Analysis of Oedipus Rex Essay - 890 Words

Oedipus did not have a fair start in life. His father, Laius, heard prophecy that Oedipus would one day kill his father and sleep with his mother. In order to prevent this, Laius gave Oedipus to a shepherd to be killed. Fortunately, through a string of events, Oedipuss life was saved, and he even went on to become the honored king of Thebes. Despite this feat, Oedipus still managed to make several decisions that ultimately fulfilled the original prophecy told to Laius, and inevitably sealed Oedipus?s fate. In order to escape the prophecy that he would kill his father and sleep with his mother, Oedipus thought it best to leave Corinth. What Oedipus did not know is that the parents he was leaving were not his biological parents.†¦show more content†¦Thebans sought Oedipus, their King, to find the cause of the plague and to resolve it. It is revealed to Creon by an oracle at Delphi that the plague was due to the unpunished murder of King Laius. Creon, Oedipus?s brother-i n-law, relayed this information. Oedipus, being the dutiful king that he was, sought the prophet Teiresias on the premise that the prophet could explain the cause of the plague. Sadly, Oedipus did not realize that by calling for this prophet would, in turn, reveal a dark secret that would eventually lead to the ruin of Oedipus. Teirsias proclaims,? I say you are the murderer of the king whose murderer you seek.? (1009). The proclamation, along with a suggestion of incest on Oedipus?s part, Oedipus failed to understand. This was the prophets attempt to explain to Oedipus that he, Oedipus, had killed King Laius. Oedipus still does not realize that the man and servants he encountered that day at the crossroads was King Laius. This set of events is another example of how a decision made by Oedipus contributed to his downfall. Oedipus believed Teiresias was making the accusation because he was bribed by Creon. Jocasta attempts to calm Oedipus as well, citing that oracles are nonse nse. She tells of an example where an oracle prophesied to her that her first born son would one day murder his father and sleep with her, Jocasta. Believing that prophecy ridiculous, Oedipus decides not to heedShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Oedipus Rex 1705 Words   |  7 PagesIn the play Oedipus Rex, Oedipus unknowingly murders his father and marries his mother. When Oedipus discovers this he is disgusted with himself and decides to go into exile. The Misanthrope is a play about the self-exile of the main character Alceste. Challenged in court, he refuses to take back the criticism of a sonnet written by a powerful nobleman. Alceste and Oedipus are both convicted by their knowledge of the truth. Although, the United States grants asylum to more refuges than any otherRead MoreAn Analysis Of The Of Oedipus And Oedipus Rex Essay1229 Words   |  5 PagesCreon Rex Ambition is a unique trait that allows the human race to either accomplish great things or fall into a web of greed and malice. Throughout the framework of history, humans have willingly paid a price to obtain power, glory, and wealth. The price for this achievement could include the loss of friends, family, monetary goods, and social status. The story of Oedipus Rex is no exception. A man, seemingly through no fault or causation of his own, rises to power then suffers a great fall atRead MoreOedipus Rex Analysis904 Words   |  4 PagesOedipus Rex is one of the many plays that exemplifies Aristotle’s principle of tragedy, where the plot revolves around the hero’s progression towards his own demise. In this story, the titular character was subject to a horrendous fate where he murders his own biological father-King Laius- and marries his own mother, which he eventually unearths this truth when it became his duty as the new king to find the murderer of the previous R uler. Throughout the play, we begin to see that Oedipus intendsRead MoreAnalysis Of Oedipus Rex1024 Words   |  5 Pages In the play â€Å"Oedipus Rex† by Sophocles, the story revolves around the central theme of prophecy, and forces the reader to seriously consider the extent to which the protagonist’s doom is dependent upon his own free will or is predetermined by fate. In the story, Oedipus was not a victim of only his actions or only his fate, but his actions and fatal flaws did affect the path that he took to his demise, through his pride/ignorance/temper, his unquenchable thirst for knowledge, and his cowardiceRead MoreAnalysis Of Oedipus Rex 2527 Words   |  11 PagesAri Victor Honors English 28 July, 2015 Summer Reading Oedipus Rex 1. The people of Thebes are suffering from a god attacking their city. 2. The Priest asks Oedipus to save Thebes and the people living there. 3. The Thebans plead Oedipus for his help because 1) they think that Oedipus has help from the gods, and 2) they know that he already saved their town before, so he can save it again. 4. Oedipus has already taken the step of sending Creon to Apollo’s temple to ask how to save the city. 5. TheRead MoreAnalysis : Oedipus Rex 2007 Words   |  9 Pagessupposedly perfect, it only makes sense as to why a man gifted a beaten gold mask has flawlessly proportioned features. Individuals seemingly must have worshipped and blindly obeyed his every whim like the Chorus in Sophocles’, Oedipus Rex, followed their false god, Oedipus. That theory can even furthermore be confirmed, considering this artwork comes after the life of this man occurred, his death not sufficient in ceasing the infatuation many held. Beaten gold, a material that continues to possessRead MoreAnalysis Of Oedipus Rex Bliss 944 Words   |  4 PagesMr. Myles May 3, 2010 Oedipus Rex - Bliss in Ignorance One of the most memorable and meaningful Socratic quotes applies well when in context of Sophocles Theban Trilogy. The unexamined life is not worth living, proclaims Socrates. He could have meant many things by this statement, and in relation to the play, the meaning is found to be even more complex. Indeed, the situation of Oedipus, king of Thebes, the truth of this statement is in question. Would Oedipus have been better offRead MoreCharacter Analysis Of Oedipus Rex943 Words   |  4 Pagessolved as the people of Thebes suffer. In Sophocles’ Greek tragedy, Oedipus Rex, Thebes is being punished by the gods for a crime committed far in the past. The city of Thebes is cursed with a plague until the murderer of Laius is discovered and banished from the land. As Creon and Oedipus work to save Thebes, their different qualities show who is a better fit to be king. Oedipus saved Thebes once from the sphinx; however, Oedipus’ qualities of being arrogant, intense , and stubborn cause him to foilRead MoreOedipus Rex Character Analysis994 Words   |  4 PagesGuilty Woman Within the drama Oedipus Rex, Iocastà ª becomes a central figure of the controversy surrounding the arising destruction of Thebes. The kingdom of Thebes has become the victim of a sickness causing the death of crops, animals and people. The King Oedipus has sent his brother-in-law to the Oracle of Delphi to discover the problem that is plaguing the kingdom. The Oracle reveals that in order for the plague to end, the murder of the previous king must be found and killed. In the hunt ofRead MoreLiterary Analysis : The Kite Runner And Oedipus Rex1292 Words   |  6 PagesThe Kite Runner Oedipus Rex: Literary Analysis Essay Although The Kite Runner and Oedipus Rex differ from the style in which they were written and by the authors who wrote them what they do share are common themes. Both the play and the book share two major subject matters. Guilt is one theme that is seen constantly between Amir dealing with it in The Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini and Oedipus and Jocasta’s struggle with it in Oedipus Rex written by Sophocles. Another theme found in both

Trifles, A One Demonstration Play By Susan Glaspell

â€Å"Man is the highest of creatures. The woman is the most sublime of ideals. God made for man a throne for the woman an altar. The throne exalts, the altar sanctifies. Man is the brain. The woman is the heart. The brain produces the light, the heart produces the Love. Fruitful Light, Love resurrects. The man is strong by reason. The woman is invincible by tears,† (Hugo Victor). Trifles, a one demonstration play composed by Susan Glaspell, a feminist, born in Davenport, Iowa, in 1876, she â€Å"graduated at Drake University in Des Moines in June of 1899†, (Ozieblo, Barbara) and then she worked as a correspondent for the Des Moines Daily New. In 1901 she concentrated her time to write the books after quitted her job as reporter. She defied society s desires, as a woman, she opposed to latently her view to the society about the abusive treatment of women. â€Å"Trifles† is a composed play around a homicide and all the more, it is the story about the violence and the abuses against women in the 1900s. Throughout the play, three main themes have been revealed; the repression of married women, the emotional pain of a woman in the society, and the revolt of the women. The first theme Susan Glaspell exposes is the repression of women. Since the very beginning, women have been looked downward on by men. They have been viewed as people without power to defend themselves and even a type of proper. They have been hurt and physically and emotionally abused by men. Women in mid 1900 have struggledShow MoreRelatedCritical Analysis Of Trifles By Susan Glaspell1016 Words   |  5 PagesPerspective: Readers Response Criticism to â€Å"Trifles† by Susan Glaspell The play written by Susan Glaspell in 1916 is based on the murder of John Wright where the prime suspect is his spouse; Minnie Foster. â€Å"Trifles† is fixated on the investigation of the social division realized by the strict gender roles that enable the two men and women to have contending points of view on practically every issue. This is found in the way the men view the kitchen as they consider it as not having anything of significantRead MoreThe Deception of Trifles: Gender Roles in the Play by Glaspell1550 Words   |  7 Pageswith their minds about issues outside of the kitchen or home. In the play Trifles, written by Susan Glaspell, the writer portrays how women in earlier years have no rights and men treat women like dirt. Trifles is based on real life events of a murder that Susan Glaspell covered during her work as a newspaper reporter in Des Moines and the play is based off of Susan Glaspell’s earlier writing, â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers†. The pla y is about a wife of a farmer that appears to be cold and filled with silenceRead MoreGlaspell s Trifles And The Invisibility Of Women1490 Words   |  6 PagesGlaspell’s Trifles and the Invisibility of Women Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles and Henrik Ibsen s A Doll s House are plays that explore a number of important features of femininity and life as a woman. Trifles explores a number of thematic ideas surrounding a woman’s place and her propensity for violence. The Author explores a thematic idea that centers on the proper dispensation of justice: Glaspell critically investigates the question of whether an individual can truly receive justice from

Discussion Topic about Personal Insurance Free Essays

Permanent life insurance is similar to term except they do not expire and they include a death benefit with a savings portion in the policy. The policy will build cash value as the owner pays premium fees over time. There are two types of permanent life insurance and those are Whole and Universal life policies. We will write a custom essay sample on Discussion Topic about Personal Insurance or any similar topic only for you Order Now It takes time for cash value to accumulate but when it does the insurer is entitled to living benefits as needed. Dividends are a type of living benefit. They are invested portions of money that has gained value over the years. You can now get money for this in the form of checks or one lump sum to take care of yourself in the event of terminal illness or other unforeseen circumstances. Dividends are a return on premiums therefore are considered passive income and will not be taxed. They can also be used to purchase additional coverage without proving insurability in most policies. The nonforfeiture benefits are basically a type of insurance on your insurance. In the event that you cancel your policy or it lapses after being in affect for so long, you get something back. You do pay for the service when you open the policy. It is an option but without it, if you have hard times and cancel or lapsed, you would get nothing. With this option you can also still get lowered benefits with some policies. The settlement options are basically how your policy will pay the benefits. This can be installments or in a lump sum. There is also an option to pay interest over time. Some settlement options will allow the insurer to hold the proceeds and pay the beneficiary interest until death. All of these living benefit options are important. Insurance is a cushion to those still living because it creates a reliable plan for those that will be responsible for the final arrangements. Works Cited: Dearborn Financial Publishing. Principles of Retirement Planning; Chicago: Random, 1999 How to cite Discussion Topic about Personal Insurance, Papers

BusinesEthics_FTAA Essay Example For Students

BusinesEthics_FTAA Essay OPEN STATEMENTMethanex Corp v. State of CaliforniaMethanex Corporation, a Vancouver-based company, is the world largest supplier of methanol. The company has argued to NAFTA trade tribunal that California ban on methanol gasoline additive is illegal under NAFTA rules. Therefore, Methanex is asking NAFTA tribunal to award the company $970 million in compensation for their potential lost market investment. Metalclad v. San Luis PotosIn January 1997, Metalclad Corporation filed a law suit under NAFTA arguing that the Mexican state of San Luis Potos violated NAFTA rules when it refused to grant a permit to Metalclad to open its waste disposal plant. The company had acquired the facility, which had a history of contaminating local underground reservoir with the obligation that it would clean up the existing contamination. However, after the state of San Luis Potos completed a study of the area it concluded, the site lie atop an ecologically sensitive underground stream, the Governor refus ed to allow Metalclad to reopen the facility. The company claims that this action was effectively an expropriation and won $16.7 million in damages. (www.Globalexchange.org) When nations become members of an economy bloc, they are in reality giving up on their sovereignty, which is the right to protect their community and citizens. Therefore, it is extremely important that political leaders take in consideration the need to balance economical decisions with environmental and citizens rights. I.INTRODUCTIONThe fast pace of globalization is creating serious issues and questions for many developing countries to deal with, such as should they join a free trade bloc or not? What will they gain by being a member and what will they lose? Since the creation of the European Union, first formed by 15 Western European countries and most recently expanded to 10 additional European nations, have influenced many countries around the world to follow the European example and worked together in orde r to expand their marketplace and increase economical and political power. NAFTA, Mercosul, CAFTA, CARICOM, and CAN are good examples of such economic blocs. The North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is formed by United States, Canada, and Mexico. Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Brazil form Mercosul, the South America Common Market. The Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is formed by El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama, and Costa Rica. The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is formed by the 20 Caribbean nations. Finally the Andean Community (CAN) formed by Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Peru. The latest of these economic blocs is the proposed implementation of the FTAA by December 31, 2005, which will be the worlds largest economic bloc. The FTAA is planned to include all 34 countries on the North and South America continents, except for Cuba. In contrast to the European Union, in which the majority of its initial member countries had highly developed economies with the exception two or three countries, the majority of the FTAA country members are third world countries except for the United States and Canada. The main problem behind the FTAA is how secretively and quickly the whole process is being developed and scheduled to be implemented. It took a couple of decades for the European Union to become a reality. The FTAA timetable is supposed to be implemented in less than 10 years. The implementation of the FTAA will have some benefits to those small economies in South American, Central America, and Caribbean nations, which are desperate to reach the NAFTA market. However , to countries like Brazil, which have a larger industrial park and compete directly with U.S., Canada, and Mexico, the implementation can cause serious problems to its country economy. BACKGROUNDGlobalizationTransnational CorporationsIn the early 1900s, as corporations became larger and their home marketplaces and resources became saturated, companies started searching for new money-making strategies in new locations. Corporations such as Coca-Cola, Ford, McDonalds, Gillette, GM, Mitsubishi, and many others looked for different markets outside their countrys borders in order to increase their profitability. These kinds of corporations are called transnational corporations, and they have tremendous power and influence on the worlds economy. As pointed out by the nonprofit organization CorpWatch Holding Corporations Accountable (http://www.corpwatch.org/), the 300 largest transnational corporations in the world control one quarter of the whole worlds productive assets, which is worth US

How to Use Scroll Triggered Pop-Ups on Your WordPress Site

Pop-ups can be an excellent way to increase conversions on your website. However, they arent tools to be used excessively, or you risk annoying your visitors. To avoid that, you can improve their effectiveness by using scroll triggered pop-ups.If youve ever scrolled to a certain point on a web page and suddenly been presented with a targeted message, youve experienced scroll triggered pop-ups firsthand. This technique enables you to offer exactly what a visitor needs or wants to see, right at the moment when its most relevant.In this post, well explain how scroll triggered pop-ups work, and discuss the situations where they come in handy. Well also offer some solutions for adding them to your WordPress site. Lets get started! These pop-ups enable you to customize your message to harmonize with the visitors experience. For example, you could set a pop-up to appear with a purchase button when a visitor scrolls to a specific product section, or offer a blog reader related posts to brows e.Well discuss these use cases and more below. Before moving on, however, its worth noting that too many pop-ups can be annoying to visitors, and if theyre intrusive, you can be penalized by search engines. With pop-ups, less is more!How to use scroll triggered pop-ups to increase conversions (four methods)For scroll triggered pop-ups to be effective, its vital they convey the most important information at precisely the right time. Here are four strategies for using scroll triggered pop-ups effectively.1. Provide a targeted call-to-actionA Call To Action (CTA) is an element on your site that prompts visitors to do something specific. This could be purchasing a product or service, signing up for a membership, or simply clicking through to a specific piece of content.Scroll triggered pop-ups can help make your CTAs more effective because they can present them at the moment when a visitor is in the best position to make a decision. Instead of merely having a purchase button on your pag e, you can use a scroll triggered pop-up to display it when someone views a product or finishes reading its description. This is a powerful way to use your knowledge of what the user is doing to affect their decision-making.2. Build an email listEmail marketing is a smart tactic for just about any type of website. Through targeted emails, you can attract more traffic to your site, increase conversions, and more. Before you can create awesome email campaigns, however, youll need a list of people to send your messages to. Fortunately, your website is a powerful tool for building an email list.Again, scroll triggered pop-ups can help you with this task. You can encourage subscriptions to your email list by presenting a sign-up form at key times – such as when a visitor finishes reading a piece of content, or scrolls to information relevant to your latest email campaign.3. Funnel visitors to your contact pageThere are a lot of scenarios in which you want your visitors to contact you. They may wish to ask questions, get support, make a purchase, or even collaborate. You can (and should) add a link to your contact information in a prominent place on each page. However, you can make it even more effective by creating targeted reminders.This process requires thinking like a user and predicting the moments when theyll want contact details. For example, you can use scroll triggered pop-ups to remind people to contact you when they reach the end of a page, when they scroll to a particularly complex or potentially confusing section, and so on.4. Present related posts to encourage engagementThe longer your website visitors stick around, the more of your content and branding theyll see. Most people leave a new site very quickly – but if you can grab their attention, youll increase the chances of them remembering you and taking action (by purchasing your products or sharing your content, for example).Pop-ups can be used in a number of ways to promote engagement . One smart strategy is to present more content for the user to peruse. Using scroll triggered pop-ups, you can display links to related posts or other content right when a visitor has finished a page or section. In turn, this will encourage the visitor to keep reading.Choosing the right scroll triggered pop-up pluginAt this point, you may be wondering how to actually implement the above techniques. While WordPress doesnt provide the functionality required by default, you can add it easily using plugins.There are a lot of pop-up plugins, but youll want to look for one that specifically offers a scroll triggered feature. Youll also want to check out how customizable the triggers are. The more control you have over exactly when your pop-ups appear, the better your results should be.Here are a few plugins that can get the job done:Popups by OptinMonster: This handy plugin lets you create email opt-in forms and insert them into scroll triggered pop-ups. Plus, you get a lot of options fo r customizing their location and timing, as well as optimization tools like A/B testing. The only thing to consider is that to get those extra features, you pay a monthly fee.Boxzilla: A simple, lightweight plugin, Boxilla lets you create customizable pop-ups that can appear at any trigger point. You can decide where on the page the pop-up will display, and personalize its style. Best of all, the plugin supports scroll trigger targeting for free.Popups: Both flexible and easy to use, this plugin enables you to add scroll triggered pop-ups with links and offers a lot of customization in terms of appearance. Like Boxzilla, the scroll trigger targeting is available in the free version.Popup Makers  Scroll Triggered Popups extension:  Using this paid add-on, you can trigger your CTA pop-ups to display in response to the user scrolling past any element on the page. You can add whatever content you like to your pop-ups, and even set them to close when the user scrolls back up.Wed reco mmend trying out a few of the above options, to see which best matches your needs and style. While each plugin has its particular advantages, all of them should be able to perform the four techniques we described earlier.ConclusionWhen used carelessly, pop-ups can be a nuisance to your visitors. However, using them intelligently and in a targeted manner has exactly the opposite effect. Using scroll triggered pop-ups, you can present the important information, resources, and next steps your audience needs to see – right at the moment theyll be most receptive.To recap, here are four excellent ways you can use this type of pop-up on your website:Provide a targeted call-to-action.Build an email list.Funnel visitors to your contact page.Present related posts to encourage engagement.Do you have any questions about scroll triggered pop-ups, or how to use them effectively? Let us know in the comments section below! How to properly use scroll triggered #popups on your #WordPress site

Education Theories Designing Goals

Education Theories Designing Goals Introduction For effective learning to take place, it is important for the teacher to carefully draw clear and concrete learning goals. With the goals at hand, the teacher can then look for materials that will help him or her to achieve the stated learning goals (Blackburn, 2007). Later on, it is important for the teacher to evaluate the outcomes that emanate from the process of learning.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Education Theories: Designing Goals specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The unit of instruction for this study is, human sexuality, meant for children aged between 12 to 13 years. It is a very interesting and exciting topic to children in this age group. At these ages, the children are now entering into adolescence. They may have a lot of questions on human sexuality that might be shy to ask. Some parents or guardians may be unwilling to discuss this subject with them. There may be a lot of phys ical and emotional changes that are taking place in their bodies. The teacher should be aware of the changes happening in the children before he comes up with a set of learning goals for this topic. To effectively teach human sexuality to children aged between 12 and 13 years, a set of learning goals are essential to help the teacher effectively deliver this topic. The learning goals should be geared towards understanding the body changes, sexual urges, and improving communication skills in the children. In each of the goals, the teacher should aim at creating awareness to the students through giving explanations with the use of illustrations and interpreting the concepts so as to deepen their meanings (Wiggins McTighe, 2005). In some cases, it is important to offer some insightful points. Tactful methods can be applied to help the students identify their ignorance in some of the obvious issues relating to human sexuality. Despite human sexuality being an interesting and exciting to pic to students, it is also a very sensitive topic. The teacher should be able to draw the students’ view points and approach the topic from the entry behavior of the students. This will enable him or her narrow the scope of what to cover in this area. Understanding the body changes of the students The teacher’s objective here is to make the students aware that there are changes that take place when they reach the ages of 12 and 13 years. The teacher will clearly explain to the students these body changes. It is important for the teacher to use illustrations where applicable to make the students better understand the topic.Advertising Looking for research paper on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More For example, the teacher may deepen the voice to demonstrate one of the physical changes expected to happen in boys. The teacher may draw a boy with beards. Students should be able to identify the bod y changes that take place in boys and girls. It is important also for the teacher to interpret and elaborate the meanings of new terminologies in the topic. For instance, some students may be hearing the term, â€Å"Menstrual cycle† for the first time. The students should also know how to cope with those changes and understand that they are normal. Some of the changes that take place may affect the children emotionally. They might also lower the self esteem of the students. The girls may feel shy because of their developing breasts. The boys may feel shy too when their faces are full of pimples. When girls experience the menstrual cycle for the first time, they probably do not know how to deal with it. It is therefore good for the teacher to offer them emotional support or empathy. Improving communication skills To counter the emotional effects that come about because of body changes, it is important that the children know who to communicate with. The students should be made aware that they should talk to their parents, guardians, teachers or respected adult persons of choice for instance, relatives. Children should be encouraged to share or ask the questions that they may have. Group activities and especially outdoor activities should be used to encourage communication with their peers. Sexual urges One of the objectives here is to make the students aware that they may get attracted to members of the opposite sex. The teacher should therefore explain to students that it is normal for them to be attracted to members of the opposite sex and it is healthy. However, he or she should caution them on engaging on premarital sex. The students should be able to identify the dangers associated with premarital sex like unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. The students should be able to identify the various sexually transmitted diseases and know their signs and symptoms.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Educatio n Theories: Designing Goals specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Learning outcomes The teacher should then come up with a list of learning outcomes to ensure that the goals have been met. One of the outcomes is that the teacher should expect is that students should be able to remember what was covered in the human sexuality study. Various methods can be used to test the students’ understanding of the concepts. The teacher may test for these outcomes by asking the students some questions like, â€Å"What are some of the body changes that a boy is likely to experience at the age of 13 years?† A teacher may also ask, â€Å"What are some of the dangers associated with premarital sex?† Another learning outcome that the teacher should look forward to is whether the topic was well understood by all his or her students. The teacher can know this by use of comparative questions. This will require that the students compare two things. For example, a teacher may ask the students to compare the signs and symptoms of two sexually transmitted diseases. The teacher may also ask the students to compare the body changes found in boys with those that are found in girls. The teacher should find out if the students are able to apply what they learned in the topic of human sexuality. The teacher may ask the students to outline some of the body changes they have seen in their peers. The teacher may ask the students to write an essay on an issue relating to human sexuality. He or she may ask the students to write essays on the impacts of teenage pregnancies. With use of a group question asking the students to discuss, the teacher can know if the students are able be able to analyze human sexuality. The teacher may ask the students to discuss HIV and AIDS as one of the dangers of engaging in premarital sex. The students should be trained on how to be responsible and avoid behaviors that would make them get infected with sexua lly transmitted diseases (Bolin, 2009). A teacher may give a motion in class asking students to debate on relationships between girls and boys. This way the teacher would encourage communication skills among the students. The teacher may also encourage the students to ask any questions that they may have regarding sexuality.Advertising Looking for research paper on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More With this, the teacher may be able to evaluate the wrong perceptions on human sexuality that the students may have and correct them. Conclusion For effective delivery of any given topic, good learning goals should be designed. To assess the effectiveness of the learning goals, the learning outcomes must also be generated. References Blackburn, B. (2007). Classroom Instructions from A to Z : How to Promote Student Learning. New Jersey, USA: Eye on Education. Bolin, A., Whelehan, P. (2009) Human Sexuality, Biological Psychological and Cultural Perspectives.New York, NY, USA: Taylor Francis. Wiggins, G., McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.

Expensive college tuition worth it Research Paper

Expensive college tuition worth it - Research Paper Example However, the increasing cost of education makes it difficult for a large majority of people to pursue their higher education in better universities and colleges. This paper will evaluate the American scenario of college education focusing the students as audience while analyzing the actual situations to prove whether the rising tuition fee actually add value to the higher education outcome in the country. Education at a higher level is surely meant for a rewarding purpose; therefore it incurs cost at a reasonable proportion. The term tuition fee refers to the amount required to be paid by the students for continuing a learning course in a college or university. The education institutions providing higher education looks for imparting training at international levels. The stakeholders of this process includes several aspects like state government funds, material and human resource requirements, employment agencies and supporting organizations etc. Majority of these factors are subject to changes with the economic conditions in the respective states. Rising cost of education has been a tremendous challenge before the universities and education departments in the country and it affects the number of qualified candidates in the employment market with considerable impacts. The uncontrollable increase in tuition fees poses a threat to the enrollment rates in colleges, which is an indicator of declining quality of human resources in the future years of the productive economic sector across the country. The total picture of the education system in the country shows the students as the players of a borrowing-repaying process alongside their education. At one side they are given extended loan facilities by several financial enterprises towards education; and at the other side, the educational institutions engage in a cost-shifting process in which the increasing cost of education

Human Resource Information systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Human Resource Information systems - Essay Example They should be well equipped with leadership and motivational tools to facilitate the employees for better performance. The HR team should itself be motivated and work in accordance with the organizations objectives. The key elements that make an HR team extraordinary, is a team that encourages creativity, respect diversity and aims to improve the professional advancement as well as wellbeing of employees. It should have proper information system for their transactional activities like payroll, employee status changes and record keeping. With a proper IS in place, there will be minimum paper work required and the large chunks of data can be easily stored in databases, files and tapes which can further help in analysis of these records. In case of traditional HR, where HR professionals deal with training, recruiting, performance management, planning and compensation, a proper IS in place will make the entire process more easier and effective, having specially designed systems such as Learning management system, performance management system etc. Transformational activities that deal with strategic decision making, cultural or organization change, or increasing innovation, are one of the most important tasks of an HR department. The effective running of these activities is vital for an ideal HR department as they add value to the organization. With proper IS such as MIS or a Decision Support System in place for strategic decision making, such decisions can be taken with more ease and effectiveness. As mentioned in the earlier section, Human Resource plays a critical role in business. It not only helps in setting policies, motivating the employees, managing employee information but it actually plays a central role in streamlining the business processes. With the new technologies evolving and businesses adopting different information systems to help them run their business processes such as order processing

SIOP Lesson Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

SIOP Lesson Plan - Essay Example 3. Handout of comprehension passages. 4. A leaflet containing a list of difficult vocabulary and their meaning. 5. A history kit or a worksheet (please see appendix 1). Motivation: A documentary or transparencies on one of the battles is shown to the students before beginning the activity. A transparency can be shown having the chronology of the battles. Simple and straight questions that can be connected to the content in the passages. The students are allowed to interact before answering the questions. Let the three groups have an interactive discussion about the outcome of battles. Presentation: Try to present the students how the past wars can be related to the present wars. How wars are started and the positive and negative effects of a war. An equation between quantum of loss incurred and misery caused to the population due to wars as against the benefits and allow the students to analyse. The students are allowed to exchange notes and do peer evaluation so that they will understand each other's writing styles and at the same time are encouraged to question each other about the answer they chose and discuss. A discussion about the present wars in comparison to the past makes them understand how content can be useful in learning language skills. Exchanging notes and interaction between the groups leads to the integration of language skills. The teacher first explains the sequence of the activity with examples. Practice: An information gap activity is presented to all the three groups. The three groups are given a passage with fill in the blanks on three different battles. Since all the members in the group are aware of the events the groups are allowed to interact and seek answers... The students are allowed to exchange notes and do peer evaluation so that they will understand each other's writing styles and at the same time are encouraged to question each other about the answer they chose and discuss. A discussion about the present wars in comparison to the past makes them understand how content can be useful in learning language skills. Exchanging notes and interaction between the groups leads to the integration of language skills. An information gap activity is presented to all the three groups. The three groups are given a passage with fill in the blanks on three different battles. Since all the members in the group are aware of the events the groups are allowed to interact and seek answers and fill in the blanks with right answers. Each student from the group is asked to select one battle and make a very short oral presentation before the class. The content of the presentation need not be entirely based on the true text but can relate to the other aspects of the war. (The students are given time to make notes before the presentation).

Total Quality Management And Excellence Management Essay

Total Quality Management And Excellence Management Essay Over the last two decades organisations have witnessed great variations in markets, tremendous competition, rapid globalisation and economic turbulence. With customers becoming more demanding, satisfaction of customers has taken priority in running a successful business (Porter and Tanner, 2004). As a result, organisations have embraced a range of quality initiatives into every conceivable aspect of organisational work (Wilkinson and Willmott, 1995). In the older sense, Jurans edited work [2] on A History of Managing for Quality relates quality to meeting the requirements of a person obtaining a product or receiving a service. In a wider sense, Fisher and Nair(2006), refer toQuality as the way an enterprise goes about its business, inspired by a theory that acts as a guiding principle for behaviour and informed by the knowledge and knowhow needed to make it occur. In an attempt to survive competition and sustain a competitive advantage, many firms have witnessed the implementation of various quality management systems and standards like the ISO9000, the growth of total quality management(TQM), Business Process Re-engineering(BPR), business excellence, US Baldrige Model, European Foundation of Quality Management (EFQM), lean thinking, Six Sigma etc.,(Porter and Tanner, 2004). What is TQM? Total Quality Management (TQM) has been on the agenda for a very long time. The concept of TQM has origins in the 1920s where product quality control was dealt with the application of statistical theory. Moving forward, the concepts developed in Japan in the 40s and 50s piloted by Americans, like Deming, Juran and Feigenbaum who gave a broader picture beyond quality of products to quality across the organisation which pioneered the beginning of TQM (DTI). TQM is an approach aimed at improving quality to establish effectiveness and efficiency across the firm. It defines ways of planning and organizing every activity associating it to every member at every level of the organization. (Oakland, 2003). Thus, despite the comprehensiveness and fullness of the TQM framework, there seems to be a decline in interest. This essay aims at critically analysing and discussing two works (a book by Wilkinson, Willmott (1995) and an article from Dale et-al (2000)) and evaluating the arguments stated i n them with respect to the emergence of more recent so-called Excellence Frameworks. This leads us to another question. What is excellence? With the evolution of Quality awards, principles of continuous improvement and organisational performance improvement became top priorities. The model devised by the European Foundation of Quality Management (EFQM), supporting the European Quality Award offers a greater focus on business results and hence, Business/organisational Excellence is generally associated to EFQM(Poter and Tanner). The core themes of excellence are heavily influenced by TQM principles. These forms a management system stresses on leadership for attaining quality by formulating policies strategies for developing and managing personnel in order to implement process with a customer focus to achieve excellence in business results. The article by Dale et-al (2000) essentially discusses about the fallen star image of TQM. It highlights the tampering of TQM models to develop excellence frameworks like EFQM and MBNQA. Dale et-al (2000) dismiss the new models for building fads and bringing about futile cosmetic and peripheral changes to the excellence models. The authors also critique the emphasis on point-scoring system which is drawing focus away from the quintessence of quality management and only aim to win quality or excellence awards. The article draws similarities between the key ingredients of TQM philosophy and the principles of excellence. It challenges that excellence is essentialy only a replacement to words like quality and TQM. However, Adebanjo(2000) has a different view about the shift of focus from TQM to Excellence Models and asserts that they both complement each other. He maintains that quality never actually died. While Dale et-al (2000) attributes the failure of TQM to managers, Deming (1986) argues that poor leadership is the cause for poor performance. Adebanjo(1997) discusses this further stating that the failure is partly because managers are often hard to convince, didnt have a clear understanding, demonstrated resistance or viewed TQM as a responsibility of the quality departments . The failure rate of TQM was as high as 75% (Cao et-al, 2000). Fisher (1995) emphasises that TQM doesnt really help everyone, unless the commitment to TQM is across the organisation which is difficult to attain. The introduction of other models like TQMEX, MBNQA further support the view that excellence models are the necessary and sufficient route towards business excellence Ho(). But the overshadowing of TQM by glamorous excellence models doesnt exactly translate into quality performance (Dale et-al, 2000). In terms of the link between excellence models and performance, MBNQA was criticised for the reasons like: winning rewards involves high resource commitments and expense, failure to lead to superior quality standards and winning these certifications does not necessarily result in improved results. Its quite difficult to find companies with good bottom-line results and good quality initiatives (Zairi,Oakland1994). Despite the apparent confusion of terms- TQM, excellence, continuous improvement- all these eventually mean one thing making things better. The article by Wilkinson, Willmott (1995) also suggests that the fluid meanings assigned to quality initiatives make it elusive. In the attempt to introduce quality into manufacturing and service deliveries, quality management techniques like quality control, quality circles and (more holistically) TQM have been sought. TQM has also been critiqued for paying more attention to processes, procedures and policies of the business with little focus on people management, support and culture (Wilkinson, 1991). Rees (1993) also highlights this issue stating that there is little detail interms of how employees perceive TQM. Quality initiatives do not essentially give employees collective sense of objectives, instead it bounds them to procedures and goals defined by the managers who expect them to deliver performance based on the objectives laid down for every job role. A balance between the hard and soft approaches of TQM philosophy seems to be reconsidered and reviewed in recent times. Oakla nd (199), emphasises the importance of motivation and quality required to serve both internal and external customers. TQM strives to introduce quality into every aspect of the business. Wilson-Willmott (1995) also argue that TQM is not directly associated to work-design or employee empowerment and instead follows an iron-clad hierarchal structure. Oakland(2004) stresses on the need for effective communication and leadership for the development and accountability of all employees to implement TQM philosophies successfully. The article also draws attention on the importance of culture on to support Quality Management. Employees associated with strong organisation culture have clarity of their job roles. Thus the culture-strategy fit should hold good for any philosophy to be implemented. Irani(2004) highlights the relationship among culture, quality, and competitiveness. Sluti et al. (1995),studies indicate that corporate culture contributes to quality and performance, but there is alw ays an element of doubt about the level of organisational commitment that is required for TQM implementation. Oaklands(2003) addresses this through a modified TQM-framework for achieving high quality performance using business excellence approach, through people, planning and processes with the soft outcomes of culture, communication and commitment. Wilkinson-Wilmott(1995) also discuss the contributions of various authors. To highlight a few, Stephen Hill relates effective implementation of TQM to business productivity, reduced wastage, better decision-making and sustainable competitive advantage . To develop a rounded approval of TQM, he brings up the subject of social effects of TQM, and its adoption or non-adoption to de-staffing. Walsh challenges the implementation of TQM in service sector because of the difficulty involved in measuring quality as per monitoring levels of customer satisfaction. Webb and Munro highlight the managerial authoritarianism and challenges the effectiveness of the participative scenario during economic slump. McArdle et-al takes this further stating how power-centred participation was replaced by task-centred forms of involvement over the years. Dawson challenges the culture improves commitment aspect of TQM and its success in countries with cultural-pluralism. Kerfoot Knights discuss empowerment a nd assumptions about employee behaviour and argue that control over employees is a consequence of the inconsistency of engineering-like model of firms than that of TQM. Both articles provide strong views on the subject of quality management. In order to evaluate how different TQM actually is from the more recent models, this essay aims to compare and contrast it with the Excellence Frameworks, Lean and Six-Sigma programmes. In the 1980s, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award started gaining popularity. This aimed at identifying US companies that have achieved quality excellence. The framework focuses on customer and market-driven excellence to achieve business results. It focuses on harnessing te talents of employees through effective leadership and management. (Oakland, 2004). The EFQM is a model developed in Europe and it recognises the need to improve processes by involving people and continuous improvement of processes. (Oakland, 2004). Ho(), also advocates a need for an integrated approach to support the process of continuous improvement through the companys commitment to managing by quality and proposed the TQMEX model that encompasses 5-S, BPR, QCC, ISO 9000 and TPM, thus forming a basis for company-wide TQM implementation. Traditional TQM approaches and excellence models are based on rational paradigms, where traditional and normative, research data, includes survey responses associated with deductive theory and testing.(McAdam et-al, 2006). To address complex socio-political events and phenomena, a strategic TQM has been developed representing the dynamic nature of business and environment. Quality initiatives date back to after World War-II and the bombings in Japan. Unable to imitate the US practice of manufacturing in masses due to limited capital, Toyota developed a Production System, minimising waste across its operations, a technique now known as Lean Manufacturing. Lean Manufacturing overlaps TQM significantly. The TQM process orientation eventually leads to almost the same results as lean manufacturing. But, TQM starts with quality which may or may not be the most critical area or the area that produces quickest results. http://www.strategosinc.com/tqm_benefits_0.htm A more recent model gaining favour in industries is Six-Sigma. Its a model developed by Motorola. Motorola was also cited as the first winner of MBNQA in 1988. Six-sigma is efficient, often statistical, techniques are used in a systematic way to reduce variation and improve processes and there is a focus on results including customer-related ones that lead to enhanced marketplace performance and hence improved bottom-line financial results. (Klefsjo ¨ et al. 2001). Mikel Harry[1], developer the Six Sigma program at Motorola, has defined Six Sigma as a disciplined method of using extremely rigorous data gathering and statistical analysis to pinpoint sources of errors and ways of eliminating them. and is all about improving customer and business results by linking the tactical with the strategic. The improvement model follows DMAIC and has 5 phases as illustrated below: C:UsersuserDesktopUntitled.jpg Six-sigma is a subset of TQM and not an alternative to TQM. It is a methodology within TQM which also considers the dynamic nature of the management system (Klefsjo ¨ et al. 2001).In contrast to TQM, six-sigma aims at delivering breakthrough tangible benefits in the short-term and doesnt focus on a step-by-step improvement(Oakland, 2004). Both excellence models and six-sigma can complement eachother where the former baselines the phase for improvement and the latter attains excellence through delivering breakthrough strategy, leadership, learning, innovation, customer-market-business-focus and continuous reinforcement. (Oakland, 2004). Demand for Lean has surpassed six sigma by almost 35%. This indicates that most companies are looking at Lean techniques to face the challenges of the economic slump. (Avery Point Group,2010) To conclude, heres a warning: TQM may not be the in-thing for most organisations anymore. But it is here to stay. As firms gear themselves up to rapid advancements interms of its operations and information management and to meet customer needs, there will always be a challenge to make products or deliver services faster through a reliable system. That kind of a system can be established only by getting the basic TQM philosophies right. The underlying objective is to make things better, both for the customers and the organization. The means of achieving this may slightly vary through quality or excellence models. However, it is all about Do the right things right the first time, every time. . http://qualitytricks.wordpress.com/2006/10/26/introduction-and-implementation-of-total-quality-management-tqm/ Ans2: IMPLEMENTING BUSINESS EXCELLENCE IN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY: This essay particularly focuses on implementing BE framework in the hotel industry which is a service industry. To attain customer satisfaction and excellence in an industry, various models ranging from EFQM, Lean, Six-Sigma, TQM could be implemented. However, among the available models, this essay proposes to use the model devised by EFQM, to analyse the quality perspective of both management and customers of the Tristar Group, a chain of 3-star hotels. Oaklands (1999) Total Organisational Excellence (TOE) framework for performance-based measurement embraces all areas like strategic planning, process analysis, self-assessment, benchmarking measurement, people, teamwork, and continuous-improvement (Oakland, 1999). While EFQM helps benchmark core processes for a limited period in time and defines current standing, TOE focuses on continuous improvement for achieving organisational excellence. Every sector exists in a highly competitive market. Succeess is largely dependent on delighting customers important (Irani,2004). In order to understand the how the quality frameworks can be implemented in Hotel Tristar, it is primarily important to understand the customers and their needs with respect to Tristar. Who are our customers? The hotel must recognise the needs of all its clients the value of the guest as a paying customer; the importance of its employees as internal customers; the expectations of the local community as an environment conscious corporate citizen and its responsibility to the owners and operators as a producer of high profit margins with an all round positive image. The key external customers are from the commercial,corporate and M.I.C.E((Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Events) segments.. Tristar also has customers on business and leisure travel from international and domestic markets. The target market is currently divided as follows: What do our customers want? Customers desire better quality services, but it is always difficult to reaching an agreement on the conformance to specification, mainly because measuring quality in the service sector isnt easy (Wilkinson,Willmott,1995). However, to state a few basic services any hotel is expected to provide: Good value for money, reliability and efficiency High standards in terms of its facilities and pricing. Quality personal service, home-like experience and on-time delivery of services. Good IT systems to make reservations and bookings quick and easy. A luxurious, pleasing environment to relax or conduct their business. Complimentary breakfasts and free in-room wireless internet. Customers treated with basic courteousness, kept informed and not to be passed around Effective feedback and suggestion systems. Conduct responsible business, both on the social and environmental fronts. The Hotels success in the current environment will depend on corporate contract business, tourism and customer loyalty to the brand. To address this Oaklands (1999) framework for TOE helps the organisation achieve business excellence by implementing the following steps. 1. The effectiveness of an organisation depends on efficient leadership and commitment from the people to perform their roles aimed at moving towards common goals and objectives. TOE involves comprehensive planning for gaining competitiveness through people management and employee involvement. The top management must demonstrate commitment to improvement and leadership through supervision, training and process management. There must also exist a shared motive of need for change to attain excellence among the top management and the stakeholders of Tristar. 2. The next step involves developing a clear strategy for implementation. The vision describes the strategic intent of the organisations existence. Hotel Tristars vision involves commitment to creating extraordinary customer value by ensuring quality and responsiveness of customer services. The mission statement is used to communicate this vision for the organisation of where it is going. Tristars mission is dedicated to provide hospitality service through motivated human resources and inspired leadership. The goal to ensure financial strength and sustainable growth can be achieved by focusing on domestic and international markets through innovation and technology and Tristar must strive to create value for owners and shareholders and operate as an environment conscious corporate citizen. 3. The next step is identifying critical success factors (CSFs). CSFs are what must the organisation accomplished to achieve the above mission The CSFs for Hotel Tristar can be recognised as: Positioning and guest profile Site and location On-time and Quality customer service Motivated and skilled staff/ efficient management Quality suppliers and effective distribution channels Identification of potential business opportunities and markets 4. The Key Performance Indicators support the mission and CSIs to help translate the directional statements to clear targets. They help monitor progress and the KPIs for Hotel Tristar can be identified as: Yield Management and Differential pricing Job rotation and training for timely delivery of services Brand Recognition and marketing methods Optimal resource utilisation and cost effectiveness 5. The next step is understanding the core processes. The top management team identify the action plan on how the organisation must institutionalise the mission and meet its CSF. For Hotel Tristar, the core process can be identified as: Revenue Wealth Management Process for the operations Reservation process: from the time a guest makes a booking until they arrive at their room. Asset Management Process for brand extension Event management process: from the time the organizers book the banquet/conference room to the completion of the event. Selection and Recruitment process Advertising and Brand promotion process Each of these processes could have a sponsor from the management team. The process sponsorship can be owned up by the existing Managing Director, Financial Controller, HR Manager, COO and CEO of the Hotel. 6. This step involves breaking down the core process into sub-processes, tasks and activities and formulating improvement teams. To illustrate the breakdown of a CSF to individual task through an example: CSF: On-time and Quality customer service KPI: Job rotation and training for timely delivery of services Core- Process: The event management process, from the time the organizers book the banquet/conference room to the completion of the event. Sub- Process: Develop an event concept and determine the feasibility Activity: Formulate budget and monitor finance Task: Prepare a chart to track progress of the event 7. The people and processes identified must be aligned to integrate excellence into business strategy. This is through a policy deployment or goal translation process. For Tristar, the top team must study the customer preferences to understand how the goal of creating quality customer service can be achieved. Once the core processes and the sub-processes are identified, they must be successfully analysed to lay foundation for systems and procedures. A process classification framework for a generic view of the business process is documented for systematic development of mapping and flowcharting the processes. The core-processes need to be self-assessed and benchmarked. The EFQM framework is used to self-asses Tristar to figure out what the hotel is good or bad at and where there is a need for improvement. EFQM Model Implementation: The European quality model highlights the significant strengths and weaknesses and the relationship among people, processes and outcomes. The model represented in Figure 2, People and customer satisfaction and positive impact on society provide a competitive advantage. There are nine factors to evaluate the level of excellence of a company, The primary problem is related to the first element in the model, that is leadership. The management and directors showed very little interest in quality management initiatives. This absence of commitment and lack of conviction results in failure to recognise good performance, inability to efficiently guide culture changes, less interaction with customers and suppliers, little involvement in running a sustainable and responsible business. This problem also raises concerns at the strategic level in the policies strategy element of the model. The external strategic analysis explains problems in the context of the hospitality industry. The challenges relate to the changing patterns in travel tourism during recession. The decline in business travelling and the re-location of the airport in Hyderabad have hit the business hard. Internal strategic analysis highlights problems of incorporating very little total quality measures into policies strategies. Lack of audits and process plans d o not support continuous improvement. Personnel Management is another key element in hotel industry. The companies HR policies, training and retention are factors that determine successful implementation of any TQM project. Hotel Tristar has staff on temporary or contract basis. This hinders effective implementation of training activities and results in low employee commitment and motivation. Resource Management through optimization of technical, financial, infrastructural resources should generate cost and quality benefits. However, Hotel Tristar lacks effective asset management system to improve return on capital employed and reduce cash-flow volatility. Processes should be continually reviewed and redesigned for successful implementation of quality policies aimed at customer satisfaction. Effective customer feedback system does not exist, thus making it impossible to assess the existing quality of services provided to various customers (rooms, banquets, restaurants and leisure gu ests). Quality does not necessarily mean luxury. Improvement programs aimed at services that provide value for money should be top priority during the recession period. The social impact with regard to responsible trading is largely emphasised in the hospitality industry. CSR activities and eco-hospitality are gaining popularity and Hotel Tristar has a long way to go at implementing sustainable and environmental friendly practices aimed at energy conservation, waste management etc., Economic results have shown a dip in ROCE and steady decrease in productivity. Thus, this model highlights a serious problem of lack of coordination of various operations and initiatives that run independently without synergy therefore impeding continuous improvement. (1) After the identification of the potential areas of improvement, the next step involves defining improvement opportunities and prioritizing the actions needed. This requires effective use of tools and techniques by the workforce. The employee commitment and involvement is attained through effective performance management systems implemented by the management team. This involves clarifying roles, providing training, developing action plans and setting targets. Teamwork is key in hospitality industry. Besides demonstrating leadership and commitment, the pioneers of TOE must also be proactive in visualizing ideal processes and competent in the mechanics of business process re-engineering. For Tristar, this must be focussed on identifying prospective clients in the right sectors, understand their needs, and implement processes to service these needs by involving the people. Potential problems with implementation: Implementing changes in the organisation can potentially face the following problems: 1. Employee resistance to change: Change efforts usually experience human resistance. There are many reasons for employees to resist change. These could range from a desire not to lose something of value, a fear of making mistakes, risk-averse, a misinterpretation of the change and its benefits and implications, a belief that the change does not add value to the organization or a general low tolerance for change. 2. Lack of senior management interest and support: For implementing change of any magnitude, it is essential to clearly communicate strategies and objectives of change to all the stakeholders. Some managers view quality management as just another managerial fad or fashion (Wilkinson and Redman, 1994). Hotel Tristar lacks effective pioneers to responsibly lead this change process and confidently implement practices to achieve continuous improvement. 3. Emphasis on Short-term results: Implementing a change is a time consuming affair. It is a matter of concern that the stakeholders involved usually hold a short-termist attitude (Wilkinson and Redman, 1994). Hotel Tristar, which is classified in the luxury segment, is constantly facing demands for quicker results interms of increased cash-flows and profitability. 4. Inflexible and rigid organisation hierarchy: Tristar is a 27 year old family-run business with deep-rooted culture and inter-group relationships. Any decision making process resulting in disturbing the complex hierarchy and deviating from the traditional methods is bound to face strong resistance and confrontation. It is a challenging task to overcome traditions. This is true when employees do not see the relation between their traditions and an existing problem. (http://www.themanager.org/strategy/Change_Problems.htm) 5. Lack of individual development opportunities: High performance seeks appropriate skills and capabilities. This requires creating effective training and learning opportunities for the employees or recruitment of new labour. Tristar lacks appropriate training structure and also has a high attrition rate due to the fluid market conditions. 6. Unfavourable Market Conditions: Tristar has faced sudden plunge in its sales due to the re-location of the Airport. This has resulted in an urgent need to refocus on its target market segment to lay more emphasis on repeat customers and business customers. The changes in demographics and customer spending also pose as potential barriers to achieving competitive advantage. 7. Lack of resources and cost constraints: Inefficient management of financial resources and assets could pose some serious problems in implementing organisational excellence. According to Wilkinson et al., (1994), Quality management appears to suffer from resource limitations. Keeping up-to-date with the latest information and technology will be challenging for Tristar. During the recession, there is also a major emphasis on value for money. The training and implementation of quality management process is a costly affair. 8. Problems in measuring quality : Lack of complete and accurate information makes it difficult to convince the employees of long term gains of implementing best practices. In service industry, it is always difficult to measure quality. If customer satisfaction is used as a yardstick to measure quality, what level of satisfaction can be attributed to high quality? Plans for overcoming these problems Kotter and Schlesinger(2008) have highlighted methods for dealing with change. These are can be applied to Hotel Tristar as follows: Training and Communication: One of the most effective ways of dealing with resistance to change is by educating and clearly communicating the goals and strategies of the organisation to all the members. This will help people understand the need for change. Tristar could conduct group presentations, individual discussions, pass on reports and statements to the concerned employees, to facilitate the same. Employee Empowerment and involvement: It is highly effective to actively involve the employees with the quality management process and decision making. This gives the participants a sense of responsibility and commitment to achieving excellence. The MD could ask the 2nd and 3rd level managers to recommend changes in the current event management and reservation system of the hotel. Facilitating and Supporting: The managers could also support those who are resisting change by listening to their concerns and taking actions to address those concerns through appropriate training and development. So, Tristar could talk to the members about their re-focus strategy towards customer service and identify beforehand who would have difficulty in adjusting to new roles. Measure quality efforts: By investing in reliable and accurate information to identify effective information gathering and analysis techniques. TQM is based majorly on rational thinking and problem solving (Oakland, 1999), thus the probable best solution is to provide a balanced mix of information and creative ideas. Emphasis on long-term goals: Tirstar can overcome the short-termist attitude of the stakeholders involved by communicating the budget, financials involved and the pace of change generated. Thus, by encouraging transparency, the stakeholder gain the broader picture and understand the long-term gains of quality programmes. Trial Runs: To identify teething problems before releasing the change systems across the departments and to rectify these, as very often, first impressions are considered last impressions.

My Arrest and Rebirth :: Law College Admissions Essays

My Arrest and Rebirth With great embarrassment and pain, I must tell you that I have once been arrested; it was over a fight with my brother Jacob. The police attribute Jake's behavior to chemical dependence; my parents blame it on some unknown incident while he was at school. I don't know, myself; I do know that I returned from Israel to find Jake had taken over my room, as well as anything else in the house he could manipulate or control. The TV, VCR and computer were his absolute domain; I missed a calculus final because he took the car without permission. He refused to engage in any conversation at all with my parents. His "conversations" with me and Sol were primarily a barrage of put-downs and insults. He kept lists of "crimes" other people had committed, for which he sought revenge, by stealing things or just hiding them. Nothing was secure or safe at home; I didn't feel secure or safe there. Home was worse hell than the army had ever been. How can I explain how traumatic this was for me? Imagine being asleep on the sofa (the only bed I had) and being awakened in the middle of the night by the blasting of the TV. If I complained, I would be either ignored or screamed at. If I pretended interest, he would start changing channels, or switch to the stereo. If I called my parents, my "crime" got added to his list for later revenge. I pleaded with my parents to intervene, but they just called me selfish; couldn't I see that I had a sick brother, that I had to "help" him by tolerating his behavior until he magically got well? "Magically" because we couldn't seek any help; that would require letting an "outsider" know We had a problem. After he beat up my brother Sol, my father ordered Jake to leave until he cooled off, the first time he had ever intervened. But Jake called my father's bluff; he disappeared for two weeks. This pattern of violence, abusiveness, drinking and disappearing escalated throughout the summer. After one particularly violent outburst, I finally tried to show my parents that by refusing to deal with Jake's illness, they were hurting Sol and me. I staged a suicide attempt with sugar pills I had placed in an aspirin bottle.

Kosovo Movement

Kosovo served as a centre of Serbian kingdom with old Serbian monasteries and Serbian Eastern Orthodox Churches. These survived the harsh ottoman rule until 1912, when there was liberation. Large number of Serbs hard firm attachment to Christian faith thus, opposed the conversion to Islam. This made them to leave Kosovo region because of fear of persecution by the Turkish. The Albanians settled in their places and their number increased. Kosovo Problem. The problem faced by Kosovo is the highly increasing Albanians population. The population increasing rate outweighed the industrial growth, despite heavy investments on the region. Many efforts have been made to develop the regions especially the Yugoslav Federation to no success. The region continues to become poor, and remains the poorest region in Yugoslavia. An extensive autonomy was given to the Albanians with the aim of enhancing development, only to understand that the autonomy was abused by the Albanians since they used the autonomy to clear the Kosovo habitants who were non-Albanians. The Albanians aim of when clearing the Kosovo region of the non-Albanians was to start up a succession process as they needed to be greater Albania. The Albanians in Kosovo are self satisfied, small political classes of Western Europe. The Albanians claim that they are solving the problem selling drugs illegally, and carrying out other illegal activities in the west, and the income got from the trade, are used to cause more disaster in the region, since they purchase illegal weapons, which they used in the conflict and continued spreading terror throughout the region.( Booth, 2001). The conflict had inter-ethnic tensions in Balkans and despite how much the Serbian tried to find ways of implementing peaceful solution, the Albanians never cared.  The west have tried to use many method to solve problem, but most of the methods they used, and especially the ancient methods are aimed at getting chances to access the great mineral resources which the region owns. This explains why the Americans supported the Albanian terrorists. Important Actors and their interests The Milosevic acted in the Kosovo tragedy. He had power over the Kosovo region, and his interest was to control and clear the Kosovo autonomy. The Albanians in Kosovo lost their jobs, their access to school, and health care was limited, and they lost administrative control. He also had interest in creating Greater Serbia, and to clearing the minority from the region. The Kosovo Albanians responded against the Milosevic power, where they created a parallel civil administration, and other social facilities such as schools and health care facilities. Under the leadership of Ibrahim Rugova, the Kosovo Albanians resisted the Milosevic regime in a non violent way, where they applied Gandhian tactics. The Kosovo Albanians’ interest was to have their rights considered, because despite the frequent periodic reports made by human right investigators, and International diplomats who investigated the gross and systemic human rights violations, Milosevic continued to violate their rights. After the failure of non violent demonstration, the Kosovo Albanians decided to use violent demonstration. The Kosovo Liberation Army joined the fight against Milosevic, and the army publicly asked for help from the entire community. The crowd provided overwhelming support, but the Serb had a disproportionate retaliation responds. The conflict between the Serb and the KLA continued, and revenge was persistent. The human rights continued to be violated, with no intervention, instead the Milosevic increased the military to clear KLA. The Contact Group intervened, with the interest of enhancing negotiations between the two groups and subsequent signing of peace plan. The Contact group required the KLA to disarm, Milosevic to reduce his military, and to restore autonomy, and to have NATO peace keeping force to be implemented. This brought more conflict because the Kosovo needed full independence guarantees, while the Milosevic wanted total control over the Province and the people, so they could not allow a new military force in the Province. The NATO joined the fight with the aim of enhancing the signing of the peace plan, and threatened to bomb Serb if they failed to sign. Kosovo signed after a delay, but Milosevic refused to sign, and continued to destroy Kosovo. NATO launched air campaign targeting the Serb military. Milosevic fought the NATO, and the Kosovo population in respond. (Ruga, 2007). Why does this conflict exist? The Kosovo conflict exists because of the existing form of revisionism which has prevailed for many years among the critics of Kosovo population desire for independence. This has been caused by failure of scrutiny, ignorance, racism, culture and religion. The various sides are guilty of varying degree, and mall the actors have failed in one way or the other. No actor wants to be held responsible of the conflict, despite the fact that each of the actors has played a role in the conflict. Serbia blames the Serb security force of the 1998 and 1999 massacre. The Kosovo Albanians explains their innocence by convincing people that they flew from their land to be refugees because of the fear of NATO bombing (Loyd, 2007). This has led to continued conflict in Kosovo. References: Booth, K (2001) Kosovo Tragedy. New York: Routledge. Loyd, A (2007) Kosovo deserves its independence, Retrieved April, 2008, from http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article3037002.ece Ruga, G. (2007)   History of Kosovo war, Retrieved April, 2008, from http://www.friendsofbosnia.org/edu_kos.html.      

Juan Carlos Essays - Francoist Spain, Juan Carlos I Of Spain

Juan Carlos Essays - Francoist Spain, Juan Carlos I Of Spain Juan Carlos Juan Carlos Report Juan Carlos I, the current king of Spain, was crowned on November 22, 1975. The crowning of Juan Carlos restored democracy to Spain after the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. Juan Carlos was born in 1938 in Rome. In 1947 Franco announced that Spain was a kingdom and that he had decided that Juan Carlos should one day be king. (He is a grandson of King Alfonso XIII, who had been forced into exile in 1931.) The future king was given a military education. He attended the Instituto San Isidro in Madrid, the Navy Orphans' College, and the Academia General Militar at Saragossa. He became a lieutenant in the army in 1957. He then attended the Naval Academy in 1957 and 1958 and the Aviation Academy in 1959. In July 1969 the Spanish Cortes declared Juan Carlos Prince of Spain. On February 23, 1981, Juan Carlos gained the respect of many Spaniards. Literally millions of people were fallowing a part of the army, which had kidnapped many government officials in order to overthrow the Democracy. The King appeared on Spanish National TV in his General Captain military uniform, and spoke out against the coup. Hours later, the coups plan failed. This story shows how Juan Carlos saved democracy. I had no prior knowledge of Juan Carlos I, but he proved to be a very interesting person. Bibliography None

Contrasting Points Of View in Grendel And Beowulf

Contrasting Points Of View in Grendel And Beowulf Contrasting points of view in Grendel and Beowulf significantly alter the readers perception of religion, good and evil, and the character Grendel. John Gardners book, Grendel, is written in first person. The book translated by E. Talbout Donaldson, Beowulf, is written in third person. Good and evil is one of the main conflicts in the poem Beowulf. How is Grendel affected by the concepts of good and evil? Grendel is an alienated individual who just wants to be a part of something. His desire to fit in causes him to do evil things. Grendel is fascinated by the Shapers poetry. He often returns to the mead hall to listen to it. One night while he is listening, he hears the story of Cain and Abel, including the Danes explanation of Grendel. His reaction to this leads to one of his most dramatic emotional reactions: I believed him. Such was the power of the Shapers harp! Stood wriggling my face, letting tears down my nose, grinding my fists into my elbow the corpse of the proof that both of us ere cursed, or neither, that the brothers had never lived, nor the god who judged them. Waaa! I bawled. Oh what a conversion(Gardner 51)! Grendel then cries for mercy from the Danes. He wants their forgiveness as well as unification with them, which r! epresents the good in him. The Danes reject him by confusing his outburst of sorrow as an attack. After visiting with a dragon who tells Grendel a fictional version of the Shapers tale, Grendel continues to believe the Shapers story. He searches for the goodness in human beings, which was mentioned in the story. He eats people only because it provides a place for him in society, even if it is a negative position (The Two Faces of Grendel, 2). Good and evil is one of the main conflicts in the poem Beowulf, and ultimately both wipe each other out....

CRJ 422 Week 5 paper Term Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

CRJ 422 Week 5 - Term Paper Example sed on the institutions that allow people to live fulfilling lives and be active contributors to the well-being of the society (Carlisle, Jackson, & George, 2006). The concept of social justice can be traced to the ancient western civilization through the work of philosophers and majorly centered on the work of Plato. In his writings, Plato acknowledges that for a well functional and operational state, all members of the community must be assigned specific tasks and duties in accordance with the classes where they belong. The essence of social justice in this ancient era was to ensure that all members of the society contribute significantly to the well-being of the community. Assigning of tasks and duties to all members of the society in the form of employment ensures that everyone was economically stable thus reducing incidences of crimes and injustice in the society. Aristotle on the other hand conceived the notion of distributive justice. According to Aristotle, distributive justice required that assets and services within a society were to be distributed to all members of the society based on merit and without discrimination in relation to creed, race or gender. In the American society, the concept of social justice took a significant role in the 20the century particularly in the fields of politics and philosophy. During the 20th century, some of the principle concerns of social justice were the action of the Supreme Court to strike down state passed legislation on eight hour a day work and the right to join a trade union. The action of the justice system was thus seen to be targeting the disadvantaged in the society by oppressing the poor workers. In this era, most of the employees in industries where black Americans thus inhibiting the employees to join trade unions was equally an aspect of discrimination especially against the black America ns (Cambron-McCabe, 2005). Social injustice in the American society has been pointed to be on the rise thus leading

Violence In American Popular Culture Research Paper - 1

Violence In American Popular Culture - Research Paper Example Like many federal acts, PREA (Prison Rape Elimination Act) is more incumbent upon the shareholders to enforce than it is for government watch groups to enforce. In this way, the ultimate responsibility falls upon the leadership of the individual prison as a means of ensuring the prison rape is reported, minimized, and sought to be eliminated. As a function of performing this study, the authors noted that one of the shortcomings that prior research had failed to address was the role that prison wardens played in the reduction of incidence of prison rape; as such the need for the study itself to be undertaken was necessitated (Moster et al 67)). Unfortunately, the study found that there was little difference between the incidence and reporting levels of prison rape both pre and post PREA. This lack of change with regards to the level of prison rape that was measured and reported upon was surmised by the researchers to be fundamentally linked to the funding levels that prisons received. As a function of the limited sources of funding, prisons and prison wardens by extension have traditionally sought out other more important issues to be tackled. However, the issue of prison rape, as the authors argue, is perhaps the most important issue besides rehabilitation that any given prison or prison system can or should deal with. Due to the fact that prison rape is not only psychologically traumatic but the fact that it spreads diseases such as hepatitis, HIV, and a litany of others, the health and institution integrity of the system as a whole is put in jeopardy by such an oversight (Moster et al 69) With regards to the key information that has been studied thus far this semester with relation to the above topic, it is the belief of this author that the relationship that the ultimate shareholder, the prison warden, bears with relation to this issue is the one that most closely

How does the relative distance traveled by food products impact the Research Paper

How does the relative distance traveled by food products impact the price of those food products - Research Paper Example The research includes related literature. David Kault stated: â€Å"When it is not feasible to measure all the individuals in which we are interested, we measure a selection of them. Usually the selection is a small or infinitesimal fraction of the number of individuals in which we are interested. In the case of women's heights, we would measure a small selection of women. The statistical term used here is that we take a ‘sample’ from the population†. Patrick Westhoff emphasized the cost of transportation is one important factor affecting food prices of competing products. For example, soybeans that are harvested in Illinois are priced lower than imported European soybeans because it is cheaper to ship the soybeans through the Mississippi river compared to shipping the soybeans through the wide expanse of the Atlantic Ocean. From 2004 to 2006, soybeans were sold at an average of $202 per metric ton in the markets central Illinois. On the other hand, the soybeans t hat were imported from Netherlands were sold at the higher $261 per metric ton in Illinois. The difference in the food price per metric ton is due to the increase in the transportation fuel prices. In addition, Moshe Milevsky reiterated fuel costs directly affect the prices of food products. In high income nations, including the United States, the consumer’s average food money is allocated for the reimbursement of the store’s expenses.... The three competing food stores are Wal-Mart food store, Netgrocer food store, and Netfoodex.Com food store. Research assignment The research includes related literature. David Kault (Kault, 2003) stated: â€Å"When it is not feasible to measure all the individuals in which we are interested, we measure a selection of them. Usually the selection is a small or infinitesimal fraction of the number of individuals in which we are interested. In the case of women's heights, we would measure a small selection of women. The statistical term used here is that we take a ‘sample’ from the population†. Patrick Westhoff (Westhoff, 2010) emphasized the cost of transportation is one important factor affecting food prices of competing products. For example, soybeans that are harvested in Illinois are priced lower than imported European soybeans because it is cheaper to ship the soybeans through the Mississippi river compared to shipping the soybeans through the wide expanse of t he Atlantic Ocean. From 2004 to 2006, soybeans were sold at an average of $202 per metric ton in the markets central Illinois. On the other hand, the soybeans that were imported from Netherlands were sold at the higher $261 per metric ton in Illinois. The difference in the food price per metric ton is due to the increase in the transportation fuel prices. In addition, Moshe Milevsky (2010) reiterated fuel costs directly affect the prices of food products. In high income nations, including the United States, the consumer’s average food money is allocated for the reimbursement of the store’s expenses. The expenses include the cost of transporting the goods from the farm to the entity’s store

Christmas card making Essay Example for Free

Christmas card making Essay What I would like to achieve by making Christmas cards with a group of 3-4 children at a time, is to see how and what they think Christmas is all about, their creative side and if the can write their own names at the bottom of their card. The learning intentions for each child are to either write their own name without help or copy it from another piece of paper. Again in this activity the children will have to learn to share the equipment. Fridrich Frebel believed and emphasised that creative play was important part of a Childs worlds and growing up, he also thought physical play, song and rhymes was a symbolism, and best developed though play. Aim: To get all the children who do a card to try to write their name inside. What the children will learn: The children today will learn how to write their name correctly, I dont think they will remember all of how to do it but next time they need to write it they will find it easier. What I will learn: I should learn to help and supervise children properly and to help understand what they should and shouldnt being doing at this age and weather or not they understand the way I am asking them to do an activity for me. What happened? I choose three random children who were wondering around not doing any other activity. I choose two girls and a boy, to come sit at a table, first of all their put on aprons the table already had glue and card on it with scissors and glitter pens the children did not understand straight away what I wanted them to do I sat down and tried to explain luckily I had bring in one that I had did at home with my brother who is their age. The two girls KL and CW knew what I wanted them to try and do I even said can you do your name inside when you have finished. This time I didnt have an early years practitioner with me but one of them came over to see if I was okay. The Stephanie Jewell 3rd January 2005 boy I had asked to do a card didnt want to he found some thing else he anted to do, so one of the early years practitioner gave me another boy DK as he needs help with his name. I gave them red card and folded it KL wanted hers folded twice so I did as it was her Christmas card. The children took their time at making the outside of the card about 20 minutes later I said is anyone nearly finished? they all stopped their work and said Yes but they was not, so I told them to carry on then a couple minutes later DK finished the front so I wrote the inside for him and asked if he can do his name e but he was very aliment that he could not do it so I wrote it on a bit of paper to copy and he tried really hard but we only got half of it done as he got a little upset because he didnt want to do it. The two girls finished as well as are older they started to write letters inside but they didnt make any words but I thought that was really good bas they were trying. They both wrote their names and kisses, the children letters were back to front or upside but you can tell what their name was. Evaluation: The activity of making cards with the children went better then I excepted as the children didnt argue with each other and wanted to speak to me one after another instead of shouting and screaming. I thought I explained what to do well as the two girls that I choose to do this got on with the work straight away and didnt really need my help until the end with the writing of their names. The child who didnt want to do card making made me feel as if I was doing some thing wrong but he didnt take in ant activities that day. The children left their cards to dry and the next day we put them into envelopes and they took them home. I would like to carry it out again if possible as I enjoyed myself as I was helping and watching them does it. If you were to carry out this activity then I would say have no more then two children at a time that way you can give them almost your full attention and this way the children tend not to want to talk over each other as there are only two of them sitting on a table. The children did learn how to do their names correctly even though DK got upset as he didnt want to write his even though I kept encouraging him to Stephanie Jewell 3rd January 2005 try. I think I should have spoke more about Christmas and how a time for giving and why we give out cards to people. I put down a mat on the table as the children was working with glue, and glitter what make a lot of mess in the hands of 3, 4 year olds. The children put on aprons to protect their clothing which was a good idea, they did make a lot of mess with the glitter pens and didnt know when to stop putting on to the card I had to keep telling them it was enough but they some times didnt listen. The cutting of paper made mess around the table. But all of the mess made was easily cleared up within minutes and all the children had to do is wash their hands. I didnt realise the children would take as long as they did to make the cards and even writing their name took longer then expected, I gave myself half and hour when I should have allowed an hour to do this kind of activity. When the children sit down they took a little while to get started. The planning I did for both the activities were helpful I did follow both the plans I think the planning is good to have but on the day it all depends on the children weather or not they want to do it or if they are going to muck about for you, the best part about the planning is to see if you can complete the learning intentions you set for the children and knowing what equipment ids needed before hand in case its any thing that they wouldnt have usually.

Analysis for Expansion of Starbucks

Analysis for Expansion of Starbucks Introduction: The history of Starbucks starts in Seattle in 1971.Three friends Jerry, Zev Siegal, and Gordon Bowker who all had a passion for fresh coffee, opened a small shop and began selling fresh roasted , gourmet coffee beans and the brewing and roasting accessories .The company did well, but things began to change in 80s. First Zev Seigal sold out in 1980.Yet at that time, Starbucks was largest roaster in Washington with six retail outlets. In 1981 a plastics salesmen noticed the, number of drip-brewing thermoses that Starbucks was buying from Hammerplast, the manufacturer that he represented. A brief history of Starbucks: Starbucks has always been the place to find the worlds best coffees. But in 1971, you would have had to travel all the way to out first-and at that time, only store in Seattles first Pike Place Market. 1970s : The first Starbucks opens. The name comes from Herman Melvilles Moby Dick, a classic American novel about the 19th century whaling industry. The seafaring name seems to be appropriate for a store that imports the worlds finest coffees to the cold, thirsty people of Seattle . 1980s: Howard Schultz joins Starbucks in 1982. While on a business trip in Italy, he visits Milans famous espresso bars. Impressed with their popularity and culture, he sees their potential in Seattle. Hes right after trying lattes and mochas, Seattle becomes coffee-crazy 1990s: The demand for great coffee allows Starbucks to expand beyond Seattle, first to the United States, then further a field. After becoming one of the first companies to offer stock options to its part-time employees, Starbucks becomes a publicly traded company. 2000s: The Starbucks phenomena continues. At the time of writing Starbucks has more than 15,000 locations across the globe. In addition to our excellent coffees and espresso drinks, people now enjoy Tazo tea and Frappuccino and ice blended beverages. Howard Schultz: In 1982 Baldwin hired Schultz as a new head of marketing and shortly thereafter sent him to Milan to attend an international housewares show in Italy. Schultz went to Verona and had his first cafe latte. But he observed something more important than the coffee. The cafe patrons were chatting and otherwise enjoying themselves while sipping their coffees in the elegant surroundings. It was an aha moment as inspiration struck. A great idea : Schultz describes that moment as epiphany, why not create community gathering places like the great coffee house of Italy in the united States? Could the old world meet the new world? If it succeeded , it would be marketing genius. By 1983 the marketing manager had a vision of recreating the magic of romance behind the Italian coffee bar and wanted to test out the concept of selling the espresso by the cup. II Giornale and Starbucks go their separate ways : When Starbucks coffee is opened its sixth store in downtown Seattle, the coffee was a hit , it was an immediate success. Schults, however branched out on his own and opened a coffee house named Italys largest newspaper , The Daily or II Giornale., Two months later , the new store was serving more than 700 customers a day , and it was selling 300 percent more than the Starbucks locations. Sell out : This is my company now. In 1987 the owners of Starbucks coffee company decided to sell their coffee business , along with the name, to a group of local investors for $3.7 million. Schultz raised the money by convincing investors of his vision that they could 125 outlets in the next five years. He also changed the II Giornale bare- breasted mermaid logo into a more socially acceptable figure. The company name changed from II Giornale to Starbucks, and finally he converted the six existing Starbucks, roasting shops into elegant , comfortable coffee houses. The era of growth : Starbucks coffee history was just beginning to take shape. Starting from a base of 17 store in 1987, the company expanded rapidly to other cities: Vancouver, Portland and Chicago. By 1991 Starbucks has also expanded into the mail-order catalogue business and licensed airport stores and further into the state of California. In1992 the company went public, and after the intial offering of public Starbucks continued to grow at a phenomenal pace that no one had ever seen in the coffee world before. By 1997 the number of Starbucks coffee stores grew tenfold, with location in United States, Japan, Singapore. Other business extension : Not satisfied enough with just a store house coffee, Starbucks expanded several other products and brand extensions. Offering Starbucks coffee on United Airlines flights Selling premium teas through Starbucks own Tazo company. Using the internet to offer the people the option to purchase Starbucks coffee online. Distributing whole bean and ground coffee to supermarkets. Producing premium coffee ice cream wit Dreyers. Selling CDs in Starbucks retail stores. The Starbucks shows how the once small regional roaster, selling coffee beans, became an international corporation with with more than 9000 locations in 34 countries serving 20 million customers or more a week. In fiscal 2004 , Starbucks reached a record 1,344 stores worldwide. 2. Objectives And vision: Commitment to safety and customer service. Low unit cost. Strong branding. Strong corporate culture. To increase the loyalty with the average customer visiting the company at least twice a week . By the year 2011 the consumer under thirty years of age should account for 35% of total sales. Increase in the target market without detracting from older consumers. To become the preferred coffee house established for the age group of the under thirties. To increase the net profit margin to 12.5 %. To increase the profit level by 15% per annum over the next ten years. Mission Statement: Establish Starbucks as the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world while maintaining our uncompromising principles as we grow 3. Features Of Starbucks : Instant Coffee: This is not instant coffee as you know it .this is a rich , flavourful Starbucks coffee in an instant . Starbucks had found a way to offer a truly great cup of coffee that u can prepare by just adding water. Other instant coffees taste flat and lifeless. Its made with the highest quality, ethically sourced 100% Arabica beans. The magic is in a proprietary, all natural process that we spent years perfecting. We micro grind the coffee in a way that preserves all of their essential oils and flavour. No other company takes this step, and it makes all the difference. Sales And Expansion: Starbucks always choose beautiful location and atmospehere where people can enjoy their coffee. It opened its first locations outside Seattle waterfront station in Vancouver, British Colombia and Chicago, Illinois, that same year. At the time of its initial public offering on the stock market in 1992, Starbucks has grown to 165 outlets. International Expansion: Starbucks is serving for all the coffee lovers in many countries in the world. Currently Starbucks is present in more than 55 countries across the globe. Fair Trade: In 2000, the company introduced a line of fair trade products of the approximately 136,000 metric tons (300 million pounds) of coffee Starbucks purchased in 2006, about 6 percent was certified as fair trade. 4. Marketing Strategy Of Starbucks: Starbuckss marketing strategy involves positioning the local Starbucks outlet as a third place(besides home and work) to spent time, and the stores are designed to make this easy and comfortable. The cafe section of the store is often outfitted with comfortable stuffed chair. There are ample electrical outlets providing free electricity patrons using or charging their portable music devices or laptop computers. Most stores in U.S and some other markets also have wireless internet access (although this access is not free, as it is in some independent coffee shops). The company is noted for its non-smoking policy at all it outlets, despite its prediction that this would never succeed in markets such as Germany, where there are otherwise few restrictions on smoking. Outlets in Vienna and Mexico city, which have smoking rooms separated by double doors from coffee shop itself, are the closest company has come to making an exception. According to the company, the smoking ban is to ensure that the coffee aroma is not adulterated. The company also asks its employees to refrain from wearing strong perfumes for similar reasons. Starbucks generally does not prohibit smoking in outside seating areas. Starbucks generally does not offer promotional prices on its products. It has a reputation for having pricey drinks, though as of early 2006 Dunkin doughnuts charged even more for a large cup of coffee ($1.95 vs. $1.80 at Starbucks). In late 2006, Starbucks announced that it would raise prices by $0.05 USD, at the beginning of new fiscal year, October 2, 2006. 5. SWOT Analysis: Strengths Revenue targets: Starbucks corporation is a very profitable organisation, earning in excess of $600 million in 2004. The company generated revenue of more than $5000 million in the same year. Brand Awareness: It is a global coffee brand built upon a reputation for fine products and services. It has more than 10000 cafes in almost 55 countries. Leading company: Starbucks was one of the top Fortune Top 100 companies to work for in 2005. The company is respected employer that values its work force. Strong Ethics and Mission: The company has strong ethical values and mission statements as follows, Starbucks is committed to a role of environmental leadership in all facets of our business Locations: Starbucks coffee shops locations are at convenient places like library, shopping malls and etc. Weakness Pricing: Pricing of Starbucks are higher as compared to the competitors. Business spreading: The organisation has a strong presence in the United States of America with more than three quarters of their cafes located in the home market. It is often argued that they need to look for a portfolio of countries, in order to spread business risk. Lack of internal focus: Starbucks lacks in internal focus as its focuses too much on its expansion. Control on stores: Starbucks have less control on stores outside the U.S, and also ever increasing number of competitors in the market. Dependant on retail market: The organisation is dependant on a main competitive advantage, the retail of coffee. This could make them slow to diversify into other sectors should need the arise. Opportunities Added opportunity: Starbucks are very good at taking advantage of opportunities. In 2004 the company created a CD-burning service in their Santa Monica (California USA) cafe with Hewlett Packard, where customers create a own music CD. Fair Trade Products: New products and services that can be retailed in their cafes, such as fair trade products. Market penetration: Entry into Asian market like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and also this market penetration is done even in several International countries. Global Expansion: The Company has the opportunity to expand its global operations. New markets for coffee such as India and the Pacific Rim nations beginning to emerge. Co-Branding: Co-branding with other manufacturers of food and drink, and brand franchising to manufacturers of other goods and services both have potential. Threats Coffee cost: Starbucks are exposed to rises in the cost of coffee and dairy products. Customers Choice: Who knows if the market for will grow and stay in favour with customers, or weather another type of beverage or leisure activity replace coffee in future? Copy cat brands: Since its conception in Pike Place market, Seattle in 1971, Starbucks success has lead to market entry of many competitors and copy cat brands that pose to potential threats. Coffee pricing: Starbucks have variation in coffee prices in developing countries Security: Security risk at crowded places can also be one of the major threat. 8. Porters Five Forces The food or beverage industry is one of the growing industries today. A company need to analyse both macro and micro-environmental factors. Porters five forces ,model helps the companies to have an edge over rival companies and help to better understand the current market. Porters five forces are the internal factors that have a direct impact on the current market and helps to affectively compete in the market place. The threat of intensity of industry rivalry The threat of the entry of new competitors The threat of substitute products or services The bargaining power of Suppliers. The bargaining power of customers (buyers) The threat of intensity of industrial rivalry: Small speciality coffee shop chains and independent coffee shops Costa, Nero in Europe; Caribou coffee, Van Houtte, Peets Coffee and Tea company in Canada and USA. McDonalds McCoffee Dunkin Donuts Nestle? The threat of new competitors: Starbucks has a very strong brand name which is built over a period of time. Any new competitor into coffee business need to invest lot of money for advertising and marketing to get set in the market. Economies of scale high economies of scale are required to compete with the already established companies. Distribution channels the top retailers have established powerful global distribution channels. Well known brand names and difficult distribution. The threat of substitute products or services: Choosing less expensive alternatives than the luxury coffee that Starbucks offers. Other substitutes of the coffee are the caffeinated soft drinks. The bargaining power of suppliers: Fair Trade. It ensures that the coffee farmers would be paid fairly for their crops Increasing number of speciality coffee buyers. Supply and price can be affected by multiple factors in producing countries, including weather, political and economic conditions. The company buys coffee using fixed-price and price to be fixed purchase commitments, depending on the market conditions, to secure and adequate supply of quality green coffee. Expansion: The Starbukcs will have power on its suppliers by how much the Starbucks expansion is done The bargaining power of buyers: Buyers play a significant role in the Porters forces and this scenario has a great advantage. Buyers are the individual consumers who do not buy large quantites and do not have any influence over the price. Presence of substitutes. No switching costs. High risk of backward integration. 7. Marketing Mix Strategy The Starbucks brand, marketing mix is kept value with very good upshot. The steadiness of the product goes well with its price for very good products, the place are known as beign very comforting for customers apart from if the free way is next door. The atmosphere is so peaceful for customers. The product, price, place, promotion show evenness in the reputation of being a clean and upmarket coffee shop. Price: The amount of money a buyer must give to the seller for a specific quantity of the product is the price of that product and usually consumers use this as an indicator of quality (Dalrymple parsons, 1986). Price and quality determines the value of the product. When launched, Starbucks was expensive and was positioned in accordance with that. They always tried to deliver the high value promised to the consumers. They bought the quality beans, gave effective and efficient training staffs, and moreover, made an atmosphere to enjoy coffee, meet fellow people and take a break from the busy life. These all justify and their pricing and show how price supported their positioning. Product: Starbucks tried to positioned themselves as a premium product in the coffee industry by creating a high standard, introducing innovative products and providing excellent service. Schultz knew how perishable the coffee was and they take care on coffee control, and hence carefully they monitored each step of coffee production. Usage of non-fat milk and introduction of Frappuccuino made a significant presence in the balance sheet of Starbucks. Moreover, they provided seasonal offerings such as strawberry and cream Frappuccuino in summer and ginger bread latte in Christmas, were introduced. Gradually food items such as cookies, pastries, salads, sandwiches made they way into the stores. Place: Distribution channels link the organisations product or service to its consumers; and in a producer consumer channel, as in the case of Starbucks maintaining personal relationship with the customers in significant (Brassington pettitt 2000). As demand grew, these store clusters made them able to manage the increase traffic and to keep their competitive position. In the same way they took care about the service provided in the stores. Howard Schultz aimed to unlock the romance and mystery of coffee in coffee bars, and he knew how important the role of baristas in achieving that. Baristas experience in engage the customers was the heart of Starbucks experience. Thus they differentiated in the market by constantly providing higher quality service. Promotion: All marketing activities that attempt to stimulate buyer action or sales of a product can be considered as a promotion (Shrimp, 1977). Starbucks used to organise a big community event prior to the opening of its stores. Artworks are designed to boast the each citys personality and it was used on commuter and T-shirts. They also recruit local ambassadors from new partners and to customers to promote their brand. They dint use advertising but they used those funds for acquiring key locations. Starbucks tried to establish a national dominance before other speciality coffee bars into the picture. 8. PESTLE Analysis: PESTLE analysis stands for Political, Economical, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental analysis. PESTLE analysis provide macro-environmental factors that a company has to tale into consideration. It is useful as strategic tool for understanding maket growth or decline, business position and direction for operations. Legal and Political factor: The factors that include the stability of country in which Starbucks purchases its coffee and other raw goods. Coffee is grown in some pretty dicey areas. Also they proclaim to be environmental friendly, so they have to cosider how to protect the brand aspect in everything they do form increasing the shade of share grown and organic coffee, for providing a living wage that makes it to individual farmers, to have production techniques with low pollution rates. Right now, Starbucks has two action suits pending since 2001. The law suits entitled Carr Vs Starbucks and shields Vs Starbucks are challenging the status of Starbucks California store managers and assistant managers as exempt employees under California wage and hour laws. Starbucks also only imports all their coffee beans, so possibly threats could include a change in import laws. The change in the status as far as imports could greatly affect numerous areas of production for the company. For example if it cost more to import or the process is made more difficult the result could ultimately change in price, which would affect the level of consumption for Starbucks coffee. Economic factors: Economic factors are an important aspects that concerns the nature and direction of the economy in which the firm operates. Since the relative affluence of various market segments will affect the consumption patterns, companies must take this into consideration when planning its strategy. The companys net revenue increased from $1.3 billion fiscal 1998 to $ 1.7 billion in fiscal 1999 due primarily to the companys store expansion program and comparable store sale increases. As a part of its expansion strategy of clustering store in existing markets, Starbucks has experienced a certain level of cannibalization has been justified by incremental sales and return on new store investments. This cannibalization, as well as increased competition and other factors, may continue to put downwards pressure on the companys comparable store sales growth in future periods (www.Starbucks.com). Social Factors As a result from the economic factors Starbucks closely following their objectives, the company has installed a list of principles that further outline the companys willingness to make sure that its affect on the environment is as positive as possible. These principle are stated as: Understanding of environmental issues and sharing information with our partners. Developing innovative and flexible solutions to bring about change. Instilling environmental responsibility as a corporate value. Measuring and monitoring each our progress for each project. Encouraging all partners to share in our mission. Recognizing that fiscal responsibility is essential to our environmental future. The importance of these guidelines is further illustrated by the companys mission to show leadership towards environmental issues. Starbucks does not just rest on its laurels, it demonstrates through participating and organising activities such as neighbourhood clean-ups. Further examples of the companys action towards friendliness include the recycling and reusing of resources in order to enhance the lives of the people around the world (www.Starbucks.com). This illustrates the integrity of the company as they can sometimes sacrifice the opportunities if they dont follow the company stands for. In addition to the waste reduction, Starbucks also aims to reduce energy usage and once again demonstrates this by doing energy audits and then using the result to change store design or procedures so that they save as much as energy possible. Technological factor: Starbucks has developed a web-site that allows its customers to buy speciality items and coffee directly through internet. Consumers can also research products, look up current financial info, current Starbucks store location and also see answers to some of the sites most frequently asked questions. Coffee in Starbucks is made with 4 special but simple fundamental steps, firstly, use the right proportion of the coffee to water. Second the brewing process is short: third, use flesh, cold water heated to just off the boil; fourth, use fleshy ground coffee. Customers besides having coffee and flesh food in the shop. Starbucks also provides to go service and bottled which have different tastes like hazel nut, mocha, vanilla, caramel, etc. All those beverages are flesh food are handcrafted and may be customized. Environmental Factors: Starbucks has a wide range of business activity. These activities help company to use numerous channels of product distribution. With the company operating in many locations worldwide environmental factor plays a major role in marketing decisions. Each distribution channel affected differently and the companys flexibility in the marketing plan allows the company to adjust their strategies to meet the needs of the environmental factors. Starbucks provides a work environment treating others with respect and dignity. The company embraces diversity as an essential component in the way Starbucks does business. Starbucks believe that the company should enthusiastically satisfied customers all the time and contribute positive to our communities and our environmental and recognise that profitability is essential to our future success (Starbucks.com, 2008). Starbucks owns and operates its own facilities, warehouses and retail stores giving the company control of product design, shipping and receiving. The companys strategy is to sell premium products and pricing the products as high as the market will allow. Starbucks brand awareness is very important and by introducing new products developing new distribution channels. Starbucks is one of the leading company in sales of coffee and coffee products in the domestic and global markets. The companys management policies have allowed Starbucks to grow and prosper as an organisation. 9. Ansoff Matrix Ansoff matrix allows companies to explore ways to grow business with existing products or services and new products in existing and/or new markets. This helps companies decide what action should be taken. Ansoff matrix has four combinations: Market Penetration Product development Market development Diversification Market penetration: Market penetration is done when a company penetrates a market with the current products. It is important to know that the market penetration strategy begins with the existing consumers of the organisation. Market development: This occurs when the market you are analysing make some sort of change or advancement. Using the Starbucks example, market development has occurred over the past couple of years as customers are becoming more health conscious. Preferences are moving toward different types of teas/drinks and customers are demanding more healthy alternatives. These factors have aided to market development, with different franchise popping up, such as Argos tea, which become direct competitor to Starbucks. Product Development: In response to the market development mentioned above, Starbucks is introducing new product developments in order to compete with companies aiming to offer customers more health conscience drink options. Enter the new product, Skinny lattes and low fat/calorie syrups at Starbucks. Diversification: Due to the saturation of U.S. coffee market, and the decreasing of their gross profit margin, Starbucks has started to move from having a concentrated business strategy to a diversification strategy. Starbucks has realised that once a market matures that it is too risky to b concentrated, and we agree that they should keep diversifying their business product lines in an effort to stay profitable, and competitive. They should diversify into products such as candy, bagels, and other food related products. Conclusion Starbucks has been increasing its debt every year, and at a pace that is faster than their assets are growing. This is why we chose the firm to slow down its expansion and its focus more on marketing their products. In such a saturated market as the one that they are in Starbucks needs to focus on increasing consumer awareness and to decrease debt as much as possible. In closing we believe that Starbucks can become even more profitable if they slow down their expansion and concentrate on the stores that they already have open. Starbucks, its brand and products are at the maturity stage of product life cycle(PLC). Change in a more and more competitive market is essential The Perfect Blend will give Starbucks a new, unique and future oriented brand image. (www.docstoc.com) 9. Starbucks Future: Name president for European operations Mark McKeon will be responsible for strategic entry and growth into Europe. Plans to open at least 400 stores during 2000. Enhancing information systems Starbucks submitted plans to build or renovate at least 10 stores around the world. These store are designed or redesigned around green building principles. This puts Starbucks in line to meet its mandate to have all new stores be LEED certificate by the end of the year. The company began converting all lights in its stores to LED technology in 2010. Starbucks estimates that 1,000 stores have undergone the lighting retrofit. The company expects this change significantly reduce its energy consumption. Starbucks bought enough renewable energy certificates to have 25% of its electricity generated by clean energy sources. The company has a goal having a 50% of electricity produced by renewable energy in 2010. 10. Recommendations Revamp the employee reward system Large percentage of staff are under the age of twenty. Benefits package focuses on medical, dental, and vision care, as well as employee stock options. Outside of hourly wage, and semiannual raises, there are few monetary rewards. Tighten focus on creating the Third Place environment. Site has a very high employee turnover rate Manager Promoted to a another site in hopes of improving their poor performance Site has very poor handicapped accessibility Conditions of restroom in each of our visits was poor and no baby changing area. Focus Profitability Measures On More Than Just Staffing Store is underperforming some high margin product segments Too high focus on minimizing direct labour as a key to achieve profitability Focus on high-margin items and profitable add-on sales By increasing pastry sales by 33%, store would realise a $16K increase in contribution.