Monday, September 30, 2019

Marketing Strategy of Tung Lok Essay

Mode of entry: In international marketing, modes of entry indicate the risk of foreign market represents, the amount of resources required and how the company can enter the market. Political risk and financial risk are the two major factor that Tung Lok will assess to understand deeper the United Kingdom markets before investing in. The purpose of the political risk assessment is to evaluate the political stability of UK. The changes in a country’s political structure and policies can cause the loss of the investment or business. There are 3 main types of political risks here: Ownership risk Operation risk Transfer risk Naturally, UK government will favor the local companies than the foreign companies in order to encourage the domestic economic development. So the foreign companies will counter many policies which can lead to the end of their business such as Expropriation and Confiscation. The company’s assets will be seized and an amount of compensation will be paid to the owners, which is a form of expropriation. Confiscation is a transfer of the ownership from the foreign company to a host company without any compensation. The foreign company cannot be operated by entirely foreigners as the foreign worker quota is limited. The government will demand a partial transfer of ownership and management to the local and implant regulations so that a large share of the product is locally produced and the main profit remains in the country. This process is domestication. While shifting funds between countries, many companies running overseas are facing common problems, for example, shortage of foreign currency in the local bank. Government officials drag on the negotiation as foreign company requires more approval letters and documents. High tax and government price control of the import affect the competitiveness of the company as the input price increases. To deal with these problems, long term contracts should be formed with the potential and essential partner companies to ensure sustainable resources. In order to penetrate the UK’s market, Tung Lok can approach in an direct way like franchising. A local restaurant or company will cooperate  with Tung Lok and the name of the restaurant will be Tung Lok too. Facilities, decoration and operation will be in Tung Lok’s control and adjustment, however, the staffs, crew members or the food supply will be recruited locally. This method makes sure that Tung Lok holds a stable business ground even though 30% of the profit stays back in UK. Target market Tung Lok restaurants are famous about their Cantonese–cooking style which offers exclusive collections of refined dinners and continually attract the loyal followings. Each of the restaurants offers various courses of dining concept targeted at different market segments, from budget individuals to high-income customers. The primary market is the British who earn a middle or upper income. Chinese food can be popular and the intensity is raising but Britain is the largest market in the world and the land of opportunity. The main menu consists of many traditional Chinese dishes at an average or slightly above average price. The restaurant will be located further to the center of London to cut cost of the rental, however, near to some business and office district like Canary Wharf in Tower Hamlets, London with high concentration of shops and businesses. Officers can prefer a quick bite at the Asian restaurant with a warm and relaxing atmosphere. The secondary target market is the British Asian in UK, which consists of 8% of the total UK population, 63 million people in 2013. The British Asian is highly brand loyalty and favorite the Chinese cuisine. Tung Lok restaurants commit to bring the finest and freshest of the food to the customers with the upmost care in the most authentic Cantonese style. The group not only brings a Asian kitchen to UK but also the entire culture and tradition to experience here in Tung Lok. Marketing positioning As a newly launched restaurant in the region, Tung Lok aims to establish and stabilize the business in the first 4 months instead of maximize the profit generator. This period of time is crucial to Tung Lok as the initial image and reputation will position in the customers’ minds and slowly but steady build up the brand loyalty. Certainly, the prices in the menu are final and, best, kept constant throughout the business. Since the priority is quality over price for the starting period, promotion and advertisement can be  published in the newspaper and around the area. The restaurant is not confident that the first month will have any profit due to the intensive investment and slow business, however, a possible goal to strive for. Deals and happy hours are common to attract new customers’ attention with family deal combo and crowded group of officers. Saving cost does not mean treating the staffs poorly as outstanding food must come with good services. Staffs must be provided uniforms and chef must be equipped with sufficient kitchen tools and raw materials. Trainings are provided to all the crew and facilities must be maintained to the upmost level of cleanness and tidiness. Safety and standardization must be set as the foundation despite the costly price. Fierce competition from local shops will snatch the customers away and customers can unconsciously deny Chinese food. So the taste of the food will be edited slightly to suit the local’s appetite closer but not removing the authenticity of the dish. Marketing objective: A detailed schedule shall be prepared and filed in Singapore to propose to UK authority for approval to launch our restaurant at the end of 2013. From January 2014 to June 2014, 1 team needs to research and study the local trends of food favor and appetite to create most suitable dishes in Cantonese style but suitable for the British. Another team will investigate and liaise with a Britain company to find a location for the restaurant. The restaurant will be in operation in latest October 2014 and till the end of 2014, the restaurant will set a goal to create 10% of customers’ awareness through any means like advertising and promotions. Executive Summary  Tung Lok Group is a chain of Chinese restaurants paved the modern Chinese cuisine in Singapore. The first restaurant was opened in October 1980 at Corthorne Orchid Singapore. The dishes here are served in Cantonese-cooking style and attract a lot of diners’ attention. Currently, Tung Lok Group consists of 40 restaurants in Singapore, Indonesia, and China bearing the famous hallmark reputation of high-quality food, exceptional service and outstanding design. Andrew Tjoe is the executive chairman and the very founder of Tung Lok. In 2012, due to many external factors such as economic crisis, raising completion and internal factors like closure of 6 Tung Lok  restaurants, the revenue decline to S$86.6 million from 94.3 million from past years. However, Tung Lok still has a higher gross margin of 71.6% from 69.9%, meaning Tung Lok’s business is operating profitably. The Asia market has become saturated of Chinese cuisine. A raising need for a new market to invest in is very necessary. So a faraway land decided to place the Group’s future in is London, England. Locally the Chinese cuisine restaurants have appeared for a long time but the intensiveness is low, moreover, their category and nature are totally different from Tung Lok. Cantonese-cooking style is not properly introduced in London and most of the restaurants serve non-authentic or similar recipe. A fresh and enormous market like United Kingdom is very potential and promising for Tung Lok to bloom.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Memorable event in my life Essay

Very often people don’t remember their day-by-day routine, but if something unusual or extra ordinary happens. It can be memorable and remarkablefor the rest of their lives. For me, such remarkable event was the light show of dancing fountains. I saw this show for the first time when I was 10 years old. Since that time I saw shows like that several times, but the feelings of the very first time are still in my haert and they are unforgettable. The show had to start during sunset, and since it was arranged on the bank of the rive on a hot summer day everything around bacame pink. Trees, river, air, people around -everything was paintad with a tender pink colour. That day was extremely hot but in the evening the air turned to be fresh and clean. The blowing breeze was very pleasent. The show was delayed. At first we were nervous about that, but now I understand that it was planned ahead and we were really lucky to see the sunset. Very soon it became darker and at last the show started. The show was accompanied by modern music and the fountains really danced and people danced too. Everybody was so excited! I convinced my freind to go with me, which was not easy because she didn’t want to join that â€Å"crowd†( as she called all the people at the show). But thanks to that evening we becam e much closer and that was an event we remember and recall very often. I would recimmend to those who didn’t see dancing fountains to have a chance and see them! It was an unforgettable, remarkable event.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

The first voyage of columbus Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The first voyage of columbus - Term Paper Example Christopher Columbus officially started his first voyage on 3rd August, 1492 with his three ships. Alongside the journey Columbus faced many challenges including bad weather that caused lack of winds to help steer the ships and also lack of supplies to maintain the ship thus could not get on the island of canary. It was on the 8th of September, when Columbus noticed that the pointer on the compass was not pointing north, but rather half of it was pointing to the Northwest, and the variation was greater as they continued with the journey. Columbus did not mention that to his crew as he knew it could cause anxiety and yet they were not sure of their final destination. This kept on for some days, but was later discovered by his pilots something that caused mixed reactions of anxiety and panic. Most of the men in ship panicked to an extent of threatening to move back to Spain. Columbus had to reason faster as to why the pointer was not pointing at the north and explained to the crew not to worry as it was due to failure in weather conditions, and as he was a well known astronomer reduced the anxiety. It took him sometimes up to early mid September to make clear sight of the Hierro Island as the wind flow remained low. First landing It was on 12th of October, when Columbus saw his first land which was earlier sighted by a sailor on Pinta ship but, Columbus dismissed him that he was the first to see the land letting him retain the prize he had made a promise to give to whoever saw it first. The island was named San Salvador, by Columbus but presently referred to as Bahamas. In Bahamas, the residents were friendly, calm and kind. At the time the island was discovered, the local residents were: the Bahamas, Galibi who was on the windward parts of the island and the kalian on the leeward part of the island (Herring 121). Columbia also did a study on the cultural and social living standards of the residents on the island. The residents of Bahamas were mostly described by Columbia as, friendly, naive, harmless and willing to learn new ideas. At this point, Columbia had the urge of finding gold as he had discovered most of the residents wearing some of them in their noses and this made him extent his stay. Second landing After landing in Bahamas on12th of October, Columbus discovered five more islands there thereafter he left for Cuba on 28th of October. He made a landing at Bariay which was at the eastern part of the island. At this point, Columbia thought that he reached China and so he decided to send two of his two men to find out if it was true, and these were Luis de Torres and Rodrigo. The two men did not succeed in what they had been sent to but instead travelled to a small village called Taino, from which they acquired a habit of tobacco smoking as they had observed the people there doing so. The two men who were sent came back after four days. It was during this time that Columbia made a discovery of the existence tobacco plant and the wild growth of cotton everywhere. It was on the 21st of November that Pinta ship travelled to the east towards the inaqua and Turk island hence being apart from the other ships (Herring 91). Pinzon was the one sailing Pinta, and he made the decision to go separate as he had the idea that he

Friday, September 27, 2019

Information strategy Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Information strategy - Coursework Example They may be reluctant to the concept and benefits of consultation and communication. In contrast/consultation and information is likely to be effective in workplaces where the customs is based on an open administration style. Employment relationship behaviours history in the organization can also act as an enabler or an inhibitor to effective consultation and information. Organizations with a history with adversarial relations and those where there has been no tradition of employee participation experience the greatest barriers to shifting to a culture of employee participation. Where there are established relationships through trade unions and partnership working employees may be more open to the opportunities accessible by the directive to review consultation planning. Creating a mixed constituency committees, for example, combining trade union and non union employee’s legislative body may pose serious challenges in the information sharing practices. Practical challenges may come arise from an imbalance of legal rights, expertise, and support between the two groups. Detailed factors must be taken into deliberation when introducing planning tailored to geographically dispersed organizations and those in small organizations. The consultation and information needs to be the same in these organizations whether in large or single site organization. The challenges in a smaller organization revolve around the need to achieve the accurate balance among formality and informality in communication. Question 2 Successful enterprises are built on change; businesses operate in a dynamic environment where the response to changing markets may of benefit to evaluate in hours and days instead of months and years. So responsiveness and adaptability will be of great success. Agent based process administration systems combine the latest distributed computing technology with agent based techniques by providing an intelligent conservatory and alternative to workflow administ ration systems. The advantages associated with agent based process management include, intelligent decision making where management strategy and policy can be represented with a variety of perspectives. Explicit resource management represents the limitation and the value of resources to manage and support the business activities. Anticipation in this process plans the task and schedule available resource anticipation in the business management. APMS react to changing circumstances and have the capacity to generate alternative execution pathways in reacting to specific exceptions. APMS can distribute over multiple platforms across the organization activities using the latest computing technology which is full of open across the machines and operating systems. APMS presents an alternative technology to working flow systems. The major one they offer an alternative vision of how organizations can be planned and managed. The method takes the service oriented view of business procedure ma nagement, where coordinating and resourcing of actions to support an edge to edge business process by relating consultation and collaboration between customers and source agents. Question 3 Workflow management systems have centralized workflow engine unlike APMS which consist of independent systems that represents the respective concerns of various organization units involved the

Thursday, September 26, 2019

MENTORS AND TEACHERS ARE VITAL TO THE PREPARATION OF THE NEXT Essay

MENTORS AND TEACHERS ARE VITAL TO THE PREPARATION OF THE NEXT GENRATION OF PRACTITIONERS - Essay Example (Nakamura, 2009) In this regard, a mentor must create a level of trust with students whereby they feel free to ask questions, disagree with the point and do not feel de-motivated. Mentoring creates an environment of learning, which not only helps develop long-term relationship between the mentee and the mentor; however, also helps understand the subject at hand more effectively. Initially, it looks as if only mentee is the one, who gains from the â€Å"role model† in front of him, but in the long-run, mentoring and teaching in action, foster and continue mutual growth. It ensures constructive improvement in the learning process. (Wragg, 2004) In practice, when mentor demonstrates his skills to deal with patients, colleagues, and other people around him, mentee is encouraged to be like him. Therefore, mentors are intellectual professionals in their capacity and experience who guide, assist, and assess students’ performances. Mentoring is usually used as a tool to quickly achieve results whether it is used in a business to train a new staff or in a school to describe the class room management tactics to a new and inexperienced teacher. (Kerry, 199 5) Mentoring can be seen as a process whereby trained educators and learned professionals promote one-to-one learning. In all fields of practice, such as, healthcare education, business; mentoring and teaching through an interactive approach, empower learners to be competent and feel motivated because in this way, they acquire a chance to immediately evaluate their previous performance and improve in their future. (Ritchie, 2007) Mentors through good communication skills, environment of encouragement and trust amongst each other guarantee commitment to learn. For example, in a hospital when mentors guide novice nurses and medical staff regarding patient’s history and prescription, it shows that there is someone who cares about what

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Communication in the digital economy , Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Communication in the digital economy , - Essay Example It is the management’s ability to build and maintain flourishing association with their target consumers. External factors involve both opportunities and threats which change continuously with the changing environmental factors (accenture.com, 2010). In addition, marketing environment consists of the actors and forces outside marketing that affect marketing management’s ability to build and maintain successful relationships with target customers. The marketing environment offers both opportunities and threats. The environment continues to change rapidly. The marketing environment is composed of Micro-environment and Macro-environment. Micro environment includes actors which are close to the company. These include customer markets, suppliers, advertising mediators, competitors and community. The Macro environment constitutes several other factors which are basically the larger communal forces that influence the micro environment. These forces are: demographic, economic, natural, technological, political and cultural forces. The transformation in the business environment is due to many reasons. Some of them are discussed keeping in view the automobile industry (Jain & R. K. Garg, 2011). 1. Demographic shifts Due to increase in population and urbanization, there has been a steady change in demographic factors. These factors affect market demand and consequently supply as well. With the change in the target market, the company has to maneuver its strategies accordingly. Customers desire newer, superior products at a lower price. The company’s primary target market is young men aged between 20 years and 30 years. These men are most likely having a couple of part-time jobs that put them in a better position to finance the cost of their cars. The main reason for targeting young men in their 20s is that they like to show off flashy cars. 2. Technological development and Innovation It is compulsive for organizations to keep up with the pace of techn ology. These changes in technology affect the mechanism in which the products are made and also the way in which they recruit and eventually their business culture. Invention of Smartphones has increased communication while social media have made it possible to reach target audience in a more convenient and effective way (Root et al., 2012). 3. Changing Global and Economical setup Due to recessions in the economy, there has been a market intervention approach, which has increased the coordination and dependency between public and private sector. Considering the prices of car specifically Prestige Auto-serve has segmented their cars in two categories which are luxury cars and super luxury cars. Both of these categories are focused specifically to the elite class of the society. The company sells prestigious cars including Mercedes, BMW, and Audi. It as well offers a couple of services including servicing cars, driving lessons, insurance services and financial services (Corwin et al., 2012). 4. Increased competition Due to the certain reasons, like increased valuation, customer awareness and competition, companies are required to venture into new markets, adopt new techniques, and formulate innovative strategies to gain that competitive edge which will make them stand out. If new businesses want to emerge as more compatible than it should have innovative ideas

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Difficulties of Vocabulary Learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Difficulties of Vocabulary Learning - Essay Example In order Arabian students to effectively gain knowledge of English language, such factors as teaching, translation, mass media and diplomacy are required. English is an instrument of learning at various stages in the educational system of Saudi Arabia. This function justifies the choice of the research paper theme: "Literacy: Vocabulary and Difficulties of learning new words (vocabulary) in FL classes and the use of songs to promote vocabulary learning ". English is the only foreign language taught in educational, industrial and governmental institutions. Employees are required to learn English hard because advertisements for job openings in private sector areas emphasize the employers' preferences for potential employees who can speak English. Mass media development is another medium for the presence of English in Saudi Arabia. One of the two national Saudi TV stations, channel 2, is the English Channel (Braine); European language radio station, with broadcasting in English and some in French is 24 hours a day on air; English daily newspapers, the Arab News, the Daily Riyadh, and the Saudi Gazette are also proofs of English importanc e for Arabs. New researches of modern scientists are directed on second language (English) teaching methods improvement. Guarantees of successful teaching methodology in FL classes are the following four components: objective, content, teaching method, and student evaluation techniques (Braine, 2005). Therefore the main objectives for any teacher in FL class is to teach students to speak, read, and listen with grasping the main ideas of contemporary English discourse and to compose semantic passage of up to half a page about a simple subject or incident. Furthermore students should gain enough language knowledge for communication abilities in the outside world. The latter objective can be reached in case of proper four language skills-listening, reading, speaking, and writing mastering. For Arabian students the most common focus of English language training in FL classes is English for academic purposes. Arabian students with limited English proficiency should be able to deal with the linguistic demands of higher education in their subject area (Braine, 2005). Therefore at the end of the period of training in FL class, it is supposed that learners will gain satisfactory skills in academic English enabling them to study freely in English. Nevertheless, a lot of Arabian students feel themselves unconfident concerning the level of English skills obtained. Thus it is of high importance to find a perfect possibility to practice new words knowledge. Of course, communication with native speakers is an undoubtedly perfect method. However not every academic institution has such a possibility. Thus listening to the songs in English is a medium of native speakers' speech transfer. Further on it is necessary to mention that the usage of songs in Arabian students' education process is briefly overviewed in a small quantity of works. Of course there

Monday, September 23, 2019

Build a Computer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Build a Computer - Essay Example Both systems have their individual advantages, but the popularity and diversity in the PC is much more. Hardware as well as software can be chosen in order to suit one’s individual needs. With the advent of internet and the usage of computers spreading all over the world, the PC has emerged as the undisputed leader as the most commonly used computer system. A personal computer based on the ‘Microsoft Windows’ operating system is therefore an ideal selection for our school which can have all the essential components and software within a budget of $ 2000. The first and foremost component essential for building a PC is the motherboard and the central processing unit (CPU) (tomshardware.com). A power supply and the computer casing are the other startup essentials in which all components are installed. However, it is better to buy the above components in a preassembled unit which is offered by prestigious brands in all sorts of shapes and specifications. Hewlett Packard, Dell, Gateway, Acer are some of the popular brand names offering such preassembled units with a variety of specifications. The popular motherboards in the market are capable of handling complex computer hardware and software issues and are engineered to handle either the ‘Intel’ or the ‘AMD’ CPU’s. A CPU is the heart of the computer and its speed and processing power influence the overall performance of the computer system. The sound, video and network support come inbuilt in the modern motherboards. The motherboards have slots and compo nents which can take on other hardware needed to enhance the overall performance depending upon the requirement, such as enhanced video capability or coupling ability with other electronic devices dependent of computers for their functioning. Hard disks are the storage media which contain all the data and software needed to run the computer and are

Sunday, September 22, 2019

The Bread of Salt Essay Example for Free

The Bread of Salt Essay The pan de sal symbolizes the boy and by giving the task of buying the the pan de sal every morning to the girl, it shows how he is trying to escape from the reality so he could concentrate more on his dreams. He had wrongly regarded Aida as his world and thus it was painful to finally realize that he has no chance. He also had so many plans for Aida, including writing love letters and buying her a brooch. Unfortunately, how could one concentrate on his dreams if he is only at the aged of fourteen and has not even finished studying? Finally in the last part, the turning point of the story, where he hid the egg yolks dip in honey and peppermint in his pocket, he was caught by Aida. He has even thought of marrying Aida in the future. In the middle part of the story, the boy was relieved and was happy when he found out that her aunt brought a maid with her and that, his task of buying pan de sal every morning is now given to the poor girl. This just shows that no matter how hard he tries to hide his true self, it will eventually, one day, come out. These things clearly show that the boy was very much in love with Aida so much so that he forgot that in this world not all dreams really come true. revolves around them and this is why the young boy had a lot of dreams and plans. He had already felt like he was part of the higher class since he was invited to the party but the truth is, his not. Some can be full of joy and happiness others not but no matter what, the realities of this world often dictates what will and must happen. If from the very start, the boy had accepted the realities of this world, maybe he would not have been to hurt at the last part.

Friday, September 20, 2019

The Advantages And Disadvantage Of Bribery Economics Essay

The Advantages And Disadvantage Of Bribery Economics Essay The enterprises or merchantmen have different views on bribery under different circumstances; sometimes the different nations with different background have completely different ideas. In some places, peoples attitude is slightly loose to bribery, while in other places, such as in the United States, people look down on this act in public, but they do not clean themselves. In spite of the publics tolerance for bribery, there are not a national people will agree that powerful people can hurt the publics interests (Joseph A. McKinney, 2008). Corruption and the Global Economy, said that both the developed and developing countries, whether the so-called democratic countries, or dictatorships, corruption almost exists everywhere. In order to obtain some profits, such as the market access, policy benefits and scarce resources, whether multinational or local companies adopt all means to improve the relationship with the government and the government officials, which affirmed the existence of a large number of illegal acts (Mathias Nell, 2009)? Former Indonesian President Suharto, former South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae-woo, former President Abacha of Nigeria, former President Ferdinand Marcos of Philippines, former Mexican President Salinas had stepped down because of corruption and bribery, in these famous events, there are many multinational presences. In this essay, it will firstly discuss the advantages of bribery by an actual example. Further, it will introduce the disadvantages of bribery with making out an unfeigned instance. Finally, it will summarize that the bribery plays a role in the international business. The advantages of bribery A few years ago, the survey that the World Bank on the 3600 foreign trade companies in the earth showed that there are 40 percent of companies did business through bribery in 69 countries. It is estimated that the corruption fund account for 10 to 20 percent of the total amount of the global business, some companies bribe money reached 100 million dollars (Carl Pacini, 2002). However, in fact, there are not many cases of transnational bribery which have been exposed, while there are few of punishment. China has become the most potential and the fastest growing emerging market in the world, particularly in the past decade, the import and export trade and the direct investment from the multinational companies were rapidly develop. To quickly open the Chinese market and make huge profits, the multinational companies not only exhibit their fund advantage, technical superiority and management advantages, but also show their bargaining power that convincing the relevant Chinese authorities and enterprises, even including adopting the bribery. All business books relevant to do business in China would warn the occidental the importance of the relations, which often means paying bribe for the government officials and the leaders of state-owned enterprises. There is no one doubts the existence of bribery, while there is almost not a multinational company admit encountering such a thing, all public interviewed west managers have denied that they had been extorted or bribed. Procter Gamble which is one of the best developing multinational companies has set up in China over 20 years. Currently, P G with its multi-brand advantages has occupied 60% of Chinese commodity market. Any other company can hardly achieve such success, the secret of success is the strong capital, strong research team of P G, but almost no one can guarantee that there is no the suspects of bribery. The Chinese dental treatment group certification message was printed on the shell of Procter Gambles Crest brand toothpaste, which has convinced Chinese consumers, so this brand toothpaste was in popular. However, But in 2007, the Ministry of Health publicly said the investigation of Chinese dental treatment group certification and economic problems, P G was quickly drawn into the whirlpool because of its close relations. P G has been reported that it donated 10 million Yuan to Chinese dental treatment group, while it also allowed enterprises and institutions related to public interest in donation or sponsorship between the names of the financial transactions to be concerned. Although P G quickly responded, said the money was donated to the Chinese Foundation of dental prevention and treatment for promoting oral health, which has nothing with the certification of Crest toothpaste. However, this approach immediately attracted greater challenge. It is understood that Dental Prevention and Treatment Foundation and Dental Treatment Group even to be a pair of twins, the Foundation is established based on Dental Treatment Group, and in turn, the Foundation support the public activities of Dental Treatment Group with its received funds. From this, there is nothing between donations and certification according to P G, which is purely sophistry. Procter Gamble donated 10 million Yuan to Dental Treatment Group or its brother agencies, which can not have any relation with the long-term. If the two sides had not volunteered admit the information, and without documents and other evidence to prove a causal relationship between them, then the law can do nothing. On the other hand, if we can prove that P Gs contributions related to the dental certification, then the Dental Treatment Group and Procter Gamble have a commercial bribery and should take legal responsibility. Obviously, no one will take the initiative to admit commercial br ibery. Although P G had some implications in this matter, but this did not affect their normal interests, on the contrary, it greatly increased its advertising effect to increase its sale. The Dental Treatment Group certificated Crest toothpastes efficacy, which recognized the prevention and treatment of their products. Procter Gamble obtained profits is far more than 10 million Yuan from the event. The disadvantage of bribery Since the reform and opening up, Chinas real estate industry has been rapid develop, so the demand for steel continues to rise, while the raw material iron and steel iron ore is the competed objects by Chinese steel mills. China is the largest iron ore importer in the world, but China has been in a passive position in the price negotiations of iron ore, because Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Brazils CVRD monopolized 70% of the global iron ore. With the growing demand and intending to seek more ways of importing, China has started to increase its iron ore imports from other countries (Christopher Baughn, 2010). Although the amount of the small countrys imports are increasing, the Australian ore and Brazilian ore are still the main sources of Chinese iron ore. Thus, the ceaseless contest has been started between China and the three mines. The case of Rio Tinto spy is a typical example in July 2009. According to the media reports, the computers in Shanghai office of Rio Tinto was taken away by the related departments has dozens of steel enterprises information which have a long agreement contract with Rio Tinto. The information is concerning the enterprises detailed stock plans, raw materials inventory, production schedules and other data, including large steel enterprises monthly steel production and sales. There are no more than 10 people know about all the details of Chinese steel production process. Mining companies can master these secrets; it may be pay bribe for the specific operators of the relevant enterprises. The insiders said the emotional communication between the mining companies and the steel companies is very close, in addition to the normal business commission; a number of mining companies would be necessary paying bribery for the relevant personnel. March 29, 2010, at the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Peoples Court worked out the first instance verdict on the Rio Tinto case, which identified Stern Hu, Yong Wang, Mingqiang Ge and Caikui committed non-national staff of accepting bribes and violating commercial secrets crimes, were sentenced to their term imprisonment ranging from fourteen years to seven years. Although the end of this bribery case, it left people many reflection. Many people give away the national interests for some petty profits, while Rio Tinto is not a separate company in the case; it represents the interests of the three mines. Rio Tinto case not only damaged the friendship and mutual trust between China and Australia, and mutual trust, but only involved in Chinas commercial secrets. Transparency International There is not the Global anti-corruption or bribery legislation yet, but the regional legislation is playing an increasing role. Since 1993, a named Transparency International international organization determined through the international and countries cooperation to encourage the Government formulate and implement effective laws and policies to hold out corruption. Transparency International carried out a large number of activities, a very important activity is investigating the businessman, the political analysts and the public around the world to determine the perception of various countries degree of corruption from the respondents. The corruption perceptions index is the international access targets for evaluating the degree of a countrys corruption (Table 1). Table 1: Corruption perceptions Index 2009 (from http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2009/cpi_2009_table) Country CPI 2009 Country CPI 2009 New Zealand(1) 9.4 United stated (19) 7.5 Denmark (2) 9.3 China (79) 3.6 Singapore (3) 9.2 India (84) 3.4 Sweden (4) 9.2 Russia (146) 2.2 Switzerland (5) 9 Iraq (176) 1.5 Australia (8) 8.7 Afghanistan (179) 1.3 Japan (17) 7.7 Somalia (180) 1.1 From the table, it is concluded that the Nordic countries possess of the highest ethical standards, the Asias Singapore is known as a model for the worlds anti-corruption, the members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development also has a strong anti-corruption efforts, while Asia, Africa and some Latin American countries most affected by corruption (Carl Pacini, 2002). The companies of United Stated would be prohibited by the state law if they pay bribe in foreign. Back in 1997, the United States promulgated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, took the lead in working out disciplinal provisions about multinational companies paying bribe for the host countries government officials (Margot Cleveland, 2009). Despite the subsequent time, few cases of punishment of transnational corporations, the American multinational companies also considered harming the interests of U.S. companies in foreign countries, affecting U.S. companies competitive abroad. U.S. Commerce Secretary said that the American companies lost 64 billion dollars business within a year, because of anti-bribery and anti-corruption. The American enterprise which has been still pay bribes has been marked decreased. However, many multinational companies are still trying bribery, because the contract is too attractive. At now, the member countries of the Economic Cooperation and Development Organization and the Organization of American States are the most effective anti-corruption countries; it can not have bribery activities when people opened offices in those countries or making the global marketing business. Government officials in these countries have higher moral standards. In Asian and African countries, bribery is much more common. General estimates, the multinational companies gave the government officials kickbacks account for 15% of the total income when the global companies operated in Asia. Although bribery is illegal, each company had to work to pay bribe. Conclusion In conclusion, this essay clearly discussed the advantages and disadvantages of bribery from clear from the positive and negative sides. In fact, we all know the advantages and disadvantages of bribery, if paying bribe is successful, then the person or group will get their hoped interests; if paying bribe is fail, the briber and bribe will be punished by the related law. Although, there are the stringent laws in this regard in every country, many people go to pay bribe and corrupt at risk and at all costs in the driven of interests. Multinational bribery is not a national issue, this is a global issue. There should be some organizations such as Transparency International in each region or country, together with the local government to develop and implement effective laws and policies to put down corruption. International and the countries bosom should strengthen cooperation in order to effectively keep within limits corruption. Multinational bribery is not an isolated phenomenon, onl y when the powder large-scale is away from the economy, the legal system is more robust and the social atmosphere is better, it will be got the basic reverse, it also requires the joint efforts of all mankind.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Japanese Gardens Essay -- Essays Papers

Japanese Gardens The role of gardens play a much more important role in Japan than here in the United States. This is due primarily to the fact the Japanese garden embodies native values, cultural beliefs and religious principles. Perhaps this is why there is no one prototype for the Japanese garden, just as there is no one native philosophy or aesthetic. In this way, similar to other forms of Japanese art, landscape design is constantly evolving due to exposure to outside influences, mainly Chinese, that effect not only changing aesthetic tastes but also the values of patrons. In observing a Japanese garden, it is important to remember that the line between the garden and the landscape that surrounds it is not separate. Instead, the two are forever merged, serving as the total embodiment of the one another. Every aspect of the landscape is in itself a garden. Also when observing the garden, the visitor is not supposed to distinguish the garden from its architecture. Gardens in Japan incorpo rate both natural and artificial elements, therefor uniting nature and architecture into one entity. Japanese gardens also express the ultimate connection between humankind and nature, for these gardens are not only decorative, but are a clear expression of Japanese culture. Although this extremely close connection of the individual with nature, the basic principle of Japanese gardens, has remained the constant throughout its history, the ways in which this principle has come to be expressed has undergone many great changes. Perhaps the most notable occurred in the very distinct periods in Japanese history that popularized unique forms of garden style—Heian (781-1185), and the Kamakura (1186-1393). Resulting from these two golden ages of Japanese history came the stroll garden from the former period and the Zen garden from the later. As we shall see, the composition of these gardens where remarkably effected by the norms of architecture and the ideals of popular religion in these eras. Therefor, in understanding each garden style in its context, it essential to also take into account the social, historical, and theological elements as well as the main stylist differences. Japanese aristocrats from at least mid-eighth century customarily had gardens near their homes. During the Heian period a somewhat standard type of garden evolved in accordance... ... these differences in presentation, design, and the relationships between the garden, viewer, and the architecture, the general goal of both garden types are inherently the same. In the Japanese tradition, these gardens are meant to function as aids in understanding in one form or another. In addition, both demonstrate the emphasis on the relationship between humankind and nature—perhaps one of the most important elements of Japanese art and architecture. Bibliography: A.K. Davision, The Art of the Zen Gardens. Boston: Houghtom Mifflin, 1983. Bring, Mitchell, and Wayembergh, Josse. Japanese Gardens—Design and Meaning. McGraw-Hill series in Landscape and Landscape Architecture. McGraw-Hill, 1981. Hayakawa, Masao. The Garden Art of Japan. Trans. Richard Gage. Weatherhill.Heibonsha, 1973. Ito, Teiji. The Japanese Garden—An Approach to Nature. Trans. By Donald Richie. Yale University Press, 1972. Kincaid, Mrs. Paul, Japanese Garden and Floral Art. New York: Hearthside Press Inc., 1966. Kucke, Loraine. The Art of Japanese Gardens. New York: The John Day Company, 1940. Yoshida, Tetsuro, Gardens of Japan. New York: Fredrick A. Praeger, 1957.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Steroid Use By Athletes Should be Banned :: Argumentative Persuasive Steroids Essays

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is amazing what athletes will do to achieve higher levels of performance and to sometimes get the extra edge on the competition. Most of the time people do not realize the long-term effects that result from the decisions they make early in life. This resembles the use of steroids in a person’s life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Steroids became an option to athletes in the Olympics and other major sporting events during the 1950’s. But this use of steroids among athletes only became widely apparent when Canadian sprint runner Ben Johnson tested positive for steroid use after winning the gold medal for the one hundred-meter dash during the 1988 Olympics (Francis, 45). Now a skinny fifteen-year-old can just walk down to the local gym and find people who either sell or know how to get in contact with those who sell the drug that will make him envious of his friends. Steroids are an attractive drug. While steroids seem harmless to the unaware user, they can have a risky effect. Most of the time whether the users are new or experienced, they do not know the dangerous consequences steroids can have on their bodies and their minds. Though steroids cause a relatively insignificant number of deaths in our society, the banning of steroids is justified because steroids have a lot of side effe cts not known to the uninformed user.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Even though steroids are known as a somewhat dangerous substance, they are legal to have and to consume. There has not been a study that proves such possible side effects are linked to medical problems of steroid users (Rogak, 89). There are those who have pointed out several cases where someone has died and an autopsy has shown that the person was using steroids, but they claim this does not mean that it is a deadly drug as some medical professionals have stated (97). Some advocates of steroids believe that because steroids are legal, and because it is the decision of the user to take the drug, steroids are not causing a problem in society. Alcohol and cigarettes are consumed by millions of people, causing a lot of deteriorating effects on their bodies, but there has never been a ban on these items because of the dangers that they can cause. Why should steroids be different? Some people say that the wide spread use of steroids among athletes is forcing the young athletes to use steroids, even though it is against their standards.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Online Financial Service Provision in Saudi Arabia

Furst, Lang & Nolle (2000) write that the Internet has been viewed as a valuable tool by bankers as well as lawmakers, other participants in the financial services industry in addition to regulators and business journalists around the world.As financial institutions do away with paperwork and cut costs of employing clerks to handle paper transactions in conventional financial companies – customers’ lives are made easier as they do not have to visit their financial institutions to carry out necessary transactions (Furst, Lang & Nolle, p. 1).   Saving time equates to saving money in this scenario.   Thus, the entire economy benefits through greater efficiency of financial institutions when they open up their virtual branches on the World Wide Web.How has the Saudi Arabian financial industry benefited from the advent of the Internet?   Are their factors that especially impede or support growth of online provision of financial services in Saudi Arabia?   How does e- commerce influence growth of online financial service provision across Saudi Arabia?In order to answer these questions, my dissertation entitled, â€Å"A Study of Factors Influencing Growth of Online Financial Service Provision in Saudi Arabia† would require me to conduct online interviews with managers of major and minor financial institutions in Saudi Arabia.   This research would explore factors influencing growth of Internet banking in addition to online provision of other financial services, for example, insurance in Saudi Arabia.Furthermore, this study would determine whether there are differences between Islamic and non-Islamic financial institutions as far as online financial service provision is concerned.   Lastly, this research would explore the target market for online financial service provision in Saudi Arabia, with the aim to develop customer profiles, taking gender into account.REFERENCESFurst, K, Lang, WW & Nolle, DE 2000, ‘Internet Banking: Develop ments and Prospects,’Economic and Policy Analysis Working Paper 2000-9, Sep 2000. http://www.occ.treas.gov/ftp/workpaper/wp2000-9.pdf.   

Monday, September 16, 2019

Malaysia Airlines Essay

Malaysia Airline should reduce the price of ticket to attract more passengers. Although the profit will be reduce, but the increase of the number of passengers will cover it back. In long term, it will bring more benefit to the company. Malaysia Airline also needs to have more promotion to attract the low income of passengers. For example, promote special ticket for a group of students or for family to travel during the school holiday. This is because during holiday, many of the students and family plan to have trip, special ticket for them will attract them travel by Malaysia Airline. The uniform of Malaysia Airline is not interesting because of the colour. The colour of their uniform is too dark and cannot give a good image to passengers. They choose Batik is a good idea, it can show the traditional of Malay wear, but change the colour to sharp will be better. This is not only gave a good outlook and also give confident to passengers. Image of a company is also very important, it can bring a lot of benefit to the company. In conclusion, Malaysia Airline has become a well built and successful leader in the airline industry. Malaysia airline has become a famous and strong company in the market. The company understands and knows well about the internal and external environment that helps the company to perform better and compete with the other airline companies in the market. The mega and task factors are essential to helps the company in developing strategies that help the company to solve the crisis faced by the company. Besides that, the management level of the company also has the ability to forecast the market trends and help in decision making for the company based on the statistically review. Malaysia Airline CEO, TengkuDatukAzmilZahruddin use autocratic leadership style to lead the company, because he had well structure to lead the company, it will successful in the future under autocratic leadership. Malaysia Airline has done a good job in providing five star services and maintaining long term relationship with the customers and clients.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Business Should Always Be Ethically and Socially Responsible

Corporate scandals in business world have been more and more common, which damages the interest and profits of stakeholders, employers, community or society. The corporate scandals pull the public to focus on the ethic of managers and the firm itself. Comparing to the past, customers are focusing more and more on the reputation of the firms and they prefer to select the brands that are environmentally friendly and socially responsible when they buy products or service.This change pushes firms to maintain their reputations with more efforts. Corporate social responsibility has been a hot topic in business world today, which is an important part of building brand image while brand image is a value for firms. This essay holds the statement that business should always be ethically and socially responsible. Firstly, it gives the several definitions of business ethic and corporate social responsibility briefly. Subsequently, it outlines the pros and coins for addressing corporate social re sponsibility.Following this, it discusses the negative effects caused by corporate scandals with several real cases likeToyota, Bernard Madoff and Enron. Finally it discusses the benefits when business is ethically and socially responsible with the examples of Procter & Gamble and Li Ka-shing. Definitions of business ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility Ethics is the code of values and principles to govern people’s behaviours to verdict what is right or wrong. Business ethic is the application of personal moral in commercial enterprise.Comparing to the vague definition of business ethics, the definition of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is clearer. As stated by The World Business Council for Sustainable Development(2014), corporate social responsibility is the commitment of business to contribute to the economic development and the welfare of employees and the family, the community and the whole society. European Commission (2014) defines this concept as follow: the firms integrate concerns of social and environment with stakeholders in the economic decisions and actions voluntarily.The definitions of business ethics and corporate social responsibility state that business firms are acting ethically and socially responsible means in the economic operations they should consider the interests of stakeholders, environment and society and they should concern the welfare of employees and the family instead of concerning only the profits of firms and personal interest. The proponents of CSR include the moral obligation, license to operate, sustainability and reputation (Porter, 2004).According to Lahovnik (2008), there are three levels of corporate social responsibility. The first level is the obligation to meet the material for shareholders, employees, customers, creditorsand suppliers. The second level is the responsibility to benefit the human resource of community and avoid the damage to environment. The last one is the responsibility to the s ociety. Even though there is not clear definition how far firms should address the social responsibility, there is indeed a fact that firms should take the social responsibility in their economic operations.Against and For Corporate Social Responsibility There is a hot debating on whether firms should address their corporate social responsibility or not. For the objectors, business is just business that maximize profits is the economic responsibility of management instead of being the social role in society. The social problems should not be resolved by firms and firms are not designed to handle these issues. Corporate social responsibility could be an important tool wielded by firms.Stated by The Wall Street Journal, the addressing of CSR may be anillusion and a dangerous one because when there is a conflict between private profit and social interest; firms tend to select the former one (Karnani,2010). Even though the firms say they are doing the projects with charity purposes, the investment or cost of these projects may be owned by other ways, which may harm the interest of environment or society. Different from the objectors, there are a variety of reasons to support the idea that firms should address the corporate social responsibility and be ethical.The first reason is that the human and social problems are largely led by industrialization and business firms own the social resource that business has the obligation to reduce and solve these issues. Firms have been important parts of the society and they own a huge resource, which means they also carry the obligation to solve the problems in the society especially these problems led by their economic operations. The second reason is that business firms can get benefits from addressing corporate social responsibility.CSR directly benefits the financial bottom line and improve the competitiveness of firms. CSR can enhance reputation and brand image of firms. The survey of PWC 2002 showed that 90% of responde nts said that corporate social responsibility can enhance the corporate reputation. The 2002 Cone Corporate Citizenship Study also showed that 84 percent of American would change brands to those with good reputation in the similar price and quality (Kotler and Lee 2005).When companies address corporate social responsibility, it will bring positive impacts on retention, recruitment and motivations of employees for the firms. For example, Timberland is always encouraging its employees to offer community service called Path of Service, which has been ranked by Fortune and Timberland is named as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For (Provictus, 2012). The third reason is the social benefits brought by business firms when they address corporate social responsibility and act ethically.When business firms act ethically, the firms can reduce the negative impacts on stakeholders, employees, customers and the society, which will be discussed below with real cases. When business firms perf ormance well in CSR, they can bring huge benefits to the investors, stakeholders, customers, community and society, which will be discussed below with examples as well. Negative Effects of Corporate Scandals When business firms or managers of firms act unethically and ignore their corporate social responsibility, the negative effects can outburst internally and externally.The negative effects of corporate scandals can influence the reputation of firms, the interests of stakeholders, employees, customers, environment and society. In 2009, Toyota recalled over 9 million cars over the world in two separate recalls because of the quality issue, which led to billions of dollars in operating losses andcharges. The reputation of top quality in car industry faced a heavy hit globally. Even though Toyota would not collapse completely, the reputation was threatened, which has been built through decades (Connor, 2010).The share price dropped down and customers distrusted Toyota in quality. The unethical action of Toyota to produce unsafe cars pulled Toyota in a dangerous place that it brought side effects on the reputation globally, which definitely reduced its market share and sales globally. In June 2009, the unethical behavior of Bernard Madoff damaged the interest of investors by using the Ponzi scheme. The similar case with Bernard Madoff exist more in business world, which brings huge side effects to investors. As a top audit firm, Enron met the corporate scandal.Enron lied about the profits and the success of Enron was brought by creative accounting. In 2013, the building collapse of Rana Plaza killed more than 1,100 people and this event involved many famous clothes brands into corporate scandals. Wal-Mart is one of them because it received clothes from Banned Bangladesh Factories, which has been defined as unethical operation (Grabell, 2013). The unethical behaviours of Wal-Mart damaged the interest of workers in Banned Bangladesh Factories. Meanwhile, Wal-Martà ¢â‚¬â„¢s brand image has been affected because Wal-Mart is treated as a firm with social responsibility.In 2010, BAE Systems plc (BAES) pleaded guilty for overseas corruption (The United States Department of Justice, 2010). The real cases that business firms or managers act unethically without corporate social responsibility are more than these mentioned above over the world. The side effects of these corporate scandals are widely spread. The corporate scandals can hurt the reputation of firms, the interests of investors and stakeholders, welfare of employees, the life damage or property losses of customers and the damage of environment.The side effects are so great that the society urges that the business should always be ethically and socially responsible. Positive Effects of Acting Ethically and Socially Responsible The positive effects of acting ethically and socially responsible support the statement that business should always be ethically and socially responsible. Just like t his essay stated above, there are various benefits firms and the whole society can get when firms address the corporate social responsibility and act ethically.Procter & Gamble is an excellent case of multinational firms that address corporate social responsibility well. There are few corporate scandals of Procter & Gamble in business world. Instead, there are many pieces of news on how Procter & Gamble is an excellent citizen in business world that addresses corporate social responsibility well. For example, Procter & Gamble provides PUR technology to purify dirty water for people in Africa and helps kids to live and get education (Procter &Gamble, 2013).Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program (CSDW) has reached over 70 countries to save tens of thousands of lives (Procter & Gamble, 2014a). Apart from this;Procter & Gamble (2013) donated money and encouraged employees to help the poor kids to get education in China. To protect environment, Procter & Gamble(2014b) is committed to design recycled products with innovation. Procter & Gamble (2014c) is also trying to make zero waste a reality from manufacturing and designing. There is no report on how Procter & Gamble benefit from addressing its corporate social responsibility.However, Procter & Gamble build its great reputation in business world globally. The reputation enhances the brand image of Procter & Gamble and meanwhile it increases the sales of Procter & Gamble the cohesion of employees in the firm. The investors may tend to join in Procter & Gamble because Procter & Gamblehas great corporate citizenship. In addition to Procter & Gamble, Coca Cola, Pepsi and other multinational firms are doing greatly in addressing the corporate social responsibility and get benefits from it even though it takes some cost.The money used in corporate social responsibility is another form of investment, which will come out profits with intangible asset. In China, there is a famous rich person called Li Ka-shing, who is always acting ethically and socially responsible. Because of his ethical business behavior and good morality, Li Ka-shing built his reputation and the reputation of his firm in business world, which has contributed a lot to his success. Meanwhile, the ethical behavior of Li Ka-shing avoided the side effects on the stakeholders, employees, customers and society.From the real case of Procter & Gamble and Li Ka-shing, it shows that when business firms or businessmen act ethically and socially responsible, they get payback with good reputation and brand image, which will be switched to products sales and intangible asset. This supports the idea that why business should always be ethically and socially responsible. Conclusion In conclusion, business should always be ethically and socially responsible because the negative efforts of corporate scandals can hurt the interest of society while the impact of acting ethically and socially responsible can be positive to the society.The essay provides the definition of business ethics and corporate social responsibility to outline how firms and managers are acting ethically and socially responsible. Subsequently, it offers two sides for the argument whether firms should address corporate social responsibility to support the thesis of this essay. The real cases of corporate scandals show the results and side effects when firms behave unethically in economic operations to urge the need to be ethically and socially responsible.Meanwhile, the real cases of Procter & Gamble and Li Ka-shing show that when firms or businessmen behave ethically and socially responsible, they can get payback in economy as well and the address corporate society will benefit the investors, employees, community, customers and environment. The negative impacts of acting unethically and the positive impacts of firms’ acting ethically and socially responsible to the firms, community and environment finally support the idea that business should a lways be ethically and socially responsible.

Saturday, September 14, 2019

IMC Plan.List of assumptions and Potential competitors Essay

Ranbuild is a company in Newcastle, Australia that is in the business of supplying steel buildings. The company was formed in 1949 by Neil Statham. Ranbuild has been in this business for almost 65 years serving Australian and the world market. Initially, Ranbuild started by producing handling equipment and horizontal grain sheds that were specialized (Ranbuild, 2014). Neil Statham the founder of Ranbuild went to Middle East in 1971 and managed to procure sales of over one hundred thousand sheds. When he returned to Australia, Neil Statham developed back to back C section together with engineer Charles Resersky that would reduce cubic weight for shipping. In the early70s, Ranbuidld became a public company. Later on it was purchased by Acquila Group. Acquila Group later on sold it to Kerry parker. Ranbuild bought a roll forming machine that would produce rock bolts and guard rails. It also gave Neil Statham back a section of building in the business. It was that building section that later on became R & N Steel Building. R & N Steel Buildings became what is today called Ranbuild. Ranbuild is currently producing various products and selling them to equine, domestic, rural and commercial markets. It regards itself as the ultimate leader in fabricated building industry. Authorized dealers of Ranbuild continue sharing the success and the growth of the company. In 2004, Ranbuild was purchased by Lysaght Solutions Pty Ltd. Lysaght Solutions Pty Ltd is a subsidiary fully owned by BlueScope Steel. BlueScope Steel is a building company that is one of the largest building company in Australia and commands respect because of it outstanding record or reliability, service and high quality products (Ranbuild2014). Ranbuild continues to position themselves as the leaders in the market by building a professional image and offering quality brand to their customers. Ranbuild has partnership with a network of dealers that server their client with satisfaction. This leads to increase in profitability as well as market share to Ranbuild and other dealers (Ranbuild2014). Target market             Ranbuild Company targets B2B markets. This makes it necessary for Ranbuild to understand various characteristics of business industries in Singapore. For them to realize their goal they should realize that their target market in Singapore have different characteristics compared to building industries in Australia. It is advisable for the company to analyze carefully the characteristics of their customers in Singapore. After the analysis, Ranbuild cam target construction, real estate development company, contractor and hardware resellers. List of assumptions             In order to create an integrated marketing plan, several assumptions are formed. An assumption is information that is required but cannot be accessed or given out easily. This means that assumptions may be different from the reality of the situation. In some cases it may reflect the situation of year 2014. It is assumed that in 2014, the demand for construction and other products related to construction will be stable and strong in Singapore market. Ranbuild stands to benefit from companies that will be seeking for construction products to expand and upgrade their business. It is assumed that over one year, the economy of Australia and Singapore will be stable. The stability of an economy has a significant impact on expansion of (Mole, 2012). The prices that Ranbuild charges for their product are taken to be the same or at the same level with that of Singapore market. This makes Ranbuild’s product to be competitive. Due to sensitivity of prices businesses are advised not to increase their price above other businesses in the same market. Ranbuild’s products are said to comply with safety requirement in Singapore and other laws and regulations. It is assumed that B2B customer’s preference is receptive; hence customers in Singapore will work or use Ranbuild products. Throughout year 2014, the financial status of Ranbuild, its customers in Singapore and Suppliers is said to remain stable. Prices charged by Ranbuild are expected to remain stable throughout the year 2014. In Singapore, market growth and opportunity is said to be stable or move to a greater level. It is assumed that production cost is not included. Potential competitors Primary competitors             Primary competitors refer to companies that have the ability of providing almost identical products or services. A good example in construction market is Ranbuild. Some of Ranbuild competitors include; 3D Shed-n-patios             3D Shed-n-patios has been in operation for more than 23 years. It is a well recognized shed building brand. Their quoting system gives them a lot of strength since they are able to identify different trends and at the same time satisfy their customers. They are able to satisfy their customers by use of high technology features in their products. 3D Shed-n-patios materials are backed by BlueScope Steel which at the same time is a holding company of Ranbuild (3D Sheds-n-Patios, 2014). This is seen as a defect in the operations of Ranbuild. This company has been able to diversify their sheds and continues to diversify in a better way than Ranbuild which produces fewer types of sheds. Another weakness of Ranbuild is the fact that they have poor marketing strategy which can be seen from the few communications and social networking solutions (Clow, 2013). The Shed Company             It is one of the leading sheds in building business. It derives its strength from its design, facilities and supply. They also have many designs that include shapes and color. However, the shed company is currently trying and working hard to understand and talk to their customers Queens Shed Market             Queens Shed Market has over eleven years of experience in the building industry. The company has accomplished various diversified operations as well as projects. It gives full warranty for all their products to customers. It also has a staunch access to build- in doors and other types of products (Francia, 2014).  Secondary competitors refer to firms that deal with products or services that may be used as substitute to what Ranbuild produces. Some of the companies that may affect Ranbuild include; 1. Parasol Steel pte ltd 2. Professional plastic Inc. Overview of marketing mix Product             Ranbuild sell products of high quality. This is because their suppliers, BlueScope Lysaght is known globally for dealing with premium steel and product (Lysaght, 2014). Quality of Ranbuild’s products is widely known and it is an accepted fact that they are long lasting. Price             Ranbuild website does not contain prices for their products. However, their clients can ask from their consultants in their website the price range. Ranbuild gives a service called â€Å"Ranbuild better pay.† This option is applicable only when one purchases products that are above AU $500. This service enables customers to experience improved convenience and also enable them to match it with their cash flows. Ranbuild better pay gives up to one year interest free repayment period (Ranbuild2014). Place             Ranbuild has dealership in Singapore. This means that their products are sold through authorized dealers and not directly to customers. This is done throughout Australia (Kelley, 2012). Promotion             Ranbuild often introduces new offers and new promotions that enhance customer satisfaction. It also increases brand identity by use of marketing tools like website, social media account, brochures, blogs and e-newsletter (Ranbuild2014). Ranbuild currently launched a Weaco Ice Box 2013 promotion. This is a premium ice box for orders placed between December up to February 2014 (Ranbuild2014) (Refer to Appendix1) Promotion mix Tradeshows             Ranbuild holds tradeshows in expo annually in Singapore. The purpose of tradeshows is to connect with their customers, stakeholders and suppliers that may need hangar, industrial buildings, shelters and gallery. These tradeshows give their client a chance to evaluate the product and its quality. They also get a chance to ask questions and give feedback to the company (Chandra, 2000). Newspaper             Ranbuild should use newspapers that have a lot of adverts in construction. This is a good advertising media to reach local market.  It provides a good sales lead since customers can read catalogs. They can request sales persons to call them back and also make purchase on websites. Personal selling             Personal selling is a good way of creating awareness about the brand and also draws attention of customers to the company’s product. It will also enable Ranbuild get information from their clients directly. Personalized selling will enable Ranbuild create a specialized marketing strategy in future in Singapore. Brochure             This enables a company to increase the attention of their clients towards their products. They also inform clients about the product details, product ranges and other special offers (Chandra, 2000).Appendix 1 References Brown, M. (n.d.). Products. Stainless Steel Plate Supplier, Distributor & Stockholder. Retrieved March 1, 2014, from http://www.brownmac.com/singapore/products/ Chandra, A., & Thompson, E. (2000). Does public infrastructure affect economic activity?: Evidence from the rural interstate highway system. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 30(3), 457-490. Clow, K. E., & Baack, D. (2013). Integrated advertising, promotion & marketing communications (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall. Francia, A. (n.d.). Francia Virtual Home. Sun shades. Retrieved January 19, 2014, from http://www.mnjss.com/index.php Kelley, L. D., & Jugenheimer, D. W. (2012). Advertising media planning: a brand management approach (3rd ed.). Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe. Lee, M., & Johnson, C. (2012). Principles of advertising a global perspective (2nd ed.). New York: Haworth Press. Ministry of Trade and Industry, Singapore. (2013, February 19). Economic survey of Singapore 2012. Ministry of Trade and Industry, Singapore. Retrieved January 19, 2014, from http://www.mti.gov.sg/ResearchRoom/SiteAssets/Pages/Economic-Survey-of-Singapore-2012/FullReport_AES2012.pdf Source document

Friday, September 13, 2019

A Comparative Analysis Of Robert Brownings Poem My Last Duchess And W. H. Audens Musee Des Beaux Arts

A Comparative Analysis Of Robert Browning's Poem My Last Duchess And W. H. Auden's Musee Des Beaux Arts World Without Love The Poems My Last Duchess by Robert Browning and Musee des Beaux Arts by W.H. Auden describes how people dont care about each other and that world is cruel. In My Last Duchess the guy is talking the messenger from the duchess about how he killed his wife and was happy about it, whereas in Musee des Beaux Arts the kid is dying in water but his father or not even the people in the ship care about him, they just let him drown in the water and lastly the poem The Sick Rose by William Blake has perfect metaphor reflecting the behavior and feeling of a human being by comparing love to an invisible worm, which destroys people lives. This three poem reflects people just dont care about each other and people have lost the meaning of love. In My Last Duchess the guy is describing to his how he killed his ex-wife and that he was happy about it. He liked a girl and girl was beautiful and young. She liked to flirt around and liked everything in this world. She liked all men and women. She smiles at everyone and like everyone around her. She smiled at the guy too but he is not happy about it because he thinks that she is his woman and she should not look at anyone else except him. Even the guy said to the messenger that, Willt Please you sit and look at her? (Browning 550), which shows she was beautiful and ones eyes would just stare at her for a long time. He also said, Her mantle laps Over my Ladys wrist too much, or Paint Must never hope to reproduce the faint Half-flush that dies along her throat which shows she was courteous, disciplined and beautiful. She had a good heart, which loved everyone and made everyone glad but the author did not like the fact she considers everyone same as him and that she does not pay more attention to him than others. The author also gave her a gift but she considered all the gifts as the same and did not differentiate between a bad and a good gift. In other she did not care about authors feeling and the love that author had for her. The author says, Just this Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss, Or there you exceed the mark (Browning 550) which represents that she treats everyone equal and did not give more importance to author. She considers author as one of nine hundred men that she likes. And after a while she passed the author without a smile, and that offended author because he really liked her and she did not cared about him. The guy was angry with the lady and he commanded his men to kill her to show his power over the lady. The guy says, I gave commands; Then all the smiles stopped together. (Browning 550) this shows that the author proved his power over the lady by killing her. The guy wants her command over the lady so he killed her and now he is regretting for his deeds. And now he asks the lady in the picture to come back to him. He says, Willt please your rise?(Browning 550) this shows the guy cares from her now, after she is dead. This whole scenario reflects that people dont care about each other. The duchess loved everyone but the guy wanted her but did not achieve her so he killed her. This is a selfish and cruel world we live in. People just dont understand the feeling and the type of relationship that the other person is trying to follow. On the other hand the poem Musee des Beaux Arts shows that people around the world dont care about each other even if the person is dying. The kids father made him a like wings out wax so he could fly but he warned him by saying not to fly near sun or near water, but the kid flew near the ocean water and the wax melted and the kid fell into the ocean and was drowning. Although the kid was drowning nobody was even trying to help him save. His father was busy ploughing the field he did not care either. The sheep were grazing; the dog was scratching himself on a tree; the sailor was sailing his ship he did not want himself to get wet and did not want water on his expensive ship. Everyone around there was selfish and nobody cared about the kids drowning. The author says, and, the delicate ship that must have seen Something amazing, a boy falling out off the sky, Had somewhere to go to and sailed calmly on. (Auden 592) this shows nobody cares about the boy in the water. The author also says, Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry, But for him it was not an important failure. (Auden 592) this reflect the ploughman did care about the boy just because it was not important to him; it was not a great failure or loss to the ploughman. Nobody understands the meaning of humanity or mankind towards his or her fellow beings. This poem reflects that people love and talk to each other only for their own interest and not for being generous or helpful. The most amazing thing about this poem is people are following their daily routine and a boy is drowning in the ocean and nobody cares about it. This is utmost disturbing situation. People have lost the meaning of humanity and mankind. The people in the whole scenario as described by Auden reflects that people are just dully walking away doing their daily business and they assume that nothing is happening around them as if it is just a normal day and its normal for a kid to drown in water. This is the most dreadful scene. And lastly the poem The Sick Rose by William Blake describes people have lost the meaning of love making them selfish and cold-hearted people. Blake says, And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy(Blake, 539), which show love is an evil thing and could destroy ones life. He also says, O, Rose, thou art sick! The invisible worm That flies in the night (Blake, 539), which reflects that people have lost he meaning of love and have become cold hearted. Love is compared to a sick rose and our love for others have become sick and weak. And in terms of feeling, we absolutely have no love and even if we do, it is for some selfish purpose thats why Blake calls love a sick rose. Love is like an evil spirit that in a howling storm destroying everything that comes in its way. Thus Blake reflects through this poem that everyone in the world is cold-hearted and nobody cares about each other. According to me, all of these three poems reflect as to how people have become selfish and cold hearted for their own interests. In My Last Duchess the guy is crazy and kills the duchess just prove his power but fails to reflect care, compassion and love for human being; also in Musee des Beaux Arts the kids father, the sailor and even the people around him do not care about he kids drowning. Everyone is doing their work as if nothing is happening there and lastly The Sick Rose which reflects how love has lost its meaning and people have destroyed their lives without love and compassion. Thus according to me all the people in the world are selfish and dont care about other peoples feeling and dont have affection toward them

LANGUAGE BARRIERS IN PHYSICIAN PATIENT COMMUNICATION Research Paper

LANGUAGE BARRIERS IN PHYSICIAN PATIENT COMMUNICATION - Research Paper Example It is a professional responsibility of a doctor to choose simple and friendly language such that patient should feel comfort in revealing his or her issues. Survey of Literature: Language and communication problems are frequently observed in several professional organizations such as hospitals and healthcare institutions [1]. The reason of such phenomenon is explicated as people are often illiterate and they belong to multi lingual societies. The approaches that a doctor or medical practitioner uses to communicate with his or her patient are very imperative in clinical practices [4, 5]. Through many clinical trials, it has been concluded that a successful session of uninterrupted communication can lead a patient towards health rapidly. It is because the physician can better diagnose the problem of the patient so it would be far more favorable to suggest the prescription [2]. If the success of rate of a physician is not sufficient, then it will cause on the threat to him. Dissatisfied patients spread negative word of mouth about the physicians by whom they have been treated [1]. Physicians may need to treat different categories of patien ts like illiterate people, abnormal ones, old age people, diverse lingual people, children etc. They must be trained with such communication skills which are essential to deal with every category of the patients [3]. Analysis and Discussion: A main reason of communication barriers has been notified as language problems while observing the real phenomenon at clinics [3]. These barriers are the ultimate cause of decreasing success rate. The situation is going to be vulnerable as the physician is unable to get what the patient is feeling because the patient is not getting the question [2]. It is the vital responsibility of physicians and healthcare personnel to use the techniques which are patient friendly. Indeed the physician must not pursue the treatment until and unless he is not sure about the problem. In most

Thursday, September 12, 2019

Role of market manager Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Role of market manager - Essay Example Economists assume that customers always act to make themselves as well off as possible. This is a belief that is in line with the economic model of consumer behavior which postulates that, customers will always choose to try and buy a combination of services and goods that they believe will serve to make them as well off as possible, from among all the available combinations that their budgets allows them to buy. To this end, it is possible to analyze Monster Energy so as to determine its impact on the four utilities of customer value. Functionality: The functionality utility basically includes all the various tangible aspects of a service or product (Dutta, 2011). These include durability, aesthetics, atmosphere of the place and comfort. Monster Energy’s healthy formulation provides great functionality to consumers as it allows them to fight both physical and mental fatigue. Time: The time utilities entails the availing of services and products to consumers at the time that these consumers require them (Dutta, 2011). Monster Energy has laid in place a good supply network that ensure that the product is easily made available to its consumers around the world when they want it. Consumers can be able to easily purchase the product at local convenience stores. Monster energy is also made easily available at the various extreme sports events that it sponsors from motor cross to surfing. Place: According to Dutta, (2011), the place utility generally includes where and how the given products and services are eventually delivered. In addition to being made available at convenience stores and supermarkets across the world, monster energy drinks is also widely sold at various sporting events. Ease of Possession: The possession utility basically includes the customer’s payments and warranties. This assurance is seen to greatly add value

Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Date (phoenix dactylifera L) Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Date (phoenix dactylifera L) - Research Paper Example A single bunch of date palms that weighs about 8 kg may contain as many as 1000 dates. â€Å"The dried fruit is more than 50% sugar by weight and contains about 2% each of protein, fat and mineral water† (online-family-doctor.com, n.d.). Date palm belongs to the Phoenix dactylifera tree in the palm family. The mt genome of P. dactylifera shows a variety of unique traits as it happens to be the first of the family plants of palm. It not only positions at the known monocot mt genomes’ roots, but also has a significantly low repeat content level while it exhibits the RNA editing events in abundance. Date palm shows â€Å"a high level of chloroplast sequence insertions as compared to other known angiosperm mt genomes† (Fang et al., 2012, p. 9). There is no objective record of the exact location where and time when the date palm originated as this information is believed to have been lost in antiquity, yet there are many records that suggest the cultivation of date palm in 4000 B.C. as the date palm was employed in the construction of the moon god’s temple in the Southern Iraq, Mesopotamia. Another proof of the antiquity of this fruit is the Nile Valley in Egypt where the date palm was adopted to symbolize a year in the Egyptian hieroglyphics whereas the frond of the date palm was used as a month’s symbol. â€Å"[This information] is confirmed by history, and corroborated by the archaeological research into ancient historical remains of the Sumerians, Akadians and Babylonians†¦Houses of these very ancient people were roofed with palm tree trunks and fronds. The uses of date for medicinal purposes, in addition to its food value, were also documented† (Zaid and Wet, n.d.). Date palms are believed to originate in Babel, Iraq, though there are also evidences of its origination in Harqan, and Dareen. Date is one of the most nutritious and delicious fruits that have been

Tuesday, September 10, 2019

Decisions in Paradise Paper part 1,2, and 3 Essay

Decisions in Paradise Paper part 1,2, and 3 - Essay Example It is often seen that fast urbanization and the technological advancements have been responsible for global climate change which may have contributed to the increased frequency of natural calamities, throughout the world. Kava too is prone to natural disasters and at the same time external factors like terrorism and internal strife, has produced many securities among the local population. Hence, we need to apply the technique of decision making that would help us to decide on the projects that are best suited to benefit both Kava people and us. ‘Decision matrices are most effective where you have a number of good alternatives and many factors to take into account’ (internet). Decision Matrix Analysis would facilitate us to reach to the right decision because it incorporates a huge range of factors for the various projects that can be started here. The various business options may include tourism, petroleum, natural gas and agricultural produce. The few of the salient fac tors that may influence the decision include existing interests of the company, preliminary cost, scope, local resource, local development etc. ‘Using such a distributed assessment framework, the features of a range of evidence can be catered for whilst the assessor is not forced to pre-aggregate various types of evidence into a single numerical value. Both complete and incomplete assessments can be accommodated in a unified manner within the framework’ (Yang, 2001). Kava is bestowed with rich local raw materials which include products like petroleum, natural gas, cocoa, spices, sugar etc. Another area that has vast potential is the tourism industry that can be developed into a roaring business. Initially we must identify two areas which can be developed into concrete business solution. Later the company can diversify to introduce new areas for fresh ventures. Therefore, looking at

Monday, September 9, 2019

Explain climate change and discuss three strategies that countries are Essay

Explain climate change and discuss three strategies that countries are using to help the prevention of global warming and say whether you agree or disagree with the effectiveness of each strategy - Essay Example However, this understanding has not resulted in any significant reduction in the rate of Global Warming, with the 20th Century’s last two decades being the hottest in 400 years (National Geographic 2007). Global Warming is seen as a threat to human health (Hambling et al., 2011 p. 2) with other concerns such as food security issues also expected in the future. Due to the growing awareness about this issue along with pressure-groups in the form of environmental NGOs, countries have been forced to take action in order to prevent further damage to the ecology. Initiatives such as the Kyoto Protocol have been welcomed by most of the world, which promise to reduce carbon emissions to a suitable level by a certain date. This essay will look at 3 of the many strategies that countries adopt in order to prevent global warming on a national scale, which may be due to their participation in international agreements/conventions like Kyoto Protocol or due to a national agenda of their own. Investment in renewable energy is a preferred strategy for most industrialized countries that aim to reduce their carbon emissions. $173 billion were invested into developing sustainable energy in 2009, a figure that fell after the global recession affected the financial situation of most of the involved countries (UNEP 2010 p 11-13). Some countries, like Iceland produce electricity using entirely from renewable resources, thereby leaving a minimal carbon imprint. Most countries, developed and developing possess the environmental conditions required to produce such energy; however, in the case of the latter, they do not possess the financial resources to exploit these conditions. The Kyoto Protocol aims to rectify that by encouraging developed countries to invest in reducing the carbon emission of developing countries, through such projects (UNFCC, n.d.).

Sunday, September 8, 2019

Article Summary Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Article Summary - Research Paper Example Now as per the new initiatives, the banks’ lending loans would be able to borrow extra ?5 from FLS for every ?1 they lend to businesses (BBC, 2013, April 24). The extension has been widely accepted but some economic experts still feel that more aggressive actions need to be taken in this regard. Upcoming report for national statistics is expected to show that economy remains flat. Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) was introduced in August 2012 to bring an increase in bank lending by around ?60bn. Main hope is that this initiative will help keeping economy out of recession and improve the lending and borrowing cycle. Banks borrow finds from Bank of England cheaply and the then passes it on as low interest loans to households and small businesses. The main objective is give incentives to businesses to borrow more money from the banks but there are fears that individuals might not want to borrow much at the current moment of time. Initial responses from the scheme has not been as encouraging as only few banks stepped in the first quarter but the program gradually took off. This scheme has negatively affected the savers and investors in bank deposits as they now have less interest to get and the lending institutions are not pushed to encourage people to invest in savings accounts. Savings account offerings have gone down to 3% now. The mechanism for Funding and lending scheme is that when lenders approach bank of England, they swap their assets with the bank. And treasury bills are provided to them in return. Then the banks borrow cheap money from other lending institutions in wholesale financial markets with the backing of these treasury bills. The commercial banks are then able to use these bits of paper as top quality backing with which to borrow cash in the wholesale financial markets, from other lenders. With the Treasury's backing, the idea is that they will be able to borrow funds at very cheap rates. To keep performance levels in check initially the b anks will access 5% of funds they lend and as their lending increases, they can borrow more. On the other end if the lending decreases, then the banks will have to pay interest of 1.5% as compared to just 0.25% at initial stage. For the protection of tax payer’s bank of England uses the concept of hair cut. The banks will have to pledge the collateral more than worth of papers being issued by the Bank of England. In this case if a bank borrows ?1 Treasury bill then it has to pledge more than ?1, amount such as ?1.10 to ?1.20. So if the value of asset falls then tax payers would be somewhat protected as the bank of England would not suffer top slice of the loss. Analysis: Positive Chain reaction: On the face of it, it seems to be a good scheme as more economic activity can be generated on microeconomic level and the economy of England can have a positive effect due to that. If more money is available to the people than they can open new businesses, which in turn will generate more jobs. This can lead to increase in purchasing patterns of general public, which is healthy for businesses in return. Due to increased jobs and earnings, people have more money available to save, which is usually deposited in banks. The banks can then lend that money to businesses and earn their interests as well. So this scheme is aimed to achieve this positive chain reaction. Many economists has positive expectations from this scheme and there is a hope among representative party in England that this scheme might be a breakthrough initiative

Saturday, September 7, 2019

Computer Sciences and Information Technology Research Paper

Computer Sciences and Information Technology - Research Paper Example Computer science focuses on creating new concepts around the implementation and design of computing systems. Computer science incorporates mathematical concepts of computation as well as information. Further, Clark French (1) mentioned science can be described as the systematic study of the feasibility, expression, structure, and mechanization of the methodical procedures, also known as algorithms. These serve as the foundations for the gathering, processing, representation, communication, storage, and access to relevant data, irrespective of such gathered data is encoded in bytes or bits within the computer’s memories or just transcribed in the proteins and genes structure of the Human cellular structure. The main goal of computer science is to determine the best data processing systems computers can be efficiently and effectively automated and set into motion. Clark French (44) mentions computer science creates programs that improve the computer users’ output. With th e use of accounting software, the accountant’s prior tedious pencil and paper job is reduced by simply encoding the daily transactions. The accounting software will automatically perform all the other steps in the accounting cycle. The accounting software presents a balance sheet, income statement, statement of cash flows as well as breakdowns of receivables, breakdowns of payable amounts, and other accounting information, with just the click of a mouse. The picture development shop can use computer software such as Adobe Photoshop to enhance the output of the camera pictures. The researcher can use the Adobe reader to read pdf files uploaded on the internet. Computer science focuses on how the computer works. The focus includes determining which computer programs will work and which computer programs should be discarded. The computer scientists study which algorithms will produce an end product that is logical, realistic, and saves the computer usage time and money. The comp uter scientists implement the best algorithms that will offer a true as well as an efficient answer to a concrete or real-life problem. The computer scientists create computer program languages such as FoxPro, database III, word, and excel, photoshop, adobe reader, to ensure the specification as well as expression of the established algorithms (Toledo 47). The computer scientists design, build, as well as evaluate current and future computer operating software that can both effectively and efficiently perform prescribed program specifications. The computer scientists implement the preferred algorithm structures to significant software application domains. Michael Huth (259) insists the computer science student creates programs that will lessen the professional’s job. The medical doctor can trust the encoded computer report of the medical transcriptionist. The architect can use AutoCAD architect software to draw the minute details of a house or building. The car driver can use the computer system of the car to determine whether step on the gas or step on the brakes. Michael Huth (213) Computer scientists enter rewarding careers in many fields. One of the fields is software engineering. Another field of specialization is system administration. Another influential field is system management. A favorite field is a research and development to help the government in its drive to improve the lives of the constituents. Some of the computer scientists work in other related areas.  

Friday, September 6, 2019

Formative Assessment Essay Example for Free

Formative Assessment Essay Assessment is regularly conducted by classroom teachers to determine whether students learn the lessons or have acquired the skills they have been taught. However, the prevailing concept of assessment is that it is given after lessons. It is also viewed as extra work that consumes time that would have been better spent in teaching. Some teachers do not even have the adequate knowledge as to how to assess properly having focused more on how to teach (in contrast with how to assess) during their years in teacher training school. As a consequence, assessment results tend to function as a periodic â€Å"snapshot of student progress and as predictors of student performance on the end-of-year statewide tests (Heritage, 2007) rather than a tool to help teachers during instruction. This need is the reason why formative assessment should be implemented. Heritage defines formative assessment as â€Å"a systematic process to continuously gather evidence about learning. The data are used to identify a student’s current level of learning and to adapt lessons to help the student reach the desired learning goal (2007). † It involves strategies which can be categorized into three types: On-the-fly-assessment which requires the teacher to provide quick â€Å"pop-up† lessons right during discussions to correct students’ misconceptions; Planned-for-interaction which requires teachers to think of questions beforehand which would make students think and explore ideas during discussion time; and, Curriculum-embedded assessment where the teacher solicits feedback by talking with the students about ongoing classroom activities like seatwork, board work or students’ notes. There are four core elements of formative assessment (Heritage, 2007). First, it is a means for teachers to identify the gap between the students’ current status in learning and the desired educational goals. Second, it is designed to provide feedback at multiple levels. Third, it encourages student involvement in the daily classroom discussion. Finally, it aims to help teachers develop learning progressions. To use formative assessment successfully, however, teachers also need to possess certain knowledge and skills. Teachers must have domain knowledge of their subject area of expertise; pedagogical knowledge; knowledge of their students’ previous learning; and assessment knowledge or knowing a variety of proper assessment strategies. With regards to the required skills, the successful implementation of formative assessment can only occur if teachers are able to create classroom conditions where learners feel a sense of community and can critique each other without fear. They must also help students learn how to assess themselves. Teachers must be skilled in analyzing student inferences. Finally, they must be able to match instruction to the gap in the present skill level or knowledge of the learner. Heritage’s article provides a convincing argument for formative assessment as it points out the ineffectiveness of current assessment methods to actually help the learner. When students perform poorly in periodical and annual exams, it becomes too late to do something about things. Students either get low grades or are not promoted to the next level. Something could have been done halfway through the school year had formative assessments been conducted. However, formative assessment can only be seen today as an alternative to the existing views since year-end statewide assessments, for example, would be a hard practice to do away with. The present school system, specifically the public schools, have been practicing traditional assessment methods for decades, even the new curriculum and programs do not change things. Nevertheless, the article introduces a challenge to educators and administrators to try this alternative if it is being lamented that the quality of the aptitude skills of the students has been regressing every year. School administrators should mind the rationale behind formative assessment, which is placing more emphasis towards reforming student performance rather than the punishment-reward system that the traditional method offers. Of course, this would mean additional training for teachers who are not used to employing formative assessment in their own classrooms and changes in the curricula of teacher training schools. Then again, the benefits of formative assessment as enumerated in the article far outweigh all cost considerations. Reference: Heritage, Margaret. (2007, October). Formative Assessment: What do teachers need to know and do? Phi Delta Kappan, pp. 140-145.