Chinese Attitudes About Death Essays - Death Customs,

Chinese Attitudes About Death Throughout the history of mankind, "death" has always been a fascination. People have always wondered about the causes of death, the aftermath of death, and whether it could be stopped. Among these people were the Chinese, who like many other people, believed there was life after death. They performed certain rituals " to help them along their way." Chinese attitudes toward death are reflected in funerary rituals, Buddhist philosophy and reverence for the deceased. Death is a very important issue to the Chinese people. The son of a family has the obligation to give his parents a proper funeral. "This includes such essential elements as; a large coffin, a funeral procession, a well-chosen gravesite, gifts and offerings to the soul of the deceased, a period of mourning, and keeping an ancestral shrine. If a Chinese son fails to follow these obligations, he has committed a serious offense against society."1 The Chinese believed in giving a proper funeral to their elders because when the elders were alive, they had shared their experiences and knowledge with the young. The Chinese followed the requirements to a proper funeral because they believed in remembering the dead, who were once close to them. They wanted to remember the dead by praying to them daily and making them offerings. The Chinese believed that there were certain rituals that were necessary for certain events. For example, during a wedding, the Chinese believed that the couple must bow to the parents and offer them tea. Only then, can the couple be happily married. Because the Chinese believe in performing certain rituals for certain events, anyone who doesn't give his parents a proper funeral would have mocked traditional beliefs. This son would be considered as a pariah in his village and looked upon as "dirty" by his neighbors. To the Chinese, being buried in a coffin was very important. Chinese people wanted to bury the dead in coffins to preserve their bodies, protect them from decaying as fast. Although the soul of the person was to move on, the Chinese wanted to save the body as a way to remember the elderly. To some people being buried in a coffin is so important that they rather spend their money on a coffin than on necessary provisions. Although burial in a coffin is preferred, cremations also take place. A cremation is when a corpse is placed on a pyre and burned to ashes. In the cities of present day China, because of the great overpopulation and lack of usable land, the government has made cremation a necessity. Cremation is also encouraged in rural areas in efforts of saving arable land for farming. Since the people living in the rural areas are farmers who can provide their own necessities and are independent of the government, they are more concerned with their traditional beliefs and practices than the concerns of the government. In the villages, peasants begin saving to buy coffins for themselves after they pass the age of sixty; which was considered the number of years a life cycle should be.2 People have claimed that if a person died before turning sixty years old, he/she was a "short-life devil." Because of this belief, the people that died before turning the age of sixty years old were not buried and left wherever the happened to "drop."3 To show how important burying the dead is, the Chinese hire elderly people who are familiar with the ancient wisdom of feng-shui, or the spirits of "the wind and water." This type of ancient art was also called geomancy. The reason why the Chinese hire elderly people is because they want someone who is experienced in the field, not someone who's new and had recently learned it from books. The Chinese believe that the more experience a person has, the more reliable is that person. The geomancer helped the dead select favorable sites for graves.4 These favorable sites not only had to be affordable to the family but had to bring good luck to the family and ensure that there will be no evil spirits haunting them. Like the traditional matchmaker, the geomancer is respected for his wisdom and experience in life. Some similarities between the jobs of the matchmaker and geomancer are those of which they both check the social statuses of their clients. The matchmaker has to make sure that he does not match a rich young lady to a poor young man, and the geomancer has to make sure that he picks a gravesite that is affordable

How to Survive Your Upcoming Panel Interview

How to Survive Your Upcoming Panel Interview You’ve just been told your interview won’t be a one-on-one or series of individual interviews, but a panel interview instead. Maybe it’s your first panel interview. Maybe they just freak you out and throw you off your game. It can be intimidating going before the â€Å"firing squad,† so to speak. But don’t be intimidated. Think of this as an opportunity to convince more decision makers of how good a fit you are. Get as many of them on your side as you can. It’s a much more efficient use of time! But if the rapid fire scenario still frightens you and your nerves are daunted by the extra pressure, here are 7 strategies for how to prepare and sail through.1. Do your homework.Think about the preparation required for a normal interview, then multiply that by the number of people on the panel, at least. Figure out, first of all, who is going to be on your panel. You can ask the recruiter or hiring manager for names and titles; this is standard prac tice and will help you better assess what might be most important to each. Find out as much as you can about their roles, successes, career backgrounds. Think about the questions each one might be likely to ask and then prepare great answers.Then, go through your resume to make sure you don’t need to explain away any gaps or oddities. And then rehearse. Have friends or family fire questions at you, so you can practice answering them, and addressing each questioner by name.2. Look smart.Show up 10 minutes early (you should do this anyway, but wasting four or 10 people’s time is much worse than just one). Wear something professional and make sure your appearance is well-groomed and neat. Consult the company’s dress policy and err on the side of caution. Try a dark, smart suit if in doubt.Present yourself with confidence and keep your body language open. Don’t fidget. Sit up straight, smile, and don’t forget to breathe. Remember to make eye contact wi th questioners when answering. And then make sure your confidence level doesn’t spill over into arrogance.3. Build rapport.Once you get a sense of the room, start getting comfortable, and make sure everyone else is comfortable too. Answer each question directly to the person who asked it, but find a way to broaden out your answer at the end and address the group. Show how you can engage the room, build up a sense of teamwork and camaraderie. Put people (i.e. customers/coworkers) at ease. Remember to keep each member of the panel in mind with each answer. Don’t exclude the rest of the panel to answer one question too narrowly or directly.4. Control the pace.The rapid-fire situation only has to be overwhelming if you let it. Remember, you can control the pace of the conversation. You are well within your rights to pause before answering a question. Get to the point quickly, keep your answers brief, and don’t get bogged down. This will help you get your answers out before the next question comes your way.If you get cut off before you finish, immediately ask yourself whether what you were going to say was important enough to persist. If not, move on. If yes, politely say you’d like to just share one final thought on the previous question, then move on.5. Prepare for follow-ups.Just as in a normal interview, you will probably get follow-up questions to your answers in a panel interview situation. Do your best to prepare for this as you usually would, taking into account ways you can broaden your follow-up answers to engage more of the group.6. Make connections.Whenever possible, connect your answers to other questions or other answers during the interview. This shows that you are constantly tracking the bigger picture, and making connections. Don’t underestimate how impressive comments that link back to other comments can be to the panel and its individual members.7. Follow up.Thank each member of the panel individually whenever p ossible, with a firm handshake, eye contact, and a genuine smile. Then send personalized thank you notes- preferably handwritten- to each, and promptly. Gather up as many business cards as possible- this will help with thank yous and with future networking.

In the light of the challenges facing global business today, all Essay

In the light of the challenges facing global business today, all companies listed on stock exchanges should adopt the UN Global - Essay Example This paper argues that â€Å"in the light of the challenges facing global business today, all companies listed on stock exchanges should adopt the UN Global Compact on responsible management† Globalization conveys people, culture, societies together and necessity and chances for cooperation enabling more prosperity and complex understanding to boost. Accountable businesses that establish proactive corporate practices and policies involving those valued by human rights, upon ensuring decent and safe working environments protection and excellent corporate governance contribute largely towards achieving social, economic and environmental goals. They also assist in making of markets more maintainable, inclusive and stable. Forming practices and rules which boost business responsibilities may also contribute towards business competitiveness. Enforcement and adoption of regulations and laws lies with the governments thus, business guided efforts can only be maintained and scaled whe n rules of law, public institutions, predictable regulatory and transparent efforts maintain the accountable business exercises. Much more, the collaborative multi-stakeholder enhancements amidst business, institutions, labor organizations and civil society give chances to boost promote innovation and extensive sustainable progression in manners capable to extend what businesses and governments produce on their own (Creaton, 2007). There are some ways in which Governments may sustain accountable business exercises. These are: Forming enabling conditions where governments may allocate crucial conditions for corporate accountability matters for dialogue and progression. This could also involve guiding by example like by articulation maintaining for corporate accountability principles and guidelines. Raising consciousness as the governments may dynamically draw attention to usual matters, benefits and aspects of corporate responsibility and enable for public debates. On promotion gover nments may come with best practices like giving of awards likewise to endorsement or invite wider community and invite businesses support for voluntary corporate accountability activities, programs and initiatives such as UN Global Compact. Tools progression ensure recognizing that business sectors can at times require requirement facilitation or guidance help as governments could help the progression of corporate accountability guidelines, programs and realization of particular designed which encourages entrepreneurism and corporate accountability amongst the medium and small sized enterprises areas. Funding where the governments have resources and may directly add to resources to assist voluntary initiative to exploit their effects. UN Global Compact renewed the multi-stakeholder obligations, widening of business establishment, boosting of financial market incentives, added governmental maintenance and extending of wider UN-premises agenda. All the points lies with the decision th at business workings in pragmatic and principled

Botlton Claims that Emotion Work can be Viewed as a Distinctive Form Essay

Botlton Claims that Emotion Work can be Viewed as a Distinctive Form of Skilled Work and Employees as a Multi Skilled Emotion Ma - Essay Example Emotion labour as defined by Payne is the work that involves trying to feel the appropriate feeling for a given job (2006, p.2). The emotion labour is common in the service industries. Payne states that, the workers have the obligation to carry out emotion work in the form of politeness, enthusiasm or remaining calm even when under intense pressure. This forms an integral part to achieve customer satisfaction. Payne agrees with Bolton’s argument that emotion work is a distinct highly skilled labour. Bolton’s argument is because emotion work shares some emotion features that prove its ability to be categorised as skilled labour.. Emotion labour requires that employees practice some level of discretion complexity and worker control (2004, p. 20). The complexity in emotional work comes from the explanation by Goff man that the everyday social interaction by employees in emotion work requires a person with the capability of switching through numerous feelings. Bolton states that, employees in the service field should have emotional managerial skills that will allow them to carry out their duties effectively. The workers should be able to distinguish the various emotional displays desired for a given task in their work. Bolton gives an example that the employees could utilise humour as a way of building rapport with the customer or as a means of defusing customer aggression. Emotion workers have to be able to control their interactions with customers to avoid unnecessary exchanges with their customers. In this case, the customer gets the right to display discontent and anger that are not available to the worker (2005c, p.26). Bolton further describes the emotion worker as an active and controlling force in the labour process. The emotion worker subverts the organisational feeling rules imposed to them by management. An example is the Disneyland operator who offers to be of assistance to customers by separating them into different rides despite the resi stance by customers. Bolton tries also to explain how a customer does benefit from the employees act of resistance (2004b, p. 29). An employer, despite his tight schedule, may take his time to help a customer who happens to be in dire need of help. The employee in this case violates the company’s regulation to help the customer. Emotion work, according to Bolton’s observation is indeed a skilled work in that it is through the employees’ interaction with the customer that the image of the company is portrayed and, therefore, serves as a marketing strategy. Emotion labour is a skilled labour, yet the many of emotion labour are low paying jobs with a low status. Bolton observes that the jobs need to be considered as skilled labour, and employees be provided with their rightful payment as skilled workers. The difficulty in categorising emotion labour arises because the traditional systems of certification find it hard to quantify emotional skills. Then again, the em otional skills are part of the worker this makes the skills to be easily dismissed as personal traits. Then it is argued that most of the workers involved in emotion labour are women. Philips and Taylor say that emotion work involves elements of people work and caring for others this trait is seen as an innate feminine quality (1986, p.55). They argue that women have a natural gift when it comes to handling emotional skills. Korczynski observes the scepticism that surrounds the description of emotion labour skills as real skills. Many believe

Misdemeanors and The Courts Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Misdemeanors and The Courts - Case Study Example Unfortunately, they were not planning on a local policeman being on the campus that night. They were caught and cited for vandalism of school property. Now this type of crime is punishable by up to no more than one year in jail and Henry had a court date last week at the Silverton district court. He checked in at the magistrate court office and pled not guilty to his charge in front of the judge. Because vandalism is a misdemeanor offense and his first offense, he was not required to have a jury trial. He had a court trial and was found guilty. The judge felt she had substantial evidence to find Henry guilty as charged. However, he did not feel there was sufficient competent evidence and decided to take the case a step further and appeal this decision made by the judge. He filed an official appeal with the appellate department of the superior court of the State of California. Henry hired an attorney to file a brief to the court on his behalf. Once the brief had been filed it was give n to a panel of justices for review and an oral argument was scheduled. During this oral argument the panel of justices asked Henry’s attorney questions about the night he was cited, evidence of innocence, etc†¦After hearing the argument and reviewing the briefs they submitted a written statement to the court claiming they believed Henry was guilty. He has now been found guilty by a trial judge and the mid-level court.

Looking For Alibrandi, Analysis

Looking For Alibrandi, Analysis However, the Italian adolescents, and in Josies case, have guidelines and family expectations they have to live up to, for example, after school she has to visit her Nonna, dress, friends and the reputation of her family and the Alibrandi name. This is against the expectations of her Italian culture of the assumption that she will marry someone of the Italian background. It is though these regulations that Josie has to fight, these cultural boundaries are revealed. Respect is a cultural boundary that Josies family holds upon her, and is presented through the characters of Josephine and Nonna Katia. Josie crossed this boundary and hit her with her science book. This is seen in the Italian eye as disrespect to her Italian heritage. Josie also shows bitterness at Easter when other children receive chocolate eggs and as an alternative, Josie must help her Nonna prepare for a large family food-gathering event. We were all caught up in the middle of two societies. Josie crosses this boun dary when she would rather join her friends in other places than to stay and contribute in the Italian sauce-making day. Melina Marchettas purpose to educate the readers of the discrimination and prejudice of todays society on a cultures values, beliefs and traditions, and that crossing boundaries brings greater self knowledge leading to growth and emancipation. The Italians and the Australians try and keep separate, and there is always a lack of interaction between, relationships and communication is always minimised. This cultural boundary is crossed through the unaccepted relationships between Italian Josie and Australian Jacob, and Nonna Katia and Marcus Sandford. Through the conflict of the characters, this cultural boundary of interaction is exposed. The reader is satisfied as Josie breaks free, unshackles the chains of the cultural restrictions her mother and grandmother place upon her, and finds her true identity. Jossies intelligence and confidence are two unique qualities portrayed in this young girl, struggling with her identity. She is a remarkably imaginative young person possessing a quick temper. She is a confused girl searching to find where she belongs in the two different cultures. These cultures, being Australian and Italian, are very demanding on such a young girl, having to mould herself for each and find an equilibrium of both. She has major difficulties coping with the harsh reality of prejudice and these problems soon take their toll on her. These pressures continue with her living a life in a prestigious private school, battling to balance herself in a middle class life. Josies aspirations reach much farther than that of her families ambitions for her life. It is at this point in time where a classic example of culture clash begins. Josie feels the need to rebel against the stereo-typical female in an Italian culture. This determination stems from her education and desire to step away from her Italian life and responsibilities, breaking away not only from her family and their narrow mindedness but also the entire Italian culture. This is a major leap for Josie who aspires to be the first Alibrandi female to take control of her life. This motivation of freedom is strong in Josie and her rebellious ways demonstrate this. Christina is the result of the Italian culture and the clash it has with the Australian identity. From the time she was thrown out of home at 17, Nonna has always blamed Christina for Josies birth. Up until Francesscas death, Nonna was forbidden to have any contact with her daughter. this exemplifies the authority an Italian male can exert on the women in his family. Josie would have seen this and blinded with her motivation from her Australian identity could not stand for such a culture. It was not until Francesscas death that Nonna could be reunited with her daughter and grand daughter. Josies father has had very little immediate impact on her life thus far. When her father did arrive in back in Sydney Josie is naturally angry at him. This is a totally acceptable form of behaviour considering the circumstance, but her anger not only stems from her own personal experience. Josie had to grow up knowing that her father had abandoned her and her mother, pushing her Christina into being a single parent bringing up her child alone. Because of this humiliating fact Christina and her daughter were outcast from the Italian community. Her hatred also delved into the way the Italian community treated Christina and Josie through gossip and intentional humiliation of the family. Even though Josie rebels against her father initially, she eventually begins to grow closer to him. This initial bonding occurs when Josie needed her dad, when she broke Ivys nose. This allowed for some trust to be restored between her and her father, making their relationship stronger and giving them a new start. Second site: Josie is very rebellious to the Italian way of life, which has a lot to do with Nonna and her constant remarks such as you brake my heart and i deserve respect. She also hates the fact that nonnas friends are always reporting things that she does. She undervalues Jossie as a person by not allowing her to sit in the lounge room with the air conditioning, as this is for visitors only. She is also blames by her mum for anything that jossie does such as yous let her go out like a gypsy. When she finds out that christina is not Francesas daughter but also a bastard, she confronts nonna and is very angry because she feels the hypocrisy in her argument. Â  Its not until nonna explains her situation and the hardships she has endured in her that she begins to understand nonna and have some compassion for her; she begins to understand the Italian family life. Nonna also starts to compromise her attitude to Jossie and begins to accept some of the Australian ways of life. Josies life has many prominent issues relating to multicultural Australia today. The prejudice and need to be normal in any minority society is tremendous and this book covers that issue very intensely. But there is also a lot more to this novel than simple bigotry. Looking for Alibrandi also attacks very important issues at the foundation of the Australian culture. These range from teenage pregnancy to the social hierarchy at a private school. All these issues are entwined to create a very revealing book about all aspects of Australian life, not necessarily from a purely Australian view. http://wwwfp.education.tas.gov.au/english/alibrandi.htm

Hiring In-Laws: A Bad Idea :: GCSE Business Marketing Coursework

Hiring In-Laws: A Bad Idea Many successful small businesses have been ruined by bringing in-laws in to the family business. As these in-laws struggle to establish a voice in the company, meaning well, they often wind up destroying them. As the owner of the family business, it is your job to avoid situations that could hurt or hinder your business. In this case you should assume a few often overlooked points:  When approaching your business, never think of it in terms of one happy family.  Never assume that in-laws will be grateful to benefit from the opportunities the business offers. Rather, they often feel guilty and incompetent thinking they would have never gotten the job if they weren't family.  Even in-laws with terrific ideas for the company will disrupt the business, the family, or both.  In-laws will struggle from day one to try to prove themselves to you. Even at family outings they will often engage in business talk to promote their worthiness and creativity. The O'Shea Family Business To further illustrate the risks of hiring in-laws into a business we will use a real life example, the O’Shea family. The O’Shea family business was fairly simple. They owned a clothing manufacturing company that made camouflage apparel. They were contracted suppliers of clothing to the military since the business opened its doors during World War II. Daniel O'Shea, the company president, was earning a "comfortable living" in 1970 when began making plans to select his successor. His two daughters had no interest in the day-to-day operations of the company. As a result his decision to choose his son, a levelheaded recent M.B.A., was easy. His name was Sean. Sean knew the business very well, and the company grew from his good business sense. He was young and energetic, helping the company to increase profits almost 50% in his first 2 years while at the helm. This meant bigger monthly checks for the family members, and no one argued against that. The business be gan to grow and so did the need for personnel. Sean made a big mistake only 5 years into his career. With the insistence of one of his sisters, he hired an in-law. It was against his better judgement, but he figured he could place him in a job were the family ties would not cause any problems.

Mw Petroleum

Discounted Cash Flow Valuation of Aggregate Reserves Discounted Cash Flow Valuation – Proved Developed Reserves Discounted Cash Flow Valuation – Proved Undeveloped Reserves Discounted Cash Flow Valuation – Probable Reserves Discounted Cash Flow Valuation – Possible Reserves Question 3 To value MW Petroleum we would consider the assets in place and the option bearing assets discretely. The assets in place consist of the proved developed reserves since they are already producing a determinable quantity of oil and natural gas, as well as the non-producing assets as if developed immediately (valued as the NPV of free cash flows). The expenditures associated with the proved developed reserves are also known with some certainty since they consist primarily of maintenance and replacement costs that follow experience based norms. The NPV is subject to commodity price risk due to volatility in oil and gas prices, as well as uncertainty regarding the discount rate. The options consist of the delay in developing proved undeveloped, probable and possible reserves. In the case of these assets, significant development costs must be incurred to monetize the reserves. In the case of the probable and possible reserves, the estimated cash flows are already risk weighted to account for the uncertainty in producible reserves. The options on these reserves are timing options. By incorporating volatility in commodity prices over time, Apache can value the ability to postpone capital expenditures to develop the reserves until volatility in commodity prices returns to historical levels. It is important that Apache have some level of certainty regarding minimum likely commodity prices over time since these are long-lived projects. These options yield a higher value than the DCF valuation (of the aggregate cash flows). Since we are considering these reserves as potential projects in years five through seven, we use the Black-Scholes model to value the options. The option values are inclusive of the project, i. e. not just the option alone. Question 4: The assets underlying the options are quite risky as demonstrated by the rising volatility presented in the case. Since Apache was primarily concerned with the oil assets, we used the highest recent oil price volatility of 50%. Since volatility is such a driver of option value, we also performed a sensitivity analysis to evaluate how the projects plus options would be valued at different revenue levels as well as with differing volatility. Question 5 Based on the value of all the call options derived in question 4, if the sale goes through then Apache Corporation would not exercise any of the options early. In doing so, they would incur significant financial hardship while bearing the risk of highly volatile underlying assets. Given the potential financial strain of this acquisition, as incorporated by the cost of capital, Apache would benefit from observing prices develop over time. Our answer is based on the volatility which is assumed at 50%. Based on the sensitivity analysis it does not appear Apache would attempt to develop the possible reserves within the 5-7 year timeframe.

Marketing Orientation Essays

Marketing Orientation Essays Marketing Orientation Paper Marketing Orientation Paper Essay Topic: Marketing This assignment is to show what is meant by marketing orientation. I will also give examples of marketing oriented companies. According to Wikipedia.org marketing oriented firm (marketing orientation) is one that allows the needs and wants of customers and possible customers to push all the firms long-term crucial decisions. The firms corporate culture is systematically committed to creating customer value. Marketing orientation is one of different types of business orientations. It is superior to other forms of business thinking. To understand why marketing orientation is to be the best way of business approach, it is crucial to know how lower levels of business orientations have developed since the 19th century. (Lancaster and Reynolds 1995) Production orientation In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the primary purpose of all business and industrial activity was thought to be production. Firms concentrated on improving production efficiency in an attempt to bring down the costs. Generally, companies produced whatever they could produce well, expecting effective demand for their goods and services to present itself automatically. An understanding of customers requirements was of secondary importance. (Lancaster and Reynolds 1995) The economic recession in the 1920s and 1930s brought business to the point where warehouses were full of unsold goods. Thousands of bankrupt businesses occurred. That made business people to concentrate their minds on finding out how to improve their sales volume. (Wikipedia.org 2001) Sales orientation Gradually business people understood and appreciated that in order to make profit it was something more than just to produce goods. The goods also had to be sold. The sales concept stated that effective demand had to be created through the art of persuasion using sales techniques. The sales department was thought to hold the key to the firms prosperity and survival. Scant attention was paid to the genuine needs and requirements of the final consumer, but at least it was understood that goods and services did not necessarily sell themselves. (Lancaster and Reynolds 1995) Marketing oriented The concept of marketing orientation was developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s at Harvard University. It replaced the previous sales orientation that was prevalent between the mid 1950s and the early 1970s (Wikipedia.org 2001) The marketing concept holds that achieving organizational goals depends on determining the needs and wants of target markets (customers) and delivering the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors do. (Kotler et al. 2005) Peter Drucker stated: Because the purpose of business is to create and keep customers, it has only two central functions- marketing and innovation. The basic function of marketing is to attract and retain customers at a profit (Jobber 2004) It is true because firm which does not keep developing its products and services is likely to start loosing customers (and profit as well) for its competitors or even struggle to keep its position on that particular market place. How customers needs and wants can be recognized? Marketing uses its tools to achieve that. Firstly, the market needs researching to acquire information with helping management team to make best decisions on (marketing mix): which product to make or modify; what type of communication with customers to choose in order to give them the most clarified view on the product (promotion, exhibition, advertising, personal selling, sponsorship); price research to better establish the price of product or service in the market place; corporate plan to better allocate duties and responsibilities through single company units; distribution research to effectively monitor different types of distribution channels and detect any regional variation; Secondly, from the total market of product or service is being broken into distinct subgroups or segments. Each segment may conceivably represent a distinct target market to be reached with a distinct marketing mix (Product, Price, Promotion, Place). (Lancaster and Reynolds 1995) How does marketing communication build and maintain strong brand? The challenge for a lot of companies nowadays is to adapt their traditional functions and operations to the new world. They have to integrate marketing. Today, it is important to build a relationship with the customers. This is the key to finding, developing and having loyal customers, so marketing communication has got an important role. Global organisations have to organize around customers and prospects. They do not only have to organize their operations and activities around products and services. Customers have more influence than ever before. They have access to more products, channels to buy and they have more sources of information. Companies have to communicate about their products or services because of the competition. Brands have to be unique and be different to the others to maintain a competitive advantage over the increasing competition. It is important to inform people about the new products, the change of them, the politics of the company. Examples of successful marketing oriented firms and products Nokia is winning the phone war. The company started its business near Nokia River in Finland in 1865 as a timber business. It was for decades a solid, industrial company, selling even until the 1970s products ranging from toilet paper to rubber boots. It bought into the telephones business some 30 years ago to gain a slice of the promising technology markets, and follow the then fashionable trend for diversification. A decade later, after Ericsson installed a cellular network, Nokia, as an expert in radio telephones, stepped in to provide handsets. And when the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s deprived Nokias traditional operations of important customers, the firm looked to its promising mobile phone unit for redemption. The strategy worked. In 1998, Nokia overtook Motorola to become the worlds biggest manufacturer of mobile phones and could be reasonably described as the Abba of Finland, accounting for one fifth of the countrys exports. (BBC.co.uk 2001) What made Nokia to had its 35% market share in 2001 is that they develop and manufacture their phones with user friendly simplicity, keeping the design on the top trendy fashions. For its awards winning products all over the business world is also responsible great knowledge how to use the marketing tools. These are Pull versus Push Strategies- by increasing its brand loyalty in past few years, Nokia has become more of a pull brand. Customers have started going to Nokia showrooms and asking for latest handsets. Nokias communication strategy is planned as the sole activity of media-mix, structured by offline, online and below the line programs. Nokias marketing plan is mainly based on two essential elements: the rank of products and the needs of customers, belonging to the same category. (Nitin Kochhar, 2006) In summary Nokia with its management decisions is now successfully providing market with third generation mobile phones, not forgetting to intensively develop and implement new technologies. That makes firm to keep their customers satisfied at all times. Unilever was arguably the worlds first packaged goods manufacturer, and is still one of its biggest companies. Meeting the everyday needs of people everywhere is how the group describes itself. It is the world number 1 in personal wash, prestige fragrances and deodorants, with brands including Dove, Omo and Axe/Lynx. Following a series of high-profile acquisitions, including US-based Bestfoods, Unilevers foods business is the worlds third largest after Nestle and Kraft. It is a global leader in culinary foods, ice cream, margarine and tea-based beverages. Brands include Knorr, Lipton and Magnum. Vitality is at the heart of Unilever. Our mission is to meet everyday needs for nutrition, home hygiene and personal care with brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life. And every day, around the world, 150 million people in over 150 countries choose our products for the vitality benefits they bring. (www.unilever.co.uk 2006) Dove is one of the fastest-growing products on the market. Silvia Lagnado, group vice-president at London-based Unilever: Unilever is a strongly marketing-oriented company. When I ran the Dove brand for Unilever, we developed a vision that had to do with helping women feel beautiful. Core to our vision was widening the definition of feminine beauty and challenging stereotypes about what beauty looks like. We wanted to position the Dove brand as a way to help women feel greater self-esteem and appreciate the diversity of beauty. We spent a lot of time and effort on research and on talking with sociologists about girls and womens body image. (www.marketingprofs.com 2006) Packard Bell For over a decade Packard Bell has been striving to bring the advantages of technology to life for its millions of customers worldwide. Packard Bell pioneered the use of the PC in the home, taking an unfriendly but useful office tool and turning it into a friendly, indispensable feature of todays modern home. Today it is bringing its experience to bear on the home electronics market, and setting precedents in the process. Today Packard Bell is number three in the European PC consumer market (all form factors) and in the top three in the regions main markets, including the UK, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium. Packard Bells business model is built on optimising each step of the value chain. Its closeness to the market space enables it to anticipate customer needs, design appealing products, manage complexity and integrate services and products. Its supply chain and manufacturing base means Packard Bells can bring the right products to market quickly at the right price. The success of the Packard Bell brand has always depended on their ability to stay in tune and in touch with their customers, its unique relationship with Europes leading retailers makes it possible for customers to buy a trusted brand conveniently from a store they trust. (www.packardbell.com 2006) Example of unsuccessful marketing oriented company British Gas has around 11m gas customers and 6m electricity customers and is the largest domestic energy supplier in the UK. The Academy of Customer Excellence was created in 2004 to bring together each of our site based customer service training teams into one. Customer service is a key differentiator within the competitive market place that we are a part of and this new academy is helping us to perform in this environment by supporting our drive to put the customer at the heart of everything we do. ( www.britishgasnews.co.uk 2006) British Gas generates more complaints from householders than all the other domestic suppliers put together, according to new figures. Energywatch received more than 15,400 complaints about British Gas in the six months to September! That figure has more than doubled compared to the same time last year, the gas and electricity watchdog said. By contrast, energywatch received fewer customer complaints about the five other major domestic energy suppliers over the same period. Inaccurate billing is the biggest problem for British Gas customers, energywatch said. A lack of response to customer enquiries was another source of complaints from British Gas customers. Energywatch has contacted the energy regulator Ofgem outlining its concerns about British Gas. (www.thisislondon.co.uk 2006) Some opinions people say about British Gas customer service that it has rude staff- very unhelpful, unreliable, give false information as do not really know what to say, untrained, do not communicate with each other. It is lower than incompetent, it is dishonest and does not care one bit about its customers. In conclusion, no company that treats its customers this badly should be in business. Even my family and I have a bad experience with this firm. Once we moved to our new house and rang them up for arranging delivery of gas meter card (top-up card) they left us without any answer for four weeks. After four weeks waiting for delivery I rang them up once again to ask when was my card sent and they did not know what I was talking about! Same day I switched my energy supplier to one of their competing company. Conclusion Todays world of business is very differentiated by the meaning of its markets and customers. Nevertheless, every consumer expects highest quality products and services, designed and delivered every time it is demanded by him. If there is company not realizing this simple need, because non-marketing orientation, there will be dozens more other firms instantly competing to cover its place on the market. Future of innovation and well-being of companies is in hands of their exacting customers.

Tools of the Old and New Stone Age essays

Tools of the Old and New Stone Age essays Tools of the Old and New Stone Age is a book written by Jacques Bordaz, the Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Montreal. The book generally concerns itself with the uses of ancient tools, as well as the manufacturing of these tools. The book is full of information, almost to a point were the reader will feel bogged down with facts as they read. Very early people who studied the tools, of the Stone Age, first had the bizarre belief that these tools were created by lightning strikes. Many claimed they found such tools at exact locations were lightning did strike. The tools became known as Thunderstones. Later, early scholars renamed them ceraunias from the Greek word, keraunos, meaning thunderbolt. Of course new evidence has all but vanquished these beliefs. The period of time this book is concerned with is the, what geologists call the Quaternary period. It is broken down into the Pleistocene, and Holocene. Archaeologists classify these periods into the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age), Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age), and the Neolithic (New Stone Age). The main focus being on the Paleolithic is again broken down into lower, middle, and upper periods. Each one of these divisions is characterized by major types of tool-flaking techniques. The tools of the Stone Age consisted of not just stone, but also bone, antler, and wood. Bone and antler were a harder material to work with; they often did not use much detail when shaping tools out of these materials. They were generally roughly shaped, or often times, there was no modification used, especially with sharp-pointed antlers, which made great weapons. The first ability for man to actually construct tools looks at Bipedalism, which is the ability to walk upright. This freed the upper limbs from the work of locomotion, leaving only the lower limbs for this. With the ability to walk on solely the lower limbs, it left the up...

UV Index Forecast Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

UV Index Forecast - Essay Example There are five categories for UV index, level 1-2 (low--can safely enjoy being outside), level 3-5 (moderate--take precautions by wearing a hat and sunscreen SPF+15; seek shade during midday hours), level 6-7 (high--protection against sun damage is needed; use sunscreen SPF+15; wear long sleeves and pants where applicable), level 8-10 (very high--protection against sun damage needed; try not to be outside between 10am-4pm; shirt, hat sunscreen are a must; seek shade) and level 11+ (extreme--same as very high category). The UV Index is a next day forecast of the amount of skin damaging UV radiation expected to reach the earth’s surface at the time when the sun is highest in the sky (solar noon). The amount of UV radiation reaching the surface is primarily related to the elevation of the sun in the sky, the amount of ozone in the atmosphere, and the amount of clouds present. The UV Index can range from 0 (night time) to 15 or 16 (in the tropics under high elevations with a clear sky). The higher the UV Index, the greater the dose rate of skin damaging and eye damaging UV radiation. The higher the UV Index, the smaller the time it takes before skin damage occurs. Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a specific part of the sun’s entire spectrum of wavelengths. UV-C spectrum is entirely absorbed by atmospheric ozone adn does not reach the earth’s surface. UV-B is mostly absorbed by the ozone, but can affect plants and animals, and affects humans by reddening of the skin, and possible development of skin cancer. UV-A radiation is needed by humans for the synthesis of Vitamin-, but too much UV-A causes toughening of the skin and other irritations. The variation throughout the day of UV radiation is much like that of visible light. The UV Index is a forecast of the probable intensity of skin damaging ultraviolet radiation reaching the surface during the solar noon hour (11:30-12:30 local time).

The role of salt marshes in the coastal system Essay

The role of salt marshes in the coastal system - Essay Example Since salt marshes are shallow areas, the plants that exist in salt marshes are those that can adapt to the tidal changes in the volume of water. The water waves that make it to the salt marshes carry with them tons of organic material which accumulate overtime to form peat. There are many varieties of salt marshes namely: low marsh, high marsh, panes and pools and upland border. Apart from providing thick vegetation, salt marshes are also amongst the most productive ecosystems in the world (New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, 2004). Role of Salt Marshes in the Coastal System: Salt marshes are sometimes referred to as tidal marshes, the reason being that salt marshes are found in zones between high and low tide. Salt marshes thrive well along the coastal areas because the vegetation is not sturdy enough to withstand strong waves, therefore towards the coastal areas, where the intensity of the waves is reduced to quite an extent, salt marshes thrive (Casagrande, 1997). Salt marshes serve many purposes, namely; they cleanse pollutants from marine water, provide a habitat to many marine species, provide a barrier against soil erosion, provide a source of refuge for the vulnerable marine species, salt marshes are rich in organic matter therefore they form a food chain for the marine life and also provide good nutrient value for the vegetation in the salt marshes (Department of Environmental Protection: Florida Marine Reseach Institute, 2010). Let us throw some light on the varied roles of salt marshes: Remove Pollutants from the Water Since the speed of the waves reduces considerably by the time they reach salt marshes, many suspended particles that are otherwise carried away by the waves throughout the sea, tend to settle. These suspended particles sometimes comprise of toxic nutrients from human activities, thus by allowing them to settle the salt marshes play a key role in cleansing the water of toxic sediments. The thick vegetation helps in slow ing down the waves which in turn causes the particles to settle. Furthermore, during the months of summer and spring the salt marshes’ plants take up the nutrients which if left in the water, would turn into algae, further polluting the water by causing â€Å"Eutrophication† and thus depleting the oxygen supply of the water (Cloern, 2007). The toxic contaminants which are settled by the salt marshes form peat which results in the removal of these toxic substances from the marine food web. Moreover, the microbes present in the salt marshes tend to remove nitrogen from the ecosystem (Edwards, 2010). This is beneficial even to the surrounding eelgrass. The reason behind this is that the existence of high levels of nitrogen encourages the growth of phytoplankton. Phytoplankton refers to microscopic organisms that live in water (Lindsey, 2010). This phytoplankton, when in excess blocks the sunlight which is needed for eelgrass to thrive. Therefore, the presence of salt mars hes also benefits eelgrass. Harbour Marine Food Chains The excessive nutrients found in the salt marshes form food chains for marine species. Primarily, the plant matter that partially decays in the salt marshes forms a good source of food for marine species in the deeper waters. This decayed vegetation is taken away by the tidal waves into the ocean where it becomes the food of many marine animals. A two way process runs between aquatic