Monday, September 30, 2019
Brand Community
During the last fifteen years, there are many popular subjects: relationship marketing and brand building,etc.These hot subjects encourage interaction and speed up the incubation of new sources of disciplinary growth: Brand Relationship(the relationship between consumer and brand).In Brand Relationship theory sysytem,more scholars focus on the relationship between consumer and brand, but Muniz and O’Guinn(2001) did more research on the relationship among consumers, and put forward a new brand concept – Brand Community. This concept comes from â€Å"consumption community†,which was first proposed by historian Daniel Boorstin(1974), ‘in the modern era of high mobility, people look not only to communality of consumption behavior but also to neighborhood as a basis for feelings of community.’ The same as consumption community, brand community is also initiative and drive of individuals’ co –operating at the beginning, after that, enterprise start to take advantage of the power of brand community to build brand loyalty and brand equity, therefore, brand community is becoming a new weapon of marketing. In this essay, I make literature review surveys on scholarly articles, books relevant to brand community, providing a description, summary and critical evaluation of brand community. Firstly, discuss the origin and definition of brand community. Secondly, summary the research status and the dynamic natures of brand community which are different from consumption community, briefly introduce three main features of brand community. Thirdly, illustrate evolution of brand community model. Fourthly, case study, use case of Starbucks to explain the implications of brand community. Finally, conclusion and the prospect of research. 1 Demarcation of Brand community 1.1 Origin of Brand community During the last few years, there is a trend that academic research on consumption activities moved away from considerations of individual to a focus on communal. The word ‘community’ was used frequently. ‘consumption community’ (Boorstin, 1973). ‘Subcultures of consumption’ (schouten and McAlexander, 1995). ‘Band community’ (Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001; McAlexander et al., 2002).These communities are referred to as ‘social collectives’ (Greenwood, 1994). ‘Life-mode communities’ (Firat and Dholakia, 1998) and‘neo-tribes’ (Cova, 1997). Brands provide the linking value to some individuals who wants to become member of these communities. These communities seize the idea that people have relations with other people and such relationships are constructed around a fulcrum acted by brands. Harley Owners group(HOG)is a good example of the brand providing such linking value(Fournier et al.,2001).There are more and more descriptive studies detailing the features of such communities: Star Wars fans (Brown et al.,2003); Sun’s Java Center community (Williams and Cothrel,2000) and Nutella(Cova and Pace, 2005). In a word, communities are expected to provide benefits for the organisation: they affect brand equity and create a stable base of loyal, enthusiastic consumers (Muà ±iz and O’Guinn, 2001; McAlexander et al., 2001). Actually, it is not easy for a brand to establish a community. Brand-centred communities may typify themselves to open up a utopian place in the contemporary world.Kozinets (2001) noted that ‘impossibility and dreamness together with deep motivational power and desire’ While utopianism enables customers to engage with reality rather than merely escape into fantasy (Geoghegan, 1987).Which means transform and subvert are the two abilities of utopian (Maclaran and Brown, 2001).Members and the relations among them compose a community. McAlexander and Koeing (2002) identify communities on the basis of identification among community members(a neighborhood, a leisure pursuit, an occupation and devotion to a brand).Brand community is a new type of community, different from traditional community, can form a strong image, a lengthy history around brands.Actually,it is a community established with brand-centric 1.2 Definition of Brand community Because brand community is a new concept, there is nounified definition in academia, but we can define it from two parts: narrow and broad meanings. Narrow meaning is represented by Muniz and O’Guinn. Based on the research on some brands, such as Ford Bronco, etc.Muniz and 0’Guinn (2001) noted a brand community is a no-geographically bound and specialized community based on a structured set of social relationships among admirers of a brand. It highlight the point connection of brand community is brand not region, and brand community has three essential markers (Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001). Bagozzi (2006) noted that brand community is consumption community with common enthusiasm for a certain brand or certain good social cognition (environmental protection), the members realize collective objective or express the common emotional and commitment through common action. Substantiallyï ¼Å'this is as the same as Muniz and O’Guinn’s definitionï ¼Å'they both emphasize the expressions of emotion and action from a certain brand McAlexander (2002) expended this conceptï ¼Å'the broad meaning of brand community is a connection network with focal customer as centre, besides brand relationship, there are many other relationships. This concept emphasizes the Consumers’ all-round experience of brand. Upshaw and Taylor (2001) made a broad explanation to this conceptï ¼Å'they documented that all the stakeholders who have relationship with the brand (including employee〠customer〠stockholder〠supplier and strategic partnered) compose brand community. 2 Basic theory and concept 2.1 Research Status Brand community is becoming an increasing popular topic in brand management research; however, the short-lived time leads to its present research is preliminary, and mainly focused on the concept, features, origin, impact and modes, etc. For example,Muniz and O’Guinn(2001)claimed that brand community has three essential features of community: consciousness of kind, rituals and traditions and moral responsibility. Schau and Muniz (2002)reported the value of brand community image is important to consumers identify centified;Schmitt , Rogers and Vrotsos (2003)described the performance of brand community in Jeep,BMW and many other vehicle brands;Hoeffler and Keller (2002)noted the improving consciousness of brand community is in favor of enhancing brand equity based on consumers; McAlexander , Kim and Roberts (2003)researched the relationship between brand community and consumers satisfaction, consumers loyalty, and claimed that consumers loyalty is not only affected by customer satisfaction, but also by brand community. Belk and Tumbat noted that it is not easy for a brand to establish a community.(Schouten and McAlexander, 1995; Kozinets,2001;Muniz and Schau,2005).There are many scholars focusing on virtual community, documented the classify of community and marketing strategy (McWilliams , 2000 ; Monica , 2000 ; Wind , Mahajan and Gunther ,2003). All above research enrich the brand community theory, but there is a serious problem: research only stays on statical concept ,feature and primary implication phase.Muniz and O’Guinn said the future of research is to know how brand community change in different social situation. 2.2 Dynamic Natures Consumption community and brand community are different on several dimensions:firstly,Muniz and O’Guinn(2001)noted that brand community is non-geographically bounded, they may be either scattered(Boorstin,1974),or geographically concentrated (Holt,1995).Geographical concentration is the dimension of social context. To be more exact, interactions within a brand community may be rich in social context. Communication may be predominantly face to face,nediated by electronic devices(Boorstin,1974).Members may have a number of information about each other(gender,age and background).There is little understanding of movement along this dimension. The temporal stability of a community can be asset to marketers in as much as legerity equates with a long-term, stable valuable market communities can share useful consumption experiences. (Arnould and Price, 1993). 2.3 Three main features 2.3.1 Consciousness of kind This feature includes two sides: legitimacy and oppositional brand loyalty.Muniz and O’Guinn noted that members feel an significant connection to the brand and toward each other, even they are strangers, members feel they know each other, â€Å"the link is more important than the thing †(Cova,1997,p307).They also can distinguish who is the real member by judging whether he is familiar with and in favor of the brand, not just because of chasing fashion to use product of the brand.Sometimes,brand community members build community to share common experience and brand connotation to fight with other brands. That means community will become more solidarity when facing with threats (Muà ±iz and O’Guinn, 2001). 2.3.2 Shared rituals and traditions The main point of this feature is shared consumption experience. It consists of celebrating the history of the brand and sharing brand stories. The transmission of brand community is life-affirming to establish its culture. At the same time, brand history is brand community’s cultural equity. Sharing brand stories playing a significant role in brand building and maintaining. It strengthens consciousness of kind among brand members and contributes to imagined community. It also reinforces members ‘identity to the brand and help members learn more about communities’ value. Ads play a significant role in brand community rituals and traditions. Members are concerned with ads as they display the brand to those outside of the community, and themselves (Muà ±iz and O’Guinn, 2001). 2.3.3 Moral Responsibility Its definition is â€Å"a sense of duty to the community as a whole and to individual members of the community†(Muà ±iz and O’Guinn, 2001).There are at least two traditional communal missions: the first one is integrating and retaining members, there is the presence of a social moral consciousness in traditional communities, they recognize the bounds of what is appropriate and inappropriate, right and wrong. Another is assisting in the use of the brand. Assistance is to help community members, both known and unknown, repair the product or solve problems. Assisting is one of the places in which computer-mediated communication offers a great deal of information (Muà ±iz and O’Guinn, 2001).According to the primary nature of the relationship, the assistance offered between individuals sharing a communal bond is specialized (Wellman, 1990; Wellman and Wortley, 1990) 3 Evolution of Brand Community model 3.1 Traditional Brand community Model Boorstin emphasized the relationship between product (brand) and customer in consumption community model (figure 1).Customers look brand as the promise enterprise made for the products function value and image. Enhancing brand means the contract between enterprise and customer. To satisfy different needs from different target market, different brands need different brand positioning, even the same brand, with the changing of customers’ need, also need change brand positioning. Therefore, Boorstin took the perspective that consumption community is customer-centric, the development of brand should stick to customers’ need as the guide. 3.2. Triangle Brand community model Muniz and O’Guinn ,who are the initiator of the theory of brand community, enrich the relationship model of â€Å"customer-brand†, emphasized brand as intermediary (figure 2).With the development of social economy, customers are not confined to need for product (material level), they are not only concentrating on the function value of products own, more concentrating on consuming the product can give them symbolic significance and emotion interests. The similar experience and shared emotion among community members give them more emotion value than product function value. Brand community Triad Model break through the single dimensionality in traditional â€Å"customer-brand†, concentrate on the relationship among â€Å"customer-customer†. Weakness is that the brand will be influenced not only by customers belong to itself, but also by customers belong to other brands. For example,Many customers will interview the website and forum before purchasing products, they can find information about many other brand customers. 3.3. Brand stakeholder relations model Upshaw and Taylor came up with a new Masterbrand Community model based on Brand community Triad Model. Their opinion is all the stakeholders with brand should include employee,customer,stockholder,supplier and strategic partnered.compose brand community(figure 3).A good brand image is the base of community, while these stakeholders play an significant role in maintaining brand image and reputation, only be kind to these stakeholders ,can brand have attraction. It is the motivation of brand community. This model organizes many factors which can influence brand to build and maintain the harmonious relationship between them. Although this model emphasizes that many kinds of stakeholders are important to brand building, it involves too many complicated relationships which is not easy for analysis and research. Besides, this model strengthens brand’s core position, neglect customers playing an important role in brand building. 3.4. Focal customer model Based on Muniz and O’Guinn’s brand community theory (2001), McAlexanderï ¼Å'Schouten and Koening (2002) put forward Focal Customer Model. This model emphasizes brand, product, customer and marketer are important factors to compose brand community, and bring four relationships into brand community: customer and enterprise, customer and product, customer and brand, customer and customer. This model’s feature is highlighting the focal customer playing linking role in brand community. Besides Muniz’s â€Å"relationship among customers†, they added product, brand and marketer. Although this structure is more comprehensive, it has drifted â€Å"brand community†raised by Muniz, which studied the relationship among customers. McAlexander’s opinion actually is another closely related topic-brand relationship. A research specialist in brand relationship field, Fourier (2001), expended the relationship between brand and customer to four relations as McAlexander’s model. Based on new product diffusion theory, focal customer is playing an opinion leader during product diffusion process, they are the base of enterprise. So, when enterprices want to attract new customers, also should pay more attention to focal customers’ satisfaction and loyalty. 3.5 conclusions The premise of research on brand community is better understanding of brand community models. From the focus of the study,Muniz’s and McAleXander’s models focus on customer, while Upshaw’s model focus on brand, the difference is that former model studied the role customer playing in brand building, the later studied all the factors can influence brand. From the range of the study, Upshaw’s mode is very comprehensive, but too complex; it is difficult to consider all types of relations in one study at the same time. That is the reason why it is seldom used.Muniz’s and McAlexander’s models are more useful, but from the logicality of study, their models did not distinguish the importance of all types of relations, that is to say, they did not tell us which relation playing an important role in brand community. 4 Case study: The success and failure of Starbucks Founded in 1971, Starbucks has the fastest growth rate of any company in the history of retailing. (George and Pierce, 2007)Starbucks sells mainly coffee, and even were it the best coffee in the world it would still only be coffee. The question spontaneously arises, however, why is Starbucks today a brand to be counted among the elite of mythical brands? What has made the consumer pay a premium price for something they would normally have paid significantly less for? The answer can be found in the fact that Starbucks’ marketing approach goes far beyond the tangible component of the product by infusing coffee with new symbolic values and brand community. A high quality of coffee, widespread locations and commercial partnership agreements have undoubtedly contributed to the company’s growth, but these elements are not sufficient to make a brand a global myth, an authentic icon of postmodern society. An exchange from the movie Duplex illustrates the bohemian image Starbucks has acquired as a place where writers and other intellectuals are welcomed as part of a specific community. In the film, a young wife, played by Drew Barrymore, turns to her writer husband and says †Well, what if you got out of the house for a little while and went to write at, like a Starbucks or something? ††It would be nice not to have to write at Starbucks with all the other novelists,†replies the young man, played by Ben Stiller.It is precisely this which is the true essence of Starbucks: a place which evokes symbolic values and brand community values which go beyond coffee and the products sold and which makes a sign a metropolitan legend. It is feeling part of a community like that of the writers looking for success quoted in the film, and many morebesides,which makes consumers identify with a place where, when it really comes down to it, what you mostly do is just drinking cof fee. A person who habitually goes a sort of community to do so not just to drink a cup of coffee but to access a sort of community where they find values, models and behaviors which they tend to recognize themselves in. While Starbucks continued to enrich its context with new meanings and values, other competitors continued to simply sell coffee (Shu-pei Tsai, 2005), Starbucks’s performance demonstrates how, by enhancing the atmosphere and making the place of consumption a space linked to trendsetters and not the minority fringe of the population, by creating a sense of belonging and community, it is possible to achieve success even when satisfying routine needs. As Volli says, Starbucks â€Å"is together closed and secret but also open and public, it shows and hides at the same time, it simultaneously exercises modesty and seduction, the secret and the recall†(Volli,1998).Starbucks has known how to invest a new way of communication ,strongly centered on the communicative processes among members of its brand community and between its members and the outside world. There is no perfect in the world,with the development of society,economy and many other aspects,Starbucks also should face with some shortage and challenge.The greater standardization of the â€Å"structures†has slowly made them lose the bohemian charm which the first points of sale had, and that aroma of coffee which represented the heart of the brand community offering in Starbucks has progressively weakened. The sensory connotation which immediately hits you when you enter a Starbucks and which creates around it a relaxing atmosphere similar to that felt in a club of people who share the passion for coffee, is gradually getting weaker. But the problem is not limited to reduced olfactory involvement, if anything it involves the fact that the chain is losing its soul of the past, becoming more and more like a conventional chain and losing that atmosphere which was so dear to its founder of a small neighborhood ship, whose emotive warmth can generate particularly intense experiences. We could say that this is one of the risks which companies which have been able to build real communities around their brands find them having to face. When the brand becomes as developed as Starbucks, its audience widens and new consumers, with characters different from those of the community’s original members, take possession, thus reducing the initial followers’ feeling of belonging. Infact, belonging to a community satisfies the desire of individuals to share common aspects with other individuals and in that way express their distinctiveness from other social groups. When those very people they are trying to distinguish themselves from try to become part of the community, it is necessary to know how to manage this process by trying to preserve the symbolic consistency of the brand rather than adapting it to the new context. This is a natural process: the company does not live so as to remain in the ghetto of the niche; it is in development a growth that we find the preservation of its vital functions, but the process must be handled with extreme care, avoiding compromising the good and the unique that has been built.
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Every Child Is Special
In this world, children exist with exceptional behaviors. Their behavior is hard to accept for the society. Teachers play a very vital role in making them educated. First of all teacher should be trained to work in the  school where there are children with exceptionalities. Sometimes it becomes very hard for the teacher to react in a right manner when they teach. The students with behavioral issues needs extra of teaching and attention. The small classes would help a lot in teaching them effectively. Also there must be a room for visiting faculty to come and take extra sessions. This not only comes out to be beneficial for children but also is a help to the teachers. There could be a new technique of teaching or handling the students and could be advantageous. The visiting faculty proves out to be change for the students. The good teacher is, who emphasize on child's ability not disability. The disability must be removed but without depressing a child. A child must know about his disabilities, but he must also that he has abilities which are more in number than his disabilities. A teacher must teach with a mentality that every child has some incapacities. Teacher should help a child in bringing up his abilities and should curb the disabilities silently. Expectations should be high, because every child can achieve some position in a society according to his potential, but this needs assistance. Environment of class should be positive and  friendly. This depends on a teacher that how she maintain the environment. Because the positive environment boost the learning capabilities of a child. Also the behavior of a child depends on his surroundings. If a child feels threatened by something then it is obvious that his behavior would  change. Sometimes it become very important for a teacher to know about child's likes and dislikes. Every child has an individual goal, so from time to time teachers should keep themselves updated that how far he has progressed. The grade does not tell everything about what the child has learned so far. The emphasis on grade should be low. Teacher should know what he has learned so far or in which field is he lacking behind. This also boosts up the confidence of a child. The whole learning process makes a child tired. This not only effects their learning abilities but also distracts them. Therefore a teacher should employ proper techniques for relaxing in a class. A child with attention disorder gets mentally tired soon. There should be proper relaxing techniques like listening to soft music or playing games. Playing games not only ease a child but also keeps them healthy. The first thing a child should  learn is to take care of himself. They should be made self dependent. Taking, basic example a child must learn to tie his shoe laces. The dependent child always has a low confidence level. There must be short extra sessions to teach the students, how to take care of themselves, or how to be more organized. There should be also be sessions to prevent behavior issues. Sometimes teacher takes a child as a normal child, she does not lay stress on the behavior problems. But she does not know that the lack of attention by a teacher encourages the problem in a child. But sometimes these session proves out to be futile as students continues to misbehave, then it is necessary to know that they are misbehaving because of these sessions. Because the sessions does not fit to their needs every time, and they wait for someone who can help them in personal. In case of higher education there are many faculties who are taking a single class. The coordination between these faculties is a must so that the students does not get confused between  all the faculties. A teacher has its own style of teaching and if another teacher comes and teaches them in totally different style it becomes hard for the students to know, which one they should follow. Therefore all  the faculties teaching a particular class should know about each other teaching styles, it becomes easy for a student to learn. Teacher should make sure the behavioral improvements and achievements generalize to other situations. They should make sure that what they teach should apply in most of the real world situations. The generalized teachings proves out to be more beneficial to the students, as they come to know the particular thing  that they have learned can apply in the most of the problems. This type of teaching method proves out to be very beneficial because students can learn more things with less stress on their brains. Students should learn to socialize with other students who may or may not be disable like them. The interaction with other students should be started at the beginning of their year. Their should be learning centers that promote social interaction for these children’s. Necessary social skills should be taught in the learning centers. If the school is finding it difficult to start learning centers then skills should be taught in the lunch time or in the free period. Literature Review:- Teaching strategies for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder:– Unable to pay attention, hyperactivity, impulsive are the signs of ADHD. There are about three to five percent of the students  in United States who are suffering from ADHD ( American Psychiatric Association, 1994 ). The students suffering from ADHD fail to finish their homework and are careless. Older students with ADHD are less communicative and react spontaneously. The main symptoms are:– 1) Restlessness 2) Unable to concentrate 3) Difficulty in following instructions 4) Losing things 5) Doing little mistakes 6) Great deal of mood swings Teacher should start with evaluating the child's needs and strengths. The assessment should be done on the behavior and academic needs. After evaluating all their needs appropriate practice should be chose. The selected practice should gain the attention of the child and is appropriate to their age. It should be kept in mind that the practice that is selected should be a additional benefit to the students who do not have ADHD. After selecting all the practices they must be wrapped up in a single program. After the conclusion of each  lesson the selected practice should achieve its goal. The lessons must be presented in a different manner. Teacher should prepare the lesson and the activities planned in advance. The review of the previous lessons also proves out to be beneficial for the students. Teacher must identify all the materials needed in the classroom, because sometimes it becomes very difficult for the children to identify the materials on their own. It is very hard for the students with ADHD to change from one topic to another. Therefore revision of the previous lecture is a must. The use of audiovisual materials helps the students a lot. Describe how students can identify and correct their own mistakes. For example, remind students that they should check their calculations in math problems and reiterate how they can check their calculations; remind students of particularly difficult  spelling rules and how students can watch out for easy- to – make errors. If the teacher tries to lower the noise level in the classroom it helps a child in maintaining his focus. Teaching strategies for students with emotional behavioral disorder:- For teaching the students with EBD teacher should encourage the positive learning techniques. The objectives of the lesson should be presented before which helps in predictability. The presentation should be exciting, and if the students performs well he should be given rewards. This helps a lot in dealing with the students with EBD. The vocabulary used in the presentation should be lucid and the feedback should be given immediately. The lessons should be started with the interesting items or questions. It should be kept in mind that if a teacher wants a child to be excited about learning then teacher should be excited about teaching. While taking up the lessons students should know that they are learning and making progress. After completing, the lesson must be revised and the students should be prepared to move to next lesson. The long presentations must be cut into short presentations, so as in case of long assignments. Extra time should be given to students for completing their work. The environment of a class should be healthy. Rules and regulations should be made and teach them to act in accordance with the rules. The environment of a class should be quiet as well active. Adequate materials should be provided  to them so that they do not feel shortage of resources in between the lecture. There should be enough room for the students to move in the classroom without disturbing each other and adequate space must be provided to them for their personal belongings. The classroom rules should be less and positive. They should emphasize more on like what students must do in class. Teacher should communicate with a child in a non threatening manner and should show the personal interest in a child. This makes a child feel good and boost up his confidence level. Proper gestures and body language is very important in communication. The gesture given should be holding  longer than normal. Speaking slowly and clearly are also very important. Proper wait time should be included because some students are slow learners. Managing behavior is very important in dealing with the EBD students. Sometimes it proves out to be very beneficial to ignore the negative behaviors, because sometimes a child behaves negatively in order to grab the attention. Punishment should only be used in a case when the behavior of a child is harmful for other students. There must be a social problem technique, which effectively identifies the problems and provides the best solution for it. Anger management is the main problem with the child suffering from EBD. Anger is natural so it useful to teach anger control techniques rather anger elimination techniques. The first step in anger management is to convince a child that he should change, teaching relaxation techniques helps a lot. Teaching strategies for the students having learning disabilities:- Learning disabilities is a problem in which a child finds difficulty in organizing received information, remembering them, manipulating them. But with the effective learning strategies they can be taught effectively. The common symptoms are difficulty in learning, poor memory, difficulty in remembering facts, confusion among the basic words, spelling and reading errors, impulsive behavior etc.  ·   The course load should be low, because the course load  will make them even more poor learners.  ·  Questions should be asked in a clarifying manner, the language used must be easy to digest.  ·   The key points of the chapter must be told before the beginning of the chapter.  ·   While writing on the board verbalize what is being written, the audio and video effects in teaching boost up the learning capabilities.  ·   The environment of the class must be peaceful so that the students do not feel diverted.  ·   The assignments should be given in oral form as well as in written form.  ·   They should be given more time to complete difficult assignments.  ·   The pace of teaching should be kept in accordance with their learning abilities.  ·   Using plenty of examples in the presentation makes their understanding level high.  ·   Encourage them to borrow the classmate’s notes if required.  ·   Colored apparatus must be used for high visual recognition. Group discussion helps a lot for the students having learning disabilities, for them group discussion is fun as well as is beneficial in learning. Encourage them to ask questions during or after the lecture to make sure that they have understood completely. Teacher must pay individual attention towards every child. Frequent sessions with a  child for proper assessment should be conducted. Using large fonts make their processing fast. Give individual conferences to guide students with learning disabilities to monitor progress and understanding of the assignment and of the course content. Examples of science role models with disabilities should be given to them frequently so that they do not feel depressed. Encourage them to ask for help whenever needed. It would be wrong to assess the potential of a child on the basis of test scores. Every child has its own strength and weaknesses. Summary:- The main aim of teaching is to educate individuals who are active members in the society at it’s various levels. Teachers are very important in our society because we need them to provide our youth with the knowledge and social experiences they will need to improve their  future and the future of the entire planet. While teaching students with exceptionalities teacher should keep in mind that every child is special. Teacher should not run from  their responsibilities, they can change the life of these children’s. Every child likes different environment, so it better for a teacher to try to educate them keeping in mind their likes and dislikes. Teachers can apologies to the government to issue the policies which are in pure favor of these children’s. Like in maximum countries reservations are made for these children. The teachers should motivate the society around them to take care of these children. We should all believe that there are hopes for those children’s and we  can do something for them. These children have their own qualities like others and they can help our society uprising. No one should take it as taken for granted because this can happen to any body, what if  they got suffered with  the  same. The society will surely   turn their face around from those children. But if we all together work for them then changes can be there. Questions: 1) Did you ever felt frustrated in teaching students with exceptionalities? 2) What are the important strategies adopted by you? 3) How you will handle  the disputes between the students? 4) Any special apparatus is required for teaching them? 5) What are the methods you have implemented to provide social exposure? 6) According to you what kind of environment do you think is best suited for them? References Adelizzi, Jane U.  &  Goss, Diane B.,  (2001), Parenting  children with  learning disabilities, Greenwood Publishing  Group, ISBN: 0897897722 Dockrell, Julie, & McShane, John (1993), Children's learning difficulties: A cognitive  approach, Blackwell Publishing, ISBN: 0631170170
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Cadbury Schweppes plc
Cadbury Schweppes plc Introduction Cadbury Schweppes plc is a confectionery and non-alcoholic beverage company. The Company’s products include brands, such as such as Cadbury, Schweppes, Halls, Trident, Dr Pepper, Snapple, Trebor, Dentyne, Bubblicious and Bassett. Cadbury Schweppes operates in five segments: Britain, Ireland, Middle East and Africa (BIMA), Europe, Americas Confectionery, Asia Pacific and Americas Beverages. Americas Confectionery, BIMA and Europe produce and distribute confectionery products in their respective geographical markets. (Google Finance, 2008). The Asia Pacific segment produces and distributes confectionery and beverages products in the Asia Pacific region. Americas Beverages market, produce and distribute branded soft drinks in North America. During the year ended December 31, 2007, the Company acquired confectionery businesses in Romania (Kandia-Excelent), Japan (Sansei Foods) and Turkey (Intergum). (Google Finance, 2008) Rio Tinto plc and Rio Tinto Limited operate a s one business organization (Rio Tinto). Rio Tinto is an international mining company. The Company’s business is finding, mining and processing mineral resources. (Google Finance, 2008). Its major products are aluminum, copper, diamonds, coal, uranium, gold, industrial minerals (borax, titanium dioxide, salt, talc), and iron ore. Businesses include open pit and underground mines, mills, refineries and smelters, as well as a number of research and service facilities. On October 23, 2007, Rio Tinto acquired Alcan Inc. (Google Finance, 2008) Both companies have operations that span across national boundaries, as well as long term liabilities. This indicates that they face both exchange rate and interest rate risks. This paper is aimed at looking at the different exchange rate and interest rate risks that these companies face, the risk management policies, the instruments used in hedging these risks and the implications of these risk and risk management strategies to investors. H aving said this, the paper will now go on to discuss the different types of risks. Currency Risk Currency exposure refers to the risk of financial loss that a company suffers as a result of changes or fluctuations in interest rates. The financial loss may come as a result of changes in the value of cash flows or as a result of changes in the recorded value of assets and liabilities of the company. There are three main types of exposure that a company may face. These include (Shapiro, 2003): Translation exposure; Transaction exposure; and Economic Exposure. Translation exposure is the exposure a firm faces because of its assets and liabilities that are denominated in foreign currency. It is the exposure that is basically faced by multinational companies that have subsidiaries in many other countries. Translation exposure has no major effect on value of the firm because it affects only balance sheet and income statement items that are denominated in a foreign currency. Transac tion exposure is the exposure a firm faces as a result of its contractual obligations that are denominated in a foreign currency. It represents the exposure a company faces as a result of its contractual obligations that have already been booked but that would be settled at a future date (Shapiro, 2003). These include for example, repayment of loans denominated in overseas currencies, purchases from overseas companies and dividends
Friday, September 27, 2019
Strategic managemt internation expansion strategy Essay
Strategic managemt internation expansion strategy - Essay Example Dell Computer is headquartered in Round Rock, Texas, in the United States. The company manufactures computer components and provides service and support to individuals, businesses, educational and government organizations around the world. Dell computer has been in business for a relatively short period of time (since May of 1984) but has realized a global presence that accounts for 44% of its total revenue for the first (fiscal) quarter of 2007. (Dell, 2006) Dell's global presence includes operations in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The computer company has used its unique business model (direct model) to enter and compete in the global marketplace. Success for this company has been hard earned as Dell has had to adjust its model to accommodate market conditions in global markets it has entered. What has made Dell so successful is its focus on its direct model of customer service. According to Dell, Inc. "Dell listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services th ey trust and value. Uniquely enabled by its direct business model, Dell sells more systems globally than any computer company, placing it No. 25 on the Fortune 500. Company revenue for the past four quarters was $56.7 billion." (Dell Inc, 2006) Dell computer anticipates making changes to its business model in response to market indicators in foreign markets that may indicate that Dells' international strategies may not be working as well as anticipated. Each market, and Dell's performance in that market, will be critically analyzed. Dell plans to focus on three areas of concern to beef up its approach to market conditions. These three areas are: customer service, product leadership, and productivity and cost improvements. Dell's focus will be on "providing the broadest and highest quality product line in history" (Dell, 2007) 2. Core Competencies Dell's core competencies consist of a business model unique in the information technology industry. They use a customer direct model with a twelve day inventory on hand vs. the industry standard of 30 to 45 days of stock on hand. Dell puts great emphasis on lessons learned so as to not repeat mistakes made in the past. Dell claims its focus on its direct model and its virtually integrated organization as keys to its local and global successes. Dell has brought "customers and suppliers inside the business though the capabilities of evolving internet technology. The fundamental results were speed, efficiency, direct customer service, responsiveness to customer wishes, and a soaring stock price" (Finney, 2002). Michael Dell's core philosophies have become Dell's core philosophies. Some of these philosophies include (Finney, 2002): - Hiring Ahead of the Curve - Segmenting the CEO - Building a Company of Owners - Staying Allergic to Hierarchy - Mobilizing People Around a Singe Business Goal - Developing Products from the Customer's Viewpoint - Targeting a Customer of One - Adding Value "Beyond the Box" - Aligning Complementary Strengths for Success - Flipping the Demand/Supply Equation - Playing Judo with the Competition Dell's core compe
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Globalized Communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words
Globalized Communication - Essay Example "The racial, cultural, and linguistic mosaic of Singapore underscores the importance of language management throughout the educational system in the country. Much of the success of language management in Singapore is the result of a long-standing policy of multiracialism, multiculturalism, and multilingualism." (Pakir, 1999). English was chosen as the working language, being "neutral" because it was not the language of any of the three major ethnic groups (Malay, Chinese & Indian). The bilingual policy placed English as the official language that the whole population should know. The multilingualism of Singapore has given birth to a colloquial language mostly spoken by the English-knowing public. Known as "Singlish" (short for Singapore English), it differs from English in rhythm and intonation, stress patterns, vowel length and quality and sometimes also word order. "It is the nature of widely spoken languages to fragment into dialects, then into new languages, as Latin did into French, Italian, Spanish and others." (Mydans, 2001) The same is true with English, as more and more countries are adapting it to their own languages. "As they emerge, the world's various Englishes reflect the needs, personality and linguistic roots of their home ground." (Mydans, 2001). "Singlish is simply Singaporean slang, whereby English follows Chinese grammar and is liberally sprinkled with words from the local Chinese, Malay and Indian dialects. Take jiat gentang, which combines the Hokkien word for "eat" (fiat), with the Malay word for "potato" (gentang). Jiat gentang describes someone who speaks with a pretentious Western accent (since potatoes are considered a European food), as in "He went to Oxford to study, now he come back to Singapore, only know how to fiat gentang."" (Tan, 2002) Students are exposed to the English language at the start of their formal schooling. Lee Kwan Yew, the main architect of the bilingual education policy believes that learning a second language early on leads to higher proficiency. He declares, "Language is a key to the acquisition of knowledge. If a student is unable to understand a language, then he is unable to receive information or knowledge in that language. It is therefore crucial that a breakthrough must be made in the English language as early in life as possible." (as cited in Platt, 1982) The concern for connecting to the world in a global community while maintaining one's cultural roots and identity has given birth to the concept of English in Singapore as being "glocal". Derived from the words "global" and "local", it makes for greater awareness of intercultural and cross-cultural exchanges. It indicates that one has to be open to new ideas and yet be embedded in one's own culture. Today, the call is for citizens of all nations is to "Think globally , act locally." (Pakir,
Miniaturization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words
Miniaturization - Essay Example Advantages of miniaturization Miniaturization is very vital as it has several advantages. It requires low cost, has the ability to accommodate greater density and it is high in speed. The small electronics are very faster as the signals they transmit travel over short distances and the devices do not travel for long distances within the implemented device. Furthermore, packing of small sized devices is quite advantageous as it help reduce the cost incurred in the electronics. For instance, though four times the memory capacity, a 1-megabit DRAM chip which contains 256-kilobit DRAM is less costly as compared to a product of same space. The number of chips on a system determines the total cost of the circuit therefore, 1-megait of DRAM used reduces the probable number of memory chips in the long run reducing the prices as compared to a four 256 kilobit DRAM in use. In addition, the prices of logic devices have gone down due to the greater integration and reduction in the size of the tr ansistors. Miniaturization is also vital as it has the ability to create new markets through enabling new and advanced applications. For instance, through development of the microprocessors which is a very small component in an integrated circuit has led to expansion of markets for personal computers. The flat panel displays with the improved packaging of chips have contributed to the advancement of battery-powered computers. This has been one of the functional markets that miniaturization has created. In addition, the reduction of cellular telephones and computers into small components has led to the merging of these devices to a cordless appliance which can easily link the whole world through network. For instance, the application of miniaturization is evident in companies such as Nippon Electric Company which offers laptops that have a cellular phone. This laptop is available in Japan though countries such as America are also coming up with this technological change in miniaturiz ation. Disadvantages of miniaturization Miniaturization has several side effects that are very difficult to handle. For instance, miniaturization produces a lot of noise. The quality of image suffers the soaring loud noise which comes from miniaturization of the varied pixel sizes. Errors from the registering photons and signaling process in reading out of the CCD phase leads to the production of noise. The different pixels differ in time and due to the varied sensitivity. Thus, there is a big difference in the amount of photons that are transformed to the electrical charge. More so, photons are always changing with change in the pixels at different times. However, if the photons fail to arrive noise must be produced in the process. If the pixels reduce then reducing noise becomes more difficult. There is high amount of photons arriving if the pixel is small in size. The energized or small pixels contain small energy difference as compared to huge pixels. This has made it difficult for one to easily distinguish noise from signals. Image noise in low light is severe while signals are lower. Therefore, amplifying weak signals leads to production of noisy pictures. Increase in miniaturization leads to increase in noise which causes a lot of waste on the area of the chip. Secondly, miniaturization leads to diffraction. Diffraction in miniaturization occurs when a wave takes its way or passes near an obstacle resulting to deflection of light. The normal dispersion of light is linear and involves photons spreading out near
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Essay topic in reference to Personally Identifiable Information and
Topic in reference to Personally Identifiable Information and ethics - Essay Example This paper describes ethical issues and their relationship to the use of information technology the paper delves trends as well as impacts of the ethics of individuals and organizations Ethical actions of a person are defined as activities that are performed with a particular criterion of what is good. It thus relates to the question of what is regarded as good or bad by humans. Just like the other fields, information technology is aided by a particular code of ethics (Floridi, 2008). Privacy is an issue that has both external as well as internal implications. Keeping in mind that all organizations often collect their employee’s data, data that is not safeguarded properly can lead to various implications to an individual. Such information includes background data, compensation, and personal identification data such as account identifiers and social security numbers. This type of information is maintained as well as accessed by authorized personnel. Systems that are used in tracking sensitive information are secured, though at some point data must be used in other systems. To ensure that information is secured, operational procedures and policies are used to handle data, in case these policies and procedures are not properly enforced, they can be accessed by unauthorized personnel and can be used to commit crimes. All Employees activities as well as the use of technologies are monitored by their organizations. Thus, employees are notified that when they are using organizational assets, they should not expect any privacy; such corporate assets include network and internet access. Even without such disclaimers, there is no need to notify that they are being monitored (Mason, 2006). The major issues in monitoring of employees activities include whether organizations have obligations to notify their employees the extent of
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Literature Review Parent's Impact on Children's Physical Activity Essay
Literature Review Parent's Impact on Children's Physical Activity Levels - Essay Example But these studies have been anything but simple. The evolution of man when studied on children is an uphill task to say the least. There are many complex phenomena that are involved in it, and one should be conscious while making the same assumptions for adults that one makes for children. There were a huge number of interesting findings that lead to learn more about the way children behave in general, especially in the realm of physically activity. One would like to assume, that since there are obvious differences between children, this it would be fair to assume that they are different on some form of physical attribute as well. Eccles et al (1997) concludes that, children have more competence beliefs for physical values in so far as learning from the parents is concerned. This variation is not only of academic value, but would also end up determine possible patterns of behavior, which would in turn establish both individual as well as social behavior, that can have economic as well as political implications. Therefore, in order to form a conclusion about the ability of children to read and the differences therein, it is important to consider the biological and psychological basis of the same. In a recent study, children's development was shown to be affected by the content of the activities (Oakhill and Petrides, 2007). Therefore, an act that actually triggers their fancy, and would be of some value to their interests is likely to have them engrossed in the activity for a greater amount of time. The way children start physical development, and the differences therein are crucial to understand before an impression about their future development can be formulated. It is the difference in choice of toy that they start showing initially, from which the first signs of gender identity appear to develop. Parents' role in encouragement and support It has now been established that children from a very young age start to develop affiliation and understanding of the parents. Even when a child is of a few months, he/she starts to show sense of attachment as Piaget has been able to conclude through his work. From about 9 months onwards, children start to get appreciation of familiar figures, and their absence as potent matters of existence. This then transforms into attachment in due course, which transcends into role identification. Stewart, et al, (2003) elucidates that "physical activity interventions targeted at children should include and evaluate the efficacy of individual-level and community-level strategies to increase parents' capacity to provide instrumental and motivational support for their children's physical activity." This further is also supported by Cleland, et al, (2005) wherein it is established that parental exercise influences their children's participation in extracurricular sports. The behaviorist theory entails that a person learns every thing from its environment, and that a person is more likely to produce an act, which he has seen before. It can also be understood in the context of imitating or modeling, whereby similar acts are repeated. "Environmental influences such as parental approval and social custom shape us into wanting certain things and not wanting others" (Rathus, p. 399, 2002). In the same light, Garrett, et al (1999) purport that it is worth considering that children are nor necessarily a unanimous group; they
Monday, September 23, 2019
Current US GDP Figures and the Current State of the US Economy Research Paper
Current US GDP Figures and the Current State of the US Economy - Research Paper Example Economic system is the process of construction, distribution and consumption by specific people within a particular geographical setting. The people can be individuals, association, and businesses or government (Mankiw, 2011). With these considerations, the paper intends to illustrate the current GDP figures and the current status of the US economy. Current US GDP Figures The GDP figures in the US have witnessed a considerable fluctuation in the past decade. In the United States, the GDP figure in the year 2013 stands at 15684.80 billion US Dollars. Approximately, 25.30% of US GDP represents the world economy. The figures related to the US GDP were illustrated by World Bank Group. From 2004, the GDP figures have endeavored to attain peak position but in 2010 it came down to 13893.3 billion US Dollars from 14219.3 billion US Dollars in 2009. Then again, from 2010 onwards, it has kept on increasing, which signifies a relatively stable condition of the US industrial sector (Trading Econ omics, 2013). US GDP Source: (Trading Economics, 2013) The production of goods and services by the labor and assets located inside the United States has significantly increased to 2.5% in the 2nd quarter of 2013 as reported by Bureau of Economic Analysis. According to the 1st quarter of 2013, the GDP was 1.1% and 0.1% in 2012 Quarter 4 (Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company, 2013). The total GDP in June 2013 was estimated to be US$16.6 trillion. The US has one of the strongest and industrially advanced economies in the world. Rental, leasing, real estates, educational services, health care, professional and insurance constitute over 40% of GDP (Trading Economics, 2013). The following illustration depicts the distribution of GDP in the leading industrial sectors in the US: Government related services: 13% of GDP Transportation, utilities, warehousing and information: 10% of GDP Retail and Wholesale trade Centre: 12% Manufacturing, Mining and Construction: 17% of GDP Agriculture: 1.5% Source: (Trading Economics, 2013) The recent boost in the economy has facilitated the US in terms of ensuring more exports and fixed investment. Moreover, with the enhancement of the economic purview, there has been an augmentation in expenditure by local government and reduction in the imports along with deceleration in private firms’ investment and in personal expenditure (Sivy, 2013). US GDP % Change on a Quarterly Basis (2011 to 2013, Q2) Source: (Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company, 2013). Current State of US Economy The history related to the US economy could be viewed with reference to the influence made by the European settlements. US economy is the world’s leading and technologically advanced economy. The nominal GDP of US was reported to be US$16.9 trillion in June 2013. US economy is determined to be a mixed economy and is able to uphold overall growth in GDP. The US has huge natural resources, advanced infrastructure and high productivity. The na tion is the 2nd largest producer related to natural gas and 3rd major producer of oil as well as it is 2nd biggest trading country in the world following China. From 2010, the US has remained the world’s largest producer (The Heritage Foundation, â€Å"United States†). After recording more than three years of uninterrupted economic growth, at present The US economy has recorded less than 2.25% growth and is estimated to slow down to less than 1% in the near future (Sivy, 2013). The US with an economic freedom score of 76 remains down in 2013 index and noted its
Saturday, September 21, 2019
Different Types of Database Management System Essay Example for Free
Different Types of Database Management System Essay A database can be a set of flat files stored on computer tape or disk or it could consist of database tables that are managed by a Database Management System (DBMS). There are different types of DBMS products: relational, network and hierarchical, multidimensional, object. The most widely commonly used type of DBMS today is the Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS). Database management systems (DBMS) are designed to use one of five database structures to provide simplistic access to information stored in databases. The five database structures are: the hierarchical model, he network model, the relational model, the multidimensional model, and the object model. Inverted lists and other methods are also used. A given database management system may provide one or more of the five models. The optimal structure depends on the natural organization of the applications data, and on the applications requirements, which include transaction rate (speed), reliability, maintainability, scalability, and cost. Hierarchical Model The hierarchical data model organizes data in a tree structure. There is a hierarchy of parent and child data segments. This structure implies that a record can have repeating information, generally in the child data segments. Data in a series of records, which have a set of field values attached to it. It collects all the instances of a specific record together as a record type. These record types are the equivalent of tables in the relational model, and with the individual records being the equivalent of rows. To create links between these record types, the hierarchical model uses Parent Child Relationships. These are a 1:N mapping between record types. This is done by using trees, like set theory used in the relational model, borrowed from maths. For example, an organization might store information about an employee, such as name, employee number, department, salary. The organization might also store information about an employees children, such as name and date of birth. The employee and children data forms a hierarchy, where the employee data represents the parent segment and the children data represents the child segment. If an employee has three children, then there would be three child segments associated with one employee segment. In a hierarchical database the parent-child relationship is one to many. This restricts a child segment to having only one parent segment. Hierarchical DBMSs were popular from the late 1960s, with the introduction of IBMs Information Management System (IMS) DBMS, through the 1970s. The hierarchical structure was used in early mainframe DBMS. Records’ relationships form a treelike model. This structure is simple but nonflexible because the relationship is confined to a one-to-many relationship. IBM’s IMS system and the RDM Mobile are examples of a hierarchical database system with multiple hierarchies over the same data. RDM Mobile is a newly designed embedded database for a mobile computer system. The hierarchical structure is used primarily today for storing geographic information and file systems. Network Model The popularity of the network data model coincided with the popularity of the hierarchical data model. Some data were more naturally modeled with more than one parent per child. So, the network model permitted the modeling of many-to-many relationships in data. In 1971, the Conference on Data Systems Languages (CODASYL) formally defined the network model. The basic data modeling construct in the network model is the set construct. A set consists of an owner record type, a set name, and a member record type. A member record type can have that role in more than one set, hence the multiparent concept is supported. An owner record type can also be a member or owner in another set. The data model is a simple network, and link and intersection record types (called junction records by IDMS) may exist, as well as sets between them . Thus, the complete network of relationships is represented by several pairwise sets; in each set some (one) record type is owner (at the tail of the network arrow) and one or more record types are members (at the head of the relationship arrow). Usually, a set defines a 1:M relationship, although 1:1 is permitted. The CODASYL network model is based on mathematical set theory. The network structure consists of more complex relationships. Unlike the hierarchical structure, it can relate to many records and accesses them by following one of several paths. In other words, this structure allows for many-to-many relationships. Relational Model (RDBMS relational database management system) A database based on the relational model developed by E. F. Codd. A relational database allows the definition of data structures, storage and retrieval operations and integrity constraints. In such a database the data and relations between them are organised in tables. A table is a collection of records and each record in a table contains the same fields. Properties of Relational Tables: Values Are Atomic Each Row is Unique Column Values Are of the Same Kind The Sequence of Columns is Insignificant The Sequence of Rows is Insignificant Each Column Has a Unique Name Certain fields may be designated as keys, which means that searches for specific values of that field will use indexing to speed them up. Where fields in two different tables take values from the same set, a join operation can be performed to select related records in the two tables by matching values in those fields. Often, but not always, the fields will have the same name in both tables. For example, an orders table might contain (customer-ID, product-code) pairs and a products table might contain (product-code, price) pairs so to calculate a given customers bill you would sum the prices of all products ordered by that customer by joining on the product-code fields of the two tables. This can be extended to joining multiple tables on multiple fields. Because these relationships are only specified at retreival time, relational databases are classed as dynamic database management system. The RELATIONAL database model is based on the Relational Algebra. The relational structure is the most commonly used today. It is used by mainframe, midrange and microcomputer systems. It uses two-dimensional rows and columns to store data. The tables of records can be connected by common key values. While working for IBM, E. F. Codd designed this structure in 1970. The model is not easy for the end user to run queries with because it may require a complex combination of many tables. Multidimensional structure The multidimensional structure is similar to the relational model. The dimensions of the cube-like model have data relating to elements in each cell. This structure gives a spreadsheet-like view of data. This structure is easy to maintain because records are stored as fundamental attributes in the same way they are viewed and the structure is easy to understand. Its high performance has made it the most popular database structure when it comes to enabling online analytical processing (OLAP). Object/Relational Model Object/relational database management systems (ORDBMSs) add new object storage capabilities to the relational systems at the core of modern information systems. These new facilities integrate management of traditional fielded data, complex objects such as time-series and geospatial data and diverse binary media such as audio, video, images, and applets. By encapsulating methods with data structures, an ORDBMS server can execute comple x analytical and data manipulation operations to search and transform multimedia and other complex objects. As an evolutionary technology, the object/relational (OR) approach has inherited the robust transaction- and performance-management features of it s relational ancestor and the flexibility of its object-oriented cousin. Database designers can work with familiar tabular structures and data definition languages (DDLs) while assimilating new object-management possibi lities. Query and procedural languages and call interfaces in ORDBMSs are familiar: SQL3, vendor procedural languages, and ODBC, JDBC, and proprie tary call interfaces are all extensions of RDBMS languages and interfaces. And the leading vendors are, of course, quite well known: IBM, Inform ix, and Oracle. The object oriented structure has the ability to handle graphics, pictures, voice and text, types of data, without difficultly unlike the other database structures. This structure is popular for multimedia Web-based applications. It was designed to work with object-oriented programming languages such as Java. Object-Oriented Model Object DBMSs add database functionality to object programming languages. They bring much more than persistent storage of programming language objects. Object DBMSs extend the semantics of the C++, Smalltalk and Java object programming languages to provide full-featured database programming capability, while retaining native language compatibility. A major benefit of this approach is the unification of the application and database development into a seamless data model and language environment. As a result, applications require less code, use more natural data modeling, and code bases are easier to maintain. Object developers can write complete database applications with a modest amount of additional effort. The object-oriented database (OODB) paradigm is the combination of object-oriented programming language (OOPL) systems and persistent systems. The power of the OODB comes from the seamless treatment of both persistent data, as found in databases, and transient data, as found in executing programs. In contrast to a relational DBMS where a complex data structure must be flattened out to fit into tables or joined together from those tables to form the in-memory structure, object DBMSs have no performance overhead to store or retrieve a web or hierarchy of interrelated objects. This one-to-one mapping of object programming language objects to database objects has two benefits over other storage approaches: it provides higher performance management of objects, and it enables better management of the complex interrelationships between objects. This makes object DBMSs better suited to support applications such as financial portfolio risk analysis systems, telecommunications service applications, world wide web document structures, design and manufacturing systems, and hospital patient record systems, which have complex relationships between data.
Friday, September 20, 2019
New Zealand Rail System SWOT
New Zealand Rail System SWOT Summary This task is based on entrepreneurship and innovation. In this task im getting to explain key functions internal setting, system structure and organization culture, external environment, pestle, government policy, common law, opportunities and SWOT by using the example of the given company thats kiwi train. Introduction The New Zealand rail system grew from separate beginnings made by individual provinces or entrepreneurs from the 1860s onwards. Colonial Treasurer and later Premier Sir Julius Vogel made rail a major plank in his programme to develop the colony in 1870. By 1880 New Zealand Railways (NZR) was operating more than 1,900 kilometres of track, and carrying almost 3 million passengers and 830,000 tonnes of freight a year. The first half of the twentieth century was a golden age for rail. In 2003, Toll Holdings Limited, an Australian-based transportation and logistics operator, acquired approximately 85 percent of the shares in Trans Rail. As a result of Tolls offer for shares in Trans Rail becoming unconditional, an agreement between Toll and the Crown was triggered, a key feature of which was the buy-back of track and associated infrastructure by the Crown. The Crown undertook to invest $200 million in improving rail infrastructure while Toll undertook to invest $100 million in new rolling stock. In September 2004, ownership and management of the network and its assets was vested in the existing Railway Corporation of New Zealand which adopted the trading name, Kiwi Rail Network (ONTRACK). Under the agreement, Toll retained exclusive rights to the network for freight purposes, subject to meeting minimum tonnage levels annually. Key terms: Creativity is the capacity to grow new thoughts and to discover new techniques for taking a gander at issues and openings. For Example:- they create different trains that have very high speed Innovation is the capacity to apply imaginative answers for those issues and openings keeping in mind the end goal to improve individuals lives or to advance society (tvnz, 2016). For Example:-Â kivi train provide the gift cards Entrepreneurship is the consequence of a restrained, efficient procedure of applying inventiveness and development to requirements and openings in the commercial centre. Entrepreneurs are the individuals who wed their innovative thoughts with the deliberate activity and structure of a business. Specialists trust that business visionaries prevail by deduction and doing new things or old things in new ways. Internal environment: these are the minor factor into the companythat organizations internal environment is composed of the elements within the decisions about circumstances that occur frequently within their organization along with internal environment is composed of the elements within the organization, including current employees, management, and especially corporate culture, which defines employee behaviour (Cj0KEQiA8orFBRCEpODivaOft, 2016). Although some elements affect the organization as a whole, others affect only the manager. Strength Favourable circumstances of your association show improvement over any other individual Novel or most reduced cost assets would you be able to draw upon that others Individuals in your market see as your qualities get the deal Weakness Able to move forward It be advisable for you to maintain a strategic distance Individuals in your market prone to see as shortcomings Elements lose you deals Opportunities Changes in technology and markets on both a broad and narrow scale. Changes in government policy related to your field. Changes in social patterns, population profiles, lifestyle changes, and so on. Local events. Threats would you be able to move would it be advisable for you to maintain a strategic distance Individuals in your market prone to see as shortcomings Elements lose you deals External environment External environment refers to the major factors and forces outside the organization that have the potential to significantly affect the performance of an organization with help of pestle (transport, 2016). Political: Political factors identifies with the weights and openings brought by political establishments and to what degree the administration strategies affect the business. Government arrangements Trading arrangements Funding, awards and activities Lobbying and weight bunches Internal political issues Legal: legislation factors identifies with the laws, control and enactment that will influence the way the business works. Current enactment Future enactment International enactment Regulatory bodies and procedures Employment law Structure: the staff of kiwi train is working according to the rules and regulations. They follow all the structure because they working under legalisation. Conclusion: The New Zealand rail system grew from separate beginnings made by individual provinces or entrepreneurs from the 1860s onwards. Colonial Treasurer and later Premier Sir Julius Vogel made rail a major plank in his programme to develop the colony in 1870. New Zealand which adopted the trading name, Kiwi Rail Network (ONTRACK). Under the agreement, Toll retained exclusive rights to the network for freight purposes, subject to meeting minimum tonnage levels annually. Reference: Cj0KEQiA8orFBRCEpODivaOft. (2016, 2). Retrieved from http://www.kiwirailscenic.co.nz/?gclid=Cj0KEQiA8orFBRCEpODivaOft_EBEiQAy3mlfSAhh5KDEGUJl2BEFsxTSPH6hjNn4gZ4p2ThsVhnxrgaAmOj8P8HAQ transport. (2016, 2). Retrieved from http://www.transport.govt.nz/rail/rail-in-new-zealand/ tvnz. (2016, 2). Retrieved from https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/overseas-climate-action-encouraging-kiwi-innovation
Thursday, September 19, 2019
A Comparison of The Yellow Wallpaper and Daisy Miller -- comparison co
Society continually places specific and often restrictive standards on the female gender. While modern women have overcome many unfair prejudices, late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century women were forced to deal with a less than understanding culture. Different people had various ways of voicing their opinions concerning gender inequalities, including expressing themselves through literature. By writing a fictional story, authors like Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Henry James were given the opportunity to let readers understand and develop their own ideas on such a serious topic.        In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story The Yellow Wallpaper, the main character is a symbol for all repressed women of her time. Throughout the entire story, her name is never mentioned, alluding to the fact that the women of her era simply lacked their own personal identity. Her husband treated her as a frail and incapable being. He laughed at her fears, and disregarded her concerns as frivolous worries. She recognized this as nothing beyond the normality, and accepts it because that is what her society deems standard. When commenting that there must be something queer about a house so large and beautiful, yet rented to them at such a reasonable price, she continued â€Å"John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in a marriage†(1). John continually tells her that her illness is psychological, and encourages her to try and get more fresh air, for her own efforts will be the best for a quicker recovery. However, on the one occasion she asks him for permission to visit her Cousin Henry and Julia, he denies her so, leaving her in tears and telling her she could not handle such a trip.       ... ... the liberation of women everywhere. One can easily recognize, however, that times were not always so generous as now, and different women found their own ways of dealing with their individual situations. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s character created a twisted image of the world in her mind, and eventually became mentally insane. While most cases were not so extreme, this character was imperative in creating a realization of such a serious situation. James’ character did what most rebellious young American women would do. She broke free from cultural restrictions and lived her life as she pleased. A woman of passion, she chose to ignore the repressive attitudes of those around her. Women of today are still fighting for equality, but have authors of the past and women like the characters in their stories to thank for the improvements they made.
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
beethoven :: essays research papers
As someone who suffers from extreme hearing loss, I am amazed at the great Talent of Ludwig vans Beethoven, who as one of the greatest composers of all time wrote most of his music while he was deaf! It seems impossible, but what a genius he was. Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany on December 16, 1770. His mother died while he was a teenager and his father was very abusive and a crazy alcoholic. Beethoven came from a very musical family. His grandfather became a conductor and his father played and taught piano and violin. From a very young age, Beethoven was a perfectionist and became emotional and moody when things didn’t go well with his music. Beethoven saw his world as â€Å"all or nothing,†If something he was working on wasn’t absolutely perfect, he would feel he was a total failure. In Beethoven’s life, there wasn’t room for any compromise. He began to realize that he was losing his hearing when he was 28 and he couldn’t hear the church bells ringing. Some people have said that his terrible temper was really his frustration with his music as he became more and more deaf. Beethoven became so sad about his deafness that he considered suicide. He even wrote a suicide letter to his brother to tell him that he planned to kill himself. When he was 50, he was completely deaf. As time went on, Beethoven learned how to cope with his disability. One way Beethoven coped was in order to hear the sounds; he would cut off the legs of the piano and put it on the floor , so that he could feel the sounds in the floor as he played. Once he learned how to handle this, Beethoven began to write his greatest works. Beethoven was such a perfectionist that he would rework his musical compositions for years until they were perfect. It is incredible that during his life, Beethoven wrote nine symphonies and thirty-two piano sonatas. Because of these problems, Beethoven never had many close friends or happy relationships. The music he created showed this and was almost sad and heavy, it wasn’t full of life and fun. Beethoven loved to take walks in the country and enjoy the beauty of nature. It was nature that gave him the inspiration to write â€Å"Symphony No. 6.†One of Beethoven’s earliest and most successful works was a religious composition, named â€Å"Opus 85†, in 1803, known as the â€Å"Hallelujah†choir that we all sing on Easter Sunday.
The Tarantella Dance in A Dolls House :: A Dolls House Essays
The Tarantella Dance in A Doll's House In A Doll's House, Ibsen uses many symbols. One symbol that is used to symbolize Nora's character; is a dance called the Tarantella. The Tarantella is a folk dance from southern Italy. It goes from an already quick tempo to an even quicker one, while alternating between major and minor keys. It is characterized by swift movements, foot tapping, and on the women's part, exaggerated ruffling of petticoats. It involves a lot of very fast spinning and jumping until one cannot dance anymore and is so exhausted they fall to the ground. It is in constant uncertainty, like Nora's character. The tarantella has a very interesting history. Its name derives from a little southern town of Italy called Taranto. It was believed that if a spider called the tarantula bit the townspeople, the only way to survive its bite was to do a dance called the Tarantella. The locals believed this was the only cure. If the people bitten did not dance they would suffer severe pain, muscle spasms, vomiting; most eventually died. There were not any drugs that could counteract the venom. Many believed that the sweating associated with the dance flushed the venom from the dancer's bodies. They would continue dancing for hours and even days. It was so common that musicians patrolled the fields where most of the bites took place in expectation of being hired to play for the injured. Just as the dancer is trying to get rid of the venom, Nora was trying to rid herself of the deadly outside poison. The tarantella serves as her last chance to be Torvald's doll, to dance and amuse him. "HELMER: But, my dear Nora, you look so worn out. Have you been practising too much?" "NORA: No, I have not practised at all." "HELMER: But you will need to -" "NORA: Yes, indeed I shall, Torvald.
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Brighton Rock and Sherlock Holmes: A Comparison Essay
In this assignment I will be looking at the differences in writing style between Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock and Arthur Conan-Doyle’s The Man With The Twisted Lip. The style of writing is the main difference that I see between the stories of Greene and Conan Doyle, and not in the plot; partly this is due to the half a century or so time difference between the pieces, Conan Doyle’s, I guess in around 1890 (due to the date given at the start of The Man With The Twisted Lip, â€Å"it was in June ’89†) and Greene’s written in 1938, although partly it is due to the different intentions of the authors. The works of Conan Doyle were mainly popular, short stories written for a Victorian middle-class monthly periodical, â€Å"The Strand†written between 1887 and 1927, although most were written by 1903. Because of this, the structures on all levels, from plot to sentence, are simple, chronological and in the first person. Examples of this are â€Å"Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D. D. , Principal of the Theological College of St. George’s, was much addicted to opium. †This is a simple statement to open the story with. It introduces a character, actually two, gives a little background information and tells us the point of the sentence, and the story (or so the reader thinks) at the end of the sentence in â€Å"was much addicted to opium†. The plot generally gives no depth to the characters and is a one-track plot due to the story being written in the first person and following the activities of one man. All of this is in striking contrast to Brighton Rock. In the first part of the novel there are three chapters. Greene’s work is not in the first person but the third. This enables Greene to follow a multi-track plot, taking in the actions of three characters; chapter one begins with ‘Hale knew, before he had been in Brighton three hours, that they meant to murder him. ‘ This shows Hale as the focus of the first chapter. Chapter two begins with, ‘The boy paid his threepence and went through the turnstile. ‘ Focussing attention on to ‘the boy’ or Pinkie. And chapter three begins with, ‘Ida Arnold broke her way across the Strand’. Furthermore, where Conan Doyle is very sparing on his description, Greene lavishes in it: ‘trams rocking down to the aquarium, they surged like some natural and irrational migration of insects up and down the front. ‘ Whereas Conan Doyle, writing as Dr. Watson, keeps it to the respectability of the place and its genteelness, much more important to a middle class Victorian than a clever simile, for example, ‘Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley†¦ ‘ the effect of this is to give the reader an impression of what the alley looks like in their minds, instead of the precise detail Greene employs, it is often cinematic. He did not have to produce a script for the film version, as Brighton Rock reads more like one. One would not expect to find an author looking to join the ranks of world literature simply writing ‘potboiler’ short stories for bourgeoisie light entertainment magazines. In contrast, Brighton Rock is much more complex. It is classed as a modern classic, and therefore does not follow the simple lines of popular, mass produced fiction. Instead, its chapters are presented as from each of the character’s points of view making the plot non-chronological, as some events happen simultaneously but at different pages of the book. For example, the death of Hale and Ida searching for him occur at the same time but at different stages of the book. This adds a more complex level to the narrative. Brighton Rock is written nominally in the third person, as it still only follows each character’s movements in turn but the Sherlock Holmes stories are always in the first person, as Dr. Watson, which gives the reader a definite sense of place in the story but has its limitations. For example, all events must take place while Dr. Watson is present, or they must be recounted to him by another character. In contrast, Greene can make the reader everywhere at once and it allows him to use the cinematic detail in his description that gives his locations the depth and quality that Conan Doyle’s does not due to his use of the first person. This is because if Conan Doyle were to use such complex description and metaphor in his description as Dr. Watson or in the speech of another character, it would make them sound like they had verbal diarrhoea. Greene’s talent, I feel, lies in his ability to use such gushing torrents of description and manage not to bore or alienate his reader, rather he involves them further in the scene. Conan Doyle, as I have said, achieves this in a different way, not through lengthening his description but by the simple act of using the first person to write his stories: he makes the reader Dr. Watson. Another dimension to the description in Brighton Rock is that Greene is biased against more or less everything. The squalor of the Steyne in, ‘The shabby secret behind the bright corsage, the deformed breast. ‘ Words such as ‘shabby’ and ‘deformed’ give the impression to the reader of poverty and mutation, the two going hand in hand. These are things, especially mutation, which society abhors. By using these adjectives, Greene tries to make the reader hate the place as well. Also, in that passage, ‘deformed breast’ is an interesting contrast of words. The breast is usually regarded as being an artistic, beautiful and motherly object of adoration, but by making it deformed, in the reader’s eye Greene is defiling a beautiful object, making the impact greater. In The Man With the Twisted Lip Conan Doyle, by contrast, uses only simple atmospheric description and practical description (the naming of routes street by street, obviously made using a map of London, an unusual feature). An example of this simple description is found at ‘I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows were thick with ice crystals. ‘ In this quotation two things are explored: the fire and the window. The description is atmospheric because it uses the contrasting words ‘frost’ and ‘warmed’, one being cold, the other hot. The effect on the reader is that they immediately imagine the atmosphere of warmness inside but bitterly cold outside that we all know. The simple description has therefore set up an atmosphere; it is atmospheric. In The Man With The Twisted Lip Conan Doyle does use one unusual device to add depth to his writing: a ruse in the plot at the very beginning to throw the reader off what the true plot is. That ruse is the disappearance of Isa Whitney. Conan Doyle does this to open the story in a mundane way, but surprise the reader with the eventual outcome: the disappearance of Neville St. Clair. Or perhaps Conan Doyle just got sick of the Whitney plot half way through writing. Who knows!? Other than this Conan Doyle sticks to the usual crime story plot: the missing/dead person or thing, the impossible clue, the amazing detective and the twist in the solving of it all. Greene does the same in his plot structure, although with much more focus on the characters in turn, especially on mentality of the criminal Pinkie. Greene tries almost to explain why Pinkie is so evil with the recounting of his scarred childhood (the ‘weekly exercise’), resulting in his misogyny (? ), Catholic godfearing and sadism. Also, Ida Arnold is the ‘detective’ in Brighton Rock, although she is not intelligent or brilliant, just a whore sentimental to Hale’s memory as Greene portrays her. In fact, Greene grudgingly makes Ida the heroine and the force of good, even though the traditional good of Godliness is the real enemy in the book. Ida is a weird choice for a heroine. She personifies every human sin. She is a puritan’s nightmare, as shown in, ‘Death shocked her, life was more important. She wasn’t religious. She didn’t believe in heaven and hell, only in ghosts†¦ ‘ and her ultimate anti-religious statement, ‘to her death was the end of everything. At one with the One – it didn’t mean a thing besides a glass of Guinness on a sunny day. ‘ In all, Greene’s story is one of ‘good’ as the here and now, however demonic and hedonistic, triumphing over evil the eternal whereas Conan Doyle has no such moral depth to his story, just an impossible clue. Brighton Rock is unusual in this way. Greene is writing a crime story, usually the realm of light entertainment (popular fiction) but here, he transforms the whole novel with the psychoanalysis of Pinkie and the subtext of religion, damnation and salvation. Greene sums this up in the phrase that Pinkie comforts himself with, ‘between the stirrup and the ground he mercy sought and mercy found’. Through this quotation Greene explores the hypocrisy of religion and the way the all-forgiving belief enables people to sin and expect God to forgive. The psychosis of Pinkie is explored hand in hand with his love/hate relationship with the idea of Christianity, best shown in Pinkie’s treatment of the doll; ‘holding the Mother of God by the hair’ and ‘His fingers pulled absent mindedly at the doll’s hair’. The simile of the Mother of God being held by the hair reveals Pinkie as the ultimate misogynist; the one woman, as a Catholic and a Christian, he should revere he is holding by the hair.
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