Epidemly and biostat Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Epidemly and biostat - Assignment Example It’s again not adequate since even those that received treatment with medication still scored 16 on the CES-D, indicating non-compliance or ineffective treatment (Aben et al. 2012). Age, gender, ethnicity, marital status, employment, and socioeconomic status were the statistics used to describe the demographic variable. And definitely yes, theses statistics were the most appropriate form of demographic data description (Aben et al. 2012). The non-parametric statistical analysis technique should be used instead of the alternative due to the fact that the people involved in the study were residing in the rural area, where the quality of education may be of poor or low standards compared to the urban areas. Members of control groups reported no difference in pain and non-significant increase in mobility difficulties; thus the pilot study conducted require further investigation of the effectiveness of GI with PMR as a self-management intervention of pain reduction and mobility difficulties associated with OA. The study cannot be generalized to the United States as a whole. This is due to the fact that it is only the rural part of the entire United States population that was studied, which is not a representative of the entire population (Aben et al. 2012). This study is not relevant only relevant to the elderly population, some individuals might have inherited some hereditary conditions that exposes them to pain, of which can be identified, diagnosed and treated appropriately (Aben et al. 2012). Breastfeeding rates after the educational program significantly increased, a clear indication that the community-based breastfeeding intervention program was effective in promoting breastfeeding among women. 1. The following list represents the number of nursing students enrolled in a particular nursing program between the years of 2001 and 2007, respectively: 563, 593, 606, 520, 563, 610, and 577. Determine the mean, median,

Discuss how the American criminal justice system has impacted the Essay

Discuss how the American criminal justice system has impacted the Black community, 1880-2011 - Essay Example One can find extensive research material on African American criminal justice system. There is a great inequality visible in the criminal justice system of America. It has been pointed out by Pastore and Maguire (2000) that African Americans comprise of only 12 percent of U.S total population but they make 29.7 of all arrests. Since beginning of the court system in America, black people have been given fewer privileges and rights. Dred Scott decision considered the black slaves as property of their masters who purchased and brought them to America. According to one report of Justice Department, quoted by Free (2003), illustrates that number of African American youth is six times more than that of white people found in jails. These black criminals often get harsher punishments than White criminals. These disparities are crystal clear when comparison is made between non-Hispanic African American females and non-Hispanic White criminal females arrested by authorities (Beck & Karberg, 20 01). With passage of time, the condition of these detained African American criminals has worsened . It has been found that when cases of these people are brought into courts they mostly take more time than the cases related to white criminals.

Roots of Mccarthyism in the Late 40s and Early 50s Essay Example for Free

Roots of Mccarthyism in the Late 40s and Early 50s Essay Though the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) peaked with it’s highest number of members in 1940-1941, with 750,000 members, by this area in time it was looked down upon. It had, earlier in the decade, been a successful agent against fascism and a huge help in the advancement and creation of labor unions, and for that reason people were joining it. However, many people were becoming communists unknowingly just by attending meetings where they were given free food (a big draw to people in an era directly following the Great Depression). In the late 1940’s and early 1950’s American’s were very scared that communism would influence our country. This period of time was referred to as ‘the second red scare’. Americans had seen the way that Russia had been transformed by communism, and did not want their country to undergo the same changes. Communism was a scary concept at the time, and it was something that we as a country definitely did not want any part of. In the late 1930’s, an organization was formed called the House Un-American Activities Community. This community made up of members of the United States House of Representatives, was formed in order to protect Americans against communism influence and was responsible for investigating any allegations that were made about communist activity. Despite this groups efforts the United States was still in heightened fear of Communist overtaking or the possibility of becoming a nation similar to that of Russia’s. Senator Joseph McCarthy was a US senator from Wisconsin during this time period. He served for ten years, from 1947 until his death in 1957. He is most well-known for being particularly paranoid of communist efforts, regularly accusing people of communist behavior when none existed. He accused large amounts of people, mostly government workers, claiming that they were Soviet spies and communist sympathizers. By 1950, the term ‘McCarthyism’ was coined. The term refers to the practice of accusing people of treason, disloyalty, and other related things with no grounds and little or no evidence. The term is still used today and generally refers to political corruption, in which an important political leader makes false accusations about a certain group of people. A few events took place in 1949 and 1950 that spurred McCarthyism and the second red scare to occur. First, the Soviet Union (a very communist-dominated country) tested an atomic bomb in 1949. This was much earlier than Americans had expected them to come out with this technology. At this point, we realized that communist countries were more advanced than we had prior thought. In 1950, the Korean War broke out. The United States, along with the UN and South Korea, battled against communist countries, furthering our hatred and fear towards them. In the meantime, many cases of soviet spies came out. More and more ‘Americans’ were found to actually be spies from Russia and the Soviet Union. As the increase of found spies became more prevalent, people continued to point fingers and adopt an accusatory towards many government officials and become abnormally suspicious. Senator McCarthy made a list of all of the people who he claimed had been involved in communist behavior. This list was called the Black List, and was made up of many writers, artists, government officials, and other people important to society. On February 9, 1950, McCarthy gave a public speech revealing the people on the list. He claimed that 205 people were on this list, but later reduced it to just 57. Though some of the people on the list were in fact engaged in communist behavior, others were simply engaging in lifestyles that McCarthy himself had biases against and lumped into the list. Some of these behaviors included sexual deviance, alcoholism, and political decisions not aligned with McCarthy’s own. After being found to be on McCarthy’s list, the accused were brought to trial and vigorously questioned. The only way that mercy would be shown to them, regardless of guilt or innocence, was to accuse other people. This led to more and more people being accused and convicted unrightfully and unnecessarily. The effect of these trials was detrimental to people in many professions in the public eye. Many entertainers lost their jobs as a result of the public degradation. President Dwight Eisenhower decided to take a stand against McCarthyism when the senator began bringing military men into the accusatory trials. McCarthy publically announced that many members of the United States Army were personally involved in communist activity. Eisenhower was very involved in the military, a graduate of West Point himself, and when McCarthy took steps to slander the Secretary of the Army, he felt that it was the final straw and that steps needed to be taken to stop the epidemic. Also, in bringing in the military to his slanderous accusations, it was at this point that McCarthy lost much of his hype and once popular power. Involving army journalists, Eisenhower ran a story exploiting some of the hidden agendas of McCarthy in December of 1953. In March of 1954, upon Eisenhower’s instructions, vice president Richard Nixon gave a speech indirectly chastising McCarthy. He said, Men who have in the past done effective work exposing Communists in this country have, by reckless talk and questionable methods, made themselves the issue rather than the cause they believe in so deeply,† (Spartacus). Following the presidential lead, many leaders in the press began to fight against McCarthyism. People who had wanted to speak out for a long time but had been too afraid were now gaining confidence to do so and momentum was building. Eventually, McCarthy lost the chairmanship of the Government Committee on Operations of the Senate. Some feel that this marked the end of McCarthyism, and consequently America’s hysterical fear of communism infiltrating the country. However, others feel that this response did not happen as a result of McCarthy’s demotion, and not until the close of the Cold War. While most support was against McCarthyism in this era, there were few supporters and supporting groups of this institution and its suspicious allegations. Many of these supporters came in the form of women only anti-communist groups. Examples of these groups were Minute Women of the USA and American Public Relations Forum. Another group, which was not only for women, was the American Legion. They were well known veteran supporters who also showed much interest in the spread of McCarthyism. While these groups made up a large part of the supporters of the McCarthy sequence, the largest amount of help came in the form of the far-right radicals. They generally opposed international relations, specifically the United Nations, and were even against many of the social welfare programs. Particularly those thought out by the new deal, many of these McCarthyism supporters had a general opposition to programs that fought to reduce â€Å"the inequalities to the social structure of the United States.†

My Dream Job A Business Manager Cultural Studies Essay

My Dream Job A Business Manager Cultural Studies Essay Personal qualities are the one of the key elements of employability .They are actually the real aspect of humans character. They are important for an employee to fulfill the requirements of the superior and the company.Especially in the communication of business.It is good for one to know his/her personal qualities so that one will know his own strength and weaknesses.A person with a huge range of personal qualities will be able to cope with people in the organization and become more successful in his career.In the development of a company,it will need bunch of people with good personal qualities to work together to create a perfect environment where everyone works happily.Different jobs will require different personal qualities because they have the different job scopes.Employees will select the new employees based on the personal qualities.So,personal qualities can also be defined as one of the qualification for the jobs that we apply for. My dream job- A business manager My dream job is to become a business manager.To fulfil the requirements of my dream job,I will need a lot of effort,hard work and also the personal qualities to make myself qualify for the job.As stated in The practice of management (Drucker, Peter F.),2004,p3,the manager is defined as the dynamic,life-giving element in every business.Without its leadership the resources of production remain resources and never become production.The role of a business manager is actually to observe and oversee the activities of the workers and make sure the operation runs smoothly to increase the productivity and the effectiveness of the workers.The business manager job is very challenging that it needs plenty of important personal qualities to help the company to improve the production. Personal Qualities for a Business Manager Be courageous A Business Manager will have to be courageous to take calculated risks,believe in what he is doing stick in his guns.He should be brave to take up challenges and always be ready to accept new challenges so that problems can be solved as fast as possible and become an inspirational leader to the team.Besides that,I can learn how to cope with stress and new duties to be completed.I need to make my sub-ordinates to have a people that is dependable. Effective Communication Business Manager need to employ effective verbal and non verbal communication.He should use clear and concise communication with everyone.It should be preferably be devoid of jargon and complex terminology.How well a manager passes on information and instructions for easy understanding of others is of paramount importance for his success.I will need to receive the messages from the superior and precisely transfer them to my colleagues.I will also need to understand the feedbacks from the sub-ordinates and try to figure out all of them. Self-motivation Self motivation is very important for a business manager in both internally and externally so he will be able motivate all his/her sub-coordinates as well.On the other hand,it is also important for the personal growth where this will also increase the productivity and overall efficiency of a team of people.Business manager has to solve many problems that occur to the people that he manages.A business manager will always think how to archieve the companys goal.I will try to motivate myself and try to solve all the problems before going to my superior. Leadership skills 3.4.1 A business manager must know how to lead all his team members effectively,so that he can always guide all his sub-ordinates since the he plays a very important role in a organization.He will need to encourage all the employees in the organization to be more productive at the workplace.He has to show confidence to the team members so that they will have the trust on the leader and this is the way to communicate with the employees to understand and solve the problems that they face.This will definitely increase the productivity and efficiency of work. 3.5 Decisive 3.5.1 I need to make a decision precisely in a short time.I will also need to become a good decision maker.As a business manager there are many things that I will need to handle and make decision for the issues of the employees of the company and also in my life.I need to lead all my team members to the right direction so that it will build trust between me and the team members to work more effective and strengthen the bond between me and my colleagues.All the decisions I make must be fair and I will need to use the problem solving skills to solve some of the issues and brainstorm for more solutions before making any decision. 3.6 Responsible 3.6.1 I have pay responsible in the growth and the development of my company.I have to organize all my team members according to their abilities and make sure that they do their part.In order to archieve the companys goals,I will need to make sure the operations of the company run smoothly and try to improve the interest of my colleagues in their work.I will have to get my duties done before the deadlines.Besides that a business manager will also have to build a positive and comfortable environment so that the employees of the company work happily and this will definitely improve the productivity. 3.7 Be punctual 3.7.1 As the business manager,I need to be punctual in meetings and to work not only to show the good behaviors to the colleagues but also to help in my personal growth and development in my life.A business manager need to manage his staffs,so he need to be punctual and reach the workplace before all his sub-ordinates reach.By being punctual,I can train myself to become a more productive person and increase the professionalism of myself. 3.8 Self-confidence 3.8.1 A business manager,I need to have self-confidence so that the sub-ordinates will listen and trust me and this will makes my job easier.I can easily get the co-operation from the employees.This can reduce conflicts and misunderstanding when all the staffs respect me as a manager when I have high confidence in myself to manage them with my experience and skills.Things will definitely go smoother when I have self confidence. 4.0 Conclusion All things considered,a successful business manager will need to have all the personal qualities .If a business manager is lack of leadership skills,time management skills and also confidence,he will not be able to take up the position.Employers will look for people who can increase the productivity and effectiveness in a team to work for them so that they can archieve their goals effectively in a short time.Personal qualities influence most of the things in a position.Without the personal qualities,a business manager will not be able to manage the team well.Thus,a person will have to qualify with all the personal qualities before going to a job interview.It is very important to understand the personal qualities of himself for personal development. Questions that I have asked What is one personal quality that you think you are different from other business manager? How you manage to convince your sub-ordinates to listen to what you say? Describe how you helped your sub-ordinates to solve a problem.What did you do? What is the procedure when you deal with problems with the attitude of the workers? Did you ever come late to work? Describe about a goal that you set for yourself in your work? Are you able to take up new challenges? Describe the processes of a major project that you handled in your company? The person that I have interviewed Name : Tham Fook Ming Position : Business Manager Company : Daisan Enterprise Relationship : Uncle Name : Yip Weng Long Position : Business Manager Company : Yokohama Batteries Sdn.Bhd Relationship : Uncle Name : Teoh Meng Kwan Position : Manager Company : Hup Heng Motors Sdn Bhd Relationship : Cousin Definition of conflict A conflict can be both good and bad. According to the book The business communication handbook. 6th ed. Julie Catalano, p.240.(2003) by Judith D, a conflict occurs whenever two people,teams or groups have different wants or goals and one party interferes with the others attempts to satisfy these.Differences in the way people interpret facts,differences in values, and the various ways people take action to satisfy their wants and needs can all cause conflict. The conflict happened to myself The conflict I have been involved is a relationship conflict happened to me and my girlfriend. We argued because of that she refuse to look for a job after her SPM examinations. She prefers to stay at home rather than going to look for a short term job so that she can learn something new to get some experience. The primary sources of my conflict 3.1 Bad attitude of her The primary source for my conflict is that her bad attitude that makes her to have this conflict with me. She is so stubborn that she will never listen or even analyze what other people advice her to do. I have been advising her for nearly two months so that she will get a part time job to spend her time. Every time we quarrel about this quarrel and ended up nothing. She complains that she feel boring when she stays at home but she refuse to get a job and she doesnt know how to use and manage her time wisely. She always says that she wants to enjoy first before taking any courses. When I give advice to her, she will keep on telling me that her parents didnt say anything when she just stay at home without doing anything and not going out to work. 3.2 Lack of understanding between each other We dont really understand each other although we have been together for a couple of months. Maybe I dont understand her deep enough and also how she thinks and reacts. Sometimes we might be confused of what the partner thinks and wants. This also related to our communication problem where sometimes what she hears is different from my original intention. This will also lead to the misunderstanding in this relationship. We have problems in communicating because she supports only her own opinion and not the advice by the people who have more experience. She will never try to understand my feelings although I do always share my thoughts and feelings with her. She always agrees with her own opinion. 3.3 Different Perspectives and background What she thinks is totally different with me since we have a different background as I come from poor family and while she is from wealthy family. In some situations we might see things in a different way. Her parents spoiled her by giving everything she wants because they have only one daughter and one son so, she loves to blame. Before she do something that will destroy our relationship, she will never think about the effects to me and she is just being selfish and do what she thinks will make her happy. Most of our ideas are different maybe because of that she is still young and has limited ability to think in more perspectives. She will follow her friends idea when too many friends suggest the same thing. Feedbacks from the other party She agreed with the primary sources stated above as she understands her own attitude and behavior. She did complain that we have communication problem as we often argue for a small matter. Every time after we argue, we found that we still cant solve the issue. Although she doesnt like my advice but then sometimes she realize that she is wrong. Secondary sources of the conflict Peer influence As she is still a teenager, she can easily be influenced by her friends where her friends have the same background as her. She will do what her friends say because she thinks that what they say is right. They always ask her to hang out in the middle of the night. She will still hang out with her friend without me. Although I told her that this could be dangerous, she never try to listen to me. Different Expectations The life she wants now is to enjoy every day without doing a single thing while what I want is to concentrate on my studies as I need to have some better achievements to show her parents that I can work something out. What she expects is to have a life as a rich girl and I just cant afford to spend her all those expensive stuff. I always tell her that I am not a rich guy and I cant give you most of the things you want now, she will tell me that she wont bother about that and after a few days she told me that she is a very materialistic person and I can see it. What she wants are all high expectations items which I dont think I can give her. Raising Problems She always complains that I dont want to spend some time with her. In fact I was so busy with assignments and projects and how could I spend my time with her when there are so many assignments to be done in just a few days. I happened to be in a scenario where I promised to hang out with her and suddenly something happened in my family and I tell her that I couldnt make it, she didnt even bother about me and scolded me that I broke my promise. She just mad at me and she stopped talking to me for a few days. She will never try to understand the problem and think positively before making any decisions. Approaching the conflict At the end, I know that both of us will need to approach the conflict no matter what. I asked her out and we talk about what both of us want and need. With the positive thinking we both listen to each other and accept the fact that actually both of us have mistakes in the conflict as this relationship involve of not only one person but both must pay responsible when problem arises. We sat down and started to accept the ideas by each other and analyze the problem with multiple solutions and choose the best solution for our conflict. She decided to listen to my advice and slowly change some of her bad attitude. After choosing the right solution and finally the conflict is solved. Importance of a brand name A brand is the identity and the image of the company that will help in attracting customers and marketing strategy. A brand name is important for consumers to identify the product, services and its producer also a promise to the customers and also makes advertising easier. Smart branding allowed the company to clearly communicate a change in direction while continuing to build its reputation.Branding also gives reasons why consumers choose the brand over all the other competitors.Consumers will always remember the name for a particular product or services.For example,when consumers think of carbonated drinks the first thing they that will come across is Pepsi and Coke.A better name can convince consumers purchase and decision making.The objective of a business can also be easily clarified by the brand name.When a brand is easy to be remembered it can be spread easily by a consumer to another consumer.A brand name can affect the sales performance of a company if the name is not suitab le for the product or services that a particular company provides. The Proposal Proposal on Changing of the Product Name To : Mr. Jason Dalz ( President ) Mr. Michael John ( Managing Director ) Mr. Justin Bryan ( Chief Executive Officer ) Date : 25th March 2013 Subject : Proposal on Changing our Cereals Product Name Regarding the subject above, as a product manager I would like to change the name of the cereal. I believe that this will give consumers a brand new image and also will attract more customers where this will increase the sales of our products. Statement of the Problem For the past 3 years, the cereal sales of our company is decreasing.Therefore,an official meeting was held on the 13th of March with the sales team to identify the problem and we found that the actual profit do not meet the minimum profit estimation. Sales for the Prohealth cereal for the year 2011-2012 Year Earnings ( Thousands) 2010 $450 2011 $400 2012 $ 320 The sales performance for the cereal brand named ProHealth Analysis of the Problem We did a research to identify the main problem where we have distributed survey forms to investigate the main cause of the problem.As a result, we found that the main cause of the sales drop is because of the brand name of our cereal product.The feedback from the customers shows that the brand name Prohealth actually sounds more like health products than cereal to a large amount of customers and because of that they seldom pay attention to our products.In addition to that, they also think that the packaging of our products is not attractive as the picture on the box showed a women with a bowl of milk.In fact, it does not look like a cereal product. From the customers feedback, some of the customers recommended us to rebrand the product with a new name and a brand new packaging as the t packaging for Prohealth can only attract customers mainly aged between 60-69 we will need to attract younger consumers to consume our products.The name Prohealth can never attract attention and it will never satisfy customers expectations. The packaging for the two products: The Packaging for ProHealth The Packaging for Cerealize Questionnaire What attributes are seen from this Prohealth cereal? Will you buy a product named Prohealth? Does the packaging looks attractive to you? If NO please state why? How satisfied are you with the usage experience of ProHealth products? Overall , are you satisfied with Prohealth Is there any aspect that you think Prohealth needs improvement? Do you think the name Prohealth is suitable for this cereal product ? If NO please state why ? Please give suggestion on the name that is suitable. The market research report is as follows: Market Research on preference of the two new brand names (000) Age 10-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70+ Brand Name ProHealth 8 4 5 3 7 15 5 Cerealize 12 9 11 6 4 19 7 (Preference of consumers to the two brand names) Survey Form Name : Age : Which one do you think is the best name for our cereal product? Please tick and state why you dislike the other name. ProHealth Cerealize Reasons why you dislike the other ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Solutions From the market research, we found that a new name for the cereal product will definitely show a brand new image to our customers. Customers would always expect the appearance of something new that they can have. From the research, some customers gave feedback on the name of our cereal product and some suggestions on the new name are given. A brand name is important attract customers and to affect the decision making of the consumers. The new name Cerealize is given by one of the customers after careful consideration that we pick from the list of selection of the new name.After a discussion with the marketing department, we found out a name that is suitable to become the new brand name of our cereal products which is the Cerealize where customers will have a clearer picture of what our products are about and what we produce. Once they see the word cereal, they will have an idea on their mind stating that this is a type of cereal product and the word lize brings a meaning specialize w here to show the consumers that our company is specialized in producing healthy cereals to the consumers. As the brand name is simple, consumers can easily recommend it to their friends. On the other hand, the packaging also should be changed as the illustration is not attractive. If they put a picture of some superheroes or cartoons on the box, this will attract kids to pay attention on our products and definitely they will convince their parents to buy it.This will help in widen the range consumers that we target. Hence, the sales of our cereal products will increase as the number of consumers increase. Conclusion In retrospect, the new name and a new packaging will definitely increase the sales of our products. It gives customers a new impression of our products and this name is suggested by one of the consumers. Besides that, it can also widen the range of consumers who consume our products. We can show a good image to the customers where we consider all the suggestion and feedbacks from the customers. Hence, this will build more credibility and the trust between the consumers and our company. After changing the name from ProHealth to Cerealize and the packaging of our products, I believe that our products will be more special than other cereal brands. I hope that you will consider adopting this idea of changing the name on the brand of cereal as this is the way to keep the good reputation of our company and to increase the sales performance of our company. Prepared by, ____YONG____ ( Yong Jun Keat) Product Manager

Woolfs Vision in A Room of Ones Own Essay -- Room of Ones Own Essay

Woolf's Vision in A Room of One's Own      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Many years have lapsed sinee Virginia Woolf spoke at Newnham and Girton colleges on the subject of women and fiction.   Her remarkable words are preserved for future generations of women in A Room of One's Own.   This essay is the "first manifesto of the modern feminist movement" (Samuelson), and has been called "a notable preamble to a kind of feminine Declaration of Independence" (Muller 34).   Woolf writes that her modest goal for this ground-breaking essay is to "encourage the young women--they seem to get fearfully depressed" (qtd. in Gordon xiv). This treatise on the history of women's writings, reasons for the scarcity of great women artists, and suggestions for future literary creators and creations accomplishes far more than simple inspiration and motivation for young writers. Woolf questions the "effect . . . poverty [has] on fiction" and the "conditions . . . necessary for the creation of works of art" (25), and she persuasively argues that economics are as important as talent and inspiration in the creative process.   She emphatically states and, with brilliant fiction, supports her thesis that every woman "must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction" (4). Woolf's witty and beautifully crafted essay has a practical message for aspiring women writers: as pioneers in the virtually unexplored frontier of women's literature, and to create timeless, powerful works of art, they must forsake the established mores of masculine creativity and forge their own traditions and styles.      Ã‚  Ã‚   Woolf introduces this new literary tradition through the structure of her lecture.   Rather than follow the traditional format established through centuries of male lect... ...vel: A Forum on Fiction 23 (1990): 229-46. Delony 10 Muller, Herbert J. "Virginia Woolf and Feminine Fiction." Beja 73-84. Paul, Janis M. The Victorian Heritage of Virqinia Woolf: The External World in Her Novels. Norman: Pilgrim,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   1987. Rosenman, Ellen Bayuk. The Invisible Presence: Virginia Woolf and the Mother-Daughter Relationship.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1986. Schwartz, Beth C. "Thinking back Through our Mothers: Virginia Woolf Reads Shakespeare." SLA 58 (1991):   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   721-46. Samuelson, Joan.   Lecture.   English 2323.  Ã‚   Kingwood College.   Kingwood, 13 April 1993. Simpson, Catharine R.   Introduction.   Benstock 1-6. Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One's Own. 1929. New York: Harvest-Harcourt, 1989. Zwerdling, Alex. Virginia Woolf and the Real World. Los Angeles: U of California P, 1986.      

American Influence over New Zealand Culture Essay -- essays research p

War World 2 was a pivotal point of change for New Zealand. The country went from being a colonial country dependent or rather in awe of our mother country, England, to being a Colonial country now more excited with new contact with the new world super power of America. America’s acceptance as defender of the Pacific was the wedge that quickly romanticises the New Zealand people into a 60 year love affair with all things American. New Zealand has now reached a point where American media and influence in this country has now become integrated into the New Zealand culture and psyche itself. American Influence over New Zealand Culture Since the start of the â€Å"American Invasion† of New Zealand in 1942, New Zealand has become greatly dependent on America. From political to fashion, culture and entertainment, all areas of New Zealand life have been increasingly influenced from our relationship with the United States. Our loyalty/dependency to our once influential homelands in Britain, England especially, has been slowly washed away in the tides of American culture that floods the New Zealand citizen everyday. Just walking down the main street of any New Zealand town you don’t have to look too far to see a touch of America. Teenagers walk down the street, pants baggy and wearing hoodies. Music from shop radios drift onto the street, at least a 75% chance that the song is American made. The shop windows display Americanised tabloid magazines whose covers are littered by American Celebrities and their ‘tragic’ love triangles. Next to the tabloid magazines sits the New Zealand version of Americas T.V Guide, in its pages news and show times of the hundreds of American shows that crowd New Zealand’s televisions channels. Inside the store American confectionary lines the front of the store, Fruit Bursts, Nestles chocolate and a hundred others. In the corner sits a stand that holds a selection of ‘Top 40’ music Compact Disks, all American artists. And in the refrigerated drink units Americas product spearhead, Coke, sits cooling away waiting to be snatched up by the next customer who walks in. People line up at the movie theatre next door, five movies showing, all American. In the street outside a Ford Falcon is parked, another passes by on its way home. As the Ford Falcon pulls up its driveway you can see that even at home there is no escape from the re... ...ms that the fate of our countries culture lies hand in hand with that of the United States of America. Fig 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/Gallery/brief/image-pages/graph.html References American Studies. (n.d.). Retrieved 11 16, 2004, from http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/subjects/amst/ Music and its role in cafà © culture. (n.d.). Retrieved 11 17, 2004, from http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/mph/cafe/wayne.html New Zealand in the Second World War. (n.d.). Retrieved 11 16, 2004, from http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-nz/nz-ww2.htm New Zealand Music Month 2003. (2003). Retrieved 11 17, 2004, from http://www.nzonair.govt.nz/music_detail.php?pid=514&sid=500 Phillips, J. (n.d.). The 'American invasion': American forces and the New Zealand people. Retrieved 11 16, 2004, from http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/Gallery/brief/ Routes of English. (n.d.). Retrieved 11 16, 2004, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/routesofenglish/youtellus/transcript.shtml The Young and the Restless. Children and Adolescents in New Zealand 1930–1960. (n.d.). Retrieved 11 17, 2004, from http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/dnzb_exhibs/youth/

New Venture Creation

Introduction of a New Venture Creation Our aim- to engage with SimVenture; a business simulation that allowed us to build and sell computers through our virtual company named ‘Genesis’. The formation and running of our virtual company integrated us with new venture creation and about being an entrepreneur. It reinforced concepts previously presented in our course lectures and engaged us in a competitive and volatile business environment. SimVenture ran for three virtual years with five members on its team- each with a different role in the company. [pic]Home Screen for Genesis on SimVenture This report accounts for the working and performance of Genesis in financial and operational terms with the key decisions taken in running the organisation, and my involvement in the operation of the business. We needed to fully utilize the features that arose with new ventures, by making sound decisions. These features included innovation, fast growth, vision, employment creation and money making power, along with the ability to take greater risks for higher returns. (Stages in Planning for a New Business Venture)The Operation of Genesis After conducting market research, we decided our target market to be the ‘Corporations’ industry due to its characteristics of high order and market size. Selling points were decided after noting the requirements of Corporations, demonstrating that we used consumer driven marketing strategy where we researched the needs of the consumer before making our product. Competitor research was also carried out to see what products were offered at what prices so that we could decide the mix of attributes and price of our product.In an article ‘How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy' in Harvard Business Review (2008), Michael Porter discussed the factors that lead to changes in strategy due to competition. As per the needs of Corporations, our product design had vast features, good performance and style, and average qua lity. We purchased components for Genesis throughout the three years from a small wholesaler, Sourceline, who offered the best discounts relative to credit terms. From commencement, we decided to outsource all production since this would give us more time to invest somewhere else in the business.This however, can affect the business negatively because of problems of relying on the producer in terms of delays. Even so, this saved us time, space and equipment. (Harvard Business Review, 2008) Genesis Product Mix Customer feedback research was carried out every quarter of the financial year till the end of the period, keeping us well informed of customer feedback on our product. Customer Feedback for Genesis [pic] Our goal for Genesis was to be a well known and highly publicized brand within these three years of operation.As per our marketing strategy, rigorous advertising was carried out with the local newspaper. TV and radio adverts were included along with trade magazines. A network was joined where entrepreneurs would meet and increase their business circles and potential customer base. Leads were generated starting from 1000 going up to 9999. A premium website was also created for e-commerce and to provide online customer support. Lastly, we held annual exhibitions for three years at ‘Meet the Corporate Buyer’ to promote our product to the corporate sector.Competitive pricing was adopted, making the product relatively cheaper for the superior attributes Genesis offered as compared to the competitors. Sales channels were kept at various hours in personal selling (entrepreneurial marketing) and a contract with a distributor to sell our product from the second month of the operation of Genesis was concluded. In the third year, a major accomplishment of the business was the addition of another distributor which sufficiently expanded sales. (Establishing Competitive Prices)The ‘Organisation’ I started my role of the ‘Organisationâ⠂¬â„¢ by the completing all legal requirements within the first month of the running of Genesis. This would give us an upper hand in the future, where legal requirements may need to be met. For example, if we urgently required another employee to increase the workforce, time would not be wasted, as our Employee Contract would already be prepared. Also, setting up a Limited Company would portray Genesis as a more professional and successful company, making it better for its image.Furthermore, Health and Safety Contracts and Distributor Contracts were created in order to avoid any problems later when employees needed to be hired or when we contracted with a distributor. [pic] The second step was of recruitment and selection. With the feedback of the team, we gradually increased the number of employees working for Genesis, ensuring that all of them were proficient in a variety of skills. Joseph Schumpeter states, â€Å"Individuals with key experiences and expertise are key elements in the new venture creation†- Schumpeterian ?Unternehmergeist' (Fiery souls). Therefore, all the employees, including the entrepreneur, received significant amounts of training so that they could work to the best of their potential. As numbers of employees grew, we shifted from external sources of training to on the job training. This decreased our costs since more employees could avail the training opportunity at the same cost. It was crucial to ensure that stress levels for the employees and entrepreneur was controlled, because if neglected, this would decrease efficiency and lead to obscuring time management.The entrepreneur was heavily trained in sales and marketing, fields he was not experienced in, since being an only employee at the start, it was up to him to suffice sales. Another key decision taken was that the entrepreneur was made to work full time and quit his previous job (as long as his income was not less than that at his previous job as this could be a dissatisfa ctory factor), so that he could concentrate more on Genesis and make it his primary source of income. (Wikipedia, Joseph Schumpeter) Workforce of Genesis [pic] The third limb of organisation was resources.Before incurring any shortage of storage space, Genesis was relocated onto bigger and more favourable premises with 1000 square feet of space, gaining a better image within the first year coupled with enhancement of our customer pool. We continued to purchase tools, office equipment, furniture, and transport so that the employee to resource ratio was not distorted to lower productivity. Finally, maintenance, cleaning and IT support were also contracted out, creating a sound structural base for Genesis and saving time on trivial matters. pic] Relocated Premises of Genesis Financial Aspect of Genesis This section will critically evaluate the financial performance of Genesis and will be an explanation of the available financial data on the business. [pic] First and foremost, we needed our monetary sources mapped out to overcome the financing gap many small firms face. The ? 10000 of savings of the entrepreneur was taken as the start-up capital to finance our new venture. We also acquired two grants of ? 500 each from the government for training and promotion of new ventures.Being a new business, we could avail the option of taking a loan from friends and family or from a bank, but opted not to do so as this would only raise our future costs in terms of interest payments. Lastly, selling equity to private investors was ruled out as we did not want to dilute the ownership of the business. We hired a bookkeeper in the first month of the business so that we could be updated with the accounts and forecasting of Profit and Loss, Cashflow, Balance Sheet, Ratios, Budgets and Targets. This is crucial for any business because it shows if the company is financially viable.Moreover, we used ratios to analyze company figures. In the above figure, we see that the rate of capi tal employed is 34%, showing that the company is profitable. The current ratio is supposed to be around 1. 5 to be good in terms of liquidity. The current ratio of Genesis is at 10. 4, demonstrating that there is less risk for customers and stakeholders to lose their money. Since we took no loans, our gearing ratio is zero. The asset turnover ratio shows us that the company’s assets are being used efficiently to generate sales (greater than 1 shows that the company is operating efficiently).As discussed earlier, we purchased components from Sourceline. Sourceline offered a 30 days payment term and provided 10% discount for purchases done for over 2000 components. This was favourable for us since by the end of three years, 18500 components were ordered, availing the 10% discount. The credit terms gave us time to pay our debts and that money could be utilized somewhere else in the business. From the profit forecast, and the last operational month’s costs, we get the brea keven point of 83 units. This is considerably lower than the actual sales of 295 units and shows the success of the company by its large margin of safety.Throughout the three years, we saw a steady increase in the bank balance from ? 207,000 at the end of the first year to ? 1,044,500 by the end of the third year. This would show any viewer the success and growth of the company from its initial start up with ? 10,000. In the first two months of the third financial year, another key decision was that we decided to give a promotional 10% discount for two months on sales, resulting in increased sales as we were incurring all advertisement costs together at the beginning of the year. (Pricing Strategy)Bank Balance Increase in the 3rd Year of Operation | |Operational Year | | |1st |2nd |3rd | |Bank Balance |? 20,6951 |? 718,807 |? 1,044,510 | |Profit |? 44,837 |? 25,805 |? 8,310 | |Debtors |? 170,600 |? 96,080 |? 186,180 | Conclusion Even though we had a faced a major problem after the first mentoring session, we succeeded. Our problem- we had lost the venture on the computer! We had to play it all over again and just hope that it kept going as smooth as it did in the previous game. And it did. That being said, there were still decisions that we could have taken differently to provide a different outcome for Genesis.Perhaps we could have decided differently with respect to costing strategies, for example by dividing the costs of the business (advertising etc) evenly throughout the year instead of incurring them together at the start of each year. Also since there were a lot of leads generated and not enough sales in comparison, advertising could have been decreased, allowing more resources to be available for the business. Furthermore, we could have not implemented just-in-time (JIT) stock and kept stocks so that the first two months could have been utilized for production even though there were no sales.Another decision taken differently could have been that we c ould have started doing partial in-house production after the first year since significant idle time emerged. The product of Genesis could also have been altered to a different mix of attributes to show an innovating product which has reached its maturity period and now wants to sustain its growth. When we decided a 10% decrease in price for two months, our product was ‘better than it needed to be’, showing that we were bordering the line of giving the customer too much for its price. Lastly, we neglected to conduct a SWOT and PEST analysis.These could have provided us with a major competitive advantage if we were in the real world and in fact, would have been a necessity. Although spoken about in general, it was not officially conducted which I could say, was a mistake. PEST Analysis SWOT Analysis [pic] Every member of our group felt that our business was running like a well-oiled machine. The team worked well together and gave a professional and productive environment , as demonstrated by the outcome of Genesis. It was established that together we were going to gain much more than we could alone and that unity is what would get us ahead- be it a game or real life.For this very reason, I can call myself a team player. References 1) All business, â€Å"Establishing Competitive Prices†, Retrieved on 26th April 2010 from 2) New Venture Creation, Webct, â€Å"SWOT Analysis† and â€Å"Pest Analysis† Illustrations Porter, Michael E, Harvard Business Review (2008), â€Å"The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy†, Retrieved on 25th April 2010 from â€Å"Pricing Strategy†, Retrieved on 26th April 2010 from 3) â€Å"Stages in Planning for a New Business Venture†, Retrieved on 25th April 2010 from Wikipedia, â€Å"Joseph Schumpeter†, Retrieved on 27th April 2010 from New Venture Creation Introduction of a New Venture Creation Our aim- to engage with SimVenture; a business simulation that allowed us to build and sell computers through our virtual company named ‘Genesis’. The formation and running of our virtual company integrated us with new venture creation and about being an entrepreneur. It reinforced concepts previously presented in our course lectures and engaged us in a competitive and volatile business environment. SimVenture ran for three virtual years with five members on its team- each with a different role in the company. [pic]Home Screen for Genesis on SimVenture This report accounts for the working and performance of Genesis in financial and operational terms with the key decisions taken in running the organisation, and my involvement in the operation of the business. We needed to fully utilize the features that arose with new ventures, by making sound decisions. These features included innovation, fast growth, vision, employment creation and money making power, along with the ability to take greater risks for higher returns. (Stages in Planning for a New Business Venture)The Operation of Genesis After conducting market research, we decided our target market to be the ‘Corporations’ industry due to its characteristics of high order and market size. Selling points were decided after noting the requirements of Corporations, demonstrating that we used consumer driven marketing strategy where we researched the needs of the consumer before making our product. Competitor research was also carried out to see what products were offered at what prices so that we could decide the mix of attributes and price of our product.In an article ‘How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy' in Harvard Business Review (2008), Michael Porter discussed the factors that lead to changes in strategy due to competition. As per the needs of Corporations, our product design had vast features, good performance and style, and average qua lity. We purchased components for Genesis throughout the three years from a small wholesaler, Sourceline, who offered the best discounts relative to credit terms. From commencement, we decided to outsource all production since this would give us more time to invest somewhere else in the business.This however, can affect the business negatively because of problems of relying on the producer in terms of delays. Even so, this saved us time, space and equipment. (Harvard Business Review, 2008) Genesis Product Mix Customer feedback research was carried out every quarter of the financial year till the end of the period, keeping us well informed of customer feedback on our product. Customer Feedback for Genesis [pic] Our goal for Genesis was to be a well known and highly publicized brand within these three years of operation.As per our marketing strategy, rigorous advertising was carried out with the local newspaper. TV and radio adverts were included along with trade magazines. A network was joined where entrepreneurs would meet and increase their business circles and potential customer base. Leads were generated starting from 1000 going up to 9999. A premium website was also created for e-commerce and to provide online customer support. Lastly, we held annual exhibitions for three years at ‘Meet the Corporate Buyer’ to promote our product to the corporate sector.Competitive pricing was adopted, making the product relatively cheaper for the superior attributes Genesis offered as compared to the competitors. Sales channels were kept at various hours in personal selling (entrepreneurial marketing) and a contract with a distributor to sell our product from the second month of the operation of Genesis was concluded. In the third year, a major accomplishment of the business was the addition of another distributor which sufficiently expanded sales. (Establishing Competitive Prices)The ‘Organisation’ I started my role of the ‘Organisationâ⠂¬â„¢ by the completing all legal requirements within the first month of the running of Genesis. This would give us an upper hand in the future, where legal requirements may need to be met. For example, if we urgently required another employee to increase the workforce, time would not be wasted, as our Employee Contract would already be prepared. Also, setting up a Limited Company would portray Genesis as a more professional and successful company, making it better for its image.Furthermore, Health and Safety Contracts and Distributor Contracts were created in order to avoid any problems later when employees needed to be hired or when we contracted with a distributor. [pic] The second step was of recruitment and selection. With the feedback of the team, we gradually increased the number of employees working for Genesis, ensuring that all of them were proficient in a variety of skills. Joseph Schumpeter states, â€Å"Individuals with key experiences and expertise are key elements in the new venture creation†- Schumpeterian ?Unternehmergeist' (Fiery souls). Therefore, all the employees, including the entrepreneur, received significant amounts of training so that they could work to the best of their potential. As numbers of employees grew, we shifted from external sources of training to on the job training. This decreased our costs since more employees could avail the training opportunity at the same cost. It was crucial to ensure that stress levels for the employees and entrepreneur was controlled, because if neglected, this would decrease efficiency and lead to obscuring time management.The entrepreneur was heavily trained in sales and marketing, fields he was not experienced in, since being an only employee at the start, it was up to him to suffice sales. Another key decision taken was that the entrepreneur was made to work full time and quit his previous job (as long as his income was not less than that at his previous job as this could be a dissatisfa ctory factor), so that he could concentrate more on Genesis and make it his primary source of income. (Wikipedia, Joseph Schumpeter) Workforce of Genesis [pic] The third limb of organisation was resources.Before incurring any shortage of storage space, Genesis was relocated onto bigger and more favourable premises with 1000 square feet of space, gaining a better image within the first year coupled with enhancement of our customer pool. We continued to purchase tools, office equipment, furniture, and transport so that the employee to resource ratio was not distorted to lower productivity. Finally, maintenance, cleaning and IT support were also contracted out, creating a sound structural base for Genesis and saving time on trivial matters. pic] Relocated Premises of Genesis Financial Aspect of Genesis This section will critically evaluate the financial performance of Genesis and will be an explanation of the available financial data on the business. [pic] First and foremost, we needed our monetary sources mapped out to overcome the financing gap many small firms face. The ? 10000 of savings of the entrepreneur was taken as the start-up capital to finance our new venture. We also acquired two grants of ? 500 each from the government for training and promotion of new ventures.Being a new business, we could avail the option of taking a loan from friends and family or from a bank, but opted not to do so as this would only raise our future costs in terms of interest payments. Lastly, selling equity to private investors was ruled out as we did not want to dilute the ownership of the business. We hired a bookkeeper in the first month of the business so that we could be updated with the accounts and forecasting of Profit and Loss, Cashflow, Balance Sheet, Ratios, Budgets and Targets. This is crucial for any business because it shows if the company is financially viable.Moreover, we used ratios to analyze company figures. In the above figure, we see that the rate of capi tal employed is 34%, showing that the company is profitable. The current ratio is supposed to be around 1. 5 to be good in terms of liquidity. The current ratio of Genesis is at 10. 4, demonstrating that there is less risk for customers and stakeholders to lose their money. Since we took no loans, our gearing ratio is zero. The asset turnover ratio shows us that the company’s assets are being used efficiently to generate sales (greater than 1 shows that the company is operating efficiently).As discussed earlier, we purchased components from Sourceline. Sourceline offered a 30 days payment term and provided 10% discount for purchases done for over 2000 components. This was favourable for us since by the end of three years, 18500 components were ordered, availing the 10% discount. The credit terms gave us time to pay our debts and that money could be utilized somewhere else in the business. From the profit forecast, and the last operational month’s costs, we get the brea keven point of 83 units. This is considerably lower than the actual sales of 295 units and shows the success of the company by its large margin of safety.Throughout the three years, we saw a steady increase in the bank balance from ? 207,000 at the end of the first year to ? 1,044,500 by the end of the third year. This would show any viewer the success and growth of the company from its initial start up with ? 10,000. In the first two months of the third financial year, another key decision was that we decided to give a promotional 10% discount for two months on sales, resulting in increased sales as we were incurring all advertisement costs together at the beginning of the year. (Pricing Strategy)Bank Balance Increase in the 3rd Year of Operation | |Operational Year | | |1st |2nd |3rd | |Bank Balance |? 20,6951 |? 718,807 |? 1,044,510 | |Profit |? 44,837 |? 25,805 |? 8,310 | |Debtors |? 170,600 |? 96,080 |? 186,180 | Conclusion Even though we had a faced a major problem after the first mentoring session, we succeeded. Our problem- we had lost the venture on the computer! We had to play it all over again and just hope that it kept going as smooth as it did in the previous game. And it did. That being said, there were still decisions that we could have taken differently to provide a different outcome for Genesis.Perhaps we could have decided differently with respect to costing strategies, for example by dividing the costs of the business (advertising etc) evenly throughout the year instead of incurring them together at the start of each year. Also since there were a lot of leads generated and not enough sales in comparison, advertising could have been decreased, allowing more resources to be available for the business. Furthermore, we could have not implemented just-in-time (JIT) stock and kept stocks so that the first two months could have been utilized for production even though there were no sales.Another decision taken differently could have been that we c ould have started doing partial in-house production after the first year since significant idle time emerged. The product of Genesis could also have been altered to a different mix of attributes to show an innovating product which has reached its maturity period and now wants to sustain its growth. When we decided a 10% decrease in price for two months, our product was ‘better than it needed to be’, showing that we were bordering the line of giving the customer too much for its price. Lastly, we neglected to conduct a SWOT and PEST analysis.These could have provided us with a major competitive advantage if we were in the real world and in fact, would have been a necessity. Although spoken about in general, it was not officially conducted which I could say, was a mistake. PEST Analysis SWOT Analysis [pic] Every member of our group felt that our business was running like a well-oiled machine. The team worked well together and gave a professional and productive environment , as demonstrated by the outcome of Genesis. It was established that together we were going to gain much more than we could alone and that unity is what would get us ahead- be it a game or real life.For this very reason, I can call myself a team player. References 1) All business, â€Å"Establishing Competitive Prices†, Retrieved on 26th April 2010 from 2) New Venture Creation, Webct, â€Å"SWOT Analysis† and â€Å"Pest Analysis† Illustrations Porter, Michael E, Harvard Business Review (2008), â€Å"The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy†, Retrieved on 25th April 2010 from â€Å"Pricing Strategy†, Retrieved on 26th April 2010 from 3) â€Å"Stages in Planning for a New Business Venture†, Retrieved on 25th April 2010 from Wikipedia, â€Å"Joseph Schumpeter†, Retrieved on 27th April 2010 from