Brochure about UK Travel and Tourism Organisation Essay

Tour Operators are usually a person or a company that puts together travel packages. These packages combine travel with normal tourist destinations and there are sold in a package. The tour operators have contracts with hoteliers, airlines and ground transport providers. They produce brochures to distribute their holidays and short-break packages example of a tour operators in UK are Thomas Cook and Thomson. Transport providers allow tourists to move around the country either by road, rail or air an example of transport providers are British Airways, TFL and National Express. Accommodations there are a different accommodation options for tourists in the UK depending on their needs and budgets. For examples Hotel, Services apartments, self-catering, Holiday villages. Plaza Park Hotel is an example of hotel in London. Visitor Attractions Places where attract tourism to come and visit. Natural attractions have not been built by man and are a natural feature of the environment. Example of natural attractions in the UK is The Peak District was the first of the UK’s National Parks and now is welcomes visitors from around the world come to see its areas of stunning natural beauty that offer fantastic walking and mountain biking opportunities. Another example of natural attraction in the UK is Lake District Built attractions are built to attract tourists, some of the built attractions charge an admission fee, while others are free. But some of them were originally built for a different purpose but also attract visitors. The built attractions in the UK are many but the main attractions that tourism visit are Big Ben, London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Warwick Castle and Windsor Castle. Supporting Organisation Visit Britain is an example of supporting  organisation. Visit Britain is the UK’s national tourism agency, promoting the UK to the rest of the world and encouraging domestic tourism in England Formed in 2003 and funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport it works in partnership with thousands of different organisations across the UK.As well as marketing and promotions Visit Britain also advises the government on tourism matters. Ancillary Organisations support outbound travel and tourism organisations, includes car hire and insurance companies. Example of organisation providing travel insurance to outbound travellers can be found at insure and Go, Columbus Direct, Direct-travel and Atlas Direct.

Foreign Direct Investment: Starbucks Case Essay

Requirements:The case should address all the questions provided plus any additional issues the group members feel are pertinent to the case and include a comprehensive update on the company’s situation since the time of the case. The case should be written up and presented in case format: scenario, problem to be solved or decision to be made, alternatives with the pros and cons of each and finally the recommendation with the accompanying rationale. Foreign Direct Investment: Starbucks Case Background General Thirty years ago Starbucks was a single store in Seattle’s Pike Place Market selling premium roasted coffee. Today it is a global roaster and retailer of coffee with over 7,000 stores in U.S. and outside U.S. Starbucks Co. set out on its current course in the 1980s when the company’s director of marketing came back from a trip to Italy enchanted with the Italian coffeehouse experience. Schultz persuaded the company’s owner to experiment with the coffeehouse format-and the Starbucks’ experience was born. The basic strategy was to sell the company’s own premium roasted coffee, along with freshly brewed espresso-style coffee beverages, a variety of pastries, coffee accessories, teas, and other products, in a tastefully designed coffeehouse setting. The company also stressed providing superior customer service. Reasoning that motivated employees provide the best customer service, Starbucks’ executives devoted a lot of attention to employee hiring and training programs and progressive compensation policies that gave even part-time employees stock option grants and medical benefits. The formula met with spectacular success in the United States, where Starbucks went from obscurity to one of the best known brands in the country in a decade. (Hill, 2003) The Company’s objective is to establish Starbucks as the most recognized and respected brand in the world. Starbucks purchases and roasts high-quality  whole bean coffees and sells them along with fresh, rich-brewed, Italian style espresso beverages, a variety of pastries and confections, and coffee-related accessories and equipment — primarily through its company-operated retail stores. In addition to sales through our company-operated retail stores, Starbucks sells whole bean coffees through a specialty sales group and supermarkets. Additionally, Starbucks produces and sells bottled Frappuccino ® coffee drink and a line of premium ice creams through its joint venture partnerships and offers a line of innovative premium teas produced by its wholly owned subsidiary, Tazo Tea Company. The Company divides its operation into two segments, United States and International, each of which include Company-operated retail stores and Specialty Operations. 1.Company-operated Retail Stores The Company’s retail goal is to become the leading retailer and brand of coffee in each of its target markets by selling the finest quality coffee and related products and by providing superior customer service, thereby building a high degree of customer loyalty. Starbucks strategy for expanding its retail business is to increase its market share in existing markets primarily by opening additional stores and to open stores in new markets where the opportunity exists to become the leading specialty coffee retailer. All Starbucks stores offer a choice of regular and decaffeinated coffee beverages, a broad selection of Italian-style espresso beverages, cold blended beverages, iced shaken refreshment beverages and a selection of teas and distinctively packaged roasted whole bean coffees. Starbucks stores also offer a selection of fresh pastries and other food items, sodas, juices, coffee-making equipment and accessories, a selection of compact discs, games and seasonal novelty items. Each Starbucks store varies its product mix depending upon the size of the store and its location. Larger stores carry a broad selection of the Company’s whole bean coffees in various sizes and types of packaging, as well as an assortment of coffee and espresso-making equipment and accessories such as coffee grinders, coffeemakers, coffee  filters, storage containers, travel tumblers and mugs. Smaller Starbucks stores and kiosks typically sell a full line of coffee beverages, a limited selection of whole bean coffees and a few accessories such as travel tumblers and logo mugs. Approximately 1,200 stores carry a selection of â€Å"grab and go† sandwiches and salads. During fiscal 2003, the Company’s retail sales mix by product type was comprised of approximately 78% beverages, 12% food items, 5% whole bean coffees and 5% coffee-making equipment and accessories. 2.Specialty Operations Starbucks Specialty Operations strive to develop the Starbucks brand outside the Company-operated retail store environment through a number of channels. Starbucks strategy is to reach customers where they work, travel, shop and dine by establishing relationships with prominent third parties that share the Company’s values and commitment to quality. These relationships take various forms including licensing arrangements, foodservice accounts and other initiatives related to the Company’s core businesses. In certain situations, Starbucks has an equity ownership interest in licensee operations. During fiscal 2003, specialty revenues (which include royalties and fees from licensees as well as product sales derived from Specialty Operations) accounted for approximately 15% of total net revenues. Go International The US coffee-bar market may be reaching saturation. Further, Starbucks’ store base is also maturing, leading to a slowdown in the growth of unit volume and firm profitability. In response, Starbucks has turned its attention to foreign markets for continued growth. Objective Starbucks mission for international development is to be a global company, making a difference in peoples’ lives by leveraging our brand and the coffee experience to foster human connections. The Starbucks Experience is about  passion for a quality product, excellent customer service, and people. The Company’s objective is to establish Starbucks as the most recognized and respected brand in the world. To achieve this goal, the company plans to continue rapid expansion of its retail operations, to grow its Specialty Operations and to selectively pursue other opportunities to leverage the Starbucks brand through the introduction of new products and the development of new channels of distribution. In doing global business, Starbucks greatly consider local culture as mentioned by Howard Schultz that Starbucks remain highly respectful of the culture and traditions of the countries in which we do business. Starbucks also recognizes that its success is not an entitlement, and Starbucks must continue to earn the trust and respect of customers every day. Entry Mode In 1995, the firm established a subsidiary called Starbucks Coffee International Inc. This group is responsible for all Starbucks business development outside North America, including developing new businesses, financing and planning stores, managing operations and logistics, merchandising, and training and developing Starbucks’ international managers. Starbucks’ first non-North American store was opened in 1996 in Tokyo. Starbucks initially used licensing agreement for its global strategy. Because Starbucks wanted to control business strategy in Japan market, it changed the strategy by establishing joint venture with a local retailer, Sazaby, Inc. Then, Starbucks licensed its business format to the joint venture company. After entering into the Japanese market, Starbucks increased the pace of international expansion significantly. In 1998, Starbucks acquired Seattle Coffee Company in the United Kingdom, a chain with more than 60 retail locations. That same year, it opened stores in Taiwan, Thailand, New Zealand, and Malaysia. In 1999, Starbucks opened in China (Beijing), Kuwait,  South Korea, and Lebanon. In 2000, it entered another seven markets (China – Hong Kong and Shanghai, Dubai, Australia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain). It added three markets in 2001 (Switzerland, Israel, and Austria). In 2002, another nine markets were opened (Oman, Spain, Indonesia, Germany, Southern China – Macau and Shenzhen, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Greece). In Asia, the most common strategy used by Starbucks was under licensing agreement. But due to similar reason such as in Japan, Starbucks converted licensing format to joint venture or wholly owned subsidiaries. Thailand, for example, Starbucks acquired its licensee operator to gain control over the expansion strategy in Thailand. In South Korea, Starbucks chose to use joint venture. However, Starbucks development strategy adapts to different markets addressing local needs and requirements. They currently use three business strategies: Joint ventures Licenses Company-owned operations As of At fiscal year end 2003, the Company had a total of 1,257 licensed retail stores in 28 countries managed by the Company’s international divisions and located as follows: Asia-Pacific (9 countries) 968 Europe/Middle East/Africa (13 countries) 176 Americas (6 countries) 113 Total1.257 Results Starbucks is well on its way to becoming a global brand. According to Business Week The Starbucks name and image connect with millions of consumers around the globe. It was one of the fastest-growing brands in a Business Week survey of the top 100 global brands published August 5 [2002]. But becoming a global company is not without risks. Global expansion poses huge risks for Starbucks. For one thing, it makes less money on each overseas store because most of them are operated with local partners. While that makes it easier to start up on foreign turf, it reduces the company’s share of the profits to only 20% to 50%.† The Company’s financial performance is highly dependent upon the retail operations of the United States operating segment. The Company’s International operating segment (excluding Canada) is not currently profitable, and its international stores and licensees may not be successful in their operations or in achieving expected growth. Some factors critical to the success of the Company’s international stores and licensees are different than those affecting the United States stores and licensees. The economies of a number of the international markets in which Starbucks and its licensees operate have been weak in recent years. Tastes naturally vary by region, and consumers in the new international markets into which Starbucks and its licensees expand may not embrace products and services to the same extent as consumers in the Company’s existing United States markets. Occupancy costs and store operating expenses are sometimes higher internationally than in the United States due to higher rents for prime, inner-city store locations or due to local laws that make it more expensive to retain or terminate employees. The Company’s International operations are also subject to the inherent risks of foreign currency fluctuations and changes in economic, social and political conditions. Because the Company’s International operations are in an early phase of development and have country-specific regulatory requirements, they require a more comprehensive field organization, compared to the United States, to provide resources and respond to the business needs in each region. Though international total net revenues increased by $142.4 million, or 30.9%, to International specialty revenues increased $26.1 million, or 28.1%, to $119.1million in fiscal 2003, excluding Canadian operations, operating losses increased by 11.1% to $18.5 million in fiscal 2003, compared to an operating loss of $16.7 million in fiscal 2002. Recommendations Alternative Starbucks can simply choose licensing for all international expansion. This method will reduce possibility that company absorbs operating loss from business partners. By licensing its format, Starbucks gain license fees and royalty from licensee. Another benefit is that license agreement requires relatively low initial investment for company. This will greatly improve company cash flow. However, behind the some benefits, licensing also has disadvantages. Company can not hope tight control over licensee for business strategy or marketing. For company like Starbucks which has aggressive business passion, license agreement doesn’t provide sufficient freedom to develop potential market. Another reason is that company know-how need to be delivered. Starbucks has competitive advantage in valuable management knowledge related to branding and operations of retail coffee stores. The other reason is that licensing opens possibility for potential foreign company’s competitors to learn about company’s know-how. Recommendations Though Starbucks triumphed in North American, the other international segment hasn’t significantly contributed to Starbucks’ income yet. This was partially contributed by International’s proportionate share of net losses in Starbucks Japan reporting an annual net loss of $3.87 million. Japan market is a good example. With 486 stores, it is easy to find Starbucks  logo in Japan, the site of its biggest expansion outside the US. The issue worrying investors is over saturation. Starbucks are vying for too few customers in Japan where also has so many coffee shops. Starbucks should consider about its strategy for international market. In U.S. and Canada market, the strategy to blanket an area completely, even if the stores cannibalize one another’s business, might be applicable. But for each international market, which has unique regional and community acceptance, the strategy shouldn’t be so aggressive. Furthermore, Starbucks should address local taste in every region. For example, in Asia country such in Japan and China, people have more long experience to drink tea rather than coffee. Therefore, demands on coffee beverages in those regions are different from market in North America. Starbucks should also setup a standardized methodology to select markets for entry or further expansion. In addition, Starbucks should investigate further to identify which investment approach is the best in the intended market because the market environment is changing. A certain investment approach maybe is not suitable for a market anymore. By joint venture as an investment approach, Starbucks has tight control over business strategy in a certain country. In other hand, the consequence of joint venture approach is that Starbucks has to absorb proportionately when the joint venture company suffers loss. Update Starbucks enter France One of the traditional of French cafe life – the small, china cup of strong, black coffee – is under assault from a giant of American cultural globalization. France’s first Starbucks coffeehouse opened on January, 2004, giving Parisians a smoke-free – but generally more expensive (An espresso at a counter of a French cafe typically sets you back $1.25, while a shot of coffee costs $2 at Starbucks and a medium caramel frappuccino, for example, goes for $5.62.). Starbucks offers a new cafà © atmosphere which will sweep  away a centuries-old addiction to espresso coffee and croissants in a noisy cafe spiced with the smoke of Gauloise. In the world’s cafe capital, the Seattle-based chain has much the same feel as anywhere else: there are comfortable sofas, and the soundtrack is jazz music and frappuccinos in the blender. However, with an increasing number of young French people living and traveling abroad, the company hopes its concept of bright, friendly coffee bars will find a warm welcome among those who dislike grumpy barmen and cigarette smoke. Starbucks is confident that a younger generation holds the key to financial success, but the figures show that even they haven’t completely abandoned the idea of corner cafes. Only 15 percent of clients to French coffee bars have their coffee to take away. The rest prefer to take a seat and drink it there. Reference Starbucks website. www.starbucks.com Charles W. L. Hill. International Business: Competing in the Global Marketplace – 4th Edition. New York: McGraw Hill/Irwin, 2003 â€Å"Starbucks Corporation: Competing in a Global Market†. UW Business School. April 7, 2003 Starbucks 10-K Report. SEC Fillings. September 28, 2003. â€Å"Planet Starbucks.† Business Week. September 9, 2002. p.102 â€Å"Trouble brewing for Starbucks in Japan†. Bloomberg. June 11 2003. http://www.theage.com.au Ian Messer.†Japan’s coffee shops spill over†. Bloomberg News. May 21, 2003 Caroline Wyatt. â€Å"Starbucks invades Parisian cafe culture†. January 15, 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk.

Best Buy CEO Chairman Relationship Research Paper

Best Buy CEO Chairman Relationship - Research Paper Example 17). As expounded, the reported improper relationship, despite the allegations being denied by both Dunn and the employee, has caused a damaged morale within the organization, supposed distractions, and speculations on the true nature of the relationship. Issues Being Addressed The issues being addressed in this case are violations of transparency, violations of conformity to ethical and moral standards, and failures to disclose critical information to the Board of Directors, which could assist in addressing the issues in a more professional manner consistent with the standards posed under corporate social responsibility. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) has defined corporate social responsibility (CSR) as â€Å"the continuing commitment by business to contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the community and society at large" (WBCSD par. 4). Obviously, the violations and i ssues noted from the case at Best Buys undermined ‘improving the quality of life of the workforce’ due to causing apparent distractions and speculations. Likewise, the improper relationship of Dunn, a married man, with a 29-year old employee caused conflicts in the marital relationship with Dunn’s spouse and the relationship with his children. The relationship is deemed as violating the standards of ethics and moral codes. The situation was exacerbated by Schulze’s failure to disclose the investigations made by him to the Board based on previous reports, which was an apparent violation of the rules of transparency and the rules on partnering to stop misconduct (Best Buy, n.d.). Rules According to the report written by Clifford (2012) and published in The New York Times, the rules and company policies on adherence to ethical and moral codes of conduct have apparently been applied to all employees except the CEO. As cited, â€Å"the C.E.O.’s relation ship with this employee led some employees to question senior management’s commitment to company policy and the ethical principles the company champions† (Clifford par. 17). Best Buy has a Code of Business Ethics that explicitly states rules on responsibility to each other, responsibility to shareholders, and responsibility to the company’s business associates – the areas where some violations have been noted. Analysis Upon closer examination of Best Buy Code of Business Ethics, the violations noted were on the rules pertaining to the following: (1) responsibility to each other, particularly honoring our differences; (2) responsibility to our business associates, particularly conflict of interest; (3) gift giving; (4) partnering to stop conduct. The Code of Business Ethics stipulated that â€Å"one of our values is to show respect, humility and integrity. Creating a positive work environment supports this value† (Best Buy 14). The actions of Dunn an d the female employee have been reported to cause conflicts in the work environment that apparently led to low morale. Likewise, the inability of Schulze to disclose the information immediately was a weakness on his character, pursuant

Executive Chef Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Executive Chef - Essay Example He supervises the entire catering aspects instructing his cooks in the matter of preparation, cooking and presentation of food with embellishments to make the final product not just tasty but also attractive in appearance. All these combine to make the career of an executive chef exciting, rewarding and on the whole fantastic to pursue. A successful executive chef can also look forward to the prospect of getting elevated to the position of Corporate Chef with the ultimate aim of becoming the owner of his own business. I am passionate about cooking and dream of becoming a renowned chef like Gordon Ramsay. Pursuing the career of executive chef, I am sure, will one day see me achieve my dream. The career will give me an opportunity to experiment with culinary art and the satisfaction of giving people the best eating experience. Being an executive chef is not merely a profession but has more to do with a lifestyle. The road to success is arduous but for the passionate the ends are rewarding. According to chef Krumov, "Becoming a chef can be a good career move, but only for those who don't mind working on evenings and weekends (and almost at any other time when the rest of the people are not working), standing on feet for long hours, working under pressure, enduring burns and cuts, hot environment, smoke and fumes, noise and heavy lifting". Along with the hard work and knowledge of cooking are required management, communication and interpersonal relationship skills. The chefs besides knowing how to cook excellent cuisines must also interact with the customers to promote the business. It is this aspect that draws me to this career more than the prospect of being just a backroom cook. While the most potent weapon in the hands of executive chef remains his knowledge relating to food and cooking, when this skill is backed with customer relation skills, the result is a sharpened marketing tool that can really win business. A prospective customer can be best impressed with discussions on food, the primary agenda for a banquet party and an agenda that no one else other than the chef can handle. The customer would be interested to place order only when he is sure about the food. That puts the chef at the nucleus of any business discussion. As a modern day executive chef, I will get to be exposed sometime to the media and that is something I am eagerly looking forward to. It definitely will give me an opportunity to hone my communication skills and to improve my overall confidence. 3 I know the career progression path from the chef to the corporate chef and finally a full-fledged hotel group owner is strewn with difficulties. But at the same time, I also know that the rewards will be limitless. Rewards not just in terms of money but in the forms of the satisfaction of pursuing my creative passion for cooking, lighting up so many faces with the delight of tasting my creation, their appreciation and above all the lifelong opportunity to learn, innovate and advance. The career of an executive chef is more akin to lifestyle than a job in the sense we think where we go to the office, do a particular kind of work and come back home doing little creative work. The profession of executive chef demands much more than the knowledge

Personal Development As a Strategic Leader and Strategic Performance Essay

Personal Development As a Strategic Leader and Strategic Performance management - Essay Example It is an exercise in helping me hone my skills, boost my strengths and improve on my weaknesses. In creating this Personal Development Plan as a Strategic Leader (PDP), I shall follow assessment criteria as my outline so I am ensured that nothing will be missed. The Department of Transportation (DoT) in Abu Dhabi upholds lofty ideals in professionalism. It honors its commitment to serving the people by providing quality service in terms of transportation. Its vision is as follows: Streamline the Department of Transport: More efficient delivery to the public sector the services and processes and provision of greater transparency and accountability to all stakeholders. This is made possible through five key policy divisions. Such divisions will be responsible for policy and strategic planning, regulation and relevant programs in Aviation, Maritime, Public Transport, Roads Safety and Highways Management. It is the Chairman of the Department of Transport, assisted by an Undersecretary, who oversees the regulation and supervision of transport conducted by these divisions. Two departmental functons have been created for purposes of assisting the Chairman, namely an integrated planning and performance management function and an internal audit capability. Expand Etihad Airlines and the Abu Dhabi International Airport: In an effort to expand its customer base and promote Abu Dhabi as a tourist destination, the DoT strategizes plans of increasing the number of destinations of Etihad Airlines, Abu Dhabi’s official air transportation to significantly more destinations by the year 2018. Apart from this, plans for the improvement of the Abu Dhabi Airport are under way. -The requirements of DoT for leaders seem to be call for mature individuals who can handle the multiple tasks embedded in the position with efficiency and deliver a high quality of input

"Policy Improvements" Coursework 9 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

"Policy Improvements" 9 - Coursework Example timulus and increase in aggregate demand stabilizes prices and increase effectiveness of monetary policies through: increasing demand for labor and government spending, leading to business growth and economic stimulus. It also leads to lower unemployment rate and thus an increase in income per capita, which raises living standards. Therefore, the curve emphasizes the tradeoff between unemployment and the inflation rate. (Meade, & Thornton, 2011). The curve can hence be used to figure out the optimal level of unemployment that gives the desired inflation rate. The objective function can determine the effective and appropriate monetary policy that will lead to the achievement of target economic goals depending on their effect on inflation and output levels. The Function describes the tradeoff between the output gap and the inflation gap and the economy’s responsiveness to deviations of output levels and the inflation rates from their ideals. The weight attached to the inflation rate in the objective function will represent the responsiveness of the economy to the changes in inflation. The function summarizes the total cost to the economy whenever there is an output gap or inflation gap. The output gap occurs whenever the real output of the economy differs from the potential production of the economy while the inflation gap exists whenever there is a deviation of the inflation rate from the ideal inflation rate (Boivin, & Giannoni, 2006). In such situations, the economy bears costs directly and indirectly in the form of underutilizat ion of resources in the case where the output level is below the potential economy and the usage of resources at an unsustainable rate in the case where production is higher than the ideal. When the inflation rate is unexpectedly high, the costs of goods rise resulting in lower consumptions which ultimately leads to lower output and higher unemployment

Written Assignment Questions about Orgamisation Management Essay

Written Assignment Questions about Orgamisation Management - Essay Example He implies that there should not only be one beneficiary of an organization saying that both the employer and the employee must gain a certain level of benefits that would be commensurate to the effort that both employee and employer has put in. His main objective was to increase productivity of the workers. He noticed that workers had their own way of doing their work even without any specific instructions on how it should be done. This discovery led to the conclusion that if the employees are left to their devises it made them lose efficiency and that they were not maximizing their abilities. He then introduced a solution of having supervisors to teach and help the workers do their work the right way. He further analyzed the actions and responsibilities that are essential in any job within the organization and developed processes for the jobs could be done in the most efficient ways possible. With the improved processes, the job requirements were coupled with the training of the workers and the support of the supervisors. They come in the type of right direction, assistance and incentives. With this, he included four principles guiding actions. First of the four principles is develop for every job a â€Å"science† that includes rules of motion, standardized work implements and proper working conditions. The second principle is to select worker with the right abilities for the job. The third is to carefully train workers to do the job and give them the proper incentives in cooperate with the job â€Å"science†. And the last principle is to support workers by carefully planning their work and by smoothing the way as they go about their jobs (Schermerhorn, 2007). The first principle says that any job should have guidelines of how to do implement the job. An example of this is in a fast food establishment, each of their burgers have a different way of cooking but a method was introduced to

DQ1_WK7 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

DQ1_WK7 - Essay Example The product selected for analysis is BMW cars. BMW is company dedicated to the manufacturer and distribution of luxury automobiles across the world. The German based corporation has its corporate headquarters in Munich, Germany. Their vehicles are recognized for their quality, great aesthetic look, performance, and luxurious interiors, and reliability. BMW owners are very loyal to their vehicles and the company. For them owning a BMW automobile is an unmatchable experience. The cars produced by BMW go for a hefty price. The cheaper models retail for around $35,000, while the more upscale models cost more than $150,000. The overall quality of the vehicles and support the company gets from its enthusiastic customer base allows for high retention in value of used BMW vehicles. The strategy that is most aligned with the product produced by BMW is a focus differentiation strategy. The reason BMW should follow a focus differentiation strategy instead of regular differentiation strategy is that the company concentrates on narrow segment of the market. In essence BMW cars are niche marketplace in the auto industry. A niche marketplace is focused, targetable portion of the market that addresses a need for a product or service that is not being address by other mainstream providers (Ward, 2008). Due to the fact that companies who adapt a focus strategy product their products on a smaller scale their bargaining power with supplier is lower that other firms within the industry. For example a automobile producer such as Honda which produces millions of units yearly of many different models can achieve greater economies of scale than what BMW can realize. Despite this constraint the fact that BMW effectively utilizes a differentiation focus strategy allows the firm to pass higher costs on to customers since close substitute products do not exist (Quickmba, 2008). BMW due to the uniqueness of their vehicles has been able to build up

Qualitative Research Critique Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Qualitative Research Critique - Essay Example I noticed that the problem statement was quite implicit, or not stated directly in this paper, which is why I used the verb "would" and put in parenthesis the word "elder" as this was not stated directly, too. But since this is an article in a journal publication, it is understood that non-detailed information that are established clearly are an accepted norm. The Purpose of the research was clearly defined in this paper. In fact, besides the already stated Problem Statement which I have supposed as the problem and the purpose in one, there is a presented secondary purpose which was "to sensitize health care professionals and other caregivers to the chronic wound experience." The Literature Review defined and detailed "phenomenological" research as well as presented at least 13 related studies on ulcer wounds, both qualitative and quantitative in approach. There is the 2000 study of Langemo, Melland, Hanson, Olson and Hunter on eight persons with pressure ulcer, Charles (1995) study of four subjects with chronic venous leg ulcers, Walshe's 1995 study of 13 participants with venous ulcers, Chase et al's 2000 study of 21 subjects with chronic venous leg ulcer, Pieper, Szczepaniak and Templin's 2000 investigation on psy-chosocial adjustment, coping, and quality of life in persons with venous ulcers from intravenous drug abuse of undisclosed number of participants or subjects, Flanagan, Rotchell, Fletcher, and Schofield's 2001 study on a focus group of health caregivers and professionals, Krasner's 1997-98 investigation on painful venous ulcers of eight participants, Chase et al's 1997 study of seven persons with venous leg ulcers, Neil's 2000 investigation using Stigma Scale, a 24-item instrument of 150 subjects with chronic wound or serious skin problem, Neil and Munja's 2000 interview of 10 participants with chronic wounds, Ribu and Wahl's 2004 study of persons with chronic wounds, Orsted, Campbell, Keast, Coutts, and Sterling's 2001 in-depth study of several people with chronic wounds, and Hodges, Keeley, and Grier's 2001 investigation on the experience of chronic illness in older adults. Most of the mentioned studies' previous findings were all present in the

A Critique of the Research Article Essay Example for Free

A Critique of the Research Article Essay A Critique of the Research Article: Methadone/Buprenorphine and Better Maternal/ Perinatal Outcomes: A Meta-analysis Abstract The purpose of this research article is to discuss lower risk drugs such as Methadone and Buprenorphine given to Heroin addicted pregnant patients to create better neonatal and maternal outcomes. This research articles discusses the gold standard of treatment for better neonatal and maternal outcomes. Keywords: heroin, neonatal, maternal, outcomes, methadone, buprenorphine, gold standard treatment A Critique of the Research Article: Methadone/Buprenorphine and Better Maternal/ Perinatal Outcomes: A Meta-analysis Methadone is a synthetic opioid. It is used medically as an analgesic and a maintenance anti-addictive and reductive preparation for use by patients with opioid dependency. It was developed in Germany in 1937. Methadone was introduced into the United States in 1947 by Eli Lilly and Company. The principal effects of methadone maintenance are to relieve narcotic craving, suppress the abstinence syndrome, and block the euphoric effects associated with opiates. When used correctly, Methadone maintenance has been found to be medically safe and non-sedating. It is also indicated for pregnant women addicted to opiates. (doi:http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/methadone) The theoretical study was not discussed in the articles but Roy’s Model identifies the elements considered essential to adaptation and describes how the elements interact to produce adaptation and thus health. Methadone helps the pregnant opioid dependent individual adapt to a lower risk drug and produces an overall healthier maternal and prenatal outcome. Middle Range Theory is less abstract and narrowed in the scope than conceptual models. These types of theories focus on answering particular practice questions and often specify such factors: patient’s health conditions, family situations and nursing actions. While researching this topic there were areas that were discussed, about patients being afraid to seek Methadone treatment and prenatal care because they were ashamed of how health care professionals would view them. It was also stated that patients in better overall health and less family related stress situations would more than likely be the ones to receive proper prenatal care and seek Methadone treatment. Opioid dependent pregnant patients and their fetus have more physical, mental and psychological issues. (Kaltenbach, Berghella, Finnegan, 1998). Opioid dependent pregnant patients are at an increased risk for preterm delivery and low birth weight. (Fajemiroku-Odudeyi et al. , 2005). To lower the health risks, pregnant women who are opiate dependent have been treated with methadone maintenance, the standard of care for several decades. (Jones et al. , 2005). Another treatment option became available when the U. S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of buprenorphine maintenance therapy in 2002, which is another substitute for methadone. The research article â€Å"Opioid Dependency in Pregnancy and Length of Stay for Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome† examines 152 opioid-dependent pregnant women on methadone maintenance therapy (n=136 the participants that are using methadone) or buprenorphine maintenance therapy (n=16 the participants that are using buprenorphine) during pregnancy and their neonates. The neonates were born between January 1, 2005 and December 2007. The use of methadone in opioid dependent pregnant women lowers maternal morbidity and mortality rates and promotes fetal stability and growth compared to the use of heroin (Ludlow, Evans, Hulse, 2004). Continuous methadone treatment during pregnancy is associated with improved earlier antenatal care (Burns, Mattick, Lim Wallace, 2007), compliance with prenatal care and better preparation for infant care and parenting responsibilities (Dawe, Harnett, Rendalls, Staiger, 2003). Stabilization on methadone avoids the dangers of repeated intoxication and withdrawal cycles. Methadone has to be picked up by the patient at the treatment facilities. Attendance at these facilities allow pregnant patients opportunities to receive essential antenatal care and advice for a healthy pregnancy, which some of the patients otherwise may not receive. While conducting this research it was not clearly evident what was being researched until the conclusion of the results was determined. Based on the number of participants depended on the outcome of the better treatment. Therefore the results are not as accurate as could be if there were a larger amount of participants. There were no violations of patient rights with the methods used. The research article â€Å"Methadone in pregnancy: treatment retention and neonatal outcomes† examines three different groups of women: a group who entered continuous treatment at least one year prior to birth, a group who entered continuous treatment in the 6 months prior to birth, and a group whose last treatment program prior to birth ended at least one year prior to birth. Births that occurred after 1994 were selected for this analysis. Overall, 2 993 women were on the methadone program at delivery. The number of births rose steadily from 62 in 1992 to 459 in 2002. A particular strength of the large sample size was the ability to examine the effect of treatment retention on key neonatal outcomes. Among mothers on methadone at delivery, early commencement on methadone was associated with increased antenatal care and reduced prematurity. This is consistent with previous research that has shown that methadone in conjunction with adequate prenatal care promotes fetal stability and growth. Ethics approval for the project was granted by the NSW Department of Health Ethics Committee. All data was provided to the researchers’ only once full identification of records had taken place with password protected computers and firewall protection. This method was used to protect patient’s rights. Based on a large sample size, researchers were able to examine the effects of treatment retention on key neonatal outcomes. Although researchers had a large sample size based on certain ethical restrictions, limited the amount of information given to researchers, which waived the outcomes of individual’s results not being totally accurate. The research article â€Å"Methadone and perinatal outcomes: a prospective cohort study† examines A total of 117 pregnant women on methadone maintenance treatment recruited between July 2009 and July 2010. Measurements information on concomitant drug use was recorded with the Addiction Severity Index. Perinatal outcomes included pre-term birth (

Eco Friendly Marketing: Challenges and Opportunities

Eco Friendly Marketing: Challenges and Opportunities It is no exaggeration to say a society is ruled by the logic of the environment in the 21st century. Since the 18th century industrial revolution, human beings have benefited of the richness due to the mass production and mass consumption, having a continuous growth with a progress of industrialization, industrial technology, and advanced material. However, these types of economic activities based on material growth causes serious global environmental issues such as destroy of the ozone layer, global warming, acid rain, waste disposal and so on because of the destruction of public goods that is the environment; furthermore, the level of the contamination threats the survival of mankind. Since 1970s, the worlds environmental problems have started to spread out towards the awareness of environment conservation, and in recent years the need of environmental management emerges as a new measure including international agreements and the Green Round, which is to urge connection between env ironmental problems and international trade. Because of the seriousness of these environmental issues, the paradigm which is environmentally sustainable and sound for the 21st century led to a new international economic order occurred. Therefore, each business organization should recognize a bunch of issues about environment as a member of the community, the national society, and the international community in that the issue is no longer the problem of individual countries but rather the common problem of humanity. That is, it means that there is no exception across the world. Additionally, enterprises became unable to walk away from the strategic perspective in the event that the more our societies have increasing influence to the attention called environmentalism and consumerism, the more business sectors should concentrate on social responsibilities as well as ethical aspects. From this situation above, Eco-friendly marketing is emerging as a key role in business implementation plans. In other words, what is called Eco-frien dly marketing does not fully separate environmental issues from the economic goals; on the basic principles above, it is meant that a firm may have to focus even on not only its business vision under the objectives such as the profit of outcome, market share, and product-development projects but also its social vision for example: the community interest, the preservation of the natural environment, and the formation of corporate culture. Thus, Eco-friendly marketing can be defined as a marketing strategy which is to develop an increase of attention to the interdependence among human and human, human and social, and human and natural environment. It has often, however, been argued that Eco-friendly marketing can be shown a direct effect when a company under the companys long-term goals performs Eco-friendly management in the process of all marketing decisions, turning around into the overall environmental management structure. In this regard, this essay, for this reason, begins with the idea that what the cause of the mistake in terms of the majority of companies are taking a wrong place in the Eco-friendly marketing; plus, it is necessary to point out what the true meaning of Eco-friendly marketing is. Although awareness of both companies and consumers about the environment is very different from the past and both of them recognize with depth of understanding about there is a need for a new marketing strategy, the reason it is hard to find a case of company in the true meaning of success in performing the Eco-friendly marketing is that the history of academic theory and strategies in response to environmental issues is not so long; thus, there have been lack of relevant academic frameworks. Also, because of wrong recognition widespread ¸ Eco-friendly marketing is passively considered as one of the way to make profit rather than social responsibility. In this paper, therefore, there will be an argument about theoretical aspects of Eco-friendly marketing as the emerging factor of threats as well as opportunities in the modern world Eco-friendly marketing based on the previous research; then, it aims to provide the cases of companies comparing the status in the performance of Eco- friendly marketing between South Korea and the UK in order to suggest accurate directions which can lead to sustainable development and to be performed effectively. In the middle of developing worldwide standard such as ISO Series for environmental management and Global Reporting Initiative guideline, companies should not only adopt these global standards but also precede a correct understanding of environmental conservation activities of corporations in some countries while in international trade or direct investment. In addition, there is more attention now in the world than ever before in terms of a successful case of the companys environmental conservation activities beyond national boundaries; furthermore, it is necessary to know the trends related to the reform of countries` institutional background and surroundings of the company in order to grasp why a company in a certain country is attracting attention as a success story and how the successful cases are able to apply for a particular organization. This research is primarily concerned with the theoretical background and important factors to learn about Eco-friendly marketing on the basis of existing literature, and it will be also considered theoretical background relating to environmental management as the foundation to achieve effective performance for Eco-friendly marketing. Finally, through a comparative case study including the internal and external activities of the environment management, this essay aims to examine both practical efforts and institutional structure for the background of the corporations in the UK called an advanced country related to Eco-friendly marketing activities; at the same time, there will be a suggestion to improve understanding of the situation and problems in relation to current eco-friendly marketing of South Korean companies with the right direction. Since the early 1990s, it has raised several debates for Eco-friendly marketing in the name of ‘Green Marketing by way of mass communication; still, the concept can be seen as an academic field which has not been set clearly yet. In general, Eco-friendly marketing may often be considered the marketing activity as companies not only provide products or services to meet the needs of society but also perform social and ecological balance under the mutual recognition that a consumer is not any longer a simple buyer for the sale of products but is an individual for mutual benefit.[1] Table 2-1 below reveals several concepts that were released by associated marketing groups, academic circles or scholars, and media relate to Eco-friendly marketing. [2] [3][4][5][6] [7] To begin with, it is essential to understand clearly the different features between traditional marketing which is consumer-focused marketing and Eco-friendly marketing that is social perspective in terms of ideologies, values, and systems. The table 2-2 shows the differences below. That is, [8] the philosophy of Eco-friendly marketing is not to mainly focus on the limited customer reaction which is visible, but with a wide degree of dimensions to keep emphasis on the gist of improving the quality of human life rather than material convenience or wealth, regarding the customers as its own value without being recognized as a revenue source.[9] Also, remarkably characteristic feature is often described that the majority of companies when they are in the pursuit of traditional marketing in the past days were inclined to deal with the environmental problem as an entity they want to avoid as if it is possible. However, the feature of organizations to seek Eco-friendly marketing can be defined that they do not recognize the problem related to environmental preservation as the factor of threat, but do treat the activities in the role of another opportunity that can afford competitive advantages combining with long-term profitability, focusing on interdependence with hu man, human and social, human and natural environment.[10] Finally, it can be, therefore, clarified that Eco-friendly marketing is a business practice in the pursuit of social quality including environmental basic structure, environmental living condition, and social and cultural areas that contain all of human life. (Source: Moon, S.G., 1993) [11] As in shown in the table above, Eco-friendly marketing mix consists of Product, Price, Place, Promotion of the general configuration of marketing mix but the difference with the general 4Ps is that Eco-friendly marketing mix can be called the primary methods to perform the pricing of production-elements for development of environmentally friendly products, development of reverse distribution system through recirculation of waste, development of environment-friendly corporate- image, induction of consumption-behavior based on environmental consciousness, and program development, reflecting the environmental aspects. While companies are taking over marketing activities based on the new concept of 4Ps, on the position of the companies, a new strategy that can lead to revolutionary changes is needed in order to pursue competitiveness via environmental excellence. In particular, because the fundamental approach of environmental management begins from the perspective of Life Cycle Assessment, it should be implemented by reviewing the whole process or all action plans in terms of marketing-functions among the stage from purchase of raw materials, production, packaging, distribution, and to use and final disposal of waste, at the same time, establishing new marketing strategies. (Source: Cheong, H. B., 1995) [12] The table chart shows not only the process of being integrated expansion from the ‘Ps as a key function of traditional marketing for profit-maximization to green ‘Ps as needed by Eco-friendly marketing but also relationship with green ‘S, which is possible to assess whether Eco-friendly marketing in the pursuit of economic profitability and environmental sustainability at the same time is successfully achieved. From the chart, it is quite difficult to regard the external green ‘Ps as a target for companies direct control in the event that they include customers needs, providers attitude, positions of political power and pressure groups, and a wide range of factors associated with the global environment, or other stakeholders. However, the internal green ‘Ps, which include the elements of both the traditional ‘Ps such as 4Ps and the new green ‘Ps for information, individuals of marketing mix, process, workforce, management policies and so on, can make the majority of companies direct-controls; the internal elements may be, thus, independent marketing elements of corporations and can be called the core target for successful Eco-friendly marketing. The most priority issues in the product strategy of green marketing mix need to be addressed about identification of the characteristics of environment-friendly; still, the definition of green marketing has not been clear. Hence, green product has not been clearly defined yet by the academic circle. To recapitulate, it will be suggested simple existing definitions of some scholars below. [13][14][15][16] As in Table 2-3, it is shown that previous research tried to identify green products in the two types of perspective between relative and absolute in comparison with common products. In other words, with this type of strategy of green product, the key point is to develop new green products or to transform the existing products depending on the result of evaluation-factors related to the impact on environment. Most of the existing products seem to be lack of consideration for the environment, but also because investment in new product-development need for efforts in long-term technology development, in some cases, it could be essential to consider first enhancement of the environmental preservation through the improvement of existing products. Green price means the value of the currency based on how far consumers are willing to pay according to the level of Eco-friendly products. However, these issues of green price have been one of the most controversial parts in the academic from first beginning to form the concept of Eco-friendly marketing.[17] Key issues of this controversy are you will need a higher price in order to protect environment or how consumers will respond to the factors of rise in the price in terms of high Eco-friendly degree. The reason these two issues are debatable continuously is that the establishment of a logical set is not simple. The potential consumer-awareness of business goal, cost structure, the level of profits, and products will be affected in case a company adds Eco-friendly elements to the normal price of a certain product. Especially, there must be a rise of burden related to social costs. In other words, when it comes to see from the social view, if the environmental cost is reflected in the price, then the condition of environment will be improved, but the consumption would continues to reduce. On the contrary, in case it does not constantly reflect environmental costs towards products, the consumption would be promoted. However, environment probably continues to be worse. According to Henion (1976)[18], a case in green consumption, the price appears to be preferred if only the price is on the same level, but when green products are more expensive than the price of the purchase of substitute goods, both green consumers and consumers show signs of negative reaction to green products. As a result of Gallup Institute survey (1992)[19], well over 50% of consumers in 16 countries out of 2 nations responded to the positive notion that they are willing to pay higher prices to protect environment; remarkably, in the case of South Korea, it shows extremely higher figure that other nationalities often called developed countries. However, the problem is that these results do not lead to actual purchase-behavior. It is found in the various studies to explain the fact that consumers purchase-behavior may often change depending on the extent of the price premium.[20] Therefore, despite the superiority of Eco-friendly concepts, it is, undoubtedly, true that there is no motivation to companies Eco-friendly marketing strategy even if differences of price in market competition make an effect on the strategy as an inferior factor. Through the problem stated above, it will be required a variety of ways in order to overcome these problems; firstly, the most desirable way in the long term is to increase the consumer demand for green products in order to make competitiveness in prices by means of developing technology that is able to produce green products in the low cost. Next, governments role is needed to activate the adoption of green price; that is, government should give benefit on the price competition such as subsidies for increased prime cost, tax reduction, priority while contracting with public projects, support for sales promotion and so on to the companies which try to invest in facility-development to prevent pollution and technology, reducing negative factors related to production-cost for Eco-friendly. In addition, green products should be able to compensate relative weaknesses in comparison with non Eco-friendly goods through introducing non-price elements as consumers have psychological satisfact ion that they contribute to their community by purchasing green products. In conclusion, by promoting these discriminatory properties, we can increase the sales.[21] If an element for green is added on the concept of normal distribution, the rear path can be regarded more important than the front path. In other words, consumer products that are consumed are put emphasis on the recycling problem with the perspective protecting ecological environment and recycling resources in the reverse circulation-process from customers to producers. Therefore, the green distribution strategy could define as an activity to minimize negative environmental effect that can occur in the process of production and use, delivery to consumers, disposal, recycling and reuse; furthermore, it means also the overall set of business activities in order to enhance Eco-friendly characteristics of a company with the main content including material distribution systems such as storage and transportation, distribution process in terms of wholesale and retail, reverse distribution systems for recycling, and packing activities for safe transportation and preservation of the product -value.[22] For the resolution of environmental problems, companies distribution channel management is primarily associated with distribution channels. The reason re-circulation is significant is solid waste is one of the main causes related to environmental pollution, and through the re-circulation, it can be a way that can be expected to solve efficiently problems about resource depletion.[23] The ultimate aim of recirculation not only to construct an alternative plan in economic activities of companies associated with reuse of waste and energy conservation but also to activate public education about recycling waste, boosting public interests to environment.[24] To re-iterate the point, based on Ecological-Cycle, green distribution or place can be explained that a firm try to preserve environmental conditions at a certain level by means of both using resources once again and feedback to nature; moreover, when this perspective reflect on companies distribution strategy, the primary marketing st rategy for place can be developed by re-circulation of waste.[25] As in traditional marketing, promotion strategy is the most pivotal strategic-element which a company can apply along with product strategy in the course of Eco-friendly marketing. [26] The fundamental purpose of green promotion can be explained as 2 steps. Firstly it aims to strengthen behavior and attitude of Eco-friendly consumers through distinctive perspectives between consumers who are environmentally friendly and customer who are not. Secondly, green promotion is to help consumers who are unfamiliar with Eco-friendly concept to change their attitude and behavior to Eco-friendly customers; in detail, the specific aim is to convince consumers to buy green products that are developed by companies. [27] Therefore, at the same time, it is necessary to perform integrated green communication, and green communication can be called an informative activity to announce or communicate positive implementations for environmental issues towards both internal and external depending on strategic objectives such as a response to environmental risks, improved corporate image, contributing to society, product promotions, and so on.[28] Typical way of green communication is advertising strategy and PR strategy. In green marketing, it can be explained that green advertising is a type of advertising activity in the pursuit of environmental improvement and protection; also, with a view of the content, it is to express the environmental effects of a particular product or the representation of companies identities that are environmentally friendly as a main content and can do it.[29] With green PR, it is important for Green PR strategy to improve public relation together with advertising in the event that Eco-friendly marketing is to sell a corporate image rather than to promote simply a product. Thus, it can be effective that green PR has to deliver a message that could not have been accessed by advertising. [30] In addition, these green PR activities consist of three activities such as green campaign, green event, and personnel sales.[31] Typically, the green PR is created by a certain purpose to influence from custome rs, relevant stakeholders, authorities, administrative department of government, and to corporate stakeholders (employees, managers, shareholders)via a PR means such as distribution of press-related materials, speeches, seminars, publication of annual reports, sponsorship for charitable organizations, publication of related books, lobbying activities, community relations and so on.[32] The background that a company not only has an interest in Eco-friendly marketing but also has a practice of that kind of marketing activity may be originated mostly from outside of business conditions in the direction of respect for the environment. The type of factors and intensity that affect impact directly or indirectly on introduction of Eco-friendly marketing usually vary in each of the companies depending on local circumstances. [33] Those factors can be summarized like below. Because human being is a member of eco-systems, plants, animal, natural environment in Earth have inevitably been sacrificed in order to make up the human life. Before the Industrial Revolution, the level of environmental destruction had remained at not serious situation, but as the era of mass-production/mass-consumption dawned, now the destruction of environment is exacerbating continuously with significant threats such a Global Warming, Ozone Depletion, Acid Rain, Deforestation, Decertification, Species Decimation and so on. In this atmosphere, Eco-friendly concept has been emerged as an important factor to obtain sustainable competitive advantaged among organizations. [34] Recently, in South Korea as well as the world the latest trend is Well-being. That is, most people have become preferred to purchase a product which is beneficial to our body and our planet. In other words, this phenomenon is the purpose of companies and this fact means that awareness of consumers who have a survival decision of companies is no longer passive in that consumers both select and evaluate product themselves; especially, the evaluation of impact on environment among those assessments has been more objective and rigorous than before.[35] Thus, we can describe those people who actively navigate products that are less negative impact on environment as a green consumer. The concept of green consumer was beginning to form from the end of 1960s and has raised the extended debate as a social marketing concept.[36] According to Moisander (2001)[37], in particular, green consumers can define consumer groups that not only emphasize on socially responsible consumption to overcome the crisis of todays natural environment but also prefer a product which is relatively less contaminative. The characteristic in the green consumers behavior is possible to vary depending on personal inclination, but typically green consumers require environmental information, feel the need for environmental control, seek to differentiation with general consumers, and want to maintain existing lifestyle.[38] Additionally, green consumer category can be divided into by and large three groups depending on the level of involvement about environment such as innovative consumer actively to participate in protection movement, opinion-leading consumers to purchase Eco-friendly products, and common consumer to practice saving water and energy in daily life.[39] The table represents problems green consumers consider when they purchase a product; specifically, they start from raw material and manufacturing process and consider even corporate social responsibility as a factor in their decision-making.[40] (Source: Ottman, 1995)[41] In the past, companies has been consistent with a somewhat selfish or irresponsible attitude, regarding economic development as a priority, and agencies or officials of government have also driven forward with also short-sighted development policies; in consequence, it has caused a lot of environmental damage. However, in recent years, the issues related to environmental protection and ecological devastation is going to be generalized as the premise that is the most significant in business activities as well as across the whole area of society. To put it another way, our society do not want meaningless development with ignorance of environment; furthermore, that type of development is not allowed any longer. As a result, social criticism and responsibility for causing environmental pollution as well as attack of consumer groups and environmental groups on those companies, which are not responsible for environmental problems and legal or administrative regulations from the government has been gradually increased. From those situations above, managers arrived at the idea that they should not only identify human value and quality of life, but also focus on public interest of communities and consumers satisfaction.[42] In conclusion, by means of proposed strategies in the Table , a company has been able to apply Eco-friendly marketing strategy to an alternative means, which can help to achieve Eco-friendly innovation and efficiency for a long-term survival. (Source: Ottman, J. A., 1995)[43] As environmental problems have been serious, companies are required changes in business environment. Based on these transformed business conditions, it is utilized for a company to make good use of the shift of business conditions as a source of both new revenue and growth. Unless it may be in the right place, the market would be lost due to the decline in corporate-images for environmental responsibility. The main stakeholders in companies have been changed by conditions from the times as shown in the following Table ; besides, a new paradigm of corporate management has also been reformed. (Source: Lee, B. W., 1997)[44] Through the issue of distribution-equity in the mid of 1960s and quality-oriented management in the 1970s, since 1990s, as emerging the concept called green, companies have reflected the pressure to be Eco-friendly from social communities or relevant stakeholders to their business activity from manufacturing process to service process. Consequently, the idea that the concept of total quality environmental management, which can maximize the quality of all stakeholders and move to think about future should be introduced instead of total quality management focusing on the quality of products and services has been steadily considered by companies.[45] This varied consideration can be seen as the changes of consumers consciousness gave the greatest influence because consumers now recognize responsibility of environmental protection, the degree of contribution to communities, and ethical responsibility by means of evaluation criteria. The primary goal of Eco-friendly marketing is to promote practical use as the basis to secure competitiveness after building environmental management system.[46] Also, through the goal, it aims to obtain profitability for short-term and to pursue sustainable prosperity for long-term. In other words, the key role is not only to win profit and ethical corporate-image but also to promote social welfare in the long term at the same time actively intervening in environmental issues. From the view in the position of individual companies, necessity of Eco-friendly marketing can be summarized as five representative needs such as to satisfy consumer needs, to secure business opportunities, to guarantee sustainability, to occupy better position for competitive advantages, and to strengthen national competitiveness.[47] However, among various kinds of needs, the reason Eco-friendly marketing in contemporary society is the most necessary is to ensure the survival and competitiveness of companies, gratifying requests of customer and social needs through being green of all activities related to marketing mix.[48] In addition, only Green marketing activity cannot achieve the ultimate goal; it is, therefore, essential that a company should make an integrated effort in the entire business/national level of all business activities including production/technology and all circumstances that surround companies.[49] Environmental management system on a sound basis can provide companies with an opportunity that enables environmental goals to be connected with individual objectives when they convert their idea from traditional management to environmental management, which is able to gain sustainable competitiveness and organization-growth as well as to continue environmental improvements for sound condition of Earth with the help of prearranged, proactive, preventive, and systemized activities. Above all, it is beneficial in that introducing Eco-friendly management can be linked with financial outcome; on top of that, opportunities to make sure whether resources are allocated in the right place so as to achieve the best performance as in financial/environmental aspects. Therefore, these effects can be summarized as the table below. (Source: ISO-Korea Business Research Institute, Environmental management guide, 2003)[50] Eco-friendly management had formed a lot of consensus as a new paradigm of the 21st century as well as it has been discussed not only in economic sectors but also in various fields called such as green management, green management, environmental management. (Source: Lee, B. W., 1997)[51] From the table , the concept of Eco-friendly management can be defined that a company considers the impact on environment in the whole process of all business activities, draws a plan to reduce negative effects on environment, and finally executes it on practical ways at the same time. In addition, recently it has been subdivided into individual parts including Green organization (role of organization-members, determination determination of managers, internal training, green communication and Green, Eco-friendly marketing (defined earlier), Green accounting, Green operation management (Life Cycle Assessment, acquisition of Eco-friendly labels, cleaner production).[52] Business activities including marketing activities are affected by economic/social policies and regulations of each government; moreover, a companys marketing activity should be in need for constant change because a companys strategy has to meet the requests of national or local community. Therefore, in this chapter, it can provide an analytical concept in terms of both the problems of companies Eco-friendly marketing practice and the right path of direction through investigation of environmental policies in South Korea. In South Korea, governments environmental policy aims to establish a site where Man and nature can live along together. Environmental policies in South Korea are constantly evolving with prevention-oriented environmental policy such as Eco-friendly production process, efficient use of resources, minimizing waste beyond policies following an event, which are individual media-oriented including monitoring or supervision of polluting material emissions, activating recycle, and so on. It can be recapitulated for the environmental policy of South Korea as in Table below. (Source: Ministry of Environment, Annual report, 2004)[53] Command or control is the regulated way South Korean government not only presents a certain degree of standards for a facility or activity that causes contamination but also imposes obligation to comply with the standards. In case a company or individual violates both obligations and regulations, the government will give a legal or administrative sanctions based on the environmental policy; in addition, those kinds of policies are very effective and relatively simple measures in that the impact appears quickly. As the result, it is widely used in South Korea and over the world. Economic instrument is the measures in order to achieve environmental goals by means of market as economic and financial media, and, a case in point of South Korea, there are two representative policy measures. EITS was revised in 1991 and is still the policy during execution in South Korea. It aims to promote reduction of pollution and to raise a reasonable investment funds acco

frosts early poems :: essays research papers

To refer to a group of Frost's poems as "early" is perhaps problematic: One is tempted to think of the term as relative given that Frost's first book of poetry appeared when he was already 39. Moreover, Frost's pattern of withholding poems from publication for long periods of time makes dating his work difficult. Many of the poems of the first book, A Boy's Will, were, in fact, written long before--a few more than a decade earlier. Likewise, Frost's later books contain poems almost certainly written in the period discussed in this note. The "Early Poems" considered here are a selection of well known verses published in the eleven years (1913-1923) spanned by Frost's first four books: A Boy's Will, North of Boston, Mountain Interval, and New Hampshire. Frost famously likened the composition of free-verse poetry to playing tennis without a net: it might be fun, but it "ain't tennis." You will find only tennis in the poems that follow. And yet, even while Frost worked within form, he also worked the form itself, shaping it by his choice of language and his use of variation. He invented forms, too, when the poem required it. A theme in Frost's work is the need for some, but not total, freedom--for boundaries, too, can be liberating for the poet, and Frost perhaps knew this better than anyone: No American poet has wrought such memorable, personally identifiable, idiosyncratic poetry from such self-imposed, often traditional formulae. In these "early" years, Frost was concerned with perfecting what he termed "the sound of sense." This was "the abstract vitality of our speech...pure sound-- pure form": a rendering, in words, of raw sensory perception. The words, the form of the words, and the sounds they encode are as much the subject of the poem as the subject is. Frost once wrote in a letter that to be a poet, one must "learn to get cadences by skillfully breaking the sounds of sense with all their irregularity of accent across the regular beat of the metre." Thus, we read "Mowing" and simultaneously hear the swishing and whispering of the scythe; upon reading "Stopping by the Woods," one clearly hears the sweep of easy wind and downy flake; to read "Birches" is to vividly sense the breezy stir that cracks and crazes the trees' enamel. Most of the lyrics treated in this note are relatively short, but Frost also pioneered the long dramatic lyric (represented here by "Home Burial").

Compare the signal man by Charles Dickens and if she bends, she :: English Literature

Compare the signal man by Charles Dickens and if she bends, she breaks by John Gordon Introduction ============ In my essay I intend to compare the similarities and differences of many aspects of 2 short stories. "The signal man" a pre 20th century story by Charles Dickens and "If she bends she breaks" a post 20th century story. By John Gordon. They are naturally different because of their age. The signal man is pre20th century and is typical of the style of story from that era. If she bends she breaks is post 20th century so it has more modern words and is aimed at a younger audience. The stories themselves are similar in that they are both macarbre ghost stories. Titles ------ The title to every story gives the first impression and can give clues as to what the topic of the story is or what will happen.The signal man is a plain boring title thay does not make people wish to read it.If she bends she breaks on the other hand is an unusual title , it is mysterious and makes you want to read on. But a good title does not necessarily mean a good story. I found the signal man was a much better short story where as if she bends she breaks seemed a better title but it is aimed at young children, is a pretty boring story and the plot is easy to pick up, early in the story. The signal man is a boring title but it lets you know what the story is about without giving away the plot. If she bends she breaks is a very intersting title and you only know what it means when you've read the story so it is very effective. But "if she bends has an unusual title, it makes you want to read it, and only when you read it do you find out what, "if she bends she breakss" mean. "if she bends" title, was very good, the story was not as good, in contrast it was the opposite for "the signal man", it had a plain title, but a good story. Beginings and settings ---------------------- The beginning of the signal man, creates an atmoshpere of the supernatural by, its settings. The settings in the signal man, are descibe by dickens as very dark, solitary, and dismal place, "his post was in as solitary and dismal place", meaing that the signal was all alone, in a very dark, and boring place, which is a typical setting for a ghost story He discribes it as being "a great dungeon" dark, cold, scary, and horrible this gives the reader the sense of pain and torture.

The Vindication of Rights of Women Essay -- Literary Analysis, Mary Wo

In Mary Wollstonecraft’s essay â€Å"A Vindication of the Rights of Women† she constantly compares men and women. Her comparisons range from their physical nature to their intelligence, and even down to the education that each sex receives. Wollstonecraft states, â€Å"In the government of the physical world it is observable that the female in point of strength is, in general, inferior to the male.†(line 1.35-37) to show that women are inferior to men in physicality, and a number of areas throughout the essay, yet through it all she voices her concerns for the rights of women and how well deserved they are. Throughout mankind’s history there has been an obvious bias towards men. Men have always been deemed superior to women, whether it be physical or intellectual. When Wollstonecraft says, â€Å"†¦I presume that rational men will excuse me for endeavoring to persuade them [women] to become more masculine and respectable.†(lines 1.81-83) she tells her fellow women to fight for equality, while flattering the opposite sex. Her statement tells women that in order to get what they want [equality] they must change their ways and habits. Its sort of like–If you can’t beat them, join them. There is just one thing holding women from their full potential–men. Wollstonecraft states, â€Å"†¦men who, considering females rather as women than human creatures, have been more anxious to make them alluring mistresses than affectionate wives and rational mothers†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (lines 1.17-19) Regardless of what women do there will always be men who will continue to degrade and discourage rational, intelligent, and free-thinking women. Humans have been around for thousands of years, yet men still degrad... ...†¦the heart should be clean†¦Women ought to endeavor to purify their hearts†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (lines 1.129-132) Wollstonecraft felt that women had to ignore and shed all of the things that men had told them and taught them. Women need to be themselves and not conform to anyone’s regulations. Wollstonecraft wants women to be strong, to defend their honor and innocence, and to learn to think rationally again. She says, â€Å"Weakness [in women] may excite tenderness, and gratify the arrogant pride of man†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (lines 1.142-143) and â€Å"†¦the woman who strengthens her body and exercises her mind will, by managing her family and practicing various, become the friend, and not the humble dependent of her husband†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (lines 1.145-147) Rational and independent thinking will help women in their endeavor for equality, and Wollstonecraft was an excellent example of that.

Leadership of Richard Branson Essay

Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group has been a household name in the United Kingdom for over twenty years. He is well respected in the business world. He is the founder of the Virgin Group, which is known for many different things such as cell phones, record labels, airlines and many more. â€Å"Branson is also known for his unique character and leadership styles, one who is not afraid to take risks, and believes that people are the foundation to his company’s success. If I were to first characterize his leadership style I would say he is definitely a democratic leader. He truly feels that getting other peoples input and listening to what people have to say are a core value to him. He carries a notebook in his pocket all the time just in case he hears something interesting from people that he interacts with on any level. Whether it be an employee, friend, business partner or complete stranger, for him he knows that good ideas can come from anywhere and anytime (Leade rship Styles, 2006).† According to Psychologist Kurt Lewin, democratic leaders make the final decisions, but they include team members in the decision-making process. They encourage creativity, and people are often highly engaged in projects and decisions. As a result, team members tend to have high job satisfaction and high productivity. This is not always an effective style to use, though, when you need to make a quick decision. The business dictionary website corresponds in its meaning of a democratic leadership style stating that the style involves a team where all persons are included in the decision-making process as well as the procedural course of action. According to an article in Entrepreneur, there is almost nothing Richard Branson won’t do to promote his company. As eccentric as this plights may be, they have made Virgin one of the best-known and most popular brand names in the world. The article goes on to explain how his strange business and managerial strategies have created a $5 billion empire. Richard Branson has also been referred to as a visionary leader. The visionary leadership style is described as â€Å"a big-picture thinker who sets clear standards and inspires with a sense of shared mission, the visionary leader can be overbearing (Blustein, 2013).† When asked about his  leadership style, Richard Branson says he makes sure he is surrounded by team builders who can make sure that the needs of individual employees do not get lost in the pursuit of a grand vision. He also says to think twice before showing the smart people who work for you how much smarter you are (Blustein, 2013).† Emotional Intelligence is defined as â€Å"skill in perceiving, understanding, and managing emotions and feelings, awareness of one’s own emotions and moods and those of others, especially in managing people, an awareness of and ability to manage emotions and create motivation (Dictionary.com, 2014).† Richard Branson is an example of emotional intelligence in practice. In 2003, the commercial successes in the highly competitive and volatile Australian Aviation Industry, with the launch of Virgin Blue’s corporate existence, the company has achieved 30% market share of the Australian domestic air travel market and is due to fl oat on the Australian stock exchange at a capitalization of billions. Branson’s leadership capability characterized by emotional intelligence, has been evident through his ability to relate to motivate and unify staff from this industry at a time when many airline employees were disillusioned and skeptical in a third airline’s ability to successfully operate in the Australian market (Carlson, Voola,& West, 2004).† This shows how the unique aspects of Richard Branson’s leadership style mesh successfully with the particular attributes of the multifaceted organization that is Virgin. Richard Branson is known to motivate employees by encouraging all employees to apply for jobs at other Virgin companies that they find interesting. In recent years, a few Virgin companies have provoked as a result; we often refer to them as our â€Å"shot in the arm† companies. They show customers and employees what our business stands for, and often inspire our teams at other businesses to try new challenges. Another way Branson keeps employees engaged is by inviting them to take part in company events, like the Virgin Mobile Live Free fest, a free music festival held every year to raise money (through donations) for homeless young people. Along with giving employees a chance to give something back to the community, the festival allows an opportunity to say thank you to customers and staff by providing them with the chance to enjoy themselves for free. The sense of fun unites the businesses reminds employees of what the company stands for. In some ways it’s easier for a large organization like Virgin to embark on such projects,  but with a little inventiveness and resourceful thinking, other business owners might come up with shot-in-the-arm schemes of their own (Entrepreneur, 2012). Maintaining a focused and motivated staff can be a difficult task for employers to master, especially during harsh economic times and with stretched resources. Branson recently held a series of talks for employees, where they were encouraged to engage and debate different subjects. The exercises were held on a tropical island in the Caribbean. Every company does not have the luxury of taking their employees off to a tropical island, that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to get minds focused and engaged. If one is trying to grow a diverse, creative team, it is not necessary to take employees to the Caribbean to keep them learning. Branson has suggested inviting guest speakers to the office. â€Å"Go to events focusing on topics that are not strictly related to your industry and bring some of your employees along. He advises, one of the best ways to learn is by taking team members out of their comfort zone and embracing new ideas, results will yield. Focusing on a topic ou t of the norm can bring renewed vigor to everyday activities (Preston, 2013). My assessment of Richard Branson’s ability to articulate and communicate his vision for his company to employees and other stakeholders in the traditional sense of writing a mission statement, he has failed. However, I believe that actions speak louder than words, and with that said, Richard Branson has done an outstanding job in showing his mission statement. In an interview with Entrepreneur Branson says, â€Å"Many business management experts would argue that a mission statement should be your company’s cornerstone, inspiring and informing your employees in the years ahead. I can’t agree. The Virgin Group does have a mission statement — one that is brief and to the point. In general, there is too much importance being placed on such statements, but it is interesting to see how they reflect common missteps in business, for example Enron. Before the giant energy company went bankrupt in 2001, ruining the lives of tens of thousands of employees and investors, its vision and values statement was â€Å"Respect, integrity, communication and excellence.† While some mission statements consist of one vague statement, others are too long, which may reflect management’s lack of understanding of what a company really does. Branson goes on to say that if Virgin had to put their mission statement on a coat of arms, it would probably say something  like, â€Å"Ipsum sine timore, consector,† which very loosely translated from the Latin means, â€Å"Screw it, let’s do it (Entrepreneur, 2013)!† There are four steps to evaluate whether Richard Branson’s leadership style is a good fit for me as a manager: Determine my leadership style Assess the organization’s culture Define my expectations in a leader Learn about Richard Branson’s leadership style and whether or not it meshes. Asking the following questions about the organizational culture can help clarify what type of work environment the organization offers: Work style: How does our work done? Collaboratively? Independently? A combination? How are decisions made? Consensus-driven? Authoritatively? How is communication? Verbally or in written form? Directly or indirectly? Voicemail, email, or in person? What are meetings like? Serious? Lighthearted? Tightly or loosely structured? Professional opportunities and advancement: What types of people tend to do well here? Individual contributors? Team players? People who are proactive or more responsive? How is the structure? Hierarchical or flat? Centralized or decentralized authority? Clear reporting structures or matrix? How people who do well rewarded? What happens when people don’t perform well? I conclude that I would be successful working under this type of leader. William George, a Professor of Management Practice, Henry B. Arthur Fellow of Ethics, at Harvard Business School says the most successful leaders will not necessarily be those with the highest IQ. He says they will need to be intelligent, cultured, and emotionally intelligent. â€Å"According to George, additional characteristics of a successful global leader include: An intellectual understanding of the global business context. The capacity to simultaneously develop a global and local perspective. Being able to overcome the dominant thinking at headquarters. A knack for cross-boundary partnering. A self-awareness and self-assurance when it comes to one’s values and sense of purpose The ability to develop networks that are internal and external to the organization. George goes on to say, â€Å"Ultimately, a global organization is measured by how well the diversity of its leadership reflects the diversity of its customer base and well that leadership can leverage the skills of teams working around the world (Hanna, 2012).† In my opinion, Richard Branson fits the bill as a global leader. â€Å"Sir Richard Branson is among the latest crop of billionaires who have promised to donate at least half their fortune to charity. The Virgin Group founder, who is worth more than $4bn, has added his name to the Giving Pledge campaign set up by U.S. investor Warren Buffett and Microsoft founder Bill Gates. In their pledge letter, Sir Richard and his wife Joan said they wanted to use cash from the company to create ‘a healthy, equitable and peaceful world for future gener ations to enjoy (Tomlinson, 2013).† My prediction is Richard Branson will be an even bigger success than he is now. He has pledged to give away half his Virgin fortune to make a difference in the world. It takes a real leader to make such a sacrifice for others. References (2006, 05). Leadership Styles: Richard Branson. StudyMode.com. Retrieved 05, 2006, from http://www.studymode.com/essays/Leadership-Styles-Richard-Branson-88459.htmlBlustein, A. (2013). What kind of leader are you?. Inc, 35(8), 58-59. Carlson, J. Ranjui, V. & West, A. (2004). Emotional intelligence and competitive advantage: examining the relationship from a resource-based view. Retrieved September 6, 2014 from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jsc.664/abstract Hanna, J. (2012). Developing the global leader. Working knowledge the thinking that leads. Harvard Business School. Retrieved September 6, 2014 from http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6967.html Kets de Vries, M.R. (1998). Charisma in action: the transformational abilities of Virgin’s Richard Branson and ABB’s Percy Barnevik. Organizational Dynamics, 26(3), 7-21 Tomlinson, S. (2013). Stuff does not bring happiness’: Sir Richard Branson pledges to give away half his Virgin fortune to make a difference in the world. Retrieved September 6, 2014 from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2281792/Sir-Richard-Branson-pledges-a way-half-Virgin-fortune-make-difference-world.html#ixzz3CmVyTGEc

Childcare system Essay

Many parents that have kids want to stay at ome during the early years of the children’s youth, but after those years they can’t afford to go back to work. Over 50% of moms that usally stay home and want to go to work but just can’t afford to acording to Ms. Truss. About 17% of moms that did work couldn’t earn enough to be able to have money that would last awhile. â€Å"While 12% cited a lack of job opportunities.† Ms. Truss believes that stuff like this shouldn’t stop people from helping the 52% of mom’s find an affordable childcare so that they can go out and looks for an affordable job. Mrs. Truss wants to have a deregulated childcare system, unlike the other childcares, to have a sinle nursery double with the amount of children they are responsable for. â€Å"Anand Shukla, Chief Executive of the Family, Parenting Insitute, and Daycare Trust wonder if carers and the self-employed will be eligible for this financial support and said something about the devil will be in detail†. The Labour has warned if they cut the nursery staffing levels, it could threaten child safty of the children that are being taken cared of while there parents are working. If stuff like this keeps happening, and they do cut nursery staffing levels, i think the problem would get worse, kids might be killed from carlessness from the lowered class nursery staff, more parents would stay home to protect there kids. If they want to provent stuff like this, they can’t cut the nusery staffing level and have to find something that is less important they can cut to be able to let mothers keep there jobs and so there kids can be safe. They could cut off stuff like entertainment or stuff like amusment parks, just some examples but in my oppion, taking care of the future generation is more important than these two examples. As long as they don’t take drastic messures like cutting nursery staffing levels, the future for them looks pretty good as long as they cut stuff of less important value.

Data Mining Essay

What is meant by the term â€Å"lift†? The term â€Å"lift† describes the improved performance of an exact or specific amount of effort on a modeled sampling, as opposed to a random sampling (Spang, 2010). In other words, if you are able to market via a model to say, a given number of random customers (e.g. 1000), and we expect that 50 of them would be successful, then a model that can generate 75 successes would have a 50 percent lift. â€Å"Lift† is possibly the most commonly metric used to measure targeting model performance in marketing applications – the purpose of which, is to identify a subgroup or target from a larger population (Coppock, 2002 and Spang, 2010). The subgroup targeted or target members selected are those who are most likely to respond positively to a marketing offer. As such, the model is doing well if as predicted – the response within the targeted section is much better than average when compared to the population as a whole. Lift then, is simply the ratio of these values: target response divided by average response (Coppock, 2002). â€Å"Lift Charts† and â€Å"Lift Curves† are terms often seen in direct marketing. To quickly define them here – a lift curve is a popular technique which assigns a â€Å"probability of responding† score when used in an attempt to determine who the likely responders from a population are. â€Å"The lift curve helps us determine how effectively we can â€Å"skim the cream† by selecting a relatively small number of cases and getting a relatively large portion of the responders† (Keating, 2013). A lift chart or a â€Å"Gains Chart† is a convenient summary of all the cumulative lift curves whereby all the information in these multiple classification matrices are turned into a graph (Keating, 2013 and Coppock, 2002). What is Customer Relationship Management (CRM)? â€Å"There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.† – Sam Walton (Founder of Wal-Mart) Customer Relationship Management or CRM is a â€Å"company-wide business strategy† which is generally designed with the intent to â€Å"reduce costs and increase profitability by solidifying customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy† (CRM Magazine, 2010). While once, it was regarded of as a type of software, today, CRM has evolved into a â€Å"customer-centric philosophy that must permeate an entire organization† (CRM Magazine, 2010).   In other words, it is not a new concept but as the quote above by Sam Walton suggests – an extremely important one that can and should be instinctively employed to all businesses to ensure returning and new clientele. We may perhaps think of CRM in its most basic, common and best known form as â€Å"customer services† or simply, methodology employed to create happy customers. A true and effective CRM program revolves around three key elements – people, processes and technology (CRM Magazine, 2010). Targets within these elements that should be especially considered are individual applications, a data infrastructure to support them, and organizational changes to take full advantage of the technical upgrades (Goodhue et. al., 2002). Moreover, the CRM program should be bringing in information from all relevant data sources both within, and outside the organization when applicable. In doing so, a company is able to gain a â€Å"holistic view of each customer in real time† (CRM Magazine, 2010), thus allowing staff dealing directly with customers, for example, in the realms of customer support, sales and marketing – the ability to make informed yet quick decisions on everything from cross-selling and upselling to target marketing strategies and competitive positioning tactics (Info Entrepreneurs, 2013 and CRM Magazine, 2010). A working example of how CRM could be achieved may be through: discovering the purchasing habits, opinions, needs and preferences of one’s customers; then profiling the individuals and groups researched so marketing can be executed more effectively, thus increasing sales. Finally, by combining this information found with good customer services and satisfaction – customer relationships which are the heart of business success, can be appropriately and effectively fostered, then maintained and ultimately managed for efficiency and profitability. While there are many technical and technological components to CRM, thinking about CRM as primarily a strategy to learn about the needs and behaviors of customers in an effort to create, develop and strengthen relationships with them may prove to be more helpful overall and in the long term. Additionally, it should be thought of as a process bringing together information concerning customers, sales, marketing effectiveness, responsiveness and marketing trends (Goodhue et. al., 2002 and Writing, 2013). Finally, for CRM to be truly effective, everyone in the organization from the CEO to the frontline staff and those behind the scenes need to get on board, involved and invested in the company`s program (Info Entrepreneurs, 2013; CRM Magazine, 2010; Writing, 2013 and Goodhue et. al., 2002). What are its benefits? Provide examples of potential benefits. To reiterate the above – benefiting from CRM is â€Å"not just a question of buying the right software. You must also adapt your business to the needs of your customers† (Info Entrepreneurs, 2013).   Having said that, after investing the time and expense in implementing a good CRM solution, there are many potential benefits, some being extremely significant and having a major impact on the establishment in question: −Development of better relationship with existing customers due to understanding and therefore addressing their specific requirements. −Increased sales and revenue through better timing gained via anticipating the customers’ needs based on historic trends. −Cross-selling of other products by leveraging the customer relationship. −Ability to identify the most profitable clientele. −Improved profitability through focusing on most profitable clients while dealing with less profitable clients in a more cost effective manner. −Better overall marketing of products or services. −More effective target marketing communications aimed specifically at customer needs. −An improved, more personal approach which can help win additional business in the future. −The development of new and / or improved products and services through better client feedback, complaints, comments and suggestions. −Reducing cost of sales and cost of new customer acquisition and generation by concentrating on customer retention, thus improving organization reputation and word-of-mouth recommendations. (Writing, 2013; Info Entrepreneurs, 2013 and Goodhue et. al., 2002). With respect to CRM systems, what does it mean if the system is â€Å"scalable†? A â€Å"scalable† system according to the Business Dictionary, is one whose â€Å"size, performance or number of users can be increased on demand without a penalty in cost or functionality†.   A secondary definition details that such a system is well designed enough to handle â€Å"proportionally very small to very large usage and service levels almost instantly, and with no significant drop in cost effectiveness, functionality, performance or reliability.† It goes on to add that scalable systems may generally utilize technologies such as automatic load balancing, clustering and parallel processing as a means to achieve the points listed above (Business Dictionary, 2013). With respect to CRM systems (and even data mining systems), both definitions apply with equal precision and aptness to scalability because scalability deals with not only the increasing size of data sets, but also how to process them within a useful timeframe. We can go so far as to concur that the issue of scalability in systems such as CRM are similar for performance scaling issues for Data Management in general (Piatetsky-Shapiro and Parker via Massa-Lochridge et. al., 2013). Ultimately, the scalable system is in the business of efficiency of analysis – and being able to do so with very large data sets (Olson and Shi, 2005). A system which is scalable is one which can aid in overall performance in the organization. In fact, scaling and performance are often considered together in both data mining and CRM systems (Massa-Lochridge et. al., 2013). To further emphasize and prove these points, we can look towards real life examples such as the Onyx checklist for scalability which sets the criteria as a customer management system deployed across the company that is able to support staff without any degradation in performance. Furthermore, the system must also be able to support thousands of users with sub-second response times. For it to be truly scalable, it needs to be a flexible CRM solution – preferably one which adheres to an industry standard architecture which can leverage existing infrastructure. This, coupled with efficiency and easiness of upgrading, will help to keep the total cost of ownership low now, and into the future (Onyx, 2013). Compare and contrast affinity positioning and cross-selling (minimum 500 words). Provide real life examples and personal experiences to substantiate this analysis. Affinity positioning is a marketing tactic that is defined exactly as its component words suggest – the practice of positioning or placing products that have a natural or inherent attraction or connection with each other, together. For example, a retail store may arrange their shop layout in such a way that there is a deliberate, close placement of complementary products on the shelves (Olson and Shi, 2005). Consider also, this potential real life situation where a retailer may have identified through perhaps, a Market Basket Analysis that customers who tend to buy cold medicine also have been observed to purchase tissues. Similarly, the buying of coffee makers may be strongly correlated with the purchase of ground coffee. It therefore makes sense from a marketing and profitability perspective to place both these items in each set, in close proximity to each other. Cross-selling is a related and resulting concept. Where there is knowledge of products that go together, one is able to use this information to create cross-selling opportunities through marketing the complementary product (Olson and Shi, 2005; Microstrategy, 2013; and Tsai, 2010). Apart from positioning products on shelves like a grocery store might do, retail stores for example, can be seen to rely upon advertising to create this connection within the purchaser`s mind.   A buyer of suits for instance, may notice the sale of shirts and ties from posters and advertising stands on shop windows and outside the door, respectively. In terms of technology, we may observe computer stores selling laptops while encouraging customers to purchase accessories or peripherals like casings, screen protectors and external hard drives concurrently. While both strategies have always been applied by the clever retailer, today data collection (e.g. generated from cash register data) and automated data mining tools provide them with a yet unmatched ability to even identify the less expected and less obvious product affinities and cross-selling possibilities. Sellers are now able to use current technology to look at customers’ purchase history and target marketing operations specifically to their individual and group needs and wants (Olson and Shi, 2005). A Customer Cross-Cell Analysis can be employed to identify customers who might be interested in purchasing complementary products and services to those which have already been bought previously (MicroStrategy, 2013). Indeed, sales and marketing managers have long relied on the cross-sell analysis to create more efficient marketing projects, thereby producing increased revenue with less resources through focused efforts. A customer cross-sell analysis typically begins with using data mining techniques and tools to determine which product pairs (product affinity) are frequently purchased by a significant number of customers. From here, an organization can then identify which customers bought one but not both products or services. By executing this second stage, we can now know who these customers are and hence target them specifically – thereby reducing total advertising campaign costs, increasing response rates and finally and most importantly, create increased sales (MicroStrategy, 2013; Olson and Shi, 2005; and Tsai, 2010). One point worth mentioning, is a separate but related concept to both affinity positioning and cross-selling, which is upselling (also often referred to as up-selling or up selling). This involves searching for opportunities to sell an improved, higher grade or generally more expensive â€Å"latest† product to the consumer. Going back to the example of the computer store, a staff member who tries to upsell to a new or returning customer may sing the praises of another, higher-end model of laptop which may have more features the client may find useful, thus hoping to create a more profitable sale. In my own, personal experience in a hospital setting – affinity positioning is seen for example, in the maternity ward where â€Å"New Mother† and â€Å"Baby Care Training† hospital sponsored classes or their adverts are held or displayed in an area close by, thus encouraging expecting women to come back to the hospital after delivery to take advantage of this value added service. In doing so, the hospital then creates a cross-selling opportunity by ensuring additional services such as pediatrician care for babies or postpartum care for mothers are clearly advertised via a targeted campaign. Finally, upselling is also seen in this ward via examples such as when staff offer mothers increased comfort and privacy with the option of upgrading shared rooms to private ones. Identify and discuss some potential ethical mishandling when it comes to cross-selling. Some of the more commonly known ethical issues to watch for in cross-selling, as well as in general marketing include but are not limited to: −Intentionally trying to sell sub-par goods or services to the client in a bid to create a sale, when aware of the quality deficiency. −Related to the above, is the deliberate misrepresentation of goods or services, in both cross-selling and otherwise. −Incessantly contacting existing or potential clients without consent in order to cross-sell products or services. −The refusal to respond to, acknowledge or correct customer complaints after a sale has taken place – be it cross-selling or initial sales. −An unclear privacy policy which may involve personal details being distributed or sold. −An unclear after sales policy which may involve the placement of deliberate loopholes for the sellers to have an advantage. Again, this point can be attributed to both regular sales and cross-selling issues. With regards to issues more specific to cross-selling, research has revealed that certain service sectors may be affected by ethical mishandlings and / or concerns more than others. In particular, it is revealed that situations regarding cross selling in hospitals; situations to do with plastic surgery; and cross-selling targeted towards the elderly, have all been widely discussed in recent years and may be cause for action. With respect to cross-selling in hospitals, an example which can be seen is that ethical issues often arise when medicine, equipment or medical product reps all too easily ignore or forget that they are supposed to have the hospital’s, doctor’s, medical staff’s and patient’s needs at heart – attempting to create sales based on the pharmaceutical companies’ incentives and profit margins instead. When this happens: It ignores the necessity of consultative selling, which involves proper questioning techniques. It fails to connect the customer on a value level. In essence, it’s not selling at all; it’s simply peddling! (Francis, 2008). The literature available also suggests that there have been events with respect to aesthetic plastic surgery which again raise the question of ethics mishandling and cross-selling. Concerns here include examples such as cross-selling and â€Å"bundling† cosmetic surgery and procedures as attractive package deals – whether they be necessary or not (Fatah, 2011), or the rise of incidences such as patients having undergone breast implant removals or replacements being â€Å"bullied† or pressured into buying additional surgery such as nipple lifts (mastopexy). In addition, these cross-selling strategies may be coupled with other marketing tactics such as time-limited offers from their clinics, resulting in anxiety and customers feeling the need to respond instead of taking time out to heal after surgery (BAAPS, 2012). Finally, in terms of targeting the elderly for cross-selling certain products and services which may be deemed unethical – one may wish to consider the â€Å"unethical and dishonest conduct† of promoting and selling expensive annuities to elderly customers, the market targeting done here because the elderly may be seen as â€Å"easy targets† (Litterick, 2005). There have been cases of banks which have been accused employing cross-selling practices such as referring existing, elderly customers who come in for separate bank services, to stockbrokers who in turn sold them variable annuities that are often considered unsuitable for older people because they can be â€Å"expensive and do not pay out quickly† (Litterick, 2005). This was often found to be due to the fact that service staff were receiving incentives for doing so. In response to such cases, Banner (2011), maintains that: â€Å"Improper cross-selling – cross-selling of products to earn a fee or a commission that does not truly benefit the client’s quality of life on a long-term basis – is wrong, unethical and immoral† (Banner, 2011). He does go on to ascertain however, that the cross-selling of a product or service which truly is suitable to them – meaning to say it can benefit and / or protect the client appropriately, is well worth considering (Banner, 2011). As a final note on the ethics of cross-selling, to avoid ethical dilemmas and mishandling, it is prudent to keep in mind often that the key to effective cross-selling can be boiled down to mutual benefit on the parts of both the selling and buying parties, and suitability, suitability, suitability! (Banner, 2011; Francis, 2008 and NRMLA, 2008). References BAAPS – The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (2012, February 10). Cross-selling to breast implant scandal victims ‘immoral’. The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons. Retrieved February 26, 2013, from http://www.baaps.org.uk/about-us/press-releases/1136-cross-selling-to-breast-implant-scandal-victimes-immoral Banner, M. (2011, May). Originating: Living at Home Brings Peace of Mind. The Reverse Review. Retrieved from http://www.reversereview.com/magazine/3862-living-at-home-brings-peace-of-mind.html Business Dictionary (2013). What is scalable? Definition and meaning. In BusinessDictionary.com – Online Business Dictionary. Retrieved February 25, 2013, from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/scalable.html Coppock, D. S. (2002, June 21). Why Lift? Information Management. Retrieved February 24, 2013, from http://www.information-management.com/news/5329-1.html CRM Magazine (2010, February 19). What Is CRM? – CRM Mag azine. destinationCRM.com – The leading resource for Customer Relationship Management – from the editors of CRM magazine. Retrieved February 24, 2013, from http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/CRM-News/Daily-News/What-Is-CRM-46033.aspx Fatah, F. (2011, May 5). BBC News – ‘A little lipo with your facial, madam?’. BBC – Homepage. Retrieved February 26, 2013, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13228094 Francis, P. T. (2008). Cross-Selling Your Hospital’s Capabilities. Clinical Laboratory Sales Training with Peter Francis. Retrieved February 26, 2013, from http://www.clinlabsales.com/pdf/Cross-Selling-092508.pdf Goodhue, D. L., Wixom, B. H., & Watson, H. J. (2002). Realizing Business Benefits through CRM: Hitting the Target in the Right Way. MIS Quarterly Executive, 1(2), 79