Jp Morgan Chase and Company

In 2002, JP Morgan signed a seven-year outsourcing arrangement with IBM, worth 5 billion dollars. This deal included data centres, help desks, distributed computing, and data and voice networks. JP Morgan viewed this agreement with IBM as a competitive advantage that would serve as a platform for efficient growth and innovation. It was an attempt to further enhance the performance of the company, while reducing their costs. However, two years later, JP Morgan announced the premature ending of their contract. JP Morgan ended the outsourcing deal with IBM, claiming that it caused technological stagnation in their operations.Apparently, IBM refused to take on tasks without additional charge, particularly necessary improvements to the system. This structure lengthened certain procedures, and as result, projects sat idle and processes were stalled. Another reason behind the deal cancellation was internal organizational changes. JP Morgan merged with Bank One, which has cancelled a similar deal with IBM a few years earlier. With the combined resources and technology of the banks, management reassessed its capability of managing its core information systems, and realized that the IBM deal was no longer necessary.JP Morgan Chase and Co. wanted to leverage on the assets it acquired from Bank One, including a $500 million investment in data centers. Also, ending the deal would mean saving the margins paid on hardware and software purchased through IBM, as the size of the newly merged bank would enable it to negotiate better bargains with suppliers – JP Morgan Chase and Co. , after that time, emerged as the second largest financial conglomerate next to Citigroup. Analysts believed that the primary catalyst for the back sourcing was the change in leadership.Many of the key officers of Bank One took over JP Morgan Chase and Co. by holding the same positions that they had in the former. Some of these were CEO James Dimon and CIO Adam Austin. As emphasized by Austin, t he new management wanted to have greater involvement in every aspect of their business, and IT is an important part of it. In fact, Dimon, being in the industry for years, had made a reputation of investing in internal strategies, which explains why experts were not really surprised by the premature death of the IBM contract. ANALYSIS AND CRITIQUEGiven the different scenarios that happened, it is necessary to focus on the impact of the outsourcing and backsourcing deals of the company, and deducing which arrangement is better for the company. The Impact of Outsourcing JP Morgan Chase’s contract with IBM is said to be one of the largest outsourcing deal on record. However, this 5 billion-worth of contract was only in its second year when JP Morgan opted to end its supposed-to-be-7-years relationship with IBM. Apparently, the outsourcing deal hugely affected the operations of the company.First of all, outsourcing had a negative impact on the effectiveness on some key processes of the bank. Things that used to get done no longer got done. In just a short span of time, instead of improving the company’s productivity, the outsourcing deal had caused so much delay. Among the projects not getting done were server migrations, data center upgrades, and network patches. Corollary to that, even in office supply procurement, there were also delays. It even reached the point where project managers had to go and buy their own reams of paper.Secondly, there were vague contract details in the agreement between JP Morgan and IBM. As a result, whenever there is a need to make improvements and updates, IBM had to charge extra fees to the bank. Thus, every additional improvement in the system entailed additional costs. Because of the bank’s resistance to pay for extra but often necessary improvements, JP Morgan’s innovation and efficiency in its information technology was compromised. Thirdly, to implement the outsourcing deal, JP Morgan had to lay off 4000 employees, which lead to a drop in employee morale.With the loss of job security, employees lost their trust in management. Employees refused to commit to any project, and started to slack off. As a result, a lot of work were not getting done, which led to a decrease in the productivity of the company. The Impact of Backsourcing In the light of the shortcomings of the outsourcing deal and the implications of the merger with Bank One, JP Morgan opted to backsource. Bringing their IT back in-house also had huge effects in the company. Firstly, employee morale remained low. Many were resentful that the reasons why management outsourced- i. e. o gain competitive advantage, to improve efficiency, and to accelerate innovation- were also the reasons why they backsourced. As a result, they lost trust in the honesty and soundness of management’s judgment. Job security was still an issue, as more layoffs occurred, not only because of the backsourcing arrangement, but also because of the merger of the two banks. Some employees reapplied for their jobs, but were paid with less than 20% of their original salaries. With such a low morale, productivity in the company dropped, employees were reluctant to commit to projects, and more work piled up.Secondly, the company spent twice the cost of reorganization: that is, they had a huge capital outlay to support an outsourcing deal, then incurred another set of expenditures to reverse those actions and set up a backsourced environment. Outsourcing costs incurred by JP Morgan are mainly due to the huge consultation fees for process reengineering. They also invested in counselling and retention bonuses to retain the employees through the transition period. As JP Morgan backsourced IT, they incurred huge losses for prematurely ending the contract.Moreover, the changes made in outsourcing were done all over again in reverse. With that, they had to spend twice for the costs of reorganization. They had to re establish all t heir systems, staffs, operating procedures, organizational structure, and corporate strategies. Fortunately, JP Morgan was able to capitalize on the $1 billion investment of BankOne in its own information system. Finally, in moving from an outsourcing deal to a backsourced environment, JP Morgan had to deal with organizational disruption. Management had to reengineer their processes and make huge readjustments in their systems and operations.Organizational responsibilities were redefined, and management completely reversed how things were done. Outsourcing Vs Backsourcing When JP Morgan prematurely ended their contract with IBM, the CEO said, â€Å"We believe managing our own technology infrastructure is best for the long-term growth and success of our company, as well as our shareholders. Our new capabilities will give us competitive advantages, accelerate innovation, and enable us to become more streamlined and efficient. † However, these were the same reasons that manageme nt gave when they entered the outsourcing deal.So the question is: which would provide greater benefits for the company – outsourced operations, or a backsourced environment? The main reason why companies outsource is to be able to focus on their core activities. Many businesses have generic functions such as phone reception and customer service. When these generic functions are outsourced, companies may focus on their key processes. Outsourcing would also lead to efficiency and cost savings, as overhead expenditure are reduced. Outsourcing can also provide operational control as poorly managed functions are provided by companies like IBM who are better in these areas.However, according to the studies of Deloitte Consulting, 70 percent of companies that outsource report significant negative experiences with their outsourcing projects. Apparently, outsourcing has a number of limitations and weaknesses. The most common issue is the loss of control when the management of certain functions is turned over to another company. The outsourcing company may lose the ability to adapt to a rapidly changing environment. Additionally, the quality of the service provided may not meet expectations, because the service provider is not driven by the same standards as its outsourcer.Service providers simply aim to meet the conditions of the contract, and not necessarily strive to provide the needs of the outsourcing company. Consequently, outsourcers incur more costs as they modify the terms of the contract, or as they settle for an inadequate system. With the said problems of outsourcing, companies may resort to backsourcing their operations. Nonetheless, in the aforementioned study by Deloitte Consulting, only 25 percent of the companies that had problems with outsourcing brought IT back in-house.The difficulty in backsourcing can be traced to the high costs of reorganization and the organizational disruption during the transition period. However there are a numerous be nefits of having an in-house system. Firstly, management would have complete control in their operations. This leads to greater flexibility, since changes in operations could be implemented more easily. Secondly, management could also control the quality of the operational functions of the company, by setting their standards of performance in their workforce.Finally, they would be able to avoid the need for ongoing renegotiations and the high recurring costs of modifications. The decision whether to outsource or insource should mainly depend on the processes of a company. Organizations may outsource processes that do not fall under their main competencies, or non-core processes that consumes much of their resources. This would save them time, effort, and manpower, while enabling management to focus on the company’s strengths and core operations. On the other hand, it may be more advantageous to insource specialized processes that are impractical to outsource like Research and Development.Moreover, as in the case of JP Morgan, it is better to insource because the company can actually provide better services at lower costs in-house, with the facilities of the acquired bank – Bank One – readily available for JP Morgan’s use. PHILIPPINE SETTING A similar case in the Philippines is the agreement between Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and International Business Machines (IBM). In 2004, GSIS began migrating to a new computerized system, with an IBM DB2 software designed to manage all data pertaining to members’ and pensioners accounts.GSIS claimed that it spent around P40 million for the DB2 software and IBM P-series servers. Unfortunately, in March and April 2009, the database software encountered a problem with the pension firm’s Integrated Loans, Membership, Acquired Assets and Accounts Management System (ILMAAAMS). The ILMAAAMS, which ran on IBM’s DB2 database software, reportedly crashed because of the vast amount of transactions made by GSIS members, composed of about 1. 5 million government employees and 200,000 pensioners. This translates to about 3 million records on file coming from 8,000 agencies nationwide, simultaneously.According to GSIS, about 90% of its operations were adversely affected by the crash, which resulted to approximately Php5 billion in actual damages. The company blamed IBM for the disruptions, accusing the latter of supplying defective database software. GSIS filed a Php100 million legal case against IBM Philippines, who in turn filed a Php200 million libel suit against the GSIS for its series of negative advertisements against them, both in print and broadcast media. In November 2009, GSIS started migrating to the HP – Oracle System and was able to complete the process in just six weeks.At present, the legal war between GSIS and IBM continues. Recommendations: Outsourcing is a double edge sword. It could either benefit a company or it can also cos t that company a lot. Thus, many things need to be considered in choosing between outsourcing and the more traditional in-sourcing. Therefore, the situation of JP Morgan Chase and Co. could have gone on a better way if they just prepared and improved on certain aspects as follows: The negotiations with IBM should have contained certain terms which could possibly mitigate the risks involved in their contract.First, the contract negotiations should have had clarified the terms and limitations of both parties. Having clearer terms and limitations will help both parties adjust to different situations and formulate the right solutions to the problems that may arise. There should also be better preparation, a set plan of action and a ready exit strategy. Also, JP Morgan Chase and Co. should have asked for flexibility in the technology, the outsourcing partner uses. They should have specified that the process or technology should fit or, at the very least, work hand in hand with the busine ss’s existing processes.There should also be a stipulation regarding review points to allow the relationship to change or end. JP Morgan Chase and Co. should consider that contracts have shared elements of both risk and reward. Greater risks entail more rewards precisely why JP Morgan should strike a balance between these two. It should perform different analysis tools in order to weigh alternatives more accurately. This, in turn, will help the company decide what projects to perform and which deals to enter. For example in the case of JP Morgan, short-term outsourcing contracts benefit the company better than long-term contracts.In some cases, it could be a good mix of short-term and long-term contracts as determined by the nature of the contract that will provide the best rewards for the company. Essentially, it is a matter of being able to correctly judge and weigh alternatives that will yield the best results. ———————â€⠀Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€- Finally, the company should learn how to value its most important asset, the people. It should have been more honest and open with the employees about matters affecting the situation and condition of the company.Being the most important asset of the company, human capital or employees should have been more involved in instances like this. As a summary, the following are the key points to be remembered from the JP Morgan and Chase experience: 1. For financial intermediaries in particular, outsourcing is not recommended. Outsourcing was a trend for many industries, especially in late 80’s until the early 90’s. This provides organizations the chance to concentrate on their core competencies by having their IT functions off shored.Much of the stories with regard to this business trend were written on the earlier years of the deal, stories on the implementation years however, remain scarce. A company has to consider how it will ultimately affect its operations before jumping in the outsourcing bandwagon. Financial intermediaries in particular would be better off without outsourcing as the latter adversely affects performance of the company, particularly its capability to innovate and be efficient which takes a toll on the totality of the organization’s performance. 2.Backsourcing is not for everyone. In a company where the latest data are the most crucial, it is recommended for them to keep their IT functions in house, especially in the case of JPMC where they had all necessary infrastructures ready for their IT functions. Departmental functions once outsource will incur twice the expenses if brought back once again to the company. Backsourcing is not a one size fits all solution rather it depends on the company’s available resources that determines its capability to bring in the IT functions again. 3. Negotiate shorter dealsShorter deals promote flexibility which proves to be the most important factor missing in the JPMC situation. Albeit more expensive, this provides companies less expensive solutions and exit strategies in case deals go awry. 4. Always remember the value of employees The outsourcing and insourcing juggle brought down the morale of many of the employees. What the company failed to see was the fact that this constituted much of the intangible costs incurred. 5. Remember to weigh alternatives carefully. Organizations often overlook or ignore the relationship between cost and quality of service.The relationship is a simple one. If you want to differentiate your IT service, provide the highest quality service and the highest quality products, it generally costs more. If the decision is IT costs too much, it is relatively straightforward to reduce IT costs, but commensurately you also reduce service. † (Hirschiem, 1998) Higher expectations, particularly in IT lead to higher costs. More than just following the current trends in t he industry, determining what to do with departmental functions involve planning and weighing alternatives carefully.

Prison Is Not a Cure for Crime Essay

There has been a great deal written about the fact that the number of crimes have dramatically increased in recent years. Educators have debated whether criminals should be put in jail or not. One idea that has received much attention is that prison plays an important role to reduce criminals. This essay will explain that prison is a cure for crime as fas as punishment for offenders and transformation of criminals into better citizens are concerned. One of the most important reasons why prison is a cure for crimes is that it is a punishment for culprits. For one thing, when someone commits a crime or does not obey to the law, he must be punished. In other words, offenders have to pay because of their wrong behaviours. For example, one of my friends who has committed a serious offence such as assault must spend a long time in jail. In addition to this, a long-term prison sentence will act as a deterrent for someone who is thinking about committing a crime. For another, innocent citizens will be hurt by culprits if government do not lock them into cells. Many countries use prisons like a tool in order to isolate and separate criminals from community. Public will live under constant fear when culprit’s have freedom outside prison. For instance, it would be difficult for an ordinary person if a murderer is living next to his door instead of in jail. Another reason is that the crucial purpose of prison is rehabilitation of criminals. First,many researchers claim that prison is a place where offenders have an opportunity to learn to be responsible for their mistakes. If someone behaves badly/ , other people should allow them to see what they have done is guilty whilst in prison, where they will learn how to prevent themselves from the evils. Criminals should be educated in prison in order to be sure they can be more and aware of their actions and not to re-offend. Also, jail provides culprits some skills in which they will be able to gradually make their way back into society without being discriminated for their work. For example, my close relative was sentenced for two years in jail when he committed multiple thefts. In prison, he realized several/ quite a few valuable lessons about life. After his release/ being released, his in-prison education/ training and skills helped him to turn into a good citizen. It is clear that priso n serves a great purpose to the community when criminals are steered in the right direction as well. Opponents of imprisonment may claim that prison is a convenient environment to help criminals learn a lot of skills to commit even more severe crimes. Moreover, the fact that governments put offenders to jail does not help to decrease the number of ctiminals. They have a point in thinking like that. On the other hand, they forget why we should put criminals to jail. The answer for this question is the more freedom offenders have, the more serious evils are conducted. For these reasons, jail is the best solution to limitation of crimes in the community. In conclusion, it is undenianle that prison serves a function in educating criminals. First, it helps to turn bad people into good ones before giving them the socond chance to rehabilitate. Furthermore, those who are guilty deserve the serve punishment so as not to re-offend. If this trend continues, the work will be a much safer place to live in and parents will be no longer frightened of the evils awaiting for their children.

Ludwig von Bertalanffy Systems Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Ludwig von Bertalanffy Systems Theory - Essay Example "It is frequently noticed that general aspects, view points as well as isomorphic laws exists in different fields, irrespective of the nature of entities involved. Thus, there appears to exist a general system law. Conventional physics define itself only as a closed system, i.e. systems which exist as isolated from their environment. But, systems by their nature and definition are not closed one, but an open one. Every living being is an open system and it maintains its life in a continuous inflow and outflow, a building up and breaking down. Only in recent years, to include open system into physics has been considered. Open system theory was advocated by this theory. Modern theory of communication is another development of the system theory. The main idea behind communication theory is information and in many cases the flow of information can be elicited by the reaction. Another way of measuring information is in terms of decisions. The second concept of theory of communication is that of feedback. Diffusion is the process which communicates innovation to members of social system through certain channels. Otherwise, diffusion of innovation studies how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology are spread through cultures. Everett M. Rogers theorized in his book, Diffusion of Innovation, 1962 that innovations would spread through society in an S curve. Roger was of opinion that people's attitude towards a new technology, idea, product, or practice will be accepted by society members. "Given that decisions are not authoritative or collective, each member of the social system faces his/her own innovation-decision that follows a 5-step process - Knowledge, Persuasion, Decision, Implementation and Confirmation." (Orr G., 18 Mar 2003) The innovation-decision theory is based on a cost-benefit analysis. An individual's innovation-decision is largely depended on their personal characteristics. Diffusion scholars divided system member innovativeness into five divisions based on how early they adopt new changes than other members. They are: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. The innovators are easily excited by the possible benefits and their opinion regarding new idea helps the potential adopters. Here, the well informed leader communicates their acceptance or non acceptance based on their experiences to the rest of the society members. Mass media seems to be a powerful tool to have a direct and immediate effect on the mass audience. But, according to diffusion theory, since the opinion leaders are the direct encouraging agents of an innovation, a powerful way for changing the agents to affect the diffusion of an innovation is to affect

Managing The Supply Chain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Managing The Supply Chain - Essay Example The project would also look at the production process employed by Colgate-Palmolive and the management and distribution channels. The importance of the end-user would also be examined in the paper. Colgate Procurement System (2013) identifies that the company uses a uniform and fair system of taking tenders and supplier application from producers. The company decides what to buy on the basis of quality and price offered by a supplier. The suppliers reliability, integrity, innovation and commitment to continuous improvement is a basis for decision making (Colgate Procurement System, 2013). Ethical standards are used to carry out the examination and evaluation of different suppliers. This include a number of standards and expectations that must be met by each and every supplier in the list of possible contenders. Once this is done, there are some guidelines that are used to by the Global Procurement Group to authorize a supplier. The Global Procurement Group of Colgate-Palmolive is made up of purchasing and logistic professionals from the regional units of the company. They use teamwork to guide their efforts. The group takes up tenders and quotes from suppliers around the world who fit some basic requirements. The quotes are presented to the Group and they examine and critique it. The company uses various criteria including positive discrimination techniques like identifying minority-owned suppliers and women-owned businesses. The group uses ethical business practices and high integrity levels to set goals and attain them. When suppliers are chosen, the company settles down to manage them through various technological and ICT databases and platforms that produce real-time information for decision making and guidance. Every suppliers contract is stipulated and given out to the customer when they join the supply team. The suppliers are monitored by the Internal Supply Managing the Supply Chain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words Managing the Supply Chain - Essay Example There should be a complete realignment of the procurement system that will be followed for all raw materials, parts, and components. The activities that follow the procurement process apply to the purchase of goods and services in the industrial markets. These activities often cut across both functional boundaries on an intra-firm basis and organizational boundaries on an inter-firm basis. It needs the inputs from all the parties involved in the transactions. Hence streamlining the procurement system would maximize value for both buying and selling. The realignment of procurement system maximizes productivity by ensuring the production lines work in tandem with each other. There should be a complete integration of the inventory management and the procurement system to ensure an effective supply chain management. There ate four important purposes that are expected to achieve by the integration of the inventory management and the procurement process; they are: With the use of any readily available computer software the integration of the inventory management and procurement could be easily achieved. ... Integration of Inventory Management and Procurement System There should be a complete integration of the inventory management and the procurement system to ensure an effective supply chain management. There ate four important purposes that are expected to achieve by the integration of the inventory management and the procurement process; they are: (1) Cost savings in inventory (2) Control over the inventory (3) Reduction and control of production cycle time and (4) Improved customer satisfaction (Oracle) All the above purposes are considered the essence of an effective supply chain management and hence it is important the inventory management and procurement system of the company is integrated. With the use of any readily available computer software the integration of the inventory management and procurement could be easily achieved. With this integration the company would be able to procure materials according to production demands and the delivery time can be calculated every hour for an efficient movement and usage of stock. The company can monitor inventory information at every stage of the production cycle, including the required amount for a particular order, quantity ordered, actual shipping amounts, and delivery dates. There will be a possibility of reducing the value of inventory held at the warehouse. Production Planning System Introduction of an integrative Manufacturing Planning and Control System would ensure that the desired products are manufactured at the right time, in the right quantities, meeting the customer specifications and at minimum cost. The major elements in an integrated system include: Demand Management Aggregate Production Planning Master Production Scheduling Rough-cut Capacity

Human Resources Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Human Resources Management - Essay Example Nasr believed that there was a need of some fresh blood which could spur growth in the financial services sector for Morgan Stanley. For this job, Nasr required an individual, who was an initiator, some one who was an expert in not just market and product knowledge. But was a shrewd salesperson; that is be able to identify the needs of his customer and is able to bring a feasible solution to the customer’s problem. And more importantly, the person must also be having an established credibility in the financial sector for his expertise. As Morgan Stanley’s Capital Markets division needed to leverage on an expert’s experience and talent; in order to establish a brand name for itself. Parson became Nasr’s choice for this job as he had known for his professional expertise in this sector. In Nasr’s opinion, Parson’s experience in industry, his analytical capabilities, his motivation and his selling skills; made him the perfect fit with the job’s requirements. (Fisher, Schoenfeldt, & Shaw, 2005) Although, initially Parson may have been skeptical to work at Morgan Stanley; but Parson’s ambitions to excel in his career made him grasp this opportunity. Parson’s acceptance of this challenging job and then his success in drastically improving the market share of Morgan Stanley in financial services sector; not only justified Nasr’s choice but also proved that Parson was an achiever, he had successfully accomplished a lot in a very short span of time. Morgan Stanley may have begun to enjoy profits from Parson’s endeavors. But still Nasr faced a problem at his hands. Rob Parson does not incorporate Morgan Stanley’s working habits in his business manners. He fails to follow the Morgan Stanley way of doing things with consensus and as a team. Thus, Parson’s evaluation is reviewed as being that of an individualistic not a team player;

Blue Ocean Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Blue Ocean Strategy - Essay Example The overall concept of Blue Ocean Strategy is innovation. It is understood from the book that companies should identify, plan a strategy and create a business of which no competition exists. Kim and Renee (2005)2 divide the competitive business world into two segments of Red Ocean and Blue Ocean. It is further explained that 'Red Ocean' is the business world full of competition where the existing organizations compete with each other to acquire its share in the market whereas 'Blue Ocean' is the unidentified market area. The Blue Ocean is the space wherein the business is new in the market and has no threat of competition instead it has to create competition. The giants of particular commodity or product or services, who are termed as leader, find it difficult to survive in the competitive world of business without marketing. American Marketing Association has defined marketing as the performance of the business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from producer to consumer or user. Marketing assists in identifying specific markets for products and services, guiding the development of products, packages, and services, etc. (Kumar)3 In blue ocean strategy this concept has a new meaning and a new method to implement in the firms. Blue ocean marketing concept proposes a method based on the segmented target group and the product development and marketing is based on the conduct of this group. The concept is good but cannot be fitted with all firms and their marketing procedures as it lack competition, which is vital in the marketing concept. (Kim and Renee, 2005)4 Marketing Strategy David (2007)5 states that creating a marketing strategy is only the first step towards the attainment of goal and after the strategy has been built; its solidarity has to be maintained to attract external stakeholders. He criticizes the marketing directors who are using B2B model while the others in the market have adopted real and valuable marketing strategies. The first principle of blue ocean strategy is to reconstruct market boundaries to create blue oceans so that it doesn't face any level of competitions and existence of competitors is zero. In order to create Blue Ocean, it becomes necessary to identify the threats and difficulties that make Red Ocean such a difficult world to live in. The red ocean companies are trapped in this area due to following reasons, 1) they define their industry similar to which exists in the market and try to provide the best other than others, 2) they try to and follow the strategic accepted methods, models, principles of developed and successful companies and strive to stand out in their strategic group, 3) as they produce similar products and provide service similar to that of the other industry, they focus the same consumer, which further makes the competition stiff and harder, 4) they define the scope of products and services similarly, 5) they accept the rules and regulations of the specific industry as they are governed by the governing body and functions accordingly and 6) some seasonal products produced by the companies will face stiff competition from its rivals as all the companies will

Pictures of Everyday Life Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Pictures of Everyday Life - Essay Example Generally speaking, the following represents human culture-- stories, beliefs, media, ideas, and works of art, religious practices, fashions, rituals, specialized knowledge, and common sense (Butler 1-23). However, so as to comprehend fully people's relationships with each other and to social establishments, it is vital to understand the structure of society. Fundamentally, people define themselves in terms of cultures and societies and employ these characterizations as determinants of social interface, groups and organizations and deviant behavior. A classic definition, depicts culture as "the totality of learned, socially transmitted customs, knowledge, material objects, and behavior; likewise, it includes the ideas, values, customs, and artifacts of groups of people" (Schaeffer 51). However, patterns of culture per se do not offer an unambiguous perception and understanding of the idea of culture; as it is, culture is a lot more than just the object or behavior. Basically, culture also deals with standards, principles, viewpoints, or significant representations. Approximately, standards are actually the way people conduct themselves in a given society, principles are what they consider as cherished opinions, beliefs are how people think the whole world operates, and significant representations are symbols, usually representing social norms, values, and beliefs themselves (Matthew 3). Going back to the restaurant scenario, a serious observer can now begin to contemplate and ponder on questions like -- what is the structure of this particular society in its entirety Or what are its constituents and the relationships between elements What is the significance of change Where does this social order stand in the accounts of human history What will it give to make the meaning of humanity more evocative and consequential More importantly, what are its crucial facets and how do they vary from those of times past gone What types of men and women now prevail in this civilization and in this epoch If we try to seize the different "behavioral landscapes" in that restaurant and let them "freeze" for a moment, then perhaps "photography" can be used to briefly capture the sociology of everyday life. By taking photographs of societal circumstances and by construing existing photographic images, significant "meanings" can be had, the kind of understanding that is not commonly obtained in most situations. At the outset, it elevates people's sensitivities and their process of forming insights to social circumstances because now, passive seeing has been substituted - passive seeing is when countless muddled and frenzied notions fleetingly drift before people's very eyes -- but by