Thomas Hancock Profile Inventor of Elastic

Thomas Hancock was an English inventor who founded the British rubber industry. Most notably, Hancock invented the masticator, a machine that shredded rubber scraps and allows rubber to be recycled after being formed into blocks or rolled into sheets. In 1820,  Hancock patented elastic fastenings for gloves, suspenders, shoes and stockings. But in the process of creating the first elastic fabrics, Hancock found himself wasting considerable rubber. He invented the masticator as a way to help conserve rubber. Interestingly, Hancock kept notes during the process of invention. In describing the  masticator, he made the following comments: Pieces with fresh cut edges would perfectly unite; but the outer surface, which had been exposed, would not unite... it occurred to me that if minced up very small the amount of fresh-cut surface would be greatly increased and by heat and pressure might possibly unite sufficiently for some purposes. The eccentric Hancock initially did not choose to patent his machine. Instead, he gave it the deceptive name of pickle so that no one else would know what it was. The first masticator was a wooden machine that used a hollow cylinder studded with teeth and inside the cylinder was a studded core that was hand cranked. To masticate means to chew. Macintosh Invents Waterproof Fabric Around this time Scottish inventor Charles Macintosh was trying to find uses for the waste products of gasworks when he  discovered that coal-tar naphtha dissolved India rubber. He took wool cloth and painted one side with the dissolved rubber preparation and placed another layer of wool cloth on top. This created the first practical waterproof fabric, but the fabric was not perfect. It was easy to puncture when it was seamed and  the natural oil in wool caused the rubber cement to deteriorate. In cold weather, the fabric became stiffer while the fabric became sticky when exposed to hot environments. When  vulcanized rubber  was invented in 1839, Macintoshs fabrics improved since the new rubber could withstand temperature changes. Hancocks Invention Goes Industrial In 1821, Hancock joined forces with  Macintosh. Together they produced macintosh coats or mackintoshes. The wooden masticator turned into a steam-driven metal machine that was used to supply the Macintosh factory with masticated rubber. In 1823, Macintosh patented his  method for making waterproof garments by using rubber dissolved in coal-tar naphtha for cementing two pieces of cloth together.  The now famous macintosh raincoat was named after  Macintosh since they were first made using the methods developed by him. In 1837, Hancock finally patented the masticator. He was perhaps motivated by Macintoshs legal problems with a patent for a method of making waterproof garments being challenged. In the pre-Goodyear and pre-vulcanization age of rubber age, the masticated rubber that Hancock invented was used for things like pneumatic cushions, mattresses, pillows/bellows, hose, tubing, solid tires, shoes, packing, and springs. It was used everywhere and Hancock eventually became the largest manufacturer of rubber goods in the world.

Literature Review Behavioural Responses of Student...

Bullying, a form of aggression, can be experienced in several forms: physical, verbal, social or cyber. All bullying is composed of three specific concepts—causing their victims harm, possessing greater power than their victims and repetition (Oh Hazler, 2009). Most often it is just the bully and a victim taken into consideration yet this fails to identify a key influence: bystanders. It is their impact on bullying that creates serious problems thus understanding the bystander’s role is vital in trying to decrease the occurrence of bullying (Oh Hazler, 2009). One generally noted concept in all of the articles was the taxonomy used for bystanders. The authors utilized the four categorizations of bystanders, established by a previous†¦show more content†¦Although all of the research is interested in bystander behaviour, the approach of the researchers seem to differ in that they are either interested in predictors of behaviour or the motivation behind bystande r behaviour. Predictors such as gender, grade, past experiences with bullying, type of bullying witnessed and friendship dynamics have displayed some significant trends (Oh Hazler, 2009; Trach, Hymel, Waterhouse and Neale, 2010). For example, researchers identify strong and consistent trends that indicate girls are more likely to support victims with positive actions while boys were more likely to report doing nothing (Oh Hazler, 2009; Trach, Hymel, Waterhouse and Neale, 2010). Furthermore, older students were far more passive in actions while younger students were more willing to take direct action (Trach, Hymel, Waterhouse and Neale, 2010). On the contrary, Thornberg (2007) focused on bystanders rationalization behind their actions. He found students defined seven common definitions for passive behaviour in situations of an emergency: trivialization, dissociation, embarrassment association, audience modeling, busy working priority, responsibility transfer and compliance with a c ompetitive norm (Thornberg, 2007). However, the reasons for taking positive action he found were curious empathy, care questioning and sympathy company (Thornberg, 2007). Specifically, the most positive action was that of sympathy company becauseShow MoreRelatedLiterature Review: Behavioural Responses of Student Bystanders in Situations of Bullying1102 Words   |  5 PagesBullying is a serious occurrence that is plaguing youth all over the globe. Bullying, a form of aggression, can be experienced in four forms: physical, verbal, social or cyber (Oh Hazler, 2009; Trach, Hymel, Waterhouse Neale, 2010). However, all bullying is composed of three specific concepts—causing their victims harm, possessing greater power then their victims and repetition (Oh Hazler, 2009). Read into the definition of â€Å"bullying† and one would simply identify a bully and a victim yetRead MoreThe Impact Of Self Esteem On The Relationship Between Empathy And Cyberbullying7843 Words   |   32 Pages and denigration (Best, Manktelow, Taylor, 2014). Cyberbullying has moved bullying from beyond the traditional school yard harassment into the home, and into the once safe domain of an adolescent’s bedroom. Thus, for many cybervictims this often means there is little or no escape from the harassment, abuse, and denigration. The purpose of the current literature review is twofold: (a) to provide a narrative review of the research on cyberbullying among adolescents, including definitions, prevalence

The Global Financial Crisis and the Imf Free Essays

string(121) " rate fell below the Taylor rule, that is the interest rate what historical experience suggest policy should be adapted\." Table of Contents 1. 0 Objectives2 2. 0 Introduction2 3. We will write a custom essay sample on The Global Financial Crisis and the Imf or any similar topic only for you Order Now 0 Types of Financial Crisis2 3. 0. 1 Banking Crisis2 3. 0. 2 Speculative Bubble3 3. 0. 3 International Crisis3 4. 0 Causes of the Financial Crisis 2007-20083 4. 0. 1 Loose Monetary Policy. 3 4. 0. 2 Global Imbalances. 4 4. 0. 3 Credit Boom. 5 4. 0. 4 Asset Bubble. 5 4. 0. 5 Financial Innovation5 5. 0 Impact of Financial Crisis6 5. 0. 1 Impact to U. S Financial System. 6 5. 0. 2 Economic Growth Rates. 6 5. 0. 3 Personal Finances of US Citizens. 7 5. 0. 4 High Unemployment Rate. 5. 0. 5 Impact on the IMF9 6. 0 Policy Response9 6. 0. 1 Term Auction Facility (TAF). 9 6. 0. 2 Economic Stimulus Act 2008. 10 6. 0. 3 Initial Cuts in Interest Rate. 11 7. 0 IMF Response to the Crisis12 8. 0 Conclusion14 9. 0 References15 1. 0 Objectives Objective of this topic is to giving a scope about the recent global financial crisis 2007 which discussing about the causes and impacts of the crisis and focusing mainly in the United States. Then, it will focus on the policy response of the country towards t he crisis. Role of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is also given attention to understand how it works as the ‘international lender of last resort’. 2. 0 Introduction Financial institutions which play an important role in the economy, act as intermediaries between borrowers and lenders. Channelling of funds to individuals or firm that have bright investment opportunities takes place in the financial markets. Without financial intermediaries, it is difficult for companies to operate business. The economy also cannot operate efficiently if the financial system does not perform the role well. Systematic risk is a risk that could be failures of financial institution that freezing up capital market and eventually reduces the supply of capital to the economy. The United States experienced this systematic failure during 2007 and continues to struggle its consequences until 2009. Financial crisis occur when an economic encounter recession or depression caused by lack of liquidity in financial institution. In this circumstances, financial institutions lose huge part of their value. Financial crisis is not the same as economic crisis which affect the entire economy. A financial crisis can occur in a single sector and not always affect other sectors. The causes of financial crisis are different with the type of crisis. The financial crisis 2007-2008 started in August 2007 as a subprime mortgage crisis concentrated in the United States. The crisis became global but originally started in the financial sector of the United States and soon became global economic crisis. Mostly economies in the world were affected by this crisis because the United States economy can be thought as powerful economy in the world. 3. 0 Types of Financial Crisis . 0. 1 Banking Crisis Banks normally function by providing deposit accounts to people who want to make savings and it can be withdraw anytime. The banks then use these deposits to make loans and charge interest to borrower which are paid over a long period of time. If all the depositors want to withdraw money at one time, the banks will face lack of cash flow and will be bankrupt. This situation is called banking c risis. 3. 0. 2 Speculative Bubble Some people buy stock by speculating the price, hoping that price of the stock will increase in the future. Therefore, if most investor buy stock speculatively, chances that the stock price will increase are be very high. When all the investors want to sell at the same time, then the price will likely to fall. When price of a stock is more than its current price plus dividends and interest, then the stock is said to show a bubble. 3. 0. 3 International Crisis This crisis occurs when a country is forced to devalue its currency. This can happen either because of speculative attack or a country is default in paying its debt. When this occurs, all countries that were trading with this country will be affected. Investors also will lose the value of their investment because the currency has been devalued to lower rate. 4. 0 Causes of the Financial Crisis 2007-2008 4. 0. 1 Loose Monetary Policy. Monetary policy implemented by the Federal Reserve plays an important role in determining the interest rate. It is believed that loose or weak monetary policy implemented by the U. S Federal Reserve is among the cause to the crisis. After the internet or dotcom bubble in 2000, loose monetary policy is applied by the U. S Federal Reserve. The federal funds rate dropped from 5. 8% in January 2001 to 1. 73% in January 2002 and remained low for several years as shown in chart 1. This policy thus encourage U. S consumption, reduced savings and created high current account deficit. The Federal Reserve had made mistake by its decision to keep the federal funds rate too low for too long. The policy therefore responsible for creating the credit boom and housing bubble. In other words, with a low federal funds target, banks take advantage on cheap funding and made cheap loans available. From year 2000 to 2006, total debt outstanding for the U. S has increased by $13. 5 trillion. The debt to GDP ratio is increased to 350%. This high level of debt made firms and households more exposed to adverse economic shock. Other than that, the Federal Reserve and regulators made mistake in the failure to control the poor underwriting standards in the mortgage markets. The poor underwriting practices can be seen through no down payments, no verification of income, asset and occupation by borrowers. Credit that was widely available suggested poorer loan quality. Chart 1: Loose monetary policy Source: Adapted from The Economist Chart 1 shows that the actual interest rate fell below the Taylor rule, that is the interest rate what historical experience suggest policy should be adapted. You read "The Global Financial Crisis and the Imf" in category "Essay examples" The line slopped downward to 1 percent in 2003 to 2004 and then rises until 2006. The Taylor rule line shows what interest rate would have be if the Fed followed the policy that worked well since the early 1980. 4. 0. 2 Global Imbalances. The recent financial crisis happens when there is much liquidity in world capital markets. It is due to the large payment imbalances between the main countries and regions in the world economy. Global imbalances occur when there is huge and continuing current account deficit in the United States. The current account deficit is financed by plenty of flows of capital from emerging and oil exporting countries. As the consequences, the global imbalances encourage financial activity that would not be effective in long time without the development of deep global financial markets. High levels of global liquidity happens when countries such as China built up current account surpluses and foreign exchange reserves, maintaining artificially low exchange rates and a positive saving investment balance. Because of this liquidity level, global real interest rates fell which contributed to credit expansion and rising asset prices that drives to the crisis. 4. 0. 3 Credit Boom. Credit boom happens when banks and mortgage brokers encouraged mortgage sales because they earned fees in proportion to the volume of mortgages they wrote. Banks earned large fees by securitizing mortgages, selling them to capital markets in forms of mortgage backed securities (MBS) and collateral debt obligations (CDO). Since banks distributed these mortgages to capital markets as asset backed securities, it has low risk upon the process. Compared to corporate bonds that had low interest rate during the time, these complex and risky products is highly demanded by institutional investors such as hedge fund and insurance companies. Mortgage sales expanded even to those who could not afford them as the banks only focused on earned large fees. When the housing price bubble evaporated or interest rates rose it turned out to be large defaults. Home sales peaked in late 2005 meanwhile home construction spending and housing prices decline in early 2006. When the subprime mortgage crisis started in 2007, the entire market began to collapse. The crisis began in the United States, but because the mortgage based financial products has been spread around the world it soon became global financial crisis. 4. 0. 4 Asset Bubble. Another factor to the financial crisis is an asset bubble that leads to unsustainable leverage. Before the start of the crisis, the U. S government implemented a public policy that encourages homeownership. Because of low interest rate, it has led to mortgage lending and households were encouraged by the banks to borrow causing asset (house) price to increase. The borrowing is allowed up to the full value of their property with little regard to their ability to service the debt. Borrowing is encouraged because of the low interest rate made by monetary policy makers. The demand for housing is related to money market interest rates. Thus, the accommodative policy conducted by the Federal Reserve contributed to the build up of housing demand and asset prices. The term sub-prime mortgage come when lending activities is also approved to people who did not meet the credit requirements that may default to payments. 4. 0. 5 Financial Innovation. Usually, banks and other agents innovate to avoid regulation and boost returns by taking greater risks. When asset prices increase more rapidly, innovation also accelerates as expected gains grow larger. The main innovation is the process of securitization. This complex ‘securitized’ pools of loans promising high returns with low risk. Thus, in the United States, ballooning mortgage loans to riskier borrowers provided the basis for an ever-larger inverted pyramid of structured products. As the housing prices increasing, lenders provide mortgage lending easily. However the mortgage were securitised, that is repackaged and sold as financial instruments to investors for immediate cash. This led to excessive and irresponsible mortgage lending. The institutions that originated the mortgages such as commercial banks, savings and loans eventually did not holding the mortgages because it has been sold to investors by the investment banks. This innovation has caused massive distortions in incentives and risk management in the financial organizations. It was an instrumental in strengthen the increase in leverage. Starting in 2003, banks involve rapidly in financing activities, investments and hedging operations that hard to assess risks. When asset prices began to fall, financial organization brought down together and spread panic among investors worldwide. This development has caused massive distortions in incentives and risk management arrangements within financial organizations. 5. 0 Impact of Financial Crisis 5. 0. 1 Impact to U. S Financial System. The U. S government has closed 22 banks including Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual and Indymac. Other than that, it has rescued Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, Bear Stearns and created a bailout fund around $700 billion to purchase stakes in effected banks. This step is taken in order to restore confidence in the financial markets. However, this $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Programme (TARP) failed to restore market confidence. Nearly $8. 5 trillion or around 60% of its gross domestic product has been committed by the U. S government to prevent the collapse of its financial system. 5. 0. 2 Economic Growth Rates. The effect of 2007 crisis can be seen clearly on the downturn economic growth globally. As shown in Figure 1, countries in the world are experiencing a downturn in economic activity as the effect of financial crisis. These declines in economic activity have been followed by losses of trillions of dollars in equity markets and a credit squeeze that are affecting households and businesses worldwide. Financing activities such as world trade and oil exploration has been slow during the time of crisis. As shown in chart 2 below, real growth rate measured by GDP across the world has been decreased. Real growth rate in reported by the World Bank is 3. 9% in 2007 dropped to 1. 3% in 2008. As the crisis became worsen, economic growth dropped much lower rate to -2. 2% in 2009. The U. S economy has a large proportion in world economy therefore it has slightly similar trend in the growth rate. The U. S real growth rate in 2007 is 1. 9% dropped to -0. 4% and -3. 5% in 2008 and 2009 respectively. Chart 2: GDP – real growth rate (%) Source: Adapted from World Bank data 5. 0. 3 Personal Finances of US Citizens. People have struggled to repay their debts as the direct consequences of the financial practices that produced the crisis. The value of house dropped dramatically for individuals who owned house before the crisis broke out. This caused some people repaying mortgages that are worth more than the current value of their house. Eventually, many people ended up losing the house that they bought in years before the crisis broke out. There were high rates of foreclosure in some area of the United States as borrowers cannot repay the loans. Other than that, individuals in the US also suffered from the loss of growth and income that their savings and investments would have produced. This is because interest rates for savings have dropped sharply. Investors and companies experiencing losses as the stock in many companies dropping rapidly. Retirement plans that are usually based on mutual funds and performance of the stock market results not as they had planned as the stock market crashed. They may need to work longer or retirement plans is less than expected before. Moreover, it has become more difficult to borrow money. While expensive loan services have been expanded, people find it hard to obtain low cost loans or credit cards. 5. 0. 4 High Unemployment Rate. The US gross domestic product which is the total amount of goods and services produced by the country was reduced as the effect of the crisis. Companies in the country struggled to cope with the crisis, however lots of people have lost their jobs. Based on chart 3, the uneployment rate grew from 4. 7% in 2006 to 10% in 2010 which was the highest rate in the last few decades. In addition to lose income, unemployment made it worse for many people because it has become difficult to find new job. Many companies are not willing to hire new employer and even a fresh graduates have to compete to find employment. This become a serious problem for many young citizens in the country. Chart 3: Unemployment rate in the US Source:Adapted from U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 5. 0. 5 Impact on the IMF The damage caused by the financial crisis is a challenge for the IMF. This is because, its financial resource is not in line with the global economy over the past decade. The United States and other advanced industrial economies are at the center of the crisis. However, the IMF would not have enough resources to provide financial assistance if these countries seek for help. Therefore, the IMF resources need to be increase or the risk would become worse in the future. 6. 0 Policy Response 6. 0. 1 Term Auction Facility (TAF). The Term Auction Facility is introduced in December 2007 so that banks can borrow from the Fed easily. Thus the banks can bid directly for funds from the Fed. This is because investors are not willing to lend when afraid about the condition of many financial institutions affected by the crisis. Consequently bank funding markets were put under severe pressure. The main objective of the TAF was to reduce the spreads in the money markets and in that way increase the flow of credit and lower interest rates. As a result, the TAF helped by encouraging the distribution of liquidity when bank funding markets were under stress. The spread between the London interbank offered rate (Libor) and the overnight indexed swap (OIS) for loans of one-month maturity or longer increased to unusually high levels in the late 2007. It is believed that the increase in the Libor–OIS spread is caused by the heightened risk perceived by investors at the time. Since Libor affects interest rates on a wide variety of loans and securities (for example, home mortgages and corporate loans), the sudden spike in the spread was disruptive to the debt market and negatively affected the economy. The chart 4 and the table below also showed six announcements related to the TAF program. Chart 4: The TAF facility provided term funding through periodic auctions to eligible depository institutions. By providing term funds to banks at regularly scheduled auctions, the TAF may have assured lenders of continued access to future funding and thereby reduced their uncertainty regarding anticipated funding needs. The TAF was a facility designed by the Federal Reserve during the crisis to improve liquidity conditions in various asset markets that is crucial to improve short term funding market. . 0. 2 Economic Stimulus Act 2008. The Economic Stimulus Act 2008 is a response made by the government through several package totalling over $100 billion to individuals and families in the United States. The economic stimulus is designed to boost the U. S economy and prevent further recession. In this programme, the government provide tax rebates to low and middle income taxpayers and tax incentiv es to stimulate business investment. The purpose of the incentives is that the people will have more money to spend thus increase consumption and the economy. By doing so, the government would expect that it will recover the economy. However it is not as hoped because they spend little although the incentives were given. This can be shown through chart 5. The top line shows personal disposable income increased at the time of rebate. However, the lower line shows consumption did not increase as expected. Chart 5: Increase in income 6. 0. 3 Initial Cuts in Interest Rate. The third policy response to the crisis is sharp reduction in the federal funds rate. When the crisis began in August 2007, the rate was 5. 25% and went down to 2% in April 2008 due to the cut. The lower interest rate then reduced the size of adjustable rate mortgage that was cause of the crisis. The most significant effect of this response is the depreciation of dollar and rise in oil price. In the early 2008, oil price increased almost two fold from $70 per barrel in 2007 to over $140 per barrel. High oil price hit the economy as gasoline price increased dramatically and automobile sales plunged. On the other side, the policy reduction in the federal funds rate that cuts interest rate helped raise oil and other commodity prices thus prolonged the crisis. Exchange rate also has influence to the rise of oil price. As shown in chart 6, reduction of the federal funds rate at top line in July 2007 drives the oil price at the bottom line upward until July 2008. Chart 6: Cut in interest rate and increase in oil price 7. 0 IMF Response to the Crisis The main role of the IMF is to identify the risks that threaten global economic and financial stability and to develop policy responses. The IMF has a worldwide membership and its mandate is to promote economic and financial stability. It is has been provide forum for discussion of international economic issues and help to reach solution on policy responses. In response to the financial crisis, the IMF boosted their lending to developing countries to help them cope with the crisis and to sustain the economic recovery. To meet ever increasing financing needs of countries hit by the global financial crisis and help strengthen global economic and financial stability, the Fund has greatly expanding its lending capacity since the start of the global crisis. It has done so both by obtaining commitments to increase quota subscriptions of member countries and securing large temporary borrowing agreements from member countries, including recent pledges of $456 billion. Countries affected by the crisis can borrow funds from the IMF. Other than that, there is also debate about reforming the IMF. The reformation issues focus on the need to balance the traditional functions of providing short-term financial assistance and promoting external balance stability in member countries. To achieve the objective, there is a need for a wider responsibility of crisis prevention, supporting financially for countries that, although not suffering actual reserve shortage, are in danger of external shocks and liquidity runs. This measure would prevent more severe impact to member countries as the effect of financial crisis. Since year 2008, the Fund has introduced effective instruments to prevent sudden falls in investors’ trust and the eruption of liquidity crises. As a result, borrowers were able to cope with the global crisis, avoiding large scale banking crises and disruptive exchange rate movements and protecting social spending. To prevent the crisis, the IMF has lending arrangements signed by the IMF and low and middle-income countries during the crisis. These lending arrangements take part from January 2008 and June 2010. The size of the loan arranged by the IMF is larger for country that is more exposed to the crisis especially for large country. As a result this measure can prevent more severe contagion of the crisis to other countries. 8. 0 Conclusion The U. S. economy has suffered a few major shocks in recent years during the crisis. At the start, these shocks include a large declining in house prices and a spike in the prices of oil and other commodities. The decline in house prices reduced the value of mortgage backed securities. Because of leverage, this threatened the ability of many of financial institutions, including major investment banks. These shocks have combined to put the U. S. conomy and many economies throughout the world into a global financial crisis and a deep recession. It is likely the worse since the Great Depression in 1930sRegulatory failure is a main responsibility for the crisis. It is shown that weak regulatory in the financial system leaving the consumers inadequately protected. To cope with this crisis, the IMF had played an effective role. It has come out with a financial assistance by providin g loan arrangements to the member countries. However, the financial crisis of 2007 therefore raises doubts in faith of the world financial system and in free enterprise. The financial system has to take appropriate measures and reform to improve the situation in the future. 9. 0 References Acharya, V. V. , Philippon, T. , Richardson, M. , Roubini, N. (2009). The Financial Crisis of 2007-2009: Causes and Remedies. Barrell, R. , Davis , P. E. (t. t). The Evolution of the Financial Crisis of 2007-8. National Institute of Economic and Social Research. Blundell-Wignall, A. , Atkinson, P. , Lee , S. H. (2008). The Current Financial Crisis: Causes and Policy Issues. Financial Market Trends OECD, 1-21. Campello, M. , Graham, J. , Harvey, C. R. (2009). The Real Effects of Financial Constraints: Evidence from a Financial Crisis. NBER Working Paper Series. Carmassi, J. , Gros, D. , Micossi, S. (2009). The Global Financial Crisis: Causes and Cures. Journal of Common Market Studies, 47(5), 997-996. Cecchetti, S. G. (2009). Crisis and Responses: The Federal Reserve in the Early Stages of the Financial Crisis. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 23(1), 51-75. Crotty, J. (2008). Structural Causes of the Global Finacial Crisis: A Critical Assessment of the ‘New Financial Architecture. Didapatkan dari http://scholarwork. mass. edu/econ_workingpaper Driehaus, R. H. (2010). The Crisis of 2008 and Financial Reform. Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, 2(3). doi:10. 1108/17554171011091728 Goodhart, C. A. (t. t). The Regulatory Response to the Financial Crisis. 2009. Didapatkan dari http://hdl. handle. net/10419/26302 Hellwig, M. (2008). Systematic Risk in the Financial Sector: An Analysis of the Subprime-Mortgage financial Crisis. Ivan, P. (2008). Financial Crisis 2008. Saw Centre Financial Studies No. 5. Merrouche, O. , ; Nier, E. (2010). What Caused the global Financial Crisis? Evidence on the Drivers of Financial Imbalances 1997 – 2007. IMF Working Paper. Mishkin, F. S. (1999). Global Financial Instability: Framework, Events, Issues. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 13(4), 3-20. Didapatkan dari http://links. jstor. org/sici? sici=0895-3309%28199923%2913%3A4%3C3%3AGFIFFEI%3E2. 0. CO%3B2-D Obstfeld, M. , ; Rogoff, K. (2009). Global Imbalances and the Financial Crisis: Products of Common Causes. Reinhart, C. M. , ; Rogoff, K. S. (2009). The Aftermath of Financial Crises. NBER Working Paper Series. Rogoff, K. (1999). International Institutions for Reducing Global Financial Instability. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 13(4), 21-42. Didapatkan dari http://links. jstor. org/sici? sici=0895-3309%28199923%2913%3A4%3C21%3AIIFRGF%3E2. 0. CO%3B2-3 Sanford, J. E. , ; Weiss, M. A. (2009). The Global Financial Crisis: Increasing IMF Resources and the Role of Congress. Congressional Research Service, 1-19. Sikka, P. (2009). Financial crisis and the silence of the authors. doi:10. 1016/j. aos. 2009. 01. 004 Taylor, J. B. (t. t). The Financial Crisis and the Policy Respenses: An Empirical Analysis of What Went Wrong. 2008. How to cite The Global Financial Crisis and the Imf, Essay examples

Advertising and Marketing Strategy of Eagle Boy †Free Samples

Question: Discuss about the Advertising and Marketing Strategy of Eagle Boy. Answer: Introduction This report gives the advertising and marketing strategy of Eagle boys. Eagle Boys is a small medium enterprise which has developed over the years with its strong marketing strategy (Hollensen, S., 2015). It talks about the background of the company, their aims of marketing strategy, marketing objectives; it also gives SWOT analysis with a proper analysis of their strength, weakness, opportunity and threat. It gives their advertising and media prospective strategy. Further it will explain how to improve the company and will provide idea more ideas in their communication plans. Eagle Boys: Background Eagle boys have been in this industry for 23 years. It is the second largest pizza making brand. The pizza chain that Australia has opened has 300 franchised stores, throughout the country. It started with a single store in New South Wales and now has become of the largest food chain company in the world (Percy 2014). The Aim and Marketing Strategy The main aim of this company is to make the largest food chain in the world, their strategy attracts common people. They create nostalgia and make their consumer feel good. They make sure their customer value their food. They offer a cheap price to attract their customers. They have even introduced a new invention in their menu which is low-fat range of pizza, which has created a new buzz in the market. It aims to open 400 stores all over the world. They have even introduced a gluten free- low fat and healthy menu items (Blakeman 2014). Their main focus is on good quality of ingredients which is their main plus point. They have adopted fresh econometric process to push the media for buying its material. They introduced a 12 inch pizza which was bigger than Dominos and Pizza Hut, whose popularity is not hidden from the world. Eagle Boys has their stores not only in Australia but all over the world (Armstrong et al, 2015). Flexibility of Marketing Strategy Eagle Boys is growing rapidly with a database of 10,000 contacts in each month. Their main challenge is to precisely segment the data in order to ensure that the beneficiary receive a proper mix of regularity and pleased ordering habits. They have implemented different range of new work practice; they have adapted new practices by replacing traditional stress on face time. They have incorporated flexible working hours, flexibility in work location (Lovelock Patterson 2015). Their strategies are mostly dependent on social marketing goals and plan. They work as an in house team. It also helps the loyal people of Australia and an innovative work base environment. The company takes care of everything. They are trying hard to make their marketing strategy and money work better. The econometric strategy has given a better accuracy in developing its prospect media buying of the company. Brand Advertisement and Marketing In their advertisement they bring common people together and feature a local community. Their brand identification is their pink glow logo, which is a smart strategy as it can be easily identified by the people. The business thrives because of their dedication and passion which is to make people happy. The organization has adapted new innovation, business ideas and new techniques. (Luxton, Reid Mavondo 2015). Strategies of Advertising Assessment- Here they deal with the threat and prospect and trends in the market. The Eagle Boys are doing better by dividing their marketing teams in two parts, one for the national marketing and the other for the international marketing. They have taken risk with the toppings of their pizza. They started a campaign which says 31 New Menu Items- Each one delicious this was a huge campaign which cane on television advertisement, letterbox, radio, online and of course in stores as a sale material. They do surveys in order to know that their experiment has worked or not. The future analysis is very important and they keep a track of that as well. They do their brand promotion, online marketing and so on. They even have individual franchise in order to extend their business (Chaffey, Smith Smith 2013). Action- They follow the trends has well and have given a lot of thought in introducing new technology and therefore their business has grown significantly (Baker 2014). They have invested heavily into online ordering capabilities so that people can order from whichever location they are in. They mainly focus on their customers. According to them, their customer is the heart of their company (Klettner, Clarke Boersma 2014). As it is a food company it completely depends on the customer. Therefore they continue to put their main spotlight on connecting and intensifying the financial welfare of the customers. The key points of their strategy are: People- They gives full credit to their customers who believe in them and invest in them. They also believe in the credibility of their employees. Technology- They has introduced world class technology to ensure the needs of their customers. They are developing applications that is helping the customers to connect better with them. Productivity- They is constantly simplifying ways in order to achieve better results for their customers and people. They are looking out for their long term growth. Strength- The time they faced global financial crises, they realized the importance of media and how stability and a strong balance sheet is important in order to continue to support their customers. SWOT Analysis Strength- They have captured the domestic market, and have great sales networks, they dont have any obstruction in market entry as it is there for 23 years, therefore another great strength is they are experienced in business. Weakness- They has a small unit of business, and the uncertainty about their business possibility. Opportunity- They are continuously delivering and creating new products as in new menu and services, which is exciting for the buyers. They have new achievement which they aim to fulfill. Threats- The increasing cost of raw material creates a lot of, increment of costs is also another threat for the company. Solution Eagle Boys focuses a lot on the social media and understand its power and therefore the growth of this company has been high, but in order to improve and from a small business turn in a large business they have to come up with more stores, not only in Australia but globally. They need to get more franchisee. Their marketing team should not only focus on a particular section of people but they should grab attention of a larger portion of the society. Increased Brand Recognition- In order to increase the visibility of the brand they should publicize it more in the social media and to give a new voice to the brand. Improvement of the Brand Loyalty- They should have strategic idea in the social media which can improve their brand loyalty t make sure that they have loyal followers. Improvement in Advertisement Skills- In order to aim for the betterment of the company they have to gain knowledge of the professional improvement of team to increase the sale. Conclusion This report has been showed that the companies have improved itself and is trying to go shoulder to shoulder with the current new generation. They are adequately using their networks and social media. In order to hold their position and do even better in future they should use the help of the new ongoing technology. The platform of online social media should be used and thereafter progressing in the current world. They have to provide with more advertisement and do better in terms of building a new factories. They can introduce new technology in the making of the pizza. References Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015.Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education. Baker, M.J., 2014.Marketing strategy and management. Palgrave Macmillan. Blakeman, R., 2014.Integrated marketing communication: creative strategy from idea to implementation. Rowman Littlefield. Chaffey, D., Smith, P.R. and Smith, P.R., 2013.eMarketing eXcellence: Planning and optimizing your digital marketing. Routledge. Hollensen, S., 2015.Marketing management: A relationship approach. Pearson Education. Klettner, A., Clarke, T. and Boersma, M., 2014. The governance of corporate sustainability: Empirical insights into the development, leadership and implementation of responsible business strategy.Journal of Business Ethics,122(1), pp.145-165. Lovelock, C. and Patterson, P., 2015.Services marketing. Pearson Australia. Luxton, S., Reid, M. and Mavondo, F., 2015. Integrated marketing communication capability and brand performance.Journal of Advertising,44(1), pp.37-46. Parente, D. and Strausbaugh-Hutchinson, K., 2014.Advertising campaign strategy: A guide to marketing communication plans. Cengage Learning. Percy, L., 2014.Strategic integrated marketing communications. Routledge.

Hi class my name is Ricky lee Norris Jr. I was bor Essays

Hi class my name is Ricky lee Norris Jr. I was born in Los Angles California but moved to Daytona Beach Florida at the age of four years old. I'm 21 years old; my birthday is may 1 st shouts out to out tarsus in the room. When I got to Daytona Beach everybody was either playing football or basketball. I was always bigger then everyone bigger as in fatter I was a fat kid, so I picked football over basketball. Now don't get me wrong I played basketball to but I just loved football just because you can hit someb ody and easily get away with it. See with football you really have to put your all into it, or your just wasting your time I promise you, you will. Just practice period alone is a job at Tuskegee University. On Mondays , Wednesday and Friday's practice starts at 4:20 pm after all your classes but on Tuesday and Thursday practices is at 4:00 am before all your classes. It is cold as ever out there early in the morning the ground be frozen. Then after pra ctice you still have to go to class then after class the team got to go the weight room at 4. As a football player you're very busy but i t's all worth it because Saturday comes around and yo u can beat up on the other team.

French Hyphens Dashes - Le Tiret et le trait dunion

French Hyphens Dashes - Le Tiret et le trait dunion Hyphens and m-dashes are important in both English and French, but they are considerably more common in the latter. This lesson explains when, why, and how to use hyphens and m-dashes in French. I. Trait dunion   -   Hyphen No space before or after A.  Rapport :  Indicate a link between words or parts of words. 1. Compound words grand-mre, couvre-lit, quatre-vingts 2. Hyphenated names Jean-Luc, Marie-Lise 3. Imperative + pronoun aide-moi, fais-le, allez-y 4. Inversion veux-tu, pouvez-vous, a-t-il 5. Prefixes non-fumeur, quasi-collision 6. Set expressions cestdire, visvis 7. Suffixes celui-ci, cet homme-l B.  Cà ©sure :  Link the parts of a word that breaks at the end of a line such as  Je veux aller la bou- tique. II. Tiret   -    M-dash Space before and after A. lments dune liste : deux bananes une pomme un kilo de fraises B. Incise : Emphasize a comment (aside, interjection, etc) Quand jtais la banque quelle horreur ! je lai vu.Paul mon meilleur ami va arriver demain. C. Dialogue : Indicate each change of speaker Jai vu Michel aujourdhui. Ah bon ? Oui, il tait avec sa fille.

Assignment Project Management and Quiz Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Assignment Project Management and Quiz - Essay Example For each PERT action, estimates are amalgamated thrice in order to settle on the potential activity completion period. On the other hand, in the case of CPM it is supposition is that the times are identified by assurance. The development of PERT took place in the period of 1958 when the Special Projects Office belonging to the U.S. Navy first founded the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) in order to prepare and manage the program of Polaris missile. Even today, PERT is used to supervise unlimited schedules of different government agreements. In 1957, about the same period as PERT, J. E.Kelly from Remington Rand as well as M. R.Walker belonging to du Pont worked out the critical path method (CPM). Initially, at du Pont CPM assisted in the construction and preservation of chemical plants. Among all the procedures of CPM and PERT six of them are similar in both cases. Initially, this includes portraying the project as well as all its momentous tasks or actions. Secondly, bu ilding up the connections among the activities and selecting which of the actions would head others. Thirdly, it involves mapping out the network linking the entire list of activities. Fourthly, it comprises of allocating time and the estimations of costs to individual activities. Next, it consists of calculating the most extensive time path via the network. Lastly, it contains the utilization of the network to assist in preparing, arranging, supervising and administrating the project. Both of these techniques are very advantageous. They formally recognize the duties and tasks which must be finalized on time in order to ensure that the entire project finishes on time. Moreover, it also works out which jobs and duties can be delayed for a period of time if there is a need for the reallocation of resources to get hold of the missed jobs. Conversely, the connection between tasks and time is not immediately clear. This makes it difficult for others to understand them who are not familia r with these techniques. Example of St. Paul Hospital In order to complete the project of the construction of St. Paul hospital, PERT and CPM techniques were used. Primarily, it was decided to select the medical and administrative staff for the hospital. Secondly, the site where the hospital would be located was chosen followed by extensive site survey in order to determine whether the site was suitable or not for the construction to begin. Subsequently, the selection of all the essential equipments was made which will be required to carry out the tasks in the hospital. Next, the final and conclusive construction proposals and designs were prepared. Followed by this, the utilities were to be brought to the site in order to begin the procedure of establishing the hospital. Later on the process of recruitment and selection of the hospital staff was to be carried out. This included sending out application forms along with the specified designation which was required. When the applicant s applied, interviews were to be held and positions were to be filled of the hospital staff. After that all the selected vital equipments were to be purchased and delivered to the site. Eventually, the construction of the hospital was to begin and ultimately completed. Work Cited Render.B, Stair.M.S, Hanna.M.E. Quantitative Analysis for Management. 10th Ed. NY: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited,

Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) PATHWAY (NURSING PATHWAY) Essay - 1

Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) PATHWAY (NURSING PATHWAY) - Essay Example The paper will be focused on two main parts. The first part will focus on a central patient in the central case. The second part, focusing on the justification of the methods will examine two different cases involve biological, psycholical and social factors relevant to ensuring the success of the ERAS framework. Joan is a 30-year old Caucasian lady of Anglo-Saxon origins married with two children aged between 3 and 5. She is an administrator at one of UK’s financial service entities. Joan has to go through a surgical operation for Appendicitis in a middle-sized medical hospital in South London. Joan has been told she will be discharged after 1 to 3 days and it will take 1 week to 1 month for the wounds to be healed fully and totally so she can return to normal life. Joan smokes one to three sticks of cigarettes a day and drinks alcohol occasionally. The standardised procedure for dealing with Enhanced Recovery After Surgery is steeped in the process of the ERAS society which asserts that a nurse or healthcare practitioner should do three main things as a general framework: These important information forms the basis for the evaluation and conduct of the operation. However, after the operation, there is the need for various degrees of the management of the impact of the operation through a given framework. The important elements and aspects of the post-operative management include amongst other things: This means that the broad framework of the strategy to be used will be one that will relieve the immediate pain and complications of the cuts in the surgical process (Ropper, 2010). It will focus on providing post-anaesthetic care and get Joan to be ushered into an era of recovery. Once the operation is done, there must be regular checks for complications that might need to be dealt with as a peculiar case relating to the patient (Alio-Sanz & Azar, 2009). Finally,

Prostate Among African American Men Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Prostate Among African American Men - Essay Example The genetic coding of the cells responsible for control of multiplication is interfered with, making the cells to lose control off their multiplication activities (Thompson, 2002). In the case of prostate cancer, the cells that multiply uncontrollably are those found in the prostate gland. The danger of the cancer is that the cells might migrate to other organs of the body. This is called "metastasis" (Robbins, 2007). When they get to these other organs, they make the cells here to also multiply. This makes the organ to become cancerous also. This form of cancer has some effects on the patient. It might lead to pain and difficulty when passing urine and erectile dysfunction (Rosenberg, 2008). This paper is going to look at the issue of prostate cancer among African American men. This is because it has been noted that there are disparities between the occurrence and effects of prostate cancer between African American men and Caucasian, American men. There is a variation in reported incidences of prostate cancer around the world. Countries from the Asian continent, for example china and Japan, report fewer cases than the European or American continent (American Prostate Cancer Association [APCA], 2009). America records one of the highest rates of prostate cancer around the world. ... Another important aspect is that it rarely has symptoms (Washburn et al, 2004). It might manifest itself in form of other complications like that of erectile dysfunction, but no direct symptoms. This, coupled with the fact that majority of those inflicted are above sixty years, makes it hard to diagnose. In fact, the patient might die from other diseases (Arterburn, 2006). African American men record the highest incidences of prostate cancer around the globe (National Cancer Institute [NCI], 2008). They make up about a quarter of all prostate cancer cases (NCI, 2008). They are also more likely to die from it than other men. In fact, they are three times more likely to die from it than their white counterparts (NMA, 2008). Prevalence of Prostate Cancer amongst African American Men This cancer is very significant to the African American man. As far as non-skin cancerous conditions are concerned, it tops the list in terms of occurrence amongst this segment (Washburn et al, 2004). It the most diagnosed cancer among these men. The American Prostate Cancer Association estimates that approximately 40,000 cases will be reported this year alone (2009). This is among the African American men. It is fact that the mortality rate from prostate cancer is dropping (APCA, 2009). But still, it occupies the second position as far as cancer mortalities amongst African American men is concerned (APCA, 2009). In 2005, more than five thousand black men in America succumbed to this cancer (Robbins, 2007). This dropped to about four thousand in 2007 (Robbins, 2007). The mortality rate has been in decline though. For instance, between the years 2000 and 2003, approximately sixty men out of 100,000 died.

Effects of Hybrid Strategy on Zara UK

Effects of Hybrid Strategy on Zara UK CHAPTER ONE 1. INTRODUCTION 1. 1. Rationale for Chosen Topic To achieve competitive advantage in a highly competitive market such as a fashion market is not an easy process, what is more difficult than that is to achieve sustainable competitive advantage in like this market which also describe as fast changeable and unpredictable market. This opens the field to know about the competitive strategies, and to choose the best strategy among them to achieve the objective of sustainable competitive advantage. This research focuses on the Generic strategies which suggested by Michael Porter in 1980 who set three different strategies which are the low-cost leadership strategy, differentiation strategy, and focus strategy. Porter (1980) argued that these strategies are the road map for the companies to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage, however he warned that the combining two of these strategies will put the company in a position defined by him as ‘Stuck in the Middle and therefore will not lead a high performance. However, other researchers in the strategic management field such as Miller and Dess (1993), Kekre and Srinivasan (1990), Faulkner and Bowman (1992) and Hill (1988) suggest that combination of two strategies would let the companies achieve a high performance, and achieve sustainable competitive advantage. Recognising the debate in the academic world suggests exploring whether application of â€Å"hybrid strategy† will help companies in achieving sustainable competitive advantage or not. To do this, Zara UK is chosen since it has the highest contribution to the overall revenues of Inditex, the mother company, which was accounted 65.6% of the whole sales (Inditex Annual Report, 2008). 1. 2. Research Background Inditex group is a Spanish company and is one of the largest fashion distributor groups in the world. The group was established in 1975 and opened its first branch in Coruà ±a city in Spain (Inditex, 2009). The international expansion of Inditex started in 1988 by openings its store in the UK which is now the fifth largest market of the group after France, Italy, Portugal, and Germany in terms of number of stores (Inditex Annual Report, 2008). In 2009, Inditex operates in 73 countries through 4430 stores and among those 1340 are under the name of Zara. In 2008, the number of Zara stores in the UK was 63 (Inditex, 2009). â€Å"Inditex† consists of six subsidiary companies working in the retail industry and one of them is Zara which generates the highest income in overall revenues of Inditex. Zara is the most internationalised business unit of the group and therefore has the largest of chain (Inditex, 2009). 1. 3. Research Aim Ultimately, this research aims at exploring whether hybrid strategy helped Zara UK in creating sustainable competitive advantage or not. Reaching this aim requires conducting external and internal analyses. Applied tools and their justification are given below: The external environments which surround Zara are analysed by using: PESTLE tool to analyse the impact of Political, Economical, Social, Technological, Legislations, and Environmental factors on Zara to explore weather it would formulates opportunities or threats. Porters Five Forces model to analyse the competitive environment which surrounds Zara in order to explore the market conditions in fashion industry. Key Competitors analysis in order to examine the key competitors of Zara in the market to identify their similarities and differences as well as the business process in Zara. The internal environment of Zara is analysed by using: Values Chain analysis in order to explore how efficiently Zara uses the value chain system to create value for its customers. Financial analysis in order to analyse its financial performance from 2006 until the first half of 2009. Resource-based View analysis to determine core competences, and capabilities of Zara. Grand Strategy analysis to identify the grand strategy used by Inditex and to examine the effectiveness of this strategy. Competitive Strategy analysis in order to determine the competitive strategy used by Zara in achieving sustainable competitive advantage and analyse the effectiveness of this strategy. SWOT analysis in order to determine the internal strengths and weaknesses of Zara as well as the opportunities and threats that Zara faces due to forces exist in external environment. It is believed that after conducting these analyses, it would be possible to reach a conclusion about whether hybrid strategy is effective or not in achieving sustainable competitive advantage in the UK fashion industry. CHAPTER TWO 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 2. 1. Competitive Strategy Literature in competitive advantage strategy is a well developed topic and many scholars such as Milles and Snows (1978) Mintzberg and Quinn (1992) Faulkner and Bowman (1995) introduced several models to explain how companies can achieve sustained competitive advantage. However, one of the most famous and effective model in this field was Michael Porters framework which was introduced in 1980. in this framework which is called ‘Generic Strategy, he mention that the firm can achieve competitive advantage from three different bases. According to Porter (2004): â€Å"The two basic types of competitive advantage competitive advantage combined with the scope of activities for which the firm seeks to achieve them lead to three generic strategies for achieving above- average performance in an industry: cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. The focus strategy has two variant, cost focus and differentiation focus† Having briefly described the Generic Strategies, it is necessary to look at them in details. 2. 1. 1. Cost Leadership Strategy To achieve competitive advantage according to Porter (1980, 2004), the company has to decrease their cost, and to achieve cost advantage below its competitors in the market. By doing this, a company is able to lower prices and performs above the average performer in its industry thanks to the fact that the cost for the company will be less than its rivals. The company can succeed in its cost leadership strategy if it focuses in decreasing the overhead cost, uses a low-cost product design and automated assembly and pursuits economies of scale and so on. However, David (2005) highlighted some risks associated with applying this strategy. According to him, competitors may imitate this strategy and increase the competition and make a head on collusion, which will drive the overall profit of the industry down (David, 2005). 2. 1. 2. Differentiation Strategy According to Porter (1980, 2004), to achieve competitive advantage, the company has to seek to be unique in its industry. In another words, gaining a competitive advantage can be achieved by increasing the willingness of customers to pay for the company products or services that the company sell (Barney, 2007). According to Gaik (1993), in differentiation strategy, the customers look at the attributes of the products other than looking at the price. To apply this strategy, the firm has to differentiate itself in terms of its products for instance by focusing on the quality of the products or in terms of provided service by focusing on the delivery system by means of decreasing the lead or delivery time. Moreover, the company has to focus on the promotion and the packaging of products. The firm can also differentiate its products by competing on both cost and differentiation, by decreasing the cost and by adding value at the same time. One of the tools for achieving both strategies is managing the supply and value chain systems and designing, structuring, modifying and operating efficiently to add value to the products at the lowest cost possible. However, David (2005) mentioned that the risks of this strategy might be that the product or the service may not be valued enough for the customers to buy it at the price of which the company desires and/or that competitors will be able to imitate the products or services. Therefore, if a company seeks to be successful and sustain its advantage in the market, it should pursue a creative strategy which makes difficult for competitors to imitate and replicate the products or services. 2. 1. 3. Focus Strategy According to Porter (1980; 2004), focus strategy is different than other strategies this is because this strategy aims to narrow the competitive scope in the market, requires selecting a specific segment or group and focusing on it by tailoring the strategy to an exclusive and particular market. This strategy has two variants which are differentiation focus and cost focus. Differentiation focus aims at differentiating a segment or a group by satisfy their unusual needs and the in Cost focus, the firm seeks to achieve low-cost advantage in order to provide the products at cheap prices and the concentration is made only for a small number of the market segments. However, the risk of these strategies is that competitors can easily recognise the success and may copy them (David, 2005). Porter (1980; 2004) mentioned that each strategy is fundamentally different from the other strategies in terms of creating sustainable competitive advantage. Therefore, a company has to make a choice among these strategies and does not combine them. Otherwise, it will lead the firm to get â€Å"stuck in the middle†. He also stressed that being ‘all things to all people is the recipe for strategic mediocrity and if the performance is below the average, it often means that a firm has no competitive advantage at all (Porter, 1980; 2004). However, according to Porter (1980), there are three circumstances where a firm can combine two strategies given in the Generic Strategies framework: First, when all of the other competitors are stuck in the middle; second, when the cost is strongly affected by share or interrelations and finally, when a firm pioneers are a major innovation. Also Porter (1980) mentioned that even under these circumstances, a firm would not be able to compete with a firm which pursues either differentiation, cost leadership or focus strategies. Therefore, according to Porter (1980), a hybrid strategy is unlikely to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. 2. 2. Empirical Studies Porters framework both supported and criticised by the scholars. For instance, Dess and Davis (1984) and Kim and Lim (1988) supported Porters claims and found that companies have to employ only one of the Porters generic strategies if their aim is to achieve higher performance. On the other hand, several authors such as Miller and Dess (1993), Kekre and Sriniva-San (1990), Faulkner and Bowman (1992) and Hill (1988) criticised Porters claims and provided evidence that â€Å"the combination between the cost leadership and the differentiation strategy† would help the company to achieve high performance in the market. For example, Miller and Dess (1993), Kekre and Sriniva-san (1990), Faulkner and Bowman (1992) and Hill (1988) demonstrated that it is not necessary to choose between one of the competitive advantage strategy in order to achieve a high performance. They argued that a company may achieve high performance against its competitors by combining differentiation strategy and cost leadership strategy. This is because integration of these strategies allows being flexible against the changes in the environment. Barney (2007) mentioned that a company can use low-cost and product differentiation strategies simultaneously and this is often expected to create sustained competitive advantage. Moreover, Miller and Dess (1993) mentioned that conceptualisation of Porters model enables the researcher in a strategic management field to explore the viability of the Hybrid strategy. Miller and Dess (1993) gave an evident of Toyota and Lincoln Electric companies as highly successful companies which are applying the Hybrid strategy. Moreover, Wright et al. (1990) also proved that use of Hybrid strategy in apparel industry brought higher financial performance. In addition, Hall (1980) explored that use of Hybrid strategy is the main reason of high successful of firms in low-profit industries. Murray (1988) proposed that firms can use hybrid strategy successfully by focusing in two areas: areas of production and functional areas. In terms of production areas, Murray (1988) threw an argument based on the research conducted by Hayes and Weelwright (1984) and Schonberger (1982) and asserted that achieving greater market responsiveness depends on higher product quality. Using techniques such as Total Quality Control (TQC) and its integration with Just In Time (JIT) for inventory control and purchasing procedures are key to the success. Benefits would be reduction of cost as use of these techniques will be resulted in higher customer satisfaction. As a result, the conflict between the production and the marketing functions can be eliminated and therefore cost minimisation and price maximisation strategies can be implemented together. In terms of functional areas, conflict resolution techniques can be applied which will minimise the conflict to a point that permits the firm to pursue cost leadership and product differentiation strategies simultaneously. More recently, Grant (2005) pointed out the changes occurred in the management techniques and the industries and stated that the market leaders in most industries are the firms whom are able to maximise the customer appeal by reconciling effective mixture between differentiation and low cost. The examples of these firms include Toyota, Dell and Canon. More importantly, he underlined the fact that the success of these firms relies on the implementation of new management techniques such as Total Quality Management (TQM) of which exploded the myth that there is a trade off between high quality and low cost. Grant (2005) also mentioned about the role of the innovation in the manufacturing technology and the manufacturing management in producing simultaneous increase in productivity and quality. Thompson et al. (2005) called hybrid strategy as the ‘best-cost provider and stressed that in order for a firm to gain a competitive advantage among the competitors; it should have a lower cost than its competitors and should position its products with good-to-excellent attributes. They also stated that this strategy can be effective in markets where the buyers are sensitive to the price and the value and then the firm can position itself near the middle of the market by providing customers with either a medium quality products at below average price or by providing with high quality products at an average price. However, they warned that the firm which does not have the capabilities to integrate the upscale product attributes at lower prices compare to its competitors, the hybrid strategy would be ill-advised for them. CHAPTER THREE 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3. 1. Chosen Topic The â€Å"Hybrid Strategy† has been challenged by many strategic management scholars who argued that this strategy can be harmful to the companies. However, substantial amount of research showed that several companies like Toyota, Dell Inc, etc. have achieved a superior success. In order to assess whether this is true or not, this study examines the strategy of Zara in the hybrid strategy framework to determine whether it is successful or it â€Å"stuck in the middle†. 3. 2. Research Question In the light of the ultimate aim, the research question of this study is to what extent Hybrid Strategy can achieve a sustainable competitive advantage for firms in fashion retail industry in the UK. The research focuses on Zara UK which is one of the important business units of Inditex Group. 3. 3. Research Technique The dissertation is qualitative in nature. The exploration is based on data obtained from secondary sources of which include information that is already collected for other studies and documents. The main secondary sources used in this study include reports and documents such as annual reports, press releases and other documents published by the company as well as official statistics and other publicly available data collected by research institutions. The research did not attempt to collect a primary data due to barriers in communicating with the company as well as time limitations. 3. 4. Advantages and Disadvantages of Use of Secondary Resources The main advantage of using secondary data is embodied in saving time and resources. There are some disadvantages associated with the use of the secondary data in this particular study. First of all, collected information does not answer the research question fully. However, they are good enough to be relied upon to reach a conclusion. Secondly, secondary data has reliability issue as there are many resources but in some cases it is not possible to determine whether it is valid or not and this limits the accuracy of the analysis based on secondary data. To overcome these limitations, the coverage of the information was enlarged and multiple sources were used to improve the reliability of the data. 3. 5. Quality of Resources Zara is a leading company in the industry and have competitors. Therefore, before using the data obtained from secondary sources, it was assessed in terms of quality in order to verify whether the data is consistent with the purpose of the research and whether it is reliable and up-to-date. Quality standards were determined by identifying directions of bias in the resources by means of attempting both biased and unbiased sources, by checking the background and reputation of the provider and their level of education, and experience in their professional career. The assessment also considered the target audience in terms of their knowledge as a bias direction. The resources were also assessed in terms of their relevance to the research, their readiness and usefulness in achieving targeted quality and in the analysis of anticipated results. 3. 6. Case Study To enrich the quality of the research particularly in terms of its practicality and its rationality, it used empirical inquiry methods for analysis to investigate the contemporary phenomenon within Zaras real-life context. Therefore it has boundaries between phenomenon and context aimed at providing clear evidence by using multiple sources to assure quality and objectivity. In developing and conducting this study, the researcher was influenced by the case study produced by Ghemawat and Nueno and published in 2003. In their study, the authors explained the rapid changes occurred in the fashion industry, by focusing on the global apparel chain Zara and its structure from the producers to the ultimate customers. Although this study influenced by the Ghemawat and Nuenos (2003) work, it did not depend on the case because of two reasons. First of all, the case study focuses on the corporate level and the mother company and therefore did not include the strategic planning techniques and analysis to explore the advantages of using hybrid competitive strategy. Having said that, this study made use of information about Zara provided by the case study in developing the strategic analysis. Secondly, the case study was prepared in 2003 and the facts given in that study was outdated to some extent. As this paper needs to be based on most recent data particularly for external analysis, financial analysis, current trends in fashion market, it is different than the case study provided by Ghemawat and Nueno (2003). CHAPTER FOUR 4. ANALYSIS 4. 1. External Analysis 4. 1. 1. Characteristics of Fashion Retail Market 4. 1. 1. 1. Overview of Fashion Retail Market in the UK The apparel retail market contains three main sectors: the womenswear sector, menswear sector and infantswear sector. According to Data Monitor (2008), womenswear sector consists of retail sale of clothing for girls and women and generated 66.90% of the whole market in 2007 in the UK. The menswear sector consists of retail sale of clothing for men and boys and generated 30.90% of the whole market. And the infantswear sector includes retail sale of clothing for children between ages of 0 to 2 years of age and it accounts 2.20% of the sales generated by the whole market in the UK in 2007. According to Data Monitors (2008) report, the UK apparel retail market has the highest percentage of revenue in the Europe market value with 24.1% in 2007. The clothing market in the UK grew significantly between 2001 and 2005 when the total spending on clothes in the UK in 2005 reached at  £38.4 billion. Womens clothing sector showed the highest growth with 21% and the total value reached at  £24 billion in the same year. More interestingly the clothing market has been growing even though the recession which hit the UK in October 2007 and affected most of the UK sectors. According to the National Statistics (2009), the sales volume in retail sector in June 2009 was 2.9% higher than in June 2008. In the non-food sector, the sales increased by 2.4% and the largest increase occurred in textile, clothing and footwear by 11.3%. Fashion is a part of the clothing and textile industry and the fashion industry is characterised by the rapid change and the high competition particularly after the year 2005 because of permission of unrestricted access of all members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to the European (Lopez and Fan, 2009). This created a big opportunity for the multinational companies to invest in the UK market. Moreover, the rapid change in technology has given the chance for companies to reduce their cost and to increase the quality of their products. In addition, companies which are searching to decrease their costs started to outsource their production with the companies from the countries with low-labour cost such as China, Singapore. This led the competition in the clothing industry to increase and as the competition increased, the prices went down; as a result a market for ‘Discount Apparel Retail emerged and started to grow (Datamonitor, 2008). However, in the fashion industry, customers do not consider prices but look at the quality, variety, design and the availability of the products. Due to characteristics of the market, no particular group or company dominate the market since the market is driven by â€Å"customers†. In addition, due to increased competition, switching cost for the customers also diminished. This resulted in changes in the direction of competition. Today, the rules of the game in the clothing market have changed and meeting with customer expectations turned into achieving fast fashion production (Walters, 2006). Bruce and Daly (2006) describe todays fashion industry in the following way: â€Å"In fast fashion, buying activities play a crucial role through supplier selection and product decision-making, and indeed, buying is arguably changing from purely operational to much more strategic† And according to Walters (2008), the retailers in â€Å"fast fashion† can satisfy consumer expectations by the speed, variety and style of the products and by selling the products in low prices. 4. 1. 1. 2. The Nature of Fashion Market According to Christopher et al. (2004), there are four elements which determine the characteristics of the fashion market. These are: Short life-cycles products have short life, it is often for a moment when designs catch the style. As a result, the period of selling products is very short and seasonal: it could months or even weeks. High volatility the demand in the fashion market is rarely stable; the demand may be influenced by several factors, such as the weather, movies or even footballers or pop stars. Low predictability it is not easy to predict the desire of the market in the fashion industry, because of the volatility of the demand. Therefore, it is very difficult to predict total demand within a period accurately even week-by-week or item-by item. High impulse purchasing the availability of the products increases the need for the customer to buy it. Consumers decision making for buying fashion clothes occur at the point of purchase. 4. 1. 2. 3. Key Success Factors for Fashion Industry To conclude, as the fashion products have a short life cycle and as it is difficult to predict the market demand due to unstable demand as well as characteristics of fashion market, several key success factors were identified. These are outlined below: Price: Prices should be affordable for the customers. Quality: Fashion products should have a good quality. Quick Response: Companies should respond to market demand quickly by launching rapidly. Design: Should match with the current fashion. Availability: Products should be available on the shelves of the store as long as there is demand. Variety: Companies should provide variety of products for the customers. 4. 1. 2. PESTLE Analysis PESTLE framework provides a comprehensive list of environmental influences on the possible success or failure of particular strategies (Johnson et al., 2008). PESTLE framework contains six factors, which are the external factors that have effect on companies. It is argued that if companies major these factors they can formulate strategies from the opportunities or be prepared for the threats. 4. 1. 2. 1. P Political Factors Since 2005, no restrictions left on all import in the textile and clothing industry. This gives unrestricted access to all members of the WTO to the European. This would formulate an opportunity for Zara as it imports products from outside the UK with low cost without any restrictions. However it could pose as a threat for Zara, as the competition in the market can be increased especially by the companies which have products with lower prices. 4. 1. 2. 2. E Economic Factors Most recent recession hit almost all countries in the world, including the UK. As a result of global recession, the unemployment rate in UK started to increased. According to the National Statistics (2009), the unemployment rate was 7.6% for the first quarter of 2009 and it was the highest rate since 1981. The impact of recession in the UK is a threat for Zara, as the number of unemployed people increase, their expenditures decrease. Moreover, for employed people, current economic conditions bring uncertainty and therefore they tend to decrease their expenditures and increase their saving. This could affect Zaras sales in an adverse way since unemployment rate has been on the rise. Moreover, as a result of economic recession, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been declining in a dramatic way in the UK. According to the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (2009), the GDP in the UK fell by 0.3% ending in July 2009; in addition, according to Financial Times (2009), it was the worst quarterly performance since 1958. However it is predicted that it rose by 0.2% starting from August. Decline in the GDP posed a threat for Zara as it indicates decline in consumers income. In terms of exchange rates, the situation is also not that bright. According to Economy Watch Website (2009), since December 2008, the Great Britain Pound (GBP) lost value at a rapid rate and reached a 24-year low of $1.35 per  £1 in January 2009. The impact of weakening of the pound against euro and dollar is pushing up the prices of imports and therefore forces retailers to increase their prices. According to Financial Times (2009), this would formulate a threat for Zara as the retailer will need to increase its prices. However, depreciation of GBP would be an opportunity for the mother company Inditex because of the strong Euro against the GBP. More interestingly, despite the recession, the clothing industry in the UK is still growing. In general, the retail industry in UK has grown during 2009 and the growth was predominantly in non-food goods particularly in textile, clothing and footwear stores by 11.3% (National Statistics, 2009b). 4. 1. 2. 3. S Social Factors The social factors are one of the most important factors which affect the fashion industry. Culture of the society is viewed as the most significant factor in terms of its effects in fashion since it is different from one country to another, even it might be different in the same country. Moreover, culture changes as time passes and these changes affect preferences in fashion. As a result, predicting changes become difficult since taste of consumes can be influenced by several factors, such as weather, movies, or even footballers or pop stars (Christopher et al., 2004). The impact of this would be a threat for all companies in fashion industry if they company cannot be able to adapt themselves with ever-changing nature of tastes. Other thing which might affect fashion preferences is education which triggers continuous searching for knowledge. In the UK, education level is high and it causes fashion preferences change rapidly. This is because, as a result of high education level, the awareness of customers to new areas of experience expands and it increases the interest in and desire for a more fashionable appearance. Moreover, increases in the number of working women let them more confident in their judgments when making decisions about clothing (Kiran et al., 2002). The increase in population in the UK is also an opportunity for Zara. According to National Statistics (2009), the UKs population increase with an annual growth rate of 0.5% which is about 1000 people per day due to increase in number of births. This means the market for fashion clothing will continue to grow thanks to the increase in the number of customers, particularly in children clothing sector. UK clothing market is well-developed market and it is growing. According to the research conducted by Allwood et al. (2006), consumers in the UK spent  £38.4 billion in 2005 in clothing and of which  £24 billion was on womens, girls and infants clothing and  £12 billion on mens and boys clothing. Growing fashion clothing market is an opportunity for Zara, especially in women and girls sectors. To conclude, it can be said that the impact of the social factors on Zara would be positive as they create opportunity for the company if it quickly responds to the market and the changing in customer preferences. 4. 1. 2. 4. T Technological Factors The technology is the corner stone for any company since it helps in decreasing the cost in manufacturing process. Therefore, technological developments stand as an opportunity for Zara as advance technology helps in developing better business process. In addition to this, technology led to development of new marketing channels. The internet is a good example for such development. Recent figure showed that online retailing has been increasing particularly in the UK. According to IMRG Cap Gemini (2009), e-retail sales index showed an increase around 12% in the second half of 2009 and in the first half o 2009, UK consumers spent  £22.9 billion in their online purchases. This suggests that increase in online retailing transactions stands as an opportunity if Zara starts online retailing. 4. 1. 2. 5. E Environmental Factors Watson (2001) argued that as much as organic food products have become popular, it is inevitable that consumers will extend their scope of purchase to the organic textiles and this trend is already started as some retailers such as Marks and Sp

Benedict Arnold Essay -- essays research papers

“The Dark Eagle'; refers to the hero of Saratoga, Benedict Arnold, who went from highly regarded hero, to the most hated man in the Colonies in a matter of days. In the book: Benedict Arnold: The Dark Eagle, Brian Richard Boylan, analyzes the historical figure not critically, but objectively. He examines the forces that possibly could have driven Benedict Arnold to turn his back on the country that he fought for so dearly. Boylan also points out that the man who Arnold did most of his negotiations with, Major General John Andrà ©, was strikingly similar to Arnold, and that the two men were brought together under one woman, Miss Peggy Shippen. Throughout this book, Boylan suggests that the reader should view Arnold without the general stereotype of him being a traitor. That way you can see the man Benedict Arnold truly was, and read of the reasons that he lost his love for the Colonial army, and its government.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Battle of Saratoga was a major battle in the American Revolution; it helped persuade the French into signing a Treaty with the United States that helped turn the tides on the British. Major General Horatio Gates was the commander of the Army of the North. His English counterpart was General John Burgoyne. The open-field battle style considerable favored the British troops of Burgoyne. The American’s had their backs against the wall; they were almost out of options, until their savior literally rode in on horseback. This man was General Benedict Arnold. He rode in from Freeman’s Farm where Gates, Arnold’s superior, had taken his authority away because of Arnold’s “insubordination';. Arnold thought nothing of Major Gates’orders to stay at Freeman’s Farm and rode off with no sign of slowing. “ No Man will keep me in my tent this day!'; Arnold said.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Unlike Gates, Benedict Arnold liked to lead and command his men on the front lines. Arnold personally led the charge on Breymann’s redoubt during the Battle of Saratoga, however Arnold was wounded during the final assault in his left knee. While the American troops surrounded and captured Breymann’s forces, Arnold laid in pain on the battlefield. Gates took the credit for the v... ...s suffering came to an end. He was buried in the crypt of St. Mary’s in Battersea.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Benedict Arnold was considered a military genius; he was able to bring his troops from near defeat to victory. He was highly regarded not only by his cronies but also was highly respected by his adversaries. Arnold was probably the only man to be respected by both the British and Americans prior to 1779. Benedict Arnold was one of the best Generals that had served in the American Army. But by 1779 and 1780 he was seen as the most controversial figure in the Colonies. Today, some people view Arnold as one of the most diabolical men to ever live; others view him as a generally good man that just took one wrong turn that tainted his whole career. The majority of the people in the U.S view him as a traitor of the American public and of their trust. If the British had won the war he would be looked down upon with even more contempt than he is today. However, if Benedict Arnold had died, in his prime, on the battlefield of Saratoga, he would be viewe d much differently all over the world, possibly as the greatest general that even lived.