Architecture
Essays

This paper examines the life and work of Bartoleme de Las Casas, whom may be considered as an early human rights activist within the Church during the days of Spanish colonization of the New World. His writings are noted for their passionate defense of the Indian--but also for their exaggerated notion of Spanish violence.

Traditionally, researchers in various fields of study have generally limited investigations to their area of expertise. Social scientists attend to prescribed areas such as memory, deviance, and microeconomics.

A Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a series of steps or processes that are undertaken to develop a software product. In general, the activities or processes include gathering the requirements, design,…

¶ … perceived superiority of modern Western civilization is unfounded. There is little evidence to suggest that our cultures are any more advanced than the ancient cultures of the Fertile Crescent, Greece, or Rome.

During the timeframe of the case study, Williams-Sonoma is creating a multi-channel based business model that lacks the level of integration between online and brock-and-mortar stores to scale profitably. While the sales are increasing quickly for Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn and outlet stores, there is little evidence of online buying behavior driving in-store purchases. Worse yet, there is no indication that the high-end stores in their business are enjoying greater sales as a result of their e-comemrce sites. Without a concerted strategy to drive greater upsell and across channels, Williams-Sonoma will eventually end up being two or more companies. This is exactly why the industry they compete in is also following this growth trajectory; the attempts to focus on several segments at the same time is diluting focus on the selling cycle of customers. Retailers need to realize that the more effectively they manage the selling process both on- and offline as a single, unified strategy, the more profitable over the long-term they will be (King, Sen, Xia, 2004). The case indicates that there are fundamental shifts in how customers are choosing to shop online. The prevalence of social media is a case in point. As customers are increasingly relying on the most trusted sources of information, often their personal networks on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social networking sites, to drive their purchasing (Bernoff, J., & Li, 2008). Williams-Sonoma is not taking into account the communitization of their customer base, but rather assuming no interaction between online and offline customers. This is going to drive the company to operate as several different businesses over time. By better managing the entire purchasing process across both online and offline channels, Williams-Sonoma will gain a significant competitive advantage in the market. Today they are encouraging a bifurcated, fragmented view of their channels. By aligning online and offline strategies to a common objective or goal, the company will be able to better manage costs and predict revenue and profits more effectively. In devising and managing a multichannel strategy that involves online shopping and the potential for offline purchasing, retailers are discovering that the decision processes consumers use are changing quickly and significantly in favor of the Web as a product comparison tool (Reynolds, 2002). Williams-Sonoma will be able to unify their online and offline strategies through the more effective use of social media as well, creating a unique and highly differentiated customer experience in the process (Bernoff, J., & Li, 2008). In five years if these changes are made Williams-Sonoma will be able to challenge Amazon and other larger and more diverse competitors with a highly effective, unified e-commerce strategy that interlinks directly to their retail outlets. If they do nothing they will end up just as fragmented as the market they are competing in today, forced to eventually spin off specific retail divisions or store chains that no longer make sense for how far customers have changed in their decision-making and purchasing criteria. The bottom line is that how, where and who customers trust for information is changing much more rapidly than the Williams-Sonoma existing channel architecture and e-commerce strategies can allow for.

There's a lot more to life than sports and athletic competition in the name of glory. But when a sports-focused individual is on a roll and has either achieved fame, money, and championship level victories - or is in…

Cubism refers to a revolutionary style of art that emerged in Paris during the early part of the twentieth century, 1907 through 1914, and is credited to the creations of two particular painters, Pablo Picasso and…

Judaism (Introduction, Worship Site Review, Interview, Comparison/Contrast with Christianity)

Two styles became very popular in Europe during the 1700s. One, the Rococo style was characterized by fluidity, asymmetry, and the extremely ornate. This style would come to dominate France during the period and stretch…

How is the City of Verona being sold on the Internet and on the Web, and what makes the city attractive to the visitor, and what are the factors that would make him choose this city in favor of any others.