Routines of Decision Making

Question: Discuss about the Routines of Decision Making. Answer: Introduction Consumer buying behaviour is an important concept for marketing purposes. It is a subjective topic that needs careful analysis and study. Buying behaviour differs from person to person based on the perception of values for a person. Various factors determine the buying behaviour of a person. Generally, consumers purchase typical products for satisfaction of wants and demands. These types of consumers are known as typical consumers. However, there are exceptions to every phenomenon. There are customers that purchase non-typical products (Xu, 2015). These are non-typical consumers that purchase uncommon and rare products based on their psychology and perception of value. These consumers are usually labelled as brand fanatic, early adopter, rebel, visionary resourceful etc. There are different factors that influence their buying behaviour. The report sheds critical light on the buying behaviour of a non-typical customer who indulges in the purchase of non-typical product. The purpose of the report is to shed critical light on the psychology and perception of value to the person and the factors that contribute to the buying behaviour of such customers. Profile of the subject The name of the chosen consumer is Liam Plunkett. He is 25 years old and the gender of the consumer is male. Liam Plunkett works as a teacher at Melbourne Grammar school. He is a postgraduate in the commerce and has successfully completed its masters in education. The chosen customer lives in Melbourne, Victoria and originally hails from Weyden Priors in Upper Wessex, England. Liam Plunkett has been living in Melbourne for the last 15 years. He has pursued his education from Camberwell High school and University of Melbourne. The hobby of Liam is collecting vintage articles. A special quality of Liam that separates him from other ordinary customers is the fascination and affinity to collect vintage products. He derives great pleasure and bliss in having a collection of vintage and rare products. A tendency of his buying behaviour is based on this fact. A major portion of the income of the customer is spent on buying G.I -Joes. The feature that separates him from the rest is that purc hase of toys and the fascination to collect vintage products is not a common tendency among adults and people of his age category. Typical customers spent their income on products they demand and want. Typical products are food, clothing, electronic gadgets, accessories etc. However, the affinity and the inclination to purchase items like toys in adults is a rare phenomenon, which certainly requires analysis and evaluation, in order to understand the psychology behind such occurrence. Liam can be categorized as a person who does not belong to the common crowd. His perception and outlook towards things is very different compared to others. His outlook and views on different subject matters is different, innovative and to an extent strange. His passion and hobbies are different and unique. This has a major bearing on his buying behaviour. A majority part of his income is spent on unique products. These qualities make Liam a non-typical consumer and person. Features of the product The chosen product of the customer is G.I Joe toys. As per the communication and interview with the chosen customer Liam Plunkett, it was observed that he spent a significant portion of money on G.I Joes and vintage toys. The customer had a special fantasy and inclination towards this product and it was observed that he had a huge collection of such toys. One fact that could be observed was the brand fascination towards G.I Joe and his passion towards collection of toys makes him buy this product. G.I Joes are action figure toys produced by the trademark company G.I Joe. The product is based on the comic series G.I Joes. The products represent the U.S armed forces. These products have various features and the product line comprises of toy figures ranging from 9.5 cm and follows the comic series (Yojoe.com, 2016). The toy figures comprises of US armed forces like US police, US army, US navy and US pilot, with a variety of other assistant fighters. As per the theme of the comic, it can be seen that the villains of the comic series are also a part of the product line. These toy figures are a successful product line of the company. The costumes of these toy figures are as per the costume of the character of the comics. These costumes make these toy figures very attractive and unique. The size of the products is appropriate, about 9.5 com size so the handling of these products is easy. Utility of the product to the customer As per conversation with the customer, it was observed that the product provided significant value to the customer. It has to be noted that customer satisfaction and customer buying behaviour is great dependent on the product value to the customer. Such benefit could be materialistic, while some could be psychological. In the case of the customer, the product provided great utility to the customers, and the product value was psychological. Liam is an avid reader and is a great fan of the G.I Joe comic series. He has followed every series of the comic and derived great pleasure from it. As a child he was hooked to the comic series and his mind drew imaginary parabolas and conjured up visions, which were influenced by the comic series. Thus, it can establish and explain the level of addiction and affinity he had towards the comic series. He has maintained the comics even till date and reads them in his leisure time. Liam is a gifted sketch artist and even sketches these items on the ca nvas. For Liam was not only limited to the comic series and it could be seen that he has deep and great love for the G.I Joe toy products. He has a impressive collection of the G.I Joe toy figures, which comprises of the majority of the characters that are in the comic series. For Liam, the collection of toy figures provides him immense joy. The collection is a product of his immense passion for the toys. He embarks on maintaining a complete collection of the toy figures since it satisfies his passion and provides him joy with such collection of the toys. The biggest passion of Liam is maintaining collection of G. I Joes toy figures and vintage toys. Thus, the consumption pattern of Lim helps in accomplishing his goal for maintaining the collection of G.I Joes. Customer decision making process Customer decision making process is an important concept that explains how customers plan to spend their income on the satisfaction of their demands and needs. Customer decision making process explains the various stages, which determines the customer buying behaviour. The five values influencing the customer buying behaviour is an important model that describes the customer buying behaviour. According to this model, there are five stages that is involved in the decision making process for the customers (Tukej Golob Podnar, 2013). The five stages are described below: Recognition of demands and needs The first stage in the decision making process is the realisation and recognition of the needs and wants for a customer. Firstly, a customer needs to recognize and realise a specific demands, which will satisfy the wants and desires of the customers. There has to be a specific lag between the actual situation of the customers and the desired and the ideal situation. This is an important fact in this case since it will determine what the customer wants to buy. It has to be noted a customer will only purchase an item only if there is a need and desire to buy a product. If there is want and need, there will be demand. The arousal of wants and desires could be triggered by two factors. These are internal stimuli and external stimuli. Internal stimuli refer to the psychological element that triggered the want and desire of product. For example, need for food and water is internal stimuli. External stimuli refer to external factors like advertisement and brand image of a product. Maslow Hierarchy of needs refers to various types of needs that humans want. These needs are : Psychological needs Safety needs Social needs Need of love Self actualization needs Maslows hierarchy of needs explains the phenomenon as to how the needs and wants of human beings change from one level to another depending on their level of intensity of the needs and wants. It is a proven fact that human wants and needs are insatiable and never ending (Liu Han 2013). Seeking of information The second stage in customer decision making process is the seeking for information. Once the need and want is recognized, it becomes important that the solution to satisfy the needs and wants has to be recognized. A customer will require solutions to satisfy the needs and wants. For this purpose, a customer will need solutions for this. The information could be obtained internally and at the same time, the information can be secured from external sources. The internal sources refer to the fact the information can be secured from the memory and experience of the customer and external information could be advertisement and word to mouth stuff (Glimcher and Fehr, 2013). Therefore, the second stage pertains to the seeking of information or solution for satisfying wants and needs for a person. Assessment for different options After getting necessary information for satisfaction of the needs and wants, a customer will try to juggle with the various options that are at the disposal. A customer will try to evaluate and assess the various options that a customer could use (Betsch Haberstroh, 2014). A customer will try to avail to the best possible option. The best possible option for a customer will be able to satisfy the needs and wants of the customer in the best way. Thus, evaluation and assessment of options is the third stage in the customer decision making process. Purchase Purchasing of products is the fourth stage in the customer decision making process. After the evaluation process, a customer will require to make real purchase of products. This will help to satisfy the needs and wants of a customer. The purchase decision will be based on the product and brand that the customer wants (Cina, 2013). The purchase decision will be influenced by the information and the evaluation of the information that a customer has assessed in the prior stages. Post-purchase emotions In the post purchase stage, a customer will evaluate his satisfaction and utility that was derived from the product. Product utility and brand reputation plays major role in this process. This is the fifth and the final stage in the customer decision making process. A customer will try to evaluate the fact that if the product was able to help the customer in accomplishing the goals and objectives of the customers. This will play a major factor in the recurrence of the demand of the product in future. The level of satisfaction will be the deciding factor in the demand of the product or brand loyalty (Solomon, 2014). The expected value and the actual value are compared and on the basis of this, the satisfaction level will be determined. This will determine the product loyalty and the brand loyalty that a customer will have towards a product or a brand. In the case of Liam, it can be seen the post purchase behaviour plays a major role in his buying behaviour. The passion of Liam, which is to collect G.I Joes and other vintage toys are satisfied with the purchase of the toy figures. The expected level of value surpasses his actual value and thus, his satisfaction level since it helps him to accomplish his goals and objectives, which he intends to fulfil from the purchase. Consumption process As per the interview with Liam, the consumption pattern is explicitly seen. The demands and needs of Liam occur when there are new supplies of the toy figures in the nearest retail toy shop. The G.I Joes toy figures have gone through various stages of change in design and structure. More advanced versions of the toy figures have been released based on the latest movies made on G.I Joes. Therefore, his demand and need for the product rises when there are new supplies or launch of new and advanced products in the market. Liam purchases the toy figures from the nearest retail toy shop that deals exclusively in these toy figures and other vintage toys. The toy shop is named Little Corner, which is located in Melbourne. Liam is able to purchase all his requirements from these shops and add to his G.I Joes galore. The shop keeps upgrading its stocks with new and latest collection of toys, especially in respect of G.I Joes. G.I. Joes shares his toys with his nieces and nephews. Resources of the consumer Resources are the most influential factors when it comes to consumption processes. In this case, it has to be kept in mind that a consumer will have to assess and evaluate the resources that will play an important role in buying behaviour of the consumers. As per the conversation with the consumers, it was seen that the resources played an important role in the buying behaviour and decision making process. Time and money were an important factor for Liam in this case. The toy shop from where Liam purchased these products where in close proximity to his house. It took him 10-15 minutes by foot to travel to the shop to make his purchases. Thus, one thing that worked in favour of Liam was that he was able to save time and money in regards of conveyance and it was easy for him to travel to shop to make the purchases. Another factor that worked in the favour of Liam regarding the buying behaviour was the nominal and appropriate price. Even though, Liam had brand loyalty towards G.I Joes, the prices of the toy figures were nominal, which increased the satisfaction level for him and made it easier for him to fulfil his needs and demands and accomplish his satisfaction level in the process. Consumers perception about the product On interviewing Liam, his views and perceptions about the product were exposed and highlighted. The nature and behaviour of Liam has a lot to do with this fact. One of the facts is that he is an introvert person and stays aloof from social community. Liam is a creative person and dwells in his own imaginary world and as result normal products and items do not appeal much to him or satisfy his wants or desires. Another fact that can be noticed is that Liam feels very connected to the comic series and the movies series made on it. In such circumstances, the G.I Joes are a means to feed his imagination. With the toy figures, he can use his imagination and relive it with the toys. These toys are his source of entertainment during his leisure time. It helps him to feel the excitement with the toy figures. It helps him to relive the excitement that he feels while reading the comic series or while watching the movies. The toy figures are a vital source of satisfaction of his passion to main tain his passion of collecting vintage toys. The toys figures are his source of company in his time of leisure and allow him to secure bliss and serenity. Positive factors that encourage the buying behaviour of the customer Some of the positive factors that encourage the buying behaviour of Liam are: Psychological factors One of the positive facts that encourage Liam in his buying behaviour is the mental joy and serenity that he derives from such collection of the toy figures. These are psychological factors that have a deep and a positive impact on him. These toy figure serve as a major source of happiness for him. It gave him immense bliss and satisfaction, especially when he saw the collection of the toy figures increase. It also provided him the escape from the monotonous routine of life. The post purchase experience for him regarding these toys is positive and it influences him to buy to more of these toy figures since it satisfies his needs and wants and his satisfaction level is high from such products. Physical factors Physical factors relate to physical features of a product. The physical appearance of the product has deep impact on a consumer. It can be seen that in the case of Liam, the appearance of G.I Joes has a deep and strong effect on him. The G.I Joes are in appropriate in size around 9.5 cm and with attractive look and costumes, which grabs the attention of Liam. It makes his collection of toys look attractive and it decorates the display section of these toys at home. The appropriate size makes it portable and he can carry it from place to place without much hassle. The attractive and style make it another reason for him to increase his purchases of the toy figure and at the same time it positively influences his purchasing behaviour. Sweet memories of the consumer relating to the product As per the conversation with Liam, it was seen that another factor that influenced his buying behaviour was the nostalgia factor. According to Liam, there were sweet memories related to the product. These toys provided him with memories of his childhood when he read the comic series of the G.I Joes and the excitement he had when he purchased G.I Joes for the first time. As per his statement, he felt the same thrill and excitement when he purchased the toy figures. Same emotions and feelings were triggered when he purchases these products. The quotient of nostalgia is high for him regarding the purchasing and the satisfaction derived from the toys. The reminiscence of his childhood days could be felt by him. The sweet memories and the happy moments relating to the G.I Joes have a special place in the heart of Liam. It encouraged him to purchase more of such products and held a special place in the heart of Liam. It revived his days of reading G.I Joes comic and the movies watched by h im. Special connection with the brand One fact that needs to be noted is that Liam is a gritty person. He has a strong will power and has a great determination level. He took great interest in martial arts and sports in his school days. G.I Joes comic series were based on action and thrill. The toy figures were of US armed forces and depicted action and thrill. Therefore, the brand portrays action and thrill. The toy figures are armed forces and depict the concept of the brand, which is based on action, grit, determination and strong will power that are features of the characters of the G.I Joes. Liam feels a connection with the brand based on these lines. He finds congruency between his ideal and the concept of the brand. This fact draws him closer to the brand and increases his brand loyalty and product loyalty. Recommendations Some of the recommendations that were given to Liam during the conversations were: Researching on better substitutes to G.I Joes Researching on better substitutes that could provide increased and better satisfaction level to him was one of the recommendations given to him. It was suggested that he should inspect about different products that could be close substitutes to these toy figures, which could provide him higher level of satisfaction and contentment with the product. It might also give him greater product value and might also provide a better source of entertainment and leisure for him. Researching in different competitor Competitors like Funskool have brand image and have good product portfolio. Therefore, if he inspected different competitors and inspected their product, it might help him to obtain greater satisfaction. Reflection There were quite a few points that I took note after my conversation with Liam. One of the things that I learnt is that customer buying behaviour and customer decision making process is a subjective view. The mental faculties play a vital in the decision making process of a customer. My personal view is that Liam is a non-typical customer and is a person who is creative and unconventional. He does not think like normal people and has great imagination level. His demands and needs do not pertain to common products. G.I. Joes are a famous brand with attractive product line. G. I Joes are well known and reputed throughout the world. From the interview, I learnt that Liam has specific parameters and metrics for utility and satisfaction from the product. His perception about product value is different and unique. His psychology is the fundamental point that determines his satisfaction and content level from a product level. Resources also play a major role regarding customer decision maki ng process. Price and time are the two main and fundamental pillars regarding customer decision making process. Nostalgia and memories play a major in the buying behaviour of Liam. He has unique perceptions about the product and his nature and passion play and important role in creating perceptions about product and product value. The brand slogan and the concept of a brand play a vital role in determining the demand and desire of a product. The concept of G.I Joes finds congruency with the ideals and outlook of Liam. This also influences his decision. Features of a product also influences customer buying behavior and what I saw was that there were certain positive features of the toy figures that induced Liam in buying these products. Bibliography Betsch, T., Haberstroh, S. (Eds.). (2014).The routines of decision making. Psychology Press. Bruner II, G. C., Pomazal, R. J. (2013). Problem recognition: The crucial first stage of the consumer decision process.Journal of Consumer Marketing. Cina, C. (2013). Creating an effective customer satisfaction program.Journal of Consumer Marketing. Glimcher, P.W. and Fehr, E. eds., 2013.Neuroeconomics: Decision making and the brain. Academic Press. Liu, H., Han, L. (2013, December). The Beauty of the Transcending of the Humanity--Research on Maslows Self-actualization Theory. In2013 International Conference on Advances in Social Science, Humanities, and Management (ASSHM-13). Atlantis Press. Solomon, M. R. (2014).Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being. Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: prentice Hall. Sun, K. A., Kim, D. Y. (2013). Does customer satisfaction increase firm performance? An application of American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).International Journal of Hospitality Management,35, 68-77. Tukej, U., Golob, U., Podnar, K. (2013). The role of consumerbrand identification in building brand relationships.Journal of business research,66(1), 53-59. Xu, Z. (2015).Uncertain multi-attribute decision making: Methods and applications. Springer. Yojoe.com. (2016).G.I. Joe Action Figure Database - YoJoe.com. [online] Available at: https://www.yojoe.com/ [Accessed 10 Aug. 2016].

Sample Essay Tips - Get Hired by a Tutor With a Good Sample Essay

Sample Essay Tips - Get Hired by a Tutor With a Good Sample EssayMost people who are looking for an ideal candidate to be a tutor don't look in the right places to find the best possible candidate. The majority of tutoring jobs you will find are no better than an unpaid internship, which is what many candidates were taught in high school and college when they tried to find ways to help with their homework or catch up on their history classes. This article will discuss the kind of information you should be looking for before making a hiring decision.To be a great candidate for a tutor job, you must be able to write a successful essay. While this will be not easy for most people, there are a few things you should keep in mind to maximize your chances of writing a quality essay.If you are a very busy person, you should limit your essay to one paragraph that covers one topic. For example, if you're looking for a tutor candidate who can help you with your grades, you may want to limit you r essay to five minutes and cover four areas: grades, writing skills, geography and writing experience.You should include as much detail as possible in your essay and do not leave out any information. Even if you are a tutor who focuses on teaching students how to read and write, you may want to include a few sections about other areas of interest such as music, sports or history.Writing a sample essay will require you to get more ideas from your chosen subject. This is why you need to learn all about the area in which you are searching for a tutor candidate. Researching for specific information will help you come up with the perfect topic for your essay.While there are specific rules that you should follow when writing a sample essay, it is not necessary to use the exact same topic that you would have used in your thesis. You may choose to focus more on education rather than on math or some other subject. The important thing is to research and write something that is interesting an d informative.You must remember that, while a sample essay is the best way to prepare for your first writing project, you don't have to use it to get hired. There are plenty of ways to generate ideas for your essay.Use your available resources to help you get started in the right direction for your sample essay. You should also write your own essay to show your strengths and weaknesses, but don't worry if your best essay isn't exactly the same as the sample essay. Just be sure to start out writing exactly like you would for a traditional essay.

Rise of Russian Business Elite Essay Example

Rise of Russian Business Elite Essay Communist and Post-Communist Studies 38 (2005) 293e307 www. elsevier. com/locate/postcomstud The rise of the Russian business elite Olga Kryshtanovskaya a, Stephen White b,* a Institute of Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia b Department of Politics, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK Available online 24 August 2005 Abstract The early 1990s saw the formation of a new group of Russian property owners, often derivative of the late Soviet nomenklatura. The richest and most in? uential were known as oligarchs, and they established a dominant position in the later years of the Yeltsin presidency. Only 15% of the 1993 business elite still retained their position by 2001, after the 1998 devaluation of the currency. Those who took their place were younger, less metropolitan, better educated and more likely to have a background in government, including many who had enjoyed ministerial status. The new business elite is less personally ambitious, but its political in? uence is no less considerable and its representation in decision-making bodies has more than doubled over the post-communist period. The logic of development is towards a concentration of economic power in the hands of 20e25 large conglomerates in a politically subordinate association with government, along South Korean lines. O 2005 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Regents of the University of California. Keywords: Business; Elite; Oligarchy; Russia Introduction The Soviet system allowed di? erences of income and private accumulations of wealth. But it did not permit the private ownership of factories and farms, or even of * Corresponding author. Tel. : C44 141 330 5352; fax: C44 141 330 5071. E-mail address: s. [emailprotected] gla. ac. uk (S. White). 967-067X/$ see front matter O 2005 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Regents of the University of California. doi:10. 1016/j. postcomstud. 2005. 06. 002 294 O. Kryshtanovskaya, S. White / Communist and Post-Communist Studies 38 (2005) 293e307 small businesses; living o? the labour of others was ‘exploitation’, and a criminal o? ence . These restrictions were being relaxed even before the end of communist rule, and a central feature of the policies that were followed under Boris Yeltsin after his election as Russia’s ? rst president in the summer of 1991 was the shift of productive resources from the state to private individuals. We must’, Yeltsin insisted, ‘provide economic freedom, lift all barriers to the freedom of enterprises and of entrepreneurship and give people the opportunity to work and to receive as much as they can, casting o? all bureaucratic constraints’ (Yeltsin, 1992: p. 6). In line with these policies, successive programmes of privatisation transferred state property into private hands; income di? erentials widened rapidly; and at the top, a new group of super-rich emerged, whose assets commanded respect not just within Russia itself but internationally. We will write a custom essay sample on Rise of Russian Business Elite specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Rise of Russian Business Elite specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Rise of Russian Business Elite specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer They became known as the ‘oligarchs’, with resources that typically combined banking, sections of industry and the mass media. 1 There were 15 of these wealthy magnates, and every Russian knew their names: Rem Vyakhirev, Boris Berezovsky, Vladimir Gusinsky, Vagit Alekperov, Vladimir Potanin, Mikhail Fridman, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and others. For 3 years, from 1995 to 1998, their power and their ratings rose steadily. Within government itself they had their ‘own’ ministers, o? cials and deputies. Berezovsky claimed personally to have secured the re-election of Boris Yeltsin in 1996 through the media campaign he had sponsored (Financial Times 1 November 1996: p. 17). He was known to be a member of the ‘Family’, the inner group around Yeltsin’s younger daughter who appeared to exercise decisive in? uence in the presidential court. Indeed it began to appear as if the state itself had been ‘privatised’, and that all important decisions were being taken by a small group of ? nancial magnates. It was certainly true that many of the country’s key positions were occupied by creatures of the major corporations, and that Duma parties were ? ling their foreign accounts by pushing through the kind of agreements the oil barons found most advantageous; some even did well out of the Chechen war. Who, asked analysts, really ruled the countrydpoliticians or businessmen? The crisis of August 1998, when Russia defaulted on its international debts and the rouble was in e? ect devalued, had profound e? ects throughout Russian public life, and no less upon its social structure. Some of the oligarchs were ruined (including Vladimir Vinogradov of Inkombank and Alexander Smolensky of SBSAgro); a few withdrew from public life, and others sought refuge abroad. Equally, There is already a considerable literature. In English, see for instance Khlebnikov (2000), Silverman and Yanowitch (2000), Rutland (2001), Ho? man (2002), and de Vries et al. (2004). In Russian, see Kukolev (1995a, b, 1996), Kryshtanovskaya (1996, 2002a, b) (on which we have drawn), Pappe (2000), and Mukhin (2001, 2004). The research that is reported in this paper was assisted by the Economic and Social Research Council under grant R000220127 in association with the Ministry of Defence under grant JGC902. Research on Russian business leaders has been conducted in the Elites Department of the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences on the basis of a consistent methodology since 1993. In each case, an expert survey is used to identify a number of named members of the business elite (in 1993 there were 115 such names, and in 2001 there were 119); in a second stage, the biographies of these entrepreneurs are subjected to a more detailed analysis on the basis of interview as well as published data. 1 O. Kryshtanovskaya, S. White / Communist and Post-Communist Studies 38 (2005) 293e307 295 here were changes in the relationship between government and the business elite, particularly after the election of Vladimir Putin as president in March 2000, as the regime began to pursue a policy of ‘equal distancing’ towards them. Putin, indeed, had promised that any ‘power-hungry’ oligarchs would ‘cease to exist as a class’ (Segodnya 20 March 20 00: p. 1). But what did this mean? The beginning of a struggle by the state with the oligarchy as a whole, or just with individual oligarchs? And did this mean that private business was beginning to play a smaller role in Russian politics, or, on the contrary, that its power had increased? In what follows we look ? rst at the emergence of the business elite, and then at the structural changes that have followed the collapse of the currency. We argue that over the whole period there has been a renegotiation, but not a dissolution, of the interpenetration of business and government that de? nes an oligarchy. Identifying the business elite We de? ne the business elite as the top echelon of entrepreneurs, who thanks to their ? nancial and economic resources have a signi? cant in? uence on the taking of decisions of national importance. The business elite, for our purposes, are a much more restricted group than the country’s major businessmen, including the largest shareholders (and sometimes top managers) of the leading enterprises and banks. The owners of some Russian corporations prefer to keep their distance from politics, although the scale of their business may be very substantial. And there are others for whom politics may be their main activity. Corporations of the ? rst kind can have considerable in? uence on the national economy; corporations of the second type have more in? uence on political decision-makers, and their role in the economy itself may not be signi? ant. In other words, the possession of substantial capital is a necessary but not su? cient criterion for membership of the business elite. 2 At a certain stage in the Russian reforms the business elite could have been regarded as a part of the ruling group of the society, a result not just of the resources they controlled and their degree of in? uence, but also of their origins. The ‘Komsomol economy’ in which the current business elite originated was a creation of the Soviet nomenklatura, which became the basis for the formation of a Russian property-owning class (Mawdsley and White, 2000: pp. 95e299; Martynova, 2001: ch. 4). The relative youth of individual members of the business elite in these early Our de? nition is close to that of other scholars. For the Russian Sociological Dictionary, for instance, the ‘economic elite’ should be understood as the ‘people who control the main ? nancial-economic structures of a country independent of judicial forms of ownership’; they may be divided into the directors of state enterprises, and the ‘business elite’ proper (Osipov, 1998 p. 638). For Ashin and colleagues, the business elite is the ‘top stratum of the entrepreneurial-? ancial group of the society’ (Ashin et al. , 1999: p. 294). Zaslavskaya de? nes à ¢â‚¬Ëœoligarchs’ as ‘not only owners, but also authorised executives and those who hold signi? cant numbers of shares of the major national and international corporations, holdings and industrial-? nancial groups’ (Zaslavskaya, 2004: p. 370). There has been considerable controversy in Russian sociology about de? nitions of this kind: see for instance Toshchenko (1999). 2 296 O. Kryshtanovskaya, S. White / Communist and Post-Communist Studies 38 (2005) 293e307 eform years should not mislead us: the nomenklatura exchanged power for property, without necessarily engaging themselves in commercial activities. For the conduct of business of this kind they recruited younger associates, who were able to make use of government revenues to support their commercial initiatives. These younger associates were recruited from the party’s ‘reserve’, the Komsomol, who represented the lower level of the party-state bureaucracy in the Soviet period. Both before and after the crisis of 1998 there was a fairly substantial group of people who had a noticeable in? ence on public policy, thanks to their ? nancial resources. Their money gave them control of mass communications, the ability to fund election campaigns, assist parties and ‘purchase’ deputies, and to lobby government directly. Russia was not unusual in these respects: in the early twentieth century Michels had already formulated his ‘iron law of oligarchy’ according to which a democracy, in order to preserve itself and achieve a degree of stability, is obliged to separate out a more active minority element, or elite. For this reason, according to Michels (1959: p. 7), democracy inevitably turned into oligarchy. Writing subsequently, Miriam Beard claimed that the opportunity to achieve power was at the same time an opportunity to acquire wealth, since there were no obstacles with society that prevent the rich acquiring power for instance, through their ability to spend at election time (Beard, 1938: p. 166). Oligarchy may be de? ned as a state formation in which the major owners have not only economic power, but also enormous political in? uence. They take part in the formation of government and at the same time receive privileges from government, on which their wellbeing is dependent. An oligarchy is based on the interaction of two elite groups: the political ‘establishment’, which is ? nanced by big business and provide it with access to the most pro? table forms of entrepreneurship, and businessmen themselves. The interpenetration of power and property is expressed in the constant bargaining that takes place between both sets of actors, including the ? ? ? lling of key positions. Businessmen bring their proteges into government, and politicians after their resignation ? nd refuge in private corporations, bringing with them as a form of capital their wide network of contacts. In an oligarchic state the distance between state power and big business is minimal: it is a narrow circle in which everyone knows everyone else (Kryshtanovskaya, 1996). A de? nition of oligarchy of this kind is close but not quite identical to the one that was most widely employed in the Russian press during the 1990s, in which 10e15 businessmen were regularly named in this capacity. Unlike journalists, for whom a situational and individual analysis is important, the social scienti? c approach is a di? erent one: the oligarchy is considered as a social group whose personal composition has no particular signi? ance other than as a basis for constructing the sample to be examined. For these purposes the oligarchy is faceless, and not dependent on the replacement of one name by anotherda Gusinsky, for instance, by an Abramovich. What is at issue is not a list of the individually important, but the social relationship between the two groups who continue to constitute the Russian elite: politicians and businessmen. Accordingly, the downfall of individual oligarchs may represent not the weakening, but the strengthening of the oligarchy as a larger entity. O. Kryshtanovskaya, S. White / Communist and Post-Communist Studies 38 (2005) 293e307 297 The origins of the business elite Russia’s developing bourgeoisie has been the object of close attention over the entire post-communist period (for the use of this term see Gill, 1998). But interest was at its highest point immediately before the August 1998 crisis when it seemed that the country was being run, not by a disorganised elite under the guidance of a decrepit president, but by a small group of nouveau-riche tycoons. These were the ‘real government of Russia’, in the view of the Financial Times (K’eza, 1997: p. 98). The sociologist Tat’yana Zaslavskaya (1997: p. 54) described them as a ‘renewed oligarchy’ made up of the ‘most competent or fortunate members of the nomenklatura’, with no less power and a good deal more wealth than their Soviet predecessors. Just seven of them, according to Berezovsky himself, controlled half of the entire Russian eco nomy (Financial Times 1 November 1996: p. 17). The in? uence of this small group of Moscow businessmen steadily increased at the same time as the state itself began to disintegrate, and the country’s economic position deteriorated further. Russia’s oligarchy received an important stimulus in 1995 when the government decided to give private business the shares of major enterprises in exchange for their ? nancial support (Freeland, 2000). The debt auctions were a Rubicon separating two stages in the formation of the business elite. Up to this point the business elite consisted of ? nanciers who had enormous in? uence in the political world, but their role in the Russian economy was not particularly signi? cant. There was not much incentive to invest in industries that needed extensive modernisation before they could start to yield a pro? . After the Russian government had approved the principle of debt auctions major ? nanciers were able to invest their money more advantageously, strengthening their position in politics and in the economy. In this way, the owners of the banks that were allowed to engage in these activities in the mid-1990s became a group with genuine, rather than virtual economic power. Now their political authority was determined not by their connections in the corridors of power, but also by their real economic weight. The process by which the role of the major businessmen in society increased was clearly re? cted in the ratings of the country’s most in? uential public ? gures that appear regularly in the newspaper Nezavisimaya gazeta, based on expert surveys. The ? rst businessmen appeared in the list in 1996 (see Table 1). By 1997 they had achieved their maximum in? uence, and the leader of the groupdBoris Berezovskydwas regularly identi? ed as one of the country’s half-dozen most powerful individuals. One of the oligarchs, the head of Al’fa Bank Mikhail Fridman, spoke in this sense in an interview in 1997, soon after President Yeltsin had received him and his colleagues in the Kremlin. Imagine’, as he put it, ‘if President Gorbachev had met a businessman or two, it would have been meaningless, because their social status was so di? eren t. Just the fact that the meeting with Yeltsin took place shows how complete is the change in place and role of the business community in our social hierarchy. Now we occupy a very prestigious place’ (interview, 1997). In the ? rst years of their existence the oligarchs were a fairly small and united group, who represented not so much the entrepreneurial class as a whole as their own 298 O. Kryshtanovskaya, S. White / Communist and Post-Communist Studies 38 (2005) 293e307 Table 1 Oligarchs and their in? uence, 1996e2000 1996 1. Berezovsky B. A. 2. Potanin V. O. 3. Vyakhirev R. I. 4. Gusinsky V. A. 5. Khodorkovsky M. B. 6. Alekperov V. Yu. 7. Fridman M. M. 8. Aven P. I. 9. Abramovich R. A. 10. Mamut M. A. 11. Smolensky A. P. 12. Vinogradov V. V. 13. Nevzlin L. B. 14. Yevtushenkov V. No. of oligarchs included Average rating 98 84 e e e e e e e e e e e e 2 91 1997 6 20 13 15 28 25 e e e e 26 55 e e 8 24 1998 4 19 8 15 25 23 59 e e e 31 51 90 e 10 33 1999 5 53 12 19 72 26 94 98 29 e e e e 36 10 44 2000 4 47 7 15 60 26 54 39 5 21 e e e e 10 28 Source: Adapted from data supplied by the Vox Populi agency, as published regularly in Nezavisimaya gazeta; the list shows the place of Russian businessmen within the country’s 100 most in? uential individuals, in descending order of magnitude. narrowly corporate interests. Even their lobbying was directed not so much towards the adoption of laws in which Russian capital as a whole had a signi? cant stake, but towards the receipt of speci? c privileges for their own ? rms. The best known of the ? rst-wave oligarchs attempted not so much to de? ne the political direction of the country as to monitor personnel changes in the government. The idea of the allpowerful nature of the oligarchs in 1995e1996, indeed, was a myth that had been blown up by the media, and their real in? uence on politics was much more limited. The television executive Igor Malashenko, who had joined Yeltsin’s re-election campaign sta? in 1996, insisted later that stories about the ‘incredible power of the oligarchs’ were ‘pure nonsense’, and often encouraged by the oligarchs themselves to exaggerate the in? uence they could command (Nezavisimaya gazeta 3 June 1998: p. 8; Schroder, 1999). But behind the empty newspaper phrases a real process was ? oing on, marking the advance of an entire entrepreneurial class. The oligarchs of 1995e1997 were ambitious and naive. They enriched themselves so quickly that they began to su? er from what Stalin had called the ‘dizziness with success’; in particular, they engaged in open political adventures. They became deputies without any di? culty (which had the welco me advantage that it gave them immunity from prosecution). A few even stood for the presidency in 1991 (manager and banker Martin Shakkum), and again in 1996 (pharmaceuticals magnate Viktor Bryntsalov). But it soon became clear that politics was an expensive game for a business elite that had not yet established its own position, and the frontal attacks of the new Russians were succeeded by attempts to in? uence politics in a more systematic but indirect way. The business elite began to use the media for its purposes, as well as the opposition, trade unions and state o? cials. They started to O. Kryshtanovskaya, S. White / Communist and Post-Communist Studies 38 (2005) 293e307 299 buy insider information so as to use it in their business activities, and to in? ence the taking of particular economic decisions. The ? rst multimillionaires emerged at a time of considerable instability in the country’s power structures, and rose quickly to the very top. They understood all the advantages of their position as businessmen-politicians and played a dangerous game, ? nancing political organisations and the mass media. Their rise coincided with the privatisation of state property and w as accelerated by the re-election of Boris Yeltsin in 1996; afterwards, some of the most prominent oligarchs formed a part of the Kremlin ‘Family’ itself. Pappe, one of the ? rst to study this process, has argued that ‘Up to 1998 all the most powerful economic groupings increased their resources as compared with those available to the power structures’. But from the end of the year and particularly after the August ? nancial crisis the whole process ‘went into reverse’, and soon there was not a single industrial group (with the possible exception of the massive gas corporation Gazprom) that was in a position to in? uence government or even deal with it on equal terms (Pappe, 2000: p. 46). The August crisis and the fall of the oligarchs The August crisis of 1998 and the sudden devaluation of the rouble that accompanied it led to an upheaval in the entire society, including the business elite. Indeed, on our evidence, only 15% of the 1993 business elite had retained their position by 2001. There are several reasons for this far-reaching turnover. In the ? rst place, there had been structural changes in the volatile Russian market. If before 1998 it had been dominated by ? nancial structures (banks, exchanges and investment corporations), after the crisis their role signi? cantly contracted. The speculative sector of the economy was almost destroyed by the August crisis, and did not recover. Goods exchanges, which at one time had ? ourished, disappeared almost entirely, and the number of banks fell sharply. But in the post-crisis period industrial enterprises emerged much more prominently, and they have continued to do so. These changes were re? ected in the composition of the business elite, which came increasingly to consist of entrepreneurs (by 2001 they accounted for as much as 64% of the total). What happened to the 85% of the 1993 business elite who had not retained their position in 2001? According to our evidence, most entrepreneurs who had been members of the 1993 business elite retained their positions in business (52%), but in many cases their scale of activity no longer allowed them to be included in the list of the country’s leading businessmen. Of the remainder, 6% became professional politicians and by 2001 were working full-time in parliament or in government. Nine percent had retired on a pension; these were mostly bankers who had headed commercial, formerly state banks in the early years of economic reform. A further 10% of the 1993 business elite had moved abroad, for the most part in order to protect their personal security, and two had been killed: the head of the Russian Business Round Table Ivan Kivelidi, and the head of the ‘21st Century Association’ Otari Kvantrishvili. 300 O. Kryshtanovskaya, S. White / Communist and Post-Communist Studies 38 (2005) 293e307 There were related changes in the kinds of individuals that composed the business elite. A comparison of the data for 1993 and 2001 makes clear that it has become somewhat younger; its average age fell to 48. years as compared with 51. 8 years in 1993, shortly after the end of communist rule. As before, it is an overwhelminglydindeed exclusivelydmale group. A quarter of the business elite of 2001, fewer than before, came from Moscow or St Petersburg, rather more are from other cities (33%), and even more came from small towns or villages (42%). The reason for the greater provincialism of the business elite is the structural changes that have taken place in its composition; Moscow ? nanciers have to a large extent been replaced by regional industrialists. The occupational and educational background of the business elite has also been changing. In 1993 it was typical to enter business from science as well as industry itself, but by 2001 it was more common to migrate from the state service as well as industry (see Table 2). The entrepreneurs of 2001 were also more educated than their predecessors: just 3% had two degrees in 1993 but now 13% have a second quali? cation, often in law. The social and professional background of the new business elite leaves little doubt that it is still closely connected with the political elite of the Soviet period. Some 29% of the current business elite, for instance, belonged to the Soviet nomenklatura, a ? gure that was actually somewhat higher than it had been 8 years earlier in the immediate aftermath of communist rule. Similar processes have been identi? ed on the basis of survey evidence (Chernysh, 1994; Eyal et al. , 1998). But while the business elite of 1993 were typically of Komsomol origin, now the main source of recruitment of the business elite is government ministries (Table 3). Immediately before they entered the business elite, its members were enterprise directors (25%), state o? ials (20%), employees of private ? rms (27%), sta? from state banks (6%), and others. This was a career progression that was characteristic of the post-communist period. Formerly, the usual retirement destination of a senior public ? gure was the diplomatic service. Now, more often than not, former state o? cials after their retirement become top managers in major corporations. This tendency ? rst made itself apparent in 1992e1993, when a series of members of the government moved to work in commercial structures. They included Petr Aven, who moved from the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations to the Table 2 Origins of the Russian business elite, 1993e2001 Sphere of activity Industry Science Culture and education Study [ ] State banks State service Other (N ) 1993 35 26 15 0 17 0 39 (115) 2001 50 14 4 13 7 16 30 (131) Source: Authors’ data. The totals include all the spheres in which the respective business elite were active; ‘study’ indicates direct entry into the business elite on completion of higher education. O. Kryshtanovskaya, S. White / Communist and Post-Communist Studies 38 (2005) 293e307 Table 3 Nomenklatura origins of the Russian business elite, 1993e2001 (percentages) 1993 No nomenklatura background Nomenklatura background Of which: Komsomol apparatus CPSU apparatus Soviet executives Senior ministerial positions 76 24 11 4 5 10 301 2001 71 29 7 4 5 12 Source: As Table 2. Those with a nomenklatura background in 1993 exceed the total shown as many members of the business elite worked in more than one position of this kind. residency of Al’fa Bank; Maksim Boiko, who left the State Property Commission to become general director of the advertising group Video International; and Viktor Ilyushin, the former head of Yeltsin’s presidential sta? and then a ? rst deputy prime minister, who moved into the state gas monopoly Gazprom. In other movements, Andrei Kozyrev went from the Foreign Ministry to the American company ICN Pharmaceuticals; Petr Mostovoi moved from the Federal Ban kruptcy Service to become ? rst vice-president of the diamond company Alrosa; Alfred Kokh, who had been ? st deputy chairman of the State Property Commission and deputy premier, became head of the Montes Auri company; and Oleg Sysuev, who had been deputy prime minister and before that mayor of Samara, became vice-president of Al’fa Bank. Subsequently the process became a much more general one. Over the entire post-communist period there have been substantial changes in the way in which the country’s leading entrepreneurs have entered business. In 1993e 1995 the most common way of establishing a successful commercial company was the creation by a state o? cial of a ? rm into which he could move directly. We call this process ‘moving chairs’; it was one of the ways in which the former ruling group exchanged their power for property. Instead of the ‘diplomatic exile’ of the Soviet period, a new means of retirement developeddmoving into business. Firms that were set up on this basis soon ? lled up with highly placed retirees. As we were frequently told in our interviews with former party o? cials and the senior sta? of government ministries, only ‘our own people’ were given appointments in ? rms of this kind, which had typically evolved from ministries and government bodies of the Soviet period. The next most common means of exchanging power for property was when a state body delegated the right to conduct commercial activity to its authorised representatives. The leading positions in these companies were then ? lled with young people who were not directly related to the Soviet nomenklatura, or who held only junior positions within it. And ? nally, the third common means of establishing a successful business was the privatisation of former state enterprises. In most cases 3 We rely in this instance on the interviews conducted for our ‘Transformation of the Russian elite’ project between 2000 and 2004 (450 interviews). 02 O. Kryshtanovskaya, S. White / Communist and Post-Communist Studies 38 (2005) 293e307 the enterprise that had become a joint stock company did not change its managers (or did not do so immediately) and the director remained at his post, no longer simply the manager but now the owner of the enterprise over which he presided. In 1993 the most characteristic route into business was through the creation of a ? rm of one’s own by the use of o? cial position (57% of the business elite); by 2001 it was more common for members of the business elite to create their own ? ms through the privatisation of state enterprises (39%). Business and politics After the crisis, not only the business elite had changed: its in? uence upon the political process had also changed. The ‘old’ oligarchs of the Yeltsin period retired into the shadows, yielding their place to a new generation of entrepreneurs. These ‘new Russians’ were more provincial, more closely associated with domestic industry, and not so naively ambitious. The insecurity of the ? rst-wave oligarchs, who had su? ered because of their proximity to the regime, taught them to be cautious. The new oligarchs avoided public life and boasting about their wealth, but sought to establish ? rmer, less conspicuous relations with the authorities at all levels, acting more often than not through intermediaries. The destruction of the media empires of Berezovsky and Gusinsky, both of whom had been forced into exile, made it clear that the post-Yeltsin regime would not allow itself to be blackmailed, and that only groups that cooperated with government would be allowed to acquire important media holdings. The new motto was loyalty. But these changes in the political context did not mean that entrepreneurs withdrew into obscurity. Their in? uence changed in form, but all the same remained signi? cant. It was no longer individual mavericksdthe Borovois, Bryntsalovs and Berezovskysdwho stood out on the political arena, but a series of more shadowy ? gures representing the most powerful corporationsdGazprom, Lukoil, Yukos, Al’fa and so forth. Of the ‘old’ oligarchy, only the Al’fa group were still well represented on the political scene in the early years of the new century; two of its senior managers, for instance, took positions as deputy heads of the presidential administration in 1999 (Vyacheslav Surkov and Sergei Abramov). Al’fa people accounted at this time for an entire contingent of the presidential administration on Old Square in Moscow, where they occupied key positions as high-level consultants or department heads. However, notwithstanding the fact that the personal in? uence of the ? rst-wave oligarchs declined considerably, the role of major businessmen in society tended to increase still further. In Table 4 we set out our evidence for the Yeltsin (1993) and Putin (2001, 2003) leaderships, examining the proportion of key decision-making positions that are held by individuals from the world of big business in each of these periods. In almost every category the proportion of business representatives has increased and across all categories the representation of business more than trebled, reaching a remarkable 20% of government ministers. The minister of fuel and energy, for instance, was a representative of Yukos in 1998e1999 (Sergei Generalov), and was O. Kryshtanovskaya, S. White / Communist and Post-Communist Studies 38 (2005) 293e307 Table 4 Business representation in elite groups (percentages) Top leadership Yeltsin cohort (1993) Putin cohort (2001) Putin cohort (2003) Source: As Table 2. 2. 3 15. 7 9. 1 Duma deputies 12. 8 17. 3 17. Government 0. 0 4. 2 20. 0 Regional elite 2. 6 8. 1 12. 5 303 Overall 4. 4 9. 3 14. 7 a representative of Lukoil in 2000 (Alexander Gavrin). Another ? gure from the Al’fa group, Andrei Popov, was head of the territorial department of the presidential administration, where he served side by side with his Al’fa colleagues Surkov and Abramov. Business in the Russian regions The oligarchy strengthened its position even more considerably in the Russian regions than in the federal centre. The crisis that followed the collapse of the currency in August 1998 a? ected Moscow oligarchs more than their provincial counterparts. The Yeltsin oligarchy collapsed, but in the regions the merger of business and politics continued. The August crisis, in fact, accelerated the process. Ruined Moscow businessmen closed their regional o? ces; in turn, they were taken over by local administrations or by the companies they controlled. There was, in e? ect, a new redistribution of property in 1998e2000. Property was removed from its former owners in exchange for the cancellation of debts, in either of two forms: the return of ownership to the state itself (nationalisation), or the replacement of one private owner by another (reprivatisation). Both of these methods were actively employed by local leaderships throughout the federation. The velvet nationalisation of the post-crisis period took place under the guidance of local authorities. The ? rst experiment of this kind was carried out by Evgenii Mikhailov, governor of Pskov region who introduced a monopoly in the production and wholesale trade of alcohol (Slider, 1999). The ? rst state unitary enterprise ‘Pskovalko’ was established for these purposes. The model proved extremely e? ctive, and over the following year eight more such enterprises were established, including ‘Pskovobllesprom’, ‘Pskovtorf’, ‘Pskovvtorma’ and others. To assist the newly established state enterprises local enterprises were deprived of their productive assets in return for the cancellation of tax arrears. Regional tax inspectors were encouraged to identify as many of these indebted enterprises as possible, and defaulters were forced into bankrup tcy so that their property could be taken over by local state enterprisesdin e? ect, by local administrations. Mikhailov’s actions were so much to the advantage of local elites that his approach was immediately adopted throughout the country, leading to the establishment of large numbers of local monopolies modelled on the national gas and energy monopolies. It was not only local political leaderships that forced Moscow oligarchs out of the regions. Local entrepreneurs who were friendly with or even related to local 304 O. Kryshtanovskaya, S. White / Communist and Post-Communist Studies 38 (2005) 293e307 leaderships were also involved in the process. In Kursk, for instance, overnor Alexander Rutskoi handed the region’s network of chemists’ shops to his elder son Dmitrii, making him the general director of ‘Kurskpharmacy’. The governor’s younger son became a manager of the oil concern ‘Kurskneftekhim’, 49% of which was owned by a Moscow ? rm whose director was the same younger son. The governor’s brothers were also fortunate: the eld er became head of a state-joint stock company ‘Faktor’, and the younger became deputy head of the regional department of public security. The governor’s mother became the cofounder of a local ? m, and his father in law took over responsibility for the region’s cultural a? airs (these details are drawn from the National News Service at http://www. nns. ru). Reprivatisation and the strengthening of the local oligarchy have been taking place in all the Russian regions. It has acquired especially large dimensions in the national republics, where forms of authoritarian rule have become increasingly prominent. In Bashkortostan, to take another example, an entire clan of presidential relatives has come into existence. The president’s son, Ural Rakhimov, was vicepresident of the oil and gas company ‘Bashneftekhim’ in the early years of the new century; a relative of the president’s wife, Azat Kurmanaev, was president of ‘Bashkreditbank’; and the president’s wife, Luisa Rakhimov, held a senior position in the republic’s ministry of foreign relations and trade. The nationalisation of the Bashkir economy was also advancing rapidly, with the establishment of state monopolies in key spheres such as ‘Bashlesprom’ (timber), ‘Bashkirskaya toplivnaya kompaniya’ (fuel) and ‘Bashavtotrans’ (transportation) (http://www. ns. ru). By 2000 the power of regional oligarchs had strengthened to such an extent that they began to expand economically in neighbouring regions. Regional oligarchs began to appear, with interests that spanned several of the subjects of the federation. In this process, new ? nancial and industrial gro ups came into existence that had no connection with the ? rst-wave Moscow oligarchy. A striking example of this type was Aleksei Mordashov, general director of the ‘Severstal’’ joint stock company (based in Cherepovets in the Vologda region), who entered the list of the country’s most in? ential businessmen at the end of the 1990s. The same kind of interregional expansion was being carried out by entrepreneurs from Sverdlovsk and Samara regions, and Bashkortostan. New holding companies on a transregional scale that have emerged in recent years include the Urals mining and metallurgical company, Novolipets metallurgical combine, and the St Petersburg concern ‘New Programmes and Conceptions’. The increasing economic power of regional entrepreneurs was re? ected in their political in? uence. In local elections throughout the country it became apparent that electors preferred to vote for major businessmen, and for the directors of joint stock companies and of the region’s biggest factories. In the elections that took place in the late 1990s representatives of the industrial and ? nancial elite took 80% of seats in the Perm’ region, about 70% in Smolensk region, about 60% in Penza, Tambov and Tomsk regions, and more than half in Belgorod, Leningrad, Nizhnii Novgorod, Omsk, Rostov and Stavropol’ regions, and in Primorskii territory. The average, across all the regions that held their elections between 1995 and 1997, was 43% (calculated from Vybory, 1998). An increase in the political role of local oligarchs led O. Kryshtanovskaya, S. White / Communist and Post-Communist Studies 38 (2005) 293e307 305 at the same time to a fall in the electoral role of civil society. The more oligarchs and o? cials in local legislatures, the fewer teachers, doctors and farmers. The election of representatives of the ? ancial-industrial elite to representative institutions of this kind demonstrates that the tendency for regional capital and government to merge has become increasingly powerful. The increase in the in? uence of ? nancial-industrial circles in Russian towns and cities is paralleled by the increasing in? uence of state-farm directors in the countryside. As a result, in all regional legislatures the directors of joint stock companies, and of unitary enterprises, banks and other commercial structures, have become the dom inant force. New entrepreneurs, within this general tendency, have themselves become more numerous, squeezing out longer-established factory managers throughout the regions and especially where relatively large numbers of local enterprises are in ? nancial di? culty. Owners and managers, according to local legislation, are allowed to combine their entrepreneurial activities provided their representative duties are carried out on a part-time basis. In this way, they have obtained a series of legislative and supervisory prerogatives but at the same time been relieved of the burdens of full-time legislative duties. The increasing in? uence of business on regional politics is also apparent in the formation of local administrations. With every year, for instance, the number of businessmen-governors increases. The ‘? rst swallow’ was Kalmykia, where the wellknown entrepreneur Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was elected president as early as 1993. In 1996 three local oligarchs became governors: Yuri Evdokimov in Murmansk (where he had represented the interests of the Moscow mayor’s group ‘Sistema’), Leonid Gorbenko in Kaliningrad, and Vladimir Butov in the Nenets autonomous region. The elections of 2000e2001 added several more, including heads of the most important local enterprises: in Chukotka the head of Sibneft’ and owner of Chelsea Football Club, Roman Abramovich (in 2000); in Taimyr the head of Noril’sk Nickel, Alexander Khloponin (elected in 2001 and then a year later as governor of Krasnoyarsk territory); and in Evenki Boris Zolotarev, head of development at the oil giant ‘Yukos’ (in 2001). In Krasnodar territory, the Koryak autonomous district and Primor’e local oligarchs had further successes: Alexander Tkachev, Vladimir Loginov (December 2000) and Sergei Dar’kin (in 2001). In early 2002 there were two further successes of this kind, Vyacheslav Shtyrov won in Sakha (Yakutia), and Hazret Sovmen in Adygeya. As a result of these changes, 12 Russian regions (or nearly 14% of the total) are today headed by major businessmen. Conclusions Several new tendencies in the development of the Russian business elite had become apparent by the early years of the new century. 1. Powerful ? nancial-industrial groups have begun to appear that are based not in Moscow but in the Russian provinces, and which are furthering the process of inter-regional integration. At the same time the transfer of the business and 306 O. Kryshtanovskaya, S. White / Communist and Post-Communist Studies 38 (2005) 293e307 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. political activities of the business elite from the capital to the regions has been accompanied by an increase in the role of the state, which has taken steps to restore its control over political and economic life. The strengthening of the state has placed tighter limits on the business elite and restricted its freedom of activity, which has led to a reduction in its direct in? ence on the political process. This relates particularly to personnel matters, where the state has taken back the role of principal decision-maker, and to the mass media. By the early years of the new century the business elite were making fewer attempts to impose their own preferences upon government ‘from outside’, but were engaged in a process of interaction with all levels of government in which they could introduce their own priorities as issues were formulated and decisions were taken. From 1998 onwards there has been a further exclusion of Moscow capital from the regions and an increase in the concentration of power at the regional level. At the same time in a series of the republics the fusion of business and government has advanced even further, as has the formation of local oligarchies. Sometimes this process has assumed autocratic forms in which big business in a region has come under the absolute control not of the state, but of its leading o? cials, who have formed ? ancial-industrial clans enjoying an e? ective monopoly of political power. The interests of big business have changed. If before they were simply connected with privileges for their companies, now with the increase in the scale of their operation they have begun to press their views in relation to the regulation of the economy as a whole. This has led to an increase in the economic in? uence of private business, which has to some extent compensated for their loss of political in? uence. With the coming to power of Vladimir Putin in 2000 private entrepreneurs have begun to be excluded from the main electronic media. The destruction of the media holdings of Gusinsky and Berezovsky, and the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky in late 2003, were intended to show ‘who’s boss’. The new regime made it clear it would not be blackmailed, as Boris Yeltsin had been; and formerly oppositional media were entrusted to groups that had shown their loyalty. In the period after the August 1998 crisis big business became a refuge for many retired politicians, with a substantial out? w of senior o? cials, ministers and civil servants into the managerial ranks of the major companies. Putin’s declared policy of ‘equal distancing’ for the oligarchs means a choice: either to support the regime in all its undertakings, or retire to the sidelines. No longer can Russia’s business elite establish their own parties and engage in open criticism of the go vernment. The new regime is engaged in restoring state power, after a period in which it had been privatised by o? cials and businessmen. In this new social order there is no place for opposition, unpredictable elections, or insubordinate nouveaux riches; rather, the preferred model is analogous to the cheibols in South Koreadenormous economic conglomerates whose activity is closely regulated. The further concentration of capital in the hands of 20e25 ? nancial-industrial groups that are completely loyal to the state appears to be the economic project of the Putin regime as it moves into its second and ? nal term of o? ce. O. Kryshtanovskaya, S. White / Communist and Post-Communist Studies 38 (2005) 293e307 307 References Ashin, G. K. , Ponedelkov, A. V. , Ignatov, V. G. , Starostin, A. M. , 1999. Osnovy Politicheskoi Elitologii. Prior, Moscow. Beard, M. , 1938. A History of the Business Man. Macmillan, New York. Chernysh, M. F. , 1994. Sotsial’naya mobil’nost’v 1986e1993 godakh. Sotsiologicheskii Zhurnal 2, 130e133. Eyal, G. , Szelenyi, I. , Townsley, E. , 1998. Making Capitalism without Capitalists: Class Formation and Elite Struggles in Post-Communist Central Europe. Verso, London. Freeland, C. , 2000. Sale of the Century. Little, Brown, London. Gill, G. , 1998. Democratization, the bourgeoisie and Russia. Government and Opposition 33 (3), 307e329. Ho? an, D. E. , 2002. The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia. Public A? airs, New York. K’eza, D. , 1997. Proshchai, Rossiya! Geya, Moscow. Khlebnikov, P. , 2000. Godfather of the Kremlin: Boris Berezovsky and the Looting of Russia. Harcourt, New York. Kukolev, I. V. , 1995a. Formirovanie rossiiskoi biznes-elity. Sotsiologicheskii Zhurnal 3, 159 e169. Kukolev, I. V. , 1995b. Sovremennaya biznes-elita Rossii. Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta, ser. 18: Sotsiologiya i Politologiya 4, 12e22. Kukolev, I. V. , 1996. Formirovanie biznes-elity. Obshchestvennye Nauki i Sovremennost’ 2, 12e23. Kryshtanovskaya, O. V. , 1996. Finansovaya oligarkhiya Rossii. Izvestiya 10 January, 5. Kryshtanovskaya, O. V. , 2002a. Biznes-elita i oligarkhi: itogi desyatiletiya. Mir Rossii 4, 3e60. Kryshtanovskaya, O. V. , 2002b. Transformatsiya biznes-elity Rossii: 1998e2002. Sotsiologicheskie Issledovaniya 8, 17e29. Martynova, M. Yu. , 2001. Politicheskaya elita Rossii na Rubezhe Vekov. Pomorskii Gosudarstvennyi Universitet, Archangel. Mawdsley, E. , White, S. , 2000. The Soviet Political Elite from Lenin to Gorbachev: The Central Committee and its Members, 1917e1991. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Michels, R. , 1959. Political Parties. Dover, New York. Mukhin, A. A. , 2001. Biznes-elita i Gosudarstvennaya vlast’. Gnom i D, Moscow. Mukhin, A. A. , 2004. ‘‘Osobaya Papka’’ Vladimira Putina. Itogi Pervogo Prezidentskogo Sroka i Otnosheniya s Krupnymi Sobstvennikami. Tsentr Politicheskoi Informatsii, Moscow. Osipov, G. V. (Ed. ), 1998. Rossiiskii Sotsiologicheskii Slovar’. Norma, Moscow. Pappe, Ya. Sh. , 2000. ‘Oligarkhi’: Ekonomicheskaya Khronika, 1992e2000. Vysshaya Shkola Ekonomiki, Moscow. Rutland, P. (Ed. ), 2001. Business and State in Contemporary Russia. Westview, Boulder, CO. Schroder, H. -H. , 1999. El’tsin and the oligarchs: the role of ? ancial groups in Russian politics between ? 1993 and July 1998. Europe-Asia Studies 51 (6), 957e988. Silverman, B. , Yanowitch, M. , 2000. New Rich, New Poor, New Russia: Winners and Losers on the Russian Road to Capitalism, expanded ed. Sharpe, Armonk NY. Slider, D. , 1999. Pskov under the LDPR: elections and dysfun ctional federalism in one region. EuropeAsia Studies 51 (5), 755e767. Toshchenko, Zh. T. , 1999. Elita? Klany? Kasty? Kliki? Kak nazvat’ tekh, kto pravit nami? Sotsiologicheskie Issledovaniya 11, 123e133. Vybory, 1998. Vybory v Zakonodatel’nye (Predstavitel’nye) Organy Gosudarstvennoi Vlasti Sub’’ektov Rossiiskoi Federatsii. 995e1997. Ves’ mir, Moscow. de Vries, M. K. , Shekshnia, S. , Korotov, K. , Florent-Treacy, E. , 2004. The New Russian Business Leaders. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. Yeltsin, B. , 1992. ‘Vystuplenie’, (Vneocherednoi) S’’ezd Narodnykh Deputatov RSFSR 10e17 Iyunya, 28 Oktyabrya-2 Noyabrya 1991 Goda: Stenogra? cheskii Otchet 3 vols, vol. 2. Respublika, Moscow, pp. 4e30. Zaslavskaya, T. I. , 1997. Problema demokraticheskoi pereorientatsii ekonomiki sovremennoi Rossii. Obshchestvo i Ekonomika 1e2, 51e57. Zaslavskaya, T. I. , 2004. Sovremennoe Rossiiskoe Obshchestvo: Sotsial’nyi Mekhanizm Transfo rmatsii. Delo, Moscow.

Background information about waste disposal practices Essays

Background information about waste disposal practices Essays Background information about waste disposal practices Paper Background information about waste disposal practices Paper A primary objective of waste management today is to protect the public and the environment from potentially harmful effects of waste. Some waste materials are normally safe, but can become hazardous if not managed properly. For example, 1 gal (3. 75 1) of used motor oil can potentially contaminate one million gal (3,790,000 1) of drinking water . Every individual, business, or organization must make decisions and take some responsibility regarding the management of his or her waste. On a larger scale, government agencies at the local, state, and federal levels enact and enforce regulations governing waste management. These agencies also educate the public about proper waste management. In addition, local government agencies may provide disposal or recycling services, or they may hire or authorize private companies to perform those functions. Throughout history, there have been four basic methods of managing waste: dumping it, burning it, finding another use for it (reuse and recycling), and not creating the waste in the first place (waste prevention). How those four methods are utilized depends on the wastes being managed. Municipal solid waste is different from industrial, agricultural, or mining waste. Hazardous waste is a category that should be anteed separately, although it sometimes is generated with the other types. The first humans did not worry much about waste management. They simply left their garbage where it dropped. However, as permanent communities developed, people began to dispose of their waste in designated dumping areas. The use of such open dumps for garbage is still common in many parts of the world. Open dumps have major disadvantages, however, especially in heavily populated areas. Toxic chemicals can filter down through a dump and contaminate groundwater . The liquid that filters through a dump or landfill is called leached. Dumps may also generate methane, a flammable and explosive gas produced when organic wastes decompose under anaerobic (oxygen-poor) conditions. The landfill, also known as the sanitary landfill, was invented in England in the 1 sass. Ata landfill, the garbage is compacted and covered at the end of every day with several inches of soil . Landfill became common in the united States in the sass. By the late sass, it was the dominant method for disposing municipal solid waste in the nation. Early landfills had significant problems with leached and methane, but those have largely been resolved at facilities built since about he early 1 sass. Well-engineered landfills are lined with several feet of clay and with thick plastic sheets. Leached is collected at the bottom, drained through pipes, and processed. Methane gas is also safely piped out of many landfills. The dumping of waste does not just take place on land. Ocean dumping, in which barges carry garbage out to sea, was once used as a disposal method by some United States coastal cities and is still practiced by some nations. Sewage sludge, or waste material from sewage treatment, was dumped at sea in huge quantities by New York City as recently as 1 992, but his is now prohibited in the United States. Also called bossily, sewage sludge is not generally considered solid waste, but it is sometimes composted with organic municipal solid waste. Burning has a long history in municipal solid waste management. Some American cities began to burn their garbage in the late nineteenth century in devices called crematory. These Were not very efficient, however, and cities went back to dumping and other methods. In the 1 sass and sass, many cities built new types of more-efficient garbage burners known as incinerators. The early incinerators were rather dirty in arms of their emissions of air pollutants, and beginning in the sass they were gradually shut down. However, in the 1 9705, waste burning enjoyed another revival. These newer incinerators, many of which are still in operation, are called resource recovery or waste-to-energy plants. In addition to burning garbage, they produce heat or electricity that can be used in nearby buildings or residences, or sold to a utility. Many local governments became interested in waste-to-energy plants following the energy crisis in 1973. However, since the mid-1 sass, it became difficult to find locations to lid these facilities, mainly because of public opposition focused on air- quality issues. Another problem with incineration is that it generates ash, which must be landfill. Incinerators usually reduce the volume of garbage by 70-90%. The remainder of the incinerated waste comes out as ash that often contains high concentrations of toxic substances. Municipal solid waste will likely always be landfill or burned to some extent. In the past 25 years, however, non-disposal methods such as waste prevention and recycling have become more common. Because of public concerns and the high costs of entangling and burning (especially to build new facilities), local governments want to reduce the amount of waste that must be disposed in these ways. Municipal solid waste is a relatively small part of the overall waste generated in the United States. More than 95% of the total 4. 5 billion tons of solid waste generated in the United States each year is agricultural, mining, or industrial waste. These wastes do not receive nearly as much attention as municipal solid waste, because most people do not have direct experience with them. Also, agricultural and mining wastes, which make up 88% of the overall total f solid waste, are largely handled at the places they are generated, that is, in the fields or at remote mining sites. Mining nearly always generates substantial waste, whether the material being mined is coal , clay, sand , gravel, building stone, or metallic ore. Early mining concentrated on the richest lodes of minerals . Because modern methods of mining are more efficient, they can extract the desired minerals from veins that are less rich. However, much more waste is produced in the process. Many of the plant and animal wastes generated by agriculture remain in the fields or rangelands. These wastes can be beneficial because they return organic matter and nutrients to the soil. However, modern techniques of raising large numbers of animals in small areas generate huge volumes of animal waste, or manure. Waste in such concentrated quantities must be managed carefully, or it can contaminate groundwater or surface water. Industrial wastes that are not hazardous have traditionally been sent to landfills or incinerators. The rising cost of disposal has prompted many companies to seek alternative methods for handling these Wastes, such as Waste prevention and recycling. Often a manufacturing plant can reclaim certain east materials by feeding them back into the production process. Hazardous wastes are materials considered harmful or potentially harmful to human health or the environment. Wastes may be deemed hazardous because they are poisonous, flammable, or corrosive, or because they react with other substances in a dangerous way. Industrial operations have produced large quantities of hazardous waste for hundreds of years. Some hazardous wastes, such as mercury and dioxins, may be released as gases or vapors. Many hazardous industrial wastes are in liquid form. One of the greatest risks is that these wastes will contaminate water supplies. An estimated 60% of all hazardous industrial waste in the United States is disposed using a method called deep-well injection. With this technique, liquid wastes are injected through a well into an impervious reconfirmation that keeps the waste isolated from groundwater and surface water. Other methods of underground burial are also used to dispose hazardous industrial waste and other types of dangerous material. Pesticides used in farming may contaminate agricultural waste. Because of the enormous volumes of pesticides used in agriculture, the proper handling of unused pesticides is a daunting challenge for waste managers. Certain mining techniques also utilize toxic chemicals. Piles of mining and metal-processing waste, known as waste rock and tailings, may contain hazardous substances. Because of a reaction with the oxygen in the air, large amounts of toxic acids may form in waste rock and tailings and leach into surface waters. Public attitudes also play a pivotal role in decisions about waste management. Virtually every proposed new landfill or waste-to-energy plant is opposed by people who live near the site. Public officials and planners refer to this reaction as NIMBI, which stands for Not In My Backyard If an opposition group becomes vocal r powerful enough, a city or county council is not likely to approve a proposed waste-disposal project. The public also wields considerable influence with businesses. Recycling and waste prevention initiatives enjoy strong public support. About 19% of United States municipal solid waste was recycled or composted in 1 994, was incinerated, and 71 % was landfill. Preventing or reducing waste is typically the least expensive method for managing waste. Waste prevention may also reduce the amount of resources needed to manufacture or package a product. For example, most roll-on deodorants once came in a plastic bottle, which was inside a box. Beginning about 1 992, deodorant manufacturers redesigned the bottle so that it would not tip-over easily on store shelves, which eliminated the need for the box as packaging. This is the type of waste prevention called source reduction. It can save businesses money, while also reducing waste. Waste prevention includes many different practices that result in using fewer materials or products, or using materials that are less toxic. For example, a chain of clothing stores can ship its products to its Stores in reusable garment bags, instead of disposable lactic bags. Manufacturers of household batteries can reduce the amount of mercury in their batteries. In an office, employees can copy documents on both sides of a sheet of paper, instead of just one side. A family can use cloth instead of paper napkins. Composting grass clippings and tree leaves at home, rather than having them picked up for disposal or municipal composting, is another form of waste prevention. A resident can leave grass clippings on the lawn after mowing (this is known as grass-cycling), or can compost leaves and grass in a backyard composting bin, or use them as a mulch in the garden. When the current recycling boom began in the late sass, markets for the recyclables were not sufficiently considered. A result was that some recyclable materials were collected in large quantities but could not be sold, and some ended up going to landfills. Today, the development of recycling markets is a high priority. Close the loop is a catch-phrase in recycling education; it means that true recycling (I. E. , the recycling loop) has not taken place until the new product is purchased and used. To boost recycling markets, many local and state governments now require that their own agencies purchase and use products made from cycled materials. In a major step Fontana for recycling, President Bill Cloudiness an executive order in 1993 requiring the federal government to use more recycled products. Many managers of government recycling programs feel that manufacturers should take more responsibility for the disposal of their products and packaging rather than letting municipalities bear the brunt of the disposal costs. An innovative and controversial law in Germany requires manufacturers to set up collection and recycling programs for disused packaging of their products. The high cost of government-created recycling programs is often criticized. Supporters of recycling argue it is still less expensive than landfill or incineration, when all costs are considered. Another concern about recycling is that the recycling process itself may generate hazardous wastes that must be treated and disposed. Recycling of construction and demolition (CD) debris is one of the growth areas for recycling. Although CD debris is not normally considered a type of municipal solid waste, millions of tons of it have gone to municipal landfills over the years. If this material is separated at the construction or demolition site into separate piles of concrete, wood, and steel, it can usually e recycled. Composting is considered either a form of recycling, or a close relative. Composting occurs when organic waste-? such as yard waste, food waste, and paper-?is broken down by microbial processes. The resulting material, known as compost, can be used by landscapers and gardeners to improve the fertility of their soil. Yard waste, primarily grass clippings and tree leaves, makes up about one-fifth of the weight of municipal solid waste. Some states do not allow this waste to be disposed. These yard-waste bans have resulted in rapid growth for municipal composting programs. In these orgasm, yard waste is collected by trucks (separately from garbage and recyclables) and taken to a composting plant, where it is chopped up, heaped, and regularly turned until it becomes compost. Waste from food-processing plants and produce trimmings from grocery stores are composted in some parts of the country. Residential food waste is the next frontier for composting. The city of Halifax, in Canada, collects food waste from households and composts it in large, central facilities. Biological treatment, a technique for handling hazardous wastes, could be called a high-tech form of composting. Like composting biological treatment employs microbes to break down wastes through a series of metabolic reactions. Many substances that are toxic, carcinogenic (cancer-causing), or undesirable in the environment for other reasons can be rendered harmless through this method. Extensive research on biological treatment is in progress. Genetic engineering, a controversial branch of biology dealing with the modification of genetic codes, is closely linked with biological treatment, and could produce significant advances in this field. Waste management became a particularly expensive proposition during the 1 9905, especially for disposal. Consequently, waste managers constantly seek innovations that will improve efficiency and reduce costs. Several new ideas in land-filling involve the reclamation of useful resources from wastes. For example, instead of just burning or releasing the methane gas that is generated within solid-waste landfills, some operators collect this gas, and then use it to produce power locally or sell it as fuel. At a few landfills, managers have experimented with a bold but relatively untested concept known as landfill mining. This involves digging up an existing landfill to recover recyclable materials, and sometimes o re-bury the garbage more efficiently. Landfill mining has been criticized as costly and impractical, but some operators believe it can save money under certain circumstances. In the high-tech world of incineration, new designs and concepts are constantly being tried. One waste-to-energy technology for solid waste being introduced to the United States is called fluoride-bed incineration. About 40% of incinerators in Japan use this technology, which is designed to have lower emissions of some air pollutants than conventional incinerators. A 1 994 United States Supreme Court ruling could increase the cost of incineration significantly. The Court ruled that some ash produced by municipal solid-waste incinerators must be treated as a hazardous waste, because of high levels of toxic substances such as lead and cadmium. This means that incinerator ash now has to be tested, and part or all of the material may have to go to a hazardous waste landfill rather than a standard landfill. A much smaller type of incinerator is used at many hospitals to burn medical wastes, such as blood, surgical waste, syringes, and laboratory waste. The safety of these medical waste incinerators has become a major issue in some communities. A study by the Environmental Protection Agency released n 1 994 found that medical waste incinerators were leading sources of dioxin emissions into the air. The same study warned that dioxins, which can be formed by the burning of certain chemical compounds, pose a high risk of causing cancer and other health hazards in humans. The greatest impetus for waste prevention will likely come from the public. More and more citizens will come to understand that pesticides, excessive packaging, and the use of disposable rather than durable items have important environmental costs. Through the growth of the information society, knowledge about these and other environmental issues will increase. This should result in a continuing evolution towards more efficient and environmentally sensitive waste management. Waste management is the collection, transport, processing or disposal, managing and monitoring of waste materials. The term usually relates to materials produced by human activity, and the process is generally undertaken to reduce their effect on health, the environment or aesthetics. Waste management is a distinct practice from resource recovery which focuses on delaying the rate of consumption of natural resources. All waste materials, whether they are solid, liquid, gaseous or radioactive fall within the emit of waste management. Waste management practices can differ for developed and developing nations, for urban and rural areas, and for residential and industrial producers. Management of non-hazardous waste residential and institutional waste in metropolitan areas is usually the responsibility of local superconductivitys, while management for non- hazardous commercial and industrial waste is usually the responsibility of the generator subject to local, national or international authorities. Waste collection methods vary widely among different countries and regions. Domestic waste collection services are often provided by local government authorities, or by private companies in the industry. Some areas, especially those in less developed countries, do not have a formal waste-collection system. Examples of waste handling systems include: In Europe and a few other places around the world, a few communities use a proprietary collection system known as Invade, which conveys refuse via underground conduits using a vacuum system. Other vacuum-based solutions include the [emailprotected] [3] single-line and ring-line automatic waste collection system, here the waste is automatically collected through relatively small diameter flexible pipes from waste collection points spread out up to a distance of four kilometers from the waste collections stations. In Canadian urban centers curbside collection is the most common method of disposal, whereby the city collects waste and/or recyclables and/or organics on a scheduled basis. In rural areas people often dispose of their waste by hauling it to a transfer station. Waste collected is then transported to a regional landfill. In China, Plastic paralysis or Tire paralysis is: the process of converting waste lactic/tires into industrial fuels like paralysis oil, carbon black and hydrocarbon gas. End products are used as industrial fuels for producing heat, steam or electricity. Paralysis plant is also known as: paralysis unit, plastic to fuel industry, tire to fuel industry, plastic and tire recycling unit etc. The system is used in USA California, Australia, Greece, Mexico, the united Kingdom and in Israel-For example, REESE paralysis plant that has been operational at Texas USA since December 2011, and processes up to 60 tons per day. [J In Taipei, the city government charges its households and industries for the volume of rubbish they produce. Waste will only be collected by the city council if waste is disposed in government issued rubbish bags. This policy has successfully reduced the amount of waste the city produces and increased the recycling rate. In Israel, the Arrow Ecology company has developed the Aerobic system, which takes trash directly from collection trucks and separates organic and inorganic materials through gravitational settling, screening, and hydro-mechanical shredding. The system is capable of sorting huge volumes of solid waste, salvaging recyclables, and running the rest into biogas and rich agricultural compost.

Barclays Dark Pool Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Barclays Dark Pool - Essay Example Another lesson that can be learned is the importance of transparency and accountability in a company. Fraudulent activities can last for a while but in the long run they always get detected. Failure of an organization to be transparent can be costly in terms of finances and reputation. The case for instance discouraged retail investors from investing in the company due to the tainted reputation. Broker dealers such as Royal Bank of Canada, Deutsche Bank and Investment Technology Group cut ties with the company’s dark pool system (McCrank and Slater 1). This already is an indication that the company will incur significant losses. Having the best interests of customers at heart is very important for a company. This is yet another lesson to learn. According to the case, Barclays deceived its customers that they would be protected against high-frequency traders while in a real sense the traders were being favoured (McCrank and Slater 1). Breach of trust is a costly endeavour as witnessed in the case. Ethical breaches are also costly based on the fact that some employees were fired after the case implicated some individuals. McCrank, John and Steve Slater. â€Å"New York attorney general accuses Barclays of dark pool fraud.† Reuters.com. Web 17 April 2015.

Visiting Bestbuy or Futureshop Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Visiting Bestbuy or Futureshop - Term Paper Example To maintain a good image, both to the customers and shareholders, a proper and good customer service should be enhanced. It also helps increase the profit margins because, in marketing, a good publicity would mean more customers visiting the retail outlet. The poor customer service was clearly exhibited by the longer and slower queues and the larger number of frustrated customers that left the enterprise. Less information was being offered by the store staffers, much to the dissatisfaction of the customers who came in with the aim of picking up their merchandise. Loss of customers: loss of customer is one of the obvious consequences of the problem. It is created by the negative feelings developed by customers as a result of the actions of most of the employees, in blue shirts, mandated to assist them while making their purchases. Most of these customers ending up with lots of frustration would consider other retail outlets who would offer similar services, but with better customer service. Reduction in the profit margins: Once the retail outlets loose the customers, less of their goods would be sold. This reduces the turnover of the business and, as a result, the profits obtained from the sale of such goods and services. Obsolete inventory: Loss of business customers would lead to the creation of a non-moving stock rendering most of the products obsolete. As with most of the electronic products; newer inventions are created more often and so when quite a number of the corresponding products are not sold in good time, they are rendered obsolete and results into more losses. Obsolete inventory, on the other hand, is always a warning sign to most would be investors, and in most cases bring to the fore poor inventory management. Other factors of importance too, that would lead to the failure of the store would be their layouts and selling policies. Instead of stocking a lot of

The spinners investigation Essay Example for Free

The spinners investigation Essay The prediction for this investigation is the shorter the wingspan of the spinner the faster it will fall the 2. 59m to the floor. I think this because with shortening the wingspan Im making the surface area smaller this means less air resistance acting upon it when it is falling. There will be an unbalanced force because gravity will always be the same but the air resistance will get smaller with every half centimetre I cut off, so there will be less area for the air resistance to act upon. The apparatus you need for this experiment are the following things: A paper spinner. A paperclip (to give the spinner some weight) A table to which you can stand on to hold the spinner to the height of 2. 59m (the ceiling) A stop clock A table to record the results (the results are the times taken to reach the floor) In order to make the investigation fair: You will only change the length of the wing span because that is the variable you are using; changing anything else would mean the experiment would be corrupted. The things you have to keep the same are the spinner; you will use the same spinner throughout the experiment. Keep the height the same too. In this investigation you have to count the time taken for the spinner to fall the 2. 59m to the floor from the ceiling and measure the length of the spinner since you change that yourself. When you drop the spinner you take the time taken for it to land using a stop clock, you do this three times and take an average. You can get an exact time taken for it to fall but the stop clock is the best instrument for the job as far as I can decide. The safety issues are important, like when you have to stand on the table to reach the ceiling you should make sure your shoes are suitable and dont have too big a heel. My preliminary work consisted of doing work on unbalanced forces this helped me to come to my prediction about how there would be an unbalanced force acting on the spinner because there would be less air resistance the less surface area there was to act upon. The Method The detailed plan is: To carry out this investigation you would have to do the following: First, you would have to make the spinner, you can make it however you want but there is a spinner for example overleaf. Add a paperclip to give it a little weight. Once the spinner is made you would have to make yourself a results table to fill in. Then you stand on something secure and hold the spinner to the ceiling and have someone ready with a stop clock to press the start button at the precise moment the spinner is dropped from the ceiling and stop the clock once the spinner has reached the floor. As this isnt completely accurate do this three times for every time you change the variable (the wing span). So every time you cut off the half centimetre off the wings (both sides) you should do the particular experiment three times over and find the average. Results Wing Length (cm). Time Taken (s) Time Taken (s) Time Taken (s) Time Taken (s) 1st Time 2nd Time 3rd Time Average   An observation I made during this experiment was when the wingspan got to only 4cm long the amount of air resistance was too small compared to the greater amount of gravity to make the spinner spin and reach a constant speed, it just ended up falling straight to the floor. I didnt change anything through out my investigation. Below is a bar chart of my results and over the page are my results as a line graph. The y-axis is the time taken for the spinner to reach the floor (in seconds) and the x-axis is the length in (centimetres). I have found out through doing this experiment that the smaller the surface area is the quicker something will fall to the floor, this is because the force of gravity doesnt change but as air resistance relies on the surface area and changes to suit the area. If the area is small then the air resistance too is small and if the area is large then the air resistance too is large. This means when the wingspan is smaller the area of the spinner is smaller and with that the air resistance is smaller, smaller than the force of gravity. So if gravity is the larger of the two forces it will pull the spinner to the floor faster and faster as the air resistance gets smaller and smaller. Thats what this investigation has proved. The majority pattern throughout my results is that of, as the surface area of the spinner gets smaller the time taken to reach the floor decreases too. My results and what I have found out match the prediction I made at the beginning before the experiment had been carried out. Evaluation My results or anyone elses can not be 100% accurate because there is always going to be a time delay from when you see the spinner being dropped and when your brain tells your fingers to begin the stop clock. I think I took enough results as I came up with the answer I was looking for and knew was right, but I dont think it would have done much harm doing more results though, but I dont think it would have been necessary to do more. I could have maybe made the range of changing the variable bigger and then do more measurement but then I would have to have made a larger spinner. There was one result that didnt fit into the pattern but I didnt worry too much about it as I had the 2nd and 3rd result to make sure the average wasnt messed up. Also I believe it was just the slow reactions of my partner, starting the stop clock too late after I had dropped the spinner. If I was to repeat this experiment again I would probably try and get a higher height to drop my spinner from I think that would probably improve my results the measurements wouldnt be so small if the height was bigger and that way the graphs would look better and be easier to read. I could also try making spinners out of different materials and see if that affects the time taken to reach the floor any differently.