Perfect Pizzeria Essay

Perfect Pizzeria Restaurants is a chain of 125 pizza establishments around the country with headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin. There are three locations in Bloomington, Indiana however they have financial and employee problems particularly at the location near the Indiana University campus. Each location has one manager and two shift leaders. The employees are mostly college students, with a few high school students performing the less challenging jobs. Nearly all of the employees, with the exception of some managers, are employed part-time and most earned only the minimum wage or slightly above. To address the financial problems, the Perfect Pizzeria manager’s compensation plan was changed to now being based on food and beverage costs and profit targets. If the percentage of food unsold or damaged is very low, the manager gets a bonus. If the percentage is high, the manager does not receive a bonus; rather he or she receives only his or her normal salary. Their compensation is also reflected in the restaurant’s profit figures which also must reach a certain level for the manager to receive a bonus. Thus the managers knew the criteria being used for their evaluation and therefore where to focus their efforts. These profit and loss figures often fluctuate. Knowing the manager cannot be in the store 24 hours a day, some employees make up for their low paychecks by helping themselves to the food. When a friend comes in to order a pizza, extra ingredients are put on the friend’s pizza. An occasional slice or two of pizza by the 18 to 20 employees throughout the day/evening at the break table also raises the percentage figure. An occasional bucket of sauce may be spilled or a pizza accidentally burned. Sometimes the wrong size of pizza may be made. In the event of an employee mistake or a burned pizza by the oven person, the expense is supposed to come from the individual employee. Because of peer pressure, the night manager seldom writes up a bill for the erring employee. Instead the establishment takes the loss and the error goes unnoticed until the end of the month when the inventory is taken. That’s when the manager finds out if the food loss percentage is high and if there will be a bonus. (Next page) Over time these loss figures increased. To address these problems at the Bloomington location, the manager took retaliatory measures. Previously, each employee was entitled to a free pizza slice, salad, and all the soft drinks he or she could drink for every 4 hours of work. Management decided to raise this figure to 6 hours of work before any free food. Since the employees had received this â€Å"free food after 4-hours† benefit for a long time they frequently ignored the rule and took advantage of the situation whenever the manager was not in the building. Therefore, the Perfect Pizzeria manager decided to create an assistant manager position which could more closely supervise the shift leaders. Each shift leader was now responsible for a team of 3 – 4 employees who were given specific responsibilities for a particular job such as counter, delivery, food preparation, etc. Employee apathy grew within the pizzeria. There seemed to be a further separation between the store manager and his workers, who were once a closely knit group. The manager made no attempt to alleviate the problem, because he felt it would iron itself out. The employees who were dissatisfied would quit or they would be content to put up with the new regulations. As it turned out, there were many employee resignations. The manager had no problem in filling the vacancies with new workers, but the loss of experienced personnel was costly to the business. It didn’t take long for the new employees to become influenced by the more experienced employees and the unsold/damaged food percentage remained high. Then the manager took a bolder step. He eliminated all the benefits that the employees had – no free pizzas, salads, or drinks. The manager tried still another approach to alleviate the rising unsold/damaged food percentage problem and maintain his bonus. He placed a notice on the bulletin board, stating that: if the percentage remained at a high level, a lie detector test would be given to all employees. All those found guilty of taking or intentionally wasting food or drinks would be immediately terminated. This did not have the desired effect on the employees, because they knew if they were all subjected to the test, all would be found guilty and the manager would have to dismiss all of them. This would leave him in a worse situation than ever. As the manager sat in his office listening to his beloved Cub’s baseball game, he analyzed the month’s profit/loss statements and knew things were not going to be good. What he did not expect was that the percentage was actually increasing from previous months. Another problem developed at the Bloomington campus location when Jennifer, a recently hired night shift counter clerk filed a complaint with the regional manager. She stated in her complaint that she was always required to work the late shift and Bill the night manager was becoming a bit â€Å"too friendly†. In fact her complaint stated, the only way she could get off from work earlier than other employees was if she would agree to meet Bill on their nights off at Hoosier’s, a popular college student club down the street from Perfect Pizzeria. Additionally, there was a formal complaint from a group of male employees that only the attractive female workers were being promoted to assistant managers or shift leaders even though the men had worked at the restaurant longer than most of the promoted women. The case assignment questions follow†¦ PERFECT PIZZERIA – CASE QUESTIONS (Please type your responses by listing the question number/letter and then your answers to the questions.) 1. List two different managerial functions/activities the manager has performed. Then give specific examples or evidence from the case that explains these two management functions the manager has performed. 4. points) 2a. Which of the managerial skills was the manager best at? Explain. 2b. Which of the managerial skills did the manager need to improve? Explain. (4 points) 3. List and/or give examples of four (4) different forces or factors from Perfect Pizzerias’ external environment. Then give a specific example of how each of these could have an impact on Perfect Pizzeria. Please be specific.(4 pts.) 4a. The case mentions that some employees put extra ingredients on their friends’ pizza or take a nibble or two of pizza during their shift. Please discuss whether you feel this is ethical and your reasons why you feel this way. (2 pts.) 4b. What actions could an organization take to prevent these potential ethical violations from happening based on the concepts in the textbook? Explain by applying these ideas to this case situation. (4 pts.) 5. Review the organizational approaches to managing diversity from Chapter 6. Then discuss or give an example of how you would apply two of these concepts to address the complaints of the male employees regarding the unfair promotions? Be specific. (4 points) 6. Give an example from the case of a poor management action and discuss two (2) specific ways you would correct the situation if you were the manager. (3 points)

Life after death Essay

Life after death is credible to a large extent, as there is a large of percentage of people who believe in it. A study carried out between October and November 2009 showed that out of 2,060 people, 53% believed in life after death, with 55% believing in heaven and 70% believing in the human soul in the UK. However, there are many problems with believing in life after death – not least the fact that there is no proof. As Hume might have said, ‘there aren’t enough witnesses’ and ‘testimony isn’t proof. ’ Some evidence put forward is parapsychological, such as near-death experience, mediums, and so on, though the data generated from such evidence is contested. While there may not be any hard evidence for rebirth, it provides advantages to those who believe in it, therefore attaining the label of credibility. For instance, there is an idea of moral value because if one is constantly reborn, one must constantly strive for good karmic effects. However, G. E Moore’s theory of ‘naturalistic fallacy’ might intervene because rebirth confuses moral ideas with factual information about how the world works. There is no means of verifying the principle of karma, and it assumes a dark view of reality with the inevitability of suffering. On the other hand, there is some psychological truth in the ideas of anatta and anicca, since an individual continues to grow throughout their life. Resurrection also delivers benefits for those who believe in it, thus making it credible to a large extent. It has a basis in tradition and is supported by evidence from Sacred Scripture, while it is also fair and encourages morality. However, many challenges to belief in resurrection have been centred on the fact that there is no available way to falsify claims concerning life after death. But, non-Christian sources agree that Jesus was executed by crucifixion and his disciples believe that he rose from dead. A Church persecutor, Saul of Tarsus, unexpectedly transformed into a believer after the resurrection. Verification is only possible in the weak sense of eschatological verification suggested by John Hick in his Celestial City analogy. John Hick is a materialist, who believes that the soul and the body are ‘psycho- physically’ unified. Hick explains in his Replica Theory, where he discusses how God makes it possible for people to be ‘replicated’ on a parallel universe. Hick talks about how the instantaneousness replication would be different from simply being transported from London to New York, he says all the individuals would know their dead and would be on a world populated by deceased individuals. His theory could be seen as incoherent because there is no evidence in science to suggest there is a parallel universe, however if you accept God’s omnipotent existence, this theory is plausible and does not depend on dualism. But, even Hick recognised the limits of his own theory and the fact that it is hypothetical in the extreme. It should be noted that this is an extending theory into the unknown and is purely hypothetical. To conclude, life after death is credible because believers avoid the limitations of rationality and focus on faith, rather than empirical evidence. While some philosophers like Bertrand Russell, argue that the hope of a better life in heaven relieves humans of responsibility for what happens on Earth and encourages a fatalist mentality, such beliefs may do the opposite and soothe fears of demise.

Change Management and Leadership in Dell company Essay

Change Management and Leadership in Dell company - Essay Example Change Management and Leadership in Dell company Because of various issues, these business entities do not accept the change of management, and involves themselves in different actions that are not in favor of the organization thus, resists change. The consequences of this resistance in change is poor performance of the firm in terms of manufacturing, production and distribution and this is the reason that change management has become very essential for the firms. The operations of organizations are effectively looked-after by change management including logistics, purchases, and controlling (Scheer, et al., 2003). The organization change is not only dependent on the resources and technology of the organization, but it depends on setting mindset of the employees positively towards the organization and creating an organization culture where flexible environment is made for all employees so that the maximum output can be extracted from them (Scheer, et al., 2003). Therefore, a responsible leadership should be able to implement change s in the organization and should motivate the employees for giving their maximum energy for their organization not only for increasing the revenue, but taking competitive edge over the rivals. Dell’s Change Management: Michael Dell founded Dell in 1984 on the basis that the company will sell their computers directly to the end user. The aim of the company was to understand the needs and requirements of users and providing operating systems that will meet the needs of those users. The company is the one of the largest and most well renowned companies around the world for selling reliable IT related product. The mission of Dell is to become the most successful computer firm of the world by providing the best customer services to clients. The company has more than 40000 employees and it maintains a large corporate culture as different team members belonging to different regions works together for Dell (Hill & Gareth, 2009). The company aims for change management because of maint aining consistent growth and become the market leader in mobile computing industry. Different brands of Dell plays an important role in making the company market leader because Dell acquires products of other strong brand and then making these products merge into a large company. After acquiring these brands, Dell improves overall operations of the brand, gives comprehensive training to its employees, and introduces new technology in their systems, which help the company to introduce these brands as reliable dell products. The acquisitions of these brands results in economies of scales, which makes the distribution network of Dell stronger, and the company is able to cater many regions with the help of these brands (Hill & Gareth, 2009). The vision of Dell for making change management is to increase its business growth consistently and increasing the revenue of the company at the same time. In order to achieve this change management successfully, the company focuses on the following four elements: (i) The company focuses on taking the market share of the mobile computing industry by making efforts to improve the production of their products. (ii) Change management helps the company to improve its overall efficiency and decrease the cost of production. (iii) Dells aim to enter in new market where there is a chance of expanding and company can become the market leader in these regions. (iv) The company creates the value of shareholder by

Semiotics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Semiotics - Essay Example It will lastly conclude on the ways in which the language of the advertisement serves to sell its product and whether or not this accomplishes its goal effectively. Keywords: semiological analysis; rhetoric of image; semiotics in advertising Semiological Analysis of an Advertisement The image under semiological analysis is an advertisement by DKNY for a perfume for women. This paper will analyse the way in which this advertisement uses symbols, visual cues and other coded ‘language’ to sell its product effectively. The theoretical basis for the analysis will be drawn largely from Roland Barthes’s essay ‘Rhetoric of the Image’, appearing in his 1977 book Image Music Text. Following a quick summary of the ideas from Barthes’s essay that are relevant to this paper, we will look closely at the advertisement itself for the different layers of meaning within it. The aim will be to try and identify elements and see whether they correlate to each other and ultimately join to promote the product as saleable or not. There will also be an attempt to locate this advertisement within the larger context of high-fashion advertising and the imagery deployed therein. In his foundational essay, ‘Rhetoric of the Image’ (1977) Barthes proposes that images have a language of their own that signify many layers of meaning to the viewer that may or may not be apparent right away. Barthes advances his idea of the three layers of meaning through which an advertising image, or any image, conveys its message. He calls the first layer of such meaning as the ‘linguistic’ part of the message (p. 33). By this, Barthes refers to the actual text or words present in the advertisement. In his example of the Panzani ad, this would be the French writing at the bottom of the advertisement. The second and third messages contained in an image, according to Barthes, are the ‘coded iconic message’ and a ‘non-coded iconi c message’ (p. 36). The distinction between these two is hard to make and does not happen at first glance. Basically, the first coded message is the ‘connoted’ message of the image while the non-coded message refers to the image as purely ‘denotative.’ The first meaning of the image is derived from the way in which it is presented, its context, the specific audience it targets and so on; while, the second kind of meaning derived from the image is only an act of identifying the object. Applying this style of analysis to the DKNY Advertisement, we find that this too yields itself to different layers of meaning. At the level of the linguistic message, the most prominent text in the ad says: ‘Be Delicious.’ These two words serve firstly, as an injunction, or almost as an order to be desirable that serves to subtly pressurize the audience into feeling inadequate and therefore desirous of buying the product that will make them attractive. They also promote a solution by saying essentially that this product is what one needs to be ‘delicious.’ The text therefore creates the need to be desirable in the audience and simultaneously provides the way in which to fulfil this need. This brings in the ideology and implied narrative of this ad which will be discussed in our conclusion. But the word ‘delicious’ itself also serves a two-fold purpose. On the one hand, it serves the purpose of ‘

Case study ( community nutrition) child nutrition program Essay

Case study ( community nutrition) child nutrition program - Essay Example Recent studies have shown that 40% of calories taken by the children in school lunch come from fats, which is highly undesirable as fats should not contribute more than 30% of total calorie intake, and of that less than 10 percent should be from saturated fats. Such eating habits coupled with lack of physical activity have invariably led to increase in incidence of obesity among school children with 12 percent high school students and 14 percent elementary school students falling prey to obesity, considering students with weights greater than 85th percentile for their age. The decrease in physical activity has mainly been due to reduction in number of physical activity periods from once a day to twice a week due to increased burden of studies, which eats into the time that should ideally be left for allowing school children to play or exercise. So the solution lies in making students more aware of usefulness sports and exercises play in their lives, promoting healthy eating habits, i ncreasing incentives to eat healthier foods, banning fried or fast foods from school canteens and organising programs aiming at correcting false eating habits. As the director the Child Nutrition Program I have identified elementary school going children as the ones with the greatest risk factors. They have levels of obesity standing at 14 percent. Considering the importance of inculcating the right habits at a early stage with regards to eating and physical activity they should be the prime focus group. Also these children are very impressionable but not exposed to the latest findings and research on healthier and better ways of living, therefore, they can easily be mislead by the marketing world who target children of this age group as their prime consumer base. The approach for such a pilot program should be multifaceted. There is a need to create a general

Comparative Economic Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Comparative Economic Development - Essay Example Industrialization of the society had positive as well as negative impact on societies. In Britain as well as in US, industrial revolution has led to inexpensive goods, transportation, and communication developments. From the others side, such issues as pollution, child labor and over-crowding of cities were also raised. Even though there were some differences between US and Britain in terms of industrial revolution, there is a respectable degree of similarities between the two revolutions (More, 2000: p.17-18). The causes of industrial revolution in Britain are still debated while most of the historians think that the revolution was the result of the social and institutional changes after the English Civil War. The following British Agricultural Revolution improved the efficiency of food production - farms became less dependent on human labor and people were forced into the cities attracted by the new opportunities in factories. England was expanding colonially and new financial markets have been created in the result of the international trade. Technological advances appeared all the time, steam engine being of the highest importance because transportation development gave the opportunity trade development. In addition, Great Britain had vast availability of the key resources and the dense population for the small geographic unit (Berlanstein, 1992: p. 57). For example, the availability of the coal, iron, tin and water power created the perfect environment for the further expansion of ind ustry. The industrial revolution in US has started after the Civil War. Unlike Great Britain when the industrial growth was spontaneous and fast growing, US already had some industrial developments and after the Civil War they started to expand to include petroleum refining, steel manufacturing and electrical power. The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain was completed in the same steps as in US with the only difference that US people already had an example to follow - British. Industrial expansion has changed the American society - two new classes appeared: rich industrialists and prosperous middle class workers (Green, 1939: p. 68). If British industry was self-sufficient, the American industry greatly benefited from the newly arrived immigrants and migrants from rural areas who were willing to work for low payment. As the result, in the 18th century the landed aristocracy became the ruling class in Britain. More and more people were moving to cities - their land was either abandoned or sold at the very low price. Rich people were willing to buy the land and as the result their property increased significantly. Further, these people invested funds into factories and machinery. There were two classes of aristocrats - those who were historically rich and came from noble families and those who managed to get land in the result of rural-urban migration (More, 2000: p. 95). The similar situation was in America with the only difference that land owners did not encourage people to migrate - there was enough land for everybody but there was nobody to work on it. Industrial revolution has much increased the power of landed aristocracy in America because they were able to reduce human power expenses. The trade issue was of significant importance for both nations, British and American. The most important difference was the

HR MANAGEMENT Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

HR MANAGEMENT - Term Paper Example n is defined as a state arising in processes that are internal and external to the individual where the person perceives that it is appropriate to pursue a certain course of action directed at achieving a specified outcome and the person involved pursues that outcome with vigour and persistence (Robinson, 208). The employees have their own needs hence the plan to interview them is seen as viable so as to be in a position to get their views and ideas about what they think should be incorporated in their work in order to motivate them. The HR department will be in a position to use the responses from the interviews to create a master plan of the following: The plan to rebrand the HR department will be implemented over a period of time and this will be done in stages. The HR manager will be responsible for implementing that action plan and he will get some input from the other members from the same department. All the responses from the interviewees will be taken into consideration so as to be in a position to come up with a sound policy document that can improve the performance of the HR department as well as to improve the morale of the workers. The employees have to be treated as valuable assets to the company and this is the reason why we have to get their views. The interview questions are designed in such a way that they are short and they enable the interviewee to give short and succinct answers. Therefore, it is anticipated that an interview with one employee will take approximately 15 minutes. These interviews are expected to be conducted in five working days so as to enable the department to perform other pertinent tasks in its operations. We anticipate that at least two hours per day from Monday to Friday (8 am to 10am) will be devoted to these interviews and they will be conducted in the boardroom. After conducting the interviews with all the employees, the HR manager will need at least three days to go through the responses by the interviews so as to

Hotel Rwanda & Death and the Kings Horseman Essay

Hotel Rwanda & Death and the Kings Horseman - Essay Example Moreover, he is portrayed as one who is selfless ads he risks his own life and that of his family to save all the people he has hosted at the hotel. The expected help to curb the Rwandan genocide from the white United Nations countries was no forthcoming. The disturbing issue was not addressed with the attention it deserved. It is only after the magnitude of killings was observed that international bodies, including the United Nations began to show concern. These white nations did not show the political ambition to stop the massacre that was going on in Rwanda. The Belgian peacekeepers were pulled out from the country after the death of 10 soldiers. The remaining soldiers, too little to manage the situation, were highly ineffective. All in all, foreign aid required to manage the horrible situation did not match the magnitude of the murderous spree. It is the neglect by the international community that forced Paul Rusasebagina to pursue use of bribes and favor to keep militias at bay. The film is very effective is showing the African crisis for what it was. It was a very sensitive situation that needed attention. It shows that the killings were real and the number of deaths was saddening. The film matches historical representation of the situation and gives it a visual feel to demonstrate the extent of horror.The role of international community in Rwanda signifies the initial problems that African countries face while trying to stop the crises. Getting international help takes a lot of time yet the murderous spree continue while decisions to help are still being discussed at a snail’s speed. Hotel Rwanda shows that some white nations have chauvinistic tendencies towards African countries as demonstrated in delay of peacekeeping and humanitarian aid. Before these nations can consolidate their decisions, the African disasters blow out of proportion. Consequently, they present the sent aid with difficulties in managing the crisis. This is an observed trend

Unit 7 paper biochem Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Unit 7 paper biochem - Essay Example As the extent and the strength of the exercises increases, the aerobic system (mitochondrial or oxidative system) takes over and provides the energy needed. Therefore, the first few minutes of running involve anaerobic activity, but as the intensity of the exercise increases during running and weight lifting, aerobic activity takes over to oxidise the previously produced pyruvate into more ATP to sustain the body during the exercise. These energy systems are interdependent of each other and work concurrently in the body. Based on the meal plan above, rice is the key carbohydrate food that is rich in starch. Skim milk, in addition, contains carbohydrates in the form of lactose (milk sugar). Beans also contain the polysaccharide starch. Protein foods include chicken, beans, and skim milk (whey proteins). Olive oil, skim milk, and ranch dressing contain fats. Olive oil, ranch salad, and chicken contain unsaturated fats, whereas skim milk contains exceptionally small quantities of saturated fats since skim milk usually has a low quantity of fat compared to whole milk. The salad contains vitamins, minerals, and roughage (fiber), which do not undergo digestion in the alimentary canal. When food is ingested in the mouth, the grinding action of the teeth (mechanical digestion) breaks it down into small pieces as saliva lubricates it. Chemical digestion of carbohydrates begins in the mouth where salivary amylase (ptyalin) digests starch into maltose. In the stomach, waves of muscular contractions called peristalsis (mechanical digestion) further squeeze the food, aiding in mechanical digestion. The gastric cells in the stomach walls secrete acidic juices including hydrochloric acid that create a favourable environment for the enzyme pepsin, which digests proteins into peptides. The partially digested food passes to the duodenum where most of the enzymatic digestion takes place. The pancreas

Femme Fatale in Victorian Literature Essay Example for Free

Femme Fatale in Victorian Literature Essay INTRODUCTION Victorian Era was the big step in the overall cultural development of England. Many, presently famous novels and poems came to light during this period. Mainly writers, who (in their style of writing) openly manifested their opposition to the strict moral law which was significant those days. Universal etiquette of behavior, wealth and the family name in the social hierarchy ladder were very important to be perceived as aristocracy. Class division within the society was clearly marked. The pattern of a female character in Victorian novel which gained popularity very fast that time was Femme Fatale pattern which is also known as deadly woman. I have chosen such topic, because I am of opinion that femme fatale type of character is the most interesting of all female identity types. Furthermore, Victorian period is a time of a changing role of the women in the British society, which gives us very contrastive background, in which behavior of such woman was something immoral, controversial but also brave. Charles Dickens is widely perceived as the greatest novelist of the Victorian Era. He is the creator of fictional characters, which are known all over the world and are used as universal patterns through centuries till now. Ch. Dickens in his work described in a perfect way English Victorian society as well as its rules. Dickens, through his life experienced many difficulties, which shaped his identity and had immense influence on his own, specific style of writing. His thirteenth novel Great Expectations was one of the greatest among Victorian Era works. The main character Pip, is growing and developing through the whole story which is why the novel belongs to the Bildungsroman genre. What is more, Great Expectations novel was firstly published in the serial form in weekly magazine All the Year Round so it can be also defined as serialized novel. The plot of this story is quite complicated, bringing the reader much of surprise because of unexpected turns of action and character, like the most significant change in the story is when the main hero suddenly becomes rich person and his life has been rapidly changed. But it is not main hero on whom I am going to focus in the first chapter of my diploma paper. It will be the woman of his dreams. The woman, who was unable to return a feeling back to him, as well as to anybody else. Her name is Estella Havisham and she is the first example which I am going to analyze in my work. The second writer from Victorian era whose fictional character I am going to analyze is William Thackeray. William Thackeray, the next one of the greatest writers in Victoria Era, was born into British high society in 1811. He experienced mostly comfortable and easy life until he reached 22 years old. Till that time he managed to squander most of his fortune. The main reasons which led to that situation were gambling and the Indian Banking Crisis. We can say that during his life he experienced on his own what is like to be rich and poor. That is why he could objectively depict the view of British society of his times. This is exactly what he had done in his famous work entitled Vanity Fair. In 1847 He started publishing short stories in Punch Magazine, which means that similarly to Great Expectations, it was also serialized novel. Although first chapters of this novel were written years before, they were not available for the wide audience. The whole story was completed and published as a book in 1848. That time also it received the subtitle A Novel Without a Hero. Very soon it became successful. CHAPTER ONE: FEMME FATALE AND VICTORIAN SOCIETY 1Victorian Period – Overall information The period 1837-1901 is named Victorian after Queen Victoria who ruled English country that time. It was a time of a big change when English Victorian Society was divided into three main classes: upper, middle and lower which was also called working class. Each class is characterized by various occupations, ways of life and etiquette. The upper class consisted of the nobility, such as dukes, earls, and viscounts. They were often related to the royal families of Britain and Europe, and their society was distinct and separate to the other two classes certain expectations had to be met by everybody. Most of these aristocrats did not have a profession, as their families had sufficient funds to live in affluence. However, many were captains of industry, especially mining or ship building. The middle class consisted of rich families who were respectable, but lacked a title, and often had skilled professions, such as a doctor, or a teacher. At the beginning of the Victorian times, they were a small proportion of the population. However, the effects of the Industrial Revolution meant that more people could be defined as middle class, because of improvements in education and more opportunities of leveling from the lower class to upper one. The lower class (working class) were made up of the rural and urban poor, who had often low skilled, dangerous, dirty and boring jobs (often all four) that they had to take because of the lack of education. A handful could actually be defined as lower middle class, but because they often lived in terraced housing areas, they were defined as working class. There was also a class below the working class paupers. They lived in extreme poverty, often because of old age, unemployment, illness or strained resources. Sally Mitchel in her book clearly points out that Most working people earned just enough to stay alive, and could be thrown into poverty by illness, layoffs, or a sudden misfortune such as a factory fire that caused even short-term unemployment. People in unskilled and semiskilled jobs generally needed additional income from several members of the family. (Mitchel 19) Etiquette was one of the most significant thing that time. Education of the woman would not be completed without teaching rules of proper behavior. Not only women but also men had to obey this set of rules during many daily activities even the simplest one. What kind of jewelry as well as when and where one should wear, who to walk with, who to dance with, how and when to speak to a stranger, were all very critical knowledge. For men, there were rules about bowing, where to sit and next to whom, even about the circumstances in which it was appropriate or not to smoke or drink in front of ladies. Running a house without servants was almost impossible. The number of servants one could afford was a sign of one’s wealth. The bigger house, the more servants were hired. They were usually divided into two groups: indoor (butler, housekeeper, maids) and outdoor: (coachman, groom, a gardener). Being a servant wasn’t well-paid job but thanks to tips, a servant could earn extra money. Next, very significant thing which was obligatory mainly in upper class society was dance. It was the essence of every ball which was one of the greatest entertainment that time in English society. Balls were organized on many occasions and created opportunity to know noble men and women from upper class. In Victorian Britain the ideology of separate private sphere to the woman and sphere of business and politics to the man was clearly marked. The home was regarded as a haven from the busy and chaotic public world of politics and business, and from the harsh life of the factory. In Victorian times, you could travel one of three ways: by train, by horse, or by foot. The most common means of transportation was by far the horse. It was used by rich and poor. The rich owned fancy coaches that had every accessory one could ever need for living on the road, and the poor would go about town on the cheap omnibuses that carried twenty people at a time. 2Femme Fatale The term femme fatale comes from French and it states mainly in the opposition to another popular image of a Victorian woman called Angel in the House. ‘Femme Fatale is a woman who is sexually attractive but cruel and dangerous to men who have a relationship with her’ (Macmillan Dictionary, Femme Fatale definition). There were many famous female characters in the history who suit very well to this image even before the term Femme Fatale has been created. To the most famous examples belong: The femme fatale has always been a well-known archetype in literature, art and movies. The tradition of the femme fatale is long and versatile and can be traced back as far as ancient Egypt, with its iconic Cleopatra. Especially in the fine arts, the femme fatale has been portrayed in many metaphorical ways: as a vampire, nymph, fallen angel or sorceress. She flourished in the 1940’s century film noir, where the combination of aggressiveness and sensuality in women was a central topic (Place, 1998: 57). We can find many examples not only in written form but also in movies, where tempting and lethal women can be found as well: Sharon Stone in BASIC INSTINCT (1992), the Bond Girls or Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones in CHICAGO (2002) were all very seductive, but dangerous. Hence, based on van Dijkstra’s extensive historiography, the femme fatale can be defined as a woman who is mysteriously seductive and uses this quality to outsmart men. Her resistance against male domination exists of beauty, charm and sexual allure: she tempts the male target and drives him crazy by denying him her affection. (1986, 237) To summarize: key aspects of the femme fatale are mystery, beauty, seduction and, most importantly, danger. The most conventional image of the perfect Victorian woman who states in opposition to Femme Fatale woman can be found in the title of a long poem written by Coventry Patmore: The Angel in the House. The pure woman’s life was supposed to be entirely centered on the home. She preserved the higher moral values, guarded her husband’s conscience, guided her children’s training, and helped regenerate society through her daily display of Christianity in action. If she successfully made the home a place of perfect peace, her husband and sons would not want to leave it for an evening’s (morally suspect) entertainment elsewhere. (Mitchell 266) 3 William Makepeace Thackeray – Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray was born in Calcutta, India, in 1811. He was son of Richmond Thackeray, an Indian Civil Servant, and his wife Anne. Just a few years later his father died, his mother remarried, and the shy and young William was sent to England where he would deal with the harsh realities of isolation at Charterhouse, a private school in London. He then went on to attend Trinity College, Cambridge. Thackeray abandoned his studies without taking a degree, having lost some of his inheritance of twenty thousand pounds through gambling. During 1831-33 Thackeray studied law at the Middle Temple, London, but had little enthusiasm to continue his studies. Soon after He went to Paris to unsuccessfully try his hand at painting. It was in Paris that he met and married Isabella Shawe (1816–1893) in 1836, with whom he would have two surviving daughters, Anne Isabella and Harriet Marian. Back in England he suffered massive financial losses, which is why he had to start writing articles, reviews, essays and sketches as a journalist. Travel articles about France such as his Paris Sketch Book (1840) and The Yellowplush Correspondence (1841) were among his first efforts appearing in various magazines and journals including Frasers, Punch, and The Times. He also illustrated many of his own works. After the birth of Harriet, Isabella started on what was to be, until her death, numerous bouts of depression, an extensive search for a cure, and ultimately a slow spiral to insanity. She would live apart from William, rarely seeing him or her daughters. Thackeray remained close to his daughters all his life. Anne was his secretary for a while and they both lived with him at his house in London before marrying. The disintegration of his marriage however would have a profound effect on his life and was reflected in the characters of his novels, including the loveless marriage between Rachel and Frank Castlewood in The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. (1852) and its sequel The Virginians (1857). Haunting the Literary Clubs of London including the Garrick Club, Thackeray also travelled the Mediterranean, A Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo (1846) the result. Book of Snobs (1848) and Vanity Fair (1848) followed soon after, but it was not until The History of Pendennis (1850), his semi-autobiographical novel that Thackerays success as a humorist was confirmed. He then embarked on a series of lectures published as English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century (1851) and Four Georges (1860), based on the Hanoverian Kings, from his tours of the United States in 1852-53 and 1855-56. In 1860 Thackeray became editor of the monthly literary journal Cornhill Magazine, but died suddenly three years later, in 1863, at the age of fifty two. He lies buried beside his mother in the Victorian Garden cemetery Kensal Green in London, England. Charles Dickens wrote a glowing tribute to him in Cornhill Magazine. William Thackeray is mostly known for his great novel â€Å"Vanity Fair†. The novel was written in 1848. The book brought Thackeray prosperity and made him an established author and popular lecturer in Europe and in the United States. Vanity Fair with its second title A Novel without a Hero is a novel published in 1847–48, satirizing society in early 19th-century Britain. The books title comes from John Bunyans allegorical story The Pilgrims Progress, first published in 1678 and still widely read at the time of Thackerays novel. Vanity Fair refers to a stop along the pilgrims progress: a never-ending fair held in a town called Vanity, which is meant to represent mans sinful attachment to worldly things. The novel is now considered a classic, and has inspired several film adaptations, the most recent being the 2004 film starring Reese Witherspoon. In 2003, Vanity Fair was listed on the BBCs The Big Read poll of the UKs best-loved novel.[1] 4 Charles Dickens – Great Expectations Charles Dickens is widely perceived as the greatest novelist of the Victorian Era. He is the creator of fictional characters, which are known all over the world and are used as universal patterns through centuries till now. Ch. Dickens in his work describes in a perfect way English Victorian society as well as its rules. Dickens, through his life experienced many difficulties, which shaped his identity and had immense influence on his own, specific style of writing. Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on 7 February 1812 in Portsmouth. He was son of John and Elizabeth Dickens. Until he finished 11 years he and his family moved two times. He was very clever boy. When he was young, he read many novels, especially the picaresque novels of Tobias Smollett and Henry Fielding. From the early stages he took private lessons, first in dame school, and then at a school run by William Giles, a dissenter, in Chatham. In 1822, the Dickens family moved to Camden Town, a poor neighborhood in London. By then the family’s financial situation had grown dire, as John Dickens had a dangerous habit of living beyond the family’s means. Eventually, John was sent to prison for debt in 1824, when Charles was just 12 years old. In 1860 Dickens started to publish short stories for the weekly magazine â€Å"All The Year Round†. Although intended for weekly publication, Great Expectations was divided into nine monthly sections, with new pagination for each. At the beginning, his serialized story was not so famous as A Days Ride by Charles Lever, which was published in the same magazine but soon lose favor with the public. Dickens, during one year of publication (1860-1861), wrote thirty six episodes. The novel gained title Great Expectation and became very successful among works of Victorian era, showing simultaneously Dickens peak and maturity as an author. Nowadays, novel is regarded as very important and is taught in many English classes. The main character Pip, is growing and developing through the whole story which is why the novel belongs to the Bildungsroman genre. In many respects, it contains themes and emotions directly related to the author’s experience. For instance, the description of Pip’s childhood has some affinity with Dickens own life. Also, Estella seems directly inspired from Maria Beadwell, a lady whom Dickens loved; Beadwell snubbed him coldly because of his low social status. The plot of story is complicated, bringing the reader much of surprise because of unexpected turns of action as the most significant change in the story when the main hero suddenly becomes rich person and his life has been rapidly changed. But it is not main hero on whom I am going to focus in the first chapter of my diploma paper. It will be the woman of his dreams. The woman, who was unable to return a feeling back to him, as well as to anybody else. Her name is Estella Havisham and she is the first example which I am going to analyze in my work.

A Pestel Analysis Of China Market Economics Essay

A Pestel Analysis Of China Market Economics Essay Since 1979, China adopted an export-manufacturing strategy successfully following with Japan, Korea and Hong Kong. The Golden Bridge Co., Ltd is one of the beneficiaries. It was founded in 2007 with flooring as its main products. The product is of high quality by utilizing advanced technology and equipments imported from Germany and Italy. The glue and lacquer materials for production are also imported. In current stage, Golden Bridge has a total capital of 800 million RMB and exported to 35 foreign markets including the U.S., Canada, Japan and Germany. In order to help it to expand the business, our consultancy company attempt to analyze the China business environment and seek a foreign market to relocate the manufacturing of this company with proper entering and competing strategies. This essay first illustrates the business environment of flooring industry in China and German with PESTEL analysis. Then it evaluates the threats in Germany market by following Porters five-force mode l. Later a recommendation would be given on how to properly enter into the targeted country. PESTEL analysis of china market: The PESTEL analysis is used to assess the macro environment and identify the challenges Golden Bridge faced with in china market in order to make an appropriate suggestion. Political: The Chinese political system characterized as one-party communist dictatorship makes a great contribution to national stability, enabling the economy keep dynamic and sustainable. Nevertheless, when the economic system was deregulated from the command economy to market economy since 1978, the power of economic management was increasingly decentralized, raising the issue of uncoordinated development of regional economy. Currently, though the central government has made effort to alleviate the gap among different areas in terms of developing standards, provinces tend to give a priority to local profits rather than considering the integrated advancement of the whole country. Local protectionism exerts detrimental influences upon market expansion of Golden Bridge Company in nationwide and deters the establishment of a comprehensive distribution channel. Economical: China is valued as one of the most vibrant countries in terms of economic development among the world. The reform opening up in 1978 accelerated Chinas GDP growth from 362.4 billion RMB to 30 trillion RMB within a 30-year period. Moreover, in 2010, China has been the second largest economy instead of Japan whilst the value of export accounted for 10% of world. Based on these statistics, judgment can be made that manufactures in China including flooring industry may keep an optimistic attitude to their future prospects in some extent. Nonetheless, Chinese economy may suffer unpredictable circumstance in the future. Labor resource is one double-edge sword. Once being an advantage of China, abundant labor resource and economical labor price make a great contribution to progress of those labor-intensive manufacturing industries. This is also the primary reason that China flooring industry is quite profitable though China is a net importer of timber. However, as cited by AME info (2005) there is a growth in the minimum wage standard, labor may not be regard as a perpetual advantage of China if this trend continues. In Addition, appreciation of CNY since 2005 against USD may imperil the export of Golden Bridge Company (Goldstein, M. and Lardy, N., 2006). Social: It is claimed by Su and Littlefied (2001) that China is an extremely high-context country where people prefer to receive implied messages. For establishing a business in China, strong private-relationships with different stakeholders is the key to success. However, this is extremely time-consuming while the maintenance is also expensive. Potential conflicts in interest may easily erode it. Besides the relationship, corruption is another issue in China. According to the Corruption Perceptions Index, China was positioned 72nd among all 179 countries in 2008. However, damages caused by corruption may be far more hazardous than anticipated, particularly to the economic development. Corruption has been treated as a vital barrier for operating in Chinese market due to enormous back-stage expenditures as well as resulted injustice. For Golden Bridge to gain more import quotas and pay less tariff, costs may be made up of not only normal ingredients such as transporting, but also implied expense for smoothing the network. Technological: China wood flooring industry is experiencing a relatively laggard technological standard in its initial stage of development. According to Cheng and Song (2006), the level of timber utilization was 61% in 2004 with a considerable disparity with developed countries (nearly 90%). Additionally, imbalanced technological support aggravates the long-term conflicts between wood supply and demand in Chinese domestic market. In 2004, though the total domestic timber supply is 273.6 million cubic meters and exceeded the total consumption of 241.5 million cubic meters, scarcity of raw material still existed in some parts of timber manufacturing industry. Environment Legal: Chinese government proposed the Natural Forest Protection Program (NFPP) nationwide in 1998 to limit exploitation of natural forest resources. The legislation made the supply of domestic natural timber restricted. Between 1997 and 2003, natural timbers supply decreased from 32.05 million cubic meters to 12.145 million cubic meters (Cheng and Song, 2005), which was extremely insufficient to satisfy demands of the highly prosperous timber industry in China. Timer manufacturing companies in China have to depend on importing. Statistics shows that in 1997 the quantity of imported timber only occupied 23.56% of total wood consumption, while the number soared to 53.78% in 2004. The expenditure of imported timber was $33.96 higher per cubic meter compared with the price in 2007, which increased the material coast of Golden Bridge Company. PESTEL analysis of German market: Since this essay has analyzed the macro environment of the china flooring market, further looking at the political, economic, social and technological factors of the German can help advance and strength the logic of the whole assessment. Political factors: Germany is a home of secure, legal and rewarding investment. The World Economic Forum has rewarded its legal system as the most efficient and this fact has also gained international recognition. Flooring coverings are categorized according to German and EU laws and building products should be subject to the EU construction products directive and the German construction products law. The directive and law are mainly focused on environmental, health-related, material and usability sectors and most people agree that by considering the environmental restrictions, the EU can be the strictest market. Moreover, with the transnational economic environment, it is predicted by experts that the approval criteria for flooring is likely to decrease and there seems to be a limited permission of eco-labels for flooring products. Further, comprehensive incentives  are provided to both home and oversea investors by German government, individual federal states and the EU. Economic factors Germany is the largest economy in Europe and in general German is export-oriented. Since 2003, German has been the largest exporter machinery, vehicles, chemicals and household equipment, with an annual export increase of 8%. However, factors that may prevent Golden Bridge from entering into and developing itself in Germany also exist. They can be excessive dependence on euro currency, tight credit markets and an increasing rate of unemployment. Stimulus and stabilization efforts initiated in 2008 and 2009 and tax cuts introduced in Chancellor Angela MERKELs second term will increase Germanys record budget deficit, which is expected to exceed 5% of GDP in 2010. The EU required Germany to get its consolidated budget deficit below 3% of GDP until 2013. A new constitutional amendment likewise limits the federal government to structural deficits of no more than 0.35% of GDP per annum as of 2016. Technology factors: Germany is claimed to be the leading nation in high-tech development and receives high turnover accordingly. In 2007, the high-tech products exported by Germany accounted to a value of RUR 114 billion, ranked first in Europe and third worldwide. More than 27% turnover of German manufacturing factory is generated from high-tech products, compared to a European average of 19%. Social factors: Social factors also need consideration. Hofstedes analysis of Germany shows the emphasis on individualism, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance. Power distance and long-term orientation are both ranked considerably lower than the others. Germany believes in equality and equal opportunity, as well as its ability to change and adapt rapidly. Another arising issue is the social awareness of pollution, which leads Germany to use more environmental-friendly materials. Abstract for the use of five-force model: After analyzing the macro-environment of both countries, it is reasonable and necessary to apply Michel Porters five-force model in order to provide a thoroughly understanding of the German flooring market before the Golden Bridge company entering into it. According to this model, the competitiveness of an industry is influenced by such five forces and their collective strength and thus determines the ultimate profit potential of this targeting industry. These five forces covered in the analysis are competitive rivalry, supplier power, buyer power, the threat of substitution and the threat of potential new entry. However, the five-forces framework is not a set of principals per se, instead is a tool for systematically use these principals to assess the current status and likely evolution of an industry. Competitive Rivalry: The internal competitive rivalry in German flooring market seems high. There are three main reasons. First, the switching cost is low because flooring products are homogenous with little product differentiation. Another reason is that the German flooring market is saturated with a relatively low growth rate. The flooring production in 2008 suffered a 15.1% decline while the total consumption slumped for about 12.19% (FEP, 2008). Also the number of competitive companies in German flooring market and the intensity of rivalry also determine the high threats of rivalry. There are a large number of companies competing in the German flooring market and these companies are divided into three categories, they are Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), Domestic Leading Manufacturers (DLMs) and Niche Market Brands (NMBs). First of all, SMEs has the largest number in the German flooring market (Roadmap, 2010). These SMEs are often manufacturers provide low-grade flooring with low price. Their marketing strategy is just reverse to Golden Bridges. Thus Golden Bridge is suggested to treat them in an abstemious way. However, there are also a few numbers of large flooring manufacturers who operating on European and/or global base. It is suggested by German Timber (2007) that few DLMs account for the majority of the total market share. These companies usually possess strong competencies, highly recognized reputation and well-established brand image. One main rivalry is the Krono Group, who is one of the world leading producers of high-quality flooring. Founded in 1897, it has accumulated years of experience and extensive knowledge know-how. It delivers products to 80 countries worldwide while has its own production-base in 18 countries. In 2004, its production capability of flooring reached 310 million à £Ã … ½Ã‚ ¡, took up about 1/3 of the world market share with total sales revenue of 24 billion RMB. It also has an annual RD investment of 15billion RMB with over 200 scientists doing research in Krono International Laboratory. In addition, there are Niche Market Brands (NMBs) with several well-known brands like Espirt and Kaindl, holding part of the flooring market (FEP, 2007). These companies merely provide certain kinds of flooring to meet the special needs of a group of customers. Furthermore, in order to gaining competitive strength, the NMBs together with some foreign brands such as Balterio from Belgian and Vito from Austria have formed a conglomerate named Beamy International, a commercial platform allowing them to compete on both domestic and global markets (FEP, 2008). As the competition is fierce in German flooring market, Golden Bridge is suggested to adopt a niche strategy and doing effective promotion after entering the market. To explain, the original German wood flooring manufacturers already gains economy of scales and undeniably enjoy a cost advantage. Advanced distribution channel comparing with those new entrants also allows them first mover advantages. Cost disadvantage and lacking reliable cooperators are main barriers for Golden Bridge to survive in German market. Insufficient in capital determines that an aggressive expansion strategy is also irrational. However, one advantage Golden Bridge occupies is that it has been doing export business within German importers for couple of years and its products did have certain reputation in this highly competitive market. By offering additional value, Golden Bridge can efficiently differentiate itself among the rivals with a brand image of reliability, valuable, and symbol of statuses. This may help obtain sustainable brand loyalty among German customers. Threat of Substitutes: The threat of substitution refers to the extent to which different products used in place of a companys products or offered by other industrials. Flooring is not restricted on only wood but other materials such as textile and stone/ceramics are also widely used. For instance, in German market in 2008, textile took the largest raw material market share (i.e. about 37.4%) for making flooring. This is followed by stone/ceramics of 28.6%. Comparably, the laminate only had a market share of 13.9%, ranked in the third place. In terms of switching cost, the result can be distinct regarding to different objects of study. To individual consumers, there is almost no switching cost exists because choose one kind of material instead of another is just a matter of personal taste. However, this can be criticized in depth for the reasons that wood-made flooring has its own characteristics and functions that other materials may not have. To some extent and to specific customer groups, for instance, those who have fixed-decoration style, the switching cost can be relatively high. However, to large wholesalers (e.g. Beamy International) who previously dedicated in wood-made flooring, the switching cost would be extremely high, as they may lose the stable distribution channels with their current wholesalers or retailers, and also the price advantage provided by the long-term cooperative producers. This means the substitution threat is less considerable because their past investment in developing stable distribution channels with retailers and producers offers them an advantage in current market and this may make them unwilling to undertake risks of operating and competing in a new and highly competitive market. Summing up the above, it is the end-user customers that Golden Bridge should pay close attention to. First of all, it is advised that a regular customer survey to be conducted to make a comprehension of customers preferences and what they really appreciate. The company should also emphasize the exclusiveness and unique utilities of their products, making it cost more for the customers to switching to other substitutes. In the meantime, though as mentioned the future trend seems favor wood flooring industry, Golden Bridge should cause enough value that the technology development is always indeterminate. Thus in order to avoid sudden shock of new technologies that brings in comparable substitutes, Golden Bridge should invest continuously in Research and Development to keep pace with the times. Threat of New Entrants: Threat of new entrants is moderate. As put by European Commission (2001), the main barriers to enter German market include certification approval and the quality standards and label, while the incentive to enter German market depends mainly on its impeccable infrastructure system. The extensive unified intensification, which has been mentioned before in PEST Analysis of German, increase the starting investment of new entry, accordingly has negative effect on new entrants to the market. There are totally fourteen member countries of European Federation of the Parquet Industry (FEP). Under the Single European Market policy, twelve of them have reached an agreement on moving goods, service and capital freely internally, giving companies in these markets strong mobility. To put it simpler, a flooring company located in Germany for example, can either choose to develop domestically or entre into either of the other 11 member countries of EFP, in support of the unified system. Once entering into the consolidated FEP, the new members deserve this privilege with little hindrance, however, the legal entry requirement, especially for flooring companies compliance with environmental protection, is said to be quite strict in European Market, which is especially true in Ge rmany. Thus it can be expected that in order to harmonize to European standards, a large quality of funds will be needed to invest in order to fulfilling the standards ranging from environmental protection to individual healthcare. What is more, the sophisticated infrastructures that Germany possesses nationwide make the market considerably attractive to those adventurous entrepreneurs. As known to all, Germany lays in the center of the Western Europe, with large-scale transportation centers such as International airport in Frankfurt and seaport in Hamburg (ELA, 2010). Centering in a fast and efficient logistic network covering almost all the main markets in Europe, flooring companies in Germany can procure raw materials namely timber on a global scale, and reach the external markets with relatively lower transportation costs. Therefore the threats of new entrants would be moderate in German flooring market. For Golden Bridge, the corporate should create a marketing and brand image and keep customers loyalty, tie up to both suppliers and distributors. More important, it should sign a patent to protect the intellectual property of their high-tech products. Buyer Power: Buyer power, which is determined by the individual customers ability in negotiating purchase prices with suppliers, is at an intermediate level in German market basing on four crucial reasons. Firstly, according to the previous analysis, competition in the wood flooring manufacturing is largely intensified by a large amount of incumbents. Hence, purchasers are more unrestricted in choosing their suppliers with considering competitive advantages of products, and price may be a decisive factor for some customers. However, it is important to note that Wholesalers have more bargaining power than individuals. Being the large-volume buyers, they are not only main customers where companies earn profits from, but also controllers of dominant distribution channels. By stark contrast, individual customers with smaller purchase volume may be positioned less vitally in suppliers minds. Secondly, the buyer power is attenuated by the availability of substitutes of wood flooring in German market. E xcept for this category of flooring, more choices are supplied on the market. Despite competition reinforces customers bargaining power, the phenomena of demand surplus in German wood flooring alleviates this circumstance. According to the research of European Federation of the Parquet Industry (FEP), the consumption of German wood flooring is about 17.88 million square meters, while the production of German wood flooring is only about 11.04 million square meters (Slides Stats 2008). In additionally, German culture also plays a significant role in lessening customers bargaining power. The spirit of the nation, such prudence and fixation lead to a fairly strict standardization in both work and life. Germans are used to calculating a precise price based on all dimensions. Hence, they dislike dealing with situations out of their planning, enabling bargaining become very difficult. Ten percentage cut in price is the biggest range they will agree in they dealing with foreign buyers. (LeMont Schmidt, 2001). Supplier Power: Supplier Power refers the power of suppliers to drive up the prices of raw materials, supplies, equipment or inputs. Your company purchases the glue, paint and equipment, and employs labors from Germany and imports the wood from Russia. There are some crucial factors performing low supplier power of your company. Firstly, German is not used to bargaining, which is mentioned in Buyer power. Hence, it is meaningless for German suppliers to drive up the price of material and equipment. Negotiating power is weak in Russia as well. Although the nation is one of the largest wood producers, there are a large number of wood suppliers ¼Ã…’which provide a strongly competitive circumstance in Russia. Admittedly wood is a kind of nature product so that customers are sensitive to the price of wood. Because of high standard of transparency, the switching cost is low in Russia. On the other hand, many substitutes with lower expenditures are becoming increasingly prevalent such as marble, carpet, plastic flooring. High standard of substitutes threat can restrict the suppliers to drive up the price and reduce the power of suppliers. However, high labor cost strengthens the supplier power. The German labor cost is one of the highest in world. According to Common Protocol of Salary, Labor wage need be determined by the negotiation between wood flooring industry and backwards industry (Fact about Germany, 1996). Therefore, the security of labor force is quite completed. Unions are powerful to argue with unfair wage or welfare. For example, Michael Sommer, the head of the trade union federation(DGB) , claimed that is necessary to increase labors wage with the upturn of economy in 2010( Guardian ¼Ã…’2010). Supplier power and buyer power, which exert a moderate threat on Golden Bridges development in German, can be alleviated through several ways. From one aspect, to limit bargaining power of large-volume wholesalers, the company should give priority to building up a distribution network itself by developing new franchisers rather than depending on the primary channels of wholesalers. In terms of individual customers as well as challenges from substitutes, enhancing the products benefits would be the most efficient way to reduce their bargaining desire as most of affluent people value quality more important than price. From the other aspects, labor relationship, the most considerable barrier in lessening German supplier power, should be harmonized through affording sufficient welfare to employees, as well as building a relative democratic organizational culture by the company. Moreover, it is supposed that importing a few skilled workers from China would benefit the company not only by more economical labor cost, but also reducing the significant dependence on the German labor market. Limitation of the 5-forces: Porters five-force model is not perfect but based on the assumption that from the view of any one firm, all the other firms no matter whether they are supplier, competitor or buyer are threats to the profitability. However, according to Brandenberger and Nalebuffs value net theory, interactions among firms can sometimes enhance profits. Thus critics raised and attentions on cooperation are much more paid. The cooperation between the Golden Bridge Company and other foreign flooring companies will be analyzed and evaluated in the later recommendation part. Recommendation By illustrating the German macroeconomic environment and its circumstance of flooring industry, it is thought that the most recommended strategy for Golden Bridge is to build a joint venture with one or several German covering floor manufacturing enterprises, whilst maintaining the manufacturing section and primary market system in China. Joint venture can be explained as a collaborative formation among companies that each party invests parts capabilities to constitute a new enterprise, thereafter determining the distribution of ownership according to corresponding contributions. Nevertheless, two preconditions should be taken into consideration before making an alliance with German incumbents. Firstly, as a dominant barrier in Chinese market, capital insufficiency would also limit the investment ability of Golden Bridge in German to a large extent. Consequently, small-to-medium incumbents are more desirable as cooperators rather than large-scale companies in terms of ensuring a rela tively high proportion of ownership of Golden Bridge in the new joint venture. Moreover, it is imperative to illustrate compatibility of potential partners based on a number of philosophic criteria, including similar experience, common principles and agreed future target as well (Kanter, 1994). Where extremely intensive competition takes place, German market would tend to pose more threats than opportunities on the Golden Bridge if the company attempts to entirely entry the market alone. In comparison, cooperating and aligning with local companies would be a much safer and efficient measure from two aspects. First, by giving joint ventures preferential treatment, the Golden Bridge gains a good opportunity to penetrate the German market in a relatively short period with minimum risks as the company is unnecessary to expose abundant long-term investments to gain market shares in German wood flooring industry. Instead, it can utilize those important strategic assets of local cooperators such as complete distribution channels, customer relationships and brand loyalty. Moreover, Golden Bridge is still deficient at technology and management comparing with the local German companies. Through setting up a joint venture, advanced technology and managerial know-how can be more easily accessible by Golden Bridge, which is beneficial to its development in China market as well. Nevertheless, possible issues relating to joint venture cannot be neglected by the Golden Bridge. First, operational dissimilarities caused by political and economic divergence between China and German may be a vital problem for Golden Bridge. For instance, blind spots in law or financial systems will damage the corporate profits at initial stage. Additionally, cultural and managerial difference may be difficult to consolidate as different authority, reporting and decision-making patterns (Kanter, 1994), therefore leading to possible mistrust and misunderstanding between Golden Bridge and its partners. It has been widely recognized that German managers are prudent and rigid in dealing with regulations and rarely consider the influences of the network relationship, which is fairly distinct from Chinese managers conceptions. Conclusion: In conclusion, according to the PESTEL analysis, there are a number of challenges in China. These challenges can be the unbalanced market condition in china because of local protectionism and insufficient infrastructures, under-developed technology and managerial skill led to the low efficiency of timber industry in China, Natural Forest Protection Program limits the domestic nature timbers supply as well as the increasing labor cost in flooring industry due to Chinas economy prosperous. The complexity of interrelationship of different parties involved in the business environment also cannot be neglected. The PESTEL analysis of German market was further conducted to make the assessment more comprehensive. Later the consultants use five-force model to assess threat of entering the German flooring market. For instance, the competitive rivalry and threat of entry in German flooring market is extremely high. In terms of threat of substitution, it is much more complex. The supplier power and buyer power are both at an intermediate level. However, Porters model is criticized for lacking of corporation with other market players. Thus, a recommendation is made by our consultancy company for Golden Bridge to organize a joint venture and thus with other reliable and competitive companies for instance, the Beamy International. Facts about Germany. (1996). Frankfurt am Main: Società ¤ts Verlag. LeMont Schmidt, P. (2001). Die amerikanische und die deutsche Wirtschaftskultur im Vergleich: Ein Praxisbuch fà ¼r Manager. Gà ¶ttingen: Hainholz Verlag. Guardian (2010) German steel workers demand 6% wage increase http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/14/germany-angela-merkel http://www.roadmap2010.eu/wisd/pdfs/68-81.pdf http://ecotec-energiesparhaus.de/Daten/Holztechnik-Forest-and-wood-industries-in%20Germany%20at-a-glance.pdf http://www.tarkett.com/group/en/company/Tarkett-at-a-glance http://www.homeinstitute.com/types-of-flooring.htm http://news.frbiz.com/parquet_floor_once_again_leading-440481.html http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32004D0275:EN:NOT

Change Through Thought- American Romantics and Radicals Essay -- Histo

Change Through Thought- American Romantics and Radicals Many of the American romantics and radicals seek to inspire change through thought before action. First, Ralph Waldo Emerson promoted his ideas on the importance of nature and self-reliance. Second, Henry David Thoreau demonstrated his ideas on civil disobedience as well as sustainable independent living. Third, Margaret Fuller promoted her ideas of female equality. Fourth, Frederick Douglass showed a side of slavery that had not been seen before. Finally, Walt Whitman’s new style of writing changed writing and perceptions of America. None of these people promoted immediate change. Instead, they all inspired and promoted thought about their various topics, and hoped, through thought, that there would be change. In one of Emerson’s initial writings, Nature, written in 1836, Ralph Waldo Emerson suggests that people should look at the world differently, compared to how they normally did. He believes that there is more to nature than meets the eye. His writings presented the idea that â€Å"Nature†¦was less a spectacle to be seen that it was a text to be read†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Myerson 124). One needed to interpret nature to be able to live a true life. In order to do this Emerson recommends the idea of the eye. He says that: In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, — no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, — my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, — all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God. The name of... ...d the way people see things, and list things. He repeated over and over again situations that made everybody equal to each other. He was a revolutionary, and he did all this without directly addressing the issue. He inspired people to think about these issues and he let them find the answers. These people all brought about change in the United States, and they all did this through their influence of thought. We would be nowhere today without these revolutionaries of change. Works Cited Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. New York: Oxford, 1987. Myerson, Joel, ed. Transcendentalism A Reader. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Thoreau, Henry David. Walden and â€Å"Civil Disobedience†. New York: Signet Classics, 1999. Warner, Michael, ed. The Portable Walt Whitman. New York: Penguin Books, 2004.

Career Research Paper: Army National Guard -- essays research papers

Career Research Paper: Army National Guard   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Army National Guard is a whole new way to serve. It’s all about commitment to help communities in need. It’s solid dedication to the country in war and in peace. They form an elite team that shares similar core values, convictions, and beliefs. To be in the National Guard can mean serving the country part-time, one weekend a month and two weeks a year as most Guard members serve. This is what makes them different from the other branches of the military. Experiences will be gained that would change one’s outlook on life forever. Skills will be learned that will last a lifetime. The Guard is a team that values serving others and being the best; a part-time job with full time benefits.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There’s an opportunity to split up Guard training during the summers between school years. Qualified juniors can attend Basic Training during the summer before senior year and then go on to Advanced Individual Training (AIT) after senior year. The Guard will help build mind and body, and in Basic Training challenges will be conquered to become stronger, faster, and healthier. Overcoming the physical and mental challenges will instill a growing sense of pride. Basic Training is tough going through nine weeks of intense physical and mental conditioning. People discover confidence, self-assurance, and potential for leadership. In graduating Basic Training, becoming a soldier is the revenue in the Army National Guard.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Army National Guard has a unique dual mission serving both country and community. For over 365 years the citizen-soldiers have come to the aid of their neighbors during times of need. The Guard involves helping communities during natural disasters and civil emergencies. All around the country the National Guard comes to the rescue saving lives, restoring order, and protecting property, as well as being active in local community organizations that improve the quality of life. Many Guard members live, work, and go to school right where they serve. The Guard helps Little League programs, promotes scouting activities, and opens its doors to kids on Armory Days, among countless other programs, providing strong positive role models for the young kids. Calls have been answered to defend America in every war. From the War of Independen... ...ently, and the military police/intelligence which is a great place to start if interests lie in a career with a civilian police dept. Communications is vital along with medical both preparing for jobs of today and tomorrow. For almost every administrative and personnel job in the Army, there is a corresponding job in the civilian workplace. The Army National Guard is a great place to learn a skill, get paid for it, and get ahead.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In conclusion, the experience is the kind of professionalism and pride that make soldiers respected the world over. It’s the experience that singles one out as someone with unique ability and unique qualities. The country depends on the military to fulfill the important mission to protect democracy and keep peace. Excelling as an individual and achieving impossible thoughts are motivating reasons to become a part of the Guard. It’s a way to help reach educational or career goals that are set in life. Take the next step and have it all: adventure, camaraderie, challenge, an extra paycheck, military benefits as well as the satisfaction that comes from serving the country and community; a part-time job with full time benefits.

Andrew Jackson :: Biography Biographies

Andrew Jackson There have been many arguments made about President Andrew Jackson. A war hero, standing tall and strong, he tried to represented the idea of reform in government and in the American ways. Jackson is often credited to be one of the United States’ greatest presidents, but there are many powerful reasons for doubting that claim. From the beginning, in 1824, Jackson has tried to do what is best for our nation, but evidence like the spoils system, Trail of Tears, and the Bank veto, has shown that in fact most of what he accomplished is now looked on as only causing problems for the Untied States as a whole. With the presidency of Jackson came the spoils system, which in theory is rewarding political supporters with public office. While this basic idea is â€Å" as old as politics,† (The American Pageant p.271) it is Jackson that extended the system to involve more of the common person. In theory, this would re-enforce loyalties as well as making it possible for politics to become a full-time career. Instead it made government positions more about the spoils than the responsibilities. The seventh president created the idea of â€Å"rotation in office.† Jackson was trying to make â€Å"clean sweeps† in the government, cleaning out the ex-president Adams and his â€Å"dishonest† supporters like Clay. In the end, he only dismissed one-fifth of the old corrupt government leaving nine thousand out of the original eleven thousand in office. His system not only didn’t succeed in cleaning the government but it was a demoralizing practice that reached a national scale. Citizens were discouraged from entering public service because of the insecurity now found in holding such positions. Jackson made the holding official positions in government a matter of what could this person do for Jackson’s presidency and not the question of what he could do for their country. Jackson’s system was inevitably accompanied by scandal. Men openly began to buy their government positions. â€Å"Illiterates, incompetents, and plain crooks were given positions of public trust,† (p.272) and officials were more interested in the spoils of the office rather than the duties. A perfect example of the corruption that Jackson brought to the government is Samuel Swartwout. He was awarded the high salaried post of collector of customs in New York. Nine years later he left the United States with more than a million dollars.

Becoming an Early Childhood Educator Essay

U. S. President Barack Obama emphasized on the importance of education in a country for not only one time. He believe that education provide the opportunities to every single citizen to work on their strengths and ability to fulfill their responsibilities to the country by contribution on specific career in order to build up a strong country. I strongly agree with his point of view as education is not an individual responsibility but to all. Education is the basis of a country in order to strengthen the economic status and development. Thus, it’s our responsible toward the society and nation to educate our next generation by provide a positive social and physical environment to instill wholesome character building in young children. Society now day faces variety of problem especially family issue that commonly happens include child abuse, divorce cases, youngster tend to run away from home, abandoned baby and etc. One of the factors that caused these issues is lack of realization on importance of education. There is a quote stated: If we would amend the world, we should mend our selves; and teach our children to be, not what we are, but what they should be. (Quote by: WILLIAM PENN, Some Fruits of Solitude) Most of the parent didn’t realize their responsibility to their child as a role model in the growth of their children during childhood period. They might lack of exposure on the importance of early childhood education, or they unconsciously neglected their children’s need due to financial pressure in order to provide and maintaining the living standard of family. Thus, it’s our responsible as an educator to assist the parent on educating our next generation. It is my pleasure to meet a truly dedicated teacher in my life, although she was only teaching me as my class teacher for 1 year but her contribution and the bonding between me and she has brought the greater impact to my life. Compare to the teachers of old time with today, sadly to say, there are not much improvement among the quality of educator. Most of the educator are work for survive, they are lack of the passion and realization on their role and responsibilities, perhaps they do not know how to apply their knowledge on teaching method skillfully. In fact, it is the greater satisfaction as an educator to witness the growth of a child from innocence young age to a mature child. This is a most important period to instill a positive personality in a child as the behavior he practicing now will bring toward to adulthood and became his characteristic. The greater success of an educator is not the quantity of reward, but the recognition of the effort by the parent, student and society. The most precious and valuable achievement is to witness the success of wholesome character building on a child when they turned to an adult and continue influence the people around them with positive attitude. It is hard to achieve the objective of education with single contribution. Therefore it is important to bring together all the educators who having same ideology to work together as a role model to influence people around include the parent, children and colleagues to understand the importance of education. The main responsible of an early childhood educator is to instill the positive character to a child to develop wholesome character include sense of belonging, sense of responsibility, positive moral value, lifelong interest on learning, curiosity to the world and mentally and physically healthy and wealthy. Teacher as the second person after the parent as the role model to a child should practicing good behavior and attitude. Besides, a good teacher knows how to apply the knowledge skillfully to help children adapt to the knowledge on their level of understanding without killing their curiosity to the world. On the other hand, educator also played an important role to the parent because society in Malaysia now day is improving along with the realization on the importance of education. However, although the parent understands the importance of education, they are still lack of information in term of knowledge and skill to apply on their children. They are keen to seek for professional advancer and services as the agent of education to their children. In fact, this is a big step for the society; educator should always work closely and collaboratively with parent to encourage them involve in their child’s learning process to create love and caring environment for the children. The philosophy of a preschool setting that believed and practiced by the entire organization included administrator and teachers determine the process of achieving the goal of an organization. Same goes to personal philosophy held by a teacher, it is important to work collaboratively on behalf of children’s interest regardless personal identity and background. Teachers should be always ready to lend their hand to each other and strive for improvement together by sharing information and joining workshop, seminar or training together. Whenever there is dilemma, teacher should ask for the comment and suggestion without hesitate from senior colleague who willing to share their experiences and solve the problem together. Beside, teacher also played a role on providing a safe, healthy, loving and caring environment to young learner to develop sense of belonging and bonding among the children by always staying alert on potential danger and awareness on child’s behavior, health, physical and mental needs. Teacher should be always practicing 3R which is responsive, respect and reciprocal. Consistently interaction with the children is needed to understand child’s unique character and develop trust and respect relationship among children. However, teacher should allow necessary independent learning and respect child’s right in order to foster the development of children to prepare the children to be ready for the future challenges in their life. Knowledge on young children development is very important for educator. Therefore educator should be always seeking for improvement to provide highest quality service to the children. A knowledgeable teacher is always stay well informed on the latest update on government decision on education such as changing school syllabus and assessment for the student. Beside, by participate in variety of workshop, seminar and training; teacher will learn different teaching method to adapt children’s development milestone. Same goes to courses that offer in colleges and local university; it will improve the qualification and knowledge of teacher. By joining professional association, teacher will be always staying informed on the latest teaching approach and able to seek for professional comment from others. On the other hand, teaching should be stay adventurous when applying new skill to the children, learn from trial and error by observation and self reflection consistently. Teacher should be sensitive on child’s development to evaluate and improving the teaching method creatively in practical way. By understanding different learning pattern of the children, teacher should apply knowledge and skills in plenty ways for children to adapt to the knowledge. In conclusion, a professional early childhood educator should be having mental and physical readily with positive and optimistic attitude, be ready to takes up responsible and handle every dilemma and always strive for improvement. It is very important for an educator understand his/her role on the position held and to be flexible to adapt every changes and different situation. Lastly, enjoyment for the satisfaction of teaching will lead the educator to longer journey as time goes by because â€Å"You never know how much it’s worth until it’s gone†.

Personal Responsibility and College Success Essay

What is personal responsibility and how does it relate to college success? To me personal responsibility is to be accountable for oneself and the people around you, in most any situation, there is no other person to hold accountable for your life than yourself. Everything we do is a direct reflection of your personality and the decisions you make. Morals are something you learn from your parents growing up. They teach you to always do the right thing and try not to make bad decisions. As you get older you’re going to start making important decisions that could affect your future. By doing this your growing into a responsible adult. Being personally responsible also means being able to take responsibility for your actions. What I mean by this is if you do something wrong don’t point the finger at someone else and say they did it. Be a responsible adult and be accountable for yourself and the things you do. When going to college you need to be accountable for your actions and the responsibility to turn in your homework, show up to class on time, get good grades, and study for tests. When going to college identify past problems that could set you back and overcome them in the future. In example if your not good at math go to a book store and buy a math tutor book and read it and it can help you focus on solutions and overcome barriers that you might have. When finding solutions to overcome your barriers don’t make excuses and tell yourself you cant do it. Make a system of checks and balances to help alleviate some stress. So if your studying for a long period of time take a break and do something else for a while then come back and finish. Never tell yourself you can’t do it. By doing this your going to feel better about yourself knowing that you did it and you took your time out of your day and learned something new. When going to college you need to make goals, a goal that is beneficial to your overall success. Your goal must be attainable, taking into consideration your personal resources and abilities. Be persistent when trying to reach your goals and never give up.

Effects of Globalization in Oman Essay

Many new international features are appeared in the world nowadays. Globalization, which is â€Å"The trend toward that increases connectedness across international borders,† as Frisch, M. (2002, P. 2) claims, is one of these features. It effects negatively on the social, economic and politic sides in Oman. To start with, the social side in Oman is affected negatively by the globalization. While communicating with people from all over the world, Omani people lose their identities. For instance, they change their customs and behaviours by imitating people from different cultures and acting like them and according to their strange religious ideas. Furthermore, globalization effects on Omani economic side badly. Statistics shows that Omani economy is in reduce in the farming and fishing parts. That happens because of the globalization which let people leave their simple jobs like fishing and farming and go to work in factories which are built by the big countries in the world that appear the globalization. Therefore, the vegetables and fish are reduced in Oman. Finally, politic side in Oman is affected negatively by the globalization. His Majesty (2002, P. ) said to people that did not let that new movement, globalization, to effect on their personalities because when it happened, it would be easy for the enemies to control their country. In another word, because of the imitation, people become useless and the country becomes which makes it easy to fall in the enemies’ hands. In conclusion, the effects of globalization in Oman are appeared in three sides, in the social, economic and in the politic side. By communicating with people from different countries, imitating and behaving like them, Omani people lose their identity and this leads later on to the weakness of the Omani society.

MooBella Case Study Essay

1. What categories of costs would you expect to see in a list of MooBella start-up costs? The categories of costs I would expect to see in a list of MooBella start-up costs are: – Owner’s salary – Employee wages and benefits – Computers, internet, telephone, and other technology – Promotion, advertising, web site hosting – Professional services – Insurance – Debt service – Taxes – Maintenance – Legal/accounting fees – Supplies 2. It took nearly 20 years from idea to market for MooBella. Clearly, it had a long development and start-up period. Reflect on the emotional and other nonmonetary factors that were likely involved for Bruce Ginsberg. MooBella was a seemingly simple concept that was technically complex and cost nearly $85 million in investment capital. Ginsberg was faced with many challenges with the research, development and start-up processes. The machines themselves were very costly, costing approximately $40,000 per machine, and it took 5 years to develop the computer portion alone. 3. What was the mix of funds used by MooBella to get started? Some of the start-up funding included: – Saturn Asset Management–$25 million in equity (2000-2005) – Inventages (Swiss venture firm)–$15 million in 2007 and $18 million in 2009 – Bruce Ginsberg–$1 million – W Health LP–$9 million (November 2010) – Debt–$17.5 million in high-interest loans and convertible notes 4. What are the start-up costs that you would expect to encounter if you were a company that purchased a MooBella machine? I would expect the cost of buying the machine itself, the supplies for the ice cream the machine dispenses, taxes, maintenance, if I buy multiple machines for different locations and hire people to refill and maintain them then employee wages, and debt if I cannot pay out of pocket.

Perennial Insurance Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Perennial Insurance - Case Study Example .. Start Living Now!" encapsulates our philosophy that the insurance that Perennial offers enables optimum life choices that allow you, our valued customer, to start living your life in the way that you choose. It is due to this commitment to your needs that Perennial Insurance has decided to introduce you to our top three summer insurance packages. Each package contains a wide variety of benefits, which can be tailored to suit your individual needs, and each is available at an extremely competitive price. In addition, with the summer holidays just around the corner, each has been designed to ensure you peace of mind, leaving you to just relax and have fun. However, best of all, Perennial Insurance is offering you a full 10% discount on all policies during the 14 days following the reception of this letter. So, what are you waiting for Take a look at these exceptional offers and then contact us for an interview. Overseas medical expenses, following either an illness or injury, you policy will cover any medical, hospital, and/or ambulance needs and treatment. Individuals are covers up to 5,000,000 and families up to 10,000,000. Emergency dental treatment up to $500 per person. In case of death, your policy covers your burial or cremation overseas, or for the transportation of your remains to your country of residence. Cancellation due to unforeseeable circumstances. Theft or damage to your personal belongings, including travel documents Should you have to interrupt your voyage due to either injury or illness, you are covered for additional accommodation, travel and evacuation expenses. Standard packages from just $18.99! Rest assured than Perennial Insurance will continue to strive to be the number one insurance provider within our town, through delivering a premier service that offers high quality products that are designed to meet your needs. As such, we look forward to a mutually