Confederates in the Attic Book Analysis Term Paper

Confederates in the Attic Book Analysis - Term Paper Example He recalls his efforts for research, some bitter-sweet memories, the threat of physical violence and camaraderie he experienced, all for the sake of writing a good book with accurate historical details. Recollection of the past events is not always sweet, even when the present states of affairs are sound. For an individual, for an institution, for a race, for a language group and for the Nation as a whole, the original questions will always remain as the original questions with slight modifications here and there! During his extensive travel, Horwitz realized how sharply the viewpoints of the people were divided, over the fundamental issues, though taking into consideration the provisions of the Constitution, every citizen of America, was granted equal rights and continues to enjoy them. Tony Horwitz points out how a small initiative, even if it well-intentioned, has the potentiality of ending up in major conflagration and the pet up feelings of different sections of the people have chances of snowballing into a conflagration. He (1999, p.6) cites the example, â€Å"the Walt Disney Company unveiled plans for a Civil War theme park beside the Manassas battlefield. This provoked howls of protest that Disney would vulgarize history and sully the nation’s â€Å"hallowed ground.†It seemed as though the black-and-white photographs I’d studied as a child has blurred together, forming a Rorschach blot in which Americans now saw all sorts of unresolved strife; over race, sovereignty, the sanctity of historic landscapes, and who should interpret the past.† His interactions with the actors (people) in the re-enacting circles revealed their mind-sets and thinking processes and some humorous situations. About his impression of a bloated corpse Horwitz writes, ''His belly swelled grotesquely, his hands curled, his cheeks puffed out, his mouth contorted in a rectus of pain and astonishment. It was a flawless counterfeit of the bloated corpses photo graphed at Antietam and Gettysburg that I'd so often stared at as a child.'' (p.7) What he wondered and took note off was the seriousness with which each actor acted, not with the sense of professional integrity alone, but to give vent to their feelings of personal loyalties and convictions. In the course of his trek, Horwitz comes across highly interesting personalities, which one cannot imagine even in the fictional dreams and it provides rare insights into the minds of the personalities. Besides such encounters and experiences are invaluable addition from the perspectives of sociology and human psychology. My impressions about the text: This is an invaluable book that provides insight into the working of the minds of common individuals as for the issues confronting the Nation today. By passing laws on equality and by securing the freedom of individuals through legislations, nothing tangible will be achieved. No legislation can change the color of the skin, and this is the issue, that boggles those who have concern for the welfare of the Nation, nay the ultimate good the humankind. The most dismaying trend Horwitz finds is the resurgence of anti-Federal hostility and racial separatism and I agree with the author one hundred percent about his genuine concern. This is a historical issue for which extraordinary efforts are needed at all levels like politics, economics, sociology and even religious and spiritual values of the Nation. The politicians of different parties have so far

Project Management In the era of continuous development of trade and Essay

Project Management In the era of continuous development of trade and commerce - Essay Example Speaking it more clearly, project management embodies the pathways as regards the resources and technological availability, constraints for the implementation of the project, feasibility of the project, intended steps to be undertaken for the effective implementation of the project, evaluation of the project and the maintenance activities of the project for giving it into effect. All the actions and pathways are followed in accordance with the project planning. The functions and program manifesto of a given project may vary in accordance with the scope of a project. are closely linked to the theory of management. Over the decades, project management has become a predominant consideration, as without the successful implementation of the project management, not a single project can be deemed successful. Hence, for the development initiatives and ensuring the organizational efficiencies as well as the performance capabilities successful project management is the sine qua non. ... roject management has become very important for the organisations as there is a close relationship between the project management and the operation of the organizational processes. The continuous and effective operation of project management help the organizations in exploring their potential benefits as well as devising the ways and means for developing their organizational performances and ultimately achieving the optimum success for the organisation(s). Thus, the organisations putting emphasis on the project management issues, undertake comprehensive action plans. Because; without effective project management initiatives, all the development initiatives would be meaningless. Henceforth, on the face of practical situation, the issue of project management has its mounting position in the fields of trade and development and in matters associated with such dealings. Project Management In implementing a project, following points should be given due importance. The whole life cycle of a project involves some key considerations which arte interrelated to each other. The relevant aspects included in the project management or project implementation are the scope of the project, time, and money and most importantly the resources of a given project. It is necessary to mention that due to the failure of any of the four ingredients, a project is sure to collapse or lose the efficacy or merit of it. Therefore, these aspects of the project management should be given the utmost importance, as they are much significant on the way of project implementation. The project management plan is conducted for achieving a clear-cut understanding of the scope, objectives, work breakdown structure, criteria and other related issues in discharging the functions of the project.

Law of evidence Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Law of evidence - Case Study Example We have been told that in the question that the judge has already given a direction that, pursuant to section 34 of the criminal justice and Public Order Act 1994, a proper inference could be drawn from Billy's silence at interview. If this is allowed to continue without being challenged in appeal the effect of it will be that the court will allowed to infer "what is proper" from Billy's silence at the court where he has failed to mention his epileptic state and the factum of the argument he had with the deceased prior to the death.However at this point we have not been told whether he was placed under a caution or not. This is important because Section 34 only applies where an interview under caution takes place, so the court will not be able to draw an inference if for example Billy had declined an invitation to attend an interview under caution. In the case of R v Argent1,the Court of Appeal was of the opinion that six criteria had to be met before such a direction could be given. In Billy's case that would be According to the case of R v Milford2,the phrase "in the circumstances" will be interpreted to take into account the time of the interview and the mental and physical state of Billy. This alone could be a basis of appeal as Billy can base his silence on his epileptic state. However the facts point out that he remained quiet based on his solicitors advice. A substantial part of the discussion is thus devoted to this fact and whether the court will take silence based upon the Solicitor's advice into account. It was also noted in the case of R v Milford 3 "fact" will be denoted its literal meaning based on any premises and explanations that the Billy could give for his involvement in the allegation of murder which could convict or absolve or mitigate his liability. In this regard it is worth noting that the recent case law does not support his grounds of appeal.In the case of R. v Lowe (Paul) 4the appellant appealed by way of reference by the Criminal Cases Review Commission under the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 s.9 against the dismissal of his appeal5 against conviction it has held that the judge's direction to the jury in relation to the application of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 s.34 could not be appealed despite the fact that the judge had wrongly summed up to the jury that the defendant was under no obligation to answer any questions and that he had a right to silence, and the fact that he appeared to have been indicating to the jury that silence in interview should allow the jury to draw adverse inferences from the silence. It will have to be seen in Billy's case then that the only way out for this appeal ,basing my advice on the ratio of Argent (Brian)6

What is childrens literature & how does it enrich children's lives Essay

What is childrens literature & how does it enrich children's lives - Essay Example Therefore, it makes them familiar with all these things and prepares them to handle such situations or problems which may arise in their own lives. A written work produced specifically for the purpose of educating or entertaining young people is termed as Children’s literature. The range of this genre of writing includes classics, picture books, fairy tales, fables, songs from the folk tradition and illustrated stories. Earlier, stories told in the oral tradition constituted this genre, but the late 18th century and the early part of the 19th century saw a spurt in activity in this area while high levels of literacy in the 20th century gave a great impetus to the creation of this form of writing. The purpose of children’s literature is to create a â€Å"revelation, expansion and exploration-pushing back limits† according to Peter Hunt, one of the foremost proponents and critic of this form of writing. Children’s literature plays an important role in molding and nourishing a child’s character. Children’s literature is created keeping in mind the fact that its target audience is not yet ready for adult literature and it is designed to cater to a age group which is still not equipped with the necessary mental skills required to understand and read complex words and ideas. Literature enriches a child by helping him to understand themselves and their surroundings better by placing them in a make believe world, where they immerse themselves into one of the characters and experience the world vicariously. Nancy Anderson has divided children’s literature into six broad categories- early childhood picture books  , fiction, traditional literature, biographies and autobiographies, poems and verses, and non-fiction. She also delineates what does not constitute this genre, and these include joke books, comics, and cartoon books. Pictus† published in 1658 followed by John Newberry’s

Western society VS eastern society Essay Example for Free

Western society VS eastern society Essay Western Society VS Eastern Society In After the First Death there was major antagonism between the two different societies, the western (American) and eastern (Arabic) societies. Among the eastern society in the novel, appropriate education, value for life and the individual were merely betrayed and violated, they simply did not exist. However, one thing that did exist very strongly was patriotism. The eastern societies are firm believers in patriotism and are powerful patriots. The western society too believed in patriotism, however not nearly as strongly as the easterners. Yet, they still comprised of the values of life and the individuals themselves. Both sides believed in patriotism in their own ways. Both showed love and devotion to ones country. This was what the major conflict was all about. They both conceived and believed that their ways of life were accurate and proper. Nevertheless, only one side in the end was going to win. Either youre a great patriot or a great fool. (Page 192) This was a statement made by Artkin to the general, Bens father. The general stated that he was both. A great fool for risking his sons life in order to save Inner Delta, and a great patriot because he was willing to loose his own son and to go all lengths merely to save Inner Delta. Education played an immense role in the way Miro and Artkins society were educated, as appose to the American education system. I went to a special school, where I was taught the use of weapons and explosives. Combat: with the knife, the gun, the hands. (Page 124) This was how Miro the terrorist was educated, accompanied by thousands of other egotistic and ruthless future terrorists. Yet, still to this day there is no difference in the education system, and nothing has changed. Dictatorship and absolute authority are still operated in the eastern societies as well as continuing to teach terrorism and total patriotism. Miro had dared not question Artkin-no one was so foolish as to do that. (Page 60) This revealed how Miro was taught not to question authority, as appose to the American society, where questioning is believed to be encouraged and dictatorship is unheard of. Miros assignment was to kill the driver. Without hesitation. (Page 17) Life for Miro, Artkin and other terrorists were meaningless and empty, they did not value or appreciate life. They too were also extremely apathetic when it came to other peoples lives. And inflicting death did not bother him (Miro), neither did the contemplation of the act. (Page 18) That it does not matter whether or not I get away. Whether or not I (Miro) live or die. Whether anyone else lives or dies. I have served my purpose. (Page 217) These two particular quotes illustrated that other peoples lives as well as their own lives were pointless, and that it would not even scare them to see their own lives or other peoples lives perish. Automatically this paints a picture of how the two different societies in the novel lived, and the reason for all the conflict. Both societies had different beliefs and different views on life, which in this case produced major antagonism. Both believed that their way of life was superior to all others, and in order to prove that, they were willing to go to all lengths.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay Example for Free

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay In the story â€Å"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn† there are many problems that the characters face in the story. Near the end of the novel Huck says â€Å"But I reckon I got to light out for the territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it. I been there before. † Huck doesn’t seem happy with Aunt Sally asking him to go back with her. He did have times in the story where he likes to be with the widow and he could like being civilized if he gave it a chance. Huck doesn’t want to be civilized he wants to just do what he wants and be free not having to be tied down. In the beginning of the story Huck was jumping around from house to house. First he started with Pap at his house. Then Huck went to live with the Widow at her house because he could not stand Pap, who was a drunk and would beat Huck all the time and he just couldn’t take it. Then when he moved from Pap’s to the widow’s he didn’t like it there either. The widow tried to change him and make him something he wasn’t. This is an example of what he means when he said â€Å"I been there before. † In the story you could tell that the widow was trying to keep him and have him stay there. It says â€Å"the widow found out where I was by and by, and she sent a man over to try to get hold of me. † This shows that he just wanted to break free. Another reason that shows how Huck doesn’t want to be civilized is in the quote it says â€Å"Aunt Sally wants to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it. † Throughout the story Huck shows that he doesn’t want to be civilized and just wants to be free. This is why he just escapes and goes down the river in the raft with Jim and fakes his death in the first place. In the book Huck says â€Å"Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft. † This quote shows exactly how Huck is and loves to be by himself. This also relates to him not wanting to go and stay with either Pap or the widow when he was put in that situation. The other part says that he feels â€Å"cramped and smothery† when he if not in the raft. The raft gave him the freedom he wanted and got and he was not about to go back to what he just escaped from with the widow. The widow and Aunt Sally wanted to do the same thing. My third reason why Huck doesn’t want to be tied down and civilized is because of the experiences he had. By Huck faking his death he was able to experience something he would of never have if he stayed where he was. One example was his encounter with the robbers; they were trying to pretend to be something that they are not and Huck got to realize that people aren’t always what they say they are. Another experience was when they dressed up Jim to get away. And the biggest lesson that he learned was that it was the right thing to do was to not turn Jim in during the time on the Mississippi river to the people around them saying that he is a fugitive slave. Also, he said that he doesn’t care if he goes to hell if they find out what he is doing. This is a big thing for him to say because he actually believes in god in a big way and is very superstitious. This was a big step for anyone at this time. It was against the law to do what Huck did by attempting to reunite him with his family by going up the Ohio or even just staying with him. During this time period and where he was from this was one of the greatest sins. Overall I feel that this quote â€Å"But I reckon I got to light out for the territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it. I been there before,† is very important and relates to the entire book in many different ways. It` could show how Huck got to learn many different things on the trip, how he made a friend that he shouldn’t have at the time the story was written, or it was just not the thing to do in this time period when the book was written. Huck doesn’t want to jump from house to house because Pap is a bad Drunk and the widow wants to have him tied down. In the quote Aunt Sally want to do the same thing the widow tried to do. Through this Huck got to learn new things and make more friends. Now we know that he just wants to be free and live his own life without people â€Å"smothering† him.

Amazons Business Model: A Case Study

Amazons Business Model: A Case Study Discussion of Amazon’s business model, and the impact of information technology for the internal organisation of work. What is their business model? Many academics believe that Amazon’s outstanding success as an Internet retailer compared with many of its rivals has been due largely to its ideal business model and swift response to the changing market since its inception. (Global Market Information Database, 2003) To begin with, Amazon chose the perfect product lines for e-commerce, with products that consumers did not need to handle in person before making a purchase: initially books, but then spreading to DVDs, music and other media. Furthermore, consumers in the book and music categories tend to desire information when they shop online, which Amazon was able to provide on its sites through reviews and recommendations. Amazon consumers appeared willing to pay a little extra for this convenience, although the recent competitiveness of the market has forced the company to cut prices or use other promotional techniques, and shift the focus of its business model from pure quality driven back towards price driven. Amazon then turned to diversification, and extending its product offer in order to widen its customer base and improve margins, with the result being that the company has focused strongly on building up its product portfolio to offer customers more choice. In 2001, Amazon increased its range of electronics and tripled its kitchen selection, as well as launching computer and magazine subscriptions stores, and set up strategic partnerships with retailers such as Target and Circuit City. In November 2002 Amazon.com announced the launch of a new online apparel store with items from retailers including The Gap, Old Navy, Lands End, Nordstroms, Cole Hahn, Osh Kosh, Spiegel, Eddie Bauer, and Foot Locker, amongst others. This diverse business model has enabled Amazon to grow both its market capitalisation and profitability, and become largely accepted as the world’s leading online retailer (Global Market Information Database, 2003) The company also concentrates on improving convenience with new features, such as the recently launched ‘Instant Order Update’, which warns customers if they are about to buy the same item twice. Marketing itself as offering Earth’s Biggest Selection, the company aims to be the world’s â€Å"most customer-centric company†, operating through its three basic businesses: Online Retail; Marketplace and Other; and Third-party Sellers. Amazon also recently began to target the institutional market as well as consumers expanding its business model in order to drive a new source of revenue: renting out its site-building services to other companies. It owes much of its relative financial well-being, compared with other pure Internet retailers to the site-building and hosting services it has sold to clients such as Borders and Toys â€Å"R† Us. (Global Market Information Database, 2003) Indeed, a recent article by Sutton (2005) focuses on Sears Canada Inc., which has recently stated that it will turn over the technology component of its online retail presence to Amazon to capitalize on Amazon’s years of expertise in customer-facing Web sites. â€Å"Sears.ca will remain very much a Sears brand,† according to spokesperson Vincent Power, (Sutton, 2005) with little to indicate Amazons involvement from a customers perspective, and Sears will continue to host the site, using the same internal fulfilment house that handles customer orders from the site and from the Sears catalogues. Amazon Services Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon.com Inc., will handle the arrangement which is only the latest in a series that Amazon has struck with other retailers recently. The idea of retailers, both huge and small, outsourcing their Web sites has gathered momentum in recent years, said retail analyst Jim Okamura with Chicago-based J.C. Williams Group (Sutton, 2005), and Amazonà ¢â‚¬â„¢s business model is now aligning itself to take full advantage of this fact. Strategic alliances are another integral part of Amazon’s business model, and the company has entered into a number of agreements to expand its range of products and services by allowing selected strategic partners to sell products and services under co-branded sections on the Amazon.com website. These alliances have generally consisted of Amazon making, or having the future right to make, a minority investment in the companies, and the entry into commercial agreements, which vary in scope, from customer advertising activities and links, to recently announced deals involving the sale of products and services on co-branded sections of the Amazon.com website. These alliances have developed from the successful alliances the company forged in 2001, with such companies as America Online and Target in the US, and Virgin Wines in the UK. Amazon also expanded its product offering under its Toysrus.com strategic alliance to include Babiesrus.com and Imaginarium.com co-branded stores at www.amazon.com. In addition, the company entered into strategic alliances with Expedia, Hotwire and National Leisure Group to create its travel store, further fulfilling its diversification aims. Amazon’s marketing strategy is one of the most typical parts of its business model, being focused on strengthening and broadening the Amazon brand name, increasing customer traffic to its websites, building customer loyalty, encouraging repeat purchases and developing incremental product and service revenue opportunities. However, the unique part of this section of its business is that in order to accomplish this, the company employs tactics such as delivering personalised pages and services and using a variety of other media, business development activities and promotional methods. Amazon also relies on public relations activities, as well as online and traditional advertising, including radio, television and print media, and direct marketing, however one of the primary ways the company directs customers to its websites is through its â€Å"Associates Program†. This enables associated websites to make products available to their customers with fulfilment performed by A mazon, and is remarkably successful: by 2001, more than 700,000 websites had enrolled in the Associates Program. (Global Market Information Database, 2003) What many consider to be the defining characteristic of Amazon’s business model is that the firm has no physical retailing activities, operating only via the Internet. However, its virtual operation is very much underpinned by administrative and service facilities, and in 2001, these consisted of US fulfilment facilities in New Castle, Delaware; Coffeyville, Kansas; Campbellsville and Lexington, Kentucky; Fernley, Nevada; and Grand Forks, North Dakota; as well as a seasonal fulfilment centre, used as necessary, in Seattle, Washington. The company also leases and operates three European fulfilment centres located in the UK, France and Germany and, in Japan, the courier company Nippon Express provides fulfilment services for orders from www.amazon.co.jp. These fulfilment centres comprise in total around four million sq ft of warehouse space, and in addition, Amazon leases four off-site facilities that fluctuate from 340,000 to 710,000 sq ft of space, which support the storage an d fulfilment functions of the US centres. (Global Market Information Database, 2003) What are the technologies used by the organisation in pursuit of competitive advantage? In Hamid’s (2005) article, he focuses strongly on the fact that Amazon offers many interesting variations on the strategic applications of Internet technology, in order to enhance customer relationship and acquire customer loyalty. Obviously, Amazon’s offerings of personalised services, confirmation of orders in real time and other value added activities substantiated the ability of the Internet as a competitive tool. As the number of internet users is growing rapidly around the world, retailers are under great pressure to take advantage of this huge online market potential. However the challenge is whether online retailers can match up with other, â€Å"bricks and mortar† competitors worldwide in terms of services rendered on the Internet. Hamid investigated the level of Internet technology applied by web sites in view of global electronic marketplace competition, finding that many Internet retailers are still lagging behind in fully utilizing the strategic pote ntial of the Internet particularly in enhancing customer relations. However, Amazon is already way ahead of this, using some of the technologies described above, and plans to cement its lead further in the next five to ten years and, in doing so, revolutionise the book business yet again. Curtis (2005) analyse Amazon’s recent acquisitions of on-demand book printer ‘BookSurge’ and e-book company ‘MobiPocket’, claiming that they may signal a coming transformation of the publishing business, one that includes an end to the industrys biggest problem: that of returns. Since practical ‘print on demand’ (POD) technology became available in 1998, it offered retailers the vision of a book business driven by demand-and-supply, rather than the current consignment model, and Amazon is ideally placed to turn that vision into reality (Curtis, 2005) Given that the retailer owns or leases well over four million square feet of warehouse space, no small portion of which is devoted to books, and employs 9,000 people to process orders, it would benefit immensely if it could forward orders to a printer to drop-ship books directly to customers. Not only would this benefit Amazon itself, but also potentially the publishers, helping Amazon develop strong relationships with yet another stakeholder group. One strategy might be for Amazon to print pre-sold books in its own plant which, aside from shifting printing and shipping costs from publishers to the retailer, would also sharply reduce the guesswork for publishers setting print runs. Given current economies of scale for large print runs of big books, its likely publishers would, at least for the foreseeable future, continue to print books the traditional way for brick-and-mortar accounts. However, Curtis (2005) claims that even a mix of POD and traditional printing makes more sense than the current reasoning that you can make more money by printing a million copies and selling half of them than you can by printing half a million and selling all of them. Though POD manufacturing costs are currently far higher than those of traditional long print runs, longer POD print runs, and lower unit costs, will become more common if the number of pre orders on the site continues to rise, and as the technology continues to improve, especially given Amazon’s access to detailed customer data which it can use to predict future retail trends. Equally, Amazons acquisition of the e-book retailer, ‘MobiPocket’, enables the company to contemplate developing virtual publishing in its purest form: eliminating hard copies and delivering virtual books electronically to customers at a fraction of the current cost. As Amazon masters these technologies and delivery systems in the coming years, perhaps even becoming a publisher in its own right, it will be harder and harder for traditional publishers to support the outdated consignment model, and potentially giving Amazon its highest ever level of competitive advantage. Indeed, trade publish ers may find themselves shifting to a system in which most books are pre-sold, regardless of the channel, further increasing Amazon’s advantage over the traditional stores. Curtis, R. (2005) What are the implications of this technology on the internal organisation of work? One of the key implications of the importance of technology to Amazon is that the company has to maintain its edge in technology: an edge that is more critical than ever as Amazon increasingly squares off against sophisticated e-commerce survivors like eBay, whilst controlling the potentially massive costs of said technology. Just two and a half years ago, Amazon spent 11 cents on tech for every $1 in sales, but now the company spends only about 6 cents. All told, Amazons tech spending has fallen 25 percent from its September 2000 peak, even as the company added nine new categories to its retail lineup and signed on dozens of new corporate partners. However, despite the need to slash unnecessary costs, at other times, its much better to invest your way to efficiency and, as Amazon’s head of technological development claims: â€Å"You cant be cheap for the wrong reasons.† (Thomas, 2003) As such, Amazon’s internal staff have embraced open-source coding, replacing Sun servers with Linux boxes from Hewlett-Packard, and necessitating a whole new organisational structure for the technological development staff. For every $1 spent on the new hardware, the company saved $10 in license fees, maintenance, and expected hardware upgrades, but also has to learn and adapt to the new processes and systems. The company has also been willing to spend to save, maintaining its own warehouse-management software, which has to be built and maintained by internal staff, even though ready-made alternatives like Logility might cost as little as $375,000. However, with its own software, Amazon can tweak inventory algorithms whenever it wants so that, for example, a book isnt shipped to New York from a Nevada warehouse when it could be sent faster and cheaper from Delaware, and managers can have greater control over their own warehouse staff. (Thomas, 2003) Equally, although Amazon’s partners are primarily intended to generate revenue, they are also used to help control internal costs: the company has recently began to invest in Web services and tools that make it easy for partners to hook into applications Amazon had developed for its own use. Now retailers like Nordstrom and Gap can feed their inventory into Amazons new apparel store without a lot of custom coding, and freelance programmers can build their own online stores using Amazons payment, fulfilment, and customer services, meaning that Amazon’s internal staff only need track these stores and ensure they are using the services correctly, rather than have to handle all the marketing and coding themselves. For example, a Romanian coder created www.simplest-shop.com, which uses Amazons Web services tools to extract product data from Amazon and then fashions side by side comparison tables, which is a feature not available on Amazon.com, essentially doing Amazonâ€℠¢s marketing and retailing for it. (Thomas, 2003) Amazon’s recent shift towards cutting costs has also has an effect on its internal organisation of work: in 2001, Amazon embarked on a restructuring plan which would lead to a reduction in its personnel numbers by some 1,300, or 15% of its workforce. This also involved: the consolidation of Amazon’s corporate office locations in Seattle; the closure of its fulfilment centre in McDonough, Georgia; the operation of its Seattle fulfilment centre on a seasonal basis; the closure of its customer service centres in Seattle, Washington and the Netherlands; and the migration of a large portion of its technology infrastructure to a new hardware and software platform. The company estimated that the restructuring would result in costs during the first half of 2001 exceeding US$150 million relating primarily to severance, fixed asset impairments, continuing lease obligations and other exit costs related to the restructuring. The restructuring has also lead to fundamental changes in the roles of its staff, and the organisational structures within which they work, with many staff taking over greater responsibilities and a greater scope of work. (Global Market Information Database, 2003) References: Curtis, R. (2005) Gone Today, Gone Tomorrow? Publishers Weekly; Vol. 252, Issue 30, p. 74. Global Market Information Database (2003) Amazon.Com, Inc. Euromonitor International. Hamid, N. R. A. (2005) E-CRM: Are we there yet? Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge; Vol. 6, Issue 1, p. 51. Sutton, N. (2005) Sears Canada turns over Web management to Amazon. Computing Canada; Vol. 31, Issue 7, p. 11. Thomas, O. (2003) Amazon’s Tightwad of Tech. Business 2.0; Vol. 4, Issue 1, p. 104.