Business

Global  world governance is regarded as the political relations of multinational players aimed at reaching optimal solutions for problems facing more than one region, state or nation. These solutions are usually suggested or imposed in such regions that that do not have the power or ability to effectively enforce compliance. Due to the increasing effects of globalisation and interdependences on an international scale, global governance sets the rules and regulations anticipated for the global level.

The rationale for global governance is to control the individual power of nations and thus facilitate a collective influence and weight on the globes destiny through the establishment of a proper structure and guidelines that may be used in the regulation of international relations that extend beyond the broad horizons of state action. The establishment of world governance is also founded on the existing difficulties encountered in an attempt to attain equal development rate on a world scale.

Global governance should not be perceived as world government at any given instant. If the was a global government in place, then world governance could not be necessary. This is so because a single world government could adopt the frameworks of an ordinary domestic government in dealing with many governance issues. This is in itself contrary to the definition of global governance which prohibits the application of force, as enjoyed by domestic governments in its operations.

The primary objective for this essay is to discuss in details the various principles and issues concerning global governance and globalisation. The factors that justify the establishment of global  world governance shall be briefly discussed. Finally, the several measures put in place by various world governments so as to cope with the global economic crisis.

Justifications for Global Governance
Global governance should be perceived as a purely consultative and commutative process that may be used in international conflict resolution and not an optimal system that enforces the laws of the land by use of any available means, whether force or diplomatic channels in averting crisis. A key factor that has led to the establishment of world governance is the ever increasing nature of global problems and challenges. A common example of the global challenges is the threats posed on the environment by many factors such as industrialization, deforestation etc. such challenges call for collective response and corrective measures at the global level to deal with the global crisis.

There is also a need to refer to global governance due to the endurance and heterogeneity of communal preferences regardless of the forces of globalisation. A good example of this factor is portrayed by the Europeans and Americans, who have failed to find a common ground in regard to the separation between the private and public spheres, demand for redeployments, lenience for inequalities, and attitudes to risk among other aspects.

Lastly, the increasing rates and levels of world civic awareness is also a factor that justifies the establishment of global governance. This is despite the fact that worldwide civic awareness is against the spirit of globalisation. Over the years, many organizations and civil movements have taken the initiative to bring forth several debates at international levels. Despite the many challenges facing such initiatives, this trend is demonstrably a reasonable response to the growing importance of global governance issues.

Effects of Globalisation on Global Governance
In order to understand and fully internalize the effects of globalisation on global governance, we need to start by defining globalisation. According to Pascal Lamy, the then Director General of the World Trade Organisation, globalisation is defined as the increasing interdependence of everyone on earth. This is achieved when the gap is closed between the objects, business activities, political and scientific concepts, among other activities geographically apart. Globalisation has been made possible through the adoption of modern information and communication technology (Lamy, 2005). Globalisation has been accompanied by several positive and negative effects by enabling corporations, businesses, nation-states and individuals to explore the world further in a more faster and efficient way than before (Lamy, 2005).

The current efforts that attempt to improve governance issues in a global economy are in most cases inclined towards the individual interests of governments in question. These inclinations and biasness in decision making and global governance are normally pushed through by the highly industrialized nations who hold a major stake in global governance. Some of the major share holders in issues of global governance include the US, Britain and the UK, Germany, Japan, China, and some developing nations such as South Africa.  In most cases, global economies operate within political frameworks and guidelines set by internationally recognized governance institutions. Currently, these economic governance bodies and the global rules need thorough reforms and re-legitimization in order to meet the demands of the present society.

Under the auspices of globalisation, La Jolla (2000) notes that most national governments are gradually shifting their political power to lower i.e. local governments, higher  corporate affiliates usually players drawn from the non-governmental organizations. By way of example, the processes of Monetary and Economic Union under the European Union apparently confirm this gradual shift in the goal posts. Another illustration of this trend is seen in the recent campaigns pushing for the establishment of a global central bank with a single world currency.

In addition, the recent extension in the powers and authority of the World Trade Organization is also a pronounced effect of globalisation. Although world trade may be regarded as the most perceptible element of globalisation, the structures of the World Trade Organisation play a critical role in the governance of intercontinental trade (Lamy, 2005). This global organization has a defined set of principles and values involving various players in global governance. The World Trade Organisation also has a set of procedures followed when arbitrating values and trade issues between countries and states (Lamy, 2005).

From Pascal Lamys (2005) point of view, in his capacity as the Director General of the World Trade Organisation, globalisation has also resulted in multilateral trading structures which are beneficial to global governance. These benefits are achieved from the increased efficiency resulting from the exclusion of world alterations in prices. This makes it possible for nations to embrace competitiveness and thus produce according their individual abilities ( HYPERLINK httpwww.wto.orgenglishnews_esppl_e.htm httpwww.wto.orgenglishnews_esppl_e.htm). As an instrument of global governance, the World Trade Organization needs to develop viable measures and strategies that favour all countries in matters related to trade.

The current policies of the global organization tend to economically favour the already established world powers at the expense of third world countries which may have the potential to effectively compete at international levels (Lamy, 2005) due to globalisation. These outdated policies therefore need to undergo a series of transformations and upgrading to fit in the current global demands and patterns in trade and governance.

According to Tea Collins (2003), globalisation of the general world economy has the effect of shaping the trends in global health, particularly in areas such as mortality and morbidity. This affects the ability of various countries to grow economically. In global governance, globalization of the public healthcare systems has remarkable repercussions in the accessibility to healthcare. The negative effect of globalisation on the accessibility of healthcare services is highly felt in nations experiencing transitional economies ( HYPERLINK httpwww3.interscience.wiley.comjournal4005home httpwww3.interscience.wiley.comjournal4005home).
Tea Collins (2003) further asserts that such cases of globalisation have led to the increased rates of inequalities within and among countries negatively impacted by the accessibility to health services. Globalization may only have a positive impact in nations where regulatory organizations are strong, with competitive domestic markets. In such circumstances, Tea Collins (2003) argues that the citizenry will fully enjoy the advantages of globalization in the provision and accessibility of healthcare services.

Challenges of Globalisation in reference to Global Governance
As discussed above, it is evident that globalisation has affected almost all aspects of human existence ranging from economic, social , cultural and political spheres and thus requires an improved and modern approach of internalising this phenomenon. The challenges to the already established order of doing business may be perceived as either practical or theoretical depending on their nature.

The greatest challenge of globalisation according to Fromm (1998) is its success in establishing an interconnected world by connecting nations and individuals and bringing them into regular business and personal contact. This has made those linked through globalisation to depend on one another when dealing or when faced by various circumstances. These interactions positively affect global governance in that they enable world governments to concentrate more on establishing international rapports and solve any arising global disputes.

The propensity of globalisation according to Fromm (1998) is to weaken existing territorial boundaries and allow those affected to develop their products in the liberal market and freely express their views is regarded as one of the most widespread practical challenge brought about by globalisation. A clear illustration of this argument is in the explosion of the internet in developing ridiculous video games accessible by any one. Many other analysts argue that globalisation has manifested itself into a virtual veracity controlled and managed by the invisible and all-powerful technologically advanced information networks.

Another practical effect brought about by globalisation in reference to global governance is the distortion of individual government systems which in turn result in institutional vacuums (Fromm, 1998). Such an effect may be seen when the authority or sovereignty of a given state to solve its internal problems is put into question by the demands or interference of the virtues of global governance. This in itself has weakened further states originally perceived as fragile and weak and added more power and authority to the already powerful nations (Fromm, 1998).

Conclusions
Based on the discussions above concerning globalisation, its effects and challenges with regard to global governance, it is evident that globalisation has both positive and negative aspects depending on the approach taken. The positive aspects which may lead to economic growth, improved healthcare, boosted international trade and improved standards of living should be pushed through.

On the other side of the coin, Fromm (1998) argues negative aspects of globalisation need to be resisted from penetrating further in to the society. Such negative aspects that may interfere with, or threaten the sovereignty of a given nation, challenge individual state security or trade should be opposed by all possible means.

Coping with the Global Financial Crisis
Though regarded as the worst financial crisis since the 1930s Great Depression, the 2007-2009 global economic meltdowns disapproved the initial perceptions that all-powerful and free- market forces were in position to correct the serious financial downturns on their individual capacities without relying on the interdependence of other economies.

Due to the inadequacies in transparency, global financial institutions have clearly shown their inability in dealing with the critical financial downturn. As an example, credit rating bodies and investors in the United States are said to have failed to accurately price the risks linked to mortgage and similar financial services to match the demands of the 21st century. Additional reports by the IMF in April 2009 indicate that this period was globally symbolised by a serious lag in the economic growth rates due to the alarming declines in international trade and hardened credit availability.

In order to effectively deal with the looming crisis brought about by the global economic crunch, most governments have put in place stringent measures that could effectively expand or reform the existing institutions of global governance such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund- IMF, the G8 and the United Nations Security Council. The global crisis is therefore being used as an incentive or a challenge for pushing through the long overdue reforms in global governance. From Slideskys (2009) point of view, the International Monetary Fund has to reform its current structures of operations and resume its original function as a reliable lender during financial crisis. Slidesky (2009) also notes that the recent resolution by the G-20 (in April, 2009) to extend the funds special drawing rights available to member states by 250 billion dollars is in itself a critical step towards the expected reforms. The IMF therefore should concentrate more on its mandates of offering technical assistance, coordination of exchange rates and macroeconomic policies, surveillance and financial crisis management (Slidesky, 2009).

Despite the fact that the world economy is gradually recuperating from the effects of the crisis, the poorest third world countries are still at pains with the consequences of the global recession. Such countries need urgent financial assistance in order to avert the crisis. Since such countries play a major role in boosting the global demand, they need more financial assistance in the coming years. To take care of this scenario, the World Bank has called for the establishment of a Crisis Response Facility aimed at providing quick assistance to susceptible nations following such financial instability.

In order to tackle the ongoing economic crisis, world governance reforms and overhauls in the financial spheres, specifically in the systems and roles of the multilateral financial and money lending institutions need to be carried out. While addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos early last year, Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor urged the G8 nations to establish new rules for the entire global economy and the international financial structures in order to minimize chances of future occurrence of a similar global crisis. The German Chancellor further proposed to the United Nations to urgently establish an Economic Council to monitor and oversee the world economy. This new council should be analogous to the Security Council which offers such services in dealing with global crisis arising from political situations, acts of terrorism among others.

To counter the impacts of the global economic and financial crisis, most countries globally are approaching this crisis from a tax and monetary perspective ( HYPERLINK httpwww.deloitte.comtax-response-global-crisis2009 httpwww.deloitte.comtax-response-global-crisis2009). The several strategies and measures taken broadly range from ad hoc measures, stimulus recovery packages, and temporary provisions etc. The budget acts for most countries in 2009 served as the centre stage for a number of provisions.  Depending on the extent of the damage caused by the crisis, the measures taken were aimed at either dealing with the financial crisis andor mitigating some of the impacts brought about by the global crisis ( HYPERLINK httpwww.deloitte.comtax-response-global-crisis2009 httpwww.deloitte.comtax-response-global-crisis2009).

According to the analysis carried down by Yoishi Funabashi (2009) it is practically impossible to effectively establish new world governance. This is attributed to the fact that such reforms can only be sponsored by a stable global political economy. The shifting economic power from the East to the West also positions the eastern countries such as Japan in a better position to fight the global financial meltdown. In November 2009, Japan loaned the International Monetary Fund a loan of approximately one hundred million US dollars (Funabashi, 2009). This bridge loan to the International Monetary Fund was aimed at making nations worst hit by the financial crunch to cope up with the crisis and recover (Funabashi, 2009).

Due to the pressure exerted on them by the demands of global governance, countries such as the United States, Japan, and China have taken the incremental measures towards establishing a kind of trilateral deliberations and consultation on matters concerning the macroeconomic policies. However, the optimal strategy based on Funabashis (2009) opinions is to forge a bilateral approach in capital flow management and other aspects of the economy. This strategy if fully adopted would simplify the coordination between these countries and probably merge after the hostile economic conditions have subsided (Funabashi, 2009).
Another strategy, as advised by the various institutions of global governance in coping with the financial crisis is the embracement of economic migrations and company reorganisations. Based on such recommendations from such powerful international money lending and financial institutions, most multinational businesses in various sectors such as banking, manufacturing and even food processing had to close down some of their operations in regions hit hardest by the crisis and invest in other continents such as Asia and Africa where the impacts of the economic crunch were not very severe. By way of example, the Citigroup banking company ( HYPERLINK httpwww.wikiinvest.comwikiCitigroup_(c) httpwww.wikiinvest.comwikiCitigroup_(c)) ceased its operations in Germany in order to cut down on its operations costs during the crisis.

Due to the hard economic times, other companies were forced to shed off their labour force through retrenchments and early retirements. The most affected multinational companies include the General Motors and several other banks such as Barclays and the Citigroup. The latter had to close down some of its business divisions and retrench the affected staff in order to sail through and survive the dangers brought about by the financial storm.

Another strategy adopted in order to counter the effects of the recession was through increased government lending and bailouts. These financial recovery schemes and packages in most cases were supported and approved by the legislative organs of various countries such as parliaments, the senate, the congress, central banks and finance ministries. The global governance institutions on financial matters such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund also advocated for these recovery measures.

Individual governments had to develop bailout and recovery schemes to save the organisations from the looming collapse and or bankruptcy. A case illustration of this recovery strategy was the stimulus package of approximately 50 billion dollars by the United States government to the Citigroup Company made the government to control nearly a third of the bank. This acquisition by the government is believed to have led to an improvement in the groups equity to asset ratio. This is what made it possible for the business to effectively cope with the effects of the global financial meltdown.

Another possible strategy as suggested by Skidelsky (2009) that can be used to effectively avert the crisis is the pursuing of expansionary financial policies by rising market governments to encourage more private demand. In cases where the provision of commodities improves, private players end up having fewer incentives to sustain their precautionary saving rates. In addition, individual governments have to carry out financial reforms that would make it possible for them to fund raise using their own currencies and in turn minimize chances of exchange rate problems occurring. Markets dominated by foreign currency often have the difficulty in servicing their debts in n scenarios where there is a fluctuation in exchange rates (Skidelsky, 2009).    

Conclusion
The recent global financial crisis led to various unforeseen circumstances for many industries. The institutions of global governance were not spared by this crisis and thus various world governments with assistance from these international organisations had to develop strategies and recovery policies so as to fully counter the crisis and minimize chances of future occurrences.

Several strategies developed in coping with this crisis worked to some extent and others did not yield the required or expected results. Through global governance, economic structures and mechanisms may be developed by institutions such as the United Nations, the World Bank, and the IMF in order to deal with such financial and economic issues.

The concept of teamwork had gone from the sports arena to the corporate world as firms and organizations begun exploring the benefits of cooperative effort to their operations. Fincham and Rhode (2005) observed that teamworking is based on the idea that the sum is more than the total of its parts (p 276). According to the authors, some view teamworking as the ultimate solution to any organizational defect, a cure to employee-employer conflict and other management and personnel issues. Despite its popularity, teamworking has earned critics which prompted researches on its real impact in the organization, production and even in personnel and management relations.

This paper explores the two sides of the teamwork debate and evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of working in teams in organizations. Possible ways of reducing and avoiding the disadvantages are also identified. To better understand the concept of teamwork in organizations, the following section provides a definition of team and teamwork. This is followed by a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages associated with the application of organizational teamwork.

Team and teamwork defined
Alderfer, et al define team as a social system of three or more people, which is embedded in an organization (context), whose members perceive themselves as such and are perceived as members by others (identity), and who collaborate on a common task (teamwork) (cited in Hoegl and Gemuenden 2001, p. 436). From the definition, teamwork involves cooperation and coordination of tasks among the members assigned in a given group. The members of the team work as a single agent and give priority to the common objective before their own personal motives (Cohen and Levesque 1991). According to Fincham and Rhode (2005), management perceive teamworking as a way of marrying the fulfilment of fundamental individual psychological needs with senior managerial demands ... (p. 306). It addresses the personal needs of employees without sacrificing the goals of the company.

Advantages of teamworking
According to Griffin, Patterson, and West (2001), teamwork is employed to enhance the work atmosphere for the workers. They studied the effect of teamworking in 48 manufacturing companies in the U.K. The study explored the effect of teamwork in job satisfaction. Based on the research, teamworking is associated with job autonomy and job enrichment, both of which are motivating factors that improve job satisfaction.

Another advantage of teamworking is that it eases the exchange of information among members of the group.  Hoegl and Gemuenden (2001) stresses  the advantage of teamwork in improving the communication among members of a team. It encourages the exchange of relevant information and learning between the workers which may not be possible in a different set up.

Workers coordinate their actions and share tasks with the other members of the team. According to Heywood and  Jirjahn (2004), the coordination and allocation is the essence of team production (p. 771). According to Hoegl and Gemuenden (2001), coordination entails the identification of a common goal as well as the division and delegation of task to each individual member. Through coordination, each member is given an assignment, thus maintaining equal task delegation while avoiding interruptions in labour and duplication of work.

Based on a study conducted in a German manufacturing firm, team working was found to reduce absences (Heywood and Jirjahn 2004). Team improve the communication and interaction of employees resulting to better relations, enhanced motivation, reduced absences and increase in job satisfaction.

Teamworking also allows for cross-training of workers (Heywood and Jirjahn 2004). This not only improves the workers but also gives the employees the leeway to deal with an absent teammates job. This reduces the loss in production associated with absenteeism.

The next advantage of teamworking is mutual support. This not only applies in covering for an absent member but also in the coordination of skills and delegation of tasks (Hoegl and Gemuenden 2001). Each member becomes an integral part of the group and they profit more by providing a supportive environment for each other. Instead of the competition associated with the workplace, team members learn to pull each other up. The idea of belonging in a supportive circle of people enhances the experience and quality of work environment, thus motivating workers to perform better.

Lastly, teamwork fosters team effort and like in sports, there are tasks that are best accomplished when performed together as a team. Group success brings better camaraderie and solidarity that makes members want to be a part of the team and even to get involved in a healthy competition with other teams in the organization.

As mentioned earlier, the implementation of teamworking in organizations is not always associated with constructive results. Some critics link negative outcomes with the employment of the teamwork concept in the workplace.

Disadvantages of teamworking

Griffin, Patterson and West (2001) cautioned that teamworking does not always produce the result aimed for. In their article, the authors mentioned that one disadvantage of teamwork is the modification of the role of leaders. In some cases, the supervisory role is replaced by facilitator role which gives employees more autonomy. However, based on their observation, this leads to reduction in leadership support. Since leadership support is directly proportional to job satisfaction, reduction in support results to lower employee job satisfaction.

Another disadvantage of teamworking is that due to its non-hierarchical structure, members are not in the position to punish a member who refuses to cooperate (Arce and Gunn 2005). While productivity lies in the collective effort of the members, there is hardly no reward or punishment associated with personal contributions, thus members are not motivated to improve their teamwork skills. Being a team player is not mandatory and uncooperative workers can pull their team down.

This leads to another destructive effect of teamworking which is moral hazard to achievers. To encourage teamwork, some managers focus on team production and puts less premium on individual contributions. A difficult member in a high performing team is equally rewarded as the top performer. In the same way, a highly productive member in a poorly performing team may be punished with the rest. This could result to the loss of morale of the employee and lead to the decline of personal standard.

Related to this discussion is the inequitable incentive system where low producing member of a team is equally rewarded with the high achievers. According to Arce and Gunn (2005), a team member can be remunerated based on his affiliation to the group regardless of his or her personal contribution in the work. While this practice is not fair to those who work hard, the structure of team production makes it hard to identify individual inputs (Heywood  and Jirjahn 2004). Furthermore, rewarding individuals instead of teams defeats the goal of establishing productive teams.

Batt and Appelbaum discovered that while teamworking is believed to improve job autonomy and satisfaction, it also increases work-related stress which directly results to lower job satisfaction (cited in Heywood  and Jirjahn 2004).

Avoiding and reducing the disadvantages of teamworking
While the disadvantages cannot be discounted, teamworking is probably here to stay. Studies conducted evaluating the impact of teamwork led to some solutions that could reduce if not totally eliminate the negative impacts of teambuilding.

One solution is the Variance theory which states that causes of job satisfaction are subjective (Fincham, and Rhode 2005, p. 220). Based on this theory, individuals are inherently different, and addressing these differences within the group could improve job satisfaction. While team performance is important, each member should be recognized as unique individual with qualities essential to the success of the team. Teams should be treated as a valuable pool of assets and not just a means to an end. Instead of punishing uncooperative members, the leaders should find out what could make them want to participate.

Another theory discussed by Fincham, and Rhode (2005) which is helpful in reducing the negativity of teamworking is the social identity theory. Social identity theory is based on the individuals need for self esteem (p. 299). One of the roles of the facilitator is to see to it that individuals are recognized for their contributions. Team achievement should be promoted as a reflection of individual effort. Individual tasks should be integrated with the larger and common goal to give workers the direction and ability to see themselves in the bigger picture. This will give more value to their contribution as a part of the whole machinery rather than a separate entity.

One of the assumptions of social identity theory is that groups form through through the perception of a shared social identity (Fincham and Rhode 2005, p. 298). Workers will work better with people they can relate with, thus it benefits the team to conduct activities where they could foster better relations, more open communication and establish mutual trust. Each member should invest in getting to know the team and each other in order to facilitate better coordination and integration of tasks. This will help members connect tasks to the right person, giving each member the chance to work on something they are interested with and enhancing the experience of working together.

Arce and Gunn (2005) proposed integrating the principal and agent theory to teamwork. One criticism to teamworking is the elimination of the principal role in favour of facilitator role. Instead of eliminating the principal role, Arce and Gunn  modified the team structure in a way that each member becomes both an agent and a principal. Members are expected to perform their duties as agents but they are also expected to act as principals in monitoring each other. Everybody is accountable to everybody else. To be a reliable principal, one must be a reliable agent, thus encouraging everybody to build up their performance. This promotes accountability, productivity, quality and equality of roles.

Hoegl and Gemuenden (2001) stressed the importance of a balanced member contribution. Each member is not only expected to perform his or her delegated duties but is also expected to contribute for the improvement of the teams work by sharing any knowledge or experience related to the task at hand thereby helping other members in their individual assignments. Through goal of balance contribution is to give members the opportunity to get involved and contribute in the completion of the task. This not only puts premium to the quality of the product but also enhances members self esteem by recognizing their skills and talents.

Conclusion
Teamworking has invaded the organization arena in the past few years. While the main assumption is to bring the power of teamwork in the workplace to encourage cooperation, communication and coordination of workers, studies show that the implications of teamworking can be both progressive and damaging.

Advantages of teamworking include the enhancement of the experience by working together, improved communication and coordination, cross-training, better relations, enhanced motivation, reduced absences, more job autonomy, better camaraderie, solidarity and overall job satisfaction.  However, some disadvantages had been identified with teamworking as well. This includes the modification of the role of leaders which results to reduced leadership support, lack of motivation for members to improve their teamwork skills, absence of reward and punishment mechanism for high achievers and low performers, moral hazard to achievers, incentive system not equitable to performance and the increase in work-related stress associated with higher worker autonomy.

Teamwork experience can be enhanced by employing theories and practices that address the disadvantages of teamworking in organizations. This involves efforts to increase the self esteem of each worker and helping them identify with the team. Members should be recognized as productive and essential part of the process. Another is the increase in accountability by implementing the principal and agent method and ensuring balance in the individual contribution to the given task. Teamwork is a valuable concept in sports and translating it to the corporate world has a great potential to transform organizations of the future.

Company Background

ASOS plc was established in 2000 as an online fashion store. It survived the .com bubble by adapting to changes in the business environment (Card, 2008). Since then, ASOS has grown as a company with 250 staff up from 47 employees in 2000. It has also expanded its warehouse space from 550 to 32,500 square metres to accommodate 26.6 million online shoppers in the UK market alone. Out of this number, 3.3 million are new customers. (Strategic growth, 2010) ASOS funded its expansion by offering shares. Its revenue grew by 101 percent between 2008 and 2009 and its profit also increased by 92 percent in the same period. In 2009, ASOS became the second largest online fashion retailer in the UK with 5.13 percent market share to narrow the gap with its closest competitor NEXT plc with a market share of 6.31 percent. (ASOS plc, 2010) ASOS is an example of growing company even with the global recession. As long it can sustain its growth rate and competitiveness, it can remain a successful retail story or even the leading online fashion store in the UK.

Retail Strategy
A number of strategic factors contributed to its success. As a company established during the tail of the .com bubble, it employed an adaptive strategy (Aertsens et al., 2009) to enter the online fashion by using the As Seen On Screen (ASOS) approach. The business idea was to replicate the fashion of known television and movie celebrities. This worked by riding on (Griffin  Thomas, 1999) the appeal and authority of celebrity fashion to consumers without spending much on advertising. After establishing its presence in the online fashion market, ASOS shifted to a leadership strategy (Aaker, 2001) by establishing its own fashion brand. This also succeeded by enhancing the business value (Kotler  Armstrong, 2000) of being an authority in fashion. It reinforced the business by retailing a wide range of fashion brands from Adidas to French Connection to Levis (ASOS plc, 2010). ASOS experienced difficulties in obtaining retail agreements with known brands (Strategic growth, 2010). However, as soon as it successfully retailed some brands, others followed. The retail strategy of ASOS is constantly evolving (Hitt et al., 2003) to address new needs and capture emerging opportunities. The ability to evolve as fast as fashion turnover ushered ASOS success.

Another retail strategy of ASOS is internal or organic growth (Daft, 2000 Aaker, 2001), which involves the focus on continuously increasing the fashion items offered to boost sales. To succeed in this strategy, firms need to have a thorough knowledge of its market and market changes and develop efficiency (Daft, 2000). ASOS was able to meet both requirements. Its wide information of celebrity fashion trends and understanding of the fashion influences of the younger age group allowed ASOS to address changing demand. The evolution of its organisational structure, from a group of people managing all odds and ends to departments and a hierarchy of management (Griffin  Thomas, 1999 Robbins et al., 2004), together with acquired lessons on ways to develop fashion products at low cost made ASOS an efficient company. The use of multiple retail strategies that aligned with its needs and developed its competencies enabled ASOS to grow and become a successful retailer.

Target Market
The retail strategies adopted and developed by ASOS closely aligned with the characteristics and demands of its target market. ASOS targeted the 16 to 34 age group as its market (ASOS plc, 2010). As an online fashion retailer, this age group showed the biggest increase in online shopping and the likely group to actually spend on fashion items (Strategic growth, 2010). Targeting this market segment provided ASOS with a big potential market. Identifying this market segment contributed to its success since its thrust of celebrity fashion appeals to the market regardless of gender and income class. While it has many competitors in this market, developing the appropriate marketing mix enabled ASOS to succeed as one of the top online fashion retailers in the UK.

Marketing Mix
ASOS targeted a large market segmented only through age group. This means that the market is likely to have varying fashion demands and preferences. ASOS developed a range of fashion products under its brand and retailed a diverse range of fashion brands to meet different demands. The fashion products ranged from clothes to shoes, bags, accessories and even cosmetics. The fashion products under its brand change every season. There are also a range of fashion selections for men, women and children, for different occasions from formal, cocktail, office, sports, swimwear and casual wear. There are different colour and size selections. The company has accumulated 24,000 lines of fashion items and it is adding new items every week. In addition, ASOS also retail 400 brands to further diversify options. With a wide range of fashion products, ASOS ensured that it has something for everybody. This enabled ASOS to establish a customer base of at least 1.2 million regular shoppers and 5.2 million visitors to its online site every month. (ASOS plc, 2010) The difficulty is ensuring sufficient stocks of specific products with varying demand (ASOS, 2009).

The pricing strategy is mixed to meet the expectations of its diversified market. The fashion items retailed by ASOS cut across price ranges but remain lower than luxury brands. However, by developing and reinforcing the value of its retail products (Churchill  Peter, 1995 Solomon et al., 2002) as fashion keepsakes, it is able to provide value that to consumers would likely perceive as exceeding the price. When compared to high street shops, ASOS prices are also competitive.

As an online retailer, all sales happen in the virtual world. As the point of contact with online customers (Fill, 2001), ASOS recognised the need to make an immediate impact, maintain interest, and motivate actual purchases. ASOS developed its website as a catalogue, magazine, runway show, and fashion consultancy combined to address various needs. Its catalogue allow for easy scanning and comparison of products. The site also has fashion news and feature articles on different fashion ideas. The site also provides runway video clips of its fashion to provide consumers with a live feel of the fashion items. The site also has a page on how to shop, customer feedback, and contact links for any comment, questions or problems raised by consumers. As a marketing venue, the ASOS site offers all that a consumer may want from an online retail store. Its website was a key to its success.

While ASOS is an online retailer, it opted to use promotional channels that allow personal communication (Fill, 2001 Smith  Taylor, 2004) with consumers. ASOS does not allocate much for advertising because its focus is on its fashion products (Midgley, 2008). Apart from capitalising on the idea of recreating celebrity fashion for everybody that in itself comprises a promotional strategy, ASOS also has a print magazine, titled Seven Squared, which reflects its fashion values. Most of its magazine subscribers are also online shoppers and vice versa. ASOS is also linked to many social networking sites that share its target market including Twitter and Facebook. Overall, its promotional activities are akin to viral marketing by establishing a wide network (Boone  Kurtz, 1992) linking ASOS with its market. ASOS customer support team also enhances personalised service by decreasing the lag time from 6 to 1 hour so that consumers expect a response within the hour (ASOS plc, 2010). Although not real time, this is still a relatively laudable record.

Conclusion
ASOS is a successful online fashion retailer within the context of the industry and the fashion market. Its retail strategy, target market, and marketing mix are aligned to address changing market demand. However, there are key areas that require monitoring to prevent problems such as managing the supply chain from sourcing to production to delivery to minimise errors and delays (Hitt et al., 2003) as well as continuously updating market information (Rice, 1997) to match the volume and range of production with demand ensure high inventory turnover sufficient to meet demand.

Quality Symphony of Human Resource and Technology is the Best Bet for Wealth Management Companies

I. Introduction
Current wealth management industry is experiencing multiple challenges due to several reasons. Firstly, the rapid development of technology that offers a plethora of customer facilities has proved itself as a potent tool to attract customers. Gone are the days of long phone calls and face-to-face meetings, or for that matter researching through piles of documents, which have been replaced by a few mouse clicks. The digital world has proved itself as a tool for saving money, time and energy for all, and the IT companies are now busy in inventing and improvising their business models to provide more accessibility on information, which in turn influences the business processes of the wealth management (henceforth will be referred to as WM) companies to a great extent. Even elderly members of the high net worth customer base are considering Web as their source of financial advice (The Case, 2008). This excessive leaning on technology in a way undermines the role of human resources, which even a decade ago was considered as the prime tool of business. Thus the wealth management industry is caught in a dilemma  what could be the right mix of technology and human resource that would garner competitive advantage for them
Secondly, much like a paradox, the connotation of wealth management itself has taken a new turn with the rise of human resource, where it added newer WM products like intellectual property management or talent management, which require new and innovative services, and it is not possible to follow a particular business model to manage these newfound wealth and assets since these are highly dynamic in nature, though strong intellectual property practices have already become an integral part of company operations, which explain the importance of intellectual property assets (Arena and Carreras, 2008).

Thirdly, the customer base has become far more demanding than it was before, due to the easy information flow, where the companies are literally engaged in information war, voluntarily providing all possible information on their products and services to entice the customers. This in a way has enhanced the knowledge base of the customers and consequently they have become keen to utilize the scope to compare and contrast various products before coming to a decision.

Fourthly, the tightened level of compliance too has risen to a great extent and consequently the IT companies stand to reap the harvest. So much so, the market for WM compliance systems is set to jump 15 annually from the current 178 million to 318 million by 2011, according to a new report that also predicts that compliance will become an essential component of primary back-office systems (Rodier, 2007). This state of affairs in turn points to the fact that the WM firms have no way but to spend on this, since the business has crossed the physical barriers and this is a trust-based industry where companies stand to gain by reflecting a holistic outlook.

Fifth, the increasing state of this WM industry has been attracting more players who are jostling for their share of customer-centric, trust-based role of wealth management - trust banks, brokerages, insurance companies and family offices  all are there in the race of creating business from hitherto untapped customer base that is now gradually surfacing across the globe. For example, India with its average GDP growth rate of 8 each year and with a massive increase in the growth of individual wealth can be considered as a future goldmine for WM companies, if the Merrill Lynch Cap Gemini Asia Pacific Report for 2008 has anything to go by, which says that Indias HNWI (High Net Worth Individual) population has grown by 23 and definitely is a fastest growing market (Mahesh, 2008).

Sixth, the dilemma regarding investing on self-run system or outsourcing the same to maintain customer data has cast a serious challenge to its business security. There is a good amount of money involved in setting up stand-alone business systems, as such systems requires deployment of experts and maintenance personnel, besides investing on improvisation of the system.

In all, the competition had never been so intense in this industry as it is today, and at the same time business had never been so promising like now. The number of soon-to-be-retired population across the globe is astounding high, coupled with rapid increase in the number of wealthy young people (Hamilton, 2007). Both the reasons above are impacting changes in this industry opportunities from newer business zones courtesy e-commerce and emerging asset classes are virtually forcing the WM companies to invest more in core processing platforms and constantly upgrade them to meet the dynamism of the customer demand. After all, wealth management is not just portfolio management, and instead it aims to provide long-term returns (Rao and Joshi, 2008).

Accordingly the firms involved in WM industry are seeking their way to meet the evolving needs of its existing and prospective members spread across the globe while accommodating the fact that there is a need to bring systems together to provide tailor-made financial planning and advice, customer data, client service through competent modes of Business Intelligence (BI) and reporting. This study therefore, explores the above said challenges, before arriving at its own conclusion.

I.A. The Purpose of this Study
The above mentioned state of affairs clearly show that the operating field of WM has grown to a great extent and accordingly the new, evolved situation has generated multiple complexities that can easily confuse not only the existing and prospective customers, but also the members of this industry. Thus the purpose of this study is to explore the possibility of creating a balance between the key drivers of this business, i.e., technology and human resource to garner competitive advantage.

II. Brief Definition and History of the Industry
It has been mentioned earlier that todays WM industry is buzzing with an expanded client pool and at the same time it is plagued by a plethora of complexities and a stiff-neck competition created through mergers, acquisitions and the introduction of non-traditional players. Quantum leap of digital technology has eliminated the physical boundary of human transaction and that too with lightening speed, and in the process has set a completely new order of activities for companies that want to reap their benefit from it. Otherwise, the central tenet of WM still remains the same, i.e., successfully applying growth strategy to customers wealth and reaping the dividends of growth. According to the book Wealth, jointly written by associates of Merrill Lynch and Capgemini, the world is poised to witness the greatest period of wealth accumulation in history, as a large number of people from all corners of the globe have become wealthy in a short period of time, and their growth was steady all along the last decade, barring 2000. WM is inherently multidimensional since it covers all financial involvement of the clients, ranging from healthcare costs of a grandparent to tax strategies, or for that matter education expense of children (Merrill, 2008).

Wealth mentions about the four pillars of wealth management, viz. Time Horizon, Risk Tolerance, Liquidity needs, and Performance Expectations, besides reminding that a practice of disciplined wealth management would look towards protecting and growing of the wealth of an individual or family under a dynamic setting, where all the above pillars would continuously change over time, thereby influencing the processes of WM to update and refine every now and then (Merrill, 2008). However, such simple explanation of WM contains several processes laced with complexity and uncertainty. For example, any of the following processes could become either a source of joy or nightmare to any WM firms
Developing Market analysis and Growth Strategies In each case the firms are expected to provide customized market sizing and analysis, which should be based on sound models that can cover a broad range of industries and are conversant with the needs of HNW individuals. The firms should be able to leverage their models to collaborate with the clients firm to address new market entry analysis and market growth strategies, besides accommodating clients strategic requirements.

Capturing Growth The firms should be able to improvise their strategies for faster growth and for that matter they should optimize customermarket-facing initiatives besides optimizing advisordistribution channel facing initiatives.

Creating or Outsourcing State-of-the-art Advisor Workstations Advisor workstations must have the ability to deliver superior customer experiences, while remaining cost-effective. Workstations should be able to improve firm advisors efficiency, and for that matter it must have an integrated, end-to-end WM platforms and products, besides productivity tools, suggested business processes and allied technology to improvise any business situation.

Successfully Managing HNW Clients More often than not, sophisticated and affluent HNW clients have complex demands at one or the other wealth levels and the companies have to provide ready solutions with high levels of transparency, apart from maintaining a vaulted state of clients privacy.

Constant Research and Tracking All market trends and market leads and all probable actions based on them must be at the fingertips of the advisor to garner best possible results out of any investment activity (Wealth, 2010).

In brief, the basic differences between pre-digital era and digital era of WM industry can be framed like below

1. Volume and scope of Business The volume and scope of business in the pre-digital era was mostly limited to regions, whereas digital era has erased such physical boundaries and enabled the companies to do business worldwide.

2. Types of Products The pre-digital era was mostly confined to financial and immovable assets, while the business in digital era is dealing with more products and even their combinations.

3. Processes of Business Most of the current business processes in WM are dependent on digital information technology, which saves money, time and energy.

4. Customer and Company Approach to business Stiff competition and enhanced business vision in the recent times have impacted several changes in the business approaches of both customers and companies, where the former has become more knowledgeable and demanding, and the later has become customer-centric.  

5. State of customer demands With the development of wealth, existing customers demands too have become ramified and complex in nature (Budge, 2007).

The above differences also serve the pointers to several challenges before WM, which can broadly be framed under seven areas, and a brief review of the same could provide the clue on how the companies under WM industry could create a right mix of business drivers to garner competitive advantage.

III. Business Challenges III. A. Competition
The issue of competition in WM sector deserves top spot, since the line of distinction between various financial businesses are fast fading with the rapid development of digital technology that is enabling the companies to venture into markets that were so long earmarked as special trades. For example, banking sector was not much into WM in earlier times, but now it is facing stiff competition in their original retail and commercial zones, where the fear of losing HNW customers is looming large, and accordingly they too are trying to carve a niche in the WM sector by offering wealth-management and investment-advisory services (Monga and Banerjee, 2007). This picture is more or less the same across the globe, where both private and public sector banks are making serious attempts to convert their retail banking customer base into WM customer base. With their organized base, wide range of products and sheer professionalism, banks are poised to garner more market share. Since WM is a fee-based business, banks stand to gain by two ways - one, through fees, and two, by selling third-party products like mutual fund units or insurance policies (Mahesh, 2008). Due to these entrants, the volume of competition in this sector has swelled to a great amount, and there is a constant competition, with regard to launching newer products or services to woo the prospective customers.

III. B. Marketing and Customer Demand
Matching the stride of the evolution of WM products and processes, the marketing strategies too have evolved to a great extent, which recognized the potential of the Internet and the necessity of attracting the customers towards inexpensive ways to invest, besides accommodating the fact that the days of business monopoly have gone once and for all, since the investors have wide access to all kind of financial information from the Internet. In the process, the fees too have gone down and more emphasis is being given on more complex, higher margin products and services such as REITs, hedge funds and structured products integrated with advice-centric models. The World Wealth Report that found a large number of advisors admitting the increase in alternative investements corroborates this (Strategic, 2005).

The challenge of the current marketing strategy is to accommodate and comply with customers demands, irrespective of their complexities. Thus the challenges like successfully explaining and simplifying the products and services, or to convince the clients about value-proposition of the fees or the efficacy of service need to be effectively handled by WM firms. To meet such challenge the wealth managers are now expected to cover a large area of operation such as
Segmentation and client targeting
Client servicing and relationship building
Remaining up-to-date with technology
Client acquisition and retention
Market and geographical knowledge
Access to third party productservice through open architecture
Revenue and cost management
Maintaining organizational linkage and cross-sell
Such a package of marketing could provide the feeling of a superior business experience to the clients, opines Capegemini report (Strategic, 2005).

III. C. Financial Challenges
The current state of wealth pyramid contains the following distribution of wealth among various segments
Ultra HNW 50 million
Very HNW 20 million  50 million
HMW 1 million  20 million
Wealthy 500,000  1 million
Affluent 100,000 - 500,000

However, the encouraging state of pyramid does not indicate the state of challenge lying in this zone, involving financial planning, which, according to Ringquist (2009) can broadly be classified into 10 sections
Managing a solid asset strategy In the absence of an integrated platform this is not an easy task
Evaluation of the entire household wealth This factor often becomes a barrier in leveraging the entire household financial picture and thereby satisfying the clients long-term investment management needs
Providing consistent advice delivery across multiple accounts For this the advisors have to rely heavily on the state of technology, which may or may not help to the satisfaction of the client
Identifying clients risk tolerance Apart from liability and compliance issues, there may be other factors that might not feature in the questionnaire or in the answers of the client and later pose a potential threat for business (Costa, 2009).

Curtailing time-intensive processes Most of the time the processes of relationship and trust building take more time, the same can happen to the building of a portfolio too. Such situations prove a barrier in building a holistic balance sheet with a more accurate picture.

Creating a long-range cash-flow plan Lack of liquidity could prevent such goals in timely manner, which may take place due to wrong timing, like principals nearing retirement while the children are entering college.
Gathering a clear understanding of the effects of taxes and inflation over time Due to the increased dynamism of the business and financial environment, financial planning has become a more complex process than before.

Ensuring compliance This too is now dependent on the quality of systems that enables WM professionals to develop a comprehensive investment policy statement.

Building a scalable, efficient back-office This may not always be possible for the WM professionals to deploy state-of-the-art technology to ensure smooth and enhanced state of operation.

Stuffing challenge in the advisory industry Report underpins this crisis and that is another challenge in financial planning (Ringquist, 2009).

The above state of affairs coupled with the fact that not all WM companies can afford to use high technology, create an impression that the industry is still not equipped to meet the challenges of the business environment that demands clarity in content and swiftness in operation.

III. D. Human Resources
While it is true that the modern WM companies cannot do without using digital systems, it is also equally true that it cannot do without using humane qualities that machines cannot deliver. It is for this reason that the simulation technique may lose out to the ready wit of a human while competing to provide a unique solution under a given context. Moreover, it is the humans who run the show, and they are at the loose end when systems fail to deliver or behave wrongly. From another perspective, technology in the end carries the reflection of human qualities to the clients in this sector, like ethical sense, concern for client, sincerity and sense of responsibility regarding task, etc. Because of these reasons, the role of human resource has become more important in this sector, especially where the elements like relationship and trust prove to be the main bridges to business. The role of human resource appears even more vital over anything in this trade, when one realizes the fact that the main driver WM business is managed by humans only, i.e., strategic marketing, which covers a huge area of operation in this sector and applying several humane elements.

Therefore, the main challenge in this zone is to deploy well-equipped personnel in its various operating zones. The role of customer relationship managers (CRMs) is extremely crucial in this trade and unfortunately the current survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (2009) reveals that the majority of CRMs have neither the experience, nor the training. The said report advises the senior management of WM companies to focus on this problem at the earliest, and underpinned the sharp fall in recruitment in CRMs category as the fallout of their bad performance.

III. E. Technology
Operating models have become the most sough-after tools these days, which not only help to reduce costs, but also to enhance business growth by providing all types of support in analyzing and assessing both business and in-house situations. PricewaterhouseCooper report (2009) predicts a 5 reduction in outsourcing portfolio management because of the enhanced dependency on operating models run under company management.

In addition to the regulation jobs like portfolio management, risk management and wealth situation analysis, the current models are also helping to formulate client communication strategy, and PricewaterhouseCooper report predicts that 63 of CCOs would increase their IT spending and 82 of them would go for system upgrade, and 36 of them would introduce enterprise-wide solutions for their organizations. Thus it can be said that the development of technology has influenced a huge change in operational strategies in this sector. Another forthcoming features concerning technology according to the above report would be shared services among companies, centralization of organizational structures and increase in the use of open architecture. Robust risk management too is going to be the mantra of the future, and accordingly the improvisation of the risk-framework systems is on the anvil.

III. F. LegalRegulationPolitical Challenge
The state of challenges from this zone mostly come from the issue of compliance, which has been a worrying factor for WM organizations right from the beginning of the millennium, which appears to have created a flutter in the WM industry where its members want to be compliant because the law says they have to be, and even if anyone wants to walk the other way, then there is the industry standards and much-important customer expectations that would prevent one to do so. This shows that there is a need to develop better understanding regarding compliance, which is about conforming to the controls and procedures imposed on the company by appropriate laws or rulings, e.g., Sarbanes-Oxley Bill of 2002 (which is also known as SOX or SarBox), the more recent Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). It is because of such rulings compliance is often referred to as regulatory compliance.

Though the personnel belonging to WM industry are familiar with the terms like above or about other terms of compliance like HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, 1996), GLBA (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999), or FISMA (Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002), it is only a clear perception about why such regulations are there, that would enable the WM professionals to do better business on a laid-down track of safety and clarity. From this perspective it can be said that compliance regulations have created a shift towards corporate responsibility, where controls over information systems and security have actually enabled the companies to safeguard their data and business, and to earn confidence of their clients.

One of the most important features in compliance is its emphasis on data security, where various rulings help to prevent trespassing of any companys private zone. In this regard the publicly listed companies and other affected organizations have reasons to be happy, and should make up their minds too on refraining from encroaching on the domains of small companies. This still appears to be a gray area since there is no common preventive system that would update itself regularly to monitor advanced hacking activities of the companies. Thus the challenge in this area is to convince all players in WM industry about the positive impact of compliance and the importance of maintaining it. For that matter the companies need to declare their stand by quoting all appropriate rulings they follow, instead of issuing vague circulars like company is being in compliance.

For that matter companies need to use such information systems (software products) that would provide them powerful security, besides enabling them to meet the essential requirements in most regulatory compliance standards like monitoring and auditing capabilities. There is a need to upgrade such systems with the evolution of laws and international standards, which would help companies to meet the prescribed standard of compliance. From this perspective, there is a clear need of understanding between systems maker and the users of such systems, because such synchronized approach to compliance would definitely help in garnering the confidence of the customer.

The significance of understanding between systems makers and WM professionals can be seen from another angle, i.e., price-control of systems. Constant rise in the price of systems has become a constant source of agony for WM professionals, but currently they have no control on the same. According to the report published by Celent, a Boston-based company, the market for wealth management compliance systems is poised to jump 15 each year to convert todays 178 million industry of compliance systems to 318 million industry by 2011. Thus there is enough ground for anyone assuming that by virtue of the factors like data security, upgrade, and flexibility, the compliance companies are milking the WM professionals, since all of them, ranging from Chief compliance officers (CCOs) at hedge funds, broker-dealers, institutional asset managers, retail financial advisers, trust companies, or banks use automated compliance systems to monitor and track all compliance related issues (Rodier, 2008). Currently CCOs primarily use three types of compliance systems, viz., trade compliance systems, operational risk compliance systems, and wealth management compliance systems, to track several elements, ranging from the feasibility study of client investments against objectives, risk profiles, etc., to secure client gifts within regulatory parameters.

According to the above report, registered investment advisors will eventually spend more time on compliance systems as they are the big players with assignments from most of the wealth investment firms, where more complexities would compel them to engage more with compliance issues. For example, Hedge funds may face heightened regulation, and therefore this sector is expected to increase spending on compliance systems from current 41.5 million to 78.8 million annually.

Apart from above, compliance is gradually becoming an essential component of primary back-office systems in WM organizations, like trade order management systems, e-mail surveillance and retention systems, workflow tools, document retention systems, and the research firm notes. Thus the current challenges in this zone involves the issue of synchronization between systems makers and WM companies to control price rise in systems as well as improvising them, besides the task of synchronizing the needs of customer and the company within the framework of compliance (Rodier, 2008).

Another challenge, i.e., developing an outlook of exploiting the compliance, is no less important, since it continues to be a key driver of business, a fact that is amply reflected over the past few years, when WM organizations had to comply with a steady stream of regulatory requirements involving SOX, Patriot Act, Best execution, Employee surveillance etc. under tight deadlines. It is for this reason the companies should accommodate the utility value of compliance and take initiatives to make everyone of WM industry conversant with regulations as well as keen to keep track of the changes taking place in them, having in-depth knowledge about various aspects of compliance like Know Your Client (KYC) regulations, Anti Money Laundering (AML), pre and post-trade compliance, employee surveillance, trading regulations like Reg NMS and MiFID and SoX and Basel related risk measures, would not only enhance the productivity, but also would create an ambience of clarity in the industry, which then would move away from earlier notions of satisfying regulators to a more fruitful approach of deriving competitive advantage by exploiting all compliance initiatives (Vemuri, 2007).

The political impact on this sector too is being felt, where the governments are applying pressure tactics to convert its fund flow in government-regulated banks, besides influencing all tax havens and International Private Banking Sector (IPBCs) not to engage in or support unacceptable tax planning. In all, a complex maze of barriers have come up in this zone, comprising political, fiscal, social and regulatory drivers, which is gradually pushing this industry into an era of compliant confidentiality (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2009).

III. G. Ethical Challenge
Ethical challenge in this trade is something that requires sheer power of innate values to overcome, though it is equally important to apply business sense and vision to reap the benefit of ethical approach. Holding on to ethical grounds does give guarantee to do well in maintaining the three golden rules of business, such as maintaining good client relations amid volatile business environment, maintaining focus on professional integrity to enhance the industry image and keeping alive the quest for constant learning, which is the key to professional growth. Though there are many attractions to earn quick money, yet, the real challenge is to build a trusting client relationship and to create a favorable public perception about the integrity of WM industry (Chan, 2009). From perspective of current post-downturn business environment, it can be said that emphasis on applying the highest standard of professional ethics could rejuvenate the spirit of the investors, who have taken a conservative stance after experiencing the global financial crisis.

However, the issue of ethics is always embedded with individual orientation, no matter how much one learns about its positive impact on business in later years. Sense of ethics in an individual should involve a broader spectrum  that ethics is not a mere tool to enhance business, and instead it is a tool to align individuals purpose of action with ideal desires such as contributing to collective development and sharing the joy and happiness with others. Thus the real challenge is not to invite mental poverty in the pursuit of accumulating material wealth, since profit making cannot be an end in itself. These concepts about ethics are expected to govern the actions of wealth managers, and for that they need to have an appropriate orientation preferably in their formative years. For example, if someone learns Holy Jesus love commandments, which is the central force of Christian ethics at a young age, then that knowledge would definitely serve as the individual foundation of ethics for the person. Other ethical views such as Kantian ethics that is based on the idea of treating persons as ends and never as means, or intuitionist pluralism, are equally effective in creating the foundation of ethics among humans (Audi, 2003). Thus, be it earning the peace of mind and spirit of service or contributing to the brand image of the company, WM professionals have to meet the ethical challenge effectively.

III. H. Other Situations
As it has been mentioned earlier that data security breaches are commonplace affairs in WM industry, which could even destroy a WM company in terms of reputation and business. It is for this reason the companies have the challenge to evaluate all systems deployed in business with utmost care and caution, without being hesitant to pay more if so required to safeguard their business.

Same state of uncertainty surfaces in the event of outsourcing systems, where WM industry faces double dilemma involving the factors like utilizing standardized offerings such as sophisticated portfolio analysis, portfolio performance and risk management, etc. to cater to the mass affluent market segment with little cost on operation or opting to ensure more security to business data by installing costly, self-controlled systems. Though the provider companies are aware of the fact that trust is the bridge between their business and WM companies, yet this remains a sensitive issue and the biggest challenge here is to team up with companies that share a common vision and commitment to trust and security.

IV. Industry Responses, Strategies, and Solutions
In order to match the challenges, the companies in this sector have been trying to improve their customer services, besides keeping an eye to reduce operating expenses. Segmentation of the clients by affluence tiers, such as emerging affluent, mass affluent, high net worth, mid-tier millionaire, or ultra-high net worth have already helped them to control operational costs as well as to understand the customer demands at each of such level. In the first case, the companies are dividing the client base into different web-based self service offerings, e.g., shifting an HNW to a costly web-based self-service, or providing value-added services like more sessions with advisors, while placing a lower-tier client in a call-center oriented self-service and cutting their operational costs in the process. Alongside, strategic utilization of enhanced services to lower-tier clients also proving effective (Strategic, 2005). Utilization of Web 2.0, i.e., the online social platforms is also gaining grounds, as they are already recognized as important tools of relationship marketing and customer-relationship building. However, initiatives like equipping the human resource to exploit people skills in garnering business are yet to gain momentum.

V. Conclusions and Recommendations
The review of literature clearly shows that there is lot to be done to make WM industry capable of exploiting the promise of business before it. The overall situation clearly identifies the fact that Internet has grown to become an integral part of business operation by providing high technology wealth models, and it has the power to attract even the inveterate HNWs to search for financial advice. The business prospect of intellectual property too appears to be rosy, so is the growth rate of HNWs. In all, there is huge amount of opportunity in this sector waiting for the worthy harvester.

However, at the same time the review shows that this industry is plagued by several problems covering both technology and human resource areas. The absence of strong ethical approach in Web usage, and inability to use high technology due to financial constraints prove to be the main barriers in exploiting the potential of technology. On the other hand, human resources in this sector are found to be unequipped in providing the desired humane touch and grasping the nuances of compliance. The lack of instance regarding utilization of free resources of Internet, such as community sites, chat applets or video conferencing facilities, also consolidates the impression that human resources of this sector is yet to come of age. Lack of understanding between systems makers and users of WM industry too poses a problem.

The review does not suggest that the factors related to government could be potential threats to the business prospect of this sector. Issues like channeling business in government-run institutions or probing the clarity of transactions in some areas could be seen as blessings in disguise, as the former instance could enhance the competitive attitude in this industry, and the later would actually secure the reputation of it.

Thus the state of business in this industry in the coming future would depend on the state of synchronization between various elements of it  such as synchronization between systems makers and WM companies, WM professionals and systems, between knowledge and sense of ethics of the WM professionals, between people skills and CRMs, and so on. However, these can still be considered as teething problems of an industry that appears to be in its infancy as against the staggering state of opportunities before it. Therefore, it is perfectly possible to create a balance between the key drivers of WM industry, i.e., technology and human resources.

Considering the shortcomings of industry as shown by the above review, this study recommends the following solutions
Stress should be given to develop the skill and knowledge base of human resources engaged in this industry Such initiative would solve many problems together, such as lack of understanding regarding compliance, lack of understanding between systems makers and WM companies, lack of people skills, and lack of strong ethical approach to business. The systems makers should realize that if they can provide affordable yet quality system solutions, then that would mean more business to this industry and they too stand to gain from it.

Stress should be given to the research and development of systems The customers preference for single-window operation is gradually gaining momentum and WM industry should meet that demand. Open architecture is another very important factor that is influencing a good many changes and hence commands more attention. The need to offer more combination of products and services should also be met at the earliest, and for that matter the systems should be equipped.

Regarding security, companies should invest in good IRM programs that are capable of assessing information risks by documenting, analyzing, reporting and remediation of controls based risks and eventually benefiting the companies in the following manner

Helping the company to assess the readiness for a compliance audit by federal regulators
Aligning with Global Information Security Standards, like aligning controls to ISO17799COBITISFand NIST 800-14
Identifying potential risks through comprehensive assessment and recommending a remediation strategy to provide a robust risk management
Earning competitive advantage by generating greater trust in information controls and increased level of customer confidence and satisfaction.
In all, there should be a disciplined and balanced business approach with customers at its center of activity.

1. ElectronicCity is an organization that operates in a large scale with 160 stores in the retail sector. They have their presence in the states in the east coast and that of south.  ElectronicCity operates along with other chains with national presence who sill similar branded products. Thus the competition is not in terms of number of players in operation, but rather in terms of the intense competition among these players. The scope for earning higher margins is limited and the focus therefore is on the volumes.

Consider for example the case of HDTVs as mentioned in the case. These major players are vying hard to keep increasing their market share in whatever markets they have presence.

2. The decision made by VP Marketing of ElectronicCity to aggressively push for the so called warranty extension contract for HDTVs can be termed aggressive. The focus here is to push for higher margins in a business where the margins are generally low. The decision to make each salesperson go through a scripted sales pitch is just an indicator of how aggressively he wants to push his team to achieve better returns.

From a purely marketing point of view his approach is right, as this is one which could bring in higher revenues and better margins for the company. Since the general trend of product failures among the appliances that ElectronicCity sells has been on the lower side warranty extension contract makes sense.

3. The ethical issue involved in this case is that of whether ElectronicCity is doing the right thing by pushing hard for the warranty extension contract. The company fully well realizes from the past records and experiences that the brands that they sell have a very low failure rate and even if a failure does occur most of them can be rectified at low cost and little time. In such a scenario pushing for such a scheme simply because certain segments of consumers are apprehensive about the chances of product failures and the cost they would have to incur for repairs is questionable.

4. Phil has been performing well in his role of sales executive and his ability to predict the consumer reaction puts him in a good position. If he can improve his accuracy from 80 to 90 it translates into him able to focus his sales pitch for the warranty extension contract in a better way and thereby increasing the chance of converting such potential customers. And for customers who he feels are not interested in the contract, he could tweak his sales pitch in order to sell just the HDTV without the contract, again enhancing his chance of making a successful pitch.

5. The various comments made by the different people at the dinner table could shape Phils thinking in different ways.

Maria She admires his style of selling and hopes to make it big like him someday. And her admiration would in all probability encourage him to keep bettering himself.

Dr. Smith The queries that Dr. Smith put forward would lead to Phil thinking more about his techniques and in the process could understand it better and enhance it even more.

Fr. George If there is somebodys comment that would have made Phil think twice about the scheme in question and his own techniques it is Fr. Georges. His comment is sure to make Phil look within in order to ascertain whether he is doing the right thing.

6. Phil might take a pause and think about the warranty extension contract and his technique of predicting the customer behavior. But being a practical person that he is and with the desire to succeed and the competitive streak of the typical business school graduate he will continue pushing the scheme to the customers he services. Maybe he would be choosier about the customers he would push it to instead of pushing it to all customers he predicts would be interested in the contract.

Today, the automobile industry is undergoing drastic and unexpected changes. New ideas are coming up in the design, manufacture, assembly and marketing of automobiles. Similarly, the automobile industry is now delivering more value to their customers than ever before. As such, the world is increasingly seeing more reliability and advancements in the manufactured automobiles. However, it has not been smooth sailing for the automobile industry especially in balancing value delivery and achieving profitability. According to business experts, increased global competition, technological advancements, new product development, product differentiation, supply chain management as well as marketing and distribution pose serious threats to the survival of the world automobile industry. These threats arise mainly because the automobile industry is not able to control these challenges. This paper is therefore a discussion of the external threats facing the world automobile industry and the ways in which they can be rectified.

Introduction
The automobile industry has come a long way. It began around 1770 in France with the discovery of the steam wheeler. Since then, the world has seen the discovery of the steam engine, gasoline driven machines and finally the invention and consequent assembly of the first car by Henry Ford in 1896 (Highfill et al, 2004). However, the growth of the global automotive industry has been marred by several external threats. Experts observe that these external threats continue to hamper the efforts of the global automobile manufacturers to achieve efficiency and financial profitability (Evans and Associates Valuation Advisory Services, 2008, p. 1).

External Threats
The first external threat that has affected the global automobile industry is globalization (Consumer and Engineered Products, 1998, p. 1). Today, automobile manufactures are beginning to shift their focus to emerging markets in the hope of tapping the benefits of economies of scale a process also known as bundling (Evans and Associates Valuation Advisory Services, 2008, p. 1). This trend has had a negative effect because the emerging markets are auctioning their growth potential only to the largest automobile manufacturers. This has led to overproduction and increased prices along supply chains as automobile manufacturers outdo one another in order to occupy the market share.

The global automobile industry has also faced the threat of production development. As indicated in Consumer and Engineered Products (1998, p. 2), the process of manufacturing a new automobile is not only costly and elaborate but it also involves a lot of risks. This implies that automobile manufactures face the threat of losing their brands in the course of developing new products. In as much as the automobile manufacturers are making efforts to tailor their products in line with the needs of the customers this process has occasionally misled the customers. Therefore, automobile manufacturers should strike a delicate balance between developing new and unique products that meet the needs of the final consumers without necessarily loosing their brand identities (Keller, 2004 Berthon et al, 1999, pp. 53-65).

The other external threat that has affected the global automobile industry is supply chain management. For long, automobile manufactures have grappled with the challenge of reducing the way they are vertically integrated and that of minimizing their suppliers (Consumer and Engineered Products, 1998, p. 1). This has an implication that automobile manufactures have not yet found the best way in which they can optimize their supply chains in order to achieve maximum profitability in their engagements. Thus, global automobile manufacturers should capitalize on specialty channels of distribution in order to ensure the timely availability of products to their consumers (Bowersox et al, 2005).

The global automobile industry has also faced challenges in differentiating their products (Consumer and Engineered Products, 1998, p. 4). Studies indicate that today, competition in the automobile industry is very complex given the fact that automobile consumers have a variety to choose from. This poses a challenge to the automobile manufacturers in offering differentiated products in their quest to meet customer needs and expectations. Thus, if they are to consolidate their market share, maximize their returns and utilize their full capacity, automobile manufacturers need to strengthen their product differentiation strategies in order to attain brand uniqueness that would not only attract but would also retain customers (School of BBA and MBA, 2006).

The other threat that the automobile manufacturers have endured is marketing and distributing their products (Consumer and Engineered Products, 1998, p. 4). With heightened competition and the need for product differentiation, global automobile industry is faced with the challenge of developing new ways of achieving value addition. With national franchises with large marketing and advertising powers on an upward trend, automobile manufacturers do not have a choice but to implement strategies that can convince their customers that their product offerings are the best (Evans and Associates Valuation Advisory Services, 2008, p.1). This calls for branding, strong competitive advertising and effective market promotions (Kotler, 2003 Berthon et al, 1999, pp. 53-65).

Conclusion
This study has established that there are various external threats facing the global automobile industry. These include globalization, product differentiation, supply chain management, marketing and distribution as well as new product development (Consumer and Engineered Products, 1998, pp.1-8). Perhaps as a way of rectifying these external threats, the global automobile industry should first recognize all the threats they are faced with. It is only after identifying these threats that they can possibly make efforts of creating barriers to entry as a way of protecting their business ventures (Highfill et al, 2004). According to Keegan (2002), global automobile industry can also withdrew their operations from other markets if they realize that those market areas are not profitable. Similarly, global automotive industry should strive to consolidate their competitive edges through effective product differentiation, competitive pricing and unique new product offerings (Barney  Hesterly, 2008).

Many years ago, say 30 years, Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) were not a commonly heard terms, and those who have heard of it simply ignored if not being skeptical over it. The idea of being a good company who takes responsibility of social welfare by spending their money instead of piling it up were obviously a really bad strategy campaign to the shareholders. These days however, every company will find themselves stumble upon social responsibilities one way or another. Such occasion brings to light the questions of whether a company had in it the obligation to answer the call of social demands. Where there are certainly objections and agreements for it, here we will discuss the view of CSR from different perspectives.

Perhaps the first perspective we are going to look at is also the utmost important one, the perspective of profit. In almost every sense of business we are brought back to talk about profit and benefits for any corporate. While many of us would rather frown upon the use of Social Responsibility for profit, in fact there were tons of profits a company can make to pave their way towards glittering money. Birchard (1999) describe the reward of CSR to company as a single word, reputation. Good reputations entice shareholders to invest, customer to buy, the best and brightest job candidates to apply for employment. They help persuade employees to stick around rather than leave and communities to offer tax breaks or infrastructure support. Once established, moreover, a golden reputation cant easily be emulated by upstarts or less civic-minded competitors.

The second factor is law, regulations and social enforcement. The Economist newspaper pointed out that money alone is not the only answer when companies come under attack for their misbehavior. For not being socially-considerate, a company is in the face of risky management. The examples are far too many to explain one by one, but some of the most obvious are food companies facing backlash over growing obesity, oil spill cases causes industry after industry suffered blows to its reputation, and many others. Thus many companies began to take consideration such environment and social complaints and issues as part of risk management strategy. Private enterprise also requires a supporting infrastructure of laws and permissions  more generally the consent of electorates, to pursue its business goals that granted towards the companies and businesses regarded as good citizen (Ikanova, 2008).

Another factor is responsibilities towards the stockholders, contradicts the view of CSR obligation. Milton Friedman (1970) stressed the idea that executives are agent serving the interest of his principal (stockholders). Such justification disappear when corporate executives imposes taxes and spends the proceeds for social purposes. Such executive became public employee or civil servant under the disguise of an employee in private enterprise. He also critically reminds that every money executives spent for those social purposes are the money of the stockholder which they might be unwilling to spent for such occasion. Thus the utmost ultimatum given by the author is that one and only one social responsibility of business  to use it resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.

Thus from the description above on those perspectives, there are two distinct notions that can be harvested from this paper discussion in conjunction with Iankova (2008) the first notion is a moral (or socially-enforced) obligation to do so It is the right thing to do or It is what the society wants. This in turn led to agreement that corporate should contribute to society goals with its activities. The other notion is based on Bearing social responsibility is good for businesses. Drucker (1984) proposed the principles Doing good is equal to doing well in the spirit of this notion. Business face is changing every single day due to ever-growing technology particularly for those companies struggling in the emerging markets. A solid and reputable identity is one of the most powerful tools to stay on the top of such market. Thus, doing good as mentioned here will had dramatic impact on business here depending how each company cleverly utilize the power of being socially-sensitive.

In the end, CSR should be considered as part of doing business for every company world wide rather than viewing it as obligation. By feeling obligated, corporate while give reasonably high attention towards its responsibility they are separating their business and CSR. The lesson to be learnt from here though, is the importance of CSR can be compared to the importance of marketing or advertising. CSR is now an industry of its own right (Ikanova, 2008), and if none of the company could survive without marketing or advertising nowadays, then so the same case will happen if not now, in the near future. Such way of thinking go in line with the idea presented by Friedman (1970) about the extent of executive responsibility, CSR can be a safe bet of profits for the company. Such profit can be directly for the benefit of the company or indirectly such as good reputation. In field of emerging market moreover, social responsibilities plays even bigger part of any growing company. Such rapid growth and industrialization in emerging markets demands solid CSR from each company to stay in favor of society (thus customers) and avoid the risk of being exposed to social and environmental complaints.