Fighting Fire with Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Fighting Fire with Psychology - Essay Example They usually rush out and leave the area in no time. They find the nearest exit from where they could flee and reach to a point of safety. This also depends a great deal on the message that has been transmitted to them telling about the spread of a fire in the first place. The intensity of this fire plays a huge role in their leaving off the area. Majority of the people spend a huge amount of time finding information related with fire and its causes. They seem to go deep inside the very basis of a fire and its spread. These types of findings usually play a very significant role in the works of architects, engineers as well as the emergency planners since a real case of fire provides as much learning experience and exposure for these people as they could possibly think of. Thus they document every minor detail that they can get their hands on and try to understand the rational behind the very same. After 9/11 the research has become even more significant since the people seem to have an alarming anxiety within them intensely as compared to what used to be the case pre-9/11 era. It could be due to the falling of the two World Trade Center towers. They just do not want themselves to be caught up in such a situation all said and done. The article sums up the research findings by US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which have played a tremendous role at the learning regimes of the human behaviors which are exhibited in fire-related scenarios and instances. With that, the researchers are also trying their best to examine what actually must have happened at the time of 9/11 in the twin towers. What this will ultimately do is to provide a basis for future preparations in cases of attacks, fires and blasts within buildings, complexes and high rises. This article has discussed the research that has been done post-9/11 era since the effect of 9/11 was indeed very

Avon: Manage Change in Organizational Behaviour

Avon: Manage Change in Organizational Behaviour INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND Change is something vital in todays environment for very organisation due to the various factors like economic change, technology changes and competition change etc. The organizational behaviour is presentation of the organizational culture, structure and individuals working in the organization. So the change in any factor will ultimately effect on the behaviour of the organisation (Ajzen, 1988) and it is essential to manage these changes in appropriate and systematic manners in order to avoid failures at strategic level. Have used the Avon the company for women in recent years; have gone through the structural changes very often due to the economic ups and downs in past couple of years and fierce competition in market which have demanded the high cost efficiency and quality. Avon American based cosmetic company which have only product portfolios for women providing the range of products starting from cosmetics to beauty and fashion. Avon is known for their unique distribution channels where products are not sold in traditional shops displays instead the products are sold door to door by the Avon representatives leading to make the largest team of representatives with more than five million over the globe. REASONS FOR CHANGE AVON COMPANY In recent years the change is essential for every organisation to survive for long term and sustain in highly competitive environment. Organisations fail to change the systems and themselves in modern environment loss there market and standings example are many IT and related companies which come to near extinguish. However there following typical reasons in modern era which have lead the organizations to made changes in their structures and behaviours; Technology updates: In recent years the organization efficiency and cost savings is dependent on the use of suitable technology solutions and they need the technology to maintain themselves in the highly competitive market. So the organizations which did not adopt the suitable technology may be the victim of inefficiencies, slow productions growths and less profit margins, further the use of appropriate technology and making it part of the strategy is biggest challenge for todays organisations. Competition situation: competition have changed it selves to the highly volatile and fierce where it survive the organizations have to change themselves continuously in order to remain ahead in the game, where international organisations have adopt the competition strategy by making themselves highly sustainable, ethical values and updated for the changing environment with more focus on competing through digital world. Economic conditions : A few years ago the economic conditions was almost stable and according to the pattern but recent credit crunch have left the organisations uncertain about their future and prove there planning for their future may need the minor or complete revision. So in that case the organizations are expecting the uncertain and unseen economic conditions in the future and best strategy to deal these uncertainties is that the companies change their structure and behaviour flexible enough to incorporate the changes. Changes reasons in Avon; Avon has particularly driven to change by the following factors; Cost savings: like other cosmetics companies the Avon also facing the challenge to maintain their profitability level with minimizing the cost and efficiency. Te Avon have initiated the cost saving scheme in 2008 which will be further linger till 2015 which will ensure the huge changes in the organisation with in this time period including the individuals focus to save cost much as possible and ensure the cost savings in future time period. Sale representatives: the economy down fall left the human resource jobless and dissatisfies where Avon took the opportunity and make their strategic aim to increase their sale representative base strong and change the way organisation deals with their work force making them the most compatible with the new environment. More skills development: Traditionally Avon have worked with the limited but high class skills which were limited to the top level , however Avon is now focusing more on delegation and skill development in all level of staff so the organisation emerged as the highly compatible. CHANGE STRATEGY AND CHANGE PROCESS Organisational change requires the complete strategic standing and concern and should be adopted and made on the higher level, where this process begins with making the clear vision of the organisation after change and how the different aspect and contexts will be dealt in course of making the strategy for change. Change Philosophy; Change philosophy may consist of the organisations standing and vision about the change and how they perceive it like Avon has taken the change as the mean of competition and incorporating the recent external changes in the organisation however the most organisations have taken it as the art of the organisations casual operations and part of the organisational life cycle for others it is rare and one off event after long time and due to the extreme reasons. Change Approach: This can be representatives of how the organisations will be managing the change process and how the change process will proceed. The approach can be either top down or bottom up where the top down approach means the lower staff are driven to change by higher management however the bottom up approach means the lower staff have been the factor which have realized the upper management drive the change process. The most common approach is mixer of each approach as the leads is unable to bring the change without employees consent. Style: The style may present the perceptions of the management about the change like either they are taking as the very crucial and making redundancies to bring the changes or the organisation are bringing the change through the involvement of employees with continuous contribution from them. Role of others: The change is driven by the individuals in the organization which should clearly identify the hierarchy of personal taking part in the process and there should be the clear line of responsibilities and role. Change implication models; The change models are systematic approach of the company to adopt the change, where many researchers have combined many factors and challenges to make standards processes to bring the changes in the organisation. There are number of models used for change implementation and there is no standard about each model to be adopted for the change for every organisation and circumstances. However there are following common models are adopted by the majority of organisations; Balance score card: is the method where the change is implemented in various areas of the business with different perspective and finally the overall impact is calculated to make the overall change happen in the organisation. The main change areas are financial, operational, supply chain and technology etc. Kaizen: this is the model which have based on the philosophy that the change is the part of the organisational operations and there must always the increments in the system and improvements through the company without any pause. The Kaizen suggest that the change is the function which organisation adopt like all other functions like marketing or production etc. The Kaizen model is suggesting the manufacturing with the philosophy of zero effect and total quality management in the organisation. Kotters change model: this model presents the step by step approach to change process where the change could be adopted as the side operation of the organisation over the period without much interference in the primary functions however his model also equally adoptable in changes which require the total spin off the company. The Kotters model allows the organizations to identify and manage the challenges in the change process like the resistance from stakeholders and motivation etc. Kotters eight step ensure the organisation have gone through the careful process to manage the change in structure with minimum risk factors. Business process reengineering: is the philosophy for change where the focus of the management to change the style of working and ways the functions are performed before so to perform the particular task the organization is more focus on the changing the ways of working eliminating the inefficiencies and slacknesss making it more efficient and productive. Other methods are balance score card, Lewins model and action research model etc The above stated models are more effective in individual and unique circumstances and there should be analysis conduct by management in order to find the model is best suitable to the organizations unique circumstances and it is recommended to stay on one model once being adopted. There are following questions which the managements should consider before recommending any model to the company; How frequently the change happen in the organisation for example for frequent change the kaizen model is best suitable or other wise How much Time allocated to the change process happen for example Kotters model allow the both short term or long term change however the Lewins change model is used for change in short time period is use What is the Reason of change itself define the model adopted for the incremental change the Kotter model or the Kaizen is adoptable however the economic crunches or any emergency change may require the spin off change process suggesting the Lewins or Action Research method base What are the organisation and their business nature and type, manufacturing prefer the process reengineering etc Recommended for the Avon Avon have been changing themselves because of both factors like the economic downturn and as part of continuous improvement also the Avon is both service oriented and production base company so need the model which could coped easily in each situation and possible solution is Kotters eight step model; where the changes will precede as follows; 1-First of all the Urgency for change will created by identifying the factors which required the proposed change and what worse could happen if Avon could not change the behaviours in the organisation and implement the proposed solutions and afterwards gets the solution from the management. 2- After approval Avon will form the team which lead the change and assist the organization to overcome the hurdles for change to happen. These are influential people of the organisation which management thinks could easily convenience the resistance from the stakeholders. 3-Along with the team the Avon will create the vision of future of the organisation, where the organisation will consider the strategic objectives and how the change will obtain the strategic objectives. 4-Communication is essential throughout the change process and information asymmetry may cause the resistance and delays in the process of change so the Kotters fourth step allow the organisation to first allow the organisation to mange there communication aspect easily so do not face the problem in the coming stages. 5- Resistance could be any forms in the change process wither due to the stakeholders especially the employees or there are resources delays, which should be managed in the fifth stage of the change. Here Avon may feel restricted due to the technology delays will be managed before proceeding to actual stage. 6- By creating the vision and awareness may not enough for the employees to make them realize that the actual changes are on the way and may fruitful so if they are given the taste of the outcomes might be better able to give the organisation the maximum contribution from the employees. 7-This stage is crucial as on this stage as the organisation will create the actual activities in the organization. 8-Reviews and monitoring: On this stage the change process is finished and the company stable the organisational operations and outcomes are measured to find the extent to which the set objectives are achieved. STAKE HOLDERS INVOLVEMENT Stakeholders are crucial to any change implementation to the successful, have been indicated any studies there are following Stakeholders which affected by the organisational activities. The personals, which are most influenced by the organisational activities especially change activities are they stake holders which should be managed in an appropriate ways to avoid the conflicts of interested and resistance from them Aon have Shareholders, customers, employees and suppliers as the ka stakeholders. According to the Mendlows are the key stakeholders, where the where by adopting the following grid the organisation can manage the stakeholders. According to these mapping the stakeholders involvement will differ for each stakeholder according to their interest and power in the organisation. Shareholders are managed closely as they have high interest and power in the company Employees are keep satisfied and informed because the although have the highest interest in the company and low influence but could fall in the high power category by lobbing and other ways Customers should be informed so they know what is going around in the company Suppliers with low interest and low power are monitor effectively. Here the each can involve in change by following ways; Shareholders: The shareholders have interest of wealth in the organisation ain any for also they have attitude towards the risk taken in any change ad project and according to the stakeholder mapping they have the highest power and interest in the company. So, Avon must closely monitor them and gave them the true picture of what is happening ad progress of the project. The shareholders involvement could be achieved in following ways Taking suggestions and decisions about the critical matters like risk and investors in particular areas Face to face individual meetings are essential where the influential shareholder s is concern or the management is expecting the lobbing from the minor shareholders, which can create the big problem in future In Periodic and annual meetings Avon should convey and gave presentation on the progress of change process and there should be written report to the shareholders about the progress of the change process. Employees: Employees involvement is important where the case studies have revealed that the change plans without the much contribution from the employees mostly fails to achieve the required level of outcomes. Employees are most affected by the organisation plan of changes in form of either they can lose their jobs in result or have fear to change her position on which they feel comfortable. In the stakeholders grid the employees have lower influence on individual level and high interest so must be keep satisfied as if they do lobbing can create the problem for the organisation. The employees if not kept satisfied any result in the delay in the process and their involvement in the process increase the chance for the change. There are following methods or systems could be adopted to take their contribution in the process; Schedule and managers meeting with each individual in the organisation because he mangers are more confronting point so the employees feel satisfied and can easily share their doubts and ideas about the change Presentations and seminars after intervals are best source to gave the employees what is actual progress and where the company is standing now and what possible issues can arise and finally at that point the employees can assist the organisation in that change process. Online portals and blogs which will encourage the employees to discuss the change openly rather than involving in typical office politics and management should carefully mange the suggestions coming from employees with appropriate feedbacks and rewards which will encourage others as well to take part in the process. The change in behaviours requires the change in the culture and working environment which is done by the management and of course by changing the role models. Customers; Avon almost affected by the requirement and need of their ladies which also can e priceless resource in the organisations change process for unique ideas and living the image after or before change happens. Customers are also most influenced by the staff services and convince in ordering and quality of product so their contribution importance could not be denied. In stakeholder grid the customer have high influence and lower interest so they must keep informed and their contribution may obtain by either through the surveys or tailored interviews. Suppliers: Suppliers although are least influential in the organisation however they can be a delay in the change process through the inconvenient supplies or become the major stakeholders. So before proceeding the change Avon must consult their suppliers for the details to avoid the unseen circumstances. APPLYING THE SUCCESSFUL STRATEGY The successful strategic implication require s the minimum challenge faced from the stake holders if the employees restrict the change they can abort change procedures and company will not be able to apply the changes in the organisation as required. The change restriction could be due to no reasons like The rights or interest of personals are affected and not considered in the company so make agreements with them The person is restricting due to being facing difficulty in adjusting in the new process so unable to cope creating the resistance to change processes, so there is need to consider them by giving training and consultation They are creating problem because they think change is not what is required for company or unable to understand the outcomes achieved from the change process. So management should educate them or gave them the appropriate awareness about the matter. The organization can manage them by making them the system as on the planning stage and reviewing the system after periodic period to avoid conflicts and minimizing the negative impacts of the changes to the people and processes as change is not essentially did not bring always the positive outcomes so should managed carefully. Conclusion: The change in organisation or behavioural changes require the change in the working styles, structure and culture of the organisation where all these changes are further dependent on the cost savings, skills developments and changing the way of working could be best approach for Avon Company. The change implementation may require appropriate change strategy and suitable model, where Avon may be best suited for the Kotters eight step model. The change may results in failure if the stakeholders are not managed appropriately where the stakeholders are managed through these of gridding system ad allocating them according to their interest and power.

Henry Sweetser Burrage :: Bibliography Bibliographies

Henry Sweetser Burrage I find myself on the threshold of a new year. Before me is this mysterious and unknown. As I set out to explore its secret windings I propose to take with me this book in order that I may note more carefully the various objects of interest which the future conceals, and record my own thoughts and feelings by the way. It promises to be an eventful year. January 1861 found America on the brink of Civil War, and Henry S. Burrage, pen in hand, faithfully recorded the current events in his diary at Brown. He could hear the latest news before the public, for he reported on public lectures for the Providence Journal and was often in the office when a dispatch arrived. By January, seven states had seceded from the Union, led by South Carolina. In February these "wayward sisters" were united as the Confederate States of America with Jefferson Davis as president. Over the next few months, four more states would secede, bringing the total to eleven as tensions grew and the population realized that war was inevitable. Yet for the most part, life went on as usual for the students of Brown University. They had other pressing concerns, such as passing Professor Gammell's class. William Gammell, class of 1831, was Professor of History when Henry Sweetser Burrage attended Brown. Once, in mid January, "Old Gam" did not appear for his usual fear-inspiring lecture, and the whole senior class rejoiced. Henry used this extra time to cram for finals. Every Saturday morning the students filed into the recitation room on the first floor of University Hall for Gam's class. The first half hour of class was spent reciting the previous lecture, and each student was required to talk about a portion of it. Gam would survey the room, pick his first target, and watch as the lad tried not to forget any major point which he had discussed -- if the Professor had to ask him to clarify, or remind him of a major issue, he would be marked down a point. The next student would discuss in greater detail the first major point, and so on around the room, from William Henry Ames to George B. Yandes. One Saturday, January 12, Gam had assigned yet another "outrageous lesson," this on top of all the final exam preparations which plagued the students: twelve paragraphs in addition to fifteen review paragraphs due on Monday. Henry Sweetser Burrage :: Bibliography Bibliographies Henry Sweetser Burrage I find myself on the threshold of a new year. Before me is this mysterious and unknown. As I set out to explore its secret windings I propose to take with me this book in order that I may note more carefully the various objects of interest which the future conceals, and record my own thoughts and feelings by the way. It promises to be an eventful year. January 1861 found America on the brink of Civil War, and Henry S. Burrage, pen in hand, faithfully recorded the current events in his diary at Brown. He could hear the latest news before the public, for he reported on public lectures for the Providence Journal and was often in the office when a dispatch arrived. By January, seven states had seceded from the Union, led by South Carolina. In February these "wayward sisters" were united as the Confederate States of America with Jefferson Davis as president. Over the next few months, four more states would secede, bringing the total to eleven as tensions grew and the population realized that war was inevitable. Yet for the most part, life went on as usual for the students of Brown University. They had other pressing concerns, such as passing Professor Gammell's class. William Gammell, class of 1831, was Professor of History when Henry Sweetser Burrage attended Brown. Once, in mid January, "Old Gam" did not appear for his usual fear-inspiring lecture, and the whole senior class rejoiced. Henry used this extra time to cram for finals. Every Saturday morning the students filed into the recitation room on the first floor of University Hall for Gam's class. The first half hour of class was spent reciting the previous lecture, and each student was required to talk about a portion of it. Gam would survey the room, pick his first target, and watch as the lad tried not to forget any major point which he had discussed -- if the Professor had to ask him to clarify, or remind him of a major issue, he would be marked down a point. The next student would discuss in greater detail the first major point, and so on around the room, from William Henry Ames to George B. Yandes. One Saturday, January 12, Gam had assigned yet another "outrageous lesson," this on top of all the final exam preparations which plagued the students: twelve paragraphs in addition to fifteen review paragraphs due on Monday.

Smartphones Effect on Teenagers

Josh Frint Lawrence ENG 1113 26 September 2012 Essay #1 Smartphones Impact on Todays students Today, smartphones are in the hands of almost every student. It has become so common that young children are starting to ask their parents for one. Although nobody can deny the ability to find and use information fast on a smartphone, many people feel students should not have one. These smartphones are effecting verbal communication, writing skills, as well as increasing laziness in our students. Verbal communication is increasingly becoming a problem in today’s society and it is because of smartphones.Our generation is known as the â€Å"texting generation†. These days, students talk to their friends using text messages or calling. This takes away our ability to talk to someone face to face. It affects college graduates not being confident enough to present themselves properly in an interview with a future employer. Texting interaction leaves out basic skills like, clear speak ing, body language, eye contact with the person to whom they are speaking too, and the ability to listen and stay focused on what the person is saying.More and more these days students go to their phones or computers when needing to write an essay. Students search Google and various other search engines to help find the most up to date information, although the information is handy and very tempting, it is creating pure laziness in todays society. These smartphones contain encyclopedias, dictionaries and as we all know, the internet. There is no exerted effort into collecting this information, students are too lazy to read a book and quite frankly, some just don’t have time.Also, students are being distracted by cellphones. It is causing lack of focus and discipline. Often times students will sit down to study and all of the sudden hear their phone go off, and they’ll get self-indulged into the conversation and no longer continue to study. Students are becoming unable to concentrate on the task at hand would rather be using their phones to be texting friends, updating their Facebook statuses or even Re-Tweeting what their best friend ate for dinner.Writing skills are on the free fall, and it is all because of our students’ use of smartphones. Think about it, back in the day, society would take pride in being able to read and write, it was a hobby and many people did it for fun. Today, writing is frowned upon by any student. Our writing skills have vanished due to our lack of proper English usage. Students send text messages that would even confuse Shakespeare like â€Å"OMG† or â€Å"LOL†. Essays are now a problem for students because they lack the ability to think in depth.Through text messages we get straight to the point and do not have the meaningful, in depth conversation that people have face to face. Smartphones are here, and aren’t going anywhere. In fact, the technology will likely become more advanced and mor e easily accessible to our students, which is fine, as long as those advancements aren’t being abused by our students. Parents and schools play a vital role in fixing this problem, parents must show children the appropriate use of smartphones, and schools must continue to create ways to move around the path of technology.

Economics Oligopoly

Main economic features of an Oligopoly and key economic theories of price fixing. This part of the coursework aims to identify and explain the main economic features of an Oligopoly and also the key economic theories which influence the price of a product or service. This part deals with the theoretical aspects of Oligopoly and the later part emphasizes on the practical applications of the theories and oligopoly features.According to Pass et al (2000), â€Å"Oligopoly, a type of market structure is characterised by a few firms and many buyers, where the bulk of market supply is in the control of relatively few large firms who in turn sell to many small buyers†. To describe the degree of oligopoly, concentration ratio is often utilized. Concentration ratio is the measure of the market share of the largest four firms in the industry expressed as a percentage. A low concentration ratio suggests a high level of competition and vice versa for.As there are few players dominating the industry, each player or an oligopolist is said or likely to be aware of others course of actions. The decision taken by one player seems to affect the decision taken by others and strategic planning by the firms needs to take into account the likely response of other participants (Wikipedia, 2010). For example, a proper game of chess depends on how well you read your opponent’s moves, similarly in oligopoly; strategies are devised based on the moves of competing market firms.The reason for existence oligopoly as stated by Maunder et al (1991) is for the achievement of economies of scale. Firms tend to reduce their average cost of production by increasing their scale of operation and since the small firms have higher average costs, they tend to go out of business or be absorbed by the larger ones. The features of oligopoly are:- a. Number of Firms:-The very important feature of an oligopoly is the number of firms. Even though there are a large number of firms operating in a particular industry, only a handful of firms hold the major share between them. . Interdependence: – A very distinctive feature of an oligopoly is interdependence. When a very few large firms operate in a particular industry, their activities or strategy cannot be independent of each other. Unlike monopoly, where the monopolist need not worry about the reaction of its rivals as there are none, an oligopolist takes into consideration the possible reactions of all rival firms. For example, a company considering a price reduction of its products may wish to estimate the chances of price reduction by the rival company and hence starting a price war. . Profit Maximization Condition: – The firms in an oligopoly generally agree to co-operate and act as one monopolist as it generates high profits (Begg and Ward 2007). This kind of formal collusive agreement is called a cartel. An oligopoly maximises profits where the marginal revenue equals the marginal cost. This is also know n as profit maximization condition. Price ELASTIC UNIT ELASTIC P MC, AC PROFIT MAXIMIZING OUTPUT O MR Quantity (Source: Begg and Ward 2007) d.Perfect Knowledge: – Oligopolists are said to have a perfect knowledge about their cost and demand functions but a lesser information about other firms (Wikipedia, 2010). e. Entry Barrier: – One of the main important features of oligopoly also is the entry barrier. There are high entry barriers that restrain a new firm from entering a market. For example, the barriers can be the economies of scale, access to expensive and complex technology, lower costs for an established firm, brand loyalty, patented production process and strategic action by incumbent firms etc.The table below gives the market concentration in different industries. As discussed earlier, the large few firms form a cartel and set a price. Once the members of the cartel agree on the price, they compete against each other using non price competition in order to gai n the maximum revenue. There are other various ways in which the firms fix the price. One of them being tacit collusion, where the firms agree on a price set by an established leader. This is also known as dominant firm price leadership as the price setting firm is the dominant firm in the industry.The other way is the barometric firm price leadership, where the price leader is the one whose prices reflect the market conditions in the most stable form (Sloman et al, 2010). To fix prices, the producers must be able to control the market supply. The other forms of price fixing in tacit collusion is average cost pricing, where producers add a certain percentage of profit on top of average costs and price benchmarking, where firms raise the price only up to a benchmark already set.Price fixing is achieved by the competing firms coming together on a platform where they can agree on a common pricing and production strategy thus acting in a manner in which a monopoly operates. This kind of collusion is known as cartelisation. Cartels although banned in many countries, is difficult for the enforcement agencies to gather evidence and penalise the participants. The quantity for the cartel and the individual firm will not be the same as one firm individually will have the scope for further increase in productivity to achieve a situation where the marginal cost equals the marginal revenue.In such cases firms may decide to go ahead with excess supply which can lead to a price war and inconsistent revenues to the industry. Even without overt collusion firms in an oligopoly are able to reach a point of profit maximisation when they behave in a manner reflected in â€Å"Nash Equilibrium† (Begg and Ward 2007). 2B) Direct to Home (DTH) television industry in India acting as an oligopoly. India has a total television population of about 135 million of which about 108 million have an access to cable and satellite television (Plugged in, 2010).The total DTH sub base at the end of first quarter in the year 2010 was 23 million (Dish TV India Ltd, 2010) which was about just 1 million in the year 2006. Indian DTH industry has seen a flurry of activities in the recent years after a monopolistic reign by Dish TV for a couple of years. It is currently in a state of Oligopoly with the top four operators controlling nearly 80% of the total market. The major players in the market are Dish TV by Zee group, TataSky- a joint venture by Tata and Star TV, Big TV by Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, Digital TV by Bharati Telemedia and SUN Direct from Sun TV.Since there are only 3 major players in the DTH market, Indian DTH industry is an oligopoly. (Indiadth, 2010) The product offering by the rival firms are more or less similar in nature with little or no product differentiation. Amongst all the players, Sun Direct has essentially remained a regional operator who made a late debut in the national scene. The content or the channels are same with all the operators barring few omissions and additions. The DTH industry market share is as follows. BRAND| MARKET SHARE| Dish TV| 30%|TataSky| 22%| Sun Direct| 25%| Big Tv| 13%| Airtel| 8%| D2H| 2%| (Source: http://www. pluggd. in/dth-industry-in-india-analysis-297/) From the data above we can see that Dish TV, TataSky and Sun Direct together hold the maximum market share with over 75%. (Source: http://www. slideshare. net/) To confirm the oligopoly, we can use the Herfindahl-Hirschman index or the HHI. It measures the size of the firms in relation to the industry and also indicates the amount of competition between them. Mathematically, (Adapted from Pass et al, 2000)Here Si = market share of firm i in the market and N is the number of firms. Hence H = 302 + 222 + 252 + 132 + 82 + 22 H = 2246. With this value of H we can conclude that this industry is an oligopoly. Although there is no indication of an overt collusion in the industry, a closer look at their price plan (fig 1. 1) can lead us to a strategic o r tacit understanding between the players. The market is abuzz with marketing drives to garner market share and the customer is currently loaded with freebies like free installation, free channels and the like.Going by the level of investment and infrastructure the operators need to garner as much subscriber base as possible to be in a profitable proposition. They are however aware of the competition and are refraining from a price war. Such behaviour of the operators is characteristic of a non-price competition in Oligopoly. This is due to the interdependency of firms in the oligopoly and the strategic behaviour can also be referred to the â€Å"Nash Equilibrium† (Begg and Ward 2007). (Source: Slideshare. net/researchonIndia) Brand Name| PricePlan(inINR)/month| Dish TV| 135. 0| TataSky| 150. 00| Sun Direct| 115. 00| Videocon| 136. 00| Fig: 1. 1 (Source: Company websites, 2010) Now as in any oligopoly, it has to be supported by entry barriers, both endogenous and exogenous. T he natural barrier of entry in this particular industry is primarily associated with government licensing and also the intensity of capital investment required. Given that all the DTH operators are already established players in related sectors such as telecom, media it gives them a strategic advantage in terms of distribution and content.For any new entrant it could pose as a strategic entry barrier. Indian DTH market has constantly been attracting different players over the years given the increasing number of television subscribers. Although there have been entry barriers, companies like Videocon along with its cutting edge technology entered into the market in the presence of established players. The cutting edge technology proved to be a barrier breaker. Videocon managed to build television sets with set top boxes which helped it develop its own customer base.References Begg, D. , and Ward, D. (2007). Economics for Business, 2nd edition. Berkshire: McGraw Hill Publication. Chri stopher Pass, Bryan Lowes and Leslie Davies (2000). Economics, 3rd edition. HarperCollins Publishers. DTH, (2010). http://www. pluggd. in/dth-industry-in-india-analysis-297/ [Accessed 21/11/2010] Dish TV, (2010). http://www. dishtv. in/packages. aspx [Accessed 21/11/2010] Indiadth, (2010). http://www. indiadth. in/ [Accessed 22/11/2010] Maunder, P. , Myers, D. , Wall, N. , and Miller, R. L. 1991) Economics Explained, 2nd edition. Collins Educational. Sloman, J. , and Hinde, K. (2007). Economics for business, 4th edition. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. Sun Direct, (2010). http://www. sundirect. com/packages. php [Accessed 22/11/2010] Tata Sky, (2010). http://www. tatasky. com/channel-packages. html [Accessed 22/11/2010] Videocon, (2010). http://www. videocond2h. com/wsc/packages. html [Accessed 22/11/2010] Wikipedia, (2010). Oligopoly. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Oligopoly [Accessed 21/11/2010)]