Saturday, August 31, 2019
Up from Slavery: the Struggles and Triomphs
UP FROM SLAVERY: THE STRUGGLES AND TRIOMPHS OF BOOKER T. WASHINGTON IN A DIVIDED AMERICA Even though slavery has been abolished in the United States for decades now, the stories from the people who lived in the period when slavery was still practiced and experienced the period after the abolishment, are still alive today. The experiences Booker T. Washington tells about in Up From Slavery range from haunting to inspirational, and give a clear view on the South of the US post-Civil War from the eyes of a black man. Even though Booker T.Washington endured horrible circumstances during slavery, Washington sets an example for black people of the perseverance to succeed in the US and to overcome all obstacles. The autobiographical story in Up From Slavery starts with introducing Washingtonââ¬â¢s life on the plantation where he worked. As he phrases it himself: ââ¬Å"[his] life had its beginnings in the midst of the most miserable, desolate, and discouraging surroundingsâ⬠(Washin gton 870). These surroundings, combined with devastatingly hard labor, created an environment with no apparent end in sight, and no hope of changing the situation.This helplessness is expressed by Washington, as he sees other boys and girls his age going to school. Due to the situation in the US at the time, there were no chances at all of Washington getting into school, or as he calls it: ââ¬Å"paradiseâ⬠(Washington 872). When this no-escape-possible situation ends ââ¬âwhen slavery is abolishedââ¬â and Washington hears about a school for black people, he immediately is determined to go to the school. His persistence is recognized by the school board and he gets accepted in the school, which leads to Washington excelling in school.When he began delivering his first speeches years later, he developed himself as a leading figure, who was fighting to help black people and other minorities to grow out of the place they have been kept in for years, and advance themselves. For black people, often in circumstances not dealt with by whites, having Washington as an example as someone who defeated his personal enemies by escaping his situation, was of grave importance. To actually see someone who has climbed to the top, coming from horrible circumstances, could inspire a next generation to work as hard as Washington did.To let other black people get to the place Washington is, he not only talks about education, he also talks about always being friendly to white people. During a speech at the Atlanta Exposition in 1895, Washington talks about significance of finding allies: To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbor, I would say: ââ¬Å"Cast down your bucket where you areâ⬠ââ¬âcast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded. Washi ngton 888) By sending this message to people of every color and casting down ones bucket, Washington said that a society where black people could work themselves to the same level as whites could be created. This approach to overcoming the racial issues between black and whites did lead to criticism, with them saying that Washington was keeping discrimination in place by not addressing it fully. Especially W. E. B.Du Bois was critical of Washingtonââ¬â¢s ideas, stating that ââ¬Å"[Washingtonââ¬â¢s] program asked blacks to give up political power, insistence on civil rights, and higher education for Negro youthâ⬠(Gibson). And while Washington did play down some issues, one must not forget the time Washington was living in, and that his speeches even without those issues more assertive leaders like Du Bois were rooting for, were controversial to many Southern white people. Booker T. Washington pushed aside the force of the Southern whites wanting to hold black people back and overcame his obstacles.Coming from an enslaved and poor position, educating and working himself up to a high position, Washington was and still is an inspiration to all people, but especially for those who are in the position he was in. He gave hope to the people that needed it most, and his words still continue to do so. WORKS CITED Gibson, Robert A. Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois: The Problem of Negro Leadership. Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. Web. 17 Oct. 2012. http://www. yale. edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1978/2/78. 02. 02. x. html Washington, Booker T. Up From Slavery. New York: Doubleday, 1901.
Friday, August 30, 2019
Effects of Television on Children Essay
Introduction The television is a powerful force in our lives as it is inevitably present in almost 100% of human homes and in its offer of a light, relaxing entertainment is irresistible to many. Children as an audience are especially vulnerable to its harmful effects. With considerably less experience with various facets of life, children are more prone to take what television offers them for granted. This unquestioned absorption of ideas and morals often makes children passive recipients of ââ¬Å"television ideologyâ⬠, so to say, which often undermines their ability to act on their own and develop their own views of the world. They do not need to probe very deep since the answers to many things lie ready-made on the surface, given in television programs. Thus, television has some harmful effects on the youth, which in the first place depress independent judgement and activity. I agree with Gatto that modern children ââ¬Å"have almost no curiosity, and what little they do have is transitoryâ⬠(p.474). This can be overdrawn to some extent, however, it is certain that television depresses curiosity in children. This passivity stems from several reasons, among others, from the inherent passivity of the viewing process, brain-washing techniques abundant in TV programs, and effect of TV viewing on reduction in human interaction. Passivity Is Inherent in the Process Passivity is a characteristic trait of the television viewing process, something that stems from the very nature of this activity and shapes certain moral and mental qualities in viewers. Consider the very process of watching a telly as opposed to reading a book. Someone engaged in the viewing activity merely sits there flipping through the channels, inevitably reduced to the position of a passive chooser of a program to watch. Surely, there are choices, but my impression is that most TV programs are very much alike, and this lack of individuality prevents meaningful choice. One can surely dig in the TV program trying to do some research and identify the broadcasts that are really worth watching, but, frankly, how many people do it on a regular basis? After clicking through three or four programs a human mind inevitably gets tires and is relaxed to watch whatever program seems more suitable to tastes ââ¬â a movie, a comedy show, or a news broadcast, often regardless of the quality. Now compare to the process of choosing a book or a video to watch. A person purchasing a book goes to either an online or bricks-and-mortar store to look up some items and make the final decision depending on the quality of the reading offered. à It takes time, effort, and commitment of some financial resources, even if these are small as compared to other expenses. Anyway, money and effort that go toward choosing a book are a strong incentive to make a meaningful choice, to question oneself: What will I gain from reading this stuff? Do I buy this one simply to while away the time? And this one to expand my knowledge about a certain subject? The same is true for video rentals: a person usually picks a movie since one has heard something about it, a neighbour recommends it, or the plot abstract seems gripping. TV, on the contrary, encourages passivity of choice and prevents active decisions on the part of the viewer. It is true to say that activity on the whole is a sign of superior intelligence, whereas passivity is typical of weak minds. In this sense, television as a medium perpetuates the weakness of viewersââ¬â¢ minds, turning them into passive on-lookers instead of active participants. I can refer to my personal observation of a four-year-old niece, Maggie, watching a TV program. She is too young to know how to switch channels and thus watches whatever the adults turn on for her. In fact, she is aware of how to switch, but she often forgets about it or is lazy to come up to the telly to change the program. The adults need to check constantly if they have not left something inappropriate for her to watch. Television as a Medium for Brain-Washing Modern children, as stated before, too often are left with television as the only medium to provide them with guidance for everyday situations. This is dangerous because here they are more likely to become victims to brainwashing techniques that in themselves encourage passivity. Surely brain-washing can take place in other media as well such as newspapers, magazines, Internet, and the like. However, here its impact is likely to be limited by the active choice of the reader ââ¬â once again, people tend to go to sites they like and buy newspapers they prefer over others. Books require even more conscious choice, and thus are less likely to become instruments of brain-washing. Television that is often on, providing a background for habitual home activities, can let the message sink in without the individual even noticing it. Besides, images that unite words with movement and color are likely to have increased emotional influence, especially upon young children. Thus, sticking in front of the TV for hours leaves children exposed to norms and values TV staff wants to plant in them. This will take away the capability to make independent judgements, moral and intellectual independence that forms the basis for any freedom. A puppet cannot be free since there is often an invisible force that pulls the cords, much in the way TV advertising and programs make us believe their messages, presenting them in an alluring way. For example, I can already see how Maggie, my niece, already begins to show traces of consumerism she is about to accept as she grows older. She watches bright ads, then trying to talk her parents into buying a certain product. She even goes as far as try to influence their choice of a car to purchase. She once desperately wanted them to buy a Nissan because the commercial is so good. What is important to me is not that she becomes taken with a certain brand, but that she has already picked up the notion that things are very important and worth a lot of attention. This makes her more likely to spend time and effort in her adult life to gain more money and possibility to buy the desired thing. Intellectual passivity stemming from brain-washing will prevent her from questioning the assumptions she learned in her childhood. 3. Television Decreases Amount of Child-to-Child Interactions Television on the whole can also be called an interaction, but a very peculiar one. It evolves between the viewer and the production staff, in most general terms. The role of the viewer is limited, and although he or she may be intensely thinking about what is shown on the screen, the activity is relaxing because it does not call for an immediate response. On the contrary, human interaction demands from participants constant involvement and often calls for immediate action. In this sense, it is highly useful for kids as it helps them to develop their intellectual abilities, at least that part of their abilities that remains neglected by teachers and other educators ââ¬â interpersonal skills. Talking and playing with other kids and adults, children learn a lot about human nature, but most importantly they learn how to deal with various personality types, what personality types there are, and develop strategies that will shape their interactions for the rest of their lives. Even the school environment, with its accumulation of children, is much more developing that passive sitting in a room with the telly on. A boy who faces the threat of a fight with older and stronger guys has to invent immediately what to do in order not to be beaten. Conflicts in particular stimulate a childââ¬â¢s intellectual development as they teach one to act on the spot. Gatto states that children on average watch TV fifty-five hours a week out of 168 total. This time can surely have been used for play with other children or communication with adult relatives. Recently I paid attention to the fact that today one can see very few children moving around, running along the streets. They seem to be stuck inside their homes, and it seems that the easiest pursuits for them there are either TV or computer. This means that most probably they feel isolated from other children, except for family members such as brothers and sisters. Siblings, however, cannot provide an adequate basis for development of communication skills in kids as family communication is surely different from ââ¬Ëexternalââ¬â¢ interactions. Thus, in missing human communication, children can miss a chance to develop a part of their brains responsible for interpersonal skills. Human communication is perhaps the most challenging sphere of our activity that boggles representatives of such professions as managers, teachers and priests with years of experience. Thus, missing a chance to develop this sphere through lack of communication, children risk underdeveloping their overall cognitive abilities. Conclusion Television can clearly contribute to the development of intellectual curiosity in children if it is used wisely and in reasonable doses. Contemporary families often allow their children to overload themselves with the information stream from TV, which, as observations suggest, leads to intellectual passivity. Passivity stems from the very nature of the viewing process that depressed active choice involving the use of reason for decision-making. Heavy viewing leaves childrenââ¬â¢s minds open to brainwashing that can supply them with ready-made answers instead of stimulating the ability to seek for answers on their own. At the same time, replacement of direct interactions with TV watching deprives modern children of a chance to polish their communication skills, developing their cognitive abilities through interactions with others. Gatto, J.T. Why Schools Donââ¬â¢t Educate.
Thursday, August 29, 2019
Implementing a non tradional benefit to your organization Case Study
Implementing a non tradional benefit to your organization - Case Study Example The programs will consist of two parts: health=related benefits and a special financial aid for mother with toddlers. The first step is development of the plan and information gathering. The second step is needs identification. The benefits will be paid in accordance with age and family status of a mother. Single mothers with children will receive double benefits. Mothers with two children and more will receive benefits for all children. The third step is budget and compensation schemes development. Rather than one uniform benefits plan for every person, planners increasingly see a range of program choices for designing a compensation plan to meet the specific needs and requirements of each unique employee (Calvey and Jansz 2005). It is expected that plans will focus on one of three distinct goals: attracting and retaining qualified employees, motivating employees, and controlling costs. Although the planner would like to achieve each goal, it is also true that it is very difficult if not impossible to achieve the best in each goal simultaneously. This means setting benefits rates at or above the market average. . In addition, several of these exercises put you in the position of designing compensation and benefits plans to meet the specific operating requirements of the organizations in question (Robert Half International. 2007). In SunDusk, employers must pay attention to the prevailing wage and salary levels paid for various jobs and skills. Were employers to ignore what the market is paying, they would soon discover either that they cannot keep employees because their rates are too low, or they cannot make a profit because their rates are too high. Establishing a competitive wage and salary program is an essential building block for effective compensation planning and administration. Beyond grounding pay rates in competitive market conditions, benefits for women with children should be properly structured and designed to support organizational goals (Fakler, 2005). Such issues as how much money it takes to serve as a lure to more performance, ethical concerns in using incentive plans, and fully aligning incentive plans with organizational requirements are all vital ingredients to effective plan design. Benefits plans and designs are important in their own way. Such plans can consume a sizable portion of to tal compensation dollars. For that expense, employers would like to receive--but often have trouble obtaining--returns in employee goodwill and performance. For these reasons, effective benefits design is often a silent but important partner in human resources planning and administration (Calvey and Jansz 2005). Each month a single mother will receive $200 of benefits for one child till 5 years old. The expected outcomes of the non-traditional benefits are motivation and low labor turnover among women employees. The growth of the business is very sensitive to the overall quality of service provided in the unit. Customers who are satisfied with the service they receive will return to buy additional products and services, and will refer other customers to the stores (Robert Half International. 2007). The non-traditional benefits are in response to an employee's poor job performance and not because of perceived or suspected
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Threat Assessment & Physical Security Case Study
Threat Assessment & Physical Security - Case Study Example Coordinate with the nurse/s and be on the same page with him or her as to what conditions would be beneficial or harmful for the overall well-being of the principal.à Be aware of certain types of foods, medication, and environmental factors that may bring about allergies or adverse reactions and be sure to steer clear of such items.à à With his medical condition and the impending court hearing, the principal is under tremendous stress, as it is. It is important to consider these factors in looking out for the principal. Carelessness in planning and giving out unnecessary information may just cause the principal undue stress that would aggravate the already delicate situation. Always keep in mind that there are certain things without the knowledge of which the principal is better off.In addition, as head of security, always be on hand to ensure the safety of the principal.à (The Steele Foundation & Subsidiaries)Coordination with principalââ¬â¢s Attorneyb. à Convene wit h the principal's lawyer as to the principal's medical condition. Know the legal implications and limitations of the protection that the security entourage is supposed to provide. Coordinate with the lawyer and come up plans that fit the need of the principal within the limits of the law at the moment. Since the police are not providing any protection, constantly communicate with principal's lawyer to update oneself with the legal extent up to which protection can be provided for the principal.... Presence of cause -oriented groups in the court audience c. With the recent threats of terrorism in the city and their link to white supremacists plus the recent beating of the principal's chief assistant, the media has made speculations pointing to the principal as one of the possible perpetrators. It is important that the principal realize the importance of this piece of information and the implications of these developments to his case. There have been recent assumptions that rival white supremacist groups are trying to grab power within the organization and it is very important for the principal to take note of this development and consider possible scenarios that may erupt from this incident should this be true. Point out the possibility of these rival groups' chance to take advantage of the principal's predicament and vulnerability in pinning the blame of their actions on him. (Fein, Vossekuil, & Holden, 1995) Security in the court house d. As a very outspoken individual, the principal is prone to tactlessness in speech, impulsive reactions and violent episodes that get him into trouble more often than not. Alert the principal with the possible presence of fundamentalist religious groups, white supremacist groups, civil rights groups and other cause-oriented organizations. Remind the principal that all of these people are very sensitive about the causes that they are fighting for. Caution him to be very wary about his statements as any statement that comes out in the wrong way, although not intended may bring about protests from the different groups present during the trial. Constantly remind principal to avoid statements that contain racial slurs as it is in his nature to do so. Doing so would spark resentment and anger from the organizations that are
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
The Most Revolutionary Part of the Industrial Revolution Essay
The Most Revolutionary Part of the Industrial Revolution - Essay Example People could now travel in deep sea and explore further marine resources through steam-powered ships. To compound the importance of the steam engine in the industrial revolution, other later inventions were founded on the steam engine. This implies that the steam engine formed the basis of future research in steam-powered technology that we enjoy up to date. I believe that throughout the history of mankind, the industrial revolution resulted in rising in the standard of living. As Jake put it, the steam engine invention resulted in other new technologies. New technologies come with opportunities for people to get employment, hence more income. In addition, new technologies make work easier, thus easing human beings from tiresome tasks. For illustration, the steam engine helped in the movement of people and goods from one place to another. I believe that throughout the history of mankind, the industrial revolution resulted in rising in the standard of living. As Jake put it, the steam engine invention resulted in other new technologies. New technologies come with opportunities for people to get employment, hence more income. In addition, new technologies make work easier, thus easing human beings from tiresome tasks. For illustration, the steam engine helped in the movement of people and goods from one place to another. People were able t o travel to places that initially could not travel. The role played by the steam engine invention in increasing the standard of living is thus indispensable.
Monday, August 26, 2019
Membership of the Eoropean Community and the effects of the Human Essay
Membership of the Eoropean Community and the effects of the Human Rights Act 1998 has had little impact on the approaches to statutory interpretation practiced - Essay Example e provisions of the European Convention of Human Rights could not be used for purposes of statutory interpretation.4Parliamentary sovereignty means that UK law can override international law7, however, the Communities Act of 1972 and the Human Rights Act have raised the question of supremacy of EU law over national law and its application within the country. In the case of FitzPatrick v Sterling8, the Courts had denied statutory rights to a same sex surviving spouse. In the case of Ghaidan v Mendoza9 Mr. Mendozaââ¬â¢s application for statutory tenancy on grounds of discriminatory violation of his Convention Rights under Article 14 and Article 8 on the basis of his sexual orientation, were allowed, in order to protect his freedom to choose his own sexual lifestyle. The case of Bellinger v Bellinger10 deals with the issue of the freedom of a transsexual man-to-woman to his private life and the right to marry, and the Parliament in UK is legislating on the issue of making national law compatible with that laid down by the ECHR in the case of Goodwin v UK11 in which a transsexualââ¬â¢s right to marry was upheld by the Court, thereby upholding the individualââ¬â¢s right to privacy and a normal life. In the Ghaidan case, Mr. Mendoza contended that the House of Lords should exercise its interpretative power to read and give effect to Para 2(2) on statutory rights to make it compatible with Convention rights that guarantee fundamental human rights, including succession rights, which prohibit discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation. The grounds that were offered in support were the provisions of Section 3 of the Human Rights Act, which states that Parliament legislation must be read and given effect to in a way that will be compatible with Convention rights ââ¬Å"so far as it is possible to do so.â⬠12 Further more the Human Rights Act of 1988 incorporated the goals of the European Convention of Human Rights13 within the framework of national law, by including a provision
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Investment Alternative Benchmarking for Bernard Lester Case Study
Investment Alternative Benchmarking for Bernard Lester - Case Study Example Before 1982, the company is strictly undertaking the production of vehicles while a sales arm named Toyota Motor Sales Company is in charge in marketing its products to end consumers. It should also be noted that there is a clash of culture between the two companies. While Toyota Motor Company prioritizes efficient cost management, the sales arm is concerned with customer satisfaction. Thus, the idea of merger between the two becomes somewhat impossible. However, in 1982 Toyota Motor Company merges with its sale arm forming a 120 billion yen corporation (Toyota in Merger 1982). In the case of Lester, it should be noted that it is the sales arm of Shang-wa in the United States. Having formed a strategic alliance with each other, both companies are contemplating in combining their resources for their mutual benefit through a merger. The decision of fusion between the two business organizations has been met by difficulties of how to merge their different cultures. In the end, however, the efforts come into fruition with the emergence of culture focused on efficiency and creativity (Dillon 2006). Ford Motor Company lags behind Toyota in terms of car sales gaining it the reputation of the third largest automaker in the world. In 2006, the company has been reported to be in discussion for a possible merger with one of its competitor General Motors (Bunkley 2006). However, in the end, the automotive industry saw that this venture failed to materialize because of the lack of strong motivation and benefits which can be derived. Like the real world example from Ford, Lester as well as Shang-wa wants to be acquired by their competitors namely TEC and Avral, respectively. Like General Motors, these acquirers want to beef up their portfolio with companies which have already built a strength of their own. The failure of the proposed merger between the Ford and General Motors did not change the status quo. Ford still operates and competes with General Motors and vice versa. Both business organizations retain the manufacture and distribution of their product lines as well as exercise autonomy in their decision making. Step 2. Toyota has been known in the business world because of its commitment in pursuing manufacturing and operational efficiency. Its quest in finding the most cost efficient manufacturing process is rewarded by its discovery of the lean manufacturing system which makes use of the Just-in-Time inventory system (Dillon 2006). In this manufacturing philosophy, Toyota eliminates wastage or non-value adding processes or resources within its value chain in order to economize. However, it also maintains the quality of its product by ensuring that creativity is not compromised within the manufacturing process. In the Just-in-Time inventory system, cars are manufactured based on consumer demand. Parts are semi-assembled and are finally put together by a team whose members have diverse specialization. Employee empowerment has also been important as Toyota allows their employees to take charge and make their own decision if the need arises. The decision of Toyota to merge with its distribution arm highlights its strategy of pooling resources in order
Saturday, August 24, 2019
Response to Posts of Students Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words
Response to Posts of Students - Essay Example (Oââ¬â¢Mara, et al., 2011). Because the definition specified by the D&I benchmarks is too broad, it ceases to be a definition for lack of focus. For instance, most common among staffing requirements necessarily distinguish along the lines of ââ¬Å"education, geography, work style, work experience, job role and function, thinking style and personality typeâ⬠ââ¬â geography to know that the applicant is accessible to work in certain geographic areas, and the rest to ascertain that the candidate can do the job expected of him. Their inclusion in the ââ¬Å"broadâ⬠definition, as specified in the benchmarks, appears overly intrusive into management prerogative. If alignment of organizational goals and commitment to diversity are in accordance with the broad definition, such may effectively compromise business success or even survival. I believe that business prerogative has a right to discriminate according to education, work style and experience, job role and function, thinking style and personality type, and to specify geographic accessibility, when deciding among applicants for a position, because each of these bears directly upon the very reason for the applicantââ¬â¢s employment. Reference: Department of Commerce, (1999). Best practices in achieving workforce diversity: Vice President Al Goreââ¬â¢s National Partnership for Reinventing Government Benchmarking Study. Retrieved from http://vizedhtmlcontent.next.ecollege.com/CurrentCourse/ Best%20practices%20in%20achieving%20workforce%20diversity.pdf Oââ¬â¢Mara, J. & Richter, A. (2011) Global Diversity and Inclusion Benchmarks: Standards for Organizations Around the World. Retrieved from http://www.omaraassoc.com/pdf/GDIB_2011.pdf Response to the post of Student 2: Leslie Gaines The post identifies one practice as being easiest to accomplish, and that is the establishment of an internal diversity committee. The reason given is that the committee can be delegated the task of complying wit h or managing the nine other practices listed. The justification provided does not appear to substantiate the claim that this practice is easiest; in fact, it is the direct contradiction thereof. Because all the other practices, which are conceded by Student 2 to be more difficult, are to be discharged by the committee, then the selection of committee members shall be a most difficult task, with qualifying criteria of the most stringent standards, and pursuant to a most thorough selection procedure. Even then, the designation of a committee is but a delegation, meaning that top management may entrust the task, but not the responsibility and accountability thereof, to the committee. Holding the committee responsible is a dereliction of duty by management, which in the end must oversee the committeeââ¬â¢s actions. The post further states that the item which does not deserve to be listed among the ten best practices is the distinction between diversity and Affirmative Action or EEO. The reason given is that the world is changing and that there is nothing the ââ¬Ëgood old boysââ¬â¢ can do to stop it. The implication here is that managers belonging to the old school would prefer to distinguish between the two for some selfish, improper reason. Whatever the reason may be, there
Marketing in the For and Not For Profit Sectors Essay
Marketing in the For and Not For Profit Sectors - Essay Example The essay "Marketing in the For and Not For Profit Sectors" talks about the marketing strategies of both for profit and not for profit organizations have been discussed extensively. All current theories have been examined and explained with relevant examples. In the case of for profit companies, the buyer behavior was discussed.With the companies who aim to make a profit the term marketing associates itself to advertising and sales promotions and is more misunderstood than understood. Marketing is much more than that. The need to project the qualities and benefits of a product, the comparison of one product with the competition and the value for money concept are all various angle of the one single objective of making a consumer or buyer aware of its existence and to convince him to buy it. Since marketing is the only tool available for promotion of the idea, service or product, various theories and methods have been adopted in different scenarios for these endeavors.There are many a pproaches to addressing such an understanding of business customers or consumers, but one proposed by Dibb and Simkin has been widely adopted across consumer, business and service markets. Their Buying Proforma forces managers to put the customer first and identifies exactly what the company must provide or offer. It also reveals the influences the company, in turn, must strive to influence and offers a framework against which to compare competitorsââ¬â¢ moves and marketing programs.
Friday, August 23, 2019
The Catholic church teaching of homosexuality Research Paper
The Catholic church teaching of homosexuality - Research Paper Example Homosexuality is a troubling moral and that has been addressed with relative frequency by the Catholic Church in recent years. In certain countries, advocated by civil groups in particular, this practice is tolerated in guise of human rights equality and right to chose way of life without interfering with the larger society and in other countries, legal recognition has since been granted to such unions including the legal possibility of such couples adopting children. The Catholic Church stands by the Biblical condemnation of homosexuality stating, ââ¬Å"Basing itself on sacred scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered. They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complimentarity. Under no circumstances are they to be approved.â⬠(Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2357). Nonetheless, in line with Christian teachings of tolerance, homosexuals, according to the Catholic Church, ââ¬Å"must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.â⬠This tolerance however must not be mistaken to imply that the Catholic Church favors homosexuality since the church is openly against such acts. Governments are reminded of the need to control and restrain the phenomenon in order to safeguard public morality and avoid spread of the degeneracy and exposing the society and future generations to such sexual perversions and laws recognizing such unions in certain countries and states must be vehemently opposed as such laws are in opposition to the right reason as they confer legal guarantees, analogous to those granted to marriage, to unions between persons of similar sex. Therefore the states, by granting legal recognition to such unions fails in its sworn duty to defend marriage and family institutions as the foundation and pillar of the society. The society owes its continued survival to the family, founded in marriage and consequently, legal recognition of such unions would mean redefinition of marriage to become an institution without elements as essential as procreation and children. This would result in serious impacts on the societies and the human race at large, to say the least. ââ¬Å"The denial of the social and legal status of marriage to forms of cohabitation that are not and can not be marital is not opposed to justice; on the contrary, justice requires it.â⬠The Catholic Church stands that homosexual unions do not deserve any institutional recognition as they equally do not serve any public interests unlike marriage couples that ensure continuity of the human race. It is the Churchââ¬â¢s view that civil laws determine the principles, behavior, thoughts and tendencies of those it governs either positively or negatively as it is, influencing incoming generationsââ¬â¢ views and regard of the forms of lifestyle. Legal recognition of homosexuality would thus inevitably water down some essential and basic moral values and degenerate the institution of marriage. The Catholic Church argues that the lack of biological and anthropological elements in homosexual relations mean that they are unable to play role in the God commissioned and mu ch necessary procreation and continued survival of the human race.
Thursday, August 22, 2019
Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói Essay Example for Free
Museu de Arte Contemporà ¢nea de Niterà ³i Essay The Niterà ³i Contemporary Art Museum (Museu de Arte Contemporà ¢nea de Niterà ³i ââ¬â MAC) is situated in the city of Niterà ³i, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and is one of the cityââ¬â¢s main landmarks. It was completed in 1996. Designed by Oscar Niemeyer with the assistance of structural engineer Bruno Contarini, who had worked with Niemeyer on earlier projects, the MAC-Niterà ³i is 16 meters high; its cupola has a diameter of 50 metres with three floors. The museum projects itself over Boa Viagem (ââ¬Å"Bon Voyage,â⬠ââ¬Å"Good Journeyâ⬠), the 817 square metres (8,790 sq ft) reflecting pool that surrounds the cylindrical base ââ¬Å"like a flower,â⬠in the words of Niemeyer. A wide access slope leads to a Hall of Expositions, which has a capacity for sixty people. Two doors lead to the viewing gallery, through which can be seen theGuanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro, and Sugarloaf Mountain. The saucer-shaped modernist structure, which has been likened to a UFO, is set on a cliffside, at the bottom of which is a beach. In the film Oscar Niemeyer, an architect committed to his century,[1] Niemeyer is seen flying over Rio de Janeiro in a UFO which then lands on the site, suggesting this to be the origin of the museum. The MAC Scandal was a political scandal that occurred when the mayor Joà £o Sampaio inaugurated the Niterà ³i Contemporary Art Museum. The MAC is located on a hill slope that had locked construction rights set by the city council. Therefore in December 1996, the new mayor, Jorge Roberto Silveira sent a project to the city council to obtain the rights to construction in that area. The project was accepted in only two days, giving permission to build buildings up to 40 metres (130 ft). The city council did not know that days before, Zeca Mocarzel, sub-mayor of the Niterà ³is Oceanic Region (of Jorge Roberto Silveiras government) bought the lands at a very low price, claiming to the old owner that the region was locked and nothing could be done there. So he bought the area and, after the inauguration of the MAC which substantially increased the property values of the nearby areas, later sold the land for more than 5 million reals, approximately 1,250,000 US dollars at the time (2,720,000 dollars today). Because the scandal occurred just before Christmas, the people of Niterà ³i said that it was Jorge Roberto Silveira, Zeca Mocarzel and Joà £o Sampaios (long-time Niterà ³is politicians) Christmas present.
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Factors That Has Helped Four Seasons Hotel Tourism Essay
Factors That Has Helped Four Seasons Hotel Tourism Essay The main reason behind the preparation of this assignment is to analyse the case study about the factors that has helped Four Seasons hotel to succeed initially and understanding and appreciating the different growth strategies that are adopted and implemented by Four Seasons in order to be one of the successful operating company in hospitality industry. This assignment also discusses the various downturns that the hospitality industry has faced over the years and how Four Seasons dealt with the situation in order to survive in the business. Moreover, in the assignment, the unique business model of Four Seasons hotel is compared and relate to different theories such as value chain analysis which shows how Four Seasons hotel is able to manage their stakeholders expectations. In addition, I have given some recommendations for Four Seasons hotel, to sustain in the hotel business. Company Profile: Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, the worlds leading operator of luxury hotels with a history spanning four decades and a portfolio that extended worldwide. It is one of the worlds biggest and finest chains of luxury hotels which have developed from one motel started by Isadore sharp 1961 in downtown Toronto Canada, to 82 luxury hotel properties in 34 countries worldwide. Four Seasons owns its own hotels, principally under the Four Seasons and Regent names, as well as some others, including the Ritz-Carlton in Chicago and the Pierre in New York. About half the companys earnings come from management fees, and half of it from properties it owns directly. Their highly admired service quality helped them to become benchmark in luxury hotel market. The basic operational policy of Four Seasons hotel is Treat others as you would like to be treated. Highest quality of service to the customers is acquired by Four Seasons by maintaining and improving their service standards also with an innovative approach and continuous development and an eye for detail every single time of service. The company shifted from hotel owner to hotel operator in 1990s the companys 95% of the shares are owned by Bill Gates the founder of Microsoft and Al-Waleed Bin Talal (Prince of Saudi Arabia equally). Rest of the shares are owned by Isadore sharp CEO and company founder. Establishment of Four Seasons: Four Seasons Hotel Chain was founded in 1961, by visionary Isadore sharp with the opening of 126 rooms Inn on the Park in downtown Canada. Sharp was a degree holder in architecture and not from a hotel management background thus Sharp was totally new to the Hotel Business. Sharp describes himself a builder who joined his fathers business after graduation. Joining a hotel industry business was not at all in his mind or his intention till he was working on a project to build a motel. He got an exposure with the motel project and he realised about the upcoming market of luxury hotels. The need of personalised service round the clock with the booming economy made him take a decision to get into Hotel business. The hotel he opened is named as The Four Seasons motor hotel which he opened with the help from his brother in law. The hotel became famous amongst the business travellers and celebrities as it had a innovative design it was different from other hotels as he built all rooms facing inwards giving a view of inner courtyard and swimming pool instead of the outside neighbourhood. Growth and expansion: With the initial success of his first hotel, the big break through which Isadore Sharp was waiting for came in 1970 by opening first Four Seasons Hotel in Hyde Park area of London. Comparatively the room rates were higher than the competitors in the 270 room hotel but then also Four Seasons enjoyed 95% occupancy through out the year. The success came with an innovative idea of hotel equipped with latest amenities unlike old traditional hotels in London. In 1972, Sharp opened a massive 1600 room hotel convention centre in Toronto, Canada in partnership with Sheraton. It took a long time to complete the project, almost 10 years. In 1980 the economy was booming and the demand for luxury hotels increased , and thus Sharp started building hotels across the North America, later in almost every major US city, also to take an advantage of real estate deals. In three decades by 1990, Four Seasons already opened 23 hotels in three countries with net earnings of $15 million. Four Seasons became Global leader in 1992 with acquisition of Regent International hotels. further strong financial base to build and buy hotel properties worldwide came in 1994 when Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal bought 25% of companys shares. They also signed a contract with Carlson Hospitality to develop and expand regent brand worldwide through establishing management contracts and franchising agreements. Initial Success Factors of Four Seasons: To combine best of small hotels with the best of large hotels Isadore Sharp He came up with the idea of opening the medium sized hotels which was enough to give a touch of personalised service providing with a range of luxury amenities and services. Running business from Customers Perspective: The most effective initial strategy for Sharp was to look at the business from customers point of view. He was a innovative thinker to fulfil customers needs in terms of luxury. Example When Four Seasons came into existence the trend was to use flimsy towels in bathroom, he replaced that we 100% cotton towels which worked really well. With experience of opening the first hotel, Sharp realised customers are ready to spend for one thing thats service. And as Four seasons most guest were business travellers and with the experience he came to a conclusion that for them Service means luxury. Luxury Redefined: Maintaining high quality service can also be a brand if delivered constantly according to Sharp. This idea provided him with the initial success in medium sized luxury hotels which gives commitment of providing homelike comforts and personalised service. Thus luxury was redefined as Service and not as decor and architecture. Quality of service comes before the hotel decor and architecture for the customers. As most of the customers for Four Seasons were business travellers Sharp commented They are mostly executives, often under pressure fighting jet lag, stress and the clock. We decided to redefine luxury as service. Thus the key towards Customer satisfaction was achieved by Sharp and he knew what the customers wanted unmatched service quality will give them competitive edge. Although Four Seasons charge 20% extra room rate than the closest competitors but still they were successful of maintaining high occupancy rates. Further Sharp wanted the highest personalised service quality for the guest which was possible only if employees are motivated and happy they will deliver it. Thus employee motivation, mutual respect and empowerment played a vital role in achieving customer satisfaction. And thus he introduced the golden rule. Golden rule: Sharp refer to his first business rule as Golden rule treat your customers as you want to be treated. This became the operational policy for Four Seasons. Every employee is a member of customer service and in charge of it. And he believed employees are the most important part of Four Seasons hotel because there is very limited time in which service encounter takes place unlike other industries. And the employee has to give his best to maintain proper service standards thus lot of screening and interviews are done to ensure the right candidate is selected for right job. Innovation: Innovation contributed a lot in the initial success of Four Seasons. Most of the luxurious amenities and services like Shampoo in the shower, bathrobes, 24 hour room service, two- line phone in guest room, pressing iron, 24 hour secretarial service, big well lit desk were the First to be introduced by Sharp and Four Seasons. The Custom made mattresses is now became the standard of luxury hotels which was Sharps favourite. Vision of Isadore Sharp: Provide each and every thing in the guest room that will make the customer happy. Growth Strategies adopted by four seasons: Initial success for Four Seasons did built a platform for them to grow world wide. It created a network of mid sized luxury hotel in almost all key financial cities all over the world. During this process Four Seasons adopted many different growth strategies as follows: Brand name is competitive advantage: The biggest asset for Four Seasons group was their brand name which was not responsible for their initial success but also a part of their global expansion strategy. The core business strategy for four seasons was to continuously improve their market position and profitability to ensure the competitive advantage while obtaining new management contracts worldwide. Strategic relationship with investors: With the help of strategic relationships with many small private institutions earlier helped them to expand their opportunities worldwide. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bought 25% of company shares and with his major investments in Four Seasons which helped them to enter in new markets as well the ownership was not of Four seasons so it served their primary objective of being a management company. From Hotel owner to Hotel operators: Their unique business development model stated they wanted to be a hotel chain operator than hotel chain owner. It has ownership of only three hotels out of their sixty three hotels. Under this unique business model Four seasons hotel doesnt have a burden of ownership, the major capital is brought by the partners with whom Four Seasons developed strategic relationships. There is wide range of management fees (base fee, incentive fee, sales and marketing charge and reservation charge) for providing these services to the owner. How Four Seasons responded to economic downturns? Four Seasons faced economic downturns in different years in four decades 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000 in the following years 74, 81, 91, 2001. And all of them made a significant impact on Four seasons strategy. The hotel business during the time of recession were mainly affected by Increased interest rates and Decrease in market prices With the increased airfares and the increased occupancy rates the tourism was badly affected. Executives of the company were travelling less and the leisure facilities were decreased for the executives which affected the hotel and tourism market. Furthermore increased terrorism affected hotel and tourism market. There were drastic steps taken by different hotel operators by cutting labour cost, lowering prices buy Four seasons believed that the industry is going to return to normal soon and Isadore Sharp adopted exactly the other way. He took the challenge during the time of recession and saw the opportunity to develop the hotels. He told his executives about his thoughts that when our competitors are lowering standards we will raise ours The different actions taken by Four Seasons as an answer to economic downturns are: Four Seasons followed their words to look after their employees: During the time of recession most of the hotel operators cut down their labour cost but Four Seasons tackled the situation the other way, they responded by cutting the overhead costs but not the labour costs. They aimed for maximizing labours value instead of lowering labour cost. Sharp explained this strategy to his executives, And we also know that what we must do to meet that goal, is to lower costs and raise service and product quality. But cutting costs and raise service and product quality. But cutting costs by cutting labour, if carried too far, lowers quality. The only way these seemingly conflicting aims can be reconciled is by responsible employees committed to working smarter. Instead of minimizing labours cost we should maximize labours value: by convincing our employees that our purpose merits commitment. Four seasons offered Flexible Contracts to the employees rather than job cut, in which employees will be called on duty as per the demand of the business which replaced working four days a week instead of five days a week. It was in the agreement of the employees and all the employees were in favour of the decision furthermore the salaries and the bonuses of the managers was also affected. This all resulted in sharing a common policy in heading towards companys goals. Improving the products: Most of the hotel operators paused the construction or running of a hotel for a temporary period but the property business is really high during the time of recession because the properties are sold out on lower rates thus Four Seasons tackled the situation by renovation and refurbishment to improve the products. Isadore Sharp believed that providing quality service to the guest are a necessity and not a service by itself. And if the hotel wants to sustain in the market the new trends in the hotel industries should be followed to keep up with the market. Thus to accommodate these changes and provide customers with quality service. During recession the room occupancy is the lowest thus the inconvenience caused to the guests are very less and thus the guests get a royal out of the world service. They followed this strategy during recession period which gave them a steady growth over the decade. Advertising costs: Most of the competitors of Four Seasons hotel kept cutting their advertising and marketing costs, but Four Seasons didnt cut their advertising and marketing budget to maintain the brand recognition as they had a very good recognition in the Hospitality industry. It is easy to maintain the momentum rather than restart it. This strategy helped them to gain a competitive edge over their competitors in maintaining their brand recognition. Property market: During recession the supply in the market for the land was than the demand on low prices. Four seasons took the advantage of low prices of the land and they picked the premium locations which would have been difficult to buy them in normal times. Thus this strategy paid off to Four Seasons during the time of recession and they came with the finest of the hotels in top locations after recession. How four seasons managed various stakeholder expectations? Stakeholder: Person, group, or organization that has direct or indirect stake in organization because it can affect or be affected by the organizations actions, objectives, and policies. (www. businessdictionary.com) There are three most important aspects of managing stakeholder expectations: Know your stakeholders Know what exactly they except from you Make them accountable for realities of project by making them aware of risks and consequences. (According to Dr. James Brown, president of the project management company Seba Solutions). Different stake holders of Four Seasons hotel are Stakeholders play a vital role for a company to survive thus the company or organisation needs to implement a strategy for managing their stakeholder expectations. Thus Four seasons implemented following strategy for managing their stakeholder expectations: STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT Managing the stakeholders expectation is a step by step process: After identification of stakeholders, the second step is to identify their needs. Needs and expectations of the stakeholders of Four seasons can be described as follows: Owners: Returns on investment by profit Management: Management fees on the basis of gross revenue. Employees: Empowerment, Career opportunities and job security. Customers: High quality service and luxury. Society: Corporate social responsibility. Their strategy to manage stakeholder expectations can be summarised with relation to value chain analysis as well value_chain_analysis Value chain analysis is a concept to create competitive advantage and sustaining superior performance. Owner: Expectation of the owners are really high on returns in terms of profit because they are the one who made the capital investment in the projects. The different aspects of value chain used by four season hotels are like Infrastructure of the hotel, the most innovative idea of the initial strategy was to come up with medium sized hotels, and it worked really well. It was made possible and successful by Isadore Sharp who was the degree holder in architecture and he knew the latest designs of buildings and hotels like building rooms facing inwards to avoid view of neighbourhood made significant contribution to it. These innovative designs really helped Four Seasons to come up with the highest occupancy among the travellers. Thus they were successful in managing owners expectations by giving returns on their investments in less time. Management: To ensure a good gross revenue it is vital to get higher occupancy with good average room rate throughout the year. Sales and Marketing and technology come into picture from Value chain analysis. The marketing strategy for Four season hotel is to target the luxury segment of the market. 69% of their business comes from business travellers and groups. So almost all of their advertising and marketing programmes were designed to enhance the awareness of luxury service provided by Four seasons hotel. Technology played a vital part in achieving their goal by newly designed website and superior reservation system. They gained an advantage over other hotels by Global reservation system which gave an option to the guests to be comfortable with their own local language in North America, Asia and European Network. Example: There are so many hotels in Hyde Park area but over 30 years Four Seasons has gained and enjoyed the highest occupancy in the area with their strategy. Employees: Employees expect Mutual respect and Empowerment from Four season hotel. Employees are the most important stakeholders of the organisation, if they are happy to work for the organisation the whole business cycle can run smoothly, If Employees are happy then the customers are happy with their service it leads to word of mouth publicity and the organisation gets a repeat business. Employees deserve a mutual respect from the management. Human Resource Management from value chain ensures that employees should get what they deserve and expect. And most importantly the Golden Rule of Four Seasons is treat others as you would like to be treated also they believe that if employees are happy then only they can make customers happy. Four Seasons has maintained empowering their employees, and the best outcome and results can be obtained from their employees by empowering them. Im sure weve all read reports on the productivity gains achieved by empowering employees. And we all know the workplace has to change to attain this. And in a survey of 264 big company chairman, 62 percent agreed that one of the most important business issues facing them was building and keeping a qualified workforce. -Isadore Sharp d.) Customers: The expectation of the customers is very high as Four Seasons targets luxury segment of market. Service factor from Value Chain is wisely utilized by Four Seasons to manage expectations of luxury for the customers. They redefined luxury as service. Four Seasons gained a competitive edge by provided high standard of service with personalised touch. Customers got what they expected from Four Seasons. And they are very successful in making customers happy. E.) Society: As Society expects some corporate social responsibility(CRS) from all the hotels and organisation, their expectation for four seasons towards society is really high as well. CSR includes encouraging activities for development of society and avoiding practices which causes harm to the environment. Four Seasons explain how they help and take initiative towards community by various training and mentoring programmes for young people and helping whoever in need in their website www.fourseasons.com . Example: They donate organic food to local farmers to feed their animals (Costa Rica) and also providing shelter camps to Urban Elephants(Golden Triangle, Thailand), Raising significant funds for cancer research and awareness programmes. Recommendation: Four Seasons has a strong portfolio in the Hotel Industry but to sustain they should focus on few things which are as follows: Four Seasons should concentrate on building more brands and focus on all the categories like upper-scale, middle and budget hotels. Unlike Accor group of hotel they have segmented their hotels and created a brand focusing the needs of its customers such as Etap, Ibis, Novotel, Sofitel etc. To compete with other leading brands Four Seasons should come up with more hotels all over the world for more brand recognition and for customers to have a taste of their service. Furthermore Four Seasons should continue the effective management of the hotel the way they are doing it to sustain in the market. CONCLUSION With the base of the case study and research on Four seasons hotel, Canadian based business has an excellent brand recognition all over the world. The company is moving ahead with excellence along with strong financial and operational management. Different innovative ideas of Four Seasons hotel helped them grow in this hospitality business over the years furthermore during the time of recession Four Seasons hotel did really well, thus it says Fours Seasons Hotel has turned economic down turn to a competitive advantage over their competitors by coming up with different properties with prime location after recession (they responded very well to economic downturn). They took the down turn as an opportunity to expand and thus they are achieving excellence in their business.
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
customer cargo from HCM to Singapore
customer cargo from HCM to Singapore In our company, the operations manager and his decisions are of special importance. Our activities are involved in logistics with special services on transportation and warehouse distribution. Therefore, the operation decisions must be accurate, timely, and workable. Four major decision responsibilities of the operations management are process, capacity, quality, and inventory. The operations management is not only affect to production, but impact to quality and revenue also. When we received a booking to ship the customer cargo from HCM to Singapore, the operations manager would have to calculate the maximum container that could be loaded on the vessel. The volume of cargo must conform to ship capacity and safety regulations. The operations decision will give marketing the quote to canvas the cargo and guide to the port for loading schedule. Therefore, the operations manager will have the responsibility for the volume and quantity of cargo directly. Any cargo cutting, due to a mista ke of the operations manager will reduce the freight and company revenue. In our business, it is very important to ensure the time departure, vessel speed, and estimated time of arrival (ETA). These elements will affect the quality service and the operations managers have responsibility to maintain all things as fixed schedule. In logistics sectors, the operations manager must be familiar with all other sections and can watch the company picture in general. Otherwise, he must communicate with the marketing manager and the chief of financial well. The right operations decision is first condition for our company to get the revenue. Nghe Ãâà à ¡Ã »Ã c ngà ¡Ã »Ã ¯ à ¢m Tà ¡Ã »Ã « Ãâââ¬Ëià ¡Ã »Ãân Xem tà ¡Ã »Ã « Ãâââ¬Ëià ¡Ã »Ãân chi tià ¡Ã ºÃ ¿t Question II: Explain the information conveyed by various elements in the house of quality. Personalize your answer to your own work experience. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) has been developed in Japan in the late 1960s and was been applied at the Kobe/Japan shipyard of Mitsubishi Heavy Industry in 1972. Then, Toyota had developed this application as a table with a roof. The shape of this table is similar as a house and is named the house of quality. The house of quality is developed a method of quality control ensure that customer requirements on products are satisfied before creating it. For example, we want to produce a kind of labor uniform clothing for workers in northern Vietnam. First of all, we must have information about what customers need in the product characteristics. In the north, the weather is cold, rainy in winter, so the characteristics of the product must be waterproof, warm enough etc. The requirements of customers for a product like bricks to build up the wall of the house. If we have enough bricks, full of information about customer attributes, we can develop a high house. The customer attributes are the first and most important of the matrix in the house of quality. This information is collected through communication with customers, interviews and research results. Customers are encouraged to describe what they need and any possible issues with their products. A list of requirements gathered will be put into the house of quality. The body of the house and the quality can be very time consuming to complete. Its purpose is to transfer customer requirements into technical specifications of the product. A described by Schroder, Goldenstein Rungtusanatham (2010), the next step of building house is translate the customer attribute in to Engineering Characteristic (Ecs) (p.49). With customer requirements, the Ecs must consider the existing textile equipment, machinery, and technology to produce it and estimate the unit price. When the customers requirements meet the manufacturers cable, we will complete the roof of the house. Otherwise, this house must be b uilt on a foundation of information on existing products on the market of the competitor. Without evaluation on the strengths and weaknesses of the product, and lack of information about the competitors product, the manufacturer may have not good product, like building houses without foundations. In our company, the building quality homes, quality control is target to improving matters in the production process, then towards the final product with the highest customer satisfaction. Question III: Can one apply the concepts such as Plant-within-a-plant (PWP), Mass Customization, etc. to Service Operations? Provide a discussion of the response as it relates to your own work experience or company. The services cover a wide range, but all types of services can be grouped into 3 types: Explicit service (tangible service), implicit service (intangible service) and facilitating goods. In general, service operations may include one, two or three types of the above services. Because, a service sector has owned product, concepts such as Plant-within-a-plant (PWP), Mass Customization can apply to service operations. Plant-Within a-Plan (PWP) is a term to demonstrate the focus operation. The company with PWP will focus on one or several specific product manufacture. Although these goods are processed in same factory, each product or product lines will be fabricated separately from others. PWP and focus operations can use the service sector also. The operations manager can assign and allocate different types of services to different divisions, and different facilities. For a transportation service in our company, we can divide into domestic service and international service. Because the requirement for overseas transport is higher and need more document than domestic, the service level is quite different and should be separate. Schrode (2010) interpreted that mass customization is a strategy to provide products in lot sizes of one in high volume (p.75). Mass customization in service can provide a large service product at customer specific requirement. The weekly transport service between HCMC and Singapore is a mass service, but we can customize for small requirement, even less than one container. Applying the concepts of Plant-within-a-plant (PWP), mass customization to service operations are complicated duties, but they will enhance the service quality. Question IV: Hayes and Wheelwright argued that it is profitable for firms to operate along the diagonal of the product-process matrix. Justify the reasons surrounding their argument. Can you think of situations wherein firms could move away from the diagonal and yet remain profitable? The product-process matrix is a table showing the relationship between product (type, volume etc) and scale of production (process, equipment etc). This matrix was developed by Mr. Hayes and Mr. Wheelwright in 1979. In this matrix, we can see how each typical product will correspond to a ranging of processes from the project to the continuous process. The companies with low volume for each goods, not specialization, wide range of products, usually organized in job shops. Otherwise, the company has high volume; high standardization must organize as an assembly line or continuous process. In general, a company must have position in diagonal of this matrix will have proper organization structure, working processes, production management conform to scale of production and types of products. In the case, if a company is out of this diagonal line, their business procedure may be broken, and conflicts will arise between products and production management. For example, when a company has large order for a product, but the company did not have modern assembly lines, no proper equipment and still use job shop, they will use more labor. This will inevitably lead to price the product high, will not deliver on time, and will be difficult to manage throughput, profits will not be maintained. Usually, in the development period, sometime the company is not on this diagonal. The product and process did not change simultaneously. Sometimes, a company has not enough machinery or an assembly line to produce a large volume. Otherwise, sometimes, the company invested modern assembly line but can not fabricate so much because of market redundancy. However, in the long-term, the company will maintain the balance and stay on this diagonal. A long side of the diagonal of product process matrix, a high volume, larger scale product, it means that revenue will increase. If the company manages the process well, workers will increase productivity, reduce unit cost, and the company in the diagonal of product process matrix will obtain more profit. Question V: Question V: What are the five essential elements of lean thinking? In your own words, provide a road map for implementing lean thinking in a manufacturing or service operations of your choice. In order to get practice on operation management, we visited a shoe manufacture last week. We found that the lean thinking has applied in many assembly lines of the manufactures. We can recognize all of the five essential elements of lean thinking as follows: Specify exactly what creates value: The steps of the quality house were done to ensure that all customer requirements on each samples shoe had been detailed and all give certain value for users. The first element has been carried by the designers and the RD division Improve the value stream: this element of lean thinking has applied on shoe assembly lines. From beginning step to cutting material to end, where the shoes had completed, we can not see any unnecessary movements. Design the flow to avoid waste: it is easy to recognize that there is no inventory and waiting time in the shoe assembly lines. Right after the cover sheet of shoe is completed, they will be move to other step without delay and inventory. Produce only what the customer pulls: the push mentality typically was replaced by pulls. After the customer confirms their order, shoess material will be ex-store and the shoe assembly line will start. The third element will reduce the cost, and inventory for company. Strive for perfection: every six months, the manufactures evaluates all processes and make adjustments accordingly. We had an interview with an operation manager and understand that they implement the lean systems with 6 specific steps. All of steps will are carried out by two groups. A team work of lean implements will be set up. This team includes experts from some relative divisions. They will review all documents, and procedure to find out what the customer actually needs; builds up a procedure for production; construct a value stream map and use it to eliminate waste; and follow pull demand from the customer. After group one completes their duties, the necessary changes will be applied in one assembly and will repeat the cycle on another process. This duty will be conducted by not lean team, but all operation team leader and workers. Question VI: Question VI: Describe what Business Process Re-engineering is and what is involved in such an undertaking. Also, discuss when it should be used, how it might benefit to a business, and indicate any cautions with regards to its use. Give an example related to your work experience or readings. After 10 year of sustained development, our company is facing some big problems. There is an overlapping of functions, excess personnel, in-accurate reports, and it is difficult to control costs, although the director had adjusted the plan and gave a warning to some relative divisions. However, there was not much result. The sales volume continued down and expenses were still increased. In that situation, our chairman conducted a revolution with big change. He declared that the company will be rethinking and radical redesign of business [or organizational] processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service and speed. I understand that he will perform a Business process reengineering (BPR). In the past, leaders of enterprises have re-structured their company at their way without applying modern theory and useful research. In the early 1990s Michael Hammer and James Champy has issued their best-selling book, Reengineering the Corporation. In that book, the BPR was detailed in some specific areas. In general, the workflow and business process must be analyzed and redesigned within that company. Companies may centralize or decentralize the function division as marketing, operations, and finance according to their new organization chart. Companies can follow four principal which Schrode (2010) summaries as that organize around outcomes, not tasks, have the people who do the work, process their own information, put the decision point where work is performed and build control into the process and eliminate unnecessary steps in the process (p 123, 124). After 2 year implements of BPR, although our company was downsized, the sale volume increase and earn more revenue. The profit and return on investment has improved dramatically. Question VII: The definition of quality management has evolved from quality by inspection towards delivering competitive advantage to the firm. Briefly discuss these and other definitions of quality management. About 20 years ago, Vietnamese enterprises had not applied ISO 9000 standards in production and business activities yet. In that period, quality management simply meant that a checking or an inspection to find the defect product. The Vietnamese concept of KCS ( Kiem tra chat luong San pham check product quality) is quite common. Most plants have KCS division. This term is quite close to the traditions meaning of the quality management in 1900, when quality management means that inspection. Inspection is just a check product in the last stage of the process. It does not detect and prevent the mistake and defect in the production process. During improvement on company management, the quality method had an upgrade also. By the 1960s, the quality management had developed a new step to cover multiple departments between enterprises. These activities involved the designing, manufacturing and testing of the final product. The term of quality management refered to all activities and division function and included quality planning, quality control, quality improvement and quality assurance. Nowadays, the quality management has been upgraded to a new step. The new concept is Total Quality Management (TQM). TQM is a management method based on long-term success by focusing on customer satisfaction. All member of a Nghe TQM organization has reasonability to improving processes, products, services, and the culture in their work. So, quality management is towards delivering competitive advantage to the firm Question VIII: Name the seven tools of quality that are typically used in a manufacturing process. Can all these tools be applied to service operations? Suggest some possible service operations scenarios wherein we could apply all/some of these tools. Some decades ago, Japanese companies had used some tools for quality control. Day by day, they had been developing the seven tools of quality control. The seven tools are listed by Schroder (2010) as flow charts, check sheet, histogram, pareto diagrams, cause and -effect diagrams, control charts (p.195). In service operations, all services have been ensured of their quality also. Therefore, the managers need useful tools to control the quality. Depending on the kind of service, such as tangible service, intangible service or facilitating goods, some these tools can be used accordingly. All seven tools can be applied on facilitating goods such as restaurants, repair workshops etc. Some intangible services can select other tools. However, I suppose that the Pareto diagram can be used for all service operations. The Pareto theory will help us to concentrate to most important problem. The Pareto diagram can be build to demonstrate any factors with ratio, which impact the outcome. To resolve that problem, the cause and effect diagram (fishbone diagram) can be applied for all companies regardless production or service. In my experience in warehouse service, the team leaders of a facility often use the check sheet. They have to collect daily data and consolidate them in a tabular form in order to follow the working process, im-ex warehouse, and other movement between those facilities. Otherwise, the histograms tool is useful to valuate and audit after long time operation.
Monday, August 19, 2019
Francisco Franco Essay -- essays research papers
Francisco Franco was a general and authoritarian leader, who governed Spain from 1939 to 1975. He came to power shortly after the start of the Spanish Civil War. In that war, he led the rebel Nationalist Army to victory over the Loyalist forces. After the war ended in 1939, Franco held complete control of Spain. His regime was similar to a Fascist dictatorship. He carried out the functions of chief of state, prime minister, commander in chief, and leader of the Falange, the only permitted political party. He adopted the title of El Caudillo, the leader. In the early years of his regime, he tried to eliminate all opposition. He later eased some restrictions. Francisco Franco Bahamonde was born on December 4, 1892, in El Ferrol de Caudillo, Spain. His father was a naval officer. He schooled at the Infantry Academy of Toledo. After graduating from the infantry academy in 1910, he rose rapidly in the army, earning the reputation for efficiency, honesty, and complete professional dedication. He was named commander of the Spanish foreign legion in 1923. Franco became a national hero for his role in suppressing revolts in Morocco, and at the age of 33 he was made brigadier general. Having quelled a leftists revolt in Austria in 1934, he became army chief of staff in 1935. In February of 1936 the leftist government of the Spanish republic exiled Franco to an obscure command in the Canary Islands. The following July he joined other right-wing officers in a revolt against th...
Sunday, August 18, 2019
Charles De Galle Essay -- essays research papers
Charles de Gaulle was born in Lille, France, on Nov. 22, 1890, the son of a teacher of philosophy and literature at a Jesuit college. From early childhood he took an interest in reading. Fascinated by history, he formed an almost mystical formation of service to France. De Gaulle graduated from the Ecole Militaire of Saint-Cyr in 1912 and joined an infantry division. In World War I he was wounded and captured at Douaumont in the Battle of Verdun in March 1916. As a war prisoner, he wrote his first book, published in 1924 called La discorde chez l'ennemi. He served on Marshal Henri Philippe Petainââ¬â¢s staff then with the French army in the Rhineland, and later in Lebanon. On April 7, 1921 de Gaulle married Yvonne Vendroux and they had their first child, a son, on December 28. Their daughter, Elisabeth was born on May 15th 1924. In the 1930's de Gaulle wrote many books and articles on military subjects that showed how much of a good writer and thinker he was. In 1931 he published Le fil de l'epee or the The Edge of the Sword, an investigation of military and political leadership. He also published Vers l'armee de metier or later called The Army of the Future and La France et son armee or France and Her Army. He fought for the better uses of armored mobility and air power, because he felt it would provide better defenses than fixed fortifications such as the Maginot Line. His theories were refused by the military and by left-wing leaders. à à à à à At the out...
What is Giftedness? :: Biology Essays Research Papers
Maria, a friend of my mother's, once complained to our family about the public school system in Florida. She claimed Peter, her six-year-old child, is extremely intelligent and not only could he play the violin and chess, but he could also read upper-level books. Despite all this, he did not make it into the gifted program at school - a program that she believed he rightfully deserved to be a member of. Why was she so upset over the outcome, and what deciding factors do people consider that could lead to the child being selected against an accelerated program? In recent years there have been a strong resurgence in the study of giftedness in children- many people have attempted to explain the phenomena and why there are so few who are endowed with the asset. Research has promised new insights on the identification and subsequent proper handling for gifted individuals. What factors may influence innate talent in certain people - is it based on genetic, neurophysiological, or psychologi cal factors? In my last paper, I had discussed the various research projects that have attempted to link giftedness to the brain - with interesting results that are still yet to be firmly established. This paper will attempt to show how giftedness as a concept has been misrepresented in general, and how it presently cannot be used to directly identify individuals but can be used as an inference tool only. Nevertheless, finding a basis or correlates for the concept is something society finds important, because of the believed implications it will have for the gifted children in the future. The age-old issue of "what makes giftedness" has been debated in the academic world for many years. Before recent studies, it was widely believed that giftedness merely relates to the intellect only. Now many scientists believe that the term correlates not only to intelligence but also to creativity, memory, motivation, physical dexterity, and aesthetic sensitivity (1). It is without doubt that there is some basis to the fact that a few people learn faster than others, or have an accelerated sensitivity to art, music, or mathematics. But is this due to an innate ability of the particular person? Or are there several complex factors involved not involved with the individual's body? Is genius a unified brain phenomena, or is it a term used to describe different phenomena in different persons? Many believe that giftedness is due to some innate process independent, for example, from the environment the individual is raised in.
Saturday, August 17, 2019
Beckettââ¬â¢s Main Themes Essay
Samuel Beckett explores the purposelessness of life, lack of meaning and memory in Waiting for Godot. Aspects such as repetition, change, recognition, blind faith, silences and pauses illustrated the forgetfulness and purposelessness of the lives of Vladimir and Estragon. ââ¬ËWaitingââ¬â¢ is doing both something and nothing simultaneously; Vladimir and Estragon recognize this which is why they are in search for something to ââ¬Ëdoââ¬â¢. VLADIMIR: We are happy. ESTRAGON: We are happy. (Silence.) What do we do now, now that we are happy? VLADIMIR: Wait for Godot. (Estragon groans. Silence.) Things have changed here since yesterday. ESTRAGON: And if he doesnââ¬â¢t come? VLADIMIR: (after a moment of bewilderment). Weââ¬â¢ll see when the time comes. (Pause.)â⬠¦ Their words are as empty and futile as their actions. There is a silence after they say that theyââ¬â¢re ââ¬Å"happyâ⬠which makes it apparent that they are just forcing the emotion on to themselves. The silence allows the audience to inquire if they really are happy and if their happiness is of value. Being happy doesnââ¬â¢t provide a function in life; Estragon wants to ââ¬Ëdoââ¬â¢ something now that they were supposedly happy. To ââ¬Ëdoââ¬â¢ something constructive is important to pass the time; the closest they can get to a functional action is to talk to each other. Having a purpose in life is probable to come with the emotion of happiness, since Estragon and Vladimir have convinced themselves to believe they encompass a purpose in life, they require the emotion of happiness to validate it. Rather than just telling Vladimir to ââ¬Ëdoââ¬â¢ something as they were ââ¬Å"happyâ⬠, he asks him which is a technique to create conversation. The characters have blind faith in Godot, they donââ¬â¢t know what would happen if he didnââ¬â¢t come. Vladimir is bewildered when he comes to the moment of reality of contemplating that this being true would make their wait purposeless. He doesnââ¬â¢t want to admit that if Godot didnââ¬â¢t come then their long wait would have been for nothing, instead he says ââ¬Å"Weââ¬â¢ll see when the time comesâ⬠. This is a meaningless statement because if Godot never does come then the time will never come. However, Vladimir shows indication of acknowledging this when he starts talking about ââ¬Ëchangeââ¬â¢ which is not only changing the subject but also implying that change in something proves that time is passing and that time will soon come. Moreover, towards the end of the extract when Estragon asks ââ¬Å"What do we do now?â⬠and Vladimir replies ââ¬Å"Wait for Godotâ⬠. He ends the sentence there because he doesnââ¬â¢t know what would happen after h e did come and where their lives would lead. They show no reason to wait for Godot which highlights again the purposelessness of their lives. As Vladimir and Estragon are waiting, it is vital for time to pass and the thing to establish this is for things to change. VLADIMIR:â⬠¦I was saying that things have changed here since yesterday. ESTRAGON; Everything oozes. VLADIMIR: Look at the tree ESTRAGON: itââ¬â¢s never the same pus from one second to the next VLADIMIR: The tree, look at the tree. The characters do not really have a conversation which follows in a logical pattern; they often misinterpret each other. Although the two pass their time, they pass it in ââ¬Ëuseless banterââ¬â¢ which is meaningless and gives their life no purpose. Estragon occasionally drifts off with his own thoughts but Vladimir brings him back to his. They both have their own ideas on change, Vladimir refers to the tree to prove that things have ââ¬Å"changedâ⬠while Estragon notices ââ¬Ëpusââ¬â¢ changing, even though theyââ¬â¢re in their own individual worlds they both perceive a significance in ââ¬Ëchangeââ¬â¢. Change is essential to them because they want assurance they have passed the time, and the only way to do so is to see change in their surroundings; change would also initiate some form of purpose. However, their dialogue in general dwells on their past and present which suggests that they are trapped in their current situation. The tree in the landscape helps illustrate a purpose because it is changing, it has to be changing for a purpose; Vladimir sees it as a sign of hope. There is only one tree rather than lots, this makes the landscape seem dull and gives a boring imagery. It is a symbol of life and contrasts with the bleak lifeless environment itââ¬â¢s in. Recognition comes conjointly with memory which Estragon doesnââ¬â¢t have. Estragon doesnââ¬â¢t find that there is any point in recognizing things. He says ââ¬Å"what is there to recognize?â⬠. Estragon lacks memory which is why he gets frustrated. He distinguishes physical things which he receives like Lucky kicking him and Pozzo giving him a bone. These things make a difference to Estragon which is why he remembers it. He realizes that he had just ââ¬Å"crawled about in the mudâ⬠all his life which entails that he only recognizes the purposelessness of his life and the meaning it lacks. It is a commonly established idea that oneââ¬â¢s experiences define a person. Vladimir says ââ¬Å"Heââ¬â¢s forgotten everything!â⬠with regards to Estragon. Memory is important to them because what they went through yesterday was an accomplishment for them, if they canââ¬â¢t remember it then it is worthless. If Estragon canââ¬â¢t remember then Vladimir has no one to reminisce their achievement with, however reminding Estragon and describing it to him gives them something to talk about and passes the time. Since they both lack memory of most of their experiences, their individuality is unclear. Vladimir tries to compare the difference of their current landscape to the ââ¬Å"Macon countryâ⬠but Estragon fails to remember it, and derides at the word and states that he spent all his life in their current location, the ââ¬Å"Cackon countryâ⬠. The sound of the word is harsh and he says it as if it is meaningless to him even though that is where he is ââ¬ËWa iting for Godotââ¬â¢, the place where they are establishing their decided purpose of life. Silences and pauses are uses to transport the meaning to the audience or reader; during the short intervals they realize the meaningless conversation Vladimir and Estragon indulge in. The two begin describing ââ¬Å"All the dead voicesâ⬠which ââ¬Å"murmurâ⬠, ââ¬Å"rustleâ⬠, ââ¬Å"whisperâ⬠and ââ¬Å"make a noise like feathersâ⬠. The silences are disseminated and their dialogues after each of the silences are repetitive which is parallel to their nearly reiterated everyday routine and dialogues. The silent and empty stage is filled with the sound of the ââ¬Ëdead voicesââ¬â¢; viewers are made to imagine the voices as Vladimir and Estragon describe them using similes. The dead voices contribute to the tedious mood of their lives; they argue over trivial things which is parallel to their depressed condition because they are too weak to make it better. The voices reflect the situation of the two characters, they murmur, rustle, whisper in their actions while they wait for Godot. Repetition of the dialogues conveys the forgetfulness of Vladimir and Estragon and their pointless lives. The extract begins with the characters speaking in ââ¬Ëuseless banterââ¬â¢ but as it nears towards the end of the extract, Vladimir and Estragonââ¬â¢s speech lessens and becomes quieter as they run out of things to say. This illustrates their life cycle, the beginning is a bustle of activity as they were younger and searching for a purpose and meaning for life, they did things like ââ¬Å"pick grapes for a manâ⬠and go to ââ¬Å"the Macon countryâ⬠; but as they grow older, energy and enthusiasm decreases as they discover no purpose. Vladimir panics after the ââ¬Å"Long silenceâ⬠, because he doesnââ¬â¢t want to think of the reality of their situation; talking and actions distract their attention from reflection. Vladimir tells Estragon to ââ¬Å"Say anything at all!â⬠in ââ¬Å"anguishâ⬠, he suffers a mental despair or distress if nothing is said or done because then he will apprehend the reality of their meaningless wait. It is as if their terrible actuality is in his subconscious mind which he keeps on pushing away. Estragon further confirms that the reason for their ââ¬Ëuseless banterââ¬â¢ is so they wonââ¬â¢t ââ¬Å"thinkâ⬠; language is utilized to neglect silence. To further emphasise their reiterated life, when they run out of things to say, they remind themselves of their purpose of their existence and the reason behind their endless wait which is to ââ¬Å"Wait for Godotâ⬠.
Friday, August 16, 2019
Odi Case
Optical Distortions (ODI) is a start up with limited resources and a product that can change the egg production business. Its product, contact lenses for chickens, would reduce the vision of the hen and achieve two desirable results in the behavior of the chicken. These behaviors include reduction in cannibalism and reduction in amount of food required for chicken. And as a further result, the reduction in cannibalism rate removed the need to debeak the birds, which adds further economic value to the farmers. These benefits far outstrip the costs of the contact lenses themselves.And for ODI, there are definitely profits to be had if the products can be marketed well before the competitors can enter the market in a few years. Therefore, ODI should introduce their product according to my analysis below. The issue ODI is facing is that it currently has no revenue flow. And to stay competitive in the industry, ODI is estimating it will have large expenses coming up quickly to grow quickl y enough to stay viable. Therefore, ODI must capitalize as soon as possible. Also, on the consumer front, the product is completely unknown to its customers.It will face a slightly uphill battle to convince potential customers that its product is better than the other more ââ¬Å"conventionalâ⬠methods provided by other vendors in the poultry egg production industry. On the competitor side, ODI has little breathing room. It expects that the competitors can be kept out of the market for at most two to three years thanks to patents and licenses that ODI currently holds. And ODI believes that competitors will likely try to enter the market as soon as possible because of the potential impact that the lenses hold on the egg production industry.Thankfully, ODIââ¬â¢s collaborator, New World, has entered into an exclusive contract with ODI on the non-human use of hydrophilic polymer. Given the general market information, we need more detailed understanding of the current market to d etermine a strategy for ODI. 1. How big is the market for ODI chicken lenses? First, we must determine the market size of the ODIââ¬â¢s contact lenses. According to information provided by Garrison, that ODI can only profitably sell to a farm if that farm had at least 10,000 chickens in its flock. As our first target market, California, we must determine the number of farms nd chickens in farms with more than 10,000 chickens. We are shown the distribution of farms in Exhibit 3. However, we are only shown break outs of farms with 20,000 more chickens. We can still use this information, because farms with just over 10,000 chickens is barely profitable, so we can concentrate on them later on in the process as ODIââ¬â¢s product becomes more mature. Hence, there are 521 farms with 20,000 hens or more, with 39,929,680 million chickens. (Please note that this is approximately 86. 4% of all chicken in California farms. ) The market size for ODIââ¬â¢s lenses in California is fairly big at 39,929,680 potential chickens.And nationwide, which will be the eventual target market for ODI, there are 197,970,487 chickens currently. And according exhibit 4, the trend in chicken farming shows that this market will continue to increase for two reasons. First, there is a net growth in the number of birds in flocks. Second, there is a trend for reduction of smaller farms and increase at the medium and large farms. And since we are targeting only medium and large farms, we can expect the number of birds in this market to continue to increase. 2. Who are the potential customers for such a product? Why would they buy it?Next, we need to identify potential customers for the product. The clear customers are farmers of the egg farms, we will call this the direct to consumer (DTC) market. The farmers would definitely buy the product if they are aware of the cost savings it provides. For each 10,000 chicken, the farmer can expect to see savings of $2,617. 60 ignoring the additiona l costs imposed by the lenses (please see appendix 1 for the estimated savings calculations). If we sell the lenses at the 8 cents per pair, then we will be adding approximately $800 to the cost of the farmer in costs. This means the farmer can see a net savings of $1,817. 0 by switching to the contact lenses over debeaking. In addition to these farms, perhaps, services firms that provide labor for debeaking may be also customers; this would be a business to business (B2B) market. These firms may wish to diversify their offering if they see additional value for their end customers (the farmers). These firms will buy if debeaking becomes less popular due to our new contact lenses. Since their primary offering is labor, they will want the advantage of being the one stop shop. The one stop shop here means that the farmers will only have to deal with 1 contract as opposed to multiple.This is an offering that the services firms will want to have when dealing the farmers, which means they will need to purchase our lenses. 3. Would potential customers eagerly adopt or would they resist adopting this product? Why? Next, is to understand the early adopters versus the market laggards. I believe that the early adopters would be the large farms. They have the most to gain from purchasing the lenses. Additionally, since they have so many birds, they can run a test trial on 10,000 or even 20,000 birds for the first year and observe the results before rolling out the lenses to the rest of the birds.This makes the switch a little easier on the farmers. Since the product hasnââ¬â¢t been on the market ever, I can imagine that there will be significant resistance at the start due to the lack of experience with the product. However, I would also like to acknowledge that there is a possibility that these large farms are likely to have existing contracts with other firms (for example for debeaking) that would make it hard to switch. Additionally, it may be more difficult to conv ince several decision makers to agree on the large farm to make the change happen.On the other hand, the medium farms only have one decision maker and may be converted to using the contact lenses quickly. But due to their size and amount of savings, I can see reluctance to take on the risk of an ââ¬Å"unprovenâ⬠product. The market laggards would definitely be the small farms and services firms. For small farms, it is just too much risk for the untested product. And services firm will not purchase until there is sufficient number of farms switching from debeaking to contact lenses and itââ¬â¢s starting to hurt their business. 4.Given the financial constraints faced by the company, are the ODI lenses an economically viable product? We should now understand if the product is financially viable. If we sell the lenses at 8 cents per pair, then must sell at least 13,229,167 pair of lenses to break even. This is due to costs of the $586,000 for the personnel and office for the re gional office (see appendix 2 for the cost assumptions) and then the $25,000 licensing fee then must to New World, as well as the $24,000 for the two injection molds they would need. And their margins are 4. 8 cents per pair, so $635,000 / $0. 048 gets use the 13. million pairs. Please note that this number is approximately 33% of the potential market (39. 9 million) that we identified earlier. Since Garrison that 50% penetration is feasible, we would be quite profitable. Even if we add in the $250,000 R&D expense, then our require # of lenses is 18,687,500 lenses (thanks to the need for a third injection mold). However, even at this number of required lenses, this is approximately 46% of the market, and under the 50% share of market rate that ODI is forecasting. This means that we will remain profitable. And as ODI expands to the nation, their costs rise to be about $4. 63 million (see appendix 3), which would require 84,645,834 lenses to break even, well under the 50% mark for the 197,970,487 chickens in farms with 20,000 chickens (42. 8%). Hence, the product should be profitable. 5. Would you recommend introduction of ODI chicken lenses? At this point I would recommend the introduction of ODI chicken lenses if the forecasts that we see in the case are accurate, because there is clearly benefits for both ODI and the customers. However, we need to explore the possibilities of alternatives. The only other feasible alternative is to license the product to larger agricultural supply firms.The benefit of licensing is that ODI would dramatically reduce its costs and recognize income right away. And they would not have to convince individual farms. All they have to do is pitch the product to corporate executives. However, they do face the issue that the large agricultural supply firm would likely kick ODI out as soon as the patent protection runs out. And without the on the ground presence, ODI would lose all revenue sources in three years. Therefore, this approach is extremely dangerous compared to actually selling the lenses themselves, which according to our analysis will be profitable.Therefore, ODI should introduce the lenses on its own. 6. If introduced, how should ODI segment the market? In which markets should ODI concentrate its effort and why? Now that we believe that ODI should sell the chicken contact lenses, we need to understand how to market the product. First, we need to segment the market into distinct, mutually exclusive, identifiable segments. The two segmentation metrics that immediately come to mind are Farm Flock Size and Cannibalization Rate of Strains at the Farm. Farm Flock Size will be broken into the 20,000 to 49,000, 50,000 to 99,000, and 100,000 or more identified in Exhibit 3.Cannibalization Rate of Strains at the Farm will be divided into High Cannibalization Rate, Medium Cannibalization Rate, and Low Cannibalization Rate. There are metrics that we can use to segment the farms, but we want to make sure that we d o not put so many metrics that there are only a few farms in each segment. The idea is to have large, identifiable, distinct, and stable segments. Here, Farm Flock Size and Cannibalization Rates make good metrics because not only do they divide the similar farms into the same bucket and different farms into distinct buckets, but they also measure the value of presented to the farmers.Flock size because larger size represent more potential for savings for farmers and more potential for earning for ODI. And high cannibalization rate also represent potential for savings for farms due to less hens lost to cannibalization and more likely ease of sale for ODI since the farmers have more incentives to try the lenses. And given these segments, ODI should focus on the large farms with high cannibalization rates (please see appendix 4 for targeting sequence). This group will have the highest market potential and be the most receptive to the product. 7. How should chicken lenses be marketed?Fi nally, we need to see how to actually implement the marketing plan. Our marketing plan will have the following components. One, sales force at the regional offices will be talking directly with the customers to convince them that there is value in the product. And two, headquarters will be responsible for advertising in industry related publications and attending trade shows to promote the product. As part of the messaging, we will advise our customers that the contact lenses as a product to substitute debeaking to reduce cannibalization rates with extra benefits.The benefits are three fold, reduction of cannibalization rates to ~4. 5%, reduction in trauma from debeaking (~50,769 eggs per 10,000 chickens), and finally, savings in chicken feed (14. 235 tons per 10,000 chickens per year). We want to concentrate on the fact that our product is more effective than debeaking at reducing cannibalization and has additional beneficial effects that far outweighs the costs of the lenses itsel f. And according to Garrison, because he customers are independent-minded type of men who would react unfavorable if they felt cheated, we cannot have low introductory rate that may upset the customer base. This also means that these customers are not likely to be the type to jump on the band wagon and we will need to make sure our sales representatives reach each of these farms. This would mean that even favorable word of mouth will not contribute significantly to our sales due to the characteristics of the customers. Our sales force should not only explain the properties our lenses, but also do demonstrations to let the farmers see for themselves.And we must have our sales forces reach out frequently the customers to reinforce the message throughout the year, so when we get to the few weeks where the new hens are bought, we can convince the farmer to try the ODI lenses on their farm. Additionally, at the trade shows, we would also demonstrate the difference between hens wearing ou r lenses versus hens that do not wear the lenses. This would serve to introduce the product to new potential customers. We should use the trade shows also as a CRM opportunity; we should also collect contact information for our sales representatives to follow up on.This type of reinforced messaging will be effective in convincing customers to switch. And after weââ¬â¢ve brought the innovators and early adopters on board, we need to ensure customer satisfaction for these influential groups. Bad word of mouth is generally stickier than good word of mouth, and could be damaging to our brand even if the customers are generally independent-minded. And to achieve good customer satisfaction, we need to address customer issues as they emerge. So by the time we get to the Early Majority and the Late Majority, we can address any concerns that they have with the product.We will use the following positioning statement until ODI diversify into other products: ââ¬Å"For farmers in egg product ion who have more than 10,000 chickens in their flock, Optical Distortion, Inc. (ODI) is a specialty agricultural supplier that provides contact lenses for chickens intended to reduce food required and reduce cannibalization rate. Unlike other agricultural suppliers offering to debeak the birds, ODI provides a solution that results superior reduction in cannibalization rates, reduction in food wasted and required, and reduction in losses of production resulting from traumas associated with debeaking. Appendix 1: | | | | | Saving Opportunities for 10,000 chicken| # of Chicken Affected| Value Per Chicken| Value| Information from the case| Reduction in Canalbalism (4. 5% additional survive)| 450 | $0. 66 | $297. 00 | Exhibit 5 ââ¬â 22 dozen per year @ $0. 03 per dozen per hen| Reduction of Trauma| 10,000 | $0. 01 | $126. 92 | Exhibit 5 ââ¬â 22 dozen per year -> 22/52 dozen per week @ $0. 03 per dozen per hen| Savings in Food| 10,000 | $0. 22 | $2,193. 67 | 0. 78 lbs per 100 bir ds per day @ $158 per ton of feed| Appendix 2:Cost for Regional Offices| # of Item| Value Per Item| Value| Office and Warehouse1| 1| $196,000 | $196,000 | Sales Representatives2| 8| $40,000 | $320,000 | Tech Representatives3| 2| $35,000 | $70,000 | Total| à | à | $586,000 | 1. Office and Warehouse price from Table B. 2. Sales Representatives based on capacity of 80 farms, and the assumption that each sales will only cover farms of one particular size present in Exhibit 3 (20,000 to 49,000, 50,000 to 99,000, and 100,000 or more). 3. Tech Representatives based on ratio of 1 tech representative per 5 sales representatives.Appendix 3: Estimated National Costs| Units| Cost per Unit| Costs| Comments/Assumptions| Regional Offices| 5| $586,000| $2,930,000| Assumed that regional offices costs are similar to California| Headquarter Costs| 1| $614,000| $614,000| Estimated cost at 60 million pairs| Advertising| 1| $100,000| $100,000| Monthly advertising for 1 year in 8 leading industry publ ications| New World License| 1| $25,000| $25,000| $50,000 over 2 years| Injection Molds| 12| $12,000| $144,000| $12,000 per mold, which produces 7. million a year| R&D Costs| 1| $250,000| $250,000| Required for diversifying the company| Total| à | à | $4,063,000 | à | Appendix 4: | | Farm Flock Size| | | 20,000 to 49,000| 50,000 to 99,000| 100,000 or more| Cannibalization Rate| Low| 4| 4| 3| | Medium| 4| 3| 2| | High| 3| 2| 1| First target group 1, then followed by group 2, group 3, and group 4. ââ¬âââ¬âââ¬âââ¬âââ¬âââ¬âââ¬âââ¬âââ¬âââ¬âââ¬âââ¬âââ¬âââ¬âââ¬â [ 1 ]. In the analysis, I am assuming that 1kg ? 2 lbs and 1 ton ? 2,000 lbs.
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