Why does Hollywood hates Arabs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Why does Hollywood hates Arabs - Essay Example We can infer this typical stereotyping from a film â€Å"Reel Bad Arabs† which does not require the audience to have an impression about what Arabs and Muslims are. It resembles the word â€Å"Real Bad Arabs† which the word alone passed a negative judgement about a certain group of people with a distinct culture without even inquiring the essence of Mohammedism. This stereotyping is typical and often feeds and enflames on the prejudice against Muslims and Arabs. It rides on the negative aspect of pathos, or capitalizing on the negative emotional connotation and impression about Arabs to sell as a film by highlighting Arabs and Muslims as bad guys as initially conveyed by the news. This is quite effective because this approach appeals to the basic instinct of people which is fear. Fear is common among people and Hollywood use this to elicit interest among the audience of its films by demonizing the Arabs and Muslims whom fear can feed on. It is only unfortunate that this fear can later turned into loathing because it is human nature to reject and abhor things that its fears. Arabs and Muslims then became as a favorite enemy of Hollywood when its audience subconsciously wants to confront and overcome its fear. It then exalts the virtue of overcoming a challenge at the expense of another group of people who are helpless about their portrayals in the films. Demonizing Arabs does not even have to be logical. The tile â€Å"Reel Bad Arabs† is not even intelligible nor have any shade of logos in it but its producers knew that it does not have to be reasonable or logical in the presentation of its film to have an audience. Hollywood knows that when people’s pathos are awakened, the logos can be overshadowed because the audience are already entertained by capitalizing and feeding on their fears. This fear was even made into humor by Leslie Nielsen in the film â€Å"An American Carol† where Leslie

Organic Solar cells Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Organic Solar cells - Essay Example In 1954, three scientists called Chapin, Fuller and Pearson developed the first solar cell in a lab. It was until the 1970s when the physics community caught up with them by working on a series of researches in the field of solar energy. Eastman Kodak became the first commercial organisation to create an organic cell in 1986. The device was made by an analyst called Tang, who worked for the organisation. More research continued to be done in the field and by 2007; a high efficient solar cell was created at a spectrolab. It had values of about 40.7%, which was a great improvement from Chapin and his colleagues’ 6% (Rivers 96). Currently, more research is underway in the field in order to boost outcomes. Solar cells are a used in electronic devices like calculators and laptops. Satellite images heavily rely on these materials for carrying out their roles. One is also likely to find the products in remote locations where no connections to power grids exist. However, they are yet to be regarded as a reliable source for electricity for electricity distribution. The cost of making solar energy from these materials is also prohibitive on a large scale. It costs four times, as much money, to generate 1 KWh of electricity from solar energy in comparison to conventional methods (Iyer 17). These typical methods include cycle gas turbines and remote diesel generation. Organic cells could be the answer to reduction of costs and elimination of other prohibitive factors in solar cell technology. Organic solar cells have low cost processing and high throughput. This implies that it is relatively easy to spray, vaporise, spin coat and print them. They capture light efficiently due to high absorption rates. The devices can even be processed in solution form at room temperature. Silicon-based solar cells are unlikely to go down in terms of prices, but this is untrue for organic ones. Additionally, they

Issues of marks spencer

Issues of marks spencer Introduction In this assignment, an analysis and discussion of the strategies and issues of Marks Spencer will be carried out. MS was developed by immigrants. It was in 1884 that Michael Marks, a Russian-born Polish refugee, opened his first stall at a market in Leeds. Around ten years later he moved the trestle-table empire to Manchester where he went into partnership with Tom Spencer, a former cashier. Over the next ten years they built an operation that would grow to become the most British of institutions. MS is a major British retailer with over 885 stores in the United Kingdom and with over 600 domestic and 285 international stores too. It is the largest clothing retailer in the United Kingdom, as well as being an up market food retailer, and as of 2008, it was rated the 43rd largest retailer in the world. Most of its domestic stores sell both clothing and food, and since the turn of the century it started expanding into other ranges too, such as home-ware, furniture and technology. MS has in place objectives to bring shareholder value in terms of increase returns, but also in terms of increase sales and market share in retailing. Its beliefs and standards are outlined as Our customers continue to see Marks Spencer as the place to shop for special food, produced to exacting standards. It also sees its workforce as an important part of its plan and also considers modernising its stores as a key corporate objective. Its vision is to set high customer standards and its mission in makin g inspirational quality accessible to all. Nevertheless, the time when MS was extremely successful has long gone, as their clothing sales have come under pressure from other big companies such as Next and Asda WalMart, in 2001 the company recorded a mere  £145 million profit (US$ 275M), adding to this its food revenue has been hit by Tesco. Furthermore, in the last 5 years the company has experienced a succession of changes in management and corporate structures, following a massive decline in sales. What used to be a leading worldwide quality food and clothing retailer has now become uncompetitive in the market industry internationally, especially in the United Kingdom. A major contributing factor to this has been due to the pressure from the economic crisis world wide. In 2002 the Chairman and Chief Executive of MS, gave key information regarding the managements recovery plan for the company, and the speech and extracts from Marks Spencer Press Releases provided a valuable insight into the strategic plans for Marks Spencer. The Chief Executive of Marks Spencer insists that firstly the heart of the company should be dealt with, and focus needs to be given to the entire United Kingdom business, with a mission to make inspirational quality accessible to all. The main objective of the strategy for Marks and Spencer is the expansion into the worldwide market, and then aim to continue keeping ahead of the fashion market so that it can always inspire customers and raise the quality and standards or their product range. However, for the company to continue its previous success, they kept adapting new strategies when former strategies started to fail. Marks and Spencers plans to focus on keeping strong connection with their current customer, whom have been loyal for many years and are the reason for the rapid growth and success of the company. Another main focus for marks and Spencer is to work closely with the market to build a strong bond and trust with their shareholders, and also to provide best possible dividend whilst maintaining the company standards and profits. In addition, strongly considering their stakeholders opinions which are important as many companies success depends on its market and production, so even keeping a strong conne ction with employees on company improvements, and keeping peace between pressure groups and the company is useful in improving the brand image. The main issues that Marks and Spencer has faced over the past five years are their sales, since they have dropped massively compared to previous success. Marks and Spencer have currently published what their business plans are, and what they hope to aim within the upcoming years. Through this research it is aimed to investigate whether Marks and Spencer has successfully abided to the strategy but still failed, does this mean that the strategy was poorly planned, or whether in fact the strategy has increased their growth within the UK and worldwide market. Marks and Spencer as an international company From an international market perspective, Marks and Spencers aims and standards of their presentation and for the wider Marks and Spencers brands in selected export markets were a successful business globally. However, it seems that Marks and Spencers franchise stores are regarded much smaller than the UK stores. Nevertheless, part of its strategic review, Marks and Spencer announced the closure of its loss-making businesses in Europe due to this. In 2005, Marks and Spencers internationally began to operate in 29 countries including Hong Kong. and had 198 franchised outlets together with 19 directly owned stores in Hong Kong, along with 65 stores were located in the Asia-Pacific region, 60 in Europe, 45 in Central Europe with the rest in central Asia and the Middle East. MS used to own and operate 38 stores across France, Germany and Spain, but they were closed down in 2001 by the previous chairman, Luc Vandevelde, as it ran into problems due to the economic crises in the UK. In Apri l 2007 the company set out many plans to open 150 new international stores over the following three years, the majority via franchising. The first of the openings were scheduled to take place during the summer in Ukraine and Bulgaria, alongside further company-owned expansion in Ireland. Franchisee-owned developments are also underway in India and Russia too. Marks and Spencer set out how the stores should look and sell its branded goods and also view each store widely. Furthermore, its competitors such as Next and Debenhams across India have had also finance problems, however, there strategic plans did not fail as much as Marks and Spencers did globally, this is due to their continuous new products and brands compared to that of Marks and Spencer. They also focused on selling more than just clothes and food but also to sell furniture etc. Much has been said that Marks and Spencer needs to commit and be determined of what they sell best, which is food and clothing, which in turn this will help the company as a whole to maintain there previous success. Despite its recent financial problems and its slightly confused brand image, MS shows what can be done with tradition in the development of brand equity. Standing for values that have a place in society beyond the product can have important cultural ties for consumers. MS stands for Britain as much as it does for retailing, and thats a symbol that British consumers arent keen to give up in a hurry. During 2007/08 Marks and Spencer announced there plan to grow their International business to between 15 to 20% of total group revenues by 2012. There strategy remains unchanged, although they are adapting their plans as the economy dictates. Marks and Spencers aim is to reach their own target, with sales up 25.9%. Marks and Spencers five key elements for an International growth strategy are the following: The Growing of their equity partnerships in line with their revised business model. The Expanding of footprint into new markets and within markets where we already operate. To Achieving operational excellences. To highlight the brand integrity and awareness Finding innovative ways to grow our food offer. France MSs most concentrated European effort was in France. The clothing offering generated great profit, however, the foods section did not do as well asexpected. Strategies High fashion strategy Target area: European Countries, especially France As Paris is the fashion capital, therefore, MS should and needs to provide more fashion elements into their design in order to broaden their target market, and attract more female customers. For example, MS could hire some world famous designers to work for their European market, it could not only upscale MSs level, but it also let MS charge premium prices on their merchandise. Advertising strategy Target area: Canada MS nearly had new brand name has entered the Canadian market. Accordingly the brand was consciousness in one biggest weakness in Canada. Therefore, MS have to spend more money in both like TV marketing or local news paper marketing to build up their weakness. For example, MS could have hire a famous Canadian stars to communicate to their clothing, MS they can provide some of kind of sales promotions which is weekday shopping coupons or give discount to get more customers. Multiple sales channel Objective area: All The conventional sales channel is though local stores and mostly all of MS stores are located in downtowns areas. To promote the sales, MS need to expand the conventional channel, which have some catalogues of selling. MS can try to mail the recent season of catalogue to their customers, which would make ordering and purchasing easier and convenient. Class Control Objective area: All Good quality is a strong point with MS, its also the reason how MSs has high customers maintenance. However, because of the low supply chain in Canada, MS products slowly became decreased and damaged the sales of MS. As a result, MS should closely control the market supply chain to have guarantee of the value. TO decrease the operating cost MS may have even more imported materials and goods from Asia or Europe. Evaluation The evaluated have been implemented not after it has occurred, so to discover if the interference having desired effect. This would be involve evaluation and after completion evaluation. These both provide the organization and the feedback about the intervention. Evaluation expected at the guiding this can be called implementation feedback and assessment of interference is called evaluation feedback. Implementation feedback comprises collecting data about facial appearance of the intervention its result and feeding them back in short intervals. Evaluation advice involves to collecting data effect terms of about to effect intervention which are takes long feedback intervals. The problem of the nature organization develop interventions makes them very hard to evaluate. Very few of OD interberatnre are driven by the theory or designs which make it difficult to interpret cause and effect. As does that fat they never been haven separation to other activates and changes in the organization. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE ABOVE SECTION However, OD interventions can be aided by applying the following guidelines: amount should be derive from the theory intervention original the interventions and include events of the skin of the intervention select right variables deceitful good events e.g. operationally clear, dependable and official Research plan e.g. quasi trial designs. Critique of strategy Change Every change of situation is different, and different techniques and approaches for change need to be managed accordingly.. Although this is discussed earlier, the Models considered for the changes to give strength to the strategy on the each situation only in the general of way. As a result, the individual different of the situation goes on flexible advance. The change of models balanced change through Fairley stages- yet, when you consider the impact of change princess, it could be considered as disordered. Intervention involves of changing the individuals goals, introducing the new evens, and having changes that do not fit to norms business. Other condition it may also come to change process thorough management which is not part of the original of plan of change. There is no hard confirmation that effect of planned on business performance as evaluation is very difficult and imprecise. Consultant facilitating planned change their own business favorite biases that will influence the operation and intervention used. Lack of the open mindedness and awareness may cause the ineffective decisions for change. The planned change the strategy approach involved long terms, but its often case organizations want to be fix solutions with immediate results. This can be leading the corner in strategy to development or unfortunate alternative being used. DO NOT UNDERSTAND THIS SECTION Strategy Plan Harris and Walters (1992) model of store positioning, based on the four overlapping circles of merchandise characteristics, trading format, customer service and customer communication, is proposed to be central to the competitive strategy of multiple retailers (Figure 1). They suggest the four factors interact to create the market positioning of a company and provide detailed flowcharts and descriptions for each contributing factor. Moreover, they link store positioning to critical success factors, such as sales revenue; gross profit and gross margin; and sales per square foot. This framework is extremely useful in exploring the recovery of MS. The first step was to take the company back to basics by reviewing the strategy to ensure that the offer for the target audience was right. This led to the plan, where the main goals were to get the correct product for the various customer groups, to implement a staff training programme to improve customer service, to refurbish the stores, and overall to communicate all of this to customers. The reputation of MS was built on quality, reliability and service. Suppliers were nearly all UK based with long term contracts. However, when firms such as Next, Top Shop and George started to outsource from the UK, they could be far more competitive on price, providing more fashionable clothes with ranges that were changed frequently, due to Quick Response methods (Birtwistle, Siddiqui and Fiorito, 2003). This led MS to source from abroad but they failed to pass on the increased margin to the customers, hence they remained uncompetitive. Customers viewed the clothing ranges as unfashionable, unattractive and over-priced. During 2006, there was a launch of the new focused ranges of womens wear, and an expansion of the Per Una brand was launched, created by George Davies of Next and George at Asda. This undoubtedly improved the image of the brand and increased MSspace. When Stuart Rose became the Chief Executive, MS had 16 fashion sub-brands, quality and styling was inferior to the c ompetition, and due to the lengthy supply chain fashion trends were missed (Rose, 2007). In their new strategy, MS continue to use world wide suppliers with relationships based on partnerships rather than the previous paternalistic management style (Khan, 2006). This has enabled the firm to reduce supply chain costs by  £100m (Rose, 2007). For the clothing ranges, MS invested in the design process and product development, and intensive staff training too, giving the teams full product control, making the company more agile and enabling lead times to be reduced, giving increased flexibility and reducing stockholding from  £4bn to  £1.3bn (Khan, 2006; Rose, 2007). However, it has forced suppliers to take on increased risks by having to be very flexible, producing short runs and by storing fabric and stock (Birtwistle, Moore and Fiorito, 2006). Every week Stuart Rose reviews stockholding and supplier commitments to ensure that price points and quality are right and he has implemented a new strategy of good, better, best ranges, each representing good value (Rose, 2007 ). To create products to the various customer groups the Customer Insight unit holds regular focus groups where customers are provided with samples of goods. For instance, to understand the requirements of the older consumer, MS invites in the members from the Womens Institute to give honest, highly opinionated advice (Woods, 2007) Customer Service For many years MS customer service was based on the halo effect of their liberal returns policy. Moreover, they were not used to have fitting rooms and did not accept credit or debit cards, and even when they did introduce them, they did not communicate this fact to their customers. MS is aware that customers have become more demanding with higher expectations in terms of service and that they had become less competitive in the rates they were paying shop floor staff, hence they found it difficult to recruit quality staff. A customer service programme was created by Mary Gober and implemented in 2005. All 56,000 members of staff attended and this training is ongoing. The key message is that the customer comes first, by making eye contact, providing excellent service in key areas such as the fitting rooms, at the till and information areas, and in the cafà ©s (Anon, 2006). For example, all staff should be able to handle queries on fashion trends, sizes and pricing, fittings and alter ations, offers and incentives. MS also increased the number of staff in areas such as shoes where customers need more assistance, and this investment in product and sales training for shop floor staff is seen to be paying off. Trading Format MS had been very slow in taking up the trend to move to retail parks (Khan, 2006). and many of their smaller stores have not been refurbished in recent years either. Davies and Brooks (1989) argue that the best way of getting consumers to re-evaluate the product is to undertake a store refit. A plan to modernise the stores was implemented in 2006, and the first roll out of the new format began. In the first year MS spent  £500m and they planned to spend an additional  £800m in the next years (Fletcher, 2007; Rose, 2007). The process consisted initially of improving the store environment by taking away the shortage or embracement of signage. This was followed by a number of new store formats, hence, an order for 100 new escalators, 100 lifts and 20 miles of new refrigeration units was made (Rose, 2007). The improved product offer, the service and the increasingly attractive store environment has led to 16 million shoppers visiting the stores each week (Marks Spencer, 2007). Customer Communication In general, customer communication is further achieved using the in-store magazine. First forays into advertising went drastically wrong when their TV campaign pictured a naked women, size 14, running up a hill. This sent a completely wrong message out to their customers (Khan, 2006). Today they have become the leader in retail marketing communication. The first advertising campaign during autumn 2004 featured the food offer using mouth watering food photography and a sensual female voice-over stating this is not just food, this is MS food. This TV campaign presented an entirely new format, which has been dubbed food pornography. For instance, the chocolate pudding advertised just before Easter 2005 increased sales by 3,500 per cent, and as Steven Sharp said at the time it makes you want to lick the telly! (Martinson, 2006). When the clothing range had been reviewed and new lines introduced the spring summer season was preceded by a strong advertising campaign which included TV, radio, cinema, print, posters and even five MS branded taxis. This was very successful and attracted customers into the stores, thus, sales and profits increased. A number of models present the MS look such as Noemie Lenoir, Laura Bailey and Myleene Klass. Now anything worn by Twiggy, the 1960s fashion icon, Erin OConnor or Lizzy Jagger, the daughter of Rolling Stone Mick Jagger sell out in days. The attractiveness of the marketing campaign is that it appeals to all age groups. Whereas the womens-wear range is presented by models, the menswear range is promoted by celebrities such as the comedians Jimmy Carr, Martin Freeman and Bob Mortimer and football pundits such as Alan Hansen, Ian Wright and Jamie Redknapp. Bryan Ferry the voice of Roxy Music is the face of the Autograph range for men. The 2006 Christmas campaign last year f eatured the Ice Hotel in Sweden with Shirley Bassey, and David Bailey did the photography to give the campaigns fashion credibility (Brown, 2006). The success of these campaigns can be measured not only in sales but also by the number of retailers such as Matalan, Debenhams, John Lewis Partnership and Next, who are now actually copying the format. Recently, the look behind the label campaign promoting fair trade products, environmental concerns and customer health has increased consumer perception of the organization. This helped to attract 350,000 new customers a week into the stores (Brown, 2006). MS was awarded Company of the Year in 2006 and the Responsible Marketing Award in 2007 by Business in the Community. The marketing expenditure for the year ending 2007 was  £145m, of which approximately half was spent on advertising (Fletcher, 2007). Consolation: The recovery plan appears to be working well, as shares peaking at  £7.49 before the announcements of the results in May 2007 (English, 2007). The year end results to March 31st 2007 showed an increase of 28.5 per cent in profits to  £965.2m, with a 6.1 per cent increase of like-for-like sales to give credence to the five year recovery plan due to be completed in 2009 (Table 2). MS has 520 stores in the UK and has plans to open several Simply Food format stores as well as some out-of-town retail outlets, and they plan to employ an additional 10,000 members of staff (English, 2007). MS has been more successful than other retailers in using integrated marketing communication methods to get its message to both, disaffected past and present customers, increase brand equity and support the recovery of the firm. The advertising campaigns have been a strong contributor to the re-evaluation of MS as a retailer and have helped to increase footfall and the conversion rate. It has also led to Steven Sharp achieving a number of marketing awards, such as the Marketing Societys Marketer of the Year 2006; the Marketing Week Effectiveness Awards 2006; and the Chief Marketing Officer of the Year award at the Global Marketer Summit in Frankfurt in 2006. In January 2007, Stuart Rose at last used the r word and stated the business was now well into the recovery phase. However, in a very competitive trading environment, turning the short term recovery into long term growth will be more difficult and awaiting to see the direction of the long term strategy. Conclusion Reference http://annualreport.marksandspencer.com/operating-financial/ms-international/ms-international.aspx

scarlet letter essay :: essays research papers

What is the cuase for an extreme obsession? Why is it that occasionally, someone will become so obsessed with an object or idea that it corrupts their personality? In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates a character by the name of Chillingworth who shares in that same type of obsession. After his wife, hester, has an affair with a minister, Aurther Dimmesdale, he poledges to have vengeance . despite his wife’s unwillingness to rreveal her partner, He Chillingworth’s corruptive obsession is also the cause for the change in his physical appearance. Throughout the novel Chillingworth’s physical appearance fluctuates dramatically. At the beginning of the novel he is portrayed as a loving man and the reader often felt sympathy for him due to his wife’s affair. As time progresses, Hawthorne shows a remarkable change in his appearance due to the overwhelming time and energy in conducting the ultimate devise to bring evil upon Dimmesdale. At this point, Chillingworth’s obsession has surpassed the norm. His constant thoughts of revenge deepen the evil into his heart to a point where it consumes and alters his personality. He is no longer the man who was very religious and innocent. He now is corrupt and has nothing else on his mind other that to spread evil. His face grows uglier by the day as his fixation engulfs him, â€Å"†¦how much uglier they were,-how his dark complexion seemed to have grown duskier , and his figure more misshapen.† (Hawthorne77). Chillingworth’s face has changed due to the evil that has now grown inside him. He has held these feelings too long and it is now beginning to alter his appearance. He blames Dimmesdale for what he has now become because the once handsome and loving man he once was is now corrupted by the power or evil that fills his head. Chillingworth’s change in appearance was from the source of wickedness that had buried itself into his soul. When his life hangs only by this obsession, his fate is suspended by the man whom he feels it towards.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Chillingworth’s ultimate plans for revenge are ruined when Dimmesdale finally confesses the sin which he kept secret for so many years. Chilligworth wants nothing less than for Dimmesdale to suffer with his secret until he dies. The only way that Dimmesdale could have escaped out of the unbreakable grip of Chillingworth’s claws was through the scaffold.

Case Study of Alliance Boots Plc

ALLIANCE BOOTS PLC: INTRODUCTIION: Alliance Boots is a leading international pharmacy-led health and beauty group serving a wide range of products and services to customers over 100 years in the UK. We are trying to identify how the Boots works internally and externally to reach its goal. We are also trying to find out how the Boots motivates its employees to be productive. We will also discuss its organizational structure and design to communicate each other function of the organization. We will discuss its appraisal system and organizational record keeping. We will also find out about its brand image to the stakeholder. Customers are at the heart of their business and they are devoted to providing extraordinary customers and patients care by offering innovative products ‘Only at Boots’ with exceptional values. People are their strength and tell us that Boots is a excellent place to work. They always aim to be the employers of choice by attracting and retaining the most talented and passionate people. BACK GROUND OF THE COMPANY: Boots had established its roots in the mid-19th century by John Boot, an agricultural worker, at Nottingham, in the UK. He opened a small herbalist store on Goose Gate in 1849. After John’s death in 1860, his widow, Mary, continued trading, with the help of her young son, Jesse, who became a full partner when he was 21. The store continued to thrive. In 1877, Jesse took sole control of the Boots. In 1920, he sold Boots to the United Drug Company of America. In 1933, the United Drug Company sold its holding in Boots to a group of British financiers led by John Boot, Jesse’s son. Under John’s chairmanship, the first overseas store opened in New Zealand in 1936; key brands No7 and Soltan was both launched in the 1930s. He also continued his parents’ tradition of staff welfare – improving working conditions, reducing hours and introducing pensions for all employees. More recent decades, the introduction of successful brands such as 17 cosmetics and Botanics and new business ventures such as Boots Opticians are more popular to the customers. A new chapter in Boots history started on 31st July, 2006with the merger with Alliance Unichem, to become part of Alliance Boots, an international pharmacy-led health and beauty group. Their product and services are Health and beauty, Personal care, Cosmetics and toiletries, Baby care, Dental & health care, OTC and Prescription medicines, Perfumes, and Skin care. (www. bized. co. uk,) MISSION: Their mission is to be the world’s leading pharmacy-led health and beauty group. They seek to develop their core business activities of pharmacy-led and beauty retailing and pharmaceutical wholesaling and distribution across the world and become a significant player in many leading international markets. PURPOSE: Their purpose is to deliver products that help people look and feel their best. VALUES: They believe in making a difference for the well being of the communities they serve. The core values are described below. * PARTNERSHIP: It includes respect, understanding and working together. They create and build value through partnerships and alliances, inside and outside the business. * TRUST: The essence of the way they do business. People trust because they deliver on their promises. * SERVICES: They hold high standards of care and service for customers and their people. * ENTREPRENEURSHIP: They are innovators, seeking new challenges and having a winning entrepreneurship. SIMPLICITY: They are proud of being lean and efficient, uncomplicated and easy to do business fairly. (www. allianceboots. com) AT A GLANCE: * Operating over 20 countries. * It has115, 000 employees. * Operating more than 3,250 health and beauty retail stores. * Dispensing more than 245 million items each year. * 1500 Stores in the UK and Irish Republic. * Serving 420 million customers (pa). * Operat ing over 360 pharmaceutical wholesale distribution centers. * Cash generated from operation ? 1130 million. * Revenue is ? 22. 5 billion. * EBITDA is ? 1,360 million. * Trading Profit is ? 1,074 million. www. allianceboots. com) BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT OF THE BOOTS: The organizational environment consists of internal and external environment. Alliance Boots operates in highly attractive markets with potential for significant long term growth. The Company expects to increase life expectancy and product innovation to continue to drive demand for prescription medicines and related healthcare services. At the same time, they believe that a growing customer focus on personal well being will drive demand for health and beauty consumer products and related services. Fig: The Organizational Environment of Boots: Legal Environmental Technological Political Social Economic External Environment Communication External Environment ————————————————- Innovation Strategy Change Internal Environment (Writer’s observation) INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT: In order to sustain an organization, it is necessarily to adapt internal structures, process and behaviors to enable to cope with complexity and the pace of external change. It is concerned about organization’s strategy, teamwork, management, leadership style, working practices, empowerment, employment patterns, etc. * STRATEGY: Johnson et al (2008) say that strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long term, which achieves advantage in a changing environment with the fulfilling stakeholder expectation. The Boot’s strategy is to focus on its two business activities of pharmacy-led health and beauty retailing and pharmaceutical wholesaling and distribution, while increasingly developing and internationalizing product brands to create a third dimension. * CHANGE: According to Mullins (2007), every change becomes welcomed as an opportunity for increasing efficiency and building new organizational success. Boots increased female participation in the workforce and growth of services. It also changed the sophisticated information technology where cognitive skill demands. It has created fast flat and flexible organizational design. The company plans to further increasing the number of Boots stores through new openings and pharmacy acquisitions and have also just commenced a trial with Waitrose to sell selective product ranges in each other’s stores. * INNOVATION: According to Mullins, innovations arise from technological advancements, new processes, and improvements in all major areas of organizational activity. Boots concentrates in expanding their core business in existing markets, continuing to deliver productivity improvements and other cost savings, pursuing growth opportunities in selective new high growth markets. Boots is always launching products in the new markets. * COMMUNICATION: Boots always focus on customers/patients needs and services. Their communication and distribution channel is well updated which improves productivity. EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT: The external environment is the pressures of the organization from outside that can influence and affect the performance of the organization. The significant environmental pressures are the PESTEL which locates for Political, Economic, Social, Technology, Environmental, and Legal factors. * POLITICAL: The political environment of a country predisposes by the political organizations such as philosophy of political parties, ideology of government, legislation, taxation, employment law, trade union policy and activities. Boots are also affected for political decision in the UK. The UK government is cutting the employees from most of the sectors. As a result, people will have no enough money to spend on health and beauty. ECONOMIC: It is mainly concern about total GDP of the country as well as consumers’ expenditures and disposable income. It is also included currency exchange rates, tax regime, wage rates, raw material prices etc. Boots is a multinational company. So, during recession, UK’s currency rates fell down and Boots lost lots of money to exchanged currency from other country to UK. * SOCIAL: It concerns about demographic trends, lifestyle preferences, social values, distribution of incomes, education and health, labor mobility, attitude to work, discrimination trends, skills availability, etc. Boots never discriminates any employee. Boots always tries to adopt different life style in different countries, languages, traditions, people expectations etc. * TECHNOLOGICAL: The technology adopted by the industries determines the type and quality of goods and services to be produced and the type and quality of plant and equipment to be used. The technological environment influences the business in terms of investment in technology. It refers to the innovations of IT, nanotechnology, new production methods and process, level of expenditure on R&D by organization’s rivals etc. Boots uses to invest more money on research and development of its cosmetics and medicines. ENVIRONMENTAL: It links to the ‘Green issue’ of the environment, reducing toxic emissions, pollution, spills, hazard prevention, disposable of wastes or rubbishes etc. Boots dedicates to reducing the carbon intensity of their business and continued to launch specific carbon reduction initiatives. For example, Boots UK launched in August 2009 an awareness campaign aimed at reducing energy use in its retail stores. In February 2010, Boots UK received the Carbon Trust Standard in recognition of recent achievements in reducing its ‘carbon footprint’. Over 50% of the waste, they create as a Group recycles. * LEGAL: It deals with international law, legislation and taxation, human rights concerns, local regulation. It also concerns international trade agreements, employment and safety law, and product safety issues etc. Alliance Boots operates in regulated markets. It could be adversely affected by changes to existing regulation, new regulation such as licensing regimes for pharmacies, prescription processing regimes. www. boots. com) ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES OF BOOTS: Director Director Director Finance Director Chief Executive Health & Beauty Chief Executive Legal Chief Executive Health & Beauty CEO Chief Executive Pharmaceutical Wholesale Division Chairman of the Board Director Director Director Director Chief Finance Director (www. theofficialboard. com) Organizational structure is the formal system of task and reporting relationships that controls, coordinates and motivates employees so that they work together to achieve organizational goals. (Buchanan and Huczynski, 2004. P. 874) It is the pattern of relationships among positions in organizations and among members of the organization. Structure makes possible application of the process of management and creates a framework of orders and commands through which the activities of the organization can be planned, organized, directed and controlled. Mullins (2007, p. 564) Alliance Boots has a flat organizational chart. In the structure, we can see that there are eight directors including Board of Chairman and non executive directors. Under Board of Chairman, there are six Chief Executives who are responsible to report to Chairman. All the Executives are the same level in decision making. This structure helps Boots to do better communication between top management and employees as well as increased team spirit too. Hence, we can see less bureaucratic power which helps to make decision easily. It also improves sound coordination and timely passing information among the different department within the Boots which increases productivity. This flat structure is mostly helpful to do faster responses to changing condition. This flat structure has demerits in Boots. Here, workers may have more managers for one job which creates confusions. It is mostly helpful for a small organization but Boots is such a large organization, where it will have demerits. As a result, this will reduce the growth of the organization. (www. learnmanagement2. com) (www. blurtit. com) MOTIVATIONAL FRAMEWORK: MOTIVATIONAL Individual Colleagues The Manager Customers Organization FRAMEWORK (www. ashridge. org. uk) ORGANIZATION: The organization will provide the structure and processes such as performance management and reward schemes, training, interesting work. In the organization, leaders and managers must earn the respect of others, create an appropriate working environment and provide opportunities for people to grow and develop. THE INDIVIDUAL: Individuals need to be more open about share values with colleagues and managers. Organizations need the accurate strategy and processes that make it abundantly clear that individuals have a responsibility for their own development. THE MANAGERS: The Boss provides a crucial role in the motivation process not only acting as a role model but valuing each of colleagues in a way that makes them feel motivated. COLLEAGUES: Colleagues can play a crucial role in motivation at work. By sharing skill and ability, every employee will be motivated in the work place. THE CUSTOMERS: People will be motivated by feedback from both internal and external customers and clients. We should regularly review and share the results of feedback with staff. FACTORS AFFECTING EMPLOYEES PRODUCTIVITY: The proportion that measures the efficiency of the resources concerned in production of products and services is called productivity. It is also the ratio of inputs and outputs of the production. (www. ayushveda. om) The factors that affect the employee productivity are as follow: * TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT: If the employees are not trained properly in their particular job role, then the organization cannot get the benefit from the employees. Sometimes Boots cannot get enough time to schedule the training timetable. COMMUNICATION: There will be constant communication among top management, middle management and the em ployees. But sometimes there is miscommunication or take time to communicate within the Boots because of managers’ holiday, Internet break down etc. * WORK LIFE BALANCE: If the husband or wife works together and there are kids, there will be a problem to match the time table. Boots gives priority to those families. * PAY AND BENEFITS: If the employees get under pay, a late payment, or wrong payment, then they will not be encouraged to perform better the job. * REWARD AND RECOGNATION: Sometimes employees are not rewarded for meritorious services which create employees opposition to complete the job. * WORKING ENVIRONMENT: If the working environment is not suitable for employees or the coordination and cooperation is lacking, the productivity will be low. EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY: If there is any discrimination, the productivity will decrease and employees will dissatisfy. Boots strictly follows the rules and regulation about equality. * OTHERS: There are few more factors which affect the productivity, such as poor management, slow decision taking, lack of trust, stress level, conflict, frustration, etc. WAYS OF MOTIVATING KEY EMPLOYEES IN BOOTS An organ ization has many attributes to its success one of which is motivation of staff of the organization. Boots has various ways of motivating their workers leaving them satisfied which encourage them to go ahead and deliver. * TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT: Boots provides an online module and training for their staff. This enables them to fulfill their potential at work. The organization makes a significant investment in the development of a range of training. This helps new employees of the organization feel as part of the team and makes them more confident. This year, Boots put additional investment into developing their pharmacists and registered technicians supporting them with their continued professional development. DISCOUNT FOR STAFF PURCHASES: Employees get discounts for purchases on Boots and non-boots products. They obtain 12% discount on Non-boots products and 25% discount for boots products. Every employee, within a year gets double discounts for 2days, which means 25% and 50% for non-Boots and Boots products respectively. This makes them want to stay in the organization. * HEAL TH INSURANCE: Boots believes that their responsibility is to look after their colleague’s health which will help them deliver better customer service. This is particularly beneficial to the employees though this is not compulsory. It encourages them to stay with the organization hence longevity of service, intimate working knowledge and greater output. (www. boots. com) * RETAINING AND PROMOTION: The organization is decidedly particular about recruiting, retaining and promoting diverse employees in the organization. Therefore they strive for this through hard work and hence contribute enormously to the success of the organization. * ATTRACTIVE REMUNERATION: Salary is also another factor that encourages employees to work. If they are well paid they feel like coming to work coupled with a enjoyable working environment at Boots, their employees get an increase in salary every year especially when the economy is stable or growing. * HEALTH AND SAFETY: Boots always provide the right equipment to do the job. All the training regarding health and safety provide every employee to protect them as well as customers. (www. allianceboots. com) APPRAISAL SYSTEMS OF BOOTS: As mentioned above Boots appraises its employees once a year. They are informed when they are going to be appraised and what is expected of them. A form is given to each line manager for every employee just to tick the most suitable one. It describes the employees work performance. Feedback is given to employees, so they will know where to improve. The performance management cycle of Boots Plan for performance appraisal Informing employees about appraisal Feedback and working to achieve goal Performance appraisal of employees Appraisal systems depend upon the individual performance which includes quality of services, customer care knowledge, flexibility of working time, competences, skills, learning achievement, relationships with colleagues etc. ORGANISATIONAL RECORD KEEPING: It is where an organization records information from the time it creates to the time of its disposal. Record keeping is truly essential for an organization because it helps keeps the organization on track and thus achieves organizational goals. Record keeping helps the organization to monitors its financial transaction. In Boots, record keeping uses for verification financial transaction and recording information about employees such as employees personal data, training records, how many times an employee has been absent. Boots keeps its records for two years then at the end of the two the last year records destroyed and a new one is started again. (http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Records_management) Boots always keep employees personal data secretly and maintain the rules and regulation of the Data Act. All employees have personal record file where all the information are stored in secret. (www. 123helpme. com) CONCLUSION: Boots has a outstanding reputation about health and beauty products at the UK as well as all over the world. It is a delightful place to work everyone says. They have to work closely with manufacturers and pharmacists to improve health among the local communities as well as national level. Boots should give priorities about customers’ loyalty, retention, communication and in store marketing. In the current economic recession in the UK, they have to monitor all the financial activities to minimize the cost. There will be commitment and clear indicators from top level to lower level. Motivation is essential to business success. Boots needs to pay more attention about employees’ learning and development to meet the future demands of the organization.

Frederick Douglass And The Abolitionist Movement Essay

Frederick Douglass spoke to Washington, DC in 1876: â€Å"We must either have all the rights of American citizens, or we must be exterminated, for we can never again be slaves†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Foner, 1969, p. 320, as cited in Ballard, 2004, p. 53). This statement concretizes the inhumanity of slavery; its only equal is death. Douglass was born as a slave in Talbot County, Maryland. It was 1818 and slavery already existed for two hundred years in the United States (U. S. ). It took Douglass twenty years, before he escaped slavery. Before his escape, Douglass surreptitiously learned to read and write, and he soon rose as one of the most eloquent orators of the abolitionists. Using speech premeditated to distress, educate, and sometimes infuriate, Frederick Douglass encouraged the abolitionist movement. Douglass used his speeches to distress people about their prejudice, so that they would be aware of its inequitable and dangerous outcomes. When people were distressed of the realities and results of slavery, they would be more attracted by the principles and goals of the abolitionists. Douglass argued that slavery produces no benefits for the society. Slavery only leads to ignorance among blacks, which both negatively affects them and the whites. In â€Å"The Church and Prejudice,† Douglass asserted: â€Å"You degrade us, and then ask why we are degraded–you shut our mouths, and then ask why we don’t speak–you close our colleges and seminaries against us, and then ask why we don’t know more. † The blacks were disadvantaged by unawareness, while the whites were deprived of intellectual forces that the black people could have provided. In his speeches, Douglass further aimed to speak to both whites and blacks, so that they could feel slavery’s demeaning consequences. It was his way of using literacy to distribute power among the black people, without disempowering the whites. Lisa Sisco said that Douglass defined literacy as â€Å"shifting† as he showed an â€Å"understanding of literacy as a system of self-representation†¦ and as an avenue for political representation as he attempts to speak and write for an oppressed people without alienating his white readership† (p. 213 as cited in Ryden, 2005, p. 7). Slavery also compounds prejudice that would have marred a critical victory for the nation during the American Civil War (1861-1865). Douglass criticized how the American government would even imagine being a bigot in times of need, by not recruiting blacks as soldiers. He asked the President of the United States: â€Å"†¦if this dark and terrible hour of the nation’s extremity is a time for consulting a mere vulgar and unnatural prejudice? † Douglass spoke eloquently about how the blacks had helped the whites to rebel against the government, and so there should be no reason that the government would not employ black people to be soldiers of the state: â€Å"Rising above vulgar prejudice, the slaveholding rebel accepts the aid of the black man as readily as that of any other. If a bad cause can do this, why should a good cause be less wisely conducted? † He also made a compelling symbolism for a state fighting without the aid of the blacks: â€Å"Men in earnest don’t fight with one hand, when they might fight with two, and a man drowning would not refuse to be saved even by a colored hand. † Through this speech, Douglass distressed the audience into thinking that slavery does not make any sense at all, and only its abolition can protect the state from another secessionist movement and other threats to national security and peace. Douglass wanted to educate people about the grave failings of slavery through his speeches- slavery reduces people to beasts with no free will or self-control (DeLombard, 2001). If slavery was this immoral, Douglass could compel people to join the abolitionist movement. Slavery turns human beings into creatures of violence or submission, through a dialectical process embedded in the master-slave relationship. An article compared Douglass’ understanding of slavery to Hegel’s: Hegel â€Å"knew about real slaves revolting against real masters, and he elaborated his dialectic of lordship and bondage deliberately within this contemporary context† (Buck-Morss, 2000, p. 844 as cited in Kohn, 2005, p. 498). Douglass’ speeches related the dialectical impacts of slavery to all parties involved. First, slavery dehumanizes slaves. Douglass described the horrendous experiences of slaves under the white man. The verbal and physical abuse could only fit animals. These experiences of the slaves underlined the inhumanity of slavery. Second, Douglass argued that slavery dehumanizes masters as well. In â€Å"The Church and Prejudice,† he provided a fitting example of a slaveholder who acted like a vicious animal. Douglass said that there was a class leader master of the Methodist Church, who preached about deliverance and liberty. However, he also lashed Douglass’ cousin through the same thumbs that prayed, while using the words of the Bible to rationalize his illogical behavior: â€Å"He that knoweth his master’s will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes! † Douglass also educated people about the ills of prejudice on the protection of civil rights and liberties. In â€Å"What the Black Man Wants,† Douglass explained that black people have suffrage rights, simply because as human beings they do: â€Å"We want it because it is our right, first of all. No class of men can, without insulting their own nature, be content with any deprivation of their rights. † By asserting these rights, Douglass motivated people to believe that all human beings have human rights, so they would support the civil rights and freedoms that the abolitionist movement fought for. Douglass used his speeches to infuriate people into action, into destroying every form and face of slavery. In the speech â€Å"The Church and Prejudice,† Douglass narrated his experiences of religious bigotry: â€Å"[A minister looked to the door, where the blacks were and breathed heavily] Come up, colored friends, come up! for you know God is no respecter of persons! † This is an example of a speech that enraged people to question the sanity of slavery, when even â€Å"men of the altar† acted like beasts. This speech also uses humor to depict the dark comedy of slavery (Ganter, 2003). How can God differentiate between colored and white people? They are His children, are they not? Douglass also infuriated people by illustrating the bleakness of slavery and its different forms. In â€Å"What the black man wants,† Douglass defended the right of the colored people to choose employment: â€Å"†¦when any individual or combination of individuals undertakes to decide for any man when he shall work, where he shall work, at what he shall work, and for what he shall work,† it is still a form of slavery. By underlining how the government and white people preserved slavery even after the Declaration of Independence, Douglass enraged people to eradicate slavery. Douglass also incensed the people in his Fourth of July speech delivered in Rochester on July 5, 1852, where he assaulted the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. David W. Blight stressed that the attack came with Douglass repetitions of a harmless word, yours (p. 75 as cited in Ramsey, 2007, p. 29). Douglass said: â€Å"This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the Fourth of July. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. † The word â€Å"your† aimed to â€Å"alienate his audience as America has alienated him† (Ramsey, 2007, p. 29). Douglass aggravated listeners by enunciating that there was no real independence, only social exclusion and neglect: â€Å"This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. † Douglass’ rhetorical tactic meant to aggressively plead, by transferring the feeling of how the nation had abandoned him to listeners, so that they too would feel how difficult and iniquitous it was to be â€Å"orphaned† (Ramsey, 2007, p. 29; Waymer& Heath, 2007). His ending for speech emphasized his anger and resentment. He asked people to find another place that had been as vicious as the U. S. in upturning civil liberties and freedoms: â€Å"for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival. † This speech angered people to feel that racism brutally orphaned the whole society, and it was time to abolish slavery and its emerging forms. Douglass used the power of the spoken word to distress, educate, and sometimes infuriate, so that people would be persuaded to join the abolitionist movement. His speeches aroused emotions and intellectual understanding, which maximize logos and pathos as rhetorical strategies. By combining these strategies, Douglass could reach out to as many hearts and minds as possible- in either side of the color line. His earnest aim was to change attitudes and behavior toward the colored race and the idea of freedom and humanity. Douglass’ speeches have effectively expressed his core vision of society, a society of free and equal whites and blacks. References Ballard, B. J. (2004). Frederick Douglass and the ideology of resistance. Critical Review of International Social & Political Philosophy, 7 (4), 51-75. DeLombard, J. (2001). ‘Eye-witness to the cruelty’: Southern violence and northern testimony in Frederick Douglass’s American Literature, 73 (2), 245-275. Douglass, F. (1841). The church and prejudice. Retrieved from http://www. frederickdouglass. org/speeches/ _______. (1852). â€Å"What to the slave is the 4th of July? † Retrieved from http://www. freemaninstitute. com/douglass. htm _______. (1861). Fighting rebels with only one hand. Retrieved from http://www. frederickdouglass. org/speeches/ _______. (1865). What the black man wants. Retrieved from http://www. frederickdouglass. org/speeches/ Ganter, G. (2003). â€Å"He made us laugh some†: Frederick Douglass’s humor. African American Review, 37 (4), 535-552. Kohn, M. (2005). Frederick Douglass’s master-slave dialectic. Journal of Politics, 67 (2), 497-514. Ramsey, W. M. (2007). Frederick Douglass, Southerner. Southern Literary Journal, 40 (1), 19-38. Ryden, W. (2005). Conflicted literacy: Frederick Douglass’s critical model. Journal of Basic Writing, 24 (1), 4-23. Waymer, D. & Heath, R. (2007). Non-profit activist public relations and the paradox of the positive: A case study of Frederick Douglass’ â€Å"Fourth of July Address. † National Communication Association, Conference, 1-39.