STA Travel Case Study Essay Example for Free

STA Travel Case Study Essay History/Situation: STA Travel is a subsidiary of a privately held company, Diethelm Keller Holding LTD, marketing as the worlds largest student travel organization helping students travel in over 90 countries. Historically, STA utilized retail travel agencies located near or on college campuses; however the Internet has introduced new online competitors. The internet is predicted to account for more bookings than offline alternatives. In response to STA’s global customer base, STA delegated the responsibility to the local level while using an integrated information system to provide global support and solutions. STA’s philosophy is â€Å"local as possible, global as necessary†. STA launched a business strategy, One Company, to align business operations with customer needs across the world. In support of this global standardization emerged BLUEe, a unified sales and booking system supporting every STA point of purchase backed by a single network, infrastructure, finance and reporting system. STA’s North American division developed STATRAVEL193.COM, an interactive website with video reports from STA customers about travel destinations. They also were the first to explore the Second Life (SL) marketing tool. STA’s Global Webmaster, Craig Hepburn, also welcomed the SL idea however he knew it would be a tough sell to marketing departments in other countries. STA had a two prong approach to utilize SL. One was to hold a movie making competition among SL residents which would highlight their virtual worlds. STA could then use the best of the videos to provide the services to the SL world as they do in the real world. The second element evolved into creating a separate orientation landing where new comers would be provided basic orientation information and then STA would lead them to exciting places in SL providing another opportunity to provide the services currently provided in the real world. Matt Nixon, Director of E-Commerce, STA Travels North America Division, needed to decide if STA should investment in SL. What is second life? SL is a virtual marketing tool which would provide STA a marketing presence in a computer-simulated virtual world. From the SL website, players can download client software for the game. Players are given a virtual self, an avatar, and a â€Å"second life†. There is a process for new players to get setu p with their avatar, name, account info, avatar accessories, orientation, and avatar skills before choosing to transport to  the mainland to begin their second lives. Players can purchase a premier membership status which provides players an opportunity to setup a business and participate in an economy exchanging US$1MM daily. Opportunities: There was strong evidence of network effect in SL. By early 2007, there were over 3 million â€Å"residents† registered on SL, of which 700,000 had visited SL in the previous 60 days and 12,000-18,000 were typically on line at any given time. Also, real life (RL) businesses, brands and not-for-profit organizations began to explore their own second lives. STA has an opportunity to be one of the first to market in the virtual world travel category. In doing so, they can begin to form partnerships with other RL businesses. As more businesses residents join, STA can continue to grow their partnerships and advertising within SL. Problems: SL is new technology and history shows that technology has a short life cycle. There is risk that SL will not continue to grow long enough for STA to cash in on this signif icant investment. SL could also have a negative impact on STA’s brand image if potential customers begin to identify STA with a virtual business and not a real life business that can provide real world travel services. STA’s real world revenue will be a key metric in measuring the impact of SL. Although, STA’s SL approach simulates the services they offer in the real world; I think it will be difficult for residents to make the connection from STA’s virtual world services to the real world services. Also, college students’ schedules are packed full with studies, work and socializing therefore majority will not have time to maintain a virtual second life. Finally, the current retail travel agencies will likely resist the SL marketing tool because the success of SL represents lost commissions for the retail agencies. What type of individuals make up the Second Life community? What do you believe will be the evolution of Second Life and other Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) in the near future? The primary users in SL are gamers and tech savvy individuals who spend a lot of time in at the computer. Those that prefer virtual reality often don’t have a desire to travel the world for several reasons; they don’t like flying, leaving home, they can’t afford it, or their schedule doesn’t allow enough time. I don’t believe the current SL users will seek out STA’s real world services. I also don’t believe there is an opportunity for STA to gain share through SL because those who enjoy traveling in real  life prefer to experience it in person not virtually. These two demographics are independent; therefore the virtual players cannot provide a read on travel trends for the real life traveler. I also don’t expect SL to continue long enough for STA to make any gains in market share. How do you propose that STA Travel should go about establishing a presence in Second Life? How can the firm spawn the traffic needed for generating revenues? I struggle to find any basis for STA to move forward with establishing a presence in SL which will appeal to their target audience and generate revenues. I believe there is a missing link between the virtual reality and the real world services. I also think STAs target audience will remain a minority in the SL virtual reality user community. Evaluate the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of this initiative. What would you propose to the executive team if you were Matt? Why? The SL actual costs not provided in this case, however the total cost of ownership must include the following: lease, setup, development, training of STA employees, maintenance, end of life, migration, integration with software programs, security, testing, data backup storage, insurance, marketing expense, global staffing to maintain site 24/7. I believe the cumulative cost of these categories will exceed the benefit because. How would you evaluate the value of Second Life to STA? At this time, I’d do not recommend moving forward on the basis that I do not find any value in SL. STAs target college audience is a minority in the SL user community. I evaluate the value of SL based on the projected increased revenue, profitability, market share and the risks or opportunities. The risks noted previously outweigh any potential advantage SL may provide. Class Material Online community- SL is a virtual reality community brought together by a common interest of wanting to escape reality. Pay for service- SL primary revenue model; they charge a membership to users who want to upgrade and participate in the SL economy which exchanges US$1MM daily. Disintermediation- Historically STA utilized retail travel agencies, however the Internet introduced new online competitors. Market efficiency- STA online competition provides lower costs researching trips. Rather than physically going to the retail travel agent, consumers can search for pricing and availability online. Two-way conversations- STA North America  has an interactive travel blog where customers can post videos of their travel experiences. Recommendation: I do not recommend SL because the risks exceed any gains that may exist. Also, there is not a link between the virtual and real world. I recommend that STA explore other online marketing opportunities.

Symbolism in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Essay -- Papers Harpe

Symbolism in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee The mockingbird is a major symbol in the book, To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. Harper Lee chose the mockingbird for both the title of her book and as a symbol in her book. I believe she selected it because the mockingbird is a creature that is loved by all for its singing and mocking, for which it gets its name, and how it never intends to harm anything or anybody. Atticus Finch says to Jem, but remember it?s a sin to kill a mockingbird.? Whereupon Miss Maudie explains, ?Your father?s right, mockingbirds don?t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don?t? eat up people?s gardens, don?t nest in corncribs, they don?t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That?s why it?s a sin to kill mockingbirds.? In the book, the mockingbird symbolizes Arthur ?Boo? Radley in the novel. Both Boo and the mockingbird do no harm and are never anything but pleasant to others. Boo left gifts for Jem and Scout in the tree, such as gum, two indian head pennies, two carved soap figurines, and a pocketwatch. He also mended J...

Daiwa Bank

A Case Study| | Background and History Daiwa Bank, or Osaka Nomura Bank as it was first called, was founded in 1918 in Osaka, Japan by Tokushichi Nomura. It was created mainly to take advantage of the new capital Japan had amassed from foreign commercial ventures and domestic industrialization. Its securities division experienced huge growth in volume and profits that it almost functioned as different entity. Japanese industry spectacularly grew in the 1930s, but after the war the Allied occupation forces enacted a variety of laws aimed at decentralizing the industry.Part of this was that the bank was forced to change its name to Daiwa Bank, Limited. In 1948, Daiwa Bank established a foreign department and the following year it was authorized as a foreign exchange bank. Daiwa opened representative offices in New York and London in 1956 and 1958, respectively as it was also gaining stronger presence in Tokyo. The bank opened more overseas offices, in Los Angeles in 1970, Frankfurt in 1971, Hong Kong in 1976, and Singapore in 1979.It established a new trust headquarters in 1985 to reinforce its position in trust banking, promote fee income, and demonstrate its ability to accommodate the increasingly diverse needs of Japanese society. Daiwa, like most Japanese banks, made its profits through lending, but failed to implement appropriate oversight procedures when it turned to high-volume securities trading. It was not until 1980s that Daiwa’s entry to trading securities would lead to a scandal with longtime repercussions.In September 1995, the news reported that one of its New York bond traders, Toshihide Iguchi, had embezzled funds and altered bank records in order to conceal 11 years of losses than amounted to $1. 1 billion. Five years later, Daiwa was still enduring the impact of the New York scandal when a Japanese court ruled on the shareholder suit when a number of former and current management officials were ordered to pay $775 million in damages to sh areholders for failing to properly oversee Iguchi's trading.Occurrences of Fraud Toshihide Iguchi is a Kobe, Japan-born US citizen who majored in psychology at Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield. He joined Daiwa’s New York branch in 1977. There he learned how to run the small back office of the branch’s securities business. Traders say that he had traded as much as $1billion in a day, striving to affect the prices through big positions, yet his reported profits averaged $4 million a year over the past decade, never exceeding $10 million in a single year.When Iguchi lost a few hundred thousand dollars early on in his trading activities, he was tempted into selling off bonds in the Bankers Trust sub-custody account to pay off his losses. As money was lost in trading mostly short-term Treasury bills, he covered the losses by selling US government securities owned by Daiwa, allegedly forging documents to hide their sale. He concealed his unauthorized sales fr om the custody account by falsifying account statements so that the statements would not indicate that the securities had been sold. He was able to forge some 30,000 trading slips, among other documents.When customers sold off securities that Iguchi had already sold off on his own behalf, or when customers needed to be paid interest on long-gone securities, Iguchi settled their accounts by selling off yet more securities and changing yet more records. Eventually about $377 million of Daiwa’s customers’ securities and about $733 million of Daiwa’s own investment securities had been sold off by Iguchi to cover his trading losses. By the early 1990s, it was difficult for Iguchi to continue to hide them particularly after 1993 when Daiwa made limited efforts to split up its trading and back-office functions.Yet he managed to survive for another two years before engineering his own day of reckoning. Why Violations Occurred When Iguchi was promoted to become a trader in 1984, he did not relinquish his back-office duties. All in all, he supervised the securities custody department at the New York branch from approximately 1977 right through to 1995. This lack of segregation, a relatively common feature of small trading desks in the early 1980s but already a discredited practice by the early 1990s, led to Daiwa’s downfall. Iguchi’s very own words were â€Å"To me, it was only a violation of internal rules.I think all traders have a tendency to fall into the same trap. You always have a way of recovering the loss. As long as that possibility is there, you both admit your loss and lose face and your job, or you wait a little – a month or two months, or however long it takes. † Daiwa and its internal auditors never independently confirmed the custody account statements. Subsequent investigation showed that risk control lapses and cover-ups were part of the culture of Daiwa’s New York operation in the 1980s and early 1990s, to a farcical degree.For example, during the 1995 investigation of the Iguchi affair, the bank was also charged with operating an unauthorized trading area for securities between 1986 and 1993. Opportunities of Fraud Opportunities for fraud open the door for individuals and companies to behave unethically and commit fraudulent acts. Opportunity is created through the use of one’s position and authority, professional and personal pressures, and weak internal controls. Some of these opportunities are taken by Toshihide Iguchi in order to conceal a trading loss dating back to 1984, and additional losses throughout his career as CEO of Daiwa’s New York branch.In the late 1970’s, Iguchi was promoted to bond trader while still maintaining his duties as clerk in the securities deposit department. This allowed him access to two major responsibilities and to take advantage of each position and its authority. He learned the process of trading bonds, the paper work that was required to complete transactions, and how to seamlessly deposit securities. It was a perfect opportunity to learn each process and find holes in the system to conceal fraud.During this time, Iguchi’s financial transactions were not maintained or properly recorded as a financial institution or international financial institution. His process was to first trade then record trades manually on paper rather than on a computer. Trading transactions could not be over seen by the Daiwa corporate office due to this process. This created the ability to freely make trades and conceal and alter transactions when needed. In 1979, Iguchi became executive vice president and head of government and bond trading in the New York branch where he answered only to himself.His superiors failed to manage him properly and instead gave him full control of the New York branch. This allowed him to set his own schedule, standards, rules, and operate the branch how he deemed fit. In addition, I guchi was seen as a â€Å"trustworthy† employee due to his history with Daiwa, position, dedication, and sacrifices he made as a vice president and bond trader. This gave confidence to his superiors that they did not need to oversee Iguchi or question his actions. Iguchi’s expertise in the US government bond market was something that no one else in the company could match.Daiwa failed to train or hire another worker in the field which allowed Iguchi to take full control of its operations and responsibilities without another’s input of his actions. Daiwa Bank had numerous opportunities for fraud in its New York branch office. These opportunities for fraud could have been avoided in the past; however, creating a strong action plan will help deter opportunities for fraud in the future. Deterring Fraud in the Future Opportunities of fraud almost always lead to the occurrence of fraud. The best defense for this is the need for a strong action plan to deter fraud in t he future.Daiwa lacked in several areas including strong internal controls and conducting regular internal and external audits. Strong internal controls are essential to the proper management of a company’s operations and success. Daiwa did not exercise the separation of duties in its New York branch. Separating of duties can ensure that each positions process is efficiently executed by being checked by an independent party. The implementation of a separation of duties also prevents a single business process from being completely managed by a single individual.This increases the difficulty of successfully performing fraudulent activities which reduces them in return. Daiwa and Iguchi did not use a company system or computer system to track transactions made by employees. Requiring all banking transactions to be reported in a company computer system is beneficially to management and the accounting department. Activity of each employee and branch can be monitored which can ensu re duties are being fulfilled and fraud is not being performed. Daiwa’s Japan corporate office failed to supervise and over oversee Iguchi and the New York branch.Increased oversight of international branch’s and branch executives ensures that operations are in accordance to company objectives and processes, and abide by government laws and regulations. Daiwa depended solely upon Iguchi to trade bonds in the US market because the company failed to train or hire another individual with similar expertise. Employing more than one knowledgeable and skilled individual in a specialty field increases its effectiveness and decreases issues related to improper actions. Daiwa failed to conduct regular internal and external audits of company policies and financial statements.Regular internal and external audits can determine whether financial statements are in accordance with company policies and government standards. Audits can also disclose fraudulent transactions and discrepan cies. Daiwa Bank had numerous opportunities for fraud which lead to Iguchi’s ability to conceal trading losses for such an extensive period of time. In order to prevent a similar situation from taking place, it is essential to find why these violations occurred in the first place. Creating a proper action plan is essential to deter fraud in the future. ReferencesBizcovering. 2008. Retrieved on October 6, 2012 from http://bizcovering. com/business-law/toshihide-iguchi-and-daiwa-bank-securities-trading-scandal/ Case Study – Daiwa Bank. 2000. Retrieved on August 29, 2012 from http://202. 70. 81. 13/itd/OTH00009/Course%20Materials/Day%208/S1C%20-%20Case%20Studies/Case%20Study%20Daiwa%20Bank. pdf Funding Universe. 1996. Retrieved on October 2, 2012 from http://www. fundinguniverse. com/company-histories/the-daiwa-bank-ltd-history/ The Daiwa Bank Case. 2000. Retrieved on September 10, 2012 from http://dspace. lib. niigata-u. ac. p:8080/dspace/bitstream/10191/15002/1/34(1-2)_ 107-138. pdf The Independent. 1995. Retrieved on October 5, 2012 from http://www. independent. co. uk/news/business/us-orders-daiwa-bank-shutdown-1537096. html The Key to Financial Management: Management. 2004. Retrieved from September 27, 2012 from http://fic. wharton. upenn. edu/fic/papers/99/9942. pdf The New York Times. 1996. Retrieved on October 5, 2012 from http://www. nytimes. com/1996/02/29/business/daiwa-bank-admits-guilt-in-cover-up. html Wells, J. T. (2012). Principles of Fraud Examination (3rd ed. ) Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Disney Films The Little Mermaid - 1588 Words

The first thing to pop into one’s mind when they hear The Little Mermaid is most likely the Disney animated movie starring the beautiful red haired mermaid, Ariel. However, as with most Disney films, The Little Mermaid is an adaption of an original story written by Hans Christian Andersen in the 1830s. The creation of this classic fairytale into an animated feature required alterations from the Disney corporation, leading to a final product that is reminiscent of Andersen’s original story with added layers of American culture, sexism, and musical numbers. The initial release of Disney’s The Little Mermaid was highly successful both domestically and overseas, resulting in a total box office revenue of about 180 million. Although the†¦show more content†¦The original story of The Little Mermaid is encompassed by the mermaid’s desire for an eternal soul, which is only an attribute of humans not mermaids. Her longing to achieve salvation is the o verriding reason for almost all of her decisions, which leads her on a journey of self realization and self sacrifice. This longing consumes almost every aspect of the story and is a clear, if not at times literal, incorporation of Andersen’s religious ideals that were influenced by his current culture. Let’s remember that this fairytale is intended for children; the story is used as a lesson to teach children about the importance of religion and moral behavior, encouraging moral obedience through self control. This interactive fairytale â€Å"transforms [its listeners] into participants in the fictions...and thus returns them to their real lives for the choice between good and evil-smiles and tears† (Mortensen 445). The story encourages self control through the character of the little mermaid by witnessing the various painful tasks she endures to achieve the ultimate goal. 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