Thursday, October 31, 2019

Operations Management Forecasting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Operations Management Forecasting - Essay Example Throughout the past two decades more as well as more businessmen have learned the value of using financial forecasts in preparation the affairs of the companies which they administer. The increasing receipt of formal financial forecasts by management may be attributed to a wide diversity of causes. In the primary place, young men educated in the theory of trade and financial administrations have achieved positions of liability in many companies. Moreover, the excellent courses in industry administration and economics, given in American universities and colleges, have affected the decision-making techniques employed in modern venture. Men trained in these institutions have been tending to get hold of the most comprehensive facts obtainable concerning the factors which mainly determine the results of their production ventures. As a result, the operations of more trade have been subject to the influence of men who try to reduce the effect of chance as an issue determining success or failure. Probably the mainly significant single forecast used by the management of commerce is the sales forecast. A confidentially owned business exists to create and sell commodities at a profit in competition by means of other enterprises. It follows that the measure of goods to be produced and the price at which such merchandise will be sold are significant measures of the action of the venture and affect the scale of the profits obtained. As a result, practically all other forecasts used in planning the relationships of a trade enterprise depend on a sales forecast. This is true of approximation which may be made concerning prospect profits, modify in products, capability requirements, organization, bloodthirsty effort, capital necessities, inventories, etc. no doubt, these may be termed the "internal" forecasts, because these are approximation of the situations inside a single company which are completely or mainly convenient by the management. Forecasting in framework On the other hand, the sales forecast is based on additional forecasts concerning future financial conditions, likely efforts by competitors, political situations, modify in technology, cultural growth, etc. These approximations may be termed "external" forecasts, because the situations would exist even if the corporation concerned did not, and, so, they are outside to a company. Qualitative Forecasting Methods Forecasts consequence from ruling and supposition made by management. Actually a helpful forecast is the result of a huge number of judgments which have been made concerning many dissimilar matters. Because lots of the situations which will affect a forecast are not exactly determinable, the judgment of the forecaster often must be based on unfinished or

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Atheism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Atheism - Essay Example Quoting Julian Baggini, â€Å"Atheism †¦ it is the belief that there is no God or gods† (3). For others, those words are enough to distinguish an atheist from not. However, there are still those people who would dig deeper into the topic as there are broader and more profound understandings of the subject at hand. The above mentioned meaning or understanding of atheism can be referred as a childhood analogy or comprehension. Just by the mere acknowledgement of the word atheism brings out a very negative thought and conception. Nevertheless, there are always 2 sides in a story. This is a truth in all aspects even in the world of atheism. There is always the good and the bad, the positive and the negative, one cannot exist without the other. One needs the other to exist and it goes either way (7-8). Organized religion often set standards as to what one should and should not believe. This is often where the problem or misunderstanding starts. Though there are Sunday Schools and Bible camps where scriptures are explained, it is not enough that when people say that a person should believe it then it is the truth. A person still has a right to question things that concerns them. One can even say that an atheist is more inquisitive towards their faith as they would further divulge into information that conservatives would perceive as taboo since they are questioning the existence of a higher power or divine intervention. In this concept, there is a broader and untold fact which is accompanied in their refusal to believe in God. One can assume that atheists believe in the â€Å"what can be seen† (4-5). Also according to Baggani, â€Å"This brand of physicalism asserts that the only kind of stuff is physical stuff: there are no non-physical souls, spirits, or ideas. This is a version of physicalism that many, probably most, atheists can sign up to† (5). There is a thought or question that arises with this statement. Because there are still thin gs which are intangible yet believed to true, an example of which is a thought or an idea that is still not expressed or enacted by a person. This is where Science enters the picture of spiritual belief. Two worlds are colliding within the vicinity of an atheist. In more than 2,000 years of documented principles, Science and Religion have never agreed in a singular idea. There would always be an argument between these 2 aspects. It is like what is fore mentioned, there are always 2 sides in a story. Throughout the years, there are still debates as to which is true and which is false between these 2 worlds. These debates are still on-going between their scholars even as this paper is being written. The difference between the two is that Science gives a more breathable room for scientists to explain their theories without the fear of being ex-communicated from the society or their church. Here, one can presume that Science has the broader mind between the two. Yet it does not mean tha t Science is better than Religion. This cannot be proven even in a million years. One can debate his whole life and dedicate his whole being trying to prove which is which yet in the end; there will always be questions that would end up in the vast space of blankness. However, this is not always the case. Sometimes a person believes in theories or principles being presented by both worlds yet the idea that something that starts in Science may

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Problem Faced By The Tourism Industry

Problem Faced By The Tourism Industry 1.0 Introduction: 1.1Background/ Preamble: In todays world the top three most important industries are telecom, tourism and IT. According to some estimates tourism shares 11% of the total worlds employment and around 100 million were employed in tourism industry during 2008. Tourism sectors around the world have shown phenomenal growth. Over the last quarter of a century it has grown by 500%. Many economically weak countries are generating their largest share of GDP from the tourism sector. Thailands tourist industry started to grow when Thailand launched Visit Thailand Year in 1987. This growth remained constant despite the Gulf war in 1991. This growth period is called as the Golden Decade of Thai Tourism. Economic growth of Thailand also proved to be very helpful for the growth of the tourism sector over the years. According to an official research the tourists coming to Thailand had reached an astonishing 42.5 million. The focus on Thailands government was not the only reason for its growth of the sector; there were other factors which helped the growth. These factors include the prevailing peace after the Cold War, the overall expansion of the countries in the pacific regions, the focus on tourism in the countries around Thailand, the growth and feasibility of the trade between countries, the innovations in the airline sector, the innovations in telecom industry which increased the feasibility of communication and others. The fact that all these factors were very helpful for the growth of Thailands tourism industry was that it was the first country to recognize the advantages of the tourism and set out to implement its tourism campaigns. Thailand also had location advantages as a tourist country as the tourist coming to Thailand also had the option to go either to China or India which are also one of the leading tourist countries. Following the growth of tourism in Thailand was the growth on middle income class. The later growth stimulated the desire of Thais to travel abroad too. The growth in local tourists has over all declined the net income from the tourism sector of Thailand. Currently tourism sector of Thailand has a 6.5 percent share in the GDP. Although the tourism industry of Thailand is very flourishing, but it still lags behind other sectors, such as manufacturing and services. Tourists coming to Thailand spend 16 billion dollar each year and spend 9 days in Thailand on average. Foreign visitors are not the only tourists Thailand depends on. The local residents of Thailand are also a major part of the tourists. Although the amount spent by these tourists is far less than the foreign tourists. In 2008 more than half of the international tourists were from East Asia, Malaysia and Japan. Malaysian visitors have a majority in the overall number of foreign investors to the country. European countries give close to 25% of the total number of visitors. Around 700,000 Australians visited Thailand in 2008; the number is huge when compared to the total residents in Australia. 1.2 Trends from 2007 to 2011 The number of tourists in the 1stQtr and 2ndQtr of 2009 was around 3.6m and 2.9m respectively. The numbers of tourists were lower than the 1stQtrs of 07 and 08. In the 3rdQtr/09 the no. of visitors is similar to that of both 07 and 08. In the 1stQtr/09 there was the highest number of visitors than the previous two years. The no. of visitors was highest during the 1stQtr/10. Due to the political instability from April to May 10, the number of visitors was low. The number of visitors was lower by about 1 to 2 million during year 09 and year 10. Still the number of arrivals in year 10 was record breaking. This shows that visitors forget the instabilities in only around 2 to 3 months. 2.0 Literature review Countries around the world are facing several problems with the tourism industry. Looking at the current trends there are a number of factors affecting tourism industries. Some of these factors are economic factors, technological factors, political factors, demographic factors and cultural factors. 2.1 Economic factors: Economic factors of both the host and the visitors country impacts a countrys tourism industry. The overall buying power of the visitors acts as a very important determinant for the tourist industry. In some countries the cost the vacations is very high. This discourages visitors from going to the specific country. On the other hand some countries offer cheap vacation packages allowing more visitors to come to their country. Over all global prosperity also plays a very important role. If the over all economical condition of countries is good this means in most cases that the purchasing power is higher in those countries. When the standards of living are better and the purchasing power is better people can afford more luxuries. Tourism is also considered as a luxury and the overall numbers of tourists from the specific countries grow. Thailand is one of the favorite places for tourists as it provides every thing that tourists want. Low cost and high quality services, beautiful beaches and natural environment. This also backfires for the host country at many places. Due to higher economic growth in the host country, the residents of the country also will to go abroad for vacations. This causes outflow of money from the economy known as leakage. The overall outflow is then balanced by the inflow of currency from other countries. The net income from the tourism industry of the host country is lowered over all due to the local population going abroad for vacations. Inflation is also a very important determinant when it comes to tourism sector. If the inflation rate is higher in the host country compared to the visitors country, the overall spending by the visitors is low in the economy as the price of products and services is higher in the host country. On the other hand if the inflation is lower in the host country compared to the visitors country, visitors tend to spend more in the host country. Thailand is facing a high inflation rate because of increase in the prices of crude oil but the problem is global. But due to difference in exchange rates inflation does not have a major impact on the tourist industry. For example, the appreciation of the euro against the US dollar has increased the number of EU tourists in Thailand. Along with this the purchasing power of Americans in Thailand has been stable, despite the depreciation of the dollar. In order to maintain the price competitiveness of exports the bank of Thailand has not allowed the Baht to appreciate against the dollar. The baht is under upward pressure, and it has an adverse affect on Thailands tourist industry. Thailands low price level has made it a most reasonable tourist place. 2.2 Technological factors In the current era aviation technology has seen a lot of advancements. Now days the major cause of inflation in many countries is the increase in fuel prices, but it also greatly hampers the tourism sector. As the increase in the fuel prices also increase the airline ticket prices. Therefore aircraft building companies are bringing a lot of innovation to the air craft designs. Due to this reason the over all air fare is greatly reduced. Countries now pay attention to keep the best and most technologically advanced planes at their main airports so that more visitors can come in. Infrastructure is very important factor for tourists on vacations. Tourism is considered as luxury act and tourists from across the world want the best or atleast sufficient infrastructure in the country they are about to visit. Example, Dubai is considered a famous tourist location only because it has better infrastructure than many other countries in its region. Tourists when think of Dubai, they know that it will be a place where they will have all the facilities that they might require; this is a global mind set for most of the tourists. Countries therefore must spend heavily on their infrastructure for the growth in the tourism sector. Now days the use of IT has been a focus of most of the countries. People around the world are now more used to of IT than any other mode of communication. Even visitors now days search online for holiday packages. Countries must make sure that ample information is available relating to their country and tourist spots which people around the world can see and be motivated to visit their country. 2.3 Political factors Visitors avoid areas of political unrest mainly when they visit other countries for vacations. This is mostly because of the mindset that people want to enjoy and relax during the vacations. An extreme example can of Egypt currently. Due to the protests for the change of president and protests in previous months the overall tourist industry of Egypt has recently collapsed. In order to achieve a liberal democracy, Thailands economy is facing a fluctuating and worsening political condition. However as tourists are mostly not interested in any countrys political condition then the political instability would not affect the tourism industry. Instable security conditions can be a major problem for the tourism industry. However research shows that if there is any instability in some parts of the country and the political turmoil is happening in a local area then it would not have a major impact on the tourist industry. Such as worsening of political condition in the southern province of Thailand does not have a declining impact on the tourist industry. However if the political instability increases and reaches other parts of the country it will boost tourists insecurity and fear. It will build a negative perception in the minds of tourists about that place. Also it might have a negative impact on tourists plans for example, if the crisis in Thailand increase s and reaches other parts of the country than it might have a n adverse affect on the tourist industry _ bomb blasts in Bangkok has led to a negative affect on the development of the tourist Industry. Individual and situational characteristics have affected tourists a lot because of the availability on information. It should be considered when taking in the account the security of tourist destinations, that the political instability is exaggerated by the news reporting. Several incidents in Thailand such as terrorists strike are given greater importance by the media than major road accidents. Road accidents in Thailand create a major security risk than a political unrest- and tourists are out most of their time and face many traffic jams every day. How ever Thailand is fairly a safe place than several other countries. Except for political instability, terrorism also has an indirect relation with the amount of tourists visiting a country. Terrorists also try to target the most important sites of a country to spread their terror. Most of these sites are the same sites to which tourists around the world come to visit. An example can be the pyramids of Geza which can we seen as an ideal spot for terrorists to attack. Thea Sinclair and Adam Blake of WTO said The contribution of tourism and travel to both industrialized and developing countries is now so great that any downturns in the level of activity are a cause for concern. The repercussions extend beyond activities directly associated with tourism, notably airlines, hotels and catering, to sectors that supply intermediate or final goods that are purchased by firms and employees in the industry, so that all sectors of the economy are affected to a greater or lesser effect. In the above quotation they are clearly pointing out the adverse impact of terrorist activities on tourism industry and how this adverse impact amplifies over time. Examples can be of cases from target killing of tourists in Egypt, bombing in Nairobi, hijacking of planes for the 9/11 attack etc. These activities not only collapse the tourist industry of the specific countries, but it also impacts the overall global growth of tourism. As mentioned above 9/11 had one of the most harmful impacts on global tourism industry. The overall impact of the 9/11 attacks cannot be measured but according to an estimate but it lowered world tourism by 10%. To regain the confidence most of the countries are using several encouragement tools such as lowering their air fares. 2.4 Demographic Factors Demographics of countries also impact the tourism industry. Living patterns and population affects both the demand of tourists and the supply of labour in the tourist industry. Example the overall percentage of tourists from Australia is higher though their population is lower than many other countries. 2.5 Cultural factors It cannot be ignored that culture is one of the strongest factors affecting the tourist numbers. It can be crucial point when it comes to competitiveness between the countries. Tourism nowdays basically stems out of cultural attractions. And this is this bond of culture and tourism that makes a destination more attractive than other to either go as a tourist, employee, investor or emigrant. 3 Objectives of the study The main purpose of this study is: To find out what are the current social problems Thailand is facing regarding its tourism industry. To find out what are the current economical problems Thailand is facing regarding its tourism industry. To find out what are the current infrastructure problems Thailand is facing regarding its tourism industry. To find out how tourism industry of Thailand is suffering due to the current political situation of the country. To find out what are the current demographical problems Thailand is facing regarding its tourism industry. To find out what are the current technological problems Thailand is facing regarding its tourism industry. To find out what are the current demographical problems Thailand is facing regarding its tourism industry. 3.1 Limitations: In order to conduct this study few limitations will be faced as well, such as: Geographical research limitations are our first constraint. The target audience is large in number and it will be very difficult to interact with every tourist of Thailand. We will not be able to cover all the minor problems related to the sector. Some of the official analysis by the Thai govt may be restricted to us. Time is also a big issue which will make our research limited. 3.2 Scope: In this study we will be focusing on the current economical condition of Thailand. We will relate different economical variables with the tourist sector. These variables can range from inflation to exchange rates. By looking at the previous trends of growth we will try to analyse the future growth of the Thailands tourism sector. Through online or paper questionnaires we will try to find out what problems are tourists in Thailand facing. 3.3 Assumptions: The assumptions we will take in this study are: The sample size of our research shows the majority of the tourists coming to Thailand The situation of Thailand remains stable during our research. Data gathered from TDRI is accurate. 4.0 Research Methodology: 4.1 Research Design: In order to understand the problems affecting the tourism industry we will first measure the effect of each of the variables on the over all tourism industry of Thailand. In exploring these variables several different studies will be taken under as secondary data to build the foundation. Apart from this, several tourists perception surveys will be conducted to develop a deeper understanding. In order to insure that all the variables are covered we will attach specific weight ages to the variables and the results will be both qualitative and quantitative in nature. 4.2 Procedure: Problem Statement Study of Thailands economy: Basic understanding of the different sectors, Problems Thailand is facing as a country, Understanding of the Thailands tourism industry foreign perspective: Introduction of the sector, Growth of the sector, Comparison the to the other countrys tourism industries, Past trends of the sector, -In-depth research on forces which previously moved the market globally and in relation to Thai tourism: Economic forces, Political forces, Demographic forces, Technological forces, Primary research: Questionnaire In-depth Questionnaire, Hypothetical offers, In-depth Analysis, Conclusion: Problems and challenges faced by Thailands tourism industry, Recommendations for the Thai government as a whole, 4.3 Sample: The sample size will be consisting of 100 tourists both local and international. Interviews will be taken from famous economic analysts for in-depth research. 4.4 Measurement/ Instrument Selection: Data Collection: Data will be collected through both secondary and primary sources. Primary data will be collected after complete analysis of available secondary data. Method of Data Collection: Interviews: interviews will be taken from both the tourists and economic analysts. Data gathered from the tourists will be used to form a perception chart of Thailand as a whole and the information gathered from the experts will just be used to see if the research is going on the right track and nothing is being missed out. Structured questionnaire: For the collection of primary data, in depth structured questionnaires will be developed. 4.5 Variables: The variables will be incorporated at the later stages, as the research will proceed. 4.6 Hypotheses: Hypothesis will be incorporated at later stages. 4.7 Software employed: We will use Spreadsheet and SPSS software in during our study.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Letters From A War Zone :: essays research papers

"Letters from a War Zone" deals with the controversy between men and women banning pornography. In this essay there are many strong personal views on pornography and the brutality of women in porn. Men and women have been at war for many years because of this. I agree with banning pornography because pornography lures men into disrespecting women. This essay makes me angry because it shows another part of life that is really not acknowledged. It seems realistic to me because many women in life are confronted with sex at an early age and become vulnerable. The unique thing that reaches me is how women do not have a choice, especially when it comes down to sex. Vulnerability is one of a woman's weaknesses. Pornography is degrading to women when it is forced upon them. If sex were done for pleasure or because the women wanted to, it would not be as bad. That is how many women are raped, killed or lose their confidence. Women in pornography were typically prostitutes at one-point. Due to statistics, more than half the women in a sex-related professions have been sexually abused, molested or raped at one time during their lies. The quote stated in this essay that really hits home is "Made in South America where life is cheap." I, as a Hispanic, am terribly offended by this statement. This statement basically says that South America has many lowlives', and that anything can happen to them because life there is worth very little. For example the women of South America are used in Snuff films and in explicit photographs. Snuff is a film that consists of a woman being sexually harassed, raped, and killed. In many of these films/photos the women are brutalized to the point where their breasts are dismantled and their bodies are urinated on after they are raped and killed. There are photographs in which women's breasts are slammed in rat traps, their vaginas are stuffed with knives, guns, and even glass, and then they are gang-banged, beaten, and tortured. Snuff films are usually made in South America because, as said in the statement above, life is not worth much there. "If you are going to hurt a women in the United States be sure to photograph it" is a controversial statement used in this essay. Its means that if you have slain, hurt, or abused a woman it is all right, as long you have taken a picture. The photograph expresses a point of view, sacrosanct in a free society. When these picture/films are being taken the woman is forced to smile. This will make the picture/films protected by the constitution,

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Becoming Ecology: Changing Perspectives of the Human Habitat

Becoming Ecology Populating in context of all living things in clip and infinite, and the paradox of seeing habitat all around but entree is denied through the human concept of private belongings ) Changing Positions We now operate an amodern fundamental law, where we must contextualize ‘humans’ or ‘culture, ’ ‘nature or ‘place’ or so any of the other ‘noun chunks’ used to train and order world through the modernist fundamental law, as it all appears to be merely happenstances unifying and emerging ( Anderson, ) . We must accommodate the concepts that modern society has generated, with the world. Many writers have attempted to depict their image of nature. Buijs ( 2009 ) described five images of nature ; wilderness, autonomic, inclusive, aesthetic and functional. The ‘inclusive’ image refers to a nature that expresses peaceable coexistence with adult male and nature is regarded as beautiful. When humanity invents ( speaks ) itself extemporarily outside ‘nature’s text, ’ it has non, on a cardinal degree, at large nature, for it is and ever will be a merchandise of nature ( Conesa-Sevilla, 2010 ) . This alienation from ecology has arisen from a long history of our being ostracised from the land, Jay Griffiths ( 2008 ) refers to John Bellers’ ( 1654-1725 ) remarks: ‘forests and great parks make the hapless that are upon them excessively much like Indians.’ Indeed Griffiths describes commonland as one time being ‘a hinderance to industry.’ Worlds have become estranged from their ain being through the concepts most prevailing in the modern societies and it is now that positions of our ineluctable integrating into ecology are granted acknowledgment. Writers have tried to depict this dynamic holistic theory, making a new individuality for us all. The more-than-human universe ( Abram, 1997 ) or the more than human kingdom ( Instone L 2014 ) and Gaia are portion of the new languaging undertaking necessary to double up this universe of relationships into duologue. The duologue is grounded in ecology and Earth scientific disciplines, doctrine and evolutionary history. It alludes to something that is so inclusive, so emergent, so living, that it is besides infused in thaumaturgy and mythology. Relationship between people and environment is present in the most traditional of civilizations. Smohala and Black Elk represent a charming vision of nature, in the truest sense of the word magical. The strong belief that the universe is there to be communicated with, that it can be prayed to, that there can be a transactory relationship between people and their environment ( Roszak talk, 1971 referred to in Coope, 2010 ) . Deep ecology, social-ecology, ecopychology and many other watercourses of idea explore ‘Nature connection’ and besides ‘ecological literacy.’ Most research workers are construing ‘context and relationships’ in some manner so that we may do sense of or go cognizant of the universe. Our literacy of it, our languaging, our duologue is continuously going. ‘The trouble of utilizing the nomenclature is that no ecopsychologist has put forth a believable ( ie, widely accepted and testable ) operational definition of what ‘connecting with nature’ is’ ( Conesa-Sevilla, 2010 ) . Conesa-Sevilla quoted Kull ( 1998 ) : Like most people the ecospychologist enters the wonts oflanguaging, copying others without due analysis and contemplation on what these words could intend. The duologue of connection and holistic integrating will go on to germinate but the significances will derive true acknowledgment as position and linguistic communication becomesintegrated action, when worlds as the more-than-human universe Begin to make things for common advantage, for the involvement of the meta-organism. Working as one, bing as one. The human is already recognized as meta-organism, of which many microbic species are working in mutualism, multiple species working in long-run mutualistic relationships. Cell development is inherently derived from symbiotic relationships ( see Margulis, Capra ) . Much of the ecology on Earth is symbiotic ( besides see Harding ) . In the walking group methodological analysis in this research worlds are working as a meta-organism, construing the host landscapes. We eat together, research our milieus, we use multiple senses as a centripetal array to construe the universe, parts doing a whole. As mycelium works with the host environment and other beings, so is the walking group working in mutualism with the social-ecological landscape. There is an exchange of resources and information. When organisms work in mutualism or as meta-organism, we are inventing ways of co-habiting, of bring forthing healthy home ground. Exciting new ways of co-creating home ground, pass oning and working in mutualism among living things in the more than human kingdom, require thoughts to go action. When humans become agents in common relationships with each other and other species in home ground we are going ecosystem by individuality. Action takes on new relevancy, betterments to habitat go the function of the human-ecology mutualism. Furthermore when we are engaged in common action, co-habitation, we are needfully larning every bit good. As the ecosystem in action, we have to larn from what we have around us, continuously interacting with each other and construing the kineticss. It is evident that some topographic points as home ground are non peculiarly healthy. It is besides known that there exists proficient ability and familial diverseness from which ecosystems can be brought up to wellness. Nijhuiss et Al. ( 2011 ) described how the gait of land-use development has exceeded human evolutionary version, peculiarly with mention to agribusiness. They province that this is what fuels our temperament towards nature. However, possibly we are accommodating if we consider the finer landscapes in the Westcountry. It is seldom wild naturalness that we see in this part, connection in this human influenced bio-region is to see a social-ecological system. It is besides more than Appleton’s prospect-refuge theory ( 1996 ) where a relationship to the perceived environment is comparable to an animate being to its home ground, informed by our opportunities of endurance. We like to see without being seen, we prefer landscapes that let us to conceal every bit good as to study the environment. Harmonizing to Appleton, likely those who argue that we have an unconditioned penchant towards nature conflate nature with flora. It is the flora, non the naturalness, which triggers congenital mental temperaments to like those landscapes. There is something more affectional and more holistic than a temperament towards flora at work here. It is more. The animate being and home ground are one in the same. It is experience, ‘deep ecology emerges out of deep experience of nature’ ( Kumar, 2013 ) , and it is relationship: ‘The counterpoison to capitalist rationalisation is a new relationality, an empathic, animal and rational manner of associating that is profoundly concerted, enjoyable and meaningful’ ( Heller, 1999 ) this involves the more than human universe ( Heckert, 2010 ) . There is ‘no ego without topographic point and no topographic point without self’ therefore it necessitates that we engage with landscape, our immediate life home ground, more readily, for mutualism, forourwellness. Griffiths wrote that ‘enclosure crushed the liquors of the common people. For centuries communal carnivals were held on the parks. They were wild in character: bawdry, exuberant, unfettered, they were a common natural state of the human spirit, which demented by claustrophobia, hates to be cooped up, enclosed, indoors’ ( Griffiths, 2008 ) . In this part we have a human altered landscape where portion or about all the home ground is in private owned. For us here we need to be symbiotic with other worlds to make the home ground that we have a temperament towards life in, viz. one that sustains us really efficaciously and where we are free to interact. We can non run into a temperament toward flora and diverseness, relationship and experience without going symbiotic, by larning to be in common relationship with the landscape. To handle the full country as home ground, as the ego, we have to entree as much of it as possible and cognize it good, acquaintance in order to do the home ground map for all. This does intend that we have to go Wilder more intuitive, as home ground and animate being, more active. Taking action with habitat rather literally means non waiting for top-down determination devising to better your universe for you. You work it out for yourself with your meta-organisms. If something is non right with home ground ; repair it or better it with other worlds, workss and animate beings. The option is to envelop the ego psychologically and physically in boundary lines, boundaries or boxes- leting yourself claustrophobia and small influence on how your home ground is making, which is barely relationship at all. That is non ecosystem in action. Human ecological-effort ; inventiveness and interaction, is the most immediate manner of taking action as an incorporate homo, as a more than human being.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

How to Identify a Target Market Essay

In this part of my P2 course work, I have been asked to identify the target market by preparing an information pack about the target market, for my potential investors and also make a good question for my business survey. Market Research Market Research is a systematic, objective collection and analysis of data about a particular target market, competition, and/or environment. It always incorporates some form of data collection whether it is secondary research (often referred to as desk research) or primary research which is collected direct from a respondent. Purpose of Market Research The purpose of any market research project is to achieve an increased understanding of the subject matter. With markets throughout the world becoming increasingly more competitive, market research is now on the agenda of many organisations, whether they are large or small. Market research is also one of the most important pieces to your marketing plan that will determine how you will speak with these customers, where to find them, how to best convert them into your customer and retain them as a customer. There are two types of market research 1. Primary research / Field 2. Secondary research / Desk Primary Research When marketers conduct research to collect original data for their own needs it is called primary research. This process has the marketer or someone working for the marketer designing and then carrying out a research plan. Primary research is also collected in a research â€Å"instrument† designed to record information for later analysis. Marketing researchers use many types of instruments from basic methods that record participant responses to highly advanced electronic measurement where research participants are connected to sophisticated equipment. Primary research also refers to information that is directly collected from the source. Another simple method of primary research would be to directly talk to your customers and get their feedback. Primary research can be both qualitative and quantitative. Method of primary research Questionnaire – Questionnaires are one the main tools in the use of field research. A questionnaire contains a series of questions which gather primary marketing research data for the business. A face-to-face questionnaire might include different questions to an emailed questionnaire. An interviewer will be filling in a face-to-face qu estionnaire and the person may be able to ask for the question to be rephrased if they do not understand it the first time. Online surveys- Increasingly popular and relatively low cost, online surveys are widely used by small businesses as a way of capturing the views of existing and potential customers. Face-to-face surveys – Personal interviews conducted face-to-face is a costly, but good way to get detailed insights from an individual. Secondary Research Secondary research is a data that already exists and has been collected by someone else for another purpose. Secondary research involves the investigation of secondary sources of data. Sources of secondary data can come from within the firm itself – this is known as internal secondary data. External secondary data, on the other hand, is data that has been published by other organisations. Methods of secondary research Secondary Sources include journal articles, books, encyclopaedias, dictionaries, reviews, newspaper articles, specific essays, etc. Most research papers are based on secondary sources as they build on the research or studies others have done. It’s usually published in pamphlets, newsletters, trade publications, magazines, and newspapers. Secondary sources include the following: * Public sources. These are usually free, often offer a lot of good information, and include government departments, business departments of public libraries, and so on. * Commercial sources. These are valuable, but usually involve cost factors such as subscription and association fees. Commercial sources include research and trade associations, such as Dun & Bradstreet and Robert Morris & Associates, banks and other financial institutions, and publicly traded corporations. * Educational institutions. These are frequently overlooked as valuable information sources even though more research is conducted in  colleges, universities, and technical institutes than virtually any sector of the business community. My name is Mba Nduka Amogu. I am a Business studies student at Whitefield. I would like to take a few minutes of your time by completing my questionnaire for my business studies course work about my business survey. 1. Are you male or female? Male Female 2. Which age range are you? Under 20 21-30 31-40 40-above 3. Do you live within this area? Yes No 4. Would you like to visit our fruit shops if provided? Yes No 5. If our new shops were available today, how likely would you be to visit instead of visiting other fruits shops currently available from other companies? Very Likely Moderately Likely Slightly Likely Not at all likely 6. If you are not likely to visit our shop why not? Do not like our services Satisfied with other competing fruits shops currently available Cannot pay for our services and products Not willing to pay or shop with us 7. How important is it convenient to you, when choosing our products? Extremely important Very important Moderately important Slightly important Not at all important 8. Overall are you satisfied with your experience, shopping with us? Extremely satisfied Moderately satisfied Slightly satisfied Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied Slightly dissatisfied Moderately dissatisfied Extremely dissatisfied 9. If our new products were available today, how likely would you be to recommend it to other? Extremely Likely Very Likely Moderately Likely Slightly Likely Not at all likely 10. If our new service were available today, how likely would you be to use it instead of competing service currently available from other companies? Extremely Likely Very Likely Moderately Likely Slightly Likely Not at all likely 11. If you are not likely to use our new service, why not? Do not need a service like this Do not want a service like this Satisfied with competing service currently available Cannot pay for a service like this Not willing to pay for a service like this 12. How important is it convenient for you, when choosing a service this type of service? Extremely important Very important Moderately important Slightly important Not at all important 13. Overall are you satisfied with your experience using our new service? Moderately satisfied Slightly satisfied Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied Slightly dissatisfied Moderately dissatisfied Extremely dissatisfied 14. If our new service were available today, how likely would you be to recommend it to others? Extremely likely Very likely Moderately likely Slightly likely Not at all likely 15. How often will you visit my shop if available, having different variety of fresh fruits and vegetables for sell? Daily Weekly Monthly Quarterly In My questionnaire I interviewed a total of 20 people. Below displays the results of each question individually. 1. Are you male or female? * Male8 * Female12 2. Which age range are you? * Under 2010 * 21-305 * 31-403 * 40-above2 3. Do you live within this area? * Yes16 * No4 4. Would you like to visit my fruit shops if provided? * Yes12 * No8 5. If my new shop were available today, how likely would you be to visit instead of visiting other fruits shops currently available from other companies? * Very Likely6 * Moderately Likely5 * Slightly Likely4 * Not at all likely5 6. If you are not likely to visit my shop why not? * Do not like my services7 * Satisfied with other fruits shops currently available3 * Cannot pay for my services and products5 * Not willing to pay or shop with us6 7. How important is it convenient to you, when choosing my products? * Extremely important7 * Very important4 * Moderately important5 * Slightly important3 * Not at all important1 8. Overall are you satisfied with your experience, shopping with me? * Extremely satisfied9 * Moderately satisfied4 * Slightly satisfied3 * Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied0 * Slightly dissatisfied3 * Moderately dissatisfied1 * Extremely dissatisfied0 9. If my new products were available today, how likely would you be to recommend it to other? * Extremely Likely4 * Very Likely6 * Moderately Likely3 * Slightly Likely4 * Not at all likely4 10. If my new service were available today, how likely would you be to use it instead of competing service currently available from other companies? * Extremely Likely5 * Very Likely3 * Moderately Likely2 * Slightly Likely 7 * Not at all likely3 11. If you are not likely to use my new service, why not? * Do not need a service like this10 * Do not want a service like this 1 * Satisfied with competing service currently available 0 * Cannot pay for a service like this 2 * Not willing to pay for a service like this7 12. How important is it convenient for you, when choosing a service this type of service? * Extremely important13 * Very important3 * Moderately important2 * Slightly important1 * Not at all important1 13. Overall are you satisfied with your experience using my new service? * Moderately satisfied15 * Slightly satisfied0 * Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied1 * Slightly dissatisfied2 * Moderately dissatisfied1 * Extremely dissatisfied1 14. If my new service were available today, how likely would you be to recommend it to others? * Extremely likely10 * Very likely3 * Moderately likely2 * Slightly likely2 * Not at all likely3 15. How often will you visit my shop if available, having different variety of fresh fruits and vegetables for sell? * Daily15 * Weekly1 * Monthly2 * Quarterly3 1. The Gender of the people interviewed for my business surveys This pie chart shows the gender of people I interviewed for my business survey, which shows that 40 percent of them are male and 60 percent of them are female. 2. The age range for the people I interviewed for my business survey. This pie chart shows the age range for the people I interviewed for my business survey, which shows that 50 percent of the people I interviewed are under 20, 10 percent of them are 40 above, 15 percent of them are between 31 – 40 and 25 percent of them are between 21-30. 3. This is people that live and doesn’t live in that area but were interviewed by me for my business survey. This pie chart shows the people that live and doesn’t live in that area but they were still interviewed by me because of my business survey, which shows that 20 percent of the people I interviewed don’t live in this area and 60 percent of them live in this area. 4. Would you like to visit my fruits shops if provided? This pie chart show the amount of people who are willing to make a visit to my shops when they are provided and also people who are not willing to make a visit to my shop, which shows that 40 percent of the people I interviewed are not willing to visit my shop and 60 percent of them are willing to visit my shop. 5. If my new shop were available today, how likely would you be to visit instead of visiting other fruits shops currently available from other companies? This pie chart shows the range of people who are willing to make themselves regular customers to my shop and also visit my shop regularly, which shows that 30 percent of the people I interviewed are very likely to visit my shop, 25 percent of them are moderately likely, 20 percent of them are slightly likely and 25 percent of them are not likely at all to visit my shop. 6. If you are not likely to visit my shop why not? This pie chart shows the reasons about people who are not likely to visit my shop and why they are not likely to visit my shop, which shows that 33 percent of the people I interviewed do not like our service, 14 percent of them are just satisfied with other fruits shops currently available, 24 percent of them cannot pay for our service and products and 29 percent are not willing to pay or shop with us. 7. How important is it convenient to you, when choosing my products This pie chart show how important it is convenient for people when choosing my product, which shows that 35 percent of the people I interviewed said that my product are extremely important to them, 20 percent said it is very important to them, 25 percent said it is moderately important to them, 15 percent said it is slightly important to them and 5 percent said it is not important to them at all. 8. Overall are you satisfied with your  experience, shopping with me? This pie chart shows the overall rate of people who satisfied or dissatisfied with shopping with me, which shows that 45 percent of the people I interviewed are Extremely satisfied with shopping us, 20 percent of them are moderately satisfied, 20 percent are of them are moderately satisfied, 15 percent of them are slightly satisfied 0 percent of them are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, 15percent of them are slightly dissatisfied, 5 percent of them are moderately dissatisfied and 0 percent are extremely dissatisfied. 9. If my new product were available today, how likely would you be to recommend it to others? This pie chart shows the people who are likely to recommend my product to others if it was available, which shows that 19 percent of the people I interviewed are extremely likely to recommend my products to others, 29 percent of them are very likely, 14 percent of them are moderately likely, 19 percent of them are slightly likely and 19 percent of them are not likely at all to recommend my product to others. 10. If my new service were available today, how likely would you be to use it instead of competing service currently available from other companies? This pie chart shows the people who are happy and likely to use my services, which shows that 25 percent of the people I interviewed are extremely likely to use my services instead of competing services from other companies, 15 percent of them are very likely to use my service, 10 percent of them are moderately likely to use my service, 35 percent of them are slightly likely to use my service and 15 percent of them are not likely at all to service my service provided. 11. If you are not likely to use my new service, why not? This pie chart shows people, who are not likely to use my service and why  they are not likely to use it. It shows that 50 percent of the people I interviewed do not need a service like this, 5 percent of them don’t want a service like this, 0 percent of them are satisfied with competing service currently available, 10 percent of them cannot pay for a service like this and 35 percent of them are not willing to pay for a service like this. 12. How important is it convenient for you, when choosing a service this type of service? This pie chart shows how important it is convenient for people when choosing this type of service, which shows that 65 percent of the people I interviewed, said that my service is extremely important to them, 15 percent of them said it very important, 10 percent of the said it is moderately important, 5 percent of them said it is slightly important, and 5 percent of them said that my service is not important to them at all. 13. Overall are you satisfied with your experience using my new service? This pie chart shows the overall rate of people who are satisfied or dissatisfied with my service, which shows that 75 percent of the people I interviewed are moderately satisfied with my service, 0 percent of them are slightly satisfied, 5 percent of them are slightly satisfied nor dissatisfied, 10 percent of them are slightly dissatisfied, 5 percent of them are moderately dissatisfied, and 5 percent of them are extremely dissatisfied with my service. 14. If my new service were available today, how likely would you be to recommend it to others? This pie chart shows the people who are likely to recommend my new service to others if it was available, which shows that 50 percent of the people I interviewed are extremely likely to recommend my new service to others, 15 percent of them are very likely, 10 percent of them are moderately likely, 10 percent of them are slightly likely, and15 percent of them are not likely at all to recommend my new service to others if available. 15. How often will you visit my shop if available, having different variety of fresh fruits and vegetables for sell? This pie chart shows the total amount of people who are willing to visit my shop daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly, which shows that 71 percent of the people I interviewed are happy to visit my shop daily, 5 percent of them are happy to visit my shop weekly, 10 percent of them are happy to visit my shop monthly and 14 percent of them are happy to visit my shop quarterly. My Target Market My Market target is for the children, Tourist and adults to be aware of the current advice of five portions of eating different fruits and vegetables a day. Because fewer of us know that five portion should come from a variety of sources every day, so that they gain the maximum benefit from fruit, eat it fresh and if the skins are edible, eat them too and also help people balance their vegetable intake between the orange/red and green varieties. Conclusion In this part of my P2 Coursework, I have identified my target market by doing a market research for my business and preparing a questionnaire for my business survey to get people reactions towards my business.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Essay Major Maturity

Essay Major Maturity Essay Major Maturity Torrey Hickel Honors Freshman English 1 Dr. Cobb 14 February 2013 Major Maturity Imagine you are in an 1840’s time period, with the power of women greatly suppressed and with romantics at an all time high. Picture being in the heart of the Victorian era with marvelous architecture paired with rich culture. That is the setting that Charlotte Bronte’s novel, Jane Eyre, takes place. The character development of the novel’s main character, Jane Eyre, takes place in three major settings, Gateshead, Lowood, and Thornfield. The novel first introduces Jane in the setting of Gateshead. She is portrayed as a neglected and abused 10 year old girl with her opinion and existence completely ignored. Gateshead is the home of Jane’s aunt and cousins, the Reeds. Jane feels hatred for all of the Reeds but especially her cousin John Reed. He abuses her very frequently, usually around twice a day and Jane has no choice but to accept the abusement. If she even complains about her treatment she will be punished greatly. â€Å"I saw him lift and poise the volume†¦ not soon enough the volume was flung and it hit me, and I fell striking my head against the door† (Bronte 13). This quote perfectly reflects the cruel and unusual punishment that Jane suffers at Gateshead. This quote shows only the physical punishment that she receives and not the mental aspect of her punishment. At Gateshead Jane is often put into solitary confinement in the horrifying red room. This following quote describes the red room from Jane’s perspective. â€Å"This room was chill†¦it was silent†¦ it was solemn because it was known to be so seldom entered† (Bronte 16). The time that Jane spent at Gateshead was very unpleasant and she feels hatred for all of the Reeds. The next progression in Jane’s maturity occurs at Lowood institution. Here Jane meets someone who will become a great friend of hers named Helen Burns. She also grows to become more socially active along with more independence and self-relian ce. â€Å"I saw a girl on a bench near; she was bent over a book in which I could see that the title was Rasselas† (Bronte 51). This quote describes the scene of when Jane and Helen first met. Their friendship over the next year or two would greatly increase to a point when Jane calls Helen the only true friend she had ever had. Miss Temple, a teacher at Lowood, is also a character in the novel that Jane Eyre becomes very fond of. â€Å"I can remember Miss Temple walking lightly and rapidly along our drooping line, and encouraging us, by precept, and example, to keep up our spirits† (Bronte 63). This quote shows the optimistic and positive personality that Jane and all of the students at Lowood enjoyed in Miss Temple. Jane not only finds friendship in Miss Temple, but also a

Monday, October 21, 2019

The Bet essays

The Bet essays The Bet is a story written by Anton Cheahov. The story is about a man who decides to take this bet. The deal is that the man must stay in prisoner fifteen years and he will receive two million dollars. Well, turns out the man leaves the his prison cell 5 minutes before the time is officially over; in return he losses the bet. The question is if this could really happen and how would it done? I think life and freedom are the most favored things in our great country and for some one to visit give their freedom up for some money would bring about these questions. I would think this would be illegal to be put someone prison for no reason. I could see in a mental hospital were you could check your self in and out, but not in a prison. Another reason I feel that you wouldnt be allowed in a prison is for your safety. You would have to be in a different part of prison because you are in their voluntary and not by force. You would also have the freedom and extra luxurys that other inmates would not have. Also how you would be treated? Would you be treated like a normal person who has the freedom to roam about the prison; or would you be treated like a criminal with no privileges. Why would someone want to do such a thing? Would you be mentally prepared to loose everything in an instead for some money. If the state would let you go through with your bet. Would you be evaluated for you mental health? They should do this test to make sure that you clearly understand what you are doing. Would it be a challenge or an escape from your bad credit or money problems? Most people would think that two million dollars for fifteen years of your life, because it is a lot of money and it would help your future financially. This is you would separate your greed from a challenge. In my conclusion about the story presented in the paragraphs above is that I feel that my reasons above support my theory that this i ...

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Attachment Styles And Romantic Relationship Outcomes Psychology Essay

Attachment Styles And Romantic Relationship Outcomes Psychology Essay Many researchers have shown a link between attachment styles and romantic relationship outcomes. Attachment styles deals with early infant parent caring and environment, internal working models of themselves, their early relationships with peer or friends and attachment security. These major attachment styles leads to the different timing of the first sexual intercourse which later shows links to relationship satisfaction, quality of romantic relationships, union formation and the number of romantic partners. The timing of first sexual activity is classified at either early age (14 or earlier), on time (15-19) or late age (19 or older) (Harden 2012). Many studies have shown that individuals prefer partners with similar attachment style, a complementary attachment style or either the attachment style most likely to form attachment security, is all dealt with the age of an individual. This theory of attachment increases the understanding of Hardens (2012) findings and explains these f indings by him. The characteristics and stability of teenagers romantic relationship in young adulthood is concerned with the timing of teenager ¿Ã‚ ½s first sexual intercourse. One theory that suggests reasons for the quality of this romantic relationship is the attachment theory. John Bowlby was the first Psychologist to introduce the attachment theory, describing attachment as a â€Å"lasting psychological connectedness between human beings† (Bowlby, 1969). The attachment theory states that people  ¿Ã‚ ½construct internal, working models of themselves and their early relationships, which function to guide social behaviour throughout their life span ¿Ã‚ ½ (Bowlby, 1973). Hazen and shaver (1987) also concluded that attachment styles may influence the quality of their romantic experiences and their beliefs on relationships. This attachment theory and peer relationships are able to explain Hardens (2012) findings that concluded that  ¿Ã‚ ½timing of first sexual interco urse in adolescence predicts romantic outcomes in adulthood, including union formation, number of romantic partners, and relationship dissatisfaction ¿Ã‚ ½. The essential argument of the attachment theory is if parents are not available and responsive to their children ¿Ã‚ ½s needs are likely to face difficulties in their lives. Belsky et al. (1991); ¿Ã‚ ½Belsky, 1997) ¿Ã‚ ½claimed that an individual ¿Ã‚ ½s early family environment, including the childhood-parent attachment relationship, conveys to children the risks and uncertainties they are likely to face in their lifetimes (Belsky, J. et al. 2010). It has been stated that  ¿Ã‚ ½Such information adaptively regulates psychological, behavioural, and reproductive development, either toward a mutually beneficial orientation to interpersonal relations or toward an opportunistic, advantage-taking point of view ¿Ã‚ ½ (Belsky, J. et al. 2010). This may result and affect mating behaviour, pair bonding, and parental investmen t, and also has been said to result earlier or later sexual intercourse, number of romantic partner, unstable or stable relationships and union formation(Belsky, J. et al. 2010). From this evidence attachment of individuals with their parents explains the results in which romantic relationships are created and built and timing of first sexual intercourse. Friendships are extremely significant during adolescence, so an individual might experience internal working models (attachment theory) of close friendships to become particularly influential during this time (Trinke and Bartholomew, 1997; Weiss, 1991).Researchers have proposed that friendship during adolescence is provided as a supplement rather than a replacement for relationships between parents and should be considered as a unique factor on adolescent functioning (Furman Paterson et al. 1994). Peer relationship or friendship is known to contribute to later romantic relationship outcomes, and best known by the scholar Sullivan( 1953). He viewed  ¿Ã‚ ½chumpships established in middle childhood as foundational for later romantic relationships ¿Ã‚ ½ (Madsen, S., & Collins, W. 2011). A research by Neemann et al. (1995), documented that peer relationships or friendships during the age of middle adolcence influences factors such as romantic relationship involvement, number of romantic partners, and relationship satisfaction and the quality of relationship in young adulthood. Furthermore, rejections experienced by friends in middle adolescence are significant issues in the development of rejection sensitivity, and the results of these experiences of rejection have been strongly correlated with dissatisfaction in romantic relationships (Downey, Bonica, & Rinc ¿Ã‚ ½n, 1999).

Friday, October 18, 2019

Security Planning and Assessment Quiz Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Security Planning and Assessment Quiz - Essay Example Security personnel should also have some knowledge in regards to their role in the justice system and the legal process, aspects of evidence, and the ability to detain or arrest. A college education is an important part of everyone's life, even though it is not a requirement for working as a security guard. However, college courses in psychology, sociology, criminology, and security can be very helpful for anyone working in the security industry. Security consultants and managers have a greater need for a college education in security. It gives them a greater awareness of the industry and the most comprehensive knowledge on trends and research. It can also keep them abreast of changes in the law, the handling of evidence, or new processes and procedures available for private security. As managers, an educational background in management theories and styles is very important in today's technology based competitive world. One of the major asset protection challenges is the protection against cyber-crime. This area is one of the fastest growing, and fastest changing, fields within security. Not only are computer systems vulnerable to attack to transfer money from bank accounts, there is also massive amounts of information that needs to be secured. According to Ortmeier (2008), information is "the lifeblood of almost every enterprise" and "represents one of the most important vehicles for survival within a competitive global economy" (p.152). This information may relate to national defense, product design, or corporate strategy. Information security will continue to be a challenge as systems continually change and criminals sharpen their skills. Confronting this challenge will require security personnel with very high level computer skills. 4.) What trends in terrorism can we expect to see in the future Will the tactics and strategies terrorism uses remain the same or change In either case how will these strategies be used, and what steps should security do to reduce the potential for a terrorist act against their organizationOne of the trends in terrorism that will become more noticeable in the US will be the increase in crimes committed by terrorists to finance their terrorism (Hamm, 2005, p.1). Terrorist targets will become high value assets, or cyber crime that preys on bank accounts. In addition, the increase in cooperation among domestic terrorists, foreign terrorists, organized crime, and gangs could see an increase in multi-organizational operations. It could also open the door for terrorist 'outsourcing', where a gang commits the act but the terrorist organization takes credit for it. US gangs and organized crime could use their freedoms and protections to give the foreign terrorists an advantage. 5.) What role should the United States play in the future to international order, and what government policy implications regarding that role do you see that could impact

Staples.com Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Staples.com - Essay Example Would you pursue wallet share or market share as the first priority? Or would you pursue both? Staples.com strategy is very timely as the only online competitor they had was Office Depot and as per the Forrester Research online sales of office supplies were expected to reach $65 billion by 2003. Their cohesive marketing campaign aimed at offering multiple channels so they could reach more customers. They were realistic in their approach as far as advertising budgets were concerned despite having ample capital. They did not want to follow what others were doing and wanted to use the traditional, cost-effective direct marketing strategies. They were not following a ‘get big strategy’ because they differed in their marketing approach. They had a balanced approach. Lewis’ strategy to first capture the market share holds more importance. To expand and achieve the target growth, competing with mass discounters and mass merchants would not commensurate with the image that they were trying to build. Once the market share is captured, wallet share would happen auto matically. Staples.com should expand into the SOHO services market because for small businesses it is time and cost effective to find all services from one source. To offer services like intranet, telecommunications, take care of payroll and other accounting services, it would be better for Staples.com to tie up with external service providers. Creating services would require more manpower and there is the possibility that their focus might shift from their primary goal. They can oversee the services to ensure quality and professionalism is maintained. Staples.com should not compete with mass discounters and merchants. This adversely affects the image of the company. They should aim at capturing the market share which would help them to meet their growth targets. If they start offering discounts to match competition, they might have to compromise on services. Besides, the

Why Control Development Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Why Control Development - Research Paper Example Control development is such a scheme. Emphasis is given on answering the following question: ‘Why control development?’, meaning the reasons for the superiority of control development towards other concepts and mechanisms of similar role. Through the review of the literature published in the particular field it has been proved that control development can significantly help towards the improvement of urban planning; however, it would be necessary for certain terms to be met. In the long term, the effectiveness of control development cannot be guaranteed, being influenced by the social and economic trends that are likely to change overtime. In any case, control development is the most credible process for securing the quality of urban planning and for this reason it should be preferred by urban planners when having to address various social, economic or spatial challenges. 2. Planning Theory Various approaches have been used in the literature for describing the role and the value of planning, as a theoretical concept with important implications on town planning worldwide. In accordance with Lichfield (1998) the theory of communicative planning best reflects the context of planning as the basis for the design of cities and communities worldwide. The above theory is based on realities, as the main element of planning; it is explained that these realities are depended on the life of people within a particular community and the needs of this community. It is implied that planning, as a theory, is a reflection of daily human needs – referring to people as members of a community. From a similar point of view, Sorensen (1999) notes that the first signs of town planning and control development can be identified in the academic movement based on the views of 19th century philanthropists; it is explained that the academic writers who based on these views emphasized on the need for ‘rational public control for urban development’ (Sorensen 1999, p.147). The above theory is characterized as socialist aiming to achieve the following targets: protection of the interests of the working class, of ensuring the expansion of public housing and ‘the increase of the power of citizens to participate in urban management’ (Sorensen 1999, p.147). The above theory was opposed by the revisionists, who emphasized on the value of privatization of public assets and the limitation of public housing – highlighting the importance of private capital for defining the terms of housing and the urban planning in modern cities (Sorensen 1999). This trend is reflected in Cities for Sale of Sandercock; in the above book reference is made to the power of the state to set the rules for urban planning and to prevent the private sector from highly intervening in the town planning process (Sorensen 1999). However, concerns are developed regarding the effects of the limitation of private funding in various public projects. The revisionist approach in town planning has been opposed by the idealism, a theoretical trend that has been partially based on socialist and revisionist theories for explaining the context and the value of town planning. In accordance with the idealism approach on town planning, ‘planning should be based on a ‘

Thursday, October 17, 2019

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

Criteria - Essay Example No two individuals are alike either physically or mentally in this world and hence their learning abilities also might be different. This paper briefly explains my experiences as a learner. The learning theory of constructivism argues that knowledge is actively constructed and not received passively from the environment (Constructivism: a theory of learning, n. d). It is easy to know things, but it is difficult to learn things. Acquisition of knowledge is the initial step of learning. But the knowledge we receive from the environment may not be perfect. In order to construct this knowledge to a perfect shape, we should analyse the knowledge more deeply. For example, during my high school days, one of my science teachers asked me what electricity is. I replied that it is the flow of electrons. Then the teacher asked me in which direction the electron is flowing. I replied it is from cathode to anode. Then he asked me if the electron is flowing from cathode to anode, then why electricity is represented from anode to cathode. I became answerless and the teacher explained that our learning will never be a perfect one if we fail to go deep into the roots of the topic. From then onwards, I have changed my learning style and started to analyse things more deeply. I have realized that knowledge is useless if we fail to do something with that. Nickerson et al, (1985) have mentioned that understanding requires the connecting of facts, the relating of newly acquired information to what is already known and the weaving of bits of knowledge into an integrated and cohesive whole (Nickerson et al, 1985, p.234). Analogy in learning is the process of identifying similarities between two concepts (Teaching approaches: analogies, n. d, p. 2). Complicated topics can be learned properly if we are able to establish some analogies. For example, solar system and the distribution, rotation, revolutions etc of the planets are

Pentagon Museum of Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Pentagon Museum of Art - Essay Example Place and time are both texts. So my personal Pentagon Museum of Art is both a place and a long sequence in time. My hiding place is located on the roof of a Midtown Manhattan building. It is a light blue pentagon-shaped construction with a yellow little door as its only entrance. I retreat in that small space of paradise during my off hours. After work in an ad agency as a copywriter, I come over here to relax, to take a nap, to resume writing my first novel, or to take a look at its surrounding white-painted walls each one holding in its surface a masterpiece work of art by Salvador Dal and Pablo Picasso. They are my favorite painters so I placed 5 of their paintings on the five walls of my private Pentagon Museum of Art right on top of a metropolitan apartment building in New York. My Pentagon is an arts Pentagon, not a military one. I find myself at peace with my own self here. It's a metalinguistic feeling that I enjoy to the max. I can lye on the bed. I can write my novel. I can watch closely at the paintings. I can read a book. I can listen to music. My favorite music. My favorite books. Intertextuality. Intratextuality. Extratextuality. All of them merge within my own self. Intertextuality among the paintings. Intratextuality inside my novel. Extratextuality with the surrounding environment that feeds my urgings for creating a different and distinct world of my own. The text becomes a sign, and according to C. S. Peirce the sign can be an icon, a symbol, or an index. Intertextuality can be an icon, intratextuality an index, and extratextuality a symbol. I have decided to make everything in all out of my hiding place. My Pentagon Museum of Art. My little piece of paradise on Earth. Here there is no place for luxury. Everything is common and simple. There is a fridge by the door. Five windows on each side of the pentagon. There is a computer table in the middle of the room with its corresponding PC on top. Five paintings of two master artists of all time: Salvador Dal and Pablo Picasso. There is a small bed by the top vortex, between the two top sides of the pentagon. A nice sound equipment with the Sony trademark right by the side of the computer table. There is an executive rotating chair in front of the computer table. Here everything is interconnected. That's part of the hyperlinking of the objects. One leads to the other. I can go in a matter of seconds from the radio to the computer, from the chair right onto the bed. And I can jump from my bed in order to take a fresh look at one of the Dal's Christs. Texts are interwoven in my mind as well as in this little retreat of comfort and peace. Every text has its rhythm, and I find meaning in the rhythm of this small building with five walls and a quiet sound of the music in my ears. That is Bob Dylan playing with The Traveling Wilburys. At the End of the Line. Yes. At the very end of the line I find a melody filled with harmony in the creativeness of my life. I find meaning in each and every white wall with the paintings hanging like sovereign pieces of wonderful signs. Picasso and Dal share with me their meaningful creatures of their minds. Dylan does his part beautifully singing "Blowing in the Wind". "Like a Rolling Stone" is coming up after that tune. I keep writing on my clone PC. My first novel is taking

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Why Control Development Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Why Control Development - Research Paper Example Control development is such a scheme. Emphasis is given on answering the following question: ‘Why control development?’, meaning the reasons for the superiority of control development towards other concepts and mechanisms of similar role. Through the review of the literature published in the particular field it has been proved that control development can significantly help towards the improvement of urban planning; however, it would be necessary for certain terms to be met. In the long term, the effectiveness of control development cannot be guaranteed, being influenced by the social and economic trends that are likely to change overtime. In any case, control development is the most credible process for securing the quality of urban planning and for this reason it should be preferred by urban planners when having to address various social, economic or spatial challenges. 2. Planning Theory Various approaches have been used in the literature for describing the role and the value of planning, as a theoretical concept with important implications on town planning worldwide. In accordance with Lichfield (1998) the theory of communicative planning best reflects the context of planning as the basis for the design of cities and communities worldwide. The above theory is based on realities, as the main element of planning; it is explained that these realities are depended on the life of people within a particular community and the needs of this community. It is implied that planning, as a theory, is a reflection of daily human needs – referring to people as members of a community. From a similar point of view, Sorensen (1999) notes that the first signs of town planning and control development can be identified in the academic movement based on the views of 19th century philanthropists; it is explained that the academic writers who based on these views emphasized on the need for ‘rational public control for urban development’ (Sorensen 1999, p.147). The above theory is characterized as socialist aiming to achieve the following targets: protection of the interests of the working class, of ensuring the expansion of public housing and ‘the increase of the power of citizens to participate in urban management’ (Sorensen 1999, p.147). The above theory was opposed by the revisionists, who emphasized on the value of privatization of public assets and the limitation of public housing – highlighting the importance of private capital for defining the terms of housing and the urban planning in modern cities (Sorensen 1999). This trend is reflected in Cities for Sale of Sandercock; in the above book reference is made to the power of the state to set the rules for urban planning and to prevent the private sector from highly intervening in the town planning process (Sorensen 1999). However, concerns are developed regarding the effects of the limitation of private funding in various public projects. The revisionist approach in town planning has been opposed by the idealism, a theoretical trend that has been partially based on socialist and revisionist theories for explaining the context and the value of town planning. In accordance with the idealism approach on town planning, ‘planning should be based on a ‘

Pentagon Museum of Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Pentagon Museum of Art - Essay Example Place and time are both texts. So my personal Pentagon Museum of Art is both a place and a long sequence in time. My hiding place is located on the roof of a Midtown Manhattan building. It is a light blue pentagon-shaped construction with a yellow little door as its only entrance. I retreat in that small space of paradise during my off hours. After work in an ad agency as a copywriter, I come over here to relax, to take a nap, to resume writing my first novel, or to take a look at its surrounding white-painted walls each one holding in its surface a masterpiece work of art by Salvador Dal and Pablo Picasso. They are my favorite painters so I placed 5 of their paintings on the five walls of my private Pentagon Museum of Art right on top of a metropolitan apartment building in New York. My Pentagon is an arts Pentagon, not a military one. I find myself at peace with my own self here. It's a metalinguistic feeling that I enjoy to the max. I can lye on the bed. I can write my novel. I can watch closely at the paintings. I can read a book. I can listen to music. My favorite music. My favorite books. Intertextuality. Intratextuality. Extratextuality. All of them merge within my own self. Intertextuality among the paintings. Intratextuality inside my novel. Extratextuality with the surrounding environment that feeds my urgings for creating a different and distinct world of my own. The text becomes a sign, and according to C. S. Peirce the sign can be an icon, a symbol, or an index. Intertextuality can be an icon, intratextuality an index, and extratextuality a symbol. I have decided to make everything in all out of my hiding place. My Pentagon Museum of Art. My little piece of paradise on Earth. Here there is no place for luxury. Everything is common and simple. There is a fridge by the door. Five windows on each side of the pentagon. There is a computer table in the middle of the room with its corresponding PC on top. Five paintings of two master artists of all time: Salvador Dal and Pablo Picasso. There is a small bed by the top vortex, between the two top sides of the pentagon. A nice sound equipment with the Sony trademark right by the side of the computer table. There is an executive rotating chair in front of the computer table. Here everything is interconnected. That's part of the hyperlinking of the objects. One leads to the other. I can go in a matter of seconds from the radio to the computer, from the chair right onto the bed. And I can jump from my bed in order to take a fresh look at one of the Dal's Christs. Texts are interwoven in my mind as well as in this little retreat of comfort and peace. Every text has its rhythm, and I find meaning in the rhythm of this small building with five walls and a quiet sound of the music in my ears. That is Bob Dylan playing with The Traveling Wilburys. At the End of the Line. Yes. At the very end of the line I find a melody filled with harmony in the creativeness of my life. I find meaning in each and every white wall with the paintings hanging like sovereign pieces of wonderful signs. Picasso and Dal share with me their meaningful creatures of their minds. Dylan does his part beautifully singing "Blowing in the Wind". "Like a Rolling Stone" is coming up after that tune. I keep writing on my clone PC. My first novel is taking

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

The 3M Company Case Study Essay Example for Free

The 3M Company Case Study Essay Introduction The 3M Company is a $18 billion diversified technology company with leading positions in health care, safety, electronics, telecommunications, industrial, consumer and office, and other markets. Headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, 3M has operations in more than 60 countries, serving customers worldwide. 3M is one of the top 50 Fortune 500 companies and has been one of Fortune magazines ten most admired corporationsfor the last ten years. Since its founding in 1902, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company has become one of the worlds most innovative and productive companies. 3Ms primary growth strategy is to sell more existing products into new markets and to introduce new products into new or existing markets.3M mission is to be the most innovative enterprise and the preferred supplier to customers. 3M vision is to sastisfy customers with superior quality, value, and service. A division of the 3M Company, 3M Health Information Systems, the largest and one of the fastest-growing of 3Ms seven major businesses, serves medical, dental, pharmaceutical, and personal care markets. 3M Health Information Systems is a leading provider of advanced software tools and services that help health care organizations capture, classify, and manage accurate health care data. With more than 20 years of industry experience, 3M Health Information Systems solutions help ensure the quality of data and the processes that drive an organizations ability to manage revenue, comply with regulations, improve the quality of patient care, and manage resources effectively. Read more: 3MÂ  Organizational Structure Through this paper, 4 main points will be discussed in order to identify the position of 3M strategy regarding its innovation management,especially in the health care division . First of all, lets identify the main issues of 3M affecting its innovation management. The second point will be to discuss the national system of innovation in health care.As a third point , three academical framework will be applied to 3M innovation management. Lastly , based on the findings get on analysis of the theories , some recommendations will be suggested to improve 3M innovation management. Section 1: select an organisation and outline the main problems which impact on the effective innovation management.In answering this part of the question you may, if appropriate, provide examples of recent innovation in product, services or process. In the field of innovation management , 3M is the leader. 3Ms corporate strategy shows anyway some internal and external concerns which impact the effective innovation management put in place at 3M. The first concern which come up is that 3M has established a corporate goal of generating 30% of sales from products introduced within the previous four years. In striving to attain this goal, the company spends 7 cents of every sales dollar on R D more than twice the average of U.S. manufacturing companies.It could be seen as too much concentration of innovations even if they are not necessary in the market. According to William Coyne, 2001 at 3M, in recognition that product life cycle are becoming shorter, the company has recently set up a new goal of 10 per cent of sales coming from product less than a year old. But as most business leader would acknowledge that developing genuianely new products is a high risk activity : industrial product have only a 50:50 chance of being succesfull, while consumer goods fare even worse , with a one ten chance of succeeding . In attempt to meet the 30% or 10% rule, the employees strive to introduce new innovations on the products, even if those innovations do not add any value to the customers whilst the company is heavily spending on RD. The second concern which was noted related to 3M innovation management. Gundling, E. (2000) argues that 3M declared victory too early .In fact 3M has a high publicity and reputation for innovation and this lead to over confidence resulting that every employee believe that they are all innovators .So there is noone to set the standards for innovation, against which innovation performance can be assessed. The troubles that afflicted 3M is the environment that encourages people to work around and defy their superiors and a determination to let the company follow where its scientists and customers lead.However , it is important for 3M employee not to fall into the trap of happy self deception or to be content with just incremental products.In fact , according to William Coyne (2001), the company top managers were very concerned that too much of the companys growth was coming from incremental improvement to existing products. The third drawbacks that 3M has is the fact that they produce overwhelming too many products than what overseas subsidiaries can manage to market . Ernest Gundling (2000) argues that subsidiaries employees are trying to serve the needs of numerous 3m divisions simultaneously , some employees are kept so busy dealing with US or regional headquaters that they lack the time to focus on their customers. As a result 3M is very big but acts small. Each of 3Ms 45 product divisions constitute a business in itself with its specific customer base, with its own general manager, marketing director, technical director, human resources director, manufacturing director, and national sales manager (Coyne, 1997). 3M is a highly decentralized company, but care is taken to decentralize to units that are large enough to be self-standing and, therefore, capable of funding their own RD. On the other hand, 3M attempts to prevent divisions from getting so large that individual innovations do not count. 3Ms strong belief in divisional autonomy is countervailed by the corporate requirements of a high level of innovativeness and interdivisional knowledge-sharing (Goold et al.,1994, p.203). Fourthly , according to Gundling, E. (2000),3M still unofficially practices lifetime employment. It is possible to get fired, but normally only for a serious ethical breach, gross imcompetence , lack of motivation, or negligence. When the company decided to reduce their workforce , the only concern they face is how to preserve the experience and sense of dedication that will ensure continued innovation in the company.In fact people laid off because of their performance or early retirement are well attracted by others firms to work and share the knowledge they acquire through 3M experience. Finally 3M face not only internal concerns as seen before but external environnement affect as well its innovation management. In fact according to Gundling, E. (2000), when a product has been approved for marketing, 3m still have to wait the review from the regulatory agencies in other countries.This could slow down the innovation process of the company for instance for the launch of the Aldara cream. Section B : Briefly indicate how the National System of Innovation influences the company s ability to manage innovation. According to Tidd, J. et al (2001), the national system of innovation in which a firm is embedded, strongly influences both the direction and the vigour of its own innovation activities. He identifies three national factors that influence the rate and direction of innovation, National market incentives and pressures; competencies in production and research; and institutions for corporate governance. The innovation policy whereby 3M scientists hold regular meetings with customers allows the company to utilise knowledge available on the market, for its innovation management. In relation to health care products, 3M is forced to keep innovating due to intense competition and regulation in the US. Competition does also promote innovation by providing opportunity for formation of alliances to share costs and risks in risky and costly projects. 3M enjoys national competencies in production and research through the availability of universities with which it has research links. US, as a nation also ranks high among nations with good innovation environment indicators. The nation has steadily increased its RD expenditure (as a percentage of GNP) from 0.99% to 1.60% between 1967 and 1998. Tidd, J. et al (2001) estimated that US per capita and per researcher RD expenditure was US $ 650 and US $ 169,650 respectively. RD Personnel ratio was estimated at 3,700 per million population. Tidd, J. et al (2001) posit that increased share of RD expenditure as a percentage of GDP for USA (as well as Germany and Japan) has been responsible for the growth of major firms in pharmaceuticals and telecommunication. USA has also good institutions that promote RD. These include, the National Institute of Health, which is a government funded body active in biotechnology RD . Section C: Select three analytical frameworks from the course as a means of evaluating the effectiveness of the organization s approach to innovation management. There is 3 theoritical framework that could applied to 3M innovation management concept . The first model that could be applied to 3M innovation management is the Knowledge creation Model . According to Professor Nonaka and Takeuchi, (1995), there is two types of knowledge :Tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge .Through this dynamic interaction between the two types of knowledge, personal knowledge becomes organizational knowledge. And the organizational knowledge or intellectual infrastructure of an organization encourages its individual members to develop new knowledge through new experiences. This dynamic process is the key to organizational knowledge creation. This interaction between the two types of knowledge brings about what we call four modes of knowledge conversion that is, socialization (from individual tacit knowledge to group tacit knowledge), externalization (from tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge), combination (from separate explicit knowledge to systemic explicit knowledge), and internalization (from explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge). Socialization is a process of creating common tacit knowledge through shared experiences. For socialization, we need to build a field of interaction, where individuals share experiences and space at the same time, thereby creating common unarticulated beliefs or embodied skills. In the case of 3M , personal tacit knowledge which 3M requires through their recruitment process to only take knowledgeable employees and that tacit knowledge will be transferred through team working , for instance the division managers nust know each staffers first name(Mitchell,1991). Externalization is a process among individuals within a group. During such face-to-face communication people share beliefs and learn how to better articulate their thinking, though instantaneous feedback and the simultaneous exchange of ideas. This mode is triggered by a dialog. In fact when an employee come up with a product idea, he or she recruits an action team to develop it(Mitchell,1991). Combination is a process of assembling new and existing explicit knowledge into a systemic knowledge, such as a set of specifications for a prototype of a new product. Often, a newly created concept should be combined with existing knowledge to materialize it into something tangible. For instance according to Gundling, E. (2000), 3Ms Technical Forum is a means for all technical people share technologies, practices, policies, and procedures. Exchange of technical personnel knowledge to different divisions, or other countries where 3M has operations, is common. Internalization is a process of embodying explicit knowledge into tacit, operational knowledge such as know-how. This mode is triggered by learning by doing or using. Explicit knowledge documented into text, sound, or video formats facilitates the internalization process. Therefore, manuals, a quintessential example of explicit knowledge, are widely used for internalization. That has been done in 2002 when 3M published the book which is a compilation of 3M voices, memories, facts and experiences from the companys first years : The innovation century , the 3M story. The second model that could be applied to 3m innovation management is the culture-innovation model The innovative culture of 3M has been the driving force for the companys continuous innovation and growth into a major world-wide, large-scale manufacturer. Applying the theory developed by Teece, we assessed that 3M has developed complementary assets, in terms of research ability residing in individual knowledge and technical expertise held by 3M scientists. Furthermore, this culture has helped the company develop dynamic capabilities by analysing and anticipating future customer needs (opportunities) and translating these opportunities into product novelty, by combining various complementary assets in a competitive, hardly inimitable way. 3M is a company whose culture has led to thousands of new products every year for decades, probably the premiere company in bringing new products to market. 3Ms development process is dramatically different from most, yet it is highly successful at new product development. Innovative new products from 3M because of a well-thought-out set of mechanisms which support emergent activity. 3Ms corporate strategies explicitly promote an innovative spirit. These strategies include: 30% if sales must result from products less than 4 years old; technical people can spend 15% of their time on projects of their own choosing; every division has access to technologies developed anywhere in the company and has the responsibility to share the technological needs of its customers throughout the company. 3Ms corporate culture is very supportive of risk taking, teamwork, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Failure is viewed as a learning experience; employee relations are informal and on a first-name basis; the technological base is diversified and technological exchange is encouraged throughout the company; and 3M maintains a strong commitment to develop customer-driven products. These principles have all been followed at 3M for decades. The specific human resource (HR) strategy helps 3M foster innovation, retain research talent and reduce the employee turnover by giving scientists personal research time, rewarding innovation and adopting a constructive approach towards product failures. As shown in the case, the specific HR policy along with the innovative culture has been the milestones in the development and the success of the company over several decades of operation. By providing the framework for innovation, 3M allows the innovation process to be controlled almost entirely by the individual scientists, who are encouraged to think outside the square and develop new products within the specifications required by the market. The third framework that will apply 3M innovation management will be the organic structure. The organic structure is more flexible, more adaptable to a participative form of management, and less concerned with a clearly defined structure. The organic organization is open to the environment in order to capitalize upon new opportunities. Organic organizations have a flat structure with only one or two levels of management. Flat organizations emphasize a decentralized approach to management that encourage high employee involvement in decisions. In 3M, this translates into a structure where most employees network into at least five levels: department, division, group, sector and company. For purposes of innovation, the key level is the division. Each of the companys 40-some divisions develops, manufactures and sells its own products, and each has a structure appropriate to its market. Most divisions include functional departments division labs, manufacturing, marketing, sales, logistics and so forth as well as cross-functional teams. 3Ms resulting formal structure may look like a bureaucracys analytical hierarchy on an organization chart. But, in fact, the structure acts less like a bureaucratic prison than a platform, from which employees are expected to learn and serve customers. For instance, like the units in a living thing, the departments in any division have semi-permeable boundaries. Sales people arent trained only in sales. They learn about their divisions technology so they can describe products to customers. Moreover, theyre expected to work with people in the marketing and research departments of their divisions and to network across the company. Similarly, technical and manufacturing people regularly visit customers manufacturing facilities to learn about their operations. As a result, they sometimes see possible uses of 3M products those customers havent thought of. As an example, about 15 years ago, technical people were visiting an auto manufacturers factory and learned that the rivets they used to hold side molding to doors were rusting. So the technical people went back to the lab and developed an acrylic foam tape that replaced the rivets and solved the problem. Additionally, 3M has a flexible organisational structure, with a dual ladder approach, allowing employees with technical background to advance in their career without having to switch to management. Furthermore, we assessed that the dual ladder reveals a matrix internal corporate organisational structure allowing the firm to react promptly to market opportunities and assemble quickly multi-disciplinary teams of employees. This internal organisational structure is not visible from the outside and it is not easy to be copied by competitors, due to the high complexity of the relationships that establish within this matrix (span of command and delegation of authority). Section D: Based on your analysis in section C explain how the organization could improve the management of innovation: Based on the findings in the third question 3M has managed to innovate continuously and create a large pool of products (over 30,000 products), achieving continuous profitable growth over time. So suggesting new recommendations for the improvement of 3M innovation management is a difficult approach but any company even 3M has some limitation so few suggestions will be recommendable : As explained in the third question, the lack of a system to guide product developers who are seeking to create breakthroughs is a problem even for a company like 3M, long known for its success with innovation. The innovation culture the company has nurtured and the continuous investments in research and development (RD) over several decades has helped 3M get deep roots in several competencies for instance in applied technology for health care. But willing to create although very new products and services may be essential to future growth and profit, companies must first survive to get to the future. That necessity tends to focus companies strongly on making incremental improvements in order to keep sales up and current customers and Wall Street analysts happy. Second, developers simply dont know how to achieve breakthroughs, because there is usually no effective system in place to guide and support their efforts. Employees knows only that 30% of sales must come from products that had not existed four years earlier. So even if the product could have a life cycle more than four years , 3M reduce it in order to comply to the rule. For the Medical-Surgical Markets Division to secure future growth it would be advisable that the division maintain a balance between incremental and revolutionary innovation. As well as promoting more the activities like marketing or branding for the product created in the health care division because the cost of investment put in place for the creation of thoses products will be only recovered if the product stays in the market longer than 3M would. By shortering the product life cycle , it increases the RD expenditure. Even the most effective innovating firms such as 3M may create organizational bureaucracy that slows down innovation. The most successful innovators know that just spending more on RD is not enough; neither is anticipating customer needs. 3M employs a strategy of high decentralization and autonomy for its divisions, or units. In reality 3M also does not follow the traditional approach to organizational design. 3M consistently achieves its goal of having 15 percent of its revenue come from new products by providing managers with the latitude to move from one business unit or laboratory to another without bureaucratic obstruction. It is during the knowledge creation process that Project groups, operating with few constraints from the formal organization, come together to accomplish a task and disband when their work is completed. One of my recommendation regarding the 3M structure is to merge RD with Sales and Marketing, subsequently creating a number of small cross-departmental innovation teams. Realignment of goals and business planning would be crucial during this phase and reappointment according to respective areas of expertise must be communicated positively, offering alternative thoughtfully designed posts, linking salary to performance. Linkage between these teams must be fabricated carefully. By creating this as an independant workforce they will be delegating responsibility , flexibility.They will be able to access fast, good communication will be involve to share the available information. This approach will enable the company to retain all the insight and move on quickly to the next step on a real time basis. . By allowing RD , Sales and Marketing to mix and to participate in decision-making, their suggestions could have changed the outcome by allowing them to respond in a timely manner and adjust their strategies to fit their consumers. It is also recommended to start with small grouping of activities because it is reducing risk and remain tight control and maintain that organic structure put in place within 3M. Finally creating independent small units that can rapidly respond to customers needs or changes in the business environment. The supervisor tends to have a more personal relationship with his or her employees in order to motivate them to succed in their object ives. Summary : 3M, which obtains 30% of sales from new products within four years, offers an example of how a culture of innovation can take root and become integral to the continuing success of a company after nearly a century. Even if 3M is the model of innovation management for other companies, it has some limitations in its proper culture, structure and HRM policy which lead 3M to make some improvements that enable them to excell in their competitive advantage.The national system of innovation is the foundation of their actual direction. After analysing the three theoritical frameworks , there is no doubt that 3M innovation management provide the effectiveness at all level. Total Word Count: 3108 Section A: 569 Section B: 283 Section C: 1321 Section D: 935 Reference: 3M Company, 2002, A Century Of Innovation, 3M Company, USA 3M Company Annual Report, 2003 3M Company, USA Achtmeyer, W.F. (2002), 3M Corporation, Centre for Global Leadership, available on http://mba.tuch.dartmouth.edu Boxal, P. and Purcel, J., (2003), Strategy and Human Resource Management, PalgraveMacMillan, New York. Cobbenhagen, J. (2000), Successful Innovation: Towards a new theory for the management of small and medium-sized entreprises, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, UK Cohen, W., Nelson, R. and Walsh, J. (2002), Links and Impacts: The influence of public research on industrial RD, Management Science, Vol. 48, pp 1-23 Frohman (1980) in Cobbenhagen, J. (2000), Successful Innovation: Towards a new theory for management of small and medium sized entrprises, Edward Edgar Publishing Ltd, UK). Goold, Campbell and Alexander (1994), Corporate Level Strategy: Creating value in the multi-business company, John Wiley and Sons, New York Gundling, E. (2000), The 3M-way to innovation: Balancing people and profit, Kodansha, London Larkins, R.J., (2000), Government research program briefing, available on http://www.fas.org/man/congress/2000/000510-larkins_may_10.htm Lorentzen, A. (2003), Knowledge and knowledge bases in the learning process of Polish companies, Aalborg University, available on http://www.druid.dk/conferences/summer 2003 Minnesota Statutes, 2003, Ch 116J. 885, available on http://www.state.mn.us/stats/116J/ Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995), The knowledge-Creating Company, Oxford Press, New York. Porter, M.E. 1998, Competitive Advantage: Creating and sustenance of superior performance, Free Press, New York Mitchell Russel,(1991), Masters of innovation : How 3M keeps its new product coming Terziovski, M. Samson, D and Glassop, L. (2001), Creating Corporate Competence through management of organisational innovation, Research paper, available on http://www.fsed.org/research/projects , 2001. Thomas Swan, Top twenty innovators: The mothers of inventions, available on http://www.thomas_swan.co.uk (2004) Thomhe, S. and Von Hippel, E. (2002),Harvard Business Review, April,pp74-81 Tidd, J., Bessant, J. and Pavitt, K. (2002), Managing Innovation: Integrating Technological, Market and Organisational Change (2nd edn), John Wiley Sons Inc, USA Von Hippel, E., Thomhe, S. and Sonnach, M. (1999), Breakthroughs to order at 3M, Sloan School of Management, available on http://web.mit.edu/evhippel