Balanced Scorecard: Traditional Performance Measurement

Balanced Scorecard Traditional Performance Measurement Historically, the measurement system for business has been financial. Activities of companies were measured and monitored through the traditional financial accounting model. However, the extensive, even exclusive use of financial measurements in business has been criticized primarily because an overemphasis on achieving and maintaining short-term financial results can cause companies to overinvest in short-term fixes and to underinvest in long-term value creation, particularly in the intangible and intellectual assets that generate future growth. Indeed, the Harvard Business School Council on Competitiveness project in 1992 identified the following systematic differences between investments made by U. S. corporations and those made in Japan and Germany: The U. S. system is less supportive of long-term corporate investment because of the overemphasis on improving short-term returns to influence current share prices. The U. S. ystem favors those forms of investment for which returns are most readily measurable; this leads to underinvestment in intangible assets – product and process innovation, employee skills, customer satisfaction – whose short-term returns are more difficult to measure. Inevitably, as managers are pressured to deliverconsistent and excellent short-term financial performance, trade-offs are made that limit the search for investments in growth opportunities. Even worse, the pressure for short-term financial performance can cause companies to reduce spending on new product development, process improvements, human resource development, information technology, data bases, and systems as well as customer and market development. In the short run, the financial accounting model reports these spending cutbacks as increases in reported income, even when reductions have cannibalized a company’s stock of assetsand its capabilities for creating future economic value. Alternatively, a company could maximize short-term financial results by exploiting customers through high prices or lower service. In the short run, these actions enhance reported profitability, but the lack of customer loyalty and satisfaction will leave the company highly vulnerable to competitive inroads. The concern with the overemphasis on financial performance measures has also permeated the U. S. rofessional association of public accountants as a high-level special committee on financial reporting of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants reinforced concerns with exclusive reliance on financial reporting for measuring business performance: â€Å"Users focus on the future while today’s business reporting focuses on the past. Although information about the past is a useful indicator of future performance, users also need forward-looking information. The committee acknowledged the importance of reporting on how well companies are creating value for the fut ure, and recommended linking business performance reporting to management’s strategic vision: â€Å"Many users want to see a company through the eyes of management to help them understand management’s perspective and predict where management will lead the company. † It went on to say that nonfinancial measurement must play a key role: â€Å"Management should disclose the financial and nonfinancial measurements it uses in managing the business that quantify the effects of key activities and events. The committee concluded by recommending that companies adopt a more â€Å"balanced† and forward-looking approach: To meet users’ changing needs, business reporting must: Provide more information about plans, opportunities, risks and uncertainties Focus more on the factors that create longer-term value, including nonfinancial measures indicating how key business processes are performing Origins of the Balanced Scorecard By the mid-1990s other organization al theorists had taken up Kaplan and Norton’s work and modified the design method of balanced scorecards, ironing out early flaws. Kaplan and Norton published their ideas in full in The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action in 1996 and it became a business bestseller. The Balanced Scorecard Each perspective of the Balanced Scorecard includes objectives, measures of those objectives, target values of those measures, and initiatives, defined as follows: Measures – the observable parameters that will be used to measure progress toward reaching the objective. For example, the objective of profitable growth might be measured by growth in net margin. Targets – the specific target values sought for each of the measures, for example, +2% growth in net margin. Initiatives – action programs to be initiated in order to meet the objective and reach the target. The framework for the balanced scorecard is illustrated below: Figure 1: Balanced Scorecard Framework {draw:frame} As can be seen from the diagram, the objectives and measures of the scorecard are derived from an organization’s vision and strategy. The balanced scorecard should translate a business unit’s mission and strategy into tangible objectives and measures. The measures represent a balancebetween external measures for shareholders and customers, and internal measures if critical business processes, innovation, and learning and growth. The measures are also balancedbetween the outcome measures – the results from past efforts – and the measures that drive future performance. Lastly, the scorecard is balancedbetween objectives, easily quantified outcome measures and subjective, somewhat judgmental, performance drivers of the outcome measures. Every measure selected should be part of a link of cause-and-effect relationships that culminate in improving financial performance. The scorecard should tell the story of the strategy, starting with the long-run financial objectives, and then linking them to the sequence of actions that must be taken with financial processes, customers, internal processes, and finally employees and system to deliver the desired long-run economic performance. Financial Perspective Table 1: Stages of a Business’s Life Cycle Table 2: Measuring Strategic Financial Themes Revenue growth and mix refer to expanding product and service offerings, reaching new customers and markets, changing the product and service mix toward higher-value-added offerings, and repricing products and services. The cost reduction and productivity objective refers to efforts to lower the direct costs of products and services, reduce indirect costs, and share common resources with other business units. For the asset utilization theme, managers attempt to reduce the working capital levels required to support a given volume and mix of business. They also strive to obtain greater utilization of their fixed asset base, by directing new business to resources currently not used to capacity, using scarce resources more efficiently, and disposing of assets that provide inadequate returns on their market value. All these actions enable the business unit to increase the returns earned on its financial and physical assets. Customer Perspective The customer perspective addresses the question of how the firm is viewed by its customers and how well the firm is serving its targeted customers in order to meet the financial objectives. In the customer perspective of the balanced scorecard, managers identify the customer and market segments in which the business unit will compete and the measures of the business unit’s performance in these targeted segments. These segments represent the sources that will deliver the revenue component of the company’s financial objectives. The customer perspective enables companies to align their core or generic outcome measures to targeted customers and market segments. This core measurement group of outcomes is generic across all kinds of organizations, and is illustrated in the following diagram: Figure 2: The Customer Perspective – Core Measures {draw:frame} These outcome measures represent the targets for companies’ marketing, operational, logistics, and product and service development processes. However, these outcome measures have some of the defects of traditional financial measures in that they are lagging measures – employees will not know how well they are doing with customer satisfaction or customer retention until it is too late to affect the outcome. Also, the measures do not communicate what employees should be doing in their day-to-day activities to achieve the desired outcomes. Because of these, managers must also identify what customers in targeted segments value and choose the value proposition they will deliver to these customers. The segment-specific drivers of core customer outcomes represent those factors that are critical for customers to switch to or remain loyal to their suppliers. These attributes are illustrated in the Figure 3 below: Figure 3: The Customer Value Proposition {draw:g} {draw:frame} The customer perspective enables business unit managers to articulate the customer and market-based strategy that will deliver superior future financial returns. Thus, the customer perspective of the scorecard translates an organization’s mission and strategy into specific objectives about targeted customers and market segments that can be communicated throughout the organization. Internal Business Process Perspective Internal business process objectives address the question of which processes are most critical for satisfying customers and shareholders. These are the processes in which the firm must concentrate its efforts to excel. Objectives and measures for this perspective are typically developed after formulating objectives and measures for the financial and customer perspectives to enable companies to focus their internal business process metrics on those processes that will deliver the objectives established for customers and shareholders. The process of deriving objectives and measures for the internal business process perspective represents one of the sharpest distinctions between the balanced scorecard and traditional performance measurement systems. While traditional approaches attempt to monitor and improve existing business processes, the scorecard approach usually identifies entirely new processes at which an organization must excel to meet customer and financial objectives. The balanced scorecard internal business process objectives highlight the processes, several of which may not be currently performing at all, that are most critical for an organization’s strategy to succeed. Additionally, while the traditional performance measurement systems focus on the processes of delivering today’s products and services to today’s customers (short wave of value creation), the balanced scorecard approach is to incorporate innovation processes into the internalbusiness process perspective as illustrated in Figure 3. Figure 3: The Internal Business Process Perspective – The Generic Value Chain Model {draw:frame} {draw:frame} {draw:frame} {draw:frame} The innovation process highlights the importance of, first, identifying the characteristics of market segments that the organization wishes to satisfy with its future products and services, and, then, designing and developing the products and services that will satisfy those targeted segments. This approach enables the organization to put considerable weight on research, design, and development processes that yield new products, services, and markets. Among the measures that can be used in the innovation process are percentage of sales from new products, percentage of sale from proprietary products, new product introduction versus competitors or versus plan, manufacturing process capabilities, and time to develop next generation of products. The operations process represents the short wave of value creation in organizations. It starts with receipt of customer order and finishes with delivery of the product or service to the customer. This process stresses efficient, consistent, and timely delivery of existing products and services to existing customers. It remains important and organizations should identify the cost, quality, time, and performance characteristics that will enable it to deliver superior products and services to its targeted current customers. The influence of the total quality management and time-based competition practices of leading Japanese manufacturers has led many companies to supplement their traditional cost and financial measurements with measurements of operating processes’ quality, cycle time, and cost. Finally, the postsale service process enables companies to feature, when appropriate, important aspects of service that occur after the purchased product or service has been delivered to the customer such as warranty and repair activities, treatment of defects and returns, and the processing of payments. Measures of performance in the operating processes can also be applied to postsale service process (i. e. time, quality, and cost metrics). Thus, cycle times can measure the speed of response to failures and cost metrics can evaluate the efficiency for postsale service processes while first-pass yields can measure what percentage of customer requests are handled with a single service call, rather than requiring multiple calls to resolve the problem. Companies that deal with hazardous or environmentally sensitive chemicals and materials may also introduce critical performance measures associated with the safe disposal of waste and by-products from the production process. Learning and Growth Perspective The fourth perspective of the balanced scorecard, learning and growth, addresses the question of how the firm must learn, improve, and innovate in order to meet its objectives. It identifies the infrastructure that the organization must build to create long-term growth and improvement. The enablers for learning and growth come primarily from three sources: people or employees, systems, and organizational procedures. The financial, customer, and internal business process objectives on the balanced scorecard will typically reveal large gaps between the existing capabilities of people, systems, and procedures and what will be required to achieve breakthrough performance. To close these gaps, businesses will have to invest in reskilling employees, enhancing information technology and systems, and aligning organizational procedures and routines. Figure 4: The Learning and Growth Measurement Framework {draw:frame} Within this core, the employee satisfaction objective is generally considered the driver of the other two measures, employee retention and employee productivity. It recognizes that employee morale and overall job satisfaction are preconditions for increasing productivity, responsiveness, quality, and customer service. Companies typically measure employee satisfaction with an annual survey, or a rolling survey in which a specified percentage of randomly chosen employees is surveyed each month. Employee retention captures an objective to retain those employees in whom the organization has a long-term interest. The theory underlying this measure is that the organization is making long-term investments in its employees so that any unwanted departures represent a loss in the intellectual capital of the business. Long-term, loyal employees carry the values of the organization, knowledge of organizational processes, and sensitivity to the needs of customers. Employee retention is generally measured by percentage of key staff turnover. Employee productivity is an outcome measure of the aggregated impact from enhancing employee skills and morale, innovation, improving internal processes, and satisfying customers. The goal is to relate the output produced by employees to the number of employees used to produce that output. The simplest productivity measure is revenue per employee, which represents how much output can be generated per employee. As employees and the organization become more effective in selling a higher volume and a higher value-added set of products and services, revenue per employee should increase. Linking the Balanced Scorecard Measures to Strategy Uses of the Balanced Scorecard The Balanced Scorecard originally was conceived as an improved performance measurement system. However, it soon became evident that it could be used as a management system to implement strategy at all levels of the organization by facilitating the following functions: Clarifying strategy – the translation of strategic objectives into quantifiable measures clarifies the management team's understanding of the strategy and helps to develop a coherent consensus. Communicating strategic objectives – the Balanced Scorecard can serve to translate high level objectives into operational objectives and communicate the strategy effectively throughout the organization. Planning, setting targets, and aligning strategic initiatives ambitious but achievable targets are set for each perspective and initiatives are developed to align efforts to reach the targets. Strategic feedback and learning – executives receive feedback on whether the strategy implementation is proceeding according to plan and on whether the strategy itself is successful (â€Å"double-loop learning†). These functions have made the Balanced Scorecard an effective management system for the implementation of strategy. The Balanced Scorecard has been applied successfully to private sector companies, non-profit organizations, and government agencies as discussed in the succeeding sections. Potential Pitfalls The following are potential pitfalls that should be avoided when implementing the Balanced Scorecard: Lack of a well-defined strategy: The Balanced Scorecard relies on a well-defined strategy and an understanding of the linkages between strategic objectives and the metrics. Without this foundation, the implementation of the Balanced Scorecard is unlikely to be successful. Using only lagging measures: Many managers believe that they will reap the benefits of the Balanced Scorecard by using a wide range of non-financial measures. However, care should be taken to identify not only lagging measures that describe past performance, but also leading measures that can be used to plan for future performance. Use of generic metrics: It usually is not sufficient simply to adopt the metrics used by other successful firms. Each firm should put forth the effort to identify the measures that are appropriate for its own strategy and competitive position. Effectiveness of the Balanced Scorecard (Success Stories) Mobil North America Marketing and Refining CIGNA Property and Casualty Insurance Brown & Root Energy Services’ Rockwater Division Chemical (Chase) Retail Bank AT Canada, Inc. Zeneca Ag Products North America Southern Gardens Citrus University of California, San Diego Duke Children’s Hospital United Parcel Service Building and Implementing a Balance Scorecard Balanced Scorecard Components Figure 5: The Logic of Balanced Scorecard Strategic Planning {draw:frame} Process of Building a Balanced Scorecard Kaplan and Norton defined a four-step process that has been used across a wide range of organizations. Define the measurement architecture – When a company initially introduces the Balanced Scorecard, it is more manageable to apply it on the strategic business unit level rather than the corporate level. However, interactions must be considered in order to avoid optimizing the results of one business unit at the expense of others. Build consensus around strategic objectives – The top three or four objectives for each perspective are agreed upon. Potential measures are identified for each objective. Select and design measures – Measures that are closely related to the actual performance drivers are selected for evaluating the progress made toward achieving the objectives. Develop the implementation plan – Target values are assigned to the measures. An information system is developed to link the top level metrics to lower-level operational measures. The scorecard is integrated into the management system.

Finance and Company Essay

So Wrigley has to make decisions on whether or not to borrow $ 3 billion for recapitalization. Question Based on the above situation, there are few questions that arise as seen below: ? Whether the recapitalization would be good for the company’s development in the long run? ?After borrowing $ 3 billion dollars what would the impact on the company’s debt rating be? ?What’s the impact on the company’s share value; would the recapitalization increase the company’s share value? ?What’s the impact on the company’s WACC, an increase or decrease? Would recapitalization increases the EPS of the company? Hypothesis Before capital restructuring due to not having any debt, return on capital and operating income as a percent of sales can be used based on exhibit 2(it is $513,356/$2,429,646= 21%) which is the A to AA range of investment grade. After recapitalization, the company’s debt rating will fall to a BB/B rating which reflects a higher risk and lower debt rating that will cause higher yields. According to Exhibit 7’s given information, the yield is between BB (12. 753) to B (14. 663) to obtain a cost of debt. Impact on share value If the company chooses to repurchase the stock, the WD will be 22. 89% (3,000,000/13,103,000), the WACC will be 10. 19% (22. 89% (1-40%)*13%+77. 1%*10. 9%). Both 10. 32% and 10. 19% are lower than the WACC before recapitalization, which indicates that after the recapitalization the company will have a lower minimum rate of return for the company that it needs to earn on its investments to maintain its wealth. Impact on Voting Control If the company is using the dividend plan to do capital restructuring, there will not be any impact on voting control. However, if the company is using the stock repurchase plan, it will have an influence on the voting control. The current Wrigley family ownership includes 21% of common shares and 58% of B shares. The total numbers of shares outstanding for Wrigley consists of the sum of the common shares of 189. 8 million and class B shares of 42. 641 million (10 votes each), a total of 232,441 million shares. So the company will have 46. 6% ((189. 8*21%+426. 41*58%)/616. 21=46. 6%)voting control before recapitalization. After the recapitalization the voting control will increase to 49% [(179. 22-42. 641)*21%+426. 41*58%]/ (136. 58+426. 41) =49Based on the above analysis, my suggestion is not to borrow $ 3 billion dollars, or if the company insists in doing a recapitalization I would suggest for them to not borrow as much and to make some investment on assets instead of it all in equity. For the Wrigley Company I think they should keep their debt below 50 percent. Because after recapitalization, it will have negative impacts on EPS, debt rating, share value and it has a slightly positive impact on WACC and voting control. The results of impact on EPS analysis shows that EPS will drop from $ 1. 61 to 0. 46 and, the debt/ assets ratio will be 169% which will increase the company’s risks. From a debt rating aspect, after borrowing $ 3 billion dollars, the debt rating of the company will decline from AA/A to BB/B which means that the company will have a higher interest rate, more interest expense and a lower credit rating in the future. This is not good for the company’s future development. From a long term prospective, I believe it’s important that the company be careful in determining whether they should pursue a dividend or stock repurchase strategy. If the company chooses to use the $ 3 billion to pay dividends now, it might increase the investor’s satisfaction in the short run but once the dividend has been paid, the investor will expect the same amount of dividend in the future and a lower dividend might disappoint investors and that might affect the company’s stock price in the future. The stock repurchase is temporary as well, so after the repurchase the ending stock price might drop and it may hurt a potential new investor who made a purchase during the repurchase period. All things considered as long as Wrigley keeps an eye on their long term goals and continues to look at the big picture whilst making good solid financial choices for their company they should be most successful.

What Does Flaubert Think of Emma

Madame Bovary is about the life of Emma Bovary whose unhappy marital life has thrust her into illegitimate relationships with other men. Emma’s character serves to stand for the women of 19th century who found themselves in the web of unhappy life from which they failed to free themselves. The dominant theme of the novel is about the search of a woman for true happiness and independence but the irony of the novel is that she is deceived by the interplay of illusion and reality. Emma Bovary struggles to free herself from the conventions of the society through escapades in illusionary world and relationships which give her nothing in return. Emma’s character is criticized as that of a lustful woman but the way the author of the novel portrays and treats her is as important as the interpretation of the critics. The attitude of the author, however, has a considerable impact on the reader’s perception of Emma’s character and the readers come to see the character of Emma through the eyes of Flaubert. The novel is an admixture of ‘rebellion, violence, melodrama and sex, expertly combined in a compact plot’ (Llosa). What Flaubert thinks of his heroine is clear with his statement, ‘Madame Bovary, C’est Moi? ’ that implies that he can never think to imagine of the sufferings of Emma (Zarin). The story of Emma commences as she is married to Charles Bovary who is a physician. Charles undergoes an unhappy marital life before Emma where ‘his wife was a master’ (Flaubert 10). The author treats the character of Emma with a delicacy and sensitivity as she is presented as a romantic woman whose dreams are devastated as soon as she realizes that her choice to marry a physician was fatuous, ‘What exasperated her was that Charles did not seem to notice her anguish. His conviction that he was making her happy seemed to her an imbecile insult and his sureness on this point ingratitude’ (Flaubert 101). It seems that the author himself sympathyzes with Emma and wants to capture the reader’s attention towards her pitiful condition that is an excuse for the life she chose for herself. Another dominant theme of the novel is the interplay of illusion and reality which makes Emma to take decisions for her life. The callousness of her husband pushes her towards rebellion and she asks, ‘for whose sake, then was she virtuous? ’ (Flaubert 101). Emma finds escape in lascivious affairs with Leon Dupius and Rodolphe Boulanger. She ‘could not think that the calm in which she lived was the happiness she had dreamed’ (Flaubert 35). The sad fact is that Charles realizes his wife’s worth in his life after her death. Even when he has discovered the love letter of Rodolphe he admits that everyone ‘must have adored her’ and ‘all men assuredly must have coveted her’ (Flaubert 342). The attitude of Charles seems odd as well as he adores her as if a goddess and ‘she seemed but the more beautiful to him for this’ (Flaubert 342). But it is the choice of Flaubert who himself is found in love with his character that even after the enormous loss in the life of Emma she is treated with sympathy by the novelist. During her life the sole concern of Charles is ‘his reputation’, ‘fortune’ and ‘berth’s future’ (Flaubert 313). Emma commits suicide and does not realize her mistakes even after she is left by her lovers. The rites of passage does not appear in her life as she felt to be ‘disillusioed’ with ‘nothing’ to ‘learn , and nothing more to feel’ (Flaubert 35). The dilemma of Emma’s life, though, is that she fails to achieve perfect happiness and the victim of her rebellion was her daughter, Berth, who is bound to work in factory after the demise of her parents. Flaubert treats Emma as a woman who craves for wealth, joy and the superficial side of the things. The luscious style of life attracts her as the novelists describe ‘the silver dish covers’ that reflect ‘the lighted wax candles in the candlebra’ and the silk linen were the things that made her eyes glimmed (Flaubert 43). The ambitions of Emma lead her to sin and death are a part of western history of morality and religion (Llosa). The important aspect of Emma’s treatment of Flaubert is that the novelist portrays her character as a rebellious soul who is heroic in her own sense. Rebellion in Emma’s case’, says Llosa, ‘does not have the epic dimensions of that of the masculine heroes of the 19th century novel, yet it is no less heroic’ (Llosa). The attitude of the novelist towards the pivotal character is positive and he treats her as an Amazon of her own life but the fact is that Flaubert’s attitude inserts inverse imp act on the perceptions of the readers as they come to see her character as that of a lusty woman who bears no fidelity like that of women in other 19th century novels who came to compromise with the circumstances of their lives. The critics also criticize Emma Bovary for her impulses, her ‘incurable materialism’, her ‘predilection for the pleasures of the body’ than ‘soul’ and her ‘preference for earthly life’ which are also a part of a modern western woman (Llosa). ‘Here is the rebellion of an individual’, ushers Llosa, ‘and to all appearances a self centered one’ (Llosa). Emma Bavory represents women in 19th century society who are caught in unhappy marriages and aspire to obtain their wishes at every cost. Her story is that of a ‘blind, stubborn, desperate rebellion against the social violence’ (Llosa). She ‘violates the codes of her milieu’ only because she is ‘driven’ to act in the way as a consequence of her problems which she undergoes in her life (Llosa). The mastery of Flaubert lies in the fact that he links the thematic garb of the story with that of characterization. As the dominant themes of the novel include the struggle for independence by a woman, interplay between illusion and reality, theme of infidelity and betrayal. The interesting fact of Flaubert’s novel is that all of the themes are associated with the character of Emma Bovary who enjoys pivotal importance in the plot of the novel. This fact emphaizes the need to have a closer look at how is Flaubert’s own attitude towards the heroine of the novel and what he wants to imply through the portrayal of Emma. Emma is regarded as among the heroines about whose ‘appearance’ readers are ‘most likely to diagree’ (Barnes). Moreover Barnes finds it impossible to forgive Thackery for calling Bovary as heartless and callous. She is to be sympathized when she realizes that she is betrayed as she says to Rodolhe, ‘You never loved me. You are no better than the others’ (Flaubert 310). She was ;betraying, ruining herself’ for her ambitions (Flaubert 310). Flaubert shows that Emma’s engagements with the other men were due to the problems in which she was trapped and she was not disloyal to any one as Emma herself resolves to help her lovers when they needed, ‘I would have given you every thing. I would have sold all’ for the eternal love (Flaubert 310). Charles remains in the illusion that he had made her happy throughout her life, ‘Weren’t you happy? Is it my fault? I did all I could’ (Flaubert 316). The end of Emma’s life is presented with a divinity as ‘now’ a ‘twilight dimness was settling upon her thoughts’ (Flaubert 317) and she filled with joy on the ‘visions of eternal beatitude that were beginning’ (Flaubert 323). It was the ‘treachery’, ‘meanness’ and numberless ‘desires that had tortured her’, so she is rid of all the blames by the author (Flaubert 317). The character of Emma is presented by the author with such a sensitivity that it arouses the sympathies of the readers towards Emma’s character.

Current events paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Current events paper - Essay Example Managing adequate levels of inventory is important to ensure that the firm’s inventory balance does not hurt the cash position of a firm. In the retailing industry the merchandise in the shelves of the stores represent the inventory of the company. A way to reduce the cost of acquiring merchandise in the merchandising sector is by purchasing in bulk. Companies that purchase in bulk are able to achieve economies of scale. A way to reduce the risk of losing inventory due to fires, natural disasters, or theft is by purchasing insurance for the inventory of a company. The article Your Inventory is Your Cash: Handle With Care (4 Cost-Cutting Tips) discusses the effect and importance of inventory for companies in the industry. Smart use of inventory is an important factor that managers must consider. A lot of space, sales opportunities and cash are tied up on inventory. Storing adequate levels of inventory is important to achieve sales growth. â€Å"Smart use of inventory is vital for them and also for you, if you keep and store any kind of goods or supplies in the operation of your business† (Williams). Four strategies that must be used to manage inventory are frugality, cost tracking, inventory tracking, and sales monitoring. Proper management of inventory can increase the profitability and cash flow of a company. It is important to minimize the amount of slow selling products on inventory. Minimizing inventory saves warehouse space, prevents products from going bad, and it saves money. Tracking costs allows companies to establish appropri ate price levels for its customers. Monitoring costs gives managers the ability to identify areas for improvement. Tracking inventory can help a company determine the proper reorder point of inventory items. Sales monitoring gives the manager the ability to determine the adequate sales level when demand changes. Inventory management has become a critical

Building Customer Connection with Old Spice Essay

Building Customer Connection with Old Spice - Essay Example The brand attempts to illustrate that it can alter the lifestyle dynamics of the consumer, transforming their environment from one of mundane and commonplace living to one of excitement and thrill. â€Å"Old Spice† focuses on the tangible benefits of the product, unlike other product brands that position on pricing or premium quality, to illustrate the relationship between product and consumer needs fulfillment. The brand does an excellent job of blending lifestyle marketing, relationship marketing, and elements of logic to appeal successfully to its target market. The advertisement (Appendix A) illustrates a typical, overweight male librarian in a split figure format, illustrating a transformative process from an ordinary, rather unattractive consumer to a stimulated and electrifying rock superstar. Under the VALS 2 model of psychographics, one of the main consumer segments is referred to as the Striver, one with generally low financial resources, but one who maintains a desi re to attain wealth and achieve higher status in society (Boone & Kurtz 213). The Striver profile is one that is very trends-focused and action-oriented, meaning they seek fun and excitement in their lifestyle (Boone & Kurtz 213). Strivers believe that money is a significant justifier for better social status, often seeking to purchase products that are considered premium in an effort to emulate those in society with more financial resources.... The tagline, â€Å"Somewhere in there, there’s a man in there† both chastises and applauds a consumer that reaches for â€Å"Old Spice†, using pathos as a rhetorical appeal to gain consumer attention and interest. Essentially, the â€Å"Old Spice† brand attempts to act as a social critic of the mundane consumer lifestyle and also an advocate for transformation from a boy to a man through the utilization of the brand. In society, the stereotype of the typical librarian is one of stuffiness, unsightliness, and generally unappealing. Because the Striver is greatly concerned about the sentiment and opinion of peers and others in society, â€Å"Old Spice† uses this psychological characteristic to its advantage to effectively promote the product. â€Å"Old Spice† cleverly uses this subconscious ploy to create an emotional response of self-rebuke or self-punishment for the consumer that lives a similar routine and unexciting lifestyle where the cons equences of potential social rejection becomes a factor in prompting purchase intention in favor of this brand. The library environment chosen for this advertisement is laid out much like an oppressive and old-fashioned library of a conservative statesman, further showing the danger of social conformity that can occur by not seeking adventure and thrill. The brand statement in the advertisement, â€Å"Smell better than yourself†, clearly links product benefits to expected outcomes to the consumer by choosing â€Å"Old Spice† over competition. The main goal of this advertisement is to illustrate that a prim and uneventful lifestyle can be changed if the target buyer selects this particular

EMAIL PRIVACY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

EMAIL PRIVACY - Essay Example Currently, email dominates modern communication. In fact, the survey that was conducted by the Forrester Research Inc. shows that 98 percent of companies with over one thousand employees have internet access. All the companies with internet access use email as the main form of communication at the organization. Email is a very new concept in communication, and it is rapidly gaining popularity. According to Cliffon (2005), it is estimated that in America, up to 1.5 billion emails are exchanged annually. Email Privacy Most people are of the view that since the emails are more personal, they provide a good platform for people to discuss personal issues. This is never the case in most cases; in fact, emails have made communication to be less personal since privacy in communication through emails or telephones is easily compromised. It is always very hard to write personal things on the email because a third party may see them; hence, emails are greatly compromised in terms of privacy. Ac cording to Cliffon (2005), the hackers are able to crack passwords for emails and, therefore, get access to personal information of others. Hacking presents a very precarious situation because hackers may get access to critical information such as credit number of an individual or even password for an individual’s bank account thereby defrauding individuals of their lifetime investments. The internet is highly susceptible to malicious attacks. The process of composing an email to the time that it reaches the final user exposes information to several electronic dangers. Despite this reality, many people are usually oblivious of the many privacy flaws they are exposed to when dealing with email. Crawford (2008) says that most individuals tend to think that the one layer email protection by the use of password is always sufficient to guarantee email privacy yet the one layer password protection is not sufficient to protect the content of personal or business email. Privacy Risks Due to the apparent privacy hitches in email communication, users of email are exposed to a number of risks. The reason for this is that email is highly susceptible to both active and passive attacks. Passive threats vary from traffic analysis and release of message contents. On the other hand, active threats include replay, masquerade, and altering of the contents of the message. Currently, most emails are transmitted unencrypted and this presents the danger that some unscrupulous individuals other than the designated recipient can gain access to content of the email. Such unscrupulous individuals usually have some tools that they use to gain access to the contents of the email (Quigley, 2011). The idea of traffic analysis presents the danger of evading email privacy. Traffic analysis is a routine surveillance by government through monitoring of emails as a measure to counter terrorism as well a thwart any form of political eavesdropping or espionage. In as much as traffic analysi s is justified on security grounds, this approach compromises on the privacy of emails since through the process, access to the private email messages of individuals or corporate is gained. The other potential risk with regard to email privacy is the possibility of altering and modification of the contents of the email. Using spoofing tools, unscrupulous individual can intercept an email message on transit or storage and then modify the contents of such messages. Rao and Upadhyaya (2009) argue that the other potential risk of email privacy is the issue of masquerading; it is possible for an individual to send an email in the name of another person or any corporation. Moreover, it is worth noting that email messages can be resend to individuals more

Report for AIR PARTNER PLC. (Research & Financial Analysis) Essay

Report for AIR PARTNER PLC. (Research & Financial Analysis) - Essay Example Findings a) Financial highlights According to the chairman’s report( air partner’s report 2010), the group made a loss of ?1.65m, a loss of ?0.04 in the financial year 2009.Similarly, the pre-tax profit slumped from ?.6m in 2009 to ?3.5m in 2010 which is attributed to the restructuring costs and loss from some of their operating units. The company’s operation remained profitable despite the challenging environment fueled by a contracting economic outlooks experienced across the world in 2009 and part of 2010.( Vogel,2001).However, its turnover from the continuing operations increased from ?187m in 2009 to ?230m in the year 2010. The annual report released by the director in July 2011, indicates a remarkable increase in turnover and the pretax profit. The turnover increased from ?230m in 2010 to ?282m in 2011.Similarly, the pre-tax profit soared greatly by 93% in as compared to the yrar2010.The re was also an increase in Earnings per share from 26.6% to 32.55 in 2 011.It is also pointed out that in 2011 financial year, the directors were entitled to dividends signifying some positive growth in profits unlike in 2011 where there were no dividends due to the losses the companies had realized. Increase in profits was attributed to its core strategy of focusing on core business of core broking activities in areas which were profitable (Plunkett, 2008). A further critical analysis of their financial statements reveals that the net current assets of the firm decreased from ?9557m in 2009 to ?7642m in 2010 and a light increase to ?9578 in 2011, wit taxation taking major of their expenditures from the companies’ earnings. A loss was registered in cash flows from operating activities from ?2011m to ?2021m in 2011.This was attributed to a discontinued loss from operation as evidenced from the incomes and expenditure statement. Investment activities continued to decrease due to losses that were being incurred by the company, due to a downturn eco nomic patterns with ?18m in 2010 and a worse loss in 2011 of ?627m.in general, the cash and cash equivalents decreased by ?4569m in they year 2011. A closer review of the changes in the equity statement indicates that the company increased slightly from the ?10959m to ?12817m in the year ending 31st july2011. b) Trends and other concerns of the company As noted in their annual report (31st July, 2011), the lead time booking for their clients is ad hoc and unpredictable. This implies that the company’s business trend in uncertainty and only depends on the factors such financial markets, political instability from which their subsidiary company operate and natural events such catastrophe, earthquakes which adversely affect their business operation in those specified areas. For example, the earth quake that occurred in Japan adversely affected all the business in those areas and aircrafts plying those areas had to be called off (Annual Report, 2010; 2011) c) The group’s p rincipal risks The group principal risks include operation-related risks such as shortages of supply, adverse weather conditions, competitive pricing owed to the fact that the industry is highly concentrated, and stringent legal regulations

Knowledge of Human Cognitive Abilities and How it Can Help People to Coursework

Knowledge of Human Cognitive Abilities and How it Can Help People to Learn Computer Systems - Coursework Example And cognitive abilities are the processing skills of a brain to carry on a particular task. As Per (Michelone) â€Å"Cog ­ni ­tive abil ­i ­ties are the brain-based skills we need to carry out any task from the sim ­plest to the most com ­plex. They have more to do with the mech ­a ­nisms of how we learn, remem ­ber, problem-solve, and pay atten ­tion rather than with any actual knowl ­edge†. Generally speaking, cognitive abilities are the mechanism by which our brain operates to accomplish different tasks of our daily life. An in- depth study of cognitive skill greatly help a person to improve his learning capacity and task performing ability. Any learning or activity task can be segregated according to cognitive functioning and process can be made simpler and convenient accordingly. Everyone today knows that our world is operating extensively with the support of computers .And obviously, learning and performing computers tasks requires ample amount of c ognitive abilities and skills. So, if a person could enhance his cognitive abilities he can very well upgrade his level of understanding about the working system of computers. It not only essential for him to perceive thing systematically but also should be able to clearly differentiate every functions to make the learning process easy and less complicated. Learning computer is not a very easy task; it needs extensive use of memory, logic and cognitive skills. In computer learning there are different stages in which the learner pass through to achieve successful learning. Mainly the basics of computer learning may not require intense cognitive skills or capabilities. But as one cross the basic level and enters in to more complex learning session, the knowledge of cognitive skills becomes necessary and helpful. In advanced level of computer learning, like software development and data processing, high scale of information processing skills and decision making ability is required. Acc ording to (Singley,24) â€Å"When students are gives tasks beyond their skill level, the variability among students decreases. The better students are able to span the gap; the worst students are not†. Learning of programming and applying reasoning ability in the decision making process requires a great deal of memory, logic and brain processing. If a learner has knowledge about his cognitive abilities and have deeper understanding about the way in which brain operates, then he can learn things faster and easier. Decision making skill and problem solving skills are important in computer learning and if a learner understands his cognitive abilities he can gain much confidence in his learning process. Most Psychological theories consider that cognitive skills are multi faceted and are correlated with other abilities of an individual. It is usually seen that some people understand, grasp and solve things more quickly, while others require more time and energy. The understanding of personal cognitive ability is very essential for a person to develop his ability in learning process of computer systems. One should understand how the brain perceive things, process information and store information in short term and long term memory. The stability, diversity and growth of our personal mental processing and use and transformation of our external and internal information to think, learn and communicate are highly related. If we understand well the mental processing and brain mechanism then the learning of computer systems can be made simpler and less time consuming. It is very essential to understand the cognitive abiliti

Serving Customers in Global Markets Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Serving Customers in Global Markets - Essay Example Why: Apple Inc took home repeat Brand of the Year distinctions in three categories—Tablet, Computer and Mobile Phone in 2013. Apple scored strong points for all elements of Brand Equity namely Quality, Familiarity and Purchase Consideration. In the world of tablets, Apple’s iPad series which expanded its offerings in 2012 with the iPad mini and it received the Tablet Brand of the Year award for second consecutive year. The Apple has a more than 100 products under its brand. Purpose: The reason for going into 1 Crossgates Mall Road Albany, NY 12203 is to evaluate the service levels which are offered by the staff present in the store. This is important since it affects the customer satisfaction with respect to product and pricing offered to them. Location: The location was chosen since it was reputed of being the best place to test-drive and explore Apple products. Under one place one can easily find every product of Apple including one of the most knowledgeable Apple people. Choice of Provider: The main reason for choosing Apple Inc. is that the company is world renowned for its top quality products meeting the customer expectation. Apple came out with innovative products like Tablet, iPad, iPhone etc. which revolutionized the mobile industry. Again it is known for good customer service. Expectation: My expectation is that the shop should have all the recent products released by Apple available along with good customer service support staff that should be knowledgeable at resolving my issue and a pleasant atmosphere. Segmentation- Segmentation of the market is very important as it is the key process of capturing the market share and launching the product. When a particular product is been developed by any company it need to find out which segment of customers can utilize that particular product. Apple came up with the i-phone with all the latest technologies in build in, it had kept the price of the product high and segmented it in the

Managing Organizational Deviance Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Managing Organizational Deviance - Assignment Example Ethics in an enterprise include salespeople being honest, just and fair to all. Some individuals may perceive sales ethics as being an oxymoron or rather a contradiction depending on a number of factors including the culture of the people, the product itself, way the product or service is produced and delivered to customers as well as the behavior of the salespersons. The factors listed above are varied across cultures, nations and every action have both benefits and costs, which may render sales ethics an oxymoron. However, sales ethics is not an oxymoron. In most cases, it is the behavior of a salesperson, who connects the company and the customer (consumer) that largely contributes to the debate whether sales ethics is an oxymoron. If a salesperson creates and sustains a relationship that is based on honesty, commitment and trust, then the customer will be a lifelong and sales become ethical. The reason why sales ethics is oxymoron First, nothing is perfect. At times, matters beyo nd the control of the sales persons hamper him or her from delivering their value proposition. For example, if a salesperson promises a customer that the product will be delivered in an hour’s time and it delays, the salesperson will appear a cheat. But the delay may be occasion by traffic jam or breakdown among other genuine reasons. Secondly, the goals of the salesperson may make sales ethics a contradiction. This is true when a salesperson is driven by temptation and greed in the sense that he or she wants to make more commissions at the expense of the value delivered to the customer. For example, if a salesperson is fast-talking and extremely convincing, he or she often sells products to customers that have no value. According to Blocher (2008, 34), most adverts and salespersons do not reveal the complete story of products or services, which the buyer may not like. As a result, the customer purchases products or services that they do not need in the first place and they w ill feel cheated. Thirdly, salespersons may report inaccurate sales. In an enterprise, there are various forms of rewards systems which include salary, promotions, and bonuses. Among the salespeople, these systems are put in place based on their performance. However, it can result in employees being involved in unethical behavior. In order to attain sales targets employees may opt to use unethical practices such as using pressure and recording false sales. Lack of transparency may be costly to a company in the long run. It may spoil the sales, personal credibility and interfere with sales (Thorne 2008, 224). Such unethical behaviors may become persistent leading to other unethical acts, which may drive the company’s sales down significantly (Kidwell and Martin 2005, 44). Fourth, competition drives companies and their salespersons to act against good morals. Duska (2007, 90) attest that the perception that every business is in a competition, and focuses mainly on how to improv e profits may conflict with the existing ethics.  

In The News Week 5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

In The News Week 5 - Essay Example In times of economic recession, businesses are mostly facing such situations as they are not able to gain the required profits from all their business units operating locally and at the global level. The closure of three units currently would affect the economic cycle of Wales greatly but Unilever as an organization is facing the effects of recession and therefore has to take such steps of downsizing and closures of factories in certain areas (Wright, 2012). Business shuts down some factories by reviewing their profits and losses. The main reason for business shutdowns are due to the fact that their marginal revenue is below their average variable cost. The analysis is done based upon whether the particular factory is adding on to the profits or is allowing it to be an expense for the organization. Such decisions need to be carefully reviewed by the managers before giving the final verdict as shut down decisions allows the unemployment rate to increase for the economy. The organization also has to face charges against being not a corporate socially responsible organization as shutting down factories in between work operations impacts the work force tremendously. The shutdown of business leads the workforce to be in a stressful situation as their source of income and medical facilities are impacted due to loss of jobs. Along with impacting the economy, this further affects the family life of the employees. The managers need to disclose the news on an immediate basis and with full honesty and sincerity. The clear picture should be told to the employees so that they don’t have doubts about any prevailing or future circumstances taking place in the organization. The managers should let the employees reveal their emotional response without getting agitated or frustrated. The emotional responses of employees may be through showing anger, depression, and insecurity so on and so forth. The managers should console

Stop & Frisk Essay Example for Free

Stop Frisk Essay I am aware that here in New York we are surrounded by all types of people and of all cultures and races but why if this is so and we have our Constitution as it is written do we have to deal with this Stop and Frisk situation. I believe this is an invasion of space and privacy and that this violates our rights as citizens of this country. The Stop and frisk program is being done by the New York Police Department. They are stopping thousands of people and are searching for contraband and weapons. This type of searches happens when police see a suspicious person trying to commit a crime, so they stopped them before it happens. The police frisk the person which means they pat them down; they search for weapons and then begin to ask the person questions. Which I believe invades our rights as citizens and makes people feel picked on and the first thing that I can think of as a human being is why me? I understand that they have a description but they should have better guidelines regarding this matter because there are a lot of people who they stop which are innocent. I can understand when it is said that is it is used because the stops and frisks are greatly less invasive than full-blown arrests and searches, and that it is a shorter process instead of being booked and taken to the police precinct rather than just searched and if the person has nothing then they may go free, but if the officer gets further evidence during the frisk, the stop may lead to an arrest. But it should have more specific information because every Hispanic and Black person will always have a resemblance with each other. The NYPD’s while doing this they raise a lot of concerns and especially it is being seen as racial profiling and it is and invasion of privacy.

Analysis of Indias Advertising Industry

Analysis of Indias Advertising Industry Indian Advertising Industry: An  Introduction Introduction The Indian advertising industry has evolved from being a small-scaled business to a full-fledged industry. The advertising industry is projected to be the second fastest growing advertising market in Asia after China. It is estimated that by 2018, the share of ad spend in Indias Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will be around 0.45 per cent. The Indian government has given tremendous support to the advertising and marketing industry. Advertising expenditure is likely to increase in the financial sector, driven by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) policies which could result in a more favourable business environment. Also, proposed licences for new banks and better market sentiments render the advertising and marketing industry in India a fertile space. Market  size Indias Advertising industry is expected to grow at a rate of 16.8 per cent year-on-year to Rs 51,365 crore (US$ 7.61 billion) in 2016, buoyed by positive industry sentiment and a strong GDP growth of 7 per cent and above. Indias digital advertising market has grown at a fast pace of 33 per cent annually between 2010 and 2015, while spending as a percentageà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ °of total advertising increased to 13 per cent or nearly US$ 1 billion in 2015. Print contributes a significant portion to the total advertising revenue, accounting for almost 41.2 per cent, whereas TV contributes 38.2 per cent, and digital contributes 11 per cent of the total revenue. Outdoor, Radio and Cinema make up the balance 10%. Of the current Rs 2,750 crore (US$ 407.66 million) digital advertisement market, search and display contribute the most search advertisements constitute 38 per cent of total advertisement spends followed by display advertisement at 29 per cent, as per the study. The Internets share in total advertising revenue is anticipated to grow twofold from eight per cent in 2013 to 16 per cent in 2018. Online advertising, which was estimated at Rs 2,900 crore (US$ 429.9 million) in 2013, could jump threefold to Rs 10,000 crore (US$ 1.48 billion) in five years, increasing at a compound annual rate of 28 per cent Advertising agencies in the country too have taken a leap. They have come a long way from being small and medium sized industries to becoming well known brands in the business. Mudra,OgilvyandMathew(OM),McCannEricsonn,Rediffussion,LeoBurnettare some of the top agencies of the country. Indian economy is on a boom and the market is on a continuous trail of expansion. With the market gaining grounds Indian advertising has every reason to celebrate. Businesses are looking up to advertising as a tool to cash in on lucrative business opportunities. Growth in business has lead to a consecutive boom in the advertising industry as well. The Indian advertising today handles both national and international projects. This is primarily because of the reason that the industry offers a host of functions to its clients that include everything from start to finish that include client servicing, media planning, media buying, creative conceptualization, pre and post campaign analysis, market research, marketing, branding, and public relation services. Keeping in mind the current pace at which the Indian advertising industry is moving the industry is expected to witness a major boom in the times ahead. If the experts are to be believed then the industry in the coming times will form a major contribution to the GDP. With al this there is definitely no looking back for the Indian advertising industry that is all set to win accolades from the world over. Advertisement  Spending  Sector  Wise Advertisement  Spending  Sector  Wise Introduction The issue of TV advertising and children has always been quite controversial. In past hundreds of studies have been conducted on this topic. Some of these studies are based on the observation of children in experimental situations. By their use of a non-verbal research method, these studies have the advantage of avoiding misrepresentation caused by some childrens verbal skills whenresponding to verbal tests. The disadvantage of this type of experimental research,however, is that the real-life validity of the results is sometimes quite low. Similarly, research data based on the actual questioning of children should be treated with caution, since younger children especially misunderstand the questions, lack the verbal techniques to provide an adequate answer, or are simply intimidated by the presence of the researcher. In this study, I chose a third method: to obtain evidence related to TV advertising and children by questioning childrens parents. Parental attitudes towards the issue of TV advertising and children are of utmost importance to this issue, given the role played by the parents in a great many aspects of their childrens lives. LITERATURE  SURVEY The marketers and advertisers have shown keen interest on the market segment of childrens product and services; conducted surveys on children television advertising containing trade publications. Involvement of Academicians on the research studies of children research during the period of 1980 was reduced to the amount of publication on the products of children.1 A little publication was done to the childrens television. Investigation had showed that animation which was used to the adult target audience, now using for the children programming especially in the commercials for games, toys, candies, cereals, etc. A study on the content analysis of television advertising of today children has focused on the change or growth in presentation of advertisements over the period. The findings concluded in the study were as: The male voice-over is still predominant in advertising 32 The advertisement which has focused on personal gain to fun and happiness of children, now focused on childrens product performance. In the study conducted on evaluation of research pertaining to children and advertising by Jeffry Gold Slain in four countries namely Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands and Britain; found little evidence to supporting the position that the children are vulnerable to advertising. He opined that the influence of mass media is more on children than on parents and playmates. The argument is that the commercial advertisement creates wants in children and bring pester power on their parents for the products advertisement. In fact, the parents succumb to their childrens demands assuming to be true despite paucity of support evidence. Jeffry Gold Slain believes that the influence of children has come by the advertisers from so many directions which have no critical examination. The Task-force of the American Psychological Association had conducted a study on children and observed that children under the age of 8 years are unable to comprehend critically the televised advertising messages and are prone to accept the advertised messages as truthful, accurate and unbiased. This can lead to unhealthy eating food-habits as evidenced by todays youth obesity epidemic. The Association sums up that advertising targeting children under the age of eight is to be restricted.4 When the cable culture was in rise in India, a study on the impact of television advertising on children in Delhi in 1992 by NamithaUnnikrisnan and ShailajaBajpai has found that: More than 70 per cent of children in the age group of 8 to 15 years want to own products advertised on television 33 Children favourite advertisements included airline advertisement Perception of children about television advertising is one of the most important influencers in childrens lives and watching television more than ever before. Advertisement is only likely to increase with time as television services extend their reach and offer greater viewing option Advertisement targeted children acts powerfully and promotes consumer culture and the values associated with it Advertisement, hence, is an investment for the future and the manufacturers expect high pay-off many times over   Ã‚  

WTO Agreement on Agriculture India

WTO Agreement on Agriculture India Abstract: The possible welfare gains and likely beneficiaries for the facilitation of agricultural world trade formulated by the Agreement on Agriculture remains a matter of debate and concerns. Therefore the impact of the Agreement on Agriculture on production, price structure and trade in agricultural sector needs proper introspection and evaluation from Indian perspectives. The paper attempts to evaluate and analysed the impact of the agricultural reforms brought about by the Agreement on Agriculture on the Indian agricultural economy and its position in world trade. What is Agreement on Agriculture (AOA): The Agreement on Agriculture was formed on April 1994 at Marrakesh, Morocco as a part of the final Act of the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations which came into force on 1st Jan. 1995. This was a result of the long drawn talks on General agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) aimed at opening up of International markets and also to reform world trade which was highly distorted. A major reason for the formation of the Agreement on Agriculture was the need to reduce excessive surplus production in agricultural sector in the global commodity markets during the 1980`s and early 1990`s. This was caused by the rising levels of support and protection in a number of developed countries as some of the largest agricultural exporters competed on the basis of their government`s ability to subsidised production and exports of agriculture while limiting access to their markets to keep out foreign agricultural products from their domestic markets. Therefore the core objective of AOA wa s to establish a fair and market oriented trading system which was to be implemented for a period of 6 years in developed countries and 9 years in developing countries. With this, agriculture was brought under the new rules of world trading system for the first time. There are 3 main features of the Agreement: Market Access Domestic support. Export subsidy. The market access required that tariffs for agricultural product fixed by individual countries be reduce to equivalent tariff in order to allow free trade and encourage liberalisation in world trade. Under this, the AOA required the conversion of all non tariff barriers into tariff barriers. This process was known as Tariffication. This was to be implemented for a period of 6 years for the developed countries and 10 years for the developing countries, least developed countries were exempted from undertaking such reductions. Domestic support was targeted to reduce the subsidies given by governments within their country for agricultural production and related activities. The total domestic support should be below the level of de minimis within a maximum period of 3 years for developed countries and 5 years for developing countries. This was to reduce price distortion and unfair competition in agricultural world trade. Export subsidy aims to reduce subsidies of export related to agricultural products and to ban the introduction of new subsidies. This aimed to protect small and marginal farmers in home countries especially in developing countries. Another highlight of the Agreement was the provision of special and differential treatment for the protection of the interest of the developing countries. In addition, there are provisions of Special Products and Sensitive Products, which are to be exempted from stringent discipline of the above provisions of tariffication process. Provision of Special Products designates a certain number of products of the developing countries that would be exempt from tariff reduction requirements and other disciplines in order to protect and promote food production, livelihood security and rural development worldwide. The idea was to protect the developing countries and least developed countries from unfair competition in world market and to create a world trading system where each individual country can come together and trade on equal footing without any discrimination and distortion by the more advantageous countries of the world. However, the possible welfare gains and likely beneficiaries for the facilitation of agricultural world trade formulated by the Agreement remains a matter of debate and concerns. Therefore the impact of the AOA on production, price structure and trade needs proper introspection and evaluation from Indian perspectives. The structure of the Agreement on Agriculture as it exists today seems to be slightly imbalanced, since it enables countries subsidising the agriculture sector heavily to retain a substantial portion of their subsidies up to the end of the implementation period while those countries which were not using these measures earlier are prohibited to use these measures in future beyond the de-minimis  [1]  limit. Therefore, ways to bring about more equity into the structure of the Agreement has to be sought. Indian Agricultural Economic scenario: Until the liberalisation of 1991, India was largely and intentionally isolated from the world markets, to protect its economy and to achieve self reliance. India`s foreign trade was subjected to import tariffs, export taxes and quantitative restrictions. So far it had followed an inward looking economic policy until the attempts to liberalise its economy. The Green revolution which was introduced in 1990`s further brought about reforms in agricultural sector and increase its production. This in a way opened the gate for participation in the world economy through the production of excess agricultural goods. Thus, India`s economy shifted from subsistence economy to production for exports in the world market. At present, Indian agriculture contributes to 24% of GDP, however agriculture exports accounts for less than 1% of world trade in agricultural commodities while a major share of the world`s exports are supplied by developed countries which accounts for around 64%. Impact of AOA on India: Indian agriculture is characterised by an overwhelming majority of small and marginal farmers holding less than two hectares of land, less than 35.7% of the land, is under any assured irrigation system. Farmers, therefore, require support in terms of development of infrastructure as well as extension of improved technologies and provisions of requisite inputs at reasonable cost. There is no doubt that during the last 30 years, Indian agriculture has grown at a reasonable pace, but with stagnant and declining net cropped area it is indeed going to be a difficult task to maintain the growth in agricultural production. The implications of the Agreement would thus have to be examined in the light of the food demand and supply situation. The size of the country, the level of overall development, balance of payments position, realistic future outlook for agricultural development, structure of land holdings etc. are the other relevant factors that would have a bearing on Indias trade policy in agriculture. Implications of the Agreement on Agriculture for India should thus be evaluated from the impact it will have on the following: i) Whether the Agreement has opened up markets and facilitated exports of products; and ii) Whether India would be able to continue with its domestic policy aimed at improving infrastructure and provision of inputs at subsidised prices for achieving increased agricultural production  [2]  . With India being under balance of payments, it has not undertaken any commitments under the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (AOA) which constrain it from following its developmental policy with regard to agriculture or which entail any action immediately. The only commitment India has undertaken is to bind its tariffs on primary agricultural products at 100%; processed foods at 150%; and edible oils at 300%  [3]  . However, it is needed to study the implications of removal of quantitative restrictions on market access, subsidy to farmers and tariffs on imports. One of the major impacts of the Agreement was that India has been maintaining Quantitative restrictions (QRs) on certain agricultural import products. Under the provision of the market access, such QRs will have to be eliminated latest by April 1st 2001. Immediate outcome was increased import of cheap and highly subsidized agricultural products which resulted in decline of domestic agricultural prices in India since 1999-2000. This adversely affected small and marginal farmers who resorted to selling off their agricultural lands to corporate and MNC`s at a very nominal prices. This further distorts domestic agriculture and rural structure of the economy that are mostly dependent on agriculture for survival. For example in Andhra Pradesh farmers were then hit by a crash in international prices, low rates of tariff applied on imports of commodities like edible oils, sugar, etc. and the removal of quantitative restrictions. Therefore a separate WTO cell was set up as these states felt that the central government were not doing enough to protect the interest of such states from the adverse impact of the Agreement. It aims to adapt state government policies to changing events and to influence future government negotiating positions. This clearly suggests that the AOA was more beneficial for the developed countries as it furthers opened up new market opportunities for them to exploit with their chea p agricultural products. However, It is also argued that with the opening up of world markets under the provision of Market access and the lifting of QRs on imports of certain agricultural products, prospects on exports have increased which lead to an increase in price of domestic agricultural commodities, this would mean that farmers would get benefits which in turn would encourage investment in the resource scarce agricultural sector. Also, with the decrease in production subsidies as well as export subsidies, the international prices of agricultural commodities will rise and this will help in making India`s exports more competitive in world market. Given the agro diversity of India, it has the potential to increase agro exports in a big way. A.V Ganesan  [4]  , suggested the idea of using the price incentive as a driving force to increase productivity as farmers are introduced to world markets there will be growing pressure from the farmers to gain higher prices for their produce and to narrow the gap between the domestic and external prices. Both the pattern of production and price expectations will increasingly be influenced by the demands and trends in world markets. Therefore, the price incentive could be used to give a strong boost to investment in agriculture as well as adoption of modern technologies and thereby to the raising of agricultural production and productivity. Furthermore, freedom to export agricultural products without restrictions will also need shedding the long-nurtured inhibition against their imports. Thus the Agreement on Agriculture is believed to provide a link between domestic reforms and international reforms by providing constraints that channel domestic policy change in the right direct ion. India had a history of food price inflation which makes it difficult to export agriculture processed products. The food price inflation was at the level of 11% during 1991-98, though the level has come down to 4.5% during 1998-2006  [5]  . Therefore, if increase in cheap imports further reduces the food price, it will not improve the condition of the farmers but instead their condition will deteriorate unless substantial gains are made through food based manufacturing export-enhancing strategies. However, with agriculture subsidies and export promotions, developed countries still continue to dominate the world agriculture market. More than 67 per cent of world food exports during 2001-03 originated from the high-income countries, while countries such as India where more than 65 per cent people survive on agriculture, contributed only 1.1 per cent of food exports. For example, In India, the dairy sector has been hit hard by subsidized exports from the EU. In 1999-2000 India import ed over 130,000 tonnes of EU skim milk powder. This was the result of EUR 5 million export subsidies that were provided to EU producers. EU subsidies to butter exports are also extortionately high. Consequently, butter oil import into India has grown at an average rate of 7.7% annually. This has had a dampening effect on prices of ghee in the domestic market. Ironically, India is the biggest producer of milk in the world. What is more worrying for India is that there are now signs of declining productivity growth for many agricultural products in India which will have severe implications for the majority of the population  [6]  . To ensure the welfare of our farmers from the affect of the lifting of Quantitative Restrictions, high import tariffs of commodities has to be maintained. The Agreement does not in any way constrained the ability to restrict the import of commodities since India has already reserved the right to impose high levels of import duties of 100%, 150% and 300% on primary products, processed products and edible oils respectively. Also due to India`s balance of payments (BOP) reasons certain products are allowed to remain under the QR`s category. With appropriate tariffication process, the adverse impact of such QRs can be rectified. In earlier years, a number of agricultural and horticultural products placed on the free list of imports have been brought to the peak rate to ensure adequate protection to Indian farmers. India has a negative total aggregate measure  [7]  (below 10%) of domestic support which implies that there is no compulsion to reduce tariff. India is under no obligation to reduce its domestic support. Also, India does not provide any export subsidies which requires reduction commitments under the export subsidy commitment. The Agreement on Agriculture lists several types of subsidies to which reduction commitments apply. However, such subsidies are virtually non-existent in India as exporters of agricultural commodities do not get direct subsidy. The Agreement allows unlimited support to activities such as (i) research, pest diseases control, training, extension, and advisory services; (ii) public stock holding for food security purposes; (iii) domestic food aid; and (iv) income insurance and food needs, relief from natural disasters and payments under the environmental assistance programmes. Moreover, investment subsidies given for development of agricultural infrastructure o r any kind of support given to low income and resource poor farmers are exempt from any commitments. Most of our major rural and agricultural development programmes are covered under these provisions. Therefore, the Agreement does not constrain our policies of investments in these areas. It is expected that reduction in domestic support and export subsidy by the developed countries will lead to a decrease in production in their countries and will eventually give scope for expansion of exports from the developing countries which will create a balanced export and import situation in the world trading system. India, with its cheap labor, diverse agro-climatic conditions and large agricultural sector can definitely gain through expansion of international trade in agricultural product. India`s agricultural exports have been growing since 1995and at present it is a net food exporter constituting greater share for exports in agriculture than manufactured exports. Therefore, India is likely to gain if the EU, the US, Japan and other major agriculture subsidisers significantly reduce their farm subsidies. For example, United States spent US$ 4 billion as subsidy to support its 25,000 cotton producers (US$160, 000 per producer) in 2003. It is also argued that in countries such as United States, subsidies are enjoyed by a selected few; mostly producing corn, wheat, cotton, soybean, and rice, while growers of 400 other crops hardly get any such subsidy. It would benefit India if other countries decrease tariffs to its farm exports on products such as cotton, basmati rice, fish or meat etc. However, the share of Indian exports in agriculture is sliding down as compared to manufacturing. These labour-intensive exports are expected to grow much faster and potential areas include textiles and food processing translating into benefits across a large group of farmers and contributing to stabilising their incomes. India has demonstrated comparative advantage in almost all the products it exports, and even in those products it imports. Therefore, India enjoys a large range of products where it could successfully enhance its capacity to export. The rural-urban divide is increasing steadily in India but India cannot resort to other balancing measures such as subsidy like the developed countries are doing. This is due to large population of India as majority of the population is dependent upon agriculture for livelihood. Therefore the solution for solving the rural-urban divide lies in large scale employment generation through industrialization and expansion of agriculture processing and exports. In the short term the Agreement on Agriculture may not affect India much because both its domestic support and export subsidy are negative I,e less than the minimal 10% in product specific domestic support. Moreover, the safeguards provided in the Agreement for the developing countries protect India from any major impact of liberalization of the world trade. However, in the long term, due to advantage of cheap labor that India enjoys, the cost of production are lower than any other countries, therefore in spite of its lower productivity as compared to the developed countries, the prices for agricultural product eg.as in the case of rice, tea, sunflower oil and cotton, will still remain lower than the world price. As a result, import to Indian markets will not be attractive as the domestic market prices in such products remain lower than the international standard. Hence, the impact of large scale imports due to liberalization of the world economy will not be much. Doha Ministerial conference and the deadlock: The Uruguay Round of AOA had a built in provision for review and renewal of its policy to consider not just increased trade but also such objectives as food security, diversified rural development and the reduction of inequalities between developed countries and developing countries and the least developed countries. In general, to assess in-depth the effects of the URAA on trade, on agricultural policy and on protection levels. This was to be decided at the next round of multilateral talk to be held at the fourth WTO ministerial conference in Doha, Nov. 2001 which was targeted to be completed by Jan. 2005. India`s stand at the conference included Non trade concerns which include food security and environmental protection. India is particularly concern with food security which includes not only adequate supply of food but also stability in its supply. India was of the stand that no profound change has been made in subsidy position of the developed countries even after the agreement. When the AoA was introduced in Uruguay there were so many expectations however the results failed to reach the expectations of many countries. In the Doha round, the concerns of the developing countries and the developed countries differed. The developing countries wanted to focus only on the implementation (or non implementations) and review of the Uruguay agreement. Developed countries perspective, however, was for new issues ( eg :Singapore issues), viz, investment, competition, trade facilitation and transparency in government procurement, besides environment and internationally recognised core labour standards. The Doha round clearly shows that India`s interest in the negotiation remain at variance from the interest of the least developed countries as India has a much more favourable agricultural condition than any of these countries. Many of these countries are net importers of food and the subsidy in the exporting countries makes them better off. Moreover, under the Everything But Arms (EBA) initiative of the European Union, the LDCs have quota and duty-free access to the EU market, a facility that was never available to India. Also, India depends highly on its service sector industry; therefore, the situation has become highly tense for India, particularly in view of the fact that the developed countries have managed to link agriculture subsidy with the market access in services and industry. If the European Union needs to do more on agricultural tariffs, and the US needs to do more on reducing agricultural subsidies, then India also needed to do more on industrial tariffs. This is a tr icky situation for India. The Doha Development Round of trade talks was targeted to be concluded by January 2005. However, the progress thereafter has hardly been in the positive direction. There was a deadlock of Doha Ministerial conference and it was left for further work and resulting negotiations. The reason for the failure of the negotiations mostly falls on the role of the United States, which departed from Cairns group and joined EU, the later having too ambitious agenda on including investment and competition. Countries like Australia, New Zealand and Canada (of Cairns Group) favour a totally market oriented approach and oppose trade distorting subsidies and protectionist regimes of EU and Japan. While EU remained against fast track approached to liberalization. Developing countries like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, ASEAN etc highlight significance of role of agriculture in their economies and seek to preserve domestic policy flexibility to guard food security concerns. Overall assessment: In India, more than half of the population is still dependent upon agriculture for subsistence even after governments continued attempt to bring about increase in industrialization and technological advancement. Therefore, agriculture remain a core importance for the sustenance of the population and also constitute a major share in the countrys economy. Agricultural self reliance forms a vital underpinning for the growth of the GDP of any agrarian developing economies since good agricultural production provides purchasing power to a large majority of a population, which in turn spurts industrial growth. Self-sufficiency in food production has, therefore, specific developmental perspective as opposed to a purely commercial perspective. Hence, it is important that the developing countries like India need to be provided with the requisite flexibility within the AOA to pursue their legitimate non-trade concerns of food security. More specifically, developing countries need to be allowed to provide domestic support in the agricultural sector to meet the challenges of food security and to be able to maintain the need of rural employment. Investment in Indian agriculture has been declining for quite some years. In the context of international trade, there is an added urgency to reverse this trend and increase investment in research, integrated market development, storage and ware-housing facilities, road development, creation of facilities for efficient and quicker transport and development of scientific systems of standard setting and grading. Public expenditure on research and technology, infrastructure creation and rural development will raise Indias AMS. More importantly, up-to-date information on domestic and international prices and demand should be made available to farmers through various awareness programmes and training. India also need to raise the quality of agricultural products to internationally accepted standards, i e, those of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (for food additives, veterinary drug and pesticide residues, contaminants, methods of analysis and sampling, and codes and guidelines of hygien ic practice). The AOA is criticised on being insensitive to human development or improving standards of living, and being too insistent on liberalization. The model of agricultural trade liberalization promoted by the AOA also encourages industrialized and export-oriented agricultural production, favouring trans national commodity traders and processors over small-scale farmers thus in spite of all the provisions provided under the Agreement, it is further attacked on not taking into consideration the problems faced by the small and marginal farmers. The success of the agreement to a certain extent also depends on how far the developed countries are willing and committed to the cause of helping the developing countries for development through a process of fair and unrestricted trade in agriculture. It is also argued that the agreement did little to liberalised trade and to improve market access and reduce protection as protection in many countries remain very high and allowable export subsidies st ill threaten the stability of world markets. Conclusion: Global agricultural policies affect many economies in a similar way. Developing countries may be more vulnerable to distortions and changes in global trading policies in the agricultural sector, but they also determine the implications of agricultural trade liberalisation in some countries. Vulnerability of countries arising from global policies and trade liberalisation agenda maybe inherent to their economy such as; Strong dependence on agriculture for income, employment and foreign exchange earnings, heavy dependence on food imports and food aid and relatively high degree of sector openness. These conditions may render a countrys economies vulnerable to trends and instability levels of world agricultural prices, long term changes with respect to access barriers to exports markets and global policies affecting the competitiveness of imports in domestic markets. With liberalisation of agricultural sector much priority is been given for increasing international trade which is no subst itute for inducing a domestically oriented agricultural growth. Indeed most food is produced for local consumption in developing countries and only a small proportion is traded internationally, which means that a solely trade-oriented approach has little relevance for many developing countries. Therefore agricultural reforms in International trading system like the AOA may not have much impact on a countrys economic growth particularly the developing countries if the reforms are implemented without proper analysis of own countrys economic strategic position. Since agriculture constitute the major share of many developing economies, the implementation of such reforms and also the participation in world trade without proper precautionary measures may result in crisis which such developing countries may not afford. Therefore, it is necessary to build up a strong domestic market scenario which is in line with external prices, with appropriate policies to ensure the protection of their e conomies from the unnecessary and unfair competition in world markets. However, if such reforms are disciplined in its implementation and also each country is serious enough to make such commitments for the welfare of the world trading system, it might lead to a balanced and equal world markets. This would in a way solve the problems of poverty, inequalities and lead to increased productivity and improve the standard of living of the world population.

The Red Symbol in The Handmaids Tale Essay -- Literature, Margaret At

In the dystopian novel, "The Handmaid's Tale" written by Margaret Atwood, the color red is a reoccurring, significant symbol throughout the book. The dominant color of the novel, the color red is paired with the Handmaids. The Handmaids are always seen in their red uniform, even down to their red shoes and red gloves. From the opening pages of the novel we are informed that they are trained at the â€Å"Red Centre,† and we are introduced to the importance of the red imagery as Offred, the narrator and protagonist of the novel, describes herself getting dressed: â€Å"The red gloves are lying on the bed. Everything except the wings around my face is red.† Which reveals to us how the handmaid’s are required to wear all red, representative of the way they are visually defined, and therefore confined within their role in the caste system as sexual servants to their Commanders. Red is worn only by the handmaids; the color red indicates sexuality, fertility and childbirth, accordingly outlining their function as a sexual object; their sole purpose being to bear children for their Commanders. One of the most reoccurring symbols throughout the novel, red is interrelated with all things female (the Handmaids.) Inversely, red is furthermore a symbol of death, violence and blood, which Offred portrays as a color which â€Å"defines us.† The reoccurring appearance of the color red creates a thought-provoking parallel between femininity and power, as it signifies the religious â€Å"sinfulness† of promiscuous sex between the handmaid’s and their â€Å"married† commander. Offred later states: â€Å"I never looked good in red, it’s not my color,† implying the sacrifice of her individuality due to the roles Gilead has forced her into. It is not their intellige... ...ed tulips in place and keeping them alive, there are human beings under the white bags, but Offred is beginning to neglect what is under her red dress. Offred aches to reminisce about the life she once knew, yet now images are enforced into her mind and she understands them how her cult/society now requires her to perceive this different world. Red is a scandalous and dishonorable color, outlining the Handmaids as such. Everything correlated with the handmaids is red; Offred’s own name, for instance, which so distressingly epitomizes dualism can be read as "Of Fred," signifying her ownership to her commander-yet furthermore can be read as "Off Red,† suggesting off with the red dress, symbolizing her yearning for nonconformity from the red dress and all the afflictions correlated with red in her life- blood, death and violence, which have come to â€Å"define† her.

Marketing the Target Audience :: Clothing Retail Advertising Advertisements Essays

Marketing the Target Audience It was another day shopping for clothes, nothing new, in fact I thought I was going to get something here and there, look else where and go home. As I was walking through a mall, I stumbled upon a store that I thought looked cool and casual. I thought to myself anything that was interesting enough to catch my eyes, had to be investigated thoroughly. As soon, as I walked in I new that I could easily begin to shop at the store for certain things I needed. Buckle is a clothing store that shares its store by selling Lucky Brand clothing. Now many people may disagree on the prices that are set on the clothing, however, in a society where being cool and individualism is valued, Buckle is the place to go. Interested in wanting to see what more the clothing line had to offer, I visited the Buckle website, noticing that everything seems to fit in place and markets what it is supposed to very well. The clothing line is for young men and women who want a change from their old sho pping outlets to a more exciting, fun, cool and casual store. In the next pages we’ll explore what Buckle and Lucky Brand have in store for today’s youth and why it is marketed well. Buckle and Lucky Brand are the product’s manufacturer and distributor. Young, middle class, men and women who are cool and spontaneous seems to be the main stream of consumers for the brands. The website is mainly focused on traditional American patriotism for the modern youth. The website, clothes and stores generally emphasize that in order for one to be cool, one must buy their merchandise. Luck Brand Dungarees are a perfect example of claiming to dominate the world of quality jeans. The word â€Å"dungaree† means a pair of sturdy, durable, twill-weave of cotton fabric made into jeans. Written on the dungarees (and on the website) are the Lucky Brand slogans â€Å"Americas Favorite† and â€Å"Wear us, be lucky†. I bought two pair of jeans recently, on the inseam of the zippers is the phrase â€Å"Lucky You† and I also found a strip of paper that once again notes that if the customer wears the jeans, he/she will be lucky.

Ethics and Leadership in Engineering

Engineers play a significant part in the development, prosperity and safety of people around the globe. The primary role of engineers is to identify/sense and respond to a need by constructing or creating a solution with certain specific guidelines. While it is the responsibility of engineers to develop such structures, it is also their responsibility that their creation serves the function in a proper manner, take all safety precautions while making it and give the safety directions to the users after handing it over. Discussion These structures, however, do not stay safe forever. No matter how safe a construction or a creation is, it reveals its failure after sometime. Eventually these failures lead to dire consequences some time. Engineers struggle all the time to avoid failures and make their solution safer and more efficient. Sometime mere lacking of professional ethics is the reason. In UK, the seriousness of ethical issues, which arise in professional lives of engineers, has been recognized recently. However, in USA this has been recognized for some time. Their universities offer substantial guidance and support to their professionals. The Royal Academy of Engineering, in 2005, initiated the process and brought its publishing in the form of â€Å"Statement of Ethical Principles†, which outlines the specific ways in which engineers across UK are committed to upholding certain ethical values. During the same time, UK Engineering Council amended its standards for chartered and incorporated engineers, in order to increase awareness of ethical issues. It appears that this has resulted in having a profound effect as many universities have incorporated ethical perspective in their studies. Professional Engineers strive to develop solutions that improve the health and safety conditions for the welfare of society. The statement of Ethical Principles sets standards for professional Engineers (Statement of Ethical Principles. 2005). It presents four principles that guide engineers in their professional duties. It includes Accuracy and Rigour, Honesty and Integrity, Respect for life, Law and the Public Good, and Responsible Leadership. Accuracy and Rigour means, Engineers have the responsibility to acquire and sustain the information relevant to their practices; they should also keep their knowledge up to date. It is also the responsibility to always act with care as their profession requires a strong commitment. They should only perform their services in the field of relevant competence. Since the technical knowledge, an Engineer can understand are not easy for the others, therefore, it is the duty of engineers to not knowingly mislead others as it can have dire consequences and therefore unethical. Honesty and Integrity means; engineers should act with high standards of professional ethics. They should not accept any bribery or questionable payment from anyone. They should act in the best interest of employer, unless it is not in conflict with rights of the other party. Respect for Life, Law and the Public Good, entails that engineers should be aware of relevant laws and regulations and should work accordingly. Conservation of nature and its resources should be a priority. They should act in the best manner that does not bring bad image to their profession. Responsible Leadership involves practicing high level of standards and leadership in the management of technology. Provide awareness to the public. Listen to the concern of the society. Adhering to these principles will bring good name to the profession and will make sure that it achieves what it is meant to be, welfare of society. However, we can have numerous examples from the past, of such negligence and improper conduct in this respected profession. In past successive accidents of railway occurred in UK, which were later fully investigated. These include the accident of Clapham Junction rail crash, on 12 December 1988. 35 people killed while 100 injured, when oncoming train ran into wreckage. Another on, 19 September 1997, Southall rail crash, killed 6 people and 150 injured. It occurred because of a collision with freight train. On 5 October 1999, Ladbroke Grove rail crash happened, when train passed the signal at danger and resulted in the head on collision, killed 21 while 523 injured. Investigation reports show that these could have been prevented by timely action of professional engineers. In America, a TV Antenna Tower collapsed in 1982, killing several people. Later investigation showed that safety measures were not taken as should have been (Uff, 2012, Pp13). Conclusion Engineering is a much respected profession. This respect demands responsibility. Adhering to rules but there arise ethical responsibilities too. However, if professional engineers stick to the four principles and apply them in their activities, it will surely add more value to this profession for sure. Running Head: leadership techniques Managers do things right, while leaders do the right thing. [Name of writer] [Name of institution] Managers do things right, while leaders do the right thing Thesis Statement â€Å"Managers do things right, while leaders do the right thing†. Introduction â€Å"Leaders create and change cultures, while managers and administrators live within them.† (Edward Schein) Managers do things right, while leaders do the right thing. Leader also sounds similar to the manager to the common man. But we know there are subtle differences. It takes a totally different approach to become a leader. These subtle differences create the difference that is visible in performances of organizations. There have been many theories on leadership and management. Talking about whether a manager is born or developed, what styles are of management exist and which is appropriate. Also, what a leader does, where his/her power comes from. First of all we will differentiate between a leader and a manager. Then we will discuss some models and theories related to it. Discussion The role of a manager is to achieve goals effectively and efficiently, by planning, organizing, co-ordinating and controlling. The importance of time is immense. On the other hand, leaders create and communicate a vision, then energise their followers towards achieving that vision. Leaders create a culture of shared values, beliefs and rituals to challenge the status quo. Managers use position authority to make subordinates work towards goals. While leaders motivate and inspire their followers to achieve their goals. Today the trait theory (born leaders) is criticized more. It is argued that even leadership has different styles, which are learned with experience rather than born traits (Daft, 2003, Pp.518). Ashridge Management College did research and found four major classifications of management styles. Tells, sells, consults, join. In tell style, the manager is autocratic, making a decision and imposing it on others. In sell style, manager still makes a decision on self like basis, but try to explain the logic behind it. In consult style, manager makes decision but in consultation with his/her subordinates. The most democratic style is join style, where manager himself becomes part of the team that makes joint decisions, and also claims the responsibility of that decision afterwards. Research indicates managers are generally thought to be having told or sell style. While employees prefer consult style. Choosing which style is more appropriate, depends on several factors. Contingency approach by Charles Handy suggests that four factors need to be understood to answer this question. The environment, task or people, trust or control, liking or respect (Schermerhorn 2012, Pp.266). Each particular combination of these factors results in a different situation and, therefore, requires a different tailored approach of management towards it (Robbins & Judge, 2010, Pp.393). Michigan and Harvard identified two basic types of leaders. Task oriented and people or relation oriented leaders. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages. Ohio state research suggests that task orientation and people orientation can be achieved simultaneously; they are not mutually exclusive. Blake’s management grid proves this research by suggesting rather than asking a question that a manager should be task or people oriented; ask to what extent a manager should be task and people oriented (Daft, 2003, Pp.522). Managers and leaders differ in their approaches towards performing similar tasks. The approach of management is routine in nature. They like to work under conditions of certainty, strive to gain as much information as they gain, take relatively less risk. Leaders on the hand challenge the status quo. They talk about changing the culture and create followers with their motivation and persuasions skills. Leaders create a shared culture towards achieving the vision that followers own. Conclusion Who is best, a leader or manager is, however, a question depending on what needs to be accomplished. If it is a routine or not so dynamic environment, then decision tilts in favour towards manager. While if it involves dealing with changing and fluctuating situation with lots of risk involved then it will require the initiative approach of a leader.