Freedom Bears No Sole Definition - 927 Words

Freedom bears no sole definition. It could be defined as the right to free will, or to liberty. Even so, freedom is subjective and relative to one’s perception of the meaning of the word. For African Americans, the civil war can be interpreted as their â€Å"crossroads of freedom†, but were they truly free? The Union and Confederates had been enthralled in war mainly for the cause of eliminating the horrific institution of slavery (the south fought for the opposite), and though the end of the Civil War brought the amendments that made African Americans autonomous from a legal standpoint, they hardly could be considered free from an all-encompassing point of view. Socially and economically, African Americans were poised to be unequal even though the law said otherwise. From the time that slave traders abducted people from their homes from Africa, there would be great disparity in how they would be treated in every dimension of their life. One of the earliest implications of this polarity occurred in the late 1630s when Anthony Johnson, a slave who gained his freedom and became a relatively prosperous farmer, had his will made null when he died. The judge declared Anthony Johnson â€Å"was a Negroe and by consequence an alien† (Clayborne Carson 48), and thus his land originally deeded to his son, was given to a white plantation owner. Johnson had apparently gained his freedom, but having one’s written will revoked is hardly something that would happen to a â€Å"free† man. Without doubt,Show MoreRelated1st and 2nd Amendment1723 Words   |  7 Pagesï » ¿ The First and Second Amendments of the United States Constitution On September 25, 1789, The Bill Of Rights was submitted to the states for approval, based on the previous Constitutions insufficient assurances for civil freedom, liberties and justice. Concerned that the Constitution neglected to clearly state the basic civil rights of the citizens of the United States, Anti- Federalists opposed the Articles of Confederations, which gave state governments more authority (â€Å"Bill of Rights, n.dRead More Healthcare and the Competitive Market Structure Essay1016 Words   |  5 Pagesor gatekeeper. Sometimes physicians own diagnostic facilities or invest in health care organizations this affects their ability to be impartial. Third consumers bear the financial impact of their decision and are aware of price differences; most patients are insulated from the true cost of health care because of a third-party payer who bears the financial brunt of the decision to receive medical care. Shi and Singh state that even if a patient wanted to find out the co st of services sometimes it isRead MoreArgument Essay Against Large Capacity Magazines1354 Words   |  6 Pageshigh-capacity magazines for your guns. He also said that â€Å"30-round magazines are very common and we simply cannot keep weapons out of the hands of sick, demented individuals who want to do harm†. â€Å"If we attempt to do so then we are restricting our freedom,† says Johnson (Stein, 2012). In Johnson’s defense the gunman in the recent Aurora shooting was by all accounts a law-abiding citizen who used legal means to arm himself. He was also protected by the same laws that the majority of gun owners useRead MoreEuthanasia And The Right Of Life And Euthanasia1558 Words   |  7 PagesTo speak of Right to Life and Euthanasia, first it should be defined by at least two notions: Euthanasia and the Right to Life, the first are definitions as those shown below: Some authors see that the concept or the notion of Euthanasia is too ambiguous, which can lead us to understand very different and even contradictory things. Let s refer to it: 1. A normed use: Death without physical suffering or which causes voluntarily Another use is the Factual painless death or death in a stateRead MoreThe Declaration Of Independence And The United States Of America Essay1411 Words   |  6 Pagesthree branches of the nation’s federal government. In addition, the Bill of Rights lists several amendments, which offer citizens their privileges. Some of these privileges of great importance include the right to exercise free speech, the right to bear arms, the right to speedy trials and that is to just to address a few. Undoubtedly, these are some of the many characteristic that attribute to our nation’s appeal to both the American people and international bystanders. However, we witness how theRead MoreRhetorical Analysis of The Truman Show1521 Words   |  7 Pageshappiness. How can Truman have access to these rights in a snow globe? Adopted by a corporation as an unwanted pregnancy, Truman has, since birth, been filmed and broadcast to the world. His surrounding environment has been scripted and crafted for the sole purpose of entrapment and confusion. A completely unique saga of events from birth to an eventual escape from the set, The Truman Show is beloved by all the viewers in the reality of the film. On one hand, the show is entertaining and stunning. OnRead MoreMargaret Atwood s The Handmaid s Tale Essay1741 Words   |  7 Pagesanother. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale demonstrates how language is able to facilitate power and in turn, dominate a society. In this novel Atwood creates Gilead, an imaginary futuristic society where women are completely stripped of their freedom. Although this type of society utilizes guards and spies to reinforce the regulations, the primary power relies in the government’s control of language. In the Republic of Gilead, Atwood uses an official voc abulary that is much different than theRead MoreThe Declaration Of Independence Of The United States Of America Essay1481 Words   |  6 Pagesthe right to exercise free speech, the right to bear arms, the right to speedy trials and that is just to name a few. Undoubtedly, these are characteristics that attribute to our nation’s appeal to both the American people and international bystanders. However, we’ve witness how the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights does not uphold its credibility. A large issues stems from the fact that the term â€Å"citizenship† is not given a fixed definition in the Pillars of Citizenship, which is both ironicRead MoreRelationship Between Classical And Modern Positivism1320 Words   |  6 Pagesbetween classical and modern positivism. In order to do so, it will critically evaluate the key features between classical and modern positivism as well as the extent to which some modern positivist theories such as Hart and Raz p rovide a successful definition of law. Legal Positivism Legal positivism is a prominent concept of the nature of law in jurisprudence. It is a philosophy of law that highlights the orthodox nature of law which is that the law is socially constructed and that the existence andRead MoreJohn Locke s Two Treatises Of Government1345 Words   |  6 PagesOf Government Most scholarship that links John Locke’s ideas with eighteenth- century representations of childhood approaches children as Lockean pedagogic subjects ready for moral and intellectual education. My essay instead brings to bear on representation of children Locke the political thinker, who articulates in Two Treatises of Government (1689) a person’s right to â€Å"liberty and property.† Locke’s influential theories of ownership are partly responsible for the eighteenth-century

The Lost Symbol Chapter 113-116 Free Essays

CHAPTER 113 Wrapped in wool blankets, Langdon stood on wobbly legs and stared down at the open tank of liquid. His body had returned to him, although he wished it had not. His throat and lungs burned. We will write a custom essay sample on The Lost Symbol Chapter 113-116 or any similar topic only for you Order Now This world felt hard and cruel. Sato had just explained the sensory-deprivation tank . . . adding that if she had not pulled him out, he would have died of starvation, or worse. Langdon had little doubt that Peter had endured a similar experience. Peter is in the in-between, the tattooed man had told him earlier tonight. He is in purgatory . . . Hamistagan. If Peter had endured more than one of those birthing processes, Langdon would not have been surprised if Peter had told his captor anything he had wanted to know. Sato motioned for Langdon to follow her, and he did, trudging slowly down a narrow hall, deeper into this bizarre lair that he was now seeing for the first time. They entered a square room with a stone table and eerie-colored lighting. Katherine was here, and Langdon heaved a sigh of relief. Even so, the scene was worrisome. Katherine was lying on her back on a stone table. Blood-soaked towels lay on the floor. A CIA agent was holding an IV bag above her, the tube connected to her arm. She was sobbing quietly. â€Å"Katherine?† Langdon croaked, barely able to speak. She turned her head, looking disorientated and confused. â€Å"Robert?!† Her eyes widened with disbelief and then joy. â€Å"But I . . . saw you drown!† He moved toward the stone table. Katherine pulled herself to a seated position, ignoring her IV tube and the medical objections of the agent. Langdon reached the table, and Katherine reached out, wrapping her arms around his blanket-clad body, holding him close. â€Å"Thank God,† she whispered, kissing his cheek. Then she kissed him again, squeezing him as though she didn’t believe he was real. â€Å"I don’t understand . . . how . . .† Sato began saying something about sensory-deprivation tanks and oxygenated perfluorocarbons, but Katherine clearly wasn’t listening. She just held Langdon close. â€Å"Robert,† she said, â€Å"Peter’s alive.† Her voice wavered as she recounted her horrifying reunion with Peter. She described his physical condition–the wheelchair, the strange knife, the allusions to some kind of â€Å"sacrifice,† and how she had been left bleeding as a human hourglass to persuade Peter to cooperate quickly. Langdon could barely speak. â€Å"Do you . . . have any idea where . . . they went?!† â€Å"He said he was taking Peter to the sacred mountain.† Langdon pulled away and stared at her. Katherine had tears in her eyes. â€Å"He said he had deciphered the grid on the bottom of the pyramid, and that the pyramid told him to go to the sacred mountain.† â€Å"Professor,† Sato pressed, â€Å"does that mean anything to you?† Langdon shook his head. â€Å"Not at all.† Still, he felt a surge of hope. â€Å"But if he got the information off the bottom of the pyramid, we can get it, too.† I told him how to solve it. Sato shook her head. â€Å"The pyramid’s gone. We’ve looked. He took it with him.† Langdon remained silent a moment, closing his eyes and trying to recall what he had seen on the base of the pyramid. The grid of symbols had been one of the last images he had seen before drowning, and trauma had a way of burning memories deeper into the mind. He could recall some of the grid, definitely not all of it, but maybe enough? He turned to Sato and said hurriedly, â€Å"I may be able to remember enough, but I need you to look up something on the Internet.† She pulled out her BlackBerry. â€Å"Run a search for `The Order Eight Franklin Square.’ â€Å" Sato gave him a startled look but began typing without questions. Langdon’s vision was still blurry, and he was only now starting to process his strange surroundings. He realized that the stone table on which they were leaning was covered with old bloodstains, and the wall to his right was entirely plastered with pages of text, photos, drawings, maps, and a giant web of strings interconnecting them. My God. Langdon moved toward the strange collage, still clutching the blankets around his body. Tacked on the wall was an utterly bizarre collection of information–pages from ancient texts ranging from black magic to Christian Scripture, drawings of symbols and sigils, pages of conspiracy- theory Web sites, and satellite photos of Washington, D.C., scrawled with notes and question marks. One of the sheets was a long list of words in many languages. He recognized some of them as sacred Masonic words, others as ancient magic words, and others from ceremonial incantations. Is that what he’s looking for? A word? Is it that simple? Langdon’s long-standing skepticism about the Masonic Pyramid was based largely on what it allegedly revealed–the location of the Ancient Mysteries. This discovery would have to involve an enormous vault filled with thousands upon thousands of volumes that had somehow survived the long-lost ancient libraries in which they had once been stored. It all seemed impossible. A vault that big? Beneath D.C.? Now, however, his recollection of Peter’s lecture at Phillips Exeter, combined with these lists of magic words, had opened another startling possibility. Langdon most definitely did not believe in the power of magic words . . . and yet it seemed pretty clear that the tattooed man did. His pulse quickened as he again scanned the scrawled notes, the maps, the texts, the printouts, and all the interconnected strings and sticky notes. Sure enough, there was one recurring theme. My God, he’s looking for the verbum significatium . . . the Lost Word. Langdon let the thought take shape, recalling fragments of Peter’s lecture. The Lost Word is what he’s looking for! That’s what he believes is buried here in Washington. Sato arrived beside him. â€Å"Is this what you asked for?† She handed him her BlackBerry. Langdon looked at the eight-by-eight grid of numbers on the screen. â€Å"Exactly.† He grabbed a piece of scrap paper. â€Å"I’ll need a pen.† Sato handed him one from her pocket. â€Å"Please hurry.† Inside the basement office of the Directorate of Science and Technology, Nola Kaye was once again studying the redacted document brought to her by sys-sec Rick Parrish. What the hell is the CIA director doing with a file about ancient pyramids and secret underground locations? She grabbed the phone and dialed. Sato answered instantly, sounding tense. â€Å"Nola, I was just about to call you.† â€Å"I have new information,† Nola said. â€Å"I’m not sure how this fits, but I’ve discovered there’s a redacted–â€Å" â€Å"Forget it, whatever it is,† Sato interrupted. â€Å"We’re out of time. We failed to apprehend the target, and I have every reason to believe he’s about to carry out his threat.† Nola felt a chill. â€Å"The good news is we know exactly where he’s going.† Sato took a deep breath. â€Å"The bad news is that he’s carrying a laptop with him.† CHAPTER 114 Less than ten miles away, Mal’akh tucked the blanket around Peter Solomon and wheeled him across a moonlit parking lot into the shadow of an enormous building. The structure had exactly thirty-three outer columns . . . each precisely thirty-three feet tall. The mountainous structure was deserted at this hour, and nobody would ever see them back here. Not that it mattered. From a distance, no one would think twice about a tall, kindly-looking man in a long black coat taking a bald invalid for an evening stroll. When they reached the rear entrance, Mal’akh wheeled Peter up close to the security keypad. Peter stared at it defiantly, clearly having no intention of entering the code. Mal’akh laughed. â€Å"You think you’re here to let me in? Have you forgotten so soon that I am one of your brethren?† He reached out and typed the access code that he had been given after his initiation to the thirty-third degree. The heavy door clicked open. Peter groaned and began struggling in the wheelchair. â€Å"Peter, Peter,† Mal’akh cooed. â€Å"Picture Katherine. Be cooperative, and she will live. You can save her. I give you my word.† Mal’akh wheeled his captive inside and relocked the door behind them, his heart racing now with anticipation. He pushed Peter through some hallways to an elevator and pressed the call button. The doors opened, and Mal’akh backed in, pulling the wheelchair along with him. Then, making sure Peter could see what he was doing, he reached out and pressed the uppermost button. A look of deepening dread crossed Peter’s tortured face. â€Å"Shh . . .† Mal’akh whispered, gently stroking Peter’s shaved head as the elevator doors closed. â€Å"As you well know . . . the secret is how to die.† I can’t remember all the symbols! Langdon closed his eyes, doing his best to recall the precise locations of the symbols on the bottom of the stone pyramid, but even his eidetic memory did not have that degree of recall. He wrote down the few symbols he could remember, placing each one in the location indicated by Franklin’s magic square. So far, however, he saw nothing that made any sense. â€Å"Look!† Katherine urged. â€Å"You must be on the right track. The first row is all Greek letters–the same kinds of symbols are being arranged together!† Langdon had noticed this, too, but he could not think of any Greek word that fit that configuration of letters and spaces. I need the first letter. He glanced again at the magic square, trying to recall the letter that had been in the number one spot near the lower left corner. Think! He closed his eyes, trying to picture the base of the pyramid. The bottom row . . . next to the left- hand corner . . . what letter was there? For an instant, Langdon was back in the tank, racked with terror, staring up through the Plexiglas at the bottom of the pyramid. Now, suddenly, he saw it. He opened his eyes, breathing heavily. â€Å"The first letter is H!† Langdon turned back to the grid and wrote in the first letter. The word was still incomplete, but he had seen enough. Suddenly he realized what the word might be. ! Pulse pounding, Langdon typed a new search into the BlackBerry. He entered the English equivalent of this well-known Greek word. The first hit that appeared was an encyclopedia entry. He read it and knew it had to be right. HEREDOM n. a significant word in â€Å"high degree† Freemasonry, from French Rose Croix rituals, where it refers to a mythical mountain in Scotland, the legendary site of the first such Chapter. From the Greek originating from Hieros-domos, Greek for Holy House. â€Å"That’s it!† Langdon exclaimed, incredulous. â€Å"That’s where they went!† Sato had been reading over his shoulder and looked lost. â€Å"To a mythical mountain in Scotland?!† Langdon shook his head. â€Å"No, to a building in Washington whose code name is Heredom.† CHAPTER 115 The House of the Temple–known among its brethren as Heredom–had always been the crown jewel of the Masonic Scottish Rite in America. With its steeply sloped, pyramidical roof, the building was named for an imaginary Scottish mountain. Mal’akh knew, however, there was nothing imaginary about the treasure hidden here. This is the place, he knew. The Masonic Pyramid has shown the way. As the old elevator slowly made its way to the third floor, Mal’akh took out the piece of paper on which he had reorganized the grid of symbols using the Franklin Square. All the Greek letters had now shifted to the first row . . . along with one simple symbol. The message could not have been more clear. Beneath the House of the Temple. Heredom The Lost Word is here . . . somewhere. Although Mal’akh did not know precisely how to locate it, he was confident that the answer lay in the remaining symbols on the grid. Conveniently, when it came to unlocking the secrets of the Masonic Pyramid and of this building, no one was more qualified to help than Peter Solomon. The Worshipful Master himself. Peter continued to struggle in the wheelchair, making muffled sounds through his gag. â€Å"I know you’re worried about Katherine,† Mal’akh said. â€Å"But it’s almost over.† For Mal’akh, the end felt like it had arrived very suddenly. After all the years of pain and planning, waiting and searching . . . the moment had now arrived. The elevator began to slow, and he felt a rush of excitement. The carriage jolted to a stop. The bronze doors slid open, and Mal’akh gazed out at the glorious chamber before them. The massive square room was adorned with symbols and bathed in moonlight, which shone down through the oculus at the pinnacle of the ceiling high above. I have come full circle, Mal’akh thought. The Temple Room was the same place in which Peter Solomon and his brethren had so foolishly initiated Mal’akh as one of their own. Now the Masons’ most sublime secret–something that most of the brethren did not even believe existed–was about to be unearthed. â€Å"He won’t find anything,† Langdon said, still feeling groggy and disorientated as he followed Sato and the others up the wooden ramp out of the basement. â€Å"There is no actual Word. It’s all a metaphor–a symbol of the Ancient Mysteries.† Katherine followed, with two agents assisting her weakened body up the ramp. As the group moved gingerly through the wreckage of the steel door, through the rotating painting, and into the living room, Langdon explained to Sato that the Lost Word was one of Freemasonry’s most enduring symbols–a single word, written in an arcane language that man could no longer decipher. The Word, like the Mysteries themselves, promised to unveil its hidden power only to those enlightened enough to decrypt it. â€Å"It is said,† Langdon concluded, â€Å"that if you can possess and understand the Lost Word . . . then the Ancient Mysteries will become clear to you.† Sato glanced over. â€Å"So you believe this man is looking for a word?† Langdon had to admit it sounded absurd at face value, and yet it answered a lot of questions. â€Å"Look, I’m no specialist in ceremonial magic,† he said, â€Å"but from the documents on his basement walls . . . and from Katherine’s description of the untattooed flesh on his head . . . I’d say he’s hoping to find the Lost Word and inscribe it on his body.† Sato moved the group toward the dining room. Outside, the helicopter was warming up, its blades thundering louder and louder. Langdon kept talking, thinking aloud. â€Å"If this guy truly believes he is about to unlock the power of the Ancient Mysteries, no symbol would be more potent in his mind than the Lost Word. If he could find it and inscribe it on the top of his head–a sacred location in itself–then he would no doubt consider himself perfectly adorned and ritualistically prepared to . . .† He paused, seeing Katherine blanch at the thought of Peter’s impending fate. â€Å"But, Robert,† she said weakly, her voice barely audible over the helicopter blades. â€Å"This is good news, right? If he wants to inscribe the Lost Word on the top of his head before he sacrifices Peter, then we have time. He won’t kill Peter until he finds the Word. And, if there is no Word . . .† Langdon tried to look hopeful as the agents helped Katherine into a chair. â€Å"Unfortunately, Peter still thinks you’re bleeding to death. He thinks the only way to save you is to cooperate with this lunatic . . .probably to help him find the Lost Word.† â€Å"So what?† she insisted. â€Å"If the Word doesn’t exist–â€Å" â€Å"Katherine,† Langdon said, staring deeply into her eyes. â€Å"If I believed you were dying, and if someone promised me I could save you by finding the Lost Word, then I would find this man a word–any word–and then I’d pray to God he kept his promise.† â€Å"Director Sato!† an agent shouted from the next room. â€Å"You’d better see this!† Sato hurried out of the dining room and saw one of her agents coming down the stairs from the bedroom. He was carrying a blond wig. What the hell? â€Å"Man’s hairpiece,† he said, handing it to her. â€Å"Found it in the dressing room. Have a close look.† The blond wig was much heavier than Sato expected. The skullcap seemed to be molded of a thick gel. Strangely, the underside of the wig had a wire protruding from it. â€Å"Gel-pack battery that molds to your scalp,† the agent said. â€Å"Powers a fiber-optic pinpoint camera hidden in the hair.† â€Å"What?† Sato felt around with her fingers until she found the tiny camera lens nestled invisibly within the blond bangs. â€Å"This thing’s a hidden camera?† â€Å"Video camera,† the agent said. â€Å"Stores footage on this tiny solid-state card.† He pointed to a stamp-size square of silicon embedded in the skullcap. â€Å"Probably motion activated.† Jesus, she thought. So that’s how he did it. This sleek version of the â€Å"flower in the lapel† secret camera had played a key role in the crisis the OS director was facing tonight. She glared at it a moment longer and then handed it back to the agent. â€Å"Keep searching the house,† she said. â€Å"I want every bit of information you can find on this guy. We know his laptop is missing, and I want to know exactly how he plans to connect it to the outside world while he’s on the move. Search his study for manuals, cables, anything at all that might give us a clue about his hardware.† â€Å"Yes, ma’am.† The agent hurried off. Time to move out. Sato could hear the whine of the helicopter blades at full pitch. She hurried back to the dining room, where Simkins had now ushered Warren Bellamy in from the helicopter and was gathering intel from him about the building to which they believed their target had gone. House of the Temple. â€Å"The front doors are sealed from within,† Bellamy was saying, still wrapped in a foil blanket and shivering visibly from his time outside in Franklin Square. â€Å"The building’s rear entrance is your only way in. It’s got a keypad with an access PIN known only to the brothers.† â€Å"What’s the PIN?† Simkins demanded, taking notes. Bellamy sat down, looking too feeble to stand. Through chattering teeth, he recited his access code and then added, â€Å"The address is 1733 Sixteenth, but you’ll want the access drive and parking area, behind the building. Kind of tricky to find, but–â€Å" â€Å"I know exactly where it is,† Langdon said. â€Å"I’ll show you when we get there.† Simkins shook his head. â€Å"You’re not coming, Professor. This is a military–â€Å" â€Å"The hell I’m not!† Langdon fired back. â€Å"Peter’s in there! And that building’s a labyrinth! Without someone to lead you in, you’ll take ten minutes to find your way up to the Temple Room!† â€Å"He’s right,† Bellamy said. â€Å"It’s a maze. There is an elevator, but it’s old and loud and opens in full view of the Temple Room. If you hope to move in quietly, you’ll need to ascend on foot.† â€Å"You’ll never find your way,† Langdon warned. â€Å"From that rear entrance, you’re navigating through the Hall of Regalia, the Hall of Honor, the middle landing, the Atrium, the Grand Stair– â€Å" â€Å"Enough,† Sato said. â€Å"Langdon’s coming.† CHAPTER 116 The energy was growing. Mal’akh could feel it pulsing within him, moving up and down his body as he wheeled Peter Solomon toward the altar. I will exit this building infinitely more powerful than when I entered. All that remained now was to locate the final ingredient. â€Å"Verbum significatium,† he whispered to himself. â€Å"Verbum omnificum.† Mal’akh parked Peter’s wheelchair beside the altar and then circled around and unzipped the heavy daybag that sat on Peter’s lap. Reaching inside, he lifted out the stone pyramid and held it up in the moonlight, directly in front of Peter’s eyes, showing him the grid of symbols engraved on the bottom. â€Å"All these years,† he taunted, â€Å"and you never knew how the pyramid kept her secrets.† Mal’akh set the pyramid carefully on the corner of the altar and returned to the bag. â€Å"And this talisman,† he continued, extracting the golden capstone, â€Å"did indeed bring order from chaos, exactly as promised.† He placed the metal capstone carefully atop the stone pyramid, and then stepped back to give Peter a clear view. â€Å"Behold, your symbolon is complete.† Peter’s face contorted, and he tried in vain to speak. â€Å"Good. I can see you have something you’d like to tell me.† Mal’akh roughly yanked out the gag. Peter Solomon coughed and gasped for several seconds before he finally managed to speak. â€Å"Katherine . . .† â€Å"Katherine’s time is short. If you want to save her, I suggest you do exactly as I say.† Mal’akh suspected she was probably already dead, or if not, very close. It made no difference. She was lucky to have lived long enough to say good-bye to her brother. â€Å"Please,† Peter begged, his voice ragged. â€Å"Send an ambulance for her . . .† â€Å"I will do exactly that. But first you must tell me how to access the secret staircase.† Peter’s expression turned to one of disbelief. â€Å"What?!† â€Å"The staircase. Masonic legend speaks of stairs that descend hundreds of feet to the secret location where the Lost Word is buried.† Peter now looked panicked. â€Å"You know the legend,† Mal’akh baited. â€Å"A secret staircase hidden beneath a stone.† He pointed to the central altar–a huge block of granite with a gilded inscription in Hebrew: GOD SAID, â€Å"LET THERE BE LIGHT† AND THERE WAS LIGHT. â€Å"Obviously, this is the right place. The entrance to the staircase must be hidden on one of the floors beneath us.† â€Å"There is no secret staircase in this building!† Peter shouted. Mal’akh smiled patiently and motioned upward. â€Å"This building is shaped like a pyramid.† He pointed to the four-sided vaulted ceiling that angled up to the square oculus in the center. â€Å"Yes, the House of the Temple is a pyramid, but what does–â€Å" â€Å"Peter, I have all night.† Mal’akh smoothed his white silk robe over his perfect body. â€Å"Katherine, however, does not. If you want her to live, you will tell me how to access the staircase.† â€Å"I already told you,† he declared, â€Å"there is no secret staircase in this building!† â€Å"No?† Mal’akh calmly produced the sheet of paper on which he had reorganized the grid of symbols from the base of the pyramid. â€Å"This is the Masonic Pyramid’s final message. Your friend Robert Langdon helped me decipher it.† Mal’akh raised the paper and held it in front of Peter’s eyes. The Worshipful Master inhaled sharply when he saw it. Not only had the sixty-four symbols been organized into clearly meaningful groups . . . but an actual image had materialized out of the chaos. An image of a staircase . . . beneath a pyramid. Peter Solomon stared in disbelief at the grid of symbols before him. The Masonic Pyramid had kept its secret for generations. Now, suddenly, it was being unveiled, and he felt a cold sense of foreboding in the pit of his stomach. The pyramid’s final code. At a glance, the true meaning of these symbols remained a mystery to Peter, and yet he could immediately understand why the tattooed man believed what he believed. He thinks there is a hidden staircase beneath the pyramid called Heredom. He misunderstands these symbols. â€Å"Where is it?† the tattooed man demanded. â€Å"Tell me how to find the staircase, and I will save Katherine.† I wish I could do that, Peter thought. But the staircase is not real. The myth of the staircase was purely symbolic . . . part of the great allegories of Masonry. The Winding Staircase, as it was known, appeared on the second-degree tracing boards. It represented man’s intellectual climb toward the Divine Truth. Like Jacob’s ladder, the Winding Staircase was a symbol of the pathway to heaven . . . the journey of man toward God . . . the connection between the earthly and spiritual realms. Its steps represented the many virtues of the mind. He should know that, Peter thought. He endured all the initiations. Every Masonic initiate learned of the symbolic staircase that he could ascend, enabling him â€Å"to participate in the mysteries of human science.† Freemasonry, like Noetic Science and the Ancient Mysteries, revered the untapped potential of the human mind, and many of Masonry’s symbols related to human physiology. The mind sits like a golden capstone atop the physical body. The Philosopher’s Stone. Through the staircase of the spine, energy ascends and descends, circulating, connecting the heavenly mind to the physical body. Peter knew it was no coincidence that the spine was made up of exactly thirty-three vertebrae. Thirty-three are the degrees of Masonry. The base of the spine, or sacrum, literally meant â€Å"sacred bone.† The body is indeed a temple. The human science that Masons revered was the ancient understanding of how to use that temple for its most potent and noble purpose. Unfortunately, explaining the truth to this man was not going to help Katherine at all. Peter gazed down at the grid of symbols and gave a defeated sigh. â€Å"You’re right,† he lied. â€Å"There is indeed a secret staircase beneath this building. And as soon as you send help to Katherine, I’ll take you to it.† The man with the tattoos simply stared at him. Solomon glared back, eyes defiant. â€Å"Either save my sister and learn the truth . . . or kill us both and remain ignorant forever!† The man quietly lowered the paper and shook his head. â€Å"I’m not happy with you, Peter. You failed your test. You still take me for a fool. Do you truly believe I don’t understand what it is I seek? Do you think I have not yet grasped my true potential?† With that, the man turned his back and slipped off his robe. As the white silk fluttered to the floor, Peter saw for the first time the long tattoo running up the man’s spine. Dear God . . . Winding up from the man’s white loincloth, an elegant spiral staircase ascended the middle of his muscular back. Each stair was positioned on a different vertebra. Speechless, Peter let his eyes ascend the staircase, all the way up to the base of the man’s skull. Peter could only stare. The tattooed man now tipped his shaved head backward, revealing the circle of bare flesh on the pinnacle of his skull. The virgin skin was bordered by a single snake, looped in a circle, consuming itself. At-one-ment. Slowly now, the man lowered his head and turned to face Peter. The massive double-headed phoenix on his chest stared out through dead eyes. â€Å"I am looking for the Lost Word,† the man said. â€Å"Are you going to help me . . . or are you and your sister going to die?† You know how to find it, Mal’akh thought. You know something you’re not telling me. Peter Solomon had revealed things under interrogation that he probably didn’t even recall now. The repeated sessions in and out of the deprivation tank had left him delirious and compliant. Incredibly, when he spilled his guts, everything he told Mal’akh had been consistent with the legend of the Lost Word. The Lost Word is not a metaphor . . . it is real. The Word is written in an ancient language . . . and has been hidden for ages. The Word is capable of bringing unfathomable power to anyone who grasps its true meaning. The Word remains hidden to this day . . . and the Masonic Pyramid has the power to unveil it. â€Å"Peter,† Mal’akh now said, staring into his captive’s eyes, â€Å"when you looked at that grid of symbols . . . you saw something. You had a revelation. This grid means something to you. Tell me.† â€Å"I will tell you nothing until you send help to Katherine!† Mal’akh smiled at him. â€Å"Believe me, the prospect of losing your sister is the least of your worries right now.† Without another word, he turned to Langdon’s daybag and started removing the items he had packed in his basement. Then he began meticulously arranging them on the sacrificial altar. A folded silk cloth. Pure white. A silver censer. Egyptian myrrh. A vial of Peter’s blood. Mixed with ash. A black crow’s feather. His sacred stylus. The sacrificial knife. Forged of iron from a meteorite in the desert of Canaan. â€Å"You think I am afraid to die?† Peter shouted, his voice racked with anguish. â€Å"If Katherine is gone, I have nothing left! You’ve murdered my entire family! You’ve taken everything from me!† â€Å"Not everything,† Mal’akh replied. â€Å"Not yet.† He reached into the day-bag and pulled out the laptop from his study. He turned it on and looked over at his captive. â€Å"I’m afraid you have not yet grasped the true nature of your predicament.† How to cite The Lost Symbol Chapter 113-116, Essay examples

Managing International Business In China -Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Managing International Business In China? Answer: Introduction E-commerce is one of the most talked about business word since last decade, a lot of credit can be given to Amazon.com to take e-commerce to the heights envisioned and should be appreciated for starting something so relevant for the entire world. Amazon.com is one of the largest online marketplace connecting buyers and sellers (Bhatt, Patel, Chheda Gawande, 2015). The company which was started at the back of a garage way back in 1994 by the present visionary Jeff Bezos now has emerged as the largest e-commerce player in the market. Amazon was launched initially as an online book store, few years later the company forayed into DVD, Games, Lifestyle, Clothing, Consumer durable, web services and what not, the company currently boasts of more than millions of products listed on its website, finely curated to make easy browsing for its customers(Smith, Rupp Offodile, 2017). The company operates through three segments across the globe; North America, International and Amazon web services . One of the most astonishing features of Amazons business model is that it operates on Marketplace model, which means that it does not hold or control any inventory of its own; it just provides a platform where the sellers can sell their good to the buyers (Kristensen, Penner, Nguyen, Moy Lam, 2017) Amazon earned revenue of 136 Billion in the year 2016 and it employees over lakh people working in its offices which are situated across 13 counties, although the company ships product in almost 185 countries and merchants from over 100 countries list their product on its website (Chen Wilson, 2016). It is really an impossible task to even imagine how the company effortless operates its business operation which is spread across so many countries, despite the plethora of countries the company is operating in, Amazon still remain one of the most valued and customer centric company in the world. How much ever the competition may be rising, Amazon always pulls out best practices to woo the customers and its consistent innovation in improving the customer service keeps its way ahead of all its competitors(Schmidlin, 2014). Amazon has been also making tremendous contribution to the world by its cloud services, also called as Amazon web services, is apparently even bigger than the Microsof t (Schein, 2017) The purpose of the report here is to do a comparative analysis of how Amazon is competing in the market and understanding of its competitive position. The report will also highlight how Amazon is leveraging its competitive edge to provide additional benefits for its customers and still sustain its position of leader. The report will also highlight the challenges company faces or has been facing in its entire journey while trading across borders. In the era of globalization, when the entire world is accessible at a click, there still are challenges in setting up a business in other countries. PESTLE analysis will help in understanding the various macro environmental forces to consider while evaluating business opportunity. At the end of the report certain strategies will be recommended to Amazon on how to enhance its existing business and maintain the competitive edge over its competitors. Competitive Position In a world with a population of 7billion, where the internet penetration is almost 51 %( 3.65 Billion), e-commerce sector is bound to grow at a humongous rate. The current market projection for the growth in e-commerce is expected to be around 20% CAGR, which implies there is a huge untapped market and so are the areas of improvement(Turban, Outland, King, Lee, Liang Turban,2017) A plethora of players are operating in the e-commerce sector, some of whom are a strong competition to Amazon. The company has been leveraging the power of diversification strategy, which can be seen from its diverse interest by expanding into the online streaming market, manufacturer of consumers electronics such as Firefly and Echo and a sizable extension of Amazon web services. Further, Porters 5 force model will help in understanding how the company is operating and keeping its competitive edge in this evolving market. Porter analysis is a true reflection of Amazons competing strategy since its existence in the e-commerce market; the model is discussed in the later section of the report, highlighting its effectiveness in competing against the market forces and competition (Soper, 2016) Certain players like Flipkart in India, E-Bay in the USA and other countries, Alibaba, Paytm are major competitors of Amazon. The company has to stay on its feet at all times to sustain its established position of leader. It has been in the news recently that Wal-Mart, the largest retail player is looking to enter in the e-commerce market, and this will further intensify the competition (Christin, 2015). The e-commerce market primarily caters to the B2C customer segment which includes the online retail and shopping. In one of the recent studies conducted by Rauken (Marketing agency) in 2016, approximately 1.61 billion people from across the globe purchased goods online generating a total turnover of 1.9 Trillion USD. If at all projections are an indication the e-commerce market is touted to jump to 4.06 trillion by 2020.All these facts thereby implies the scope and the ever increasing competition to gain a sizable pie of the e-commerce market (DaCosta, 2016) Amazon has a different approach to enter international market, the strategy of the company is to Go global and think local, the company customizes its product and services to better suit the domestic market. It conducts an environmental analysis which helps the company to define its marketing mix. Determining the 7P of marketing is half job done, the other half is done by analysing the competition in the market, understand the product offering of the current service providers and then fill the lacunae in the present market offering. In order to remain competitive in the market, Amazon focuses on the differentiation and cost leadership strategy. Cost leadership helps the company to give the products at the least rate, and differentiator strategy helps the company to offer differentiated services. Amazon prime, Amazon web services Online grocery stores are some of the example of its differentiated strategy(Steenkamp, 2017). Alibaba V/s Amazon-Competitive analysis Alibaba and Amazon are undoubtedly the two largest e-commerce companies in the world. Although, if numbers have to be believed, Amazon is way ahead of Alibaba because of its global expansion business strategy, and market dominance in the US and other big markets. Another differentiating factor between both the companies is its web platforms, Amazon is a closed system which manages everything related to the warehouse, suppliers, customers and the logistics. On the other hand, Alibaba is an open platform which gives power to individual stakeholders. Hence, it can be seen that Alibaba wants to empower the people who are registered on the platform, while Amazon wants to control the same to deliver maximum productivity to the clients(Choi, 2017). Jeff Bezos, who is seen as one of the greatest visionary of its times was always clear of the philosophy for Amazon. He wanted Amazon to be remembered as customer-centric organization, an organization which focuses all its operation, policies and procedures around its customers. The same is highly visible by its excellent customer service, despite the vastness of the business; it never forgets to pay attention to even its smallest customer. Amazons pricing, delivery, customer support is both impressive and in a fitment with customer seeking values. Amazon is really obsessed with the pricing, the quality of products and thus keeps very few suppliers and maintains a very strict vendor selection process (Allen, 2015) Alibabas business strategy is more focussed on being a cost leader, it believes in giving the lowest cost products to the customers, which is also the USP of the company. Hence, in accordance to the Porters generic competitive advantage, the company has chosen cost leadership as the viable strategy towards business sustainability. On the contrary, Amazon focuses on Cost leadership and brings differentiation in its services by including services like Amazon prime, Amazon music, one day delivery gurantee and many more. The company is focussed on the broad market, thus it makes more sense to be a cost leader and keep its product and services highly differentiated(Li, 2018). Business Models Alibaba in the USA has been best known for their B2B platform which connects the Chinese manufacturers to businesses, and is registered as Alibaba.com, but the beauty is that it does not make sizable revenue from US or any other market as a matter of fact. Alibaba has been making almost 80% of its money from the Chinese market alone now that is something to be really proud of. Taobao which is a division of Alibaba is where they make majority of the money. The model of Taobao is similar to E-Bay, where the company allows small businesses and consumers to list their merchandize for sale. Taobao mall, another great division of Alibaba has a business model like that of Amazon, it also does not hold any inventory and just connects the buyers with sellers (Viswanadham, 2017). It is really an understatement to say that the Chinese market is dominated by Alibaba, because the sales which Amazon does from USA market is nowhere even close to what Alibaba makes from only the China market(Ojha, 2 016) Amazon as has been said earlier operates on a marketplace where third party players sell their goods on its platform .Recently Amazon has also been storing and manufacturing some of the products out of its unfathomable line of inventory and is directly competing with the players who are selling on its website. Amazon and Alibaba both have cloud services, although the cloud services of Amazon are much bigger than Alibaba. Lastly, Amazon believes in innovation while Alibaba focuses on growing and expanding the business by helping small businesses (Gupte, 2018) Geographical Focus As explained earlier that Amazon has base in almost 12 countries and ships product to approx. 180 countries. Whereas, in case of Alibaba, the biggest market is China, from where it extracts almost 80% of its sales. Thus on one hand is Amazon which is focussing on all the possible business location to spread its business and push the envelope of services, Alibaba is focussing mostly in the Asian market (Lorenzo, 2017) Product Sales Alibabas revenue in the year 2016 soared to a new high; this new record can be contributed to the zeal of Chinese buyers, who have been buying almost everything online. Alibaba saw an increase of 56% in its revenue to reach 22.96 Billion USD. The increasing revenue does not necessarily means that the company is in profit; it reported a loss of 9.9 billion Yuan, approximately more than double from last year (Baba, 2016) The Company though increased the number of consumers on its platform and has added few more Asian countries as a part of its momentum regime. The company has also exceled at its cloud services, adding more than 500 million new customers (Kaplan Montiel, 2016) Amazon made revenue of 136 Billion USD and despite making losses in the new markets such as India, the company is steadily moving into a profit zone. The goods sold on the website have been increased by a margin of 30% and a considerable number of buyers have also increased (Rossman, 2016). Amazon web services can also be seen as a pillar of strength for Amazon; it has been spinning money for the company and is the largest player in cloud services. However, if the number of product sales have to be seen, Amazon has not yet disclosed the number of product which is sold in the year 2016, however revenue wise the company is much ahead of Alibaba(Yenni, Pan Cui,2017) Service and Fee revenues Both Amazon and Alibaba work on a commission model, they charge the sellers for every transaction which happens through their website. ALibaba despite charging commission to the sellers also earns revenue through Google ads. On the other hand, Amazon earns its revenue only from sellers commission and by selling its own good on the website (Chen, 2014) ALibaba charges somewhere between 3-5% as commission fee, whereas in case of Amazon the commission ranges somewhere between 6% to 20%. Hence, it can be said that Amazon makes more money in comparison to Alibaba, which is then further utilized in improving its customer service (Khammuang, 2015) Road Ahead There are no two doubts that it is a matter of time when both these giants will clash head on. Alibaba dominates the China market and Amazon is the undisputed market leader in the USA. Both the companies have created economies of scale and are consistently moving ahead. Jack Ma in recent interview has shared his views about investing in the US market; this could pose a serious threat to Amazon. Alibaba has a very scalable business model and with its paced momentum, it would be really interesting to see what happens in the future. As of now, Amazon leads the market at all front, plus its excellent customer services and customer centric approach wins the heart of its each and every customer (Etemad, 2017) Gaining competitive advantage In one of the recent interviews in 2017, Jeff Bezos said that if one has to understand how to learn and work with people, they actually have to start working with them, and not for them. Amazon is so exclusive with its data analytics and social listening that it is impossible for the company to miss any piece of relevant information (Belavina, Girotra Kabra, 2016). Good or bad, Amazon analyses the root of the problem and makes a point that it never happens again. However there are certain things which have helped Amazon in gaining a competitive advantage because of its business activity (Nwogugu, 2015) Adaptability-Amazon is always adapting to the changing business environment and the technology. It is way ahead of the curve and never misses on any radical innovation which can drastically improve its business operation and customer satisfaction. Hence, evolution has been a key factor of Amazon success (Chopra, 2016) Strategy- Amazon has been spot on with almost all its strategic moves, expanding to the Asian market, investing sizable assets In the developing economies, its consumer oriented vision and strategies, Amazons exclusive products(Alexa) are some of the examples of its well-crafted strategy. The company channels all of its efforts both through online and offline tools and leverages the same for the customers advantage. Cost leadership has been always the strategy of Amazon, its tries hard to negotiate with the sellers so that the buyers get the lowest possible price for the product. It has been leader owing to its cost leadership strategy. Further combined with customer focus approach does the wonder for the e-commerce giant. The potential of Amazon is possibly limitless, it is in the world to create a disruption and change for the good (Oreskovic, 2016) Challenges Faced by Amazon-Trading internationally As mentioned earlier in the report that Amazon delivers product to more than 1.6 billion people out of the total population of 7 Billion. The company delivers almost too every other country but has a base in only 12-14 countries. Any multinational company while trading has to consider a lot of factors, factors which are really crucial for that particular country or continent. Failing to comply with the legal formalities can lead to abolishment from the said market. Amazon has been facing certain challenges with the China market and few others, owing to the government regulations and China being a closed economy (Tian, 2016). In a bid to understand the challenges which a MNC could face, it is really important to understand the PESTLE framework given by Kotler way back in 90s. PESTLE analysis-Amazon PESTLE analysis is one of the most fundamental model which helps in analysing the macro environment for any organization. The model considers Political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors which can change the shape of any business, also very important while trading internationally. Political Factors The business model of Amazon makes it fall under the scrutiny of political influence. This force focuses on the governmental activity and how it could politics can pose a strong challenge for Amazon. The following factors are important in the trading internationally: Political stability of developed countries (Opportunity) Government support towards e-commerce sector (Opportunity Threat) Increasing governmental efforts on cyber security (Opportunity) At the helm of Political instability the company is unable to perform at its best, the company is under the scrutiny of the government which keeps on changing, which can force the company to alter their business model or even exit the country. Amazon benefits strongly from the political stability of the nations. Political stability helps the company to diversify the business and also expand to other developed markets. Markets like US serve beneficial to Amazon as the company has the leverage to open a brick and mortar model to leverage its e-commerce business. In the similar manner, government support towards the e-commerce industry is a big plus point, as there are less restriction and its more like an open economy. This can also be a potential threat because it leads to more players in the industry (Salam, 2016) Economic Factors Amazon business hugely depends upon the economies of the nation and also on the disposable income of the population. Based on the rationale the above points have to be understood: Economic stability of highly developed markets (Opportunity ) Increasing disposable income in developing countries Potential economic recession of China Economic challenges for Amazon can be related to the inflation of the economy, it affect the e-commerce player considerably. At the same time, exchange rate fluctuation, shortage of labour supply can also affect the company and be an obstacle in its growth. An example of the economic factors can be seen from the largest market of India and China. India is a price sensitive market, thus Amazon has to reduce its prices to penetrate the tier 1 and 2 market of India. In the similar manner, it is extremely impossible to succeed in the Chinese market on the basis of Price, it is a proven failed strategy to compete in the Chinese market(Pisano, 2017). Economic stability of the developed nations is a big advantage for Amazon; stable economies bring with itself an economically stable environment, thus benefitting Amazon. In the similar manner it has been seen that the disposable income of people living in the developing nations has been increasing considerably, thus creating opportunity for Amazon. Alibaba has captured around 84% of the online sale in China, Amazon is looking to strengthen its efforts in China, but the outlook of China does not seem that promising, which could possibly alter game plan for Amazon (He, 2015) Socio cultural Factors This is another element of PESTLE, which if not analysed before entering into a new market can become a big challenge for the company. The following points have to be kept in mind as part of socio cultural factors: Increasing wealth disparity(Threat) Increasing consumerism in developing countries (Opportunities) Increasing online buying habits (Opportunity) Increasing wealth disparity for Amazon may create problem for Amazon as the difference between rich and poor will increase a lot, which will create bipolarity in their buying behaviour. Developing markets like Asia are serving a good purpose for Amazon due to increase online activity, smartphone penetration and increasing disposable income, certainly a plus point for Amazon. Increase in disposable income of people in developed and developing nations will further increase the buying at the largest e-commerce website. Technological Factors Technology is another factor which can create possibilities or absolutely rubbish the possibility of Amazon foraying into international waters. Amazons entire business is tech based and hence this factor plays an important role in the following ways for Amazon: Obsolete technology (Threat Opportunity) Increased IT efficiency (Opportunity) Increasing cybercrime (Threat) As the world is progressing at a speed unimaginable, the technology is getting obsolete faster than imagined. This is both an opportunity and threat for Amazon. The company has to stay ahead of the curve and keep reinventing the technology wheel and come up with radical innovation to convert the threat as an opportunity. In the process, the fear of new entrant entering the market would become less. Cybercrime is a threat to all the e-commerce companies, attacks like DDos and Ransom ware can destroy the industry by destroying the faith of the people in the sector. Hence, growing cybercrime is a major threat in the face of Amazon (Kahn, 2018) Legal Factors Amazon has to concur with the legal formalities, requirement and regulation of any nation before it even thinks of venturing into their waters. The following factors have to be considered while evaluating legal fundamentals Increasing product regulation (Opportunity) Ease of import and export regulation(opportunity) The market entry restrictions, fair wages policy and employment laws can create legal challenges for Amazon, thus the company has to abide by the entire legal requirement before even planning to enter a country to expand its business operations. For example, Chinese market is a difficult market to enter because of a number of legal regulations and its policy of promoting the local companies. At the other time, India is a favourable market as the vision of India is to go digital, hence the focus of the government is to provide an environment of sustainability and growth to e-commerce and digital companies(Sindi Roe, 2017). Increasing product regulation for Amazon will benefit the entire e-commerce sector because it will prevent counterfeiting of goods and abolish the poor quality goods from the market. Certain countries have stringent regulation in terms of export and import due to prevention of the interest of their local manufacturers, but in most of the countries, in order to promote trade, the barrier are few, thus creating an opportunity for Amazon. Environmental Factors The company may be an online store but it is affected by the environmental factors as well, the factors which can either strengthen the position of Amazon or doom it for a lifetime, The factors which have to be kept in mind while evaluating this force are: Rising interest in environmental programs (Opportunity) Rising emphasis on business sustainability (Opportunity) Increasing popularity of low carbon cycles (Opportunity) Amazon through its CSR activities can contribute towards the benefit of the environment, the company can itself start using packaging material which is environmental friendly, strengthening its position in the market, and set up a milestone for the competitors to achieve. Business sustainability is in direct co-relation with following good environmental protection processes. The company can achieve business sustainability by complying with the environmental laws and adopting the best practices. Amazon can introduce low carbon cycle processes in its business operations to further give a boost to its position in the nation. These are the factors any company has to consider when trading internationally, all the factors have to be evaluated at the onset of business planning, without the evaluation of these steps the company can get into the gutters. Other challenges faced by Amazon Logistics- Another key challenge at the hand of Amazon is figuring out the right logistic partner for the business operation. In absence of a reliable and trustworthy logistic partner company will not be in a position to live up to the expectation it has set for the customers. Cultural complexities- Cultural complexities are challenging when selling overseas, the company has to be well aware of its target customers, their preference, and the existing completion and so on. People tend to have different behavioural online habits thus it becomes a challenge for the company to have beforehand knowledge about the cultural and the habits of the population. Language barriers and communication styles- Amazon is a MNC based out of USA, the company is truly American in the way it conducts itself, and so is the communication strategy. But the company has to understand the language, the feeling sentiments and emotions of people from different countries in order to deliver a highly contextual integrated marketing campaign; else all the money the company will spend in the marketing will just go down the drain (Crane Matten, 2016) Cost calculation and Global pricing strategy- Every market is different in its composition, structure, norms and protocols, hence it is advised to study each market in depth before entering into it. Pricing is a very crucial factor when it comes to entering into a foreign market. Company has to evaluate the price sensitivity of the market and accordingly set the price of the products. Amazon has attained cost leadership, but in order to achieve success in the Asian markets the company has to further reduce the cost to combat the local manufacturers and players like Flipkart in India and Alibaba in China (Woo, Keith Thornton) Supply chain risks and labour exploitation- Every country has labour protection laws, in certain countries the laws are stringent and in other they are company friendly. Amazon has to understand the problems in advance regarding labour before evaluation a country for growth. Supply chain is a huge contributing factor of success for Amazon, thus it has to ensure it gets the right suppliers on platform, suppliers which are credible and can be trusted to deliver great products with absolute surety. In coalition all these are some of the biggest roadblocks or challenge Amazon has to face while evaluating the idea of trading internationally. Other factors like currency factors, cultural differences, buying behaviour and competition have to be considered while evaluating the chances of business momentum and sustainability. Strategy for Amazon to enhance the business The companys strategy has always been to maximize the benefit of its biggest stakeholders, which in the case of Amazon is Customers. Company uses customer centric strategy to attract the customers and retain them. Another strategy which company uses is to bring innovation in its processes and technology. The company keeps on updating its technology to better suit the needs of the customers and enhance the capability of the company to provide quality products to the customers at lowest price. Hence, it can be said that the overall strategy of the company is the result of its marketing mix or its 7 P analysis. Usage of Data to upsell A lot of e-commerce companies exist in the online, but there are only few who take leverage of the growing platform. Consumers these days have gotten into a habit where there look for products online, either with the intention of buying them later or buy from retail stores. Amazon has to be very cautious and not leave such customers in a rag. They have to remarket the same product they were interested in on all the possible webpages he goes onto, remarketing and retargeting will help Amazon to regain the lost customers and increase its sales. Big data analytics can thus be of great help, analysing and breaking the data into small chain for analysis will help Amazon to take better control of its consumers. Enhanced brand experience for the consumers Amazon is known across the globe for its excellent customer service and customer centric approach, the company is synonymous with trusted delivery of good quality of products. All the mentioned points create a mind map for Amazon. The next step is to ensure that Amazon works on improving the customer experience when they deal with the company, the experience can be improved by addressing the emotions, sentiments and pain points of the customers. The brand experience will further help Amazon to increase customer satisfaction. Focus on the Ansoff Matrix Amazon is one company which uses a number of strategic tools to deploy new strategies in its business model. One such application is the usage of Ansoff matrix. In accordance with the matrix, the company has to focus on product development of Echo and Kindle, these products have the ability to disrupt the entire technology market. Similarly, Amazon has just entered into the Australian market, and presently the response is lukewarm in the region, the company has to speed up its marketing and promotion as a part of its market development plan(Gassmann, 2017). Diversify into cloud based business-Amazon has been doing terrific in its cloud business, Amazon web services is already earning good moolah for the company. Amazon has to continuously think of new ways to leverage the technology for improving the entire spectrum of e-commerce services. The cloud services can be used to drive more content on its Amazon prime services and store a lot of customer data for further analysis. Amazon marketing communications- Amazon has been widely known for its marketing campaigns throughout the year. The company partners with the best media agency which understands the mission and vision of company and together they create some really brilliant marketing campaigns. However a lot of improvement can still be done with the campaigns, for example the company still does not combine all the communication channels in sync to deliver a highly targeted message to its consumers. Amazon Partnership strategy-Amazon is a very smart player, it recognized in its early days of business that if it has to grow, it certainly has to do more than what others have been doing. The company since then went into numerous partnership programs to consolidate its market share in a particular category. It charges renowned publishers for selling their books on the store, because of the partnership strategy. The company has always been careful in making partners, it has to further revisits the strategy and add more partners on the platform to cover a large market share and utilize the existing database. Data driven automation-Data driven automation plays a very key role in the 21st century. Automated search advertising and bidding system have benefitted Amazon a lot. Further the automation can be applied in delivering promotional content to the consumers. Data driven automation gives an opportunity to tweak the content according to the taste and preference of the customers. Focus on Artificial intelligence and machine learning-Artificial intelligence and machine learning are the things of future. Technology companies can exploit the power of machine learning to refine the searches for any customer. Program will automatically update itself after understanding the taste and preference of the customers it realized from the search history. This is definitely going to be a breakthrough in enhancing customer experience. Conclusion Amazon.com was founded in the year 1994 in Seattle by Jeff Bezos, ever since the company has been steadily climbing the charts of success. The strength of Amazon can be owed to its deep rooted customer-centric approach; the company focuses all its strategies and policies in and around the customer. Amazon is one of the very few companies which offer great pride in delivering excellent service to its customers. From the perspective of the report, Amazon weakness lies in not being able to manage its operational and marketing costs; these are the biggest problematic cost centres which Amazon has to take care of currently to earn profits for the company. E-Commerce is touted to grow at a CAGR of 20%, this implies unimaginable propensity for growth at Amazon. Development of the Asian market, ease of government regulation I trade practices are some of the opportunities that Amazon has to take advantage of. Amazon faces threat from a long list of players emerging in the online sector, playe rs who are breaking the market by offering bad quality products, some of them are exceedingly doing well and giving a strong competition to Amazon. As discussed in the earlier section regarding the growth strategy of Amazon, the company should focus on the Ansoff matrix and give impetus to the product development of Alexa and Kindle, in accordance with the market development focus on the Australian and other such markets and in order to penetrate the market, the company has to craft some value based loyalty benefits and price leadership. The company is already a cost leader in most of the markets, especially Asian market, however in accordance with the Porters generic strategies model, slight differentiation in services by the use of Prime, drone services, AWS etc, the company can really capture the sentiments of the market and achieve business momentum The competitive advantage of Amazon can be cited to its excellent customer service, fast deliveries, supplier selection criteria and its marketing communication. The findings of the PESTLE analysis shows that the political instability of the nation can pose a strong challenge to Amazon, in the similar manner, the changing exchange rates, market fluctuation, declining economy are the challenges at the hands of Amazon. Rising labour costs, increased government intervention on the employment laws are further challenges which Amazon has to tackle in the present and the coming future. References Allen, T.J.H. (2015) Competition in E-Commerce: A Competitive Dynamics Perspective. California: Sage Publication. Baba, M.C. (2016) Cost reduction analysis in the online retail as compared to the classic retail.Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Brasov. Economic Sciences. Series V,8(1), p.141. Belavina, E., Girotra, K. and Kabra, A. (2016) Online grocery retail: Revenue models and environmental impact.Management Science,63(6), pp.1781-1799. Bhatt, A., Patel, A., Chheda, H. and Gawande, K. (2015) Amazon Review Classification and Sentiment Analysis.International Journal of Computer Science and Information Technologies,6(6), pp.5107-5110. Chen, L. and Wilson, C (2017) Observing algorithmic marketplaces in-the-wild.ACM SIGecom Exchanges,15(2), pp.34-39. Chen, W (2014)Contextual Innovation and RD Strategy An Analysis of the Competitive Advantage of Social Media Companies in China(Doctoral dissertation, Department of Management and Human Resources, Fisher College of Business). Choi, B., 2017. Corporate Strategy of Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent for Electric Vehicle (EV) Business. , (31), pp.219-250. Chopra, S. (2016) How omni-channel can be the future of retailing.Decision,43(2), pp.135-144. Christin, A. (2015) Web analytics in the workplace: What Amazon and web newsrooms have in commonand where they differ.Impact of Social Sciences Blog. Crane, A. and Matten, D (2016) Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press. Da Costa, E. (2016)Global e-commerce strategies for small businesses. Mit Press. Etemad, H. (2017) The emergence of online global market place and the multilayered view of international entrepreneurship.Journal of International Entrepreneurship, pp.1-13. Gassmann, A., 2017.Enhancements of business model researches towards a framework that enables quantified business model comparisons especially in the scope of trend analyses. GRIN Publishing. He, Z. (2015) August. External Environment Analysis of Commercial-use drones. In2015-1st International Symposium on Social Science. Atlantis Press. Kahn, M. (2018) Prospects for Cooperation in Science, Technology and Innovation among the BRICS Members.BRICS and Global Governance, p.168. Kaplan, J. and Montiel, I (2016) East vs. West Approaches to Reporting Corporate Sustainability Strategies to the World: Corporate Sustainability.Comparative Perspectives on Global Corporate Social Responsibility,49. Khammuang, M. (2015) Strategic Analysis: Alibabas Strategy for the US Market. Kristensen, M., Penner, J., Nguyen, A., Moy, J. and Lam, S. (2017) Company Synopsis for: Amazon. com, Inc. Li, W.S., 2018. Strategic Value Analysis: Value Search. InStrategic Management Accounting(pp. 159-170). Springer, Singapore. Lorenzo, L. (2017) Targeting International Customers in Japanese E-commerce: A Web Content Analysis of the Marketing Mix in Rakuten and Amazon. co. jp. Nwogugu, M.C. (2015) The Case of Alibaba and Cross-Listed Chinese Companies: Enterprise-Risk; Public Policy; Corporate Governance; and a Critique of Third-Generation Prospect Theory and Related Methods. Ojha, C. (2016) A study on the comparative influence of Jack Ma and Jeff Bezos on the employer brand attractiveness of Alibaba. com and Amazon. com(Doctoral dissertation, School of Management and Labour Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai). Pisano, G.P., 2017. Toward a prescriptive theory of dynamic capabilities: connecting strategic choice, learning, and competition.Industrial and Corporate Change,26(5), pp.747-762. Rossman, J. (2016)The Amazon Way: 14 Leadership Principles Behind the World's Most Disruptive Company(Vol. 1). Clyde Hill Publishing. Rothaermel, F.T. (2015)Strategic management. McGraw-Hill Education. Salam, M.T. (2016) Devising a Business Model of Amazon's 1995-2004 Journey. Schein, A. (2017) September. TAYLORISM AND AMAZON: SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT AT THE WORLD'S MOST SUCCESSFUL RETAIL COMPANY. In10th Annual Conference of the EuroMed Academy of Business. Schmidlin, N.(2014)The Art of Company Valuation and Financial Statement Analysis: A Value Investor's Guide with Real-life Case Studies. John Wiley Sons. Sindi, S. and Roe, M., 2017. Data Analysis for Strategic Supply Chain Management. InStrategic Supply Chain Management(pp. 179-221). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. Smith, A.D., Rupp, W.T. and Offodile, O.F (2017) Amazon. com, Inc.: Retailing Giant to High-Tech Player?. Soper, S. (2016) More than 50% of shoppers turn first to Amazon in product search.Bloomberg. September,27, p.40th. SteenkaTechnological Factorsmp, J.B., 2017. Global Brand Building in the Digital Age. InGlobal Brand Strategy(pp. 111-147). Palgrave Macmillan, London. Tian, X. (2016)Managing international business in China. Cambridge University Press. Turban, E., Outland, J., King, D., Lee, J.K., Liang, T.P. and Turban, D.C. (2017)Electronic Commerce 2018: A Managerial and Social Networks Perspective. Springer. Viswanadham, N. (2017) Performance analysis and design of competitive business models.International Journal of Production Research, pp.1-17. Woo, S.E., Keith, M. and Thornton, M.A. (2015) Amazon Mechanical Turk for industrial and organizational psychology: Advantages, challenges, and practical recommendations.Industrial and Organizational Psychology,8(2), pp.171-179. Yenni, T., Pan, S.L. and Cui, L. (2017) Alibabas Digital Enablement Strategies in Rural China.