Analysis Of Vasari s The Multivalent Themes And...

â€Å"The multivalent themes and leitmotifs with which Vasari regales his readers - the major and minor artists, the diligent and the delinquent, the inventive and imitative, the mentors and apprentices, the fathers and sons, and the mothers, wives and daughters - bring the history of Italian Renaissance art to life in his monumental text.† In order for us to understand the purpose of the preface pages, it is important first to consider the purpose of Vasari’s text as a whole. Vasari was himself a notable artist and architect, however he made it his eventual duty to recognise the importance of artists in the historical timeline. More significantly, he would endeavour â€Å"to distinguish between the good, the better and the best† and how their stylistic methods are indicative of an artist’s ability. In his prefaces he relays to his readers the immense body of work he tasked himself with, how artists were gifted or strived for their art, were innovators or followers, and how their perception as craftsmen or academics changed, all this in an attempt to educate those who wanted to learn about the story of art. Vasari divides his Vite into three parts spanning a period from Cimabue’s trecento Italo-byzantine style to his present day cinquecento where he places particular emphasis on Michelangelo. In this time we can observe a shift from a spiritual almost detached emotion to something more aesthetically substantial, something Vasari surmises as finally reaching â€Å"the summit of perfection.†

In Shakespeare’s Othello, race is a concept that is only...

In Shakespeare’s Othello, race is a concept that is only minimally explored. Characters in the play assume that, since they are English, they are superior and foreign characters (like Othello the Moor) are inferior. This is not questioned much at all, and in fact it is assumed outright that Othello is indeed a lesser man because of his skin color and the ways in which characters like Iago and Roderigo treat him. While an early modern audience would accept this concept without hesitation, an audience of today’s age is left to question whether Othello is actually acting out because of the societal pressures, beliefs, and actions put upon him, or because he is inherently different as a person who is not white. While Shakespeare seems to think†¦show more content†¦All of these insults are packed into only the first scene of the play—there are dozens more sprinkled throughout, used commonly by Iago and Roderigo, most often behind Othello’s back than to his face. This ever-constant presence of racism when regarding Othello is proof of Iago’s plot: to degrade and insult and trick Othello into believing that he is subpar, and therefore trusting in Iago’s accusations of Desdemona’s infidelity. But why does Iago despise Othello so much? The answer is in the text, both explicitly and implicitly. When Roderigo mentions Othello in the opening scene, Iago states that he is angered by the appointment of Othello as general, and the appointment of Cassio as his officer. He states that â€Å"by the faith of man†¦I am worth no worse of a price† suggesting that he believes he should have been honored with a similar military position (1.1.10-11). He goes on then to suggest that Cassio is not a fit officer, as he is â€Å"a great arithmetician†¦a Florentine†¦that never set a squadron in the field†Ã¢â‚¬â€in short, Cassio is too theoretical and inexperienced to be of any use as an officer (1.1.18-2 1). In addition to his jealousy of Othello’s power, Iago must also be jealous of Othello’s wife Desdemona. While waking up her father Brabanzio to warn him of his daughter’s so-called treachery in marrying and

Marketing Plan For Sustainable Offering- myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about theMarketing Plan For Sustainable Offering. Answer: Introduction Waste management techniques are widely diverse in different countries and nations (Marshall and Farahbakhsh 2013). Several European countries encourage the system of underground waste disposal systems with vacuum pipes to facilitate the waste transportation (Ludwig, Hellweg and Stucki 2012). In Australia and most parts of the United States the most common method of waste disposal is carried through vehicles to transport the wastes for disposal and landfill. The issues with waste management includes the collection of household waste and managing the land filling process under a legislative frame work (Brunner and Glasson 2015). This report deals with a new sustainable invention to facilitate the waste to be recycled and disposed of without hampering the ecology but channeling it towards an economic and social development as well among the community. Profile for Sustainable Offering The solar powered compaction bins has been designed especially for household purpose to reduce the need for waste disposal of every home as well as the lesser dependency on the municipal employees for the waste collection. This would help the families not only effectively disposing their house hold wastes but also this would be another source of generating combustible gas for multiple purpose (Madu and Kuei 2012). The Solar bins has a high economic value since it is almost nil on energy consumptions and high in its output (Mitchell 2013). Environment Analysis Eco Home Solutions consider in sustainability that has been appreciated and accepted by most people. Report shows that about 82% of Australian adults show major apprehension towards the ecology. The solar bin is one of the sustainable product that not only adds brownie points to the consumers but towards the environment as well, effectively reducing the excessive utilization of the resources and overload on the ecology. Marketing and Customer analysis The solar bin is for the targets consumers within the X and Y generations. Solar eco bins is mostly for young families or soon to be familial structures. The solar bin has well ecological and economic benefits (Kotler 2012). The target consumers should be kept smaller initially, in comparison to the entire demography of the city of Brisbane, Australia. This would be beneficial to gather relative and suggestive feedback for effective improvements and large-scale expansions (McDonald and Wilson 2016). Objectives The financial objective of the plan is to ensure an effective return of the initial investment on the production of these solar eco bins. The fixed and variable cost has been included in the initial budget, showing the profitability of using the appliance within the first year of operations. The solar eco bin is an addition to the pre existing product within a household that some of the homes already have and have been using. The economic and the ecological benefits are well explainable and measured for social awareness and economic benefits that can be calculated through sales report. The solar eco systems can be bought back from the customers with the buyback policy within the first six months of the product use as well as the older systems can be recycled and exchanged with newer systems. The marketing objective includes an effective customer satisfaction from the using of the product. As well as gaining exposure of the product to the varied market segment, that can be measured through marketing matrix and feedbacks. Customer Target Profile The geological demographics of the city of Brisbane, Australia has been taken up for this marketing plan. The demographics and the target audience is kept towards the X and Y Generation of both the genders of young or new families with a low to high range of income. The psychographics is both makers and experience individuals along with inhabitants having ecological concern. Positioning Value positioning The solar bin is a complete solution to one of the major problems. It has been specifically designed for the consumers who are looking forward for an effective solution for waste disposal as well as generation of usable form of energy out of it. This bin can be installed anywhere outside the home. It has a unique storage and newer waste disposal chamber along with solar incineration chamber to dispose of older and non-degradable wastes. The bin is medium, affordable and sustainable ion nature, making it value proposed. Market Research With the help of online survey, data has been successfully obtained from the potential consumers and to understand the customer needs the survey would continue to flow. The product being a new one and newly introduced, the secondary data would be helpful in the identification of the competitors SWOT analysis. Product Strategy Product The solar eco bin is a product of combination between durability and experience. The solar bin is not only acts a mini reservoir for the waste but it is also a recycling chamber of all the waste products of a household. Eco bin is meant for dumping all the solid wastes of the household. The solar bin has special pipe connection that channels from the bin that successfully direct the biogas that emits from the chambers, which in turn can be utilized as cooking fuel. This would be helpful in saving the ecology with less emissions and save economy with expenditure on cooking fuels (Chandrappa and Das 2012). The core benefits of the product is self recycling and eco friendly that not only recycles the waste, generates cooking fuels out of the biogas chamber but also the bin can be used to generate power to light the house hold using special charging systems and fuel cells to store the energy (Fahrenbruch and Bube 2012). The product is incorporated with lifetime warranty with minimal service charges. The solar eco bin is aimed towards to the consumers specifically the urban dwellers with little benefits in terms of successful waste management and disposal systems. The unique selling proposition of the product is that unlike tradition bins that needs to be manually disposed of the waste materials, this solar powered bin is self sustaining and can automatically process the waste depending on the nature. Not only the bin can favor waste disposal but it can utilize the waste materials to produce combustible gas can be stored and used for various purpose (Curry and Pillay 2012). The solar board attached not only powers the bin but the energy can be stored in other fuel cells and be used for future purpose. The solar bin is only a one-time investment with lifetime benefits (Tyagi and Lo 2013). Packing The design of Eco Home Solutions needs top be simple to reflect the simplification of waste recycling. The packing of the product would depend on the size of the product. The product needs to be in simple box created by BioPak out of pulp molding and stabilized materials and BioWrap, a form of biodegradable plastic. Labeling should be catchy and relative with the purpose (Kotler, P., 2012). Price The pricing would be connected with the cost of production of the materials needed for the manufacturing of the product. While estimating the retail price consideration should be made on the value of the benefits that the customers would receive by the product. Price refers to the value that the consumers give or exchange in return for obtaining the desired product or item (Kotler, P., 2012). The value refers to the benefits that the consumer receives from the product after buying or utilization (Kotler 2012). It can be considered that the price of the product can be estimated on the product value of the item. Eco Home Solutions is a new company that has introduced a new product in the market, it is necessary to ensure that the offering is profitable in the early stages to ensure survival in the tough market conditions. Since the product is new in the market and initially no competitors in the market, awareness should be propagate against the idea of using sustainable products. Offering of good quality products to ensure rising customer demands in the long run. Pricing Strategy The pricing strategy needs to be formulated in such a manner that it recovers the initial research and development and made affordable so that it can be borne by any average family and garner the benefits at the same time. In order to do that the pricing should be limited to an average of $400 to $600. To prevent the competitors to intervene patents and copyrights should be implemented (Kotler 2012). Promotion The solar eco bins main target audiences are the previous and the younger generations with newer potential and embarking on to new life. The idea of a clean and sustainable source of energy and environment can be done by inducing the true knowledge and benefits of a clean environment and persuading them to install one system that is beneficial for the long run (Waite 2013). This promotion can be propagated with free social induction campaigns and positing in social networking sites including blogs and websites. Environment awareness events and programs can be used as a platform to officially introduce and demonstrate the product, indirectly encouraging the customers to look forward into it (Rosenbloom 2012). Place The eco bins can be channeled through known retail and departmental stores in Brisbane. They can also be made available through bulk and online order. Special concession and offers would be made applicable for bulk orders to encourage multiple purchases. Customers who are willing to purchase yet unable to locate the availability of eco bins neither they have access to the internet for them orders can be taken through telephone order placing and the product can be delivered directly to the consumers. People The organization and management would be deployed accordingly to sufficiently handle and execute the entire logistics of Eco Home solutions. From the manufacturing of the solar bins to the effecting shipping and handling of the product to the consumers as well as effective after sales service to ensure better customer feedback. Process The entire logistics management would be self sufficient to handle effective crisis related to the production and the customer handling. The allotted team of the organization would handle the production along with the supply chain management. Individual and relevant divisions of the organization would handle the sales, marketing and the customer service related to the product. Physical Evidence In order to gather the physical evidence related to the efficiency of the product, customers can be provided with live demonstration about the functions of the product as well as its safe and user friendly interface. This can help the consumers get acknowledged about the utility and the nature of the device. To add leverage the customer can be given the opportunity to utilize free trails of the eco bins. Evaluation and Control The ongoing evaluation and control of the marketing strategy is extremely vital for the product and the company since it ensures the reaching of the estimated target consumers and generating newer customer bases as well as expansion of the brand. The financial target needs to be monitored on weekly basis to understand the rate of growth and development. The primary target of Eco Home Solutions is annual expansion and the availability of its products in a diverse segment including home appliance stores and departments. The lifetime warranty as well as the buyback and exchange schemes for interested and unsatisfied customer is an added point to the sustainability by recycling of the product for re sale. Conclusion With help of this report, an eco friendly product has been developed and launched in the market that functions on the marketing principles and the theories. With an alarming demand for a cleaner and lesser polluting environment this product has been specially devised, that not only recycles waste products but also generates renewable and non polluting form of energy, that can be used for different purpose. Solar Eco bin is a specially made garbage and waste disposal system that uses thermal or solar energy to operate and recycles the waste products as well as producing renewable source of energy such as bio gas that can be used for combustion purposes. The solar panel can be used to store the solar energy in fuel cells for future utilization. The target market is a small part of Brisbane city, mostly the older and younger generation. The product, pricing, place and the promotion has been devised according to the product and the needs of the target consumers. The pricing needs to be d eveloped in such a manner that it meets the initial investment of the company and it can be afforded by the consumers as well. References Brunner, J. and Glasson, J. eds., 2015.Contemporary issues in Australian urban and regional planning. Routledge. McDonald, M. and Wilson, H., 2016.Marketing Plans: How to prepare them, how to profit from them. John Wiley Sons. Rosenbloom, B., 2012.Marketing channels. Cengage Learning. Kotler, P., 2012.Kotler on marketing. Simon and Schuster. Mitchell, B., 2013.Resource environmental management. Routledge. Ludwig, C., Hellweg, S. and Stucki, S. eds., 2012.Municipal solid waste management: strategies and technologies for sustainable solutions. Springer Science Business Media. White, P., Dranke, M. and Hindle, P., 2012.Integrated solid waste management: a lifecycle inventory. Springer Science Business Media. Marshall, R.E. and Farahbakhsh, K., 2013. Systems approaches to integrated solid waste management in developing countries.Waste Management,33(4), pp.988-1003. Madu, C.N. and Kuei, C.H. eds., 2012.Handbook of sustainability management. World Scientific. Chandrappa, R. and Das, D.B., 2012.Solid waste management: Principles and practice. Springer Science Business Media. Fahrenbruch, A. and Bube, R., 2012.Fundamentals of solar cells: photovoltaic solar energy conversion. Elsevier. Tyagi, V.K. and Lo, S.L., 2013. Sludge: a waste or renewable source for energy and resources recovery?.Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews,25, pp.708-728. Curry, N. and Pillay, P., 2012. Biogas prediction and design of a food waste to energy system for the urban environment.Renewable Energy,41, pp.200-209. Waite, R., 2013.Household waste recycling. Routledge.

What Were the Origins of the 6 Day War of 1967 free essay sample

This was mainly due to the fear that the Israelis had struck into their enemies, after their fearsome show at the Suez Crisis on the 29th October 1956, in which they captured the whole Peninsula in Egypt. However, on the contrast, the Egyptians, and hence the Arab countries had gained the backing of the USSR, who were looking to expand their sphere of influence into the Middle East. The latter, would prove a main reason for the eventual conflict between the Arabs and the Israelites, as the Arabs felt far more secure with the backing of a major superpower. Furthermore, Israel would be forced to defend themselves against the Arabs. Long-term causes of the Six Day War predate back to 1948. Firstly, Arab-Israeli enmity persisted since Israels creation (the 14th of May 1948) by the UN-Partition-Plan, which was formally recognized from November of 1947. Jewish-Israel was carved into Palestine against the will of its Arab-residents due to religious and political reasons. We will write a custom essay sample on What Were the Origins of the 6 Day War of 1967? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Furthermore, Arab-Israeli border tensions increased due to the 1948-49 wars. Israels invasion of more Palestinian land as reprisals to Palestinian-terrorist and Arab-Nations resulted in more Palestinian-refugees. Thus, with Arabian-governments continual refusals of Israels existence, Israel refused to return Palestinian land, consequentially, relations worsened. This tension, undoubtedly, proved one of the major causes of this conflict. Nasser had failed to unite Egypt with their neighbours Syria, and was stuck in a long and seemingly futile civil war in Yemen, from 1962-65. Thus he seemed weakened, and so felt that he needed to prove himself, and receive the support of his nation again. This was compounded with the fact that he was mocked by a variety of Syrian propaganda which portrayed him as weak and helpless. He desperately needed a convincing win in order to re-assert his authority on his country, and to regain respect from his neighbouring Arab states. Syria pressured Nasser to show his determination to destroy Israel: Syria, in both 1966 and 1967 allowed small scale attacks on Israel. Hence he was almost forced to provoke the Israelis – this was attained when he closed, on the 22nd of May, the Gulf of Aqaba – a major Israeli shipping route. As already mentioned the Soviets were desperate to increase their sphere of influence and thus offered to provide arms and other equipment for the Arab states. However, the Arabs were not the only side backed by a major superpower. America too, had boosted Israeli military confidence. They had promised to help with the UN, unlike in the Suez Crisis, to counter the Soviet military aid to the Arabs, and to provide some military assurance with its Mediterranean fleet. In Mid-May of 1967, Russia gave a false alarm that Israel is massing around 10-12 brigades in preparation for an attack on Syria, which is supposedly going ahead on the 17th of May. Egypt reacts by putting their troops on alert and reinforcing units in the Sinai. This leads to a front between the two sides, and causes a mass escalation in tension. His show of aggressive rhetoric in closing the Stairs of Tiran antagonized Israel, as Israel desperately needed the Straits of Tiran in order to get oil from its surrounding countries. In 1958, in the wake of the Suez Crisis it had been agreed that any future closing of the Tiran Straits would be seen as an act showing intention for war. Prior to this, Israel had built up a powerful defence force under her new aggressive minister of war, Moshe Dayan, who essentially wanted war. His main idea being that of a pre-emptive strike on the Arab states, to take them by surprise. Thus, when Nasser closed the Straits on May the 22nd 1967, Israel assumed Arab declaration of aggression, and ergo prepared them for war.

Benito Cereno Book Report essays

Benito Cereno Book Report essays In Benito Cereno by Herman Melville, the author offers a warning about the dangers of slavery, and the future problems slavery could cause America. By telling the story of a slave revolt on a Spanish ship, Melville shows how prejudices affect a persons perception of the world around him. Through writing most of the story from the viewpoint of the main character, Captain Amasa Delano of Duxbury, Massachusetts, Melville demonstrates how prejudices can limit ones perspective and understanding. Although Captain Delano is an honest and kind person, he cannot perceive the world realistically because he believes that blacks are nothing more than property. Captain Delanos inability to recognize his prejudices or to learn from his experience in the slave revolt make him a symbol of what Melville fears will happen to America. The story opens in the early morning of August 1799, off the coast of Chile, aboard an American sealing ship called the Bachelors Delight and under the command of Captain Amasa Delano. Melville describes Delano as a benevolent optimist who has a singularly undistrustful good nature and does not like to believe that man is capable of evil. However, Delano is also described as a blunt thinker and a simple man incapable of irony. While Delano is described as such a definite thinking person, Melville depicts the morning as unclear and blurred. The sea is filled with a gray mist and the color of the sky, water and birds all seem gray. Thus, the reader knows that the indefiniteness of the day and its haziness will confuse Delano and prevent him from seeing clearly. Finally, the presence of shadows adds further mystery to the morning, which Melville says, foreshadow deeper shadows to come. The oddness of the day continued when Delano spotted a ship without a flag, which usually indicated that it was a pirate ship. However, based upon how the ship wa...

20 Pairs of One-Word and Two-Word Forms

20 Pairs of One-Word and Two-Word Forms 20 Pairs of One-Word and Two-Word Forms 20 Pairs of One-Word and Two-Word Forms By Mark Nichol Many common words and phrases are identical except for a strategic letter space apart and â€Å"a part† come to mind and though knowing which form to use in a sentence is often obvious (as in that example), the difference can be subtle. Here are some of the less clear-cut pairs: 1. Ahold/a hold: Ahold is a variant of the noun hold, used in such sentences as â€Å"I’ll get ahold of you later.† But when you mean to refer to an actual grip on something, use two words: â€Å"She really has a hold on you.† If it’s hard to decide which form to employ, try this test: If you can insert an adjective between a and hold, the two-word form is appropriate. 2. Already/all ready: Use the former when you need an adverb, as in â€Å"I told you already.† The latter form is correct in sentences such as â€Å"We’re all ready for the party.† 3. Alot/a lot: These two forms are interchangeable except in one significant respect: The one-word version is wrong. It is used often in informal writing and may one day be standard, but until you get the official memo, refrain from using it if you want to be taken seriously as a writer. 4. Alright/all right: See item number 3. 5. Altogether/all together: The one-word form, an adverb, suffices to mean â€Å"completely† or â€Å"in total,† as in â€Å"Altogether, we saved $100 on the deal.† (It also means â€Å"nude† in the idiomatic phrase â€Å"in the altogether.†) The phrase is appropriate for sentences such as â€Å"We are all together in this.† 6. Anybody/any body: The one-word form is a pronoun used in such constructions as â€Å"He doesn’t get along with anybody.† The two-word adjective-noun form is applicable in limited contexts, such as in the sentence â€Å"Any body in motion responds to gravity.† 7. Anymore/any more: The one-word form is used as an adverb in sentences such as â€Å"We don’t go there anymore†; the two-word form consists of the adjective any and the noun more, as in â€Å"I just can’t eat any more of that pie.† 8. Anyone/any one: The one-word form is a pronoun, synonymous with anybody, used as in â€Å"Anyone can make that claim.† â€Å"Any one† consists of the adjective any and the noun one, as in â€Å"Any one of you might be next.† 9. Anyplace/any place: The adverb anyplace is a synonym for anywhere: â€Å"She won’t let me go anyplace without her.† The latter usage is an adjective-and-noun phrase that describes a location: â€Å"He doesn’t want to go to any place he can’t smoke.† 10. Anything/any thing: Anything is the likely usage: â€Å"I don’t remember anything.† The two-word adjective-noun form is generally separated by an another adjective: â€Å"She’s just does any little thing she wants.† 11. Anytime/any time: To describe with what frequency something might occur, use the one-word adverbial form: â€Å"Stop by anytime.† The two-word adjective-noun form is preceded by the word at: â€Å"You may leave at any time.† 12. Anyway/any way: Anyway is a synonym for anyhow: â€Å"We didn’t want to go anyway.† The two-word adjective-noun form is preceded by the word in: â€Å"That doesn’t change the results in any way.† 13. Awhile/a while: The noun phrase â€Å"a while† and the adverb awhile are virtually interchangeable in a sentence, though you should precede the two-word form with the word for: â€Å"I think I’ll sit here for a while† and â€Å"I think I’ll sit here awhile† mean the same thing. 14. Cannot/can not: Cannot is virtually the only proper alternative. The second usage is wrong except in the correct awkward construction in the sentence â€Å"I can not go,† meaning â€Å"I can decide not to go.† 15. Everyday/every day: The one-word form is an adjective meaning â€Å"ordinary,† used to describe something usual as in â€Å"These are my everyday clothes.† The two-word phrase, an adverb, is used in such sentences as â€Å"I go there every day† to explain how something is done. 16. Everyone/every one: To refer to everybody, use one word: â€Å"Everyone’s a critic.† To emphasize a single individual or item, use two words: â€Å"Every one of them is broken.† 17. Everything/every thing: Everything is the default choice: â€Å"You’ve ruined everything.† The two-word adjective-noun form is usually divided by an additional adjective: â€Å"Every little thing she does is magic.† 18. Maybe/may be: The first choice is an alternative to the adverb perhaps; the second is a verb phrase used in such sentences as â€Å"It may be that she was right after all.† 19. Overtime/over time: As one word, this means work done beyond a regular shift: â€Å"I’ve worked overtime several days this week.† As two words, it refers to the passage of time: â€Å"Over time, we’ve seen dramatic changes.† 20. Sometime/some time: The one-word form is an adverb describing vagueness about when something will happen, as in â€Å"I’ll get around to it sometime.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Handy Expressions About HandsHow Long Should a Paragraph Be?Comma After Introductory Phrases

Personnel Managent Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Personnel Managent - Essay Example People constantly converse about salary and pay issues. No matter how many times they where asked not to argue their remuneration and other workforce issues at work, they still do. Thus, grouping alike positions with similar duty and control into pay ranges, usually makes sense. Nothing influences confidence as much as individuals who feel they are underpaid in relationship with others based on their involvement and that of other related jobs. A good pay is considered when both employee and employer agrees on the terms and benefits. Mutual negotiation is done. An organisation that proposes better than average benefits may pay less salary and still have motivated, contributing employees. If the health plan fees go up and you maintain to pay the cost, this is the identical as pay in the employees' pockets. The variety of benefits offered, and the cost to the employer, is a significant constituent of any wages approach. The biggest fault organisations make is failure to correspond the worth of the benefits offered. While people consider every organisation can profit from industry comparison studies, if conducted by reputable organisations, the big question is whether it is competitive within the local market for most of the positions. Study the salary assortment for related positions and job descriptions. The job description is predominantly significant for comparisons but usually harder to find for evaluation. Establish whether employees are competitive with similar positions with organisations of similar size, sales, and markets. Find companies in the same business, particularly in the area or region that is an extra good evaluation source. The substitute is to use the wages scheme to create disgruntled, grumbling, unhappy people. Paying a gratuity or bonus that is determined independently based on the worth of the goals consummated and the person to the organisation. The organisation can give all workers the same bonus, based on group goal achievements, across the board. Also, use profit sharing in which a portion of company profits is paid out equally to every person who was in employment during the time. Ways to deal with bonus, as part of the generally pay system, are restricted only by thoughts. It is recommended that bonus structures that are fair, consistent, and understandable, communicated up front, and tied to measurable, achievable goals. The better the shared picture of what comprise eligibility for a bonus, by the organization and the employee, the more likely the bonus will result in employee enthusiasm and accomplishment. An organisation that offers better than standard payback may pay less salary and still have motivated, contributing employees. A job applicant parley his salary with a small company. His potential salary, from legitimate market pay studies, ranged from $120,000 to $210,000. The potential employer, because of its size, needed to settle at the low end; the candidate, of course, sought the higher end. During the negotiations, the candidate cited six market pay studies, which added to the complexity of the discussions. Market pay studies recognized by the potential employer, however, convinced the candidate that the company's offer was worthy, though not necessarily what the candidate desired. The company and candidate settled at $170,000. Market pay studies are significant for establishing impartial and fair reimbursement within your organisation. Attracting and retaining better-quality employees for your

Diagnosing A Refractive Error Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Diagnosing A Refractive Error - Essay Example Being myopic, you would be able to see better at near, while objects become progressively blurrier with distance. "Hyperopia, the hyperopic eye is deficient in refractive power. The rays from infinity are not refracted enough; thus the point of focus is behind the retina. The eye lacks plus power." (Handbook of Refraction, George E. Garcia, M.D., Pg 23) This is caused either by the cornea being too flatly curved, the axial length of the eye being too short, or a combination of both. 'Astigmatism is a condition in which rays of light are not refracted equally in all meridians. For the purpose of classification, an astigmatic eye is assumed to have two principle meridians that are usually at right angles to each other. (Handbook of Refraction, George E. Garcia, M.D., Pg 35) Astigmatism is caused by the abnormal shape of the eye. Like a football, distorted in shape, being flatter along one meridian and steeper along the other. The clarity of vision would be affected at all distances. If your astigmatism is oriented vertically, there will be selective blurring of vertical lines. "Presbyopia is a normal condition associated with age. ... "Hyperopia, the hyperopic eye is deficient in refractive power. The rays from infinity are not refracted enough; thus the point of focus is behind the retina. The eye lacks plus power." (Handbook of Refraction, George E. Garcia, M.D., Pg 23) This is caused either by the cornea being too flatly curved, the axial length of the eye being too short, or a combination of both. If you were Hyperopic, you would see both distance and near blurred. But the distance is clearer compared to the near objects. 'Astigmatism is a condition in which rays of light are not refracted equally in all meridians. For the purpose of classification, an astigmatic eye is assumed to have two principle meridians that are usually at right angles to each other. (Handbook of Refraction, George E. Garcia, M.D., Pg 35) Astigmatism is caused by the abnormal shape of the eye. Like a football, distorted in shape, being flatter along one meridian and steeper along the other. The clarity of vision would be affected at all distances. If your astigmatism is oriented vertically, there will be selective blurring of vertical lines. "Presbyopia is a normal condition associated with age. Accommodation available falls short of the demand made upon it for the usual reading range. It is due to a physiological decrease in the amplitude of accommodation. Its appearance varies with the individual, particularly his or her occupation and refractive error." (Handbook of Refraction, George E. Garcia, M.D., Pg 78) 2. PROCESS OF REFRACTION The overall process of refraction can be divided into three parts. Part one is called the "starting point." The refractionist collects basic information about the visual conditions of the patient. This includes a technique called static retinoscopy. This determines the refractive

Learning Organizations Essay Example for Free

Learning Organizations Essay 1. 1 Executive summary/ L. O! In times of uncertainty and change, organizations need new and effective managerial tools in order to cope with the rising competitiveness of markets. In this context, the concept of organizational learning is receiving growing attention among both managerial and academic surroundings in the last two decades. Among many possible definitions of a Learning Organization, David A. Garvin, a leading scholar in this field, suggests the following: â€Å"an organization made up of employees skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge. These people could help their firms cultivate tolerance, foster open discussion, and think holistically and systemically. Such learning organizations would be able to adapt to the unpredictable more quickly than their competitors could. †. A learning organization is aimed at increasing the flexibility and effectiveness of a company, making it react faster to changes in a competitive environment. This is achieved in cultures who constantly foster knowledge inside their organizations. Although this general idea of organizational learning may appear rather simplistic at first glance, its practical integration into day-to-day operations proves to require a more refined, systematic approach: â€Å"Generative learning cannot be sustained in an organization where event thinking predominates. It requires a conceptual framework of â€Å"structural† or systematical thinking, the ability to discover structural causes of behaviorâ€Å". This paper provides a deeper insight into the implementation and performance assessment of learning organizations (L. O. ’s), mainly using the Three Building Blocks Model outlined by Garvin, Edmondson Gino. To better understand this concept, the work will rely on Xerox as an example to highlight how L. O. ’s can provide competitive advantages to corporations. In the last section, the paper will also breakdown the effect that learning organizations have on major stakeholders (leaders, employees and organization itself). 1. 2. Introduction: Background to Xerox Xerox is a US-based multinational, founded in 1906, which produces and sales printers and photocopiers and provides related services. Throughout it’s history, Xerox has faced several crisis periods which ended up pushing the company to become a Learning Organization. Around 1980, the company was hit hard by the emergence of new japanese players on the market and lost its almost 100% market share. As a response Xerox introduced the â€Å"leadership through quality initiative† with the objective of training every employee in tools for generating ideas and collecting information, solving problems in a systematical way, reaching consensus etc. â€Å"Xerox became a case study — the first American group to win back market share from the Japanese†. More recently, in the year of 2000, with the announcement of Anne M. Mulcahy as CEO of the company, XEROX’s was able to overcome another serious crisis. Mulcahy’s leadership style, which mirrors many of the strategies suggested by the LO literature, managed to turn around this †sinking ship†, which had 19 billion in debt, a falling stock and double-digit negative growth. In 5 years time, Xerox would be profitable again. Ursula Burns has continued Mulcahy’s work, since becoming the new CEO in 2009, even acquiring new companies such as the 2010 $6. 4 bln. takeover of ACS. Xerox continues to stay on the list of companies frequently cited as learning organizations. The 3 Building Blocks of a Learning Organization The concept of the three building blocks of a learning organizations is introduced by David A. Garvin, Amy C. Edmondson, and Francesca Gino as an assessment tool to determine areas where organizations need to improve their learning methodologies. Below we provide a deeper explanation of each of the three building blocks and how Xerox fits each one of them. Building Block 1: XEROX, a supportive learning organization? There are four distinct characteristics of an organization that determine whether it is or not a Supportive Learning Organization. Firstly, how psychologically safe its employees feel. This is common in organizations where employees don’t feel pressured or marginalized when presenting their own ideas even if these go against what the majority of the organization thinks. Similarly, subordinates at this organization are encouraged to disagree with their coworkers and superiors and present new and bold opinions, meaning that this organization is opened to new ideas. In a supportive learning organization, employees also become aware of the different inputs and opinions each member of a team brings to the table and learns how to accommodate and value those differences. Lastly, a supportive learning organization needs to provide its employees with some time for reflexion, when they will to go over the company’s procedures and analyse past performances in order to assess what can be changed and/or improved. Tolerance and diversity at Xerox Xerox’s openness to new ideas can be partly linked to its high diversity of employee backgrounds, which ultimately reinforces the acceptance and inclusion of different solutions, making employees feel more comfortable in taking risks. This diversity has also enabled Ursula Burns, the current CEO, to climb up the ranks of Xerox and become the first female black CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Besides being â€Å"a proof† to other employees that effort at Xerox pays back, Burns herself stresses this idea of a supportive learning organization when she mentions that she â€Å"wants [XEROX’s] 130,000 employees to get over the past, take more initiative, become more fearless and be more frank and impatient with one another to ratchet up performance†. Burns refers to the all Xerox community as the â€Å"XEROX family†- â€Å"When we’re in the family, you don’t have to be as nice as when you’re outside of the family,( ) I want us to stay civil and kind, but we have to be frank — and the reason we can be frank is because we are all in the same family. † Building Block 2: Does Xerox implement concrete learning processes and practices? Because â€Å"a learning organization is not cultivated effortlessly†, organizational entities must put explicit processes in place to ensure that knowledge is constantly generated and collected inside the organization. The information must then be interpreted and infused into the organization to be always accessible in a way that will support problem-solving tasks and benefit its constant transformational processes. Moreover, this will also help to develop new products or services, as well as closely monitor competitors, clients and technological developments, using benchmarking techniques. Lastly, the company has to invest in training measures for its employees. MAIN Education and problem-solving at Xerox: The Six Sigma Method In the case of Xerox, measures to implement LO practices started as early as 1983 when executive management inaugurated Xerox’s â€Å" leadership through quality initiative†. The initiatives goal was â€Å"improving business processes to create higher levels of customer satisfaction, quality and productivity† by providing workshops to Xerox employees. These workshops were refined in the late 90’s, reorienting around the Six Sigma method, which had previously been successfully applied in other companies. Although these efforts proved successful in improving productivity, they were only limited to a local supply chain level and were not conducted regularly. In 2002 the management of Xerox then decided to implement the Six Sigma strategy across the whole organization, an effort which Xerox is continuing today. This is shown by the fact that the method has become part of the everyday communication process inside the company. The Six Sigma strategy is a tool, which empowers employees to become more efficient and proactive in daily problem-solving situations, for example by using the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) approach. Six Sigma also requires the employees to closely monitor market trends and to apply benchmarking appropriately. Xerox particularly emphasizes the fact that they see the efforts to implement the Six Sigma method (see attachment 1) as a long-term project. This idea is aligned with the academic literature on LO’s stating that â€Å"becoming a LO is a long process and small setbacks should be expected†. This is because employees and the management have to â€Å"unlearn† old modes of thinking. Information distribution at Xerox Xerox provides employees with access to a large intranet consisting of e. g. reference knowledge, material on best practices, and answers to frequently asked questions. This helps the stakeholders inside the company to share information. It also supports the efforts to keep employees informed on what the priorities are for the overall company. Building Block 3: Are Xerox leaders reinforcing learning? Leaders in a L. O. promote constant learning by raising difficult questions and listening to the answers and concerns of their employees. While doing so, leaders also communicate openness to these new ideas and take them into consideration in their actions. Additionally, leaders have to encourage employees to invest their time in reflecting on both how to solve current problems and what can be learned from past performance. The ultimate goal is for leaders to motivate employees to question the underlying assumptions of current modes of thinking, and therefore initiate efficiency and innovation inside company processes. Promoting Initiative at Xerox For the past two decades, Xerox has engaged their employees to participate in the Earth Awards Program. The goal of this yearly event is to come up with solutions for saving company resources by increasing its efficiency, therefore making it a â€Å"greener† company. With this challenging program, Xerox motivates their employees to generate new ideas that, for instance, in 2010, resulted in company savings of $10. 2 Million. In that year, thirteen winners were announced, corporate wide and among different teams. This is an example of how leaders take their employees’ input seriously and how the generation of new initiatives at Xerox arises from both top and bottom levels of hierarchies. Encouraging employees to invest their time in reflecting by example Senior management at Xerox demonstrates the behaviors, which they in turn expect from employees. A clear example of this â€Å"policy† was when, in 1993, the executive management put together the Presidential Review process. The objective of this process was to review the overall progress of the company collectively through Presidential Review process in 1993. Interviews were organized with more than 30 senior managers answering questions like â€Å"What has changed? Where are the largest gaps between what was intended and what is currently true? If you were to outline barriers that need to be dealt with, what comes to mind? What would you have done differently? †. After the interviews, 45 seniors got together for one day meeting to identify trouble spots and develop recommendations. Action plan was the result . 3. The Effect on Leaders, â€Å"Followers† and Organizations Becoming a successful learning organization can provide a company with significant competitive advantages in the long-run, as it also can largely benefit its major stakeholders (employees and leaders). However, it also requires some behavioral changes from them. In order to achieve the goal of a L. O. (foster knowledge creation and sharing to gain competitive advantage), it is important that leaders infuse a common goal inside the organization. This implies, that leaders should have an effective communication in delivering the company ethos to their subordinates. Once employees identify with the company and its goal, people on all levels of the company would naturally start thinking and discussing promising new ways to achieve these goals. On the other hand, learning processes require time among other resources, and eventually leaders will have to find efficient ways to maximize the time of their employees. It is crucial to determine a balance between time spent going over problem-solvings tasks and past performance analysis (required for learning processes) with regular work. Additionally, leaders will have to define the line between â€Å"acceptable mistakes†- those that arrive from risk taking attitudes, and â€Å"unacceptable mistakes† those originated by irresponsibility and lack of accountability. This is not always clear and, therefore, leaders might face some obstacles in implementing a learning culture as their workers’ â€Å"fear of punishment† can result in the limitation of creativity. Probably the most effective tool to boost innovation is to empower workers. But if the empowerment process provides employees the feeling that they are contributing and helping to define the company processes, then a new attitude is also required from them. Employees will have to remember that they are expected to show initiative, propose new ideas and act. And they should not always expect directions to do so. This can be particularly hard for workers who are risk-averse and who need clear instructions about their work role. Learning organizations can bring significant benefits to employees. Being part of the company processes transformation and being aligned with its goals are expected to make employees more motivated and dynamic. In this way, many of the aspects of the L. O. raise the levels of enjoying the work process. The job satisfaction in turn is expected to raise productivity levels. Also, because employees are more exposed to those in higher positions in the company, new career opportunities might arise together with monetary rewards. RISKS FOR COMPANY â€Å"No learning organization is built overnight. Success comes from carefully cultivated attitudes, commitments, and management processes that accrue slowly and steadily. The first step is to foster an environment conducive to learning. Analog Devices, Chaparral Steel, Xerox, GE, and other companies provide enlightened examples. † (http://w3. ualg. pt/~mzacaria/gic/HBR-Building-a-Leaning-Organization. pdf) 2. Organizations should be careful in applying new principles ensuring buy-in from most influential employees and checking progress not to fall into the trap of unfeasable change which could seriously hurt current business (see http://knowledge. wharton. upenn. edu/article. cfm? articleid=268) 4. Final considerations: As illustrated by the above analysis, as well by its overall economic performance in the last 11 years, it has become clear that XEROX has largely succeeded in becoming a LO. Arguably, Xerox has become so successful in it’s LO efforts that this has resulted in providing learning services to other companies through subsidiary spin offs, such as Xerox Learning Services. Concerning the evaluation of the theory proposed by Garvin, Gino and Edmondson, it has to be noted that the building blocks have to be seen as interdependent. Without effective leadership and learning environment, the learning process implementation will likely fail. Therefore, each of the above building blocks needs to be tackled by taylormade strategies, not least because companies do not perform consistently in each department. Similarly, organizations have to pay especial attention to comparing the extent of the learning process with other organizations, since only then you will have a solid benchmarking (in contrast to looking only at individual company performance over time). Attachment 1 [ 1 ]. O’Keeffe, T. 2002. Organizational Learning: a new perspective. Journal of European Industrial Training, 26 (2), pp. 130-141. [ 2 ]. Peter Senge (1990), â€Å"The Fifth Discipline† [ 3 ]. â€Å"Is yours a learning organization? † [ 4 ]. One good source on Xerox crisis times http://knowledge. wharton. upenn. edu/article. cfm? articleid=268 [ 5 ]. Building a L. O. [ 6 ]. http://www. economist. com/node/387740 [ 7 ]. http://www. economist. com/node/387740 [ 8 ]. http://mitleadership. mit. edu/r-mulcahy. php [ 9 ]. The following work will assume that the stance of the management towards encouraging the LO inside Xerox has remained constant. Since Mulcahy had been working with Burns for more than 9 years, Burns is expected to put her own stamp on the company in a way that was deferential to the work of Ms. Mulcahy, who remains chairwoman. See: http://www. nytimes. com/2010/02/21/business/21xerox. html? pagewanted=all_r=1 [ 10 ]. http://www. freepatentsonline. com/article/SAM-Advanced-Management-Journal/20982068. html [ 11 ]. http://www. businesswire. com/news/home/20041027005036/en/Diversity-Practices-Organization-Recognizes-Xerox-Diversity-Leadership [ 12 ]. Farmer, Paula (August). The First African American To Head A Fortune 500 Company, Franklin D. Raines Takes Over Fannie Mae. The Black Collegian. Retrieved November 7, 2008. [ 13 ]. Bryant, A. (February 20, 2010) Xerox’s New Chief Tries to Redefine Its Culture, The New York Times [ 14 ]. Bryant, A. (February 20, 2010) Xerox’s New Chief Tries to Redefine Its Culture, The New York Times [ 15 ]. Garvin, Edmondson Gino (2008), p. 4 [ 16 ]. Page 11: http://www. xerox. com/downloads/usa/en/n/nr_SixSigmaForumMag_2004_Aug. pdf It could be argued that these efforts were a spillover-effect from Xerox ground-breaking benchmarking efforts in its production process areas in billing, warehousing, and automated manufacturing. [ 17 ]. Page 13: http://www. xerox. com/downloads/usa/en/n/nr_SixSigmaForumMag_2004_Aug. pdf [ 18 ]. Slide 68:http://www. moyak. com/papers/learning-organization-presentation. pdf [ 19 ]. Easterby-Smith, M. , Crossan, M. , and Nicolini, D. 2000. Organizational learning: debates past, present and future. Journal of Management Studies. 37 (6) pp 783-796. See also Senges definition of mental models, which refer to how workers need to time to overcome old modes of thinking: Senge, P. M. 1990. The Fifth Discipline. London: Century Business. [ 20 ]. http://www. xerox. com/downloads/usa/en/n/nr_SixSigmaForumMag_2004_Aug. pdf [ 21 ]. Kaye, L. (November 15, 2010) Xerox’s Green Ideas Save Company $10. 2 Million, http://www. triplepundit. com/ [ 22 ]. Garvin, D. A. (2000), Learning in Action: a guide to putting the learning organization to work, Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data p. 105 [ 23 ]. Garvin, D. A. (2000), Learning in Action: a guide to putting the learning organization to work, Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data p. 105 [ 24 ]. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. : ImageXerox lean six sigma framework. Figure 3Xerox lean six sigma framework. emeraldinsight. com http://www. emeraldinsight. com/journals. htm? articleid=1628232show=html.

Analysis of Oh, my love is like a red, red rose, by Robert Burns Essays

Robert Burns has created many magnificent poems but the most charming, is â€Å"Oh, my love is like a red, red rose†. This poem is the essence of all his artistic creativity. He has a particular merit because relying on folklore and the dialect of his country; he created a modern art that does not only belong to the culture of his country but all over the world culture. With his genius, Burns fascinates the reader by transforming Scottish folk songs into marvelous poems. With sweet music in his heart, the poet-speaker writes about a young woman who he loved beyond measures. On the background of amazing music, Robert Burns, plants a red, red rose on the heart of the reader. It looks like this lyric is written by a shaking pen that is not under Burn’s command but under a magic power of an emotional vibration, which sources automatically from an exquisite sense of spirituality. Without such vibration, Burns could not choose any word to create his immortal lyric. The secret s of this fascinating lyric can be detected in the light of a literary analysis of four stanzas, and the literary interpretation of every gleaning word. The often-used first line makes the reader more familiar with poem. The speaker's love is expressed through two similes; his love is compared to â€Å"a red, red rose† and â€Å"the melody† (1, 3). The speaker echoes his sentiments by reinforcing two above similes with the phrases â€Å"That’s newly† and â€Å"That’s sweetly† (2, 4). Obviously, the color "red" is a symbol of passionate love and used in the form of alliteration such â€Å"a red, red rose† it shows how strong is the speaker’s feeling (1). Its appeal over time and comparison with the loved woman gives the reader the possibility to discover the speaker’s pleasant ways on art... ...essly is distinguished that Burns brings to the reader a breathing red, red, rose that disperse its aroma in air of Scotland of that time. In addition, it is easy to see that Burns admires the folklore of his country, and classic writer and with an innate realism and so sweet melody becomes one the best representative of naturalism and romance. A detailed literary analyze shows how the word choose, rhythm and a figurative languages are used skillfully in closed form to create a masterpiece. These elements of literary analyses and Burns ideas make him belong to extraordinary school of romanticism. Work Cited Burns Roberti. â€Å"Oh, my love is like a red, red rose† Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Compact 7th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2011.818. Print.

History of the New York Yankees

The New York Yankees are hands down the most successful franchise in professional baseball. They became the modern day goliath in every facet of the game. However, it hasn’t always been like that. The team originated in the late 1800’s in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 1899, the Minneapolis team moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where they became the Baltimore Orioles. Minneapolis and Baltimore both failed to realize the behemoth that was to become the Yankees. In 1903, the team moved to New York City, and became the New York Highlanders. The New York Highlanders built a stadium at 168th and Broadway, and called it Hilltop Park.After losing their first game against Washington, they won their first home game, against the same Washington team. This is when their uniforms developed the famous pin stripes. In 1913, the team moved to the Polo Grounds and officially became the New York Yankees. The Yankees acquired many players from the Boston Red Sox because the owner of the Red Sox refused to pay high salaries. George Herman Ruth Jr. , known to sports fans as Babe Ruth was the most notable acquisition in 1919. In the 1920’s the Yankees won 3 world championships, and started their rise to worldwide fame.In 1923 the Yankees Stadium was built in the heart of the Bronx, in New York City. This stadium became the home of the Yankees from 1923 to 1973 and from 1976 to 2008 essay writer cheap. The stadium’s nickname, â€Å"The House That Ruth Built†, has the most history, from the dozens of Hall of Famers that played in the pinstripes type my essay online, to all the World Series titles. The Yankees stadium hosted 6,581 Yankees regular season home games during its 85-year history. Many baseball historians consider the 1927 Yankees team to be the best assembled of all time. In the World Series, they swept the Pittsburgh Pirates.This Yankee team is known for their feared lineup, which was nicknamed â€Å"Murderers' Row†. In the 1930’s the winning continued with Joe DiMaggio and Lou Gehrig, and they won four straight titles. From the 1940’s to the 1950’s the winning ways continued, as the Yankees won five more World Series titles. This was the era of Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, and Whitey Ford. In 1956, starting pitcher Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in World Series history. Larsen’s gem during the 1956 World Series was the first and only perfect game to occur during the postseason and World Series.The Yankees would close the decade of the 1950’s winning a total of seven World Series titles. In 1964, CBS bought the Yankees for 11. 2 million dollars. In 1973, CBS sold the Yankees to George Steinbrenner for 10 million dollars. This would go down as one of the worst deals in sports history for CBS. While the Yankees stadium was refurbished in 1974 and 1975, they played their home games in Shea stadium, home of the New York Mets. Yankees off and on again coach Billy Martin held th e position five different times, and led the team over the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games in the 1977 World Series.This is the World Series Reggie Jackson hit three home runs in a single game, and how he earned his nickname â€Å"Mr. October. † The 1980’s were lean times in which they did not win one World Series title. Don Mattingly was the best known Yankee during the 80’s. In 1983, Dave Righetti pitched the 6th no-hitter in Yankee’s history. 1983 also marked the famous â€Å"pine tar game† with the Kansas City Royals. The 1990’s started as the 1980’s ended. A breakthrough happened in 1996 when the Yankees hired Joe Torre, and then went on to win the World Series that same year. Torre brought the winning edge of previous decades to the new age Yankees.Derek Jeter would go on to become the next Yankees legend. The Yankees went on to win the 1998, 1999, and 2000 World Series, to complete the historic three-peat. The 2008 season was the last season played at historic Yankee Stadium. To celebrate the final year and history of Yankee Stadium, the 2008 MLB All-Star Game was played there on July 15, 2008. It wouldn’t take long for their next World Series title, as they won it all in 2009 with manager Joe Girardi at the helm. In all, the Yankees have 27 championships, more than any other team in any American sport.In pursuit of winning World Series titles, the franchise has utilized a large payroll to recruit star talent, particularly under former owner George Steinbrenner. Individual names are never put on the back of a Yankee’s uniform, because you are not an individual, you are a Yankee. The New York Yankees have inducted 36 players into the Hall of Fame, with more to come in the future. Playing for the Yankees is a huge desire for many kids and professional baseball players. Putting on those pinstripes represents history and pride. Hall of famer Joe DiMaggio put it best when he said, â€Å"Iâ€⠄¢d like to thank the good lord for making me a Yankee. †   

Muscle Milk Essay

Father and son; Mike and Greg Pickett, Founded Cytosport Inc. in 1988. The product with good taste targets bodybuilders and athletes. Muscle Milk is not only designed with athletes or body builders in mind, but can be beneficiary to a wide range of individuals seeking to be stronger, healthier, leaner, livelier or bigger. CytoSport just obtained its NSF Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) for Sport Registration, showing credibility that it does not contain any substances on the banned list recognized by the World Anti-Doping Agency, the National Football League, Major League Baseball, etc. (Bloomberg Business Week, 2008). Unlike other companies, Cytosport condemns the use of performance enhancing drugs, and through its efforts with IOC, NFL, and NCAA, will never include chemicals like steroids amongst their ingredients (article Base 2010). CytoSport, one of the company’s best selling products, Muscle Milk, is designed to provide nutrients that will naturally build up bodily tissue. Muscle Milk has several extension brand, including powder products, pre-blends products and power bars. Muscle Milk RTD (Ready to Drink) which comes in five delicious flavors : Chocolate shake, Vanilla creme shake, Strawberry and creme, Banana creme shake, Chocolate malt. Every bottle contains 25g of premium proteins for sustained energy including, Calcium and Sodium Caseinate, and Milk Protein Isolate (Cytosport 2010). The 14 oz. serving of Muscle Milk is gluten and lactose free and contains precisely 25 grams of protein to sustain energy, carbohydrates and functional fats for energy metabolism, and all essential amino acids in 20 vitamins and minerals. Combining science with performance Muscle Milk allows for rapid muscle growth, high energy, and increased metabolism of fat. The creators of Muscle Milk listen to the needs of their consumers and offer a variety of options for their product, such as Muscle Milk Light, their low calorie blend, or Muscle Milk Naturals which omits the use of artificial sweeteners (all business 2008). Competitive review, Muscle Milk is currently the leader in RTD protein shakes (Bloomberg Business week 2008). However there is a quickly rising competitor named Isopure, although at the moment it has not yet had as much sales as people who have been in the market for a while they have a formula which provides them with 100% all isolated natural protein (All Business 2008). In All business week article explains the distribution review, the product can be found at stores such as GNC, 7 Eleven, Costco, Vitamin Shoppe, and Fitness First Gyms. It is also available in several popular online sites such as bodybuilding. com, prosource. net, keysupplements. com and several others. Partnered with Pepsi Beverages Co. to distribute the RTD line of Muscle Milk and Muscle Milk Light in its territories in the US and Canada. The strengths of the company are since, Established in 1998 Cytosport has valuable sales experience in performance enhancing market. Our brand name is very well liked and recognized by bodybuilders and partners alike and is already being marketed via sports teams such as the Yahoo cycling team and the Under Armour Football Combines. There are over $200 million in sales within the last accounting period (Article base 2010). It has the financial resources to study the market trends; thereby, plan for the future, train sales personnel and to effectively market the brand. There are several weakness of our product, Brand recognition, even though Cytosport is an established and renown by the gym population, the general public still doesn’t know of their products. Some people may experience diarrhea, abdominal cramps and nausea after the consumption of Muscle Milk (Livestrong 2010). Some of the opportunities of our product; we are currently proud to be supporting 24 colleges by improving over 125 athletic programs. We do this by providing our Muscle Milk line of products to assist in their strength training (livestrong 2010). In March, CytoSport introduced Muscle Milk Protein H2O in GNC stores and Costco, two of their biggest partners. The Protein H20 comes in a variety of fruit flavors including Grape, Grapefruit, Orange and Raspberry. The product contains 60 calories and is sugar-free. In today’s gym obsessed world, Cytosport is utilizing this is an opportunity to promote muscle milk, thus increase its market share, whilst creating value for the customers. Unfortunately there are several threats, Nestle USA is currently suing Muscle Milk saying that they do not have any actual milk in their product and that is â€Å"eceptively misdescriptive† (All Business 2008). A third party medical group may come out with research indicating that this type of product is unhealthy (all Business 2008). There are also over fifty other competitors in this Market including CNP professional Proslam, Strength Systems USA Muscle Blast, and AllMax Nutrition ISOFLEX. Pepsi Co might start their own line of product if they see this as a good revenue line That can also be a threat. Future FDA regulations on the product may cause us to cease operations. SO Strategy, we use strengths to take advantage of opportunities Use of their efficient R&D team to develop new products quickly to respond to new distribution channels demands. We also use of experience and knowledge to create and address the specific needs of new segments of the market. Ex. Female athletes and children. WO Strategy, overcoming weaknesses by taking advantage of opportunities. Gaining brand recognition through the partnership with Pepsi Beverage Co. also improving their logistics specifically their product distribution. ST Strategy, use of strengths to avoid threats. Using the experience and product knowledge to successfully compete with any new competition entering the market. These are the TOWS analysis building strategies. Brand Positioning strategy, We currently have a benefits positioning strategy. Our product gives consumers a better way to quickly recuperate after a tough workout. For example, while working out, drinking muscle milk helps promote nutrients in your body to gain energy. Another benefit for the consumers are since we target mainly body builders, They have to maintain a healthy diet to stay in good shape, muscle milk have all the proteins and vitamins for the body needs, and consumers can replace their meal by drinking muscle milk. Product Branding strategy, Muscle Milk is a co-brand product with Cytosport. Both companies work together to make this product the best for our consumers. Line Extensions, we have already made several changes to the formula to create a variety of RTD protein shakes such as Muscle Milk light and diet Muscle Milk. For the pricing strategy, we reviewed the category performance and competitive items using Safeway SmartTraks, risk reports and the bump chart to show the price sensitivity for Muscle Milk and the competitive items. We then provided Safeway with an in depth data analysis which included a price market survey for all nine Safeway divisions versus the competi- tion for the entire category to allow them to evaluate and consider a strategy change for sports nutrition in their stores on a national basis. Our strategy was to move Muscle Milk from a high-low promotional program to an everyday low cost program. In order to do this, we needed to approach CytoSport to present our findings and see if they would be interested in providing funding based on our analysis that at a lower retail price, they would see an increase in product move- ment. This process also involved providing Safeway with projections to show them that the increased unit and dollar sales at a reduced retail price would increase their overall adjusted gross margins. With the VP of Sales at CytoSport we successfully developed and presented a plan to Safeway where CytoSport would provide the incremental funding and Safeway would reduce their margins in order to bring Muscle Milk’s retail price down. The Distribution strategy, we will reduce the cost of production, transportation and other costs associated in the process by creating a partnership with Pepsi. On the Marketing communication strategy, we used Shaq as an advertisement and created a limited edition bottle. Goal of this strategy: Muscle Milk is not only a good source for protein for your workouts, it can now make you feel like Shaquille O’Neal. We plan on using this strategy in the future with other athletes such as Brandon Roy, Ryan Hall, and etc. (Promo Magazine 2009). Since college sports are very popular we started creating limited-edition bottles themed after some of the most famous college football teams such as Georgia Tech, University of Miami, UCLA and etc. For example in UCLA wee created a bottle just for the theme of their football team using the colors of their school which are gold and blue. The 7,500 bottles produced are expected to be on shelves in November (Promo Magazines 2009). Creating value, We plan on improving our website so that we have a premium buyers page where you can get your product shipped faster the more you buy. Our partnership with Pepsi Co. makes this possible. These preferred will also be receiving special offers, such as if they pay their account balances within 15 days they get a 2% discount. Value proposition, Cytosport will provide quality product to its customers at low prices, Establish good customer relationship and loyalty, In turn maintain and/or increase the market share, and satisfying consumer needs with superior quality products, efficacy and reliability. Reference Quiton. B. (2009). Muscle Milk Energizer with Shaq. Promo Magazine, retrieved from http://promomagazine. com/news/muscle-milk-energizes-shaq-0114/ Odell. P. (2010). Muscle milk Debut college Theme bottles. Promo Magazine, retrieved from http://promomagazine. com/news/muscle-milk-debuts-bottles-0928/ All Business (2008). Retrieved from http://www. allbusiness. com/marketing-advertising/marketing-techniques/12590370-1. html Bloomberg Business Week (2008). Retrieved from http://investing. businessweek. com/research/stocks/private/snapshot. asp? privcapId=6925027 Livestrong (2010). Retrieved from http://www. livestrong. com/article/123243-side-effects-muscle-milk/ CytoSport (2010). Retrieved from http://www. cytosport. com/.

Humber bridge essays

Humber bridge essays Firstly, in this trip, I learned some basis theory from the talk that provided by the consultant, who is working for maintenance the Humber Bridge. He showed some slides how the engineers design the bridge in order to prevent some natural disaster such as earthquake, typhoon and so on. Secondly, he showed some history information of this bridge to us. For instance, the figure of vehicles, how much is the toll and However, Humber Bridge is built by private company so that they set up a toll in order to recover their capital which they had spent for built the Humber bridge. Thirdly, he also showed some slides about the different elevations of the bridge. From those diagram, I knew why are the engineers designed the bridge like that outlook. They got some information by consulting from different environmental experts. Then, they used that information to design a bridge which can prevent the disaster. Those are the picture that the consultant showed to us. After the briefing, we had to take a look around the Humber Bridge. We went into the tower of the bridge and saw the structure of the bridge. Also, we saw the cables which joined from one side to the other side. And that cables have a total length which can around the world about 2.5 times. And each of the cable is made by 200 little cables. After I saw those cables, I felt that build a bridge is not an easy job. Building a bridge, the engineers have to calculate the force and load for the bridge. On the other hand, the environment experts also have to calculate the change of weather and topography. However, the engineers joined that information together in order to build a safety and useful bridge for public to use. I through this trip was held very successful since we can learn something from the real objects rather than learn the theory only. Moreover, this kind of trip has inc ...

GPA, SAT, and ACT Admissions Data for the Ivy League

GPA, SAT, and ACT Admissions Data for the Ivy League The eight Ivy League schools are among the most selective colleges in the country. This doesnt mean that you need a 4.0 GPA and 1600 on the SAT to get in (although it doesnt hurt). All the Ivy League schools have holistic admissions, so they are looking for students who will contribute more than good grades and test scores to the campus community. A winning Ivy League application needs to present a strong academic record, meaningful extracurricular activities, glowing letters of recommendation, and a compelling application essay. Your college interview and demonstrated interest may also help, and legacy status can give you an advantage. When it comes to the empirical part of your application, you will need good grades and standardized test scores to get accepted to an Ivy League school. All of the Ivies accept both the ACT and SAT, so choose the exam that works best for you. But how high do your grades and test scores need to be? Follow the links below to learn more about each Ivy League school, and to see admissions data for accepted, rejected, and waitlisted applicants: Brown University Located in Providence, Rhode Island, Brown is the second smallest of the Ivies, and the school has more of an undergraduate focus than universities such as Harvard and Yale. Their acceptance rate is only 9 percent. The great majority of students who get into Brown University have a nearly perfect 4.0 GPA, an ACT composite score above 25, and a combined SAT score (RWM) of above 1200. Columbia University Located in Upper Manhattan, Columbia University can be an excellent choice for students looking for an urban college experience. Columbia is also one of the largest of the Ivies, and it has a close relationship with neighboring Barnard College. It has a very low acceptance rate of around 7 percent. Students accepted at Columbia have GPAs in the A range, SAT scores (RWM) above 1200, and ACT composite scores above 25. Cornell University Cornells hillside location in Ithaca, New York, gives it stunning views of Cayuga Lake. The university has one of the top engineering and top hotel management programs in the country. It also has the largest undergraduate populations of all the Ivy League schools. It has an acceptance rate of about 15 percent. Most students accepted at Cornell have a GPA in the A range,  Ã‚  SAT scores (RWM) above 1200 and ACT composite scores above 25. Dartmouth College If you want a quintessential college town with its central green, nice restaurants, cafà ©s, and bookstores, Dartmouths home of Hanover, New Hampshire, should be appealing. Dartmouth is the smallest of the Ivies, but dont be fooled by its name: it is a comprehensive university, not a college. Dartmouth has a low acceptance rate of 11 percent. To be accepted, students tend to have A averages, an ACT composite score above 25, and a combined SAT score (RWM) of above 1250.   Harvard University Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with dozens of other colleges and universities nearby, Harvard University is the most selective of the Ivy League Schools as well as the most selective university in the country. Its acceptance rate is just 5 percent. For the best chance of acceptance, you should have an A average, SAT scores (RWM) over 1300, and ACT composite scores above 28. Princeton University Princetons campus in New Jersey makes both New York City and Philadelphia an easy day trip. Like Dartmouth, Princeton is on the smaller side and has more of an undergraduate focus than many of the Ivies. Princeton accepts only 7 percent of applicants. To be accepted, you should have a GPA of 4.0, SAT scores (RWM) above 1250, and ACT composite scores above 25. University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania is one of the larger Ivy League schools, and it has a roughly equal population of undergraduate and graduate students. Its campus in West Philadelphia is just a short walk to Center City. Penns Wharton School is one of the top business schools in the country. They accept about 10 percent of applicants. To be accepted, you should have a GPA of 3.7 or higher,  a combined SAT score (RWM) of over 1200, and an ACT composite of 24 or higher. Yale University Yale is close to Harvard and Stanford with its painfully low acceptance rate. Located in New Haven, Connecticut, Yale also has an even larger endowment than Harvard when measured in relation to enrollment numbers. Yales acceptance rate is just 7 percent. For the best chance of acceptance, you need a 4.0 GPA, SAT score (RWM) above 1250, and an ACT composite score above 25. A Final Word All of the Ivies are highly selective, and you should always consider them to be reach schools as you come up with your short list of schools to which you will apply. Thousands of extremely well-qualified applicants are rejected by the Ivies every year.

Business environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

Business environment - Essay Example (HOLDEN, MATTHEWS & THOMPSON. 1995) In UK there are many businesses which export and import product internationally. There are big names in UK like Unilever, Barclays, HSBC, Tesco, Marks and Spencer etc who are involved in trading internationally. To emphasize on Marks and Spencer it is been one of the oldest British retailer selling clothes and luxury food products. It operates in 40 countries of the world and is a well known brand world wide. Due to its vast operations world wide M&S is a global competitor for many international clothing brands. This global coverage through international trade has led to expansion in manufacturing activities of M&S worldwide which have made it profitable by outsourcing its manufacturing activities easily in cheaper countries which have made it possible for the company to compete in international market on low cost and maintain its margins. Due to its international trade, M&S has also altered their products in accordance with the demand of internati onal market which have make the company deal with many types of commodities serving many markets worldwide. (COADE. 1997; BRUCE, MOORE & BIRTWISTLE. 2004) On the other hand Tesco is one of the largest retail chains in Britain which has grown steadily over time and has internationalized its operations throughout the world. The international trade pursued by Tesco has also benefited it in the similar ways; Tesco being a very strong player in the local market is able to use its brand successfully around the world and has gained next level recognition throughout the world. Due to internationalization its operations has expanded in many countries of the world like Malaysia, Czech Republic, Poland, USA etc. where it has achieved economies of scales resulting in lower operating costs and a better ability to compete internationally with lower prices. On the other hand international trading is extremely beneficial to Tesco’s financials that has become very significant in the group res ults of Tesco. Overseas trading accounts for 60% of Tesco’s total results and its makes up 20% of current trading profits, while most of the operations worldwide are either profitable or on breakeven and in many countries it is a market leader. Another advantage the international retailing of Tesco is that due to its operations in many markets, it overcomes or reduces its risks of failure. For e.g. Tesco has recently started operating in US and its still a loss making region. However this loss is compensated by the profits generated by the others regions which make Tesco a profitable group. International trade not only can result in cost saving but it also leads to international recognition, higher revenues and profits, dispersed risk which are all beneficial for the business as well as the UK economy. (FERNIE. 2005; SETH, & RANDALL. 2000) b) Analyse the impact of two global factors on two or more UK business organisations. Organisation operating worldwide and trading interna tionally faces much more difficulties as locally operated businesses. Due to the globalization Barclays faces different environmental conditions in geographic regions. Banking sector works closely with the laws and regulations. Like political factors legal factors mostly depend on local legislation and regulation. Risk management policies of Barclays will be in accordance to legislation. Legislative compliance should be incorporated in the over all strategy,

The Idea of God in Buddhism & Its Implications for Human Life Essay

The Idea of God in Buddhism & Its Implications for Human Life - Essay Example While in some polytheist religions, the concept of God may differ slightly, but in all primary religions of the world, the God is one powerful being who has no partners and neither does he require any helpers to assist him in his numerous tasks. The concept of God does not exist in Buddhism well at least not in the same sense as what other religions of the world associate with as God. Buddhism does not deny the existence of supernatural beings but it disagrees with the theory that these supernatural beings (or Gods as referred to in many religions) have power for creation, salvation or judgment. Buddhism is not a single, unified religion but exists in a variety of forms. All these forms however have at least one thing in common: an emphasis above all on the transitory nature of human life as one knows it. Although in one's heart one may long for eternity the unavoidable fact is that humans are temporary beings, and true spirituality begins with acknowledging that. Towards the close of the sixth century BC there was a teacher who founded an order of yellow robed monks and nuns and was called by them the "Buddha," or "He who is awake or enlightened."1One knows little for certain about the historical facts of his life and teaching (Chen, 1968). The traditional stories about him were written much later and the Buddhist scriptures, which purport to give his teaching, are often of doubtful authenticity2. One can be reasonably sure of some things. His name was Siddharta Gautama (this is its Sanskrit form: Siddhattha Gotama in the dialect of the earliest Buddhist texts, Pali) and h e was the son of a chief of the Shakya tribe, which lived not far from the city of Kapilavastu. He became an ascetic and teacher and his doctrines attracted many disciples. He spent a long life teaching in the region north of the Ganges, and died around 486 BC at the age of eighty. For the rest one must be content with the stories told by his followers (Conze, 1959). Buddhism does not believe in an entity having a separate existence. An important aspect of Buddhism which is different from various other leading religions is that a follower of Buddhism does not exercise his followings to please a particular "God" on the other hand the followers or "Buddhists" as they like to be called follow the preaching's of Buddha to achiever a higher plain of existence for themselves without the necessary purpose of pleasing a creator. As per Buddhism every living thing has a dharma nature, which is basically enlightened nature that different all forms of life entail. Buddhism instils belief in the circle of life as per which life goes through birth, growth, decay and death. Life according to Buddhism focuses on forms that are in a continuous process of change and decay, which indicates that life is a just a phenomena in this magnificent religion. Nevertheless both religious and nonreligious individuals often agree on the fact that religion is all about the supernatural and that it is inseparable from belief in an external, personalised deity. Others believe that religion encourages escapist fantasies that cannot be established. The sudden increase in terrorism (which is wrongly given a religious

China Country Profile Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

China Country Profile - Term Paper Example China’s political system is very much in the hands of bureaucrats and government officials. One has to rely on them to get business done- this is due to the tradition of ‘guanxi’ (Tian n.d) which is about maintaining good relations with the Chinese. In China, it is not the law that matters but the people in power and their interpretation of the law. Due to this very practice, free trade agreements and ease of starting business in China still rests in the hands of bureaucrats and how well one maintains terms with them. Due to government interferences, tariff rates are high but recently, due to globalization, tariff rates have been lowered down in China. Strengthening the ‘reform’ policy (Tian n.d), rates of applicable taxes have also been reduced which has created a favorable environment for new business in China. Economically, China is growing at a rocketing speed and is soon coveted to be the world’s biggest economy beating the US. The average income of Chinese is increasing which signals growth in the demand of consumables and house-hold products. Due to housing subsidies introduced, real estate sector is also booming in China. Socially, China is a very business-favorable nation. Its population reduces doubts of shortage of customers and target markets. Literacy rate is also high in China which means upscale products can easily be produced and marketed. Chinese people prefer products and items carrying the first-mover advantage with them. Urban population in China emphasizes on brand while the rural population is more inclined towards price and quality of products. Due to fast paced urbanization, trend of stylish and high-priced products has picked up in China. It is also a proven fact that due to corruption in China, people tend to report lower income levels than what they actually possess (Tian n.d). Hence, the actual income levels are higher than expected in China thereby highlighting greater disposable income and spending power. China

Inventory Management Methods

Inventory Management Methods Introduction Success of an inventory management process entails the balance of costs of inventory with the benefits of the inventory (Alison et al., 2005). Inventory in business is one of the tangible and visible components of a company. Inventory management is the act of keeping and placing stock in a business. Many businesses have problem keeping the inventory. Each and every service provided anywhere is concerned with operation management technique in one way or another. Its objectives are to provide goods and services that the customers demand for in the right quantity, quality and cost at the appropriate time (Waller et al., 1999). ABC analysis The ABC analysis groups inventory into three classes. Class A contains 80 percent of the total value of inventory. Class B contains 15 percent of the total value of inventory while class C contains 5 percent of the total value of inventory (Bowersox Cooper, 1992). The ABC analysis gives a simple and quick review of the inventory. The ABC analysis also gives a clear view and meaning of the whole assortment of products in the inventory, thereby making it an efficient method to control inventory investment. The ABC analysis makes it easy for an inventory manager to devote resources to only those places where it will have the biggest positive feedback. Nike, Inc is an American manufacturer of shoes. In their ABC analysis, leather forms class A, sole forms class B while shoe lace forms class C (Cousins Spekman, 2003). ABC analysis is a vital method for management of inventory. Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) EOQ is a technique for inventory management that minimizes ordering and holding costs for the year. EOQ is a crucial accounting formula that determines when the combination of inventory carrying cost, order and costs are the least (Simchi et al., 2003). The result obtained from the formula gives the most effective quality to order. There are two models used in EOQ: Q and P models. In the Q model, whenever the stock on hand reaches the recorder point, a fixed quantity of materials is ordered. Advantages of the Q model are that the inventory materials are at the most economical quantity and inventory control personnel automatically devote attention to stocking the only items that are needed, when they are needed. A major disadvantage of the Q model is that the suppliers may be inconvenienced by orders that are raised at irregular intervals. In the P model, the stock position of every item in the inventory is closely monitored. Advantages of the P model are that the inventory and orderi ng costs are low and the model can be used on materials that are used irregularly or in seasons. Sales estimates are easily calculated for seasonal materials and the purchase of these materials can be planned in advance. A disadvantage of the P model is that is inefficient because it compels a periodic review of inventory. At Best Buy, the demand for desktop computers is 1000 units per month. Every time an order is placed, Best Buy incurs 4000 dollars in order cost. Best Buy incurs further costs in purchasing each computer at 500 dollars and the retailer charges a holding cost of 20 percent. The annual demand, D, is equal to 12000 dollars (1000 multiplied by 12). S, the order cost per lot is 4000 dolars. C, the price per unit, is 500 dollars. The annual holding cost, h, is 0.2. From these values the optimal order size and the optimal order frequency can be calculated. The formula for optimal order size, Q*, is given by SQRT((2DS)/hC) (Russ, 1999). Substituting the letters with the corresponding values gives the number 980, which is the optimal order size. Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) This is a process where the vendor makes orders for clients and customers according to the demand information they get form the customers. Both the customer and the vendor are held together by an agreement that conclude the costs, the inventory level and the fill rates.VMI use IDE (Electronic Data Interchange) to specify their delivery quantities which are sent to clients and customers by the use of distribution channel (John et al., 2008). VMI is an inbound logistic plan based on the idea that the dealer should be in charge of managing customers inventories by using the demand information provided by the customer himself. This eliminates a step in the information chain and creates a better demand visibility for the supplier, who can synchronize his manufacturing process to the actual demand with the result of having less inventories and lower logistic costs (Disney Towill, 2003). Hennes Mauritz (HM) AB, a new clothing retailer situated in Sweden is famous for its cheap but chic fashion. While other vendors are struggling, HM sees the economic slowdown as a chance to enlarge, go into new markets and to put in new brands. In September 2008, HM was all set to go into Japan, known as one of the worlds most competitive fashion markets. It was to open another store in Japan in November and a third one was to be launched soon. In Japan, HM decided to enter into a  collaboration  of design with designer Rei Kawakubo, who was the creator of well-established  fashion brand, Comme des Garà §ons. Last year, HM got into China and has established itself in 30 more countries with more 1,600 stores worldwide. As a result of effective vendor management inventory skills, it was able to establish in other countries. This has come as a result of planning which is essential in VMI, knowing the demand, improved quality of production. As a result they HM increased its inven tory annual turns and reduced material obsolescence and hence a considerable increase in assets. It was able to improve its customer services and responsiveness through scheduling forecasting of the fluctuations. VMI has some benefits to the supplier and the customer.VMI ensures that the company operation of production is not interfered with by shortage of material. Secondly, they make sure that the distributor is not caught short on products. Moreover it helps in ensuring that the customers and the suppliers do not have more inventories that are necessary to meet the needs of the customers.VMI also improve the planning processes that are beneficial to the business. Some of the pros and cons of VMI to the supplier include: bullwhipping effect reduction, lowering reliance to forecasting, it reduces the order of modifications and simplifies production plan. To the customers, it assists in reduction of stock, reduces financial cost, simplify the purchase process and increases sales. To both the customers and the suppliers, VMI helps in reducing the data entry errors, improves the speed of the process, reduces stocks level and it improves the service level (Vereecke Muylle, 2006). VMI plays a major role in cost management. In this case, the supplier holds stock on site or near the buyer. By doing this, the customer is given instant access and the power to get stock while they pay for only what they have sold. This increases the stock turnover and reduces investments in the stock. The supplier is mandated to replenish the stock in many VMI business partnerships. This also comprises of stock ordering, logistics and freight management and counting and stocking the stock. By doing this, the expenses are handled by the supplier and hence they are responsible for regulation of the prices to the customers. Another benefit of VMI is that they distinguish variations of demands and errors of forecasting between the downstream and the upstream chain supply associates. This type of decoupling assists in reducing the levels of stock and the linked stock maintenance costs (Hollensen, 2001). Conclusion VMI as a supply chain practice is very essential in monitoring, planning and managing the inventory or stocks of an organization by a vendor for the organization.VMI has many advantages which range from cost, delivery and also quality. It is necessary to have VMI in a business as they play a big role in the management of the inventory. The advantages of the VMI outweigh the disadvantages and hence they are vital in an organization which requires major stock taking during business. Vendor-managed inventory (VMI) systems have been proven to be a technique for improving the efficiency of supply chain operations. VMI is made efficient by the execution of an electronic means that eradicate many of the built-in delays associated with traditional ordering systems and enable the establishment of shared inventory management systems (Xu et al., 2001). Part 2:- Recent trends in operations and supply chain management. Introduction Modern company may choose to cooperate through supply chain arrangements that combine their personal strengths and distinctive resources. In the past year, supply chain management has showed organizations that they can attain sustainable competitive advantage whether they are in competition with other suppliers of not (Vergin Barr, 1999). Due to this, many companies have been involved in outsourcing logistic functions which has provided a great opportunity to many companies to operate efficiently, be flexible, improve their service levels and have a better focus on their main benefit of the organization. Overview Outsourcing logistics has been one of the trends that have been on the rise in supply chain management (Walter et al., 2003). Many companies have really gained from outsourcing and thus they have improved their involvement with providers and facilitated the integration of the whole supply chain. Outsourcing has led to development of various partnership initiatives which have been successful in exploiting the logistics flow and the customer demand. For instance, Dell Computer Corporation opened up the Direct Model of sale and service of PCs directly to the consumers. This is a way of outsourcing which ha been of great impact on Dell Inc. Dell Computer Corporation a leading computer systems company was started in 1984. Dell trades its computer systems straight to end customers, avoiding distributors and retailers. Dell matches supply and demand because its consumers order computer configurations online computer configurations are built up from components that are available. Its strateg y is to give customized, low cost, and quality computers that are distributed on time. Dell successfully employed this strategy via its resourceful manufacturing operations, better supply chain management and direct sales model. Dell uses the phone or online through the internet to take orders directly from its customers. Other recent trends in operations and supply chain management include, planning for the demand; as more manufacturing companies come up, the level of quality of products increases and hence the demand has to be planned for. Having a demand focused approach assists an organization deliver and have a demand driven model (Alan, 2008). Planning for the demand improves the management efforts and helps overall costs and customer services efforts .The other trend is globalization; the business market becomes global as a result of improvement in communication. Processes like manufacturing, distribution, selling, invoicing, returns have a big impact on the thirdly, increased competition is another trend the trend in supply and operation management. Due to the increase in market, demand and supply, there is high competition form all the companies selling the same products. This comes as a result of high demand and also having many suppliers. Dell has decreased the cost of intermediaries that w ould increase the cost of PC for the customer. Dell also saves time on handing out orders that other organizations normally incur in their sales and distribution system. Moreover, by dealing directly with the customer Dell gets a clearer indication of market inclination. This helps Dell to plan for the future apart from having better managing its supply chain (Walter et al., 2003). The company with the products of highest quality has an upper hand over the other companies (Wikner et al., 1991). As a result of competition, the prices are also affected and hence they reduce due to many suppliers in the market. Many companies are viewing their  supply  chains in two ways to help offset this trend. Dell Inc looks at ways to decrease cost and still create a more efficient value  chain  to remain cost competitive. Second, companies are looking at ways they can offer value-added services to get together the demands of more complicated customers (Vivek, 2009). Dell Inc does this by taking orders direct form the customers and delivering their products at home. Reorganization of the procedures with better design, better collaboration across networks and new services will help your company stay competitive and strengthen relationships with your customers. Conclusion Many recent trends in operations and supply chain management have come up in the business industry. Vendor-managed inventory (VMI) systems have been proven to be a technique for improving the efficiency of supply chain operations. Experience has shown that developments in these two areas can lead to eradication of between 20 percent and 30 percent of the previously required supply chain inventory. Nevertheless, in order to achieve this level of success, it is vital for those companies that have not yet applied VMI to follow a best practice approach. Flourishing VMI programs take benefit of a key supply chain association that has been reaffirmed many times over (Michael   Nigel, 2003).