Value Chain

Value Chain Analysis ******** Diagram ********* The above model demonstrates the principal element of Value Chain Analysis for an organization such as Easyjet. The integration of the above elements ultimately delivers great margin potential and thus the ideal high profitability status. I will provide a detailed analysis of this model to highlight the core capabilities of Easyjet: Infrastructure Main headquarters based in Luton. Provides excellent communication with motorways, railway lines and bus access Low overheads Paperless office No ticketing system with posted ticket Simple distribution channel management (through the Internet or call centers) Low airport costs (minimal time of aircraft on the ground), thus achieving economies of scale Financial resource investment initially supported by Haji-loannou HR Management Haji-loannou, high profile entrepreneur (shipping tycoon background), Hands-on-approach from Haji-loannou – looking for opportunities to diversify and expand, Innovative marketing terms for marketing communications to date. Technology Development Booking through the Internet (higher margins, with a more manageable, simplistic system) Strong reputation for being an airline where bookings are made via the phone or Internet. Procurement Easy purchase system in place for flight bookings Negotiated low cost airport fees Simple staff uniforms No tedious ticketing system in place Below you will find a commentary on how these key elements are also integrated into the Easyjet business and further, how the strengths can be used to develop and extend the Easyjet brand. Inbound Logistics Excellent communication system in place at airports and easy flight booking policy/payment methods convey an image of convenience – a key benefit to consumers Operations and Outbound Logistics Good marketing strategy – ‘we have the best’ approach Partnerships and promotional tie-ins with the mass media High profile PR strategy (for example: the PR stunt against Robert Ayling, Chief Executive of British Airways and its budget airline â€Å"GO† – gains cheap PR coverage) Fine targeting of attractive segments emerging e. . utilization of casual uniforms. However, safety is always a critical concern and is up to par with the standards of other airlines. Service Convenience and simplicity are of integral importance Affordable, frequent, reliable, safe slots are offered to an increasing number of new destinations No frills and/or complications are associated with the travel experience. Conclusion Clearly Easyjet has some at tractive core capabilities that have been established in the marketplace and are perceived as ultimately beneficial to the consumer. The Value Chain Analysis highlights those elements of the business that can be integrated or fine-tuned (through for example ‘just in time’ systems, quality standards and relationship marketing) in order to achieve the overall objectives of high margins, profitability and market share. Perceived superior services or products, market knowledge, industry contacts, legal advantages (patents, copyrights) perceived high value brands, low overheads, economies of scale and an offensive marketing approach are some of the key factors / elements for sustaining a competitive advantage and indeed promoting the Easyjet family of companies.

“MYD Program”

The Make Your Day Program is shaped to develop classroom management through evaluation and assessment as academic protocols in enhancing the student’s performance in school as well as with the development of the â€Å"guidance† aided by the school instructors. Consequently, on the case presented, the most efficient way to bring back the enthusiasm of the student is through the utilization of parent-teacher collaboration and Make Your Day Program philosophies—â€Å"do what is expected and do it the best you can†Ã¢â‚¬â€which provides the student the opportunity to engage in self-peer-teacher evaluation tackling their efforts and behaviors on an everyday basis with corresponding points.   Conceivably, with the aide of constant communication and opening up the emotion of the child and making the student share the presupposed reason for the actions, the predicament shall then be given ample attention and analysis so as to draw the ability of the child away from the verve of unreceptive reactions. Classroom management dilemma The speaking incentive or the pre-requisite regard towards communication strategies has been evident in educational curricula in the contemporary society.   Hence, it is undeniable that there are students who possess the utterly â€Å"shy† personality by which they are unable to air what they wish to express in classroom for reasons which are laid on the issue on health, racial discrimination, status quo or an innate sense of anxiety (Aviv, 2007). These problems are cited by communications professors as a an â€Å"academic dilemma† since that it pulls back the student from getting the whole gist of what is to be acquired in school only because there exists a cold feet in expressing their emotions—which by hand is considered as a vital factor in learning—to be able to share their thoughts.   Studies show that there are students who fail getting a degree and drop out of further education because of the crippled ability in public speaking or in effective communication by which various profession pay high regard and attention. Reference Aviv, R. (2007, November 13, 2007). Don’t Be Shy. The New York Times.      

Public good provision, punishment, cooperation, and defection Essay - 1

Public good provision, punishment, cooperation, and defection - Essay Example Along with it, in case of public good consumption, no one has the right to exclude some other individual from consuming the good. In practice, it would be difficult to find out such goods which are non-rivaled as well as non-excluded in an absolute term. However, economists generally think that although absolute non-rivaled and non-excluded goods are non-existent, there exist some goods which have the feature that approximate the concept of public goods. The paper addresses both the problems and necessity of public goods, generation of negative emotions owing to free riders and the necessity of punishments. In case of understanding the problem relating to the public good provisioning, it is necessary to build up clear understanding regarding public good. Some examples can be used here to understand the features of public goods and why it efficient provisioning seems to be so problematic. For the purpose of easy understanding let us consider the case where a person is drinking one glass of milk. Once he finishes his drinking there will remain no milk in the glass for the other person to consume. Therefore, any other person is getting excluded from consumption of the milk in the glass. Therefore, this one glass of milk is a rivaled and excluded good. In contrast, let us assume the case of breathing air. It is a well known fact that breathing air can not be reduced significantly by the consumption of it by some person. Therefore other persons can easily get access to this breathing air, and non one can be excluded from breathing. So, breathing air can be regarded as non-rivaled and non-excluded good. But there is no such problem in the provision of breathing air since it is a natural resources. No cost goes into its production. These are known as free goods. But thing is not same for all the non-rivaled and non-exclude goods. All public goods are not free goods. For a large set of public goods, huge

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

Kernel - Essay Example omposed of four basic elements which include; a scheduler which functions to sharing and processing time of various computer processes; a supervisor which grants permission to every process as it is scheduled; interrupt handler for handling of requests from computer hard disk components and memory manager for allocating system space Kernel’s services. Most five popular distributions of Kernel Linux include; Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSUSE, Debian and Linux Mint. Subsequently, there are numerous shell distributions that are available for kernel, among this include, sh, bash and tcsh. (Bovet & Cesati, 2005) For every command that has been entered in the shell, the fork mechanism searches the computer’s directories using the search path within the computer’s PATH location, after which it is loaded and executed. For fast command entry, bash shell has three features, history, filename completion and aliases. The alias feature shortens lengthy commands, for instance When using several commands in bash, it is essential that alias definitions be made permanent so that the user’s source file will be executed by all login shells. This requires one to replace alias definitions in $HOME/.bash_alias with

Ambiguity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Ambiguity - Essay Example It seems that the context for which ambiguity is expressed is the main deciding factor in its impact. Its impact should be judged on presumed results of that expression. If we consider the advertising industry, people often feel that the nature of advertising in the postmodern era needs ambiguous presentation at times to attract multitude of audience. They feel that ambiguous advertising can attract more audience while satisfying orthodox thinkers about the presentation nature of a product or service. For example, if we consider the marketing of a product that is treated as unconventional, ambiguous advertising can serve two purposes. Firstly, a viewer can get impressed by the appealing presentation of the product and more inclined towards acquiring the product (The Ambiguity of Advertising, 2008). Secondly, this nature helps in attracting multiple audiences with different perceptions (The Ambiguity of Advertising, 2008). It helps respective company and/or advertising agencies to defend their marketing strategy in case of any controversies. Moreover, the ambiguous presentation aids in attracting vast audience with minimal and intelligent investment. However, this attitude may sometimes backfire with its enormous negative consequences (The Ambiguity of Advertising, 2008). The reasons for it can be related to the same factors that hill attracting more customers. Lack of clarity in advertising the intended benefits of a product or service leads to confusion for the audience whether or not to opt for its service. Also, people who misinterpret or identify exactly the actual purpose of the advertisement may feel reluctant to acquire it. With the advancements in technologies and change of various dimensions in the world, the level of ambiguity at various levels has increased dramatically over the years (Alessandra, 2001). This nature has

Religion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

Religion - Essay Example 206-207). The underlying idea behind the black womanist liberation theory is the liberation, freedom and respect of black women and all other people from all ages, genders, races, sexual tendencies, and ecologies. Moreover, black womanist theologians highlight that the unique experiences of their female ancestors have an immense importance in relation to the idea of God and survival in this world (Kamitsuka & American Academy of Religion, pp. 12-18). From example, notable black womanist theologian Jacquelyn Grant while presenting her critique on the white feminist theology and its racism expressed that black women are the ones that have felt and experienced Jesus more closely as anyone else because of the fact that their suffering have made sense Jesus as their co-suffer (Isherwood & McEwan, pp. 68-70). Since Jesus represented the divine incarnation of the Almighty, therefore they are in turn more closely to the creator of the world. Jesus opted for himself the life of despair, tyranny, inequ ality, weakness, and misery and the same has been the case with the black women, and they are blessed to be a part of the same situation in which Jesus lived his life to give a message to the World (Kamitsuka & American Academy of Religion, pp. 12-18). Therefore, the claim of the black womanist theologians is to own their history, learn from it and aim at creating at a better tomorrow for their upcoming generations (Bradley, pp. 206-207). However, the white feminist theology focuses more on oppression of females in general. This theology aims at recreating the role of women as religious authority in their respective religions to earn respect and power, removal or gender related or more specifically male related elements from the concept of God making it more acceptable to females (Isherwood & McEwan, pp. 68-70). Furthermore, highlighting and glorifying the role and image of females as mothers and wives that are the key stones of the society and the lives of the

Developing Marketing Communication Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Developing Marketing Communication - Coursework Example The flagship concept of marketing involves the communication and product promotion for products considered top of the art used to drive sales in international markets (Samsung Mobile, 2014). Using marketing concepts and theories such as the theory of the firm, marketing mix, and retention marketing mix, this paper seeks to analyze SE’s use of GUC as a product promotion campaign. In addition, the applicability of the media and promotion tools is assessed and compared with theoretical best practice. For instance, using the theory of the firm, it is considered best practice for companies to mitigate their spending and increase returns such that product promotion is both beneficial to the company and directly influencing sales positively (Luo, & Donthu, 2006). The paper concludes with recommendations regarding areas in product promotion where Samsung should adapt different or improve on the current approach. For instance, international campaigns featuring products that do not make it to the international market burden promotional campaigns with extra costs. Samsung Electronics (SE), is a technology company that competes in the mainstream international smartphone industry. To address the threat of surging sales following the entry of alternative cheaper phones such as Xiaomi Note targeting the Chinese market, Samsung developed the GUC to familiarize customers with the ‘Next Big Thing’ (Extreme Tech, 2014). Samsung trades all its flagship smartphones with the tagline, ‘The Next Big Thing’ which serves the purpose of communicating to customers about the currently released premium products (Samsung Mobile, 2014). SE’s 2014-GUC makes use the DRIP (Different, Reinforce, Inform, and Persuade) Model aiming at: In SE, GUC targets the international middle-to-upper class customers (Extreme Tech, 2014). Although Samsung products are sizably cheaper than those of competitors such as Apple, the company’s

Total Rewards Program Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Total Rewards Program - Case Study Example g back to several millennia in ancient China and the fabled old city of Babylon under Hammurabi (1750 B.C.E.); a key concept of insurance as a form of protection against any financial losses has stayed the same all throughout from ancient times to modern times. Another vital concept in modern insurance is the use of statistical data and probabilities to determine insurance rates, using actuarial science. In this regard, it has become almost an entirely mechanical process, using powerful computers to determine the risk premiums suitable for an insurable risk, to be able to produce a profit. The original use of insurance was to protect traders who transport their goods using the sometimes treacherous or dangerous river rapids in ancient China from a possible sinking of the boat carrying the goods. In the probability a boat had capsized, the indemnification a trader gets from the insurance will ensure he can rise again financially. In Babylon, the concept of insurance had a much different application. A sea merchant whose ship sinks in the Mediterranean Sea can expect to recoup his losses, because he had paid a premium on the loan to finance his expedition. That extra premium will enable the lender to cancel the loan in case of a ship sinking. In todays capitalist, free-market environment, insurance coverage extends to many situations, such as life, car, boat, condominium unit, motorcycle, or anything of value, even the health of a person. Insurance is a financial product that needs to be sold aggressively, as opposed to other consumer products which people simply buy on their own initiative. Unless it is mandated, as in the case of the new health insurance coverage as required by law under the health reform act, it is a product that most people would rather do without, as premium payment is an added expense. It is therefore important for an insurance firm to have a wide network of sales agents who will push its insurance policies, preferably exclusively with

Toyota Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Toyota - Term Paper Example The accelerator issue gradually turned to be one of the engineering defects with the vehicle’s software that caused the poor response of the pedals. It was not a simple issue for defective floor mats (Spaller, Willms, O’Connor & Daniels, 2014). Further, the controversy developed from Toyota amounted to delays in public response and action from Toyota following the accident. In most cases, the matter was downplayed by public informing and news releases from Toyota’s management. The absence of urgency from Toyota’s part was an illustration of poor handling and management of previously unseen risks resulting from poor planning. There are various ethical issues feeding into from the accelerator recall. In recent years, Toyota gathered a reputation for safe and reliable vehicles. The defective pedals raised concerns, and Toyota sought to surpass and grow General Motors as a global performer in the automobile company. The desire to advance growth called for an expansion of manufacturing plants from home country, Japan (Spaller, Willms, O’Connor & Daniels, 2014). This resulted in the expansion of the capacities of supply. Toyota continues to pride itself on â€Å"genchigenbutsu† and â€Å"kaizen† principles that translated to â€Å"continuous improvement† as well as â€Å"inspecting problems from the source†. Toyota’s reputation and culture for excellence coupled with cultures of hesitance to take up the responsibility in the rise of accidents. Establishing a warning label such as â€Å"Accelerator may stick, apply caution† on its vehicles would be negligent on Toyota’s part as the users of the automobiles were put at fatality risks in defective vehicles. Caution does not involve adequate cover conditions up of deaths by user within the automobile industry. The firm appeared hesitant to broach ethical issues on its advertising. During the period, Toyota’s advertising

Marketing Simulation Analysis Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Marketing Simulation Analysis Paper - Essay Example The organization is divided into four foundational structures each division having a leader. The finance division is chaired by the chief finance officer (CFO), who oversees the director of finance, human resource division and the staff accounts. The marketing division chaired by the chief marketing officer (CMO) and two other supporting stuff members. The operations division led by the chief operations officer and one supporting stuff member. Strategic/international growth chaired by the strategic growth (VP) and one supporting stuff member. As a result of the increased need of customer satisfaction, we developed our first brand computer called the hot coffee. The reason for developing the brand was to attain a modern, universal brand that would suit and be utilized by the younger generation (university students). This service was appealing to the consumers and unique compared to those offered by competing companies (Clancy & Krieg, 2007). Hot coffee was in some way a luxury which w as not cheap but affordable to the consumer’s mind in this case being the students. This brand was aimed at making customers in the organization the organization to feel the modern day technology. We devised a number of ways to advertise our products. The first advertising piece to be used was â€Å"launch ad†. ... The large amount of money used in the launching of the sales office and the advertisement development resulted into reduced profits. Due to the losses experienced in the third quarter, we focused on reducing engineering and advertising costs during the fourth quarter to lower the expenditure. Here we aimed at reducing the amount spent to cater for the losses incurred in the third quarter. The losses in the third quarter further led to low profitability of the coffee brand. Mercedes and Workhouse are the resources that demanded for the brand. Although there was high revenue during the first and the second quarters, the expenses were not enough to meet the demand requirements. Financial weakness experienced led to budgets and resources not aligning to profit growth. In this quarter, the profitability is low. To raise the profit, we designed a brand called hot tea, which is a model type of computer whose prices is low. This transformed the company to becoming simple and clear hence incr easing the number of customers which in turn increased the profit margin. We also opened a new sales office in Paris to facilitate the growth of the existing brand as we planned for future development of new brands. We also aimed at lowering the base model price. Focusing on performance to gain profit was the main aim in the fifth quarter since expansion had taken place during the fourth quarter. In case profit-gaining failed here, it would be achieved in the sixth quarter. Iced coffee, offered from quarter one to quarter four, and hot tea introduced in quarter four increased profit. Low prices led to reduction of lose. Basing on profitability, iced coffee is more profitable than hot tea. While in terms of competition,

Soviet Union Essay Example for Free

Soviet Union Essay Name_____________________________________________ Unit Four: Ethnicity 1. Define ethnicity:_____________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________ 3. List the four ethnicities mentioned in your text and list their regional location and percentage of the U.S. population: Ethnicity Region % in U.S. 4. List two cities where African Americans are concentrated and give the percentage of population they make up in these cities: 4.a._________________________________________________________________________________ 4.b.__________________________________________________________________________________ 5. List three cities where Hispanics are concentrated and give the percentage of population they make up in these cities: 5.a._________________________________________________________________________________ 5.b.__________________________________________________________________________________ 5.c._________________________________________________________________________________ 6. Name and describe three major migration patterns of African-Americans that have shaped their current distribution in the U. S: 6.a._________________________________________________________________________________ 6.b.__________________________________________________________________________________ 6.c._________________________________________________________________________________ 7. Contrast ethnicity and

The Relationship And Unity Of The Malaysian People Education Essay

The Relationship And Unity Of The Malaysian People Education Essay The new economy policy was introduced by the government to strengthen the relationship and unity of the Malaysian people. By introducing new economy policy, the number of job opportunities had increased irrespective ethnicity, thus improve the relationship between people from different races. Besides that, DEB also played the roles to reduce and eliminate the identification of each race based on their works and living place. For example, Malay people usually live and work in the village while Indian people live and work on the estate. This will result in less interaction between both races and unities between them will not success easily. DEB had overcome this problem by providing equal opportunity to all Malaysian. The national Education policy was set up as recommended by Razaks Report 1956. According to the KLIK website (n.d), the aim of this report was to establish a national education system that would promote the cultural, social, economic and political development accepted by the nation as well as making the Malay language as the national language and the main language used in school. After Razaks Report, the government introduced a few education reports that contained better recommendations or the upgraded version of the first one. Government always changed the recommendations and policies due to the current education system that keep changing along with the globalization. Years ago, people did not care about education as they were not afforded for it. Nowadays, as the government had introduced pre-school for a child at the age of 5 and 6 years old in order to provide them with formal education. Preschool is the suitable place to explore the students talents and help them to improve it. At this time, the students are young and always ready to learn something new. This is the time for the teacher and parents to train the kids to be responsible, well-manner and able to contribute to the country. Along with the development of the country, people started to realize that people that is well-educated have the power to be respected and get higher income compared to someone without education. A national principle known as rukunegara is the basic principles that must be obeyed by all Malaysian. National principle is used to promote social balance and unity among different races that live in Malaysia. By following this principle, we can prevent from the tragedy 13 may from happen again. All the five principle focused on the relationship between man and god, king, country, law and constitution. The last part of the principle is good behavior which is reaching the goal of NPE to develop various potentials among student. By practicing it correctly, we may produce well potential students in various aspects, thus improve the quality of our country. Nowadays, people started to realize that education in school is not about performing well in the exam only but students have to involve in co-curriculum activities in order to identify their talent while train them to be more discipline. There are a few factors that lead to the NPE such as the factor of religious, social, politic, economic and individual. As stated in the first national principle which is belief in God, all the citizens supposed to have a religion to be obeyed. In Malaysia, the official religion is Islam. Even though Malays people are Muslims, which does not mean other people from different ethnic cannot join the religion. Besides that Muslims, other people are free to embrace any religion that they want. As Malaysia has multiracial citizens, social factor is one of the important factors that lead to NPE. In Malaysia, we can communicate and live happily with other ethnics as we respect each other as the citizen of the same country. All of them are living or work at the same places without arguing because the spirit of unity as stated in the second national principle which is loyalty to king and country. Each person has different skills in developing the national economy. For example, there are some people that mastering business while the others are skillful in buying and selling stock. This differentiation occurs due to different potential and education level that they got. When they are knowledgeable, they know how to compete in order to get profit as well as improve the economy level of the country. The last factor is individual factor. At school, students talent will be identified in order to develop their skills and potentials that are different between each person. Living in a community with a good manner will result in harmony and balance citizens. Besides that, their potentials and skills may help the country development in various aspects such as education, music and others. Education in Malaysia has started years ago. Formal education in Malaysia used to take place at the mosque and castle before changing into a place called school. Before independence, people that live in a rural area with low income rarely have the opportunity to go to school as they were not afforded for it. The developing of this country has improved the education in Malaysia thus provide a better opportunity for children to get education. Before 1982, the education system that had been used in Malaysia was Old Primary School Curriculum. As stated by fiq2705 (2012), the syllabus introduced a lot of subjects thus make it not suitable for a student in primary school. Besides that, this system was fully depended on textbooks with limited teaching aids and references. The student will get bored easily as the teacher was not creative to make the teaching and learning process more interesting. As the result of this, many people had criticized the education system at that time due to a lot of problems occur. To overcome this problem, the government had introduced New Primary School Curriculum. New Primary School Curriculum also known as Kurikulum Baru Sekolah Rendah (KBSR) had upgraded and improved in many ways better than the system before. As stated by are_niece02 (2010), the main focus of KBSR were to implement 3M among students which is reading, writing and counting. The students were divided into two phrases. Phrase 1 contained the Year 1 until 3 students while year 4 to 6 students were in phase 2. Each phrase stresses on different skill and knowledge suitable to the student age. According to are_niece02 (2010), the syllabus that had been practiced during KBSR was flexible for students as they balanced the emotional, spiritual, intellectual during the teaching and learning process. Due to this, on-going assessment had been introduced in order to identify the student performance and problems occur during the study process. Besides that, the teacher was requested to be more creative and not totally depended on text books. One of the problems occur during this program we re the lack of the capable teacher in certain subjects, thus they need to work more than other teacher. Role of a teacher is to teach. Teachers will felt confidence with the abilities that they have in certain subject. Headmasters role is to match the teachers abilities. Besides that, they play the biggest role in developing the potential of students and teachers in various aspects. For better understanding, i have made some research at a Sekolah Kebangsaan Putrajaya Presint 9 and meet with their headmaster, senior assistant and teacher.There are some activities that had been held at the school on to achieve NPE goal such as gotong-royong, Merdeka day celebration, Prophet Muhammad celebration, choral speaking competition and sports day. Gotong-royong is a compulsory activity that the students must join on every Monday before the assembly. During this activity, students are divided into a few groups. Each group will be accompanied by 3 teachers and have their own place to do this activity. Teachers are responsible to give instructions and guide the students. At the same times, they will make sure that the activity runs smoothly with any undesirable thing happen. The task for each group is they must clean up the place and make sure everything is well organized. Besides that, there is also a time when they will paint the school building. In order to make the activity more interesting, the school will give free drink on that day. The objective of this activity is to make them feel equality. No matter which family they are from, no matter which class they are, all students required to join this activity. It is one of the ways to train the students to be patient and tolerant while doing something. Without struggle, nothin g can be success. Besides that, students will be more discipline and follow the instruction given. Usually, when this activity finished, the students will take care of their area even the program was over. This activity has improved the students in many ways. They take good care of their surroundings to make sure that it will be clean thus people can live peacefully. By applying this in a community, it will improve the relationship between neighbourhood thus strengthen the unity. The objective of Merdeka Day Celebration is to make the student appreciate and proud with our country. Nowadays, kids and teenagers spend a lot of time with the machine more than having interaction with human beings. They usually play video games, surf internet and Facebooking during their free time. Spending less time with the older prevent them from learning about the things happen in the past. They just know the history based on what had been taught in the classroom. So, by holding this activity in the school, it can enhance the student knowledge about the life before independent. During this activity, teachers play their role to decorate the hall and preparing some suitable materials. Some of the students will be helping the teachers in the hall while the others will join poster competition. They are requested to draw something related to independence day and the winner will be announced on the day of the celebration. The poster activity goal is to make the students show their cr eativity and at the same time appreciating our country. Early in the morning, all students and teachers will gather in the hall to sing the national anthem, and the school song. After that, there will be a speech by a person that had the experience living during before independent. By exposing the story to the students, they are able to experience and imagine the life before. Thus, they realize how grateful they are nowadays. To solve the problem occur between ethnics, they will improve the social interaction between different races by respecting each other. This situation achieves the goal of NPE which is to produce balanced individuals. Another celebration held in the school is the Prophet Muhammad birthday celebration or also known as maulud. The objective of this celebration is to make the student remember the prophet Muhammad that had left us years ago. In this activity, teachers are responsible to prepare some materials such as Quran, inviting Ustaz and others. Besides that, the students will participate in some competition such as Tadarus Al-Quran, Tilawah Al-Quran, Story Telling and others. This activity was held in order to develop student potential in Islamic ways. During the celebration day, each class has to participate in banner decoration to develop their creativity. Usually, the banner will be written in jawi, thus this activity had improved their jawi writing. By the end of this activity, students are not only enjoying it but they learn more about the story of the prophet, how Islam develops and at the same time improve their skills in reciting al-Quran. So, by practicing it correctly, we can produce p eople that are not only excellent with academic but well-develop in religion. Having high intellectual but without the application of noble character could bring to the worst of the society and the nations (TIM 2011) The next activity held Coral Speaking Competition. The objective of this activity is to increase the English usage of the student and at the same time improve their vocabulary and pronunciation. Teachers are responsible to train the students one each class. Together with the students, the teacher will discuss and prepare the texts for their team. Each class will compete with each other and the winner will be getting a present during closing event. The theme of the choral speaking are different in each year depend on the current issue. So, at the same time, students learn and know about the thing happen in their surroundings. On the day of the competition, each team will present their choral speaking with their own creativity such as use fancy cloth, funny text and others. By the end of this activity, the student is not only enjoyed it but they also improve their English. English is an international language that is been spoken by people around the world. By holding this activity ever y year, students will be more competitive to be the best in English. Thus, they can communicate with others from different country and enhance their knowledge and at the same time strengthen international relationships between others. The last activity is sport day. As stated in Utusan online ( 2013) , students are starting to join sport and curriculum since 1985 and now the government had introduced Satu Murid Satu Sukan (1M1S). Joining this activity will improve the students psychomotor, cognitive and effective. The student may develop potential in the sport that they like. Teacher are responsible to prepare the place that the activity will be held. At the same times, students will join training to prepare themselves for the competition. Student are divided into 4 groups. Some one of the activities take place on that day are 100m sprint, broad jump and others. The Co curriculum had improved the student knowledge as well as train them to conduct and manage an activity. It has achieved the goal of NPE which is to produce creative students. Students also will look at school as interesting place that develop their skills and potential. The interaction in class is really important. In this area, the teacher plays the biggest role to communicate and help students in different ways. As an English teacher, there are some activities that are suitable to be conducted in class such as an individual teaching guide, quiz, ICT activities, spelling bee, and story telling. During teaching and learning process, here will be some students that are slow learners. This student cannot catch up what the teacher teaches. So, to help them understand the lesson. The teacher will spend special time for them before starting a new lesson. They can ask the teacher directly anything that they do not understand. By doing this, there are no students left out during the teaching and learning process. Using ICT programs in the classroom will attract the students interest and make them understand easily. ICT programs occupy all the learning style since there will be sound, picture, and activities that they have to do to enhance the understanding. Conducting quiz will be useful because the teacher can analyze which part or question that most of the students get wrong. Besides that, students will improve their understanding level. Spelling bee and storytelling is the activities that bring many advantages to the student. By joining this activity, they can improve their English. Besides that, it encourages student being competitive in order to be the best. Spelling bee improve their vocabulary and pronunciation. On the other hand, story telling improve the memorizing skills and their creativity to tell a story. Both activities help them in their studies. For example, there are some subject that need them to memorize the formula. So, by introducing this activity to the student, student are able to apply it in real life. In conclusion, the National Education Philosophy (NPE) plays the biggest role in developing education in Malaysia. It introduces various concepts in education, curriculum, co-curriculum and others. Besides that, NPE act as a guide for a teacher to improve their teaching style and activity in order to achieve the school objectives. As a whole, the changed in education as occur due some people opinions about education and the benefit of being educated. As stated in NPE, the objective of it is to develop physical, intellect, emotion, spiritual and social of the citizen to betterment. As a future educated, it is my responsibility to understand the contain of NPE and use it as a guide during my teaching lesson.

Palliative Care Nursing Reflection

Palliative Care Nursing Reflection INTRODUCTION The Healthcare Quality Strategy for NHS Scotland (Scottish Government 2010) was a further development from ‘Better Health, Better Care’ (Scottish Government 2007). In this reflective account I wish to concentrate on the peoples priorities for the people of Scotland outlined within this document, the ultimate aim is to provide the highest quality of care. It has as their objectives that care given should be consistent, person centered, clinically effective and safe and equitable with patients receiving clear communication with regards to conditions and treatment (Scottish Government 2010). Hubley and Copeman, (2008) state communication skills are paramount in healthcare to ensure that tailored advice is delivered effectively. This reflective account is based on an experience from my 3rd year management placement. Using Gibbs’s Reflective Model (1988) I aim to outline what occurred throughout the incident which involved providing clear communication and patient centered care and how this can be linked to the Quality Strategy in relation to the people’s priorities. This reflective model has been selected as it enables reflection on practice in a structured way allowing one to identify critical learning and development from their experience to enhance future practice (Bullman and Schutz, 2008). This scenario will consider how this incident will aid in my transition from student nurse to staff nurse. To comply with patients’ rights to confidentiality and in accordance with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), (2010) I will use the pseudonym Mrs Wade. DESCRIPTION This reflection involves a 78 year old lady Mrs Wade who was an inpatient on the ward for 10 days after being diagnosed as having a cerebral haemorrhage. This had left Mrs Wade with a left sided weakness and aphasic. It was during this time it was established that Mrs Wade was also suffering from a perforated bowel and after discussion with her family from the medical staff it was decided that Mrs Wade was for no further active care and was to remain in the wards single room for palliative care. Feelings During my three years as a student nurse I had been involved with the care or palliative patients. However, I felt I still lacked confidence in this situation in communicating with patients and families. I had been involved in Mrs Wades care from admission as I had been her admitting nurse and I felt I had established a good patient / nurse relationship which in accordance with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (2008) allows for patient centered care. This is a difficult time for the Wade family and as stated with in The Healthcare Quality Strategy for NHS Scotland (Scottish Government 2010, p6) I would strive to provide care that was both caring and compassionate. Evaluation The negative aspect of this situation was that I was dealing with a palliative care patient and that it was inevitable that my patient would die. The positive aspect that I could draw from this was I was being put in a situation as a 3rd year student on my final placement and this would give me an experience that I could learn from. Jones (2012) advocates that it is essential in nursing to have good communication skills. This is also advocated by Dougherty and Lister (2008) who states that communication is an integral part of maintaining a high quality of record keeping which is regarded as a vital standard of practice by the NMC (2008). Communication and written care records aid to establish a continuity of care. A holistic approach for continuity of care is exceptionally important when caring for palliative care patients as nurses have a crucial role in care provision (Hill, 2011). It is important to note that any information that is given to Mrs Wade and her family is given in an open and honest manner and to ensure that they understand and give opportunity to ask questions (NMC, 2008). As Mrs Wade was a palliative care patient it gave rise to effective teamwork within the multi-disciplinary team to ensure all Mrs Wades needs were met as well as her families to ensure continuity of care whilst showing clinica l excellence. Analysis The World Health Organisation (nd) describes palliative care as â€Å"an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual.† A holistic approach was taken in planning Mrs Wade care incorporating physical, psychological, social, emotional and environmental needs. These needs are not only imperative to the patient but also had to include all Mrs Wades immediate family in who she had requested to be involved (Dougherty and Lister, 2008). Within the ward I worked active care plans and patient care plans are reviewed daily and updated accordingly to ensure the patient receives the best possible care (NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 2014) Jones (2012) states that it is essential in nursing to have good communication skills. This is also reiterated by Dougherty and Lister (2008) who states that communication is an integral part of maintaining a high quality of record keeping which is regarded as a vital standard of practice by the NMC (2009). Communication and written care records aid to establish a continuity of care. Communication also incorporates the ability to listen and support and ensure understanding (NMC 2008). In addition to caring for Mrs Wade I was also given the opportunity to be involved in meeting with the multi-disciplinary team which in Mrs Wade’s case involved the palliative care team for the hospital. This again reiterated the importance of good communication skills and accurate record keeping to ensure that all participants in Mrs Wades care knew exactly what was happening (SIGN 20). In terms of communication I felt I was gaining confidence especially with the family members as I had built up a rapport which was both professional whilst being friendly and trusting (MacLeod et al 2010). Mrs Wade as well as any patient within our care should receive care outlined by the people’s priority. Patients receiving palliative care should be made comfortable and pain free and to be cared for in a safe and clean environment (Scottish Government, 2010 p6). Reflection from this incident has made me aware of the level of involvement each member of staff from health care assistants through to consultants play in the care of patients. This was shown through the numerous times I was involved in multi-disciplinary meets, re-assessment of care plans to ensure the highest standard of evidence based care was given to Mrs Wade (NMC 2009). CONCLUSION The outcome was positive in the aspect that a holistic approach to Mrs Wade’s care was taken in accordance with The Scottish Government’s Initiative (2010) on patient centered care. I felt empowered by incorporating the use of the SBAR framework in effective collaboration with the multidisciplinary team aided clear communicating in accordance with The Scottish Government (2010). This resulted in a consistent continuity of care for Mrs Wade. ACTION PLAN A result of this significant event was that it gave me the experience of dealing with a delicate situation. As stated by Scheffer and Rubenfeld (2000) â€Å"Critical thinking in nursing is an essential component of professional accountability and quality nursing care. Critical thinkers in nursing exhibit these habits of the mind: confidence, contextual perspective, creativity, flexibility, inquisitiveness, intellectual integrity, intuition, open-mindedness, perseverance, and reflection. Critical thinkers in nursing practice the cognitive skills of analyzing, applying standards, discriminating, information seeking, logical reasoning, predicting, and transforming knowledge†. I was also given the opportunity afterwards to reflect on my role and the role each member of the team took in the care of a palliative care patient. I feel for future development I will take responsibility for my own learning in areas where I felt I lacked knowledge. In this situation I had assumed that Mrs Wade was recovering from her CVA, however I was unaware that the effect a CVA has on the brain can result in continence issues and result in bowel perforation. I believe that in the future and with more experience I will be aware of complication resulting from a CVA and although I would not expect to be an expert I would be better equipped to deal with similar situations in the future (RCN 2013). OVERALL CONCLUSION On reflection of my own experience and in using this to aid in my transition from student nurse to staff nurse I feel I have enhanced my own knowledge on palliative care (Dougherty and Lister, 2011) whilst reiterating the importance of good communication skills. It also highlighted the importance of having the confidence to acknowledge one’s own lack of knowledge and be able to admit to this and where to seek guidance to ensure that the correct protocol is followed to ensure patient safety at all times and to provide continuity of care. I feel that the care given to this patient is in line with the initiative of The Scottish Government’s Healthcare Quality Strategy for Scotland (2010). In relation to how this incident reflects on my transition it shows that on graduating as a staff nurse I will immediately assume the role which includes leadership, delegation and supervision. Once NMC registered, a host of expectations are placed upon you. The RCN (2010) reported that newly qualified staff nurses feel unprepared and overwhelmed by their new responsibilities, making the period of transition very stressful rather than exciting and truly enjoyable. However, I hope to overcome these feelings by immersing myself in the knowledge that I will adhere to all policies and guideline by The Scottish Government (2010) to ensure the best possible care and service to all. References McLeod Deborah L, Dianne M. Tapp Moules, N., Campbell M E Knowing the family: Interpretations of family nursing in oncology and palliative care European Journal of Oncology Nursing Volume 14 issue 2 April 2010 Page 93-10 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462388909001124 NHS GGC http://www.nhsggc.org.uk/content/default.asp?page=s1458

Exaggeration of Despair in Sherman Alexies Reservation Blues Essay

Exaggeration of Despair in Sherman Alexie's Reservation Blues Gloria Bird realizes that for generations Native Americans have had drinking problems, and she also realizes that it is difficult for â€Å"native writers to accurately represent our communities without exploiting them.†(G. Bird) However, Bird criticizes Alexie of embellishing or exaggerating the Native Americans’ despair. Alexie cannot ignore the alcohol situation when describing Native American culture, but Alexie does not need to make alcoholism a common trait amongst almost every ‘Indian’ on the reservation and other reservations. Bird’s statement concerning Alexie’s embellishment of Native American despair due to alcoholism is an accurate interpretation of Reservation Blues. In Reservation Blues, almost every Native American is an alcoholic. Two of the main characters, Victor and Junior, spend all of their money on booze and get wasted on a regular basis. â€Å"After the tavern had closed, Junior and Victor climbed into the water truck and passed out.†(p.24) It is reasonable for there to be a few drunks, but Alexie introduces or makes references to too many Indians who either lost everything or their lives because of alcohol. When Thomas’ father Samuel is introduced he is drunk, and Alexie explains that this is normal, for â€Å"Thomas†¦had lost count of the number of times he’d saved his father†¦ Once, a month, he bailed his father out of jail for drunk and disorderly behavior.†(p.95) Even though Thomas didn’t drink,...

Contemporary Australian Cultural Issues in the works of Harper Lee Essa

Harper lee examines key cultural issues in her novel to kill a mockingbird, such as racism, socio-economic status and prejudice. These issues are still relevant to contemporary Australian society. She examines these issues throughout her book in many different ways, from many different points of view and from many different opinions from the characters in the book. The book is set in a small town called Maycomb in America and takes place during the depression years. The town of Maycomb is a town which is old and is not well looked after and is described as dirty in the book. The people who live in and around Maycomb on farms are poor people, as a result of the depression. The main characters of the book are the finches. The Finch family comprises of Atticus the father and his two kids Jem and scout who narrates the story. The story is about life in maycomb seen through the eyes of children. Life in Maycomb is full of issues such as racism, socio-economic status and prejudice. Racism and socio-econic status are easily the two most noticeable issues that the book revolves around. These issues are relevant to contempory Australian society in many different ways. Socio-economic status is the main theme at the start of the book. A good example of this issue is when Jem invites Walter Cunningham to have lunch with himself, Scout and Atticus, because he does not have any lunch money as his family is too poor to afford it. They sit down for lunch and Walter drenches his food with syrup and scout thinks this is ungrateful and rude so she remarks by asking him what the Sam hill he is doing. Walter was embarrassed and Atticus shakes his head at her and she protests â€Å"but he has gone and drowned his dinner with syrup,† â€Å"he’s poured it al... ...ou only have to look at the wars going on over in the Middle East. They are all fighting over different religion which is racism. Terrorist attacks are also based on racism because a group of fanatics from all over the world do not like westerners this is racism. On a more local level you see it even at school where racism is big because Griffith High School is such a Multicultural community, all the different groups of people are grouped together for example the Afghans and the Islanders, this starts fights and arguments between different races. Socio-economic status and racism are only two issues that Harper Lee examines, as there many more which include prejudice, maturity and growing up. Harper Lee’s issues that are discussed in her book to kill a mockingbird are still contemporary issues in Australia, because they affect us and have a significant impact on us.

Extinction Of Dinosaurs :: essays research papers

Could an exploding star have been responsible for the death of the dinosaurs? This idea has become popular again as an explanation for the disappearance of the dinosaurs. An exploding star can blast material enormous distances into space. If this material reached Earth’s atmosphere, changes may have occurred that were harmful to life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  We call an exploding star a supernova. Nova is the Latin word for new, and in ancient times, when an exploding star was observed, people often thought a new star was being born. The plural form of nova is novae. So when we talk of more than one supernova, we say supernovae.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When a star has used all it’s nuclear fuel, the gravitational force that pulls the star’s material towards it’s center no longer has an opposing force to act against it. As a result the star collapses. A star that once had eight times as much matter as our sun and was 1,000,000 miles across, becomes a sphere only ten to fifteen miles across. As the star collapses, very small particles (called neutrinos) escape into space. After the star becomes a very small sphere, it explodes like a giant nuclear bomb and becomes a billion times as bright as our own sun. All kinds of matter and radiation are blasted into space. This matter and radiation travels through space at nearly the speed of light (186,000 miles per second)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Now, if one of these supernovae were to occur within about 130 light years of Earth, some scientists feel that life on earth would be drastically affected. Since a light year is the distance light travels in one year, 130 light years is about 760,000,000,000,000 (760 quadrillion miles!).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  So, suppose a supernova had occurred sixty-five million years ago within 130 light years of Earth, how exactly would it cause the death of the dinosaurs? Some scientists think neutrinos and galactic cosmic rays would cause extremely high

Changing Landscape of Health Care Essay

Unless you have been living on another planet somewhere, the changes in health care taking place in this country have become hard to ignore. With all the debate over recent health care reform, it is sometimes difficult to know who is right, and who is wrong. How can there be such a wide gap in opinion on â€Å"Obama care†? How are these reforms changing the landscape in health care, and how are we to survive these changes? To begin, let’s look at how all these changes began. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was passed in the senate on December 24, 2009. It passed in the house on March 21, 2010, and was signed into law by President Obama on March 23rd, 2010. It was then upheld in the Supreme Court on June 28, 2012, and the landscape of health care has been changing ever since. Few would argue that health care reform was needed, as the cost of health care had been out of control for some time in this country. However, many in the health industry feel that although the intent may have been honorable, the repercussions of reform-compliance is wreaking havoc in the health care industry and may lead to even further problems. The Trickledown Effect Most of the issues surrounding the changing landscape of health care are a direct result of health care reform. Changes in legislation have produced a trickledown effect, beginning with the small rural hospitals. For example, one such opinion is expressed by Dr. Scott Litten in a blog on the website Physicians Practice, where he states: While the intent of the ACA was good, the aftershocks [of the passage of The Affordable Care Act] are changing the very way we practice medicine. Small  hospitals in rural areas will be the first ones to enact changes. Reimbursements are not increasing and the new penalties that hospitals across the nation face for readmissions within 30 days, the decreasing numbers of actual admissions, and the increasing numbers of outpatient observation admissions are forcing all facilities to lay off personnel and decrease services provided. Coupling this with the fact that fewer patients are coming to doctor’s offices for services produces a very steep decline in revenue. (Litten, 2013). According to Dr. Litten, this decline in revenue is just the tip of the iceberg. Businesses are facing a similar problem. Insurance premiums are rising, forcing employers to pass this cost on to the employee, making it more expensive each time they receive health services. This in turn discourages trips to the doctor’s office, and the cycle is repeated. Contributing to this decline, Medicaid also has been slow to increases coverage, forcing many practices to no longer accept Medicaid patients. Dr. Litten believes the changes practices are facing have produced a perfect storm for our healthcare industry. And to top it all off, the sluggish economy is causing everyone to cut back on regular spending, which has a trickledown effect on medical practices and hospitals alike. He further sees no change in these effects in the near future, and believes physicians will continue to struggle with how to provide quality health care with less resources. The Wide Gap in Opinion Prior to the passage of the Affordable Care Act, most Americans would have agreed health care reform was needed in this country. However, the wide gap in opinion on whether â€Å"Obama care† is a good or bad thing seems to center on how this legislation may lead to an even greater problem: government controlled health care. One anonymous physician blogger put it this way: â€Å"The Affordable Care Act was nothing more than a huge power grab by the government, the Executive branch in particular. All of the resulting chaos is planned, which will ultimately force out private insurance and thereby establish a single payer system (government) with physicians becoming part of the public service union. When that comes to pass, I’ll retire or maybe set up a â€Å"boutique† practice working 2-3 hours/day; 2-3 days/week for the  patients who can afford it. My selfish concern is: who will be there to take care of me when I need it? Fortunately, I will be in a position to pay for a concierge doctor. Welcome to British style medicine. (Anonymous, 2013). Even advocates of â€Å"Obama care† express concern that nothing in it addressed malpractice costs and tort reform, economic price feedback loops, or increased responsibility on behalf of the consumer. Another blogger states â€Å"It, [The Affordable Care Act] means more people are eligible for subsidized coverage which will add to the long term deficit issues and healthcare costs unless other changes are made.† (Litten, 2013). These issues, along with others that may arise before full implementation of The Affordable Care Act are realized, will need to be addressed if we are indeed to be successful in attaining affordable health care for all Americans. Adapting to Change How are we as an industry and a people to survive these changes? Mark Twain once said â€Å"It’s not progress that I mind, it’s the change I don’t like,† and the same can be said of the health care industry. People in general are opposed to change, especially when they do not have a good understanding of the issues. But â€Å"Obama care† is here to stay, and understanding the intent, specific benefits, and potential for positive reform is the first step in adapting to these changes. We have the ability to research and investigate the many options available to us as both consumers and providers of health care. Knowing what health care reform means on a personal level as well as a business level will not only help us understand and adapt to health care reform, but we may also find that there are many way this reform may indeed work to our benefit in the long run. References Litten, S. J. (2013, May 24). Health Care Reform is Changing the Landscape in Medicine. Retrieved from Physician Practice Web site: http://www.physicianspractice.com/blog/healthcare-reform-changing-landscape-medicine

Origin and Development of Applied Linguistics Essay

â€Å"Applied linguistics is not a discipline which exists on its own. It is influenced by other disciplines and influences them as well. It is a two-way process. For this reason, applied linguistics examines theories from all sorts of different areas (semantics, syntax, pragmatics, sociolinguistics,†¦) and from all sorts of perspectives so that it help find out effective solutions for language -related issues such as teaching methodology (including foreign language and mother tongue teaching), translation, aphasia,†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Applied linguistics originated in close relation with foreign language teaching and has developed to cover a wide range of knowledge, but its core has always been language teaching and learning. Applied linguistics draws its sources from sociology, psychology, anthropology and information theory as well as from linguistics to solve practical problems in practical areas such as language teaching. So applied linguistics is not linguistics that is applied, though it applies, first of all, linguistics. In fact, what it applies depends on what the theories are applied to. Applied linguistics, unlike pure science, aims to solve problems. Thus between theories of linguistics and related fields and the practical areas such as language teaching, it plays the role of a mediator, which bridges theories and practice together. In this way, applied linguistics not only provides principles and methodology for language teaching, etc. , but also gives feedbacks to the theoretical study by summing up the experience from practice. As applied linguistics makes language teaching and learning its core, it provides language teacher with good language theories, principles and methodology. By learning applied linguistics, language teacher can possess an overall understanding of updated theories of language teaching & learning as well as a better perspective of the various factors affecting language teaching &learning. So it is very necessary for a language teacher to learn applied linguistics in order to teach more effectively. As for language learners, it is also very helpful to have some knowledge about applied linguistics. For one thing, by knowing the currently used teaching approaches and methods, which are covered by applied linguistics, language learners can learn to adjust themselves to the teacher’s teaching by adopting a more proper learning method because â€Å"a theory of teaching always implies a theory of learning â€Å"(Applied Linguistics, Yue Meiyun) and language learning is a two – way process, which needs efforts and adaptation from bath the teacher’s side and the learner’s side. For another, applied linguistics covers a wide scope of knowledge. It helps to enhance learner’s insights and depth of knowledge in language learning. Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of study that identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems. Some of the academic fields related to applied linguistics are education, linguistics, psychology, computer science, anthropology, and sociology. The goal of this writing is to make some personal comment on the viewpoint: â€Å"Applied linguistics is not a discipline which exists on its own. It is influenced by other disciplines and influences them as well. It is a two-way process. For this reason, applied linguistics examines theories from all sorts of different areas (semantics, syntax, pragmatics, sociolinguistics,†¦) and from all sorts of perspectives so that it help find out effective solutions for language -related issues such as teaching methodology (including foreign language and mother tongue teaching), translation, aphasia,†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . Many linguistic students like me find linguistics useful because it broadens and deepens their understanding of related fields such as languages and literature (English and foreign), social sciences (especially anthropology, sociology, and psychology), education, philosophy, communication†¦ The question is whether applied linguistics and linguistics applied is the same. Needless to say, the answer is â€Å"no†. Phillip Shaw, Stockholm University Strictly looking at the model above by Philip Shaw, a professor from Stockholm University, we can see a basic coherence between applied linguistics and other sciences. According to the professor, studying linguistics means studying language’s sounds, grammar, words, meanings, uses, and connected contexts – that is phonetics, syntax, lexis, semantics, pragmatics, and discourse respectively. Of these, phonetics focuses on the physical sounds of speech. It covers speech perception (how the brain discerns sounds), acoustics (the physical qualities of sounds as movement through air), and articulation (voice production through the movements of the lungs, tongue, lips, and other articulators). This area investigates, for instance, the physical realization of speech and how individual sounds differ across languages and dialects. This research plays a large part in computer speech recognition and synthesis. Syntax is the study of how units including words and phrases combine into sentences. Syntacticians investigate what orders of words make legitimate sentences, how to succinctly account for patterns found across sentences. Semantics within linguistics refers to the study of how language conveys meaning. Pragmatics is the study of how utterances relate to the context they are spoken in. By areas studied, he distinguishes different kinds of linguistics. Sociolinguistics is the study where linguistics looks at how language functions in different social contexts. In other words, it is the study of how language varies according to cultural context, the speaker’s background, and the situation in which it is used. Meanwhile, historical linguistics studies how languages are historically related. This involves finding universal properties of language and accounting for a language’s development and origins. Psycholinguistics is the study of language to find out about how the mind works. Pr. Phillip Shaw emphasizes that we can applied all knowledge of the above-mentioned sciences. It is understandable, therefore, whereas theoretical linguistics is concerned with finding and describing generalities both within particular languages and among all languages, applied linguistics takes these results and applies them to other areas. He defines applied linguistics as an engineering of linguistics, taking what the sciences of linguistics have discovered and applied to solve real practical problems. Kamil Wisniewski, in his work ‘Applied Linguistics’ 2007, he presents the term applied linguistics as an umbrella term that covers a wide set of numerous areas of study connected by the focus on the language that is actually used. He puts the emphasis in applied linguistics on language users and the ways in which they use languages, contrary to theoretical linguistics which studies the language in the bstract not referring it to any particular context, or language, like Chomskyan generative grammar for example. Interestingly even among applied linguists there is a difference of opinion as to the scope, the domains and limits of applied linguistics. There are many issues investigated by applied linguists such as discourse analysis, sign language, stylistics and rhetoric as well as language learning by childr en and adults, both as mother tongue and second or foreign language. Correlation of language and gender, as well as the transfer of information in media and interpersonal communication are analyzed by applied linguists. Also forensic linguistics, interpretation and translation, together with foreign language teaching methodology and language change are developed by applied linguistics. Shortly after the introduction of the term applied linguistics it was associated mainly with first, second and foreign language teaching, however nowadays it is seen as more interdisciplinary branch of science. Although in certain parts of the world language teaching remains the major concern of applied linguists, issues such as speech pathologies and determining the levels of literacy of societies, or language processing along with differences in communication between various cultural groups – all gain interest elsewhere. There is a consensus among linguists that is applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of study that identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems. Some of the academic fields related to applied linguistics are education, linguistics, psychology, computer science, anthropology, and sociology. Major branches of applied linguistics include bilingualism and multilingualism, computer-mediated communication, conversation analysis, contrastive linguistics, sign linguistics, language assessment, literacy, discourse analysis, language pedagogy, second language acquisition, lexicography, language planning and policies, stylistics, pragmatics, forensic linguistics, and translation. For all of what I have presented above, I want to restate that applied linguistics does not exist on its own, it makes a great influence on other disciplines and also is influenced by them. The findings of linguistics, like the findings of any other theoretical study, can be applied to the solution of practical problems, as well as to innovations in everyday areas involving language. This is the mandate of applied linguistics. Applied linguists draw from theories of language acquisition to develop first and second language teaching methodologies and to implement successful literacy programs. Applied linguists may also engage in language planning by developing alphabets and grammars for unwritten languages and by writing dictionaries. In short, applied linguistics applies the theories and tools of formal linguistics, sociolinguistics, and psycholinguistics in a wide variety of socially useful ways In his own work – â€Å"Issues in applied linguistics† (Cambridge University Press, 2001), Michael McCarthy presents applied linguistics as problem – solving concept. According to him, it is the belief that linguistics can offer insights and ways forward in the resolution of problems related to language in a wide variety of contexts that underlines the very existence of applied linguistics. Applied linguists try to offer solutions to real-world problems in which language is a central issue. People often think that applied linguistics refers to the use of linguistic research in language teaching, but this is just one sub-discipline. McCarthy lists out the domains of typical applied linguistic problems which, as he says, seems certainly be wide – ranging and potential endless, but might include 14 problems as following: 1- A speech therapist sets out to investigate why s four-year-old child has failed to develop normal linguistics skills for a child of that age. 2- A teacher of English as a foreign language wonders why groups of learners sharing the same first language regularly make a particular grammatical mistake that learners from other language backgrounds do not. – An expert witness in a criminal case tries to solve the problem of who exactly investigated a crime, working only with statements made to the police 4- A advertising copy writer searches for what would be the most effective use of language to target a particular social group in order to sell a product. 5- A mother-tongue teacher needs to know what potential employers consider important in terms of a school-leaver’s ability to write reports or other business documents. 6- A historian wishes to understand the meanings of place-names in a particular geographical area and how they have changed over time. – A person constructing a language test foe non-native speakers for entry into further education needs to know what the key linguistic or psycholinguistic indicators are of reading ability in a second of foreign language. 8- A literary scholar suspects that an anonymous work was in fact written by a very famous writer and looks for methods of investigating the hypothesis. 9- A dictionary writer ponders over possible alternatives to an alphabetically organized dictionary. 10- A computer programmer wrestles with the goal of trying to get a computer to process human speech or to get it to translate from one language into another. 1- A group of civil servants are tasked with standardizing language usage in their country, or deciding major aspects of language planning policy that will affect millions of people. 12- A body is set up to produce an international, agreed language for use by air-traffic controllers and pilots, or by marine pilots and ships’ captains. 13- A zoologist investigates the question whether monkeys have language similar to or quite distinct from human language and how it works. 4- A medical sociologist sets out to understand better the changes that occur in people’s use of language as they move into old age. (Michael McCarthy, â€Å"Issues in Applied Linguistics†, Cambridge University Press 2001, page 1-2) In a work called â€Å"Understanding applied linguistics† by Professor V. B Owhotu (2007), the author emphasizes the importance and growing diversity of applied linguistics. In his view applied linguistics is driven first by real world problems rather than theoretical explorations. In other words, the applied linguists should be preoccupied by the following problems: language learning problem (emergence, awareness, rules, use, context, automaticity, attitudes and expertise); language teaching problems (resources, training, practice, interaction, understanding, use, context, inequalities, motivation, outcomes); literacy problems (language and culture); language inequality problems such as ethnicity, class, gender and age; language policy and planning problems (status planning, corpus planning, and ecology of language); language assessment problems (validity, reliability, usability, responsibility); language use problems (dialects, register, discourse communities, gate-keeping situations, limited access to services); language and technology problems (learning, assessment, access and use); translation and interpretation problem (on-line, off-line, technology assisted); and language pathology problems (aphasia, dyslexia, physical disabilities). Needless to say, it is far beyond my capacity to present an insight to all of these above-mentioned problems. However, in this part of the writing, I would like to take problems of language learning and teaching, translation nd interpretation, and speech-language pathology as examples to demonstrate the point that applied linguistics helps us to find out effective solutions to our practical problems. Researches in language teaching today show that applied linguistics is sometimes used to refer to â€Å"second language acquisitions†, but these are distinct fields, in that second language acquisition involves more theoretical study of the system of language, whereas applied linguistics concerns itself more with teaching and learning. In their approach to the study of learning, applied linguists have increasingly devised their own theories and methodologies, such as the shift towards studying the learner rather than the system of language itself, in contrast to the emphasis within second language acquisition. I shall continue by considering what avenues within linguists suggest themselves for approaching two of the problems relevant to languages teaching. Let us consider problem of teacher trying to understand why learners from the same language background are having difficulty with a particular grammatical structure in English. Potential linguistic questions for the solution of a grammatical problem, as McCarthy shows in â€Å"Issues in applied linguistics†, are: â€Å"What is known about the learner’s first language or any other language they know which might be interfering with their learning of the foreign language? What do grammarians say about this structure? What psychological barriers might be preventing the learning of the structure? Are some structure difficult to learn if they are tackled too early on? Is there an order in which structures are best presented? † (Michael McCarthy, â€Å"Issues in applied linguistics†, page 8). Can linguistics offer an approach or solution to the problem? If so, which branch(es) of linguistic study and by what methods? The answer lies in such linguistics’ components as pragmatics, semantics, syntax. In terms of pragmatics, students sometimes make mistakes in the use of unsuitable sentences in certain contexts that makes listeners misunderstand. Therefore, when teaching English, teachers need not only teach grammar and vocabulary but also teach how to use sentences in suitable contexts; e. g. eaching students how and when to say thank you or apologize. In terms of syntax, the most popular mistakes students make are: when making sentences students often translate word by word as the result of their habit of mother tongue (e. g. I have a cat black); combining words incorrectly to produce phrases (e. g. â€Å"a high man† instead of â€Å"a tall man†); the agreement between words in a sentence (e. g. S and V, tenses). In these cases, possibly effective solutions for teachers are: teachers need to teach students how to combine words correctly according to English grammatical rules; they should teach words in contexts. Teachers might also apply semantic knowledge to deal with learners’ mistakes. That is when teaching students a word which has many different meanings, they should teach the meanings related to the context, situation; wishing to talk about a meaning of the word, we may use different synonyms or antonyms; when teaching students how to translate the sentences or the texts into learners’ mother tongue, we should teach students to combine the meaning of English words and the meaning of their mother tongue to have a good translation. It could be confirmed that any problems in language learning and teaching might be solved with application of linguistics, and knowledge about language plays or could play a major role in language teaching and learning. In translation and interpretation area, applied linguistics can also be shown with effective applications in solving problems. In an article titled â€Å"Linguistics and Applied Linguistics† posted in the website of University of Melbourne, Australia, the author emphasizes an important role of linguistics and applied linguistics in different areas of our life, specially in translation and interpretation area. The article provides clear reasons why linguistic and applied linguistics should be studied by those specializing in translation and interpretation. One of the given reasons is that the skills in need for solving problems are central to the study of linguistics. An evidence for this assumption is clearly shown in the article. That is, â€Å"In a period when Australian culture is coming to term with the need to relate the worldwide mosaic of non-English speaking cultures, and when information and communication are moving to technological centre stage, there is a growing demand for people equipped to analyze language. In fact, an increasing number of employers, ranging from language teachers to engineers of knowledge systems and speech synthesis, from translators to managers to designers of natural-language interfaces for computers, from lexicographers to lawyers to bilingual schools in Aboriginal communities, realize the value of a sound training in Linguistics†. As cited in the article, knowledge in Applied Linguistics will provide us a head start in understanding and orienting us to the area and will give us relevant knowledge and analytical skills. People with a background in Applied linguistics also gain an enhanced understanding of how people learn first, second and foreign languages and of how language is used in the community. These skills will be relevant to those interested in preparing for careers as language teachers, language education and assessment experts, speech pathologists, interpreters and translators, and a variety of jobs in industry where language and communication are issues are of concern. Linguistics and Applied Linguistics provide unique skills in cross-linguistic and cross-cultural communication that are helpful in solving problems in translation and interpretation. Speaking of applied computational linguistic, people often mention machine translation, computer – assisted translation, and natural language processing as fruitful areas which have also come to the forefront in recent years. I am going to pick up machine translation as a typical example of applying linguistic knowledge. Machine translation is a form of translation where a computer program analyses the text in one language – the â€Å"source text† – and then attempts to produce another, equivalent text in another language – the target text – without human intervention. Currently the state of machine translation is such that it involves some human intervention, as it requires a pre-editing and a post-editing phase.

Irony In The Canterbury Tales Essay

Chaucer’s Use of Irony in The Canterbury Tales In The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer compiles a mixture of stories on a pilgrimage into a figurative depiction of the medieval society in which he lived. Chaucer’s stories have a punch and pizzazz, which, to an average reader, seem uncommon to the typical medieval writer, making his story more delightful. Certain things account for this pizzazz, especially the author’s use of irony. Many of Chaucer’s characters are ironic in the sense that they are so far from what one would expect in the roles they depict, and also the fact that they are larger than life. Every character has his distinct personality with his own behavioral traits. Chaucer also uses irony in his humor, with its unexpectedness and randomness. The wife of Bath is a prime example of one of Chaucer’s characters who is larger than life. She obviously is not what one would expect of a relatively wealthy woman in her time. Her notorious traits such as not only having five husbands, but also marrying a majority of them for wealth and money stick in the mind with their ironic abnormality and appalling connotations: â€Å"ËÅ"Johnny and Dame Alice And I myself, in the fields we went My husband was in London all that Lent; All the more fun for me†Ã¢â‚¬ I only mean The fun of seeing people and being seen By cocky lads; for how was I to know Where or what graces Fortune might bestow’. (273) Chaucer accents her irregular character in this excerpt by portraying her promiscuous actions and her lack of virtue. The wife of Bath also shows irony in her actions by her need for control over others, especially her husbands. † â€Å"ËÅ"So help me God, I have to laugh outright / Remembering how I made them work at night! / And faith I set no store by it; no pleasure / It was to me’ (264)†. Here, the wife of Bath describes her domination and control over her past, old, wealthy husbands. She shows no signs of virtue in her actions to win her husbands, and to literally take their money from them. Because of these ironic, larger than life characteristics of the wife of Bath, she is a character that allows the reader to figuratively develop an intimate relationship with her. She sticks in the reader’s mind, and is a character who is remembered forever due to her unexpected ways and exaggerated traits. The Friar is also an ironic character in his uniqueness and unexpected  traits. Part of this irony is due to the enormous amount of corruption the friar possesses. â€Å"He’d fixed up many a marriage, giving each / Of his young women what he could afford her. / He was a noble pillar to his Order (8)†. In this quote, the unexpectedness totally captures the reader by surprise as he finds out that the Friar actually impregnates women and then marries them to men. This is an ideal quote to show Chaucer’s extra pizzazz in his stories, adding to the appeal of the reader. As the friar’s larger than life traits are exposed, a mental picture develops, to almost as if the reader is in the story. â€Å"Sweetly he heard his penitents at shrift / With pleasant absolution, for a gift / He was an easy man in penance-giving / Where he could hope to make a decent living (9)†. Here, it is seen that the friar is a very worldly man who puts money at a high priority i n his life. Ironically, he took the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, and pathetically breaks all three vows. One of the most ironically corrupt characters in the book is the Prioress. Throughout her tale and the prologue, Chaucer portrays her as someone completely different from what she should be in accord with her vocation as a nun. First of all, the Prioress’ characteristics and actions make it appear that she is going on the pilgrimage not because of her love and respect for God, but instead to travel and to go on an adventure. â€Å"She certainly was very entertaining / Pleasant and friendly in her ways, and straining / To counterfeit a courtly kind of grace, / A stately bearing fitting to her place, / And to seem dignified in all her dealings (6-7)†. This shows that the Prioress is faking her personality, counterfeiting her true purpose of being on the pilgrimage. Also, the Prioress is one of the most hateful characters in the whole story. In the Prioress’ tale, she constantly states her anti-Semitic view towards Jews, implying that the best Jewish person is a dead Jewish person. The ironic part is that the Prioress should be a caring, loving person, for she is a holy representative of God on earth. Strangely enough, the Prioress becomes terrified at the sight of a hurt animal but could care less about Jewish people. â€Å"She used to weep if she but saw a mouse / Caught in a trap, if it were dead or bleeding (7)†. Overall, the Prioress is one of Chaucer’s most ironic characters in his story, and her actions seem unrelated to the vocation of being a nun. Chaucer frequently and successfully uses ironic humor to add to the punch of the story. Because the humor is unexpected and imaginative, it draws from the reader a yearning and interest to read on. The fable of Chanticleer and Pertelote provides an ideal illustration of Chaucer’s humor. † â€Å"ËÅ"For shame,’ she said, â€Å"ËÅ"you timorous poltroon! / Alas, what cowardice! By God above, / You’ve forfeited my heart and lost my love. / I cannot love a coward, come what may’ (216-17)†. Here, it is ironically humorous to not only have animals portraying human traits, but also to create a situation that is comparable to a married couple sitting down at the breakfast table bickering. The humor is directly exposed to the reader due to the unexpected being brought to words, mixed with a tinge of absurdity of the situation. The hilarious irony is that the married couple is actually a rooster and a hen. By using such scenes, Chaucer adds to his stor y a new twist that makes it more gratifying and amusing to read. The randomness of some of Chaucer’s tales also adds to the humor of the story. For instance, it is amusing to think about the randomness of the miller’s tale and the imaginative mind one must have to come up with such a chaotic and hilarious story. The miller’s tale is so intricately laced with puns, sexual jokes, raunchy statements, that it adds an amusing humorous side of Chaucer to the story. Between the stupid carpenter, and the outraged Absolon, dirty scenes are depicted, contributing to Chaucer’s humorous style. All in all, the randomness in Chaucer’s imaginative and unusual comic stories is associated with irony due to the fact that the stories are so unexpected. The ironic and unanticipated characteristics of some of Chaucer’s humorous scenes make the reader laugh, blush, grin, and snicker. â€Å"He lay there fainting, pale beneath his tan; / His arm in falling had been broken double†Ã‚ ¦ They told the town / That he was mad, there’d got into his blood / Some sort of nonsense about â€Å"ËÅ"Nowel’s Flood (105)†. Here, when the carpenter falls from the ceiling in his apparatus to save his life and his wife’s, it is seen how truly random and unexpected Chaucer can be. Overall, irony adds strength and diversity to Chaucer’s story, making his writings more successful. Irony combined with Chaucer’s imagination, wit,  humor, and intelligence makes The Canterbury Tales successful and interesting to the reader. This irony presented in Chaucer’s characters and his humor helps to intensify Chaucer’s writings. Conclusively, the real success of the story relies in the incredible ingeniousness of Chaucer. However, the lack of Chaucer’s use of irony would make the compilation of tales much duller and less unique. Because of this, the irony in the story adds vigor, and it allows for Chaucer to increase his overwhelming success with his readers.

Conagra Foods Essay

ConAgra Foods Inc. is one of the largest food companies in the United States operating in such segments as Consumer Foods (66%) and Commercial Foods (34%) which are divided into three significant business operations segments – agricultural products, packaged foods and refrigerated foods (Table 1). Table 1. Net sales (in millions USD) 20102009%increase/decrease Consumer Foods 8,002 7,979-%. Commercial Foods 4,077 4,447(8)% Total12,07912,426(3)% Source: Annual Report 2010 Consumer Foods The Consumer Foods segment includes branded, private label and customized food products, which are sold in various retail and foodservice channels. The products include a variety of categories, such as meals, entrees, condiments, sides, snacks, and desserts across frozen, refrigerated and shelf-stable temperature classes. The Company’s major brands include Alexia, ACT II, Banquet, Blue Bonnet, Chef Boyardee, DAVID, Egg Beaters, Healthy Choice, Hebrew National, Hunt’s, Marie Callender’s, Orville Redenbacher’s, PAM, Peter Pan, Reddi-wip, Slim Jim, Snack Pack, Swiss Miss, Van Camp’s and Wesson. As of July 22, 2010, it had 39 domestic manufacturing facilities in Arkansas, California, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin. As of July 22, 2010, it also had four international manufacturing facilities in Canada and Mexico (one 50% owned) and one in Arroyo Dulce, Argentina. Commercial Foods The Commercial Foods segment supplies frozen potato, sweet potato and other vegetable, spice and grain products to a variety of restaurants, foodservice operators and commercial customers. The products are sold under brands, such as ConAgra Mills, Lamb Weston, and Spicetec Flavors & Seasoning. As of July 22, 2010, it had 41 domestic production facilities in Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Washington; one international production facility in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico and Qingdao, China; one manufacturing facility in Taber, Canada; one 50% owned manufacturing facility in each of Colorado, Minnesota, Washington and the United Kingdom; one 67% owned manufacturing facility in Puerto Rico, and three 50% owned manufacturing facilities in the Netherlands. Company is mainly engaged in operations in the United States which count for more than 90% of total income (Table 2). ConAgra Foods Inc. owns approximately 50 brands (Table 3). Table 2. Pre-tax income from continuing operations (in millions USD) 201020092008 United States1,040. 3872. 1631. 9 Foreign 66. 6 64. 3 69. 6 Total1,106. 9936. 4701. 5 Source: Annual Report 2010 Vision and mission The vision of the company set by current CEO Gary Rodkin is: â€Å"One company. One goal. Making the food you love. † It reflects the overall company’s strategy to make â€Å"food people want in their lives every day†. The mission is reflected in company’s profile: â€Å"Preparing great food, being a strong partner to our customers and thinking about all of the people who enjoy our food and the difference it makes in their lives fuels our passion: making the food you love. † Goals Like every public-held company listed on NYSE (ConAgra Foods Inc. has ticker CAG) ConAgra Foods Inc. aims to increase earnings per share. The goal of the company is to achieve long-term growth through supply chain productivity, operational efficiency, innovation, selling, marketing and sustainability of great brands . Increase in supply chain productivity and operational efficiency lets the company to reduce its manufacturing, finance, administrative, transportation costs. Innovation and marketing orientation enhances the business processes and expands profit margins. Figure 1. Formula for growth Source: Annual Report 2010 ConAgra Foods Inc.operates under three principles while achieving its strategic goal: simplicity, collaboration and accountability. Using their resources rationally, nourishing employees and creating positive image within the community are the objectives which lead the company to be â€Å"good for you, good for the community, good for the people† . Strategic priorities The company focuses on the following business product groups. In each strategic group ConAgra Foods Inc. possesses significant manufacturing and innovation capabilities. Figure 2. Strategic priorities. Source: Annual Report 2010 Strategy â€Å"ConAgra Foods is focused on growing sales, expanding profit margins, and improving returns on capital over time. To that end, the company has significantly changed its portfolio of businesses over a number of years, focusing on branded, value-added opportunities, while divesting commodity-based and lower-margin businesses. † Acquisitions Company was founded in 1919 as Nebraska Consolidated Mills and in 2000 changed its name to ConAgra Foods Inc. Acquisitions are the major part of ConAgra’s strategy. The company implemented horizontal and vertical integration strategy after sustaining solid background in flour-milling operations and feed and poultry segment. The time and the trends in the food industry were crucial to the strategic acquisitions of the company. In 1970-1980s when home and industrial refrigerators became available for the consumers and packing techniques developed , which meant that now meat and vegetables will not spoil, ConAgra entered the frozen foods market with the acquisition of Banquet Foods in 1980 and other companies in the meat and poultry segment (Armour Foods, Beatrice Foods, Hebrew National Foods, etc.). In 1980-1990s when the welfare of American citizens began to improve and people began to value time the food that was easy to cook (which means basically just heat and serve) was highly demanded and ConAgra’s strategic move was highly appreciated by the investors in the stock market. The stock price of CAG tripled from 10$ in 1990 to 30$ in 1998. The total amount of acquired brands approximated 30 by the year 2000 (Hunt’s, La Choy, Wesson, ACT II, Chef Boyardee, etc. ) and company changed its name to ConAgra Foods Inc.to reflect its growing role as a food products manufacturer rather than just the food ingredients supplier. In the beginning of the twenty first century and nowadays when the society became more concerned about their health ConAgra Foods Inc. implemented several strategic acquisitions of such companies as Alexia Foods Inc. (natural and organic foods company) in 2007, Elan Nutrition in 2010 and others. The purchases that company makes â€Å"†¦reflect [our] acquisition strategy—find businesses that are great fits and enable [us] to grow by filling a need within [our] portfolio or giving [us] an adjacent category expansion†¦. † Figure 3. The acquisitions strategy helped ConAgra Foods Inc. to: ConAgra Foods Inc. divests the businesses which are either too complex to integrate with the core businesses or did not achieve a profit margin greater than the benchmark margin rate. In 2009 the company sold Pemmican (beef jerky business), in 2008 it sold â€Å"Knott’s Berry Farm† operations and others. Mostly, the divestitures are low-margin (commodity-based) businesses. Marketing and distribution Almost every American household has a number of ConAgra Foods brand-named products in their refrigerators. The ability to acquire well-known and customer-loved brands had secured for ConAgra beneficial position. Some of the acquired brands such as Peter Pan and Chef Boyardee had longer history than ConAgra and were so much identifiable in the consumer market that it makes no sense to advance the brand of ConAgra. Even though the company has so many brands in their â€Å"arsenal† many people don’t know what ConAgra does. And many consumers don’t identify ConAgra as the owner of the brand-named products that they buy. ConAgra is aimed to the better understanding needs of their customers. The health-conscious consumers (whose number is growing) chose nutritious and low-fat food. For increasing nutrition in its products company launched the program on sodium reduction and positions itself as a â€Å"safe food manufacturer† . In 2008 the company launched the program online startmakingchoices. com for people who are concerned with the healthy way of life. The website has several tests and tips on how to keep your life healthier. Also company designs packaging with the full information to help consumers improve their diet. â€Å"Taste, health, nutrition, convenience, sustainability and, of course, value are just some of the issues American shoppers are now faced with every time they go to a supermarket – and they’re demanding to know more. † For the purpose of better serving its customers and help consumers with their choice ConAgra Foods Inc. launched â€Å"Food News Today† with Phil Lempert, a â€Å"leading consumer trend analyst and Supermarket Guru†. ConAgra Foods Inc. aimed to develop and improve their private labeling strategy. One of the most successful brands that company has, Healthy Choice, has retail sales of about 1 billion dollars. This label is licensed to other companies for use on their products. Company announced the Gold Store initiative in 2006, which focuses on driving growth by optimizing in-store conditions in three fundamental areas: distribution, shelving, and placement next to the companion products. As part of a plan ConAgra’s sales efforts are shifting from a strategy that relied heavily on short-term price discounts and couponing in order to push out sales volume to consumers to a strategy that relies more on ways to draw in consumers. The new strategy hopes to provide a more balanced mix of trade spending, consumer advertising, and product innovation than the company had in the past. Even though ConAgra Foods Inc. owns distribution and transportation businesses like J. M. Swank, most of company’s transportation equipment, distribution centers and storage facilities are being run by third parties. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and its affiliates, accounted for approximately 18% of consolidated net sales for fiscal 2010 . ConAgra combines hard data from retailers with its own qualitative research. â€Å"Gary Rodkin is on a quest to find what he calls â€Å"the big, singular insight that will drive behavior change. â€Å"†¦. He is using theories about buying habits–backed by $399 million a year in advertising, marketing and in-store promotions–to convince grocery stores to provide ample shelves for its 45 consumer brands†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬  Leadership. Charles M. Harper The â€Å"wizard† Charles M. Harper who led the company from 1974 to 1993 is well-known for launching acquisitions strategy and founding Healthy Choice brand. During his tenure at ConAgra, the company expanded its business operations from flour-milling business to frozen foods, poultry, prepared seafood, fertilizers and the sales rose from $636 million in 1974 to $9 billion in 1987. The main reason for making decisions on acquisitions strategy were cyclical profits that company faced in agricultural segment. Mike Harper decided to diversify the company from basic products to packaged goods. His main priority was to acquire companies while they were in their down cycle and he restructured the companies and refocused their marketing strategies. He reintroduced the brands which were highly recognizable by consumers and refocused the product lines. In 1988 Harper boasted that ConAgra was probably the only food products company to â€Å"participate across the entire food chain. † In the early 1990s ConAgra expanded at a rate of about 3-5 acquisitions and joint ventures a year, becoming the leader in the frozen goods industry . During his tenure the P/E ratio of the company was at all times high which means: the price of stock was rising faster than the earnings per share or in other words, the investors were overoptimistic about the future of the company. (Figure 4) Figure 4. P/E ratio of ConAgra Foods Inc. Bruce Rhode In 1998 Bruce Rhode was named a CEO of ConAgra and his first steps were to reduce costs by large amount. He instituted â€Å"Operation Overdrive† restructuring program, closing several production plants and storage facilities and cutting the workforce by seven thousand employees. The estimated savings from â€Å"Operation Overdrive† were approximately $600 million a year . The other problem that Bruce Rhode faced was strong decentralization of the company. Some of the food-processing and meat-packing companies, which operated under one brand name of ConAgra, purchased the products from the competitors rather than other ConAgra’s branches. The same uncoordinated actions were in marketing when â€Å"representatives from several ConAgra divisions, all selling similar products, visited the same restaurants and groceries†. Bruce Rhode emphasized team-approach to solve these problems. At the beginning of 2000s many retail grocery stores would like to promote their own brands in foods processing and packaging segment and that was another problem for Bruce Rhode to solve. He concentrated on product development and marketing, working closely with grocery stores to create displays of ConAgra products. Bruce Rhode continued acquisitions strategy of his predecessors acquiring more brand names in packaged food segment (International Home Foods in 2000) to increase gross sales of the company and he divided company into ten principal operating units: ConAgra Foodservice Company; ConAgra Grocery Products Companies; ConAgra Frozen Prepared Foods; ConAgra Dairy Case Companies; ConAgra Refrigerated Prepared Foods; ConAgra Meat Companies; ConAgra Poultry Company; ConAgra Food Ingredients; United Agri Products Companies; ConAgra Trade Group. The early years of his tenure coincided with the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997-1998 when the investors were cautious about the US domestic markets and the stock price fell significantly (Figure 4). Figure 4. Daily stock prices for ConAgra Foods, Inc. (CAG) since 1978 to 2010. Source: google. com/finance Gary Rodkin Gary Rodkin, the former CEO of PepsiCo Beverages and Foods of North America division, replaced Bruce Rhode as CEO of ConAgra Foods Inc. in 2005 and began reorganization trying to create one centralized consolidated company that consists of more than 500 subdivisions. As a result of refocusing its portfolio of businesses ConAgra Foods Inc. divested Butterball, Armour, Eckrich and others. Gary Rodkin, while continuing acquisitions strategy, transformed the company into a â€Å"more unified operating company† . With the changes of the new CEO many analysts were concerned that he would try to create ConAgra brand instead of coordinating many different brands. However, during his interview to SmartMoney (Wall Street Journal) in 2010 he said: â€Å"†¦. There is no product named ConAgra. So instead, we say, consumers make the brands relevant. We do need investors to better understand this company. But on the consumer side, we really don’t think the juice is worth the squeeze. † Performance Internal organization ConAgra Foods Inc. operates in a low-margin industry thus effectively managing its costs is the priority in achieving strategic competitiveness (Figure 6). Focusing on cost reduction the company could save 1. 1 billion USD through supply chain rationalization initiatives, the relocation of a divisional headquarters from Irvine, California to Naperville, Illinois, the centralization of shared services, salaried headcount reductions and other cost-reduction initiatives . Figure 6. Here’s how the $4. 19 you pay for a frozen dinner like one from Healthy Choice breaks down. ConAgra makes 55 cents. Source: Forbes. com . Shopping Cart Psychology by Helen Coster. 08. 19. 09 For the fiscal 2010 year ConAgra Foods Inc. announced net sales of 12,079 million USD with the operating profit of 1,652 USD (Table 4). Table 4. Financial Highlights for the fiscal 2010 year Source: Annual Report 2010 â€Å"†¦.. Heightened competition, weak demand and inflation hampered food processor ConAgra’s fiscal first quarter, leading it to cut its outlook, though the maker of Healthy Choice and Orville Redenbacher’s brand foods increased its dividend†¦.. † . The company also decreased its earnings per share outlook from 8-10% growth to 5-7%. External environment ConAgra Foods Inc. is focused on value-added brand companies and private labeling in the food industry where it competes with such giants as Kraft Foods, Heinz, Nestle, etc. â€Å"†¦.. We experience intense competition for sales of our principal products in our major markets. Our products compete with widely advertised, well-known, branded products, as well as private label and customized products. Some of our competitors are larger and have greater resources than we have. We compete primarily on the basis of quality, value, customer service, brand recognition, and brand loyalty†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. † From the next figure it can be inferred that even though ConAgra Foods, Inc. operates better than overall US industries, it still underperforms the leading companies in food sector. Figure 5. 10-year comparison of ConAgra Foods Inc. , S&P 500, S&P 500 Packaged Foods Index. Source: Annual Report 2010 In the Processed and Packaged Goods industry companies operate under very narrow margins (Figure 6) and for that reason severe price competition after the financial crisis influences heavily the profits of ConAgra Foods Inc. Also, the retailers implement backward integration strategy and take away profits from famous brand companies since the consumers are losing interest in the brand-named products. Even though the there are some good news about the industry that the consumers are very conscious about the money and they eat-out less than before the crisis the competition in the industry makes it difficult for analysts to predict bright future for the food companies. In the Figure we can see that the general projections for the industry are either â€Å"buy† or â€Å"hold† rather than â€Å"strong buy†. Figure 7. Analysts recommendation about the industry and ConAgra Foods Inc. Source: wikinvest. com Zacks Investment Research, November 24, 2010. Bibliographies 1. Amanda Quick, â€Å"Company profiles for students†, (Thomson Gale, 1999) 2. bigcharts. com 3. ConAgra Foods Inc. Annual Report 2010 4. ConAgra Foods Inc. Corporate Responsibility Report 2010 5. conagrafoods. com 6. forbes. com 7. google. com/finance 8. http://www. hbs. edu 9. referenceforbusiness. com 10. wikinvest. com 11. wsj. com.