Investigation on the Impacts of Personality on Consumer Decision-making Process Essay

Dr. Lars Perner, Assistant Professor of Clinical Marketing from the University of Southern California, provides that consumer behavior is formally defined as â€Å"the study of activities of either an individual or group of individuals who are in the process of purchasing products or services, as well as the effect of this course of action not only on individual consumers but on the general public† (Perner, 2008, page 2). In other words, consumer behavior is marketing’s psychological approach in understanding purchasing transactions. It may be easy to make an impression on how consumers think by just looking at them physically, but mere observation is not enough. Often, many successful businesses have to undergo intensive studies and series of financial failures before finally learning how to sell their products or services and gain profits. According to Dr. Perner, consumer behavior can result to four benefits in these four areas, namely: â€Å"marketing strategy, public policy, social marketing, and in creating better consumers† (Perner, 2008, page 3). Marketing strategy is an approach toward successful selling by being at the right place at the right time. One example is by intensifying beverage advertisements during summer when the weather is usually hot and one would tend to crave for something to cool himself off. This is also evident when it comes to fashion where malls perform a variety of impressive window dressing every season in order to lure passing potential customers. Public policy is the factor which encourages consumer safety by cautioning them to think things over before purchasing a product. One common example is the line â€Å"Cigarette smoking is dangerous to your health. † which is seen in every cigarette advertisement. Social marketing on the other hand, is more concerned with â€Å"getting important messages across rather than selling† (Perner, 2008, page 3). Example is controlling population growth by promoting condoms and contraceptives as response especially to premarital sex which remains as one of society’s issues even up to present. Last but not the least, consumer behavior can lead us to becoming better consumers. One simple demonstration is when buying beauty or skin products. Often, one would think that any product would be good for him or her just because it has become popular through television promotions. A wise customer must take into consideration several factors like allergies to certain ingredients. Taking this into mind, customers will not need to undergo unnecessary spending by purchasing expensive products that do not suit one’s body chemistry and instead by cheaper but milder products for skin maintenance. Taking these four factors into mind will lead to an important goal which is good investment on the part of both buyers and sellers. The Black Box Model This model of consumer behavior is a tool which, if compared to a movie, has two main characters: the customer and his or her incentive. And like any other movie, it has an ending which is whether to buy or not. Putting the oversimplification aside, however, this model analyzes certain stages. First, is identifying what is likely to motivate a consumer in terms of the marketing environment by performing a research within the consumer environment. One important quality that a business must always possess is innovation. An example of this is the creation of Coke Zero by the Coca-Cola Company. This is in response to a greater number of health-conscious customers nowadays, who have become more aware of the disadvantages of taking in big amounts of sugar which is incidentally an ingredient of their traditional product. The new product guarantees a â€Å"no sugar, less calorie† beverage, however, still retaining the same taste of the old Coke. Price is also a consideration in understanding a customer’s needs. There are people who do not mind sacrificing the quality of a product as long as they can get it for bargained prices. On the other hand, there are some who find confidence in and would not mind paying for expensive branded products, especially when that product has a distinctive appeal that would set a person apart from the common crowd, or if that particular brand has proven great guaranteed performance like for example, a whitening soap. Aside from the marketing environment, cultural difference is another crucial factor in analyzing the consumer behavior. Ignorance of other countries’ cultures may often result to awkward and humiliating results if one is not mindful if it. One example is the difference in clothing appearance between Western and Muslim Women, wherein the latter has been accustomed to wearing the conservative, long, black fabrics that covers head to foot and exposing only the eyes, as compared to the more liberated short and neck-plunging outfits being tolerated by the former group. Another example is â€Å"how Muslims regard dogs as dirty animals, but others, if not most countries, consider them as ‘man’s best friend,† thus the famous expression (Perner, 2008, page 31). Marketers must always take extra caution with culture issues and therefore, must take into consideration some of its important characteristics like being comprehensive. One example is how Japanese businessmen often do the customary bow during business dealings. This is not common especially in Western cultures, but somehow American businessmen have learned to perform this as well with Japanese clients in order to show goodwill and respect. This shows another feature of culture which is learned. Another fact about culture is that it exists within â€Å"boundaries of acceptable behavior† (Perner, 2008, page 30). For example, going to mass requires wearing conservative outfit instead of the informal sleeveless or shorts that would often be distractive and not fit for the religious occasion. Also, many people are not aware of other country’s cultural standards. There was one instance during World War II when an American spy was captured by Germans because of how he used his knife and fork while eating. Lastly, cultures are also subject to change however it would depend on how open the citizens of a certain country are. Another thing that must be taken into consideration when talking about culture is stereotyping. When overlooked, this issue may come as offensive. One example is the 9/11 bombing of the World Trade Center towers which would forever remind the world of the cruelty of terrorists. Unfortunately, this resulted to the unfair discrimination of some Muslim individuals as sharing the same terrorist values, although not all Muslims are really in favor of violence. One issue that has something to do with culture is the self-reference criterion. â€Å"This is the act of using the standards of one’s own culture in order to evaluate the culture of another country. One example is how Americans recognize other cultures as backwards just because they refuse to embrace the benefits if advance technology and preserve their customary way of living. In the 1960s, there was in fact an American psychologist who expressed disgust over India’s way of venerating cows and allowing them to roam the streets freely despite the nation being in the middle of food shortage. The psychologist even quoted the word â€Å"sick† as the people of India refuse to take advantage of the fact that cows are excellent food source of meat and milk. Another related concern is also ethnocentrism which is the one’s inclination to regards his own culture as more superior that that of the other† (Perner, 2008, page 32). In order to sell effectively, the market must always consider that â€Å"human beings are social beings, meaning they often influence one another† (Perner, 2008, page 49). That is why there is what we call the reference group, which is the type of crowd that a certain individual would want to compare herself to when it comes to looks or lifestyle (Perner, 2008, page 49). Reference groups have at least three kinds: aspirational, associative and dissociative. Aspirational reference group are usually made up of celebrities or famous people whom others would idolize or copy. One famous example is David Beckham who often posed as spokesperson for popular sports apparels. Associative reference group, on the other hand, are more within reach as they are composed of people whom we see, live or work with everyday, and with whom we share the same level more or less. Some examples are â€Å"coworkers, neighbors, or members of churches, clubs, and organizations† (Perner, 2008, page 49). The dissociative group is the one that some people would not want to be compared with. This is another common thing with teenagers who would want to be labeled as â€Å"cool† in order to gain acceptance as they undergo the critical stage of adolescence. This group is also referred to when individuals would like to generate a certain label of exclusivity for themselves. One example provided here was the merchandise store which called itself â€Å"The Gap, which intends to target young people who want to be referred as modern and cool† (Perner, 2008, page 49).

Mughal Emperor Akbar

Muhammad Akbar was born at Aurangabad in the Deccan to Dilras Banu Begum, Aurangzeb's first wife and chief consort. She was a member of the Safavid dynasty and was the daughter of Mirza Shahnawaz Khan, a minister at the mughal court. She died when Akbar was only one month old. For this reason, Akbar was brought up with special care and affection by his father. He was his father's favourite and most-loved son as Aurangzeb, himself, said in a letter to him, â€Å"God be my witness that I have loved you more than my other sons. † At the age of 15, Akbar was wed to a granddaughter of his paternal uncle, Dara Shikoh, who had been killed at Aurangzeb's behest. Salima begum was the daughter of Sulaiman Shikoh, eldest son of Dara Shikoh. Later, Akbar also married a daughter of an Assamese nobleman. He was the father of two sons and two daughters, including Nikusiyar, who briefly became mughal emperor in 1719. Like other Mughal princes, Muhammad Akbar administered various provinces and fought minor campaigns under the guidance of experienced officers. His first independent command was during Aurangzeb’s war of the Jodhpur succession. The Rajput War[edit] Jaswant Singh, who was Maharaja of Jodhpur, was also a high-ranking Mughal officer. He died at his post on the Khyber Pass on 10 December 1678. He died without leaving male issue, but two of his wives were pregnant at the time of his death. The succession was thus unclear. When the news of the death reached Aurangzeb, he immediately dispatched a large army (9 January 1679) to occupy the state of Jodhpur. One of the division of this army was commanded by Akbar. Aurangzeb occupied Jodhpur ostensibly to secure the succession for any male infant born to Jaswant's pregnant widows. He declared that such rightful heir would be invested with his patrimony upon coming of age. However, relations between Jaswant and Aurangzeb had not been very happy, and it was feared that Aurangzeb, a notorious bigot, would annex the state for good on this pretext. Indeed, incumbent officers in Jodhpur state were replaced by mughal officers. Many temples in Jodhpur were broken and the idols were carried to Delhi, where they were placed at the entrance of the Jama Masjid so that they could be trampled underfoot and defiled by the Muslims. After thus effectively annexing the largest Hindu state in northern India, Aurangzeb reimposed the jaziya tax on the non-Muslim population (2 April 1679), almost a century after it had been abolished by his tolerant ancestor Akbar I. All this made the emperor extremely unpopular among the Rajputs. One of Jaswant's pregnant wives was duly delivered of a son, who was named Ajit Singh. Officers loyal to Jaswant brought his family back to Jodhpur and rallied the clan to the standards of the infant. The Rajputs of Jodhpur (Rathore clan) forged an alliance with the neighboring Rajput state of Mewar (Sisodia clan). Maharana Raj Singh of Mewar withdrew his army to the western portion of his kingdom, marked by the rugged Aravalli hills and secured by numerous hill-forts. From this position, the smaller but faster Rajput cavalry units could surprise the Mughal outposts in the plains, loot their supply trains, and bypass their camps to ravage neighbouring Mughal provinces. In the second half of 1680, after several months of such setbacks, Aurangzeb decided on an all-out offensive. Nicolao Manucci, an Italian gunner in the Mughal army, says: â€Å"for this campaign, Aurangzeb put in pledge the whole of his kingdom. Three separate armies, under Aurangzeb's sons Akbar, Azam and Muazzam, penetrated the Aravalli hills from different directions. However, their artillery lost its effectiveness while being dragged around the rugged hills and both Azam and Muazzam were defeated by the Rajputs and beaten back. Akbar’s rebellion[edit] Akbar and his general Tahawwur Khan had been instructed to try to b ribe the Rajput nobles to the Mughal side, but in these attempts, they themselves were ensnared by the Rajputs. The Rajputs incited Akbar to rebel against his father and offered all support. They pointed out to him that Aurangzeb’s attempt to annex the Rajput states was disturbing the stability of India. They also reminded him that the open bigotry displayed by Aurangzeb in reimposing jaziya and demolishing temples was contrary to the wise policies of his ancestors. Prince Akbar lent a willing ear to the Rajputs and promised to restore the policies of the illustrious Akbar. On 1 January 1681, Akbar declared himself Emperor, issued a manifesto deposing his father, and marched towards Ajmer to fight him. As the commander of a Mughal division, Akbar had a force of 12,000 cavalry with supporting infantry and artillery. To this, the Maharana of Mewar added 6,000 Rajput cavalry, being half his own army. As this combined army crossed Jodhpur state, numerous war-bands of Rathores joined up and increased its strength to 25,000 cavalry. Meanwhile, various Mughal divisions deployed around the Aravalli hills had been racing to come to Aurangzeb’s aid. Aurangzeb however resorted to threats and treachery: he sent a letter to Tahawwur Khan promising to pardon him but also threatening to have his family publicly dishonored by camp ruffians if he refused to submit. The Mughal noble secretly came over to meet his master but was killed in a scuffle at the entrance to Aurangzeb’s tent. The crafty Mughal Emperor then wrote a false letter to Akbar and arranged it such that the letter was intercepted by the Rajputs. In this letter, Aurangzeb congratulated his son for finally bringing the Rajput guerillas out in the open where they could be crushed by father and son together. The Rajput commanders suspected this letter to be false but took it to Akbar’s camp for an explanation. Here they discovered that Tahawwur Khan had disappeared. Suspecting the worst, the Rajputs departed in the middle of the night. The next morning, Akbar woke to find his chief adviser and his allies gone and his own soldiers deserting by the hour to Aurangzeb. The would-be emperor escaped the prospect of war with his father by hastily departing the camp with a few close followers. He caught up with the Rajputs commanders and mutual explanations followed. Aftermath[edit] Seeing that Akbar had attempted no treachery and that he could be useful, the Rathore leader Durgadas took Akbar to the court of the Maratha king Sambhaji, seeking support for the project of placing him on the throne of Delhi. For fully five years, Akbar stayed with Sambhaji, hoping that the latter would lend him men and money to strike and seize the Mughal throne for himself. But at that time, Sambhaji was engaged in uncovering the conspiracy against him. After which, he was engrossed in wars against Siddhis of Janjira, Chikka Dev Rai of Mysore, Portuguese of Goa and Aurangzeb. In September 1686, Sambhaji sent Akbar to Persia. In Persia, Akbar was said to pray daily for the speedy death of his father, which alone would give him another chance to wrest the Mughal throne for himself. On hearing of this, Aurangzeb is said to have remarked, â€Å"Let us see who dies first. He or I! † As it turned out, Akbar died in 1704, three years before his father’s demise. He died at the town of Mashhad in Persia. Two of Akbar's children were brought up by the Rajputs, until as a result of peace negotiations, they were handed over to the old emperor. Akbar's daughter Safiyat-un-nissa was sent to her grandfather in 1696 and his son Buland Akhtar was returned in 1698. The latter, when presented in court, shocked his grandfather and nobles by speaking fluently in the Rajasthani language. Legacy[edit] In the words of Jadunath Sarkar: â€Å"The rebellion of Prince Akbar, though it was fostered by the Rajputs and originated, grew to fullness, and expired in Northern India, changed the history of the Deccan and hastened the fate of the Mughal Empire as well. His flight to Shambhuji raised a danger to the throne of Delhi which could be met only by Aurangzib’s personal appearance in the south. But for this alliance, the Emperor would have left Bijapur and Golconda to be occasionally threatened and fleeced by his generals, while the Maratha king would have been tolerated as a necessary evil and even as a thorn in the side of Bijapur. But Akbar’s flight to the Deccan forced a complete change on the imperial policy in that quarter. The first task of Aurangzeb now was to crush the power of Shambhuji and render Akbar impotent for mischief. For this he patched up a peace with the Maharana (June 1681) and left for the Deccan to direct the operations of his army. † Notes[edit] ^ According to Tarikh-i-Muhammadi, his death of death is 31 March 1706 (Irvine, William (1922) Later Mughals, Volume I, Jadunath Sarkar ed. , Calcutta: M. C. Sarkar & Sons, p. 1) ^ Sir Jadunath Sarkar (1919). Studies in Mughal India. W. Heffer and Sons.

Assignment 3 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

3 - Assignment Example ding to the research on the effects of global warming by computer modeling incorporation, it is evident that we may not have conferring benefits on the carbon sink from Amazon rain forest. Thus by 2100 it will cause an increase of around 5-8 degrees centigrade. Based on the research, it is a serious concern because once the methane release starts, due to the global warming, it would be impossible to stop the runaway methane global warming. 3) A little reported but quite serious global infrastructure problem is the current rate of iron ore/steel usage. Research and report the growth of Chinas use of steel (since the year 2000) and the implication that this growth rate has on the exhaustion timescale of the worlds steel supply. Find data to compare the growth rates from 2000 to 2008 to those for 2009-2012. Comment on whether or not this is the silver lining associated with global economic meltdown. 4) a) Which county is growing fastest and what is that growth rate? (attach a screen shoot of your result); If new schools are built for every new 5000 people, how many new schools would need to be built in this county by the year 2050? In 1980 a standard emerged that there should be 1 county sheriff for every 3000 citizens of any county. Based on the 1950-1980 growth rates, what would be the population of Lane County in 2010 and how many county sheriffs should we have? Bonus point* Find the actual size of the Lane County Sheriff’s department. When a country is at the pre-industrial stage, the population grows slowly because the death and birth rates are quite high. During industrialization stage, the food increases, medical care improves, sanitation improves and the death rate increases. At this stage, the population grows rapidly. After the living conditions have improved, the birth rate decreases, which in turn cause the population rate to decrease. After the industrial stage has kicked in fully, the population will grow at a very slow rate (Russell, Herz &

Death penalty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 5

Death penalty - Essay Example The turmoil experienced in prison makes the place a hellhole and is good enough to serve as punishment for the law breakers. The only life giver-and-taker is believed to be God in terms of religion. Anyone who takes away life therefore, including the owner, serves as a sinner as per the Decalogue. Involving death as a form of punishment therefore is not even close to the right way of correcting. Across all states, there ought to be revisions in case any has adopted capital punishment for criminals. They need to revisit how valuable life is, how irreplaceable it is, and how holy it is believed to be. Never can one be rectified by killing them. It is of no good to them when they are already dead (Should Death Penalty allowed, n.d). My view is in contradiction with the death penalty as it offers governments rights to kill. One of the human rights is the right to enjoy the gift of life. Under no circumstances therefore should an individual be denied the privilege to live. If it is correction for moral uprightness, it cannot be done by subjecting the individual to death. A dead person does not suffer any consequences. It does not make sense when the state tries to do away with a problem by acting more of the same problem. It would be more logical if these murderers and other law breakers are allowed to live as changed souls that will influence change in other citizens with the same intentions. Let the state induce a better way of rectifying the character then allow them to influence change to society. Cases have been witnessed of the worst law breakers turning a new leaf only to become the best preachers. Their testimonies end up to be the best weapons in reaching out to the unnoticed criminals and drawing them t owards becoming best vessels of honor. Even the government itself cannot make the impact towards change of character that one redeemed criminal could make if given the chance.

Occupy Wall Street Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Occupy Wall Street - Essay Example the 1%) has been challenged by the widespread Occupy movement, causing a social disruption. This presents a climate of tension that serves as an opportunity for Apple to capitalize on the dissenting market by altering their brand strategy to gain an appropriate association with the new ideology. The current electronic rebel/technologically superior image of the company is almost ideal for the current climate, but the company will need to identify directly with the movement or face being placed in the unpopular â€Å"big business† category. Apple’s offerings are already linked with the youth/pop culture through their current strategy, so they may promote their part in contributing to the development by making communication more accessible. This approach would be utilizing a media myth (that electronic devices make communication easier to use and obtain) as well brand assets. The Apple brand is also well connected to the notion of deviance by way of another myth. Using Apple’s products was once considered a very rare occurrence, and they have managed to continue this rebel image throughout their immense success. Identifying the brand with rebellion offers the company another direct path to connecting with the Occupy movement by building from a myth and already established company resources. In the end, the Occupy movement may prove to be less impacting that originally assessed, and companies may be faced with the consequences of any major changes to brand strategies that took place solely because of the event. Since they theoretically do not have to change a lot, Apple’s current brand strategies have the company well positioned to capitalize on the popularity of the movement while absorbing little to no loss should the Occupy phenomenon fizzle in

Our bodies our politics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Our bodies our politics - Essay Example Hale in the article Suggested Rules for Non-Transsexuals Writing about Transsexuals, Transsexuality, Transsexualism suggests that non-transsexuals are writing about transsexuals, they should humbly approach their topic since they are not well informed about Transsexuality or transsexualism (2). They should not represent intersex people as all the same while writing. Various social factors such as class and medical conditions affect lives of intersex, and they can never be the same (Hale 3). Additionally, they should not ignore what transsexuals write and say or deny them their academic credentials by demanding that they should possess such credentials when not seriously taken (Hale 5). Further, in the article Suggested Guidelines for Non-Intersex Individuals Writing about Intersexuality and Intersex People, Koyama proposes that while writing one should not uncritically quote non-transsexual who are not experts about intersex people (3). They also believe one should start writing with a working hypothesis to guide his/her writing. They plead not to be judged based on the political agenda of the writer without consulting if it conflicts theirs and might not be superior to theirs. In addition, they say a writer should solely focus on what transsexualism tell him/her about his/her life and not about Trans. The writer should ask himself/herself if he/she can make it in the Transworld. Trans argue that writers cannot write about the figure, trope and discourse of Trans without writing about the subjectivities, lives and experience of Trans (Koyama 6). They conclude by warning writers that if Trans engage in angry, detailed criticism writers should not take that as rejec tion, unnecessary ranting or effects of testosterone, but merely consider it as a gift and a compliment. According to the article Some Very Basic Tips for Making Higher Education More Accessible to Trans Students and Rethink

Business accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 3

Business accounting - Essay Example The IASB’s present definition of reliability is: â€Å"Information has the quality of reliability when it is free from material error and bias and can be depended on by users to represent faithfully that which it either purports to represent or could reasonably be expected to represent† (IASB Framework, 1989, Para. 31). The IASB Framework is meant to help not only standard setters but at the same time it assists the preparers of financial statements to apply international financial accounting standards when they deal with topics on which measures have not yet been formulated, auditors to form their views with regard to the financial statements, and users to interpret information which the financial statements contains. All the above mentioned purposes of a financial statement will be better served only if the concepts are sound, all-inclusive, and internally coherent. The qualitative characteristics are the properties that make the information furnished in financial statements helpful to users. The four key qualitative characteristics are understandability, relevance, reliability and comparability. Of the mentioned qualitative characteristics, Relevance and faithful representation are basic qualitative characteristics and Comparability, verifiability, timeliness, and understandability are ornamental qualitative characteristics (Framework 24). A crucial feature of the information furnished in financial statements is that it has to be promptly apprehensible by users. For this reason it is assumed that users have a rational knowledge of business and economic actions and accounting and a temperament to analyse the information with sensible thoroughness. But certain information with regard to complex matters, just because they are difficult to understand by users cannot be excluded. Such information is important from the view of its significance to the

Summary and analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Summary and analysis - Essay Example These are such as fertility and poverty. Other aspects that come in are such as the internal determining factors as well as the external determining factors and the consequences that come out of instability in the population as well as the achievements that are born out of it. All in all, the article‘s sole focus is the instance of population and its effect on economic growth. The article is relevant to economic growth because without a doubt population is one of the most determining factors in the element of economic growth. The fact that the article has gone as far as to project the figures that could be existing as of 2050, lays out a clear cut picture of the effect that population will have had on the economy should the trend maintain its current ground. The article is in fact correct if the statistical methods of evaluation are anything to go by and should be used by statistical and economic analysts to understand and plan for the situation that is being projected. It should also be noted that as demonstrated in the article ignorance and illiteracy could be the root cause of economic crippling. All things said this article assumed the correct approach in its analysis of this economic

Strategic Management In International Business Essay

Strategic Management In International Business - Essay Example Marks and Spencer (M&S) is a leading UK-based company specialized in clothing, homeware, food, furniture, beauty, financial service and, energy products (M&S Home Page 2009). The country selected for penetration is the Slovak Republic. The choice was not accidental: with the development of European Union new markets represent unlimited opportunities for M&S to expend their activities. Slovak Republic is one of the potential geographical regions for M&S to expand its activities and gain larger market share. This location was selected because the Slogan Republic is an attractive tourist destination for many European tourists, so it would help M&S to attract wider target audiences in summer and in winter (Dobson and Starkey 43). There are many challenges associated with opening a business in the Slovak Republic. The analysis of the whole issue shows that retail businesses are more likely to develop new markets. According to the recent research, foreign companies are likely to build a business around new emerging technology. The general situation can be regarded as rather positive. An increasing role of unions forces M&S to spend much cost on labor resources increasing wages and social provisions. High labor cost can result in decreasing revenues and profitability of the industry. On the other hand, new technologies and automation allow retailers to decrease prices and improve service quality. The Slovak Republic can be seen as an outpost for further expansion in this region. The country is known for importing a wide range of products. The company strongly recommends many states will have to cope with mandatory standards and private sector voluntary standards. The Slovak Republic is an active participant of the EU-led operation, so it will be easy for M&S to conduct its financial operations and meet trade regulations.

Articles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Articles - Essay Example This conclusion is justified since the researcher gained ample proof of the statement after conducting the research. The research questions were, ‘Based on 30-min pretest and posttest essays, will mean accuracy scores from the treatment group posttest essays be significantly greater than those from the contrast group? Based on 30-min pretest and posttest essays, will rhetorical competence scores, fluency scores, or complexity scores from the treatment group posttest essays be significantly lower than those from the contrast group?’ (Hartshorn, et. al., 2010) The sample population for the study was 47 ESL students ranging from advanced-low to advanced-mid category. Of these 47, 28 students belonged to the treatment group and 19 students belonged to the contrast group. Random sampling was used in this study. The questions in the survey were well-designed since they dealt with the core of the issue while dealing with ESL students. The idea was to improve upon the writing skills of the students and this meant allowing students to express their words in writing. It was concluded that WCF does indeed improve the writing skills of ESL students. Though, students being taught under the program did slightly less better in terms of sentence complexity and length of the writing piece but their writing skills considerably improved when compared with traditional teaching methods. The data is well-justified. The pedagogical implications suggest that using WCF teaching method is likely to result in improved writing skills. This is because traditional teaching styles are less focused on gaining accurate and timely feedback which delays the understanding process among students. The questions in the interview were well designed since they were semi-structured. This means that the interviewer did not follow predetermined questions that did not take into account the

Hume’s critique of causation Essay Example for Free

Hume’s critique of causation Essay Our work aims to define David Hume’s views on causation. At first we should say that his critique of causation rose from the full theory of causal inference. In this way we may be better able to make out what is critical and what constructive in Humes views of causation and substance. It is sometimes said that Humes analysis of causation and substance is thoroughly dependent on his theory of ideas as to be quiet vitiated by the falsity of that theory. The constructive theory of causal inference, by which Hume connects his sceptical analysis of the causal relation with his final discovery of the impression of necessity in the felt determination of certain habits or customs in imagination, shows the limitations of such criticism as would dispose of Humes conception of experience as atomistic merely. It will be recalled that Hume begins the â€Å"Treatise of Human Nature† with an analysis of the perceptions of mind into impressions and ideas; and that, in the subsequent sections of Part I, he discloses the remaining elements of perception. Therefore, it would be incorrect to identify perception with any one of its elements, or with all of them taken respectively in isolation. Only mere fancies or perfect ideas occur divorced from all associations. Normally, in the experience of mature persons, there occurs, at the least, a lively idea associated with a present impression; which is, by definition, the general nature of belief. These beliefs vary in elaborateness and force between the extremes of proof and mere chance; but only at the extreme of mere chance, or gratuitous fancy, do isolated impressions or ideas exist. Ordinarily, the terms of Humes analysis of perception occur in the synthesis which he articulates in his theory of belief. Normal experience, then, will consist of perceptions, themselves the syntheses in habit which are beliefs. The substantial identity of things present here and now may be compared in direct perception. But only on the assumption that the causes of a things existence remain unaltered may the continued existence of a thing beyond perception be inferred. Again, although times and places as such admit of comparison without inference, still any constancy or variation in such relations may be inferred to exist only as a result of causation. That relation, therefore, is the principle of all inferences about matters of facts. Nothing exists which may not be considered as either a cause or an effect; though it is plain there is no one quality, which universally belongs to all beings, and gives them title to that denomination (Hume, 185). Since, therefore, the origin of the idea of cause and effect is to be found in no quality of our perceptions, it must be derived from some relation between them. Hume at once finds two such relations: causes and effects are contiguous in space and time, and the cause is always prior in time to the effect. Dr. Broad (120-2) points out that Humes proof of the temporal priority of causes is formally vicious. Hume himself seems to have had some doubts about its validity, for he writes: If this argument appear satisfactory, tis well. If not, I beg the reader to allow me the same liberty, which I have used in the preceding case, of supposing it such. For he shall find that the affair is of no great importance (225). But contiguity and succession do not afford a complete idea of causation. A thing at once contiguous and prior to another still might not be considered its cause. There is a necessary connection to be taken into consideration, and that relation is of much greater importance than any of the other two above mentioned (Hume 211). Necessary connection is then the defining characteristic of the causal relation. The impression from which this idea is derived is therefore the one we are looking for. Yet the only relations between impressions Hume has found so far are those of contiguity and succession, which I have already regarded as imperfect and unsatisfactory (216). And he proceeds to divide his problem into two questions: why we believe that every event must have some cause or other; and why we believe that the same cause must necessarily produce the same effect (Hume 223-6). Hume thus distinguishes the law of causality from the law of causation, and takes it that together they are what is meant by a necessary connection among events. Though a general maxim in philosophy, that every even must have a cause is not a matter of knowledge. This Hume demonstrates first on the grounds of his own view of the extent of knowledge. The law of causality may be identified neither with resemblance, degrees of quality, contrariety, nor proportions in quantity and number. The law is therefore not known to be true. Hume thinks that anyone who would controvert this conclusion will be obliged to exhibit a relation at once identical with causality and known by direct inspection, which it will then be time enough to examine (224). He proceeds next to urge that the law in question is to be demonstrated by apagogic reasoning on no theory of knowledge, and therefore is neither intuitively nor demonstrably certain (228). That every event must have some cause or other means that the ideas of cause and effect are necessarily connected. Was this the case, it would be impossible that those ideas should be separable. Yet, since they are distinct, the ideas of cause and effect are separable; and the denial of their necessary connection involves no contradiction. Here Hume relies on the principle of his atomism. Yet he need not have done so; for the contradictory of the law of causality being not self-contradictory, that law is not demonstrable by apagogic reasoning. For since the relation of cause and effect is the principle of all inference about matters of fact, no inference to a probability can be independent of that relation. Hume takes his analysis thus far to have shown that our only notion of cause and effect is of certain objects constantly conjoined. We cannot penetrate into the reason of the conjunction. We only observe the thing itself, and always find that from the constant conjunction the objects acquire an union in the imagination (128). Our notion of cause and effect, as so far disclosed, is no more than a philosophical relation. Thus though causation be a philosophical relation, as implying contiguity, succession, and constant conjunction, yet it is only so far as it is a natural relation, and produces an union among our ideas, that we are able to reason upon it, or draw any inference from it(Hume 131). And causation is more than a philosophical relation just so far as it is association. Concerning the nature of the transition from impression to idea in causal inference is thus that the transition is the work of associations or habits in imagination, not of reason. So understood, the inference from impression to idea Hume declares to be one part of the definition of an opinion or belief; that it is an idea related to or associated with a present impression (Hume 137). Hume insists that the idea of necessary connection derives from the felt force of the natural relation of cause and effect. The ideas of cause and effect being separable, there can be no contradiction in denying their necessary connection. Here again, however, Humes conclusion is valid independently of the assumption on which he himself makes it out. For the contradictory of the law in question is conceivable. And in going on to show the uniformity of nature to be indemonstrable, Hume points out on the one hand that we can at least conceive a change in the course of nature, which sufficiently proves that such a change is not absolutely impossible; and, on the other, that the uniformity in question being the presupposition of probable reasoning, any attempt at its demonstration by induction could only beg the question. Hume is giving a definition of cause and effect, so in conclusion he is describing the observed or felt nature of that relation. Those impressions may have causes Hume does not deny. He says the ultimate causes of sense-impressions are, in my opinion, perfectly inexplicable by human reason, (223) and he finds the alleged necessity that they have a cause to be not demonstrable. Nor are his arguments that impressions are prior to and productive of ideas advanced as a denial that impressions are thus productive. And the attraction of association is also assumed and its origins are regarded as inexplicable. Yet this means that impressions, ideas, and the attraction of association are found to exist in constant conjunction, not in necessary connection. That the than the logical necessity of Malebranche, means that what has been called a necessary connection is in fact habitual; not that from this conclusion we may infer the non-existence of causes. For the fact that the rational necessity of causation is not to be demonstrated plainly does not imply that nothing in the nature of a cause can exist. If we do not know the laws of causality and causation to be true, neither do we know them to be false. Hence there is no reason, the contradictory of which would be inconceivable, why causes should be or should not be assumed. The law of causation, being demonstrable by neither apagogic nor inductive reasoning, if demonstrable at all, will be on the ground that necessary connection in fact is disclosed within sense-perception. Since Humes failure to find that logical necessity obtains between the elements of sense-perceptions has been held to require his own analysis of experience, it may be well to consider briefly the fact that in other interests, and through a conception of experience not that of Hume, the same conclusion had been reached by three of the Cartesians. Hume may well emphasize the conclusion that all of our beliefs that are justified by experimental enquiry and all of our accurately successful causal inferences will depend upon the operation in the understanding of those fundamental habits by which cases of constant conjunction are disclosed and inferred. The nature of the understanding thus is what constitutes the foundations of induction. That the habits of which the understanding consists can in no case yield demonstrably certain conclusions, means that the foundations of induction are essentially illogical, to be neither demonstrated nor denied either by the reason of the Cartesians or by inductive theory itself. It is, finally, of the nature of the understanding that logic proper consists: the pretensions of our scholastic headpieces and logicians are simply to be set aside† (312). The assumption that the elements of experience are intrinsically self-identical is thus requisite to the view of impressions as complete in themselves. But the finding of elements by analysis is itself not the further explanation that these elements may be regarded as self contained because, like being simple, resemblance is not the name of a qualifying predicate. Whether or not the theory of philosophical relations be rejected along with the doctrine of impressions and ideas, the conclusion, as such, that apagogic reasoning is powerless in matters of existence, remains no less free of that theory and that doctrine, than is the conclusion itself of Humes failure to find necessary connections among matters of fact. For, as Professor Kemp Smith has pointed out, it was Hume who first perceived the falsity of the Cartesian, rationalistic view of the causal relation (537). Malebranche could discover no necessary connection between events, yet he continued to conceive of the causal relation as being intelligible to the pure understanding, and, as a consequence of his theory of knowledge as the vision in God, failed to draw the conclusion that the law of causation is neither intuitively nor demonstrably certain. For a real cause, Malebranche says, is a cause between which and its effect, the mind perceives a necessary connection (Rome 94). This conclusion drawn, Hume can attack the root of any assumption that the law of causation may be justified by experience. The attempted justification could only be inductive; and the law of causation is the presupposition of induction. Since causal inference is found to be neither rational nor merely sensory, if explicable at all, it will be so through an analysis, not of the fancies of the philosophers, but of the imagination that is the foundation of the senses and the memory. It is thus found that probable inference consists of the habits of imagination, or beliefs, which are the perceptions that constitute the mind, and of which the more firmly established in the imagination are the understanding. To conclude the work we should say that Humes chief innovation in association’s theory is his inclusion of cause and effect among the natural relations, or modes of association. Yet even a moderately detailed examination of Humes theories of causal inference and belief in substance may suffice to indicate how groundless is the charge of total scepticism, while at the same time it discloses the character of unanalysed experience in Humes view. The relation between his critical analysis of causation and that of the Cartesians, as well as the logical nature of Humes arguments in that regard, make it plain that his analysis here is independent of his chief psychological dogma. Works Cited Baillie, James. Hume on Morality. London: Routledge, 2000. Broad, Charlie Dunbar. Perception, Physics, and Reality; an Enquiry into the Information that Physical Science Can Supply About the Real. New York: Russell Russell, 1972. Hall, Roland. Fifty Years of Hume Scholarship: A Bibliographical Guide. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1978. Hendel, Charles William Jr. Studies in the Philosophy of David Hume. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1925. Hume, David. A Treatise of Human Nature. New York: Penguin Classics, 1986. Kemp Smith, Norman. A Commentary to Kants Critique of Pure Reason. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003 Noonan, Harold W. Philosophy Guidebook to Hume on Knowledge. London: Routledge, 1999. Potkay, Adam. The Fate of Eloquence in the Age of Hume. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994. Rome, Beatrice K. The Philosophy of Malebranche: A Study of His Integration of Faith, Reason, and Experimental Observation. Chicago: H. Regnery Co. , 1963. Stewart, John B. The Moral and Political Philosophy of David Hume. New York: Columbia University Press, 1963. Strawson, Galen. The Secret Connexion: Causation, Realism, and David Hume. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989. Stroud, Barry. Hume. London: Routledge, 1977.

Alternatives to Prison for Punishment and Rehabilitation

Alternatives to Prison for Punishment and Rehabilitation Crime has always been prevalent in the myriad spheres of our society and will never cease to exist. To combat crimes, methods have been derived to deter these depending on the gravity of the crime itself. The graver the crime the graver the punishment. These methods can prove to be inefficient. In this eventuality new ways must be thought and implemented for a safer and better community at large. Imprisonment has been used since a very long time ago and still used as a mean to deter and punish law breakers and again the worse the deeds, the greater the time of imprisonment. This method present many objectives and is most widely used, it keeps people guilty of a crime under strict control before their case is presented at the court of justice and act as a punishment as their freedom is snatched once they are convicted. Moreover it prevents them from committing more crimes. It also plays the role of a rehabilitation center that is the person leads a better life and is able to reintegra te the society. Finally it protects the public from them.(stern V 2006) However, these objectives are not always met by the mean of incarceration. As Professor Angela Davis (Professor of Criminology at Birmingham City University) puts it, prisons are obsolete. She votes for a â€Å"decarceration† and believes that the era of imprisonment has come to an end because often prisoner are those who suffer from racism and sexism (Wikipedia, Angela Davis). Moreover incarceration marginalizes the offenders, keeping them away from the social interactions of their formerly everyday life and this will create a sense of alienation which will further encourage criminal behavior. (William Bales, 2011) Evidence shows that, imprisonment further criminalise the offenders where they get indulged in more serious crimes where all they did was a misdemeanor. Often in the prison environment drug dealing takes place and non drug addicts become prey to temptations. Moreover wrong frequentations of notorious criminals make them divert to a world full of crime where they collude with them. Furthermore, the transmission of HIV and other diseases are prevalent there and this is alarming. (William Bales, 2011) Prisoner usually comes from poor environment where they are poverty stricken, unemployed and indulged in drug and alcohol activities and they commit crimes because of their illiteracy. Therefore in the light of the above, it is concluded that imprisonment is not the only possible means of deterring crimes. The justice policy institute concluded the crime rate has gone down since the states has put fewer person in prison. As prison population fell by 0.2%, a 6% drop in violent crime was noticed. These figures show that keeping fewer prisoners could have a positive effect on the safety of the public. (Heather C West, 2010) There are many alternatives to prison. But the gravity of the action committed by the offender should be taken into consideration. Firstly the fine. this is a monetary amount to be paid by the convict and this amount again depends on the gravity of the action committed and the economical status of him.Usually fines are paid for small offences such as speeding fines but for atrocious crimes it does not apply because it will be unfair to let the criminal free in the society. Compensation also is a type of fine paid to the family of the victims. (Matt Faye, 2010) Secondly probation. The offender is active in the society but he is under constatant monitoring by a probation officer. The offender is given a restricted area where he can go and if he refrains to do so, then he may be imprisoned. This alternative is flexible and is used in the Wales. (Matt, Faye, 2010). With technology the use of electronic monitoring is now possible.this technology is very practical and requires obligatory supervision.the convict wears ankle bracelets which is connected to a gps (global positioning satellite system) which gives the exact location of him. This costs 6 times lesser than imprisonment and reduces offenders risk by 31%. This study was conducted in Florida where more than 5000 offenders were supervised. (William Bales, 2011) Thirdly Capital Punishment. This type of punishment is the most finite type.The talion law an eye for eye a tooth for a tooth. Murderers forgo their rights as human when they take someone else’s life.Many more innocent person have been killed by released paroled murderers than people executed. Capital punishment is 100% effective as a deterrent because the murderer cannot kill again. It can also deter other crimes, a 1985 study (Stephen K. Layson, University of North Carolina) showed that 1 execution deterred 18 murders. (Wikipedia ) Moreover this will cut the cost of prisons will also be reduced. Fourthly, Suspended Sentences. The offender is not imprisoned but follows certain conditions. This system is used in overcrowded prisons where the offender must not commit any offence for a set amount of time. The offender is also supervised by a probation officer by this time. (Stern v 2006) Community measures The offender is required to do community works entirely or partially in prison. The work is unpaid. Normally some cleaning or maintenance. Rehabilitation, the convicts is allowed to follow some treatment (drug and alcohol addicts). Often those people commits crime and this can stop with proper rehabilitation facilities. Finding drug treatments to them will reduce the number of addicts in the prisons and is a suitable alternative too. (Stern V 2006) Juvenile Crimes child crime is different from adult crime. In most legal systems the offenders are not deemed to be fully functioning as moral agents. Thus, the best way to handle them is through rehabilitation rather than punishment.correction centres should be made for children beyond control instead of imprisoning them.(Wikipedia Crime committed by mentally ill offenders should not be punished by the means of incarceration because the latter is not conscious of what he/she is doing. Instead they should be conducted to a psychiatric centre to get treated. For these alternatives to be implemented, the convicts must follow a set of guidelines and must imperatively follow it.otherwise they will be imprisoned.some right are also restricted for them such as they won’t be allow to go to places where they want to go. Conclusion Alternative ways to prisons is a good thing while the offender respect the set of guidelines given.If the single bread earner of a family is jailed then the whole family is crippled and will fade into the darkness of poverty. if a mother is imprisoned then the child will lack maternal love and this can turn the child into a criminal.on a conclusive note it is better considering the condition where the person committed the crime. if a person commits a theft out of pleasure or greed he deserves the maximum punishment else if because of poverty then trainng programs can be offered. Bibliography Stern V Criminal Justice Reform Unit Vienna International Centre, P.O. Box 500, 1400 Vienna, Austria(2006) united nations office on drugs and crimes, Alternatives to Incarceration http://www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and- prisonreform/cjat_eng/3_Alternatives_Incarceration.pdf [accessed 24.02.15] William bales ,Karen mann 2011 Us department of justice ,office of justice programs national institute of justice september 2011 Electronic monitoring reduces recidivism.https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/234460.pdf[accessed [24.02.15] Matt Loffman and Faye Morten ,Joe Caesey February 2010.The quaker council for European affaires,council of Europe ,Investigating alternatives to imprisonment pg [8-12] http://www.qcea.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/rprt-alternatives-en-jan-2010.pdf accessed [24.02.15] Heather C. West, William J. Sabol, and Sarah J. CRIME, INCARCERATION DOWN IN 2010: States are safely reducing prison populations SEPTEMBER 2011  http://www.justicepolicy.org/uploads/justicepolicy/documents/fbi_ucr_2010_factsheet_final.pdf accessed [24.02.15[ http://www.sistersinside.com.au/media/alternativestoprison.pdf accessed [24.02.15] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Davis[24.02.15] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternatives_to_incarceration

A Strategy Proposal for Obstetric Emergencies

A Strategy Proposal for Obstetric Emergencies REPORT: A STRATEGY PROPOSAL FOR MANDATORY SKILLS AND DRILLS SESSIONS FOR OBSTETRIC EMERGENCIES 1  Executive Summary 1.1 This proposal was carried out following the need for drills as identified and recommended by the CEMACH report. 1.2 The situation was reviewed in the light of current directives regarding inter-professional collaboration. This report will express the necessity to involve all obstetric and neonatal staff, ensuring competency and continuous professional development. The report has identified mechanisms suggested for the introduction of obstetric drills in such a way that they are viewed by the potential participants as a non-threatening mechanism that is highlighting good areas of practice and areas for improvement. The process will stand jointly with a programme of targeted education to address areas of weakness. The process of drills and their feedback will be monitored and refinements made. This system of risk management will feed into the process areas of concern suitable for drill evaluation. 2.  Rationale for Choice of Topic Maternity care has been identified as an area for improvement (Department of Health 2000 An Organisation with a Memory). This topic of drills was chosen because there are clear calls for its use by a number of bodies (these include CEMACH, 1999, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ â€Å"Towards Safer Childbirth† document and CNST) and it well illustrates the importance of multidisciplinary team working. These drills are a requirement of CNST level 2 which confers a 20% reduction in insurance premiums on trusts. Drills have been of proven benefit in improving performance in eclampsia simulations (Thompson, 2004). It is likely that drills in other areas of obstetrics will also lead to improved performance (Thompson, 2004). The midwifery statutory body, the Midwifery Committee of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, and formerly the UKCC are concerned with the regular updating of skills requiring at least five days of training every three years. Humanistic approach The very nature of improving patient care for its own sake should be sufficient impetus to create an environment receptive to this change. The proposal is; The introduction of mandatory skills and drills sessions for obstetric emergencies: WHY: To involve all staff and ensure competency and continuous professional development. To identify staff who need more training e.g. study days. WHO: Midwives and other clinical staff, to encourage professional development and capability to deal with emergency situations. WHAT: Shoulder dystocia Antepartum and post partum haemorrhage Eclampsia Undiagnosed breech presentation Neonatal and Maternal resuscitation Placental abruption CNST actually recommends the following drills annually; Cord Prolapse Vaginal Breech delivery Shoulder Dystocia Antepartum Haemorrhage / Severe postpartum Haemorrhage HOW: Monthly skills and drills Change skill monthly Each drill twice a year Each midwife to attend a minimum of one of each skill per year 3.  Critical Discussion Background: The drills will be a part of evidence-based training through practical skills, on emergency situations occurring in the antepartum, intrapartum and postpartum period to prevent maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity (CEMACH). The latest report of the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths sates that â€Å"emergency drills for maternal resuscitation should be regularly practised in clinical areas in all maternity units.† The Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CEMACH) has Maternity Clinical Risk Management Standards. CNST (level 2, April, 2005) Criterion 5.2.1 states; â€Å"There is a system in place to ensure that all relevant staff participate in  an annual skills drill.† The CNST documentation advises that; â€Å"Collaborative, multidisciplinary practice sessions or â€Å"drills†, for dealing with emergency situations, allow for all members of staff, especially new and junior staff, to know and understand their specific roles and  responsibilities in an emergency.† The CNST also states; â€Å"Critical incident analysis is an effective educational and management  tool, and its use should be incorporated into the philosophy and daily  management of Labour Wards.† For CNST satisfaction in this criterion there must be verification records of all those who attend each drill. The rills should be linked to a training programme. There should be at least 75% attendance and ideally 100% attendance. Critical incidents in obstetrics are uncommon. Whilst the risk management already in place may highlight weaknesses in provision of care and remedial measures may subsequently be taken such as further training it is advantageous to simulate these uncommon but acutely life-threatening situations in order to feed the results into the risk management process. Inter-Professional Team: It is especially important that the drills involve the multidisciplinary team. The following members will be regularly involved; Midwives Maternity assistants Obstetricians of all grades Anaesthetists Operating department assistants Porters Neonatal paediatricians and nurses Students It is important that all the people involved in an actual emergency are considered when setting up a drill. In some scenarios the haematology team may be involved following consultation beforehand. The more realistic the drill the more valuable it will prove. Strategy The proposal consists of a number of aspects (Roberts, 1998) such as assembling a project team, planning the drills, implementation, evaluation, modification then further implementation of the drills, further evaluation and so on. With regard to strategy introducing drills does not fit so well into there being an agreed process in advance with the likely participants in the drill. This will make the drill less realistic and, especially if the subject matter is known in advance, it will enable participants to prepare. A fine balance will be sought between gaining the support of the individuals affected via effective interpersonal sills and leadership to enable an atmosphere of trust. This approach is of proven benefit (Kassean, 2005). This will involve informing the clinicians that drills will take place and the reasons why and that they should enable improvement in practice and team working with emphasis on this being in a non-threatening manner. During initial drills the performance will depend on the abilities, clinical and team working of all the clinicians attending and will also depend on the drill itself. There are two things to evaluate; staff performance and the drill itself. The drill can be modified. The weak areas in the performance of staff can be evaluated and training issues made good. On repetition of the drills subsequent staff performance will reflect and can be used as a measure of the success or otherwise of the implementation of the drills. Discussion: It will be important to pay particular attention to discussion and accurate planning of the drills. Meetings will be set up involving management and including the Professional Development Officer, Risk Management Officer, Head of Midwifery and Clinical Liaison Officer. Although it is proposed to cover the above lists the needs and timing and degree of repetition of specific drills will be determined by incident reports. The risk management process will feed into the drill planning. The teaching elements will be modified in timing, content and repetition according to specific performance in the drills. Individual training can then be addressed where needed and appropriate and more general sessions also provided with the relevant attendance facilitated. The objective, which will be made transparent, is to maximise the combined motivation and effort of all those likely to be involved in the change. Resources needed: There are some resource implications although these are fairly minimal compared to the likely gains. Staff time is involved in setting up the drills. Rooms need to be available. However clinical rooms will be used for instance (but not confined to) the delivery suite when it is quiet. Standard equipment will be used and this will incur costs. It may be necessary to purchase models or these may already be available on the unit. Some handouts may be necessary and documentation will need to be kept of attendance registers and the progress and evaluation of the drills. Management of change There are many change theories. Particularly illustrative of the inertia to change is a major component of Lewin’s (1951) theory of change. Here people are â€Å"frozen† in a particular manner of doing things. There are many reasons for this rigid position. Whilst some of the reasons relate to external factors the crucial resistance to change is at the level of the individual. In order for the individual to change, their way of thinking about the factor needs to be addressed. Too much pressure however can make an individual more resistant to change (Broome, 1998). Too many stressors will decrease the level of performance (Broome, 1998). An example of a successful change implementation emphasised the importance of communication at this stage in the change process (Kassean, 2005). Once the individual accepts the reasons for the change rather than just that change is necessary they can make the change, then further freezing in the new position effects the change. Ethical and legal considerations Midwives must be accountable for the actions and they have a duty of care to be up to date with their training. There are fitness to practice issues inherent here. Dimond (2006) describes the outcomes of some recent legal cases concerning interdisciplinary communication and management of obstetric emergencies. Evidence of team working and adherence to appropriate guidelines will help in the defence of such problems. The process of drills and further training and repeat drills will help to create a learning culture (Garcarz, 2003). Burke (2003) compares their own study of the effectiveness and the subsequent changes in practice following drills to large awards where delivery was less timely than in their drills. Evaluation Feedback will be obtained in a variety of formats including questionnaires and in reflective practice interviews. This will enable qualitative data to be obtained and analysed. Quantitative data will be obtained and statistically analysed. This evidence will be used to evaluate just how effective the drills and the associated training are in improving clinical practice and team working in the simulation environment. Informal feedback will be acquired from discussion in team meetings of those involved in the drills as trainers and trainees. Such feedback will be helpful in assessing problems not identified elsewhere and will also be illustrative of the real barriers to change and how these might be addressed. 4.  Conclusion The introduction of obstetric drills is mandatory for CNST level 2 and is also recommended practice from a number of other bodies. There is evidence in the literature that such drills can be introduced in a manner which is accepted by participants and which is effective in the subsequent improvement of performance criteria. 5.  References Broome A 1998 Managing Change 2nd Edition. Basingstoke, Macmillan Burke C 2003 Scenario training: how we do it and the lessons we have learned. Clinical risk 9 103-6 CEMACH [WWW] http://www.cemach.org.uk/publications/WMD2000_2002/wmd-intro.htm accessed 23 April 2006-04-23 Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts Maternity Clinical Risk Management Standards April 2005 http://www.nhsla.com/NR/rdonlyres/EE1F7C66-A172-4F0C-8A36-7FCCD31A52A0/0/CNSTMaternityStandardsApril2005final.pdf accessed on 23 April 2006 Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts CNST [WWW] Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths in the United Kingdom 1999 Why mothers die. London: Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Department of Health 2000 An organisation with a memory. Report of an expert group on learning from adverse events in the NHS, chaired by the Chief Medical Officer. London: Stationery Office Dimond B 2006 Legal Aspects of Midwifery, 3rd edition. Butterworth-Heinneman, UK Garcarz W Chambers R Ellis S 2003 Make your healthcare organisation a learning organisation. Radcliffe. Oxford Kassean HK Jagoo ZB 2005 Managing change in the nursing handover from traditional to bedside handover – a case study from Mauritius BMC Nursing 2005, 4:1 1472-6955 Lewin K 1951 Field Theory in Social Science. New York: Harper and Row Roberts K Ludvigsen C Project management for health care professionals Butterworth Heineman Oxford Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists 1999 Towards safer childbirth. London; RCOG Thompson S Neal S Clark V 2004 Clinical risk management in obstetrics: eclampsia drills BMJ328:269-271

dante :: essays research papers

Dante's Inferno and The Garden of Earthly Delights The Garden of Earthly Delights painted by Hieronymus Bosch, depicts many vivid fictional scenes in triptych style. The right wing of the triptych depicts Hell and the causes of man's downfall, which Dante wrote about in the Inferno. Dante tries to convey to all humanity the consequences of human actions and the levels of hell that he believes exist for different levels of sins. Dante divides Hell up into ten different circles, and there is an upper and a lower level of Hell. Dante and Bosch have similar views on the evil within people and this evil is represented in their works, whether it transpires in a painting or in a book. This evil is evident in the right wing of The Garden of Earthy Delights, which can be used to portray scenes from almost all of Dante's circles of Hell. Fire is seen in much of the painting, which can be symbolic of death. Fire is one of the only elements man can create so fire can also be seen as a symbol of mortality. Virgil said, "I come to lead you to the other shore, into eternal darkness, ice, and fire." (Canto III: line 87) This quote shows the connection of fire and Hell. Fire can also be representative of the Holy Spirit and this relates to Dante who ties religion into the Inferno. Fire is the background of much of the top of the painting. Virgil said, "Eternal fire burns within, giving off the reddish glow you see diffused throughout this lower Hell." (VII: 73-75) Another scene in Bosch's painting that is striking appears towards the bottom and in the middle of the painting. A red instrument that is large and rounded has figures circling around it, some of which are dressed like nuns and one who is dressed like a Pope. These figures may be representative of Dante's belief in God and the Church which are two themes in the Inferno. Dante mentions Pope Nicholas III, Pope Boniface VIII, and Pope Clement V who are in hell for corrupting ecclesiastical offices in the Church and profiting from their actions. "You have built yourselves a God of gold and silver! How do you differ from the idolator, except that he worships one, you worship hundreds?" (XIX: 112-114) This could be why the Pope and nuns in The Garden of Earthly Delights are in Hell.

An Ounce Of Cure :: essays research papers

As the old saying goes, â€Å"an ounce of cure is worth a pound of prevention†. I believe that this is what the author thought of when choosing the title for this story. There is a lot of wisdom found in these words that is usually only realized after the fact. This reminds me of another old saying that I think also applies to this story – â€Å"Hindsight is twenty-twenty†. How many times have we thought, â€Å"if only I knew then what I know now†? Would we have made the same choices? This question is difficult to answer since we cannot change the past. This story is about a teenage girl, whose first heartbreak leads to some rather unfortunate events. She tells us about her first love and her first kiss. â€Å"Two months, and a few amatory stages later, he dropped† her for a girl who was performing opposite him in a school play. Watching him with the other girl was more than she could bear and the night she went to see the play was â€Å"the beginning of months of real, if more or less self-inflicted, misery† for her. While baby-sitting one night, she made the fatal mistake of getting drunk. She then calls her best friend, who shows up with another girl and several boys, to help her with her situation. Before she was able to cover up the ill-fated events, the couple returned home unexpectedly. She then had to explain what happened to her mother. Her mother then buys a bottle of Scotch and goes to see the couple to discuss her daughter’s actions. She was forbidden to date again until she turned sixteen and she ha d to pay for the bottle out of her baby-sitting money. Her reputation suffered greatly until the fall, when another girl did something even more scandalous and people forgot about her. In the end, she discovered that she was completely over the boy and she learned a valuable lesson about how actions have consequences. I found this story very enjoyable to read. I felt that the story was well written and conveyed a realistic insight into what some teenage girls experience. I, having once been a teenager, can relate to the girl in the story. Although I didn’t get drunk, I still recall my first love and the crushing heartache I felt when he broke up with me. People deal with rejection and disappointment in different ways, and sometimes we can use poor judgment. An Ounce Of Cure :: essays research papers As the old saying goes, â€Å"an ounce of cure is worth a pound of prevention†. I believe that this is what the author thought of when choosing the title for this story. There is a lot of wisdom found in these words that is usually only realized after the fact. This reminds me of another old saying that I think also applies to this story – â€Å"Hindsight is twenty-twenty†. How many times have we thought, â€Å"if only I knew then what I know now†? Would we have made the same choices? This question is difficult to answer since we cannot change the past. This story is about a teenage girl, whose first heartbreak leads to some rather unfortunate events. She tells us about her first love and her first kiss. â€Å"Two months, and a few amatory stages later, he dropped† her for a girl who was performing opposite him in a school play. Watching him with the other girl was more than she could bear and the night she went to see the play was â€Å"the beginning of months of real, if more or less self-inflicted, misery† for her. While baby-sitting one night, she made the fatal mistake of getting drunk. She then calls her best friend, who shows up with another girl and several boys, to help her with her situation. Before she was able to cover up the ill-fated events, the couple returned home unexpectedly. She then had to explain what happened to her mother. Her mother then buys a bottle of Scotch and goes to see the couple to discuss her daughter’s actions. She was forbidden to date again until she turned sixteen and she ha d to pay for the bottle out of her baby-sitting money. Her reputation suffered greatly until the fall, when another girl did something even more scandalous and people forgot about her. In the end, she discovered that she was completely over the boy and she learned a valuable lesson about how actions have consequences. I found this story very enjoyable to read. I felt that the story was well written and conveyed a realistic insight into what some teenage girls experience. I, having once been a teenager, can relate to the girl in the story. Although I didn’t get drunk, I still recall my first love and the crushing heartache I felt when he broke up with me. People deal with rejection and disappointment in different ways, and sometimes we can use poor judgment.

The Physicists Essay -- Essays Papers

The Physicists The Physicists is a satiric play written by the Swiss author Friedrich DÃ ¼rrenmatt about three physicists who are living in the private sanatorium " Les Cerisiers " headed by the last living member of an old regional aristocratic family, Miss Dr. h.c. Dr. med. Mathilde Von Zahnd. The first one thinks he is Sir Isaac Newton, but he is in reality Herbert Georg Beutler, the second one thinks he is Albert Einstein and his real name is Ernst Heinrich Ernesti. The third physicist, Johann Wilhelm MÃ ¶bius is different, he has got no second identity but he is in this sanatorium because King Solomon speaks to him. We enter the play when many men are in the saloon. It is the place of a tragedy as Mr Ernesti has strangled a nurse. Mr. Beutler has also killed a nurse a couple of months ago. The inspector is slightly annoyed because he has to visit Les Cerisiers the second time during a short period of time and because he can’t speak to or take away the murderer . He is also expressing the wish of the public prosecutor that the sanatorium has to be taken over by male nurses because of the two murders by the two physicists. During the course of the play the personal and physical change is perceptible. Both the main characters and the environment are changing. For an example in act two, Herbert Georg Beutler alias Sir Isaac Newton turns out to be a long lost world famous physicist Alex Jasper Kilton who discovered the "Theory of Equivalents" also Albert Einstein alias...

Supply Chain

|Module Number: MO0358 | |Strategic Supply Chain Management | |(Individual Project) | INTRODUCTION 1. 1 Objective â€Å"Supply chain management = Order to Cash. As my group project is about Burberry supply chain management so I would like to further explain it here and show you how Burberry successes after apply supply management. 1. 2 The Background of BURBERRYBURBERRY is established in London, United Kingdom in 1865 by Thomas Burberry. The Business concept of Burberry is â€Å"Fashion & Luxury†. At the end of 2007, Burberry started supply chain management in their business and hope that can delivered luxury and lifestyle product to customers at more than 208 concessions within department stores and digital commerce, plus 44 outlets and 192 mainline stores over the world and Burberry employs more than 30,000 people to operate the business smoothly.Burberry offers fashion for women, men, and children, also sells their own-brand beauty, cosmetics and perfume. Burberry has ow n factory at London Castleford but just produce trench coat and some core items. And now Burberry buys its goods from around 100 independent supplies, mostly in Asia and Europe. Burberry corporate with suppliers to develop long-term, sustainable social and environmental standards in the factories for produces Burberry high quality products. Burberry reaches the customers through two sales channels: stores and online.The store is the most important for Burberry as the customers can see the product, try it on and feel the products. Burberry is expanding their business new offerings and via new channels such as internet/ online business, the advantages of offering new channel are customers able to shop online, it can to let customers have the freedom of choice to choose the sales channel that suits customer best at that moment. Burberry stores are spread all over the world. It can be found in United Kingdom, Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia.And according to their annual report China will be their very critical regions for their business so Burberry plans to establish more stores in China in the coming year. Burberry is growing not only by turning to customers in new stores and new places. It is at least equally important that the company continually develops. Their fashion categories are including menswear, womenswear and childrenswear. Fragrance & beauty category was in the leading position of the Asia market two years ago. Accessories category contains eyewear, scarves, watches and bags. Supply chain managementAccording to Mentzer, et al (Ballou, 2004), â€Å"Supply chain Management (SCM) is defined as the systematic, strategic coordination of the traditional business functions and the tactics across these business functions within a particular company and across businesses within the supply chain, for the purpose of improving the long-term performance of the individual companies and the supply chain as a whole â€Å"(p. 5). In order to balance end customers' demands and the hit for profitable growth, Burberry has moved aggressively to build an efficient and successful supply chain management an efficient and successful supply chain management system.It must have five basic components that are considered and acted upon. These components can help to enhance revenue, control costs and asset utilization as well as customer satisfaction. They are including planning, sourcing, make, delivery, and return which is same as the supply chain of Burberry flows from ideas and design, production, distribution centre, call-off, store, finally to the customer. In this paper, each of these components will be discussed in the following paragraphs. 3. 0 Planning First step of supply chain management is planning .The planning component is critical to the success of a good supply chain management system. Therefore, from Burberry year annual report, we can see Burberry do reviews their brand performance of business each year and well plan for next year. Also they will review by each season to make sure everything planned are on tracked. Refer to Burberry 2007 annual report we noticed they mentioned will start supply chain management and also put a lot of money to buy SAP system as their only platform of their system in order to bring Burberry business to globalization.It shows the main objective to any strategy a business industry chooses should be to have materials available at all times in order to ensure the smooth flow of care for their business while keeping costs under control. At the beginning of season, Burberry sourcing team and product development, quality control, designer , merchandising planning and buyers will have big meeting to review what the trend is , product and material will be launched for next season in order to plan the strategy.Buyer also will give souring team an approximately order quantity for souring team to give factory in order to prepare raw material, trims†¦ etc , to shorten lead-ti me and to have materials available at all times in order to ensure the smooth flow of care while keeping costs under control. 4. 0. Sourcing 4. 1. Raw material Burberry applies cost management and quality control monitor in their supply chain system; Cost is the key factors determining Burberry more successful in the fashion changing market. † The raw materials are sourced locally in different regions for example: China, Korea, Thailand and Japan.Benefit is can save the transportation cost and expenses with similar quality. Burberry souring team will negotiate the cost with supplier by using long term business, letter of credit and payment in time in order to make sure they can have better price to hit target. However, product quality will be enhanced in terms of through sourcing better production technologies and new materials internationally. The purposes of sourcing are to know or explore more new suppliers with advanced Garment Production System/ Technology which able to a ccelerate the production speed so that shorten the lead-time.In addition, that strategy can stimulate the inter-specific competition among the existing suppliers by the importing new suppliers. Existing suppliers will contact Burberry actively and offer the attractive conditions with the aim of getting Burberry orders. That is the most effective method controlling the price and maintains the high product quality of global souring 4. 2. Quality Control Burberry is a luxurious brand in fashion industry and in order to maintain high quality products to their customers, all suppliers and manufactures are needs to meet AQL (Acceptable Quality Level) standard with 2. requested by Burberry. AQL 2. 5 means if an order is 10,500 units, they want a 2. 5 AQL they can have 14 defective units or less from the 315 that they inspect. Moreover, suppliers need to submit lab test report to prove quality sell to Burberry are good and no harm for customer . To provide good quality material for making h igh quality final goods, Burberry based on china garment rules and international standard to make a standard and all supplier need to follow it to do the testing, if fail in the testing result, suppliers and manufacturers might be cannot carry on or allow to process orders in the next season.Burberry QC team will also regularly by month or by week to inspect supplier and factories in order to make sure their provided product can meet Burberry standard. However, even AQL (Acceptable Quality Level) standard with 2. 5 and lab test report applies on all Burberry products and AQL 2. 5 is very high standard but still have defective items can be found . 5. 0. Make Under supply chain strategy, the process of â€Å"Make† is to provide high quality products in lower cost, so that Burberry can save the cost to gain more profit. 5. 1. Co-markershipBurberry has their own standard on selecting raw material suppliers, which also limited the number of suppliers, this can help them to have a better control on the product quality. Burberry has more than 200 independent suppliers for outsource the production. Burberry has good reputation in maintaining the relationship with all suppliers, by producing Burberry luxury product, stable order volume, guarantee payment and letter of credit etc. Furthermore, Burberry always communicates and reviews the action plan with suppliers every season.To enhance the relationship with suppliers, the key factor is to have a good coordination and linkage with them. Burberry frequently provide training program for vendors, in order to maintain their production standard. What is more , Burberry has a regular appraisal to suppliers, which provide feedback to suppliers for better improvement. The production sites of Burberry are global sourced from over the world such as China, Turkey, Thailand, Macau, Singapore, Portugal, Romania and Hong Kong.The advantage is to essentially cut down the labor expenses, with the bulk production so that enhanci ng Burberry at the competitive position in the global fashion Industry by maximizing the margin of profit to the fashion business. For selecting new vendors/suppliers for cooperate business, Burberry has carries out auditors (internal and external) to evaluate the supplier’s qualification before cooperating The criteria including lead time, quality, quantity, safety, guarantee, availability and flexibility etc, especially Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) standard.Any supplier cannot approve by Burberry CSR team, Burberry will not allow that factory to produce their product to ensure Burberry product meet on high quality and corporate social responsibility. However, Burberry is not easy to find qualified supplier because Burberry respect the rules and some developing countries cannot meet Burberry regulation such as safety working environment, labor children, illegal pay and abuse , these problems are always found in these countries.Moreover, safety working environment, h ealthy and compliance with local environmental legislation also are the other challenges for Burberry because they found that most developing countries do not formulate the occupational safety and health regulation and environmental organization. These countries do not install the legitimate fire device in the factory or build up a health and safety working place for the staffs, it absolutely disobey the rules of Burberry. Brand image will be also affected by these negative news.When souring new supplier Burberry facing the political environment problem. For example in Thailand, they do not have a stable business environment. The anti-government demonstration caused the Bangkok city in turmoil. It made factory cannot ship out any goods from the airport. As long as riddled with corruption, unstable public security, terrorism and robbery always happened. We can see that these factors might not provide stable business environment for producing Burberry product. And Burberry also will c onsider kind of factors to choose supplier.To solve these problems, I would like to suggest Burberry don’t put all orders in 1 supplier in order unstable conditional happen again. The fighting sources with competitors as also one of the challenges for Burberry as Burberry share some factory‘s capacity with others fashion brand for example: Polo Jeans, Armani exchange, Marks and Spencer, Gap and J. Crew etc. Therefore, Burberry needs to keep a good relationship with all suppliers to ensure sufficient providing source. 5. 2. Outsource Burberry has 3 global licensing agreements of fragrance and beauty (by interparfums), watches (by Fossil) and eyewear (by Luxottica).In order to make sure the quality of non-apparel products are in a high standard, all licensing can provide professional knowledge and technology of product and it can helps Burberry reduce cost on innovation for non-apparel products. Burberry sourcing teams, quality control teams and CSR team work closely with these partners on product development, quality control, CSR, marketing and distribution activities, and will conduct regular reviews to ensure compliance with the term of its license agreements.Outsource for Burberry is very important because Italy’s fragrance and beauty is expertise because they have long history in this field so it is the best in the world, the eyewear technology in Guangdong, China is the best and reasonable. Hence, Burberry enables to sell the licensing to them in order to maintain better quality. 5. 3. Information System – SAP According to Burberry globalized organization, Burberry has 444 worldwide retail shop and over 31 countries operation. Therefore, different parties will create a lot of information of product.Burberry supply chain system is a technology that to improve information to become more systematic. Started from 2008, SAP is the only system platform for Burberry; it can help to collect information, data and share within the organiza tion. It also can monitor the delivery schedule to ensure everything are on tracked. SAP system is the market and technology leader in business software solutions, providing comprehensive business software through SAP applications, services and support. SAP can manage system and analysis at the same time, It helps Burberry to draw data and use this platform to do an analysis of brand performance.This information can help making decision by the management team to increase competitive advantages, such as production life cycle analysis, raw material forecasting, marketing planning and inventory review. So that everything can be counted and measured by using SAP system. Famous and international company would prefer using SAP system, as these company has different branch office over the world. By using SAP system can help they no limitation on different district. 6. 0. Delivery Transportation is one of the main processes of delivering and distributing goods.It may involve more than one p lace during the transportation, such as place to store and place to sell. 6. 1. SAP system In Burberry, SAP provides a systematic format to handle information transmission, and it brings a dramatic impact to Burberry. For example, SAP system has an accurate control on the raw material lead time, which means factories have plenty of time on mass production; consequently, it reduces shipment delay. Furthermore, due to the well control on the production period, Burberry has plenty of time to ship the goods by sea instead of air.The most obvious outcome is the reduction of logistic cost. 6. 2. DHL 3rd party Moreover, Burberry is in collaboration with DHL 3rd party global to in charge of final goods delivery. They are responsible to collect final goods from different factories, and providing direct delivery service to relative DHL Global center (UK, USA, Spain ,HK), then they distribute the goods to local retail stores. Due to this professional & tailor-make service provided by DHL, Burb erry reduces the need for warehousing at destination, which means this part of expenses can be reduced.Even though worldwide retail shops and operation offices are closed after work, DHL can provide 24 hours logistic services and its reliable customs clearance, which can help to speed up the delivery process, so it can secure the delivery time. For example, new product can be launched in the retail store in time, quick move inventory to distribution centers by special requested. 7. 0. Return Nowadays customer would like to have a pleasant shopping experience, they all don’t like to return to retail outlets or companies. Customers want to have sales approaches, lowest price and friendly service for every product.Consumer prefers more and would like to shop at one stop shopping centers. Burberry is using some of the supply chain techniques to cut costs like given vendor to manage the inventory by using inventory tracking and sales in individual stores and cross-docking fast-mov ing items. Now, Burberry has more convenience, selections, and reasonable price 8. 0. Conclusion In my opinion , Burberry applies â€Å"supply chain management† is a important and correct direction because it can offers a great deal of benefits including sourcing , reduce cost , quality control, product category and quality advantages to Burberry fighting with its competitors.In refer to Burberry annual report, their business are going up and up. It is very vital for Burberry continuously maintaining high reputation . As well as Burberry are facing some competitions in sourcing suppliers directly , so needs to find others or potential suppliers to cooperate To ensure the good relationship between supplier with better price, Burberry should keep the stable and regular ordering in long term. This could highly enhance its bargaining power.In order to having the good quality and lowering the cost (to enjoy more profits) at the same time, Burberry need to do more research on findi ng good suppliers and manufactories in different countries. Even it has long historical experience; Burberry should keep doing research and catch up with the new/ latest trend Burberry also need to shorten the lead-time from the process of supply chain progress . In order to meet the demand and needs in the future. I think that Burberry need to shorten the lead-time of manufacturing and transporting time such as pre-book some raw material.In constant, the challenges of global sourcing are some uncertain factors need to be manage and consider in selecting the suppliers from different country, e. g. political environment, country’s textile quotas and exchange rate. To manage those risks, the top management requires long term perspective in defining the company’s goal and strategy. In order to implement global sourcing successfully, it also requires the experience and commitment of the management in managing the risks and understanding the foreign regulations.In addition, H outsources all the production to over 200 suppliers, Burberry needs to maintain the good and long-term relationships with all the existing suppliers. Despite it is rich in challenges and difficulties when conducting sourcing globally. Social Responsibility is one of indispensable factors to be considered. Balancing Social Responsibility and Business Benefits is the real challenges for Burberry If Burberry does not manage its supply chain correctly, it would lose profits because they are providing products at lower costs than its competitors, so they must also receive lower prices from its suppliers.Therefore, the supply chain of every company should not be overlooked as it may lead to a loss in profits, revenues, and even the company itself. 8. 0. Reference Burberry Group Plc. (2012, Nov 09). Retrieved from Burberry – Iconic British Luxury Brand Est. 1856: http://www. burberryplc. com/ Chan, Chi Kin, and Lee, H. W. J. Successful Strategies in Supply Chain Management. Penns ylvania: Hershey, 2005. Chopra, Sunil and Meindl, Peter. Supply Chain Management: Strategy, Planning, . New Jersey: Upper Saddle River, 2007. Supply Chain |Module Number: MO0358 | |Strategic Supply Chain Management | |(Individual Project) | INTRODUCTION 1. 1 Objective â€Å"Supply chain management = Order to Cash. As my group project is about Burberry supply chain management so I would like to further explain it here and show you how Burberry successes after apply supply management. 1. 2 The Background of BURBERRYBURBERRY is established in London, United Kingdom in 1865 by Thomas Burberry. The Business concept of Burberry is â€Å"Fashion & Luxury†. At the end of 2007, Burberry started supply chain management in their business and hope that can delivered luxury and lifestyle product to customers at more than 208 concessions within department stores and digital commerce, plus 44 outlets and 192 mainline stores over the world and Burberry employs more than 30,000 people to operate the business smoothly.Burberry offers fashion for women, men, and children, also sells their own-brand beauty, cosmetics and perfume. Burberry has ow n factory at London Castleford but just produce trench coat and some core items. And now Burberry buys its goods from around 100 independent supplies, mostly in Asia and Europe. Burberry corporate with suppliers to develop long-term, sustainable social and environmental standards in the factories for produces Burberry high quality products. Burberry reaches the customers through two sales channels: stores and online.The store is the most important for Burberry as the customers can see the product, try it on and feel the products. Burberry is expanding their business new offerings and via new channels such as internet/ online business, the advantages of offering new channel are customers able to shop online, it can to let customers have the freedom of choice to choose the sales channel that suits customer best at that moment. Burberry stores are spread all over the world. It can be found in United Kingdom, Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia.And according to their annual report China will be their very critical regions for their business so Burberry plans to establish more stores in China in the coming year. Burberry is growing not only by turning to customers in new stores and new places. It is at least equally important that the company continually develops. Their fashion categories are including menswear, womenswear and childrenswear. Fragrance & beauty category was in the leading position of the Asia market two years ago. Accessories category contains eyewear, scarves, watches and bags. Supply chain managementAccording to Mentzer, et al (Ballou, 2004), â€Å"Supply chain Management (SCM) is defined as the systematic, strategic coordination of the traditional business functions and the tactics across these business functions within a particular company and across businesses within the supply chain, for the purpose of improving the long-term performance of the individual companies and the supply chain as a whole â€Å"(p. 5). In order to balance end customers' demands and the hit for profitable growth, Burberry has moved aggressively to build an efficient and successful supply chain management an efficient and successful supply chain management system.It must have five basic components that are considered and acted upon. These components can help to enhance revenue, control costs and asset utilization as well as customer satisfaction. They are including planning, sourcing, make, delivery, and return which is same as the supply chain of Burberry flows from ideas and design, production, distribution centre, call-off, store, finally to the customer. In this paper, each of these components will be discussed in the following paragraphs. 3. 0 Planning First step of supply chain management is planning .The planning component is critical to the success of a good supply chain management system. Therefore, from Burberry year annual report, we can see Burberry do reviews their brand performance of business each year and well plan for next year. Also they will review by each season to make sure everything planned are on tracked. Refer to Burberry 2007 annual report we noticed they mentioned will start supply chain management and also put a lot of money to buy SAP system as their only platform of their system in order to bring Burberry business to globalization.It shows the main objective to any strategy a business industry chooses should be to have materials available at all times in order to ensure the smooth flow of care for their business while keeping costs under control. At the beginning of season, Burberry sourcing team and product development, quality control, designer , merchandising planning and buyers will have big meeting to review what the trend is , product and material will be launched for next season in order to plan the strategy.Buyer also will give souring team an approximately order quantity for souring team to give factory in order to prepare raw material, trims†¦ etc , to shorten lead-ti me and to have materials available at all times in order to ensure the smooth flow of care while keeping costs under control. 4. 0. Sourcing 4. 1. Raw material Burberry applies cost management and quality control monitor in their supply chain system; Cost is the key factors determining Burberry more successful in the fashion changing market. † The raw materials are sourced locally in different regions for example: China, Korea, Thailand and Japan.Benefit is can save the transportation cost and expenses with similar quality. Burberry souring team will negotiate the cost with supplier by using long term business, letter of credit and payment in time in order to make sure they can have better price to hit target. However, product quality will be enhanced in terms of through sourcing better production technologies and new materials internationally. The purposes of sourcing are to know or explore more new suppliers with advanced Garment Production System/ Technology which able to a ccelerate the production speed so that shorten the lead-time.In addition, that strategy can stimulate the inter-specific competition among the existing suppliers by the importing new suppliers. Existing suppliers will contact Burberry actively and offer the attractive conditions with the aim of getting Burberry orders. That is the most effective method controlling the price and maintains the high product quality of global souring 4. 2. Quality Control Burberry is a luxurious brand in fashion industry and in order to maintain high quality products to their customers, all suppliers and manufactures are needs to meet AQL (Acceptable Quality Level) standard with 2. requested by Burberry. AQL 2. 5 means if an order is 10,500 units, they want a 2. 5 AQL they can have 14 defective units or less from the 315 that they inspect. Moreover, suppliers need to submit lab test report to prove quality sell to Burberry are good and no harm for customer . To provide good quality material for making h igh quality final goods, Burberry based on china garment rules and international standard to make a standard and all supplier need to follow it to do the testing, if fail in the testing result, suppliers and manufacturers might be cannot carry on or allow to process orders in the next season.Burberry QC team will also regularly by month or by week to inspect supplier and factories in order to make sure their provided product can meet Burberry standard. However, even AQL (Acceptable Quality Level) standard with 2. 5 and lab test report applies on all Burberry products and AQL 2. 5 is very high standard but still have defective items can be found . 5. 0. Make Under supply chain strategy, the process of â€Å"Make† is to provide high quality products in lower cost, so that Burberry can save the cost to gain more profit. 5. 1. Co-markershipBurberry has their own standard on selecting raw material suppliers, which also limited the number of suppliers, this can help them to have a better control on the product quality. Burberry has more than 200 independent suppliers for outsource the production. Burberry has good reputation in maintaining the relationship with all suppliers, by producing Burberry luxury product, stable order volume, guarantee payment and letter of credit etc. Furthermore, Burberry always communicates and reviews the action plan with suppliers every season.To enhance the relationship with suppliers, the key factor is to have a good coordination and linkage with them. Burberry frequently provide training program for vendors, in order to maintain their production standard. What is more , Burberry has a regular appraisal to suppliers, which provide feedback to suppliers for better improvement. The production sites of Burberry are global sourced from over the world such as China, Turkey, Thailand, Macau, Singapore, Portugal, Romania and Hong Kong.The advantage is to essentially cut down the labor expenses, with the bulk production so that enhanci ng Burberry at the competitive position in the global fashion Industry by maximizing the margin of profit to the fashion business. For selecting new vendors/suppliers for cooperate business, Burberry has carries out auditors (internal and external) to evaluate the supplier’s qualification before cooperating The criteria including lead time, quality, quantity, safety, guarantee, availability and flexibility etc, especially Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) standard.Any supplier cannot approve by Burberry CSR team, Burberry will not allow that factory to produce their product to ensure Burberry product meet on high quality and corporate social responsibility. However, Burberry is not easy to find qualified supplier because Burberry respect the rules and some developing countries cannot meet Burberry regulation such as safety working environment, labor children, illegal pay and abuse , these problems are always found in these countries.Moreover, safety working environment, h ealthy and compliance with local environmental legislation also are the other challenges for Burberry because they found that most developing countries do not formulate the occupational safety and health regulation and environmental organization. These countries do not install the legitimate fire device in the factory or build up a health and safety working place for the staffs, it absolutely disobey the rules of Burberry. Brand image will be also affected by these negative news.When souring new supplier Burberry facing the political environment problem. For example in Thailand, they do not have a stable business environment. The anti-government demonstration caused the Bangkok city in turmoil. It made factory cannot ship out any goods from the airport. As long as riddled with corruption, unstable public security, terrorism and robbery always happened. We can see that these factors might not provide stable business environment for producing Burberry product. And Burberry also will c onsider kind of factors to choose supplier.To solve these problems, I would like to suggest Burberry don’t put all orders in 1 supplier in order unstable conditional happen again. The fighting sources with competitors as also one of the challenges for Burberry as Burberry share some factory‘s capacity with others fashion brand for example: Polo Jeans, Armani exchange, Marks and Spencer, Gap and J. Crew etc. Therefore, Burberry needs to keep a good relationship with all suppliers to ensure sufficient providing source. 5. 2. Outsource Burberry has 3 global licensing agreements of fragrance and beauty (by interparfums), watches (by Fossil) and eyewear (by Luxottica).In order to make sure the quality of non-apparel products are in a high standard, all licensing can provide professional knowledge and technology of product and it can helps Burberry reduce cost on innovation for non-apparel products. Burberry sourcing teams, quality control teams and CSR team work closely with these partners on product development, quality control, CSR, marketing and distribution activities, and will conduct regular reviews to ensure compliance with the term of its license agreements.Outsource for Burberry is very important because Italy’s fragrance and beauty is expertise because they have long history in this field so it is the best in the world, the eyewear technology in Guangdong, China is the best and reasonable. Hence, Burberry enables to sell the licensing to them in order to maintain better quality. 5. 3. Information System – SAP According to Burberry globalized organization, Burberry has 444 worldwide retail shop and over 31 countries operation. Therefore, different parties will create a lot of information of product.Burberry supply chain system is a technology that to improve information to become more systematic. Started from 2008, SAP is the only system platform for Burberry; it can help to collect information, data and share within the organiza tion. It also can monitor the delivery schedule to ensure everything are on tracked. SAP system is the market and technology leader in business software solutions, providing comprehensive business software through SAP applications, services and support. SAP can manage system and analysis at the same time, It helps Burberry to draw data and use this platform to do an analysis of brand performance.This information can help making decision by the management team to increase competitive advantages, such as production life cycle analysis, raw material forecasting, marketing planning and inventory review. So that everything can be counted and measured by using SAP system. Famous and international company would prefer using SAP system, as these company has different branch office over the world. By using SAP system can help they no limitation on different district. 6. 0. Delivery Transportation is one of the main processes of delivering and distributing goods.It may involve more than one p lace during the transportation, such as place to store and place to sell. 6. 1. SAP system In Burberry, SAP provides a systematic format to handle information transmission, and it brings a dramatic impact to Burberry. For example, SAP system has an accurate control on the raw material lead time, which means factories have plenty of time on mass production; consequently, it reduces shipment delay. Furthermore, due to the well control on the production period, Burberry has plenty of time to ship the goods by sea instead of air.The most obvious outcome is the reduction of logistic cost. 6. 2. DHL 3rd party Moreover, Burberry is in collaboration with DHL 3rd party global to in charge of final goods delivery. They are responsible to collect final goods from different factories, and providing direct delivery service to relative DHL Global center (UK, USA, Spain ,HK), then they distribute the goods to local retail stores. Due to this professional & tailor-make service provided by DHL, Burb erry reduces the need for warehousing at destination, which means this part of expenses can be reduced.Even though worldwide retail shops and operation offices are closed after work, DHL can provide 24 hours logistic services and its reliable customs clearance, which can help to speed up the delivery process, so it can secure the delivery time. For example, new product can be launched in the retail store in time, quick move inventory to distribution centers by special requested. 7. 0. Return Nowadays customer would like to have a pleasant shopping experience, they all don’t like to return to retail outlets or companies. Customers want to have sales approaches, lowest price and friendly service for every product.Consumer prefers more and would like to shop at one stop shopping centers. Burberry is using some of the supply chain techniques to cut costs like given vendor to manage the inventory by using inventory tracking and sales in individual stores and cross-docking fast-mov ing items. Now, Burberry has more convenience, selections, and reasonable price 8. 0. Conclusion In my opinion , Burberry applies â€Å"supply chain management† is a important and correct direction because it can offers a great deal of benefits including sourcing , reduce cost , quality control, product category and quality advantages to Burberry fighting with its competitors.In refer to Burberry annual report, their business are going up and up. It is very vital for Burberry continuously maintaining high reputation . As well as Burberry are facing some competitions in sourcing suppliers directly , so needs to find others or potential suppliers to cooperate To ensure the good relationship between supplier with better price, Burberry should keep the stable and regular ordering in long term. This could highly enhance its bargaining power.In order to having the good quality and lowering the cost (to enjoy more profits) at the same time, Burberry need to do more research on findi ng good suppliers and manufactories in different countries. Even it has long historical experience; Burberry should keep doing research and catch up with the new/ latest trend Burberry also need to shorten the lead-time from the process of supply chain progress . In order to meet the demand and needs in the future. I think that Burberry need to shorten the lead-time of manufacturing and transporting time such as pre-book some raw material.In constant, the challenges of global sourcing are some uncertain factors need to be manage and consider in selecting the suppliers from different country, e. g. political environment, country’s textile quotas and exchange rate. To manage those risks, the top management requires long term perspective in defining the company’s goal and strategy. In order to implement global sourcing successfully, it also requires the experience and commitment of the management in managing the risks and understanding the foreign regulations.In addition, H outsources all the production to over 200 suppliers, Burberry needs to maintain the good and long-term relationships with all the existing suppliers. Despite it is rich in challenges and difficulties when conducting sourcing globally. Social Responsibility is one of indispensable factors to be considered. Balancing Social Responsibility and Business Benefits is the real challenges for Burberry If Burberry does not manage its supply chain correctly, it would lose profits because they are providing products at lower costs than its competitors, so they must also receive lower prices from its suppliers.Therefore, the supply chain of every company should not be overlooked as it may lead to a loss in profits, revenues, and even the company itself. 8. 0. Reference Burberry Group Plc. (2012, Nov 09). Retrieved from Burberry – Iconic British Luxury Brand Est. 1856: http://www. burberryplc. com/ Chan, Chi Kin, and Lee, H. W. J. Successful Strategies in Supply Chain Management. Penns ylvania: Hershey, 2005. Chopra, Sunil and Meindl, Peter. Supply Chain Management: Strategy, Planning, . New Jersey: Upper Saddle River, 2007.