tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65922494983081495372024-03-08T16:29:37.062-08:00Online essay writingpetitionInformative Essay Third Grade SamplesMaryjane Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06753187439474025436noreply@blogger.comBlogger73125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6592249498308149537.post-4960515062142264412020-08-24T01:22:00.001-07:002020-08-24T01:22:03.238-07:00Strategies for Avoiding Plagiarism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words Maryjane Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06753187439474025436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6592249498308149537.post-89475651100336522222020-08-22T00:13:00.001-07:002020-08-22T00:13:20.946-07:00Natural Disasters Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 wordsCataclysmic events - Research Paper Example In spite of the fact that to date, it is as yet not exceptionally evident that Pakistanââ¬â¢s aid projects were a triumph or not on account of the over the top deterrents made against government, strategy producers and philanthropic association by the absence of correspondence and transport, however recovery and salvage administrations began when the underground ejection hit the territory Name of the understudy: Name of the instructor: Course number: Submission date: Even following six years, Pakistan is as yet suffering effects of the enormous tremor happened on the morning of October 8, 2005. Pakistan is a sovereign Islamic state in South Asia. Its northern zones comprises of lavish green valleys, mountains, super cold lakes, organic product loaded plantations and blossom loaded slants. With its rich recorded past, these zones fill in as paradise of unwinding for vacationers as portrayed in figure 1 and 2. Figure 1 Valley of Kashmir FIGURE 2: Valley of Swat On the morning of Oct ober 8, 2005 at 8:50 A.M neighborhood time, these territories were hit by an enormous seismic tremor. The greatness of the tremor was Mw =7.6 which was the most grounded quake over the most recent 100 years in the region. It hit the Himalayan Region of the Northern Pakistan and Kashmir. ... Figure 3 outlines the circumstance of the city when the occasion. Figure 3: City of Balakot: Before and After Destruction The underlying loss of life, as indicated by media reports, was 30,000 individuals murdered distinctly in Kashmir with42, 397 individuals harmed and 200 armed force fighters executed on the job. Totally annihilated zones incorporated the city of Muzaffarabad and Balakot, which transformed into a plain real estate parcel after the shake. (Pakimp3,2005). The governmentââ¬â¢s official loss of life is 75,000 though, USGS states 86,000 peopleââ¬â¢s passing with 69,000 harmed remembering broad harm for northern Pakistan. Different other Northern territories of the state were likewise seriously influenced, for example, Gilgit, Baltistan, Swat and Khyber region of Pakistan. Significant urban communities, for example, Rawalpindi, Islamabad were additionally influenced. A 10-story private structure in Islamabad, named Margalla Towers crumbled totally, executing practi cally the entirety of the tenants. The loss of life became fundamentally after the real occasion because of unforgiving climate and challenges in the help administrations. Seriousness of the pulverization of tremor isn't totally ascribed to the extreme up push in the land plates however poor development likewise assumed a significant job in spreading the decimation. As figure 4 and figure 5 show a case of poor development in the capital city of the nation. FIGURE 5: Margalla Towers crumbled because of development abandons The serious shaking was not the constraint of this huge catastrophic event but rather delayed repercussions, avalanches and rock falls additionally shook the crushed territories various occasions for a little while. Land sliding was the fundamental component of this occasion and seismic tremor set off a band of landslidings along the flaw burst follow. These Maryjane Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06753187439474025436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6592249498308149537.post-18334612661715436942020-07-16T01:41:00.001-07:002020-07-16T01:41:07.182-07:00CP14 Podcast with Donal Daly from Altify (TAS Group) about Sales Account Performance CP14 Podcast with Donal Daly from Altify (TAS Group) about Sales Account Performance INTRODUCTIONMartin: Hi, today we are here with Donal Daly from Altify (previously, TAS Group). Hi Donal, who are you and what do you do?Donal: Hey Martin, nice to be here. Donal Daly, Iâm the CEO of the TAS Group. We provide software applications that enables sales people to be more effective in their job every day.Martin: What did you do before you started this company?Donal: Well I never really had a proper job. Iâve always worked for myself. This is my fifth software company. So Iâm a software guy and Iâm a geek, and a nerd, and all those things. So thatâs what I do. Iâve been building I suppose software companies for the last 30 years. So thatâs what I do.Martin: Cool. If you go back in time, how did you come up with the business idea of the TAS Group and how did your previous business or interest enable you to perform in that?Donal: So, I think that when I finished the last company that I had, I ended up doing some consulting work, as you do, helping peopl e with kind of where they were going with their marketing strategies and sales strategies. Given that I had kind of built a number of companies and a number of sales teams over the proceeding, gosh 20 years I guess I started looking at what people were doing to create more effective sales organizations. And I looked at the sales training industries, such as it was. There was not a lot of technology applied and there wasnât a lot of sustained values delivered. It appeared to me that given that I had spent the previous 20 years in software. That maybe if you could take some of the smart, deep sales methodologies that existed and to make it available to sales people and sales managers to use and measure, then that kind of hypothesis might deliver more value than the traditional approach that was being applied.Martin: Donal, given that youâve started and grown five businesses, what keeps you motivated?Donal: Gosh, I ask myself that question every day. No, Iâm kidding. I think, itâ s my opinion, if you can find an important problem that lots of people share as urgent, that can make a big difference, then, at the end of the day, help people do their jobs better, I think thatâs very gratifying. If you can kind of look at that and help your customers do whatever it is they are trying to do better, I think thatâs something that gives a lot of its own return.Martin: How did you go about starting this company? So at what point in time did you talk to customers? At what point in time did you look on the product, talk to investors, etc.?Donal: So I was fortunate of having a number of folks who had started with me in the other companies, but in this case, it was another classic software startup. Boot strapped, took a kind of proposition around people that I knew and said: What do you think of this? Is this worthwhile? And in many cases, people said: Well, no. Because if it was, wouldnât somebody have done it before? But I suppose we kind of hel d fast to the vision that we had. And we built an early software application. It might have been four or five of us at the time. TAS software startup, we built our deal maker application. And because weâve been building kind of enterprise class cloud software for a long period of time before that, we knew how to do that.So we built it. And then we brought it to a few people in many ways, best market researchers trying to sell what you have. So we sold that to a few folks, and then we sold it to a few people who we didnât know. So that kind of proved out well. That was kind of the first phase of the journey, you know testing the product, checking the product market fit, seeing whether itâll deliver some value. And those were the early days, that went as well as we could have hoped.Martin: And how often do you currently have, well in the past, have doubts about some kind of key assumptions or so that are necessary for growing the business? And how did you manage those kind of si tuations of doubt?Donal: Thatâs a great question. I think sometimes, when we got into this space initially, I guess we felt that it was pretty obvious that people should take smart technology and apply it to deep knowledge in the space weâre in. In that kind of sales methodology sales training space, we went, okay weâll start doing this and over the next kind of short period of time, other folks who had played in this space who are trying to solve the same problems, they will probably do it as well.That was a long time coming. So for the first three, four years of our existence, there was nobody else doing this. People were saying, no technology doesnât have a role to play. So we kind of questioned and wondered you know, why are we this sole activists in this area? So we kind of thought about that, but as we looked at it, looked at the value that our customers were getting and youâre going to wake up in the morning going: Do you really believe that this delivers v alue to the customer? And is the customer willing to invest in it? And that keeps you going.BUSINESS MODEL OF TAS GROUPMartin: Donal, letâs talk about the business model of the TAS Group and letâs start with looking at the customer segments. So what types of customers are you serving? So is it something of special industries or is it only the sales function, or is it only a sales function that has specific kind of properties?Donal: So I think there are two parts to that question. So we sell to, Iâll classify it more as the revenue team rather than the sales team. And by that, I mean of course the sales team, but also the supporting functions. Because marketing are involved and customer service could be involved and sales operations could be involved. So whoever is priority to the go-to-market model of the sales organization. And we are best suited companies who have a reasonably complex sales cycle. If youâre selling widgets, you have a seven days sales cycle, then weâre n ot the right solution. But if youâre selling a complex product that has maybe some IP involved, where the sales person can actually add some real value and can be a real differentiator, then thatâs where we make a difference. And that applies in areas like high end professional services, high end manufacturing technology, telecom, those kind of areas. So itâs enterprise business to business, business that weâre in.Martin: How do you establish and nurture the customer relationship? What I mean by that is are you talking to the potential end users? Are you talking to the budget owners? Are you talking to the influences within a specific company that you want to sell your product to? How do you approach that?Donal: I think there are three kind of main personas that we solve problems for.So the sales user, Iâd like to think that we wake up every day going, how do we make a life of the sales user better? And that means how do we accelerate their paths to revenue.Then we try and solve problems for the frontline sales manager. They have a tough job and they have lots of things to do. But at the end of the day, they are only measured by one thing which is the results that they achieve. But at the same time, theyâre tasked with achieving metrics around sales presence productivity, forecast accuracy, corporate reporting, all those kind of things. So we try and solve that problem.And then the kind of executive sales leader who look at things from kind of a helicopter view, much higher. So they are interested in kind of key performance indicators in the business and how they can have a longer term use.So we spend a lot of time speaking to each of those personas. I just came back just this weekend from a customer advisory board event that we had in San Francisco, where we get kind of twelve of our customers in a room and we listen to the pain that they have. We share with them the vision of where we think we should go. We had a very collaborative conversation a bout how do we best invest our resources to maximize the long term return that they can get.Martin: Donal, you said before that for the first three years or so, you felt very alone in the market. So you were the only company offering this type of software solution for sales organizations. This sounds to me that other competitors entered the market. Another question, what is the unfair advantage that keeps you ahead of those competitors?Donal: Well I think whatâs interesting about, in fairness to the people who I kind of looked at and said, why didnât they come into the market? I was probably a bit slow in figuring out why they didnât. But if I think about it, what we do today is a combination of two distinct disciplines:One is deep sales methodology.And the other is smart software.So the team that I had, had been building smart software for a long period of time. My first company was NAI. The team that we have built many cloud applications well before it was called cloud and a long the way, we acquired the TAS methodology business. So we ended up in this kind of unique situation where we had you know 25 years of methodology expertise and 25 years of smart software expertise.So as a consequence, when I thought about this a little harder and I figured out, okay, so the methodology people who are schooled on sales training and putting people in a classroom and going through those kind of either paper or fairly manual processes didnât have the benefit of the decades of software experience. And the software people who knew how to build software didnât have the methodology expertise. Now we were in the fortunate situation where we had both of those.And because the first company that we were involved in, the first company I started was NAI and expo systems. And we go, thatâs a really cool way of taking knowledge and applying it in context to help your knowledge worker and in this case, thatâs the sales person. So I think thatâs the unfair advantage tha t we have right there.Martin: Okay, cool. Howâs the pricing model working and how did you come up with the pricing structure?Donal: Weâre a subscription software business. We very much believe in the subscription economy. We think itâs a long term contract that you enter into with your customer and you earn their trust every month, because they can turn you off.So we started life as a subscription software company, where everything that we do is focused around the software that we provide which has the kind of embedded knowledge therein. And of course we also provide the appropriate consulting and kind of learning and training services to make the customer successful. Fundamentally, subscription software business with appropriate services to support the customer.ADVICE FROM DONAL DALYMartin: Donal, if you look back over the last 30 years or so, where you started and grow those five businesses, what type of learnings can you identify that you think is very applicable to other p eople starting their first company?Donal: I dont know. I guess youâre never as smart as you think you are. And thereâs a lot to be learned from other people. I think that if you take care of your employees first, they will take care of your customers. I donât subscribe to the notion that itâs the job of the CEO to look after the shareholder value. I think itâs the job of the CEO to look after the employee value, who looks after the customer value, which has a consequence to deliver shareholder value. And I think thatâs something thatâs very sustaining and that people can do.I think that if the people in your company have a vision of where youâre going as a business, have a sense of purpose for what theyâre doing everyday in their job, if you actually care about the outcome for the customer, again I think thatâs a very sustainable thing that you can do. But as an entrepreneur, as someone whoâs thinking about starting a business, Iâll often say to people, so yo u should think really hard about why you want to do it. Because itâs much easier to start than stop. And itâs much easier to come up with a smart idea than it is to deliver a total execution and stay with it when things are tough. So I think real belief in what you do and in the value of what you do I think is really important.Martin: I like the concept of this employee value. How do you measure and optimize this employee value?Donal: People talk about us sometimes as you know weâre a little bit of an Italian family. Now Iâm Irish. But people, Italian families, so people donât leave. The company is ten years old, and we have a substantial number of people in the company who have been working with us for ten years.And so the tenure of our employees is really high. I remember having a board advisor conversation maybe three years ago. A new board advisor and he was saying, things will revert to the norm. You will move to the normal attrition rates, you will move to the normal turnover insurance rates. I donât think so. I know, and it took a couple of years. Later he goes, you know what? You might be right. And as it turned out just before that happened, or between the two conversations weâve had, one of our guys had left. And I said to him, actually you know what, one of our guys had left. And just yesterday he called and said: Can I come back?Because if there is a true culture of mutual respect across all the employees, then itâs a place where people want to come to and people want to stay. And we think thatâs really important.Martin: And are you only trying to letâs say clean up this kind of culture when youâre hiring people or are you also taking some measures once people are there that you are strengthening this type of culture?Donal: Yes, so itâs a bit like, we tend to say to people and Iâm conscious of the fact that Iâm in a recorded entity so I want to not swear. And this is a no BS environment. You know thereâs no room for BS . Thereâs no room for disrespect in your colleagues. Thereâs no room for any of those things. And it kind of self governs at this point because everyone understands that we donât do that kind of thing here. I believe in self governs.SALES ACCOUNT PLANNING FROM DONAL DALYMartin: Cool, Donal, youâve wrote a nice book about account planning. Letâs dive in about this. What I would love to know is, how do you get a sales team more productive?Donal: I often say that if we can think about this for a second that the impact on a customer of a bad buying decision is typically greater than the impact on a sales person of a lost deal, right. So if someone buys the wrong CRM or they buy the wrong bit of machinery for their plant or they do those kind of things, typically the impact on the customer of making that bad decision is typically greater than the impact of the sales person who might lose a deal. And people think about that and actually take it to heart, what happen s is they start to think about the impact on their customer. So when they start to do that, then they adopt the buyer perspective, and they think about the things that the buyer actually cares about. And as a consequence, it becomes much more of a valued conversation than it does as a cost conversation.So what weâre trying to do is weâre trying to put some software in tools and processes and give people the right in their mindset tools, skill set to bring those pieces together to enable the sales person to actually understand what their buyer cares about, understanding the path to closing a deal is much shorter.Martin: I like this idea of really focusing on the customer value. But the question to me is how do you align this with short term orientation in terms of the sales incentive for sales people?Donal: So I donât believe in short term orientation. I believe that at best, you can have spotty success; at worst, you can have disenfranchised customers; and a satisfied customer is your best marketing machine.So if a sales person cannot honestly say, if I was a customer I would buy from me, if you know what I mean. Then their win rate will be lower. Their average deal cites will be lower. Their sales cycle will be longer and it takes just a few examples of actually you know what? I thought a lot from the customers point of view. And at the end of the day, they didnât push me on price, they understood the value that I delivered. And instead of having to discount by 20%, I actually had to sell a few more deals.So it takes a bit of sustained messaging if you like but also good examples and role models. So I donât think thereâs a professional sales person out there who is at the top of their profession, who doesnât get the fact that looking after the customer actually shortens the sales cycle and actually gets better revenue.Martin: What are the best practices for sales account planning?Donal: There are really two reasons why you lose a deal. One is yo u shouldnât have been there. Two is you were out sold. So with respect to account planning, it means that I like to kind of think about account as a market place. So in other words, Iâm selling into you know galactic corporation under hood, right. And thereâs a lot of places within vast accounts that I can sell my solutions and maybe thereâs a number of different solutions I can apply. So if I think about where in that business I can best add value with solution A or solution B, and disqualify and defocus from the other areas, then I end up delivering more value to my customer, and getting to a place where this is what I call the kind of mutual value equation. Itâs of most value to you and most value to me. Then thatâs the place where account planning works.Martin: So this was the first question, right. So am I at the right place in the company?Donal: Totally, yes.Martin: What was the second?Donal: I guess the second question is, okay one of the⦠as we kind of think th rough account planning practice generally just to give you a fuller answer. One is I do need to research my market. I need to think about whatâs going on in their customer. Understand what their goals are, what business pressures they are under, what initiatives or projects that might have underway. And as I do that across a larger account like that, then what I need to do is I need to segment my market into the different areas of what we call A, B, C, D kind of segments. And that said my Aâs are where I can deliver most value to you and I get most value from. Once I do that, I can work through, what we call a kind of the white space in an account. White spaces are areas where thereâs an intersection between maybe divisions in the larger account and products or solutions that we sell.When I do that exercise, what should happen is, I should come up with a large number of what we call potential opportunities. Potential areas where I can add value and deals that I can sell and I should come up with more than I can handle. At which point what I would then suggest is using a similar process to your segmentation, but this time add opportunity level and try and figure out which of these opportunities that I should focus on next.Once I do that, I need to look at them and think about: Okay, thatâs kind of my planning process, but now if I want to execute against that process, I need to determine what objectives Iâm trying to achieve, what strategies I want to employ to achieve those objectives. And what specific timed actions Iâm going to undertake to make it happen.So thatâs kind of account planning you know in a nutshell from a research through segmentation, through some white space analysis, a bit of prioritization on the opportunities, but then get into the actual execution. And what we found is when people can do that as an account team and kind of collaborate on it, in our case with the cloud application on a team, then their velocity or delivering success to their customer and revenue of the company are accelerated.Martin: And what questions do you ask yourself if you are talking to somebody in the company and you want to really identify whether you are currently at the right place or at the wrong place, so you donât waste time talking to a person who will never buy from you?Donal: Yes, I think itâs kind of a broad question because it is very context dependent. So I was going through that, simply Iâd go okay, so here is what I understand. I understand that you have a business problem. Now Iâd like to understand what you think the cause of that problem is. And based on my experience of dealing with people like you in several industries, I should be able to suggest to you what those cases might be, if youre not familiar with them all. Once I understand the problem and the cause of the problem, the next thing I want to understand is from your perspective, what you think the impact is. So whatâs the impact on you? And t hen you come and figure out who else is impacted?And again because in this situation, I would probably have worked with other customers that are similar in similar industries or with similar problems. I should be able to kind of prompt and suggest and think about, well maybe youâre impacted this way or that way. So maybe these other people are impacted.And once I understand the problem, the cause and the impact, then itâs a point for me to say: Okay Martin, so you have a magic wand, now we understand this, what would you like to have next? And whatâs your ideal solution? If there are no barriers, no constraints, whatâs your ideal solution? And then that helps me to understand whether weâre aligned in terms of what we think can happen. And I could understand whether the value is like that. And look to, in your case whether youâre applying the resources that you need to do it your end, whether there what we call compelling event thereâs a time in which you need to act b efore something happens, those kind of things.Martin: Okay.Donal: If thatâs helpful.Martin: Definitely. What types of trends do you see in sales organizations? And what type of happenings do you expect over the next five to ten years?Donal: So some of the trends I see are kind of worrying. I see areas where people are fixated on statistics that they see in the market. I see people are fixated by, this is kind of what I referred to as access of evil right now which is, people were talking about there are some general trends in the market. People say that buyers are 57% or 60% through their buying decision before they contact the supplier. And the other one that worries me is people say, predictive analytics can solve all sales problems. I think both of those are fundamentally flawed, but they have some value at the core. And particularly in business to business sales, Iâm seeing people, I suppose in some cases, buying into those myths without thinking it through for their busines s. In both cases, in those two examples, the stats are true but the stats are based on averages, and businesses across the different spectrum. So I get concerned about some of that and sometimes it requires a bit more critical thought than people are applying.Martin: So if those are the two problems, whatâs the solution then?Donal: The solution is to enable kind of critical thinking by trying to surface with people knowledge in context of what theyâre doing. Because people look at data, people tend to think about, Iâve got a lot of data, I can run some reports, I can do some predictive analytics. I can do some prescription perhaps and the solution in that case is to take a little bit of time thinking about what we will call descriptive analytics, which is whatâs the actual data that matters.Thereâs like three percent of the worldâs data has been analyzed, of which people think one percent is useful. So thinking about what data matters. In the sales world it really comes down to a couple of things. One, the number of qualified deals that youâre working. Whatâs your win rate? And by win rate, I donât necessarily mean you win three out of four, so thatâs 75%. Because people donât often think about the different values of those deals. So think about the number of qualified deals, an informed view of your win rate. Thinking about your average deal value and your sales cycle, because at the core, they are the only four things that impact the revenue that you do. So thinking about everything that you do to focus on those four levers, are the things that we think can impact it.Martin: So this would mean basically once youâve identified the letâs say four key metrics that are driving the revenue and sales, then you can apply some predictive analytics, for example for improving one of those metrics by looking at the data?Donal: Yes, I think you can little bit with the data. But thereâs a factor that people donât often bring into it, you kno w, is that there is a fifth factor to those four, and thatâs the sales person.Martin: Yes, right.Donal: And sales person A can be very different than sales person B. So we would try to encourage critical thought as you look into those factors. And think about okay, in many cases, itâs similar if youâre dealing in high volume transaction oriented business, I think itâs very similar and you can use a lot of that kind of stuff. But if youâre in high value B2B sales that is measured in hundreds of thousands of dollars, and millions of dollars, then itâs hard to find a sample that is appropriately homogeneous to predict accurately.Martin: Itâs true. Okay, thank you so much for your insights, Donal.Donal: Thank you very much for taking the time.Martin: Sure.Donal: Thanks, Martin, bye bye.THANKS FOR LISTENING! Welcome to the 14th episode of our podcast!You can download the podcast to your computer or listen to it here on the blog. Click here to subscribe in iTunes. INTRODUCTIONMartin: Hi, today we are here with Donal Daly from Altify (previously, TAS Group). Hi Donal, who are you and what do you do?Donal: Hey Martin, nice to be here. Donal Daly, Iâm the CEO of the TAS Group. We provide software applications that enables sales people to be more effective in their job every day.Martin: What did you do before you started this company?Donal: Well I never really had a proper job. Iâve always worked for myself. This is my fifth software company. So Iâm a software guy and Iâm a geek, and a nerd, and all those things. So thatâs what I do. Iâve been building I suppose software companies for the last 30 years. So thatâs what I do.Martin: Cool. If you go back in time, how did you come up with the business idea of the TAS Group and how did your previous business or interest enable you to perform in that?Donal: So, I think that when I finished the last company that I had, I ended up doing some consulting work, as you do, helping peopl e with kind of where they were going with their marketing strategies and sales strategies. Given that I had kind of built a number of companies and a number of sales teams over the proceeding, gosh 20 years I guess I started looking at what people were doing to create more effective sales organizations. And I looked at the sales training industries, such as it was. There was not a lot of technology applied and there wasnât a lot of sustained values delivered. It appeared to me that given that I had spent the previous 20 years in software. That maybe if you could take some of the smart, deep sales methodologies that existed and to make it available to sales people and sales managers to use and measure, then that kind of hypothesis might deliver more value than the traditional approach that was being applied.Martin: Donal, given that youâve started and grown five businesses, what keeps you motivated?Donal: Gosh, I ask myself that question every day. No, Iâm kidding. I think, itâ s my opinion, if you can find an important problem that lots of people share as urgent, that can make a big difference, then, at the end of the day, help people do their jobs better, I think thatâs very gratifying. If you can kind of look at that and help your customers do whatever it is they are trying to do better, I think thatâs something that gives a lot of its own return.Martin: How did you go about starting this company? So at what point in time did you talk to customers? At what point in time did you look on the product, talk to investors, etc.?Donal: So I was fortunate of having a number of folks who had started with me in the other companies, but in this case, it was another classic software startup. Boot strapped, took a kind of proposition around people that I knew and said: What do you think of this? Is this worthwhile? And in many cases, people said: Well, no. Because if it was, wouldnât somebody have done it before? But I suppose we kind of hel d fast to the vision that we had. And we built an early software application. It might have been four or five of us at the time. TAS software startup, we built our deal maker application. And because weâve been building kind of enterprise class cloud software for a long period of time before that, we knew how to do that.So we built it. And then we brought it to a few people in many ways, best market researchers trying to sell what you have. So we sold that to a few folks, and then we sold it to a few people who we didnât know. So that kind of proved out well. That was kind of the first phase of the journey, you know testing the product, checking the product market fit, seeing whether itâll deliver some value. And those were the early days, that went as well as we could have hoped.Martin: And how often do you currently have, well in the past, have doubts about some kind of key assumptions or so that are necessary for growing the business? And how did you manage those kind of si tuations of doubt?Donal: Thatâs a great question. I think sometimes, when we got into this space initially, I guess we felt that it was pretty obvious that people should take smart technology and apply it to deep knowledge in the space weâre in. In that kind of sales methodology sales training space, we went, okay weâll start doing this and over the next kind of short period of time, other folks who had played in this space who are trying to solve the same problems, they will probably do it as well.That was a long time coming. So for the first three, four years of our existence, there was nobody else doing this. People were saying, no technology doesnât have a role to play. So we kind of questioned and wondered you know, why are we this sole activists in this area? So we kind of thought about that, but as we looked at it, looked at the value that our customers were getting and youâre going to wake up in the morning going: Do you really believe that this delivers v alue to the customer? And is the customer willing to invest in it? And that keeps you going.BUSINESS MODEL OF TAS GROUPMartin: Donal, letâs talk about the business model of the TAS Group and letâs start with looking at the customer segments. So what types of customers are you serving? So is it something of special industries or is it only the sales function, or is it only a sales function that has specific kind of properties?Donal: So I think there are two parts to that question. So we sell to, Iâll classify it more as the revenue team rather than the sales team. And by that, I mean of course the sales team, but also the supporting functions. Because marketing are involved and customer service could be involved and sales operations could be involved. So whoever is priority to the go-to-market model of the sales organization. And we are best suited companies who have a reasonably complex sales cycle. If youâre selling widgets, you have a seven days sales cycle, then weâre n ot the right solution. But if youâre selling a complex product that has maybe some IP involved, where the sales person can actually add some real value and can be a real differentiator, then thatâs where we make a difference. And that applies in areas like high end professional services, high end manufacturing technology, telecom, those kind of areas. So itâs enterprise business to business, business that weâre in.Martin: How do you establish and nurture the customer relationship? What I mean by that is are you talking to the potential end users? Are you talking to the budget owners? Are you talking to the influences within a specific company that you want to sell your product to? How do you approach that?Donal: I think there are three kind of main personas that we solve problems for.So the sales user, Iâd like to think that we wake up every day going, how do we make a life of the sales user better? And that means how do we accelerate their paths to revenue.Then we try and solve problems for the frontline sales manager. They have a tough job and they have lots of things to do. But at the end of the day, they are only measured by one thing which is the results that they achieve. But at the same time, theyâre tasked with achieving metrics around sales presence productivity, forecast accuracy, corporate reporting, all those kind of things. So we try and solve that problem.And then the kind of executive sales leader who look at things from kind of a helicopter view, much higher. So they are interested in kind of key performance indicators in the business and how they can have a longer term use.So we spend a lot of time speaking to each of those personas. I just came back just this weekend from a customer advisory board event that we had in San Francisco, where we get kind of twelve of our customers in a room and we listen to the pain that they have. We share with them the vision of where we think we should go. We had a very collaborative conversation a bout how do we best invest our resources to maximize the long term return that they can get.Martin: Donal, you said before that for the first three years or so, you felt very alone in the market. So you were the only company offering this type of software solution for sales organizations. This sounds to me that other competitors entered the market. Another question, what is the unfair advantage that keeps you ahead of those competitors?Donal: Well I think whatâs interesting about, in fairness to the people who I kind of looked at and said, why didnât they come into the market? I was probably a bit slow in figuring out why they didnât. But if I think about it, what we do today is a combination of two distinct disciplines:One is deep sales methodology.And the other is smart software.So the team that I had, had been building smart software for a long period of time. My first company was NAI. The team that we have built many cloud applications well before it was called cloud and a long the way, we acquired the TAS methodology business. So we ended up in this kind of unique situation where we had you know 25 years of methodology expertise and 25 years of smart software expertise.So as a consequence, when I thought about this a little harder and I figured out, okay, so the methodology people who are schooled on sales training and putting people in a classroom and going through those kind of either paper or fairly manual processes didnât have the benefit of the decades of software experience. And the software people who knew how to build software didnât have the methodology expertise. Now we were in the fortunate situation where we had both of those.And because the first company that we were involved in, the first company I started was NAI and expo systems. And we go, thatâs a really cool way of taking knowledge and applying it in context to help your knowledge worker and in this case, thatâs the sales person. So I think thatâs the unfair advantage tha t we have right there.Martin: Okay, cool. Howâs the pricing model working and how did you come up with the pricing structure?Donal: Weâre a subscription software business. We very much believe in the subscription economy. We think itâs a long term contract that you enter into with your customer and you earn their trust every month, because they can turn you off.So we started life as a subscription software company, where everything that we do is focused around the software that we provide which has the kind of embedded knowledge therein. And of course we also provide the appropriate consulting and kind of learning and training services to make the customer successful. Fundamentally, subscription software business with appropriate services to support the customer.ADVICE FROM DONAL DALYMartin: Donal, if you look back over the last 30 years or so, where you started and grow those five businesses, what type of learnings can you identify that you think is very applicable to other p eople starting their first company?Donal: I dont know. I guess youâre never as smart as you think you are. And thereâs a lot to be learned from other people. I think that if you take care of your employees first, they will take care of your customers. I donât subscribe to the notion that itâs the job of the CEO to look after the shareholder value. I think itâs the job of the CEO to look after the employee value, who looks after the customer value, which has a consequence to deliver shareholder value. And I think thatâs something thatâs very sustaining and that people can do.I think that if the people in your company have a vision of where youâre going as a business, have a sense of purpose for what theyâre doing everyday in their job, if you actually care about the outcome for the customer, again I think thatâs a very sustainable thing that you can do. But as an entrepreneur, as someone whoâs thinking about starting a business, Iâll often say to people, so yo u should think really hard about why you want to do it. Because itâs much easier to start than stop. And itâs much easier to come up with a smart idea than it is to deliver a total execution and stay with it when things are tough. So I think real belief in what you do and in the value of what you do I think is really important.Martin: I like the concept of this employee value. How do you measure and optimize this employee value?Donal: People talk about us sometimes as you know weâre a little bit of an Italian family. Now Iâm Irish. But people, Italian families, so people donât leave. The company is ten years old, and we have a substantial number of people in the company who have been working with us for ten years.And so the tenure of our employees is really high. I remember having a board advisor conversation maybe three years ago. A new board advisor and he was saying, things will revert to the norm. You will move to the normal attrition rates, you will move to the normal turnover insurance rates. I donât think so. I know, and it took a couple of years. Later he goes, you know what? You might be right. And as it turned out just before that happened, or between the two conversations weâve had, one of our guys had left. And I said to him, actually you know what, one of our guys had left. And just yesterday he called and said: Can I come back?Because if there is a true culture of mutual respect across all the employees, then itâs a place where people want to come to and people want to stay. And we think thatâs really important.Martin: And are you only trying to letâs say clean up this kind of culture when youâre hiring people or are you also taking some measures once people are there that you are strengthening this type of culture?Donal: Yes, so itâs a bit like, we tend to say to people and Iâm conscious of the fact that Iâm in a recorded entity so I want to not swear. And this is a no BS environment. You know thereâs no room for BS . Thereâs no room for disrespect in your colleagues. Thereâs no room for any of those things. And it kind of self governs at this point because everyone understands that we donât do that kind of thing here. I believe in self governs.SALES ACCOUNT PLANNING FROM DONAL DALYMartin: Cool, Donal, youâve wrote a nice book about account planning. Letâs dive in about this. What I would love to know is, how do you get a sales team more productive?Donal: I often say that if we can think about this for a second that the impact on a customer of a bad buying decision is typically greater than the impact on a sales person of a lost deal, right. So if someone buys the wrong CRM or they buy the wrong bit of machinery for their plant or they do those kind of things, typically the impact on the customer of making that bad decision is typically greater than the impact of the sales person who might lose a deal. And people think about that and actually take it to heart, what happen s is they start to think about the impact on their customer. So when they start to do that, then they adopt the buyer perspective, and they think about the things that the buyer actually cares about. And as a consequence, it becomes much more of a valued conversation than it does as a cost conversation.So what weâre trying to do is weâre trying to put some software in tools and processes and give people the right in their mindset tools, skill set to bring those pieces together to enable the sales person to actually understand what their buyer cares about, understanding the path to closing a deal is much shorter.Martin: I like this idea of really focusing on the customer value. But the question to me is how do you align this with short term orientation in terms of the sales incentive for sales people?Donal: So I donât believe in short term orientation. I believe that at best, you can have spotty success; at worst, you can have disenfranchised customers; and a satisfied customer is your best marketing machine.So if a sales person cannot honestly say, if I was a customer I would buy from me, if you know what I mean. Then their win rate will be lower. Their average deal cites will be lower. Their sales cycle will be longer and it takes just a few examples of actually you know what? I thought a lot from the customers point of view. And at the end of the day, they didnât push me on price, they understood the value that I delivered. And instead of having to discount by 20%, I actually had to sell a few more deals.So it takes a bit of sustained messaging if you like but also good examples and role models. So I donât think thereâs a professional sales person out there who is at the top of their profession, who doesnât get the fact that looking after the customer actually shortens the sales cycle and actually gets better revenue.Martin: What are the best practices for sales account planning?Donal: There are really two reasons why you lose a deal. One is yo u shouldnât have been there. Two is you were out sold. So with respect to account planning, it means that I like to kind of think about account as a market place. So in other words, Iâm selling into you know galactic corporation under hood, right. And thereâs a lot of places within vast accounts that I can sell my solutions and maybe thereâs a number of different solutions I can apply. So if I think about where in that business I can best add value with solution A or solution B, and disqualify and defocus from the other areas, then I end up delivering more value to my customer, and getting to a place where this is what I call the kind of mutual value equation. Itâs of most value to you and most value to me. Then thatâs the place where account planning works.Martin: So this was the first question, right. So am I at the right place in the company?Donal: Totally, yes.Martin: What was the second?Donal: I guess the second question is, okay one of the⦠as we kind of think th rough account planning practice generally just to give you a fuller answer. One is I do need to research my market. I need to think about whatâs going on in their customer. Understand what their goals are, what business pressures they are under, what initiatives or projects that might have underway. And as I do that across a larger account like that, then what I need to do is I need to segment my market into the different areas of what we call A, B, C, D kind of segments. And that said my Aâs are where I can deliver most value to you and I get most value from. Once I do that, I can work through, what we call a kind of the white space in an account. White spaces are areas where thereâs an intersection between maybe divisions in the larger account and products or solutions that we sell.When I do that exercise, what should happen is, I should come up with a large number of what we call potential opportunities. Potential areas where I can add value and deals that I can sell and I should come up with more than I can handle. At which point what I would then suggest is using a similar process to your segmentation, but this time add opportunity level and try and figure out which of these opportunities that I should focus on next.Once I do that, I need to look at them and think about: Okay, thatâs kind of my planning process, but now if I want to execute against that process, I need to determine what objectives Iâm trying to achieve, what strategies I want to employ to achieve those objectives. And what specific timed actions Iâm going to undertake to make it happen.So thatâs kind of account planning you know in a nutshell from a research through segmentation, through some white space analysis, a bit of prioritization on the opportunities, but then get into the actual execution. And what we found is when people can do that as an account team and kind of collaborate on it, in our case with the cloud application on a team, then their velocity or delivering success to their customer and revenue of the company are accelerated.Martin: And what questions do you ask yourself if you are talking to somebody in the company and you want to really identify whether you are currently at the right place or at the wrong place, so you donât waste time talking to a person who will never buy from you?Donal: Yes, I think itâs kind of a broad question because it is very context dependent. So I was going through that, simply Iâd go okay, so here is what I understand. I understand that you have a business problem. Now Iâd like to understand what you think the cause of that problem is. And based on my experience of dealing with people like you in several industries, I should be able to suggest to you what those cases might be, if youre not familiar with them all. Once I understand the problem and the cause of the problem, the next thing I want to understand is from your perspective, what you think the impact is. So whatâs the impact on you? And t hen you come and figure out who else is impacted?And again because in this situation, I would probably have worked with other customers that are similar in similar industries or with similar problems. I should be able to kind of prompt and suggest and think about, well maybe youâre impacted this way or that way. So maybe these other people are impacted.And once I understand the problem, the cause and the impact, then itâs a point for me to say: Okay Martin, so you have a magic wand, now we understand this, what would you like to have next? And whatâs your ideal solution? If there are no barriers, no constraints, whatâs your ideal solution? And then that helps me to understand whether weâre aligned in terms of what we think can happen. And I could understand whether the value is like that. And look to, in your case whether youâre applying the resources that you need to do it your end, whether there what we call compelling event thereâs a time in which you need to act b efore something happens, those kind of things.Martin: Okay.Donal: If thatâs helpful.Martin: Definitely. What types of trends do you see in sales organizations? And what type of happenings do you expect over the next five to ten years?Donal: So some of the trends I see are kind of worrying. I see areas where people are fixated on statistics that they see in the market. I see people are fixated by, this is kind of what I referred to as access of evil right now which is, people were talking about there are some general trends in the market. People say that buyers are 57% or 60% through their buying decision before they contact the supplier. And the other one that worries me is people say, predictive analytics can solve all sales problems. I think both of those are fundamentally flawed, but they have some value at the core. And particularly in business to business sales, Iâm seeing people, I suppose in some cases, buying into those myths without thinking it through for their busines s. In both cases, in those two examples, the stats are true but the stats are based on averages, and businesses across the different spectrum. So I get concerned about some of that and sometimes it requires a bit more critical thought than people are applying.Martin: So if those are the two problems, whatâs the solution then?Donal: The solution is to enable kind of critical thinking by trying to surface with people knowledge in context of what theyâre doing. Because people look at data, people tend to think about, Iâve got a lot of data, I can run some reports, I can do some predictive analytics. I can do some prescription perhaps and the solution in that case is to take a little bit of time thinking about what we will call descriptive analytics, which is whatâs the actual data that matters.Thereâs like three percent of the worldâs data has been analyzed, of which people think one percent is useful. So thinking about what data matters. In the sales world it really comes down to a couple of things. One, the number of qualified deals that youâre working. Whatâs your win rate? And by win rate, I donât necessarily mean you win three out of four, so thatâs 75%. Because people donât often think about the different values of those deals. So think about the number of qualified deals, an informed view of your win rate. Thinking about your average deal value and your sales cycle, because at the core, they are the only four things that impact the revenue that you do. So thinking about everything that you do to focus on those four levers, are the things that we think can impact it.Martin: So this would mean basically once youâve identified the letâs say four key metrics that are driving the revenue and sales, then you can apply some predictive analytics, for example for improving one of those metrics by looking at the data?Donal: Yes, I think you can little bit with the data. But thereâs a factor that people donât often bring into it, you kno w, is that there is a fifth factor to those four, and thatâs the sales person.Martin: Yes, right.Donal: And sales person A can be very different than sales person B. So we would try to encourage critical thought as you look into those factors. And think about okay, in many cases, itâs similar if youâre dealing in high volume transaction oriented business, I think itâs very similar and you can use a lot of that kind of stuff. But if youâre in high value B2B sales that is measured in hundreds of thousands of dollars, and millions of dollars, then itâs hard to find a sample that is appropriately homogeneous to predict accurately.Martin: Itâs true. Okay, thank you so much for your insights, Donal.Donal: Thank you very much for taking the time.Martin: Sure.Donal: Thanks, Martin, bye bye.THANKS FOR LISTENING!Thanks so much for joining our 14th podcast episode!Have some feedback youâd like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below! If you enjoyed this episode, p lease share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post.Also, please leave an honest review for The Cleverism Podcast on iTunes or on SoundCloud. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.Special thanks to Donal for joining me this week. Until next time! Maryjane Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06753187439474025436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6592249498308149537.post-59435868675594909522020-05-21T13:51:00.001-07:002020-05-21T13:51:04.383-07:00An evaluation of the business and financial performance of morrisons - Free Essay Example Sample details Pages: 22 Words: 6473 Downloads: 8 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Statistics Essay Did you like this example? Part 1 Project Objectives and Overall Research Approach 1.1 Introduction Markets across the world are gradually lifting themselves out of the doom and gloom of recession. Most markets in the UK have shown relative resiliency as they try and recover. Consumer spending and confidence have been fairly low due to adverse pressures created by the implementation of stringent fiscal and monetary policies by the government. Donââ¬â¢t waste time! Our writers will create an original "An evaluation of the business and financial performance of morrisons" essay for you Create order The past couple of years have seen the worst effects of recession, hence businesses had to improvise and develop strategies which would focus on retaining existing customers while attracting new customers simultaneously. WM Morrison Supermarkets plc (herein after simply Morrison) has been a success story amidst all the large scale corporate failure and has managed to remain profitable while its competitors and businesses in general have struggled a great deal. Morrisons was founded by William Morrison in 1899, operating as an egg and butter stall in Bradford, North West England. From its humble beginning Morrisons grew rapidly both in terms of its size and its product portfolio. It was only in 1967 that Morrisons was first floated on the London Stock Exchange. As per TNSglobal.com (Nov 08) Morrisons accounted for 11.8% of the total retail supermarket share in the year 2008, making it the smallest of the big four supermarkets. Morrisons operated predominantly in Northern England and it was only in 2004 that Morrisons expanded its operations in the southern part of the UK through the acquisition of Safeway superstores. Further, as per the Annual Statements published in 2010, Morrisons turnover stood at 15.4bn which was generated from 420 superstores all across the UK. Morrisons operates entirely in the UK market. 1.2 Reasons for choosing the topic Morrisons mission statement which states Keeping things simple has often fascinated me as to how could such a massive organisation operate effectively by keeping things simple at all times. Therefore I choose to analyse the financial statements of Morrisons PLC over a three year period which would provide me answers to my personal curiosities whilst also completing an important research report in my academic career. Most of the knowledge required to compile the research report was acquired through my ACCA studies but this report took me one step further as it provided me with a platform from where I could apply my knowledge in a real life scenario. 1.3 Project Objectives This project report aims to achieve the following objectives: Analysis of the business and financial performance of Morrison PLC over a period of three years i.e. from the 1st of February 2007 to 31st of January 2010. A reflective analysis of the year on year performance of Morrison PLC with critical analysis of the effectiveness of current business strategies and their adequacy to deal with future business and market challenges. Evaluation of Morrisons competitive market position in comparison with its major competitors (with particular emphasis on J Sainsbury PLC, herein after simply Sinsburys). 1.4 Research Questions The project report aims to answer the following research questions: Effectiveness of Morrisons operational and financial strategies over the three year period in review. How well did Morrison perform in comparison to its major competitors (through the use of analytical analysis tools such as ratio analysis)? 1.5 Research Approach Following is the research methodology adopted while compiling this research report: Evaluating Morrisons business performance through the use of business models such as PESTEL, SWOT and Porters 5 forces. Comparative analysis of Morrisons PLC financial statements through the calculation of key ratios such as: profitability, liquidity, gearing, investor returns and efficiency. Accessing Morrisons competitive position with its major competitors (mainly Sainsburys) through the ratios calculated. Part 2 Information Gathering and Accounting/ Business techniques 2.1 Sources of Information 2.1.1 Annual Reports and Summary of Financial Statements The main source of information utilised for compiling the research and analysis report was the annual statements of Morrison PLC. The annual reports consisted of all the relevant financial information for ratio analysis. 2.1.2 Books on interpretation of Financial and Business Data Numerous business study books and articles were read to mainly understand the scope of business analyses models and their effectiveness in analysing Morrisons performance for the last three years. Books were also consulted to ascertain key ratios and comprehend them. I also had to understand what the ratios meant in the retail supermarket sector and realise the limitation of ratio analyses. 2.1.3 Media and Internet sources Electronic and print media were the most important sources of information. The annual statements were downloaded from the internet and expert views on Morrisons performance were consulted from the Financial Times and other authentic business journals. 2.2 Methods used in collecting information The entire research is based on secondary data (i.e. data collected by someone else for their own purposes). The reasons for basing the research upon secondary resources were that no obligation to conduct primary research and the limited time period in which the research had to be conducted and then the compilation of the report. Almost all the literature reviewed and consulted was done with certain amount of scepticism (critical review) so at to ensure that the information collected presented a balanced overview. Therefore the research data was collected from various sources. Internal management view was ascertained from the detailed annual statements, as the directors are responsible for producing such documents. A standard unqualified opinion by the auditors gave further authenticity to the financial information on which almost the entire report is based. As Morrison is also a constituent of London Stock Exchange independent media and expert views were available providing key insight in the companys past and present performance and the future outlook. 2.3 Limitations of information gathering As mentioned in the earlier sections of the report the research was entirely based on secondary data therefore a very slight possibility remains that the data might have been inaccurate and unreliable. Even though the research data has been very carefully selected the chances of error remain but the majority of the work can be deemed authentic and accurate. Further, the amount of information available through various resources was immense and therefore impractical to critically review all of it which might indicate that certain key information was either missed or overlooked. Almost all the information in the annual statement is historical in nature and therefore just reviewing past performances might not truly reflect present and future expectations. 2.4 Explanation of the accounting and/or business techniques The research report focuses on evaluating the business and financial performance of Morrison over a period of 3 years. The financial side of the evaluation will be done through the use of key performance related ratios, whilst the business performance will be examined through PESTEL, SWOT and Porters 5 forces models to evaluate macro and micro activities of the business. 2.4.1 Business Performance 2.4.1.1 PESTEL analysis PESTEL is abbreviated for Political, Economical, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal framework. According to Johnson et al. (2008)[1] it involves an examination of the macro environment of an organisation with a view to identifying the factors that might affect a number of vital variables that are likely to influence the organisations supply and demand levels and its costs. 2.4.1.2 SWOT Analysis Johnson et al (2008) states that SWOT analysis is used to appraise the companys internal strengths, weaknesses, external opportunities and threats. Strengths and weaknesses are usually associated from processes within the company and opportunities and threats arise from factors outside the companys control. 2.4.1.3 Porters 5 Forces Analysis Porter (1980) states that it is essential for companies to have a detailed knowledge of competitors influence on the market and that if a company considers the five competitive forces it will be able to appreciate the structure of its industry and thereby be able to put itself in a position to withstand competitor pressure. 2.4.2 Financial Performance: 2.4.2.1 Ratio Analysis Financial ratios can be calculated by comparing two figures in the accounts which are inter-related in some way. The following ratios will be used to evaluate and analyse the financial performance of Morrison: 2.4.2.2 Liquidity Ratios BPP (2009) states that liquidity ratios illustrate the solvency of a business i.e. whether it is in a position to repay its short term debts. They focus on short term assets and liabilities. Creditors are likely to be interested in liquidity ratios to assess whether they will receive the money that they are owed. The ratios that will be calculated under this category are: * Current Ratio= current assets/ current liabilities, Providers of short term credit prefer a high current ratio. * Quick Ratio= current assets-inventory/ current liability Also commonly known as acid test ratio, it is a more severe test of liquidity as it does not include inventory as a liquid asset as they are not guaranteed to be sold, they may become obsolete or deteriorate. 2.4.2.3 Profitability Ratios According to BPP (2009) stakeholders such as shareholders, owners, managers, employers and potential investors are all likely to be interested in the profitability and efficiency of a business. The ratios calculated under this category will be: * Return on Capital Employed= profit before interest and tax/ capital employed The ROCE relates to the profit generated from operating activities with the capital employed. Capital employed is generally the net assets of the company and is also referred to as shareholders fund plus long term borrowings. * Gross profit margin= gross profit/sales * 100% Shows the gross profit made on sales turnover. * Net profit margin= net profit/sales * 100% The ratio helps to measure how well a business is controlling its overheads. 2.4.2.4 Activity/ Efficiency ratios BPP (2009) states that activity or asset utilisation ratios allow a business to measure how effectively it uses its resources. The ratios that would be calculated under this category will be: * Receivables Turnover = credit sales/ trade receivables * Receivables period = receivables/ sales * 365days Receivables turnover and receivables period would be used to assess time taken by Morrisons to reclaim its short term debt on average. * Inventory Turnover = cost of sales/ inventory According to BPP (2009) this ratio measures the number of times during the year a business sells the value of its stocks * Inventory holding period = inventory/ cost of sales * 365days Stock turnover can be expressed in terms of the number of days it takes to sell inventory. 2.4.2.5 Gearing Ratio BPP (2009) states that the gearing ratio looks at the balance of funding in the capital structure of a business. Under this category the ratios that will be calculated are following: * Debt-equity ratio = total debt/ total equity This ratio establishes the total amount of shareholders fund (equity capital) in comparison to the total amount of borrowed capital (i.e. long term loans). * Interest cover = profit before tax and interest/ interest payable According to BPP (2009) the gearing ratio (i.e. debt-equity ratio) is a statement of financial position measure of financial risk. Interest cover is an income statement measure. The ratio assesses the businesss ability to pay interest by comparing profit and interest payments. 2.4.2.6 Investors Ratio Investors are interested in the returns or dividends they may get from holding shares. BPP (2009) states that a number of ratios can be used to measure these returns. The following ratios will be calculated under this category: * EPS= profit available to shareholders/ no. of shares ranked for dividend BPP (2009) defines EPS as a measure of how much each share is earning. It reflects how much is available to be paid to shareholders. * Price Earnings ratio= share price/ earnings per share According to BPP (2009) the price/earnings ratio is said to reflect the confidence shown in the company It shows how many years, at current earnings, it will take an investor to recover the cost of the share. * Dividend Yield= dividend per share/ market price * 100% BPP (2009) defines the dividend yield ratio as a measure of the value of the return on share for an investor. It shows the dividend per share as a percentage of the market price. 2.5 Limitation of ratio analysis BPP (2009) states that ratio analysis is not necessarily a complete measure of assessing a company financial performance. Limitations that can be associated with ratio analysis are as follows: Accounting principles followed whilst preparing financial statements should represent a true and fair reflection of the company and should be consistently applied over a period of time. Ratio analysis looses its credibility when management deliberately uses accounting policies to manipulate financial statements. Businesses are faced with unique risks even though they operate in the same industry. Hence the way businesses deal with there risks vary, limiting the scope of ratio analysis. BPP (2009) states that ratios on their own are meaningless. They have to be used as a benchmark to compare performance of the organisation against a similar company operating in a similar industry. Certain ratios are of a subjective nature therefore having standard definitions and formulae might not always be possible. Macroeconomic factors such as inflation rates, interest rates, changes in accounting policies and procedures are not accounted for when calculating ratios. Ratios also fail to recognise changes in corporate strategy and risk exposure of the company. 2.6 Limitation of SWOT / PESTEL / Porters Five Forces Results of SWOT analysis cannot be standardised as a threat for one organisation can be an opportunity for the other in a completely different environment. * One of the main disadvantages, as described by Dess et al (2004), is that SWOT analysis is primarily a static assessment. It focuses too much of a firms attention on one moment in time. Hence a SWOT analysis may ignore changing circumstances. * SWOT, PESTEL or Porters 5 ForcesÃâà does not describe factors in terms of quantitative performance indicators. Part 3 Results, Analysis, Conclusions and Recommendations. 3.1 PESTEL analysis 3.1.1 P- POLITICAL As per the Annual Statement (2010) Morrisons did not make any political donation which is the Group policy. However this does not mean that Morrisons operation are not affected by the political decisions made by the government in the UK. Consumer spending power, both in the long and the short term are dictated by the governments fiscal and monetary policies. The UK economy like most other global economies suffered adversely due to the global recession which was directly linked with the global credit crunch crisis. During tough economic times consumer spending power is generally low due to soaring unemployment and uncertainty in the economic environment. Government in the UK has taken important measures to stimulate growth such as reducing VAT (indirect taxation) from 17.5% to 15% in the year ending December 2009, quantitative easing (i.e. pumping money in to the economy) and keeping interest rates low, encouraging people to spend rather than save. Morrisons activities in the retail supermarket industry are regulated by the Competition Commission which keeps a close eye on the activities of the so called big four supermarkets. This ensures that supermarkets do not enter in to price wars or collude to fix prices. Morrisons is also bound by UK and European legislations such as Health and Safety at work Act and National Minimum wage Act. Morrisons cannot legislate for changes in government policy but should pre-empt decisions and ensure that it is ready to face challenges which might result from changes in government policies. But it is safe to assume that Morrisons operates within a very coherent political set up and faces no barriers to trade due to governments political decision making. 3.1.2 E- Economical Morrison operates only within the UK retail supermarket industry and is therefore directly affected by the macroeconomic environment. The UK economy has been under recession over the past few years, which means contraction in the economy, leading to unemployment and weak consumer spending power due to reduction in disposable income. The direct affect of this is that customers look for bargain shopping rather than spending on premium quality products. But as Morrison operates in the retail grocery market the demand for most of its products remains largely in-elastic due to the fact that people have to feed themselves and provide for their daily needs no matter how hard their budgets are squeezed. Additionally people tend to buy food from supermarkets and eat at home rather than spending money in restaurants. Morrison has massively improved its own brand products which offer value for money and appeals to consumers who are willing to buy bargain products rather than premium quality products especially during tough economic times. Annual Statement (2010) states Sales of our own label Value range grew by 34% as consumers tightened their belts in a challenging economic environment. The following table taken from the Annual Statement 2010 further illustrates how Morrisons has consolidated its position in the UK market during the past few years: Therefore it can concluded on the basis of the above figures that Morrisons was able to enhance its position with the retail supermarket industry during adverse economic climate due to the fact it was able to supply quality products at modest prices than its competitors. 3.2.3 S- Social The social trend in UKs grocery market is that families shop almost regularly every week, mostly on the weekends targeting large supermarkets which provide them with all their family requirements under one roof. As stated in the Annual Statement 2010 Morrisons operates from 425 mega stores all across the UK catering towards the social trend of the market. Furthermore there is an ever growing emphasis towards health eating and a sustained fight against obesity. People are getting more and more conscious about what they eat. Morrisons remained a step ahead of its social demands and re-launched its Eat Smart product range and as per the Annual statement (2010 pg 21) Sales were up by 7% reflecting consumers continuing demand for a healthier diet and their concern over the nutritional value of the food they eat. 3.2.4 T- Technology Businesses across the UK are spending heavily on technological advancements, in order to gain competitive advantage over their competitors. Customers in the grocery market are increasingly using the internet to shop for their grocery needs therefore Morrisons has developed a very efficient (website) and robust (delivery system) mechanism to cater for such customers. Morrison has also launched self service check-outs in almost all of its large supermarkets resulting in improved customer service (i.e. decrease in waiting time to be served) subsequently increasing sales. Morrison is also rolling out the use of Voice-picking technology across all its grocery warehouses which has proved particularly successful in increasing depot productivity and pick accuracy and hence improving in-store product availability. (Grocerytrader, 2011) 3.2.5 E- Environmental Businesses across the world are under intense pressure to reduce their carbon footprints on the environment and adopt eco-friendly and sustainable processes. Morrisons thoroughly understands its environmental responsibility and has taken important steps to reduce its carbon footprints and subsequently become GREENER. Below is a graphical representation of decrease in Morrisons carbon footprint as stated in their Annual Review 2010 (pg14) (Source Morrison Annual Review 2010, pg 14) Morrison Annual Report and Financial Statements (2010) states that during the year, free reusable bags were issued to customers, and as a result of this and other initiatives carrier bag consumption was reduced by 126 million bags.Ãâà Morrisons during 2010 also completed the conversion of filling station pumps to highly efficient vapour recovery pumps which emit much reduced levels of fuel vapour in to the atmosphere. Morrisons Halifax store was awarded an excellent rating from the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method indicating as to how much Morrison regards the environment in which it operates. (Morrisons, 2011) 3.2.6 L- Legal Morrison is obliged to operate in accordance with the British and European law. It has to ensure that labour and employment laws are not compromised in handling staff affairs. Any violation would result in expensive lawsuits and negative publicity. Morrison has to satisfy the minimum wage requirements. 3.3 SWOT analysis: 3.3.1 S- Strengths: Morrison has been regarded as one of the best providers of fresh quality food items. Morrisons business strategy of being the The food specialist for everyone distinguishes it from other grocery chains. Morrison takes immense pride in the provision of quality fresh food which is prepared in-store. This allows customers to choose from a variety of fresh food items such as: baked bread, meat cut to order, fish, seasonal deli selections and a range of delicious cakes and treats. Such diverse fresh food range is a major strength of Morrison and is also widely acknowledged by its customer base. Following is an illustration of the three distinct brand values of Morrison that strengthen their vision as stated in Annual Statement 2010 (pg 6): (Source Morrison Annual Review 2010, pg 6) As it is evident from the above diagram, Morrisons overall business strategy of Keeping things simple allows Morrison to concentrate on its historical strengths which is providing fresh quality food at reasonable prices. 3.3.2 W- Weaknesses: Morrison only expanded its operation in the Southern part of the UK in 2004 after the acquisition of Safeway superstores and still heavily relies on the Northern part of the UK which accounts for the major chunk of the sales revenue (55%). This leaves Morrison vulnerable to any adverse fluctuations in the economic activity of the Northern part of the UK. The following illustration taken from Annual Statement 2010 (pg 7, Courtesy Kantar World panel) depicts Morrisons market share by geographical region in the UK: (Source Morrison Annual Review 2010, pg 5) Morrison does not operate a loyalty scheme which rewards customers for shopping repeatedly in Morrison stores. This is a major weakness as some of the other loyalty schemes operated by competitors such as Tesco (Tesco Club card) and Sainsburys (Nectar Card) are able to attract secondary shoppers and retain primary shoppers through attractive rewards. Morrison at present largely operates through megastores whereas its competitors are increasingly investing in smaller convenience stores which are able to cater for local businesses and day to day shopping requirements. Tesco, Sainsburys and ASDA are increasingly capturing the local convenience stores market and if Morrison does not follow suit it risks losing a major chunk of the grocery market to its competitors. Morrison only operates in the UK market. Its main competitors ASDA and TESCO operate globally and are in a better position to offset their UK losses against any foreign gains whereas Morrison will have to bear the losses. The current recession indicated that developing economies such as India, Brazil and China were still posting strong growth patterns whereas the UK economy might be heading towards a double dip recession which would further dent Morrisons profitability. 3.3.3 O- Opportunities Morrison can further improve on its own brand products. In 2010 sales of own brand products were up by 34% indicating strong growth. During tough economic times customers tend to buy value for money products rather than premium quality products. Morrison can cater for such customers and further improve its revenues. E-commerce is increasingly becoming socially popular and more and more people are shopping for their grocery needs on-line. Morrison can improve its website and develop a more robust delivery system. Hence it can improve on its revenues and market share. Morrison should expand its operations in to lucrative developing economies and take its trusted brand over to countries such as India, China, Russia and Brazil and further consolidate its position as a highly trusted supplier of quality fresh food products. 3.3.4 T- Threats As the current UK government aims to reduce budget deficit it is introducing austerity measures and has also increased VAT (from 17.5% to 20%), putting more pressure on disposable income. Many experts fear a double-dip recession which might prove disastrous for businesses in the UK. Morrison has to ensure it remains a step ahead and continues to provide products which offer value for money or otherwise will risk losing sales and its market share to its competitors. This is validated by the fact that there has been a significant increase in demand of value goods compared to premium goods. (Source Morrison Annual Report and Financial Statements 2009, pg 16) Morrison so far seems reluctant to expand through convenience stores and depends largely on opening new megastores. There remains an imminent threat that Morrison might fail to seek planning permission from local authorities and might fail to expand. But however this further advocate towards the fact that Morrison should look to expand through both megastores and convenience stores. As per the TNS report of December 2008 the market was affected from the ALDI effect, this meant people were hunting for bargain products rather than quality products at premium pricing. Even though discount brands such as LIDL and ALDI represent a very small segment of the market Morrison should remain vigilant of their presence as they can easily erode in to Morrisons market share. (Source: https://adage.com/article/news/u-k-supermarket-chains-feel-aldi-effect/131086/, Accessed 20th March 2011) 3.4 Porters Five Forces 3.4.1 Threat of new entrants The threat of new entrants in to the UK retail grocery market remains largely low due to the massive amount of capital outlay required and the power of the existing so called big-four. TESCO, ASDA, Sainsburys and Morrisons operate very powerful marketing and advertisement campaigns making it very difficult for new entrants to gain a foot hold in the market. Following is a diagrammatic illustration of the big four dominance in the UK market: (Source Morrison Annual Review 2010, pg 5) Furthermore supermarket giants like TESCO and Sainsburys operate a very sophisticated and rewarding loyalty schemes. This ensures that customers stay loyal and do not switch to other brands. Large supermarket chains such as Morrison are able to offer significant price reductions and a large product portfolio. This also acts as a significant barrier to entry. Even though the threat of new entrants is low, Morrison has to be proactive to new competition and steps should be taken to neutralise their affect on the market.Ãâà 3.4.2 Bargaining power of suppliers According to the Competition Commission report published in 2008 suppliers in the grocery/retail sector have little or no influence on the big four supermarket chains. The reason for such lack of influence is that supermarket chains such as Morrison can achieve a high volume of turnover on a very short period of time and therefore can dictate product prices to their suppliers. Suppliers have little or no choice but to enter in to such agreements with large supermarkets as they ensure regular cash-inflows and large orders. (Source: https://www.competition-commission.org.uk/rep_pub/reports/2008/538grocery.htm, Accessed 27th March 2011) Morrison ensures that it has a very cordial relationship with all its suppliers as the products they supply are of a paramount importance to the Morrisons brand name. As per Morrisons (2010 pg 13) the board adopts a policy which is to be fair and honest in dealings with farmers and suppliers. As of 2010 Morrisons average credit period stood at 29 days as compared to 33 days in 2009. Suppliers who constantly ensure quality products are supplied on time are given necessary incentives. 3.4.3 Bargaining power of customers The bargaining power of customers in the retail grocery market remains significantly high. Although the customers are not in a position to directly affect the price of an individual product but due to readily available alternatives they can alienate Morrison without any prejudice or prior notice. Therefore Morrisons has to remain very proactive when forecasting market trends and should always try and innovate ways through which it can look after its customers. 3.4.4 Threat of substitutes The threat of substitute products and retailers is significantly high as cost of switching products or suppliers is virtually non-existent. Customers in the retail grocery market do not follow a predictive trend and get disillusioned very quickly ,without any specific reason. Morrisons business strategy of Keeping things Simple and being the Food Specialist goes a long way in attracting customers to its megastores all across the UK. But regular incentives such Eat Healthy, Special Offers and Discounts should also be utilized to attract new and retain existing customers. 3.4.5 Rivalry amongst competitors Rivalry amongst the top-four competitors remains very aggressive and direct. Apart from the direct competition from the big four Morrison should also be vary of local (Iceland) and European (ALDI and LIDL) discount brands as they can also erode in to Morrisons market through aggressive pricing policies. Even though customers buying patterns are unpredictable but generally during tough economic times customers tend to hunt for bargains and therefore are prone to be attracted towards discount brands but Morrison should further diversify its own brand range and cater for such customers. As Morrison solely focuses on the provision of fresh quality food items it can eliminate aggressive rivalry by further improving on product quality and pricing. 3.5 Ratio Analysis Ratios on their own are meaningless and provide little information unless they are benchmarked against something appropriate. Therefore Morrisons ratio will be benchmarked against Sainsburys as it represents a major competitor and operates within the same industry facing similar kind of risks and rewards. Morrisons ratio will also be compared with previous year figure in order to achieve a relative trend in the financial performance over the past three years 3.5.1 Liquidity Ratios 2008 2009 2010 Morrison Liquidity Ratios Current Ratio Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 0.49 Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 0.53 Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 0.51 Acid test Ratio Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 0.25 Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 0.28 Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 0.24 Sainsburys Liquidity Ratios Current ratio 0.62 0.54 0.64 Acid test Ratio 0.36 0.30 0.39 3.5.1.1 Current Ratio An increasing trend can be observed in Morrisons current ratio from 2008 to 2010(Appendix C). The current ratio indicates the ability of Morrisons PLC to pay its short term liabilities from its short term assets. On the contrary Sainsburys current ratio has seen a see-saw effect going from 0.62 to 0.54 to 0.64 from 2008 to 2010(Appendix F). It is also worth considering that Morrisons operates almost entirely on cash and carry business approach and also adopts a very aggressive selling approach therefore little inventory is left over. 3.5.1.2 Acid Test Ratio Acid Test ratio of both companies reveal a similar trend as the current ratio:Ãâà a small increase in 2009 for Morrison and a small dip in 2009 for Sainsburys. Acid test ratio is a much more stringent test of liquidity as it removes stock or inventory from the calculations in order to reveal the instant solvency of Morrison / Sainsburys. The numbers represent the fact that the stock constitutes almost 50% of the current assets (577/1094=53%) in the three years on average which fulfils Morrisons sales intensive approach. This also points out towards the fact that almost all goods sold are financed by creditors (i.e. suppliers). 3.5.1.3 Reasoning The decrease in the current and acid test ratio of Morrison from 2009 to 2010 can be attributed to the increase in financial liabilities from 1 m in 2009 to 213 m in 2010. This increase in bank loans has been due to aggressive expanding strategy of Morrison where they have opened 19 new Co-op/Somerfield Stores in the first half of 2010. (Source Morrison Annual Report and Financial Statements 2010, pg 60) Opening new stores does require a large capital expenditure hence increasing gearing ratio, but this also means that more cash is required to buy stocks that will be sold in those supermarkets.Ãâà From 2007 to 2010 Morrison has opened a total of 57 new stores nationwide under their strategy of National to Nationwide. The following picture explains the increase in Morrison stores from 2007 to 2010: (Source Morrison Annual Report and Financial Statements 2010, pg 7) 3.5.2 Profitability Ratios 2008 2009 2010 Morrison Profitability Ratios Return on capital employed (ROCE) 13.98% 14.85% 18.33% Gross Profit Margin 6.31% 6.28% 6.89% Net Profit Margin 4.72% 4.62% 5.89% Sainsburys Profitability Ratios Return on capital employed (ROCE) 10.74% 15.38% 14.30% Gross Profit Margin 5.62% 5.48% 5.42% Net Profit Margin 2.97% 3.56% 3.56% 3.5.2.1 Return on Capital employed Morrisons return on capital employed has increased from 2008 to 2010 from 13.98% to 18.33% (Appendix C). Comparatively Sainsburys ROCE has only increased marginally from 10.74% to 14.30 in the years 2008 to 2010 (Appendix F). The ROCE indicates the percentage of profit made on capital invested; hence a higher value of ROCE indicates efficient use of capital and a lower value vice versa. Morrisons average ROCE for 2008 to 2010 is 15.72% and that of Sainsburys is 13.47%, revealing more profitability in Morrison. The improvement in Morrisons ROCE is good news for both existing and potential shareholders. 3.5.2.3 Gross Profit margin Morrisons gross profit margin (GPM) was calculated as 6.31%, 6.28% and 6.89% for 2008, 2009 and 2010 respectively (Appendix C). Gross profit margin indicates the profit margin achieved by Morrisons on it sales revenue after deducting direct costs. Sainsburys on the other hand had a GPM of 5.62%, 5.48% and 5.42% in 2008, 2009 and 2010 respectively(Appendix F). This indicates Morrisons has adopted a much stringent cost control mechanism, compared to Sainsbury, while being profitable at the same time. 3.5.2.4 Net Profit Margin Morrisons net profit margin (NPM) has increased from 4.72% in 2008 to 5.89% in 2010(Appendix C). The increase in NPM of Morrisons in 2010 can be largely attributable to reduction in administrative (overhead) expenses. This is achieved by minimising waste and maximising efficiency in individual cost centres. 3.5.2.5 Reasoning One of the main reasons for the increase in the profitability of Morrisons is its ever increasing market share that has been climbing from 11.9% in 2007 to 12.6% in 2010. As per Morrisons Annual Report and Financial statements 2010 total average basket sizes increased by 2.4% and customer numbers were up 6.7%. On average 10.5m customers are now visiting our stores each week This is confirmed by the fact that the UK grocery market has increased by 4.7% in 2009/10 and in that increase Morrisons percentage increase has been 9.1%. (Annual Report and Financial Statement 2010, pg 5) 3.5.3 Efficiency Ratios 2008 2009 2010 Morrison Efficiency Ratios Receivable turnover (times) Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 65.17 Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 59.30 Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 76.67 Receivable collection period (days) Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 5.60 Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 6.16 Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 4.76 Inventory turnover times Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 29.34 Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 29.41 Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 26.71 Inventory turnover in days Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 12.44 Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 12.41 Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 13.67 Sainsburys Efficiency Ratios Receivable turnover (times) 86.59 96.98 92.86 Receivable collection period (days) 4.22 3.76 3.93 Inventory turnover times 26.19 27.45 28.44 Inventory turnover in days 13.94 13.30 12.83 3.5.3.1 Receivable turnover and receivable collection days Morrisons receivable collection days has decreased from 5.6 to 4.76 in the years 2008 to 2010(Appendix C). This is because Morrisons rarely sells its grocery and food products on credit. Hence the amount of receivables and the time taken to recover the receivables is low. In comparison while Morrisons receivable period averaged 5.51 days that of Sainsburys averaged 3.97 days(Appendix C and F). 3.5.3.2 Inventory turnover The inventory turnover in times has of Morrisons has decreased from 29.34 to 26.71 times in the years 2008 to 2009(Appendix C). On the contrary that of Sainsburys has seen the opposite effect of increasing from 26.19 to 28.00 times(Appendix F).Ãâà 3.5.3.3 Reasoning The decrease in the receivable days indicates efficient credit control procedures. The advantage of having a lower value for this ratio is that, the lower it is the more Morrison can invest and earn interest or pay up their trade creditors. The decrease in the inventory turnover days can lead to the conclusion that since 2008 to 2010, either Morrison has raised its price or their customers have started buying more premium products. This observation can be supported by Morrisons claim that the sales growths of their value products have seen a dip in 2009 with growth in their premium products as UK tries to come out of recession. (Source: Annual Report and Financial Statements 2010 , Morrison, pg 5) 3.5.4 Gearing Ratios 2008 2009 2010 Morrison Gearing Ratios Gearing Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 0.32 Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 0.37 Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 0.34 Interest Cover (times) Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 10.20 Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 11.18 Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 15.12 Sainsburys Gearing Ratios Gearing 0.41 0.50 0.47 Interest Cover (times) 4.02 4.55 4.80 3.5.4.1 Debt/equity ratio Morrisons gearing stood at 34% in 2010, 37% in 2009, and 32% in 2008(Appendix C). This indicates that the companys operations are funded largely by equity capital rather than debt capital. It also means that for every 1 invested by the equity holders 0.34 pence were invested by borrowed capital. Sainsburys gearing on the other hand was calculated as 47% in 2010 and 50% in 2009(Appendix F) 3.5.4.2 Interest Cover This was calculated as 15.12 times in 2010 and 11.12 times in 2009(Appendix C). The relative stability in interest cover ratio is very encouraging and guarantees a good credit rating for the company before its financiers. 3.5.4.3 Reasoning Even though Morrisons gearing is in line with industry expectations but it can be argued that borrowed capital is easier than raising capital. Morrisons net debt has increased significantly during the past three years as depicted above. The small increase in 2009 is due to organic growth of Morrison in 2009, where they opened 11 organic stores and 34 former Co-op/Somerfield stores opened (preliminary results 31 January 2010). This led to Morrisons taking in heavy long term loans hence increasing their gearing ratio in 2009. (Source: Annual Report and Financial Statements 2010, Morrison, pg 25) 3.5.5 Investors Ratios 2008 2009 2010 Morrison Investor Ratio Earnings per share (pence) Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 20.79 Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 17.39 Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 22.80 Price/earnings ratio Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 13.90 Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 15.57 Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 13.13 Dividend per share (pence) Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 4.80 Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 5.80 Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà Ãâà 8.20 Dividend Yield 1.66% 2.14% 2.74% Sainsburys Investor Ratio Earnings per share (pence) 19.14 16.62 32.10 Price/earnings ratio 19.69 17.63 10.45 Dividend per share (pence) 11.4 13.2 14.2 Dividend Yield 3.02% 4.51% 4.24% 3.5.5.1 Earnings per share Morrisons earnings per share were calculated as 22.8, 17.4 and 20.8 pence for 2010, 2009 and 2008 effectively(Appendix C). After a slight dip in 2009 which meant shareholders were losing on their wealth Morrisons has posted a strong EPS in 2010 indicating to its equity shareholders that they will increase their wealth if they continue to invest in Morrison. Comparing that to Sainsburys EPS, we can see an immense increase in its value from 2008 to 2010(Appendix F). 3.5.5.2 Price earnings ratio Price/earnings ratio indicates the amount of time in years it would take Morrisons equity shareholder to recover their investment at current earnings. Morrisons PE ratio was calculated as 13.13, 15.57 and 13.90 times in 2010, 2009 and 2008(Appendix C). The decrease in PE ratio could be largely attributable to the fall in share prices as a result of uncertainty faced by the investors in both the UK and global markets. A similar trend is observed in the P/E ratio of Sainsburys from 2008 to 2010(Appendix F). 3.5.5.3 Dividend Yield Morrisons dividend yield was calculated as 2.74, 2.14 and 1.66% in 2010, 2009 and 2008(Appendix C). After retaining profits in 2009 and 2008 Morrisons is willing to give more profits as dividends to its equity shareholders. It must be noted that profits retained are utilised for business development and expansion. 3.5.5.4 Reasoning The dip in 2009 could be largely attributed to very tough business environment which meant contraction in demand and consumer purchase power. Although a decrease in EPS and P/E ratio is observed Morrisons dividend Yield has increased significantly from 1.66% to 2.74%(Appendix C). This can be confirmed by the diagram below from its Annual report and financial statements 2010. (Annual Report and Financial Statements 2009, pg15) The following graph portrays Morrisons share price compared to Sainburys and its other competitors. 3.6 Conclusion and Recommendations Morrisons financial and business analysis presents a very healthy position. Morrisons key ratios present a very good picture to both its existing and potential shareholders. Morrisons is also improving on its year on year profits and liquidity figures. In terms of macro business environment Morrison operates in a very cordial and coherent infrastructure which supports growth and competition which are vital to improve effectiveness and efficiency. Government in the UK is taking positive measures to enhance economic growth and improve customer purchasing power. Morrisons has been strong during the recession and should consolidate its position further when the UK economy shows signs of growth. Morrisons has always been true to its traditions and despite the temptations to diversify in non-food products it continues to remain resilient and offers best quality fresh food to its customers. Morrisons at present only operates in the UK market and has only recently diversified its business in the southern part of the country. They are a trusted brand in North of England but hard work and dedication is required to acquire such status in other parts of the country. They also face stiff competition from rival retailers such as Tesco, Sainsburys and ASDA in the UK market. Therefore Morrisons should aim to diversify its business into lucrative developing markets such as China, Russia and India. The opportunities in these markets are enormous and through the use of the right product mix and advertising campaigns Morrisons can further improve its profitability. Maryjane Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06753187439474025436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6592249498308149537.post-30692910986609750222020-05-06T23:23:00.001-07:002020-05-06T23:23:36.464-07:00Performance Analysis Fantasy in C Major, Op. 15 (D. 760)... Performance Analysis: Fantasy in C Major, Op. 15 (D. 760) (ââ¬Å"Wandererâ⬠Fantasy) Schubert composed the Fantasy in C Major (ââ¬Å"Wandererâ⬠Fantasy) in 1822. This fantasy became a milestone in music history because it was the first time when a composer ââ¬Å"integrated a four-movement sonata into a single movement.â⬠Schubert did so by matching the sequence of a traditional four-movement sonata (Allegro, Adagio, Scherzo, Finale) to one big sonata form (exposition, development, recapitulation, coda). This exploration opened a new era of composing romantic music because it created an expanded form with more freedom in theme. Composers in this way were granted more freedom to compose based on their personal imagination and to compose with more virtuosity.â⬠¦show more contentâ⬠¦But still, Brendelââ¬â¢s performance shares modern ââ¬Å"straitâ⬠characteristics with Polliniââ¬â¢s recording because of its accuracy from the text. It was more difficult to find recordings earlier than the 1950s, but recordings from Walter Rehberg, Edwin Fisch er, Vladimir Sofronitzky and Elly Ney proved that earlier approaches to the Wanderer Fantasy were somewhat different. Their practices of this piece were marked by agogic accent, rhythmic nuance, in a way with more freedom from the romantic approach and less accuracy from the ââ¬Å"straightâ⬠playing. The recording Walter Rehberg made in 1927 started with a quarter note equals 158 and slowed down to an eighth note equals to 55 in Adagio. Not only the range for tempo rubato was wider, but there were also agogic accent and rhythmic nuance in his playing. An example would be at bar 32 in Allegro, where Rehberg created an agogic accent by letting the chord on right hand appear slightly later (Example 3). In Adagio, Rehberg spread out some chords from bar 9 to bar 17 to emphasis the melody (Example 4). The arpeggiated chord was a trait of romantic practice and was shared by Edwin Fischer in his recording in 1934. Fischer spread out every chord as an accent on sforzando from bar 165 to 176 in Allegro (Example 5). Fischer also did not follow every dynamic mark on the score. Instead of starting with fortissimo in Presto, Fischer played a piano. This occurred at bar 277 Maryjane Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06753187439474025436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6592249498308149537.post-12510639943296807042020-05-06T07:57:00.001-07:002020-05-06T07:57:46.441-07:00Decision Making Process Paper Free Essays Decision-Making Process Paper MGT/230 June 26, 2011 Abstract The decision-making process has six stages. These stages consist of identifying and diagnosing the problem, generating alternative solutions, evaluating alternatives, making the choice, implementing the decision, and evaluate the decision. Choosing to go back to school and what school to attend was a problem that I had that needed to be figured out. We will write a custom essay sample on Decision Making Process Paper or any similar topic only for you Order Now I did not use the decision-making process; if I had I am not sure if my decision would have been the same. Deciding to go back to school was something I thought about for a few months but taking the steps to do so was something that only took an hour to do. The decision-making process has six stages but I may have only taken three of those steps in my process. The decision-making stages are to identify and diagnose the problem, generate alternative solutions, evaluate alternatives, make the choice, implement the decision, and evaluate the decision (Management, 2011). To identify and diagnose the problems means to recognize a problem or something he of she wants to do that exist and solve it. Generate alternative solutions can be divide into two categories, which are ready-made solutions and custom-made solutions. Ready made solutions are solutions you have tried before or advice from others with similar problems, and custom made solutions are solutions designed for a specific solution. Evaluate alternatives means deciding which solution will be best and which solution will fit the problem that you have. After considering all the solution, you will have to make a choice. Once you have made your choice, implement the decision. Implement the decision means to take action. Start the plan to solve your problem. The last stage is to evaluate the decision by collecting information on how well the decision is working. These are the six stages of the decision-making process. My problem was deciding ongoing back to school and which school to attend. My steps were to think about what would be best and my family in regard to me to go back to school, which school to go to, and apply to that school. My family was involved in y process because I wanted their input on everything that I did. My first step was to discuss the idea ongoing back to school, which to my family was not an issue because they believed that I had so much knowledge that I needed to do something with it, but I was hesitant because of my children. My second step was to decide which school to attend. The choice was between University of Phoenix and Gaston Community College. I choice these two schools because my stepmother goes to Phoenix and she advis ed me it would be a good opportunity. Gaston Community College was a suggestion my boyfriend had because it was close to where I lived but the only problem was my children were not in daycare, so who would be able to watch them and I was in school. Another problem was they did not offer any online programs that year in my field. My decision was easy because I thought of my children first. The last step I took was applying to University of Phoenix. I did not take the same steps as the decision-making process contains but I may have taken a few. I did identify that I had a problem, came up with solutions, make a choice and implemented my decision. The decision-making process has six steps, but I only used four of those steps in my process. If I had used the decision-making process my decision may be different. If I had thought about every detail of my life, for example, my children going to school this year, I may have chosen the community college because it would have been convenient at the time. Also if I had taken the steps to talk to daycares about putting my youngest child in one, I would not have to worry about finding a babysitter when I went to school. The decision-making process would have made me ask questions about what I wanted and what I could do. The process also would have allowed me to evaluate my decision and determine if a community college would have been right. My problem was going back to school and which school to attend. I may not have followed the decision-making process but I do believe I have made the right choice. The decision-making process has six stages: identify and diagnose the problem, generate alternative solutions, evaluate alternatives, make the choice, implement the decision, and evaluate the decision. The decision-making process can be very effective if one were to use it. Reference Bateman, T. S. , and Snell, S. A (2011). Management: Leading Collaborating in a Competitive World (9th e. d. ). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin. How to cite Decision Making Process Paper, Essays Maryjane Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06753187439474025436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6592249498308149537.post-88343504170547536782020-04-25T05:03:00.001-07:002020-04-25T05:03:02.848-07:00Lynx Essays (1048 words) - Lynx, Bobcat, Predators, Trapping, Kitten Lynx With a pounce and a hop the speedy lynx chases the bleached white hare through the bushes. Poof! The hare disappears into the shiny white powder. Then the sly lynx picks up the scent of the hare and pounces toward the small hairball. The sharp elongated claws don't dig in, and the hare's long slender legs launch himself out of the hole and out of danger. The swift cat swings his claws around to hit the fast hare, but he hits the snow right under his back legs. The hare runs right between two willow trees and into a narrow opening which has a bunch of fallen willow trees. The hare has escaped from the lynx this one time, but the lynx will find other food. The lynx is a pale brown to brownish grey with black streaks on its neck, forehead, and on the back. It has a short tail, long tuffed ears, long slender legs, wide feet for control in the snow, and long very soft fur. The lynx will grow to be 30 to 40 inches long, and 24 to 28 inches high from feet to shoulders. They usually weight 15 to 45 pounds. When you see the lynx, at first sight, it looks gaunt and lanky, but it is really fast and muscular. The back legs are longer than the fore legs for better pouncing ability. "From the front the lynx looks royal with its hair on its face coming out to two points" (Myers 136). The lynx is closely related to the bobcat, which populates the north American region. The bobcat does not have big fluffy paws, or is not as big as the lynx in relative size. They have two different food varieties. The lynx eats hares ,and also may prey on small deer, dall sheep, grouse, mice. Rarely they feed on fish. On the other hand bobcats feed on grouse , fish, and other small rodents. Lynx chase and still hunt their prey. They chase hares or they stay up on cliffs and branches, and waiting to pounce on the animal as it goes by. The lynx ranges from Alaska, all the way across Canada. The lynx are usually found in climax forests and dense undercovers. They are usually found where hares are abundant. If there are no hares in the vicinity, they travel out into the tundra to find food. "Lynx breed during March and April. The gestation period is 60 days long" ( Myers 135) . They will have from 1- 4 kittens each year. They usually have dens, where they keep their kittens, in hollow trees or under a pile of brush. The kittens stay with the female until well into the next winter. The kittens don't open their eyes until 10 days after birth. They also only nurse for 3 to 4 months. When the population of the hares are up the litters of 2 to 4 kittens have a lot better chance to survive in the wilderness with their parents. When food is not abundant the female lynx might not have a litter at all that year or not until the hares have come back. Lynx usually are silent, but the males make a screeching noise to find a mate during breeding season. The weird thing about the lynx is when it is in a trap. It doesn't make a sound. It sits there calmly accepting its death. The Lynx are sly creatures that prowl at night to find their food. That is usually the reason why people don't see the lynx out in the wilderness a lot. The lynx are sensitive to bright light, because their eyes are made to see at night. Adult males usually hunt alone, not in packs like wolves.The females usually hunt with their family if the kittens are old enough to go along. The kits hunt with their mother and learn skills from her until they leave in the fallowing winter. The huge feet of the lynx give it superb agility in the snow. The lynx has been known to chase down slow clumsy fox that has slim and slender feet that don't give them any leverage on top of the snow. Trapping lynx is not particularly easy. Trappers use both snares and traps on the lynx. An abundant number of hares means there will be a lot of lynx that year. In the years when lynx are abundant, a good trapper may take a dozen in a month. The fine fur of Maryjane Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06753187439474025436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6592249498308149537.post-5330160703088476652020-03-18T02:23:00.001-07:002020-03-18T02:23:03.478-07:00Embedding Economic Drivers in Participative Water Management EssaysEmbedding Economic Drivers in Participative Water Management Essays Embedding Economic Drivers in Participative Water Management Paper Embedding Economic Drivers in Participative Water Management Paper Abstract Country location influences the institutional surroundings of the infrastructures related to water systems. In the Netherlands, water management has its own particularities. Temporarily inflow of affluent water from the rivers or the sea resulted in a highly developed institutional setting based on flood risk prevention. From an economic perspective, managing water is about allocating and using water in an effective and efficient way. This article deals with the coordination problem related to multi functionality of water systems. ââ¬ËAllocation efficiencyââ¬â¢ is the issue. The diversity of water systems such as rivers, lakes, ditches or groundwater is multifunctional and within the systems, demand is competing. Decision makers should be aware of the different aspects of infrastructures that interfere with water systems. Further on in the decision-making, these aspects need to be valued. This may be done explicitly (for example in a formal cost-benefit analysis) or implicitly. Implicit valuation takes place when the outcome of a choice is expressed without an explicit weight and value of the effects a project has. The focus of this article is on economic drivers that express values to decision makers and thereby may stimulate the implementation of planned water projects. The problem addressed here is how these economic drivers may be institutionalized and whatà institutional (re-)designs are necessary to organize the coordination problem related to the multi functionality of water systems. It is part of participative water management that, under the name of Joint Planning Approach (JPA), is developed during the ââ¬ËFreude am Flussââ¬â¢ international project that aims at formulating and realizing adaptation strategies in water management, specifically the realization of more space for rivers. 1. Introduction The Netherlands are known for their water management practices. Obviously, this is resulting from an economy located in the delta of the rivers Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt. Country location influences its institutional surroundings, which means that also water management in a different setting has other particularities. High water levels of rivers or the sea resulted in a robust institutional setting concerning flood risk prevention. From an economic perspective, managing water is about allocating and using water in an effective and efficient way. In this respect three main levels of decision making can be identified: the international level (with countries and supranational organizations); the national level (with governments and stakeholders); the level of the individual (with users like consumers and producers). This article deals with the efficient allocation of the many functions water systems provide. In other words, the coordination problem related to multi functionality of water systems is at stake. For example, a river, or one of the many other types of water system, may absorb waste streams (cooling water, polluted waste water) in competition with ecological and other economic activities, such as production of drinking water. From an economic point of view, clean, fresh water can be interpreted as a scarce commodity. Scarcity of water and water systems is sometimes reflected in the prices users need to pay, or in collective resources (collected taxes), governments provide money out of. Increasingly, water managers allocate natural resources of a water system on the basis of the value of water systems. This means that decision-makers should be fully aware of all these values connected to a water system. These values may be explicitly reflected in a market price or implicitly acknowledged by means of meeting qualitative or quantitative standards. For decision-makers, this issue of getting a complete and accurate understanding of the value of water systems is crucial, but generally, information asymmetry is at hand. The policy makers are often not fully aware of the costs and benefits of each separate function a water system possibly may fulfill. Besides, stakeholders want to take their role in the decision- making process that precedes the acknowledgement or rejection of the functions a water system may fulfill in the future or against which costs this will take place. These values can be explicated by the involvement of the public or representing stakeholders within decision-making processes (Van Ast and Boot, 2003). Nevertheless, decision-makers can never be sure that the outcome of public participation in terms of value is realistic for the full range of values of the water system. How can policy makers be assisted in this complex and dynamic challenge of getting ecological values incorporated in a balanced way? Not only economic and ecological functions are at stake, but also social and cultural values have to be considered. What are the rules of this allocation game? 2. Contents The importance of economic drivers that can stimulate implementation of planned water projects is high (WMO, 2006). Creating more room for rivers is necessary to reduce climate change induced water levels. Realization of projects that aim at giving back territories to natural systems however is extremely difficult in terms of costs and culture. The ââ¬ËFreude am Flussââ¬â¢ (FaF) international project aims at improving and smoothening the realization of ââ¬ËRoom for Riversââ¬â¢ projects. A basis stream of research within the project deals with participative water management that is developed under the name of ââ¬ËJoint Planning Approachââ¬â¢. One of the research objectives of FaF (2008) is the identification of economic drivers that can foster realization of these projects, including the institutional arrangements that can embed these drivers. Figure 1 shows the different steps in the FaFproject, that were taken to develop a JPA that includes public and private value s. Explication of these values can function as necessary economic drivers for the realization of water projects. The JPA should assure that economic, ecological and social values that policy makers aim for, are integrated into regional planning. This integration is approached from the perspective of the process of institutional design that policy makers are key actors in. Figure 1, economic drivers and the Joint Planning Approach After the introduction of the subject and the contents of this article, section 3 describes the framework of interactive policy-making JPA. Further the economic drivers of managing multifunctional water systems and the infrastructures that contribute to or even co-create the multi-functionality are elaborated. In many cases the water system is accompanied by infrastructures that play a key role to provide the services to the people. This is the case for infrastructures related to functions such as providing drinking water, sanitation and transportation. The difficulty of reflecting the total economic value of water systems in decision making is discussed in section 4. To illustrate the concepts, firstly, in section 5 a framework is presented, in which economic drivers can be captured. This is illustrated in a case study, presented in section 6. Finally, in section 7 conclusions are drawn and practical recommendations are presented. 3. Joint Planning Approach The Joint Planning Approach (JPA) is developed within the Freude am Fluss-project (FaF, 2008). It incorporates the idea that the performance of water systems has an ecological, a social and an economical dimension. It assists the capturing of the total economic value of innovative regional planning by measuring the economic value realized by managing the multi-functional dimensions of water systems. If innovative regional planning implies a sound combination of, for example the housing function of riverbeds (like the use of floating houses) and the transportation function (transportation by boats and transportation by trucks over roads), a net economic benefit should be gained. In general, the Joint Planning Approach (JPA) provides an action oriented framework on how authorities, local communities and private actors can organize the planning process from the earliest stage of problem identification up to the agreement on what measures to implement (De Groot, 2008). Additionally, the JPA facilitates the design of institutional arrangements that embeds the values (framed as economic drivers) related to concrete measures that shape regional in combination with its river systems. In the FaF-project, this framework is applied to regional planning along rivers. The term ââ¬Ëjointââ¬â¢ implies that all morally considerable actors that are involved in causes, effects or solutions of the problem are also involved, directly or by representation, in the planning process. These actors are referred as stakeholders and are regarded as the ââ¬Ëmorally considerable entitiesââ¬â¢. This includes individual people but also future generations, and the elements of nature that are recognized, e.g. in policy documents, as carrying intrinsic value. The representation can be directly, e.g. as a farmers group representing involved floodplain farmers or indirectly, as an NGO representing the interests of nature. However, representation may imply that also governmental organizations take part of the planningà process because they are democratically vested to represent all kinds of values the protection of which individual people cannot easily organize (the ââ¬Ëcommon goodââ¬â¢ or ââ¬Ësystem-level rationalityââ¬â¢) or tend to forget in the midst of the affairs of daily life. JPA should help in realizing inclusive planning that involves a broad set of stakeholders that depends on the perception of the problem, its causes, effects and solutions. No standard lists of participants in FaF can be provided. Because perceptions what the problems and possible solutions are to manage a river and its direct surrounding may shift over time. The possible technological solutions with its challenges and threats may evolve. Also, the political context may change and consequently the policy approaches towards managing water systems. The Joint Planning Approach is based on a number of principles emerging from various scientific disciplines (De Groot and Lenders, 2006). Crucial is the contribution from ecological science with insights and new concepts of non-equilibrium ecosystem behavior (Smits et al., 2000). This has triggered notions of ââ¬Ëadaptive managementââ¬â¢, that do not aim to fix ecosystems in states of presumed climax, but aim to maintain ecosystem quali ty, for the benefit of people and nature alike, by way of intensive monitoring and flexible responses to change (e.g. Holling and Gunderson, 2002). Adaptive management should be guided by a long-term vision in order to prevent that the sum of many small adaptive steps could end up in an undesired overall result. In this respect policy approaches such as ââ¬Ëroom-for riversââ¬â¢ is incorporated into the plans that result from the FaF-project. JPA may be coined as a practical guideline but the relationships it builds upon are derived from theoretical insights into the combinations of variables that affect the incentives and actions of stakeholders in water systems (Ostrom, 2007). The JPA builds upon strong relationships between the Resource systems (the geographical area with its water and landscape), resource units, governance system and users of the resource systems. It are these relationships that frame economic drivers into variables (institutional arrangements) that build the governance of rivers. De Groot and Lenders (2006) brought forward in the FaF-project that in the social sciences, resistance against the seemingly irrevocable logic of the Tragedy of the Commons (the idea that communality of property can only lead to destruction of that property; see for instance Hardin (1968)) has led to increased insight that local communities can be quite successful in the management of their common resources, and the conditions under which this is possible (e.g. Ostrom 1990). At the same time, however, local communities cannot easily be entrusted with monitoring and management of systems far beyond their spatial scale, such as sea-wide fisheries or whole river basins. The combination of new drive for community-based work and the limitation of community capacities has led to the rise of ââ¬Ëco-managementââ¬â¢ (or ââ¬Ëcollaborative managementââ¬â¢, or ââ¬Ëjoint managementââ¬â¢) as a central concept for empirical study, management ideas and theory-making. In co-management, local actors and supra-local agencies share visions and divide roles in the management of a given resource, in styles and balances depending on the resource itself, its local and supra-local functions, and the local and supra-local management capacities. See for instance Borrini-Feyerabend et al. (2004) for a general exploration and Wilson et al. (2003) reviewing the co-management traditions existing already in the fishery sector. Concurrently in policy and political science, approaches have emerged that rather than viewing policies as mechanistic models of inputs and outputs and viewing politics as a mere competition between opposing programs. In a broad system perspective, with the world as a complex system, learning, feedback and adaptations take place through highly linked, self-organizing networks. This makes it easier to understand how collaborative dialogues function and produce innovative actions. See for instance Hajer and Wagenaar (2003) for an overview. A sufficient level of social capital (organizational density and mutual trust within communities and between communities and government) is an important prerequisite for such dialogues to be successful, but at the same time, research has shown that social capital can also be produced during the dialogues themselves (e.g. Ostrom 1990). The latter may be of special relevance for societies in transition, where social capital tends to be low; see for ins tance Chloupkova et al. (2003), comparing social capital in Denmark and Poland. In these terms, the JPA can be characterized as an approach for the adaptive, vision-guided collaborative planning of river sections, in a framework of room-for-river policies. The JPA is composed of a number of public planning steps. They vary much in weight and content in each actual planning situation, but the steps give the JPA its basic structure. The process starts with a ââ¬Ëstep zeroââ¬â¢, in which the initiators internally design the envisaged JPA application of their local situation. Then follows the real (public) planning process, ordered in six steps. The whole of the process is formulated as: 0. Preparing the JPA application 1. Mutual learning 2. Shared visioning 3. Rules and institutions 4. Joint options exploration 5. Joint design and decision-making 6. Towards implementation. Especially from the step from visioning towards a realistic project is depending from the existence of economic drivers. This means that the identification of economic drivers that can fire up the JPA-process is of utmost importance. Typically for the approach is that the JPA generates technical plans but also helps in creating the institutional context in which these technical options can be implemented. For example, sometimes the permitting processes should allow for a regional plan along with some interventions in a river like the location of a windmill park or new infrastructures that facilitate transportation of goods and electricity. Political will may force current permitting procedures to change. Conflicting values needs to be settled in a JPA and the outcome embedded by means of a institutional (re-)design. JPA has been practiced in areas in France, Germany and The Netherlands. The standardized interactive methodology shows remarkably positive results in terms of understanding under stakeholders (FaF, 2008). Policy makers in different countries may have different opinions about the relevance of some economic drivers, the values behind these drivers and how these values become drivers behind concrete projects in regional planning. Some policy makers may want to perform a Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) by means of using a single decision-making supportive technique and present a net benefit toà societal welfare. Other policy makers want to aim for some specific economic benefits for a sector (for example, transportation or housing) and represent this stake in the decision-making process. JPA acknowledges this diversity up to some degree by stimulating participation of (often local) stakeholders. Also, JPA makes explicit that the rules of the game that guide the stakeholders in their policy making are not static but may change as result of the planning procedures. It acknowledges the dynamics in relevant values and the governance of a water system (Kuks, 2002; Hoevenaars, 2004; Oosthoek, 2006). JPA may increase these dynamics itself and shapes the institutional context of managing river systems. 4. Economic drivers As has been mentioned, one of the objectives of FaF is the identification of economic drivers for ââ¬Ëroom for the riverââ¬â¢ solutions. To explore economic drivers in relation to integrated water management a variety of approaches are of interest, each of which contains different elements. A distinction can be made in different types of benefits for society, different functions of the river system and several values of natural systems. The focus on a more holistic approach to water management as a water system results in the balancing of economic, environmental and social benefits for a wide set of stakeholders. a) Economic Benefits Economic benefits reflect the creation of welfare in a society and can be divided into goods and services of freshwater ecosystems. Economic goods include water (for drinking, agriculture, cooling, production etc.), bio-products (fish, shellfish, plants) and resources (clay, sand). Economic services include flood control and water quality control of river plains, wetlands and watersheds (including forest landscapes) and tourism. The classification of an impact on welfare is strongly related to the economic valuation process. b) Ecological Benefits Ecological benefits focus specifically on increased biodiversity and protection of rare species in river basins. These environmental benefits include river basins as living space for species like fish and birds, diversity of river landscapes (forests, wetlands, floodplains) and dynamic ecosystems (nutrient rich, versatile). The classification of ecological effects as benefits is strongly related to the definition and interpretation of ecological quality. c) Social (and cultural) Benefits Social benefits include elements of enjoyment related to nature (recreation and tourism, living space) and sustainability aspects (future generations), but also social justice and equity. The positively perceived changes in the allocation of economic benefits and costs to specific stakeholders are strongly related to the adoption of certain policy principles, such as the Polluter Pays Principle. It this respect, it is important that in most cases the realisation of regional plans have benefits for the society that are neither pure economic, social or ecological. The impacts cannot be captured within one dimension for all stakeholders. The key of integrated water management is to approach the water system as a whole, from upstream to downstream, and balancing upstream-downstream stakeholder interests and needs. Table 1 illustrates the different combinations of the potential variety in impact on the benefits. Table 1: Example of water system performance: three dimensions of the potential impact of regional plans. In the Netherlands several institutions are involved in realising new approaches in water management. The key drivers are governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOââ¬â¢s) and academic institutions, often in close collaboration with each other and with the private sector. A good example is the Freude am Fluss (FaF) project, of which a key component, JPA, has been mentioned extensively. Involving many institutions in these kind of projects results in spreading of the new introduced approaches. JPA aims at identifying the economic drivers for a management approach to rivers and the design of institutions that transform economic drivers into the identification of current and future cash flows related to these drivers. By using this approach economic drivers may become financial drivers for individual stakeholders. A practical example of the identification of economic drivers is the ââ¬ËOne Europe More Nature Programââ¬â¢ of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). WWF is collaborating with local knowledge institutes, governments and the private sector in river basins in 6 EU member states to identify, create and communicate practical examples of alternatives for rural development in Europe, that are good for people and for nature. At the foundation of the project is the Living Rivers concept aiming at conserving nature from source to sea. For example in the Netherlands, WWF is working with Stichting Arc in the Rhine river basin in the Gelderse Poort, where a new economy is being built that is not only also creating new jobs, but also helps to restore ecological processes and landscape quality. From the perspective of the physical system, in this case the river system, different functions can be identified. Economic drivers are based on the value people attribute to the different functions. From the perspective of society, economic drivers refer to the perceived benefit of a value that actors attribute to the consequences for them of a decision affecting the river system. These benefits can be assessed from two perspectives: those benefits that accrue to society as a whole (macro-economic drivers) and benefits that accrue to individual stakeholders (micro-economic drivers). Table 2 summarizes the main drivers in relation to the functions of a river system. Table 2: Examples of macro-economic and financial drivers of new water management approaches. If the benefits that people attribute to the above mentioned functions are associated with real cash flows, the economic drivers are simultaneously financial drivers. However, many economic benefits and costs are not associated with direct cash flows. For example, the value of a house may increase as a result of regional planning, but as long as the house has not been sold, the gain is not associated with ââ¬Ërealââ¬â¢ cash flows. On the other hand there is an increase in property tax, which shows clearly the increased value. Another example is the increase of recreation activities around an upgraded river system. This is generally not associated with any actual cash expenditure, since the river is freely accessible to all. However, indirect economic activities that could be the result shouldà also be taken into account. Revenues from transport to the area or increased mental wellness resulting in higher productivity can surely lead to an implicit increase of economic value and hence should be taken into consideration as an economic driver. It is often regarded as a pitfall that many cash flows are not clearly visible. In the determination of the economic feasibility, innovative ways of integrated water management may be regarded as economically unfeasible due to a lack of insight into the true economic value of regional plans that create more room for the river in an integrated way. With respect to the value of water systems and water in specific, some reflection should be added about the special position, water has in economic sciences. Obviously, treating water as an economic good can have large advantages in optimizing water scarcity issues. For other goods and services that water systems can deliver, the efficiency improvement can be expected. Nevertheless, water delivers very special services and water is certainly not a ââ¬Ënormalââ¬â¢ economic good. Table 3 compares the different attributes of water to other important commodities. Table 3: Comparison water and other commodities, based on Van der Zaag and Savenije (2006; pp. 14) Amongst others, Van der Zaag and Savenije (2006) state that just letting the market decide upon the price, does not result in the most favourable allocation of the scarce good ââ¬Ëwaterââ¬â¢. They argue that water should have a set price. This fixed price sends out a message to all users that water is a scarce good and should be treated that way. Their view on the economics of water is pragmatic, implying informed choices of use. Applying this approach to all other values water systems can deliver, means that pricesà should not depend on the market. Putting fixed prices can help people in understanding the need for a change in their approach to water management. Often, water is still seen as an enemy that can do a lot of harm, neglecting that water is essential for human survival and a special commodity that should be treated that way. Besides, other types of values can play an important role too. Social, cultural, religious and historical values that can not be translated easily in financial terms can be distinguished, next to issues related to risk. Also the intrinsic value, that by definition does not have any relation with (economic) use, should also be considered. Regarding the socio-cultural value of water systems, The Netherlands as a country provide an outstanding illustration. The Dutch have been fighting against water for centuries. Water history has been dominated by a battle against the water of both rivers and sea. Many practices of water management reflect the incorporation of these kinds of socio-cultural values, like the habit to discharge water into the ocean as fast as possible. The proposed measures in the ââ¬ËRoom for the Riverââ¬â¢ program entail a fundamental change in attitude towards water management in the Netherlands. Instead of fighting against the water, the paradigm is changed in living with water. This includes that the water is given more space and should be retained longer in certain areas, meaning a loss of land in this highly populated country. The history of fighting against water has much influence on how people feel about the proposed measures in the ââ¬ËRoom for the Riverââ¬â¢ project. A fundamental change in attitude is not likely to happen overnight. Socio-cultural value can also be illustrated by the essential role water plays in major religions around the world as a sacred gift of God. Religious interpretations and rules about ethically adequate use of water can strongly influence water management practices, but for that matter does not seem to have much influence in ââ¬ËRoom for the Riverprojectsââ¬â¢Ã¢â¬â¢ in Western Europe. In contrast, risk issues do have much influence on peopleââ¬â¢s attitude towards water systems and hence the value they attribute to the functions the water system delivers. Research by Klaveren and Oostdijk (2002) found that especially the place of building the house, i.e. on a safe position, is important for the feeling of safety. Highly visible dikes can also increase this feeling of safety. On the other hand,à misleading or unclear information decreases the feeling of safety experiences by inhabitants. In the empirical research of Broekhoven et al. (2006) peoples values with respect to how The Netherlands should protect itself in the scope of the policy concept of Space for Water were investigated. When Dutch people are asked how they think the Netherlands should protect itself against rising water levels, they respond that a combination of measures should be executed. The majority supports the heightening, enlarging and maintaining of dikes. Only a rather small minority of informed inhabitants supports the creation of retention areas, emergency runoff and reservoirs as risk decreasing. Only very few people name giving more room to the river or using nature as a protection option. It is clear that this ââ¬Ëdike-cultureââ¬â¢, in which dike protected land is valued high, is a large obstacle for ââ¬Ëroom for the riverââ¬â¢-projects. On the other hand, many interviewed people consider conservation of historical landscape very important (Klaveren and Oostdijk 2002), even when dike heightening is necessary from a risk perspective. Here the intrinsic value of historical elements in the landscape, of nature and of beauty comes to the surface. In a strict sense, intrinsic value can be defined as the value that is in the object itself, not depending on human valuation. In a more practical meaning it refers to the value for people not depending on practical use (Bouma and Saeijs, 2000). Protecting a historical dike is a good example of an instiutionalised cultural value within water management. The rules of the allocation, or economic processes, are referred to in the institutionaleconomic theory as institutions. Since the re-emergence of institutional economics in the seventies of the last century, the role of contracts within transactions has been the main unit of analysis. Amongst others, Williamson (1999) describes the importance of organizations within a market economy. Besides relative prices also organisational elements, as formalized in contracts, are taken into account. By introducing organizational and context dependent elements in economic theory, recent research is broadening the institutional perspective on economic development. Contracts can be seenà as the institutionalization of norms, values and beliefs that provide rules-of-the game for the economic processes in a society. In practice the design is very difficult because of its complexity. Many actors may be involved, all having their own values, norms and perceived risks related to the final outcomes of the contract. In the case study this will be further explored in section 6. But first, in section 5 a framework for the design of the institutional arrangements dealing with economic drivers is presented. 5. The institutionalization of economic drivers In order to explicate the economic drivers behind Room for the River-projects, a guideline developed in the FaF-project (Van Ast et al, 2008), can be applied by decisionmakers. Taking these steps, divided in three main steps, stimulates the implementation of ââ¬ËRoom for the Riverââ¬â¢ in practical cases. Step 1: Create a policy setting that links regional planning with river management (both water quantity and water quality control). Formulate a formal statement in which the multi-functionality of rivers is acknowledged. The link between regional planning and river management should be organized. The following questions may be raised to the relevant stakeholders of the policy process: What are the physical, social and ecological effects of regional planning? To what extent represent these effects a change in the total economic value of the river and for who are these economic drivers relevant? How can the decision-makers account for the total economic value? Step 2: Identify and/or (co-)design cost effective projects that enhance the concept of room for the river (a multi-functional approach to rivers). The set of projects can for example consist of the construction of houses and dikes. The set of projects should have as a result that the river keeps performing its essential functions, together with its economic, social and ecological gains and losses. Step 3: Design of an institutional arrangement that creates drivers for stakeholders based on the generation of economic gains. Four types of institutional processes are of main importance: The establishment of an organisation that enables decision making processes (participation of stakeholders and regulated use of formal costs-benefit approaches, Public Private Partnerships); The development of clear policy and regulation, with rules in a project plan to create space for the river; The release of resources like cash flows, labour and machines; The use of a suitable mix of juridical, economical and social policy instruments. If financial instruments like subsidies and levies are possible, they can go together with the accounting practices at macro and micro level, which enables interaction with stakeholders. As a result stakeholders can be informed about the impact of the regional plans on their costs and benefits. This does not necessarily have to be in the form of a formal cost benefit analyses. Through answering the questions in step 1, (policy setting) the gains and losses are identified and quantified in economic terms in the decision making process. Decisionmakers should decide on how these economic costs and benefits are to be integrated into the decision making process. It is suggested that the following approaches/tools are to be applied: The use of Societal Cost Benefit Analyses (SCBA) with explicit valuation of social and ecological gains and losses: the economic value is calculated by using a valuation technique the participants of a decision making process accepts. Clearly there are differences among a decision-making process which values may be expressed in monetary terms and which not. The use of Societal Cost Benefit Analyses by presenting only those gains and losses represented by market prices. Those gains and losses that are not integrated into the SCBA should be identified and integrated into the rules of the allocation game. Hereby some weights can explicitly be givenà to certain aspects of the value of water systems. For example, strict safety norms and quality standards of drinking water. Participation of stakeholders in the decision making process that integrates their economic gains and losses as stakes into the assessment of plans. . The stakeholders may present their own accounting formats for performing their cost-benefit analyses (so-called private cost-benefit analyses). Step 2 (design of measurements) shows that river management and regional planning can enhance the integration of economic drivers by creating policy instruments that integrate the economic drivers into decision making processes based on regulatory push factors (such as levies paid by stakeholders who enjoy some functions of the river) and or creation of financial stimuli (creation of markets for attributes of the regional planning approach such as floating houses, increased market value of housing, revenues of concessions for fishery or drinking water concessions). Step 3 considers the institutional embedding of the drivers. The following case study explores which economic drivers exist for new water management approaches related to spatial development. How these economic values are distributed among the different participants of the decision making process and integrated into the decision making process. This three-step guideline contributes to analysing if economic drivers are strong enough to push forward the concept ââ¬ËRoom to Riverââ¬â¢ into the implementation of practical water management projects. Afterwards the development of institutional arrangements is mentioned that may increase the role of these economic drivers. 6. Case The Island of Brienenoord Within the concept ââ¬ËRoom for the Riverââ¬â¢ many different types of specific projects and measures are developed. In this case study a project is presented that combines different functions of an area within the riverbed. After describing the background situation of theà area and making a stakeholder analysis, we apply the earlier presented three step-model, developed for capturing the total value of a planned project to stimulate implementation. History and physical, social and ecological effects of regional planning Originally the island was a sandy dune that came to the surface of the river and was artificially heightened in the 19th century to become an island. The 21 hectare island was bought by the baron of Brienen in 1847, who started a salmon fishery on it because the main fish market, Kralingseveer, was just on the other side of the river. The year 1880 was the peak of the Rhine salmon fishery with around 100.000 salmon traded in Kralingseveer alone.The highest point of the island was built to keep the horses that were used for transporting the fishing nets. During the economical crisis of the 1930ââ¬â¢s, the island was hired by two institutions that helped the unhealthy people of the packed labour district in the south of Rotterdam. In the second world war, the Germans accepted small private gardens for food production and those stayed ever since. On the east point, the south pillar of the Van Brienenoord bridge has been built. This is also the place where natural processes resulted i n a (small) marshy area with willows, reed and sandy beaches. Since 1989 most of the island is public space and earmarked as an area for further urban development. Project plan and measures In 1993 the World Wide Fund for nature published a new view on the wetlands in the Rotterdam (WNF, 1993). The island of Brienenoord is considered highly potential for nature development along the river and within the city. In 2000 the municipality signed an agreement (covenant) with WWF to develop an integrated plan for a combination of building and nature. At the east side, under and around the bridge pillar, a fresh water tidal system could be developed and be combined with recreation facilities. The area already has a function for nature education and educative hiking trips; since 2000 ââ¬Ëwildââ¬â¢ cattle is freely grazing the terrain. At the west side, near to the small connecting bridge, a hotel is planned. Based on this covenant architect company Waardenburg draw a plan that was presented on 14 February 2002 in the community council. One day earlier, on February 13th, WWF retreated from the covenant because, as it states, the plan leaves not enough space forà nature and its further development. According to the plan a 180 rooms hotel complex with conference facilities and around 55 expensive apartments should be built on the west side of the island Although the project (the master plan) was not realized in total, a number of separate measures were realized. In practice, discussions may arise which measures were generated in the scope of the master plan and which measures were initiated as a result of other initiatives. Still, as long as they support the mission and realization of the master plan they may be considered. In this respect typical examples are to be listed in the area of infrastructures (roads, bridges, etc.) and nature development. Some specific measures of the master plan are: Construction of a hotel and its facilities; Reconstruction of bridge; Quay (transportation of visitors and temporary stay of boats for the commercial transportation in front of the isle); Nature friendly development of the river bank with reed and willows (planting of willows, reed, â⬠¦). Three step-model In order to create the institutional arrangements that can contribute to capturing the total value of the project, the earlier presented three step-model has been applied. After formalizing the rules within the project (step 1), the gains and losses are identified and quantified in economic terms in the decision making process. Decision-makers should decide on how the economic costs and benefits are to be integrated into the decision making process. It is suggested that the total economic gains should be identified which may be accounted for in the decision-making process that proceeds to the implementation of the project or only some parts of the project. In practice the original plan may not be implemented but only parts of the project (eg. specific measures) may be realized. This is in fact the case with the Island of Brienenoord. It is assumed that project alternatives are assessed and that only cost-effective alternatives will be implemented (step 2). The nextà step, design of institutional arrangements (step 3) has never been executed here. The case study should have been followed up with an analysis of the institutional arrangements that embed the economic drivers in the decision-making process. Total economic value, economic and financial drivers In order to obtain understanding of the economic drivers behind the project, a formal cost benefit statement according to the procedure designed by the Dutch research agency STOWA (see www.mkbainderegio.nl) has been arranged. Herewith the separate costs and benefit items could be identified in a cost-benefit framework with accounting rules and the integration of institutions in a public-private partnership. This explicit way of presenting the outcome of a societal cost benefit analyses indicates that the proposed project (Brienenoord plan) results in a welfare increase of 21 million Euros. Despite this net gain at a macro level, the project was not implemented. Only some minor parts of the master plan are realised (building of a small bridge and a quay for recreational boating). Major parts of the plan were rejected because of the institutional arrangements related to the financing of the projects (potential hotel owner should cover the financial risks) and the processes of permits related to: spatial planning; exploitation of hotel and other recreational and nature development of the area; temporary storage of dangerous gasses (in boats) along the island. The arguments for individual stakeholders to retreat from the plan were: WWF: expected extra nature value is too low. Inhabitants of nearby houses (directed located at river): the 70 meter high hotel will take away the river view. Real estate developer: Potential financial risks in a period of economic recession. Before the project is to be implemented, a number of conflicts among stakeholders need to be solved. This would imply far-reaching and probably unrealistic institutional redesigns. The case study shows that institutional design is needed at the level of individual stakeholders (the rules that define a project as financial acceptable or not). These rules are embedded in a context that imposes these financial thresholds. Also, the decision to express ecological values in monetary terms or not, can be perceived differently among stakeholders. These perceptions may even change in time for one stakeholder. Besides, conflicting interests among the stakeholders may hinder the implementation of the plan, reflecting a distributional issue of the costs and benefits. Institutional re-design can only overcome this hindrance with enough political power to overrule one or more stakeholders, with or without financial compensation for those who face the costs of the plan. 7. Conclusions and Recommendations Economic drivers can be found in macro- (welfare) and micro- (cash flow) level and can be divided into implicit and explicit values. Economic drivers that manifest themselves as cash flows theoretically are also reflected at a macro level. However, by far not all macro economic drivers are presented as cash-flows at a micro level. This integration of macro economic drivers needs to be integrated into the decision-making process by policy makers who want to stimulate projects with a significant macro economic added value and that are expected to be realized or at least accepted by non-governmental actors (such as individual project planners, households or companies). This integration can take place by means of participation. Each participant can push forward its own perceived added value or loss of value the project implies to him or her. The presented case study shows that if parties can express their costs and benefits, this does not guarantee that a project with a net macro economic added value will succeed. The distribution and differences of the perceived uncertainties about the costs and benefits may hinder the implementation of a project. Again, this added value does not necessary mean a cash flow related to this benefit. Additional rules of the game may integrate these values and express their perceived significance to decision-makers. Most extremely, certain values can beà safeguarded by compliance to strict legal rules. However, the case study shows that conflicting values and distribution of values and costs may not always be overcome by institutional (re-)design. Increase the transparency in standardized costs and benefits (arrangements that for example create a website at the level of water board; (see STOWA, www.mkbainderegio.nl); Mobilize a project developer for realization of housing and recreational values (facilitate and speed-up the process of permitting); Scan relevancy of recreational value increase and mobilize potential benefits (hotels, restaurants, etc.) through arrangements that communicate to the often unknown (potential) stakeholders of rivers; Mobilize stakeholders with positive side effects with respect to health and ecological values: involve national government and down stream stakeholders in public-private partnerships (agriculture house owners, local communities and water boards, recreation sector). To identify these stakeholders a societal CBA can be performed with an orientation at the total river basin. 8. References Borrini-Feyerabend, G., M. Pimbert, M. T. Farvar, A. Kothari, and Y. Renard (2004). Sharing Power. Learning by doing in co-management of natural resources throughout the 25 world. IIED, and IUCN/ CEESP/ CMWG, Cenesta: Tehran. (iucn.org/themes/ceesp/Publications/sharingpower.htm#download). Bouma, J.J., and H.L.F. Saeijs (2000) Eco-centric cost-benefit analysis for hydraulic engineering in river basins, in: Smits, A.J.M., P.H. Nienhuis, and Leuven, R.S.E.W. (2000) New Approaches to River Management, Leiden: Backhuys Publishers. Broekhoven, S. van, S. Hogewoning, E. Mohan, K. Sakamornsinguan, M. Sonnen (2006), Water Management and Industrial Ecology, Rotterdam: ESM-Erasmus University Rotterdam. Chloupkova, J., G.L.H. Svendsen, and G.T. Svendsen (2003). ââ¬ËBuilding and destroying social capital: The case of cooperative movements in Poland and Denmarkââ¬â¢, Agriculture and Human Values 20: 241-252. De Groot, W.T. (2008), The Joint Planning Approach, website Freude am Fluss project, freudeamfluss.eu. (01-10-2008)Nijmegen: Radboud Universiteit. De Groot, W.T., and H.J.R. Lenders (2006). Emergent principles for river management. Hydrobiologia 565: 348-366, Springer. FaF (2008) Freude am Fluss, website Freude am Fluss project www.freudeamfluss.eu, (01-10-2008) Nijmegen: Radboud Universiteit. Gunderson, L.H., and C.S. Holling (eds), Panarchy. Washington: Island Press. Hajer, M.A., and H. Wagenaar (eds), (2003). Deliberative Policy Analysis; Understanding Governance in the Network Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hardin, G. (1968). The tragedy of the commons. Science 162: 1243-1248. Holling, C.S., and L.H. Gunderson (2002). Resilience and Adaptive Cycles. In Klaveren, S. van, and A. Oostdijk (2002) Verkennend Belevingswaardenonderzoek Ruimte voor de Rivier, , Leiden: Research voor Beleid. Ostrom, E. (1990). Governing the Commons. New York: Cambridge University Press. Ostrom, E. (2007) A diagnostic approach for going beyond panaceas. PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 1004, 15181- 15187, Washington: USNAS. Smits, A.J.M., P.H. Nienhuis, and Leuven, R.S.E.W. (2000) New Approaches to River Management, Leiden: Backhuys Publishers. Stowa (2008) Stichting Toegepast Onderzoek Waterbeheer, MKBA in de regio, www.mkbainderegio.nl, Utrecht: Stowa. Van Ast, J.A., and S.P. Boot (2003) Participation in European Water Policy, Phys. Chem. Earth, Vol. 28, 2003, pp. 555-562. Van Ast, J.A., J.J. Bouma, and K.D. Schuyt, (2008) Economic drivers for ââ¬ËRoom for the Riverââ¬â¢, supporting document Joint Planning Approach, Freude am Fluss, Nijmegen: Radboud Universiteit. Van der Zaag, , P., and H.H.G. Savenije, (2006) Water as an economic good: the value of pricing and the failure of markets, Value of Water Research Report Series, no. 19, Delft: UNESCO-IHE. Williamson, O. E., and S. E. Masten (1999). The Economics of Transaction costs. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. Wilson, D.C., R.J. Nielsen, and P. Degnbol (2003). The fisheries co-management experience. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. WMO (2006) World Meteorological Organisation The Dublin statement on water sustainable development, wmo.ch/web/homs/documents/english/icwedece.html (19-01-2008) WNF (1992) Wereld Natuur Fonds, Levende rivieren, Zeist: WNF. Maryjane Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06753187439474025436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6592249498308149537.post-42838548011840299192020-03-01T18:07:00.001-08:002020-03-01T18:07:02.976-08:00Listicle - Definition and Examples of ListiclesListicle s of Listicles Listicle is an informal term for an article made up of a series of facts, tips, quotations, or examples organized around a particular theme. Listicles, which may be numbered or bulleted, are particularly common in blogs and other online articles. Listicle is a blend (or portmanteau) of the words list and article. Examples and Observations on Listicles Something had happened to my brain during my long tenure at womens magazines. I wasnt sure if it was because my mind moved a million clicks faster than my mouth could keep up, or if I had edited one ââ¬â¹listicle, charticle, gridicle and relationship quiz too many. But I had developed a bizarre inability to speak before higher-ups without stuttering, which the creative director eulogized in a drawing of me with a stream of Er, ah, duh, durs coming out of my mouth.(Jessie Knadler, Rurally Screwed: My Life Off the Grid With the Cowboy I Love. Berkley Books, 2012)[H]is digressive narrativewhich sometimes makes use of self-amused listiclesseems suspiciously influenced by styles that are popular on the digital platforms he inveighs against.(Review in The New Yorker [January 21, 2013] of The Missing Link by Philip Hensher)When Beyoncà ©s publicist emailed Buzzfeed earlier this week to ask that they kindly remove some unflattering photos of her client that were included in a listicle of The 33 Fiercest Moments From Beyoncà ©s Halftime Show, little did she know that the Internet doesnt quite work that way.In fact, thats the exact opposite of the way in which the Internet works.Now, thanks to an unforgiving Internet phenomenon known as the Streisand Effect, those photos are not only everywheretheyve become a full-fledged meme.(Neetzan Zimmerman, Beyoncà ©Ã¢â¬â¢s Publicist Asks Internet to Remove Unflattering Beyoncà © Photos; Internet Turns Unflattering Beyoncà © Photos Into a Meme. Gawker, February 7, 2013) Writing for Readers With Short Attention Spans Editors at many newspapers and magazines welcome list articles because these features can be expanded or reduced as space allows. More important, list articles make great cover lines that motivate readers to buy magazines. When we put lists on the cover, our newsstand sales go up, said Mens Health editor David Zinczenko in a televised interview about the power of lists. In his blog, Zinczenko offers lists that inform readers on timely topics: the six worst foods to eat at the movies, the eight ultimate flat-belly summer foods and the six things your dad wants for fathers day. Lists are perfect for guys with short attention spans, jokes Zinczenko....List articles usually follow a two-part formula. First, you need an introductory paragraph that sets up the article by explaining the purpose of the list. Since these articles are straightforward, the introduction should be brief and to the point. Second the list is presented in either a bulleted or a numbered format. . . .Although list ar ticles seem simple to write, most of them require research.(David E. Sumner and Holly G. Miller, Feature and Magazine Writing: Action, Angle and Anecdotes, 2nd ed. Blackwell, 2009) The Appeal of the Listicle The listor, more specifically, the listicleextends a promise of the definitive while necessarily revealing that no such promise could ever be fulfilled. It arises out of a desire to impose order on a life, a culture, a society, a difficult matter, a vast and teeming panorama of cat adorability and nineties nostalgia. . . .The rise of the listicle obviously connects with the Internetââ¬â¢s much-discussed effect on our ability (or desire) to sit still and concentrate on one thing for longer than ninety seconds. Contemporary media culture prioritizes the smart take, the sound bite, the takeawayand the list is the takeaway in its most convenient form. But even when the list, or the listicle, has nothing really to do with useful information, it still exerts an occult force on our attention- or on my attention, at any rate. (34 Things That Will Make ââ¬â¢90s Girls Feel Old. 19 Facts Only a Greek in the U.K. Can Understand. 21 Kinds of Offal, Ranked By How Gross They Look.) Like many of you, I am more inclined to click on links to articles that donââ¬â¢t reflect my interests if they happen to be in the form of countdowns. And I suspect my sheep-like behavior has something to do with the passive construction of that last sentence. The list is an oddly submissive reading experience. You are, initially, sucked in by the promise of a neatly quantified serving of information or diversion. . . . Once youââ¬â¢ve begun reading, a strange magnetism of the pointless asserts itself.(Marc OConnell, 10 Paragraphs About Lists You Need in Your Life Right Now. The New Yorker, August 29, 2013) Despite the growing derision of listicles . . ., numbered listsa venerable media formathave become one of the most ubiquitous ways to package content on the Web. Why do we find them so appealing?The article-as-numbered-list has several features that make it inherently captivating: the headline catches our eye in a stream of content; it positions its subject within a preà «xisting category and classification system, like talented animals; it spatially organizes the information; and it promises a story thatââ¬â¢s finite, whose length has been quantified upfront. Together, these create an easy reading experience, in which the mental heavy lifting of conceptualization, categorization, and analysis is completed well in advance of actual consumptiona bit like sipping green juice instead of munching on a bundle of kale. And thereââ¬â¢s little that our brains crave more than effortlessly acquired data. . . .But the listââ¬â¢s deepest appeal, and the source of its staying power, goe s beyond the fact that it feels good. . . . Within the context of a Web page or Facebook stream, with their many choices, a list is the easy pick, in part because it promises a definite ending: we think we know what weââ¬â¢re in for, and the certainty is both alluring and reassuring. The more we know about somethingincluding precisely how much time it will consumethe greater the chance we will commit to it.(Maria Konnikova, A List of Reasons Why Our Brains Love Lists. The New Yorker, December 2, 2013) Maryjane Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06753187439474025436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6592249498308149537.post-57250439193183212472020-02-14T09:33:00.001-08:002020-02-14T09:33:02.408-08:00Discuss the problems that a ship manager faces with various Essay - 1Discuss the problems that a ship manager faces with various legislations on bunker fuels for a handymax bulk carrier that trades between North Europe and the - Essay Example veral changes in ship dimensions, cargoes carried, and general market trends during the past 25 years as a response to rapid growth of world trade and the shift in maritime markets. At the same time, there have been remarable amendments in regulations of maritime safety especially in transport of bunker fuels in bulk carrier and handymax segement. Hence, the ship manager of Handymax bulk carrier that carries bunker fuels and travels from USA to North Europe faces major problem as there is a difference between maritime regulations of USA and Europe. He has to address the technical problems due to change in legislations and he has to apply management principles for dealing these problems efficiently while manageing the bunker fuels in handymax bulk carriers between North Europe and USA. The ship manager has little flexibility in expansion due to changes maritime regulations regarding the management of bunker fuels are concerned. These regulations are made by international organizations like the International Maritime Organization and the European Union or by individual countries. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is mainly responsible for the implementation of maritime safety matters internationally which regulates the activities relating to safety at sea, pollution prevention (MARPOL), security (ISPS Code), standards of construction of offshore installations and matters relating to the non-economic issues of maritime transportation of bunker fuels. However, he faces more problems due to different regulations adopted in USA and Europe. For example, Environment Protection (Ships Ballast Water) Regulations 2006 restricts the ship managerââ¬â¢s choices while managing the bunker fuels in handymax bulk carriers entering Europe (EPA Victoria, 2007). This l egislation introduced by the Victorian Government speicifies ballast water reporting requirements for owners and masters of ships with capacity to carry ballast water. It also declares offences for Maryjane Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06753187439474025436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6592249498308149537.post-21519157710630434552020-02-01T19:06:00.001-08:002020-02-01T19:06:02.792-08:00Globalisation and Mass Media (Media Relations) EssayGlobalisation and Mass Media (Media Relations) - Essay Example Different theorists and practitioners of development differed in their emphasis, but they all agreed that rapid economic growth is the strategy of modernization. Moore argued, "what is involved in modernization is a 'total' transformation of a traditional or pre-modern society into the types of technology and associated social organization that characterize the 'advanced' economically prosperous, and relatively politically stable nations of the western world" (89). The leaders of new states in the Third World objected to how the existing international order had seemingly neglected their interests. Thus, they formed pressure groups, such as the Non-Aligned Movement in 1961 and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in 1964, to promote an independent path between the interests of the communist and capitalist world and to win some reforms in the international economy, respectively. From the 1950s to 1970s, the major strategy used in the Third World was import-substitution, which involved the development of a domestic industrial sector, with the long-term aim of capturing lucrative export markets. The state had to protect new producers from competition from cheaper foreign imports, through high tariffs or import controls, and initial investments were poured into consumer goods industries. (Kiely 29; ch. 1). State planning became the basis for post-war development in order to raise productivity and output of both the industrial, and the agricultural sectors. In this regard, many Third World countries, such as Mexico, the Philippines and India actively implemented the strategy of introducing a technological package starting in the 1950s and onward, with the support of American pro-development institutions, like the Rockefeller Foundation. By the late 1960s, however, the Third World's dream of a better life was shattered. Official measures of development, such as Gross National Product (GNP), failed to show the distribution of such income within a country or whether people's basic needs are provided (Kiely 29: ch. 1). A revised development strategy based on the ideas of 'redistribution and growth' and 'basic needs' was introduced by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 1972 and the World Bank in 1973, respectively. The World Bank focused on increasing the productivity of the small farmer to stimulate economic growth and eliminate rural poverty, while the ILO concentrated on developing "appropriate labour-intensive technologies" (Kiely 30: ch. 1). However, these strategies failed because only a few states in the Third World had been concerned about alleviating the sufferings of the poor. Also, transnational companies/local capitalist enterprises that had invested their money in the Third World were more concerned about getting high rates of returns on investments (ROI) than in providing more employment opportunities. The debt crisis in the early 1980s ushered the neo-liberal 'counter revolution', "The Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates was effectively abandoned between 1971 and 1973," (Kiely 30: ch. 1; Brett 111-25) and had no successful replacement, with the Maryjane Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06753187439474025436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6592249498308149537.post-40846343166485420042020-01-24T15:30:00.001-08:002020-01-24T15:30:03.835-08:00Social Identity in the Breakfast Club :: Movie Film Breakfast Club Identities EssaysSocial Identity in the Breakfast Club Breakfast Club film contained a wide variety of behavior and stereotypes. Each person had their on personality and taste at the beginning of the film. I believe that communication played the biggest part in the movie. It shows the way that people from totally different backgrounds can communicate and even agree on issues. The various types of communication and behaviors within the film will be discussed. Key terms will be pointed out and highlighted, as well as described in relation to the examples extracted from the film. To begin with the film started out with a communication climate that was both tense and without verbal communication. This was mainly due to the variance in membership constructs of the characters involved. The character's included the brain Brian, Andrew the athlete, the criminal Bender, the princess Claire, and the basket case Allison. There was a great deal of interesting nonverbal communication taking place between these people. Their reactions and responses to each other demonstrated perceptual errors, which would be shown as the story progressed. The gender conflict styles also played a role. The girls both tended to listen, rather than hold the attention of the others. This was especially true in Allison's case, whom never spoke. Allison was introduced in the movie as the basket case. Allison showed that she was obviously insecure, seating herself facing away from the rest of the room (avoidance). She would not speak out. She was non-assertive, when asked what she wanted she would not respond (impervious response). She would only sit and smile to herself. You could categorize her in to the passive aggressive label perfectly. She didn't like herself (low self-esteem), or others. She was both futile and helpless. The only way she displayed her anger was by giving a whimper. She obviously had a lot of pent up feeling, for she reveals a lot later in the movie through self-disclosure. Allison obviously lacked the respect of others, for she had no friends whatsoever prior to her time spent in this detention. She also has nervous ticks, such chewing her nails, and played with her hair. Brian was another case of insecurity. The influence of self-concept was strong with Brian Johnson for he had no sense of self. He could not meet the standards of his desired self and was therefore unhappy with himself as a person. Maryjane Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06753187439474025436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6592249498308149537.post-40726418714091506662020-01-16T11:53:00.001-08:002020-01-16T11:53:04.851-08:00Clever Manka and The Story of an Hour: A Demonstration of Differences in Health, Personalities, and RelationshipsManka and Louise Both short stories are a patriarchal society that restricted the roles of women, especially in their marriage. The setting in Kate Chopinââ¬â¢s ââ¬Å"The Story of an Hourâ⬠takes place in a small city in the early 1900s. This story has actual characters with names, such as Louise Mallard. The main character is Louise Mallard, she is a women looking to get freedom from her husband, and she gets that chance when he dies in a railroad accident. The setting in ââ¬Å"Clever Mankaâ⬠takes place in a rural farming community is Czechoslovakia.This story has stereotypical characters, such as the Burgomaster, the farmer, and the shepherd. The main character in is Manka; she is a woman that is a very quick thinker. She shows the burgomaster how clever she is by knowing all the answers to his riddles. In ââ¬Å"Clever Mankaâ⬠and Kate Chopinââ¬â¢s ââ¬Å"The Story of an Hourâ⬠, both demonstrate differences in health, personalities, and relationships. One difference between Manka and Louise is their health. Manka is a young woman who is in good health. She has no health problems, but on the other hand Louise does.In the beginning of ââ¬Å"The Story of an Hourâ⬠, itââ¬â¢s stated that ââ¬Å"Louise had heart troubleâ⬠(Chopin 666). Knowing that Louise had heart trouble, her sister carefully told her about her husbandââ¬â¢s death, to try to refrain from Louise having a heart attack. Another difference between Manka and Louise is their personalities. Manka is an independent woman. She has a very intelligent and confident personality. To show how clever she really was, the Burgomaster gave a riddle to her father (the shepherd) to give to Manka.It was ââ¬Å"tell her to come see me, but she must come neither by day nor by night, neither riding nor walking, neither dressed nor undressedâ⬠(Manka, 18). Her father told her what the burgomaster said. She showed how smart she was by going to his house at dawn (Neither by day nor by night), wearing fish net (neither dressed not undressed), with one leg over a goat and one foot on the ground (neither riding nor walking). The Burgomaster was so surprised by her cleverness that he had to marry her. He then told her ââ¬Å"you are not to use that cleverness of yours at my expense. I wonââ¬â¢t have you interfering in any of my cases.In fact, if ever you give advice to anyone who comes to my for judgment, Iââ¬â¢ll turn you out of my house at once and send you home to your fatherâ⬠(Manka, 19). Even the burgomaster was intimidated by Mankaââ¬â¢s intelligence. Even though Louise did not seem as intelligent as Manka, she still had a thinking personality. After Louiseââ¬â¢s Sister Josephine told her about her husbandââ¬â¢s death, she went up to her room (where most of the story took place) and she began to think. She then realized she was free from her husband, and she was now happy that she was not under his ruling anymore.She said â⠬Å"There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herselfâ⬠(Chopin 667). Another difference between Manka and Louise is their relationships with their husbands. They are both married this is one similarity that they share. Manka and the Burgomaster seem to get along well, except when she got into one of his cases. He told her if she interfered with any of his business he would send her back to her fatherââ¬â¢s house and he was going to do just that. He told Manka she could take one thing with her.She asked if she could stay till after supper, he agreed. She ended up getting him drunk and taking him to his fatherââ¬â¢s house. He woke up and asked her ââ¬Å"what does this mean? â⬠She replied ââ¬Å"You know you told me I might take with me the one thing I liked best in your house, so of course I took youâ⬠(Manka, 20). He then told her that she was to clever for him, and then they went back home. After that their relationship go t stronger, and if a case was too difficult for him they went to her for advice. On the other hand Louise and her husband didnââ¬â¢t have such a good relationship.In the story, not much is said about Mr. Mallard and her relationship. Going off how she reacted when her sister told her he had died in a railroad accident, their relationship was sketchy. She loved himââ¬âsometimes, but often she didnââ¬â¢t. In the story, she said ââ¬Å"Free! Body and soul freeâ⬠(Chopin, 668). Her sister came up to her room to see if she was okay. Bringing Louise downstairs, they saw at the base of the stairwell, Mr. Mallard as he came through the door. As soon as she saw him Louise died. When the doctors came they said she had died of heart diseaseââ¬â of joy that ills. In both short stories, ââ¬Å"Clever Mankaâ⬠and ââ¬Å"The Story of an Hourâ⬠, we read about two very different women, and compared and contrasted their health, personalities, and relationships with their husbandââ¬â¢s. Although they did had some things in common, one was they both lived in a dominant male society. Chopin, Kate. ââ¬Å"Story of an Hour. â⬠Successful College Writing. Ed. Kathleen McWhorter. 4th ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martinââ¬â¢s, 2009. 665-668 ââ¬Å"Clever Manka. â⬠Introduction to Literature. Eds. Alice S. Landy And William Rodney Allen. 6th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Maryjane Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06753187439474025436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6592249498308149537.post-16362813709829325882020-01-08T08:16:00.001-08:002020-01-08T08:16:04.196-08:00Why Are Mosquitoes Attracted to You Have you ever wondered why some people get bitten by mosquitoes and others dont? Its not just chance. About 10 to 20 percent of people are mosquito magnets due to their body chemistry, scientists say. Here are some things that mosquitoes find irresistible. Body Odor and Heat Mosquitoes are very sensitive to scents produced when you sweat, such as ammonia, lactic acid, and uric acid. The more you perspire and the more it soaks into clothing (like socks or T-shirts) the more bacteria build up on your skin (especially if youre exercising or working outside and getting dirty), making you more attractive to mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are also attracted by the heat our bodies produce; the bigger you are, the more attractive a target you become.à Perfumes, Colognes, Lotions In addition to natural body odors, mosquitoes are also lured by chemical scents from perfumes or colognes. Floral scents are particularly attractive to mosquitoes, research shows. Theyre also lured by skincare products that contain alpha-hydroxy acids, which are a form of lactic acid that the bugs love. Cardon Dioxide Mosquitoes can detectà carbon dioxideà in the air, so the more you exhale, the more likely you are to become a blood meal. Mosquitoes usually fly in a zigzag pattern through the CO2 plume until they locate the source. Adults are especially attractive because they emit more carbon dioxide than children and pets. Other Factors? Its a fact that mosquitoes thrive on proteins found in the blood. Although some researchers have argued that mosquitoes appear to be attracted to Type O bloodin humans, other researchersà have questioned the data behind this study. Some people also contend that mosquitoes are attracted to dark colors, especially blue, and the odors of fermented foods like cheese or beer, but neither of these assertions has been proven true by scientists. Mosquito Facts There are more aboutà 3,500 species of mosquitoà throughout the world. About 170 species can be found in the United States.Only female mosquitoes feed on blood, which they need in order to produce eggs. Male mosquitoes do not bite, preferring the nectar of flowers.Biting mosquitoes can spread diseases such as malaria, Dengue fever, yellow fever, the Zika virus, and the West Nile virus. There are more than 30 species of mosquito that carry these diseases, and theyre found on every continent except Antarctica.In the U.S. six species are responsible for spreading disease. The two most common are theà yellow feverà mosquito (Aedes aegypti)à and the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus). The yellow fever mosquito is found in warm climates from California to Florida, while the Asian tiger thrives in the Southeast and East Coast. Sources Cheshire, Sara. What Makes Me So Tasty? 5 Myths About Mosquito Bites . CNN.com. 17 July 2015.Heubeck, Elizabeth. Are You a Mosquito Magnet? WebMD.com. 31 January 2012.Rueb, Emily. Peril on Wings: 6 of Americaââ¬â¢s Most Dangerous Mosquitoes . NYTimes.com 28 June 2016.Stromberg, Joseph. Why Do Mosquitoes Bite Some People More Than Others?à Smithsonian.com. 12 July 2013. Maryjane Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06753187439474025436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6592249498308149537.post-33555470806358289782019-12-31T04:41:00.001-08:002019-12-31T04:41:05.298-08:00History of CREEP and Its Role in the Watergate Scandal CREEP was the unofficial abbreviation derisively applied to the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, a fundraising organization within the administration of President Richard Nixon. Officially abbreviated CRP, the committee was first organized in late 1970 and opened its Washington, D.C. office in the spring of 1971. Besides its infamous role in the 1972 Watergate scandal, the CRP was found to have employed money laundering and illegal slush funds in its re-election activities on the behalf of President Nixon. During the investigation of the Watergate break-in, it was shown that the CRP had illegally used $500,000 in campaign funds to pay the legal expenses of the five Watergate burglars in return for their promise to protect President Nixon, initially by remaining silent, and by giving false testimony in court ââ¬â committing perjury ââ¬â after their eventual indictment. Some key members of CREEP (CRP) included: John N. Mitchell - Campaign DirectorJeb Stuart Magruder - Deputy Campaign ManagerMaurice Stans - Finance ChairmanKenneth H. Dahlberg - Midwest Finance ChairmanFred LaRue - Political OperativeDonald Segretti - Political OperativeJames W. McCord - Security CoordinatorE. Howard Hunt - Campaign ConsultantG. Gordon Liddy - Campaign Member and Finance Counsel Along with the burglars themselves, CRP officials G. Gordon Liddy, E. Howard Hunt, John N. Mitchell, and other Nixon administration figures were imprisoned over the Watergate break-in and their efforts to cover it up. The CRP was also found to have had ties to the White House Plumbers. Organized on July 24, 1971, the Plumbers was a covert team officially called the White House Special Investigations Unit assigned to prevent leaks of information harmful to President Nixon, such as the Pentagon Papers to the press. Besides bringing shame on the office of President of the United States, the illegal acts of the CRP helped turn a burglary into a political scandal that would bring down an incumbent president and fuel a general mistrust of the federal government festering as part of protests against continued U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.à à Rose Marys Baby When the Watergate affair happened, there was no law requiring a campaign to disclose the names of individual donors to political campaigns. As a result, the amount of money and individuals donating that money to CRP was a tightly held secret. In addition, corporations were secretly and illegally donating money to the campaign. Theodore Roosevelt had previously pushed through this prohibition of corporations donating money back in 1907. President Nixons secretary, Rose Mary Woods, kept the list of donors in a locked drawer. Her list famously became known as ââ¬Å"Rose Marys Baby,â⬠a reference to the popular 1968 horror movie titled ââ¬Å"Rosemarys Baby.â⬠à This list was not revealed until Fred Wertheimer, a campaign finance reform supporter forced it into the open through a successful lawsuit. Today, the Rose Maryââ¬â¢s Baby list can be seen at the National Archives where it is held with other Watergate-related material released in 2009. Dirty Tricks and CRP In the Watergate Scandal, political operative Donald Segretti was in charge of the many dirty tricks carried out by the CRP. These acts included the break-in at Daniel Ellsbergs psychiatrists office, the investigation of reporter Daniel Schorr, and plans by Liddy to have newspaper columnist Jack Anderson killed. Daniel Ellsberg had been behind the leak of the Pentagon Papers that had been published by the New York Times. According to Egil Krogh in an op-ed piece in the New York Times printed in 2007, he was charged along with others to carry out a covert operation that would uncover the state of Ellsbergs mental health in order to discredit him by stealing notes about him from Dr. Lewis Fieldings office. According to Krogh, the break in which found nothing about Ellsberg was done in the name of national security. Anderson was also a target due to his exposing classified documents that showed that Nixon was secretly selling arms to Pakistan in their war against India in 1971. Anderson had long been a thorn in Nixons side. The plot to discredit him was widely known after the Watergate scandal erupted. However, the plot to possibly assassinate him was not verified until Hunt confessed on his deathbed. Nixon Resigns In July 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered President Nixon to turn over secretly-recorded White House audio tapes ââ¬â the Watergate Tapes ââ¬â containing Nixonââ¬â¢s conversations dealing with the Watergate break-in planning and cover-up. When Nixon first refused to turn over the tapes, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Nixon for obstruction of justice, abuse of power, criminal cover-up and several violations of the Constitution. At last, on August 5, 1974, President Nixon released the tapes, proving his complicity in the Watergate break-in and cover-up. Aware that his impeachment was almost certain, Nixon resigned on August 8 and left office the following day. Finally, on August 5, Nixon released the tapes, which provided undeniable evidence of his complicity in the Watergate crimes. In the face of almost certain impeachment by Congress, Nixon resigned in disgrace on August 8 and left office the following day. Just days after he was sworn in as president, Vice President Gerald Ford ââ¬â who had no desire to run for president himself ââ¬â granted Nixon a presidential pardon for any crimes he had committed while in office. Maryjane Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06753187439474025436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6592249498308149537.post-29029974844047140732019-12-23T00:28:00.001-08:002019-12-23T00:28:02.417-08:00The Legacy Of The Great Gatsby By F. Rockefeller, Andrew... One of the events that I think that formed todayââ¬â¢s America were the men that build America which were, Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan and Henry Ford this five legends are the oneââ¬â¢s responsible the economic boom in the 1800ââ¬â¢s. all the innovation made was what make the big business in America. By the development of railroads, financial systems, etc. coming from nothing this menââ¬â¢s create the concept of what really was the American dreams which all of us today look so desperate to accomplish. Continuing on, lets not forget that Henry Ford made possible for middle class to be able to afford a car which was called the model-t. Like it said in the mini series aired in the history channel, which by the way I have started watching twice, but never get to finish, is says the following, ââ¬Å"America was not discovered, it was built.â⬠That right there is a strong statement, which in fact is true this three men cha nge America for ever, and still today there name make statement anywhere. This is how they all became to be the men who built America, ââ¬Å"Henry Ford and Thomas Edison were close friends. Another sad even that changed America on December 7, 1941 was the attack at the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. Because of this action the united state joint world war II. The Japanese destroyed an American naval vessels, battleships, and airplanes. According to an article that I read online, ââ¬Å"2,400 Americans were Maryjane Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06753187439474025436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6592249498308149537.post-7983835477984173912019-12-14T20:56:00.001-08:002019-12-14T20:56:05.571-08:00Freshman Free Essays This can cause stress and anxiety for some people. Stress often leads to eating more and eating foods that are not as healthy. Also, if students have a hard time adjusting to college life, they may find themselves being unhappy, which could lead to drinking more and eventually gaining weight. We will write a custom essay sample on Freshman or any similar topic only for you Order Now Sometimes adjusting is extremely sad and upsetting for college freshman, which often leads to emotional eating. Exercise habits can become worse In college because students are busy and do not always have the time to worry about staying in shape. They can find themselves at class all day, studying all night, and having time to eat, but not workout. Much fewer people are student athletes in college than in high school. In high school, the teams are easier to make because it is much less competitive and more about having fun. In college, sports are intense and only a small amount of people participate in them. Therefore, these high school athletes are not getting as much exercise In college because most of them are not participating In a sport anymore, which can result In weight gain. Another cause for the freshman fifteen is the food being available at all times. College students do not have a specific time for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The dining halls are open and filled with food all day. Some students cannot handle this and end up eating much more than they should, just because it is there and it is available to them, which they are not used to. Although there are people who will still eat healthy and restrain from overeating, several people do not have that will power and will eat every time they pass by a addling hall. The causes of gaining the Irishman fifteen are common at all colleges and universities, and students need to start eating healthier, working out more, and being conscious of their health. It is clear that the freshman fifteen is a real thing. The problems that cause this weight gain can happen at any school and that is why it is so common. Although not everyone who puts on weight in college puts on exactly fifteen pounds, it is still concerning. College students, of all people, should try to stay healthy. They are developing bad habits that could last for the rest of their lives. How to cite Freshman, Papers Maryjane Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06753187439474025436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6592249498308149537.post-32883011614497546812019-12-06T17:20:00.001-08:002019-12-06T17:20:03.415-08:00Code of Ethics in Australia Question: You are required to analysethe ethical dilemma you have identified above using use the Doing Ethics Technique (DET)? Answer: An Australian company was hiring people; a 22 year old woman named Illena from Iran has done the interview well and was hired by the company. She specializes in designing the CD ROMs. She was happy to get the job and accepted the offer immediately. When she goes for the work, she finds that she has to share the cabin with a male employee. This is because the manager has placed them together for a work and decided that they would learn things and help each other. It was important they work on a project together which will be beneficial for the company. The thing that must be noted is that she did not receive the information at the time of the interview. It was against the religious beliefs of Illena and her husband was also opposing the work. The view is that, though it is cultural perspective from the organization perspective, but the difficulty which the ICT professional was confronting was that of an ethical dilemma. More importantly, the crisis by which she confronts her manager i s such that it is addressed by the ACS Code. In this case it can be seen that Illena was faced with a ethical dilemma and she did not knew what to do. The problem was a workplace which was witnessed by me. She really faced a ethical issue as she was not clearly told about the work culture and practices (Standard of Practice, 2013). The people who were engaged in this issue were the manager of the company and the Iranian girl Illena. In this case Ileanas husband is indirectly affected with the decision, as also the male employee who was to share the project with her. There are laws likeFair Work Act 2009 that ensures that the religious and cultural practices should be maintained by the company and that no people feel distracted or harmed due to the misuse of the religious beliefs of the people in the workplace (Press.anu.edu.au, 2015). In this case it is seen that the code of ethics that guide the issues are Social Implications which includes the Enhancement of Quality of Life. It ensures that the employer of the company must work for the betterment of the people of the organization. He must ensure the safety of the people in the organization as well as look after their health. He must refrain from treating the employees unfairly and must treat the employees with respect. More over the employer must look that the employees are satisfied in their work and try to set those things that had affected the interest of the employee (ACS Code of Professional Conduct Professional Standards Board Australian Computer Society, 2015). In the above case it was seen that the women was affected by the decision of the manager. Moreover she was not rightly informed. The woman was affected by her religious beliefs and she was not able to work with a male employee. Though she was not informed about this at the time of joining, which was unethical on the part of the company and there was breech of ICT practices. The rules and regulations of the ACS codes of ethics, as well as fair work act were broken when the employee was not informed about the work culture and that the employer was not able to hold up the religious beliefs of the employee (Josephsoninstitute.org, 2015). More over the other employees work was also affected since Illena did not cooperate with the work. There is actually no one who has benefitted from the action. The company as well as the employees was affected due to the wrong decision of the employer. He should have informed Illena so she would have decided otherwise on the job. The company suffered as the woman decided to inform the manager about her problems, so the new project was delayed and hampered. It was not possible for the male employee to do the work single handedly. It is to be considered that the happiness of both the employees was lost and the company also suffered. If this is made universal, then people in all the organization will suffer as there are people of all religion and background in the company who have different values and beliefs (Igi-global.com, 2015). If the employer sets the wrongs as it is expected from them, then it will add to the benefits of all those who are concerned. Other people in the community might not see that there is any fault with the company as these issues can be dealt easily for the betterment of the society and the workplace at large. Thus it can be said there is no actual right or wrong (Australia.gov.au, 2015). The employer did not see any need to mention the work culture to Illena, as he did not think that it will create any issue for her. But it was wrong on the part of Illena as she had to face problem in the work place as well as threats from her husband. Thus which is right to someone may be wrong to others and vice versa. References ACS Code of Professional Conduct Professional Standards Board Australian Computer Society. (2015) (1st ed.). Retrieved from https://www.acs.org.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/4901/Code-of-Professional-Conduct_v2.1.pdf Australia.gov.au,. (2015).Rights | australia.gov.au. Retrieved 17 March 2015, from https://www.australia.gov.au/topics/law-and-justice/rights Igi-global.com,. (2015).Ethics and Social Issues Related to Information Communication Technology (ICT): Computer Science and Information Technology Book Chapter | IGI Global. Retrieved 17 March 2015, from https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/ethics-social-issues-related-information/43777 Josephsoninstitute.org,. (2015).Josephson Institute of Ethics: Making Ethical Decisions: The Six Pillars of Character. Retrieved 17 March 2015, from https://josephsoninstitute.org/MED/MED-2sixpillars.html Press.anu.edu.au,. (2015).'15. Ethical issues of emerging ICT applications a Euro-landscape' in Professionalism in the Information and Communication Technology Industry by Edited by John Weckert and Richard Lucas | ANU Press. Retrieved 17 March 2015, from https://press.anu.edu.au/apps/bookworm/view/Professionalism+in+the+Information+and+Communication+Technology+Industry/10791/ch15.xhtml Standard of Practice. (2013) (1st ed.). Retrieved from https://education.qld.gov.au/corporate/codeofconduct/pdfs/det-code-of-conduct-standard-of-practice.pdf Maryjane Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06753187439474025436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6592249498308149537.post-69695123725009487982019-11-29T05:22:00.001-08:002019-11-29T05:22:02.916-08:0057 choix cest lenfer! â⬠Translation Essay57 choix cest lenfer! ââ¬â Translation Essay Free Online Research Papers 57 choix cââ¬â¢est lââ¬â¢enfer! Translation Essay Un choix infini à ©tait supposà © promouvoir le progrà ¨s, mais le fait est que cela nous rend davantage malheureux. Quelquefois, il est simplement difficile de choisir. Vous à ªtes dans un restaurant et le serveur est prà ªt prendre la commande. Alors que vous hà ©sitez, il commence progressivement scruter le plafond, puis regarde ses ongles pour enfin observer votre partenaire avec qui, il mà ¨ne une conversation du regard. Chaque plat du menu devient flou mesure que vous le regardez dans une panique grandissante. Enfin, vous choisissez dà ©sespà ©rà ©ment quelque chose qui sââ¬â¢avà ¨rera à ªtre du pied braisà © dans une sauce verte gluante. Il existe des solutions pour faire face ces hà ©sitations socialement inacceptables. Dans le nouveau livre, de Craig Brown, This is Craig Brown, il suggà ¨re de toujours prendre le plat numà ©ro sept lorsque nous sommes confrontà ©s un environnement à ©tranger et un menu à ©crit dans une langue que lââ¬â¢on ne comprend pas. Mais cela nââ¬â¢a pas de sens. Le septià ¨me plat est toujours une purà ©e de quelque chose dans une sauce au curry. Vous devriez toujours opter pour le sixià ¨me plat. Cââ¬â¢est toujours du poulet sauf dans un restaurant và ©gà ©tarien auquel cas, le goà »t ressemblera de toute faà §on du poulet. Toutefois, la pensà ©e de Brown est intrigante car elle dà ©montre que nous avons besoin de procà ©dà ©s afin de nous protà ©ger de notre incapacità © choisir entre 57 varià ©tà ©s de choses peine diffà ©rentiables : que ce soit les chaà ®nes de tà ©là ©vision, les diffà ©rentes sortes de cafà ©, les sonneries de portable tà ©là ©chargeables et peut-à ªtre mà ªme finalement nos diffà ©rentes relations amoureuses. Cette vision est hostile la philosophie de notre gouvernement qui pense quââ¬â¢un plus grand choix parmi les compagnies ferroviaires, dââ¬â¢Ã ©lectricità ©, et les diffà ©rents types dââ¬â¢Ã ©ducation nous rendra heureux. Pour ma part, il nââ¬â¢en est rien. Peut-à ªtre que les gens les plus heureux sont ceux qui nââ¬â¢ont pas beaucoup de choix : il est bien possible que Sisyphe se soit habituà © son sort de faire rouler un rocher. Promà ©thà ©e, encerclà © de rochers, aurait bien pu devenir philosophique en ayant son foie mangà © par un oiseau pour toute lââ¬â¢Ã ©ternità ©. Ils sont tous sortis de leurs habitudes quotidiennes hà ©donistes et, par consà ©quent aucun dââ¬â¢eux ne fut confrontà © la misà ¨re dââ¬â¢un choix interminable. Il est vrai que des personnes nââ¬â¢ayant pas ce luxe ne peuvent peut-à ªtre pas à ªtre confrontà ©s la misà ¨re. Si vous vivez, disons Madagascar, oà ¹ lââ¬â¢espà ©rance de vie moyenne nââ¬â¢excà ¨de pas 40 ans et oà ¹ ils nââ¬â¢ont pas de tà ©là ©vision numà ©rique ou des Starbucks, il est trà ¨s peu probable que vous soyez confrontà ©s lââ¬â¢anxià ©tà ©, au stress, et la paralysie continue causà ©e par le fait de prendre des dà ©cisions. La prise de dà ©cision nââ¬â¢Ã ©tait pas supposà © rendre les gens malheureux. Cââ¬â¢Ã ©tait supposà © à ªtre le contrà ´le de lââ¬â¢autodà ©termination que nous chà ©rissons tant dans une socià ©tà © occidentale capitaliste. Cependant, ce nââ¬â¢est manifestement pas cela : davantage de choix augmente le sentiment dââ¬â¢opportunità ©s manquà ©es, ce qui conduit se reprocher le fait dââ¬â¢avoir manquà © des occasions. Que doit-on faire ? Un nouveau livre dââ¬â¢un scientifique et socialiste amà ©ricain, Barry Schwartz, intitulà © The Paradox of Choice, montre que rà ©duire le nombre de choix peut limiter lââ¬â¢anxià ©tà ©. Research Papers on 57 choix cââ¬â¢est lââ¬â¢enfer! - Translation EssayHip-Hop is ArtEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenThree Concepts of PsychodynamicThe Hockey GameResearch Process Part OneRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andUnreasonable Searches and SeizuresAnalysis Of A Cosmetics AdvertisementIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalPersonal Experience with Teen Pregnancy Maryjane Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06753187439474025436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6592249498308149537.post-4628883889969907472019-11-25T12:54:00.001-08:002019-11-25T12:54:05.394-08:00The Relationship between Public Relations and Marketing essayThe Relationship between Public Relations and Marketing essay The Relationship between Public Relations and Marketing essay The Relationship between Public Relations and Marketing essayNowadays, more and more organizations understand their direct dependence on the society and their need to build friendly relations with public. Transition to market economy has brought new challenges and demanded a new approach to business principles. For this reason, the problem of professional marketing taking into account the interaction with public came in the forefront for many organizations.The direct connection of marketing and public relations lies in the fact that PR mechanism acts as an engine of the process of product promotion on the market, ensuring success of the company, its high reputation in the face of fierce competition.Although the aim of the modern companies is to increase sales, this does not preclude the need to use PR tools to integrate the interests of consumers and their behavior.There are two opposing views on the relationships between PR and marketing. Some believe that PR is a direct marketing p iece that is used to increase sales. Another point of view considers PR as an independent discipline, which is not subject to marketing and is related not to sales growth but the formation of a positive image of the company. There is no consensus on this issue, but the relationship of PR and marketing is obvious.DefinitionsPR is an activity aimed at forming positive opinion about the company and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with it (Crabtree,à 2010: 10-11). The purpose of PR is to establish two-way communication to identify common ideas or common interests and mutual understanding based on truth, knowledge and full awareness. The magnitude of this interaction, aimed at developing strong relationships with the public, can be very different depending on the characteristics of the actors, but the philosophy, strategy and methods are very similar.Marketing is the subject of market activities aimed at implementing interaction with other actors of the market (Brandau,à 2014: 24).It is the process of planning and implementation of the plans, evaluation of promotion and implementation of ideas, goods and services in order to benefit from the exchange between people and organizations. The major activities of marketing are processes such as product development, research, establishing communications, organization of distribution, pricing.The Roles of PR and MarketingFunctions and tasks of Public RelationsThe most basic and common functions of PR are:1) Control of public opinion and behavior in order to meet their needs and interests.2) Responding to the public. Organization takes into account events, problems and behavior of others and responds to them.3) The achievement of mutually beneficial relations with all groups of people through the fruitful cooperation with them (including with employees, customers, suppliers, production staff, etc.).There are internal and external functions of PR, which are realized according to the individual generic areas :external function is aimed at creating and maintaining a positive image of the organization among the community groups that are external to the organization, at informing them about the organization and its products;internal function is aimed at creating and maintaining corporate social responsibility within the organization (good reputation of the organization among its staff, formation of a benevolent climate within the organization, maintaining a sense of responsibility and interest in the result of work). In this regard, PR should be considered as a method of creating organizational culture.PR can have a significant impact on public opinion and it is cost-effective compared to commercial advertising. Using PR, the company does not pay for advertising rates, it pays for the work of media personnel. However, specialists believe that the consumer is more likely to pay attention and trust interesting article than advertising clip. It is obvious that PR performs more complex functio ns than advertising and plays an important role in the following tasks:Assist in the introduction of new products and services;Changing attitude to goods and services;Development and revival of interest in partially or completely forgotten goods and services;Creating favorable image of the company addressing certain target groups;Creating good image of the company that would positively influence the image of products and services (Hawes,à 2010: 8).Functions and tasks of marketing in the modern organizationMarketing begins with a study of the target market segment. Marketing management is the analysis, planning, implementation and monitoring of activities designed to establish, strengthen and maintaining beneficial exchanges with target buyers in order to achieve certain objectives of the organization, such as profit, sales volume growth, increase of market share, and so on.Marketers determine potential demand and its size (capacity segment of the market), ie identify customers who se needs are not met adequately or experiencing an implicit interest in specific goods or services. There should be done market segmentation and selection of those its parts that the company is able to serve well. Marketing management plans, creates and brings the product to the consumer, develops demand strategy through product price, distribution channels and methods of promotion. Marketing researches product, market, consumer demand, and offers possibilities these studies is a function of marketing. Marketing function is the impact on the level, time and nature of demand in order to achieve the goals of the organization (Smith,à 2014: 22).Similarities and differencesCurrently, relationship between marketing and PR and their similarities are growing. Increasingly, these two trends are intertwined in practice. However, even thirty years they were considered completely separate discipline.In the process of rapid development of marketing and public relations, they are rapidly expa nding their spheres of activity, using increasingly aggressive means of communication, actively expanding the audience, as a result, they begin to turn to the same segments of the public, and sometimes even use same tactics of communicative behavior. Despite the fact that from the point of view of consumers, these disciplines are very similar, the practice has always maintained a strong conceptual separation.If you ask PR and marketing practitioners to highlight the basics of their professions, they would come around to the following scheme.Marketing:Promotion of the goods (services) among consumers.The main goal is selling.The implicit goal is to make a profit.Success depends on the amount of sales and profits.PR:Organization help in adapting public and company.The main objective is to establish rapport.The implicit objective is to stimulate a favorable perception.Success depends on the expression of positive public opinion, public support in any manifestation.It turns out that mar keting is a set of measures to promote a product or service, pricing, working with distributors, and PR is the management of the companys reputation. Marketing creates a market for goods and services, PR provides a favorable environment in which companies operate. In some cases, marketing success can be destroyed by negative social or political trends, tracking and smoothing of which is also the task of PR.In the context of convergence of price / quality ratio on most goods and services, a special role is played by image of the company. In this case, PR acts as a function, which enables the construction of a positive image (Wexler,à 2010: 33).PR toolsThe basic tools of PR are: Publications (articles, reports, newsletters, magazines, brochures) are widely replicable means of promoting an attractive image of the company and transmitting messages to the target markets. Events (trade shows, seminars, conferences, competitions, presentations) can include both general public and target audiences. News. The main task of PR specialists is to provide interesting and favorable news about the company and its services.The use of PR tools should facilitate the implementation of the planned business objectives: Raising awareness of the consumer. Strengthening confidence in the company and its services. Promotion of sales. Reduce of the cost of advertising and sales promotion.The diversity and complexity of the goals emphasize the breadth of actions of PR technologies (Jacques,à 2013: 12).Marketing ToolsThere are various marketing tools to ensure the success of the company and increase sales effectiveness. Marketing tools to achieve the company goal, selection and use of which is realized through the procedure of the marketing mix (Marketing- mix model 4P): product, price, promotion, delivery. The concept of marketing mix is determined by a set of basic tools of marketing: product policy (innovation, work with range, removal of goods whose life cycle is over from the pro duction, customer service, guarantees);pricing (base price, discounts, credit);communication policy (advertising, public relations);marketing policy (market research, sales, development of new markets, etc.);development and implementation of competitive strategies.The first marketing tool is an estimate, according to which the firms resources are allocated to business units. Other marketing tools are:advertising (the most effective way to deliver information about the goods to the consumer for the purpose of sales promotion);public relations (marketing tool, contributing to the establishment and maintenance of interaction, location, understanding and cooperation between the company and society, the formation of a benevolent public opinion);personal selling (but this tool is very expensive as it is related to the preparation of highly qualified specialists in sales).pricing policy is considered the most important marketing tool. This is usually the final stage of market activity, and the price is a kind of indicator of conditions in which the company exists and operates (Rockoff,à 2012:14).Examples of application of PRThe following examples are quite diverse. However, each of them illustrates effectiveness of PR.Ford achieved fame of the model Ford Taurus with the help of PR even before the release of the car on the market. When the company à «Lego Systemà » learned that one of their rattles was potentially dangerous for babies, they immediately withdrew the entire batch of rattles and inspired parents to the dissemination of this information. The company offered full compensation of the toys price or its exchange for a toy from the new collection.An example of Ford Motor Company is a clear illustration of the application of public relations in the early stages of marketing use, when news appeared before advertising. The case of à «Lego Systemà » emphasizes the use of PR methods for gaining trust of consumers.In addition to these examples, there are many other methods that can improve the effectiveness of marketing programs. With the help of PR, a company can turn into a leader in its market segment, present new products. PR allows carry out a restart and positioning of existing products, overcome the resistance of consumers to advertising, affect those people who shape consumer opinion, win the support of retailers and contribute to a more rapid spread of products. These examples suggest that PR and marketing can perfectly communicate, that PR marketing really works. That is why in recent years, many companies began to use public relations (Erokan,à 2010: 12-13).Examples of successful marketingMarlboro. Marlboro invented pack of cardboard with flip-top lid, which are now standard package of cigarettes not in order to demonstrate innovation or design ideas but for promotional purposes. Smokers were able to pull out cigarettes from soft packs without removing them from the pocket, so others did not see the brand. Flip-tops made smo kers take the pack out of the pocket so that everybody could see it, and the new always attracts attention.Estee Lauder. There is a beautiful legend about how Estee Lauder began selling its perfumes. The young Miss Lauder came the biggest perfume shop in New York ââ¬Å"accidentallyâ⬠split the bottle of her perfume on the floor. Buyers asked about the wonderful smell and store just had to sign a contract with Estee Lauder.Heinz. In 1896, Henry Heinz was walking around New York and saw an advertisement of shoe store, which offered clients 21 style of shoes. By analogy, he decided to write on their ketchup and sauces 57 options. This number had nothing to do with the actual figures range, but Heinz liked it. And it impressed buyers.Harley-Davidson. The most famous manufacturer of motorcycles in the world holds the first place in terms of branded tattoos for more than a dozen years. It all began with the fact that Harley announced impressive discounts on bikes for those who would come to buy a motorcycle with a tattoo in the form of its logo (Castilla,à 2013: 250-251).ConclusionSimilarities of PR and marketing get more and more noticeable. More and more often, in practice, they are intertwined and mutually reinforcing. This was possible because the purposes of marketing and PR are similar: the desire for mutual understanding between the company and customer, care about the quality of products, reputation and image of the brand.Nevertheless, they have different strategies. Thus, marketing strategy is a desire to attract the customer to a particular product, and strategy of PR is to create the most favorable environment for the development of the company.Marketing studies peoples interest in products and services, analyses possibilities to influence target groups and effectiveness of advertising. With the help of PR-activity, the company monitors the interests of consumers, partners, employees, shareholders, identifies threats, helps management to resolve v arious conflicts and quickly establish a dialogue. In general, PR is focused on public opinion, while the purpose of marketing is selling. Thanks to marketing, the company can get answers to the questions: what, when and to whom to sell, at what price and in what form. Creating motivation, sales promotion are also the mission of marketing professionals.In turn, PR provides answers to questions such as: how to be a company, how to make it work needed and fruitful? Building relationships between the company and community that is the mission of public relations.In the context of the existing fast-growing market, PR is becoming an important part of marketing communications. Public Relations today is an effective mechanism for overcoming problems on the way of the goods to the buyer. Using public relations influences the performance of marketing as a whole. Maryjane Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06753187439474025436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6592249498308149537.post-85796010987166603602019-11-21T20:18:00.001-08:002019-11-21T20:18:04.134-08:00Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen DissertationPride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - Dissertation Example She says, Do not you want to know who has taken it' cried his wife impatiently, and Mr. Bennet replies 'You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.'(Austen, Ch.1). Austen undoubtedly does this to incite some form of comic relief from the reader but the interactions between the Bennets serves as very valuable benchmark against which the potential courtiers are compared. Mrs. Bennet's anxious paranoia over the futures of her daughters stands in complete opposition to her husband's irresponsible carefree nature. It is obvious Austen also considers their relationship to be valuable, otherwise she wouldn't have made them the first characters we meet in the novel. These two are not a courting couple, those days have come and gone for them; but they do represent two aspects of society that essentially signify what is at stake for their daughters. While Mr. Bennet is an unsuccessful dreamer barely able to support his own family, Mrs. Bennet is a realist who never allows her family or the reader to forget that their only hope for happiness lies is in an equitable marriage. Her take on life is very affective on her other daughters, but doesn't seem to phase Elizabeth, who appears to take more after her father. Jean Ferguson Carr argues that Mrs. Bennet is identified by her exclusion from the realms of sense and power, and is contained within her comic role. As such, she stands in uneasy relationship to her daughter, Elizabeth (Carr, 68). She goes on to further point out that Elizabeth strives to disassociate herself from her mother who is foolish. Instead Elizabeth aspires to be knowing and witty, and treated like such; this is most likely the personality trait that incites her fiery... The present dissertation has attempted to offer the potential reader a new viewpoint of the novel through the analysis of the main characters. This has been done in terms of some cognitive constructs such as image-schemas or conceptual metaphors. They have shed new light on the relationships among the characters in the novel. Furthermore, we could go as far as to state that the whole novel is summarized in terms of the LOVE IS A JOURNEY metaphor. The title of the novel itself: Pride and Prejudice, points to some impediments in this journey towards love. Apart from reducing the novel to a single metaphorical system, an analysis in cognitive terms provides the grounds for the construction of the main characters and for the overall interpretation of the work. Furthermore, this kind of analysis is visual to such an extent that the work is wholly understood without the aid of abstractions. There is evidence that within this framework the changes undergone by the characters and the relationships which hold between them are explained on the basis of what we readers see and experience every day. This is one of the main reasons why the present paper is devoid of abstract explanations. For instance, the conceptualization of people as containers is tremendously visual. Finally, we have seen that Jane Austen has made use of a series of universal constructs as the grounds for the construction of her novel. She has done this unconsciously because they are engraved on our mind in such a way that we use them automatically. Maryjane Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06753187439474025436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6592249498308149537.post-73265220243684544272019-11-20T17:01:00.001-08:002019-11-20T17:01:03.927-08:00Economics Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 wordsEconomics - Assignment Example EasyJet has stuck to their core values, which allowed them to do well during the recession and as business pickups in the country, they will further see many improvements which will lead to even greater profits. In response to In response to the question on the fluctuating oil prices, he added that Easyjetââ¬â¢s hedging is a form of averaging, which means that their fuel prices respond with a lag to movement in market prices. So for 2010, they expect GBP100 million improvements as their fuel hedges adjust to market prices. Easyjet continues to grow steadily and they have expectations of 10% increase in capacity during 2010 as the passeneger numbers grew by 3 to 4 percent during the recessionary period. Easyjet remains focused on short haul a flight which proves to be working as they seem to be in line to achieve growth plans of 7 to 8 percent annually. The passenger growth easily outstripped easyJets capacity increase over the recessionary period of just 0.8%, indicating that dema nd is still matching its growth strategy despite the Europe-wide recession. Gert Zonneveld, analyst at Panmure Gordon, said easyJet had weathered the recession so far but a lengthy downturn could dampen the airlines recovery. "The company is performing well given the current economic environment, but a sustained downturn could clearly delay a profit recovery." Ryanairââ¬â¢s CEO Michael Oââ¬â¢Leary commented on the tough recessionary times the airline industry was facing and he added ââ¬Å"Ryanairââ¬â¢s ability to grow both traffic and profits during the half year is a testament to the strength of Ryanairââ¬â¢s lowest fare model, and our relentless cost discipline. However these results are heavily distorted by a 42% fall in fuel costs, which has masked a significant 17% decline in average fares.à We expect average fares to decline by up to 20% during Quarters 3 and 4, which will result in both these quarters being loss making.à Despite this our full year guidance remains unchanged and will be Maryjane Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06753187439474025436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6592249498308149537.post-85012176475312751562019-11-18T16:22:00.001-08:002019-11-18T16:22:02.642-08:00Organizational Behavior Factors Affecting the Criminal Justice EssayOrganizational Behavior Factors Affecting the Criminal Justice - Essay Example When the upper management makes good decisions they ensure that the community has an effective justice system and also the lower managements are able to imitate their business behaviors, but a corrupt upper management system will negatively affect the lower management and the community. Culture may also be one of the biggest factors that affect the criminal justice system in the police department whereby diversity in the department reveals that there is less likelihood of disagreements between both the officers and the suspect or victims when there is a language barrier. Diversity in the police department has an advantage since individuals who may be witnesses or victims may feel more obliged to give information to the police officer. Law goes hand in hand with the criminal justice work place since the officers are expected to uphold the law at all times. However, there are officers who think that since they are the law enforcers they are above the law which is an issue, but in accor dance to the law when the officer commits an offence he or she should be treated in the same way as an individual who broke the law and was not an enforcement agent of the law. Stakeholders play an important role too as they determine how the internal and external relations of the system function. The influence of this factor in the criminal justice workplace mainly leadership creates a working pattern which ensures the accomplishment of the departments goals and objectives. There are three influential stakeholdersââ¬â¢ namely political bodies, community groups and employees who affect the criminal justice system in the work place. Political bodies, who are external stakeholders, have more of a negative influence on the police department since they use it mostly to practice illegal acts unlike community groups, which may work with the police department to fight crime though community policing. They help combat crime by giving police lads to offenders, and this increases the effic iency of the criminal justice system in combating crime. Employees who may be officers are very influential stakeholders in the criminal justice system since when they adequately give information to their bosses on various issue in the organization and are accountable for the daily operations, and this implies that they increase the chances of finding solutions rather rapidly by working together to find the most viable solutions to existing problems. The system factor in the criminal justice work place is usually created by the management, which in regards to the police department determines whether the police force will be effective or not. A good and effective system will ensure that justice is served to all who need it since officers will do whatà the system requires of them and also officers employed in the system will find it more comfortable working in the department. The structure in the police department determines each and every role played by an officer and their effect iveness in the department. Maryjane Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06753187439474025436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6592249498308149537.post-78068103122992664942019-11-16T04:54:00.001-08:002019-11-16T04:54:08.386-08:00Death And Concentration Camps In The Holocaust History EssayDeath And Concentration Camps In The Holocaust History Essay The Holocaust was a horrifying crime against humanity. Adolf Hitler led a nation of Germans who were trying to rid inferior races. Hitler had a final solution to take care of anybody who he saw as inferior. The plans included in the Final Solution included the deportation, exploitation, and eventual extermination of European Jews. (Grobman) His method was to kill any undesirables. He would use concentration camps and death camps. Within the years 1941-1945 over eleven million people were killed. Six million of those who died were killed simply because they were Jewish. Over one million children were also killed during the Holocaust. Nazis, Hitlers followers, killed over two thirds of the Jewish population in Europe. Groups that were brought to concentration camps and death camps included Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, mentally or physically disabled people, and people who did not agree with the government. The first concentration camps were established in 1933. In the beginning concentration camps were places that held people in protective custody. Victims for protective custody included those who were both physically and mentally ill, gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah Witnesses, Jews and anyone against the Nazis. By 1934 there were at least fifty concentration camps throughout Europe. In the beginning these camps were watched over by the police, and then Hitler had his security take over. Camps were set up for different reasons. Some for forced labor, others for medical experiments and, for death. Camps were set up along railroad lines, so that the prisoners would be close to their destination. As they were being transported either to a camp or from one to another, the soldiers kept telling the Jews to have hope. The conditions on the train were terrible. Many people died of starvation before they arrived. Most families ended up being separated when they arrived at a camp. Jews were forced to obey the guards orders from the moment they arrived at the camps. The prisoners usually had marks on their clothes or numbers on their arms to identify them. The conditions of the camps were terrible and inhumane. Within the first few days of being at the camps, thousands of people died of hunger, starvation and disease. Other people died from the cruel punishments of the guards beatings and torture. In 1937, seven thousand Jews were in camps. By 1938, ten thousand more Jews were sent to camps. Jews were taken to camps if they expressed negative feelings about the government, if they married a non-Jew, if they were sick, mentally or physically, or if they had a police record. When someone escaped from the camp, all the prisoners in that group were shot. Nazis, who claimed that they did not necessarily hate Jews, seemed to enjoy making the Jews suffer. They also felt that slavery was better than killing their prisoners. Surrounding some of the camps in Poland was a forest that the Jews who planned to escape would flee into. Before the escaped prisoners got very far, they were killed. The people who could not run away from the camps thought about revolt. Joseph Mengels, one of the most notorious Nazi doctors, selected his victims for the gas chambers or medical experiments. His women victims for sterilization were usually twenty to thirty years of age. Other experiments included pu tting inmates into high pressure chambers to test the effects of altitude on pilots. Some inmates were frozen to determine the best way to revive frozen German soldiers.(Bauer) Auschwitz, located in Poland, was Nazi Germanys largest concentration camp. It was established by order of Hitler on April 27, 1940. At first, it was small because it was a work camp for Polish and Soviet prisoners of war. It became a death camp in 1941. Auschwitz included camp sites a few miles away from the main complex. At these sites, slave labor was used to kill the people. The working conditions were so poor that death was an almost certain result. In March 26, 1942, Auschwitz took women prisoners, but after August 16, 1942 the women were housed in Birkenau, another section of the camp. When the Jews arrived at Auschwitz, they were met with threats and promises. If they didnt do exactly as they were told, they would be beaten or deprived of food. They were assured that things would get better. The daily meals in Auschwitz consisted of soup, once a day, with a small piece of bread. Most of the prisoners were extremely malnourished and on the brink of death. The bad sanitary cond itions, the inadequate diet, the hard labor and other torturous conditions in Auschwitz, most people died after a few months of their arrival. The few people who managed to stay alive for longer were the ones who were assigned better jobs. In place of toilets, there were wooden boards with round holes and underneath them concretes troughs. Two or three hundred people could sit on them at once. While they were on these troughs they were watched in order to assure that they did not stay too long. When people were loaded onto trains to be taken to the gas chambers, they were told that they were being placed in new labor camps. This was one of the many lies told. It was impossible for the Jews to make out which buildings were the gas chambers because they seemed normal from the outside, just like any other building. Over the gas chambers were well kept lawns with flowers bordering them. When the Jews were being taken to the gas chambers, they thought they were being taken to the baths. At first, there were five gas chambers in Auschwitz, the procedure for gassing was About 900 people were gassed at a time. First they undressed in a nearby room. Then, they were told to go into another room to be deloused; they filled the gas chambers like packed like sardines. After a few minutes of horrible suffering, the victims died. The bodies were then transported to ovens where they were burned.(Weapon of War) The gas chambers were not large enough to execute great numbers at a time, so crematoriums were built. The crematoriums would burn 2,000 bodies in less than 24 hours. Many Jews and non Jews tried to escape from Auschwitz. Some succeeded. Of course they wanted to inform the world of what was going on. Those who escaped wrote descriptions of the horrors they suffered. Information spread to many countries,yet no countries seemed to do anything to help the situation. In fact, as the war progressed, the number of prisoners increased. In total, between one and a half and thr ee and a half million Jews were murdered at Auschwitz between the years 1940 and 1945 Usually, the death camps were part of existing camps, but some new ones were just set up for this purpose. When the prisoners first arrived at the camps, those sent to the left were transferred to death camps. Once in the death camps the prisoners were again divided. Women were sent to one side to have their hair shaven and the men to the other. There were six death camps; Chelmno, Treblinka, Auschwitz (Birkenau), Sobibor, Maidanek, and Belzec. These camps used gas from the shower heads to murder their victims. A seventh death camp, Mauthausen, used a method called extermination through labor. Basically they worked their prisoners until their bodies couldnt handle it anymore and they died. In conclusion, The Nazis, organized the destruction of the Jews. Why they did it is unknown. Perhaps it was because of a history of tension between the Christians and Jews, or perhaps, because Hitler needed a scapegoat for Germanys problems. People throughout history have been murdered; but never as many people as during the Holocaust in such a short period of time. One third of all the Jews in the world were eliminated. Hitlers method of killing the Jews and other undesirable people was first by torture and then by plain murder. In the early days of his leadership, he took away their rights as citizens and then as people. They were treated like slaves and lived like animals. After 1942, his goal was to exterminate all Jewish and impure(Stillman) people. Many Jews were killed before that date, but they were a small number compared to the mass murdering of the Holocaust. Maryjane Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06753187439474025436noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6592249498308149537.post-39664339876864634492019-11-13T17:24:00.001-08:002019-11-13T17:24:05.999-08:00Literary Analysis of The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks Essay -- The NoteLiterary Analysis of The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks This book is a great book and it touches ones heart in ways you couldn't imagine. I seriously love this book because I love romantic stories and it's just so cute. The movie is good but the book is better. Well 'The Notebook' is about a journey of two young lovers Noah Calhoun and Allie Nelson who made a passionate summer romance and they were separated because Allie moved to the city. After fourteen years of separation due to World War 2 and class differences. Allie got engaged to a wealthy lawyer, Lon. One day Allie was looking through the newspaper and she spots Noah standing next to the plantation he restored. All of a sudden all these feelings started coming back from when she last saw him. So she decides to go back to New Burn to visit Noah. When she arrives in New Burn she checks in at a hotel and drives straight to the plantation and as she approached the house she saw Noah. Noah saw the car approach so he walked towards the car and once she steps out of the car he was shocked to see the ghost that had come to dominate his life. They spent a couple of days together making up for lost time and a hundred miles away from New Burn Allie?s fiancà ©, Lon, was getting worried because every time he called her she was never there so he decided to go to New Burn. That day Noah had a surprise for Allie he took her on a kayak ride down the creek to this special place he found that morning. When he was about to arri... Maryjane Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06753187439474025436noreply@blogger.com0