Motivational Plan Essay -- GCSE Business Marketing Coursework

Motivational PlanTo-A-Tee Screen-Printing is a local t-shirt manufacturing company located here, in Las Vegas, Nevada. This organization provides t-shirt, sweatshirt, and sports hat solutions primarily to retail businesses. The railcar Grill Corporation recently sold the To-A-Tee print crop to a local sole proprietor. Previously, the print shops directives were handed down from the corporate office such as how much profit they had to budget for, the types of designs and styles offered by To-A-Tee, and the company policies and procedures that were written for their main locations, retail shops. In addition, the corporate office utilized the print shop for production for its own retail shops rather than endeavoring to clients outside the company.With the purchase of To-A-Tee, the new owner has the responsibility of improving the business by pursuing ideas, technologies, and procedures that were missed eon belonging to the larger retail chain. This print shop was a very small e ntity of a very large corporation and its profitability did not guarantee the requisition of expensive equipment for the new technologies in screen-printing. To-A-Tee has a diverse workforce who offers a wealth of experience that they bring from other shops, vendor trade shows, and seminars that they befool either worked for or attended. Unfortunately, these employees have not been allowed to implement the knowledge and skills they bring because of the strict nature of the corporations directives. Generally, these employees are unhappy because the shop neer got the attention it deserved from the large corporation. With this in mind, the new owner and carriage moldiness implement a motivational plan to build the employee morale to correct the business of the shop. The first step in this plan is to be a leader to these people rather than having them report to a manager. Providing leadership to the company plays an all important(predicate) role in motivating the employees t o provide higher levels of production. Although this is one of the most important impacting factors, it will be the hardest to implement. The new managers role is to show optimism and determination. Implementing these traits in the managers nonchalant business will show that the manager herself is willing to work hard to achieve the final goals. The manager must walk and talk these traits so that she is believable... ...s. to each one department has a lot to offer in order to reduce costs and increase productivity. Moreover, establish groups to increase efficiencies even further. A measurement of the mastery of the business is the number of shirts that are printed in an hour. For a start, the obvious goal here is to not have to change out origins as often. Each job requires new screens to be set-up and new ink prepared for the colors of the new design. This can lead to the sales force creating a strategy to go after the large accounts for example, Casinos that sell or use a high volume of shirts in their gift shops.The key to creating and keeping momentum from the employees is good leadership. If the new manager consistently exhibits the characteristics essential to a great leader, the employees will begin to trust the leadership and will strive to provide support to this leadership. The new manager must not demonstrate fear or hesitation in decisions to avoid failure or to keep from making mistakes. It is important that once the plan is wholly established and implemented, that the leader stay focused on providing the energy, ideas and idea generation, responsiveness, control, and success.

Buddhism :: essays research papers

Buddhism Things I Find Interesting     As I was interlingual rendition the selected portions of the book for this chapter, I came across a few things that I found interesting. At first I did not catch them, but after I went back and reread the selections, I found these things, that I thought were intriguing.      Buddhism is supposedly a non-theistic religion. However, in the reading titled "The Majjhim-Nikaya Questions Which Lend not to Edification" (5.1) and in "Realizing the Four Noble Truths" (5.3, the Buddha is continually referred to as "The Blessed One". If he is only a man, why is he referred to in such a course? Other Buddhists have the potential to become Buddhas, so would they also be referred to as "Blessed One"? If this Buddha was not the first, and not the last Buddha, why atomic number 18 other Buddhas also not referred to as "Blessed ones"? In my opinion, if this Buddha is not consider ed to be a god, then he should at least be referred to as "One of the Blessed Ones" instead of "The Blessed One".      Another concept that I found interesting was the idea of duality that was discussed in "The Majjhima-Nikaya Questions Which Lend Not to Edification" (5.1). I do not quite understand it, so I was intrigued it. The selection says that the soul and clay are identical, and then that the soul and body are separate. It says that the world is finite and that the world is infinite. It also says that the world is eternal and then that it is not. How can these things be? I do not understand how the angel can both exist and not exist after death. I think that in my worldview, things such as these concepts are not present. I natter ideas such as the world, and the body and soul as one way or the other.

Free Admissions Essay - Care for an Ethnically Diverse Population :: Medicine College Admissions Essays

Admissions Essay - Care for an Ethnically Diverse Population   Crayfish tails in tarragon butter, galantine of rabbit with foie gras, oxtail in red wine, and apple tartelletes. The patient had this rich meal and complained of liver upset (crise de foie). Why a liver ache? I always associate indigestion with a abdomen ache. In studying French culture in my Evolutionary Psychology class, I learned that when experiencing discomfort afterwards a rich meal, the French stomach their liver is the culprit. Understanding and dealing with the minor - sometimes major - cultural differences is a necessity in our shrinking world and diverse American society. Anthropology has ready me to effectively communicate with an ethnically diverse population. My science classes, research, and clinical experience have prepared me to meet the demands of medical school.   I first became aware of the of import service that physicians provide when I observed my father, a surgeon, working in his office. I gained practical experience assisting him and his staff perform various procedures in his out-patient center. This painting increased my admiration for the restorative, technological, and artistic aspects of surgery. I also saw that the application of medical knowledge was most effective when combined with compassion and empathy from the health fretting provider.   While admiring my fathers role as a head and neck surgeon befriending people after severe accidents, I also found a way to help those suffering from debilitating ailments. Working as a certified physical trainer, I became aware of the powerful recuperative effects of exercise. I was able to apply this knowledge in the case of Sharon, a forty-three-year-old client suffering from lupus. she reported a 200% increase in her strength tests after I trained her. This meant she could once again perform simple tasks like carrying groceries into her house. Unfortunately, this glimpse of improvement was followe d by a further deterioration in her condition. On one occasion, she broke down and cried about her declining health and growing fears. It was then that I learned no physical prowess or application of kinesiology would ameliorate her pain. I helped reduce her anxiety with a comforting embrace. Compassion and understanding were the only remedies available, temporary though they were.   To confirm that medicine is the best way for me to help others, I assisted a research team in the Emergency Room at University Medical Center (UMC).

paradigms :: essays research papers

     The truth does not change according to our ability to set up it. "acategories.asp?Author=Flannery+O%27Connor+%281925%2D1964%29"If the facts dont fit the theory, change the facts. "acategories.asp?Author=Albert+Einstein+%281879%2D1955%29"     everyone since teh initiatening fo time has had their own views and standards for the way that everything around them should be. these views argon awaitingly set in stone and unchangeable. there are many examples in the past of terrible consequences for expressing views other than the norm at the time. more lately this apprehension to change was described by Thomas Kuhn in his book, The Structure of Scientific Revoulutions.     Kuhns book was focused on the scientific world. He give tongue to that normal wisdom means research firmly based upon one or more past scientific achievments, achievments thatsome particular scientific community aacknowledges for a time as supplying the foundation for its further practice (Kuhn 10). These achievments needed to be unprecedented and open-ended so as to attract a stem away from competing ideas and to leave all sorts of problems for this group to resolve. these achievments are called figure of speechs. a paradigm is defined by Kuhn as an accepted canon of scientific practice, including laws, theory, applications, and instrumentation, that provides a poseur for a particular coherent tradition of scientific research (Trigger 5).     When results arise that cannot be explained through the current paradigm, a new paradigm may begin to form. the new paradigm originates with new theories that are proposed as a result of the anomalies that were found. to be accepted as a paradigm, a theory must seem better than its competitors, but it need not, and in fact never does, explain all the facts with which it can be confronted (Kuhn 17-18). when the new paradigm is finally accepted, a paradig m-shift occurs. the paradigm shift represents Kuhns scientific revolution. Once the paradigm-shift is completed normal science returns under the new paradigm until new set of unexplainable facts arise.     paradigms dish up scientific communities to bind their discipline in that they help the scientist to do several things. they help to create avenues fo inquiry, formulate questions, select methods with which to examine questions and define areas fo relevance. Kuhn writes In the absence fo a paradigm or some candidate for paradigm, all the facts that could possibly pertain to the development of a given science are likely to seem equally relevant (Kuhn 15). what he was trying to show was that there must be a way to limit the military commission of ones research based on what is considered to be known from the past.

Ambrose Bierces Chickamauga Essay example -- Ambrose Bierce Chickamau

Ambrose Bierces ChickamaugaAmbrose Bierces pitiable story, Chickamauga, scrutinizes American values, specifically, Americas identifying with the natural world. Bierce is critical of the American association with divine destiny, which has manifested itself throughout register in the form of John Winthrops City upon a hill speech, the notion of the white mans burden, and Manifest Destiny. American history, in the scope of the short story, is champion of perceived rightly subjugation of others. Bierce satirizes this philosophy by use of the child as a manifestation of American values that are at long last shown to be feeble and weak.The opening paragraph summarizes American history in abstract terms It was happy in a new sense of exemption from control, happy in the opportunity of exploration and adventure for this childs spirit, in bodies of its ancestors, had for thousands of years been trained to memorable feats of discovery and conquest (455). The diction Bierce uses conveys a sense of warmongering and that war and conquest is what brings about memorable feats. The ever expanding frontier, the cross-continental explorations, and the colonizing of the West, though, are all draw by Bierce in terms of a delighted child going to play in the woods unabated and unobserved (Ibid). Bierce undermines the notion that American conquests in the past were grand exploits of a privileged and inspired people.Bierce also uses hyperbole in describing the childs playing in the woods. Though the child is merely playing war in his mind, Bierce describes him as a mightier conqueror and the mightiest (Ibid). This diction of grandeur is juxtaposed with the rabbit scaring the child away With a startled cry the child... ...nquest do not give triumph to one nation and defeat for another, but instead bring about defeat for all.Thus, Bierce satirizes American culture and the popular beliefs of destiny and natural superiority associated with his time. American history is s hown to be nothing more than a deaf and mute child roaming in the wilderness playing war games. The arrogant notion of superiority is described as feeble and ultimately destructive. Bierce calls upon Americans to view themselves with a kind of humility toward the natural world and its it place inside of it no longer should Americans see themselves as privileged, instead, they should become humbled.Works CitedBierce, Ambrose. Chickamauga. The Heath Anthology of American Literature Volume C Late Nineteenth Century 1865-1910. Ed. Suzanne P. Weir. Boston, New York Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006. 455-459.

Ambrose Bierces Chickamauga Essay example -- Ambrose Bierce Chickamau

Ambrose Bierces ChickamaugaAmbrose Bierces short story, Chickamauga, scrutinizes American values, specific aloney, Americas identifying with the natural realism. Bierce is deprecative of the American association with divine destiny, which has humanityifested itself throughout history in the form of John Winthrops City upon a hill speech, the notion of the white mans burden, and Manifest Destiny. American history, in the scope of the short story, is one of perceived rightly subjugation of others. Bierce satirizes this philosophy by use of the child as a manifestation of American values that are eventually shown to be feeble and weak.The opening paragraph summarizes American history in abstract wrong It was happy in a new sense of freedom from control, happy in the opportunity of exploration and adventure for this childs spirit, in bodies of its ancestors, had for thousands of years been trained to memorable feats of discovery and conquest (455). The diction Bierce uses conve ys a sense of warmongering and that war and conquest is what brings about memorable feats. The ever expanding frontier, the cross-continental explorations, and the colonizing of the West, though, are all described by Bierce in terms of a mirthful child going to play in the woods unabated and unobserved (Ibid). Bierce undermines the notion that American conquests in the past were grand exploits of a privileged and godly people.Bierce also uses hyperbole in describing the childs playing in the woods. Though the child is merely playing war in his mind, Bierce describes him as a mightier conqueror and the mightiest (Ibid). This diction of grandeur is juxtaposed with the rabbit scaring the child away With a galvanize cry the child... ...nquest do not give triumph to one nation and defeat for another, but instead bring about defeat for all.Thus, Bierce satirizes American finale and the popular beliefs of destiny and natural superiority associated with his time. American history is shown to be nothing more than a deaf and mute child roaming in the wilderness playing war games. The arrogant notion of superiority is described as feeble and ultimately destructive. Bierce calls upon Americans to view themselves with a kind of humility toward the natural world and its it place inside of it no longer should Americans see themselves as privileged, instead, they should become humbled.Works CitedBierce, Ambrose. Chickamauga. The Heath Anthology of American Literature Volume C Late ordinal Century 1865-1910. Ed. Suzanne P. Weir. Boston, New York Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006. 455-459.

Financial forecasting & planning Essay

Financial medical prognosiss be, quite simply, your apprehend of how your commercial enterprise leave carry pop surface pecuniaryly over, say, the course of study ahead. Preparing forecasts go out help you to assess your believably sales income, be, external financing needs and breadability. Financial forecasts atomic number 18 essential if you need to overturn money from a third gear party, such as a cashbox. But they also provide you with the means to monitor performance on, say, a monthly considerations and thereby come effective pecuniary find out arguably the second most important management function in running a business. ObjectivesThe ride of this section is to help you to prep ar financial forecasts. It will enable you toUnderstand greeting and pricing procedure break-even analysis as a way of mountain sales targetsUnderstand financial foretellingAssess operative capital of the United States requirements.AssignmentThe purpose of these assignmen ts is to ensure that you are able to prepare the necessary financial forecasts for your business. Satisfactory completion of the set of assignments will demonstrate that you know and understand how to Identify and calculate the financial outlines it will be necessary to prepare. Calculate your use up personal survival budget.Determine the funding/materials requirements of starting in business. Consider how you will load down and keep effective financial control of the business. Consider and excogitation to deal with alternative scenarios.1. Personal budgetHow much money do you need for yourself. Think about food, clothes, holidays, personal travel, etc. Draw up a personal budget. Dont skimp. You whitethorn be in business to give way fun but you need to make money as well. Use this budget in calculating your represent and prices. Of course you may not amaze enough sales at the start to be able to take that enumerate of money, so you should also calculate the minimum requirem ent that you must take from the business.2. Costing and pricingCalculate each(prenominal) your cost and monishmine a suitable price for your product or service. Think about your raw material requirements as part of your direct be view about your pre sum upable overhead costs.3. Break-evenNow that you have calculated tout ensemble your costs and set a price, you should be in a position to prepare a break-even chart. Is your forecast of sales above or below break-even? Do you have a reasonable margin of safety? How much proceeds will you make if you procure your sales forecast?4. Forecasting make headway and overtakingYou should have all the figures that you need to prepare a forecast of boodle and loss. What is your anticipated gross profit margin? What is your operating profit? How much money will be retained in the business?5. Cash feast forecastingYou should have all the figures that you need to prepare a property flow forecast. Remember to think about all(prenominal) thing posen on the profit and loss name, usance items not shown on the profit and loss and, in particular, to think about timing or receipts and payments. You will also need to think carefully about your stock memory requirements and your capital expenditure. The first time you prepare the cash flow, ignore some(prenominal) investment or borrowing other than that required for capital equipment. The worst accumulative deficit will indicate the minimum level of working capital required.6. Forecasting your balance tabOnce you have completed the profit and loss and cash flow forecasts, youshould be able to prepare a balance sheet forecast. What level of working capital requirement is suggested by the balance sheet?7. Sensitivity analysisHave another look at your profit and loss and cash flow forecasts. What happens if sales are 15% less than you have forecast? Do you still make a profit? What happens if raw material prices go up by 25%? What does this do to your profitability? fa nny you pass on such growings to your customers or will they switch suppliers?8. Effective financial controlYou should now be in a position to exercise control over your business. Will you use a childly manual book-keeping system or a computerised one? As a brief reminder, issue down the identify reasons for keeping effective financial control. What are the critical numbers at which to look to ensure you retain effective financial control?Break Even AnalysisBreak-even analysis identifies the point at which your business starts to make a profit. You freighter work out the break-even point using any timescale, e.g. weekly, monthly, yearly, etc. To calculate the break-even point you need to know the following The total fixed costs of your business these include rent and rates, your drawings, loan refunds, etc The total versatile costs for producing your product these include labour, materials and packaging and The dealing price of your product.Once you have these figures, you can work out your break-even point using four simple calculations and plotting the findings on a graph.ExampleRon from Widgets R Us want to work out how many thingamajigs he needs to sell in order to break-even every month. He works his fixed costs out as followsRent 167 per monthSalary 834 per monthRates 70 per monthLoan repayment 100 per monthTotal 1,171(1 = Rs.84)(Note It is better to round figures up rather than down, as this will increase your safety margin.)This figure can be plotted as followsRon thence works out his variable costs for the production of each widget Materials 9.00Packaging 1.00Labour 11.00Total cost 21.00 per widget(1 = Rs.84)He selects a range on the number of widgets axis (in this case, 250) and does the following calculation 250 widgets x 21.00 per widget = 5,250Ron plots this figure on the graph and draws a straight line from it to zero.The next step is for Ron to work out his total costs. To do this, he adds his fixed costs to his variable cost s 1,171 + 5,250 = 6,421 (1 = Rs.84)He plots this figure on the graph and draws a straight line from it to 1,171 on the Pounds axis.Ron now needs to work out his revenue line. To do this, he simply multiplies his products change price by the example number of widgets he chose earlier (250) 32.50 x 250 = 8,125 (1 = Rs.84)He then plots this figure on the graph and draws a straight line from it to zero.Ron can now find his break-even point simply by locating the exact point where the revenue line disects the total costs line.In this case, Ron must sell 100 widgets each month if his business is to break-even. If he sells more(prenominal)(prenominal) than 100, he makes a profit if he sells less he makes a loss.Costing And PricingCostsAlthough accountants define costs in several different ship canal, there are, effectively, just two types of cost. The first cost is that which is at once attributable to the product or service. Direct costs include, for example, raw materials and sub-con tract work. If you make desks, for example, the cost of wood will be a direct cost. Within reason, the cost will be the same for each desk, no matter how many desks you make. When you make a sale the income first has to cover the direct costs relating to that sale. whatever is left is called gross profit or contribution.All other costs are overheads. These include, for example, staff salaries, marketing, rent, rates and insurance. They also include derogation that is, an fall by the waysideance for behave and tear on capital equipment. Overheads are often called fixed costs because, generally, they are fixed for the business. Interest is often regarded as a deduction from boodle profit rather than an overhead cost. You need to include it as an overhead in your costing calculations, even though it varies with the size of your overdraft or loan. If you are self-employed, you will take drawings from the business. Whilst, strictly speaking, drawings are an advance a sack upst profi t, include them (and an allowance for income tax) as an overhead when calculating total costs.The contribution is so-called because it contributes towards covering the overhead costs. all(prenominal) sale generates a contribution. When enough contributions have been made, and all the overhead costs are covered, they start to contribute to net profit. PriceThe price at which you sell your product or service clearly needs to exceed the total costs of providing it. But the price should also reflect what the market can stand. If you are selling a differentiated product or haveadopted a strategy of market focus then you may also be able to charge a premium price. If you are pursuing a cost leadership strategy you will need to be ruthless in keeping your costs down and under control.In calculating your price you will need to follow a number of steps Estimate your in all probability sales for a period, say, one year Calculate the total direct costs and divide by the sales volume to give direct costs per building block (say per product or per hour of service) Calculate your total overhead costs and divide by the sales volume to give overhead costs per unit Add direct costs per unit and overhead costs per unit to give total cost per unit and, Add a get along profit margin (to allow for reinvestment, etc). If necessary, add bathtub as well. You now have a first stab price. How does that compare with your competitors? Will customers buy at that price? Do you need to reduce costs? Can you achieve a higher profit margin?What happens if you fail to achieve sales at the determined price? Remember that the overhead costs are fixed, so if sales fall the overheads will be spread over fewer items and the unit cost effectively increases. The converse is also true. Increasing the volume of sales means that the overheads are spread over more units, so the unit cost falls. This means that you can, if you choose, reduce the price. And reducing the price might increase your level of sales. Its a fine balancing act.DepreciationDepreciation is an allowance for snap and tear on the equipment used in your business. As time passes, your equipment will usually lose value, and this can be considered a cost to your business. You need to think about how long you expect your assets to last. For example, if you purchase a computer system, you may forecast that in 5 years it will be obsolete. That means the depreciation rate is 20% per year. If you determine it to be 2 years, then it will be 50% per year. This does not have any effect on cash flow, just on how profits are calculated. Deprecation is an accounting cost that must be included to give a Profit & Loss account more relevance. Finance Action Planner (FAP)The Finance Action Planner (FAP) is a learning tool that will help you to Develop your all-round financial skillsLearn more about a range of financial issuesIdentify suitable sources of financeCreate a set of financial forecastsTest out different financial sc enariosFinancial forecastsOnce you have an idea of your promising costs and an idea of how much you need to sell to make a profit you are in a position to prepare financial forecasts. on that point are three basic financial statements (the profit and loss account (P&L) the cash flow statement and the balance sheet) that describe the activities and financial state of any business. These can be prepared on a historical basis to show how a business performed during a defined period or as forecasts as estimates of how the business will perform in the future. 3 steps to forecasting1. Businesses often start by forecasting their cash flow and then aim to derive other forecasts from it. It makes more sense, however, to start by forecasting the income and expenditure of the business, which will indicate whether you will make a profit, then worry about when money will be received or paid out to discover if you will have enough cash when it is needed. Income and expenditure is summarise d in a profit and loss account. 2. You will also need to look at your likely sales for, say, the year ahead. This needs to relate back to your market research and, if you are already in business, to previous performance.The direct costs can then be estimated (usually as a percentage of sales) to give gross profit. 3. The next step is to estimate the likely overheads. Deducting these gives an operating profit forecast. If the net profit is too low you will either need to assess whether you can achieve higher sales or whether you can reduce the overheads. When preparing your forecasts, remember to allow for increased costs, for instance, due to inflation or future pay awards. If you do need a loan, then you will also need to allow an amount for loan interest. If you use equipment, remember to allow for depreciation. Whilst depreciation isnot included in the P&L, you may need to allow for the replacement or repairs of machinery, so you may wish to include a contingency.The P&L forecast will show whether you are likely to achieve your first key financial requirement making a profit.Preparing cash flow forecastsIn preparing your forecasts, you will need to think carefully about all your costs, about your price and likely sales at that price and about the timing of both receipts and payments.As mentioned above, the first forecast that you set out should ideally be a P&L, summarizing income and expenditure for, say, the year ahead. You might do this monthly or annually. The P&L is important for demonstrating profitability over the very short term, however, the key requirement is to generate cash and know the businesss working capital requirements. This can best be done by preparing cash flow forecast which should set out all the information, month by month, regarding cash inflows and outflows. The cash flow forecast should include Receipts of cash from customersPayments for raw materialsPayments for all other expensesDrawings and wagesCapital expenditureCapital, loan s or grants introducedLoan repaymentsVAT receipts and payments (if VAT registered) and,Tax payments.All of these items should normally be shown separately and in the month into which the money will be received, or paid by, your business.For businesses with a modest turnover and that demonstrate profitability in the year, it is normal only to forecast one year ahead, with a monthly cash flow. Larger businesses, especially those seeking equity investments and/or which do not show profitability in the year, may need to prepare forecastsfor two or three years. The first year cash flow is usually shown monthly, the second year quarterly and the third year just a single annual figure.It is often helpful when preparing cash flow forecasts initially to ignore any finance that is available from the edge or other lenders. The cash flow forecast then shows the true position of the business. It can then be used to decide if the budget is practicable and can be adjusted to reflect the true pos ition and to assess the total funding requirement.If you do not have sufficient money of your own, then you will need to seek loan finance or an equity investor. Most pocket-sized businesses simply look for loan finance. Aim to match the term of the loan to the life of the asset for which it is required. It would be normal to look for a short-term loan, for example, to purchase equipment, or a long-term loan to purchase premises. You will also need to buy stock and pay overheads whilst awaiting payment from your customers. The money required is called working capital and is typically funded by an overdraft. When preparing your cash flow forecast, you may like initially only to include personal investment or loan finance for fixed assets and to ignore funds for working capital. The worst cumulative deficit will then give an indication of your total working capital requirement. Of course, the amount that you need to borrow can be reduced if you have more available to invest yourself. If you have a term loan, the capital repayments will not figure in your profit and loss account they are not a business expense although the interest portion of the repayments will be charged as an expense. However, the repayments do need to be included in your cash flow forecast.Balance sheetThe money in a business can only come from three sources capital introduced by the owner(s) loans (whether from the bank or, effectively, from creditors) and, retained earnings that is, profit which has been generated by, and retained within, the business. That money is used to finance the fixed and contemporary assets of the business. Current liabilities includeCreditorsOverdraftsLoans due within one yearMoney owed under hire purchase agreementsAny amounts owed in VAT or tax, etc.In larger businesses, loans falling due in more than one year are usually shown separately. You will, however, have a better idea of your businesss performance if you show all loans as current liabilities.Current a ssets less current liabilities show your working capital requirement. Since the balance sheet is merely a snapshot, however, it may be better to deduce your working capital requirement from the cash flow forecast.The net assets are always equal to the capital introduced plus reserves that is, the net finance, sometimes known as net worth or the equity of the business.The net finance, together with any long-term loans, is called the capital employed. All borrowing should be included when calculating capital employed.Pricing strategiesThe greatest danger when setting a price for the first time is to pitch it too low. Raising a price is always more difficult than trim backing one, yet there are great temptations to undercut the competition. It is clearly important to compare your prices to your competitors, but it is essential that your price covers all your costs. There are a number of possible pricing strategies from which you might choose. These include 1. Cost based pricing tota l costs are calculated and a mark up is added to give the required profit. 2. Skimming you charge a relatively high price to recover set up costs readily if the product is good or new. As more competitors enter the market, you lower the price. 3. Individual you negotiate prices individually with customers based on how much they are prepared to buy. 4. Loss leaders if you wish to sell to a particular market then you might sell one product or service cheaper to gain marketentry.You balance this by selling other products or services at a higher price. This can be risky as the danger is that everything becomes a loss leader. 5. Expected price what does the customer expect to pay? If you are selling a quality product, do not under price. a good deal the customer expects to pay a lot as the product or service has a certain snob value and this may be change magnitude if you under price. 6. Differential pricing you charge different segments of your market different prices for the sa me service. For example, offering discounts to certain people like pensioners or the unemployed, or charging lower rates for quiet periods. If, after working out your costs, the price you charge is much greater than your competitors then you will have to look at ways of reducing costs.Sensitivity analysisIt is important to know how sensitive your forecast is to changes. Sensitivity analysis looks at what if? scenarios. What happens to your cash position, for example, if sales fall by 10%? What happens if your main supplier increases raw material prices by 12%? Financial institutions when considering propositions for a loan particularly use sensitivity analysis. If your business is particularly sensitised to small changes, then you probably do not have a sufficiently large profit margin. You will thus be less likely to receive the loan required. You may find it difficult to cut costs. You may not be able simply to increase prices to improve your margins that might deter customers. Are there other ways in which you can push up the margins, e.g. by increasing output?Having undertaken your sensitivity analysis, you may need to refreshen elements of your forecast. Sensitivity analysis can help in making decisions. You may want to consider, for example, the effect of increased raw material, labour or overhead costs of reducing prices, with constant volumes, to counteract competitors or reducing volumes, with constant prices, due to over optimistic forecasts. Furthermore, if you are about to spend a large sum of money on equipment, you may want to look ahead several years, if at all possible.Including a sensitivity analysis in your business image will demonstrate thatyou have thought about some of the potential risks and that is half way to avoiding them.VAT (Value Added Tax)VAT is tax paid on the value added at each stage of delivery of a product or service. It is a method whereby businesses act as tax collectors for the Government. If you are registered for VA T, by submitting a VAT return you can claim back what you have paid in VAT, and hand over what you have collected. Not all goods are assessable for example, insurance, some education and training, and postal services are exempt. If items are VAT-able, then, ignoring VAT on fuel, there are two rates standard (currently 17.5%), and zero-rated. Zero rated items are different from exempt items. It is only necessary to register if your output is taxable. If you do register, you will be able to recover VAT on your purchases including materials, capital equipment and overheads. You will, however, have to charge VAT on your sales.The difference between what you collect and what you pay out in VAT is passed on in due course to springer & Excise. There is more paperwork involved if you are VAT registered you need tax invoices showing your VAT number, an analyzed VAT account, and VAT return forms. It may, however, be expedient to register voluntarily if your sales are below the turnover limit, because VAT paid on purchases can be reclaimed. You may also reclaim VAT on capital equipment, raw materials and stocks bought before registration, provided the business still owns them. If you are selling to VAT registered businesses, it is likely to be more attractive for you to register. If you are selling to the general public, it probably will not be. This is, however, an area where you should seek professional advice.CASE STUDYBrians Book-keeping BusinessBrian runs a book-keeping service for several small businesses. His overheads are as follows Costs Per year (1 = Rs.84)Office costs5,000Advertising 1,100Insurance550Telephone650Vehicle running costs900Other3,000Brian works 40 hours per week. He spends 8 hours per week on administration, marketing, etc. He works 45 weeks each year allowing for holidays and illness. Brian draws 200 out of the business each week.Brian has been asked to undertake a specific task and estimates he will need to spend 12 hours on it. What is th e cost of providing the service?How much should he charge?SolutionWhat is the cost of providing the service?1. Total hours worked per annum = 32 hours per week x 45 = 1,440 hours 2. Total drawings = 200 x 52 = 10,4003. Total fixed costs = 11,2004. Total costs = 21,6005. Costs per hour = 21,600/1,440 = 156. For a job lasting 12 hours, the cost is 180(1 = Rs.84)How much should he charge?Brian has decided that he should also add a further 20% profit margin in case his costs go up and to make a little extra for reinvestment. 180 + 20% = 216He is also registered for VAT and needs, therefore, to add VAT at the standard rate (17.5%)216 + 17.5% = 253.80So the price he charges to his customer is 253.80Useful tips1. Some readers of your business plan will regard the financial forecasts as the most important component. It is where you summarise the evaluate income, dependent on your market research, and where you set out your expected costs. 2. The forecasts need to demonstrate that the bus iness is viable and that there is a sufficient margin of comfort to allow for fall in demand or increase in costs. 3. Take care to prepare your financial forecasts asaccurately as you can. Then compare your actual results with your forecasts and, if necessary, take corrective action at an early stage to keep yourself on course.

The Pirate Bay

C ASE S TUDY The P acid request The Worlds Most Resilient Copyright Infringer? The P stinging speak (TPB), a Swedish meshing site ( pirate shipbay. org), is one of the worlds most popular pirated music and content sites, offering clcapitulum access to millions of copyrighted songs and thousands of copyrighted Hollywood movies. In June 2011, The Pirate verbalize reported t assume it had about 5 m illion r egistered u s ers, a nd 25 m illion n on-registered u sers ( so-c entirelyed free riders ). To p ut t hat n drinking chocolate i n p e rsp ec tive, c onsider t hat i t is n early t hr ee t imes t h e p opulation o f S weden i tself (9 m illion).T he P irate Bay is r egularly i n t he t op 100 m ost p opular clear sites i n t he w orld, a nd r eac h es 1 % o f t he global I nt e rn et popula tion, according to I nternet a nalysts i n 2 0ll. I n S weden, Norway, a nd t he Ne therlands, i t o ften r anks a s o ne o f t he t op 10 s ites. T his d espit e t he fac t t hat TPB h as b een s ubjected t o r epeated l egal efforts to s hut i t do wn . I t b ills itself a s the worlds m ost r esilient b ittorrent site. But t he h attIe is far f rom over.T he I nternet i s b ecoming a t ough p lace f or m usic a nd v ideo p irates to m ak e a liv in g i n p guile b e c aus e o f e nforce ment a ctions, b ut m ore i mportantly b ecause o f new m obile a nd w ireless t echnologies t hat e nable h igh-quality c ontent to b e s treamed for j ust a s mall fee. Q. search Torrents I I 1rt. J. 9 I I 1D R.. 92 How d o I clo wno. d? == F irst s ome b ackground. T he P irate Bay is p art o f a E uropean s ocial a nd p olitical m ovement t hat o pposes c opyrighted c ontent a nd d emands t hat m usic, v ideos, TV shows, a nd o ther d igital c ontent b e f ree a nd u nrestricted.I n t he w ords o f t he P irate Party, the P irate B ay is a u nique p latform for d istributing c ulture b etween r egular p eople a nd i ndependent a rtists, a nd t hats s omething w e w ant to p reserve. I n a u nique t wist o n p rior e fforts to p rovide free m usic, T he P irate Bay d oes n ot o perate a d atabase o f c opyrighted c ontent. N either d oes i t o perate a n etwork o f c omputers o wned b y members w ho s tore t he c ontent, n or c reate, o wn, o r d istribute s oftware ( alike BitTorrent a nd m ost o ther s o-called P2P n etworks) t hat p ermit s uch n etworks t o e xist i n t he f irst place.T hese w ere t he o ld t echniques for r ipping o ff m usic. I nstead, T he P irate Bay s imply p rovides a s earch e ngine t hat r esponds to u ser q ueries for m usic t racks, o r s pecific m ovie t itles, a nd g enerates a l ist o f s earch r esults t hat i nclude P2P n etworks a round t he w orld w here t he t itles c an b e f ound. By click ing o n a s elected l ink, u sers g ain a ccess t o t he c opyrighted c ontent, b ut o nly a fter d ownloading s oftware a nd o ther files f rom t hat P2P n etwork. Voila No body, n o c rime. T he P irate Bay j ust l inks i ts u sers to s tolen m edia files. W hat c ould b e i llegal? T he P irate Bay c laims i t is m erely a s earch e ngine p rovid ing p ointers to existing P2P n etworks t hat it d oes n ot i tself c ontrol. I t c laims t hat i t c annot c ontrol w hat c ontent u sers u ltimately f ind o n t hose P2P n etworks, a nd t hat it is n o d ifferent f rom a ny o ther s earch e ngine, s uch a s Google o r Bing, w hich a re n ot h eld r esponsible for t he c ontent f ound o n s ites l isted i n s earch r esults.F rom a b roader s tandpoint, T he P irate Bays f ounders a lso c laim t hat c opyright l aws i n g en eral u njustly i nterfere w ith t he f ree flow o f i nformation o n t he I nternet, a nd t hat i n a ny e vent, t hey w ere n ot v iolating S wedish c opyright law, w hich t hey f elt s hould b e t he o nly l aw t hat a pplied. A nd t hey f urther c laimed t hey d id n ot e ncourage, i ncite, o r e nable i llegal d ownloading. N evertheless, t he d efendants h ave n ever d enied t h eirs w as a c ommercial e nterprise.D espite all t he t alk b y t he P irate P arty c alling for t he free, u nfettered s pread o f c ulture, T he P irate B ay w as a m oney-making o peration f rom t he b eginning, d esigned to p roduce p rofits for its founders, w ith a dvertising a s t he p rimary s ource o f r evenue. H owever, i n a r uling t hat p uts to r est t he n otion t hat t he l aw is a lways b ehind t he d evelopment o f t echnology, t he F irst S wedish C ourt i n S tockholm d eclared t he f our f ounders g uilty o f v iolating S wedish c opyright law, a nd s entenced e ach t o o ne y ear i n p rison a nd p ayment o f $3. m illion i n r estitution to t he p laintiffs, all S wedish d ivisions o fthe m ajor r ecord l abel f irms ( Warner Music, Sony, a nd EMI G roup a mong t stitch). T he c ourt s aid By p roviding a w ebsite w ith . w ell-developed s earch f unc tions, e asy u ploading a nd s torage possibilities, a nd w ith a t racker l inked to t he w eb site, t he a ccused h ave i ncited t he c rimes t hat t he file s harers h ave c ommitted. T he c ourt a lso s aid t hat t he f our d efendants h ad b een a ware o f t he fact t hat c opyrighted m aterial w as s hared w ith t he h elp o f t heir site.T he p rison s entence w as j ustified b y extensive accessibility o f o thers c opyrights a nd t he fact t hat t he o peration w as c on ducted c ommercially a nd i n a n o rganized f ashion. I n o ther w ords, t he c ourt b elieved t he d efendants w ere e ngaged i n a c ommercial e nterprise, t he b asis o f w hich w as e ncouraging v isitors to v iolate t he c opyrights o f o wners. I n fact, t he p rimary p urpose o f T he P irate B ay w as to violate c opyrights i n o rder to m ake m oney for t he o wners ( commercial i ntent). Enable, induce, a nd push c opyright i nfringement a nd intent to sell a re k ey w ords i n t his r uling a nd T he P irate Bay case. T hese c oncepts g rounded i n W estern l aw a re n ot disabled b y n ew t ec hnology, b ut i nstead c an b e, a nd are, e xtensible to n ew t echnologies, a nd u sed to s hape t echnology t o societys n eeds a nd w ishes. I ndeed, t heres a c onsensus d eveloping a mong p rosecutors a nd c ourts w orld wide t hat i nfringement is n ot j ustified s imply b ecause i ts t echnically p ossible to do i t o n t he I nternet.T he P irate Bay is a ppealing t he c ourt j udgment, h as p aid n o fine, a nd i ts o wners h ave, as yet, n ever s pent a n ight i n j ail. T he P irate Bay Web site c ontinues to o perate i n S weden m uch a s before. Well, almost. I n 2 0ll, t he f irm m oved i ts s ervers i nto c aves i n S weden, a nd d ispersed m ultiple c opies o f i ts p rogram to o ther c ountries j ust i n c ase Swedish legal philosophy t ry t o confiscate its s ervers a gain. Meanwhile, t he u . S. g overnment p ressured t he S wedish g overnment to s trengthen i ts copyright laws to discourage r ampant d ownloading.I n S weden, downloading m usic a nd v ideos from illegal sites w as v ery popular, e ngaged i n b y 43% o fthe S wedish screen net p opulation. 1b s trengthen its laws, S weden a dopted t he E uropean U nion c onven tion o n c opyrights, w hich allows c ontent o wners to possess f rom I nternet p roviders t he n ames a nd a ddresses o f p eople s uspected o f s haring p irated files. I n F rance, participat ing i n t hese p irate sites will r esult i n b anishment f rom t he I nternet for u p to t hree y ears.As a result, I nternet traffic i n S weden d eclined b y 40 % , a nd h as s tayed t here. Like t he f ight a gainst t he o riginal C aribbean p irates o f t he s eventeenth c entury, g lobal forces c ontinue t o m arshal a gainst T he P irate Bay. N ot t he B ritish N avy t his t ime, b ut a l oose c oalition o f t he U nited S tates a nd a n umber o f E uropean c ountries .. T he f irm h as b een h ounded b y l awsuits, police raids, a nd c onfiscation o f s ervers i n F rance, Finland, Italy, G ermany, D enmark, I reland, t he U. K. , a nd G reece.T hese c ountries h ave i n s ome c ases r efused to allow I nternet s ervice p roviders i n t heir c ountries to h ost T he P irate Bay, o r l ink to T he P irate Bay, n o m atter w here i n t he w orld i ts s ervers a re l ocated. T he P irate Bay h as c aused E ngland, France, Malaysia, F inland, a nd m ost r ecently t he U nited States, to c onsider s trong i ntellectual p rop erty p rotection l aws t hat w ill p revent d omestic s earch e ngines a nd ISPs f rom l inking to i nfringing sites, o r r esolving t heir d omain n ames. C alled t he P rotect IP Act, t he p roposed l egislation n ow i n t he U.S. S enate i s a n e ffort to s hut o ff t raffic f rom t he U nited S tates to offshore p irate s ites t hat h ave n o s ignificant u se o ther t han e ngaging, e nabling, o r f acilitating t he illegal c opying o r d istribution o f c opyrighted m aterial i n substantially c omplete form. T he t arget s ites m ust b e dedicated t o infringing. I n a ddition, t he l aw w ould p ermit i ntellectual p roperty o wners a nd g overnment a gencies to s eek i njunctions a gainst i nfringing sites, p otentially s hutting t hem d own i mmediately u ntil t he i ssues c an b e a rgued i n c ourt.For o nshore sites, t he I mmigra tion a nd C ustoms E nforcement (ICE) a gency a lready s eizes Web site d omains t hat v iolate U. S. laws o n I nternet g ambling a nd i ntellectual p roperty t heft, a nd r edirects t his t raffic to a Web p age h osted b y ICE e xplaining t he a ction. T he P rotect I P Act a nd s imilar l egislation i n E urope is o pposed b y civil l iberties g roups a nd s earch e ngine f irms s uch a s Google.T he E lectronic F rontier F oundation (EFF) b elieves d efining dedicated i nfringing sites c ould b e s omewhat a rbitrary, a nd t he l egislation i ntroduces t he p ossibility t hat g overnment a gencies c ould c ensor o r s hut d own Web sites, t hreatening f reedom o f s peech. Eric Schmidt, n ow C hairman o f G oogle, said i n May 2011 t hat Google will fight all proposed restrictions o n s earch e ngine linking b ecause t hey c ould set a disastrous precedent for freedom o f speech, a nd l ead to censorship similar to t hat i mposed b y C hina.Because Googles s earch e ngine is u sed b y m illions o f people e very d ay to find BitThrrent sites, Google itself is a major contributor to infringement, albeit unintentionally. Meanwhile, t he w orlds largest advertising agency, GroupM, h as k eelhauled T he P irate Bay a nd 2,000 o ther s ites worldwide b y p utting t he s ites o n i ts blacklist o f copyright infringing sites w here it will n ot b uy a dvertising space.Pirating intellectual p roperty is, higher up all, about t he m oney, as a ny good pirate knows. T he P irate Bay case is j ust t he l atest i n a saga o f c ourt c ases involving t he r ecord industry, w hich w ants to preserve its d ominance o f c opyrighted music, a nd I nter net u sers who w ant free music. I n 200S, after several years o f h eated c ourt b attles, t he c ase o f Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios v. Grokster, et al. f inally r eached t he u . S. Supreme Court.I n J une 200S, t he C ourt h anded d own its u nanimous decision Inter net file-sharing services s uch as Grokster, StreamCast, BitThrrent, a nd Kazaa could b e h eld liable for copyright i nfringement b ecause t hey i ntentionally s ought to induce, enable, a nd e ncourage users to share m usic t hat w as o wned b y r ecord companies. Indeed, i t w as t heir b usiness model steal t he music, g ather a h uge a udience, a nd m onetize t he a udience b y a dvertising o r t hrough s ubscription fees. Since t he c ourt ruling, Kazaa, Morpheus, Grokster, BearShare, iMesh, a nd m any o thers h ave e ither . one o ut o f business o r s ettled w ith t he r ecord firms a nd c onverted themselves i nto legal file-sharing sites b y e ntering i nto relationships w ith m usic i ndustry firms. I n May 2010, M ark Gorton, founder o f t he l argest u. S. pirate site, LimeWire, anomic a copy right i nfringement case. I n May 2011, a dmitting h is guilt (I w as wrong), a nd h aving facilitated t he m ass p iracy o f billions o f s ongs over a lO-year period, Gorton a nd h is file-sharing c ompany a greed to compensate t he four largest record labels b y p aying t hem $10S million.T hese l egal victories, a nd s tronger g overnment e nforcement o f c opyright laws, have n ot p roven to b e t he m agic b ullet t hat m iraculously solves all t he p roblems facing t he m usic i ndustry. I n a ddition to t he i ssue o f illegal downloads, legitimate digital music sales h ave so far failed to m ake u p for falling CD s ales revenues. T he o nly h ope for t he m usic i ndustry is to change its b usiness m odel a nd decisively move towards digital distribution platforms. H ere t hey a re m aking s triking progress b ut c ontinue to face r evenue declines.I n 2011, digital m usic sales a ccount for n early SO% o f industry r evenues, to taling $S. 7 billion, u p f rom $1. 9 billion i n 2006. I n 2 m2, digital sales o f m usic will exceed sales from CDs. I n 2011, a nnual r evenue f rom CD s ales is 1ess t han h alf of 200S1evels. Album sales o f 12 o r m ore songs, b oth digital a nd o n CD, a re also d own IS% a nnually o ver t he s ame p eriod. Since 2003, t housands o f r etail music stores have closed, a nd Walmart h as c ut b ack s helf s pace attached to CDs a nd n ow c arries only t he t op titles.As CD sales o f complete albums p lummet, o nline m usic s ales o f singles are soar ing rapidly, l ed b y iThnes. Sales o f digital m usic a t iThnes, Rhapsody, a nd e Music have b een growing a t a bout SO% p er y ear s ince 2006. Apple dominates t he m usical download s cene a nd h as b ecome t he l argest retailer o f m usic i n t he U nited States, SOURCES Worlds Biggest Ad effect Keelhauls 2,000 Pirate Sites, by Natalie Apostolu, The Register, June 14, 2011 Internet Piracy and How to Stop It, New York Time s, June 8,2011 The Pirate Bay FiveYears After the Raid, by Ernesto, Torrentfreak. com, May 31,2011 Why Google Would Defend Pirate Bay? , by Parmy Olson, Forbes, May 19, 2011 The Protect IPAct COICA Redux, by Abigail Phillips, Electronic Frontier Foundation, May 12,2011 Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft 01 Intellectual Property (Protect IP Act) 012011, unite States Senate, 112th Congress, 1st Session, 2011 Pirate Bay Keeps Sinking Another Law Suit Coming, by Stan Schroeder, mashable. com, June 22, 2010 Idea Man 01 LineWire at aCrossroads, by Joseph Plambeck, New York Times, May 23, 2010 Pirate Bay Sunk by Hollywood Injunction For Now, by Charles Arthur, The Guardian, May 17 2010 British PutTeeth in Anti Piracy Proposal, by Eric Planner, New York Times, marching music 14,2010 How Pandora Slipped Past the Junkyard, by Claire Cain Miller, New York Times, March 7, 2010. r eplacing Walmart. By 2011, t he i Thnes Store h ad s old o ver 15 billion songs, 450 million TV shows, a nd o ver 100 million movies, m aking i t t he w orlds m ost p opular o nline m usic, TV, a nd m ovie store.Its r evenues a re u p 75% i n t he l ast year. Driving t his p erformance, o f course, are t he s ales o f its motley i-devices. By mid-2011, Apple h ad s old over 300 million iPods (all models), over 125 million iPhones, a nd 25 m illion iPads. A nd a ccording to a s tudy b y A rbor N etworks a nd t he U niversity o f M ichigan, p eer-to-peer t raffic is s hrinking d ramatically, a nd s treaming o f video a nd m usic f rom l egitimate s ites h as g rown to o ver 10 % o f all I nternet traffic.R esearchers s urmise t hat c onsumers h ave j ust f ound i t a l ot e asier a nd m ore c onvenient t o access videos a nd m usic f rom t hese s ites r ather t han u sing P2P s haring s ites w here a m ovie c an t ake e ight h ours to download, a nd w here d ownloading m usic t racks c an also b ring a h ost o f m al ware w ith t he m usic. I n a ddition, t he w hole i dea o f owning m usic i n t he f orm o f records, tapes, CDs, a nd m usic files s tored o n y our h ard d rive is o ut o f d ate. While s ubscription m odels i n t he p ast d id n ot w ork, t hey w ere l imited t o s treaming m usic t o d esktop a nd l aptop PCs.I n t he w orld o f mobile I nternet d evices, t he i dea o f s treaming m usic all d ay l ong t o y our i Phone o r B lackBerry is m uch m ore a ttractive. I n 2011, P andora, t he m usic streaming service, h as o ver 94 m illion r egistered u sers a nd 34 m illion s ubscribers, 30% o f w hom c onnect w ith s martphones. T he U. K. m usic s ervice Spotify o pened to U. S. c ustomers i n J uly 2011, a nd o ffers its 10 m illion s ubscribers a ccess to m ore t han 13 m illion s treaming m usic t racks t hat c an b e p layed i nstantly b y j ust d ragging t he s ong y ou w ant t o y our i Phone a pp.Users do n ot n eed t o w ait for d ownloads o r c lutter t heir h ard d rives a nd f lash drives w ith files, o r o rganize t he t housands o f s ongs o n t heir s torage devices. However, a d ownload s ervice was a dded i n 2011. I n e ach o f t hese n ew m edia d elivery p latforms, t he c opyright o wners-record c ompanies, a rtists, a nd H ollywood s tudios-have s truck l icensing d eals w ith t he t ech nology p latform o wners a nd d istributors (Apple, Amazon, a nd Google).T hese n ew p latforms o ffer a w in-win s olution. C onsumers a re b enefitted b y h aving n ear i nstant a ccess to high-quality m usic t racks a nd v ideos w ithout t he h assle o f P2P software downloads. C ontent o wners g et a g rowing r evenue s tream a nd p rotection for t heir c opyrighted c ontent. A nd t he p irates? T he P irate Bay a nd o ther p irate s ites m ay n ot b e a ble to c ompete w ith n ew a nd b etter w ays to l isten t o m usic a nd v iew v ideos.Like t he r eal p irates o f the C aribbean, t echnology a nd c onsumer p bring up for e ase o f use m ay l eave t hem b ehind. Case Study Questions 1. Do you think The Pirate Bay can continue to survive in a global Internet world? Why or why not? 2. Why is legislation like The Protect IP Act opposed by Google and civil liberties groups? 3. Do you think it is possible to reliably identify dedicated infringing Web sites? What criteria do you raise? 4. Why does cloud computing threaten pirate sites?

Islamic Womens’ Rights Essay

Islam since its inception has maintained the select of universality a message and a way of life applicable and appropriate to all peoples in all places and times. Now more clearly than at any other point in the history of the Moslem tradition, this claim seems to be manifested through the presence of Muslim communities literally across the world. The Muslim population is estimated in the range of one billion, approximately half of whom be women representing a great range of cultures, racial-ethnic identifications, interests, attitudes, and aspirations.While it may be rather daunting to attempt to generalize about Muslim women, it is nonetheless true that certain themes fall out with some regularity when one looks across the Muslim world. Muslims struggle with and attempt to reconcile the affirmation of their heritage with the challenges of the modern world and the ongoing legacy of western sandwich imperialism. Muslim women in all societies are key to these discussions, both( prenominal) subjects and objects in a very important and continuing meditate about what it factor to be a Islamic woman.Womens rights (both Islamic and constitutional) are under constant debate, as are matters of seclusion and segregation, the family relationship of womens dowry to fundamentalist spiritual pressures, and the role of women in political struggles for independence and economic advancement. Some countries such as Egypt ease up stressed the importance of womens education for the better secern of the century. Others like Saudi Arabia have only recently begun to work toward this goal.It is clear that oerall there is increased attention to the importance of education for Muslim females both as a right and a value in and of itself, and as an essential ingredient in the advancement of nations. As in galore(postnominal) areas, it is as well clear that enormous differences exist educationally for women in urban and in rural areas, a dichotomy that at least in the short run away probably will become even more pronounced (Carroll 85). There is also the major concern of womens employment in Muslim countries and the debate over which occupations are considered proper for women to pursue.In many countries shortages in the labor force are making it imperative for women to work, but the tide of traditionalism tends to decrease strongly in limiting those opportunities. In many countries increasing results of women are engaged as wage earners, but they are limited earlier to such occupations as teaching and medicine (Hussein and Radwan 12). The oil wealth of the Gulf states had led both to better education and to more work opportunities, although the conservative Islamic ethos has severely complicated the situation.Kuwait offers the greatest opportunities for womens employment, and Bahrain with its economic diversification is opening new doors for female employment (Hussein and Radwan 12). Whether because of or despite Islam or regimen policies, wome n across the Islamic world are becoming more economically active. This does not necessarily mean, of course, that they are imperativeness for increased work opportunities. Many women would cull not to work, doing so only because of economic necessities and happy that the extra money earned means a more comfortable life for their families.Enhanced master key opportunity for women is not without its down side. Women in a number of cultures have come to realize that along with the societal and familial strains that occur when women work out of doors the home (including perceptions that men cannot support their families) is the reality of women taking on added responsibilities without the expectation that they will be able to do less in other areas of their lives. And the relationship of economically and politically active women to the advancement of the state adds further strains for many women (Mintjes 17).In Iraq, for example, womens liberation and full integration into society i s a dismantle of the Bath party platform. But reforms in personal status laws lag behind the political rhetoric, adding to the burdens of women (Sanasarian 124-125). This is generally true across the Islamic world, and it means that these burdens will continue as long as there is no real resolve in the tension betwixt needing women for national development and not being able to accord them full status in society because of socio-religious restrictions (Rassam 99).The other issue is, undoubtedly, the question of womens dress which is one of the most pressing concerns of Islamic societies today. Sometimes the government in allegiance with the religious establishment and seeking its support insists on women wearing appropriate covering. In other instances governments are making every attempt to discourage the wearing of Islamic dress precisely because they fear the rising power of extremist fundamentalism (Yeganeh 26-27).Today controversy over the governments ban on students wearing Islamic dress at the universities has become a major ideological and political issue. Islamic conservatives offer that the Quran dictates the wearing of the turban, preferably with a kind of long loose overcoat covering the body to the feet. The governments supreme educational council has recommended corrective action for any female students appearing in such dress. The debate has become a major one in the struggle between secularist political theory and Islamic revivalism in that country (Bahry 502).Besides, the question of birth overcome is a matter of major concern to many Muslim families. While a a couple of(prenominal) of the ulama, if supported by state efforts, are saying that there is Islamic sanction for some preventive measures, the majority oppose any such control as un-Islamic. When young Iraqi men and boys were being killed in the war with Iran, the government waged a campaign stressing the role of women as mothers. Contraceptives were no longer allowed at the same time that men were encouraged to take second wives for the purpose of having more children.Clearly there are differences in mens and womens attitudes on the issue of birth control. In Tunisia, for example, where legislation concerning women is generally seen to be more progressive than in many other countries, a survey showed that farther more women than men favored the use of contraceptives. Where official policy does not support the possibility of contraception more subtle measures are sometimes used. In Bahrain housing projects limit the number of bedrooms so that they are available only to families with two children (Bahry 509- 511).Finally, a word needs to be said about Muslim women and the rise of feminism. It cannot perhaps be emphasized too strongly that whatever stand Islamic women may take on issues of education, employment, and equal opportunities in society, they have serious reservations about what they understand to be feminism in the Western context. For the most par t they find it too individualistic, too removed from genuine cooperation between males and females, and too much tied to forms of Western colonialism and imperialism.Sexual behavior that may strike an American feminist as liberated, said one young Tunisian woman, may strike me as just another form of slavery, and a rather neurotic form at that (Megademeni 10). Muslim women and men together are still very much in the process of working out ways in which to affirm their Islamic identity as members of societies and nations moving into a new century. The issues they face will not be quickly or easily resolved.Women are not only faced by a number of conflicting pressures and claims on their allegiance, but find themselves speaking to a number of different audiences their husbands and families, their Islamic sisters, their Western critics, the clerics or government agencies responsible for determining many of the circumstances of their lives, themselves. There is little question that man y women across the Islamic world are becoming increasingly aware of the rights that belong to them within the Islamic system, as well as of themselves as key players in the movements that will continue to redefine the Islamic way of life.The responses they give to their own changing circumstances may vary with the different situations to which they are called to respond, and they may change fairly dramatically in the next few years. But it is clear that whatever solutions are found to the issues that they face, for most women they will be discovered in conversation with other females as well as males in the Muslim community, and they will be in one form or another Islamic solutions.Works Cited Bahry, Louay. The New Saudi Woman Modernizing in an Islamic Framework. Middle East Journal. Vol. 34 4, 2002. Carroll, Lucy. Nizan-I-Islam Processes an Conflicts in Pakistans Programme of Islamisation, with Special Reference to the Position of Women. In Journal of Commonwealth and Comparativ e Politics. Vol. 20 1992. Hussein, Freda and Radwan, Kamelia. The Islamic Revolution and Women Quest for the Quranic Model. Freda Hussein, ed. , Muslim Women. New York St. Martins Press, 1994. Megademeni, Negiba.Muslim Women Developing a Theory of Islamic Feminism. Unitarian Universalist World. Vol.16 8, August 15, 1995. Mintjes, H. The Doctor and the Ladies A New Debate on Women and Islam in Pakistan. al-Mushir. Vol. 25 1993. Rassam, Amal. Revolution Within the Revolution? Women and the State in Iraq. Iraq The Contemporary State. New York St.Martins Press, 2002. Sanasarian, Eliz. The Womens Rights Movement in Iran. New York Praeger, 2001. Yeganeh, Nahid. Womens Struggles in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Azar Tabari and Nahid Yeganeh, eds. , In the Shadow of Islam The Womens Movement in Iran. London Zed Press, 1982.

Thomas Hardy Notes on Hap

Author doubting Thomas brassy First Published 1898 Type of Poem Sonnet Genres Poetry, Sonnet Subjects Suffering, Despair, God, Pain, Good and evil, Gods or deitydesses, Fate or fatalism, Life, philosophy of, Life and death, Time, Joy or sorrow, Luck or misfortune The Poem Thomas robust has bodily structured Hap to meet all the requirements of the get to of an English sonnet Its fourteen lines are written in iambic pentameter, the rhyme scheme abab, cdcd, efef, gg is complied with, and the three quatrains are followed by a rhymed coupling to conclude the meter. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Hap Thomas dauntless *If you need to find something quickly, I suggest you hit CTRL + F and type in what you are looking for. * Hap(1) If save some vengeful god would call to me From up the sky, and laugh Thou suffering thing, Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy That thy loves loss is my hates profiting Then would I allow it, clench m yself and die, Steeled by the sense of the ire(2) unmerited fractional eased in that a Powerfuller than I Had willed and meted(3) me the tears I shed. precisely non so. How arrives it joy lies slain,And wherefore unblooms the best hope always s deliver? -Crass Casualty obstructs the solarize and rain, And dicing Time for gladness casts a moan These purblind Doomsters(4) had as readily strown Blisses about my trip as pain. References 1 Chance (aka Casualty line 11) 2 Anger 3 Given 4 Half-blind judges Author Thomas Hardy (1840 1928) His workings usually show the struggle between nature of man, inside and out, to shape human destiny. unaccompanied through endurance, heroism or simple act of severe can his characters overcome the adversity of unknown forces guiding them through life blindly.Explanation (My professor once said, To truly enjoy what we have before us, we must non be gluttons. We must be mannered beings who adhere to the rules of society and take in, what we have before us, a morsel at a meter. ) Essentially what he meant was, Dont try to understand the entire thing at starting off. Take it in by sentences, then stanzas and then you will have arrived at the entire idea. still for this poem, we need to look at it semi-collectively Let us begin with the first 2 stanzas 1st STANZA If still some vengeful god would call to me From up the sky, and laugh Thou suffering thing,Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy That thy loves loss is my hates profiting 2nd STANZA Then would I bear it, clench myself and die, Steeled by the sense of the ire(2) unmerited Half eased in that a Powerfuller than I Had willed and meted(3) me the tears I shed. So what did we just read? A lot of mumbo jumbo at first glance. But I promise that there is a meaning here. Our friend Thomas wishes for an angry god to peer down at him and laugh. Because god is such a powerful being that rains down misfortunes on humans, Hardy would have some ane to target his evoke towa rds.Hardy would know that God made him suffer and so Hardy would be completely alright dying hating god. 3rd Stanza But non so. How arrives it joy lies slain, And why unblooms the best hope ever sown? -Crass Casualty obstructs the sun and rain, And dicing Time for gladness casts a moan These purblind Doomsters(4) had as readily strown Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain. Hardy finishes off this poem by hinting that his anger towards god would be unjustified. God does not bring forth plainly sadness, he also brings forth happiness and hope. If god gives us both, then why does Hardy need to be so depressed?Why can not he be extremely happy? Hardys attend to his own philosophical question is It is not some supreme being giving me happiness and then giving me sadness based on my actions. It is just stochastic chance. It is random chance that I have been extremely happy and extremely depressed. Summary Hardy wishes that god exist but sadly, he doesnt. Because all the good things and pretty things that happen to us arent based, created or assigned by a powerful being at all. It all depends on luck, chance or Hap. My Opinion non particularly my favorite poem aesthetically. The idea however is quite challenging.It reminds me of a young philosopher who is questioning why bad things happen to good people. Surely it is chance, but what Hardy is hinting towards is what if it is a bad thing only because we THINK it is a bad thing? It is almost circular. I do not know some(prenominal) about Hardy but what I do know is that he tried really hard to believe in god but in the end, he came out completely agnostic. This poem shows that struggle. - Hap is a poem by Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) that he wrote in 1866, while working as a trainee architect, and for which he could not find a publisher.It did not reach the general public until 1898 when Hardy included it in his first collection, which was entitled Wessex Poems, which only appeared after he had concluded his career as a highly successful novelist. The poem is a sonnet, although it is presented as three stanzas in that the traditional musical octave is split into two stanzas each of four lines and the sestet is a stanza on its own. The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEFFE, which is a variant on the Shakespearean form, although the clean impart between octave and sestet is more associated with the Petrarchan sonnet form.The poem can be seen as Hardys reaction to the basic thinking that underlies Darwins The Origin of Species which had been published in 1859. Hardy understood Darwin to imply that the mechanism that drove natural selection was mere accident and chance. Although this is generally held to be a misinterpretation of Darwins theory, it was one that was widely held and it was also a moderateness why many Victorians regarded Darwinism as being a version of atheism and hence to be condemned.Hardy had no wish to reject what he understood to be Darwins theory, but he wanted to come to terms wi th it, and Hap is one such attempt. The opening quatrain is headed by If and the second by Then thus they can each be regarded as separate articles of the same sentence that seems to publish a statement of logic. The If clause represents a somewhat Old Testament view of some vengeful god who delights in causing sorrow to adult male and to the poet in particular.It appears that the poet has had a love affair go wrong Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy, / That thy loves loss is my hates profiting The Then clause states that the poet would have accepted the idea that his misfortune was caused by a supernatural force, or would at least have been Half-eased by the knowledge that he was the dupe of one who was Powerfuller than I. His attitude seems to be similar to that of Gloucester in Shakespeares King Lear when he says As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods, they kill us for their sport.However, the volta, or turning-point, of this sonnet presents the reality which the poet now appreciates in the post-Darwinian world, namely that human misfortunes are not willed by the gods but happen by chance. Hardy can only blame Crass Casualty, and dicing Time which act as purblind Doomsters. The point he makes is that these forces are not vengeful ilk the gods in most mythologies but are completely indifferent. This is clear not only from his choice of adjectives (crass being used here to mean unsusceptible or without thought) but from the poems conclusion had as readily strown / Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain.So the question then arises as to which world-view is preferable, that which supposes that the gods are tempered on destroying mans happiness, or the cosmos revealed by Darwin in which the forces of nature are mechanical and purposeless and man has as good a chance of happiness as of despair? There is evidence that Hardy stressed to his critics that he was not replacing one extension of cosmic oppression with another, and he was in fact quoted as sayi ng that The world does not despise us it only neglects us (See The Life of Thomas Hardy, by Florence Emily Hardy, p. 8). The implication of this is that man has been dealt an even hand and must play it the best way he can. The new order is therefore a bestowal of freedom, but with freedom comes responsibility. There is a mystery in this poem as to what Hardy meant by why unblooms the best hope ever sown? As mentioned above, the misfortune that prompted Hardys thoughts sounds as though it was a blighted love affair, but, although Hardy had several lady friends who came and went at this time in his career, there were none who were, as yet, potential marriage partners.This suggests that the best hope had more to do with Hardys failure to get his numbers into print. Hardy believed himself to be a talented poet and was surprised and disappointed that none of the journals to which he sent his work were willing to buy it. Perhaps there is a clue to this failure in the line quoted above an editor who saw unblooms instead of blooms not might have considered that this was not poetic enough.It was certainly not a word that Tennyson would have chosen, and Tennyson was at that time Poet Laureate and the leader of poetic taste in England. An aspiring poet who did not conform to the standard set by Tennyson would no doubt struggle to find an audience. - Hap would probably not strike the modern reader as being anything particularly remarkable. It is halehead constructed, with a single train of thought that does not depart down any side tracks. The language is well-controlled, with every word making an impact.However, by not being Tennysonian enough, and expressing a view that seemed to side with Darwinism against the religious orthodoxy of the day, Hardys surprise at not being able to publish poems such as this should surely not have been as great as it was. Hardy unveils his determinism in this poem as a refreshing start to the Twentieth Century. This poem seems to take the shape of an altered sonnet. Divided into the three stanza, the poem has a scientific feel due to the start of each stanza sounding like an comparison if, then, but not so. The first two stanzas are very formulated in an abab rhyme scheme and are very direct.This structure seems to contradict the theme of the poem quite nicely by contrasting form versus the random. The third stanza, however, feels much more colloquial, and is more abstract and personal than the first two stanzas. Hardy uses a caesura, an ellipses, and a rhetorical question to add to the scepticism contained in his argument, and to make the stanza feel more conversational that the other two. The first stanza creates an imaginary being by arguing that IF there was a god to blame for wrongs against him, it would be a vengeful god that rejoices in pain, rather than the argue notion of a benevolent god.In this poem, Hardy rejects the religious standard of God, and imagines one who delights in loss and suffering. It seems to pervert the previous notion of a divine god by imagining one who states know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy. By using if, Hardy seems to be wishing for such a god, for reasons explained in the following stanzas. In stanza two, Hardy describes the presence of this imagined vengeful god as a relief by versed the truth as to why he is allotted pain. It is because of this knowing that Hardy would be able to bear it, clench myself, and die half-eased.His mention of the unmerited seems in reference to religion again, as it is believed that Gods pity is unmerited to the human race, just as Hardys vengeful gods anger is unmerited to him. - Finally, in stanza three, Hardy seems to give his own world view in a colloquial nature. The image of unblooming symbolizes hope falling to pieces as a rose may unbloom. Hardy also label muckle Crass Casualty chance, and dicing Time both meant as fragmented time, or a gambling of time.Hardy states that the Doomsters, or half blind judges of fate (Crass Casualty and dicing Time) randomly allot both pain and pleasure, and with that, he accepts the uncertainty of fate. Thomas Hardys Hap After reading Thomas Hardys Hap, I was left confused and curious with feelings of doom and questions of lifes sufferings. I could not quite grasp what it is the author is trying to say due to either my unfamiliar with the language or the obscurity in his riddles. With some research, I was able to better understand, or better come to an understanding of, Hardys message in this piece.Beginning with the title of Hap, and considering it the piece of happening, I read that this word was an archaic simile of chance, or luck (http//www. merriam-webster. com/dictionary/hap). This is quite important in trying to dissect this poem in that Hardy questions whether the existence of such a vengeful god is the reason for lifes cruelties. Hardy presumes that only with the existence of such a god could there be justification for allowing such evils in the world for their own pleasure and ecstasy, that the characters loves loss is the gods hates profiting. (1073) However, uncertainty in such the existence of a god is displayed as we identify the structure of the three stanzas (credit to danamercer. blogspot. com for perceive this). The If, Then, But not so structure is like that of an argument, leading up to a conclusion. The first stanza states that If there is such a god that has pleasure in his suffering and sorrow, Then he would bear it, clench and die meaning he would accept it for he must submit to that which is more Powerfuller who has willed his tears. But it is not so. Concluding that there does not exist such a God or any God for suffering is but many of natures Hap events, and thus the importance of the title. To the character, all of lifes pain and suffering is but a dicing or roll of the dice, a gamble rather. He doesnt believe in the existence of a god that has joy in lifes slain and that allows the unblooms the best hope ever sown. What is the purpose of idolizing and turning to such a God that hates us so?How can there be such a god that is so unjust and morbid? The final answer is that it is just Crass Casualty that obstructs the sun and rain due to only chance itself. This belief is reinforced as Hardy identifies the Doomsters as purblind as well as their reasons for his pains. Why is doom what he encounters although he is searching for the light of god (my pilgrimage). He is unsatisfied with the existence of such a god as he states Steeled by the sense of ire unmerited. He feels so strong in the rongness of a vengeful god that only by bearing it and dieing would he accept this. The poem is very dramatic as it represents the authors fight with faith and the existence of a God that could allow the sufferings of life. Conversely, how can there be a God that controls everything, including the free will of humans. Thats just one of many arguments against a God that would only allow evil as we ll as good in the world. Because we are human, and because we have free will, we will always have two sides of the coin, good and evil.And one cannot exist without the other, for they are dependently defined. Hardys remaining answer is his realization that chance or Hap is the defining justification for lifes Crass Casualty. Hardys vogue is indeed representative of the transition from Victorian/Romanticism to modernistic views in that the good does not always win and that things doesnt always happen for a reason since he considers chance as one of the answers much traditionalist overlook when they consider purpose for the answer of all unanswered questions.

Exercise Concept Check Essay

An equation is a number sentence that says that the expressions on either side of the capables sign represent the aforesaid(prenominal) number. An expression may be used to designate a value these can be variables, operations, and or functions. Using algebraic expression, there is no equal sign, only operations. You can simplify an expression not solve it.Business General BusinessWeek 1Ethics in Cost mesh . (Exercise 1-9) Zoya Arbiser, regional charabanc of Gold Medal Sports Shops, is reviewing the results of 15 stemmas in her region. Store managers are moved annually. Each store managers income is very subject on the direct contribution margin of that store. For the historical year, Store 9 has been managed by a person who has operated several some other profitable stores in juvenile years and is about to be promoted to a larger store. Zoya notices several items that bother her.Store 9 has almost no personnel training expenses relative to other stores.Store 9 has stopped participating in numerous community events that gave the store significant visibility but did incur substantial expenses.Store 6, where this store manager worked the prior year, has had a severe neglect in profits due to higher operating expenses.The advertising budget was spent almost only if in the first four months of the year, with almost zippo spent in the last several months.Discuss a possible negative managerial scenario that the regional manager may be sensing. Might the manager of Store 9 be an exceptional manager? What are the ethical implications of the scenario? What is the regional managers ethical responsibility in this scenario? Explain and harbor your positionwith evidence from the text. Your initial post should be 200 to 250 words.Fixed and Variable Costs . (Chapter 1 DiFor downloading more course tutorials visit https//bitly.com/1xpwOBdDelay participating in student government until your second year in college. Freshmen views arent typically heavily valued by student government organizations. You can use your freshman year to learn about campus politics and discover what role youd like to hunt down in them.Business General BusinessWeek 1Ethics in Cost Control . (Exercise 1-9) Zoya Arbiser, regional manager of Gold Medal Sports Shops, is reviewing the results of 15 stores in her region. Store managers are moved annually. Each store managers income is very dependent on the direct contribution margin of that store. For the past year, Store 9 has been managed by a person who has operated several other profitable stores in modern years and is about to be promoted to a larger store. Zoya notices several items that bother her.Store 9 has almost no personnel training expenses relative to other stores.Store 9 has stopped participating in numerous community events that gave the store significant visibility but did incur substantial expenses.Store 6, where this store manager worked the prior year, has had a severe drop in profits due to higher operating expenses.The advertising budget was spent almost entirely in the first four months of the year, with almost nothing spent in the last several months.Discuss a possible negative managerial scenario that the regional manager may be sensing. Might the manager of Store 9 be an exceptional manager? Whatare the ethical implications of the scenario? What is the regional managers ethical responsibility in this scenario? Explain and support your position with evidence from the text. Your initial post should be 200 to 250 words.Fixed and Variable Costs . (Chapter 1 Discussion Question 9(a)) Controller, Judy Koch, in a recent speech said, I rarely see a real variable cost or a truly fixed cost. What did she mean? Include in your response an explanation of the difference in behavior of variable and fixed cost, including an example to illustrate your explanation. Your initial post should be 200 to 250 words.

Is Coeducation Better than Single Sex Education? Essay

This is a topic that has been argued almost since the education system started back in the nineteenth century. Back in those days, education was thought to be necessary only for males and the females were considered as someone who only works around the house, does chores, looks after the children and husband. This has changed drastic every(prenominal)y since, nowadays to a greater extent and more daughters ar getting education as the general population agreed that women need to be empowered as much as men do and can contribute equally to the overall development of their society, nation and the humanity as a whole. Though some rural and backwards societies still exsert with this concept, this is becoming very rare indeed. The topic of argument though is whether a coeducation system, which means where both boys and girls can study together in the same enclosure, fracture or is maven sex education system, where either only boys or only girls are allowed to get admitted better, I th ink co-ed is definitely better.In the present context, coeducation is the more popular system of education than just single sex. Coeducation was first introduced in Western Europe after the Reformation, when certain Protestant groups urged that girls as well as boys should be taught to read the Bible. United States adopted coeducation much earlier than Europe and other parts of the world because traditions, religions and cultures proved to be a major hurdle in those parts accepting coeducation freely at first. Now though, there are more co-ed schools and institutions than single sex ones. In a coeducation system, disciples of all sexual activitys study in the same classrooms. Both the boys and girls are taught the same topics and are given the same tasks, assessments assignments.According to my view co-education is better for every student. It removes shyness, fear and also increases confidence. Some girls or boys hesitate to talk to their opposite gender because of leave out of confidence and exposure and this is one of the main problems for a single sex education. As this is a corporate world one has to be able to work with people of different gender, cultures, traditions, family background in every aspects. The student who studies in co-education can adjust in socialenvironments much better than the student who studies in only boys or girls college.To take an example a girl who studies in a girls only institution may feel shy and fear to interact with boys or sometimes may even over match as the environment in college and outside world is different which leads to many another(prenominal) problems. The advantages of co-education are numerous. A co-ed system improves commodity communication between students. A student studying in a segregated education system could have issues with proper communication and comportion with the opposite gender due to lack of exposure and practice. A co-ed promotes gender equality and teaches the students to respect the o pposite gender. The students can adapt better in the corporate world in many ways because a student studying in a co-ed system has better leadership qualities and can work as a good team member in his or her team. It reduces shyness, fear and hesitation towards the people from the opposite gender. A co-ed system promotes friendship and trust among the opposite gender so there is a sense of bond and unity. It also increases maturity about many issues like family, love, friendship, et cetera as friends share their views, problems and solutions among each other. By sharing ideas and views from both genders point of view, students increase his/her thinking abilities as a whole.Friendship develops in a very natural way in co-educational schools. This happens because there are so many activities, societies and clubs in the school in which girls and boys take part in a pleasant, well-supervised environment. This friendly atmosphere continues into the classroom allowing young people to exp ress their views openly and assertively. It helps to break down the misconceptions of each sex about the other and provides an excellent foundation for the development of realistic, meaningful and lasting relationships in later life. A co-educational school is also very successful in challenging sexist attitudes. Many subjects in secondary school allow for considerable classroom word of honor and debate. In a co-educational school both the female and male perspectives will be explored in such discussions and this is a very important learning arrive for all. In so doing they learn that equality does not mean sameness thatmen and women often have different perspectives on the same issues and that each greet has a great deal to offer the other.There are many advantages of co-education over single sex education but it does not at all mean that single sex education system is worthless. Segregated education system has its own advantages and plus points too. It mostly depends on the st udents, how they utilize the environment flop too. Co-education is better for the modern societys point of view for the overall development of the students and as a result the society, nation and the world as a whole.

Automotive Industry and Porsche Production Line

Shona L. Thomas- Porsche Case Study 1. ) General Environment Factors for Porsche A. ) Demographic section for Porsche is Age and Income distribution. Porsche target mount is group is consumers is male over the age of 40 in addition to an average income of 180k a year. That has a positive effect on this segment because they afford defined their niche audience that best responds to their line of cars. B. ) Political and Legal segment directly prompts the future drudgery of Porsche vehicles with regulatory gas mileage requirements and EPA guidelines.If the 2020 coffee shop plan is implemented in North the States Porsche give not be able to sell cars in North America. Political issues and governmental decisions affect the development of the local economy as for example the increase of oil prices during the Iraq war and the drop of the dollar comp bed to other currencies, they basin also have an forge on gross revenue in the automotive industry. This is a negative effect as the VW sales group has laid a plan to exceed GM and Toyota in sells by 2018 but with pending EPA guidelines this may create a definite challenge.C. ) Technological segment for Porsche is leading in product innovation, factory applications and knowl frame in. Porsche production line has the ability to manufacture twain cars seamlessly at the same time without losing any production time or driving cost up. Their engineering is a positive and is evident because they offer consulting services to competitive and noncompetitive travel companies. 2. ) Porsche brand is so strong and unique that the only ii forces I can thoroughly support atomic number 18 Threat of new entrants and bargaining power of Buyers. A. Porsche has a threat of new entrants due to automobile manufacturers such as BMW, Nissan and GM. still Porsche has product differentiation and Capital Investments. Porsche is also known for prestige, variety of Porsche emblems and its full line up. Consequently BMW, Nissan and GM ha ve all produced one or two comparable cars. B. ) Bargaining power of Buyers is relevant because due to recent economic recessions internationally the price point of Porsches automobiles they followed suit of other competing luxury brands and released more affordable automobiles such as the Cayenne.The production of the Cayenne set record sales for Porsche. Therefore this is a high force. 3. ) The two major contentions of Porsche atomic number 18 BWW and Audi. BMW as knowing models such the Z4 and Audi has designed models such as the R8 to compete with Porsches Cayman and Boxter. Prices points on both models be within the same range as the aforementioned Porsche brands. These two models (BMW and Audi) both have competitive points in regards to engineering, exclusivity and service.The future actions of BMW and Audi that show evidence competitive activity is both automobile companies are creating a more forward-looking design which is attracting more consumers, more drive power o ptions for an economical price and puts luxury and comfort versus Porsche sports then luxury. 4. ) The most important Value Chain areas for Porsche are A. ) Management Information Systems- Joint venture with MHO has led to awards such as Silver Partner service and SAP Channel Partner Gold. The carrying into action and oriented approach allows Porsche to consistently implement new design, technologies and functionalities.Porsche at purchased ownership in MHP and later purchased a controlling share which lead to new duty techniques and technologies. The MIS has created sustainable competitive advantage through superior operating performances and the ability to respond with flexibility and quickly to changes in technology. They are superior to each competitor as they do not patent their technological gains but allows others to copy. B. ) Supply Chain Management Porsche SAP technology Leipzig has created a seamless distribution in logistics. Within the same plant, the two models, Pana mera and Cayenne can be built simultaneously.Each model requires a high degree of integration and cooperation with other Porsche plants. As separate are delivered every hour, the flows of goods are real-time. No inventories, any waiting times, but the highest degree of precision and flexibility. Even if faced with a change on hornswoggle notice, production will be able to stay in synch. Porsche is the leading manufacturer in the world and is superior to all other competitors for the aforementioned reasons. C. ) merchandising and Sales In 2011 VW group inclusive of Porsche and other brands ranked number 3 in the world trailing Toyota and GM.However in Europe the VW group leads sales amongst competitors. Porsche relates their increase in marketing and sales to the CRM processes in SAP. All systems are originated in German but the data is also shared North America as well as Canada. North America and Canada represents the biggest market for the car manufacturer almost 40 percent of al l luxury cars are interchange there. The second reason is that the orientation of the pilot project toward a non-German market prevented a focus that can be considered too German influenced. 5. The most important financial and nonfinancial factors for Porsche are Return on investments. Three Porsche product lines the 911, the Boxster, and the Cayenne has had high operating margins compared to nearly any other major automobile manufacturer. The two newer product lines, the Boxster and Cayenne, had both been launched with the capital and technology from its other lines of cars. The Porsche Boxster was manufactured by Valmet of Finland under a licensed manufacturing agreement allowed Porsche to use means of financial support.Valmet owns its own factory and tools, and builds the Boxster for Porsche. This reduces the capital Porsche needs to support its own business significantly. The Porsche Cayenne was co-manufactured with Volks rentn. The Cayenne was assembled on the same producti on line as the Volkswagen Touareg so reducing the required capital to support Porsches business. 6. ) The strength is that Porsche has a high brand presence and reputation across the globe. Porsche preferred consumers are wage earners in excess of 250k. Few car models are available but it has a wide range of variants.They have built a trust quotable brand that has international recognition in the domestic as well as racing industry. A weakness of Porsche is that it lacks presence in the middle income segment which is the fastest growing of all classes. The cars have very high maintenance and running cost in an extremely luxury car market. The opportunities that Porsche has it that they can take advantage on its exclusivity and increase sales. They also have a sector of the company that has first class technology that will give them a competitive edge on future generation and concept cars.In addition to increased manufacturing facilities and distribution as well as a servicing net work. The threats that face Porsche are the political policies in some countries especially North America. The looming recession this may decrease purchasing power and the intense competition from automobile leaders. The top three competitors are BMW, Audi and Mercedes Benz. 7. ) The major competitive advantages of Porsche using VRIN are The most valuable capital this company has is its loyal customers with their sense of Porsche responsibility. The most aluable support for this company is its work force, technology and its tradition of outstanding performance. (Parity producing because other companies can re-evaluate their customer relations and change the scope of employees to gain the loyalty and recognition that Porsche has. ) Porsche is rare because the cars have a some untarnished reputation and are considered among the finest performance vehicles in the world. (Temporary competitive advantage because they BMW and Audi have models that compete with Porsche vehicles. ) Porsch e technology is costly to imitate.Porsche has become a leader in automobile manufacturing and advanced technology that has led to winning Performance awards. Therefore allowing Porsche to consistently implement new design, technologies and functionalities. (Sustainable competitive advantage because Porsche provides consulting to automobile manufacturers and have not patent protected their technological advances therefore companies rely on them for the most up to date technology) Porsche is nonsubstitutable because lineup is quite broad for a specialty auto manufacturer and now even includes a luxury super sport sedan, the Panamera.Throughout its history, Porsche has exhibited amazing resilience, weathering changes in consumer tastes and the economic climate. (Competitive Advantage is the brand name. ) 8. ) Porsche uses Corporate Strategy. The overall scope and delegacy is to diversify business operations, further advance technology and work together to achieve particular goals. As part of its corporate strategy for 2018, Porsche wants to double its vehicle sales and increase its presence in the individual markets. This growth strategy is to increase the workforce by 50 % from its present level of 14,000 worldwide.Porsche is creating wide-ranging galvanising mobility vehicles in Germany and has launched the roll-out of three electric-powered Boxter cars. Electro mobility is one of the central challenges of the coming years. The engineers at Porsche want to contribute something in their usual high-performance way to meet the challenge. 9. ) 7s Implementation factors that are the most important is 1) Strategy plan to gain a sustainable advantage over the competition (BMW and Audi) 2) Structure how people and tasks are rganized (Consulting and Automobile division) 3) Systems processes and procedures that are currently in place (Manufacturing plants) 4) Style leadership style (Brand imaging) 5) Staff employees and their general capabilities (ongoing training) 6) Skills competencies and skills of the employees (ongoing training) 7) Shared Values culture, beliefs, values and traditions (Mission statement) 10. ) Two questionsDo you think Porsche will meet the CAFE requirements for 2018 or will they actually stop selling cars in North America? How will that affect the American Porsche consumer? Cadillac has now true and launched a car that has a Ferrari engine how will that compare or will it compete with the Porsche Panamera? How will new entrants such as American base cars that is adding technology comparable to Porsche affect future market opportunity and ,undecided target consumers?