Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Competitive Strategies Essay

Coca-Cola (Coke) and Pepsi-Cola (Pepsi) are two major cola companies competing for the number one spot in a substantial global cola market, and is known for the most notable ongoing battles between two major cola companies to date. Fortunately, for both companies, the cola beverage industry stretches to nearly every corner of the world. However, with such a vast market and immense revenue capabilities it is no wonder that the Coke versus Pepsi competition is still so intense (Coke vs. Pepsi, 2012). In the paragraphs to follow this paper will determine how Coke and Pepsi’s corporate cultures are different from each other, review three ways the Coke and Pepsi culture have benefited each other when competing, and consider how Pepsi and Coke could continue to thrive if its current corporate culture would have to change in the future. Coca-Cola has a passion for success. Leaders strive to build a better future, and have the reliability to be real, and accountable. In addition, leaders continue to seek, imagine, create, delight, and do what they do well by using principles that transform a desire into an accomplishment. There is no single formula needed to succeed, and Coke allows employees to explore his or her creative abilities, the freedom to research new ideas, and to have a setting which allows anyone to make his or her passion come to life (The Coca-Cola Company, 2009). Pepsi, on the other hand, likes to perform with a purpose, burn new trails, never settle to be second best, be bigger, better, and successful together. Pepsi is committed to giving consumers the taste he or she craves, and meet nutritional needs. By dreaming globally and acting locally Pepsi is consistently seeking to innovate and sustain the people, the planet, the communities and business they serve. Fortunately, new markets make way for new ventures, new ways to focus on health issues, cultural, and ecological encounters. Every day is a journey, and a chance to grow personally and professionally (PepsiCo, 2012). Although there are countless similarities between Pepsi and Coke the history behind these two rivals are far from being the same. For instance, in 1885, a pharmacist named John Stith Pemberton created Coke as a tonic. At the time, the key element being cocaine (thus the name â€Å"coke†) targeted the fact that it could essentially fight depression. However, because of the nature of the drug, users were becoming addicted to the drink. In 1904, Cocaine was eradicated in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which meant that this key ingredient would have to change. Still, Coke retained its name and continues to promote its beverage through aggressive advertising (Smith, 2012). Even though it came along fourteen years later (1898), pharmacist Caleb Bradham, intends for Pepsi to be Coke’s main competitor. Like Coke, Pepsi also placed heavy emphasis on advertising, and continues to challenge its rival through advertising. Pepsi likes to use celebrities, presenting itself as a drink for sports fans, in addition to promoting an image of originality. Whereas Coke represents fun times only, Pepsi represents fun times, athletics, and custom made ideas (Smith, 2012). Regardless of what many may think, both cola drinks are similar in color, use the same amount of carbon dioxide, and even the taste is quite similar. However, both companies used different natural extracts from the coca nut in the past, now each rely on artificial flavors and man-made components (notably, Pendergrast 87). Nevertheless, both Pepsi and Coke are intended to serve as recreational drinks notably identified with some sort of entertainment, parties, fun, and yes, sex, but the biggest difference between these two colas is history, and efforts, which have defined each of these brands (Smith, 2012). Marketing and advertising are a vital part of the war between Pepsi and Coke. Both companies are smart enough to know that regardless of which beverage consumers choose to purchase may not always be based on taste preference. Although there are those who really do favor the taste of either cola, one has to wonder how the consumer’s emotional attachment comes in to play when making a choice. Both Pepsi and Coke spend a fair amount of money to sponsor music events, sporting events, TV shows, in addition to other high profile happenings. Each company realizes that this can play a huge role in product selection with members of these audiences. However, it is no accident that Pepsi and Coke sponsor highly emotional events such as the Super Bowl or American Idol because it creates an emotional connection to the product (Coke vs. Pepsi, 2012). To date, Pepsi and Coke have had a long sordid history of abundant marketing which, in the end, has produced loyal customers as well as brand equity all over the world. This in and of itself makes it nearly impossible for any new cola beverage to come close to this scale in the market place. Not to mention retailers receive a margin of 15 to 20 percent on the shelf space offered for these particular soft drinks, and since this will impact the bottom line competitors have a tough time convincing retailers to carry a new line of products. For new products to enter the market now could also lead to price wars which can affect the success or failure of a new comer to the soft drink industry (Vulpala, 2007). Nevertheless, Pepsi and Coke have benefited greatly from this ongoing competition. Although Coke has been around longer, and is the original cola soft drink, Pepsi has been able to build its business by imitating its formula. Imitation can be critical when it comes to creating a constant competitive advantage. However, if alternate resources provide a similar product at no additional cost, then substituting through duplicating leads to driven equality in the long run (Barney, 1995). Even so, Pepsi and Coke face unique challenges in addition to new opportunities with globalization, and it has not put a damper on the intense rivalry between the two. Although Coke did dominate the international market share in 1999, because Pepsi made its entrance into the market much later and Coke already had distribution and bottling networks set up in developed markets (Vulpala, 2007). Still, Pepsi has aggressively sought competition in economies where Coke is not as dominant, and due to lack of consolidation, international fountain and retail sales are somewhat weaker than that of the US markets. This, by the way, gives Pepsi, and Coke better pricing power, as well as influence over other similar products. Unfortunately, carbonated beverage consumption is much lower in international markets compared to US markets. However, since there are cultural differences in international markets, alternatives are available, but Pepsi and Coke will have to spend more on advertising dollars to convince consumers in these markets to embrace carbonated beverages (Vulpala, 2007). Regardless, Pepsi and Coke are able sustain profits because of the structure within the industry has been kept intact for several decades. Fortunately, there are no new threats on the horizon from new competition, and apparently no major changes are showing up on radar. Changes in technology will not play a major role for either company, and since both have been around long enough to gather brand parity, it can sustain and diversify their businesses for a very long time. However, globalization has opened up numerous opportunities for Pepsi and Coke, and although consumption is not as big in international markets as it is in US markets, there are still endless opportunities for growth (Vulpala, 2007). References Barney, J. B. (1995). Looking inside for Competitive Advantage. Academy of Management Executive, 9(4). Coke vs. Pepsi. (2012). Coke vs. Pepsi: Who Gets Your Vote? Retrieved from http://cokevspepsi. net/ PepsiCo. (2012). Performance with a Purpose. Why Work at PepsiCo? Retrieved from http://www. pepsico. com/Careers/Why-Work-at-PepsiCo/Culture. html The Coca-Cola Company. (2009). Our People, Culture, Vision and Values. Retrieved from http://www. europeancareers. coca-cola. com/en/home/our-company/our-people-culture-vision-values/ Smith, N. (2012). Coke versus Pepsi: Differences in Cultural History Rather than Taste. Retrieved from http://www. articlemyriad. com/coke-pepsi-differences-cultural-history-taste/ Vulpala, L. G. (2007). Cola Wars: Five Forces Analysis. Goutham’s Thoughts. Retrieved from http://goutham. wordpress. com/2007/10/18/cola-wars-five-forces-analysis/

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Are good intentions necessary for moral action

The intention of the man to return the phone is enough to account for moral action. But, consequentiality like Bethel believes that the consequence of the moral action determines whether the actions are right or wrong not the intention, even though the intention may be good; the means justifies the end. For example, if the man who finds the phone and thinks to return it but forget, his act is morally wrong because the consequence of his action did not bring out a good outcome. The phone of the owner is still missing. The consequence of the action seems to be a better determinant for oral action rather than good intentions.Sometimes, no matter how pure the good intentions are, they do not always lead to good outcomes. Good intentions could bring about disaster such as in case of terrorism. People fail to think about the outcome of the intention before acting out. The object and circumstance also play important roles in determining the moral action. Therefore, it cannot be the necessar y component of moral action unless the outcome is good. Terrorist to us seem like bad people who should be locked up or worse, deserve to die. Even though, we do not see this, terrorists believe they are sighting for a just cause.For example, the 9/1 1 attack in 2000, the terrorists believed they were fighting for the rights of Muslims who have experienced hate violence. So, to some people they were freedom fighters or soldiers like during a conventional war. According McPherson, terrorism, if compared to conventional war, is not wrong because they both attack non combatants. And sometimes, conventional war causes more harm than terrorism (Can p; 279). Terrorism is still wrong, the innocent are still killed and there is no side effect of justice being carried out.In fact, terrorism often does the opposite of what it sets out to achieve and produces tyranny forcing people to surrender or die. Unlike conventional war, terrorism often takes it too far and it is mostly an indirect form of confrontation like suicide bomber, a bomb planted on the street or even a person shooting people of a particular group out of nowhere. They do not consider the outcome of their actions. There is no way terrorism is a justifiable act, it is a threat to political party but to the public in general. They do have any remorse for vulnerable group such as children, hey take out their attacks on anyone (Can p; 272).It does not matter if the intentions of terrorist group are good and often they are not, the outcome of the action is worse and it causes a lot of disaster and damage to individuals and their family. Therefore, in the form of morality, terrorism breaks all form of moral codes and is wrong. Good intentions often go bad quite easily because we as individuals has different views about life and what seems good to us might be terrible to another. Sometimes, we treat others how feel we should treated not considering they may not like that.We often hear the expression, â€Å"it is the thought that counts,† but you cannot guarantee that the person will be thinking the way you are when you perform the action. All the individual sees is the action and not the intent. For example, if I bought my friend threw my friend a surprise party without knowing she hates surprise parties because she has a disorder. She walks and everyone yells surprise and she starts screaming in panic and ends in a hospital. The intention was good but the outcome not so much, although, all people see is a bad friend.The fault with good intention is that it tries to please everyone which is not possible and ends up making situations worse than they are. Sometimes, people never consider thinking about the outcome before they play it out the action. For example, in political campaigns when the politicians promise the crowd pleaser such healthcare, decrease in poverty etc and they are elected. A few months into the term, and there is no observable action on a better healthcare system or a decline in poverty rates because there is a decline in the economy and tax is increased, the citizens will complain.It will not matter f the politician has a good intention because the outcome was not good. You can not sell a car mentally to a person; therefore, you cannot mentally assume that people know your intention is good. Good intention is not relevant component of moral action unless the outcome of the action is good. In order for an action to be morally good, the three components must be good or at least neutral in its object with consideration of the circumstance and have a good intention (Curran & McCormick p; 221). This means that even though the intention is good as long as the object or circumstance of the action is bad, the action is bad.The aim or purpose of the act determines the object. The ‘Voodoo, why, where, how and by what means† determines the circumstance of the moral act. For example, let us take the case of a suicide bomber named Hosannas. A m an, Hosannas, is forced to commit suicide bombing to save his family. He commits suicide bombing and about 200 people are killed in the mall. In this scenario, the object of the act, killing of innocent people, is bad. The intention is good, sacrificing his life for his family, therefore preserving life.The circumstance of the act is bad: (who) about 200 innocent people doing their jobs or shopping in the mall dies; (why) Hosannas was killing to protect his family; (where) Hosannas is the mall filled with innocent people;(how) he blew himself up along with the entire building; (by what means)with a bomb. Therefore, the moral action is bad despite the intention being good. Let us take another scenario, where Hosannas is a Muslim who believes the Muslim terrorist group are fighting for the Muslims and defending the religion. So, he takes matters into his hands and commits suicide bombing in the name of Allah and kills about 200 people in mall.In this scenario, the object of the act, k illing innocents, this is bad. The intention is good or indifferent, defending the Muslims against injustice. The circumstance of the act is bad: (who) about 200 innocent people doing their jobs or shopping in the mall dies; (why) Hosannas was defending the Muslim honor in the name of Allah; (where)Hosannas is in the mall filled with innocent people; (how) he blew himself and kills everyone the building too; (by what means )with a bomb. This scenario also shows another wrong action with the intention not being important.So, therefore, the object and circumstance play important roles in shaping the act as either being morally good or bad. As Saint Bernard of Calvarias said â€Å"the road to hell is paved with good intentions. † This is true, as we see that, although, good intentions mean well, it does not always take the form of justice or morally right. That is people with good intentions end up doing the exact opposite of what they set out to accomplish. And Consequentiality like Bethel, unlike Kantian ethics sees this point as being true because the outcome Of the act is what counts not the intent.In the case of terrorism, we see that terrorism can be in form of good intent and not distinctively wrong. It can also seem as act of heroism in the case of people defending their religion, but it is not. It always ends up bringing destruction and death of the innocents. Terrorist acts do not follow moral code and have no remorse for anyone. Good intentions do not always bring about great success because we cannot expect people to think the way we think. Also, people often fail to think ahead about the outcome of the act before playing it out. This often leads to bad results even with the purest of intent.

Bdo Benchmarking Assignment Essay

When considered in general terms Turnbull described it as: â€Å"All influences affecting the institution processes, including those for appointing the controllers and/or regulators involved in organising the production and sale of good and services†¦.. it includes all types of firms whether or not they are incorporated under civil law. † (Turnbull, 2002:181) Factoring in all other definitions, in its simplest terms it can be defined as the â€Å"exercise of power over corporate entities† (Clarke, 2004). It is not the same as the management and the running of the company, it is concerned with how the Board of Directors, who are the governing body of a company, supervise management, because it is they who are responsible for holding the management of a company accountable and ensuring the company is being ran in a way which is favourable towards the shareholders and other stakeholders. It is the Directors’ responsibility to develop strategy and policies for the ompany and to determine the direction the management should take the business in and the Directors have overall responsibility for the performance of the company (Tricker, 2012). While the phrase ‘corporate governance’ wasn’t coined until the 1960’s and not commonly used until the 1980’s, it has really been in a gradual process of evolution since the 16th century and joint venture trading. One of the major developments in world economies which brought the need for corporate governance to the fore was the introduction of limited liability companies in the 19th century. What this meant was when companies were incorporated they became a separate legal entity, separate from their shareholders and with similar legal rights to buy, sell and transfer shares and assets, to employ people and to sue and be sued in the name of the company. This meant the liability for any company debts lay with the shareholders and not the management or the company. Add to this the fact that because of the introduction of the stock market, shares could be easily bought and sold, meaning the shareholders could be vast in numbers and have a large geographical spread. Due to the fact that all corporate entitites need to governed, the implications of this were that the management (executive control) and the shareholders (owners) were often separated (Tricker, 2012). Situations such as these, are where corporate governance is deemed to be most necessary because there is a root assumption, that members of management who do not own the company are likely to be more reckless with someone else’s money, i. e. the company’s, than they would be with their own money (Having Their Cake, 2013). This is known as the agency dilemma, which will be expanded upon later. Electing a Board of Directors who have the interest of the shareholders at the forefront of their mind, allows members to indirectly oversee the actions undertaken by the management, in order to ensure that as agents of the shareholders, the management is performing in line with the best interests of the corporation (Lashgari, 2004). 1. 2. Selection of a Case Company However, as Turnbull pointed out in ‘Corporate Governance: Its scope, concerns and theories’ (2002), having a restriction of only publicly traded corporations in studies of corporate governance, limits the validity of any onclusions drawn about the most efficient arrangements for corporate institutions with regards to good governance practices and the effect they have on a company’s performance. As Jensen said in 1993: â€Å"Privately held entities could provide the most form of enterprise. † (Jensen, 1993, cited in Turnbull, 2002). It was with this in mind that I chose BDO LLP UK (BDO), which is an incorporated partnership company in the UK, which is owned and ran by its members/partners. It is a company which offers financial accounting, audit, tax and business consultancy services (BDO LLP UK website, 2013). . 3. About the UK Financial Accounting and Audit Sector With the ever increasing focus on corporate governance for companies across the World, not just in the UK, audit firms such as BDO, KPMG and Deloitte are becoming more important because it is there job to ensure that companies are adhering to regulations laid out in the UK Corporate Governance Code (2010, revised in 2012). It should naturally follow that audit companies will have extremely good corporate governance practices put in place, however, this is not necessarily the case. Since 2000 there have been a number of high profile scandals within the International Corporate Financial Accounting industry, for example, Enron were found to be inflating revenues and hiding debts and there was also the Bernard Madoff â€Å"Ponzi Scheme†, where the real scandal was that the robbing of millions of pounds worth of people’s money, escaped the attention of auditors and regulators. ). Due to such scandals, many national regulators implemented new corporate governance requirements to improve standards (Mitchell Van der Zahn, 2009). In the UK new regulations with regards specifically to audit companies were also introduced, targeted directly at a certain group of companies. As of January 2010, 95% of the auditing work in the UK was being carried out by 8 firms, BDO being one of them. It was deemed that such companies had built upon their reputation to gain dominance in the UK market and the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) felt it was in the Public’s interest for these companies to be transparent and in order to maintain public trust be exemplars of best corporate governance practice. This led to the introduction of the Audit Firm Governance Code (2010) by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), which drew from aspects of the 2010 UK Code and established principles such as the appointment of independent non-executives within the governance structure of their company. While such rules did not apply outside of the targeted companies, it was the hope of the ICAEW that it would provide a benchmark of good governance for other companies to follow (ICAEW website, 2013). With such a bold statement being made about the importance of corporate governance in this field of work, it seemed to me to be an obvious choice to choose one of the 8 companies on the ICAEW’s list for my case-study. 1. 4. About BDO LLP UK As detailed earlier BDO LLP UK is an incorporated partnership company in the UK, which is owned and ran by its members/partners and it provides financial accounting, audit, tax and business consultancy services. It is the 6th largest accountancy firm in the UK and is a member of the BDO International Network, which itself is the 5th largest accounting organisation in the World. In an attempt to break into the top 4 big firms in the UK, BDO LLP UK completed a merger with PKF, a rival firm, in April 2013 (Keynote, 2013). After researching BDO LLP UK, it became very clear that corporate governance was of the upmost importance to the company. Not only did it have specific areas on its website dedicated to corporate governance and corporate social responsibility but it also had a number of relevant publications regarding corporate governance. One article for example, ‘Making Internal Audit Relevant’, discussed the high quality of corporate governance in the UK found by studies carried out by the FRC, it went on to say that this was underpinned by the UK Corporate Governance Code and that it was vital in maintaining the attractiveness of the UK market, to encourage new investment (BDO LLP UK website, 2013). My research also found that BDO had carried out a joint study with the Quoted Companies Alliance, which considered the introduction of a mandatory corporate governance code for small and mid-capital audit companies in the UK. Just as a point of fact, this was a proposition that 92% of such companies agreed with. One of the major indications that BDO think corporate governance is vital to the success of a company is that they produce an annual transparency report, which has an appendix of a statement of compliance with the Audit Firm Governance Code (2010). They have also went to great lengths to create a summary report in 2012 for businesses which they audit, detailing any changes to corporate governance regulations and focusing on leadership and effectiveness, reporting, risk, audit, remuneration and investor relations (Corporate Governance for TMT Businesses, 2012). It seems to be an interesting idea to look at a company who places so much emphasis on good corporate governance, not only for itself but also the companies it works for, to see if they do comply completely with the codes and if they are in fact â€Å"exemplars† of good practice. . Theories of Corporate Governance There are various theories and philosophies with regards to corporate governance, all of which, as a collective, have laid a foundation for the development of different corporate governance systems around the world (Lashgari, 2004). This paper will look at a number of these theories and how they relate to BDO, in order to gain a better understanding of th e governance standards at BDO. 2. 1. Agency Theory In the 1930’s, Berle and Means published ‘The Modern Corporation and Private Property’, it provided the first debate about the agency dilemma and set a basis for agency theory. They suggested that where ownership is separated from management or is widely dispersed, it becomes difficult for owners to have an effective check on the autonomy of corporate managers. The agency dilemma was further refined in the 1970’s, when theories were brought to the fore suggesting agents (managers) are likely to be self-interested and will serve their own interest before those of the principle (owners). Such theories also suggested that in order to counter this problem companies have to incur agency costs, for example, to create incentives to align the interest of the agent with the company and the cost of monitoring the conduct of agents. Many other theorists have a problem with agency theory because it does not even attempt to explore the possibility managers are not self-interested and opportunistic. However, they cannot deny that it has een very influential in developing market-based governance mechanisms and board-based governance mechanisms. Due to BDO being an incorporated partnership and their shares not being publicly traded, we will only look at the board-based mechanisms (Having Their Cake, 2013). Agency theory has caused internal reform of boards, there has been an increase in executive share options schemes, meaning that managers are being offered equity in the company they will manage, in order to â€Å"align their interest† (Having Their Cake, 2013). Agency theory has also led to the introduction of independent non-executive directors onto Boards of Directors, in order to ensure the actions of the management are being sufficiently monitored by the board themselves and role of boards have been greatly elaborated, they are becoming more involved with the setting of objectives of companies and monitoring of any actions taken by management and stricter provisions have been put in place to ensure the separation of the roles of chairmen and chief executive (Cadbury Committee, 1999). When applying agency theory to BDO, it is easy to see that there is a situation of agency and principle, with the fact that there are 193 partners in the firm and only 5 partners who are part of the Leadership Team (LT- management) which is responsible for the overall management of the company and is chaired by the Managing Partner. It is also noticeable from their 2012 ‘Transparency Report’ that all members of the LT have been partners in the company for a number of years, with currently the shortest term being 12 years. This could be considered good governance by BDO because in an effort to avoid the agency dilemma, they ensure their management team is made up of partners, whose interest is already aligned with the interests of the business. The transparency report also states that BDO have a Partner Council (equivalent to a Board of Directors) which is independent from the LT and responsible for the overall governance, in particular the oversight and accountability of the LT. They are also responsible for choosing members of the LT and for electing independent non-executive directors, for which there are 2 at BDO. These independent non-executive directors sit on the LT and report to the partner council of any issues of compliance with governance, policies and procedures, for which they are responsible for providing information on to the LT. The Partner Council is chaired by the Senior Partner who performs a client facing role and is responsible for managing all decisions. He also attends LT meetings in a non-executive capacity to facilitate his oversight role of the governance of the company (Transparency Report, 2012). As we can see the management team is subject to a lot of oversight and monitoring by the Partner Council and the roles of the Senior Partner and Managing Partner are completely separate, this is all a way of ensuring the company has a high standard of governance and to also ensure the management is acting in the best interest of the all the owners. BDO goes to a big effort in organising their governance structure in order to avoid the problems arising from the agency dilemma. 2. 2. Resource Dependence Theory This theory originated from studies performed by Pfeffer and Salancik (1978), they suggest that board members and non-executive directors can provide a firm with a vital set of resources. Non-executive directors are appointed with the expectation that they will support the organisation with its problems and to be a source of expertise which executives can draw upon for skills and advice and they can also be a source of contacts and information which they have gained through their past experience (Having Their Cake, 2013). At different stages in the life-cycle of companies, they have very different needs from their non-executive directors. To young entrepreneurial companies, non-executive directors can be a cheap source of legal, financial or operation management skills, while publicly listed companies are in need of network connections such directors can provide, for example, sources of finance. They can also provide the benefit of attaching a good reputation to their company. Mature businesses, with which we are most concerned because BDO falls into that category, can use non-executive directors for their relevant market or managerial experience and from the consumer confidence which can be gained from that person’s good reputation being affiliated to their company (Having Their Cake, 2013). Applying this theory to the independent non-executive directors of BDO, we can clearly see from the Transparency Report (2012) that both have experience of past non-executive director roles and both bring their own experience in a relevant field, Lesley MacDonagh with a high level of experience of law and business management which she gained from being a Managing Partner at Law firm Lovells and Lord David Currie having experience of business management from eing a Dean of Cass Business School and a past Chairman of OFCOM and he also has sound knowledge of the legal system from being a member of the House of Lords. This places them perfectly for their positions of overseeing the governance of and business management of BDO. 2. 3. Stewardship Theory This theory, which originated from the works of Donaldson (1990), suggests that directors can have motives which are ‘pro-organizational’ and counters the assumption by agency theorists that management aims are based in self-in terest and are not aligned with those of the shareholders. Donaldson even goes as far as to suggest that negative investor assumptions of the management will have the opposite effect to what was intended and can actually weaken the leadership of a company by weakening the management’s authority when splitting the decision making power between the board and the management. Donaldson also put forward the theory that inside managers and directors have possibly spent their lives working for the company they govern and because of this not only have a strong understanding of how the company is ran, therefore are able to make superior decisions, but also they will have naturally built a strong affiliation and personal investment in the success of the company. He also points out that decisions made by a board of outsiders could be of a lower quality because they would not be in a position to fully understand the company because they would not have access to the same informal knowledge sources and would lack any information which could inform them of the contextual nature of any business situations. All this in turn could lead to low firm performance (Nicholson and Kiel, 2007). As was stated earlier, BDO has a LT which is made up of partners who have been working for the company in a particular field and have been a partner for a number of years. The field they are responsible for as part of the LT is relevant to the field they have been previously working in, for example the Head of Audit and Tax, Paul Eagland has been a Tax Partner for 17 years. This ensures that any decisions that are being made are informed with the necessary knowledge to make the correct decision for the company. Also, as has been stated previously working for the company has long has built a strong affiliation to the company and its success. With regards to the non-executive director element of the board, it is made up of both independent members who come from outside the company (such as mentioned previously) and Directors such as the Senior Partner who has been with the company for a number of years, this allows for any gaps in the knowledge of the directors to be covered because there is an overlap between the meetings of the LT and the Partner Council when the Senior Partner sits in on LT meetings as an affiliated non-executive director. This ensures that the company is practicing good governance and that the board cannot be misled by the management as to how the company is being ran and if the interests of the other Partners are being looked after (Transparency Report, 2012). 2. 4. Stakeholder Theory Freeman (1980’s) put forward a whole new idea in terms of corporate governance theories, he argued that it should not simply be just the shareholders’ or partners’ interests which should be considered when making business decisions, he suggested that companies should be ran with the interests of all stakeholders in mind. Other stakeholders include employees, who have invested their time and skills in the company and have an invested interest in the company’s success, in order for them to ensure job security. This, Freeman classes as a direct interest in the success of the company, other direct stakeholders include customers and suppliers. What Freeman classed as having an indirect interest in the performance of the company includes the community as a whole and the environment (Having Their Cake, 2013). There is a major problem with this theory, which is that it is hard to operationalize because it is difficult to decide the weight that should be given to different stakeholders but accepting this difficulty, some theorists have suggested that while ultimately they are accountable to the shareholders, they must take into account the interests of other stakeholders when making decisions. This demand for ‘stakeholder value’ is legitimised through a number of examples, take globalisation; the spread of business and corporations across the world has led to environmental damage, an increase in corporate corruption and excessive executive pay has been, for example with RBS, to come hand-in-hand with company downsizing which has a direct impact on employees. In the name of good corporate governance, the increase in the value of stakeholder interests has led to an increase in business ethic codes and heightened corporate practice visibility and corporate reports of social responsibility and environmental matters (Having Their Cake, 2013). According to BDO’s website and their Transparency Report (2012), the company takes the interests of various stakeholders into account when making decisions about how the business is run, in a number of different ways, through policies and procedures: * Ethical Requirements The company has a Professional Services Manual and an Audit Manual, which contain rules relating to ethical conduct of employees, management and Partners. It is easily accessible on the company intranet and is supplemented with training and is designed to comply with International and UK Ethics Standards. The Partners and staff sign annual declarations as to their compliance to the code and the company has an Ethics Partner who is tasked with providing guidance as to correct ethics and also with maintaining compliance. * Client Relationships BDO has 5 core values which all partners and staff are committed to, they are; honesty and integrity, taking personal responsibility, mutual support and strong and personal client relationships. To aid in these values and to help deliver a quality service to clients, the company has robust client and engagement procedures. They carry out risk assessments on every potential client, before signing a contract and this helps to ensure that not only is the company secure but also that they provide the client with the sufficient standard and amount of staff they are in need of. The HR department also has clear policies and procedures when it comes to recruitment in training, to ensure the company has a sufficient number of staff who are competent and meet the required ethical standards, all in the name of providing a quality service to clients. * Employee Relationships BDO have an inclusive culture when it comes to recruitment and training and development, it provides every staff member with the same opportunities to progress regardless of differences. They have strong policies and procedures regarding regular reviews, which are performed bi-annually. They also seek to adopt the most relevant recruitment selection tools, in order to ensure the fit and quality of those joining the company. They also provide employees with ‘learning maps’ and ‘career and performance wheels’, which helps with career development and ensures promotions only occur when the staff member is ready. This all aids in the success of the company. * Corporate Social Responsibility BDO actively support and develop the local community, they have an established network of over 20 champions in the UK, tasked with â€Å"stimulating local ideas and initiatives† to help developing the community. They have a Community Volunteering Policy, allowing employees to take 6 days a year to volunteer, and they are not restricted to volunteer at certain organisations. It can be whatever is important to them. BDO ensure the negative impact their business has on the environment is minimised and have an Environmental Policy which can be accessed at the follow address: http://www. bdo. uk. com/about-us/corporate-social-responsibility/environment. Considering this, it could be said that with regards to ‘stakeholder value’ BDO practices good corporate governance. . BDO Governance in Practice 3. 1. Transparency Report Due to the EU’s 8th Directive on transparency reporting being adopted, in April 2008 the Professional Oversight Board published the Statutory Auditors (Transparency) Instrument (2008), requiring auditors of companies with a public interest to publish annual transparency reports. It also detailed requirements that such reports must meet, including systems of q uality control, independence practices and procedures and information about the company, i. e. he structure and the management. The BDO Transparency Report (2012) is available at: http://static. bdo. uk. com/assets/documents/2012/09/Transparency_Report_for_the_52_weeks_ended_29_June_2012. pdf . Transparency reports are used to demonstrate the quality of audit processes and practices of a company and are also used to encourage a high level of confidence and trust from stakeholders and the business community. BDO also provided a statement of compliance with the Audit Firm Governance Code (2010), which can be seen in Appendix A. The transparency includes details of the Governance Structure of the UK Firm, including the management and implementation of independent non-executive directors, the values of the company, the Internal Quality Control System, the Risk Management Control System and details the policies and procedures regarding independence, whistleblowing, professional development and partner remuneration. 3. 2. Statement of Compliance with the Audit Firm Governance Code One of the most important aspects of the Transparency Report is the Statement of Compliance with the Audit Firm Governance Code. Some of the key aspects of which include compliance with: * the owner accountability principle- the Partnership Council reviews decisions made by the Leadership Team, the management * the management principle- strategic and operational leadership is provided by the LT * the professionalism principle- the whole firm is committed to quality work and professional judgement and values. The firm’s management and the Head of Risk and Quality reinforce the appropriate ‘tone at the top’, instilling professional and ethical values in the firm. BDO employees are expected to comply with an internal code of conduct * the Involvement of independent non-executives principle- BDO appointed Independent Non-Executives in July 2008, comply with the same independence requirements as our partners and employees and they have sufficient experience and expertise to command the respect of the partners * the Compliance Principle- BDO have policies and procedures to ensure they comply with professional standards and applicable legal and regulatory requirements * the whistleblowing policy- all actions arising out of incidents of whistleblowing, are reported to the Head of Risk and Quality who will make an annual report the Internal Reporting Principle- LT, Partnership Council, Audit Committee and Risk Committee are supplied with information in a timely manner and in a form and of a quality which enables them to discharge their duties * the Financial Statements Principle- BDO publish annual audited financial statements in accordance with UK GAAP While BDO provide a very clear statement about how compliant they are with regards to the Audit Firm Governance Code, we must look at the FRC’s ‘BDO LLP- Audit Quality Inspection, 2013’ which considered the corporate governance compliance of BDO in order to get a true understanding of their standard of corporate governance compliance. 3. 3. FRC Annual Review of BDO The FRC found that in most areas there were appropriate policies and procedures in place for its size and client base and they found that all the statements that were made in the Transparency Report were consistent with their understanding of BDO’s policies and procedures of the firm. However, when the FRC reviewed the audits BDO carried out themselves on other companies, they found that a number of governance codes were not being adhered to: * Firstly, they were not always providing a high standard of quality auditing, failing to challenge explanations and inputs from managers, they did not always report the disclosure deficiencies which were identified to the Audit Committee and there was a lack of adequate communication with the Audit Committee with regards to inaccurate information, which led to safeguards that had been put in place not being properly assessed. Secondly, the FRC found that the audits were not always being reviewed thoroughly enough and audit quality issues and omissions in reports were not being identified. * Thirdly, BDO were found to not have complied fully with ethical standards in a number of different ways; * The business plan inferred that fees should be set lower if non-audit fees are likely to be earned, this goes against their own required ethical standards and their own * Performance evaluation criteria including the cross-selling of non-audit services * The list of entities which partners held shares and could generate a conflict of interests was not up to date. A more robust set of procedures was suggested to ensure that this list was kept up to date in future Lastly, the Internal Quality Review was not of a high enough standard, it did not provide a sufficient level of detail and clarity of explanations of significant findings. 4. Conclusion We can see that BDO go to great lengths to try and ensure that they are fully compliant with corporate governance codes and regulations, not only with their policies and procedures a nd the way the company is managed but also with governance structure of the company and the values and focus of the aims and objectives of the company. They also have a strong focus on transparency and ethics within in their business and this is linked to their value of providing great customer client relationships with professionalism, honesty and integrity. They also go to great lengths to aid the companies with which they work, in complying with corporate governance codes, again this is all in the name of developing excellent quality and trustworthy client relationships, in order to maintain and improve the success of their business. However, as we can see from the FRC review, there are gaps in their governance compliance, in particular with internal reporting and ethical standards, but it will have to be seen in the coming years of reviews if the increase in transparency and an even greater focus on corporate governance will lead to BDO closing such gaps. 5. Bibliography * BDO LLP UK, ‘Transparency Report’, 2012, Available Online at: http://static. do. uk. com/assets/documents/2012/09/Transparency_Report_for_the_52_weeks_ended_29_June_2012. pdf [Accessed 02 May 2013]. * BDO LLP UK Website, 2013, ‘About Us’, Available Online at: http://www. bdo. uk. com/about-us/corporate-social-responsibility/environment [Acc essed 02 May 2013]. * BDO LLP UK, 2012, ‘Corporate Governance for TMT Businesses’, Available Online at: http://static. bdo. uk. com/assets/documents/2012/03/Corporate_Governance_for_TMT_Businesses. pdf [Accessed 02 May 2013]. * Crump, R. , May 2012, ‘Mid-cap market calls for mandatory governance code’, Financial Director Website, Available Online at: http://www. financialdirector. co. k/financial-director/news/2180374/mid-cap-market-calls-mandatory-governance-code [Accessed 02 May 2013]. * Financial Reporting Council, 2013, ‘BDO LLP: Audit Quality Inspection’, FRC Website, Available Online at: http://www. frc. org. uk/Our-Work/Publications/Audit-Quality-Review/Public-Report-BDO-LLP. aspx [Accessed 02 May 2013]. * ICAEW, 2013, ‘The Audit Firm Governance Code’, ICAEW Website, Available Online at: http://www. icaew. com/en/technical/corporate-governance/audit-firm-governance-code [Accessed 02 May 2013]. * Keynote, 2013, ‘Account ancy Marketing Report’, Available Online at: https://www. keynote. co. uk/market-intelligence/view/product/10674/accountancy? edium=download [Accessed 02 May 2013]. * Dr Lashgari, M. , 2004, ‘Corporate Governance: Theory and Practice’, The Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge, Available Online at: http://tharcisio. com. br/arquivos/textos/13200724. pdf [Accessed 02 May 2013]. * Mitchell Van der Zahn, J-L. W. , 2008, ‘Special Issue on: â€Å"Financial Reporting, Transparency and Corporate Governance: Issues in Volatile International Markets†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢, International Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation, Vol. 7, Nos 1/2, pp: 61-93, Available Online at: http://www. inderscience. com/info/ingeneral/cfp. php? id=962 [Accessed 02 May 2013]. * Roberts, J. ‘The Theories behind Corporate Governance’, Having Their Cake website, Available Online at: http://www. havingtheircake. com/content/1_Ideas%20that%20shape%20 the%20world/fact%20and%20opinion/The%20theories%20behind%20corporate%20governance. lnk [Accessed 02 May 2013]. * Turnbull, S. , 2002, ‘Corporate Governance: Its scope, concerns and theories’, Corporate Governance: An International Review, Volume 5, Issue 4, Available Online at: http://onlinelibrary. wiley. com/doi/10. 1111/1467-8683. 00061/pdf [Accessed 02 May 2013]. * Tricker, R. I. , 2012, ‘Corporate Governance: Principles, Policies and Practices’, Oxford University Press: London, (2012). *

Monday, July 29, 2019

Explain how to study a new language Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Explain how to study a new language - Essay Example most applicable to learning foreign language in consideration that this paper looks at how it can be influenced by psychological factors include the use of Mnemonics to link words or the use of ‘town language’ or the roman room system. To begin, the use of linking technique is widely used by many fast learners. It is applicable when the learner is able to associate images or events in the native language and use it as a reference for another word in the new language. In this way, remembering the word may be easy since it will only be linked with a certain image. The second technique, on the other hand, involves the association of the words with everyday things or images that the learner interacts with often. In effect, the learner is able to use his or her surrounding environment to develop his study by assigning names of certain words in the foreign language to such objects, places or experiences. Consequently, for the mentioned techniques to be effective, the learner m ust identify common words. After the identification of the language of interest, it is important to identify the common words that are used in everyday conversation. These words will act as a checklist for application during speaking. As a result, it is important that the leaner identifies the most appropriate materials and tools for learning. In cases where the leaner is in a country where that language is not often used, it is even important to use a tutor who may have experience and therefore guide the learner mostly in identifying and using common words. It is equally important to appreciate the culture of the natives of the new language to be studied. Language and culture are inseparable and therefore it is important to appreciate the cultural background of the new language of interest. Culture is connected with the pronunciation, non verbal as well as other verbal components of speech. In addition, it is through working with the natives of the language that one gets to understand how

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Women, Sex, Role and culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Women, Sex, Role and culture - Essay Example Among the dedicated writers include Brettell and Sargent, who are inclining their work towards modern topics in anthropology. Most of their works are designed in a manner that deems appropriate for scholars at various levels of their studies. In this essay, we will appraise one significant topic within the field of anthropology, and subsequently relate Brettell and Sargent’s work to ideologies contained within the underlying topics. Fortunately, the writers’ work takes an accessible and open-ended approach in covering a subject matter. Therefore, we will have to establish an objective link between theses contained in the primary readings and that of selected essay from the two writers mentioned above. Primary Reading: Cultural Solidarity of Maasai Women In the first primary ethnographic reading, we will explore the role of gender among Maasai women in Kenya. Within the reading, the writer Llewlyn Melissa analyses two contexts of cultural solidarity observed among women in the Maasai community. The underlying thesis statement within this reading is that Maasai women have over the past decades stood in solidarity to defend their gender roles within their societies. Despite infiltration of western ideologies into Kenyan tribes, Maasai have managed to preserve their traditions to date. They are nomadic pastoralists which mean that they move from one place to another in search of water and pasture for their domestic animals, especially cattle. Fortunately, their unique culture and proximity to wildlife reserves attracts tourists and anthropologists. Currently, a small number of Maasai men and moderate women have been absorbed into white collar jobs in the tourism sector (Llewlyn 209). However, majority of Maasai women and men are still subscribing to conventional roles as contained in their cultural norms. At this juncture, it is worth acknowledging the fact that Maasai culture is a patriarchal community dominated by men. Women within the Maasai tribe enjoy minimum opportunities, and faces numerous challenges form decisions made by their communities. As a show of solidarity to their patriarchal cultures, Maasai women still believes in early and forced marriages (Llewlyn 212). Parents show little interest in education of their girl child because these girls will be married immediately after elementary school. In fact older women in the Maasai community participate joyfully in preparing their daughters for forced marriages. This shows that women in this community are in solidarity with the cultural norm of early and forced marriages of their girls. As if forced marriage was not enough, Maasai women still demonstrate cultural solidarity through female genital mutilation. This context relates to women sexuality in the society. In an effort to curb free expression of woman’s sexual desires, the Maasai community chooses to perform this primitive act of mutilating their girls. Unfortunately, older women are the ones at the forefr ont in organizing for these initiation ceremonies as a show of love for their culture (Llewlyn 230). In this regard, one can appreciate the fact that culture plays a significant role in influencing norms of men and women in different social settings. In this case, a strict solidarity to their culture influences Maasai women into perpetrating primitive and harmful cultural practices. Brettell and Sargent: Culture, Sexuality and the Body The excerpt on Maasai women fits with Brettell and Sargent’s essay on culture, sexuality and the body in inter-cultural perspective. Based on the primary reading, we acknowledged the fact that Maasai community controls sexuality of women in their societies. The aspect of early and forc

Saturday, July 27, 2019

Marx and Weber on the Transition to Capitalist Modernity Essay

Marx and Weber on the Transition to Capitalist Modernity - Essay Example Thus, the predicate "modern" specifies not historical time, but to the degree of development of on what it is applied. Two moments – the representation of capitalism as universal transhistorical process and the concentrated expression of the capitalistic nature not in its basis, and in its superstructure named by "spirit of capitalism", - the researchers distinguish the concept of M. Weber from similar concepts of his ideological opponent K.Marx. It is possible to be expressed so: Weber adhered to a principle of plurality of historical forms of capitalism and Marx supported the thesis of the uniqueness of capitalism. Â  The ethical additive to the former forms of capitalism allowing them to become modern capitalism, according to Weber, is a qualitative change. Between "old" capitalism what Marx has had time to find, and "new" capitalism what Weber looked at, the distance of the huge size lays. The critical descriptions of capitalism (sale of children in slavery, prostitution, criminality, merciless operation of workers, falsification of products, brutal working conditions and a life, unemployment and poverty) which we meet on pages of "Capital" by K.Marx, should concern, according to Weber’s logic, not to the modern civilized capitalism, but to the vestiges of the old, adventurous capitalism which has historically settled. Â  The main thing, that differs the approach of M. Weber from similar attempts to explain an origin and evolution of K.Marx’s capitalism, is the concept of the motivation of labor activity. Anybody from them at all has not mentioned and has not explained, why the traditional thinking and the traditional attitude to work brakes the promotion to a market economy and interferes with an increase in labor productivity.

Friday, July 26, 2019

Introduction to Tourism and Leisure Analysis Essay

Introduction to Tourism and Leisure Analysis - Essay Example During the course of this investigation, the goal of the research will be to gather information that will be relevant to the council. This information will be necessary for the council to determine the tourism factors and reasons for the growth in Victoria. In order to do this information regarding socio-demographic characteristics, in addition to what places people visit, and the main aims of visitation. Tourism has emerged as one of the most remarkable economic and social drivers of the 20th century. (Tourismvic.com 2006) In order to meet the intended objectives the council must first ask what tourism is. The answer to that question is "Tourism is a very difficult term to define. Several scholars have attempted to answer what tourism is; however, there is not a widely accepted definition." (Ballarat, 2006) Actually, some researchers have argued that such a definition is impossible to formula (Krzysztof, 1999 p 9) positively, since tourism is studied by different disciplines according to each of its facets, many authors have provided a partial rather than a holistic approach Ibid. page 11 It is important to take economic growth when evaluating the growth of tourism in Victoria. When evaluating economic growth in Victoria and how vital of a role each has on the other some important factors need to be in clouded in the study so that the council can get an accurate idea of rhe significance of the existing tourism in Victoria and what to expect in the future. The majority of the literature on industry clusters is focused on the actual definition of a cluster. In order to do this the council should cluster tourism in the present economy of Victoria. The very basic definition of an industry cluster is "geographical concentrations of industries that gain performance advantages through co-location (Doeringer and Terkla 1995, pg.225)." Porter (1997) has proposed incorporating industry cluster policy into city economic development and tourism will be included in these city-planning projects. If this is done, it will enable city planners and councils to gain a competitive advantage from the location. Porter suggests that economic developers should

Thursday, July 25, 2019

The Constitution and Guns Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Constitution and Guns - Term Paper Example This history of gun culture reveals that while Congress and governments were willing to force people to work for them, they were not as willing to help the people in return. The governments were skeptical about not only promoting the ownership and use of firearms but of being the ones to supply citizens with weapons. After the war ended, Congress stored the remaining firearms and, due to impending bankruptcy, chose to neglect them than keep them clean and maintained. The simple presence of these stored firearms sparked the gun culture, and Knox spent a great amount of his time trying to convince Congress to take better care of them, inciting the many uses that could come of the large arsenal. In 1794, after the firearms had rotted and decayed, Congress finally decided to create new firearms to take their places. However, due to the negligence over a trusty arsenal, it took the United States approximately seventy long and tedious years to create a secure source of firearms. Congress f igured it would be worth it since they would use the firearms to form a militia. Alexander Hamilton agreed, stating that he believed every country should be able to have the means to protect and preserve itself. Even though it was the constitutional job of Congress to form a regulated militia and supply them with the firearms that they needed, it had no desire to do so. After the end of the Revolution, the security of the United States depended on the militia. Congress, though, was reluctant to put firearms in the hands of males that might use the weapons incorrectly. Their biggest fear, which was emphasized by Senator Rufus King, was that the people would use the guns against the government. Therefore, if the government did not supply these people with firearms, they would not have firearms to use against the government. When Shay’s Rebellion began, the fears of the government were justified. Poor and in-debt Massachusetts farmers crowded together and set themselves against courts and the aggressive tax collectors. Those involved in the rebellion only protested because they had no other alternatives, and their government did not seem the least bit concerned about their needs and interests. Since these protestors made up a large part of the militia, the state had very little to rely on in regard to support. A private army was established, and they fought against the Shaysites; the state came out the victors due to their supply of firearms. The government was unnerved by the rebellion. Samuel Adams believed that anybody willing to go against the laws of the republic should be sentenced to death. Washington, while recognizing the threat of anarchy, was more concerned with the fact that the farmers fought the government because the government refused to address their problems. During the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, the events during Shay’s Rebellion were brought up. Not only were there flaws in the militia when faced with a fo reign invader, but the militia was undependable when confronted with internal chaos. As a result, the leaders decided to reform the militia to bring it more under the control of Congress, including the distribution of firearms, which prompted the Second Amendment. States would have control over their militia until they were called into federal service, which would then put the control back with Congress. It was decided that the militia should be given power by Congress, but the

Impact of Domestic Violence on Childrens Socialisation Process Dissertation

Impact of Domestic Violence on Childrens Socialisation Process - Dissertation Example Since contemporary era has experienced tremendous alterations in the domestic set up, the rights and obligations of family members have also observed imperative changes in their nature and scope. Being the most innocent stratum of society, children turn out to be the target of these changes, and hence are most affected group of both the positive and negative changes of domestic establishment. The present study will be supported with Learning Theory by Miller and Dollard, Social Control Theory by Travis Hirschi, Cognitive Development Theory by Jean Piaget and Looking Glass Self Theory by Herbert Mead. The following hypothesis is being developed for the present study: The more the violence at domestic level in a group, community or social set up, the more the inclination of the youth towards criminal activities and perversion The main hypothesis has been supported with the following sub-hypotheses: The more the gender discrimination and conflict in a society, the higher the probabiliti es of violence and eventual perversion at massive scale The more unequal and unjust the division of labour at domestic level, the poorer the situation of socialisation process in family Interview-schedule has been selected as the tool for data collection for the research work. The researcher aims to conduct the research in London city, England. Twenty mothers, ten teachers and twenty children will be taken as respondents for the present study in order to give representation to different social classes, racial and ethnic groups, religious faiths and genders. The researcher will apply quota sampling in order to include all communities in the research work. After the completion of the study, the data was arrayed in orderly and tabular form in order to interpret the results and give suggestions at the end. CONTENTS Abstract †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚ ¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 1 Chapter I i) Introduction †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 4 ii) Statement of the Problem †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 6 iii) Aims & Objectives †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 7 iv) Sociological Significance †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 8 Chapter II Review of Relevant Literature †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 10 Chapter III Theoretical Framework †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 15 Chapter IV Research Me thodology †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 20 Chapter V General Findings of the Study †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 24 Chapter VI Summary, Conclusion & Suggestions Summary †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 32 Conclusion †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 34 Suggestions †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 36 Bibliography Appendi ces Chapter I Introduction Socialisation is aptly regarded as the process that turns a biological man into cultured one by learning the prevailing social norms, moral values and traditional ways of leading the group life while interacting with other members of society. Hence, socialisation refers to the process by which individuals acquire the values, beliefs, and behavioural patterns of the social groups to which they belong. â€Å"Socialisation is a developmental process in which an individual comes in contact with people and things that allow them to be socially acceptable.

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Home Network Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Home Network - Essay Example The visual technology with rich animated graphics helps the learners to understand better. Everyone can discuss the lectures and suggestions on forums making a virtual learning environment. Home users can participate online by uploading their suggestions on a particular topic and at the same time sharing the videos and suggestions with the peers. Evaluation of the students is also conducted by E learning, which is an added feature which is beneficial for the home users. Category 5 cables are used for the data transmission in a home network design. CAT-5 is in the form of twisted pairs. This cable consists of 4 copper wire pairs, connecting the network node with RJ 45 connectors.CAT-5 supports up to 100 to 1000 MHz speeds in a full duplex mode (Category 5 Cable. 2007). The length of the cable depends on the distance which needs measurement in the school premises. What are switches and why they are required for deploying a network? A good illustration is available on network dictionary states â€Å"A network switch is a device that joins multiple computers together at a low-level network protocol layer. Technically, network switches operate at layer two (Data Link Layer) of the OSI model† A simple definition is available on eFast Ethernet Cisco switches supporting VLAN functionality are implemented. As compared to the old 10 base-t, the 100 base-t provides 10 times more speed supporting the MAC and MTU. Almost all network adapters supports 100 base-t technology making it a cost saving and efficient choice for local area networks ("Fast Ethernet" 190-190). We will install and configure a 12 port switch, keeping in mind the expansion of the network will not affect by purchasing new network equipment. On the ground floor of the home there is only one switch that is operational and one is installed on the second floor and will be considere d for future expansion of the

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Discussion Article 5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Discussion Article 5 - Essay Example In their method the researchers are seen to be comparing two approaches in order to test which actually yields the expected results (Varroud-Vial, 2011). The randomized trials are done on diabetic patients within a hospital setting. Although testing and trails is an advanced methodology used in quantitative research we can still see that this research actually used it to find the impacts that the use of one approach would have on the patients. By subjecting a group of patients to EMR’s and not the other they wanted to test the validity of the statement that they had come up earlier or the research question they had identified. The methodology was quite appropriate in this study because they needed to establish the validity of the statement. Tests are carried out in scientific research in order to qualify or disqualify a given fact and this was what was used in this study. In the second article titled Physicians and Electronic health records the authors wanted to know exactly what the use of electronic medical records by physicians was on the ground in hospitals as concerns. There were two questions proposed for this study and these asked whether the Electronic health records were available for use and secondly the degree to which the physicians used the Electronic health records. The methodology that was adopted for this study was a random survey and this involved a group of 1884 physicians in Massachusetts. The survey used structured questionnaires that required them to answer different issues as concerns addressing the two questions identified earlier. The questionnaires were then mailed to the participants. The questions assessed the following components: availability and use of HER functions, predictors of use and the relationships between HER use and physicians perceptions of medical practice (Simon, 2007). The sample population used

Monday, July 22, 2019

Motivation and Organizational Culture Essay Example for Free

Motivation and Organizational Culture Essay Motivation and Organizational Culture Assignment In any given business or workplace environment the employees that work there should be the most valued assets. Research has shown that personnel who are happy and taken care of are much more productive than those who are not, therefore establishing a more pleasing work atmosphere. That being said, business leaders and managers alike play an extremely important role in workplace psychology. According to our text, leadership is the process of leading a group and influencing its members to achieve common goals. All managers are leaders (Robbins, DeCenzo, and Coulter, 2011). In today’s society more managers are leading through empowerment by allowing team members to be involved in the decision making process. More and more employees â€Å"are developing budgets, scheduling workloads, controlling inventories, solving quality problems, and engaging in similar activities that until very recently were viewed exclusively as part of the manager’s job. As mentioned earlier, research has shown that employees who are pleased are far more beneficial than employees who are not. There are many things that managers can do to ensure that their employees feel valued, and remain satisfied. First of all, it is important that managers avoid using intimidation. To intimidate means to make nervous, or instill fear. In some cases an individual can take advantage of their title and turn in to an authoritarian. In a sense this means that the big guys squash the little guys.

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Stages of Alzheimers Utilizing Machine Learning Techniques

Stages of Alzheimers Utilizing Machine Learning Techniques Abstract: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the general type of dementia that affects the elderly population globally. An accurate and early diagnosis of Alzheimer is crucial for the treatment of patients suffering from AD. In this paper, two different classifiers, SVM (Support Vector Machine) and an ANFIS (Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System) have been employed to classify patients between AD control, mild control and normal control. The system employed MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) data obtained from the ADNI dataset of 150 subjects consisting of 75 normal controls, 50 mild controls and 25 AD controls. Initially, image processing techniques like segmentation and feature extraction are applied on these MRI images to enhance the classification accuracy. The segmentation is performed using k-means clustering and a GLCM (Gray Level Co-Occurrence Matrix) are used to extract the 2D features of the left ventricle of the brain. The extracted features are then utilized to train the classifiers and the results obtained from both classifiers are then compared. It is shown that the classification accuracy of ANFIS is more when compared to that of SVM classifier. Keywords: Alzheimer, MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), ANFIS (Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System), SVM (Support Vector Machine). 1. Introduction Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative syndrome [1] of the brain tissues that results in progressive and permanent loss of mental function. The disease generally starts with mild indications and ends with severe damage in brain. The pathophysiology of the disease is associated with the damage and death of the neurons, originating in the hippocampus region of the brain that is involved with learning and memory, then atrophy impacts the whole brain. According to epidemiological information Alzheimer affects approximately 26 million people all over the world. In order to give proper care to AD patients, it is vital to measure the amount of atrophy present in the cerebral cortex during the initial stages of AD. The early detection of these diseases can greatly enhance diagnosis. But, diagnosis of this disease depends on the history, neuropsychological tests and clinical assessment. However, the clinical assessment is biased and the neuropsychological test does not provide high accuracy for early stage detection of the disease. In addition to neuropsychological analysis, structural imaging is greatly utilized in order to provide support to AD diagnosis. The whole brain approach utilized for describing the brain atrophy might be capable of differentiating between AD and MCI (mild cognitive impairment) patients. Recent researches [1, 2] show that the analysis of brain scan images is more consistent and subtle in identifying the presence of Alzheimer’s disease than the conventional cognitive assessment. In this circumstance, several machine learning approaches have been presented in order to perform neuroimaging analysis for classification of AD. In addition, all these approaches require training sets that is well categorized structure in order to classify each new subject that belongs to the test set. Recently MRI data have become center of several machine learning techniques for classifying subjects as CN vs. AD or CN vs. MCI. The focus of this paper is to classify between the different stages of AD utilizing machine learning techniques. Here, all the MRI brain scan images are segmented using k means clustering and the 2D shape features of the ventricles are obtained using GLCM based feature extraction. Then the extracted features are utilized for classification. First, an SVM based classifier is employed to classify the test data into three categories: normal, mild and AD. Second, an ANFIS based classifier is utilized for classification. Finally, the results of the two classifiers are compared and have been shown that ANFIS classifier outperforms SVM classifier. 2. Related Works Alzheimer’s disease (AD) classification is vital for early detection and diagnosis of the disease. Several studies explored machine learning techniques and artificial intelligence for detecting the cerebral changes and differentiate between normal aging and AD patients [1-3]. In [4] a support vector machine (SVM) based machine learning approach has been utilized for automatic classification entire brain anatomical MRI data to differentiate between elderly control and AD control patients. In this study, 16 patients with AD control and 22 patients with elderly control were used. Depending upon the gray matter characteristics extracted from region of interest (ROI), the SVM algorithm is used for classifying the subjects and the arithmetic procedures are based on bootstrap resampling in order to ensure the strength of the results. In [5] a local patch based subspace ensemble approach has been proposed that constructs several different classifiers depending on the various subsets of local patches and they are combined for robust and more accurate classification. Here, every brain image is segmented into number of local patches and the subset of patches is selected from the patch pool and a sparse representation based classifier technique has been used in order to construct a weak classifier. The multiple weak classifiers are then combined for making final decision. [6] A framework for classifying Alzheimer’s disease utilizing ADNI dataset is presented. The framework fuses overlap based and registration based similarity measures that are enhanced employing a self-smoothing operator. These enhanced metrics are then employed for the classification of Alzheimer disease. In [7] an automatic classification system for recognizing AD in MRI (structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging) has been developed. The system utilizes visual content description of anatomical brain structure (hippocampal region) and fuses two biomarkers CSF and hippocampus in order to enhance the classification accuracy. It is shown that the classification accuracy is more in case of fusion than when utilizing CSF volume or visual features separately. In [8] support vector machines (SVM) were assessed to determine whether data combined from various scanners would provide effective classification. Here, a linear SVM has been employed to classify GM (grey matter) portion of T1 weighted MR image. The results show that about 96% of clinically verified AD patients were accurately classified exploiting the entire brain image. [9] Classified between healthy, MCI and AD patients with the help of support vector machine (SVM). The author also analyzed the accuracy of classification when several a natomical brain regions and various image modalities are combined. Therefore, global and regional grey matter, regional asymmetry coefficients, Ti- quantitative MRI data and regional with matter volumes are combined. It shows that an accuracy of 88.3% in case of CTL vs. AD and 81.8 % in case of CTL vs. MCI was attained. In [10] a binary SVM has been proposed to classify patients between mild cognitive impairment and elderly control subjects from MRI images. This approach utilized a Java Agent DEvelopement Framework (JADE) in order to reduce the computation time. 3. Materials and Methods In this section, the data set and methods utilized in this study as well as the description of the proposed framework depicted in fig 1 are presented. 3.1 Subjects The data employed in this study were obtained from ADNI (Alzheimers disease Neuroimaging Initiative) database [11]. ADNI utilizes biomarker measures and neuroimaging in order to track the changes taking places in the brain of the subjects under study for diagnosing AD at an early stage. Fig 1 Block Diagram of the step involved in the classification of stages of AD 3.2 Image Preprocessing The collected T1 weighted MRI images were free from noise, missing data and outliers. In preprocessing step all the MRI brain images are segmented into VM, GM, CSF and Ventricle tissues that represent vital information about brain degeneration disease. A clustering based segmentation approach has been employed for this purpose. The k means clustering is exploited in order to extract the VM, GM and CSF features the entire MRI brain image. It partitions the data points into k clusters [12] based on the inherent distance between the data points. The intent is to minimize inter cluster variance. For a healthy MRI brain image, k is usually three (corresponding to grey matter, white matter and CSF). After segmenting the MRI brain images into GM, WM and CSF, morphological operations are applied to obtain the binary ventricle tissue. Here, morphological operators such as erosion and dilution are applied. 3.3 Feature Extraction In order to accurately classify AD patients ventricle shape features are extracted. In this work, the 2D shape features are extracted from the ventricles based on Gray-Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) feature extraction. This method computes the co-occurrence matrix of each image present in the database by calculating how frequently pixel x with certain intensity value take place in relation with other pixel y at a specific orientation ÃŽ ¸ and distance d. The eleven features calculated from every co-occurrence matrix, generates set of feature vectors. These feature vectors include contrast, homogeneity, energy, correlation, mean, variance, rectangularity, elongation, circularity, area and perimeter and listed in table 1. Table 1: Extracted Features

The Foundation Of Cadbury Limited Marketing Essay

The Foundation Of Cadbury Limited Marketing Essay Cadbury dairy milk is the product of Cadbury which got launched in 1905. It is a great success for Cadbury industry .In the beginning the product is produced by keeping in mind the customer satisfaction for the product which should match the regional selection criteria and it should fulfil the need and demand and customer expectations. Cadbury also introduced chocolate in tins with unique pictures and paintings on each box, which started fascinating the customers. As an international brand Cadbury Dairy Milk carries the same distinctive image all over the world. Wherever you buy a bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk the pack design will be exactly the same, only the language will be different. The famous slogan glass and a half of full cream milk in every half pound with the picture of milk filling into the chocolate bar, is the one of the best British advertising. Cadbury Dairy Milk was a great success as it has capture almost a great number of the market share but soon after some time Dairy Milk start to go down after the entrance of other brands in the market like Nestle, Mars, Hershey which bring down the market share of Cadbury Dairy Milk. Cadbury company was started by an individual person in 1824 name John Cadbury; in Birmingham he laid the foundation of Cadbury Limited. Now Cadbury is the world largest producer of chocolates in the world. Till 1831 the business of the company got changed from a grocery shop to a manufacture of drinking chocolate and coca and till present its going like the same. Dairy Milk is a popular brand of chocolate bar of Cadbury in United Kingdom and in the whole world. It was traduced in 1905 and its comes in a large number of varieties which includes Fruit Nut, Whole Nut, and original Dairy Milk .It comes in different package sizes to suits to the customer needs and demand. Cadbury Plc was founded in1824 by John Cadbury a young Quaker. He first opened a small grocers shop in Birmingham making chocolates on a small scale, with coca and drinking chocolate on the side. Then in 1831 John decided to start manufacturing on a commercial scale, and he bought a warehouse in nearby Crooked Lane. In 1847 John joined his brother Benjamin into the partnership and the name of the firm was changed to Cadbury Brothers. The business was getting popular then both the brothers moved the business to new factories in Bridge Street , but in 1855 after the death of John`s wife and his illness the combined business of both brothers John and Benjamin come to an end with mutual consent and then John transferred all the right to his sons Richard and George. 1861 1900 John Cadbury retired from his business and his sons Richard and George took over the company. As Richard had already joined his father business in 1850 but in 1861 with the partnership of his brother George who was only 25 at that time. Richard started to look after sales and marketing side which was not in good shape. He once said that if business ever made a profit of thousand he will take retirement. Richard was also a talented artist and in 1868 he founded the way of increasing the appeal of chocolate boxes by decorating its lid with pictures some of them are of his own creation, soon after some time he died unexpectedly from diphtheria in 1899. George son of John Cadbury joined Cadbury Brothers in 1856 and became partner in the business with his brother Richard in 1861. The first few years were extremely hard and the brothers worked very hard in order to establish the business. He looked after production and buying and he is also responsible for finding the companys new site, Bournville, he also planned the factory layout himself. Because of his trip to Holland where he bought innovative new coca press, in 1886 Cadbury launched Cocoa Essence, the first unadulterated cocoa in UK. In 1901 he gave the site to Bournville Village Trust. He did many good will works for his employees like setting up education facilities, opened work committees for both men and women and also donated Lickey Hills Country Park to the people of Birmingham. George remained Chairman of Cadbury Bros until his death in 1922. William Cadbury son of Richard Cadbury joined in 1887. He was mainly engaged in engineering, maintenance and new machinery. In 1889 he became managing director, then he gave up his engineering duties and took up charge of sales and buying. He setup the Mens Pension Fund in 1906 and a separate fund for women in 1911 and is also responsible for Cadbury pulling out of the purchase of cocoa from Sao Thome and Principe after evidence of slavery, and for the development of the Ghana cocoa trade. The first proper Cadbury logo of a cocoa tree was commissioned by him in 1905 from the French designer Georges Auriol and also the famous Cadbury signature logo is based on his signature. He became the Chairman of Cadbury Brothers Ltd in 1922 after the death of his uncle and held this position until his retirement in 1937. Elizabeth, Georges second wife is best known for her welfare work. The list of her good will work is endless like she and George in 1909 opened the Woodlands Hospital in North field. She died in 1951. Edward Cadbury son of George and Mary, joined Cadbury Bros in 1893. He was appointed as a Managing Director in 1899 and given two specific duties: to expand exports and to organize the women employees at Bournville, who formed the main part of the labour force. He was responsible for the Export Department from 1899 to 1927 and for the Womens Department from 1899 to 1919. He was made responsible for pricing in 1903 and set up the Costing, Statistical and Planning Departments over the next few years. He was also interested in education and founded the Selly Oak colleges in Bournville, as well as writing books on management and organisation. He was also in charge of the Accountants Department, a member of the Finance Committee and was responsible for the Advertising Department during the inter-war years. Edward was appointed Chairman of the British Cocoa Chocolate Company in 1932 and in 1937 succeeded William as Chairman of Cadbury Bros Ltd. He retained both chairmanships until he reti red in 1943. George Jnr, son of George and Mary joined Cadbury Brothers in 1898. The following year his uncle Richard unexpectedly died. His father George Snr set up a new limited company with himself as chairman and four managing directors: Richards sons Barrow and William and his own sons Edward and George. So George became a managing director at the age of just 21 and was responsible for the technical and scientific side of the business. Georges greatest contribution was the perfection of milk chocolate and he led the development and launch of Cadbury Dairy Milk in 1905. He was also responsible for setting up Cadburys milk factories and transport department. He retired in 1943. 1900 Present Laurence, father of Adrian and Dominic and son of George and Elizabeth joined Cadbury Brothers in 1911 and was the first graduate member of the family to work at Bournville. Cadbury Company builds a village for its employees. He was appointed to the Board of Directors in 1918 with a wide range of responsibilities including engineering and production. He was appointed Director of the British Cocoa Chocolate Company (BCCC) in 1921. Becoming Chairman of Cadbury Brothers and Chairman of BCCC in 1944, he held both posts until he retired in 1959. Dorothy, daughter of Barrow Cadbury and granddaughter of Richard Cadbury, joined the business in 1917. She worked in numerous departments and served on several of the main committees. She retired in 1952. Sir Adrian, eldest son of Laurence Cadbury was appointed as Director in 1958. In 1965 he became Chairman of the British Cocoa Chocolate Company. 1969 saw him taking up the position of Deputy Chairman and Managing Director of Cadbury Schweppes, and he became Chairman of Cadbury Schweppes in 1974. He retired in 1989. Son of Laurence Cadbury and brother of Sir Adrian Cadbury, Sir Dominic was appointed director in the late 1960s. He joined the Cadbury Schweppes board in 1974. His subsequent positions have been: 1975-1978: Managing Director, Cadbury Foods Division, 1978-1980: Chief Operating Officer, Cadbury Schweppes, North America; 1980-1983: Managing Director, Cadbury Schweppes; 1983-1993: Group Chief Executive, Cadbury Schweppes; and 1993-2000 Chairman, Cadbury Schweppes. Now retired from the Cadbury business. Appointed Trustee in 1994 and Chairman of the Trust since 1996, Roger was previously a director of various companies. He chairs the Trusts Estate Management Scheme Committee and is a member of the Agricultural Estates Committee. He is currently Chairman of Warwick Independent Schools Foundation, Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, and Croft Trust of Adult Education, as well as serving as Trustee of a range of charities. 2. Situation Analysis Cadbury Dairy milk was launched by Schweppes which was the largest food and Beverage cooperation headquartered in the U.S .The Kraft Inc take over Cadbury in 2010 which is the British Confectionary company, the industry`s second-largest globally. The new product is launched globally. 3. SWOT Analysis Cadbury first started its business in 1831 by John Cadbury. Its brings change in cocoa processing from the year 1866 onwards. The company got combined with Schweppes in 1969.Currently this company is employing approximately about 43000 people in all f the world. Today, Cadbury Schweppes is the world`s fourth biggest supplier of chocolate sugar Confectionary. One of its product, Dairy Milk was introduced in 1905 and has become the most successful moulded chocolate in UK history and the basic ingredient for many other Cadbury products 95years later, Dairy Milk is one of the worlds favourite Chocolate brand name sand company`s leading chocolate bar by revenue. 3.1 Aim: It was important to investigate on both forces internal and external environmental for the Dairy Milk in France. Significant organizational and industrial information is required for the development of the SWOT analysis. The main purpose of analysis of the environment and consideration of the situational factor when designing, marketing, planning, is critical as it would allow Dairy Milk to capitalize on organizational strengths, minimize any weakness, exploit market opportunities and avoid any threats. 3.2 Strengths: Cadbury would realize several possible advantages in going abroad. By penetrating a foreign market the company could: Maintain a stable growth of a company by maximizing the use of its production capacity and thus increase economies of scale and scope. With its brand name, Cadbury could counterattack the competitors it faces in the domestic market by attacking their domestic market. Keep up with the financial strength by increasing its sales and profit, indeed the foreign market could present higher profit opportunities than the domestic product. Acquisition rules in UK, reduce its dependence on the UK market and therefore diversify its market specific risk. Overall, Cadbury has been successful through the new products (development) it has to offer. 3.3 Weaknesses: Generally Cadbury has a weak position in the market. Thus, need to change its target to a different location. Cadbury distribution network is weak and has a small market share altogether so if they want to market there product in France successfully, Cadbury has to do its best to get great performance. They can also look towards those situation by them they can get success. Cadbury can market its products by keeping in mind the issue: France production of Chocolate bars and confectionary has increased by 24.5percent between 1988 and 1991 but now it has slowed down because of economic slump. Consumption of Chocolate products which got a rise till 1991 got a hold in 1992, due to the fall in demand because of gloomy economic conditions. Chocolate bars which were selling at 24 per cent of the total volume of chocolate bar have decreased to only 3.7 per cent. 3.4 Opportunities: Cadbury has to built variable position in his confectionary line in the market through his organic product growth. Besides that Cadbury can expand his opportunities to the markets based in Russia and China. Cadbury is also selling its products on internet which is also their popularity side which includes free chocolates. Some of the opportunities are as follows: France is the fourth largest Gross Domestic Product in the whole world. It is first world advanced market economy. Although the recession didnt did wrong with the country economy. 3.5 Threats As a confectionary product maker it is important for Cadbury to aware of its upcoming threats. Company should always check the buying behaviour of consumer buying trend. It is perceived that consumers. There is a possibility for the consumers to shift from chocolates to Healthy food or snacks. If this has happen it could cause Cadbury`s name to fall down. Cadbury prices are competitive from his competitors like Mars, Nestle, and Hershey. Seasonal sales slumps the chocolate market every year which affect the price of raw material that is needed to make the products. If Cadbury is entering in world it has to be aware of the risks involved in it. By not understanding foreign customers preferences and failing to achieving their expectations. By not understanding the business culture. 3.6 Conclusion In process of getting high and peak position. The company has to keep stressed on the global growth of the product. It can be a risk to market it in the region France, 4. Objective Setting Cadbury has set some objective related to Dairy Milk for its marketing and advertisement which are main factor for its product promotion and profit making which are as follows. To maintain the quality standards of its products. Enhance sales to gain more profits Packaging should be of good and hygienically passed quality To reach in every part of the world To give more and more benifits to the customers by by giving them promotions and free take aways. 5. Company Profile 1824 Aged 22, John Cadbury, a young Quaker, opens a small grocers shop in Birmingham- making chocolate on the sideline. 1847 John Cadbury moves his business to a larger factory, as his company becomes The Cadbury Brothers- his brother Benjamin joining him. 1861 John Cadbury retires and sons Richard and George take over the company. 1879 Cadbury Chocolate Company moves to Bournville. Over the next ten years the number of employees grows to 1,200. 1893 Cadbury Company builds a village for its employees. 1920s The Cadbury script logo is first used. 5.1 Company mission Cadbury Main statement is Cadbury means Quality and this is their promise and reputation to built quality products and continues its promise delivered to customers. Cadbury Has established its company as a fairness and integrity which proves that Cadbury is a socially responsible company. 6. Marketing objectives For achieving increase in sales Cadbury undertakes a number of marketing activities to encourage the sale of its products .Cadbury has set some objectives to maximize its sale and gain more profits. There are some basic aims that Cadbury has define in his corporation are as follows. 6.1 Survival For survival Cadbury keep its product quality up to a specific standard and prices to that level that could compete with other competitors. 6.2 Profit maximisation Profit maximization which is often taken to be the reason why firms exists and to be the primary objectives in practices most firms have a hierarchy of objectives when a firms survival is threaten it may profit maximise in order to restore its financial health. 6.3 Growth Which includes Cadbury selling new products or expanding overseas. 6.4 Diversification This is the spreading of business risks by reducing dependence on one product. 6.5 Sales Increase It is the main key factor of sales by which company gains more profits and generates revenues. 6.6 Improving the product image Its includes creating a new logo or launching a new brand of product and creating more attractive packaging.   For example, Cadbury has made to important key points for the development of their chocolate. These were: 1. To grow the market for chocolate confectionery 2. To increase Cadburys share of the snacking sector In the time of launching Cadbury they thought that any new product can make a big difference creating unique selling proposition (USP) i.e. a product with unique appeal which is not present in any other competitors product. Cadbury has wasted a lot of money on testing and combination of various ingredients and more than 250 recipes were combined together before finalizing the final chocolate recipe. As Cadbury produced products they first test them that can the consumers can buy Cadbury products or not. Promotion is a key factor of any product launching and Cadbury done this in various ways which include the following ways newspapers, magazines, television and radio etc. 7. Tactical application Marketing professionals and specialist use many tactics to attract and retain their customers. These activities comprise of different concepts, the most important one being the marketing mix. There are two concepts for marketing mix: 4P and 7P. It is essential to balance the 4Ps or the 7Ps of the marketing mix. The concept of 4Ps has been long used for the product industry while the latter has emerged as a successful proposition for the services industry. The 7Ps are described below. 7.1 Product Cadbury Dairy Milk was launched keeping in mind people taste about the chocolate which a research work is done by Cadbury in 1905. The entire taste ingredients included in it are selected from many different places to give customers the taste they want. 7.2 Price The pricing strategy of Dairy Milk has always been in accordance with its competitors. Price is simply the cost plus profit of the firm. There are many competitors in the market. As the products are of high quality, so usually high prices are charged. So the Management has considered about the competitive price while selecting new prices and schemes. Firms have to consider many factors for determining the price. Selecting the price objective Analyzing competitors costs, Prices and offers. Selecting a pricing method. Prices are set by taking into consideration: The price of the product must be competitive and must entail profit. The pricing strategy can comprise discounts. 7.3 Place Cadbury market Dairy Milk to those places where it can get a good response from the customers as well as revenue to the company. 7.4 Promotion Cadbury like all other brands also invest heavily in advertising its product special its major popular product Cadbury Dairy Milk, it is marketed in the following way Media, Newspaper, Billboard advertisement. 7.5 People People plays a vital role in brand establishment as they are directly involved in the recognition of it in the market and this matter should be realized by the customers that its in their hands, Cadbury target young people and children mainly as compared to elders. 7.6 Process Cadbury keeps a record of all processes it does like methods and process are provided and also keep a record of provided services are helpful for the customers or not, and whether customers are informed or not. 7.7 Physical (evidence) Cadbury keep a record of all experiences which it is getting by physical questioning, buying behaviour of the customers.nad providing them guidelines about the products they are purchasing by giving them brochures, and pamphlets. 8. Action and Implementation Cadbury Dairy Milk has been launched successfully and now we are projecting our focus on increasing the sales and profits of our brand .As after the launching of Galaxy in the market Dairy Milk has gown down to that level where Galaxy is making more profits then Dairy Milk, so Cadbury is trying to regain its market share by doing allot of promotional activities and advertisements for Dairy Milk. 8.1 Budget In view of our action plan for increasing the sales revenue of Cadbury Dairy Milk, extensive promotion is required, and we have the following Marketing budget outlined according to our line of action: Projected Income Statement For Year 2010 2011 UK (  £ ) Sales 20,000,000 Cost of Goods Sold 9,000,000 Gross Profit 11,000,000 General Administrative Expenses 2250,000 Earnings Before Interest and Taxes 8750,000 Interest Expense 110,000 Earnings Before Taxes 8640000 Tax 90,000 Net Profit 8550000 8.2 Conclusion As Cadbury launched Dairy Milk in 1905. Its market gets a great height but after some time its market got a huge decline and its sale got down because its competitor product Galaxy took its market share and customers started to buy Galaxy instead of Cadbury Dairy Milk. As for that Cadbury has started again to do remarketing of its product by doing advisement. Inform of TV advertisements, newspapers, Billboards, etc and hence Cadbury Dairy Milk is on declining stage. 9. Individual Critical Reflection 9.1 Specific Values Cadbury is the world Renowned confectionary company started its business in 1824 and based in United Kingdom .It provide drinking chocolate and chocolate bars like Dairy Milk. Dairy Milk is the largest profit giving product of Cadbury and it is liked by almost every person adult of child that is why its very popular in the world . 9.2 Declining Stage As Cadbury was going to a height then in the mean time new Competitors (Nestle, Mars, Hershey) came into the market with more variety and flavours which thus they started threatening Cadbury sales by a decline in its mass product Cadbury Dairy Milk, as Dairy Milk was coming in the same flavours and competitive prices where as Dairy Milk prices were not competing with its competitors as a result Decline in the product .As Cadbury Dairy Milk competitors like (Nestle, Mars, Hershey) were doing there best to keep there products up to the standard into the Market by doing Media advertisements. 9.2.1 Marketing disadvantages Marketing plays a vital roll in a products popularity and market share in the market but Cadbury lack this in the way that the marketing department didnt paid much attention towards its product so it starts declining . There should be a good marketing plan should be given to a top marketing agency to market the product and to spend money in a correct way 9.2.2 Brand Placement To make a product popular among customers the brand name Cadbury Dairy Milk should be made that much attractive among customers that when it is launched it get the height what it wants. And then it is the agency responsibility to make the product capable of getting its goals and compete with 9.3 Action Plans Dairy Milk has been launched successfully and now we are projecting our focus on increasing the marketing of our brand as it is in declining stage to that percentage that it can compete with its competitors for the upcoming year. Increasing marketing actually means shifting the marketing strategies and attracting new customers to enticing the proven customers to buy again. Attracting new customers is good. But attracting new customers is not the only way to increase the sales. Shifting the sales focus to enticing the current customers can also make increasing the sales easy as well as building customer loyalty that result in repeated sales. The key to success in increasing the sales is effective marketing promotion of the product to an extent that catches the customers confidence. For attaining the desired objective, Cadbury Dairy Milk will conduct back to back advertising and sale promotion campaigns. Following are some details of these campaigns: September: We will start with marketing promotion campaign to generate excitement in the consumers mind for the Cadbury Dairy Milk. During the first month, there will be four trucks that will be roaming in the target areas and distributing free samples of mini Dairy Milk chocolate bars of 25grams. October: In October, we will go to exhibit at the major retail chains, providing free samples in the major shopping malls and Schools and ask there comments. We will also endorse celebrities and hire opinion leader as part of our public relation strategy. Our training staff will work with sales personnel at major retail chains to guide and give information regarding Dairy Milk to the consumers. November: We will start print, TV and internet campaigns for Dairy Milk by running advertisements of all media. The campaign will show the customers hows the taste of Dairy Milk is and take suggestions from them and also telling them about it new flavours and attractive packaging. We will increase the expenditures on Mass Media advertisements in order to improvise the position of the brand in the consumers mind as well as to dominate other Brands in its promotion and per hour airing on TV channels. We will organize different events regarding children so that we can capture the interest of them. We will be visiting schools for organizing fun activities for children. December: We will be launching schemes for retailers and whole-sellers in September, in which certain points will be given to wholesalers on the highest sales of Dairy Milk, and in turn on the basis of these, certain incentives will be provided to peak wholesalers. This can be a good strategy to improve the relations with distribution network and its efficiency as well. January: The best way to promote marketing and sales is to add value. The trick in sales promotion is to come up with ideas which add value to a product, rather than just cutting the price. Therefore, we will be adding value to Dairy Milk by giving every customer a free pencil, free pencil box, free books with purchase of every 250grams chocolate bar of Dairy Milk. The promotion can be successful because consumers will like this idea, and for the company, it can be cheaper than a price cut. February: We shall be distributing Special Shelves, Wall clocks and Key chains with Cadbury Dairy Milk logoto the shopkeepers incentives to promote our brand. March: A scheme will be offered i.e. buy more and more Dairy Milk Family Bars and get a chance to enter a lucky draw scheme to win return ticket to Paris for two people. And therefore, it is hoped that all these promotional activities will create enough awareness amongst the target sector that will force them to look forward to Dairy Milk when buying a Chocolate and all these promotional activities will consequently be resulting in increasing the sale of our product and generating the expected revenue and bringing the product to again in previous position in the market among its competitors. 9.4 Implementation Control In order to effectively implement our desired stated action marketing plan for Cadbury Dairy Milk to increase the sales revenue by the end of this year, we need to have a check on various promotional activities if they are going on accordingly as planned. This review is required on monthly basis so that the objective of achieving high sales revenue can be well chased. Hence the following activities are required to be monitored: There will be the need to monitor whether the marketing objective is achieved or not. Apart from this, the expenditures should be properly monitored and they shouldnt vitiate too much from the forecasted budget. There will be the need to check the distribution network and ensure that product is available in market at all times. There should be a strict check on whether the customers are getting the same message as what we are trying to deliver in advertisement, and hence check its impact on sale. It will also be needed to see the impact on sales by the different promotional activities conducted. It will be strongly needed to identify the packaging preferences or the price related concerns of the customers from time to time, and take corrective actions to achieve the financial and marketing objectives. 9.5 Gantt Chart G A N T T C H A R T Month JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN Campaign Cadbury Dairy Milk COST General Budget: year 2010 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X 5MILLION Big banners for shows X X X X X X 1million Website Creation X X X X X X  £1.5million ADD Designing Printing X X X X X X  £2.5mIllion Logo Design X X X X X X  £3million Statement Creation X X X X X X  £1million Advertisement on all media`s X X X X X X  £1.5million Agency Cost X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X  £3million Total X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X 13.5million