Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

The Beneficence Principle wants maximum benefits and minimum harm. The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment did the exact opposite of that. The government doctors of the US Public Health Service studied the maximum harm and minimum benefits of untreated syphilis. According to Talebearer Clark, the founder of the experiment, â€Å"Macon County Is a natural laboratory – a ready made situation. The rather low Intelligence of the negro population, depressed economic conditions, and the very common promiscuous sexual relations, not only contribute to the spread of syphilis UT also to the prevailing indifference with regard to treatment† (Dianna, 1993).The government doctors studied patients with syphilis from the earliest of stages all the way to death, the goal being to see if syphilis was the same in blacks as it was in whites. The doctors told the patients they could cure their â€Å"bad blood† and invited them in for treatment. The doctors never told them how bad their co ndition was or what stage they were at. They simply â€Å"gave the men placebos, vitamins, aspirin, and tonics to keep up the appearance of treatment (Dianna, 1993). The third part to The Ethics Framework for Public Health questions the known or potential burdens of the program.The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment clearly violates this ethical principle (as well as many others). In this principle It states â€Å"If data suggests that a program is reasonably likely to achieve its stated goals, then the third step of the framework asks us to identify burdens or harms that could occur through our public health work† (Champed and Elliot 2010). The doctors in the Tuskegee Experiment clearly knew they were achieving their goal, which was recording the effects of untreated syphilis, but failed to identify and inform the burdens and/or harms that were occurring in their public health work.The men were never informed of the problems they had, and in fact were led to believe they were get ting better. The goal of the Tuskegee Experiment was to find out if syphilis had the same effect in black people as It did In whites, at that time blacks were thought to be â€Å"fundamentally and genetically deferent† (Dianna, 1993). As sad as it Is to say, at the end of the experiment there were a few benefits, one being doctors now know the effects of syphilis on anybody, regardless of race or gender, If left untreated.Another benefit to come from this experiment would be ethics in Public Health and the be no Belmont Report or Ethics Framework for Public Health in our textbook. There are many long-term repercussions to advancing public health goals because of this experiment. It caused blacks, and others living in low class, oppressed populations to have distrust and lack of respect for the information given to them by doctors. They were misled and misinformed by these â€Å"doctors† and no longer want their information or help. And because of this they do not step forward or help for health issues when it's needed.

Importance of patient confidentiality Essay

Health care professionals have a duty to maintain confidentiality for their patients. Health professionals may not disclose any patient information revealed by a patient or discovered by a physician in connection with the treatment of a patient. Patients put all of their trust into healthcare professionals and it is their job to protect patients’ private information. Consequences will be made if patient confidentiality is disclosed. The security of patient information is crucial because there are many risk factors that could occur. The disclosing of patient information can put patients at risk. Many problems could occur if patient information isn’t kept confidential. Someone could get their social security number, steal their identity or even find out their address. Other healthcare providers gossiping about a patients’ information such as an STD, could get around to others that the patient may know personally and that can mentally, emotionally and physically affect a patient. In general, AMA’s Code of Medical Ethics states that the information disclosed to a physician during the course of the patient-physician relationship is confidential to the utmost degree. (â€Å"American Medical Association,† 2013, Para. 1) If patient confidentiality is revealed than there are consequences that will follow. Health care professionals could be terminated for a certain period of time or completely fired from the job depending on the situation. Health care providers or even the facility could be sued. Also health care providers could lose patients’ trust because they could hear by word of mouth that patient information is not secure, and they are not a trustworthy facility. Illegal actions could potentially mean jail time or court depending on the situation. Maintaining patient confidentiality is a legal duty as well as an ethical duty. (â€Å"American Medical Association,† 2013, Para. 2) The purpose of health care provider’s is to make the patient feel free to disclose any and all of their  history so the physician can treat the patient appropriately. â€Å"If patients are not confident that there interactions will be held in confidence, they may be inhibited from telling their doctors about important things. (Alta, Anderson, Steele, 2000, para.3) There are times when private information has to be disclosed to outside parties with the patients’ consent such as insurance companies, parent/guardian, health departments or the court may have to subpoena patient’s medical records if patients’ do not want to comply to let others view them. This is called a breach of confidentiality. This means patient records can be disclosed to a third party, without patient consent or court order, of private information that the physician has learned within the patient-physician relationship. Patient record have to be reviewed by other parties to get their insurance companies to pay for their care and other doctors or facilities may have to view their history because sometimes patients have to be referred to other doctors. The general rule regarding release of a patient’s medical record is that information contained in a patient’s medical record may be released to third parties only if the patient has consented to such disclosure. (â€Å"American Medical Association,† 2013, Para. 6) Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) in which offers protection for personal health information. It places limits on how confidential health information can be shared with others. The HIPPA rules and regulations give patients better security over their information. Health care providers have to abide by a series of privacy standards and if they do not, they will have penalties to abide by for not following those standards. Within the HIPPA guidelines, patients have the right to request a copy of their records. It puts safeguards in place for confidential health information collected, maintained, used, or transmitted in electronic form. Patient confidentiality can be avoided if healthcare providers remain professional at all times and follow all rules, laws and regulations. Facilities need to have meetings on a weekly basis so they can all remain updated on all rules and issues that need to be addressed. Communication is what all health care providers need to provoke because it helps keep  everyone on the same page and if there are any issues health professional should be able to communicate well with other individuals to address a situation in a professional manner. Overall maintaining patient confidentiality is the main duty to provide the best care for patients because making patients feel at ease with their health care providers gives them the trust they need to know they will be well taken care of. If this bond of trust is broken, patients may be hesitant to seek care or may not share important information needed to provide the best care. The HIPPA laws have strengthened patient confidentiality. Keeping patient information confidential is more than just the right thing to do, it is the law. References In text Citation: (Alta, Anderson, Steele, 2000, para.3) (â€Å"American Medical Association,† 2013, Para. 1) (â€Å"American Medical Association,† 2013, Para. 2) (â€Å"American Medical Association,† 2013, Para. 6) Alta, V. Anderson, JD. Steele, D. (September 26, 2000) Confidentiality and Privacy Outline. Webmedia Retrieved May 27, 2013 from http://webmedia.unmc.edu/intmed/geriatrics/lectures/aita3.pdf

Air travel

Aircraft Utilization: The most basic metric for an airline is aircraft utilization. This is a measure of the average number of hours that each aircraft is flying in each 24 hour period. Planes that are flying are probably making money. Planes that are sitting on the ramp, whether undergoing maintenance, suffering delays due to weather or waiting for crews to fly them are not making money. Utilization is a statistic that varies from carrier to carrier and is normally considered a closely guarded corporate trade secret and is not tracked by government. Part of the art in running an airline is keeping utilization high. Load Factor: The next most important metric for an airline is the Load Factor, which measures the percentage of available seats that are filled during a specific period. In 2007 load factors for major airlines ranged from 72-84%[citation needed]. In 2008 U. S. airlines averaged a Load Factor of 79. 74% on domestic flights and 78. 74% on International flights [1] Available Seat-Miles (ASM): The ASM metric is used to track seat supply among airlines. ASM is equal to the number of available seats times the number of miles flown. Revenue Passenger-Miles (RPM): RPM measures the number of seat miles flown for which the company earned revenues. That is, RPM equals the number of filled seats times the number of miles flown. Yield: The amount of revenue earned per RPM is known as the airlines yield. This metric is generally expressed in cents and ranged from 9. 8-13. 1 cents for the major airlines in the first half of 2007[citation needed]. Fuel Costs: Most factors that affect the profitability of airlines are fairly stable, except for fuel costs. Fuel costs are facing extreme risk from the threat of Peak Oil. During January 2009, airline fuel costs averaged $1.76 USD per gallon[2]. Trends and Forces Joseph Weisenthal said in a recent post Airline-In-A-Box: Few businesses have as many variables and challenges as airlines. They are capital-intensive. Competition is fierce. Airlines are fossil fuel dependent and often at the mercy of fuel price volatility. Operations are labor intensive and subject to government con trol and political influence. And a lot depends on the weather. The Dual Mandate Problem The general public, including most investors, is not aware that congress long ago created what is referred to as a dual mandate for regulation of the airline industry. This means that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which is a sub-agency under the U. S. Department of Transportation (U. S. DOT), is charged with both the promotion of the airlines and the safety regulation of the airlines. This creates an obvious conflict of interest and the dual mandate has been questioned and criticized for decades. The question has been asked if the FAA should be divided into two separate divisions, one that would function as a Department of Airline Promotion and another that would function as a Department of Safety. Another proposed solution is to shift the sky police functions involving safety to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Although the NTSB seems like it might be a good solution to police safety, the political realities of the U. S. Congress, the FAA hierarchy and the extreme size and funding imbalance between the two agencies make it impractical and unlikely that any shift would be feasible. The FAA generally maintains that they do not directly promote the airlines, which is true in the sense that the public doesnt see billboards and television commercials and email campaigns from the FAA promoting airlines. However, the FAA indirectly promotes the airlines in a huge way on a daily basis by imposing generally lax standards and enforcement. In fact, it is a well known historical fact that the FAA is so bad at safety enforcement that there exists what is called in the airline industry the Tombstone Imperative which refers to the fact that over and over again the FAA has known about serious safety issues and refused to correct them and the result was dead people. PGSanalyst 21:11, March 14, 2009 (PDT) The Railway Labor Act Problem The general public, including most investors, is also not aware that labor in the airline industry is regulated by the Railway Labor Act. This is arguably amazingly strange and curious that one of the major modern industries, developed in the early 20th century, and now providing part of the industrial backbone for commerce and industry in the 21st century, is regulated by a body of law that was originally passed to protect wealthy railroad investors from railroad strikes in 1877. As a general rule, airline labor is not allowed to strike, similar to the prohibition on strike actions for Federal Employees and employees of some states. For example, the Airline Pilots Association (ALPA) functions as the collective bargaining agent for most, but not all, of the airlines in the U. S. and most ALPA collective bargaining contract terms provide very, very limited circumstances under which a strike is legally authorized. Another example of the difficulty of labor expressing its grievances by means of a strike is the 1981 Professional Air Traffic Controllers (PATCO) strike that ended with President Ronald Reagan firing the controllers by using the authority of the Taft-Hartley Act that was passed in 1947 to greatly reduce the power and influence of unions in the U.S. The basic thing for a wise investor to understand about labor issues is that happy people are generally more productive than unhappy people and limiting by means of regulations peoples right to express their grievances may not promote happiness of the labor pool and thus adds risk to investments in those businesses in industries affected by labor relations ris ks. PGSanalyst 21:11, March 14, 2009 (PDT) Consolidation After the events of 9/11, the domestic commercial airline industry went into a precipitous freefall, prompting consolidation of several airlines and bankruptcies of others. Elimination of airlines, through consolidation or bankruptcy, benefit both revenuesthrough higher faresand costs by eliminating redundant expenses and routes. Additional terrorist attacks or declines in the overall domestic economy could accelerate consolidation as weaker airlines get acquired by financially stronger ones or become insolvent. Airlines worldwide have also sought to share costs by creating partnerships or alliances. Through these agreements, airlines can share facilities and operational costs (e. g. , maintenance facilities, sales offices) and negotiate volume discounts on large purchases. Passengers benefit from lower prices (due to lower expenses) as well as optimized routes and pooled loyalty rewards, especially in regards to international travel. Since the deregulation of the airline industry begain, airline ownership has been limited to companies and individuals of the operating country. THis has prevented major international mergers and acquisitions from occuring. Recently, the US government has announced its intentions to relax these regulations and clear the way for international ma deals in the airline industry. This could create significant cost-saving and synergy in the rapidly deteriorating industry. The three major global alliances are: Spotlight on Oil Prices Oil Prices are a key factor for airline operations because Jet Fuel costs are directly linked to the cost of the oil that must be refined to produce Jet Fuel. In 2008 fuel is constituting about 34% of an airlines costs, as opposed to about 13% in 2002. [4] For the budget airlines such as Jet Blue and AirTran, this share rises to nearly 50%. The rise has been very drastic just in the first six months of 2008. At the start of the year, jet fuel cost $850 a metric ton. As of June, the cost is now approximately $1300 a ton. [6] Jet fuel is extremely correlated with spot petroleum prices, which have risen significantly over the past several years. On the flip side, the stock prices of domestic airlines tends to be highly negatively correlated to jet fuel prices, indicating the sensitivity of this historically low-margin business to fuel expenses. In an exogenous event for the fuel procurement of airlines, oil companies are increasingly making airlines pay up front for fuel. In the past, the airlines were allowed to use fuel on credit and pay up to weeks later. Now, the oil refiners are eliminating this free credit line and making the carriers prepay. This will cause a negative shift in the short term cash situation for the airlines as they can no longer keep cash from revenues on the books for this credit line period. On June 4, the International Air Transport Association drastically lowered their profit forecasts for the industry. The group now projects that global airlines will collectively lose $2. 3 billion if oil averages $107 for 2008. If the price averages $135 for the last six months of the year, airlines will lose $6. 1 billion. [8] However, on 1 October 2008 Northwest Airlines (NWA) CEO Doug Steenland claimed that his company can maintain profitability even if oil stays at $100 a barrel. [9] Some airlines have utilized hedges to lock in the price of fuel and hence insulate themselves from oil price volatility. Southwest was perhaps the most forward-looking of airlines, and has hedged significant portions of its fuel expenses through 2010 at various prices per barrel below the current market rate. The company will reap benefits compared to other airlines if oil prices continue to rise or remain at current levels. On the other hand, if prices fall below Southwests hedging levels, they will be at a disadvantage to other airlines. American Airlines and United Airlines, on the other hand, have no remaining fuel hedges in the foreseeable future as of 2008. Other airlines have limited remaining hedges. Peak Oil Peak Oil experts from the oil industry are already warning of impending catastrophic drops in oil production that will severely limit the future growth of the airline industry and cause extreme increases in Jet Fuel costs and other oil related costs including fuel for airline support infrastructure such as maintenance vehicles, External Ground Power Units (GPUs), crew transportation vans, airline food costs, etc. , etc.. Some scientists and industry experts are seriously discussing the viability of the entire global airline industry and asking the question of whether their grandchildren will ever even fly on a commercial aircraft? The mere fact that these questions are being asked and remain unresolved should cause a wise investor to carefully consider the long and short term impacts of Peak Oil on the airline industry as a whole. PGSanalyst 21:23, March 14, 2009 Business vs. Leisure Travel Business travel is important to the commercial airline industry for two major reasons. First, it commands a much higher average ticket cost, approximately 5 times higher than the average leisure fare. Second, business travel is less elastic changes in macro-economic trends than leisure travel, which may be considered a form of luxury. In the past 24 months, leisure fares have dropped slightly, ranging from $110 to $100 In the same time frame, business fares have increased significantly, from around $350 to $500 Domestic vs. International Travel International travel accounts for about one-third of all traffic and capacity for the major carriers. Comparing 2007 year to date to the same time period in 2006, these major carriers saw international travel increase by about 5% , which is faster than domestic travel, which was relatively flat. Growth in domestic travel has been soaked up in large part by the regional discount carriers such as Southwest and AirTran. History of Airline Bankruptcies Raises Risk Concerns For Investors Over the period from 1990 through 2006 the Air Transportation Association of America reports that domestic airlines posted a cumulative loss of $22 billion on cumulative revenues $1,866 billion. Since 1978, when commercial aviation was deregulated, no fewer than 137 carriers have filed for bankruptcy protection. And from the end of World War II, when aviation started to become big business, through 1994, the sum of the industrys profits and losses was less than zero. Warren E. Buffett once remarked that it would have been a blessing for shareholders if someone had thought to shoot down Orville Wright at Kitty Hawk. [11] One reason the major airlines are at higher risk for bankruptcy is that they use huge amounts of fixed capital wide-body jets go for $100 million each and cant be readily liquidated which explains why many airlines do not own their aircraft but lease them instead. Airlines also depend on a highly skilled labor force that requires large cash flow into training, benefits and pensions. Consider some other businesses for a moment: Microsoft has highly skilled programmers but little invested capital. Merrill Lynch has both, but its assets stocks and bonds mostly could be liquidated overnight. Steel has high fixed capital, but it can replace its workers more easily. Unbundling of costs usually bundled in ticket prices Business practices for much of the history of the airlines included bundling all costs of travel into a single ticket price. Although some unbundling of the costs in tickets has occurred to various degrees at some airlines in different parts of the world, since the summer 2008 spike in fuel costs many airlines have chosen to broaden the practice, for example, charging the passenger for each piece of checked baggage b) Forces in the macro environment In terms of the case, it suggests that the environment of airline companies is not very stable, especially the increasing price of fuel which is the key driver of change. From Ryanair profit statement (Exhibit 1a) it shows the fuel and oil cost has increased by â‚ ¬200 million from 2005 to 2006. The increase in fuel costs is 74 percent. The impact to the airlines companies is obvious and the budget airlines may face the trouble more so than normal airlines. Moreover, airline companies also have to concentrate on some other issues. For example, according to the case, they are facing the risks from terrorist attacks which are difficult to predict. It is not difficult to find the changeability, however it is complex to the airline environment. Some factors, such as legal action and customer demand, also have influence on them. Some of these such as the price of fuel and oil can be predicted, while some of them cannot. Audit environmental influences The Pestel Analysis is employed to identify macro-environment influences of the airline industry. Political: Government wants to strengthen the economy and, consequently, will support local airlines by setting rules, such as preferential rights. Every government however, will probably do so. Therefore there’s no obvious advantage between competitions. The political issues have a wide range of effect, so they are not the key points that budget airlines are facing. Economic: This is identified as the most crucial factor to airline companies, especially to budget airlines. The influences refer to the macro-economic factors such as the national growth rates and the exchange rates. As budget airlines, they will pay more attention to the operation costs such as fuel cost. It became a big issue for budget airlines because of the increasing cost of fuel. That may reduce the advantages and the companies will be less competitive than before. On the other hand, the recession will lead more people to choose budget airlines. Social: With the development of Asian countries in particular China, there are more and more people deciding to study or travel in Europe. In recent years, the lifestyle of local people has also changed. They tend to travel abroad to enjoy their lives. Most of these people are not wealthy such as student. The budget airlines therefore, will be their best choice to reduce the travel costs. Technological: The innovation of technology helps the airline companies reduce costs and carry out tasks more effectively. The new type of aircraft can help to reduce the burning of fuel; and new technology can also make the security check more efficient and accurate. Environmental: European countries pay more attention on environmental issues, especially greenhouse gases from carbon emissions. Moreover in terms of the case, airline companies have to pay the environmental taxes for the contributions they make to global warming. In particular, it is bad news for budget airlines. Costs will increase and the companies want to maintain good brand image in the consumer’s perception. Furthermore, noise pollution and energy consumption cannot be ignored under such conditions. Legal: Some legal actions such as preferential airport rights are directed against the specific airlines. As budget airlines, which have higher competitive power, they should pay more attention to the legal forces to prevent loss. On the contrary, they can also take the initiative over illegal aid to rivals. Stage 3 – Determine industry specific factors (this stage will be analysed in Question 2) Stage 4 – Identify competitive position (this stage will be analysed in Question 3) Stage 5 – Identify key opportunities and threats There are many potential opportunities for the airline companies. For instance, the recession may lead to more people choosing the budget airline rather than the expensive ones; new technology which helps to reduce the usage of fuel; government set the tax at a lower percentage. On the other hand, the increasing cost of fuel may be the most significant issue most budget airlines face. What’s more, the compensation to passengers, terrorism and security, and customers’ satisfactions will all have potential negative impacts on the airline. In order to achieve lower costs, budget airlines will have to reduce costs from many departments and operations. That’s why lots of customers are not satisfied with the budget airlines except for the price. Question 2 Prepare a Porter Five Forces analysis of the budget airline industry. Express Ryanair’s perspective of these forces. The threat of entry There are high barriers to enter the budget airline industry. i) High investment requirements. Economies of scale are important in the airline industry. It is difficult for new entrants to match others existing competitors. In addition to this, the operational experiences cannot be acquired in such short space of time. ii) Expected retaliation. Retaliation will take place when new entrants appear for budget airlines, it will probably be in the form of a price war due to costs of entry being very high for them. iii) Legislation or Government action. Government won’t let new entrants enter the market if the industry is saturated. With regards to Ryanair in the budget airline industry, there will not be large impacts to existing budget airlines if new entrants appeared. Budget airlines always focus on the costs and price, so does Ryanair. According to the case, Ryanair was the first budget airline in Europe and now its ticket prices are much lower than the other rivals’. Therefore it will be impossible for new entrants to set a low price to win the market. The threat of substitutes Before discussing the threats, some comparative data is showed below. London Stansted Milan Going Out Regular Fare Adult 8. 99 GBP Tue, 2 Dec 08 Flight FR 4184 8:15 Depart 11:15 Arrive Coming Back Regular Fare Adult 12. 99 GBP Sun, 8 Dec 08 Flight FR 4185 6:45 Depart 7:50 Arrive (Source: Ryanair. com) One way by Rail Europe: London (ST Pancras) Milan Standard Class Adult 227 GBP Tue, 2 Dec 08 8:40 Depart 21:20 Arrive (Source: Raileurope. co. uk) Most of the travellers will prefer the short journey, in addition to the cheaper way to travel. From the tables it is obvious that taking a plane from Ryanair is much cheaper than taking the train in a similar situation. Although some airlines may be expensive, budget airlines such as Ryanair will usually be the best choice. The impact of substitutes, therefore, has less impact on the budget airlines. The power of buyers Buyers of airlines tickets can sometimes be the travel agency. In other cases, Ryanair caters to ultimate consumers. Majority of the buyers are not concentrated buyers and they come from all over the countries. Individuals can select the budget airlines according to their preference, because the switching costs are low and the differentiation of such service is weak. It is extremely expensive for people to own an aircraft. When there is a choice of budget airlines to use, with low prices. So there is a low buyer competition threat. Like Ryanair, with less concentrated buyers and buyers’ competition threat, the power of buyers is low. The power of suppliers The high power of suppliers may be one of the most significant threats among the budget airline industry. The increasing price of fuel, which leads to a high cost for airlines, is a basic issue they are facing. As we know, fuel industry is now concentrated in the hands of few producers. Therefore, in this situation it is difficult to cut the price for this essential material. In addition to this, it is useless to change fuel suppliers when the global price is growing. Moreover there are no practical substitutes. Ryanair is facing this problem with other budget airlines. Furthermore Ryanair sells all the ticket directly through the website. Thus there is no intermediary. Competitive rivalry Rivalry is influenced by these four competitive forces and each of them may have different levels of impact on the competitive rivalry. In this market, every airline provides the same services which are poorly differentiated. Low differentiation and switching costs in this industry, therefore, cause the price competition. Ryanair, which has the first mover advantages, still holds the dominant position. Although many of the competitors were losing money or even have been taken over, Ryanair remains steady in incremental growth. For industry growth rate, this industry is in the maturity situation of life cycle, which means the growth is low. Price war is therefore playing a crucial role throughout the competition. Question 3 Evaluate Ryanair’s particular strengths and weaknesses and explain, with reasons, what Ryanair must do to retain a sustainable competitive advantage. As the first-mover of budget airline industry, Ryanair still holds the dominant lowest-cost position. This is also the one of the strengths it has. What’s more, Ryanair was announced being the most profitable airline in the world according to the case. The revenue is still increasing, despite the price of fuel did not stop growing in recent years. The brand image of Ryanair is also one of its strengths. Customers are attracted by the lower price. Its traffic is the highest among the competitors (see Exhibit 2) and it is still increasing due to the enlargement of the company. On the other hand, there are still some weaknesses of this budget airline leader. In terms of the case, Ryanair win the market mostly depends on the costs. However, the costs of its major raw materials are increasing rapidly these years. This will be a serious issue. Further, minimize costs largely will cause the lack of service and training quality and so on. The Skytrax star rating (See Exhibit 2) indicates Ryanair is below the average level. Besides, competitors contribute big influence to Ryanair. For example, Easyjet which is a young upstart of the European budget airline industry grows quickly with a large number of market shares. It is obvious Ryanair makes success base on its price advantage, and how to sustain this advantage become very crucial issue in recent situation. Keep first mover advantages. Long history with experiences, well-known brand image and economy of scale, these are the unique resources of first mover advantages. It is difficult for competitors to get these resources at a similar level. Therefore, in order to prevent the competitors from copying the same strategy as cost reduction, Ryanair must make good use of these unique resources and try to dominate the market. Technology. Purchase and introduce the latest technological support. Although the fixed costs will be high, they can help the airline carry out tasks more efficiently and effectively such a new security check machine. Moreover it can also help to reduce the variable costs. For example, according to the case, new type aircraft produced 50 percent less emissions, 45 percent less fuel burn and 45 percent lower noise emissions per seat. They help Ryanair reduce the fuel cost with a lower pollution to environment. Unique cost structure. A cost structure which aims to minimize the costs must be set up. In particular to fuel cost, the fluctuations are subject to unpredictable and volatile world events according to the case. It is important for Ryanair hedge the risks before the price goes up suddenly. On the other hand, choosing the secondary and regional airport destinations is a good way of the structure. Moreover, the internet is used to reduce distribution costs. Service quality / Customers’ satisfaction. Customers will normally associate low price with low service benefits. Ryanair was voted the world’s least favourite airline due to its bad service such as unfriendly staff and poor legroom. However it still won a great number of customer base on the price. Thus if some competitors cut down the ticket price to a low level, Ryanair will get into a big trouble due to the similar prices but lower service quality. Therefore it must not only focus on the price but also the service. In order to gain competitive power, for example, brand loyalty can be one of the aspects. Government / legal actions. Ryanair should take care of the government and legal actions and moreover, can take the initiative over illegal aid to rivals. These may prevent the unnecessary loss. In summary, Ryanair, as the cost leader in budget airline industry should not only focus on the costs but also lots of other issues. Although it is developing rapidly and successfully, the future is unknown. The uncertain environment is changing all the time, thus Ryanair should always follow it and make the long-term plans in order to retain a sustainable competitive advantage. Grasp the opportunities, and it will has a bright future. c) Sources for collecting information Collecting your info: We may collect personal information that can identify you such as your name and e-mail address, as well as other information that does not identify you. When you provide personal information through the Site, the information may be sent to our servers located in the United States and other countries around the world. User Provided Information. We may collect and store any personal information that you enter into the Site or provide to us in some other manner. This includes identifying information (such as your name, address, e-mail address, and telephone number), and any other personal information you choose to provide while using the Site or the Services. Third Party List Information. We may also obtain both personal and non-personal information about you from third party data gathering sources. We may match this third-party collected information with the personally identifying information that you provide to us. When obtaining this information from third parties, we seek assurances from such third parties that they have the right to provide the information to us. Cookies, Web Beacons, and Other Information Collection Technology. We and our business partners, such as advertisers, may use various technologies to collect information from your computer and about your activities on the Site. For example, we and our business partners may collect and store non-personally identifying information through technologies such as cookies, log files, clear gifs (also known as web beacons), and other tracking pixels and third parties to help determine user viewing preferences for advertising and other purposes. We collect information at several stages during your interaction with . When you first enter our site, we note your IP address and time of your visit. As you browse the site, we record your zip code via a cookie so we can serve more location specific information on your next visit. We will not collect any personally identifiable information about you. Cookies do not recognize you as a person, just your computer. You are always free to decline our cookies if your browser permits although in that case you may not be able to use certain features on our site. This Privacy Policy is intended to cover collection of information on the Site from residents of the United States. The data protection and other laws of the United States and other countries might not be as comprehensive as those in your country. If you are visiting the Site from outside the United States, you acknowledge and agree that your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States where our servers are located and our central database is operated. By using our Services, you acknowledge and agree that your  information may be transferred to our facilities and those third parties with whom we share it as described in this privacy policy. Third Party Advertising: We work with third parties who use cookies to collect non-personally identifiable information when you visit our Web site and other sites. This information may be used to provide you with better shopping or savings opportunities through advertisements on this and other Web sites that you visit, or to conduct market research and website analysis. User submited reviews: We discourage you from entering any personal information and please keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily disclose personal information online for example through e-mail, discussion lists, or elsewhere that information can be collected and used by others. In short, if you post personal information online that is accessible to the public, you may receive unsolicited messages from other parties in return. It is not required for you to submit personally identifiable information to enable you to submit a review. Sharing of information: We do not not share any contact information or IP address information with its partners. We will only use information that helps our customers to find the lowest prices. How we protect your information: The privacy and protection of your personal information is vitally important to us. Our Travel Portal does not make personal information available to any third parties without your permission. Any user statistics that we may provide to prospective advertisers or partners regarding your usage are provided in the aggregate only and do not include any personally identifiable information about any individual user. This Website Privacy Statement is effective as of the date listed below. Even if you read and/or agreed to a prior policy statement, you need to review this updated version. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, or other places we deem appropriate so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected. If, however, we are going to use users personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection we will notify users by posting a notice on our Web site for 30 days. d) Collection tools and methods Prior to 1992, the length of time that aircraft deicing fluids (ADF) provided protection was overestimated by most commercial airlines. This was realized after the crash of U. S. Air Flight 405 at LaGuardia Airport, in which a long queue caused ice to re-accumulate on the planes wings and airframe after ADF had been applied. Bryan Wagoner, the Environmental Programs Administrator at Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DTW), says this incident spurred a nationwide focus on deicing practices. The FAA mandated that every plane must be absolutely free of snow at the end of the runway prior to take-off, he explains. This resulted in a significant increase in the quantity of ADF used nationwide. Midwestern winters, however, can be unpredictable. Months can go by with little to no precipitation, and then a snowstorm worthy of national news can hit with a fury. W

SB 76 Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

SB 76 - Term Paper Example The law establishes the MHSO and Accountability Commission. Significantly, the commission is mandated to conduct annual review and approve mental health programs at county level for expenditures such as innovative programs, prevention and early mitigation programs. Moreover, the law authorizes the SDMH to enhance technical assistance to mental health initiatives at county levels, as specified. The bill would terminate the requirement for such annual reviews and authorize the commission, to offer technical expertise to mental health initiatives in the counties (Base, 2012). Currently the law requires health programs in the counties to produce a project that would serve three years to be updated annually and seek the approval of the department after its review and the commission’s comments. The bill would terminate the annual requirement for updating the 3-year initiatives and the requirement for approval by the department preceded by review and commission’s comments. The act restricts funds from the MHSF from supplanting the state funds used to provide psychological services. In addition, it requires financial support of the state for mental health activities with hardly the same entitlements, allocations from the GF. The bill shall order the state to administer the fund as opposed to the department. Additionally, it would authorize for a continued financial support for mental health initiatives from the collection of local revenue. The Treasury of the state would, require the Controller to disseminate to the counties all unutilized and unreserved funds in the MHSF monthly (Hall, 2009). Under the law, money in the MHSF may be utilized only for recognized purposes, including 5% for innovative initiatives, as stipulated and 5% for departments administrative costs, the CMHPC. The bill, 2012, would allocate certain funds in the MHSF to cater for Medical specialty in the mental health services. For instance, through those funds for special pupils and th e Periodic Screening, and Treatment program. Consequently, the allocation of funds in the MHSF for other purposes would make the bill an appropriation (Keithly, 2012). The act demands the department to establish regulations, which may serve as crisis solvers and the designated local agencies to execute the enacted act. However, the bill would declare its consistency with the act; hence, it furthers the purpose. The Constitution in California has authorized the administrator to announce a monetary emergency and call the Legislature into a special session for the above purpose. Significantly, Governor Schwarzenegger produced a proclamation ordering a fiscal emergency, and that necessitated a critical session for the same purpose. Additionally, in December 2010. Governor Brown produced a proclamation in January 2011, as declaration, a reaffirmation that a fiscal emergency disappears, and postulating that his proclamation had superseded the earlier proclamation on the provision of the c onstitution. However, the bill would postulate that it handles the fiscal emergency as declared by the reaffirmation of the Governor by his proclamation produced in January 2011, pursuant to the constitution of California. Arguments for the SB. 76 In conclusion, it is significant to highlight the numerous arguments for the support of the SB. 76. According, to a legislation committee in California referred to as Friend’

Press release Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Press release - Article Example NGO under Penal Reform aims at training prison staff on a number of areas. Areas of interest range from rehabilitation priority to discrimination reduction as well as incorporating respect for humanity when handling prisoners. The prison law enforcing officers will get training on the legislative reforms that seek to improve legal precautionary measure for prisoners. It is also the mandate of the NGO during the process to develop proper and appropriate training curricula for prison law enforcing officers. It will as well provide prison staff with technical assistance to training in conflict resolution. At that time, the prison staff will get an opportunity to understand the need to apply other human right friendly methods of discipline. Training prison staff will provide other possible alternatives to corporal punishment to inmates. Alternatives such as services to the community, working in the government farms among others. Prison staff will also acquire special training on how and when to receive complaints from the prisoner as well as addressing them amicably. The NGO also seeks to promote the standard principle organization that protects all persons under any form of detention. The NGO has also laid down foundation to raise public awareness about prison population and its composition. Based on its plan, the NGO intends to take into account the affairs of vulnerable groups and harmful impacts of imprisonment. The detainees will have a chance to understand their rights and give them the advantage of pre-trial detention or imprisonment. The prison wardens should also learn during the training that the post-conflict areas need a healing and reconciliation mechanisms. Healing and reconciliation process does not encourage brutal means of handling inmates. The NGO further wishes to announce its collaboration with other stakeholders to secure funds

Social Media for Small to Medium Enterprises Essay - 1

Social Media for Small to Medium Enterprises - Essay Example It (Anoto) is a Swedish-based technology company engaged in providing digital writing solutions, through its 103 employees based at operations in Sweden, the US, Japan and the UK (Group 2013). Small medium enterprise companies are increasingly adopting social media strategy as means of increasing their market share and sales volume. This is because social media strategy has different advantages to the enterprises (Bronner, & de Hoog 2014). This strategy also has some disadvantages. This paper will look thoroughly into that and make appropriate recommendations. For this strategy to work, the organisation has to consider various steps. Firstly, the organisation should come up with a group of well renowned professionals in information technology, or related fields (AAron 2014). These professionals should have ample knowledge on computers and how to establish network architecture, which is effective. Secondly, the organisation should listen out to the consumers and learn which social media will reach a broad clientele. They should also compare notes with other organisations. That is what other organisations mostly the well established ones and the impact (Naylor et al. 2012). Thirdly, the organisation should know why they want to establish the social media strategy. Could it be that they need to reach out to their clientele for feedback or are they just marketing their products? The reason behind this should enable them establish themselves in the right social media. Fourth step is to establish the success of the strategy they are about to ad opt. They should carry a substantial research on the social strategy before adopting it to see how successful it is. The fifth step is to analyze the targeted audience. Will they be in a position to access the social media? Are they literate enough to know how to use computers or to know how to read? The answers to these questions are very crucial in determining that the media used is accessed by a great percentage of the

China's Monetary Policy, From Fixed to Managed Exchange Rate Essay

China's Monetary Policy, From Fixed to Managed Exchange Rate - Essay Example As of the last quarter of 2010, the economy of China was reported to overheat when its gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 10.3% as compared to the previous year (Simpkins 2011). In response to the on-going global financial crisis, the Chinese government decided to implement a â€Å"moderately loose monetary policy† from the usual â€Å"prudent monetary policy† as a strategic move in stabilizing the overall economic condition in China (Pierson 2010; Yang 2010). Based on the standard economic practice, a tight monetary policy is normally implemented by the central bank in order to control the economic consequences associated with high inflation rate. To allow the readers have a better understanding about this particular research topic, the standard model of a fixed exchange rate economy will first be tackled followed by discussing the previous case of China. Upon examining China’s preferred monetary policy today, this report will focus on determining whether or not the Chinese economy behave in accordance with, or differently from what one would predict from a standard Model of a fixed exchange rate economy experiencing overall balance of payments surpluses. Standard Model of a Fixed Exchange Rate Economy Under the Bretton Woods System, monetary policy was focused on fixing the exchange rates in order to protect the balance of payments stability (Hagele 2006, p. 8). Right after the World War II, making exchange rates stable by pegging the currencies against the US dollar was considered as one of the best ways to promote growth on international trading and in making the employment rate high (Hagele 2006, p. 9). Even though the pegged exchange rates are adjustable when necessary, historical events revealed that implementing a fixed exchange rate system could create disequilibrium in the balance of payment and international trading system (Bordo and Eichengreen 1993, p. 5). Given that importation and exportation of products are considered inelastic, a lot of economists in the past disregarded the significance of exchange rates in the use of monetary policy. This is because most of them believe that developing countries will remain the principal exporters of goods. Given that the presence of industrialization reduces the need for importation of goods from other countries, devaluation of currencies were considered less advantageous for economic development. It was only during the 1997 Asian crisis wherein a lot of economists considered the significance of exchange rate in managing the internal economy in each country. In an economy wherein the exchange rate is fixed, the government tends to rely heavily over the use of its fiscal policy in order to control the economic situation in each country. To boost the economic growth in each country, the government can make use of its reserves or to borrow money from local or international sources to create more demand for products and services. However, Tornell and Velasco (20 00) explained that excessive use of fiscal authority could result to more economic consequences since misuse or excessive use of fiscal policies could result to the exhaustion of the government reserves. Since demand for goods and services is growing in China, the Chinese government is

Radio report about jazz Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Radio report about jazz - Essay Example Ultimately, Blakey sets in the performance with his drum thus blending the mix proportionately. Benny Golson finds his way again after two and quarter minutes with his saxophone that purposes to offer liveliness and reality to the band. Lee Morgan halts but the other musicians maintain their respective roles in the band. Bobby Timmons seems to enjoy the music as he is seen very vibrant and also seems to follow everything closely. One can clearly notice the sounding of the drum set that Blakey bring into play to add rhythm to the piece. All the five band members now come in but the trumpet is higher in pitch and tune, something that is noticeable. Lee Morgan seems to struggle so as to hit higher notes to maintain the pitch and to also upkeep with the rest in the performance. The jazz slows down and picks rhythmically. Blakey is seen stepping from behind the kit and gives a brief introduction about their platter that he does in a rush. Lee Morgan is the solo who seems more involved in this piece. Morgan is likely to have found solace in his trumpet that he deliberately sounds consistently to blend the music. The trumpet is the most conspicuous in the entire piece thus Morgan is a key element in the band as he carries on strongly even when his colleagues slow down or even remain silent at some instances. He is seen to struggle to deliver the highest pitch ever in the performance but he still perseveres on. Only at some few instances does he rest although not so long like some other members. Lee progresses with success to the last point of the performance with a lot energy, lively and composed. Moanin’ Moanin’ was performed live in Belgium in 1958. The band members include Art Blakey, Benny Golson, Bobby Timmons, Lee Morgan and Jymie Merritt who play the drums, saxophone, piano, trumpet and the bass respectively. This song is a rendition about the projects title that plays for nearly fifteen minutes and is basically a joyful piece of music more so to those who like the studio. Noticeably, the camera work has been done with excellence that makes the performance clear. The piece starts by the solo engaging the audience who in turn applaud the message. The piano kicks off the performance as others join the accompaniment. Benny with his saxophone and the trumpet rest at some intervals after which the trumpet carries on for the better part of the piece with others on board too. At this point Benny stops and rests for the others to continue but joins at some point after which the trumpet rests. All except the trumpet are live and active with the applause from the being noticed. I remember Clifford I remember Clifford is the title of the jazz that was written by Benny Golson who played tenor saxophone. This was done to commit to memory the life of Clifford Brown, who played the trumpet, after his death in an accident. These two were great band mates the entire album pays tribute to Brown with Lee morgan for trumpet, Art Blakey with his drums, Jymie Merritt for bass and Bobby Timmons playing the piano all on board. Timmons is seen moving his foot inconspicuously counting in the number being also in the speed and tone of the music. The entire band heightens the speed and pitch charging ahead where Golson and Morgan howl at the top of their ability thus displaying their prowess and might while at the same time revealing their respective insight and

Degrowth Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Degrowth - Essay Example They believe that human dependence on non renewable sources is way too high right now which will eventually lead humanity to a dead end. They promote sustainable development, use of renewable source of energy and reduce our ecological imprint on Mother Nature. They are also against neocolonialism which leads to exploitation of third world countries by developed countries. Why degrowth? Whats wrong in growth? The meaning of growth in today’s capitalist world mean grow more, produce more, sell more and use more, all in order to make more money which is termed as growth. Countries also do bother about human development index (HDI) but are almost always sidelined when it comes to the focus on GDP and growth. This growth is only increasing the pace of life, and as the Indian revolutionary M K Gandhi said ‘there is more to life than just increasing its speed’ is so relevant now. It seems a simple idea of people working hard, earning money and spending on a good life sty le. Companies keep on developing new products for those people to better their life style. People work to earn to buy products which are developed by companies where people work. It’s a catch 22 position and an endless cycle. ... This growth if continued at current rate will exhaust the fossil fuels on the basis of which is thriving so fast. You thought Economic growth is solutions of problems? Is it the problem? Any sane person shall say that solutions to issues like starvation, housing, education, poverty, disease, health care and employment is economic growth. Countries who have achieved economic growth are called developed country and live a comfortable life, those who are struggling are called developing countries. Economic growth in western countries had lead to larger spending powers and hence larger consumption of products. Larger demand for these products leads to mass production of them in third world countries as labor and capital is cheap there. This leads to exploitation of developing countries and creates a divide between rich and poor in the society. Rich becomes richer, poor becomes poorer. Fossil fuels are fast depleting, there are wars between countries for crude oil and nuclear power. Hence fast economic growth in past few decades have increased the speed of the world so much, that growth itself has become the problem and rest of the real issues of education, poverty and food are side tracked. â€Å"Questioning growth is deemed to be the act of lunatics, idealists and revolutionaries. But question it we must. The myth of growth has failed us. It has failed the two billion people who still live on less than $2 a day. It has failed the fragile ecological systems on which we depend for survival. It has failed, spectacularly, in its own terms, to provide economic stability and secure people’s livelihoods.† as correctly said by Tim Jackson, Economies commissioner of the sustainable development commission, an independent advisory body to the

Natural Selection through Competition and Isolation of Species Essay Example for Free

Natural Selection through Competition and Isolation of Species Essay The struggle for life results in differences in form which Darwin called â€Å"incipient species. † Darwin says that variations, no matter how small or big they are, will necessarily be passed down to offsprings because they will tend to make those individuals survive. He called this process natural selection to relate it to mans ability to select objects in their lives. Herbert Spencer, an English philosopher, had previously described the struggle for life as the â€Å"survival of the fittest,† which Darwin though was also appropriate for the process of evolution that goes on among organisms. Competition is constantly happening between organisms because of the rate of population increase. This leads into a Malthusian struggle that eliminates the nonadaptive individuals from the group (Cuvier et al. , 2003, p. 20). The divergence in the forms of species may result from changes in living conditions. Darwin pointed out that some species may be wiped out because of the immigration of other groups more adapted to the environment where they live in. Man-induced selection practiced by breeders of animals often results in sharp cases of divergence within species, although this is also possible through natural processes (Cuvier et al. , 2003, p. 24). Some experts point out that Darwin anticipated the concept of â€Å"ecological niche† because he suggested that all individuals who survive in the environment were not necessarily higher or better. They just have their own features that made them better adapted to the environment. According to Darwin, natural selection is facilitated by the isolation or seclusion of a population of organisms. Its pace can also quicken if the species is composed of a large population in open areas, since this indicates that there are many variations within the group (Cuvier et al. , 2003, p. 26). Darwin measured and described the divergence in species through a tree diagram with branches that stopped or fell off while extinction happens. New buds also spring from the tree to symbolize new species, leading to Darwin call it the â€Å"tree of life. † Heredity in Darwins Theory of Natural Selection Evolution had already been discussed before Darwins theory was published. Darwin only added substance to the science of evolution by proposing the idea of natural selection as a tool of evolution. Despite the soundness of his theory however, it was still difficult to form a coherent story of the evolution of organisms because there was no acceptable model or standard of heredity to explain natural selection. In fact, Darwin admits that the laws of heredity are still unclear (Endler Endler, 1986, p. 36). Since there was no guiding standard for heredity, Darwin borrowed Lamarck’s idea of acquired characteristics through use and disuse. He believed that when animals regularly use certain parts of their body, those parts become stronger or larger. In contrast, disuse results in certain parts being weaker or decreasing in size. These acquired characteristics are then passed on to newer generations either through domestication or through nature. While use and disuse had some role in evolution, Darwin said that some developments in the characteristics of animals, such as the loss of wings of some insects, might have resulted from natural selection.

Sustainability Strategies for Proctor Gamble

Sustainability Strategies for Proctor Gamble 1. Introduction: Procter and Gamble is an organization which produces diverse products, and its ambition is to reach the consumers demand. PG began in the 1911; with the theme of innovation by producing every time a different product. For every product they go through three stages. The first stage was to make innovative needed products; the second was to proceed with the successful products with suitable quantities; and the third is to have more investments of capital to enlarge the company. These three stages preserve the success of PG. PG is a multinational corporation with 156 branches in more than 70 countries. There are three main development centers, the first center is in Germany in which paper products like Always and Pampers are developed. The second is in Brussels, used to develop detergents. The last center is situated in the United Kingdom where soap and shampoos are developed. PGs environmental science department plays a unique role to ensure that their products are safe to use for the consumer as well as for the environment. Environmental safety is an internal part of the quality that PG builds into its every product. The Company is committed to produce best quality of products to refine the consumers of whole world. The companys actual performance could be deduced by looking at its 2009 Annual Report. Its worldwide net earnings for the year 2009 were 13,436 million dollar, which is 13.61% increase over the prior year. It has total assets of $134,833 million and liabilities of $71,451 million. PG has been paying a dividend for 120 consecutive years since its incorporation in 1890 and has increased its dividend for 54 consecutive years at an annual compound average rate of approximately 9.35%.This is an evidence of how much consumers demand PGs product and how this initiates the company to develop 300 brands to satisfy five billion consumers all over the world. Alan G. Lafley became chairman of PG in 2000, he made it clear that he wanted innovation across the spectrum-in how the company invents, markets, manufactures, and distributes its products. 2. Methods 2.1 Data collection methods We get the data from the documentary analysis of the PG which come from the website of the PG. The data is easy accessed in the internet. PGs annual plans are useful in the research. At the same time, we keep contact to PG via emails. They give us information on the plan of the companys development. 2.2 Issues and challenges Biases different comments of PG in massive aspects, often find data from some organization within the PG. that circumstances may cause biases, which influence comments to become less objective and even flattery. It is significant to distinguish the information because possibly comments on one aspect could go opposite and cause dilemma. Detailed resource constraints it is not difficult to find general information about PG. However, it was not easy to search details and depth objections. Although, connecting PG for details may work, yet it cannot be certain that the opinions gained from PG are 100% objective and real. Collecting from dispersive information a majority of resources is dispersive. It means much time consuming and less efficiency. Also some information may mislead ideas to somewhere wrong. 2.3 Analysis Through the analysis of companys annual report, we know the performance of PG. according to the structure and culture of PG, we can forecast the development foreground. We evaluate the approaches to management and leadership. We use the view of a manager, trying to give out a better way. We are based on management principles and analysis the existing business model. PG has a unique pattern in the business management which was widely praised by consumers. 3. Business strategy, mission and goals 3.1 Introduction PG products touch the lives of people around the world billion times a day. This happens because PG provides products of best quality to improve the lives of all consumers around the world. This results in sales, profit and value creation, between the company and the consumers in which they operate to prosper. Its business is divided into three global units: beauty, health and well being, and household care. It also makes pet food and water filters and produces soap operas. Some products of PGs brands are billion-dollar sellers, including Gillette Fusion, Always, Braun, Bounty, Charmin, Crest, Downy/Lenor, Folgers (which it reportedly plans to spin off), Gillette mach 3, Iams, Olay total, Pampers, Pantene pro v, Pringles, Tide lemon jasmine, and Wella, among others. The above products were mentioned by Robert N. Lussier(2009) in annual report 2009. The PG consists of over 138,000 employees working in over 80 countries. It began as a small, family-operated soap and Candle Company which now not only provides products but also concentrate on services of best quality and value to consumers in more than 180 countries. In PG, they are focusing their efforts on where they can make the most meaningful difference in both environmental and social Sustainability. According to Andrea Redmonds (2010) research, their dedication begins with PGs Purpose, values and principles, in which Sustainability is embedded, and manifests itself in a systemic and long-term way. They try to make their company better. 3.2 Mission and goals In 2007, PG implemented five strategies to Sustain goals for the future. In March of 2009, PG made a progress to emphasize their commitment to achieve more significant goals. The five strategies are as follows: Strategy1 Products: Delight the consumer with sustainable innovations which improve the environmental profile of the products. They have developed the market which was at least $50 billion in cumulative sales of sustainable innovation products, and products that have an improved environmental profile. Strategy 2 Operations: Improve the environmental profile of PGs own operations. An additional 20% reduction (per unit production) in CO2 emissions, energy consumption, water consumption and disposed waste from PG plants, leading to a total reduction over the decade of at least 50%. PROGRESS (percent reduction per unit production) Since July 2007 Since July 2002 Energy Usage 11% 48% CO2 Emissions 10% 52% Waste Disposal 30% 53% Water Usage 13% 52% Strategy 3 Social responsibility: Improve childrens lives through PGs social responsibility programs. Enable 300 million children to Live, Learn and Thrive. They prevented 160 million days of disease and also saved 20,000 lives by delivering 4 billion liters of pure water for the Childrens Safe Drinking Water program. Strategy 4 Employees: Engage and equip all PG employees to build Sustainability thinking and practices into their everyday work. Strategy 5 Shareholders: Plan the future by working transparently with their shareholders so that they can work with freedom to innovate in a responsible way. Beside the five strategies, they have several goals on the market. 1. Designed to Matter In PG, they focus the Sustainability efforts on improvements that matter, to make the most meaningful impact they can. 2. Purposes, values principles PGs Purpose, Values Principles formulated their shared vision, a common sets of behavior and their beliefs about the business and its potential. 3.3 Marketing strategy Many people think that multi-brand strategy will result in a situation that internal competition happens, but P G believes that the best strategy is to compete with their own product. Gary Armstrong (2009) said this is because the market economy is a competitive economy, while its opponents to develop new products to share the market. As their challenge themselves and overcome their own, so that their products  brands may occupy a different market, in order to consolidate its leadership position. 1. Differentiated brands If P Gs multi-brand strategy to be understood as simply more brands, it would be wrong. Actually the pursuit of similar products, the differences between different brands, including features, packaging, promotion, etc., to form each brand distinctive, such as Procter Gamble brand strategy so that each brand has its own development, the market will not overlap, and it will not lead to market its brand in the consumer confusion. The words above are supported by Piero Morosini (2005) 2. Manufacture of USP According to the report, USP means unique selling proposition. It is proposed by the American advertising guru Rosser Reeves (said Brent Green 2006). Marketing theory: the core of its content: Advertising should be according to the characteristics unique to the consumer for rhetoric,  and allow consumers to believe that this feature is not available to others or others not mentioned. These features can bring tangible benefits to consumers. 3. Unique way: numbers brands in one organization As Michel Philippart (2005) and Hangzhou da Xues (1994) study, multi-brand strategy is very difficult to succeed. While a single image of the brand extension strategy to facilitate the unity of management, reduce marketing costs, easy-to-be customers to accept, but it is not guaranteed, because of a branding, the easy formation among consumers  fixed image, resulting in the customers mind-set is not conducive to the extension product. 4. Overall structure: The Procter Gamble Company (PG) is divided into three main worldwide units, which are household care, beauty and grooming and health and well-being (Marketing magazine: 2009). Every units report is sent to Susan E. Arnold, who has been promoted from vice chair of PGs beauty and health department to the position of president of global business units. The beauty care section is also managed by Susan Arnold. PG has restructured its hierarchy of top executives, who include Arnold, in order to meet the changing needs of their larger, more flexible and faster-paced global business. Lafley, who is the chairman of PG, announced that PG has nearly doubled its business since 2000 with the acquisitions of the Clairol, Wella hair care businesses and Gillette. The change in structure is designed to meet the needs of a larger business that is also developing new initiatives faster than in the past (Balendu: 2007). Initially, PG managed its international operations through an international division of foreign expansion, in the same manner many other multinational enterprises. A variety of products were identified to match national differences and preferences. Consequently, a portfolio, consisting of subsidiaries, run by country general managers was established. However, this management structure may result in two basic problems. Firstly, the cost of operating these subsidiaries is high, and secondly the ferocious autonomy of national subsidiaries prevented the global roll out of new products and technology improvements (Lin, 2008: 9). Therefore, PG needed innovation in the subsidiaries management structure. It concluded that the matrix structure, in which subordinates report to more than one superior (MacKenzie, 2002:22), is a better alternative for PG, as it allows authority to be kept at lower levels. However, most firms would have some difficulty implementing this Matrix structure into their organization because it is difficult to organize multinational activities through this complex structure. For example, dual reporting can lead to disagreements and confusion and a possible overlap of responsibilities. This may result in a loss of accountability and wastes time. Through time PG has been trying to optimize its structure. The current structure resulted in a culture within PG, which was viewed as slow, conformist and risk-averse (Lin, 2008:11). This led to a decrease in productivity and an increase in inefficiency in the organization. Moreover, these factors would slow down the decision making process and reduce the competitiveness of the company. Although, the management structure of PG seems imperfect at the moment. However, the Procter Gamble Company is still a giant in the area of consumer goods and the leading maker of household products in the United States. PG operates its business in over 80 countries around the world and has approximately 300 brands in more t han 160 countries. The matrix structure helps PG develop its global business structure into more specific areas. As a result, the company has become more flexible to change within market competitions and the different expectation of PG. The final stage of completing the innovation process of management structure is to transform the formal structure and responsibilities of the company. For example, the global business units of PG were established in order to manage product development, manufacturing and marketing of their respective categories all around world. Furthermore, global business service units were established to organize with the transactional activities such as Accounting, HR, IT, etc. Eliminating bureaucracy and increasing accountability is another main objective of structure change (Bartlett, 2004: Chp 4). The Procter Gamble Companys corporate structure has been mainly dependent on worldwide subsidiaries and merging. During this time of restructuring, PG has continued its active acquisitions pace. For instance, PG entered the European tissue and towel market through the purchase of Vereinigte Papierwerke Schickedanz AGs European tissue unit and added the luxury fragrance business of Giorgio Beverly Hills, Inc. In the same year, PG returned to the South African market following the lifting of U.S. sanctions. PG has altered its geographic management structure gradually. As a result, PG has divided its operations into United States and other countries, which mainly includes four regions North America, Latin America, Asia and Europe/Middle East/Africa. PG announced a new restructuring initiative in September 1998. A key factor of this restructuring was a shift from an organization centered around the four geographic regions to one centered on seven global business parts based on product lines: Baby Care, Beauty Care, Fabric Home Care, Feminine Protection, Food Beverage, Health Care Corporate New Ventures and Tissues Towels. PG has continued to restructure and adapt to different markets and different financial situation worldwide. According to a firm press release announcing the new structure, This change will drive greater innovation and speed by centering strategy and profit responsibility globally on brands, rather than on geographies 5. PGs Culture: Culture plays an important role in any organization to run their organization well in this fast growing business world. According to Scheins theory of culture it is defined as A pattern of shared basic assumption that the group learned as it solved its problem of external adaptation and integration that has work well enough to be considered valid and therefore to be taught to new members as a correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problem-(Scheins 1992, p12, italics altered). According to Schein organizational culture is the acquired outcome of group experience, as it is to a large extent unconscious. Schein considers culture to the three layer phenomenon. From figure 1 it is clearly seen that the organizational culture comprises of three layers first one is the artefacts, espoused values and underlying assumption. Artefacts Innovation culture is the mission statement of Procter and gamble organization in which they state that the consumer is boss, consumer should be the heart of all PG do from ideation stage through the purchase of the product. For example if 30 seconds with a deodorant or one minute with a disposal diaper have made a small part of your life a little bit better then PG made a difference. PG policies made the company a unique one that respect of governments and law, respects in workplace and respect in the market place (annual report of PG, 2005). PG is a multinational company and it is widely spread geographically. They maintain open work system in lots of work places around the world. Executive offices do not have doors. Leaders do not have a secretary cordoning them off. The executive floors on all the offices at Procter and gamble are open, conference room is an open round space. They made it round as a small symbol of the new approach (Lafely .A, 2000 CEO of PG). Espoused values PG is having hierarchy of company ethics principles. PVP(Purpose, Values and principles), corporate policies, worldwide business conduct standards, operating policies/procedure/practices. For over 170 years PG purpose values and principles has been guiding the way they do business and it is shown in the fig 2 below. There purpose is to provide branded products and services of superior quality and values that improves the lives of the worlds consumer. PG lives with its people and values, they recruit the finest people in the world who built organization by promoting and rewarding people without regard to any difference related to performance. Lafely said that PG have been fortunate that some of this flexible multifaceted ethics exist in our heritage. For example Procter and Gamble pioneered a system which is technician based in its manufacturing plants during the 1960s and 70s. In this system they avoided the approach in which one person assigned to do only one job. The technician sys tem still operates today and working well. To get the highest evaluation rating in PG factory, you learn how to do all the jobs on line and once you have that rating, company expect you to be that much capable of problem identification, problem solving, and innovation. This background has made it easier for company to plug manufacturing and engineering in to the innovation culture. PG CEO Lafely said in one conference that once people in our organization have succeeded at innovation then you can see the energy in the company changing. People at PG routinely says that we can do this, this is feasible and the change of attitude of the people in PG is incredible to watch. Integrity, leadership, ownership, passion for winning and trust are the main asset values of PG. By considering purpose and values they made their principles like the show respects for individual, interest of the company and individual are inseparable and innovation is the cornerstone of PG success. These are the offi cials objectives which had been espoused by the company head and it is common for PG organization all over the world. Fig 2 PVP of PG 2003 sustainability report Underlying Assumptions It consists of unconscious, taken for granted beliefs, perception, thoughts and feelings. PG are having problem relating to external adaption and internal integration. PG keep refining their products, launch model from ideas, to prototype, to development, to qualification and to commercialization. Applying this sequential practice on large scale and replicate them does not mean to eliminate judgment, thats why PG needs active leaders and a strong innovation culture. Therefore PG introduces the inclusive culture for leaders and they expected to build inclusive work environment that welcomes and embraces diversity an environment where people feel comfortable. Forced diversity training/learning process are utilized to equip leaders to values and nurture difference in management experience, style of leadership and problem solving approaches. By analyzing the PGs culture it is seen that PG is having a strong and dominant culture and that culture follows in every part of the world. Innovation is the main theme of PGs success and to bind organization culture together. 6. PGs management leadership: Innovative Management and Leadership of PG When we observe organizations and try to classify, we tend to classify them in terms of their success and describe them as highly successful, successful, struggling to succeed or unsuccessful. There are certain factors influencing their success. Management in the organizations has to perform some functions like planning, organizing, staffing, directing, leading and controlling for success. Management consists of implementation of the vision and strategy provided by leaders, coordinating and staffing the organization and handling day-to-day problems. By Koontz and Weihrich management is the process of designing and maintaining an environment in which individuals work with such performance for optimizing efficiency in reaching goals. HENRI FAYOL identified the main operations in business management- technical, commercial, financial, security, accounting and administration. The administration function he further subdivided into organizational, coordinating, commanding, controlling and purveyance. The purveyance further included the concepts of forecasting and planning.  [i]   PG was facing certain disadvantages using the Henri Fayol method because it was not an empirical but more theoretical. Moreover PG wants to be innovative and wants to differentiate products by its formation. So they adopted the Cooper-Kleinschmidt study of innovation method which was based on the triangle process. The Innovation Diamond in Exhibit 1 began as a triangle process, Resources, and strategy the result of a 1990s Cooper-Kleinschmidt study of innovation across a Broad range of businesses.4 Procter Gambles management in the 1990s subsequently transformed the triangle into their Initiatives Diamond, shown in Exhibit 2.  [ii]   The Innovation Diamond is a guiding framework to help management focus on whats important to success: innovative strategy, a good idea-to-launch process, portfolio management, the climate and leadership. PGs Initiatives Diamond serves as a guide for each businesss product innovation efforts, and helps to focus managements attention on what is important to success. Heres what Bob McDonald, PGs Vice Chairman of Global Operations, says: The Initiative Diamond played a significant role in improving the business results in PGs Fabric Home Care global business unit. This work brought us a new discipline to manage our innovation programs, and yielded a major increase in the in-market success of our initiatives. We aligned our organization on how to use Stage-Gate ® success criteria and portfolio and resource management to deliver better innovations for the consumers we serve.  [iii]   The top half of PGs diamond in Exhibit 2 is strategic in nature, and captures the businesss product innovation strategy: goals, the mix of new products required to meet those goals, and the required resources. Portfolio management (or project selection) is thus closely connected to strategy. The bottom half of the diamond is more operational and focuses on delivering specific new product projects or initiatives: what resources must be put in place for each project; and how individual new product projects are managed so they succeed using PGs idea-to-launch SIMPLTM Methodology? Thus how the PGs business success has been generated through focusing on effective innovative Management. Peter F. Drucker says Leadership is the lifting of mans thinking to higher sights, the increment of mans performance to higher standard, the building of mans personality beyond its normal limitation. Alan Bryman offers the working definition of leadership as: the creation of a goal about a desired future state which seeks to mesh every members of an organization in its net. Many commentators trait spotting approach to; have argued or assumed that the performance of an organization depends on the quality of leadership exercised by its leaders; same is the case with PG organization. The single most enduring thing PG leaders can do is to identify develop our next generation of leaders. If we can get the right people with the right skills and experiences in place to run our business, the rest will take care of itself. By Lura Mattimore, Director, Leadership development PG. So the leader is someone who exercises influence over other people leading is a process of actuation. It provides an electrifying effect to the organization makes people action-oriented and bridges gaps within the organization. Distribution of work, delegation of authority and supervision of work should be done meticulously. There are various approaches to leadership such as trait spotting, style counseling, content fitting, New leadership. PG uses the trait spotting approach to leadership. PG leaders are built from within because they believe that their future success is entirely dependent on the ongoing strength of talent pipeline. So the first trait spotting in PG is done by PG leaders itself who select the next leader of the company by searching a quality of dedication towards the work. PG leaders are not born leaders at first they are just the ordinary people of the company. For PG people are the company most important asset. Their success depends entirely on the strength of the talent which they build from within manage with a disciplined process led by the CEO the senior leadership team. This is an essential element of how PG is designs to lead. Thus PG develop leaders whose purpose is to centre on improving more consumers lives in all parts of the world. Thus PG uses two dimensional style of leadership because it concerns for the production as well as for the people. People are the main asset of PG and for production they always wanted to get differentiated by their innovation method. Thus PG uses the two dimensional style. (Blake Mouton 1964) According to the Likerts there are four leadership systems: Exploitative Autocratic Benevolent authoritative Participative Democratic Democratic leaders have complete confidence and trust in their subordinates, they allow the subordinates to make decision for themselves; these types of leaders always motivate their subordinates by reward for achieving goals and to share the new ideas and opinion. PG uses the democratic type of leadership system. They believe to build their organization from within; PG consider their most important asset as the people of the company because of their faithful work excellent performance. Procter gamble respect all employees and consumers and offer them their trust on condition that they treat them similarly. PG also uses servant type of leadership because they always feels that the customers are the boss .And in servant leadership, leaders put the needs of their followers first. According to the John Adair Leadership is a social process in which an individual influences the behavior of others without using the path of violence. Below is the example of how the innovative product is developed under the innovative leadership of PG, which shows some relationship between leader and follower of the PGs. PG crank up on one on one consumer research, so the marketers of PG spend a time with the consumers, watching the way they wash, clean their floors, diapers their babies and asking about their habit and frustration. So based on this one on one technique PG opened a diaper -testing centre right down the hall of their office, where moms watch their babies get undressed, diapered, and measured by PG technicians. So one thing the PG learn from this experience is that parents are frustrated by the time it takes their youngsters to be toilet trained and they have to change their diapers every time when they wet those. So thus based on the comments received from the parents PG launch their new innovative product in the line of pampers whose mission was to dry diapers to helping moms with babys development. Thus how the PG is always innovative in the way of leadership to find new products which improves their relationship with their followers, as the consumers are the main boss of the PG. 7. Future Aspects: Strategy improvement: Through analysis of P Gs multi-brand strategy we realize that many of the benefits of this strategy are clear, but it is very difficult to achieve in the market, they have to note that several aspects of business practice. According to Sanjay Tiwari (2000), they can make some improvement by the ways below. A company which operates a variety of brands must have the appropriate strength; the work of brand extension is complicated.  From market research to product launch, to advertising, every job has a large number of enterprises to spend manpower and material resources. In the specific operation, they must be through careful investigation, to find the product differentiation. The industries in which according to the specific situation of enterprises, such as Procter Gambles consumer products industry which with easy access to a successful multi-brand strategy.   Structure Improvement: The improvement of structures of PG possibility could be to have wholly autonomous temporary groups or teams that are responsible for an entire project, and are split up as soon as it is successfully completed. Teams are often not very good for decision-making, and they run the risk of relational problems, unless they are small and have a lot of self-discipline. Actually, team members still require a definite leader, which is indicated from decentralization. It means the separation of the organization into competing autonomous divisions. PG has various branch brands, and some in one subject. Competition between own brands may seems unreasonable. However, changing corporate structure may encourage positive challenges among PG. In addition, appropriate manipulating probably is required during the management process. On the other hand, some inefficiency brands or areas may better to be abolished for saving funds and decrease expenses. Decision- making is very crucial of this innovation, which is easy to regret if prediction is wrong. Various differences of brands among PG could be helpful and practical in different occasions. However, this improvement could go to the opposite and create unexpected situation because sometimes the market could be influenced by news in many ways.

The Metamorphosis of Johnny Tremain :: Tremain

The Metamorphosis of Johnny Tremain Johnny Tremain is like a butterfly; he went through a transformation. Johnny Tremain is a book by Esther Forbes about a crippled boy during the American Revolution and the events he endures. Johnny Tremain was a very dynamic character because people and events affected him. People change main characters in many books. Johnny Tremain is no exception. In Johnny's case it was the Lyte and the Lapham families. Both the Lapham family and the Lyte family probably did not mean to change Johnny, but they did. Johnny was orphaned after his mother died but was able to stay in the Lapham's house and to be an apprentice to Mr. Lapham, an elderly silver smith who educated Johnny in this art. He was always Mr. Lapham's favorite because Johnny was the finest apprentice out of the three that were there until Dove, one of the apprentices, passed Johnny a cracked crucible. Johnny's thumb then got grown into his palm when he healed. After the injury, Mr. Lapham and the whole family found Johnny useless and queer (because of his thumb). " `Don't touch me! Don't touch me with that dreadful hand!' Issanah squealed." After then Johnny grasped the fact that he went from the top to the bottom in a matter of days. It taught him that nothing is forever. Furthermore, M rs. Lapham a widowed mother of four, was probably the cruelest Lapham of all, after he got crippled. She told him that he was only good for picking rags. She also virtually shooed Johnny out of the house. This made Johnny go find a better life outside of the Lapham's shop. It also taught him to be independent. There is usually more than one family that changes a dynamic character like Johnny. The Lyte family also helped Johnny in his transformation. The Lyte's are Johnny's rich relatives that claim they are not related to Johnny. Johnny has a silver cup to prove his relation, but the Lytes still deny any relation to Johnny and claim that he stole the cup from them. When Johnny was first looking for a job, he thought he could go to the Lytes and ask for some money.

Queen Isabella :: biography

Queen Isabella was born in 1451, in the city of Castile, Spain (Leon 75). She was the daughter of King John II and Arevalo (Maltby par 1). Her family was very strong Catholics and she was born and raised a Catholic. Her brother, Alfonso, became King. He banished her mother, younger brother, and her from the kingdom (Leon 75, 77). Isabella had chestnut hair with natural red highlights and her look was demure and soft. She went to school with nuns at Santa Ana Convent. At school, she fancied reading, writing, music, and painting. In her free time, she was tutored at home with her older brother. After her childhood, she learned treachery was everywhere. As a teenager, her family forced her to marry a scoundrel. That day, she prayed to God for deliverance. On the way to their wedding, he choked and died from bronchitis. From that day on, she was ready for what was coming her way. Queen Isabella had many accomplishments as an adult. One of them was she tried to change the religion of Castile as much as she could. Isabella banned all religions other than Roman Catholic. Most of Castile was Muslim and if you weren’t willing to change to Catholic, then you would be punished or banned. She made war on Muslims who held part of Southern Spain. Also, all Jews had to be baptized in a church. Obviously, religion took a major role in the Renaissance (Phillips par 4). Queen Isabella also took part in the voyage with Christopher Columbus. She gave him support when he was about to leave for sea. Christopher Columbus discovered the New World, which led to the establishment of a Spanish empire in America. Isabella supported many people, but Christopher Columbus was her most important (Maltby par 2). I don’t think he could have done that voyage without her. When she was about to become Queen, she had to get some things straight with her father. He had made a treaty, which is like a contract. On the treaty, he gave her many rights normal women would never have. The first right was to let Isabella be a legal heir since her brother was, too. Right #2 was the award of seven cities including Avila, her hometown. Last, but certainly not least, she was to marry whoever she chooses (Leon 77). When she was about 20, she married her second cousin, Fernando and he was roughly three inches shorter than she.

My Philosophy of Teaching :: Philosophy of Education

Philosophy of Education Deciding what you want to do for the rest of your life is a very important and hard decision. But for me, this decision was not hard at all because ever since I was a young child, I have always wanted to become a teacher. Many people find it amusing when I tell them of my aspirations of becoming a teacher, and they respond by saying that the only reason why I want to be a teacher is because my parents are both teachers. I respond to them by describing what teaching means to me and tell them what I could bring to the teaching professional to enhance it. To me, teaching is such a rewarding career because you have the ability to shape the minds of the future. But with this rewarding career also comes many responsibilities. As a teacher you must be able to realize all the needs of your students and be able to accommodate these needs. I think that this is one of the most important things that teachers must achieve. They should be able to teach not only to the smartest child in the classroom, but also to the slowest child in their classroom. Another very important part of being a teacher is the impression that you make on your students. For many children, their only role model is their teacher. So I believe that as a teacher you must strive to make a positive impact on your student’s lives. When children are young, they are not always taught what is right from wrong. They model the behavior in which they see. If a child sees you as a teacher being caring, loving, and respectful to others then they will in treat other s in the same way that you did. I know that many of my teachers had this impact on me, and I only hope that some day I can have that impact on a child. When looking at the different philosophies of education I realized that I do not want to just be a Progressivist, I also want to be a Behaviorist and an essentialist. This is due to the fact that I like different aspects of each philosophy, and I believe if I could tie them all together then I would have a successful classroom.

L’Oreal Case Study Essay

This report looks at how did L’Oreal, a multinational corporation, managed its already portfolio as well as its newly acquired local brand when entering on a new market: China. L’Oreal, a french company founded in 1907, decided at the end of 2003 to acquire two local chinese brands in order to enter the national market: Mininurse and Yu-sai. While this merging seems to be a  «win-win » deal, we will look at several issues L’Oreal was confronted with: how did the brand managed its newly acquired brand, as well as what were the opportunities of growth for the corporation. Recommendations will also be given on how would we have manage L’Oreal’s already existing very diversified portfolio in this new market. 2.Background to the Company Founded in 1907, L’Oreal is now managing a very diversified portfolio including cosmetics, skin and hair care products as well as high end fashion brands such as Ralph Lauren. This diversified portfolio reflects the brand’s strategy to be as important as possible on the market and occupy every segment, in order to avoid competition as much as possible, reinforce their reputation world widely and convey through their different brands’ images several cultures. For instance, Ralph Lauren will convey a very american  «preppy » sense of fashion, while Lancà ´me will convey a very  «glamorous parisian » image of cosmetics. Research&Development is a major investment for the company, as it enables the company to launch innovative product on different markets, as well as protecting its product from copying thought its patents. Furthermore, innovation aimed at high end product is diffused to consumer products, which enable the brand to lower the total cost of R&D. The brand has organised its portfolio using a pyramid, classifying ever of its brands at one stage depending on the targeted market. 3.Development To develop on the Chinese Market, L’Oreal acquired two local brands. China is potentially the largest market in the world, with increasing life standards, a growing interest for fashion and a new group of people forming a middle class willing to pay for cosmetic products. Chinese market can be divided into three main consumers groups, depending on criteria such as their location, their interest in cosmetics, their willingness to pay for foreign products†¦(see exhibit 1). This growing interest for fashion among China’s inhabitants, the very large number of potential customers as well as the increasing disposable income among chinese people constitute opportunities for l’Oreal to expend on the local market. GroupLocationCharacteristics High-Income Earners.†¨Aged young to middle-aged.Large/medium sized cities all around China.Willing to pay for high end luxury products imported from France, United States, Japan†¦. Medium income earners.†¨Middle aged to older women.Large/medium sized cities all around China.Preference for well established domestic brands. Migrant women labourers.†¨Mainly aged 18-30Large/medium sized cities all around China.Do have disposable incomes. Poor knowledge of cosmetics, their purchases are price-driven. Very large and yet untapped customer base. 4.Discussion How would you see L’Oreal manage the chinese brand without their chinese founders? This question leads to a key point of this case. Why did L’Oreal acquire those two brands?†¨The main argument people could answer is that L’Oreal wanted, according to their global strategy, to occupy the market as much as possible. However, could L’Oreal be really bothered by those two competitors?†¨Indeed, at one point, the Case states that the total revenues of domestic brands were less important than L’Oreal on his own. L’Oreal may have wanted this merging in order to use the already existing facilities of both brands for it’s own products. For instance Mininurse, with its extensive distribution channel made of 280 000 corners and points of sale all across China, represents a already established and widely spread distribution channel for L’Oreal to launch any of their products. Furthermore, the knowledge Yu-sai developed regarding Chinese’s use of cosmetic would help the brand to adapt each of its product to the chinese market, which is very different from the western market. Both brands have very high consumers recognition, with for instance Mininurse having a 90% recognition rate among chinese customers, this recognition rate being even higher among under twenty customers. This could help L’Oreal to gain customer recognition for their own brands quite easily. We can see this merging is not only about just acquiring new brands to saturate the market, but it is about using two well established brands to launch the company’s products, avoiding constraints such as establishing a distribution channel, use of marketing to increase brand recognition†¦. Therefore, what I think L’Oreal will do, is use Mininurse to launch their mass market product: Garnier using Mininurse’s high brand recognition and massive distribution network. The brand will use their knowledge and technology to improve Mininurse’s products at a low cost. Progressively, L’Oreal will probably change Mininurse into Garnier.†¨This would enable L’Oreal to use Mininurse’s high brand recognition and target consumers would are more likely to pay for local brands, such as the untapped  «labourer migrant women market ». (see exhibit 1 for an overview of the chinese market). How would you manage L’Oreal’s Portfolio in China with the newly acquired brands? I think using Mininurse’s distribution channel for it’s own products is a really good idea as it enables L’Orà ©al to skip a very long step companies usually to go through when entering a new market.†¨However, following L’Orà ©al’s global branding strategy, L’Orà ©al has got no interest in keeping Mininurse as the products are similar to Garnier’s products. In that way, I would indeed progressively substitute Mininurse with Garnier. Regarding Yue-sai, I think L’Orà ©al should keep it going regarding the good financial results of the brands during the past few years (11% of the country’s total market share) as well as the very particular brand’s identity. L’Orà ©al can use the knowledge Yue-sai Kan has been generating for the past twenty years as well as the research facility opened in Pudon and apply the knowledge to it’s products on the chinese market. I do think L’Oreal should reconsider their decision to exclude Yue-sai Kan from the company. L’Oreal could use her as a marketing figure, as she seems to be very important in the chinese cosmetic market regarding the fact that she is the person that popularised cosmetics thought her different books, TV shows†¦. As stated in the Case, Yue-Sai’s product were created only for chinese woman. Regarding the high number of chinese people all around the world, L’Oreal could start exporting this local brand using the brand’s very local chinese identity. This could reflect L’Oreal strategy to convey different cultures through its diversified portfolio. L’Orà ©al needs to keep in mind that Chinese market is very different from the Western’s market. The market is different by the consumer’s needs, with for instance chinese women using as much as 18 cosmetics products daily, as well as by the consumers products, with for instance beauty criteria being totally different than in western countries. How would you see L’Orà ©al continue to grow in China? I think L’Orà ©al in China should mainly focus on the domestic market, as it is the market with the more potential customers. A quick look at exhibit 1 shows us that a large part of the chinese market is yet untapped. This market, made of young labourers migrating to big cities, has got disposable income but is mainly price-driven and prefer local brands. L’Orà ©al could easily use Mininurse to target this market by offering them the local aspect of the brand, and as said previously progressively substitute Mininurse to Garnier to this market. Using Mininurse to launch Garnier would enable L’Orà ©al to use Mininurse’s high brand recognition among young people ( which is one of the characteristics of this market ), with a brand recognition rate of over 96%, and then take new market shares.