SWOT analysis of ananda himalayas

SWOT analysis of ananda himalayas Ananda Himalayas is a trend setting concept in both business and luxurious spa.ananda Himalayas is a part of IHHR Hospitality owened by Mr Ashok Khanna.It is a luxurious spa situated in the tranquil Himalayan foothills,nested on a 100 acres estate surrounded by graceful Sal forests overlooking the river Ganges,close to the towns of Rishikesh Haridwar. Ananda Himalayas was established in 2000 its Indias first destination spa.it is a pathway to the ultimate,discovered through the union of body,mind soul.it provides a breathless redefine lifestyles with the well-known traditional Indian wellness regime of Ayurveda,yoga and Vedanta. IT is considered to be one of the best spa in the world and also rated no.1 destination spa in the world by most of the travel agent as well as newspapers magazines(Travel and leisure). Ranked by top new hotels of 2008by Conde nest traveller,76 hot spasacross globe by travel leisure and 26 best business hotels in South ASIA. Swot analysis Strengths:- Location- situated in the green lush of Himalayas with natural flora and fauna. Heritage property Spa- the only hotel with 21,000sq feet spa and first spa hotel in the country. Cuisine-food prepared is different from routine preparation and individually designed as per the body type and cooked without oil. Weakness:- Cost- rooms are extremely expensive and not suited to domestic traveller. Limitations-hotel mainly offers spa and wellness packages ,limited to a less part of the society. Opportunities:- Govt support- attract tourists with new promotional schemes which results in higher outbound tourists. Common wealth games- as games to be held in 2010,will be a boom for the industry. Aviation hospitality- both with joint venture helps in increasing travellers by offering cheap packages. Threats:- Recession Competitors-many small hotels opened near about with cheap yoga n spa packages and it can reduce the rate of visitors to ananda. Natural hazards-like fire,flood etc. Cheap airlines packages-customer want to go international after international air fair falls down. Political issues-like service tax,labour union policies etc. Key-findings for Ananda Himalayas:- biggest strength of Ananda Himalayas right now is its brand reputation being only spa in India(which is 50%)although it has to improve on weaknesses and less productivity than its competitors. At the same time,can increase the sale or mkt share with an increase in number of people who want relaxation and better health(as it is health and wellness industry). Mission and Vision Statement Mission:- to create a unique design product offer world class hospitality with a distinctive warmth and humility improve and innovate constantly to crate exceptional value for people,their individuality and to their growth VISION:- to be a world-class hospitality chain in India benchmark in spa industry to have a world-class spa institute in India expending capacity of existing property as well as expending with more new properties. Ethos:- E-empathy T-teamwork H-honesty O-ownership S-selflessness Corporate objectives:- Increasing revenue from 500 m to 550.75 m. Reaching to 100% customer satisfaction instead of 8.3 to 9.3%. Targeting profit from 45.64 to 58.42 Taking gross profit ratio to 12-15%. Mktg Objectives :- Increasing revenue from 50% to 100% Achieving customer satisfaction and quality standards to 100% Increasing profit from 80% to 100% Increasing growth profit ratio from 12% to 15%(CIRRUS 01 SEP 2008). Mkt segmentation:- Market Segmentation broadly identifies the potential markets from a general population for further refining and targeting. The market segmentation for ananda Himalayas will be done on the two bases. 1.geographic segmentation (it will contain both international and domestic markets) 2.demographic segmentation. Geographical Segmentation Country of Origin of Guests in Rishikesh star hotels COMPOSITION Five Star Deluxe and Five Star hotel % ASEAN 2.4 Australia 2.1 Canada 1.6 Carribbean 0.6 China 3.4 France 2.0 Germany 6.6 Japan 3.2 Middle East 2.5 Other European 1.4 Russia 1.2 SAARC 1.0 South Africa 1.4 UK 8.4 USA 24.8 Other 37.4 Total 100 (FHRAI, Indian Hotel Industry Survey 2008-2009) The table above shows the percentages of people from different origin that prefer staying in the five star deluxe and five star hotels in Rishikesh. According to this survey done by FHRAI, the number of tourists from US(24.8%) is the maximum which is followed by UK(8.4%) and Germany(6.6%) which have a marginal difference between them. These statistics clearly show us that there is a decent amount of tourists from The US for which we already have a good market. Therefore, there is a scope for targeting more people from UK and Germany. Though, we still cannot target a specific market with these statistics alone which will be done in the later parts Demographic Segmentation Foreign tourist arrival in India on the bases of gender (FHRAI, Indian Hotel Industry Survey 2008-2009) For the year 2006, the percentage of foreign male tourists was 57% against the female tourists which comprises of 36%. Whereas, there are 7% of the tourists which did not report and are missing from the stats. Similar is the case for the domestic tourists as well. The percentage of men travelling is slightly high than that of females all over India. Therefore, by evaluating all the data given above, we have chosen a differentiation market segment method to specify the target markets. Our specific target market will be; Foreign business travellers from UK and Germany Domestic tourists- leisure with high income (4.9% in all of India) Meeting Participants Target Market:- Corporate:- as this hotel is situated in a religious tourist place. Leisure:- this can be the major target market as it is basically a health and wellness spa. it attracts tourists who wants to rejuvenate. Groups:- groups improves sales as well as provides hotels a good market reputation and also capture major share of market. Positioning:- Market Positionining Perceptual Mapping; Foreign Business Travellers Expensive High Moderate Service Ista . Less Expensive (naresh k.malhotra(marketing research p-700) Domestic Tourists Expensive High Moderate Service Service Ista . Less Expensive (naresh k.malhotra(marketing research p-700) Key-findings for market positioning:- If we take price and customer satisfaction ratio into consideration, Ananda has lower price than its competitors and a good customer satisfaction but not the highest. If factors like brand reputation and value for money is considered than it has got the highest brand name. Corporate marketing strategy:- objectives Strategic tactics Implementation period revenue 500 m to 550.75m Tie-up with the travel agencies. Air-line packages Corporate rates Group rates Should start from april Should start through out the year Customer relationship 8.3m to 9.3m Set-up of various information centres Start from april and should continue through out the year. Total profit 45.64m to 58.42m Cutting down all unnecessary spendings Through out the years Profit percentage 12-15% Add-on services with packages Start from april Marketing strategy:- As per the product our hotel is offering,most of the facilities are delivered directly.to make it more successful we need to promote our product in market to increase market share.this can be done through various channels of advertising(travel agency,media advertising). As our target market is corporate and foreign clients so for this we need to tie up with prospective business to enhance the sale.hotel is in the growth level as per product life cycle,but due to recession the market share percentage has gone down.to come out of this,we are going to use the differentiationmarketing strategy.in this,the focus will be on different market segment with competitive price and product with quality service. Another reason is our target market is divided into small segmentations so,can easily increase our market share through these segmentations.our brand strategy is to provide high level of services and customer satisfaction with low rates and first objective is to increase the market share. The marketing mix strategy is based upon the two ps factors.we consider price and product.our aim is to provide different experience than other hotels and increase market share by establishing the brand value with in the customers. Markets Ansoffs Matrix Existing New Products Products 3.product development 1.Market Penetration Existing Markets 4.diversification 2. Market Development New The Ansoffs Matrix shows four different ways of marketing. It is basically a combination of four similar but different things. Existing Products and new products ,and, existing markets and new markets. In the case of the hotel ananda, we are going to follow the two methods that are Market Penetration and Market Development as shown in the figure above. We already have a product with us and we do not plan to create or add something new to our product line. Our plan is to enter further into the markets that we are already in. As explained earlier, we plan to increase our market share within the same market and try to reach the customers who fall in the same category but different profiles. The second plan is to create new markets with our existing product to offer the customers. In this case we have planned to create a new target market in the form of the domestic tourist which comes for purpose of leisure and holidaying. This is being done because according to the research that we have done in the beginning it shows us the scope of the domestic tourists. Another reason that supports this strategy is that we also have the right kind of product offering for this market. Budget:- Financial Report Percentage of Revenue (2008-2009): Hotels ananda Grand hyatt sheratons Vivanta(taj) Occupied Rooms Hotel 33,699 22,206 38,729 39,828 Occupancy percentage 55.4% 63.4% 66.7% 65.7% Rate per room $209.59 $220.09 $203 $186.59 Room Revenue 65.20% 66.8% 63.9% 55.7% F B Revenue 23.5% 20.8% 26.3% 31.4% Banquet conferences 6.6% 9.2% 2.0% 9.7% other 4% 2% 7% 3% Total 100% 100% 100% 100% Imp:- subject to further research Evaluation of marketing plan for ananda Himalayas:- Objective: Increasing customer satisfaction level from 6.2 7.5 Key Performance Indicator: Customer Satisfaction Surveys Frequency of Evaluation: Monthly Objective: Increasing Revenue from 500m 550.75m. Escalating profit from 45.64m 58.42m Key Performance Indicator: Revenue Report, Financial Audit Frequency of Evaluation: Annually Objective: Growing profit ratio 12.00% 15% Key Performance Indicator: Monthly Revenue reports, Cash flow Frequency of Evaluation: Monthly Note: (subject to further research) Contingency plan:- In the event that suggested marketing plan measures prove to be ineffective or below threshold following measures are suggestedency plan:- 1. PRICE+PROMOTION: Cruise liners+ vacations for students. 2. PRODUCT +PLACE : cant change the product services. 3. PROCESS+PEOPLE: Can stick to same old training methods) only to 10% of stock per store. 4. Cost cutting and cost management regards to budgeting and investment plans. The product offer: Ananda, Himalayas offers a comfortable and contemporary rooms with a beautiful view of landscape grounds.this hotel has 21,000 square feet spa(only one in India).all rooms are designed with a high level of comfort and as per the need of guests. Along with rooms this hotel offers a range of packages that includes scheduled aerobics,hiking trips in the foothills of Himalayas,meditation and yoga classes,wellness and treatment packages,cooking classes etc.this hotel has 75 deluxe rooms,5 suites and 3 villas.all rooms are equipped with all modern amenities. Pricing strategies:- Pricing needs to be decided as plays a very vital role in hotel growth.every hotel has a set target and goal,due to recession prices have come down. rate rationalization is the biggest change after recession. Penetrating pricing strategies: following this strategies would help ananda hotel to capture more portion of market share. In this strategy ananda hotel would be offering guests competitive rates with best standards of service which could be given in same class of hotel. Following penetrating pricing strategies would help ananda strengthening its position in market and establishing its brand name among customers. Penetrating pricing strategies would give elasticity to demand. Competition based pricing strategies: Keeping an close eye on every step of your competitor is very essential, specially pricing strategies. Price is the only factor which would play prime role in attracting customers. Competition based pricing basically means pricing according to your competitors and try giving better or something unique to them which would be our unique selling point of business. Competition based pricing will help ananda to fight competition and establish its market. Promotion:- Corporate and commercial rates Air-lines packages Corporate packages Group discounted rates Off-season special packages On-line deals Promotional spa packages Ananda place in tourism system:- Ananda is a hospitality service provider in destination. Destination is composed of different elements that together make up a destination mix. Basic components of destination mix are facilities, attraction, infrastructure, transportation and hospitality service provider commonly used as acronym FAITH (Weaver Lauton 2005). Ananda is an established name in hospitality service sector, just because of rescission it lost its market share and profit started declining. To revive from the situation of rescission ananda need to establish cordial relation with other component of Destination Mix. It has seen that hospitality service provider cant alone make tourist experience better of visiting place. The hospitality service provider needs to work in coordination with other component so that tourist can get better services and he is satisfied with hospitality given to him. For example:- Guest comes from united kinghdom to attend seminar or companys meeting when he would arrive airport first thing he would require would be transportation to hotel, after reaching hotel he would require facilities that would support his travel purpose. If guest would be getting all these facilities without hassle he would be a satisfied guest and repeat guest in future or guest commercially important person for hotel(CIP) for hotel who could give more business to hotel in near future. We would suggest ananda to apply push strategy. This strategy involves pushing the product through distribution channel to final consumer. Push strategy will induce distribution channel to put more effort for selling the hotels room and service as they would be having personal motive or interest that is profit or commission from hotel by doing so. Using push strategy will help ananda hotel to increase scope of capturing more market because by choosing distribution channel we could widen scope of advertisement and promotion of our products. For example hotel ananda could give lucrative offers to travel agent like 10% of room cost as commission in addition to their normal commission for booking. A push strategy provides an incentive for channel member to promote product to their customer or push product through distribution channel (Kotler, Bowen., Makens2006 pg 561). People:- Orientation Culture Change Internal marketing Process:- Process ananda hotel is using is based on technology and e-marketing. Physical evidence:- Brand image related to vision position. Environment:- The situation analysis that can be done for the hotel will include all the external factors which have an effect on the working of the hotel. These external factors can be studied by the help of PESTEL (political, economic, social, technological, environmental, legal) analysis and how these factors affect the working of the hotel. It is a strategic planning technique that provides a useful framework for analyzing the environmental pressures on a team or an organization. (Edmonstone, Havergal, 1999). Political Environment: this includes all the government policies, the laws in which the hotel has to deal and the pressure groups which affect the hotel performance. The Political instability such as tax rates and other matters like the policies and rules with which the hotel is concerned. The hotel has to be in the parameters of govt policies and have to follow all the rules and regulations. Economic Environment: This environment mainly deals with the money capacity of the consumer.this plays a vital role in deciding the promotion or downfall of the hotel business.The economic meltdowns lead to a downfall in the tourism sector, leading to a drop in the business of the hotel. The economy has started to improve and the international corporate travelers who form the major part of the target market of the hotel have once again started to come to the hotel. The economy will need some time to improve and this time can be utilized to make new marketing strategies which will attract more such travelers and suits their needs as well. Socio-Cultural Environment: It includes behaviors, perceptions, choices and the values of various individuals who constitute the society. This part includes both the employees and the society in which the hotel is working. The hotel needs to keep proper care of its employees and their needs in order to achieve high standards of work. The hotel also has some social responsibilities. The hotel can social events, the earnings of which can go for charity, it can also have an effective disposal system for garbage, water and gases which may help in maintaining a healthy environment for the society around it. Technological Environment: These factors act as the facilities in the hotels and are also the main aspects which help in the differentiation of one property to another. The ananda hotel has all the modern technologies being used forthe spas compared to other hotels. The hotel can always come up with some innovative ideas to place itself at a better position than its competitors. Natural Environment: The natural environment does not have much effect on the business of the hotel as anada,Himalayas situated in the beautiful landscape of Himalayas with natural and pollution free environment. This factor effects only when the marketers can use it for the promotion of the hotel. Legal Environment: This part includes the various rules and the policies that the hotel needs to follow in order to run the operations efficiently. These legal issues include the payment of taxes, giving proper remuneration to the staff, following of the legal government policies and others. Tax paid by tourists in India is the highest in the world, Indian hotels charge about 40% taxes compared to other Asian countries where it varies between 3% and 6%. (World travel and tourism council, 2010). Such factors as mentioned above shows the different legal requirements that are expected to be fulfilled by the hotel. Proposed Environmental Scanning System for anada,Himalayas hotel: Environmental Factor Source of Information Person Responsible Frequency Competitors Newspapers Staff/ Management Daily Guests Staff Daily Magazines Management Weekly Internet Staff/ Management Weekly Annual Reports Management Yearly Customers Customer feedback Staff Daily Staff Management Weekly Travel agents Management Monthly Regular guests Staff/ Management Monthly Internet Staff/ Management Weekly Economic Economic newsletters Management Weekly News papers Management Weekly Internet Management Weekly Average room rates Accountant/ Management Daily Balance sheets Accountant/ Management Yearly Internet Management Monthly Technologies Trade magazines Management/ Department heads Monthly Trade shows Accountant/ Management Yearly Internet Management Monthly Newspapers Management Weekly Television Management Daily The above mentioned three key areas need to be followed for the purpose of the environmental scanning. The hotel became one of the top rated hotels in the rishikesh, but due to the recession in late 2008 most of the business was lost. The above mentioned SWOT and PESTEL analysis, if followed properly, will help the business to reach high levels of business and market share. Service Concept/productivity:- Anada,Himalayas could get competitive advantage if, they properly plan and implement their supporting products. They must meet customers needs and expectation, to overbeat their competitors (Hertneneky, B,P.2006. p.g 281). In this critical stage of reviving from rescission, ananda hotel should not only concentrate on providing core product or basic product that would be food, shelter, and safety of guest. They should look upon providing augmented or supporting products, which are very important for delivering quality service and meeting expectation of guest. The augmented product includes accessibility, atmosphere, customer interaction with service organization, customers participation and customer interaction with each other (Kotler, Bowen., Makens2006 pg 307). Augmented product is important to be understood because it tells what is delivered and how is to be delivered. ananda hotel have to work seriously upon this service concept of augmented product because these product have huge impact on guest and will help to capture major portion of markets, by customer satisfaction which is key element in hospitality industry. Facilities we are providing are:- Wi-Fi internet access   ananda hotel can provide Wi-Fi anytime anywhere, whether in-room, by the pool or in other public areas sleep comfort   ananda hotel can provide ergonomically designed beds and a pillow menu with a wide range of comfort pillows. Business Centre   High speed internet access and board room style meeting rooms. Spa   21,000 square feet spa with all the required equipments. Pool Fitness Centre   ananda hotel is giving temperature controlled swimming pool for all seasons, state of the art gymnasium with personal trainers. Tailor-made food-ananda provides food as per the customer body type and famous for cooking without oil.food is inspired by ancient times and prepared with natural ingredients. Organisation:- The best part about anand,Himalayas is its staff as all staff is between the age of 21 to 35,customer oriented,friendly,well versed with the knowledge of therapies.they should have this kind of staff only as customer should feel at home and comfortable only than they will be able to enjoy the treatment. strategy:- Advertisement: it is one of the major promotional tools which can be used by hotel anada,Himalayas for promotion of their products and services. Advertisement could be one the very successful tool which can be used for increasing market share. If advertisement is well positioned and planned it could help to overcome competition and help to revive from recession (Jhon,L.2009.p.g 6). Various form of advertisement which is used for promoting its products and services could be: 1.Internet: This is one of the most widely used medium through which hotels can promote its product and services. It could be very effective in promoting products and services. 2.Printed Media: For example: magazine, journals and news papers. This is very useful because it would help promoting product among corporate clients and corporate employee. 3.Visual Media: For example: television, this is said to be very effective as it gives both visual and audio effect to guest. They can actually feel the product or services. 4.Sales promotion: They attract consumer attention and provide information that may lead the consumer to buy the product. Ananda can use sales promotion tool as to get quicker and stronger response from consumer. Various sales promotion tools which can be used could be: 5.Promotional letters to existing guests: ananda hotel can send promotional letter which includes lucrative discount offers, and various packages at discounted rates. This strategy would help ananda from recovering from recession and capturing more shares in market. Distributional Strategy: Distributional strategies which can be used by hotel ananda for capturing market share and overcome competitors could be:- 1.Trade Show: This could be very effective in distributing of products and service because trade shows are being attended by various travel agents and travel tour operator. This would help them to build cordial relation with them, in return of that we could business from them. 2.Exhibitions: these are very important in distribution of the hotels product and services as during exhibition hotel managers could get chance to interact with other hotel managers and managers of other companies to whom they could explain their product or service which could help in increasing sales revenue. 3.Airlines: magazines in airlines and airline companies could be important source for distribution of product and services of hotel. 4.Corporate Companies: Relation with corporate companies and advertisement in corporate magazine could help in promoting hotels product services.

Cloning - National Academy of Sciences and Human Cloning :: Argumentative Persuasive Topics

National Academy of Sciences: Human Cloning The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) made headlines when it issued a broadside that would, if followed by Congress, grant an open-ended license for biotech researchers to clone human life. True, the NAS recommended that Congress ban "reproductive" cloning, that is, the use of a cloned embryo to produce a born baby. But it also urged that human cloning for purposes of experimentation--often called "therapeutic" or "research" cloning--remain unimpeded by legal restrictions. Such a public policy would permit virtually unlimited human cloning--so long as all the embryos created thereby were destroyed rather than implanted in a woman's womb. The recommendation from a well-known scientific organization did not appear at this particular time by coincidence. The Senate will soon consider S. 790, legislation authored by Sam Brownback (R-KS) that would prohibit any creation of human clones--whether for research purposes or for reproduction. The House passed a virtually identical ban in a bipartisan vote last summer, and President Bush strongly supports the bill. Thus the legal future of human cloning--and the potential fortunes to be made by Big Biotech in the United States--hang in the balance in the Brownback bill. Limiting the ban on human cloning to procedures designed to lead to the birth of a baby would accomplish next to nothing. Figuring out how to clone human life successfully is going to be very difficult. Thus, early research would likely focus on perfecting techniques. Should this be successful, researchers would next attempt to maintain the resulting embryonic clone for a week to two weeks--long enough to harvest their stem cells. (The biotech company Advanced Cell Technology announced it has created human clones and maintained them to the six-cell stage(Advanced), which is not long enough for stem cells to appear.) Should the stem-cell Rubicon be crossed, implantation of the embryonic clone would then be relatively easy. Hence, the next natural (dare I use the word?) step would be the manufacture of human clones not just for research or genetic manipulation but for implantation, gestation, and birth. In any case, the morally serious question is whether human cloning is permissible-- not when those cloned should be killed once created. Much as an original oil painting can be seen only dimly beneath its patina, an agenda to eventually permit unrestricted cloning for all purposes can be discerned between the lines in the NAS report.

Greek Myths :: essays research papers

Greek Myths Dear Rebecca,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I am writing to you today to tell you about a few wonderful myths that I have read. I feel that they would interest you as much as they did me. I will give you a brief summary on each so that they will be a little more familiar to you if you decide to read them at some time in the future.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first story I read was the tale of Hermes. Born on Mount Cyllene to his mother Maia, Hermes was an astonishing child. His growth was equally astonishing for he grew at a rapid rate. Deciding he wanted an adventure, Hermes set out one day and stole a herd of cows from Apollo, the sun god.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When Apollo discovered the missing herd, he set out to find them but to no avail. Hearing of a reward offered by Apollo for the recovery of the herd, Silenus and his satyrs set out as well. Traveling far and wide their journeys brought them to a small cave, which echoed with the beautiful muffled sounds of a melody to which they were drawn. When finding out the music was produced by an instrument made of cow gut and tortoise shell, it was then understood that young Hermes had taken the herd from Apollo. Formal charges were brought to Mt. Olympus. Apollo, while going to get his remaining cows discovered Hermes' musical invention. Intrigued by this astonishing invention he offered his whole flock for the musical instrument. Hermes agreed, after which he invented a shepherd's pipe, which also awed Apollo. He offered Hermes his golden staff in exchange for the pipe but to no avail. In addition to the golden staff Hermes wanted the knowledge of augury. He felt it was a useful art. Hermes returned to Mt. Olympus to tell his father, Zeus, of all goings on. Zeus was very amused. Hermes suggested to Zeus that he be made into a herald. Zeus complied with this suggestion and showered Hermes with gifts.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Sounds like an interesting tale, doesn't it. Well it is much better if you read it yourself. The next tale I read was of Krishna. This one story was the most confusing of the four I read. To fully understand it you must read it and interpret it for yourself. I will try to do the best I can.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Rama and Krsna were two children who loved to play in the village. First they crawled and then they walked causing the village women to laugh and giving them great pleasure. Then Krsna started to untie the cows at

A Speech to Be Delivered to the Parents Teachers Association the Causes of Student Unrest and Suggest How It Can Be Prevented

Composition of Blood Blood contains a nonliving fluid matrix (plasma) in which living cells (formed elements) are suspended. Blood contains 55% plasma and 45% formed elements. Plasma is over 90% water. It also contains electrolytes (salts), plasma proteins, and substances transported by blood (i. e. nutrients, hormones, etc. ). The three types of formed elements are erythrocytes (RBCs), leukocytes (WBCs), and platelets FUNCTIONS OF BLOOD functions  of the  blood  are: o transport  oxygen  away from the lungs and around the body; and  CO2  from the body cells to the lungs. to transport  nutrients  such as glucose and amino acids from the digestive system to the cells in our bodies. to take  waste products  such as lactic acid away from the muscles when it's produced by anaerobic respiration; and urea from the liver to the kidneys and bladder. By maintaining a good circulation, the bloodflow keeps your core body  temperature BLOOD DISEASES lood disease,  any d isease of the  blood, involving the red blood cells erythrocytes, white blood cells leukocytes, or  platelets  (thrombocytes) or the tissues in which these elements are formed—the  bone marrow,  lymph nodes, and  spleen or of  bleeding and blood clotting. Long before the nature and composition of blood were known, a variety of symptoms were attributed to disordered blood. Red blood cells were not recognized until the 17th century, and it was another 100 years before one of the types of white blood cells, the  lymphocyte, and the clotting of blood (coagulation) were described.In the 19th century other forms of leukocytes were discovered, and a number of diseases of the blood and blood-forming organs were distinguished. Morphological changes—the changes in form and structure—that take place in the blood during disease and the signs and symptoms of the various blood diseases were described in the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th centur y. In the years that followed, a more physiological approach began to develop, concerned with the mechanisms underlying the development of blood disease and with the ways in which abnormalities might be corrected.

Reflective Essay on Management of Urinary Incontinence

There are many elderly clients quietly enduring continence issues, believing that frequency, urgency, and incontinence is an inevitable part of aging. Advanced practice nurses can play a significant role in discovering continence problems (Lea R. et. al. 2007). Urinary incontinence is defined as the complaint of any involuntary leakage of urine(International Continence Society,1997). A thorough physical assessment and evaluation is necessary to identify the problem at the early stage and to ensure its necessary management.In my placement area I found many residents either with urinary catheter or using incontinence pads. That is suffering from this problem. Thus I selected this as one of my learning outcome. I choose Gibbs Reflective cycle 1988 to write this reflective essay on assessment and management of urinary incontinence. This model of reflection allows me to evaluate and analyse my own experiences to bring out new learning and changes.DESCRIPTIONWhen I started my clinical prac tice I identified there are lot of elderly people with the complaint of urinary incontinence.It is important that incontinence be treated since it impacts not only the physiological, but also the psychological realms of a person's life. Depression and decreed quality of life have been found to co-occur in the person struggling with incontinence (Barbara Ann,2003). The most important effect of incontinence reported in men was â€Å"being out of control† while most women considered â€Å"feeling impelled to take several precautions† to be the most important consequence of UI (Doreth et al,2006). In my placement area I noticed that most of the patients with parkinson’s disease also suffer from the problem of urinary incontinence.When I searched in the literature ,a study by Dr. Vaughan points out that those with Parkinson’s disease usually experience urgency and incontinence as a common problem. When I started my placement , Mrs . X who was suffering from Pa rkinsonism since 5 years and dementia since 2 years was on Indwelling urinary catheter for the management of urinary incontinence. Adhering to the results from the literature review I planned for initiating several steps to control incontinence in Mrs. x. My mentor was always with me with full support and guidelines.FLUIDmanagement was the first step started. An input output chart was kept and well maintained. Then steps wre also taken to manage constipation. Exercises were the last method practiced and the final result was really appreciable as she got a great reduction in the incontinence rate.FEELINGSAfter the experience I felt so glad and proud to myself as it was a great success towards its end. In the beginning, during the time of planning I thought it may be bit difficult for a patient with parkinsonism and dementia to make follow our instructions and continue till the end of this practice.But when we started the programme her response was so nice that she found very cooperat ive and understanding. This made me more happy and I tried my level best to make every interaction to bring out something positive. I always tried to keep good inter personal relationship with the patient by using the different techniques of communication.EVALUATIONEven though I felt some difficulties during the beginning, as a whole I could feel a progressive response in my patient. My mentor was there with me when I felt some problems and helped me a lot to overcome all those.  She gave me more resources to manage difficult situations and it was really beneficial. I realised proper delegation of duties is necessary for a better implementation and also learned about the factors to be considered while delegating the duties and responsibilities.ANALYSISActually the experience was beneficial to me in different ways. First and foremost I could upgrade my level of knowledge. I read different journal articles and each one was a big store of new knowledge for me. I learned about the dif ferent techniques of management of urinary incontinence.  I could also understand the importance of behavioural intervention in the management of incontinence. I could understand some of my weak points and my mentor helped me to improve them.CONCLUSIONUrinary incontinence is a disease condition which not only affects the physiology of a patient but also affects his psychological status and needs a continuous assessment and evaluation. It is very clear that practice can make a difficult problem more easy and manageable.ACTION PLANMaintain proper fluid balance  Assess and find out the symptoms of constipation at an early stage and manage it effectively Maintain a regular assessment of urinary incontinence and record each incidence if possible Understand the importance of communication and the positive effects of it. Keep a therapeutic relationship with the patient. Utilise the resources like man, money and material in the best effective manner Plan with the patient to ensure his c ooperation and win his confidence Support and encourage the co-workers as and when required Evaluate and record each days progress so as to have best result at the end.

Analyses the leadership of Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Nissan Motor Corporation Essay

Introduction This paper analyses the leadership of Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Nissan Motor Corporation. Carlos has been recognised as a successful leader whose leadership managed to rescue Nissan from its financial crisis in the late 90s. His contribution to the company, industry and society is significant. I will start by giving an idea about the history of Nissan followed by introducing Carlos Ghosn as an individual and analysing his leadership style using various leadership theories and models. We will also assess the effectiveness and efficiency as well as the business value added to Nissan through his leadership. The Company Nissan company was established in Yokohama in the year 1933 to take over the manufacturing of Datsun Ltd. It was renamed as â€Å"Nissan† the following year. In 1935, the company started to produce sub-compact cars, named Datsun and started exporting to Australia. In the year 1936, Nissan bought a new production line which was intended for small passenger cars but because of  the war, the company had to shift to military vehicles and ships (The Short History of Nissan Motor Company, 2013). The war had a huge impact on the company as half of the plant was taken by the occupation forces for a decade which delayed the company’s growth and by the time war ended; many customer had already switched to Toyota. To recover from that, Nissan collaborated with Austin Motors and launched a new car in the year 1958 which lead them to win The Deming prize in 1960. Nissan launched two manufacturing operations in the United States and in the United Kingdom in the years 1980, 1984 res pectively. It also established new headquarters in North America and Europe with a vision to make the decisions of design, production and marketing locally. The company which had been under debts for the previous seven years signed an agreement with Renault in the year 1999 and both companies formed an alliance for mutual benefit and growth for both. Nissan Revival Plan (NRP) for restructuring which was announced in 1999 aimed to reaching sustainable and continuous global growth. The objectives of this plan were met by the end of 2001. The company currently manufactures cars in twenty locations globally. Worldwide number of sold units in 2011 exceeded 4.800 million. In addition to cars, Nissan develops and produces marine equipment as well (The Short History of Nissan Motor Company, 2013). Carlos as a person Carlos Ghosn was born in Brazil in 1954 to Lebanese-Brazilian parents. The family moved to Lebanon in 1960. He completed his secondary school in Lebanon before travelling to France for university study. He got his engineering degrees from the École Polytechnique in the year 1978. After graduation, Carlos worked for Michelin & Cie. for eighteen years. At the age of thirty, he became the Chief Operating Officer of Michelin’s South America’s operations which operated at a budget of $300 Million. He succeeded in turning over the South American operation from losses to profits. After that he became the Chief Executive Officer of Michelin in North America. Carlos joined Renault in 1996 as an Executive Vice President for advanced research. Renault purchased 36.3 of Nissan’s shares in 1999 and Carlos MOVED TO Japan and joined Nissan as a COO and was named CEO two years later (Millikin, J and Dean, Fu, 2004: 121-125). Carlos and Nissan When Carlos joined Nissan in 1999, the company was suffering from losses and it had large debts which represented high risks for the investors. It was clear that the company could not have sustained in the market for long with this operating rate. Moreover, it appeared that Renault’s future is dependent on Nissan’s recovery from this bad position after the acquisition of a large portion of Nissan. Carlos realised that a radical change had to happen and he proposed a three-year revival plan which was later known as â€Å"Nissan Revival Plan†. â€Å"When the NRP was first announced, Nissan’s executive committee announced three bold commitments; if any of these were not met, the members promised to resign: †¢ A return to net profitability in fiscal year 2000 †¢ A minimum operating income to sales margin of 4.5 per cent by fiscal year 2002 †¢ Consolidated net automotive debt reduced to less than  ¥700 billion by fiscal year 2002† (Nissan Revival Plan, 2013). In his revival plan, Carlos identified the root cause for the poor performance of Nissan in the past years. These were: â€Å"1) Lack of profit orientation 2) Not enough focus on customers 3) Lack of cross-functional, cross-border, intra-hierarchical lines work 4) Lack of a sense of urgency 5) No shared vision or common long-term plan† (Nissan Revival Plan, 2013). Carlos believed that the opportunity to improve did actually exist. He identified some success factors that would allow Nissan to recover from its crisis and occupy a high ranking in the automobile market. Nissan had a global presence. It had markets in different continents with a diverse customer base. The company also excelled in its manufacturing system and the quality of the products was never a subject of a complaint. He believed in people of Nissan as a key asset in addition to other organizational assets such as know-how, policies, procedure, customers and partners. Nissan had a leading edge in some field of the technology and its new alliance with a big and reputable company like Renault represented- according to his vision- a further success factor. All of that made Carlos believe that his  plan would succeed and that he could lead Nissan back to retain its ranking in the industry. The Revival Plan: The revival plan was based on cross-functional groups. These groups were formed by the executive committee and they included two hundred people from Japan, The United States and Europe. The cross functional teams focused on different areas. These areas were: â€Å" Business Development Marketing & Sales Purchasing SG & A Manufacturing Financial Management R & D Product Phasing Out Organization & Decision Making Process â€Å"(Nissan Revival Plan, 2013). The cross-functional teams assessed two thousand ideas and proposed four hundred proposals to the executive committee. The plan aimed at growth with increased profits and reduced debts. Business development portion of the plan aimed at developing new products and models, reducing the lead time which could be achieved by reducing the product development cycle and order delivery periods as well as the time to start selling in new markets. The plan had to target twenty per cent reduction in costs by the end of the third year. The plan suggested to centralize procurement and to shorten the list of suppliers as well as including services as a buying strategy. The plan also suggested increasing the utilization of the manufacturing capacity by shutting down three assembly plants and forcing the rest to work in two shifts. The industrial organisation was also changed into a simpler and more efficient way. Cost reducti on was an important aspect of the plan and for this purpose several action were made such as reducing incentives and emphasising more on the power of the brand name, closing 10% of retail outlets and opening for longer hours, utilizing the alliance with Renault and employing E-commerce. R&D costs were cut down by leveraging with Renault as well. Carlos has changed the model of the company from being  multi-regional to being a global organisation. That required a global head quarter, worldwide strategy, centralized planning and the global control of several function of the Nissan. Carlos realized that this could not have been achieved without the key asset of the company, its people. For that, he empowered the directors for cross-functionality and orientation towards profit. He also introduced compensations for performance which included bonuses and shares options. The opportunity for career promotion existed for those as well (Nissan Revival Plan, 2013). By implementing this plan, Carlos achieved the goals a year earlier than what was initially proposed. He managed to save the company two hundred billion Yen. On the other hand, the plan had an impact on people. Twenty one thousand people lost their jobs as a result of the cost headcount reduction he embraced and t herefore, Carlos was subject to criticism by media in Japan and worldwide. Nevertheless, Carlos has been recognized as a leader of change whose leadership and management not only turned losses back into profits but also contributed to a structural and cultural change within the company. His method and vision has been adopted by many leadership schools. Therefore, his contribution exceeds Nissan to other businesses and fields worldwide (Nissan Revival Plan, 2013). Carlos the leader Carlos’s personal and career profiles allowed him to be a successful leader. This can be illustrated by analysing different dimensions as suggested by Kotter (1990). Carlos learned from his experience with Renault as a vice president of advanced research to keep looking at the horizon while creating and executing strategies. An example of this visionary leadership is his empathy to the new generation of cars which runs on electric power as he anticipated that this is the future trend of the industry and wanted Nissan to lead it. He managed to have his followers share his vision and opened the door for them to grow and advance in their career. His revival plan relied on having the cross-functional teams brainstorm and share thoughts away from the bureaucracy and structural limitations. The plan also suggested a large number of thoughts to be assessed and presented to the board which reflects his openness and willing to listen to others’ thoughts rather than directing the m to adopt his own (Nissan Revival Plan, 2013). One of the success  factors for Carlos is that he believes in having no perception of the organisation or the culture before he actually gets exposed to it. He wanted to learn by experience: â€Å"†¦I asked people what they thought was going right, what they thought was going wrong, and what they would suggest to make things better. I was trying to arrive at an analysis of the situation that would not be static but would identify what we could do to improve the company’s performance. It was a period of intensive, active listening. I took notes, I accumulated documents that contained very precise assessments of the different situations we had to deal with, and I drew up my own personal summaries of what I learned. In the course of those three months, I must have met more than a thousand people. During that time I constructed, bit by bit, my image of the company based on hundreds of meetings and discussions† (Ghosn C , 2006: 93-94). His leadership created a radical change to the company that lead the company towards restoring its position in the market, a mission that would have seemed to be impossible to many. Carlos also believes in sharing knowledge and experience that may help other firms grow and succeed. This is clearly depicted by the new service introduced by Nissan, the consulting services which allow the transfer of Nissan’s Production Way (NPW) which relies on Kaizen (improvements) to other firms. â€Å"Nissan Production Way is a key ingredient of our success. I hope that you will make it part of yours† (Nissan production way, 2013). Nissan consulting services also represents a radical change from a company that adopts continuous improvement theories to a consulting company that help others adopt them. Theories of leadership vary in their approach toward the analysis of a leader’s style. Some of these theories emphasise on the behaviour of the leader. In other words, they suggest that individuals are considered leaders when they act as such rather that by their personal characteristics. This is a more realistic approach than trait theories which assume that leaders are born not made (University of Leicester, 2011: 247-254). Lewin et al (1939, cited in University of Leicester, 2011:250) identified three styles of leaders, autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire. We can think of Carlos as a democratic leader who demonstrated a sound level of engagement to the team during critical decision making. The cross-functional teams were asked to  think, discuss and assess ideas and present a reasonable number of thoughts to the management. This level of engagement to the team boosted their spirit and improved the quality of the decisions made. Fleishman’s (1953 cited in University of Leicester, 2011:251) two factor theory of leadership emphasises on two dimensions, consideration and initiating structure. Carlos managed to achieve efficient balance between these two dimensions, allowing employees to communicate their thoughts and ideas and respecting them without losing the lines of responsibilities which are required to manage such a multi-cultural and a multi-national organization. In other words, he stands in the middle between being people-centred and task oriented; this is referred to by Blake and Mouton (1964 cited in University of Leicester, 2011:253), as â€Å"Middle of the road†. Carlos believed that the solution for the company’s problems existed within the cross-functional teams and he shared this with them. On the other hand, he set the process, targets and timelines for his plan which represented a high level of task-orientation. Contingency theories suggest that leadership style may vary based on the situation in which the leader works (University of Leicester, 2011:255-262).They also relate to various parameters such as the leader, his/her followers and the nature of the tasks which the leader is trying to complete. It is clear that Carlos possessed many characteristics that allowed him to lead efficiently. He is Lebanese by origin, was brought up in Brazil, got educated in France and has worked in different countries. All of that enhanced his capability to lead in a diverse environment and overcome the challenge of being one of few non-Japanese leading a Japanese company. His work experience gave him exposure to various areas of the business ranging from business development to top level management including research. This allowed him to bring back Nissan to its financially healthy position and- at the same time- make advancements in other business areas. Carlos believed in Nissan as a company, in its people as assets and in Japan’s culture as a platform. For him to succeed, he had to secure the cooperation of those under his leadership. He had to make them see him as an efficient leader. He believed that this cannot be achieved without bridging the cultural gap between his origin, experience and the new environment he had to work within. He started learning about Japan, its culture, language  and even the food. He believed in respecting and understanding the culture of these people while trying to make a contribution. â€Å"I would say even though the term today is not very popular, love the country and love the culture in which you are in. And try to learn about its strengths, don’t focus on the weaknesses, and make sure that all the people you are transferring with you are of the same opinion† (The transcultural leader, 2013). Carlos benefitted from the culture of Japan. In an interview with MTV channel, he s tated that the commitment he and the committee will resign if the revival plan objectives were unmet, had been inspired by the culture of the Samurai who would defend his land and would kill himself in case of failure. He realised that importance of commitment to Japanese (Interview with Carlos Ghosn – MTV Lebanon, 2012). One of the reasons for his effective leadership in Nissan relates to the nature of his mission. It was obvious that the future of the two allied companies depended on his success in leading Nissan out of its crisis. He also tried to use urgency as a motivation factor therefore; he committed dates for his tasks to be accomplished and held himself as well as the team accountable for achieving them. The Path-goal theory of Robert House(1971 cited in University of Leicester, 2011:259) suggests that a leader can motivate his/her subordinates towards reaching the goals by helping them draw a clear path to those objectives and by giving more recognition to members who achieve those goals. When Carlos first formed the cross-functional teams, the team felt lost as of what is required from them and how to achieve it. Carlos realized this and he invited them to a meeting in which he explained the purpose of forming these teams and his expectations from them. He also promised his directors rewards and incentives for achieving the goals of his plan. In fact, before Carlos came up with his revival plan, he spent some time meeting with people at different levels of the organisation in order to understand the culture and the challenges he was going to face. The establishment of the cross-functional teams allowed him to engage large number of the company’s staff in idea generation, ref lecting a participative leadership style. As a Chief Executive Officer of the two companies, Renault and Nissan Carlos  enjoyed a high level of authority on his subordinates which allowed his ideas to be easily adopted. The leadership of Carlos during crisis is seen as a good example of what Bass (1985 cited in University of Leicester, 2011:264) identified as â€Å"Transformational Leader†. He managed to raise the awareness, commitment and enthusiasm among his team. He envisioned a new future of Nissan, broke the frame that existed before him and personally committed towards this new vision. Carlos emphasised on team diversity and gender equality. Under his leadership, Nissan reached twice the rate of competitors in terms of number of female managers within the company. â€Å"On gender equality, the CEO says that when he started at Nissan, only one per cent of the top management at Nissan were women. While that was twice as good as his competitors, he was determined to increase the number of women in management still further. Today the number of women in management is five per cent, and the objective is to raise that figure to ten per cent. Ghosn says that although such targets are good, it’s more important to set a lasting, achievable trend for women that will prove that diversity delivers.† (The transcultural leader, 2013). Transactional leadership is based on transactions and exchange. It usually occurs in stable and predictable situations (Bass 1985, cited in University of Leicester, 2011:263-265). Carlos’s style is more transformational than transactional due to the dynamic and unpredictable nature of the industry as well as his personal characteristics. We can think of few people who are willing to relocate to a new country whose language and culture were totally new to him and lead a crisis recovery. The notion of a transformational leader has been criticised by Khurana (2002) who believed that transformational leaders can become over convinced of their charisma and may drive the company towards instability in order to allow a room for radical changes. However, these concerns seem to be invalid in the case of Carlos Ghosn whose interviews and public speeches show a greater emphasis on skills and techniques rather than personal charisma. Although he believes in changes and he directs his team to keep an eye on the horizon, he makes decisions based on rationality. Summary In this paper we have analysed the leadership of Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of Renault and Nissan companies. Having joined Nissan in the year 1999, when the company was suffering from a severe financial crisis, Carlos managed to rescue the company and turn it back into a profit generating firm. Carlos presented a successful leadership based on vision, participation, and passion about his employees as well as contribution to the culture of Nissan. We have used different theories and models for this analysis including behavioural theories, contingency theories as well as transformations theory of Bass. In my opinion, these theories and models are complementary rather than exclusive. They can all be used to analyse the leadership model and obtain a better understanding as of what made Carlos a successful leader of a change. Carlos’s leadership has been the subject of many researches in management and his method has been adopted by many schools. Cross-cultural dimensions have a high im portance in leadership. Carlos succeeded in leading people in different countries and organizations that varied in power distance, uncertainty avoidance and differed from his own culture, overcoming what was identified by Hofstede (1992, cited in Linstead et.al, 2009: 254) as challenges. Carlos managed to cut the costs by shutting down plants which made many people redundant. Some analysts argue that he could have achieved his goals by a different strategy. The fact that Carlos enjoyed high power being the CEO of both companies raises a question as to whether he would have succeeded had he been the CEO of Nissan only. Wouldn’t he have faced additional challenges from the main shareholder of Nissan, Renaut. References Bass, B. (1985), Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectations, New York: Free Press Burns, J.M. (1978), Leadership, New  ­York: Harper & Row 278 Organisational Behaviour Fielder F.E. (1967), A Theory of Leadership Effectiveness, New York: McGraw-Hill Fleishman, E.A. (1953), The Description of Supervisory Behaviour, Personnel Psychology, 37, 1–6 Ghosn, C. 2006, Shift Inside Nissan’s Historic Revival. Crown Business. Hofstede, G. (1980/1992) ‘Motivation, leadership and organization; Do American theories apply abroad’, in Lane, H.W. and Stefano, J.J. (eds) International Management Behavior, Boston: PWS/Kent. House R.J. (1971), A Path Goal Theory of Leadership, Administrative Science Quarterly, 16 (2), 321–338 Interview with Carlos Ghosn – MTV Lebanon, 2012. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_1Dc7VDQ3yw; accessed 29 April 2013. Kotter, J.P. (1990), What Leaders Really Do?, Harvard Business Review, May–June Lewin, K., Liippit, R. and White, R.K. (1939), Patterns of Aggressive Behavior in Experimentally Created Social Climates, Journal of Social Psychology, 10,271–301 Linstead, S et.al.(2004), Management and Organization: A Critical Text ,Palgrave Macmillan Limited Millikin, J., Dean, Fu. 2004 The global leadership of Carlos Ghosn at Nissan, Thunderbird International Business Review, 47(1):121–137 Nissan production way, 2013.Nissan production way. Available at: http://bcove.me/pm3yqd9c; accessed 29 April 2013. Nissan Revival Plan, 2013. Nissan Revival Plan. Available at: http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/DOCUMENT/PDF/FINANCIAL/REVIVAL/DETAIL/1999/fs_re_detail1999h.pdf; accessed 29 April 2013 School of management (2011), Organizational Behaviour, University of Leicester, 1:241-279. Stephen Linstead, Liz Fulop and Simon Lilley, 2009. Management and Organisation: A Critical Text, Second Edition. Palgrave Macmillan. The Short History of Nissan Motor Company. Available at: http://www.nissan-global.com/GCC/Japan/History/history/index-e.html; accessed 29 April 2013. The Transcultural Leader: Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault, Nissan Available at: http://knowledge.insead.edu/leadership-management/operations-management/the-transcultural-leader-carlos-ghosn-ceo-of-renault-nissan-1904; accessed 29 April 2013.

Importance of Information Communication Technology in Technical Education

IMPACT OF THE USE OF INTERNET ON TECHNICAL COLLEGE VOCATIONAL STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN OGUN STATE, NIGERIA ABSTRACT This study is designed to determine the impact of the use of internet on technical college vocational students’ academic performance in Ogun State, Nigeria.The purpose of the study among other things focuses on identifying the attitudes of students toward the use of internet; to determine the purpose of internet usage by students; to find out the intensity of internet usage by students and to find out whether the use of internet improves the academic performance of students or not. Survey method was adopted the research. Data were collected from one hundred and forty (140) technical college students in seven (7) technical colleges Ogun State, Nigeria. Means and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions.Interviews were also conducted with students to compliment the data collected The findings of the study reveals that most of th e secondary school students access computer connected to the internet through the use of the cyber cafe or settings open to the public; the students spend more of their time outside the school and their homes to use the internet; female students are more disposed to the use of the internet for social networking than their male counterparts; most of the special sites students visit on the internet are not for academic engagements or school work; most of the devices used are connected to the internet through the use of modem and the use of internet technology show significant relationship with students academic achievement and it motivates the students to get along with schoolwork. The study however recommended that technology should be embraced in all technical colleges in Ogun State, Nigeria.KEYWORDS: World Wide Web, Internet, Technology, Modem, and Devices INTRODUCTION Technical colleges of today have come of age in this new information revolution. From the time they started elemen tary school, the World Wide Web existed. Many of them were using the Web early in their school careers. Technology is now used throughout the world for gathering information, keeping records, distance learning, and global collaboration for lifelong learning and work. Its pervasive use cut across almost all aspects of modern life including business, industry, communication and entertainment warrants continued efforts on the part of educators to positively prepare students for participation in a technological world.The Internet is one of the greatest recent advancement in the world of information technology and has become a useful instrument that has fostered the process of making the world a global village. The internet provides several opportunities for the academia. It is a mechanism for information dissemination and a medium for collaborative interaction between individuals and their computers without regard for geographic limitation of space. The word Internet is derived from two words: â€Å"international† and â€Å"network†. The Internet therefore can be defined as an international computer network of information available to the public through modem links so internet is a worldwide system of linked computers networks.The Internet is the world’s largest and most widely used network. It is an international network of networks that is a collection of hundreds of thousands of private and public networks all over the world. There are rich and varied learning experiences available on the Internet that would have been inconceivable just a short while ago. The investigators observed that research reports and articles on the effectiveness of technology in the student-learning environment reflect a variety of opinions and conclusions. On one end of the continuum, supporters cite research studies showing the positive impact of technology on student learning. On the other end, critics present Importance of Information Communication Technology in Technical Education IMPACT OF THE USE OF INTERNET ON TECHNICAL COLLEGE VOCATIONAL STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN OGUN STATE, NIGERIA ABSTRACT This study is designed to determine the impact of the use of internet on technical college vocational students’ academic performance in Ogun State, Nigeria.The purpose of the study among other things focuses on identifying the attitudes of students toward the use of internet; to determine the purpose of internet usage by students; to find out the intensity of internet usage by students and to find out whether the use of internet improves the academic performance of students or not. Survey method was adopted the research. Data were collected from one hundred and forty (140) technical college students in seven (7) technical colleges Ogun State, Nigeria. Means and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions.Interviews were also conducted with students to compliment the data collected The findings of the study reveals that most of th e secondary school students access computer connected to the internet through the use of the cyber cafe or settings open to the public; the students spend more of their time outside the school and their homes to use the internet; female students are more disposed to the use of the internet for social networking than their male counterparts; most of the special sites students visit on the internet are not for academic engagements or school work; most of the devices used are connected to the internet through the use of modem and the use of internet technology show significant relationship with students academic achievement and it motivates the students to get along with schoolwork. The study however recommended that technology should be embraced in all technical colleges in Ogun State, Nigeria.KEYWORDS: World Wide Web, Internet, Technology, Modem, and Devices INTRODUCTION Technical colleges of today have come of age in this new information revolution. From the time they started elemen tary school, the World Wide Web existed. Many of them were using the Web early in their school careers. Technology is now used throughout the world for gathering information, keeping records, distance learning, and global collaboration for lifelong learning and work. Its pervasive use cut across almost all aspects of modern life including business, industry, communication and entertainment warrants continued efforts on the part of educators to positively prepare students for participation in a technological world.The Internet is one of the greatest recent advancement in the world of information technology and has become a useful instrument that has fostered the process of making the world a global village. The internet provides several opportunities for the academia. It is a mechanism for information dissemination and a medium for collaborative interaction between individuals and their computers without regard for geographic limitation of space. The word Internet is derived from two words: â€Å"international† and â€Å"network†. The Internet therefore can be defined as an international computer network of information available to the public through modem links so internet is a worldwide system of linked computers networks.The Internet is the world’s largest and most widely used network. It is an international network of networks that is a collection of hundreds of thousands of private and public networks all over the world. There are rich and varied learning experiences available on the Internet that would have been inconceivable just a short while ago. The investigators observed that research reports and articles on the effectiveness of technology in the student-learning environment reflect a variety of opinions and conclusions. On one end of the continuum, supporters cite research studies showing the positive impact of technology on student learning. On the other end, critics present