Needle Exchange Program Essay

The needle exchange program provides sterile needles in exchange for used dirty needles. Research has stated that with a program in place will reduce HIV and hepatitis C. The program will provide counseling and help educate the drug users. I am against the needle exchange program. The needle exchange program supports drug users in giving sterile needles. Needle exchange program’s are telling our children it is acceptable to use drugs because the government will supply clean needles. The legislation should not support the needle exchange program. The program will send the wrong message to our children if legislation in which to fund such a program. The exchange will use our tax dollars and will increase the amount of drug paraphernalia. If the legislation were to support a program, it will change the morals of our country. The pros of the program are the cost-effective way to reduce needle sharing among drug addicts. This program will help user’s obtain drug treatment, detox, and some health screening. The users will receive HIV education and counseling for their addiction. The disadvantages of the needle exchange program are more significant then having the program. The program would allow tax dollars to fund such a program. The tax dollars can be used for other programs. The program would increase drug paraphernalia in areas in which it is already high. The location of the needle exchange sites will hurt our communities and there will be more drug addicts in these areas. This will show the wrong message to our children. Drug addicts transfer HIV in many other ways then the use of dirty needles. Sharing the water mixture for heroin and having unsafe sex are examples if other ways to transmit HIV. Addicts choose to take drugs and have to accept the disease risks that follow drug use. It states that drug dealers sell drugs near needle exchange sites. This will increase crime in these areas. Needle exchange will create undesirable communities and will discourage new residents from the community. Needle exchanges will make the community unsafe. The programs bring in drug addicts, which are not clean individuals. The community will become less clean with needles on the streets and community parks. Drug-addicts are unstable and commit crimes. This will jeopardize the safety of the community. Treatment is low at needle exchange sites. The needle exchange programs do not make efforts to change drug-addicts. The counseling given is not effective treatment. Drug addicts are told ways to go cold turkey, which isn’t effective way to treat the addicts. Increasing treatment is a better solution then needle exchange. In conclusion the needle exchange programs will not decrease drug use or HIV. This is not an effective way to help drug addicts. Giving sterile needles to drug addicts is telling them it is alright to do drugs. We need to take tax dollars for rehab clinics. The government needs to give health care to the uninsured drug users and they can receive counseling to get off the drugs which ruin their lives. All of these programs will help reduce HIV. It is important to ensure that our young children know that drugs will kill drug addicts and should not be promoted with these programs on our streets.

Maximising profits and meeting objectives Essay

J D Wetherspoon owns pubs right across the UK. It is now the UK’s fastest growing company. They serve good quality food at knockdown prices. They also clear your plates away quickly afterwards and ask if the food was to your satisfaction. Wetherspoon’s employs approximately 11,200 staff who work either part or full-time. The company believe that there is a direct link between the high performance of their staff and their approach to staff recruitment, training, development, and motivation. Each pub operates with skilled management, who are fully supported by bar and kitchen staff. Their mission statement is ‘to have by far the best CBSM (cleanliness, beer, service, maintenance) standards in the pub world; to be the best company to work for; and, by doing these things to be the most profitable.’ McDonald’s McDonald’s have over 1000 restaurants across the United Kingdom. Three quarters of these are run by managers on behalf of the company and the other quarter being run as franchises. McDonald’s is the world’s largest franchising company, with seven out ten outlets being a franchise, and being owned and run by independent entrepreneurs. McDonald’s sell burgers and chicken with a variety of different desserts and hot and cold drinks, served by friendly and helpful team members. One of McDonald’s stated aims is ‘to provide a friendly service in a relaxed, safe, and consistent restaurant environment.’ J D Wetherspoon J D Wetherspoon uses Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as the bases of their motivation techniques. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs gives the managers clear and useful insights into how best they should motivate their staff. J D Wetherspoon aims to provide each individual employee with the skills and knowledge, which will help them to gradually climb the ladder of hierarchy permanently. Maslow’s pyramid can help Wetherspoon’s with this. They believe in creating a work force, which is committed and motivated. This workforce should be made up of people who can achieve personal fulfilment via the freedom that they get through their work. Realising that they will not be able to keep all their employees for all of their working life, J D Wetherspoon wants them to grow a sense of loyalty to the company They promote their staff through the different levels of employment status in the business, from bar/kitchen associates, to pub managers, to general managers to help motivate them. They pay each of the employees more than their competitors are paying their staff, so that the all associates (employees) feel motivated and will stay with the company for as long as possible. They believe that once their employees know that they are being paid more than the minimum wage for their work, they will become more motivated. The company bases its pay on reviews of performance of each of the staff; the better the performance the better the pay. The company also provides a bonus scheme for its workers. Each member of staff receives a bonus depending upon the performance of the pub in which they work. To get each member of staff to work to their full potential, the business runs many incentive schemes. One example of this is a monthly draw for examples of excellent customer care. The winner will receive an all expenses paid holiday for two in New York. Along with this, the business offers a share option scheme to each of its employees, enabling them to buy shares in the company at an assured price. The company do this in the belief that it will make the staff have a sense of belonging in company and will want to see the company succeed. McDonald’s McDonald’s method of motivation involves using rewards, goals, and promotion prospects for their members of staff. Although the company motivates their staff via reward methods, goals and promotion prospects, they use F.W. Taylor’s Scientific Management motivation theory. McDonald’s splits their staff into teams, so that there is a team of people in each of the areas of the restaurant. There are also team members who walk round the restaurant and clear tables of empty food boxes and drinks cartons. Julie Room, a General Manager from a McDonald’s restaurant says that McDonald’s are continually hiring new members of staff, as their staff members ‘are always leaving.’ McDonald’s have high promotion prospects for their staff, with all the managers who work for the company once being crewmembers, and 80% of the top managers were once crewmembers. The president of McDonald’s Ltd, also worked as a crewmember in a restaurant. This gives the current members of staff aspirations for the future. To help each member of staff, the company trains them in the restaurant that they will work in. Each staff member is trained in all 16 areas of the business including grill, buns, dressings, filets, and pies, drive-thru, front counter, and back room. This is all on the job training. This means that the staff can experience job rotation within their work. This leads to job motivation for the staff. Therefore, the team members are more likely to stay with the company for longer. This is very similar to the motivation theory of Douglas McGregor. J D Wetherspoon J D Wetherspoon’s management is of a democratic style. The management encourages the staff to take part in decision-making through the multi-channel communication system, which the company has in place. Wetherspoon’s believe that many of the projects that they adopt stem from the ideas put forward by their ‘associates’. This is because they are on the ‘front-line’ of the company. They can see where things need to be improved and changed. These things tend to obvious to the people who are in contact with customers on a day-to-day basis but are not quite so obvious to the managers, higher up in the business who are very rarely seen by the customers. The changes and improvements that the associates would like to see are communicated to their line manager, who refers them to the pub/restaurant manager. Within a few weeks, the ‘good ideas’ are put into practice to make to the pub/restaurant appear better to the public and possibly to attract more customers. Every fortnight, they hold a ‘big meeting’ where over 100 employees attend. This includes people like the company chairperson, company directors, and pub managers and some associates from many pubs/restaurants. Here, all the employees can voice their opinions on the company’s over all performance and the ways in which they think it can be improved. Everyone who attends, gets to vote whether a certain route for a promotion of an offer the company is participating in, gets the go ahead or not. Many of the people who work for Wetherspoon’s carry a high level of commitment and many are proud to work for Wetherspoon’s. The company strongly believes that one of the key factors, which differentiates the company from its rivals, is the high quality of customer service/care that is achieved, from employing a number of committed employees. McDonald’s McDonald’s management style is more autocratic. This is because the members of staff are told which part of the restaurant they will be working in and they are told what they have to do. However, some of the approaches that McDonald’s use can be seen in McGregor’s Theory Y. This is people centred and the managers are more democratic. The managers give the teams responsibility for each of the sections, awarding them appropriately, as they meet and exceed targets. They also believe that their staff want to work and are not lazy. However, the members of staff at McDonald’s can also come under McGregor’s Theory X. This is because the teams have to be controlled and monitored. They have to be told what to do and are often watched to make sure that they are performing correctly. They are often seen to ‘slack’ and to be lazy. Thus, they need some motivation to inspire them to work. It is only the managers that get a say in what the company does. The employees, which are seen everyday, unlike the managers, do not get any input into company and the decisions it makes what so ever. Therefore, the team members feel undervalued. This can then result in the management team lacking in motivation to motivate their staff. J D Wetherspoon Wetherspoon’s business culture is one orientated around their associates at the lower levels. This is because these people see the areas that can improved. The managers rely on these people to report any problems and successes. Wetherspoon’s encourages their staff to challenge existing ideas and practices to continually improve the company. The changes that are raised are adjusted little by little rather than in one big change. Many of these changes are suggested by the employees, who base them upon their experience whilst at work. However, these sorts of things can only occur in an open culture. Nothing is disclosed within Wetherspoon’s approach and is based upon the understanding and the belief in some of the key ideas of human motivation. Their approach to the way things are done resembles Charles Handy’s Role Culture. This is because of the structure that the company takes; this is much like a pyramid with the chairperson at the top and the associates at the bottom, very rarely speaking to one another (see below). McDonald’s McDonald’s business culture is orientated around the tasks that the staff have to carry out. This is because without these people the company could not function efficiently. These people also see the day-to-day running of the business, the taking of the money, serving of the food etc. The approach that the company takes resembles Charles Handy’s Task Culture. This is because of the company structure. The Task Culture is represented by a matrix, which looks like a grid (see right). The company splits its employees into project teams. Within these teams, they have to solve problems, which may arise. In addition, everyone can cross boundaries within the business. This means that they can work in other departments as well as the one they are employed in e.g. some one working on the front counter, could work in the kitchens. This culture also uses individual talents in each area i.e. people on the front counter need to use people skills, need to have good communication skills and confidence, whereas on the other hand, the people who cook the burgers need to be good at time keeping, cooking the burgers, and keeping up with the demands. J D Wetherspoon The company is committed to providing the highest standards of training and development to all employees. They aim to encourage, motivate, and support all the employees to achieve the company’s mission statement and to fulfil the personal ambitions. There are different programmes, which the company use to train and develop. Generally, when people start working for the business they start as bar/kitchen associates. They start with the training for this job, as they progress in the business, they receive development training. This is for team leaders, shift managers, kitchen managers and pub managers. Each of the positions have their own set of training programmes. For example, for someone to train as a shift manager, they have to go through twelve types of training; induction, food hygiene, health and safety, kitchen training, customer management, personnel policies and procedures, people skills, interview skills, and stock management. They also have to do a National Licensee’s Certificate. Whereas to train as a bar/kitchen associate, they have to do food hygiene, health and safety, and kitchen training. J D Wetherspoon’s develop their staff. They do this because the staff that already work for the company know the way the business works. Also, training staff that already work for Wetherspoon’s, to higher positions in the company can mean that the costs of recruiting and training new staff will be reduced. It also helps to ensure staff loyalty and can reduce many future uncertainties in the company. This can then, in addition ensure that the company will not run out of skilled people; i.e. a bar/kitchen associate who has been promoted to a shift manager can always help out in the kitchen because they would have had the correct training to be able to work in the kitchens. Therefore, they have the skills and the company has not lost them. Training existing staff can help gain a competitive advantage. This means the company can gain more customers and more customer loyalty. In theory, and in many cases, in reality, this can help to motivate the managers, which in turn will help them to train their staff better, and can motivate them too. The company’s training and development programme is a combination of on and off the job training courses. The company’s training centres round career development. McDonald’s McDonald’s hire their staff on a three weeks probationary period. The company have the right to end employment of at any time during these three weeks. It is only after these three weeks, and if their performance has been acceptable, that the member of staff becomes part of the team. It is said that the company takes six months to train a full-timer and 11 months to train a part-timer. This is because of the sixteen areas in which everyone has to be trained on. These include the grill, buns, dressings, filets, and pies, drive-thru, front counter, and back room. They also have a buddy system. This is where a new employee to the company is paired with someone else who has been with the company for a while and have experience. This person will be one of the training squad and will look after the new team member for their probationary period. Eventually the trainer will decide whether or not the new team member is capable of carrying out the work in the area. When this has been decided the staff member would have received a gold star (this system existed in 1999, it no longer exists). The company thought that the teams found this system of rewarding good work, motivational. McDonald’s, like J D Wetherspoon’s like to develop their staff. In the article by Susan Curtis, it says that â€Å"there is a set hierarchy of jobs for crew members to work their way up: (1) Crew member (2) Five – star crew member (3) Training squad member (4) Hourly-paid floor manager (5) Salaried floor manager (second assistant manager) (6) First assistant manager (7) Store manager (8) General manager (only in larger stores).’ They develop their staff for the same reasons that J D Wetherspoon’s do. They do it to save money and to give staff more opportunities within the business. J D Wetherspoon J D Wetherspoon’s encourage their staff to work in teams. This is because team working means that there is a more efficient and effective production team. It is also believed that working as a team, can satisfy the social needs of people. Many managers delegate power among the people who work underneath them. This is in the belief that delegation meets the employees’ ego and self-actualisation needs from the motivation theory of Maslow. In addition, working as part of a team means that people can job rotate, to give them a bit of variety. This means that they can be more motivated towards their job, knowing that there is a possibility of job rotation within their teams, even if it is cooking a different part of a meal. Wetherspoon’s encourages this because they want their staff to achieve as much as possible in their work. They also want their members of staff to have a sense of belongingness to the company. Wetherspoon’s recognise that the feeling of belongingness is an employee need and therefore they set out to meet it. McDonald’s McDonald’s also encourage their staff to work in teams. This is because they, like J D Wetherspoon’s, have a more efficient and effective work force this way. McDonald’s staff are encouraged to work as teams so that all the work is covered and completed, whether it is morning at breakfast, mid-day at lunchtime or in the evening at ‘tea’ time. This also helps to satisfy the staff at McDonald’s and helps to maximise the involvement of the staff. The teams are usually functional. Also within the teams, the staff can swap jobs with someone else and change department that they work in. Team working means that the staff can become multi-skilled. This makes it easier to do someone else’s job. They can also meet shared objectives, i.e. serve each customer within a minute. J D Wetherspoon J D Wetherspoon’s is a pub/restaurant. They sell both drinks and food. This means that they need enough stock to supply their customers. The company have to ensure that each of their pubs has enough beer barrels in their cellar and enough wines and spirits to last them at least a week. The company will have at least a delivery of beer every few days or so as the beer will go off very quickly once the barrel has been opened. The company always has just enough stock to cater for all their customers, whether they be eating or drinking. They bring many different types of beers to their customers throughout the year via beer festivals. Wetherspoon’s work along side Cask Marque (a quality standard for real beer) and CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale). This means that the company brings in new beers and rotates them throughout the year to offer their customers some variety. They also offer many spirits and wines as well. All these alcoholic beverages are kept in stock with strict quality standards, upheld inside the pub. This is to make sure that the customers can enjoy their drinks. This applies to the beers especially. The company offer fifty plus different meals per day, they therefore need to make sure that they have enough ingredients for these meals. They need to make sure that the stock they have does not go out of date to quickly either. They have many meals on their menu, which contain meat (beef, pork, chicken, and lamb) and fish. To keep this from going off they need to put the meats and fish in a chiller. They have to order enough of each ingredient for each of the meals on their menu, as if they are to sell many of the same meal. They do this for both the beverages and food so that they never run out of stock. If they were to run out of stock then there is a possibility of losing customers and future customers. The method of stock control that they use, in my opinion is ‘Just in Case’. This is because they can never be sure how much of each meal option they need to make and they never know how much of a particular beer or spirit they are going to sell, so they need enough stock just in case some one buys a meal or a drink. McDonald’s McDonald’s, on the other hand, operates in a different way. They stock up on all their burgers, salads, deserts, and fries although they use J.I.T. The restaurants are always very busy during the day. Therefore the company gets through many burgers, and fries each day. They have to rely upon their suppliers to deliver in time for ‘rush hours’ i.e. lunch time as they know they will need more stock. They estimate their level of sales for each item on the menu using previous figures, doing this they can predict how much they need to order. To use J.I.T. McDonald’s need to know exactly what they need. They need pretty good knowledge of their customers requirements. They also need to have excellent relationships with their suppliers, and need to have accurate understandings of production requirements. J D Wetherspoon J D Wetherspoon have to assure quality in both food and the drink. They ensure this by buying the highest quality ingredients for their meals from their suppliers. To guarantee this, they make sure that they build strong relationships with the suppliers. They also have a ‘food guru’, who works closely with the food team. Once a month he reviews the company’s menu and the ingredients which they use, and he gives his personal ‘seal of approval’ if he believes they are at the highest standard that people would expect from J D Wetherspoon’s. To ensure that the beer they sell is to the highest standards, they employ beer tasters. These people test the beers on four areas; appearance, aroma, taste and aftertaste. These are usually marked out of 10, so each beer can get a maximum of 40 marks. All of the beers which the company supply must meet their tasting standards, before any orders can be placed. Whilst in stock, there are strict quality standards in place which are maintained within the free house, to ensure that customers enjoy the beer at its best. This process also applies to the wines and spirits. As with the beers, the wines and spirits have to meet the company’s high standards. The wines and spirits are also tested for appearance, aroma, taste and aftertaste and again if they don’t meet Wetherspoon’s standards then they are not sold in any of the pubs/restaurants. They also train their staff to a high standard of work to ensure the quality of customer service. They do this by training their staff in customer management and in people skills. McDonald’s Serving more than 2.5 million customers each day makes quality a consistent goal. They work with leading suppliers across the UK – from potato farmers in Lincolnshire and Norfolk to dairies in the South and Midlands – to bring customers the tasty products that customers expect from McDonald’s. McDonald’s attempt to certify quality from crop to counter. Therefore they require the highest standards and specifications, not just for product ingredients; every detail of production, transport, delivery, preparation and service is carefully monitored. A focus on quality pervades every aspect of the business. Their standards top the food industry, and they continue to work with government and health officials to investigate improvements to their foods. Both companies have their different approaches to maximising profits and to meet its objectives. The way in which each company goes about it is effective to them. Both companies are, although in the same area of trade, are completely different. They operate in different ways, have different kinds of people working for them and generally have different clientele. The people who work for McDonald’s are generally those who can work in the conditions that are found in a McDonald’s restaurant. They tend to be able to deal with pressure a little easier then those working at Wetherspoon’s and vice versa. These people have a different kind of objective to aim towards, that is appropriate to the different companies. Again the approach each company uses helps to achieve these very well and can sometimes help them to exceed them. The companies approaches, however, both lead to them maximising their profits. This is because of the efficiency and effectiveness of the staff in both companies.

Outline marketing plan for the next year for Atlantic Quench 03059 Essay

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Winston's advertising Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

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Training and Development - Research Paper Example Pascale et al. (1997) argue that the companies excel in the present business environment when a large percentage of employees contemplate deeply about the success of the organization. The feeling motivates employees to take a greater interest in activities of the organization creating increased involvement of the employees in the organization. Dickson (2011) defines employee engagement as a feeling of passion, commitment, and energy that transforms into taking initiative, increased innovation and persistency with the tasks. In a survey carried out by Melcrum, a research and training consultancy firm, it was found that 27 percent of the organizations undertook a dedicated engagement program while 54 percent of the organizations took engagement as a routine philosophy ingrained in overall employee practices. This proves that organizations do recognize the employee engagement as an important ingredient for their success. Bradford (2012) argues that aligning everyone to the organization strategy is critical to achieve what organization has earmarked as its strategic goal in the short as well as long run. Bradford outlines five basic steps to establish employees’ alignment with the company strategy. At the outset, employees must be imparted with the conceptual tools so as to have a good strategic thinking about the work. The examples of such tools are training and role models. That is to say, employees must have freedom to make strategic decisions in line with the company's strategy. It is necessary that employees understand the basics of business to see that the strategy is going to make their organization better, enhance their job security and chances of promotions. Without such conceptual tools, it will be difficult to achieve employee engagement. Secondly, employees must have clear understanding about strategy of the organization. Employees aligned with strategy of the organization will have more focused objective before them. Bradford suggests that the best way of aligning employees is to make it their strategy. It is better to involve as many people as possible in

Tax Credits in Rhode Island Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Tax Credits in Rhode Island - Research Paper Example It also includes real estate costs, utilities, labor costs, and taxes that are considered significant factors in business climate evaluation. In this area, Rhode Island has the largest prospect to enhance its reputation in national rankings. Rhode Island’s comparatively lofty tax burden and intricate regulatory structure are two major areas that have made business impossible within the island (Bardach 23). Several proposals have been forwarded with the intention of easing the pressure on businesses. One of these suggestions involves the introduction of tax credits to ease the tax burden and encourage local and foreign enterprises to thrive in the island. The following sections attempt to discuss the pros and cons of introducing such a macroeconomic policy as well as its effects and viability within Rhode Island. Elements such as a high tax burden and intricate regulatory setting have made it challenging the government to develop an appealing environment for commerce. Rhode Island’s business tax burden can be considered one of the highest globally. Based on the KPMG study entitled â€Å"Location Matters†, Rhode Island recorded higher than normal rates for its tax rate index at 28.4%. This figure was significantly higher than all the New England states (Bardach 26). The workforce quality, cost of doing business and business climate in Rhode Island has been cited by different surveys as being below standard while it has performed exceedingly well in terms of quality of life, access to capital and education levels.

Homework Speech or Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Homework - Speech or Presentation Example He clocks the speeds of 20 randomly selected cars and 20 randomly selected trucks two miles after a major safety sign. Which statistical test should be used to determine whether drivers of cars and drivers of trucks are differentially affected by safety signs? C. A researcher wants to test whether there is a relationship between political party affiliation and education. She randomly selects 500 people and, for each, notes political party affiliation (Republican, Democrat, Neither) and highest degree earned (high school, college, graduate). Which statistical test should be used to determine whether there is a relationship between political party affiliation and education? D. In a study of group productivity, subjects worked in groups of various sizes to develop new computer software. Subjects were randomly assigned to work in groups of two, ten, or fifteen. Which statistical test should be used to determine whether group size has an effect on productivity? A psychologist at a private mental hospital was asked to determine whether there was any clear difference in the length of stay of patients with different categories of diagnosis. Looking at 4 patients in each of the three major categories, the results (in terms of weeks of stay) were as follows: Therefore, the mean between drug related conditions and cognitive behavior are similar. However, the mean between behavior and drug related and, the mean between behavior and cognitive are also different. In a study on the effect of the invasion of personal space, experimenters approached pedestrians walking alone and asked them for directions. When the pedestrian started giving directions, the experimenter took a step toward him/her. An observer then noted whether the pedestrian responded to this invasion of personal space by staying where he/she was, by taking a step forward, or by taking a step back. The table below shows

Fitness & body Essay Example for Free

Fitness body Essay Concept in the olden days about being fit was just looking healthy. Today we know that there is a lot more required to be healthy. Just because a person looks healthy does not mean that his arteries are not clogged up with cholesterol. In the dictionary fitness is described as being in a good state of health due to exercise and proper nutritional habits (Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000). Thus to be physically fit an individual needs regular exercise and a balanced nutritional diet. Just falling into the required body mass index does not certify an individual as fit. Current Fitness and Nutritional Habits My body mass index falls in the normal range but I do not feel as healthy as I should at my age. Breakfast consists of cereal with milk or sometimes fried egg with brown bread. Occasionally I have heavy foods such as French toast or sweet tea with fried paratha. Lunch has white meat and is usually a heavy meal of the day. The meat is cooked with oily gravy and is usually consumed with rice. Dinner also consists of similar type of food items. Vegetable are only consumed about two to three times a week. I consume a soft drink almost every day. Sometimes consume around three soft drinks in one day. Have about four glasses of water each day. Do not follow any regular exercise plan. Since I live on the first floor climbing about thirty stairs is a normal routine. Spend a lot of time in front of the television or computer so a sedentary type of lifestyle. Try to walk around the house as often as possible but walking in the university is exhausting enough. Have to sit in the car for about an hour to go back and fourth from the university. Health problems related to obesity: An obese person has the risk of developing many problems and diseases. There can be heart diseases such as atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, congestive heart disease, angina, sudden cardiac death and stroke. Cancers of the endometrial, colon, gall bladder, prostate, kidney and post-menopausal breast cancer are also more likely to occur. Fatty liver disease, chronic venous insufficiency, gall bladder disease, breathing problems, deep vein thrombosis and arthritis are also shown to occur more commonly in obese individuals (Collins, 2000-2007). Fitness Habits There are many changes I can make to my daily routine to improve my health. Some of these changes are: regular exercise, taking the stairs instead of the elevator and playing badminton at least once a week. Regular exercise has many benefits. It increases the efficiency of the heart and increases the cardio-respiratory system’s ability to carry oxygen to the body. It helps regulate the cholesterol in the blood thus leading to lower cardiovascular disease, lower blood pressure and decreased risk of coronary artery blockage. During exercise endorphins are released. These are normal body hormones that decrease depression, lower pain and elevate the mood. It helps prevent injuries and lower back pain. Exercise is also associates with a decreased risk of developing cancer, diabetes and osteoporosis. Due to these numerous benefits if I do about one hour of fast passed walking each day it will do wonders for improving my health. Regular exercise also ensures that a person sleeps more regularly and is more alert and active. Climbing stairs is a great exercise for the leg muscles. It helps increase the heart rate thus providing a work out. Stamina is also increased. Since we have to get from one point to another it is better to pick a route that will help burn more calories. This is why the escalators and elevators should be avoided since they deprive our body of much needed calisthenics. Badminton or any other sport for that matter is a great exercise. It is a good way to work out without losing interest in the exercise. Sports not only help increase team spirit and people interaction but they are also a great way to pass time and get healthier simultaneously. A sport such as badminton involves running around. This is a great exercise and helps build better muscle tone and interaction. When something such as exercise becomes a source of enjoyment it can be done for longer periods of time without feeling the strain. Exercise helps decrease weight since it burns calories very quickly. Thus playing a sport, climbing stairs or doing regular exercises everyday will help improve my general health since I will lose weight, sleep better and become more alert. Nutritional Habits Three nutritional habits I can acquire to improve my health are: eating more vegetables, cutting down on soft drinks and eating fewer processed food. Vegetables are something that our elders have been raving about for years. We have to acknowledge that there is some wisdom to their praising the greens. One of the main benefits that vegetables provide is fiber. Fiber is very important to maintain a healthy and toned digestive system. It is the indigestible content of the vegetables that helps prevent constipation. The calorie content of vegetables is also very low. This is why a greater quantity can be eaten without the risk of exceeding the daily required calorie content. Soluble fiber also makes you feel more full so the urge to eat can be resisted (Fisher, 2009). Vegetables will keep my weight in check since I can eat more and stay full for longer without consuming too many calories. Soft drinks are one of the leading causes of obesity today. It is a known fact that they contain huge amounts of refined sugar. This can lead to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, weight gain and premature aging. It also contains caffeine which is addictive and causes side effects such as jitters, insomnia, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, elevated blood cholesterol levels, vitamin and mineral depletion, breast lumps, birth defects, and perhaps some forms of cancer. Aspartame is a chemical used as a substitute of sugar in diet soda. It causes over 92 different health side effects including brain tumors, birth defects, diabetes, emotional disorders and epilepsy/seizures. (Oleda and Company, 1996-2010). There may also be bone and teeth defects since soft drinks decreases the body calcium content. Cutting down on soft drinks will automatically help me reduce weight sinec it is such a fattening product. It will help improve my bones and teeth and my over all general health. Most of us usually prefer munching on junk food. Sometimes we become so addicted that we include junk food into our regular diet. Processed foods such as junk foods contain a lot of trans fats. This is a very harmful kind of fat and is not easily metabolized by the body. Avoiding junk food will help reduce weight since I will not be gaining too many calories from a very less quantity of food. General health will also improve since weight and digestive system will become healthy. Nutrition and exercise are the things that define us. As the saying goes: ‘you are what you eat’ we should be very cautious of the quality of nutrition we are providing our body. A balanced diet is essential to make our body keep working at it’s vital capasity. Over the decades exercise has proved to carry many benefits such as mood elevation and decreasing the possibility of many dieseases. If these two things are balanced we can truly become fit. This improvement will do wonders for our quality of life since everyone is well aware that a good life depends on quality and not quantity. References Collins, A. (2000-2007). Health Risks of Obesity. Retrieved july 10, 2010, from anne collins: http://www. annecollins. com/obesity/risks-of-obesity. htm Fisher, F. (2009, april 27). Benefits of eating vegetables cooked or raw. Retrieved july 10, 2010, from articles base: http://www. articlesbase. com/low-calorie-articles/benefits-of-eating-vegetables-cooked-or-raw-887732. html Houghton Mifflin Company. (2000). fitness . Retrieved july 10, 2010, from th efree dictionary by farlex: http://www. thefreedictionary. com/fitness Oleda and Company. (1996-2010). Dangers of Soda Pop (Carbonated Soft Drinks). Retrieved july 10, 2010, from oleda: http://www. oleda. com/oleda_tips/tips. asp? dept=48

ZARA SWOT and Competitor Analysis

ZARA SWOT and Competitor Analysis In this age of advanced media and technology, where customers are flooded with marketing messages all the time, it is very hard for the businesses to progress efficiently without marketing and especially internet marketing due to quick adoption of internet and use of computer and others related devices. With a nominal investment on the website and web based marketing, lots of new markets and customers can be attracted through this marketing technique. The retail industry is generally a very dynamic, fast changing sector. It constitutes one of the main sectors in the economy, in terms of transactions and turnover; as a result, it is a highly competitive and sophisticated industry. As Zara has an international presence in many countries of the World, it is now compulsory for Zara to adopt an online marketing strategy to compete with its competitors, capture and retain more market share and increase profits in this highly competitive environment where every customer is fully informed and equipped with information about the market. Digital marketing is very fast growing and cheap solution to reach maximum customers without any boundaries. Through customised digital marketing where you can convey your message only to potential customers and lots of new customers can be attracted by using different techniques. Todays economy is forcing everyone to search for the best deals they can find. Usually these deals are found on the internet. Digital marketing helps a company to increase its exposure to consumers who are actively seeking your product or service, making it much more effective than other forms of advertising. Increasing your companys exposure through digital marketing is the equivalent of McDonalds only showing you a Big Mac commercial when you are hungry It is targeted, effective, and relevant. Online marketing has many advantages for businesses as well as customers, but on the other hand there are some problems which are related to internet marketing and use of technology and its popularity among your target market. While using online marketing, you do not cut back your companys marketing budget during this economy; instead, focus on spending your marketing budget more effectively by investing in a highly targeted digital marketing campaign. In-fact, this is the best time for businesses to review their marketing strategies and bring internet marketing into focus because of increasing costs of marketing on traditional medias which do not guarantee that you are actually targeting your potential customers. Situation Analysis There are not many businesses which are running without any marketing in this age of communication and technology. If some business is doing good without marketing it dose not mean that the business has captured maximum market and there are no more opportunities to grow. If some business is already doing well, it can do better by launching a marketing campaign and can get more market share. If someone owns a business in todays marketplace, it is not easy to run a business without marketing and not enough to run an advertisement in the local newspaper to maximize the exposure of business. In fact, it is not even enough to run a television commercial on a local broadcasting station because the best marketing tools at anyones disposal have quickly become those associated with online marketing. In fact, if someone starts to explore marketing business via the internet he will quickly find that instead of reaching just a few consumers, he will now have the unique ability to reach both the millions of customers from a global approach and a more specified group of customers that are closer to him as well, a broader appeal than his business may have had previously. He can use social media as a marketplace, and also have a targeted market. Of course, before actually getting the benefits of a wider consumer base there is a need to attract them to the website which is where online marketing tools come into play. Products and services need to be presented in a clear and visually appealing way on the website. The website is a companys store on the internet, the products must be easy to find, priced properly for the market, and delivery methods clearly outlined. Adding a blog element to the website provides fresh content, photos, and innovations to customers, as well as satisfying the search engine criteria for active use and renewal. This also helps search engine placement. Other popular ways to help a business market its website include social media outlets like Facebook, Buzz and Twitter, link building and other search engine optimization tactics, or by using the Google tools like Google Local to increase the online exposure. With the help of all these tools and techniques, where we can promote our website through online marketing, there are some issues related to online presence. Online security is the main concern of the customers who are interested to buy online and want some sort of security that the information they are providing for transaction is safe and will not be misused in future. This matter can be resolved by getting some online security verification certificates and putting them on the website. Other online marketing concerns may be the annoying banner ads on the websites where you are advertising, viral marketing, too much information about the product on the main page which is not necessarily required by every customer, product search problems on the website. On the other hand before launching digital marketing campaign we should be very clear about our customers that do they use internet frequently and do they have proper training and skills to surf the internet easily. As far as Zara is concerned the main target market is people who like fashion and keep themselves updated with latest trends in clothing, so this type of people use internet very frequently to keep them update and interact with the community online most of the time. 2.1- Market Summary By keeping in view the current market trends and situation analysis our plan is to launch an online marketing campaign. Europe, America, Australia and Asia are our main target markets and there is an increasing trend of use of interne in the countries of these continents. We can see the growth rate of internet use and its penetration in last ten years in different regions of the world. With the help of these figures we can easily understand the importance and reach of internet marketing. Most of the market shareholders are now using internet marketing strategy and increasing their market share by giving information about the new products and designs, product offerings and offering buying online facility, business policies related to environment and customers through e-marketing. There are 383 million users of internet in China only and we can target them without spending lots of money on retails outlets all over China. Same is the case with Japan and India where we do not need to open stores in all the cities. We can open our stores in main cities and market our product through internet to other areas where we can find our customers and target them. This is the strategy adopted by most of the successful businesses like Clark, they do not keep all the stock on their out lets and promote their website by asking customers to use their website to see the full range of the products in different categories. 2.2 SWOT Analysis ZARA has 1,608 stores (including 213 ZARA kids stores) in 74 countries, with the companys international growth currently offsetting the economic downturn in the domestic Spanish market. ZARA has a very strong brand image and the number of outlets can be increased with the time and growth. Comparatively high product price is a weakness but we have opportunity to explore markets where we can find customers who want to buy high quality products. Entry of new competitors and non availability of sufficient raw material can be a threat in future. 2.2.1- (S)trengths ZARA has a very strong market Image due to quality, style and availability of products. Product/ Brand Image is also very high because of very high quality, reliable products for children, women and men. Strong financial position of ZARA is also our strength which will help us to invest adequately to get favorable results. Due to strong market position there is availability of finance from other financial institutions like banks. ZARA can benefit in saving the cost from existing infrastructure of suppliers. Vast network and store on different main locations all over the UK, Europe and other regions of the World is also our strength. At this time we have availability of suppliers who can provide us required raw material on good prices and we can build good relations with them for future when the competition will be higher. Online availability of our full catalogue is also our strength and customers can see, choose and make a final decision by just sitting home. 2.2.2- (W)eaknesses High product price is a weakness but we can not compromise on quality and customer services. Due to no marketing strategy and planning the rate of getting market share is very low. Proper management and implementation of the new system can take time. 2.2.3- (O)pportunities New market search is the next step after capturing our existing market we can go to US and central Asian markets more deeply. More innovation, improved quality and value added products for our customers. Adoption of new technology will help us to lower the cost of our products. Research and development department can be made more efficient and strong for product improvement and availability of the products. Improved and more focused customers service. Continuous training of the staff and labor for cost effective production. Strive to exceed the customers expectations through quality, innovation and customers services. Increase in promotional activities through online marketing to get maximum market share. Building relations and long term contracts with the suppliers will be beneficial for future buying. 2.2.4- (T)hreats Entry of new competitors is a threat for our product which can be avoided by building stronger product image in the mind of customer. Unavailability of sufficient raw material because of high number of customers for raw material in the market. In the near future there will be high price of raw material due to increased demand. Availability of raw material in future is another threat and can be managed by involving maximum number of suppliers in the beginning with small quantity orders to all the suppliers. Order quantity can be increased in future as per demand. Low buying power of the customers in existing markets is also a threat and can be managed by searching new markets. 2.3- Competition At this stage if we compare the top high street stores in the UK, most of them, i.e. John Lewis, New Look, Debenhams, MS, next, Bhs, HM, asos, peacocks and topshop are the main stores which are focusing on online presence and are among the top list stores on search engines in fashion and clothing search results. Because Zara is not in putting any effort for online marketing, that is why we do not find it in search results. John Lewis: The retailer has adopted Omniture SearchCenter to optimize paid search marketing.   This combination of products enabled John Lewis Direct to optimize customer preferences throughout the entire acquisition to conversion cycle. John Lewis Direct is a compelling example of a traditional retailer making a success of its online strategy. Millions of customers visit the award-winning John Lewis web site each month and the site has grown consistently at above market rates since its inception in 2001.   In 2008 online sales were up by 24% to  £327m. New Look: The famous and one of the favorite store of ladies for fashion clothing New Look has also understood and adopted the online marketing strategy by putting sponsored links on top search engines, using social websites for close contact with customers and launched their website in 2007. Since the eCommerce launch in December 2007, New Look website has continued to exceed expectations with nearly one million average weekly visitors in March 2009. This is a threefold increase on the same time last year, with average order value continuing to grow. The new web platform is giving customers increased access to the full product range and provides multi-channel capability, enabling customers to order in store for delivery at home. In March 2009 New Look acquired the www.newlook.com domain name and is appraising the potential to utilise this with a mainland European transactional website. This will provide marketing synergies with their international store roll-out to strengthen the brand and offer to customers. Debenhams: Debenhams is also promoting its website through search engine optimization, different blogs and social websites. Most popular websites are D Blog, Face Book, Twitter, Flicker and You Tube. Store is also encouraging Debenhams website visitors to visit these social websites and leave feedback. The Marketing Innovation Group (MIG) launched Debenhams Megaday iBrochure, in 2009, in conjunction with their September New Season Spectacular Sale. This tactical iBrochure mirrored the paper brochure that was available in store and was used to drive online sales and raise awareness. Marks and Spencer: MS has pioneered online video with MS TV (marksandspencer.com/tv), a great example of v-commerce in practice, and proof positive that compelling online video increases sales. Marks and Spencer is known for its innovative online approach, the retailer was keen to find ways of growing its online business while retaining the customers already visiting the site. In addition to enhancing the experience, the channel had to ultimately drive sales. MS TV is a collection of over 500 films divided into 12 channels. Each channel focuses on a particular company theme or business vertical, be it womenswear, menswear, or home. To maintain brand consistency, the channels are managed by a central commissioning team consisting of staff from both MS and Adjust Your Set. This team also plans future content and measures the consumer response. Engagement levels are constantly measured and regular refinements are made in order to improve the quality of the editorial and the rates of conversion. If viewers drop off before the end of video or certain links are not being clicked, then further changes are made. Keeping in view the above information Zara has a very big market to capture and this is the best time to develop and implement the new marketing strategy to enhance the market share in near future. 2.4- Product Offerings Zara offers an exclusive coordinated collection of stylish clothes, shoes and accessories for women. Collections for men, children and the home quickly followed. Zaras clothes are styled by the in-house design team to offer consistency of style, quality and value for money with a contemporary fashion edge. 2.5- Distribution Zara has a very strong network of retail stores in the UK, Europe, America, Asia, and Africa for the distribution of its products all over the World. Other than retail stores we have also introduced a fully functional website with our latest products, designs and offerings. The online store is also contributing successfully for the distribution of the products to the customers. 3.0 Marketing Strategy 3.1- Objectives Challenging but achievable objective has been set for next three years. Because of the overall condition of the economy which is not that good, result in the first year can be a bit slow. First-year Objective: In the first year we will maximize the awareness about the brand and availability of the product. We have already launched a page on facebook.com and more than 3,676,000 people like that page from all over the World. Website will be promoted through other major social networking websites, blogs, emails and in-store advertisement. Search engine optimization and data updating process will be performed more efficiently to keep the website at the top in search results on different search engines. Secure online selling will also be introduced in first year which will help to improve the growth rate. The growth rate will be increased from 6% of 2009 to 10% at the end of first year. Second-year Objective: In the second year we shall be doing well and will be on the first page of most popular search engines. In the second year more focus will be on introduction of innovative technology, make over and use of latest web technology to attract the visitors. The estimated growth rate in second year is expected to rise by 7% due to opening in new markets of Australia and Africa. Online selling will be offered to Australian customers in this year. Third-year Objective: Third year, 2012 2013, will be a year of revival for world economy, hopefully and we shall capture the market by 25%. For Europe aggressive marketing strategy will be adopted to get maximum market share. Online selling will be launched in major Asian countries to facilitate our valuable customers and to maximize market share. 3.2- Target Markets Target market of Zara is middle to high class men; woman and children who like to update themselves with latest fashion and style and want higher quality clothing on reasonable prices. With the help of online marketing it will be easier for Zara to convey information about new designs and fashion to its target markets in different parts of the World within no time because Zaras target market consists of the people who use internet frequently and update themselves with latest fashion. Zaras women collection is divided into three categories: Zara Women, Zara Basic and the sporty Trafaluc representing market segments for women who look for a more formal style, younger women for a more informal style and younger women and teenagers while menswear included Mens Line at Zara, Zara Basics, its club-wear brand 100Zara and Zara Sport. In this sense the general public from all age groups can be seen as potential customers targeted by specific sub-brands of Zara. A second important variable in defining segmentation is based on psychographic characteristics such as lifestyle, as one of the most famous and successful European brands Zara in its existing market targeted people who were especially interested in European styles at affordable price levels. 3.3- Positioning Zara is a high fashion concept offering apparel, footwear and accessories for women, men and children, from newborns to adults aged 45. Zara stores offer a unique blend of fashion, quality and price offered in attractive stores in prime locations on premier commercial streets and in main shopping centres. The in-house design and production capabilities enable us to offer fresh designs at out Zara stores twice a week throughout the year. 3.4- Marketing Mix 3.4.1- Product Zara has a tradition to launch its products in a short time of two weeks and full change in clothing item every month. The product is of very high quality and we will give a full guarantee of color, stitching, stuff, cloth quality and material used to our valuable customers. No metals shall be used for the product packing and recycled material will be used for packing of our products. 3.4.2- Pricing Zara maintained its long standing practice of providing customers with certainty over pricing. Zara has adopted a competitive pricing strategy to gain and retain customers. Competitive pricing is the most suitable for Zara because of its presence globally. This pricing strategy helps Zara to attract more customers on the high street fashion stores. 3.4.3- Distribution Zara has a very strong distribution setup which is very helpful to make available the product all over the retail chain. In my point of view Zara should start its production locally instead of producing in Spain and then deliver the products to stores all over the World because this change in strategy will help to reduce the cost of production. We do not need to bring raw material from other countries to Spain first and send finished items back to the same countries. By setting up local production houses we can also build good relationship with our suppliers, local community by offering jobs to local people, and our customers. 3.4.4- Marketing Communications Promotional activity at high street will continue aggressively and with in-store display, through online marketing and our website. For online marketing communication the first step is to update the website and its contents at the back of website like key words, key phrases and mata tags so that the search engines can find our website quickly and easily whenever anyone search for items we are dealing with. An interactive website is most appropriate idea in the current marketing situation. With the help of cookies we will gather lots of data about our customers and their preferences. Email marketing will also help us to generate more profit by attracting more customers to our website. As it is discussed earlier different social website pages like facebook, twitter, youtube, and flicker etc. are the main source of communication with customers these days. We will also communicate with our existing and potential customers by setting up different blogs and through our own website. Paid advertisements on most popular search engines like google, bing, yahoo, aol etc. is another option so that we can come at the top of search results in very short time. 3.5- Marketing Research Through different marketing research techniques like web analysis and online feed back from our valuable customers we will keep upgrading our product and system and will analyze and evaluate our existing strategy. Web analytical tools will also be helpful to get information about website visitors and their style of search and required products. Customers complaints and record of customer services department is also very helpful to improve the product and product delivery system. 4.0 Financial Matters In the first year by keeping the objective of 10% growth rate in view the projected sale for Zara in the first year is à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬11,750 million. Currently Zaras share in total group sale is 63.8% (2009). The total sale of the group in 2009 was à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬11,084 Million. Results for the Year Ended January 2009: * Group revenues (in thousands of Euros): 11,083,514 * Group operating profit EBITDA (in thousands of Euros): 2,374,189 * Earnings per share (in Euro cents): 211.4 15 million is estimated expense for first year marketing including salaries of marketing staff. For online marketing, most of the work, like making profiles on different social websites, tagging, adding key words and meta tags on the back of website, can be done through qualified staff of the company who will be responsible for the updating and maintenance of the website. So, for that there is no need to pay extra money to any third party. To advertise through search engines we will pay a nominal amount per year to major search engines and they will promote our website. Pay per click is another option which is also offered by most of the websites where we advertise. 5.0 Controls 5.1- Implementation Zara as a market leader in fashion wear always focus on product quality and customer services. Our more than 92,000 staff members are always ready to improve the system and implement new strategies. With the help of internal and external controls the top management will be in a better position to evaluate the performance and upgrade the system accordingly. We are always in a process to improve our products and services and we are always open to hear from our customers. Zara already continues to improve customer service and with the introduction of new service of online shopping we are facilitating our customers to buy anytime with their convenience. 5.2- Marketing organization International Marketing Director GM Marketing for Rest of the Countries GM Marketing Europe UK Sr. Manager Marketing Manager Advertising Advertising Analyst Manager Promotion Promotion Analyst Manager Sales Market Research Analyst Manager Advertising Advertising Analyst Manager Promotion Promotion Analyst Manager Sales

Martial Arts Essay -- Asian Fighting Essays

Martial Arts I am a martial artist. When I first started, I might have said I take karate. Here in America, both of those statements are technically true. We tend to generalize all martial arts as â€Å"karate.† In reality, only some of what we see is actually karate. The word karate is Japanese, as is the style, and it means â€Å"the way of the empty hand.† It was created in the 15th century by Okinawan peasants who were not allowed to have weapons by royal decree. Thus they developed ways of protecting themselves without the use of weapons, or by using regular objects such as sticks (Hassell 14). Today there are many, many styles of this art. There are many other styles, such as tae kwon do, kung fu, capoeira, and many more. They can be very interesting, and are beneficial to participate in for many reasons. However, it is not for everyone. I hope to offer some information on how these arts work, and why joining is a good thing, but only after some thought . As I said before, I am a martial artist. I do not take karate, or tae kwon do, or kung fu. I study a style that is still in its infancy. My instructor is a bit of a maverick, and has created this style himself. It changes often and is not set stone. It is called Te Da Kuen Do, meaning â€Å"free flowing fist way.† It is a combination of several martial arts. My instructor, Sijo Mike Giles, is a sixth degree black belt in tae kwon do, a certified instructor of Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu (Bruce Lee’s style), and has lesser degree belts in a number of other styles. Sijo is Japanese for â€Å"founder,† as he is the founder of his style. Instructors are called â€Å"sensei† which means teacher. Sijo has a great deal of martial arts in his head, a... ... the teacher knows what he or she is doing. Try to get all of the information up front, especially costs, and requirements such as tournaments. Be very sure of what you want. If you don’t want forms, then I suggest you try something else, or a martial art with no forms. If you just want self defense, try to find a program for just that. If you want a martial art, you have to be willing to do all of the components. In the end, only you can decide what’s best for you. Some of what I’ve talked about can sound rough and not fun. I tend to think of it as college, you don’t always enjoy it, but the end result is worth it. The benefits really outweigh the price. As long as you are willing to try, you can attain that black belt. You gain confidence and feel truly safe. Martial arts is a wonderful, terrible, incredible thing. I highly recommend it.

Fear of Losing Control :: essays research papers

It is common understanding in business that to stay ahead of the competition, change is necessary. Employees are consistently told they must continue to find new ways to achieve better results. The direction is clear – improve productivity, become more effective, get more done with less, get it right the first time. When groups in the middle or the bottom of an organization begin to change how they do their work, does the rest of the organization give them unqualified support? â€Å"Top-Down† vs. â€Å"Bottom-Up† Change   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  While much of senior management at large corporations today might claim to want â€Å"self-empowered† employees, the opposite would seem to be the rule. Rarely is change initiated from somewhere other than at or from the â€Å"top† allowed to significantly alter an organization, unless the higher levels of authority within the organization have envisioned the change or, at a minimum, fully sanctioned the proposal for change. One finding in a recent study surveying 4,300 U.S. companies with 100 or more employees seems to support this perspective as forty percent of hourly employees, versus only sixteen percent of managers, cited a lack of management visibility and support as a major impediment to change. (Zoglio, 1998) Organizational politics, which inevitably makes managers fear losing control more than reaching for success, inevitably lead to the demise of changes originating in other ways within the organization. This move to control people often o ccurs when these changes are near or at the point of creating significant benefits for the organization. Organizational Creative Thinking   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In order to have sustainable, ongoing change, the work must be done with full ownership and accountability of those producing the results. The typical scenario, however, is that employees are given direction and complete work as they are told to do so by those in authority. A dependence on authority to create new ideas gets perpetuated. Perhaps those in corporate leadership positions are self-serving and realize that recognition is given most to those who create and implement profitable new ideas.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Unquestionably, leadership is most capable when it is able to keep work aligned with the strategy and direction of the organization. The best executives today have the ability to ensure the company progresses while challenging thinking. The resulting unspoken message to employees is to be creative, but only within the framework of sanctioned thinking. In other words, employees must follow someone else’s thinking while continuously improving performance.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The direction and resulting message are in conflict.

Homo Mensura-Philosophie: Analepse gegen Paralipse La Mettrie und die griechische Medizinphilosophi :: German Essays

Homo Mensura-Philosophie: Analepse gegen Paralipse La Mettrie und die griechische Medizinphilosophie (iatros philosophos isotheos) ABSTRACT: Philosophische Anthropologie teilt sich in Europa seit der Zeit der alten Griechen in zwei Richtungen: die theologische (deus mensura) und die anthropologisch-medizinische (homo mensura)-Platon und Demokrit, Kant und La Mettrie. Fà ¼r beide Richtungen steht Paideia (Lernen, Formen, Bilden, Kultur, Humanità ¤t) in Zentrum der Philosophie. Fà ¼r homo-mensura-Philosophie entscheidend ist Analepse (ungefiltertes Aufnehmen) im Gegensatz zur Paralipse (filterndes Auslassen). La Mettrie ist ein wichtiger Vertreter der homo-mensura-Philosopphie (l'homme machine-l'homme mesure). Als 'Darwinist' (100 Jahre vor Darwin), fà ¼r den das Gehirn die mabsetzende lebendige 'Maschine' ist, ist er Vorlà ¤ufer einer evolutionà ¤ren Philosophie. Homo-mensura-Philosophie ist (wie Thukydides, einer ihrer Vertreter, sagt) ein ‘Besitz fà ¼r immer.' In der europà ¤ischen Philosophie gibt es seit der Zeit der alten Griechen 2 Richtungen (Seiten , Schulen , Parteien, Traditionen ) : die theologische und die (medizinisch-) anthropologische - Platon und Demokrit. In dem Satz iatros philosophos isotheos / "ein philosophischer Arzt ist gottgleich" (corpus Hippocraticum) ist die theologische Seite zugunsten der anthropologischen aufgehoben ; isotheos heißt , dass man einen Gott nicht braucht . Klassisch hat dies Demokrit ausgedrà ¼ckt : "Gesundheit erbitten fà ¼r sich die Menschen in Gebeten von den Gà ¶ttern ; dass sie aber die Macht à ¼ber sie in sich selbst haben , wissen sie nicht ." (234) (Paideia : Sie mà ¼ssen es lernen . ) Genau dasselbe bedeutet 2000 Jahre spà ¤ter das Motto des Philosophenarztes Paracelsus : Alterius non sit , qui suus esse potest . / "Eines anderen (Sklave) sei nicht , wer sein eigener (Herr) sein kann ." Das Stichwort fà ¼r diese Richtung ist HOMO MENSURA (Maß m, Maßstab , Metrum , Dimension ) . [Im Bereich der anthropologischen Philosophie ist "Eklektizismus" ein gegenstandsloser Vorwurf . Im Gegensatz zum gà ¶ttlichen ÃÅ"bermaß ist menschliches Maß nachweisbar ; wer in welchem Zusammenhang den Nachweis fà ¼hrt , ist nebensà ¤chlich . Es geht um die Sache , nicht um Personen . Es geht um Philosophie , nicht um Philosophiegeschichte .] Homo mensura (individuell und kollektiv) bedeutet , dass "sich die Gegenstà ¤nde nach unserer Erkenntnis richten mà ¼ssen" . Kants vielgerà ¼hmter "Kopernikus" ist von Anfang an Grundlage der anthropologischen Philosophie . Das Maß ist das menschliche Gehirn , von La Mettrie "Maschine" genannt . (Ein 6./7./... Sinn ergà ¤be eine andere Welt , eine 4./5./... Dimension.) Epiktet : "Nicht die Dinge beeinflussen die Menschen , sondern die Vorstellung von den Dingen." Was uner"meß"lich ist , ist dem Menschen nicht zugà ¤nglich , so z.

American Government Assignment

The United States, once chauvinist in its beliefs may see the dawn of a new era on 2008 – two female presidential candidates battling it out for the position of Commander in Chief.   Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton are considered two likely candidates for the 2008 Presidential Election.The country calls for total equality between men and women, however this equal treatment has never crossed over into such a position of power.Besides the biological differences between men and women, it is said that the style of leadership displays some differences as well.   According to Maryann Kimoto, reporter for the USCD Guardian, â€Å"One study of the religious leadership style of female pastors noted that women were more likely to base decisions on the aggregated advice of a group, while men tended to see themselves or their higher-ups as the authoritative voice.†(Kimoto, 2005, p. 1)   Based upon this data, it would seem that a female president would be more likely to t ake into account the opinions of others, rather than making decisions based upon selfish judgment.In a poll commissioned by Hearst Newspaper, the overall results state that the United States is ready for a female to assume the office of President – 64% of the people polled supported this belief.   (Fulcher, 2006, n.a.)   According to this poll 53% of people polled in 2005 believed that Senator Hillary Clinton should run for President in 2008 and when asked again in 2006 the percentage supporting Clinton held strong, only dropping 2%.The poll also stated that there is a growing support for Condoleezza Rice; therefore, proving that yet another female candidate could become a contender. (Fulcher, 2006, n.a.)  Ã‚   Over all, the poll suggested that 64% of those polled believed that the United States is ready for a female Commander in Chief.Personally, I feel that the United States is ready for drastic change and when taking into account the results of the recent elections t he voting public proved such, as the Democrats regained control of the House.Polls are suggesting that the chauvinistic attitude once rampant in the United Stats has softened, approximately 64% of those polled, as stated above.   Though I believe the country is ready for the female leader the candidates will face the remaining 36% against such a change.Our society is changing drastically.   For example, a society once dead against allowing gays to legally wed, is softening in the more liberal states.  Ã‚   The public opinion has changed and the country is ready for drastic change; therefore, I believe that the United States can handle a female President.   

Learning Contract template Essay

We have provided this template to help you to build up and structure your learning contract. You will find an introduction to the learning contract in Activity 1.6 of the Study Guide and you will find detailed guidance in the Learning Contract Guidance. This will have been sent to you as a printed booklet and is also available on the Study Resources section of the Module web-site. For each of the five sections of this template there is a corresponding section in the Learning Contract Guidance (from page 10 onwards). You should work through and make notes on each section of the Learning Contract Guidance, to help you to develop your ideas, before you start to complete the relevant section of this template. We suggest you keep your initial notes and reflections on the activities in these sections of the Learning Contract Guidance in your Learning Journal; these will help you to develop your thinking about your learning contract and to decide what you want to write in each section. You can, of course, change the text you have written in this template document as often as you like. This is an important point because you are likely to find that your thinking changes as you work through the activities in the Learning Contract Guidance and that you will want to revise the content several times. For this reason, we suggest you to start drafting your learning contract well before week 10 when you will submit it as eTMA02. You may of course prefer not to use this template or to use it as a starting point and then to amend it – and this is fine. You are not confined to using exactly the structure we have suggested here, as long as you clearly cover each of the five elements. If you do use this template, you will find indicative word limits in each section which will help to give you a sense of how much you need to write – but you are free to alter these as long as you remain within the overall limit set out for eTma02 (1,600 words) . You will, of course, need to delete the instructions which are given in italics in each section before you submit it. This will leave you with the headings (in bold) and your own content. Template Section 1: Possible Learning Topics Read pages 10- 13 of the Learning Contract Guidance from the heading Section 1: Possible Learning Topics to the end of the section headed Pulling together your thoughts about Section 1. Make notes in your Learning Journal of your thoughts about the questions and illustrative cases in this section. When you are ready write here your thoughts about the topics you would like to study to make improvements in your performance at work. You will study these in the work-based learning inquiries which you will carry out from week 11 of this module. Remember that you are strongly advised to make one of your topics time management and to choose at least one of your topics from those covered in the Topic Guides (you will find further guidance on this in Activity 1.6 of the Study Guide). If you are a BUXS130 student one of your topics must be Customer care in the public sector. You should have two topics plus one reserve (in case either of the first two proves too difficult to study in practice). Explain briefly why you want to learn about these topics and why you want to make the changes to your working practices that you have identified. Suggested word count: approximately 200 words Section 2: You and Your Learning Context: Read pages 13-17 of the Learning Contract Guidance from the heading Section 2: You and Your Learning Context to the end of the section headed Pulling together your thoughts about Section 2. Make notes in your Learning Journal of your thoughts about the questions and illustrative cases in this section. When you are ready, use the notes you have made to write a short summary of how your learning experiences and work environment have influenced the choice of topics which you identified for your work-based learning inquiries in Section 1, and the way you will learn about each of them. Remember that your learning context includes your work environment and you will need to bear in mind how much freedom you will have to make changes to the way you carry out your work, as this will obviously influence the way you will be able to manage your learning. Suggested word count: approximately 200 words Section 3: Your Learning Objectives: Read pages 18-21 of the Learning Contract Guidance from the heading Section 3: Your Learning Objectives to the end of the section headed Pulling together your thoughts about Section 3. Make notes in your Learning Journal of your thoughts about the questions and activities in this section. When you are ready, use the notes you have made to help you to draw up one learning objective for each topic area that you identified for your work-based learning inquiries in Section 1 above. Remember to try to make each objective SMART (Specific, Measurable, Aspirational, Realistic, and Timely/Time-bound) as explained on pages 18-19 of the Learning Contract Guidance. You should also explain briefly why you have chosen each objective – this includes why you think the learning in each objective is important and how your work practice might be improved as a result. Remember to include your reserve objective (although you can comment on this more briefly than the other objectives). If you are a BUXS130 student, remember that one of your objectives must relate to Customer care in the public sector. Suggested word count: approximately 350 words Section 4: Learning Strategy and Resources: Read pages 21 -30 of the Learning Contract Guidance from the heading Section 4: Learning Strategy and Resources to the end of the section headed Pulling together your thoughts about Section 4. Make notes in your Learning Journal of your thoughts about the questions activities and illustrative cases in this section. When you are ready, use the notes you have made to help you to develop a plan for each of your learning objectives (again, you can do this more briefly for your reserve objective than for the first two). For each objective you should show: what steps you will take to carry out your work-based learning inquiry. This should include a plan of action which shows what you will be doing in each week from week 12 of this module. You may find it helpful to include some interim targets and/or a ‘table’ format to outline your strategy. an overview of the resources which are available to you and which you expect to use in carrying out your work-based learning inquiry. These might include Topic Guides, other online or printed articles and books, your mentor, your line managers and your colleagues. You should indicate your reasoning in selecting these resources and how you will choose, access, and make use of them. Where you identify people as a resource you should say what specific help will you seek from each of them, Suggested word count: approximately 500 words Section 5: Demonstrating Your Learning: Read pages 30 -40 of the Learning Contract Guidance from the heading Section 5: Demonstrating your learning to the end of the section headed Pulling together your thoughts about Section 5. Make notes of your thoughts about the questions, activities and illustrative case in this section in your Learning Journal. When you are ready, use the notes you have made to help you to explain how you will demonstrate your learning in relation to the objective you have decided on for each of your work-based learning inquiries. In each case you should explain: how you will show what you have learned about the topic which is the focus of your work-based learning inquiry (and which you identified in section 1 of your learning contract). how you will know whether you have achieved the objective you set for each work-based learning inquiry (and which you identified in section 3 of your learning contract). You should be able to identify measurable evidence or indicators for each objective. You should also be able to identify sources of evidence which will indicate that you are making progress at interim stages as well as evidence of achievement at the end of your work-based learning inquiry. As in previous section you should deal only briefly with your third objective. Suggested word count: approximately 350 words

Interview with a Doctor

The current American healthcare system and its problems The interview is with Dr. John Tomas who is a surgeon in New Jersey. Dr. Tomas has been practicing medicine for over twenty years so he has a lot of experience in the medical field. Dr. Tomas deals with plenty of people who are from the middle and lower class. Those people are so concerned about the costs of the healthcare bills and they have a lot of trouble handling these costs.. The healthcare discussion should also be seen from a doctor’s perspective and that is why this interview is valuable Dr.Tomas has also a lot of knowledge about the politics of the healthcare system in the United States. He has a personal view of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act which is another term for Obama care. 1- What is your view of current American healthcare system? The current American healthcare system has a major problem which is the cost. The cost for the American healthcare system is 2. 5 trillion dollars per year whi ch is much higher than any other industrialized country in the world. The medical expenses on every citizen are $7,960.Other industrialized countries spent average of $3,233 annually per person which is much lower and these people from other countries get more medical valuable care. 41 percent of working Americans have problem with paying their medical bills. Taxpayers don’t receive the service that they actually pay for and a lot of people go easily bankrupt because they can’t afford to pay their medical bills. The American government covers 46 percent of these expenses and that is one of the reasons why we are in a huge debt and it is another factor for the major economic crisis in the United States. -what are the current major problems with the current American healthcare system? I think there are too many regulations in the current American health care system. There are also a lot of politicians and lawyer that get involved in the medical field. When these factors get involved, the insurance costs get higher and the medical expenses become very expensive. Practicing medicine is not pleasurable to me personally anymore because I am afraid to get sued and lose my insurance. All these outer factors that get involved in our field make practicing the profession of medicine much tougher for doctors. -Do you think defensive medicine is good or bad for the American healthcare system? In the United States we have a major problem with regulations that are involved in the medical field. In the United States, doctors have to do a lot of tests and plenty of consultations with other physicians before performing any operation. The reason for that is because the doctors are afraid of the lawsuits that could cause them losing their insurance or even their license. American doctors follow the defensive medicine by doing a lot of unnecessary tests that significantly increase the costs of healthcare.In other countries where there are not too many regulation†™s in the medical field, doctors in other countries do the operations with the same outcomes but in much lower costs. This is obviously an issue and it has its advantages and its disadvantages but the American defensive medicine system is much safer and the foreign medicine system is much cheaper. 4-Do you think that Obama care will lower the costs for the current healthcare system? I don’t think so because when government gets involved in any filed, the cost usually get much higher.Obama care will cost $1. 165 trillion dollars over the next ten years. The government hasn’t been very successful with Medicare or Medicaid which proves my point. The healthcare should stay as a private business that is managed by private healthcare companies. If the government takes over the healthcare system, the country will spend a massive amount of money and the quality of the care will be lowered significantly. 5-Do you think that Americans could have a better healthcare system if t hey follow the socialized healthcare system of Canada and Europe?And what are your solutions for the problems that we have with our healthcare system. I have been to Canada and Europe. I also have a lot of friends who are physicians in these countries. They don’t like what they have there. Patients could wait six months to get an operation in Canada. There are risings costs of medications in Canada and Europe. Those increasing of the cost of the medications make it harder for people to get a good care under the socialized healthcare system. A lot of Europeans countries are going bankrupt eventually and the socialized healthcare system is one of the reasons of that.The solution to our healthcare problem is not going backwards by following a socialized healthcare system. The solution comes with creating more competition between healthcare companies that take advantage of the American people. Even though we had a recession in the last few years, the profit of the insurance compa nies has been increased by 56 percent. Creating the competition between those insurance companies will definitely lower the costs and the medical bills that have been a heavy weight over the shoulders of the American pope.The healthcare discussion is very important because unlike fancy cars or fancy clothes, everybody needs to have healthcare. Plenty of Americans are suffering every day because they don’t have the money to cover the expenses of their medical bills. People go bankrupt because of these expensive costs and that is rare in any other industrialized country. The reason why the cost is too expensive in this country is because there are too many regulations, politics, lobbyists, lawyers and unfairness in our healthcare system.Obamacare could be another disaster for our healthcare system because it is going to raise the costs of the healthcare system and our economy is already in a very bad shape. The most practical solution to our healthcare system is to create a fai r competition between healthcare companies which will significantly lower the costs of the current healthcare system. If I have a second chance to do a second interview, I will also discus the medicine field with the person that I am having interview with because the topic is very interesting.