Abortion Should Be Illegal Essay Plan Essay

How would you feel if someone took away your ability to live? Imagine not having any say in whether or not you want to have a life. That is how aborted babies are treated, which is why abortion should be illegal. Abortion is the ending of pregnancy by the removal or forcing out from the womb of a fetus before it is able to survive on its own. If a woman decides to abort her baby, the baby cannot do anything about their life being taken away from them, and their entire future is demolished. Abortion is murder. The embryo is a person from the moment of conception. According to Shettles, â€Å"Scientists identify the first moment of human life as that instant when a sperm cell unites with an ovum or egg cell† (18). Most pro-choice supporters do not believe the fetus is a person until the first or second trimester. Pro-choice people do not think abortion is murder because they consider the aborted fetus a mass or cells or tissue (Shettles 20). Abortion is the taking of innocent human life, which is wrong under virtually any circumstances. See more: Basic Economic problem of Scarcity Essay An unborn baby is more than potential life. An unborn baby is meaningful human life that should not be considered expendable. After conception, no event occurs in the development of the fetus that indicates a change in the fetus from not being human to becoming one (Foster 33). Human life begins with conception. A middle-aged person, a teenager, and an unborn baby are all in stages of human life. Killing the unborn baby is no more justifiable than killing the two other people. Abortion is a practice that should be prohibited by law because it basically amounts to murder. Another reason why I don’t support abortion is because it can harm the mother as well. You are highly risking the mother’s life and affecting her. Not only does it have an effect on the USA but, it affects other countries as well like Spain. According to psychiatrist and member of the Right to Life Committee, Carmen Gà ³mez-Lavà ­n states that: â€Å"Sixty five percent of women who abort suffer symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome after undergoing the procedure.† Many women are regretting that choice around the world making it a controversial issue.

Hershey Report

THE HERSHEY CHOCOLATE COMPANY INTRODUCTION The Hershey Company was originally a purely chocolate manufacturer but extended to wafers and other products, some even non-chocolate. Now, the Hershey Company has grown to become a leader when it comes to dark chocolate and premium chocolate. Hershey’s Mission Statement is â€Å"Bringing sweet moments of Hershey happiness to the world every day† (www. thehersheycompany. com).This means delivering quality confectionary to consumer for all occasion, being a dominant and fun organization for the employees, having good business relationships for growth with customers, suppliers and business partners, creating value for shareholders and philanthropic activities for society as a whole. The company, adhering to its Mission from the founding day till today, strives to continuously create value by developing a number of products to cater to frequently changing consumers’ desire.Hence by creating a diverse portfolio which transfo rmed customer desires to reality, and by maintaining its quality The Hershey Company has managed to become one of the top chocolate brands in the market. HISTORY Hershey’s derived from a single decision- the decision of candy manufacturer Milton Hershey. In 1894 he decided to produce sweet chocolate which would coat caramels. He started off an enterprise and called it The Hershey Chocolate Company, located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In 1900, the Hershey Chocolate Company started the production of milk chocolate bars, chocolate wafers and more.Hershey was the company which made the once a luxury item affordable to the common public by choosing to produce at a mass level. By using mass production the company had lowered its per unit cost and hence was able to sell it at a lower cost than other chocolates. The success of high sales led to Hershey’s expansion of new chocolate factories, one of them being in south-central Pennsylvania in Derry Township, close to the ports of New York and Philadelphia which supplied the imported sugar and cocoa beans needed, surrounded by dairy farms that provided the milk required, and with a local labor supply of honest, hard-working people.By 1905 the production of chocolate in this factory was flourishing. Today, the Hershey Company operates all over the world, employs more than 12,000 people and generates revenues of more than $5 billion. (www. thehersheycompany. com) ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS Sales of chocolate depend majorly on the demand of chocolate, and these demands fluctuate heavily. And hence the success of a chocolate industry relies heavily on whether it’s the Easter, Halloween or Christmas season or a plain summer day, sales being lower in the latter.It has been noted that sales of Hershey’s or any chocolate brand for that matter, increases during the third and fourth quarter of the year, that is, the holiday seasons. For Hershey’s, the difference in the net sales of the first quarter of 2009 and the third quarter of 2009 was $248,087,000. (www. thehersheycomany. com). Judging from this, we can safely deduce that chocolate sales, on a large part, depends on the environment. If we look at the social environment, there are all sorts of consumers with different demands.Some would prefer cheaper chocolate and would be more than ready to compromise on quality and consider it just a snack while others demand a rich taste making chocolate more of a luxurious item. This requires the industry to produce a variety of products to meet the needs of as many customers to ensure greater sales. But there is also the issue of brand image. If a company produces both rich and cheap quality products, it does not develop a specific image of the brand. Hence the business needs to identify what demographics they want to cater to. The Hershey Company has a number of competitors.The company itself has an average of 5 billion dollar sales annually, 5132. 8 million dollars in 2008 (theher sheycompany. com) and employs 14,400 employees which is quite a large number but there are other similar brands in the market. Major competitors of Hershey’s are: †¢ Cadbury, with a sale of 7,792. 3 million dollars and 45,000 employees in 2008. †¢ Mars, with sales reaching 30,000 million dollars and a total of 70,000 employees in 2008. †¢ Nestle with sales of 104,060. 9 million dollars and 283,000 employees in 2008. (www. hoovers. com) MARKET ENVIRONMENT ANALYSISPorter’s Analysis By using ‘Porters five forces’ we can analyze the industry and subsequently to develop business strategy. These five forces present in the marketing environment will help determine the intensity of competition intensity and hence attractiveness of a market. In the marketing context, attractiveness refers to the overall profitability of the industry. A profitable business is an ‘attractive’ industry wherein the combination of these forces acts to pull up the overall profitability. Bargaining Power of Suppliers: The supply of Cocoa is limited.Since it is produced in areas with tropical weather, a lot of chocholate manufacturers have to import the cocoa. Suppliers have more bargaining power over the chocolate industry since cocoa suppliers are limited (www. bpi. cam. ac. uk). Bargaining Power of Customers: Bargaining power of customers of Hershey is moderately high. From Hershey’s annual reports, we can see that sales volume is high for The Hershey Company and whenever consumers buy in large volumes, their bargaining power increases. This is specifically applicable to retailers, more specifically to retailers like Wal-Mart.Wal-Mart and other retailers who purchase large volumes of chocolate can bargain for lower prices and the industry’s profits can decrease. Threat of New Entrants: Threat of new entrants is not a major concern for The Hershey Company as Hershey’s uses the technique of mass production (Evan Carmi chael) that is, produces on a mass level and has achieved economies of scale. A new entrant would therefore have to be a mass level manufacturer. Also, there are factors such as capital requirements and channels of distribution which make it harder for business to be set up on a large level and to get the sales going.And, of course, there has to be something that sets apart the new entrant’s products from the existing businesses’ products. Threat of Substitute Products: Since chocolate is not a need-based product and a number of people consider in just a snack, they look to towards other products such as chips, ice-cream, other flavored products such as vanilla, orange etcetera as well. Also there are many people who deem chocolate as unhealthy and fattening and are ready to substitute it with other products. Competitive Rivalry within n Industry: Hershey is not the only chocolate company around. There are a lot more chocolate brands which are as established as Hershey . Consumers have a choice of buying Hershey or Cadbury or Mars or other more generic chocolates, and this provides a significant amount of competition. Hershey’s has to compete against other chocolate brands and watch out for substitute products which makes competition intense. However, this analysis looks at the forces closely affecting the business i. e. the micro environment.Hence the Porter’s Analysis is not a hundred percent useful on its own. For most marketing experts, porters five forces analysis is only a starting point or sort of a â€Å"checklist† and therefore the benefit of this analysis can be taken only when used in conjunction with other analysis techniques. SWOT Analysis STRENGTHS: †¢ Rich history full of tradition, originality and philanthropic service: The Hershey Company produced Hershey’s Tropical Chocolate bars and Field Ration D bars for the troops at war giving it points for both originality and patriotism.Milton Hershey has a lso opened the Hershey Park in 1907 (www. hersheypa. com) †¢ Strong Brand Name and Image: Hershey has been in the market since 1894 and since then it has created a strong brand name and image. †¢ Diverse Product Portfolio: Hershey’s Chocolate Bar, Almond Joy, Kit Kat, Hershey’s Kisses, Mounds, Reese’s, Payday, York Peppermint Pattie, Milk Duds, Mr. Goodbar, Rolo, Skor, Whatchamacallit, Whoppers and Krackle Bar are only a few of Hershey’s products amongst many more. Having a huge variety of products increases chances of high sales for the company. Strong Alliances: Apart from acquiring a number of popular chocolate/candy manufacturing companies and has acquired licenses for producing and selling Cadbury and Nestle products, it has also, recently allied with Starbucks, which lead to a 30% increase in profits for Hershey. (MarketWatch) OPPORTUNITIES: †¢ A number of consumers desire and demand richer products and this gives Hershey to gain more of the upper strata of society †¢ The Hershey Company joined up with Starbucks, which was a wise move as it contributed to a 30% growth in Hershey’s profit (MarketWatch).More joint ventures with, for instance, Dunkin Donuts would boost sales of Hershey. †¢ In today’s day and age, people have started giving more importance to holidays as noted in the Quarterly reports of Hershey sales were higher in the holiday seasons. Hershey can use this to focus more on chocolates as gifts. †¢ Price decline of sugar †¢ Outsourcing of labor to cheaper areas WEAKNESSES: †¢ Hershey is North America’s largest chocolate producer (The Hershey Company) but the same cannot be said when it comes to the international market. Currently, the company’s presence is limited to Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and the United States. www. investopedia. com) †¢   A key weakness of Hershey is that it does not have much sales in the Asian markets and since Asia is the largest continent and a huge population, it is missing out on a lot. †¢ Price inflation is also an issue. As prices are relentlessly increasing, consumers think twice before purchasing a lot of things and Hershey products are no longer item that once can buy with the loose change in their pocket. Less people are willing to buy chocolates frequently. THREATS: †¢ There has been an increase in Nut allergies both in the UK and USA. ut allergies. (AAIR). A lot of Hershey products uses nuts and it has to consider this fact. †¢ Obesity is also on the rise and according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there has been a massive increase in obesity. â€Å"In 2008, only one state in the United States of America (Colorado) had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%†. Though there is no proof that chocolate equals obesity but that is the general conception and heatlh conscious people tend to buy little or no chocolate. If the health trend rises chocolate sa les will gradually decrease. Technology is becoming more and more advanced every day, and in order to be retain its economies of scale and to remain competent, Hershey has to keep up with technological progress in manufacturing and this will automatically increase cost.. †¢ A recent issue has been minimum wage for labourers. â€Å"Effective July 24, 2009, the federal minimum wage increases to $7. 25 per hour†. (Labour Law Center) †¢ Price of milk has been on a steady rise. Milk prices reached its peak in July 2007 and consumers paid â€Å".. an average $3. 80 a gallon, compared with $3. 29 in January†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Vandore, 2007).If this trend continues in the future, Hershey will have to increase prices due to increased costs of production hence sales could plummet really low. †¢ There has also been a steady price increase in gasoline. In the Clayton News Daily, â€Å"The annual average price of regular unleaded gas is expected to increase from $2. 35 per ga llon in 2009, to $2. 83 in 2010, with similar price hikes on heating oil and diesel fuel†. In this case production costs of running the heavy machinery in factories will increase significantly, making it difficult for Hershey to maintain reasonable price of its products. SWOT of CompetitorsAmongst Hershey’s competitors, Cadbury is one of the major ones. Below is a brief SWOT analysis for Cadbury. |STRENGTHS |WEAKNESSES | |Has been in the market for 200 years- well established brand name &image. |Small product portfolio. There’s not much variety. | |Products sold in over 200 countries. |Very few new products are created by own group. | |High profits | | |Has been awarded Royalty. | |OPPORTUNITIES |THREATS | |Can expand into new markets |Other established brands in the market | |Should produce new products |Diversification of other brands into the market | MARKETING STRATEGY PRODUCT:The Hershey Company has a number of products, the main categories being as foll ows: 1. Chocolate Candy: This includes Hershey’s Kisses, Hershey’s Bliss, and Hershey’s Milk Chocolate amongst a lot of others. 2. Pantry Items: This category includes Hershey Syrup, Hershey Toppings and Hershey’s Hot Cocoa mix etcetera. 3. Snacks: Some products of this category are Canola Bars, Snacksters, 100 Calorie Bars and SnackBarz. 4. Gum and Mint: BreathSavers mints, Bubble Yum bubble gum and Ice Breakers are the products of this category 5.Sugar Confectionary: To capture the market who is sugar conscious or health conscious, Hershey’s developed Hershey's Sugar Free Candy The Hershey Company has, in addition, acquired licenses to manufacture and sell chocolate and non-chocolate products of other brands such as Nestle Kit Kats, Rolos, and Cadbury. It also acquired a number of companies and now Jolly Rancher, Bubble Yum, Mauna Loa, Reeses, Whoppers, Twizzlers and Young & Smylie products are officially a part of the Hershey Company. PRICE: Her shey’s chocolates are priced at a moderate level.A plain Hershey bar of 1. 55 oz is priced at $0. 99 and a Toblerone, 1. 7 oz bar, is priced at $1. 49. Toblerone is 50% more expensive than Hershey, as we can see below. Following is a list of the general pricing of Hershey Products: †¢ Hershey’s Milk Chocolate (1. 55 oz) priced at $0. 99. †¢ Mr. GoodBar (1. 75 oz) priced at $0. 99 †¢ Almond Joy 8 Pack (0. 6 oz x 8 pieces) priced at $2. 45 †¢ Almond Joy Eggs (1. 1 oz) priced at $0. 99 †¢ Cadbury Caramel Eggs (1. 2 oz) priced at $0. 99 †¢ Black Licorice from Y (8 oz bag, containing 55 pieces) priced at $4. 5 †¢ Bubble Yum (o. 17 oz oz x 5 pieces) priced at $0. 99 We can see the general pricing trend of Hershey, as almost all 1. 5 to 2 oz bars are priced at 0. 99 dollars PLACE: Hershey sells its products at a wide array of places. It sells to wholesale distributors, wholesale clubs, mass merchandisers, grocery stores, drug stores, vending companies, convenience stores, department stores, dollar stores and natural food stores. Then these customers of Hershey sell to end consumers in approximately 2 million outlets all over North America and worldwide. (The Hershey Company)One of the largest distributors of Hershey products is the Mc Lane Company Inc. , which in turn sells to other stores. It is the main distributor for Wal-Mart which is one of the few places which sells products of the Hershey Company. (The Hershey Company) PROMOTION: The Hershey Company uses a variety of mediums and techniques for advertising and promotion. Apart from regular mediums such as Billboard advertisement, Newspaper and magazine advertisements and Television commercials, it uses other techniques like using movies and Box Office to promote their company.For instance, in Hershey’s â€Å"Hulked-Up† promotion, you â€Å"enter to win† a Hulk Hummer and get a free T-Shirt by checking out featured products (ComicBookMovie. co m). Other promotions include HERSHEY’S Camaro Sweepstakes to win a 2010 Chevy Camaro, HERSHEY'S KISSES Cookie and HERSHEY’S and the Young Survival Coalition which was used to create breast cancer awareness along with promoting Hershey. (The Hershey Company) ADVERTISEMENT CRITIQUE FINANCIAL ANALYSIS Looking at the financial statement of the last five years (www. thehersheycompany. om) has given the following results: †¢ Net Profit 10. 1% of Sales in 2005. †¢ Net Profit 11. 3% of Sales in 2006. †¢ Net Profit 4. 32% of Sales in 2007. †¢ Net Profit 6. 06% of Sales in 2008. †¢ Net Profit 7. 94% of Sales in 2009. These profitability ratios show that while Hershey has performed better in 2009 than two of its preceding years, its profits have decreased considerably compared to 2006. 2006: By taking a closer look at the quarterly reports of Hershey for these years it is noted that the first half had strong but the second half of 2006 saw a slow-down in sales.The Hershey Company’s long-term strategies seek to attain net sales growth of 3% to 4% annually (The Hershey Company) but results for 2006 did not meet their goals. Net sales growth was 2. 58% for 2006. There was a decline in market share during the second half, mainly in North American. Hershey tried to gain momentum again and succeeded with time but at a price. Apart from the increased interest costs for that year there were increased spending on advertising starting from the fourth quarter and continuing well into 2007, affecting the net profit for 2007 drastically. From a net profit percent of 11. % in 2006, it went down to 4. 32% in 2007. 2007: 2007 was also a difficult year. Net sales growth in this year was 0. 05% which is not even close to the company’s goal of 3%-4% per year, even with the increased sales from international business and sales from the Joint Venture formed with Godrej Beverages & Foods Limited formed that year (Wikipedia). Sales in North America was low, costs incurred were much higher than the previous year and the company saw a much lower profit in 2007. Business realignment and impairment costs rose from 14,576,000 to a whopping 276,868,000.The difference in net income percentage was -61. 7%. Increased investment spending for advertising and expansion of our international infrastructure also contributed to the lower income in 2007. 2008: Net sales growth increased from 0. 05% to 3. 8% in this year. The net income percentage which was negative in the previous year turned into a positive 45. 4%. Needless to say, Hershey gained momentum in the market again. Results for the 2008 up to mark and met the Hershey Company’s goals and expectations. FUTURE TRENDS Health Awareness: Many people don’t use chocolate for fear of become fat, getting acne or other health reasons such as cholesterol. This may reduce sales. †¢ Allergies: some children and adults have allergies, most commonly peanut allergies and o ther nut allergies. This, also, may decrease sales. †¢ High Class society gatherings/increased importance to holidays such as Halloween, Easter, Christmas which use a lot of chocolate and chocolate products. This could increase sales in the future. †¢ Price of cocoa and Price of fuel: The price of these two commodities will effect sales negatively if they continue to rise.RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE: Keeping in mind the factors and trends that may increase or decrease sales in the future, Hershey can take a number of steps to improve their chances of turning unfavorable situations into ones that will actually benefit the company. A lot of people think of chocolate and think of one of these words: â€Å"junk food†, unhealthy†, â€Å"fattening† and so on. But the fact is that chocolate can actually promote good health. Especially dark chocolate, which has anti-oxidant effects and generates antithrombotic mechanisms, can lead to better cardiovascular health (The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal).In layman terms this means it prevents the blood in the heart from clotting up. Hershey’s can use this knowledge for a different spin on their advertisements and removing the concept of unhealthy chocolate. Also many people and children have nut allergies, and since a lot of Hershey’s products include hazel nut and peanuts, this can pose a problem But with careful and well defined market research Hershey’s can overcome the problem of its chocolate bars containing nut not being sold, by finding out approximately what population of chocolate lovers is allergic to nuts and other ingredients which prevent them from buying chocolate.Another trend which poses a problem is the economy. Prices are constantly on the rise and cocoa and fuel are the two major concerns. Increase in fuel prices may lead to closure of a few plants to save on costs, or if the plants are not closed, prices of products may have to be raised to cover up the costs. Prices of cocoa are also on the rise, and an increase in this raw material may lead to an increase in price of the end-products. Since cocoa is produced in a few countries with tropical climate, chocolate manufacturers in colder climates have to import cocoa. Hershey has to pay mport taxes on top of the increased prices due to the global deficit of 145,000 tonnes of cocoa in the 2007-2008 season (confectionarynews. com). To reduce this cost, Hershey has two options. Either to buy as much cocoa in bulk as possible when prices are low and to buy as minimum as possible when the prices are high, or to outsource their manufacturing to places like Indonesia or Ghana where cocoa production is the largest (BBC News). CONCLUSION Hershey is a company which is already popular, but with a few well planned strategic decisions has the potential to be much more successful.They can do this by a reducing their costs, starting up new subsidiaries, perhaps even starting up production of th eir own cocoa beans instead of importing from Indonesia, Ghana and other cocoa manufacturers. The next thing they have to do is increase their advertising to countries Asia, as Asia has a large number of potential consumers.. APPENDIX REFERENCES About The Hershey Company. (www. thehersheycompany. com) < http://www. thehersheycompany. com/about/> Asthma and Allergy Information and Research. Nut Allergy- The Basics < http://www. sers. globalnet. co. uk/~aair/nuts. htm> BBC News. Peanut allergy on the increase < http://news. bbc. co. uk/2/hi/2487769. stm> BBC News. BBC News. Cocoa price hits 14-year-high Clayton News Daily. Confectionerynews. com. Future of cocoa prices uncertain, says ICCO. ComicBookMovie. com. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Emma Vandore. Got Milk? More People Want It Now. Contra Costa Times. Evan Carmichael. His Secret Recipe: How Hershey Achieved Success Groovy Candies. Hoovers. Labour Law Center.Federal Minimum Wage Increase for 2007, 2008, & 2009 Lunde ll, Dean â€Å"Capitalizing on Our Candy Cravings (NSRGY, CSG, HSY). † Investopedia. com. August 1st, 2007. November 13th, 2007. Investopedia website: Investor Relations: Annual and Quarterly Reports (www. thehersheycompany. com) MarketWatch. Hershey's 3rd-quarter profit rises 30% ; http://www. marketwatch. com/story/hersheys-third-quarter-profit-rises-30-2009-10-22; Products (www. hersheys. com) The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal. Plasma antioxidants from chocolate Oct, 2003 . Volume 22 Issue 10. p A7

Factors of Success

Heather N English 001A Midterm Essay 13 February 2013 The Factors of Success Success is a term that many use as a way to describe ideals. Living in a world that exalts the extraordinary, praises the leaders, and puts the best up on a pedestal, it is not hard to guess why achieving success is what the human race strives to do. Youth look up to the exceptional people in their life, media grasps stories of thriving individuals, and the world idolizes those who stand out. People endeavor great struggles and hardships to obtain that blissful feeling of reward and individuals are taught from day one to do whatever it takes to thrive.The book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is a story of success and how it is achieved. Though having many different theories on success, the story focuses on the sociological phenomena of the importance of all the factors it takes to truly be an accomplished individual. Malcolm Gladwell uses different anecdotes and real life examples in his book Outliers to illust rate how success is not just solely ambition and other intrinsic factors, but a function of broader points influenced by innate, societal, and cultural factors.To support the theory on success not only being the indigenous feeling to achieve, Gladwell uses the example of The Matthew Effect, which is basically opportunities based on timing. He explains how the best Canadian hockey players have a birthday closer to January 1st and, â€Å"in the beginning, his advantage isn’t so much that he is inherently better but only that he is a little older† (25). The older the player is, the more experienced, dedicated, and capable he will be, and be scouted to move on to a higher rank. They then start to train with the best coaches and facilities, giving them success.This is showing how a factor of success is just evidently age, timing, and, â€Å"it is those who are successful, in other words, who are most likely to be given the kinds of special opportunities that lead to furthe r success† (30). Another example of the success by timing and opportunities is the story of the Beatles. The Beatles were invited to play in Hamburg and it was by pure accident that, â€Å"Bruno went to London to look for bands. But he happened to meet an entrepreneur from Liverpool in Soho who was down in London by pure chance† (48).Obviously the Beatles are one of the most aesthetically pleasing bands of the 20th century and they have considerable talent, but if it were not for that one accidental connection that was established, who knows what would have happened to their success. These examples go to show that opportunities and luck are huge factors in describing what success is. Another factor of describing what constitutes success are societal and cultural perception. Gladwell uses his narrative of Joe Flom’s classmate at Harvard, Alexander Bickel.He was the top of his class and, â€Å"perhaps the finest constitutional scholar of his generation† (121 ). As a Jewish man with a thick Brooklyn accent, he did not fit the cookie cutter image they were looking for and the firm was not interested. This goes to show the correlation between perception and success by simply being denied a job because of cultural factors. It is universally known that people judge based on opinions, which causes hindering on success. The way someone was raised in their culture might negatively affect their opportunity for success purely based on someone else’s opinion on their culture.A Wall Street Journal article titled, Race and ‘Privilege’, talks about the phenomenon of the term ‘white privilege’ and how it ties to success. The article says, â€Å"We’re [whites] privileged that people see us, not a color,† and, â€Å"we’re privileged because society was set up for us, and our silence keeps it in place†. As much as society choses to ignore it, a factor of success is cultural race. Some races are considered privileged because they do not have that hindering stereotype targeted on their back and are more likely to get a perception of something different and be presented with more opportunities.Other races are considered successful solely by the societal factors of just where they live and the culture they grew up in. Cultural and societal factors tie into success as well. The article Asian-American Parenting and Academic Success in Pacific Standard, delves deep into discussing the unique style of Asian American parenting. It goes to say, â€Å"Over the past two decades, a spate of studies has examined cultural beliefs that shape Asian-American parenting, and their effect on kids’ learning†.Then it goes on to explain how cultural ancient beliefs have shaped how parents raise their kids to this day. The 5th century philosopher, Confucius, has influenced Asian culture and, â€Å"taught that human beings should strive their whole lifetime to improve or perfect the mselves†. These ideas that have transmitted down through generations have statistics to prove that the Asian culture is no stranger to working hard to achieve success and, â€Å"such veneration of diligence helps account for the widespread Asian belief that when striving for academic success, effort counts more than innate ability†.The culture embraces the idea of shape parenting and managing by a more hands on style. Because of this more governed culture, Asian Americans come out on top resulting in becoming more successful. However, one of the most important factors of success is the intrinsic motivation that one possesses and the actual time put into what is trying to be achieved. The 10,000-hour rule is another one of Gladwell’s theories used to explain success in Outliers.Based on a study by Anders Ericsson, â€Å"The emerging picture from such studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert in anything† (40). Or in other words, the most successful people have spent grueling time, hour after hour, to work and become experts at their craft. He uses the example of one of the most influential people, Bill Gates. When he stumbled upon a high school computer in 1968, Gates lived at the computer to learn and program his way into leading one of the top grossing industries in the world.It goes to show how much practice is needed to go into a craft to reach that threshold of expertise, which then leads to success. If a person has neither stamina nor drive to push them to work to become powerful in what they do, success cannot be achieved. Malcolm Gladwell uses different anecdotes and real life examples in his book Outliers to illustrate how success is not just solely ambition and other intrinsic factors, but a function of broader points influenced by innate, societal, and cultural factors.Combinations of all these factors are what really influence the i dea of success. Success is elusive because to acquire such rare opportunities, be raised specifically to always do well, have a culture that pushes to perform exceptionally, and have the motivation to dedicate 10,000 hours to the craft, can be grueling. However, not having the perfect combination of the factors of success does not mean that success cannot be achieved. Everyone has a different viewpoint of what success means to them and their own innate way of getting on the path to their life fulfillment.All it takes is the will to have the presence of the mind and the rest is up to the person. No one is able to have a guaranteed success. If they desperately aspire to be the best, there is a path for them. Works Cited Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. New York: Little, Brown and, 2008. Print. Seal, Kathy. â€Å"Asian-American Parenting and Academic Success. †Ã‚  Pacific Standard. Pacific Standard Magazine, 13 Dec. 2010. Web. 9 Feb. 2013. Taranto, James. †Å"Race and ‘Privilege'†Ã‚  Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, 21 June 2012. Web. 9 Feb. 2013.

Managing International Trade Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words - 1

Managing International Trade - Essay Example The 1960s saw the company diversify into research and manufacturing of drugs with development of the Ibuprofen painkiller. The company has diversified its development to other places and in 1968, the company acquired through purchase Timothy Whites and Taylors Ltd chain. Ion 1978, the company acquired Tamblyn Drugs chain in Canada which saw it entering the market. In 1987, the company became UK’s second largest drugs chain by acquiring Clement Clarke Ltd. and Curry and Paxton Ltd. In 1998, it ventured into dentistry and ‘well-being’ services offered to its customers. The company has seen sales and acquisitions with companies related to the field such as Optical Express but in 2006, the company developed a merger with Alliance Boots Ltd. In 2012, it was announced that Walgreens wanted to acquire a 45% stake in Boots. This is supposed to be a long term investment issue. The company mission statement is, â€Å"to become the world’s leading pharmacy-led health and beauty group†. This would be done through collaboration with Walgreen where Boots would boost Walgreen in the UK market and Walgreen boost Boots in the American and Chinese markets where it has prospered. The corporate level strategies of the company are to focus on its core activities in business. This is specific in the pharmacy led health and beauty retailing as well as pharmaceutical wholesaling and distribution. This is to be achieved alongside realizing international branding of the products so that a third dimension is created. The strategy therefore includes growing the core businesses in the existing markets as well as continued delivery of improved products and saving of costs. Growth opportunities are supposed to be achieved through pursuing the growth opportunities in new high growth markets. The company also seeks to launch new brands in new markets, deliver synergies through strategic partnerships with other companies. The partnerships may

Medical Information From Websites Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Medical Information From Websites - Essay Example Many folks search the internet to know more on some of their concerns in terms of health (Miller & Pellen, 2006). Symptoms are searched to see if one might be suffering from something, and the information gathered makes them conclude they need help. This paper will examine three websites that offer information on medical information, and if they follow the needed protocol to give information to the public. In the medical field, there are principles that websites need to abide by before they can say they are capable of offering medical information. In this case, the HONcode is used by these services to give people in need of information on medical issues some assistance. Individuals, more often than not, need guidance before they can access this information (Miller & Pellen, 2006). These websites should provide the right avenue in which they can do this. The HONcode certifies the measures in place that can assist in knowing the credibility of these medical websites. For the HONcode to be used, the websites need to be registered with it before they can claim to follow the principles it uses. In the first website, the WebMD focuses on giving users an overview into some of the most common issues that affect them daily. The HONcode has eight criteria that ensure the website is following some of its principles while providing information to users. In the first criterion, the website immediately stamps its authority. This is through revealing its authors and medical personnel involved in helping run the website. There is a section where their views on critical health issues are offered. It is also complementary. They offer individuals information. They, however, do not advice folks on the medical treatment they need. It, therefore, does not replace the doctor-patient factor. The privacy factor is also upheld through the process of signing in to get personal attention. This is through their privacy policy at the sign in feature. Moreover, published information from oth er medical personnel is available to users. If one gets to sign in, the problems they exhibit can be backed up by other works, for example, medical journals. Through their sponsor policy, the website can justify their performance over the recent past, hence; provide a user with the ultimatum to continue with the search. Their focus on being transparent is seen in the form of clear contact details about their professionals, and where they can be found. Also, the website’s funding is addressed in the sponsor policy and how many groups are involved. Advertising through the website is also possible. All websites need to clearly advertise the products they have, and any group that is advertising through them is identified. However, they do this away from the editorial section. In the next website, mayoclinic.com, the HONcode principles are also exhibited. In a section for their professionals, the website stamps its authority. Their qualifications are found in this section, which e nables the user to feel at ease with the use of the website. The complementary aspect of the website is not brought out because; they do offer medical advice. This is through diagnosing the symptoms an individual has through professional assistance. Privacy is also another issue individuals are concerned with whenever they decide to sign up with such websites. However, in this website, there is the assurance of privacy through the privacy policy they have before admittance.

Literature review on Customer Loyalty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Literature review on Customer Loyalty - Essay Example According to Oliver (1999), consumer loyalty and satisfaction are linked because satisfaction is an essential step in the formation of loyalty although it becomes less significant as loyalty undergoes other mechanisms. Oliver (1999) shows that although there are concerns on satisfaction, satisfaction propels loyalty illustrated through evaluation of various factors like social norms and self-identity. The study evaluates the two frameworks and their variability on customer loyalty in order to understand the various factors that influence customer loyalty from the two perspectives. According to Dick and Basu (1994), the core aim of marketing is often perceived in terms of development, maintenance, or even enhancement of customer loyalty toward products or services. In their approach, Dick and Basu consider various concepts regarding customer loyalty like attitude considerations and loyalty based on purchase. Therefore, in their framework, Dick and Basu conceptualize loyalty in terms of relationship between relative attitude targeting an entity and the patronage behaviour. According to Dick and Basu (1994), attitude acts as an appraisal function since it is associated with favourable behaviour even though having a favourable attitude toward a brand does not guarantee multiple purchases of the brand. Nevertheless, Dick and Basu (1994), show that low relative attitude accompanied by low repeat patronage indicates the lack of loyalty. However, relative attitude regarding loyalty suggests the possibility of attaining loyalty at both high and low levels of strength in attitude given that the consumers recognize significant differences among the competing brands. Dick and Basu (1994) indicate cognitive antecedents capable of propelling relative attitude in customer loyalty and they include accessibility, confidence, centrality, and clarity. Accessibility refers to the ease of retrieving

The Lady and Her Five Suitors - A 1001 Nights Assignment - 17

The Lady and Her Five Suitors - A 1001 Nights - Assignment Example On receiving the news, she nearly loses her wits. She arises, dons herself with her richest attire and perambulates to the household of the police chief. She greets him and presents to him a written petition that purports that the lad had been imprisoned wrongfully. She claims that the youth was her provider and the only one who would come to her where she then appeals to the mercies of the police chief to have him released. To this point, the lady has used deception, and she uses her dressing and donning to lure the police chief into succumbing to her wishes. It is easy to see her line of trickery in saying â€Å"..and I have none other to come to me..† (Byatt), which appears like a sexual appeal in that she has no one to come into her, making the chief to start thinking in those lines. On reading the piece of paper, the magistrate casts an eye on this women and immediately falls in love with her, a classical reaction we find in all her five suitors. She has learned of her charm on men, and she uses it to trick her way through to have them make decisions in her favour. When the magistrate preempts that she has to come into his place, she uses wits, tricking the magistrate again to come into her lodging, as she would do to all her five suitors. She then leaves leaving his heart entirely taken with love for her. She then proceeds to the Kazi of that city to present her case. The woman leaks of cunningness and goes ahead to protest the arrest of the lad, but this time, she says it’s her brother. Sure of her capabilities to mesmerize men, she airs her complaints and as expected, the Kazi casts his eyes on her and falls in love with her, even offering that he would, out of his purse, pay the fine imposed on the woman’s brother. On the request that she comes in, she gives him a date in a place and at a time the same as with the magistrate. She then goes to the Wazir, The king, and a carpenter, doing the same charm and tricking all of them to cooperate to have the youth released.  Ã‚  

Ethics Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ethics - Research Paper Example Research ethics can be defined as the application of basic ethical principles to the subject of study. It includes designing and implementation of the research, human trialing, experimentation on animals, and various other aspects of research. It is also very much crucial to consider the ethical codes prior to carry out the task of research design for data collection. Generally there are three objectives in a research ethics they are protecting the participants, conducting the research in such a way that it serves the purpose of the society on a whole and finally to ensure that research actions are ethically sound. However in the context of social and behavioral research there are many incidents where we find there is a lack of ethical soundness in the research. History of Ethical Principles in Research The Nuremberg trial addressed the experimentation of human being in the context of patient’s right and protection of the human subjects. The code includes:- a) Researches that are based on human must be trialed on animals. b) Risks should be according to the perceived benefits. c) The researches that are based on humans must be carried out by qualified research. ... Belmont Report The Belmont report was developed by ‘National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research’. It was issued during the year 1979 (â€Å"The Belmont Report†). The report summarizes the primary ethical principles and guidelines that should help in the process of determining the ethical issues. The report is divided into two sections namely 1) Limitations between research and practice. 2) Fundamental ethical principles. Regulations and Social and Behavioral Sciences A research review committee is an Institutional Review Board (IRB) must make certain that human research subject needs to be protected. Therefore the questions that should be asked are:- Is the subject of study reasonable? Whether the risks are minimized or not? Whether the risks are justified according to the benefits? Is there a map to control and monitor the security and safety of the subject of study? Assessing Risk in Social and Behavioral Scienc e There are many associated risks with the study of social and behavioral science. Therefore some of the possible risks could be violation of confidentiality, breach of the procedure of study, inaccurate predictions and also the gauged result. However the risks are actually psychological, social, economical and sometimes physical. Informed Consent The participants of the research study must be given sufficient information regarding the study so that they can decide whether to take part or not. They should be informed because the research needs continuous involvement of the participants. Privacy and Confidentiality Any psychological or behavioral research needs high privacy as it mostly deals with secret matters. Moreover discretion and solitude is an important factor in research (Dantzker and

Marketing of luxury brand-VERSACE Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 7000 words

Marketing of luxury brand-VERSACE - Dissertation Example Luxury products have currently become reasonably priced to more customers, especially for youth and hence, luxury brands have the probability to grow and establish their reputation globally (Semenik, 2001, p. 39). During the early part of 1990s, a number of luxury brands began to initiate their brands in China. The major cause for it is China being the world’s leading market. The Chinese market signifies a huge population and sturdy financial development. More significantly, Chinese customers - including students - have become more affluent than ever before, they are more accommodating towards western style traditions and they have a strong aspiration toward luxury products. In 2010, a study revealed that more than 15 million of existing and potential luxury brand customers are Chinese (Zarrella, 2009, p. 77). The combination of synchronizing the marketing communications across all medias together with the social media, the huge impact that social has for both individuals as w ell as businesses, the pace at which things progress within this field, and the comparative insufficiency of existing research regarding this field all are the bases for this study (Vivian & Anspaugh, 2000, p. 12). With reference to the discussion above, this study will also explain how companies can benefit from in social media in developing marketing messages to attract young customers including students. Figure 1: Growth of Internet Users from 1995 to 2010 (Malacrida, 2011, p. 122) During the past fifteen years, a huge amount of individuals have been able to access the Internet as a way to correspond, shop and collect data regarding pertinent issues and Versace gets the maximum benefit from this situation by modifying its marketing communication strategy. As soon as Versace started to recognize the transformation and saw the potentials of the Internet, it created new approaches to portray itself and speak to consumers via the online segment. Most of the companies started to gener ate static websites during the early phase, which became more dynamic â€Å"after the implementation of Web 2.0 in the early 21st century. With the implementation of Web 2.0 companies were not only able to present themselves, but also the establishment of two-way communication channels on the websites was technically possible† (Duncan & Moriarty, 2005, p. 11). This helped almost all luxury brands, including Versace, to respond more capably to the requirements and needs of customers. With the development of Web 2.0 the ‘so-far-inactive’ student was now capable of becoming a dynamic and processing user. The factor of consumers now being competent to develop, amend and remark on web material became commonly known as user generated content. The currently visible results of this content are blogs, YouTube, Facebook and other various platforms where users can correspond or share content with one another. Once businesses offering luxury brands realized how excited users were

Ethical Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ethical Case Study - Essay Example Although the act of Paige seems neutral since the negative consequences seem to be balanced out by the positive ones, yet analysis of the two positive and the two negative outcomes suggests that the two don’t weigh equal. The positive outcomes benefited only two people i.e. Liz and Paige whereas the negative outcomes affected a lot of people i.e. the hotel as a whole and also, the woman and her child. In addition to that, although the grant of $50 note to Paige seems to be a positive outcome for her, yet that is bribery and has negative impact not only upon the whole society but also for Paige who would be held accountable for her act in this world or/and in the world hereafter. Agreed that Liz had remained a hardworking and loyal member of the staff and deserved special treatment, but not if that had to come on the cost of others’ peace. Therefore, the negative consequences of Paige’s act outweigh the positive ones, so Paige’s action was wrong. According to the third course of action, Paige could have granted Liz access to the room, but with the condition that she would clear the room within a maximum of ten minutes as soon as the expected customer arrives. Doing this, Paige would have respected the hotel’s rules, satisfied Liz as well as the customer. So according to the utilitarian theory, Paige should have granted Liz with conditional access to the room. The theory of ethical hierarcicalism suggests that â€Å"[a]n actual person is more valuable than a potential person† (jan.ucc.nau.edu, n.d.). In light of this principle, at the time when Paige was conversing with Liz, Liz was the actual person because she was there and the woman and her child were... This essay discusses that although the act of Paige seems neutral since the negative consequences seem to be balanced out by the positive ones, yet analysis of the two positives and the two negative outcomes suggests that the two don’t weigh equal. The positive outcomes benefited only two people i.e. Liz and Paige whereas the negative outcomes affected a lot of people i.e. the hotel as a whole and also, the woman and her child.  This essay discusses that although the act of Paige seems neutral since the negative consequences seem to be balanced out by the positive ones, yet analysis of the two positives and the two negative outcomes suggests that the two don’t weigh equal. The positive outcomes benefited only two people i.e. Liz and Paige whereas the negative outcomes affected a lot of people i.e. the hotel as a whole and also, the woman and her child.  According to the third course of action, Paige could have granted Liz access to the room, but with the condition t hat she would clear the room within a maximum of ten minutes as soon as the expected customer arrives. Doing this, Paige would have respected the hotel’s rules, satisfied Liz as well as the customer. Paige should have granted Liz with conditional access to the room.   The theory of ethical hierarchicalism suggests that â€Å"an actual person is more valuable than a potential person† (jan.ucc.nau.edu, n.d.). In light of this principle, at the time when Paige was conversing with Liz, Liz was the actual person because she was there and the woman and her child were potential people as they were expected but not there. Therefore, Paige’s act of granting Liz access to the room was ethically justified. But another principle of the ethical hierarchicalism suggests that â€Å"A complete person is more valuable than an incomplete person† (jan.ucc.nau.edu, n.d.).   Concluding, the course of action that is deemed justifiable by both theories of ethics is for Paig e to grant Liz with conditional access to the room.  

What are the special developmental needs of children in public care Essay

What are the special developmental needs of children in public care Outline the role of social work in meeting these needs - Essay Example It refers to the full-time parenting of children by individuals related by blood, law, or marriage. In some contexts, it also includes care provided by â€Å"members of [a] tribe or clan, godparents, stepparents, or other adults who have a kinship blood with a child† (CWLA 1994), although these caregivers are more widely referred to as â€Å"kith†. While gaining increasing contemporary attention in social-policy circles, the practice of rearing a relative’s child is ancient and global. In early Hawaiian cultures, for example, paternal grandparents typically claimed the first-born son, and maternal grandparents the first-born daughter, as their own (Luomala 1987, p. 1-45). In many African nations, kinship care has been widely practices for decades (Hegar 1999), and in colonial America children who lost their parents to death or incapacity were typically reared by grandparents or other relatives (Trattner 1994, p. 39-49). Public-policy makers generally appreciate the role of relatives in the lives of children; without their assistance, many children might otherwise be forced into the arms of the state and/or strangers for custody and support. Yet efforts to affirm grandparent’s labors in a no-strings-attached policy environment, where parents are tacitly discouraged from raising their children, may have unwittingly contributed to the development of social trends in family patterns and unregulated care for children that is less than ideal. Instead, acknowledgement of the role grandparents play in the lives of children can be balanced by a combination of social recognition, financial support, and modest bureaucratic regulation. The more generous financial support, and the fewer obligations attached to the funding, the greater the concern that such assistance may create opportunities for and pressures on parents to move children into more economically stable environments in the homes of relatives .

Christianity Essay Example for Free

Christianity Essay Trade and merchants play a major role in Christianity and Islam from their origins to the 1500’s, and even though both had similar attributes yet differed as well. Christians and Islam both had a negative outlook, both had their religious viewpoints, as well as both changed their views towards trade. Despite this, Christianity began to open up to trade, even tolerating it, while Muslims became stricter on merchants and trade. Furthermore, Both Islam and Christianity had a negative attitudes for instance, in the Bible, Jesus preaches to his disciples how a rich man will never reach heaven. This is due to their behavior, for merchants are greedy and lying people whose only content is to get rich, which goes against Christianity’s belief. Moreover, Thomas Aquinas explains how unfair and unjust merchants are for they price their goods higher than what the product actually cost. By the tone of the document as well as how he explains trade and its problems show his dislike. Likewise Ibn Khaldun describes merchants as weak, and disgusting men and how they negatively affect the government. His tone is harsher however, which indicates his anger towards the merchants. Merchants constants rip-off of the people by selling their goods at a high price as well s giving their all their goods to those who pay more. The Islamic Court in Ankara had to deal with a case in which merchants would give all their cotton to a single person, if they pay extra high price in addition to the merchant’s high prices. Document seven contains quotes from that of the people who have complained about the merchants. Both Christianity and Islam share the same pessimistic attitude towards merchants and trade because of their behavior and how they sell their goods. Anyways, I would have like to see a document from a merchant, it would have help me better indicate if merchants were really sneaky and unfair as spoken in the documents given. Some looked to the Christianity’s and Islam’s beliefs, to determine their view on merchants and trade for both religions impacted all their followers. In the Bible, Jesus says that no rich man will ever reach heaven. The small passage comes from the bible, which heavily every Christians view. Which is also why he emphasized how the quote from the bible and how i t fit into the situation. The Muslim Qur’an also circled around honesty and truthfulness which the Muslims and Muslim merchants had to follow if they wanted to reach paradise. Thomas Aquinas who was also heavily influence by Christianity, and its bible, for he states a line out of the bible. He indicates the bible  because he knows that adding the bible would persuade many of the Christians which was his intended target audience. Reginald, a monk of Durham also says explains the life of Godric and how he became a successful merchant, only to become tired of it and soon devoted himself to God giving away all his possessions to the poor. Reginald’s attended audience was Christian followers, he also helps justify document 1 in Godric went from rich to poor in order to devote himself to god. I would have liked a document from a person not Christian or Islam because it would have allow me to understand how much both religions influence the views of its subjects. Despite the similarities Christianit y religious views seem to rather negative and stricter than the Muslims were lighter and positive. Merchants and trade in the eyes of Christianity and Islam began to change significantly overtime. Ibn Khaldun says how beneficial the merchants are to the capital, for they buy goods in one area, only to sell at a higher price in an area in demand. Which the Qur’an also depicts, however it encourages trade as long as it is fair and truthful. Yet Ibn Khaldun gives us evidence of laws which were established in order to control merchant’s behavior. In addition, document 7 shows how the Islamic court had power over merchants and could affect their behavior as well as. Unlike Islam which began to become stricter, Christianity began look towards it positively, such as, letter C of document 6 describes an order being canceled for English wool, and the consumer seemingly brings god name into it, which suggest the consumer does not think of trade conflicting with Christianity. Which letter A also identify for both letters show how the merchant’s goal is to make a profit, and they see no problem with. In conclusion, Christianity and Islam attitudes towards trade and me rchants were similar in certain aspects as, of the beginning both viewed it negatively, and on a religious level. However, both began to change their views on trade and merchants. For Christianity began approving trade, while Islam began harsher treatment towards trade and merchants.

William Blake and William Wordsworth | Comparison

William Blake and William Wordsworth | Comparison William Blake and William Wordsworth are two poets that have a few very different views on life and the world. And quite a few close similarities, particularly their writing style, as in they way express their thoughts. William Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770 in Cockermouth, Cumberland, in the Lake District. His father was John Wordsworth, an attorney. The country and beautiful landscape struck Wordsworths imagination and gave him that love of nature that he is now famous for. As a country poet he isnt used to the dark alleys of London like Blake was and rather than seeing cities as a mark on the landscape, he sees them as an addition. A thing of equal beauty This City now doth, like a garment, wear, The beauty of the morning; silent, bare. You can tell he was only visiting London as he compares it to all the natural metaphors and similies he is used to, and it is a surprise to write about cities, since most of his other poems were about nature. If he maybe had stayed a few months he would not have thought as much to it as he does in the poem, maybe because it is so different to the kind of landscape he is used to he sees it in a positive light. He visited France in 1790 and was influenced by the turmoil of the French Revolution he was also greatly affected by his brothers death in 1805. The oppressive rule of France and the chaos and bloodshed of the revolution that he witnessed hit hard on Wordsworths soft, emotional way of thinking. He had to reinvent a whole new understanding of the world and of the human mind in more solid terms. William Blake was born November 28th 1757, it is evident in his poems he had an awareness of the harsh realities of his life-In every voice, in every ban, the mind-forgd manacles I hear. Here Blake is talking about the oppression of the city of London and how the mind is chained-, which is metaphorical, but he is saying almost how the people of the city are losing their individuality. As a young boy he had a vision of seeing angels in the trees. These mystical visions returned throughout his life, leaving a mark on his poetry and outlook on life. His artistic talent was noticed by many and encouraged. At ten years old, he began engraving, he was very creative and he started his first poem 1773. Blake hated the church; he believed that the truth was learned by personal revelation, not by teaching. In the end he started to think that all religions were one and there wasnt any correct religion to follow. -Crying weep, weep in notes of woe; Where are thy father and mother, say? They are both gone up to the church to pray.- Quotes from The Chimney Sweeper this is where an innocent child having a hard life as a chimney sweep who wants to see his mother and father but has been turned away by them and the Church. Showing how evil and wrong the church is in Blakes opinion for turning away a poor boy that needs help. Wordsworths verdict after Blakes death reflected many opinions of the time: There was no doubt that this poor man was mad, but there is something in the madness of this man which interests me more than the sanity of Lord Byron and Walter Scott. Blakes style of writing was mostly pointing out a lot of negative aspects about things, relating many objects or places to political problems. In Blakes London- Blake has a very pessimistic and sad look on the city. Blake also used metaphors, similes and personification but referring to the political problems happening, as well as problems with the city- this could be not just London but all cities in Britain at the time. For example- every blackening church appalls this is not just skin deep as the church walls were actually black with pollution and dirt, but on a deeper level where he is talking about the corruption in the church. Wordsworth compares his version of London to beauty thats different from surface appearances, and he used imagery to describe Londons beauty comparing it to natural valleys, green countryside and trickling rivers and streams. For example-Never did the sun more beautifully sleep, in his first splendour valley, rock, or hill There he is being more philosophical and pensive; there is less description and more awe of the actual city. Many of his works at that time expressed the beauty of a pure nature, while Composed upon Westminster Bridge praised the way nature and civilization could coexist- how the city was just as beautiful as the countryside but in a different, deeper way. Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie, Open unto the fields, and to the sky. In many of his poems, Wordsworth begins to go more and more into his own mind, not actually looking at surface appearances but looking through that sometimes into an almost trance-like state. Of harmony, and the deep power of joy, We see into the life of things. He says that in one of his poems in Tintern Abbey. He starts this by looking at the beauty of the landscape, then his mind drifts into deeper things, like his understanding of life and the world around him; Until, the breath of this corporeal frame And even the motion of our human blood, Almost suspended, we are laid asleep, In body, and become a living soul. Blake however is quite different and is deep in a different way. But here he uses a very negative tone to help convey his point. The whole way through he continues his downbeatoppressive tone and describing everything thats wrong with London. And mark in every face I meet, Marks of weakness, marks of woe.- Commenting on how everyone in the city are the victims of an endless work, to keep the city running constantly, he describes how this is sucking out the souls of people the more they work. Blake also seems to use a downbeat negative tone to give an actual gloomy effect. He sayshow the youthful harlots curse, blasts the new-born infants tear. That line basically means that teenagers are forced into prostitution for money and how if they are impregnated without a father then that child is doomed to be the son of a prostitute. The child is born into a life of poverty and the cycle just keeps going on and on. Wordsworth- possibly because of a better upbringing, has a more positive outlook on life and can find it easy to see most things in their own kind of beauty. Unlike Blake who found it hard not to look at the landscape itself but see everything wrong with what it stood for- And the hapless soldiers sigh, Runs in blood down palace walls. From London instead of marvelling at the palace like Wordsworth would have done- he looks at it and reads between the lines- how soldiers are sent to their deaths, and how the city profits from it. In conclusion I think that Blake and Wordsworth are similar in styles on writing but believe very different things. Blake was thought mad by many but I think he just had strong thoughts coming from his own experiences. Wordsworth on the other hand was simply a very philosophical poet, in many of his poems going into a trance-like state seeing the inner beauty of things.

Character And Traits In Leadership Philosophy Essay

Character And Traits In Leadership Philosophy Essay Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people who do the right thing. Warren Bennis, Ph.D. On Becoming a Leader Building Excellence. >Leaders do not command excellence, they build excellence. Excellence is being all you can be within the bounds of doing what is right for your organization. To reach excellence you must first be a leader of good character. You must do everything you are supposed to do. Organizations will not achieve excellence by figuring out where it wants to go, then having leaders do whatever they have to in order to get the job done, and then hope their leaders acted with good character. This type of thinking is backwards. Pursuing excellence should not be confused with accomplishing a job or task. When you do planning, you do it by backwards planning. But you do not achieve excellence by backwards planning. Excellence starts with leaders of good and strong character who engage in the entire process of leadership. And the first process is being a person of honorable character. Character develops over time. Many think that much of a persons character is formed early in life. However, we do not know exactly how much or how early character develops. But, it is safe to claim that character does not change quickly. A persons observable behavior is an indication of her character. This behavior can be strong or weak, good or bad. A person with strong character shows drive, energy, determination, self-discipline, willpower, and nerve. She sees what she wants and goes after it. She attracts followers. On the other hand, a person with weak character shows none of these traits. She does not know what she wants. Her traits are disorganized, she vacillates and is inconsistent. She will attract no followers. A strong person can be good or bad. A gang leader is an example of a strong person with a bad character, while an outstanding community leader is one with both strong and good characteristics. An organization needs leaders with both strong and good characteristics, people who will guide them to the future and show that they can be trusted. To be an effective leader, your followers must have trust in you and they need to be sold on your vision. Korn-Ferry International, an executive search company, performed a survey on what organizations want from their leaders. The respondents said they wanted people who were both ethical and who convey a strong vision of the future. In any organization, a leaders actions set the pace. This behavior wins trust, loyalty, and ensures the organizations continued vitality. One of the ways to build trust is to display a good sense of character composed of beliefs, values, skills, and traits (U.S. Army Handbook, 1973): Beliefs are what we hold dear to us and are rooted deeply within us. They could be assumptions or convictions that you hold true regarding people, concepts, or things. They could be the beliefs about life, death, religion, what is good, what is bad, what is human nature, etc. Values are attitudes about the worth of people, concepts, or things. For example, you might value a good car, home, friendship, personal comfort, or relatives. Values are important as they influence a persons behavior to weigh the importance of alternatives. For example, you might value friends more than privacy, while others might be the opposite. Skills are the knowledge and abilities that a person gains throughout life. The ability to learn a new skill varies with each individual. Some skills come almost naturally, while others come only by complete devotion to study and practice. Traits are distinguishing qualities or characteristics of a person, while character is the sum total of these traits. There are hundreds of personality traits, far too many to be discussed here. Instead, we will focus on a few that are crucial for a leader. The more of these you display as a leader, the more your followers will believe and trust in you. Traits of a Good Leader Compiled by the Santa Clara University and the Tom Peters Group: Honest Display sincerity, integrity, and candor in all your actions. Deceptive behavior will not inspire trust. Competent Base your actions on reason and moral principles. Do not make decisions based on childlike emotional desires or feelings. Forward-looking Set goals and have a vision of the future. The vision must be owned throughout the organization. Effective leaders envision what they want and how to get it. They habitually pick priorities stemming from their basic values. Inspiring Display confidence in all that you do. By showing endurance in mental, physical, and spiritual stamina, you will inspire others to reach for new heights. Take charge when necessary. Intelligent Read, study, and seek challenging assignments. Fair-minded Show fair treatment to all people. Prejudice is the enemy of justice. Display empathy by being sensitive to the feelings, values, interests, and well-being of others. Broad-minded Seek out diversity. Courageous Have the perseverance to accomplish a goal, regardless of the seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Display a confident calmness when under stress. Straightforward Use sound judgment to make a good decisions at the right time. Imaginative Make timely and appropriate changes in your thinking, plans, and methods. Show creativity by thinking of new and better goals, ideas, and solutions to problems. Be innovative! Retreat Hell! Weve just got here! Attributed to several World War I Marine Corps officers, Belleau Wood, June 1918 (key ideal take a stand) Attributes Attributes establish what leaders are, and every leader needs at least three of them (U.S. Army Handbook, 1973): Standard Bearers establish the ethical framework within an organization. This demands a commitment to live and defend the climate and culture that you want to permeate your organization. What you set as an example will soon become the rule as unlike knowledge, ethical behavior is learned more by observing than by listening. And in fast moving situations, examples become certainty. Being a standard bearer creates trust and openness in your employees, who in turn, fulfill your visions. Developers help others learn through teaching, training, and coaching. This creates an exciting place to work and learn. Never miss an opportunity to teach or learn something new yourself. Coaching suggests someone who cares enough to get involved by encouraging and developing others who are less experienced. Employees who work for developers know that they can take risks, learn by making mistakes, and winning in the end. Integrators orchestrate the many activities that take place throughout an organization by providing a view of the future and the ability to obtain it. Success can only be achieved when there is a unity of effort. Integrators have a sixth sense about where problems will occur and make their presence felt during critical times. They know that their employees do their best when they are left to work within a vision-based framework. Goddamn it, you will never get the Purple Heart hiding in a foxhole! Follow me! Captain Henry P. Jim Crowe, USMC, Guadalcanal, 13 January 1943. (key words follow me, NOT go) Perspectives of Character and Traits Traits (acronym JJ did tie buckle) Justice Judgment Dependability Initiative Decisiveness Tact Integrity Enthusiasm Bearing Unselfishness Courage Knowledge Loyalty Endurance The Image of Leadership John Schoolland What kind of a leader are you going to be the kind who thinks he is the best? Or will you be one of the very few greats Who attributes success to the rest. The U.S. Armys Eleven Leadership Principles Be tactically and technically proficient Know yourself and seek self-improvement Know your soldiers and look out for their welfare Keep your soldiers informed Set the example Ensure the task is understood, supervised and accomplished Train your soldiers as a team Make sound and timely decisions Develop a sense of responsibility in your subordinates Employ your unit in accordance with its capabilities Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions Organizations consist of three components: The structure gives the organization its form and dictates the way it will interact. The followers respond to the structure and the leaders. The leaders determine the ultimate effectiveness of the organization as the character and skills that they bring determine the way problems are solved and tasks are accomplished. U.S. Army 23 Traits of Character Bearing Confidence Courage Integrity Decisiveness Justice Endurance Tact Initiative Coolness Maturity Improvement Will Assertiveness Candor Sense of humor Competence Commitment Creativity Self-discipline Humility Flexibility Empathy/Compassion Are managers leaders? Are leaders managers? Managers need to be leaders. . . their workers need vision and guidance! On the other hand, leaders need to be good managers of the resources entrusted to them. Is Character Developed Via Nature or Nurture (Ridley, 2003)? I do not believe that the nature vs. nurture debate is linear enough to put percentages on it on one side of the fence we have nature and on the other side we have nurture. And while nature (genes) certainly has its influences on us, the environment (nurture) normally determines the impact of a gene. For example, one of the classic examples for discussing genes is Konrad Lorenzs work on the imprinting that occurs in baby geese they have it within them to imprint whatever is moving near them, which is normally their mother. However, it could be anything else that is moving around them, such as a person. But no matter what they imprint on, rather it be their mother, a human, or an inanimate object, the piece of the environment that they actually imprint on is going to have a huge impact on their life. Thus genes provide the goal, but the environment provides the process. And it is what happens during the process that will determine the outcome. Piaget was probably the first person to think of children as species equipped with a characteristic mind, rather than as apprentice adults (little adults). He discovered they went through a series of five developmental stages that were always in the same order, but not always at the same rate: Sensorimotor Preoperational Concrete operations In adolescence they have Abstract Thoughts and Deductive reasoning Piagets two contemporaries, Konrad Lorenz and B. F. Skinner took up extreme positions. Lorenz as a champion of nature and Skinner as a champion of nurture. Piaget, however, dived right down the middle of this debate. He believed a genes meaning depends heavily on its context with the surrounding environment. That is, while a child goes through five stages of development (genes), it is the active engagement of the mind with the surrounding environment (nurture) that causes development. The two main forces of the environment are feedback and social interaction. From this, the child assimilates predicted experiences and accommodates it to unexpected experiences. For some time it was believed that animals grew no new neurons in the cortex of their brains upon reaching adulthood, thus their fate was basically sealed by their genetic nature. This was apparently proved by a Pasco Rakic, a neuroscientist. However, Fernando Nottebohm soon found that adult canaries made new neurons when they learn new songs. So Rakic replied that it was only adult mammals that could not grow neurons. But soon afterward, Elizabeth Gould found that rats grow new neurons. So Rakic replied primates could not. Gould next discovered that tree shrews grew new neurons. Rakic that higher primates could not grow new neurons. Gould then found them in marmosets. Rakic zeroed it down to old-world primates. Gould then discovered them in macaques. Today it is almost certain that all primates, including humans, grow new neurons in response to new experiences, and lose neurons in response to neglect. Thus, with all the determinism built into the initial wiring of our brain, experience with our surrounding environment refines and in some cases rewires that initial wiring. Nature may be our internal guide (map), but nurture is our explorer that has the final say in what we do (destination). References Ridley, M. (2003). Nature Via Nurture New York: Harper Collins. U.S. Army Handbook (1973). Military Leadership. Leadership Styles Leadership style is the manner and approach of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating people. Kurt Lewin (1939) led a group of researchers to identify different styles of leadership. This early study has been very influential and established three major leadership styles. The three major styles of leadership are (U.S. Army Handbook, 1973): Authoritarian or autocratic Participative or democratic Delegative or Free Reign Although good leaders use all three styles, with one of them normally dominant, bad leaders tend to stick with one style. Authoritarian (autocratic) I want both of you to. . . This style is used when leaders tell their employees what they want done and how they want it accomplished, without getting the advice of their followers. Some of the appropriate conditions to use it is when you have all the information to solve the problem, you are short on time, and your employees are well motivated. Some people tend to think of this style as a vehicle for yelling, using demeaning language, and leading by threats and abusing their power. This is not the authoritarian style, rather it is an abusive, unprofessional style called bossing people around. It has no place in a leaders repertoire. The authoritarian style should normally only be used on rare occasions. If you have the time and want to gain more commitment and motivation from your employees, then you should use the participative style. Participative (democratic) Lets work together to solve this. . . This style involves the leader including one or more employees in the decision making process (determining what to do and how to do it). However, the leader maintains the final decision making authority. Using this style is not a sign of weakness, rather it is a sign of strength that your employees will respect. This is normally used when you have part of the information, and your employees have other parts. Note that a leader is not expected to know everything this is why you employ knowledgeable and skillful employees. Using this style is of mutual benefit it allows them to become part of the team and allows you to make better decisions. Delegative (free reign) You two take care of the problem while I go. . . In this style, the leader allows the employees to make the decisions. However, the leader is still responsible for the decisions that are made. This is used when employees are able to analyze the situation and determine what needs to be done and how to do it. You cannot do everything! You must set priorities and delegate certain tasks. This is not a style to use so that you can blame others when things go wrong, rather this is a style to be used when you fully trust and confidence in the people below you. Do not be afraid to use it, however, use it wisely! NOTE: This is also known as laissez faire (or lais ·ser faire), which is the noninterference in the affairs of others. [French : laissez, second person pl. imperative of laisser, to let, allow + faire, to do.] Forces A good leader uses all three styles, depending on what forces are involved between the followers, the leader, and the situation. Some examples include: Using an authoritarian style on a new employee who is just learning the job. The leader is competent and a good coach. The employee is motivated to learn a new skill. The situation is a new environment for the employee. Using a participative style with a team of workers who know their job. The leader knows the problem, but does not have all the information. The employees know their jobs and want to become part of the team. Using a delegative style with a worker who knows more about the job than you. You cannot do everything and the employee needs to take ownership of her job! In addition, this allows you to be at other places, doing other things. Using all three: Telling your employees that a procedure is not working correctly and a new one must be established (authoritarian). Asking for their ideas and input on creating a new procedure (participative). Delegating tasks in order to implement the new procedure (delegative). Forces that influence the style to be used included: How much time is available. Are relationships based on respect and trust or on disrespect? Who has the information you, your employees, or both? How well your employees are trained and how well you know the task. Internal conflicts. Stress levels. Type of task. Is it structured, unstructured, complicated, or simple? Laws or established procedures such as OSHA or training plans. Positive and Negative Approaches There is a difference in ways leaders approach their employee. Positive leaders use rewards, such as education, independence, etc. to motivate employees. While negative employers emphasize penalties. While the negative approach has a place in a leaders repertoire of tools, it must be used carefully due to its high cost on the human spirit. Negative leaders act domineering and superior with people. They believe the only way to get things done is through penalties, such as loss of job, days off without pay, reprimanding employees in front of others, etc. They believe their authority is increased by frightening everyone into higher levels of productivity. Yet what always happens when this approach is used wrongly is that morale falls; which of course leads to lower productivity. Also note that most leaders do not strictly use one or another, but are somewhere on a continuum ranging from extremely positive to extremely negative. People who continuously work out of the negative are bosses while those who primarily work out of the positive are considered real leaders. Use of Consideration and Structure Two other approaches that leaders use are: Consideration (employee orientation) leaders are concerned about the human needs of their employees. They build teamwork, help employees with their problems, and provide psychological support. Structure (task orientation) leaders believe that they get results by consistently keeping people busy and urging them to produce. There is evidence that leaders who are considerate in their leadership style are higher performers and are more satisfied with their job (Schriesheim, 1982). Also notice that consideration and structure are independent of each other, thus they should not be viewed on opposite ends of a continuum. For example, a leader who becomes more considerate, does not necessarily mean that she has become less structured. See Blake and Moutons Managerial Grid as it is also based on this concept. Paternalism Paternalism has at times been equated with leadership styles. Yet most definitions of leadership normally state or imply that one of the actions within leadership is that of influencing. For example, the Army uses the following definition: Leadership is influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation while operating to accomplish the mission and improving the organization. The Army further goes on by defining influence as: a means of getting people to do what you want them to do. It is the means or method to achieve two ends: operating and improving. But there is more to influencing than simply passing along orders. The example you set is just as important as the words you speak. And you set an example good or bad with every action you take and word you utter, on or off duty. Through your words and example, you must communicate purpose, direction, and motivation. While paternalism is defined as (Webster): a system under which an authority undertakes to supply needs or regulate conduct of those under its control in matters affecting them as individuals as well as in their relationships to authority and to each other. Thus paternalism supplies needs for those under its protection or control, while leadership gets things done. The first is directed inwards, while the latter is directed outwards. Geert Hofstede (1977) studied culture within organizations. Part of his study was on the dependence relationship or Power Difference the extent to which the less powerful members of an organization expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. Hofstede gave this story to illustrate this Power Difference: The last revolution in Sweden disposed of King Gustav IV, whom they considered incompetent, and surprising invited Jean Baptise Bernadotte, a French general who served under Napoleon, to become their new King. He accepted and became King Charles XIV. Soon afterward he needed to address the Swedish Parliament. Wanting to be accepted, he tried to do the speech in their language. His broken language amused the Swedes so much that they roared with laughter. The Frenchman was so upset that he never tried to speak Swedish again. Bernadotte was a victim of culture shock never in his French upbringing and military career had he experienced subordinates who laughed at the mistakes of their superior. This story has a happy ending as he was considered very good and ruled the country as a highly respected constitutional monarch until 1844. (His descendants still occupy the Swedish throne.) Sweden differs from France in the way its society handles inequality (those in charge and the followers). To measure inequality or Power Difference, Hofstede studied three survey questions from a larger survey that both factored and carried the same weight: Frequency of employees being afraid to express disagreement with their managers. Subordinates perception of their bosss actual decision making style (paternalistic style was one choice). Subordinates preference for their bosss decision-making style (again, paternalistic style was one choice). He developed a Power Difference Index (PDI) for the 53 countries that took the survey. Their scores range from 11 to 104. The higher the number a country received, the more autocratic and/or paternalistic the leadership, which of course relates to employees being more afraid or unwilling to disagree with their bosses. While lower numbers mean a more consultative style of leadership is used, which translates to employees who are not as afraid of their bosses. For example, Malaysia has the highest PDI score, being 104, while Austria has the lowest with 11. And of course, as the story above illustrates, Sweden has a relative low score of 31, while France has a PDI of 68. The USAs is 40. Note that these scores are relative, not absolute, in that relativism affirms that one culture has no absolute criteria for judging activities of another culture as low or noble. Keeping the above in mind, it seems that some picture paternalistic behavior as almost a barbaric way of getting things accomplished. Yet, leadership is all about getting things done for the organization. And in some situations, a paternalistic style of decision-making might be required; indeed, in some cultures and individuals, it may also be expected by not only those in charge, but also the followers. That is what makes leadership styles quite interesting they basically run along the same continuum as Hofstedes PDI, ranging from paternalistic to consultative styles of decision making. This allows a wide range of individual behaviors to be dealt with, ranging from beginners to peak performers. In addition, it accounts for the fact that not everyone is the same. However, when paternalistic or autocratic styles are relied upon too much and the employees are ready and/or willing to react to a more consultative type of leadership style, then it normally becomes quite damaging to the performance of the organization.

Nuclear Fusion Essay -- physics nuclear fusion

The Industrial Revolution sparked a need for large sources of energy. Human and animal labor could not provide the power necessary to power industrial machinery, railroads, and ships. The steam engine and later the internal combustion engine provided the bulk of the energy required by the industrial age. Today most nations are still heavily reliant on energy that comes from combustion. Usually coal, petrolium, and natural gas are used. Some hydroelectric, wind power, and nuclear fission sources are used, but in the US they accounted for less than 20% of the total energy consumption in 1997 (1). Many experts are worried that natural resources such as coal and petrolium are being depleted faster than they are being replenished, which could result in an energy crisis. Nuclear fission produces highly radioactive waste that is expensive to dispose of properly. Nuclear fusion reactors would produce much less radioactive waste and would be more efficient than nuclear fission, but to date th ere have been no nuclear fusion reactors that have generated usable energy output. Why is fusion power, which could be very beneficial, so hard to come by? Nuclear fusion occurs when two atomic nuclei collide with enough energy to bind together to form one nucleus. Nuclear fusion occurs in the core of our sun, and is the source of its tremendous heat. In the sun hydrogen nuclei, single protons, fuse together and form a new nucleus. In the conversion, a small amount of mass is converted into energy. It is this energy that heats the sun. For nuclear fusion to occur, nuclei must have very high kinetic energies that will exceed the electrostatic repulsion between the nuclei. The extremely high temperature of the sun causes electrons to be stripped o... ... Power from nuclear fusion reactors would be a welcome achievement for the 21st century, and at the current rate of progress it seems likely that before the end of the new century energy will be available from nuclear fusion. It is estimated that it will take over a decade from the time a sustainable fusion reaction is achieved before fusion power will be available for use. But the attention being devoted to research is strong, the experiments are coming closer to fruition, and we are coming closer to having an almost limitless supply of energy. Bibliography 1) United States Department of Energy web site: http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/sep/us/pecg.html (Accessed 11-22-2000) 2) Fundamentals of Physics Extended: Fifth Edition. David Hanley, Robert Resnick, Jearl Walker. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc, New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto, Singapore. 1997.

The Fourth Strike :: essays research papers

The Fourth Strike In Joe Rodriguez’s article â€Å"Kids and Alcohol Don’t Mix,† Rodriguez states that the new proposed legislation introduced by Senator Dede Alpert will make it â€Å"extremely difficult to close down retailers who consistently sell booze to minors.† I completely agree with Rodriguez’s point of view because it will make it easier for retailers to continue illegally selling their products to minors by allowing a â€Å"fourth strike.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In California, the law allows the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) to take any retailers license after â€Å"three strikes† of selling alcohol to minors in three years. The new proposed law would allow one of the strikes to be taken away if the retailers train their employees to â€Å"check IDs and install electronic scanners† to read IDs and spot fakes. I feel that this new proposed law is too forgiving since it gives this unofficial â€Å"fourth strike† for retailers to continue selling alcohol to minors. According to testimony given to the California Council, Alpert claimed this bill was a â€Å"prevention bill, however, I feel this is not even close to a prevention bill at all, but an undermining of local prevention efforts to alcohol enforcement groups.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One of the enforcement groups that will be undermined by the new bill would be the Department of Alcohol Beverage Control. Prior to the proposed law, the ABC’s system consisted of under cover minors who â€Å"go into stores and try to buy booze.† Once they catch a retailer who sells them alcohol, they immediately report them to the ABC. I agree with this approach because it puts the majority of the blame on the clerks of the retailers who sell to minors. The retailers serve as the ones most responsible because they are selling to minors and in a way; they have the role of the adult to minors when it comes to selling alcohol to adolescents. During my junior year, I attended a birthday get together with a couple of my buddies. What started was a very jubilant party, then turned into a night run to the liquor store. I remember being embarrassed after my friends pulled off the alcohol run after the clerk let my friends go off with the alcohol without any hesitation. I recall thinking how irresponsible the clerk was to let a bunch of seventeen year old boys off with alcohol and the dangers that it could entail.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 2000, California legislation passed the California Alcohol Control Act.

Why Do Managers Prefer to Pay Dividend in Cash? Essay -- Business, Sto

The study makes use of the financial data on Pakistani listed firms for 2001-2008 to look at the objective behind distribution of cash dividends. Based on the analysis it is found that poorly performing firms listed on Karachi Stock Market (KSE) having larger portion of non-tradable shares pay cash dividends. Because the holders of non-tradable shares (directors and block-holders) do not/cannot realize capital gains from positive change in the price of their holdings. The study finds that cash dividend distribution behavior of the poorly-performing firms is subjected to what the directors and block-holders prefer. The result advocates the findings of Faccio, Lang and Young (2006), Chen, Fung and Leung (2007) regarding cash channeling hypothesis. Key words: non-tradable shares; cash dividends; cash channeling hypothesis 1. Introduction Dividend policy for a firm means whether to pay or not pay; whether to pay in cash, in stocks or both in cash and stocks and how frequently to pay. Why do firms distribute cash dividends when they observe a decline in their earnings? Why not stock repurchases? Why not stock dividend? To look at this research issue, the research will evaluate the cash dividend distribution behavior of firms in light of different ownership structures having trading restrictions. KSE is a developing market of the region with not a sound regulatory framework. There is a shortage of managerial talent in the firms listed on the market. So it is reasonable to say that as compare to firms listed on the developed markets of United States and Europe, the firms listed on KSE do not observe good corporate governance practices generally. Louis Cheng, Fung Leung (2004). Moreover, to protect shareholder... ...ent variables i.e., Director Ownership, Financial institutions ownership, Block-holders’ ownership to examine the relation with the dependent variable which is Cash-Dividend-to-assets. But there are some other variables that also affect the cash dividend distribution behavior of a firm. To control for that effect the study include those variables in the model. The control variables are Debt-to-Assets, Free Cash Flow per Share, Free Cash Flow to Assets, Earning per Share, Size of the firm and Return on Assets. 4. Results and Discussion 4.1 Descriptive Statistics Table 4.1 provides summary statistics of Cash Dividend to Assets, Director Ownership, Financial institutions ownership, Block-holders ownership, Free Cash flow to Assets, Earnings per Share Debt-to-Assets ratio, Return on Assets and firm size (LnAssets) of the sampled firms for the period 2001 to 2008.

Kfc Pizzahut Supply Chain

KFC/Pizza Hut makes efficiency gains with Zap Business Intelligence Businesses become more agile, responsive and performance-focused Situation There are over 120 KFC and Pizza Hut outlets in Singapore, employing about 5,000 staff. Both brands also offer Singapore-wide delivery services. In the face of rapid business growth, KFC/Pizza Hut found that their business intelligence (BI) system was unable to cope. It fared badly when meeting corporate reporting requirements, benchmarking store performance, and reducing the time and costs spent on day-to-day reporting across multiple business systems. We faced daily challenges in producing timely reports and complex analysis across our many restaurants and product lines to make informed decisions,† said Mr Tan Teng Sern, System Analyst with KFC/ Pizza Hut in Singapore. For example, day-to-day operational reporting is required to calculate the pay to daily-rated workers like delivery staff. Using the old BI system, it could take restaur ant managers hours at the end of each day to tally the number of deliveries that each rider had made, resulting in restaurant managers working overtime, and riders waiting for their payment.The system was also difficult to use and rigid in design. Work which could take up to a few days every month also went into generating reports to meet corporate requirements. The problem in generating timely reports also hindered KFC/ Pizza Hut’s ability to respond quickly to changes in the business environment. What they needed was a solution that would let them set different objectives for different departments, and monitor each department’s performance. Case Study Name: KFC & Pizza Hut Overview: KFC and Pizza Hut are major players in the local food and beverage market.Since establishing the first KFC outlet in Singapore in 1977, the chain has grown to over 120 outlets employing about 5,000 staff. KFC/Pizza Hut faced difficulties when meeting corporate reporting requirements, benc hmarking store performance, and reducing the time and costs spent on reporting across multiple business systems. Products Used: Zap Business Intelligence â€Å"Improving reporting and analysis across our restaurants and head offices offers considerable gains in efficiency and will enable our businesses to become more agile, responsive and performance-focused. Mr Tan Teng Sern System Analyst KFC/Pizza Hut Solution KFC/Pizza Hut embarked on a search for an affordable, high-performance and easy to maintain business intelligence and data warehousing solution. â€Å"We could not afford to have a data warehouse project that would take months or years to implement,† said Mr Tan. â€Å"With the scale of hundreds of users, it would have been very costly for us to adopt most of the available solutions in the market. † These requirements led KFC/Pizza Hut to Zap and its solution, Zap Business Intelligence. We chose Zap Business Intelligence because it offers powerful functionali ty and proven scalability, and yet is easy to install, maintain, and use,† said Mr Tan. The deployment aced its test with KFC/Pizza Hut when Zap was rolled out in the production environment. Here, users wanted to incorporate other data sources to complete the corporate data warehouse, including Pointof-Sale, Marketing, HR/Payroll, and Supply Chain Management. â€Å"With Zap’s help, we built the data warehouse, OLAP cubes and business analytics content for the delivery service business in 10 days.After two months of parallel run and testing, we went live with the Zap Business Intelligence in September 2009,† said Mr Tan. The Zap solution supports close to 400 users, including restaurant managers, operations managers, and back office directors. It brings together key BI capabilities including dashboards, analysis, reporting, KPIs and scorecards, all in a user-friendly web portal. â€Å"We chose Zap Business Intelligence because it offers powerful functionality and proven scalability, and yet is easy to install, maintain, and use,† Mr Tan Teng Sern System Analyst KFC/Pizza HutBenefits Zap’s Business Intelligence has resulted in many significant benefits for KFC/Pizza Hut. â€Å"Improving reporting and analysis across our restaurants and head offices offers considerable gains in efficiency and will enable our businesses to become more agile, responsive and performance-focused,† said Mr Tan. The BI system contributes to greater business agility in several ways: 1) Optimizing marketing spend: The system allows KFC/Pizza Hut to evaluate the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, enabling immediate adjustment of these campaigns to target them more effectively. ) Enabling strategic restaurant planning: By analyzing sales and demand, KFC/Pizza Hut can conduct more effective strategic planning to open the right restaurant at the right location at the right time. 3) Enhancing customer service: The system analyzes delivery punctualit y, and correlates it with parameters such as restaurant and rider, allowing management to make decisions to fine-tune operations, and improve customer service. 4) Improving sales: The analysis of point-of-sale data enables KFC/Pizza Hut to measure the effectiveness of their package deals in order to improve sales.Cost savings Mr Tan estimated that KFC/Pizza Hut will gain a return on investment from Zap Business Intelligence within 12 months, particularly in reducing the amount of staff time spent on daily reporting. The Zap solution has resulted in cost savings in several areas, including improving labor efficiency. With Zap, the time taken for restaurant managers to check reports has been reduced from 30 minutes to about five minutes, and while operation managers and administrators used to spend about an hour a day retrieving reports, this can now be done almost instantly.This has resulted in significant labor cost savings. Another cost saving measure has been reducing the reliance on IT. â€Å"Improving reporting and analysis across our restaurants and head offices offers considerable gains in efficiency and will enable our businesses to become more agile, responsive and performance-focused,† Mr Tan Teng Sern System Analyst KFC/Pizza Hut www. zaptechnology. com  © 2010 Zap Technology – v0510