Eminent Domain Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Eminent Domain - Assignment Example Therefore, in this book, Epstein answers four questions: What constitutes a taking of private property? When is the taking not compensated? When is the taking for public use? And when is the taking compensated in cash or in kind? Ryskamp John. The Eminent Domain Revolt: Changing Perceptions in a New Constitutional Epoch. New York: Algora Publishing. 2007. This book gives an explanation on the anger against the eminent domain. It provides an in depth analysis of the profound legal issues and proposed changes that are far a head of seizing of property and regulations of land use. Ryskamp gives a report on the law and politics of eminent domain after the decision of the Supreme Court on the case of Kelo versus the city of New London on June 2005. The book also explains the need for all states to start debating on how to reform their eminent domain laws for it is unconstitutional. Although some legal scholars may not agree with Ryskamp on this issue, this book convinces many readers that they must begin to understand the legal principles involved in this controversy surrounding the eminent domain. Aspen Publishers. ... Among the cases or legal briefs covered in this book is the case of Kelo versus the city of New London. The book provides a comprehensive analysis of the case and how the Supreme Court ruled on the same. The book is keyed to particular casebooks by title or author for greater student accessibility. Scaros E. Constantinos. Understanding the Constitution. Massachusetts: Jones and Bartlett Learning. 2010. The constitution of United States of America was created so many years ago but its historical importance and value still impact the lives of many significantly. Constantinos’ book, Understanding the Constitution, enables the readers to understand and appreciate the United States constitution and its significance on individuals’ daily lives. The book also gives analysis on the relevant topics, such as the controversial eminent domain, that are hotly debated. It provides a good understanding of the eminent domain, the takings clause of the Fifth Amendment and their provisio ns. Without making assumption on previous knowledge of the law, Constantions’ book is an ideal reader friendly introduction to constitutional law. Malloy Paul Robin. Private Property, Community Development, and Eminent Domain (Law, Property and Society). Publishing, Ltd. 2008. This book discusses the fundamental relationship between the government and its citizens and among the citizens themselves. The discussion is centered on the recent ruling of the US Supreme Court on the case of Kelov versus the city of New London (2005). The case involved the use of eminent domain power by the state to transfer private property from Kelov to another private party who would economically make better use of the land. Although the Supreme

Taxation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 8

Taxation - Essay Example Lastly, for individuals, the taxation of savings affects the decision on savings and when to allocate their assets. This system of taxation has a lot of impacts to the communities involved and has numerous recommendations. Generally, the whole issue is tied on people’s general saving behavior. Every time a taxation system surfaces people tend to adjust their saving behaviors. This is just normal because taxes play an important role is asset finance. Widely, we tend to save less when our incomes are low and needs are high (Buguignon 2005, 39). Therefore to save one cannot rely on an income to save. We save or run down our existing wealth when the amount for consumption differs from the amount of income they receive in a particular time period. The present paper addresses precisely these issues and suggests a normative framework to analyze tax policy in which social preferences are concerned by individual utilities instead of the ambiguous concept of ‘household welfare’. Individual level data are rare and even more difficult is the measure of individual welfare so that we resort to the use of a structural multi-utility model with minimalist assumptions regarding preferences. Moreover, social evaluation of welfare - at individual or household level – requires the formal framework of the optimal taxation theory. This way, the paper suggests one of the very first attempts to reconcile two branches of the economic literature which are usually dissociated. On the one hand, we benefit from the collective model of labor supply (Chiappori, 1988, 12) which acknowledges explicitly the presence in the household of several deciders whose preferences may differ. The decision making process - the incentive constraint of the social planner - relies on the sole Assumption that household decisions are Pareto-efficient. This setting allows

Repurposing as a Future Strategy for Pharmaceutical Research

Repurposing as a Future Strategy for Pharmaceutical Research With the urgent need for new treatments for serious diseases and concerns about other existing unmet patient needs as well as the cost of traditional drug discovery and other productivity issues on the constant increase, drug repurposing has become an attractive alternative. Drug repurposing is defined as the process of discovering new indications for existing drug compounds (Tari and Patel, 2014). Tari Patel (2014) further explain that the concept behind drug repurposing is â€Å"that novel drug indications can be identified based on the principle that a primary drug target can be associated with diseases other than its original drug indication.† Various systematic approaches have been proposed for finding new indications for drugs; some of this include discovering drugs hat share a significant number of side effects as they may have similar actions and those with similar chemical compounds. The most cited success for drug repositioning is sildenafil, a drug developed by Pfi zer and originally indicated for the treatment of angina but was discovered to show an improvement in patients suffering from erectile dysfunction as well (Pantziarka et al, 2014) [online] Drug repurposing is becoming the surest way to both provide treatment for both new and old diseases, as well as reducing greatly the cost of production of these treatments. Persidis (2011) [online] lists a couple of advantages crediting this, some of which include that pre-existing drugs or those which have been proven to be safe at late-stage trials greatly reduce development risk even when repurposed for potentially new indications. The article continues to add that there is a massive money saving advantage when comparing launching a repurposed drug into the market with launching a completely new formulation to pharmaceutical companies owning original use rights to the drug. On the other hand, NCBI suggests that as drugs are only approved for specific therapeutic indications within clear safety boundaries and after intense investigation, finding new drug-target interactions is most often hampered by safety issues regarding dosage and delivery capability as discovery of a repurposed drug working within the approved therapeutic window is a rare occurrence; suggesting also that even in a case where appropriate formulations and delivery devices were available to eliminate the problems associated with dosage and delivery within the narrow therapeutic window, the issue of lack of integration with pharmaceutical and toxicological sciences still persists. These go without including the problems associated with protection of intellectual property as various new drug-target-disease triplets are often disclosed by various online databases. Repositioned drugs have been a huge success in providing effective remedies for a large number of patients suffering from a wide range of diseases, have promised to deliver new treatments for even more diseases including some of the most perverse diseases the plague the central nervous system, cardio-vascular system, many metabolic disorders and cancer. Precisely, the scope of drug repurposing can be widened in future to cater for the development of drugs with multiple targets as in the area of oncology and those which target disease in various ways as in obesity. It can even more importantly create opportunities for the development of second-generation drugs (Sehkon, 2013) Therefore, despite any disadvantages that may arise in the process of repositioning drugs, the process remains the most effective of its kind in recent times and hence plays a very important role in pharmaceutical research concerning future drug discovery. It is important to note that though most repurposed drugs have desirable pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics properties especially those that have passed various clinical trial stages about 2000 of these drugs lie dormant of various companies’ shelves and Barratt and Frail (2012) suggest that this number grows at the rate of 150-200 drugs every year. Sequentially, this number creates more than adequate substrate on which a repurposing strategy can be developed and as discontinued compounds are a by-product of carrying out business in the pharmaceutical environment, there will never be a shortage of them. Hence, learning from these failures and applying the ever evolving science behind human biology and diseases will not only salvage efforts made in the research and development environment but also lead to the development of a very viable business model while significantly decreasing the risk of failure, cost of production and cycle time. Bibliography Sehkon, BS 2013, ‘Repositioning drugs and biologics: Retargeting old/existing drugs for potential new therapeutic applications’, Journal Of Pharmaceutical Education Research, 4, 1, pp. 1-15, Academic Search Index, EBSCOhost, viewed 18 November 2014. Tari, L. B. and Patel J. H. (2014) [online] ‘Systematic Drug Repurposing Through Text Mining’ Biomedical Literature Mining vol. 1159, pp. 253-267 Available at: http://www.springerprotocols.com/Abstract/doi/10.1007/978-1-4939-0709-0_14 [Accessed: 18th November, 2014] Barratt, M. J. and Frail, D. E. (2012) Drug repositioning: Bringing New Life to Shelved Assets and Existing Drugs John Wiley Sons, Inc. Pantziarka, P., Bouche, G., Meheus, L.., Sukhatme, V., Sukhatme, V. P. (2014) [online] ‘The Repurposing Drugs in Oncology (ReDO) Project’ ecancermedicalscience pp. 3 Available at: http://ecancer.org/journal/8/full/442-the-repurposing-drugs-in-oncology-redo-project.php [Accessed: 17th November, 2014] Persidis, A. (2011) [online] ‘The benefits of drug repositioning’ Drug Discovery World Available at: http://www.ddw-online.com/business/p142737-the-benefits-of-drug-repositioning-spring-11.html [Accessed: 17th November, 2014] Tudor I. Oprea, Julie E. Bauman,Cristian G. Bologa, Tione Buranda, Alexandre Chigaev, Bruce S. Edwards, Jonathan W. Jarvik, Hattie D. Gresham,Mark K. Haynes,Brian Hjelle,Robert Hromas,Laurie Hudson,Debra A. Mackenzie,Carolyn Y. Muller,John C. Reed,Peter C. Simons,Yelena Smagley,Juan Strouse, Zurab Surviladze,Todd Thompson,Oleg Ursu,Anna Waller,Angela Wandinger-Ness,Stuart S. Winter,Yang Wu,Susan M. Young,Richard S. Larson,Cheryl Willman,andLarry A. Sklar (2012) [online] ‘Drug repurposing from an academic perspective’

Ways To Fight The Drug War Essay -- essays research papers

Drug use has risen sharply in the United States in the past 40 years, with an estimated 23.6 million teenagers using illegal drugs within the past year. Preventing drug use has been a major issue in the area of politics, schools, or within families. Drug abuse occurs whenever the use of a drug causes physical or mental harm to the user. So far, society has been abusing drugs since the later nineteenth century, a time when the sale, purchase, possession, and use of drugs was not regulated. Dangerous drugs such as morphine, opium, and cocaine were used mainly for medical purposes including cures for depression, nervousness, alcoholism, and menstrual cramps. Because of the availability of these powerful drugs, people became addicts. In 1900, there were actually more narcotic addicts in the US than there are today; however, most of the users who became addicts were medical addicts. Very few users took drugs for recreational use only. In 1914 as an effort to curb drug abuse in the United States, the government passed the Harrison Act, which made illegal to obtain a narcotic drug without a doctor’s prescription. There were nearly half a million addicts at the beginning of 1920 and by 1945 there were only 30,000 to 40,000 addicts. The demand for drugs began to rise again in the 1960’s and continues to rise today. With this scary thought in mind, the United States needs find a solution to the rising drug problem, and fast.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Every year, more drugs are di...

Descriptive Essay Final Copy

I grab my bag and a hair-tie from the vanity on my way Out the door, tying my waist-length brown hair in a knot as I hurry down the stairs. My nana stands at the stove, stirring the pot of gravy she is making for breakfast. Behind her stands my papaw, playfully yanking her ponytail every time she turns around. At first glance one would think that they make an odd couple, with my nana being only five feet tall, with fox-red hair and hazel green eyes, in near perfect contrast to my papaw who is a large man, standing nearly six foot four, with eyes the color of the sky and white air that was once jet black.But as they laugh and play standing there in the kitchen, I know this place would mean nothing if they were any different. I slip on my boots at the door, and run across the field to the old wooden barn, its red has long faded, and the metal door handles are covered with rust. Reach out and grab the rusty handle and pull, hearing the ancient hinges creak and groan as the door opens. W alking into the barn can smell the fresh hay, and the lingering smell of the old moonshine still that sits in the corner, unattended for years, but left for the antique look.I climb the ladder to the loft, and wade through the piles of hay until reach the little door that opens onto the roof. Climb out onto the roof and walk to the end of the barn. There sit down, my leg hanging over the edge of the black shingled roof. I sit and watch as the deer run across the field, and as the train go by down next to the river. Reach in my bag and pull out my sketch pad and charcoals. I draw everything I see, the river, the birds, and the mountains. After I finish, climb down and run to the house; pause at the door, leaning own to pull off my boots.I open the door, and step into the kitchen, the floor is warm from the heat of the old white stove, causing tiny droplets of condensation to form on the speckled blue wallpaper. Nana has already set the table, her faded blue and white china resting in front of three chairs on the blue table cloth that covers the deep brown oak table. On each plate sit two biscuits, golden and gleaming with butter, accompanied by sausage and fried eggs. Grab the pot from the Stove and ladle the thick, creamy gravy onto everyone's plates.The steam rises from each plate like a plume of smoke from a tiny fire, taking with it the wonderful smell of my nana's cooking. As we sit down to eat, we join hands and my papaw gives the blessing; thanking God for the food he has provided on this day, and for forty years h?s had with the wonderful woman who cooked it. See my nana smile with love for my papaw, her head still bowed in prayer as we say ‘amen. ‘ As we raise our heads, I smile too, knowing that this place is filled with love and laughter and always will be.

The Cultural Revolution in China essays

The Cultural Revolution in China essays The Cultural Revolution that took place in China can be considered to be one of the most important experiences of the 20th century. It represented the result of a series of contextual events that marked the emergence of the phenomenon, and in its turn, it influenced the future evolution of events, to this day. In order to proper understand the complexity of the issue, it is important to analyze the event from a historical perspective. At the same time however, although the approach is chronological, there are essential issues that must be stressed out. Therefore, the events that took place in the late 1960s and the first half of the 1970s had important internal and external causes that should be pointed out for a comprehensive perception of the historical context. Next, the logical evolution of the paper focuses on the actual manifestations of what became known as the Great Cultural Revolution. Finally, aiming to offer a complex image of the entire political, economic, social and cultural of this phenomenon, the focus is on the actual effects of the revolution on all walks of life. As a conclusion, it is important to point out the necessity of an overview from multiple perspectives. The historical context of the revolution had in fact deep rooted components that defined the historical atmosphere both after the end of the war, and prior to the May16th 1966 manifesto. There are two different perspectives that must be taken into account. On the one hand there is the matter of internal factors, and on the other, the elements that determined the phenomenon to emerge and develop from the exterior. According to some scholars, the totalitarian regime in China emerged as a reaction against the countrys political disintegration during the early part of the twentieth century. This response followed the failure of the Nationalists to build up a unified party and a reintegrated polity soon enough to withstand t...

Century Family Trends Essays

Century Family Trends Essays Century Family Trends Essay Century Family Trends Essay I noticed that there are more single parent households than there were in the seventeen hundreds. Families are no longer a father and a mother raising their shared kin under one roof. Mothers of young children are working outside their home and providing for their family, rather than having a man providing for them. Today we have much more diversity, we have, adoptions, single parent households, gay and lesbians raising families and single people living on their own. Husbands and wives no longer feel the need to stay together from, death do us part, since we now have the option of getting a divorce. Parents these days are a lot less strict with their children and have much less control over them, due to technology and lack of authority. Some major differences I have noticed between today and the 18th century families are: women no longer feel less significant than the men, children are no longer under such strict rules and a hawks eye, and women have become more independent. In the 18th century, women relied solely on the men in their lives to provide security and stability for them and their family, men were their heads, which means that they were above them and were to be treated with utmost respect. Today we have working women who are more than capable of providing for themselves and their family all on their own. Children today have so much freedom, often times they dont know what to do with themselves. Children waste days playing video games, or getting high in the basement while their parents are away, not considering what the consequences might be for not finishing homework, or skipping school. As a punishment, parent today may ground their children, which usually results in the compensation of their phones. In the 18th century not only did children to have the option of playing video games, but they had very strict rules to follow and if they were to disobey, or lie, they were to be beaten. Children had six laws to abide by. If a parent were to beat their child today, said parent would be facing Jail time. Women today are much more independent, and hold equal rights to that of a man. Women today are owners of companies and their own houses. In the 18th century women had few rights and were unable to work, unless they were a servant. There are many differences between todays families and families in the 18th century. 18th Century Family Trends By primordial

Are our zoos cruel to wild animals Essay Example for Free

Are our zoos cruel to wild animals Essay Zoos are places that often visited by the people for recreation, moreover for the family who has child. They can find many kinds of animal, without going to the wild forest. Zoos can make the visitors happy, but it might not be the same condition as the wild animal’s feeling. I trust that zoos are cruel to the faunas. Numeruous people think that zoos are good for the wild animals. Keeping animals in the zoos can save the animals from extinction than let them free in their habitat. In their wild habitat, the animal might be killed by their enemies. If they live in the zoo, they could not be killed by their predators because they live in each cage. In addition, they also think that not all of the zoo are cruel to the wild animal because some of them have standart operational procedures how to protect animal in the zoos, for example is Safari Park Zoos, the biggest zoos in Indonesia. On the other hand, there are some reasons that can explain why zoos are cruel to the animals. First of all, zoos are not condusive for wild animal’s life. They should live in their free habitat. They could feel bored with the limited place that is available in the zoo. Also they cannot interact with the other animals. It can make them feel depressed. If the faunas feel uncomfortable with their habitat, they cannot reproduce well. So, their offspring will be stopped and the wild animals will be extinct. Except that, the zookeepers also make some mistakes. The zookeepers usually does not take care of the animals. They does not give the suitable food for the animals, does not keep the animals clean, and does not give the good treatment for the animals which are getting sick. The zookeeper sometimes exploitate the animals for their commercial aims. They do not care with their condition. Perhaps the wild animal is already tired, but the zookeeper still force them to entertain the visitors. The examples are elephant and dolphin which work hard for entertainment events in the zoo. All in all, it requires the zoos management to improve their ability in managing the zoos. They can decorate the zoos as similar as possible to their natural habitat. They also should make training for the zookepers. So, they can give the better treatment for the animals. Are our zoos cruel to wild animals. (2016, Apr 02).

Compare and contrast types of feedback Research Paper

Compare and contrast types of feedback - Research Paper Example The primary aim of providing formative feedback is to update the employees about their work and performance in a timely basis so as to ensure proper completion of the assigned tasks and duties by the employees (Judson & Harrison, 2009). Formative feedback can help an employee to focus on his/her on their weaknesses and further provides platform to work upon this limitations to enhance and improve their performance. This type of feedback can be implemented to all levels of the organisation. On the other hand summative feedback is also widely used in the organizations as a tool for improving the performance of employees. Summative feedback reflects the level of excellence that the employees demonstrative while meeting with the requirements of the organizations. It also helps the employees to understand their level of performance and also helps them in analyzing those areas where they can improve (White, 2009). As per the learning, it is identified that formative feedback offers timely update about the employee’s performances and is generally concern with identifying weaknesses whereas summative feedback primarily emphasise s on the level of excellency demonstrated by employees while they meet with the organizational goals and objectives. Nonetheless, it can be argued that both the types of feedback are delivered for the sole purpose of educating the employees and thereby intending to improve their individual

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome - Essay Example According to D'Amico and Barbarito (2012), health history is a way of obtaining information about patients’ health based on their own words and perceptions. P.W’s case requires a health history assessment that would help in evaluating the cause of her health condition. In evaluating her health history, interviewing her about the family’s past and present health history would help to understand the nature of her condition and diagnose effective lifestyle measures. In addition, the physical examination would help in studying underlying physical symptoms presented by the patient and enhance accurate diagnosis (Brashers, 2006).  According to D'Amico and Barbarito (2012), health history is a way of obtaining information about patients’ health based on their own words and perceptions. P.W’s case requires a health history assessment that would help in evaluating the cause of her health condition. In evaluating her health history, interviewing her about t he family’s past and present health history would help to understand the nature of her condition and diagnose effective lifestyle measures. In addition, the physical examination would help in studying underlying physical symptoms presented by the patient and enhance accurate diagnosis (Brashers, 2006).  For effective diagnosis, I would:†¢ Ask P.W questions about her past health and take the history specifically for patterns associated with menstruation, obesity, breast development and hirsutism.  Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ Conduct a physical examination through inspection methods. This would involve conducting gynecologic ultrasonography that would help in identifying small ovarian follicles that disturb ovarian functions with failed ovulation.  Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ Measure blood pressure level, waist size, and body mass index. I would also inspect the skin for any increased hair growth. This would help in determining the effects on hormonal imbalances on hair growth or changes of the skin textur e.  For P.W to manage her condition, I would recommend the following:†¢ Birth control pills would help in controlling menstrual cycles, clearing acne as well as reducing hormone levels.  

Demonstrative Communication Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Demonstrative Communication Paper - Essay Example It also reveals how people relate to each other. Nonverbal or demonstrative communication accounts for about 93 percent of people’s communication. Types of demonstrative communication Demonstrative communication involves different types of communication. Facial expressions contribute a large portion to people’s communication. For instance, a smile or a frown can communicate a lot of information to the receiver. People throughout the world use facial expressions to express happiness, sadness, anger, and fear. Gestures also contribute to non-verbal communication. These are movements and signals that that provide meaning during communication. Their meanings can be more important than words. Paralinguistic can also convey a lot of information during communication. These mainly involve the use of vocal communication such as tone of voice, loudness, and pitch. The type of vocal variation in a particular conveyance of information can bring out a different meaning depending on the context. Body language and posture can also convey a lot of information. Such nonverbal behaviors can indicate feelings and other communication cues. Demonstrative communication may start at an early stage in human development when people start to point at things. The making of gestures by small kids may be a start point for learning demonstrative communication in life. ... 470). Effective and ineffective demonstrative communication Depending on the context, demonstrative communication can be effective or ineffective. The effectiveness of demonstrative communication varies differently between the sender and the receiver. Demonstrative communication involves understanding the feeling of each stakeholder in the communication. There has to be an understanding between the sender and the receiver. Demonstrative communication can be very effective especially for teachers. Their line of work dictates that the teacher has to make the students understand whatever he/she is teaching. The best method to increase students understanding is the use of demonstrative communication in addition to verbal communication while teaching. Demonstrative communication can be very effective depending on the context at hand. For example, facial expressions can be very effective in warning kids. Whenever a kid does something wrong, it is common for parents to give the kids an angr y kind of look. Instantly, the kid stops doing the wrong thing. Such a scenario demonstrates the effectiveness of facial expressions in communicating to kids. Ineffective communication occurs when the speaker uses the wrong nonverbal message to deliver certain information. For instance, using hand gesture to point to a certain direction when the intention was to point to the opposite direction. Wrong choice of nonverbal message can send a different message to the audience. This may make the audience to perceive a different message from the intended Positive and negative effects of demonstrative communication The perception of demonstrative communication can be positive or negative depending on how the receiver. For instance, picture a company meeting where everyone is

Interview on ethical dilemma part 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Interview on ethical dilemma part 2 - Essay Example She asserts that the Bible does not allow any form of human interference with human life. As such, death should not be voluntary or induced. The autonomy of a patient to choose his or her destiny as far as health is concerned fails to consider other interested factions. Thus, patients cannot decide to end their lives since repercussion run deep within the society. Euthanasia leads to wider social problems and introduces discomfort within a society. Families break due to differences in opinions regarding euthanasia. Family members of patients are required to consent to the move before it is done. In many instances, there is hardly consensus and only the decision of the patient and the majority of family members prevails. As such, the decisions leave a broken family. She further claims that different views in a family may result in depression and other health related problems. Parker accepts that patients have autonomy over their lives. She also accepts that there are many complex situations where patients suffer and have little chance of survival. However, there is no clear method to determine when to die, and whether a patient has the right to decide to stay alive or die. Some patients, especially parents or older siblings, are relied upon by children and other dependents for survival. As such, their decisions and actions directly affect others. It is important to stay alive since it gives hope to the dependents of possible healing. Ending the life of such individuals makes people lose focus and hope in life. Allowing people to decide their fate erodes the societal perception towards life. Society regards life as precious and supposed to be preserved at all times. Assisting people to take life communicates a wrong message to the society. Thus, it is imperative to treat the patient until he or she dies out of the severity of illness rather than assisting them to take their life. Doing so would

Childhood leukemia development and correlation with traffic air Article

Childhood leukemia development and correlation with traffic air pollution - Article Example The study shows that children are more likely to develop leukemia if they live in urban centers. The reason for this is the high levels of pollution in cities. The research goes to show the problems that high pollution levels can create especially with regard to children. This link was established when the researchers found that children living in urban centers with relatively high levels of pollution were at a significantly higher risk for developing cancer. The study has values adjusted for factors which could tamper with the results. However, even after the adjustment, the risks remained high for children living in areas where there was a high level of pollution. This study is certainly a revelation since we often discuss global warming in the context of animals and rising sea levels but there is also a visible and immediate impact of the pollution spread by human activity on the planet. That impact is the negative effect pollution has on our health and the health of our children who are defenseless against it. The government and our civil authorities should do a lot more to stop the situation. They need to ensure that we do not have to suffer the negative consequences of the progress we have made. If we do not do anything about it, the problem would only multiply. At the present, we have little choice in how we can reduce air pollution levels. Of course, we can have Individual actions or even drives coming from small groups aimed at reducing pollution. However, these may never have the impact that government policy changes can. In addition to trying and reducing air pollution levels, more research on the topic is also required. Without the proper scientific data, we may make the wrong conclusions. This was suggested in the research study itself. Additional information and research on the topic is necessary. That would gives us better tools with which we can handle pollution and its impact on our lives. Even now,

The Financial Times reported on 18 April 2005 that William Hill is in Essay

The Financial Times reported on 18 April 2005 that William Hill is in talks with Stanley - Essay Example On William Hill portfolio diligence, I will discuss the working capital management for acquisition of Stanley Leisure. In this report, I analyse the due diligence guidelines that are predisposed to assist William Hill in capital evaluation of Stanley Leisure, with statistical precision and performance reports. According to Horne and Wachowicz (2000), working capital management is an important component of corporate finance; it directly affects the liquidity and profitability of William Hill in acquisition of Stanley Leisure. Purpose, findings, and research questions that will guide the study are generated from the shareholders’ effects and the motives for acquisition. The data for this study will be the secondary data from Journal of Financial Economics. In the background study, I analyse the reasons for William Hill’s takeover and stipulate the post-takeover performance of the company. Motives for acquisition of Stanley Leisure and shareholders’ value are critiq ued in the following project. In this project, I have used the capital assets pricing model (CAPM) in methodological analysis and OLS Regression for data sources. I can resolve if William’s merger was worthwhile through liquidity-based explanations. Introduction Mergers and acquisitions involve the amalgamation of two or more firms or the purchase directed to current firm within the foreign country. This was established by Whiting (1976) that acquisitions are effected through capital transfer, use of marketing skills, and presence of skill for management to increase the efficiency of the companies concerned. The development of better information systems in the global trade can enable a company increase its level of performance and meet its customer needs better. I will discuss in detail the research questions that will assist William Hill in acquisition of Stanley Leisure; due diligence need by William Hill is to enable the shareholders with adequate concept of underlying Wil liam acquisition portfolio than the prevailing market allocation of betting services. This gives the company sufficient evidence and confidence to leverage the funding of the acquisition of Stanley Leisure. (Christen 2009). According to Robert (2009), due diligence gives a comprehensive analysis of appraisal techniques and interpretation of acquisition results for both the firms involved. William Hill has to identify the risks associated with acquisition portfolio and formulate dynamics to make up for the loss that might come along. Research Questions In this, research William Hill has to investigate various pieces of information and statistics. It has to: 1. Evaluate how working capital management will assist in the profitability of its firm. 2. Analyze how working capital management affects its profitability. 3. Find areas where investments activities need to be implemented. 4. Are the components of working capital of high importance in

Childhood leukemia development and correlation with traffic air Article

Childhood leukemia development and correlation with traffic air pollution - Article Example The study shows that children are more likely to develop leukemia if they live in urban centers. The reason for this is the high levels of pollution in cities. The research goes to show the problems that high pollution levels can create especially with regard to children. This link was established when the researchers found that children living in urban centers with relatively high levels of pollution were at a significantly higher risk for developing cancer. The study has values adjusted for factors which could tamper with the results. However, even after the adjustment, the risks remained high for children living in areas where there was a high level of pollution. This study is certainly a revelation since we often discuss global warming in the context of animals and rising sea levels but there is also a visible and immediate impact of the pollution spread by human activity on the planet. That impact is the negative effect pollution has on our health and the health of our children who are defenseless against it. The government and our civil authorities should do a lot more to stop the situation. They need to ensure that we do not have to suffer the negative consequences of the progress we have made. If we do not do anything about it, the problem would only multiply. At the present, we have little choice in how we can reduce air pollution levels. Of course, we can have Individual actions or even drives coming from small groups aimed at reducing pollution. However, these may never have the impact that government policy changes can. In addition to trying and reducing air pollution levels, more research on the topic is also required. Without the proper scientific data, we may make the wrong conclusions. This was suggested in the research study itself. Additional information and research on the topic is necessary. That would gives us better tools with which we can handle pollution and its impact on our lives. Even now,

Trust Builders in a Sales Person Essay Example for Free

Trust Builders in a Sales Person Essay Trust is the binding force of great relationships. This leads to greater cooperation and better solutions, especially in sales and customer service situations. When trust increases, communication is more effective and understanding in enhanced. Since most people won’t buy from someone they don’t trust, building and maintaining a strong bond of trust is essential for developing long term customer satisfaction and loyalty. Customers believe in getting the best and feeling comfortable with what they have received. Having a long term customer takes more than good customer service. Sales representatives of any company need to have the â€Å"trust-builders† characteristics to help them build strong relationships with clients. In the end this will help the overall profitability of the company. The first characteristic is expertise; this is the extent to which a salesperson possesses relevant knowledge and capability to get the job done right. An example is Digicel, their sales persons are well trained and equipped with relevant information and knowledge of their prices and sale promotions. Customers can ask a salesperson about a promotion and when the customer research for themselves, it is accurate. This builds trust, when a salesperson shows competence and knowledge. This has pushed Digicel to be the top efficient service provider of telecommunication in Jamaica. Second characteristic is dependability; this is the extent to which a salesperson consistently and predictably follows through on commitments he/she makes to others. Digicel sales practices indicates this when they offer free nights promotion to customers. This promotion was always offered once a customer puts on two hundred dollars before 9pm. This allows customers to depend on what Digicel said they would deliver. Candor is the third characteristic of a trust-builder type; it is the extent to which a salesperson is honest and upfront with others, especially with regard to issues/factors that may impact those others. Digicel portraits this by allowing their sales personnel or customer care agent to tell customer the truth when they are having technical problems, they even go as far as sending out texts to inform and apologise for the disruptions. The fourth trust-builder type is customer orientation; this is the extent to which a salesperson values and protects the interests of his/her customers. Digicel trained their salespersons to show empathy while adding value and giving back to the customer’s community and even their lives. Encouraging rebuilding of schools, community centers and developing public areas push customers to trust and build long term relationship with Digicel. The fifth trust-builder is likeability; this is the affection customers have towards you. There are many factors that contribute to how likeable you are as a person, but in the context of relationships with your customers, these factors encompass courtesy, respect, remembering names and key facts, treating each customer as special, and being interested in them and their lives. Digicel depicts this in their advertisements and when a sale agent is speaking to you. They ensured Jamaican culture and people are portrayed in their ads. They also ensure high quality service by asking for your name and throughout the conversation they refer to you by your name.

Operations Management Analysis of Asda

Operations Management Analysis of Asda Introduction: Every function of the business has its significance, importance and place in the business organizations. Not a single department, function or activity can be declared as sole vital for the life of a company. It is the combined effort of all the departments and joint work of function involved, which brings success, revenues and business development. However, the key factor of the business, are divided in some shapes; to get a clear and visible picture of the overall business activities, being carried out by the organization. Operations management, financial management, marketing, sales, customer service, quality assurance, information technology and research and development are largely the main functions of a business entity in 21st century. No one can declare any of these functions as the sole guaranteer for the corporate success of the company, every function has its competitive and comparative advantages and also everyone has some unique characteristics which help in making that particular function more important. However, there is a function which is quite visible in all of these functions, or we can say that it is a facilitator of all the departments and functions in any organization. That particular function is called operations. Whatever may be the department or function, there will be a process and procedure involved in the work flow of that particular unit. Operations are everywhere, whichever department we select; we will see a line of operations and standard operating procedure. This indicates how important and integral it is, to have a transparent and effective operations management system. Operations management not only gives insight about the efficient and effective workflow of a particular department but also helps in getting a smooth workflow all over the organization. The process and strategic planning is quite imperative for the success of the business, but the effective execution of that particular plan is far more important than that. Effective operations management can help in achieving the group, departmental and organizational goals achievement in an effective, efficient and less costly way. So we can declare that, operations management ensures the life of the company. This report is a case study of ASDAs operations management mechanism and is purely dedicated to find out the rights and wrongs in the operations of ASDA. Operations Management: Operations management is a management function and subject, which is largely concerned with supervision, design, and redesigning of the business operations in the making of goods and services.  [1]  It has two dimensions, one is company dimension and the other one is customers dimension. The company dimension of the operation management is dealing with the operations in a cost effective, efficient and less costly ways, while the customer requires the greater quality of the product and service. So in business operations, an organization has to ensure, not only its own circumstances and financial position but also the customers demand. In simple words, the operations management is an organizational function, aimed a smooth flow of the processes to convert the input into the required output, in an efficient and cost effective way. So the quality assurance of the product offerings and their cost, are the key points of studying the operations management. Operations management usually refers to the production of goods and services independently, even though the difference between these two central types of operations is ever more difficult to make as producer convinced to combine product and service offerings. More commonly, operations management targets to increase the satisfaction level of value-added actions in any of the given processes.  [2]   The fundamental objective of the operations management departments attempt to create the desired balance between the costs and revenue to  get the maximum net operational profit, but at the same time to ensure the quality of the product and service. Operations management includes the activities that are involved in the process of production and distribution of the goods and services. Normally, the small companies do not involve in the operations management processes but major businesses stress upon properly keeping up with the operations management processes and normally they do not change the processes rapidly. Company Overview: ASDA is a British superstore chain which retails food, clothing, toys and general commodities. It also has a mobile telephone network, ASDA Mobile. It has its head office in the ASDA House in Leeds, West Yorkshire.  [3]  ASDA became a subsidiary of the American retail giant Wal-Mart, the worlds largest retailer, in 1999. And today, it is the third largest chain in the UK after Tesco and Sainsburys. In December 2010, 16.5% of UK grocery stores used ASDA for their major shop, with special offers the most bragged motive for its reputation.  [4]   Asda Stores Limited was established with the name of Associated Dairies Farm Stores Limited in year 1949. However, the approval of the Asda name occurred in 1965 with the merger of the Asquith chain of three supermarkets and Associated Dairies; Asda is an abbreviation of Asquith and Dairies, often capitalised. As Asda is subsidiary of Wall-Mart, so the focus of its marketing promotions have frequently been centred only on price, with Asda kept on promoting itself under the slogan of Britains Lowest Priced Supermarket, 13 Years Running. Because it is a wholly owned division of Wal-Mart, so, is not necessary for Asda to announce quarterly or half-yearly earnings. ASDA employs more than 150000, working on its more than 375 locations. The operating income of the company has been declared around  £638 millions last year. Andy Clarke is the chief executive officer of ASDA and Andy Bond is chairman. Asda helped wall-mart getting success and market share in British market.  [5]   Under the leadership of strong people, ASDA has been pretty successful in competing with its rivals in the last many years. Today, although it is ranked on 3rd in terms of market share after Tesco and Sainsbury, still its reputation and public relations have been out standing. Objective: The objective of this study is to analyse the central operational functions of Asda and their associated factors, problems and deficiencies. In this regard, we will discuss the fundamental operations management theories and their application at Asda. We will also try to focus on the operational problems being faced by Asda currently because of increasing competition and financial crisis as well. In this regard, the key operational and functional matter of the company will also come under discussion. Problems and Issues: We have been observing a very sharp decline in the sales of the grocery store and shrinking growth for the last 3years or so, due to the financial crisis. In this scenario, the major problem for the companies is to sustain. For surviving and sustaining in this environment, there are two ways to be adopted. The first one is of increasing the revenues and the other one is of cutting the cost of doing business. In both of matters, the operational management capacity of the organization is challenged and the team is under strict pressure. Competition has also increased and the competitors are trying very hard to gain the market share, in order to retain Asdas market share, so here the company needs to have implemented effective operation management system and tools so that the production of goods and services will be maintained smoothly and customers demand is fulfilled quickly So the focus of this report will not only be on the operations management of the company but also be on the dealing with the aftermaths of financial crisis with the help of operations management theories and practices. Operations Management and Value Chain: The concept of value chain is very important from the perspective of operations management. It is the fundamental concept on the basis of which all the operations building, is erected. Michael Porter is considered as the father of the value chain philosophy. He coined the idea of value chain in his book Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance (1985). This idea brought about a very positive change in modern day strategic management and marketing. Nowadays all successful companies give due importance to the concept of value in service delivery. Value means a mental perception of a product/service by the customer for which he is paying the price. A person estimates the value by a simple equation; Value = Benefit/cost.  [6]  The concept of value is understood to be a core idea in marketing and strategic management. Many theories revolve around this concept of value; like value chain analysis and profit value chain etc. The concept of service value chain is pretty similar to the Porters value chain idea. There is just a slight difference between them in terms of their practical implementation. For getting the true insight about these two models; fist we should understand the Porters value chain model. Porter argued that the customer; when he pays the price for the product or service, he is not basically paying for the product or services. He is paying the price of the perceived value which is delivered to him by the provider. If his benefits estimation exceeds the cost of the product or service, he will be satisfied and vice versa. So the core area of concentration in marketing must be to enhance the value so that the customer may be satisfied and come back again for the same value.  [7]   Value is not added on the corporate level. It is added from the operational level and with the efficient interlinks of the various functions. An organization is involved in two sorts of functions; the primary and core functions and the support functions. With the proper integration of the functions it can achieve the superior value. This diagram will further elaborate the Porters value chain model. The primary functions include inbound logistics (Warehousing raw material), operations (Process of converting raw material into finished goods), outbound logistics (finished goods inventory packaging), marketing and service (selecting a target market and fulfilling its demand and after sales service provision etc.) While the support functions include the firm infrastructure, (its design, polices and procedures) HRM (hiring people, firing and training them etc.) Technology (technology enabled management to deliver quality and value), and procurement (purchase and warehousing). Now we look at these main operations management functions separately, along with their complete reference to the organization of our concern. The Value Chain of ASDA: Inbound Logistics: The Inbound logistics operations of Asda are presented in its totally inclined and agile form and also show the commitment of the overall low price strategic management o. As the company is among the major market players so it has the place and economies of scope which are considered as the key bargaining powers, it helps to achieve low costs through the suppliers of the company. The up-gradation of the IT and other functions of the company is a routine matter and with the improved order-taking system, the company has made it among leaders. Out bound Logistics: Asda is also working with all retail segments, physical ones, online and offline ones. As it is a subsidiary of Wall-mart, so it has to operate directly with all of the operations included in outbound logistics. The companies is always keen to of develop processes and tools to produce and distribute the goods and services effectively and efficiently. Asda has designed a variety of formats and types related to the stores, it will be implemented strategically with the aim of maximum exposure of the customer. The formats include the Express, Superstores, Metro, Extra and Homeplus, these ranges are divided and segmented according to the target customers  [8]  . Marketing and Sales Programs: Asda has also introduced incentives and various schemes for the benefit of the customers. Issues related to the environment, climate changes, public awareness, reduction of waste and the carbon footprint involved in the preparation of the meals. The company is always striving to satisfy the customers and makes them happy. This indeed has helped it gain greater respect in the eyes of the customers. Services: Asda is following what wall-mart is doing; the price leadership. The famous slogan of always low price depicts the philosophy of wall-mart. It is also implementing the strategies related to cost leadership and differentiation, the aim is to improve the customer service. The focal point of the value chain here is, is to create a valuable service which may result in a high degree of value as compared to the other service providers. Asda has some very efficient strategies that are streamlined to apply the useful services in order to keep the customers. The main focus here is to reduce the cost of production and operations and hence gain a leadership position. There are some problems in the system, but can be resolved with the proper research and development. Technological Factors: In todays globalized world, the leadership in the business can only be achieved through leadership in technology. Technology is an effective way to make the business more efficient, effective. It may happen that sometimes extra efficient use of technology may produce negativity, however this can be minimized. Asda has to take into consideration lots of matters related to technology, but as the technology is among major macro-environmental variable and it has influenced development of the Asdas products and services. Few years back when Wall-mart invested around $6 billion in its IT function to introduce RFID, they also introduce the same in Asda as well. This has increased service orientation of the business and customers are delighted. So we can say that technology is very important ingredient in gaining advantage over competitor in the operations management. Information Technology and Integration: Innovative technology has helped companies and the customers, in various functions and ultimately the rate of customer satisfaction has increased. Now the desired products and goods are available easily. Companies have individualized their services to make the customer happy, and hence the grocery shopping has become pretty suitable with easy access. Asda works on the Customer is Always Right policy to improve its service orientation and has installed various IT gadgets to make the system more efficient. Here is a list of those technology gadgets, which are being used by Asda in its business operations to make the customer more satisfied. Self Check-out machines. Wireless Devices. Electronic Shelf and Labeling Electronic Tracker Electronic Fund Transfer System Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). These technologies have increased the value of these activities being performed in stores and making it more efficient. Now you have all kinds of solutions available under one roof of Asda. I.T. Integration: In this challenging time, the corporations are facing a rapidly increasing rivalry with changing environment and business tendencies. For long term survival in the business, the companies have to predict the change and adopt it as well. To endure and compete in this modern world it is compulsory to innovate in the technology, operational processes and improvement in the products and services. When you are in the business of retailing, you have to keep these things in your mind. You have to ensure; Proper Implementation of the systems to control and record all the stock. Arranged record of all the previously delivered products. Analysis of every business transactions properly. The above mentioned are some factors that should be analyzed properly, as IT has many solutions that are beyond the traditional support role. Asda should also have adequate execution of extranet service it will be beneficial for the company. Here the internet will help to create customers circle and flow of customized information among the business partners and the company. Asda has taken an initiative to introduce the extranet system. The system can provide connection with the business partners online and provides the opportunity to build relationships with the partners and delivering the easiest way of accessing the retailing services of Asda. There are many technological advances and systems that can support business operations. Asda has implemented some which includes like wireless devices, intelligent scale, electronic shelf labeling, self checkout machine and radio frequency identification systems. These systems can help the company in achieving its long term and short term goals and also the target to control the cost of operational processes and provide proper control upon the volume of the products and services. Store and Inventory Management: The inside store inventory management system of Asda is very effective because of the RFID technology used to store the information of the inventory and dealers information is also available with them which helps in making the process much reliable. Channels management system: The way it deals with its suppliers and other business partners that is really recommendable. As we discussed early that, value chain means to take care of not only your own value but he value chain of your network partner. Asda is working with a vast variety of suppliers across the world, being a major retailer with a diverse range of products and employed employees from very different ethnic groups and cultures. It is included in the policy of the company that it should maintain very healthy relationships with the suppliers and work with mutual concerns. The addition of technology in controlling the work pattern with the suppliers can improve the communication of the company with the suppliers. Asda has a good network of communication with the suppliers because of Wall-mart but still it need to improve and add a technology that will be easily accessible by the suppliers and understandable also at the same time. The communication network should be very clear and effective between the supplier and the company. The record of all the required products should be clearly mentioned by the company to the supplier it will help in building a long term business. The contractors in the loop will be able to promote the orders and it will improve the conditions and steps included in the supply chain. However, we see some loop holes in trade union relationship. In August 2005, the manager of a depot in Wakefield spoke out what were called foreign-sounding names over the communal address system ordering them to report instantaneously to the managers office. At least one was threatened with the sack unless he produced his passport the next day. The highly public initiative by management, which came within weeks of the 7 July bombings in London was followed by a flurry contempt for Muslims and their religion.  [9]   Loop Holes in the System: In December 2007 Asda, Sainsburys and other retailers admitted to price fixing dairy products between 2002 and 2003. Asda commented, Everyone at Asda regrets what happened, particularly as we are passionate about lowering prices. Our intention was to provide more money for dairy farmers, who were under severe financial pressure at the time. So far in total these retailers have been fined  £116  million. Apart from this, we can see some of these problems Asda is leader brand and has massive business around the world. The strategies to control the business and increase the customer satisfaction and maximize the revenues are the ultimate goal of the company. There are some issues that are found within the company that are follows: Lack of expertise. No record maintenance of the stock. Slow delivery to the customers Logistics deficiency No proper control of distribution channels. Recommendations: On the basis of the secondary data it has been proved that Flexibility in the work place is required because than the change will be adopted easily. The cost structure is varied at multiple places. In order to implement some efficient functions following steps should be taken: Customer Service Strategic Procurement Supplier Connectivity and Order Fulfilment Manufacturing Flow Portfolio Management Sales Cycle Efficiency Reduction in unproductive time Long term plans should be made related to technology The above mentioned factors are at the initial level in the Asda company and can be handled very easily as Asda has many excellent and efficient ways to solve major problems. Asda also always takes care of its systems and processes but the only problem is the adoption of change which is very slow. Asda is a very large company which includes a large number of technological systems that are developed for the benefit of the company. Company also believes in fast transactions but the delivery process is still very slow in many areas, the customer order is sometimes ignored also due to lack of a communication tool. Approach to Operations Improvement Effective operations and processes allow a business to maximize its efficiency as well as revenues. It is necessary to understand the optimizing and streamlining the business activities and processes so that the output can be maximized. The processes should be built purely for the purpose of maximizing the customer satisfaction, profitability and increase effectiveness in the output. To deliver the right good at the right place on the right time is the ultimate goal of the company but deeply requires the integration of the supply chain management and business processes and the contribution of buyers and suppliers, also joint product development, common systems within the company franchises and frequently shared information with the customers, suppliers and vendors.

Essay on Voltaire’s Candide: A Typical Enlightenment Work

Candide as a Typical Enlightenment Work      Ã‚  Ã‚   Candide on the surface is a witty story. However when inspected deeper it is a philippic writing against people of an uneducated status. Candide is an archetype of these idiocracies, for he lacks reason and has optimism that is truly irking, believing that this is the best of all possible worlds. Thus Voltaire uses a witty, bantering tale on the surface, but in depth a cruel bombast against the ignoramuses of his times.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Candide has reason only in the form of a companion upon which he relies for advice. His companion is Dr. Pangloss. He consistently dribbles to Dr. Pangloss about what should be done. Eventually Pangloss is killed by being hanged. But this means that Candide's reason is also dead! Candide goes and finds a new companion, "Lacking him [Pangloss], let's consult the old woman" (37). He soon loses her, gains another, looses him, and then gains another. Thus we see that Candide can only think if he has a companion. Voltaire is thus saying that all the nobles are really idiots and says they are only sma...

Thomas Mores Utopia Essay -- European History

Throughout Thomas More's Utopia, he is able to successfully criticize many of the political, social, and economic ways of the time. His critique of feudalism and capitalism would eventually come back to haunt him, but would remain etched in stone forever. On July 6, 1535, by demand of King Henry VIII, More was beheaded for treason. His last words stood as his ultimate feeling about royalty in the 15th and 16th centuries, "The King's good servant, but God's first." Throughout his life, More spoke his beliefs about feudalism, capitalism, and his ideals of Utopia; More was a thinker, good friend of Erasmus, and although many critics take Utopia as a blueprint for society, in many instances he encourages thought, a critical part of the renaissance that does not necessarily conform to society's own beliefs. Before any conclusions can be made about More's writings, one must know of his disagreements with both King Henry VII and Henry VIII, even following his faithfulness. More was a statesman, a scholar, a writer, and at one time, a Monk. Many of his ideals, including his socialistic ones followed behind Pythagoras, Plato, but a true influence in his life was Desiderius Erasmus. Beginning in 1499, Erasmus visited England, beginning a friendship and intellectual correspondence, translating Latin works, among other things. Erasmus' Praise of Folly, written in 1509 is dedicated to More. One of his first proposals in Parliament was to minimize appropriation for Henry VII; as one could understand, he did not take kindly to More's suggestion. More's father was imprisoned and later released after a fine was paid. Later, after Henry VIII had taken the crown and Thomas had become Speaker of the House of Commons, More, stood bes... ...s for the readers to make their own assumptions of his writings. Uncountable interpretations and assumptions of his works have been made, but he himself will never explain to us what his intent was. People theorize that Utopia represents More's "blueprint for society," or More's ideas for a socialistic world, or even as a satire of European society, but there is reasonable evidence to say that he only wanted to encourage thought, thought for improvement, whether it be socialism, movement in classes, change in professions, or anything else of the hundreds of differences between Utopia, and 15th century Europe. www.newadvent.org/cathen/14689c.htm">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14689c.htm More, Thomas, Utopia, p.41. The Penguin Book, Author's Translation by Paul Turner More, Thomas, Utopia, p.42. The Penguin Book, Author's Translation by Paul Turner

Amazon SWOT Analysis of Inc

Amazon.com, Inc. or www.amazon.com has a mission statement to be the most customer-centric or customer-oriented retailer on this planet, where people can browse and buy anything they want to buy online with prices as low as possible on the market. (About Amazon) They are one of the world’s most important online retailers and providers of web service. (Amazon.com Inc.) They offer a large-scale of products such as clothing, merchandises for car and industrial uses, beauty and health products, books, games, electronic devices, grocery, food, jewelry, merchandises for kids and babies, movies, music, toys, sports goods, and etc. (Amazon.com Inc.)They also offer delivery and shipping, web hosting services and some other related services. (Amazon.com Inc.) They also make Kindle devices, and provide their products via company-owned online retailer websites. (Amazon.com Inc.) Not only they sell brand new unused merchandise, they also sell refurbished and second-hand used goods online. (About Amazon) Internal analysis – Strengths (their business model is their strength) In strategy, Amazon has improved the operations of their business by diversifying it from online bookstore to online merchandising with a wide variety of different kinds of products. (Amazon.com Inc.)Their dealing with costumers online without reseller model increased their inventory turnover with better returns. (Amazon.com Inc.) With their business models they also run warehouses that are not huge and large, but small and lean in many different places in the world. (Amazon.com Inc.) Their direct-to-customers with no resellers strategy makes it easier for them to handle their capital investments in their warehouses and lower possible inventory risks. (Amazon.com Inc.) By that strategy of dealing with customers directly also have increased the volume of their sales. (Amazon.com Inc.)Their business model offers everyday low prices for their products online. (Amazon.com Inc.) They have expande d their presence to many different countries globally by offering websites modified specifically according to different countries’ needs and wants like languages and taste with fulfillment networks. (Amazon.com Inc.) They learned and copied the most successful business  ventures from any other countries in the world internationally, and tested new features for their business strategy within the US market. (Amazon.com Inc.)Their product offerings are expanding by making agreements with third-party sellers around the world. Moreover, they let other retailers use their e-commerce online retailing platform technology for a price. (Amazon.com Inc.) They also offer bundle services to consumers for bringing in greater efficiency and lowering their prices in the market. (Amazon.com Inc.) And their bundled services later on diversified itself in the e-commerce markets to other platform services within the industry of cloud computing. (Amazon.com Inc.) Amazon has a broad product port folio allowing them to provide various products to serve a market of diversified customers. (Amazon.com Inc.)Customers of Amazon.com are offered a one-stop shopping experience to shop from clothing to smartphones to food. (Amazon.com Inc) Their efficient customer service and wide choice of goods and products putting their business focus on product selection, product prices, and the convenience to shop them. (Amazon.com Inc) Their product offerings include clothing, auto and industrial items, beauty and health products, books, computers, digital downloads, electronics, grocery, games, home goods, jewelry, kids and baby items, movies, music, office supplies, outdoor goods, shoes, sport goods, toys, and other kinds of tools. (Amazon.com Inc)Their strategy also emphasizes on selling their products at the lowest possible price by everyday low product pricing and free shipping such as the package Amazon Prime offering for free two-day-delivery on millions of items plus other features. (Am azon.com, Inc.) More and a greater number of customers shopping online are drawn to shop on Amazon.com because of Amazon’s broad and diverse product assortment with low prices. (Amazon.com, Inc.) And lately, Amazon just introduced their newly invented product, Kindle Fire, the most-advanced tablet providing a fully-integrated and end-to-end service for customers. (Amazon.com Inc.)They also started renting thousands of college textbooks to college students with a recently launched service called Amazon Textbook Rental. (Amazon.com Inc.) Amazon’s wide range of product offerings gives them a good chance of future financial growth. (Amazon.com Inc.) Amazon has adopted different technologies that make their website more customer-friendly. (Amazon.com Inc) With key features such as editorial and customer reviews written on their website,  manufacturer product information, gift guides, web pages customized to individual preferences like recommendations and notifications, 1- Click technology, secure payment systems, digital content and the Search Inside the Book technology. (Amazon.com Inc) And shoppers can track their orders on the website with â€Å"Your Account† features. (Amazon.com Inc)Amazon provides customer service all around the world easily with their customer service centers located on different parts in the world globally. (Amazon.com Inc) Moreover, their delivery is free with other options for shipping available worldwide around the globe. (Amazon.com Inc) With all those satisfactory shopping features available on their website, in return they have also gained high customer loyalty. (Amazon.com Inc) But they are still expanding not stopping with their customer serving coverage across the world, lately, they have just launched their Amazon Appstore in Western Europe including the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Spain providing access to their wide range of various Android apps which give convenience to customers using Andro id phones and tablets to shop. (Amazon.com Inc)Debt, for the fiscal year 2012, Amazon recorded a total of $3,830 million in debt, and compare to their debt in the fiscal year 2011 that was an increase of 170% in one year! (Amazon.com Inc) Amazon’s total long-term debt was almost $3,084 million. (Amazon.com Inc) Their debt could make them less likely to borrow more money to finance their working capital, capital expenditure, or other kinds of investments, particularly if rating organizations downgraded Amazon’s debt securities’ ratings. (Amazon.com Inc)This weakness would be unfavorable for Amazon especially during tough times in the economy with unstable market conditions to respond to. (Amazon.com Inc) Another very obvious unfavorable effect that Amazon’s huge debt has on them is that they need to pay back what they owe in principal plus accumulated interest which is a substantial amount of their cash flow from their business operations, which then reduc ed the amount of funds available for them to expand their business via activities like acquisitions and create more product offerings and to spend on their marketing. (Amazon.com Inc) Legal proceedings, Amazon has many lawsuits filed against them both in actual terms and those haven’t yet but have the possibility to do  so. (Amazon.com Inc)And majority of those cases suing Amazon are concerned with the issues of patent violations, the relations between Amazon and their employees, contract issues, liability of products, environmental issues, antitrust issues, and other kinds of issues, etc. (Amazon.com Inc) The companies that filed and On-Demand Publishing LLC dba CreateSpace claiming that Amazon has infringed US patents in the number of 7,392,283 and patent number 7,174,362. (Amazon.com Inc) And another case filed against Amazon was in September 2012 by B.E. Technology, LLC claiming that Amazon Digital Services, Inc. has again infringed people’s US patents in the num ber of 6,771,290. (Amazon.com Inc)An Australian quasi-government entity, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, filed a lawsuit against Amazon for their infringement of US Patent number five-four-eight-seven-zero-six-nine. (Amazon.com Inc) Not only did Amazon face the lawsuits filed against them mentioned above, they have been also sued for patent infringement, violation of copyrights and etc. (Amazon.com Inc) Regardless if the companies filed lawsuits against Amazon won or lost, any legal proceeding could have a negative impact on Amazon’s cash flow and waste management’s time and effort. (Amazon.com Inc) External Analysis, uncontrollably good opportunities for Amazon Strategic acquisitions have continued to be considered as an important way by Amazon as a strategy for business growth. (Amazon.com Inc)Although merely viewed as supplements to their core business growth, acquisition is one way for them to expand their business including adopting n ew technologies of newly acquired companies, introducing new products, and expand their business reach in geography. (Amazon.com Inc) Examples such as their recent March 2013 acquisition of the company Goodreads a website providing customers a place for sharing books online. (Amazon.com Inc) Another example of their acquisition is with a company called IVONA Software in January this year 2013, which did text-to-speech technology. (Amazon.com Inc)And Amazon’s company which mainly works for their publishing, Amazon Publishing, bought another company, Avalon Book’s publication rights, of over three thousands backlist titles, and mostly in the romance, mystery and western book categories in the June of 2012. (Amazon.com Inc) And they have also made an agreement in March 2012 to acquire another company called Kiva Systems, Inc. or Kiva that focused on working with and inventing innovative technology forhandling material. (Amazon.com Inc)Amazon intended to raise the level of productivity via the acquisition of this innovative material handling company, making the employees able to pick, pack and stow their products in their fulfillment centers. (Amazon.com Inc) And this particular strategy is called â€Å"inorganic growth strategy†, as organic stands for â€Å"characterized by continuous or natural development†, might be able to help expand their market share in a significant extent. (Amazon.com Inc) Amazon’s opportunities for growth are also driven by their initiatives in strategy to make their product assortment better in the market. (Amazon.com Inc)For example, they have expanded their multi-year licensing agreement with PBS Distribution in order to offer free-of-charge online streaming of past seasons PBS programs to registered members of their Amazon Prime package in June 2013. (Amazon.com Inc) And in May of 2013, Amazon introduced their invented Kindle Worlds, a platform product made for publishing commercially and available for the first time in the market. (Amazon.com Inc) Then in January 2013, they made an agreement regarding the licensing of the content of A+E Networks, in order to add earlier seasons of A&E, bio, HISTORY and Lifetime channel into the prime instant video service on their Amazon.com website. (Amazon.com Inc)And earlier in November 2012, they started to provide a service called Amazon Redshift, which is a fully managed and powerful warehouse in the cloud for petabyte-scale data storage. (Amazon.com Inc) In the meantime, Amazon also introduced a marketplace called the Amazon wine in the market, where customers are offered more than a thousand wines. (Amazon.com Inc) And in earlier in August 2012 in the UK, Germany, France and Italy and Spain in Western Europe, Amazon launched their Amazon Appstore providing an access for European customers to download and use their wide range of high quality Android smartphone apps conveniently to shop on their website when the European customers are u sing their Android electronic devices such as cellphone and tablet computer to shop. (Amazon.com Inc)And then earlier in the March of 2012, Amazon made an announcement to the world that they were going to make a $150 million USD investment to open a new Jeffersonville, Indian fulfillment center in the US. (Amazon.com Inc) Their initiatives to make themselves able to provide customers with more product offerings with a new fulfillment center in the US could give them a better chance in business growth. (Amazon.com Inc) Another area of  opportunity for Amazon to potentially expand their presence in the market is in the E-Commerce business. (Amazon.com Inc) There is a good chance of potential for Amazon to grow their business and raise their profitability with direct marketing along with e-commerce business’ rising trend. (Amazon.com Inc)Due to the recent scenario that a growing number of consumers these days rather shop online than visit the retail stores physically to save t heir time and money in one stop. (Amazon.com Inc) According to professionals in the industry, traffic of the IP data in the globe is forecasted to go up to six point six zettabytes annually by the year 2016, and also traffic of the cloud storage is forecasted to rise from 2011’s 39% of total data centre traffic up to 64% in the year 2016. (Amazon.com Inc) The growth of E-commerce market is driven by smart phones, tablets and other internet enabled electronic devices’ uses. (Amazon.com Inc)Along with this growth of online shopping using internet enabled electronic devices, this trend pushes and changes other retailers to invest more into serving the new format of electronic device online shopping customer segment. (Amazon.com Inc) And Amazon could increase their cost savings and expand their share in the retailing market with an already well established position in the e-retailing. (Amazon.com Inc)The fact that Amazon is subject to the government and the law’s re gulation and intervention is considered an external threat. (Amazon.com Inc) The government and the law could pose external threats to Amazon’s business in aspects such as taxation, privacy, data protection, pricing, content, copyrights, electronic device certification, electronic waste, consumer protection, the provision of online payment services, the design and operation of websites, and the characteristics and quality of Amazon’s products and their services. (Amazon.com Inc)Today, the US Supreme Court does not allow collecting state and local taxes for Internet sales. (Amazon.com Inc) However, some states in the US and the Congress have been thinking of initiatives that could restrict the Supreme Court’s place and voice in matters regarding issues of Internet sales’ taxation. (Amazon.com Inc) And if those states and Congress succeed, Amazon might will be required to either collect a certain tax called â€Å"sales and use taxes† in some states  or alter the ways of how they practice their business for the law. (Amazon.com Inc) Imposing taxes by the local government and by state could create a burden on the company’s administration. (Amazon.com Inc)Moreover, those taxes if imposed on the bills of Amazon’s customers could less their demand and make their products and services less attractive in the market with increased cost. (Amazon.com Inc) The online shopping market is a very competitive one to do business in, including for Amazon. (Amazon.com Inc) The kind of competitors they have such as any other online e-commerce and mobile e-commerce sites, publishers, media companies and other companies designing, manufacturing, marketing digital media devices. (Amazon.com Inc)They compete in terms of price, product selection, how convenient is it to shop, product quality, how much time it takes/speed, and their services and tools’ reliability. (Amazon.com Inc) The list of names of Amazon’s online shopp ing competitors would be eBay, Yahoo, Books-A-Million, Barnes & Noble, ValueVision Media, and Netflix. (Amazon.com Inc) Their competitors could possess more resources with more customers and better recognitions than Amazon. (Amazon.com Inc)Along with the competition getting fiercer Amazon needs to maintain their stock while adapting to an unstable environment of changing needs and wants in order to survive. (Amazon.com Inc) In international finance, there is a risk called foreign currency exchange risk, and that’s the kind of external threat that Amazon is exposed to as a global company doing business internationally. (Amazon.com Inc) Last year in 2012, Amazon’s revenue in total has a 43% stake outside the US in the international segment. (Amazon.com Inc) And for that year their business profit went down dramatically in the figure of $853 million compare to their 2011 revenue due to the ups and downs of the values of foreign currencies, in other words they lost a lot o f money because of their vulnerable and high exposure to exchange rate risk. (Amazon.com Inc)As they have revenue denominated internationally in the continents of Asia, Europe and North America. (Amazon.com Inc) They also have things in value other than revenue such as assets, liabilities denominated in many different foreign currencies. (Amazon.com Inc) Those currencies for example such as they do business transactions with the European Euro, British Pound, Japanese Yen, Chinese Yuan and Korean Won and etc. (Amazon.com Inc) Yet they still have the USD as their main functional currency. (Amazon.com Inc) If the foreign  currencies devalue against the USD then they would lose money when they convert their foreign revenue back to the US, but if the US dollar exchange rate weakens against all other major foreign currencies, then Amazon would face potentially greater long-term liabilities. (Amazon.com Inc)

The Link Between Sanitation and Child Life Expectancy in India Critical Analysis

â€Å"The expectations are different†, is a statement that Perri Klass makes in her essay entitled â€Å"India†(1986). This observation refers to the difference in child life expectancy between Klass’ home in North America, and her current home in India, where she is practicing paediatric medicine. In North America, every child is expected to surpass their parents in life expectancy. Meanwhile, in India, the possibility that children will die young is very real and happens more than necessary. In 1998 alone, approximately 2. 5 million children under 5 died in India (Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2000,). What makes this number even more astonishing is that almost all the deaths were preventable. The lack of sanitation leading to deadly water-borne disease in India is the main factor contributing to these extremely high numbers. This essay will explore the role that sanitation has in relation to child life expectancy in India. A base root to sanitation is human hygiene, particularly access to clean water and toiletries. The cost to install a toilet in India is 200 USD (Agoramoorthey&Hsu, 2009). This, to an average American, does not seem like very much money at all. However, when you are a farmer working in rural India making an average of 150 to 225 USD per year (Agoramoorthy & Hsu, 2009), this is a tremendous amount of money. This minimal income is barely enough to maintain basic survival (food, shelter, and clothing), let alone buy a toilet. The government of India, at one time, contributed up to 80% of the cost of purchasing a toilet to promote sanitation, but now the subsidy offered is only 20% (Agoramoorthy & Hsu, 2009). An overall lack of funds is the main contributing reason that only 34% of Indian households have access to a toilet (Agoramoothy & Hsu, 2009). The other 66% of the population is forced to defecate and urinate in public. The amount of people that do not have access to toilets in India is 638 million (UNICEF India, Water, environment and sanitation, 2011), which is more than 10 times the entire population of Canada (Stats Canada, 2010). The amount of public defecation in India poses massive health endangerment, especially to the most vulnerable population, children, through water contamination. The majority of Indian households do not even have access to running water. Water is mostly brought in to the homes from wells or unsanitary ponds, mainly by women. Proper storage of water is also a massive problem causing contamination, as most containers don’t even have handles. 67% of the residents of India do not treat their water, even though it most definitely is chemically or bacterially contaminated (UNICEF India, Water and environment and sanitation, 2011). As displayed in the below chart (Figure 1), the majority of the slum and rural parts of India rely on waters other than piped water for washing themselves and cleaning cooking supplies( Nath, 2003), leading to cross contamination. Figure 1: Sources of Water for Washing according to Different Population Sectors in Calcutta India (Nath,2003) Sewage control is also quite poorly maintained in India, hence becoming yet another water- related issue. With a total of about 4000 towns in India, only approximately 200 of them have partially covered sewage systems, resulting in poor drainage for storm waters leading to frequent flooding of defecated in waters (Nath,2003). Monsoon season is often the worst for defecation contaminating the waters due to the immense amount of rainfall and resulting in overland runoff. Contaminated waters are common in India; therefore the water is difficult to avoid especially for kids. Children inadvertently consume defecation in pond water as they are playing, resulting in illness. In the developing world 24,000 children under the age of 5 die every day from preventable diseases caused by contact of unclean water (water. org, 2011). That is almost a quarter of a million lives that could be saved alone by something as simple as clean water. 21% of all disease in India is water-related (UNICEF India, Water, environment and sanitation, 2011), and yet preventable. With the prevalence of water-related diseases in India, one would think the government would step in and vaccinate the children against rotavirus. Currently, children in India are not vaccinated against rotavirus, which is the leading cause of diarrheal illness. (UNICEF India, Water, environment and sanitation, 2011) A child here in Canada can get diarrhoea and be given over the counter medicine such as Pesto Bismal and be fine in couple hours or, at worst, be hospitalized for dehydration and be out the next day. In India, in 1996 there were a staggering 1600 deaths a day from diarrhoea, resulting from water contamination. Unicef India, Water, environment and sanitation, 2011). Something as preventable and treatable as diarrhoea should not cause as many children to die as it does. Only 39% of children that get diarrhoea in India receive the recommended treatments (UNICEF/WHO, Diarrhoea: Why children are still dying and what can be done? ). If these children had received proper treatment, or had a vaccination to prevent this in the first place they would most likely still be alive. Aids was once thought to be the most targeted killer of children in developing countries, but now, a preventable and curable illness like diarrhoea has taken the lead. Diarrhoea now kills more young children than AIDS, malaria measles combined. (UNICEF/WHO, Diarrhoea: Why children are still dying and what can be done, 2009) As illustrated below in Figure 2, cases of diarrhoea did appear to decline briefly from 1992-1993 only to rise quickly again by 1998 (Nath, 2003). Figure 2: Reported Data on Diarrhoea in India from 1989 to 1998 (Nath,2003) As noted in Klass’ essay (India, 1986) expectations are different in India and North America regarding child life expectancy. In North America what seemingly are simple things like clean water, and toilets, are rare in most parts of India. We, in America also expect the government to readily step in with immunization programs and funding if needed. In India there are immunization programs but they are not readily implemented. We expect our children to live longer and not die from preventable disease due to unsanitary conditions. In India, it is expected that children may precede their parents in death, due to preventable illness caused by lack of sanitation. With millions of children dying yearly in India from sanitation related illness, maybe it is time something was done instead of just being said.

Case Nestle

NESTLE CASE STUDY Nestle is one of the oldest of all multinational businesses. The company was founded in Switzerland in 1866 by Heinrich Nestle, who established Nestle to distribute â€Å"milk food,† a type of infant food he had invented that was made from powdered milk, baked food, and sugar. From its very early days, the company looked to other countries for growth opportunities, establishing its first foreign offices in London in 1868. In 1905, the company merged with the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk, thereby broadening the company’s product line to include both condensed milk and infant formulas.Forced by Switzerland’s small size to look outside’ its borders for growth opportunities, Nestle established condensed milk and infant food processing plants in the United States and Britain in the late 19th century and in Australia, South America, Africa, and Asia in the first three decades of the 20th century. In 1929, Nestle moved into the chocolate business when it acquired a Swiss chocolate maker. This was followed in 1938 by the development of Nestle’s most revolutionary product, Nescafe, the world’s first soluble coffee drink.After World War 11, Nestle continued to expand into other areas of the food business, primarily through a series of acquisitions that included Maggi (1947), Cross & Blackwell (1960), Findus (1962), Libby’s (1970), Stouffer’s (1973), Carnation (1985), Rowntree (1988), and Perrier (1992). By the late 1990s, Nestle had 500 factories in 76 countries and sold its products in a staggering 193 nations-almost every country in the world. In 1998, the company generated sales of close to SWF 72 billion ($51 billion), only 1 percent of which occurred in its home country.Similarly, only 3 percent of its- 210,000 employees were located in Switzerland. Nestle was the world’s biggest maker of infant formula, powdered milk, chocolates, instant coffee, soups, and mineral waters. It was number t wo in ice cream, breakfast cereals, and pet food. Roughly 38 percent of its food sales were made in Europe, 32 percent in the Americas, and 20 percent in Africa and Asia. Management Structure Nestle is a decentralized organization. Responsibility for operating decisions is pushed down to local units, which typically enjoy a high degree f autonomy with regard to decisions involving pricing, distribution, marketing, human resources, and so on. At the same time, the company is organized into seven worldwide strategic business units (SBUs) that have responsibility for high-level strategic decisions and business development. For example, a strategic business unit focuses on coffee and beverages. Another one focuses on confectionery and ice cream. These SBUs engage in overall strategy development, including acquisitions and market entry strategy. In recent years, two-thirds of Nestle’s growth has come from acquisitions, so this is a critical function.Running in parallel to this str ucture is a regional organization that divides the world into five major geographical zones, such as Europe, North America and Asia. The regional organizations assist in the overall strategy development process and are responsible for developing regional strategies (an example would be Nestle’s strategy in the Middle East, which was discussed earlier). Neither the SBU nor regional managers, however, get involved in local operating or strategic decisions on anything other than an exceptional basis.Although Nestle makes intensive use of local managers to knit its diverse worldwide operations together, the company relies on its â€Å"expatriate army. †Ã‚   This consists of about 700 managers who spend the bulk of their careers on foreign assignments, moving from one country to the next. Selected primarily on the basis of their ability, drive and willingness to live a quasi-nomadic lifestyle, these individuals often work in half-a-dozen natiosn during their careers. Nestle also uses management development programs as a strategic tool for creating an  esprit de corps  among managers.At Rive-Reine, the company’s international training center in Switzerland, the company brings together, managers from around the world, at different stages in their careers, for specially targetted development programs of two to three weeks’ duration. The objective of these programs is to give the managers a better understanding of Nestle’s culture and strategy, and to give them access to the company’s top management. The research and development operation has a special place within Nestle, which is not surprising for a company that was established to commercialize innovative foodstuffs.The R&D function comprises 18 different groups that operate in 11 countries throughout the world. Nestle spends approximately 1 percent of its annual sales revenue on R&D and has 3,100 employees dedicated to the function. Around 70 percent of the R&D budget i s spent on development initiatives. These initiatives focus on developing products and processes that fulfill market needs, as identified by the SBUs, in concert with regional and local managers. For example, Nestle instant noodle products were originally developed by the R&D group in response to the perceived needs of local operating companies through the Asian region.The company also has longer-term development projects that focus on developing new technological platforms, such as non-animal protein sources or agricultural biotechnology products. A Growth Strategy for the 21st  Century Despite its undisputed success, Nestle realized by the early 1990s, that it faced significant challenges in maintaining its growth rate. The large Western European and North American markets were mature. In several countries, population growth had stagnated and in some, there had been a small decline in food consumption.The retail environment in many Western nations had become increasingly challen ging and the balance of power was shifting away from the large-scale manufacturers of branded foods and beverages, and toward nationwide supermarket and discount chains. Increasingly, retailers found themselves in the unfamiliar position of playing off against each other – manufacturers of branded foods, thus bargaining down prices. Particularly in Europe, this trend was enhanced by the successful introduction of private-label brands by several of Europe’s leading supermarket chains.The results included increased price competition in several key segments of the food and beverage market, such as cereals, coffee and soft drinks. At Nestle, one response has been to look toward emerging markets in Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America for growth possibilities. The logic is simple and obvious – a combination of economic and population growth, when coupled with the widespread adoption of market-oriented economic policies by the governments of many developing nations, makes for attractive business opportunities.Many of these countries are still relatively poor, but their economies are growing rapidly. For example, if current economic growth forecasts occur, by 2010, there will be 700 million people in China and India that have income levels approaching those of Spain in the mid-1990s. As income levels rise, it is increasingly likely that consumers in these nations will start to substitute branded food products for basic foodstuffs, creating a large market opportunity for companies such as Nestle.In general, the company’s strategy had been to enter emerging markets early – before competitors – and build a substantial position by selling basic food items that appeal to the local population base, such as infant formula, condensed milk, noodles and tofu. By narrowing its initial market focus to just a handful of strategic brands, Nestle claims it can simplify life, reduce risk, and concentrate its marketing resources and manager ial effort on a limited number of key niches. The goal is to build a commanding market position in each of these niches.By pursuing such a strategy, Nestle has taken as much as 85 percent of the market for instant coffee in Mexico, 66 percent of the market for powdered milk in the Philippines, and 70 percent of the markets for soups in Chile. As income levels rise, the company progressively moves out from these niches, introducing more upscale items, such as mineral water, chocolate, cookies, and prepared foodstuffs. Although the company is known worldwide for several key brands, such as Nescafe, it uses local brands in many markets.The company owns 8,500 brands, but only 750 of them are registered in more than one country, and only 80 are registered in more than 10 countries. While the company will use the same â€Å"global brands† in multiple developed markets, in the developing world it focuses on trying to optimize ingredients and processing technology to local conditions and then using a brand name that resonates locally. Customization rather than globalization is the key to the company’s strategy in emerging markets. Executing the StrategySuccessful execution of the strategy for developing markets requires a degree of flexibility, an ability to adapt in often unforeseen ways to local conditions, and a long-term perspective that puts building a sustainable business before short-term profitability. In Nigeria, for example, a crumbling road system, aging trucks, and the danger of violence forced the company to re-think its traditional distribution methods. Instead of operating a central warehouse, as is its preference in most nations, the country.For safety reasons, trucks carrying Nestle goods are allowed to travel only during the day and frequently under-armed guard. Marketing also poses challenges in Nigeria. With little opportunity for typical Western-style advertising on television of billboards, the company hired local singers to go to t owns and villages offering a mix of entertainment and product demonstrations. China provides another interesting example of local adaptation and long-term focus. After 13 years of talks, Nestle was formally invited into China in 1987, by the Government of Heilongjiang province.Nestle opened a plant to produce powdered milk and infant formula there in 1990, but quickly realized that the local rail and road infrastructure was inadequate and inhibited the collection of milk and delivery of finished products. Rather than make do with the local infrastructure, Nestle embarked on an ambitious plan to establish its own distribution network, known as milk roads, between 27 villages in the region and factory collection points, called chilling centres.Farmers brought their milk – often on bicycles or carts – to the centres where it was weighed and analysed. Unlike the government, Nestle paid the farmers promptly. Suddenly the farmers had an incentive to produce milk and many bou ght a second cow, increasing the cow population in the district by 3,000 to 9,000 in 18 months. Area managers then organized a delivery system that used dedicated vans to deliver the milk to Nestle’s factory. Although at first glance this might seem to be a very costly solution, Nestle calculated that the long-term benefits would be substantial.Nestle’s strategy is similar to that undertaken by many European and American companies during the first waves of industrialization in those countries. Companies often had to invest in infrastructure that we now take for granted to get production off the ground. Once the infrastructure was in place, in China, Nestle’s production took off. In 1990, 316 tons of powdered milk and infant formula were produced. By 1994, output exceeded 10,000 tons and the company decided to triple capacity.Based on this experience, Nestle decided to build another two powdered milk factories in China and was aiming to generate sales of $700 mil lion by 2000. Nestle is pursuing a similar long-term bet in the Middle East, an area in which most multinational food companies have little presence. Collectively, the Middle East accounts for only about 2 percent of Nestle’s worldwide sales and the individual markets are very small. However, Nestle’s long-term strategy is based on the assumption that regional conflicts will subside and intra-regional trade ill expand as trade barriers between countries in the region come down. Once that happens, Nestle’s factories in the Middle East should be able to sell throughout the region, thereby realizing scale economies. In anticipation of this development, Nestle has established a network of factories in five countries, in the hope that each will, someday, supply the entire region with different products. The company, currently makes ice-cream in Dubai, soups and cereals in Saudi Arabia, yogurt and bouillon in Egypt, chocolate in Turkey, and ketchup and instant noodles in Syria.For the present, Nestle can survive in these markets by using local materials and focusing on local demand. The Syrian factory, for example, relies on products that use tomatoes, a major local agricultural product. Syria also produces wheat, which is the main ingredient in instant noodles. Even if trade barriers don’t come down soon, Nestle has indicated it will remain committed to the region. By using local inputs and focussing on local consumer needs, it has earned a good rate of return in the region, even though the individual markets are small.Despite its successes in places such as China and parts of the Middle East, not all of Nestle’s moves have worked out so well. Like several other Western companies, Nestle has had its problems in Japan, where a failure to adapt its coffee brand to local conditions meant the loss of a significant market opportunity to another Western company, Coca Cola. For years, Nestle’s instant coffee brand was the dominant coffee product in Japan. In the 1960s, cold canned coffee (which can be purchased from soda vending machines) started to gain a following in Japan.Nestle dismissed the product as just a coffee-flavoured drink rather than the real thing and declined to enter the market. Nestle’s local partner at the time, Kirin Beer, was so incensed at Nestle’s refusal to enter the canned coffee market that it broke off its relationship with the company. In contrast, Coca Cola entered the market with Georgia, a product developed specifically for this segment of the Japanese market. By leveraging its existing distribution channel, Coca Cola captured a 40 percent share of the $4 billion a year, market for canned coffee in Japan.Nestle, which failed to enter the market until the 1980s, has only a 4 percent share. While Nestle has built businesses from the ground up, in many emerging markets, such as Nigeria and China, in others it will purchase local companies if suitable candidates can b e found. The company pursued such a strategy in Poland, which it entered in 1994, by purchasing Goplana, the country’s second largest chocolate manufacturer. With the collapse of communism and the opening of the Polish market, income levels in Poland have started to rise and so has chocolate consumption.Once a scarce item, the market grew by 8 percent a year, throughout the 1990s. To take advantage of this opportunity, Nestle has pursued a strategy of evolution, rather than revolution. It has kept the top management of the company staffed with locals – as it does in most of its operations around the world – and carefully adjusted Goplana’s product line to better match local opportunities. At the same time, it has pumped money into Goplana’s marketing, which has enabled the unit to gain share from several other chocolate makers in the country. Still, competition in the market is intense.Eight companies, including several foreign-owned enterprises, s uch as the market leader, Wedel, which is owned by PepsiCo, are vying for market share, and this has depressed prices and profit margins, despite the healthy volume growth. Discussions: 1. Does it make sense for Nestle to focus its growth efforts on emerging markets? Why? 2. What is the company’s strategy with regard to business development in emerging markets? Does this strategy make sense? From an organizational perspective, what is required for this strategy to work effectively? 3. Through your own research on NESTLE, identify appropriate performance indicators.Once you have gathered relevant data on these, undertake a performance analysis of the company over the last five years. What does the analysis tell you about the success or otherwise of the strategy adopted by the company? 4. How would you describe Nestle’s strategic posture at the corporate level; is it pursuing a global strategy, a multidomestic strategy an international strategy or a transnational strateg y? 5. Does this overall strategic posture make sense given the markets and countries that Nestle participates in? Why? 6. Is Nestle’s management structure and philosophy aligned with its overall strategic posture?