...helps to validate the “resource curse.” Blood Diamonds When thinking about diamonds, many people automatically think of love and happiness due to engagement rings and wedding bands and the commercials that continuously play on television. This is certainly not the case, and many people are missing this fact from this 81.4 billion dollar industry (Baker). Diamonds, especially in the Congo or Sierra Leone, are a symbol of conflict and war, and unhappiness. The United Nations defines conflict diamonds as diamonds that originate from areas controlled by forces or factions opposed to legitimate and international recognized governments, and used to fund military action in opposition to the governments (Armstrong). Conflict diamonds are more commonly known as blood diamonds...
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...The Hardwood to the Diamond When the topic of baseball and basketball is mentioned, many only think about the differences between the two. What people do not realize is the parallelism between them. Comparing these two sports can vary from uniforms to the playing surface. Although athletes who take part in basketball and baseball complete different tasks, their ultimate goal remains the same: victory. The playing surfaces for both sports require constant maintenance. A baseball field requires much more (care or caring) than the basketball court, such as watering, mowing, and raking weekly, if not daily, depending on the use of the field. A basketball playing surface only needs waxed or resurfaced once a year and washed biweekly. Although baseball diamonds require far more work, the hardwood of a basketball tends to be more complex with the different lines from various sports running throughout the court. Much larger than a basketball court, the baseball field is typically located outside. Despite the differences, the games and practices take place on their own playing surfaces. They also contain a scoreboard located in a clearly visible...
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...Diamonds are a girls best friend according to a Madonna song, but what does diamonds do to the people and country where they come from? In parts of Africa you can see adults and kids in pools of water looking for them. You might think “Then why aren’t these people rich and why do they live in places like these?” While your answer is that they don’t profit from anything they find. You can find Blood Diamond mines in Sierra Leon, Liberia, Angola, the Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivories. Central African republic, and Democratic Republic of Congo. Most of the mines you will find in these countries are illegal. For years civil wars have plagued these countries about these diamonds. Rebel militants come in hoping to occupy the mines for their own use at any cost. Over 5 million civilians have been killed, tortured, raped, mutilated, and abducted in order to get to these mines. When they get to these mines they force you to work for them and you become almost like a slave. What you get in return for this labor is less than a dollar a day, poor living conditions, and disease. Not only do they force adults but they force...
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...| Are diamonds investor’s best friend? | Study on polished diamonds as an alternative investment. | | Presented by:Daria GoldobinaStudent number:080006193Supervised by:Anh L. TranIn partial fulfilment of the:BSc Business Studies, Cass Business SchoolDate:24th March 2011I certify that I have complied with the guidelines on plagiarism outlined in the Course Handbook in the production of this dissertation and that it is my own, unaided work.Signature:__________________________________________ | | This work is dedicated to the memory of my beloved grandfather Ivan Smolin. He was a sweet, kind and sensitive man who devoted his life to studying precious stones and metals. He enriched my life with passion to beauty. If God wanted us to bend over he'd put diamonds on the floor Joan Rivers Contents Acknowledgements 3 Executive summary 7 I Introduction 10 Ground for discussion 10 Objectives 10 Methodology 11 II Literature review and hypothesis development 12 Overview 12 Introduction 12 History of diamonds 12 Industry structure 13 DeBeers cartel 15 Diamond valuation 16 Diamond valuation process 16 Determinants of diamond prices 18 Diamond as an investment 19 Types of investment 19 Problems associated with investing in diamonds 20 Benefits associated with investing in diamonds 20 Alternatives to investing in diamonds 23 Hypothesis development 25 III Methodology 26 Data collection 26 Primary research 26 Secondary...
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...studied poorly, though there are some indications on all sides of the question. Additionally, several studies which were highly flaunted by the media as evidence for the genetic basis for homosexuality have been challenged by the current thorough studies (Diamond, 2006). This proof is considered to fall under five critical categories. These include: * Possible hormone influences * Brain structure * Real genetic studies (GWAS) * Concordance of genomic markers in relations * Concordance of homosexuality in twins Until recently, sexual orientation used to be referred to as sexual preference. Definitely, these two terms represent significant variations in the way in which sexuality matures. A likelihood or preference is a choice of something due to taste while orientation is something that generally defines us (Schumm, 2010). The variations are practically necessary with respect to how legal rules apply to those gay individuals. In case homosexuality is not preferred, but actually is a genetically determined trait over which individuals have no option to, then legal rules should not look at straights and gays differently, since homosexuality would be equal to one’s race, over which persons have no control over (Diamond, 2006). Sexual Orientation-Brain Studies Since sexual allure starts in the brain, scientists first studied the query of sexual orientation by relating the...
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...I am a diamond lover. I do not know too many women who are not. But, I can speak for myself, when I say, I love a beautiful diamond. Like everything we buy, we shop around. We do not pay the first price we see for something we want or need. We have to compare prices, companies, customer service, and the fact of what we are purchasing, we will have for some time to come. So, when making a major purchase, as a diamond, we want to do as much research as possible to make sure we are getting the best grade of diamond for the money we are spending. When doing research I try to start with the oldest company I am most familiar with. In this instance it is De Beers. On March 12, 1888 De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited was established by Cecil Rhodes. When Cecil Rhodes dies in 1902, Ernest Oppenheimer took over the responsibility a diamond buying agent. Ernest and all of his fellow workers did something right because this company is still in effect after 127 years. DE Beers is now 85 % owned by Anglo American and 15 % owned by the Bostwana government. It is true their diamonds are very expensive. I say if you are going to do something right, do it big. De Beers production rose 5 percent to 32.6 million carats during 2014, and the company expects it to stay in the range of 32 million to 34 million in 2015. I have noticed there is competition everywhere for everything. Diamonds seem to be the world source of competition because everyone wants to make the better diamond and the most...
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...unethical business research practices have an effect on the organization as well as the public. From an unethical standpoint development in technology, medicine, and many production lines may harm people if there is a lack of honesty or deception in the results from research. De Beers is the world’s largest diamond producer. De Beers has been charged with price-fixing and other anticompetitive conduct. Under scrutiny since World War II for refusing to provide industrial diamonds for the war effort they were forced to leave the American market. In 1994, an indictment was filed against the De Beers Diamond Company for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act by fixing the price of industrial diamonds. In this indictment the Government contended that the subsidiary company General Electric (G.E.) conspired with De Beers to fix the price of industrial diamonds. These acts that De Beers were accused of were unethical because being the world’s largest diamond producer they were able to control the market and keep the prices high by making the world believe that diamonds were scarce. The purpose of DeBeers was the exploitation of diamond mines in South Africa. Along with deceiving the market on price fixing and forcing competitors to buy their products De Beers committed other 3 unethical acts towards their employees and as well as diamond consumers. The DeBeers diamonds are extracted from the South African mines and marketed in London, at the address of the Diamond Trading Company,...
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...2011 Research Background information After re-examining my last topic I noticed that it wasn’t valid according to the rubric so I decided to go with something that has interested me since seeing a movie on it a couple years back. Blood diamonds are one of Africa’s largest problems and have been for many years now. The point my article stresses are that blood diamonds are one of the largest sources of income for rebel groups in Africa. “Conflict diamonds continue to fund the rebel groups, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), both of which are acting in contravention of the international community's objectives of restoring peace in the two countries.” Many innocent civilians are murdered by these rebel groups and it all reflects to the main point of how these rebel groups are staying in business. I think that there is also another point of view which would be the pro’s of this conflict. Some of them would be that the blood diamonds keep many jewelry and diamond companies in business because it helps them to offer a far more variety of diamonds to their consumers. Also it keeps the market saturated with diamonds so if there were no conflict diamonds then it would sky rocket the price of the few diamonds that exist and that would effect the industry due to the fact that many advanced countries like the U.S, Asia, Europe and etc are very large consumers to these diamonds. I would like to research this topic...
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...On-Line Business Expansion Proposal for Black diamond hills A. For my project I choose Black diamond hills jewelers as a company to expand on-line. Black diamond hills jewelers is a small jewelry company located in the town of Green Forest, Colorado. It is owned and operated by the Smith family and has been in business since 1991. Don Smith has a passion for wildlife and has created a series of one-of-a-kind pieces. Plans are to expand the Company’s presence on line with custom made jewelry. 1. Evaluating the Viability of Creating an Online Presence for Black diamond hills jewelers The plan is to expand the customer base for the custom jewelry pieces by expanding the on-line presence to include on-line shopping. Currently the Company has a website to encourage customers to “stop-by” the jewelry store only. The expansion will be viable as there is a large demand for custom jewelry across the nation and Black diamond hills jewelers has some very unique pieces. The Company is well established locally and has great customer testimonies. The viability of selling custom jewelry pieces on line appears to be successful for various companies. When googling the words “custom jewelry” there were over 4 million results within .27 seconds. This shows that “custom jewelry” was a popular topic to Google. Another tool iused to test the viability was Google Page Rank. The Google Page Rank ranks webpages on a 0 to 10 scale, with 10 being the best rating. The rank value indicates...
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...Disclaimer for the Skill Gap Report: NSDC engaged IMaCS (ICRA Management Consulting Services Limited) to prepare this report, which is based on independent research and analysis done by IMaCS. This report is not based or derived from any other report or research paper. Any similarity with any other paper may purely be a co-incidence. All rights reserved. All copyright in this report and related works is solely and exclusively owned by NSDC. The same may not be reproduced, wholly or in part in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this presentation), modified or in any manner communicated to any third party except with the written approval of NSDC. This report is for information purposes only. While due care has been taken during the compilation of this report to ensure that the information is accurate to the best of IMaCSs’ and NSDC’s knowledge and belief, the content is not to be construed in any manner whatsoever as a substitute for professional advice. IMaCS and NSDC neither recommend nor endorse any specific products or services that may have been mentioned in this report and nor do they assume any liability or responsibility for the outcome of decisions taken as a result of any reliance placed in this report. Neither IMaCS nor NSDC shall be liable for any direct or indirect damages that may arise due to any act or omission on the part of the user due to...
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...Report on Argyle Diamonds and the Diamond Industry 1 INTRODUCTION India was the only known source of diamonds before the eighteenth century when diamonds were discovered in Brazil. The modern diamond industry was born in 1867 when diamonds were discovered in the Kimberley region of South Africa. The De Beers mining company was formed and they controlled 80-90 per cent of the rough diamonds entering the diamond market. The De Beers share of the diamond market fell in the 1990’s when the Soviet Union moved to a free market economy as Russian diamond mining companies were selling their diamonds on the open market. The Central selling Organisation (CSO) controlled by De Beers is responsible for regulating the price of diamonds on the market and marketing a large percentage of the world’s diamonds. The CSO protected the dominance of the diamond cartel but this monopoly was challenged by Argyle Diamonds when they refused to renew their marketing contract with De Beers. Argyle has been characterised by low value coloured diamonds, however their highly sought after pink diamonds has successfully differentiated their products from other diamonds the in the market (Vinciullo, Annear and Disbury, Not dated). 1.1 AIM OF THE ASSIGNMENT The aim of the assignment is to research and analyse the diamond industry and to evaluate Argyle Diamonds’ strategic position in the diamond industry. 1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE ASIGNMENT • To research and evaluate competition in the precious...
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...busy schedule to help by providing us with their valuable inputs. OBJECTIVE OF STUDY The objective to study the “A comparative study on the consumer’s preference among Branded and non branded jewellery” is to find out: 1) To compare between the consumer preference among the branded and non branded jewelery. 2) To know consumer perception towards branded jewellery. 3) Brand awareness of various brands in the jewelery market. 4) To have an idea about the parameters the consumers consider while buying jewelery SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The gems and jewellery industry occupies an important position in the Indian economy and is one of the fastest growing industries in the country. Hence the research conducted would help us to: 1) Understand the consumers preference while purchasing jewellery. 2) How much impact does a brand/ retailer has on their purchase decision. 3) Does price play an important role in guiding their purchase decision. 4) Are the various promotional strategies adopted to combat competition. DESCRIPTION PROBLEM The scope of study is limited due to the following reasons: 1) Time constraint - since the time span for the study was only one month, an in depthstudy and analysis will become a little difficult...
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...Introduction Blue Nile is the largest online retailer of diamonds in the United States. The company offers more than 60,000 diamonds on its website. The national average for an engagement ring is $3,200 but Blue Nile exceeds this number by having a $5,600 average price1. With no physical stores, no intermediaries and offering products four times cheaper than rivals, Blue Nile has proven to be a successful online retailer. Blue Nile is directly competing with both online diamonds merchants and physical stores diamonds retailers. Physical stores selling diamonds have tried to encourage customers that buying a diamond is a sensational experience that can only be realized in stores (and not online). They have highlighted the idea of seeing, touching and comparing diamonds that is exclusively possible in a store. Blue Nile has many competitors such as Tiffany and Co, Diamonds.com, and Zale Jewelers Stores. (Blue Nile. (n.d.)). These companies have tried to demonstrate that the price of the diamond is worth the unique and exclusive experience offered only in stores. Organizational background Everything started in 1999, when Mark Vadon, a consultant at Bain and Co. went to a Tiffany and Co. store in San Francisco, looking for an engagement ring for his future fiancée. He was a casual man wearing casual cloth. Vadon said that Tiffany and Co. salesperson ignored him and did not help him finding a ring because he did not look like a potential and interesting customer. After this...
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...I will introduce the marketing plan outline for my product called TIKIWIKI diamonds. Tiffany INC. is a globally accepted and renowned diamond retail store in comparison to TW, which is recently being launched. So people are not aware of the TW brand and its functionalities. TW is able to maintain competitive and discount price due to our specialized product or the demand in which products are needed. TW is a Best-Cost provider strategy for a close match to their strategy. They offer high quality product at a great cost. They do this by effective management through lean practices (Rivlin, 2007). They also like to educate their customers, so they completely understand what they are purchasing. They offer a number of tools that help to understand and judge the quality of a diamond. They also have a team of experts willing to help each customer individually. All of this together gives them a competitive advantage over some other online retailers. Customers like to be able to interact with the supplier and when purchasing online interactivity is key to success. Distribution is through reduced cost through lean management. This is a key in this day and time when the cost of operating a business is so high. They have a good plan to market online and offer free shipping along with returns for unsatisfied customers. What I don’t like is that they don’t advertise and market enough (Levy & Weitz, 2009). Competition The main competitors of TW are Tiffany and Co, Diamonds.com, and Zale...
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...habits in Indian Women 2070 views * “A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE CONSUMER’S PREFERENCE TOWARDS BRANDED JEWELLERY … 2770 views * A project on consumer preference over branded jewellery and non branded jwellery… 12276 views * A project on consumer preference over branded jewellery and non branded jwellery… 4494 views * Final print out 1958 views * Gems and jewellery 1917 views * Tanishq the turnaround story 934 views * Consumer Buying Behaviour & Perception About Tanishq - The Jeweller 15609 views * Final ppt of marketing research on jwellery industry 2419 views * 542170 634210229644275000 241 views * tanishq 7413 views * Market review for tanishq presentation 7967 views * Trends In Jewellery 4955 views * Strategic Management 847 views * Glistening upturn in branded luxury jewellery 944 views * Copy of tanishq presentation 381 views * Diamond retailers 1467 views * Jems and jwellery.. 128 views * Ibef Jewellery 06 1902 views * consumer buying behaviour of branded and non branded jewellery 1399 views * GITANJALI BRAND BOOKLET 2012 170 views * Indian Jewelry Market: Trends & Opportunities (2012- 2017) 86 views * Jp tanishq imc 749 views * Titan Industries Limited 2463 views * Titan Industries Limited 3133 views * Titan Industries Limited 1275 views * Titan Industries Limited 2569 views * Tanishq Brand Analysis - By Anand 6797 views * Gems...
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