Multimedia Business Department, NTT DoCoMo. 18 Ohboshi (2000). 19 Interview: Mr. Kouji Ohboshi, Chairman, NTT DoCoMo. Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC 5 08/2009-5079 ew information technology and its ease of use convinced me that young people would accept a new data service that would give them the same kind of enjoyment. â€Å"20 Now a believer, Enoki set out to tackle the new initiative by doing the unthink able: recruiting new blood from the outside to lead the project. He first called Mari Matsunaga, a senior executive at Recruit Co. , a job placement fmn. Matsunaga was known for her marketing prowess and dramatic turnaround of Recruit's job placement magazine for women into one of Japan's hottest titles. She would head the content development team for DoCoMo's new service.Enoki then sought out a manager to devise a business model for the new mobile data communication service. He chose Takeshi Natsuno, a Wharton MBA and former head of Hypernet, one of Japan's frrst (and most hyped) net startups. 21 Developing the Electronic Concierge service Mastunaga set out to understand how the Internet works. What were the killer applications that provided web users with superior value? In studying the winners – such as AOL (America Online)- she found a positive correlation between the number oflnternet users and the volume of content. As content increased, so did the number of users and v ice versa. 2 Hence her conclusion: ‘Content would have to be king on the new DoCoMo system. ‘ She also recognized that simply putting ‘information' on the network would not differentiate the new service from the existing PC-based Internet, nor would it add value to users who were often lost in the sea of information on the web. Matsunaga thus envisioned a service that would function like a ‘hotel concierge', where users would be ‘serviced' by content providers. If DoCoMo could make it possible for users to access pre-selected websites on the screen of their handset, then they would capture Mastunaga's concept of an E/ectronic Concierge.The team set out to create such a user-friendly portal (Exhibit 10) to serve both asan accreditation of quality for those pre-selected â€Å"official† sites, as well as an easy way to navigate the whole wireless web – similar to the service AOL provides its customers (Exhibit 11). Users could access other â €Å"non-official† sites simply by typing in the URL address. Meanwhile, Natsuno devised a business model for the new mobile data communication service based on what he saw as the â€Å"Internet worldview† rather than the â€Å"telecom worldview†. 3 The telecom worldview, according to Natsuno, is a zero-sum approach: carriers determine the standards and the services that can ride on their network, and are not interested in adapting to others' technology or in sharing profits with other players in the value chain. Users must accept the infrastructure and services carriers offer them. Conversely, the â€Å"Internet worldview† is a positive-sum approach. As the Internet is an open network that can be accessed with various devices (e. g. , computers, PDAs) whose 0 ‘A discussion with Keiichi Enoki, Senior Vice President, General Manager of Gateway Business Department, Mobile Multimedia Division' in NTT DoCoMo Annua1 Report 2000. 21 By the time he joined D oCoMo, Natsuno had already left Hypemet before the free ISP fell from glory in a multi-billion yen crash in 1997. 22 Interview: Mr. Kazuhiro Takagi, Director, Gateway Business Department, NTT DoCoMo. 23 Takeshi Natsuno (2000), i-modeâ„ ¢ strategy (i-modeâ„ ¢ strategy), Nikkei BP. Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC 6 08/2009-5079 pecifications are not necessarily determined by either content providers or carriers – all parties are obliged to accept one another's technologies and services. In the Internet world, consumers choose the infrastructure they prefer. Specifications are thereby de jacto standards determined not by their technological superiority but by the fact that they are so frequently used. In the Internet worldview, Natsuno believed, carriers have to work closely with other players, including information providers, to increase the number ofusers.This ‘win-win' relationship arnong players within the network becarne the foundation of Natsuno's business model . Accordingly, DoCoMo would not purchase content from providers or equipment from manufacturers but would rather accredit â€Å"official† websites and mobile phones to be used with the new service. Interested partners would share both the risks and the rewards. Although this model restricted DoCoMo's role to simply that of a â€Å"gateway† to the Internet, as the service attracted more users, the idea went, the network would attract more content.More content would beget more users; more users would beget more content, and so on,24 thereby creating a virtuous circle where all parties benefit. Natsuno's ‘win-win' business model would also be applied to the new service's billing system. A number of the â€Å"official† sites would be subscription-only sites requiring customers to pay fees ranging from ;y;? oo to ;y;300 per month. Under Natsuno's plan, DoCoMo would collect all these fees as part ofits monthly phone bill, take a 9% commission, and then pass on t he rest to the content providers.This service would be attractive not only to content providers who could reduce their interna! cost structure, but also to users who would appreciate not having to pay several separate bills. And by giving content providers a means to charge users, i-mode would ensure that there was plenty of high quality content available. Lastly, Natsuno recommended that the new service adopt existing widely-used technologies. For exarnple, although there were better texts languages such as WML (Wireless Markup Language), DoCoMo adopted c-HTML for its new service.With this compact version of HTML, the language widely used to create websites for the PC environment, content providers could quickly, easily and at low cost modify their PC-based websites into a new version to be displayed on the new DoCoMo service. New handsets were also developed that closely resembled existing cellular phones used exclusively for voice communication. Manufacturers were asked to reduce the size and weight of the new handsets while increasing screen size, data capacity and battery power. The Launch of i-modeAlmost a year had passed since Ohboshi had taken the decision to develop the new mobile data communication service, and pressure was mounting on him to perform. Although NTT DoCoMo had managed to maintain its position as the largest mobile telecom carrier in Japan, the cost of developing the new data service was taking its toll on Ohboshi's credibility and threatening the financia! stability of the company. Colleagues peering in from outside Enoki's group were confounded by the project. â€Å"Why were we wasting our time and resources on unproven Internet phones, instead of concentrating on the still-growing, regular voice- 4Similarly, content providers were inspired to continuously update their sites in order to keep their official status. And as content providers improved their websites, users were able to receive more ‘useful' information from accessi ng the network and thus, al! three players on the network benefited. Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC 7 08/2009-5079 based communication services? † they wondered.By late 1998, opposition to ‘Volume to Value' was growing and Ohboshi was once again under frre. Enoki and his team finally launched the new service as ‘i-mode' on 22 February 1999- the ‘i' representing ‘interactive', ‘Internet' and the pronoun ‘I'. 25 Looking at the phones, a user would notice little difference from the latest models, except for a slightly larger liquid crystal display and the central feature: the i-mode button (Exhibit 12). This connected users to the Internet, where they could send and receive e-mail, access sport scores and weather, read the news, and download pages from the web.The new i-mode handsets were priced from ;v;35,900 to Y42,800, about 25% more than regular phones (see Exhibit 15 for comparison with other goods/services). Users were charged ;v;300 per month to access the i-mode network, and another ,y;? oo to ,y;300 to access any of the subscription-only sites. Unlike regular mobile services, users were charged by the volume of data transmitted to their mobile phones rather than the length of time on the network. For instance, it would cost ,y;Q. 3 per packet transmitted, and . 2 to send (,y;2. 1 to receive) an e ­ mail of up to 250 characters. Exhibit 13) Data transmission over mobile phones would become increasingly important for DoCoMo's bottom line: as revenue from voice calls continued to fall – from an average of $100/subscriber per month in 1997 to $65 in 2001 -data revenue amounting toan average of $17 per subscriber/month would increasingly fill the gap. 26 Initially 67 content providers participated in the new service, with sites ranging from banking to Karaoke. 27 In the days that followed, dozens of â€Å"unofficial† sites sprang up, even though they were excluded from DoCoMo's official portal.Aventure company developed a search engine for unofficial sites just 11 days after the launch of the new service as their number reached 190 (twice as many as i-mode official sites) within two months. (Exhibit 14)28 i-mode was aggressively promoted through DoCoMo's nationwide network of shops. A how ­ to book on i-mode was also published, followed by over 100 books and magazines within a year. 29 The number of subscribers exploded reaching Natsuno's â€Å"critica! mass† of 1 million users by August 1999 (Exhibit 16). 0 By March 2001, i-mode subscribers reached 21. 7 million (Exhibit 17), and revenues from packet transmission services increased from ,y;295 million to ;v;38. 5 billion within ayear after launch (Exhibit 18). 31 i-mode also contributed to an increase in revenue from regular voice services, even as price competition drove down 25 Natsuno (2000). 26 ‘Peering around the comer', The Economist, 11 October 2001. 27 ‘Mobile intemet saizensen (Frontiers of mobile i ntemet)' in Shukan Diamond, 18 March 2000. 28 Natsuno (2000). 29 lbid. 30 lbid. 1 According to one senior official at NTI DoCoMo, ‘i-mode surprisingly attracted not only young customers who were generally fond of new technologies, but also old customers who used it as a tool to communicate more often with their grandchildren. In March 2001, 27% ofthe total i-mode users were above the age of 40, compared to 20. 3% for PC-based Internet (Exhibit 21). Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC 8 08/2009-5079 average monthly revenue per subscriber to V! ,770 in March 2001. 32 In addition, the important customer churn rate began to drop from 1. 97 in FY1998 to 1. 39 in FY2001, while DoCoMo's market share in the cellular market climbed to 59. 1% in March 200l. (Exhibits 5 and 18) Playing Catch-up Two months after i-mode's extraordinary launch, two competitors, DDI Cellular and IDO, announced their own mobile data communication services, called ‘EZ Web' and ‘EZ Access' respectively. Similar to i-mode, customers could subscribe to their services to access the Internet via their mobile phones. 3 However, with an eye towards future markets abroad, DDI and IDO asked their content providers to code their pages in HDML (Handheld Device Markup Language) used for the Wireless Access Protocol (WAP)34. Unsurprisingly, due to the costs and difficulties in transforming existing HTML-based Internet websites to EZ Web sites based on HDML, only a handful of content providers were willing to participate in the new service, driving DDI Cellular and IDO to purchase content until the number of subscribers was high enough for content providers to bear such costs voluntarily.In 2000, the two carriers merged to create ‘AU (access to you)'. Although the number of DDI and IDO subscribers was much smaller than DoCoMo's i-mode subscribers, they still remained competitive with 6. 7 million subscribers in 2001. (Exhibit 17) DoCoMo's other main rival, J-Phone responded to i-mode's su ccess by concentrating on improving transmission quality and adding content to its existing service (J-Sky Web), and upgrading its J-Sky service so that users could send and receive large e-mail messages (3,000 characters each) and view Internet content. 5 As with i-mode and EZ Web, all official J ­ Phone sites were accessible via the J-Phone portal and classified into nine categories. 36 By 32 This increase in revenue was due to the fact that ‘subscribers were using i-mode and voice-based communication services together, as they made phone calls after they searched restaurants and hotels on i ­ mode (‘lnterview: Keiji Tachikawa' in Shukan Diamond, 18 March 2000). 33 In addition to Internet access, the new EZ Web service offered subscribers e-mail services. They cou1d now send e-mails ofup to 250 characters and receive e-mails ofup to 2,000 characters on their cellu1ar phones.Furthermore, DDI Cellular and IDO offered PIM (Personal Information Management) services tha t were not offered by their competitors. By paying a 100 premium for address, schedule and task list functions, EZ Web subscribers were able to use their cellular phones more like PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants). DDI Cellu1ar and IDO initially offered these new EZ Web services by using circuit 1ine switching technology that was also used for their voice-based telecom services. None of them had yet a packet ­ switching network.Thus, unlike i-mode, they charged EZ Web subscribers for the connecting time rather than for the volume of data transrnitted to cellular phones (Exhibit 19). 34 DDI and IDO also asked a number oftheir content providers to connect directly to DDI Cellular and IDO's EZ Web servers, in order to secure confidentia1ity and stable transrnissions. 35 The amount of viewable content was also increased by allowing access not only to its own ‘official sites,' but also to HTML-based Internet sites and even to c-HTML-based i-mode sites by introducing MML (Mobile Markup Language) as the 1anguage for content.MML was another simplified version of HTML developed for simple mobile computing devices by J-Phone and Keio University in Tokyo. Although it was not accepted intemationally like c-HTML or HDML, it was very similar to HTML and made it easy for content providers to adapt their existing Internet websites, or even their i-mode sites, into MML-based J ­ Sky websites. 36 In a strategy to attract younger customers, J-Phone's content focuses on entertainment. ‘Keitai Denwa, PHS Kanzen Test (Cellular phones, PHS: Perfect test)', Nikkei Trendy, September 2000.Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC 9 08/2009-5079 INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute 2001, the new J-Sky service continued to attract many new – particularly adolescent – customers, totaling 6. 2 million subscribers in March 2001. {Exhibit 17) Without a Net As its competitors played catch-up, DoCoMo continued to power ahead in its quest for i ­ mode dominance in Japan. I n March 1999, a month after the launch of i-mode, it formed a strategic alliance with Sun Microsystems.Through the partnership, Sun and DoCoMo developed i-appli, a new i-mode application platform that allowed users to run a wider variety of programs, from video games to online fmancial services on their mobile phones. 37 A similar strategic partnership with Symbian, a UK-based wireless operating system company, led to the development of a new operating system adaptable to both PCs and mobile phones. On the content side, in the two years after launching i-mode, DoCoMo struck a number of partnerships with new content providers, ranging from Japan Net Bank (the frrst Internet bank in Japan) and Playstation. om, to AOL and Walt Disney. Furthermore, i-mode pioneered so ­ called machine-to-machine or M2M communications that allow i-mode users to purchase soft drinks and other sundries from Japan's huge network of vending machines. A joint venture with Dentsu, the largest advertising age ncy in Japan, led to the introduction of advertisements on i-mode, thereby providing a new source of revenue and attracting new content providers to the network. Through these and other partnerships the i-mode network swelled to 42,720 sites (1,620 official and 41,100 unofficial) by March 2001.Looking into the near future, DoCoMo had great hopes for entering the European and American markets and establishing i-mode as a global standard. In recent years, the Japanese mobile giant had been building its equity stakes in various foreign carriers (Exhibit 20), as well as applying for 3G licenses in markets inside and outside of Japan. In January 2001, while NTT DoCoMo was announcing plans to introduce i-mode in Europe38 a number of crucial questions needed answers. Were i-mode and its success easily transferable outside of Japan? Could DoCoMo make it work outside of Japan and should it use the same strategy?Despite i-mode's runaway success, DoCoMo faced a number ofkey domestic challenges . Its capital expenditures continued to soar as it built its new 3G services. Network congestion and interoperability between newer mobiles and the i-mode system continued to plague the company. In March 2001, under intense political pressure, DoCoMo was forced to reduce interconnection fees to other mobile phone operators. And with Vodafone's acquisition of a controlling stake in J-Phone, DoCoMo's guaranteed preeminence in the Japanese market carne under an increasingly dark cloud.How sustainable was NTT DoCoMo's advantage and what should its future moves be? Keiji Tachikawa, Ohboshi's successor, believed that NTT DoCoMo's future was bright. In the three years since the launch of i-mode, DoCoMo had become the only company to make money out of the mobile Internet. Its net income continued to rise to an all-time high of :Y:365. 5 billion in March 2001, and its market capitalization far exceeded its parent company, 37i-appli is based on Sun's popular, highly compatible Java prograrnmi ng language. Java allows application sharing across operating systems (e. . , between Microsoft Windows and Macintosh). 38 These initiatives are in partnership with KPN Mobile and Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM). Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC 10 08/2009-5079 NTT. In the fall of 2001, DoCoMo launched FOMA (â€Å"freedom of multimedia access†), the world's first 3G mobile network capable of video-telephony and the use of data and voice services simultaneously) while other promised 3G initiatives around the world languished.As Tachikawa said, â€Å"Anything mobile in society is a business opportunity for NTT DoCoMo†. 39 Maybe Mr. Ohboshi can finally get a good night's sleep. 39 ‘Interview: Keiji Tachikawa' in Shukan Diamond, 21 April2001. Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC 11 08/2009-5079 Exhihit 1 Number of Regular Mobile Phone/PHS Subscribers in ]apan (in million) Mar- Mar- Mar- Mar-Mar-Mar- Mar-Mar-Mar-Jan-99 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 Mobile phones0. 49 0. 87 1. 38 1 . 172. 13 4. 33 10. 20 20. 88 31. 53 39. 9 PHS 1. 51 6. 03 6. 73 5. 86 Total 0. 49 0. 87 1. 38 1. 712. 134. 33 11. 71 26. 9138. 25 45. 64 (Reference) Pagers4. 25 5. 08 5. 916. 69 8. 06 9. 35 10. 6110. 07 7. 12 4. 27 Fixed-line-54. 48 56. 2157. 60 58. 7859. 8861. 04 61. 46 60. 38 NIA Source: Ministry ofPublic Management, Home Affairs, Post and Telecommunications (MPHPT), Telecommunication Carriers Association (TCA), Statistics Bureau and Statistics Centre. Exhihit 2 Development of Regular Mobile Phones in ]apan Year Height Width Thickness Weight Battery Life 1979| 140| 50| 210| 2,400| NIA| 1985| 190| 55| 220| 3,000| 8| 987| 120| 42| 180| 900| 6| 1989| 175| 42| 77| 640| 9| 1991| 140| 47| 26| 220| 13| 1994| 143| 49| 29| 185| 20| 1995| 140| 42| 26| 155| 150| 1996| 130| 41| 23| 94| 170| 1997| 127| 40| 18| 79| 220| 1979| 140| 50| 210| 2,400| NIA| 1985| 190| 55| 220| 3,000| 8| 1987| 120| 42| 180| 900| 6| 1989| 175| 42| 77| 640| 9| 1991| 140| 47| 26| 220| 13| 1994| 143| 49| 29| 185| 20| 199 5| 140| 42| 26| 155| 150| 1996| 130| 41| 23| 94| 170| 1997| 127| 40| 18| 79| 220| {mm} {mm} {mm} {g} (hours} 1998 123 39 17 68 330 Source:NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic. Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC12 08/2009-5079 Mobile Phone Rates en 200,000 180,000 160,000 140,000 120,000 100,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20,000 †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. .. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. _ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. -Deposit — Subscription fee – – – – – –  · Monthly basic charge (analogue) –Monthly basic charge (digital) r—â€Å"‘ ;;::-g, â€Å"‘ r—â€Å"‘ ;;::-g, â€Å"‘ o. _†¦.. O oN †¦. â€Å"Mo. Copyright © 2003lNSEAD-EAC Digital MOVA N503i HYPER (i-appli) (March 2001) Price: Open Weight: 98g Size: N/A Battery life: 460 hours -mode Packet Transmission Charges 18 Digital MOVA D503iS HYPER (i-appli) (September 2001) Price: Open Weight: 105g Size: N/A Battery life: 450 hours 08/2009-5079 Mymenu MenuList Mobile banking (balance information) Mobile banking (funds transfer) News Airline seat availability Restaurant guide TOWNPAGE (NTT telephone directory) Share prices (searching by issue code) Image download (downloading one still image the size ofthe display) i-melody (downloading one 3-chord melody approx. 15 seconds in length) Char es 2-3 3-4 20-21 59-60 17-18 24-25 37-38 35-36 26-27 7-8 2-3 -anime (downloading one moving image the size ofthe display) 10-11 i-mode mail transrnission charges| Sending| Receiving| 20 Full-size characters| 0. 9| 0. 9| 50 Full-size characters| 1. 5| 0. 9| 100 Full-size characters| 2. 1| 1. 2| 150 Full-size characters| 3. 0| 1. 5| 250 Full-size characters 4. 2 2. 1 Source:NTT DoCoMo. Exhihit 14 The Number of i-mode Compatible Sites 30000 c:::JNumber ofi-mode Wlofficial sites 60% 25 000 20000 15 000 10000 5 000 —+-% oftota l access 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% mars-99sept-99mars-00 Note: Number of sites in March 1999 is the number on 5 April 1999.Source: Natsuno (2000), p. 187. 0% sept-00 Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC19 08/2009-5079 —-.. –Blue Ocean Strategy Institute Exhihit 15 Retail Price per Unit and Market Size for Various Goods/Services (in FY 1999) ItemsAverage retail price (Yen) Weekly magazine300 Monthly magazine550-540 Newspapers (monthly)3,925-4,384 TV set97,130 Radio tape recorder19,680 Mobile computer games (Gameboy)8,900 Computer game software (Gameboy)3,000-4,900 Home PC207,000-227,000 Telephone (fixed-Jine)21,270 i-mode handsets35,900-42,800 Mobile phones (voice only)28,200-42,800 PHS handsets16,700-30,100Market size (thousands) 138,480 214,630 72,218 434,171 24,233 23,970 NIA 14,311 58,470 _R gJ 9_Q-_l ,? 9_Q _? ?_6_ . TV Jicense fees (month1y)1,345 Internet connection charges (month1y: fixed)8,050 2. 7 Yen per 1 min. Telephone bill (fixed line: monthly) Telephone bill (mobile: m onthly) Telephone bill (PHS: monthly) 8,198 10 Yen per 3 min. 9,270 45-120 yen per 3 min. 5,550 30-130 Yen per 3 min. Pager bill (monthly) 2,697 Note: – Telephone bilis are estimated from ARPU or Operating revenues. – Market size ofTV, Radio tape recorder and Home PC are estimated from their penetration rates. Market size of Gameboy is estimated from its outstanding units sold. Source: MPHPT, NTT DoCoMo, NTT, TCA, Dentsu Institute for Human Studies. Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC20 08/2009-5079 i-mode Monthly Subscriber Trend 25,000 70% Number of i-mode 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 subscribers (thousands) % of total subscribers 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% oilDllilhUWWllil WWWUUhllllilUL0% 0'1 0'1 0'1 0'1 0'1 0'1 o o o o o o †¦.. 1 1 1 1 1  § 1 1 1 1 1 1 1  § 1 1 0'1 0'1 0'1 0'1 0'1 0'1 o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o 13 †¦.. ()..!. () 13Source: NTT DoCoMo, TCA. ()Q) ()Q) †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. Exhihit 17 Number of Subscribers for Mobile Data Services on Cellular Phones t housands 35,000 30,000 25,000 20,000 –i-mode – — EZWeb –J-Sky 15,000 10,000 5,000 0+–+—4–+–+—4–4–+- 910, 910, 910, 910, 910, r;::,r::::. r;::,r::::. r;::,r::::. r;::,r::::. r;::,r::::. r;::,r::::. r;::,'. r;::,'. r;::,'. r;::,'. r;::,'. #;#;#; Source: TCA. Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC21 08/2009-5079 Blue Ocean Strategy lnstitute Exhihit 18 NTl' DoCoMo's Financia} Performance since the Launch ofi-mode million yen} Sales revenues| Mar-99| Mar-00| Mar-01| Mar-02E| | 3,118,398| 3,718,694| 4,686,004| 5,297,000| Revenues from packet data communication| 295| 38,500| NIA| NIA| Netincome| 204,815| 252,140| 365,505| 390,000| Operating margin| 16. 3%| 14. 7%| 16. 6%| 17. 4%| Net income margin| 6. 6%| 6. 8%| 7. 8%| 7. 4%| Market capitalization——————————————————————â €”———————–| 11,203,920| 40,314,960| 20,977,333| NIA———–| Capital expenditures| 845,900| 876,058| 1,012,795| 1,070,000| R&D Expenses| 41,100| 89,100| 95,400| NIA|Average monthly churn rate| 1. 75%| 1. 61%| 1. 39%| 1. 32%| Average month1y revenue per user (ARPU: yen)| 9,270| 8,740| 8,650| 8,580| ARPU from cellular phone service (yen)| NIA| 8,620| 7,770| 7,160| ARPU from i-mode (yen)| NIA| 120| 880| 1,420| Average monthly minutes ofuse per subscriber| 164| 177| 189| 195| Number of subscribers (thousands)| 23,897| 29,356| 36,026| 40,300| Number ofi-mode subscribers (thousands)| 140| 5,603| 21,695| 29,800| Market share| 57. 5%| 57. 4%| 59. 1%| NIA| Source:NTT DoCoMo. Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC2208/2009-5079Mobile Data Communication Services on Mobile Phones (as of Sept. 2000) | NTT DoCoMo| DDI Cellular(au)| IDO (au)| Tu-Ka| J-Phone| Service| i-mode| EZWeb| EZAccess| EZWeb| J-Sky| Functions|  œ Internet access- Internet mail transmission| – Internet access- Internet mail transmission- PIM services| – Internet access- Internet mail transmission- PIM services| – Internet access- Internet mail transmission- PIM services| – Internet access(J-Sky Web)- Internet mail transmission (J- Sky Walker)| NetworkPlatforms| PDC (800MHz)| cdmaOne(800 MHz)| cdmaOne(800MHz)| PDC (1. GHz)| PDC (1. 5 GHz)| CommunicationMethod(Speed)| Packet switching technology (9600 bps)| Circuit switching technology (14. 4 kbps)| Circuit switching technology (14. 4 kbps)| Circuit switching technology (9600 bps)| Circuit switching technology (9600 bps)| | | Packet switching technology (14. 4 kbps)| Packet switching technology (14. kbps)| | | Content| c-HTML| HDML (WAPbased)| HDML (WAPbased)| HDML (WAP based)| MML| Content Providers| Official: 1,000Unofficial: 24,032| Official: 368Unofficial: 1,600| Official: 258Unofficial: 2,700| E-mail size| Sendlreceive: 250 full characters| Se nd: 250 full charactersReceive: 2,000 full characters| Sendlreceive:3,000 characters| Fee CollectionServices| February 1999| March2000| July 2000| June 2000| April2000| Monthly Basic Charge (yen)| 300| Standard: 300Premium: 400| Standard: 200Premium: 400| Standard: 200Premium: 300| J-Sky Web: No chargeJ-Sky Walker:250| AccessFees| 0. 3 yenper 1 packet (= 128 bytes)| First 15 seconds free and 1O yen per 30 seconds thereafter| 1O yen per minute| First minute 3 yen and 10 yen per minute thereafter| J-Sky Web: 2 yen per single request1 replyJ-Sky Walker: 8 yen per message transmission| | | Packet comm. :0. 27 yen per 1 packet (= 128 bytes)| Packet comm. :0. 7 yen per 1 packet (= 128 bytes)| | | Handset (Nominal 1 Real retail prices: yen)| NECN502i(39,0001 18,800)Mitsubishi D209i(34,600 1 16,800)| Panasonic C308P (44,300 1 1,800)Sony C305S (45,8001 1,800)| Sharp J-SH03 (42,000 1 9,800)Toshiba J-T04 (42,000 1 7,800)| Panasonic TPOl(Open 1 4,800)Toshiba TI02 (Open 1 4,800)| Subscribers {_% ofmarket)| 12. 6 million(64. 2%)| 3. 9 million(16. 5%)| 0. 7 million(3. 3%)| 3. 1 million(16. 0%)| Service start| February 1999| Aprill999| November 1999| December 1999| Source: NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, MSDW, CSFB, TC. A, ‘Nikkei Trendy'Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC23 08/2009-5079 Blue Ocean Strategy Institute Exhibit 20 NTI' DoCoMo's Major Overseas Operations since 1999 2 March 1999 Joint test of 30 mobile communications system with Telephone Organization of Thailand and NEC 17 March 1999 Establishment of local corporation in Brazil 30 September 1999 Establishment ofUS subsidiaries 8 October 1999 Establishment of Joint Initiative toward Mobile Multimedia (JIMM) with 8 forei calliers 2 December 1999 Capital investment in Hutchison Whampoa (Hong Kong) 27 January 2000 W-CDMA field trials in South Korea with SK Telecom May2000Equity participation in KPN Mobile (the Netherlands) 27 June 2000 Establishment ofrepresentative office in Bemng, China 12 July 2000 Announcement of 30 mobile mul timedia strategic cooperation with Hutchison Whampoa and KPN Mobile 2 August 2000 Launch of Japan-South Korea roaming service with SK Telecom 29 S tember 2000 Establishment ofUK subsidiary and research lab in Oermany 30 November 2000 Capital investment in KG Telecomj_Taiwall}_ 30 November 2000 Capital investment in AT;T Wireless (US) 7 December 2000 Establishment ofadvisory board in US 8 January 2001 Announcement ofPan-European mobile Internet alliance with KPN Mobile and TIM Jltalyl 22 January 2001 Launch ofinternational roaming service in Europe, Asia Africa and Oceania 7 Novernber 2001 Agreernent with KPN Mobile to transfer and license technologies for i-mode-like services in Europe 18 February 2002 Agreement with E-Plus (Oermany) to transfer and license technologies for i-mode- like services in Europe (service launched on 16 March 2002) 1 March2002Listing ofstocks on London and New York Stock ExchangesNote: The dates shown above are the dates ofPress Releases from NTT DoCoMo (as ofMarch 2002). Source:NTT DoCoMo. (Other major partnerships to promote mobile multimedia servtces) 15 March 1999| Increased leve! ofrelationshiPs, S! mbian (UK)| 16 March 1999| Technological partnership, Sun Microsystems (US)| 17 March 1999| Fusion oftechnologies, increased leve! ofcooperation, Microsoft (US)| 14 June 2000| Increased level of relationships, 3Com {US)| 27 September 2000| Joint development of new Internet services, American Online (US)|Note: The dates shown above are the dates ofPress Releases from NTT DoCoMo (as ofSept. 2000). Source:NTT DoCoMo. Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC2408/2009-5079 Exhibit 21 Comparison between i-mode and the Internet | i-mode| Internet| Sex ofusers(Male: Female)| 57:43| 58:42| Age ofusers| Under 19:7%20-24:24%25-29:20%30-34: 12%35-39:8% Above 40: 27% Unknown:2%| Under 19: 2. 6%20-29:38. 1%30-39:38. 1%40-49: 15. 6% Above 50:4. 7% Unknown: 0. 9%| Price| Monthly basic charge of 300 yen+0. yen per 1 packet| Monthly basic charge of 1,480 yen + 8 yen per 3 minutes| Number ofusers(March 2001)| 21. 70 million| 17. 25 million| Note: – Prices exclude monthly basic charges for cellular phone and fixed line telecom services. Price for the Internet is based on KDDI's IP service rates. – Number of users for the Internet is the number of contracts with Internet providers excluding mobile telecom carriers. Source:MPT, NTT DoCoMo, KDDI. Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC2508/2009-5079

Attendance System Using Fingerprint

Attendance System Using Fingerprint The project entitled â€Å"ATTENDANCE SYSTEM USING FINGERPRINT† is to provide an authentified attendance system for Roots Industries Limited. This software provides various information, which is useful for user as well as administrator. This software can be used as a whole in organization, or can partly used as separate modules, whenever needed. The project deals with capturing the thumb impression of the employee through the thumb scanner and authenticates with the already registered impression. Attendance will be marked for the matched employee. With the in-time and out-time, the total hours worked by the employee in a day and days worked for the month is calculated. The salary is calculated from loss of pay, basic pay, allowances, and deductions. One of the main advantages of this software is its user friendliness and validation can be done for each and every employee entered. New entries can be registered very easily and if not needed then it can be deleted from the softw are. The environments being used are VB.NET as front end and SQL Server as back end. This project is developed in the Operating System, Microsoft Windows XP. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This chapter contains the problem definition, about the system environment and the organization profile which gives details about the company. PROBLEM DEFINITION OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE The main objective of this project is to do the following operations Thumb impression Comparisons Attendance Calculation Payroll Calculation The scope of the project is to capture and verify the thumb impression of the employee. And also provide effective means to calculate attendance and payroll for the employee by using thumb impression. This project would greatly help in simplifying the manual attendance calculation and payroll calculation. PROBLEM DESCRIPTION This project makes use of fingerprint to authenticate the employee. This project makes use of the physical hardware device, the thumb scanner to capture the t humb impression of the employee. The Administrator registers the details of new workers. He also registers the unique thumb code of the employee generated by the Thumb scanner. This thumb code is generally an alphanumeric code and it is stored in the database. The employee uses the thumb scanner when he enters and leaves the work place for attendance marking. The generated code is matched with the stored thumb code in the database. The attendance is marked for the corresponding employee where thumb code matches with the generated ones. If there is no match with the thumb code then the administrator will take in charge to check whether the person is a new employee or not. The time duration between intime and outtime is calculated and it is stored as hours worked by the employee. Each time when the outtime is marked the duration is calculated and hours worked (field) is updated. The employee may take leave. The leave taken by the employee is calculated as loss of pay for him. It will be used to calculate net pay for the employee in the payroll calculation. During salary calculation the monthly attendance of the employee, loss of pay, the allowance such as HRA, DA and deductions such as PF, LIC are considered.

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Leaf Litter Decomposition - Assignment Example Moreover, the experiment expected the tree species not to harbour the different soil animals. The maple and European Buckthorn are initially wet. Eventually they become very wet implying that the tree species harbour the soil animals. On the other hand, the maple and the European Buckthorn are greener and in regular sizes but eventually they decompose. This implies that the tree species decomposed. 2. Discuss what factors, that you observed, that may contribute leaf decomposition. What factors may contribute but were not measured? What was the average (&standard deviation) mass lost for each species? Where did the mass loss go? The observed factors that contribute to decomposition are the soil moisture and the plant composition. Temperature is also a factor which contributes to decomposition but it was not considered in this experiment. The wood decay is associated with the decay of the roots. The roots are the sole suppliers of moisture and nutrients to the entire plant hence they impact on the development of roots. Thus, the decay rates of woods will be similar to that of the leaves since the leaves obtain moisture and nutrients from the woods; whenever the woods are affected, the leaves are equally affected. Logging of trees results to the release of significant amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Thus, the rate of decomposition of the floor area is relatively lower than normal since the presence of lignin in the leaves lowers the decomposition rate. The concepts of this experiment fully relates with the concepts of a composting program such as the one found in the City of Toronto since everything revolves around composting. Thus, composting can be defined us the natural process or procedures which are meant to decompose the organic substances into a one rich soil which can be named as the compost. This experiment describes the concept such as

Inequality in society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Inequality in society - Essay Example What he does not elaborate is on the manner of exploitation that he claims life offers. Pope, on his part, agrees that there exists equality in life and goes on to expound on those that an individual is born with. He asserts that the inequality that life offers depends on the scope of life that one is taking. The success of life, according to him, is relative and thus the relativity of the inequalities. What one considers success would not be success to the other thus the disparity. However, he agrees with the fact that the elements that aid one achieve that which he or she would consider success vary amongst individuals. Francois-Marie Aroet deVoltaire in most of his works also points out though very briefly on the subject of equality. According to him, each individual deserves that which he or she gets. He groups individuals in categories, and these he argues that life has a way of grouping people then offering them equal opportunity to succeed or fail. His first argument is on cla ss where he implies that an individual simply walks to school not knowing who he is likely to meet there. Once there a class of forty or so, students are attended to by similar teachers and what comes out of them at the end of the ten or so years of a course solely depend on how well they had made use of the equal opportunity life offered them at the beginning (Brumfitt 58). In pre medieval society when life had not been stratified as it is today and there was no formal system of education, Voltaire argues that there still belonged pre medieval ways of life grouping people. These were either in the age groups or sets and he insists that even in the modern society, a person’s success is compared against that of his peers. Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality Jean Jacques Rousseau starts his discourse by putting a claim that there are two types of inequality which are natural or physical and ethical or political. According to him, these are the inequalities in life that ma ke one individual who was at a similar level with his peers all of a sudden appear to have jumped two or three stages in life. First, he begins by stating that the society is stratified. The stratification he asserts to are the social societal divisions where there are low income earners who belong to the lower class of the society. This is preceded by the middle class which is composed of average earners who are people who are not very rich in the society but they would not lack a basic need and some even afford some elements of luxury. The low class is made up of individuals who struggle to make ends meet, their main priority revolve around the meeting of the three basic needs and most of these people live lives of abject want. At the top of this class societal stratification system are the rich and the wealthy who are referred to as belonging to the first class. Most members of this group are political leaders and business men who he later refers to as capitalist. On natural ineq uality, he begins by stating is found in the disparities of each man’s physical strength. Some people are stronger than others and this would go a long way in determining the success level of the person, and in the long run determine which of the society’s class he finds himself. The strong can use force to take away belongings of the weak and this was evident in the pre medieval times when Alexander the great nearly conquered the whole world because of his military strength. In a

Ethics n whistleblowing Outline Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Ethics n whistleblowing - Outline Example ....14 According to statistics published by Public Concern at Work (www.pcaw.co.uk) more and more people are willing to whistleblow about wrong doing in the workplace. In light of this, evaluate how organisations can develop an effective approach to workplace whistleblowing which takes account of the needs of their stakeholders? Introduction Throughout the years, businesses have evolved. The days on the industrial age is over and the increasing vast improvement in technology has given way to an improvement in communication that may not have been perceived in the last two decades or so. Consequently, this has paved the way for more information and ultimately knowledge to be accessible for almost anyone that has a computer and can surf the internet. Likewise, a new breed of workers has been identified that are more fluid and are quite different from the traditional 8-5 employees. These are called knowledge workers and companies are increasingly reliant of these professionals as an inte gral part of their businesses (Serrat 2008). However, knowledge workers or not, companies and stakeholders must recognize the fact that their workers have just gone smarter and are more empowered than ever. This brings a more empowered and smart breed of employees that are more capable of blowing the whistle to call attention to and maybe put a stop on wrong doings in a company. This also brings about a culture of higher ethical standards wherein employees adhere to principles and values in the conduct of their work. Whistleblowing as an Ethical Dilemma This simple truth described above has likewise increased the possibility of employees blowing the whistle on unfair labor practices or unsafe working standards and of course anomalies or illicit activities by the company or by employees, officers or even owners of the company. Some years back, an incident struck the attention of the public when a ranking NHS (National Health Service) official was sacked for supporting a subordinate i n an apparent expose’ of irregularities within the organisation’s system. Of course, the official reason for the dismissal was not about the whistle blowing incident but about some issues regarding management. This was quite questionable though since the person in question has been with the NHS for over a decade and a half and was a recent recipient of a management award (BBC News 2003). This incident can be regarded as a crossroad where whistle blowing and ethics ran smack into each other. The company or its management cannot openly use the whistle blowing as a reason to terminate an employee that has, well to put it simply, earned the ire of the head honchos. In effect, this leads whoever is in charge of taking care of the company’s problem personality to orchestrate an inglorious exodus usually for the company to save face and avoid a repeat of the incident. Defining Whistleblowing Whistleblowing is defined as a† disclosure of illegal, immoral, or illeg itimate practices that are under employer control by either former or current organization members to

Recommendations of marketing approach for Yorkshire Smoothies 2035 Essay

Recommendations of marketing approach for Yorkshire Smoothies 2035 - Essay Example However, due to the presence of domestic as well as international competitors, companies willing to penetrate in the global market, should take sound marketing strategies to survive in long run. Here, the marketing strategies of Yorkshire Smoothies will be discussed in terms of Industry analysis and Marketing Mix to ensure sustainability and profitability for the company in global market. Yorkshire Smoothies is a UK based contemporary fruit beverage brand, flourishing in the premium segment of fruit based health drinks. The products are specially designed for the health conscious consumers made by locally grown organic fruits. However, the company has taken a pricing strategy for keeping their price above any other retail brands available in the supermarket in order to attract the premium segment of the retail customers. Using glass bottle instead of plastics, using locally grown raw materials, sponsoring and arranging promotional events in annual folk music festival are some of the examples of sound ethical practises maintained by the company. Success of Yorkshire Smoothies in UK market has influenced the company to expand their business in developing nations such that in India (Bennet, 2008). After receiving inquiry from a significant distributor, the company is seriously thinking of capturing the market opportunities. Hence, the company needs to analyze whether they should standardize their marketing strategy and production process in India or they should adapt the strategies prevailing in the country in order to ensure sound business operation and long run profitability in Indian market (Solberg, 2002). For the purpose of expansion of business of Yorkshire Smoothies in India, the company is required to analyze the factors contributing to their product acceptability and growth in the UK market and compare those contributory factors in terms

Organizational Behavior Analysis Proposal for McDonald's Essay

Organizational Behavior Analysis Proposal for McDonald's - Essay Example McDonald is not living up to its stated set of vision and values. The company allegedly uses unethical methods to make increased profits at the expense of customers’ health and social condition of the employees. McDonald has also been criticized for targeting children with their advertisements by exposing them to unhealthy eating habits. This has contributed to the high levels of obesity and other health complications. The company has also been accused of passing their French fries as vegetarian, whereas they add beef broth. The company has failed to provide nutrition information about its food products to the public. The company has also contributed to environmental degradation. An organization named People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has accused the company of using cruel means when slaughtering chicken (Derdak 107). The analysis also involves analyzing organizational factors that have an influence on individual behaviors. The big five personality trait can be used to analyze individuals within the organization. The big five personality traits include extraversion, which refers to a person who is talkative social and assertive. Agreeableness describes a cooperative, trustworthy and accomplished person. Conscientiousness refers to a person who is responsible, orderly, and dependable. Neuroticism describes a person who is anxious and is prone to depression and worries. Openness means a person is imaginative and independent minded. Personality in organization analysis refers to individual and group level performance. A personality trait such as cooperative or deviant behavior and performance affects the overall performance of an organization.

Research Paper on Statistics on Health Care Prescription Errors Essay Example for Free

Research Paper on Statistics on Health Care Prescription Errors Essay Research Paper on Statistics on Health Care Prescription Errors Introduction Relation between Error in Healthcare prescription and the inconsistency in Technological information Background Information            A lot of errors are occurring within the healthcare field lately. They result from many factors. Among the principle causes of error are related to wrong prescriptions. As indicated by Benjamin (770), one of the elements that play a critical role in this is the use of advanced technological methods. Computers have been used to aid in the computerized entry of prescription orders. For instance, Walgreens pharmacy, where I work is an online drug store that allows customers to purchase drugs over the internet. This poses a great danger of wrong order interpretations, inconsistencies and misfills. In the past, these have resulted in the possession of dangerous drugs, dosing errors and other mix-ups.Depending on the intensity of the prescription, they can result in severe injuries on the patient or even lead to fatality incidences. In turn, they lead to unnecessary court cases and legal suits that eventually cost many healthcare institutions and practitioners a lot of funds that are paid to cater for the damages (Carroll 52-8). For this, there is a necessity to examine the main causes of faulty prescriptions to ensure that such avoidable consequences are kept at their possible minimal rates. This paper explored the occurrence of prescription errors as a result of order entries at Walgreens. The principleconcerns that were dealt with in this study include: What are the common causes of drug inconsistencies at the pharmacy? What kind of information technology is used in the provision of proper prescription? Are there specific actions that are related to inconsistently provided information in the same prescription order entry? What dispensing errors are most likely to occur in an online drug store? Methodology            The study was prospective as it was comprised of 20 pharmacists from medical centers and Walgreens chemist, which is an online store based in Wasilla in Alaska. For approximately 2 months, they issued a report about the inconsistent order entry of prescriptions. It was principally based on communication. As such, both primary and secondary data collection methodswere employed. Therefore, it included the use of surveys for the collection of first-hand information. In this sense questionnaires and interviews from the participantswereused to gather information for the data. For accuracy and proper validation, these were combined with secondarysources such as the national health statistics (Wu, Pronovost, Morlock 88). It involved the selection of 30 electronically retrieved prescriptions from the free text field for any comments on prescription errors with regard to Walgreens pharmacy. Thus, the study entailed the overall evaluation of 60 prescription records. Data collection            The data was used to capture the medication, focus dispensing errors and the types of inconsistencies in error. Among the elements to considered included dosage, incorrect drug, wrong quantity, inappropriate, inadequate and incorrect labelling. The other elements that caused inconsistencies were inadequate directions for use, inappropriate packaging, preparation and storage of medication before dispensing. It was necessary to use predictive values to determine when the prescriptive errors are likely to be higher. Data analysis            The data was entered in a Microsoft database. 30 records were selected randomly to validate the data. From research, 99.7% of these are expected to be correct. Descriptive statistics characterized inconsistency. Some of the determinants of error such as inpatients and outpatients, analgesics and antibiotics, those that are less frequently prescribed and those on high alert wereanalyzed. They will be provided for harm categories where t tests and χ2 tests will be used. Categorical variables made use of the Fisher test for categorical variables of 2 levels and the χ2 for those with more than 2. Statistical significance or ÃŽ ± =.05 were applied to test predators with the Wald χ2 test. In this study, the regression model of multivariantlogistics method of data analysis will be used. The method will mainly identify different factors in communication prescriptive errors in relation to their severity. It will make use of a generalized approach with estimated equations. Results            The results were filled in the table below:            Similar names and packages Medications not commonly used or prescribed Commonly used medication where patients are allergic Medication that need proper testing for proper therapeutic administration Entry and confirmation of prescription Zeros and abbreviations Organized workforce and reduction of distraction and stress Patient counselling Storage            Dispensing incorrect drug 40% 20% 2% 2% 10% 5% 10% 11% Dose 20% 30% 10% 5% 20% 10% 5% 5% Dosage form 8% 2% 1% 5% 50% 10% 20% 4% Quantity 1% 20% 1% 3% 10% 30% 20% 15% Administration time 1% 5% 3% 2% 10% 30% 40% 9% Wrong labeling 30% 30% 5% 2% 10% 5% `10% 8% Inadequate directions 5% 20% 10% 10% 5% 2% 10% 38% Inappropriate preparation, packaging and storage 20% 40% 5% 1% 1% 5% 29% 1% Graphical Representation of the results Findings            It was discovered that at a pharmacy such as Walgreens where about 250 prescriptions entries are made in a day, about 4 errors occur. Reports relate these to a higher rate of inconsistent communication. The principle cause was drug dosage. There were also some drugs that were associated with a higher rate of overdosing and incorrect prescriptions when compared to others. Thus, in relation to this study, it was evident that medical centers that have a higher flow of patients and the chances of admission have higher rates of errors when compared to other private clinics and chemists. Conclusion            It is important that the laid down professional ethics are adhered to in different fields. This is especially within the medical field where a slight mistake can lead to devastating consequences. Therefore, healthcare providers are always obligated to use the knowledge that they acquired in their studies as well as new knowledge and practices appropriately. They should ensure that drugs are prescribed in the most appropriate ways to avoid errors. In particular, computerized drug entries should be counterchecked to eliminate disparities. However, owing to the continuous change in the nature of disease processes and hence the production of advanced drug formulas, there is need to conduct more research. These will provide more guidance to guarantee safe drug prescription by providers of healthcare services using new technological methods. Recommendations            The employees at Walgreens need to reduce the rates of prescription errors to help retain customers and avoid unnecessary lawsuits. Some of the steps they can take are to ensure the correct entry of prescriptions. These should be confirmed. They should be careful with drugs that look alike and sound alike as well as take care with zeros and abbreviations. They should make the workplace organized and reduce distractions, stress and heavy workloads as much as possible. They should also ensure that drugs are stored properly and check all prescriptions. The most important thing is to ensure that patients are cancelled before taking the drugs. References Benjamin, D. M. Reducing medication errors and increasing patient safety: case studies inclinical pharmacology. Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.2003;43:768–83. Carroll, P. Medication issues: the bigger picture.RN. 2003;66(1):52–8. Wu, A. W., Pronovost, P., and Morlock, L. ICU incident reporting systems.Journal of CriticalCare. 2006;17(2):86–94 Source document

The Economic Crisis Essay Example for Free

The Economic Crisis Essay Right now in America, we are in an economic crisis that is slowly tearing the seams that holds the countrys banking system together. This recession affects everyone from single families to giant corporations because of the nature of the crisis. It began slowly with it quickly picking up the pace, and now with all the new policies in effect the end is now in sight. It seems that everyone in America played their part in a tedious game that only took a matter of time to come crashing down around all of us. Because of the unstable economy, companies were forced to downsize their employee work force or close their doors. The loss of a job threatened many working class and middle class families with the threat of bankruptcy, because of the increasing accumulation of consumer debt. Jobs were hard to find; in addition, many people without a choice, were forced to sell their homes; many of them moved to states where the cost of living was lower. Most of them took low paying jobs to support their family. The unfortunate ones took from seven months to a year before they could find a decent job. Others who were fortunate could sit and wait or started their own business, and the rest either took out a home equity loan or refinance to lower their mortgage payment. In this paper I will discuss the causes of the economic crisis in depth, the key players in the implementing new policies to pull the United States from the recession, and the different policies that are now affecting not just the U.S. economy but the world economy as well. This crisis was years in the making, but because of the dot com assets many people were not noticing the downward spiral that had started before September 2001. Some of the key factors that caused the economic crisis are: a glut of savings from Asia, bad loans, boom and bust of the housing market, lack of capital reserves, and the reselling of bad loans. These factors not only affect the US, but have been felt by countries all over the world because of bad lending practices by financial institutions. As each factor is explained the new policies address each one of them in a different manner. As the US economy was booming in the late 1990s the countries in Asia decided to plow the US with a glut of their savings (Krugman, 2009). This helped to create the dot com bubble and keep the interest rates at low percentage. This encouraged high levels of consumer spending in US. It also encouraged a large current account deficit in the US. It also encouraged an asset bubble, because it was cheap to borrow and this encouraged unsustainable lending. After the events of September 11, 2001, Federal Reserve was able to use this money to keep interest rates below 5%. Prior to September 11, 2001 the dot com bubble burst then the events at the World Trade Center lead to the US heading to a recession. But, to keep the US out of a recession the Federal Reserve responded with by cutting interest rates to 1% this was the lowest level of interest rates for a long time (Samuelson, 2010). Low interest rates encouraged people to get loans from financial intuitions. Because people were more inclined to buy a house with their loans, this led to the boom and the bust of the housing market. As house prices began to rise, mortgage companies relaxed their lending criteria and tried to capitalize on the booming property market. Mortgage companies actively sold mortgages to people with bad credit, low incomes often first generation immigrants. This is called subprime mortgage. By definition subprime mortgage is giving loans to borrowers who typically are not qualified because of their higher risks: income level, work status, and credit history. This also puts the borrowers into a higher rate category than the prime rate (BAJAJ, 2008). Prior to 2006, the housing market seemed to be going up for long time. Noticing this trend, borrowers thought that everything was fine and refinancing will solve any future problems. In 2006-2007, the housing market moderately cooled down. Many unable to refinance because of higher interest rate of Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARM), found themselves in a deep bind. Massive defaults and foreclosures soon followed. In March 2007, the U.S value subprime mortgage is about $1.3 trillion; $7.5 million of that is bad. The subprime mortgage is what eventually caused the housing market to crash. The crash of the housing market was due to borrowers unable to pay mortgages, millions of borrowers houses face repossession. Another problem includes many homeowners were not willing to sell at a lower market prices (BAJAJ, 2008). High-risk borrowers ability to obtained easy credit and speculation of the then rising housing market, fueled the housing boom. Financial institutions are mostly to blame for the housing market crash. Eager to grow their industry in the name of profits, they were willing to provide high-risk loan options and incentives. Another part of the cause of the housing crisis is consumerism. Elevated by yours truly, President George W. Bush who ask Americans to spend more to get out of economic slowdown. Another main cause of the economic crisis is lack of capital reserves. The banks thought that they could use credit creation to process loans to borrowers. Credit creation is when banks employ what is termed a fractional reserve policy, meaning they can literally take in $1 on deposit and lend out $10 (L Jacobo Rodriguez, 2003). Basically the bank creates money supposedly up to 10 times what they have on deposit and capital. In the boom years, banks pursued a reckless dash for growth. This meant lending a high % of deposits. Therefore, when they suffered bad losses, they had no reserves to call upon. This led to a dramatic drop in bank loans which had ripple effects throughout the economy. Its fraudulent because banks are lending out money held on deposit which is supposed to be on demand and are effectively making money on money they do not have, and have no right to use. Due to this fraudulent behavior most banks have failed because depositors suddenly show up to withdraw all their money which the bank does not have. The final thing that caused the economic crisis is reselling of bad loans. Mortgage companies and banks were left with a series of bad debts they had to write off. Most of the bad loans originated in the US subprime mortgage market. Then the US mortgage companies and banks thought it was a good idea to sell these bad loans to different banks around the world. However, these were bundled and repackaged into collaterized debt obligations. They were given triple a ratings and bought by banks around the world. Therefore, when mortgage defaults occurred in the US, the losses were felt by the whole global banking system because most banks had some exposure to these bad loans. During the aftermath of the economic crisis there were some key players and each had a role to get the economy back on track. The key players that affect the policies that are implemented after the economic crisis are the President, the Congress, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Each of these people or group will affect the policies and how they are enforced to the citizens. As the election day of 2008 was approaching the citizens made some changes that may be for the best or could hinder the overall effect of the plan to get out of this crisis. With the unemployment rate climbing higher, and as the election for some of the key players in Washington on the line, many voters were ready for a change. As voters cast their vote and the votes were counted the new President was announced. The 44th President of the United States was named Barack Obama, with his new position he put a lot of legislations into play within his first couple weeks of taking over the Oval Office. The president is responsible for the concern of such things as unemployment, high prices, taxes, business profits, and the general prosperity of the country. The president does not control the economy, but is expected to help it run smoothly. In regards to the economy the president only has the constitutional authority to select the individuals that will be making the policies that affect the economy directly, has the power to determine the new fiscal year budget and how the money is divided, and has the authority to enforce new laws that Congress has made in regards to the economy. The president also has the authority to make suggestion to the Congress in regards to any new bills or laws that he feel should be passed (Constitutional Powers, 2003). President Obamas central focus is on stimulating economic recovery and helping America emerge a stronger and more prosperous nation. The current economic crisis is the result of many years of irresponsibility, both in government and in the private sector. President Obamas role in repairing the economy is to enforce the new policies that have been made and to make sure that all parties involved are abiding by the new regulations. As the new President took office the Congress was gearing up to make some new policy changes. The Congress only has the responsibility to write new bills and laws that will affect how the economy is ran in the future. The Congress has the constitutional authority to change any legislation that will help put the economy back on track. Currently the economy is top priority for all Congress members and they are making sure all relevant legislation gets passed in a timely manner. Upon the election of President Obama his first act was to appoint a new Secretary of the Treasury. The new Secretary is Tim Geithner (Secretary, n.d.). He is responsible for promoting economic prosperity and ensuring the financial security of the United States. The Department is responsible for a wide range of activities such as advising the President on economic and financial issues, encouraging sustainable economic growth, and fostering improved governance in financial institutions (Roles of the Treasury, n.d.). The Secretary of the Treasury does not really have any constitutional authority as far as making new policies that will affect the economy. Mr. Geithner has the position to oversee the United States Treasury and the money that is allocated to bring the U.S. out of a recession. The current chairman of the Federal Reserve is Ben Bernanke, he is jointly responsible for the conducting the nations monetary policy by influencing money and credit conditions in the economy in pursuit of full employment and stable prices (Chairman, n.d.). He also supervises and regulates banking institutions to ensure the safety and soundness of the nations banking and financial system and to protect the credit rights of consumers. Mr. Bernanke also maintains the stability of the financial system and containing systemic risk that may arise in financial markets, and providing certain financial services to the U.S. government, to the public, to financial institutions, and to foreign official institutions, including playing a major role in operating the nations payments systems (Responsibilities, n.d.). Mr. Bernanke has no constitutional authority, however his opinion on the economy and the value of the U.S. dollar or assets are valued greatly up on Capitol Hill (Hamilton, 2010). Immediately after the new administration took over the White House, there were several acts that were passed by the Congress, and signed by the new President. These legislations will help keep the economy on track and reverse the years of irresponsibility of the federal government and the banks (Economy, n.d.). These acts will also help average citizens keep their homes and their current jobs. Most of these acts will help create millions of jobs and help small business by giving them tax breaks. They will also monitor the Wall Street and banks to make sure they are being held accountable for their actions to the average citizen. As each of the key players had their own opinions about the different policies that make up the way they run the economy, they came together to form amendments to the monetary policy, fiscal policy, and laws governing businesses since the collapse of the economy. The only change that was made to the monetary policy is that they will reinvest principal payments from its securities holdings. The changes to the fiscal policy include tax cuts for some and freezing the pay of government employees. There were many laws that were put into effect to govern businesses and their hiring practices and other items as far as how they were ran. Each of the key actors are responsible for the enforcement of these acts or bills and monitoring of the other key people to make sure that no one taking advantage of the system and the new bills. Each of these acts, I feel are strong and will help to give the economy the boost that is required to help it get stable. I know that a lot of people feel that it is not helping, but I like to remind people it took us more than 10 years to get into the mess that we are in. No one can expect for the current situation to be gone in less than 2 years. I do however; believe that the federal government should not have bailed out the homeowners. These individuals knew that they could not afford the homes before they bought them, and after the economy got bad they expected someone to give them a handout. The only thing that I can see as a weakness for any of these policies is the enforcement of them. Each policy is unique, but each has to be enforced in a certain way. Although I am glad to see the economy doing a bounce back, I am more concerned that the citizens will not give our government enough time to make sure it is stable again. Everyone is so set in blaming the President for the economy, when the only people that really need to be blamed are we. In conclusion, I feel that each key player has their own set goals on where they would like to see the economy, but are willing to do whatever is necessary to stabilize the economy. I also think that each policy has been set up to help boost the economy back to its original place since if the U.S. economy is experiencing difficulties then the world economy will be faced with its own problems. References BAJAJ and LOUISE STORY, V. (2008, February 12). MORTGAGE CRISIS SPREADS BEYOND SUBPRIME LOANS. New York Times, the (NY) (Late Edition Final ed.), 1. Retrieved March 18, 2012, from News Bank on-line database (Access World News) Chairman. (n.d.). Board Members. Retrieved March 18, 2012, from The Federal Reserve website: http://www.federalreserve.gov/?aboutthefed/?bios/?board/?bernanke.htm Constitutional Powers of the President. (2003). Constitutional Powers of the President. Retrieved March 18, 2012, from CQ Encyclopedia of American Government database. Economy. (n.d.). Retrieved March 18, 2012, from The White House website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/?issues/?economy Hamilton, J. (2010, January 1). Bernanke grades the Fed. Newstex Blogs (USA) n.pag. Retrieved March 18, 2012, from News Bank on-line database (Access World News) Krugman, P. (2009, March 3). Revenge of the Glut. Record-Journal (Meriden, CT) 18. Retrieved March 18, 2012, from News Bank on-line database (Access World News) OConnor, Karen and Larry J. Sabato. (Eds.) (2011). American government: Roots and reforms. New York: Pearson Longman. Responsibilities. (n.d.). The Structure of the Federal Reserve System. Retrieved March 18, 2012, from The Federal Reserve website: http://www.federalreserve.gov/?pubs/?frseries/?frseri.htm Rodriguez, L Jacobo. (2003). Banking stability and the Basel capital standards. Cato Journal, 23(1), 115-126. Retrieved March 18, 2012, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 410173241). Roles of the Treasury. (n.d.). Retrieved March 18, 2012, from The U.S. Treasury website: http://www.treasury.gov/?about/?role-of-treasury/?Pages/?default.aspx Samuelson, Robert J. (2010, September). March 18, 2012, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 2142217461). Secretary. (n.d.). Retrieved March 18, 2012, from The U.S. Treasury website: http://www.treasury.gov/?about/?Pages/?Secretary.aspx

Step by step design of a lock

Step by step design of a lock Introduction This paper outlines the step by step design of a lock in amplifier based micro-ohmmeter. This is very useful in measuring small resistances without applying large currents. And find its usefulness in tracing short circuits on printed boards containing sensitive components. The Audio Micro Ohm Meter uses synchronous detection to measure low value resistances. The circuit provides a variable frequency audio tone to indicate the resistance under test. Such a tone is invaluable when troubleshooting shorted tracks on multi-layer circuit boards because it is easier and quicker to observe 1. The source generates a 1KHz, 250mV peak square wave carrier signal that is injected into the unknown resistance, the resulting voltage across the resistor is amplified by the instrumentation amplifier. The phase reversing switch then rectifies the complementary square wave input, the rectified output is not all smooth so a low pass filter is needed. A Voltage controlled is then used to measure and indicate low value resistances such as track resistances on printed circuit boards. To provide a convenient indication, we want a ‘display that has high resolution (like a digital display) but is easy to read (like analogue meter) and that preferably doesnt even need to be looked at, so we can concentrate on the probes. To trace short circuits, the one thing we dont really need is high accuracy, since we are generally moving the probes 1. A muting detector then comes in to compare the control voltage with reference voltage. The Proteus ISIS software is used for the simulation of the circuit while a printed circuit board was used for the verification of the circuit. Resistor selection, analysis of waveforms , sensitivity and linearity of the device to supply voltage and possible improvements of the device were discussed. Excitation Oscillator One of the most useful ICs ever made is the 8-pin 555 timer and it is used in many projects. It can be used to build many circuits by just adding a few external components. NE555 is a popular version and it is suitable in most cases where a 555 timer is specified. Some low power types of the 555 are made, for instance the ICM7555, but can only be used when specified (to increase battery life) because their maximum output current of about 20mA (with a 9V supply) is too low for many standard 555 circuits. The ICM7555 has the same pin arrangement as a standard 555. The circuit symbol for a 555 is a box with the pins arranged to suit the circuit diagram: for example 555 pin 8 at the top for the +Vs supply, 555 pin 3 output on the right. Usually just the pin numbers are used and they are not labeled with their function. Standard 555 ICs create a significant glitch on the supply when their output changes state. This is not a problem in small circuits with no other ICs, but in a complex circuit a smoothing capacitor can be connected across the +Vs and 0V supply near the 555 . The 555 timer operates in different modes. The astable mode suits our design criteria. An astable circuit produces a square wave, this is a digital waveform with sharp transitions between low (0V) and high (+5Vs). It is possible that the durations of the low and high states may be different. The circuit is called an astable because it is not stable in any state: the output is continually changing between low and high. Our circuit needs a square waveform output of 4KHz, for this to be obtained an appropriate resistor value can be estimated by calculation to obtain the needed signal to drive the circuit Duty cycle The duty cycle of an astable circuit is the proportion of the complete cycle for which the output is high (the mark time). It is usually given as a percentage. The duty cycle of our circuit can be determined using Time period. The timeperiod (T) of the square wave is the time for one complete cycle, but it is usually better to consider frequency (f) which is the number of cycles per second 2. The time period can be split into two parts: T = Tm + Ts 5 Mark time (output high): Tm = 0.7 Ãâ€" (R1 + R2) Ãâ€" C1 Space time (output low): Ts = 0.7 Ãâ€" R2 Ãâ€" C1 we can determine our R2 using C3= 10nF, R1=1k and f= 4kHz we calculate our R2 as Tm = 0.7 X (1K + 33K) X 10 X 10^-9 = 238 ÃŽ ¼s While Space-time represents low output, Ts= 0.7 Ãâ€" R2 Ãâ€" C1 Ts = 0.7 X (1K) X 10 X 10^-9 = 0.7 ÃŽ ¼s T = Tm + Ts = 238 + 0.7 = 238.7 ÃŽ ¼s Duty cycle = = 99.7% The Quadrature Divider A quadrature divider, comprises a plurality of flip-flops, it includes at least two flip-flop, the flip-flops are interoperably coupled in series to produce a set dividing ratio 7. Each of the flip-flops includes two differential inputs I, two differential outputs O, and two differential clock inputs C, the outputs O, of one flip-flop is connected to the inputs I, of the next flip-flop, the outputs O, of the last flip-flop is connected inversely to the inputs I, of the first flip-flop, the flip-flops are clocked at their clock inputs C with differential clock signals in a consecutive manner which, for each flip-flop, are individually selected from quadrature clock input signals, 0, 90, 180, and 270, the quadrature divider is an even number divide-by-n circuit comprising a number of 2n flip-flops and providing a number of 4n output signals having 4n equidistant phases. 9 In our case the quadrature divider receives the square waveform signal from excitation oscillator as its clock signal . Figure 4 and 5 of the appendix show the pictorial representation of the quadrature divider as obtained from the circuit simulation and the oscilloscope graphic display. There are four output signals from the quadrature divider and they each have amplitude of about 5V but frequency of 1 KHz. This shows that the quadrature divider effectively divides the clock frequency into four amongst the equidistant phases. Attenuator An attenuator is a circuit that allows a known source of power to be reduced by a known factor usually expressed in decibels. The main advantage of an attenuator is that it is made from non-inductive resistors and therefore able to change a source or load, which might be reactive, into a resistive one that is know. The power reduction is achieved by the attenuator without introducing distortion. The attenuator used in our circuit is a pi type It is used to attenuate the 0 and 180 degrees antiphase 5V signal form the quadrature divider to 250mV at 1KHz. In order to get this value we need to select R5 in this attenuator circuit. Using Thevenins theorem. RTH = R5// (R3 + R4) where RTH = 100 ohms, R3 = 1K1ohms and R4 = 1K1 ohms. R5 = = 104.76 ohms. The best resistor to this to this value is a110 ohms resistor. So R5 = 110 ohms. figure 6 of the Appendix shows the graphical output of the attenuator with amplitude of about 250mV and frequency of 1 KHz. The attenuators gain in decibels is obtained by finding the ratio of the voltage corresponding to a known factor. Using the formula: , where R1 = 1100 ohms and the Z = 100, K = = 1.2 The value of attenuation, A in dB is obtained using K = 10 (A / 20) 1.2 = 10 (A / 20) A = 20 log 1.2 = 1.584 dB Instrumentation Amplifier An instrumentation amplifier is a variation of differential amplifier with input buffers that eliminates the need for input impedance matching making the amplifier suitable for use in measurement 5. It is a differential op-amp circuit providing high input impedances with the pleasure of gain adjustment through the adjustment of a single resistor. Instrumentation amplifier has very low DC offset, low drift, low noise, very high open-loop gain, very high common-mode rejection ratio, and very high input impedances. The instrumentation amplifier used in this circuit affected its accuracy and stability. The attenuated signal is applied across a resistor with very small resistance. The voltage drop across the resistor is small and needs to be amplified. The instrumentation amplifier does this, it composes of three op-amps arranged so that there is one op-amp to buffer each input signal and one to produce the desired output with adequate impedance matching for the function.3 The gain of the instrumentation amplifier circuit used for this micro-ohmmeter design is known to be 60 dB. Using the formula below then, Av =where AV = 60 dB, R = 10 k, 60 =, R9 = = 338.98 ÃŽ © The best resistor to this value is 340 ÃŽ © and it controls the gain of the instrumentation amplifier. The negative feedback of U3:A makes the voltage at pin 2 of U3:A to be equal to Voltage across R8. while, the voltage at pin 6 of U3:B is held to a value equal to Voltage across R14. This establishes a voltage drop across R9 equivalent to the voltage difference between V1 and V2 and subsequently a current through R9 and since no current is drawn by the feedback loops of the two input op-amps , the same amount of current through R9 must be going through R10 and R12 resistors above and below it. This produces a voltage drop between points A and B equal to V The ordinary differential amplifier part of the circuit then amplifies this voltage drop by a gain of 1. The post- differential amplifier circuit, with gain = R19 / R15 and differential input resistance = 2*R15. The two amplifiers on the left are the buffers. With R9 = Rgain removed (open circuited), they are simple unity gain buffers; the circuit will work in that state, with gain simply equal to R19 / R15 and high input impedance because of the buffers. The buffer gain is increased by putting resistors between the buffer inverting inputs and ground to shunt away some of the negative feedback; however, the single resistor Rgain between the two inverting inputs is a much more elegant method: it increases the differential-mode gain of the buffer pair while leaving the common-mode gain equal to 1. This increases the common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR) of the circuit and enables the buffers to handle much larger common-mode signals without clipping than would be the case if they were sep arate and had the same gain. Another benefit of the method is that it boosts the gain using a single resistor rather than a pair, thus avoiding a resistor-matching problem. The ideal common-mode gain of an instrumentation amplifier is zero. The common-mode gain of the instrumentation amplifier used in this design is near zero because of the equally numbered resistors and by the matched common-mode gains of the two buffer op-amps of the instrumentation amplifier. To obtain a closely matched resistors is difficult, as is optimizing the common mode performance of the input op-amps. All resistors are of equal value for this instrumentation amplifier except for R9. This method has the advantage of possessing extremely high input impedances on the input voltage across R=39 because they connect straight into the non-inverting inputs of their respective op-amps and adjustable gain that can be set by a single resistor. The lowest gain possible is obtained from the above circuit with R9 completely open (infinite resistance), and that gain value is 1. The output of the instrumentation amplifier is an anti-phase square wave signal from the that connects to the phase shift detector for further modification. Lock-In Amplifier A lock-inamplifier otherwise known as a phase-sensitive detector is a type of amplifier that can extract a signal with a known carrier wave from extremely noisy environment. It is a homodyne with a very low pass filter making it very narrow band. Lock-in amplifiers utilizes mixing, via a frequency mixer, to convert the signals amplitude and phase to a DC—in fact a time-varying low-frequency—voltage signal. It is often used to measure phase shift, even when the signals are of a high value and of high signal-to-noise ratio, and do not need any other improvement.To obtain signal at low signal-to-noise ratios, it is necessary that a strong, undiluted reference signal is made available at the same frequency as the signal to be measured. Phase Difference Two oscillators that have the same frequency and different phases that is, a phase difference, the oscillators are said to be out of phase with each other. The amount by which such oscillators are out of step with each other can be expressed in radians from 0 to 2Ï€ or in degrees from 0 ° to 360 °, If the phase difference is 180 degrees (Ï€ radians), then the two oscillators are said to be in antiphase. If two interacting waves meet at a point where they are in antiphase, then destructive interference will occur. It is common for waves of electromagnetic (light, RF), acoustic (sound) or other energy to become superposed in their transmission medium. When that happens, the phase difference determines whether they reinforce or weaken each other. Complete cancellation is possible for waves with equal amplitudes. Phase compensation This is the correction of phase error (i.e., the difference between the actually needed phase and the obtained phase). To obtain stability in an operational amplifier a phase compensation is required. To keep a phase margin in the phase compensation a capacitor/RC network is usually used . A phase compensator works by subtracting out an amount of phase shift from a signal which is equal to the amount of phase shift added by switching some additional amplifier stages into the amplification signal path. Low-Pass Filter A low-pass filter is a filter that passes low-frequency signals but attenuates (reduces the amplitude of) signals with frequencies higher than the cutoff frequency. An ideal low-pass filter completely eliminates all frequencies above the cutoff frequency while passing those below unchanged: its frequency response is a rectangular function, and is a brick-wall filter 8. If we need to get rid of an interfering signal in order to get a lot of attenuation, several RC filters can be cascaded. Unfortunately, the impedance of one RC section affects the next. What this means is that the transition between the pass and stop bands will not be sharp. A sharp transition helps reduce the interfering signal without causing degradation to the desired signals. In this case, the Sallen-Key active filter can do the job well. This circuit uses a 2-pole filter. Cascading a number of stages can give a steep attenuation transition with a very sharp knee. This cut-off frequency aids in selecting the R20 an d R22 resistor values to be used in the low pass filter design to average noise in the DC signal 6. The required Q for the butterworth filter = 1.414. The op-amp stage is a unity gain follower when R20 = R22. if C9 and C10 are equal, then the Q = 1.5858 for Butterworth response. Using convenient near values gain of 1.56 in the formula, R20 = R22 = Q / (4 ·Ãâ‚¬Ã‚ ·fo ·C9) where, fo = cut-off frequency = 4Hz, C9 = C10 = 0.1ÃŽ ¼F R20 = R20 = 310.31kÃŽ © The nearest standard resistor value to this calcualted resistor value is 330k Voltage Controlled Oscillator A voltage-controlled oscillator is an oscillator whose frequency is determined by a control voltage. As the control voltage causes the frequency to rise slowly until it hits a maximum and then falls back to the starting frequency. The first op-amp is an integrator(U7:A). A voltage divider puts the + input at half the control voltage. The op-amp attempts to keep its input at the same voltage, which requires a current flow across the 100k to ensure that its voltage drop is half the control voltage. When the MOSFET at the bottom is on, the current from the 200k goes through the MOSFET. Since the 100k resistor has the same voltage drop as the 100k but half the resistance, it must have twice as much current flowing through it. The additional current comes from the capacitor, charging it, so the first op-amp must provide a steadily rising output voltage to source this current. When the MOSFET at the bottom is off, the current from the 200k goes through the capacitor, discharging it, so a steadily falling output voltage is needed from the first op-amp. The result of the operation of this integrator circuit is a triangular waveform confirmed by figure 13 of the appendix. The capacitance of the capacitor in our circuit is determined thus: The second op-amp is a Schmitt trigger. It takes the triangle wave as input. When the input voltage rises above the threshold of 3.33 V, it outputs 5 V and the threshold voltage falls to 1.67 V. When the input voltage falls below that, the output goes to 0 V and the threshold moves back up. The output is a square wave. Its connected to the MOSFET, causing the integrator to raise or lower its output voltage as needed 4. Figure 14 shows the graphical representation of this circuit . The variation of the supply voltage from 3V to 9V while observing the output signal frequency obtains the sensitivity of the overall voltage- controlled oscillator circuit to supply voltage. From the test observation, the VCO produced no output signal at 3Vand beyond 6.2V. The below table shows the values obtained for the during the sensitivity test of the voltage-controlled oscillator. Using the power supply sensitivity formula Sensitivity Percentage change in frequency = Percentage change in power supply voltage = Between 5V to 6V, the percentage change in power supply voltage = = 20% While the percentage change in frequency is = 3.575% VCO sensitivity to this supply voltage variation = = 17.875 % Between 4V to 5V, the percentage change in power supply voltage = = 25% While the percentage change in frequency is = 12.21% VCO sensitivity to this supply voltage variation = = 48.84% The inference from the above calculation shows that the sensitivity of this lock-in amplifier based micro-ohmmeter to power supply voltage increases with reducing supply voltage. The tuning range of the VCO refers to the range of oscillation frequencies Two important parameters in VCO design are linearity and sweep range. Linearity correlates the change in frequency or the VCO output to the change in the control voltage. The sweep range is the range of possible frequencies produced by VCO control voltage. The linearity Muting Detector Circuit The filtered output from the phase sensitive detector is a control voltage which, with Zero input ( short circuited probes) is about Vg volts . It goes more positive with increasing signal level. With maximum input(open circuited probes) the voltage will saturate near the positive supply rail. This would result in a loud high pitched tone from the oscillator, which is not what we want. We want the it to be mute when the probes are disconnected and to do this another operational amplifier is brought in to compare the control voltage with a reference voltage. Whenever the control voltage goes higher than the reference, the output will go negative. This allows a small current to be drawn through D1 and R25, which will keep the oscillator transistor switched off, stopping oscillation. The output voltage of an AM synchronous detector is compared with a reference potential level by a voltage comparator. A muting device connected with the output of the detector is controlled by a control circuit connected with the comparator. Through this control circuit, the detector output is immediately muted when the detector output level falls below the reference potential level, and the muting of the detector output is removed after a predetermined retardation when the detector output level exceeds the reference potential level. References 1 Bateson, S. January 2010, Electronic Signal Conditioning Labs, Teesside University, Middlesbrough 2 Hewes, J, (17.02.2010), 555 Timer, http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/555timer.htm#astable 3 Instrumentation amplifier, (14.02.2010) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumentation_amplifier 4 Java, (19.01.2001), Voltage controlled oscillator, http://www.falstad.com/circuit/e-vco.html 13022010 5 Kuphaldt, T, (12.02.2010), Differentiator and Integrator Circuits, http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_3/chpt_8/10.html 6 Low pass filter, (14.02.2010) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-pass_filter 7 Quadrature Divider, (17.02.2010), http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/7425850/claims.html 8 Sallen-key low-pass filter (13.02.2010), http://www.ecircuitcentezr.com/Circuits/opsalkey1/opsalkey1.htm 9 Widerin, P, (13.02.2010), Quadrature Divider, http://www.freshpatents.com/Quadrature-divider-dt20070111ptan20070009077.php