Reading Skills Essay

Reading Reading is the receptive skill in the written mode. It can develop independently of listening and speaking skills, but often develops along with them, especially in societies with a highly-developed literary tradition. Reading can help build vocabulary that helps listening comprehension at the later stages, particularly. Micro-skills involved in reading. The reader has to: †¢ decipher the script. In an alphabetic system or a syllabary, this means establishing a relationship between sounds and symbols. In a pictograph system, it means associating the meaning of the words with written symbols. †¢ recognize vocabulary. †¢ pick out key words, such as those identifying topics and main ideas. †¢ figure out the meaning of the words, including unfamiliar vocabulary, from the (written) context. †¢ recognize grammatical word classes: noun, adjective, etc. †¢ detect sentence constituents, such as subject, verb, object, prepositions, etc. †¢ recognize basic syntactic patterns. †¢ reconstruct and infer situations, goals and participants. †¢ use both knowledge of the world and lexical and grammatical cohesive devices to make the foregoing inferences, predict outcomes, and infer links and connections among the parts of the text. †¢ get the main point or the most important information. †¢ distinguish the main idea from supporting details. †¢ adjust reading strategies to different reading purposes, such as skimming Why is reading skill is so important? Reading is one of the skills most crucial for a child’s success in school and in life. If children don’t learn to read with comprehension early enough, their education is at risk. If they don’t learn to read effortlessly enough to render reading pleasurable, their chances for a fulfilling life–by any measure, whether academic achievement, financial stability or job skills–are tremendously diminished. How to improve reading skill: Teaching reading can be an arduous task as it is often difficult to know how to improve student skills. One of the most obvious, but often unnoticed, points about reading is that there are different types of reading skills. †¢ Skimming – reading rapidly for the main points †¢ Scanning – reading rapidly to find a specific piece of information †¢ Extensive – reading a longer text, often for pleasure with emphasis on overall meaning †¢ Intensive reading – reading a short text for detailed information These different types of skills are used quite naturally when reading in a mother tongue. Unfortunately, when learning a second or foreign language, people tend to employ only â€Å"intensive† style reading skills. I have often noticed that students insist on understanding every word and find it difficult to take my advice of reading for the general idea, or only looking for required information. Students studying a foreign language often feel that if they don’t understand each and every word they are somehow not completing the exercise. In order to make students aware of these different types of reading styles, it is useful to provide an awareness raising lesson to help them identify reading skills they already apply when reading in their native tongues. Thus, when approaching an English text, students should first identify what type of reading skill needs to be applied to the specific text at hand. In this way valuable skills, which students already possess, are easily transferred to their English reading. Outline: †¢ Ask students about what types of reading they do in their own mother tongue(s). †¢ Write different categories of written material on board. i. e. magazines, novels, train schedules, newspapers, advertising, etc. †¢ Have students describe how they go about reading each kind of material. You may want to prompt them by asking the following questions: o Do you read every word in the tv schedule? o Do you understand every word you read when reading a novel? o What kind of clues can the presentation of the material give? o How much time do you spend reading the newspaper? Do you read every single word? o What kind of assumptions do you make when you read the first few lines, or a headline? (i. e. Once upon a time†¦. ) o How much time do you spend reading the various types of materials? †¢ Based on students’ answers to such questions, ask them to identify the type of skills they are using in the various reading situations. †¢ Divide students into small groups and give them the skills summary and short worksheet. †¢ Have students discuss their opinions about the various skills required for the listed materials. †¢ Present various â€Å"real world† materials (i. e. magazines, books, scientific materials, computer manuals etc. ) and ask students to identify the necessary skills required. Reading Styles  Skimming – Reading rapidly for the main points Scanning – Reading rapidly through a text to find specific information required Extensive – Reading longer texts, often for pleasure and for an overall understanding Intensive – Reading shorter texts for detailed information with an emphasis on precise understanding Identify the reading skills required in the following reading situations: †¢ The TV guide for Friday evening †¢ An English grammar book †¢ An article in National Geographic magazine about the Roman Empire †¢ A good friend’s homepage on the Internet †¢ The weather report in your local newspaper †¢ A novel †¢ A poem. †¢ A bus timetable †¢ A fax at the office †¢ An advertising email – so called â€Å"bodyfit† †¢ An email or letter from your best friend †¢ A recipe †¢ A short story by your favourite author Note: There is often not a single correct answer, several choices may be possible according to your reading purpose. If you find that there are different possibilities, state the situation in which you would use the various skills. Developing Reading Skills How many of us remember how we learned to read? Even if we cannot remember how we learned, as parents and educators we can do a lot to help children learn to read and enjoy reading. Reading involves three distinct but intertwined skills: decoding, fluency and comprehension. Decoding is understanding and using sound/letter relationships. Fluency is being able to read quickly and easily. Comprehension is being able to get meaning from the words that have been put together. Comprehension is the point of reading—the reason for reading. But a reader must reach a certain level of decoding and fluency before comprehension can occur. Learning to read involves a constant back-and-forth flow among these three skills. A difficulty in any one of them can cause a breakdown in reading skill. Decoding Decoding means understanding the sounds associated with letter symbols and being able to put them together. A good reading program teaching decoding skills will include phonological awareness activities, blending sounds and segmenting sounds. Phonological awareness is the understanding that words are made up of individual letter/sound combinations. Blending is being able to put those sounds together to â€Å"read† a word. Segmenting is being able to separate a word into individual sounds. In more advanced reading, blending and segmenting will be used to put together or take apart multisyllable words. Some instruction in decoding is useful for all readers to help them read unfamiliar words and also in spelling. Many readers understand the decoding system easily. Those who do not should receive more extensive, direct teaching in these skills. Decoding is what we often associate with phonics and is frequently considered the boring part of learning to read. But it doesn’t need to be. Teachers can help their child with phonics and phonological awareness through word games. Rhyming activities, discussing words with alliterative sounds (â€Å"mean monsters munching mints†) or play games by deleting sounds (say â€Å"clap† without the â€Å"c†) are all ways to help young children become aware of sounds. Having them read or spell nonsense words (such as â€Å"glont† or â€Å"bresk†) can become a game which will help them practice using sounds and learn patterns in the English language Fluency Once a child knows all the sounds, he needs to be able to blend them automatically (or without consciously thinking about it) and speedily to achieve fluency. Fluency is the ability to read smoothly and with expression. Fluency is the bridge between decoding and comprehension. Sometimes children work so hard at decoding each word in a sentence that they cannot remember what they read by the time they reach the end. They lack fluency. Fluency is an area where parents can help since it requires practice and modeling. Reading aloud to your children with expression and enjoyment both before and after they can read themselves, is a good way to model fluency. Once they have learned to read, read aloud collaboratively, taking turns reading a page. Repeated reading is another way to improve fluency, so do not hesitate to read the same books over and over. Comprehension Comprehension is really the end-product, or goal, of reading. We read to gain knowledge and understanding, and we read for pleasure. Each of these requires good comprehension. Many thinking skills and life experiences involve reading comprehension. In addition to speed of decoding and fluency, comprehension has many other components, including knowledge of vocabulary and language usage, background knowledge, memory, sequencing (understanding and remembering events or ideas in the order in which they are presented), visualizing (making a picture in your head as you read) and focusing (maintaining attention and interest). Teachers can have a great impact on a child’s reading comprehension. Again, reading aloud with children will inspire a love of books and reading and will provide vocabulary and language stimulation and background knowledge that will aid them when they begin to read themselves. Children who have dyslexia or a specific learning disability can benefit much more quickly from remediation if they have good listening comprehension. Reading books together gives children a chance to talk about the book, to discuss new facts and explore new ideas. Children can also improve their vocabulary and background knowledge through  discussions and activities with their friends (a trip to the zoo to learn about animals, a walk in the park to talk about kinds of plants). Integrating the Skills These three skills—decoding, fluency, and comprehension—are used continually as children’s reading skills progress. As new phonemes (letter/sound combinations) are added to reading, some children need lots of practice to become fluent with them. As they encounter more difficult words, reading may become less fluent, and the students may need to review or learn new decoding skills. If decoding skills were shaky to begin with, that can become a problem as children encounter more difficult words. Sometimes in middle school, or even high school, a child will have difficulty reading new words, and he will benefit from some instruction in how to break words apart into their syllable parts for reading or spelling. A good reading program will include all three skills. It is important for teachers to understand that reading has several parts and requires many different skills. If a child is having difficulty with reading, he may need some testing or assessment to figure out the problem. A teacher or tutor or academic therapist can then give the child specialized teaching to remediate the problem. Characteristics of Fluent Readers †¢ read with a purpose (to get information or for pleasure) and understand the purpose of different texts (e. g. , ads to encourage buying, editorials to present and influence opinions, recipes to give instructions); †¢ read quickly, automatically recognizing letters and words, maintaining a flow that allows them to make connections and inferences that make the text understandable; †¢ use a variety of strategies, depending on the text, to read efficiently (e. g., varying reading speed, predicting what will happen next, previewing headings and illustrations); †¢ interact with the text, making use of background knowledge as well as the information on the printed page; †¢ evaluate the text critically, determining whether they agree or disagree with the author; †¢ expect to understand the text and get meaning from it; and †¢ usually read silently. Conclusion Much research has been concerned with first language reading and has generated many approaches to teaching reading. However, there is a growing body of literature on both foreign language academic reading and second language reading. All three areas contribute to the understanding of the reading process and have implications for instructional practice. Teachers who are aware of these reading approaches can tailor reading instruction to meet the needs and goals of English language learners. Suggestions for Developing Reading Instruction Knowing what good readers do and comparing this with the strategies used by learners in their classes will enable ESL teachers to gauge learners’ needs. Adult English language learners come with varied reading backgrounds and experiences. Some are fluent readers in their native languages; some are not. Their view of literacy will be influenced by the literacy practices of their culture. Yet, they all will share the experience of learning to read in English, and they will approach reading differently from the way native speakers approach it (Rance-Roney, 1997). The following activities can help learners develop reading proficiency. The choice of activity, however, depends on the needs of the learners, the nature of the text, and the demands of the reading task. Reading Proficiency Activities 1. Because good readers read with a purpose, learners should read texts that meet their needs and are interesting. Teachers can choose texts, or let the learners choose texts, that are relevant to the learners’ lives. They also need to be exposed to texts that they are likely to encounter in everyday life, such as newspapers and magazines, work memos, schedules, and medical instructions. 2. In order to develop automatic recognition skills, learners who are preliterate or literate in a language with a non-Roman alphabet should be given opportunities to develop letter recognition and sound-symbol correspondence skills. This should not be done in isolation, but with familiar texts that they have practiced orally or heard before (Hood et al. , 1996). For example, learners can identify words that begin with a certain sound in a dialogue they know. Learners who are literate in their own language may find phonics instruction unproductive unless differences between their native language and English are pointed out. Spanish speakers, for example, need to know that the letter â€Å"a† can express more than one sound in English. Vocabulary development also plays a role in automaticity. In texts where vocabulary may not be familiar, teachers can introduce key vocabulary in prereading activities that focus on language awareness, such as finding synonyms, antonyms, derivatives, or associated words (Hood et al. , 1996). Modified cloze exercises, where examples of the target structure (e. g. , prepositions) are deleted from a text and learners fill in as many blanks as they can, are also helpful. 3. Using appropriate strategies for various reading tasks increases comprehension, but acquiring an array of strategies is a long and difficult process (Grabe, 1995). Nevertheless, such strategies as skimming for the main idea, scanning for specific information, predicting what a text is about or what will happen next, and making use of the context and illustrations to discover word meanings are critical for English language learners beyond the beginning level. 4. Prereading activities that introduce the text encourage learners to use their background knowledge (Eskey, 1997). Class members can brainstorm ideas about the meaning of a title or an illustration and discuss what they know. The teacher can highlight cultural assumptions inherent in the writing. Awareness of various text types and their styles (advertisements, recipes, editorials) is also helpful. 5. Evaluating texts for implicit values and assumptions is another important reading skill. Reading texts that present different opinions or different descriptions of the same situation help develop an awareness of how language reflects values (Hood et al. , 1996). Texts that present an issue without presenting a solution, such as â€Å"Dear Abby† letters (without the replies), can lead to discussion and writing about differing points of view (Auerbach, 1992). 6. Good readers expect to understand what they are reading. Therefore, texts should contain words and grammatical structures familiar to the learners (Eskey, 1997). However, it is not always easy to find texts that are both understandable and interesting for adult English language learners to read. Authentic reading material can often be found by the learners themselves, who have written pieces to share with each other. 7. Extensive reading for a sustained, uninterrupted period of time is not only valuable for developing vocabulary but is also an important way to develop reading proficiency and language acquisition in general (Grabe, 1991; Krashen, 1993). In class, learners can engage in Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) of materials they have chosen themselves. They can be encouraged to read outside of class by maintaining (and periodically turning in) reading logs that list what they have read and by making one- to three-minute oral presentations recommending a book, story, or article to their classmates (Dupuy, Tse, & Cook, 1996). Conclusion Much research has been concerned with first language reading and has generated many approaches to teaching reading. However, there is a growing body of literature on both foreign language academic reading and second language reading. All three areas contribute to the understanding of the reading process and have implications for instructional practice. Teachers who are aware of these reading approaches can tailor reading instruction to meet the needs and goals of English language learners. AN APPROACH TO A READING LESSON STAGE 1: Check understanding of ‘essential’ vocabulary. (Do you think it is necessary or desirable for your students to understand all the vocabulary) AIM: For students to understand the meaning of words essential to the completion of set tasks. STAGE 2: Establish interest in the topic through discussion based on the topic or prediction. AIM: To generate students’ interest in the topic of the text. (These two stages are necessary to prepare the students for the reading skills. ) STAGE 3: Set atleast two different reading tasks. Give the easier task(questions), first to build confidence. This would be task which require scan reading. AIM: For students to have practice in scan reading skills. STAGE 4: Provide a task.

Satire in Gulliver’s Travels

Jonathan Swifts Gulliver's Travels is an elaborate concoction of political allegory, moral fable, social anatomy, and mock Utopias set within a parody of both travel fiction and journals of scientific exploration. When it was finally taken as satire, critics began insisting that Swift was mad; they did not like what they saw in the satirical mirror. Swift knew that people would see everyone's likeness but their own in this glass, so he wrote the character of Gulliver in a certain way in order to prevent the writing off of his actions as quirks. Gulliver visits four different societies in his travel, and upon his return home at the end, he cannot bring himself to rejoin society. The character of Gulliver will be examined in this section. Swift created him in such a way that the people of England could identify with him easily. He is a typical European: middle aged, well educated, has no overly romantic notions, is sensible, and conducts his affairs prudently. This section will look at the satirical aspects of the first book, where in Gulliver visits the land of Lilliput. Gulliver is a normal human being visiting a recognizably European society, but he is twelve times bigger than the lands inhabitants. The Lilliputians are as small morally as they are physically. They are petty and have arguments over aspects of life such as upon which end to break an egg: ?the king seemed to think nothing †¦ of destroying the Big-Endian exiles, and compelling that people to break the smaller end of their eggs; by which he would remain sole monarch of the world. ?.The Lilliputians are ordered to stand fifty feet away from Gulliver s house, unless they have a license whereby the secretaries of state got considerable fees. It is clear that the main satiric target in the first book is the pride Europeans take in public ceremonies and celebrations of power and magnificence: There's an obvious silliness to the obsessions with these matters when the figures are only six inches high. Gulliver returns home and promptly sets out to sea once more. He comes across the island of Brobdingnag, and this section will deal with the various satirical aspects of that society. He has left a land of small people and has now found himself in the role of a Lilliputian: he is now twelve times smaller than those around him. This entire book serves to reflect on the obsession with physical beauty which has grabbed Europeans of Swift's time. He is nauseated when he sees a woman with a cancerous breast; he notes that the flesh is full of holes into which he could have easily crept. When he is in a bedroom with a few maids of honor, he is disgusted when they begin to undress in front of him because of their size and physical grossness. The voice of Swift, behind Gulliver, is saying ?look at yourself, especially if you are a girl, and most especially if you think yourself lovely; excepting your size, in what way are you less vulgar than these Brobdingnagians The king of the Brobdingnagians also provides straightforward commentary on the Europeans Gulliver describes to him. Gulliver is the first to explain away the king's criticisms. He says that the king cannot help thinking in such ways because he has been isolated his entire life and has certain prejudices and a narrowness of thinking. Because of this, Swift allows he to write the king openly criticizing the European way of life; to the untrained reader, the passage is taken as Gulliver takes it, which is as the product of a closed mind. The fourth book is perhaps the most important. This section will deal with the views expressed in Gulliver s journey to Houyhnhnmland. The Houyhnhnms are extremely rational horses who co-exist with entirely irrational human-monkey hybrids known as Yahoos. Swift uses the conflict between the actions of these two species to set forth the fact that humans tend to describe themselves in terms of Houyhnhnms but act more like Yahoos. This book deals with more philosophical issues such as the nature of man's thought and the purpose of living. Again, Swift allows Gulliver to reveal the characteristics of Europeans. The reply he receives from the king of the Houyhnhnms is crushingly unflattering:?he looked upon us as a sort of animals to whose share, by what accident he could not conjecture, some small pittance of Reason had fallen, whereof we made no other use than by its assistance to aggravate our natural corruptions, and to acquire new ones which nature had not given us.?Through his inter actions with the people of Houyhnhnmland, his objective perspective on society from the previous books is shattered; he begins to realize facts about human nature. This time, he agrees with the king of the Houyhnhnms about his countrymen: ?When I thought of my family, my friends, my countrymen, or human race in general, I considered them as they really were, Yahoos in shape and disposition, perhaps a little more civilized, and qualified with the gift of speech, but making no other use of reason than to improve and multiply those vices whereof their brethren in this country had only the share that nature allotted them.? Gulliver's perspective and entire life are changed because of his episode with the Houyhnhnms and the Yahoos. The fate of Gulliver is just as important as his journey in supporting Swift's critical view of European life. This section will deal with what happens to him and why it occurs the way it does. When he returns home, he faints for over an hour after being embraced by his wife. He describes her as an ‘odious animal,' decides that her presence is morally unbearable, and describes her as a Yahoo. He cannot bear the company of Europeans anymore. Gulliver shuns the culture which bred him: ?the many virtues of the Houyhnhnms placed in opposite view to human corruptions, had so far opened my eyes and enlarged my understanding, that I began to view the actions and passions of man in a very different light, and think the honor of my own kind not worthy managing.?From this realization on, he walks around trotting like a horse and spends four hours daily speaking to horses, trying to force himself to be thought of as a horse. So although he comes to understand humanity bett er than any of his peers, he actually loses his grip on reality. In other words, the Houyhnhnms' society is perfect for Houyhnhnms, but it is hopeless for humans. Houyhnhnm society is, in stark contrast to the societies of the first three voyages, devoid of all that is human.

Analysis Annual Report 2010 Bayer Essay Example for Free (#2010)

Analysis Annual Report 2010 Bayer Essay Which indicators have been brought forward in the annual report of the company? Which specific targets are aimed at? How does the group state and assess the evolution of profitability in the annual report? Is there more recent public information about this issue? Where? Is this information in line with the one mentioned in the annual report? Is it indicating a similar evolution? What are the main propositions of the company to improve its profitability? What is the global financing strategy of the group? What is the evolution of the financing cost (several indicators)? What is the shareholders’ remuneration program? What are your sources (of information) regarding this issue? What are the main investment / disinvestment policies? How are these investments financed? What is the outlook of the company regarding this issue? What are the most important consolidated subsidiaries? (Eventually mention the approximate number of subsidiaries)? Are there associated companies? What is the evolution of the income attributable to shareholders (or result part of the group)? What are the comments of the company regarding this issue? What kind of indicators does the company report about shareholder value? Are those indicators compared with other information? Does the group announce the non-publication of some standards? If yes, for which reasons? Among explanatory notes associated with the consolidated accounts, choose one that is relative to a specific standard. For this note, report essential characteristics that highlight the differences in terms of recording and reporting in the relation to Belgian GAAPs. What is the impact of IAS/IFRS referential (if any) on the account that is concerned by this note? Global diagnostic Is there important recent information about this company? Would you invest in this company? Why? Business sector What is the main business of the group? Firstly, we have to know that Bayer was founded in Barmen, Germany in 1963 by Friedrich Bayer and Johann Friedrich Weskott his partner. It is a global and an inventor company with core competencies in the domain of health care, nutrition and high-tech materials. They produce and provide services to benefit people and improve their quality of life. In addition, they seek to create value with the help of innovation, growth and high earning power. For them, sustainability is very important for their social and ethical responsibilities. Its headquarters are in Leverkusen. This is one of the largest phamarceutical companies in the world and has three sebgroups: Bayer CropScience, Bayer HealthCare and Bayer MaterialScience. Led by the management holding company, they also have three services companies which operate independently: Bayer Business Services, Bayer Technology Services and Currenta. Are there other activities, complementary businesses within the group? Bayer CropScience has products in crop protection and nonagricultural pest control. It also has activities in seeds and plant traits. Bayer HealthCare is Bayer’s pharmaceutical and medical products subgroup. It is involved in the research, development, manufacture and marketing of products. It comprises a further four subdivisions: Bayer Schering Pharma, Bayer Consumer Care, Bayer Animal Health and Bayer Medical Care. Bayer MaterialScience is a supplier of high-tech  ­polymers, and develops solutions for a broad range of applications relevant to everyday life. Bayer Business Services located at the Bayer USA Headquarters in Pennsylvania. It handles the information technology infrastructure and technical support aspect of Bayer Canada and USA. Bayer Technology Services is engaged in process development and in process and plant engineering, construction and optimization. Currenta offers services for the chemical industry, including utility supply, waste management, infrastructure, safety, security, analytics and vocational training. What are the main group’s competitors? The main group’s competitors are Merck & Co, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Sanofi Aventis. Indeed, GlaxoSmithKline have the second post in the pharmaceutical’s world just behind Pfizer. Sanofi Aventis is in fourth place and Merck & Co and Bayer share the third place. Which main risks (that are inherent to this business sector) does the company mention? Which hedging policies are put in place? Business operations necessarily involve risks. So according to Bayer, effective management of risks is a key factor in sustainably safeguarding a company’s value. Risks are assessed both qualitatively and quantitatively in determining strategies of the strategic business entities. The risk management system is set on the Group Intranet. Directive published explains the basic principles of this management in accordance with German Law.According to Bayer Group, the definition of the risk is represented by events and possible developments within or outside of the group that would decrease the value of the company. These risks are described as follows: Legal risksBayer Group is exposed to numerous legal risks from legal disputes or proceedings to which they are currently a party †¦ So it is therefore possible that legal or regulatory judgments could significantly affect the revenues and earnings of the company.Industry-specific risksSome governments intervene directly in setting prices and the government reimbursement systems favoring less expensive generic pharmaceuticals over brand-name products, which diminish earnings from Bayer’s pharmaceutical products and could potentially render the market introduction of a new product unprofitable. So if it necessary, Bayer’s Group adjusts his business plans according to the significance of governmental intervention. Sales of the Group are subject to seasonal fluctuations and CropScience business particularly affected by weather conditions. Moreover the early identification of trends in the economic market is important elements of the Bayer’s Group business management. Finally where it appears strategically advantageous they may acquire a company or part of a company and combine it with their existing business. The integration processes associated with their acquisitions are steered by integration teams. Appropriate resources are provided to support the integration processes.Product development risksThe Group’s competitive position, sales and earnings depend significantly on the development of commercially viable new products and technologies’ production. So they therefore devote substantial resources to research and development. Furthermore it is possible that effects of their products may be discovered after regulatory approval or registration. So litigations and associated claims for damages due to negative effects can materially diminish their earnings.Regulatory risksOur life science businesses, in particular are subject to strict regulatory regimes relating to the testing, manufacturing and marketing of many of our products. In some countries regulatory controls have become increasingly demanding like in the USA or in EU. That may increase product development costs. So Projects have been initiated to coordinate the implementation of new regulatory controls and mitigate any negative implications for the business. Patent risksA large proportion of Bayer’s products is protected by patents. When a patent defense is unsuccessful, or if one of our patents expires, our prices are likely to come under pressure because of increased competition from generic products entering the market. The legal department, in conjunction with the relevant functional departments, regularly reviews the patent situation. Potential infringements of Bayer’s patents by other companies are carefully monitored so that legal action can be taken if necessary. Production, procurement market and environmental risksProduction capacities at some of their manufacturing facilities could be adversely affected by, for instance, technical failures, natural disasters †¦ This applies particularly to the biotech products because of the highly complex manufacturing processes. If in such cases they are unable to meet demand they may suffer declines in sales revenues. So they address product and environmental risks by way of suitable quality assurance measures. In addition, they are committed to the international Responsible Care initiative of the chemical industry. IT risksMajor disruptions or failure of global or regional business systems may result in loss of data and impairment of business and production processes. As a consequence technical precautions such as data recovery and continuity plans have been established together with the internal it service provider to address this risk. Risk to pension obligations from capital market developmentsThe Bayer Group has obligations to current and former employees related to pensions and other post-employment benefits. Changes in relevant valuation parameters such as interest rates, mortality and rates of increases in compensation may raise the present value of the pension obligations. This may lead to increased pension costs or diminish stockholders’ equity. Financial risksIn this part we are speaking about the management of financial and commodity price risks. As a global enterprise, Bayer is exposed in the normal course of business to credit risks, liquidity risks and various market price risks that could materially affect its net assets, financial position and results of operations. The various risks associated with financial instruments are outlined below together with the relevant risk management systems. In this risk there is a lot of subcategories: Credit risks: arise from the possibility of the value of receivables or other financial assets being impaired because counterparties cannot meet their payment or other performance obligations. To effectively manage the credit risks from trade receivables, Bayer has put in place a standardized risk management system Credit limits are set for all customers. Finally to minimize credit risks, financial transactions are only conducted with banks and other partners of first-class credit standing in line with predefined exposure limits. Liquidity risks: arise from the possibility of not being able to meet current or future payment obligations because insufficient cash is available. Those problems are centrally managed in the Bayer Group. Sufficient liquid assets are held to meet all of the Group’s payment obligations when they fall due, thereby ensuring solvency at all times. The size of this reserve is regularly reviewed and adjusted as necessary to current conditions. Then credit facilities also exist with banks. Markets risks: relate to the possibility that the fair value or future cash flows of financial instruments may fluctuate due to variations in market prices. Market risks include currency, interest rate and other price risks, especially commodity price risks. Currency risks: since the Bayer Group conducts a significant portion of its operations outside the euro zone, fluctuations in currency exchange rates can materially affect earnings. Currency risks are identified, analyzed and managed centrally and systematically. The scope of hedging is evaluated regularly and defined in a corporate directive. Then a significant proportion of contractual and foreseeable currency risks is hedged, mainly through forward exchange contracts and currency options. Interest rate risks: The Bayer Group’s interest rate risks arise primarily from financial assets and liabilities with maturities exceeding one year. Interest rate risks in the Group are analyzed centrally and managed by the central finance department. This is done in line with the duration set by the Board of Management, which implicitly also includes the ration of fixed-rate to floating-rate debt. Then the duration is subject to regular review. Other price risks (especially price risks): The Bayer Group requires significant quantities of petrochemical feed stocks and energy for its various production processes. The prices of these inputs may fluctuate considerably depending on market conditions. This applies particularly tothe MaterialScience business. They have addressed this risk by concluding long-term contracts with multiple suppliers. The operation of their production facilities requires large amounts of energy, mostly in the form of electricity and steam. To minimize the exposure to energy price fluctuations, they aim for a balanced diversification of fuels for steam production and a mix of external procurement and captive production for power generation. As we can see the overall risk assessment is based on a consolidated view of risk each. There were no risks identified may endanger the existence of the group in 2010. And this is the continuation of the previous year. Which indicators have been brought forward in the annual report of the company? Which specific targets are aimed at? The profitability of a company makes the relationship between the results obtained by the company and the means used to achieve this result. The result of a business can be estimated thanks to different criterion, such as:Operating income: Which one measures the earnings generated from the production activity of the company? The profit of the year: Which measures the net result of the company, when expenses and benefits have been taken into account? The Value Added: which measures the wealth created thanks to the production function of the company? Similarly, the means used by a business can be measured by:The total of assets: this corresponds to the measurement of assets used by the company to produce. The equity: measurement of all financial resources used to produce starting. Capital stock: it is all the financial resources made available to the company by shareholders. We must not forget that a business can be profitable but still have a lower profitability of its sector. That’s why its profitability should be compared with the one of its main competitors. Thus a possible lack of competitiveness could be detected. There are 3 kind of profitability: Return on assets ; Return on equity. The profitability indicators highlighted by the Bayer Group in its annual report are the following: EBIT (before special items) & EBITDA (before special items); Cash flow return on investment ; Earnings per share ; ROE (return on equity); ROA (return on assets). So concerning specific targets we believe that shareholders, investors and potential investors, suppliers and staff are the key audiences that are intended profitability indicators. How does the group state and assess the evolution of profitability in the annual report? Is there more recent public information about this issue? Where? Is this information in line with the one mentioned in the annual report? Is it indicating a similar evolution? The group assesses its profitability by focusing on the various indicators mentioned above. In its annual report, the group highlights a number of indicators of profitability, which are: EBIT & EBITDAThese indicators are reported in order to allow a more accurate assessment of business operations. The company considers EBITDA before special items to be a more suitable indicator of operating performance since it is not affected by depreciation, amortization, impairments or special items. By reporting this indicator, the company aims to give readers a clearer picture of the results of operations and ensure greater comparability of data over time. EBIT for 2010 came in at â‚ ¬ 2,730 million whereas it was â‚ ¬ 3,006 million in 2009. This decrease is due to several factors that are: Sales of the Bayer Group rose by 12.6% from the previous year to â‚ ¬35,088 million; in 2009 the amount was â‚ ¬31,168 million, thanks largely to the recovery in the Material Science business. Adjusted for currency and portfolio effects, sales grew by 8.0% ; The cost of goods sold advanced by 13.0% to â‚ ¬17,103 million. This was mainly due to a considerable increase at MaterialScience, which in turn resulted chiefly from the growth in volumes and higher average raw material prices for the year. The ratio of the cost of goods sold to total sales was 48.7%, this ratio increased by 0, 1%, it was 48, 6% in 2009. Selling expenses rose by 11.1% year on year to â‚ ¬8,803million, it was â‚ ¬7,923million in 2009, and were thus equivalent to 25.1% of sales. Health Care accounted for the greater part of the increase. The group raised their research and development expenses in 2010 by a further 11.2%,the amount increased from â‚ ¬2,746million in 2009 to â‚ ¬3,053million in 2010; Analysis Annual Report 2010 Bayer. (2016, Dec 09).

The Economy of Japan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Economy of Japan - Essay Example Exchange rate in a floating regime are determined by the supply and demand for a that currency, if the demand for a currency is high then the value of the currency will appreciate against other currency, if demand for a currency falls and speculators sell the currency then the value of the currency depreciates against other currencies. This paper analyses the factors that have contributed to the fluctuations in the Japanese yen exchange rate, this factors include inflation, interest rates, unemployment levels, monetary policies, fiscal policies and trade balances and other factors. Inflation is the rise in prices of products in the entire economy for a long period of time, inflation is caused by increased money supply or even an increase in the level of prices of inputs such as crude oil prices, there exist two types of inflation as Keynes depicted, the cost push and demand pull inflation, in Japan the level of inflation has risen steadily and this means that the local currency namely the Yen has appreciated over time against the other major currencies. Governments will always try to balance inflation and unemployment levels, according to the Philips curve the... Unemployment can be defined as the number of people who are jobless in an economy it is calculated by dividing the number of people who are unemployed with the number of people who are termed as the work force in an economy it may also refer to a condition in which an economy has idle resources that are not being utilized. Today japans unemployment levels have declined to 4.0% since May this year, the highest recorded level of unemployment in Japan from 1953 because this is when the economy initiated records was 4.8%, unemployment can be reduced through the use of fiscal and monetary policy, unemployment has slightly gone down in Japan, this decline is as a result of increasing interest rates, when interest rates increase the cost of borrowing capital rises and therefore less investment will occur in the economy and this will result into a decline in the employment rates. Therefore the decline in unemployment means that the exchange rate will appreciate. Interest rates: Interest rates are referred to as the cost of borrowed funds, a rise or drop in interest rates will affect the exchange rate of a countries currency, the interest rates are expected to rise according to the Japanese, when interest rates increase then the currency will appreciate, however if low interest rates exist in a country its currency will devalue. Today interest rates are rising and therefore the value of the yen is appreciating against the other major currencies, this is the reason why the Japanese yen has appreciated against the US dollar for the past two months as a result of rising interest rates. Trade balance: Trade balances occur when the level of exports do not balance with the value of imports, when there is a positive balance of trade whereby exports exceed imports then

Proceses in Organinzations (Project Managers) Essay

Proceses in Organinzations (Project Managers) - Essay Example Planning, organizing, and controlling are the three main responsibilities of any project manager. A project manager needs many skills to execute these responsibilities. Project planning involves the task of defining the project objective and developing a plan to accomplish the objective. The project manager works with the project sponsor to define the specific objective of the project. The project manager must also develop a plan to accomplish the objective. He involves the project team members in this phase. Past experience and sound judgment is the basis for the planning process. Project organizing involves identifying and procuring the necessary resources for the project, determining the tasks that must be completed, assigning the tasks, delegating authority, and motivating the team members to work together on the project. Resources include personnel, capital, and material. Project controlling involves the task of tracking project progress and comparing it with the planned progress. Progress reports are used to measure the performance and to identify the areas for improvement. The project manager must be capable of solving the problems and getting the project back on track. The project manager must observe how the project is progressing from a higher perspective. He should know when to take action. The project manager must be equally adept at handling a team conflict, steering committee meeting, and coaching session with an end-user. Effective listening is a large part of successful communication. Interpersonal - To develop a relationship with every team member and to motivate them. Patience and commitment to the team are important factors to gain the team's trust. The project manager must exhibit integrity. Problem-Solving - To anticipate problems, identify them when they occur, and solve them quickly. Time Management - To prioritize, delegate, and manage time effectively. Project managers must adapt to ever-changing project conditions and manage the team's actions. Human resources - To interview and select team members with the proper skills and knowledge. Project managers must also have the ability to give feedback and help the team members learn, as it boosts their value. Conclusion The project manager has the primary responsibilities of planning, organizing, and controlling a project. An effective project manager must also possess a specific set of skills in order to manage projects successfully. The project manager must possess skills in business literacy, technical competency, and organizational awareness to make technical, business and appropriate information system decisions. Project managers must have the ability to understand complex systems including organizational, social, and technological systems. Technology is always changing and at a fast pace. Project managers must be ready to develop differing skill sets to keep up with this change. Most importantly, the

Porters generic strategies for Glaxo Smith Kline Essay

Porters generic strategies for Glaxo Smith Kline - Essay Example With a higher value, consumers will most likely be ready to pay an extra price, giving the firm a competitive advantage over other firms. Porter also identified the focus strategy whereby a firm concentrates on a particular segment in the market whereby it may have an advantage in regard to the cost or differentiation of products (Porter, 1998). This paper presents the application of Porter’s generic strategies in GlaxoSmithKline, which is a pharmaceutical company offering a variety of products for treatment of various diseases. Differentiation strategy is highlighted as the mostly commonly used strategy, although the organization uses the cost leadership strategy. The differentiation and cost leadership strategies are applied by the organization to maintain its competitiveness. The organization is usually involved in market research to ensure that it satisfies a wide range of consumers with various illnesses such as; asthma, diabetes, cancer and heart problems among many other pharmaceutical products that are essential for severe ailments. The firm also produces vaccines that are essential for protecting healthy people from severe diseases such as hepatitis and tetanus among others. Consumers are also provided with healthcare products that they can readily access from the shops for their day to day uses. These include painkillers such as panadol and hygienic products such as aquafresh tooth paste. Lucozade is also an energy drink that is used globally (Chandon, 2004). The differentiation strategy of GlaxoSmithKline significantly helps in maintaining profitability in the highly competitive pharmaceutical industry. The firm’s products are of unique quality and consumers attach a high value to them. This is mainly as a result of the perception that the firm possesses the capacity of offering most of the highly needed pharmaceutical products. The highly

Criminal Law & The Canadian Criminal Code Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Criminal Law & The Canadian Criminal Code - Essay Example Being found in a bawdy house is a summary offence and the offender faces a maximum term of six months in prison and/or a $2000 fine (sections 210 (2) and 211). Simply stated, prostitution crimes are mainly focused on those acts committed in public. This includes but is not limited by a prostitute stopping a car in traffic or approaching a prospective client in the street and offering sexual services. (section 213(1)). 2. Under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act in Canada, a person commits an offence under section 4, when he fails, to exercise control properly over a person under their effective command and control or fails to effectuate authority and control over their watch and as a result that person who is supposed to be under their watch commits an offence under section 6;(b), and further, the military commander knows, or is criminally negligent in failing to know, that the person is about to commit or is committing such an offence. Thus the two elements that must be present are first that there is an active war and second that the person during this time, a person under the control or dominion of the soldier is committing a crime. 3. "Conduct is negligen

Principal Institutions of the European Union Essay

Principal Institutions of the European Union - Essay Example The EU basis its foundation on the rule of law (Adams 2006, p.234) where it complies with treaties, voluntarily, and democratically agreed by all member countries (European Union 2014, p. 1). Indeed, the EU seeks to promote human rights both internally and around the world which leads to peace, stability, prosperity, and improved living standards in the member states (European Union 2014, p. 1). Notably, the EU operates through different institutions that include the European Council, Council of Ministers, European Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Communities, European Court of Auditors, European Ombudsman, European Central Bank, and European Parliament. The principal institutions of the European Union include the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers, Court of Auditors, and the Court of Justice. Notably, the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council of Ministers concentrate on EU legislation (European Union 2014, p. 1). The European Parliament represents the EU’s citizens, the Council of Ministers represents the governments of the individual member countries, and the European Commission represents the interests of the entire union (European Union 2014, p. 1). Most specifically, the European Parliament is the principal democratic institution of the EU system with a membership of 732 members. Europeans elect the members to the European Parliament for a 5-year term (Souper 2008, p. 1). The European Parliament exercises democratic control over all the EU institutions where it represents the political views of the member states and integrates the views and priorities of members into the system (European Parliament 2009, p. 1). The European Parliament shares legislative power with the Council and the Commission where it examines, amends, and passes EU legislation (European Parliament 2009, p. 1). It also sets the EU's annual budget and ensures that the Commission implements the EU policy (Souper 2008, p. 1).

Global Human Resource Management in the Aviation Industry Research Paper

Global Human Resource Management in the Aviation Industry - Research Paper Example Airline leaders and managers must align their management practices especially HRM with the rapidly changing business environment. With most accidents in the aviation industry occurring due to human error, special training programs that reduce human error and increase the effectiveness of employees in the industry such as flight crew attendants, aviation engineers and pilots. HRM should focus on crew management programs that improve operational performance, situational awareness and decision-making. HRM policies are necessary in designing training programs to enhance the performance and efficiency of employees in the aviation sector. Most airliners operate in a global environment across different continents. In this regard, managers must adopt global human resource practices in line with the cultures and practices in the respective countries of operations. This research examines the HRM strategies and practices in the aviation industry. It examines the efficient HRM practices necessary to operate in the highly competitive and globalized aviation industry. It investigates the training design programs necessary t o avert human errors and improve efficiency among employees in the aviation industry. HRM deals with the management of people within the workplace and creating a favorable employer-employee relationship. Particularly, HRM is concerned with improving the performance of the employees in order to achieve organizational objectives. HRM is also important in improving the satisfaction of both the employees and the clients. HRM is very important in the success of any business such as the aviation industry. In the aviation industry, HRM improves customer satisfaction and minimizes the risk of human errors that could be fatal and cause accidents. Durai (2010) elaborates that HRM is wide and contains many factions such as job design and description, employee selection and training. Other divisions of HRM include project appraisal and reward systems. HRM has a

Platos Apology Essay Example for Free

Platos Apology Essay Platos The Apology is an account of the speech Socrates makes at the trial in which he is charged with not recognizing the gods recognized by the state, inventing new deities, and corrupting the youth of Athens. Socrates speech, however, is by no means an apology in our modern understanding of the word. The name of the dialogue derives from the Greek apologia, which translates as a defense, or a speech made in defense. Thus, in The Apology, Socrates attempts to defend himself and his conductcertainly not to apologize for it. For the most part, Socrates speaks in a very plain, conversational manner. He explains that he has no experience with the law courts and that he will instead speak in the manner to which he is accustomed: with honesty and directness. He explains that his behavior stems from a prophecy by the oracle at Delphi which claimed that he was the wisest of all men. Recognizing his ignorance in most worldly affairs, Socrates concluded that he must be wiser than other men only in that he knows that he knows nothing. In order to spread this peculiar wisdom, Socrates explains that he considered it his duty to question supposed wise men and to expose their false wisdom as ignorance. These activities earned him much admiration amongst the youth of Athens, but much hatred and anger from the people he embarrassed. He cites their contempt as the reason for his being put on trial. Socrates then proceeds to interrogate Meletus, the man primarily responsible for bringing Socrates before the jury. This is the only instance in The Apology of the elenchus, or cross-examination, which is so central to most Platonic dialogues. His conversation with Meletus, however, is a poor example of this method, as it seems more directed toward embarrassing Meletus than toward arriving at the truth. In a famous passage, Socrates likens himself to a gadfly stinging the lazy horse which is the Athenian state. Without him, Socrates claims, the state is liable to drift into a deep sleep, but through his influenceirritating as it may be to someit can be wakened into productive and virtuous action. Socrates is found guilty by a narrow margin and is asked to propose a penalty. Socrates jokingly suggests that if he were to get what he deserves, he should be honored with a great meal for being of such service to the state. On a more serious note, he rejects prison and exile, offering perhaps instead to pay a fine. When the jury rejects his suggestion and sentences him to death, Socrates stoically accepts the verdict with the observation that no one but the gods know what happens after death and so it would be foolish to fear what one does not know. He also warns the jurymen who voted against him that in silencing their critic rather than listening to him, they have harmed themselves much more than they have harmed him.

Importance of Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Importance of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Abstract: Purpose The primary goal of this paper is to review the literature that critically addresses the importance, application, influence on business and quality service of CRM and impact of CRM application on customer satisfaction and loyalty which consequently affects profitability and performance. Specifically, this paper seeks to present shifting view from transactional business to relational business, which shows significant importance of relationship marketing. Managers knowing the importance of customer focus business should act on time to retain customers, and fulfill their needs and wants in current competitive business environment analyzing and capturing valuable information regarding their customers for better forecasting of future. Design/methodology/approach This paper critically reviews the literature, with regard to importance, views, business application and overtime shifting from transactional marketing to relational one and application of CRM in businesses in the academic literature over the past years. Findings CRM is a new choice for business performers through which they can reach customer satisfaction and loyalty and they can improve profitability and performance of the company. CRM is a business strategy and philosophy that fulfills customers changing expectations and needs and provides individualized and customized service to customers. CRM improves pricing strategy and enhances decision-making. CRM enables better allocation of resources across the customer portfolio. Research Limitations/implications According to vast amount of literature that is published by different experts in this area it is difficult to provide brief review regarding CRM, besides CRM it self is a very wide topic including managerial perspective and technological side. However the researchers have done their best for such an ambitious undertaking. Obviously there is a need for more detailed studies of each and every elements of CRM. Keywords- CRM (Customer Relationship Management), loyalty, Customer satisfaction, retention Paper type- literature review 1. Introduction The way companies do business has changed tremendously during the last fifty years, changing from a product-oriented industry to a more market-oriented where the customer is in the center. This has increased the competition between the companies on the market, where each company has to work out a strong updated competitive strategy if they want to stay in the business because they can not rely on old competitive advantages any more, as for example technology. (Lindbom Jonsson, 1992). Besides, a key driver of this change is the advent of CRM which is underpinned by information and communication technologies (Ryals Knox, 2001). Globalization, increasing competition and advances in information and communication technology has forced companies to focus on managing customer relationships in order to efficiently maximize revenues. Customer relationship management (CRM) is the key competitive strategy businesses need to stay focused on the needs of the customers and to integrate a customer- facing approach throughout the organization. By using information and communication technology, businesses are trying to get closer to the customer so that they can create long-term relationships. Thus, deploying CRM initiatives has become very common (Sevki and Rifat, 2005). Firms are embracing CRM as a major element of business strategy, because technological applications permit a precise segmentation, profiling and targeting of customers and competitive pressures require a customer-centric culture (Gurau, Ranchhod, Hackney, 2003).It is known and as many experts believe, it takes up to five times more money to acquire a new customer than to get an existing customer to make a new purchase. Hence, customer retention is in particular important to every business because of their resources and competition. Moreover, a dissatisfied customer causes market damage because they are more likely to defect to competition and more likely to persuade others to defect. It is therefore no surprise that CRM is an important topic of conversation in business world (Feinberg, Kadam, Hokam, Kim,2002), so firms have to look at CRM as comprehensive business strategy for fulfilling the needs of customers and differentiating their service for different customers, besides concerning CRM as a key tool for reaching customer satisfaction and loyalty in a mutual beneficial relationship. 2. Evolution of Relationship The evolution of relationship management is described by different stages by different scholars (Bauer, Gottgens, Grether, 2001). Several different process models of relationship development have been proposed. In a widely cited article, Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh (1987) distinguish between five general phases in a dynamic model of relationship marketing: awareness, exploration, expansion, commitment, and dissolution. Broadly speaking, their framework suggests that, after becoming aware of the company for the first time, customers search for exchange benefits and perform trial purchases. There is an increase in the benefits obtained from the relationship once transactions have been evaluated positively, and a commitment towards the relationship develops. Finally, as relationships rarely last forever, the customer eventually withdraws from the relationship for whatever reason and switches to another supplier. Other authors have taken closely-related approaches, using lifecycle theory to mo del the dynamics of relationship marketing, sometimes varying the number of relationship stages (e.g. Diller 1995b). 3. Emergence and Evolution of CRM The discipline of marketing grew out of economics, and the growth was motivated by a lack of interest among economists in the details of market behavior and functions of middlemen (Bartels 1976; Sheth, Gardener, and Garrett 1988). Marketings early bias for distribution activities is evident as the first marketing courses (at Michigan and Ohio) were focused on effectively performing the distributive task (Bartels1976). Early marketing thinking centered on efficiency of marketing channels (Cherrington 1920; Shaw 1912; Weld 1916, 1917). Later the institutional marketing thinkers, because of their grounding in institutional economic theory, viewed the phenomena of value determination as fundamentally linked to exchange (Alderson 1954; Duddy and Revzan1947). Although institutional thought of marketing was later modified by the organizational dynamics viewpoint and marketing thinking was influenced by other social sciences, exchange remained the central tenet of marketing (Alderson 1965; Bagozzi 1974, 1978, 1979; Kotler 1972). The demise of the distributive theory of marketing began after World War II as marketing focus began to shift from distributive functions to other aspects of marketing. With the advent of market research, producers, in an attempt to influence end consumers, began to direct and control the distributors regarding product merchandising, sales promotion, pricing, etc. Thus repeat purchase and brand loyalty gained prominence in the marketing literature (Barton 1946; Churchill 1942; Howard and Sheth 1969; Sheth 1973; Womer 1944). The marketing concept evolved and consumer, became the focus of marketing attention (Kotler 1972). However, marketing orientation was still transactional as its success was measured in such transactional terms as sales volume and market share. Only in the 80s, marketers began to emphasize customer satisfaction measures to ensure that they were not purely evaluated on the basis of transactional aspects of marketing and that sale wasnot considered as the culmination of all marketing efforts. Several ideas of relationship marketing emerged much before Berry (1983) who introduced the term relationship marketing into the literature. For instance, McGarry (1950, 1951, 1953, and 1958) included contractual function among the six activities in his formal list of marketing functions. The contractual function falling within the main task of marketing supported McGarrys relational orientation and his emphasis on developing cooperation and mutual interdependency among marketing actors. He stated contractual function as is the a structured cooperative action focusing on the long-run welfare of business with continuous business relationship developing a two-way communication for mutual interdependence attitude knowing that cost of dealing with continuous contact is much less than casual contacts; by selling only to regular and consistent customers costs can be reduced by 10-20% (Schwartz 1963). Wroe Alderson (1965) focused on inter and intra-channel cooperation, and many relationship marketing scholars have emerged from the tradition of channel cooperation research (Anderson and Narus 1990; Stern and El-Ansary 1992; Weitz and Jap 1995). They supported development of relationship marketing knowledge. In USA, several scholars began examining long-term inter-organizational relationships in business-to-business markets, while in Europe, the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) Group laid emphasis on business relationships and networks (e.g., Anderson, Hakansson and Johanson 1994; Dwyer, Schurr and Oh 1987; Hakansson 1982; Halen, Johanson and Seyed-Mohamed 1991; Jackson 1985). As relationship marketing grew in 1980s and 1990s, several perspectives emerged. One perspective of integrating quality, logistics, customer services, and marketing is found in the works of Christopher, Payne, and Ballantyne (1992) and in the works of Crosby, Evans, and Cowles (1987). Another approach of studying partnering relationships and alliances as forms of relationship marketing are observed in the works of Morgan and Hunt (1994), Heide (1994), and Vardarajan and Cunningham (1995). Similarly, conceptual and empirical papers have appeared on relationship-oriented communication strategies (Mohr and Nevin 1990; Owen 1984; Schultz, Tannenbaum, and Lauterborn 1992); supply chain integration (Christopher 1994; Payne et. al. 1994); legal aspects of relationship marketing (Gundlach and Murphy 1993); and consumer motivations for engaging in relationship marketing (Sheth and Parvatiyar 1995a). As observed by Sheth and Parvatiyar (1995b), relationship marketing has historical antecedents going back into the pre-industrial era. Much of it was due to direct interaction between producers of agricultural products and their consumers. In recent years however, several factors like de-intermediation and computer and telecommunication technologies have contributed to the rapid development and evolution of relationship marketing. A greater emotional bond between the service provider and the service user also develops the need for maintaining and enhancing the relationship. It is therefore not difficult to see that relationship marketing is important for scholars and practitioners of services marketing (Berry and Parsuraman 1991; Bitner 1995; Crosby and Stephens 1987; Crosby, et. al. 1990; Gronroos 1995). Furthermore, Key account management programs led to the foundation of strategic partnering relationship programs within the domain of relationship marketing (Anderson and Narus 1991; Shapiro 1988). In the current era of hyper-competition, marketers are forced to be more con cerned with customer retention and loyalty (Dick and Basu 1994; Reicheld 1996). As several studies have indicated, retaining customers is less expensive and perhaps a more sustainable competitive advantage than acquiring new ones. Marketers are realizing that it costs less to retain customers than to compete for new ones (Rosenberg and Czepiel 1984). On the supply side it pays more to develop closer relationships with a few suppliers than to develop more vendors (Hayes et. al. 1988; Spekman 1988). In addition, several marketers are also concerned with keeping customers for life, rather than making a one-time sale (Cannie and Caplin 1991). Therefore, concerning evolution steps of CRM, obviously its application affects different aspects of business on top of all profitability for both parties, better supply chain management and marketing channel management, customer satisfaction and loyalty, higher retention rate in lower cost and sustainable relationship could be mentioned. 4. The definition and scope of CRM Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has become a leading business strategy in highly competitive business environment. CRM can be viewed as managerial efforts to manage business interactions with customers by combining business processes and technologies that seek to understand a companys customers (Kim, Suh, Hwang, 2003). Companies are becoming increasingly aware of the many potential benefits provided by CRM. Some potential benefits of CRM are as follows: (1) Increased customer retention and loyalty, (2) Higher customer profitability, (3) Creation value for the customer, (4) Customization of products and services, (5) Lower process, higher quality products and services (Jutla, Craig, Bodorik, 2001). CRM is fundamentally an improved tool in marketing and branding practice (Brunt, 2001; Chablo, 2001; Fournier et al., 2001; Wang, 1998). Others present it as a sophisticated information technology project, if not only that and usually with the caveat that it should not be framed as such (Gentle, 2004; Sharp, 2003; Davis Joyner, 2001; SAS Institute, 2001). Still others see it primarily as a toolkit for developing service management processes (Buttle, 2005; Peelen, 2005), or argue that it is fundamental to the extended enterprise which requires integrating supply chain management with customer relationship management (Kracklauer et al., 2004; Piller et al., 2004). Most by now agree that CRM is about growing customer equity and frame it in profit-driven terms (Gupta Lehmann, 2005; Blattberg et al., 2001). But some disagree, arguing that the final result will be higher profits but the foundation is relationship development to grow loyalty and strengthen barriers against customer defect ion (Peppers Rogers, 2005; Prahalad Ramaswamy, 2001). A narrow perspective of customer relationship management is data base marketing emphasizing the promotional aspects of marketing linked to database efforts (Bickert1992). However, this doesnt mean that CRM is database marketing. Customer information and knowledge is used in CRM to better understand and serve customers. Based on customer knowledge the right value should be selected, created and communicated to customer to reach customer satisfaction and loyalty. CRM is based on the ability to facilitate communication and decision-making to provide consistent, high-quality, and cost-effective services to all stakeholders (Andrade, 2003). Attract, retain and develop customer relationship where the main purpose is to create faithful customers, who are pleased with their choice of supplier and who think that they get value for their money (Berry and Parasuraman, 1991). CRM is an active, participatory and interactive relationship between business and customer. The objective is to achieve a comprehensive view of customers, and be able to consistently anticipate and react to their needs with targeted and effective activities at every customer touch point (Piccoli, OConnor, Capaccioli, Alvarez, 2003). Relationship marketing is to identify and establish, maintain and enhance and when necessary terminate relationships with customers and other stakeholders, at a profit, so that the objects of all parties involved are met, and that is done by mutual exchange and fulfillment of promises (Gronroos, 1996).) Relationship marketing is marketing based on interaction within networks of relationships (Gummesson, 1993). A relation means that there are at least two parties who are in contact with each other, networks contain of several complex relationships and interaction means that the parties perform activities and work together (Gummesson, 2002). Similarly, Morgan and Hunt (1994), draw upon the distinction made between transactional exchanges and relational exchanges by Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh (1987), to suggest that relationship marketing refers to all marketing activities directed toward establishing, developing, and maintaining successful relationships. Consider the following summary from Peelen (2005: 3-5) supplemented by other sources as noted. CRM is: A comprehensive development process Customer differentiation Data warehousing and mining The core business strategy Integrated collaboration Empowering the customer (Newell, 2003) A total company reorientation (Buttle, 2005) Customization in products or services (Sharp, 2003) Building mutual value (Peele, 2005; Targetbase, 2001) Building customer equity (Gupta and Lehman, 2005; Shaw, 2001) CRM is a set of business processes and overall policies designed to capture, retain and provide service to customers (Scott, 2001), or a coherent and complete set of processes and technologies for managing relationships with current and potential customers and associates of the company, using the marketing, sales and service departments, regardless of the channel of communication(Injazz and Karen, 2004). CRM is a process designed to collect data related to customers, to grasp features of customers, and to apply those qualities in specific marketing activities (Swift, 2001). So in a single view, CRM is a business strategy enabled by managerial philosophy and technology which applies customer knowledge and database to deliver the quality product and service to provide the best value to customers looking at each customers different needs and wants by customized and individualized service or product to reach customer satisfaction and loyalty in current competitive market. 4.1. CRM; Retention and Loyalty Some experts consider CRM only as customer retention in which a variety of after marketing tactics is used for customer bonding or staying in touch after the sale is made (Vavra, 1992). A more popular approach with recent application of information technology is to focus on individual or one-to-one relationship with customers that integrate database knowledge with a long-term customer retention and growth strategy (Peppers and Rogres 1993). Similarly, CRM goals are to symbiosis and fulfillment of promises (Rapp and Collins, 1990, Ndubisi, 2003). In other words, a key objective is to foster customer loyalty_ a deeply held commitment to re-buy or re-patronize a preferred product or service in the future despite there are situational influence and marketing efforts having the potential to cause switching behavior (Oliver, 1999). CRM requires organizations to lay more emphasis on retaining existing customers rather than on creating new ones (Clark and Payne, 1997). And in a very close definition, the shift in emphasis from customer acquisition to customer retention has been at the heart of relationship marketing (Payne, 1995). While retaining customer loyalty has been a sales principle for a very long time, CRM is actually a tremendous step forward in creating a system that can provide a means for retaining individual loyalty in a world of nearly 6 billion souls (Croteau Li, 2001). In order to understand CRM, you must also understand the changing nature of the customer because customers are not what they used to be (Greenberg, 2001).CRM is a combination of people, process and technology that seeks to understand a companys customers. It is an integrated approach to manage relationships by focusing on customer retention and relationship development (Chen, 2003). It is the number one focus when todays competiti ve market has become more saturated and competitive (Xu, 2002), and it is to turn customers into partners (Arun Balakrishnan, 2003) or to turn current and new customers into regularly purchasing clients, and then to progressively move them through being strong supporters of the company and its products, to finally being active and vocal advocates for the company (Christopher, 2003). Acquiring a better understanding of existing customers allows companies to interact, respond, and communicate more effectively to significantly improve retention rates (Chen Popovich, 2003).Therefore, customer retention depends on the relationship substance built up due to interaction between the parties (Eriksson and Là ¶fmarck, 2000). In summary, CRM struggles to build the relationship with customers and retain them to profit the company in long-term and reduce the cost of attracting new customers. 4.2. CRM; Customization and Individualization CRM is an integrated effort to identify, maintain, and build up a network with individual consumers and to continuously strengthen the network for the mutual benefit of both sides, through interactive, individualized and value-added contacts over a long period of time (Shani and Chalasani, 1992), it is about managing data to better understand and serve customers (Arun Balakrishnan, 2003). Jackson (1985) applies the individual account concept in industrial markets to suggest CRM to mean, Marketing oriented toward strong, lasting relationships with individual accounts. In other business contexts, Doyle and Roth (1992), ONeal (1989) and Paul (1988) have proposed similar views of CRM. CRM is a concept that enables an organization to tailor specific products or services to each individual customer. In the most advanced scenario, CRM may be used to create a personalized, one-to-one experience that will give the individual customer a sense of being cared for, thus opening up new marketing opportunities based on the preferences and history of the customer (Wilson, 2002). CRM is also a costumer-focused business strategy that aims to increase customer satisfaction and customer loyalty by offering a more responsive and customized service to each customer (Fayerman, 2002). So value-laden relationship supported by data management for individual accounts offering personalized service or product is in heart of CRM, that results in customers unique experience of being with the company and makes barriers in front of brand switch, and this is the step forward to customer satisfaction and loyalty. 4.3. CRM; Value Creation CRM is the process of creating, maintaining and enhancing strong value-laden relationships with customers and other stakeholders (Kotler, 1998; Payne, 2004). It is ongoing collaborative business activities between the supplier and a customer on one-to-one basis for the purpose of growing the total market by creating better end user value at a reduced cost (Sheth, 1998). CRM is the infrastructure that enables the delineation of and increase in customer value, and the correct means by which to motivate valuable customers to remain loyal; indeed, to buy again (Dychà ©, 2001). 4.4. CRM; Customer Knowledge Management CRM is about managing customer knowledge to better understand and serve them. Meaningful customer relationships are those characterized by high level of emotional value, which is created by more than functional and instrumental components; the company and the customer should share something in common, it can be background, interests, values and beliefs. This can be attained by gaining knowledge about the customers, what role the brand plays in the customers life, now and in the future, as well as being aware of the expectations of the customers. Real meaning derives from anticipation and a company addressing issues that the customer does not expect them to address (Barnes, 2003). The company should keep track of everything they buy and ask them if they were satisfied with their last purchase. The customers should bee seen as the most valuable assets of the service company because they do not only pay for the service, if the company listens to them they will tell the company how it ca n get them to spend even more (Geller, 1997). Organizations and their staff need not only to empathize with the customer, but they need to respond appropriately to his/her needs. Once that is apparent, they need to respond by providing what is necessary on time and at the expected cost. This can be much more difficult than meets the eye, since customers do not always have a clear idea of what they want and sometimes require the vendor or service provider to simulate their imaginations (Solomon, 1999). The goal of CRM is to create as effective customer relationships as possible and during that time also develop future competences within the company. Although satisfied customers opinions make it easier to continuously improve the competences of the company, these are not enough. The company needs to detect the customers unexpressed needs, and primarily the customers future needs. The worst scenario that might occur for the company, when using these types of customer feedback activitie s, is that the company realizes that it needs to bring new innovations into their customer relationships (Storbacka Lehtinen, 2000). So, innovation and creativity besides better understanding of customers present and future needs and changes in customers tastes and values lies under better relational factor that gathers valuable knowledge for the company. 4.5. CRM; Information Technology Some scholars have applied the importance of information technology to define CRM. CRM unites the potential of IT and relationship marketing strategies to deliver profitable, long-trade relationship (Simon Knox, Stan Maklan, Adrian Payne, Joe Peppard and Lynette Ryals). CRM is not a technology, though. Technology is a CRM enabler (Greenberg, 2001). CRM technology applications link front office (e.g. sales, marketing and customer service) and back office (e.g. financial, operations, logistics and human resources) functions with the companys customers touch points (Fickel, 1999). A companys touch points can include the Internet, e-mail, sales, direct mail, telemarketing operations, call centers, advertising, fax, pagers, stores, and kiosks. Often, these touch points are controlled by separate information systems. CRM integrates touch points around a common view of the customer (Eckerson and Watson, 2001). As stated previously, CRM is a technology based business strategy that manages cu stomer data through data collection and data mining systems and data warehousing and transforms the customer data to valuable managerial supporting knowledge. Technology supports better marketing channel and customers touch points management. 4.6 CRM; Organizational Strategy Today, customers are more highly educated, under higher stress, more specialized, living longer, and more influenced by global culture than those of the 60s and 70s when our view of marketing was formed (Wilson, Daniel, McDonald, 2002). This as well as the emergence of e-Business, organizational dynamics, and cultural change issues has dramatically shifted organizations ´ functional units to focus on the customer. Consequently, organizations have recognized the need to develop customer-centered orientations (Romano, 2003). Organizations are learning more about their customers and their preferences, needs, and expectations (Jukic, Jukic, Meamber, Nezlek, 2003) According to Schultz (2000) the practice of planning, creating, and managing customer relationships has nowadays become the heart of organizational strategy and the key to customer retention. Similarly, CRM is the core business strategy that integrated internal processes and functions, and external networks, to create a nd deliver value to targeted customers at a profit (Francis Buttle, 2004). 4.7 CRM; Profitability It is shown that the large impact on profitability of small increases in customer retention rates, was the start out, making the marketing community more conscious of the need to manage customer relationships in the long term as well as prior to the first sale (Wilson, 2002; Reichheld and Sasser, 1990). Similarly, CRM can help businesses enhance their customer relationships by attracting more profitable customers and establishing stronger and more durable customer relationships (Falk, 2004). Blomqvist (1993) proposed the following key characteristics of relationship marketing: every customer is considered an individual person or unit; activities of the firm are predominantly directed towards existing customers; implementation is based on interactions and dialogues; and the firm is trying to achieve profitability through the decrease of customer turnover and the strengthening of customer relationships. The long-term orientation is often being emphasized because it is believed that marketing actors will not engage in opportunistic behavior if they have a long-term orientation and that such relationships will be anchored on mutual gains and cooperation (Ganesan 1994). CRM is the set of methodologies and tools that help an enterprise manage customer relationships in an organized way (Lawson-Body Limayem, 2004). In other words, CRM can be defined as an interactive process achieving the optimum balance between corporate investments and the satisfaction of customer needs to ge nerate the maximum profit. It involves (Gebert, Geib, Kolbe, Riempp, 2002): Measuring both inputs across all functions including marketing, sales and service costs and outputs in terms of customer revenue, profit and value. Acquiring and continuously updating knowledge about customer needs, motivations and behavior over the lifetime of the relationship. Applying customer knowledge to continuously improve performance through a process of learning from successes and failures. Integrating the activities of marketing, sales and service to achieve a common goal. Implementing appropriate systems to support customer knowledge acquisition, sharing and measuring CRM effectiveness. Constantly flexing the balance between marketing, sales and service inputs against changing customer needs to maximize profit. There for, customization and individualization besides long-term relationships aiming to build loyal customers and increase retention rate will directly profit the company. 4.8. CRM , LTV and Customer Selectivity CRM is business philosophy and set of strategies, programs, and systems that focuses on identifying and building loyalty with a firms most valued customers (Michael Leavy and Barton Weitz, 2004), it is a cross-functional process for achieving a continuing dialogue with customers, across all their contact and access points, with personalized treatment of the most valuable customers, to increase customer retention and the effectiveness of marketing initiatives (Day and Van Den Bulte, 2002) CRM is a management approach that enables organizations to identify, attract and increase retention of profitable customers, by managing relationships with them (Bradshaw and Brash, 2001; Hawkes, 2000). When evaluating customer profitability, marketers are often reminded of the 80/20 rule (Gloy, Akridge, Preckel, 1997). Similarly, companies have come to realize that in order to develop long-term, successful relationships with their customers they need to focus on economically valuable customers while eliminating economically valueless ones, instead of treating all customers equally, it is better to develop customer-oriented strategies (Verhoef Donkers, 2001). To cultivate the full profit potentials of customers, many companies already try to measure and use customer value in their management activities (Rosset, Neumann, Eick, Vatnik, Idan, 2002). Therefore, many firms are needed to assess their customers value and build strategies to retain profitable customers. As several researc h studies have shown not all customers are equally profitable for an individual company (Storbacka2000).Customer relationship management is a comprehensive strategy and process of acquiring, retaining, and partnering with selective customers to create superior value for the company and the customer (Sheth2001). Furthermore, Diller (2000) has id

Essay --

The first poem that I chose was by the poet Julia Alvarez titled â€Å"Queens, 1963† this told the story of a family that has moved into in Queens, NY. The writer and narrator of this story is from the Dominican Republic. One year has passed for the family to finally settle into the neighborhood. This time an African American family has moved right across the street. The young girl notices how her neighbors have not treated this family with kindness and respect. More police have been seen patrolling through the neighborhood. When reading this poem my initial thoughts were that â€Å"Queens, 1963† describes the American people's behavior towards foreigners and their reactions. Alvarez states, â€Å"Mr. Scott, the retired plumber, and his plump Midwestern wife, considered moving back home, where white and black got along by staying where they belonged.† (Alvarez, pp 952) It will take another year and another family that will move into their neighborhood, than once the African American family settles in another family will be placed under the same scrutiny. The narrator also discusses about a girl about the same age as her would have never been the â€Å"right kind of American.† Minorities such as the African Americans, Dominican Americans and any other ethnicity that came to America were looked right under the microscope. This perplexed me I do not understand why they are treated unfairly by the â€Å"True Americans.† There is no such thing as True Americans and that this poem definitely targeted it's audience through racial discrimination rather than cultural changes within a neighborhood in Queens, NY. Another Poet had a much refined and unique style of another part of New York City, he is one of my favorite poets Langston Hughes. The poem that I chos... ...ability to write out whatever she desires definitely has been therapeutic for her. I believe that my Dad knew all along that Rabia had amazing writing ability. The success that she has had with her writing will only grow more and more. As for this poem it shows how my dad truly was angel in a humans body. He has been watching over Rabia and I as well as my family. Though the trials of life haven't come very easy I am sure he is proud to see that my sister has found something in life that she enjoys. I love him and my mom and my family and friends. Thank you Rabia for being the best sister a little brother can have. Thank you for being someone I can look up to. You have been an amazing influence and role model to me. You have endured so much and I didn't experience as much pain as you because I was so young. Your an amazing sister and I know you will do great things.

Comparing the Character of Creon in Oedipus and Antigone :: Oedipus Antigone

Comparing the Character of Creon in Oedipus and Antigone Creon does not learn a lesson from Oedipus' accusatory behavior. Instead he adapts this bad personality trait. Throughout Antigone, he accuses everyone who tries to give him advice of betraying him. Whereas, in Oedipus, he is falsely accused by Oedipus of trying to take over the throne. This paper will compare and contrast his behavior and evaluate if he learned anything from one play to the next. Creon was seen in a different context in Oedipus compared to his character in Antigone. In Oedipus, he wanted nothing more than to help Oedipus rid the city of whatever plague the gods were hurling at them. Creon goes to Apollo's shrine to find out why the gods are angry and then brings Tiresias to help Creon see what has the gods angry. Oedipus does not want to believe the truths Tiresias is telling him and falsely accuses Creon of plotting against him to become king of Thebes. Creon is so hurt by this that he tells the chorus, "This accusation against me by our ruler Oedipus, It's outrageous. (514)" By the end of the play, Creon tells Oedipus that "I'm always as good as my word; I don't speak before I think(1520)." In Antigone, Creon becomes king of Thebes after Polynices and Eteocles commit fratricide in battle. Antigone commits her ‘crime of reverence(74)' by burying Polynices after a direct order from Creon dictating that everyone leave him on the ground, unburied. Creon first accuses the council of elders of being stupid and old (281) when they suggest that the gods were behind Polynices' burial. After this, he goes on a tirade against men who supposedly were not happy with his leadership and therefore paid off the watchmen to bury the body. Creon blames the watchman of burying the body for money and the watchman tells him that, "It's terrible when false judgment guides the judge (323)." After the Watchman comes back and tells Creon that they found Antigone burying Polynices' body a second time, Creon accuses Antigone of breaking the law. Antigone does not feel she has broken the law because she is obeying laws passed down from the gods and not Creon's man-made law. Creon is so angry that someone would disobey his edict that he orders Antigone to be buried alive and that Ismene be put to death also. Ismene had nothing to do with the crime but Creon blames her regardlessly.

Essay on Loosing Faith in Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown

Loosing Faith in Young Goodman Brown Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, Young Goodman Brown is a story of sex, sin, and the Devil, all the entertaining things in life. Hawthorne uses many literary devices to impress strength in his work. Hawthorne uses these techniques to bring out the religious themes within the story. One of the main literary devices would be imagery. One of the most important images found in the story pertains to Faith and reaching heaven. Goodman Brown says, "...I‘ll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven."(H-CAL 375). This follows traditional Puritan belief that if you have faith you will go to heaven. The uses of dark and light also help convey the religious theme of good and evil. Dark is used to symbolize evil, the woods is mainly where this is seen. Light is mostly seen in the beginning, before Goodman enters the forest. Before it all becomes dark and gray. Colors also played an important role. In the beginning Faith pink ribbons in her hair, which represent that she is young and happy. With white symbolizing purity and red representing passion,...

Ruth, the Bible

The Book Ruth by Ingunn Merete Borresen Ruth has 4 chapters. The first: Ruth  remains  loyal  to Naomi. The  second: Ruth gleans in Boaz’s field. The  third: Ruth follow Naomi’s plan. The fourth: Ruth and Boaz are married. The book of Ruth is the Narrative of a love story, yet also has some important Genealogy. The timeline of this book is intertwined during the period of the Judges. The author was anonymous but some believe it was perhaps written by Samuel the prophet; however, it is unlikely that he was alive when this book was written.It was written about 1046-1035 B. C. Key personalities include Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz. Its purpose was to demonstrate the kind of love, and faithfulness that God desires for us. It shows the difference between what happens when a nation does not follow in obedience to the covenant of God (Judges), and when God’s people follow in faithfulness within the covenant (Ruth). I was studying chapter 1 most, so I wrote little mor e on chapter 1 that I remember.Chapter 1: Elimelech was from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons he went to the country of Moab for living there for a while. His wife name was Naomi, and his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. Elimelech died, and his sons got married to the Moabite women, named Orpah and Ruth. When they had lived there for around ten years, Mahlon and Kilion died and Naomi was left without her husband and two sons. Ruth and Orpah still were Naomi’s â€Å"daughters-in-law†. * In chapter 1, Ruth remains loyal to her mother-in-law Naomi after the death of her husband and in-laws.Naomi decides to return to her home land of Bethlehem alone, however, Ruth insists on staying with her and adopting Naomi’s God as her own. â€Å"But Ruth said, â€Å"Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God† (1:16 ). * Chapter 2 we see Ruth gleaning in the fields of Naomi’s relative Boaz. Boaz out of compassion and obedience to the law allows Ruth to glean but also leaves extra grain for her purposely. In chapter 3, Naomi encourages Ruth to seek marriage with Boaz as a kinsman-redeemer. Ruth obeys Naomi and asks for her rights and Boaz agrees but mentions that he must first be sure there are no others with first rights. * Chapter 4 Boaz and Ruth are married and Ruth conceives a son named Obed, the grandfather of the great King David, in the lineage of Christ our Messiah. Important characters in Ruth: Ruth: a young foreign widow who married a wealthy Israelite. She bore a son Obed, who was the grandfather of King David and an ancestor of Jesus of Nazareth.Naomi, her shrewd mother-in-law who advised her how to get a second husband, and was rewarded by the birth of a grandson. Boaz, the wealthy Israelite who married Ruth and became the father of Obed. FAMOUS QUOTES ‘where you go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God my God. Where you die, I will die and there I will be buried. ’ (Ruth 1:16-17)Sources: http://www. readbibleonline. net/? page_id=15#top http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Book_of_Ruth