Lloyds Tsb A Retail Bank In The Uk Marketing Essay

Lloyds Tsb A Retail Bank In The Uk Marketing Essay Lloyds TSB is a retail bank in the U Kingdom. It was started in year 1995 by the merger of Lloyds Bank. Lloyds TSB has an wide network of branches and cash machines across United Kingdom and offers 24-hour telephone and online banking services. Now it has 16 million customers, and business accounts. Lloyds TSB Vision: The vision Lloyds TSB is to be the one of best financial services bank in the UK. Lloyds TSB is well known for the customer relationships. Lloyds TSB is mainly focused on the customer satisfaction and their interests better than any other competitors. Lloyds TSB Mission Statement: To make Lloyds TSB the best company in the financial services industry a great place for staff to work and a great place for customers to do business. (Sir Win Bischoff, Chairman) Lloyds TSB Goals: Growing Lloyds TSB as the Number one position in the banking sector. Attracting the customers with new policys. Increasing the customer of the bank. Lloyds TSB Objectives: Developing a good customer relationship between the customers. Increase customer service in order to meet customer needs. Improving services and quality according to the competitors. Lloyds TSB Strategies in year 2005: Strategy is a broad based formula for how business is going to compete, what its goals should be and what polices will be needed to carry out those goals. The essence of formulating competitive strategy is relating a company to its environment. In 2003 they developed customer relationship programmes to deliver higher revenues per customer in the retail market and according to their press releases this strategy seems to be working Our customer satisfaction scores hit record highs in 2005, again reflecting the improvement programmes established over the last couple of years, and we will continue to drive further improvements as we seek to differentiate our service performance against that of our Competitors.  [1]   Lloyds TSB say they are committed to achieving top performance in both effectiveness and efficiency. Effectiveness is the ability to recruit, develop and retain loyal customers who think of us first for their next financial services need. Efficiency is the ability to provide service and sales at a lower cost so that we can give our customers better value. We believe that in order to achieve our goal we must be customer rather than product centric.  [2]   Target customer current account recruitment increased by 28 per cent, compared with 2004.  [3]   Producing new offers to the customers. Providing new services and adding quality to the existing products. In order to compete with the existing competitors Lloyds TSB providing internet banking service in order to become a high performance organisation Lloyds TSB uses Flawless execution that mainly develops relationships with customers. Identifying the customer needs and solving their problems by using advanced technologies. Critical Evaluation Strategic Analysis: Melville, N. et al. (2004) defined the value of information technology in the organizations as the organizational performance impacts of information technology at both the intermediate process level and the organization-wide level, and comprising both efficiency impacts and competitive impacts. If the information technology has been utilized efficiently. It will add value to the organization itself. Brooks, B (2003) suggested that adding value to the business meant extending the ranger of products; reducing the cost; improving the quality of the services and products and so on. There are a lot of ways for the organizations to choose to add value for themselves; but it seems that IT strategy has been widely used in the modern business environment. The strategy plan established for Lloyds TSB has been created after undertaking a through serious issues about the business and the environmental. The strategic plan that implemented by the organisation can move forward with a sense of direction, purpose and urgency. The strategic plan implemented by the TSB exists to achieve some degree of sustainable competitive advantage. Strategic planning as suggested by (Robson 1997) highlights that strategic planning turns a organisations vision into concrete achievable. It describes the initiatives that will achieve the vision in ways deemed consistent with the organisation, its assumed market and the competitive environment. Strategy plan plays an important in developing the organisation and also it involve in the creation of new and lasting competitive advantages and the development of new products and services. It is important whilst strategy making that innovation and dynamism is concurrently endeavoured for as suggested by (Porter 1987) The strategy plan Lloyds TSB is to achieve their vision followed by their mission and goals. The goals specifies how the organisation will get back in to the market leadership. The vision of the organisation will improve the innovation and dynamic approaches towards the market. All the strategies that are implemented by the Lloyds TSB are to tackle the complex situations. How ever all these strategies that developed by the Lloyds TSB are to remain the competition in the financial market. Appendix 1 Table 1 ROE and P/E of UK retail Banks: Recent Return on Equity (ROE) and Price Earnings Ratio (P/E) figures comparing Lloyds against RBS and two of the other top 4 UK retail banks shows: U.K. Bank TTM Ratios ROE P/E* Lloyds TSB Group plc 22.1 13.9 HSBC Holdings plc (NYSE: HBC) 15.9 16.9 Barclays plc (NYSE: BCS) 18.8 14.6 Royal Bank of Scotland 13.0 12.4 *Data provided by Capital IQ, a division of Standard Poors. P/E numbers reported on a normalized basis to adjust for the impact of extraordinary items  [4]   Table 2 CAPM of top 5 UK Retail Banks: Bank Beta Rf Rm CAPM Equity Market Value HBOS 0.9355 4.43% 7.5% 7.30%  £38.88bn HSBC 0.6485 4.43% 7.5% 6.42%  £111.82bn Lloyds TSB 0.9694 4.43% 7.5% 7.40%  £30.14bn Barclays 1.1525 4.43% 7.5% 7.97%  £43.23bn Alliance Leicester 0.6556 4.43% 7.5% 6.44%  £4.92bn RBS 0.8669 4.43% 7.5% 7.09%  £59.07bn Rf = 4.43% currently for Treasury Bills, Rm = 7.5% currently for FTSE 100 return. I have chosen to use the FTSE 100 rate of return because all 6 companies are listed as being in the top ten largest listed UK companies by equity market value and should therefore give a more accurate CAPM figure. Table 3 Earnings Per Share (EPS) in pence: Bank 2004 2003 2002 2001 % Change HBOS 78.1 63.6 50.6 46.4 68.3% HSBC 0.84 0.67 0.59 0.76 10.53% Lloyds TSB 43.3 58.3 32 45.2 à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢4.39% Barclays 51.2 42.3 33.7 36.8 39.13% Alliance Leicester 95.8 79 68 57 68.07% RBS 138 79 68.4 67.6 104.14% Appendix 2 Figure 1 FTSE 100 V Financial Services over past 5 Years: 5 Figure 2 New companies by business sector: 6 Figure 3 Kaplan and Nortons Balanced Scorecard: 7 Appendix 3 Figure 4 UK Premium and Packaged Accounts Market Share: 8 Figure 5 UK Debit Card Market Share 2005: 9 Figure 6 UK Credit Card Market Share 2005: 10 Figure 7 UK top 5 Secured Personal Loan Providers 2005: 11 Figure 8 UK Top 9 Unsecured Personal Loan Providers 2005: 12 Information system in Lloyds TSB: Information System in different departments: Transaction Processing System: In every banking sector we need store the data , modify the data, and we retrieve the data of the transactions. For this we use TPS (Transaction processing System) it generates and retrieve the transaction of organization . Customer Identification: In every banking sector we need the customer authentication (customer identification) ,in Lloyds TSB they use NADRA which is attached with viruses .when the enter the details of him it directly enter into the NADRA to verify the customer ID. So that the Management will identify the original ID cards. By this we totally control the fake accounts holders. When the client enter the details of the account it will directly send to the NADRA their the account details are checked with the bank details if it is correct then the account is opened other wise it is closed. Input (ID #) Viruses Management HUB NADRA (customer identification) Employees Record : In Lloyds TSB the Management will maintain exact details of the employees .they use information system in every where they introduced BIO-metric system in every banks to maintain the exact details of the employee this will increase the efficiency of an employee.Every Lloyds TSB employee should login with the biometric device so that the details of the employee is stored HUB. And logout on leaving this should be done only by tracing with their thumb impressions on biometric device. Employee Job Login Biometric Device HUB Employee Job Logout Real time Banking: In the present situation time plays a major role If any customer want to transfer the funds to another account immediately he should not be waste the time. For that the Lloyds TSB maintain real time banking with that real time banking the customer can transfer their funds to any other accounts with in seconds. Here the TCB maintains the LN . The new transition is send to the LN. Through LN it will send to the HUB where the updates are made and the updates will done . In the present scenario no client is ready to waste their time so, the TSB offering a fast real time online banking system. New Transactions, Updates LN HUB Updated Online Complains: Customers are the main visitors of the banking sector. Lloyds TSB allows the customer to send their complains online. If any customer is not satisfied with the TSB, the TSB offering a privilege to the customer so that they can send online complains. what the customer need to do is he has to fill the online complain form which is send to the TPS, that is linked with the Management their the management can identify the problem and it is send to concerned department their it is resolved. And the solution is send back to the customer. It all happen with massive using of information . Customer Queries Customer Service TPS Identify Problem Send to Concerned Dept. Advices: The information system is very much used in the Lloyds TSB, TSB uses record of all the customers in the server and it will send messages regularly to the customers when they had transactions .If any customer is short off balance then the system automatically alert the massege to the customer and as well as management so that the management can take manual action like send letter or mail to the customer. Customer Service TPS Account Alert Management HUB Advices Send to Customer Account Opening: To open the account the Lloyds TSB maintain the TPS which maintain the hub contains of all the data of an account holder and the information about the account holder.Customer has to give his personal details such as passport number, NI number, Date of birth etc. What ever the information given by the customer the information is send to viruses and Account department .so, that the details are send to the customer service TPS and HUB . then customer account is opened Applicant Identification Viruses A/C Dept. Customer Service TPS HUB New A/C Opened Online Activity Online banking is done with in the same bank or different organization. Suppose a customer need to transfer the funds to another customer then the customer as to enter branch code, sort code and account number and the amount you need to transfer. Then this information is send to the server (HUB), Then the information is checked in the server then the fund is transferred to the branch Customer Customer Service TPS HUB A/C Dept Fund Trnsfr to Concerned Branch ATM Card After registering in to the account the customer details are stored in the hub. When the customer requested for the ATM the details of customer is checked in the HUB and then the card is issued. Lloyds TSB will provide many ATM machines for easy access of the customer. It just asks the ATM card then after it we have to enter the Pin number the pin number is send to the HUB their the pin is checked with the card and the details then money is taken from the machine. Applicant Identification Virses A/C Dept. Customer Service TPS HUB New A/C Opened ATM Issued MANGEMENT OVERVIEW: How the Management In Lloyds TSB is divided we can see Firstly we have an CEO,( Sir Win Bischoff, Chairman) and to the CEO we have an executive directors and all the executive directors are maintains regional managers, all these regional managers will maintains the branch managers under the branch managers we can see the field offecers CEO Executive Directors Field officer employees Regional Managers Regional Managers Regional Managers Branch Managers Branch Managers Branch Managers Branch Managers Branch Managers Branch Managers Business process models: Value Chain Model Secondary Activities Inbound logistics Services Operations Sales Organization value Chain Computerized Ordering System Technology Development HRM Workforce Planning System Administration and Management R D System Primary Activities Outbound logistics Analysis of Lloyds TSB with Value chain : We are considering bank sector as an organisation in this sector we commonly see the operations a lot because this is banking sector we need more consideration on the operations .We have less inbound logistics. We mainly use software operations more. The information system is used more in the banking sector. The banking sector uses Online banking, ATM machines which we use information system . Inbound logistics : The inbound logistics specify the building area, where the business going to start? what are the safety measures we have to take? What is cost of the area we selected? These all come under Inbound Logistics. Operations: The banking sector has to do much part with the operations. Information system is highly used in the operation part. Everything the data of the customer has to enter in the HUB.so, the IS is much used in the operation part Outbound Logistics: the outbound logistics include the output of the bank. Here the bank sector include the their customer as their output . Sales: every organisation wants to improve their sales. The Lloyds TSB increases their sales by adding the customers to them. For that the TSB follows many strategies , With using the advanced technologys the Lloyds TSB is good at attracting their customers. Services: The services is the part of every organisation .Lloyds TSB give more benefits TSB maintain a good relation ship between the customers .It will give extra benefits to the customer It offers different card s like silver, gold, platinum etc . It also give incurrence like mobile incurrence, car break down etc. Porters Five Force Model Analysis of Lloyds TSB with Porters 5 force Model : Threat of New Entrants: Orders from the Government (Financial Services Authority The British Bankers Association) The organisations that which invest high capital investment, are some of the threats When the market is good then there is a possible to enter the new entrants . As can be seen above, the entry barriers in place for the financial services industry are low. When entry barriers are low, new firms can freely enter the industry, which increase rivalry and depletes profits as suggested by (Robson, 1997) Bargaining Power of Customer: Missing the customer relationship. (Customers are seen to bank with several banks, hold different financial products with different financial service providers.) Customers can change their account depending on the banks what they offer interest rate. (Customers are no longer tied into accounts or agreements for a long period of time) Maximum of the customers are very Money minded. (This is through the availability of interest free credit cards/reduced rate loans/competitive savings rates) The Customers can easily get the account details and the bank statements (Information technology has enabled this; loan rates/ credit cards can be searched and compared online offering the best product to the customer with little effort) Customers want to get more service from the bank. Bargaining Power of Supplier: The interest rate is announced by the Bank Of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) present moment the interest rates are on hold at 4%. The final rate influence financial services products. Substitute Products: We see Product differential is every where in the financial services industry Examples of product differentiated can be seen below: Increased number of Credit Unions in the form of credit cards/store cards. An example is here, Marks Spencer who now offer a store card and a credit card to customers along with reduced personal loan rate. The above model, as suggested by (Porter, 1985) largely determined the type and level of competition within the financial services industry. Analysis of Lloyds TSB with SWOT analysis : A SWOT analysis is used to analysis the internal and external environments of the organisation. In case of Lloyds TSB. Com. We can identify the Lloyds TSB strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is suggested by (Harrison, St John 1998) that the results from this situation analysis may form the basis for developing missions, goals and strategies. Figure below highlights the SWOT Matrix SWOT Analysis Internal Factors Strengths Opportunities Weaknesses Opportunities Weaknesses Strengths Threats Threats External Factors Figure SWOT Matrix Strengths: Lloyds TSB is the Europes 4th largest retail bank Lloyds TSB is Britains 8th largest banking sector based on market capitalisation Lloyds TSB has very strong branch network of 2300 Lloyds TSB had more than 16 million customers Lloyds TSB has good brand recognition Lloyds TSB will Provide Mortgages, Insurances, investments and it provides a full range of financial service Lloyds TSB will Provide a full functional internet banking for both personal customers and business customers Lloyds TSB will update the customers with new schemes through :telephony/internet Lloyds TSB New changes has been made in the online banking, that as been expected by customers rapidly. Opportunities: We can increase the online banking customers We can increase the number of premier customers By increasing the amount of wholesale market Increasing the brand recognition . Managing more number of customers in the financial affairs Cross sell (As a range of products exist therefore take advantage of the strong brand name) Example: Foreign Currency combination with Travel Insurance Mortgages combination with Life Insurance Home Insurance combination with Home Utilities Weaknesses: Not maintaining stable Interest rates/this is due to inflation base rate Cross publicity related to the Scottish Widows(Part of LTSB) Policys Due to problems in security, privacy and reliability the internet banking updates every time. Threats: Entering the new banks specifying only internet banking(unconventional banks) The new retail marketing industries have entering in to the banking sector such as Sainsburys supermarket, Marks Spencer, Tesco Supermarket. Missing the customer loyalty Financial banking sector industry is too slow down for the next two years, this will have effect on Lloyds TSB The significance of the SWOT analysis undertaken above is to use the existing business strengths to exploit opportunities, to create new opportunities, to counteract threats and repair any weaknesses as suggested by (Robson 1997) CONCLUSION A management information system is a system or process that provides the information necessary to manage an organization effectively(Richard 1895). This eassy discuses all the activities that the Management Information System perform in our selected organization Lloyds TSB Bank. SUGGESTION Lloyds TSB is using the Information System very efficiently and increasing , but still there are many things that should be improved. With increase of technology, the bank should update the IS up-to-date for providing best services to the customer.. In the Online banking system security should be increased.

Rafflesia Species in Malaysia Identification

Rafflesia Species in Malaysia Identification INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND STUDY There are a number of unique plant types in the world which are on the brink of extinction, or are so extremely limited in range. For example the beautiful palms such as the Talipot Palm (Corypha elata), Johannis teysmannia in Sarawak and Malaya, and also Livistona in West Sumatra. The largest flower in the world, Rafflesia arnoldii and related species, are going to vanish unless more nature reserves are created for such remarkable plants in Sumatra, Borneo, Java, and the Philippines. Rafflesia is a genus of flowering plants that is made up of 23 known species. The best known of these species is Rafflesia arboldii which has the distinction of being the worlds largest flower, reaching a diameter of about three feet. The genus Rafflesia gets its name from Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of the British colony of Singapore (Walter et al., 1998). Rafflesia is a unique plant because of its dimensions unlike other flowers. This circumstance makes it widely known. It is also become an icon for conservation especially of the rain forest area. The rarity creates interest among nature lovers, tourists and the general public. The fact that some species may be in the brink of extinction alarms conservation groups. Its little-known biology and reproductive ecology spurs the interest of botanists and ecologist (Nais, 2004). Rafflesia is also thought to be one of the rarest of all plant genera which is only found in Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. 1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT Malaysia is very fortunate for being one of the habitats of Rafflesia. But unfortunately, all of the known species of Rafflesia are threatened or endangered. In Malaysia the Rafflesia is only a Totally Protected Plant by law in Sarawak. In Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia it is only safeguarded by laws when found in protected areas like National or State Parks. In 2002, 44 out of the 83 Rafflesia flowers found in Sabah were outside of designated conservation places (Sabah Travel Guide, 2004). Eight out of the 23 known species of Rafflesia can be found in Malaysia, most of them in the jungles on the island of Borneo. Some species of Rafflesia are endemic species. That means these species are native and can be found only in that location. For example, Rafflesia tengku-adlinii seems to be endemic to Sabah only while Rafflesia tuan-mudae endemic to Sarawak only. Because the Rafflesia is only found in specific areas and its locations often difficult to reach, and because it only blooms for a very short time, its life cycle or the methods of pollination and seed dispersal is very unclear. This makes the appropriate methods to conserve it quite difficult to be found. Other than that, in Peninsular Malaysia flower buds are still sold as traditional medicine. The buds are seen as a sign of fertility, and are given to help mothers recover after birth. The over collection of these buds has not helped with conservation efforts but further drastically reduced the number of Rafflesia in the wild, accentuating the problem the alarmingly fast transformation of jungles into palm oil plantation creates (Sabah Travel Guide, 2004). The Rafflesia is a delicate plant that relies on an intact environment and as such is naturally extremely vulnerable to deforestation and development. Conservation must be done to protect this species from extinct. The expert system may help the user to identify the Rafflesia species in Malaysia. By using an expert system, the user may gather information about approaches to conserve the Rafflesia. 1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES There are some purposes for this research. The main objectives of this research are: to identify the Rafflesia species in Malaysia based on their physical characteristics. to develop an expert system which help the public to recognize the Rafflesia species in Malaysia. to verify system performance in order to make it applicable to the real world. 1.4 SCOPE OF STUDY The scope of this research is mainly about the Rafflesia flower and the approaches to conserve it. This research also about the system named an expert system which using Macromedia Dreamweaver 8. The system is the tool or mechanism which contains all collected information, recommendation and opinion from many expertises and also results from so many researches done. The target users of this system are tourists, publics, nature lovers and also those who interested in conserving the Rafflesia plant. The system that will be developed will provide the public about the Rafflesia species in Malaysia as well as the approaches to conserve the Rafflesia. By using an expert system, it would easier the public to access about this endangered plant. 1.5 THESIS ORGANIZATION This thesis consist of five chapters; introduction, literature review, methodology, results and discussion and conclusion. Chapter 2 is about literature review. This chapter includes the Rafflesia characteristics, the diversity and habitat of Rafflesia, identification of Rafflesia species as well as treats and conservation of Rafflesia. Introduction of expert system also included in this chapter. Expert systems typically have three basic components; a knowledge base, an inference engine and user interface. Chapter 3 is about methodology. This chapter contains the development stage of expert system for Rafflesia species identification. There are five stages in developing an expert system which are task analysis, knowledge acquisition process, prototype development, expansion and refinement and lastly verification and validation. Chapter 4 is about the result and discussion. This chapter consists of the architecture of the system and also the flow in the developing system process. This research is using an IF-THEN rule in form of asking question to the user. Chapter 5 is about the conclusion. This chapter consists of conclusion for overall of this research. It includes the expert system technology, the prototype development of expert system and the recommendation to make the system move effective and also ways to improve it. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 INTRODUCTION The Rafflesia is one of the most magnificent flowers ever known to the botanical world. It is such a big flower with odd appearance, exceptional, rare and also mysterious. It is also immense scientific and public interest. Rafflesia in bloom has been described as simply awesome (Nais, 2001). This chapter will discuss about Rafflesia characteristics, diversity, habitat, species identification as well as treats and conservation of Rafflesia. 2.2 RAFFLESIA CHARACTERISTICS In general, Rafflesia flowers consist of five leathery petals that are orange in colour and mottled with cream-coloured warts (Attenborough, 1995). The flower also has no leaves, stem or roots. The dramatic Rafflesia flowers are the largest single flowers in the world; the leathery petals can reach over 90 centimetres across (Attenborough, 1995). Rafflesia is a parasite that depends completely upon its host which supplies nutrients and water to the flower. These host plants are vines of Tetrastigma spp., and the Rafflesia plant is itself not visible until the reproduction stage when flowers first bud through the woody vine and then open into the magnificent spectacle that is world-renowned today (Nais, 2001). Most flowers in the genus give off and smell of rotting flesh, hence the local called it the corpse flower. When in bloom, the flower displays its five fleshy petals or so called perigone lobes. The diameter of the various species of Rafflesia flower ranges from approximately 20 cm to a record diameter of 106.7 cm (Meijer, 1985). Other than that, the unique part of this giant flower is the flowers can take up to ten months to develop from the first visible bud to the open bloom, which may last from 5 to 7 days only. Currently 17 species of Rafflesia are recognised and these mainly differ in the morphology of their flowers (Nais, 2001). There is a deep well in the centre of the flower containing a central raised disc raised that supports many vertical spines (Attenborough, 1995). The sexual organs are located beneath the rim of the disk, and male and female flowers are separate (Attenborough, 1995). 2.3 RAFFLESIA DIVERSITY There are 23 completely known species and 4 incompletely known species of Rafflesia as recognized by Meijer on 1997. Table 3.1 shows the known species of Rafflesia and Table 3.2 shows the unknown species of Rafflesia as recognized by Meijer on 1997. 2.4 RAFFLESIA HABITAT Rafflesia is restricted to the western part of the phytogeographical region of Malesia, which is known as the Sunda shelf (Nais, 2001). The region is floristically distinct, with a clear boundary from surrounding region (Steenis, 1950). Table 2.3 shows the genus distribution in their landmass location. Number in parentheses denotes the number of Rafflesia species present in each area. Book of Rafflesia Magnificent Flower of Sabah by Kamarudin Mat Saleh (1991) A total of 23 names of Rafflesia species have been published between 1821 and 1988 (index Kewensis, 1994). Six of the names are now considered synonyms, and a further four have inadequate type material and are treated as insufficiently known species (Meijer, 1997). The western most extension of Rafflesia is Acheh District, Sumatra, followed by the Ranong Province in Thailand, about 5 km from the Myanmar border (Meijer Elliot, 1990; Banziger, 1991; Elliot, 1991; Banziger et al., 1993). The eastern limit is Mount Apo Timur and at Gunung Dadum in Eastern Sabah (Nais, 2001). The northern most limits are at Mount Makiling, Los Banos Province, on Luzon Island in the Philippnes (Madulid Agoo, 1996), and the southern limit is the province of Java, Indonesia. The distribution of Rafflesias genus is shown in Figure 2.1. 2.5 IDENTIFICATION OF RAFFLESIA SPECIES The first description of the morphology of Rafflesia was made by Robert Brown (1821, 1835), who provided a detailed and meticulous description and illustrations of the male and female flowers of Rafflesia arnoldii (Nais, 2001). The taxonomy of Rafflesia is based entirely on the floral morphology (form and structure) of the flower with most emphasis on the outer appearance. The current species delimitation of Rafflesia is based on eight major characters. These eight variable characters are listed below (Nais, 2001) and the radial section of Rafflesia flower drawn by Yong Ket Hyun, after Meijer 1985 are shown in Figure 2.2. Size (diameter of open flowers varies from 15 cm in R. manillana to nearly 1 m in R. arnoldii); Diameter of the diaphragm aperture (ranging form 3-9 cm in R. micropylora, to about 20 cm in R. arnoldii); Number of disk processes (from none in R. rochussenii to 20-60 in R. arnoldii); Size and number of white spots (called blots, specks or warts) on the perigone lobes and diaphragm (from few to large in R. hasseltii to numerous and small in R. arnoldii); Number and size of the windows on the inside or lower surface of the diaphragm (3-5 rings of round spots in R. micropylora, seven rings of round spots in R. kerrii, or five rings of elongate oval spots in R. pricei) Number of anthers (from about 15 in R. manillana to 40 in R. arnoldii); Structure and length of ramenta, and position of their occurrence (from short and more or less postulate in R. manillana to up to 12 mm long in R. micropylora; in R. schadenbergiana, ramenta occur on the undersite of the diaphragm; ramenta in various species may have apices branched or unbranched, swollen or crateriform); and Number of annuli at the base of the perigone tube and column, all species has either 1 or 2 (for example, 2 in R. pricei). In this research, the focus is on the Rafflesia species in Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia only. There are eight species of Rafflesia can be found around Malaysia which is four species (R. azlanii, R. cantleyi, R. hasseltii and R. kerrii) located in Peninsular Malaysia, three species (R. tengku-adlinii, R. keithi and R. pricei) can be found in Sabah and four species (R. tuan-mudae, R. pricei and R. keithii) in Sarawak. 2.5.1 Rafflesia cantleyi Solms-Laubach Rafflesia cantleyi was named after M. Cantley, curator of the Singapore Botanic Gardens in 1880 to 1886, who collected the type specimen in 1881. This species was described by H. Graft Solms-Laubach based on a collection made by M. Cantley in 1881. Rafflesia cantleyi has open flower dimension from 30 to 55 cm in diameter. Its perigone lobes are up to 14 cm long and 18 cm wide. It has 6 to 8 whitish warts in radial and lateral directions, about 10 in the basal row. The diaphragm opening is 4 to 8 cm across and rounded shape or sometimes angular. It has 5 concentric rings of oval white blots. Its ramenta is 2 cm long in upper type while middle and lower type is 10 to 12 mm longs, or sometimes branched, almost all with swollen apices. Its number of anthers is from 20 to 25 and this species can be found in Peninsular Malaysia only (Perak, Kedah, Perlis, Selangor, Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and Tioman Island). Figure 2.3 shows the picture of Rafflesia cantleyi. 2.5.2 Rafflesia hasseltii Suringar Rafflesia hasseltii was described by Suringer in 1879 from discovery in Central Sumatra. R. hasseltii has an open flower dimension from 35 to 50 cm in diameter. It has 10 to 13 cm long and 14 to 17 cm wide of perigone lobes. It has whitish-pinkish blots across and large size of blots ranging from 5 x 3 to 10 x 1 cm. The clear contrast of snow white blots on bright brick-red background easily distinguishes this species from others. Its window is whitish or pale yellowish with a dark brown zone near the rim and the compound ramenta near the attachment point of the diaphragm gradually become white blots (window) on the lower part of the diaphragm. The R. hasseltii ramentas upper type is toadstool-like compound ramenta which gradually becoming the white blots of the windows. While for middle and lower type is generally linear with swollen apices. The number of anthers is 20 and this species can be found in Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo and its altitudinal distribution is from 4 00 to 600 m. Figure 2.4 shows the picture of Rafflesia hasseltii. 2.5.3 Rafflesia keithii Meijer Rafflesia keithii was named after Harry G. Keith, the former Conservator of Forests in British North Borneo or nowadays called Sabah, Malaysia. This species was described by Willem Meijer in 1984. Rafflesia keithii has an open flower dimension from 80 to 94 cm in diameter. The perigone lobes are 10 to 12 cm across at the median of the lobes but sometimes it has six-lobed. Its colour is numerous white warts with dense, more or less of the same sizes. The diaphragm opening is normally 5 concentric of white warts in about 40 radial rows, each surrounded by a dark red-brown margin. Its window has 5 to 6 rings of large, white blots, those nearer to the rim merging. The ramenta for upper type is 5 to 6 mm long which often fascicled (in bundles) middle and for lower type is solitary and only some with a swollen head. Rafflesia keithii always has 40 numbers of anthers. This species can be found only in Borneo with 250 to 940 m of altitudinal distribution. Figure 2.5 shows the picture of Raff lesia keithii. 2.5.4 Rafflesia kerrii Meijer Rafflesia kerrii was named after A.F.G. Kerr, Thailands first Government Botanist, who collected the specimen from which the specimen was described. This species was described by Willem Meijer in 1984. Rafflesia kerrii has an open flower dimension of 50 to 70 cm in diameter. It has 13 to 20 cm long and 19 to 24 cm wide of perigone lobes. Its colour is dull red with brownish tinge and have numerous and scattered warts with 3 to 4 mm space between them. The size of warts for R. kerrii is the smallest compared to other species. The diaphragm opening ia about 12 to 17 cm across and have upper face with 3 to 4 concentric rings of white spots surrounded by a dark red margin. The characteristics for its window are bright white in colour with roundish to elliptic blots and up to 10 mm of diameter. This species of Rafflesia has ramenta that mostly unbranched and only slightly swollen at apex. Its anthers consist of about 26 to 31. The distribution of Rafflesia kerrii is surrounding Thailand a nd Peninsular Malaysia which at attitude from 500 to 1000 m. Figure 2.6 shows the picture of Rafflesia kerrii. 2.5.5 Rafflesia pricei Meijer Rafflesia pricei was named after William Price, a honourary plant collector for the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, who collected this species along the trail to the Mamut Copper Mine. This species of Rafflesia was described by Willem Meijer in 1984. Rafflesia pricei can only be found in Sabah only. It has 16 to 45 cm of opening flower dimension. It has 40 to 80 raised whitish spots (warts) surrounded by brick-red background. The spots range from 1 to 4 cm in length and the surface is minutely rugolose giving a matted appearance while the red background is densely papillose (Beaman at al., 1988). The diaphragm opening is about 5 to 6 cm in diameter and the diaphragm has 4 to 5 irregular rings of white spots smaller than those of the perigone lobes, surrounded by brick-red areas that grade into the cream-white background, the inner edge has a narrow white margin with a continuous reddish-brown area just outside the white rim (Beaman et al., 1988). The R. pricei has 4 to 5 concentric rings of large white window panes or blots and contracting with the bright red background. The interior of the perigone tube from the base of the tube to the lower edge of the diaphragm is lines with wine-red ramenta. The upper type (near the diaphragms opening) is about 2 to 6 long while middle type (near the insertion of the perigone lobes) is about 4 to 6 cm long and the lower type (near the base of the perigone tube) is about 6 to 7 mm long. The number of anthers for R. pricei is 20. Figure 2.6 shows the picture of Rafflesia pricei. 2.5.6 Rafflesia tengku-adlinii Mat Salleh Latiff Rafflesia tengku-adlini was named after Tengku Datuk (Dr.) Adlin Tengku Zainal Abidin, a keen naturalist and conservationist in Sabah who facilitated the documentation of the species after its recovery. This species was described by Kamarudin Mat Salleh and A. Latiff Mohamed from a specimen collected at Mount Trus Madi, Sabah in the year of 1989. R. tengku-adlinii is endemic species to Sabah only at altitude 610 to 800 m. Its opening flower dimension is about 20 to 25 cm diameter while its perigone lobes are 7 to 12 cm long and 12 to 16 cm wide. The colour of R. tengku-adlinii is bright to dull orange throughout with warts throughout the upper surface except near the diaphragm opening. The diaphragm opening is up to 12.5 cm wide and about 3 cm in diameter. It has no windows and the lower diaphragm covered with ramenta. The ramenta occurs right up to the opening of the diaphragm with 3 to 5 cm long, apices swollen, upper, middle and lower types all have fine bristles. The number of an thers for this species is 20. Figure 2.8 shows the picture of Rafflesia tengku-adlinii. 2.5.7 Rafflesia tuan-mudae Beccari Rafflesia tuan-mudae was named after Mr. Carlo (Charles) Brooke Tuan Muda of Sarawak. This species wasfirst collected from Mount Pueh, Sarawak, from which specimen the species was described by Beccari in 1868. Rafflesia tuan-mudae also is an endemic species. It only can be found in Sarawak. The opening flower dimension can reach from 44 to 92 cm in diameter. The numbers of perigone lobes is usually 5, sometimes 6 (at Gunung Gading National Park, Sarawak (personal observation), or even 7 (in Cagar Alam Gunung Raya Pasi (Zuhud et al., 1998). The colour of R. tuan-mudae is much like R. keithii, but it only has 5 to 8 warts across the median. The diaphragm opening is from 15 to 18 cm and the number of anthers is unknown. Figure 2.9 shows the picture of Rafflesia tuan-mudae. 2.5.8 Rafflesia azlanii Latiff M. Wong Rafflesia azlanii is endemic species to Peninsular Malaysia only at altitude 150 to 400 m. Its opening flower dimension is about 38 to 50 cm diameter while its perigone lobes are 9.5 to 10.5 cm long and 12 to 14.5 cm wide. The colour and pattern of R. azlanii is large and continuous (not all like R. hasseltii) whitish warts with brick-red background. The diaphragm opening is from 4.7 to 5.5 cm in diameter. During an early stage of blooming, the open diaphragm is about 7 cm and when the flower bloom fully, the open diaphragm become wider up to 18 cm. The flowers window is large whitish scattered of warts. The ramenta for upper type is 6 mm long while for lower type is 4 mm long. The number of anthers for this species is unknown. Figure 2.10 shows the picture of Rafflesia azlanii. 2.6 THREATS AND CONSERVATION Rafflesia is one of the most threatened and also one of the rarest plants in the world. The existence of this prodigious flower is precarious and it will eventually become extinct without active conservation efforts. 2.6.1 Threats Rafflesia are inherently rare as a result of a number of factors of their life cycle; they have a double habitat specialisation, as they can only successfully parasitise particular species and these species in turn are found only in specific habitats (Nais, 2001). In addition to this factor, there is an extremely unbalanced sex ratio in the Rafflesia flowers observed, with many more male than female flowers (Nais, 2001). Flower buds have a high level of mortality and only 10 to 18 percent go on to bloom, these only lasting for a few days; the chances of a male and female flower being in bloom at the same time in a close enough vicinity to be pollinated is therefore extremely slim (Nais, 2001). In addition to these inherent factors, there is widespread habitat destruction within much of the rain forested area of Southeast Asia and Rafflesia buds are also collected for traditional medicine to treat fertility problems, in parts of their range. 2.6.2 Conservation The tropical rain forest is the most threatened environment and has experienced the greatest loss of species during our lifetime (Lucas Synge, 1981). Human disturbance is one of the factors that result great loss of this natural habitats and species. Under the present circumstances, Rafflesia appears to be one of the genera approaching extinction (Nais, 2001). Therefore, the tropical rain forest and all their inhabitants must be the main focus in conservation efforts. 2.6.3 Conservation Status of Rafflesia The World Conservation Union, IUCN (1984, 1988, and 1997) established five main categories to highlight the conservation status of species: Extinct (no longer known to exist in the wild) Endangered (species that have a high likelihood of becoming extinct in the near future) Vulnerable (species that may become endangered in the near future because populations are decreasing in size throughout the range) Rare (species that have small total numbers of individuals, often due to limited geographical ranges or low population densities) Insufficiently known (species that probably belong in one of the preceding categories but are not sufficiently known to be assigned to a specific category). The conservation status of Rafflesia can only be reliably assessed by acquiring and analyzing extensive field data of each species. These data include the distribution and the characteristics of sites, rarity and reproductive ecology. The conservation status of all Rafflesia species based on current knowledge which is from published account recognized by IUCN (1997), present analysis using the WCMC/IUCN classification of Conservation Status and present analysis using the IUCNs new Categories of Conservation Status are shown in Table 2.4. 2.6.4 Approaches to Conserve Rafflesia There are two approaches can be taken according to Nais (2001). One of the approaches and also the best conservation approach for any species is in situ (or on site) conservation which mean leaving it to grow wild in its original habitat. In situ conservation is usually more effective than other approaches because natural condition often impossible to duplicate artificially. In situ conservation strategy of Rafflesia involves: i) Protection inside established Conservation Areas One of the major problem to conserve the Rafflesia is because so many tourist eager to pay homepage to existing Rafflesia sites, cause massive trampling, even to level where some populations are trampled to extinction. The mechanisms to control over-visitation are inadequate, and the infrastructure to minimize its impact is not well developed. One way to avoid trampling is by constructing boardwalks or walkways over Rafflesia population. In addition, Rafflesia sites outside conservation areas need to be made available for tourists, thus reducing the pressure for population within conservation areas (Nais, 2001). ii) Designating New Conservation Areas It may not be possible to make each Rafflesia site become conservation areas. A more plausible strategy is to synergize the Rafflesia cause with other issues, such as the protection of forests for water catchment, total habitat and biodiversity conservation, and also for nature tourism development (Nais, 2001). This may allow larger area to be conserved to protect their habitat and also their population. iii) Protection of Sites in other Areas Many Rafflsia locations are outside the protected areas which within the land belong to the indigenous community. Cooperation from the landlords is very important in order to conserve the Rafflesia. By doing opening sites for tourism is one viable conservation solution and apart from that, it also can generate income for the landowners. The second approach is by doing ex situ conservation. Ex situ conservation (sometimes referred to as off-site conservation) is the conservation of plants away from their natural occurrence [Given (1994) cited in Nais (2001)]. This approach includes conserving whole plants or plants in botanical garden and gene banks, as well as using laboratory techniques such as tissues culture for their propagation and preservation. Bringing Rafflesia into cultivation has always been appealing. Its cultivation would important not only for its conservation, but also as an important step towards utilization of the plants for ecotourism purposes (Nais, 2001). Prior to the success by Nais et al. (in press, 2000), many researchers had unsuccessfully tried various methods and techniques of ex situ propagation of Rafflesia. These attempts have included efforts to grow Rafflesia by way of seed insertion into host plants and the translocating of Tetrastigma plants with Rafflesia buds (Nais, 1997; Nais Wilcock, 1999). Similar cattempts conducted by various other people have also not been successful, for example: seed germination, tissues culture of Rafflesia and grafting of infected host plants into uninfected ones (Ghazally, 1991; Latif Mat-Salleh, 1991; Zuhud et al., 1998). These failures have initially led some researchers to believe that ex situ cultivation possibly may never be a viable option for the conservation of Rafflesia species (Meijer, 1997) until Nais et al. achieve successful in 1999. 2.7 EXPERT SYSTEM AS A SOLUTION Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science that is principally concerned with using computational models to understand how humans think (Tanimoto, 1987). Major research areas include expert systems, search methods, knowledge representation, logical and probabilistic reasoning, learning, natural language understanding, vision, and robotics (Cohen and Feigenbaum, 1982). The most successful application of Artificial Intelligence so far is the development of Decision Support System (DSS), particularly expert system, which is a computer program that act as a consultant or advisor to decision makers (Generation5, 2005). According to Turban Aronson (2001), an expert system is a system that uses human knowledge captured in a computer to solve problems that ordinarily require human expertise, or, a computer program that can solve problems in a specific area of knowledge (the problem domain) as well as a human expert (OKeefe et al., 1987), or, that automates tasks that are normally performed by specially trained or talented people (Shannon et al., 1985). Usually when an organization having problem to solve and have to make critical decision, they often turn to consultants or experts seeking for advice. These experts or consultants have specific knowledge and experience in the problem area. They are aware of alternative solutions, chances of success, and costs that the organization may incur if the problem is not solved. Experts can diagnose problems correctly and solve them satisfactorily within a reasonable time frame.However, human experts are expensive, and they may not be readily available. Expert systems are an attempt to mimic human experts (Turban, Rainer, Potter, 2001). The expert system begins by asking questions about the problem to be solved. When the needed information has been gathered (inputted by user), the system offers suggestions about how the problem can be solved (McEneaney, 1992). According to Wentworth (1993), expert systems differ from conventional programs in the way they store and use information. In a conventional program, the operations never vary as the programmer predetermines them. The conventional program contains precisely defined logical formulas and data, and if any data element is missing, the program will not run. The expert system, like the human expert, contains heuristic information and can function with incomplete information. 2.7.1 Components of Expert System An expert system is typically composed of at least three primary components. These are the inference engine, the knowledge base, and the working memory (Wikibooks, 2010). An expert system, also known as knowledge-based system, uses the knowledge and experience of experts to solve problems in a reasonable period of time. Human experts solve problems by using their factual knowledge and reasoning ability. In the other hand, an expert system uses its knowledge base and inference engine to perform a similar task. Figure 2.1 shows the main components in an expert system. The knowledge base supplies specific facts and rules regarding a domain, while the inference engine offers the reasoning ability that allows the expert system to make conclusions. The user interface is the medium between the expert system and the user. An expert is someone who has the ability to achieve a specific task efficiently by using his or her skills, experience, and knowledge in a specific domain. 2.7.1.1 Knowledge Base Expert systems are based on human knowledge and reasoning patterns (Wikibooks, 2010). The knowledge base an expert uses is what he learned at school, from colleagues, and from years of experience. The more experience he has, the larger his store of knowledge. Knowledge allows him to interpret the information in his databases to advantage in diagnosis, design, and analysis (Edward and Robert, 1993). This knowledge must be extracted from a human expert by a specialized knowledge engineer. Knowledge engineers ask the expert questions about his knowledge and his reasoning processes, and attempts to translate that into Rafflesia Species in Malaysia Identification Rafflesia Species in Malaysia Identification INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND STUDY There are a number of unique plant types in the world which are on the brink of extinction, or are so extremely limited in range. For example the beautiful palms such as the Talipot Palm (Corypha elata), Johannis teysmannia in Sarawak and Malaya, and also Livistona in West Sumatra. The largest flower in the world, Rafflesia arnoldii and related species, are going to vanish unless more nature reserves are created for such remarkable plants in Sumatra, Borneo, Java, and the Philippines. Rafflesia is a genus of flowering plants that is made up of 23 known species. The best known of these species is Rafflesia arboldii which has the distinction of being the worlds largest flower, reaching a diameter of about three feet. The genus Rafflesia gets its name from Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of the British colony of Singapore (Walter et al., 1998). Rafflesia is a unique plant because of its dimensions unlike other flowers. This circumstance makes it widely known. It is also become an icon for conservation especially of the rain forest area. The rarity creates interest among nature lovers, tourists and the general public. The fact that some species may be in the brink of extinction alarms conservation groups. Its little-known biology and reproductive ecology spurs the interest of botanists and ecologist (Nais, 2004). Rafflesia is also thought to be one of the rarest of all plant genera which is only found in Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. 1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT Malaysia is very fortunate for being one of the habitats of Rafflesia. But unfortunately, all of the known species of Rafflesia are threatened or endangered. In Malaysia the Rafflesia is only a Totally Protected Plant by law in Sarawak. In Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia it is only safeguarded by laws when found in protected areas like National or State Parks. In 2002, 44 out of the 83 Rafflesia flowers found in Sabah were outside of designated conservation places (Sabah Travel Guide, 2004). Eight out of the 23 known species of Rafflesia can be found in Malaysia, most of them in the jungles on the island of Borneo. Some species of Rafflesia are endemic species. That means these species are native and can be found only in that location. For example, Rafflesia tengku-adlinii seems to be endemic to Sabah only while Rafflesia tuan-mudae endemic to Sarawak only. Because the Rafflesia is only found in specific areas and its locations often difficult to reach, and because it only blooms for a very short time, its life cycle or the methods of pollination and seed dispersal is very unclear. This makes the appropriate methods to conserve it quite difficult to be found. Other than that, in Peninsular Malaysia flower buds are still sold as traditional medicine. The buds are seen as a sign of fertility, and are given to help mothers recover after birth. The over collection of these buds has not helped with conservation efforts but further drastically reduced the number of Rafflesia in the wild, accentuating the problem the alarmingly fast transformation of jungles into palm oil plantation creates (Sabah Travel Guide, 2004). The Rafflesia is a delicate plant that relies on an intact environment and as such is naturally extremely vulnerable to deforestation and development. Conservation must be done to protect this species from extinct. The expert system may help the user to identify the Rafflesia species in Malaysia. By using an expert system, the user may gather information about approaches to conserve the Rafflesia. 1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES There are some purposes for this research. The main objectives of this research are: to identify the Rafflesia species in Malaysia based on their physical characteristics. to develop an expert system which help the public to recognize the Rafflesia species in Malaysia. to verify system performance in order to make it applicable to the real world. 1.4 SCOPE OF STUDY The scope of this research is mainly about the Rafflesia flower and the approaches to conserve it. This research also about the system named an expert system which using Macromedia Dreamweaver 8. The system is the tool or mechanism which contains all collected information, recommendation and opinion from many expertises and also results from so many researches done. The target users of this system are tourists, publics, nature lovers and also those who interested in conserving the Rafflesia plant. The system that will be developed will provide the public about the Rafflesia species in Malaysia as well as the approaches to conserve the Rafflesia. By using an expert system, it would easier the public to access about this endangered plant. 1.5 THESIS ORGANIZATION This thesis consist of five chapters; introduction, literature review, methodology, results and discussion and conclusion. Chapter 2 is about literature review. This chapter includes the Rafflesia characteristics, the diversity and habitat of Rafflesia, identification of Rafflesia species as well as treats and conservation of Rafflesia. Introduction of expert system also included in this chapter. Expert systems typically have three basic components; a knowledge base, an inference engine and user interface. Chapter 3 is about methodology. This chapter contains the development stage of expert system for Rafflesia species identification. There are five stages in developing an expert system which are task analysis, knowledge acquisition process, prototype development, expansion and refinement and lastly verification and validation. Chapter 4 is about the result and discussion. This chapter consists of the architecture of the system and also the flow in the developing system process. This research is using an IF-THEN rule in form of asking question to the user. Chapter 5 is about the conclusion. This chapter consists of conclusion for overall of this research. It includes the expert system technology, the prototype development of expert system and the recommendation to make the system move effective and also ways to improve it. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 INTRODUCTION The Rafflesia is one of the most magnificent flowers ever known to the botanical world. It is such a big flower with odd appearance, exceptional, rare and also mysterious. It is also immense scientific and public interest. Rafflesia in bloom has been described as simply awesome (Nais, 2001). This chapter will discuss about Rafflesia characteristics, diversity, habitat, species identification as well as treats and conservation of Rafflesia. 2.2 RAFFLESIA CHARACTERISTICS In general, Rafflesia flowers consist of five leathery petals that are orange in colour and mottled with cream-coloured warts (Attenborough, 1995). The flower also has no leaves, stem or roots. The dramatic Rafflesia flowers are the largest single flowers in the world; the leathery petals can reach over 90 centimetres across (Attenborough, 1995). Rafflesia is a parasite that depends completely upon its host which supplies nutrients and water to the flower. These host plants are vines of Tetrastigma spp., and the Rafflesia plant is itself not visible until the reproduction stage when flowers first bud through the woody vine and then open into the magnificent spectacle that is world-renowned today (Nais, 2001). Most flowers in the genus give off and smell of rotting flesh, hence the local called it the corpse flower. When in bloom, the flower displays its five fleshy petals or so called perigone lobes. The diameter of the various species of Rafflesia flower ranges from approximately 20 cm to a record diameter of 106.7 cm (Meijer, 1985). Other than that, the unique part of this giant flower is the flowers can take up to ten months to develop from the first visible bud to the open bloom, which may last from 5 to 7 days only. Currently 17 species of Rafflesia are recognised and these mainly differ in the morphology of their flowers (Nais, 2001). There is a deep well in the centre of the flower containing a central raised disc raised that supports many vertical spines (Attenborough, 1995). The sexual organs are located beneath the rim of the disk, and male and female flowers are separate (Attenborough, 1995). 2.3 RAFFLESIA DIVERSITY There are 23 completely known species and 4 incompletely known species of Rafflesia as recognized by Meijer on 1997. Table 3.1 shows the known species of Rafflesia and Table 3.2 shows the unknown species of Rafflesia as recognized by Meijer on 1997. 2.4 RAFFLESIA HABITAT Rafflesia is restricted to the western part of the phytogeographical region of Malesia, which is known as the Sunda shelf (Nais, 2001). The region is floristically distinct, with a clear boundary from surrounding region (Steenis, 1950). Table 2.3 shows the genus distribution in their landmass location. Number in parentheses denotes the number of Rafflesia species present in each area. Book of Rafflesia Magnificent Flower of Sabah by Kamarudin Mat Saleh (1991) A total of 23 names of Rafflesia species have been published between 1821 and 1988 (index Kewensis, 1994). Six of the names are now considered synonyms, and a further four have inadequate type material and are treated as insufficiently known species (Meijer, 1997). The western most extension of Rafflesia is Acheh District, Sumatra, followed by the Ranong Province in Thailand, about 5 km from the Myanmar border (Meijer Elliot, 1990; Banziger, 1991; Elliot, 1991; Banziger et al., 1993). The eastern limit is Mount Apo Timur and at Gunung Dadum in Eastern Sabah (Nais, 2001). The northern most limits are at Mount Makiling, Los Banos Province, on Luzon Island in the Philippnes (Madulid Agoo, 1996), and the southern limit is the province of Java, Indonesia. The distribution of Rafflesias genus is shown in Figure 2.1. 2.5 IDENTIFICATION OF RAFFLESIA SPECIES The first description of the morphology of Rafflesia was made by Robert Brown (1821, 1835), who provided a detailed and meticulous description and illustrations of the male and female flowers of Rafflesia arnoldii (Nais, 2001). The taxonomy of Rafflesia is based entirely on the floral morphology (form and structure) of the flower with most emphasis on the outer appearance. The current species delimitation of Rafflesia is based on eight major characters. These eight variable characters are listed below (Nais, 2001) and the radial section of Rafflesia flower drawn by Yong Ket Hyun, after Meijer 1985 are shown in Figure 2.2. Size (diameter of open flowers varies from 15 cm in R. manillana to nearly 1 m in R. arnoldii); Diameter of the diaphragm aperture (ranging form 3-9 cm in R. micropylora, to about 20 cm in R. arnoldii); Number of disk processes (from none in R. rochussenii to 20-60 in R. arnoldii); Size and number of white spots (called blots, specks or warts) on the perigone lobes and diaphragm (from few to large in R. hasseltii to numerous and small in R. arnoldii); Number and size of the windows on the inside or lower surface of the diaphragm (3-5 rings of round spots in R. micropylora, seven rings of round spots in R. kerrii, or five rings of elongate oval spots in R. pricei) Number of anthers (from about 15 in R. manillana to 40 in R. arnoldii); Structure and length of ramenta, and position of their occurrence (from short and more or less postulate in R. manillana to up to 12 mm long in R. micropylora; in R. schadenbergiana, ramenta occur on the undersite of the diaphragm; ramenta in various species may have apices branched or unbranched, swollen or crateriform); and Number of annuli at the base of the perigone tube and column, all species has either 1 or 2 (for example, 2 in R. pricei). In this research, the focus is on the Rafflesia species in Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia only. There are eight species of Rafflesia can be found around Malaysia which is four species (R. azlanii, R. cantleyi, R. hasseltii and R. kerrii) located in Peninsular Malaysia, three species (R. tengku-adlinii, R. keithi and R. pricei) can be found in Sabah and four species (R. tuan-mudae, R. pricei and R. keithii) in Sarawak. 2.5.1 Rafflesia cantleyi Solms-Laubach Rafflesia cantleyi was named after M. Cantley, curator of the Singapore Botanic Gardens in 1880 to 1886, who collected the type specimen in 1881. This species was described by H. Graft Solms-Laubach based on a collection made by M. Cantley in 1881. Rafflesia cantleyi has open flower dimension from 30 to 55 cm in diameter. Its perigone lobes are up to 14 cm long and 18 cm wide. It has 6 to 8 whitish warts in radial and lateral directions, about 10 in the basal row. The diaphragm opening is 4 to 8 cm across and rounded shape or sometimes angular. It has 5 concentric rings of oval white blots. Its ramenta is 2 cm long in upper type while middle and lower type is 10 to 12 mm longs, or sometimes branched, almost all with swollen apices. Its number of anthers is from 20 to 25 and this species can be found in Peninsular Malaysia only (Perak, Kedah, Perlis, Selangor, Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and Tioman Island). Figure 2.3 shows the picture of Rafflesia cantleyi. 2.5.2 Rafflesia hasseltii Suringar Rafflesia hasseltii was described by Suringer in 1879 from discovery in Central Sumatra. R. hasseltii has an open flower dimension from 35 to 50 cm in diameter. It has 10 to 13 cm long and 14 to 17 cm wide of perigone lobes. It has whitish-pinkish blots across and large size of blots ranging from 5 x 3 to 10 x 1 cm. The clear contrast of snow white blots on bright brick-red background easily distinguishes this species from others. Its window is whitish or pale yellowish with a dark brown zone near the rim and the compound ramenta near the attachment point of the diaphragm gradually become white blots (window) on the lower part of the diaphragm. The R. hasseltii ramentas upper type is toadstool-like compound ramenta which gradually becoming the white blots of the windows. While for middle and lower type is generally linear with swollen apices. The number of anthers is 20 and this species can be found in Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo and its altitudinal distribution is from 4 00 to 600 m. Figure 2.4 shows the picture of Rafflesia hasseltii. 2.5.3 Rafflesia keithii Meijer Rafflesia keithii was named after Harry G. Keith, the former Conservator of Forests in British North Borneo or nowadays called Sabah, Malaysia. This species was described by Willem Meijer in 1984. Rafflesia keithii has an open flower dimension from 80 to 94 cm in diameter. The perigone lobes are 10 to 12 cm across at the median of the lobes but sometimes it has six-lobed. Its colour is numerous white warts with dense, more or less of the same sizes. The diaphragm opening is normally 5 concentric of white warts in about 40 radial rows, each surrounded by a dark red-brown margin. Its window has 5 to 6 rings of large, white blots, those nearer to the rim merging. The ramenta for upper type is 5 to 6 mm long which often fascicled (in bundles) middle and for lower type is solitary and only some with a swollen head. Rafflesia keithii always has 40 numbers of anthers. This species can be found only in Borneo with 250 to 940 m of altitudinal distribution. Figure 2.5 shows the picture of Raff lesia keithii. 2.5.4 Rafflesia kerrii Meijer Rafflesia kerrii was named after A.F.G. Kerr, Thailands first Government Botanist, who collected the specimen from which the specimen was described. This species was described by Willem Meijer in 1984. Rafflesia kerrii has an open flower dimension of 50 to 70 cm in diameter. It has 13 to 20 cm long and 19 to 24 cm wide of perigone lobes. Its colour is dull red with brownish tinge and have numerous and scattered warts with 3 to 4 mm space between them. The size of warts for R. kerrii is the smallest compared to other species. The diaphragm opening ia about 12 to 17 cm across and have upper face with 3 to 4 concentric rings of white spots surrounded by a dark red margin. The characteristics for its window are bright white in colour with roundish to elliptic blots and up to 10 mm of diameter. This species of Rafflesia has ramenta that mostly unbranched and only slightly swollen at apex. Its anthers consist of about 26 to 31. The distribution of Rafflesia kerrii is surrounding Thailand a nd Peninsular Malaysia which at attitude from 500 to 1000 m. Figure 2.6 shows the picture of Rafflesia kerrii. 2.5.5 Rafflesia pricei Meijer Rafflesia pricei was named after William Price, a honourary plant collector for the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, who collected this species along the trail to the Mamut Copper Mine. This species of Rafflesia was described by Willem Meijer in 1984. Rafflesia pricei can only be found in Sabah only. It has 16 to 45 cm of opening flower dimension. It has 40 to 80 raised whitish spots (warts) surrounded by brick-red background. The spots range from 1 to 4 cm in length and the surface is minutely rugolose giving a matted appearance while the red background is densely papillose (Beaman at al., 1988). The diaphragm opening is about 5 to 6 cm in diameter and the diaphragm has 4 to 5 irregular rings of white spots smaller than those of the perigone lobes, surrounded by brick-red areas that grade into the cream-white background, the inner edge has a narrow white margin with a continuous reddish-brown area just outside the white rim (Beaman et al., 1988). The R. pricei has 4 to 5 concentric rings of large white window panes or blots and contracting with the bright red background. The interior of the perigone tube from the base of the tube to the lower edge of the diaphragm is lines with wine-red ramenta. The upper type (near the diaphragms opening) is about 2 to 6 long while middle type (near the insertion of the perigone lobes) is about 4 to 6 cm long and the lower type (near the base of the perigone tube) is about 6 to 7 mm long. The number of anthers for R. pricei is 20. Figure 2.6 shows the picture of Rafflesia pricei. 2.5.6 Rafflesia tengku-adlinii Mat Salleh Latiff Rafflesia tengku-adlini was named after Tengku Datuk (Dr.) Adlin Tengku Zainal Abidin, a keen naturalist and conservationist in Sabah who facilitated the documentation of the species after its recovery. This species was described by Kamarudin Mat Salleh and A. Latiff Mohamed from a specimen collected at Mount Trus Madi, Sabah in the year of 1989. R. tengku-adlinii is endemic species to Sabah only at altitude 610 to 800 m. Its opening flower dimension is about 20 to 25 cm diameter while its perigone lobes are 7 to 12 cm long and 12 to 16 cm wide. The colour of R. tengku-adlinii is bright to dull orange throughout with warts throughout the upper surface except near the diaphragm opening. The diaphragm opening is up to 12.5 cm wide and about 3 cm in diameter. It has no windows and the lower diaphragm covered with ramenta. The ramenta occurs right up to the opening of the diaphragm with 3 to 5 cm long, apices swollen, upper, middle and lower types all have fine bristles. The number of an thers for this species is 20. Figure 2.8 shows the picture of Rafflesia tengku-adlinii. 2.5.7 Rafflesia tuan-mudae Beccari Rafflesia tuan-mudae was named after Mr. Carlo (Charles) Brooke Tuan Muda of Sarawak. This species wasfirst collected from Mount Pueh, Sarawak, from which specimen the species was described by Beccari in 1868. Rafflesia tuan-mudae also is an endemic species. It only can be found in Sarawak. The opening flower dimension can reach from 44 to 92 cm in diameter. The numbers of perigone lobes is usually 5, sometimes 6 (at Gunung Gading National Park, Sarawak (personal observation), or even 7 (in Cagar Alam Gunung Raya Pasi (Zuhud et al., 1998). The colour of R. tuan-mudae is much like R. keithii, but it only has 5 to 8 warts across the median. The diaphragm opening is from 15 to 18 cm and the number of anthers is unknown. Figure 2.9 shows the picture of Rafflesia tuan-mudae. 2.5.8 Rafflesia azlanii Latiff M. Wong Rafflesia azlanii is endemic species to Peninsular Malaysia only at altitude 150 to 400 m. Its opening flower dimension is about 38 to 50 cm diameter while its perigone lobes are 9.5 to 10.5 cm long and 12 to 14.5 cm wide. The colour and pattern of R. azlanii is large and continuous (not all like R. hasseltii) whitish warts with brick-red background. The diaphragm opening is from 4.7 to 5.5 cm in diameter. During an early stage of blooming, the open diaphragm is about 7 cm and when the flower bloom fully, the open diaphragm become wider up to 18 cm. The flowers window is large whitish scattered of warts. The ramenta for upper type is 6 mm long while for lower type is 4 mm long. The number of anthers for this species is unknown. Figure 2.10 shows the picture of Rafflesia azlanii. 2.6 THREATS AND CONSERVATION Rafflesia is one of the most threatened and also one of the rarest plants in the world. The existence of this prodigious flower is precarious and it will eventually become extinct without active conservation efforts. 2.6.1 Threats Rafflesia are inherently rare as a result of a number of factors of their life cycle; they have a double habitat specialisation, as they can only successfully parasitise particular species and these species in turn are found only in specific habitats (Nais, 2001). In addition to this factor, there is an extremely unbalanced sex ratio in the Rafflesia flowers observed, with many more male than female flowers (Nais, 2001). Flower buds have a high level of mortality and only 10 to 18 percent go on to bloom, these only lasting for a few days; the chances of a male and female flower being in bloom at the same time in a close enough vicinity to be pollinated is therefore extremely slim (Nais, 2001). In addition to these inherent factors, there is widespread habitat destruction within much of the rain forested area of Southeast Asia and Rafflesia buds are also collected for traditional medicine to treat fertility problems, in parts of their range. 2.6.2 Conservation The tropical rain forest is the most threatened environment and has experienced the greatest loss of species during our lifetime (Lucas Synge, 1981). Human disturbance is one of the factors that result great loss of this natural habitats and species. Under the present circumstances, Rafflesia appears to be one of the genera approaching extinction (Nais, 2001). Therefore, the tropical rain forest and all their inhabitants must be the main focus in conservation efforts. 2.6.3 Conservation Status of Rafflesia The World Conservation Union, IUCN (1984, 1988, and 1997) established five main categories to highlight the conservation status of species: Extinct (no longer known to exist in the wild) Endangered (species that have a high likelihood of becoming extinct in the near future) Vulnerable (species that may become endangered in the near future because populations are decreasing in size throughout the range) Rare (species that have small total numbers of individuals, often due to limited geographical ranges or low population densities) Insufficiently known (species that probably belong in one of the preceding categories but are not sufficiently known to be assigned to a specific category). The conservation status of Rafflesia can only be reliably assessed by acquiring and analyzing extensive field data of each species. These data include the distribution and the characteristics of sites, rarity and reproductive ecology. The conservation status of all Rafflesia species based on current knowledge which is from published account recognized by IUCN (1997), present analysis using the WCMC/IUCN classification of Conservation Status and present analysis using the IUCNs new Categories of Conservation Status are shown in Table 2.4. 2.6.4 Approaches to Conserve Rafflesia There are two approaches can be taken according to Nais (2001). One of the approaches and also the best conservation approach for any species is in situ (or on site) conservation which mean leaving it to grow wild in its original habitat. In situ conservation is usually more effective than other approaches because natural condition often impossible to duplicate artificially. In situ conservation strategy of Rafflesia involves: i) Protection inside established Conservation Areas One of the major problem to conserve the Rafflesia is because so many tourist eager to pay homepage to existing Rafflesia sites, cause massive trampling, even to level where some populations are trampled to extinction. The mechanisms to control over-visitation are inadequate, and the infrastructure to minimize its impact is not well developed. One way to avoid trampling is by constructing boardwalks or walkways over Rafflesia population. In addition, Rafflesia sites outside conservation areas need to be made available for tourists, thus reducing the pressure for population within conservation areas (Nais, 2001). ii) Designating New Conservation Areas It may not be possible to make each Rafflesia site become conservation areas. A more plausible strategy is to synergize the Rafflesia cause with other issues, such as the protection of forests for water catchment, total habitat and biodiversity conservation, and also for nature tourism development (Nais, 2001). This may allow larger area to be conserved to protect their habitat and also their population. iii) Protection of Sites in other Areas Many Rafflsia locations are outside the protected areas which within the land belong to the indigenous community. Cooperation from the landlords is very important in order to conserve the Rafflesia. By doing opening sites for tourism is one viable conservation solution and apart from that, it also can generate income for the landowners. The second approach is by doing ex situ conservation. Ex situ conservation (sometimes referred to as off-site conservation) is the conservation of plants away from their natural occurrence [Given (1994) cited in Nais (2001)]. This approach includes conserving whole plants or plants in botanical garden and gene banks, as well as using laboratory techniques such as tissues culture for their propagation and preservation. Bringing Rafflesia into cultivation has always been appealing. Its cultivation would important not only for its conservation, but also as an important step towards utilization of the plants for ecotourism purposes (Nais, 2001). Prior to the success by Nais et al. (in press, 2000), many researchers had unsuccessfully tried various methods and techniques of ex situ propagation of Rafflesia. These attempts have included efforts to grow Rafflesia by way of seed insertion into host plants and the translocating of Tetrastigma plants with Rafflesia buds (Nais, 1997; Nais Wilcock, 1999). Similar cattempts conducted by various other people have also not been successful, for example: seed germination, tissues culture of Rafflesia and grafting of infected host plants into uninfected ones (Ghazally, 1991; Latif Mat-Salleh, 1991; Zuhud et al., 1998). These failures have initially led some researchers to believe that ex situ cultivation possibly may never be a viable option for the conservation of Rafflesia species (Meijer, 1997) until Nais et al. achieve successful in 1999. 2.7 EXPERT SYSTEM AS A SOLUTION Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science that is principally concerned with using computational models to understand how humans think (Tanimoto, 1987). Major research areas include expert systems, search methods, knowledge representation, logical and probabilistic reasoning, learning, natural language understanding, vision, and robotics (Cohen and Feigenbaum, 1982). The most successful application of Artificial Intelligence so far is the development of Decision Support System (DSS), particularly expert system, which is a computer program that act as a consultant or advisor to decision makers (Generation5, 2005). According to Turban Aronson (2001), an expert system is a system that uses human knowledge captured in a computer to solve problems that ordinarily require human expertise, or, a computer program that can solve problems in a specific area of knowledge (the problem domain) as well as a human expert (OKeefe et al., 1987), or, that automates tasks that are normally performed by specially trained or talented people (Shannon et al., 1985). Usually when an organization having problem to solve and have to make critical decision, they often turn to consultants or experts seeking for advice. These experts or consultants have specific knowledge and experience in the problem area. They are aware of alternative solutions, chances of success, and costs that the organization may incur if the problem is not solved. Experts can diagnose problems correctly and solve them satisfactorily within a reasonable time frame.However, human experts are expensive, and they may not be readily available. Expert systems are an attempt to mimic human experts (Turban, Rainer, Potter, 2001). The expert system begins by asking questions about the problem to be solved. When the needed information has been gathered (inputted by user), the system offers suggestions about how the problem can be solved (McEneaney, 1992). According to Wentworth (1993), expert systems differ from conventional programs in the way they store and use information. In a conventional program, the operations never vary as the programmer predetermines them. The conventional program contains precisely defined logical formulas and data, and if any data element is missing, the program will not run. The expert system, like the human expert, contains heuristic information and can function with incomplete information. 2.7.1 Components of Expert System An expert system is typically composed of at least three primary components. These are the inference engine, the knowledge base, and the working memory (Wikibooks, 2010). An expert system, also known as knowledge-based system, uses the knowledge and experience of experts to solve problems in a reasonable period of time. Human experts solve problems by using their factual knowledge and reasoning ability. In the other hand, an expert system uses its knowledge base and inference engine to perform a similar task. Figure 2.1 shows the main components in an expert system. The knowledge base supplies specific facts and rules regarding a domain, while the inference engine offers the reasoning ability that allows the expert system to make conclusions. The user interface is the medium between the expert system and the user. An expert is someone who has the ability to achieve a specific task efficiently by using his or her skills, experience, and knowledge in a specific domain. 2.7.1.1 Knowledge Base Expert systems are based on human knowledge and reasoning patterns (Wikibooks, 2010). The knowledge base an expert uses is what he learned at school, from colleagues, and from years of experience. The more experience he has, the larger his store of knowledge. Knowledge allows him to interpret the information in his databases to advantage in diagnosis, design, and analysis (Edward and Robert, 1993). This knowledge must be extracted from a human expert by a specialized knowledge engineer. Knowledge engineers ask the expert questions about his knowledge and his reasoning processes, and attempts to translate that into

Sex and the City :: Television Media TV

Sex and the City Sex and the City an outrageously funny comedy/drama, created and written by Darren Star, is about nothing else but sex in the big city of Manhattan. As a newspaper columnist, Carrie Bradshaw writes about love and sex in the big apple, through the experiences of all of her single best friends, including her own single love life. They encounter everyday dilemmas and exchange useful advice amongst their busy lives of self-evaluation. Sex and the City portrays women as power beings through their sexuality. Glamorous and sexy Carrie Bradshaw, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, writes a column, â€Å"Sex and the City† for a newspaper and loves expensive footwear. Her column highlights nightlife in the big city that never sleeps but always sleeps around. As she and her single friends are struggling to get through life and enjoy it to it’s fullest, she gets caught in a love battle with charismatic Mr. Big. One of Carrie’s best friends, confident and sexy Samantha Jones, played by Kim Cattrall, enjoys great sex. As a Public Relations consultant, she only expects the best that life has to offer her, from gorgeous studs to yoga classes with sexual appeal. The type of woman that makes a lasting impression, Samantha is beautiful, a great friend, and never misses a beat. As a feminine romantic, Charlotte York, played by Kristin Davis, prides in being perfectly poised and polished. Another one of Carrie’s best friends, Charlotte is looking for a relationship that would lead her towards her ultimate happiness. She encounters many relationships and experiences guys who take Prozac and want threesomes. Charlotte is definitely a beautiful woman interested in art, with a lot of sex appeal, but she is always hunting for the perfect guy to be included in her perfect lifestyle and dreams. Attorney Miranda Hobbes, played by Cynthia Nixon is ambitious about her work and relationships, as well as wild and sexy. Another one of Carrie’s best friends, Miranda might be blunt, but prides in her success. She encounters relationships and sex with men, as well as a time when she appeared to be a lesbian. Through all of her insecurities, Miranda is able to endure it all, and be the strong woman in everything she attempts.

The Theme of Love in William Shakespeares Twelfth Night Essay

The Theme of Love in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare focuses strongly on the theme of love; romantic love, friendship, brotherly and sisterly love, unrealistic love and self-love. In this essay I am going to explore these aspects and write about the different sides of love in the play, such as humour and suffering. We find that in Twelfth Night love is a very complicated thing and confusion often occurs. At the beginning of the play we find Orsino talking dramatically of his love for Olivia but actually seems to be in love with the idea of love itself. This shows that his feelings are not actually true and that he is very self-indulgent. He uses exaggerated language whilst lying in rose beds, listening to music and talking constantly to his servants of Olivia's beauty. He also compares his love to food and in this quote he is saying how he hopes his appetite will simmer when it all gets too much and he can no longer handle it. Orsino says, 'If music be the food of love, play on; give me excess of it, that surfeiting, the appetite may sicken and so die.' (I.i.1-3). Orsino seems to be rather in love with himself and assumes that Olivia will return his feelings for her. He says 'Her sweet perfections with one selfsame King!' (I.i.39). Here he compares himself to a King, which shows his self-love and arrogance. Viola's love is an example of true love in the play and she also shows no self-love unlike Orsino, Olivia and Malvolio. In scene ii, Viola is shipwrecked on the Illyrian coast and is distraught as her brother Sebastian disappeared during the storm. She shows strong love for her b... ...s he is so close to Sebastian. There is a lot of confusion and swapping of feelings in Twelfth Night. I feel that the only true love is Viola's love for Orsino as this is the only man she loves during the whole play and is the one she ends up marrying. I think Olivia seems to fall in love too easily as she thinks she can have any man. Also, Maria and Sir Toby seem to marry just for the sake of it as they are close and have no one else to really be with. Feste remains self-contained and is not driven by love or ever gets distressed by it. In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare explores love with great detail and explains it extremely well. I think that his thoughts on love and the way in which he writes about all the tangles and confusion give a lot of interest to the play making it a great play to read and also act out.

Reading Books Essay

Reading a book is one of the best forms of entertainment a person can have. Books can take you places to a time and lifestyle that you will never visit or experience. I remember the old show called â€Å"Reading Rainbow† and it lyrics were gave a very interesting take on books they went like this: â€Å"I can twice as high take a look, it’s in a book A Reading Rainbow, I can go anywhere, Friends to know and ways to grow, Reading Rainbow, I can be anything take a look it’s in a book.† Those lyrics are so true. Reading a book you can read about how life was in the 1700’s up until our generation today. I could be a detective who solves a famous mystery or I could be the killer trying to get away. I can learn to speak another language. There are so many things and topics in reading a book that can change your appearance, your political viewpoints, and change your attitude. Some say that books might become obsolete because movies are made from these books and you can watch the movies in two hours. Watching the movies a person feels that you can get the plot and conclusion of the book in two hours. This is true but for example if it is true life story the movie are going to change some parts of the books to make it more enjoyable, whereas the book is going to give you every detail the author wants you to have. Books gives people a conversation piece just like a movie but the only difference is books can join the world. Movies can’t be seen in some countries but a book can be read. So like the Reading Rainbow says â€Å"take a look it’s in a book†. So in conclusion reading a book is the best form of entertainment. Stephanie C. Williams November 20, 2010

Case Study of Alliance Boots Plc

ALLIANCE BOOTS PLC: INTRODUCTIION: Alliance Boots is a leading international pharmacy-led health and beauty group serving a wide range of products and services to customers over 100 years in the UK. We are trying to identify how the Boots works internally and externally to reach its goal. We are also trying to find out how the Boots motivates its employees to be productive. We will also discuss its organizational structure and design to communicate each other function of the organization. We will discuss its appraisal system and organizational record keeping. We will also find out about its brand image to the stakeholder. Customers are at the heart of their business and they are devoted to providing extraordinary customers and patients care by offering innovative products ‘Only at Boots’ with exceptional values. People are their strength and tell us that Boots is a excellent place to work. They always aim to be the employers of choice by attracting and retaining the most talented and passionate people. BACK GROUND OF THE COMPANY: Boots had established its roots in the mid-19th century by John Boot, an agricultural worker, at Nottingham, in the UK. He opened a small herbalist store on Goose Gate in 1849. After John’s death in 1860, his widow, Mary, continued trading, with the help of her young son, Jesse, who became a full partner when he was 21. The store continued to thrive. In 1877, Jesse took sole control of the Boots. In 1920, he sold Boots to the United Drug Company of America. In 1933, the United Drug Company sold its holding in Boots to a group of British financiers led by John Boot, Jesse’s son. Under John’s chairmanship, the first overseas store opened in New Zealand in 1936; key brands No7 and Soltan was both launched in the 1930s. He also continued his parents’ tradition of staff welfare – improving working conditions, reducing hours and introducing pensions for all employees. More recent decades, the introduction of successful brands such as 17 cosmetics and Botanics and new business ventures such as Boots Opticians are more popular to the customers. A new chapter in Boots history started on 31st July, 2006with the merger with Alliance Unichem, to become part of Alliance Boots, an international pharmacy-led health and beauty group. Their product and services are Health and beauty, Personal care, Cosmetics and toiletries, Baby care, Dental & health care, OTC and Prescription medicines, Perfumes, and Skin care. (www. bized. co. uk,) MISSION: Their mission is to be the world’s leading pharmacy-led health and beauty group. They seek to develop their core business activities of pharmacy-led and beauty retailing and pharmaceutical wholesaling and distribution across the world and become a significant player in many leading international markets. PURPOSE: Their purpose is to deliver products that help people look and feel their best. VALUES: They believe in making a difference for the well being of the communities they serve. The core values are described below. * PARTNERSHIP: It includes respect, understanding and working together. They create and build value through partnerships and alliances, inside and outside the business. * TRUST: The essence of the way they do business. People trust because they deliver on their promises. * SERVICES: They hold high standards of care and service for customers and their people. * ENTREPRENEURSHIP: They are innovators, seeking new challenges and having a winning entrepreneurship. SIMPLICITY: They are proud of being lean and efficient, uncomplicated and easy to do business fairly. (www. allianceboots. com) AT A GLANCE: * Operating over 20 countries. * It has115, 000 employees. * Operating more than 3,250 health and beauty retail stores. * Dispensing more than 245 million items each year. * 1500 Stores in the UK and Irish Republic. * Serving 420 million customers (pa). * Operat ing over 360 pharmaceutical wholesale distribution centers. * Cash generated from operation ? 1130 million. * Revenue is ? 22. 5 billion. * EBITDA is ? 1,360 million. * Trading Profit is ? 1,074 million. www. allianceboots. com) BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT OF THE BOOTS: The organizational environment consists of internal and external environment. Alliance Boots operates in highly attractive markets with potential for significant long term growth. The Company expects to increase life expectancy and product innovation to continue to drive demand for prescription medicines and related healthcare services. At the same time, they believe that a growing customer focus on personal well being will drive demand for health and beauty consumer products and related services. Fig: The Organizational Environment of Boots: Legal Environmental Technological Political Social Economic External Environment Communication External Environment ————————————————- Innovation Strategy Change Internal Environment (Writer’s observation) INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT: In order to sustain an organization, it is necessarily to adapt internal structures, process and behaviors to enable to cope with complexity and the pace of external change. It is concerned about organization’s strategy, teamwork, management, leadership style, working practices, empowerment, employment patterns, etc. * STRATEGY: Johnson et al (2008) say that strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long term, which achieves advantage in a changing environment with the fulfilling stakeholder expectation. The Boot’s strategy is to focus on its two business activities of pharmacy-led health and beauty retailing and pharmaceutical wholesaling and distribution, while increasingly developing and internationalizing product brands to create a third dimension. * CHANGE: According to Mullins (2007), every change becomes welcomed as an opportunity for increasing efficiency and building new organizational success. Boots increased female participation in the workforce and growth of services. It also changed the sophisticated information technology where cognitive skill demands. It has created fast flat and flexible organizational design. The company plans to further increasing the number of Boots stores through new openings and pharmacy acquisitions and have also just commenced a trial with Waitrose to sell selective product ranges in each other’s stores. * INNOVATION: According to Mullins, innovations arise from technological advancements, new processes, and improvements in all major areas of organizational activity. Boots concentrates in expanding their core business in existing markets, continuing to deliver productivity improvements and other cost savings, pursuing growth opportunities in selective new high growth markets. Boots is always launching products in the new markets. * COMMUNICATION: Boots always focus on customers/patients needs and services. Their communication and distribution channel is well updated which improves productivity. EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT: The external environment is the pressures of the organization from outside that can influence and affect the performance of the organization. The significant environmental pressures are the PESTEL which locates for Political, Economic, Social, Technology, Environmental, and Legal factors. * POLITICAL: The political environment of a country predisposes by the political organizations such as philosophy of political parties, ideology of government, legislation, taxation, employment law, trade union policy and activities. Boots are also affected for political decision in the UK. The UK government is cutting the employees from most of the sectors. As a result, people will have no enough money to spend on health and beauty. ECONOMIC: It is mainly concern about total GDP of the country as well as consumers’ expenditures and disposable income. It is also included currency exchange rates, tax regime, wage rates, raw material prices etc. Boots is a multinational company. So, during recession, UK’s currency rates fell down and Boots lost lots of money to exchanged currency from other country to UK. * SOCIAL: It concerns about demographic trends, lifestyle preferences, social values, distribution of incomes, education and health, labor mobility, attitude to work, discrimination trends, skills availability, etc. Boots never discriminates any employee. Boots always tries to adopt different life style in different countries, languages, traditions, people expectations etc. * TECHNOLOGICAL: The technology adopted by the industries determines the type and quality of goods and services to be produced and the type and quality of plant and equipment to be used. The technological environment influences the business in terms of investment in technology. It refers to the innovations of IT, nanotechnology, new production methods and process, level of expenditure on R&D by organization’s rivals etc. Boots uses to invest more money on research and development of its cosmetics and medicines. ENVIRONMENTAL: It links to the ‘Green issue’ of the environment, reducing toxic emissions, pollution, spills, hazard prevention, disposable of wastes or rubbishes etc. Boots dedicates to reducing the carbon intensity of their business and continued to launch specific carbon reduction initiatives. For example, Boots UK launched in August 2009 an awareness campaign aimed at reducing energy use in its retail stores. In February 2010, Boots UK received the Carbon Trust Standard in recognition of recent achievements in reducing its ‘carbon footprint’. Over 50% of the waste, they create as a Group recycles. * LEGAL: It deals with international law, legislation and taxation, human rights concerns, local regulation. It also concerns international trade agreements, employment and safety law, and product safety issues etc. Alliance Boots operates in regulated markets. It could be adversely affected by changes to existing regulation, new regulation such as licensing regimes for pharmacies, prescription processing regimes. www. boots. com) ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES OF BOOTS: Director Director Director Finance Director Chief Executive Health & Beauty Chief Executive Legal Chief Executive Health & Beauty CEO Chief Executive Pharmaceutical Wholesale Division Chairman of the Board Director Director Director Director Chief Finance Director (www. theofficialboard. com) Organizational structure is the formal system of task and reporting relationships that controls, coordinates and motivates employees so that they work together to achieve organizational goals. (Buchanan and Huczynski, 2004. P. 874) It is the pattern of relationships among positions in organizations and among members of the organization. Structure makes possible application of the process of management and creates a framework of orders and commands through which the activities of the organization can be planned, organized, directed and controlled. Mullins (2007, p. 564) Alliance Boots has a flat organizational chart. In the structure, we can see that there are eight directors including Board of Chairman and non executive directors. Under Board of Chairman, there are six Chief Executives who are responsible to report to Chairman. All the Executives are the same level in decision making. This structure helps Boots to do better communication between top management and employees as well as increased team spirit too. Hence, we can see less bureaucratic power which helps to make decision easily. It also improves sound coordination and timely passing information among the different department within the Boots which increases productivity. This flat structure is mostly helpful to do faster responses to changing condition. This flat structure has demerits in Boots. Here, workers may have more managers for one job which creates confusions. It is mostly helpful for a small organization but Boots is such a large organization, where it will have demerits. As a result, this will reduce the growth of the organization. (www. learnmanagement2. com) (www. blurtit. com) MOTIVATIONAL FRAMEWORK: MOTIVATIONAL Individual Colleagues The Manager Customers Organization FRAMEWORK (www. ashridge. org. uk) ORGANIZATION: The organization will provide the structure and processes such as performance management and reward schemes, training, interesting work. In the organization, leaders and managers must earn the respect of others, create an appropriate working environment and provide opportunities for people to grow and develop. THE INDIVIDUAL: Individuals need to be more open about share values with colleagues and managers. Organizations need the accurate strategy and processes that make it abundantly clear that individuals have a responsibility for their own development. THE MANAGERS: The Boss provides a crucial role in the motivation process not only acting as a role model but valuing each of colleagues in a way that makes them feel motivated. COLLEAGUES: Colleagues can play a crucial role in motivation at work. By sharing skill and ability, every employee will be motivated in the work place. THE CUSTOMERS: People will be motivated by feedback from both internal and external customers and clients. We should regularly review and share the results of feedback with staff. FACTORS AFFECTING EMPLOYEES PRODUCTIVITY: The proportion that measures the efficiency of the resources concerned in production of products and services is called productivity. It is also the ratio of inputs and outputs of the production. (www. ayushveda. om) The factors that affect the employee productivity are as follow: * TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT: If the employees are not trained properly in their particular job role, then the organization cannot get the benefit from the employees. Sometimes Boots cannot get enough time to schedule the training timetable. COMMUNICATION: There will be constant communication among top management, middle management and the em ployees. But sometimes there is miscommunication or take time to communicate within the Boots because of managers’ holiday, Internet break down etc. * WORK LIFE BALANCE: If the husband or wife works together and there are kids, there will be a problem to match the time table. Boots gives priority to those families. * PAY AND BENEFITS: If the employees get under pay, a late payment, or wrong payment, then they will not be encouraged to perform better the job. * REWARD AND RECOGNATION: Sometimes employees are not rewarded for meritorious services which create employees opposition to complete the job. * WORKING ENVIRONMENT: If the working environment is not suitable for employees or the coordination and cooperation is lacking, the productivity will be low. EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY: If there is any discrimination, the productivity will decrease and employees will dissatisfy. Boots strictly follows the rules and regulation about equality. * OTHERS: There are few more factors which affect the productivity, such as poor management, slow decision taking, lack of trust, stress level, conflict, frustration, etc. WAYS OF MOTIVATING KEY EMPLOYEES IN BOOTS An organ ization has many attributes to its success one of which is motivation of staff of the organization. Boots has various ways of motivating their workers leaving them satisfied which encourage them to go ahead and deliver. * TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT: Boots provides an online module and training for their staff. This enables them to fulfill their potential at work. The organization makes a significant investment in the development of a range of training. This helps new employees of the organization feel as part of the team and makes them more confident. This year, Boots put additional investment into developing their pharmacists and registered technicians supporting them with their continued professional development. DISCOUNT FOR STAFF PURCHASES: Employees get discounts for purchases on Boots and non-boots products. They obtain 12% discount on Non-boots products and 25% discount for boots products. Every employee, within a year gets double discounts for 2days, which means 25% and 50% for non-Boots and Boots products respectively. This makes them want to stay in the organization. * HEAL TH INSURANCE: Boots believes that their responsibility is to look after their colleague’s health which will help them deliver better customer service. This is particularly beneficial to the employees though this is not compulsory. It encourages them to stay with the organization hence longevity of service, intimate working knowledge and greater output. (www. boots. com) * RETAINING AND PROMOTION: The organization is decidedly particular about recruiting, retaining and promoting diverse employees in the organization. Therefore they strive for this through hard work and hence contribute enormously to the success of the organization. * ATTRACTIVE REMUNERATION: Salary is also another factor that encourages employees to work. If they are well paid they feel like coming to work coupled with a enjoyable working environment at Boots, their employees get an increase in salary every year especially when the economy is stable or growing. * HEALTH AND SAFETY: Boots always provide the right equipment to do the job. All the training regarding health and safety provide every employee to protect them as well as customers. (www. allianceboots. com) APPRAISAL SYSTEMS OF BOOTS: As mentioned above Boots appraises its employees once a year. They are informed when they are going to be appraised and what is expected of them. A form is given to each line manager for every employee just to tick the most suitable one. It describes the employees work performance. Feedback is given to employees, so they will know where to improve. The performance management cycle of Boots Plan for performance appraisal Informing employees about appraisal Feedback and working to achieve goal Performance appraisal of employees Appraisal systems depend upon the individual performance which includes quality of services, customer care knowledge, flexibility of working time, competences, skills, learning achievement, relationships with colleagues etc. ORGANISATIONAL RECORD KEEPING: It is where an organization records information from the time it creates to the time of its disposal. Record keeping is truly essential for an organization because it helps keeps the organization on track and thus achieves organizational goals. Record keeping helps the organization to monitors its financial transaction. In Boots, record keeping uses for verification financial transaction and recording information about employees such as employees personal data, training records, how many times an employee has been absent. Boots keeps its records for two years then at the end of the two the last year records destroyed and a new one is started again. (http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Records_management) Boots always keep employees personal data secretly and maintain the rules and regulation of the Data Act. All employees have personal record file where all the information are stored in secret. (www. 123helpme. com) CONCLUSION: Boots has a outstanding reputation about health and beauty products at the UK as well as all over the world. It is a delightful place to work everyone says. They have to work closely with manufacturers and pharmacists to improve health among the local communities as well as national level. Boots should give priorities about customers’ loyalty, retention, communication and in store marketing. In the current economic recession in the UK, they have to monitor all the financial activities to minimize the cost. There will be commitment and clear indicators from top level to lower level. Motivation is essential to business success. Boots needs to pay more attention about employees’ learning and development to meet the future demands of the organization.