Marketing in Practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Marketing in Practice - Essay Example Research was done that indicated the student’s use of the online digital library and the data collected showed that many students are not actually using the services of the library and this impairs reaching the objectives of the plan. This report thus gives an in-depth account of social marketing theory and the related secondary materials that were used to understand the situation of the Birmingham library. With reference to this, appropriate objective and recommendation are given in this report to ensure that the students adopt the new provision as expected by the university; it is to be achieved using social marketing for behaviour change (Weinreich 2011, p.45). Action plan for the implementation of the recommendation is also given as well as the controls of the same program in Birmingham library. Introduction The tradition and role of social marketing is to ensure that marketing is applied together with other concepts and techniques that will culminate into the social good of the targeted group of people (Alder 2010, p.24). The difference between social marketing and commercial marketing should thus be palpable, in social marketing; the driving agenda is not finances as the case with commercial marketing, they tend skew their interest to pursue social good (Pintado, 2007: p. 32). Birmingham Library is a university library that houses all genres of academic materials from sciences to humanities, with the population of the student’s numbers increasing every academic intake (Krol 2010, p.38). There is urgent need then to ensure that some of the services that are currently offered physically in the library are decentralized so that students can have access to the information even without visiting the library premises (Lazer, William, and Eugene 2006, p.20). This proposed idea is supposed to use online library services to enable students to access online books using their tablets, lap top computers, and phone while they are outside that university l ibrary (Kotler and Nancy 2008, p.16). This development will not only help in decongesting the library that is currently receiving high level of traffic movement of students but will also be useful in serving the student’s convenience of using library services in various places including within the hostel without having to move into the library (Burcher 2012, p.19). The university thus wants to use social marketing as a way of advising the students on the available options of accessing the library services without having to borrow physical books (Penford, 2011: p. 37). This is deemed to be of social good to the student as they will have the books in soft copy and can use them anytime without having to visit the library every time. On the other hand, the university will also benefit in the sense that they will be able to accommodate the needs of all the students because only those students who want to engage in those issues that cannot be done outside the library will be in at any particular time. The university will also mitigate on the losses that are realized when textbooks are borrowed by the students from the library (Sarki, 2006: p. 12). This move will be highly beneficial to the student’s body and they should be advised to explore this option through social marketing

Supply and demand Essay Example for Free

Supply and demand Essay Coffee is the world’s second largest traded commodity it is used not only for drinking but for soft drinks and cosmetics as well, it is second only to oil according to all imports and exports from all countries. They are two main types Arabica coffee (most people are used to this and are more popular) and there is Robusta coffee. In the last two years the prices of coffee have been gradually falling (Ycharts. (2013). Coffee Arabica Price) alongside this, the supply of coffee has also been falling. Although there have been some price fluctuations at times and this could end up really affecting an economy that depends on coffee. The reason that this is such a big deal is because the countries that heavily depend on coffee exports are usually developing countries and with the price of coffee falls, so does their rate of development, these countries involve countries such as Vietnam, Ethiopia, Peru and Guatemala who are all within the world’s top ten coffee producers (Justin Doom. (2011). World’s Top 10 Coffee-Producing Countries in 2010-2011). When these economies are weakened, they face to their governments, who need to somehow intervene in the coffee market and try to stabilise the prices so that they can reach their ultimate goal to continue to develop. Price stability in the coffee market is an ideal scenario in a market where the prices for coffee do not alter drastically. They may raise a little or fall, but never by a noticeable amount, and are easy to predict, which can help coffee producers plan for the far future. It is not only important to coffee producers, but to the economy as whole, if the prices for coffee are unstable, for some countries this could have a huge impact on the inflation levels. The diagram below describes how an unstable price for coffee can increase and affect the short run aggregate supply and cause the general price level for the economy to rise and therefore causing inflation as they did in July 2012 (Ycharts. (2013). There are several reasons why the prices of coffee have been fluctuating, but still gradually falling. The first reason is that coffee or coffee beans are extracted from plants. These plants must first be grown, then harvested. There is only so much mankind can do to ensure that there is always excess coffee however sometimes natural disasters can occur, and there is nothing that farmers can do to prevent this, when natural disasters occurs it means that farmers will have small yields and supply for coffee will be low, for example Colombia, one of the world’s leading coffee producers and exporters, in recent years have been experiencing poor weather conditions which have led to production falling by 12% to 7. 809 million bags in 2011 which is a record low that hasn’t been seen since 1976. This can cause the price to increase seeing as coffee is the world’s second most demanded commodity. These poor conditions consisted of excessive heavy rainfall, disease, pest and limited sunlight (Zacks Equity Research. 2 (2012)). The graph below shows how the supply for coffee has decrease leading to a rise in price On the other hand this is just an example for Colombia and for the rest of the world the prices for coffee have been falling for the last four years, this is due to wealthy individuals and companies use their money to invest in the global coffee suppliers, and other large coffee producers such as Brazil (the world number three) has been turning out high yield and is expected to do so in following years. Fain Shaffer, president of infinity trading crop expects coffee to be traded by one dollar to a pound of coffee, figures which have not been seen since September 2006. (Alexandra Wexler. (09/17/2013)) Coffee prices may currently be relatively stable at the moment however according to research conducted by the Royal Botanical Edinburgh along with Ethiopian scientists and London’s Botanical Garden, Kew, have predicted that wild Arabica coffee will be extinct by the year 2080. If the prices begin to fall, all of a sudden the prices for coffee will no longer be stable. No country operates on a 100% free market. All economies are mixed, some tend to be freer than others, however should a country find that prices are volatile or unfair, they can always rely on the government to intervene, aka government intervention. One way a government could help stabilise the price of coffee is through buffer stock schemes, these schemes focus on the prices of coffee and try to stabilize the price, they do this by first establishing the intervention price, this is a price the government thinks is most suitable for coffee. Once this has been established the government will then buy up a lot of coffee when the price is at its lowest, they continue to do this until prices for 3 coffee begin to rise again, and to balance out the price to make sure it is at the intervention price. They are constantly buying coffee to balance out the price. This is an effective method in theory however in real life they do not work out as planned because the people in charge of the buffer stock tend to get greedy and try to maximise profits rather than help the economy as a whole and end up just constantly buying till they go bust. A good example of a successful buffer stock scheme is in Brazil, for years Conab, Brazil’s official crop bureau has been buying coffee at low prices and uses it to help local producers when the selling price for coffee is too low. Between 2003-2004 Conab had just under four million KGs accumulated. (Geoff Riley. (2012)) Another issue with this is that it is very difficult for a government to raise enough money to buy up enough coffee to influence the natural supply and demand. It is also expensive to store large amounts of coffee and because it is an agricultural good it has a shelf life. Another method the government could intervene is through Subsidies. A subsidy is a grant given by the government in order to increase production, this would help producers who have produce low yields due to high taxation and or high costs If the government could make coffee more attractive this could help stabilise the price if supply started to fall. This however is not a very effective method because it can only help bring the supply of coffee back up, and it may be able to work to well, if producers begin to produce excess supply the prices of coffee could start to increase sharply leaving the prices unstable yet again. Buffer stock schemes are the most ideal way for a government to ensure price stability, and the success of the scheme depends heavily on whether or not the Government can provide proper facilities to accommodate huge quantities of coffee and are able to afford to buy enough Coffee to be able to alter the market forces so that if prices go to high they can bring them down and if they go to low that they can bring them back up again, if not it could result in huge losses for the economy and even end up setting the country back. The supply and demand of coffee can and always will be prone to quick sudden changes due to circumstances that are unavoidable.

Components of Supply Chain Management

Components of Supply Chain Management A supply chain may be defined as the number of business practices that move goods from that of raw materials through supply, production and the final distribution of the goods to the customer. Most manufacturing organizations have a supply chain of some description. It is considered that all effective management practices must take into consideration the efficiencies of the component within the chain in order to avoid loss of quality and important customers within the business. THE PROCESS Within any supply chain there are five key elements: 1) Production 2) Supply 3) Inventory 4) Location and 5) Transportation and Information. Each of these is examined in turn. Production In order to facilitate strategic decision making relative to production it is important to understand both what the client wants and equally what the market demands. This leads to the development of supply chain agility and indicates how many products will need to be completed; the sequence to be completed, the individual components required and which plants are capable of producing them. Each of these decisions needs to focus on items such as inventory management, quality, capacity and the volume of goods to be produced in order to meet the customer need. In addition what techniques of quality control need to be introduced in order to meet the required standards of production? Supply This relates to the facility being able to produce efficient and economical goods whilst maintaining high levels of quality. This can be very hard for companies to achieve, particularly when the product incorporates external sub components made outside of the firm. Hence there is a need to QA external products as meeting a required standard of quality. This not only applies to imported finished goods but also the quality of raw materials being used. When selecting a supplier it is a careful balance of cost, quality, reliability and flexibility. A good supplier relationship helps to build a strategic business relationship. Inventory Other important decisions relate to stock or inventory and as such it is a very fine balance between holding too much inventory and not enough. This becomes an important aspect of supply chain management and it is important to retain optimum levels of stock at different locations without holding too much inventory which creates under-utilized capital. There is also the risk of obsolescence for those goods that exceed their storage dates. Control policies need to examine the procedure for retention of inventory and this involves close customer relationship management. Location Strategic decisions are focused upon such items as the location of production plants, distribution and stock facilities and the location of these facilities to the market. Once customers are established it is important that they are services by having production facilities within close proximity to them. This was an important part of the success of the Industrial Revolution in Britain the mines producing raw materials i.e. Coal, Coke etc. were close to the factories that needed to burn them for power and fuel, together with the steel plants that needed the coal for the furnaces. Transportation Information Transportation decisions are an important part of satisfying customer demand. (Rockford Consulting, 2012). Creating innovation requires good organization of information. Computers and software provide important valuable assists in the achievement of these objectives but it still remains important to conduct regular business process analysis and eliminate any redundancies or duplication of effort. THE THREE COMPONENTS OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT There are three essential important components of Supply Chain Management: Business Processes Management Components Network Structure Each of these can be examined in turn: Business Processes It is the business processes that define both the activities and flow of information within the organization. For example: order processing, customer services, distribution etc. It is important to gain a firm understanding of the business processes by conducting business process analysis. This enables the processes to be optimized by streamlining, elimination of redundant processes and building enhanced processes. Network structure This identifies those partners who collaborate in the supply chain. They are the important key business players. Relationships can be placed into categories for example: Strategic Partners, Manufacturing, Operational and Reserve list. Management Components The management component contains the company philosophy for doing business and the methods that it will deploy in order to carry this out. This should be a clear Executive framework that supports a reliable decision making process. It is important that the managers embrace the culture of the Company and this is clearly demonstrated to both the customers and those who work within the organization. (Jesperson, B.D. 2005) INTERPRETING LOGISTICS IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN Logistics may be defined as the function that manages the movement of the materials in the supply chain. This is the movement of materials from the initial supply to that of the final delivery to the customer. The concept of logistics embraces a number of distinct activities like procurement, warehousing, inventory management, order processing, recycling and distribution etc. (Sadler, I. 2007) Benefits of logistics Management- Managers will be better informed and make smarter decisions if they understand the business processes within their organization. This is critical in the achievement of business goals. Efficient logistics management is also an important vehicle in the development of the business marketing strategy. The roots of logistics management can be traced back to WW2 and the military application of mobilizing resources and materials. These early concepts were further evolved in the 1960s with physical distribution management. In the 1990s the advances in communication with Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) enabled electronic transfer of information between organizations. We now have Global Positioning (GP) technology that enables precise tracking of goods on a truly globalized basis. The use of logistics software has the benefit of placing controls within the system and ensures that proper routing choices are made. This includes the selection of the correct carriers and optimal shipping routes. These time savings provide a considerable return on investment. EXPLORATION OF NEW CONCEPTS The external supply chain advances beyond the basic concepts of supply chain management. It brings into play all of the additional business links and the complex levels of interactivity. The integration of all of these steps is extremely complex. One such business that has stepped up to the challenge is that of Ford Motor Company in the USA. They have vertically integrated every aspect of the business from mining to manufacturing. The main driver of these new concepts has clearly been centred on customer satisfaction. One of the goals of integrated supply chain management is to remove barriers in order to allow the free flow of materials. One such barrier is that of shared resources in the supply chain. One new approach is removing this barrier and thereby changing the focus to that of buyer focus. Two existing approaches on the removal of barriers are that of lean thinking and agile manufacturing. Shared resources create a problem by adding to the complexity of planning and control, as such creating a barrier. Buyer focus looks towards splitting the buyer process into more manageable components in order to meet improved performance criteria. In this concept resources are singled out in order to serve one buyer. Hence one buyer serves the whole range of supply products. Supply chain management is a relatively new concept. The origins can be traced back as recent as 26 years to a Booze Allen Consultant named Keith Oliver. It was Oliver who defined the term and provided the early foundation concepts to what we now know today as integrated supply chain management. It was the Japanese who really adopted this approach in manufacturing and adapted the techniques of just-in-time and Ken Ban; these techniques becoming universally accepted and adopted throughout the west. The large software vendors like Oracle and SAP were looking towards computer software solutions for the automation of these complex processes. Despite making advances in this area it is still difficult to point towards a single standard or procedure for adoption in Supply Chain Management. (Thorsten Blecker, 2006) Software Applications JDA is an example of a software Company that claims to have in excess of 6000 world-wide customers and their software covers the entire spectrum of supply chain management. Another leading player in this field is that of the software firm Logility. Other leading software suppliers like ORACLE and SAP have integrated these applications into the more wider ranging Enterprise Planning software solutions. MITIGATING RISKS IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN Financial Control The key towards the management of financial risks in Transportation costs is by having an effective budgetary control system. Planned levels of expenditure (budgets) are made for all levels of operating costs and these are measured against Actual results in the monthly accounts. These will produce variances, either positive (underspend) or negative (overspend). Those negative variances that fall outside of a prescribed tolerance level e.g. +/- 10% of the budget figure, should be made the point of financial investigation and appropriate remedial action taken. This could be the result of increased supplier costs, unplanned overspend, an increase in the quality of materials and hence costs. There may be numerous reasons but the objective should be to get the expenditure back within the budget tolerance limit. ( Sodhi, M.S. 2012) Financial control should also be linked to Project Management. In particular examination of contingency plans for alternate suppliers within the supply chain. Lack of appropriate alternative suppliers can expose the firm to unplanned financial risks and cost escalation. The concept of Analytical Risk Mitigation is an approach that explores the relationship between cost and change and this is linked to economic considerations like supply and demand, marginal cost statements, break even analysis. This approach allows firms to deploy risk mitigation strategies that diversify or spread the nature of the risk thereby minimizing the amount of cost disruption to the business. Economic Measures This ties in with logistics and ensuring that measures are taken to mitigate expenditure within the transportation of goods within the supply chain. Logistics may be defined as the function that manages the movement of the materials in the supply chain. This is the movement of materials from the initial supply to that of the final delivery to the customer. The concept of logistics embraces a number of distinct activities like procurement, warehousing, inventory management, order processing, recycling and distribution etc. Benefits of logistics management means that managers will be better informed and make smarter decisions if they understand the business processes within their organization. This is critical in the achievement of business goals. Efficient logistics management is also an important vehicle in the development of the business marketing strategy. The use of logistics software has the benefit of placing controls within the system and ensures that proper routing choices are made. This includes the selection of the correct carriers and optimal shipping routes. These time savings provide a considerable return on investment and reduces the level of risk involved. One of the goals of the integrated supply chain is to remove barriers in order to allow the free flow of materials. One such barrier is that of shared resources in the supply chain. One new approach is removing this barrier and thereby changing the focus to that of buyer focus. Two existing approaches on the removal of barriers are that of lean thinking and agile manufacturing. Shared resources create a problem by adding to the complexity of planning and control, as such creating a barrier. Buyer focus looks towards splitting the buyer process into more manageable components in order to meet improved performance criteria. In this concept resources are singled out in order to serve one buyer. Hence one buyer serves the whole range of supply products. Risks and responses should be reported to the project sponsor and other management stakeholders on project status and progress reports. Risk management items should be also part of regularly scheduled project Steering Committee meetings. When risk events occur, the impact and actual damage to the project are assessed. Appropriate corrective response plans, workarounds and action items are executed. When a risk event does occur, it becomes an issue that has an impact on the project deliverables and as such it is important that these are resolved at the earliest opportunity The probability and impact matrix is a vehicle whereby the Project Manager and his team determine elements of risks involved in the project and the activities or phases where these may impact the project. CONCLUSIONS The larger more complex business operations are moving towards the installation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems that embrace supply chain management. These integrated systems use a single relational database management (rdbms) system. If these are installed properly they can offer significant competitive advantages to the firm. There are however some drawbacks in that they are extremely expensive to set up and install. In addition they propose both complex and expensive maintenance procedures. Some products like that of SAP have had a limited expert resource base to draw from. This has resulted in large in-house training programs and as such added a further layer of expense to the cost of software acquisition. Those firms that have trodden down this path agree that this is an investment over time. The rewards show at a later date once you gain formal control over inventories and the movement of goods in the organization. (Madu, C.N. 2005)

Brave new world and how it influenced my life Essay -- essays research

A Different World; A Different Person All forms of art have greatly influenced my life and have had an enormous effect on me as a person. Throughout high school, of all the great works of literature, poetry, and other types of art that have given me a feeling of joy, my senior year I discovered one piece of literature that stands out and opens my eyes to the world around me. Art, literature and music not only intrigue and inspire me, but also despite all of the thought provoking choices at hand, Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, has had the greatest affect on my opinion of the world. I believe that this story is similar to what our society is becoming and has opened my outlook on the world. Aldous Huxley greatly described an innovated world in which all matters of truth and individuality are gone. The characters in this book are born into a caste system, in which they are conditioned to think and act according to which caste level they belong. Although, he did not predict that the human race would actually yield to this sad, loveless lifestyle, surprisingly they adapted rather quickly. After reading Brave New World, I was not only rudely awakened by the lifestyles of this race, but also shown what is truly important. With cloning being one of the new discoveries in today’s society, I can see how mankind could become a sea of walking machines, easily compared to those in Brave New World. From birth, the characters are told how to act, think and dress. To an extent, our soci...

Avoiding Groupthink Essay

The case study we are addressing this week involves how a team and Project Manager avoid Groupthink and its pitfalls. In order to understand what group think is you have to refer to Irving Janus who coined the phrase back in 1972. He related that Group Think is when a group makes a decision based on group pressure; it can lead to faulty decisions. Janus, 1972) Some of the symptoms that Irving Janus documented of group think are Illusion of invulnerability, Collective rationalization, Belief in inherent morality, Stereotyped views of out-groups, Direct pressure on dissenters, Self-censorship, Illusion of unanimity, and Self-appointed ‘mind guards’. (Janus, 1972) In our book, Making the Team: A Guide for Managers states that there are three (3) key symptoms that take root and they are Over Estimation of the Group, Closed Mindedness and Pressure towards Uniformity. These will be the 3 areas I am going to focus on. Over Estimation of the Group Now that we know what group think is we can move on to how a team and Project Manager might avoid the mistakes and downfalls of Group Think situations. (Thompson, 2008) When a team is falling into a group think methodology a Project Manager must be able to recognize the signs before any decisions are made and set in motion. If the group is making statements that start with we feel, we think, or we suspect it is a good indicator that they just don’t know or are just following along with the consensus of the group. Group think can cause problems when everyone goes with the flow especially on a wrong decision. In using group think methodology management has to weigh the pros and cons of the group’s decision from all sides. Sometimes a little more research prior to implementing a group think decisions should be done or a devil’s advocate should be assigned into the group think matrix in order to prevent team members from being led down a garden path. The one thing I have noticed when in a group think situation, the group always looks for someone to be the mouthpiece for the group, this person usually has strong leadership skills but can be short sited and very opinionated which rubs off on the group as a whole. Some team members tend to have difficulty explaining or relating what is on their mind in a group setting, they rather tell their ideas one on one because they are an introvert by nature! They would rather have the extrovert take charge and be the one who voices the opinions or decisions of the group. They tend to stay out of the lime light. Project Managers should encourage team members to bring out concerns or objections to issues that are being discussed and/or considered, he/she should not influence the team with his or her own preferences to the issue, he/she should play the devil’s advocate and guide conflict in a positive manner, the group should be allowed to be evaluated by other groups and critiqued in an unbiased manner, splitting the group into different sub groups to bring out and investigate different alternative solutions or methods that could be used, call meetings with the group to discuss and evaluate any decisions prior to instituting them and develop alternatives for each methodology prior to giving final approvals. (Thompson, 2008) A good Project Manager should keep his group focused on the project at hand, have weekly meetings to check progress of his team to ensure that discussions are being conducted that is giving the group the necessary conflict for them to evaluate potential risks and dangers involved with the decisions they are recommending. The Project Manager should make the team aware that they can bring up ideas or doubts about any issue without the fear of being ridiculed or rejected by other team members. The ultimate goal is for the Project Manager to make his team work as a team through having all members contributing their knowledge and skills in making the project a success.

Personality and state of mind Essay

The use of knowledge in Victor’s character is magnified in the monster – they need to know more and have a thirst to succeed.  In other ways, the two individuals are inversions of each other. Victor is described by Walton as being young and handsome; an intelligent man, with a good personality and state of mind. The monster, however, as explained in a quote above, has the physical appearance of being ugly, inhuman and beastly, certainly a quality common in an evil doppelnger. Victor seems to be, from his narrative, arrogant, selfish and antisocial, whereas the monster is selfless with a want to be sociable. For this reason, it could be possible to presume Victor as the monster’s doppelgnger instead of the other way around. After all, Victor does not have the courage to acknowledge his mistakes, when the monster openly accuses himself and accepts that he has done wrong.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"I am alone, and miserable; man will not associate with me; but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me. My companion must be of the same species, and have the same defects. This being you must create.† MONSTER â€Å"You must create a female for me, with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being. This you alone can do; and I demand it of you as a right which you must not refuse to concede.†Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"I returned home, and entering the house, presented myself to the family. My haggard and wild appearance awoke intense alarm †¦ I had no right to claim their sympathies.† These three quotes from the monster and Victor’s narratives give more information concerning the two characters.  Victor is surprised when he hears the monster is not an evil being, craving for the destruction of anything in his path, but a tender human. The fact that the monster is miserable is Victor’s fault. He created the monster with his deformities without thinking of the consequences and he rejected him. Victor denies any tie with his creation, so saying that a mate of the same species would not deny herself to the monster could be tactical blackmail in order to persuade Victor to honour his request. Up until the conclusion of the story, Victor says nothing of his flaws, yet the first time the monster is able to speak; he acknowledges that he has faults, physically and mentally, as we all do. The parent/child relationship between them is reversed at this stage because the monster is ordering Victor to grant his request, although by asking this, he is being selfish, who is to say that his created companion will want to love him and be with him? This is a quality that is seen in Victor from the beginning. The monster has ideas about what love is and what is should be, taken from the DeLaceys – even though they are in poverty, they love each other and are happy. In fact, loneliness is not necessarily implied when a person is alone, but loneliness can breed in large groups of people. The monster, even though he is demanding of Victor, is pleading for help and does not have the power to give himself what he thinks he needs to be happy. He has no one else to turn to. Shelley uses a number of double negatives, such as in the second quote above; â€Å"you must not refuse to concede†; which could stand for the monster and Victor.  During the third quote, Victor is experiencing what it is like to be the monster. Because of his appearance, he does not deserve sympathy or any sort of compassion. Does this make Victor a more terrible person that the monster? So far, I have only explored the reasons for Frankenstein being the monster. What I have written has no relevance what so ever to the 21st century, or does it?  Victor, in a late piece of his narrative, refers twice to the consequences of his actions and how his scientific discoveries would affect the future.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"A race of devils would be propagated upon the earth, who might make the very existence of the species of man a condition precarious and full of terror. Had I a right, for my own benefit, to inflict this curse upon further generations?† VICTOR This links very closely with designer babies. By this time, Victor has lost all previously earned sympathy for the monster and seems to have learned from his previous mistakes.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"I shuddered to think that future ages might curse me as their pest, whose selfishness had not hesitated to buy its own piece at the price, perhaps, of the existence of the whole human race.† This is the first section of the novel in which Victor has taken some responsibility for his careless behaviour. This can also be contrasted with Victors hopes and dreams of fame as a young man venturing into the world of science.  Frankenstein wanted to create something perfect – elite – something that could take over the world, which is linked to designer babies. ‘Designer babies’ is an issue that we are being faced with now in our society. Questions raised against the notion include: Is it moral? Are we playing God? Is if fair? How far are we prepared to go? What are the constraints of science? Where is the diversity of human spirit? Does it reflect fascism?  However, there are also people who believe in the thought, promoting questions like: Why not move forward with technology? How do we know what will happen if we don’t find out? What is wrong with bringing happiness into people’s lives? Who are we to say stop?  We have no answers to the questions being asked, but overall, there seems to be a negative opinion concerning the concept. People argue that children born under these circumstances could be discriminated against. There is also unfairness involved, because such procedures cost money, although, it could allow couples to have a child when otherwise they may not have been able to. Unfortunately, this takes money away from other sectors of public and private healthcare, for example, cancer research.  Cloning could bring the physicality of a person back to life, which is exactly what Victor did.  The same kinds of questions are raised with cloning as with designer babies: Is it ethical? What is the reason for it? Is it natural? What is to stop an elite force being created?

British Petroleum Company, Ltd. Essay Example

British Petroleum Company, Ltd. Essay Example British Petroleum Company, Ltd. Essay British Petroleum Company, Ltd. Essay Formed in 1909, British Petroleum (BP) was the world’s seventh largest industrial company and the third largest oil company based on 1986 sales figures. As a part of its decentralization plan which prepares for the privatization of the nationalized industries, the British Government initiated a sale of BP’s stock in March 1987. Later on BP announced an offering of new stock in conjunction with the government sale in July 1987. Underwriting agreement was made between BP and both the domestic and international underwriters on 15 Oct 1987.The offering date was set for 30 Oct 1987. The price for both the fixed-price offer and the international offer was set at ? 3. 30 payable in three installments. While the first installment of ? 1. 20 was due immediately upon sale, the second and third installment of ? 1. 05 were due on 30 Aug 1988 and 27 April 1989 respectively. Right after the underwriting agreement was made, the stock market suffered its largest decline in history. The underwriters of the BP issue faced substantial losses as a result of the drop in BP price.Refusing to rescind the deal, the British government announced on 29 Oct 1987 that the offering would proceed as planned, and the Bank of England would offer a repurchase plan for the underwriters. The bank would buy for ? 0. 7 any and all partly paid BP shares that would begin trading the following day. Those who sold their shares to the bank would then be relieved of the second and third installments. The offer to repurchase shares would expire on 6 Jan 1988. Case ObjectivesWith the drop of BP’s stock value and the Bank of England’s offer of the repurchase plan, the objectives of this case study is to 1) Evaluate from the point of view of the U. S. underwriters the value of the repurchase plan, so as to help decide if they should sell their partly paid BP stock to the Bank of England instead of holding on it to sell it to the individual investors after the offering date; 2) To compare the value for the repurchase plan with the total change in equity value of the U. S. underwriters, so as to have an extra reference on the value of the repurchase plan. Discussion The Repurchase Plan as a Put Option According to the case, anyone who owned partly paid BP shares could sell them at any time to the Bank of England for ? 0. 7 regardless of the then prevailing market price. We have concluded that this offers the equivalent of the Bank of England writing a put option with the strike price of ? 0. 7 plus the present value of the remaining two installments of the price of the BP shares. To be more specific, since the option could be exercised anytime during the life of the offer, it should be treated as an American option. Â ¦ Methodology The Black-Scholes ModelAfter the identification of the repurchase plan as a put option, it comes to the vital part of the case study- valuation of the option. As stated earlier, the repurchase offer resembles an American put option which means the Binomial model would be more appropriate for the calculation of the option price. We are aware that the a major limitation with the Black-Scholes model is its incompetence in pricing an American option due to the fact that it only calculates the option price at expiration. However, the statistics given are not sufficient enough for us to precisely compute the price of an American option.Furthermore, the main objective of this report is to estimate the value of the repurchase offer as a whole rather than calculating the exact price of the option at a specific date. That being said, we would treat the option as a European option for the sake of simplicity. For European options, the binomial model tends to converge with the Black-Scholes formula as the number of steps increases. Since the statistics of days after the announcement of the repurchase plan are fairly limited, we have decided that the Black-Scholes Model would perform better for this case scenario. Assumptions Limitations Term Structure As the period between the announcement and expiration date of the repurchase plan is a little bit more than 2 months (From 29 Oct 1987 to 6 Jan 1988), we have chosen to use the term structure of 3 months (Exhibit 8), which is closest to this period, for the pu rpose of our calculation. Volatility In selecting the data to calculate for the volatility, we did recognize that using the daily stock prices from 16 to 19 Oct 1987 (Exhibit 7) should be problematic with the stock market crash.As the Black-Scholes model assumes a lognormal distribution of volatility, using the Black-Scholes model to process this set of extreme data would lead us to the assumption risk, which is the risk that the Black-Scholes is inappropriate to be used to value options for the period. Alternatively, we considered about avoiding the crash period by only using the data before or after the crash (i. e. from beginning of Oct to 16th or from 19th to the end of the month). However, as we only have one month data on hand, further cutting half of it would leave us too little data for a fair calculation.However, if we do have data of a longer period, we would choose to use the data after the crash as it would be better matched with the case. Â ¦ Stock Price As we see a he althy financial status of BP according to its income statements and balance sheets (Exhibit 1-3), it is assumed that the stock price of BP will never drop to zero in the period. To support this, we have calculated the book value per share of BP, which is USD3. 73. (Please refer to the work sheet Book Value of BP in the Excel file for calculation details. Â ¦ Trading Days The number of trading days in a year is assumed to be 252 according to the usual practice for the calculation of volatility. Â ¦ Calculation Results With the help of the Black-Scholes model, we come up with the answer of USD0. 38 as the value of the put option, which is equivalent to the value of the repurchase plan to the U. S. underwriters at the end of 30 Oct 1987. (For details on the calculations, please refer to the work sheets of Black-Scholes Model and Volatility in the Excel file. )Apart from using the Black-Scholes model, we also calculated the implied put option/repurchase plan value by calculating the c hange in equity value of the publicly traded U. S. underwriters between 29 Oct 1987 and 30 Oct 1987 for comparison (Please refer to the work sheets of Equity Value Change and Black-Scholes Model for the calculation details). Before the results were being worked out and compared, we have assumed the two values to be close to each other, as we assumed a semi-strong form of market efficiency, with which stock prices are believed to reflect all publicly available information.In this case, as the announcement of the repurchase plan was made to the public on 29 Oct 1987 after the close of the London and New York markets, we believed the change in stock prices of the U. S. underwriters should reflect the value of the repurchase plan on the next trading date (i. e. 30 Oct 1987), with the assumption of the repurchase plan being the only factor influence the stock prices on that day. However, the two values that we got turned out to be more inconsistent with each other than we thought, with U SD0. 8 as the value from Black-Scholes model and USD1. 02 as the implied value from the equity value change. Assuming the market participants are rational, the change in the equity price of the US listed underwriters should correctly reflected the true price of the repurchase plan (i. e. the put option). If the put option was USD1. 02, the volatility of the stock price of BP should be 145. 49% under the Black-Scholes model (calculated by trial and error) instead of 60. 11% (Please refer to the work sheets of Volatility for the calculation details).The great difference between the two volatilities may be due to insufficient of data (especially the price change after the market crash) as provided by the case and the Black-Scholes Model may not be applicable in the time when the stock market is fragile. Apart from using Black-Scholes model and market reaction to the stock price of the US listed underwriters, we use another way to evaluate the put option. We estimated that the book valu e per BP share as of 30 Oct 1987 was USD 3. 73. Normally, the stock price should not below the book value per share.Otherwise, it would provide an incentive for the major shareholder to privatize the company. As of 30 Oct 1987, the share price of BP was USD4. 56 (? 2. 65 X 1. 722 (the exchange rate of USD to GBP). The difference of the share price and book value per share as of 30 Oct 1987 was USD0. 83. If the estimated book value per share was correct, the room for the drop of BP would be USD0. 83. When we compared the put option price implied by the market (i. e. USD1. 02) with USD0. 83, we see that there is a premium of USD0. 19.The premium may be the reward for the insurance protection factor and time value of the put option. The premium may also reveal the market overreacted to the information of repurchase plan. Conclusion BP’s stock offering was an important part of the British Government’s decentralization plan back then. The repurchase plan had not only succes sfully prevented a political setback, it had also worked well as a protective arrangement of the British Government to ease the nerve of the panicking domestic and international investors amidst the aftermath of the largest stock market decline in history.The limitations discussed above may have inevitably caused some error in the computation of the implied volatility of the stock price of BP after the announcement of the repurchase plan. However, from the prevailing up movement of the stock prices of the four US investment banks and BP, we could see that the response to the plan from the financial market was excellent.

Media and Adolescent Sexuality Essays

Media and Adolescent Sexuality Essays Media and Adolescent Sexuality Essay Media and Adolescent Sexuality Essay The media has undergone a great transformation over the past 15-20 years and there are numerous sexually charged forms of media that target our younger generation. Part of the adolescent development is the formation of sexual beliefs and patterns of behavior. During this development period the adolescent is very impressionable and the information they receive from various means (parents, family members, friends, teachers, the community and the media, etc. ) is what the adolescent uses to develop their personal sexual beliefs and personal patterns of behavior. With all of the media readily available, adolescents are exposed to sexual content at a much earlier age then previously. The impact of this exposure will be discovered and reported in this research paper. The topic that I have researched is â€Å"Media and Adolescent Sexuality†. For the purpose of this paper â€Å"media† will entail television, music, magazines and the World Wide Web. I have seen a great transformation of media over the years and have noticed the numerous sexually charged forms of media that target our younger generation. Often these forms of media contain homosexual, bisexual and heterosexual references and sexually explicit references. With all of the media readily available, do the media have an impact on adolescent sexuality? Part of the adolescent development is the formation of sexual beliefs and patterns of behavior. During this development period the adolescent is very impressionable and the information received is what is used to develop their personal sexual beliefs and personal patterns of behavior. The information they receive may come from their parents, family members, teachers, the community, the media, etc. As a senior high school Sunday school teacher at my church, I often times lead discussions to provoke the youth to think critically about their experiences and the choices that they make. The discussion is always supported biblically, as the bible is the reference used to support why certain choices should be made or not. I find it interesting to hear from the youth during these discussions because they share exactly what they feel and also what they experience. These discussion are very open and leads many of them to ask questions that they may not feel comfortable asking their parents. Many of the discussions involve the various forms of media they watch and listen to and their thoughts of these forms of media based on the bible lessons we review. In taking a close look at the impact of television, the fist form of media to be discussed, I found interesting information documented from surveys which depict the time spent watching television by adolescents. â€Å"In the United States, young people spend 6 to 7 hours each day on average with some form of media. A national survey in 1999 found that one third of young children (2 to 7 years old) and two thirds of older children and adolescents (8 to 18 years old) have a television in their own bedroom. Many of those televisions also are hooked up to cable and a Videocassette Recorder (VCR)† (Roberts, 2000). The time reported, on the survey, that adolescents watch television is high. This amount of time watching television exposes these adolescents to age inappropriate content. Also, with cable television being a constant and always available, this too increases the exposure to age inappropriate content. There are parents who do not monitor what their children watch on television, thus many parents are unaware of the potential harm exposed to their children. Even the channels that are supposed to be age appropriate, such as Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel contain questionable content. Both Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel have programs that contain dating and kissing scenes. Typically young adolescents (8-12) are not interested in the opposite sex but still consider them gross or view them as possessing â€Å"coodees† or germs. The television programs today are not as they were when I was an adolescent. I can remember watching programs like â€Å"Happy Days†, â€Å"Laverne and Shirley† and â€Å"Good Times†. Figure 1 depicts three programs from another television era. Figure 1: Laverne Shirley, Three Company and Good Times â€Å"Happy Days† and â€Å"Good Times† where programs that contained the traditional family unit (Male/Father and Female/Mother). These shows portrayed the everyday lives of the typical family. There were no sexual scenes and if I remember correct, the only type of kiss displayed was between the husband and the wife and was a â€Å"lip touch† kiss not a French kiss. Laverne and Shirley† was a show that portrayed two young women as roommates that hung out with two male friends. These two programs portrayed the everyday lives of the traditional family and young adults. Another program that I remember watching that was the first of its kind; was â€Å"Three’s Company†. This program went against what was considered â€Å"the norm† at that time and for some people was considered â€Å"radical†. The radical tag was due to the storyline. The storyline was a male that was a roommate with three attractive women. The landlord would not allow the group to rent the room together because they were not the same gender so the male in the group, â€Å"Jack Tripper†, pretended to be gay. This was the first portrayal that I can remember of a gay person on television. There are no programs today which air at prime time, that are suitable, based on age appropriateness, for children to watch. The programs today contain profanity, sexually explicit scenes, same gender relationships, children out of wedlock and other forms of human sexuality that are not age appropriate for adolescents. For families that do not monitor what their children watch on television, the adolescents are exposed to content that may impact their decisions on human sexuality. â€Å"One content analysis found that sexual content that ranged from flirting to sexual intercourse had increased from slightly more than half of television programs in 1997-1998 to more than two-thirds of the programs in the 1999-2000 season. Depiction of intercourse (suggestive or explicit) occurred in one of every 10 programs† (Kunkel et al. , 2001). With all of the sexual content aired on television, â€Å"only about 1 in 10 of the programs on television that include sexual content mentions the possible consequences or the need to use contraceptives or protection against STDs. Unintended pregnancies rarely are shown as the outcome of unprotected sex and STDs other than HIV/AIDS are almost never discussed† (Kunkel et al. , 2001). â€Å"Abortion is a taboo topic, too controversial for commercial television and magazines (Walsh-Childers et al. , 2002). † With the number of hours reported that adolescents watch television on a daily basis, a great deal of sexual content is viewed. Without having full understanding of their human sexuality, adolescents often times are misconstrued and make inappropriate choices. In addition to the programs that are aired on television, there are a host of advertisements by means of commercials. Commercials are used to advertise products and services and many of these advertisements employ sex to sell products. I have witnessed how advertisements for selling toilet paper have even become sensual. The use of animals is one example of how advertisements lure the adolescent in to watch the commercial while sending subliminal sensual messages. The types of products advertised on television are more sexual now than when I was younger, as there were no products for sex on television. Today, there is a commercial that airs quite often, and not always during primetime, that advertises lubricant used for sex. In the commercial there is a couple (probably not married) in bed. The music used in the commercial is used to create the imagery of â€Å"intense sex†. This commercial is too sexual for television but yet it is aired without the thought that adolescents may view it or is it? The second form of media is music. Music today is twofold, as it is heard and can also be viewed on television music channels. Adolescents are drawn to music so channels such as VH1 and MTV are watched mostly by adolescents. Music videos portrayal of women is very negative, as women are portrayed as sex objects, are usually provocatively dressed and perform lewd sexual dances. Some of these entertainers are minors themselves marketing to those who are both younger and older than them. The impact of the music videos shown on television has is immense on the adolescent mind. The power of influence is great and is a danger to adolescent girls who aspire to be like their favorite music stars. The impact of the power of influence these entertainers have on adolescent girls is seen in their behavior and dress. The adolescent girls dress is more sexual; make up is worn at a much younger age and the age of their first sexual encounter is younger than previous years. â€Å"One fifth to one half of music videos, depending on the music genre (e. g. , country, rock, rap) portray sexuality or eroticism† (DuRant et al. , 1997). This exposure depicts sex as a way to be popular and happy. However, this exposure has the potential to permanently impact the adolescent as they grow up thinking that sex is something that everybody does if they are to fit in. Sexually explicit videos create imagery in the minds of the adolescent so it is not a surprise when young people act out what they have been exposed to on television. Experimenting with sex has become a rite of passage for many adolescents and not just heterosexual sex but bisexuality is on the rise in both genders. Sex is no longer viewed as sacred but casual sex is portrayed as the way to live and not the â€Å"wait until you are married† phrase that was taught. Casual sex is viewed as something that â€Å"everyone† is doing, especially with the common break ups of couples in the music (and entertainment) industry. What was once thought to be â€Å"out of the ordinary† is now viewed as the social norm amongst society. Television music channels air commercials for condoms, STDs, HIV, etc. , however do not equally air commercial for abstinence. Sexually explicit programming and advertising is a detriment to the self-esteem of the adolescent. Young girls and boys strive to attain the bodies of their teen idols (entertainers, models and actresses) and many of those that are idolized have undergone cosmetic surgery, thus making it impossible for the youth to have these perfect bodies. Seeing idols like Brittney Spears dating different men, being married, dressing like a vixen, being photographed by paparazzi wearing no underwear and the list goes on- young girls see this as positive because Brittney Spears is in a position of influence. The picture below of Britney Spears depicts an example of the provocative dress of a â€Å"teen idol† that many adolescent girls admire and want to be like. The third form of media is the magazine. Some of the popular women magazines are now crafted for the adolescent girls and there are magazines that originated with the adolescent girl in mind. When paging through the magazines, some of the same sexual ads are in the women magazines as in the magazines for young girls. Also found are articles about sex. Although teen girls and womens magazines, such as Seventeen and Glamour have increased their coverage of sexual health issues over the past decade, the majority of advertising and editorial content in these magazines remains focused on what girls and women should do to get and keep their man† (Walsh-Childers, Gotthoffer, Lepre, 2002). The clothing advertised is very grown up looking and most of the print advertisements contain models posing in sexual poses for the came ra. Sometimes girl models are positioned very close to one another, which make wonder if they are homosexual. Perhaps this is considered suggestive advertisement. Magazine ads and covers contain provocative poses and some nudity. Magazine covers like this are intentional, as â€Å"sex sells†. Parents waiting to check out in the supermarket may be embarrassed when their children are present, if there has not been open communication regarding sex. Below is an advertisement for Calvin Klein and two magazine covers which clears depicts sexual content on the magazine cover and in the advertisement. Figure 3: Sexual Messages in Advertising Sexual content in mass media has been around as long as mass media itself,’’ Arizona State professor Mary-Lou Galician, a researcher, author and media literacy advocate says. The difference is the proliferation of it. We live in a 24/7 media world now. Take, as an example, the exploitation of Britney Spears, who is literally pulling off her clothes during her performances. Her real talent lies in being an objectified image. And it is an imag e, by extension, of our country around the world. ’’ (Galician, July 17, 2010) The final form of media to be discussed is the World Wide Web. Easy access to the World Wide Web or the internet, as most say, has increased â€Å"access† to inappropriate forms of media. Incredibly, all forms of media may be accessed by way of the internet. Although sexually explicit forms of media have been in existence years, the propagation of this type of has changed, as it is easily accessible through the internet. Adolescents using the internet to conduct research for school projects may, at times, lead to unwanted advertisements or inappropriate pictures. This is exploiting adolescents to unwanted content. An interview was conducted with three people asking the following five questions. Do you see a change in the sexual content of the media today compared to 10-15 years ago? If yes- then what kind of a change? What do you think about the sexual content of media? Do the media impact adolescents? If yes, how do the media impact adolescents? Below is a summary of the responses: After interviewing a select group of people, 100% say that there is a change in sexual content of the media today in comparison to 10-15 years ago. The kinds of changes reported in response of the survey question are as follows; Television commercials are now aired for medicines to treat sexual dysfunctions Television commercials for sexual enhancement products (KY-Gel) Television commercials that use sensuality to sell toilet paper There is more homosexual character on television shows Television reality shows have explicit sexual content and sexual scenes Television prime time is no longer family time due to sexual content on programs Daytime soaps contain high sexual content Disney and the Nickelodeon channels have more boy/girl dating. It seems like most of the shows are about girls thinking about boys. There is also a lot more hugging and kissing. Music videos today are very sexual. Some of the dancing resembles strip dances and the dress is too provocative for the young entertainers performing the dances. The sexual content of the media is too much for average viewing/listening. Some of the sexual content is too explicit. The music videos no longer sell music but it sells sex. Magazines for adolescents contain too many ads that are sexually laden. Internet is too easy to inadvertently access sexual content and allows sexual content to be available instantly. The overall thought about sexual content in media is that there is far too much. All survey participants agreed that media impact adolescents negatively. One of the participants shared that sometimes exposure is the only teacher and in this case, adolescents being exposed to sexually explicit music videos and television shows that contain a sex scene every few minutes or characters having sex with different partners is a bad example of how they should behave sexually. Adolescents deal with peer pressure from their friends. The more adolescents are exposed to, the more likely they will experiment in order to fit in with their peers. Based on my interviews and the following studies that have been conducted, the sexual content in the media is not only impacting the adolescents, but it also impacts society. â€Å"According to Cultivation Theory, television is the most powerful storyteller in the culture, one that continually repeats the myths and ideologies, the facts and patterns of relationships that define and legitimize the social order. According to the cultivation hypothesis, a steady dose of television, over time, acts like the pull of gravity toward an imagined center. This pull results in a shared set of conceptions and expectations about reality among otherwise diverse viewers† (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, Signorelli, 1994). â€Å"Tests of the hypothesis have found, for example, that junior and senior high school students who frequently viewed daytime soap operas were more likely than those who watched less often to believe that single mothers have relatively easy lives, have good jobs, and do not live in poverty† (Larson, 996). â€Å"Exposure to stereotypical images of gender and sexuality in music videos has been found to increase older adolescents acceptance of nonmarital sexual behavior and interpersonal violence† (Greeson Williams, 1986; Kalof, 1999). â€Å"Heavier television viewers also have been found to have more negative attitudes toward remaining a virgin† (Courtright Baran, 1980). â€Å"Others have shown that prolonged exposure to erotica leads to exaggerated estimates of the prevalence of more unusual kinds of sexual activity (e. g. group sex, sadomasochistic practices, bestiality), less expectation of sexual exclusivity with partners, and apprehension that sexual inactivity constitutes a health risk† (Zillmann, 2000). â€Å"In one experimental study, college student who were exposed to about 5 hours of sexually explicit films over 6 weeks were more likely than a control group to express increased callousness toward women and trivialize rape as a criminal offense† (Zillmann Bryant, 1982). â€Å"Two correlational studies have found relationships between the frequency of television viewing and initiation of intercourse in samples of high school students. However, because these were only cross-sectional analyses, it was not possible to say with certainty which came firstthe TV viewing or the sexual behavior† (Brown Newcomer, 1991; Peterson, Moore, Furstenberg, 1991). Adolescents are easily influenced and unfortunately many adolescents have entertainers as their idols. Unfortunate again, is that many of the teen idols have sold out to the entertainment industry and promote their sexuality in order to sell their product. The type of sexual behavior exhibited by the music industry has great potential to influence the adolescent that is being overly exposed to this type of media. The media has taken an aggressive form of sexual explicitness. The adolescent of the past is no longer the adolescent of today. In the fact, that the adolescent of today is exposed to sexual content in a myriad of media. Adolescents that are exposed to media infiltrated with sexual content may tend to act out what they see. The social norm for sexuality has shifted and desensitization is occurring. This is evident based on the high sexual content in today’s media. Adolescents are challenged with their hormones and peer pressure. They do not need to be exposed to sexual content and further add to their challenges. One of the motives for intercourse in the adolescent is peer pressure, in the form of wanting to be recognized and wanting to be like their peers. With these motives, more pressure from the music videos, television, magazines and the internet are a detriment to the adolescent. It is imperative the parents keep an open line of communication with their adolescent, as it has been proven that the more the adolescent is informed about their sexuality by their parents, then the less likely the adolescent will fall prey to negative sexual behavior. I have friends that are about my age that have three children. They had their children earlier in their marriage, thus their children are older than mine. In sharing, the couple told me that they talk to their kids about everything including sex. They have shared their personal dating experiences with their children. What was interesting to me is that the husband shared that he showers his daughters with love, gifts and takes them on dates. He explained that with the way the world is today and the way young boys are not being taught how to treat a young lady, he wanted to be sure that he personally showed his daughters how they should be treated. His demonstration is first with his wife and then with them in conversation and taking them out. He opens the doors for them and points out how they should not allow themselves to be treated by a man. This was interesting to me because my thought is that if adolescent daughters had a father or male figure in her life exemplifying how a man should treat women, she would be confident as she got older and be able to easily identify the young men who were only interested in her only for sex. When his oldest daughter was a senior in high school, he purchased her a diamond ring and placed it on her wedding ring finger. He explained to her that whoever proposes to her had to at least match what he put on her finger. The wife told me that she explained to both of their daughters how precious they are. She explained to them that diamonds are precious and forever and that what was between their legs was â€Å"better than a diamond†. She told them that the person they chose to give their â€Å"better than a diamond† to should know how to take care of a precious gem and that it should be forever. This is one example of how communication can take place with adolescents to assist them with their self esteem and self worth. Communication is essential to combat the pressures experienced by adolescents. Having high self esteem and self worth will assist in transforming the mind of the adolescent into knowing that being exposed to the media’s high sexual content is not conducive to staying above the teen sexual statistics. Communication was a key factor in the interviews I conducted. In conclusion of â€Å"Media and Adolescent Sexuality†, part of the adolescent development is the formation of sexual beliefs and patterns of behavior. During this development period the adolescent is very impressionable and the information they receive from various means (parents, family members, friends, teachers, the community and the media, etc. ) is what the adolescent uses to develop their personal sexual beliefs and personal patterns of behavior. There have been research and studies conduct to show that media impacts adolescent sexuality. In my opinion, children have greater opportunity of being influenced to whatever they are exposed to, be it positive or negative behavior. In the bible Proverbs 22:6 says â€Å"Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it† (Nelson, Thomas Inc. (1997). What we teach our children is the way they should go, thus it is imperative to teach the adolescent what is right and maintain open communication with them ensuring that the right information regarding human sexuality is shared, otherwise the adolescent will form their behaviors based on the information they receive and with media being a large part of our society they will be exposed to sexual content in a large amount of their everyday lives.

Kentucky Fried Chicken Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Kentucky Fried Chicken - Case Study Example Lastly, this discourse recommends the ideologies for improvising the organization's marketing efforts that can prove to be a share of positive assistance to its future. Kentucky Fried Chicken Corporation, as discussed above, is the world's largest chain of chicken restaurants and is one of the paramount havens for fast-food round the globe. It is the most successful operator in United States as it has made significant ways to maintain its gradation in the international market. KFC offers a whole new variety of fried chicken products as it conjoins both stores as owned by the corporate and the franchise outlets. In response to the call for healthier cuisines from the consumers, the company has recently initiated with involvement in grilled chicken that has gathered enormous response. KFC is at present, owned by PepsiCo, which is also the owner of the Taco Bell fast-food operation. PepsiCo has installed its own management group on senior posts, whereas, the previous owners of KFC such as Heublein permitted senior managers to stay because of KFC's minor existence and familiarity to the world market. This correlation between KFC and PepsiCo has enabled both the brands to endorse their products with a strong financial background assisting to drive the expansion that is the way to prosperity. Marketing Environment Though many countries of the world are new to franchising as a method of expanding business, KFC has enjoyed success through its stores as owned by the corporate. It has been successful in expanding its operations in the foreign markets by out-stripping the fast-food industry as a whole. KFC has learned to develop and introduce new products as it has efficaciously utilized the opportunities that have come its way so far. Since, introduction of new products are the key to a company's prosperity, KFC has proved its metal in the international field as well. For several decades, where other fast-food corporations have recently introduced the expansion of their businesses in to the international market, KFC has witnessed its participation as a successful multi-national corporation. This has led to efficient familiarity with all the logistical and attribute complications as faced by the organizations which, in anyway, accompany to its operation as an international food functioning. It has, therefore, depicted its successful operations with host countries and businesses within the host country in order to establish an effectual strategy to work (LotsOfEssays.com). KFC has experienced success in availing enormous marketing opportunities in the US because of the recent relaxation of rules and regulations that could have hindered the American companies to conduct business. Though, franchising still needs to make a place within the world market, it is no longer a foreign concept to

Pseudoscience and Astrology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Pseudoscience and Astrology - Essay Example The scientists are willing to admit that only a part of traditional astrological doctrine is scientifically based: among them the astronomic knowledge about the planets movements; classification of people’s psychological states, character and behaviours; professional psychological terminology, etc. Trying to prove that astrology is pseudoscience, the scientists in their critical works often rely upon the results of various statistical research. There have been statistical research that traced the lives of people who were born on the same day and time, and the results of this research have shown that there is no connection or coincidence between them. Especially well known are the works of Michel Gauquelin basing on the biographies of famous people that have shown that there is no correlation between a person’s character and profession, on the one hand, and their astrological parameters, on the other. There have been other experiments conducted by M. Gauquelin: Other tests show that it hardly matters what a horoscope says, as long as the subject feels the interpretations were done for him or her personally. A few years ago French statistician Michel Gauquelin sent the horoscope for one of the worst mass murderers in French history to 150 people and asked how well it fit them. Ninety-four percent of the subjects said they recognized themselves in the description. (The Universe At Your Fingertips, 2001-2009)

Strategy For Successful Incorporation of New Believers Into the Church Essay

Strategy For Successful Incorporation of New Believers Into the Church - Essay Example The researcher of this essay discusses a strategy, that s needed in order to ensure that more and more Christians become part of the Church and live a more integrated life within the congregation. Firstly, it is important to develop a practical strategy which can attract more Christians towards the Church. Any strategy to include more members in the Church must be Church centric in nature and should take care of enhancing the role of Church in the lives of those who enter for the first time. In order to further strengthen the relationship of Church with the new members, it is critical to introduce and develop new friendship opportunities. By increasing the number of close friends of the new members, church can actually increase the stay of the members with the Church. It is also important to understand new groups will be started within the Church to address to the different concerns of the new members. These groups will be actually responsible for ensuring that all the concerns of th e new members are taken care of and members are further facilitated to improve their knowledge about the Church. In order to increase the number of new members within the Church, it is important to redefine the roles and responsibilities of the existing members. The researcher also describes these new roles and responsibilities. However, the researcher also concluds that it should be target oriented and will be responsible for ensuring that the objective of increasing the incorporation of new members is increased.

Should Corporate Parents Interfere in the Strategies of Diversified Essay

Should Corporate Parents Interfere in the Strategies of Diversified Groups of Companies - Essay Example Maybe the child company does the same type of product or service as the parent but more than often not. Some corporate strategies involve micro-managing the interests of the subordinate while others believe that letting the child manage its own affairs will result in a profitable win-win for both. So the question remains then, how much control should the parent exercise over the child? Discussion In the perfect corporate parent and child relationship the parent corporation is simply there to guide as it were. As in the physical parent and child relationship, the parent hopes the child will grow and prosper. No parent would ever expect his four year old child to stagnate there and on the same token the company that prospered in1998 to keep the same strategies as then. Times change, peoples’ needs change, and companies should be flexible enough to keep abreast of those changes. If not, the â€Å"cash cow† of 1998 might have turned into the dog of 2012. Therefore, the parent company should train and coach, while helping the child prepare for the future, only intervening when absolutely necessary for both of their continued successes. A good example of a company that failed to envision the future and failed to intervene was the now defunct Packard car company. From the early days of the automobile, the Packard name stood beside Cadillac and Lincoln as the symbol of luxury American cars. Yet the company made a fatal mistake when it acquired Studebaker in 1953, in response to decreased sales because of cutthroat competition by the Big Three. Even though it was financially solvent, Packard executives failed to see how troubled Studebaker actually was. A short five years later the last Packard was made and the Company tried to continue on as its child. By 1966, the entire company was bankrupt. Speaking of car companies, in 2008 General Motors found itself in financial trouble and received a Government loan. As part of its restructuring activities, and under pressure from Congress, the conglomerate agreed to divest itself of three divisions, one of which was Hummer. Although fairly profitable, Hummer was seen as a ball ast company that would eventually be driven out by its gas-guzzling SUV’s. So GM tried to sell the division but the deal fell through and Hummer was retired in 2010. The above were car companies though that owned other car companies. What about when the child’s core business is totally different from the parent’s? Back to GM, they owned appliance giant Frigidaire for sixty years. Yet their meddling in company affairs and trying to adapt the car model to home appliances, as well as foreign competition, caused Frigidaire to lose a whopping forty million dollars in1978. So GM saw them as an underperforming dog and sold the company to White Consolidated Industries in 1979. White likewise interfered with company business in such a manner that research and new product development was retarded for over a decade, almost a fatal blow to the ever volatile appliance business. Fortunately, White was likewise acquired by the Swedish firm Electrolux in the late eighties. Appl ying the European model to Frigidaire and making the brand visible helped them dramatically by the middle 1990’s and although behind industry leader Whirlpool in overall sales revenue, Frigidaire is still around and fairly healthy (Frigidaire). PepsiCo is a good example of a global corporation that leads its subsidiaries properly and makes just enough interference to ensure that profitability is obtained by both parent and child. True, most if not all of the conglomerate’s secondary companies deal with some segment of the food industry

The world price of copper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The world price of copper - Essay Example In fact, the trade of copper began prior to the Bronze Age when Cyprus began to receive copper objects from Egypt for cuneiforms purposes. In Ancient Greece, copper has been used for architectural work and currency development while the demand for better material due to technical developments and emergence of stamping press have raised the need for copper during Industrial Revolution. Indeed, the rise of copper usage is seen dramatically as Bronze Age entered because copper has been used for several purposes. From Industrial Revolution up to the Contemporary Era, the figure below showed the worldwide changes in the prices of copper from year 2004 to 2011. From a price of $2,424 in January 2004, the price of became high amounting to $8,046 in May 2008. However, price rates fell rapidly to $3,072 in December 2008 and somewhere in 2010. With these data, one might ask â€Å"What drives the changes in the world price of copper? What are the reasons for the increase in world price of copp er? What are the reasons that made the price of copper low?† To answer the questions above, let us examine factors that may affect the price of a product – a perfect example of which would be the law of demand and supply. This could be illustrated in the table below: To guide you in understanding the figure, the horizontal line (Q) in the left figure refers to the number of quantity being demanded while the vertical line refers to the price of the product. In this paper, let us use copper to refer to the product; whereas on the right figure, it represents the relationship between quantity and price using arrows. According to Mankiw (2012), the law of demand states that as the price of the good falls, the quantity demanded rises; whereas, the law of supply states that as the price of the good rises, the quantity also supplied rises (p. 85). These relationships with price explain why the demand curve slopes downward and the supply curve slopes upward. In addition, the arr ow representation of the law of demand is seen on the right figure above. Let us apply the law of demand and supply to the worldwide changes in the prices of copper from year 2004 to 2011 (refer to the figures below). From year January 2004 to May 2008 (period of worldwide increase in copper), assumptions derived from the law of demand and supply will lead to hypotheses that the quantity of copper being demanded must have decreased or the quantity of copper being supplied must have increased for its worldwide price to escalate. Meanwhile, the reverse phenomenon in which the quantity of copper being demanded must have increased or the quantity of copper being supplied must have decreased since December 2008 for its worldwide price to de-escalate. To prove our hypotheses, let us take a closer look at the copper market. As stated earlier, copper has been of major importance to the metal industry and its prices are largely determined by the interaction of demand and supply. Thus, it is essential to allocate resources equally to attain state of equilibrium or balance. In the year 2003 to 2008, the need for copper increased dramatically as China, India, and other Asian countries accumulated supplies for structural reasons (Lipsey and Chrystal, 2007, p. 151). After 2008, world market price of copper began to collapse

Open Topic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Open Topic - Essay Example Having this picture in mind as one would see fit or relevant, he may likely admit being overwhelmed at trying to rationalize from a political perspective which is mostly responsible on negotiating with this type of crisis. Along this line comes natural inquisition on the availability of feasible solutions and how they can be made capable in the long-term to chiefly target certain causes as high gasoline taxes, , war in the Middle East, civil and political unrests in nations involved, as well as insufficient number of refineries. Nevertheless since the end-users are consistently affected by the price adjustment on gasoline, it essentially matters to bring oneself in the scenario of maneuvering, no matter how implicitly, to effect a favorable balance. At his own rate, an ordinary consumer can for instance think of an alternative way of managing a personal task or operation without having to utilize an engine run by gas.

Should Corporate Parents Interfere in the Strategies of Diversified Essay

Should Corporate Parents Interfere in the Strategies of Diversified Groups of Companies - Essay Example Maybe the child company does the same type of product or service as the parent but more than often not. Some corporate strategies involve micro-managing the interests of the subordinate while others believe that letting the child manage its own affairs will result in a profitable win-win for both. So the question remains then, how much control should the parent exercise over the child? Discussion In the perfect corporate parent and child relationship the parent corporation is simply there to guide as it were. As in the physical parent and child relationship, the parent hopes the child will grow and prosper. No parent would ever expect his four year old child to stagnate there and on the same token the company that prospered in1998 to keep the same strategies as then. Times change, peoples’ needs change, and companies should be flexible enough to keep abreast of those changes. If not, the â€Å"cash cow† of 1998 might have turned into the dog of 2012. Therefore, the parent company should train and coach, while helping the child prepare for the future, only intervening when absolutely necessary for both of their continued successes. A good example of a company that failed to envision the future and failed to intervene was the now defunct Packard car company. From the early days of the automobile, the Packard name stood beside Cadillac and Lincoln as the symbol of luxury American cars. Yet the company made a fatal mistake when it acquired Studebaker in 1953, in response to decreased sales because of cutthroat competition by the Big Three. Even though it was financially solvent, Packard executives failed to see how troubled Studebaker actually was. A short five years later the last Packard was made and the Company tried to continue on as its child. By 1966, the entire company was bankrupt. Speaking of car companies, in 2008 General Motors found itself in financial trouble and received a Government loan. As part of its restructuring activities, and under pressure from Congress, the conglomerate agreed to divest itself of three divisions, one of which was Hummer. Although fairly profitable, Hummer was seen as a ball ast company that would eventually be driven out by its gas-guzzling SUV’s. So GM tried to sell the division but the deal fell through and Hummer was retired in 2010. The above were car companies though that owned other car companies. What about when the child’s core business is totally different from the parent’s? Back to GM, they owned appliance giant Frigidaire for sixty years. Yet their meddling in company affairs and trying to adapt the car model to home appliances, as well as foreign competition, caused Frigidaire to lose a whopping forty million dollars in1978. So GM saw them as an underperforming dog and sold the company to White Consolidated Industries in 1979. White likewise interfered with company business in such a manner that research and new product development was retarded for over a decade, almost a fatal blow to the ever volatile appliance business. Fortunately, White was likewise acquired by the Swedish firm Electrolux in the late eighties. Appl ying the European model to Frigidaire and making the brand visible helped them dramatically by the middle 1990’s and although behind industry leader Whirlpool in overall sales revenue, Frigidaire is still around and fairly healthy (Frigidaire). PepsiCo is a good example of a global corporation that leads its subsidiaries properly and makes just enough interference to ensure that profitability is obtained by both parent and child. True, most if not all of the conglomerate’s secondary companies deal with some segment of the food industry

Open Topic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Open Topic - Essay Example Having this picture in mind as one would see fit or relevant, he may likely admit being overwhelmed at trying to rationalize from a political perspective which is mostly responsible on negotiating with this type of crisis. Along this line comes natural inquisition on the availability of feasible solutions and how they can be made capable in the long-term to chiefly target certain causes as high gasoline taxes, , war in the Middle East, civil and political unrests in nations involved, as well as insufficient number of refineries. Nevertheless since the end-users are consistently affected by the price adjustment on gasoline, it essentially matters to bring oneself in the scenario of maneuvering, no matter how implicitly, to effect a favorable balance. At his own rate, an ordinary consumer can for instance think of an alternative way of managing a personal task or operation without having to utilize an engine run by gas.

The Lord of the Flies Journal Entry Chapter 2 Essay Example for Free

The Lord of the Flies Journal Entry Chapter 2 Essay Day 1 Today’s events have left me thinking a bit. After we got back from exploring the island, Ralph assembled another meeting to spread our new discoveries. We realized everyone would not stop talking at once, so Ralph decided that whoever holds the conch has the right to talk and can only be interrupted by Ralph himself. Great idea at first, until that fat, useless oaf Piggy took it. He wouldn’t stop worrying and whining about getting rescued. Ralph said it himself, his dad’s a navy commander and will probably have us rescued in a few days. I don’t understand why he doesn’t have faith in Ralph like the others. After a while, Ralph brought up the great idea of making a fire in order to signal the rescuers we would be on the island. I knew there was little time to waste just sitting around, so I led the group into the forest to gather firewood. Upon gathering wood, I was the one who came up with the idea of using Fatty’s specs as burning glasses. Still, I had never imagined that keeping a fire burning would be so hard! Later, I humbly offered the choir to maintain the fire in shifts. Everything went well until that swine Piggy decided to speak out again. He kept repeating himself about how building a fire was a bad choice, even though he didn’t contribute squat to anything to begin with. Still, bigger problems arose to overshadow his stupidity. The fire we thought had been put out actually spread and began burning down a chunk of the forest. To top it off, we are now missing a little shrimp with a mulberry-colored scar on his face. I remember him as the one who wouldn’t stop scaring others by talking about the â€Å"beasties in the forest†. Stupid kids always getting themselves into trouble. As the leader of the hunters, I will definitely find him.

Giving An Effective Oral Presentation Goals English Language Essay

Giving An Effective Oral Presentation Goals English Language Essay INTRODUCTION An effective oral presentation achieve their objective and usually bring some benefit and learning to all the people involved in them, whether presenter, audience or tutor Chivers, B. Shoolbred, M. (2007) 1.1 What Is Oral Presentation Oral presentation involves communication between a speaker and an audience. Oral presentation is a process of speaking to a group of audience. The aim of presentation is usually to inform, to persuade the audience to act, to influence, to entertain, or to make audience think in a certain way. 1.2 Outline Academic Context Where English Is Important According to Crystal, D. (1997), English language is important because it has been widely dispersed around the world, become the leading language of international discourse, and has acquired use as lingua franca in many regions. English is a dominant language or in some instance even the required international language of communication, science, information technology, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy.  [1]   1.3 Need For Speech Training In English Speaker can refine their craft with ongoing training and education. Speaker will be a more effective communicator and will be able to influence and persuade audience as speech training increase speaker confident in spoken skills. Skills training included: Interpretion of symbols to create meaning. Regulative rules and constitutive rules in communication. Punctuation in communication affects meaning. Voice attributes (i.e., volume, pitch, intonation, tone, tempo, enunciation and pronunciation) affect speech quality. A confident speaker is more likely to use this as excitement and create effective speech thus increasing their overall ethos.  [2]   SPEAKING IN A FORMAL ACADEMIC CONTEXT 2.1 Description Of The Transactional Model Of Communication Transactional model shows communication as an ongoing and continuously changing process which takes into consideration the effects of noise, time and systems. In transaction model, communicators can be a speaker and a listener, and can send and receive messages simultaneously. In fact, the word transaction indicates that the communication process is cooperative. In other words, communicators that is senders and receivers are both responsible for the effect and effectiveness of communication. In a transactional encounter, people do not simply send meaning from one to other and then back again; rather, they build share meaning.  [3]   2.2 Public Speaking Skills And Strategies Speaker can improve social skills to conquer fear of speaking in front of an audience. Speaker can boost self-confidence and project better in diverse situations. An effective speaker exerts a dynamic hold on an audience and can be very persuasive. A good speaker is usually sensitive to audience needs and reactions. Public speaking enhance academic and professional abilities. Speaker can be more critical when analysing arguments and information given. Speaker also able to respond appropriately to criticism and arguments. Public speaking skills help speaker to be more adept at reaching out to various types of people as speaker tailor speech to the needs of different audiences. Speaker also enhance leadership skills as speaker learn to present views and convince, and sway audience all without causing offence or slight to any group of people. There are many strategies to delivery presentation: Think positively. Change the way to think. Build confidence through careful preparation. Make use of a positive visualisation process to reduce anxiaty. Go through a positive public speaking experience or enlist the help of someone who can guide. Systemic desensitisation is used to treat many fear. It focuses on reducing the physical symptoms related to anxiety associated with any event and teaches people how to relax. The aim is to associate feeling good and relaxed with communication situations. Skills training in public speaking will teach ways to organise ideas as well as prepare and delivery speeches. Learning more about oral presentation skills will also help feel confident about giving speeches. Prepare and practse speech. Remember the main points, write down notes on cue cards and express what to say naturally.Get family or friends to listen and get feedback. Many relaxation techniques can be used to help to release tension when to give a speech. A simple one is to breathe deeply and then exhale slowly. The best way to minimize fear or anxiety is to get as much public speaking experience. With experience, initial fear will give way to comfort, confidence and even enjoyment. 2.3 Importance And Types Of Audience Analysis Audience analysis is essential in determining how speaker can build their presentation. Speaker would need to know the audience and purpose of the presentation because it affects the equipment to use, the level of preparation need to make, the type of attire need to wear etc. Make enquiries about the audience, with respect to their gender, age, social, economic, and educational backgrounds, prior knowledge, expectation, likes and dislikes, occupational backgrounds, place of residence, habits personality etc. The style of presentation should also be in tune with audience. PREPARING AN ORAL PRESENTATION 3.1 Setting And Audience Speaker familiar with the setting in which the speech is to be made is one way to reduce panic attacks and minimise the risk of unexpected problem cropping up at the last minute. For instance, speaker should find out the exact location of the place where the presentation is to be held. Start off early for the place if it is in the midst of a traffic congestion area. If arrive early, check whether need to go up on stage to present talk, and if there is a rostrum or not. Also check the public address system and the equipment that needs to be utilised. There is always the risk that the computer and the LCD projector might not function properly, find out how can get in touch with technicians who can assist when this happen. Purpose And Topic Purpose of presentation must be linked to the presentation topic. Based on this purpose, speaker must then spell out the objective. According to Cleary, S. (2008), the presentation must have a clearly defined purpose, to ensure a clear focus. The purpose of the presentation influences the choice of objective. The objective should be more specific. Structuring The Presentation Presentation must be structured in such a way so as to reflect clarity and smoothness. Audience is a listening audience and not a reading one. Audience cannot pay attention for a long period of time and may find the presentation difficult to follow if it is not systematically structured and organised. Structuring begin from main ideas. The issues that need to be discussed within each main point should be reduced in scope, especially when there is a likehood that the presentation would go beyond the limit. Each of the main ideas should be properly introduces, arranged and concluded. The sequence of main ideas should in a a manner that makes it easy for the audience to follow, such as start from the easier to the more difficult, or from the known to the unknown. Speaker can also opt to follow a time sequence. The arrangement of the points can also follow a logical sequence. Choosing Appropriate Support Materials Information can be found anywhere. In formal ways as in lectures, tutorials, books, newspapers, speeches, radio, TV etc., or in informal ways as in conversations, gossip, personal notes, memo, hearsay etc. Information can be found in a variety of media, formats and scripts. Not all information is relevant or suitable for speaker presentation. Evaluate the information obtained and select that which important for presentation. The ideal stage for evaluating the materials retrieved should be at the point of reading them, following the criteria setted. The scope, range and depth of presentation will depend on the evaluation and selection criteria that have setted. There are five criteria used in evaluating information; authority, accuracy and reliability, objectivity, currency and scope.  [4]   The material collected can be put into certain categories based on the main ideas raised. There might be a nedd to create sub-ideas under each main idea. Rehearsing The Presentation Speaker should rehearse presentation until confident that speaker can handle all aspect with finesse. Rehearse not only the verbal content of the presentation but also speaker posture, gesture and use of presentation aids.  [5]   Rehearsing can be done in front of a mirror. Speaker can see how their stand, look and deliver presentation. Rehearsing also can be done in front of friends who will give fair and honest feedback about content and delivery. MAKING AN EFFECTIVE ORAL PRESENTATION 4.1 Introducing The Topic An important step when giving an oral presentation is to introduce the topic before beginning to talk about it. This help to prepare the audience to listen to the presentation. 4.2 Presenting The Content When presenting the content, it is important to organise the presentation. It is good to outline what is speaker going to speak about. Make sure that the outline consists of introduction, body of content and conclusion. When making a presentation, make sure to stand straight and maintain eye contact with the audience. Dont forget to greet the audience before start presentation. Try not to read from notes. Talk to audience instead. Speak with an even tone. Be loud enough to be heard but do not shout. Drawing A Conclusion An important step when giving an oral presentation is to conclude the talk well. Speaker should summarise the main points of the presentation. This helps the audience to grasp what has been said. When its over, thank the audience for being good listener and leave with a smile. 4.4 Tips For Effective Delivery Here some proven tips on how to build confident and give better presentation: Know more about material than what been include in presentation. Use humour or personal storiese. So, that way speaker would not easily forget what to say.  [6]   Practise, practise and practise! Rehearse out loud with all equipment to use. Revise as necessary. Work to control filler word; practise, pause, breathe. Practise with a timer and allow time for unexpected.  [7]   Know the room. Arrive early, walk around the speaking area and practise using the microphone and any visual aids.  [8]   Know the audience. Greet the audiences. Its easier to speak to a group of friends than to strangers.  [9]   Relax. Transform nervous into enthusiasm. Concentrate on the presentation. Focus attention away from anxiety. SUMMARY