ABC Cheese Ansoff model Essays

ABC Cheese Ansoff model Essays ABC Cheese Ansoff model Paper ABC Cheese Ansoff model Paper Essay Topic: Marketing The ABC Cheese Factory is located in the heart of historical Central Tilba and is the home of the famous Tilba Club Cheese. The ABC Cheese Factory was established in 1891 and was the first very first Cheese Co-op in New South Wales. The Ansoffs product-market matrix helps to understand and assess marketing or business development strategy. Any business, or part of a business can choose which strategy to employ, or which mix of strategic options to use. This is one simple way of looking at strategic development options. The Ansoffs product market growth matrix uses a businesss current products and markets, and provides the option for growth by moving horizontally or vertically through the model. There are four types of intensive growth such as market penetration, market development, product development and integrative and diversification growth. A business logically should maximize its possibilities for growth using market penetration first. This will give the business added resources which further growth options may be pursued. After market penetration strategies may be either product development or market development depending on the circumstances of the business and the market in which it operates. At this stage, a company is pursuing in achieving maximum sales/profit using the business current product range within the current market. The best way to achieve this is by gaining competitors customers (part of their market share), attracting non-users of the product or convincing current clients to use more of the product, with advertising or other promotions. Often marketing mix (4Ps) are being use to achieved the strategy. The objective of market penetration is to attract new customers either the new adopters, brand switchers or competitors customers. It would also increase the current usage rates of the company product. In ABC Cheese Factory case, the existing product is the Tilba cheese and existing market referring to the market inside NSW area. In order to compete with their competitor and acquired more market share, ABC Cheese can use the marketing mix (4Ps). Product ABC Cheese needs to change the packaging of the product to be more presentable and noticeable in order to set a new image and to attract customers to purchase the product. They can opt to give a new look for the packaging by making colorful packaging either for loose packaging or vacuum packaging. By doing this, it would attract the customers and can differentiate ABC Cheese Factory product range. Besides that, they can also introduce the grained cheese packaged in a nice container. This will allow the customer to maintain the current storage without having the hassle to put the cheese into other container. ABC Cheese can create a point of recognition through means such as a logo, or slogan, a company can convey the essence of what their brand stands for. ABC Cheese Factory can labels all products in a way that promotes a boutique, high quality and specialty vibe that separates the company not only from main stream competitors such as Kraft and Coon, but also further promotes the boutique nature of the brand. They can put the slogan such as ingredients are 100% breed in NSW. Price The company may choose the pricing factor in order to increase the market penetration. This can be directed at either customers or distribution channel members. However, it depends on the objective whether to adjust up or down for a short time or longer-term strategy. It is stressed that before the price adjustment is implemented, the company should calculate the break-even effect of the price change and determines whether the change will achieve the objective. ABC Cheese Factory can give discounts to the retailers or suppliers for purchasing large quantities of the product. This will attract the retailers or suppliers to continue purchase large quantities in the future considering the discounts that they will enjoy. Hence, this will increase the market penetration of ABC Cheese Factory. Promotion Promotion is the most flexible and diverse option for market penetration. In general, the promotion aimed at the customers but may also be directed towards distribution channel members. The promotion can be the most expensive of the marketing mix options. ABC Cheese Factory can provide the advertising support to the retailers. By providing the posters, display stands and brochure of the 15 lines of ABC Cheese product would increase the notice of the target audience toward their products. ABC Cheese Factory can also negotiate with the retailer in the supermarkets to display the product at a specific place such as end of aisle displays. ABC Cheese Factory can display the entire product there and the customer will notice and remember the exact place if they want to repurchase again in the future. Place The less common method of increasing the market penetration is by distribution as the change must occur within the current market definition. ABC Cheese Factory can increase the exposure in their current distribution outlets. With the combination of discount for large quantities purchaser will indeed make an impact to the market penetration. The market development is to increase either sales or profit potential by directing the current products towards new markets of any segmentation description. It can provide a newer pool of potential customers in addition to the existing markets. ABC Cheese Factory can create new demographic markets by producing cheese products which is targeting the young kids. In addition, ABC Cheese Factory can spread the distribution areas across the state borders such as Sydney and Melbourne. Product development is another alternative to expand into new markets. It would increase sales or profit potential by developing new products, usually within the same broad product category, which should appeal to existing customers. ABC Cheese Factory can introduce new flavor to their product range such as strawberry, chocolates and orange. This will indeed increase the sales or profit. Integrative growth is aiming at the increment sales or profit through establishing or acquiring business within the current industry or industries connected at the external value chain. There are three options for this method such as backward, horizontal and forward integration. The backward integration is acquiring suppliers, forward is acquiring resellers and horizontal is acquiring competition. ABC Cheese Factory should set their own retail outlet and sell their own product label. This will give the customer a better access to their product. By choosing the diversification growth option, the company can increase the sales or profit potential by creating new combined new product and new strategy, and broadens the scope and potential of the business. General methods used are to establish or acquire businesses outside the current industry. There are three levels of diversification such as concentric, horizontal and conglomerate strategies. Diversification is the most costly and risky strategy. Introduction to new products such as jams and preserves, honey, coffee, wine and even established a new cafe can be a profitable move towards acquiring market share. ABC Cheese Factory also can enter strategic alliance with a bakery company in order to produce cheese cakes and cheese bread. The major advantage by doing this is to share the risk and pooling resources and systems to reduce costs.

Compare Online Relationships with Face-to-Face Relationships Essays

Compare Online Relationships with Face-to-Face Relationships Essays Compare Online Relationships with Face-to-Face Relationships Essay Compare Online Relationships with Face-to-Face Relationships Essay Perhaps, to think that online relationships are in some points more superficial, deceitful or perilous than face-to-face relationship is such a dangerously-shallow deception. In fact, online relationships aren’t much different from real life relationships. Despite the fact that people have grown panic towards online relationships lately, face-to-face relationships themselves don’t serve any fewer disadvantages. Somehow it has been believe to be true that online relationships and face-to-face relationships are totally unalike, nonetheless the two elationships share three similarities covering intimacy, sincerity and risks. The first similarity concerns level of intimacy between two people in the relationship. Face-to-face relationships allow people to actually meet in person. In a real-life situation, they can see each other or have conversations with real interaction, such as eyes contact and body languages. The relationships can develop into fur ther closeness and sometimes the couples end up with marriage. Similarly, all types of interactions provided in face-to-face relationships also exists in online relationships. By using interactive devices, such as web cameras, microphones and speakers, actual talking and seeing becomes possible through the internet. Deeper intimacies like serious relationships or marriage are also feasible for many internet couples. A new study of online dating site members has found that when couples who had built up a significant relationship by e-mailing or chatting online met for the first time, 94 per cent went on to see each other again. Moreover, the study also shows the successful relationships which last at least seven months and in some case over a year. This result proves that online relationships have a similar degree of success as real life ones. (Dr Gavin and Dr Adrian Scott, 2005) Additionally, according to the online dating research conducted by Marry Madden and Amanda Lenhart in 2006, nearly 3 million adults have entered long-term relationships or married their online dating partners. These evidences confirm that the situation of online dating is not any less real than face-to-face relationships. Secondly, the two relationships have something in common dealing with sincerity. In face-to-face relationships there are opportunities to meet not only decent people but also the spurious. People lie, research has shown, in one-fourth of their daily social face-to-face interactions especially when it comes to the relationship issues. (Cornell University communications researchers, n. d. ) For example, some lie about having an affair. One study found that 2/3 of the wives (26 to 36 million women) whose husbands were cheating had no idea their husbands were having an affair. This’s because their husbands lied to them and they failed to recognize the telltale signs. Moreover, 25 percent of men and 17 percent of women had been unfaithful no matter how many years there’ve been married. (National Opinion Research Center, n. d. ) Likewise, online relationships offer both sincerity and deception. Nowadays, it has been on the news that internet relationships mostly lack elements of truth and frankness. Anyone can make up his or her profile about the looks, personality, occupation, education, financial status, or even name. These disadvantages of online relationships can occur in face-to-face relationships as well. However, honesty is not mpossible to find in cyberspace, due to the fact that there still be lots of genuine people using internet as a tool to find the right person for them to have relationships with. Furthermore, sincerity can also be found in other forms, several kind of support groups, such as groups for anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. As some of the members of each group share their own experiences, their relationships become a sincere binding between them and develop to further possibilities. All these proofs proves that online relationships should not be accused of eing more doubtful in term of sincerity than face-to-face ones. The last but not least similarity has to do with the risk. Both online relationships and face-to-face ones have the possibility to be deceived for money, sexual intercourse, physical assault or even homicide. Crime rates in online relationships as well as in face-to-face ones have been increasing. In real life, by 1991 the dramatic crime rate was 313% the 1960 crime rate and the rates are continuously increasing. Approximately 5% of the U. S. population, thirteen million people, are victims of crimes every year. United States Crime Rates, 1960 – 2006) The categories of crimes cover property thefts such as robbery and forgery as well as violence ,such as murder, forcible rape, physical and mental assault. Similarly, online relationships can lead into any categories of crimes that occur in face-to-face relationships. The cyber crime rates are also rising 255% in 2006 over 2005. (US. National Crime Records Bureau statistics, 2005-2006) According to the statistics, no obviously different risks between face-to-face relationship and online relationships appear. Summarily, people trend to e panic so much on online crimes that they overlook the fact that crimes that are caused by people in real life don’t have any less rates than online ones. It’s more than clear that, in contrast to what has been believed, both online relationships and face-to-face relationships carry the similar qualities in term of closeness, frankness and peril. In other words, internet relationships are no worse than the real life ones. Perhaps it’s time to reconsider our attitude towards this cyber romances as a virtual alternative relationships and to open the doors of opportunities and understanding for those millions online daters.

No topic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 28

No topic - Essay Example It is more difficult for men to adjust to female gender roles because most of them are raised in the masculine mindset of supremacy over women. Female gender roles are to them demeaning because that was never the gender role that they were trained for. However, even if men fail in their attempt to fill in the female gender role in a society, they will not be looked down upon by others because they will simply chalk it up to gender assigned training. Just look at the way that men and women are treated in the office. As a successful career woman, she is held back by the idea that women are family oriented first, career oriented second. A woman is expected to continue to care for her family and juggle her career at the same time. Those in higher positions at the office feel that a man is best for most jobs because women tend to â€Å"take leave when the kid gets the flu.†, leaving her work office duties hanging. They fail to take into account that women are the best time managers available and that the job will always get done provided they are given a chance to prove

Gun Control Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Gun Control - Research Paper Example In America, it is estimated that guns claim eighty-four (84) lives and wound about two hundred (200) people every day (â€Å"Gun Violence† 1). In a year, more than thirty thousand individuals (30,000) die, (three thousand of which are children and teens) and over seventy thousand (70,000) are injured due to gun violence (â€Å"Gun Violence† 1). Based on this finding, guns are mostly used to execute homicide. Others used the gun to perform robbery and other petty crimes. This fact is very alarming considering that America is a high-income and industrialized country (Fontana and Keene 6). It is even considered by other states as a hegemonic and strong state. This description connotes that US has a strong mechanism with regard to its security. It is usually expected that a financially stable country could responsibly address social problems such as gun violence and crimes. Nevertheless, this is not happening in the United States today. It has been found out that Americaâ⠂¬â„¢s firearms death rate is nearly eight times higher compared to the gun-related death rate of other high-income countries in the world (â€Å"Gun Violence† 1). This fact implies that the American government has not been effective in deterring the proliferation of guns within its society.

Glo Fish Case Essay Example for Free

Glo Fish Case Essay The GloFish was the first genetically modified animal to become available as a pet. It is a natural Zebrafish which has had genetic information from bioluminescent jellyfish added to its DNA. It was originally produced to provide a warning system for pollution but with the addition of further colors its viability for the pet market became clear. It was introduced to the US market in December 2003 by Yorktown Technologies of Austin, Texas. 9 Grapple The grapple is a relatively new fruit which is a genetic cross between an apple and a grape. The fruit combines the size of the apple with the texture of an grape and the flavor of both parent fruits. The grapple was originally designed to provide a much higher vitamin-c dose per fruit for third world aid. The majority of the funding for the fruit came from UNICEF. 8 Graisin The graisin [giant raisin] is a variety of raisin which has been modified to grow to enormous proportions. The graisin was produced by the National Institute of Genetics in Japan due to the Japanese love of large fruit and the recent popularity of western foods such as raisins. The texture and taste is identical to that of its genetically normal parent and it is served raw or thinly sliced in a stir fry. 7 Rubber Cork Tree Cork trees have long been used for producing cork-stoppers for wine though some wine producers have also begun using plastic corks. Wine enthusiasts have not taken to the rubber corks and so, in order to appease the traditionalists and the cost-cutting wine makers, SABIC innovative plastics have developed a tree which is a cross between a rubber tree and a cork tree. The corks taken from the bark of this new tree look like real cork and have the same porous qualities, but has the permanence and flavorlessness of rubber. Ghislain de Mongolfier, current manager and great grandson of the founder of champagne producer Bollinger, said: â€Å"This new cork is the greatest thing to happen to wine since the invention of bubbles†. 6 Umbuku Lizard This creature is the only one on the list which was not designed for a practical reason, but merely to prove that it could be done. Genetic Engineers in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) managed to unlock a dormant â€Å"flying† strand in the DNA of the Umbuku lizard, a very small and rare lizard native to Africa. It is believed that the lizard is a descendent of the Pterodactyl, which lost its ability to fly some millions of years ago. To date only 6 of these flying Umbuku have been produced and they are kept seperate from the natural Umbuku due the risk of cross breeding. 5 Paper Tree The paper tree has been developed to reduce production costs and loss of tree life in the paper manufacturing industry. The recent explosion in popularity of recycled paper products lead a Swiss based company to develop a tree which grows square leaves that, when dried, are already usable as writing paper. In the image above we see a company employee holding a dried leaf beside the trunk of one of the many Paper Trees now grown by the company. 4 Dolion This is probably the most remarkable example of how far science is able to go with modern DNA and cross fertilization techniques; the dolion is a cross between a lion and a dog. In order to produce this incredible rare animal (only 3 dolions exist in laboratories – the photo above is of Rex, the first ever produced), individual strands of DNA from each creature must be combined and re-inserted in to a host egg. This is similar to theliger (lion/tiger crossbreed) with the exception that the liger is able to be produced without prior manipulation of the DNA of either breed of animal. 3 Tiny Piney The Tiny Piney is a miniature pine tree which is a mere 2cm tall when fully grown. It was originally developed to provide a fast growing source for pine-tree smell to be used in the fragrance industry but in very little time its usefulness in other areas became obvious. This tiny pine tree is now hugely popular as an edible plant in Papua New Guinea where it is dipped in a batter made from coconut milk and shellac beetle shells and deep fried. The Tiny Piney (official trademark) has a very subtle pine flavor which is enhanced by the coconut milk. The Tiny Piney is usually eaten as a dessert. 2 Fern Spider The fern spider is unique on this list as it is the only combined plant and animal. At the time of writing this is the only animal that has successfully been crossed with a plant. The spider is a cross between a common Italian Wolf spider (Lycosa tarantula) and the ponga fern (Cyathea dealbata). The purpose of this bizarre crossbreed was to study the survival rates of spiders with built in camouflage versus those without in a series of studies on Natural Selection at Massey University in New Zealand. The results of the study have not been published yet. 1 Lemurat With the growing wealth of China, many rich Chinese women are seeking alternative and exotic pets to show off their money. This has lead to a number of Chinese medical and scientific research companies to compete for this new income source by producing cross breed animals. The most successful (financially) so far has been the Lemur Cat. It is (as the name suggests) a cross between a lemur and a cat. It retains the soft fur of the cat and the coloring, but has the striped tail and yellow eyes commonly found on a lemur. It is more ferocious than the average cat but it is generally no more dangerous than a Chihuahua dog. The scientific name for this new breed is Prolos Fira. This is not an exhaustive list of genetically engineered animals like bovine with massive growth and milk or the alergy free cats and super salmons. Here are probably best examples of how far bio-science can go with DNA technology and genetic re-engineering. The fundamental unit to control different properties of an organism are millions of genes in its DNA. And it is possible to isolate every single gene. Thus any biological property that exists in any living thing in any living world could be brought into any other living thing even of any other world. 1. GloFish Source The GloFish is a patented brand of genetically modified (GM) fluorescent zebrafish with bright red, green, and orange fluorescent color. The original zebrafish from which the GloFish was developed measures three centimeters long and has gold and dark blue stripes. In 1999, Dr. Zhiyuan Gong and his colleagues at the National University of Singapore were working with a gene called green fluorescent protein (GFP), originally extracted from a jellyfish, that naturally produced bright green bioluminescence. They inserted the gene into a zebrafish embryo, allowing it to integrate into the zebrafish’s genome, which caused the fish to be brightly fluorescent under both natural white light and ultraviolet light. Their goal was to develop a fish that could detect pollution by selectively fluorescing in the presence of environmental toxins. It is the first genetically modified animal to become publicly available as a pet. 2. Vacanti Mouse Source The Vacanti mouse was a laboratory mouse that had what looked like a human ear grown on its back. The â€Å"ear† was actually an ear-shaped cartilage structure grown by seeding cow cartilage cells into a biodegradable ear-shaped mold. The earmouse, as it became known as, was created by Dr. Charles Vacanti, at the University of Massachusetts in 1995. Created to demonstrate a method of fabricating cartilage structures for transplantation into human patients, a resorbable polyester fabric was infiltrated with bovine cartilage cells and implanted under the skin of a hairless mouse. The mouse itself was a commonly used strain of immunocompromised mouse, preventing a transplant rejection 3. Sudden-Death Mosquito Source Oxitec which is a British bio-tech company, has created genetically modified mosquitoes, which are programmed for sudden, early death. Oxitec’s technology is a variation of a proven process called â€Å"sterile insect technique† It involves irradiating male insects, causing mutations that make them sterile. When released into the wild, they mate with females passing on lethal genes which either kills the female or at least kills the youngs in her so then she fails to reproduce . Scientists at this British bio tech company said they have evidence that their genetically modified mosquitoes can by this way for sure control the spread of dengue fever. 4. Dolly the Sheep Source Not so cool or disturbing enough but dolly would hit this list for sure since she was the first ever cloned animal which means that she was produced from a single microscopic cell from a single parent (who hadn’t mated of-course). Cloning techniques might be used widely now in some part of worlds for food but dolly remains remarkable in being the first mammal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell, using the process of nuclear transfer. Normally off-springs are a result of interaction of sex cells but in case of dolly’s birth, sex cells weren’t involved. She was cloned by Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell and colleagues at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh in Scotland. She was born on 5 July 1996 and she lived until the age of six. She has been called â€Å"the world’s most famous sheep† by sources including BBC News and Scientific American. To good, dolly was fertile and produced 6 lambs in total. She died in 2003, living about half as long as a typica l sheep. She developed a lung disease common in older sheep. 5. See-Through Frog Source Dissecting animals for science has sparked controversies worldwide, even prompting some companies to create computer simulations as cruelty-free alternatives. For high school students everywhere, this revealing amphibian may be a cut above regular frogs. That’s because the see-through frog does not require dissection to see its organs, blood vessels, and eggs. You can see through the skin how organs grow, how cancer starts and develops. It’s a miracle of genetic engineering and surely a cool mutant gift to students. 6. Jake the Alligator Man Source Jake the Alligator Man is a half-man, half-alligator on display in apparently mummified condition at Marsh’s Free Museum, a tourist trap in Long Beach, Washington. He was discovered in Florida swamp in 1993. He was reported for his escape from captivity, killing of a Miami man, and giving birth. Residents fled the region’s beaches in fear of terrifying monsters lurking the sand dunes. Scientists are controversial about this creature. Some say its a missing link and some say it might be a distant ancestor of man. However some later theories claimed that it was an early secret genetically engineering project gone wrong and wild. Whatever Jake’s true origin be but he surely is a mutant. 7. Ruppy Source Ruppy (short for Ruby Puppy) is a cloned beagle from South Korea who glows red under ultraviolet light. Ruppy was created in 2009 by a group of scientists in South Korea, led by Byeong-Chun Lee. The dog was cloned using viral transfection of fibroblasts cells with a protein that expresses the red fluorescent gene. 8. Land Mines Detecting Plants Source Developed by Copenhagen firm Aresa Biodetection, these genetically modified plants can be handy when it comes to saving the world. Whenever flowers hit nitrogen dioxide (which leaches into the soil from buried land mines), the plant changes color to red. 9. Fuel Excreting Genetically Modified Bugs This isn’t made up nor it’s sci-fi, a researcher at silicon valley has found genetically modified bugs which eat agricultural waste and excrete diesel fuel. [via TimesOnline] 10. Enviropig Source A genetically engineered pig approved for limited production which produces 65 percent less phosphorous in animal waste thus very environmental friendly Enviro-Pig Already created the Enviro-Pig has been genetically engineered with edited DNA from a pig and genetic material from mice. The result is the Enviro-Pig, a pig that is able to break down phosphorus. Normally within a normal pigs biology phosphorus cant be broken down and it comes out in their feces. The feces is used as fertilizer for crops and eventually most of it runs off into streams and rivers. This is where the problems begin as the phosphorus drastically increases algae blooms and destroys habitats for fish. This is why the Enviro-Pig was engineered as very little phosphorus comes out in its feces. Although there is a great ethical and moral dilemma surrounding the creation of animals that dont exist I do think that within a controlled environment that the Enviro-Pig is one that people should consider breeding on a larger scale. There are currently talks to allow the Enviro-Pigs meat to be sold in supermarkets. Despite the picture Ive included (mostly for a laugh) consider that the enviro-Pig doesnt look much different than a normal pig and its meat would have all of the same nutrients and nutritional value as shown in extensive testing of the animal. COWS (with human genes) More recently in 2011 Chinese scientist have been breeding cows genetically engineered with genes from human beings to produce milk that would be the same as human breast milk. Would I support this? I must admit I am not quite sure as we are now mixing human with animal, I suppose where that line is ends is a little blurry on that one. GOATS (that produce silk in their milk?) As unusual as it is this is a reality. A company called Biosteel has genetically engineered goats to produce milk with strong spider web like silk proteins in their milk. These particles are used by the company to make bulletproof vests and anti-ballistic missile systems for military contracts. Glow in the dark pigs Source: Glow in the dark pigs PIGS (that glow in the dark!) In 2006 in Taiwan scientists used genetic material from a jelly fish and implanted it into pig embyros. The result? Pigs that glow bright green in the dark! During the daylight hours these pigs have a tinge of green on their skin, snout and teeth but as soon as night comes they are light very fat fireflies trotting around their pigpen. The pigs whole body including its internal organs and heart glow green. The Taiwan scientists have said that the pigs were created for stem cell research, but why do you need glowing pigs for that? It can be noted that south korean scientists have also created a florescent glowing red dog called Ruppy, which is short for Ruby Puppy. Apes (with human genes) Japanese scientists have implanted human genes into marmosets and are currently using the monkeys to work on a cure for huntingtons disease and strokes in humans. Again is it good to be putting human genetics into animals? Im not sure, as said earlier there has to be a line somewhere, but where? It should also be noted that for a very long time scientists have been replacing the genes in mice (known as knockout mice) to perform these types of tests for cancer, parkinsons and other such diseases.

The Abnormal Aspect of Othello :: Othello essays

The Abnormal Aspect of Othello  Ã‚        Ã‚   Let us in this essay discuss the abnormal outlook on life found in Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello. Is a distorted view on life expressed only by the villain?    Iago is generally recognized as the one character possessing and operating by abnormal psychology. But Lily B. Campbell in Shakespeare’s Tragic Heroes tells of the time when the hero himself approached â€Å"madness†:    Othello himself cries:    thou hast set me on the rack. I swear ‘t is better to be much abus’d Than but to know a little.    And then we find him torturing himself with the thoughts of Cassio’s kisses on Desdemona’s lips, and he reiterates the property idea in his talk of being robbed. From this time on, Othello has become the slave of passion. As he cries farewell to the tranquil mind, to content, to war and his occupation, as he demands that Iago prove his love a whore, as he threatens Iago and begs for proof at the same time, he is finally led almost to the verge of madness [. . .] . (165)    Fortunately the protagonist regains his equilibrium, and when he does kill, it is for the noble reason of cleansing the world of a â€Å"strumpet.† On the other hand, the baseness of the villain Iago never alters. David Bevington in William Shakespeare: Four Tragedies describes the irrationality and self-destructiveness of the ancient’s behavior:    Emilia understands that jealousy is not a rational affliction but a self-induced disease of the mind. Jealous persons, she tells Desdemona, â€Å"are not ever jealous for the cause, / But jealous for they’re jealous. It is a monster / Begot upon itself, born on itself† (3.4.161 – 163). Iago’s own testimonial bears this out, for his jealousy is at once wholly irrational and agonizingly self-destructive. â€Å"I do suspect the lusty Moor / Hath leaped into my seat, the thought thereof / Doth , like a poisonous mineral, gnaw my innards† (2.1.296 – 298). (223)    Blanche Coles in Shakespeare’s Four Giants affirms the Bard’s commitment to abnormal psychology, and his employment of same in this play:    That Shakespeare was keenly interested in the study of the abnormal mind is commonly accepted among students. [. . .] The suggestion that Iago may have been intentionally drawn as a psychopathic personality is not new. [. . .] Even a casual scrutiny of a book on case histories of psychopathic patients will find Iago peeping out from many of its pages.

Health Insurance Policy

HEALTH INSURANCE POLICY Normally the medical insurance will be available through employer. When the individual unable to get the medical insurance from the employer or seek separate coverage is advised to select individual health insurance plans. Such individual health insurance plan also known as private health insurance. The medical insurance coverage under such plans is ideal for the self employed persons. However who desires to have many options can also go for private health insurance.Long-term care insurance which is a different insurance product available in the United States. The product of LTC or Long Term care insurance helps to provide the cost of long-term care for a predetermined period. The LTI insurance not covered by health insurance, Medicare or Medicaid. The individuals who unable to perform the basic activities of daily living i. e. dressing, bathing, toileting, etc can choose the LTC. One advantage with the product is age is not determining factor to purchase the health insurance for Long Term care.The benefits of LTC include home care, assisted living, hospice care, assisted living etc. Even the product allows paying up to 7 days a week of 24 hours a day for rendering services by visiting care giver, housekeeper, duty nurse etc. Tax qualified and Non-tax qualified offered, hence the individual may choose according to availing tax benefits. Tax qualified policy requires the person to take care policy who are expected to require at least 90 days and unable to perform two activities of daily living.In case of Non-tax qualified policy, the person who is unable to perform one or activity of daily living can purchase the policy. Another insurance product is individual disability. Every disability insurance policy is will vary company to company. But it is not such product which can be purchased easily. Of course, the cheapest disability insurance policy can be purchased by just throwing money. It is such product designed to assist the individual when the income of the person is decreased by the illness in the occupation.The disability insurance also known as DI and the policy assures the holder against the risk that will arise from the work place. So paid sick leave, short-term disability benefits, long term disability benefits etc are covered under the product of DI. REFERENCE: 1. http://www. healthinsurancefinders. com/ 2. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Long_term_care_insurance 3. http://www. about-disability-insurance. com/ 4. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Disability_insurance

Strategic Management Assignment

HANOI UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT AND TOURISM —————-o0o—————- INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS Research in Motion Ltd. Tutor: Mr. Nguy? n Anh Quan Students: Ph? m Thanh H? ng M? u Minh Tuy? n Vu Ng? c Anh Class: Tutorial 3 Course: Strategic Management Date: 16/09/2009 Word count: 3, 261 words I. INTRODUCTION Besides external environment analysis, in order to craft a plausible strategy, the company has to understand itself as well, or in other words, to carefully evaluate its resources and competitive position. In this report, we look into the case of Research in Motion Ltd. RIM) to illustrate this point. Firstly, we will provide readers with background knowledge of the company, following by assessment of the company’s current strategy. Then, the SWOT analysis is executed, and the weighted competitive strength assessments is considered. Lastly, from the analysis, we provide the list of issues and problems t hat merit front-burner managerial attention. II. BODY 1. Company’s background: RIM was founded in 1984 by Mike Lazardis. Based in Waterloo, Ontario, the company also has offices in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. RIM provides platforms and solutions for access to time-sensitive information, including email, phone, Instant Messaging (IM), short message service (SMS) messaging, Global Positioning System (GPS), Internet and intranet-based applications. RIM is known primarily as the maker and provider of Blackberry wireless devices and e-mail services. It can provide users with a wireless extension of their work and personal email accounts, including Microsoft Outlook, IBM Lotus Notes, Novell GroupWise and many Internet service provider (ISP) email services. RIM has recently reached 14 million subscribers worldwide and had just over $6 billion in revenue. In early 2008, RIM was one of Canada’s largest companies with a market capitalization of $69. 4 billion. RIM had more than 100,000 enterprise customers and an estimated 42% market share of converged devices. Revenues were contributed mainly by handheld sales (73%), followed by service (18%), software (6%) and other revenues (3%). In 2007, 57. 9% of RIM’s revenues were derived from the US, 7. 3% from Canada and the remaining 34. % from other countries. RIM had over 270 carrier partnerships in more than 110 countries. In terms of product innovation, RIM has a wide range of product design and innovation awards, including recognition from Computerworld as one of the Top 10 Products of the Past 40 Years. 2. Assessment of company’s current strategy 2. 1 Company’s strategic approach: RIM’s strategy focuses mainly on differentiating its products from those of competitors in order to serve a niche market for business class. In terms of differentiation, the BlackBerry wireless platform and line of handhelds include e-mail, phone, IM, SMS, internet, music, camera, video, radio, organizer, GPS and a variety of other applications. BlackBerry’s small size, long battery life, and ease of use, made the product extremely popular with busy executives who valued the safe and secure delivery of corporate mail. In fact, organizations that relied on sensitive information, such as the U. S. government and large financial institutions, were early and loyal adopters of BlackBerry and RIM’s largest customers. RIM’s enterprise e-mail servers, which were attached to the customer’s e-mail and IM servers behind company firewalls, encrypted and redirected e-mail and other data before forwarding the information to end consumers through wireless service providers (see Exhibit 3). RIM had more than 100,000 enterprise customers and an estimated 42 per cent market share of converged devices as mentioned above. 2. 2 Firm’s competitive scope: RIM has a quite narrow geographic market coverage, mainly in the region of North America, with the US market contributing 57. % of RIM’s revenues, 7. 3% from Canada and the rest 34. 8% from other countries. The company competes in several industries, including wireless devices, software and service. In terms of revenue distribution, as mentioned above, handheld sales is in the first rank 73%, followed by service 18%, software 6% and other revenues 3%. 2. 3 Recent move position and performance: In terms of competing against rivals, RIM ’s strengths firstly lie in the ability to improve its products both in design and technology. For example, RIM had recently introduced the award-winning Blackberry Pearl and Blackberry Curve, which were a significant design from previous models and for the first time targeted both normal consumer and business professionals. RIM had a variety of product designs and innovation awards, including one of the â€Å"Top 10 Products† from Computerworld in the Past 40 Years. Recently, RIM has stepped up in advertising its product, like images from celebrities like Madonna and Paris Hilton holding Blackberry in their hands. Especially, US President Obama were sighting using Blackberry device. Also, RIM is very brave to open their target market to younger consumers instead of their usual business consumers by launching Facebook, partnerships with software developers to bring popular games such as Guitar Hero II to the Blackberry mobile platform. Another illustration is that just six months after launching Facebook for BlackBerry, downloads of the popular social networking software application had topped one million, indicating that younger consumers were gravitating towards the popular handhelds. All these actions suggest a more aggressive move to the consumer, or at least prosumer, smartphone space. What’s more, RIM is expanding the number of product and technology development facilities in locations such as Fort Lauderdale. Geographic expansion is an essential strategy, but it has its trade-off. We will talk more about this in the SWOT analysis. One of the key factor for RIM to win over competitors is in the field of R&D. RIM employed just over 2,100 people with different R&D areas of expertise: radio frequency engineering, hardware and software design,audio and display improvement, antenna design, circuit board design, power management, industrial design, and manufacturing engineering, among others. R&D efforts focused on improving the functionality, security and performance of the BlackBerry solution, as well as developing new devices for current and emerging network technologies and market segments. R&D had increased significantly both in terms of the total number of employees as well as the geographic scope of its operations. Since 2000, the R&D group had grown more than tenfold, from 200 to 2,100 people and expanded to two more locations in Canada. Additionally, by merging with competitors, RIM had over 270 carrier partnerships in more than 110 countries around the world. Through the Blackberry Connect licensing program other leading device manufacturers such as Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson could also equip their handsets with Blackberry functionality and other technologies. 2. 4. Evaluating the strategy: 2. 4. 1 From quantitative standpoint: †¢ In 2007 revenue increased by 98% from the previous year. †¢ Reached 14 million subscribers worldwide and had just over $6 billion in revenue (see Exhibits 1 and 2). †¢ Since 2000, the R&D group had grown more than tenfold, from 200 to 2,100 people, made up about 35 per cent of RIM’s 6,254 employees. Total headcount had also been growing in double digits over the last five years (see Exhibit 7). †¢ Low employee turnover rate and received â€Å"Canada’s 10 most admired corporate culture†. 2. 4. 2 Key indicators of how well the strategy is working †¢ Firm’s sale, market share and customers: 14 million subscribers in 2008, nearly double than in 200 7 with 8 million subscribers worldwide. †¢ $6 billion in revenue, doubling of that in 2007 (see Exhibits 1 and 2) †¢ 1/6 of the market share (Exhibits 8). RIM revenue compared with others: For 4 years RIM revenue increased 10 times more from $595 million to $6,009 million, while the leader Nokia almost double ( $46,606 million to $80,672 million), Motorola from $23,155 million to $36,622 million. Apple from $6,207 million to 24,006 mil and Palm from $838 million to $1,561 million. Overall, RIM had the fastest growing rate (Exhibits 6). †¢ As one of the first to market with two-way messaging, over the years RIM has continuously improve its design and technology with award-winning models like Blackberry Pearl and Blackberry Curve. Also, good money is being spent on investment in R&D to keep up with the change of the mobile industry. This creates a good image and reputation of the company to customers. 3. SWOT Analysis: 3. 1 Strengths: †¢ Product innovation: (a competence) The rationale of R & D Department at RIM is: â€Å"Communication Through Innovation†. ? Products that attract the attention of both consumers and business professionals. Originally built for busy professionals, BlackBerry had made considerable headway in the consumer market and become something of a social phenomenon. CO-OP program with the University of Waterloo. CO-OP supplies business and industry with experience and contacts, as well as the opportunities to apply and refine what is learned in class. †¢ World leader in Business Mobile Communications market: ? One of the only trusted phones for the business-class mobile e-mail. As mentioned above, BlackBerry integrate e-mail, phone, IM, SMS, internet, GPS and a variety of o ther, in addition to small size, long battery life, and ease of use; making the product extremely popular with busy entrepreuners. Accumulated wide range of product design and innovation awards, recognition by Computerworld as Top 10 products of the past 40 Years. RIM had more than 100,000 enterprise customers and an estimated 42 per cent market share of converged devices, and significantly higher market share of data-only devices, in North America. †¢ Secure delivery: ? Source code is one of their few technical assets which is highly protected and is a key role in the success of the company, delivering the safe and secure voice and data transmission on which the BlackBerry reputation was built. This can be considered as a distinctive competence of RIM. †¢ Strong working culture: RIM’s core competence. ? Company culture has contributed towards a lower turnover rate compared to larger companies, and more happy employees. They have flexibility, adaptability and the ability to work collaboratively. There are not a lot of process or the kind of bureaucracy. 3. 2 Weaknesses: †¢ Shortage of physical space at RIM’s Waterloo campus. It is considered as a hazard of a growing company since it is not going to be conducive for expansion. †¢ Internal resistance to expand R&D to locations outside of Waterloo. There are people here, even leaders and senior people, who said: â€Å"What? Products being built elsewhere? No! We can’t do that! Then we won’t have any control! † So, some of it is a cultural shift and a mind shift for the people that have been there and it is hard for them to let go and to be part of a really big company. 3. 3 Oppo rtunities: †¢ Economic situation: ? Many smaller firms and technology start ups are struggling financially. ? In light of the dynamic market situation, RIM needs to ensure that its investment in R&D keeps up with the pace of change in the mobile industry. Analysts predict an immense opportunity for smart phones starting in 2008-2009, which shipments reaching the billions by 2012. †¢ There are not many trusted alternatives for business-class mobile e-mail. RIM could be one of the world’s biggest handset manufacturers in the future. 3. 4 Threats: †¢ Global economic downturn recently caused a lot of difficulties for all companies, and RIM is not taken into the exception. †¢ Explosive growth and increased competition on the R&D team to develop new solutions in the global smartphones market. In 2007, Symbian Operating System designed for mobile devices held an estimation of 65 percent worldwide share of the converged devices, shipping 77. 3 million smartphones. The second position was given to Microsoft’s Windows Mobile OS with 12 percent while RIM Blackberry OS at 11 percent. †¢ Apple announced that it would be pursuing the business segment, as Microsoft and Google were also both trying. Apple’s innovation in its mobile user interface and new technology (thermal touch screen) has created a new trend in mobile phone usage. This prompted a lot of design activities among competitors. Key competitors have already expanded globally while RIM is just on the way to be a global player. As can be seen from the SWOT above, RIM has a lot of strengths compared with its weaknesses. Its main problems that need solving currently are the expansion of the head quarter in Waterloo and the frightful competitiveness between competitors since there are day-by-day changes in technology that is considered as the matter of life and death for every player in mobile industry. When RIM becomes a global cell-phone producer, it has to face with th e competition from giants such as NOKIA, Motorola, Apple, Palm, etc. . Weighted competitive strength assessment To do the weighted competitive strength assessment of RIM, we take 2 main competitors namely Apple and Nokia. In order to have a precise view, we would like to consider the competitive assessment merely in the biggest industry of RIM – smart phones. The 8 key success factors that most affect industry’s members to prosper in the marketplace are identified. Among them, qualified human resource and quality of the products are considered the most important, thus get the weight of 0. 2. These are followed by the innovation to create new product, which is given 0. 15 weight. Reputation/image, financial resources, technological skills and product security are all rated as of medium importance, hence having 0. 1 weight. Last comes the customer service capability with the weight of 0. 05. [pic] From the assessments, it is seen that RIM ranks higher than its two competitors in terms of product quality and product security. However, the company is not as good as rivals in other aspects. Therefore, all things considered, the firm has a net competitive disadvantage versus major competitors, with the weighted overall strength rating of only 6. 9 compared to Apple’s 7. 4 rate and Nokia’s 8. 5. 5. Strategic issues and problems that merit front-burner managerial attention After careful consideration of both industry and competitive analysis, as well as the evaluations of the company’s own competitiveness, we have come to the â€Å"worry list† that is further discussed below. This list points out strategic issues that the managers of Rese arch in Motion need to address and resolve so that the company can be more financially and competitively successful in the years ahead. ? How to recruit and retain qualified engineers: As mentioned above, R&D and engineering were the heart and soul of RIM. Therefore, the growth of the company is in close relationship with the development of its technological human resource. With the explosive growth of the firm, since 2000, the R&D group had grown more than tenfold, from 200 to 2,100 people. However, the industry is experiencing a scarcity in the labor market, especially for high-skilled workers, leading to fierce competition to attract talented individuals. †¢ In the specific situation of RIM, because of its centralization in Waterloo, the company relies heavily on the labor supply of the region. However, this resource is strictly limited. On the other hand, the enterprise also faces threats from other companies, such as Microsoft or Google, as Waterloo is regarded as â€Å" an incredible pool of talent†. †¢ Attracting outside talent to Waterloo was difficult given the competitive nature of the global software development industry. The city of 115,000 people might not be perceived by some candicates to be as attractive as other high-tech centers which were more cosmopolitan, for instance Silicon Valley, or Taipei, Mitaka, Glasgow. †¢ In software, breakthrough innovations often came from small teams led by a visionary. In other words, although new graduates were essential, to be ahead of the game, a good proportion of the incoming employees for RIM was going to have to be senior hires. In the dynamic wireless communications market, exceptional software developers were scarce. †¢ From another perspective, similar to other players in the telecommunication industry, it is RIM’s policy to maintain its R&D spending as a consistent percentage of total sales. R&D expenses are seen as a proxy for new product or service development, therefore used as a key indicator of future revenue potential. Human capital represented the bulk of R&D dollars and in fact, this rate is decreasing from 10. 59% in 2004 to 5. 99% in 2008. This is significantly low compared to rivals’ rate: Palm with 12. 24%, Motorola with 12. 09% and Nokia with 10. 20%. As a result, the need to increase the R&D employees is crucial to the development of the corporation. ? How to solve the shortage of physical space at RIM’s Waterloo: This is another problem that needs attention from managers of RIM. The expansion of physical space is essential to satisfy the current demand of organization’s people as well as facilitate the growing human resource. Whether to remain centered in Waterloo or expand existing geographies: Maintaining the centralization in its headquarter brings about various benefits, such as the nurturing of the corporate culture, or the control of technology together with core activities. In fact, the cryptographic and software source code of Blackberry on which the brand repu tation was built is considered uncompromised by the corporation. It is said by Chris Wormald, vice president of strategic alliences, that â€Å"Our source code is really among our few enduring technical assets. We have gone through extraordinary measures to protect it. We don’t give anyone any access under any circumstances. This vertical integration of technology makes geographic expansion and outsourcing of software development very difficult. † Therefore, intellectual property rights is strategically managed through a strategy that divided core platform development from product and technology development, with most of the core work still occuring in Waterloo. However, it is also concerned that without geographical expansion, the company can be left behind in its competition. How to maintain the unique culture while expanding the company: The culture at RIM headquarters was seen as one of its differentiators and was a key factor in RIM’s low employee turnover rate. The company has recently been recognized as one of â€Å" Canada’s 10 Most Admired Corporate Cultures†. This culture is described as flexible, adaptable and supportive, leading to the ability t o respond quickly to market opportunities of the firm. Compared to its competitors, RIM has a nice and dynamic environment, a place engineers like to work. Nevertheless, this unique culture is being challenged. The exponential growth of the company means the dramatic increase in human resource, and how to integrate the newcomers into RIM’s culture becomes an alarming question. Furthermore, when expansion of R&D is brought into consideration, internal resistance is also heard. People complained about changing in the strategy. So here a cultural shift for the people is required. ? How to compete with rivals in markets other than the North America: In terms of operating system, RIM Blackberry is ranked the third worldwide, with 11% market share in 2007, and the first in North America. In the same year, 57. % of RIM’s revenues were derived from the United States, 7. 3% from Canada and the remaining 34. 8% from other countries. Currently RIM had offices in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, however, it had only three wholly owned subsidiaries — two in Delaware and one in England. From this statistics, it can be seen that the main market of Blackberry is still North Amer ica. To compete successfully, RIM has to enhance its appearance and market share in other major markets as well. Expanding the global reach of Blackberry solutions is therefore a fundamental part of RIM’s strategy. III. CONCLUSION From the internal environment analysis, we draw a conclusion that RIM is pursuing a reasonable strategy of focus differentiation. Its trend to move toward the consumer market is wise, promising to bring more market share and profits for the company. However, because of its small size and limited resources compared to big players in the industry, it is somehow having a net competitive disadvantage. To further itself in the future, the company should enhance its strengths, minimize the weaknesses together with catching opportunities as well as eliminating threats. The worry list above should be considered carefully so that the company can be compete more successfully in the coming years. REFERENCE 1. Company Histories. â€Å"Research in Motion Ltd. † [Online] Available at: http://www. fundinguniverse. com/company-histories/Research-in-Motion-Ltd-Company-History. html [Accessed 20 August 2009]. 2. Pkaasish, 2008. â€Å"Research in Motion Ltd. Always on, always connected†. [Online] Available at: http://www. oppapers. com/essays/Blackbberry/132559 [Accessed 22 August 2009]. 3. 2008. â€Å"RIM Reviews in Waterloo, ON (Canada)†. [Online] Available at: http://www. lassdoor. com/Reviews/RIM-Waterloo-Company-Reviews-EI_IE9091. 0,3_IL. 4,12_IC2280158_IP4. htm [Accessed 30 August 2009]. 4. PATRICIA BOW, 2008. â€Å"BUSINESS†¦ not as usual†. [Online] Available at: http://www. alumni. uwaterloo. ca/alumni/pubs/magazine/spring09/business/index. html [Accessed 30 August 2009]. 5. Arik Hesseldahl, 2006. â€Å"BlackBerry vs. Redberry in China†. [Online] Available at: http://www. businessweek. com/technology/content/apr2006/tc20060413_266291. htm? chan=search [Accessed 30 August 2009]. 6. Innovation, 2008. â€Å"BlackBerry: Innovation Behind the Icon†. Online] Available at: http://www. businessweek. com/innovate/content/apr2008/id2008044_416784_page_2. htm [Accessed 1 September 2009]. 7. Singapore and Reading (UK), 2008. â€Å"Smart mobile device shipments hit 118 million in 2007, up 53% on 2006†. [Online] Available at: http://www. canalys. com/pr/2008/r2008021. htm [Accessed 2 September 2009]. 8. Wikipedia, 2008. â€Å"Smartphone†. [Online] Available at: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Smartphone [Accessed 3 September 2009]. 9. BlackBerry Nation Sample Chapter. â€Å"Chapter Two: The Birth of the BlackBerry†. [Online] Available at: http://blackberrynationbook. om/index. php/BlackBerry_Nation_Sample_Chapter#Financing_The_BlackBerry [Accessed 2 September 2009]. 10. Damian Francis, 2009. â€Å"Screw You Economic Downturn, We’re BlackBerry! †. [Online] Available at: http://www. popsci. com/gear-amp-gadgets/article/2009-02/screw-you-economic-downturn-we%E2%80%99re-blackberry [Accessed 6 September 2009]. Exhibit 1 Note: RIM Fiscal year ends in March (Fiscal 2008 is the year ending March 31, 2008) Source: RIM Fiscal 2007 Annual Report and Fiscal 2008 Press Release (April 2, 2008) Exhibit 2 [pic][pic] Exhibit 3 [pic] 1. BlackBerry ® Enterprise Server : Robust software that acts as the centralized link between wireless devices, wireless networks and enterprise applications. The server integrates with enterprise messaging and collaboration systems to provide mobile users with access to email, enterprise instant messaging and personal information management tools. All data between applications and BlackBerry ® smartphones flows centrally through the server. 2. BlackBerry ® Mobile Data System (BlackBerry MDS): An optimized framework for creating, deploying and managing applications for the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution. It provides essential components that enable applications beyond email to be deployed to mobile users, including developer tools, administrative services and BlackBerry ® Device Software. It also uses the same proven BlackBerry push delivery model and advanced security features used for BlackBerry email. 3. BlackBerry Smartphones: Integrated wireless voice and data devices that are optimized to work with the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution. They provide push-based access to email and data from enterprise applications and systems in addition to web, MMS, SMS and organizer applications. . BlackBerry ® Connectâ„ ¢ Devices: Devices available from leading manufacturers that feature BlackBerry push delivery technology and connect to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. 5. BlackBerry ® Alliance Program: A large community of independent software vendors, system integrators and solution providers that offer applications, services and solutions for the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution. It i s designed to help organizations make the most of the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution when mobilizing their enterprises. 6. BlackBerry Solution Services: A group of services that include: BlackBerry ® Technical Support Services, BlackBerry ® Training, RIM ® Professional Services and the Corporate Development Program. These tools and programs are designed to help organizations deploy, manage and extend their wireless solution. Source: http://na. blackberry. com/eng/ataglance/solutions/architecture. jsp Exhibit 4 [pic][pic] Source: http://www. rim. com/newsroom/media/gallery/index. shtml and Fortune, â€Å"BlackBerry: Evolution of an icon,† Jon Fortt, Sept 21, 2007, accessed April 7, 2008: http://bigtech. blogs. fortune. cnn. om/blackberry-evolution-of-an-icon-photos-610/ Exhibit 5 MOBILE TELEPHONE USERS WORLDWIDE (IN MILLIONS) [pic] Source: Created from data accessed from the Global Market Information Database, April 4, 2008, http://www. portal. euromonitor. com. proxy1. lib. uwo. ca:2048/portal/server. pt? control=SetCommunity&CommunityID=207&PageID=720&cached=false&space=CommunityPage Exhibi t 6 [pic] [pic] Note: Nokia 2007 includes Nokia Siemens. Source: Company Annual Reports. Exhibit 7 [pic] Source: RIM Annual Reports. Exhibit 8 Market share of mobile operating system 2008 [pic] Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Suggestopedia Essays

Suggestopedia Essays Suggestopedia Essay Suggestopedia Essay It is also known as desuggestopedia. It was developed by the Bulgarian psychiatrist-educator Georgi Lozanov. It is a specific set of learner recommendations. Among the subliminal influences the fears of the learners that they will be unable to perform and are limited in terms of their ability to learn is the main issue Suggestopedia deals with. It is believed that due to those fears and some other possible negative effects such as the physical effects of the learning environment, learners’ minds cannot process and retain information at the maximum efficiency. This also leads to a lack of confidence and creativity. Thus it is significant to send all kinds of negative effects off the students’ internal environment (the self) and external environment (the classroom) through â€Å"desuggestion† by creating a learning atmosphere where all messages have a positive emotional content. In addition to this the memory banks of the learners should be filled with pleasant memories through â€Å"suggestion†. It is believed that if this was done, the learners would be able to overcome the barriers to learning and use their maximum potential capacity, which means retention and recall of what has been learnt in the long term. Characteristics Decoration of the classroom Furniture Arrangement of the classroom Use of music Authoritative behavior of the teacher Memorization in learning by their method seems to be accelerated 25 times over any other conventional method. Some techniques have been borrowed from raja yoga, from soviet psychology Lozanov started to think that any student can be taught a given subject matter at the same level. He says it is not important if students studies or not outside the classroom. Music functions Music has three functions: 1- To facilitate the establishment and maintenance of personal relations 2- To bring about increased self-esteem through increased self-satisfaction in musical performance 3- To use the unique potential of rhythm to energize and bring order. Theory of language and learning It does not exactly have a theory of language. He does not care about language elements or organization. He sometimes refers to texts and directs the duggestopedic to acts of communication. He calls language as â€Å"the material†. Authority It suggests that people will remember better if the information comes from an authoritative source. Infantilization Authority implies that teacher-student relation is like parent to children relation. Double-plannedness Students learn from instructions and environment. The bright decoration, the musical background, the shape of the chairs, and the personality of the teacher are as important as the materials. Intonation, rhythm, and concert pseudo-passiveness Varying the tone and rhythm makes the class less boring and makes it more meaningful. Pseudo passiveness refers to the relax attitude that is created with music background. Design: objectives, syllabus, learning activities, roles of the learner, teachers and materials. Objective: to deliver advanced conversational proficiency quickly. Students must learn lists of vocabulary pairs, and set goals for themselves. A suggestopedia course lasts 30days, and consists of 10 units. 4 hours a day, 6 times a week. Each unit consists of a dialogue of 1200 words or so, with a vocabulary list and a grammatical commentary. During the course there are 2 chances for simplification of the material. Students will be provided a chance to practice what learned in the middles of the course in a setting where they should use it, and the last day that there will be a participation of every student. They must prepare a role play using the vocabulary studied. Procedures I can use the language. I’m learning the language Language is reinforced with music / teacher actions Language is integrated into the SS’ personality using different activities (Repetition is avoided): Acting out portions of the text Singing songs/ playing games Telling stories Carrying out short conversations/ emotional role-plays Students do not do homework. They read the text before going to bed Neurolinguistic John Grindler and Richard Bandler created a set of training techniques and a philosophy in the mid1970s called Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP). They were really interested in the way people influence each other and in how a behavior could be duplicated. They thought of this method as a system of techniques therapists could use in building rapport with clients, gathering information about their internal and external views of the world, and helping them achieve goals and bring about personal change. (Richards and Rodgers, 125) This technique has also been used in other fields but education such as: sports training, marketing, management, etc. Approach Theory of language and learning This theory has no relation with linguistics itself, it refers to a theory of communication. It tries to explain verbal and nonverbal information. Learning effective behaviors is seen as an issue of learning. It is supposed to move from controlled stages to automatic processes. This approach worries about how people see the world through the five senses and how people picture it in their mind. Language is used not only in speech but also in thoughts. The programming part of this approach trains us to think, speak, and act in a new positive way in order to release our potential and reach our goals. Design: Principles 1- Outcomes: the goals or ends. NLP says if you know what you want it will be easier to get it. 2- Rapport: a factor that is essential for effective communication, maximizing similarities and minimizing differences among people at a nonconscious level 3- Sensory acuity: noticing what another person is communicating consciously and nonverbally. Using your senses, listen to, looking to, and feeling what is actually happening. 4- Flexibility: doing things differently if what you are doing is not working. Having a range of skills to do something else or something different. Keep changing what you do until you get what you want. NLP Presuppositions There are thirteen presuppositions that guide the application of NLP: 1- Mind and body are interconnected. They are part of the same system, they affect each other. 2- The map is not the territory: we all have different maps of the world. 3- There is no failure, only feedback†¦ and renewed opportunity for success. 4- The map becomes the territory, what you believe is true, either is true or becomes true. 5- Knowing what you want helps you get it. 6- The resources we need are within us. Communication is nonverbal as well as verbal. 8- The nonconscious mind is benevolent. 9- Communication nonconscious as well as conscious. 10- All behavior has a positive intention. 11- The meaning of my communication is the response I get. 12- Modeling excellent behavior leads to excellence. 13- In any system, the element with the greatest flexibility will have the most influence on that system. Conclusion These two chapte rs give totally different points of view of acquiring a language. Both of them mention techniques for improving concentration and acceleration more than linguistics itself. Approaches give very good explanations of why they work, anyhow teachers must know in deep the techniques in order to apply them in the classroom, and they need time and preparation. Teachers usually do not count with a lot of time with the students. And usually teachers do not have the necessary resources to develop them correctly. Bibliography Richards, Jack C, and Theodore S Rodgers. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press, 2001. Print. 7

25+ Pieces of Writing Software You Should Know About

25+ Pieces of Writing Software You Should Know About 25+ Pieces of Writing Software You Should Know About 25+ Pieces of Writing Software You Should Know About By Ali Hale Of course, all you really need in order to write is a notebook and pen. But there are lots of software packages that can make life easier for writers. Whatever you want to be able to do, there’s almost certainly some software out there to help you. The list below includes the best packages to help you plan and structure a novel, share documents online with other people, format your screenplay or script correctly, minimize writing distractions, improve your English and more Collaborative Documents Often when writing, you’ll want to share a document with other people – either to ask for feedback, or to get them to add to it. All of these pieces of software allow you to share documents online, so that multiple people can have access to and edit them. I’ve found this very successful for receiving feedback from friends on my short stories. Google Docs FREE â€Å"You can easily do all the basics, including making bulleted lists, sorting by columns, adding tables, images, comments, formulas, changing fonts and more. And its free. †¦ Google Docs accepts most popular file formats, including DOC, XLS, ODT, ODS, RTF, CSV, PPT, etc. So go ahead and upload your existing files.† Writeboard from 37 signals FREE â€Å"Writeboards are sharable, web-based text documents that let you save every edit, roll back to any version, and easily compare changes. Use Writeboard to write solo or collaborate with others.† Word Processors Microsoft Word $324.99 for Microsoft Office 2007 Standard version $109.99 for Student version â€Å"Microsoft Office Standard 2007 offers the core Microsoft Office applications, but significantly updated for faster, better results. Comprised of Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook, this software suite empowers you to create high-quality documents and presentations, build powerful spreadsheets, and manage your e-mail messages, calendar, and contacts.† Word Viewer FREE â€Å"View, print and copy Word documents, even if you dont have Word installed.† Open Office FREE â€Å"OpenOffice.org 2 is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.† As a hard-up student (who preferred to spend money on booze than software), I used Open Office throughout my degree, and found it an excellent alternative to Microsoft Office. It’s a whole office suite, so can also be used to replace Excel, Powerpoint and more. AbiWord FREE Famous open source word processor, and ideal for someone looking for a light and compact software. It comes with all the basic features that you would expect from a word processor, and it also supports different languages and operating systems. Fiction: Writing Novels and Screenplays If you’ve tried a bit of fiction and you want some help with writing longer pieces, there are a number of software packages you might want to try out. Here’s some reputable, well-established ones: New Novelist $54.99 download, $59.99 download and CD â€Å"If you’ve ever tried to write a novel (or even just thought about it), you know the routine. You just can’t put everything together. You’ve got to work step by step to write a great book, right? NOT ANYMORE! NewNovelist Software has turned the writing process on its head. With this revolutionary software, you can write your novel the way you want to.† I used version 1.0 of this myself, and it definitely helped me with my world building and pre-writing notes. None of the twelve structures it suggested quite worked for the novel I was planning, but you can change the headings to suit yourself. Character Pro (Now called Character Writer, see below) 60 days free, then $69.99 â€Å"Character Pro puts a proven system for understanding human behavior at your fingertips The Enneagram to create a character spine for your character. But thats only the beginning. Character Pro isolates each part of the character, provides tools and extensive help files to guide you to a well-rounded, complex and realistic character.† Quick Story (Now called Character Writer, see below) $49.99 â€Å"Create a basic story structure with the Story Generator then use the tree to organize your structure while you develop the story in the edit box on the right. Simply drag and drop or insert and delete story items until your story is perfectly structured.† Character Writer $69.99 This version combines features of both Character Pro and Quick Story, and is Java Based (so runs on almost any system), for $69.99. Writers Cafà © Demo version free, $45 download,  £32.90 (approx $65) on CD. â€Å"Writers Cafà © is a software toolkit for all fiction writers, whether experienced or just starting out. The heart of Writers Cafà © is StoryLines, a powerful but simple to use story development tool that dramatically accelerates the creation and structuring of your novel or screenplay.† Writing: Organising and Formatting your Manuscript One of the biggest headaches for fiction writers is coming to the end of a project only to realise that every scene or chapter is in a separate file (and sometimes in different formats), and that pulling this all together – and editing it to match editorial conventions – is going to take ages. These packages can help you keep things organised: Celtex FREE â€Å"Celtx is the worlds first fully integrated solution for media pre-production and collaboration. It replaces old fashioned paper, pen binder media creation with a digital approach to writing and organizing thats more complete, simpler to work with, and easier to share.† Scrivener 30 days free, then $39.99 Mac Only â€Å"Scrivener is a word processor and project management tool created specifically for writers of long texts such as novels and research papers. It wont try to tell you how to write it just makes all the tools you have scattered around your desk available in one application.† Minimise Distractions When Writing If you’re anything like me, distractions come up constantly when trying to write. Whether your problem is instant messenger, web browsing, email, or just using all the fancy formatting features on your word processor, a simpler writing environment can be the solution. Wordpad FREE If you’re running Windows, this almost certainly came free with your computer. Some people find all the extra bells and whistles of a full wordprocessor distracting when writing. If you have trouble knuckling down to write, Wordpad allows formatting (bold, italics, etc) and can be easier to use than Word. Write Room Free trial, then $25. Mac only. â€Å"For people who enjoy the simplicity of a typewriter, but live in the digital world. WriteRoom is a full-screen writing environment. Unlike the cluttered word processors youre used to, WriteRoom is just about you and your text.† Dark Room FREE Windows version of Write Room Both Write Room and Dark Room have a retro feel of green text on black background (though you can change the background of Write Room). I’ve used Dark Room when suffering from a severe bout of procrastination on my novel, and would certainly recommend it. Scientific Writing For specialised types of writing, such as creating scientific documentation, normal word processing software may not be enough. Latex FREE â€Å"LaTeX is a high-quality typesetting system; it includes features designed for the production of technical and scientific documentation. LaTeX is the de facto standard for the communication and publication of scientific documents.† Improving your English (for native and non-native speakers) The spelling and grammar checks built into word processors can often leave much to be desired. If your English is shaky, or if you’re learning English as a foreign language, you might want to invest in software designed to help you improve your grammar and style. JaLingo FREE This cool little program will bring a handy dictionary to your desktop, that you can use to confirm spelling of words or to check their meanings. The advantage of JaLingo is that it is OS independent, so it will work smoothly on most computers. WhiteSmoke $79.99 for â€Å"General† version, $99.99 for â€Å"Business† version other specialised ones. Executive writing version usually $250 but currently $125. â€Å"WhiteSmoke is an innovative software tool that improves and edits your English writing. Based on patented natural language processing (NLP) technology, WhiteSmoke performs advanced and context-based English grammar, spelling, and punctuation checking, as well as text enrichment to enhance your writing.† StyleWriter $160, which includes a â€Å"Software for writers† CD â€Å"Designed by journalists, editors and business writing tutors, StyleWriter gives you the skills of a good editor. Simply click the StyleWriter button in Microsoft Words or WordPerfects toolbar (or any clipboard text) to launch a check for thousands of faults and bad habits found in writing. Trimming the excess words, simplifying and clarifying your style, checking for good English usage - editing is easy with StyleWriter.† Typing Software After a mis-spent youth playing online text games, I learnt to touch-type without trying to, but I realise many people aren’t so lucky (or so geeky). Typing speed is a surprisingly big factor in being a successful writer, and if you’re still pecking away at the keyboard with two fingers, it’s worth investing in software to help you learn to type properly. Kaz-Type $19.95 download, $34.95 CD â€Å"KAZ will teach you how to learn to type and master your computer keyboard fast. Our interactive, multimedia typing tutor software uses a revolutionary learning method so you can learn to type really quickly without the need to resort to repetitive typing drills and games. Learning to touch type with KAZ is tested and proven with over 1 million users.† Miracle Type (Not Available Anymore) $19.99 â€Å"Miracle Type is the perfect answer for you if typing on your computer is just taking far too long or if you have given up in frustration after trying to teach yourself to Touch Type with other typing software.† Blogging Platforms If you run your own blog or website, you’ve almost certainly heard of WordPress and Movable Type. Both are content management systems that you install on space provided by your web host, allowing you to easily publish new posts to your blog and modify existing ones. WordPress FREE (but you’ll need to pay for web hosting) â€Å"WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.† Moveable Type FREE (but you’ll need to pay for web hosting) â€Å"Movable type is a professional publishing platform.† There are also many blogging services which will host your blog for you, such as blogger.com, livejournal.com, but these are more â€Å"sites† than â€Å"software† (you don’t install them on your own webspace.) Journalling Software At the moment, I journal on paper, as I like to get away from the computer screen and take fifteen minutes alone with my thoughts. I also enjoy writing with a good fountain pen, in a nice hardback notebook. However, this does make it hard to search for anything†¦ David RMs The Journal $39.95 download / $49.95 CD / $69.95 for â€Å"Writers’ edition† â€Å"The Journal is a powerful journaling and writing tool that can help you take control of your life. Create a digital scrapbook of your life! Organize your notes about your family, about your work, about a hobby, about anything. Write a short story, a magazine article, or even a novel. Remember your appointments, events, tasks special days! Find whatever youre looking for with The Journals powerful searching. Get inspired!† Debrief FREE basic version, $29.95 for standard version, $39.95 for professional version â€Å"Debrief ® is software for saving notes on your PC. Ideas. Experiences. Research. Thoughts. They come from projects, meetings, status, tasks, issues, changes, risks, decision, contacts, brainstorming, pondering, work, studies, school. Capture them while you can and put them to good use later† Suggested by Our Readers Final Draft $229 Use your creative energy to focus on the content; let Final Draft take care of the style. Final Draft is the number-one selling word processor specifically designed for writing movie scripts, television episodics and stage plays. This sure is not a cheap writing software, but it is supposed to be the industry standard when it comes to script writing. Q10 FREE A free alternative for Dark Room and WriteRoom, Q10 brings you a full screen word processor that will let you focus entirely on what you are writing. Additionally, it also come with customizable features like paragraph styling and live statistics about your pieces. Scripped FREE An online service that lets you write, edit and print your scripts straight on their website. The advantage is that you can work on your scripts from different locations and from different computers. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the General category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:"Because Of" and "Due To" 3 Types of HeadingsWhat is an Anagram?

Litterature review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Litterature review - Essay Example The study focused mainly on NHS acute hospitals, in the study the authors use semi structured interviews and focus groups as their research instruments. The study is very qualitative, the findings from the study show that education to nurses provides an increase in palliative care, that is through offering training and education to nurses, there is a rise in the levels of palliative care foe the patients in need. It shows that the education enables the non-palliative nurses administer the right dosages to the patients in need of the care Grant, Wiencek, Viran, Uman, Munevar, Malloy, and Ferrrell (2013) examine the whole concept of the acute and critical care nurses on the aging population in the last stages of life. They aim at showing that the critical and the acute care nurses do not have enough education for the proper care of this population and the benefits of having the education as well. The ELNEC modules make use of 388 participants, from 2007 to 2010 for this study. The participants had to revise the policies and made changes in their workplaces so that there is provision of better care for the dying critical care patients. The participants offered training to more than 2900 classes. The ELNEC program aimed at improving the education to nurses regarding acute and critical care. Through this education, there was an increase in the nurse’s knowledge and skills on how to take good care of the patients in need of the palliative care. Saunders and Clark, (2005) describe the importance of palliative care to at the end of life. He views the problem linked to lack of training of the nurses and suggests the importance of carrying out research on the issue. Comparing with previous researches conducting, he put more emphasis to the importance of palliative care to nursing care. The researcher defines the problem

Critically analyse the transtheoretical model of exercise behaviour Essay

Critically analyse the transtheoretical model of exercise behaviour change and understand the problems associated with exercise adherence - Essay Example The analysis will be done by giving important consideration to the critical address to the model as an application for modification of healthy behaviour among people. The paper shall also discuss the problems associated with the adherence of the TTM based interventions or exercise for the need of better behavioural change. A number model has been drawn specifically in order to illustrate the ways in which behavioural change within an individual is more likely to be noted. The origination of the model was done by the conceptualization by Prochaska and DiClemente in 1983. The conceptualization made use of certain theoretical constructs to make the description of the behavioural changes associated with the modification of healthy behaviour. The difference between transtheoretical model of behaviour change and other approaches is that other approaches have utilized social and biological impact to focus on the behaviour and decision-making. This makes transtheoretical model of behaviour change to be more relevant and specific to human behaviour change (Moran, 2004). The contribution of Prochaska and DiClemente is basically a sum mixture of different theoretical basis of psychotherapies and models. The generalization on which the transtheoretical model of behaviour change is based is the occurrence of change over the time. The application of the TTM is considered to be effective in case of modification and promotion of healthy activities in the daily routine of humans. It is an obvious fact that humans can gain a great deal of mental stability and behavioural activity by implementation physical exercise. TTM based physical exercise can bring positive change among individuals because of the analytical grounds on which the behaviour change is measured (Carlin, 2009). As per the grounds of the model, it has been noted that the behavioural change can occur in five categorized stages. These stages are noted to be Pre-contemplation stage, contemplation