Big Pharma’s Marketing Tactics Essay

The Big Pharma controversy is about the wide-scale marketing malpractices used by big pharmaceutical companies in America which resulted in a series of negative implications on consumers. It revolves around pharmaceutical companies, government regulators, health professionals (or â€Å"unprofessional†), market consumers and the medical watchdogs. The dispute was formed between the supporters of the marketing tactics used by pharmaceutical representatives and the detractors to it. Specifically it is the context that matters: Is it right, or rather ethical for the medical professionals to profit at the expense of the patients? Are there more underlying factors that led to this controversy? It is important to achieve a balance between the benefits and drawbacks of the marketing tactics used by the pharmaceutical industry; however it is more essential to consider the ethical issues pertaining to these tactics. Certainly, both the consumer welfare and health are of primary concern; but our ethical obligations are not discharged solely by a guarantee of some degree of protection from harm. Still, I strongly believe that the health considerations of consumers should be put before profit maximization, because, unmistakably, the pharmaceutical industry has the responsibility to treat people’s health, instead of harming them. This essay will seek to examine the ethical implications of drug promotion efforts by pharmaceutical giants, the social impacts of drug promotion on consumers as well as the approaches to contain this dispute. Key Issues To Be Discussed  The key ethical issues of argument related to Big Pharma are the questionable marketing practices exercised by the pharmaceutical industry, product safety, science for sale and lobbying efforts. These critical issues have been emotive and multi-dimensional. As a result, it attracted a wide range of views about the topic. Questionable Marketing Practices The marketing efforts of Big Pharma have always been under the media spotlight and the scrutinization of the public and medical watchdogs. The pharmaceutical marketers have made use of different medium to reach to the potential consumers and professionals. The extensiveness of the promotion efforts of the drugs had proliferated into every corners people’s lives. However, many believe that the pharmaceutical industry’s hunger for profits triumphs over their genuine desire to help the public, and that this blinded concern for profits continues to shape the future of this industry. The core of this debate is whether the high cost of drugs is justifiable by the cost of research and development done by the pharmaceutical companies. Has the money been used elsewhere? In fact, the world’s major drug companies have been accused of spending large sums of money on promoting their drugs, rather than researching on them. Big Pharma has developed a plethora of ways to reach out to the public to advertise on their latest and greatest drugs; from television and radio spots to newspaper and internet ads. The advertising budget for the drug companies have sky-rocketed to a significant sum. In 2007, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)’s biggest advertising price tag was attached to Advair, the firm’s blockbuster asthma medication, which rung up US$127 million in advertising spending. The total amount of money spent on marketing by pharmaceuticals was U. S. $57. 5 billion for 2004. The total spent on domestic industrial pharmaceutical R&D was U. S. $31. 5 billion. Clearly, the promotional workings of the drug companies have shown that the U. S. pharmaceutical industry is still mainly marketing-driven. Corrupted practices among doctors and health professionals are not uncommon in the pharmaceutical industry either. Doctors or even undergraduate medical students were bombarded with logo-infested freebies by the companies, in order to persuade them to prescribe their drugs to patients. Many physicians were subjected to financial lures by companies to convince them to favour their drugs and prescribe them. Back in 2009, a study out of Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital found that 84 percent of doctors have ties to drug companies, a ten percent drop from five years earlier. But roughly two thirds of doctors still accept drug samples, while 70 percent accept food and beverage incentives from drug companies. And fourteen percent continue to accept cash payments for services. While some of these unethical practices were tapered off, not all were uprooted. Some octors did not disclose the amount of gifts and cash which they have accepted from the drug companies. They believe that their decisions on the prescription of drugs would not be influenced by the gifts which they have accepted. In my opinion, the supporters, primarily the health professionals and representatives of the pharmaceutical giants, have disregarded the genuine health implications and the high drug costs incurred to the general public in concern. They might try fending off such moral challenges by claiming that substantial amount of advertising is necessary to boost the sales of their products. Securing more profits would also mean more money can be invested on research for better drugs. However, it is evident that the excessive promotional efforts of drugs have blinded the pharmaceutical industry, in the pursuit of more profits and sales. Their main concern of profit maximization still remains ahead of the interests of the community. Corruption practices among health professionals should also be stemmed out so that unfair and biased decisions made by doctors would not affect the drugs prescribed to consumers. A significant sum of money should still be used for the development of better drugs to improve the quality of the lives of people. In conclusion, the principle of utilitarianism actually provides the latitude in deciding the extent of marketing efforts by pharmaceutical giants. Health professionals should not benefit at the expense of the patients. Instead, doctors should always act in the best interest of the patients. It is thus important to achieve a balance between the marketing efforts and the genuine interest for the health of the public. Product Safety The safety of the drugs produced has been a compelling issue in this argument. Drug companies have been reportedly illegally promoting drugs for uses for which they were not approved by the authorities. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) alleged that Astra Zeneca, an Anglo-Swedish giant, illegally promoted Seroquel, an anti-psychotic drug, for off-label purposes, specifically to physicians who do not normally treat patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Instead, they marketed it in long-term care facilities and prisons for the treatment of unapproved uses, including Alzheimer’s disease, anger management, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and depression. Subsequently, it led to the recall of the drugs and AstraZeneca paid $520 million to resolve allegations for illegally marketing Seroquel for unapproved uses. Some of these unapproved drugs were marketed through different means. Very often, these off-label drugs were made from low quality materials, or were contaminated in the production process. Due to the competitive drug market, manufacturers are tempted to cut corners by outsourcing production to potentially unreliable third parties and skimp on testing the product before releasing it into the market. As a result, some of these products could pose significant health risks to consumers. The trust consumers have on Big Pharma still remains as a big question. Should consumers continue to trust that the drugs manufactured by the pharmaceutical companies are legal and safe for consumption? There is no definite answer to it. Pharmaceuticals are responsible for saving and improving the lives of many people. However, it seemed to turn out otherwise. Again, profit maximization remains as the top priority of pharmaceutical companies. I believe it would still take some time before the drug industry come to a conclusion between profit-making and the health considerations of the public. In my opinion, it is reasonable for drug companies to source for cheaper alternative and achieve low costs in drug production; however, it should adjust or halt the development if serious problems emerge. Thereby, it is important for drug manufacturers to be mindful of the negative consequences that their products have on consumers. Science for sale Science has always been considered an objective endeavour that removes any form of bias in researches and is inherently true and reliable. The results should be generated independently, without bias and with the sole desire to find the best treatments. However, medical researches today, have become corrupted by money and special interests, and often misrepresent the truth to suit personal needs or corporate economic interests. The underlying motive still boils down to profit-making. Consider the example of the large and widely quoted Jupiter trial â€Å"proving† that Crestor, a cholesterol-lowering drug, could prevent heart attacks in people with normal or low cholesterol. In this trial researchers twisted the data to suit the commercial sponsor of the study. An independent review of the Jupiter trial published in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed that it was deeply flawed and the actual data did not show any benefit for the prevention of heart disease. Most medical researches are undoubtedly funded by pharmaceutical giants. Hence, in order to introduce the product into the market, findings are often tailored to be parallel with the economic interests of the company. I believe it is unethical for Big Pharma to pay researchers to twist the truth about bad outcomes and to sneak distorted information and marketing messages into medical journal articles. The consumers’ healths are at stake as they place much trust in the manufacturer when purchasing the products off shelves. If the research, development and distribution of drugs continue the same as it used to be, not only healthcare is at risk, but so are the research enterprise and the reputations of government bodies. The integrity of scientific research is too important to be left to the invisible hand of the marketplace. Healthcare authorities are needed to regulate and ensure that medical results are not manipulated by selfish pharmaceutical companies which are only concern with individual gains. Lobbying efforts Pharmaceutical giants have spent heavily to lobby government bodies. Part of the high costs of drugs is explainable by the high expenditure devoted to lobbying. New disclosure reports in Congress showed that familiar players at the top of the health-care influence heap, includes $6. 2 million in lobbying by the dominant Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and $4 million by the American Medical Association. Detractors of pharmaceutical lobby argue that the drug’s industry influence allows it to promote legislation friendly to drug manufacturers at the expense of patients. The perfect example of this is the dishonourable legacy of Nevada Senator and U. S. Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid. Reid was exposed for accepting large sums of money from Big Pharma in order to craft and guide the health care bill in Big Pharma’s favour. The health care bill drastically expanded Big Pharma’s monopolistic control over America’s health care. Corruption practices by healthcare regulators and government bodies are unavoidable. Acceptance of extravagant gifts and money from powerful lobbyists like Big Pharma would easily allow them to control the government and shape the public health care policies. Financially influenced politicians have their campaigns heavily funded by the pharmaceutical industry. In return, these politicians would help Big Pharma in warding off most government regulations so as to promote their drugs into the drug market. The practice of lobbying is both unethical and deceptive. Such a notion demonstrates the unscrupulous manner in which the pharmaceutical industry runs their operations. It also illustrates that they have no qualms about manipulating the Congress and deceiving the public to achieve their ultimate goals. In my opinion, the government should keep check on these corrupted practices in the Congress and should ban any form of corrupted behaviours that have a large cost to the public. Bridging the gap between the proponents and the detractors Pharmaceutical companies should consider the impact of their actions on the society, who are also direct stakeholders to the issue. The importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) should be further put into actions. Big Pharma should always take actions that protect and improve the welfare of society as a whole along with their own interests. Besides safeguarding economic and legal obligations, certain responsibilities to society should be extended beyond these obligations. I believe that pharmaceutical companies which simply conduct more researches to prove the safety of their products are not going to win over the public totally. Instead, the businesses need to develop more counter-images or cases to boost good representation. It could be better illustrated by taking the case of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)’s initiative of selling the company’s malaria vaccine in Africa for no more than a 5 percent profit. GSK is one of the few pharmaceutical companies that succeeded in developing drugs that are beneficial in the developing world. It is thus evident that the pharmaceutical giant is not all about profit maximizing, but also have the intention to help the less fortunate people. I strongly feel that more stringent regulation and compliance standard from the government would be one way to instill trust in the detractors after all the spotty scandals of Big Pharma. An example would be to issue stronger warnings on the bribes accepted by politicians and researchers from pharmaceutical companies. Given the complexity of the issue, it would help to eradicate any forms of bias in the short run, regardless whether it is for medical researches or bills passed on by the legislation. All in all, it is still dependent on the integrity of researchers and politicians to weigh the risk against potential benefits derived with their own judgement. Higher transparency from the government and corporate would be crucial in determining the trust from the public and the criticism from the detractors. As such, with higher transparency, and more giving back to the society, it might help to regain the public trust and reduce detractor’s scepticism. According to the CSR Pyramid, it is undoubtedly that the biggest responsibility of the Big Pharma should still remain as profit maximization. However, legal obligations should not be neglected as well. Corrupted actions should be eliminated from the industry and healthy marketing practices should be encouraged instead. Accurate medical researches should be bias-free and not swayed by any forms of financial lures. Health professionals should always act in the best interest of patients. The pharmaceutical scene would still require further fine-tuning before we could promote a healthy relationship between the government, the manufacturers and the consumers.

Reflection upon NSTP Essay

Jim Henson once said, â€Å"Kids don’t remember why you try to help them. They remember what you are.† Helping doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to be smart; you have to be a rich person or government officials. In fact, being a good and intellectual person does make you belong. A program named Civic Welfare Training Service (CTS) will help you acquire those required qualifications in order to possess an effective community helping even without getting in contact with government officials. CTS are one of the means for us students to help those in needs as well as for us to contribute to society by aiding these people to become better citizens. At first, I only require myself to attend and give presence every meeting just for the sake of passing and completion of units. Little did I know that CTS was not just a subject to attend but rather exposing one’s self into realities of life. As a student, I am not very much exposed to different kinds of people, different situations of everyday life, and to different communities as well. In our immersion that was held twice, I have seen those. It made me realized how blessed I am compared with them. So I have attained the urge of taking it as challenge. I am challenged because I am not typically a patient person and not quite interested in helping our community. As a beginner, you must possess virtues like integrity, dedication, fairness and an open mind to greet new ideas and innovate. You should also bear in mind the value of positive reinforcement. I was also taught that we should always establish good relationships with the kids. I witnessed many scenes that a helper encounters in his/her civic service career. I felt what those people one’s being generous when he/she wants community to learn something new from his/her. Here, I felt pity with the students not having a proper care from their family. I learned so many things in this serving experience. I learned how to be more prepared for the foods that I will give to them, and to be patient in making understand our purpose of helping them, and to be a good listeners too in their own stories. I learned the difficulty of servicing community and the joy I got from it. I learned how to have sympathy for others, to understand their weaknesses and to appreciate their abilities. Most of all, I learned how to socialize with other people, expose myself to the community and adopt their surroundings. CTS helped me develop and grow even more as a student. It opened our minds for us to be able to understand the different circumstances as to what the children experienced. It helped us not to be judgmental to these children and instead to extend our patience until they will be able to understand what is taught to them. We always end our program with a prayer, making the children realized that whatever happens, we should always thank God about everything for what He had given to us, that we should ask for forgiveness and hoping that by the next immersion, it would be much better.

HR information system Essay

Human resource Management is a fundamental part of an organization. The use of technology for the advancement of human resource management has risen extensively from the last decade. In today’s organizations technology greatly influences the managerial processes and techniques in the human resources department. Information Technology has proven itself useful in every area of human life. It is become essential for organizations around the world to use advanced technology in departments of development, maintenance recruitment and various others. The large range of applications provided by IT have become indispensable for any operation and have proven themselves a quality improving and time saving necessity for the organizations desiring development and success. In the human resources management, technology is not only responsible for bringing positive changes but it has also brought a number of issues and challenges for organizations. The most major challenge that a company faces in the process of adopting and implementing these technologies is the restructuring of the HR modules. It is important for the effective functioning of the technologies to be aligned with the HR functions. The creation of a correct management atmosphere is important for the existence of successful and authentic organizations. The research encompasses the challenges and issues that come in the path of organizations while implying IT techniques on HR functions. Research Question How does the implementation of IT effect the human resource management and what advantages or disadvantages an organization faces when applying programs such as SAP? Aim The aim of this research is to determine the use of information systems in order to integrate Information Technology in Human Resource functions and also to outline the role of software programs namely SAP in human resource management and how it is effective in accomplishing this merger between technology and various Human Resource areas. Objectives to Achieve the Aim 1. To outline the importance of introducing Information Technology in Human Resources. 2. To discuss how Information Technology affects the progress of human resource management. 3. To describe the role that SAP plays in implementing technology in human Resources. 4. To explain the processes by which SAP software influences the Human Resource functions of an organization. 5. To determine what are the aspects which ensure the success of the implementation of Information Technology techniques in Human Resource Management. 6. To review the benefits and drawbacks that comes with the introduction of information systems in human resources. 7. To determine the functions of Information Technology within an organization. 8. To identify the nature of challenges and problems that can come in consequence of applying Information Technology techniques across Human resource functions. 9. To study how by the help of several techniques and methods Human Resources can evade these issues and challenges . 10. To summarize how effective is a merger between human resource and information technology to an organization’s development. Background of Research The research is based on the fact that how much advanced technology has become an important part of the business world in modern times. It is not possible for organizations to function properly in any department without the assistance of Information Technology and the tools it provides. Manual methods of management processes and transactions in firms are fast dying and being replaced by faster and surer methods of achieving various tasks that are required to be done. The old techniques cannot compete in today’s fast paced world and every institute should be ready to make the reforms and accept the changes that are brought upon their implementations. They need to hire employees who are efficient in technological operations or familiar with the advanced equipment and take assistance from IT related training  courses like SAP to make their employees aware of the advancements made in the processes of managing every aspect in a company and making them proficient in bringing those methods in their practice to improve the company’s standards and boost its growth. Organizations which do not take advantage from this wave of technology and do not learn to balance on it are sure to be submerged in the growing rate of the use of technology. The Human Resource department has also not lagged behind in this technological advancement marathon. Most organizations have been using one form or other of Human Resource information system over the last decade. In a research conducted in 2002 it has been found that seventy percent of the organizations in Europe use Internet or Intranet to provide Human Resource services to employees. Surveys done in the United Kingdom alone in 2005 by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development revealed that seventy seven percent of companies use HRIS. In a similar research done by Cranfield School of Management in 2003 it found out an even higher number of companies, at eighty two percent, that use HRIS. A human resource information system is able to give various performances ranging from the simple storage of data and communication of information to the entangled process of transactions. With the advancement of technology the functions provided by HRIS have increased and enhanced. HRIS is designed and improved to be beneficial to the functions of Human Resources, line managers, and the entire organization on the whole. If an overall study is done without bias the use of Information Technology has more advantages than problems. It has brought speed, accuracy, efficiency and fewer chances of downfalls in company processes and most importantly has brought a decrease in HR costs. It has also made possible to make Human Resource information available to managers and employees, enabling them to perform uncomplicated human Resource tasks themselves. The implementation of HRIS in order to cut down the cost rates of a company to lessen the burden of transaction and administration on Human Resource functions can lead to a modification in the constitution of HR and allow the function to also play an strategic part in the company. There can be various reasons due to which a company introduces HRIS to influence its functions such as the need to bring improvement to company processes or reduce cost to bring developments in communication and the growth of customer services. Rationale of the research This research has been done to outline in detail to show how the advancement of technology has affected Human Resources. It has raised standards of recruitment, training, data storage and retrieval and performance management. Before the HR recruiting teams had to rely on the print material, namely newspapers, to post ads about jobs get applicants for positions that need to be filled. More methods like networking were also used but that prevented the human resource recruiters to post jobs on a number of locations and also there was no method to make the ads visible to millions of people. Technology has made the method of recruitment more effectual and makes a much greater impact on HR than the old techniques. Training methods have also improved due to technology. In the past years there was were no ways to come in contact of company information and training programs from far way locations. The training of HR workers in virtual classrooms enables trainers to train larger numbers of people than before. Data storage and retrieval has also had a positive effect by the technological advances. The virtual files are more easily accessible and flexible in matters of changing data according to the wish of the HR professionals. It has become easy to monitor the performance of employees and also to receive feedback from the employees for the progress of the organization. Literature Review Emma Parry (2010) determines in the Benefits of technology in Human Resources Management that the use of technology has grown considerably in the last few years in the Human Resource department. She enhances how the capabilities and performances in the Human resource have gown because of the introduction of HRIM. It leads to take Human resource management to a whole new level. It allows it to emerge with a strategic role after the implementation of HRIM. Johnson and Gueuta (2011) states in Transforming HR through Technology that human resources is becoming a more technology based pr0ofession over the years. In most companies people think of Human Resources department more as a portal than a person. According to the recent researches it has been determined that companies who properly use the technologies provided by Human Resources are far successful and advanced than the ones who don’t.  Julie Bulmash (2012) describes Human Resource technology has advanced over the past decade and discusses the importance of technology on the role of human Resource professionals. And how do they make the function of Human Resources much more efficient, smooth and speedy. Methodology: Methodology refers to the methods of collecting data that have been used in the research. Here it will be briefly explained what kind of data collecting methods have been applied and the reason behind choosing that type of method. This research will be using the qualitative research methods for the collection of data. Data collection Methods To employ the qualitative research approach the questionnaire method of data collection has been chosen. A questionnaire has been created in that method in order to collect data by providing the employee with a questionnaire and heshe are asked to answer the questions given. The questions can be multiple choices or open ended questions. They decide how exactly the analysis of job can be done. This approach is quite effective because people would carefully to put anything in writing without thinking. A questionnaire was given to the employees to determine their opinions on various topics such as Information Technology, hospitality, finance, manufacturing, retail, and defense. The feedback gave a clear view on which areas need to be worked on. Based upon it and a theoretical comprehension of the field of Human resources it became easier to point out the problems that should be discussed on the research and which haven’t been brought to light before. Qualitative research This method of research is a primary source of research. It is exploratory and is used in order to achieve comprehension of fundamental reasons, motivations and opinions. It gives insight to assess the nature of the problem or assist in building of ideas or hypothesis for the secondary research process or quantitative research method. Qualitative research is used also for uncovering of inclinations people’s thoughts or opinions and ponder harder to get to the root of a problem by that. The methods for qualitative data collecting vary according to the form of techniques used.  Whether they are structured or non structured. Conceptual Framework Human resources technology has evolved from the use of paper work and pencil to computers electronic databases and human resource information systems. Internet based technology has played an important role in enabling HR to decrease transactional activities and focus more on playing a strategic role in organizations. The main areas that HRIS system works on are recruitment, employee administration, pension administration, health and safety, data collecting, saving and organizing, compensation and benefits administration, management of the company, employment equity and payroll interface. The functions of HRIS are to create and organize records of employees, reporting of work performances, Hr planning and forecasting, and management of talent, strategic alignment and development of decision power. The role of HR workers has also changed considerably according to advancement of technology. The acquire proficiency now in Human resource technology and its delivery, personal credibility, and vast business knowledge. Current technology will continue to bring advancements in HR performances and will continue to focus on the value that HR brings to an organization. Conclusion The human resource sector has made numerous advances due to technology in the past era and will continue to do so with the changes that are brought by the constant upheaval in the IT world of making things more effective and fast than before. HRIS has made various areas of HR extremely accessible and successful in accordance to the fast paced world of today. The methods of recruiting employees, managerial organization, data storage, training of professionals and more areas have undergone major changes due to the integration of Information Technology in the world of Human Resources. If these changes haven’t been employed and training programs hadn’t been designed to create technological awareness and familiarity it would’ve been a big setback to organizations. It has risen the standards of professionals working in human resources and the organizations have been able to get productivity, creativity, innovation and progress in finances on a whole new  level. HR technology is still going through this evolution of technology as they must use newer and refined methods of generating an organization’s human capital. Human resources would need to continue adopting the latest technological trends in order to keep up with advancements and provide more efficient functions. It will need to use technology to redefine their areas in which they work to derive more productivity. The increment in the usage of portals and intranets and other virtual tools will bring a more great impact on Human resource performance in the near future. Bibliography Storey, J. (Ed.). (2007). Human resource management: A critical text. Cengage Learning EMEA. Ulrich, D. (2013). Human resource champions: The next agenda for adding value and delivering results. Harvard Business Press. Bohlander, G., & Snell, S. (2006). Managing human resources. Cengage Learning. Lawler, E. E., & Mohrman, S. A. (2003). HR as a strategic partner: what does it take to make it happen?. Human Resource Planning, 26(3), 15-29. Varian, H. R., & Farrell, J. V. (2004). The economics of information technology: An introduction. Cambridge University Press. Goo, J., Kishore, R., Rao, H. R., & Nam, K. (2009). The Role of Service Level Agreements in Relational Management of Information Technology Outsourcing: An Empirical Study. Mis Quarterly, 33(1).

Prevention of HIV among black African men under 30s in UK Essay - 1

Prevention of HIV among black African men under 30s in UK - Essay Example To communicate effectively, Health promotion and communication theory is the most idea since besides passing the message, it gives the health advantages of the campaign, detailing the most preferred ways of prevention. The high rates of HIV among black men shows that they need to adopt behavior change in order to reduce the high risk of infection. The efficiency of campaigns on behavior change e among these individuals will depend on several factors. These factors are evident from the health belief model. Effective communication should target on ensuring that the target perceives the threat of HIV realistically. This will involve an understanding that an individual is susceptible to the disease. In addition, these men should realize the severity of the disease. HIV management has severe consequences that include economical strains and social stigma. Black men realizing the severity of the matter are likely to conform to behavior change reducing their risk of infection. However, majority of the men in the group of men below thirty years perceive a very low risk of transmitting HIV and hinders preventing measures (Owuor, 2009). The perception of the barriers involved in attaining behavior change is critical in determining whether an individual can overcome the barriers and adopt a responsible sexual behavior. Some youth claim that barriers to behavior change involve the reduction of enjoy ability of sex. For majority of black men below the age of thirty, this is a limiting factor to consistent practice of protected sex. In addition, the societal view of condom use and the portrayal of enjoyment of sex without condoms in mass media hinder the target group from effective behavior change. The commonness of HIV with this group is due to the increase of homosexuality. Most of the homosexuals have not adopted any behavior changes despite the high prevalence. The efficiency of prevention will be determined by

MacGruber ( comedy film 2010 ) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

MacGruber ( comedy film 2010 ) - Essay Example Such acts made him appear as an idiot hero, who made audience laugh at him ironically (Alter 2010). The theme of the movie revolves around the character of MacGruber, who made life-saving inventions with the help of household materials. Throughout the entire story, he kept on getting in and out of extremely sticky conditions, but he managed to handle those situations with his crazy mind tricks (Taccone 2010). Although MacGruber was a hero and the main character of the story, but every other character of the movie was explicitly called â€Å"idiot† by him for his stupid acts. This has been the main problem of the story because its settings and designed actions failed to make up audiences’ mind about his own comedy action hero (Alter 2010). Therefore, it could be concluded that the director and writer both have intended to present a good comedy movie, but the below average performance and designed actions of the hero have diverted attention of audience from the original theme to his stupid

Reebok Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Reebok - Essay Example ng strategy involves establishing trust between salespeople and retailers, giving retailers sufficient information about the products to ensure they conduct sales at ease and provide retailers with support after the sale. â€Å"Sean Neville the senior vice president and general manager of Reebok North America† confirms that the aim of the company is to sell quality products to the customer, and the retailer  used as an intermediary. The salespeople in the company ensure they think like the retailer selling goods to the consumer (Kerin, Hartley & Rudelius, 2011). This information is crucial because customers are able to know the objectives of Reebok. In addition, the customers are also able to know how the company operates. The information is also beneficial to retailers who ensure the company’s products reach customers. Competitors can also use the information to learn more about the company’s strategies that assist it to stay on top. The information draws the inference that Reebok is among the best companies known for sportswear. In addition, the information puts Reebok at the forefront as the one of the main manufacturers of sport shoes. Nonetheless, the information generates a number of questions too for instance; how the company communicates with retailers and customers, how the company deals with competitors and approaches the company uses to remain on top. In addition, further ideas also generated by the information that include; the style of operation of the company and how they do their business to ensure customers remain satisfied for many

Will show in the requirement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Will show in the requirement - Essay Example rampant and unpredictable and development of the human resource capital by the higher education institutions is equally challenging (Brewer& Brewer, 2010). The interrelationship of knowledge management (KM), Human Resources Management (HRM) and Higher Education (HE) is that, the challenges and newly developing needs in HRM and Knowledge Management provides Higher Education with an opportunity to understand the changing global business arena, and thus establish programs that seek to suit and solve these challenges. On the other hand, the Knowledge Management and HRM challenges will enable Higher Education to measure the effectiveness of its learning programs. The field of knowledge management has gained popularity both in business and human resource management, considering that it is a new avenue that is allowing organizations to sort out issues of information congestion and overload, without the necessity of an individual being a computer expert (Brewer& Brewer, 2010). Nevertheless, while knowledge management is a vital aspect that enhances the competitiveness of the Human Resource function within an organization, it must be supported by relevant HRM policies, to ensure that the generation, development and sharing of the knowledge happens smoothly. Similarly, if Higher education has to be effective, it must integrate the Knowledge Management and the Human Resource Management challenges that organizations are experiencing, so the human capital developed can be competent in addressing these challenges (Brewer& Brewer, 2010). In this regard therefore, the three concepts of Knowledge Management, Human Resource Management and Higher Educatio n must work together in sync, to solve the developing challenges in the global business arena. The information from this article has high applicability for both higher education business institutions and global organizations. The institutions of higher learning will use the information in the article for gaining insights into the

Bottled Water Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Bottled Water - Essay Example This observation is realized from a number of variables that differentiate bottled water from tap water. On the same note, these differentiating variables allows bottled water to obtain price premiums, a scenario that lacks in cases of tap water. The sale of bottled water is undertaken by firms that are in business. They therefore have business aspects to account for in their operations. In this regard, value creation becomes a critical differentiating variable. This is done through processing and packaging water in ways that appeal to the customers (Shiv, 2007). Value creation differentiates tap water and bottled water, with the primary activity being packaging. This process costs the various firms that engage in it, and the price of the bottled water must account for the costs as well as business profits. The providing firms themselves act as a differentiating variable. Tap water is provided to the masses as an aspect of human right by local governments or the state at large. Water treatment processes are undertaken at a central point before supply is done. For this reason, water tap is regarded a necessity and a right to the population. On the other hand, bottled water is associated with luxury, a complement to tap water. Therefore, obtaining the water attracts a luxury price premium. Quality is another aspect that differentiates bottled water from tap water. If is often held that bottled water is of high quality than tap water. While this claim may or may not be true, a high quality product is likely to attract a high price. The quality aspect has given rise to numerous bottled water brands, and the higher the quality attached to a specific bottled water brand, the higher the price premium that brand obtains. Marketing activities significantly differentiates tap water from bottled water. Firms that sell bottled water are actually business enterprises. Companies that supply tap water are either state operated

Introduction to International Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Introduction to International Business - Essay Example Memo: Selling Portable Water Filtration System in China China boasts the world’s largest population with more than 1.3 billion people (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). Many of them are hard working and honest, but lack what industrialized nations should have: access to potable drinking water from the tap. For this reason, it is imperative that Brita International, market its portable filtration devices to them before other companies with an equal ability to penetrate the market do so. The key demographics include wealthy, health-conscious households as well as manufacturing workers. The wealthy families will be inclined to purchase a larger array of products, such as countertop systems for the family as well as canteen water bottles. As for the latter group, China’s manufacturing workforce boasts more than one-hundred-twelve million people whose wages have increased at an average of 9% over the past five years (Foshan, 2010). These workers put in long hours and are not always in the best conditions due to their lack of formal support as many of them are migrant workers and not part of a formal union. The factories are likely not to be any better than residential areas, and perhaps worse, making the need for clean water all the more paramount to the lives and livelihood of the people who work in them. While there is some apprehension from other companies to do business in the world’s most powerful communist country, it should be noted that of the thirty-two regions in the nation, five are autonomous and four are municipalities, showing that while China may have certain governmental preferences, it is obviously a nation governed by people who are understanding of the variances in leadership styles as well as government operations. In the judicial system, Chinese courts have a hierarchy much like the United States, but rather than it being separated as a structure of municipal, state, and federal courts, there is the Basic, Intermediate, Higher, and Supreme courts. Unlike the United States, though, â€Å"litigants are often limited to one appeal† in the event that their case goes unfavorably (Fischer). Like in the United States, in some cases, a person wanting to be heard by the kind of judge who may have the power to enact what he or she needs, may not be able to do so simply on the basis that this system of the people can work against those it is said to serve the most. The government of China is very much involved in the economy of the nation, but not to the extreme that Karl Marx envisioned of the communist paradise where there would be no personal property or rights to inheritance (Marx, & Engels, 27). Instead, the people do own property to include homes and businesses. This occurs more so in areas like Hong Kong, which does not follow the strict communist rule of the mainland, and while there are more provinces (twenty-three) under the rule of the more centralized and controlling regime than there are under the le ss strict rule of law, this does not mean that Brita International should not do business there since nationalization is not going to be an issue as the products can be moved from the Deutschland offices, and while the method of governing the people of this country may not be to the preference of some, the people who are in need are not a government, but citizens who are

IKEA Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

IKEA - Case Study Example Now, employees need motivation because it gives them more reason to work, other than the fact that they need to earn their fixed salaries. They need to have more reasons to get up everyday, go to work and try their best in their tasks. It is important to understand employee behavior because without this, companies would definitely lose profit and gain a deficit in their output. IKEA, a Swedish home furnishings retailer, is known as the world's largest designer and retailer of well-designed, inexpensive, and functional furniture for the home. (IKEA: A Natural Step Case Study 1998) A Dutch-registered organization runs IKEA and it has put in 15% improvement annually in this past ten years. INGKA Holding BV (the umbrella company of IKEA) is wholly owned by the Stitching INGKA Foundation, a non-profit foundation registered in the Netherlands. Millions of customers visit their 378 stores in about 36 countries, with 30 more set to open this year. Most of these stores are located in Asia, Europe, Canada, Australia and the United States. About 11, 000 products in IKEA's line are shown in the 80 million catalogues that they distribute. As for the manufacturing itself, IKEA does this in their own production facilities with the help of their 2400 suppliers in 65 countries. IKEA also boasts of having a hold of employees totaling to 36, 400. In 1943, IKEA was founded by Ingvar Kamprad, then a 17 year-old boy in Sweden. IKEA is an acronym comprising the initials of the founder's name (Ingvar Kamprad), the farm where he grew up (Elmtaryd), and his home county (Agunnaryd, in Smland, South Sweden). (Wikipedia 2008) Kamprad shortly transformed his venture into a mail order service which sells furniture. In 1953, he opened the first IKEA showroom. His primary strategy was to allow for the creation of ground-breaking furniture which would give customers the ease to construct the products themselves and purchase them at an affordable price too. Now, the IKEA employees are at the customers' disposal for inquiries and such but the customers are free to select, order, take and construct what furniture they pick. The money saved by IKEA in expenditures was used to give customers discounts. Not long after, the stores got bigger and eventually started to carry eating places like restaurants and recreational facilities for children like play areas. Kamprad distinctively said in December 1976 that "What is good for our customers is also good for us in the long run." (IKEA: A Natural Step Case Study 1998) What IKEA does Since 1990, IKEA has shown interest and action in putting forth an environmental thrust. With their Natural Step Framework, they aim to create a proper environmental plan. The said plan in effect brings about changes in IKEA's products and services in order to conform to their frameworks principles and demands. In 1992, the environmental policy was transformed into an Environmental Action Plan describing concrete and practical measures for the mid-1990s. (IKEA: A Natural

Marketing Plan Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Marketing Plan Assignment - Essay Example Put differently, Jim’s Cleaning ensures peace of mind for its customers and that it why it stands out vis-a-vis other players in the industry. Jim’s Cleaning has its own professional cleaning equipment. It is known to be a reliable company that starts and completes the job on time. Its franchisees are fully insured. The company guarantees quality services at a fair price. About the Product According to the American Marketing Association, a product is a bundle of attributes; features, functions, and benefits that an organization offers to sell to the target customers in exchange of money. A product may be an idea, a good (physical tangible product), or a service, or any combination of the three. As of now Jim’s Cleaning offers only ‘services’ to its customers. The company offers its cleaning services to domestic as well as business customers. Its cleaning services are divided into the following divisions; Jim's Carpet Cleaning, Jim's Window Cleaning, Jim's Car Cleaning, Jim's Blind Cleaning and Jim's Pressure Cleaning. Jim’s Carpet Cleaning The company does a methodical cleaning of carpets and thereby ensures that the customer not only gets the best feel and appearance of the carpet but also protects the investment made on the carpet. The company uses the most advanced products and equipment and cleans as per the Australian National Standards. The carpet division also cleans upholstery, drapes and mattresses. Customers are offered two options; Steam Cleaning and Dry Cleaning. The former method, also known as hot water extraction uses hot water for cleaning carpets. The dry cleaning method is recommended for carpets that require regular preservation cleaning or when carpets have to be dried quickly. Jim’s Window Cleaning Jim’s Cleaning enhances the appearances of homes by cleaning windows to perfection. This cleaning exercise also cuts energy costs in winters by allowing more light inside the home. The compan y guarantees streak free, shining windows after work. Jim’s Cleaning has the expertise to clean all internal and external windows. Given its state of the art equipment, Jim’s Cleaning personnel can reach double storey and high rise buildings. Jim’s Pressure Cleaning Jim’s Pressure Cleaning offers tailored programs to suit the requirements of commercial clients. This division specifically targets real estate agents, builders and local businesses, in addition to residential customers. Services include mould and dirt removal, cleaning of driveways, fascia, paving, pathways, outdoor timber, and tiled areas. Jim’s Car Cleaning Jim’s Car Cleaning division simply loves its job and guarantees quality job, reliable service and money back guarantee. The car is cleaned at a location convenient to the client. The customer need not take the car anywhere as the personnel from Jim’s visit the customer and do the job. Depending on the quantum of work a customer requires, Jim’s car Cleaning offers Premium Wash, Mini Detail and Deluxe Detail. As part of its specialty services Jim’s Car Cleaning offers full cut, polish and wax coat for the car. The customer can also opt for shampooing the car. Jim’s Blind Cleaning Jim’s Blind Cleaning not only cleans but also repairs blinds. As an additional service, the company replaces the defective parts of the blinds as well. The division offers proficient service to take care of these precious window coverings, be it of any type or make; horizontal or vertical. The company promises to clean a large variety

How Organisations Use ICT Essay Example for Free

How Organisations Use ICT Essay The Northampton Academy is a new comprehensive school situated on the Billing Brook Road in Lings. There are 1300 students attending this school with the age range of these varying from 11-18 years. Northampton Academy Many business organisations use ICT in different ways depending on the type of organisation and how ICT can improve and help the business. The Northampton Academy is good example of a business that uses ICT in administration, in a more advanced and wider range of ways. The Academy needs to be able to send out letters to parents providing information such as how well their child is doing in school, whether or not their child is displaying the right kinds of behaviour in school, or information on educational trips coming up which their child may be interested in or is a part of. Newsletters also need to be sent out providing the parents of each and every child in the Academy with information about forthcoming events, plans for the future and general information such as school term dates. The variety of ways in which they use ICT in administration, are those such as at times like registration. The register will be taken by the teacher and each student marked present or absent, and then the register will be taken to reception where the staff will then feed it through an OMR (Optical Mark Recognition) machine. This saves time and effort of those that would otherwise have to type in the information of every student, saying whether or not they are present at school that day, so that each pupils attendance is recorded on their systems. With this information the computers will be able to work out each pupils percentage of attendance to put on individual records and also to enable them to keep on top of truancy and report attendance levels to parents. The school has to keep a record of every pupils data on their databases which is all done through ICT and typed into the databases on their computers. These need to be able to be updated if a student has a change of address or a slight change of information. The contact details can be stored easily and found easily which means it is a lot quicker to search for information on each student. It is important for the information to be retrievable quickly because if a child is ill or is in urgent need of going home, then telephone numbers and emergency contact information on that student needs to be found as quickly as possible and the staff dont have the time to be searching through paper files looking for that students information. Some of the information on each pupil is needed to be kept confidential, and because it is all recorded through computers, rather than having to be written out and stored in filing systems, which would take up much more room and time searching for information, it is easier to allow for that to happen. Each member of staff can be put at different levels of access on the administration system and password protection can be enabled to individual records so that only the people that need access to those files can retrieve the information. Student and staff timetabling is arranged through ICT. They are produced through the software SIMs (Schools information management System). The computers store all the information about what year, ability level and lessons each pupil should be placed into and timetables for each and every student can be made. There has to be a teacher present at each lesson so teacher timetabling is also sorted through ICT. This way if there are errors made on an individuals timetable or there is a mix-up somewhere, it doesnt take long to correct it on the systems and re-print another one for the student or the member of staff. Using the software on the computers, things such as sending out newsletters, sending letters home to parents and general word processing becomes a lot quicker and easier. They can be made professional by applying letterheads to each letter they send, and addresses can be mail merged to save time in having to find out names and addresses in manual filing systems. Every so often, each child is issued with a report that informs their parents about how they are doing in school and monitors their academic learning. Instead of each teacher writing every pupils report out by hand, the report is typed out which saves a lot of time. There are templates that teachers can use which, again, saves time in typing out a different report for each and every individual, when sometimes that isnt always necessary. This is all carried out through the use of ICT which is very useful, especially when reports are sent out to every student on a regular basis. Another beneficial way of using ICT in The Northampton Academy is carried out in the finance office. The financial department uses Microsoft Excel software to store information on every area of finance. This programme allows the use of formulae which automatically calculates and updates the changes made in finance so that they can keep track of how much money they are spending. Microsoft Excel provides great benefit to the school when it comes to financing because of this use of formulae. If you need to change a figure, then the spreadsheet recalculates everything again for you, saving a lot of time. The school has a budget which the finance office has to keep track of and make sure they keep to it and not over-spend. To do this each department is allocated a certain amount of money that they can spend over a given amount of time, which they can use to buy resources or other equipment they need in their department area. Another important area the finance office deals with is staff wages. On their systems they keep track of how much each member of staff is being paid, when they need to be paid, and it will update all that information on the spreadsheets whenever a member of staff gets given a pay-rise or any changes are made to their pay. The financial department deals with making sure every member of staff gets paid the correct amounts when they are due for their next pay. The school provide a various number of different educational trips that take place over the school year. The finance office has to keep a system that shows them how much money each pupil has paid and for which trip, and how much more they need to pay. So that the pupil is aware of this also, the financial department issues each individual with a receipt. This information is stored on spreadsheets and every time the pupil pays in a sum of money it is changed on their spreadsheets and totals are automatically updated. The hardware used throughout The Northampton Academy varies depending on whether youre part of the administration team or a pupil at the Academy. This will depend on the workstation used. The station used by the administration team is a Dell OptiPlex GX1. This includes: * 15 or 17 CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) monitor. These are big and bulky and take up more space. The administration staff have more room on their desks in general, because the desk only needs to cater for a single person, so they can manage with having a bigger monitor on their desk. * CPU (Central Processing Unit) * Mouse * Keyboard * Intel Pentium 2 or 3 processor * 265Mb RAM * CD Drive * Windows 2000 The station used by the pupils at the Academy is a Dell OptiPlex GX270. This includes: * 15 TFT (Thin Film Transistor) monitor. These are flat screens, which are small and compact. The students use these monitors because they need more working space on the computer desks as they dont get a desk to themselves, individually. This way more computers and more students can fit into the classroom. * CPU (Central Processing Unit) * Mouse * Keyboard * Intel Pentium 4 processor running at 2.6Ghz * 40Gb Hard Disk Drive * CD Drive * Windows XP Pro The workstations used by the administration team arent as quick and efficient as the ones used by the students. The Dell OptiPlex GX1 has all the hardware needed and is suitable for the needs of those in administration. The workstations used by the pupils have a faster running time with it running at 2.6 GHz. The memory of the computer is larger, to store all the work completed by students. The reasoning behind the students using 15 TFT monitors is so that space in the classroom is used more efficiently and so more students and more monitors can fit into the classroom. This applies to the tower box also. They are small and placed under the computer desk so that the only things on the desk itself are the monitor, the mouse and the keyboard. This allows space on the desk for students to have other things out and have more room in front of them. Each computer has a mouse and a keyboard. These arent cordless, because it avoids the trouble caused if they were misplaced, lost or perhaps, in an extreme event, stolen. In the classrooms, The Northampton Academy uses black and white LaserJet printer and colour Inkjet printer. Inkjet printers spray magnetically charged ink through a fine nozzle onto each sheet of paper, where a LaserJet printer uses a laser beam. The black and white LaserJet printers are used on a more regular basis simply because it is a lot cheaper to run. It prints very quickly and makes them efficient in classes where a lot of pages needed to be printed out by each student. When colour prints are needed, although the colour printers are not used much due to the cost of them and because of the very slow speed they print at, colour Inkjet printers are used because they are a lot cheaper to buy than they would be if colour LaserJet printers were used. The Northampton Academy has Microsoft Office 2003 software installed throughout the school which is used by both students and members of the administration team. The different programs used are: MS Office 2003 MS Word Word Processing Used by the staff to produce letters which can then be sent home to parents. Used by the students for GCSE coursework when typing up essays or producing work in various subjects. Teachers can prepare worksheets to be handed to the students in their class. MS Excel Spreadsheet Used for calculating sums of money in the finance department, and keeping track of school budgets. Used by students for ICT GCSE coursework. MS PowerPoint Presentation Used to create slide show presentations by teachers of various subjects which can then be shown to students to provide them with help and information in specific areas of the subject. MS Access Database Used to store information on every student in the school on a pupil database. Used for mail merging. Used by students for ICT GCSE coursework. MS Publisher Desk Top Publishing Used to produce newsletters which can be sent to inform parents of upcoming events on a regular basis. Used by students for ICT GCSE coursework. MS Visio Diagram Creator e.g. Flow Charts Room Plans MS InfoPath Used to create forms for data capture Microsoft Office 2003 isnt the only software used throughout the school. SIMs is used to a high extent in the administration office. SIMs (Schools information management System) is a full database which: Allows for the producing of timetabling for both staff and students. Produces set lists Is used for pupil monitoring, which are carried out and sent home to parents every 6 weeks using OMR (Optical mark Recognition). Is used for registration. The register is taken and the sheets are read by the optical mark reader machine. The data is then transferred into the database and matched to individual students. From this absence lists can be produced and followed up. The machine can then perform calculations which show attendance percentages for each student. Allows examination entries to be recorded for each, individual student and also produces exam timetables for them. Manages the pupil databases. Each student has a UPN (Unique Personal Number) which they are recognized by. To keep track of the money coming in and out of the school, the department budgets and the whole school budget, the finance office staff use specialist financial software (a database) called Hebron. This manages all the finance information, except from one area due to the fact that Hebron doesnt contain an order tracking system, and so Excel is used for this. As well as the different programs used in various ways for doing various different things, Windows XP offers other software which can be used. File Management Internet Explorer Utilities Paint Notepad WordPad Calculator This allows for the Academy to be fully equipped and use every piece of software they need and will benefit from. ICT is used widely across the school. It is used to a large extent in the ICT department to enable students to learn and complete work using the software on the computers. Every ICT room has a projector to allow for presentations and slide-shows to project onto a screen for the whole class to see and make use of. Cross-curricular use of ICT across the school has become a much bigger thing, which now means that every teacher is receiving a personal laptop; the use of ICT is specified under the National Curriculum and GCSE/A Level specifications; and the school is making use of many mini-suites and classroom PCs and trolleys. Interactive whiteboards are used in various classrooms, and the use of these is becoming larger by the day. The school is able to run more efficiently from the administration side of things as well, thanks to the great use of ICT. Letters can be produced and sent to parents using mail merge with the information retrieved from the pupil information database. As there are 1300 students in the school, the use of standard letters and templates comes in very useful. Clear and accurate information is kept about each student which is easy to find and can be easily updated using the database rather than using a manual filing system, such as lots of paper files. Books for educational purposes can be ordered by using the electronically stored order forms and being filled in using formulae to prevent mathematical errors occurring. The finance office manages the flow of money coming in and out of the school at a much quicker and easier rate because of the use of ICT. They make use of spreadsheets and specialist software in which they type in formulas to avoid repetitive tasks of adding up, calculating the averages and percentages and totalling sums of money, especially in cases where the information has to be changed. To keep the school functioning and communicating effectively, teachers now have Ranger software which allows for them to take over a students workstation from anywhere in the school if they are on inappropriate websites. The teachers can also send or post work straight to the students monitor using this software, which can help students to improve their work and allows for the teachers to monitor each student at any time to observe whether they are working hard. In general, ICT is used massively throughout The Northampton Academy which means the school is benefiting greatly by every aspect of ICT. Already, by the year 2004, the use of ICT in schools is fantastic. And to think that ICT is expanding and improving every day, makes you wonder what the future could hold! Lings Music Ltd Lings Music Ltd is a small independent company situated in the Weston Favell Centre with just the one branch. There are only 7 members of staff who keep it up and running. One of these is the manager and the other 6 are just ordinary working staff. The company isnt tied to any other big music stores; it is just a single, independently run, small company. Lings Music Ltd specialises mainly in pop music, but offers other categories of music. Because this is such a small company, they are unable to afford the latest equipment or any other expensive ICT equipment, so this means they have a limited amount of access to ICT in general. Lings Music Ltd do make use of some ICT but what they do make use of is very small, simply because they dont have the money to buy exceptional ICT equipment, so they make use of the basic hardware and software. The Microsoft package Lings Music Ltd uses is Microsoft Office XP, although they do not make use of all the software provided. They word process the lists of CDs they have in stock; use Microsoft Word or Publisher to produce basic flyers, leaflets, faxes, memos, letters and newsletters which help to promote their small business and advertise a little further. Lings Music Ltd also makes use of Microsoft Excel to calculate the staff wages, tax and National Insurance which saves them having to calculate everything themselves, manually, and instead use the automatic calculations provided through Excel. This saves a lot of time considering the staff number is small. Outlook Express is installed to enable for them to send emails and receive emails, which they can use to promote their business and sales to previous customers. But the main use they make out of Outlook Express is to email their suppliers to place orders to keep their stock at the correct levels. Lings Music Ltd only has one stand alone PC which is used by the manager. This means that it is not networked and if they introduced another PC into their business they would find it very difficult to update, access or share any files through the system. The one computer they do use is a Dell Pentium III with an 800 x 600 14 TFT (Thin Film Transistor) screen equipped with an Inkjet printer. With this all the hardware is used and made use of. Lings Music Ltd has managed to stay up and running as a small independent business for a fair amount of time now, but if they were to ever make the company any bigger and try to promote more and make more sales, then they would experience a lot of problems when it came to networking, the amount of software they use and the amount of PCs they use in their business. The manager and the 6 members of staff who run Lings Music Ltd have managed to get by with the equipment they do use, but could find themselves experiencing problems in the future as ICT expands and improves and they cant afford the latest ICT equipment.

Gender Stereotypes In Advertising Campaigns

Gender Stereotypes In Advertising Campaigns The role of women is more stereotypical than that of the men in the promotional campaigns, and the power of women are inferior to the man especially in the TV advertisements. According to the research on adverts researchers have been done before, the results usually fall into the following categories including: (1) Women being linked with sexual meanings. (2) Women being viewed less powerful than men. (3) Women being thought to be obliged to dominate the housework. (4) Women being believed to comply with their male partners. Over 30 years ago it was argued that advertising placed women into subordinate roles and that the male voice was authoritative (Lewin-Jones, J, Mitra, B. 2009), which is supported by a number of researches. Ferguson, Kreshel and Tinkham (1990) suggested that woman have long been viewed as sexual objects in the advertisements. Dilevko and Harris (1997) stated that in the journals advertisements they researched, females activities are more restrained than males, and men are more likely to gain fame and to be connected with a promising future. Meanwhile, Sexton and Haberman (1974) illustrated that the images of women reflected in advertisements is narrow. All they have to do is to dress up, stand still and being watched. In addition, advertisements also help to cultivate social roles and responsibilities of men and women respectively, in particularly the later ones. The image of women constructed by some established magazines are mostly in conventional occupations and working women profiled in these magazines tend to express themselves by lacking power in their jobs (Ruggiero and Weston, 1985). Simultaneously, Bartsch, Burnett, Diller and Rankin-Williams (2000) argued that Gender bias still exist as females are underrepresented as product representatives for domestic products and males are overrepresented as representatives for non-domestic products. Briefly speaking, these studies show that in the advertisements, women are more inclined to the jobs and titles of housewives while men are more likely to domain in the working field. Moreover, an interesting point has been found out in several of the researches, i.e., in the advertisements, the voice of the spokesmen/spokeswomen can affect the acceptance of the products, which also reflects gender stereotypes. Peirce and McBride (1999) stated that in the commercial advertisements they have studied, more males are used as spokes-characters, and more male spokes-characters are remembered than the female spokes-characters. Media, especially the commercial advertisements of promotional campaigns, do have some strong influence on the construction and cultivation of gender stereotypes, because it helps to reinforce the different roles of man and women in the society and it repeats and retells every day through various channels such as newspapers, radio, bulletin board and TV. In those ads, men are strong and powerful, and they are supposed to save the world, while women are weak and sentimental, and they are set to worship their male heroes. Men should be working outside whilst women should clean the house. Although it is hard to tell whether ads have been affected by the culture or vice versa, it is true that advertisement, as a part of culture itself, do make a difference in constructing gender stereotypes. In fact, gender stereotypes that outstand in the advertisements are not rare. For example, the Mercedes-Benz S Class 8 airbags advertisements. In that advertisement, a woman showing only her breast was being copied four times so that it made eight breasts in one dimension, which compared the breasts as the airbags to symbolise safety and reliability. It is true, to some extent, that this ad is creative enough to stimulate the male audience and to call on their emotional appeals which can turn into actions of buying in the end, but it also used female image, or sexual image specifically, to persuade their targets. As said by Diane Barthel (1988), the beauty rolethe importance of appearing attractive in public, of maintaining standards, of encouraging male attentionbecomes a central preoccupation for girls and mains a concern for women for much of their lives, if not all their lives. Another typical status quo that represents gender stereotypes in the advertising campaigns can be found in one of the channels from Chinese Central Television, namely CCTV5, which is focused on sports news. And it has been years since this channel only broadcast advertisements on mens sports wear, suits, wines, luxury watches and cars. In that channel, ads are made for the males to notice and watch, as are sports programs. If a female audience is watching this channel, she might get a confusing impression that she is not supposed to watch it. Men are born to be sport-oriented, and women are too weak to do intensive exercises. This is blatantly shown in the advertisements that the companies do not even bother to take their female customers into account when it comes to the field of sports and sports competitions. As a matter of fact, this phenomenon has already been studied and by some researchers, and they come up with the conclusion that advertisers made no attempt to appeal female sports market as a separate segments. (Shani, Sandler, and Long, 1992 ) Based on the researches and the examples listed above, it is likely to draw a conclusion that gender role portrayals in ads has been and is still going to be stereotypical for a long period of time(Ivy Backlund, 1994 , as cited by Brasted, M 2010). There might be some new ads showing that females are gaining their own power and are stronger than they used to be, but the mainstream of the promotional campaigns in the market nowadays are still emphasising on the different roles that man and women plays respectively, or on the point that women should stay home and maintaining attractive to men. However, one thing people can not deny is that, the ads producers get their ideas and thoughts from the cultures they have long been lived in, which in return affect the culture itself by influencing the audience who grow up there as well. People can not avoid from the gender stereotype thoroughly because it roots in their lives, but people do can avoid imposing on it by realising the potential effect it will have on them.

Structure And Function Of The Heart Physical Education Essay

Structure And Function Of The Heart Physical Education Essay The cardiovascular system is a very complex and unique system. The main structures of the cardiovascular system include the heart, blood, and blood vessels arteries, capillaries and veins. It is a system that allows all nutrients such as amino acids, electrolytes and lymph, gases, hormones, and blood cells to pass throughout the body, these all aid in the process of fighting diseases, stabilizing body temperature and maintaining homeostasis. Coronary, pulmonary and systemic circulations are the systems that allow blood to be pumped throughout the body, coronary circulation is the system that allows blood to be pumped through the heart, pulmonary circulation is the system that pumps blood through to the lungs and the systemic circulation which is the system that pumps the blood around the rest of the body and to the remaining organs. As humans we have a closed cardiovascular system which means the blood never leaves the circulation of the blood vessels. The coronary circulation is part of the systemic circulation by definition it supplies blood to muscles- muscles of the heart (myocardium), however it is the only system to provide the heart with blood. The blood comes from the aorta and filters through into the right atrium. If the heart didnt receive the blood supply, it would cause severe tissue damage. The pulmonary circulation uses the pulmonary artery to take de-oxygenated blood away from the heart through to the lungs which is where the blood is then oxygenated. The de-oxygenated blood enters the right atrium of the heart and flows through the tricuspid valve and then from there it flows into the right ventricle, here it is then pumped through the pulmonary semilunar valve into the pulmonary artery to the lungs. In the lungs is where the gas exchange takes place, where the CO2 is released and the blood then absorbs oxygen. This is the stage when the pulmonary vein returns the freshly oxygenated blood to the heart. The systemic circulation on the other hand takes the oxygenated blood from the heart and transports it throughout the rest of the body except from the lungs. The system then provides all other organs with the oxygenated blood, the circulation then returns all of the de-oxygenated blood back to the heart for the process to start all over again. The systemic circulation is a much lengthier system than the pulmonary circulation due to transporting blood all over the body. (1)The heart pumps oxygenated blood to the body and deoxygenated blood to the lungs. In the human heart there is one atrium and one ventricle for each circulation, and with both a systemic and a pulmonary circulation there are four chambers in total: left atrium, left ventricle, right atrium and right ventricle. The right atrium is the upper chamber of the right side of the heart. The blood that is returned to the right atrium is deoxygenated (poor in oxygen) and passed into the right ventricle to be pumped through the pulmonary artery to the lungs for re-oxygenation and removal of carbon dioxide. The left atrium receives newly oxygenated blood from the lungs as well as the pulmonary vein which is passed into the strong left ventricle to be pumped through the aorta to the different organs of the body. The blood circuit is flows in the shape of a figure of 8. There are two loops to this circuit. The top loop carries the blood from the heart to the lungs and back (the pulmonary circulation). The bottom loop carries the blood from the heart all over the body (systemic circulation). The 4 main stages of the cardiac cycle are: Atrial Diastole -which is where the top chamber (atria) relaxes and fills with blood from the veins Atrial Systole- where the atria contracts and blood is forced into the relaxing bottom chambers which are otherwise known as ventricles Ventricular systole- which is where the ventricles contract and blood is forced out of the heart in to the arteries. Ventricular diastole -when the ventricles relax and become ready for the next pump cycle. The circulatory system also consists of the lymphatic system; this is a non-closed system that carries a clear liquid called lymph towards the heart and allows an average of 20 litres of blood per day through capillary filtration which removes plasma while leaving the erythrocytes. Around 17 litres of filtered plasma get reabsorbed into the blood vessels; however 3 litres are then left behind in the interstitial fluid. The main role of the lymph system is to provide an auxiliary route for the extra 3 litres to return to the blood. (4) The lymphatic system has multiple interrelated functions: it is responsible for the removal of interstitial fluid from tissues it absorbs and transports fatty acids and fats as chyle from the digestive system it transports white blood cells to and from the lymph nodes into the bones The lymph transports antigen-presenting cells (APCs), such as dendritic cells, to the lymph nodes where an immune response is stimulated. There are three main blood vessels in the cardiovascular system, these are the arteries, veins and capillaries; arteries are responsible for carrying the blood away from the heart, they are made up of a thick elastic muscular wall, which is capable of stretching as blood is being pumped through at a high pressure. The muscle walls are able to contract to force the blood along through the arteries. Veins are made up of a much thinner, less muscular wall compared to the arteries. The blood in the veins is under considerably much lower pressure compared to the blood in the arteries, this is because arteries need higher pressure in order to deliver the oxygenated blood to the arterioles, capillaries, other organs and tissues and to also prevent the back flow of blood, veins dont require this high pressure because the de-oxygenated blood can travel from the tissues to the heart through the veins with the help of the muscle contractions. One of the functions of the veins is to ensure that the blood doesnt flow back towards the heart, veins contain valves every few centimetres along, this helps them push the blood in one direction. However muscle contraction and relaxation can also occur to help squeeze the walls of the veins to help the blood flow back towards the heart when necessary. You can use a stethoscope to hear pulmonary circulation. The sounds that are audible are the ventr icles contracting and the valves closing. Capillaries are the smallest of all the blood vessels they have a wall that is one cell thick, capillaries connect the arterioles and venules this is where all the exchange of nutrients and gases such as oxygen and carbon dioxide occurs- through the capillary surfaces. Leucocytes are able to leave our capillaries in order to digest any micro-organisms that could be a potential threat or disease. Arteries, veins and capillaries are all blood vessels of the body and all of them are routes for the blood to pass through to provide their functions. They all contain tunica externa, tunica media and tunica intima. Blood is carried away from the heart via the arteries and the blood returns to the heart through the veins. Our circulatory system is a transport system the carries our blood, oxygen and waste products to and from our bodys cells in order for our bodies to functions. (2) During systemic circulation, blood passes through the kidneys. This phase of systemic circulation is known as renal circulation. During this phase, the kidneys filter much of the waste from the blood. Blood also passes through the small intestine during systemic circulation. This phase is known as portal circulation. During this phase, the blood from the small intestine collects in the portal vein which passes through the liver. The liver filters sugars from the blood, storing them for later When it comes to heat regulation in order to keep cool our capillaries are capable of forcing the blood supply to the surface of the skin, this allows the air to reach the blood and to cool it more easily, and sweating is also induced as part of the heart regulation. However when trying to keep warm our capillaries work hard in order to reduce the blood at the skin surface and sweating is also reduced. This is known as vasoconstriction and vasodilation. Heat regulation is one of the key functions of the circulatory system as well as many other functions. Signals along nerves from the hypothalamus control both vasodilation and vasoconstriction. It is necessary for the human body to have vasodilation and vasoconstriction as it regulates the bodys blood pressure, by constricting and releasing the vessels to allow more or less blood through, for example whilst exercising our heart and breathing rates increase and blood vessels in our limbs dilate in order to deliver more oxygenated blood to our working muscle cells. (3) Vasoconstriction is the narrowing of the blood vessels resulting from contraction of the muscular wall of the vessels, particularly the large arteries and small arterioles. The process is the opposite of vasodilation, the widening of blood vessels. The process is particularly important in staunching haemorrhage and acute blood loss. When blood vessels constrict, the flow of blood is restricted or decreased, thus, retaining body heat or increasing vascular resistance Our blood that is carried around in our cardiovascular system is responsible for maintaining its levels in many advance ways. For example haemostasis is a complex chain reaction that produces the blood to clot this is otherwise known as coagulation. The body clots in two different ways, there is the normal clot which is a good formation that stops bleeding, and there is also a thrombus which is bad as it can block the blood vessels. The endothelium is the cells that create the vessel wall. When the endothelium becomes damaged, for example, when a cut breaks through the wall, collagen fibres then start to appear. These collagen fibres are a protein that is vital for the structure of the vessel wall, these fibres then allow platelets to attach themselves, these are produced from precursor megakaryocytes, its these platelets that lead to the formation of blood clots. The platelets become activated and begin to release a chemical called Thromboxane A2 which calls on more platelets to the area. Fibrin, which is the insoluble form of the soluble protein fibrinogen, is then converted by thrombin. The fibrin begins to appear and layers on top of the platelets which start to fuse them together. This fibrin helps the clot form as the red blood cells stick to the fibrin. This process then repeats until the clot is fully formed. This process is important for the cardiovascular system, this is because the average human contains around 4.7 to 5.7 litres of blood, if around 30%-40% of this is lost it could prove fatal or cause severe damage. The blood the is carried around the cardiovascular system, is made of erythrocytes, leucocytes, platelets and plasma which is mainly water, amino acids, proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, hormones, vitamins, electrolytes, dissolved gases, and cellular wastes. Erythrocytes contain a globular protein called haemoglobin which allows oxygen to bind to it; this allows the erythrocytes to transport oxygen throughout the body and organs. The haemoglobin molecule is made up of 4 polypeptide chains, 2 containing 141 amino acids and 2 containing 146, attached to each polypeptide chain is a molecule that contains iron and is known as a haem, the function of this molecule is to absorb oxygen until it is fully saturated. Carbon dioxide however binds to the amino acids and not the erythrocytes, this means that is binding to the proteins and not the haem.

Imagery in Lycidas Essay -- Poetry John Milton

Imagery in "Lycidas" "Lycidas," a poem written by John Milton as a memorial to Edward King, a classmate at Cambridge, reflects Milton's reverence for nature, his admiration of Greek Mythology, and his deeply ingrained Christian belief system. In "Lycidas," Milton combines powerful images from nature and Greek Mythology along with Biblical references in order to ease the pain associated with the premature death of King. King drowns at sea in the prime of his life and Milton is left to make sense of this tragedy. Milton not only mourns the loss of a friend; he is also forced to face his own mortality. Milton questions the significance of writing poetry when he will inevitably die. Milton copes with the subject of death by insisting on the glory of a Christian life and the promise of rebirth into the joyous spiritual world of heaven after death. Milton begins "Lycidas" by introducing Mythical imagery. Milton writes, "Yet once more, O ye Laurels, and once more/ Ye Myrtles brown, with Ivy never sear" (1-2). In the poem Laurels refers to the crown of poetry given by Apollo, while myrtle refers to the Greek goddess Venus, and Ivy to the god Bacchus. Then Milton introduces powerful symbolism derived from nature. He writes, " I com to pluck your Berries harsh and crude, / And with forc'd finger rude, (3-4). Milton is first alluding to the forced and premature writing of his poetry in the memorial to his classmate Edward King. Secondly, he is perhaps alluding to the premature and violent death of his classmate. In the passage King is the "Berrie" that has been "plucked" before it is ripe or mature. The "Berrie" (King) is "plucked" with "forc'd finger rude," which suggest some degree of violence in his death. It seems that this passa... ... in the glory of heaven. King's spirit will live on. King is the, "Genius of the shore" (184). In "Lycidas" Milton speaks through many voices. From Greek Gods to Biblical figures, Milton shields his voice and personifies these figures who address the subject of death in a less worldly language. This method of writing not only demonstrates Milton's broad education, it also serves to lighten a heavy subject. Shielded by Mythology and motivated by the optimism of Christianity, one can approach the subject of mortality with hope and give meaning to life. Without hope this subject would most likely force the reader to spiral down into deep despair. Bibliography Flannagan, Roy. Ed. The Riverside Milton. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998. Harmon, William, and C. Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature. New Jersey: Prentice Hall , 2000.

Comparing Andrew Marvells To His Coy Mistress and John Donnes Flea Es

Andrew Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress and John Donne’s Flea Andrew Marvell and John Donne both wrote â€Å"carpe diem† poetry full of vivid imagery and metaphysical conceits. This message can be clearly seen in the poems "To His Coy Mistress" by Marvell and Donne’s "Flea." Though both poems take a similar approach to the topic addressed, it is Marvell that writes more thoughtfully and carefully, coercing instead of Donne’s seemed demanding\begging. The speaker in â€Å"Coy Mistress† is trying to convince his woman of choice that it is much better to have sex now than to save her virginity for the future. Why save it until they are married? The man wants to experience the pleasure now. Marvell’s message here seems to be that instead of worrying about the future; planning exactly when we should do things, humans should take things as they come and enjoy them before it is too late. This theme relates to all aspects of life, not just sex. Donne’s narrator, though having the same goal and idea, is far more blunt in his reasoning. Noticing a flea that presumably had bitten them both, he ar...

Assignment on the Contribution of Charles Babbage, Adam Smith and Robert Owen in the Field of Management Essay

Contribution of Charles Babbage in the field of Management Charles Babbage (1792–1871) is known as the patron saint of operations research and management science. Babbage’s scientific inventions included a mechanical calculator (his â€Å"difference engine†), a versatile computer (his â€Å"analytical engine†), and a punch-card machine. Babbage’s most successful book, On the Economy of Machinery and Manufacturers, published in 1832, described the tools and machinery used in English factories. It discussed the economic principles of manufacturing, and analyzed the operations; the skills used and suggested improved practices. He showed that reducing the tasks of manufacturing to their simplest activities increases the numbers of people who can do them and, thus, reduces the average wage which needs to be paid. According to him, a work should be divided into mental and physical efforts and a worker should be paid a bonus in proportion to his own efficiency and success of the business. Babbage emphasized the importance of division of labor, indicating that greater profit could be made by specializing. Babbage also emphasized the importance of balance in processes and the principle of optimum size of the manufacturing unit for each class of product. Contribution of Robert  Owen  in the field of Management Robert Owen (1771–1858) was a successful Scottish entrepreneur and a utopian socialist who sowed the first seeds of concern for the workers. He was repulsed by the working conditions and poor treatment of the workers in the factories across Scotland. Owen became a reformer. At New Larnark, in his factory he was trying to make different approaches to the workers. He reduced the use of child labor and used moral persuasion rather than corporal punishment in his factories. He chided his fellow factory owners for treating their equipment better than they treated their workers. In 1813 he proposed a factory bill to prohibit employment of children under the age of ten and to limit hours for all children to 103/4 hours per day with no night work. The bill became law six years later, but was limited to cotton mills, reduced the age limit to nine, and included no provision for inspections; therefore, the law had little impact. Owen was totally devoted to management as a profession. Under his direction, houses and streets were built, the minimum working age for children was raised, working hours were decreased, meal facilities were provided, schooling were introduced, and evening recreation centers were opened to meet the problem of leisure. He is the father of modern Personnel Management. Contribution of Adam  Smith  in the field of Management Adam Smith (1723–1790) was a Scottish political economist. His Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, established the â€Å"classical school† and with its publication, he became the father of â€Å"liberal economics. † Smith argued that market and competition should be the regulators of economic activity and that tariff policies were destructive. The specialization of labor was the mainstay of Smith’s market system. According to Smith, division of labor provided managers with the greatest opportunity for increased productivity. He gives three reasons for the increased output due to the division of labor: a) to the increased dexterity in every particular workman b) to the saving of time which is commonly lost in passing from one species of work to another c) to the invention of a great number of machines which facilitate and abridge labor, and enable one man to do the work of many. His idea about the division of labor is fundamental to modern work simplification and time study, and extends also into such areas as production simplification.

Buffalo film review

Do you want to fragrantly waste a mind-numbing hour and a half of your monotonous life? If you just threw you hand up in the air and shouted yes', then Vincent Gallon's film Buffalo '66 is for you. You will be subjected to a remarkably mundane plot, which will leave you hopelessly confused and a little afraid. It's only rendering feature is, perhaps, the artistic style in which it is created. The film Is set In the overly Industrialized town of Buffalo where our mall character, Billy Brown. Who Is played might say, badly by Gallo himself, was born with regret ND raised with disinterest.We are fist introduced to Billy as he is being released from prison. We become reluctant voyeurs of his life. His first problem that he had to face after being released is searching for a bathroom. Yes! You real that right. For the first maybe 20 minutes of the film, he is running around in his bright red boots, and ill fitted clothes, looking quite Like a child holding his genitals searching for a pla ce to relive himself. I really don't understand the meaning of this either. But what an entrance to a movie. Throughout his hunt for a restroom, we are introduced to Lay.Gallo has decided to put her in a virgin blue dress, a doll like face and alienated from the rest of her dance class. In fact she looks very much like a prostitute. Gallo chooses to sexuality her, focusing the camera around her breasts. Maybe this is why Billy kidnaps her. Yes! I said kidnaps. Told you this was a weird movie. Well Billy makes Lay drive him to his parents house, because he can not ‘drive a stick, but along the way he makes her pull over so he can relieve himself behind a tree. Any normal person would have Just driven off and got the hell out of there. ButLay is not normal, she is alienated from society because of her lack of lets call it social skills. She decides to stay, and continue being kidnapped. Apparently his playground talk of ‘If you do this for me, I will be your best friend, y ou will be the best friend I have ever had'. However if we gallantly ignore this entire aimless and dreary plot all we have left is Gallon's amazing use of techniques such as his use of colors, music and camera angles. Throughout Buffalo '66, Gallo focuses on the abundant use of pale colors and lurid scenes, which portray a lonely sense of emotion and feeling.Gallo an accomplished musician composed a very suitable score to accompany the film. Having himself creating most of the songs Gallo was able to carefully control a great deal of the mood and feeling of each scene. His song ‘Lonely Boy playing at the start of the movie in the opening credits, starting when the Billy Picture is shown Is a good example of child in the picture. Another technique is Gallon's use of overlaying images or videos over the top of the already playing film. He does this to show flashbacks to inform us of Billy's past. Through these flashbacks we discover that Billy's childhood was very harsh.We see his loss of innocence through his Fathers anger on his dog Bingo, and his Mothers lack of care when Billy has an allergic reaction to chocolate. We also see his innocence in the events that sent him to prison. With Billy's Mothers obsession with the town's local football team the ‘Buffalo Bills', we see her lack of care in Billy as a child again. When Lay asks Billy's mum to see a photo of Billy as a child, She then replies to husband â€Å"Where's the Billy Picture? † He had one picture as a kid, ONE!! But as you walk into the house you see a bunch of pictures of Buffalo players.This is a major key to Billy's alienation. He didn't have a normal home and was treated like he wasn't wanted. You will quickly grow tiered of Bill's need to constantly repeat everything he says. You will find yourself getting frustrated and wishing you could somehow reach into the film and bring him to his senses, perhaps by rearranging his facial features. In the bowling ally scene we notice we see Billy and Lay in the photo booth, â€Å"Spanning time† together, Just â€Å"Spanning time†. At this point I found my self shouting at the screen telling him to Just â€Å"shut up†.One important event in the film is the scene between Billy and Lay in the hotel room. We witness them laying on a bed together and Billy looks very, well, uncomfortable, while Lay looks like she has been in this type of situation many times before. We have a bird's eye view of this whole scene so we see every movement that is made. Slowly, very slowly Lay's hand moves towards Billy's, leaving them awkwardly holding hands, well touching hands. After what seems like an incessant amount of time, Billy rolls over, out of his very what must be uncomfortable position and him and Lay kiss. KISS!You heard me right. I thought it was Lay's imagination to be honest. If you think it couldn't get more awkward he curls up in the fetal position in Lay's arms. WEIRD! But this does portray Billy 's childlike behavior again and his need for affection that his parents lacked to provide for him. I think I was thankful at this point in the movie though, because finally, finally, they ended up together. They are not alone anymore, because they have each other. Bit click ©, but never mind that. If forced to offer a quick summery of the film, I would answer in a forceful honesty, hat it is Just plain boring.So bleak and uneventful is the plot, that I would rather go bird watching. It's only rendering features is Gallon's cinematic techniques. There, in my view, are the movies great strength and manage to Just salvage it from complete ruin. So masterful is Gallon's use of cinema that I should recommend this film to English school teachers and others that appreciate the subtle and obscure artistic works. To the rest of us, I would issue a warning to avoid the film, like stay at least give it 5 stars out of 10.