Comment 2 Pick a War (View Point Aggresor Research Paper

Comment 2 Pick a War (View Point Aggresor - Research Paper Example However, Bulgaria was sceptical of Greece’s strengths and was concerned that Greece was on the brink of war with the Porte relative to dispute over Crete. In addition, the weaknesses implicit in the Ottomans particularly during the Italo-Turkish War motivated these states to look beyond their own issues with one another. Thus, in 1912 a defensive alliance was signed between Serbia and Bulgaria. Greece followed with a similar alliance with Sofia and Sofia followed by singing a similar agreement with Montenegro. As Hodge puts it, â€Å"Balkan states formed a network of alliances against Constantinople†.5 B. The primary that set off the shooting World powers became concerned about their interests in the region. For example, France was concerned that Russia would gain dominance in the Balkans. Austria-Hungary was particularly concerned about Serbia’s possible expansion since it sat on the southern border. As a result, Austria-Hungary appealed to other European powers to warn Balkan states not to upset the â€Å"balance of power.†6 Nevertheless, the Balkan League was convinced of their power and on 8 October 1912, Montenegro declared war on the Ottoman Empire. Four days later, the remaining states in the Balkan League would follow suit.7 Thus, the Balkan League was the aggressor in the Balkan War of 1912. C. Was the war legal when it happened? Would it be today? The applicable international instrument regulating the law of war at the time was the Hague Convention 1907. According to Article 1 of the 1907 Convention, states may not commence hostilities against one another unless an express advance notice is given â€Å"in the form of a declaration.†8 Since the war started with a declaration of war on the part of Montenegro which was followed by declarations by the remaining members of the Balkan League, the war was legal in 1912. However, today, the war would not be legal pursuant to the UN Charter in which various articles insist up on the peaceful settlement of disputes between states, forbid the use of military force and calls for respect of the integrity of sovereignty. The right to use force is only justified in defence of state sovereignty and generally where a threat is eminent.9 D. The Secondary Cause of War The seeds of discord leading to the first Balkan War were planted since the 1800s. At that time a wave of nationalism sweeping France and Germany filtered over into the Balkan Peninsular. Initially, the idea of nationalism in the Balkans centered around a demand for standardizing a Balkan language and thus emphasized a connection to a Balkan culture that predated the Ottomans. In the meantime, the nationalism movement in the Balkans took on a political tone. With nationalism taking on a political tone, there was a â€Å"strong desire to achieve national unity† which â€Å"motivated the Balkan states to confront their erstwhile Ottoman conquerors†.10 There was a common belief among Balka n nationalist movements that in order for the Balkan states to move forward successfully, they needed to be united.

Eco204 potato chip monopoly Essay Example for Free

Eco204 potato chip monopoly Essay A monopoly is an industry composed of only one firm that produces a product for which there are no close substitutions and in which significant barriers exist to prevent new firms from entering into the industry (Case, 2009). In a different definition, it can be distinguished by a lack of financially viable competition to produce the goods or services as well as to substitute goods. Monopolies often refer to a procedure by which a company could gain a determinedly larger market than what would be expected under an ideal competition. This paper will emphasize on several components such as how a monopoly can benefit towards stakeholders or owners. Also, how the changes could take place according to price and output of the goods and services in a particular market place and how the market structure can be beneficial to the Wonks potato chip monopoly. This paper addresses a particular incident regarding a company called â€Å"Wonk† that produced potato chips. In 2008, two lawyers started acquiring aggressive potato chip firms with the plan to create a monopoly firm ‘Wonk’. From this perspective, those lawyers hired a consulting firm to manage and estimate the long-run competitive stability of this firm as monopoly. Again, with rule of marketplace a monopoly is a company which produces goods and services for which there no substitution in that particular area to compete for those certain products or services and prohibits new companies enter in that market to serve that community. By acquiring all the farms that produce similar products like potato chips those lawyers made a perfect monopoly of its kind. A perfect or pure monopoly would definitely make this firm to control the entire business of that kind. This is how this â€Å"Wonk† takes over its significant position and which reflect on the market demand curve. This company with two lawyers now would have power over everything from output quantity, to price point and as well as customer choice. In this case the cost of production would the only thing remaining against them. When the firm has over all control to what extent of production would take place and how much production would be continued based on demand and thus the firm controls their position on the demand curve. This would be a great example of Monopoly. By running a company as a monopoly there would be no difference between the product market and the company. (Case, 2009) Since the company is the market place where it would eventually decide what move should they make, what is going on in terms of external and internal operation of the business. This situation could generate a significant price unfairness, which would definitely impact families, consumers and suppliers of the goods and services. This kind of discrimination could affect suppliers being charged a higher fee for the similar goods and services in the area where they reside or within their reach. In these circumstances, monopoly would ultimately affect the society and regular consumers. Some families would have to pay higher than others for trading the same goods and services if it was purchased from different location or city where this type of Monopoly does not exist. When a manufacturer negotiates a lower rate that might be a different case whether it acts as Monopoly or not it takes a different direction and breaks the monopoly games. As a business owner or consumers, it is definitely not very beneficial to have a firm that is monopoly due to its power and control that affects consumers or the society. One of the most important components of monopoly is the improved price discrimination which often allows a monopolist to increase greater profit by charging more money to those consumers that require in higher demand and those who need the product more or who have a better ability to bear the cost. For example, most of the textbooks cost significantly higher in the United States than in a third world country like Sudan. Monopoly embraced company has serious power to be in charge of price point, which can affect the business and supplier and then ultimately the consumer. In this case the business of Wonk as monopoly, the owners are required to only have only a few choices to acquire the potato chips ingredients products. This type of situation obviously playing a huge role in monopoly where owners selling price would be affected if the remarkable producer started increasing their price point based on this simple fact that they have the authority and own all market shares. This control of the market would definitely affect the buyer’s price and finally when the consumers acquire. If a company increase or decrease the prices in the market, the producers can change and adjust the demand and total quantity of goods and services that manufactured for consumers. Monopolies are usually good for the company owners and shareholders when they know that the market is captured by their company. Therefore, they attract more people to buy shares due to better revenue and sound financial outcomes. Similarly, the Wonk potato chips company would benefit by operating as a monopoly and take advantage of the situation. In this case, Wonk would have the precise knowledge and understanding of how they would move their products and fully aware of the market condition. Since they control the overall market they would not have any competition with their products to move whenever it requires. By controlling production and the amount of product to be received by the consumer, Wonk Company would control the selling price due to all the power of what a monopoly creates demand on their own. Since, the company is free from competition they could easily increase their price of products as much as they want. Therefore they would benefit from this opportunity once all price position is recognized. If the company increases its price too high at certain limit, Wonk could face a serious challenge to satisfy the consumers. But, that affect in the long run. Ultimately Wonk has the control to set pricing by operating as a monopoly. This decision as to where to set pricing can ultimately impact the demand curve. When company set its price the consumers could miss the value of products and services in a fair market. As a producer or a supplier it is very important to continuously satisfy customers and consumers and should be the first choice to satisfy from the chain. This situation could generate an impact on market demand resulting in a loss of revenue. By setting price point to low, the manufacturer may need to sell much more product to compensate for production costs. When dealing with monopolies in other areas except food manufacturing industry, we could determine that there is no limit to how high price point. But for this particular industry, I would say that the price point would not increase right away since the Wonk has realized that it’s not viable for them to increase price point in an higher set, because it could drive all the customers away from the business. Of course I do believe that the company would increase the price in acceptable manner that consumers still keep faith on the company. Wonk, a monopoly business would have many significant benefits as an ideal, healthy company in perfect situation with any competition. Since they are the only the producer of goods and services in the market the potato chip market in whole would be fully controlled by Wonk. Since A perfect competition industry would allow a fairness of price setting, most companies would sell competitive products, and there would no company larger to capture a unwanted price. Here, Wonks most certainly would buy out all relevant potato chip rivals and thus, they would control the potato chip industry which would not qualify for a perfect competition market. Therefore, their profit would sky rocketed and on the other had consumers would be refrained from a better price for quality products that has competition. In an ideal world as a consumer, I believe everyone would contribute to a perfect competition and buy goods and services from a monopoly free, ideal competitive industry. In a competitive market the buyer has the option to choose what products is suitable for his or her needs and would have many choices to pick from. The biggest advantage for the customers would be many different option and types of products and many different prices (Case, 2009). Monopolistic market drives the producer to shares many small segments of the market which usually helps keep the price of the products in an acceptable stage and consumers could afford happily. I believe different choice of prices would absolutely be an advantageous method for to the consumers. Wonks could face charges for practicing monopoly with the Sherman Act of 1890. The Sherman Act states that it is illegal for an individual or a company to operate a monopoly business or attempt to monopolize. There are many different government authorities are in charge to restrict the rules. The offices that handle the authority to implement and regulate are Federal Trade Commission and Antitrust Division of the Justice Department. By enforcing these acts and laws the Federal Government has been fully determined to keep firms to stay away from monopolize. Monopoly business, Wonk restricts a good fairness market which only made profitable for itself but made the consumers refrained from open and fair choices of market shares. Wonk made them the only choice available for consumers regardless of quality products such as potato chips. As consumer, I would not accept one choice of product. I would like to have many different price and quality products available for me to be fully satisfied. Thus it is absolutely clear the reason why federal governments put laws on the table to protect customer’s right and let other business have their opportunity to serve with variety of goods and services. It is clear that Wonk, a monopoly company certainly in control of everything and benefits from every direction from price to quality to consumer’s choice. References Case, K. E. , Fair, R. C. , and Oster, S. M. (2009) Principles of Microeconomics (9th ed). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Kelvin Lancaster (1974), Introduction to Modern microeconomics, Second Edition, United States: Rand McNally College Pub. Co Michael Parkin (2008) Economics, Eight Edition. United States: Pearson Education Published by Addison-Wesley, Inc. Paul Krugman, Robin Wells (2010), Microeconomics, Second Edition, United States: W H Freeman Co.

Energy Crisis In Pakistan Environmental Sciences Essay

Energy Crisis In Pakistan Environmental Sciences Essay Pakistan has been facing an energy crisis since the last few years, which has seriously affected its people. The gap between demand and supply has been constantly widening. People are spending sleepless nights in summer. Shortage of power supply has assumed the role of a fundamental necessity, becoming a serious policy dilemma. It needs sustained efforts and long-term policies to overcome this crisis. Sincere effort is required to ensure sustained and consistent supply of energy. Pakistan is generating 48 percent of its electricity from gas, 33 percent from hydel, 17 percent from oil, two percent from nuclear and one percent from coal. If we examine the figures, it is clear that Pakistan is underutilizing its natural resources to generate electricity. The power crisis is proving to be unbearable day by day. The sad state of affairs is that despite having enormous renewable resources of energy, Pakistan has to import a huge amount of hydrocarbons from abroad to meet its energy needs. Pakistan, a country blessed with many natural resources for the past few years has been facing the problem of load-shedding due to the electricity demand being more then the production capacity of the national power grid. The first thing to do about it is to look at the recent power history of the country to get a better idea of how it was created and its many causes. In 1996 Pakistan had the ability to produce about 15000 Megawatts of electricity which was more then enough for our own needs and we had a surplus of power present in the country and talks were taking place with neighbouring countries in which we would export electricity to them. So considering that how is that after just 14 years later we have reached such a condition that we dont even have enough power to meet our needs? The first and foremost issue is that the rulers since 1996 did not bother to make any new power projects and to add additional power to the natural grid. In 14 years our production capacity has increased by just 1000-2000 Megawatts which reflects poorly on us as a country and our leadership for not having the foresight to see this issue looming. The other is that the country is rich in natural resources and we have not all invested in the alternative sources available to make our power generation . We have sun for the most part of the year in majority parts of the country and one alternative is to tap into the potential of solar power to produce energy since in it the cost of producing energy is very less as the biggest source (SUN) is free and using its heat wont cost anything. The other alternative available to us is the wind source in which we can make wind mills or wind turbines and have power generated from them which will again be quite cheap as we are just using the energy of the wind costing nothing to use. Since we generate about 40% of our total power by hydro electricity we can look at this source to produce power as well. It has a start up cost and after that producing electricity from it is very cheap aswell since we are just using the water to produce electricity. This might not be the best choice for us since in winter when the water supply gets low then we wont be able to produce electricity by it and which can lead to a power shortage. Nuclear Reactors are another option available for us to produce electricity by using them but its not very advisable for us since they have a very high building cost and generating that much capital to make a lot of nuclear power plants will be almost impossible for a developing country like us which already has a shortage of funds and capital. But having a little of our total production by nuclear power can be seen as a good thing. Most of our electricity is produced by thermal power plants which burn oil or gas and then produce electricity. Since the country is deficient in oil resources we import oil for this purpose and pay a heavy import bill for the oil. The intelligent thing is to move away from the power production from oil and gas since the raw material necessary for the functioning of the power plant is so expensive to get. And seeing the gas crisis in the country currently with a gas shortage predicted to worsen in the coming years we should start moving away from the gas power plants as well and use our gas for more important purposes. We have one of the largest coal deposits in the world in Tharparkar Desert, Sindh so why we have not started utilizing that remains a mystery. The power generation in the thermal power plants can be switched to coal (which is present in a very large quantity locally) and extracted from Tharparkar to meet the demand of the country in the power sector. By doing all this we can save a lot of money for the country and use it in other sectors. End our dependence on expensive foreign oil and become self-reliant on the coal and then consequently the power sector. Now the real question which comes to mind is that were the people in the government sleeping for the past 14 years? Did they not realize that the power needs of the country would increase? (which has increased by about 500 megawatts annually) and so for that they needed to make sure that some power projects were launched ensure the country didnt face this power problem? Theres no use in crying over spilt milk so talking about should have happened wont change anything. But now we should look towards the future and talk about instead of what we HAVE TO DO to end the power crisis. Now Looking into the administrative causes of the energy crisis, lack of proper planning is the most important. Lack of proper conservation methods is another cause of the energy crisis. Energy sector of Pakistan is considered to be under-developed; It is because of our poor management and planning System, with untapped potential for development growth of the Pakistan. Now we will highlight how energy consumption is in the Pakistan and were our energy is consuming. Here we are dividing it in the 5 sectors those are consuming our energy of the Pakistan and how much their consuming percentage. Our some government sectors and some big Industrial sectors are wasting our energy because they consume it but they do not pay its dues So there for our Country Pakistan is facing the Energy crises which we will discuss here below that why our country Pakistan is going to face the energy crisis still. So here we are talking about the 5 sectors whose using energy. Those 5 sectors names are Domestic Sectors, Commercial Sectors, Industrial Sectors, Agriculture Sectors and Other Sectors. these Sectors are using energy with the different roles of dues that their unit rates are different and their taxes are also different which they should pay.  In the 2003 Pakistan total energy consumption was 52.7 GWH and in the 2009 Pakistan Energy consumption was 70.4 GWH and now In the Pakistan Energy consumption is more than 80 GWH So you can judge that why Pakistan is fa cing the Energy Crisis now a days. .Now we will discuss how Pakistan is generating electricity from sources of energy .We are generating electricity from 4 sources in Pakistan. One is Gas, second is hydel third is nuclear and fourth is oil. These four sources are used in Pakistan to for the production of electricity. Now we will discuss the companies who are generating electricity actually basically there are 9 companies who are working for the production of energy (electricity).These 9 companies are WAPDA, UCh, KAPSO, KESC, other IPPS and LIBERTY,PAEC,ROUSCH and HUBCO. They are working for energy producing tasks. As recently as 2001, the country had 4,000 megawatts of excess power capacity. Today unfortunately the situation has gained threatening prospects.  According to a research most of the high enthalpy geothermal resources of the world lie within the seismic belts passing through Pakistan.  The major resources of energy are oil, gas, petroleum  products, coal, nuclear, solar, biomass and wind energy. Let us chalk out the reasons for shortage of energy. Bad priorities, poor management and lack of accountability can be denoted as the reasons for dearth of energy in Pakistan. The number of consumers of electricity are now increased owing to the rapid urbanization process. The facility of electricity is now provided to the remote villages. We waste a lot of energy, about 15 to 20 percent through poor  distribution  system. Industrial, transport and domestic sectors are the three important consumers of energy.  Few years back Pakistan used to get half of its electricity from hydel power and remaining from thermal generation. However there is a limit to the extent of exploitation of hydel resources and thermal power plants due to environmental and other concerns.  To meet the challenge there is a dire need to go to the alternate sources of energy. Some people suggest that process of converting coal into product gas underground can be a good alternate source of energy. Technically this process is called as underground coal classification. Through this the underground deposit of coal is treated with controlled fire. Gradually the coal turns into gas. The largest coal reserves of Pakistan exist in Thar. There this source can be encashed. Besides coal, the renewable energy as biomass has solutions to our problems. Biomass, material derived from plants or animals, includes wastes, agricultural residues and garbage. It is suggested that subsidies and tax concessions must be provided for importing machinery for establishing biogas power plants in Pakistan. It can prove to be a great source of energy for us as Pakistan is an agricultural country. Come to  solar energy panels, though initial cost of  installing solar panels  is comparatively high but through them the highest levels of efficiency can be reached. I visited Baluchistan recently and was really surprised to see the great solar potential there. It is not only the valley of minerals but it has a lot of wind and  solar energy, having a scattered habitat and ample sunshine. But to my utter dismay the  number of solar panels  installed  there were very few. Some important advantages which favor the use of  solar energy  use in Pakistan include low operational and maintenance cost, environment friendly dimension etc. similarly the wind energy is also in excess and we can harness this energy in a much more effective way. Wind can be utilized to produce electricity at the coastal areas. If power plants are set up driven by the wind energy along the coastline and this vent ure is handed over to foreign investors, the results can be quite satisfactory. Manufacture of wind generators can be made indigenously. Still other sources apart from hydel and thermal which can meet the growing demand nuclear energy can also overcome the energy needs. Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission has developed a large infrastructure to manufacture equipment for power but even then we are not able to make considerable progress in the nuclear field.   More and more nuclear reactors for power generation must be built. Similarly, hot climatic  conditions  of some areas of upper Sindh and Southern Punjab may prove to be a source of  solar energy. We have to devise bold and concrete ways on a war footing to overcome the electricity deficit coupled with an instant change in attitude at the earliest. The Quaid-i-Azam said: Let us mobilize all our resources in a systematic and organized way and tackle the grave issues that confront us with grim determination and  discipline  worthy of a great nation.   A collective national effort is needed to face the challenge .Prompt measures need to be taken by the government. One other suggestion is that the existing thermal power plants running on expensive imported  furnace oil  can be converted into natural gas and afterwards to coal. The government can go for establishing a government body for fixing targets for development of power sectors. Ways must also be devised to stop powe r theft besides transmission and  distribution  losses. The long transmission lines connecting grid with hydel stations are faced with transmission losses. These hydel stations are located mostly in the north of the country while thermal units are mainly  installed  in the centre and southern areas of Pakistan.   Political controversies relating to Kalabagh dam must be resolved. In this connection seminars and media can play a good role. The energy crisis has led to a negative impact on direct foreign investment. Investors require a sustained, secure and cheap power supply in any country. In Pakistan, no such facility is available because of which many investors are not willing to come forth. The long-term solution of the energy crisis is to build mega dams to store water and generate electricity. Government power bodies like WAPDA and KESC should initiate plans to supply energy. In a nutshell, energy is the lifeline of a nation and plays a vital role in national progress and economic development of any country. It needs sincere and dedicated efforts of our policy makers to find solutions to meet the energy requirements of the nation Causes of Energy Crisis: Pakistans energy crisis traces its roots to following distinct causes: i. Growing Energy Demand Over the years there is greater need of energy because of; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ increase in population, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ enhancement in lifestyle à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ industrial and agricultural growth à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ greater transportation needs ii. Lack of proactive and integrated planning for production of energy: Pakistan has had wider potentials to tap energy, however, due to lack of any integrated/proactive planning, very less number of power producing plant were installed to meet futuristic demands. Resultantly, over the years, the gap between energy demand and supply drastically grew and now against demand of 20000 MW, we are having around 11500 MW. iii. Imbalanced energy energy mix Energy mix in Pakistan is quite imbalance in comparison to other countries, with greater reliance on non-renewable resources of gas (43.7 %) and oil (29 % majority of which is imported). Prices of petroleum products/crude oil fluctuate and in current Afro-Arab political crisis, the oil prices are likely to increase manifold affecting oil prices in Pakistan. A rational energy mix planning ought to be developed giving greater dependency to renewable (hydel power), indigenous (coal) and alternative energy resources (wind and solar energy). Nuclear energy can iv. Non-utilization of enormous indigenous energy resources . Consequences of Energy Crisis: i. Economic Factors: Energy is pivotal for running all other resources and crisis of energy directly influences all other sectors of the economy. The economic progress is Hampered by decline in agricultural productivity as well as by halting in operations of Industries. One important factor of lower GDP and inflation of commodity prices in recent years is attributed to shortfalls in energy supply. ii. Agriculture Sector: Agricultural productivity of Pakistan is decreasing due to provision of energy for running tube wells, agricultural machinery and production of fertilizers and pesticides. Thus higher energy means higher agricultural productivity. iii. Industrial Sector: Nearly all Industrial units are run with the energy and breakage in energy supply is having dire consequences on industrial growth. As a result of decline in energy supply, industrial units are not only being opened, but also the existing industrial units are gradually closing. iv. Unemployment: By closure of industrial units and less agricultural productivity, new employment opportunities ceased to exist and already employed manpower is shredded by the employers to increase their profit ratios. Thus energy crisis contributes towards unemployment. v. Social Issues: This factor is primarily related to the domestic usage of energy (cooking, heating and water provision). Load shedding cause unrest and frustration amongst the people and results in agitation against the government. vi. Poverty: Declination in economic growth, lower agricultural productivity, unemployment and shackling industrial growth result in increasing poverty. Currently, around forty percent of our population is living beyond poverty line and this ratio is increasing day by day. Ample control of energy crisis will surely yield in curbing the menace of poverty. Energy Crisis has, moreorless, plagued all sectors of Pakistans machinery ranging from economy to industry, agriculture to social life, inflation to poverty and it is hampering national progress in a drastic manner. Nonetheless, menace of energy crisis can be overwhelmed by government through making effective policies and its proactive implementation. Simultaneously, it is the responsibility of us, the people of Pakistan, to utilize the available energy astutely and wisely to play our due role for progress of the country. Causes of Energy Crisis: Pakistans energy crisis traces its roots to following distinct causes: i. Growing Energy Demand Over the years there is greater need of energy because of; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ increase in population, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ enhancement in lifestyle à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ industrial and agricultural growth à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ greater transportation needs ii. Lack of proactive and integrated planning for production of energy: Pakistan has had wider potentials to tap energy, however, due to lack of any integrated/proactive planning, very less number of power producing plant were installed to meet futuristic demands. Resultantly, over the years, the gap between energy demand and supply drastically grew and now against demand of 20000 MW, we are having around 11500 MW. iii. Imbalanced energy energy mix Energy mix in Pakistan is quite imbalance in comparison to other countries, with greater reliance on non-renewable resources of gas (43.7 %) and oil (29 % majority of which is imported). Prices of petroleum products/crude oil fluctuate and in current Afro-Arab political crisis, the oil prices are likely to increase manifold affecting oil prices in Pakistan. A rational energy mix planning ought to be developed giving greater dependency to renewable (hydel power), indigenous (coal) and alternative energy resources (wind and solar energy). Nuclear energy can iv. Non-utilization of enormous indigenous energy resources: Consequences of Energy Crisis: Economic Factors: From all other sectors of the economy Energy is pivotal for running all other resources and crisis of energy directly influences. The economic progress is hampered by decline in agricultural productivity as well as by halting in operations of industries. One important factor of lower GDP and inflation of commodity prices in recent years is attributed to shortfalls in energy supply. Agriculture Sector: Agricultural productivity of Pakistan is decreasing due to provision of energy for running tube wells, agricultural machinery and production of fertilizers and pesticides. Thus higher energy means higher agricultural productivity. iii. Industrial Sector: Nearly all Industrial units are run with the energy and breakage in energy supply is having dire consequences on industrial growth. As a result of decline in energy supply, industrial units are not only being opened, but also the existing industrial units are gradually closing. iv. Unemployment: By closure of industrial units and less agricultural productivity, new employment opportunities ceased to exist and already employed manpower is shredded by the employers to increase their profit ratios. Thus energy crisis contributes towards unemployment. v. Social Issues: This factor is primarily related to the domestic usage of energy (cooking, heating and water provision). Load shedding cause unrest and frustration amongst the people and results in agitation against the government. vi. Poverty: Declination in economic growth, lower agricultural productivity, unemployment and shackling industrial growth result in increasing poverty. Currently, around forty percent of our population is living beyond poverty line and this ratio is increasing day by day. Ample control of energy crisis will surely yield in curbing the menace of poverty. Energy Crisis has, moreorless, plagued all sectors of Pakistans machinery ranging from economy to industry, agriculture to social life, inflation to poverty and it is hampering national progress in a drastic manner. Nonetheless, menace of energy crisis can be overwhelmed by government through making effective policies and its proactive implementation. Simultaneously, it is the responsibility of us, the people of Pakistan, to

Gateway Essay -- essays research papers

Gateway Inc. Issues:  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The US personal computer market continued to struggle and Dell had just lowered its prices about 20%. As a result, its stock price rose 13% and it gained more market share.  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  How should Gateway respond to Dell and its recent price cuts? o  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lowering Gateway prices could jeopardize gross profit margins o  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Conversely, unit sales were already down so there was the threat of additional sales loss  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Resource Allocation: o  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Should Gateway focus on US consumer sales more or US business sales?  §Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Keeping in mind that Gateway planned to discontinue company-owned operations outside North America at the end of 2001 o  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  How should Gateway run its sales and advertising operations? (Keeping in mind, the 2001 advertising budget is about $20 million less than in 1999 at $239.6 million)  §Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  How much emphasis should be placed on PC’s and PC-related units v. â€Å"beyond-the-box† products and services?  §Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Where should Gateway’s marketing efforts be directing customers: telephone and its website or to its Country Stores?  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Operating issues in regards to selling, general and administrative (s, g, a) expenses: o  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Overall company s, g, a expenses would decline due to:  §Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Closing of North America manufacturing, sales and service operations  §Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Reduction in the number of Country Stores  §Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Less advertising fees and expenditures  §Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  End of alliance with OfficeMax o  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  However, decisions about continued s, g, a expenses still needed to be made:  §Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Does the Gateway store concept need more thought pertaining to Gateway’s business model of operating as built-to-order?  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Gateway’s gross margin and operating costs needed attention in order to once again be profitable o  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The influential aspects among its customer sales mix, its product sales mix and its sales mix across its 3 distribution channels needed to be monitored a... ...f both and combat Dell’s lower prices. Ways in which this could potentially happen is by offering basic beyond-the-box products with the purchase of a PC and aggressively encourage upgrades and additional features customers can’t refuse. Another way to counter other PC manufactures is through differentiation. By Gateway focusing on operating its build-to-order method as efficiently as possible, exploiting its distinct third channel of stores and staying technologically as innovative as possible, it is able to differentiate itself apart from its competitors.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lastly, in addition to its pursuit of the consumer market, I think Gateway could benefit from more assertively targeting the business segment that has been ruled by Dell. It’s a fact, that PC’s sold for business-use tend to be of a higher quality and therefore, more expensive with higher margins. In 2000, 65% of Dell’s PC sales went towards the business sector whereas Gateway’s main market was from consumer sales, which is often less profitable. If Gateway could go after the business market, without completely losing its consumer sales base, it would be able to better compete, especially with Dell.

Consumer Behavior – Chapter 1

Consumer behavior chapter 1 – introduction In our ever-increasing global market, attention needs to be paid to the global consumer in order to identify who they are. Marketers and consumer behaviour researchers are constantly attempting to determine the similarities and the differences of the multifaceted global consumer. Some general theory about the sociological and psychological influences on consumer behaviour may be common to all Western cultures, but there are still strong com/pricing-psychology-consumption/">regional consumption trends.Consumer behaviour as it pertains to the marketplace is concerned with the manner in which consumers purchase and use products and services, and how these goods are incorporated into their lives. Researchers use various techniques to determine the features of consumers. These techniques include categorisation by the use of descriptive characteristics, such as demographics and psychographics. Individual consumers are part of a larger socie ty with common cultural values and beliefs, which can be further segmented into smaller groups, or subcultures.There are regional differences between consumers from different European countries, despite their being part of the larger European community. Marketers use  market segmentation strategies  to adapt their communications to meet the varied needs of a diverse target market. Consumer behaviour is good business! Marketers who understand their customers' needs and wants do better than their competitors. The essential component is deciding who to target and how.Marketers do this by defining markets and then dividing these markets into smaller chunks, or segments. A segment is based upon the demographic and psychographic aspects of the targeted population. The consumer's response is the ultimate test of whether or not a marketing strategy will succeed. However, initial consumer testing is not an absolute science. Sometimes a product can fail its initial test marketing and stil l go on to be highly successful. Sony has responded to market and consumer changes with its latest MP3 player, a rival to the Apple iPod.In attempting to define accurate information about the traits, habits, likes and dislikes of consumers, effective market segmentation separates members of a population into smaller segments of consumers who share unique characteristics that set them apart from the main population. Market segmentation  can be described as ‘slicing up' the market into bit-sized chunks of information. It is essential that for effective segmentation the following criteria are met: Consumers within the identified segment share similar product needs that will be different to other consumers in other segments.Important differences between the segments can be clearly identified. The segment is large enough to be profitable. Consumers in the segment can be reached with an appropriate marketing mix. The consumers in the segment will respond in the desired way to the marketing mix. Two important segmentation tools are the use of demographics and psychographics to determine unique attributes of the targeted population. Demographic statistics measure the observable aspects of the population. Psychographics are far more subtle. They illustrate the differences in consumers' personalities and cannot be measured objectively.Demographic variables include: Age Different age groups have different needs and wants. Consumers in similar age groups often share similar values and cultural experiences. Gender The behaviours and tastes of men and women are constantly evolving. It is thought that gender segmentation is an unintended result of marketing strategy. Family structure Marital status and family are important demographic variables that often affect spending priorities. Social class and income People in the same social class often have similar occupations and may share values and interests.Income is a good determinant of buying power and market potential . Race and ethnicity Immigrants from Asia and Africa are the fastest growing ethnic groups in Europe. Increased multiculturalism creates new opportunities for marketers. Geography Cultural differences play an important role in consumption patterns. Within the European context, consumption is common across cultures, but it is also specific between different cultural groups. European segmentation factors include: Consumption traits that are common across different cultures. Consumption traits that are specific to cultural groups. Relationship Marketing: building bonds with consumers The more marketers understand their current and potential consumers, the more effective they will be. This concept has developed into the role of  relationship marketing, in which marketers build long-term relationships between the company and the consumer. Relationship marketing is seen as the big trend for marketers. In conjunction with relationship marketing, a major growth area has been the need to g ather and manage accurate information about customers. This has culminated in the formation of sophisticated  database marketing  that tracks consumer buying habits.However, this ‘big brother is watching you' concept intimidates some consumers. Database marketing is required to comply with respondent confidentiality restrictions. As global consumers, we are influenced significantly by marketers through a number of mechanisms centred upon building relationships with customers. Advertisements illustrate how we should act and define roles, as well as informing about the use of products. As of 2006, the majority of people will live in urban centres and the number of ‘megacities' will increase to 26 in 2015.A controversial effect of the sophisticated marketing strategies used to communicate with these large potential markets is the emergence of  global consumer culture, in which people are united by their common devotion to brand-name consumer products, film stars and m usic celebrities. 2 Virtual consumption and the power of crowds There is little doubt that the digital revolution is one of the most significant influences on consumer behaviour, and the impact of the Web will continue to expand as more and more people around the world log on. It is not all bout businesses selling to customers (B2C e-commerce).The cyberspace explosion has caused a revolution in consumer-to-consumer activity (C2C e-commerce): welcome to the new world of  virtual brand communities. A close cousin of the global consumer is the  Euro-consumer. Much research and marketing effort is focused upon determining the characteristics of this consumer. Findings indicate links between social class, culture and income, with consumers who expressed more positive attitudes towards cultural change being more likely to consume luxury goods, despite their demographics and social class. 2 Marketing EthicsThere is a constant battle between achievement of organisational profit goals an d the necessity to conduct business honestly and ethically. 1 Prescribing Ethical Standards of Conduct Organisations often devise codes of conduct for their employees, and marketing associations provide guidelines for conduct, such as the following: Disclosure of the substantial risks associated with a product or service. Identification of added features that will increase the cost. Avoidance of false or misleading advertising. Rejection of high-pressure selling. Prohibition of selling or fund-raising under the guise of market research. Socially Responsible Behaviour Some marketers continue to violate the bond of trust with the consumer with the use of ‘bait-and-switch' tactics and misleading claims. A critical barometer of ethical behaviour is the action taken by companies to rectify a problem with their advertising or products. Benetton discontinued their controversial advertisements that featured the depiction of an AIDS victim and which were deemed to be exploitative by co nsumers. Much criticism has been leveled at marketing techniques that influence consumers to purchase products that are not essential.Philosophers view this conundrum from the perspective of individuals exercising their free will and free action in coming to decisions. However, this clinical approach supports the argument so long as only informative advertising is used in the marketing communication. Any other type of advertising – such as ones with imagery and underlying motives – cannot be so clinically rationalized. The raging debate that marketing techniques manipulate customers continues. We explore this issue from three perspectives. 3 Do Marketers Create Artificial Needs?Some conservative traditionalists believe that advertising can lead to the moral decay of societies by the pursuit of hedonistic pleasure, while some liberals believe that the misleading promises of material pleasure function to buy off people who would otherwise be revolutionaries working to ch ange the system. Through advertising, then, the system creates demands that only its products can satisfy. Numerous responses to this criticism abound, including the argument that needs are a basic biological motive and that a want represents one way that society has taught us that the need can be satisfied.The primary objective of advertising is to create awareness of needs, rather than to create the needs themselves. Needs are thus something that we are socialized to have. Marketers must be cognisant of the fact that they contribute heavily to the socializing influence of individuals in modern society and, thus, influence needs. Some commentators believe that purchasing decisions are manipulated by marketers using their understanding of psychology and the social sciences. They claim that marketers devise advertising techniques that manipulate a majority of individuals. A sense of social responsibility should underpin all advertising.There is little doubt that advertising creates a nd changes patterns of consumer behaviour. The central issue is whether the audience is discerning enough to see through the marketing hype and still make a deliberative judgement. Have a look at the  PBS Frontline website on ‘The Persuaders', which explores the world of modern marketers and advertisers, and discusses the methods they use to decipher who we are and what we want. As powerful an influence as advertising is, in the majority of cases advertisers still do not know enough about their target audience to effectively manipulate them.This fact is supported by the high degree of product failures (40-80 per cent) that occur. 4 Interdisciplinary Influences on the Study of Consumer Behaviour Consumer behaviour is a multidisciplinary field that integrates a vast array of disciplines, from psychophysiology to sociology and anthropology. Each discipline views the subject from their own perspective, which results in a rich sociological interpretation of a fascinating and dyna mic topic. The figure below illustrates the integrated and interconnected approach to consumer behaviour from both a macro and micro perspective.The macro perspective represents the social focus and the micro perspective represents the individual focus. [pic] pyramid of comsumer behavior Consumer research has adopted two popular forms of research paradigms, or sets of beliefs: Positivism Believes that human reason is supreme and that objective truth is only revealed by science. Structured and ordered. Stresses functionality. Celebrates technology. Regards the world as an ordered, rational place with a clearly defined past, present and future. Emphasizes material well-being, and is based predominantly on the homogenous views of a predominantly Western and male culture.Interpretivism Believes the social and cultural world in which we live is complex. Dislikes too much emphasis on science and technology. Emphasizes the importance of symbolic and subjective experiences. Believes individ uals construct meanings based on unique, shared cultural experiences, therefore there are no right or wrong references. Consumption is interpreted as a set of diverse experiences. Many consumer behaviour experts believe that the existing predominant positivistic paradigm of consumer behaviour is undergoing a paradigm shift, due to challenge from the competing paradigm of interpretivism.

Pecan Tree Essay

1. Hi, my name is John Doe. I am here to inform you on the historical background of pecan trees. First I will explain the characteristics of pecan trees and then move into who founded the tree first and how the tree benefited them. Lastly, I will bring you up to date on how the tree has been domesticated and the benefits that it brings today. 2. The pecan tree starts off small and eventually gets bigger over time like pretty much everything else in the world. The best chance for this tree to survive is to plant it in alluvial or other words (riverbed) soil that is deep and well drained.However, pecan trees can grow on any soil that allows water penetration to a depth of four or five feet 3. The Pecan tree’s growth rate is roughly 2 feet per year. The trees will begin producing a few nuts three to four years after being planted significant production can be achieved in six to eight years. And good production will begin around the ninth or tenth year. 4. The pecan, Carya illinoi nensis, is a member of the plant family Juglandaceae. This family includes the walnuts and the hickories. The pecan is a large tree, often growing to 100 feet high or more and has a stately appearance.It has been proclaimed the state tree of Texas. 5. Pecan trees may live and bear edible nuts for more than 300 years. The crown of the pecan tree is roughly rounded or oval in shape, which can have a spread up to 75 feet wide. 6. For those of you who do not know what a pecan tree leaves looks like, they are green in color during the spring and summer, and when fall hits they start to turn a yellowish color. The leaves will eventually fall completely off the tree during winter season because these trees are considered to be deciduous trees, meaning they are seasonal, unlike evergreens which stay green all year long. . Here is a picture of the bark of a pecan tree. The bark of a pecan tree is grayish in color and has a rough appearance to it, which is relatively thin. The picture also sh ows the base of the tree which can reach up to six feet in diameter. 8. A pecan, like the fruit of all other members of the hickory genus, is not truly a nut, but is technically a drupe, a fruit with a single stone or pit, surrounded by a husk. The husks are produced from the exocarp tissue of the flower, while the part known as the nut develops from the endocarp and contains the seed 9. The outer husk is 3–4 mm (0. 2–0. 16 in) thick, starts out green and turns brown at maturity, which ranges from (1. 0–2. 4 in) long and (0. 59–1. 2 in) broad, and over time it will split off into four sections to release the thin-shelled nut. [2][4][5][ 10. Pecans come in a variety of sizes – mammoth, extra-large, large, medium, small and midget. They also come in several forms including whole pecans, pecan halves, pieces, granules and meal. There are over 1,000 varieties of pecans. Many are named for Native American Indian tribes, including Cheyenne, Mohawk, Sioux , Choctaw and Shawnee. 1. Pecans are native to a number of states in southern and Midwestern United States and to scattered locations in Mexico, but are most common in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. They have been growing over their present range in the U. S. for at least 8000 years and, based on archaeological and ethnohistoric data, were an important source of food for people who inhabited certain areas within this range in prehistoric and early historic times 12. Before European settlement, pecans were widely consumed and traded by Native Americans.As a food source, pecans are a natural choice for preagricultural society. They can provide two to five times more calories per unit weight than wild game, and require no preparation. 13. many years after the discovery of the pecan tree by the Native Americans the United States has become the world’s leader in pecan production. While exact numbers for world production are unknown, it is estimated that the U. S. produces 75 perc ent of the world’s pecans 14. Pecans are produced on about a million acres worldwide.Since the exact number for worldwide production is unknown there is a estimation of about 200 to 300 million pounds produced each year However, unlike most cultivated crops, the domestication of the pecan tree did not started until the late 1800’s 15. And since then there have been new inventions called harvesters that issues a burst of powerful high frequency vibrations that, for 10-15 seconds, it shakes all the pecans out of the entire tree creating a noisily intense crackling hail of pecan nuts, a dense shower, followed by an eerie silence that will leave any observer stunned 16.Also, the trees are planted in rows to make for an easier harvest. Also, before a shelled pecan is ready to be sold, it must first be cleaned, sized, sterilized, cracked and finally, shelled. 17. 6Unlike other horticultural crops, the native pecan is very important commercially. Most of these species are con centrated in the Northern Hemisphere of the New World, but can be found on every continent except for Antarctica 18. The Pecan Trees and the nuts have not changed a whole lot, since the Natives irst discovered them, but the way they are harvested has changed drastically. Unlike, the Native trees that were kept natural and could only produce what its genes allowed it too. Now there is grafting of trees to make the tree produce better 19. Not to mention the sprays that is used to keep disease down and the attack of bugs on the tree or the nuts themselves. I hope you know a little more about pecan trees and there origin and how much they have been domesticated to meet our needs. And to think all of this is being done to harvest a tiny pecan nut

Civil Rights Movement Timeline From 1965 to 1969

Civil Rights Movement Timeline From 1965 to 1969 This civil rights movement timeline focuses on the struggles final years when some activists embraced black power, and leaders no longer appealed to the federal government to end segregation, thanks to the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Although the passage of such legislation was a major triumph for civil rights activists, Northern cities continued to suffer from de facto segregation, or segregation that was the result of economic inequality rather than discriminatory laws. De facto segregation was not as easily addressed as the legalized segregation that had existed in the South, and Martin Luther King  Jr. spent the mid-to-late 1960s working on behalf of both black and white Americans living in poverty. African-Americans  in Northern cities became increasingly frustrated with the slow pace of change, and a number of cities experienced riots. Some turned to the black power movement, feeling that it had a better chance of rectifying the sort of discrimination that existed in the North. By the end of the decade, white Americans had moved their attention away from the civil rights movement to the Vietnam War, and the heady days of change and victory experienced by civil rights activists in the early 1960s came to an end with Kings assassination  in 1968. 1965 On Feb. 21, Malcolm X is assassinated in Harlem at the Audubon Ballroom apparently by Nation of Islam  operatives, although other theories abound.On March 7, 600 civil rights activists, including Hosea Williams of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), leave Selma, Ala., traveling eastward on Route 80 toward Montgomery, Ala. They are marching to protest the killing of Jimmy Lee Jackson, an unarmed demonstrator slain during a march the prior month by an Alabama state trooper. State troopers and local police stop the marchers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, beating them with clubs as well as spraying them with water hoses and tear gas.On March 9, King leads a march to the Pettus bridge, turning the marchers around at the bridge.On March 21, 3,000 marchers leave Selma for Montgomery, completing the march without opposition.On March 25, around 25,000 people join the Selma marchers at the Montgomery city l imits. On Aug. 6, President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act into law, which bans discriminatory voting requirements, like requiring people to complete literacy tests before they registered to vote. White Southerners had used this technique to disenfranchise blacks.On Aug. 11, a riot breaks out in Watts, a section of Los Angeles, after a fight erupts between a white traffic officer and a black man accused of drinking and driving. The officer arrests the man and some of his family members who had arrived at the scene. Rumors of police brutality, however, result in six days of rioting in Watts. Thirty-four people, mostly African Americans, die during the riot. 1966 On Jan. 6, SNCC announces its opposition to the Vietnam War. SNCC members would feel increasing sympathy for the Vietnamese, comparing the indiscriminate bombing of Vietnam to racial violence in the United States.On Jan. 26, King moves into an apartment in a Chicago slum, announcing his intention to start a campaign against discrimination there. This in response to the increasing unrest in Northern cities over prejudice and de facto segregation. His efforts there are ultimately deemed unsuccessful.On June 6, James Meredith embarks on a March Against Fear from Memphis, Tenn., to Jackson, Miss., to encourage black Mississippians to register to vote. Near Hernando, Miss., Meredith is shot. Others take up the march, joined on occasion by King.On June 26, the marchers reach Jackson. During the last days of the march, Stokely Carmichael and other SNCC members clash with King after they encourage the frustrated marchers to embrace the slogan of black power.On Oct. 15, Huey P. Newton and Bob by Seale found the Black Panther Party in Oakland, Calif. They want to create a new political organization to better the conditions of African Americans. Their goals include better employment and educational opportunities as well as improved housing. 1967 On April 4, King makes a speech against the Vietnam War at Riverside Church in New York.On June 12, the Supreme Court hands down a decision in Loving v. Virginia, overturning laws against interracial marriage as unconstitutional.In July, riots break out in Northern cities, including Buffalo, N.Y., Detroit, Mich. and Newark, N.J.On Sept. 1, Thurgood Marshall becomes the first African American appointed to the Supreme Court.On Nov. 7, Cal Stokes is elected mayor of Cleveland, making him the first African American to serve as mayor of a major American city.In November, King announces the Poor Peoples Campaign, a movement to unite the poor and disenfranchised of America, regardless of race or religion. 1968 On April 11,  President Johnson  signs  the Civil Rights Act of 1968  (or the Fair Housing Act) into law, which prohibits discrimination by sellers or renters of property.Exactly a week earlier,  Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated  as he stands on the balcony outside his motel room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. King visited the city to support  African American sanitation workers there whod started a strike on Feb. 11.Between February and May, African American students protest at major universities, including Columbia University and Howard University, demanding changes in faculty, living arrangements, and curriculum.Between May 14 and June 24, over 2500 impoverished Americans set up a camp called Resurrection City in Washington, D.C., under the leadership of the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, who is trying to carry out Kings vision. The protest ends in riots and arrests without the strong leadership of King. 1969 Between April and May, African American students hold protests at universities, including Cornell University and North Carolina A T University in Greensboro, asking for changes such as a Black Studies program and the hiring of African American faculty.On Dec. 4, Fred Hampton, chairman of the  Illinois Black Panther party, is shot and killed by police during a raid. A federal grand jury refutes the polices assertion that they fired upon Hampton only in self-defense, but no one is ever indicted for Hamptons killing.

Affirmative Action misc5 essays

Affirmative Action misc5 essays Affirmative action has been the subject of increasing debate and tension in American society. Affirmative action is the nations most ambitious attempt to redress the issues of racial and sexual discrimination. According to the University of Rhode Island, Affirmative action is defined as, the specific actions in recruitment, hiring, upgrading and other areas designed and taken for the purpose of eliminating the present effects of past discrimination, or present discrimination (www.riuniversity.edu , 8). This allows minorities and women to be given special consideration in education and many other areas. The need for affirmative action is essential to college admissions credentials. Institutions with affirmative action policies generally set goals for increased diversity and equal opportunity among minority students. Our society is not one of equality, but affirmative action provides a way that problems with inequality can be address to the public. Minorities such as African-Americans, Asians, and Hispanics live mostly in urban areas that have large populations. Therefore, many minorities normally attend lower quality schools. Colleges usually do not take into account that students come from different backgrounds and different quality schools. The students that have better intermediate and secondary schools have an advantage in college admissions, which exclude many minorities. Affirmative action helps students who come from a lower quality secondary school to have a chance to prove themselves in accredited college. Another advantage of affirmative action is that it provides an environment of diversity. Diversity is essential to colleges and students. As part of higher education, students learn from face-to-face interaction with faculty member and other students to work productively inside and outside the classroom. Racial diversity can enhance college atmosphere by improving communications. It can also deve...

Biko

A review of the biographical novel, Biko by Donald Woods. The paper reviews the book as a biography of both Steve Biko and Donald Woods. It illustrates how Donald Woods was able to combine his own story with that of Steve Biko in the novel. It begins with a background on Steve Biko and Donald Woods, goes on to state the main struggle of the book and gives a synopsis of the plot. The focus of this paper is on the way the events affected Woods.Biko tells the story of Donald Woods and his relationship with black consciousness leader Steve Biko. The author Donald Woods is a journalist and was a close friend of Steve Bikos. Biko is a biography of Donald Woods as well as a biography of Steve Biko as Woods sees him. Firstly, I will briefly detail who Steve Biko is so the events of the book can be seen in perspective. Steve Biko was a black South African who led the black consciousness movement in South Africa. He struggled for liberation from the apartheid regime. He was a political activist and believed that black liberation started with black psychological self-reliance. This idea was the basis for the black consciousness movement that Biko led. Biko believed that by doing this you could get to the base of the problem and change the way society operated. Biko was killed by South African security forces while in detention, aged thirty.

Stages Leading to Fire setting in Children Essay

Stages Leading to Fire setting in Children - Essay Example The researcher states that psychologists have expressed considerable interests towards the child fire setters by coming up with the stages leading to the fire setting. According to Bartol and Bartol, the developmental stages are in three categories comprising of fire interest, fire play and fire setting. This implies that children like to experiment with fire due to fascination as they develop. The first step is the fire interest that arises due to fascination in the early years of development. The child would try to set fires at homes every day, making this a habit as they discover new tricks. It is evident that fire fascination starts at age three with almost one in every five children setting fires. In this regard, parents need to be cautious of the harmful situations that might cause damage or harm to the child and the nearby environment. The other phrase is the experimentation that occurs when the child gets older, normally between the ages of five and nine. In this level, the c hild investigates on how a fire starts and how it burns. However, the chances of the child being burnt or injured are common because of their vulnerability to the risks of fire. This is because of their inexperience to use or extinguish fire if it flares out of control. The age of ten years exposes children to the dangers of fire and they now understand its consequences. The fire setting stage is determined if a child continues to experiment upon passing the age of ten years.

Dixons Retail Group e-commerce Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words

Dixons Retail Group e-commerce - Assignment Example III. Market Profitability This is largely determined by the five forces identified by Porter (2008) as: power of buyers, power of suppliers, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes and competitor rivalry. These are looked at in detail in the micro-environment section below. However, market profitability is low here because of intense competitor rivalry, strong buyers, high threat of substitutes and moderate threat of entry. IV. Industry Cost Structure According to Goldmanis et al. (2009) the introduction of e-commerce into an industry results in the shrinking and sometimes exit of high-cost firms and a shift in market share to low-cost firms, and with some additional assumptions about the firm type and consumer search cost distributions, a drop in the number of producers as well. Of the ten cost drivers related to value chain activities identified by (Porter, 1998) Primark derives its cost advantage largely from four: its vertical integration, economies of scale from the Gr oup, capacity utilisation and learning. V. Distribution Channel Dixons.co.uk leverages the centralised supply chain and distribution network of the Group’s physical stores. At Newark the company operates one of Europe’s largest distribution centres. Another Regional Distribution Centre (RDC) is located at Bristol to supply goods to all South/South west UK branches of Dixons Retail Group (Dixons Retail, 2011). Using the Group’s warehouse makes dixons.co.uk cost to serve relatively low (Chiles & Dau, 2005). VI. Market Trends Online retail industry is still largely in a state of flux due a range of factors. Firstly, the technology platform on which online retailing is based is still undergoing rapid change such as 3D virtual... According to the research findings as an e-commerce website, dixons.co.uk inherently faces three types of risks: security of customer data, consistency in order-fulfilment and accuracy in inventory management. Security risk arises because the company will have to store various forms of customer data such as contacts, purchasing habits and credit card records. The company will therefore have to invest in staff security awareness training and security technologies. With regards to order fulfilment, dixons.co.uk must ensure that it has the right processes in place that guarantees the customer receives what she ordered for in the right state, at the right location and at the right time. An effective and efficient order fulfilment process will save the company time and resources spent in handling returns and complaints. Finally, inventory management is important because it supports distribution and order fulfilment. However, the risk to be highlighted here is the synchronisation between t he items advertised on the website and the actual items available in the company’s warehouses. Consumer confidence can easily be lost in instances where customers order for a product that is no longer available at the company’s warehouse yet it is displayed on the website.A critical look at the above risks informs us that security of customer data, consistency in order-fulfilment and accuracy in inventory management are market qualifying factors in e-commerce. Hill’s methodology on marketing strategy define qualifying factors as those factors that a business must fulfil in order to be considered for business by customers.

Visiting Ireland Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Visiting Ireland - Research Paper Example At the moment, I am going to convince you to visit Ireland instead of another country by elaborating on the Irish geography, ancient attractions, the magnificent natural environment, excellent infrastructure, and the vibrancy of the country’s multicultural background. Geography Let us begin with the unique Irish geography. For a country covering about 70,000 square kilometres of land surface, Ireland is approximately the size of West Virginia in United States (Kockel, 1994). However, in spite of its small size, Ireland has more than its fair share of major attractions, for everyone who values and appreciates the beauty of nature, blend with a touch of human ingenuity. For a country with ancient history and civilisation that rivals Mesopotamia, the beauty of visiting Ireland is that you get that rare opportunity of experiencing the lives of ancient Mesolithic stone age inhabitants and modern exuberant lifestyle in urban centres at the same time. Ireland is the home of scenic la ndscapes, with rich history and multicultural setting that spreads from the capital city Dublin to the smallest hamlet in the countryside (Irishtourism.com 2012). Ancient heritage To appreciate the progress that humanity has made up to the contemporary society, it is important to look back to the ancient civilisations, which have left an indelible mark on the Irish landscape. You should visit Ireland because it offers you the opportunity of seeing and experiencing the cradle of human civilisation in Europe. Ireland has historical artefacts, buildings and structures that have resisted the powerful forces of nature and they continue eliciting awe and admiration from harshest critics and sceptics. The Blarney Castle, Boyne Valley, Cahir Castle, Ceide Fields and Christ Church Cathedral are just a few of the must see historic sights and buildings in Ireland. Others include Hill of Tara, Clonmacnoise, Dublin castle, Glendalough and Newgrange (Cronin, 2003). The Blarney castle was build be fore AD 1200 and the King Muster Cormac McCarthy rebuilt the imposing building after its destruction in 1446(Irishtourism.com, 2012). The Blarney Castle houses the Blarney Stone, a mysterious artefact that is shrouded with mythical and legendary tales. The most popular myths surrounding the existence of the Blarney stone is that Biblical Jacob used it as a pillow. Prophet Jeremiah according to the myth brought the stone to Ireland. The stone is an important Christian artefact because it is believed that Blarney Stone existed during the exodus of Jews from Egypt and Moses struck it with his staff to produce clean water for the thirsty Israelites in the wilderness. Thus, Blarney Stone is a valued medieval artefact and is said to possess mysterious powers (Irishtourism.com 2012). Boyne Valley is a must see for anyone with interests of ancient technology and history. The valley contains valuable information about the â€Å"burial tombs of Knowth and Newgrange† (Irishtourism.com 2 012). These tombs are over 5,000 years old, exceeding the great pyramids of Egypt and the Stonehenge of England in age (Peillon and Slater, 1998). Build during the medieval neolith age, Boyne Valley is recognized world heritage site. For tourists interested in ancient agrarian practices, the Ceide Fields is the place to visit. Ceide fields are the oldest farming systems in the world, dating back to over 5,000 years ago.

Data Warehouse, Data Mart and Business Intelligence Essay

Data Warehouse, Data Mart and Business Intelligence - Essay Example Data Warehouses, Data Marts and Databases A data warehouse refers to a data storage location used to secure, archive, and analyze data. It comprises of many integrated databases in an organization. Data stored in a data warehouse must be easily accessible to facilitate the daily operations of an organization. There are several types of data ware houses. There are offline operational data warehouses where data is copied from real time data networks and stored offline. Offline data warehouses store integrated data that is frequently updated and can be easily accessed. Real-time data warehouses are updated whenever new data comes in, for example in point of sale systems. Integrated data warehouses can be accessed by other systems (Jensen, Pedersen, and Thomsen, 2010). Data marts refer to smaller data warehouses covering a specific department or subject. They differ from data warehouses in that they are less complex, and are easier to develop and maintain. Data warehouses also focus on many subject areas and collect their data from various sources while data marts deal with one subject and collect data from few sources. There are dependent and independent data marts. Dependent data marts source their data from a functional central data warehouse while independent data marts get data from external sources. A data mart can be a small division of a data warehouse (Jensen, Pedersen, and Thomsen, 2010).... Databases contain records of data that can be easily accessed. While databases are designed to record and store data, data warehouses are designed to respond to critical business queries. All data warehouses are databases but few databases can be considered to be data warehouses. Databases are usually online transaction processing systems for recording transactions while data warehouses are online analytical processing systems for querying and analyzing data (Jensen, Pedersen, and Thomsen, 2010). Data Warehouse Architectures and Tools Data warehouses are developed using several steps including data collection, data cleansing, data aggregation, and analysis and presentation. Data collection involves identifying the suitable data for the warehouse and where it can be sourced from. In data cleansing and transformation, the collected data is restructured to make it usable for reporting, querying, and analysis. Data aggregation and analysis involves the use of query tools to transfer data from the central data warehouse and processing it to produce the required results. Presentation involves giving end results to the users in form of text, charts or tables (Barry, 2003). There are various data warehouse architectures varying from one organization to another depending on their data. These architectures include independent data marts, hub-and-spoke, federated, centralized data warehouse and data mart bus architecture that has linked dimensional data marts. Independent data marts architecture involves developing autonomous marts with different data definitions, measures and dimensions. Data bus mart with linked dimensional data marts architecture is designed to meet the needs of a specific business process. It involves the development of one

To what extent was the involvement of Winston Churchill during the Essay

To what extent was the involvement of Winston Churchill during the invasion of Gallipoli ultimately responsible for its failure - Essay Example obsolete and not much use for a battle against the High Seas Fleet, the operation would make no difference to the numerical superiority of the Royal Navy. The failure of its execution nearly destroyed his political career, and tarnished his reputation in the eyes of many contemporaries. For Great Britain, June 1940 was turning into one of the worst months of its modern history. After the swift fall of Belgium, Holland and France via the German Blitzkrieg, the British found themselves completely alone in confronting what seemed to be the invincible war machine of the Third Reich. Many asked themselves at this time whether Winston Churchill, who had only been Prime Minister for a few weeks, was the right person to lead the nation at such a difficult time. In his favour he had his unbreakable faith in victory and unmatched political experience. Nevertheless, there were those who remembered his stubbornness and adventurous character during the First World War, and were convinced that he had led the United Kingdom to spectacular failure at Gallipoli: but was Churchill truly to blame for that defeat? In the Autumn of 1914, barely three months after the beginning of the First World War, the land war had reached a stalemate on the Western Front.1 On the Eastern Front there were signs that the Germans would eventually defeat Russia, especially after Turkey blocked off supplies from Britain and France. After the First Battles of the Marne and Ypres, the Schlieffen Plan, which was supposed to open the route to Paris in the same way that it had been achieved in 1870, had failed.2 In its place there was the beginning of a war of attrition which promised to be long and difficult, and which used up all the resources of the combatants. Its symbol was to be trench warfare in which thousands of men would die for each disputed inch of ground. Bloody attrition in which the battles would end with hardly any change to the position of the Front. The various High Commands

Visiting Ireland Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Visiting Ireland - Research Paper Example At the moment, I am going to convince you to visit Ireland instead of another country by elaborating on the Irish geography, ancient attractions, the magnificent natural environment, excellent infrastructure, and the vibrancy of the country’s multicultural background. Geography Let us begin with the unique Irish geography. For a country covering about 70,000 square kilometres of land surface, Ireland is approximately the size of West Virginia in United States (Kockel, 1994). However, in spite of its small size, Ireland has more than its fair share of major attractions, for everyone who values and appreciates the beauty of nature, blend with a touch of human ingenuity. For a country with ancient history and civilisation that rivals Mesopotamia, the beauty of visiting Ireland is that you get that rare opportunity of experiencing the lives of ancient Mesolithic stone age inhabitants and modern exuberant lifestyle in urban centres at the same time. Ireland is the home of scenic la ndscapes, with rich history and multicultural setting that spreads from the capital city Dublin to the smallest hamlet in the countryside (Irishtourism.com 2012). Ancient heritage To appreciate the progress that humanity has made up to the contemporary society, it is important to look back to the ancient civilisations, which have left an indelible mark on the Irish landscape. You should visit Ireland because it offers you the opportunity of seeing and experiencing the cradle of human civilisation in Europe. Ireland has historical artefacts, buildings and structures that have resisted the powerful forces of nature and they continue eliciting awe and admiration from harshest critics and sceptics. The Blarney Castle, Boyne Valley, Cahir Castle, Ceide Fields and Christ Church Cathedral are just a few of the must see historic sights and buildings in Ireland. Others include Hill of Tara, Clonmacnoise, Dublin castle, Glendalough and Newgrange (Cronin, 2003). The Blarney castle was build be fore AD 1200 and the King Muster Cormac McCarthy rebuilt the imposing building after its destruction in 1446(Irishtourism.com, 2012). The Blarney Castle houses the Blarney Stone, a mysterious artefact that is shrouded with mythical and legendary tales. The most popular myths surrounding the existence of the Blarney stone is that Biblical Jacob used it as a pillow. Prophet Jeremiah according to the myth brought the stone to Ireland. The stone is an important Christian artefact because it is believed that Blarney Stone existed during the exodus of Jews from Egypt and Moses struck it with his staff to produce clean water for the thirsty Israelites in the wilderness. Thus, Blarney Stone is a valued medieval artefact and is said to possess mysterious powers (Irishtourism.com 2012). Boyne Valley is a must see for anyone with interests of ancient technology and history. The valley contains valuable information about the â€Å"burial tombs of Knowth and Newgrange† (Irishtourism.com 2 012). These tombs are over 5,000 years old, exceeding the great pyramids of Egypt and the Stonehenge of England in age (Peillon and Slater, 1998). Build during the medieval neolith age, Boyne Valley is recognized world heritage site. For tourists interested in ancient agrarian practices, the Ceide Fields is the place to visit. Ceide fields are the oldest farming systems in the world, dating back to over 5,000 years ago.

To what extent was the involvement of Winston Churchill during the Essay

To what extent was the involvement of Winston Churchill during the invasion of Gallipoli ultimately responsible for its failure - Essay Example obsolete and not much use for a battle against the High Seas Fleet, the operation would make no difference to the numerical superiority of the Royal Navy. The failure of its execution nearly destroyed his political career, and tarnished his reputation in the eyes of many contemporaries. For Great Britain, June 1940 was turning into one of the worst months of its modern history. After the swift fall of Belgium, Holland and France via the German Blitzkrieg, the British found themselves completely alone in confronting what seemed to be the invincible war machine of the Third Reich. Many asked themselves at this time whether Winston Churchill, who had only been Prime Minister for a few weeks, was the right person to lead the nation at such a difficult time. In his favour he had his unbreakable faith in victory and unmatched political experience. Nevertheless, there were those who remembered his stubbornness and adventurous character during the First World War, and were convinced that he had led the United Kingdom to spectacular failure at Gallipoli: but was Churchill truly to blame for that defeat? In the Autumn of 1914, barely three months after the beginning of the First World War, the land war had reached a stalemate on the Western Front.1 On the Eastern Front there were signs that the Germans would eventually defeat Russia, especially after Turkey blocked off supplies from Britain and France. After the First Battles of the Marne and Ypres, the Schlieffen Plan, which was supposed to open the route to Paris in the same way that it had been achieved in 1870, had failed.2 In its place there was the beginning of a war of attrition which promised to be long and difficult, and which used up all the resources of the combatants. Its symbol was to be trench warfare in which thousands of men would die for each disputed inch of ground. Bloody attrition in which the battles would end with hardly any change to the position of the Front. The various High Commands

Europeans coming to America DBQ Essay Example for Free

Europeans coming to America DBQ Essay In the 14th century the Europeans set out to find an all water route to Asia to trade and get spices, silks, gold, porcelain, and other riches. Little did they no they ended up being the first Europeans to explore the New World. Once the New World was discovered, more and more explorers continued to venture out to this New World. The European explorers kept on coming back to the New World for wealth, an increased amount of power in Europe, to spread the Christian religion, and many more. The arrival of the Europeans impacted the lives of Native Americans in negative ways, the natives died from disease the Europeans brought, were turned into slaves, and had to assimilate to new land. Although there were many negative effects of their arrival there were positive impacts as well such as the exchange of resources. The Europeans changed the Native American ways of life forever. One of the reasons the Europeans came to the new World was to acquire gold. Nicolas Le Challeux who sailed from France in 1565 stated this country was rich in gold (Document 2). Due to the fact that gold was the primary goal to conquistadors, Pizarro and Cortes came to the New World in order to conquer gold filled land. Pizarro and Cortes specifically went to the Aztec and Inca empires because the temples were made of gold. According to the graph entitled, Exports of Gold and Silver from the New World to Spain, it was very clear that within these years, 1576- 1580, much gold was exported from the New World to Spain (Document 3). This is because Pizarro and Cortes conquered the Aztec and Inca empires and took gold. Gold was a big reason for the European Explores to come to the New World.

IMC Plan for JK Tyre Industry

IMC Plan for JK Tyre Industry Tyre Industry in India Introduction: Tyre (or tyre in British English) is a ring-shaped covering that fits around a wheel to protect it and enable better vehicle performance by providing a flexible cushion that absorbs shock while keeping the wheel in close contact with the ground. The word itself is derived from the word attire, referring to the dressing of the wheel. The fundamental materials of modern tires are rubber and fabric along with other compound chemicals. Their constructive make-up consists of the tread and the body. The tread provides traction while the body ensures support. Before rubber was invented, the first versions of tires were simply bands of metal that fit around wooden wheels in order to prevent wear and tear. The most recent and popular type of tire is pneumatic, pertaining to a fitted rubber based ring that is used as an inflatable cushion and generally filled with compressed air. Pneumatic tires are used on many types of vehicles, such as bicycles, motorcycles, cars, trucks, earthmovers, and aircraft. Technology generation in the Indian tyre industry has witnessed a fair amount of expertise and versatility to absorb, adapt and modify international technology to suit Indian conditions. This is reflected in the swift technology progression from cotton (reinforcement) carcass to high-performance radial tyres in a span of four decades. Globalization has led to the linking of the economies of all the nations and therefore major Indian players in the tyre industry are pursuing global strategies to enhance their competitiveness in world markets. The present section broadly undertakes an overview of the Indian tyre industry through an examination of its growth trends with respect to production, exports and acquisition of technological capabilities. TYRE INDUSTRY SCENARIO Indian Tyre Industry can be globally competitive on a level playing field Robust growth in the economic activity in various sectors of the economy as well as in the Surface Trans- port sector and renewed thrust in the infrastructural spends continued to be growth drivers for the Tyre Industry. The reduction in excise duty from 24% to 16% was a welcome move, The completion of Golden Quadri- lateral and North- South and East-West corridor projects will further boost the Automobile sector. This augurs well for the Indian tyre industry. While the demand continues to be buoyant, rising input costs in general and petro-based raw materials in particular is a matter of concern. During the year, the Tyre Industry faced pressure on margins on account of imbalances in the cost increases and tyre prices. There are significant deficiencies in the infrastructure and its cost thereof vis-a-vis the global one thus putting the Indian Industry in a disadvantageous position. While the reduction in the import tariffs is a step in right direction, it needs to be calibrated with the development of infrastructure in the country. Key Features: there are 40 listed companies in the tyre sector in India. Major players are MRF, JK Tyres, and Apollo Tyres CEAT, which account for 63 per cent of the organized tyre market. The other key players include Modi Rubber, Kesoram Industries and Goodyear India, with 11 per cent, 7 per cent and 6 per cent share respectively. Dunlop, Falcon, Tyre Corporation of India Limited (TCIL), TVS-Srichakra, Metro Tyres and Balkrishna Tyres are some of the other significant players in the industry. While the tyre industry is largely dominated by the organized sector, the unorganized sector is predominant with respect to bicycle tyres. The industry is a major consumer of the domestic rubber market. Natural rubber constitutes 80% while synthetic rubber constitutes only 20% of the material content in Indian tyres. Interestingly, world-wide, the proportion of natural to synthetic rubber in tyres is 30:70 The sector is raw-material intensive, with raw material accounting for 70% of the total costs of production Total production s in tonnage: 11.35 lakh MT total production of tyres in all categories: 811 lakh (2007-08) Current level of radialization includes 95% for all passenger car tyres, 12% for light commercial vehicles and 3% for heavy vehicles (truck and bus) Restrictions were placed on import of used /retreaded tyres since April 2006 Import of new tyres tubes is freely allowed, except for radial tyres in the truck/bus segment which has been placed in the restricted list since November 2008 Total value of tyre exports form India is approximately Rs 3000 crore (2007-08) The major factors affecting the demand for tyres include the level of industrial activity, availability and cost of credit, transportation volumes and network of roads, execution of vehicle loading rules, radialization, retreading and exports. The tyre technology upgradation is an extremely difficult process, particularly in the Indian scenario, due to several factors. First, since tyre technology encompasses various disciplines such as polymer, chemical, steel etc. compromises have to be made in the upgradation of technology because of a) the conflict and complimentarity inherent in these disciplines, b) the usage pattern of the tyres and c) the cost factor. Further, a tyres performance could be affected due to factors such as the weather, loading pattern etc. Despite these bottlenecks technology upgradation in Indian tyre industry during the last few decades has been significant. This has been possible to some extent due to government approvals of collaborations with MNCs in this sector. The emphasis given by Indian tyre companies to applied research, the setting up of well-equipped in house RD centres by large tyre companies, manned by experts and experienced professionals have also helped in technology upgradation. Ind ian tyre technology has exhibited versatility in maintaining inflow of technology through foreign collaborations and tailoring the same to Indian needs. Automation: The production system in the Indian tyre industry has been traditionally very labour intensive. The automation of manufacturing processes has increased gradually, which has slashed the size of the workforce to a considerable degree and has effected a change in its composition. The degree of automation has been greater in the area of radial technology, while cross ply technology is still labour intensive. The firms have been resorting to automation in order to tackle problems related to labour unionization and indiscipline in the sector. The rationale provided by the firms for the increasing drive towards automation of the manufacturing facilities has been that high quality and uniformity of the final product usually cannot be guaranteed with a labour intensive process. (Iyer Upadhyay 2008). New Policy Initiatives The tyre industry in India has had to grapple with raw material price volatility, rupee appreciation and cheap Chinese imports. In this connection, some of the recent initiatives by the government to facilitate the growth of the sector include: No WTO bound rates for Tyres and Tubes No restrictions on the import of all raw materials required for tyre manufacture except carbon black, which has been placed in the restricted list Increasing thrust on development of road infrastructure The Marketing Communications Mix A companys total marketing communications mix, or promotion mix, consists of the specific blend of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and public relations tools that the company uses to pursue its advertising and marketing objectives. The five major types of promotion are: Advertising: Any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor. Personal selling: Personal presentation by the firms sales force to make sales and build customer relationships. Sales promotion: Short-term incentives to encourage the purchase or sale of a product or service. Public relations: Building good relations with the companys publics by obtain- ing favourable publicity, building up a good â€Å"corporate image,† and handling or heading off unfavourable rumours, stories, and events. Direct marketing: Direct communications with carefully targeted individualconsumers to obtain an immediate response—the use of mail, telephone, fax, e-mail, and other non-personal tools to communicate directly with specific consumers or to solicit a direct response. Each type of promotion has its own tools. Advertising includes print, broadcast, outdoor, and other forms. Personal selling includes sales presentations, tradeshows, and incentive programs. Sales promotion includes point-of-purchase displays, premiums, discounts, coupons, specialty advertising, and demonstrations. Direct marketing includes catalogues, telemarketing, fax transmissions, and the Internet. Thanks to technological breakthroughs, marketers can now communicate through traditional media (newspapers, radio, telephone, and television), as well as its newer forms (fax machines, cellular phones, pagers, and computers). These new technologies have encouraged more companies to move from mass communication to more targeted communication and one-on-one dialogue. At the same time, communication goes beyond these specific promotion tools. The products design, its price, the shape and colour of its package, and the stores that sell it—all communicate something to buyers. Thus, although the promotion mix is the companys primary communication activity, the entire marketing mix promotion and product, price, and place must be coordinated for greatest. Over the past years, tyre companies around the world perfected the art of mass marketing —selling highly standardized products to masses of customers. In the process, they developed effective mass-media advertising techniques to support their mass-marketing strategies. These companies routinely invested millions of dollars in the mass media, reaching tens of millions of customers with a single ad. However, as we move into the twenty-first century, marketing managers face some new marketing communications realities. The ChangingCommunications Environment There are two major factors are changing the face of todays marketing communications. 1. As mass markets have fragmented, marketers are shifting away from mass marketing and developing focused marketing programs, designed to build closer relationships with customers in more narrowly defined micromarkets. 2. Astimprovements in information technology are speed- ing the movement toward segmented marketing marketing. Todays information technology helps marketers to keep closer track of customer needs—more information about consumers at the individual and household levels is available than ever before. New technologies also provide new communications avenues for reaching smaller customer segments with more tailored messages. The shift from mass marketing to segmented marketing has had a dramatic impact on marketing communications. Just as mass marketing gave rise to a new generation of mass-media communications, the shift toward one-on-one marketing is spawning a new generation of more specialized and highly targeted communications efforts.3 Given this new communications environment, marketers must rethink the roles of various media and promotion mix tools. Mass-media advertising has long dominated the promotion mixes of consumer product companies. However, although television, magazines, and other mass media remain very important, their dominance is now declining. Market fragmentation has resulted in media fragmentation into more focused media that better match todays targeting strategies. For example, in 1975, what were the three major US TV networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) attracted 82 percent of the 24-hour viewing audience. By 1995, that number had dropped to only 35 percent, as cable television and sat ellite broad- casting systems offered advertisers dozens or even hundreds of alternative channels, which reachsmaller, specialized audiences. Its expected to dropeven further, down to 25 percent by the year 2005. The few mass magazines of the mid-twentieth century have been replaced by thousands of special-interest magazines. HMF alone publishes these and more than 20 other magazines reaching 17 different markets and more than 47 million readers, not to mention a wide range of online, broadcast, outdoor, and other media. focused audiences. Beyond these channels, advertisers are making increased use of new, highly targeted media, ranging from video screens on supermarket shopping carts to CD-ROM catalogues and Web sites on the Internet.4 More generally, advertising appears to be giving way to other elements of the promotion mix. In the glory days of mass marketing, consumer product companies spent the lions share of their promotion budgets on mass-media advertising. Now a days, media advertising captures only about 26 percent of total promotion spending.5 The rest goes to various sales promotion activities, which can be focused more effectively on individual consumer and trade segments. Marketers are using a richer variety of focused communication tools in an effort to reach their diverse target markets. In all, companies are doing less broadcasting and more narrow casting. The Need for Integrated Marketing Communications The shift from mass marketing to targeted marketing, with its corresponding use of a richer mixture of communication channels and promotion tools, poses a problem for marketers. Consumers are being exposed to a greater variety of marketing communications from and about the company from an array of sources. However, customers dont distinguish between message sources the way marketers do. In the consumers mind, advertising messages from different media—such as television, magazines, or online sources—blur into one. Messages delivered via different promotional approaches—such as advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, pub- lic relations, or direct marketing —all become part of a single message about the company. Conflicting messages from these different sources can result in confused company images and brand positions. All too often, companies fail to integrate their various communications channels. The result is a hodgepodge of communications to cons umers. Mass advertisements say one thing, a price promotion sends a different signal, a product label creates still another message, company sales literature says something altogether different, and the companys Web site seems out of sync with everything else. The problem is that these communications often come from different company sources. The advertising department or advertising agency plans and implements advertising messages. Sales management develops personal selling communications. Other functional specialists are responsible for public relations, sales promotion, direct marketing, online sites, and other forms of marketing communications. Such functional separation has recently become a major problem for many companies and their Internet communications activities, which are often split off into sepa- rate organizational units. â€Å"These new, forward-looking, high-tech functional groups, whether they exist as part of an established organization or as a separate new business operation, commonly are located in separate space, apart from the traditional operation,† observes one integrated marketing communications expert.â€Å"They generally are populated by young, enthusiastic, technologically proficient people with a burning desire to ‘change the world,† he adds, but â€Å"the separation and the lack of cooperation and cohesion† can be a disintegrating force in marketing communications In the past, no one person was responsible for th inking through the communication roles of the various promotion tools and coordinating the promotion mix. Today, however, many companies are adopting the concept of integrated marketing communications (IMC). The company carefully integrates and coordinates its many communications channels to deliver a clear, consistent, and compelling message about the organization and its products.6 As one marketing executive puts it, â€Å"IMC builds a strong brand identity in the marketplace by tying together and reinforcing all your images and messages. IMC means that all your corporate messages, positioning and images, and identity are coordinated across all [marketing communications] venues. It means that your PR materials say the same thing as your direct mail campaign, and your advertising has the same ‘look and feel as your Web site.†7 The IMC solution calls for recognizing all contactints at which the customer may encounter the company, its products, and its brands. Each brand contact will deliver a message, whether good, bad, or indifferent. The company must strive to deliver a consistent and positive message at all contact points. To help implement IMC, some companies appoint a m arketing communications director, or marcom manager, who has overall responsibility for the companys communications efforts. Compaq Canada, for example, has a vice-president of integrated marketing communications. IMC produces better communications consistency and greater sales impact. It places the responsibility in someones hands—where none existed before—to unify the companys image as it is shaped by thousands of company activities. It leads to a total marketing communication strategy aimed at showing how the company and its products can help customers solve their problems. J. K. Industries Ltd. J.K. industries achieved yet another milestone and the turnover touched an all time high of Rs. 2,400 crores during the year. Operating Profit for the year was Rs. 132 crores and after providing for cost of borrowings, depreciation and taxation, Profit After Tax is Rs. 17 crores as against Rs. 12 crores in the previous year. There has been a sharp increase in input costs in view of increase in the prices of petro-based raw materials. Commensurate increase in the selling prices of tyres could not be made thereby affecting margins. It is a matter of concern that this overhang of increase in input costs continued throughout the year. The Company has been trying to meet this difficult situation by adopting various measures including aggressive cost cutting, business process improvements, product re-engineering as also enrichment of product and market mix. The Company has also renegotiated the rates of interest on existing term loans. As a result, interest cost in the current year is expe cted to witness a significant reduction. Completion of expansion resulting in increased capacities coupled with aforesaid steps, is expected to result in improvement in the margins in coming year. APPROPRIATIONS The amount available for appropriation, including surplus from previous years and debenture redemption reserve no longer required, is Rs. 57.81 crores. The Directors propose this to be appropriated as under: Rs. Crores Debenture Redemption Reserve 5.99 General Reserve 1 .75 Dividend 7.49 Corporate Dividend Tax 1.05 Surplus carried to Balance Sheet 41 .53 DIVIDEND Company are pleased to recommend dividend of 20 % (Rs. 2 per Equity Share) on the Equity Share Capital of Rs. 37.46 crores. The dividend outgo will be Rs. 8.54 crores (inclusive of dividend tax of Rs. 1.05 crores) as against Rs. 8.47 crores (inclusive of dividend tax of Rs. 0.98 crores) in the previous year. The dividend in the hands of the shareholders is tax free. SUSTAINED LEADERSHIP AND GROWTH Quality Excellence The Company continues to play a leading role in the Tyre Industry in India. During the year, production increased to 57.74 lac tyres compared to 55.62 lac tyres achieved last year. All the four Tyre Plants of the Company operated at optimum capacities producing world class quality tyres. CUSTOMER FIRST If is a matter of great pride that your Company has been ranked No.1 in the Tire Customer Satisfaction Index Study conducted by J D Power Asia Pacific 2005 India. Company acknowledge the support of all its valued customers in attaining the leadership position in the Tyre Industry in India. JK Tyre continues to be Indias only Tyre Superbrand. It reinforces our belief of putting the customer first in all our endeavours. TRUCK/BUS RADIAL TYRES Production GraphDuring the year, your Company achieved yet another milestone and rolled out One Millionth All Steel Truck/Bus Radial Tyre. The Company has produced radial truck/bus tyres of the value of more than Rs.1,000 crores so for and has been exporting the same to several global markets. Your Company continues to produce more than 80% of Indias All Steel Truck/Bus Radial Tyres. The expansion of capacity of Truck/Bus Radials by 50% was completed and has now become operative. This would allow the Company to continue its leadership role in this vital growth area and meet Indias growing demand for Radial Truck Tyres. Innovative Promotion and Concept Selling marketing strategy helped the Company to accelerate the use of Truck/Bus Radial Tyres in the country. With renewed thrust on the improvement and enlarging road network and highways, the pace of radialization shall pick up in the years ahead. Increasing number of buses are being fitted with radials and with the increased road movement as a result of better road quality and network, radials will find application on larger number of buses. Plans are well under way to further expand the capacities to meet the demand for accelerated radialization. EXPANSION In addition to expansion of the truck radial capacity as mentioned above, the passenger radial capacity expansion by 30% has nearly been completed. The benefits of both these enhanced capacities will be available in the coming year. To meet the surge in demand for the Companys tyres as also maintaining our leadership in the Tyre Industry, further capacity expansion is planned. Exports GraphEXPORTS Your Company continues to be the lead exporter of tyres from India. During the year, exports increased to Rs. 383 crores. The Company has developed an extensive global marketing net- work and its tyres are sold in 60 countries across 6 continents. JK Tyre is a preferred brand in several leading global markets. This is yet another recognition of the Companys world class quality tyres. HUMAN CAPITAL The Company believes that human resources are key to the success of business. It has been taking several steps to enhance employee skills through training development, empowerment and nurturing talent. In recent years, major initiatives on Competency based Leadership Development and Business Process Re-engineering were taken up which have yielded excellent results. JK TYRE -MARKET LEADER Production during the year touched a high of 57.74 lac tyres against 55.62 lac tyres last year. All the 4 Tyre Plants of the Company worked at the optimum capacities at high operational efficiency levels, producing world- class quality tyres. During the year, the Company achieved yet another land mark of being ranked No.1 in the Tyre Customer Satisfaction Index Study conducted by J D Power Asia Pacific 2005 India -a distinct customer satisfaction endorsement of your Companys products. This has reinforced our market leadership. It is indeed a matter of great pride and satisfaction that JK Tyre has received the most coveted recognition of Superbrand and now No.1 ranking in the Customer Satisfaction. This, more than amply demonstrates the Companys commitment to its customers and its leadership in the Indian Tyre market. COMMERCIAL TYRE SEGEMENT The segment constitutes Bus, Truck and LCV tyres. Their efforts have been to not only meet customer expectations but also to give the very best in quality and performance driven products. During the year, Company made new offerings and introduced various tyres, the principal ones being Jet Xtra, Jet Rock and Jet Star for segment specific Bias Truck applications. Nine new tyres were introduced for LCVs for different usage and road conditions. The Company continued to establish great focus on customers through customer contact programmes in LCV tyres and also by partnering the fleet program of Indian Oil Corporation. Training camps were organized to create awareness amongst tyre fitters by organizing Master Tyre Fitter Programmes a first in the industry. AIDS awareness programme was launched amongst Truck Drivers to educate them for prevention and care of this deadly disease. TRUCK RADIALS Companys initiative of introducing all Steel Truck Radial tyres in India have started yielding results and the roll out of the millionth tyre at the most modern plant at Mysore in July 05 is a testimony to the far sighted vision of your company. Company is not only the No.1 truck radial manufacturer, but is a dominant leader in the market with more than 80% market share. New products and sizes of tyres were introduced in the market which received excellent consumer acceptance. JK Tyre Truck/Bus Radial Tyres are gaining increased fitment by Original Equipment Manufacturers. Customers education and participative involvement with end users has taken shape under the Unique Fleet Management Programme. Dedicated personnel have been attached to the fleets to enable them to fully realize the benefits of usage of radials. The Tyre Care Center Network along prominent highways continues to provide round the clock service to truck/bus operators. Your Company is able to see the rapidly growing pace of radialisation moving from current levels of approximately 2% to 5% in the immediate future to 10% in next 5 years. Expansion of capacity by 50% will help maintain companys leaderships in domestic market as also service its export to sophisticated markets across the globe. CAR TYRES During the year under review, your Company continued its thrust on partnering growth with OEM Customers. Various consumer oriented activities such, as Zip and Sip offer, participation in Indian Oil Extra Rewards programme and Monsoon Protection offer were undertaken to strengthen bondage with customers. Product aesthetics, introduction of newer range, addressing product requirement across different types of cars continued to be important focus areas for radial car tyre segment. Various new sizes and patterns such as Vectra and Zephyr for car radials were introduced for the new models launched by the auto manufacturers. Through relentless efforts, the Company achieved Unique Distinction of being ranked No.1 in Customer Satisfaction by JD Power Asia Pacific, a world leader in assessing customer satisfaction in the automotive segment. Expansion in capacity by 30% shall enable the company to increase its participation in replacement as well as OE segments. STEEL WHEELS At the forefront of all car consumer-reach programs has been the Steel Wheels retail network as an important Customer Interface touch point. This year, Steel Wheels played a significant role creating awareness on tubeless tyres usage. Over hundred outlets across the country cater thousands of customers with value added services including wheel alignment, wheel balancing and automated tyre changer apart from providing ready guide on tyre care in a pleasant ambience. ORIGNAL EQUIPMENT MANUFACURERS(OEMS) India is fast emerging as a global automotive hub. The Automotive industry is maturing and New Models being introduced at a rapid pace is a challenge for the tyre industry. It is our privilege to be a major business partner to highly prestigious OEM manufacturers with increased share of Business both in Commercial as well as Passenger categories. It may be recalled that JK Tyre product development group was entrusted with the task of developing tyres for Maruti Udyogs New Generation Global Car. It is heartening that during the year, JK Tyre was listed as a single source vendor for Maruti Swift Car, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd. selected your Company for supplying specially developed ELANZO tyres for their luxury Scorpio vehicle. OFF THE ROAD TYRE(OTR) Your Company has put renewed thrust on development of OTR Tyre business. Both production and sales increased by various folds in the last four years with JK Tyre OTRs attaining improved market share. Continued thrust on development of new sizes of products has helped the company to emerge as the best in class in the domestic replacement market. MOTOR SPORTS JK Tyre has been successful in promoting motor sports in India during the last more than 10 years and has being pursuing the task of nurturing talented drivers to achieve greater heights for their recognition at various platforms in domestic racing championships as well as international arena Narain Karthikeyan -JK Tyre Prodigy became the first ever Indian Formula- 1 Racing Driver. Karun Chandhok and Armaan Ebrahim became A-l drivers with Armaan becoming a success in Formula BMW Asia. The Company organized 5th National Karting Championship and Racing Championship during the year. The Company also participated in Dubai Endurance Test and now re-entered National Rallying with great elan and success. GLOBAL PRESENCE Being the largest tyre exporter, your Company accounted for over 30% of total tyre export from India during the year, with export turnover of Rs. 383 crores. It was made possible mainly by the continued thrust on strengthening international network and building JK Tyre brand in the overseas markets. Your Company continues to operate through an extensive distribution network spread across 60 countries over 6 continents. The company is enhancing outsourcing activities from China for international and for Chinese markets in its own brands. It is a matter of pride that JK Tyre and Vikrant Tyre brands are rated amongst premium brands in highly quality conscious global bias tyre markets. TECHNOLOGY Being a pioneer of Radial Technology in India, Company continues its zeal to maintain Technology Leadership. It has established many firsts in the areas of Technology in the past and has further accelerated this pace through extensive in-house Research and Development activity as well as through adoption of latest technology from its collaborator, Continental AG, Germany -the 4th largest Tyre Company in the world. The fact that SWIFT -a new world class model of Suzuki has only JK Tyre as its 100% supplier, is yet another endorsement of Companys leadership in Technology. JK Tyre is the first Indian Company to commercialize V rated (speed rating of 240 kms/hour) Passenger Radial tyres. HASETRI (Hari Shankar Singhania Elastomer Tyre Research Institute),. an independent institute dedicated to Elastomer and Tyre research, promoted by your company is driving companys Technological advancement. HASETRI is a Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (SIRO) and besides up- grading the facilities, infrastructure and manpower capabilities, is working jointly with Technology team of the Company to come out with new and advanced products. Towards this endeavour, HASETRI is not only benchmarking technological capabilities, but also collaborating with various National and International academic institutes. The Company has also established a Centre of Excellence for Tyre and Vehicle Mechanics in IIT, Chennai for latest computational system, which is the first such Centre in this field for tyre vehicle dynamics technology. This idea has been well appreciated by Automotive companies as it aims to develop superior products for Indian Automobiles. With this strength and Technology Leadership initiatives, customers