Saturday, August 31, 2019

Differentiation Strategies of Gm

Differentiation strategies are not about pursuing uniqueness for the sake of being different. Differentiation is about understanding customers and how GM ‘s product can meet their needs. To this extent, the quest for differentiation advantage takes us to the heart of business strategy. The fundamental issues of differentiation are also the fundamental issues of business strategy: Who are GM ‘s customers? How does GM create value for them? And how does GM do it more effectively and efficiently than anyone else? Because differentiation is about uniqueness, establishing differentiation advantage requires creativity – it cannot be achieved simply through applying standardized frameworks and techniques. This is not to say that differentiation advantage is not amenable to systematic analysis. As have observed, there are two requirements for creating profitable differentiation. On the supply side, GM must be aware of the resources and capabilities through which it can create uniqueness (and do it better than competitors). On the demand side, the key is insight into customers and their needs and preferences. These two sides form the major components of our analysis of differentiation. In analyzing differentiation opportunities, GM can distinguish tangible and intangible dimensions of differentiation. Tangible differentiation is concerned with the observable characteristics of a product or service that are relevant to customers’ preferences and choice processes. These include size, shape, color, weight, design, material, and technology. Tangible differentiation also includes the performance of the product or service in terms of reliability, consistency, taste, speed, durability, and safety. Image differentiation are especially important for those products and services whose qualities and performance are difficult to ascertain at the time of purchase (â€Å"experience goods†). These include cosmetics, medical services, and education. By offering uniqueness in its offerings, GM may inevitably target certain market niches. By selecting performance, engineering, and style as the basis on which BMW competes in the automobile industry, it inevitably appeals to different market segments than does VW. To the extent that differentiation is imitated by other companies, the result can be the creation of new market segments. During the 1990s, General Motors’ segmented marketing strategy that targeted each brand on a specific price bracket and particular socioeconomic category ran into increasing problems as US customers showed less and less identification with the segments GM had defined for them. Demand analysis identifies customers’ demands for differentiation and their willingness to pay for it, but creating differentiation advantage also depends on a firm’s ability to offer differentiation. To identify the firm’s potential to supply differentiation, we need to examine the activities the firm performs and the resources it has access to. Pros and cons A strategy use by GM to seek competitive advantage through uniqueness (develop goods and services that are clearly different from those made available by the competitors)This strategy requires organizational strengths in marketing, research and development, technological leadership and creativity . They provide good services to the customer which services are different from other organization . G. M. is a multinational corporation engaged in socially responsible operations, worldwide. It is dedicated to provide products and services of such quality that our customers will receive superior value while our employees and business partners will share in our success and our stock-holders will receive a sustained superior return on their investment These days, GM realize how important it is to have employees trained in good customer service skills working in their contact center if they want to enhance their reputation. For example training staff in problem solving and the ability to multi task in areas such as navigating complex databases and switching between different computers to find information for the caller is now becoming a routine function in a modern contact center. It is therefore an advantage for call center employees in today’s workplace to have the ability to think quickly on their feet so they can deal quickly with involved information while working under pressure. GM also providing Transportation Services: Here GM aim at providing top nick transportation services to the customers and satisfy them to maximum extent. GM know that a delay in shipping the freights can cause considerable loss to the clients and the business, therefore on-time delivery is extremely important to us. The network of truck agents which are located at all over the booking points ensure that your consignments reach to its final destination in full secured mode, GM also gratify to all your transportation needs by providing you door-to-door Pick Up & Delivery Transportation services.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Dystopia Essay

Dystopia is a Utopia gone wrong to create a society that rather than making people happy, makes people unhappy. That is exactly what the town in Fahrenheit 451 had become, a dystopia. The creation of this dystopia was the result of the government fearing the power given to the citizens through the knowledge in books so they took them away. The ban of books formed the dystopia, the people’s fear of being burned for reading made the social principles, and the people who didn’t fear to be burned rebelled and showed their society what was wrong with the way they were living.What started this whole dystopia in the first place was the government’s fear of being overpowered by the citizens who read and gained power from the knowledge they had collected. Because of the government’s fear, books were completely banned and anyone who decided to break the law was burned with the books inside the house. People called the firemen were the ones to start the fire which di ffers from their former job of putting them out.Everything changed when the books got banned whether it was as simple as people getting an urge to read even if they never wanted to before or as drastic as a worker who once saved people from fires was someone who killed people with fire. Because the penalty was so extreme, the law was followed in most cases and a lot of people were afraid of being burned. The only thing that kept this law in action was the fact that the people were afraid of the consequence which made society obedient as they quaked in fear. Because of the obedience, there always seemed to be routine.Nobody really knew how to feel about it because they didn’t want to know how to feel about it in fear that they would feel negatively towards it and be burned for the thought. The social principles throughout the whole novel, Fahrenheit 451, revolved around the fear of the people and the government as a whole. What really scared the government, however, were the p eople who were not afraid of the government or the consequences of reading. They were the ones that had the power in knowledge and could see the fault in the society.Rebels in society tried to make everyone see what was wrong but failed. In the novel, they had a plan that worked and put an end to the ban of books using the government’s war to get rid of the rebels against them. What the rebels showed the rest of the town was that the government took away power we had a right to and knowledge we created and were entitled to and that the government took it away from the people so that they would be the only one with power and the citizens were to always be the obedient ones.The realization of the dystopia is what destroyed the government with help from the rebellious ones. Within knowledge comes power and in that power, people are the welders. If you try to take away power that people are given and entitled to, you’re not going to get very far. That’s what happene d in Fahrenheit 451 that made it a dystopia. The government took away the power of the people and in the end, society rebelled. Making the novel, Fahrenheit 451, a dystopia.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Point of Presence Advertising Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Point of Presence Advertising - Essay Example The author planned to purchase a movie named Lord of the Rings - Fellowship of the Ring on recommendation of a friend and came across a pack of all the three movies of Lord of the Ring series at a price that was 20% less than the overall cost had the movies been purchased separately. The author realized that he anyway had to purchase the other two movies to complete the story and was delighted to get all the three of them at 20% discount. In the second purchase instance, the author was delighted to realize the value of the package as he owns both a Sony digital camera and Handy Cam. The total price was cheaper by 15%. Such product promotion advertisements resulted in positive impact on the author because the overall value of the buying decisions improved although the author didn't had planned for part of the purchase. The effectiveness of these two "Point-of-Sale" advertisements resulted in win-win deal for both the store and the author - the store increased the net sale value and th e author got more useful products at lesser cost. The author was not at all annoyed but was happy with the sales girl for introducing these offers. Massy and Frank (1966. pp383) presented the findings of an exploratory study on behavior of retailer advertising thus establishing some interesting empirical generalizations. They could prove that the brands sell differently in different stores and the support to a brand depends upon the brand's market share in a particular store type. The author discovered a linkage of this theory with the research by Kumar and Leone (1988. pp178-179) which stated that many customer packaged good manufacturers have resorted to funding short term sales promotion at the store level which primarily has two distinct advantages - the effectiveness of promotions can result in on the spot sales activity and the store management takes pride into participating in on the spot campaigns given increased margins & commissions. Both the manufacturer and the store management gain in this process - the former achieves brand promotion & quick sales and the latter achieves improved profitability of the store. Howeve r the store management normally achieves short term benefits but the manufacturers achieve long term benefits by achieving strong customer franchise through brand substitution. From the author's perspective one good observation about this model is that the on the spot promotional activities sometimes are effective enough to modify the purchase plan by the customers that they had made before visiting the store. Bucklin and Lattin (1991. pp24) observed that "point-of-purchase promotion is particularly attractive given the large pro-portion of grocery purchase decisions made after entering the store". They further observed that "two-thirds of supermarket purchases are the result of an in-store decision". Culturally speaking, such campaigns has promoted a culture of "fun buying" even avail such promotions to just find out what's hot on the day and carry out on the spot purchase decisions. Many a times, customers just get impressed by the sales skills of the sales person and do not bothe r what brand they are buying. Hence the

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Market government Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Market government - Article Example However the generally accepted view points out to the housing bubble to be the prime reason. It all started with the collapse of Lehman Brothers and quickly penetrated into the market causing turbulence and system crash. This recession did not take place as a result of a business cycle that generally affects each and every economy. A number of reasons underlie this particular case of financial crisis including that of the shocks arising in the general business cycles which has been instrumental in disrupting the labor market equilibrium in the United States. The entire issue of the financial crisis is to be reviewed from all the angles of economics including the neoclassical, mixed liberal and the radical points of view to have a perspective of the entire event. This paper will enlighten the various perspectives put forward by the different schools of thoughts and accordingly place their views in the following paragraphs. The Neo Classical economists base their theories on the microeconomic principles which include the optimization of the individuals and firms and to determine the equilibrium price and output in the economy using the market forces of demand and supply. The theory considers that the people make rational decisions based on the information that they have about the market. The neoclassical economists explain the fluctuations in the economies as a result of the upturn of the business cycles in the economy (Blanchard, 2000). The economic variables that generally behave in a particular fashion in order to result in a recession have behaved in a most unusual manner in case of this particular financial crisis. The level of consumption, output investment as well as the employment of labor was much low. By analysis of the economic variables it was found that the crisis of the present period is much more severe compared to that of the Great Depression of 1937 or any other recessions that have ta ken place in the world. The drop in the level of

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Valuation of Futures Contracts Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Valuation of Futures Contracts - Assignment Example The future looks gloomy for this stock Factors affecting perfomance of cooprate bond Prevailing interest rates Idealy corprate bonds offer better yield prospects than government bonds but that’s because of the risk involved. This is happens so as to entice the investors to turn their attention away from the treaeury bonds and securities. Since most often than not, the performance of corprate bonds are pegged against that of treasury bonds. The prices at which the later are quoted really maters, the amount of yield they produce also matters a lot. When the yield of a bonds future is less than that of prevailing treasury bonds, such a bond is considered to be under performing. When the Government issues bonds at better prices than that of the corporate bonds the demand shifts to the government bonds thus the laws of demand and supply come into play hence forcing the corporate bond’s price to dip. The opposite happens when the government bonds are not that attractive which is very rare. Overal perception of the investor Whenever global news headlines are positive and encouraging, investors tend to be more open minded and open to opportunities across the globe. At such times they are willing to put out their money because they are confident of a good return on investment thanks to a good business climate moving forward. The opposite happens when there is turmoil and conflict; most investors tend to hold on to their money during such periods. Some investor even consider divesting from markets they consider to be to risky or adversely affected by the negative news. They focus more into secure investments such as treasury bonds and securities. If a company is trading in an environment considered being risky at a particular time by portential investor, those investors may choose to shy away from the corporate bonds issued by that compnay and such an action may affect the price of the bond negatively. Political developments or natural disasters in an econo my half way across the world can greatly affect the performance of a stock locally. A good case in point is the earth quakes and Tsunamis. Political activities also do influence price flactuations in a corprate bond. Usually investors shy away from ecomonies that have unstable political environments, especially when such a countries are having elections or revolutions. Overall finacial health of a company The overall financial health of a company is of paramount importance. A company’s ability to maintain high profits increase investor apetite and confidence therefore a corprate bond issues by that company at such a time would fetch very high prices. This is because investors like being assoiated with performing companies thus making them more reluctant to sell the bonds they hold with such companies which results into low yields but rising prices. The opposite happens when a company reports losses. Such reports really vex investor confidence to the extent that some start to doubt weather that Particullar Company will be able to pays their debts to the investors. Such doubts can prompt investors to damp the bonds of that campany into the market thus increasing the yield but reducing prices. Credit rating agencies such as Standards & Poors also do affect the perfomance of a corprate bond. These credit rating agenc

Monday, August 26, 2019

Humor Theory of Incongruity and How it is Seen in Improv Term Paper

Humor Theory of Incongruity and How it is Seen in Improv - Term Paper Example When incongruity occurs, it â€Å"violates our normal patterns and normal expectations†. So when something nonsensical or of the ridiculous occurs it contradicts daily norms and perceptions of propriety often causing the observer to respond with laughter. There are many theories for humour, which emerged primarily from philosophical studies and research in psychology. Of these, the incongruity theory comes out in the improv theatre. The incongruity theory suggests that humour is due to the mixing of two disparate interpretation frames in one statement. One of the earliest references to an incongruity theory of humour is perhaps due to Aristotle (350 BC) who found out that the contrast between expectation and actual outcome of often a source of humour. There is a distinction between surprise and incongruity. This occurs where the audience presumes the later to have a resolution that the actions initially hide from the audience. The incongruity theory also has a supporter in sev eral psychologists who emphasize the element of surprise by suggesting that â€Å"the greater and more expected (...) the incongruity is, the more violent will be (the) laughter†. ... Some theorists argue that plays only need incongruity for humour to be present; others argue that there is need for both incongruity and a resolution of that incongruity. This second version is called the configurationally theory. Several theorists point out that another element – intelligence perception- must be present since humour has its basis in intellect. It is therefore important to understand the differences between the inconsistencies in order to appreciate humour better (Beard 45). Incongruity theorists believe that the audience laughs because their line of thought surprisingly switches from one context to another. Although many scholars argue that understanding the nature of humour is extremely difficult, if not impossible, because of the fluid variables in any humour context, some scholars believe that incongruity best defines the fundamental element of humour. For its proponents, incongruity forms the foundation of humour theory, the most universal one, which vali dates all humour contexts, both perceived and created. The greatest weakness of this theory is that its tasting is not significant (Michael et. al. 11). Incongruity in improv closely relates with the developmental theory. These two theories stress the absurd, the inappropriate or out-of-context events as the basis for humour. While these incongruities are necessary, they are not sufficient prerequisites for humour alone. After all, incongruous events or statements can lead to curiosity or anxiety rather than humour; so the perception of humour is dependent upon how the audience understands incongruity in the context in which it occurs. This brings the understanding that not only does the audience have to perceive an

Sunday, August 25, 2019

American Architecture in the Gilded Age Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

American Architecture in the Gilded Age - Essay Example The researcher of this essay focuses on the discussion of The Gilded Age, that is a term that came to reflect the time of the greatest economic, territorial, industrial, and population expansion in American history. It was Mark Twain who gave us the Gilded Age, a novel that humored this period and most importantly portrayed its people , the time and the structures that can only be measured in the standards of opulence and fast transformations. The researcher states that although there are two sides on this term as it was coined as a satire, the period, which started from 1876, indeed, marked an epoch whose achievements are felt in the great men it has produced and the monuments that would influence what is to be the modern American architecture. Thus, it is not surprising to know that the â€Å"Gilded Age† provided a period of dynamism in the area of American architecture, that is a main focus of this essay. Firstly, the researcher discusses the Chicago World Fair of 1893 or m ore popularly known as the Columbian Exposition, that brought together the brightest minds of the â€Å"Gilded Age† in the field of architecture. Seconsly, the researcher discusses The Central Park, also called as â€Å"the Greensward,† designed by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux and was build in the 19th century. The researcher then concluds that architecture provides us not only an unparalleled insight if we are to study a society, but also an era or history as a whole and a sphere that will shape the history and the public.

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Week 10 TW questions 13&14 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Week 10 TW questions 13 - Essay Example In summary jury trial, the parties present evidence to a six-bench jury who give their nonbinding decision from the presentations. Lastly, a summary bench trial is more or less like the prior but the case is tried before a judge instead of a jury. According to Glannon (2008), all the decisions from the court related ADR are nonbinding and any dissatisfied parties are free to proceed and file appeals to the courts. These are ways of resolving disputes by avoiding the courts in totality hence decisions by these methods of resolution are binding and final to the parties. The methods include- negotiation, mediation, binding arbitration, ministerial and private judging with mediation and arbitration being the most popular according to research (Glannon, 2008). Negotiation entails the engagement of the parties in a discussion and finding a solution by themselves. Ministerial and private judging of cases calls for the involvement of independent ministers and judges respectively out of the courts in helping to resolve disputes between individuals after careful considerations. According to Glannon (2008), the main difference between courts related ADR and Private ADR is that Private ADRs are final and

Discuss the Influence of Modern Media Sources On Terrorism In a Essay

Discuss the Influence of Modern Media Sources On Terrorism In a Globalised World With Many Cultural Differences - Essay Example The paper will first discuss the impact of modern media on world cultures where it will be argued that the media has become a tool for globalising culture and therefore dissolving the independence of national cultures. The debate as to whether the media and terrorism form a symbiotic relationship will also be analysed. There will then be particular emphasis on the internet to see how it is becoming a new form of violent radical milieu for terrorism. Finally, the role of modern media in advancing counterterrorism will also be investigated. This essay makes a conclusion that advancement in technologies has been an avenue by which terror groups have used of modern media as a powerful tool in advancing their course. With the line of analysis however, it will not be accurate to conclude that the media has done this as a deliberate agenda. Rather, its role in terrorism which is more of a symbiotic relation has been created against its own will. This is because through modern technologies, even small terror groups have had the means of making their actions and programmes hyped on the internet, thereby creating news for themselves. Meanwhile the media is there to report the news, forcing the media to give more attention to terror groups. Again, the internet, which is a key component of modern media, has become an avenue by which news is self-generated. Indeed through the internet, terror groups do not even require the attention of popular international media houses to get attention for themselves.

Friday, August 23, 2019

Maximisation of profit Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5500 words

Maximisation of profit - Article Example When small groups of people come together and work on a project, they invariably have to analyze as to what their mission and goal are. Organizations are usually classifies into different types like public sector (Central governments, state government run offices, schools, colleges, public welfare systems), private sectors (small business partnerships, limited companies, cooperatives, multinationals etc.), Quasi-Governmental organizations, Organizations in the charitable sector and even the churches and trade unions can be referred to as organizations. (N.Kumar, 1997) Hence, every organization issues a mission statement, which includes the purpose of setting up the organization. In social sciences, organizations are perceived from different dimensions. The general study of how an organization works is termed as organizational behavior or analysis. The whole of organization's behavior revolves only around one aspect-its goal. Every organization should have, irrespective of the field i t operates in, a distinct goal. (N.Kumar, 1997) A goal, not only gives them a direction of persuasion, but also gives the much required motivation to the employees to work towards it, thereby helping them achieve their potential along with the company's growth. Likewise, a conceived state of an organization in a stipulated amount of time is referred to as 'Vision'. 'Vision' is extremely crucial for an organization as it gives a glimpse of the state of the organization after a certain period of time to the employees and stakeholders. 'Vision' can be taken as a benchmark for the company's performance in the future and can be used for comparison of various results recorded by the company. (Davenport Hines, 1990) Private-owned organizations usually have profit-maximization as their sole objective. (Susan Grant, 2000) However, many economists have different views over how an organization's objective should be formulated. Different people have come up with different theories over the issue of organizational objective. Many of them clashed, many of them overlapped and new theories were born out of the overlapping theories, but a general consensus is achieved that profit-maximization should be the sole objective organization though other objectives cannot be safely put aside. In this dissertation, I'd like to analyze the various theories put forward by economists and then draw a suitable conclusion from the same. I will also be studying a few patterns of various industries by taking certain specific examples of how a few companies overcame different situations keeping in their minds profit-maximization as their sole-objective. Literature Review As said above, it is imperative for an organization to identify its objectives before venturing and investing resources into the venture. So what is/are the goals a financial manager in a company will seek. In the first impulse, the only objective, which comes to, the mind, is profit maximization. Any business enterprise aims at earning profits; hence, it may be argued that profit maximization should be the sole objective of the organization. It is needless to say, that earning profits sustains the company's existence and can motivate the company to expand its market and

Thursday, August 22, 2019

The key themes of Romeo and Juliet Essay Example for Free

The key themes of Romeo and Juliet Essay Romeo and Juliet is the tragic tale of forbidden love, fate and destiny. The prologue is important as it introduces these key themes and creates dramatic irony. It is introduced by a chorus to give us a commentary and summary of the action. The dramatic irony whets the audiences appetite for the play, and the prologue helps the lower class audience understand the storyline easier. Act 1 Scene 1 grabs the attention of both the higher and lower classes of audience with the use of poetry for the higher classes and the comical influences would draw the lower classes into the play. Modern film adaptations of Romeo and Juliet such as Baz Luhrmanns version appeal to modern audiences because of special effects, lighting and sound. Shakespeare on the other hand used only the language he wrote down and the space on the stage in front of him to create dramatic tension and hold the audiences interest. Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet originated from an English poem, The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet by Arthur Brooke. It was published in 1562 and was written in the popular style of the sonnet. Shakespeares main change to the poem was the duration of the events that took place. Instead of taking three months, the proceedings took a mere five days. This increased dramatic tension in the story by speeding up the pace, showing us that the nature of young love is passionate and impulsive. The audience would have already been familiar with the story as they would have known the original version. The prologue introduces what you are about to see, and brings up the key themes of the play such as fate and death. These are explained with phrases such as star crossd lovers which gives the implication of fate romance and death, as there is a mythology that the stars are symbols of a dead person (in the heavens), and they are romantic symbols. The prologue creates dramatic tension because the audience is told exactly what will happen, and this illustrates that the future is set in stone and cannot be changed. The form of the prologue is a sonnet a love poem about suffering and pain. This again highlights the key themes and creates dramatic irony and suspense, as the story of Romeo and Juliet is about the suffering and pain of young love. The episodic structure of Act 1 Scene 1 creates a fast and exciting pace, involving the audience; never letting them get bored. The fight scene is very quick and exhilarating in pace, and heightens the suspense of the scene. Whereas this is very swift and tense part of the Act, it largely contrasts with Romeos lament. He is very calm and deep talking about his vast emotions of love for Rosaline. The juxtaposition of the characters and events create a lot of dramatic tension as we know that Romeo will eventually be involved in one of these feuds because of his love. The contrast between the sombre and melancholy tone of the prologue and the humorous, vulgar beginning of scene1 is to involve both the lower and upper classes of the audience. The lower and less mentally involved classes of the audience would relate to the humour of the first scene, We will not carry coalsno for then we should be colliers, whilst the higher more intellectual classes of audience would appreciate the more meaningful structure of the prologue, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. The use of the props such as the swords they are carrying and the gesture of biting the thumb I do bite my thumb, sir holds the suspense of the audience and increases dramatic tension with the suggestion of potential death and violence. The biting of the thumb increases the dramatic tension even more because it was used to trigger violence. Humour is used in this banter to appeal to the lower classes, and the light-hearted conversation and joking about the violence between the Montagues and the Capulets suggests that the feud has been going on for so long that it isnt taken seriously any more. The pun collar choler introduces the theme of anger leading to death right from the beginning of the play as collar means the hangmans noose, and choler means anger. Also the pun on the heads of the maidens or their maidenheads shows the attitude towards women in that time was that they were just objects to be used. The male servants joke about how they will rape the women servants and take their virginity. The attitude back then was that women were not valued if they didnt have their virginity.  This again shows the women to be animals or things to be used and discarded. The patriarchal system of the day shows this as Juliet was forced to marry Paris against her will. This also shows the different attitudes of Romeo towards women. He has respect for women and shows this by idealising them. This links in to the key theme of love. Dramatic tension is built through the fight scene and Princes speech through the juxtaposition of characters of different classes, who use language for different purposes. The Princes speech is written in verse, rather than prose and he uses complex sentence structures, showing his higher social status, If ever you disturb our streets again, your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace! and also once again appealing to higher-class members of the audience. The language used during the fight scene contrasts to this as it is prose, and quite comical, Do you quarrel sir? Quarrel sir! No sir. As the Prince appears the tone of the scene sobers and his ideas as well as his language contrasts to that of the servants, as he speaks in verse. His threat to the families on pain of death increases dramatic tension as we already know that two people will die as a result of the information given to us from the prologue. In the Romeo and Benvolio scene, Lady Montagues comment about Romeo right glad I am he was not at this fray proves ironic because we as the audience know he is going to die anyway. When the characters start talking about Romeo, the mood changes from dramatic to calm and the key theme of love becomes predominant. The oxymorons used by Romeo here (loving hate, feather of lead) express his confusion and the inner conflict he has between his family and love. Loving hate shows how he feels about love in that love is also like hate. The metaphors Romeo uses for love increase and create dramatic tension because he describes love as a choking gall. This means poison and we know that he dies from drinking poison. I would describe the language he uses as poetic and meaningful. This shows his tender attitudes towards love, but at the same time there is a darker side to it. He shows that he craves and relies on love. He is in love with the idea of love, rather than love itself, alas that love, whose view is muffled still, should without eyes see pathways to his will! Act 1 scene 1 introduces the audience to the characters and their relationships to portray the situation and inform us of their personalities early on in the play. In the Baz Luhrmann version, lighting sound and special effects are used to greater highlight the key themes and also create dramatic tension. In the fight scene, tension is built by the use of dramatic sound and the characters raising their voices. The louder the music the louder the voices become. The tone and the speed of the action create tension as well. Fire was used to symbolise violence and anger. It shows destruction and therefore creates more dramatic tension. There are clear advantages and disadvantages to filming rather than staging it. Many takes can be shot to get the perfect atmosphere and film can be altered to create a mood whereas on a stage mistakes can be made, and theres the risk that the atmosphere may be lost. In the end, the prologue rings true and Romeo and Juliet die the tragic deaths foretold before. I think it is the most inspiring and beautiful love story ever old and there will never be another one like it; For there never was a story of more woe, than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

The Glaxosmithkline Merger: Analysis

The Glaxosmithkline Merger: Analysis Introduction Mergers are not new in pharmaceutical industry in the recent years and the same for both Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham throughout each others history. Considering the political, social and economic resistance, the general driving forces for these mergers in this industry are, more firms showed interest in using strategic partnerships and joint ventures to develop and market new products. Though pharmaceutical holds a global market, the US market decided the growth of the industry as it holds 45% of the global market. So not surprisingly the US political, social and economic resisted and delivered a strong impact on the growth of the whole pharmaceutical industry. However Pfizers merger pushed Glaxo SmithKline to 2nd rank in the industry, they were number one immediately after their merger. So the business changes of the organisation had a heavy impact on the whole pharmaceutical industry. So this paper had assessed the reason for the merger and extend the aims of the merger is achieved. Background of SmithKline Beecham: SmithKline Beecham resulted from the merger of SmithKline Beckman (SKB) and Beecham. Beecham was well known for its traditional research strength whereas SKB was known for its aggressive sales force in US. Though the process of merger was lengthy, the change from more laid British approach of Beecham to process oriented working was success. The new company tried to keep up with critical mass but they lacked in budgeting RD, which was the real constrain for companys growth. Background of Glaxo Wellcome: Glaxo Wellcomes birth was from Glaxos takeover of Wellcome in 1995. Glaxo was well known for its strong marketing approach, commercial success of its RD efforts and blockbuster product Zantac whereas Wellcome is non-profit medical institution well known for its academic approach to pharmaceuticals. Though there were several clashes between Wellcomes laid back management style and Glaxos hard-nosed, commercial and control driven culture, with the help of economic of scale in RD activities, Glaxo reduced the conflicts and resistance. However the companys growths in producing blockbuster products were lacking. 1. Reasons for the Glaxo SmithKline Merger: Merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham was a global one. The merger was a unique all over the world and various divisions of both the companies merged in around 170 countries in 2000, expect Pakistan. The merger came through after UK court order in January 2000; however it happened in Pakistan only on 23rd October 2002. So the merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham in Pakistan was the off shoot of the global merger of the companies. There were six reasons which compelled both the legendary companies to go for the merge and to build a leading company in the entire pharmaceutical industry. The reasons for merging up together were: To reduce the Research Development pipeline. To reduce the Research Development cost. Drug reimbursement issues. Political pressures and growing concerns over drug prices. Patent expirations / Generic competition. Recent developments in biotechnology and the mapping of the human genome. The right theme and idea backing the merger was, to improve quality of human life for enabling people to do more, feel better, live longer. As both the companies holds the strength in more similar kind of field that is, developing drugs for infectious respiratory neurological gastrointestinal and metabolic disease, they want to lead the way in providing treatment for the same. Apart from the above field, the join company appeared to be the worlds leading producers of prescription medicine, vaccine and consumer health care products. So they planned for delivering innovative medicines and products that help billions of people round the world live longer, healthier and happier life. The whole pharmaceutical industry was focusing and investing in RD as it delivers modern ways to handle prolonging problems and helps in the long term growth of the industry. The hunger to deliver medicines for new diseases made the join group (GlaxoSmithKline) to pay more attention in RD and wished to reduce the number of products in the pipeline of RD. Though both companies produced similar kind of drugs and so integrating their products line was very obvious, the process demanded more time and efforts. This was mainly because; both had more number of products in the pipeline and hardly had blockbuster products in market. Still the management believed that the time for working on new diseases will be reduces by working together on lesser products. And in general all research and development evolves a risk of failure. Not that each compounds and all research towards developing new drugs for a targeted diseases comes out as success but in turn consumes high time, efforts and money. B ut the RD is the only answer for the long term growth of both the joint company and the industry. So sticking to mission and vision of the new company, GSK has decided to focus of RD but in a different way of approach .i.e. cost saving, economics of scale and licensing from other firms. Apart from these, a PEST analysis on the pharmaceutical industry will give a clear picture and highlight the hidden reason for the recent merger activities in industry and in particular GSK. PEST Analysis on Pharmaceutical Industry: Political: Considering the Medicare in USA and UKs National Health Service, the level of political interest developed in this industry can be determined. In addition USA and European market hold the first and second place of industrys global market respectively. So its very clear that the industry has gained a massive political attention because of the increasing social and financial burden of healthcare and safety. In the increased political attention on the industry, has kept the industry low to live up the expectation and their interference on most moves of the industry was a really worrying the giants of the industry. Also the pressure of civil in rapid delivery of products has kept their quality and the industry finds hard in delivering effective products. Economic: The economic growth of the industry was rapid in recent years and next to IT industry with nine geographic markets account for over 80% of global pharmaceutical sales these are US, Japan, France, Germany, UK, Italy, Canada, Brazil and Spain. Of the above listed markets, US market holds a major one and fastest too however there is down fall in 2009. The US Pharmaceutical Industry is one of the mainstays of the Economy of America. It has been observed that the US Pharmaceutical Industry is growing at a rapid pace and is showing no signs of slowing down. The US Pharmaceutical Industry Growth is also considered as a very significant part in the world pharmaceutical industry as well. Source: http://www.economywatch.com/world-industries/pharmaceutical/us.html According to analysis, in 2009, global pharmaceutical sales increased by only 2.5% ~ 3.5%, reaching a total of about 750 billion-760 billion U.S. dollars, which is lower than in October last year the growth rate of 4.5% to 5.5%, a total of 8200 the forecast 100 million U.S. dollars. This growth rate is the lowest in the past 25 years. Source: http://www.sourcejuice.com/1169843/2009/05/08/Growth-rate-global-pharmaceutical-industry-lower/ Social: Every industry tries to have a good social relation. But this industry is many steps forward than the other industries because; good health is an important personal and social requirement. All the companies of this industry hold and play a vital and unique role fulfilling societys need for good health. And threat of some killing diseases like, AIDS, SWINE FLU, SARS etc. had not only attracted the attention of public and media but developed a more depending and demanding situation on the industry. This immense situation has made the industry to maintain direct relation with the society (consumers) with the help of media and government care. Technological: The advance scientific technologies have increased the need for high spending in research and development in regards to encourage the innovation. The growth of technology drives the industry to responds faster to the expectation of the environment. This technology advancement evolves both risks and rewards. Legal Environment: However in current situation, government involves the industry in the proposal for regulatory outflows to encourage the innovation, these legal and regulatory affairs of US in special was a speed beaker for the development of the industry. European pharmaceutical giants really struggled in this situation. Sykess statement summarized how Europes pharmaceutical companies have been locked in a high stakes multibillion dollar struggle with their US rivals to stay in business in the 21st century. This struggle is associated with increased takeover activity and pharmaceutical companies seeking economies of scale to finance escalating research and development budgets. Source: Case study GSK a merger too far? Exploring Corporate Strategy by Johnson, Scholes Whittington. 2. To what extent have the aims of Glaxo SmithKline merger been achieved? Some of the aims of the newly formed Glaxo SmithKline were, Not to protect future earnings growth but actually to increase critical mass to really outperform the industry. To become the indisputable leader in the industry in terms of conquering the challenges that the industry faces. To deliver innovative products that helps millions of people in the world to live longer, healthier and happier. To achieve the aims, the management formed a new structure for RD, highlighting the cost reductions and breaking of pipeline. However, the lack of focus on general organisational structure and internal management structure resulted in low returns compared to the estimate one. To handle the situation, the all the long terms aims has left unfocused and the management tried to recover the company from the sudden-death syndrome. This clearly gives an evidence for Glaxo SmithKlines downfall form the anticipated growth. The inability of GSK in producing blockbuster products, joint hand with the above described situation made things worse. Focusing on employees and other internal management issues in the later part helped the company to handle the global resisting issues and focus on their long term goals. Analysing GSKs stock market performance (1998 2003), tells that GSK failed to touch the anticipated heights and were only able to sail along with the industry growth. Based on the Lewins force field model, the driving forces of GSK were not too enough to overcome the resistance for change and thus failed to achieve the fixed target. Evidence for GSK loses record: In the first year of post-merger, GSK claimed 12% increase in pharama industry, with the help of cost savings and disposal of assets. The firm anticipated double the level of saving in the next year. The health care grew only 3%. They fail to record returns in RD in spite of combined RD budget and investment. It also failed to deliver blockbuster product to enhance the revenue. Instead to maintain the tempo, the management kept buying 40 licenses from other companies. GSK has shed more than 15,000 jobs; Managers were unable to retain the talent that resides on the firms. Instead of creating a powerhouse, research was split into smaller, autonomous units. (Abrahams, 1992 p.22) GSKs new radical structure was a response to a series of failures in research at the two merger partners. (Dyer, G., 2002 p.3). The new radical structure resulted James Palmer (Head Development) resignation in October 2002. At the AGM on 19 May 2003, GSK shareholders rejected a motion regarding a  £22 million pay and benefits package for CEO, JP Garnier. This was the first time such a rebellion by shareholders against a major British company has occurred, but was regarded as a possible turning point against other so-called fat cat deals within executive pay structure. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GlaxoSmithKline In November 2005, AIDS Healthcare Foundation accused the company of boosting its short-term monopoly profit by not increasing production of the anti-AIDS drug AZT despite a surge in demand, hence creating a shortage that affected many AIDS patients in Africa. GSK announced that it had halted clinical trials of the CCR5 entry inhibitor, aplaviroc (GW873140), in HIV-infected, treatment-naive patients because of concerns about severe hepatotoxicity.[27] In June 2006 GSK said it was further cutting, by about 30%, the not-for-profit prices it charges for some of these medicines in the worlds poorest countries. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GlaxoSmithKline To analyse, extend the aims of the merger have been achieved; SWOT analysis is done on the joint company, Glaxo SmithKline. Remuneration lenient explicitly SWOT Analysis Glaxo SmithKline: Strengths High potential staffs and experienced managers. Wide-ranging set of documents in health sector. Strong platform in health care division. Strong market position Focus to concentrate and develop leadership in Public relations i.e. to strengthen the social context of the environment. Modern hospital system, Clear public health and health care service purchasing Balanced finance in the health sector Strong IT development Product development track record. Weaknesses Lack of clear and wide perspective .goals to achieve the aims Weak bond among health care, public health and social care. Inability to cope with the cost increases. Low brand value for its products. Inefficiency in motivating the experienced leader and thus failing to make maximum use of the potential staffs. Lack of viable training and management skills. Not an efficient HR strategy in retaining key professionals. Lack of right proposition of various competences. Co-marketing agreements can limit GSKs global presence. With mass RD, inability to produce blockbuster products. Opportunities Technological development Social changes and challenges. Economic growth of the industry (immediately next to IT industry). Free movement of goods, services, labour. Developing vaccines for persistent diseases chance to have craic. Empowerment of citizens and their greater engagement Threats Patent expiry on drugs that generate strong income Ageing and demographic change. Safety issues surrounding the products. Ecological and public health threats. Expectations of the raising population As the RD of global rivals work on similar products in most of the cases, the competition is high and much demanding. Emerging of potential regional market like China and India. Political pressure in fixing the price for new drugs, which fails to fulfil even the research cost. Ever increasing cost of drug trials and ever higher standards imposed by national drug approvals bodies (Aspirin would not get approval if invented today!) Conclusion: Thought there are several giants in the industry, similar to the current situation, there was an uncertain situation during the period of early 90s. And to overcome that uncertain situation, most of the firms in the industry move themselves towards the strategy Mergers and acquisition. But, as there is always a saying that not all mergers works, most of the mergers in the industry fail to achieve the anticipated growth and I feel Glaxo SmithKline is the right example for the scenario. GSK believed that bigger the size, bigger the growth and bigger earning. But it failed to realise bigger the size, bigger the expectation, bigger pressure and failing to handle the pressure and keep the expectation will reflect badly. Various merger analyse debated, though GSK claim some success through cost saving and pipeline synergies, the aimed and announced growth was not received in terms of market. So I conclude that, the merger served the company only in short term success and failed to achieve the aims of the merger. Reference and Source: http://www.ucc.ie/quality/INTERNET/PESTAnalysis.pdf www.gsk.com Johnson G, Scholes K and Whittington R (2008) Exploring Corporate Strategy, (Prentice Hall) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GlaxoSmithKline#cite_note-43 http://www.wikiswot.com/SWOT/4_User_Generated/GlaxoSmithKline.html http://www.allfreeessays.com/essays/Gsk-Swot-Analysis/114901.html Mullins L.J. (2007), Management and Organisational Behaviour, Eighth Edition, Great Britain, Pearson education limited. http://www.pwc.com/us/en/issues/business-combinations/publications/snapshot-mergers-acquisitions-business-combinations.jhtml http://www.startupbizhub.com/company-mergers-and-acquisitions.htm

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Engineering Genetic Logic Circuits for Cancer Cells

Engineering Genetic Logic Circuits for Cancer Cells http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v27/n12/full/nbt1209-1071.html http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/documents/publications/syntheticbiologyroadmap-pdf/ (Accessed 11 10 2016) Engineering genetic logic circuits for cancer cell recognition and treatment Over the past 60 years, the field of molecular biology has experienced significant advances. Following the genomic revolution, genetic engineering enabled to modify endogenous gene networks using technologies such as site-directed mutagenesis, DNA recombination, DNA sequencing, synthesis and others. Now, after rigorous engineering, the field of synthetic was born making it possible to create novel biological entities that behave in a controllable and predictable manner 1. Synthetic biology is defined by the Royal Academy of Engineering as The design and engineering of biologically based parts, novel devices, and systems as well as the redesign of existing natural biological systems 2. It builds on the work of conventional genetic engineering by not only focusing on individual genes but by applying an engineering driven perspective designing and creating complex artificial biological systems. At present, synthetic biology has been applied in a wide range of areas demonstrating its potential to solve major global challenges in the fields of bioremediation, biosensing, production of biofuels, biomaterials, therapeutics, and biopharmaceuticals. Examples comprise the creation of organisms that could clean hazardous waste such as radioactive elements or arsenic 3, modification of yeast for the production of isobutanol 4, engineering viruses and bacteria to treat cancer 5,6, and the development of a diabetes treatment using an optogenetic gene circuit 7. Synthetic biology makes use of engineering analogies such as the one illustrated by Andrianantoandro and collaborators were it is compared to computer engineering at different hierarchy levels (Figure 1). Both disciplines take a bottom-up approach by integrating its component parts to build a more complex system. At the bottom are the biochemical molecules (DNA, RNA, proteins and other metabolites) equivalent to the physical layer of capacitors, transistors and resistors in computer engineering. One level up at the device level, physical processes are controlled by biochemical reaction comparable to engineered logic gates. By connecting and integrating these modules into host cells, synthetic biologists can program cells with the desired behaviour. More complex tasks can be accomplished by using a cell population, in which cells communicate each other to perform in a coordinated way, much like the case of computer networks 8. Finally, from an engineering point of view, what synthetic biologists are doing now is quite like what electrical engineers have been doing for many years, designing electronic circuits using standard components, such as resistors, capacitors and transistors. The difference lies in the building blocks that are used. Synthetic biologists design genetic circuits with specified functions using standard engineered biological parts such as genes, promoters, ribosome binding sites and terminators. In this regard, synthetic biology is to biology what electrical engineering is to physics, which both deal with electrons but one focuses on the understanding of their nature and the other aims to make use of them to build useful applications. Â   Â   Synthetic biology follows a hierarchical structure, building up systems from smaller components. At the lowest level are the parts, which are pieces DNA that encode for a single biological function such as a promoter. These parts are then combined into the next layer, the device layer, which is a collection of parts that performs a desired order function (e.g. the production of a protein). Devices are further combined into a system, which can be defined as the minimum number of devices necessary to perform the behaviour specified in the design phase. Systems can have simple behaviour (e.g. an oscillator) or a more complex behaviour (e.g. a set of a metabolic pathways to synthesise a product.)Parts and devices are usually treated as modular entities in design and modelling. This means that it is assumed that they can be exchanged without affecting the behaviour of the other systems components that are left untouched. At the module level, biological devices can be used to assemble comp lex pathways that function like integrated circuits. Early synthetic biology studies began developing circuits in prokaryotic organisms. Inspired by electronic, first systems made use of basic elements such as promoters, transcriptional repressors and ribosome binding sites to create small modules. These modules included the construction of oscillators 9, genetic switches 10, and digital logic gates 11. The successful construction of the first systems demonstrated that engineering-based methods could be used to programme computational behaviour into cells 12 (Figure 2).

Monday, August 19, 2019

Essay --

Outline The paper describes the participation of blacks in Golf War. Although large number of blacks participated in the Gulf War, black in general did not support the military intervention of U.S in Iraq Kuwait dispute. After the Vietnam War, the percentage of blacks in army increased due to its non-racial environment. At the same time, it had a better salary and promotion system irrespective of the color. Therefore, blacks preferred to join army to fight poverty and save money for colleges. But they did not anticipated to be part of another war. Black did not wanted to be part of the war because they were not given equal rights as other races in their home while they have fought many wars for their country. (Jacquelin Howard-Matthews) However, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Colin Powell led the military intervention in Kuwait against Iraq. Under his leadership, the Operation Desert Storm and Operation Desert Shield were launched. It is an interesting fact that the Gulf War accounted the minimum number of fatalities which can be credited to his leadership and war strategies. He is considered a Gulf War hero. But at the beginning he preferred to solve the problem to negotiations. Therefore he was also named the â€Å"Reluctant Warrior† in the Operation Desert Storm. (Vinnedge) Introduction Persian Gulf War also known as Gulf War that starting on August 2, 1990 when Iraq invaded Kuwait. Saddam Husain ordered to attack Kuwait and occupy the state and make it a province of Iraq. The aim was to capture the largest oil reserves in the country, expand the Iraqi power in Middle East and cancel the oil debt Iraq owned Kuwait. On August 3, 1990 United Nations called Iraq to withdraw its troop from Kuwait and on August 6, imposed worl... ...t the same time, raise money for the college. The military provided them with a welcoming and non-racial environment. There was no discrimination on the basis of salary. But Bush administration decided to wage war on Iraq to protect Saudi Arabia; many thought that many black lives will be lost in the war. Therefore blacks never approved the Gulf War. Most of the black congress man openly held rallies to oppose the war and tried to stop the community from joining the army. They blamed army for taking advantage of the socioeconomic conditions of the blacks who were desperate for improving their conditions. It can be judged by the reaction of blacks to the Gulf War that the community cannot be manipulated through the use of propaganda and media. They believe in tolerance and anti-imperialism probably due to their own conditions. (Jacquelin Howard-Matthews) (WILKERSON)

Sunday, August 18, 2019

The Poet Wallase Stevens :: essays research papers

Research Paper ;Inside the Gray Flannel Suit Rationalists, wearing square hets, hink, in square rooms, sp;Looking at the floor, Looking at the ceiling, They confine themselves To right-angled triangles. If they tried rhomboids, Cones, waving lines, ellipses- As for example, the ellipse of the half moon- Rationalists would wear sombreros. "Six Significant Landscapes" (Collected Poems p.73-75) Wallace Stevens is considerd one of the most important poets of this century. His style was unique and diffrent. The way he used words to optain the reality of something that can't be touched, is an amazing and brilant talent. Stevens was a very successful lawer and business man as well as a great peot. We usually think of peots and artists as "starving artists." Stevens was a very accommplished lawer and was still able to write beautifull peotry. His peoms useually contadicted his lifestile, but that might be were he got his insperation. He had a wife, family, and career, he had a very queit lifestyle. But, his peotry is very loud and abstract. Wallace Stevens was born in 1879, in Reading, Pennsylvania. As a child, he started out at parochial schools, and later enrolled in public schools. Wallace's parents encourage him to read, which helped him become a better writter. In school, Wallace was an excellent student. After high school, he continued his education at Harvard University, where he became involved with two Harvard newspapers, first the Advocate and then the Harvard Monthly. After leaving college, he moved to New York City. He worked as a journalist, and considered a literary career. But, his father encouraged Stevens to become a more practical career in the law business. He worked as a lawyer for a few years in New York. He worked at different firms and then at the Fidelity and Deposit Company. He finally settled at the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, where he became the vice president for the rest of his life. It was like Stevens led two separate lives, one of a business man and one as a poet. Stevens himself once said in a New York Times interview, "I prefer to think I'm just a man, not a poet part time, business man the rest. This is a fortunate thing, considering how inconsiderate the ravens are. I don't divide my life, just go on living." Many of Stevens' fans are often surprised when they learn of Stevens' life as a business man. As mentioned earlier, Wallace Stevens' work reflected his life in many The Poet Wallase Stevens :: essays research papers Research Paper ;Inside the Gray Flannel Suit Rationalists, wearing square hets, hink, in square rooms, sp;Looking at the floor, Looking at the ceiling, They confine themselves To right-angled triangles. If they tried rhomboids, Cones, waving lines, ellipses- As for example, the ellipse of the half moon- Rationalists would wear sombreros. "Six Significant Landscapes" (Collected Poems p.73-75) Wallace Stevens is considerd one of the most important poets of this century. His style was unique and diffrent. The way he used words to optain the reality of something that can't be touched, is an amazing and brilant talent. Stevens was a very successful lawer and business man as well as a great peot. We usually think of peots and artists as "starving artists." Stevens was a very accommplished lawer and was still able to write beautifull peotry. His peoms useually contadicted his lifestile, but that might be were he got his insperation. He had a wife, family, and career, he had a very queit lifestyle. But, his peotry is very loud and abstract. Wallace Stevens was born in 1879, in Reading, Pennsylvania. As a child, he started out at parochial schools, and later enrolled in public schools. Wallace's parents encourage him to read, which helped him become a better writter. In school, Wallace was an excellent student. After high school, he continued his education at Harvard University, where he became involved with two Harvard newspapers, first the Advocate and then the Harvard Monthly. After leaving college, he moved to New York City. He worked as a journalist, and considered a literary career. But, his father encouraged Stevens to become a more practical career in the law business. He worked as a lawyer for a few years in New York. He worked at different firms and then at the Fidelity and Deposit Company. He finally settled at the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, where he became the vice president for the rest of his life. It was like Stevens led two separate lives, one of a business man and one as a poet. Stevens himself once said in a New York Times interview, "I prefer to think I'm just a man, not a poet part time, business man the rest. This is a fortunate thing, considering how inconsiderate the ravens are. I don't divide my life, just go on living." Many of Stevens' fans are often surprised when they learn of Stevens' life as a business man. As mentioned earlier, Wallace Stevens' work reflected his life in many

Mark Twain, the Classic American Writer Essay -- Biography Biographies

Mark Twain, the Classic American Writer Christened as Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Mark Twain was born on November 30, 1835 in the small river town of Florida, Missouri. He was the sixth child to John Marshall Clemens Jane Lampton, Twain grew up amid small-town life in Florida until the age of four, when his family relocated to Hannibal in hopes of an improved living situation. He is considered to be one of the major authors of American fiction. Twain’s varied works include novels, travel narratives, short stories, sketches, and essays. His writings about the Mississippi River, such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi, and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, have been especially popular among modern readers (Gribben: Boyhood and Travels). Twain’s formal schooling ended after the age of 12, when his father passed away. First learning as an apprentice in a printer’s shop, and then working under his brother, Orion, Twain quickly became familiar with the newspaper trade. Twain indulged in the frontier humor that flourished in journalism at the time: tall tales, satirical pranks, and jokes. However, Twain was restless due to his inability to save his wages, and ultimately switched professions after realizing an old boyhood dream of becoming a river pilot. The profession of riverboat piloting paid well and brought Twain much attention, which he enjoyed. His piloting experiences also allowed him to observe the many kinds of people who traveled aboard the steamboats. He later reported that "in that brief, sharp schooling, I got personally and familiarly acquainted with about all the different types of human nature that are to be found in fiction, biography, or history." He first began publishing under his p... ...ber of the literati, honored by Yale, the University of Missouri, and Oxford with literary degrees. Perhaps more than any other classic American writer, Mark Twain is seen not only as an author, but also as a personality that defined an era (Encarta Mark Twain). Works Cited Anonymous. â€Å"Twain, Mark," Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia. Anonymous. â€Å"Mark Twain.† Monkeyshines on America April 1996: 32. Gribben, Alan, "Twain, Mark: Boyhood and Travels, Newspaper Work in the West," World Book Online Americas Edition, http://www.aolsvc.worldbook.aol.com/wbol/wbPage/na/ar/co/571880, September 28, 2001. Cooper, Robert. Around The World With Mark Twain. ed. Lewis Leary. New York: Arcade, 2000. Emerson, Everett. Mark Twain: A Literary Life. Philadelphia: U of P Press, 1999. Tenney, Thomas A. Mark Twain: A Reference Guide. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1977.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Success of Carrefour

1. Introduction As the world leader in retail industry, the Carrefour Group, through over fifty years of dedicated efforts, is now the largest retailer in Europe and second largest in World. Since established, through a process of merge and acquisition, Carrefour has already expanded its market to different retail scales around the global, which includes hypermarket, supermarket, cash&carry and convenience stores. According to the financial report of Carrefour group, by the end of 2012, it had already generated 101. 3 million Euro of sales under banners.Moreover, it opened 9,994 stores from different scales in 33 countries globally. Therefore, it is not surprise to find it has over 100 million customers world widely. Carrefour has its clear mission adapting different cultures, which includes to promote quality for everyone and ensure the safety of its products, meet all the expectations of customers and to provide customers with freedom to choose with specific ranges of Carrefour pro ducts. On the way to accomplish their mission, marketing strategy are implemented orderly by Carrefour group.As Cambra-Fierro and Ruiz-Benitez (2011) illustrate in their research, the basic strategy of Carrefour is making this brand globalized, through establishing as its main axes on the client and a full local adaptation and integration. No matter where Carrefour expands to, the commitment to local economic environment is an unchangeable strategy for Carrefour. Carrefour is also famous for training local staff and manager which can adapt to native environment more quickly. According to the key figures of Carrefour, it now has 360,000 employers world widely, and these employers are naturally sensitive to local consumer behavior.It is evident that Carrefour obtain a huge success in China since it was embrace by As statistics shown in Chuang ,Wei, Donegan, & Ganon’s report(2011), by 2009, Carrefour ranked 7th among all chain stores in China with CNY? 36,600m in sales. When peo ple are applauding for Carrefour’s victory, the whole retail industry is wondering the reason behind its success. Therefore, this proposal is aiming at illustrating a framework with the case of Carrefour, investigate the reasons contributed to its huge success, and detect whether this model is applicable to the whole industry and make the whole retail sector better off. . Brief History of Carrefour The Carrefour Company was created by the Fournier and Defforey families in 1959. In 1960, the first Carrefour supermarket was opened in Annecy, a city in eastern France that had become increasingly industrialized since World War II. From this first outlet, Carrefour changed itself into a worldwide entity with more than 15,600 stores spanning 34 countries around the globe. Between 1961 and 1962, business at Carrefour increased 45 percent and salaries increased as well. In 1963, Carrefour created a new shop concept known as the hypermarket.In 1970,Carrefour went public and Carrefour shares were listed on the Paris stock exchange. In 1976, Carrefour introduced its own production under no label. They assured that â€Å"Just high quality product for low price†. Between 1978 and 1982, the greatest number of new Carrefour stores was established outside of France, especially in Latin countries. Profits proved high at its stores in Brazil, Argentina, and Spain. In the 1990s, expansion in Central and South America was extremely strong. Carrefour moved into Mexico in 1993 and opened the first chain hypermarket.By 1997, Carrefour operated about 60 stores in South America and was generating $7 billion in sales in Brazil and Argentina. In 2000, Carrefour merged with Promodes SA to become the largest European food retailing group (second largest worldwide). Carrefour also became Europe's leading operator of supermarkets, convenience stores, discount stores, cash-and-carry outlets, and hypermarkets. With more than 8,800 stores in 26 countries and revenues of nearly $6 5 billion, Carrefour entered the new century on solid foundation. While management worked on the merger integration process, the company remained focused on growth.At the same year, it formed Global Net Exchange, an online supply house, with Sears and Oracle. Between 2001 to 2007,Carrefour continued the acquisition of hypermarkets in different countries and experienced continuous growth in all markets. In 2007,a New Era began in Carrefour history. A new home furnishing and decorations line was introduced at Carrefour and Carrefour became the sole distributor of Dell products in Europe. 3. MISSION As Europe’s leading mass retailer, and number two in the world, the Group comes into contact with thousands of suppliers and millions of customers very year, enabling it to promote responsible, quality consumption at low prices through the Carrefour product range. 3. 1 Promote quality for everybody and ensure the safety of our products. Carrefour has adopted an approach through the c reation of its private labels which are now commercialized in the majority of the countries in which this firm is present to ensure the safety of their products. The approach is based on the implementation of private standards defined and owned by individual retailers.These private standards prompted the retailers to establish relatively formalized contractual relationships with producer organizations, and to decrease the utilization of spot markets. As a result, the creation of vertical alliances between producers, manufacturers and retailers has proven to be an important mechanism in the regulation of agricultural product food chains. This action is intended to structure the supply chain by obliging suppliers to meet production requirements related to safety, quality and environmental levels, which are more demanding than public regulations. . 2 Meet all the expectations of our customers and consumers. 3. 2. 1 Accessibility The group operates 9,771 stores (both company-operated or franchises) through four main grocery store formats: hypermarkets, supermarkets, cash ; carry, and convenience stores. Carrefour also sells food and non-food products through the e-commerce channel. In FY2011, the group strengthened its food e-commerce solutions in a number of countries. For instance, all stores of the group across Spain deliver the items ordered through internet to customer homes.Carrefour Brazil’s non-food e-commerce site which was launched in 2010 is presently ranked among the country’s top six commercial websites. In FY2011, Carrefour France also launched a wide range of non-food products online, including household appliances, television, video, telephony and other high-tech products. In Greece too, the group has provided its customers a facility to purchase groceries and household appliances online. 3. 2. 2 Price Carrefour's mid-range brand offers merchandise at price range which is 15%–30% lower than national brands. 3. 3 Provide custome rs with freedom to hoose with specific ranges of Carrefour products. Carrefour has more than 30 years of unparalleled experience in retailing private label products. The group makes use of an in-depth analysis of the purchasing habits and expectations of its customers in order to create its private label offerings. The Carrefour Discount brand carries discount products, consisting of 500 basic everyday products (including grocery, fresh and frozen products as well as non-food goods) at a low price range. The group also offers product ranges focused on more specific customer requirements.The Carrefour Selection brand is positioned in the premium segment and the Carrefour Kids brand in the children's segment. Carrefour also offers authentic products from its regional brands ‘Reflets de France’ and ‘Terre d'Italia’ which include traditional Italian products. It also offers organic and environmentally responsible brands such as Carrefour ECOplanet in Italy, and Carrefour Ecobio in Spain. The group has established itself as a major retail player in organic farming products with an offering of nearly 2,300 food products throughout the world. 4. Carrefour—marketing strategy in chinaOwing to the maturity of the European market Carrefour and unfulfilled foreign investment in other continents, Carrefour needed to seek for new markets, and one of the most important one is Asia, especially China- a market with huge potential. Therefore, in 1995, the Carrefour began it and, soon, it generate a huge success in China soon after its establishment domestically in China. Decentralized management is the biggest reason for Carrefour’s success in Chinese market. Carrefour has divided its Chinese market into four big regions ehich are east, south, north and middle China.Considering of the legal issue and culture obstacles, the company chose the local partners, and even different partners in different regions, such as choosing partners in Beij ing and Guangzhou represent north and south agency respectively. Carrefour has a clearly marketing plan in China by knowing well about Chinese national condition. Carrefour learned about Chinese market and found the preferences is even different in Chinese market according to different areas, such as Tsingtao beer is so famous in Tsingtao but in Beijing almost everyone drinks beer from Beijing.Therefore Carrefour also needed to further adapt to local tastes and preferences in that area. EXAMPLE From the market in Taipei, it learned how Chinese people sold the fish. Carrefour hence adopted two strategies; selling fish alive and selling frozen fish. For those people live in coastal city, they prefer alive fish which right out of the fish tanks, while people live in west and middle, where is further away from coastal, prefer to buy frozen fish which can keep fish fresh. After Carrefour adapted to this concept it saw fish sales go up 30-40%.Furthermore, Carrefour adapted to the local co nsumer and their shopping behaviors while merge the foreign culture into its culture style. The Chinese consumer likes to compare different brands, so Carrefour had distributed larger shelves in order to place all the different brands in one area so that the consumers feel more satisfied during choosing what they want to buy. Additionally, Carrefour introduced new products to China such as wine which was not regularly being consumed by the Chinese population, which changed Chinese consumers’ perception to some extent.Carrefour did this by holding wine fairs and introducing to the Chinese how to drink the wine and what kinds of food it goes with. Since the taxes on wine imports were lowered, Carrefour was able to provide its Chinese consumers with cheap imported wines such as French wine. So more and more Chinese get use to the culture of wine. Through all these adaptations to local taste or by using its knowledge from Taiwan, Carrefour was able to successfully enter the Chine se market. Carrefour China is one of the biggest markets for Carrefour and as of December 31st 2009 China’s Net Sales were 3,473 billion Euros which showed a growth of 4. % from the previous year. Carrefour’s main competitor in China is Wal-Mart which has more bargaining power than Carrefour because of its big size. It was a successful idea when Carrefour introduced the fresh bakery concept in its stores. Unfortunately, Carrefour failed to include the Chinese deserts in its bakery section which its competitors did not. In order to stay competitive, Carrefour updates its strategy every three years since China is a market that is changing quickly.Carrefour invests a lot of money into Human Resources in order to train employees just in order to stay competitive with those large retailers. The company also deals with retention differently than in Europe. For example, it invests a lot of money in its training and the employees need to sign a three to five year contract. If the employee wants to change to the competition he/she has to pay back the money for the training which is a lot. If employees stay with the company for five years they receive a big bonus. All these strategies turn to keep labor turnover very low.Carrefour once faced a very difficult position. In April 2008, the Olympic torch relay was interrupted by Tibetan independence advocates in Paris where the protesters tried to get a hold of the torch from a wheelchair bound Chinese representative. Because of this, some Chinese activists have tried to boycott Carrefour stores because of its French roots. To manage its bad image, Carrefour has taken multiple actions. First, to make better relations with its suppliers, Carrefour started financing programs for smaller suppliers allowing them to apply for loans with Deutsch Bank.The company has also created a mailbox and hotline for suppliers to report any corruption and has personal investigators to go after such malpractices. In order to seek better relations with its employees, Carrefour has increased its communication with its employees and settled the disputes regarding overtime. Carrefour has also increased its fulltime employees’ salaries by 8% and put in place a minimum wage that is 5% higher than the local minimum wage. To eliminate its price differences Carrefour also promised to have regular internal price inspections.Carrefour was ordered to correct its illegal prices and refund its overcharged customers. Carrefour China said that it would refund all of its customers who were charged more than the retail price. 5. Conclusion Evaluation/recommendation Now we can draw a conclusion that the main reason of Carrefour’s success in China should owe to its sparing no effort to localization. It manifests that Carrefour try their best to follow the motto: â€Å"when in Rome, do as the Romans do† to grasp the Chinese customers’ needs accurately and then maximize their profits.Why the Carrefour ’s localization is firmly believed to be successful, here we can compared with another famous foreign retailer company Wal-Mart’s strategies in China. Firstly, let’s look at marketing strategies. Carrefour took the striving to develop in opening more stores as its primary target. In order to be faster than its competitors, Carrefour broke the routine procedure of opening stores instead of making the stores blooming everywhere. Now Carrefour has inished its strategic layout in the coastal cities and economic center cities of China on the whole that is faster than Wal-Mart for about two or three years, which helped Carrefour to save the time to adjust its management system. However, Wal-Mart chose to copy its suburbanization strategies totally in China from America. But it ignored the situation of Chinese that not every family can own a car. In addition, compare to Carrefour’s â€Å"crazy† expansion strategy, Wal-Mart performed a cautious and conserv ative attitude that it insists keep a foothold in Shenzhen but paced up and down at the southern part of China’s market.So it missed the right timing to expand to the whole China’s market. The table below shows that the comparison between Carrefour and Wal-Mart. Due to the present situation, we can learn from that the number of stores can directly affect its velocity and time of making profit for foreign retailors in China. Besides, consistent with local circumstances is vital factor. Secondly, let’s look at localization in products. Carrefour attach great importance on choosing local products, and in Carrefour, half of manufactured food in the store accommodates local people’s tastes.Not only that, Carrefour highlights all the local products in order to convenient to customers. Besides, Carrefour also purchases goods from farmers directly, which not only increases farmer’s salaries but also allows Carrefour to keep good quality with low price. Fro m its behaviors we can learn that provide convenience to customers and meet customers’ needs well are good ways to attract customers and improve the customer loyalty. Thirdly, lets’ look at the localization in culture. Carrefour as a French company did a better job on human-based management. We can see it from its Chinese name â€Å" , which is very nice and localized. In addition, its slogan is happy at home and happy at Carrefour which also in keeping with culture value of its Chinese name. However, Wal-Mart is a little defective in this part. It is worth mentioning that every time Carrefour opened a new store, started new slogan, or other events, the Chinese media always give it enough focus and reports them on the internet, although there has also been negative news, it might reveal that Carrefour is good at attracting not only journalists’ attention but also that of local government.Comparing to Carrefour, Wal-Mart seems to be more low-pitched that it is c autious to every action and looks like a merit student in China. This is right but is such an ideologism which is not to the benefit of advertisement to its potential customers. To sum up, Carrefour indeed provides certain valuable experiences to its competitors and it is worth to learn from such an outstanding company. References Presentation of Carefour. (2013). Retrived April 8, 2013 form http://www. carrefour. om/content/presentation-group Cambra-Fierro, J. , & Ruiz-Benitez, R. (2011). Notions for the successful management of the supply chain: Learning with carrefour in spain and carrefour in china. Supply Chain Management,  16(2), 148-154. doi: http://dx. doi. org/10. 1108/13598541111115392 Ming-Ling Chuang, James J. Donegan, Michele W. Ganon, Kan Wei, (2011) â€Å"Walmart and Carrefour experiences in China: resolving the structural paradox†, Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, Vol. 18 Iss: 4, pp. 43 – 463 Zoe, Z. Y. (2012). Management strategie s of Carrefour and Ito-yokado in china: A comparative study. International Journal of Business Anthropology, 3(1), 134-157. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com/docview/1018555862? accountid=38789 Carrefour S. A. SWOT Analysis. (2013). Carrefour SA SWOT Analysis, 1-11. Article < > from http://wenku. baidu. com/view/c5d3b2c9da38376baf1faebc. html Table data from website: www. carrefour. com and www. walmart. com and www. auchan. com

Friday, August 16, 2019

My Friend’s Most Important Decision Essay

Firstly, I would like to introduce my friend Jenny, who was born in China and now she is 25 years old. In 2011, she left her great job and came to the United States to pursue her master degree. Jenny decided to study in the United States and in particular at JWU because she wanted to study professional knowledge of management and have a master degree, she believe the U.S is the origin of the MBA program and JWU is famous for its hotel management program. First and foremost, after graduation, Jenny worked at the Beijing Branch of Education Service Center for about three years. She has great expectations for her career and she wants to get a high position but it’s difficult for her. She said,† You can see my academic background, I never studied any business knowledge, if I want to get high promotion, to study professional knowledge of management and have a master degree is important for me.† Thus, she wanted to get an MBA to get more knowledge of management and improve all kinds of abilities and help herself with her career objective. Another reason why she decided to study in the U.S. is because she believe that the United States is the origin of the MBA program. The United States’ MBA program pays more attention to practical skills and ability development, like communication, leadership, control, decision making, influence and entrepreneurship. She thinks studying in America can advance her career and make her more competitive in her field. She said to me, â€Å"American’s Hospitality management program is very strong†. Because in America , many universities are famous for this program, like: Cornell University, University of Houston, Pennsylvania State University, and the U.S. also has some famous hotel, like: Hilton Grand Vacations, New York Hotel and so on. Thus, she believes America is a good place for her to study this major. Most of all, Johnson & Wales university is famous for its hotel management program. She has a friend who is currently studying hotel management at JWU, and her friend told her some advantages about this university, especially teaching resources on management is quite good. After that, she searched a lot of information on the internet, and found that JWU was suitable for her. She said,† this university is career-oriented school, especially pay attention to students’ practical skill development, like communication, decision making, entrepreneurship and leadership ability†. Many students who graduate from JWU can get into big companies like Hilton Hotel, so she believes studying at JWU can make her more competitive in the future. For these reasons and more, Jenny decided that in order to make herself more marketable that she needed to leave her job in China and move to the United States in order to learn professional knowledge and extend her education. Therefore, Jenny, my best friend, chose to study in the United States in an MBA program and in particular at JWU with a concentration in Hospitality.

Thursday, August 15, 2019

Food †Taco Bell Essay

Enjoying your food with warm cooked bread along with sweet butter to spread and an iced cold drink to top it all off, or Rushing to eat your food because you feel as if you have to scarf it down before it gets to cold. Sit down restaurant or fast food what would you prefer? Sitting down talking, ordering refills and desserts is my favorite while at a sit down restaurant but sometimes I am in a bit of a hurry and need to swing bye and get something fast that is easy to eat in a short amount of time. Some people may think fast food compared to sit down restaurants are almost the same but they do have many differences. Comparing two local food businesses such as Taco Bell and Texas Road House, there prices I would like to say are a little low but the other are a little high. Taco Bell is considered a fast food joint, and is a place to go when you may be low on cash or even when you may want something fast and easy after a long day at work to feed your family. Taco Bell always has deals and low prices for those times when you want something good not to expensive but worth your money. Texas Road house on the other hand is the opposite this is the place to go when you just got a really good paycheck and feel as if you and your boyfriend need to be spoiled or maybe just want to have a night and go somewhere that will have fun serving you and also do not mind if you get a little crazy cause that’s what having fun is all about. Texas Road House is considered a Steak House and it is somewhere to go when you want to enjoy a delicious meal and maybe even some drinks to have just a great night out yes you will be spending way more then you would if you went to Taco Bell but Texas road house always fulfills my taste buds and its worth the money every time. For some people the environment Is the most important part about eating at a restaurant. Some like it quiet and not to be bothered others like it loud and packed. When picking a place like taco bell it is a very quiet place to go and eat and rarely do you go in and enjoy your meal. Texas Road House on the other hand is very loud and there is always a long waiting list because it’s so packed. Not only is the environment important but also how clean the place is to, taco bell is always on top of cleaning and how nice and clean there lobby is and also there bathrooms too. Texas Road house is clean besides all the peanuts you bring home on your shoes bathrooms are always kept up and you always leave with a full stomach.. To me having something fun at your restaurant is good it gives the place character and everyone knows where to go when they just feel like a bag of peanuts, or when you need some extra hot sauce packets at home. When it comes to different food items at these two places, they are different but that’s what makes each place unique. Taco bell has burritos, tacos, nachos, Mexican pizza etc. Texas Road House has a variety of things burgers, steaks, salads, baked potatoes, bread rolls, and so much more but each place does have a signature sauce they serve, taco bell has there mild ,medium, hot, and Verde sauce while Texas road house there steak sauce and there butter that everyone loves. Not only do you need the sauces and butters with your meal but you do need drinks as well. Taco bell has a variety of different pops, while Texas road house has pop, tea, lemonade, beer, margaritas, shots, etc. Taco bell compared to Texas Road house are very different in their own ways.

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Rodolfo Furniture Store Budget Analysis

Rodolfo Furniture Store Budget Analysis Edric Hernandez-Cruz Gisela Franqui-Atiles Valerie Santiago-Rodriguez Yachira Rodriguez-Cuevas University of Phoenix PR Campus ACC / 561PR Rafael Marrero Diaz November 9th, 2012 Rodolfo Furniture Store Budget analysis is important for any corporation. From small businesses to large enterprises; all organizations evaluate the numbers in order to get a picture of where the company stands economically. This will serve as a basis in order to make decisions as to the direction the entity would like to go.Erroneous decisions can lead to bad decisions that may end up in losses for the company. Rodolfo Furniture is on the verge of making a shift from a furniture maker to distributer. Yet only if the ethical accounting practices have been place into the production of the analysis; can Rodolfo Furniture decide on its future. Budgeting: Risks Associated with Sales Forecast The preparation of the usually begins with a sales forecast. The sales forecast and the anticipated inventory levels determine the production to be budgeted.Furthermore, the company’s sales forecast along with its experience, and collection policies determine the cash inflows for the company. In the scenario, Rodolfo uses his company’s flexible budget, as a guide, to determine the costs that should have been for an attained level of activity. For, instance if his company intended to manufacture or produce 50,000 units, the budget must have been prepared for 49,000 units, 51,000 units, 52,000, and so on. Major risks in sales forecasting Production risks In a manufacturing environment, like the illustration Rodolfo’s scenario, sales forecast determine production schedules.The companies use such forecasts to determine the exact amounts of raw materials and production issues; they need to have an idea of what they are to produce. Two problems can occur, sales under forecast or sales over forecast. Under forecast sales refers to the fact when the m anufacturer may not produce enough product to meet customers’ demands. This will result in an increase in production times which in turn may increase costs; this will also frustrate customers and may even lead the company to losses.In the other hand, over forecast sales refers to the amounts of raw material to be purchased and excessive amounts of finished products to be sold. This excessiveness of raw materials may tie up the capital available to use and the excess finished product will make the company incur in warehouse storage costs; both excesses if repeated constantly may put the company at risk of bankruptcy. Resource risks When sales are over forecast, underutilized workers may have to be reduced. This action will result in a bad image for the company and will break the trust/bond that was built between the company and the workers as they will feel betrayed.If the sales are under forecast, it will happen the exactly opposite, the company will lack of workers to meet d emands. This can result in bad image, losses, service levels will be affected as workers would have to work overtime to cover for the company which can lead to sicknesses and excessive absenteeism. Financial risks This type of errors affects the company’s financial health. The excess of material will lead to excessive costs of unnecessary storage since the excess should have never occurred. Also, over forecast can result in the purchase of unnecessary machinery.Furthermore, if the company forecasts erroneously in a consistent manner, this can lead the company into a raise in the interest by lenders. Sales forecast are prepared using data available, the more reliable and certain the data is the more accurate the budget is expected to be. Ethical considerations in the preparation of budget Before the development of a budget it is wise to consider the ethical involvements that can be present during it process. Incentives to lie and cheat are Rodolfo tempting actions for managers .Horngren (2008) stated, â€Å"It is common for managers of larger units with more resources to have higher pay, higher status, and greater prospects for promotion† (p. 301). This is common ethical flaw from the workers. The organizations have to prepare ways to identify, minimize and discourage this kind of behaviors. Subsequent use of the budget After completing the budget process, the information populated contains useful components that benefit the manager’s strategies behavior. According to Horngren (2008) there are four major benefits of effective budgeting.The mention benefits are: evaluation of activities, formalization of planning, performance evaluation, communication and coordination. By following the Rodolfo Furniture Scenario the four major benefits helps the mention company presented at the outgoing sentences. For the first benefit the main idea is the reevaluation of the actual activities and the evaluation of the opportunities to embrace new ones. The s cenario display at the week 2 assignment, the foreign competitors surpass the actual company production because of the high-tech solutions use by them.The first benefits assist with the decision of changes in this matter. With the formalization of planning is an essential phase that every company has to experience. This benefit encourages managers to prepare contingency plans for the performing of immediate actions, pre-planned, at the moment of crisis. For the performance evaluation the most important fact is that the results of the recent analyze performance helps to take a more precise action because of the recent events than comparing with the last year performance.For the Rodolfo Furniture Scenario applies, because of the latest changes in the business, related to their company’s specialty, that is affecting gravely to his sales and requires an instance action. Lastly with communication and coordination this process allows the managers to create a macro communication bec ause involves the input of employees from top to bottom and vice versa. Consider how the organization’s code of ethics requires an ethics analysis for any performance tool. Companies have developed a code of ethics or conduct as a tool to prevent the misuse of power, fraud, conflict f interest, money, and other. Mostly all ethical dilemmas start with dysfunctional incentive, poor supervision, and wrong personal habits. To ensure the reliability of the information and prevent situation of misleading or faulty information from accountants the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was created. This 2002 Act requires regulations in the financial practice and a code of ethics â€Å"for seniors financial officers, applicable to its principal financial officer and comptroller or principal accounting officer, or persons performing similar functions† (Horngren, 2008, Chapter  1).Now managers has to approved and been concern of the budget. Also requires external auditors to examine the company. These regulations in the accounting system search for the reliability of the information provided. But it needs high ethical standards from the personnel. The Institute of Management Accountants develop a code of conduct require to CPAs and CMAs that integrated integrity, confidentiality, credibility and competence. Ethics should be the priority in a company. To encourage others and prevent unethical behavior, unnecessary pressures should be recognize and detained.Sometimes dysfunctional incentive arises when managers or accountings are assessed on the performance concerning to budget amounts. The ethical standards of an organization are necessary to guide, measure, and analyze the performance of the personnel. Most important a code of ethic is essential to maintain the integrity and confidence of the company. References Horngren, C. T. (2008). Introduction to Management Accounting (14th ed. ). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database..