Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Risk Factors For Adolescent Drug Abuse - 1462 Words

Body: Risk Factors for Adolescent Drug Abuse There are an abundance of risk factors that can relate to the contribution of drug abuse in adolescents. The primary risk factors can be divided into two main categories: social and emotional triggers. Social factors play an important role because during the adolescent years it can be an extremely emotional and physically tough time for teens to transition through. Adolescent phases are one of the biggest transitional stages in a person’s life because their bodies are going through changes they can’t control and they are trying to find themselves. By feeling out of control emotional or mentally of your body, or experiencing a mental or physical trauma can play a huge role in emotional triggers for drug abuse. And as coping methods to combat these changes, life experiences, and environmental stressors teens turn to drug usage. Social risk factors that contribute to adolescent drug abuse are things such as family, friends, and community. Familial factors that can influence drug abuse in adolescents are minimal parent supervision or communication and family history of drug abuse. Studies have shown that parents who are less involved and interactive in their kids’ lives are more likely to have children that act out to get attention by using drugs. According to Cigna.com,†teens who feel that they are not connected to or valued by their parents are at greater risk.† And at an equally high risk are teens in in households whereShow MoreRelatedAdolescent Drug Abuse And Alcohol1426 Words   |  6 PagesAlcohol and Drug Abuse Adolescent Drug Abuse and Alcohol Nyria Madison Liberty University Coun 620 Abstract Around the world we are finding that most adolescent are experiencing drugs and alcohol. This has been a huge issue for years. This has become a trend in society as of today. This paper will discuss the perspective of adolescent alcohol and drugs. This paper will also identify and inform you on the common predictors of adolescent substanceRead MoreTeenage Drug Abuse Essay982 Words   |  4 PagesTeenage drug abuse is an issue that can result from a wide variety of social influences, stressful events, and mental disorders. Drug abuse among adolescents is a troubling issue because it decreases focus, increases the chance of consistency in behavior during adulthood, increases the chances of developing emotional issues, permanently damages the brain, and damages tissues in every system that can lead to death. Previous scientific research has identified that social factors, including the mediaRead MoreThe Effects Of Drug Abuse On Adolescents957 Words   |  4 Pagesnot the only factor t hat can influence risk behaviors in adolescents. Poor parental guidance and absentee of a parent (s), peer influences, low self-esteem, mental health predisposition are a few of the factors that can lead adolescents into addiction or drug abuse. Research shows that teenagers are at increased risk of poor mental health, antisocial behavior and risk-taking behavior such as substance misuse (Raising Children Network, 2014). Drug abuse can be the abuse of any drugs without necessarilyRead MoreSubstance Abuse : A Public Health Problem Among American Children And Adolescents1561 Words   |  7 PagesSubstance use and abuse is a definitely a public health problem among American children and adolescents. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, substance abuse is the excessive use of a drug or the use of a drug without medical justification. There are various different substances that adolescents are abusing. Alcohol is the most abused in adolescence with four in ten high school senior s consuming some type of alcoholic beverage in the past month and more than one in five engaging in bingeRead MoreEssay on Adolescent Substance Abuse1656 Words   |  7 PagesHeader: Substance Abuse Adolescent Substance Abuse Dana Sweitzer Liberty University Abstract Adolescent substance abuse is a major problem in society. There are many risk factors that can contribute to adolescent substance abuse. One of the main risk factors is peer pressure. When adolescents start at a young age there is an increase in health problems, addiction, and over all poor social outcomes. Parental influence has substantial effect on adolescents because the adolescent sees their parentsRead MoreDrug Abuse And Adolescent Risky Behavior884 Words   |  4 PagesIntroduction All addictions begin with risk taking. So, why is it that adolescents have such an attraction to risky behaviors? According to Broderick (2013), adolescents have a high propensity for sensation seeking (novel experiences) and seem to be willing to put themselves at risk in order to have these novel experiences (p. 392). This essay will attempt to discuss how the brain is developing, being impacted, and, how spiritual development effects adolescent risky behavior. Risky behaviors canRead MoreThe Effects Of Substance Abuse Among Adolescents1296 Words   |  6 Pages Substance abuse has become a notable public health threat to today’s adolescents. Substance abuse is associated with an array of behavioral and psychological consequences that can jeopardize the future of the young people. Lifelong dependence is another possible consequence of drug abuse among adolescents. Ultimately, counselors are supposed to come up with effective programs to address addiction issues among the adolescents to prevent them from relying on drugs in future. Counselors rely onRead MoreDrug Use And The Factors That Influence A Future Drug Addiction1005 Words   |  5 Pagesexplores various ways adolescent brain is susceptible to risky behaviors such as drug use and the factors that influence a future drug addiction. Adolescence is a time of growth both physically and mentally as well as emotionally. Risky behaviors, such as drug use, are likely to appear during this time. It isn’t until early adulthood that the prefrontal cortex, the area of our brain re sponsible for logical thought and reasoning, is developed. Many underlying factors of substance abuse are well known, suchRead MoreThe Effects Of Drug Addiction On Children1506 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction When an individual is struggling with drug addiction problems, the family is affected physically, mentally, and emotionally. The disease not only changes the addict’s whole life, but it changes the lives of their family members as parents get torn apart from themselves and each other. The role of each family member begins to shape around what is in the best interest of the addict. This research paper is an overview of the effects that raising a drug addicted child has on parent’s ability toRead MoreSubstance Abuse And Mental Health Problems877 Words   |  4 PagesFINAL PROJECT 2 Introduction Substance abuse and mental health problems are serious issues in our society. These problems appear to be associated, so it is necessary to look at both and how they interact (Ramchand). Substance abuse can bring about or exacerbate existing mental health problems, including suicidal ideation and attempts. Medical professionals cannot begin to resolve the issue of substance abuse related suicidal ideation or attempts unless they have an effective solution

Monday, December 16, 2019

Night Creature Hunter’s Moon Chapter 33 Free Essays

I woke up in the dark. Someone was carrying me. I knew who that someone was, even without the aching, burning agony of my back. We will write a custom essay sample on Night Creature: Hunter’s Moon Chapter 33 or any similar topic only for you Order Now I wanted to struggle, but I fought the urge. Better to let him think I was still out. Maybe I could surprise him and†¦ I wasn’t sure what. The air was cool on my face. We were inside, but not a building. I heard a shoe scrape dirt, then crunch something dry and old. Like a bone. Hell. The mine. I guess I was going to see what lay behind that pile of human bones. â€Å"You can stop pretending. I know you’re awake.† His voice slid out of the night like a slowly slithering snake. I lifted my head, but I couldn’t distinguish anything in a darkness so complete it pressed against my skin like velvet. His voice had always been seductive, soothing. Even now, when I knew the truth, that voice could still make me want to do things that were illegal in several southern states. I gave myself a mental slap. He had bartered the lives of everyone I’d ever loved. He had sold his soul to the dark side. I wished I had a light saber and a good connection to the force. I’d have to make do with my hands and my wits. I didn’t think they were going to be enough. A light flickered up ahead. Dim, wavering, like a candle around a corner. I could see the low ceiling, the ancient wooden pillars, the dust, dirt, a few bones. If I wanted to, I could turn my head and see his face. I just didn’t want to. â€Å"Put me down,† I ordered. He ignored me and kept walking toward the light, which grew bigger and brighter, illuminating an arched doorway. We went through and into a room with a bed, suitcase, table, and chairs. Someone had been living here. I knew who. I straggled and he laughed, then let me go. I tumbled onto the floor, gained my feet, and scrambled away. Hector Menendez appeared exactly the same as he had two years ago. Handsome, exotic, suave. Except now I recognized the beast hovering at the back of his eyes. â€Å"You aren’t going to get away from me this time, querida. It is your destiny to be my mate.† â€Å"I don’t think so.† He shrugged, unconcerned. â€Å"It’s still three nights until the full moon. Jessie will find me before then.† His thin lips lifted. â€Å"Jessie and her Indian lover will not return from their trip to see Cora Kopway.† I blinked. â€Å"The idiot I sent to kill them in the forest was no better than the one I sent to bite you. I thought if they were dead it would confuse everyone, give me more time to do what I had to. I should have ripped their throats out myself.† I winced as memories threatened. â€Å"You think I’m a fool?† he continued. â€Å"I know everything you’ve done. Everything.† I certainly hoped not. â€Å"A bartender, Leigh? An Irishman, no less. You insult me.† â€Å"He’s one of you.† â€Å"He’s a peon. A weakling. I’m going to be a god.† â€Å"You wish.† â€Å"I don’t have to wish. I am more than halfway there.† I had to get out of here. Save Jessie. Save Will. Myself while I was at it. Sadly, Hector stood between me and the door. I had no weapon, and he was stronger than me, even without the super-duper shape-shifting shit. â€Å"You think I don’t know what Damien has been doing?† he asked. â€Å"He thinks he’s thinning the pack, but he’s only given me more power with every death. I’ve been stalking him as he’s been stalking the others, gaining the strength of those he kills under the moon.† Well, that cleared a few things up. â€Å"How did you discover the Legend of the Power Eater?† I asked. I couldn’t imagine Hector, who despite his own minority heritage had very little patience for any others’, studying Ojibwe folklore. He sat on the bed. He was wearing something different than Cowboy had been. I recalled the boots splitting open as he changed. His clothes must have, too. We’d been right about shifting between human forms. Gee, give us a cigar. I wondered what else he could do, then decided I really didn’t want to know. â€Å"Once upon a time, I was a lowly half-breed.† At my confused frown, he shook his head. â€Å"Half-Hispanic, half-white. I fit in nowhere. Not even my mother loved me enough to stay. I decided I wanted power. I wasn’t going to get it through money or politics, but I could get it through death and destruction, which worked out well for me, because I liked it.† While he spoke, my gaze darted around the room, searching for a way to escape. I didn’t find one, so I needed to keep him talking. â€Å"How did you learn of the legend?† I repeated. â€Å"I’ve traveled most of my life. Seen many things. When people stumble on something they can’t explain, their mind rationalizes. Mine did not. I looked for the truth. There’s another world that exists after the moon rises. I wanted to be a part of it. I hired someone to find out the best way for me to do that.† â€Å"And then?† â€Å"I ate him.† I gaped at his matter-of-fact tone. â€Å"But he†¦ I mean, uh – â€Å" â€Å"He wasn’t an enemy?† Hector shrugged. â€Å"Consider him a freebie. Practice, if you will, for the main event.† â€Å"Which was?† â€Å"You know what I did, Leigh.† â€Å"Petite blond women, flesh of the enemy, sold your soul, sacrifice.† â€Å"Very good.† â€Å"One thing I don’t understand. Why didn’t you kill me?† â€Å"Querida, how could I kill the woman meant to be my mate?† â€Å"But – † I pointed at my hair, or what was left of it. â€Å"It is a shame you felt the need to disfigure yourself, but when you are Weendigo, like me, that will not matter.† I tried again. â€Å"If petite blond women were your enemy, then why not me?† â€Å"Because I knew from the moment you spoke to me that you were destined to be mine.† â€Å"Why?† â€Å"You came to me. No one else ever had.† No one? I found that hard to believe. Hector was nuts, but he was handsome. Was I the only idiot who hadn’t seen the rot beneath the flower? â€Å"And because you came to me,† he continued, â€Å"I knew you saw past my heritage, my poverty and shame. I knew you loved me, even when you said you did not.† â€Å"You thought I wouldn’t care that you were a serial killer, a cannibal, the murderer of my family?† â€Å"Those things were means to an end. So I could become Weendigo. So I could make us the alpha pair. We will live forever, querida. Together.† Not. â€Å"How did you find me?† â€Å"Were you hiding?† He appeared amused. † Jdger-Suchers are†¦ I mean we – â€Å" â€Å"Are supposed to be a secret. True. To the general public. But the werewolves know you exist. Your friend Man-denauer is something of a legend, maybe a bogeyman. So are you, Leigh. When I make you one of us, werewolves all over the globe will cheer.† â€Å"I’m so glad they’ll approve,† I muttered. â€Å"Ever sarcastic. It’s one of your charms.† I chose to ignore that. If he found my sarcasm charming, I was in big trouble. Oh, wait. I was in big trouble. â€Å"I still don’t understand how we ended up in the same town. At this time of year.† I needed to keep him talking until I figured out what to do or someone found me. Which could take quite a while. â€Å"I brought you to Crow Valley.† He tilted his head and the light caught his blue eyes. For an instant the irises appeared red, as if a camera flash had gone off or a demon waited inside. â€Å"I thought you knew that.† â€Å"Brought me?† â€Å"It wasn’t hard. I control this town. I am the alpha here already. I tell them who to kill. They bring the bones to this place.† Ding, ding, ding. The light went on. â€Å"No human remains, no FBI,† I murmured. Hector just smiled. â€Å"But dead wolves would bring the DNR at the least.† â€Å"Jager-Suchers eventually,† he agreed. â€Å"How did you know they’d send me?† â€Å"You are the best, querida. Who else would they send?† Gee, it paid to be at the top of my field. â€Å"I don’t understand why the other werewolves would follow you. You’re murdering your own kind for power.† â€Å"Oh, they don’t know it’s me.† â€Å"What?† â€Å"Any wolf that’s seen me kill one of them is dead.† â€Å"How are you going to explain becoming supreme fur boy?† â€Å"By the time they figure out what I’m up to, I’ll be unstoppable, and they’ll be happy about it.† â€Å"You think?† â€Å"Of course.† He winked. â€Å"Because I’ll be giving them you.† â€Å"Excuse me?† â€Å"The most successful werewolf-hunting Jdger-Sucher next to Edward Mandenauer will be the werewolf queen. You won’t be killing them anymore. They’ll lie down at my feet and roll over.† â€Å"And if someone figures this out before then?† â€Å"I’ll just give them Fitzgerald. He’s going to have to go anyway.† My heart stuttered and seemed to stop. â€Å"W-why?† â€Å"He touched you. He dies.† Hector shrugged. â€Å"I need a sacrifice for the night of the blood moon. Damien will do nicely.† I’d wondered how much I cared for Damien; now I knew. The thought of him dying practically paralyzed me. The entire time Hector and I had been talking I was desperately searching for, frantically trying to think of, a way out. My heart thundered and my hands shook. But at least I no longer felt like fainting. Until Hector got off the bed and came toward me. I did not want him touching me. â€Å"Are you ready?† â€Å"F-for what?† â€Å"To become.† My mouth fell open. I must have looked like a supreme idiot. â€Å"But – but the ceremony takes place on the night of the hunter’s moon.† He strode closer. I took a step back. â€Å"Of course it does.† â€Å"Then what – why?† His slim manicured hand reached out and grabbed me so fast I didn’t have time to run. As if I could. His breath brushed my face and I shuddered. The black lights flashed again. So much for not feeling faint. â€Å"Come here.† He drew me forward. I had enough sense left to hold back. Hector made an impatient sound. â€Å"I must tie you up, querida.† He tugged me to his bed and shoved me onto it. I struggled, but in minutes I was bound hand and foot. My judo expertise was worthless. Boy, did I miss my gun. Since the only weapon I had left was words, I used them. â€Å"You have to tie me down to do me. Pretty pathetic, Hector.† He merely smiled. I hated that smile. â€Å"You are under the mistaken impression that I plan to do you tonight.† I blinked. â€Å"But as much as I might enjoy it, that would be wasteful. I will take you under the full moon, as every werewolf watches. But before that happens, we must address one minor point.† â€Å"What’s that?† I aimed for a strong, confident voice; what I got was near to a whimper. â€Å"As kinky as it might be for you, there is no cross-species mating.† Remembering my conversation with Damien, I started to get an idea of what Hector was after. I tugged at the ropes, but it didn’t do me any good. â€Å"For the ceremony to take place on the night of the blood moon, you must already be one of us.† Oh, hell. I hadn’t thought of that. Hector needed to bite me now. How to cite Night Creature: Hunter’s Moon Chapter 33, Essay examples

Sunday, December 8, 2019

Relationship Marketing on Customer Loyalty †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Relationship Marketing on Customer Loyalty. Answer: Introduction: The company chosen for the purpose of the assignment is Tesco PLC. Tesco PLC, which is trading in market with the name Tesco, is a listed company on the London Stock Exchange. Tesco is essentially a general merchandise and grocery retailer and is headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom. Tesco tops the chart both in terms of revenue and profits incurred in a particular financing year. To be clearer Tesco is the third largest retailer firm in terms of incurring profits and the ninth largest retailer firm in terms of incurring revenues in the world. It is a public limited company and has stores in over 12 countries all over Europe and Asia. Tesco PLC also holds the position of being the leader in the grocery market in United Kingdom. Tesco alone has a retail market share in groceries of 28.4% in UK. Jack Cohen founded Tesco in the year of 1919. Since 1919, Tesco has expanded its business rapidly and has spread its retailing business over a vast range of diversified products like electronics, toys, software, petrol, telecoms, financial services and furniture. The core competencies of Tesco that has enabled the company to reach such a height are that it has the ability to achieve commendable operational efficiency. The management of the retailer firm has an in-depth knowledge about the customer base that it handles along with the skills to employ suitable methods in order to grow and nurture business in accordance to the changing needs and preferences of the consumers (Wood, Wrigley and Coe 2016). Tesco as a firm believes in developing the required talent from within the organization instead of hiring skilled workers from the outside. This proves that the firm holds a great passion for the business it upholds and therefore manages the highly complex and critical environment of the organization with the help of motivated and self-driven teamwork. The philosophy of the firm lies in the fact that it believes not only in generating enough profit but also in providing quality products to its customers by meeting the needs of the customers through necessary product innovation. The firm also believes in providing a healthy working environment to its employees by developing a culture of mutual respect and trust within the organization (Imrie and Dolton 2014). The major improvisations and undertakings by Tesco in the last five years can be listed as follows: In 2013, Tesco opened its sixth Grocery Dotcom Centre in Erith. This centre has the latest technology and features installed in order to support the delivery business for home grocery by Tesco. In 2014, Tesco entered into a joint venture with the Tata Group in India in order to enter the Indian food and grocery market. Tesco re-launched its premium food brand Tesco finest in UK with over a range of 400 new products also in the year of 2014. In the recent years, Tesco also has contributed to its corporate social duties in a huge way and has successfully been able to become an inspiration for the corporate world. For instance, the firm in the year of 2016 did launch a new scheme of offering free fruits to children during the course of shopping in order to develop healthy food habits among them (Tescoplc.com, 2017). The same day delivery of grocery made Tesco the worlds first retailer in the world to achieve such a commendable task. Lastly, the year of 2017 also marked 20 years of service provided by Tesco Bank. The annual report produced by Tesco PLC for the financial year of 2016 gives a detailed overview into the health of the entity as a group and the current action plan of the group. As provided in the annual report Tesco, in order to match up with the constantly changing needs and preferences of the customers and to regain its competitive edge has undergone certain changes (Ismail 2017). Tesco after enough research has arrived at the fact that the three major demands brought forward by its customer base are that they want their shopping trip to be easier. Secondly, they are in need of better availability of diversified products on a daily basis and thirdly the consumers want lower and stable prices of the products. Highly fluctuating prices confuse the customers and restrict them from trusting the firm. Tesco, in order to meet up to these demands of its customers have undertaken certain changes in the business operations. The firm has taken an initiative in order to make the store structure more simplified. It has invested in more than 9000 customer-oriented roles in their stores (Anon, 2017). In order to measure the effectiveness of the firm, it has been compared with another of the edge retailer firm, Sainsburys. Sainsburys also has its headquarters in UK and is the owner of the second largest chain of super markets in United Kingdom. John James Sainsbury founded the company of Sainsburys in the year of 1869. Previously before Tesco had emerged in the market, Sainsbury ruled the retail market of groceries in United Kingdom (Khan and Korac Kakabadse 2014). Both Tesco and Sainsburys has been facing a hard time in terms of profitability and other related issues but the turnaround plan and the implementation of such a plan has not been so much effective in Sainsburys as it had been in Tesco (Brannen, Moore and Mughan 2013). It is obvious that none of the companies are expected to deliver an excellent performance in the current year but the percentage by which Tescos earnings are forecasted to increase in the future financial years to come is much higher than that of Sainsburys. The major reason behind this is that the CEO of Sainsburys has been internally promoted to such a position. Therefore, he would lack the necessary skills to restructure the entire business operations that are essential in boosting the profitability of the firm. Moreover, the turnaround plan chalked out by the Sainsburys management team does not appeal much to its shareholders. It does not motivate its employees to work for the interest of the firm in order to boost its profitability. Therefore, though both the companies shares are listed on the London Stock exchange, the much more appealing growth prospects and the license to cut, sell and change up to whatever lengths are necessary make the shares of Tesco a preferred choice in the present times. Thus, as it is apparent from the above discussion that Tesco is at a much better position in comparison to its fellow competitor both in terms of current and future profitability and goodwill (Liu, Luo and Yuan 2015). As stated in the question a critical analysis of the financial performance of both Sainsburys and Tesco has been carried out. The ratios that have been calculated are the following: Profitability Ratios:- Particulars Details Tesco Plc:- Sainsbury Plc:- 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Revenue A 64,826 63,557 62,284 54,433 55,917 23,303 23,949 23,775 23,506 26,224 Gross profit B 4,089 4,010 (2,112) 2,854 2,902 1,277 1,387 1,208 1,456 1,634 Net profit C 124 974 (5,741) 138 (40) 614 716 (166) 471 377 Operating profit D 2,188 2,631 (5,792) 1,046 1,017 820 943 76 606 427 Total assets E 50,129 50,164 44,214 43,904 45,853 12,695 16,540 16,537 16,973 19,737 Current liabilities F 18,985 21,399 19,810 19,714 19,405 3,115 6,765 6,923 6,724 8,573 Gross margin B/A 6.31% 6.31% -3.39% 5.24% 5.19% 5.48% 5.79% 5.08% 6.19% 6.23% Net margin C/A 0.19% 1.53% -9.22% 0.25% -0.07% 2.63% 2.99% -0.70% 2.00% 1.44% Return on capital employed (ROCE) D/(E-F) 7.03% 9.15% -23.73% 4.32% 3.85% 8.56% 9.65% 0.79% 5.91% 3.82% The above table depicts three ratios that have been calculated on the basis of the financial performance by Tesco and Sainsbury for the past five financial years. As evident from the table the gross margin ratio of Tesco show a stagnant rate for the financial years of 2013 and 2014, but drop unprecedentedly in the year of 2015 to a negative percentage of 3.39% but the firm manages to turn around in 2016 by incurring a positive gross margin ratio of 5.24% and 5.19%. The gross margin ratio essentially refers to the rate of sales of inventory. Therefore, it is evident from the rates mentioned above that though Tesco had undergone a huge setback in the year of 2015, but the group had enough resources to turnaround and be back in business in the next financial year. In case of Sainsbury the scenario is not so much grueling as the firm has maintained a stable and upward increasing trend of gross margin ratio (Brannen, Moore and Mughan 2013). Next, the net margin ratio refers to the rate of revenue incurred by a firm that is converted directly into profit. The net profit margin ratio of Tesco shows a negative percentage in the financial years of both 2015 and 2017 but the percentage rates differ by a huge amount. In 2015, Tesco incurs a net profit margin ratio of 9.22% indicating the financial turmoil in which the retailer firm has been in. In 2017, Tesco again incurs a negative net profit margin ratio of 0.07%. This indicates that though the firm has incurred revenue in the financial year of 2017, the conversion of such revenue into profit has been over casted by the expenditure incurred on cost of goods sold or other issues like technology disruption. Sainsbury on the other hand also show a negative net margin ratio of - 0.7% in the year of 2015 after which the net margin ratio shows a positive but gradually declining rate indicating a decreasing trend in the rate of conversion of revenue into profits (Mollah 2014). The return on capital employed refers to the return from the investment projects that a particular company has undertaken. In case of Tesco as it is evident from the table the year of 2015 has marked negative returns indicating no turnover from the investment project but the in the following years the company has obtained low but positive return from its investment projects. In case of Sainsbury the financial year of 2015 has marked a positive but minimal return, following which the company has incurred desired returns from its investment projects or undertakings. In the current financial year of 2017, the return on capital employed of Tesco seems to be more by a percentage of 0.03% than that of Sainsbury. This proves the fact that in spite of the hardships faced by Tesco the firm manages to obtain optimum return from the capital employed (Jones, Comfort and Hillier 2016). Liquidity Ratios:- Particulars Details Tesco Plc:- Sainsbury Plc:- 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Current assets A 13,096 15,572 11,958 14,828 15,417 1,901 4,362 4,421 4,444 6,312 Inventories B 3,744 3,576 2,957 2,430 2,301 987 1,005 997 968 1,775 Current liabilities C 18,985 21,399 19,810 19,714 19,405 3,115 6,765 6,923 6,724 8,573 Current ratio A/C 0.69 0.73 0.60 0.75 0.79 0.61 0.64 0.64 0.66 0.74 Quick ratio (A-B)/C 0.49 0.56 0.45 0.63 0.68 0.29 0.50 0.49 0.52 0.53 The above table shows the current ratio and the quick ratio of Tesco and Sainsbury for the past five years. The current ratio essentially refers to the liquidity position of a company that is the ability of the company to pay off its short term obligations with the help of its current assets. In case of Tesco as it is evident from the above table the liquidity position of the company though is positive but is not high enough. A good sign about the liquidity position of Tesco is that it shows an increasing trend indicating that the firm is moving towards a healthy financial and liquidity position. In case of Sainsbury, the liquidity position of the company is not enough high and shows a stagnant rate, the year of 2017 only being an exception. The quick ratio also known as the acid-test ratio reveals a more focused view into the liquidity position of the company as it does not include components like inventory that is more difficult to liquidate. Even in case of quick ratio as it is evident from the above table, Tesco has a sturdier liquidity position in comparison to Sainsbury. Efficiency Ratios:- Particulars Details Tesco Plc:- Sainsbury Plc:- 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Cost of revenue A 60,737.00 59,547.00 64,396.00 51,579.00 53,015.00 22,026.00 22,562.00 22,567.00 22,050.00 24,590.00 Opening inventory B 3,598.00 3,744.00 3,576.00 2,957.00 2,430.00 938.00 987.00 1,005.00 997.00 968.00 Closing inventory C 3,744.00 3,576.00 2,957.00 2,430.00 2,301.00 987.00 1,005.00 997.00 968.00 1,775.00 Average inventory D=(B+C)/2 3,671.00 3,660.00 3,266.50 2,693.50 2,365.50 962.50 996.00 1,001.00 982.50 1,371.50 Opening payables E 11,234.00 6,036.00 5,831.00 5,076.00 4,545.00 2,740.00 1,908.00 1,846.00 2,089.00 2,082.00 Closing payables F 6,036.00 5,831.00 5,076.00 4,545.00 8,875.00 1,908.00 1,846.00 2,089.00 2,082.00 2,685.00 Average payables G=(E+F)/2 8,635.00 5,933.50 5,453.50 4,810.50 6,710.00 2,324.00 1,877.00 1,967.50 2,085.50 2,383.50 Inventory turnover 365/(A/D) 22.06 22.43 18.51 19.06 16.29 15.95 16.11 16.19 16.26 20.36 Payables turnover 365/(A/G) 51.89 36.37 30.91 34.04 46.20 38.51 30.37 31.82 34.52 35.38 The above table shows the efficiency ratio of Tesco and Sainsbury for the past five financial years. Efficiency ratio refers to the ability of a company to utilize its assets and liabilities internally. Efficiency in terms of usage of inventory or inventory turnover and repayment of liabilities or payable turnover has been used as a scale of measurement of the efficiency of the firms in the above table. Therefore, as it is evident Tesco represents a decreasing trend of efficiency revealing that the company has not achieved the desired turnover from inventory or has not ensured the optimum utilization of the inventory. In case of Sainsbury the efficiency ratio of inventory turnover has been increasing since the last five years with an increasing trend indicating that the company has ensured obtaining the desired turnover from inventory (Cushman and Burke 2014). In case of repayment of liability or the payable turnover ratio Tesco has observed a decreasing trend indicating the inabilit y of the firm to pay off its suppliers or other stakeholders. However, the year of 2017 has been an exception displaying a turnaround for Tesco as the efficiency ratio has increased to a 46.2%. However, in the case of Sainsbury the percentage has been moving around a stagnant 35% indicating no improvement in the efficiency in paying out its stakeholders. Solvency Ratios:- Particulars Details Tesco Plc:- Sainsbury Plc:- 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Total liabilities A 33,486 35,449 37,143 35,278 39,415 6,962 10,537 10,998 10,608 12,865 Total equity B 16,643 14,715 7,071 8,626 6,438 5,733 6,003 5,539 6,365 6,872 Operating profit C 2,188 2,631 (5,792) 1,046 1,017 820 943 76 606 427 Interest expense D 445 447 499 498 517 128 131 123 120 114 Gearing ratio A/(A+B) 0.67 0.71 0.84 0.80 0.86 0.55 0.64 0.67 0.62 0.65 Times interest earned ratio C/D 4.92 5.89 -11.61 2.10 1.97 6.41 7.20 0.62 5.05 3.75 Gearing ratio refers to the ratio that compares the owners equity with the funds borrowed by the company. This means that lower the gearing ratio of a company, more is the financial stability of the company. As is evident from the table the gearing ratio of Tesco has been high with an increasing trend through the last five financial years indicating increased debt borrowing of the firm. However, in case of the latter, Sainsbury maintains a high but stagnant gearing ratio indicating that Sainsbury has exercised control over the amount of borrowed debt through the past financial years. The times interest earned ratio refers to the ability of a company to pay off its debtors and stakeholders. Therefore higher the times interest earned ratio, more is the probability of the firm to pay off its stakeholders. Thus, as it is evident from the above table the ability of Tesco to pay off its stakeholders is much lower than that of Sainsbury. However, if critically analysed the times interest ea rned ratio of Tesco seems to increase after the negative percentage value incurred in the financial year of 2015 but in case of Sainsbury the ratio seems to decrease with a decreasing trend indicating that Sainsbury is gradually entering a concerning phase. Thus, after analysing the above-mentioned ratios the conclusion that has been arrived at is that Tesco in spite of facing a dreadful financial year of 2015 has been able to turn around business and take serious initiative to restructure the entire business operation in accordance to the changing demands and preferences of the consumers. However, the company is still in turnaround phase and has not been able to reap the benefits of the implemented plan yet, the forecasts of the significant ratios show that Tesco as a group is again emerging as a leader in the retail market of UK. In case of Sainsbury, though the significant ratios indicate that the firm is entering a bad financial phase and immediate steps should be taken in order to mitigate the upcoming disaster (Aluko et al., 2017). The management at Tesco already has implemented the turnaround plan that is yet to reap the required benefits. For instance, Tesco in order to win back the trust of the consumers have restructured its stores, simplified the system, increased the availability of the products that are popular among the customer base and introduced a reporting system in the stores for critically analysing the customer feedback. Tesco also in order to gain the trust of its customers has introduced a policy named Brand Guarantee. Brand Guarantee as a policy has fetched Tesco enough trust and goodwill from its consumers (Alam 2013). Brand Guarantee is a norm imposed by Tesco that if a customer gets a Tesco product at a cheaper rate in comparison to the rate at which it is sold in a branded shop then the company would not charge that particular customer anything, that is, the customer would get the product free. According to the disclosure provided in the annual report such restructuring of policies and bus iness operations have led to significant positive changes in business in the financial year of 2016. The sales volume went as high as up to 3.3% and the transactions reached a mighty 2.8%. However, the management of Tesco should also look into cost reduction techniques so that the revenue gained can be directly converted into profits. This will boost the significant ratios and the firm has to depend less on funds borrowed from outside, thus, lowering the gearing ratio. Tesco as a group has enough resources in order to be back in business and be the largest groceries retailer in (UK Mller 2015). However in case of Sainsbury though the recent financial performance by the firm indicate a stable environment but the trends in the significant ratios indicate an upcoming financial disaster that Sainsbury is about to face. The management at Sainsbury should consider techniques that will provide enough boost to the financial structure of the firm and lift it from the phase of stagnation that the firm is currently in. Sainsbury should consider restructuring of the entire organization. For instance, it should consider appointment of a CEO from outside so that a new outlook is applied to the proceedings of the company, which will ultimately help in preparation of an effective turnaround plan (Cuthbertson, Furseth, and Ezell 2015). Though the above analysis has been done based upon the significant ratios, it should also be noted that there are certain limitations up to which the ratios can be accurately forecasted. For instance, the year of 2015 has affected forecast for Tesco. Therefore, certain seasonal factors or economic inflations restrict the forecasting ability of the significant ratios. Usefulness of accounting rate of return (ARR): ARR is explained as the return or profit, which an organisation could expect depending on the investment made. This method of capital budgeting is useful for an organisation in the following ways: This method is simple to understand and easy to compute. It takes into account the overall profits or savings over the total period associated with the economic life of the project. As pointed out by Ahmed (2013), this method realises the concept pertaining to net earnings, which is earnings after tax and depreciation. This is considered as a critical factor in the appraisal associated with an investment proposal. ARR helps in facilitating the contrast of a new product project with that of cost minimising project or other projects having competitive nature. ARR provides a clear depiction associated with the profitability of a project. ARR takes into account the accounting profit concept to compute the rate of return and the accounting profit could be computed readily from the records of accounts. ARR helps in fulfilling the owners interests, as their intention is to gain an insight on the return on investment. Finally, ARR could be used to gauge the present performance of an organisation. Usefulness of payback period (PBP): The payback period is a method of assessment used in ascertaining the time needed for the cash flows from a project to repay the initial outlay in the project. This method is extremely useful on certain occasions and they are depicted briefly as follows: The PBP concept is highly simple to compute and understand. When involved in a rough evaluation of a proposed project, the payback period could be computed probably without the use of an electronic spreadsheet or a calculator. This evaluation is concentrated on the amount of time the money could be re-earned from an investment and this is primarily a measure of risk. Hence, the payback period could be utilised in contrasting the relative risk of projects with changing payback periods (Andor, Mohanty and Toth 2015). NPV is the method, which computes the current value of future cash inflows in excess of the current value of the initial outlay. The most significant benefit of this method is that it considers the basic idea that a future currency is worth less in contrast to a currency today. In each period, the cash inflows are discounted through another period of cost of capital. In addition, NPV method depicts whether an investment would develop value for the organisation or an investor and the amount in terms of any currency (Burns and Walker 2015). In the provided case, it has been found that an investment of 1,112,000 in G120 would raise the value of the organisation by 284,864 at the time the cash flows are discounted back now. The final benefits are that the method of NPV considers the capital cost and the risk present in making future projections. From the general perspective, an estimation of cash flows 10 years into future is less certain inherently in contrast to the projected cash flows next year. The cash flows, which are estimated further in future, have lower influence on NPV in contrast to the predictable cash flows occurring in earlier periods. Usefulness of internal rate of return (IRR): Internal rate of return (IRR) is a metric utilised in capital budgeting gauging the profitability of potential investments. It is the rate of discount, which makes NPV of all cash flows from a specific project equal to zero (Chittenden and Derregia 2015). The IRR is useful for an organisation in a number of ways, which is discussed as follows: The most significant advantage of this method of investment appraisal is that it takes into account the time value of money in analysing a project. This is a big drawback in case of accounting rate of return. The most attractive stuff regarding this method is that it is very easy to interpret after the computation of IRR. In addition, it could be easy to visualise for the managers and this is the reason it is preferred until the time they come across various occasional situations like mutually exclusive projects. The hurdle rate is a complex and subjective stuff to decide. In IRR, the required rate of return or hurdle rate is not needed to determine IRR. It is independent of the hurdle rate and thus, the risk of an incorrect determination of hurdle rate is mitigated. Required rate of return is a rough projection being made on the part of the managers and the IRR method is not completely dependent on the required rate of return. After the determination of IRR, it could be compared with the hurdle rate. In case, the IRR is far away from the anticipated hurdle rate, the manager could undertake the decision safely on either side while keeping a room for the errors of estimation (Daunfeldt and Hartwig 2014). Based on the provided table, it could be stated that the ARR of G120 has been 18%, while the same for Z125 has been 14.7%. This depicts that SD Limited could earn higher profit, if it decides to invest in G120 machine. On the other hand, the payback period of G120 has been 2 years 10 months, while the same for Z125 has been 3 years 8 months. The lower the payback period, the better it is for the organisation to recover its initial investment within shorter timeframe (Hasan 2013). However, the economic life of the project is not present in the provided information and hence, this measure would not be adjudged appropriate solely to arrive at the outcome. The NPV for G120 has been 284,864, while the same for Z125 has been 420,194. The higher the NPV, the better is the overall return on investment for the organisation and greater profit margin. In this case, both the machines have positive NPV; however, the NPV for Z125 has been greater in contrast to G120. Thus, based on this measure of capital budgeting, Z125 would fetch better return and higher profitability for SD Limited. On the other hand, the IRR for G120 has been 25%, while the same for Z125 has been 20%. If the value of IRR is greater than the hurdle rate or required rate of return, the investment or project is considered feasible for the organisation. In this case, both the machines have greater IRR compared to the required rate of return. However, the IRR for G120 has been greater, which denotes that investment in this machine would fetch better returns for SD Limited. Based on the above evaluation, it could be advised to SD Limited to go ahead with the Z125 machine due to its higher NPV compared to G120. This is because NPV is the most superior measure of investment appraisal and it considers the capital cost and the risk present in making future projections. In addition, the cash flows, which are estimated further in future, have lower influence on NPV in contrast to the predictable cash flows occurring in earlier periods. According to the provided information, it could be stated that both NPV and PBP gauge the financial feasibility of capital projects. Therefore, PBP favours the G120 option, while NPV favours the Z125 option. In order to evaluate this statement, it could be stated that PBP is the amount of time needed to recover the overall investment cost. The PBP of a provided project or investment is a significant determinant of whether to undertake the project or position, since longer payback periods are not feasible for investment options (Hise and Strawser 2013). However, this method ignores the time value of money unlike the other measures of investment appraisal like internal rate of return, net present value or discounted cash flow. In addition, it has been observed that majority of the capital budgeting techniques consider the time value of money. The time value of money is of the notion that the cash in hand on the current date is valued more in contrast to what it would be in future, since it could be invested for generating returns. Hence, if an investor is paid on a future date, it might take into account opportunity cost. However, the payback period does not take into account the time value of money. In fact, there is full disregard of the time value of money in the payback method, which is computed by counting the number of years it takes to gain back the invested cash. In case, it takes five years for an investment to regain the cost, the payback period would be five years (Lam and Oshodi 2015). Some analysts favour the payback method due to its simplicity, while others utilise it as additional point of reference in the framework of capital budgeting decision. In this case, the payback period for G120 has been given as 2 years 10 months, while the payback period for Z125 has been 3 years 8 months. As evaluated above, a shorter payback period is always favourable, as the initial investment could be recovered before the economic life of the project. In case of SD Limited, although the economic life of the project is not given, the payback period for G120 has been lower compared to Z125. Thus, this method favours the first option for SD Limited. On the other hand, NPV is based on cash flows; thus, it is a better measure than payback period, which is dependent on accounting profit. This is because accounting profit could be subjective (Levin and Hallgren 2017). In addition, the time value of money is considered in this method, which is a basic concept to investment appraisal. Hence, it is superior to the payback period, since the latter does not consider the time value of money. Moreover, this measure gives absolute outcomes and such information is extremely useful while considering the large investment projects. Furthermore, this measure needs special knowledge in computing and it needs special skills as well in understanding this method. Hence, this method is considered difficult to compute and understand. Finally, it considers the discount rate, which is sometimes complex to calculate. However, such consideration of discount rate helps in providing the accurate outcomes. Since the Z125 option has greater NPV compared to G1 20, this method favours the first alternative. It has been observed that the computation of IRR is extremely difficult. This is because the IRR is the rate of discount, which would lead to a zero NPV. As the NPV of a project has inverse correlation with the rate of discount, if the latter rises, the future cash flows become uncertain. Thus, the worth of the future cash flows is minimised. The yardstick for the computations of IRR is the actual rate used on the part of the organisation in discounting after tax cash flows. An IRR greater compared to the cost of capital denotes that the capital project is a profitable endeavour and vice-versa. The basic advantage of implementing IRR as a tool of decision-making is that it provides a yardstick figure for each project, which could be assessed in relation to the capital structure of an organisation. As laid out by Lima et al. (2017), the IRR would produce the identical kinds of decisions like the models of NPV and this allows organisations to contrast projects based on returns on inves ted capital. However, the IRR does not provide a true overview of the value, which a project would add to an organisation. It provides a yardstick figure for what the projects need to be accepted depending on the cost of capital of the organisation. In addition, this measure does not enable for an effective comparison of mutually exclusive projects; thus, the managers might be able to ascertain that both the projects are advantageous to the organisation. However, they would not be able to decide the better option, if only one is accepted. Another error associated with the utilisation of IRR evaluation is that the cash flow streams from a project are unconventional, which implies that there are additional cash outflows following the initial investment. The unconventional cash flows are inherent in capital budgeting, as many projects need future capital outlays for repairs and maintenance (Mbabazize and Daniel 2014). Under such situation, there might not be any existence of IRR or the internal rates of return might be multiple. The IRR is a useful measure of valuation at the time of evaluating individual capital budgeting projects, not the mutually exclusive projects. It provides a better alternative of valuation to the payback method; however, it lacks in several major requirements. Based on the provided situation, it could be observed that the Finance Director of SD Limited has been confident that the IRR for both the options would exceed 15%. This is because both the options have positive NPV and accounting rate of return. This denotes that the IRR of the two options would be greater compared to the cost of capital. In addition, the hurdle rate is a complex and subjective stuff to decide (Mukherjee, Al Rahahleh and Lane 2016). In IRR, the required rate of return or hurdle rate is not needed to determine IRR. It is independent of the hurdle rate and thus, the risk of an incorrect determination of hurdle rate is mitigated. Hence, this has helped in increasing the confidence of the Finance Director of SD Limited that the IRR of both the options would be above 15%. References: Ahmed, I.E., 2013. Factors determining the selection of capital budgeting techniques.Journal of Finance and Investment Analysis,2(2), pp.77-88. Alam, J., 2013. An analytical case study on existing corporate communication strategies of TESCO PLC, UK. Aluko, O., Aluko, O., Knight, H. and Knight, H., 2017. From corner store to superstore: a historical analysis of Sainsburys co-evolution. Journal of Management History, 23(4), pp.423-435. Andor, G., Mohanty, S.K. and Toth, T., 2015. Capital budgeting practices: A survey of Central and Eastern European firms.Emerging Markets Review,23, pp.148-172. Brannen, M., Moore, F.I.O.N.A. and Mughan, T.E.R.R.Y., 2013. Strategic ethnography and reinvigorating Tesco PLC: leveraging multicultural teams using ethnographic method. Ethnographic Praxis in Industry, pp.282-99. Brannen, M.Y., Moore, F. and Mughan, T., 2013, September. Strategic ethnography and reinvigorating Tesco Plc: Leveraging inside/out bicultural bridging in multicultural teams. In Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference Proceedings (Vol. 2013, No. 1, pp. 282-299). Burns, R. and Walker, J., 2015. Capital budgeting surveys: the future is now. Chittenden, F. and Derregia, M., 2015. Uncertainty, irreversibility and the use of rules of thumbin capital budgeting.The British Accounting Review,47(3), pp.225-236. Cushman, D. and Burke, J., 2014. Introduction: Tesco PLCan Open Business. In The 10 Principles of Open Business (pp. 10-23). Palgrave Macmillan UK. Cuthbertson, R., Furseth, P.I. and Ezell, S.J., 2015. Tesco and Sainsburys: The Need to Turn Ideas into Action. In Innovating in a Service-Driven Economy (pp. 159-165). Palgrave Macmillan UK. Daunfeldt, S.O. and Hartwig, F., 2014. What determines the use of capital budgeting methods? Evidence from Swedish listed companies.Journal of Finance and Economics,2(4), pp.101-112. Hasan, M., 2013. Capital budgeting techniques used by small manufacturing companies.Journal of Service Science and Management,6(01), p.38. Hise, R.T. and Strawser, R.H., 2013. Application of Capital Budgeting Techniques to Marketing Operations.Readings in Managerial Economics: Pergamon International Library of Science, Technology, Engineering and Social Studies, p.419. Imrie, R. and Dolton, M., 2014. From supermarkets to community building: Tesco plc, sustainable place making and urban regeneration. Sustainable London, pp.173-194. Ismail, I.N., 2017. The Roles of Corporate Governance and its Influances on Risk and Performance: Tesco Plc. Jones, P., Comfort, D. and Hillier, D., 2016. Materiality in corporate sustainability reporting within UK retailing. Journal of Public Affairs, 16(1), pp.81-90. Khan, N. and Korac Kakabadse, N., 2014. CSR: the co-evolution of grocery multiples in the UK (2005-2010). Social Responsibility Journal, 10(1), pp.137-160. Lam, K.C. and Oshodi, O.S., 2015. The capital budgeting evaluation practices (2014) of contractors in the Hong Kong construction industry.Construction Management and Economics,33(7), pp.587-600. Levin, V. and Hallgren, A., 2017. The choice of capital budgeting techniques: a human capital approach. Lima, A.C., Lima, A.C., da Silveira, J.A.G., Da Silveira, J.A.G., Matos, F.R.N., Matos, F.R.N., Xavier, A.M. and Xavier, A.M., 2017. A qualitative analysis of capital budgeting in cotton ginning plants.Qualitative Research in Accounting Management,14(3), pp.210-229. Liu, M.J., Luo, J.M. and Yuan, R., 2015. The Roles of Legitimacy Concerns, Authenticity and Income Level in International Supermarkets. ACR Asia-Pacific Advances. Mbabazize, P.M. and Daniel, T., 2014. Capital Budgeting Practices In Developing Countries: A Case Of Rwanda.Research journalis Journal of Finance vol. 2 No 3 Hal. 34,38. Mollah, M.D.A.S., 2014. The impact of relationship marketing on customer loyalty at Tesco Plc, UK. European Journal of Business and Management, 6(3), pp.21-55. Mukherjee, T., Al Rahahleh, N. and Lane, W., 2016. The capital budgeting process of healthcare organizations: a review of surveys.Journal of Healthcare Management,61(1), pp.58-76. Mukherjee, T.K. and Al Rahahleh, N.M., 2013. Capital budgeting techniques in practice: US survey evidence.Capital Budgeting Valuation: Financial Analysis for Today's Investment Projects, pp.151-171. Mller, M., 2015. Critical Analysis Of The Financing Policies of Tesco plc. Rossi, M., 2014. Capital budgeting in Europe: confronting theory with practice.International Journal of Managerial and Financial Accounting,6(4), pp.341-356. Rossi, M., 2015. The use of capital budgeting techniques: an outlook from Italy.International Journal of Management Practice,8(1), pp.43-56. Tescoplc.com. (2017). [online] Available at: https://www.tescoplc.com/media/264194/annual-report-2016.pdfhttps://www.tescoplc.com/media/264194/annual-report-2016.pdf [Accessed 16 Nov. 2017]. Wood, S., Wrigley, N. and Coe, N.M., 2016. Capital discipline and financial market relations in retail globalization: insights from the case of Tesco plc. Journal of Economic Geography, 17(1), pp.31-57.

Sunday, December 1, 2019

Suicide Solution Essays (522 words) - Suicide, Assisted Suicide

Suicide Solution I'm about to take up a position which is going to be deamed by some, if not all, as a terrible stand to take. As a matter of fact, if anyone were to agree with me on ths subject, I'd be surprsed. For you see, rather than arguing from the postion of suicide being an unjustified and inane way to die, I shall argue the other point. That being suicide does have its merits. Before you people start screaming, hear my case out. Most people argue that nothing justifies the taking of someone's life. Yet what makes life so valuable? Why do people cling to it so? All we consist of is a bunch of carbon atoms, bound together to form an exoskeleton, organs, and tissue. In this light, there really is not much to life. Out of the 5 billion who inhabit the planet, very few of them shall emerge to be true world leaders. The rest will just lead a mediocre life of work and little play. The taking of ones life can be argued from a populistic view as well. It makes little sense to preserve life in an over populated world. True, one less person here on there will not make a large dent. Yet if everyone who attempts or had attempted suicide were not stopped, the impact would be noticed. Another popular argument for stoppers, people who want to prevent suicide, is that nothing can be bad enough. Yet how do they know this? They do not have to put up with the same stuff the suicide victim does everyday. How could they possibly know what the potential suicide victim feels. Just as a severely burned victim may wish to be allowed to die in peace, the suicide victim wishes the same. To die in peace with no argument from others. The argument of "look at the people you will hurt" also does not hold. Imidiate family members will be the only ones to suffer any great pain. Friends will go on with thier lives and in time forget about the death. Imidiate family too will forget the loss in time. Although it will take most considerably longer for them than it will for friends. Finaly, the argument of suicide being selfish is hard to grasp. Selfish in whose eyes? Certainly not the eyes of the victim. To them, they consider it selfish of others to try and preserve their life. Again, the argument of the stoppers don't know what the victim has to go through. They are not the ones enduring the pain. Religious people also crop up into the debate. Catholics claim that for someone to committ suicide sneds their soul straight to Hell. In many religions, suicide is considered taboo. However why is this so? Why should it be looked upon as disgracefull, when some religions claim death the be the reward for people after their time on earth is done. Suicide is an issue which should be examined at by all angles. Not just from the angle that it is "wrong". End of debate. Rather it should be looked at from the point of view that "yes" for some people, they should be allowed to die in peace. --------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Stolen Jane Harrison Notes Essays

Stolen Jane Harrison Notes Essays Stolen Jane Harrison Notes Essay Stolen Jane Harrison Notes Essay Whoa Im going- home- Sandy 37. Either way, I love them both- Anne 38. Im finally going to meet my mother- Jimmy 39. And Im goanna catch that fish- Sandy Structure for text response Typical sentence structures (Insert evidence egg quote or event) denoting/highlighting/showing/indicating accentuating/implying/suggesting Ins (insert point being made here) OR (Insert point being made here) is denoted/shown/demonstrated as (insert evidence here) Typical paragraph structures ) Statement made (what are you arguing) 2) Supporting evidence (how is the shown) 3) Conclusion made (what does it show). Repeat this until you have four or five points to support your overall contention. Themes (And Evidence Home and Family, where is home? Anne is confused who are her real parent Abuse What does physical and sexual abuse do? Mental health worsens. R example, evidence of trauma in Ruby Identity Who are you? What do you stand for? For example, Jimmys speech in prison Mistreatment (of Aborigines) Ruby is told to do everything, Sandys mum is raped, verbal buses of Jimmy, he is put in prison Escaping/Fear Sandy is always running away, Jimmy steals and runs Betrayal Ruby feels betrayed, Jimmy feels betrayed Coping Emotional trauma, stress. Shirley is happier now that she has a granddaughter, Jimmy kills himself, and he is unable to cope. Ruby has a mental breakdown, she is unable to cope to. Jimmy and Ruby are the most obvious victims in Stolen, but all suffer in Ethel different ways. Discuss The physical and sexual abuse experienced by Ruby and Jimmy is obviously very visible to others. The loss that Ruby and Jimmy suffered was a loss of dignity and to the extent that they were both unable to keep fighting l just cant [fight] no more or hold on to any hope of reuniting with their families because their pain was too great they stuck a knife into me heart The children were deceived with the hopes of being cared for matron said they guan take one of us home and when they understood the truth they were disheartened and lost in silence I promised not to tell Jimmy and Ruby both led very tragic lives by the closing scene of the play, implying that perhaps hey are the greatest sufferers because of their obvious pain. Jimmy the playful young boy has had his heart ripped apart by the hope Im finally guan meet my mother of finally reconnecting with his mum and the despair of her death, and takes his own life as a melancholy prison inmate, at the end he said Im going now, to be with my mother and died . Unlike Jimmy, Ruby has the chance to be with her family again, her sister said Sis, weve come to take you home but her mental and emotional state is beyond repair after the mage done to her, dont live in no home anymore In Rubys family come to visit it appears Ruby is inevitably set to live a lonely and disjointed life F she continues to even have the strength or will to live. The remaining characters, Anne, Shirley and Sandy all suffer huge depths of despair, yet their suffering appears to lessen to some degree in the eyes of the viewer/reader due to their hope, determination and stability which in some ways assist them in attempting to resolve their problems and become reunited with their loved on es. Appearing to never give up is Anne, the young girl brought up by white adoptive parents and never told of her Aboriginal family and heritage until seemingly too late Its about your mother Shes dying she is caught between two very different worlds, communities and families. Anne seems very stable and loved by her adoptive parents, but should they really be considered loving considering they never told Anne who she was, what her identity is, until too late. As a result she is torn apart and finds it incredibly difficult to find her place any,Inhere, Am I black or white

Friday, November 22, 2019

US Supreme Court Procedures and Decisions

US Supreme Court Procedures and Decisions From the day the U.S. Supreme Court votes to hear a case to the day some nine months when we learn its decision, lots of high-level law happens. What are the daily procedures of the Supreme Court? While the U.S. has a classic dual court system, the Supreme Court stands as the highest and only federal court created by the Constitution. All of the lower federal courts have been created over the years in one of the five â€Å"other† methods of changing the Constitution. Without vacancies, the Supreme Court consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justices, all appointed by the President of the United States with the approval of the Senate. The Supreme Courts Term or Calendar The annual term of the Supreme Court runs begins on the first Monday in October and continues until late June or early July. During the term, the Court’s calendar is divided between â€Å"sittings,† during which the Justices hear oral arguments on cases and release decisions and â€Å"recesses,† when the Justices deal with other business before the Court and write their opinions to be attached to the Court’s decisions. The Court typically alternates between sittings and recesses about every two weeks throughout the term. During the brief recess periods, the Justices review the arguments, consider upcoming cases, and work on their opinions. During every week of the term, the Justices also review more than 130 petitions asking the Court to review recent decisions of the state and lower federal courts to determine which, if any, should be granted full Supreme Court review with oral arguments by lawyers. During sittings, public sessions start at 10 a.m. sharp and end at 3 p.m., with a one-hour recess for lunch starting at noon. Public sessions are held on Monday through Wednesday only. On Fridays of weeks during which oral arguments were heard, the Justices discuss the cases and vote on requests or â€Å"petitions for writ of certiorari† to hear new cases. Before hearing oral arguments are made, the Court takes care of some procedural business. On Monday mornings, for example, the Court releases its Order List, a public report of all actions taken by the Court including a list of cases accepted and rejected for future consideration, and a list of lawyers newly approved to argue cases before the Court or â€Å"admitted to the Court Bar.† The much-anticipated decisions and opinions of the Court are announced in public sessions held on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings and on third Mondays during May and June. No arguments are heard when the Court sits to announced decisions. While the Court begins its three-month recess in late June, the work of justice continues. During the summer recess, the Justices consider new petitions for Court review, consider and rule on hundreds of motions submitted by lawyers, and prepare for oral arguments scheduled for October. Oral Arguments Before the Supreme Court At precisely 10 a.m. on days the Supreme Court is in session, all present stand as the Marshal of the Court announces the entrance of the justices into the courtroom with the traditional chant: â€Å"The Honorable, the Chief Justice and the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! All persons having business before the Honorable, the Supreme Court of the United States, are admonished to draw near and give their attention, for the Court is now sitting. God save the United States and this Honorable Court.† â€Å"Oyez† is a Middle English word meaning â€Å"hear ye.† After having submitted countless legal briefs, oral arguments give lawyers representing clients in cases before the Supreme Court a chance to present their cases directly to the justices. While many lawyers dream of arguing a case before the Supreme Court and wait years for a chance to do so, when the time finally comes, they are allowed only 30 minutes to present their case. The half-hour time limit is strictly enforced and answering questions asked by the justices does not extend the time limit. As a result, the lawyers, for whom brevity does not come naturally, work for months to hone their presentations to be concise and to anticipate questions. While oral arguments are open to the public and the press, they are not televised. The Supreme Court has never allowed TV cameras in the courtroom during sessions. However, the Court does make audiotapes of oral arguments and opinions available to the public. Prior to oral arguments, parties interested in, but not directly involved in the case will have submitted â€Å"amicus curiae† or friend-of-the-court briefs supporting their views. Supreme Court Opinions and Decisions Once oral arguments to a case have been completed, the justices retire to closed session to formulate their individual opinions to be attached to the Court’s final decision. These discussions are closed to the public and press and are never recorded. Since the opinions are typically lengthy, heavily footnoted, and require extensive legal research, the justices are assisted in writing them by highly-qualified Supreme Court law clerks. The Types of Supreme Court Opinions There are four main types of Supreme Court opinions: Majority Opinions: Forming the Court’s final decision, the majority opinion represents the opinions of the majority of the justices who heard the case. The majority opinion requires at least five justices unless one or more justices have chosen to recuse themselves (not take part) in the decision. The majority opinion is vital as it sets a legal precedent which must be followed by all future courts hearing similar cases.Concurring Opinions:   Justices may also attach concurring opinions to the Court’s majority opinion. As the name implies, concurring opinions agree with the majority opinion. However, concurring opinions may focus on different points of law or agree with the majority for a totally different reason.Dissenting Opinions: Justices who disagree with the majority typically write dissenting opinions explaining the basis for their vote. Not only do dissenting opinions help to explain the Court’s reasoning in its decision, they are often used in majority opinions in similar future cases. Confusingly, justices will write mixed opinions that agree with parts of the majority opinion but disagree with others. Per Curiam Decisions: In rare cases, the Court will issue a â€Å"per curium† opinion. â€Å"Per Curiam  is a Latin phrase meaning â€Å"by the court.† Per curiam opinions are majority opinions are delivered by the Court as a whole, rather than authored by an individual justice. Should the Supreme Court fail to reach a majority opinion arrive at a tie vote the decisions reached by the lower federal courts or state supreme courts are allowed to remain in effect as if the Supreme Court had never even considered the case. However, the rulings of the lower courts will have no precedent setting value, meaning they will not apply in other states as with majority Supreme Court decisions.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Performance management framework of Limo Services in Austin, TX Assignment

Performance management framework of Limo Services in Austin, TX Company - Assignment Example ocedures for employee assessment and analysis during recruitment, orientation, training and education of employees, comprehensive methods of measuring performances of employees and effective process of communication performance feedback to employees to ensure that everyone has knowledge about achievements and remaining areas of improvements in the business strategy. The organization performance philosophy of Limo Services in Austin, TX Company is to provide highest level, clean, polite, courteous, safe, fun, memorable and punctual limousine services to the clients from any locations they desire (Limos of Austin, 2012) Measuring employees’ skills is one way of understanding the potential of the one to support efforts to achieve mission and objective of an organization. One method that Limo Services in Austin, TX Company uses to measure employee skills is surveying of clients about their experiences with customer service. The survey includes asking clients to rate the quality of customer service offered by employees of the organization. Another method used to measure employee skills is the enactment of random quality control procedure. With this method, employees do not know the exact time for evaluation and checks. The method proves good for its makes serious employees work to optimize performance in different corners of the organization. The company also considers appraisal of employees in all aspects of organizational structure to determine individual, team and group achievements in accomplishing particular responsibilities. Skill gaps are not very embarrassing aspects of organization structure especially when considering the rapidly changing business environments. Technology and expectations in the business environment are rapidly changing, and sometimes it become challenging to adapt to the changes immediately. In that line, Limo Services in Austin, TX Company has structured its performance management framework to ensure proper and regular training of the

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

COMPARISON OF TWO PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC APPROACHES Essay

COMPARISON OF TWO PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC APPROACHES - Essay Example In todays economy mental health issues have come into the mainstream in the news on a regular basis. As an example, Mental Health America reports that "about 20% of the U.S. population reports at least one depressive symptom in a given month, and 12% report two or more in a year". The National Institute of Mental health reports that "an estimated 26.2% of Americans ages 18 and older†¦suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in any year." It is also known that many people suffer from more than one mental disorder as well. People are attempting to cope with the world as it is while they watch their homes being foreclosed upon, their jobs ending and everyday living expenses rising. More people are turning to mental health practitioners to help them sort out problems that they are having individually and as families. This is a time when new counselors can be of great help because there is such a great need. In order to prepare for any client, a new counselor must learn how to under stand symptoms and identify the type of mental disorder that their clients are experiencing. In order to do this, they must rely on the DSM-IV and other methods of diagnosis. One of the ways that students learn to become good therapists is by studying case studies. Most insurance companies will want a diagnosis and it should be accurate to the best of a counselors ability. Because of this it is important to practice using case studies and counseling theories in order to know what therapeutic approaches will work best for different mental disorders. These narrative theories recognize humans as active agents in the construction of their own realities rather than simply existing in some objective reality†¦they encourage students to understand material for themselves rather than simply completing assignments or requirements. (p. 834). Corsini

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Tata Docomo Essay Example for Free

Tata Docomo Essay EXECUTIVE SUMMARY TATA DOCOMO is Tata Teleservices Limiteds TTSL telecom service on the GSMplatform arising out of the Tata Groups strategic alliance with Japanese telecom majorNTT DOCOMO in November 2008. Tata Teleservices has received a pan-India licenseto operate GSM telecom services, under the brand TATA DOCOMO and has also beenallotted spectrum in 18 telecom Circles. TTSL and has already rolled out its services in various circles.India is the fastest growing major mobile market in the world.Building on leadingposition in the market,TTSL. Aims to capitalize on the growth potential to significantlyincrease the subscriber base and market share. The telecom sector is increasing dayby day and the competition is getting more and tougher. Initially Tataservice was providing CDMA and after tieup with DOCOMO they come up in . OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT The objectives of this study/project as follows: * To identify the strategies Tata Docomo is following to grab the Indian market. * To study the schemes and services provided by TataDocomo. * To study thevarious tariffs charged by TataDocomo. * To study the unique features and services offered by TataDocomo. * To perform a SWOT analysis of TATADocomo. * To know the impact of promotional activities on the purchasing behavior of the buyer. * To study the Customer satisfaction level regarding the services provided by TataDocomo. INTRODUCTION TATADOCOMO is Tata Teleservices Limiteds TTSL telecom service on the GSM platform arising out of the Tata Groups strategic alliance with Japanese telecom major NTT DOCOMO in November 2008. Tata Teleservices has received a pan-India license to operate GSM telecom services, under the brand TATADOCOMO and has also been allotted spectrum in 18 telecom Circles. TTSL and has already rolled out its services in various circles. The launch of the TATADOCOMO brand marks a significant milestone Indian telecom landscape, as it stands to redefine the very face of telecoms in India. Tokyo-based NTT DOCOMO is one of the worlds leading mobile operators-in the Japanese market, the company is clearly the preferred mobile phone service provider with a50 percent market share. NTT DOCOMO has played a major role in the evolution of mobile telecommunications through its development of cutting-edge technologies and services. Over the years, technologists at DOCOMO have defined industry benchmarks like 3G technologies, as also products and services like the i-mode TM, mobile payment and a plethora of lifestyle-enhancing applications. Today, while most of the rest of the industry is only beginning to talk of LTE technology and its possible applications, DOCOMO has already started conducting LTE trials in physical geographies, not just inside laboratories! DOCOMO is also a global leader in the VAS (Value Added Services) space, both in terms of services and handset designs, particularly integrating services at the platform stage. The Tata Group-NTT DOCOMO partnership will see offerings such as these being introduced in the Indian market under the TATADOCOMO brand. TATADOCOMO has also set up a Business and Technology Cooperation Committee, comprising of senior personnel from both companies. The committee is responsible for identification of the key areas where the two companies will work together. DOCOMO, the world’s leading mobile operator will work closely with Tata Teleservices Limited management and provide know- how on helping the company develop its GSM business. Despite being a late entrant, TataIndicom, TTSLs CDMA brand, has already established its presence and is the fastest-growing pan-India operator. Incorporated in 1996, Tata Teleservices Limited is the pioneer of the CDMA 1x technology platform in India. Today Tata Teleservices Limited, along with Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd, serves over 37 million customers in more than 320,000 towns and villages across the country offering a wide range of telephony services including Mobile Services, Wireless Desktop Phones, Public Booth Telephony and Wire line Services. HISTORY Tata Teleservices Limited now also has a presence in the GSM space, through its joint venture with NTT DOCOMO of Japan, and offers differentiated products and services under the TATADOCOMO brand name. TATADOCOMOarises out of the Tata Group’s strategic alliance with Japanese telecom major NTT DOCOMO in November 2008. TATADOCOMO has received a pan-India license to  operate GSM telecom services and has also been allotted spectrum in 18 telecom Circles. The company has rolled out GSM services in 14 of India’s 22 telecom Circles in a quick span of under six months. The company plans to launch pan-India operations by the end of FY 2009-10.TATADOCOMO marks a significant milestone in the Indian telecom landscape, and has already redefined the very face of telecoms in India, being the first to pioneer the per- second tariff option-part of its ‘Pay for What You Use’ pricing paradigm. Tokyo-based NTT DOCOMO is one of the world’s leading mobile operators-in the Japanese market, the company is the clear market leader, used by over 50% of the country’s mobile phone users. Corporate Philosophy With the aim of creating a new world of communications culture, we NTT DOCOMO will devote all the skills, know-how and energy towards the establishment of more personal communication with our customers that contribute to their heartfelt satisfaction. A New World of Communications Culture More personal communication * Reliable access * Real time access * E-communicationOne-to-one â€Å"personal * This gives birth to a new world of communications culture * Freedom to enjoy communications anytime, anywhere with anyone * Opening of endless lifestyle horizons  To achieve this In order to create a world of more innovative and enriched communications, we will improve service quality, aggressively move forward with the development of various services. We will also research and develop a more advanced user-friendly communications interface, and at the same time we will provide these services and technologies to an ever expanding area. Customer Satisfaction: * Communications those are always ready when needed. * Capability to contact whomever, from wherever and whenever the customer desires. * Happiness that comes from heart-to-heart communications. * Bringing customers another step closer to realizing their dreams. * Responding to every customer with consideration, courtesy and thoroughness. * Providing products that give customers easy and convenient access to cutting-edge functionality. To achieve this * First and foremost, we will fulfill expectations of customers by fulfilling our response to their needs through improved service quality, building original networks, enriching functionality and expanding the service area. In addition, by providing an expanding and ever-improving selection of services at inexpensive rates, we will deliver satisfaction to a growing diversity of customers. * Making the most of the talents of each individual in our company. * Respect for the individuality and sense of values that are unique to each person. * Enable internal corporate communication to flow free from vertical and horizontal organizational barriers. * Make the most of the ideas of each individual. * Foster a corporate culture that is not restricted by conventional thinking and systems. * Create a creative office environment that supports the fulfillment of the individual. * Fostering an open corporate culture that welcomes the ideas and views of the individual. * Evaluate personnel based on their merits. * Build a company that overflows with a challenging spirit. To achieve this  By improving our system and programs for the enhancement of human resources and unifying our human resource development, we will empower each individual to exert their skills to the utmost of their capabilities and discover new potential. At the same time, we will strive to create a workplace that motivates individuals through measures such as improvement of the working environment and labor conditions and enhancement of health and welfare benefits. VISION We will leverage our strength in executing complex global scale projects to make leading edge information and communication services affordable by all individual consumers and business in India. We will offer unparalleled value  to create customer delight and enhance business productivity. We will also generate value for our capabilities beyond Indian borders while enabling millions of India’s knowledge workers to deliver their services globally. STATISTICS * Third largest telecom network in the world. * Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.Largest operator in INDIA is BSNL. * INDIA’S mobile market is the fastest growing market in the world. * World’s leading Japan based Telecom Company. * Over the years technologies of DOCOMO has defined industry bench marks like 3G technology. * It is the global leader in value added services. * TATA telecom Incorporated in 1996. * Tata Teleservices is the pioneer of the CDMA 1x technology platform in India. Deep involvement in the launch of 3G has inspired us to create an infrastructure that will allow people and all kinds of objects to communicate a wealth of information. Extended systems will link the home, the office and any number of other locations to bring greater convenience to all aspects of everyday life. For the future, it is our aim to incorporate information gathered by all five senses to achieve an array of services far beyond anything envisaged to date. * NTT DOCOMO is already making rapid progress in such areas through a wide range of innovative research, building expertise and techniques as we move forward towards exciting new business opportunities. * Innovating dreams * Our goal is to create a broad array of exciting new services. Services that will bring undreamed-of convenience to people everywhere. * In addition to Audio Barcodes and 3D Display System introduced in this website, cutting edge technologies beyond the imagination are already under development. These include a system that makes distant objects feel like an extension of the human body for ultra realistic experiences, and advanced chips that will allow items such as household appliances to communicate. Whats more, we are actively realizing 4G technology such as MIMO (Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output) multiplexing technology and a wireless access communications system, as well as contributing to the establishment  of specifications for global standardization. * Researchers at NTT DOCOMO have a clear vision of the future. A future that will unite all of the above advances and many more, to create a world where people can communicate at a higher level, regardless of time and space * Telecom industry in India is dominated by major companies like Airtel, Vodafone in GSM services. * Competition is very intense due to low differentiation. * India ended March this year with 391.76 million mobile lines and teledensity is around 36.98. * Airtel enjoys 33.9%, Idea 11.6% Vodafone 19.6 and Tata CDMA has 7.2% of market share respectively. * PRICE * It having attractive tariff plan:TATADOCOMO having 1paisa /sec it is applicable for both prepaid and postpaid. Disruptive Innovation in the Indian Telecom Industry by TataDocomo Wikipedia defines disruptive innovation as an innovation that improves a product or service in ways that the market does not expect, typically by being lower priced or designed for a different set of consumers. Indian Telecom space was â€Å"Disrupted† by TataDocomo when they came out with a ‘1 paisa per second’ tariff. We have earlier seen how Reliance India Mobile changed the mobile industry by coming up with the lowest tariff in the beginning of this decade. The call charges were around Rs 2-3 per minute and because of Reliance this was brought down to around Re 1 per minute. TataDocomo was the next one to employ disruptive innovation in the Indian mobile industry. Currently the game is not played on the price front but Value added services front, which is evident from the advertisements of Airtel (Madhavan and VidyaBalan) and Vodafone (Zoozoos) in the past. If Aircel is redefining how telecom operators approach value added services and GPRS in India, TataDocomo is doing its bit to change billing practices. The joint venture between Tata Teleservices and Japanese telecom major NTT Docomo officially began rollouts with a plan to invest $2 billion for its pan-India GSM services. Customer Satisfaction The 21 century belongs to the service sector. The customer of yesteryear was a silent person who uncomplainingly purchased the goods from the market place. There is a new customer emerging today. Customer satisfaction can be  defined as, customer satisfaction is the feeling derived by the consumer when he compares the actual performance of the product’s with the performance that he expects of it. The measurement of the customer satisfaction typically begging when a company realizes that their customer s is the people, who provide the revenues that, hopeful, will cover expenses. Most companies start by establishing a customer satisfaction baseline. Then they target year by year improvement. Understanding customer requirement and delivering superior quality goods and services to achieve composer satisfaction lead to the retention and growth of the customer. General Idea about the satisfied customer: Satisfaction is a persona’s feeling of the pleasure or disappointment. It is resulting from comparing a product’s perceived performance with his or her expectations from it. Satisfaction is more of an emotional concept. Today organization are aiming at high satisfaction rather than at customer delight because customers who are just satisfied still find it easy to switch over when a batter offers comes along. Those who are highly satisfied are much less ready to switch over. High satisfaction or delight creates an emotional bound with the brand and customer starts looking at an offering emotionally and just rationally. The aim of marketing is to meet and satisfy target customers needs and wants but knowing customer is never simple. Customer may state their needs and wants but act otherwise. They may not be in touch with their deeper motivations. They may respond to influential to change their mind at the last minute. Some of today’s most successful companies are raising expectation and delivering performances to match. These companies are aiming at TCS- Total customer Satisfaction. Increasing competition (whether for-profit or nonprofit) is forcing businesses to pay much more attention to satisfying customers. In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers, customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of business strategy. Customer Loyalty: * These four factors will greatly affect your ability to build a loyal customer base: * Products that are highly differentiated from those of the competition. * Higher end products where price is not the primary buying factor. * Products with a high service component. * Multiple products for the same customer. * Loyal Customers and Loyal Workforces Building customer loyalty will be a lot easier if you have a loyal workforce not at all a given these days. It is especially important to retain those employees who interact with customers such as sales people, technical support, and customer-service people. Many companies give a lot of attention to retaining sales people but little to support people. The increasing trend today is to send customer service and technical support calls into queue for the next available person. This builds no personal loyalty and probably less loyalty for the firm. Before going this route, be sure this is what your customers prefer. Instant Feedback: Recently, many organizations have implemented feedback loops that allow them to capture feedback at the point of experience. For example, National Express, one of the UKs leading travel companies invites passengers to send text messages whilst riding the bus. This has been shown to be useful as it allows companies to improve their customer service before the customer defects, thus making it far more likely that the customer will return next time. Listen to your customers: Is there anything more exasperating than telling someone what you want or what your problem is and then discovering that that person hasn’t been paying attention and needs to have it explained again? From a customer’s point of view, I doubt it. Can the sales pitches and the product babble. Let the customer talk and show them that you are listening by making the appropriate responses, such as suggesting how to solve the problem. MARKETING STRATEGY TataDocomo appears to be banking heavily on its tariff plans the company is offering a 1 second pulse instead of the usual 1 minute pulse that other telecom operators are offering. This means that consumers are charged on a per second basis, instead of a per minute basis, and end up saving money on unused seconds. A nifty little application â€Å"How much can you really save† on  Docomo’s website explains how this works. Rs. 0.01/second is a marked change from the Re 1/min and Rs. 0.49/min charges that usually applies. MARKETING MIX 4P’S OF MARKETING MIX: * Product * Price * Place * Promotion. PRODUCT: TATADOCOMO having good range of services.TataDocomo provides both postpaid and prepaid services. TataDocomo having good quality network which provides clarity in voice. PRICE:It having attractive tariff plan: TATADOCOMO having 1paisa /sec it is applicable for both prepaid and postpaid. PLACE:It is having good range of channels of distribution: As Tata already exist in this field of telecommunications as TataIndicom. It has wide range of channels of distribution to sell TATADOCOMO services. PROMOTION:Advertising: TATADOCOMO following different style of advertising pattern in TV ‘and newspapers. Due to that reason it was reaching public very fast. TATADOCOMO PRICING STRATEGY TataDocomo appears to be banking heavily on its tariff plans the company offers a 1 second pulse instead of the usual 1 minute pulse that other telecom operators were offering. This means that consumers are charged on a per second basis, instead of a per minute basis, and end up saving money on unused seconds. A fifty little application â€Å"How much can you really save† on Docomo’s website explains how this works. Rs. 0.01/second is a marked change from the Re 1/min and Rs. 0.49/min charges that usually apply. Now while this plan might sound unique, it isn’t that it hasn’t been tried before back in 2004, TataIndicom had launched 1 second pulse plans, which going by their current plans, appears to have been shelved. At present, TataDocomo has launched voice portals, 24-hour music, cricket commentary and voice chat, apart from offering free Missed Call Alerts and VoiceMail. Interestingly, voice based services are also being priced with a per-second-pulse: 24 hour music and voice chat are priced at Rs. 0.02/second. Caller Tune search service ‘Genie’ is also being priced at Rs. 0.02/second. This is a marked change, again, from the per minute pricing, and can offer consumers cheaper options. Mobile pricing innovation – TataDocomo now charges per website for Mobile Browsing! This is surely a first world over – TataDocomo have gone ahead and launched an innovative mobile Internet offering which allows users unlimited usage of their favorite websites on mobile for a fixed cost. TataDocomo has been forefront in coming up with various attractive pricing schemes, especially, in the pay-per-use paradigm. They were first to introduce pay per second billing on calls, which now is followed by every mobile service provider. They followed it with pay-per-minute and pay-per-call pricing plans as well which has made them one of the fastest growing Mobile companies in India. The new pay-per-website offering however, takes it to a complete different level and unheard of pricing strategy. This is a very thoughtful strategy and something which has potential to growth rapidly. TataDocomo pricing strategy. Pay per site offer two combination: * Those only interested in single websites need to pay Rs 10 per site * Those with multiple site browsing needs can opt for a combo pack at just Rs 25 per month. Customers have a bundle of options within various categories of social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, and Linked In, Orkut), mail options (Gmail, Yahoo, Rediff) and chat messengers (GTalk, Yahoo! Messenger, Nimbuzz). Having said this, there is also a caveat – If you thought it was valid for unlimited use†¦it is not. TataDocomo pay per site plan categorizes each service under 2 different genres – Social Networking Site and Emailing Instant Messaging. Each site under this genre is priced at Rs. 10/- bundled with 200 MB free data usage valid for 30 days, post which customers will be charged at 1p/kb. There are also 2 Combo options SNS Combo Pack and Emailing Combo Pack and each Combo Pack is priced at Rs. 25/- bundled with 500 MB free data usage post which the customers will be charged 1p/kb. We have b een quite impressed the way TataDocomo have gone about their innovative pricing models as well as marketing strategies. â€Å"Per Character† SMS Pricing On 8th September 2009, the GSM branch of the Indian carrier Tata introduced a novel pricing strategy for text messaging. Under the brand â€Å"Diet-SMSâ€Å", Tata-DOCOMO bills its customers â€Å"by-the-character†, rather than on a per message basis. It is a very attractive marketing scheme, since many wireless subscribers, almost by habit, tend to pepper their text messages with abbreviations and acronyms. Under the new plan, Tata-Docomo charges â€Å"one paisa per character†. For example, a text which reads â€Å"tnx† (for â€Å"thank-you†) is charged at 3paise instead of the normal sms charge. The Impact TataDocomo has gathered significant market share, owing to its pricing strategies. Existing mobile operators are matching the price and the clear winners are the subscribers since all the competition is sending the prices downhill. ADVERTISING MEDIA CHANNELS India TataDocomo, the youngest among telecom players in India to offer GSM, is Presently banking on its services to garner visibility and a share in the telecom pie. The launch of TataDocomo also announced the intention of the brand to associate with the thought do. TataDocomo, for the first time in the country, offered pay-per-second billing; though other telecom providers have followed suit since. The company has carried out a few adverts that highlight the brands unique features and some other topical advertising during Ganesh Chaturthi and Diwali. The latest from the GSM provider is the Friendship Express TVC. The ad opens inside train, where everyone is doing their own thing. A couple of the travelers dont like the solemn mood and start humming the Docomo tune. Slowly and steadily, others pitch in and soon most of the train is singing along.   The ad ends with the super, Why walk alone when we can dance together.Cutting through the clutter that the Indian telecom landscape fin ds itself in with customers forced to jostle with confusing and complicated products, services and tariff plans Tata DOCOMO is ‘Doing the New’ again, with the launch of its new brand campaign,  aptly titled ‘Keep It Simple’. Tata DOCOMO’s unique Keep It Simple Campaign is in a form of a stand-up comedy show with many episodes, which will be aired during the course of this IPL season. It focuses largely on how Tata DOCOMO simplifies the telecom experience, and hence the consumer’s life, by providing differentiated products and services. Each individual advertisement starts by illustrating a complexity in the category, and presents the Tata DOCOMO product and/or service as a means of simplifying things. This campaign is simple, captures the various moods of Ranbirdepicting those of Tata DOCOMO Advertisement strategy TataDOCOMO ropes in RanbirKapoor as brand ambassador NEW DELHI: TataDocomo, the GSM brand of Tata Teleservices (TTSL), today appointed Bollywood star RanbirKapoor as its brand ambassador. The company has inked a two-year contract with Kapoor and will roll out various televisions, print and outdoor campaigns with the actor, starting with the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament. We think TataDocomo is an inspirational brand and so is the charm and personality of RanbirKapoor, so it is a great match. We will leverage him in various campaigns to build the brand further, TTSL Head Corporate Marketing Gurinder Singh Sandhu told PTI. TataDOCOMO will undertake various marketing initiatives with RanbirKapoor, including television commercials, print campaigns, outdoors and retail front displays, he added. The company will introduce its new campaign during the IPL tournament, which kicks off on April According to media analysts, TataDocomo is expected to spend in excess of Rs 50 crore for the 360-degree campaign during the IPL season. Other telecom operators like BhartiAirtel, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications have also appointed Bollywood stars as their brand ambassadors. While Airtel has worked with Shahrukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan and KareenaKapoor, Idea Cellular has AbhishekBachchan as its ambassador. Reliance Communications has worked with HrithikRoshan. Vodafone, on the other hand, has found success with its Zoozoos, the egg shaped cartoon characters featured in its ad campaign. Market Competitors of TataDocomo: * Airtel * Reliance Communication * BSNL * Idea * Aircel * Vodafone * SERVICES NETWORK AVAILABLE * Currently, TataDocomo mobile services available in these following circles: * Bihar Jharkhand * Tamil Nadu * Orissa * Andhra Pradesh * Karnataka * Kerala * Kolkata * Maharashtra Goa * Madhya Pradesh * Chhattisgarh * Haryana * Chennai * Eastern Uttar Pradesh * Western Uttar Pradesh * Punjab * Rajasthan ,Recently LaunchedAandRest of West Bengal, Recently Launched. PLANS Tata DOCOMO Daily Plans. When every day is different, why have a fixed plan? A brand new day calls for a brand new plan. Choose from Daily plans on local, STD, Night calling, GPRS Music and make your own Daily Plan. Benefits: * Anytime purchase * Minimal cost * Ease of process How to subscribe: Dial *141# and choose from Daily plans on local, STD, Night calling, GPRS Music. Product options:- Daily Rental Packs (Rs.2) * All local at 1p/2sec * STD at 3p/4sec * Local Night On-net at 1p/10sec * Local On-net at 1p/6sec * USA/Canada UK(F) at 3p/sec * Gulf at 11p/sec * All local National SMS at 1p | Weekly Rental Packs (Rs.10) * All local at 1p/2sec * STD at 3p/4sec * Local Night On-net at 1p/10sec * Local On-net at 1p/6sec * USA/Canada UK(F) at 3p/sec * Gulf at 11p/sec * All local National SMS at 1p | Talk More * 30 local minutes @ Rs.5 onTata DOCOMO Network. * 30 local minutes @ Rs.12 across Networks. * 30 local/National minutes @ Rs.14 * 10 Local/National minutes @ Rs.5 | Night Talk * Now converse through the night. 60 Free Local Night minutes onTata DOCOMO Network. * 30 Free local On-net minutes @ Rs.3 * 20 Free local minutes @ Rs.5 | | a. GPRS10MB Free Browsing @ Rs.5 only.| World Calling * 10 minutes to USA/Canada @ Rs.20 * 5 minutes to USA/Canada @ Rs.10| a. Entertainment15 minutes FREE music @ Rs.5| a. CricketCricket Alerts @ Rs.5/day| Terms and Conditions: * Daily implies active till 12 midnight on the same day of pack activation. Ex: A subscriber activated the pack on 25th Feb10 then the pack with daily validity will expire at midnight of 25th Feburary10#. * In case on night packs the expiry of the pack will be 7 am of the next day of activation of the pack. Ex: A subscriber activated the night pack on 25th Feb10 then the pack with daily validity will expire at 7 am of 26th Feburary10#. * The pack will get activated maximum within 2 hrs of request receipt on the system. You will get an automated confirmation SMS once the same is configured on our systems. * You can activate multiple packs in a day. Competitor Analysis The competition has intensified the past few months with new players and schemes coming in. There has never been a better time for the customer to get a mobile phone connection There are at least six if not more operators to choose from in ever circle. In June 09, TATA DOCOMO broke the old system of tariff by introducing per second billing system. As soon as they did this, the other followed suit with price cuts everywhere. Suddenly the idea of calls being free was not so outrageous. The prices were reduced to such an extent that the viability of the business was in questions. The competitive environment of TATA DOCOMO can be looked at from the following perspectives Airtel v/s TataDocomo * The equal competitors are coming up with their new tariffs, plans, special packs and their varying services to prove themselves to be much competitive and trying to anchor them firmly in this mobile sector. * Currently the TataDocomo came up with its services with an all new tariff scheme of pay per second which has brought out a massive revolution in the market. * On 30th Oct the leading mobile service provider BhartiAirtel launched their much awaited â€Å"Pay per Second† tariff all throughout India. The tariff comparison with Airtel and TATADocomo is as follows, * Airtel with its inception on 2001 renders number of customers but their tariff, call rates to different network makes confusion and remains unstable. But Docomo’s 1p/sec throughout India makes consumers to keep track of their account and controls expenses. Airtel has kept different SMS charges even in their Pay Per Second plan with local sms being charged at Re.1 and National sms at Rs.1.50, whereas Docomo introduced SMS charges based on the number of characters. No recharges are needed to opt for per second calling after one year. * Package activation of Airtel ranges from Rs.64 to Rs.99 and varies from circle to circle. Docomo’s does not charge anything extra for activating the per second pack since the tariff plan by default is on per second basis. * The Airtel tariff calculation is hard ranging from 1p/sec to 1.2p/sec , but 20% higher to other operators whereas A2A calls are kept at 1p/sec and that to other operators are charged at 1.2p/sec. But TataDocomo is offering a limited period offer of STD calls at 1p/sec. But Airtel is older than Docomo so it has compact network links than Docomo , so this is the place where Docomo has to establish itself. Meanwhile it is found that Docomo with both GSM and CDMA network added over ‘4 million’ subscribers in September, beating market leader BhartiAirtel yet again. Airtel had 2.5 million new users in September. SWOT ANALYSIS * STRENGTH * WEAKNESS * OPPORTUNITIES * THREATS STRENGTHS: * First to introduce seconds’ tariff plan (seconds pulse) * Good brand image of Tata services * Having large variety of plans * Plans are affordable by any common person. WEAKNESS: * Signal strength. * Postpaid connections are not available as of now. * Customer services are not satisfactory. * Concentrating only on rural areas. OPPORTUNITIES: * Have a great opportunity to expand its services. * To introduce any new plans for internet users. * Introduce 3G compatible services. * To introduce new combined plans like, SMS, Internet, Calling integrated offers. THREATS: * If signal strength is not increased it may lead to change in the network service by the customers. * Tata has to clarify whether this 1ps/sec will continue till its lifecycle. * Heavy competition from all other network providers. INTERNAL ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS OF TATA DOCOMO Brand Image of Tata and Docomo This is another important factor which proves as a major strong point for Tata Docomo. Tata DOCOMO is Tata Teleservices Limiteds (TTSL) telecom service on the GSM platform-arising out of the Tata Groups strategic alliance with Japanese telecom major NTT DOCOMO in November 2008. Both of these are Big brand names in their respective countries; viz. Tata in India and NTT Docomo in Japan. Tokyo-based NTT DOCOMO is one of the worlds leading mobile operators-in the Japanese market, the company is clearly the preferred mobile phone service provider in Japan with a 50 per cent market share. Variety of plans on offer Tata Docomo focuses not only on the price but also makes sure that the variety of services offered is not compromised. There are a number of tariff plans for post pay customers as well as for prepay customers. WEAKNESSES OF TATA DOCOMO One major weakness of this organization would be the lack of adequate infrastructure to service the subscribers that it may initially achieve owing to the low prices. The key issue would be network coverage, where the customers would prefer that a call go through, or not be disconnected, than save Rs. 0.5-Re.1 on a call. At the same time, since operators have so far been focused on the â€Å"land-grab† MORALE OF EMPLOYEES IN AN ORGANISATION Good Morale Morale is a way of describing how people feel about their jobs, employers and companies, and those feelings are tied to the behaviors and attitudes that employees exhibit in the workplace. When employees have good morale, they feel committed to their employers, loyal to their jobs and motivated to be productive. They work harder, produce more, meet deadlines and give it their all. Low Morale According to BNET, a website that offers business management advice, low morale takes a toll on employee performance and productivity. Employees become less motivated to work, less committed to their employers, exhibit an attitude of indifference and are absent more often. Companies pay the consequences of low morale, as less work gets done and time and money are wasted. Such characteristics may not always indicate low morale. Be sure  that you dont misdiagnose employees as having low morale when they may just be having a bad day. Low morale is indicated by a pattern of these behaviors and attitudes over time. MANAGEMENT SYSTEM OF TATA DOCOMO The goal of the Management System and OrganisationOptimisation is to introduce a new organisation and management system at the level of a selected company or a group of companies (holding), as the case may be. The solutions standard subject matter is the conceptual preparation of the clients new organization and the implementation thereof, which is broken down into detailed organisational and functional patterns including job structure and category. Other steps include a preparation of the companys (holding) management rules, setting the basic functions, competencies, powers and responsibilities for individual management levels of a company (holding), and the preparation of a companys (holding) basic internal policies. ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE OF TATA DOCOMO In TATA DOCOMO the organizational culture is the workplace environment formulated from the interaction of the employees in the workplace. Organizational culture is defined by all of the life experiences, strengths, weaknesses, education, upbringing, and so forth of the employees. While executive leaders play a large role in defining organizational culture by their actions and leadership, all employees contribute to the organizational culture. EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS- Political- †¢ Not favourable in terms of Recent spectrum allocation {2G-scam}. †¢ Political lobbying is prevalent and many companies are taking advantage of it.It has become ubiquotious and creates lots of hassels for the firms. †¢ Due to 2G Scamtherre will be tighter control and auditing system. †¢ Also UPA will bring some new changes as the social pressure is so high{Anna hazaremovemenet}.Some new guidelines are coming up. †¢ TATA may get truly  benefitted by their inherent policy of no form of corruption.TATADocomo should be ready for a patient game so that this political uncertainity gets settled. ECONOMICAL- †¢ Teledensity has improved from under 4% in March 2001 to 53% by the end of March 2010.Cellular telephony has emerged as the fastest moving business segment. †¢ Due to high growth rate,hgherteledensity and sustainable domestic demand cellular telephony will surely reamain in the pink of health in India. †¢ Unexplored rural market.Usage may be low but volume can be high. †¢ Due to immense competition and lowest call rates in the world there are wafer thin margins as well. SOCIAL †¢ Youth population is increasing,adoption to new technologies has become daily routine,more litracy rate and more purchasing power of Domestic consumers makes this industry more than attractive. †¢ Youth will control the economy within next 10 years and companies need to meet their ever changing and newest deamands. †¢ Plans and tariffs need to be updated according to current demand and social habbits. †¢ Devolopment of new apps and cool value added services are in demand. TECHNOLOGY- †¢ Tata Docomo is enjoying the distinct advantage of the backing up of NTT Docomo which proven innovative technology.It is first in Inidia to roll out 3G services in India resulted a growth of 30%-40% in VAS and also planning to bring in 3G enabled mobile phones at an affordable price. †¢ It should try to capitalize the capabilities of Wimaxtechnologies,a high speed data connection,which is supposed to have 12 million subscribers by 2012. †¢ As 3G technologies has made in roads in India there is a growing emphasis on speed and coverage. ENVIRONMENTAL- †¢ People have growing concern about the kind of damage cellular wave do to the brain and other parts of the body. †¢ TATA Docomo should be the first to acknowledge the concern of the people by innovating ways that that can make the waves less harmfull. LEGAL- †¢ Recently due to alligations and speculations surrounding the 2G Spectrum sale many service providers are in legal doldrums and have to face wrath of CBI and judiciary. †¢ Whereas TATA Docomo has benefitted from his fare policies,it should par its back for this and march on with the progress it has seen with full vigour, Recommendations * The availability of recharge voucher should be made available when required by the customers. As this give the good impression about the company. * The network coverage is another asset for the company’s image, which needs to be preserved in future. * The overall image of the customer care services was found to be good but with some loopholes related to delays in problem solving. * The company should be more prompt in handling the queries and problem of the customer, which is vary essential for the prepaid card so as to retain the customers with the company in future. * The customer care executives should be more efficient in handling the customer and also more friendly and polite their conversation, while dealing with the customer. * After sales service is required to be maintained properly, which is not up to the mark * Call rates is affordable so it should be maintained at this level. * Many people are using mobile, but majority of them are not aware of the technology they are using. Manytines it happens that a person doesn’t know which technology satisfied his need. Hence awareness should be created among them regarding advantages and differences in the technology. * Supplementary facilities like call wait, call forward, call hold, call divert, call conference should be made more effective to attract customers. CONCLUSION After analysis and interpretation of the data it can be concluded that TataDocomo is providing a broad range of various schemes ranging from international calling to hello tunes. This is the critical factor to attract  various customers. Wide range of schemes is also leading to increase in number of customers with rapid pace for TaTA Tariff charges introduced by the TataDocomo are found to be cheaper than other services. TataDocomo has emerged as a giant killer due to their tariff plans and heading towards the position of dominator. TataDocomo is providing some unique features and services like pay per second, SMS per character, pay per site plans that are making them being different from their competitors. Awareness of the TataDocomo is spreading widely among people due to their promotional activities. Buyers are now insisting for cheaper plans or threatening to opt out. Majority of the customers are satisfied with the services of the Tata Docomo and they are not ready to switch on to other service providers.