Cause and Effect Blind Dates

Many people have trouble finding the right person for themselves; however, going on a couple of blind dates could open the door to meeting new people. The whole point of a blind date is to meet someone else that one doesn't know and to get to know him better. The first cause of going on a blind date is that some people are shy and their friends decide to help them out and try to find someone that would be suitable for them.It is an excellent way for the shy people to get out more often. Another cause is to just have a good time. A blind date doesn't have to be about finding the right person, it could be just to have a fun time with someone else. Results from a blind date could differ from certain people. First, the person could have an enjoyable night and might even call his date again for another night together. However, he could also find his date rather uninteresting, thus ruining his night.A second result is that the person could find his date very appealing, but not that special someone he was looking for. Adding on, he could become very good friends with her and meet new people. Since he found her very fun to be with, he could go out more often with her and meet her friends. On the other hand, he could find her appealing, but not interested in spending more time. Either way a blind date has two outcomes. The people on the date could have a really enjoyable time with their date, or it could be a complete waste of time.

The Role of Government in Economy

Nowadays, there are debates on how far government should interfere with the economy. Government has played an impact on the economy with the purpose to maximize the well-being of society. What governments generally do is to assure the economy grows at a steady pace, increase level of employment and stabilize the price level. However, whether government should take active policies to interfere with economy or just let it grow naturally has raised widely discussion. This essay discusses the role of government by analyzing both thought of Keynes and Friedman and then prove the effectiveness of Friedman’s theory with historical examples. Firstly, the Great Depression of the 1930s has helped prove the importance of government’s intervention on the economy in the past. The Great Depression started with a decrease in stock prices in America and then quickly spread to most parts of the world (McElvaine, 1993, p 59). There was a tremendous decrease on the demand and global trade, followed by high unemployment rate. As a result, various measures were taken by governments worldwide in an attempt to accelerate the economy’s recovery and reduce the unemployment rate including stimulation on demand by spending much more than they took in (Fox, 2008, p 1). At the final several years of the Great Depression, Keynesian macroeconomic theory, which shows the importance of government’s role on the economy, has played an impact on interventionists’ policies. In Keynesian economics, when inefficient economic outcomes aroused from decisions of private sector, public sector needs to take active measures. By fiscal policy adjusting taxes and government spending and monetary policy which deals with the amount of money supplied and credit, government could help stabilize the economic growth rate, and then plays an impact on price level and employment rate in the process (Congdon, 2007, p 169). In the case of the Great Depression, Keynes said the low unemployment rate were the result of insufficient demand, thus intervention of government was important to run deficits, increase spending and/or cutting taxes, and so as to keep people fully employed (Aikins, 2009, p 403). However, the stagflation of 1970s has challenged Keynesian theory bringing debates on the intervention of government on the economy (Gittins, 2010, p 6). According to Bresiger (2009) it was the 1970s, economic growth was weak, resulting in rising unemployment that eventually reached double-digits. The easy-money policies, which financed huge budget deficits and were supported by political leaders, were then undertaken by the American central bank, in order to generate full employment. However, it also caused high inflation which began in late 1972 and didn't end until the early 1980s. The great inflation, and the recession that followed, wrecked many businesses and hurt countless individuals. As Bresiger (2009) concluded in his article that before inflation returned to low single digits, another brutal policy of tight money, including the acceptance of a recession would be expected, and meanwhile the unemployment rate would exceed 10%. Given the increasing skepticism towards usefulness of fiscal policy and its multiplier effects proposed by Keynesian theory, another macroeconomic policy named monetarism chiefly proposed by Milton Friedman has attracted growing supports (Issing, 2010, p 35). It was supported by Bernhut (2003) concerning monetary policy, emphasizing on the amounts of money that government should determine to supply in circulation. The theory of monetarism puts a stress on the benefits aroused from free market economics and weaknesses associated with government intervention on the economy (Congdon, 2007, p 200). The appropriate economic role for government is to manage the amount of money in circulation, so as to influence aggregate output in the short run and finally control the level of prices and inflation rate over longer periods. Particularly during the 1980s, some of the laissez-faire thoughts proposed by Friedman including monetary policy, privatization, deregulation and taxation, were used by governments (Congdon, 2007, p 202). After analyzing the thought of both Keynes and Friedman respectively, it may be better to give a comparison on the two theories in order to see what role government should take in the economy. As Issing (2010 p 1) says in his article, after the Great Depression, there was dominant belief on the Keynesian theory. However, the lessons obtained from the stagflation of 1970s, associated with Keynesian policies, are that unrestrained and neffectively planned intervention by government could give rise to market failure and adverse economic outcome (Aikins, 2009, p 405). The weakness of Keynesian theory was supported by Callaghan who stated that cutting taxes and boosting government spending during recession would inject higher inflation rate followed by higher rate of unemployment (Issing , 2010, p 2). On the contrary, rather than regarding insufficient demand as the key factor driven the Great Depression, Friedman argued it was largely caused by the Federal Reserve reducing the money supply. In the article, Issing (2010) plays an importance on the money by illustrating that ignoring monetary factors has led to the worst crisis since the Great Depression related to the asset price bubbles. Another example which helps prove the effectiveness of monetarism was given by Congdon (2007). When Margaret Thatcher won the 1979 general election in United Kingdom, Britain had several inflation for several year, with inflation rate rarely below 10%. Even worse, the rate had reached 27% by the time of the election. Thatcher implemented monetarism to control inflation, and successfully reduced the rate to 4% at 1983. There was a global recession at that time, and Thatcher's monetarist policies contributed to the success of fighting against the recession, meanwhile helped Britain become one of the nations which recover economic growth firstly. To sum up, this essay has examined two theories concerning about the role that government should take in economy. In Keynesian economy, fiscal policy is particularly an important tool that government should use when aggregate demand is not insufficient and keep full employment by running government deficit. Historical evidence has showed that it was not an efficient way to fight recession. Conversely the monetarism offers Keynesians a better view of monetary policy. It can be shown that the core ideology of monetarism can still work well today and monetary factors can not be neglected, thus government has a role to determine amount of money supplied as well as the volume of credit in all aspects, but not interfere with the economy unrestrainedly and ineffectively.

Does Inequality in School System Funding Contribute to the Cycle of Poverty

In Savage Inequalities, Jonathan Kozol describes the conditions of several of America's public schools. Between 1988 and 1990, Kozol visited schools in approximately 30 neighborhoods and found that there was a wide disparity in the conditions between the schools in the poorest inner-city communities and schools in the wealthier suburban communities. How can there be such huge differences within the public school system of a country which claims to provide equal opportunity for all?It becomes obvious to Kozol that many poor children begin their young lives with an education that is far inferior to that of the children who grow up in wealthier communities. They are not given an equal opportunity from the start. He writes, â€Å"Denial of ‘the means of competition' is perhaps the single most consistent outcome of the education offered to poor children in the schools of our large cities . . . † (p. 83). Although all children are required to attend school until age 16, there are major differences in schools and they appear to be drawn along lines of race and social class.Kozol examines how the unequal funding of schools relates to social class divisions, institutional and environmental racism, isolation and alienation of students and staff within poor schools, the physical decay of buildings, and the health conditions of students. All of these contribute to a psychological disarray of the young people who recognize that the ruling class views them as expendable and not worth investing its money or resources. Kozol's focus of this book is to examine urban school districts, which are severely segregated by race and class.They are overwhelmingly nonwhite and very poor, which contrasts sharply with the wealthy overwhelmingly white suburban schools right next to them (p. 74). He limits his selections to poor inner-city schools rather than include examples of all poor schools because he feels that they best exhibit racial segregation and social class division s. He notes that even when schools have a â€Å"diverse† student population, segregation occurs within the school through special education programs or vocational tracking.Although Kozol does not directly address it, the center of the problems that affect these schools is a capitalist system that requires the reproduction of the divisions of labor (Bowles). Schools provide the training to meet this requirement through the tracking of students into the roles that they will fulfill in our economic system. The ruling class attempts to make sure that there are an appropriate number of people to fit these jobs. Capitalists (i. e. business owners) not only want an obedient workforce, but a surplus of workers at each level so that they can pay the lowest wage possible (Spring, p. 24). They will seek out and encourage programs that train people for such jobs. Who should be assigned each role? Kozol does point out that wealthy white people want to make sure their children get the â₠¬Å"good† jobs and live in the â€Å"good† (less polluted) areas. They benefit from the divisions of labor and will use their influence to maintain government policies that ensure their positions.When Kozol discussed funding inequities among school districts with a group of affluent students in Rye, New York, one student exhibited these beliefs when she said she had no reason to care about fixing the problems of school funding because she failed to see how it could benefit her (p. 126). She indeed recognized how the class divisions were to her advantage. Why would she want to change that? The policies that the ruling class creates to maintain their place on the social class ladder inherently lead to the continuation of the cycle of poverty, social class divisions, and environmental and institutional racism.Kozol provides examples of this, which range from the location of nonwhite, poor people on and near toxic waste sites (p. 8-12), to blaming problems of the inner city on the people within that system (they are unable to govern themselves, their children aren't worth the money it takes to educate them) (p. 9, 26, 75-76, 192-193), to the funding formula that allocates funds to public schools (54-56, 202, and throughout). It is this unequal funding of public schools that is Kozol's main emphasis in  Savage Inequalities.Funding based upon property taxes and property values discriminates against lower social classes, and this unequal funding leads to inferior schools and creates a wide disparity between schools in the poorest and wealthiest communities. Isolation of students, staff, and the community is a direct result of the inequities in funding. People who have poor schooling are funneled into jobs which are poorly paid and so the people not only have less knowledge, but have less money and influence with which to change the system (p. 7). Because they don't know how, nor have the tools necessary to break the cycle of poverty, they continue to re produce the class divisions and schooling that supports it. This in turn allows their children to be continually tracked and fed into the lower skilled jobs and schooling, which is a necessary component of the capitalist system. Kozol vividly illustrates the deplorable conditions of the poorest schools. In contrast, he provides colorful descriptions of the wealthiest suburban schools that neighbor them.He effectively demonstrates the racist conditions and social class discrimination that lead to the variations within the public school system as well as discusses the funding formula for America's public schools. His writing is exaggerated, I am sure, in order to make his point. He had an abundance of information and had to be selective (as anyone would) and when choosing what to include, he used the extreme examples to make his points clear. He may not have included schools because they did not exemplify his point, which is that there is a huge discrepancy in the quality of public sc hools depending on where one lives.Yet it still seems that he could have included more. What Kozol should have included was more information on his â€Å"research† methods. Perhaps this could be added as an appendix. How many schools did he visit in all? How many were elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools? How would he classify the schools he did visit? How many of the total would he say were very wealthy, awful, or a varying degree in between? Kozol provides descriptions of the worst of the worst, but his research only extends to a limited number of urban schools.He asks if what he sees is atypical of inner city schools (p. 36). Has he visited enough schools to determine that? It is true that there are those schools out there and they should not be like that, but do they represent the majority of urban schools across the country? He is selective in choosing and describing the worst of the schools located in the inner city, yet he leaves out any mention of the relative conditions of the other schools in the city. He also fails to include any examples of conditions of poor white suburban and rural schools and schools not at the middle class level.Perhaps Kozol could also include more on his views as to what the â€Å"minimal† requirements for a good school should be. What should all public schools have? He says that there should be more poor schools that resemble the better schools. Are the wealthy suburban schools examples of the minimum that â€Å"public schooling† should offer? Or shall they have somewhat less (not necessarily California) while poorer schools get a lot more? Are there minimum educational experiences that all students could expect in any public school?If parents wanted more than was provided by the public schools, they could demand more (for all) or they could provide tutoring or a private education for their children. Kozol suggests equalized funding as a solution to the lack of quality in urban schools. F unding alone will not solve the schools. There needs to be changes in the greater society that would have to occur simultaneously for real improvements to occur. Besides, equal funding does not mean equal schools. Would policy makers really want equal funding?If politicians really valued public education and believed in doing what would provide equal funding for ALL, plenty of money would â€Å"become available. †Ã‚  Ã‚   Perhaps my greatest problems with  Savage Inequalities are that Kozol does not deeply examine why things got the way they have as they relate to the purposes of schooling as described by Joel Spring (p. 18-26), and Kozol is all talk, no action. While he was visiting these schools, did he attempt to organize the schools, teachers, parents, and students? He observed the schools and was able to highlight the inequities present, but did he do anything?He had an ideal opportunity to initiate some organizing of those involved, yet the book does not suggest that he did much more than visit the schools and report back what he saw, heard, and felt. Since only part of the problem, albeit a large part, is how the schools are funded, one would need to look beyond the education system to find a solution which would really rectify the problems Kozol describes. Schools cannot truly be reformed without â€Å"reforming† the societal conditions that surround the schools.The schools are the way they are for a purpose–to reproduce the social divisions of labor (Bowles) and to maintain the capitalist economy of our country. When discussing how to solve problems of unequal funding, Jezebel, an eleventh grade student at Woodrow Wilson School in Camden, New Jersey addresses segregation and says that even if funding were the same, schools will not be equal. A very insightful young lady, she recognizes the degree to which the ruling class will prevent a fair education system and desegregation from developing as she realistically suggests that â €Å"it would take a war to bring us together† (Kozol, p. 55). Short of that, it is unlikely that these problems will be solved through any reform effort. To begin to solve the problems, people need to collectively stand together and fight for the rights of all the children to have an equal start in life. That means people need to know what is going on and that they can do something to change it. Kozol was right about that when he suggested that people may be more willing to revise the system if they understood how it worked (107), but how do you get people to look beneath the veil? Fifty-five years ago, the United States Supreme Court ruled in the landmark Brown v.Board of Education case that school segregation policies are unconstitutional. Yet despite the moral victory of the Brown decision, in the decades since 1954 we have failed to create educational equality in America. Despite countless initiatives, hundreds of billions of dollars invested in various school improvement efforts, and the passage of a federal law that mandates that no child be left behind, we continue to see gaps in educational opportunity that disproportionately impact the lives of low income communities and communities of color across the fifty states. How can this be?In the wealthiest nation on earth, that has professed its commitment to eliminating these gaps for more than half a century, how can such glaring inequities persist? While we have gone to great lengths to experiment with education reform, we have done little to address the web of related social issues that together create the conditions necessary for educational success. We have spent our time and money focusing on things like toughening standards for students, making it harder to become a licensed teacher, and holding failing schools accountable for poor performance.And while many of these reform efforts have had some generally positive impact on the quality of education our children receive, all of these reforms ig nore the fact that no matter what we do in schools, students still live their lives in communities that reflect the systemic economic, racial and environmental inequalities that our society has yet to resolve. Like a patient with pneumonia who takes larger and larger doses of cough syrup and then wonders why they’re not getting better, we find ourselves treating primarily the symptoms of educational inequality rather than the root causes.If we hope to change our educational fortune, our society will need a cure that actually attacks the problem where it exists. It is only through a structural analysis of education that we can understand how issues like housing, school funding systems, and employment interact to shape our children’s ability to succeed in school. Let’s start by looking at the issue of housing. There is perhaps no single greater factor in determining one’s educational experience than where you live.Despite the moral victory of Brown, for the average low income black and Latino student in America today, schools are only marginally less segregated than they were in 1954 and are growing more segregated every year. 1   We have replaced the system of racial segregation with a system of residential segregation. Low-income blacks and Latinos are not explicitly forbidden from attending more affluent, majority-white schools because of their race, they are forbidden from attending because they are unable to secure housing in districts where affluent, high-functioning schools exist.This system, first declared constitutional by the Supreme Court in the 1974 case Miliken v. Bradley, essentially means that middle class and wealthy white communities need only to prevent low income people and people of color from moving into their districts in order to maintain segregated schools. Even cities that have sought to voluntarily integrate schools, like Seattle and Louisville, have been thwarted by recent conservative Court rulings.    In actuality then, the great dream of integrated schools in America not only never fully materialized, what little progress had been made is being undone before our eyes. For many low income communities and communities of color, little has ever happened to disrupt what has for generations been a schooling experience defined by crumbling infrastructure, poor quality teaching, lack of resources for arts, music, athletics, and extracurricular activities, and high concentrations of poverty along with all of its destabilizing effects on the lives of children.To fully understand the structural connections between educational opportunity and housing, first we must understand how schools receive funding. The primary source of funding for most school systems is property taxes. This means wealthy districts with high property values not only have more to spend on education, they can actually tax themselves at lower rates than their less affluent counterparts and still raise more money for scho ols.Even within school districts with diverse populations, providing equal per pupil funding for schools that serve populations with dramatically different needs can result in schools that reinforce, rather than reduce, inequality. In New York City for example, where per pupil funding is constant3 in the public schools throughout the city, schools that serve students who come to school with a range of academic and social needs that are not being met at home are at a perpetual disadvantage when compared to schools that serve students from more affluent and less needy areas.The Bronx, for example, when compared to the other boroughs of New York city is notable for being home to the neighborhoods with the city’s highest concentrations of poverty, adult incarceration, unemployment, and adults who themselves have not attained a high school diploma. 4   Given these social factors, it is a virtual certainty that, on average, students from the Bronx will come to school with greater need for academic, social and emotional support than their less challenged counterparts in wealthier areas of the city.   The Bronx also has the lowest rates of home ownership in New York City, making students especially likely to change residences and schools multiple times. 4   Studies have shown this kind of mobility to be a strong indicator of low performance. 5   It is no surprise then that the Bronx has the lowest rates of students performing at grade level on standardized tests in Math and English in New York City. 4 Because of modern school segregation, low-income students not only struggle with poverty related issues at home but generally receive an inferior education at school as well.This combination creates a sense of hopelessness and the perception that the benefits of education cannot be realized among many in these communities. This leads many students to achieve below their potential and to disengage from school, leaving them with few opportunities for gainful employment or to secure housing in an area where better schools could serve their own children in the future. Together these structural forces create a self-reinforcing cycle of poverty (both economic and educational) that disproportionately impacts the lives of people of color in America.    The problems we face in closing gaps in educational opportunity and outcomes are not purely the result of inaction, or lack of effort, but rather the misunderstanding of the source of the problem. To succeed in eliminating educational inequality in this country we must begin to address the social and economic conditions in low income and minority communities. The prospect of this kind of systemic change can seem daunting, but here are three ways we can begin addressing the issue: EmploymentCreate strong incentives for businesses that locate long term, living wage, environmentally friendly employment opportunities in low income and minority communities. In cities like New York, low-income min orities often live in areas with few opportunities for gainful employment. 4   This compounds their geographic isolation, increases adult and teen unemployment, and forces parents to spend more time commuting to jobs in which they earn low wages.The presence of stable, living wage earning jobs in low income communities not only improves the economic fortunes of the area, it also provides a critical mass of role models who can reinforce for students the value of educational achievement. Health Care One of the more disastrous byproducts of poverty is many parents’ inability to support their child’s development and achievement in school. With inadequate access to physical and mental health care, vision testing, and nutritional counseling, many parents in low income and minority communities are unable to offer their children the support they need to be prepared for success in school.We would likely see greater gains in educational achievement among low income and minorit y students by investing in community support services like universal health care, school-based vision clinics, and mental health services, than we see from the billions we currently spend on No Child Left Behind reforms. 5  Ã‚   Housing Integration Simply put, we will not likely be able to achieve educational equality without a dismantling of the new class and race based separate-but-equal school system being reestablished in America.The best way to ensure school integration is through housing integration. To achieve this we need rigorous enforcement of the long neglected 1968 Fair Housing Act, which contains provisions to ensure municipalities structure housing policy in ways that don’t reinforce racial segregation. In addition, we need a comprehensive, national strategy to ensure that as affluent whites move back into city centers, and blacks and Latinos are priced out of gentrifying areas and into the suburbs, we don’t simply shift populations in still segregated schools. 1

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Evaluating practice through theories and models Essay - 3

Evaluating practice through theories and models - Essay Example This theory explains when nursing is needed and details how nursing can help in such a way that it appears to the patients as more supportive rather than invasive. As patients become inevitably unable to provide self-care, self-deficit takes place, and this is where the nursing support should come in. In Mr. Tan’s case, the ability to provide self-care is rather impracticable considering the physical limitations caused by his fifth leg amputation. At least, for self-care that requires lateral mobilization, it would be unfeasible for Mr. Tan to take care of himself. According to the Self-Deficit Theory, nursing comes in as an interactional reinforcement that functions to provide healthcare assistance to Mr. Tan. Looking at the situation, Mr. Tan is clearly unable to meet his own self-care requisites such as his universal self-care needs like promotion of normality and physical activities (Bernier 2002); without his wife’s or any other person’s help, he would be unable to serve himself with food, water, or medicine because of his leg amputation. This is where nursing is needed. Orem’s self-deficit theory is most applicable for Mr. Tan’s case because he is already incapable or limited in the provision of continuous effective self care; thus, he nee ds the following methods that Orem identifies as important to respond to this kind of situation: (1) acting for and doing for others: Mr. Tan needs a higher level of comfort and care; (2) Mr. Tan and his wife need guidance when it comes to controlling the disease and appropriate healthcare provisions, especially concerning his medications; (3) He needs support, not just physical but also emotional and psychological; and (4) he needs to be educated about his condition and he can control the degenerative effects of the Diabetes Mellitus to his body (Laferriere 1995 ). Mr. Tan displays a certain degree of hopelessness. His despondency over his condition has manifested in the way he deals with those that

Intervention plan for diabetic patients Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Intervention plan for diabetic patients - Essay Example Nutrition is the most important factor for diabetic patients because it impacts directly on the blood glucose levels. As an intervention plan for the diabetic patients, it comes with restriction on the kinds of foods the patients should take based on their glycemic index and nutrient content (Ross, Boucher, O’Connell, American Diabetic Association, 2005). Diabetic patients need to be enrolled on a healthy diet that prevents an occurrence of hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia. A diabetic diet entails healthy eating in which all nutrients are available to the patients with minimal fats and added sugar. Diabetic patients should consume carbohydrates that exhibit high fiber content in concert with slow sugar release. Being directly responsible for the blood sugar level, the quality of carbohydrates is essential to consider for the patients. It is necessary to limit intake of highly refined carbohydrates, for instance, bread and pasta because they increase the blood sugar level at an accelerated speed. Complex carbohydrates have lower glycemic index hence increasing the blood sugar level at a slower rate. Blood glucose, therefore, remains moderate. Examples of high fiber carbohydrates suitable for diabetic patients are brown rice, steel cut oats, and peas. Adopting a healthy diabetic diet does not translate to the total elimination of sugary foods from the diet. Patients have to moderate the intake to ensure the amounts taken do not cause hyperglycemia. Patients need to limit the amount of hidden sugar they take in packaged and fast foods. In regulating carbohydrate intake, limiting soft drinks and processed food intake is essential. Choosing what to eat for the diabetic patients extends to the fat intake (Ross et al., 2005). It is important for the patients to consider the kind of fats they take because it has bearing on the diabetic status. Saturated and Trans fats constitute unhealthy fats for diabetic patients. Saturated fats come from animal products like

ArcelorMittal's use of internet and its website Essay

ArcelorMittal's use of internet and its website - Essay Example User Friendliness of the Website ArcelorMittal is one of the world’s leading companies in the steel and mining. They are into all major steel markets like automobile, construction, packing and household appliances. Before discussing about the user friendliness of the website the factors affecting the basics of the website should be understood well. Access The website has to be easily accessible to the public. Once a service is found, it should be visible immediately when called and in minimum response time. At the same time while designing a website, the problem of disabled people should be taken into account. There is the law relating to the design of websites for people with disability. The website of ArcelorMittal is easily accessible to the customers, with very less response time. But the website may not be user-friendly for the people with disability. Quality Content The content of the website should be presented in an easily understandable language with clarity, trustwor thiness and correctness. The content should be quickly retrieved to answer the queries of common people. The website should contain details about their service, responsibilities, communication and transitional facilities. The website of Arcelor Mittal has all the above mentioned basic requirements. Along with this it also contains data which are really helpful to the investors. IT Security In this era where cyber crime is an area of concern, therefore website security takes an important place. Though no one can guarantee 100% security but the website security has to be reviewed and enhanced from time to time. In connection to this loss and unauthorized use or alteration should also be taken into consideration. In the website of Arcelor Mittal though they have not given any commitment of 100% security but they do try to keep their websites away from cyber threats. Responsibility for content The issue regarding responsibility for content and youth safety should be address by the compa ny while designing their websites. Arcelor Mittal’s website is perfect from that respect too (Quality Criteria for a Public-User-Friendly and Secure Website, n. d., pp. 10-12). Thus it can be concluded that the website of Arcelor Mittal is quite user friendly and contains a lots of information. It not only provides information related to their business and investors but also information related to their commitment towards the society. The language used in the website is very simple and easily understandable. Meeting With the Requirement of The Customer The customer and the investors are always interested towards the performance and the growth of the company. The website of ArcelorMittal has sections that provide information related to what they do, their corporate responsibilities, information related to people interested to join ArcelorMittal for growing career and information related to the investor (Homepage of ArcelorMittal, n. d.). The investor section provides a lot of information regarding their financial condition for past few years as well as present. The investor’s toolkit present in the website of the company can help the investor to decide their investment strategy. The supplier segment can also be of great interest to the customers. In the segment â€Å"What we do† (What we do, n.d.) the website traces on their main activities and sub activities. They highlight on their research and development, commenting on how their research work can be helpful to

Financial analysis of Sainsbury plc and Tesco Plc Essay

Financial analysis of Sainsbury plc and Tesco Plc - Essay Example The paper will highlight the Key features and the current strategies directed by the companies followed by the Calculation of financial ratios for each company, and Compare with earlier years, that allow to judge the financial performance and position for the company, and to interpret if the company's assessment of its own performance as shown in the Financial Highlights and Chairman's Statement a good representation. Then comparison of the two companies together, followed by comparison with the industrial average. The basic structure of this research essay will be divided to five sections: Firstly: Brief definitions of the company’s activities and their major business, when they operate as well as the current strategies directed by the company and also why choose these two firms; Secondly: The calculation of the financial ratios; Thirdly: Financial Analysis; Fourthly: the limitations of ratios; Finally summary and conclusions. This research essay will also make a research int o thedifferent type of stock price prediction models and will select the time series model to predict the stock price for two years and then compare them with the actual stock price of the above companies and present the reasearch findings and will make a detailed analysis of the same.A intercompany analysis between Tesco and Sainsbury will be carried over and also a comparison with the industry’s average will also carried over to know how these companies are performing as compared to the industry’s average. 1. Short Narration of the Activities of the Companies Sainsbury Plc Sainsbury being a supermarket chain, J. Sainsbury Plc is a renowned retailer operating from London and also ventured into construction activities, real estate and owning a commercial bank in UK. Established in the year 1869, Sainsbury is having around 337 convenience stores and 557 Supermarkets, and Sainsbury owns a floor space ranging from 15,000 to in excess of 40,000 square feet and has supermar ket branches throughout the UK and in the UK and about forty percent of these products are own brands of Sainsbury. Salisbury is having more than 5000 own brands in health and food sector. Apart from the grocery and food products, the majority of the Sainsbury stores offers fish and meat counters, a delicatessen, bread baked on the premises of Sainsbury, coffee shops, pharmacies, gas stations and restaurants. By sales value, Salisbury is the largest UK retailer of Fairtrade products as it sourced ethically and responsibly around ?280 million in the year 2011 alone. Under the brand names of Jackson’s and Bells Stores, Sainsbury manages its convenience stores and also offers a variety of the local brand mainly through the Shell franchise. Sainsbury also markets its own brands along with specialty and ethnic food products like Indian, American, Asian, Italian, low-priced products and organic products. Sainsbury also added house wares and clothing to its retail list of products. Sainsbury also owns a bank in collaboration with the Bank of Scotland, which was the first-ever bank owned by a supermarket in the UK, and its clients numbers have surpassed more than two million numbers as of date. With regard to land associated with the Sainsbury Supermarkets, it is being managed by Sainsbury Property Company and JS Developments, a Sainsbury’s real estate development company. State the different sectors in which saninsbury deals, % revenue In 2006, Sainsbury acquired 4 stores from Somerfield. (Plunkett 2008). As of 2011, Sainsbury is having in a week around 21 million customer transactions and have a market share around 16% in the UK. Sainsbury is offering employment to more than 150,000 individuals. During the year 2011, Sainsbury opened extra 47 convinient stores, and it had

Research & Analysis Study of Balfour Beatty plc Business and Essay

Research & Analysis Study of Balfour Beatty plc Business and Competitive Environment - Essay Example The company made good progress in the building sector in 2006. Heery, a leading architectural, engineering and programme management business, represents Balfour Beatty's business interests in USA. Balfour Beatty's Civil and Specialist Engineering and Services division, with revenues of 1,920m and 10,455 employees, specializes in engineering, design and management services provider in civil, transport, energy and water sectors in UK, USA, Hong Kong and Middle East. It has a leading market presence in specialised engineering services like overhead transmission lines, gas and water utility contracting and in road management and maintenance resulting in profit from operations tripled to 49m in 2005. The company with strong orders and a number of large contracts under their belt gained growth momentum in 2006 in the engineering sector. Balfour Beatty's Rail Engineering and Services division, with revenues of 766m and 5,922 employees, specializes in designing, constructing, equipping, maintaining and renewal of rail assets and systems in UK, USA, Germany, Italy and Portugal. The profit from operations in these services fell by 27% to 32m in 2005. This was a result of full year without maintenance and tighter market in UK and some losses in the US. 2006 saw some progress due to increase in efficiency and improving project volume in London Underground, Germany and Italy. Balfour Beatty Rail Inc has been restructured into a single organisation, headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. The organisation has shown substantial growth in recent years with strategic acquisitions in the US and Germany. Balfour Beatty's Investments and Developments division, with revenues of 465m and only 136 employees promotes, manages and invests in privately funded infrastructure projects and developments in selected sectors in the UK and overseas, through its operating company Balfour Beatty Capital, established in 1997. Balfour Beatty's is currently conducting PPP/PFI projects in two principal sectors such as infrastructure (comprising transportation, power and waste water treatment) and accommodation (including health and education). It showed 20m profit from operations in 2005. Balfour Beatty's Other Service Segments Balfour Beatty holds 20% share in the Metronet consortium, a 30-year PPP project responsible for upgrading and maintaining two thirds of London Underground's infrastructure like trains, stations, signalling, track, tunnels and bridges. Balfour Beatty also has four DBFO (design-build-finance-operate) road concessions. Balfour Beatty is provider of a range of Healthcare services to major UK hospital schemes in London, Edinburgh, Durham and Blackburn providing a total of over 2,500 beds. Through Consort Healthcare, Balfour Beatty is also appointed preferred bidder for 521m PPP contracts in Birmingham Acute and Adult Psychiatric Hospitals and 250m Pinderfields and Pontefract hospitals. Balfour Beatty operates the largest grouped schools scheme in England called the Transform Schools' Stoke concession covering 98 schools since 2000. The Rotherham Schools started in 2003, was awarded "Best Community Use Project" in 2005 in the PPP/PFI Journal Awards. The Transform scheme built and maintained 21

Autonomous intelligent agent topic tracking system Dissertation

Autonomous intelligent agent topic tracking system - Dissertation Example The researcher states that technology has forever changed the way journalists approach their careers, but there have those proverbial bumps in the road. For instance, Google found itself with a bit of quagmire following the 9/11 attacks on the Unite States. People were using keywords that they were hoping would put them right where they needed to be for the must up to date information. Unfortunately, Google as a search engine couldn’t meet the demands and a worse, the search engine just didn’t know what to do with these unfamiliar strings of words. For the first time, the internet failed people – both those hungry for news and those eager to get their columns in before deadline. A key component in the globalization of the world economy involves the transfer of intellectual material across borders. Access to new ideas and information is an important means of development in most economies. Today, thanks to the Internet, the flow of information is much easier; intel lectual ideas and property can be exchanged across borders almost instantaneously. Except perhaps in China where government officials block access not only to individual web sites, but to entire search engines. While China’s leaders recognize the value of the Internet as a tool for building economic competitiveness and technology capabilities, they have established what is known as the Great Firewall to filter what Chinese citizens can read on the Web, and effectively maintain the Communist Party’s grip on power.... Today, thanks to the Internet, the flow of information is much easier; intellectual ideas and property can be exchanged across borders almost instantaneously. Except perhaps in China where government officials block access not only to individual web sites, but to entire search engines. While China’s leaders recognize the value of the Internet as a tool for building economic competitiveness and technology capabilities, they have established what is known as the Great Firewall to filter what Chinese citizens can read on the Web, and effectively maintain the Communist Party’s grip on power. This paper discusses how China’s limitation on free access to the Internet influences the country’s ability to achieve meaningful economic progress. The CEO of AltaVista, one of the search engines banned by the Chinese government, noted that "censorship is not compatible with his vision of free global access to information" and has stated that he will not screen his siteâ €™s content to cater to Chinese officials. Yahoo Inc.’s Chinese portal in contrast has pledged to censor itself. This paper supports Yahoo Inc.’s decision and the contention that the current Chinese internet policy has helped the economy in achieving exponential economic growth. China’s policy in the context of technology during the last fifteen years has highlighted the undeniable reality of how a global power can adopt a need to use basis approach in strengthening internet limitations and censorship. Theorists have often felt that the main objective of adopting this policy is principally accounted for by the desire to strengthen national sovereignty and to enhance economic development. Obviously, these are two

An Analysis of the CSR Strategies of Del Monte Kenya Limited Assignment

An Analysis of the CSR Strategies of Del Monte Kenya Limited - Assignment Example Business organisations that are socially responsible are supposed to incorporate environmental, economic, and social issues into their business operations. According to Deresky (2009), how to carry out business operations in a more socially responsible way in societies where violations of human rights are prevalent, where the environment is being destroyed or where conflict is pervasive, is one of the most difficult issues confronting business organisations nowadays. Although the company may be trying to achieve a justifiable goal, the strategies are not constantly justifiable, and, even if the strategies are justifiable, the consequences of the strategies may still be damaging or detrimental. This paper critically examines the CSR strategies of Del Monte Kenya Limited. The final section provides several recommendations to improve the company’s ethical and environmental credentials.CSR Strategies of Del Monte Kenya Limited How Del Monte Kenya Limited conducts business is justifiable in its dual goals (Bomann-Larsen & Wiggen, 2004, p. 165): (1) to produce first-class and finest pineapples; and (2) to generate profit. The first objective is a way of serving the people and society, and the second is the immediate outcome of any business venture. For its business operations the company requires massive areas of land, it has to boost production by using pesticides, and apparently it demands a huge number of labourers.

Possible Risks Which Affect Computer System Essay Example for Free

Possible Risks Which Affect Computer System Essay Abstract The short report reveals about the possible risks that affecting the computer system in terms of data loss and malfunctioning of programs. By taking simple precautionary measures the unexpected hazards can be completely eliminated. The most significant preventive measure is timely backing up the data. The other involves physical safety and installation of anti-virus programs. One factor to be kept in mind is that without proper physical safety no data is safe, as the hardware parts including motherboard, processor, and storage system constitute a computer brain. Once the brain gets damaged the whole system is collapsed. Introduction Normally people never think of taking precautionary measures until they experience individual loss or feel the bitterness of unexpected disasters. This may also happen in most of the cases regarding back up processes against possible risks involved in information loss. There is no use of running after the data, which has already been a lost or taking bleak effort to regain it. But one has to be vigilant regarding the backup process by learning from the drastic experiences of others. If one realize about the importance of information stored in the system and feel the perspiration to create and process the data associated with it, he will never let it go by silly causes. Firstly he would concern about the protection of information by all possible ways. This short report reveals about the possible risks involved in data loss and the ways to eliminating those risks. Possible Risks to the Data There are several risks, which cause the data in the computer to vanish or to corrupt. Therefore different backup processes are to be adopted to protect data from different risks. Only a few numbers of backup processes are capable to handle all the risks and protect data loss. Here is a short description about the commonly seen risks to PCs. Hardware Failure It is termed as the most significant risk that may affect the data storage system. If a person is well aware of hard disk failure he never forget to backup the data timely. Disk crash may lead the system with irrecoverable loss of data and valuable programs. The other hardware failures include memory errors; system-timing problems, resource conflicts and power loss can also corrupt the data or damage the important programs. Ensuring proper dust free and moisture free atmosphere, timely scanning of disk, supply of uninterrupted power will minimize the above risks. Software Failure There is also a possibility of data loss due to software errors. It may be the result of improper or ineffective software design. Due to lack of proper logic and effective coding the program on execution may get hanged and because of that the data may get corrupted. â€Å"Some software bugs may be even more damaging, even causing the loss of files unrelated to them. † (SF). But rarely it happens. This risks can be eliminated by using of the trustful and reliable software. File System Corruption This problem generally comes due to the improper maintenance of system disks. If the disk is not scanned regularly there is a risk of transforming file structure used to contain information files and programs. It may cause damage of data and ultimately loss. Accidental Deletion It happens by simple mistakes of human as, rarely, important files may accidentally be deleted from the hard disk. By taking certain protection techniques and undeletion utilities the lost files can be recovered later. Proper backup of data in time and usage of proper undeletion utilities will negate the data loss from accidental deletion. Virus Infection Viruses are uninvited malicious programs that cause irrecoverable damages to the system files and important programs. The data loss can happen either due to direct Virus attacks or it can happen as a result to the efforts for removing viruses from computer system. By installing trustful anti-virus programs this problem can be eliminated. Other Risks Data loss due to physical activities of human such as Theft and Sabotage by dissatisfied employees is also a matter of concern. Same consequences are expected from the natural disasters such as Fire incidents, flood, earthquake, mud slide, hurricane, lightning strike, etc. at is on. Once the system is damaged physical no recovery can be expected from that. Therefore the only solution from the risk is to ensure physical safety of the system. So protect the systems from the possible physical hazards keep it physically as well as functionally safe. Work cited SFSource : Software Failures ; http://www. pcguide. com/care/bu/risks. htm

Personnel Management and HRM

Personnel Management and HRM Personnel management is a type of Human Resource Management. This area of management is concerned about workers and staff of the organization. They are responsible for recruiting and staffing of employees in an organization. Its features include: Organizational management Personnel administration Manpower management Industrial management The term personnel Management and Human Resource management can be called as the same process having two names. In todays world Personnel management is known as human resource management which came into effect during the 1970s and got the acceptance in 1989.Both terms however, referred to the same thing; the personnel manager who work for a company represent that companys human resources. Although Human Resource Management department did not exist in the 1940s, but many Human Resource practices and programs that we see today emerged in the earlier times. Human Resource Management (HRM) previously known as personal management, deals with formal system for the management of the employees within the organization. HR mangers have many things to do and think regarding their workers. These concerns include how to manage layoffs, address reduced employee loyalty, and create a well trained highly motivated work force through training, capable of higher productivity with high quality. Manage and increase diverse workforce and contain health care cost. In 1970s, the job of the HR manger was to keep their companies out of court because at that time the government set many regulations regarding the work. In the 1980s HR mangers had to address staffing costs related to mergers and acquisitions and downsizing. The economic issues related to an increasingly global and competitive workplace characterize the 1990s Shifting from Personnel Management to HRM: The most important role of HRM can be from the transformation of the personnel management function from concentrating on employee welfare to managing workforce in a way, that meet organizational and individual goals and providing employees with internal and external rewards. Therefore, today Human Resource Management (HRM), previously had known as personal management, deals with formal system for the management of the people within the organization. Many well-known companies report that they are trying to transform their workforce into a source of competitive advantage. Stages of shifting of Personnel Management to HRM: Firstly, Effective HRM focus on linking HRM problems to the overall strategy of the organization, the most effective HRM will design policies and practices for such corporate policies and strategies which can change an organizations culture Secondly, building strong cultures is a way of promoting particular organizational goals, strong culture is aimed at uniting employees through a shared set of managerially set of values (quality, service, innovation etc.) Thirdly, the attitude that people are a variable cost is ineffective HRM, replaced by the view that people are resource and that as social capital can be developed and can contribute to competitive advantage. It is accepted that competitive advantage is gained through well-educated and trained, motivated and committed employees. Fourthly, the view that the interests of employees and management or shareholders are divergent which was substantially true in the past is giving way to the view that this need not necessarily be so. Shift of personnel management to HRM took place in three stages: 1. Records and Administration 2. Accountability Regulations 3. Competitive Advantage 1. Records and Administration: In first stage the primary activities, which were carried out by personnel department, were, Planning Company picnics Scheduling vacations, Enrolling workers for health-care coverage, planning retirement parties, increase diverse workforce and contain health care cost. 2. Accountability Regulations: During this stage primary framework of rules and regulations started emerging in the organization. In 1970s, the job of the HR manger was to keep their companies out of court. In the 1980s HR mangers had to address staffing costs related to mergers and acquisitions and downsizing. 3. Competitive Advantage: The aim of this shift stage is from merely securing compliance to the more ambitious one of winning commitment. The employee resource, therefore, becomes worth investing in, and training and development thus assume a higher profile. P 2: -Assess the role, tasks and activities of the human resource practitioner HRM plays a very important role in the success of every organization especially big organization where it is difficult to manage all the activities. HRM is also developing and maintaining a quality of work life thats make employment in the organization desirable. It provides well trained and multi-skill employees. One of the most important functions of HRM is that it brings strategic integration. To integrate all the functions from top management to lower management. Integrate them at one specific point that all functions are interrelated. The policies of HRM are structured in such away which allows maximum flexibility and because of flexibility it can bring innovation because innovation is also very important for the success of an organization like that of specialized cycle. There motto is innovation or die. HRM also force on better quality because of the best quality it can survive in the market. Because with the industrial revolution there when new competitors enter in to the market the old competitors stress on quality in order to show that they have a competitive edge. The HR Manager has an important role in developing and reviewing policies, practices and later referring them to senior management for decision making. The HR Manager generally educates staff through applied theories and retraining them with skillful training for line managers. The HR Manager provides support and guidance to those employees which are involved in unwelcome actions. HR Manager is responsible to find such people whose abilities are competent with the nature of business in which the organization is involve. HR Manager conducts job analysis, recruitment and selecting processes effectively and efficiently which helps an organization to hire capable people. HR Manager is responsible to increase the skill and knowledge level of the employees in order to improve their performance level. It is not obvious that one strategy regarding improving performance level which works for one organization will also work for others HR Manager has a key role in appraising an employee. Through appraising the HR department can judge employees performance. A performance appraisal compares every employees real performance with the benchmarks of standards i.e. appraising employees help the companies in evaluating its employees. HR Manager is responsible to make sure that its policies are competent with the government rules and regulation so that the government shouldnt take the company to court. Secondly it is the ethical responsibility of the organization that it should work under the premises of government laws. The HR Manager builds a competitive edge because conceptually HRM is a strategy of using human resource. Now a day if a company wants to build a competitive edge over its competitors so it has to be very good in managing its human resource because it is the human who use all other sources of production. HR Manager is responsible to make such an environment to make employees effective and efficient to adapt the changing of technologies to perform the operations. Now a days planning is needed for all the functions and actions of the organizations. Building strategies is one of the core purposes of planning. As human assets are considered the keys to business success so while planning and building strategies it is very important to integrate the strategies regarding human resource with over all corporate strategic planning so that the success can be achieved. An Ideal HR Manager Generally HR Manager should perform such activities like planning, directing, and coordinating human resource management actions of an organization to develop the strategic usage of human resources and to continue functions such as recruitment, employees training, planning, employee compensation, and employees performance appraisal. HR should be a Profit Centre which refers to a part of a corporation that directly adds to its profit. Organizations may be organized in terms of profit centers where the profit centers revenues and expenses are held separate from the main companys in order to determine their profitability. We can justify this that recruitments, staff settlement, training and other things that they do should be profitable for an organization. They need to reduce administration cost through proper planning for example providing transport facilities, coffee, tea, lunch expenses, other bonuses lead to higher administrative cost. It will help them to avoid wastage of resources. They need to conduct Performance Appraisal properly which refers to as a method by which the job performance of an employee is evaluated (generally in terms of quality, quantity, cost, and time) typically by the corresponding manager. They should provide their employees compensation which refers to as a systematic approach to providing monetary value to employees in exchange for work performed. Compensation may achieve several purposes assisting in recruitment, job performance, and job satisfaction. They need have good relationship with different departments and try to keep themselves up to date from their activities and performances in order to prevent miscommunication and other disputes. P3: Evaluate the role and responsibilities of line managers in human resource practices? Line manager is person who deals with the workforce directly. Line manager plays important role in the success of HR manager. Line managers play vital role in terms of implementing HR policies and practices such as, disciplinary handling, absence management, Training and appraising employees. Line managers now have a greater involvement in the recruitment and selection process from the outset.ÂÂ   Alongside the HR manager, line managers are now typically involved in briefing the recruitment agency, writing the advertisement, short listing and interviewing they then make sure that recruitment is right. HR manager gets staff information from the line manager, for example if the employees are not working properly or they dont come regularly, these line managers inform the HR manager to take proper actions. If some workers are not performing well then HR manager consults line manager for providing them training in order to develop the skills and techniques of their employees and th en appraising those employees who are working well in order provide them with equal growth opportunities. Some researches have found that where employees feels positive about their relationship with their line managers they are more likely to have higher levels of job satisfaction, commitment and loyalty which are associated with higher levels of performance, for example taking care of employees health and hygiene factors will address employees absenteeisms and hence increase their motivation. As well as line manager helps HR manager in providing employees other fringe benefits such as free medical, transport and free education for employees children and treating every in the same way will increase their loyalty towards their organization and hence, it will address the discipline problems. Therefore, the involvements of line manager in HR practices improve their activities further. M1: Discuss how the concepts of PM and HRM are practiced in an organization? We have selected UFONE as an organization. As we all know that Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation Limited (PTCL) that started its operations in January 2001 under the brand name UFONE. As a result of PTCLs privatization, UFONE became a part of the Emirates Telecommunication Corporation Group (Etisalat) in 2006. (Referenced from: http://ufone.com/about.aspx ) They have got large human resources in their Peshawar branch office. They have a human resource department in Islamabad to guide their employees and provide those facilities and comfort. In this company there are several departments such as sales department, customer care department, finance department, marketing department, corporate department etc. In UFONE Human Resource Department has individual relationship with each department. In UFONE the roles and responsibilities of Human Resource Management Department which was previously known as Personal management in recruitment process is given below: Before hiring new employees the HR department ensures that whether there is a need to hire a new employee for the particular job. The recruitment in UFONE is of both internal and external nature. Internal Recruitment In this case the employees already in the organization are encouraged to fill the vacant position. The HR department and other senior department choose the best fit from the employees within the UFONE. After the promotion employees are sent for further training. Internal recruitment motivates the employees to perform well and produce good results. It also creates a healthy competition within the staff of UFONE. External Recruitment If the HR department of UFONE feels that there is no one in the company who can fill the vacancy then they recruit from external sources. First they select some supervisors with whom the new people will work in order to form a panel of people who will interview applicants. UFONE has a data base system i.e. HRMS (Human Resource Management System) for its current applicants as well for the future employees. People just drop their CVs there and in case some vacancy occurs HR department call them for an interview. UFONE also advertise internally for recruitment purpose, because their current employees pass this information to their friends and families. UFONEs HR management has the service of internal flow, web designer, and Eveready media in order to post their advertisement. They also have eCVs format in which people put their CVs without moving and this system forward them to the HRM department. Recruitment procedure in UFONE For collecting application everything is computerized and it is very easy for them to reply too many applicants. They handle first those people who do not fit in their job and deal them carefully because they consider them their future applicants. Then they take on-line evaluation test (basically for testing personality and skills) and candidates that pass this test are called for an interview and the day for the interview is already set. Then the results are screened by an expert penal in order to reduce the chances of errors in selecting the candidates. After selecting the candidates then they are referred to accounts department for settling the pay and they give the new employees an orientation of what is his/her duties and responsibilities in UFONE. Then after some time they provide them training for enhancing their skill of communication with their client. The basic purpose behind all these recruitment steps is to hire a skillful workforce in UFONE who work toward department and the organizations goals and objectives and to get competitive advantage. M2: Make an effective judgment about PM and line manager responsibilities in studied organization. The line manager has key role in UFONE. They are responsible for dealing workforce directly and they are there to help the HRM department and others as well. The way line manager works with HR manager in selection processes, disciplinary handling, absence management, and training and appraising in UFONE which has been mentioned in P3. According to the Judgment given to us by the HR manager of UFONE, they are achieving their goals on time. He said our HRM department has good relationship with every department of UFONE such as marketing, corporate, finance, sales, customers care departments etc. The HR department plan rules and regulation and the way they want their employees to work then our line managers pass those information to the lower staff so that they perform accordingly within time in order to get organizational goals. Some time they work more than their required duty timing from 9am to 5pm and till 8pm so that they get their targets. But what we judged after studying UFONE i s even though they provide their employees all the monetary and non-monetary benefits a lot of employees from both managerial and non-managerial levels left UFONE just after few months of their joining. The major reason behind this is that sometime in order to achieve their targets in the season many people keep working more then their required duty timing of 9am to 5pm and continue till 8pm and employees find themselves without their social life. Another problem that we noticed was that there was lack of communication between sales departments and the marketing department. D1: Evaluate the roles and responsibilities of HR manager and line manager in the organization as compared to their ideal role. Here we would like to specify the problems or the area in which HR manager is lacking after studying UFONE. In this company communication between different departments is very bad for example an year ago their marketing department made an offer in their advertisement that customers can get UFONE Sims for free without informing their Sales department, that advertisement attracted the attention of every one, then every one rushed to get Sims for free, while they didnt had enough Sims to supply as consequences their image was badly effected and their Customer Care Department received thousands of complaints. We have held HR department for the problem of miscommunication between different departments because HR focuses on openness in communication between senior management and employees in different departments, results in improving employee engagement and their productivity this shows their focus is not to provide open communication. Another problem that UFONEs HR Manager is facing is t hat even though they provide their employees all the monetary and non-monetary benefits a lot of employees from both managerial and non-managerial levels left UFONE just after few months of their joining. The major reason behind this is that sometimes in order to achieve their targets in the season many people keep working more then their required duty timing of 9am to 5pm and continue till 8pm and employees find themselves without their social life. This problem shows that HR manager is not performing well because its not only money that is important to their employees they needed also to take care of employees by allowing them to go at 5pm so that they can spend time with their families. The ideal roles of their HR manager in UFONE should be the following: HR manager should build such communication system in which each department can communicate with each other so that marketing department increase demands of their customer by consulting the sales departments in order to make an effective advertisement for their product in this way each department will perform better. HR manager needs to have back up staff in season time where targets are high and with allotted time employees had to work over time for getting their targets. And provide them emergency leaves if the employees have emergency in their homes by doing this HR can stop their employees from leaving. They need to reduce administration cost through proper planning for example providing transport facilities, coffee, tea, lunch expenses, other bonuses lead to higher administrative cost. It will help them to avoid wastage of resources. They need to conduct Performance Appraisal properly which refers to as a method by which the job performance of an employee is evaluated (generally in terms of quality, quantity, cost, and time) typically by the corresponding manager. They should provide their employees compensation which refers to as a systematic approach to providing monetary value to employees in exchange for work performed. Compensation may achieve several purposes assisting in recruitment, job performance, and job satisfaction. They need have good relationship with different departments and try to keep themselves up to date from their activities and performances in order to prevent miscommunication and other disputes. D2: Suggest recommendations for realistic improvement against the defined Following are the recommendations for UFONE to carry out their human resource planning in a better way: The prediction of requirement and availability of the work force is considered an essential step in carrying out human resource planning for any organization. UFONE should do the forecasting keeping in mind the rapid changes in demands which has been taking place and should spend their time in finding best employees from service sector, which could be a source of competitive advantage for the organization. They should always look for hiring the quality workforce and this can be done effectively by keeping contacts with universities because fresh candidates no matters they are not experienced but they show enthusiasm and commitment in their early jobs to built a platform for their career. So they can hire the fresh candidates and should train them to assist the HR professionals. Moreover the initial step should be the establishment of the HR departments on regional levels because without proper HR professionals, qualitative human resource planning is not possible; this is discussed in detail in the upcoming topics. Recruitment and selection process has a pivotal role in making successful HRM policies. In case of UFONE before advertising any vacancy they should do proper job analysis which will lead to the development of an effective job description and job specification and will result in attracting potential talented candidates for the job. They should practice performance management policies, different incentives scheme should be introduced e.g. if a department within the office shows outstanding performance in generating more revenue then the rest of the areas or has performed well in reducing the complaints in that area then should be given some special incentives and should be provided companys certificate for good performance because a companys certificate means a lot to any employee. They should give all of them some role in decision making and should give them chance to achieve their full potential. Moreover job security should be given top priority because if the employee feels being in an uncertain environment and does not feel being a part of that company so he/she can never perform well, so in order to make them contribute effectively and to fulfill their responsibilities UFONE needs to work on job security. In addition, the employees should be promoted and given more benefits and greater responsibility based on their efficiency and experience. All this which will help them in keeping their employees loyal and committed and as a result employee turnover will be low. Proper training and development keeps an organization ready to face untoward situations and helps them in gaining competitive edge over its competitors. UFONE should review the performance of employees after every quarter for this purpose they should make the separate profile of each employee and their performance should be evaluated against the standard performance required for the success of the organization, this will help UFONE in finding out key areas for development for that particular employee and accordingly they can assess what his/her training needs are. Moreover in response to the case discussed above, they should invite all the employees for the training programs instead of inviting a couple of employees from every department because all of them deserve to improve and work on their skills and to get better training. Organization environment and structure is considered as the most critical factor for the success of the organization in case of UFONE the employees suggestions should be given due consideration while making the strategy this will make employee feel as a part of the organization and besides that flexible working hours and family friendly policies should also be introduced because they dont need only money in fact, they should take care of their personal needs as well. As earlier we have discussed that sometimes employee works till 8pm so this is against their own needs, they should set a proper schedule for taking out the work from employees.

Marketing Essays Red Bull

Marketing Essays Red Bull Table of Contents Introduction Red Bull and Marketing Theory Introduction Market Entry Market Strategy Marketing Communications Company Analysis Analytical Methods Company Sales and Diversification Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats Conclusions Future of Red Bull and Recommendations References Introduction Red Bull has created a strong brand image, using colourful icon with two bulls in opposition and a memorable tag line; ‘Red Bull gives you wings’. Through creative marketing and sponsorship it has linked itself with extreme sports, innovative music and art, all aimed squarely at the youth market (Dahlen, Lange and Smith, 2010). This brief examines brand development, which strategies have helped it to success and where the brand goes from here as it faces the prospect of losing its cutting-edge image while continuing largely with only one product. Red Bull is a European success story. The product was launched in 1987 in Austria. It faced opposition from the Food and Drink Administration (FDA), who refused to clear it for distribution but despite this it became an underground success through clubbers and snowboarders. This anti-establishment stance found synergy with consumers, even after it was cleared for sale. It quickly spread into neighbouring countries and into the US market (Franzen and Moriarty, 2009). Dahlen, Lange and Smith (2010) note that by 2004, it had gained 40% share of its market sector and 70% in Europe. However, the brand still faced problems; it was banned in Denmark and France following unsubstantiated rumours that people had died from drinking the product in Sweden and Ireland (Mail Online, 2001). The European market was stagnating, and it faced distribution problems from companies supporting their own-brand products. The ever-present competition from Pepsi and Coca-Cola limited the scope for expansion. With these pressures, the company developed a marketing strategy that avoided mainstream advertising, instead focusing on grass-roots promotion. The product was sold in trendy nightclubs and bars, and the credibility of those held in high regard by the young target audience, such as DJs (Boswijk, Thijssen and Peelen, 2007). Brand education was provided by high-profile visits to places where the company felt people ‘might need a lift’. Examples include offices, building sites and garages. Self-styled Red Bull distributors exploited their local knowledge to help sell the brand and its products. It terms of higher profile marketing, Red Bull has primarily focused on maintaining its links with extreme sports. It sponsors two Formula One teams (Red Bull and Toro Rosso), as well as snowboarding, kite-boarding, surfing and aircraft racing. All of these underline its commitment to its youthful, energetic target audience. The next part of the brief examines how its marketing strategy fits into contemporary marketing theory. Red Bull and Marketing Theory Introduction Red Bull is essentially a one-product brand, offered at a premium price in its market sector. Having started in Austria, it quickly spread to other markets including the USA and has become the market leader in its sector. It uses a novel approach to marketing, which is discussed later in this section. In terms of the traditional 4Ps of marketing, therefore, the company is easy to categorise. However, the 4P method has received criticism as being somewhat limited (Lee, 2001), and therefore the company is examined from a number of perspectives in this section, starting with market entry. Market Entry Any new company has to determine how they intend to enter a new market. This will be predicated by a number of factors such as the available resources, the sales objectives, product offered and existing competition (Fifield, 1998). In the case of Red Bull, the launch of the new product established a new category of product; that of energy drinks. Derived from a concept found by Dietrich Mateschitz in the Far East, the formula developed included large amounts of caffeine, sugars (glucose and sucrose) and taurine (Red Bull, 2014). Taurine is a ‘conditional amino acid’, which means it cannot be created by the body but needs to be provided in the diet. It is found in meat and fish (WebMD, 2014). It is used medically in the treatment of congestive heart failure, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, among other conditions, and it is present in infant formulas. Taken together with the other ingredients, Red Bull claims that it provides an energy boost (Red Bull, 2014). Since no similar type of product existed on the market, there was no direct competitor. As an innovator, the company had to educate its target audience on the product’s benefits. If a mass market entry approach is used, this can be extremely expensive (Hill and Jones, 2012), since customers have to be convinced that the new product is safe, has unique benefits and is socially acceptable. Rather than attempting to do this on a large scale, Red Bull adopted a novel method based on introducing the product at a grass roots level. It is promoted as a trendy drink at events where its main target audience gathers; nightclubs, extreme sports events and even parties. In the latter, it encourages students to set up Red Bull parties and provides them with free cans to distribute to their friends. The company also uses cars in the corporate colour scheme – together with a gigantic can – which give out promotional samples (Onkvisit and Shaw, 2009). Initially, distribution is set up using small distributors. In some cases, the company has hired warehouses and set up young people to aggressively sell the product (Pride and O’Ferrell, 2006). As far as can be determined from the available literature, this approach is likely to continue to be used in addressing new markets in future. Market Strategy Its chosen strategy has led to strong word-of-mouth sales in new markets, and this provides a springboard for further success in those markets. As it grows, it invests further in creating events such as the Flugtag, in which competitors attempt to fly from a pier using homemade, unpowered aircraft – most of which are incapable of flight, and soapbox racing (Red Bull, 2014a). This draws both competitors and audiences. Most of the events the company sponsors are more professional in nature and cover an increasing range of activities, from spectacular air racing using stunt planes, to cliff diving, wingsuit racing, motorsports and adventures. The company has even moved into computer gaming and e-sports. The features that are common to all of these activities are their attraction to their target audience and their physical and mental requirements. Having identified this approach, the company appears to be keen to continue to exploit it. When considering the market positioning of the Red Bull energy drink, it almost appears that it has arisen organically from the properties of the product; it supports physical and mental exertion and therefore the market position supports this. However, this belies is underpinned by clever physical and psychological positioning. The physical positioning refers to the product’s unique characteristics (it provides energy from its unique formula) and the psychological positioning derives from its brand image as being youthful and energetic, and socially desirable to its twenty-something core audience (Lantos, 2011). From its original product offering (one product), the company has added a little to its portfolio through the introduction of Red Bull sugar-free, Red Bull zero-calories, Red Bull editions (in flavours of cranberry, lime and blueberry) and Red Bull cola. The cola is promoted as being the only cola drink made from 100% natural ingredients and makes the case that, unlike other brands that might be mentioned, it has no secret formula. The company follows the same basic branding approach for these additional products, presumably on the grounds that they will appeal to subsets of their existing target audience. Marketing Communications However impressive a brand is, it has no value unless it can communicate its unique characteristics to the consumer. On this basis, Red Bull has a highly effective marketing communications approach, it is currently recognised as the 74th most valuable brand in the world, with a value of $7.5 billion USD (Forbes, 2014). From grass roots marketing, these days the brand is more recognised through its sponsorship initiatives. This is backed up with a strong online presence that strongly reflects the brand image and provides a form of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC). The company sees modern communications media as being critical to their success (Kotler and Keller, 2012). The reason Red Bull has achieved such success has been that it has successfully aligned its brand identity with that of its target audience in a way not achieved by its competitors (Urbany and Davis, 2010). Even when it uses traditional marketing media such as TV, it does so in a quirky ways that does not take itself too seriously. In doing so it maintains the image that appeals to its customers. It is this consistancy of message that is so important to IMC. Whatever channel is used to get the message across, it must be the same as those used on alternative channels. Digital media provides an increasingly important method of communicating with consumers, and Red Bull has identified this. As well as having a strong website that focuses on the sponsorship activities it is involved with, it also provides links to social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and You Tube. These sites provide consumers with a means of communicating with the company and with like-minded individuals across the world. This fosters a club-like experience that enhances the company’s alignment with its customers. The use of social media to build on relationship marketing is now well recognised, and Red Bull has been in the forefront of exploiting this (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel, 2011). The company has also been active in the field of mobile marketing, launching its own app to allow subscribers to keep in touch with the company when on the move. Overall, Red Bull is one of the most effective marketing communications companies in the world, and it does so by offering interesting content to its customers. The actual advertising of the products forms a small part of this. However, the brand is intimately linked with its products and thus the message gets across clearly. The continually changing content prompts users to visit its sites frequently, and in doing so keeps the brand close to the user’s attention. Few companies have been so successful in doing so. The next section looks at the current state of the company in the market. Company Analysis Analytical Methods There are a variety of methods available for the analysis of a company. These include analyses on the external environment in which the company operates, such as PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technical, Legal and Environment), and those that examine the internal context such as SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) (Allen, 2001; Murray-Webster, 2010). Other techniques include VRIO (Value, Rarity, Imitability and Organisation), used to determine the level of competitive advantage a company has and how long it is likely to be retained (Peng, 2011). In this case, a PESTLE analysis would provide results indicative of the energy drinks market rather than being specific to Red Bull. A VRIO analysis lacks the depth of SWOT analysis in terms of a general assessment of the internal and external situation, and therefore a SWOT analysis was chosen for analysis of the company. This is shown later in the next section. Company Sales and Diversification Apart from its energy drinks, the company has diversified into other businesses that have synergy with its brand image. These include football clubs, youth academies, online clothing sales and even a construction company. It has moved into media ownership, with print magazines and the mobile phone service industry. Red Bull is privately owned and therefore does not need to report its performance publicly. However, it reported net sales of 4.9 billion Euros in 2012, with 5.2 billion cans of its primary product sold. This represented considerable growth on the previous year (15.9% on sales; 12.8% on number of cans). The company showed very strong net sales growth in South Africa (52%), Japan (51%), Saudi Arabia (38%) and strong continued growth in France (21%), the US (17%) and Germany (14%) (Euromonitor, 2012). The company attributed this to ongoing brand investment and efficient cost management (Euromonitor, 2012). Strengths The main strength of Red Bull is its brand, which is very valuable and has allowed it to grow a strong set of customers. It is synonymous with its energy drink, which is a positive factor (Park et al, 2013). The company has successfully developed new markets internationally using the same brand image. It can therefore be considered as a global company. This is important in that many of its current markets are at or near market saturation. Its use of social media to help to build its brand by relationship marketing is also a strength (Segrave, Carson and Merhout, 2011). Weaknesses The main weakness of the brand is its limited product portfolio. It primary relies on its single main product. This product is at risk of political or legal controls owing to the high levels of caffeine used, or it could just lose its appeal to the market (Aaker and McLoughlin, 2010). This could adversely affect the ability of the company to maintain its position in various markets. Opportunities The company has been effective in developing emerging markets, and if this continues it could largely offset poorer sales developments in the mature markets. Its global marketing message appears to be universally appealing to its target audience, despite cultural differences. It has also invested in new production facilities in Brazil to support domestic sales in the South American continent management (Euromonitor, 2012). This model could easily be extended to local production in Asia and other developing markets. This would both reduce cost of sales and provide a greater sense of community belonging. Threats A range of similar drinks have emerged following its success, increasing the level of competition within its market sector. Some of these competitors use natural ingredients, which may be seen as more desirable to its target audience. This includes the Monster product, which is pressuring sales particularly in North America management (Euromonitor, 2012). The company also faces competition from entrenched market leaders in the wider drinks market such as Coca Cola and Pepsi. These companies work continuously to reduce the threat level posed to themselves from Red Bull. With their huge marketing budgets and ability to develop new products, this could eventually prove decisive and reduce the success of Red Bull. The company also faces the law of diminishing returns in marketing in its mature market, in that the cost to reach the relatively small number of potential customers remaining in these markets becomes prohibitively high (Mike, 2004). The company invests considerable resources in its relationship marketing, and this ongoing cost may also become more onerous, should sales in its target market fall for any reason. Therefore the company faces the potential of having high marketing costs leading to smaller sales despite its dominant position in many markets. Conclusions Red Bull has demonstrated a novel approach to marketing and has introduced a new product to the market that has spawned an entire new category of product. Through its actions, the company has become very successful and has become the market leader in its sector. Its use of a marketing message that is light on selling the product but heavy on building the brand image and associating it with extreme sports and other activities of interest to its target audience has possibly shown the future direction of much marketing effort. The current position of Red Bull remains strong in its market sector. However, as it is now the leading brand in many markets, it will find it difficult to maintain its position due to increased competition from other brands that have seen the opportunities offered by the sector. The growing age of its original target audience may also prove a factor; the company has deliberately addressed a youthful market and as these original customers grow older, it remains to be seen whether the product will continue to appeal to newer generations. However, the company can n develop new markets, and it can potentially reduce costs by focusing on domestic production. These new markets may allow the development of complimentary new products. . It is possible that these could then be sold in its mature markets, widening its product portfolio. Whether the company remains successful will depend on a number of factors. Primarily, there is a question of whether the brand can continue to be trendy now that it is well established in the market. It faces increasing competition in its sector, and this will affect sales unless the company can successfully fend it off. However, it can still expand into new markets and streamline its production facilities to allow the business to continue to grow. Future of Red Bull and Recommendations In order to protect its position and continue to grow, the company should embrace the opportunities offered in emerging markets. It should also work to streamline its distribution to reduce costs. This could be through domestic production or through setting up alliances with existing distributors in those regions. The competition to Red Bull is only likely to increase as more manufacturers seek to exploit its market sector. Emerging products may replace the Red Bull brand image of being cutting edge and anti-establishment; one company cannot keep this mantle forever. The company should therefore consider adapting its message to existing consumers as they mature. The company is well placed to make this transition. However, it cannot simply rely on existing customers, but must appeal to new consumer groups. This could be assisted by the launching of additional products aimed at different demographics. Red Bull is used as a mixer for spirits such as vodka. This offers an additional opportunity to target the more mature audience by launching pre-mixed alcoholic drinks. Red Bull has shown itself adept at social media. The company should develop this as far as possible, embracing new technologies as they arise. This is vital for it to maintain its relationship marketing and also allow the brand to continue to spread through word-of-mouth and sharing of information online. Since the company has so much news to share from the events and teams it sponsors, it has a readymade store of information. This could prove to be important in maintaining brand loyalty in the future. References Aaker, D. A. McLoughlin, D. (2010), Strategic Market Management: Global Perspectives, UK: John Wiley Sons Allen, M. (2001), Analysing the Organisational Environment, UK: Select Knowledge Boswijk, A., Thijssen, T. 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