Bangladeshi Women in Bricklane Essay Example for Free

Bangladeshi Women in Bricklane Essay â€Å"I always said I will not marry and be sent far away. I will go no farther than these paddy fields. But our mother told us we must not run from our fate. What cannot be changed must be borne. The test of life is to endure.† Through such representation of gender and focus on history and dislocation, Monica Ali has extended the migrant voice in British fiction. In her stunningly accomplished debut novel Brick Lane (2003) which also got adapted in a film four years later, Ali tries to reconstitute the traditional Bangladeshi culture in a London East End setting. She uses her characters to explore the positioning of Bangladeshi women within Britain, as the novel focuses on their social relations inside and outside the home. This paper aims to explore whether Monica Ali’s novel Brick Lane (2003) and Sarah Gavron’s controversial screen adaptation of the same name (2007) can open up avenues to discuss a new, if problematic, inclusion of Bangladeshi women in the transnational world; and also to gauze the similarities and dissimilarities within the two. Both the novel and the film created a controversy among the Bangladeshi community living in London because they found problems with Monica Ali’s negative portrayal of their community members as being illiterate and backward, which they considered insulting. They claimed that the novel encouraged â€Å"pro-racist, anti-social stereotypes†. Brick Lane is the story of the Bangladeshi Muslim community living in the East End of London and in particular, that of Nazneen, her husband Chanu and Hasina, Nazneen’s good looking sister, who resides in Bangladesh and who was disowned by her family for flouting the traditional arranged marriage system which she did by eloping with her lover and marrying him at the age of sixteen. Hasina’s chaotic day to day life in Dhaka is revealed to us through a series of regular, candid and sometimes terribly despondent letters sent to her sister in London in pidgin English. Nazneen often reminisces about her happy, innocent and carefree childhood in her little village in the countryside of Bangladesh with her younger sister Hasina, which now contrasts with her despairing life in her dingy flat in a tall block in the Tower Hamlets. After an arranged marriage with Chanu, who is already established in London and who is unattractive and twice her age, Nazneen arrives in London at the age of seventeen. The women moving to London and Tower Hamlets in particular had to adapt coming from a rural peasant society to a hostile urban culture. What Brick Lane does is show this transition and the impact migration has on women’s lives. Monica Ali’s novel shows how, after migration, the position of women in families and in the wider community undergoes a considerable transformation. What Nazneen refuses to do is to see herself and her culture as inferior or alien. Here ethnicity becomes a source of positivity rather than stigmatised identity. The high rates of poverty characteristic of Bangladeshi households are shown in the novel, coupled with the overwhelming sense of isolation faced by the female characters and their reliance on their male counterparts. Consequently, the overall context of the novel presents a picture of deprivation and hardships for Bangladeshis in Britain. Nazneen who can’t speak English has to adapt to her new life in a foreign country with a husband who, although basically kind-hearted, is disheartened for not being able to fulfil his dreams and carry his plans to completion. He believes himself to be above most of the Bangladeshi community members who are uneducated and lacking a great deal of elegance. Chanu scorns the attitude of his superiors who fail to recognise his talent and genius. He keeps a high opinion of himself which makes him a conceited, funny character despite his lucidity and his awareness of the conflict between the first and second generation immigrant, which, to his horror, was portrayed by his eldest daughter Shahana and which made him decide to repatriate his entire family to Bangladesh. The novel is challenging in an overwhelming way the strong element of fate. Nazneen and Hasina are two characters through which Ali explores two images of femininity. Nazneen has been the good daughter who accepted an arranged marriage and her younger rebellious sister Hasina was the bad daughter who takes her fate into her own hands by eloping with the man she loved and was consequently disowned by her father. Nazneen accepted her fate yet Hasina rebelled to create her own. Hasina’s western-style attempt at romantic freedom, contradicts the traditional structures of Bangladeshi society within which she lives and within which her sister is immersed in the Diaspora. Both the sisters face problems settling with their husbands, and ultimately both have relationships with younger men. Though Nazneen carried out small rebellious acts at the beginning of her marriage, her aspiration for liberty started with her attraction to the handsome, young political enthusiast, Karim, which evolved into a physical and financial independence and the discovery of her freedom of choice in a patriarchal community. Nazneen is plain â€Å"not beautiful, but not so ugly either† and in contrast her sister Hasina is â€Å"beautiful and feisty†. (Ali 17). Hasina defines herself in contrast to the activities around her and Nazneen defines herself against the talkativeness of her husband. Through these transnational links, Nazneen and Hasina become embodiments of womanhood in two different but connected locations. Monica Ali endeavours to explore the impact of migration for those within the Bangladeshi Diaspora. Ali seems to suggest that within the context of Diaspora women are more Bangladeshi than the Bangladeshis in Bangladesh. We learn how those in Britain replicate the social practices and norms of Bangladesh so that the culture also migrates to Britain with the people: â€Å"through the open window, drifted wafts of music and snatches of currymain meals were cooked at all times of the day and night†. (Ali 189). Yet in contrast, those who remain in Bangladesh are adapting to the changes occurring in society. Hasina acts as if she is the person who has shifted geographically to another country. She appears more modern in her thinking in contrast to her sister, who appears more traditional. The two women placed within the two different localities also enable Ali to show how social practices and social relations change in the two locations. Within the context of Britain, Nazneen witnesses changes in the images of Bangladeshi femininity among her friends, who become more westernised. The seventeen-year old, once subdued and obedient wife, matures into a forthright independent woman. She discovers her own force and will power, something she was unaware of. She decides that she will no more be controlled by fate, she will take her own decisions, like not following her husband by going back to their homeland. She will remain in London, she will work and look after herself and her two daughters. She takes this decision because her daughters are way too comfortable in London, and they don’t want to go back ‘home’ to Bangladesh. London is ‘home’ for them, and that’s when Nazneen realized that she was seventeen when she came here and now she’s thirty-four, so she has lived half of her life here. This is home, and this is where her daughters want to be. This is where she found her independence and her voice in her own ways. She wears her sari. She has not started wearing trousers or cut her hair short. In her very own way, she has found a voice and she is comfortable with that here. Nazneen thus starts to believe in herself and realizes that she is capable of taking charge of her own destiny. The Bangladesh Nazneen refers to is different to other Bangladesh Hasina writes about in her letters. The contrasts between Tower hamlets and Bangladesh are shown, for example by the fact that Nazneen comes from an idyllic, warm, green environment quite unlike the England of dead grass, broken paving stones and net curtains. Hasina’s letters dispel the myth that Bangladesh is still rural. Rather it is now urban and violent. A more dangerous Bangladesh with corrupt politicians dominates the letters. Hasina describes to her sister how the garment girls have become branded as sexually immoral due to their working in close proximity to men. The patriarchal world of Bangladesh mirrors the patriarchy practiced within Britain, but is stronger. For example, Hasina, left without the protection of a husband, is raped, then forced to become a prostitute to survive and her friend (Monju) is murdered by her husband drenching her in acid. While Hasina works within a factory as a machinist, her sister, in the liberated environment of the West, also resorts to working as a machinist, but in purdah within the environs of home. For Nazneen, Britain is loaded with negativity, and it fails to accumulate the warmth and security she experienced in Bangladesh. Nazneen treats her loneliness through anti-depressants which baffles her sister: â€Å"I do not know what kind of pill can cure disease of sadness†. (Ali 143). Nazneen is disappointed with Britain and recollects Bangladesh with fondness, a nostalgia that provides the framework within which the story is located. Monica Ali uses the cluttered room where Nazneen lives as a metaphor for her protagonists’ state of mind. It becomes even more cluttered over the course of the novel. When Bangladesh is presented it is done so with space; however, the restrictiveness of England is stressed through the feelings of claustrophobia. Nazneen’s perception of Britain for much of the novel is not only contained within the environment of her flat, but also when she gazes out of her window. Her London is restricted to her locality: outside her window she sees â€Å"dead grass and broken paving stones† (Ali 12), â€Å"cycle racks which no one was foolhardy enough to use†, and round the corner is a playground that has shrunk to one decrepit roundabout. Nazneen evokes an image of Britain which is dark and grey and congested â€Å"a roaring metal army tearing up the road† (Ali 33). The poverty in Tower Hamlets is also emphasised if not exaggerated by Nazneen as she ventures out of the home, and â€Å"stepped over an empty cigarette carton, a brick and a syringe† (Ali 380). Although Nazneen’s husband Chanu has a degree from Dhaka University, they live in a grotty tower block in Tower Hamlets, where the paint flakes off the â€Å"eczema-ridden walls†. Poverty, socio-economic deprivation, dominates the social fabric of Ali’s Bangladeshi society in Tower Hamlets. This deprivation is also evoked through Nazneen smelling â€Å"the overflowing communal bins† (Ali 13). All the more, the Bangladesh that is reflected in British society angers Chanu, Nazneen’s husband, as it perpetuates a derogatory image of Bangladesh through education. He despairs over what his children are taught about Bangladesh: â€Å"all she knows is about flood and famine. Whole bloody country is just a bloody basket case to her† (Ali 151). Even the image that Shahana has of Bangladesh is old and traditional. As she tells her sister, â€Å"just wait until you’re in Bangladeshyou’ll be married off in no timeyour husband will keep you locked up in a little smelly room and make you weave carpets all day long† (Ali 329). â€Å"In Bangladesh you’ll have to brush your teeth with a twig. They don’t have toothbrushes†(Ali 331). Brick Lane is a contemporary, and humane story, the characters are shown with all their complexities and are described realistically and in detail whether it’s Mrs Islam, the hypochondriac, evil and manipulative usurer, or Razia the friendly and strong will-powered neighbour, or Shahana, the refractory, provocative and westernised teenage-daughter, or the sweet second daughter, little Bibi who is even tempered, quiet and hard working. It is a post-colonial novel written with a great deal of compassion and optimistic hope. Sarah Gavron’s film that was screened in 2007 is closely related to the book in terms of important aspects like casting, themes and plot. A long shot shows the central protagonist Nazneen (Tannishtha Chatterjee) disappearing behind one of the many front doors dotting the monolithic faà §ade of a public housing block in East Central London. This concludes a seven-minute prologue in which director Sarah Gavron condenses the first hundred pages and more of Monica Alis 2003 source novel. Digitally colorized shots of 1970s and 1980s Bangladesh indicate the extent to which Nazneen has idealized her memories of growing up in that time and place, her close relationship with younger sister Hasina (Zafreen) an especial source of reverie. A rural Bangladeshi childhood remembered as idyll ends, however, with the suicide of the girls mother. Consequently, their father arranges marriage between Nazneen, now a teenager, and the significantly older Chanu (Satish Kaushik), an immigrant living in London and a man she has never met. Some fifteen years later, thirty-something Nazneen is shown walking through and around Brick Lane, one of the most ethnically diverse neighbourhoods in the United Kingdom. Ghosting through a multicultural urban milieu radically different from that she was born into, she speaks to no one, slips ever further from the following camera, and disappears finally behind the front door of a flat as cramped and constricting as her monotonous existence—dutiful wife, mother, and nothing more. She is shown as raising two daughters: â€Å"Shahana† and â€Å"Bibi.† Bibi (Lana Rahman) is still young, sweet, and compliant, but Shahana (Naeema Begum) is a teenager with raging hormones and a sharp tongue. Nazneen and Chanus ossified marriage is changed irrevocably when the former buys a sewing machine. She does so through necessity as much as choice, driven by the need to financially support her family, husband, and daughters Shahana and Bibi , after Chanu resigns his job, disillusioned by his persistent failure to win promotion. Yet a purchase which seems initially to confirm Nazneens domestic incarceration yet further—not working from home but home as work—brings her into contact with British-born Karim (Christopher Simpson), the young man who delivers garments to her flat for finishing. She begins an affair with him, and the emotional and physical self-confidence this engenders allows Nazneen to assert, eventually, her presence and identity within the immediate family unit. Yet the seemingly clear-cut contrast between Karim and Chanu and the divergent futures they seem to promise Nazneen become more complicated as Brick Lane progresses. Karim comes to seem less attractive than at first, Chanu more so. The formers marked physical and cultural differences from the latter (young, fit, second-generation, British-Bangladeshi vs. old, fat, first-generation, Bangladeshi-British) cannot disguise the fact that he is equally inclined to idealize Nazneen as archetype not individual. Its Chanu who valorizes her as a living example of the ‘girl from the village’ in the early pages of Alis novel. Crucially, however, theres no interpretative violence in transferring those words to Karims mouth in Gavrons film. Meanwhile, Chanu is shown to possess significant redeeming qualities obscured by his complacent, corpulent exterior. He loves his family deeply and is horrified equally by the rise of Western anti-Muslim and Muslim anti-Western sentiment in the wake of 9/11. Chanu is able to view this process with far more humanistic caution and historical context than Karim can or will. Ultimately, Nazneen ends her affair with Karim, while Chanu agrees to return to Bangladesh on his own. Liberated, albeit not in the sense that Brick Lane seems initially to promise, Nazneen stays behind in London with her two daughters. Wider context—the effect of 9/11 on Western Muslims, the changing role and self-image of immigrant communities within contemporary British society, the ongoing, intergenerational debates about tradition, gender and religious identity within those groups—are all glimpsed fleetingly from Nazneens perspective. The main effect, though, is to impress upon viewers just how cloistered her vantage point is. Ultimately, Brick Lane temporarily imprisons the world-view of all who watch it behind bars made from net curtain. This is so even while the film ostensibly supports Nazneens quiet attempts to break free from something approaching a state of psychological house arrest. Brick Lane is a real place, and it’s been the centre of the British garment district ever since Huguenot refugees brought their looms from France in the early 18th century, followed by waves of poor Irishmen and Ashkenazi Jews. Brick Lane was however, filmed in the financial district that is synonymous with the books real location. The novel as compared to the film sets up the location more exotically like a mini version of Bangladesh, with the smells of spicy food, colourful fashions and emphasis on religion. For the film, one was expected to picture a colourful setting that transported the reader to another world. Though Brick Lane in the film does create its own world, it lacks the lustre brought out in the novel, and definitely was not reflecting any part of South Asia. The scenes in Bangladesh gave more of a contrast to London life, unlike the book, where Nazneen seems to still be tied to her homeland. The book documents her memories as if she had not left the village. For example, Nazneen does not leave the house, allowing her to limit her exposure to English culture. The film demonstrates a sharper contrast of her surroundings mostly through the addition of Nazneen leaving the flat to do the shopping. The shopping allows her more freedom and; thus, more information is acquired about England. The film effectively provided the atmosphere of Chanu and Nazneens flat. In the novel, Bangladesh provided richer local descriptions compared to London, because Nazneen did not dwell on the details of her flat. She only mentions some decorations. The film gives the opportunity to see the living arrangement in London from the complex she lives in with Chanu. The film emphasizes the close quarters and the weather to portray a cold representation of London, differing a lot from the vibrant frolicking in the lush and long Bangladeshi grass of the two sisters. Even at the end of the film, Nazneen is shown making snow angels with her daughters, as if she has conquered the cold. The casting was terrific. Chanu, Shahana and Bibi gave compelling performances that mirrored the characters in the book. Chanu especially is exactly the way one visualizes him on the basis of the novel. To understand Nazneen one had to make sure to read the novel because then one would know the thoughts in her head that she did not always say. Tannishtha Chatterjee, the actress who starred as Nazneen, faced a challenge in this role, because so much of the character was about not saying anything. Silence also played a big role in the film, which sometimes contributed to the action and other times made the movie too slow. The novel captivates the reader by the sensory details, mystical connections to Bangladesh, and curiosities about English culture. The film uses silence to provoke the audiences response to the vivid scenes in Bangladesh while also building up to the climax. Though the climax is not surprising to the reader or film goer, the novel was more effective in showing Nazneens struggle and confrontation with disaster. The novel created tensions leading up to Nazneens inability to react. The film on the other hand, relied too much on silence for plot points to emerge. The reader tends to miss Nazneen’s rebellion since it’s all done in silence. Overall, rebellion and freedom are downplayed in the film probably to emphasize the idea of fate. Hasina, Nazneens sister is the source of scandal in the novel and could have been more present in the film. She acts almost as a ghostly figure, sometimes only mentioned through voice, when Nazneen pictures her whispering in her ear. The film also glamorizes her experience in Bangladesh, as if she has the freedom to fall in love. The letters in the novel describe the opposite with violence to women and hard work conditions. In the film, Hasinas true situation is exposed by Chanu, who hears from his cousin that she has become a prostitute. However, then Nazneen falls ill, and the audience is left in confusing hallucinations, wondering if Chanu was trying to be mean to his wife or was actually speaking the truth. This inconsistency between reality and fantasy is evident in both the book and the film. Chanu glorifies Bangladesh in both the mediums. Nazneen reflects on her memories from her childhood in Bangladesh, but is grounded in the reality of London. For example, she cannot depend on Chanu to be responsible, when he cannot hold down a job and continues to insist that they will return to Dhaka. She does not point out his failures, the same way she does not point out Karims, but acknowledges her realistic priorities. Some include the disaster that Shahana would encounter in Bangladesh, and another would be breaking up with Karim and needing to be on her own. The American trailer of the film also illustrates this dichotomy, advertising the movie as more dramatic and scandalous. Perhaps the closeness of the text to the film adaptation is another way to enhance the themes of the original story. Much of Brick Lane takes place within Nazneens cluttered, unremarkable home, but this is rendered a fascinating, richly expressive setting through accomplished, considered use of technique by director Sarah Gavron and her key colleagues. Carefully calibrated expressionistic exaggerations of colour abound to communicate Nazneens largely unspoken inner life. Green sequins on a girls top reflect on her face to show her initial entrancement with Karim; sunlight filtered through gauzy red curtains turns the dingy prison of her marital bedroom into a boudoir when he occupies it with her. Likewise, Gavrons movement of camera and attention to framing are evocative and subtle in equal measure. If, as noted at the outset, one of the first shots in Brick Lane can be seen to sum up both the films project and a range of possible responses to it, something similar can be said of the movies final image. With Chanu back in Bangladesh, it is now winter in London. Nazneen and her daughters play joyfully in the snow-covered square at the front of their apartment block, inhabitants of a climate, and by extension a culture, diametrically opposed to the monsoon conditions the teenaged Nazneen and Hasina frolic in at the film’s early moments. A birds-eye aerial shot of mother and daughters lying on the ground, waving their arms and legs, cuts to a medium shot of Nazneen on her own. The reader might get the impression here that Nazneens unassuming victory is also Brick Lanes. She extricates herself from the oppressive expectations placed upon her by virtue of the body and respective cultures she was born and migrated into. So too the film respectfully declines the received agenda of responsibilities imposed upon it in light of its British Asian subject matter and cultural provenance. Brick Lane is not a film finely crafted and beautifully performed in order to mask or compensate for its evasion of inarguable ethno-political duties. Rather, its sensuous pleasures and humane insights expand the range of what the political might be, and rethink the relative scale on which it might be expected to loom, within an important tradition of contemporary British film. Thus, both the mediums, reciprocating each other, have successfully rendered the portrayal of Bangladeshi women in the transnational world with a subtlety and expertise that is seldom to be seen. WORKS CITED Ali, Monica. Brick Lane. Black Swan. Great Britain. (2003). Print. Brick Lane. Dir. Sarah Gavron. Perf. Tannishtha Chatterjee, Satish Kaushik and Christopher Simpson. Ruby Films.(2007). Film. Lea, Richard and Lewis, Paul. â€Å"Local protests over Brick Lane film†. Gaurdian. (Monday 17 July,2006). Web. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/jul/17/film.uk Hussain, Yasmin. Writing Diaspora: South Asian Women, Culture and Ethnicity. Ashgate Publishing Ltd. England. (2005). Print. McLeod, John. The Routledge Companion to Postcolonial Studies. Routledge. London. (2007). Print. Mukherjee, Meenakshi and Trivedi, Harish. Interrogating Post-Colonialism: Theory, Text and Context. Indian Institute of Advanced Study. Shimla. (1989). Print. Sinha, Sunita. Post-Colonial Women Writers: New Perspectives. Atlantic Publishers Distributors (P) Ltd. New Delhi. (2008). Print.

Do Computers Think? :: essays research papers

Can or will computers ever think? Well this has been a subject of much debate between even the greatest minds, and yet there is still no answer. First of all I have would like you to answer a question. What is 4x13? Did you have to think to answer that? Yes? Well does that mean that a computer can think because it can answer that question. Well that is what we are going to set to answer and I think yes, depending on your definition of thinking. First off let’s get something straight. When I refer to computers in this essay I am not referring only to the microprocessor sitting on your desk but to microprocessors that control robots of various structure. Well as I said we first must define ‘to think’. What does that mean? Webster’s New Compact Dictionary defines ‘think’ as "1. Have a mind. 2. Believe. 3. Employ the mind.". It defines mind as ‘to think’. So does this mean that if you can think does this mean you have a mind? My opinion is that, according to this definition, computers can think. A computer can give you an answer to the question ‘What is 4x13?’, so it can think. What’s that? You say it’s just programmed to do that, if no one programmed it wouldn’t be able to do that. Well how did you know how to answer the question? Your teacher or parent’s or someone taught it to you. So you were programmed, same as the computer was. So you think that programing is different than learning. You might think the same as my grandma that programing is something where things are just drilled into you like people who are members of cults. Well when your teacher stood over you desk in elementary and do drilled you on the multiplication tables was that not programming? Would you know that 1x5 does not equal 10 if everyone you ever met said that it did. Another argument my grandma used was my little cousin and how when he runs into a wall he learns that it hurts so he doesn’t do it again. (Well actually he does it because he has a hard head). Yet a professor in Calgary builds robots that do not even contain a microprocessor yet it can learn. He builds them out of spare part from broken electronics such as walkman’s.

Pizza Hut, Yum! Essay

The operations standards are the key path defining elements in any business. Without set procedures optimal results cannot be obtained. The operations standards at pizza hut have multifaceted challenges and opportunities. The standards and procedures for doing business are well defined but some of the possible factors can cause to the deviations and variances. Those possible factors can be eradicated through extra efforts into the process. However the small chances of variance will remain the same because the real business scenarios may vary sometimes than the forecasted one. This report is an attempt to investigate the operational standards and the possible causes of variance in standards and how does it affect customer satisfaction. Introduction Operations management Traditionally it is believed that the operations management is as a transformation process that takes set of inputs and transforms them into the out put. The output can be the goods or services. This includes the effective planning, scheduling and control of the activities that produce the required outcomes. (Cecil C. Bozarth, Robert B. Handfield, 2008). Operations management plays a key role in determining the success or failure of an organization. To carry forwards the inputs of each unit all together and getting turned it into the outputs is the real synergy, which helps organization to set the directions towards climbing the heights of success. According to the William J. Stevenson as he state in his operations management book ‘Operations management is the management of the system or process that create goods and/or provide services’ this involves various inputs, he add, ‘ the creation of goods or services involves the transformation or conversion of inputs into outputs. Such as capital, labour and information are used to create goods or services using one or more transformation processes’. Although the goods and services go hand in hand, there are some very basic differences between the two. This can be determined through its nature of the business. Some organizations can have higher degree of tangibility or intangibility. This can be determined through its nature of business. For instance, if the organization is selling goods, it can be determined high level of tangibility and otherwise if its selling services then level of intangibility will be high. (William J.Stevenson 2005). Operation standards at Pizza Hut Functional Units The activities of business organizations are mostly divided according to the functionality, the management of the personnel and the responsibilities. (Joseph S. Martinich, 1997) The operations at Pizza hut can not be highlighted for any of the single functional unit. Rather it is the collection of several set of the activities that take place with in the unit and make things possible by turning customer expectations into the reality. The success or the failure of the product depends on the performance of several functional units. Those functional units operate separately but connected with each other through the job activities. The unit’s operation standards are discussed further down. The taste and the quality highly determine on the freshness of the ingredients, and the resultant the happiness of the customers. According to the Deputy Manager of Pizza hut, ‘If, there is variance observed in the product quality that will overall affect productivity and finally the customer satisfaction level. This is not acceptable at all’. He added, ‘if company is spending a huge amount of money on the product promotions and marketing activities that is for the business. And also company provides the training to the employee to how to maintain the product quality. So every single person should have to ensure the quality of the product and happy customer makes more return in the future’. In this regard, company has got set procedures and guideline to maintain the standards for the specified interactions between the employees and customers. If the deviations occur that will likely to lead to the unhappy customers. Food temperatures To keep products safe storage the temperature of freezers should be in between -18 to + or – 5 degree centigrade. The seals must be intact so that the temperature can be maintained. Quality Assurance The quality throughout the supply chain rests with the overall team. This is done by setting rigorous standards during product development. In order to ensure the standards, there is regular auditing and monitoring system in place. The one of the regular system to check quality is CHAMPS Excellence Review. Quality assurance is achieved through the complaints monitoring system and their corrections through available remedial methods. Core Competence. Organizational strength or abilities, developed over a long period, that customers find valuable and competitors find difficult or even impossible to copy. (Cecil C. Bozarth, Robert B. Handfield, 2008) The pizza hut has got high degree of core competence in the basic product. The pizza hut’s dough is treated as core competence of the business. This makes pizza hut different then the competitors. Cost & variance The cost of sales and the sales revenue are the actual things that support the managers to run the business on track. If the numbers seems going out of the track they need be highlighted and called as variance. The variance is the difference between the Actual cost and Theoretical Cost. Head office set forecast and provide targets to the business stores. The targets are set with the help of previous year business performance and the expected events. That is called as theoretical cost. On the other hand the cost occurred in the business dates is the actual cost. So if there is any difference occurs that will be treate as variance. The cost of sales of the store for the current period shows the variance of 36. 38. * The theoretical cost set by management was ? 2203. 22 and in percentage 22.46% where as the actual cost for the period occurred was ? 2239. 60 in percentage 22. 83%. The results indicate the variance remained ? 36. 38. The variance in costing is the actual indicator of the performance. Higher the variance depicts higher the concerns persist with in the business unit. In present case in hand, the above depicted variance treated to be normal. The business operations can not work on the absolute set tracks because the forecasted things can not happen on the absolute behaviours as predicted. Reasons of variances * Miscount The chance of miscounting always prevails during the operations. In the case of miscount the chances of wrong order increase and finally will increase the variance. * Wastage The several reasons for wastage may occur during the operations. However if forecast made is not effective then the chances of unexpected results may increase. That applies with the product forecast as well. If product is defrosted without realizing the demand for the product then this may cause to one of potential wastage. In other case the wastage can increase if no proper product forecast is being made and or staff make mistakes while making orders or at the time of dispatching orders. In any case if wrong delivered to customer the customer will complaint against it and in order to make customer happy the order is to be resent. This will certainly increase the cost. Higher the number of complaints more is the cost. These two factors are directly proportional. * Shrink The shrink may occur if inventory reduced without record. The variance shows the real picture of the business operations. Happy customers return back to business and become repeat customers and cause to increases in the sales revenue of the business. However, If sales revenue is running on the increasing trend or above of the forecasted track then it clearly indicates the successful operations of the business activities. And this will likely to decrease the percentage of variance as overall. Forecasting Forecasting the estimated demand is the real start of every single operational activity in the business unit. This involves every thing from human resource planning to the product planning. In this every single factor get into the touch of planning, organizing, and leading and control of the operational activities. This ultimately leads to the overall productivity of the unit. Forecasting product and customers demand is the most important activity for the b business organizations. (Derek L Waller 2003) Forecasting is very important element to carry forwards the business on the set line successfully up to the mark in efficient manners. (Joseph S. Martinich, 1997) The same goes true for the pizza hut business. According to the RGM ‘forecasting at pizza hut plays critical part for the success of the business’. The manager, prior to develop any plans for HR deployment or the food ordering, they observes the forecast of sales and expected upcoming events in the calendar. As per say, the usual shift requires two to three drivers and plus kitchen staff and the shift manager. Where as the number of drivers can increase on weekends, as high as 7 to 10 and 4 to 5 in store staff plus shift manager and support manager. This works fine when every thing works according to plans. However, if any of the external factors come into play then that can potentially affect the service delivery and the speed. This happens when for example the whether conditions. The road hazards in shape of blockades, accidents. All of these factors can slow down the serviceability. The unexpected orders can cause more demand of the product where as the availability of the ready to use product may be limited according to the expected demand for the shift. Therefore the variance in expected demand and actual demand can cause the shortage of the products and ultimately this can play around the one of the possible factors of the unhappy customer and can cause the variance in the productivity of the unit as over all. The demand can also increase because of the good weather, special occasions like sports, rituals, festivals, and purchasing power. According to the RGM of the unit, the demand for the food is high in the start of the month but that usually slow down in the end of the month due to the less availability of the funds with customers. Employee performance/training The training data base available at store and the views gathered from management team reveals the fact that the importance of the training in store is directly linked with the operations standards and productivity. The team member working on make table should have to be trained according to the specified requirements of the make table. The lack of training will cause the variances in operations activities. This directly results the variances in the customer satisfaction. Importance of Customer Experience Customer care is the core point of concentration behind the business. The business treats customers as king. The most important fact is to find out the ways through the customer want can be fulfilled effectively. Therefore there are some procedures and standards set by top management in order to interact with customer. Customers don’t really want relationships. At least not in the same way the brand does. They want to be treated well, respected, understood and to get what they want, when they want it. In other words, they simply want a good experience and the reassurance of knowing that they will have the same good experience every time they come into contact with the brand. So, if we the team get to the experience right, the opportunity to build meaningful relationships should follow. (Asbjorn Rolstadas, 1995 & Alan Mitchell Issue 5, Summer 1999) Pizza hut is selling pizzas but this is what other competitors have been doing. So what makes it really special about it? Who recognise that product alone? The product alone is nothing but the service is also important. That is the factor which make customers as ‘repeat customers’ The attitudes, values make key differentiations. The operational standards, the quality of food all of them are key factors. (Mary Say et all 2003, Issue 440) In order to achieve desired results the team members at Pizza hut are provided with set guidelines for the interaction with customers. The guide line called ‘moment of truth’ or ‘customer mania plus’. Moment of Truth The most important key elements to are set in this guidelines. (See Appendix 8) * Order taker The order taker is the key person who works as a bridge between the company and the customer. If he/she makes customer happy, the business will likely to repeat other wise can drain to the competitors. This results not only the loss of customer but also the loss of several networks of the lost customer. CHAMPS Excellence The order delivered to the customer should followed by the set procedures. The delivery person has provided particular guideline that he/she will have to follow when interacting with customers. This results in increase customer satisfaction. The other most important factors that the management follows are; * Delivered on time * Delivered completely. * Invoiced correctly. * Undamaged However, If any of the above factors missing from the cycle process of order making, then it start again from the make table. This * Response. (repeat customer/happy customer) * Complaints Resolving complaint * Offering service delivery * Offering hot food delivery * Beat the phone capture in busy times. * Beat the web orders There should be every reason for the return of the customer. Without fulfilment of the expectation that will not be possible. However the team at Pizza hut follows the guidelines and makes customers happy, but there may be several factors that may cause to the dissatisfaction. In general, the possible factors may be for instance, rush of customers and not enough staff available to take orders or to pick up a phone, bad quality, late delivery or the rude attitude. According to the pizza hut manual almost 2/3 of unhappy customers never return because of poor service. The RGM at store revealed the fact as ‘Customers don’t come pizza hut just for the food, they can get food anywhere. What most customers want when they visit or call us is a good time’. He adds, ‘when they order on phone they expect order takers to treat them well and make their time great. How do you do this? By having a service attitude and making customers feel welcome and important’. Marketing The Marketing plays very important role for the business. The customers actually receive message through marketing, thus it become very critical that the company should highlight the customer expectations in the marketing message. There are several set standards that are to be followed for the marketing purposes. (Francis J.Mulhern, 2004). The company invest considerable resources to find out the exact wishes of customers. For the Pizza hut’s delivery branches the segment of customers includes from families, to the teens. According to the Pizza hut database the primary customer are teens and young adults. Product Development The pizza hut success is not the matter of isolated activities. But it is the company’s restless efforts to put innovations into the realities by turning needs and wants in to the shape of products. Product development team run focus group to study the consumer behaviours towards product choices. Some time products are launched after having selected study of the chosen sample, but it does not survive for long time. This may cause occurrence of cost or the wastages to the stores. For instance the four for all, cheesy bread, Bombay wings, Indian pizza are all the examples of failed products. However the company has launched successful products as well. For instance cheesy bite pizza, which has cause around 24% increases in pizza sales over all. Company Profile Pizza hut started on 1958. The dream of Frank and Dan Carney turned into the reality when he opened the first Hut in Wichita, Kansas. The website of pizza hut states that in very beginning the restaurant was as too small. It had just 25 seats available for customers. The inspirations for the name as ‘Hut’ came into thoughts through the design of the building. It looked like a hut. Therefore it geared the idea to carry on with name as ‘Pizza Hut’. The Pizza has superior place in the market, particularly for the Pizza business. Through the time it has scattered in to the markets of the world. The numbers of the growth depicts that it Pizza hut has more than 600 outlets in the UK only. The Pizza hut is a part of Yum, which is another big company. The Yum own several big companies like KFC, Long John Silver’s, A & W Taco Bell The Pizza hut was formerly owned by Whitbread and Yum as a joint venture. But in the year 2006 Whitbread sold out their shares to Yum. Presently the Pizza Hut UK Ltd is now 100% owned by Yum! Conclusion The operations management depicts the performance of each and individual unit that is participating in over all acceleration of the engine of business. The business may have some times low speed and high speeds. It highly depends on the strategies that the top management set for the business and the way the strategies are followed by the key components that run the actual business. The operations at Pizza hut have multifaceted situations. The each component working in the process cycle of business plays equally important role to win the customer. However, if any one of the units deviating from the set standards will cause a variance in the performances as overall. Thus it is concluded that the success of the business is possible through collections of inputs from all the units participating in the conversion process.

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