Maintaining Proper Time Management Skills - 975 Words

It is known that maintaining proper time management skills will constitute into leading a successful personal and professional life. Time management is important but is often a struggle amongst professionals; me being one of many who are struggle. After carefully analyzing my routine, I’ve noticed that I often struggle with making it to appointments in a timely manner, completing assignments long before the due date, and committing to multiple engagements at the same time. At first, I would conclude that I was just overwhelmed with my duties but later found out that my time management skills were suffering. As a working graduate student, the procrastination on given assignments and appointments increased tremendously; as expected. According to Nonis and Hudson, today’s college students are less prepared for college level work than their predecessors. (2010) Once students get to college, they tend to spend fewer hours studying while spending more hours working. (Nonis and Hudson, 2010) As years passed, many college students have more responsibilities hence the need to work while in school. With increased responsibility, priorities tend to be rearranged and an area of your life may be neglected. Both Nonis and Hudson believe that due to outside obligations, the students’ would be negatively affected academically. (Nonis and Hudson 2010) Nonis and Hudson tested they’re hypothesis by connecting the direct relationship between the time spent on academics outside of the classroomShow MoreRelatedDriven Special Competencies In The Mechanics Of Leadership703 Words   |  3 Pagesand search customer account information. Acquainted with the tensions and stages of organizational challenges during tough economic times and the need to reform and build sustainable processes. 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SECTION C: WORKPLACE CHALLENGES Read MoreRegistered Nurses Are All Over The World1056 Words   |  5 Pagesvariety of health care settings, doing what I have learned to do over the past two years, and much more. They are essential to the well-being of health care and an important aspect of patient-centered care. They spend hours studying and are taught skills that are required for the line of daily duty they endure. I knew the importance of the registered nurse, however, I have been taught that there is so more to their role than just providing everyday care and administering medications. The ability ofRead MoreThe Importance Of Talent Management For An Organization1016 Words   |  5 Pagesto perform a particular task in a special manner. Talent management means ng the ability, competence and power of an employee within an organization (Management Study Guide, n. d). It is the objective of every industry to remain competitive in providing bet ter services and winning more customers. To meet this, it is necessary to employ proper management in the human resource sector. Why manage talents in an organization? Talent management is done to ensure that all the fields in the organizationRead MoreManagement Case Brief : Business Problem / Opportunity Overview1090 Words   |  5 PagesMANAGEMENT CASE BRIEF BUSINESS PROBLEM/OPPORTUNITY OVERVIEW – QUALITATIVE †¢ Lack of planning out designated routes before beginning daily routes, may run into problems/situations such as getting lost, running into road work, or unknown weather conditions, which can cause a change in drivers normal day-to-day or weekly routes. †¢ Lack of not following/using ORION technology to help in making better decisions for the drivers, or if the device stops working or starts acting up, it can hurt UPS’ ultimate

Chinas Role in the World Economy Essay - 1417 Words

China’s Role in the World Economy Abstract This paper aims to discuss China’s role as a major player in the global economy and the impact China will continue to have on the global economy. This paper will offer a summary of two articles entitled, China Pushes for Bigger Role in Reshaping the World Economy and Singapore sees India, China Role Growing, which discusses China’s transformation into a dynamic private sector-led economy and its integration into the global economy. I will also offer my opinion on the future prospects of China’s rapid growing economy and trade expansion. China’s Role in the World Economy Over the past decades, the competitiveness of the United States economy has been outstanding because of its†¦show more content†¦Chinese banks are more stable and the Beijing government is sitting on the largest stockpile of foreign reserves in the world. Chinas power has been increasing in recent years as it has surged to become the third biggest economy, after the U.S. and Japan. Since the late 70s, however, Chinas economy has doubled every eight years. In that same period, the U.S. economy has doubled once. Today, average Chinese have some ten times the purchasing power they had just a quarter century ago. Chinas growth was led by exports and investments in fixed assets, such as factories and roads. China is now a powerful trading nation, and in recent years has been an avid consumer of industrial commodities such as copper, iron ore, and steel to fuel its rapid industrialization. Additionally, another main driver of Chinese growth was the Beijing Summer Olympics whom people looked to as a defining moment of Chinas rise. Chinas run of economic prosperity has been great news for millions of Chinese who have seen their living standards improve, as well as for global trade and the broader world economy. However, with all the foreign investment China is receiving, the country will only grow more and more interdependent upon the world economy. The impressive growth rate of China’s economy is not without its shortcomings. Problems such as inflation andShow MoreRelatedChina s Economic Impact On China883 Words   |  4 PagesChina becomes the second largest economy in this world and it has showed the remarkable economic performance over the last two decades after The United States. China’s gross domestic product (GDP) as Share of World GDP at PPP 25 years ago only reached around 4.7%, now China contributes 16.32% of world GDP. China exports the relative cheap products that lowered consumer prices acros s the globe, and its imports have had a major impact on global commodity prices. China also has become a major hub ofRead MoreThe Growth of Chinas Economy Essay1009 Words   |  5 Pagesreform and opening up, the economy of China grows significantly, as an emerging economy, Chinas economy has made tremendous contributions to the global economy, and Renminbi has become one of the most important currency in the world. According to the survey conducted by China National Bureau of Statistics found that from 1979 to 2012, China has attained an annual average growth rate of 9.8% for its national economy, while the annual average growth of the world economy is only 2.8 % during the sameRead MoreEssay on India China Economic Growth906 Words   |  4 Pagescountries in the world .Over a past few decade India’s combination into the economic has been accompanied by remarkable economic growth (World Bank 2011 ¬).India is having the 3th position on the economy in purchasing power pari ty (PPP) terms (The Economic Times, 2012). India’s total GDP (gross Domestic Product) growth was 5.5% in 2012 and inflation rate is was .........(The Economist, 2012) .According to government of India poverty has been decline from 37.2% in 2004 to 29.8% in 2010 (world bank 2011)Read MoreStages of Economic Reform in China1174 Words   |  5 Pagescrisis couple of times, globally and throughout Asia, China seemed to respond quickly and effectively to handle these difficult situations. As of today, China remains as an admiration and aspiration for not only countries in Asia, but also around the world. According to Tian (1996), there are three stages of economic reform in China. The first stage is characterized by economic liberalization. This stage was said to be the most remarkable stage as it has greatly changed the Chinese people’s valuesRead MoreAsi A Dynamic And Growing Global Capital976 Words   |  4 Pagesor so, Asia has emerged out of the dust of World War II into a dynamic and growing global capital. 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A) The implications of such a development for the world trading system is that China will basically will be the root of trading. From my perspective, China’s growth of economic will benefit overall economy of world. In the trading system

Kant Categorical Imperative Free Essays

Kant’s Categorical Imperative Kant’s Categorical Imperative is made up of two formulations, Formula of Universal Law and The Formula of the End in Itself. The first formulation is best described by the following statement, â€Å"Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law without contradiction. † (Kant, 1785, 1993). We will write a custom essay sample on Kant Categorical Imperative or any similar topic only for you Order Now What does this mean? A maxim is the fundamental rule of conduct or your moral belief upon which you chose to act. A universal law is a law that everyone must follow regardless of the outcome. How do we determine if the maxim can become universal? One of the first things to do is to ask yourself if it would be acceptable that everyone do the same thing that you are considering doing in that situation. We were given several examples in The Elements of Moral Philosophy and the one that made the most impact was â€Å"suppose a man needs money, but no one will lend it to him unless he promises to pay it back-which he knows he won’t be able to do. Should he make a false promises to get the loan? † (Rachels, 2012). If this happened the maxim or universal rule would be anytime you need a loan tell a lie that you will repay it and you will get the loan. This is not something that everyone would be willing to do because you will no longer believe others when they tell you this statement and no one would be willing to make the loans. The second thing you should do to determine if the maxim can become universal is look at your answer to the first question. Did you say â€Å"yes, I think that everyone will do it? †. If so, then ask yourself if it makes rational sense to want everyone in the same situation to do what you are contemplating doing. If your answer was no to either question then your maxim cannot become universal law because it is not considered moral. Overall, based on Kant, an act is morally right only if the primary rule of behavior, which is how you decide to act morally, can constantly and universally relate to you and others. The second formulation is best described by the following statement, â€Å"Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end. (Kant, 1785, 1993). Basically, this means that morality consists of doing your duty to treat people, including yourself, and an end, never as a means to an end. Kant combined the second formulation with the first because we have a perfect duty to not use the humanity of ourselves or others merely as a means to some other end. Most ends are somewhat subjective because they need only be pursued if they are in line with some particular hypoth etical imperative that a person may choose to adopt. (Categorical Imperative Explained, 2012). The second formulation also leads to the imperfect duty to further the ends of ourselves and others. If any person desires perfection in themselves or others, it would be their moral duty to pursue that end for all people equally, so long as that end does not contradict perfect duty. The question of whether or not Kant adequately addresses the problems evident in comparison of the two formulations cannot be summed up with a simple yes or no answer. He makes a good argument for both sides just as he opposes both sides. The difference is whether or not we have the right moral sense to determine why and how our decisions affect ourselves and others. Kant shows that you have struggles when rationality and practicality are conveyed to cover the same matter. So after all this we ask the question, â€Å"How plausible is the theory? † I think that it is a logical theory that clearly assists in making decisions. It provides a plausible account of morality because you can look at others and have a tendency to complete your actions based on those of others. Kantianism is a more consistent theory because it can be universally applied to all. It is more believable because even if the penalties of carrying out an action aren’t necessarily the best, the individual is still obligated to perform the action because it is their duty to do so. Kant’s theory focuses on the motivation of actions and has a clear and distinctive set of universal rules, and is morally sound. Consequently, ethically and morally they are doing the right thing. Bibliography Categorical Imperative Explained. (2012, April 12). Retrieved from Everything Explained: http://everything. explained. at/categorical_imperative/ (1993). In J. W. Ellington, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals (p. 30). Hackett. Kant, I. (1785, 1993). Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals 3rd ed.. . In J. W. Wllington. Hackett. Rachels, J. (2012). The Elements of Moral Philosophy. McGraw-Hill. Reason – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n. d. ). Retrieved from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Reason Chicago: Reason – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Reason (accessed April 17, 2012). The Elements of Moral Philosophy. (n. d. ). Retrieved from http://jamesrachels. org/78improvedsentences. htm Chicago: The Elements of Moral Philosophy, http://jamesrachels. org/78improvedsentences. htm (accessed April 17, 2012). How to cite Kant Categorical Imperative, Essay examples

Critical Analysis SAP System Security

Question: Discuss about the Critical Analysis for SAP System Security. Answer: Introduction: The transaction code consists of the letters, numbers. This is mainly seen to be entered in the field of the command which is found to be at the top of the SAP screen. The t-code has been used for the menu, navigation and the execution with the combinations to set in the field to navigate the users to the screen. This is mainly through the use of SAP due to navigation of the menus which is time consuming. The user needs to know the transaction code. There is a alternative which has been set for the favourite menu. For this, there is a use of the procedural software of SAP. SAP R/3 has been for handling the queries that are performed in SQL with the proper conversion of data from one to other stage. The data has been able to enter in the transactions where it gets updated in the database. The transactions are mainly for handling the operations which works on making the changes in the database. The SAP R/3 systems are for the transaction processing which shows that there is a flow of d ata to run the applications with the executions. (Missbach et al., 2016). The transactions are mainly for handling the sequence of the different steps with the handling of transaction monitor, SAP dispatcher which is for the different sequencing steps. SM19 has been for the access of the security auditing log configuration screen which has been from the menu of the SAP standard. This has been chosen from the configuration settings which is in the security audit dialog box. The filters are mainly for defining the needs which are important as per the records along with the auditing class, importance of the events. The filters can be easily static or dynamic where the static are for the storage of data in database and the dynamic is for creating the profiles to activate them in any time for the proper selection of the events. The analysing of the auditing log has been based on producing the analysis report for the events that are in the local, remote or the different servers of the SAP system. For this, the log analysis is choosing the standardised value for monitoring the analysis through the security function. this can easily be able to scan the time period, user and the report for the transaction process. (Brooks et al., 2016). The security auditing log has been for successful and unsuccessful dialog with the RFC logon attempts. The RFC calls are for handling the functional modules with the successful and unsuccessful transactions. The security settings are able to save the audits which are corresponding to the auditing file that has been performed on a daily basis. This directly depends on the SAP systems and the filters which are specified. The statistical information can easily be retrieved on the different transactions and the reports. The user master record in SAP is mainly for assigning all the important authorisations for the users in order to execute the transactions with the system of SAP. This is for the management set under the administrative and the authorisation process. The SAP security contains the user id with the proper transaction authorisation to handle the details which can easily be monitored by the SAP administrator. This includes the details of the users with the login session with the user rights, passwords and the profiles. (Cras et al., 2015). Some of the components which are for handling the user master records are the: address which contains the details of the user like handling the personal data with the proper communication details along with address of company. The logon data is for the updating of the user types with a proper validity period and the cost centres. Defaults are set for the start menu, logon language and the default printer with the format of data and time. Parameters have been set for the containing the default parameters which are for the user. Roles are for the user. Profiles are for the user group to handle the predefined SAP_ALL with the authorisations of the SAP system. (Lee et al., 2015). The personalisation is based on assignment with the user ID and the licence data is to access the user details with the transactions, passwords as well as the profiles of the authorisation. Hence, with this, the transaction code is SU01 The user is able to use the authorised data for the logon to the system. There have been corresponding passwords which are existing. Here, the users need to define the roles where there have been restrictions by the authorisation to perform operations. The user master records have been set for the clients inorder to maintain the clients in the system of SAP. Hence, with this, there has been ERP SAP system where the roles have been assigned for the users in order to handle the clients, then the user is able to perform the activities in the clients only. With the SAP objects, there is a need to maintain the user records of the master: Object S_USER_GRP: these are able to create the master records for assigning it to the groups of the user. Object S_USER_PRO: for the assigning of the authorisation profile to handle the users. Object S_USER_AUTH: for the maintenance of the authorisations. Object S_USER_AGR for the authorisation with the protection of the roles and specifying the activities to be easily created, modified and displayed. Object S_USER_TCD: for assigning the codes of transacting. Object S_USER_VAL: for the authorisation of the values with the change in the profile of the user. For the handling of the user accounts in SAP, there is a need to:Aligning the configuration setting of SAP which has been directed with the policies of the organisation. This includes the IT security policy with the specifications of the different important software which are important with the handling of the no exceptions. The SAP settings are for the configurable pattern with a control on the using of the system parameters. This includes the transactions through the RSPFPAR. There have been login/password_expiration_time with the default 0, recommended 30 that has been for the users to change the password for the SAP. (Sarfarez, 2015). The login/fails_to_user_lock with the default 12 and the recommended 5 where there have been number of times where the user can easily enter into the incorrect password before the SAP is able to lock the user master records from the logons done further. The access is for the generic user accounts which is for holding the software application with the intended parts for the initial installation. The pattern is for the setup of the ID with the SAP ID. There have been passwords for the generic IDs to handle the reset with the high privileging profiles like the SAP_ALL and SAP_NEW. Hence, it is important to handle the allocation of the wide accessing profiles with the higher number of the privilege generic profiles with the accessing of the system. The allocations are based on working over the support and the project team users that directly reflects on the accessing of requirements. Ethical Behaviour for an Information Security Professional Security hole in Distributed Record Management System used by Company X and Company Y - Summary of case As per the case study, there have been signing of the business agreements where Faisal is the computer software programmer in company Z. As per the scenario, it has been seen that there were some security holes in the database systems of the company Y where there was a breach of the confidential information. Hence, being an honest engineer, Faisal is looking forward to help the other company by telling them about the problems. The key ethical concerns include the integrity, transparency and the confidentiality to work on the obedience to law. Hence, the internal regulations for the professional ethics is based on the self-serving with the deal to complete the monopoly on the particular area of knowledge. With the breach of security, there are issues with the lower security standards. (Di et al., 2016). Another ethical issue is the promising of more than you can deliver and then, co mpletely ignoring the problem of security hold in the record management as the manager of Faisal just asked him to work as unstructured rather than being worried for the problems in the software of other company.As per the ACS code of conduct, there have been honesty, competence and the professionalism. For work, it is important to be honest with not breaching the public trust in the profession. Hence, the major observance is for the utmost honesty and the integrity with the underling of the professional decisions and actions. This is mainly in accordance to the value where Faisal would reject or will not make any mistake in the company. There is a need to distinguish in between the professional and the personal opinions with the advice. The qualification of the professional opinions with the handling of limited knowledge and experience. (Lee et al., 2015). The competency is based on performing where Faisal do not hesitate to think about the right technique to help company Y for informing them about the security holes. This will be helpful with the acceptance of responsibility for the work. A proper respect will seek the professional expertise in the areas of competency. The professional development is only when you are true to the values and clear to the work demands. Considering the case of Faisal, there is a need for him to tell the manager of his company Z to focus on a proper professional development with the different career paths. The loyalty to the work and respectfulness is based on integration with the code of conduct where there have been rules to implement the programs along with carry improvement in the values of company. Carol Fraudulent Member of ACS Branch Summary of case Considering the ethical concerns which are on fraud where Carol actions of stealing the money from the company for personal use, without informing anyone. The principle is in accordance to the general nature of the morals with the specific moral choices. For here, there is a need to focus on professional client relationship with the informed consent and handling the confidentiality. There has been professional development with the integrity of the Society with respect of the members. As per the ACS code of ethics, there is a need to be loyal to the work with honesty and integrity so that the organisation is able to work properly and are able to rely on each other. (Agarwal et al., 2015). With this, there is a standardised conduct along with ensuring the knowledge to meet the trust of the team members. By the activity performed by Carol, all the members will surely be losing the trust from her now and she will have to face the problems of ignorance. It would have been better if she co uld have informed the member of the family and then tries to keep hold of the internal regulations with the ethical standards. The patterns are based on the complete monopoly with the area of knowledge and the professional consensus. As per the ethical performance, it is important that Carol should be professional in her work. In the ICT industry, it is important that there have been rapid change and to acquire the standards, there is a need to improve your quality of work for bringing confidence in the people of the company. It is also imperative that the members of the Society are able to easily maintain the professional standards with the complete improvement and enhancement in the industrial image. With the accordance to this, there have been certain objectives with the informed and knowledgeable stance for the professional work. This is based on taking all the appropriate actions against the members who are able to engage in the behaviours which have been completely contrary to this code. (Rabetge et al., 2015). There have been confronting attempts to limit the diversity in the workplace with assured opportunities for the employment, advancement and the remuneration conditions. The corporate actions have bee n set to involve the attempts of the influence which can help in endeavouring to extend towards the public knowledge along with understanding the ICT. A complete cooperation in the advancement of the ICT is by communication with the other professionals. There is a major pride in the profession with complete protection and the promotion in ICT. The Advanced Persistent Threat is the network attack which has been mainly on the unauthorised person for the gain of the access to the network. This is based on the attack where the major intention is to steal the data along with causing the damage to the network. The attacks have been set with the higher value information. The next step is the gathering of the validated user credentials with the proper handling of the spear fishing. The next step is for the validating user credentials to install the bogus utilities with the proper creation of the infrastructure with the distribution of the malware. The threat is using the multiple phase for the break in the network with the avoiding of detection and the harvesting of the valuable information. (Iovan et al., 2016). There have been infographic details where there is a complete focus on the capturing and the exfiltration process where the information captured is sent back to the team who has attacked on the home based for the proper a nalysis. The APT focus on the increased elevated log-on which are rapidly handling the escalations to take over the authentication of the database with the stealing of all the important credentials or reusing them. The finding of the widespread backdoor Trojans has been set to ensure that they can get changes when the victim gets the clue. There is an information flow of all the unexpected range where there has been origination of the points to the other internal or the external computers. The flow is mainly targeted through the picking up of the emails from the other country. hence, to detect the APT, there is a need to understand the flow of data. The advanced persistent attacks are for the business and the political targets which set a higher degree of the stealthiest over the duration of the operations which is set for the systems. The advancement is based on utilising the full spectrum of the computer intrusion technology. With the individual components, there have been advanced attacks which are common for the DIY construction. The persistent criminal operations are for the specific tasks which are seeking the financial gain. (Kerschbaum et al., 2015). This is based on the attack which is conducted through the continuous approach, monitoring and the interaction for the proper defined objectives. The threat is set for the higher level of the coordinated involvement in the attack which has the internet based malware infection, physical malware and the external exploitation. This includes the abuses and the other concerns from the trusted companies which are the key ingredients of the APT. Reference Missbach, M., Staerk, T., Gardiner, C., McCloud, J., Madl, R., Tempes, M., Anderson, G. (2016). Securing SAP on the Cloud. InSAP on the Cloud(pp. 75-120). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Brooks, A., Sieu, C. (2016). The potential of community fish refuges (CFRs) in rice field agro-ecosystems for improving food and nutrition security in the Tonle Sap region. Cras, J. Y. Y., Mion, G. V., Guinan, D., Petritsch, H. (2015).U.S. Patent No. 9,195,841. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Lee, J. E., Park, S. H., Yoon, H. (2015, April). Security policy based device management for supporting various mobile OS. InComputing Technology and Information Management (ICCTIM), 2015 Second International Conference on(pp. 156-161). IEEE. Sarferaz, S. (2015).U.S. Patent No. 8,935,743. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Di, N., Mariano, C. (2016).U.S. Patent No. 20,160,154,962. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Lee, J. E., Park, S. H., Yoon, H. (2015, April). Security policy based device management for supporting various mobile OS. InComputing Technology and Information Management (ICCTIM), 2015 Second International Conference on(pp. 156-161). IEEE. Agarwal, A., Bastin, N., Singh, P. K., Martin, S. (2015).U.S. Patent No. 8,955,032. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Rabetge, C., Kunz, T., Boehrer, O., Zubev, A., Falter, T., Savchenko, V. (2015).U.S. Patent No. 9,148,488. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Iovan, A., Robu, R. (2016). Handling of the demilitarized zone using service providers in SAP. InIOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering(Vol. 106, No. 1, p. 012003). IOP Publishing. Lee, J. E., Park, S. H., Yoon, H. (2015, April). Security policy based device management for supporting various mobile OS. InComputing Technology and Information Management (ICCTIM), 2015 Second International Conference on(pp. 156-161). IEEE. Kerschbaum, F., Nita-Rotaru, C., Ray, I. (2015, October). CCSW 2015: The 7th ACM Cloud Computing Security Workshop. InProceedings of the 22nd ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security(pp. 1703-1704). ACM.

My Perfect Wedding free essay sample

My Perfect Wedding Christmas Day is usually a holiday mainly observed to commemorate the birth of Jesus. For non Christianity followers it is a day to exchange gifts, decorate houses and for Santa Clause. For me, Christmas of two thousand eight changed my life forever. This is the day my now to be husband kneeling down on one knee, asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. His proposal was short sweet and sincere. Without a doubt I gracefully replied â€Å"Yes, I will. † With many new emotions racing throughout my mind, I couldn’t help to wonder, when our big day would be. Setting a date was the beginning of our long wedding adventure.There was many offers given to me from family and friends to help with the planning but I refused. This was my wedding, the day I dreamed of; I wanted to plan it solo. We will write a custom essay sample on My Perfect Wedding or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page May 30th of the following year seemed so far way that I started off slow with my wedding planning process. I was unaware couples usually take two years to plan this event and decided to have it held in a few months. My husband agreed to stand out of the way as I managed most of the major decisions. He did not mind I chose the color pink for the entire bridal party to wear, or that I chose to have pink flowers and pink table covers.He expected nothing less; only wanted me to be happy, and that I was. Shortly after realizing I would only have six months to plan our wedding, my anxiety came into play. Finding a venue and reserving our date needed to be complete. After viewing various halls and grand hotels, there was one in particular that caught my attention. From the moment I walked in, I knew I would have it. I was memorized by the main focus point of the room; a ginormous crystal chandelier that took up the entire ceiling. The dim candlelight filled the room with a glow and it was nothing less than perfect.Mirrors covered the walls surrounding the dance floor. All I could imagine was dancing with my new husband as we gazed into them. My initial appointment with the bridal consultant here at Genettis, is where things began to get tense. She read off a list that seemed never ending. I was informed, I needed flowers, center pieces, a cake, music, a photographer, favors, a seating chart along with a booklet of papers I needed to fill out and have returned to her a month is advance. I had to choose what my guests would eat, where they would it and what type of champagne and Horderves to have served. I was extremely overwhelmed but figured I can do this. How hard can it be? It was for only one day. Well that day turned into the biggest event I have ever experienced in my entire life. As I look back on those stressful months now, I wish I did accept help from others. Now that there was a venue, I needed a photographer. I did some searching and before I knew it I found two that agreed to shoot our wedding from the moment we awoke until the sun came down. Next was the choosing of flowers.I had no idea what kind of flowers were in season, what was expensive and what was not. Needless to say, we spent a few thousand dollars on them. Music was a main priority for this event. There must be a DJ so my guests would be entertained and of course so my husband and I can have our first dance. Luckily, an old friend of mine contacted me willing to host our party. With numerous circumstances happening, dress shopping for myself was limited. I was overly exhausted due to the large amount of duties that were involved with planning a wedding, I easily forgot about myself.There was my dress, hair, nails needed to be done, makeup and shoes. Eventually I found a moment to gather some of my bridesmaids to participate in shopping for this big day. What a hassle and a royal mess this turned out to be! No one came to an agreement on what they would wear, or how their hair would be done. This opportunity is where me, Bridezilla took charge. I choose their look; long pink gowns with their hair pulled back and silver open toe high heels. All the while I was glancing at several dresses. I tried on a total of four gowns. The first dress I slipped into was the one.The way the sweetheart top fit tightly against my slim waist and the bottom puffed out over my arms was just like in my dreams. The only burden was the dress ended up being very large. There was a lot of material which made it heavy. With that said, I bought another dress for the reception. I called it my party dress. Finally after searching the internet and local stores I found the right glamorous invitations. Each one needed to be printed, sealed and sent to approximately two hundred guests. The cards printed beautifully however they acquired days and effort to get it to my expectations.After many hours of aggravation, sleepless nights and lots of stamps later, the invitations wrapped in bows and glitter were ready to be mailed. Once I started to receive the reply’s back, I had a rough estimate to how many guests would be attending. Now it was time to start the party favors. Here is where my husband stepped in to help. We had to wrap white almonds in silk, drop each one individual into mini champagne glasses and tie a little pink note to each one using pink ribbon. During this process I broke down. My husband took over and let me have a day of relaxation and pampering all to myself.After almost going balled from pulling my hair out with all the tasks and duties required to have a big fabulous wedding, I was starting to regret not asking and accepting help from others. In the end, our big Wren Wedding was a huge success. All of our guests were delighted with the food, and the music collection to fit all types of different people. Our five tier cake was grand. A vanilla, white rose cream that rested upon an admirable white piano. The scent of roses filled the entire room. Each table had a center piece with one single candle smothered in pink flowers.It was my dream come true. The soft music, candlelight dinner, roses, and everyone in elegant gowns under a huge chandelier. The setting and mood came together perfectly. All of my stress was eliminated when I looked into my husbands eyes and he glowed in amazement of all that I accomplished in a total of six months. Although my wedding turned out to be perfect and a wonderful experience, I did not get to enjoy the planning aspect of the wedding process. My stubbornness blocked others out from helping me. I tell my husband, the next time I get married, Ill be sure to ask for help.

Relationship between Money and Happiness

Relationship between Money and Happiness Introduction Does money buy happiness? If you ask anyone this question, the obvious answer will be yes. There is an intricate relationship between money and happiness, which confounds literal observation that money is happiness. Critical analysis of money-happiness relationship shows that socioeconomic factors determine the happiness of an individual; therefore, it is quite unsatisfactory to attribute money as the only factor and determinant of happiness.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Relationship between Money and Happiness specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More There is a linear relationship between money and happiness; nevertheless, to some extent money has no effect to the happiness of an individual. â€Å"According to rank hypothesis, income and utility are therefore not directly linked: Increasing an individual’s income will only increase their utility if ranked position also increases and will necessarily reduce the utility of others who will lose rank† (Boyce, Brown, Moore, 2008, p. 1). If one has the highest-ranking income in a given social group or workplace, one tends to be much happier than the other one with the lowest-ranking income. Money facilitates things that bring happiness but itself does not bring happiness. Money and Happiness Since the general perception of money is that it is the ultimate source of happiness, many people work tirelessly day and night to ensure that they earn more money to satisfy their needs. This belief is quite evident in the way people devote most of their time and energies in work places rather than spending time in pleasure by relaxing with family members and friends. Akin, Norton and Dunn (2008), observe that, â€Å"the amount of time the average American spends at work has grown steadily over the past several decades, despite the fact that this apparent investment comes at the cost of family and leisure time† (p. 4). Although mon ey brings happiness and satisfaction in life through spending to satisfy needs, people also derive pleasure in getting money. Life becomes happier if one is working extra to get more income. Otherwise, working overtime without commensurate income results into loss of happiness and morale of working amongst workers. Hence, money is a motivating factor in the work place and source of pleasure in satisfying needs of the family, and thus there is a linear relationship between money and happiness. The relationship between money and happiness is very complex since money is not only a factor that determines happiness. The state of happiness results from diverse socioeconomic factors that make it hard to attribute to economic factors only.Advertising Looking for essay on psychology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Due to existence of the complex relationship, money can have direct relationship with the happiness, but up to a certain level of satiation where money has no effect on happiness. Easterlin paradox reveals that, â€Å"since the Second World War, despite getting richer, many countries have not shown improvement in average levels of happiness† (Albor, 2009, p. 38). Easterlin paradox explains that social and economic factors do not have positive correlation yet they are the factors that influence the state of happiness in an individual, family, community and the entire nation. Improvement in economic factors in terms of increase in income levels does not mean that there is concomitant improvement in social welfare, which reflects happiness in the society. According to Albor (2009), happiness is composed of seven factors namely, â€Å"family relationship, community, social affiliation, financial institution, work, personal freedom and personal values† (p. 44). Thus, money is not the only source of happiness. Personal Life’s Experiences My psychological understanding of the fa ct that money alone cannot buy happiness has helped me in coping with life’s great challenges because the world perceives money as the sole source of happiness. Earlier, I thought that money was everything in life, and that I could even buy happiness with it when deprived of the same. My dream in life was to achieve great knowledge for the sole purpose of earning huge income that would make my life better and happier. â€Å"†¦ priming individuals with the concept of money or wealth appears to increase their feelings of self-sufficiency,† (Quoidbach, Dunn, Petrides, Mikolajczak, 2010, p. 2). I was so happy nurturing and fantasizing about money, wealth and happiness for I did not know the complexity of happiness because to me, money and happiness were equal. I longed for the time when I would own as much money and property as I could to surpass everybody in everything including happiness, because money translated into happiness. Not until I gained psychological ins ight on happiness, only to realize that money was not the core factor in felicity realization. Having gained psychological perception and understanding of what constitutes happiness, I now perceive life quite differently. I now understand that money is one of the factors that determine happiness, but not the only means to happiness.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Relationship between Money and Happiness specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Easterlin in explanation of his paradox argues that, â€Å"economic growth is a carrier of a material culture of its own that ensures that humankind is forever ensnared in the pursuit of more and more economic goods† (Albor, 2009, p. 47). From this argument, I understand that without psychological perception of what really constitutes happiness, the pursuit of money and wealth will enslave me. On contrary, people amass money and wealth to have financial freedom, which means ab undant happiness, but in real sense, they attain financial slavery. The business of managing and gaining more money is very hectic and weary as an individual spends many hours doing it than having pleasure. I have realized that for money to bring happiness in life there should be a balance between work and pleasure, otherwise overindulgence in money making will lead to enslavement. I have experienced that the more money one owns, the more he/she walks deeper into this enslavement. Owning a lot of money and wealth is quite challenging because it demand immense psychological attention, which overwhelms the happiness derived from them. At some instances when I have a lot of money, I find myself quite unstable, for I am busy running up and down spending it to attain satisfaction; regrettably, the very goods I buy do not satisfy my thirst for happiness. Research study by Akin, Norton, Dunn, (2008), demonstrates that, â€Å"†¦adult Americans erroneously believe that earning less th an the median household income is associated with severely diminished happiness- a false belief that may lead many people to chase opportunities for increased wealth† (p. 11). With changed psychological perception, I cannot pursue happiness by indefinitely striving to hoard money and wealth since I will be striving after the wind, and that is vanity. Life’s Experiences of Others Many people poorly understand the relationship between money and happiness. They think that the only means to attain happiness is through the satisfaction of human needs that literally money can buy. However, money cannot buy everything that determines happiness, for instance, good friends, friendly community, and personal values amongst other key factors that define happiness. Due to lack of psychological understanding of real meaning and source of happiness, many people grope in economic circles thinking that happiness lies there. False perception of happiness has made many people to struggle endlessly in pursuit of financial happiness, which never materializes. People think that solutions of many problems they encounter in life lies in money, because money pays education, rent, food, healthcare and many others needs. Smith (2008) cautions this form of thinking for people assume that they â€Å"†¦might work longer hours to make more money, but then face heightened anxieties regarding childcare cost, comminuting, diminished leisure, physical and mental costs that accrue for the well-being of the families† (Smith, 2008, p. 20). In the course of achieving happiness through financial means, the process is tedious and very demanding making people to lose happiness instead of gaining more.Advertising Looking for essay on psychology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More As aforementioned, money alone cannot have overwhelming influence on happiness since there are other factors that influence the status of happiness. These factors are personal values, personal freedom, family, community, work and social affiliation. These factors constitute happiness; unfortunately, due to poor psychological understanding, many people neglect them and focus on the financial aspect of happiness only. Below poverty level, money is the overriding factor of happiness and as the financial status changes above the poverty level, others factors gradually become dominant. International comparison of average levels of happiness shows that, â€Å"†¦among poorer countries, gains in income are accompanied by dramatic increases in happiness, but among richer countries, higher income do not buy more happiness† (Albor, 2009, p. 39). This confirms that, at the level of satiation, money no longer determines happiness but other factors begin to have significant influence. Thus, achievement of the greatest felicity requires consideration of all factors that constitutes happiness. All the factors, which constitute happiness, are in two broad categories, social and economic factors. Economic factors partially influence happiness because the perception and the source of happiness lie in the social context of life, as happiness is not quantifiable in terms of money. According to Albor, â€Å"happiness is a universal feeling that all human beings have the potential to experience† (2009, p. 40). Happiness is a contagious feeling, which makes everybody happy in the family, community, workplace and the whole world. I have noticed that, people think that money is everything in life, for out of their abundant riches; they afford to live in seclusion where they get satisfaction of their wealth and money while the surrounding people are struggling in abject poverty. Only the sight of the poor people makes them lose happiness. Moreover, they live in great fear of robbery attacks and property loss, wishing to have their own continent, free from the eyesore status of the poor. All these happen because they have poor psychological understanding of happiness. If they could embrace social factors, they could derive ample happiness from their environment by relating to and assisting the poor. In pursuit of happiness, young people do not have the right perception of what constitutes happiness. Given the choice between the money and schooling, they would prefer money, because they do not understand that money gives short-lived happiness. Regardless of virtues, and values we instill in children, they still perceive that money equals happiness. Smith (2008) argues that, â€Å"†¦ rather than setting off to follow their deepest passions, many of our most talented and driven graduates just need to get a job, whatever job that best allows them to begin their a life of paying off debt,† (p. 23). Young people have abandoned personal deve lopment, which is another source of happiness and are busy pursuing financial pleasures that give short-lived happiness. In youths, there are many pleasures money can buy, hence, money has blinded their life’s priorities due to false satisfaction of needs that brings happiness. A rich person without personal development is as a fool is a sea of knowledge who wants to satisfy psychological needs out of folly. For one to achieve lasting happiness it requires understanding of the factors that significantly contribute to happiness and not mere stereotyping that money is equal to happiness. Conclusion Money and happiness have linear relationship but up to a certain level of satiation where other factors of happiness such as work, family, community, social affiliation, personal values and freedom, come into effect. Poor psychological understanding of happiness has led many people to believe erroneously that, money is the only source of happiness. It is true that money brings happin ess but the misunderstanding arises in the cumulative source of happiness. People derive happiness from both economic and social aspects of life, but rarely do people consider the social aspects. Social aspects demand psychological understanding of happiness; however, many people fail to realize its importance as source of happiness in the family, community and the entire society. Therefore, people should be wary in attributing money as the only source of happiness for they will pursue happiness in vain, unless they come to the realization that social aspects are also integral part of happiness. Thus, happiness and money have partial relationship; whereby, money facilitates things that bring happiness but in itself, money lacks the capacity to bring happiness. References Akin, L., Norton, M., Dunn, E. (2008). From Wealth to Well-Being? Money Matters, but Less People Think. Journal of Psychology University of British Columbia, 2(5), 1-20. Albor, C. (2009). How Much Can Money Buy Hap piness? Is the Debate Over for the Easterlin Paradox? Radical Statistics, 1(98), 38-48. Boyce, C., Brown, G., Moore, S. (2008). Money Happiness: Rank of Income, not Income, Affects Life Satisfaction. University of Warwick Psychology Journal, 1-16. Quoidbach, J., Dunn, E., Petrides, K., Mikolajczak, M. (2010). Money Giveth, Money Taketh Away: the Dual Effect of Wealth on Happiness. Association for Psychological Science,  20(5), 1-5. Smith, N. (2008). Poverty, Money, and Happiness. A University Dialogue on Poverty and  Opportunity Journal, 20-25.

Morality and ethics by Kant Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Morality and ethics by Kant - Essay Example However, the interaction between the human will and the inherent imperative is full of complexities. An imperative is a directive to act, to do good. However, the act itself will come from the will. Not because an imperative presents something good to do, the human will does it. Kant tackles this by identifying two distinct imperatives – hypothetical and categorical. Hypothetical imperative demands an action for some particular purpose. It’s doing Plan A, to get winnings X. In the paper, the hypothetical imperative seems logical. Most of the time, that is how humans operate. You study in order to get good grades; you start up a business to gain money; you watch movies, attend parties and socialize to gain the feeling of belongingness or acceptance. Basically, you act because it will benefit you, or it will be for the greater good. However, the application of hypothetical imperative could also be troubling. Would you rob a bank because your loved one is dying and you don ’t have money to pay for it? Would you lie for a friend, whom you found out is cheating on his wife, to avoid getting his wife hurt and ruining his family? There are a lot of subjective inclinations that clutter the hypothetical imperative. Thus, for Kant, the moral law forms around the categorical imperative. It’s the unconditional demand to act for good itself. For his first maxim, Kant states, â€Å"that one should act only on that maxim that can at the same time be willed to become a universal law†.

Workers Without Health Insurance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Workers Without Health Insurance - Essay Example It will finally draw a conclusive recommendation on how workers can be provided with medical covers to enhance their heath care service provision. The primary source of health insurance covers in the United States is the employer-sponsored insurance -ESI1. ESI offers job-based health benefits which are in some cases subsidized by the federal government by exempting employer tax on health insurance premiums. In certain companies there are private employer sponsored which are voluntary and depends on the company's financial ability to meet the health care requirement for its entire workforce. Since not all employers offer insurance covers to its employees, not all workers have insurance policies and consequently, their children and spouses do not have them. In most cases, people who are not insured are either workers or family members of the workers. Previous research has shown that most American citizens obtain their health insurances through their employment agencies. However, some working environments do not find it economically possible to offer health insurance services to its workers. These working environments include; those who earn low wages, short job tenures, working part-time or those with low incomes2. In 2003, the Kaiser commission of inquiry reported that of the 124 million workers who were uninsured, 80% of them were self employed and this can be explained by the fact that these group of people do not get access to group insurance which is somehow cheaper. Another group of uninsured workers who formed the remaining percentage were workers with non-working spouses. Causes of medical disenfranchisement People become medically disenfranchised because they lack proper medical insurance cover that they can depend on whenever they are not feeling well. Poor health care in America today has been blamed on lack of worker insurance policies and programs leading to high costs of medical services. As many people continue to work as casuals and part-time jobs, in addition to low wages and salaries, they are not able to meet the medical requirements needed not only by themselves but also by their families. This has led to increased number of people who operate without medical and insurance covers for a better part of their lives. In fact, research has shown that three out five working Americans are not covered with insurance covers. This trend has in the past sparked a lot of condemnation from all quarters especially from government critics. Pressure is therefore building on employers to ensure that all its employees are insured. However, with increased incidences of political unwillingness, societal diversity and stagnating economies, it is no longer economically visible to offer all people the medical insurance cover they need. The burden has been therefore left to the workers to seek private insurance covers, which are very expensive to them.

Effective Learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Effective Learning - Essay Example Students’ frustrations can be attributed to their lack of knowledge regarding the scope, limitations, and challenges of online learning along with the drawbacks of the learning program and curriculum.   Frustrations and Needs of Online Learners The number of online learning programs has dramatically increased over the last two decades. Subsequently, the cases of students’ frustrations also have increased to a great extent in a way that hinders their educational opportunities. As Hara and Kling (1999) point out, the paucity of prompt feedback is one of the potential causes of student frustration in web-based learning. Learners’ autonomy in this regard often turns to be an impediment to their own active interaction with the tutor when there is no specific login time for learning activities. Frustration is the outcome when there are no clearly stated instructions and guidelines. In that context, a fresh student, normally who is not a computer savvy gets disappoint ed of the unfamiliar learning system. Lack of technical expertise along with the complexity of the learning interface can intensify the frustration and stress. Strategies for Effective Online Learning First of all, as a learner you must understand that online classes, no matter whether synchronous or asynchronous, differ a lot from traditional classrooms and learning methods. Online learning normally is not bound to stipulations, and hence this in turn increases learners’ responsibility in meeting their own needs. As noted in the Illinois Online Network database (2010), the major problems with online learning usually fall into several categories including but not limited to technology, the facilitator, the online environment, the students, the administration and faculty, the curriculum etc. In order to get rid of the current stress, you must identify in which of the above areas your learning problem persists. If you find that lack of technical skill has limited your learning potential, it is advisable to get assistance from a third party. This can be a friend or a relative who would teach you the essential things in no time. As Brosche (2010, p. 70) reminds, if you find that the instructions are ambiguous, do not hesitate to request clarifications from the facilitators before you start doing things, because â€Å"well begun is half done†. Another thing you ought to do is to identify what type of a learner you are. People, based on their learning habits can be categorized into ‘dependent learners, independent learners, competitive learners, collaborative learners, participative learners, avoidant learners’ etc (Stavredes, 2011, p. 18). For instance, as Stavredes (2011) points out, if you are a competitive learner, you will be interested in attending tests and getting grades. In contrast, if you are a collaborative learner, you will like group works, interactions, and discussions. Participative learners are usually interested in class discussions and hence concerned about learning environment whereas avoidant learners are normally driven by strict deadlines and punishments for not meeting them (pp. 18-19). Obviously, you belong to one of these groups, and identifying your position would help you overcome the current frustration. To illustrate, if you believe that you are a competitive learner having great zeal in tests and results, other activities like collaborative programs may annoy you, for the outcome of your effort would be a bit disappointing one. However,

UK Wrist Watch Industry | Marketing Strategy

UK Wrist Watch Industry | Marketing Strategy During late 2008 and 2009 confidence of consumer fell and people became more aware about their spending in watches and jewellery has not been immune to the economic climate. During 2005 jewellery and watches market grew by 10 % were it reaches to  £4.8 billion in 2010 and over next five year Mintel forecasts is 11%growth in watches and jewellery market. Hence 2011 is also going to be the year to invest in mens jewellery. Stephen Webster presented a strong case for mens jewellery at IJL in September 2010, and assuming male customer only want watches and the odd signet or chain could lead to missing out on a potential wealth of customer. Its not that male customers dont want it: they just dont know they want it. Men dont have thinking about what to wear as women do, explain Webster. But once a man is bejewelled, theres no looking back. They also dont wait for special occasions like woman do, and they can go from zero to jewellery enthusiast in no time. Market research company Mintels September 2010 report Watches and Jewellery Retailing UK found that 20% of male respondent said they like receiving jewellery as a gift, and 12% said that they had purchased all of their own jewellery. So the market is clearly there to be exploited. http://www.retail-jeweller.com/trends/in-with-the-new-2011-trends/5020089.article Rapid increase in gold prices and recession change many consumers mind to buy silver instead of gold, this trend is rising to nearly three in ten women with almost one in five people wearing silver jewellery than gold; particularly young people aged 15-24. Now days Consumers are willing to experiment and try new looks with little minimising their bank balances which means many costume jewellery items are affordable and easy disposable without denting their bank balance. Young aged under-35 is more open to pay large amounts for watches these are consumers who do not wear jewellery to express their individuality or to show their consumer spending power. As the research has should that 86% of consumers wear a watch, were 40% only buy a new watch when their old watch is broken. The new reason for purchase a watch could be watchs main function with health benefits as a new way of helping the consumer. http://oxygen.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen/display/id=479809 Executive Summary: https://www.keynote.co.uk/market-intelligence/view/product/10331/chapter/0 Why buy me. Can be better explain by to fend off the competition by constant innovation, reinvigorate, recalibrate, update. Many brands and companies are continuously renovating their business and holding positioning themselves for growth. Positioning able offerings for brands and availability of product in the market. Several key target groups and users meet their needs as it reaches a certain mode of consumers and delivers benefits to them. Consumer and user are attributed by benefits and product as they are depended on how actual approach of a company or brands position communicates in the market place. As a result positioning or product of a company find one to keep further distance itself from competitors which is based on list of items, but very importantly in six key :, Distribution, Quality, Attributes, Product, Price and Usage Occasions. As compared to earlier times consumerism has undergone a sea change where the consumers are informed about the products. Hence, the market has become customer centric. Understanding the importance of customer is become the structure of business; in effects companies have started in regular basis i.e. repositioning exercise. In the recent times Titian Industries Ltd had a major brand repositioning exercise was planned more in order to provide more to its customers. Now the company holds new position. This study will help to understand the revived positioning strategies of Titan watches. An analysis of repositioning strategies of Titan also forms of the study. Firstly it is important to understand the overall wrist watch industry in UK. Secondly to study the brand positioning and re-positioning strategy of Titan wrist watches and to find out about the loyal customers of Titan watches as they are aware of the new positioning strategies of the company and how they used them. To study primary and secondary data have been used. Analysis UK wrist watch industry and brand repositioning strategies of TITAN Company has been analysed and completed on the basis of secondary data. Internet, journals, books and magazines have been used for this purpose. Project comprises conducting a questionnaire survey. (function() { var scribd = document.createElement("script"); scribd.type = "text/javascript"; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = "https://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js"; var s = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })() Introduction: 1.1 Theory and concepts: According to Peter Drucker A business has two and only two basic functions: marketing and innovation To maintain business relevance and market position, it is important to continuously innovate and invent brand image in the market to pace with change and intense competitive pressure in the marketplace. In this context, now days brand positioning and revitalization strategies have become a business vital part for battling brand erosion. Further heightened for brand repositioning is because of rising cost and high risk connected with launching a new brand in market. Increase in the cost and high risk related with launching a new brand that is a part of brand reposition. Brand reposition has received very importance in the marketing literature and treated as a difference of brand positioning. Reposition can be required as the market changes and new opportunities occur. In order to reach the customer which was never targeted at first can also be targeted with brand reposition. In order to change its image in the market it is important to focus towards brand repositioning, although it is one of the toughest and harder actions for repositioning of familiar brand in market. As per Solomon, essential part in the marketing efforts is position strategy because companies have to use the elements in the marketing mix to influence the customers understanding the position. There has to be several choices to be, so to as to be in more attractive and relevant position. It is important for the person who is reposition for the reposition to know and understand why reposition is necessary and its need, and if the offer is the one that will change or just the brand name. While repositioning it is important to undertake and understand all the risk factors that is likely to affect it in the market. A company risks its credibility and reliability more while repositioning its brand in the market and the need for a thorough strategy is very important to avoid any occurrence. Some analyst argues that to successfully reposition a established brand name is almost impossible because repositioning of a brand can make the most loyal customer to switch brand. If the brand is eroded then brand reposition becomes important. Numerous attempts to reposition brand in the market may fail which is testified by many company for example while soft drink has successfully been able to connect with the youth though they exist for 40 years in the market but at the same Levis, jeans has been losing its market share to newcomers such as The Gap despite numerous campaigns designed to reposition the brand trend. 1.2 Literature Review: The reposition strategy is defined into three stages that is: Introductory Elaboration Fortification This involves the introduction of a new or a repositioned brand, seeking underline the brands value over others, and to broaden the brand position. It is truly hard to change the customers perceived attitude towards a brand, and therefore the risk is great that the attempt to repositioning might fail. After rolling out the strategy, it is time to modify the proposition through update of the personality and through repositioning. There pros and cons with both of this segments and it is great significance that they are truly calculate when deciding the next step in the process. To understand it more deeply http://htmlimg4.scribdassets.com/55f3acalz4nfgla/images/10-81b5e3fa9c/000.jpg Figure 1: Stages in brand strategy development. When a company modifies or change something that is already there in the market established in the mind of the customer that is called as repositioning. Different profession and individuals have different meaning and understanding towards Repositioning. There are few different definitions and greater understanding about this concept: Repositioning is a change, principally about triggering the vision, mission and value in a new direction that is more suited f or the brand in the future- Brand manager consultant. Principally, reposition concerns changing the consumers perception of the brand PR consultant. Repositioning is built upon the change of unique and differentiated associations with the brand in some kind of direction; it is about having a balance between the category party and differentiation when using reposition strategies (Leading Brand strategies) From these definitions, it is obvious that reposition is about moving something to more attractive and relevant position. Reposition direction is often decided as to what a company wants to achieve. There is also a visible relation between price and quantity aspects. When a company perceives the market as a demand curve, the purpose is to down stretch or upward curve. When moving up and there is a need for reaching the premium segment and expand up wards. Figure: The principle of reposition. When striving towards a new position in the market, it is important to understand those consumers are limited. Peoples minds select what to remember and it is important to convince the consumers with greater arguments. The market always strive for change which is rapid and therefore repositioning can be necessary to meet these demands, newer and stronger arguments have to be established to convinced them to stay as loyal customers. As repositioning is a very complicated matter and therefore there are no detailed theories or models. Aim for repositioning is different for different person, and the only connection between all the different theories is that repositioning is moving something from somewhere towards a greater position at the market. Corstjens and Doyle (1989) identified three types of repositioning strategies: Zero repositioning, which is not a repositioning at all since the firm maintains its initial strategy in the face of a changing environment. Gradual repositioning, where the firm performs incremental, continuous adjustments to its positioning strategy to reflect the evolution of its environment; and Radical repositioning that corresponds to a discontinuous shift towards a new target market and /or a new competitive advantage. After learning the repositioning of several brands from the UK market, the following 8 types of repositioning have been identified. These are: Increasing relevance to the consumer Increasing occasions for use Making the brand serious Falling sales Bringing in new customers Making the rand contemporary Differentiate from other brands Changed market conditions A four phased brand repositioning approach can be followed to achieve the intended benfits- Phase I. Determining the current status of the brand Phase II. What does the brand stand for today? Phase III. Developing the brand positioning platforms Phase IV. Refining the brand Positioning and Management Presentation The advantages that can be derived from brand repositioning exercises can be summarized as: Value over others Updated personality Relevant position The risks associated with such strategies are: Loss of focus Neglecting original customers Losing credibility for the brand Confusing the brand Therefore, in order UNLEARN the brand positioning one must help the customer to know brand repositioning in more difficult than initially positioning. This can be done by: Carefully crafted communication New products, packaging Associations with other brands ( co- branding, co- marketing, ingredient branding, strategic alliances, etc) that reinforce the new brand positioning. This exercise is so critical to an organizations success that the organizations and leader in marketing/brand management should develop skill preferably with the help and facilitation of an outside brand positioning expert. Research Methodology: 2.1 Objectives To study the current scenario of UK wrist watch industry. To review the brand positioning strategies of different sub-brands of watches. To analyze the brand repositioning strategies of watches. To study consumer awareness and perception about the brand repositioning strategies of watches. This study will help to understand the gap in its communication strategy regarding brand repositioning exercises and the further measures to be taken for effective marketing communications. 2.2 Limitations: The study is confined to London area only There is possibility of sampling errors in the study The responses of the consumers may not be genuine Questionnaire may not be comprehensive 2.3 Sources of Data Collection: The relevant data was collected from both primary sources and secondary sources. The starting point of my information gathering has been the secondary sources such as internet, books, and journals and so on. Firstly, brand positioning and repositioning strategies of Titan, secondary sources such as internet, insurance magazines, and journals and so on. Then I conducted a consumer awareness survey on brand repositioning strategies undertaken by Titan watches in recent times. 2.4 Sampling: To conduct sampling of 50 loyal consumers of Titan and in the age group of 20 30 years for this study. Since Titan has taken up brand repositioning strategies since January 2011, consumers who have seen the previous and new campaigns have been targeted. 2.5 Primary data: Data was collected through an interview schedule, consisting of both open ended and closed ended questions. It consisted of the parameters like reasons consumers brand preference, recollection of earlier tagline and advertisement, brand ambassador of Titan awareness of new tagline and campaign featuring sportsmen and actors from International body and so on. The data was collected through e-mails, telephone contacts and one to one personal interviews. Industry Overview UK Watch industry: In 2004 and 2008 market report examines the jewellery and watches market in UK were fluctuated and fell by 2.8% and finish at  £4.33 billion in the review report. Large declined in 2008 contribute to the global economic downturn and UK recession which adversely effected nearly all UK industries. The only unaffected by the downturn was the luxury end of the market end, but by the 2008 and 2009 it begun to take effect on it. In recent year the jewellery and watches become increasingly competitive. Although this market have wide range of suppliers and retailers also online retailing have contributed highly for transparent for information on pricing and availability of products. This was a positive trend for small brands that was previously unable to deal with consumer directly. Some larger retailers and few independents have developed their transactional sites to deal with their consumer demand. The product which have high rate of consumer penetration with around a third of the UK population owning piece jewellery and watches. In 2009 downturn in UK economy shows that it will affect all areas of consumer spending and unlikely to show reversal in near future. It seems the concepts of a wrist watch have become that of a status symbol rather than a practical chronometer. According to a survey that suggest one in seven people in the UK has no need for watch, apart from as a fashion accessory. Gadgets such as iPods, laptops and mobile phone, represent threat to the watch industry, survey conducted by Mintel. Even in the age of iPhones, people spend huge amount of money on a quality time piece, with high-end brands such as Rolex and Tag Heuer adorning blinged up wrist of rappers, bankers and fashionistas alike. http://www.wharf.co.uk/2010/11/why-wrist-watches-are-dialling.html SWOT ANALYSIS OF THE UK WATCH INDUSTRY: Strengths: Watch industry is growing industry which faster rate As the population is rising, the watch market is also expanding Customers are not very price sensitive as far as quality watch is concerned Weakness: There is not much advertising done by watch industry No innovation in products There are few number of exclusive showrooms that reduces the consumers accessibility to the product There are few marketers, who are concentrated only upon a particular niche segment (Tag Heuer ) Opportunities: There is more need of fashionable luxury watch and fine luxury watch brands that can be targeted in UK, as customers are more like trendsetter and fashionable. UK especially London is a metropolitan city which makes it more attractive for the new company. Youth are more brand conscious than their predecessors. That leads to the expansion of the market for branded watches. Threats: There are many foreign players entering in the race Too many players will dilute the market and the profit margin. Mobile phones acting as substitutes of the watches. The Indian watch industry began in the year 1961 with the commissioning of the watch division of Titan. The first watch model manufactured by HMT was the Janata model in the year 1962. HMT was the leader in the watch market till the Tatas formed Titan watches in association with Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation in the year 1987. They took a major strategy decision, which later changed the face of the Indian watch market to manufacture only quartz watches. Liberalisation in 1992 and removal of quantitative restrictions due to WTO has opened the doors for many the Indian market viz. Tissot, Swatch, Omega, Rado, TAGHeuer. The import duties on watches are falling which makes the Indian market look attractive for the global majors like Casio, Swatch and Citizen. Company Profile: Overview Titan is one of the largest watch producer in India and sixth largest in the world. Titan manufactures over 7 million watches per annum and have 65 million customer. In 1984 titan was established as a joint venture between the Tata Group and Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation. Manufacturing in a state- of -the art at Hosur, Tamil Nadu the company brought the large change in Indian market, by offering quartz technology with international styling. By understanding the different segments in the market, the company launched its second brand Sonata watch, as value brand for those who like styled watches with affordable prices. In last two decade the company has build an very good impression in watch business to become Indias largest manufacturer and world largest sixth manufacturer of watches. This was mainly because good formidable distribution network. Being one of largest retail chain of exclusive retail showroom for watches called The world of Titan spread over 100 towns. Titan have branches over 30 countries, its also have multi brand outlets named Time Zone, service centres and dealer outlets. The company has watch plant at Dehradun (UP) and Baddi (Himachal Pradesh) and electronic circuit boards in Goa. The promoters held majority stake of the company, with Tidco having 28% of the shares and Tata Group companies owing 25% of the shares and the public sharing holding around 28% in the company. The rest of the stake held by the foreign institution, non resident Indian, mutual fund and other institution. It also acquiring a license for global brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Hugo Boss, while. It has also in its portfolio its first Swiss Made watch brand Xylys. In 1995 the company capitalize to brand Tanishq as diversified into jewellery in fragmented market operating no brand in urban city. Also in 2005 the company launched its second Jewellery brand, GoldPlus, as using its opportunity for capitalizing in small town and rural India. Its also diversified into fashion Eyewear by launching Fastrack Eye Gear sunglasses as well as prescription eyewear. TITAN WATCHES: BRAND POSITIONING STRATEGIES Overall strategies: Since from the beginning Titan has been positioned as a premium brand, because its high quality products for its customer. Titan is struggling to have a strong brand image in UK market due to its numerous sub-brands that caters to different segments in India. It follows different positioning strategies; these strategies can also be analyzed as given below: Attribute Positioning: The company launched first quartz watches to Indian market as its product. The company successfully penetrate the market by this launch, under this strategy came Raga, Classique and Regalia. Classique positioned as style corporate wear that leaves a quiet definite impression and qualities of function. Regalia ranger represent the elegant-wear. Raga is an exclusive watch as positioned. The Raga and silver Raga collection of style, delicate and feminine with each piece unique truly. User Positioning: Titan provides to several user groups children (the Dash), sportspersons and adventurers. The fastrack range is seen as being modern and related to present time, reliable and sturdy. The advertising, packaging and merchandising of this range is young, cool and vibrant. Benefit Positioning: Titan offer many deals to differentiate its offering on the basis of superior style and attractiveness which is offered by Digital range fastrack. Competitors Positioning: Titan had to encounter the threat with the entry of several foreign watchmakers into the market; most the entrants are catering to the upper end of the market Omega, Cartier etc. Quality or Price Positioning: In the overseas market, especially in Europe where it is competing with Swiss and Japanese watches, it is position itself as value-for-money (less than Swiss watches and higher than Japanese), by giving attractively styled and of good quality. TITAN WATCHES: BRAND RE-POSITIONING STRATEGIES FOR GLOBALISATION Titan has managed to get fair market in Middle East and Africa but its failure in Europe was a downturn for the Company as the return was not as good as investment made for the expansion. Titan has decided to revamp its flagship watch brand in Europe mainly in UK. Titan wants to reposition it more youthful and relevant to the changing times. Titan has entered the International markets in 1989 through the export of watch movements. Titans first global footprint was placed in the UAE the largest market in the Middle East then it moved towards Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia and few markets in Africa. Though it faced strong competition, it reached the sales of 100,000 watches within a year of its launch. It started to move globally and moves towards Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives and Nepal. After its extensive survey, it concluded that it needs good reason to stock the brand. Titan needs to re-position its brand image in the UK market. And so Titan decided to against soft option of driving its globalization through private label exports. It would launch its product under its own brand with market positioning Therefore Titan found a massive advertising campaign to create brand awareness. It also participated in the fair which showcases the worlds biggest watch brand in the world. http://www.moodiereport.com/images/luxury_watch_tables_jan10_04.jpg http://www.moodiereport.com/images/luxury_watch_tables_jan10_05.jpg CONCLUSION: The suggestions to improve consumer awareness about brand repositioning strategy of Titan are as follows: To increase its visibility, Titan Company can sponsor events similar to fashion shows which all latest designs launched are displayed. This is important as it has a great effect on different segments of the customers in different ways. It is important to have Tie up with radio channels and television to broadcast and telecast its advertisement about various sales promotion from time to time. RD needs more investment as customer expectations are changing rapidly. It should focus more on introducing more varieties and luxury items in the market at regular interval. Introduce exclusive collection for working women which is more contemporary and complements any fashion styles. Tie up with international watch brands to make the product stronger in the market. To use internet to spread awareness among consumer about the brand. (function() { var scribd = document.createElement("script"); scribd.type = "text/javascript"; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = "https://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js"; var s = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })() Terry Hills framework: Corporate objectives Terry Hills framework: Corporate objectives Friction materials is enjoying a new lease of life as seen by their ability to make substantial profit partly due to the renaissance of the motorbike (scooter) as a source of transportation by the middle aged. Thus the corporate objectives are: Gain market share in the OE market through manufacture and supply of DBP in 2 years. Entering the Far East market as a Long Term Strategy to increase profitability and to wrestle for International Market Share in 3 years Superior Product Performer thereby securing the contract on a Long term Basis Improve Research and Development for the OEM for incremental business. Increase ROCE to 30% 3 years. Increase Profit Margin to 30% in 3 years. Increase ROI to 40% in 3 years. Order Winners and Qualifiers Criteria Discussion of the Criteria and the Implication for Operations BRAND IMAGE This is true for the motorcycle manufacturing company as demonstrated by their attention to detail and their strong Quality Policy and culture. It is therefore pertinent for Friction materials to maintain their already lofty heights of Quality to be able to tap into the sea of opportunities of OEM. For the AM, it is a guide to the potential customers of the qualities attached to the brand. With a Quality rating in the industry, the brand image does help win some of the customers over to the product range. For the SM, Brand Image could play a role in the choice of the DBP because the customers may want the best quality DBP for their automobiles which would help in marketing (word of mouth). This is a strong basis for our core competency being retained rather than outsource. COST For the OEM, Cost is the major order winner here as the company has to be highly competitive on cost to ward off potential competitors from the market. But with the prospect of Research and Development for new ways of making DBP, Friction Materials would be able to charge pre For the AM, Cost is highly competitive as well. The company must be able to get DBP to the market at affordable prices as the company has to be highly competitive on cost to ward off potential competitors from the market. For the SM. Cost is not competitive and almost not relevant. The cost of the DBP should be reasonable enough and not charge ridiculous amounts though the customer is willing to pay for the value of the DBP. Q QQ QQ: Performance quality flexibility in design dependability and volume are sensitive order qualifiers such that a drop in one of the characteristic specification could cost them the order. These criteria are key to their winning over the OE market thus we have a QQ which denotes (order loser). On the long run (3 years on) some of the values would change because Friction would have acquired a certain volume of market share and the direction of the market would tend to shift. For instance with a breakthrough in RD, the value of design flexibility and cost would change. This signifies that For design flexibility, it would be a new order winner, a display of our competency and thus they would be able to charge premium price, or at least increase the price of supply. Cost would be a dominant order winner as competitors would seek to drive down cost hence stiff competition. On the other hand, Q is not as sensitive as QQ. You would not lose the order if you cannot meet the demand. For Instance the durability of the DBP is a qualifier because it must be able to perform for a period of time but not too long to be considered absurd. 2 years is good but no one would want to design DBP for 10 years so if the life span of 2 years is attained then it is fine. For instance delivery speed is not required as you would have agreed to sign the deal to deliver at an agreed period failing which you would be fined. MARKETING STRATEGY SWOT Analysis Strengths Credible supplier network Modern managerial input Good debtor to creditor days Good current Ratio; indicates cash flow Ability to expand current location Centralized location to market and to ports for export Fully depreciated machine cost, hence they machine cost  £0 Skilled Labour force as can be seen in Specialist Manufacture Brand Image recognition for quality Close relationship with the tool specialist fabricators. Weakness Inventory levels Friction between top management (cronton and whitson) Long changeover period on press machine Poor personnel management Poor use of work packages leading to unused raw materials Underutilization of MRPII systems Inability to do online payment Poor space utilization Over reliance on entry into OE market Opportunity Potential global leader in OEM Local sourcing of materials (when they gain social status) DBP direct supplier to industry manufacturers thus increasing market share Expansion of production range Threat Competitive Labour Market Stiff competition from the Far East Potential Environmental threat on noise and waste disposal MARKETING STRATEGY Expansion of Market channeled to an increase in both local and global supplies of DBP. Revolutionize the OEM to a Quality competitive market based on cost management. Improve Research and Development capabilities After sales customer feedback as a way of getting closer to the customer and improving on quality and performance. MANUFACTURING STRATEGY VERTICAL INTEGRATION This is the level of incorporation in a supply chain for the various stages of the supply process. It could be forward or backward integration. A vertical integration could be to bolster the technological front based on competition or for to emerging markets. Make / Buy: The make or buy analysis is a strategic analysis that helps top management to decide what they want to produce, what they want to stop producing or what they want to outsource to a third party. In practice, core competence is not outsourced because that is the uniqueness of the product; if you let it go, you could just be setting up future competition for your company. The various decisions taken and the reason are as follows; For the supply of raw materials; a single supplier was preferred. This would prevent re-testing for the quality of the supplied materials as the testing phase takes a couple of weeks to get the right mix for the required braking performance. This would increase lead time and consequently reduce the ability to deliver on time. It also helps reduce the variation in quality that could arise from multiple sourcing For the mixing operation, that is the core competence and could be detrimental to the growth and the corporate objectives of the company. For the Press Operation, the Press tool manufacture is done by a local specialist firm. This could lead to delays in taking up the tool fabrication hence building up lead times for the OEM. When the design team finishes the design, they would have to wait for the Press fabricators to be available to work. Communication gap is also a threat to the smooth running of the design of the tool for the OEM. The specialist firm is also prone to take over by large BP manufacturers who are direct competitors and once competitive advantage is lost to them, it affects the market share of the OE and consequently the ability for Friction Materials to compete. Thus the decision is to Vertically Integrate the Local Specialist; this helps build competitive advantage in the OE market. For the baking operation, it would be kept in house. Outsourcing baking increases the time the operation takes; from 3 hours to a potential 5-6 hours. The cost of transport, labor and the payment of the operation together with the time trade-off make it very complicated and unsuitable for outsourcing. The chemical properties of the brakes at high temperatures could be altered during transportation and thus could lead to a failure in testing which results in the company losing the order. It is therefore a critical operation in-house and not outside. For the machining operation, the decision is to be kept in house. This is because an automated 100% dimensional check is required after machining. If you machine in house, there is a greater chance of achieving that accuracy than to outsource to a specialist that could be overlook little details that could lead to test failure. Since the machines are running at full capacity, an extra machine is required for the OEM manufacture. The machine would be second hand quality as accustomed to the company. The fully depreciated machines make extra budget available for this purchase and would in no time be fully depreciated as well. Thus we practically are paying less to do more. For the painting, the operation would be carried out in house. The reason is to be in control of the goods produced. Also the painting operation is a low skilled task hence a contract staff could be employed for the sole aim of painting. This helps specialization on the long run and reduces costs due to transportation and material handling. It also reduces labor cost as the company is only bound by the contractual agreement without benefits. For the packaging, the short term objective would be to continue in-house but re-brand the lot size so as to accommodate more DBP. This reduces the burden of having to pack several hundred of DBP at any time. The lot sizes could be increased and standardized as there is no obligation to supply with the current range of boxes but simplifies the current packaging operation. This helps reduce the number of boxes supplied for packaging and hence the time and cost of transportation and material handling. However the long term plan would be to source for a packing company that would agree to package as close to our production site as possible. This helps free up space for increased production and other value added work. FACILITIES The design of the operation would take into consideration the item to be produced, vary the different possible ways to produce it and come up with the best and most efficient way of producing it. The characteristic of the operation is determined by the 4 Vs VOLUME HIGH LOW HIGH LOW VARIETY LOW HIGH VARIATION LOW HIGH VISIBILITY The OE market involves long production runs with product specification and low variety, there is need to implement a high volume low variety manufacturing process which is the category of the OE market. Volume: This is the production capacity within a particular time frame. The volume is set prior to production in order to plan for capacity. The current forecast of 150,000 in the first year is a high volume compared to the normal few hundreds that are currently produced. Therefore it is a high volume process operation and adequate capacity should be provided as required. Variety: this can be described as the different combinations of products that a production process can accommodate. There is limited variation in the demand of DBP for the OEM due to the standardized requirements. Basic changes can be made in the design but it is practically the same spine and technology that is used. This depicts a low variety production. Variation in Demand: This is the ability of the production process to change with little notice to the forces of demand and supply or product design and specification. Orders are requested a year prior to production thus a stable demand profile which makes effective capacity utilization probable. Therefore it is a low variation demand production. Visibility or Customer Interaction: this could be described as the level of participation of the customer in the production process. The ultimate goal of any production of the process is to satisfy the customer. Since the customer is not expected to be at the factory every time, we settle for a low visibility production process. This has no bearing on the type or quality of DBP produced as the company would be ratified fit for the production of the OEM before proper production can commence. Location The current location of Lutterworth is perceived as a central location both to the potential and to the international market. The town has a rich history of manufacturing work and is in a central location for transportation of finished goods and raw materials and assess to the factory very easy. It is also close to a large motorcycle manufacturer who is the potential customer. This is an ideal location for a growing company and the rate of development could become attractive for immigrants due to the emerging facilities. TECHNOLOGY Product Profiling The product profiling approach is an analysis understands the requirements for production and the characteristics available for each process to meet production specification. A comparative analysis helps in process choice the layout structure to adopt. Original Equipment Manufacture would be done through the batch production process. The process type helps utilize the standardized production format due to low variety. It also helps improve the efficiency of production and spreads the overhead costs over more units. The Specialist Manufacture is a jobbing type process while the Aftermarket production is Batch Production therefore if we go for a flow line production process; it would impede our production process. Thus if for OEM, a flow line is chosen then Specialist Manufacture must be outsourced to compensate for the complexity of the production process. However the Specialist manufacture is the core competence of Friction Materials and to let go of it would be synonymous to throwing your market share away. If a competitor comes by and vertically integrates that section of your company, then there is a potential buy-out of Friction Materials. Therefore it was sensible to use a flexible Bach production process currently which could move into a flow production process with enough investment to justify the resources required to change it. Process Choice Project SPECIALIST PARTS AFTER MARKET Jobbing ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT Batch Line Continuous High Volume Low Alex and Terry Hill 2009 Volume High Low Low High Low Variety Fixed Position Process Cell Feasible Flow Product High High Low Regular Flow Dr Watt 2010 However, for a long-term capacity planning, investment decision and availability of funds could make OEM be more flow line suited. This occurs when there is a huge volume to justify the investment and good forecast of an emerging market hence a growing demand and a comfortable market share to control. The OEM batch process tends towards the flow line production section. Process Choice SPECIALIST PARTS Project AFTER MARKET Jobbing ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT Batch OEM Line Continuous High Volume Low Alex and Terry Hill 2009 CAPACITY A capacity strategy is a review of how the personnel would work effectively with the resources and machinery available. For the OEM, there is a predictable demand known a year prior to production, hence a level capacity strategy typifies the production. There is no lead or lag in production and demand hence the make to order plan. LEVEL CAPACITY PRODUCTION The capacity is set at 3000DBP per week at standard working week of 40hours. This helps both capacity and personnel utilization and a tight budget schedule. If there is a change in capacity planning, shift hour or overtime can be used to compensate for such. However this plan is for the current production target of 150000. INFRASTRUCTURE HUMAN RESOURCES These are specialists in the area of recruiting people for various job functions. From a manufacturing point of view, an IE is the right person for this task. This is because he has been trained to understand the right work contents the workforce required to achieve maximum capacity utilization and the performance measurement attached to each job function. However the HR specialist understands how to tie the salary structure and the benefit (both money and material) attached to him. Therefore the strategy would be to employ the unskilled workforce and train them to a basic minimum skill level required to do the basic non skilled operations like printing, packaging and painting and machining while we use a higher wage structure to lure the skilled workers; should we need them. The unskilled workers could be temporary workers or permanent workers depending on the requirements while the skilled workers would be made permanent to increase core competency. Periodic training like safety and their specific job functions would be necessary to update the level of skill and technology across board. PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT THE BALANCED SCORE CARD It is a framework that converts the vision of the company into performance measures that can be interpreted and monitored. The mission statement should thus be seen as the action plan that drives the company on the journey to the destination it hopes to achieve in future. LEARNING AND GROWTH FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE CUSTOMERS PERCEPTION AND EXPECTATION INTERNAL STRUCTURE AND INFRASTRUCTURE STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES Fig : The balanced Score Card Slack, chambers Johnston 2007 Strategic Objectives Strategic Measurements Core outcomes Performance Drivers 1 Financial Increase Profitability Increase Revenue Project Cost Reduced Cost Compete Based on Cost Operational Efficiency 2 Customer Increased market share Share of segment % presence in the OE sector Customer satisfaction Customer feed back % satisfaction, positive feedback 3 Internal Revenue mix Research and Development collaboration Prototype designs success rate Increase ROCE High ROCE Higher utilization of resources 4 Learning and growth Employee capability Staff productivity Reduced scrap rate Upgrade of facilities Systems Audit Improved cycle times Adapted Balanced Scorecard, Kaplan and Norton 1996 Financial perspective Growth: The dream of every business is growth; and so is Friction Material. The growth of the company is the gate way to expansion in other markets and could be a factor in increasing the Market share which has been set as at 2 years. Increased Profitability: The profitability of a company is its ability to satisfy the demand of production; output, overheads and cost of production and still make a margin. Most businesses are set-up with an aim to make money; either primary or secondary. Friction Materials made profit this year and the OEM is a lee-way to guarantee constant volumes of production and with a high efficiency system, the OEM would be the source of revenue for the company. This is because the OEM has a huge potential to turn the fortunes of the company around from a small company to a Large company with huge revenue and large market share. In an emerging market like the OEM, the first to enter the market usually dominates a great percentage of the market share. Therefore it is pertinent for Friction Materials to be in the market as one of the pioneer members. The OEM would generate huge revenue as they have a huge volume of production thus reducing the cost accrued to the production costs and overheads and consequently drives d own the cost of production and hence increases profitability Profitability of the OEM is vital to the existence of the company as it helps to generate a funds through production that could be ploughed back to the operation of the other product range and with good decision making and investment policies; the company will be transformed into a World Leader in the manufacture of DBP. Profitability of the company also helps it satisfy its personnel commitment; paying of salaries and bonuses to the workers for increased motivation. If a business is not profitable, the management of the company could struggle to pay wage and this would ultimately impact on the shop floor reducing the productivity of the workers; as most workers would lack the motivation to continue work without pay. Ultimately the customers; the motorcycle manufacturers would get affected as Friction Materials could end up not meeting the demand target and are imposed heavy fines. Gradually the company would lose its competitiveness and could end up being bankrupt if it continues to fail to meet the target. The contract would be cancelled and the production would be hampered. The end result could be the administration of the company, since it cannot meet its basic obligation. Cost Reduction Sustaining growth is all about meeting the expectation of the shareholders, those responsible for the investing money and time to the success of the company. In Sustaining the growth of the company, good asset utilization and cost reduction policies like getting depreciated machines to work effectively, helps to reduce the overheads and unwanted cost attached to the daily running expenses of the company. The OEM is a cost-competitive market and imploring a strategy to drive down cost is worthwhile. Trade-offs associated with low cost production should be properly weighed before decisions are made else it could eventually cost more; both for the cost of rework and the excess and unnecessary man-hours used. For instance, if the cost of a standard back plate is $10 and you get a supplier for $6, it is possible that the manufacturer might not be able to meet production target. So if you hire him for your supplies and he fails to deliver, in panic, you might need to get another supplier w ho would end up charging you more than it would cost and you might have to run extra man-hours to cover up for production time lost. All these could cost more compared to the stable $10 who is guaranteed to deliver when needed. Customer Perspective Increased market share The market share is a portion of a business sector where you dominate. In reality, big companies like McDonalds have almost all the market share between them leaving the remaining for smaller companies. The idea is that every company sells a particular volume of the product in the market. Companies with dominant shares sell high volumes of stock periodically. Friction Materials has market share as one of its targets because it aims to be a profitable business. If they can churn out large volumes of DBP and exhaust their production capacity in terms of sales; then they would be able to get the overhead cost driven low. This helps put the Cost reduction strategy in check and increases the viability for profit making. A large market share increases the brand image of the company and opens doors for wider reach to the Far Eastern and Global markets on a whole. It also helps increase the possibility of dominating the Local market. Based on the operational capabilities of the company and the entry into the OEM market, Friction Materials could boast of a sizeable market share so far as other factors are favorable. With percentage market share dominance, plans like marketing drive sales promos and exhibition events like auto fares can be used to boost their brand image and ultimately sell the product to the market. The market share volume determines the amount of profit and volume of DBP that could be sold over a period of time. Customer satisfaction Customer is king, should be at the back of the mind of every employee of Friction Materials. This is because the customer makes it possible for the employee to be paid; if the DBPs are not quality ones or the customers are not satisfied, they could easily turn to a competitor and this affects the market share of the company. Since we regard the customer as king, and production is based on customer needs; it is imperative that Friction Materials delights its customer base by going the extra mile to meet with them, to have a personal experience with them. This helps the company reach out to potential customers and at the same time get a good understanding of the performance of the DBP in the market and ways to improve the current production specifications and designs without altering the standard specification requirement for manufacture. It also helps identify potential areas of strengths and weaknesses as emerging opportunity that abound but have not been fully utilized. For the OEM to succeed, the customer must be delighted exceptionally and satisfied with the unique qualities of the DBP else Friction Materials would lose ground to their competitors and could lose their competitive advantage to poor human relationship. Therefore the company should make the customer the aim of the production process and in pleasing a customer that could be a potential chain of new customers. It is widely said that it costs a lot to get a new customer compared to retaining one of them. Thus it is more profitable to secure already existing customer base by delighting them exceptionally while looking for incremental business than to look for more business and neglect current customer base. Internal Process Perspective Research and development For Friction Materials to remain relevant in the OEM, the RD team would be expected to design and develop new lines for production. The ability to meet this requirement is one of the basic tasks of Friction Materials as an OEM. Therefore it is an important aspect of the company that needs to be restructured. Currently, there is no department for RD and since it is a major requirement by the contractor, a new R and D department be formed. The design engineer as well as the local specialist firm that was integrated needs to be incorporated in this department to work together for the progress of the company. A good R D enables breakthroughs which can yield huge revenue. Similar to this is the Astra Zeneca R D who charge premium price for discoveries in their RD that are able to sail through to the production stage. RD also increases skill level of the company and takes the competitiveness to a higher level. Thus it gets to a point where they could re-define the characteristic qualities of performance of DBP as seen by the 5 seconds telephone response employed by Zenith bank to attend to customer enquiries. High ROCE: A high ROCE for Friction Materials signifies a good balance of employee strength. The ROCE is a financial tool used to understand the extent of effective utilization of resources. If the employees are trained well and given the right resources to work with and appropriate incentives and benchmarks to go with, then they would be well motivated to achieving company targets. When the targets are met, they can be used as benchmarks to be built upon. With a steady growth rate in ROCE, investment on raw materials, machines and personnel would be justified. Productivity, efficiency and proper scheduling of the production process are the hallmark to achieving a high ROCE. An Acid test ratio can be used to measure the liquidity of the company, the more liquid a company is; the stronger it is. Thus using a benchmark as a source of strength makes the top management of the company a focused one. Growth Employee capability reskilling people Upgrade of facilities buying new machines ORGANIZATION The organizational structure of Friction Materials should change from a process based leadership to a functional matrix organizational structure where the operations personnel have easier access to top management for decision making and policy formulation. For a small company like Friction Materials, the Organizational hierarchy is very visible. Too many management port-folios or positions; as is seen here, creates a communication problem such that escalating issues or problems as seen on the shop floor could take a while before it gets to the appropriate table and this makes flexibility very low. If friction arises between the managers, it could trickle down to the shop floor. Besides there is unclear definition of roles and responsibilities and this is a potential disaster because of the ownership of responsibility for failure or damage. Thus instead of creating an operations unit, they are building a potential silo. This hampers effective communication between the operations crew. The dual role for the sales manager could also be detrimental to the progress of the company as there might be sub-optimization of the sales department and biased decision making; should he be in contest with another manager. There should be a common focus of top-management on the direction, aims and objectives and the vision should be shared collectively. Time out on team building and holiday trips could be scheduled to help foster relationships of employees of Friction Materials. Having grudges against people is a reality of life, but when it affects the productivity of the company, it becomes questionable. Job roles and functions should be well defined and the performance; measured. This helps make the workers responsible for the daily activities and could improve productivity. A good reward and compensation scheme (bonus) could be employed but it must be properly structured to avoid sub-optimization of departments or resources. PRODUCTION AND PLANNING CONTROL The planning and control system of Friction Materials Ltd is the MRPII but is underutilized at the moment as there is no skilled clerical worker that can handle the software. The clerical workers need to proceed on a flexible training schedule to learn the latest version and application of the MRP II system. There should also be an online order and portal system where purchase orders and payments can be made and reduce the over reliance on the telephone order or fax as there could be ambiguity in communication. The capacity planning features of the MRP II system was not in use and the WIP records for an on-going production process is not recorded which makes it almost impossible to be able to plan for adequate capacity and schedule for raw materials hence the high inventory levels. A kanban pull system can be implemented for the production of the OE market to meet production targets until a full scale imp