Interpersonal Communication Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Interpersonal Communication - Article Example The writer, Chris Zervas, states that, the area of constructive criticism can be problematic as "We say things we don't mean or recipients hear more than was meant." (1) Therefore, often during constructive criticism in a potentially sensitive area such as the workplace, direct channels of interpersonal communication are not functioning correctly. The sender is communicating the wrong message, using inadequate phrasing and wrong information whilst the other participant receives a distorted or exaggerated message. The receiver subconsciously picks up another message from indirect channels of interpersonal communication. These indirect channels may include the tone of voice of the sender or his body language. The receiver may suspect that the sender has hidden motivations, revealed by these uncontrolled actions. The receiver also may react defensively as he or she may feel that their position within the work team is threatened. Chris Zervas uses his management insight to implement "ski llful communication" which "can make these situations far less volatile."(2) Zervas states that the important connotation of the senders message should make the receiver feel respected and valued, which is the converse of how criticism generally makes people feel.

The Process of Planning a Party Research Proposal

The Process of Planning a Party - Research Proposal Example As a college student, my personal experience on holding party was a few days after I had received my results of passing to the next level and academic year. This greatly motivated me to hold a house party in order to celebrate this achievement. After deciding on a location that was outdoor within our compound, I felt it was the right idea to make a list of people who will be attending my bash. This list included mostly my colleagues though my relatives and family members were also included. I also allowed everyone to bring with them a friend if they were single not forgetting to caution them about respect for the party. This was because the party had even my family members and relatives present. With the friends of the invited guests present, I was very sure the party will be extremely lively. I thereafter filled my invitations and got them in my mail. Hand delivery was an alternative for the friends and relatives I failed to reach through the mail. This was done earlier before the e vent in order to get down to my party details. My party, of course, had a guest of honor that was my dad. This was my suggestion for it gave us an opportunity as college students to get advice from this wise man. The date I had set was on a Friday. This was a holiday hence, most people were free during the daytime. My preparation for the day was short and I had to advise my mum on how to go about my party. It is always a good idea to get with someone close to you for a bit of advice on how to decorate, type of food to eat and on the positive and negative impacts of holding a party. Advice is vital while planning for a party for if you get wrong advice then the whole party is prone to be ruined (Ideas & Liz 23). The decision on the budget should be within the range that is not very expensive and not very cheap as well. The questions I asked myself included the amount I wanted to spend which made me budget while putting into consideration the amount of money I had set aside for my par ty. The food combination was so simple and it consisted of drinks plus a few snacks. This is because the party was during the day and most of my guests were to leave by evening hours thus there was no need for heavy meals. When it comes to music, there is no lively party without music. This sets the mood as well as the tone of the party. The music genre included techno music, pop music, and some cool afro-fusion music, which every guest seemed to be greatly impressed with. Some party games were also set up. Routine dance as one of my best party game made everyone very happy. Lastly, the party had various ways and use of the cautions and warnings and the guests as they were all college students had to seek their parents’ permission in order to attend my party. Seeking permission should not only be applied to the person holding the party but even the guests in my case for we are teens and could end up messing up at the party.

Star Trek Technology We Use Everyday Essay Example for Free

Star Trek Technology We Use Everyday Essay Star Trek technology has become reality that we use in our daily lives. There are many different forms of technology fields that have been shown in Star Trek as a first that have become a reality rather than a Science Fiction (Sci-Fi) fantasy. Star Trek technology came from the great imaginative minds of writers and designers with little to no knowledge of science in the original series. It wasnt until the second series that they started to incorporate actual scientific methods and terms. Advancements in science have come about through the influence of creative people thinking of the future. This technology has been instrumental in how we conduct our lives. Contemporary technology has been influenced by Star Trek in many ways. Phones were around for many years before Star Trek; however, they were tied down to the house or office by wires and the bulkiness of the devices. No one could possibly make a phone call on the go, yet they could by using a phone booth. However, using a phone booth would not be of much use since it couldnt be carried around. One of the greatest inventors of this decade, Dr. Martin Cooper, decided to come up with a new form of communicating with the rest of the world. Dr. Martin Cooper found himself tripping over his phone cord when he saw Star Trek appear on the TV playing in the background. Cooper watched with envy as Captain Kirk calmly conversed while walking across an alien landscape. (Laytner, 2011) While Cooper watched Captain Kirk with his communicator, he was bewildered â€Å"And, suddenly theres Captain Kirk talking on his communicator,† remembers Cooper. â€Å"Talking with no dialing!† (Handel, 2005) With the idea set in his mind, he set out to make it a reali ty. In 1973, Martian Cooper, While working for Motorola, he [Cooper] created the first personal cell phone, citing Captain Kirks communicator on Star Trek as an inspiration. His first call on the 28-oz. (800 g) cordless cell phone — dubbed the brick — was to his rival at Bell Labs Research. (Grossman, 2007) However, this big brick of a phone didnt match the likeness of the communicator that Captain Kirk used, so in 1996, Motorola made the first flip phone named StarTAC. (Kessler, 09-0) These clamshell phones were highly sought after and held the cell phone design for many years until touch screen phones recently became more popular. Many Star Trek fans and even older more stubborn non-techies still try to keep the flip phone for the nostalgia of Star Trek and to keep pocket dialing to a minimum. In 1974, Ed Roberts created the Altair 8800, the first minicomputer that came in kits for consumers to put together, yet it wasnt a friendly user system since software wasnt invented yet. The Altair 8800 was named after a space system from the Star Trek series and was the basis for the basic computer language that Bill Gates of Microsoft, Steve Jobs of Apple, and Gordon Moore of Intel used to create new and more user friendly computers. This basic language that Ed Roberts created was inspired by Star Trek (Handel, 2005). When computers became a household name and personal were computers available to the general public, a new development occurred that would be called a laptop. Adam Osborne of Osborne Computer Corporation, the father of portable computers, introduced the first commercially available portable computer with software to run it, named Osborne 1 in 1981 (Scott, n.d.). In 1968, Alan Kay of Xerox made a concept and prototype of a portable information manipulator, named Dynabook, a different form of a portable computer that wasn’t user friendly or available to the general public (Maxwell, 2006). Without software, the Dynabook was hard to understand and use, so the Osborne 1 with its software and graphic interface to allow users to see what they were doing made it a true portable computer. Portable computers got an even newer facelift in 1993 when Robert Haitani developed the Palm Pilot, a first in personal data assistant (PDA) and a new form of portable computers. Robert Haitani, the designer of the Palm Pilot, said his first sketches were influenced by the Enterprise bridge panels and produced it. A few years later there was a combination of cell phones and PDAs since they shared hardware which resembled to the communicator in Star Trek. You could stand there and talk into it like Captain Kirk (Laytner, 2011). The Palm Pilot spanned PDAs which transformed into the current popular trend of tablets and smart phones. All the different technologies incorporated into the tablet and the smart phone can be traced back to their Star Trek influenced roots. Advancements in technology and science have been influenced by many sources. Star Trek played a large role in evolution of the modern technology by influencing many inventors. Even though the original series of Star Trek was written and designed with little to no knowledge of the technological advancements of the times, Gene Rodenberry wrote many views of how life would be with various forms of technology that weren’t even a reality, yet. Works Cited Grossman, Lev. (2007). Best inventions of 2007. Time. Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1677329_1677708_1677825,00.html. (Grossman, 2007) Time listed the best inventions and inventors of the 2007, and they had Martin Cooper listed for creating the first mobile telephone that wasnt mounted in a car in 1973. Laytner, Lance. (2011). Edit international. Retrieved from http://www.editinternational.com/read.php?id=4810edf3a83f8 (Laytner, 2011) Talks about the documentary How William Shatner Changed The World and the many inventions of many inventors help shaped the world now because they were influenced by Star Trek to reach for the future. Maxwell, John (2006) Tracing the Dynabook: A Study of Technocultural Transformations http://thinkubator.ccsp.sfu.ca/Dynabook/Maxwell-DynabookFinal.pdf (Maxwell, 2006) This thesis paper was great detail on Alan Kay, who made a from of portable computer that manipulated information, and his accomplishments and how the Dynabook became what it did. Handel, Alan. (Writer) (2005). How William Shatner Changed The World [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u304yVYoCJs

Independent Variables Taxation Dependent Variable Firm Economics Essay

Independent Variables Taxation Dependent Variable Firm Economics Essay The textile sector accounts for 8-9 per cent of the total GDP, and generates 51 per cent of the export revenues for Pakistan, which is a huge number making it a very important sector. This sector is subject to high operating and financial leverage. Leverage plays a vital role in textile unit. Interest rates are the main determinants of investment and have an inverse relationship with investment. Lower real interest rates will encourage new investment by reducing the cost of capital. More debt means a higher level of interest payment each year, which is paid from net income. Interest is the major factor which is responsible for leverage. As compare to the others countries like Indonesia s Korea Malaysia is 5.5 and 4%. The situation with regard to textile industry is very serious. While interest as percentage of sales was 8.58%, interest as a share of value added was a high 12.9% for textiles. Garments is one sector which seems not be as adversely affected on this account. A consistently declining investment and economic growth rate is the major problem that the Pakistani economy has been facing for the last decade. An in-depth analysis of the determinants of private investment in different sectors of the economy is quite helpful in designing a plan for the economy. Interest rates emerge as the significant determinants of investment in all the sectors. Nominal interest rates and infrastructure are important in the case of agriculture only, while relative prices of imported machinery and real interest rates are significant in the manufacturing and services sectors. Unexplained variation in private investment is observed in the entire sector, which might be due to the different external and internal shocks to the economy. According to (MAHMUD, 2003) showed that economy is not good in Pakistan. Pakistan market capitalization and GDP growth are very low they have undeveloped equity market that is the reason of very high leverage ratio in Pakistan. A high proportion of fixed cost means that very high risk belongs to company. Government attention is not positively towards the textile sector. A high risk involved in the company so very low investment is carried out in the manufacturing sector and also high risk involvement means taking loans to the bank with high interest rate. Good economic policies requires for Pakistan and Japan textile sector (MAHMUD, 2003). The researcher (Denis, 2001) have searched that several academic studies have documented significant shareholder gains and operating improvements following highly leveraged transactions. These gains are generally attributed to changes in the incentive, monitoring, and governance structures of the firms. The results suggest that while high leverage is important in giving managers the incentive to generate cash, high managerial ownership of shares and improved monitoring from the board of directors are important in ensuring that cash is generated in a way that maximizes returns to shareholders (Denis, 2001). According to (V.O Boadu, 2002) the U.S. textile complex has experienced overcapacity of production, global financial crisis, changes in fashion trends and demand; and cheap imports from Asia. To become more competitive and profitable, U.S. textile manufacturers have focused on achieving greater speed, efficiency, and high quality production by investing heavily in automated technology Exports to Mexico and Canada were $9.5 billion, which constituted 51% of total exports. (V.O Boadu, 2002) Low-priced Asian imports believed to have been caused by the currency devaluation of major textile exporters such as Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Thailand Asian currencies stabilized through 2000, and resumed their downward path. (V.O Boadu, 2002) U.S. apparel manufacturers seem to have benefited from the cheaper Asian imports of textiles by the U.S. Global sourcing strategies by the industry in locating manufacturing. Sourcing is explained by the cost of investing in facilities and equipment, production costs, labor costs and availability, quality control, timing, risks which involved language, culture, political, etc. and reliability of product supply in the international market. Firm size relation with leverage: (shah Hijazi, 2004) took the test whose showed that tangibility, profitability, growth and size of the firm effect leverage in textile. There was positive relationship between the size of the firm and board size, high board size means number of directors, larger board means highs leverage. Debt is taken more and more, that will affect the company equity. Leverage board size showed that more out siders, which possibly reflects debt, can act as a monitoring device and also showed that leverage was lower when the CEO had a long tenure in office. (shah Hijazi, 2004) analyzed size of firms and profitability was negatively correlated with leverage. Hence this rejects the static trade off theory, which showed a positive relation between size of the firm and profitability. This shows that firms in cement industry use more equity and less debt. Tangibility of Assets and growth found to be positively correlated with leverage. All the results were Significant except the size of the firm. Thei r results with Shah and Hijazi (2005) were found to be different in terms of growth and size of the firm. They concluded that in developing countries like Pakistan, cement industry usage of short term financing is high than long term financing. (Spuma, 2000)concerned with different variables that indicate the level of leverage in firm. It shows that there is a negative relation among growth and leverage of the firm. Size of the firm is negatively correlated with the leverage of the firm. Interest rate relation with leverage: (N.Majluf, 2004) showed that there is a relationship between managerial operation and high leverage ratio; external investor not has enough information about the country policies, their environment, and firms operations. Inside investor can easily handle that situations comparison with external investor. (N.Majluf, 2004) Present share holder prefer debt financing because of firms need to issue debt when information is larger, stock price decrease etc. that could avoid under pricing and also show that the managerial share holder and long-term debt have a negative relationship. Interest is paid from net income it means more debt change to more interest and more interest means low income. (Chhibber K. Majumdar, 1998)The size of a firm is known to affect a firms performance in many ways. Key features of a large firm are its diverse capabilities, the ability to exploit economies of scale, and the formalization of procedures. These characteristics make the implementation of operations more effective and allow larger firms not only to generate greater returns on assets and sales but also to capture more value as a proportion of the value of production than is possible for smaller firms. Alternatively, larger firms could be less efficient than smaller firms because of the loss of control by top managers over strategic and operational activities within the firm. (Chhibber K. Majumdar, 1998) SIZE is an important control variable for another reason. While our data are cross-section ally extensive, we do not have the ability to measure a firms market power or the level of concentration in the industries in which the firms in our sample operate. This is a major limitation of the data, and we cannot include controls for market-structure factors that are important determinants of economic performance. SIZE reflects the ability of firms to attain economies of scale as well as market power.35 Finally, the inclusion of SIZE allows us to avoid the criticism directed against much empirical work in this area. H. Short notes that a major criticism that can be levied at the majority of the empirical studies is that they tend to concentrate on large firm samples, rather than taking a broad cross-section of firms of different sizes. (chen, 2008) argued that high leverage ratio would increase the possibility of a firms bankruptcy. More debt means a higher level of interest payment each year, which is paid from net income. Once the operation of a firm goes into trouble and net income is not enough to pay the interest, the firm has to face the threat of bankruptcy. This is one of the main reasons why firms cannot employ debt financing as much as they want and keep high leverage ratios. Static trade-off is exactly a trade-off between marginal tax saving from debt and marginal expected bankruptcy cost. Later literature tends to replace the bankruptcy cost with financial stress. Too much interest payment would reduce the cash retained in the firm.(CHEN, 2008) Consequently the firm will not have enough budgets to hire capable workers and executives, to undertake positive NPV projects, to cope with emergencies, etc. Furthermore, a higher leverage ratio would reduce the credit level and increase the operation risk of the firm. When facing new financing needs, the firm would be unable to use debt financing anymore, or unable to collect enough capital, or suffer a higher interest rate when borrowing. Even using equity financing, due to the low credit level and high risk, the firm would have to pay a higher price. Larger firms have larger amount of fixed assets and this amount directly reflects the ability of using collateral debt. Thus larger firms could borrow more than smaller firms and could get a more favorable price- lower interest rate(CHEN, 2008). According to the (Verma, 2002) Indias international competitors have as high an interest cost as in India 70. Its respective ratios were 2.05% and 3.3%. One important reason for this, according to some entrepreneurs, is the fact of predominant decentralized nature of garment sector in India. In Product Specific Cost- Supply Chain Management contain Factor cost (Cost of raw material), In Government Policy (Excise Policy, Technology Up gradation Fund, Strict labor laws), (Verma, 2002) IN Economy-wide costs (Economy-Wide Costs, Transaction costs, Transportation, interest rate).One important reason for this, according to some entrepreneurs, is the fact of predominant decentralized nature of garment sector in India. Also discussed Non-Price Factors in which included (Allow Foreign Direct Investment, Reduce the import duty on textile, Promote fair competition, Remove policy-bias against synthetic fiber, modify Labor related Provisions, Collaborating to Compete- Policies on Investing Abroad ). Furthermore, under the era of managed trade, too many textile. High cost of production relation with leverage: High financing cost relation with leverage: Taxation relation with leverage: (wang, jiebing, yao, 2001) the global financial crisis has led to a rising number of unemployed textile and clothing workers in China. The global financial crisis has had a negative impact on economic growth in China. The orders received by textile and clothing companies at the China Import and Export Fair declined by 30 per cent in the autumn. The Ministry of Finance increased tax rebate rates on some textile and clothing exports from 11 per cent to 13 per cent. The global financial crisis has seriously affected the textile and clothing industry in China. (wang, jiebing, yao, 2001) Some of those firms have gone bankrupt as a result of the global financial crisis More and more textile and clothing factories have been forced to relocate to the middle and western regions of China or to Asia-Pacific developing countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, Thailand and Viet Nam. China continues to maintain their unique competitive advantages arising from local textile and clothing industrial clusters with a comprehensive production chain, a pool of skilled labor, innovative fabric technology, sound infrastructure and economies of scale within the textile and clothing industry. The Government of China should continue to encourage the domestic large-scale textile and clothing enterprises to establish textile industrial parks in other developing countries. Provide a better financial package to support foreign direct investment by Chinese textile and clothing firms Improve infrastructure facilities and government efficiency in the least developed countries. (wang, jiebing, yao, 2001) Asset Turnover relation with leverage: (fama, 2009) mentioned in firm size, the proportion of tangible assets would probably play a role in debt or equity financing. he discussed that assets with a substantial and stable liquidation value would be a good guarantee for the firms investors. Compared with intangible assets, tangible assets are easier to be valuated and information is less asymmetric. In case of default and bankruptcy, tangible assets are easily to be changed into cash to pay for debt. Thus a firm with larger proportion of tangible assets tends to use more debt. Moreover, the guarantee effect of tangible assets depends on whether resale market is easily accessed. First, plants, machines and other properties that could be adopted by other firms would generally sale at a good bargain and thus are better guarantees for collateral debt. (fama, 2009) Assets that are unique and could not be directly used by other firms would not. Second, removable assets or assets that are close to market or to potential buyers wou ld easily be resold for cash and thus would be better as collateral. Not only proportion of tangible assets, but also characters of assets would play a role in leverage ratio. This researcher (J Ilyas , 2008) use proportion of tangible assets in total assets as a proxy for assets composition. Due to availability of data, characters of assets will not be precisely analyzed. the guarantee effect of tangible assets depends on whether resale market is easily accessed. First, plants, machines and other properties that could be adopted by other firms would generally sale at a good bargain and thus are better guarantees for collateral debt. Assets that are unique and could not be directly used by other firms would not. Second, removable assets or assets that are close to market or to potential buyers would easily be resold for cash and thus would be better as collateral. Not only proportion of tangible assets, but also characters of assets would play a role in leverage ratio. (J Ilyas , 2008) in firm size firm sizes influence on leverage ratio is not necessarily positive. Due to asymmetry information, small firms are more likely to be underpriced by investors than large firms and could not get favorable price when financing through equity. While using debt with a fixed interest rate, small firms could suffer less loss from mispricing. Thus small firms should tend to consider using more debt, compared to large firms..earnings plays more important role in firms leverage decisions as compared to other determinants of the capital structure.Tangibility of the firm is found to be negatively related to the leverage of the firm(J Ilyas , 2008) . (Miao,2005) provides a competitive equilibrium model of capital structure and industry dynamics. In the model, firms make financing, investment, entry, and exit decisions subject to idiosyncratic technology shocks. The capital structure choice reflects the tradeoff between the tax benefits of debt and associated bankruptcy and agency costs. The interaction between financing and production decisions influences the stationary distribution of firms and their survival probabilities. The analysis demonstrates that the equilibrium output price has an important feedback effect. (Miao,2005) This effect has a number of testable implications. For example it implies that high growth industries have relatively lower leverage and turnover rates. the higher the difference between ROA and cost of capital the higher is the return on equity because of the leverage effects. Similarly the higher turnover of assets results in higher return on assets, which in turn results in higher return on equity. Thu s the assets tangibility ratio i.e., ratio between fixed assets and total assets becomes important as capital structure determinant. (Spuma, Waters, and Payne, 1995) hence smaller firms are accepted to increase the profitability of going private, concluded that firms with less investment opportunities apply more leverage that is in accordance to both theories and leverage has a direct relation with the tangibility of assets. They also suggest that more profitable firms use less leverage. (Thornhill P, 1995)find that firms with higher financial deficits, i.e., firms that raise more external capital, tend to increase their leverage. They examine the tendency of managers to time the equity markets by interacting the market-to-book ratio with the amount of capital that a firm raises (i.e., its financial deficit). Their evidence suggests that firms tend to reduce their leverage ratios when they raise substantial amounts of capital when the equity market is perceived to be more favorable, (i.e., when market-to-book ratios are higher). There seems to be a consensus in the literature that suggests that these variables affect capital structures, at least temporarily. (Rajan,r,g zingales, 2002)compared leverage and its determinates across G-7 Countries that are united states, Germany, Canada, Italy, France, Japan and united Kingdom. They analyzed there was a positive relationship of leverage and profitability. Tangibility is positively correlated in all countries. Size is positively correlated with leverage except Germany. Investigated determinants of capital structure and leverage ratio of French, German and British firms with the help of penal data. Their results suggested that size of the firm positively affect the leverage ratio. They analyze relation of profitability, size of firms, fixed assets. (Rajan,r,g zingales, 2002) This study identifies a positive impact on firms size on leverage. While the relationship between fixed asset ratio and level of leverage was mixed means positive in Germany but negative in France and UK. This shows that tangibility of assets is more significant in bank borrowing in Germany. The effect of all these factor s on leverage depends on financial environment and tradition of the country in which firm operates investigated that there are a large number of variables that appear to be related to debt ratio of the firm but only few factors have significant effect on debt ratio. They found that relation between leverage and size of firm is positive. For tangibility of assets Empirical results showed a positive relation among leverage and tangibility of assets of firm. (Harris, 2007) a high leverage ratio would decrease the value of a firms equity. This provides opportunity for managers to buy more shares with the same amount of fortune. Meanwhile, external investors might be reluctant to invest in such firms, as high leverage is often linked with high risk. They also argued that managerial ownership is determined endogenously. Thus it is not safe and proper to assume an exogenous ownership structure and a dependent capital structure. (Harris, 2007) They try to use lagged control variables to get rid of endogenously. One way to address this issue is to use lagged variable. As there is no reason a priori that historical ownership structure would be correlated with current leverage ratio, we try to include historical ownership concentration in the regression. The variable they use ownership concentration during the year of the first listing. It could also be considered as an instrument of current year ownership concentration, if ownership is determin ed endogenously indeed. (Fatehi ,2003) 30 to 50 percent of all the expatriate placements do not work out as anticipated. Besides the direct financial costs involved with a failed expatriate assignment, the firm may incur other costs, including voided business deals, loss of valuable employees, the break up of joint ventures, and poor relations with the host Government. Fortunately, many MNCs have now realized the importance of cross-cultural training and the number of organizations involved in making preparations and arranging training prior to the departure of managers in foreign countries has increased lately(Fatehi ,2003)

This above all, to thine own self be true: Being True to Yourself :: essays research papers

Although many works of literature are very long, the main idea can be summarized in one or two of its lines. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the most important line is: â€Å"This above all, to thine own self be true, / And it must follow, as the night the day, / Thou canst not then be false to any man† (1.3, 78-80). Spoken by Polonius, this advice is present throughout the entire play, together with the motifs of truth and lying. The characters desire to be true to themselves; however, some of them are not true to others. The main character, Hamlet, is a character that is not true to others, nor to himself. When the Ghost of his father tells him he was murdered by Claudius, Hamlet doubts the truth. He does not trust the ghost of his father, so has to find a way to prove it. Deciding on how to prove or disprove the Ghost, Hamlet predicts: â€Å"The play’s the thing / Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King† (2.2, 616-17). Because he distrusts the Ghost, Hamlet is not true to his father. However, when his plan proves to him that the Ghost’s words are true, Hamlet still does not act; he still cannot avenge his father’s murder. Hamlet decides not to kill Claudius, using the fact that he is praying as an excuse. Hamlet does not want Claudius’s soul to go to heaven, therefore he decides not to kill him, explaining: â€Å"A villain kills my father, and for that, I, his sole son, do the same villain send to heaven† (3.3, 76-78). However, after trying to p ray, the King claims that his prayers were not heard: â€Å"My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. / Words without thoughts never to heaven go† (3.3, 97-8). Therefore, had Hamlet chosen to kill Claudius at that time, his soul would have gone to Hell. Hamlet uses God as an excuse for not acting. He is not true and is lying to himself, because he wants to kill Claudius, yet does not. Claudius is also a character who is neither true to himself nor to others: he is not being true to the rest of the kingdom. He does not want to give up his gains, so the people of Denmark do not know why their previous King has died and his brother taken over. While making an attempt to pray, he realizes that his sins cannot be forgiven.

Project Management Essay -- Business and Management Studies

Project Management Project management is an essential part of the work environment and its purpose within business, academic backgrounds and research are crucial to the development of solutions and products that enable a company to be successful. The idea of project management is quite simple; a group of people are detached from the company and given a goal to focus their efforts on. The size of the group is entirely dependant on the size of the company. When looking to put together a project management team, there are two key factors that many, if not all, companies take into consideration; the skills that each individual possess in the team and whether these skills can be utilised in such a way to achieve their goal in a team environment. Each company requires different qualities that a successful applicant for Project Manager should fulfil. While trying to find a job in the summer, I came across a job posting for a Software Project Manager for a small team. Some of the required attributes that a candidate should possess are as follows: â€Å"A desire to motivate, share knowledge and provide for continuous learning†¦excellent communication skill†¦ Must be able to enthuse and engage at all levels of business†¦Develop findings and recommend solutions to customers as applicable. A good â€Å"all-rounder†.†1 Since many large companies and organisations no longer just restrict their services to their domestic customers, another key requirement for a Project Manager seems to be the ability to contribute in an international market. For example, in the current business world, there are very few companies and organisations that will limit their research only to Japan, for instance. As a result, the openings for project managers seem mainly to be located in the European countries such as France, Germany and the UK. Thus having a position in a project management firm is not only a lasting responsibility to national business and research but it is also an international commitment. Project management also varies in accordance with the size of the companies that it is carrying out its work for. In a small business, the project management team may be assigned projects of a local nature where their performance will be assessed on a small scale. For example, if the team was to make a project management plan for a small local company, the c... ... two sectors are managed separately, so in a way it can been seen as a type of project management since both sectors are detached form each and come together when a new product is being made. Within these two sectors, there are many different projects being undertaken in order to make its products better. Measuring the performance of these two sectors is done by looking at their yearly revenue and seeing how it changes, i.e. does it go up, down or fluctuates. Another way to measure the success of project management within Monsanto is to see how well the new product is received by the public by doing a type of census that will allow Monsanto to attain data that will help them to see where they have gone wrong so that they can improve their services in the future. References Websites - www.monster.co.uk - www.tenstep.com - www.pmtoday.co.uk - www.projectmanagement.com - www.financial-conferences.com - www.monsanto.com Books - Project management for Dummies – Stanley Portney - The Art of Project Management – Scott Berkun - The Practice of Project Management; A Guide to the Business-Focused Approach – Enzo Frigenti and Dennis Comninos

Brannigan Foods Essay

Strategic Marketing Planning for the Soup Division Brannigan Foods Soup Division is a 100 year old company with mature products which account for 40% of the whole soup market and it is the most significant division of the Brannigan Foods group. The most important category is the RTE soups which account for 78% of total sales. (Exhibit 2) Other products include Low sodium RTE â€Å"Heart Healthy†, dry soups and mixes and private label and Annabelle’s fast and simply. Annabelle’s was a soup company acquired 5 years ago in order to add healthier sups, dry soups and fast to the company’s portfolio, a growing trend in the market. In terms of costumer perception of Brannigan comparing with competition, Brannigan’s falls behind in the following: Health trends Diet claims Convenience offerings Flavors-especially popular regional ones Seasonal products outside cold weather Retailers perceive Brannigan to be: -Category leader -not innovative -less profitable than store brands and competition Over the past 3 years the results of the division have been decreasing and there are several reasons behind this: The whole soup industry has been declining for several years. The largest and most loyal segment of soup consumers, the baby boomers, which account for 20% of American population and are the main target, have been showing increasing concerns with processed food and high sodium content shifting to healthier alternatives. Increasing trend within working mothers who tended to prefer â€Å"convenience†. Bert Clark, vice-president and general manager of Brannigan Foods’ Soup Division needs to take action and present a plan to senior management to go back to growing sales within the division and increase profits by 3% next year, reversing the 1-2% declining turnover and 2-3% declining volume. With this in mind he has asked his key directors to submit a plan of action independently and now he has to decide which of the 4 proposals he will bring to senior management. The fact that Clark has his 4 keys managers working separately limits their assessment to each of their experiences and thus their proposals are narrowed to their field of expertise. Also, by choosing one particular direction may leave 3 directors uninvolved hence with a minor sense of responsibility. When making hard decisions it is always better, in my opinion, to have everyone on board. On the other hand it provides Clark with 4 proposals instead of one. Nonetheless making the 4 directors work together would have a provided a team solution and a broader approach to the problem. Now, by choosing one particular approach, Clark will have to find a way to involve all directors in this strategy. Looking closely at each proposal: 1st proposal Srikant Tipha, Director of the Simple Meals unit Srikant wants to strengthen the strategy of growing categories of dry soups, healthier soups and meal-in-pouch soups by investing $18 million on advertising and promotion. These products were a direct result of Annabelle’s acquisition, a smaller competitor Brannigan had acquired 5 years ago. Skirant wants to induce trial by increasing advertising; to provide coupling for new flavors: Gazpacho for the warmer months and Teriyaki for positioning in the fast growing Asian soups category. Pros: Focuses on growing segments which address health concerning issues and/or focus on the new flavors Cons: Srikant focuses his whole strategy on the new lines/products which account for 15% of the revenues of the division and completely leaves out the 78% which are the star products, or the cash cow and basically finance the new developments. 2nd proposal Claire Mackey, Director of Finance & Planning Claire focuses on the new healthier and more convenient products gaining territory in the market. Claire suggests the best way to quickly have a strong presence in these segments would be to acquire a small competitor with significant presence on these new products. Pros: Brannigan would very quickly be able to have an adequate response to new trends, as the whole operation is set up and products are already tested. By maintain the current brands, they would increase their shelf space. With joint synergies, the new acquired products would have a margin increase by reducing costs. Cons: Recent bad experience with Annabelle’s Foods although the project is gradually gaining track. It would take a large investment in advertising and promotion if they kept the acquired brands, if they changed into their own, there was a greater risk of cannibalization and of losing shelf space in big retailers. 3rd proposal Anna Chong, Chief Innovation Officer Anna feels that her department could develop new lines that meet the market’s new trends and that the company should increase investment in advertising and promotion for the new products already tested with consumers and investment in R&D for new products. Pros: the proposal addresses the markets new trends, avoiding the risk and investment of a new acquisition and all risks it entails. The new flavors would allow a price increase hence increase in margin. Cons: 1/100 products developed were actually launched in the market and reached Brannigan’s threshold for success. The costs of developing 100 products and launching 9 with only 1 to be successful are very heavy. Also launching products that may eventually fail means also costs for retailers which are becoming increasingly intolerant and more demanding for better conditions. 4th proposal Bob Pugh, VP Sales and Marketing, Brannigan Soups Bob focuses his proposal on the core products: reduce selling price to make the gap between private label and Brannigan less significant (PL increasing by 5%) . Also he wants to invest in advertising the products and wants to optimize the plants in order to recover losses due to reduction of selling price. Bob also wants to bring back a former campaign more appealing to younger generations. Pros: The aimed products are guaranteed successes and retailers will appreciate the strategy. Cons: This plan totally ignores the new market trends and price reduction could damage margin objectives as well as brand positioning. Looking at each proposal individually I think Clark should favor Bob Pugh’s proposal because it focuses strongly on the divisions main core, enables to increase gross margin by reducing production costs and increasing volume and there is no cannibalization effect. However, in long term this strategy does not secure the new trends which may or may not be the next cash cows. Then also noteworthy is the proposal by Anna Chong which goes in a very different direction but is as well an interesting approach. Anna, as the Chief Innovation Officer, focuses, not surprisingly, on developing new products, there is of course a large investment involved, but it does take into account the new trends. My last pick would be the proposal made by Claire Mackey, Director of Finance & Planning, since it represents a very large investment and recent experience with Annabelle will make it hard to pass it by the board. Her preference goes to Red Dragon Foods: Current Sales: $36 million Cannibalization of Sales: 0.45% (Mackey says 0.3%; Clark 0.6%): $13 million Estimated EBITDA $4.2 millions Estimated Cost: $29.4 million (considering highest price) Amortization + interest per year: 2.54 million (in 10 year period) Gross Margin: $16.2 million Gross Margin with cannibalization effect: $10.3 million Cost of A&P: $11 million Net Earnings in the First Year: -$3.24 million In 5 years: Estimated revenues: $75.85 million (growth rate of 2.5% for whole division) Estimated Gross Margin in 5 years (50% instead of 45% as Clark estimates increase of 10% I will be more conservative and just add 5% ): $38 million From the analyzed companies by Mackey, the emerging competition is mainly focused on the area where Brannigan’s is not as strong: health oriented products (MSG free and low sodium), new flavors (Asian flavors) and trends (Deli like). These yet small sub categories may well grow in the next years and this may pose as a problem because costumers will lose brand awareness, recognizing other brands as the Healthy soup or as the Chinese Soup. On the other hand, it will be difficult for new brands to try to compete with Brannigan on their strongest products and in which they are the unquestioned leader. So the natural strategy for new companies is to target the products where there is not such a strong recognized brand. This point must be considered by Clark when making his decision. Can Brannigan’s afford to leave these new products wide open or should he get his hands on this before it escalates? In my opinion Clark needs to take action on the growing needs of the market before it is too late. Brannigan’s Soup needs to lock its position as market leader in soups as a whole concept and not as a segmented market. Clark needs to address two main issues: maintain leadership in the classic flavors and keep up with new demands. For this he should bring in Anna Chong and Bob Pugh and have them work together in defining the new strategy. Bringing their proposals together the cons of each of them are mitigated. Anna addresses the new trends Bob has left out and Bob will secure the financing of the new products that Anna will develop which may become the next cash cows. Reinforcing the current strong products of the company is important but may not be enough in a permanently evolving market. A leader position requires investment in R&D in order to keep up with changing trends.