Zara - A Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Zara - A Review - Essay Example The company boasts of an efficient distribution channel as well as computer-aided design and manufacture which together ensure timely arrival of products in stores. The use of e-strategy requires that the company and its producers work together for good coordination of information flow so that the transport of raw materials, manufacture, distribution, and delivery of products is carried out efficiently in the international markets the company operates.2.E-Collaboration in e-business E-collaboration takes advantage of the current internet-driven business environment and requires the companies adopting it to participate in external business relationships through computer interactions. E-collaboration, especially for international businesses, enables a company to eliminate the barrier of time, distance, and resources and interact with other companies, stakeholders, suppliers and customers in different countries. Through e-collaboration at Zara, there is coordination of different decisio ns and activities all over the internet. Zara’s hybrid model highly supports e-collaboration. For instance, store managers collaborate with manufacturers in specifying orders needed at their stores based on customer preferences. Market research at Zara is also made possible through e-collaboration whereby Zara employees gather information on employee preferences online and different groups in the company are assigned to analyzing the information and making speedy decision-making and supervision of all stores.

Images of Beauty Essay Example for Free

Images of Beauty Essay Beauty is among all of us, both women and men yet women and men are looked upon differently, causing a negative impact on themselves and society, targeting the young generations that can be very harmful to them emotionally and psychically. In the images of beauty, when men and women are promoted in magazines, movies, billboards and many other different kinds of medians, we all see those images differently depending how we want ourselves to be as. The media played a powerful role in our society influencing and using the models attractiveness and body image to catch the people’s attention. In doing that, media had successfully bombarded the young children’s minds with images of skinny and muscular models that lead to negative consequences such as body dissatisfaction, emotional feelings and sexual relations. Body dissatisfaction is a huge issue among adolescent men and women that can cause severe health problems by starving themselves and allowing them to do things that will harm their body such as taking drugs or getting a plastic surgery. If someone has a poor body image, he or she would most likely try to do anything or any method to change the looks of its body, even if it means restricting food or taking potentially harmful substances. For a woman, they will think that their body is too heavy and as for men, their thoughts are divided into two parts: overweight and underweight. For example, what is actually considered an ideal body for a man is when they have a low body fat, lots of muscles, narrow waist, large shoulders, and body with a V-shaped torso. When another man sees this kind of image, they will say that this is the kind of body they want to have. This kind of negative influence can encourage, especially the young teenagers and adults to starve themselves, take diet pills and by doing that it can cause anorexia, a type of eating disorder or many other types of health problems. For example, when a children look at the models they might think that the only way to look like them is to go on a diet. Although I may have to agree that it is the easy way to become thin, but knowing that it can cause many harms to the body itself. Even though exercise is much harder and takes longer to practices, but it provides many varieties of benefits. Diet pills is also another fast and easy way to manage their weight; however, diet pills also contain diuretics or stimulants, which can cause sleeping problems, seizures, high blood pressure and more.In addition, when men and women are dissatisfied with their body and starts doing all sorts of stuff that causes health problems, they then starts to feel depressed and have low self-esteem. An unhealthy body may increase the changes in an individual’s behavior and attitude. This can also allow them to experience in the state of anger and anxiety due to the fact that they are not satisfied with size and shape of their body. Furthermore, the young teens regarding the entertainment media as the number one source of information about sexuality and sexual health, allowing easy access for children at a young age to be engage into sexual relations. Being open about sex and how they talk to their girlfriends or boyfriends, it is largely because of what they see, hear and learn.

scarlet letter :: essays research papers

The author of this novel, Nathaniel Hawthorne, is mostly known for his unique and descriptive writing style. In The Scarlet Letter, he describes his disapproval of the leading character’s morals clearly. For example, before Hester Prynne emerges from the cold and dark prison, she is scorned by a group of women who believe in a harsher punishment for Hester. Meaning, instead of being made to stand on the scaffold bearing the scarlet letter on her bosom, they suggest that she â€Å"she should be put to death or have it branded into her skin, precisely on her forehead.† Since early times, Puritans have had the reputation for strong discipline, their religious beliefs, and harsh punishment for those defying their beliefs. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a novel that portrays the Puritans as cold and unfeeling.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Puritan’s feelings were so lacking of compassion that â€Å" they were stern enough to look upon her death†¦without a murmur†¦but had none of the heartlessness of another social state.† This quote depicts that when the public is faced with a death of a sinner, they would absolutely have no reaction what so ever. These worries and concerns are focused on a passage in chapter one in which Hester is being nagged by a harsh group of women. The one woman, perhaps the ugliest of them all, goes too far in advocating the death of Hester due to jealousy   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Nathaniel’s tone reveals how he feels towards the Puritan society. He begins early in the novel by describing the Puritans as â€Å"being of the most intolerant brood,† stating the lack of understanding they had toward one another. Finding out about Hester and her beautiful baby Pearl, the town at once without any word from Hester filled their hearts with hatred towards the two. â€Å"Meager, indeed, and cold was the sympathy† that the Puritans offered against Hester in her vulnerable moments aloft the scaffold. Again, Hawthorne’s choice of words indicates his harsh tone towards Puritanism.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Nathaniel Hawthorne shows again that the Puritan society as cold and unfeeling in his descriptions of Roger Chillingworth and his reaction to relationships. In his search for revenge, Chillingworth responds to his adultery prone wife by sacrificing his life in order to figure out her secret lover. He used be a scholar but now is disguised as a doctor who put forth his best years, â€Å"to feed the hungry dream of knowledge,† but now he is out for something else, revenge on the one man who made love to his wife.

Manila and Rizal Essay

Even if this great man lived a century and a half ago, his teachings and the ideals he embodied are still alive today. In fact, there is a little bit of Jose Rizal in everyone if you only take a close look. He would probably squander his fortunes by now, because he loves women, and he is probably working as on OFW maybe as a Mercenary for a private military company abroad. Or he immigrated to Spain and worked as a Physician†¦ And enjoys the weekend at the beach with his girlfriends, or he could have been Public Enemy number one for speaking the truth against the corrupt Religious establishments and Philippine Government. Much of Rizal’s greatness has been downplayed over the years. Most people only know of Dr. Rizal as the writer of two Filipino literary pieces that are studied in high school. He appears on the humble one peso coin. Hundreds gather at Rizal Park, even if not to remember our national hero, then to spend a leisurely Sunday afternoon. However, people may wonder how a man born 150 years ago can be considered relevant in today’s times. The Philippines is no longer under Spanish Rule, and there’s no revolution going on. Filipinos are still being oppressed by debilitating poverty. The country’s resources are being raped. While we declare ourselves to be a democracy, there is no authentic freedom from the bondage of poverty, illiteracy, corruption and the manipulation of the masses. Or maybe other people would think of him as an ordinary person just like you and me. He is not going to be our national hero if he were alive today. But knowing the capability of Rizal he might just be one of the Philippines prominent personality like.Casino.Abalos.Fernando etc†¦Also in the politics because Rizal is a known speaker and a critics of the government then. But didn’t you notice that is why Rizal was born in those time and age for him to be somebody else. He wasn’t put to be in these time & age. Why? Because his talent and his ability will be gone for naught or for nothing. That is why there is a time for each and every one of us, not to the time we choose it to be but what God has plan for all of us. But some people would also say that. Rizal was not meant for this time. He has his own place and time just like we do. If ever he was living at this time, probably the Philippines are speaking in different languages just like him. And the Philippines are much more stable in economic terms. You don’t need to be a doctor, rich, well educated, well traveled or get shot in the back to be like Rizal. There is Rizal in you if you love your country, if you respect your fellowman and want what is best for the nation. If you are willing to set aside your personal interests for that of the common or greater good, then there is Rizal in you I think Jose Rizal would work as an ophthalmologist and serve the poor people in depressed areas†¦ At the same time He would educate the Filipino youth as a teacher. He’d be the first one to write articles against the corrupt government. If Jose Rizal were alive today, he would probably run for public office, since nowadays, that’s what heroes and sons of heroes do. He would even likely be President. Up to this day, the received wisdom is that he had retracted and the many objections to it have been forgotten through the years. Rizal’s alleged retraction became just another controversy and his heroism diminished under a cloud. Fortunately, Rizal was both intellectually gifted, having mastered many different languages and being a versatile genius in many fields; and strong in character, as he possessed outstanding traits like courage, devotion to truth, integrity, selflessness, and loyalty. Jose Rizal gives all of us inspiration in all the things we do. He is inspires us to be hardworking and diligent, which most of us are not. Rizal is our hero, our inspiration, our lesson of the past that we should be a man for our country.

Develop Marketing Streategies Essay

The company is named Houzit Pty Ltd, it is a retailer for home wares. Houzit is a chain of homewares stores in Brisbane that specializes in bathroom fittings, bedroom fittings, mirrors and decorative items.. It is a growing business. It has 15 stores in Brisbane area, with all stores being managed and coordinated from their head office in Milton. It has 150 staff members. The analysis of each of the aspect of the company overview is provided under the following heads. Strategic direction and Organizational objectives STRATEGIC DIRECTION The strategic directions of Houzit can be ascertained from the company’s vision and mission. Houzit is a national retail brand that is satisfying the home makers’ needs by providing them unique, wide variety of quality homeware products with an easy payment procedure. The mission of the company asserts that the organization is planning to move towards enlargement of its business by ensuring its presence in all the major cities of Australian market by the year 2020. The basic focus of the company is on three parameters: Quality, Unique items and Selection In this post modern era every organization should direct their marketing strategies in way that the strategic goals could be achieved smoothly and efficiently. Strategic direction is a course of action that leads to the attainment of the set goals of a company. It is also the vision of the company that is necessary for success in giving direction for employees to follow in order to achieve set goals. Setting strategic direction involves finding a target direction and committing to get there.  It begins with developing a clear vision for a company thereby increasing its competitive advantage. Mission and vision of a firm Mission is what the firm is, whereas vision is a forward-looking view of what the organization wants to become. Mission statement may include a vision, business definition and values and/or statements about an organization’s purpose. >By 2020,Houzit will have a significant retail presence in home wares in every Australian capital city >Starting with 15 stores in the Great Brisbane area and growing to 100 Australia wide. >Houzit will be a national retail brand, catering to the needs of home makers with a range of unique, high quality home wares made accessible to all through our easy to manage payment plan. Therefore some marketing opportunities have to be analyzed in reaching its goals, so the manager has to provide brief summary evaluating two alternatives, including the benefits and risks associated with each option and finally recommending for the opportunity most likely to produce results. ORGANIZATIONAL OBJECTIVES Here I outline the following marketing objectives: >To bring an annual sales increase of $ 5 million by moving the sales figures from $15 million per year to %20 million per year during the next three years period. >To enhance the list of loyal customers from 10,000 to 15,000 >Considering Brisbane as a potential market, brand recognition need to be established so that one out of every 3 people will recognise the Houzit brand in a random survey that is conducted in 18 months’ time. Current size, capabilities and resources of the organization ORGANATIONAL SIZE The size of the organization occupies 1,000-1,500m2. CAPABILITIES Capabilities: Each of the Houzit store has a capacity to generate the following sales breakup Bathroom fittings: 30% Bedrooms furnishings: 35% Mirrors and decorative items: 20% Lighting fixtures: 15% The organization is able to manage a high customer loyalty among repeat customers as it is a valuable assets for any organization. Moreover they can exceed competitors by offering in quality, range and accessibility. RESOURCES OF THE ORGANIZATION HUMAN RESOURSES Houzit has the valuable assest ,that is human resources ,15-20 fulltime employees along with number of casual workers .Staffs works are excellent with highly skilled and knowledgeable about home wares. PHYSICAL RESOURSES Especially for a commercial urban district Houzit possesses a great retail space that is bright, functional and efficient. Gaps between the objectives and the current capabilities and resources Gap analysis serves as the tool that will help to decide between multiple marketing options (Precision Group, 2009). The objectives that are set by Houzit are difficult to be achieved with the current capabilities and resources. It is because company has limited number of employees. In addition to it, the focus with which company operates to have its stores as bright and comfortable for shopping is not in alignment with the legislations that are put forth by the government. In this manner Houzit will have a gap between the objectives set for the company and the current strategies, capabilities and resources of the company. Opportunities With the help of external environment analysis, a company will be able to develop a list of opportunities and threats that are provided by the environmental factors (David, 2006). This section of task 1 highlights the two major opportunities for Houzit along with their analysis. Two marketing opportunities that meet the objectives and the evaluation of risk and benefits of each opportunity are: * A growing market in high growth area with a significant percentage of the target market still not aware of Houzit’s offer. * Increase sales opportunities outside of our target area-greater Brisbane. Marketing mix Houzit’s marketing mix is comprised of these following approaches to pricing, distribution, advertising and promotion, and customer service.

Why Not Eat Insects Example

Why Not Eat Insects Example Why Not Eat Insects – Coursework Example Why Not Eat Insects? Marcel Dicke in the Video â€Å"Why not eat insects† s that that 80% of the world’s animals walk on six legs; therefore, they are insects (Dicke). In the world’s biodiversity, there are 6 million species of insects. This leads to the assertion that the world is a planet of insects and not humans since they are more abundant than humans. Dicke argues that insects are significant contributors of the economy, even though people may not be aware of the fact; insects contribute free of charge towards developing the economy. Therefore, insects are not only contributors to the economy but also major delicacies in various parts of the world such as china (Dicke). However, while people in some parts knowingly consume insects as part of their daily diet, almost all people in the world consume insects unknowingly. This occurs because food processing makes use of products that are derived from insects. Therefore, food additives such as natural dyes are p roduced by insects. This means that insects contribute in a large scale to feeding the world’s population.Dicke observes that the world population is increasing dramatically; hence, there is a corresponding increase in the demand for food. Therefore, insects offer the only solution to the escalating global food problem. In addition, insects have a higher nutrient content in comparison to regular protein sources. Therefore, he argues that it is more economical to invest in insect production than investing in other forms of food. Evidently, 70% of the global agricultural land is used for livestock production (Dicke). This land would be significantly enough to produce insects to feed the entire world. Already over 80% of the world’s population are eating insects; therefore, the remaining 20% should follow suit (Dicke). All that is required is changing perceptions and mindsets in as far as insects are concerned. A number of entrepreneurs have already taken up serving insec ts as delicacies in their restaurants; hence, kick starting the road towards a world that values insects as a primary source of nutrition. Dicke, Marcel. Why not eat insects? TED, July 2010. Web. 15 September 2014.

Investing In The Young Generation Of Pakistan Young People Essay Example

Investing In The Young Generation Of Pakistan Young People Essay Example Investing In The Young Generation Of Pakistan Young People Essay Investing In The Young Generation Of Pakistan Young People Essay Early on childhood Development Harmonizing to UNESCO Global Monitoring Report ( 2007 ) Early on Childhood Development entails wellness nutrition, hygiene, and cognitive, societal, physical and emotional development- from birth to entry into primary schools in formal, informal and non formal scenes, frequently provided by a mix of authorities establishments, non-governmental organisations, private suppliers, communities and households Importance of Early Childhood Development Harmonizing to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, each kid should have good parenting, early stimulation, fostering attention, primary wellness attention, indispensable micro foods in a balanced and alimentary diet, and a safe and clean environment. Research has demonstrated that at least 80 % of the encephalon s capacity is developed before the age of five. Learning occurs faster in the early old ages than at any other clip and forms established have far-reaching deductions. Together early childhood development and kid endurance services have a multiplier consequence. They are indispensable for cut downing poorness and increasing national productiveness. Early stimulation, parent instruction and quality early attention in places or Centres help guarantee good school results in footings of increased internal efficiency, lower school dropouts, reduced repeat, and higher accomplishments and completion rates. Well developed and good educated kids go more productive ; pay more re venue enhancements and lend more as a citizen of their states. Education and Crime Co-relation Factors that contribute to the co-relation between early childhood instruction and offense Poverty and unemployment Research shows that rewards and unemployment rates have a larger impact on the condemnable behavior. Crime is increasing in local unemployment rates and diminishing in pay rates. Education increases pay rates and it besides increases the chance cost of offenses as offense may necessitate clip to perpetrate which can be otherwise used fruitfully and besides entail a period of captivity which is dearly-won for people with better labor market net incomes go forthing a co relation between instruction attainment and offense. ( Lochner, 2007 ) . Furthermore, turning unemployment and lifting monetary values lead to a decrease in the disbursement power and an addition in adult females s work load in the family jobs. Families affected by unemployment by and large have no fiscal militias to fall back on. Impoverished households who can no longer afford the lifting cost of instruction and kid attention find themselves obliged either to maintain their kids place or to direct them out to gain mon ey so every bit to at least maintain the household unit afloat. Due to the deficiency of instruction attainment there is a rise of unemployment and kids are non able to acquire into the labour market ( Lochner, 2010 ) . Poverty and desperation lead to an addition in the force within the household and immature kids are succumbed to gain a life through affecting in child labor and assorted condemnable activity i.e. robbery, larceny etc. Lack of raising and lovingness patterns Family life influences condemnable behaviors through supplying offspring s with sensitivity sing how to get by with the life outside household, how to be disciplined and responsible citizens of the society. Children reared by parents who neglect or reject them are likely to be greatly influenced by their community environments. When societal environment offer them encouragement and chances for condemnable behavior, kids reared by parents who neglect them are most likely to go delinquents. Lack of quality schooling Schools provide a community outside of place to reenforce the educational edifice block put in topographic point by parent. Schools serve to develop the values of civilization, to further tolerance, ego subject and character development. In many schools in the underdeveloped universe, these basic ends are thwarted by unequal basic supplies, no national criterions, absence of instructors and deficiency of physical installations etc. The schoolroom environment in the school is drab and deadening and there is no chance for the kids to be originative and active, go forthing a message that schools are non ready for kids. A deficiency of quality instruction may pass on one to the lasting lower class and a possible life of offense as a manner of earning and kids who feel inferior in the society due to the deficiency of quality schooling bead out of school and often join packs and the force of life in the streets. ( Flannery, Jr. , 1999 ) Lack of societal, emotional and moral development Schools and communities foster socialisation and societal interactions among kids. Education plays a major function in developing a peer-peer relation and Fosters societal and emotional development among kids. Lack of equal relation or deficiency of societal interaction entails that kids have no childs to play or socialise with ; the consequence is that they are left in isolation. Lack of societal, emotional and moral development has a batch to make with the rise in offense and it is going more hard for the childs to populate socially, understanding the feelings of others so they turn inward. Schools and communities make it impossible for them to continue their isolation and the consequence is a show of emotions and eruptions of force either verbal or physical. Harmonizing to WHO documents on mental wellness ( Hendren, Birell Weisin and Orley, 1994 ) , about one in five kids will hold an emotional/behavioural upset at sometime during their growing regardless of where they live or ho w good to make they are and it is the clip where instruction plays a major portion since emotionally disturbed kids exhibit damages in many ways, i.e. dropping out of school or non traveling to school wholly, holding hapless ego images, holding hapless equal dealingss and to boot they may hold small regard for the jurisprudence of their society and grownups. Lack of female instruction Lack of female instruction entails the highest societal and economic returns. Uneducated female parents are less likely to direct their kids to schools. The gender spread in instruction and deficiency of vocational preparation for females has foregone a great chance by non capitalising on the big rates of return of female schooling on economic productiveness. At times the Torahs and civilization of the society do non supply justness, regard and equal chance for everyone. In the underdeveloped universe, adult females seldom have any say in the family personal businesss. Men control every facet of their lives and they wholly depend on them as they have no nest eggs or securities of their ain. Womans so experience left out of the mainstream society and are the victims of favoritism giving a rise to domestic force. Many kids who are direct victims of, or informant to such force become angry and full of fury and become felons themselves. ( Flannery Jr, 1999 ) Early on childhood Education in developing universe context In developing states, over half a billion kids that is about 40 % of developing universe, battle to last on less than $ 1 per twenty-four hours. A Countless kids are forced into labor, armed forces and harlotry. A Poverty, with turning prevalence of struggle and HIV/AIDS pandemic, conveying approximately greater challenges to better the wellbeing of kids in developing states. Many kids younger than 5 old ages in developing states are exposed to multiple hazards, including poorness, malnutrition, hapless wellness, and unexciting place environments, which harmfully affect their cognitive, motor, and socio-emotional development. ( Cho, n.d. ) The negative impact of limited entree to instruction, and its hapless quality, is disproportionately borne by hapless and marginalized kids. For these households, heavy work loads affect every facet of their kids s attention. In a life of crunching poorness, it is non surprising that the most deprived households feel powerless to advance their kids s best developmental and educational involvements. When parents have had small entree to instruction, they frequently underestimate their ability to back up their immature kids s acquisition, linguistic communication and sense of themselves. Verbal interaction is frequently highly limited. Families lasting in poorness tend to concentrate on maintaining kids fed ; the development of physical accomplishments and societal duty. Other developmental spheres such as cognitive, psycho-social, emotional and physical accomplishments are largely neglected and abused. Situation of early childhood instruction in Pakistan Out of the entire primary school age population, 38.2 % of the males and 49.2 % of the females, jointly organizing 43 % of the primary school age population are out of school. Pakistan has the 3rd largest out of school population. ( UNICEF, 2007 ) . Harmonizing to the National Education Census ( 2006 ) out of 227,791 establishments in Pakistan merely 1081 were pre-primary schools i.e. merely 0.5 % of the entire educational establishments of Pakistan. The little proportion of pre primary establishments in Pakistan entails lower registration rates in the primary schools. Soon kids between the age ranges of 1-4 attend schools informally with their siblings and do non inscribe hence falsifying the official statistics of pre-primary instruction in Pakistan. Given the enterprises that the authorities has taken to supply installations to kids, be it under the streamer of the early childhood instruction or primary instruction budget allotment has ever been a major issue. Harmonizing to UNESCO Statistics ( 2005 ) , Pakistan s outgo on primary instruction is negligible as a proportion of its entire outgo. Even though, the financial budget of Pakistan offers merely 3.56 % on instruction does non imply a higher budget allotment for early childhood instruction as it has ever been a low precedence as compared to the other educational ends of Pakistan. Data of educational degree of the Juvenile Prison inmates- Central Jail, Karachi. S.No Education degree No of Children 1 No schooling 56 2 Pre-School 0 3 Class I- V 52 4 Class V-VIII 12 5 Class VIII-X 0 6 Class X-XII 3 A Entire 123 The above information has been collected from the Juvenile prison, Central Jail, Karachi ( Pakistan ) . A sum of 123 kids are in the prison of age group 15-18. Out of which 56 i.e. 46 per centum of the wrongdoers have neer taken any signifier of instruction. None of the kids have undergone pre-schooling. A sum of 52 kids i.e. 42 per centum of the kids belonged to the scope of category I to V, 10 per centum of the kids have undergone instruction from Class V-VIII whereas none of the kids belong to the instruction degree group of VIII-X and merely 2 per centum of the kids have completed their higher secondary i.e. up to Class XII. Harmonizing to the Superintended Police, YOIS Central Jail, Karachi, Pakistan about all the kids in the Juvenile Prison belong to poverty ridden households. Most of the kids are those who have been thrown out of their houses and neglected by their households ; are drug nuts and even if they have attained any signifier of instruction which is depicted in the informations above it lacks quality. He believes that the cause for the condemnable activities by these immature kids is poorness, deficiency of household support, unemployment, deficiency of nutrition installations and most significantly deficiency of instruction. In order to heighten kids s accomplishments and cognition after they are released from the prison so that they are able to gain a support independently, he has established and organized assorted educational activities for the kids such as schooling, electrician accomplishments, cement work, plumbing, nursing, tailoring, computing machine accomplishments etc. Out of the 123 kids in the Juvenile Prison 79 kids go to school in the prison, 5 kids are involved in larning electrician accomplishments, 16 kids are larning plumbing accomplishments, 10 kids are larning cement work, 4 kids are larning orienting accomplishments and 8 kids are larning computing machine. There is no budget allocated for these activities from the authorities of Pakistan and these activities are carried out by the aid of NGOs. Since, we have unable to command the condemnable activities outside it is of import that we provide them such an ambiance in the prison so that when they are released they are able to go better citizens of the state and in order to heighten this a focal point is given on physical, moral and societal development of kids by supplying them instruction in the prison. ( Aman, 2011 ) Narratives from the Juvenile prison inmates in Karachi, Pakistan Case Study 1 Amir Ali is a 15 twelvemonth old male child, who lives in Hazrat Bilal Colony, a little town in the metropolis of Karachi. Harmonizing to him he attended school from category I to category VI but did non retrieve anything from school as it has been 3-4 old ages since he left school. He was convicted for the instance of nobbling for ransom with his equals. The equals instigated him towards this behavior and he got a quarry to the bad company. It was need for money that farther prompted him to affect himself in robbery and stealing since there were no employment chances and poorness was at its extremum. He farther added that through instruction he could hold gotten work and be a respectable citizen of the society. He is acquiring vocational preparation in the prison where he is larning electrician accomplishments and believes that when he gets out of the prison he will be able to acquire himself work and gain a life for himself and the household. Case Study 2 Javed is a 14 twelvemonth old male child life in Banaras, Badshah Khan Chowk, a little town in Karachi, Pakistan. He has been convicted for the instance of auto larceny. Javed has neer attained any instruction. Due to the drab and baleful school environment he was neer interested in it and would ever roll on the streets with his equals. His parents did non even take involvement in his instruction and neer questioned him about his enterprises as they were busy in run intoing the basic necessities of household members. He is merely able to compose his name in Urdu linguistic communication. He is besides involved in taking drugs and would make robbery and stealing so that with the money he is able to acquire his drug supply. He is acquiring instruction in the prison and harmonizing to him since there is no other activity in the prison, he attends school. He is besides larning cement work so that when he goes out of the gaol, he is able to gain a life and be a assisting manus for the household. Case Study 3 Rehman is a 16 twelvemonth old male child who lives in Chanasa Goth, Mamdabad ; a little town in Karachi. He has been convicted for the instance of slaying which harmonizing to him he has non committed but his equals has but since they all lived in the same settlement ; the constabulary arrested all of them present at the topographic point of slaying. He has neer attended any school because the household income was non plenty to back up the life therefore he had to work from an early age as a drudge. His equals were involved in assorted condemnable activities and they would besides affect him and because of poorness he would yield to it. In the prison he is larning electrician accomplishments and besides acquiring instruction. He has realized that gaol is non a good topographic point. At least when he is place, he is at peace even if he is gaining a minimum sum of money for his life. Key ways in which early childhood programme affect both juvenile and grownup offense Role of environment and quality schooling Quality schooling ensures better larning chances for kids and contributes positively to kids s larning outcomes. Positive and contributing environment helps greatly in the growing and development of a kid. Poor environment may bring forth serious maladjustments in a individual and these may finally take to destructive inclinations, delinquency etc. ( Gupta, 2009 ) . Early childhood development programmes aim to supply holistic course of study, active acquisition and rich stimulating environment. High/Scope attack, one of the ECD methodological analysiss, places a strong accent on the layout of the pre-school and supplying appropriate stuff to enable kids to do picks and determinations and research the universe through those experiences. Harmonizing to Dr Weikart, In the High/Scope attack to early childhood instruction, grownups and kids portion control. We recognize that the power to larn resides in the kid, therefore the focal point on active acquisition patterns. When we accept that larning comes from within, we achieve a critical balance in educating immature kids. Active larning depends on adult-child interaction and grownups play a consistent function in back uping their kid s acquisition. ( Pound, 2005 ) Role of households and communities in early childhood instruction Parent s part to the early childhood instruction contributes to a smooth passage in farther schooling and engagement in their kid s hereafter. When households are involved in their kids s early childhood instruction, kids may see greater success once they enter simple school ( Miedel A ; Reynolds, 1999 ) . An ideal household is the one which provides a friendly and hospitable environment conducive to the proper development of kid s emotions and abilities. The consequence of place environment therefore has a permanent influence on the developing personality of the kid. Parent s instruction degree particularly that of female parent is a preditor of the degree of quality attention and instruction kids will finally have. Early childhood development programmes recognize the function of households resourcefulness in raising their kids and stressing their function as their kids s first and most of import instructors. ( Gupta, 2009 ) . Research supports the belief that high-quality instruc tion can non be without parental engagement. Studies show that parental engagement in acquisition has a positive impact on pupil accomplishment, while cut downing the dropout rate. In add-on, at schools where parental engagement is high, the achievement degree of all pupils in the school improves ( Carey, Lewis, A ; Farris, 1998 ) . Poor place conditions, broken households, cruel intervention, friendlessness etc are likely to bring forth cardinal alterations in a individual and such want by households and communites in the early old ages can hold serious reverberations on the development of kid s personality in the ulterior old ages. Female instruction and employment chances The gender spread in Pakistan suggests that the state has foregone a great chance by non capitalising on the big rates of return of female schooling on economic productiveness therefore losing the economic chances that have been exploited by many developing states by increasing instruction entree for the majority therefore heightening their family incomes and cut downing poorness ( Hussain, 2005 ) . Early childhood development programmes references gender issues at multiple degrees through advancing entree to instruction for misss, community mobilisation in support of attention and instruction for misss and rearing programmes which build s female parents assurance and accomplishments so that they are able to take better determinations for their kid and involve themselves in assorted preparation activities to bring forth employment chances. Developing linkages with the authorities There has been a concern in Pakistan about the low literacy rate and hapless quality instruction. The instruction sector has been neglected over the old ages although consecutive authoritiess have repeatedly stressed the importance of instruction in their planning and scheme. Early childhood instruction in Pakistan has ever remained a low precedence for the authorities. Early on childhood intercession brings the parents and communities together to further their kids s development by developing capacities to joint local authorities and NGOs. The authorities section lacks a amalgamate undertaking force that caters to the early childhood development, therefore early childhood development programmes aim to set up linkages between changing authorities sections i.e. ministry of instruction, ministry of adult females development, ministry of kids personal businesss providing to different facets of mark age groups of the ECD so that a important work can be done for kids s instruction, rights and protection. Let go ofing Assurance and Creativity: An Early Childhood Development Programme The Releasing Confidence and Creativity Programme seek to guarantee a good start in life for immature kids in Pakistan. It is chiefly concerned with bettering the quality and handiness of early childhood development ( ECD ) programmes, particularly for hapless and marginalized kids age 0 to 8 old ages. The RCC programme works on multiple degrees beef uping quality proviso for immature kids in schools, communities and households, every bit good as edifice capacity and commiting committedness at territory and national degrees. In order to concentrate on the betterment of the abilities of households and communities to efficaciously back up their kids s early development, RCC has developed an ECD system through networking ; certification ; research ; airing and protagonism. RCC under the umbrella of AKES, P is back uping 95 extremist hapless community based, authorities and Aga Khan Schools in the states of KPK, Sindh and GB in Pakistan. The RCC programme s aims focuses on spread outing entree and bettering the quality of instruction and earning in ECD categories, increasing miss kid registration, helping households and communities to increase their cognition and accomplishments towards ECD ; constructing stakeholders capacity in instruction system and beef up ECD larning webs. Results In order to accomplish the above mentioned aims, the cardinal results of the RCC programme are as under: Improved learning environment and quality schooling The RCC schools provides developmentally appropriate, vivacious and fostering larning environments in all its ECD categories which starts from Pr-Nursery to category II that entail the age group of 3 old ages and above boulder clay age eight. The RCC schoolrooms ambiances are attractive, welcoming and posses age appropriate and synergistic shows and larning stuff. Through this acquisition environment, the registration ratio has increased enormously. Since the beginning of RCC programme the entire registration was 1872 in 2006 and now it has increased to a sum of 22842 in 2010. RCC programme besides focus on improved pedagogical accomplishments of instructors so that they are better equipped to efficaciously be after lessons and utilize more synergistic, activity based instruction methodological analysiss. The instructors pattern High-Scope learning methodological analysis in their schoolrooms as this attack was initiated and proved effectual in the extremist hapless community to back up kids s larning with low cost and no cost stuff. RCC squad members comprised of maestro trainers are educationally well-qualified and contextually experienced every bit good as are professionally developed in ECD. Nevertheless, every twelvemonth, one cohort of RCC school instructors are imparted with structured preparation programme and at the same time they are provided ongoing field based support through strict monitoring and refresher programmes. It is apparent that since 2006 the RCC programme has professionally developed 1693 instructors of category ECD I-IV. The follow ing table depicts the dislocation of the donees of instructor preparation programmes. Courses Institution No of Beneficiaries Advance Diploma in Leadership and Management AKU-IED 1 Advance Diploma in ECD AKU-HDP 13 ECED Certificate Course AKU-IED 36 Tailor made classs on ECED AKU-IED 36 Teachers Training on ECD-New Batch AKES, P 684 Teachers Training, Refresher Course AKES, P 591 Other Training Programs IED/HDP/AKES, P 332 The impact of the improved pedagogical accomplishments of instructors is that all the RCC-ECD schoolrooms are activity based with more confident, originative and caring kids. Besides, their faculty members, the practical cognition of life accomplishments are every bit emphasised. Children collaboratively works in groups, confidently presents their undertakings and positively review with justifications. Therefore job resolution, creativeness and brooding pattern is obviously seeable in the categories. In add-on to their cognitive and physical development, their other of import development sphere such as societal, emotional and moral development is besides determined. Improved parents and community engagement in early childhood development As mentioned above, the households play an of import function in the holistic development of their kids. RCC works to act upon the environments impacting the kid, household, community, school and policy ; hence they are supportive of immature kids s overall development. Before the intercession of the RCC programmatic activities, the communities baseline information was collected through a study. The inquiries raised during the BSL study determined the already possessed early childhood development cognition and accomplishments of parents and communities. Its consequences showed that the RCC communities before the programmatic intercession were least concerned of their kids. Their kids were left with neighbors or with the senior siblings. Children were neer keen to go to the school because of the unfriendly and baleful environment by the instructors and school governments. In order to acquire best consequences of the RCC programme s activities, households and communities were convince d and involved in the school activities. RCC programme initiated its pilot programme for the kids from pre-natal boulder clay age three. In this class, five communities with about 150-200 households are selected for programme intercession. All the mothers/fathers of kids below age three every bit good as anticipant female parents are enrolled in the programme. The female parents are invited to go to a Centre based Sessionss on the effectual raising and lovingness patterns and how to turn to the ECD issues and jobs predominating in the communities. Concurrently, place based visits are paid by the programme squad to supervise and advice female parents on ECD patterns at place. Sessions for striplings and elder siblings of the participant kids are besides organized so that they can show ability to recommend and back up immature siblings and their households as future parents even after the undertaking ends. Hence, the programme provides positive counsel that supports cognitive, physical, societal, moral, emotional and lingual development and the growing of emotional intelligence. Simultaneously, through the RCC programme s consciousness Sessionss for parents, the accomplishments and assurance of health professionals to back up their babes and immature kids is enhanced. Community-based ECD services ( in a community Centre, a school, a wellness Centre and through community mobilizers and teacher pedagogues ) provides support for parents to obtain advice and aid on a scope of wellness, nutrition, development subjects, or they come together for rearing Sessionss, informal playgroups, etc. These awareness Sessionss are conducted in the school premises where all the community members are invited. As the rural communities do non pay much heed to the importance of early childhood development therefore they do non affect themselves in the school activities. RCC focal point on developing dealingss between school and parents/communities in order to obtain maximal parental quality clip for their kids s emotional, societal and moral development and the sustain the progra mmatic activities after the phase-out of the programme. Hence, the programme aims to guarantee that kids are ready for school and schools are ready for kids. As the RCC parents and community members are non financially stable and literate therefore paying their kids s school fees and helping them in their surveies was upseting and disputing for them. In order to undertake with such state of affairs, RCC initiated Adult Literacy Centre ( ALC ) and entrepreneur skill enhancement Sessionss for them. Through these preparation programmes, at present about 880 parents have completed their progress class of the ALC and 228 figure of female parents have learnt sewing, embellishment and other accomplishments Improved and strengthened linkages amongst ECD practicians and organisation In order to prolong the programmatic activities in the communities, the RCC programme strengthened its linkages with authorities functionaries and community representatives through circulating its best patterns and lessons learnt for more consciousness and protagonism among the stakeholders. A cardinal accent in fiting authorities opposite numbers to encompass and take ownership of ECD attempts encourage mainstreaming and scaling up of the attacks used in RCC. RCC has been unusually successful in set uping a existent community of acquisition and a vivacious web of spouses. The accent is on go oning this close partnership and progressively conveying others into the web so that RCC s interaction with authorities, givers and other organisations continually increases in a more systematic manner. This would develop a pool of interlinked reciprocally supportive spouses that have programmes/material/ courses/ information to back up ECD. The programme besides undertakes surveies and research to better inform decision-makers sing costs and options. Careful attending is given to the quality of everyday monitoring and specific surveies which track alteration over clip. Recommendations Childs are the investing of any state for its hereafter ; nevertheless research has proved that the poorness ridden kids suffer from the twenty-four hours they are born. Similarly, in Pakistan most of the households are below the poorness line hence could non afford the basic necessities such as nutrient, clean H2O, basic vesture and shelter, hence most of these households kids are turned into felons. In order to construct a strong hereafter by puting in our hereafter coevals, the undermentioned points are recommended for instructors, parents, community members and authorities functionaries of Pakistan. Early on childhood instruction and development demands to be exhaustively recognized in the instruction system of Pakistan. Schools should be well-equipped with the ECD installations and should supply a welcoming environment to pull the immature coevals towards school to go to it and extinguish bead out instances. Simultaneously, instructors should be good qualified and professionally developed with high morale to learn in the ECD categories and finally command delinquency. S/he should determine an active acquisition environment with custodies on experience activities in the ECD schoolroom. Children need to be pragmatically educated to obey Torahs and concentrate on disciplinary bar. The household serves as most influential substance in child life from which s/he gets the thought of society, beliefs, values and norms. Child s early experiences are determined by the household therefore parents should be really careful of their kids s holistic development. Parents should guarantee that they spend choice clip with their kids. Their friend circle and comrades should be supervised in order to avoid kids delinquency. Diversion and physical activities are indispensable for kids to supply an mercantile establishment for their physical, societal and emotional energies. Child

A Biography of Roger B. Chaffee, NASA Astronaut

A Biography of Roger B. Chaffee, NASA Astronaut Roger Bruce Chaffee was born on February 15, 1935. His parents were Donald L. Chaffee and Blanche May Chaffee. He grew up with an older sister in Greenville, Michigan until the age of 7 when the family relocated to Grand Rapids for Donald Chaffees job with the Army. Fast Facts: Roger B. Chaffee Name: Roger Bruce ChaffeeBorn: February 15, 1935 in Grand Rapids, MIDied: January 27, 1967, in the Apollo 1 fire at Kennedy Space CenterParents: Donald Lynn Chaffee, Blanche May ChaffeeSpouse: Martha L. HornChildren: Sheryl Lyn and Stephen.Career: Served in the Navy until his selection as a NASA astronaut in 1963  Education: Air Force Institute of Technology, Purdue UniversityHonors: Congressional Medal of Honor and Navy Air Medal (both posthumous) Chaffee entered the Illinois Institute of Technology as a Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) candidate and transferred to Purdue University in 1954, where he studied aeronautical engineering. While there, he entered flight training and qualified as an aviator. Upon graduation, Chaffee finished his Navy training and entered the service as an ensign. He married Martha Louise Horn in 1957 and they had two children. While in the Navy, Chaffee continued flight training in Florida, first at Pensacola and later at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville. Throughout his time there, he logged 2,300 hours of flight time, with much of that occurring in jet aircraft. He was awarded a Navy Air Medal for his work in photographic reconnaissance during his Navy career. Chaffees Career at NASA Early in 1962, Roger Chaffee applied to the NASA astronaut program. Accepted initially, he worked on a masters degree at the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson in Ohio while waiting for the final determination. Chaffees area of study was in reliability engineering, and while there he also continued adding to his flight log. In 1963 he was selected as an astronaut and began training as part of the third group of astronauts ever chosen.   Portrait of Astronaut Roger B. Chaffee. NASA Johnson Space Center (NASA-JSC) Chaffee was assigned to the Gemini program and worked as the capsule communications specialist (CAP com) for Gemini 4. He worked on deep space instrumentation equipment and its use. While he never flew a Gemini mission, he was an essential part of the team. Eventually, Chaffee was assigned to Apollo 1, which was then called AS-204 (for Apollo-Saturn). It was scheduled to fly early in 1967.   The crew of Apollo 1 at Launch Complex 34, Virgil I. Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. NASA The Apollo 1 Mission The Apollo program was the series of flights that would eventually lead to astronauts landing on the Moon. For the first mission, the astronauts would test all the spacecraft systems, along with ground-based facilities for tracking and communications. Chaffee, who was familiar with all the Gemini systems, began training with the Apollo engineers in order to understand the capsules capabilities. This included a long series of simulations that led up to what the team called a plugs-out countdown demonstration. This simulation included the astronauts being fully suited up and in the capsule as if it were in flight configuration. This took place on January 27, 1967, and Chaffees role on the mission would be as chief communications expert with the engineers and team members in the mission blockhouse.   All went well until several hours into the mission, when a power surge created an electrical short inside the capsule. That ignited a fire in the capsule materials. The blaze was so intense and hot that it overcame the astronauts while they were trying to escape. Roger Bruce Chaffee and his teammates Gus Grissom and Edward White were all killed in the space of a minute. Later investigation showed that the bare wires and the oxygen-rich atmosphere inside the capsule contributed to the strength of the blaze. It was a huge loss for the space program and focused the nations attention on astronauts and the dangers they face, leading to a major revamp of the capsule interior and hatch for future missions. Apollo 1 and the aftermath of the fire. NASA Headquarters - GReatest Images of NASA (NASA-HQ-GRIN) Honors for Roger Chaffee Roger Chaffee was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, along with teammate Gus Grissom. Edward White was buried at West Point.  Chaffee was honored with a second Air Medal by the Navy after his death, along with the Congressional Medal of Honor. He is memorialized in the International Space Hall of Fame in Alamogordo, NM, as well as the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in Florida. His name appears on a school, a planetarium, and other facilities, and there is a statue of him in Grand Rapids at the Childrens Museum.   Sources NASA, NASA, www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/chaffee-rb.html.NASA, NASA, history.nasa.gov/Apollo204/zorn/chaffee.htm.Voskhod 2, www.astronautix.com/c/chaffee.html.

Key Terms Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Key Terms - Assignment Example Ecological model is defined as an abstract in mathematical representation of an ecological system, which is studied to understand the actual system. They are formed by a combination of ecological relations and the gathered data in the fields. Family centered model is a way of working with both formal families and informal families across the systems of service to enhance their capacity to care and protect the children in their families as well as recognize the value of women’s employment. Family empowerment is defined a process by which the families access knowledge, skills and resources that help them to gain positive control of their lives as well and improve the quality of their life-styles High incidence disabilities are children who have different education needs and styles. They have communication disorders, mild mental retardation, and specific learning disabilities including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Individualize education program is a mandated program by Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that gives opportunities to teachers, parents, school administrators, and students to work together and improve educational results for children with disabilities. Low-incidence disabilities are students who are characterized by blindness, low vision, deafness, hard-of-hearing, development delay, complex health issues, serious physical impairment, multiple disability and autism. Academic aptitude are those students who have potential to demonstrate exceptional strength in a specific area if academics. They have exceptional ability in one or more subject areas, that they performing beyond the norm for their age group. Continuum of Service is the range of placements, programs and services available for exceptional special needs of a student including regular classroom, to part time withdrawal to self-contained

Business Enterprise Proposition Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Business Enterprise Proposition - Essay Example Maintaining the health has become the major necessity. Many professional health centers are opened to guide the health conscious people about the proper exercises and proper and healthy diet. In short this service is really very money-spinning. This is the reason we are planning to start a Health Club â€Å"La Bella Health Club.† The health club is concentrating a particular market segment and that is the women or female customers. Health club is the need of the people especially who are living in urban area. In these days the people work before the computer for more than eight hours. The office job generally is sitting job. So it causes lots of negative impact on the physical health. They have to watch the computer screen and it can damage their eyes. It can result into many physical problems such as obesity, spondylitis, vertigo and many more. For women especially the major problem is hormonal changes. In such situation people are inclined to start regular Gym activities to maintain their health. The goals of this health care centre are long term goals. So the strategies are based on the achievement of long term goals. So it is necessary for the business to establish its brand in the market. For this the following activities will be performed. The online registration for membership will also be available. The website will also be the major part of our promotional activity and so our IT team will take strong efforts to make it attractive as much as possible. The facilities consist of regular Gymnasium, Cardio, Aerobics, Yoga, Swimming, and weight loss package, steam and massage. The latest technologies will be used in our health club; among them is Power Plate Machine, Treadmill, Croos Trianer, Recumbent bike, coach rower and many more. Very spacious premises of around 6000 sq ft will be available. A special circuit program of 30 minutes will be arranged for the women. In this program we will provide high standard circuit series

Nitrogen Oxide as an Environmental Pollution Essay

Nitrogen Oxide as an Environmental Pollution - Essay Example with the first section covers the common nitrogen oxides, followed by the sources and potential sinks in the environment, then the chemical behaviour of these oxides, the impacts on human and ecosystem, and finally the prevention and control of these pollutants. Nitrogen oxides mainly consist of nitrogen and oxygen, and the most common nitrogen oxides are nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) (Farmer 2013, p.26; Harrison 2001, p.179). Notably, nitrous oxide and nitrogen dioxide are emitted when nitrogen reacts with oxygen in the air during combustion at high temperatures and this shows that the amount of nitrogen oxides produced depends on temperature of combustion. Another nitrogen oxide is nitrous oxide (N2O) which is a greenhouse gas that has a greater impact on climate change. Nitric oxide is a colourless gas with a sharp and sweet smell, but nitrogen dioxide is a colourless gas with a strong, harsh odour. Of the nitrogen oxides emitted, nitric oxides forms the larger part, followed by nitrous oxide then nitrogen dioxide which is produced in low amounts, and also it is important to note that both nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxides does not have prolonged lifespan in the atmosphere as compared to nitrous oxide. Nitrogen oxides are produced naturally but they are as well produced by various human activities including agricultural activities, transportation and industrial processes and many others. In nature, nitrogen oxides are produced because of bacterial processes, biological growth and decay, forest fires (Lippmann 2009, p.823), volcano, and lightening among others (Hill 2010, p.128). Thunderstorms lead to the production of nitric oxide as a result of high heat of lightening released in the process of breaking down nitrogen molecules. On the other hand, burning of fossil fuels is considered the primary source of nitrogen oxides as part of human activities. Transportation fuels when burned produce nitrous oxide and mostly, motor vehicles and trucks

The main competitors of unearthed in the e-commerce sector Research Paper

The main competitors of unearthed in the e-commerce sector - Research Paper Example TCFG usually imports foods from Spain, France, Italy, Hungary and others etc., which are then sold only across UK in the name of Unearthed ® food brand. Nonetheless, the group is determined to launch their food brand in foreign markets through export to Dubai and European nations. It is worthwhile to mention that every business organisation has competitors, either small or large, if it is operational in a monopolistic / oligopolistic industry where competition exists. Since Unearthed is not a natural monopoly across UK; therefore, it also faces competition from UK continental food distributors, private label firms, importers and specialty food manufacturers that have both physical (having retail stores) and online (e-commerce) presence. TCFG, however, argues that does not face cutthroat competition from other domestic food manufacturers, importers and suppliers because of its highly diversified product range (a result of product development, food discovery of owners, innovation and branding). But, it should also be noted that Unearthed also does not enjoy 90% share, which is the evidence that competition exists in the UK retail food industry.

Unemployment in the United States Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Unemployment in the United States - Essay Example The rapid rise in population that outstrips the available resources has been blamed for the unemployment issue in the United States. The government is trying to curb the unemployment through expansion of the economy and creation of more jobs. The problem of unemployment seems to intensify mainly due to the rise in population particularly in urban areas. The expansion of businesses and the direct investment by the government in the entrepreneurship programs tends to do little to eradicate the issue of unemployment. Unemployment tends to magnify during the times of recession or depression characterized by a shrink in the economy. Unemployment remains a tough issue affecting the United States, particularly among the young people. There is a large number of learned people in the United States but they hardly secure a job due to the scarcity of employment opportunities. According to the BLS household survey (2015), “the US unemployment rate rose by 0.2 percentage points in June 2015 to 5.3%. Unemployment has remained relatively high since 2009 and this is causing a huge setback to economic growth in the country. Companies have been adopting technology thus doing away with the relatively costly human labor. The rise of technology like completers has replaced human labor thus laying off the workers (Harvey 15). The issue of unemployment will continue to inflict the United States’ economy due to the uncontrolled adoption of technology.

The main competitors of unearthed in the e-commerce sector Research Paper

The main competitors of unearthed in the e-commerce sector - Research Paper Example TCFG usually imports foods from Spain, France, Italy, Hungary and others etc., which are then sold only across UK in the name of Unearthed ® food brand. Nonetheless, the group is determined to launch their food brand in foreign markets through export to Dubai and European nations. It is worthwhile to mention that every business organisation has competitors, either small or large, if it is operational in a monopolistic / oligopolistic industry where competition exists. Since Unearthed is not a natural monopoly across UK; therefore, it also faces competition from UK continental food distributors, private label firms, importers and specialty food manufacturers that have both physical (having retail stores) and online (e-commerce) presence. TCFG, however, argues that does not face cutthroat competition from other domestic food manufacturers, importers and suppliers because of its highly diversified product range (a result of product development, food discovery of owners, innovation and branding). But, it should also be noted that Unearthed also does not enjoy 90% share, which is the evidence that competition exists in the UK retail food industry.

Old Man Coyote Makes the World- Crow Story -American Indian Myths and Essay

Old Man Coyote Makes the World- Crow Story -American Indian Myths and Legends - Essay Example This channel of communication and mutual understanding was evident from the very beginning of the story where Old Man Coyote wanted someone to talk to rather than someone to rule over. In his discourse with the ducks, He sought their advice rather than impose his own will upon them. Additionally, Old Man Coyote is not the all knowing creator which is commonly presented in western mythos since he does not know if there is anything in the world other than water, he does not even know that ducks can stay underwater for a long period of time. The image of the creator matches the idea of a very powerful being, but the being is not all knowing. Moreover, Old Man Coyote is not very well acquainted with many different ideas of society and social existence which were taught to him by other creatures. For instance, he does not understand war or the need for was as a social conflict that allows certain problems to be settled once and for all or as a means to improve a person’s social standing. Cirape is the character which comes across as the individual which has the wisdom of a god but does not have the strength to put his thoughts into action. Finally, the relationship which the creator animal has with other animals brings about an image of a united family since the characters address each other as younger and elder brothers. The image of family is essential to the progress of the storyline since even characters that are not cooperative and act in hostility are not killed off or banished. The case of the Bear is a predominant one since his rebellion does not take him to hell; rather he is supposed to hibernate for the winter months while the other animals can stay awake. In conclusion, the creation story of the native American mythology is an interesting work since it does give significant insights into native American culture as well as the relationships that a society should have as a result of following that particular culture. Of course

Deadly Compassion Essay Example for Free

Deadly Compassion Essay Euthanasia means good death. It must not be misunderstood to mean simply killing he elderly. The purpose of euthanasia is to relieve the terrible suffering and pain of a terminally ill person with an incurable disease. The cause of euthanasia is compassion. Deadly Compassion There are many ways to euthanize. Some of the more common ways in the recent past: * Suffocation with a plastic bag, most of the time (but not all of the time) drugging the patient first. * Gassing them to death with carbon monoxide: not even approved for putting down a dog or executing a convicted murderer * Lethal injection, but families are not usually allowed to watch because of what the cool poison does to a person as it slides down the bloodstream. True, many people experience pain, pain that I could not imagine. But at twelve years of age, I watched as cancer ravaged my fathers body. He died from advanced stage malignant melanoma, using the selfless care of hospice workers and the anesthetic effects of morphine to die with true dignity. Termanally ill patients DO NOT have to die a painful death. Modern technology has made the passing of millions much less painless than anytime in the past. Proponents of euthanasia exploit our natural fear of an excruciating death by ignoring this technology. This deadly compassion will end up giving the Grim Reaper one more tool, and in the hands of greedy relatives, uncaring doctors, and less-than-thorough legislatures, the choas demonstrated in the Netherlands will be mirrored in every country that gives doctors the power to end their patients lives. The causes of euthanasia are a desire to end suffering and the viewpoint of having mercy on the suffering person by ending his or her life. Euthanasia is when a person is assisted in suicide because he or she can no longer stand the suffering that he or she is incurring. Proponents for euthanasia believe that it is a merciful and humane way to end life, instead of watching someone suffer. Opponents to euthanasia believe that peoples lives should be respected to natural death and should not be taken prematurely. Euthanasia is assisted suicide. In animals, it is often referred to as putting to sleep. For people, it is a crime. Im not sure what causes of euthanasia would be, exactly, since it isnt a disease but rather an action. Someone would commit euthanasia, or help someone commit suicide, if that person were sick or dying. A famous example of this was Dr. Kevorkian. For animals, euthanasia happens when animals are sick or if an animal shelter has too many animals to care for. The ef fect of euthanasia is death. Euthanasia is a desperate act that comes in many forms according to the definitions below. Consider the motifs when considering causes. Each case has its own circumstances and many ethical, moral, and legal considerations are taken into account. The purpose is to relieve suffering of an individual or animal and a difficult judgement is at stake. There are many controversial issues in regard to religion also. Euthanasia: the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit. (The key word here is intentional. If death is not intended, it is not an act of euthanasia) Voluntary euthanasia: When the person who is killed has requested to be killed. Non-voluntary: When the person who is killed made no request and gave no consent. Involuntary euthanasia: When the person who is killed made an expressed wish to the contrary. Assisted suicide: Someone provides an individual with the information, guidance, and means to take his or her own life with the intention that they will be used for this purpose. When it is a doctor who helps another person to kill themselves it is called physician assisted suicide. Euthanasia By Action: Intentionally causing a persons death by performing an action such as by giving a lethal injection. Euthanasia By Omission: Intentionally causing death by not providing necessary and ordinary (usual and customary) care or food and water.

Besseren lösungen für detaillierte problemfelder

Besseren là ¶sungen fà ¼r detaillierte problemfelder 1 Grundlagen des Benchmarking Benchmarking (BM) ist, in Ergà ¤nzung zum klassischen Unternehmensvergleich, durch das systematische Suchen nach rationellen Vorgehensweisen und besseren Là ¶sungen fà ¼r detaillierte Problemfelder und Prozesse außerhalb der „eigenen Welt bzw. der eigenen Branche gekennzeichnet. Nicht die Unterschiede zu anderen Unternehmen sind beim Benchmarking der Schwerpunkt der Untersuchung, sondern die gezielte Identifikation der besten Praktiken, mit denen à ¼berdurchschnittliche Wettbewerbspotentiale zu erreichen sind. Benchmarking wird entscheidend durch folgende Frage charakterisiert: „Warum machen es andere besser und was kà ¶nnen wir daraus lernen? Der Beweis der Durchfà ¼hrbarkeit neuer Ideen durch ihre tà ¤gliche Anwendung in anderen Unternehmen und die damit verbundene Motivation der eigenen Mitarbeiter ist ein wesentlicher Bestandteil des Benchmarking. Erst der Blick à ¼ber den eigenen Tellerrand ermà ¶glicht Leistungssprà ¼nge um Grà ¶ÃƒÅ¸enordnungen. Damit erweist sich Benchmarking als ein Instrument zur Leistungssteigerung fà ¼r Unternehmen aus allen Branchen und gewinnt unter den Managementtechniken immer mehr an Bedeutung. Die flexiblen Einsatzmà ¶glichkeiten als „Werkzeug um verkrustete Unternehmensstrukturen aufzudecken oder als Instrument zum Aufzeigen der Optimierungsmà ¶glichkeiten von Geschà ¤ftsprozessen bis hin zur Entscheidungsunterstà ¼tzung bei Fragen der strategischen Ausrichtung machen das Benchmarking wertvoll. Benchmarking darf jedoch nicht als das Wundermittel zur Steigerung der eigenen Wettbewerbsfà ¤higkeit verstanden werden, denn insbesondere klein- und mittelgroße Unternehmen haben noch Schwierigkeiten bei der praktischen Umsetzung des Benchmarking. Das Neue des Benchmarking liegt im branchenà ¼bergreifenden Vergleich mit den Besten und dem Setzen von Maßstà ¤ben fà ¼r das eigene Unternehmen. Die Vorgehensweise des Benchmarking integriert dabei vorhandene Managementmethoden und bringt erst durch eine konsequente, ganzheitliche und kontinuierliche Anwendung den gewà ¼nschten Erfolg. Verschiedene Voraussetzungen sind dazu allerdings erforderlich (siehe Abb. 1): 1.1 Definition Benchmarking ist ein kontinuierlicher Prozeß, bei dem Produkte, Dienstleistungen und insbesondere Methoden betrieblicher Funktionen à ¼ber mehrere Unternehmen hinweg verglichen werden. Dabei sollen die Unterschiede zu anderen Unternehmen offengelegt, die Ursachen fà ¼r die Unterschiede und Mà ¶glichkeiten zur Verbesserung ermittelt werden. Der Vergleich findet dabei zu Unternehmen statt, welche die zu untersuchenden Methoden oder Prozesse hervorragend beherrschen. Diese Unternehmen werden dabei oft als „Klassenbeste best in class bezeichnet. (Vgl. Camp 1989, S.19). 1.2 Ziele des Benchmarking Benchmarking ist an erster Stelle ein Zielsetzungsprozeß. Aber, und das ist wichtiger, es ist ein Mittel, die Praktiken, die zum Erreichen neuer Ziele nà ¶tig sind, zu entdecken und zu verstehen. Diese sind wahrscheinlich das wichtigste und grundlegende Resultat des Benchmarking. Neben dem grundsà ¤tzlichen Ziel des Benchmarking, Vorgaben zu setzen, ist der motivierende Wert ebenfalls erheblich. Wenn Bechmarking voll integriert wird in die Verantwortlichkeiten, Arbeitsprozesse und das Vergà ¼tungssystem, wird die Organisation willens und fà ¤hig, sich aus eigenem Antrieb in Richtung realistischer Ziele zu bewegen und existierende Arbeitspraktiken zu à ¤ndern. Sie wird Maßnahmen ergreifen und Verà ¤nderungen herbeifà ¼hren, die sonst hà ¤tten diktiert werden mà ¼ssen. (Vgl. Camp 1994, S. 34). Benchmarking kann sich dabei auf verschiedene Objekte beziehen (siehe Abb.:2) 1.3 Nutzen des Benchmarking Es gibt viele Wege, den Nutzen zu beschreiben, der aus Bechmarking gezogen werden kann. Der wesentliche Vorteil wird abgeleitet von der Erfà ¼llung von Kundenwà ¼nschen, dem Setzen von Zielen, dem Messen der tatsà ¤chlichen Produktività ¤t, dem Erlangen der Wettbewerbsfà ¤higkeit und dem Sicherstellen, daß die besten Praktiken in den Arbeitsprozeß einbezogen sind. Es kann dabei prinzipiell ein direkter und ein indirekter Nutzen identifiziert werden (siehe Abb.: 3 und 4). 1.4 Entwicklung des Benchmarking 1.4.1 Die ersten Benchmarking-Untersuchungen Ganz neu ist der Ansatz des Benchmarking nicht. Zu Beginn dieses Jahrhunderts wurde vom deutschen Milità ¤r die erste bekannte Studie durchgefà ¼hrt. Man hatte erkannt, daß grà ¶ÃƒÅ¸ere Truppenbewegungen sehr zeitaufwendig und kostenintensiv waren. Durch einen Zeitungsbericht erfuhr ein Soldat, daß es in Amerika einen großen Zirkus gibt, der es schaffte, in einer Nacht die Zelte abzubrechen, sà ¤mtliche Gà ¼ter auf die Bahn zu verladen und mit allen Menschen und Tieren per Bahn in die nà ¤chste Stadt aufzubrechen. Diese schier unglaubliche Leistung bewog das Milità ¤r mit einer Gruppe von Experten in die Vereinigten Staaten zu reisen um sich vor Ort ein Bild von diesem Vorgang zu machen. Es zeigte sich, daß der Zirkus neben einer kompetenten Logistikabteilung spezielle Fahrzeuge entwickelt hatte. Mit diesem Wissen konnte, zurà ¼ck in der Heimat, eine signifikante Verbesserung der Truppenbewegung umgesetzt werden. Die Einfà ¼hrung der ersten Fließbà ¤nder in der Automobilindustrie im Jahre 1916 ist ein weiteres Beispiel der frà ¼hen Anwendung von Bechmarking. Inspiriert durch Besuche einer Großschlachterei in Chicago, wo Schweinehà ¤lften an einer Hà ¤ngebahn von Arbeitsplatz zu Arbeitsplatz transportiert wurden, fà ¼hrte Henry Ford das Fließband in der Automobilindustrie ein. Das Kanban-System stellt ebenfalls eine à ¼bertragung eines Prinzips aus einer anderen Branche dar. Durch das Studium der Organisation amerikanischer Supermarktketten und hier insbesondere das Nachfà ¼llen der Regale entwickelte sich bei Toyota das Prinzip der Kanban-Karten, das heute in vielen Brachen Verbreitung gefunden hat. 1.4.2 Die Prà ¤gung des Begriffs durch Xerox Der Begriff Benchmarking wurde von Xerox im Jahr 1979 geprà ¤gt. Zu dieser Zeit stellte Xerox fest, daß die japanische Konkurrenz Kopierer zu einem Preis verkaufte, der unter den Produktionskosten bei Xerox lag. Xerox startete daraufhin im Fertigungsbereich ein marktbezogenes Benchmarking, das sogenannte Competitive Benchmarking. Die auf dem Markt befindlichen Kopierer wurden hinsichtlich Herstellungskosten, Design und anderer Merkmale studiert und analysiert. Aus diesem Vorgehen wurden neue radikale Ziele abgeleitet. Aufgrund des Erfolges in der Fertigung bestimmte das Management 1981, daß Benchmarking von allen Geschà ¤ftsbereichen durchzufà ¼hren sei. Noch im gleichen Jahr wurde ein branchenà ¼bergreifendes Benchmarking-Projekt in den Bereichen Logistik und Distribution durchgefà ¼hrt. Dies lieferte den endgà ¼ltigen Beweis, daß Benchmarking auch auf Geschà ¤ftsprozesse außerhalb der Produktion à ¼bertragbar ist und Benchmarking-Partner nicht aus der gleichen B ranche stammen mà ¼ssen. Besonders bemerkenswert, blickt man auf den Zeitpunkt Ende der 70er, Anfang der 80er Jahre, ist die Betrachtungsweise von Benchmarking als kontinuierlicher Prozeß. Dies ist eines der wesentlichen Probleme der Praxis. Wichtig ist, schon an dieser Stelle festzuhalten: Industrielle Prozesse unterliegen einem steten Wandel. Immer neue Verà ¤nderungen, Verbesserungen mà ¼ssen dokumentiert und eventuell in einen Benchmarking-Prozeß eingebunden werden. Eine einmalige, Im Hauruck-Verfahren durchgezogene Benchmarking-Aktion kann nicht erfolgreich sein. Robert C. Camp, Benchmarking-Projektleiter bei Xerox bemerkt dazu fast lapidar: „Verfahren mà ¼ssen kontinuierlich beobachtet werden, um sicher zu gehen, daß die wirklich besten ihrer Art ermittelt werden. Ausschließlich jene Unternehmen, die Benchmarking diszipliniert betreiben, werden sich hervorragend weiterentwickeln kà ¶nnen. In einer dem stà ¤ndigen Wandel unterworfenen Umwelt ist Selbstgefà ¤lligkeit fatal (Vgl. C amp 1989, S. 10). 1.5 Der Weg zum Benchmarking / Raus aus dem Controlling! Es gibt verschiedene Grà ¼nde weshalb Benchmarking als Hilfsmittel im Management nicht umfassend genutzt wird. Einer davon ist, daß Benchmarking funktional nicht zugeordnet werden kann. Als Basisinstrument hat es genauso eine Daseinsberechtigung in den Beschaffungs- und den Produktionsbereichen wie im strategischen Marketing oder in der Vertriebslogistik. In der Vergangenheit, war in der Betriebswirtschaft eine fortschreitende Trennung der Funktionalbereiche und ihrer Methodik zu verfolgen. Dies dokumentiert sich bis heute an den Lehrstà ¼hlen europà ¤ischer Wirtschaftshochschulen. Zumindest in Europa entdeckten zuerst die Controller das Hilfsmittel Benchmarking. Diese bereits geà ¼bt im Umgang mit einer Vielzahl von technischen Vergleichswerkzeugen erkannten schnell die Chancen, die die Arbeitstechnik erà ¶ffnete. „Benchmarking ist wichtiger Bestandteil des Instrumentenkastens des zunehmend strategisch orientierten Controllers, schreiben dann auch Horvath und Herter (1992, S.7). Sicher ist es sinnvoll, Benchmarking erst einmal im Controlling anzusiedeln. Der Controller kann anregen, kann Hilfestellungen im Umgang mit verschiedenen Werkzeugen geben, dennoch wird er à ¼ber die nachtrà ¤gliche à ¼berprà ¼fung und Vergleichsrechnung, den Denk- und Kreativprozeß des Benchmarking auf der Management-Schiene nicht ersetzen. Anders als beispielsweise im Target Costing, kann das Controlling sinnvolles Benchmarking nur anregen, stimulieren, nicht jedoch konkrete Zielvorgaben bereitstellen, an denen sich die jeweiligen Funktionsbereiche frei orientieren kà ¶nnen. Im Benchmarking geht es um das Vorausdenken, nicht um das Nachrechnen! Das ist die elementare Botschaft! Und dementsprechend kann die Technik im aktuellen Arbeitsprozeß von allen Funktionsbereichen genutzt werden; egal ob das Marketing seine Feldorganisation à ¼berprà ¼ft, die Produktion bestimmte Montageschritte unter die Lupe nimmt, die Beschaffung den Prozeß der Auftragsvergabe nà ¤her beleuchtet. Fà ¼r all diese Aufgabenstellungen genà ¼gt es nicht, einen Controller aus dem Vergleich entwickelte Zielwerte vorgeben zu lassen. Benchmarking ist ein dialogisches Instrument, das die Leistung aller Mitarbeiter aus den Funktionalbereichen beansprucht (Vgl. Rau, 1996, S. 63). 2 Formen des Benchmarking Prinzipiell kà ¶nnen drei Formen des Benchmarking unterschieden werden, die im europà ¤ischen Rahmen Verwendung finden (sieh Abb.: 5). Das Benchmarking von Unternehmen ist bislang am weitesten verbreitet. Hier lernen Unternehmen voneinander, vergleichen Kennzahlen und tauschen sich à ¼ber die Objekte des Benchmarking aus. Beim Benchmarking von Sektoren wird die Leistungsfà ¤higkeit einzelner Sektoren gegenà ¼bergestellt. Ziel ist es, von anderen Sektoren, die nach ausgewà ¤hlten Kriterien besser erscheinen, zu lernen. Das Benchmarking von Rahmenbedingungen gewinnt insbesondere vor dem Hintergrund der Europà ¤ischen Union eine neue Qualità ¤t. Hierbei sollen in Zukunft z.B. politische, gesellschaftliche oder wirtschaftliche Rahmenbedingungen miteinander verglichen werden, so daß ganze Là ¤nder in die Lage versetzt werden voneinander zu lernen. Im folgenden wird das Benchmarking von Unternehmen nà ¤her beleuchtet, das wiederum in die beiden Klassen internes und externes Benchmarking aufgeteilt werden kann. 2.1 Internes Benchmarking Internes Benchmarking stellt die einfachste Form des Benchmarking dar, da es keinerlei Beschrà ¤nkungen von außen zu beachten gibt. Beim internen Benchmarking versuchen Organisationen, von ihren eigenen Strukturen zu lernen. Es werden à ¤hnliche Ablà ¤ufe untersucht und à ¼ber unterschiedliche Bereiche hinweg miteinander verglichen, um detaillierte Informationen à ¼ber das zur Verfà ¼gung stehende Leistungspotential zu erhalten. Beim internen Benchmarking richtet sich der Blick des Management nach innen. Es gilt aktuelle Arbeitsablà ¤ufe und Praktiken objektiv zu erfassen und diese transparent zu machen. Dadurch erhà ¤lt man die nà ¶tigen Details, um die Ressourcen gezielt auf diejenigen Aspekte zu konzentrieren, die einer à ¤nderung bedà ¼rfen. Hà ¤ufig wird ein internes Benchmarking genutzt, um mit der Methode vertraut zu werden und dieses Wissen fà ¼r ein externes Benchmarking zu nutzen. 2.1.1 Unternehmensbezogenes Benchmarking Innerhalb eines Unternehmens ist es mà ¶glich à ¤hnliche Prozesse zu finden, die man vergleichen kann. Diese Prozesse sind gekennzeichnet durch technologische, organisatorische und personelle Einflà ¼sse und richten sich z.B. auf Zweigwerke oder Abteilungen. 2.1.2 Konzernbezogenes Benchmarking Diese Technik wird eingesetzt beim Vergleich von mehreren Werken oder Unternehmensteilen innerhalb eines Konzerns. Es kann hierdurch die beste Praxis innerhalb der Organisation identifiziert werden und ermà ¶glicht so die klare Identifikation von Schwachstellen. Die Vergleichsmà ¶glichkeiten sind im Gegensatz zum unternehmensbezogenen Benchmarking hà ¶her und stellen damit prinzipiell ein grà ¶ÃƒÅ¸eres Potential dar. Konzernbezogenes Benchmarking eignet sich insbesondere fà ¼r eine objektive, fundierte Vorbereitung eines externen Benchmarking, fà ¼r eine Bestandsaufnahme und zur Verbesserung der Mitarbeiterkommunikation und -motivation. 2.2 Externes Benchmarking Benchmarking ist insbesondere eine Technik, um nach außen zu blicken, wobei ein Vergleich der Praktiken des eigenen Unternehmens mit unternehmensexternen Praktiken vorgenommen wird. Vergleich bedeutet, daß eine Grundlinie der à ¤hnlichkeiten vorhanden sein muß. Diese à ¤hnlichkeiten mà ¼ssen vor dem Benchmarking genau identifiziert werden. Erst dann sind ein gà ¼ltiger Vergleich und die Identifizierung von Verbesserungschancen mà ¶glich (Vgl. Mertins, 1993). Eine grà ¼ndliche Vorbereitung hilft, die beim externen Benchmarking hà ¤ufig anzutreffenden Skeptiker produktiv werden zu lassen. 2.2.1 Marktbezogenes Benchmarking Die Konkurrenzanalyse ist als ein Instrument anzusehen, das Informationen à ¼ber die derzeitigen und zukà ¼nftigen Marktaktività ¤ten der Konkurrenz, deren Stà ¤rken und Schwà ¤chen sowie deren mà ¶gliche Reaktionen auf Marktverà ¤nderungen liefert. Sie là ¤ÃƒÅ¸t einen Vergleich mit Unternehmen zu, die die jeweiligen Unternehmensaktività ¤ten in hervorragender Weise beherrschen, blickt jedoch nicht à ¼ber das Umfeld der direkten Konkurrenz hinaus. Mit dem Marktbezogenen Benchmarking ist es mà ¶glich von der Konkurrenz zu lernen, Verbesserungen einzuleiten und die Marktsituation objektiv im Auge zu behalten. Die externen Anstà ¶ÃƒÅ¸e verhindern die Neigung zur Selbstzufriedenheit und Bà ¼rokratisierung, die in allen Organisationen vorkommt und unterstà ¼tzt so die à ¼berzeugung, daß man immer zumindest ein wenig besser werden kann. Ein wesentlicher Unterschied zwischen einer reinen Konkurrenzanalyse und Benchmarking ist darin zu sehen, daß ein unmittelbarer Informationsaustausch zwischen den Unternehmen etabliert und ein gegenseitiger Lernprozeß initiiert wird. Problematisch dabei ist in der Regel die zu à ¼berwindende Verschlossenheit von Konkurrenten untereinander. Der sogenannte Benchmarking-Verhaltenskodex gibt hierzu zwar Verhaltensregeln, in der Praxis ist es jedoch meist schwer das Konstruktive Gesprà ¤ch aufzunehmen. 2.2.2 Branchenbezogenes Benchmarking Branchenbezogenes Benchmarking geht à ¼ber den bloßen Vergleich zweier Firmen hinaus und hat seinen Schwerpunkt in der Suche nach Trends. Es untersucht also die Leistungsfà ¤higkeit einer bestimmten Funktion in branchenweiter Ausprà ¤gung. Dazu ist es notwendig, eine weit grà ¶ÃƒÅ¸ere Gruppe von Unternehmen zu untersuchen, als dies beim konkurrenzbezogenen Benchmarking der Fall ist. Branchenbezogenes Benchmarking sucht nach Trends statt nach Wettbewerbspositionen und dient zur Leistungsanalyse von Subsystemen. Die Grenzen zum konkurrenzbezogenen Benchmarking sind jedoch fließend, so daß es kein klares Differenzierungsmerkmal gibt, wo eine zielgerichtete Studie aufhà ¶rt und die Trendforschung beginnt. Der wesentliche Vorteil des Branchenbezogenen Benchmarking gegenà ¼ber dem marktbezogenen, ist darin zu sehen, daß keine unmittelbare Wettbewerbssituation besteht, da auf anderen Mà ¤rkten agiert wird. Somit gestaltet sich der Informationstransfer meist offener. Da di e Unternehmen aus der gleichen Branche sind, gibt es jedoch beim Vergleich von Prozessen viele à ¤hnliche Merkmale, was fà ¼r ein erfolgreiches Benchmarking unumgà ¤nglich ist. 2.2.3 Branchenunabhà ¤ngiges Benchmarking Der Schlà ¼ssel zum langfristigen Erfolg im Wettbewerb ist nicht Gleichheit, sondern à ¼berlegenheit. Man mà ¶chte die beste Praxis, wie sie gegenwà ¤rtig existiert einholen und dann à ¼berholen. Deshalb richtet sich Benchmarking an den Besten aus. à ¼ber Branchen hinweg wird nach neuen, innovativen Praktiken, unabhà ¤ngig von ihrer Quelle gesucht. Es geht darum, die besten Praktiken zu finden und zu nutzen, um die vorhandenen Praktiken innerhalb der eigenen Organisation innovativ zu verà ¤ndern. Erfolg an externen Kriterien zu definieren, bedeutet eine Vorstellung von Bestleistung zu entwickeln und das Unternehmen auf ein neues Leistungsniveau zu heben. Benchmarking am Klassenbesten beruht auf der à ¼berzeugung, daß der Prozeß der Wertschà ¶pfung à ¼ber viele unterschiedliche Institutionen hinweg auf à ¤hnlichen Merkmalen beruht. Branchenunabhà ¤ngiges Bechmarking ist zwingend Benchmarking von Geschà ¤ftsprozessen. Voraussetzung ist daher eine klare Definition des zu vergleichenden Prozesses. Bereits wà ¤hrend der Definitionsphase erkennt das Projektteam oft erste Schwachpunkte und kann Maßnahmen zur Verbesserung ableiten. Dies wirkt besonders motivierend auf die Beteiligten. 2.3 Zusammenfassender Vergleich In der folgenden Abb.:6 sind die Vor- und Nachteile der Arten des Unternehmens-Benchmarking zusammengefaßt (Vgl. Pieske, 1994). 3 Die Phasen des Benchmarking Der Benchmarking-Prozeß besteht prinzipiell aus fà ¼nf Kernphasen (Abb.: 7). In der tà ¤glichen Benchmarking Praxis kà ¶nnen diese Kernphasen um unternehmensspezifische Schwerpunkte erweitert werden. 3.1 Zielsetzung Ausgangspunkt des Benchmarking ist die Zielsetzungsphase. Hier wird der Fokus des Benchmarking-Projekts festgelegt. Diese Phase ist fà ¼r den gesamten weiteren Prozeß von entscheidender Bedeutung, da Fehler oder mangelnde Sorgfalt das Ergebnis verfà ¤lschen oder unbrauchbar machen. Es ist wichtig, das Management schon in dieser Phase einzubinden, da die sichtbare Unterstà ¼tzung und die aktive Begleitung der Benchmarking Projekte durch das obere Management wà ¤hrend aller Projektphasen ein Schlà ¼sselfaktor fà ¼r das Gelingen des Benchmarkings ist. Jedes Benchmarking-Projekt sollte einem strukturierten und formalisierten Ablauf folgen. Dadurch kà ¶nnen Meilensteine vereinbart und Ergebnisse besser kontrolliert werden. Im à ¼brigen sind Reihenfolge und Inhalte der Prozeßschritte fà ¼r die Beteiligten leichter nachzuvollziehen. Ausgangspunkt fà ¼r die Bestimmung der Benchmarking-Ziele sind die strategischen Ziele des Unternehmens. Diese Ziele werden bei der Festlegung der Benchmarking-Ziele mit eingearbeitet. Sind die Ziele des Benchmarking-Projektes festgelegt, gilt es, das Benchmarking-Objekt genau abzugrenzen und die Benchmarking-Art festzulegen. Der Zielfindungsprozeß, der am besten in Form eines Workshops erfolgt, kann mit Hilfe verschiedener Techniken unterstà ¼tzt werden (sieh Abb.: 8). Bei einem Zielworkshop sollten zwischen vier und zehn Personen beteiligt sein. Dies sind beim Benchmarking Vertreter des Management, die Prozeß-Eigner und zumindest ein Moderator. Zunà ¤chst schreibt jeder Teilnehmer die Ziele des Benchmarking-Projekts auf Moderationskarten, wobei darauf geachtet werden soll, daß jede Karte nur ein Ziel enthà ¤lt, dieses mà ¶glichst prà ¤gnant und verstà ¤ndlich formuliert und gut leserlich geschrieben ist. Fà ¼nf bis sieben Karten pro Teilnehmer sollten in der Regel ausreichen, da sonst zu viele Ziele generiert werden und eine Strukturierung schwerfà ¤llt. Nach einigen Minuten werden vom Moderator bereits die ersten Karten eingesammelt und gemischt, damit nicht klar erkenntlich ist, von wem welches Ziel formuliert wurde. Die eingesammelten Karten werden an einer Moderationstafel fà ¼r alle Teilnehmer sichtbar angepint. Dies dient nicht zuletzt dazu, daß die Teilnehmer die Mà ¶glichkeit haben, in welche Richtung die anderen Teilnehmer denken und daraus Anregungen fà ¼r weitere Ziele bekommen. Nach etwa weiteren zehn Minuten werden die Teilnehmer sofern diese noch vereinzelt Ziele definieren gebeten, die letzten Ziele zu formulieren. Daraufhin werden auch diese Karten eingesammelt, gemischt und angepint. Nachdem alle Karten an der Tafel hà ¤ngen, werden die Ziele vom Moderator langsam vorgelesen und die Teilnehmer werden gebeten, bei Unklarheiten sofort nachzufragen. In solch einem Falle wird der Kartenautor gebeten, kurz das Ziel zu beschreiben und es wird bei Bedarf im Team eine neue Formulierung entwickelt, die auf einer neuen Karte vom Moderator niedergeschrieben wird. Falls sich einzelne Ziele auf mehreren Karten wiederfinden, wird im Diskussionsprozeß die treffendste Zielformulierung ausgewà ¤hlt und die anderen Karten werden verworfen. Bevor eine Karte verworfen wird, muß jedoch in jedem Fall der Autor gefragt werden, ob er damit einverstanden ist. Nach dieser Runde sollten alle Ziele fà ¼r alle Beteiligten klar verstà ¤ndlich sein und es kann mit der Strukturierung begonnen werden. Dazu wird zunà ¤chst das Oberziel identifiziert und an einer separaten Tafel befestigt. Gemeinsam mit den Teilnehmern wird nun eine Zielhierarchie erarbeitet, was in der Regel die schwierigste Phase des Zielworkshops darstellt. Hierbei wird den Teilnehmern nicht nur der Zusammenhang der verschiedenen Ziele deutlich, sondern auch deren Priorisierung (Vgl. Heisig, 1996). 3.2 Interne Analyse Die interne Analyse ist in den meisten Projekten die zeitintensivste Phase des Benchmarking. Nach einer Untersuchung von 3M werden hier ca. 45% der gesamten Projektlaufzeit benà ¶tigt (siehe Abb.: 9). In dieser Phase wird die Grundlage fà ¼r das Verstà ¤ndnis der eigenen Prozesse gelegt und bereits erste Stà ¤rken und Verbesserungspotentiale aufgedeckt. 3.2.1 Geschà ¤ftsprozesse und ihre Beschreibung Unter einem Geschà ¤ftsprozeß ist ein Ablauf zu verstehen, der im allgemeinen Sinn Objekte verarbeitet bzw. transformiert. Die Objekte, die zur Beschreibung der Geschà ¤ftsprozesse eines Unternehmens verwendet werden sind Produkt, Auftrag und Ressource. Produkte sind die konkreten Gà ¼ter und Dienstleistungen, die das Unternehmen an den Kunden liefert bzw. die Materialien, Rohstoffe und Dienstleistungen, die zur Produkt- bzw. Serviceerstellung verwendet werden (Zulieferprodukte). Auftrà ¤ge veranlassen die Durchfà ¼hrung von Aktionen. Grà ¶ÃƒÅ¸ere Unternehmen unterscheiden meistens mehrere Arten von Auftrà ¤gen, z.B. Werkstattauftrà ¤ge, in denen Produkte aus mehreren Kundenauftrà ¤gen, gefertigt werden. Ressourcen sind alle Betriebsmittel, die fà ¼r die Produkt- oder Serviceherstellung benà ¶tigt werden. Dies kà ¶nnen Maschinen, Werkzeuge und Transportmittel, aber auch Personen sein. Auch Informationen kà ¶nnen Ressourcen sein, wenn man beispielsweise an Zeichnungen denkt, in denen angegeben ist, wie ein Produkt zusammengebaut werden soll. Diesen drei Objektarten ist gemeinsam, daß sich ihr Zustand durch die Bearbeitung à ¤ndert. Die Bearbeitung selbst wird durch die Aktion, die vierte Objektart dargestellt. Mit diesen vier Objektarten ist es mà ¶glich, Geschà ¤ftsprozesse einheitlich zu beschreiben. Gerichtete Pfeile geben an, in welcher Reihenfolge Objekte verà ¤ndert werden. 3.2.2 Informationen, die aus einem Geschà ¤ftsprozeßmodell gewonnen werden kà ¶nnen Ein Geschà ¤ftsprozeßmodell kann Ausgangspunkt fà ¼r weitere Untersuchungen, Vergleiche und Verbesserungen sein. Sinnvolle Fragestellungen betreffen die Effizienz der dargestellten Prozesse. Einige Beispiele: Wie oft werden Angebote à ¼berarbeitet? Gilt der dargestellte Ablauf fà ¼r alle Auftragsarten? Welche Durchlaufzeit ergibt sich fà ¼r die einzelnen Phasen eines Geschà ¤ftsprozesses? Lassen sich Ablà ¤ufe parallel durchfà ¼hren? Das Geschà ¤ftsprozeßmodell ist daher Diskussionsgrundlage fà ¼r die Mitglieder des Benchmarking-Teams und trà ¤gt somit bereits zu mehr Transparenz bei. Den Abschluß dieser Phase bildet die Formulierung eines Fragekatalogs. Diese Fragen beziehen sich auf das Gesamtprojekt und seine Einbindung, Teilaspekte bzw. Prozesse, Meßgrà ¶ÃƒÅ¸en sowie die Praktikabilità ¤t von im Rahmen der internen Analyse erkannten Optimierungsmà ¶glichkeiten des Benchmarking-Objekts. Die genaue Definition der Meßgrà ¶ÃƒÅ¸en stellt dabei einen wesentlichen Schritt zur Gewà ¤hrleistung der Vergleichbarkeit dar. Die Benchmarking-Praxis zeigt allerdings, daß gleiche Begriffe nicht nur in verschiedenen Unternehmen, sondern innerhalb eines Unternehmens hà ¤ufig unterschiedlich verstanden werden. Der Fragebogen dient jedoch nicht nur zur Sammlung der Meßgrà ¶ÃƒÅ¸en bei potentiellen Vergleichsunternehmen, sondern là ¤ÃƒÅ¸t die angesprochenen Unternehmen auch erkennen, ob ein Benchmarking mit ihnen sinnvoll erscheint. Bei der Formulierung der Fragen sollte man darauf achten, daß Die Fragen allgemeinverstà ¤ndlich sind Die genaue Definition von Meßgrà ¶ÃƒÅ¸en enthalten ist Der Grund fà ¼r die Erhebung klar wird 3.3 Die Vergleichsphase In dieser Phase stehen die Auswahl von Vergleichsunternehmen und der Vergleich der Objekte, hier die Prozesse, im Vordergrund. Eine besondere Schwierigkeit dieser Phase ist es, Partner zu finden, die bereit sind, sich offen auszutauschen und damit in einen gegenseitigen Lernprozeß einzusteigen. Dies bedeutet, daß der Partner einen vergleichbaren Prozeß bzw. Prozeßabschnitt in seinem Unternehmen etabliert hat, bei diesem Prozeß zumindest in Teilaspekten besser ist und zur Teilnahme bereit ist. Der Auswahlprozeß des geeigneten Partners gliedert sich in eine Generierungs- und eine sich anschließende Selektionsphase. Ziel der Generierungsphase ist es, mà ¶glichst viele unterschiedliche, potentielle Benchmarking-Partner zu finden, wozu prinzipiell verschiedene Vorgehensweisen geeignet sind (siehe Abb.:12) In der Praxis bietet sich immer eine Kombination der unterschiedlichen Methoden an. So werden im Benchmarking-Team Vorschlà ¤ge in Form eines Brainstormings erarbeitet, wà ¤hrend parallel jedes Mitglied aufgefordert ist, à ¼ber die Literatur und à ¼ber Preistrà ¤ger an relevante Informationen zu kommen. Aufgabe der Selektionsphase ist die Verdichtung der vorhandenen Informationen anhand von Bewertungskriterien. Die Selektionsphase stà ¼tzt sich auf die bereits beschriebenen Informationsquellen sowie auf Fragebogenaktionen und Telefoninterviews bei Benchmarking-Partnern. Zu den Bewertungskriterien gehà ¶ren Gà ¼te, Qualità ¤t und Vergleichbarkeit des Benchmarking-Objektes, die Professionalità ¤t des potentiellen Vergleichpartners und eine Gewichtung in Abhà ¤ngigkeit von der Zielsetzung. Weiter ist auch nach Aspekten wie Mà ¶glichkeit, Aufwand und Nutzen der Datenbeschaffung, der à ¼berprà ¼fbarkeit und Interpretationsmà ¶glichkeit der Daten sowie der daraus resultierenden Ergebnisse auszuwà ¤hlen. Wirtschaftliche Parameter und das Image des Partnerunternehmen sind von untergeordneter Bedeutung, sollten aber in der Bewertung berà ¼cksichtigt werden. Nach Abschluß des Selektionsprozesses werden in der Regel acht bis zwà ¶lf Unternehmen zur ersten Kontaktaufnahme ausgew à ¤hlt. Abschließend findet Priorisierung der ausgewà ¤hlten Vergleichsunternehmen statt. Ergebnis ist eine Auflistung der Auswahlpartner in Rangfolge. Sie dient der Reihenfolge der Ansprache von Vergleichsunternehmen. Die Herausforderung wà ¤hrend der Durchfà ¼hrung des eigentlichen Vergleichs besteht darin, den Vergleichsprozeß wirklich zu verstehen, seine Stà ¤rken zu erkennen und die Wirkungszusammenhà ¤nge zu begreifen. Hilfreich dabei sind Kennzahlen, die eine Gegenà ¼berstellung vereinfachen, eine Modellierung, die den Prozeß schnell verstà ¤ndlich macht und ein Fragebogen an den Partner, anhand dessen er sich in die Problematik einarbeiten und fà ¼r den Austausch vorbereiten kann. Der persà ¶nliche Austausch von Informationen ist jedoch durch keine Kennzahlen oder Prozeßmodellierungen zu ersetzen. Gerade beim Zusammentreffen der Benchmarking-Partner, der am besten bei einem der beiden Partner und nicht auf neutralem Boden stattfinden sollte, werden Informationen ausgetauscht, die sich schwer in Worte fassen lassen. Hier findet das eigentliche gegenseitige Lernen statt. Fà ¼r die Prozeßbewertung kà ¶nnen die Leistungsparameter der Prozesse herangezogen werden. Diese mà ¼ssen jedoch relativiert werden, da bei der Gegenà ¼berstellung von Zahlen stets die interne Situation und die Umwelt der Benchmarking-Partner berà ¼cksichtigt werden mà ¼ssen, also die Voraussetzungen und Randbedingungen, unter denen die Ergebnisse erzielt wurden. Nicht die bloßen Zahlen sind zu betrachten, sondern die Geschà ¤ftsprozesse hinter den Zahlen mà ¼ssen verstanden werden. Bezogen auf den eigenen Prozeß muß bestimmt werden, welche Praktiken geeignet sind, die gesetzten Ziele zu erreichen, und welche Mà ¶glichkeiten sich durch die à ¼bertragung ergeben. Dazu sind die Ursachen in den Leistungsunterschieden zu analysieren. Nur wenn die tatsà ¤chlichen Grà ¼nde identifiziert werden, kà ¶nnen à ¼ber den reinen Vergleich hinaus die unterschiedlichen Potentiale der verschiedenen Prozesse aufgedeckt, die Realisierbarkeit bewertet und zukà ¼nftige Entwick lungen vorausgesagt werden. Das Ergebnis der Vergleichsphase ist die Kombination der bezà ¼glich der einzelnen Teilaspekte des Benchmarking-Objektes am besten erachteten Praktiken und Parameter. Man erhà ¤lt bezogen auf den untersuchten Geschà ¤ftsprozeß die bei den verschiedenen Benchmarking-Partnern erkannten besten Praktiken, da kein einzelnes Unternehmen fà ¼r sich in Anspruch nehmen kann, in allen Belangen fà ¼hrend zu sein. 3.4 Ableitung von Maßnahmen Die Aufgabe des Benchmarking-Teams besteht darin, die Resultate aus den Analysen dem Management, den F