Impact of superior leadership Essay

Introduction Leadership can be defined as â€Å"a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership attributes, such as beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and skills†. (A good leader offers reality check, thank you – The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area) â€Å"Leadership is concerned with intimacy, intimacy with the substance of the work and with the people you serve,† (What is Leadership?) Nowadays in the world of business, one of the most important issues that companies face is that their workforces, including executives, are incapable of wrapping their minds completely about how to think and act as a superior leader. To become a superior leader, your role in your organization should be lasting success. Besides this, superior leaders must be ambitious, hard working, broad minded, striving, caring, competent, intelligent, cooperative, loyal, dependable, supportive, forward looking, mature, self controlled and so on. Superior leadership motivates us to do more, learn more and dream more. In fact, superior leadership is an approach that unleashes your employees’ brainpower. This is due to the fact that when this brain power is completely utilized, workers and employees are motivated, innovative, creative and committed. How Good Leadership Affects Organization Obviously, we all are aware of the fact that employees are our most significant asset and the best ones are self-starter and self-motivated. Unfortunately, they are approximately only 5 to 6 percent or so naturally occurring. By using a superior leadership strategy, the management can certainly make huge number of employees highly self-motivated and self-started. And in this regard, this superior leadership strategy can be taught to newly hired and prospective managers to maintain your product quality and to provide fineness in leadership. According to Richard Hughes, R&D director for groups â€Å"Specifically, most organizations whether they are in the corporate sector or not have business strategies but have not given sufficient thought to what human capabilities are needed to implement that business strategy effectively†. (McLean, 2005) Furthermore, as a corporate leader of a firm, delivering satisfactory results to your employees, customers, organization and shareholder/investors is your responsibility. Primarily, result-based superior leadership motivates trust, energizes organizational employees and makes performance measurement easier for an organization. Nobody can deny the statement that your company’s overall performance depends upon the fact that how your management plans certain things and applies them in business activities. And with respect of this, a strategic leader should make a caring plan that gives assurance of your company’s goodwill and future business. And to achieve the aforementioned things, the management and the leaders should treat team members as partners instead of employees. In addition to this, a successful leader builds a strong communication connection inside and outside the organization, and understands your stake holders’ and investors’ mutual expectations. Moreover, in order to understand a company’s goals and objectives productively, a workforce should mutually understand and practice its strategy because of the fact that overall success of a company depends upon good leadership. A responsible team leader or manager should apply the aforementioned points. In today’s globalized world of business, many corporations are facing economic, social, political and climatic changes. Hence, a good leader is one who can cope with day to day changing political and social situations. Certainly, true leadership provides business to organizations in any circumstances whatsoever. However, the business environment can have impacts on the style of leadership â€Å"Successful leaders of change may not always be successful leaders of stability, consolidation, continuity, or thriving leaders in periods of massive disruption, such as 9/11. These different conditions require a different style of leadership, which may not necessarily be found in the existing senior management†. (emcc – Transforming organisations – the importance of leadership and culture in managing change) If a strong leadership culture is not present in any type of organization, employees do not contribute a common vision to the organization’s future and would disagree on what the most significant priorities are. In this regard, one would believe that such indicators are influenced according to an organization’s size or in other ways like in which responsibilities are distributed in an organization. In this regard, Marvin Lieberman, Lawrence Lau and Mark Williams conducted a study which is considered a most classy study in the automobile industry. These researchers estimated the productivity equation in order to ascertain the growth in both labor and capital outputs in six companies over a period of forty years. They found that â€Å"effects of top management on all of the companies except Toyota (because it had a system that made performance robust and largely independent of who occupied senior leadership positions) and that these effects were significant† (Pfeffer and Sutton, 2000) Furthermore, there is evidence that leadership results are modest because of the fact that employees who are allowed to keep and hold leadership positions are similar to each other. Practically speaking, leaders are selected for similarity in outlook and education. Consequently, in most of the organizations, leaders who appear to be successful are highly sought after and are likely to take bit positions. Another theorist described his views about leadership and its impacts on your organization as â€Å"building your superior confidence in you requires giving them your confidence. Once you and they have established in both ways, your organization may have an unbeatable competitive advantage, whatever the battlefield†. (Hinders, 2005). Generally, it has been observed that bad leadership has adverse effects on organizational performance and work output. For instance, organizations without proper project management miss milestones. Projects in such organizations cost more than the estimated amount and do not deliver the desired results. Certainly, leadership plays a tremendous role in every aspect of the organization. For example, most of the US financial companies systematically hired the best world talent regardless of the market size and shifted these leaders through every critical and non critical aspect of its operation. Because of the leadership fact, human assets pay off handsomely in today’s global world of business. And in this regard, the world’s best economists also weigh the fact that in today’s business world, it is very difficult to run your business operations economically without having a good leader who has the ability to cope with different problems and solve problems economically and excel among business competitors. Tsun-yan Hsieh and Sara Yik, in an article while emphasizing the leadership importance for an organization stated that, â€Å"â€Å"what do we mean by â€Å"leadership†? Whereas good managers deliver predictable results as promised, as well as occasional incremental improvements, leaders generate breakthroughs in performance. They create something that wasn’t there before by launching a new product, by entering a new market, or by more quickly attaining better operational performance at lower cost, for example. A company’s leadership reaches well beyond a few good men and women at the top. It typically includes the 3 to 5 percent of employees throughout the organization who can deliver breakthroughs in performance†. (Hsieh and Yik).

Interpreter of Maladies Essay

Throughout life, people are faced with many obstacles, but one of the main things for people to do is adapt to the obstacles and learn how to move through and around them. Individuals have to change in order to adapt to the life around them, but there are times when it is too difficult for some to change. Some may experience immense trauma and find it difficult to move on from things whilst others find it hard to come to terms with new life. No matter what people are forced to do things that they may not want to do, but they have to choose whether to adapt to these changes, or suffer the consequences. Being able to adapt in life is an important skill as people are faced with having to change daily. However, some individuals do not have the skills required to adapt, or they have been through traumatic experiences that inhibit that ability to adapt. Shoba and Shukumar in the story â€Å"A Temporary Matter† are faced with a horrific ordeal which forces them to adapt to new life, this however, does not turn out the way they had planned and they eventually split up from not being able to fully adapt and accept the changes â€Å"they’d been through enough† and Shoba â€Å"needed some time alone†, their relationship eventually dissolves. A similar thing happened to Mrs Sen in â€Å"Mrs Sen’s. † She was forced to adapt to a new country and learn their way of life, this although, proves to be too difficult for Mrs Sen as she was unable to successfully learn how to drive â€Å"I hate it. I hate driving. I won’t go on. † Mrs Sen just ends up frustrated and defeated. Her main challenge was her inability to adapt to a new culture as she was living in her past, constantly trying to mix the two cultures together. This turns out unsuccessful as well as she finds people in her new home, treat her as if she was strange, â€Å"an old woman on the bus kept watching them† the people around Mrs Sen felt uncomfortable at times which made it even more difficult for Mrs Sen to adapt and change to the new community and life around her. Mrs Sen chooses to retreat into her past, something that she is comfortable and familiar with, â€Å"she pulled the blade out of the cupboard, spread newspapers across the carpet, and inspected her treasures. † The fish to her is safe and brings her back to ‘better times’ in her life, when she was happy. In some ways, people are better at some things than others, adaptability is one. In â€Å"This Blessed House† Sanjeev had to adapt to the situation he was faced with; either taking away the religious icons and upsetting his wife, or putting up with them, just so he could please her. Although Sanjeev was able to accept Twinkles fascination with the icons in the end and let her indulge herself with keeping them around the house â€Å"for the rest of their days together she would keep it on the mantel†, he had a hard time coming to terms with it. People tend to struggle with new challenges, but some are able to overcome that struggle, such as Sanjeev. This idea is also borne out by â€Å"The Third and Final Continent† as the narrator in the story struggles with the changes in his life when he first moves, but he eventually learns a routine and adapts choosing to use the same pattern over and over again as it becomes safe and familiar, he ate â€Å"cornflakes and milk, morning and night† which was easy for him. When moving into Mrs Croft’s house, he had to adapt again, learning her environment and how things worked in her house, â€Å"fasten the chain and firmly press that button on the knob! This is the first thing you will do when you enter. † He not only had to adapt to his external environment but his internal environment as well. Mrs Croft would always expect the same from him whenever they spoke, always waiting for him to respond with â€Å"Splendid! † after her remarks. An ongoing quality for the narrator in â€Å"The Third and Final Continent† is that he had to adapt to many things, including an arranged marriage. He had to adapt to a new person coming into his life and living with him for the rest of his life. This was substantiated to be difficult at first, but soon grew on him â€Å"for the first time, we looked at each other and smiled†, he welcomed her company in the end and truly loved her. If he was unable to adapt, this would not be the case. In a similar way, Miranda had many obstacles to adapt to as well. She was challenged when starting a relationship with Dev, as she had never had a physical relationship with a married man before. She struggles with this for a little while when his wife comes back, as it seems wrong when then wife is home, but she learns to adapt to not being able to go out with Dev and only being able to stay inside with him from fear of his wife seeing them. But, in the end Miranda had to adapt to a life without Dev. We are left with the thought that she is ble to move on and change into a better person as she â€Å"walked past the restaurants where Dev had kissed her,† and gazed at the â€Å"clear-blue sky,† proving to us the she has moved on from a life with Dev. In most people’s realities, they are able to pick themselves up and adapt to new changes, but there are also those rare people who struggle to do just that and it is too difficult to try and change. These people are forced to deal with other challenges in their life that they will e ventually learn to overcome. In Lahiri’s stories, she shows us that in order to succeed individuals need to be adaptable.

How Did the Gasoline Shortage of the Era Differ from the Energy Crisis of Our Time

In 1973, the United States was placed under an OPEC embargo for political reasons. Middle Eastern members of OPEC wished to protest American involvement in an ongoing conflict with Israel, and these nations struck the United States where it hurt, depriving them of oil in 1973 and again in 1977. About 60 percent of the oil that Americans consumed in the 1970s was produced at home, and large reserves remained under native ground. But vast quantities of crude were imported, and in October 1973, Americans discovered how little control they had over the 40 percent of their oil that came from abroad. 810) Since 2003, a rise in prices caused by continued global increases in petroleum demand together with production stagnation, the falling value of the U. S. dollar, and a numerous of other lesser causes. Fortunately, today we haven’t seen the fuel rationing of the 1970’s. â€Å"We remember when the phrase ‘sound as a dollar’ was an expression of absolute dependabi lity, until†¦ inflation began to shrink our dollar and our savings. We believed that our Nation's resources were limitless until†¦ we had to face a growing dependence on foreign oil,† Jimmy Carter, 1979. In his â€Å"Malaise Speech,† President Carter described American disappointment with government and a â€Å"crisis of confidence† in the ability of the nation’s leaders to work together to build a stronger America. You only have to open the newspaper today to note a comparable type of malaise caused by the overall perception that government is either unwilling or incapable of helping its people. In households across America, the term politician has become synonymous with power, self- interest, and ineffectiveness.

Concepts of leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Concepts of leadership - Essay Example Management, on the other hand, is a delegated authority. Managers are given formal roles by other people. In essence, they represent the interests of others. Management roles have goals that act as performance indicators. Managers have specific duties and roles such as planning, organizing and making decisions. Nursing managers have roles such as administration, financial management, and personnel management to meet the health objectives. In essence, management roles require managers to act in the best interest of the organization they lead. Leadership and management roles overlap in several aspects. Overlapping is especially common for nurses who fit to be both leaders and managers. Both leaders and managers try to strike a balance between the needs of the institution, patients and other employees. Thus, both leadership and management require critical skills such as interpersonal skills, critical thinking and coping. Such skills are essential in ensuring success. As a nurse leader, I would take advantage of the overlap to influence the welfare of nurses by seeking a management role. Leaders are influential especially if they have the management

Movie Review of Revolution Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Of Revolution - Movie Review Example The film focuses on their battles and struggles in this war over the next several years such as the Battle of Brooklyn Heights. During the course of the film, Dobbs son is both sheltered by the local Indians as well as captured by the British, only to be rescued by his father. Donald Sutherland appears as Sergeant Major Peasy, a harsh archetype of a British soldier. During his travels Dobbs meets and falls in love with Daisy McConnahay, played by Nastassja Kinski. Daisy comes from a wealthy Torry family, yet she rejects the hypocrisy of the status quo in favor of the revolutionary cause. Along his journey, Tom Dobbs appears at Valley Forge as well as The Battle of Yorktown and its subsequent surrender, which concludes the movie. Revolution creates the character of Tom Dobbs as a microcosm for the real American colonists that were forced by circumstance to fight against British rule. While his character is fictional, the battles he encounters actually were waged. The Battle of Brooklyn christened the Declaration of Independence, and it did result in both the occupation of New York by the British Army for the entire war along with the execution of Nathan Hale (Gallager 1995). Of course, odds are that an individual soldier would have never actually experienced as many significant battles as Tom Dobbs; however, it is his travels that allow the audience the scope of these battles. Furthermore, the film does include the Huron and Iroquois tribes presenting the Indian presence of New York as both friend and foe. Even though the two tribes were enemies, and even though colonists had alliances with the Huron, it is interesting to note that the Hurons also sided with the British during the revolutionary war (www.tola tsga.org). Still by making a fur trapper the protagonist, the film takes on a specific reality, the reality of the common man that fought the Revolutionary War. Other war movies about other wars often focus on the plight of the common man such as Saving Private Ryan. But Revolutionary War movies are unique in that they almost always focus on the reality of a Washington, Adams, or Jefferson. Maybe this is because the reality of the time was that for the most part only wealthy educated individuals documented their experiences. There is in fact a scene in which Tom Dobbs cannot read a list of names in his quest to find Daisy. Thus, the reality was that the majority of the individuals responsible for battling the British were exactly common men, just like the character of Tom Dobbs. The settings in Revolution are a mixed blessing. Sometimes the shots of the English countryside stand in well for the forests of 18th century America. Other times, especially with some of the scenes shot in Norway, the foreign coastline indeed appears foreign and unlike the East Coast of the United States. Nevertheless, some scenes do ring true such as the shot of the British Army staking out their claim of superiority through the use of tents on a hillside only to see their stake washed away by the reality of a morning downpour. The costumes in the movie also seem to reflect quite an attention to detail, especially in the opening scenes of the 18th Century New York citizenry as well as the uniforms

Computer Supplies for Estate Agents Firm Assignment

Computer Supplies for Estate Agents Firm - Assignment Example Price: 329.98 Celeron D 351J 3.2Ghz Micro Tower casewith front USB/audio (desktop case available on request) Intel D945GCCR motherboard (with on board sound / LAN / video) 512mb PC3200 400MHz DDR2 RAM 80gb Serial ATA2 7200rpm hard disk 52x CD-RW / 16x DVD-ROM combo drive Microsoft Intellipoint mouse Windows PS/2 keyboard Windows XP Home 17" LCD monitor Unit Price: 485.00 Required Units: 4 Sub-total: 1,940.00 Intel Celeron D 356 Processor 3.33GHz, 533MHz FSB, 512MB Cache Genuine MS Windows Vista Basic 512MB DDR RAM 160GB Hard Disk Multi-Format Dual Layer DVD RW Drive Integrated Graphics 6 USB Connections 2 PCI Slot 15" TFT Monitor Unit Price: 329.98 Required Units: 4 Sub-total: 1,319.92 For additional details about the packages, visit the respective links: For Package A: http://www.inf.aber.ac.uk/micros/trading/pentium.asp For Package B: http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jspBV_SessionID=@@@@1763325705.1177871206@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccekaddkkjihglfcflgceggdhhmdgmj.0&page=Product&sku=090877&tabIndex=1 B. 3 Notebook/Laptop (Sales Agents) For the sales agents, laptops provide them portable and handy officemate which they can use to load up their photos. Below are two notebook packages that suite the needs of the sales agents: OPTION A PACKAGE HP 510 Notebook Price: 299.94 OPTION B PACKAGE Aspire 3692WLMi Notebook Price: 367.67 HP (Hewlett-Packard) Processor - Intel Mobile Celeron (1.4 GHz )Processor Screen size 15.4" Memory 512 MB Operating System - Microsoft Windows XP DVD+-RW Dual Layer Combination Drive Ethernet (10/100 Mbps), Wireless Ethernet - 11 Mbps IEEE802.11b, Wireless Ethernet - 54 Mbps IEEE802.11g Video Card - Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 Hard disk Capacity - 60GB Unit Price: 299.94 Required Units: 3 Sub-total:...But prior of showing your firm the appropriate tools, the table below is a brief summary of your requirements: As the table shows there are 7 personnel to provide their needs which mean 7 computers (desktops and notebooks) will be provided and additional to it is a web server for the firm's database and website facilities. With the given budget of 30,000.00, our company provides you with the following options below based on your requirements. Note that all prices are VAT inclusive. Since the Managing Director and the 3 Administrative Staff shares some similar tasks in the firm, same Desktop PC units' specification can be applied for both. As provided below, our company provides you with two options to choose. Both works properly and meets the firm's needs but the preferable packages is option B since it is not only cheaper but the speed is higher and the capacity of hard disk space is bigger compared to package A. Package B: http://www.acer.co.uk/acereuro/page4.dosp=page3&dau22.oid=19899&UserCtxParam=0&GroupCtxParam=0&dctx1=17&CountryISOCtxParam=UK&LanguageISOCtxParam=en&ctx3=-1&ctx4=United+Kingdom&crc=4238085392 Printer is an important tool in every office in providing print-out reports, documents, forms, and images. Below is the suggested model and unit for a coloured printer required by the firm.

Foreign direct investment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Foreign direct investment - Essay Example Foreign direct investment refers to a direct investment into production or business within a country by an entity in another country, either by purchasing a company within a target country, or by broadening operations of a present business within that country. The reasons that may make exporting unfeasible include cheaper producing abroad, reducing transportation costs, lack of domestic capacity such as when demand exceeds the capacity, the need to alter products and services, trade restrictions, and country of origin effects (OECD 57). There are three critical reasons for entities to seek a controlling interest; internalization theory (self-handling of operations), appropriation theory (denying rivals or potential rivals access to resources such as trademarks, capital, patents, and management know-how), and freedom to seek global objectives (participate in global or transnational strategy) (Nicholls 42). Reasons for buying existing operations entail avoiding start-up problems, getti ng an immediate cash flow instead of tying up capital, and gaining easier financing. Overall, the motives for collaborative arrangements entail to spread and reduce costs, specialize within distinct competencies, avoiding or counter competition, learning from other companies (gain knowledge), and securing vertical and/or horizontal linkages. The international motives for undertaking collaborative arrangements encompass aspects such as gaining location-specific assets, diversifying geographically, overcoming governmental constraints, and minimizing exposure in risky environments (Nicholls 44). Companies utilize equity and non-equity arrangements that can range from wholly owned subsidiaries, equity alliances, licensing, franchising, management contracts, turnkey operations, and joint ventures. Foreign direct investment is perceived as a means of enhancing the efficiency with which the world’s scarce resources are employed. Foreign direct investment

The Impact of Cosmetic Brands towards Female Consumers Perception and Literature review

The Impact of Cosmetic Brands towards Female Consumers Perception and Behaviour - Literature review Example will be discussed in the study, the country and the world at large has undergone rapid modernization and growth with women becoming more involved in society, as well as an increasingly powerful movement among the younger women towards the sue of cosmetics in coping with cultural and social changes. These trends tend to put more emphasis on female appearance, particularly among educated women, which informs the choice of respondents between the ages of eighteen and forty (Chorlton,1988). The research study will also seek to enrich current literature, while also providing additional information about women in UK society to the cosmetics sector and other retailing sectors, as well. The information produced by this study should be of value to marketers in the identification of opportunities, which will ensure improved resource-use efficiency, especially in relation to the perceptions and buying behavior of consumers, such as selling and promotional efforts, product features, consumer targeting, and market segmentation. On this basis, this research paper will seek to pursue several objectives: The strategy used by brands that are well known in introducing product categories to the market can be referred to as brand extension attitude (TusÃŒÅ'kej & Podnar ,2010). Many companies use the strategy as a way of strengthening their brand equity and making it more influential. According to Alav & Zeynali (2013), an effective strategy for brand extension should strengthen the image and name of its parent brand. Brand extension also influences the consumer’s perceptions and attitudes favorable towards the extended brand (Sundaram & Webster ,2009). According to Berger (2011), a successful brand image will enhance the consumer’s ability to identify needs that can be satisfied by the brand, while also differentiating it from competitors and improving the probability of the consumer purchasing the product. By maintaining a favorable brand image, companies and their products, will

Explain and evaluate the significance of the IAASB clarity project for Essay

Explain and evaluate the significance of the IAASB clarity project for UK audits - Essay Example As a result, any case of bankruptcy of corporations whose financial accounts were audited; would directly or indirectly point out the role and possible and probable contribution of auditors. Since the fall of Enron, WorldCom and the most recent global financial crisis, the role and practices of auditors have come under more scrutiny than ever before. And these scandals and termed as ‘audit failures’, defined as an event in which the auditor fails either to implement generally accepted accounting principles or to issue qualified report.( Francis, 2004). But, previous research suggests that audit failures result in the impairment of auditor reputation, as witnesses by a loss in market share (Firth, 1990; Wison and Grimlund, 1990; weber et al.2008), also lower audit fees (Davis and Simon, 1992). The recently emerged financial conditions have put more pressure on the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) to revisit some of the basic International Stand ards on Auditing (ISAs). Undoubtedly, the use and need of these international auditing standards is never more needed and felt than this time. In the current economic and financial global circumstances, the need and significance is timely understood and realised by the IAASB. In collaboration with other international professional auditing, accounting and other professional bodies, the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board began its working on the clarity project in the year of 2006 (Smith, 2010). This clarity project is designed and established to reduce the ambiguity in some of the standards on the auditing, and it is designed to enhance clarity on some of the standards. Additionally, another significant aim of this clarity project is introduced to enhancing understandability on some of the auditing standards. The new clarified audit related standards came into force in the UK and in Ireland for the purpose of audit of financial statements for period ending on or aft er the date of 15 December 2010, But, before going to explain and evaluate this clarity project for UK, it is vitally important to understand the main objectives behind the establishment of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board. Background of International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board The IAASB is established to develop auditing and assurance standards

Business goverance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Business goverance - Essay Example The BLM wants to charge the DBD $3 million in case the DBD does not reclaim the land when it has done drilling. In this case, a problem between the two arises. In understanding the situation at hand, we must look carefully at what a principal – agent problem is. The principal – agent problem occurs when a situation arises that motivates an agent to represent the principal in dealing with a particular situation. The BLM may be unable to meet the cost of drilling or may be too involve to drill the oil (Winch 2010, 28). This makes them delegate the whole drilling to another company. DBD, on the other hand, may be specialized in the drilling of oil and they may be the best person who can drill this. In leasing the land by BLM to DBD the company stands to gain more than it can lose as the cost of drilling and maintenance will be passed on to DBD. Nevertheless, a problem arises where they are not sure whether DBD will reclaim the land after it is done with drilling or not. It, therefore, wants to charge DBD $3 million as money for reclaiming the land which if they do not they will spend $3 million to do it whereas DBD will spend $2 million for the reclamation of the land. The total cost of leasing the land to DBD is $5 million so they are afraid if they do not charge the $3 million, they would only make a profit of $2 million shillings. This is a business and its principle objective is to make maximum profits. In principal – agent delegation many advantages are drawn. These include improved decision-making and the efficiency of these decisions. Decisions are wholly passed to the agent who takes the problems as their own and works to towards finding viable decisions. This means that the principal only wants a particular payoff but the rest is left to the agent. In the example of BLM and DBD, the BLM can be likened to a Landlord and the DBD as a tenant. The property owner will lease the land to the tenant and pass all that concerns to it to the tenant

Research Methods Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Methods - Research Proposal Example The points and techniques that such data use to analyze research data are expounded in a manner to capture the essence. Data analysis refers to the assessment of data or information using methods that will establish the trends, relationships, and patterns, which can be initiated in the data. Hence, it involves subjecting data to statistical procedures to create relationships that exist between variables. There are two types of data, quantitative Data that requires collected information that can be interpreted into numbers and qualitative data. The composition includes opinions, quotes, and descriptions that are collected. Data analysis helps to identify if there was any substantial change in the variables that are dependent and can bring about power in the data. Data analysis can also reveal factors that produce changes in the variables that are dependent. It also establishes the power that exists among different conditions, which affect the evaluation results. The analysis of data of the organization is associated with some limitations. Most of the results evaluated only experiment a sample of the group, so it does not fully embody the organization as a whole. When statistics is misused, it leads to substantial errors that can bring about devastating decision making in an organization. On the other hand, techniques applied correctly, the interpretation of the results may be difficult to an organization that has no expertise. The significance statistical data of a trend computes the level in which the trend could be influenced by variations in the random sample might not be in agreement with its significance. In addition, experts may interpret data that only favors an organization exempting out data that could be useful for future use. Data coding refers to a systematic method to reduce large sets of data into smaller units that can be analyzed by designing categories and derivative concepts from the data. Coding will be developed when testing

Descriptive Essay Example for Free

Descriptive Essay Time The living room, or family room, is generally considered the main gathering area in most homes due to the television being located there. However, this is not the case in the more than one hundred year old, light grey, two story home in which I live. The main attraction of this particular living room is the comforting atmosphere and warm fires that take place in the wood-burning fireplace. Upon entering the living room, the golden honey colored hardwood floor creaks underfoot and the fireplace stands out from the roughly textured, earthy green walls that rise up to the textured white ceiling. The long narrow boards that make up the beautifully maintained hardwood floor run lengthwise making this room look even bigger than it actually is. The textured ceiling was done in multi-directional, sweeping, fan patterns that resemble seashells. Hanging in the center of the room is a fifty-two inch brass-trimmed ceiling fan with five dark wood colored blades. Below the fan blades are three frosted glass, bell shaped covers which shade the light bulbs. The massive, seven foot wide, brick fireplace juts outward from the wall as if in attempt to invade the room. Leading to, and as wide as, the fireplace are three rows of eight inch square, red brick colored tiles set into the hardwood floor. The dark brownish red bricks that form the fireplace surround are staggered uniformly, rising five feet high to the white painted wood mantle. The jet black mortar that fills the void between each brick and each tile ties them together. The opening, or firebox, is fitted with a brass frame that holds a pair of glass bi-fold doors. In front of the fireplace doors is a freestanding, flat black painted, tri-fold, wire mesh screen protecting the floor from the popping embers of a hot burning fire on those cold winter nights. To the right of the wire mesh screen are the tools used for tending to the fire and cleaning out the fireplace. They are black wrought iron and hang on a metal rack that matches the screen in front of the fireplace. On the mantle above the fireplace are two matching, and evenly spaced, square ‘infinity’ candle holders, as well as a glass, cone shaped reed diffuser. The candles above the fireplace give off an illuminating glow creating dancing shadows on the wall and ceiling in the evening hours, adding to the natural warmth of the room. The reed diffuser has bright red apple scented oil in it that can be smelled halfway across the room. One of the most interesting things in the room is also on the mantle and that is a nearly rocket shaped, fourteen inch tall by two inch diameter glass Galileo thermometer. Against the wall to the left of the fireplace is the large, grey trimmed, fifty inch screen television which resides atop a five foot long by two foot tall wood stand. The television and stand sits with its back to the front windows of the house that look out to the heavily trafficked Campbell Street that leads into town. On the front of the dark honey colored stand are two oak trimmed glass doors, that neatly frame the open center section, dividing it into thirds. The open middle area holds the black dvr and a dull silver colored surround sound system. On display behind the glass doors, on either side of the electronics, are several video games and movies standing as soldiers in formation. Hanging behind the television are a set of long sheer white curtains that shadow the matching white blinds. The standard horizontal blinds are recess mounted between the wide, off white painted window trim that wraps around the windows. The bright white trimmed, four year old, double pane windows take up about two-thirds of the wall, allowing an abundance of sunlight to come flowing in during the early daytime hours when the blinds are open. On both sides of the windows hanging on the wall, in plain dark wood frames, are family photos that captured happy and joyful times that often bring about stories that surround those times and people. The most favored seating area and best viewpoint for the television and entertainment stand is directly across the room against the opposing wall. This is where the large, three cushioned, cream-colored, smooth and soft feeling micro-fiber couch sits. This thing really looks like it means business when it comes to comfort and relaxation. The overstuffed cushions sink just enough to make accidental napping very easy. The padding in the outward arching arms have the feel of memory foam, soft enough to not reach for a pillow when lying down after a long day at the office or at school. Holding the couch about three inches above the floor are four, black, square, plain looking feet. On each side of the couch, tucked against the wall are a pair of small, somewhat ordinary, dark stained, wooden end tables. Further complimenting the space on the end tables, are a few decorative candles in tall holders. Also on the table to the right side of the couch is a bouquet of brightly colored silk flowers in a short, square, clear glass vase. All of the things in this particular living room are only a part of what makes this house feel like home. It is an area where stories are told, laughter is heard, entertainment is had, and cozy fires are enjoyed by friends and family. The living room is not just another room in the house, it is a place where memories are made.

Issues Involved in Strategic Planning

Issues Involved in Strategic Planning They are stated in precise terms as quantitatively as possible. The emphasis on goals is on measurement of progress toward the attainment of objectives. Goals have the following structures they: 1. Are resulting from objects, 2. Offer a normal for measuring presentation, 3. Are articulated in concrete terms, 4. Are time-bound and work-oriented. Advantages and Disadvantages: It helps organizations do to satisfy a particular need of the society or to fulfill a particular deficiency in the society. There is always a deadline which sometimes is never meant by organizations. Review the issues involved in strategic planning: Businesses that succeed do so by creating and keeping customers. They do this by providing better value for the customer than the competition. Marketing management constantly has to assess which customers they are trying to reach and how they can design products and services that provide better value (competitive advantage). The main problem with this process is that the environment in which businesses operate is constantly changing. So a business must adapt to reflect changes in the environment and make decisions about how to change the marketing mix in order to succeed. This process of adapting and decision-making is known as marketing planning. Where does marketing planning fit in with the overall strategic planning of a business? Strategic planning is concerned about the overall direction of the business. It is concerned with marketing, of course. But it also involves decision-making about production and operations, finance, human resource management and other business issues. The objective of a strategic plan is to set the direction of a business and create its shape so that the products and services it provides meet the overall business objectives. Marketing has a key role to play in strategic planning, because it is the job of marketing management to understand and manage the links between the business and the environment. Sometimes this is quite a straightforward task. For example, in many small businesses there is only one geographical market and a limited number of products (perhaps only one product!). However, consider the challenge faced by marketing management in a multinational business, with hundreds of business units located around the globe, producing a wide range of products. How can such management keep control of marketing decision-making in such a complex situation? This calls for well-organized marketing planning. What are the key issues that should be addressed in strategic and marketing planning? The following questions lie at the heart of any marketing and strategic planning process: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Where are we now? à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ How did we get there? à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Where are we heading? à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Where would we like to be? à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ How do we get there? à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Are we on course? Why is marketing planning essential? Businesses operate in hostile and increasingly complex environment. The ability of a business to achieve profitable sales is impacted by dozens of environmental factors, many of which are interconnected. It makes sense to try to bring some order to this chaos by understanding the commercial environment and bringing some strategic sense to the process of marketing products and services. A marketing plan is useful to many people in a business. It can help to: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Identify sources of competitive advantage à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Gain commitment to a strategy à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Get resources needed to invest in and build the business à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Inform stakeholders in the business à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Set objectives and strategies à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Measure performance Advantages and Disadvantages: Market planning delivers a means for actively involving personnel from all areas of the business in the management of the company and this participation improves the quality of the plans, with the participation of the staffs it enhances their overall understanding of the companys objectives and goal. One of the disadvantages is costly to implement. Explain different planning techniques: Planning is a critical business responsibility that is often overlooked, particularly by smaller companies with limited time and personnel resources. However, the reason for this oversight is often the result of managements lack of planning techniques. Learning useful planning methods and factors eliminates this knowledge gap. Business planning is just as critical as having a map when traveling to an unfamiliar location. Without it you may never reach your destination. Primary Planning Types Business planning types come in various flavors depending on the company size and industry. However, there are three basic plans that apply to all businesses, large or small. Business, strategic and marketing plans are important to every for-profit and nonprofit organization. Understanding the goals and components of each offers businesses the tools to create effective plans using the most basic or sophisticated techniques. Business Plans Typically used for starting up or financing a company, business plans are the cornerstone of the planning function. Components of a business plan include an executive summary, market analysis, product/service descriptions and financial/operations projections for a minimum of three to five years. In start-up situations that need initial financing, creators should paint a vivid, yet conservative, picture of the founders and the rationale for believing the business will succeed. When seeking growth-financing, management should highlight past company performance and carefully project the impact of the new funding on improving net income. Always include debt service, which is the amount needed to repay the new loan, in income and expense projections. Strategic Plan Strategic plans should be created by business owners and/or senior management only. Unlike business plans, which are based on historical data and future projections, strategic plans are more conceptual. These plans should include defining your organizational goals, identifying your available options to achieve your objectives and considering new short-term opportunities you believe will exist to improve your businesss results. You may want to incorporate specific industry trends into your planned strategy. Strategic plans are not long-term creations, but should address taking advantage of available opportunities in the next 12 to 24 months. Marketing Plans All the fabulous business and strategic plans ever devised will fail if you dont market and sell your product or service. A solid marketing plan will help you achieve gross income and sales goals. A SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis is an effective technique for creating a winning marketing plan. SWOT is also useful in strategic plan creation as a foundation technique. You can also combine a SWOT analysis with the four Ps product, price, publicity, and place of effective marketing. Even if you have invented the better mousetrap, you need a superior marketing plan to get results. These techniques will give you the ammunition you need. SWOT analysis and marketing A vital part of the planning process is looking at the existing position of an industry and trying to decide how factors external to the business may affect the business. An organization can perform a SWOT analysis as a way of deciding which marketing plan to use. The organization performs an audit on the internal and external nature of the company looking at the current and future situation. An audit is a review of all the company s activities. Strengths Reviews the business current strengths such as a good brand or strong sales performance Can develop the strengths, perhaps in the way they promote the product, or wish to develop new products (Tesco have used their strong brand name to launch several products) Weaknesses Reviews the business current weaknesses such poor response times to requests for information or late deliveries Can implement strategies to eradicate these weaknesses e.g. more resources put into a better warehousing system for the dispatch of goods. External Opportunities Reviews the business future opportunities e.g. new technology making it easier to manufacturer certain goods or new markets abroad Can use strategies to take advantage of the potential opportunities e.g. developing new products to meet the potential increased demand Threats Reviews the business future threats, mostly from increased competition from other firms or from changes in the economic situation. Can employ strategies to ward off these problems, e.g. setting lower prices or increasing promotion Rational about the use of a SWOT analysis in measuring the influence of marketing to a business strategy; Possible strengths in marketing might be: Specialist marketing expertise An innovative product or service The location of the business convenient for customers The reputation of the brand perhaps it is trusted or recognized as the highest quality Likely weaknesses in marketing could include: Lack of a clear product differentiation compared with competing products Weak distribution compared with competitors Inadequate online presence Potential marketing opportunities could include: The use of technology to develop new products Growing demand from overseas markets (e.g. China India) The use of social media like Facebook and Twitter to reach new customers A list of likely marketing threats might include: Competitors introducing better products at lower prices Changes in the economic environment which encourage customers to be less loyal to established brands Changes in customer tastes and fashions Universal Techniques To make business planning come alive and succeed there are three simple practices that must be always be employed. First, set realistic, measurable goals. Second, understand and communicate with your customer base. Third, attract and retain the best employees your company can afford. Without these three components, your business planning, however sophisticated, risks failure on a massive scale. Using these three simple techniques, your business plans should deliver the results you want. SPACE, PIMS. PIMS data can be described as a guide to help management describe the business a business situation and opportunity relative to the offerings of its competitors in two-dimensional space. TASK 2 BE ABLE TO FORMULATE A NEW STRATEGY Produce an organizational audit for a given organization Tesco Marketing Audit: The marketing audit is a fundamental part of the marketing planning process. It is conducted not only at the beginning of the process but also during and after the process completion. Marketing audit not only consider its own plan but also considers internal and external factor that affects marketing planning. Some important tools used by marketing audit are SWOT for internal and external environment where as PESTLE and Five Forces Analysis which focus only on the external environment. It can be viewed as an umbrella that covers efforts to assess customer needs and wants and to understand community patterns. The external environment is reviewed at micro and macro level. Definition: The marketing Audit has been defined by Phillip Kotler strategic market auditing (1977) as a comprehensive, systematic, independent and periodic examination activities and resources in order to determine problem areas and opportunities and to recommend a plan of action. As per the definition: Marketing Audit is Comprehensive, systematic, independent and periodic features. In simple word marketing audit is the complete review of the environment that includes both internal and external environments of any organization. The marketing audit follows the following areas as components of marketing audit:  · Environmental Audit which includes Macro Environmental Audit and Micro Environmental Audit.  · Marketing Strategy Audit  · Marketing Organization Audit  · Marketing System Audit  · Marketing Productivity Audit  · Marketing Function Audit Processes and techniques used for auditing the marketing auditing environment follows simple three steps are: a) Agreement on objectives, scope and approach: Marketing auditor must prepare for the marketing audit by holding discussion with the CEO and the executive staff and briefly reviewing some financial and marketing data. Often objectives are discussed in the meeting such as determine how the market views the company and its competitors, recommending a pricing policy, determining sale activity. The audit would cover the marketing operations of the company as a whole. b) Data collection: More time is spent on the gathering data. More auditors are involved when the project is large. Auditor has to spent time in deciding what question to be asked, who will be interviewed and so on so forth. Daily reports of the interviews are to be written up and reviewed. c) Report preparation and presentation: When the data gathering is over, auditor prepares notes for a visual and verbal presentation to the company officer. Techniques used for auditing the marketing environments are as follows. 1) SWOT Analysis: It is one of the most important tools of marketing audit. It helps a lot of help to the marketers and is used at the beginning of the marketing audit process. It has advantages as well as drawbacks. Some of the drawbacks are subjective and cannot be relied too much. Therefore it should be used as a guide in the marketing planning and not as a prescription to the process. 2) PESTLE Analysis: Various factors of the marketing is analyzed by PEST analysis that effects upon the marketing process. An organization that is carrying the analysis needs to study the environmental factors that are internal and external. 3) Five Force Analyses: This is an analysis that helps the marketers to have a clear picture of competitors for the market. This analysis has some similarities with PEST analysis. In this analysis the marketer goes through five areas of concerns. Analyze and evaluate the external environment of the organization by using PEST framework, Porters Five Forces model and Product life cycle. Companys profile: Tesco runs more than 2300 supermarkets and convenience stores in the UK, Ireland, Central Europe and Asia. It is operating in almost areas such as gasoline retail (Tesco Express) small urban stores (Tesco Metro) hypermarkets (Tesco Extra) and Financial service (Tesco Personal Finance). It covers up to 35% stake in US grocery. It is the leading online grocery store and is now expanding its business with a TV channel and a retail based education institution. A) A PEST Analysis of the industry was then undertaken to examine the local, national and global influence of political, economic, social and technological factors to understand opportunities and threats well. An assumption was made that most of these ( political, economic, social, legal and environmental ) factors would, to some extent apply to the retail industry in Sweden: Political: Following the European Integration and Free Trade Agreements, the market has opened British Companies to invest in Eastern European. It has 60 stores in Hungary. Lidl is fighting hard to maintain its market share with an aggressive pricing strategy against Tesco. Economic: Retail industry is fairly recession proof and also very sensitive to interest rate. Because of September 11 events, the world economy have suffered heavily, stocks were plummeting and prices are low all time. However the world economy is up after the September 11th attack. Consumers are optimistic and retail industry is once again boosting. Social: There are changes in consumer taste and lifestyle present both opportunities and threats for the retail industry. There are alternative Sweden national retailers which poses additional threats to the Tesco while entering in the Sweden market industry. Technical: Introduction of online shopping via internet is now a common place in retailing. IT system undertakes a paperless operation, the management and administration of the company which are monitored by the secured severs, it provides a flexible base for running the business. Sweden is at the forefront of technologically developed with national companies like Ericsson, hence Tesco gets an advantage of developed logistics and distribution channels already in place. One other tool that will be used in these areas is Porter Five Forces. This model can be used to good analytic effect alongside other models such as the SWOT and PEST analysis tools. Five Forces analyses five important in the determination of competitive power and these are:  · Buyers power:  · Suppliers power:  · Rivalry among competitors:  · Threat of new entrants:  · Threat of substitute product Problems faced by Tesco can be explained by Porters five forces including of the threat of substitutes from other supermarkets, buyer power, supplier power and the power of customer. Buyer power also decides the prices in the market. If products are expensive in Tesco then they will purchase from Sainsbury. This mean market is disciplined which make the pricing is disciplined as well. This in turn stops them to destroy the market in a profit war. Supplier power is an important part of this model. Supplier power is wielded by suppliers demanding that retailers should pay them certain price for their goods supplied. There is always a threat of substitution, although Tesco tries to ensure brand image and quality by having the best value for the products. Tesco acknowledges the fact that there have always been threats from the competitors and new entrants into the markets and therefore always plan to improve upon developments in its stores. Carry out an environmental audit for a given organization: PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Ecological, Legal and Environment) Among the above PESTLE analysis Political, Economic, social and Technological factors are implemented as a technique for the auditing of the marketing environment. Political/ legal:- An environment of marketing at any nation is affected due to the political reasons. There should be the management of change once there is a change in the political condition and situation. The system of nation keeps on changing if there is a lack of stability in politics and the organization should change the marketing strategies as per the changing environment so that the organization can exist in the changing environment. Economic:- Economics plays a vital role in the marketing environment audit. A country with weak economy cannot compete in the international market. To be successful in the marketing there should be a sound financial transaction of an organization. Some of the components of economic factors for environmental audit are: Interest rates, Business cycles, Investment policies. There should be good investment policies for the investment by the nation so that the interest of the investor in investment increases which helps to raise financial stability in the nation. Social and cultural:- Social and cultural refer to the tradition and costumes or belief of people living in a particular geographical region. Social value and norms sometimes becomes the barrier to the marketing environment. There is vast different in the culture and tradition of eastern and western societies as a result of it the culture of eastern may not be suitable for western and vice versa. The marketing depends upon the culture and tradition of any geographical area. S Technological:- In this competitive age technological changes plays a vital role in the marketing. All the developed countries have been successful due to the drastic changes in the technology and their capacity to cope with changing technology. Different technologies can be used for the auditing of the marketing environment. SWOT analysis:- SWOT analysis includes strength, weaknesses, opportunity and threats for an organization. Strength and opportunities are the positive aspect of an organization whereas weaknesses and threats are negative. Similarly strengths and weaknesses are internal environment whereas opportunity and threats are external. Low cost of production and sales, good information about the market and sound finance of the organization are the strengths and lack of communication and low quality of goods are the weaknesses. Similarly lack of competition and expansion of the market is the opportunities whereas control from pressure groups, lack of political and system stability are the threats for any organization. PORTERS five forces model:- It consists of five main points that are listed below: Bargaining power of the customers: It is found in the open or the competitive market where the customer has the advantage over the suppliers or the sellers. A consumer has the choice of quality and the rate and if the supplier fails to fulfil the satisfaction of the consumer there is the chance of the customer to walk away from the suppliers. In this case the buyer has every right to complain and the seller need to hear it and recover so that the buyer did not leave the consumption of the commodity.. Bargaining power of the supplier: We normally find it in the monopoly market where there is the presence of only one market. Here the supplier has the advantages over the customers. A seller can fix the price of his own and sell low quality products as a result of it buyer couldnt get enough facilities. As only one marker is available the customers are forced to buy goods from the same shop and have no choice. For an illustration, if one city has only one market the people living there have to purchase the commodities from the same market no matter what the price and quality is because they dont have a second option. In this case the supplier has their own choice of marking prices. Such type of business brings profit motive rather than service motive. Threat of new entrants: When there is the presence of new product or the new supplier the old products and the old supplier gets affected. A customer of particular supermarket gets diverted to next one, if the new supplier gives him new schemes ad facilities. Threat from the substitute product: It provides the facilities to the consumers as the consumers have enough choices for the commodities to use. The customers wont feel bored of using same product again and again. Rivalry among the competitors: Rivalry begins where there is the presence of competitive market or when two similar types of goods are present in the market. It gives advantages to the customers. When there is rivalry among competitors consumers receives the benefits. Apply organizational and environmental auditing techniques in a given situation. As for the project work I have chosen Tesco which deals with retail sales of food and household products. They use PESTEL analysis for the purpose of marketing environment audit. Political:- Under political it uses the monopoly system, taxation policies, rules of employing the staffs and government stability as a method of evaluating political environment. Economic:- Under the economic sector the interest rates, inflation and business cycles are evaluated for the purpose of environmental marketing audit. Social cultural:- There are different cultures of the particular area. The marketing of Tesco has been influenced due to the social cultural factors as well. The different elements under socio cultural which can affect the marketing audit of the organization are demography, distribution of income of the people and their lifestyle. Technology:- Technology plays a vital role during upgrade any organization. In this competitive age no organization can ever think of improvement in the absence of technology. The factors influencing technology in an organization can be the development of new technologies, rate of technology transfer and investment on the research of technology. Positioning of Ansoff matrix: For any decision to be taken at the business level, you need the right strategic tools. Ansoff matrix is one of them. Ansoff matrix helps a company decide their market growth as well as product growth strategies. The 2 questions which the Ansoff Matrix can answer is How can we grow in the existing markets and What amends can be made in the product portfolio to have better growth. From the above two questions, it is clear that the Ansoff matrix deals with the business external market scenario as well as the product portfolio which the company has. The matrix is divided into two quadrants. The product quadrant and the market quadrant. The Product quadrant on the X axis is further divided into Existing products and New products. The market scenario on the Y axis is divided into existing markets and new markets. Thus the Ansoff matrix divides a firm on the basis of the products it has existing products or new products, as well as the markets it is in existing markets or new markets. Explain the significance of stakeholder analysis: What is Stakeholder Analysis? Stakeholder Analysis (SA) is a methodology used to facilitate institutional and policy reform processes by accounting for and often incorporating the needs of those who have a stake or an interest in the reforms under consideration. With information on stakeholders, their interests, and their capacity to oppose reform, reform advocates can choose how to best accommodate them, thus assuring policies adopted are politically realistic and sustainable. Although Stakeholder Analysis originated from the business sciences, it has evolved into a field that now incorporates economics, political science, game and decision theory, and environmental sciences. Current models of SA apply a variety of tools on both qualitative and quantitative data to understand stakeholders, their positions, influence with other groups, and their interest in a particular reform. In addition, it provides an idea of the impact of reform on political and social forces, illuminates the divergent viewpoints towards proposed reforms and the potential power struggles among groups and individuals, and helps identify potential strategies for negotiating with opposing stakeholders. Who Are Stakeholders A stakeholder is any entity with a declared or conceivable interest or stake in a policy concern. The range of stakeholders relevant to consider for analysis varies according to the complexity of the reform area targeted and the type of reform proposed and, where the stakeholders are not organized, the incentive to include them. Stakeholders can be of any form, size and capacity. They can be individuals, organizations, or unorganized groups. In most cases, stakeholders fall into one or more of the following categories: international actors (e.g. donors), national or political actors (e.g. legislators, governors), public sector agencies (e.g. MDAs), interest groups (e.g. unions, medical associations), commercial/private for-profit, non-profit organizations (NGOs, foundations), civil society members, and users/consumers. To achieve Stakeholders objective an organization should be able to separate their interest from each other and as such act according to the power they exert in the organization. Employees of MS Have a welfare department established in 1930. Financial interest safeguarded bonuses Job performance appraises and financial incentive Benefit package interest free loans granted, Buy as you earn shares, bonus or right issue Suppliers: Always used UK based suppliers, ensuring consistent quality Relationship to build reliance on suppliers Lifelong relationship. Mutual dependability respects the specification and standard. Social commitment: Strong tradition of CSR Sponsorship of Charities. Community development efforts Government social projects. Environment friendly: Removed artificial color and flavoring from its entire food and soft drinks range-April 2008 Launched school wears made from recycled plastic bottle Despite tough economic conditions Mark and Spencer stick to Plan A, as it gives them brand and differentiation. AL Gore said a sustainable business can be profitable one Business Continuity Reviewed the tools and processes established to ensure we have the capability to protect our people, the brand, property and profit at all times; Received plans for all locations both nationally and internationally; Discussed plans for the Olympics and the Queens Diamond Jubilee; Full medical and security package introduced for all business travelers; Travel tracker system introduced both nationally and internationally; A group training awareness program launched; and Evacuation pack and welfare response. Plan A The External International Advisory Board established, comprising academics and advisors, extending our reach to reflect the countries we operate in and source from; Discussed progress in reducing carbon emissions, improvements in fuel and energy efficiency, reduction in waste and packaging, improvements in recycling and the MS/Oxfam clothes exchange; An update on work with suppliers to set up 12 Ethical Model factories in Bangladesh and three in India; Review of commitments against plan; Overview of discussions with UNICEF outside the UK on social development programs linked to the garment industry; and Overview of what we believe will be benchmarked as industry leading positions across a number of key areas. General Merchandise ethical sourcing Reviewed how we manage the ethical risks across our supply chain outlining our ethical trading approach across 1.7 million workers, spread over 1,448 sites in over 77 countries with 55 different languages; Considered the key ethical issues including: excessive working hours, poor health and safety, terms and conditions of employment, migrant labour, and low

Effect of Migration on Development of Northern Ghana

Effect of Migration on Development of Northern Ghana Migration has been an age-long activity which has been going on in different forms and continues to be a vital component of individual and societal development through acquisition and transfer of knowledge and resources. Migration is a global phenomenon which continues to dominate the scenes around the world, while some form of migration is been promoted for economic reasons, other forms face strict restrictions. Migratory movement within and beyond regional boundaries across has been enhanced through globalization and advancement in modern technology (Koser, K 2008). In Ghana migration is a common activity throughout all the regions, tribes and family with almost every single family having either an international migrant or internal migrant. This picture reflects in the Northern region of Ghana in a very alarming manner with many young and able bodies migrating to prominent cities in such of improved livelihood. Background of the study area. Northern region of Ghana lies between the two upper regions and the Brong Ahafo region and Volta region. It has Tamale as the regional capital with eighteen districts assemblies. The region is characterized by one rainy season with an annual rainfall of about 750 to 1050mm. The rainy season starts around May through to October and the dry season from November to April. The climatic conditions and vegetation type are classified under dry savanna, the regions environmental conditions are highly influenced by its proximity to the Sahara desert which account for the poor soil type dry weather condition. The economic activity which is predominant in the region is Agriculture; it employs about eighty percent of the population in the region. With one main farming season, as agriculture in Ghana largely depends on rainfall patterns, the region relies on its rain season for cultivation. The main crops grown in the region such as maize, millet, cowpeas, groundnut, sorghum, cassava, rice and yam are cultivated on subsistence bases. They mostly use labour intensive methods of farming with the simple farm tools and implement. The region has been behind its southern peers in terms of development for far too long. It is also viewed deprived with limited natural resources to fuel its development process. The south can boast of coastal resource, good soil, with rich mineral and forest resources that accounts for the attractiveness to colonial masters then and investors now. Therefore developments in modern infrastructure and economic activities have been centrally focused in the south which may be attributed to the frequent out migration from the Northern region to no other destination but to the south The region has historically been faced with out migration, since the pre-colonial era. From the colonial era the north served as labour pool where the needed labour force were fished out to feed the highly labour demanding south, in the mining and the cocoa industry. Males dominated migration then due to the physical demands of the job on the mines and farmers were mostly unskilled. Females were not of significance in terms numbers, those who migrated were mostly accompanying spouses or those migrating to reunite with spouses. Minimal female out migration from the north can also be attributed to the social-cultural factors such as marriage and family served as barrier in the past to female movement; life was viewed to be mostly around family and marriage. Males were regarded as sole bread winners of the family and females or women as dependents. However, recent trend of out migration involve more of younger females unlike in the past were female migration was usually for the purpose family reunion; it has been dominated by independently migrated young females. The female numbers from the north has been increasing dramatically and has taken centre stage of recent research into internal migration. Both males and females move to the cities, mostly without any special skills and work menial jobs as head porters, the males use four wheeled trucks in their work (Hashim, 2007). PROBLEM STATEMENT Internal migration in Ghana has become a means of harmonizing ethnic differences through interaction, cooperate work and inter-marriages. Migration from regions and districts seen as naturally, economically and socially deprived or deficient in terms of economic activities and basic social amenities to other regions and cities perceived as economically and socially endowed continues all year round in Ghana. Although these forms of movement to other highly rated regions to seek uncertain bright future cut across all regions in Ghana, but anyone may come to conclude that the northern region seems to have a very significant rate of migration ( Boakye-Yiadom and MacKay, 2007). The Northern region of Ghana has seen a massive exodus of youth into other regions for various reasons over the years. In recent years a new trend that has emerged involve young males and females who migrate to the cities of Accra and Kumasi in particular. Notable among these migrants are females who work as head p orters. These females face many challenges daily, exploited and live in deplorable conditions on the streets and slums of Accra and Kumasi. Their male counterparts are not exception as they face similar situation. This case study seeks to examine: i. the various motivating factors behind this migration trend. ii. the short and long-term effects migration on Northern Ghanas development. Literature Review Migration and development Development is wide and dynamic concept with divergent views and assumptions. The concept has been variously defined based on the discourse. Development is seen to be a process aimed at achieving specific targeted goals (Kingsbury, D. et al. 2004).It can be explained as a progressive socioeconomic process for empowering the poor to improve their livelihood(Sen, 1988). It is seen as a process which runs parallel to growth or improved situation livelihood. Migration Migration is defined broadly as a permanent or temporary change of residence. No restriction is placed upon the distance of the move or upon the voluntary or involuntary nature of the act, and no distinction is made between external and internal migration.(Lee E.S, 1966) Gender and migration Gender represents socially constructed masculine and feminine while sex is the biological determined categories of male and female. It then explains that ones sex is determined at conception but an individual gender identity develops over a life course and can fluctuate across a wide continuum of masculine and feminine characteristics. Nicholson (1995 in McDowell 1999:13), the differences between the two terms sex and gender sex is the biological differences between a man and a woman and gender describes the socially constructed characteristics of men and women. It is further explained that gender is the social organisation of sexual difference. It then follows that gender is the knowledge that establishes meaning for bodily differences. According to Moore (1988 in McDowell 1999:7) in analyzing what is to be à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬-a woman and the cultural understanding of the category, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬-woman vary through space and time and how those understandings relate to the position of women in different societies. To understand this we need to understand the concept of gender and gender relations: that is à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬-the different ways in which women and men and the accepted attributes of femininity and masculinity which are defined across space and time (ibid). She argues that gender is then seen from two perspectives: either as a symbolic construction or as a social relationship. Gender as a social relation and gender as a symbolic meaning are interconnected and mutually constituted (McDowell 1999:7). We all act in relation to our intentions and beliefs which are always culturally shaped and historically and spatially positioned. The appropriate behaviour and actions by women and men reflect and affect what they imagine a man or a woman to be, as well as women and men who are differentiated with age, class, race or sexuality, and these expected behaviour and beliefs change over time and between places (ibid). Gender role constraints is underpinned by the social expectation that womens main activities should be close to family care and household maintenance and the assumption that women will interrupt their working lives to care for children and elderly relatives (Tivers 1977 in Jenkins 2005:8). How has these gender role constraints affected married women with children who have left the home to migrate to a new environment to work in the informal economy to pr ovide for the household. The Gender and Migration Linkage Prior to the mid 1980s, migration was regarded as a male phenomenon (Sjaastad, 1962; Lee, 1969; Todaro, 1977; Lipton, 1980). Authors such as Stouffer (1976) and Oberai, (1983) assert that until most recently, the physical movement of people from one place to another for employment was predominantly undertaken by men. The Todaro (1969) and Harris-Todaro (1970) models, which are some of the earliest models of migration, also emphasize that internal migration occurs in a dual economy, in which the urban sector draws male labour force from the rural sector. Meanwhile, other aspects of rural-urban linkages such as the gendered traditional division of labour and farm and non-farm employment have often been overlooked (Roca, 1994:102). Migration was being seen by some researchers and scholars as gender-neutral because it deals with the process of movement of persons (Anarfi, 1982; Sabot, 1988).13 Meanwhile, migration is actually gender-structured because men and women migrate for different reasons, use different channels and most importantly, migration has different consequences for men and women in both sending and receiving communities (Chant Radcliffe, 1992; Silberschmidt, 1999; Potts, 2000). For those leaving, internal migration can result in either empowerment or, on the contrary, increased vulnerability and even victimization (FAO/UNFPA, 1991:23). Likewise, for those remaining, the departure of men and/or women from the household will have a specific influence depending on the migrants status and role within the household prior to migrating, such as being main wage earner, spouse, parent or young daughter or son (Fadoyomi, 1980). For a rural farming household, in particular, the consequences of migration depends on the socio-cultural and economic context, gender and age of migrant, position of migrant within the household, the agro-ecological environment, the type of migratory movement, whether it is temporary or permanent, and the employment possibilities and self-sufficiency of migrant, and the ability to send adequate remittances to maintain the level of farming prior to migration (Andersson, 2002:78-79). One of the major implications of rural-urban migration is that it is the most able-bodied, relatively young and educated persons that migrate from rural to urban areas. This process, therefore, leaves behind rural communities composed of women, children, the elderly and uneducated, who are faced with the tremendous challenge of sustaining their household livelihood and the rural economy effectively (Findlay Williams, 1990:65; Anh, 2003:79). 14 The predominantly male out-migration from rural areas may also bring about changes in the agricultural gender division of labour, as the migration process will invariably increase womens workload on the farm, thereby resulting in the feminization of agriculture (FAO, 1995; Deshingkar Start, 2003:99).15 The out-migration of men Discussion Internal migration within Ghana from north to the south has had a long history. Although all forms of migration takes place for specific reasons based on the experience of people from their places origin. There has been several debate on reasons the northern region is lagging behind in development, some attribute it governments neglect, conflict and unwillingness of investors to establish in the northern. All but one thing is has to be looked into critically is migration. The impacts of out migration from the northern region on both young males and females migrant as well as the northern region may reflect in the long term. For any region or place to develop, it will depend on how efficient the resources available to the area will be utilized. It may involve the assessment of disparities or minding the gaps in development between the sending and receiving areas of migrants. Gaps in educational level among the regions will likely determine the sector of the economy that could absorb the migrant. Poverty level in the north influence the trend of migration to other cities as has been estimated to have over two thirds of the population living below the poverty line. Various reasons that establish relationship between North- south migration and development in the northern region or the northern sector and the southern sector of Ghana, points to the development policy and plan during the colonial era. Although migration of migration is not only a problem with the northern region but most parts of the country, both males and females migrate internally and internationally. Out-Migration in other southern regions mostly differs in patterns and benefits. The north-south trend is characterize by young males and females ranging from ages thirteen and above to about 45 year. Between ages 13-25 form the core of the migrant, who are either school drop-out or without any special trade. Over ninety percent are engaged as head porters (Kayayoo) or truck pushers. Their job involves carting goods from the market that has been purchased by patrons to their preferred destination around the market area. Income from their activities is so minimal to even fully support them to maintain good standard of living. This forces some of the female migrant to resort to prostitution to again extra more income in order to survive. The males sometime join gangs to  Many migrant females are relegated to prostitution in destination areas because of  their lack of employable skills or due to gender discriminations of employment. Some have had to offer sex in exchange for jobs, food, shelter and protection, leaving them  prone to sexually transmitted diseases. Many young females who migrate from the Northern  and Upper regions of Ghana to the capital Accra, to work as head porters (Kayayei) live on the  streets. They are exposed to the vagaries of the weather and face constant risks of sexual assault,  theft of their meager earnings and rape. Many are forced into prostitution as a means of survival  (Apt, 1998). Besides the combination of low wages and the need to save and send home as  much money as possible leaves relegates many female migrants to a low quality of life where  their own personal needs and health may be neglected. It is estimated that about 45-55% of  refugee populations across the world are women. Many of these women refugees are exposed  to gender based sexual violence. They are victims of rape, forced impregnation and abortions,  sexual slavery and intentional spread of STIs including HIV/AIDS (UNFPA, 2004 Motivations for migration A research by Ghana Statistical service estimated that about 80% of the combined Northern Ghana population are living in poverty (Ghana Statistical Service, 2007). Therefore the idea to migrate by a family member is relief to the family. Moreover, the declining soil fertility, lack of access to arable agricultural land and the single farming season has also been a contributory factor. Again the peasant nature of farming means low dispensable income for families. The Increasing economic and infrastructure gap between the north and the south, increasing economic activities in the receiving cities is seen a factor for both male and female migration from the Northern region. Resource deficit and lack of income generation activities to support themselves and their relatives has partly influenced the migration (Anarfi and Kwankye, 2005). Movement from the north to the south to mainly cities of Accra and Kumasi may be due to the fact they have heard of these as the surest place to make it in life. The urge to diversify livelihood options as the region has fewer opportunities to offer the regard migration as an alternative source of livelihood. (Anarfi and Kwankye, 2005). Network of friends and relative, serve to link friends and relatives with jobs and assist them with all the information needed to establish them in the new location. Intermittent ethnic conflicts in the Northern region have forced people to migrate out of northern region to the south where the peace prevails with improved infrastructure for instants in 1994 the Kokomba conflict causes of people to move south wards. Those who migrated were mostly women and children when men were actively engaged in the conflict. Impacts of migration Remittances from migrant serves as an alternative source of income to families of migrant (Quartey,2006). Unlike international migrants, whose remittance form the bulk of family source of income and may also go into investment in business, housing project to mention but a few, remittances from internal migrants are usually for domestic support of parent healthcare, daily upkeep or childcare. The transfer channels use for transferring monies to family are usually informal through networks again, when a friend or relative is returning home. Migration changes hands in gender roles with traditional role of women in childcare where women with children leave them in the care of men, parents or relative (Oppong, 1997). Most often the children lack proper upbringing and care when the mother or both parent have migrated out. This usually affects child education and may be neglected when the parent fail to send in money to support the family (Parrenas, 2001) Migration may lead to lose of vibrant productive labour force that families and communities need most for production in the agricultural, craft and other labour intensive jobs. Thus lose of youthful contribution to development. (Awumbila Ardayfioà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Schandorf , 2008) Challenges of migration Migrants to the cities of Accra and Kumasi face lots of challenges but females are the most vulnerable  world only a minority of women are granted refugee status (UNFPA, 2004). This is because  gender related causes of persecution are rarely accepted as valid grounds for refugee status. Also  women usually lack the literacy or educational clout to complete the usually bureaucratic  application process. (Caritas Europa, 2007). The participation of females in migration has led to  Migration in Ghana: Thematic Paper 2009 22  the development of a labour niche for females ( domestic work, childcare etc) characterized by  low wages, unfair labor practices and exploitation and exclusion of females form certain kinds of  work-often of the formal nature (Oppong, 1997). Poor Quality of Life Migrants, especially females tend to be the most vulnerable and they face many challenges and  tend to live under deprived conditions often times without access to social services in destination  communities. Conclusion Based on gender analysis and differences as well as diversity in family and economic status of males and females migrate may have similar motivation for migration but may have difference in the experiences. The region is losing valuable ingredient that needs to be restructured to enhance the development process in the Northern region. New interventions in the area of capacity building for the youth to improve the quality of life in the region needs be on the plan, and well executed. Educational campaigns on challenges migrants go through and the need to will help in the development process of the region may help reduce or stem the trend in the bud. Credit accessibility and at an affordable interest to assist farmer and others in private ventures could maintain the population flow. Improved infrastructure, terms of health facilities, roads, schools, potable water will help bridge the gaps in development that attracts the youth. Therefore the region may develop other gender related programs to help the youth and the region as a whole

Relationship between Chopins Life and The Awakening Essay -- Chopin

Relationship between Chopin's Life and The Awakening Katherine O'Flahtery Chopin was born in St. Louis, Missouri February 8,1851. She was the daughter of Thomas and Eliza O'Flaherty, a prominent Irish-born merchant and his wife. Together, Chopin's parents represented freedom and the American dream. Their ambition and spirit helped mold Chopin into a unique character with independence and intelligence. Her father died suddenly when Chopin was four years old. His death was the result of a terrible accident that took the lives of several civic leaders when the key link to the Pacific Railroad was being completed and a bridge collapsed. After Thomas O'Flahtery's death, Katherine's childhood was most profoundly influenced by her mother and grandmother, women of French Creole pioneers. As a child, Chopin spent much of her time with her family's Creole and mulatto slaves, whose dialects she mastered. She studied piano, wrote poetry, and read books by such famous authors as Dickens, Austen, and Goethe. Although Katherine displayed a very indep endent and responsible personality, she was once nicknamed the littlest rebel for yanking down a Union flag. However, despite her free spirit, Chopin grew to be a leading social belle, admired for her wit and beauty. As a debutante, Chopin was an undistinguished student at the convent school named the St. Louis Academy of the Sacred Heart. She graduated at age seventeen and spent two years as a young woman of fashionable St. Louis society. It was then that the young Katherine O'Flaherty met Oscar Chopin, a wealthy Creole cotton factor. In the year 1870, Kate married Oscar and, for the next decade, Kate Chopin pursued the demanding social and domestic schedule of a wealthy wife and mother. ... ...r that surrounded the publication of The Awakening, and its harsh reception is what ultimately stopped her from writing. She felt that because of the vast amount of controversy and criticism she received because of The Awakening, there was no future for her as an author. Chopin devoted the last few years of her life to her family. Katherine O'Flaherty Chopin died of a cerebral hemorrhage on August 22, 1904 at the age of 53. Many felt that Kate Chopin had been denied the recognition she desperately wanted and richly deserved. As well as The Awakening, other of Chopin's writings are receiving the critical acclaim that they had been neglected. The short stories collected in Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie established Chopin as an important writer of local-color fiction. Works Cited: Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. 1899. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1993.

Essay --

Humans have long been evolving physically and mentally in order to survive on earth. They have evolved their physical attributes as well as their intelligence to properly prepare them for the changing environments on earth. Since the Old Stone age, human intelligence has allowed them to continue to adapt to various tasks that were commonly performed by the Old Stone age people. These common behaviors and lifestyles of the prehistoric times would eventually help the human communities to survive in this dangerous world as a successful species. Most of our everyday activities and common behaviors such as living in homes, having a nutritional diet, inventing new innovations, and particularly surviving as a group, are derived from the lifestyles of the Paleolithic people. Although there may be some differences between the aspects of life from the prehistoric and modern times, much of the features of how people lived back then have played a significant role in securing the survival of huma nity today. There are countless differences and similarities between the behaviors of the paleolithic people and the people of the twenty-first century. While the people of the Old Stone age lived in dark caves filled with nothing but cold wind, people today live in houses and apartments built with air conditioning system and readily accompanied furniture. The prehistoric people are able to find comfort by staying in caves that prevent them from the dangers of the wilderness while people of the modern time find comfort by being at home, not exactly because it is safe, but because they can relax to their hearts’ content. Although both places have completely different appearances in terms of a place for shelter, humans that live in these places can stil... ... different times eating food in totally contrasting environment, group survival has always been applied to modern day people and their way of living. The history and the existence of the Old Stone Age, or the Paleolithic era, has an undeniably large effect on our society today. Living in the harsh environment of the world without the technological advancements seems hard enough, but surviving without the elements for living prepared for them is even more difficult. With all the common behaviors that were translated to our everyday life, healthy diets that prevent humans from disastrous results, new innovations that remained useful to us today, and surviving skills that were passed down from generation to generation, our whole society owes everything to those of the Paleolithic era. Without them, there would be no â€Å"us† today to walk the earth as a prosperous species.

Creative Writing Piece †Inner Journeys Essay

Tom had always loved plants. He loved the way they would begin their lives as tiny seeds buried in their cosy little nests, and then, with all the essential ingredients a sprinkle of water, a cup of sunlight and a dash of time they would blossom into sharp Italian ballet dancers, their lively radiance beating against the cream-white window pane. Toms mother would grow these plants by the dozen, and, once a month, after harvest week, she would take all the plants away, replacing them with seemingly barren pots of soil, each containing their own hidden seed ready to grow and blossom into another magnificent dancer on the windowsill. It was the first harvesting week of the year when Toms mother first offered him the opportunity to plant his very own tomato tree. At first he was hesitant, but after some assurance from his mother he felt confident and ready. Make sure you give your plant plenty of water and sunlight, and it will have all that it needs to grow. And dont be late for school!The second the pot was in his grip, Tom raced to his bedroom and catapulted to the side of his bunk bed. Climbing up, he searched the room for the sunniest spot, like the night boat searches for the closest lighthouse. Suddenly, he spotted it. But it was so far away! Hed have to try and reach it. Balancing on the top step of his bunk ladder, pot in one hand, he stretched out his arm as far as it could reach, and just managed to tip the edge of the pot against the windowsill so it sat firmly against the glass. He climbed back down and sighed with relief as he glanced up at his creation. The whole world stopped in an instant as Tom marvelled at the way the light magnified though his window and reflected off the glistening soil into his bedroom. He felt the warm glow melt against his skin. He turned to walk out, but after every few steps, something inside him forced him to turn back, just to check that his plant was still there. He felt a sense of pride as he looked up at his establishment, a foundation for the rainbow of wonderful things to come. Satisfied, he felt a bubbling burst of energy as he happily skipped out of his room and headed off to school. The day seemed to drag on, and as soon as Tom was home he threw his schoolbag across the hallway and jolted to the castle where his tomato tree waited anxiously. He opened the palace doors and, once he saw it for the second  time, a rush of accomplishment swarmed through him and he skidded across the kitchen floor, attempting to sustain his balance while carefully collecting a glass of water to nourish his royal king. Back in his room, he climbed atop his bunk bed, leaned out across his room, and carefully poured the water into the plant pot, swirling it around in an attempt to spread the water evenly across the fine surface. He remained there for some time, and couldnt help but feel a sense of impatience as he stared into the emptiness of the pot. Had his plant grown out of its seed yet? Was it even growing at all? He knew he loved being able to look after a plant like this, even if he couldnt see it yet. Regardless, he headed off to bed, and through his dreams he saw his plant gr ow up to be the most exotic dancer of all. Harvest week came again the month after. Tom was scared. He had been looking after his plant for a whole month prior but he couldnt see any fruits! Following his mothers advice, he continued to water and care for his plant as much as he could, moving it to a sunnier spot and being careful to give it just the right amount of water, and finally, at long last, it blossomed. The tomatoes that grew on Toms tree were the sweetest and juiciest and most delicious tomatoes him and his mother had ever tasted. Harvest week came and went, and eventually his tree stopped bearing fruits. The vines were as bare as winter, and it no longer danced in the wind, but instead roared a silence so loud that Tom felt a shiver up and down his spine. Panicking, he decided he should move his plant to a sunnier spot he climbed upon his bunk bed, reached over and stretching his arms as far as they would go almost there just a bit further got it! He rejoiced as he collected the pot plant from its previous home and climbed down from his bed to move it to a sunnier spot. He had almost forgotten his plant was dying. What had he done wrong? He thought back over the previous months events, thought back to when he had first tended to the plant oh how he remembered being inexperienced! But no matter how far he looked back, he just couldnt put his finger on what he had done wrong. What could he have done to cause this? Three of his mothers words echoed in his head water and sunlight but he had already given it all that it needed Now, nothing seemed to work. It  was only after Toms mother returned home that night that Tom finally understood why it had happened. Everything in life has its place explained Toms mother gently. Everything is born to grow and live, and after it has served its purpose, it has to go. Your plant grew the most delicious tomatoes Ive ever tasted, but now its time for your tomato tree to say goodbye.Devastated, Tom handed the plant back to his mother and reflected on their times together. He remembered how he used to watch his little tree dance, its vibrant energy brighter than all the light from the brightest star. He wanted that back again. He wanted another plant. Suddenly, an idea sparked in his head. Mum, he began. Could I plant another one?