Wednesday, July 31, 2019

H&M Apparel Chains

Apart from Spain’s Zara, the Swedish retailer Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) differentiates itself from most apparel chains for its idiom â€Å"treat fashion as if it were perishable produce. † In Europe, H&M is considered to be an industry leader because it offers the â€Å"on-trend† look at an extremely lower price. In 2000, it decided to begin to establish a predatory marketing strategy of expansion within the US. The strengths of H&M are that it is a well-known company worldwide; it responds quickly to trends, particularly in its similarities to haute couture and the catwalk within a turnaround cycle speed of 3 weeks; and it is recognized for its incredibly low prices on trendy, seasonal apparel. The weaknesses of H&M are that it is relatively unknown in the States; it has yet to distinguish and set itself apart from inexpensive American apparel chains; and its goods are not high-quality. Primary Problem: Flawed Marketing Research The absence of a definitive marketing strategy is of primary concern. With benefit of hindsight, some deficiencies in H&M’s research design merited attention. It was geared towards the simple idea of expansion rather than establishing genuine market presence. Because it tried to expand too quickly, it imprudently purchased outlets too big and in poor locations, instead of building up its presence more slowly and carefully. H&M believed no competition could ever be more on-trend and more fashionable than they. However, H&M showed the fallacy of attempting growth beyond immediate capabilities in a growth-at-any-cost mindset. The rationale for embracing great growth is that it needed to run with the ball if it were to ever get that rare opportunity to suddenly double or triple sales. But there are times when a slower, more controlled growth is prudent. Secondary Problem: External Factors Apparently, it did not learn from Benetton’s past mistakes. For example, it too had tried to establish a strong presence in the US and had failed. Similarly, The Gap, a US company, also tried to further expand but choked because of the numerous retailers with their offshore resources being able to knock off current fashions much more quickly and competing favorably. Discount stores, such as Wal-Mart and Target, have big boxes in the suburbs also with offshore facilities enabling them to offer current fashion at low prices. This means that even if H&M is first to introduce the fashions, within weeks the competition could offer similar merchandise. In addition to obvious competitors, H&M did not underscore or create enough attention to its prospective customers of its distinguishing characteristics. Certainly, it recognized the importance of the dyadic relationship by hiring salespeople with similar characteristics to their customers. But it still was not effective in communicating its formula. Recommended Solutions 1. Instead of just wholly owned subsidiaries, H&M could enter into a joint venture with an American department store to at least build some presence and recognition. Licensing is a fairly low-risk method for entering into a joint venture. An example of this sort of arrangement would be what Guess has with Macy’s stores. Although H&M may have given up most of the profits, this would be a prudent manner in expanding its recognition throughout the US. H&M should still own and operate facilities in the US where it is more urban and less surrounded by discount stores. . The symbolic value of H&M needs to be underscored either through an advertisement campaign or celebrity endorsements. Although celebrities demand big bucks, the endorsements are worth the price if done in moderation and with the best of the best. Obviously, H&M recognized this in 2007 when it contracted with Madonna to do commercials and magazine advertisements. Of course, the effectiveness of these methods is difficult to measure but as long as the communication is remembered, recognized, or recalled, this will instill further presence in H&M’s goal of expansion.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Soul Surfer – Persuasive

This film has many positive lessons to be taken to heart throughout the film. However, the strongest messages are that with a bit of perspective and the support of our friends and family. You can make it through the worst of tragedies. Our family and friends are often our support system. With them, anything becomes possible. Tom Hamilton, Bethanys father (played by Dennis Quaid) tells Bethany when she is ready to quit surfing after the attack; â€Å"That shark didn't kill you, you are still here, still alive, ith a family who loves you†. (1) Bethany may have lost an arm, but that is not to say she has lost everything.Throughout this uphill battle, Bethany has her friends and family there for her to help her get back on the board with confidence and to turn surfing back into the Joyful hobby she initially fell in love with. Similarly, perspective is everything. It is our outlook on life and how we are able to see and eventually come to terms with life's simplest and toughest de cisions. During one of the towns youth ights, Sarah Hill, the youth group's pastor (played by Carrie Underwood) says â€Å"It can be hard to make sense of things when you are looking at them really close.The same is true in life, so if you are ever dealing with anything that is Just too hard to handle, or does not seem to make much sense, get a new perspective. † (2) After the attack Bethany struggles in finding a reason why this has all happened to her. Why she has lost her arm, why she must learn how to do almost everything again, and how this could be gods plan for her. Through the guidance of Sarah's advice in getting a new perspective, and through her own faith, Bethany was able to come to a positive conclusion.With perspective and support you can make it over the highest bumps in the road. The movie's enticingly unique story creates an everlasting connection between your own life and to the life of Bethany Hamilton's. Based on true-life events, this story will inspire y ou to love yourself, and to be thankful for all that you have. When director Sean McNama was asked about the challenges of making this movie nd he said â€Å"it is about who Bethany really is, and so yeah-there was some give and take on both sides to make it great, but I was like let's Just be true to what she is. (3) Since Sean was able to stay so true to whom and what the real Bethany is all about, it makes you really see and have an appreciation for all she has gone through. And furthermore, all the struggles and obstacles she will continue to be faced with throughout the rest of her life. In addition, the special effects of this movie really add on to the overall performance and the reality of the story. AnnaShophia Robb ore a green sleeve on her arm, which was later digitally removed to portray the missing limb.After the shooting of the actual scene took place, the crew would shot a second one without anybody, insuring the background would match with the movie They had to do t his tor every scene that Bethany was in, theretore tor the scene. majority of the movie. This was difficult because they had to do this without wasting precious amounts of time. The main reason being, they were relying on the weather to hold up. All the extra work and attention to detail paid off, because everything ooks realistic, and as a viewer you can remain focused on the story and not the obvious Photoshop.When combing a story line based on true-life events and incredible special effects, you are left with a captivating movie. Creating relatable and convincing characters is perhaps the hardest aspect in making films. You may know her from movies such as; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Race to Witch Mountain, or maybe even from Because of Winn-Dixie. AnnaSophia Robb plays the main character of Bethany Hamilton. The character of Bethany is a strong one to say the ery least. With her persistence and confidence, she outshines all the other characters, making her relatable.One of the most memorable quotes in this move is said by the character herself, â€Å"l do not need easy, I Just need possible. † (4) What makes this role so strong is throughout the entire film, you embark on this Journey and you wait on Bethanys character to breakdown, quit, or to lose faith in everything. But she never does. She shows us her strength, determination and will to find the positive outcomes in all tragic things. Although the character of Bethany Hamilton is extraordinary, Soul Surfer has at least two memorable characters.You may know her from her victory on the fourth season of American Idol, or the story of a small town Oklahoma girl turns platinum recording artist; Carrie Underwood makes her acting debut, playing the inspirational role of the youth group's pastor-Sarah Hill. Carrie shows that she has the ability to light up a big screen in her movie debut, but it is the character she plays that makes the movie as moving as it is. Sarah Hill tells Bethany â€Å" l o not know why terrible things happen to us sometimes, but I have to believe something good is going to come out of this. (5) This inspires Bethany to get back into the water, and to not lose faith in not only herself and her abilities, but also not lose faith in God and the role he plays in her life. Sarah's compassion and Christian beliefs make this movie inspiring, relatable, and moving. Sarah's character demonstrates a strong Christian belief which remains true to the life of the real Bethany Hamilton; by still having a huge significance to the story, Sarah does this ithout alienating the non-Christian audiences.

Monday, July 29, 2019

Business Advice Essay Research Paper In advising

Business Advice Essay, Research Paper In reding Gus, Gloria, and the murderer ( jointly known as the ? claimants? ) as to the sustainability in jurisprudence of their several claims in relation to, Rajinder ( hereinafter referred to as? R? ) , Sarah ( hereinafter referred to as? S? ) , and the liquidated company Exotic Holidays Ltd. ( hereinafter referred to as? E Ltd. ? ) , the nucleus issue appears to be that of corporate individuality as opposed to personal individuality of the members of the corporate entity. Issues associating to the general effects and effects of incorporation are besides discussed, viz. , issues of separate legal personality, liability and related exclusions, which in bend necessitates consideration of the? corporate head covering? and under what fortunes the tribunals will be prepared to delegate liability etc beyond the corporate entity to the members. Before sing single claims, some idea is given to the general or cardinal issue of legal individuality, on the evidences that this is cardinal to all the state of affairss. The most of import instance in this respect is doubtless Salomon V Salomon [ 1897 ] AC 22 ( hereinafter referred to as? Salomon? ) , which besides provides an disposed get downing place.The basically of import principal that emerged from Salomon is that a company, one time incorporated, is a legal entity in its ain right. In other words, the company itself, in this case E Ltd. , is a clearly separate being from those that are its members ( R and S ) , and as such, has? single? rights and liabilities accordingly.This has two immediate consequences. First, the company, non its members, must seek a redress despite the fact that in world, it will be the members, non the company, that conclude a redress is needed to turn to some incorrect making to the company. Second, the alternate state of affairs in which the company itself must be sued straight, non the members personally, in the event that the company itself has committed some error. The overall consequence is that members? personal liabilities and the liabilities of the company are regarded as separate. For all purposes and intents, the tribunals have traditionally drawn a divide between them. This separation of members and company, or instead the differentiation between them, is frequently referred to as the? corporate head covering? .The Salomon principal has been by and large upheld by the tribunals, sometimes with terrible effects. In the Irish instance Macaura V Northern Insurance Company Limited [ 1925 ] AC 619, the tribunal upheld the statement of an insurance company that it was non apt to pay out if points were insured on a member? s ain name and non? his? company? s name despite the fact that the points being a portion and package of the company? s concern. The tribunal maintained a stiff divide between the member and the company.In more modern times, Slade LJ basically reiterated the go oning cogency of the Salomon principal in Adams v Cape Industries [ 1990 ] Ch 433, ? ? the tribunal is non free to ignore the principal of Salomon? simply because it considers that justness so requires? ? This principal was more late once more affirmed in Ord A ; Another V Belhaven Pubs Limited [ 1998 ] BCC 607.However, as resolute as the principal stands, there are exceeding instances where the tribunal will? raise the corporate head covering? either at common jurisprudence or by legislative act. This was considered in Atlas Marine V Avalon Maritime [ 1991 ] a All ER 769, ? ? . . . to pierce the corporate head covering is an look I would reserve for handling the rights or liabilities or activities of a company as the rights or liabilities or activities of its stockholders? ? There are assorted fortunes where the tribunal will raise the head covering. In the context of liability, such a class of action by the tribunals will intend that the members themselves will be held apt beyond the company. In other words, liability will non halt at the company, as per the Salomon principal, provided the tribunal is satisfied that certain conditions are met. ? It is these conditions that demand to be considered in each single instance with regard to the claimants, since from the given facts, it appears that R and S seek to trust on the Salomon principal in order to deviate any possible liability from themselves personally to E Ltd as a separate legal entity. ? # 8212 ; Gus.According to the given facts, Gus has issued a writ against R originating from alleged? ? behavior in breach of contract? ? that predates and overlaps the day of the month of incorporation of the company.The alleged breaches extend from April 1998 to October 1998, while R sold his concern to E-Ltd in June 1998 while the company itself was incorporated on the 30th June 1998. Therefore, it appears that Gus had been covering with E Ltd. and non R personally after the incorporation.Ordinarily, by application of the Salomon principal, the action against R would neglect on the evidences that Gus was covering with? E Ltd. and non with R.However, as mentioned above, there may be a manner in which the tribunals may be asked to life the head covering and seek action against R straight. This may go on if R is suspected of fraud, although non needfully of a condemnable nature. In this instance, just fraud would suffice. Put another manner, the duties adhering the member are extended to the bind the company.In Jones v Lipman [ 1962 ] 1 All ER 442, the sale of a piece of land was at the Centre of a contract. The marketer had later changed his head? and in order to avoid an order of specific public presentation of his contractual duties, he transferred his land into the name of a company. The tribunal refuses the defense mechanism that the land was now in the ownership of the company and granter an order of specific public presentation against the seller.Likewise, in Gilford Motor Company Limited V Horne [ 1933 ] Ch 935, the tribunal held that a company that constituted a mere? fake? and formed to avoid contractual duties would non be tolerated. In this instance, the tribunal once more lifted the head covering and issued an order against an person who was non even a member of the company in question.Similarly, Gus must demo that R was in consequence? concealment? behind E Ltd. If this can be achieved, it seems possible that the tribunal may allow a redress against R straight. However, if R can demo that the sale was a legitimate trade in the sense that the sale of R? s former concern to E Ltd. was non a? fake? and was formed simply to avoid a contractual duties etc, it seems improbable that the tribunals will follow the path taken in Jones v Lipman or Gilford v Horne in visible radiation of the determination in Adams v Cape Industries where the tribunals refused to raise the corporate head covering. Lord Keith commented in Wolfson v Strathclyde Regional Council [ 1979 ] that the Salomon principal should merely be excluded in instances of a fraudulent nature where facts were being concealed by a ruse.That said, if R seeks to trust on Adams v Cape Industries, there might be a job sing that this instance was distingu ished from a similar instance, Creasey V Breachwood Motors Limited [ 1992 ] BCC 638 partially on the footing of the timing of the transportation from entity to entity. The tribunal may good see the timing of the sale, i.e. half manner through the alleged breach of contract, as a relevant factor and may good see this as some kind of turning away tactic on R? s portion. It is deserving bearing in head that Creasey v Breachwood was later criticised in Ord V Belhaven. Hobhouse LJ stated, ? ? it seems to me ineluctable that the instance in Creasey v. Breachwood as it appears to the tribunal can non be sustained. It represents a incorrect acceptance of the rule of piercing the corporate head covering? Therefore, in my opinion the instance of Creasey v. Breachwood should no longer be treated as authoritative? ? ( Although the evidences for the unfavorable judgment might good non use to the present instance. ) In sum-up, the facts are non sufficiently clear to justify a clear decision, but it appears that the chief obstruction to Gus wining would be the ability to show that R sold his concern to E Ltd. in order to avoid contractual duties via assumed trust on the Salomon principal. Notably, Lord Keith commented in Wolfson v Strathclyde Regional Council [ 1979 ] JPL 169 that the Salomon principal should merely be excluded in instances of a deceitful nature where facts were being concealed by a artifice. Such as artifice must clearly be demonstrated. # 8212 ; Gloria ( hereinafter referred to as? G? ) .From the given facts, G is stated to hold been a? ? former client? ? of E Ltd. Again, with respect to the philosophy of the corporate head covering, G would prima facie merely have a claim against E Ltd. and non R straight or personally. Unless, the tribunals can once more be persuaded to raise the corporate veil.Members of a company have a general fiducial responsibility of attention which should regulate all their behavior within the model of the company in inquiry, and unless it can be shown that they have breached that responsibility by gross carelessness or Acts of the Apostless of bad religion, no personal liability claims can by and large be successful against them. In Williams v Natural Life Health Foods Ltd ( 1998 ) 2 ALL ER 577, the House of Lords held that the corporate head covering should merely be lifted in utmost instances and moreover, there must be some kind of personal deceits made by the member of the company, who accepts as much, and that the complainant would hold had to hold relied on these deceits. The House of Lords refused to raise the head covering in that instance on the evidences that there had been no contact between the parties and in any event, there was no grounds that the complainant had believed that the suspect had accepted any personal liability.In sum-up, it seems unlikely, based on the given facts, that G? s action straight against R will win. However, taking the determination in Williams v Natural Life into history and the stated standards upon which the House of Lords refused to raise the corporate head covering, if G can run into those standards, her claim might good be sustainable. # 8212 ; The Liquidator ( hereinafter referred to as? L? ) .Again, the principal from Salomon is the get downing point with respect to L? s claim against R and S.A farther parallel can be drawn with Salomon. The murderer in Salomon claimed that the company therein was nothingness as it was basically a? fake? on the evidences that the company was in world nil more that Salomon? s? agent? , due in portion to it being a ? one-person company? . However, the House of Lords held that it was irrelevant that the company was in consequence a? one adult male company? ? and that provided the company had been incorporated right, the fact that one individual held an overpowering bulk of portions in the company was non relevant either.More specifically, it was held in Kodak Limited V Clark [ 1905 ] 1 KB 505 that a 98 % shareholding in a company does non by itself create a member/agency relationship. Therefore any similar statements on the evidences that E Ltd. was fundamentally an? agent? of R? s due to his big shareholding will neglect due to the opinion in Salomon and Kodak v Clark.. By and large talking, L will be unable to trust on a common jurisprudence based attack in inquiring the tribunal? s to life the corporate head covering against R and S. However, there may be a possible path via legislative act. Section 213 of the Insolvency Act 1986 in consequence states that where a individual has continued to merchandise through a company cognizing full good, i.e. fraudulently, that the company will be unable to duly repay creditors, the individual may be held personally apt to an extent determined by the tribunals. Section 214 of the same Act, relevant to companies in insolvent settlement ( as is the instance with E Ltd. ) , extends beyond a clear? purpose to victimize creditors? , as per s213, to include? unlawful trading? whereby the individual knew or ought to hold known that creditors will be unable to be duly paid while go oning to merchandise through the company until the clip of the weaving up order being granted. ? In order for the s213 to apply, L must bring forth grounds of a deceitful purpose by R and S to victimize the creditor he represents. Alternatively, under s214, L must show? unlawful trading? which might be an easier proposition.When sing s213, s213 ( 4 ) directs the tribunals to take assorted things into history. Under s213 ( 4 ) the tribunals are directed to see whether the member/s had acted moderately under the fortunes, or more specifically, ? ? the facts which a manager of a company ought to cognize or determine, the decisions which he ought to make and the stairss which he ought to take are those which would be known or ascertained, or reached or taken, by a moderately persevering individual holding both? ( a ) the general cognition, accomplishment and experience that may moderately be expected of a individual transporting out the same maps as are carried out by that manager in relation to the company, and ( B ) the general cognition, accomplishment and experience that that manager has. Therefore in drumhead, in order for s213 to use, these criterions must be applied to the facts of the present instance, and if it is found that R and S had fallen below the needed criterions, an application via s214 might good be sustainable in that the tribunals may good raise the corporate head covering and extend liability to R and S in their personal capacities. Bibliography. ? Farrar? s Company Law? ? ? J.H. Farrar A ; B.M. Hannigan? Company Law? ( Statutes ) ? Butterworths? Company Law? ( Cavendish ) Internet Beginnings. ? Rethinking Company Law and Practice? ? The Hon Justice Michael Kirby ( www3.lawfoundation.net.au ) ? Company Law? ( www.bigwig.net ) ? Limited Liability? a necessary effect of incorporation? ? ? Aiden Small ( www.nuigalway.ie ) ? Company Law? Corporate Personality? ( www.ukcle.ac.uk ) ? Piercing the Corporate Veil? ( www.themis.wustl.edu ) ? The Doctrine of Separate Legal Personality? ( www.law.anu.edu.au ) ? Raising the Corporate Veil Revisited? ( www.acca.org.uk )

Nursing Situation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Nursing Situation - Essay Example For instance, during my internship period in the hospital, I happened to witness one such incident where a comatose patient needed to be fed through a nasogastric tube every three hours according to the feeding regime posted above the patient’s bed. The whole day’s feeds were still intact, and it was already past 4pm in the afternoon. The relatives of the patient just sat next to the bed as they did not know how to feed their loved one through the tube. A look at the patient’s blood glucose levels showed alarming results since the patient was starving and would die if he was not fed immediately. This showed gross misconduct of the nurses and went against the theory of Nursing as caring as described by Watson (Hills & Watson 256). The theory was made on the assumption that persons, in this case nurses, are caring by virtue of their humanness. All in all, I learnt that all it could have taken to relieve the patient’s suffering and increase chances of recovery was to feed the patient on time. If we can all perform our duties as required, it would help to prevent unnecessary deaths in

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Bancfirst Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Bancfirst - Research Paper Example Marketing intermediaries dictated by intermediaries who help close business sales are another micro-environmental factor. Yet another environment is the macro-environment, which is uncontrollable. The business must adapt to these factors, including social, economic, political, legal environment and, in addition, technical environment. Bancfirst is most likely to be affected by factors that influence their client base, such as competition and prospects of growth. Additionally, macro-environment factors, such as the economic environment and legal environment will affect the operations of first bank on a day-to-day basis (Tracy, 12). If there is an increase in consumer income, the demand for the house will go up, and as such, the demand curve shifts to the right. Increase in income thus shifts the demand curve right. Another cause for a demand curve shifting to the right is changes in preference, with the recent high price houses coming with increased comfort and security, making consumers buy more of these sorts of houses. The demand curve for houses has shifted to the right. Finally, the demand curve may be shifted by changes in expectations. If clients expect to have a job for a long time, coupled with increased income, then demand for products will increase and, as a result, the demand curve shifts to the right. The demand curve shifting to the right on houses caused the equilibrium price for houses to rise (Tracy 11). The supply curve for Bancfirst was affected by various factors. Changes in the supply curve occur when product supply is affected by other factors other than its price. Increased technology caused the supply curve to shift to the right, while the number of clients wanting to buy houses caused the supply curve to shift to the right. The price of substitute investments also fell, causing the supply curve to shift to the right. The increase in supply caused the supply curve to shift to the right, thus causing

Saturday, July 27, 2019

Business Finance assignment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Business Finance assignment - Research Paper Example The investor in question believed that smaller firms are less risky compared to larger firms. It is always important to diversify portfolios in order to spread the idea of the risks. Comparing with the 2011 beta or 1.08, the above beta of 1.06 seems to provide a good measure of how the stock movers relative to the broader Australian market index. The function of beta is to measure the risk of stock in relation to the overall market. From the above calculations, it is evident that the selected portfolios are less risky and have diversified the possible risks. On this basis, it is therefore true to say that the investor is likely to have very little loss and fear of risks associated with portfolios. The beta calculated from the investment portfolios is a clear indication of how the portfolio has diversified risks as well as low risk compared to the Australian Market index in 2011. The financial investment was very successful providing additional profit or income of approximately $7,110. In addition to the income received from the portfolio, there is no doubt that the risks associated with the same are too low. For instance, the beta obtained for the overall portfolio clearly indicates that the selected investment portfolios have widespread risks besides being lower than the 2011 Australian Market index beta. When portfolios have spread risks as well as low risks then it is advisable to engage in the investment. The above case scenario is a good example of investment portfolio, which was not only of viable income in terms of increased revenue or income but also given the fact that there were low risks involved, which in any case were widely spread across different firms from different industries and sizes. Indeed, the investment portfolio was a successful

Friday, July 26, 2019

Progress report Memo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Progress report Memo - Essay Example In addition, I have applied general social work frameworks at the organization. The main emphasis has been on assessing the adequacy of services to the mentally ill East Africans and other populations affected by mental illness. I have also developed a clear understanding of the general social work identified with the organizations work objectives. Additionally, I have applied some of the problem solving techniques that I have learned. This includes assessing the situation and evaluating individuals with the mental illness. I have recommended the use of peers as a solution to some of the problems. However, I have not been able to use intervention as a strategy towards finding a solution to these people. I have a plan to integrate with mentally ill East Africans fully, that is, in their lifestyle so that I can identify what exactly is the cause of their mental illness and the challenges they face in

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Marketing in the 21st Century Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Marketing in the 21st Century - Essay Example Marketing mix is an extremely important step in marketing planning once the company has decided the overall marketing strategy. Marketing mix is a set of tactical marketing tools that the company or precisely the marketing management wants to produce a response in its targeted market. Marketing Mix consists of four significant marketing elements, namely Product, Price, Place and Promotion and they are generally termed as 4Ps of marketing. As Belch and Belch observed, an effective marketing occurs when and where there is an exchange process and business relation by examining customers’ needs and wants, designing, manufacturing and developing products accordingly, distributing them to customers, offering them to customers for an affordable price and arranging certain programs that can promote customers to make them aware and interested of the products. As and when there is a careful and effective combination between these elements, and especially there is an integrated approach to these elements, the marketer will be able to influence the demand in the market and thus to bring greater competitive advantages. In recent years, markers have been giving greater emphasis to devise marketing activities to assemble fully integrated marketing programs so that the company can create, communicate and deliver value to the customers. The ultimate goal of the effective marketing mix strategy is to create and deliver values to the customers.... In recent years, markers have been giving greater emphasis to devise marketing activities to assemble fully integrated marketing programs so that the company can create, communicate and deliver value to the customers (Kotler and Keller, 2006, p. 19). The ultimate goal of the effective marketing mix strategy is to create and deliver values to the customers. Integrated Marketing Communication approach, that attempts to build strategic combination between marketing elements, has been considered to be an easy system approach to achieve the marketing goal. When it comes to the Hospitality industry, the main product mix is mostly of Service in nature. As far as Hotel Verta is concerned, various multicultural and organic food and drinks it prepares and makes them available to customers along with superior services it offers inside the hotel are the major portions of its Product element. Quality of the foods, varieties available, wedding specials, Spa verta, different designs and organic cha racters along with attractive packaging are some of the important variables of the product mix. Price is simply the amount that the products are offered for sale. But when it comes to Hotel Verta, discounts, free-food corner, credit allowances etc help the company create more values to its customers. Place normally indicates marketer’s activities that make the product available to the targeted customers for an affordable price. Highly attractive rooms, eco-friendly environments, the spa and rest rooms, and other infrastructures are helpful to retain customers and convert them to be loyal and therefore are some of the significant factors that add values to customers. As far as the Promotion element is

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Critically discuss, with examples, the contributions that Managing Essay - 1

Critically discuss, with examples, the contributions that Managing Diversity policies can make to the promotion of equality in organisations - Essay Example These have been studied from different perspectives, such as gender discrimination, HRM, performance management, cultural dimensions, and best practice implementation resulting from diffusion process, with specific examples. In the era of globalization, managing diversity promotes organizational effectiveness to a large extent. Diversity management is said to have originated in the United States with the Civil Rights Act, 1964 promoting equal employment opportunities (Mor-Barak, 2005). Realization of importance of diversity management through policies and legislation is a more recent affair in most of the countries. The main prerequisites of diversity management are said to be equal rights legislation and affirmative/positive action policies in order to create social, legal and organizational environment conducive for diversity management. The benefits of globalization have lured many organizations to become multinational and also adopt diversity management practices. Diversity management is now being used as a tool in management to tackle discrimination at workplace (Wrench, 2005). This can be best evidenced by the Kosek and Lobel’s model (1996), cited by Mor-Barak (2005), of diversity management approach through diversity enlargement, diversity sensitivity, cultural audit and strategies for achieving organizational outcomes. With the legislative policies related to equal employment opportunities and antidiscrimination laws being introduced, most of the organizations started hiring people belonging to distinct groups and nationalities, incorporating a diverse workforce. The various activities used in organizations to manage this diversity include training and development for all employees, employee involvement teams, links with the community, different work hours and workplaces, benefits, affirmative action programs, top-management attention, public relations efforts,

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Deutsche Allgemeinversicherung Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Deutsche Allgemeinversicherung - Case Study Example It finds out the accuracy rate of the company’s performance while measuring the quality of its processes (Doty, 1996). It helps the managers to understand the level of productivity in each department and operate those processes at full potential. It is beneficial to DAV because it will identify the quality of the forms filled by the customers and inserted by an employee. It would then help the company in monitoring and controlling the processes (Harvard Business School, 2009). Challenges and limitations in applying SPC (Services to manufacturing) More often the use of the statistical process control tool is used in the manufacturing industry, but its use in the service industry can be rather challenging because of the intangible product (Trip, Does, & Roes, 1999). Humans are the only source that could be referred to while using offering services. So, measuring the people is the biggest challenge in the SPC because the company has to find out the errors that an employee is comm itting instead of a machine which is used in the manufacturing industry. It makes it impossible for companies to consider the factors while measuring their performance. ... There was a conflict in judging the quality of the form as right or wrong. Senior managers suggested that forms should not be considered as wrong if critical information is missing. 2. Better teams do more sampling: There was an issue with some groups that had to increase the sample size which was becoming a burden for some other groups. One group claimed that they had the best accuracy rate of 98% but still they had to increase the sample size (Harvard Business School, 1997). 3. Measuring Lawyers: The lawyers that were working in the legal department had problems regarding measuring the legal work of the customer form. They could not decide between a good form and a bad one even while measuring on the scale (Harvard Business School, 1997). 4. Automatic Charting: There was an issue that the group wanted to measure the quality automatically and should develop and IT system that would monitor these forms. They claimed that this method would save them a lot of time and will make the com pany productive (Harvard Business School, 1997). 5. On the Prowl: The associates were beginning to feel hesitant in providing the accurate results to the senior managers because of their reactions when they find out about the low accuracy rate. They were thinking to work on measuring another type of work which would yield better results to make their senior managers happy. Why problems are occurring and how they can be resolved The solutions and recommendations for the problems are underlined below: Better Teams do more sampling As the quality improvement was being tested in 15 different departments of the company each group from those departments showed interest. But as the quality improvement program continued, it created a lack of interest. So the company should try to

University education free of charge Essay Example for Free

University education free of charge Essay A cliche states that if you think education is expensive, try ignorance. The suggestion of free education is a noble policy that has more demerits than merits. A policy of free education creates at least three problems. These are; funding, moral hazards and limiting the roles of universities. A policy of free education for all students creates a problem of funding for universities. This is especially true in the current economic climate. The government cannot afford to soley fund universities. Thus, free education creates more economic problems for the government. For instance, if a state like California adopts such a policy for Californias public universities, a substianial part of government revenue would go into funding universities leaving little room for the government to undertake other services. Second, a policy of free education creates a moral hazard because students have no incentive to invest in their education. Individuals are more likely to commit to something that requires some sacrifice on their part. Free education demands no sacrifice. Factors such as loans and family sponsorship encourage a student to invest his education by learning because there is some one they are answerable to. However, if free education is provided to all students without any conditions, the policy would be abused. Some students may choose not to attend classes for example. Third, a policy of free education limits the role of universities as citadels of knowledge especially in the area of research. Universities receive funds and grants to undertake resarch and development from the government and private sector. Howver, if free education is provided for all students at the tertiary level, research may be limited because funds received may likely go to overhead costs such as maintenance of infrastructure and salaries. Nevertheless, the importance of education at all levels cannot be understated. The recommendation that free education should be provided for all students has a merit because education has positive consequences for a society. Holding all other factors constant, an educated society should be a prosperous and well developed one. Thus, a government may benefit from  implementing a policy of free education at the tertiary level. This is because all things being equal, the students would contribute towards the development of the society. Thus, a policy of free education may be adopted for deserving students or on a needs basis with conditions such as having a certain GPA and public service attached to it.

Monday, July 22, 2019

The Relationship Between Brand Loyalty Essay Example for Free

The Relationship Between Brand Loyalty Essay Evaluate the relationship between brand loyalty, corporate image, and repeat purchasing. Brand loyalty In marketing, brand loyalty comprises of a consumers commitment to repurchase the brand and can be demonstrated by repeated buying of manufactured goods or services or other positive conducts such as word of mouth advocacy. True brand loyalty involves that the consumers are willing, at least on event, to put aside their own needs in the interest of the brand. Brand loyalty is more than simple repurchasing, however. Customers may repurchase a brand due to situational constraints, a lack of viable alternatives, or out of convenience. Such loyalty is referred to as spurious loyalty. True brand loyalty exists when customers have a high relative attitude toward the brand which is then exhibited through repurchase behavior. This type of loyalty can be a great asset to the firm: customers are willing to pay higher prices, they may cost less to serve, and can bring new customers to the firm. For example, if Joe has brand loyalty to Company A, he will purchase Company As products even if Company Bs are cheaper and/or of a higher quality. An example of a major brand loyalty program that extended for several years and spread worldwide is Pepsi Stuff. Perhaps the most significant contemporary example of brand loyalty is the fervent devotion of many Mac users to the Apple company and its products. From the point of view of many marketers, loyalty to the brand in terms of consumer usage is a key factor. Corporate image A corporate image refers to how a company is perceived. It is a normally accepted image of what a company stands for. The formation of a corporate image is an implement in the perception management. It is created solely by marketing managers/consultants who use public relations and other forms of promotion to suggest a mental picture to the public. Usually, a corporate image is designed to be interesting to the public, so that the company can spark an interest among customers, create share of mind, create brand equity, and thus make easy product sales. A corporations image is not solely created by the company: Other contributors to a companys image could include news media, journalists, labour unions, environmental organizations, and other NGOs (non-governmental organization). Corporations are not the only form of organization that creates these types of images. Governments, charitable organizations, criminal organizations, religious organizations, political organizations, and educational organizations all tend to have a unique image, an image that is partially purposeful and partially unintended, partially self-created. For example, the corporate image for Serenity Spa Salon, which has an image of a lady, faced up with hair flowing down. This image gives the sense of relaxation where a lady can get her face and hair done. The soft colours used give an impression a relaxing ambience at the salon. Thus inviting tired women to come here and unwind while their hair and face are being treated. Only if the experience is a success for the customer will it be turned into repeat purchases. These repeats, not the single purchase which is the focus of most models, are where the vendors focus should be, for these are where the profits are generated. For example, Mrs Lee have tried the PILOT pen before and she thinks it is a comfortable pen to write with. She buys more for her office use which all suppliers are looking forward to. Some suppliers even gives a sample to trial on so that the customer will want to buy from them again as it satisfied them to use it.

Sunday, July 21, 2019

The Importance and Role of Public Relations

The Importance and Role of Public Relations The art and social science of analyzing trends, predicting their consequences, counseling organizational leaders and implementing planned programs of action, which will serve both the organization and the public interest. (Asch and Solomon 1946) Public relations aim primarily to provide a communication between an organization and its users. It is one of the most important business functions as for any organization. It is essential to continually check its reputation in the market that it caters. Moreover, with the present climate of global extensions that majority of the modern day businesses practice, it is essential that the organization keeps touch with what it wants to portray to the consumers so that expectations from the organization is likewise. Public Relation is used to build rapport with employees, customers, investors, voters or the general public. Almost any organization that indulges itself in being portrayed in the public environment employs some level of public relations. Public relation is not limited to simply increasing awareness about an organization. It deals with other complex functions of checking and monitoring the reactions of its actions( Ahluwalia et al 2000). This illustrates what the organization reflects to its market hence aiding in deciding the next course of action as and when required. Publicity is one of the major tools for Public relations. Most; if not all, PR campaigns invest heavily for publicity. Publicity involves spreading of information for a product, person, service, cause or organization to gain public awareness. Publicity helps in effective PR planning and is one of the most viral methods adopted by any PR for an organisation. In present times, professionals commonly use technology as their main tool to get across their messages to target audiences (Collins et al, 1975). Traditionally, one of the oldest tools used by public relations professionals is a press/media kit. It is usually a collection of promotional materials for the purpose of circulation. These provide information about an event, organization, business, or even a person. Information also includes, fact sheets, press releases (or media releases), media alerts, brochures, newsletters, photographs with captions, copies of any media clips, and social mediums. In recent times, most organizations may have a website with a link which usually updates the message that is required to be communicated for the purpose of communication. Online version of such news is one of the essentials that is adopted in recent times. Other widely-used tools include brochures, newsletters and annual reports. (Basuroy et al 2003) In the recent times, technological uses of social networks, blogs, and even internet radio public relations professionals facilitate to directly send messages through their respective mediums. Methods are used to find out the reaction of the audience in the current market. Inquiring into the favorable appeals of the target audiences extensively include the use of surveys, conducting research or even focus groups. Various tactics are undertaken to attract target audiences by using the information gathered. This is then directed as a message to them using tools such as social or other popular mediums.`(Burrough and Bryan,2006) Increasingly, companies are utilizing interactive social networking options, such as media blogs, Twitter and Facebook, as tools in promotion for the PR campaigns. This can be credited to the fact that unlike the traditional tools, social media outlets enable the organization to engage in two-way communication, and receive relatively quicker feedbacks hence efficiently aiding in making accurate decisions. Reciprocal nature of communications Extracted from Effective Public Relations by Cutlip(2010) The above figure illustrates, communication is a reciprocal process of exchanging signals to inform, instruct, or persuade, based on shared meanings and conditioned by the communicators relationship and the social context. (Godes, 2004) NEGATIVE PUBLIC RELATIONS: Negative Public relation occurs under circumstances and situation when the message sent across to the public by the organization is seen not coherent to what it portrays. It may be expressed as that process which threatens the reputation and corporate identity of an organization due to improbable actions that leads to unlikely situations and circumstances. (Eliasberg et al 1997) However, this phenomenon can be either intentional i:e. (by an external source such as a competitor) or unintentional (inadequate research of an expected reaction or poor internal communications ). (Hueng et al,1982) Owing to the nature of this report, the researcher has chosen to consider only the unfavorable public relations for this study and thus Black public relations shall only be mentioned once. Thereafter, steps to deal only with unfavorable public relations shall be included for further part of this work. Intentional Negative Public Relations It indicates in context to incidences which are carried about by third party source with intention to tarnish the reputation of a targeted organization, these kind of intentional negative PR strategies are also known as Black Public Relations (James and Caryn 2006). It involves gathering information using high level of industrial espionage and competitive intelligence to uncover the targeted company secrets that are unfavorable to the organizations stakeholders (Hueng et al,1982). The only objective of such practices is to strategically disturb the channels and messages of communication between the organization and its shareholders. This kind of negative public relation is an unethical business practice yet it is been widely used against business rivals. (Grossmen et al1984) Unintentional Negative PR / Unfavorable Public relations. This is an occurrence under circumstances when an organization is facing a public challenge to its reputation. Generally these challenges may come in the following forms:- An investigation from a government agency. A criminal allegation. A media inquiry. A shareholders lawsuit A violation of environmental regulations Finally a violation in a number of other scenarios involving the legal, ethical and / or financial factors (Godes et al 2004). The above are challenges that an organization faces which may lead to an unfavorable Public relations situation for an organization. However, most of them can be contained almost immediately if handled with urgency. Generally, source of a negative Public relation is born out of mismanaged crises situation in an organization. Crisis communication is of utmost importance to contain any such unlikely circumstances. If efficiently handled, crisis communication can become the best defense against any issue turning into a fully blow catastrophe. An illustration to explain the above can be found in the case of Johnson Johnson. In 1982, after cyanide was discovered in some capsules of a JJ product Tylenol, J and J immediately announced a recall of an estimated stock of about a hundred million in circulation in its domestic market of the United States and other foreign market (Berger,2005). This decision of Johnson Johnson, to cooperate fully with the media, earned it lots of praises for its business principle of being socially responsible. The resultant was that the company received additional positive press coverage when it subsequently introduced its new tamper-resistant packaging. Similarly In March 2005, a woman bit into a finger while eating chili at Wendys. Wendys responded promptly and shut down that location. This was followed by carefully discarding all the other chilli that was dated as the controversial stock. The location was reopened only after a thorough investigation of the rest of the stocks.This crisis could have damaged Wendys image, but owing to it responding properly and appropriately, very little damage was observed to their image (Berger,2005). These are two of the few examples which illustrate efficient crisis management procedures despite not being in control the negative PR at the initial stages of the crisis. Johnson Johnson was able to gain positive publicity for the prompt decision making and was thus able to contain the situation before it went out of proportion. Conversely, many other organisations have shown lack in managing a crisis situation and have suffered for the same. Source Perrier is an example of such an organization that was unable to overcome negative publicity when its top management displayed poor crisis-management. Traces of benzene were found in the companys bottled water in 1990, however the company assured the public that it was only contained to bottles in North America. During the same time, scientists found traces of benzene in its bottled water which was being sold in Europe. This time, the management blamed it upon a contaminated filtering system an reassured that it was being tackled with utmost urgency. Never the less, media had then sampled the brands water from all its prevalent market and discovered that the situation had been persistent for a longer period of time and that the benzene laced product had been selling all around the world. The media questioned Perriers integrity and concern for public safety, and the company lost its dominant position in the marketplace; it has been unable to rebuild its reputation (Bogart and D ave 2001). The available literature on the source of negative PR is not coherently conclusive as different researchers have difference in the scope and width with regard to their view about the causes of unavoidable PR. Lerbinger (1997), attributes two causes i:e. management failure and environmental forces. He categorizes the two into eight categories of crisis situations which are as follows: Natural- for example Asian Tsunami which affected everything alike i:e. nations, government, corporations, businesses and so on. Technological- Mercedes A class had design faults thus had to roll over Confrontation- Shell Oil wanted to sink an oil platform into the North Sea and thus its petrol stations faced a consumer boycott. Malevolence-product tampering by private citizens, as in the case of Tylenol capsules of Johnson and Johnson Skewed Management- Barings Bank went out of business when the bank management was accused of turning a blind eye towards rouge trader Nick Leason. Deception Management misconduct- Enron Power Business and economic- Economic turmoil affecting businesses, hence organizations unable to live to the promise. (Lerbinger 1997) FEARN-BANKS FIVE STAGE OF CRISIS STAGE 1 Detection The organization is watching for warning signs STAGE 2 Preparation/prevention The organization takes notes of the warning signs and prepares plans proactively to avoid crisis, or reactive one to cope with the crisis if it is come. STAGE 3 Containment Taking Steps to limit the length of the crisis or its affects. STAGE 4 Recovery At this step, efforts are made to get back to normal operational conditions or effectiveness of an organization STAGE 5 Learning This is when the Organization reflects and evaluates the experience to consider the negative impacts for the organization and any possible benefits for the future. Fearns- Banks(2006), are amongst the school of thoughts that attribute Negative Public relation wholly to mismanaged crisis situation. In the table above, are the five stages of a business crises outlined that explain the steps to be ensured during different stages of a crisis. If attended to, the crisis management should be efficient and thus save the organization any unwanted harm to its reputation The most important efficient way of dealing with unfavorable public relation can be found in practicing crisis communication (Lerbinger 1997). Crisis communication aims at assisting an organisation to sustain continuity in the critical business processes. These business processes can be any information flowing during critical situations, natural calamities or event driven circumstances. The most commonly know five steps that must be ensured in situations threatening the PR of an organization may be best explained as the following Firstly, the corporation in crisis should be prompt and act accordingly. This can be achieved by addressing the public immediately following the discovery of the situation. Secondly, the corporation in question must maintain honesty as it is obliged to be completely truthful no matter what the consequences from the public may be. Thirdly, the corporation should be informative. This would require them to provide facts that are coherent with the situation and restrain speculation under any circumstance. The other reason for this step is to also assure that public does not create its own rumor as rumors might cause more damage to the organization as compared to the already worsened circumstance(Lerbinger 1997). Next, it is important to be socially concerned and illustrate efforts of improvement to the public. This would reflect on the business as being socially responsible hence improving chances of faster recovery from the damage incurred. Finally, maintaining two-way relationships. It is very essential as the corporation get response from the public hence increasing the chances of being accepted to do business with. More so, as this kind of communication shall project to the corporation directly about what is expected from them in the near future. These steps are essential in order to manage any crucial PR circumstances (Norton et al 2007). Quick response is the key to any negative publicity. Efficient and effective crisis communication strategy diagnosed in a premeditated manner can provide most of the solutions to problems relating to negative publicity. In this global and dynamic business world, technology can be effectively harnessed for communicating to the people about a rapid response to the issue. not only can this save the organizational reputation but also it can prevent any unlikely circumstances. Ensuring a co-ordinated response provides a stronger foundation to tackle tricky situations and in turn can result into a potential advantage to a range of potentially crippling scenarios. A well thought out and executed plan shall reflect strongly upon the management of the organsation hence, bringing some more goodwill amongst the users. Timing of responding is a critical factor as the longer the lag, higher the chances of a considerable losses to company revenue and reputation (Reinstein et al 2005). An Effectiive crisis communication strategy will typically consider achieving most of the following objectives: Maintain connectivity Be readily accessible to the news media Show empathy for the people involved Allow distributed access Streamline communication processes Maintain information security Ensure uninterrupted audit trails Deliver high volume communications Support multi-channel communications Remove dependencies on paper based processes (Norton et al 2007) Crisis communication can play a significant role by transforming an unexpected situation into a competitive gain. The only essential requirement is respond accordingly and immediately to the urgent situation. CONCLUSION This study is an attempt at understanding the concept of Public relations and investigates into the causes and sources of negative Public relations. In a theoretical context, literature on negative Public relation shows a very distorted view amongst the researchers as it lacks clarity in its core concept of whether is it a result of mis communicated Public message or is it a concept of deliberately damaging a organizations reputation owing to competition rivalry. However, all of these views are coherent on the thought that quick response to the critical situations can effectively deal with the arising unfavourable circumstances. Efficient and effective crisis communication strategy diagnosed in a premeditated manner can provide most of the solutions to problems relating to negative publicity. Source of a negative Public relation is born out of mismanaged crises situation in an organization. Crisis communication is of utmost importance to contain any such unlikely circumstances. If efficiently handled, crisis communication can become the best defense against any issue arising in the organization. Ensuring a co-ordinated response provides a stronger foundation to tackle tricky situations and in turn can result into a potential advantage to a range of potentially crippling scenarios. A well thought out and executed plan shall reflect strongly upon the management of the organsation hence, bringing some more goodwill amongst the users. Timing of responding is a critical factor as the longer the lag, higher the chances of a considerable losses to company revenue and reputation. Public relation also deals with complex functions of checking and monitoring the reactions of its actions as this illustrates what the organization reflects to its market. Thus regular contact with the public over the underlying issues provides better deciding power for the next course of action as and when required. Technology needs to be exploited the most in critical situations, in this modern day of vast technological choice, communication with the public is easier and cheaper than in the past Thus along with the prior mentioned five steps technological advantages should be used at it optimum to properly manage a crisis can as well as the six types of responses continue to be at the foundation of any crisis public relations.

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Lord :: Essays Papers

Lord Everyone, at one time or another, has dreamed of running away to a deserted island to get away from the life of the real world, but in William Golding's Lord of the Flies this perceived dream of a deserted island is brought to reality. When the dream did come true for some English boys things don't actually turn out as glorious as imagined. Human nature went into effect and let evil run wild. The Island paradise they once saw turned into a bloody nightmare. A message that ran rampant throughout the novel was that evil is inherited in everyone. By looking at three very important scenes, one can see how the effects of evil are permanently etched into everyone's personality. Understanding those events are vital to understanding the overall theme of the book. The constant reminder of inherent evil didn't start off right away when the boys arrived at the island. Evil slowly crept into the open. This valid point invites me to show you one of the first moments where evil attacked. Henry (a little boy on the island) was playing on the beach when several triumphant splashes in the water surrounded him. It was the arm of Roger (a character that experienced evil more than anyone) who was throwing stones at the littlun. This key point in the book illustrated how Roger began to love the power he could have over other living things. He enjoyed this power, but was still living by the rules of the real world. I could see the good slipping away from Roger even though "there was a space around Henry, perhaps six yards in diameter, into which he dare not throw" (62). This was one of the many meetings with evil that Roger would join in on. This significant point in the book paints a clear image of how evil wanders in peoples souls. As done with very intricate novels, things are hidden that you have to search for. These monumental points are found deep into the book. They don't pop out right away. With the help of others, one of these symbolic moments trampled over our faces. The enjoyment that the boys had from killing a sow made a light bulb click on and we realized that that Golding made this event to appear like a rape. Lord :: Essays Papers Lord Everyone, at one time or another, has dreamed of running away to a deserted island to get away from the life of the real world, but in William Golding's Lord of the Flies this perceived dream of a deserted island is brought to reality. When the dream did come true for some English boys things don't actually turn out as glorious as imagined. Human nature went into effect and let evil run wild. The Island paradise they once saw turned into a bloody nightmare. A message that ran rampant throughout the novel was that evil is inherited in everyone. By looking at three very important scenes, one can see how the effects of evil are permanently etched into everyone's personality. Understanding those events are vital to understanding the overall theme of the book. The constant reminder of inherent evil didn't start off right away when the boys arrived at the island. Evil slowly crept into the open. This valid point invites me to show you one of the first moments where evil attacked. Henry (a little boy on the island) was playing on the beach when several triumphant splashes in the water surrounded him. It was the arm of Roger (a character that experienced evil more than anyone) who was throwing stones at the littlun. This key point in the book illustrated how Roger began to love the power he could have over other living things. He enjoyed this power, but was still living by the rules of the real world. I could see the good slipping away from Roger even though "there was a space around Henry, perhaps six yards in diameter, into which he dare not throw" (62). This was one of the many meetings with evil that Roger would join in on. This significant point in the book paints a clear image of how evil wanders in peoples souls. As done with very intricate novels, things are hidden that you have to search for. These monumental points are found deep into the book. They don't pop out right away. With the help of others, one of these symbolic moments trampled over our faces. The enjoyment that the boys had from killing a sow made a light bulb click on and we realized that that Golding made this event to appear like a rape.

Comparing Shakespeares Play, Hamlet and Miltons Play, Samson Agoniste

Comparing Shakespeare's Play, Hamlet and Milton's Play, Samson Agonistes: The Mental Awakenings of Hamlet and Samson In William Shakespeare's play Hamlet and in John Milton's play Samson Agonistes, both title characters undergo an intellectual metamorphosis, each becoming more and more aware of the power of his mind as he learns to master it. Despite a difference of almost 50 years between the writing of each of these plays, Hamelet being composed in 1601 and Samson Agonistes not being completed until circa 1646-1648, both reflect a preoccupation of the 17th century shared by both authors, the emergence of the mind and the human reason. Hamlet, while already a scholar and a philosopher, must, in the course of his plot to revenge the death of his father, constantly reassure himself that his mind has not erred. He must verify that the apparition of his father's ghost was a "spirit of health" and not a "goblin damned" designed to lead him to an inopportune demise. He must be certain that the revenge that he exacts on his father-in-law will suit his crime and not "this same villain send / To heaven". Samson, on the other hand, must also awaken his mind, but in his case his mind has been dormant all his life and this thus presents him with a more diffficult task than that of Hamlet. Samson had always relied on his brute physical strength to rescue him from dangerous situations whereas Hamlet had the more well-rounded formation of a Renaissance man. Oddly enough, it is Samson who seems to have been more successful at the end of the tragedy in that he does not unwittingly take his mother nor his friend with him to his grave. The first instance in which Hamlet demonstrates an awakening of his mind is in Scene 1 when he must... ...t both must learn to develop and to trust their mind rather than rely on a supernatural power to guide them. In Hamlet's case, this supernatural being is the ghost of his father which comes to give him the noble cause of revenging his foul death. For Samson, the cause is for the honour of his god which must be proven to be stronger and more right than the Philistine god Dagon. In the end, both succeed in awakening their minds, and while their deaths may be considered tragic, from a 17th century point of view, and even from today's perspcetive, they are heros because they learned to put their trust in themselves as rational human beings. Works Cited Milton, John. Samson Agonistes. In John Milton: Complete Poems and Major Prose. Ed. Merritt Y. Hughes. New York: Macmillan, 1957. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York: Signet Classic, 1998.

Friday, July 19, 2019

Countee Cullen Essay -- essays research papers

Countee Cullen was a prominent American poet and was known as the â€Å"poster poet† of the 1920 artistic movement called the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance produced the first African American works of literature in the United States. There were many leading figures in the Harlem Renaissance such as James Weldon Johnson, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Wallace Thurman and Arna Bontemps. Cullen was simply an amazing young man who won many poetry contests throughout New York, published two notable volumes of poetry (Color and Copper Sun), received a master’s degree from Harvard University and married the daughter of W.E.B Du Bois, a founder of the NAACP. Cullen grew up in the â€Å"heart† of New York since he was an adopted son of Reverend Frederick A. Cullen, minister of the Salem African Methodist Episcopal Church. Prior to being adopted his mother, Elizabeth Lucas, abandoned him leaving his paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Porter, to raise him until she died in 1918. Do to Cullen’s childhood confusion many are unaware of his place of birth. According to different sources he was born in Louisville, Kentucky, Baltimore, Maryland and New York. Cullen stated that he was born in New York City but no one is sure if he truly meant it. Reverend Frederick Cullen and his wife gave Countee Cullen wonderful opportunities throughout his entire life. As a young schoolboy, he attended the well-known Witt Clinton High School in Manhattan where he began writing poetry at fourteen years old... Countee Cullen Essay -- essays research papers Countee Cullen was a prominent American poet and was known as the â€Å"poster poet† of the 1920 artistic movement called the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance produced the first African American works of literature in the United States. There were many leading figures in the Harlem Renaissance such as James Weldon Johnson, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Wallace Thurman and Arna Bontemps. Cullen was simply an amazing young man who won many poetry contests throughout New York, published two notable volumes of poetry (Color and Copper Sun), received a master’s degree from Harvard University and married the daughter of W.E.B Du Bois, a founder of the NAACP. Cullen grew up in the â€Å"heart† of New York since he was an adopted son of Reverend Frederick A. Cullen, minister of the Salem African Methodist Episcopal Church. Prior to being adopted his mother, Elizabeth Lucas, abandoned him leaving his paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Porter, to raise him until she died in 1918. Do to Cullen’s childhood confusion many are unaware of his place of birth. According to different sources he was born in Louisville, Kentucky, Baltimore, Maryland and New York. Cullen stated that he was born in New York City but no one is sure if he truly meant it. Reverend Frederick Cullen and his wife gave Countee Cullen wonderful opportunities throughout his entire life. As a young schoolboy, he attended the well-known Witt Clinton High School in Manhattan where he began writing poetry at fourteen years old...

Thursday, July 18, 2019

Aditya Birla Retail Ltd – Introduction of de Study

CHAPTER 1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION OF THE STUDY Retailing in India is receiving global recognition and attention and this emerging market is witnessing a significant change in its growth and investment pattern. It is not just the global players like Wal-Mart, Tesco and Metro group are eying to capture a pie of this market but also the domestic corporate behemoths like Reliance, K K Modi , Aditya Birla group, and Bharti group too are at some stage of retail development. Reliance, announced that it will invest $3. 4 billion to become the country's largest modern retailer by establishing a chain of 1,575 stores by March 2007. The last couple of years have been rosy for real estate developers and the retailers are finding suitable retail space in prominent locations. The industry is buoyant about growth and the early starters are in expansion mood. There is increased sophistication in the shopping pattern of consumers, which has resulted in big retail chains coming up in most metros; mini metros and towns being the next target. Consumer taste and preferences are changing leading to radical alteration in lifestyles and spending patterns which in turn is giving rise to new business opportunities. Companies need to be dynamic and proactive while responding to the ever-changing trends in consumer lifestyle and behavior. Retailing consists of the sale of goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, or by post, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be individuals or businesses. In commerce, a â€Å"retailer† buys goods or products in large quantities from manufacturers or importers, either directly or through a wholesaler, and then sells smaller quantities to the end-user. Retail establishments are often called shops or stores. Retailers are at the end of the supply chain. Manufacturing marketers see the process of retailing as a necessary part of their overall distribution strategy. The term â€Å"retailer† is also applied where a service provider services the needs of a large number of individuals, such as a public utility, like electric power. Shops may be on residential streets, shopping streets with few or no houses or in a shopping mall. Shopping streets may be for pedestrians only. Sometimes a shopping street has a partial or full roof to protect customers from precipitation. Online retailing, a type of electronic commerce used for business to consumer (B2C) transactions and mail order are forms of non shop retailing. Shopping generally refers to the act of buying products. Sometimes this is done to obtain necessities such as food and clothing; sometimes it is done as a recreational activity. The retail industry in India is currently growing at a great pace and is expected to go up to US$ 833 billion by the year 2013. It is further expected to reach US$ 1. 3 trillion by the year 2018 at a CAGR of 10%. As the country has got a high growth rates, the consumer spending has also gone up and is also expected to go up further in the future. In the last four year, the consumer spending in India climbed up to 75%. As a result, the India retail industry is expected to grow further in the future days. By the year 2013, the organized sector is also expected to grow at a CAGR of 40%. 1. 1 OBJECTIVE OF ORGANISATIONAL STUDY * To understand the role and relevance of retailing for business and economy. * To understand the different departmental functions associated with Aditya Birla Retail Ltd. Understanding the importance of store location for a outlet * To Study the Consumer Behaviour of MORE outlet 1. 2 METHODOLOGY This organization study is the mixture of theoretical as well as practical knowledge. Also it containsideas and information imparted by the guide. The secondary data required for the organization study was collected from various websites and books of reputed authors. The organizatio nal study started with sorting all the raw data and arranging them in perfect order. To add value to the organization study and to understand the practicality of etailing business, I have visited various MORE stores Kerala. 1. 3 LIMITATION * The study was conducted within different outlets of Cochin city, so the findings are restricted to some outlets only. * The method used in this Organization study for collecting the information is very time consuming and slow. * The major limitation was that some of the outlet managers, staff and customers were busy with their work. CHAPTER 2 INDUSTRY PROFILE INDUSTRY PROFILE Retail is not only an important aspect of the economic structure but very much a part of our lives . Although trading of goods have been in existence since the olden days . It is only in the recent past that the buying and selling of goods have become more of format and a brand dominated activity . The traditional form of independently owned businesses co-exist along with the organized retail. Organized retail has emerged in a big way since 2000 onward and with that we are witnessing the emergence of new forms of retailing. Aditya Birla Retail Limited is the retail arm of Aditya Birla Group, a USD 28 billion Corporation. The Company ventured into food and grocery retail sector in 2007 with the acquisition of a south based supermarket chain. Subsequently Aditya Birla Retail Ltd. expanded its presence across the country under the brand â€Å"more. † with 2 formats Supermarket ; Hypermarket. Supermarket Conveniently located in neighbourhoods, more. supermarkets cater to the daily, weekly and monthly shopping needs of consumers. The product offerings include a wide range of fresh fruits ; vegetables, groceries, personal care, home care, general merchandise ; a basic range of apparels. Currently, there are over 600 more. supermarkets across the country. Hypermarket More. MEGASTORE – is a one-stop shopping destination for the entire family. Besides a large range of products across fruits ; vegetables, groceries, FMCG products, more. MEGASTORE also has a strong emphasis on general merchandise, apparels ; CDIT. Currently, nine hypermarkets operate under the brand more. MEGASTORE in Mysore, Vadodara, Aurangabad, Indore, Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad and Vashi. Aditya Birla Retail Limited. currently has an employee strength of over 11,000. Key functions are headed by professionals with vast retail experience in India ; globally. Quality ; Value through own labels: Aditya Birla Retail Ltd provides customers a wide choice of products under its own labels. The objective is to provide quality products at attractive price points to customers. Since quality of the products is of prime importance, stringent quality norms have been set and are followed. All manufacturing partners are the best in their class. TYPES OF RETAIL FORMAT * Convenience store * Chain of stores * Franchise * Speciality store * Departmental store * Supermarket * Hypermarket * Shopping mall * Shopping plaza * Factory outlet 2. 1 ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE INDUSTRY Retail is India's largest industry. It accounts for over 10 per cent of the India's GDP and around eight per cent of the employment. Retail sector is one of India's fastest growing sectors with a 5 per cent compounded annual growth rate. India's huge middle class base and its untapped retail industry are key attractions for global retail giants planning to enter newer markets. Driven by changing lifestyles, strong income growth and favorable demographic patterns, Indian retail is expected to grow 25 per cent annually. It is expected that retail in India could be worth US$ 175-200 billion by 2016. The organized retail industry in India had not evolved till the early 1990s. Until then, the industry was dominated by the un-organized sector. It was a sellers market, with a limited number of brands, and little choice available to customers. Lack of trained manpower, tax laws and government regulations all discouraged the growth of organized retailing in India during that period. Lack of consumer awareness and restrictions over entry of foreign players into the sector also contributed to the delay in the growth of organized retailing. Foundation for organized retail in India was laid by Kishore Biyani of Pantaloon Retails India Limited (PRIL). Following Pantaloon's successful venture a host of Indian business giants such as Reliance, Bharti, Birla and others are now entering into retail sector. Retailing is the most active and attractive sector of last decade. While the retailing industry itself has been present since ages in our country, it is only the recent past that it has witnessed so much dynamism. The emergence of retailing in India has more to do with the increased purchasing power of buyers, especially post-liberalization, increase in product variety, and increase in economies of scale, with the aid of modern supply and distributions solution. Indian retailing today is at an interesting crossroads. The retail sales are at the highest point in history and new technologies are improving retail productivity. though there are many opportunities to start a new retail business, retailers are facing numerous challenges. A number of factors are driving India's retail market. These include: increase in the young working population, hefty pay-packets, nuclear families in urban areas, increasing working-women population, increase in disposable income and customer aspiration, increase in expenditure for luxury items, and low share of organized retailing. India's retail boom is manifested in sprawling shopping centers, multiplex- malls and huge complexes that offer shopping, entertainment and food all under one roof. But there is a flip side to the boom in the retail sector. It is feared that the entry of global business giants into organized retail would make redundant the neighbourhood kiryana stores resulting in dislocation in traditional economic structure. Also, the growth path for organized retail in India is not hurdle free. The taxation system still favours small retail business. With the intrinsic complexities of retailing such as rapid price changes, constant threat of product obsolescence and low margins there is always a threat that the venture may turn out to be a loss making one. MANAGEMENT TEAM OF ADITYA BIRLA RETAIL LTD * Thomas Varghese, CEO – Aditya Birla Retail Ltd. * Russell Berman, CEO – Hypermarket * Satendra Aggarwal, CEO – Supermarket * Atul Daga, Head Finance * Ramesh Mitragotri, CPO * Manoj Krishnan, CIO * Shiv Murti, Chief Merchandising Officer * T V. Venkataraman, Head – Internal Audit * V. Gopalakrishnan, Head – Quality 2. GROWTH & PRESENT STATUS OF THE INDUSTRY Retailing is emerging as a sunrise industry in India and is presently the largest employer after agriculture. In the year 2004, the size of Indian organized retail industry was Rs 28,000 Crore, which was only 3% of the total retailing market. Retailing in its present form started in the latter half of 20th Century in USA and Europe and today cons titutes 20% of US GDP. It is the 3rd largest employer segment in USA. Organized retailing in India is projected to grow at the rate of 25%-30% p. a. and is estimated to reach an astounding Rs 1,00,000 Crore by 2010. The contribution of organized retail is expected to rise from 3% to 9% by the end of the decade. The projection for the current year ie 2005 is Rs 35,000 Crore. In India it has been found out that the top 6 cities contribute for 66% of total organized retailing. With the metros already been exploited, the focus has now been shifted towards the tier-II cities. The ‘retail boom', 85% of which has so far been concentrated in the metros is beginning to percolate down to these smaller cities and towns. The contribution of these tier-II cities to total organized retailing sales is expected to grow to 20-25%. In the year 2004, Rs 28,000 Crore organized retail industry had Clothing, Textiles & fashion accessories as the highest contributor (39%), where as health & beauty had a contribution of 2%. Food & Grocery contributed to 18% whereas Pharma had a contribution of 2%. Globally, the retail industry has grown at a brisk pace with a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7. 77% during the period 2001-2006. The growing expanse of the top global retailers has ensured globalization of the industry; however the opportunity for growth of organized retail is immense in countries such as India, S. Korea, and Vietnam etc. where organized retailing is still at an ascent stage. The Indian retail industry has witnessed a massive transition during the last few decades. The Indian retail has grown at a CAGR of 11. 2% during the period FY04-FY07, with food and grocery accounting for the major share. Despite the industry being dominated by the unorganized retailers, the organised retailing revenues have soared at a CAGR of 19. 5% during the period FY04-FY07. The apparel & footwear segment occupies the major share in the organised retail pie. The Indian retail industry has strong linkages with the economic growth and Development of the economy. It is primarily characterized by its hierarchical growth structure, high working capital requirements etc. The factors such as rising urbanization, growing consumer class, growing per capita expenditure, greater interest evinced by the Venture capitalists / Private equity firms in the industry etc. have been driving the growth of organised retail. The growth of modern retailing has led to the emergence of varied formats such as Departmental stores, Supermarkets etc. In addition, few other formats such as rural retailing, E-retailing, luxury retailing etc. too have found favours with the Indian retailers. Each format being distinct from the other, the viability of their operations depends upon various factors such as average footfalls, sales per sq. ft etc. However the numerous licensing requirements as compared to other countries have proved to be a bottleneck in the growth of Indian retailing. We have identified further requirements, advantages and disadvantages associated with the organized as well as unorganized retailing in India. On the basis of a detailed analysis incorporating the experience of other retailing locations across the globe, We feel that the co-existence of the organized and unorganized retailing in the Indian context cannot be denied. To estimate the size of the Indian retail industry and the penetration levels of organized retail in the urban and rural Indian markets for the period FY08-FY11, we have evolved an industry model incorporating three different scenarios i. e. Optimistic , Most Likely & Pessimistic. We expect that with the growing reach of modern retailers in the rural and urban reas, the penetration level of organized retailing would continue to grow, thereby resulting in the organized retail growth, surpassing the growth of total Indian retail during the period FY08-FY11. The Indian retail though largely dominated by the unorganized retailers has witnessed a massive transition in the last decade. Of the total retail sales, the food & grocery segment constitutes the major chunk. H owever in case of organized retail, the apparel & footwear segment stands as the major contributor. With varied segments of retailing i. e. Food & Grocery, Clothing & Footwear, Furniture & Furnishing, Jewellery, Beverages . The Indian population is whooping 1 billion with 75% of the people living in villages and small towns. It is only natural that the agricultural sector is the biggest employer with its contribution to GDP pegged at 26. 7%. Retail is India’s larges industry after Agriculture with around 20% of the economically active population engaged in it and generation 10% of our country’s GDP. The growth of the efficient small store culture can be attributed to the 6 million villages distributed across the length and breadth of the country. The 12 million retail outlets in India are the highest in the world, and cater to the purchase need of its pole. It is interesting to note, that the Urban Population although just 25% of the total, is an astounding 250 million in size and is growing at a healthy rate of 7% per annum. The chief driver of growth in the retail sector has been the consumer, with the spending increasing at an average of 11% per annum. The Core and the Lower middle have increased their share in the Growth 2. 3 FACTORS AFFECTING THE INDUSTRY * Demographic * Psychological Environmental * LifeStyle DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS Demographic factors are unique to a particular person. They are objective, quantifiable and easily identifiable population data such as sex, income, age, marital status etc. It also involves identification of who is responsible for the decision-making or buying and who is the ultimate consumer PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS Psychological factors refer to the intrinsic or inner aspects of the individual. An understanding of consumers’ psychology guides the marketers’ segmentation strategy. ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS Environmental factors cover all the physical and social characteristics of a consumer’s external world, including physical objects, spatial relationships, the social factors , customers, reference groups, social class . The environmental factors influence consumers’ wants, learning, motives, which in turn influence effective and cognitive responses and among other things the shopping behaviour of the individual. LIFESTYLE Lifestyle refers to an individual’s mode of living as identified by his or her activities, interests and opinions. Lifestyle variables have been measured by identifying a consumer’s day-to-day activities and interests. Lifestyle is considered to be highly correlated with consumer’s values and personality. An individual’s lifestyle is influenced by, among other things, the social group he belongs to and his occupation. For example, double-income-no-kids (DINKS) families in metros shop very regularly at the super malls because of the limited time at their disposal and they also look for entertainment while shopping on weekends. At the same time, they are higher spenders than, for e. . , single-income families. A study by imagesfashion. com highlights that Indian working women have to balance their wardrobe collection based on requirements of different occasions related to professional workplace or family gathering. CHAPTER 3 COMPANY PROFILE COMPANY PROFILE Aditya Birla Retail Limited is a part of the Aditya Birla Group. The Group has named it ‘More’. It offers prod ucts such as fruits, vegetables, grocery, frozen food, bakery, homecare, personal care and pharmacy. It also provides FMCG products and house brands. Aditya Birla Retail Limited has acquired Trinethra to assist it in creating a retail stronghold in south India. Trinethra, with its own chain of stores, will enable the company to expand its operations all over the country. The roots of the Aditya Birla Group date back to the 19th century in the picturesque town of Pilani, set amidst the Rajasthan desert. It was here that Seth Shiv Narayan Birla started trading in cotton, laying the foundation for the House of Birlas. Through India's arduous times of the 1850s, the Birla business expanded rapidly. In the early part of the 20th century, our Group's founding father, Ghanshyamdas Birla, set up industries in critical sectors such as textiles and fibre, aluminium, cement and chemicals. As a close confidante of Mahatma Gandhi, he played an active role in the Indian freedom struggle. He represented India at the first and second round-table conference in London, along with Gandhiji. It was at â€Å"Birla House† in Delhi that the luminaries of the Indian freedom struggle often met to plot the downfall of the British Raj. Ghanshyamdas Birla found no contradiction in pursuing business goals with the dedication of a saint, emerging as one of the foremost industrialists of pre-independence India. The principles by which he lived were soaked up by his grandson, Aditya Vikram Birla, our Group's legendary leader. | A formidable force in Indian industry, Mr. Aditya Birla dared to dream of setting up a global business empire at the age of 24. He was the first to put Indian business on the world map, as far back as 1969, long before globalisation became a buzzword in India. In the then vibrant and free market South East Asian countries, he ventured to set up world-class production bases. He had foreseen the winds of change and staked the future of his business on a competitive, free market driven economy order. He put Indian business on the globe, 22 years before economic liberalisation was formally introduced by the former Prime Minister, Mr. Narasimha Rao and the former Union Finance Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh. He set up 19 companies outside India, in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Egypt. Interestingly, for Mr. Aditya Birla, globalisation meant more than just geographic reach. He believed that a business could be global even whilst being based in India. Therefore, back in his home-territory, he drove single-mindedly to put together the building blocks to make our Indian business a global force. Under his stewardship, his companies rose to be the world's largest producer of viscose staple fibre, the largest refiner of palm oil, the third largest producer of insulators and the sixth largest producer of carbon black. In India, they attained the status of the largest single producer of viscose filament yarn, apart from being a producer of cement, grey cement and rayon grade pulp. The Group is also the largest producer of aluminium in the private sector, the lowest first cost producers in the world and the only producer of linen in the textile industry in India. At the time of his untimely demise, the Group's revenues crossed Rs. 8,000 crore globally, with assets of over Rs. 9,000 crore, comprising of 55 benchmark quality plants, an employee strength of 75,000 and a shareholder community of 600,000. Under the leadership of our Chairman, Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla, the Group has sustained and established a leadership position in its key businesses through continuous value-creation. Spearheaded by Grasim, Hindalco, Aditya Birla Nuvo, Indo Gulf Fertilisers and companies in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Egypt, the Aditya Birla Group is a leader in a swathe of products — viscose staple fibre, aluminium, cement, copper, carbon black, palm oil, insulators, garments. And with successful forays into financial services, telecom, software and BPO, the Group is today one of Asia's most diversified business groups. MR. KUMAR MANGALAM BIRLA CHAIRMAN, THE ADITYA BIRLA GROUP Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla is Chairman of the US$ 28 billion Aditya Birla Group and India’s first truly multinational corporation. An iconic figure, Mr. Birla holds several key positions on various regulatory and professional boards. MANAGEMENT The Aditya Birla Management Corporation Private Limited, is the Group's apex decision making body and provides strategic direction to Group companies. Its Board of Directors comprises:| | * Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman * Mr. S. Aga * Mr. D. Bhattacharya * Mr. S. K. Jain * Dr. S. Misra * Mr. S. Misra * Dr. B. K. Singh * Mr. K. K. Maheshwari * Mr. Vikram Rao * Mr. Ajay Srinivasan 3. 1 FUTURE PLANS OF THE ORGANISATION After acquiring south based Trinethra and plans to buy Pyramid Retail, the Aditya Birla group doesn’t want itself to be left behind in the race for getting their pie in the pecializ retail market. Instead of tying with Tesco, Carrefour, Woolworth, they have decided to go all alone. They plan to open 172 hypermarkets and supermarkets starting from Pune. While Subhiksha is mainly into neighbourhood stores, Future Group has a strategy of having single brand outlets to multi-brand seamless malls, similarly Reliance Retail has started with Fresh stores and Reliance Digital to be followed by opening up of hypermarkets and pecialized stores. Birla’s business style is perceived to be a little conservative, and they are investing Rs. 9,000 crores in this venture which will enable it to establish a pan-India footprint. The retail venture would be aided by the group’s companies like Madura Garments (a key component of retail sales), IDEA cellular (for technical and communication requirements of stores), financial services (for providing consumer loans on its goods). Organised retail sector’s growth is expected to be rapid, thus making it a valid and natural choice for AVB group to diversify in this sector. But, competition and late entry may somewhat derail the company’s retail growth rate to the overall industry rate. The sector may also face hurdles as owing to non-clarity of FDI in retail, foreign chains have postponed their plans of entry into India. â€Å"Our Mission is to Change the Way People Shop. We Will Give Them More. † 3. 2 PRODUCT ; SERVICE PROFILE At more. for you are committed to deliver quality ; value to our customers and have a range of private label brands as well as commercially branded products, offering – 100% satisfaction on the quality of the products ; services offered. ore. for you hosts a range of private label brands across various categories that follow stringent quality norms, and are available in attractive prices and packaging. Our premium products give you the opportunity to enjoy the difference and quality that is equal to or better than the market's leading brands, but at competitive prices. Recently our private label brands recei ved the coveted â€Å"The Most Admired Private Label† Golden Spoon award at the Food Forum India. We offer a wide range of assortment of over 4000 products, ranging from fresh food to beverages, grocery to household care products. Our range covers everything, from day-to-day essentials to traditional favorites, from delicious treats, to healthy alternatives. To ensure the freshest supply of fruits and vegetables for you, we have built direct linkage with the farmers. MORE provide some private labels also, More. label Food Brands : †¢Feasters †¢Kitchen's Promise †¢Best of India HYPERMARKET HYPERMARKET Apparels – Men/ Women Bakery Beverages Books and Audio ; Video Computer ; Accessories Do it yourself Auto Accessories Electronics FMCG Products Footwear Frozen ; Dairy Products Fruits ; Vegetables Furniture General Merchandise Apparels – Men/ Women Bakery Beverages Books and Audio ; Video Computer ; Accessories Do it yourself Auto Accessories Electronics FMCG Products Footwear Frozen ; Dairy Products Fruits ; Vegetables Furniture General Merchandise Bakery Beauty Concepts Beverages Basic Apparels Cutlery ; Cookware Fruits ; Vegetables Frozen ; Dairy Products FMCG Products Grocery Home Care Products Home Needs ; Home Upkeep Home Decor Products Personal Care ; Cosmetics Processed Food Ready to Cook/Prepared Food Bakery Beauty Concepts Beverages Basic Apparels Cutlery ; Cookware Fruits ; Vegetables Frozen ; Dairy Products FMCG Products Grocery Home Care Products Home Needs ; Home Upkeep Home Decor Products Personal Care ; Cosmetics Processed Food Ready to Cook/Prepared Food Following is the range of products offered by MORE stores to its customers. There are various products and services offered by MORE supermarket and hypermarket. SUPERMARKET SUPERMARKET SERVICES For customers additional benefit, Consumer Finance on electronics products such as: †¢Friendly Return ; Exchange Policy. Hassle free Return ; Exchange policy at more MEGASTORE. 3. 3 MARKET PROFILE OF THE ORGANIZATION Birla group instead of setting up its own retail outlets apart from their own Madhura garment outlets, are trying to enter into the retail business by acquiring already established retail chains. The company is mainly concentrating to establish its foot in Southern India than competing with others in most affluent metro and northern regi ons. To start with Birla group acquired Trinethra Super Retail chain that mainly operated in Andhra Pradesh with some presence in Kerala and Karnataka. Trinethra started retail business much before anyone could imagine the growth of the sector as it is today. Trinethra started in way back 1986 in the twin cities of Hyderabad-Secunderabad had revenues of Rs 250 crores from its 172 stores which are mostly the size of Reliance Fresh groceries stores [2,500 sft – 3,000 sft]. Apart from its grocery retail chain, Trinethra has also brought online shopping portal Fabmall to the fold of AV Birla group. Birla’s acquiring march does not stop here. The company is planning to acquire Piramid Retail and Niligiris. The latter will give Birla Retail, pan south-India presence. They are also planning to open 172 hypermarkets and supermarkets starting from Pune. Apart from operating two hypermarket stores under the umbrella brand name of â€Å"More.. for you† at Mysore and Vadodara, the retail arm of the group operates around 670 supermaket format, neighbourhood food, grocery, and general merchandise, stores across the country. These stores include the erstwhile stores of Trinethra retail chain, which after the acquisition were also rechristened as ‘More’ stores. More, under the stewardship of its new CEO Thomas Varghese, an old Birla hand, who was roped in after the Sumant Sinha, has taken several initiatives to revamp the operations of the loss making chain. Some of the initiatives include: Close some of the non performing stores. Take a re-look at the design, positioning and merchandise offered by the retail chain. Focus more on large sized stores. The retailer will set up hypermarts of 30,000 to 40,000 sq. ft. spce each. Aggressively expanding the retail network;add 200 Supermarket stores and 12 Hyper Ymart stores in 2009- 10. Renegotiation of property rentals for almost all leased properties with their landlords. The rents in some cases have come down by 30 to 40 percent. Introduction of private labels, mostly in fast moving consumer products category, to increase share of private labels to 40 per cent in the next 4 to 5 years. Look for earning rent from ’shop-in-shop’ opportunities. Recently, ‘Dial for Health’ wellness retail chain owned by Zydus group has inked an agreement to set up such outlets in Gujarat and Maharashtra. Look for a financial partner. â€Å"We are not looking at a strategic partner. We will be happy to have a financial partner. We have received lots of preliminary interest from investors. We would be open to this idea,† said Kumar Mangalam Birla. Some private equity firms like Warburg Pincus are believed to have shown interest equity stake in the company. Aditya Birla group, incidentally, also operates 340 apparel stores across the country of brands like Louis Phillippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly and Esprit in the lifestyle and value fashion segments. These stores are operated by Madura Garments Lifestyle ; Retail and Peter England Fashions ; Retail, which are part the group’s flagship company Aditya Birla Nuvo. The garments business, which clocked Q4 turnover of 273. 3 crore (2008-09) and a nett loss of Rs. 82. 2 crore during the quarter, has also embarked on several measures to stem the rot, including closure of 30 stores that will save around Rs 100 crore a year COMPANY’S VISION To consistently provide the Indian consumer complete and differentiated shopping experiences and be amongst India's Top retailers, while delivering superior returns to all stakeholders COMPANY’S MISSION To deliver superior value to our customers, shareholders, employees and society at large. COMPANY’S VALUES 0 Integrity 1 Commitment 2 Passion 3 Seamlessness 4 Speed COMPANY’S MILESTONES The Aditya Birla Group, India's first multinational corporation, traces its origins back to the tiny village of Pilani in the Rajasthan desert, where Seth Shiv Narayan Birla started cotton trading operations in 1857. Today, the Group's footprint extends to 25 countries and its revenues are US$ 28 billion. We retrace the highlights of this remarkable journey, starting from the present: 2011- Retail Icon Award 2010- Most Admired Retail Face of the Year 009- Reid & Taylor Awards 2008 – The President of India, Mrs. Pratibha Patil conferred the much coveted Rotary International Polio Eradication Champion Award on Mrs. Rajashree Birla in an elegant function at the Rashtrapati Bhavan (Delhi), attended by the Chairman, select Rotarians and WHO officials 2007- The Aditya Birla Group was honoured with the India Today Group's Readers Digest Gold award in recognition of the work t hat truly exemplifies the highest values of society as well as those of Reader's Digest. 2006- Hindalco in a joint venture with Almex USA Inc. Hindalco awarded the Greentech Safety Silver Award for its outstanding safety performance during 2005-06. 2005 -Indian Rayon re-christened as Aditya Birla Nuvo. 2004 -Board reconstituted with Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla taking over as Chairman. .2003 -Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman of the Group, is selected as Business India's Businessman of the Year – 2003. 2002 -The Grasim board approves an open offer for purchase of up to 20 per cent of the equity of L;T, in accordance with the provisions and guidelines issued by the Securities ; Exchange Board of India Regulations, 1997. 001 -Grasim acquires 2. 50 crore shares — representing just over 10 per cent of the equity — in L&T from Reliance Industries Ltd. 2000 -Indian Rayon acquires Madura Garments and selected overseas brand rights, taking the Group to the top of the league in the branded apparels sector. 1999 -A joint venture with financial services major Sun Life of Canada is inked, as part of the overall restru cturing of the Group's financial services business. 1998 -The Group forms a 50:50 joint venture company with Tembec Inc. of Canada, called A. V. Cell Inc. , to supply pulp for the Group's VSF operations. 996 -To honour the memory of the late Aditya Birla, a new corporate logo – Aditya, the rising sun – is launched. 1995 -The Group enters the telecommunications sector through a joint venture with AT&T (USA). 1994 -The Birla Growth Fund is renamed Birla Global Finance Limited, as its span of operations expands.. 1992 -Thai Epoxy and Allied Products commences production of Epoxy Resins in Thailand. 1991 -Pan Century Oleochemicals commences production of fatty acids and glycerine in Malaysia. 1990 -Mr Kumar Mangalam Birla gets actively involved in the Group's operations. 989 -Thai Peroxide commences manufacturing of hygrogen peroxide solutions in Thailand. 1988 -The government liberalises the petroleum industry. The Aditya Birla Group enters into a joint venture with Hindu stan Petroleum Corporation Ltd to set up a three-million-tonne refinery, Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), at Mangalore, Karnataka. 1987 -Indian Rayon is renamed as Indian Rayon and Industries Limited (IRIL), to reflect its wide horizon of activities. 1986 -The Birla Growth Fund is set up to finance industrial equipment, plant and machinery and consumer durables, as well as for stock market operations. 985 -India's first gas-based fertiliser plant in the private sector – Indo Gulf – goes on stream at Jagdishpur, UP. 1984 -Thai Polyphosphates and Chemicals commences production of sodium phosphates in Thailand. 1982 – Indo Bharat Rayon is established. It is the first producer of Viscose Staple Fibre in Indonesia. CHAPTER 4 DEPARTMENTAL PROFILE FUNCTIONAL DEPARTMENT OF THE ORGANISATION * HR AND TRAINING * PROJECT AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT * COMMERCIAL AND ACCOUNTS * ADMINISTRATION * IT * LOSS PREVENTION AND RISK MANAGEMENT * MARKETING * SUPPLY CHAI N 4. 1 FUNCTIONAL AREAS IN BUSINESS In a large organisation, it is usually easier to identify separate functional areas because people work together in departments. Each department carries out the tasks that relate to its particular area. The purposes of functional areas- The main purpose of functional areas is to ensure that all important business activities are carried out efficiently. This is essential if the business is to achieve its aims and objectives. In addition, specific areas will be responsibility for supporting specific types of aims and objectives, 4. 1. 1 HR AND TRAINING DEPARTMENT The human resources (HR) and training function- HR is responsible for recruiting new employees and ensuring that each vacancy is filled by the best person for the job. This is important because the recruitment process is expensive and time-consuming. Hiring the wrong person can be costly and cause problems both for the individual and the firm.. HR aims to ensure that the business retains good, experienced staff. Analysing staff-turnover figures will show the rate at which people leave the organisation The department includes-Human resources functions such us: Advertising job vacancies * Notifying staff of promotion opportunities * Receiving and recording all job applications, arranging interviews and notifying candidates of the result * Sending a contract of employment and other essential information to new staff * Arranging staff training and encouraging continuous professional development * Monitoring the working conditions of staff * Checking health and safety and keeping accident records * Recording sick leave and reasons for absence * Carrying out company welfare policies, e. g. long-service awards and company loans Advising managers on the legal rights and responsibilities of the company and its employees * Keeping records of grievances and disciplinary actions and their outcome * Monitoring the terms and conditions of employment, including wage rates * Maintaining staff records * Liaising with staff associations or trade unions which represent the workforce 4. 1. 2 PROJECT AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT The field of commerce, business development comprises a number of techniques and responsibilities which aim at attracting new customers and at penetrating existing markets. Techniques used include: †¢Intelligence gathering on customers and competitors †¢ Generating leads for possible sales †¢Advising on, drafting and enforcing sales policies and processes †¢Follow-up sales activity †¢Formal proposal and presentation management and writing †¢Business model design †¢Account planning and performance monitoring †¢Proposition development and campaign development The department includes:- 1). Business research – gathering, studying, analyzing information This is one of the main functions of business development department. Team of analysts, statisticians and experts work at regular studying and monitoring of external environment – clients, industry, market, company's image, macro economy etc. in order to find potential opportunities and determine their feasibility, expediency and prospect, to analyze different scenarios and support elaboration of business development strategies. 2) Short-term and long-term business planning When certain business opportunity is defined and well-grounded it should be discussed with specialists of concerning departments and company management. Information obtained by business development department is a background for elaborating of short-term and long-term business plans. When opportunity and objectives are considered and agreed with all participants of the process the plan of opportunity realization can be developed and development project initiated. As a result of cooperation of a cross-department team the plan is elaborated into specific tasks that can be assigned to executers and controlled by specialists of business development department, so they can be aware about progress of development plan realization. ). Collaboration with other departments One of the functions of business development department is to give recommendations and consultations regarding questions of development of other departments and general company organization. For effective performance of this function good internal communications should be established. Analysts from business development department should be able to share and discuss documents , tasks and projects with specialists from other departments. 4. 1. 3 COMMERCIAL AND ACCOUNTS DEPARTMENT MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTANTS Management accountants perform three functions. Scorekeeping-accumulate data and report reliable results to all levels of management Attention-directing-make visible opportunities and problems on which managers need to focus Problem-solving-conduct comparative analysis to identify the best alternatives in relation to the organization’s goals FINANCIAL ACCOUNTANTS They are concerned with the preparation of the statutory accounts. All outlets must provide a Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Account each year, and most produce a cash flow statement as well. The objective of financial statements is to provide information about the financial position, performance and changes in financial position of an entity that is useful to a wide range of users in making economic decisions. Financial statements prepared for this purpose meet the common needs of most users. Financial statements do not provide all the information that users may need to make economic decisions since they largely portray the financial effects of past events and do not necessarily provide non-financial information. A credit controller- Finance staff support the accountants by keeping financial records, chasing up late payments and paying for items purchased. Use computer accounting packages to record financial transactions and prepare their accounts as well as spreadsheets to analyse financial data. Finance departments prepare the payroll and pay staff salaries 4. 1. 4 ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT Senior administrators carry out a wide range of tasks, from monitoring budgets to interviewing new staff for their departments. Routine administrative tasks include opening the mail, preparing and filing documents, sending emails and faxes. Others require more creativity and flexibility, such as arranging travel or important events, from staff meetings to visits by foreign customers. Administrators also deal with external customers who judge the business on the way their enquiry is handled. Administrative function includes:- * Collecting, distributing and dispatching the mail * Storing and retrieving paper and electronic records * Organising meetings and preparing meetings documents * Responding promptly to enquiries * Preparing documents using word processing, spreadsheet and presentation packages, such as PowerPoint * Researching information Sending and receiving messages by telephone, fax and email * Making arrangements for visitors. * Making travel arrangements * Purchasing supplies of office stationery and equipment * Making arrangements for events, such as interviews or sales conferences 4. 1. 5 IT DEPARTMENT The Functions are: * IT department carry out strategically important projects which are intended for impro ving of company's IT infrastructure. Such projects are performed by IT specialists of different professions and are controlled not only by IT department managers, but supervised by company management as well. IT department supervisors fulfill the technological management according to their duties and business supervisors control the financial, time and strategic part of the project and need to be in touch with project performance. * System administrators perform a number of periodical tasks which are required for stable and effective work of IT systems and for informational security. * Ensuring that the network infrastructure is up and running, applying operating system updates, patches, and configuration changes, performing backups and restores, hardware monitoring and troubleshooting, etc. . 1. 6 LOSS PREVENTION AND RISK MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT Functions performed in this department are: * Frequent checking of stock * Provides security against man made loss theft (Alarm system) * Lo ok after the arrangements in the warehouse * They are concerned with the returning of the expired products 4. 1. 7 MARKETING DEPARTMENT Marketing is all about identifying and meeting customer needs. Many businesses consider this so important that they are said to be marketing led. In this case, everyone in the organisation is trained to put the ustomer first from the production worker, who has to produce high quality goods, to the accounts clerk, who must respond to a customer enquiry promptly and accurately. Marketing function includes:- * Carrying out market research to obtain feedback on potential and existing products and/or services * Analysing market research responses and advising senior managers of the results and implications * Promoting products and services through a variety of advertising and promotional methods * Obtaining and updating a profile of existing customers to target advertising and promotions appropriately Producing and distributing publicity materials, such as catalogues or Brochures * Designing, updating and promoting the company website 4. 1. 8 SUPPLY CHAIN DEPARTMENT Supply chain department function include: †¢ Supply Planning and Sales ; Operations Planning (S;OP) †¢ Distribution Requirement Planning (DRP) †¢ Supply Chain Operations – Warehousing ; Transportation †¢ Materials Requirement Planning (MRP) †¢ Purchasing †¢ Imports ; Exports 4. 2 ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE OF ADITYA BIRLA RETAIL LTD Chairman Chairman CEO CEO SUPERMARKET SUPERMARKET HYPERMARKET HYPERMARKET REGIONAL HEAD REGIONAL HEAD ZONAL HEAD ZONAL HEAD TERRITORY MANAGER TERRITORY MANAGER CLUSTER MANAGER CLUSTER MANAGER STORE MANAGER STORE MANAGER SUPERVISOR SUPERVISOR CSA CSA CHAPTER 5 SWOT ANALYSIS 5. 1 STRENGTH * Pattern of consumption changing along with shopping trends. * A Growing population will translate to move consumers. * Consumer spending increasing at 11% annually. * Paradigm shift in shopping experience for consumers pulling in more people. 5. 2 WEAKNESSES * Shortage of quality retail spaces at affordable rates. Government regulations on development of real estate(Urban Land Ceiling Act) * Need to provide Value for Money-squeezing margins * Lack of industry status.. * Footfalls not a clear indicator of sales as actual consumers lower in number. * Lack of huge investments for expansion. 5. 3 OPPORTUNITIES * Increasing urban population * Increase in consuming middle class population. * Social factors like dual household income has enhanced spending power. * Spends moving towards lifestyle products and esteem enhancing products. * Average grocery spends at 42% of monthly spends-presents a huge opportunity. Increase in use of credit cards. 5. 4 THREATS * Personalized service offered by other stores. * Unavailability of qualified personnel to support exponential growth in stores * Differentiate taxation laws hindering expansion. * Competed stores * Lake of development infrastructural needs * Dissimilarity in consumer groups * Shortage of trained manpower * Low retail management skill CHAPTER 6 FINDINGS, SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSION 6. 1 FINDINGS * The current contribution sector of retail sector 14% and its expected to climb up in the coming years. The different depts. of Aditya Birla ltd are functioning smoothly * Understood the factors regarding the location of business outlet. * Consumers generaly not satisfied with product range. They need more variety of products. 6. 2 SUGGESTIONS * People generally search for the product on offer so the high margin product should be up fronted that means those item should be in such a way that it easily catches customers attention and generate impulse purchase. * Some of the measures taken by Loss and Prevention department are not applicable. The IT Department should provide solutions for basic problems to the store managers in outlets. * New outlets should be open at convenient locations. * The outlet should introduce new and attractive promotional offers. * The retail outlet should new products range. * The outlet should have enough parking spaces for vehicles. 6. 3 CONCLUSION Through my ORGANISATION STUDY and job responsibilities I handled in the organization, I came to a conclusion that the company should provide information to stores to concentrate more on the fruits and vegetables section as it is perishable in nature and has a short shelf life. The company should be flexible to adapt to the changes which occurs in the retailing industry. Store should take more care on promotional activities because all other retail stores are giving more promotional activities than More. Most people are not aware about the seasonal offers in More stores. BIBLIOGRAPHY SOURCES OF DATA 1. RETAIL MANAGEMENT BY S. G SHARMA 2. INTERNET SITES www. info. com www. morestore. com