Goodman Fielder's strategic market Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Goodman Fielder's strategic market - Essay Example One of the major effects of globalization is the increasing demand for products to meet humanity's needs. This globalized environment is such that for companies to remain competitive they must remain vigilant in response to the changing nature of consumer needs. In regards to Goodman Fielder, these tenants hold penetratingly true, as they strive towards success with the development of a unique rice cracker. Prior research speaks to product demand in these regards. This is pivotal research as it involves product differentiation that creates customer loyalty and the product's overall market value. While product sales are a pivotal aspect of the intentions, developing customer loyalty through producing the product at the most advantageous juncture of quality and value is another core concern. The appendixes include estimates in regards to consumer preferences. These estimates are part of a study that utilizes consumers between ages 25-35. After establishing product differentiation, it's also necessary to consider that Goodman Fielder must remain consistently vigilant to ensure their continued market relevance. Ultimately, recommendations are advanced that explore the product's main value and the current market opportunities for incoming companies. These recommendations constitute the final device to gauge and ensure market success and product viability. In terms of Goodman Fielder, the market outlook is positive for their rice cracker product. Goodman Fielder has become one of the potential firms situated in the distribution of the commodities.

Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods Essay Example for Free

Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods Essay There are different research methods that have been guided by different philosophy of science that were developed by philosopher, researcher and sociologist at their time of era. The well-known research methods are quantitative research methods. Quantitative are numerical methods associated with deductive approaches. Quantitative research methods are usually guided by the principles of positivism as it takes on objective reality and accepts single reality. Quantitative methods are usually used to measure size, observe numerical change over time, audience segmentation, testing hypothesis, and, quantifying attitudes, behaviors and opinions. The main importance of quantitative research is on deductive reasoning which tends to move from the general to the specific. The validity of conclusions is shown to be dependent on one or more premises being valid. For example, All students who study MBA in Kathmandu University works in a bank. Seema studies in MBA in Kathmandu University. Based on the premises, we can say that Seema works in a bank. Premises used in deductive reasoning are important because faulty premises can lead to wrong conclusions. Another popular method is qualitative method, which are usually associated with inductive approaches. Qualitative research methods are used on subjective matter, as in-depth study to explore subject matter. Qualitative research methods are guided by philosophies as post-positivism, critical theory, and constructivism. Qualitative research methods offer different kinds of ways to investigate on research problems as interview methods, focused group discussions,case studies and many others to understand the certain circumstances or culture in the society. The approach adopted by qualitative researchers tends to be inductive which means that they develop a theory or look for a pattern of meaning on the basis of the data that they have collected. This involves a move from the specific to the general and is sometimes called a bottom-up approach. However, most research projects also involve a certain degree of deductive reasoning (Trochim, 2005). Quantitative Research is more about collecting numerical data to study about certain phenomena. For example, what percentage of Nepalese student who go to US for foreign degree complete graduate course in United States? Other examples may be what percentage of Nepalese students who are studying in TU have negative attitude towards TU administrations. One usually has to use quantitative research when one wants answer in numbers. However, one has to study about complex situations and go with in-depth studies then qualitative methods should be used. For example, researcher wants to know how people view politics in Nepal? Similarly, a researcher wants to do ethnographic study of the culture of Tharus of Nepal and lives with Tharu for some years, immerse himself/herself in that environment to discover the meanings, convention of behavior, and ways of thinking important in tharu cultures. Similarly, even though the selection of research methods are based upon the problem selected, resource available, the skills of researcher and audience of the research, both the methodologies are also used together in a research which is known as mixed methods. â€Å"Mixed methods often combine nomothetic and idiographic approaches in an attempt to serve the dual purposes of generalization and in-depth understanding—to gain an overview of social regularities from a larger sample while understanding the other through detailed study of a smaller sample. Full integration of these approaches is difficult, hence the predominance of component studies†(Pat Bazeley, 2004) References (Bazeley, 2004) Social Research Methods. (n.d.). Retrieved December 12, 2012, from www.socialresearchmethods. net: http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/positivism (2005). In W. M. Trochium, Research Methods (2nd ed.).

The Search for Dostoyevsky in Crime and Punishment Essay -- Crime and

The Search for Dostoyevsky in Crime and Punishment   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky who is known as a great novelist wrote timeless classics such as The Idiot, Crime and Punishment, and The Brothers Karamazov, was not only a novelist, but a good psychologist who uncovered the secret sides of the human beings in a very effective way. His novels also affected Freud, Nietzsche, and Joyce. However there is one point that is a mystery. Did Dostoyevsky really reflect his own feelings, especially his fears, into the characters of his novels?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Fyodor was born in Moscow on October 30 in 1821 in Hospital for the poor, the second of seven children. His mother Mme Marya Feodorovna and father Dr. M. Andrey Dostoyevsky whose surname comes from a small village, Dostoevo, came from the Lithuanian nobility. Dr. Dostoyevsky’s father was a priest in Ukrainia who wanted his son to be a priest like him. However, Andrey ran away from home to become a doctor when he was fifteen. He was accepted to the Imperial Medical-Surgical Academy in 1809, and continued his career in various hospitals. Fyodor’s only elder brother Mikhail was born in 1820, one year earlier than Fyodor (Troyat 37).   They lived in a small apartment on the hospital grounds for a long time. When Fyodor reached the age of thirteen, Dr. Dostoyevsky became a nobleman, and moved to Darovoe where he bought a small land about 150 versts.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Dostoyevsky mentioned about his mother with a great love. According to him, she was a cheerful, warm and adorable person. He lost her mother in 1837 when he was about sixteen. His father, however, draws a contrast portrait with his mother. He suffered from headaches that affected his character deeply in a negative way. Althou... ...rform, and made him feel like a murderer. This is the fear of a lonely person which forced him to create his unique characters. Many times, I feel guilty as if I committed a murder.† F. M. Dostoyevsky Works Cited Conradi, Peter J.   Fyodor Dostoevsky.  Basingstoke : Macmillan , 1988. Dostoyevsky,   Fyodor.   Crime  and  Punishment. New York: The Modern Library, 1950. Frank,   Joseph.  Dostoyevsky The  Seeds  of  Revolt   18211849.  Princeton:   Princeton UP,  1976.   Frank,   Joseph.   Dostoyevsky The  Years   of   Ordeal   1850 - 1859.   Princeton:   Princeton UP,   1983.   Jones,   Malcolm.   Dostoyevsky   After   Bakhtin Readings   in   Dostoyevsky’s   Fantastic Realism.   Cambridge:   Cambridge UP,  1990. Simmons, Ernest J.   Dostoyevsky The making of a novelist.   London:   John Lehmann Ltd,  1950. Troyat, Henri.   Dostoyevsky. Istanbul: Cem Yay?nevi,  1973.        

Arthur Miller’s The Crucible Essay

A crucible is defined as a severe trial or a container in which metals are melted at very high temperatures. Much like how metals mold to a new shape at very high temperatures, people change when severe trials and challenges present themselves. When innocent lives are lost, a person will realize the wrongs and attempt to make things right again. The character John Hale must forget his old teachings and way of life to try to return the town of Salem to a peaceful community. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Reverend John hale transforms from a prideful prosecutor of witches to a humble defender of the accused because of the guilt he experiences over the innocent lives lost during the Salem witch trials. Reverend John Hale arrives in Salem as a prideful man with intentions of persecuting the accused of witchcraft and ridding the town of all evil. Author Arthur Miller says of Hale, â€Å"This is a beloved errand of him; on being called here to ascertain witchcraft he felt the pride of the specialist whose unique knowledge has at last been publicly called for.†(Miller 1252) Miller explains that the reverend has great pride in having the opportunity to show off his skills to rid the town of Salem of witchcraft. His skills in the beginning of the trials come from his books instead of from his own intuitions. Reverend Hale brings many books into the town in order to use their knowledge to persecute the accused. He believes these books to be infallible, and they cause him to believe that he will solve all of the town’s problems with them. Along with the knowledge from his books, he speaks, â€Å"with a tasty love of intellectual pursuit.†(Miller 1257) These stage directions imply that Hale thirsts to be the all-knowing savior of Salem. In his early days at Salem this thirst and his faith in the judicial system guide him to find the suspected witches and deal with them accordingly. The reverend’s early thirst for heroism soon vanishes as the trials pursue and more unexpected people in Salem are accused of witchcraft. Hale travels to the Proctor residence by his accord, without the court’s authority, to learn more about them because Elizabeth Proctor has been mentioned in the court. Learning about the faith life of Elizabeth, Hale starts to question whether all of the accused participate in witchcraft, and doubt of the infallible judicial system starts to arise in him. This doubt grows as he says to Judge Danforth about the trials, â€Å"But is does not follow that everyone accused is part of it.†(Miller 1300) He realizes now that the accused are given no chance to plead innocent without the sure fate of death. Hale sees flaw in the judicial system that he has lived by, and wonders if the many he has condemned to death had no opportunity at all to seek innocence. Knowing that the accused have no chance for survival but through confession of witchcraft, Hale proclaims, â€Å"I have this morning signed away the soul of Rebecca Nurse, Your Honor. I’ll not conceal it, my hand shakes yet as with a wound!†(Miller 1301) He knows that Rebecca has a good life of faith, and she will most definitely be condemned to death by the so called infallible judicial system because of him. Hale shows the feeling of guilt by signing away the life of Goody Nurse, and realizes that he must try to defend the accused because the court will not. Hale loses all motivation to condemn the accused and no longer holds pride in himself or his judicial system. With his motivation to seek out witches now gone, Hale believes many of the accused to be innocent and tries to convince this to the court. He tells Judge Danforth, â€Å"I beg you, stop now before another is condemned! I may not shut my conscience to it no more—private vengeance is working through this testimony! From the beginning this man has struck me true. By my oath to Heaven, I believe him now.†(Miller 1311) His guilt pushes him to defend the accused in front of the judge so that their blood will not be on his hands. Hale knows his association with the courts will result in the loss of innocent lives, and he cannot live with himself knowing this. Knowing now that the court operates with error, he quits it and denounces its proceedings. John Hale no longer want to participate in the court’s murdering of the innocent, and feels guilty for the lives that he has already condemned through the judicial system. Hale now knows that he needs to think for himself rather than following the laws and rules of the judicial system he has lived by his whole life. Working separate from the court, the reverend says, â€Å"I come to do the Devil’s work. I come to counsel Christians they should belie themselves.†(Miller 1325) Hale knows that the only way to rid the guilt from his mind is to convince the accused to lie and confess so that their lives may be saved. He has lost faith in the court system that will condemn innocent lives, and, throwing away his pride, puts out one last effort to save some of the lives he has condemned. His motivation has changed from condemning the witches in the town to attempting to save the accused. As his efforts are about to fail, he drops to his knees and says, â€Å"What profit him to bleed? Shall the dust praise him? Shall the worms declare his truth? Go to him, take his shame away!†(Miller 1334) His efforts to defend the accused fail, and guilt overwhelms him. Reverend John Hale cannot live with the innocent lives he has sentenced to murder and is humbled as the accused are led to their death. â€Å"Cleave to no faith when faith brings blood†(Miller 1326) says a transformed reverend as the Salem witch trials come to an end. Reverend Hale loses not only his faith in the judicial system, but also in the God who he believed to be too perfect to allow these tragic events to happen. He humbles himself because the pride that he once had leads to the death innocent lives in Salem. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Reverend John Hale changes from a prideful prosecutor of the witches to a humble defender of the accused because of the guilt that overwhelms him due to the innocent blood shed at his hands during the Salem witch trials.

Analysis of “He” by Katherine Anne Porter

Katherine Anne Porter’s â€Å"He† In Katherine Anne Porter’s short story, â€Å"He†, Mrs. Whipple has the misfortune of a mentally retarded son. While struggling to feed and clothe the hungry mouths of her family, Mrs. Whipple tries to camouflage hatred toward her son by putting up a facade of love and concern for him in an attempt to look like a better individual. Mr. Whipple and Mrs. Whipple’s neglect toward their son is evident right from the start by his lack of a name. He is only acknowledged as â€Å"He† or â€Å"Him†. Nance explains that this, â€Å"failure of the boy’s parents to recognize his personality, symbolized by their failure to give him a name, is the root of their error and suffering† (Nance 19). If Mr. and Mrs. Whipple would take the time to understand their son as a person and recognize his abilities, they would be able to accept his situation more easily and Mrs. Whipple could be less concerned with what people say. The distortion of Mrs. Whipple’s concern for her son is first evident when she says, â€Å"I wouldn’t have anything happen to Him for all the world, but it just looks like I can’t keep Him out of mischief. He’s so strong and active;He’s always into everything; He was like that since He could walk. It’s actually funny sometimes, the way He can do anything; it’s laughable to see Him up to His tricks. † (Porter 493) The truth is that Mrs. Whipple fails to put any considerable effort into keeping Him out of trouble in the first place. Mr. and Mrs. Whipple give the boy more chores because they say that He is bigger than average, and wont think twice about taking some of his blankets if the other children get cold in winter. On more than one occasion she intentionally puts Him in harms way. After receiving a letter saying that her brother and his family is coming for a visit, Mrs. Whipple insists on sacrificing a baby pig that would be worth a substantial amount of money by Christmas. With the mama pig being a great fighter, Mrs. Whipple asks Adna to retrieve the piglet. After Adna refuses the challenge, Mrs. Whipple believes it would be a great joke to make Him do it. After the boy manages to steal the pig, with the sow raging at His heels, Mrs. Whipple takes the pig from the boy without showing gratitude for the great favor He did. On another occasion, Mr. and Mrs. Whipple allow the boy to lead a full grown bull home. Both knowing that the bull could easily tear the boy to pieces, they still allow him to bring the animal three miles home. She mustn’t make a sound nor a move; she mustn’t get the bull started. The bull heaved his head aside and horned the air at a fly. Her voice burst out of her in a shriek, and she screamed at Him to come on, for God’s sake. He didn’t seem to hear her clamor, but kept on twirling His switch and limping on, and the bull lumbered along behind him as gently as a calf. Mrs. Whipple stopped calling and ran towards the house, praying under her breath: â€Å"Lord, don’t let anything happen to Him. Lord, you know people will say we oughtn’t to have sent Him. You know they’ll say we didn’t take care of Him. Oh, get Him home, safe home, safe home, and I’ll look out for Him better! Amen. † (Porter 497) Without concern for the boys safety Mrs. Whipple cries out at the boy to hurry up knowing that her actions could startle the bull. She then runs inside, not waiting to make sure her son made it all the way safely, and prays. Her prayers to get Him home safely bear more on what people will say about her if he does not make it. â€Å"[This] is a prime example where Mrs. Whipple’s superficial mask of love and concern is taken over by her abhorrence toward Him because of her personality flaw† (Makoid). Year after year the Whipple’s condition slowly dwindles. Adna and Emly move to the city for jobs, and He gets more chores placed upon his shoulders. One winter the boy slipped on some ice and fell over and started having convulsions. From then on He had to stay in bed. His legs swelled up and his condition didn’t improve. With the Whipples on their last legs, the doctor suggested they put the boy into the County Home. Mrs. Whipple, still worried about what people will say, refuses to see the boy go. She thinks that with Adna and Emlys’ help the family will be able to get back on their feet by next summer and take care of the boy. Eventually Mrs. Whipple understands what has to be done. Her neighbor and the doctor drive Mrs. Whipple and Him to the hospital. On the ride to the hospital He starts to cry. This is when Mrs. Whipple realizes that He is going away forever. His tears signify that maybe He knew that He was going away and He was finally happy; Happy to get away from the distortion and confusion of his parents. Mrs. Whipple understands her err, and is now truly concerned about his feelings. Mrs. Whipple and her family are poor southerners struggling to feed and clothe their children. With the addition of a mentally retarded second son, situations become more complicated for the family. Mrs. Whipple tries to mask the neglect of her disabled child by showing false love and concern for him. Only if she could grasp reality and accept her situation, would she be able to overcome her position and truly be happy. Instead Mrs. Whipple insists on hiding her conditions and doing whatever is possible to appear as a great family that is better off than they actually are. Works Cited Makoid, Terence. (2003, April 23). Katherine Anne Porter: Analysis of Mrs. Whipple in â€Å"He†. Retrieved April 24, 2011, from University of North Carolina website: http://www. unc. edu/home/tmakoid/english/he. html Nance, William L. Katherine Anne Porter & the Art of Rejection. University of North Carolina Press. Chapel Hill , 1964. 18-23. Porter, Katherine A. (1927). He. In L. McDougal, American Literature (pp. 493-498). Evanston, IL: McDougal.

youth protest in vietnam war essays

youth protest in vietnam war essays In 1961 president Kennedy decided to send American troops to Vietnam to stop the spread of Communism and to show the United States' strength of resolve. At the time he did not know the turmoil he would bring to his own country. The United States was split between those who believed it was our part to get involved in Vietnam and those who thought it was none of our business. As the war continued people's opinions intensified, especially student's. Youth protests during the 1960's changed the way many Americans viewed the Vietnam War. In the early 1960's protests first became a way of change for the civil rights movement. Then as men started going off to war it became a way of displaying activism. Liberal cities with big universities were the first to experience the antiwar movement. The cities of Ann Arbor, Bloomington, Chicago, East Lansing, Lawrence, Madison, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis saw the movement in full effect (Anderson 4-5). Some people believed that the protesters were a disgrace for betraying their own country (Dudley 83). "Teach-ins" became a way of educating students about what was really happening in Vietnam. Speeches, songs, discussions, and seminars helped get the students involved at the "teach-ins". After the first "teach in" occurred on March 24, 1965, at the University of Michigan, hundreds more started taking place within a few weeks. All the administration could do was to send for government officials called "truth teams". When that did not work, the government realized they should not reveal their policies to the public (Dougan and Weiss 87-88). The students from the University of California at Berkely felt like a minority when no one took them seriously at their campus demonstration in September 1965 because of their long hair and ragged clothes (Kent 74). Many youth joined organizations that were against the war. They would go to protests such as the one that took place on April 17, 1965. The 2...

Free Essays on Warm Desserts Of North America

North America contains three â€Å"warm† deserts. They are known as the Chihuahuan, the Sonoran, and the Mojave deserts. Warm deserts have relatively high temperatures during the long summer months and low amounts of rainfall; as a result, the evolutionary affinities of their plant life are largely with the subtropical plant communities to the south. Desert soils tend to be poorly developed, with a high content of mineral particles but little organic matter. The poor soil is caused by low plant productivity, which restricts the soil-building properties of microorganisms that convert organic matter into the humus components of soils. Soils with low organic matter content have a low water-holding capacity, adding to the aridity of the land (Smith et al 1997). Unlike other types of North American biomes, warm desert plants are competing for water, not light. The availability of water is the major factor determining the types of organisms that can live in the deserts. Warm deserts typically receive less than 25 cm of precipitation per year. The amount of evaporation is often greater than the amount of rainfall that occurs. Evaporation is an important factor contributing to aridity. Rising air cools and can hold less moisture, producing clouds and precipitation; falling air warms, absorbing moisture. Areas with few clouds, bodies of water, and little vegetation absorb most of the sun's radiation, thus heating the air at the soil surface. High wind in open country also contributes to aridity of the warm desert (Eddins, 2002). Plants that have adapted to dry habitats by altering their physical structure are known as xerophytes. Xerophytes, such as cacti, are the largest type plants living in the deserts of the North America. To reduce transpiration, xerophytes usually have few or no leaves and have special means of storing and conserving water. Most annual desert plants germinate only after heavy seasonal rain, and then comple... Free Essays on Warm Desserts Of North America Free Essays on Warm Desserts Of North America North America contains three â€Å"warm† deserts. They are known as the Chihuahuan, the Sonoran, and the Mojave deserts. Warm deserts have relatively high temperatures during the long summer months and low amounts of rainfall; as a result, the evolutionary affinities of their plant life are largely with the subtropical plant communities to the south. Desert soils tend to be poorly developed, with a high content of mineral particles but little organic matter. The poor soil is caused by low plant productivity, which restricts the soil-building properties of microorganisms that convert organic matter into the humus components of soils. Soils with low organic matter content have a low water-holding capacity, adding to the aridity of the land (Smith et al 1997). Unlike other types of North American biomes, warm desert plants are competing for water, not light. The availability of water is the major factor determining the types of organisms that can live in the deserts. Warm deserts typically receive less than 25 cm of precipitation per year. The amount of evaporation is often greater than the amount of rainfall that occurs. Evaporation is an important factor contributing to aridity. Rising air cools and can hold less moisture, producing clouds and precipitation; falling air warms, absorbing moisture. Areas with few clouds, bodies of water, and little vegetation absorb most of the sun's radiation, thus heating the air at the soil surface. High wind in open country also contributes to aridity of the warm desert (Eddins, 2002). Plants that have adapted to dry habitats by altering their physical structure are known as xerophytes. Xerophytes, such as cacti, are the largest type plants living in the deserts of the North America. To reduce transpiration, xerophytes usually have few or no leaves and have special means of storing and conserving water. Most annual desert plants germinate only after heavy seasonal rain, and then comple...

Common App 2017-18 How to Write a Great College Application Essay

Common App 2017-18 How to Write a Great College Application Essay After a year of stability, the Common Application essay prompts have changed again – I think for the better – based on surveys of 5000 teachers, students, counselors and colleges. This year brings some wording changes and a brand new prompt – and an old, previously discarded question that has been brought back to life. Significantly, the now â€Å"old† Common App prompts have not changed a lot – which makes sense since 90% of survey respondents reported that the prompts already worked well. Ideally, the new ones will work even better. Let’s take a look at the 2017-18 Common App prompts: Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.  This prompt has not changed, and I think that’s a good thing. Many college applicants have some aspect of their lives that’s meaningful and important enough to share with the admissions committee. This question provides a welcome opportunity to do so. The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount an incident or time when you experienced a challenge, setback or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Obstacles we encounter† and â€Å"a challenge, setback or failure† replaced the previous â€Å"failures† and â€Å"failure.†Ah, this prompt is so much less confronting, and so much more welcoming, to students who do not consider that they have â€Å"failed† but certainly have faced challenges in their lives. Not everyone is too evolved to see failure as an opportunity. And why require a failure to give students the opportunity to write about lessons learned? I like this change. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?â€Å"Questioned† was added to â€Å"challenged†; â€Å"prompted you to act† was replaced with â€Å"your thinking†: and â€Å"Would you make the same decision again?† was replaced by â€Å"What was the outcome?†I like this change because, while few youngsters have gone against the grain in a meaningful way, many of them have had thoughts that go against a belief or idea. The new prompt does not require students to have taken huge risks or to be activists. It just requires them to have opinions. Furthermore, they do not have to answer a yes or no question about whether they would take the same action in the future. Why require students to fortune tell like that? Instead, they can talk about what happened and naturally examine their role in that outcome. Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma-anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.  This was a completely new prompt two years ago, and it provides an exciting opportunity for students to display their intellectual prowess or emotional intelligence. No changes for next year! Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization, that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others. This is a fairly old prompt with a fresh take. Interestingly, I predicted that it would be deleted or changed significantly last time I wrote about the Common App prompts, as I saw the danger of clichà ©d answers talking about Bar Mitzvahs and Eagle Scout projects.Here’s what changed: The words â€Å"formal or informal† were deleted, and the word â€Å"realization† was added. Even more significantly, instead of asking about something that â€Å"marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family,† the prompt now asks for students to delve into their own growth and understanding of themselves, their relationships and the world.Both changes reveal admissions committees’ clear preference for introspection and self-understanding. I’ve been saying for years that the com mittees want to see self-awareness and a focus on personal growth, and this preference could not be clearer than from the changes in this essay question. Describe a topic, idea or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?  This brand new prompt is another opportunity for applicants to explain how their brains work, what makes them tick, and how they explore their intellectual interests. I believe it’s a way for the admissions committee to discover how engaged a student would be in both intellectual and extra-curricular pursuits. It will be a great option for any students with passion and curiosity! Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.  While there was a â€Å"topic of your choice† essay question in the past, it did not suggest submitting an essay the student has already written! This choice fascinates and scares me. With the emphasis in all the other questions on sharing so personally, why open things up to essays on Huckleberry Finn? Why give this easy out to students who can just slap an essay into the box that they wrote for an English class? I bet this question in its current form won’t last long.Also interestingly, when the â€Å"topic of your choice† question was eliminated, there was very little complaint. But after a couple of years, people want it back. We’ll see what the feedback is in the future. It doesn’t really seem necessary, as the instructions to the Common App encourage students to use the prompts to write about anything they want:â€Å"What do you want the readers of your application to know about you apart from courses, grades, and test scores? Choose the option that best helps you answer that question and write an essay of no more than 650 words, using the prompt to inspire and structure your response.† As Scott Anderson, Senior Director for Access and Education at The Common Application, points out in The Common App Essay Prompts Are Changing. Here’s Why It Doesn’t Matter, there’s really only one question in the Common App Essay: â€Å"Write an essay on a topic of your choice.† The Common App Essay has provided you direction, and your job is to take it and create your story. If your child is applying to college and wants support on writing a great response to the Common Application Essay questions, contact The Essay Expert. Remember, approximately 26% of all college applicants hire an admissions consultant, and your child is in the same pool as they are. You might also enjoy some of my other articles about college essays and admissions.

Writing Course for General Services Corporation Employees Essay

Writing Course for General Services Corporation Employees - Essay Example The paper throws light on General Services Corporation (GSC). In GSC, letters to customers, internal memos and emails are the most common types of written communication. Since GSC is a service company, it needs to constantly be in touch with its customers, and this makes external communication very important. There is also a lot of written communication that goes on between different departments. Most of this internal communication is normally in the form of e-mails and memos. Employees in the marketing department also have to do a lot of proposal writing for the purposes of getting more customers for the company. With all this writing that employees have to do every now and then, it is important to upgrade their writing skills so as to make the communication process easier and more efficient. The employees should receive training not only how to write well, but also how to write creatively. For instance, when writing internal memos and emails, most employees normally do not really k now how to bring out the point they want to make. This makes their written communication seem pointless, which can be quite frustrating for both the receiver and sender. However, some employees are quite good at communicating through whatever form of written communication they use. For instance, when one states his message right at the beginning instead of beating around the bush, then it is likely that whoever is reading the letter or memo will take whatever is in it with the seriousness it deserves.

Emergence of Crime Prevention and Community Safety in the Context of t Essay

Emergence of Crime Prevention and Community Safety in the Context of the Crisis of Governance That Afflicted the UK during 1970 and 1980 - Essay Example Representations of crime and punishment offer, in varying measure, titillating glimpses of the seductions of deviance, moral boundary maintenance and an anxiety-arousing frisson of fear. It is further mentioned that election campaigns did not mention crime as an important issue until 1970 when Margaret Thatcher developed law and order into a major arena of ideological conflict. Thus it is evident that the UK had realized the importance of community safety and crime prevention during the late 1970’s which prompted the government to chalk out policies and framework for crime prevention. This paper examines the emergence of crime prevention and community safety in the context of the ‘crisis’ of governance that afflicted the United Kingdom during 1970 and 1980. Reiner (2000, p.81) mentioned that the increases in recorded crime levels were fuelled further after the mid-1970s by the consequences of the fundamental shift in the political economy represented by the return of free market economies and the deregulation of an increasingly globalized market. It is further mentioned that the consequences of crime and social cohesion are enormous because of the widening of social divisions, and growth fo social exclusions. As social exclusions, economic, insecurity and inequality grew; the motives and opportunities of crime multiplied and the restraining effects of both formal and informal social controls are eroded. Dingwall and Davenport (cited in Fennell, 1995, p. 21) mentioned that the United Kingdom today faces a problem of crime which could not possibly have been forecast at the end of the Second World War. It is further stated that crime rate increased from 50,000 reported crimes in 1950 to 1.6 million in 1970 which further increased to 2.5 mi llion in 1980. It is further stated in a comparative study by Biles that in the period between 1960 and 1979 the recorded crime rose by 177 percent in England and Wales (Fennel, 1995, p27).     

Information Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Information - Essay Example One reason, the focus of my speech today, is the special protection that baseball (Major League Baseball) has been afforded by Congress. This protection comes in the form of antitrust law and, to a significant extant, insulates owners and other interested stakeholders from competition within the baseball industry. As an initial matter, it is important to define what is meant by antitrust law, a topic frequently foreign to baseball aficionados. Antitrust law is an umbrella designation that includes a number of laws dealing with fair competition; more specifically, because America deems itself a free market capitalist economy, there exist a number of laws designed to prevent such things as monopolies and unfair methods of competition. Strangely enough, baseball has for quite some time been exempt from a number of antitrust laws. As stated by Bartee, â€Å"professional sports are a textbook example of a bilateral cartel made up of club owners and unionized players engaged in intrastate and interstate commerce. The club owners exercise monopoly power in the product market† (2008: n.p.). Baseball, like steel or agriculture in certain respects, is a protected industry. It is not a monopoly per se but a competitive cartel in which owners compete with the unionized players. We read all of the time about competition between owners and players. There are disagreements about such things as free agency, salary caps, and collective bargaining agreements. The irony is that while the owners and the players often trade accusations about the other using unfair methods or misleading financial formulas the truth is that both reap the rewards of a non-competitive industry because of the antitrust exemption granted to Major League Baseball by the United States Congress. In addition, in a 1972 case called Kuhn v. Flood and decided by the United States Supreme Court, it was also decided that â€Å"baseball and its reserve system are also exempt from state antitrust

Final Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Final - Essay Example 1. Describe the paths of water through the hydrologic cycle. Explain the processes and the energy gains and losses involved in the changes of water between its 3 states. Operationally, we often most concerned with water does when it reaches the solid earth, both on the surface and in the sub-surface. Explain the relationship between the saturated zone, the water table, a ground water well and the cone of depression, all within the sub-surface. The paths of water in the hydrologic cycle can be categorized and examined to assist the comprehension of the key processes in hydrology. According to Waite (2010) the determination of the quantity of water that makes way through these identified paths is dependent upon the conditions of the area under assessment and the seasonal variations. O’Callaghan (1996) defines the phenomenon in a series of stages and states that the initial path of water that is associated with the hydrologic cycle occurs upon the entrance of water into a river b asin as a consequence of precipitation which could take the form of rain, hail or snow (1) once, the water transitions from this path the point of interception is determined through the surface of land which could be vegetation or the soil surface (2) this phase of the hydrological cycle is followed by the movement of the water towards the plants or within the soil in addition to the possibility of evaporation which is succeeded by recondensation and precipitation (3). O’Callaghan (2006) comments that in a scenario where the movement of the water is directed towards the soil surface, the water essentially penetrates through the pores of the soil and once the infiltration capacity reaches its maximum, the remaining water covers its path by taking the form of small channels, accordingly, another scenario reflects the possibility of water amassing within the soil system (4) additionally, in case of the saturation of soil horizons water movement occurs as interflow and ultimately goes into rivers and streams. The aforementioned analysis primarily highlights the inflow of water through the hydrologic cycle however, it is important to understand the significance of key pathways which allow water outflow. These pathways include; the process of evaporation, the river network and the groundwater pathways (O’Callaghan, 1996). Any change in the 3 states of water is marked by distinct processes during which energy is either lost or gained. When ice acquires sufficient heat, the solid matter transforms into liquid through the release of heat energy. During this process, the bonds of heated atoms and molecules are broken. The phase change which transforms solid matter into liquid is called melting in which thermal energy is gained. Consequentially, the phase change of freezing is characterized by a loss of energy while, the process of vaporization is marked by the absorption of heat or gain in energy from the surrounding to allow the bonds between molecules an d atoms to break. The water zones within the subsurface in humid regions are categorized on the basis of their depth and contents of water and the lowest constituent of these three stratums is known as the zone of saturation (Petersen, Sack and

Muti questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Muti questions - Essay Example (5 marks) Pearl Harbour was the best geographical place for an attack; it was close enough to japan than other places like San Francisco. The more the Japanese attackers moved closer the more they were going to be detected hence a place far away was best suited for them. They wanted to stop any interference coming from the USA government of wanting to attack the Dutch, Singapore, Burma, Malaysia and South Asia. Japan wanted to take over the oil resources of South Asia because the American government had stopped selling oil to them because of their hostility in China (Takaki 323). The pearl harbour had the majority of the USA`s naval force. For Japan to win over America forces, they wanted to destroy most of its naval force that existed in Pearl Harbour. They wanted as well to avoid immediate retaliation of the USA because the needed time to regroup after their naval base was destroyed. Some people in the American government were getting suspicious that the Japanese would attack them, Japanese felt that were running out time and soon the USA government would discover the attack they were planning. The nearest place for them to execute their attack plan was in the harbour. The Japanese army was in control of government resources and they wished that one day that they would conquer all of China. American was not being fair by trying to stop this from happening. What led to the increase in spending in Reagan`s spending 1987? (3 marks) President Reagan financed the development of nuclear weapons. Funds were directed to the research and development of nuclear weapons. Defence spending under Reagan`s government were more than usual. The impacts of World War 2 were still being felt in the USA and the president wanted to put back the economy at its feet. What factors led to the migration of the Vietnamese to USA? (5 marks) Individuals from Vietnam were poverty stricken hence they had to move and find resources elsewhere. The Vietnam country was facing Economic hardships Continuous war in Vietnam led to the immigration of Vietnamese to the USA because peace existed there. There existed social struggle in Vietnam. The country had no Political stability. How did Harry S. Truman manage the war after the death of President Franklin (5marks) (Takaki 373) At first Truman felt he was not a man enough to take the place of Franklin who had just died. He had the problem of continuing the war which wasn’t finished. In his mind the fastest way to finish and win the war was to use atomic weapons against Japan. Trauma worked with the congress and funded heavily in the United Nations and helped in doing away with of communism. He came up with a marshal plan of rebuilding Europe which had been badly destroyed during the war time. He oversaw the lifting of Berlin and the creation of NATO. Trauma`s presidency was a turning point for the country especially in the sector of foreign affairs as America now supported foreign policies and worked closely with other countries. Why were the Americans involved in the Vietnam War? (8 marks) The USA wanted the stop of communism spread in Asia. The Americans strongly opposed communism. Already the USA was in the Vietnam supplying and providing military and financial support. They felt that they needed to be there fully and increases their military personnel. There was a growing risk and support of the National Liberation Front. This was a communist guerrilla group which had attacked the USA in the South Vietnam. The political ego of

Final Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Final - Essay Example 1. Describe the paths of water through the hydrologic cycle. Explain the processes and the energy gains and losses involved in the changes of water between its 3 states. Operationally, we often most concerned with water does when it reaches the solid earth, both on the surface and in the sub-surface. Explain the relationship between the saturated zone, the water table, a ground water well and the cone of depression, all within the sub-surface. The paths of water in the hydrologic cycle can be categorized and examined to assist the comprehension of the key processes in hydrology. According to Waite (2010) the determination of the quantity of water that makes way through these identified paths is dependent upon the conditions of the area under assessment and the seasonal variations. O’Callaghan (1996) defines the phenomenon in a series of stages and states that the initial path of water that is associated with the hydrologic cycle occurs upon the entrance of water into a river b asin as a consequence of precipitation which could take the form of rain, hail or snow (1) once, the water transitions from this path the point of interception is determined through the surface of land which could be vegetation or the soil surface (2) this phase of the hydrological cycle is followed by the movement of the water towards the plants or within the soil in addition to the possibility of evaporation which is succeeded by recondensation and precipitation (3). O’Callaghan (2006) comments that in a scenario where the movement of the water is directed towards the soil surface, the water essentially penetrates through the pores of the soil and once the infiltration capacity reaches its maximum, the remaining water covers its path by taking the form of small channels, accordingly, another scenario reflects the possibility of water amassing within the soil system (4) additionally, in case of the saturation of soil horizons water movement occurs as interflow and ultimately goes into rivers and streams. The aforementioned analysis primarily highlights the inflow of water through the hydrologic cycle however, it is important to understand the significance of key pathways which allow water outflow. These pathways include; the process of evaporation, the river network and the groundwater pathways (O’Callaghan, 1996). Any change in the 3 states of water is marked by distinct processes during which energy is either lost or gained. When ice acquires sufficient heat, the solid matter transforms into liquid through the release of heat energy. During this process, the bonds of heated atoms and molecules are broken. The phase change which transforms solid matter into liquid is called melting in which thermal energy is gained. Consequentially, the phase change of freezing is characterized by a loss of energy while, the process of vaporization is marked by the absorption of heat or gain in energy from the surrounding to allow the bonds between molecules an d atoms to break. The water zones within the subsurface in humid regions are categorized on the basis of their depth and contents of water and the lowest constituent of these three stratums is known as the zone of saturation (Petersen, Sack and

Social networks Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Social networks - Research Proposal Example By examining this, there is the ability to draw conclusions about mass media and how it can use communication effectively with social media for stronger influences. Literature Review The social networks that have emerged in the last two decades are continuing to influence the behaviors and trends of those interested in the networking. This literature review will examine the main ideologies of social networks and how they are emerging into new forms of connecting with others. Specifically, there will be an understanding of how social networks have changed, what has developed and how this is influencing mass media and communication. There will be an examination of what the current trends are with social networks and what is expected in the future, specifically with a focus on what this means for new media. By examining these components, there is the ability to create a deeper understanding of the structure of networks and how these are influencing the current conditions of individuals online. Background of Social Networks The concept of social networks began to emerge in the 1990s and since this time has moved into a rapid spread of growth. The concept is one which emerged with the development of Web 2.0, which was inclusive of the second generation of the Internet. The objectives with Web 2.0 were based on developing interactive platforms for information and networking among individuals and groups. The social networks are inclusive of five eras that have developed with platforms that demand different forms of interaction. The first is social relationships, which includes information, discussions and media available on the Internet. This is followed by social functionality, which includes platforms for friending and communication that is developed. The third is social colonization, which began in 2009. This concept is based on individuals that are able to receive social connections that override the traditional websites and forms of communication. The era of soci al context and social commerce has followed, which is allowing the social applications to alter according to likes and experiences as well as with corporations driving the main components. Each of these eras can be seen in Figure 1. Figure 1: Eras of Social Networking (Owyang, 2009: p 2). Values of Social Networking The eras that have been developed through social networks are furthered with trends and expectations that are a part of the emergence of this new form of working with others. The main focus with social networks is to create a definition of social capital. This means that the networks are defined specifically by the value of networking with others socially and how this leads to relationships with others. For businesses, media and other institutions, the social capital is becoming a way of adding value and recognition to various needs. Specialist audiences, target groups and other forms of social media are continuing to emerge into new forms of behaviors and expectations w ith connecting on the Internet, while new value is being maintained in terms of communication, dialogue and interactions with others that are using online portals to connect to others socially (Woolcock, 2008: p. 469). The social capital that has

Individual and society Essay Example for Free

Individual and society Essay Many of Millers plays are based on real life experiences. In A View form the Bridge many stories and experiences were put together to create this piece. The main story is of an Italian-American called Eddie Carbone who works on the waterfront as a longshoreman to support his wife, Beatrice, and their niece, Catherine. When Beatrices cousins from Italy, Rodolpho and Marco, illegally migrate from Italy to America Eddie welcomes them with open arms. Catherine soon falls in love with Rodolpho but Eddie has feelings for his niece that he finds hard to admit to. Eddie subsequently creates the idea that Rodolpho is homosexual and, in his eyes, not right for Catherine. Red Hook, a slum area of Brooklyn, New York, at this time was a very close-knit community and often the Sicilian family ethics would still permeate through the generations of the new Americans. Eddie tells the story of the boy who was thrown out of his home and never seen again, regarding it as a moral story with a suitable ending because he had told the immigration officers about his immigrant Uncle. Eddies decline and fall is due to his own actions, and so the consequences are his responsibility. Even worse Eddie knows the dangers when he says you can quicker get back a million dollars that was stole than a word that you gave away. Laws enforced by the people also uphold this Sicilian society; it is not the law of the establishment but the law of Sicilian values upheld by its citizens. Alfieri is aware and is part of both types of law, he is aware of the limitations to both laws and the consequences of someone going outside either law. We settle for half is a key quotation from Alfieri in this play. It shows a way to avoid a conflict between society and the individual. Eddie has relied his whole life on his moral code which he breaks when he realises he can no longer have Catherine and the code. Eddie is, however, to proud to compromise although he has an abundance of chances to do so. Eddie has relied his whole life on his moral code which he breaks when he realises he can no longer have Catherine and the code.  Eddie is punished for his individuality by society, the fight at the end is much like a pagan ritual devised to discern truth by divine intervention, the crowd circles the two opponents as the accuser and defender fight, the winner will either reclaim his honour or destroy his opponents. Such rituals are have said to take place in ancient Briton and Greece. Eddie lives in a society where there is a strange type of feudal system; there are mafia dons on top mafia underlings in the middle and longshoremen at the very bottom. It immediately suggests to me that the kiss bestowed upon Rodolpho may have connections with the Mafia as a kiss of death. By reporting Rodolpho to the immigration authorities Eddie has effectively signed his own and Rodolphos death warrants. We can relate Eddie to the conventions of the Mafia because of his background as he himself is an Italian-American and by reporting Rodolpho he is effectively denying another what was given to his parents. This play is set in the nineteen-fifties when Gang warfare was rife in which the Mafia played a large part, shown in the very beginning of the play where Eddie explains that Rodolpho and Marco will be given jobs everyday until they pay them off. Eddie is a longshoreman, he is worthless to his society because there are hundreds like him, and he works in a place where you work when you are lucky enough to be picked for work. Miller experienced this corruption of the American dream first hand. It is the Sicilian society that allows the lowest man to survive because of the camaraderie between neighbours. Millers use of an unusual stage direction is important [They are like animals that have torn at one another and broken up without decision, each waiting for the others mood.]. The animalistic language is important in that it keeps referring to beasts and to primitive and animal behaviour shown near the end of the play: Rodolphos metaphor of the bird; the simile in the stage directions of the two beasts; and Eddie By rights they oughta to throw you back into the water. It shows the animalistic nature of the society both characters are a part of. When Marco kills Eddie it as if he has won the battle and much like in a pack of lions the dominant male now owns the females. This simile helps us to imagine this scene, highlighting it as the characters turn from men to beasts. This story was built upon a tale Miller heard while working as a longshoreman in Red Hook (where the play is actually set), some say that Elia Kazan is represented in the play by Eddie, the character that we can understand but still reject. Miller criticised Elia Kazan for naming names during the McCarthy trials (or as they were nicknamed the McCarthy Witch hunts) but at the same time understood his dilemma. Elia Kazan was given an option and if he didnt name names then he would never direct films again. Kazan was not only criticised by Miller but by many people who branded him a coward and scoundrel although he claimed he was doing it out of his own true self. Like Kazan, Eddie does what he believes is right creating a conflict between society and himself.

Cross Cultural Influences on Decision Making

Cross Cultural Influences on Decision Making Introduction This chapter introduces the reader to the broader context of the research area with an overview of decision making in cross cultural MA. The purpose is followed by the problem area and research question which will lead the readers through the thesis. Background Decision making is a process that managers face of diverging to explore the probable options and then converging on solutions. As Pratt points out, there is clearly a distinction between what an individual thinks(personality)and the way an individual thinks(cognitive style) (1980). The process is made even more complex when the companies are dealing in decision making in an arena of Merger and Acquisition. Mergers and acquisitions (MAs) have become the dominant mode of growth for firms seeking competitive advantage in an increasingly complex and global business economy(Adler, 1997).Cross-border merger and acquisition has continued to increase at a torrid pace during the last decade and half, to the point that it has become a major strategic tool for growth of multinational cormporations(Cartwright and Cooper,1993). Therefore it is essential for companies to pay attention to the analysis, strategy and planning behind its decision making. The management extent becomes much vast when it comes to different cultures both on the national and even greater on cross border level. The manager chances of successfully dealing with the rapid changes reduces to an extent. Multinational corporations require to hold a varied set of routines if they are to be renouned in a diverse world. Routines and repertotoires are often dependent on the multinational corporations unique institutional and cultural environment, and are therefore not imitated easily by other firms (Barney,1986). As multinational companies increasingly acquire targets in more culturally distant countries, they face new challenges in manageing their external environment (Moren,1980). Along side these encounters it is also important to understand the relation between national cultural distance and cross-border MA performance while devising strategic decisions. The difficulties in MAs are seen due to the lack of strategic decisions makingmade by organization. Managers end up having unrealistic expectations of probable synergies and fail to cope with multiple complexities. Companies now a days publish their cultural norms and values which might not be the real culture of the organization. Anthropoligists have researched that the undertaking of knowledge about a particular organisation culture does not always begin by inquiring the members themselves to identify the particular trait. In reality the cultural norms are recognised by understanding the profundity of cultural influences that are carried out in an interval within an organization. This necessitates to have an insightful long term observation and the foundation of norms,disciplines and new problem solving strategies. The decision-making paradigms have seen to occur in many fields, including management theory, psychology, information systems, management science, and operations research. It is also a fundamental activity of all management, and research and literature concerning decision-making processes.(Stewart, 2003) Problem Companies are equipped to make better decisions if they are more sensitive to cultural differences in a cross-cultural environment. Effective decision-making can enable smootherwork place relationship within and across the border MA, if managers are attuned to cross-culture management. Contextually how do organizations make decisions in a cross-cultural aquisiton is a critical research question in the study of administrative process. Researchers have paid little attention to complexities of decision making, in cross-cultural MAs. Previous research is more concentrated on routine operational decisions that are more available to quantitative analysis and particular descriptions.(Mintzberg, 1999) Additionally other important research questions, especially related to thinking or cognition are prevailing in the dynamic research of decision making, such as; how individuals get benefit from cultural diversity learning, and how do individuals think (Mitchell et al., 2002) and make different decisions. These emerging notions defined our research questions of this thesis. Consequently, we have formulated our research problem in the following questions: 1. What are the cross-cultural difficulties affecting decision-making in the aquired firm? 2. How does these cross-cultural difficulties influence the decision-making of acquired firm? Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to study the influence of cross-cultural implications of MAs on Decsion-Making. Delimitations The study is only concerned with the decision-making process in a cross-cultural acquisition and there is a less emphasis is on the cognitive factors of decision-making but the influence of cross-cultural implications on decision-making behavior in general. Due to time constraint, one case company is used for this analysis consequently the results limit to this Company A only. Moreover, the Company A has agreed to co-operate with an anonymous status of itself and its employees. This also set boundaries to the scope of our analysis and presentation. Further, this research has been conducted on a local Swedish company acquired by an Austiran firm, so analysis and conclusions will be restricted to information obtained locally. As a result, the analysis of Austrian work behavior is also subjective from Swedish employees perspective. Definitions To better understand the research, definitions are presented below to avoid misinterpretation of key concepts used in our study. Decision-making Cross-cultural Company A- It is a company based in Sweden. But has agreed to participate in our research on complete anonymity of itself and its participants and therefore will be refered to as Company A throughout the paper. Its formerly a Swedish organization which was acquired by an Austrian company in year 2000. (More information on Company A and its relevance to our study is mentioned in the Method) 1.6 Disposition The disposition of this thesis will be as follows: This chapter critiques the study and makes suggestions for future research. To fulfill the purpose of this thesis this section answers the research questions. This chapter covers analysis of the empirical findings in connection with theory and results. This chapter present result from the qualitative interviews conducted in Company A. This chapter presents theories within the field of decision-making and cross-cultural acquisitions. This discusses the procedure of collecting data and interviews as our instrument. Reliability, validity and generalizability of the study are also discussed here. Frame of Reference The section will present the previous research and studies in the areas of decision making and Mergers and Acquisitions integration. Further in reference to existent literature this section will discuss the decision making process in MAs. A brief summary of the whole frame of reference is presented at the end of the section in order to make a link with our research questions and to provide a base and guidance for the creation of themes for our empirical data. Frame of Reference Recently, a considerable amount of management research has been developed that focuses on the cultural perspective of international acquisition performance. (Arikan,2004; Rottig and Reu,2005) Researchers argue that a lack of national cultural fit may lead to cultural clashes between the involved workforces (Larsson and Risberg,1998). This may lower employee commitment and cooperation (Cartwright and Cooper,1996), and complicate the post-acquisition integration process (Very and Schweiger,2001) Some studies exposed a negative impact of cultural distance on the performance of international acquisitions (Datta and Puia, 1995, Olie, 1994, Uhlenbruck, 2004), while others identified a positive relationship (Doukas and Travlos, 1988, Morosini, Shane and Singh, 1998). Still other studies indicate that cultural distance either has no direct effect on international acquisition performance (Markides and Ittner, 1994) or is one of the least significant variables affecting performance (Kanter and Corn, 1994). These contradicting views developed the interest in the knowing how much of the cultural differences involved in the decision making in MA. This paper provides a descriptive framework that addresses the complexity of the decision making process of consequences of culture for international acquisition performance. Decsion-making Cross-cultural MAs Methodology A way of gathering knowledge about the social world is the methodology notion refered to by Stauss and Corbin (1998). The specific research methodology we are inspired by for this research is the grounded theory which is consummated by qualitative methods of data collection and analysis. To study the implications that emerge out of a cross-cultural acquisition and its influence on decision making process, we want to take advantage of the theoretical fundamentals and researches that have already been done in the realm of decision-making and cross-cultural acquisition implications. We also want to take that knowledge further through this chosen method by taking into account the case of Company A which was acquired by an Austian firm and has realized decision-making differences between the two units after the cross border Acquisition . 3.2 Research Method Determining the why and how of decision-making in a cross cultural contxt of an acquired frm can be done by finding the first-hand experiences of employees in Company A. To serve the purpose of our study we chose interviews as the primary source of data collection. We felt that person-to-person interaction with semi structured questions will be best in acquiring information. Moreover, considering the characteristcs of our investigation and that all the employees could be reached within a close proximity and in a single premise, the interview schedule was chosen instead of a questionnaire. Since culture can be a sensitive topic and the interviewees could be reluctant in answering, we ensured anonymity at the start of the interview process to make them comfortable as also stated by Kumar, Ranjit (1996). Through primary data we know the reasons behind a certain management decision. Most appropriate way of learning about opinions and behavior that are relative to culture is by asking que stions directly to people involved. (Ghauri Gronhaug, 2010) Information on the Austrian acquisition of a Swedish firm, as Ghauri and Gronhaug also states can only be gathered by asking people who have been involved or have observed the process i.e. of acquisition. Research problems which are focused on uncovering a persons experience or behavior and understand a phenomenon which we know little about are an example of qualitative research(Ghauri, 2004; Marshan-Piekkari and Welch, 2004). Such is the nature of our decision-making and cross-cultural research which includes social and behavioral sciences. The Choice of Research Method The approach is to use use a qualitative research methodolgy of investigation, data collection and analysis. Decision-making is not a fixed and static state to measure and its a cognitive process, besides it is not a steady state phenomenon and changes erratically with time and environment as described by Mintzberg(1997). Quantitative research emphasizes on the quantification of data collection and analysis as argued by Bryman and Bell (2007) and observe social world as an external and objective reality. Holloway (1997) advocated of qualitative research for capturing the way the individuals experience, interpret and make sense of their environment. Bearing this in mind and our focus of discovering and understanding the role of cross-cultural factors in decision-making, we were convinced to use this method. Consequently the choice of our research method, is qualitative and the purpose of the research inquiry is behavioral and therefore interconnected, therefore provides a basis for quantitative analysis. The qualitative study Our approach is purely qualitative. Auerbach (2003) claims that qualitative research involves analyzing and interpreting texts and interviews among others, in order to investigate specific patterns, i.e. examining decision-making amidst cross-cultural challenges in an acquisition. Interviews Interviewing is the most widely utilized method in qualitative approach of investigation, as stated by Bryman and Bell (2007) and this instrument suits appropriately to find answers to our research questions, .i.e. decision-making under the implications of a cross-cultural acquisition. The technique and construction is very important in the formulation of interviews. The interviews can be unstructured, semi-structured or structured (Saunders et al. 2007). As we were more interested in theory of a particular reality Wengraf (2001) instead of the numerical data, we chose to settle on semi-structured interviews. We were very particular in formulating the questions as two cover both aspects of cross-cultural implications and decision-making. On request by the contact person at Company A, we got interview questions reviewed for improvement from our tutor before presenting it to the company. The interview questions were then sent out to the contact person to be distributed to the interviewees in advance. Sampling The choice of subjects that were needed to be investigated for our research questions was crucial. Collins, Onwuegbuzie and Jiao (2006) stated that researchers should decide sample size in both quantitative and qualitative studies. In the sample from Company A, we were looking for all the people cooperating with Austrian counterpart and are making some forms of decisions. It was kind of our contact person at the company, after explaining our research necessity, he arranged ten people from mangers to engineers who were in some way cooperating with their cross border counterpart. Considering this we used purposive sampling technique which as mentioned by Maxell(1997) is used in qualitative studies to select e.g., individuals or institutions based on specific purpose. Data Collection The research design directed us on the empirical data. The empirical data was collected through semi-structured interviews using open ended questions. This permitted us to probe relevant issues which emerged during the interview. We aimed at making the data reliable, to ensure this we recorded the interviews upon permission and also took notes to reduce the chance of misinterpretation. In an attempt to motivate the respondents to co-operate with us and obtain factual data with their trust we ensured the anonymity and confidentiality of responses. We skipped a few questions in two interviews due to shortage of time. We completed a total of ten interviews in a session of three days with an allotted time of thirty minutes each. Reliability and Credibility A reliable and credible data is vital for an authentic research. Throughout our study we took measures to ensure this. During the interviews we did not rely on perceptions which affects the accuracy of our observations and used constant probing to have clear answers. We remained unprejudiced and flexible to have reliable working data. Respondents sometimes perceive risks and may believe interviews to be jeopardizing their emotions and privacy as accounted by McCracken (1988). Knowing this, we assured the interviewees about the privacy and academic purpose of interviews. So they were at comfort in providing information conveniently. To avoid potential bias of our preconceived notions and theories we transcribed only what the interviews said, which we stored in the form of recordings and written notes taken at the time of the interview. We calim to have a plausible study, considering all the measures we took responsibly in terms of organizing and conducting the interviews. Qualitative Data Analysis Our analysis was exploratory as asserted by Creswell et al. (2003) with a focus on understanding the influence of cross-cultural difficulties on decision-making by employees in an acquired firm. Like in most of the qualitative analysis we refer to the inductive approach, as claimed by Bryman and Burgess (1994). Raw data was in the form of interview recordings and our notes taken during the interviews. We read the data vigilantly too derive concepts, themes, or a model which is common in qualitative data analyses, especially grounded theory (Strauss Corbin, 1990). In consistency with Strauss and Corbins (1990), our inductive analysis began with an area of study, which was to investigate the influence of cross-cultural factors on decision-making, and let the theory to develop from data. The analysis was organized as follows: Interview description: To begin with, we recorded all the interviews and took notes during the interview. We read the transcripts many times to get familiar with descriptions. Identifying discourses and theme generation: After identifying the accounts from the data, we recognized relevant discourses from the transcribed interviews, and excluded other irrelevant description. Following this we observed the core information and concluded some patterns of behavior/ theme. Later, formed categories with summary of data sets as behavioral, structural and interaction and communication to do a quality analysis and conclusion. Discussion: In this section we explored the meanings explicitly or implicitly included in our empirical findings and looked for links of cross-cultural difficulties and decision-making. We also put forward suggestions of future research in this clause. Empirical Data The Interviewees Total number of ten interviews that conducted, ee found that from technical engineers to line managers including logistics, project and bid manager everyone is cooperating with Austrian counterpart in one way or another after the acquisition. Consequently, employees at different levels of the organization are all involved in some kind of decision-making that accounts for the cross-cultural differences after the acquisition. Following are some themes that we identified that will be of assistance in developing the analysis. Employees organizational behavioural Swedes in an organization generally work in groups and are independent individuals at the same time. They also have a freedom to express views, owing to a less heirarchical system. Mutual agreement, consensus, structure and logical reasoning is very important to them for which they have a lot of meetings and discsussions. This also refers ot the notion of collective decision-making as explained by Melaville, Blank, and Asayesh (1993). Swedes are solution-oriented and are usually calm. The essence of usual Swedes vs. Austrian behavior was narrated by Interviewee 5 as: There is a great difference in the decision-making process. In Sweden everyone should agree and we ask a lot of people of what everyone think. Then we make decision after hearing all the opinions. And its opposite in Austira, you do not ask the employees if you are working as a manager. I think you are seen as a weak leader if you ask people of what they think. Its positive and negative in both ways I think Swedish way is better for working in a team and but in Austira you really make the decision and you come forward. Austrians on the other hand dont have much freedom of expression due to a heirarchical system in the acquired firm view. Another common view observed was that Managers in Austria alone make decisions and value of consensus is less there. Austrains are social and build relationships. A lot more emotion is involed than facts in their reasoning. Moreover, Austrians are problem-oriented and get usually stressed under a problem. This observation can be futher emphasized by few statements of the interviewees. They have a lot more emotions and we like to base our decisions on facts. , Interviewee 2 said. They have much hierarchy. More power distance. There is a very large distance between the manger and the individual member in the group. Interview 4 affirmed. Decision-making process structure The decision-making process depends on the type of decision. If its a higher stake decision, the process is followed through formal procedures of contracts and agreements compared to daily operational level decisions which are simple. In Swedish unit agreement has to be reached through consensus whereas in Austrian unit, managers give a decision which is to be followed. More decision-making authority lies with managers in Austria than Swedish ones who work more as asupport function. Interaction Communication between units Cooperation at the technical or the lower level works well. At the management level cooperation is difficult where decision making takes longer. Some employees expressed that even with electronic facilities available communication across the border is difficult. Employees cooperating for a longer period developed relationships of trust which helps in cooperation amidst the cross-cultutral differences It doesnt work well when we cant sit together and discuss, makes harder to communicate over cross borders even though facilities are provided like skype ,video conferences, but it kills the team spirit as its not the same as for sitting together Interviewee 5 recalled. On a practical point, the interaction between units is informal. But it depends on the type of decision aswell, i.e. starting a project, would follow a formal procedure of interaction. Project mangers have a closer contact compared to the rest. Informal day to day technical decisions are handled on a daily basis. Its is also hard to predict a response to an interaction from across the border, some interviewees responded. Through data it was also understood that is easier to agree on factual information, which all can straightforwardly agree to. Language barrier has seem to affect the agreeability due to misinterpretations sometime. The technical side of the decisions are easier to agree on, compared to the decisions made at management level i.e. commercial issues. This can be analysed from the figure  [1]  below. The tactical decisions have been observed to have most complications whereas operational decisions are easier. decisionmaking_intro.gif Additionally, we comprehended from suggestions put forward by the respondents that, early in the process of post-acquisition integration, communication on the differences in national and company culture can facilitate decision-making. Understanding of adapting to a culture is important. Performace indicators and clarity on who makes which decisions will also assist. Additionally, diversity courses and communication on how to work together has helped in the past and can also facilitate later on. An interesting point observed by an interviewee during a diversity course; One thing I learned from that cultural diversity course is that people is Austria are more problem oriented and here in Sweden we are soultuion oriented and that affects how we are able to communicate and cooperate. Analysis Analysis Unfortunately a lot of merger and acquisitions fail to achieve their hoped objectives. Solutions are of course complex. MA are different along a number of dimensions. Companies fail to realize a blind spot, by keeping their focus mainly on costs, they minimize or defer until too late the human and cultural dimensions of blending two entities into unified growth-oriented business. In any case organization is generally a collection of people sharing a common vision, one or more location and resources such as money, equipment, and similar processes. Still much of the business management persists in believing that the latter is the most important issue, while people are only sort of the less important side of the scenario. The Challenge of Urgent Realization Clearly there is an urgent need to realize, rationalize, restructure and eliminated duplication the first weeks and months of post-merger integration. Nonetheless rationalization only escalates of the new organization making it a greater value to its shareholders. It is one thing to design a new structure and relationship on paper and quite another to bring them to life. No matter how visionary and driven the leaders are the financier, quickly learns that the synergy cannot be generated merely from above or realize and reacting by reducing headcount or vice versa. Synergy requires the commitment and involvement of the entire organizations. That is the most challenging part. Most mergers are seen of confusion, panic, uncertainty, distraction, limitation and dehumanization. The process is painful and the results are costly. When knowledge capital is vanished due to the turnover of key individuals during an MA, when pride in the company and pride in ones work is not appreciated through ill treatment at the hands of merger managers, when innovations are abandoned in favor of outdated practices just because one group is considered the boss and the new one reasoned expendable, the network that make the organization work break down and fall apart. When employees stop caring, they lose interest and motivation in improving the business processes. If they are not asked for their opinions, they have no means or enthusiasm to inform the new system designers the unrevealed secrets of success. When selection processes do not seem to be reasonable and rational, dynamic management does not step into position they take on new challenges elsewhere. These are not the circ umstances which synergistic growth is likely. Fortunately, the situation can be turned around. The MA can become an opportunity for people to learn, grow and have a voice. Shared visioning activities and cross company MA project teams can provide opportunities to meet new people and gain new perspectives and skills. The problem with the acquired organization is that the managers must rearrange strategy, organizational structure, work on staffing of employees, make changes to systems and culture, all on top of the day to day business performances. They feel the pressure to quickly perform and harmonize the decisions by reaching the performance in the changed worked environment. So they do this by restructuring to create economies of scale, streamlining operations, focusing on product and market synergies while eliminating noncore businesses. During the same time they might be looking for the next merger or acquisition opportunity. This does not allow them the time and effort to ensure a synergistic and sustainable basis of people and operations to support the growth. However for continued growth, building a foundation is the key to sustainable success because it defines how the work of creating the new organization will be continued. Regrettably most post MA implementation plans seems to assume that if the financial priorities are comprehensively addressed the human foundation will take care of itself. The synergy created by a successful MA Conclusions Discussion References Auerbach, Carl F. (2003). Qualitative Data : An Introduction to Coding and Analysis; New York, NY, USA: New York University Press. Bryman A., and Bell E. (2007). Business Research Methods Oxford University Press. Denzin, Norman K., and Lincoln, Yvonna S.(2000). Handbook of Qualitative Research. Second Edition. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, California. Holloway, I. (1997). Basic concepts for qualitative research. Oxford: Blackwell Science. Kumar, Ranjit (1999). Research Methodolgy: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Sage publications. Regnà ©r, P., (1999). Strategy Creation and Change in Complexity Adaptive and Creative Learning Dynamics in the Firm. Stockholm: Gotab. Richards, Lyn and Morse, Janice, M. (2007). Users Guide to Qualitative Methods.(Second Edition). Sage publications. Saunders, Lewis and Thornhil, (2007). Research Methods for Business Students, UK, Prentice Hall. Smith, J.A., and Osborn M. (2008). Interpretive phenomenological analysis. In Smith J. A. (Eds.) Qualitative Psychology: A Practical Guide to Research Methods (2nd Edition). Sage Publication. Strauss, A. L.,and Corbin, J. M. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. (2nd Eds.). SAGE Publikation. Thomas, Susan, J. (1999). Designing surveys that work Sage Publication. Wengraf, Tom, (2001). Qualitative research interviewing. Sage Publication. Yin, R. (1994). Case study research: Design and methods (2nd ed.). CA: Sage Publications Reference: Pratt, J. The effects of personality on a subjects information process: A comment. The AccountingReview, 1980, 55, 501-506. Adler, N. J., Re-entry: Managing Cross-cultural Transitions, Group and Organization Studies, 6 (1981), 341-356. Cartwright, S. and C. L. Cooper, The Role of Culture Compatibility in Successful Organizational Marriage, Acad. Management Exec- utive, 7 (1993), 57-70. Barney, Jay B. 1986. Organizational cul- ture: Can it be a source of sustained competitive advantage?. Academy of Management Review, 11(3): 656-65. Arikan, A.M. (2004) Cross-border mergers and acquisitions: What have we learned? in Punnett, B. J. Shenkar, Oded, editors (eds.) Handbook for International Management Research, The University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor, MI. Rottig, D. Reus, T.H. (2005) The impact of culture on mergers and acquisitions: 25 years of research, Paper presented at annual meeting of the Southern Management Association, Charleston, SC. Larsson, R. Risberg, A. (1998) Cultural awareness and national versus corporate barriers to acculturation, in Gertsen, Martine Cardel, Soderberg, Anne-Marie Torp, Jens Erik, editors (eds.) Cultural Dimensions of International Mergers and Acquisitions: Berlin. Cartwright, S. Cooper, C.L. (1996) Managing Mergers, Acquisitions and Strategic Alliances: Integrating People and Cultures, 2nd ed, Reed Elsevier: Oxford. Very, P. Schweiger, D.M. (2001) The acquisition process as a learning process: Evidence from a study of critical problems and solutions in domestic and cross-border deals, Journal of World Business, 36(1): 11-31. Datta, D.K. Puia, G. (1995) Cross-border acquisitions: An examination of the influence of relatedness and cultural fit on shareholder value creation in U.S. acquiring firms, Management International Review, 35(4): 337-59. Olie, R. (1994) Shades of culture and institutions in international mergers, Organization Studies, 15(3): 381-405. Uhlenbruck, K. (2004) Developing acquired foreign subsidiaries: the experience of MNEs in transition economies, Journal of International Business Studies, 35: 109-23. Doukas, J. Travlos, N.G. (1988) The effect of corporate multinationalism on shareholders wealth: Evidence from international acquisitions, Journal of Finance, 43(5): 1161-75. Morosini, P., Shane, S. Singh, H. (1998) National cultural distance and cross-border acquisition performance, Journal of International Business Studies, 29(1): 137-58. Markides, C.C. Ittner, C.D. (1994) Shareholder benefits from corporate international diversification: Ev

Overpopulation, Industrialization, and the Degradation of the Environme

Overpopulation, Industrialization, and the Degradation of the Environment The overall growth of the human population in the last 2000 years has been a J-shaped growth. This can also be expressed as an exponential growth. A big question that can only be answered in time is how this population growth will slow down or stop. The planet can only handle so many humans before the effects of overpopulation send the environment into an unrecoverable tailspin of degradation. So the question is will the overall maximum human population be reached in a gradual manner with a trend resulting in an S-shaped population growth, or do we as humans need to experience some kind of catastrophic event that will let us know that the maximum capacity of our planet has been reached, or will we overpopulate gradually and realize that we need to reduce the population to a lower level? These three different theories have been termed the logistic, Malthusian, and domed theories of projected population growth, respectively(Southwick, 159-160). The trend that we have seen in recent his tory of human population growth can obviously not be sustained, so will the future of humans be played out in an optimistic or pessemistic light? Or will it be somewhere in between? Throughout human history, people have always been pressed to provide nourishment for themselves and their families. With the dawn of agriculture humans were provided with leisure time, and with that time they were able to develop many different trades beyond hunting, gathering, and agriculture. This meant that the food necessary to feed a population was able to be provided by a small portion of the population. With industrialization the portion of the population that was employed to feed the... ...r anthropogenic greenhouse gases(Hansen). Obviously the size of the human population has effected the environment by stressing the land to produce enough food to feed us all. Up to now we have had a degrading effect on the environment. I feel that it should be our role as human beings to take care of the environment that we need to live. This is a necessary step in order to prolong our survival on the planet Earth. Works Cited: Southwick, Charles H., Ch. 15 from "Global Ecology in Human Perspective" Oxford Univ. Press, 1996, pp. 159-182 Quay, Paul, "CLIMATE CHANGE: Enhanced: Ups and Downs of CO2 Uptake" Science 2002, vol. 298, pp. 2344-2346. Blunier, Thomas "PALEOCLIMATE:"Frozen" Methane Escapes from the Sea Floor" Science 2000, vol. 288, pp. 68-69. Hansen, J., Ruedy, R., Sato, M., Lo, K., "Global Warming Continues" Science 2002, vol. 295, p. 275 Overpopulation, Industrialization, and the Degradation of the Environme Overpopulation, Industrialization, and the Degradation of the Environment The overall growth of the human population in the last 2000 years has been a J-shaped growth. This can also be expressed as an exponential growth. A big question that can only be answered in time is how this population growth will slow down or stop. The planet can only handle so many humans before the effects of overpopulation send the environment into an unrecoverable tailspin of degradation. So the question is will the overall maximum human population be reached in a gradual manner with a trend resulting in an S-shaped population growth, or do we as humans need to experience some kind of catastrophic event that will let us know that the maximum capacity of our planet has been reached, or will we overpopulate gradually and realize that we need to reduce the population to a lower level? These three different theories have been termed the logistic, Malthusian, and domed theories of projected population growth, respectively(Southwick, 159-160). The trend that we have seen in recent his tory of human population growth can obviously not be sustained, so will the future of humans be played out in an optimistic or pessemistic light? Or will it be somewhere in between? Throughout human history, people have always been pressed to provide nourishment for themselves and their families. With the dawn of agriculture humans were provided with leisure time, and with that time they were able to develop many different trades beyond hunting, gathering, and agriculture. This meant that the food necessary to feed a population was able to be provided by a small portion of the population. With industrialization the portion of the population that was employed to feed the... ...r anthropogenic greenhouse gases(Hansen). Obviously the size of the human population has effected the environment by stressing the land to produce enough food to feed us all. Up to now we have had a degrading effect on the environment. I feel that it should be our role as human beings to take care of the environment that we need to live. This is a necessary step in order to prolong our survival on the planet Earth. Works Cited: Southwick, Charles H., Ch. 15 from "Global Ecology in Human Perspective" Oxford Univ. Press, 1996, pp. 159-182 Quay, Paul, "CLIMATE CHANGE: Enhanced: Ups and Downs of CO2 Uptake" Science 2002, vol. 298, pp. 2344-2346. Blunier, Thomas "PALEOCLIMATE:"Frozen" Methane Escapes from the Sea Floor" Science 2000, vol. 288, pp. 68-69. Hansen, J., Ruedy, R., Sato, M., Lo, K., "Global Warming Continues" Science 2002, vol. 295, p. 275

Celestial Travel Agency: Marketing Strategy of Philippine Tourism in the United Kingdom

INTRODUCTION The hospitality and tourism industry is one of the most flourishing industries in the world; thus, almost every country relies on the industry. The income that a country gains from the industry is almost half of its gross national product. However, for developed countries, such as the United Kingdom, promoting hospitality and tourism is not a problem since they are already known and well-established worldwide. On the other hand, for developing countries where they mostly rely on the industry for income, such as the Philippines, upholding their hospitality and tourism sector will be hard.A lot of factors have to be considered, for instance, safety and security of the tourists, the cost of the tour, and the significance of the place as tourism nowadays relies on popularity—the more popular the place is, the more tourists it will attract. Thus, the demand for effective marketing strategies and public relations is a necessity. There are Filipino travel agencies in the UK, yet the number of British people who visit the Philippines is still low compared to the other countries in Europe, such as Germany and Netherlands.The main reason for this is the effectiveness of the marketing strategies used by these agencies. It is also noted that most of these travel agencies focus on the Filipinos in the UK as their target market. This research aims to develop marketing strategies for a hospitality and tourism organization by critically evaluating marketing strategies in the hospitality and tourism sector, assessing the role of network and customer relationship marketing strategies for hospitality and tourism organizations, and recommending marketing and customer loyalty strategies for a hospitality or tourism organization.Also, it aspires to critically evaluate marketing communication strategies for hospitality and tourism organizations through brand strategies, e-marketing, viral marketing, and guerilla marketing. The author chooses Celestial Travel Agenc y, a Filipino travel agency based in Victoria, London. The agency offers travel and tour packages to the United Kingdom and some parts of Europe and the Philippines. Majority of its clients are the Filipinos who are in the United Kingdom.The researcher will investigate the marketing strategies the organization is utilizing, and afterwards, the author will develop a marketing strategy that can be viable for the organization in order to increase market share. METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH This study is a qualitative research that attempts to discover the best marketing strategies utilized by organizations in the hospitality and tourism industry that will be applicable to the subject of research. It intends to accrue existing data governing the principles of marketing strategies. Thus, secondary research will be exhausted during the course of research.ESSENCE OF MARKETING Marketing (Armstrong, et. al) is â€Å"managing profitable customer relationships. † It has two main goals which a re to attract potential customers by guaranteeing them superior quality of service and products and keeping the current customers and making them loyal to the organization by giving them satisfaction. The sole purpose of marketing is to deal with customers; however, it is not the simplest function in the business world as it involves a lot of activities from product development, production, and distribution to branding, selling, and advertising.Hospitality and tourism organization has to understand that nowadays, marketing is not just about simply telling and selling of goods, but it is about satisfying customer needs as well. The marketing department of an organization is the busiest and in fact carries the heaviest load of promoting the products. Whatever the profit that the organization makes is reflected on the activities done by the marketing department. Figure 1. A simple model of the marketing process. When doing marketing, one must have to consider that most consumers are: ? More concern to the prices of a product or a service Gives less interests to marketing messages ?From the average segment of the society Given this situation, a marketing manager has to bear in mind the substantial four P’s of marketing strategy: ? Product – making the appropriate product or a service for chosen target market. Research and analysis has to be done to determine the wants and the needs of the market and that the product to be created should fulfill these specifications. ?Place – the place to market the product has to be properly regarded especially during the process of transporting and distributing the goods and services. Promotion – this division relates to public relations, advertising, and other activities that are conducted to influence the behavior of the consumers toward the product being marketed. ?Price – the product has to be logically priced and that the pricing strategy the organization will use must have a long-term effe ct; thus, several factors are considered whenever pricing a product or a service. The four P’s mentioned are the essentials of marketing, making them the basic things to consider before starting the process of product conceptualization to distribution in the market.When an organization will be able to carry out the following aspects of marketing properly, the profit margin will undoubtedly increase. CELESTIAL TRAVEL AGENCY AND THE FILIPINOS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM The Filipinos are known around the world in the fields of nursing and health care, hospitality and tourism, and Information and Technology and engineering. Out of the 94 million Filipino population, about 8. 7 to 11 million are working, living, or studying overseas, mostly in the Americas, Middle East and Europe. In 2009, about 250,000 Filipinos are working and studying in the United Kingdom alone.The population of Filipinos in the UK is considered to be a big market for Filipino travel agencies operating in the Unite d Kingdom. Since Filipinos are known to love travelling and always want to visit their homeland whenever they are abroad, Filipino travel agencies will not run out of business even if they are just catering to their fellowmen who are living overseas. However, these travel agencies can widen their market share when they try to deviate from the traditional operations of just servicing their fellowmen. The United Kingdom is a very big market for the hospitality and tourism industry.In as much as there are a lot of tourists coming to the UK, there are also a lot of British people who leave the UK to go on holidays in different destinations around the world, and most of them go to tropical countries to avert from the cold climate of the UK. The British people are known to often go on holidays once or twice a year, may they be students, families, or stressed workers. Thus, promoting travel and tour services to the Philippines to the British people market and possibly the European market w ill be a big accomplishment for the organization.To market the Philippines as a holiday destination in Southeast Asia to the international arena is a difficult task because of its palpable competitors, such as Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, which are mostly visited by international tourists mainly coming from Europe and the Americas. Also, the location of the Philippines is not strategic so as to attract more tourists, especially those who have already gone to its neighbouring countries. Moreover, since the Philippines is a group of more than 7,000 islands, to tour it alone takes a lot of time.One must have to travel either by plane or vessel, and bus when on the main island. When people from overseas talk of the Southeast Asian Region, the countries that the people first think of are Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. These four countries are always featured and advertised in newspapers, magazines, on television and a lot more. Thus, considering the number o f Filipino travel agencies in the UK, which is about twenty-five, the number of UK tourists in the Philippine should have increased in the past years. The presence of these agencies would have been a big influence in boosting the Philippine tourism.One of these travel agencies is Celestial Travel and Tours Limited which is the subject of this research. Celestial Travel and Tours Limited is a travel and tours agency that caters mostly to the Filipino people living in the United Kingdom. The products that the organization offers are travel and tour packages to major Philippine destinations and within the United Kingdom and its neighboring countries, such as France, Germany, Netherlands, and Spain, and consultations involving travels in the Far East and world-wide destinations.The organization was established in April 2002 by four professional Filipino women who had extensive knowledge and experience in hospitality and tourism management. The organization’s mission is to provide travel needs and services to the Filipino people. However, most of its services are just travel packages. It is because of the factor that they cater only to the Filipinos in the UK. Tour packages for destinations in the Philippines are seldom being bought, but the packages for places in Europe, for instance Barcelona, Lile, Paris, Amsterdam, and Brussels, are often sold out.Celestial travel agency is the most respected agency among all Filipino travel agencies in the UK. It has a very strong presence in Greater London. It has a very strong network within the Filipino community in UK and some parts of Europe. In an interview with one of the managers, she mentioned that the organization was doing well during the past years. Travel services, especially plane tickets, and UK and Europe tour packages were hitting very good market figures. When asked on the tour packages in the Philippines, she said that the packages were rarely purchased.The reason being is the organization’s ta rget market which is mainly the Filipino community who would rather go to Europe than visiting the prime Philippine tourist destinations. Celestial travel agency has a very good potential of increasing its market share without totally expanding the business. Expansion will definitely come in the future. Since its inception, the organization still remains to be a small-time business with just a little increase of its market share yearly.Since the organization has already established its status in the market as a trusted agency for travel and tours in the UK and Europe, the organization has to focus on improving its sales on the travel and tour packages in the Philippines. The UK is a big market for outbound tourists, and therefore, Celestial Travel Agency just needs the appropriate marketing strategies and public relations to promote the Philippines as a tourist destination to the UK market. ?Brand Identity and Strategy Brand identity is the key to building a name in the business wor ld.Nowadays, consumers rely so much on brand names rather than the products. Companies struggle so much when introducing their products to the market, and those who are able to maintain the quality of their products and services for a long period of time can keep up to the market competition, even so making the competition less competitive for them as they are already well-established. Creating a consistent identity is a very challenging task for marketing since it will carry the totality of the company in the business world. The brand identity bears the ideas, the products and services, and the values of the company.A coherent and well-thought brand identity can be a big tool for advertising creating loyalty from clients for repeat business. Celestial Travel Agency has established its brand identity among the Filipino community in the UK making it a well respected establishment. The organization has to establish its brand identity in the UK market in general, not just the Filipino. It must attain a well-trusted level status to be able to promote its products and services in its new market. Furthermore, it has to maintain the good rapport with the Filipino community, thus, satisfying their needs is essential, and proper marketing can be used to do this.The organization has to bear in mind that to create their big web/network, they will need the first market to do this. ?Network and Relationship Marketing A company’s relationship with its customers is vital. However, how can an organization develop relationship with its customers and soon built a network from them? As most marketers say, â€Å"Relate first, market second. † Marketers always have to make the best impression about them and their products and services and be able to build rapport between them and their customers.Personal interaction is the first step to doing network and relationship marketing, and moving the customers to higher level of loyalty is its main purpose. Doing this strate gy, one must have a thorough knowledge and understanding of the customer’s needs and individuality. As Smith (2011) says, â€Å"Think of relationship marketing as a term with the following overarching definition: those efforts that will make your prospective customers aware of your products and services, position your business in their minds as the obvious choice, and help you build lifelong profitable relationships with them. This marketing strategy is the most effective way to build a big network of customers. However, this strategy is sometimes misused by a lot of marketers especially when they do relationship marketing. Relationship marketing requires the marketers to be honest since he or she might spoil the relationship that was built in the first meeting. Marketers have to bear in mind to always practice responsible relationship marketing. Network and relationship marketing is mostly used by small time businesses as a way to introduce their products to the market, esp ecially to the immediate community they are linked to.It is a great strategy to communications development that makes relationship marketing become the tool to widened network. Celestial Travel Agency utilized this strategy when it started in 2002. Through confidence and honesty, the managers began introducing their services to the Filipinos they know and the ones they met mostly during gatherings. The relationship they were able to build with a number of people started to make a big network of clients. However, they still need to improve on this strategy as it will lead to them to a more stable and successful business.Furthermore, the strategy will enable them to develop a new market, the UK market, for their tour packages to the Philippines. Through proper use of communications technology, the organization can easily rebuild the network they have established to an even wider and bigger network. The organization has to deviate from the traditional way of engaging people to relation ships in order to build business contact with them. The current network of the organization is a great strength to building the opportunity of making it a wider network to market the organization products and services.Going personal contact with people (offline) and communicating through means of Internet (online) makes relationship marketing a broader strategy to make use of. Also, it is beneficial to use the social networking marketing hype. Social networking are extremely valuable to marketers since they do not need to personally talk to these people one by one, but thousands of people can read your adverts or messages on these sites in just a click away. The good thing about these social networking sites is that they are people-focused and other people’s network can also be another person’s network.Thus, doing relationship marketing through these sites is undeniably useful and can give a great amount of returns. ?Strategic Customer Relations Optimizing customer sat isfaction and developing Customer Relationship Management is one of the most challenging tasks that businesses face nowadays. Many organization invest on improves customer service to be able to stabilize customer satisfaction. In order to establish excellent customer service, an organization must essentially develop a customer relationship focused culture.In this practice, the employees who always deal with customers must always be updated on the modernize ways to improving customer service skills. Celestial Travel Agency does not regularly updates its staff or let them undertake trainings in relation to customer service. Thus, there are times that they lose some of their customers, even the valued ones. Constant monitoring of the employees’ performance is a must so as not to jeopardize the well established system and customer relations. Communicating with the customer in an efficient way will result to repeat business.It is to be noted that the products and services offered by the organization is harder to market as it is intangible compared to food and other things that satisfy the basic needs of human beings. ?There are ways to improve customer relations through the following: ? Providing training in key areas that are important in rendering excellent personal service ? Reinforce the skills and abilities the employees have through continuous coaching and feedback ? Measure current performance levels ?Recognition through rewards, may it be monetary and non-monetary, to motivate the employees further to excel ?Establishing effective service delivery processes ?E-marketing Marketers will find e-marketing an easy way to advertise their products without having to spend money that much. Marketers can advertise online for free through blogs, social networks, forums, and even free websites. In addition, the mass market online is enormous and e-marketing will allow marketers to make a personalized type of marketing that gives much focus to their products and services. E-marketing has a lot of benefits to give to an organization which includes the following: ? Openness ?Global Contact ?Minimal Cost Traceable and Measurable Results ?Personalisation ?Social Currency ?Improved Conversion Rates Celestial Travel Agency has its own website; however, it is not being updates every now and then. Thus, information on any recent activities or packages that the organization offers to the public cannot be easily accessible. This is mainly because keeping up the website cost money which the organization cannot afford to shell out since the website needs updates and maintenance every time. Keeping an IT personnel for the company that only works twice a week is very much impractical.Besides, the rate for IT staff in the United Kingdom is way too expensive. However, the organization has to bear in mind that keeping the website is a way to reach to the global market, not just the UK market. The company’s valued clients who live outside the UK basic ally will try to reach the company through the website and customers often purchase products online especially tour packages and travels. Also, on the Internet, there are a lot of activities done by its users, who can be travelers, and they often check out forums.There are forums and blogs built for specific topics, such as tourism, food, and a lot more. On these forums and blogs, related links and links are often circulated to its users and updated websites are mostly posted here. In addition, the influence of social networking sites is prominent to Internet users. Any future activities or tours that the organization plans to do can just be posted on these social networking sites and will soon be shared by a lot of users. The circulation of the information is way too fast that feedbacks can be expected straight away.Information dissemination through social networks is very much fast and quick. Yet, the information has to be check and should always be on the new or recent posts, els e, superfluous posts will overshadow the post intended to be marketed. The organization must always update its websites and posts and encourage their valued user to give testimonials as these will help the company gain more customers online. The strength of e-marketing is strong and opportunities are endless, but the organization must take extra care doing e-marketing as fraud cases are soaring. Guerilla Marketing Levinson, et. al (2007) stated that â€Å"Guerilla Marketing simplifies the complexities and explains how entrepreneurs can use marketing to generate maximum profits from minimum investments. † Guerilla marketing has deviated from the traditional style of marketing where money or investments play an important role to make marketing effective. The guerilla approach is very much suitable to Celestial Travel Agency since the organization is a small business and guerilla marketing is an economical way of marketing products and services.Through this approach, the organiz ation can develop different techniques of promoting its services. Undoubtedly, the guerilla approach is already â€Å"tried and tested† to be very much efficient. However, the strategy requires the marketers to do research and make a campaign plan that is unconventional. Nowadays, marketing adverts and messages has to be humorous and extraordinary to be noticed by people. In as much as it is inexpensive, the guerilla approach takes time to materialize. Unlike the traditional way of marketing where money is a big factor, so results can be seen after a short span of time.Conceptualization takes a lot of time while the implementation process challenging since several methods might be used to test the efficiency of the ideas. Since guerilla marketing is very much unconventional, it does not limit the marketers to a number of ways of doing the marketing yet it requires a high level of energy and dedication. ?Viral Marketing Coined from the word ‘virus,’ viral marketin g strategy makes a great influence in the market, just like a virus, when done properly. Creating impact is the important element of this marketing strategy.Viral marketing is a challenging strategy since an excellent idea is needed to make the advertisement stand out among all other commercials. This strategy is extremely effective and simple but making it work is the difficult task. The first step is to make a buzz. There are many ways to do this and the most effective way is to go on television. It is not making another big advertisement to air on TV, but news, such as media coverage. The good thing about media coverage is it hits the local community straight away and then national level.Furthermore, about seventy percent of the population watch news. Also, news reaches even the people who live in distant areas from the capital. Another way of creating a buzz is going online, through social networking sites. The strategy employed the concept of using the social networks of other people so that they can propagate and expose their products and services. People can easily get influenced from what their peers tell them, and on networking sites, there are millions people; thus, it is easy to make a viral effect on these sites.Celestial Travel Agency will find it difficult to do this marketing strategy. Most of the successful viral marketing advertisements are about the food sector. Nonetheless, the organization can still utilize this strategy in promoting their services, yet minimal results must be expected. Since the agency wants to develop their UK market, not focusing on the UK Filipino community, to market its package tours to the Philippines, the organization can take advantage of the current tourist news about the country.For instance, the result of the new Seven Wonder of Nature can be turned into hype among all the tourists, especially the adventure-seekers travelers of UK. The new seven wonders is big news in the tourism industry; therefore, travelers w ill be eager to discover these places. Moreover, there are also tourist spots in the Philippines that are featured on the news which the organization to battle the tight competition of the tourism industry. British tourists will then know that there are wonderful places to see in the Philippines.Also, travelling around the country is very cheap compared to other South East Asian countries. ?CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION The Philippines has a lot to offer to the world, not just to the UK tourist market, which is the prospect market of the organization for market development. Through the unconventional marketing strategies, such as viral marketing and guerilla marketing, Celestial Travel Agency will not find it difficult to market the Philippines to the UK market. Understanding the wants of the UK market when it comes to going on holidays, the places they choose to go to.The British people are fond of adventure or outdoor activities and love going to the beaches, and since the Philipp ines is a tropical country that offers not only beautiful beaches but extreme outdoor activities too, such as mountaineering, scuba diving, spelunking, etc. , it can become a prime tropical tourist destination. The organization can take advantage of the news features regarding the tourist spots of the Philippines and make it viral. Using news, such as â€Å"Top 20 beaches,† â€Å"Seven Wonders of Nature,† and the other tourist destination rankings, the organization can utilize this and use the guerilla approach to making a â€Å"craze† over it.The organization can do a buzz using blogs, forums, and social networking sites. It can even use upload a marketing ad on Youtube and post it on the different social networking sites. The research understands that the organization has very minimal budget for marketing, thus, e-marketing, guerilla marketing, and viral marketing strategies will be very effective to achieving its desired goals of developing the British market as key tourists to the Philippines.