Saturday, August 31, 2019

Effect of Information Technology on the Operations

EJISDC (2002) 10, 2, 1-8 The Effect of Information Technology on the Growth of the Banking Industry in Nigeria P. A. Idowu Dept of Computer Science and Engineering Obafemi Awolowo University Ife-Ife Nigeria A. O. Alu Dept of Management and Accounting Obafemi Awolowo University Ife-Ife Nigeria E. R. Adagunodo Dept of Computer Science and Engineering Obafemi Awolowo University Ife-Ife Nigeria ABSTRACT The advent of Information Technology (IT) is rapidly changing the banking industry. In this study, the impact of IT on the banking industry in Nigeria is described.A questionnaire was employed to collect data from customers at five major banks in Nigeria on the extent to which customers believe that IT exerts an impact on banking services. The results of the study clearly indicate that IT has contributed immensely to the growth of the banking industry in Nigeria. Keywords: Information Technology, Banking, Nigeria. 1. INTRODUCTION A powerful force drives the world towards a converging comm onality, and that force is technology (Levitt, 1992). From the beginning of the human era, technology has been one of the most essential and most important factors for the development of mankind (Coombs et al. , 1987).During the last two hundred years, technological changes have often been related to economic growth in the form of new types of goods and services. Smith (1776) first wrote about technical changes in the form of new machines as one of the three important causes of increasing incomes more than 200 years ago. Information Technology (IT) can be defined as the modern handling of information by electronic means, which involves its access, storage, processing, transportation or transfer and delivery (Ige 1995). Research shows that IT affects financial institutions by easing enquiry, saving time, and improving service delivery (Alu, 2002).IT also provides solutions to the needs of modern societies in health care delivery, library services, education, and communication network s within organizations, etc. Some available telecommunication and information technologies which are presently being used in the banking industry in Nigeria are telephone, facsimile, wireless radiophone, very small aperture terminal satellite (VSAT), telegraphy, and computer systems (Ugwu, 1999). According to Alu (2002), some banks in Nigeria have LANs (Local Area Network) in most of their branches but none of the banks have deployed home banking applications. . BANKING IN NIGERIA As a result of the increased demand for customer deposits, Nigerian banks, especially the new generation banks, have realized the imperative of good and prompt customer service. Also, due to the fact that some customers lost their deposits in the erstwhile technically-insolvent or distressed banks, customers have now become wiser, more discerning, alert and sophisticated with regards to The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries, http://www. ejisdc. org EJISDC (2002) 10, 2, 1-8 2 hoosing where it is safe to put their money, and where they would be served promptly, preferably in a pleasant, courteous and friendly environment. Thus, they have started looking at the level of service and professionalism of the banks before depositing their funds. Proximity to the bank is no longer the issue: safety and the level of service, with regard to quality, speed and efficiency has become the major imperative. On the part of the banks, they have realized that one way in which they can provide quality service is through the use of technology.Hence, there is a growing rate of adopting new technologies in Nigerian banking operations. Moreover, there is growing evidence that customers have started associating quality of service in a bank with the bank’s possession of an online, real-time system. In fact, possession of such a system is now judged to be the sine qua non of a high quality banking service in Nigeria. So, for a bank to be perceived as providing high qualit y service, that bank has to have an IT system, which it uses to deliver services to customers in a more timely, friendly and considerate manner, at no extra cost to the customers.Despite the fact that many of the new generation banks base their marketing strategy on the possession of supposedly on line, real-time systems, they find that their systems’ links are down for about 50 percent of the time. Many customers feel cheated by this reality and complain about the incessant ‘downtimes’. They were promised an online, real-time system, only to find out that the banks’ systems are down at least half the time, and that the national carrier, NITEL (Nigeria Telecommunication), is to blame.Whilst the responsibility of NITEL cannot be denied, many customers still feel that it is the responsibility of the affected banks to take care of these problems, and that they should be given the nationwide, online, real-time banking service they were promised. Faced with thi s dilemma, many banks in the country are resorting to alternative personal solutions by using the Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) satellite systems, for long distance electronic communication. For short distances, the MDS (Metropolitan Digital Services) system is often used.The problem here is that all the banks are trying to procure appropriate VSATs independent of one another. In other words, there is no collaboration between the banks in sourcing this very expensive technology and thereby providing a cost-effective solution to the problem. It would also be fair to say that Nigerian banks are generally imbued with an overly competitive mind -set, which tends to foreclose the benefits of synergy or collaboration in solving most of their common problems. 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGYIn order to assess the perceptions of banking customers in Nigeria with respect to the quality of banking services, a questionnaire survey was conducted. A ‘grab sampling’ technique was used t o select the customers from the banks. Five commercial banks in Nigeria – Wema Bank Plc, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Omega Bank Plc, Cooperative Bank Plc, and Access Bank Plc. – were selected for this sampling on the basis that they have branches in almost all the states in Nigeria and they make use of computers in almost all their branches.The researchers visited the banks during working hours and the questionnaires were given to the customers as they visited the banks. A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed in this way. 260 questionnaires were returned to the researchers, a response rate of 52%. The survey instrument can be found in the Appendix. In addition, the researchers conducted personal interviews with five bank managers and fifteen IT staff in order to gain an appreciation of what types of IT systems and electronic application services The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries, http://www. jisdc. org EJISDC (2002) 10, 2, 1-8 3 were available in the selected banks. The responses were measured with a fivepoint Likert-type rating scale, where Strongly Agree (SA) = 4; Agree (A) = 3; Strongly Disagree (SD) = 2; Disagree (D) = 1; and Neutral (N) = 0, while the scores f r o negative items were reversed. 4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Table 1 shows the IT systems that are being used in the selected banks. Telephone, Facsimile, Local Area Network, computer system, MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition), were used in all the banks.Also Wema, Omega and Access banks used Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT), Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), and wireless radiophone. The researchers were able to identify IT devices available in the selected banks from personal interview conducted with the 5 branch managers and 15 IT staff in the banks. Table 1: IT systems and electronic application service in the selected banks Types of IT systems Wema Omega Union Co-op Access Telephone X X X X X Wireless radiophone X X X Facsimile X X X X X Computer X X X X X Electronic Mail VSAT X X XLocal Area Network X X X X X MICR X X X X X EFT X X X 4. 1 Effect of IT on Banking Services The effect of IT on an enquiry on a customer’s state of account, and services enjoyed by the customers from the banks as perceived by the banks’ customers, are shown in Table 2. Out of the 260 respondents, 86. 2% agreed that IT was really helping the bank they patronized, while 90. 8% agreed that IT made the enquiry about the state of their accounts faster. Also, 83. 1% agreed that IT had a great positive impact on the services rendered by the banks.The means of 3. 12, 3. 29 and 3. 07 respectively for the selected banks' respondents confirmed that IT has a positive effect on the enquiry of customers’ state of account and services enjoyed by the customers from the selected banks. Generally, the effects of IT on the enquiry of the customer’s state of account and services enjoyed by the customers from the banks have an appreciable influence on any bank. The use of a LAN and computer systems have ensured quick and improved services delivery to customers by the banks.But it may be important to state that the use and application of these electronic devices are hampered by the inadequacy of infrastructural facilities like power supply. 4. 2 Effects of IT on Customer Services Table 3 shows the response of customers from the banks with respect to the effect of IT on customer services provision. About 66. 5% disagreed that IT had no effect on services rendered by the banks. Also 82. 7% agreed that there is a need to improve on the services rendered by these banks. The means of 2. 77 and 2. 4 respectively confirmed that IT has effects on services rendered by these banks to their customers and about 83% of the respondents agreed that the banks need to improve on the The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries, http://www. ejisdc. org EJISDC (2002) 10, 2, 1-8 4 services rendered to the customers. This shows that the services the banks are offering now are not the best they can offer to their customers and that the banks should improve on these services to their customers. Table 2: Effects of IT on Banking Services Question SD IT/computer is really helping this 2. bank IT makes enquiry about the state 2. 3 of my account faster IT/computer has a great positive 2. 3 impact on the services rendered by this bank D 4. 6 N 6. 9 A 43. 9 SA 42. 3 Mean 3. 12 0 6. 9 36. 6 54. 2 3. 29 4. 6 10 37. 3 45. 8 3. 07 N 9. 7 A 18. 8 SA 5. 0 Mean 2. 77 10. 4 50. 4 32. 3 2. 94 Table 3: Effects of IT on Customer Services Question SD D I don’t think IT has any effect on 34. 6 31. 9 services rendered There is a need to improve the 0 6. 9 services rendered by this bank Table 4: Promptness and efficiency of services as perceived by the customers Question SD DN A SA Mean I enjoy prompt and efficient service 0 16. 2 9. 2 37. 7 36. 9 2. 93 delivery I was once delayed in the bank 16. 5 31. 5 6. 9 32. 7 12. 4 2. 38 because the computer was down IT does not increase prompt and 43. 1 42. 7 4. 6 7. 3 2. 3 3. 17 efficient service delivery 4. 3 Promptness and efficiency of services as perceived by the customers From Table 4, about 75% of the respondents agreed that they enjoyed prompt and efficient service delivery from the banks. The mean of 2. 93 shows that IT enables the banks to provide prompt and efficient services to their customers.Questions 3 and 7 (see Appendix) are similar, but the reaction of the respondents confirmed the conclusion above because about 85% of the respondents agreed that IT has increased prompt and efficient service delivery by the banks. Also, on the issue of delay due to computer down times, only 44. 9% of the respondents agreed that they were once delayed in the bank because the computer was down, though this might be due to the epileptic power supply and inefficient telecommunication infrastructure in Nigeria. The mean of 2. 93 conf irmed that most of the time, customers go to the bank when computers are not down. 4. Influence of IT on patronage as perceived by the customers Table 5 gives responses on the influence of IT on patronage as perceived by the customers. 70% of respondents agreed that based on the efficiency and effectiveness of services rendered, they could encourage their colleagues to patronize the banks they used. Also, 65. 8% of the customers agreed that the banks' use of IT encouraged them to patronize the banks they use. The means of 2. 47 and 2. 52 respectively show that IT encourages customers to patronize the banks. The The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries, http://www. jisdc. org EJISDC (2002) 10, 2, 1-8 5 use of computers, telephone, VSAT, and EFT has contributed immensely to the growth of banking industry. In Nigeria presently, some banks are not making use of IT and those banks are being patronized by few customers, the majority of whom are illiterate and poor. This makes the turnover of these banks low. Table 5: Influence of IT on patronage as perceived by the customers Question SD D N A SA I can encourage my colleagues to 4. 6 5. 0 20. 4 47. 3 22. 7 patronize this bank IT/Computer encourages 2. 3 9. 6 22. 3 32. 7 33. 1 customers to patronize this bankMean 2. 47 2. 52 Table 6: Perception of customers on the ease of conducting banking transactions Question SD D N A SA Mean Saving or withdrawing money is 21. 9 36. 9 7. 3 31. 2 2. 7 2. 63 time consuming IT eases banking transactions 2. 3 2. 3 9. 6 50. 0 35. 8 3. 10 4. 5 Perception of customers on the ease of banking transactions Table 6 above shows that 58. 8% of customers disagreed that saving and withdrawal of money is time consuming. Also, 85. 5% agreed that IT eases banking transactions. The means for questions 6 and 13 (see Appendix) are 2. 63 and 3. 00 respectively. The mean of 2. 3 for question 6 (see Appendix) shows that some respondents agreed that saving and withdrawal of mon ey is time consuming despite the use of IT in those banks. Table 7: Effects of IT on the interaction between cashiers and customers Question SD D N A SA IT has reduced the interaction 15. 0 30. 4 17. 7 27. 3 9. 6 between cashiers and customers Mean 2. 15 4. 6 Effects of IT on the interaction between cashiers and customers Table 7 shows that 36. 9% agreed with the view that IT has reduced the interaction between customers and cashiers, 17. 7% are indifferent to the question and 45. 4% disagreed with the view with a mean of 2. 15. 4. 7Effects of IT on cashiers’ work The rates at which cashiers in the banks attend to their customers depend on the equipment available for the cashiers to work with. From Table 8, 83. 1% agreed that computer speeds up cashiers' work, while 10% disagree and 6. 9% are indifferent. The mean of 3. 12 confirmed that IT/Computer really affect the rates at which cashiers’ attend to their customers. Generally, the use of electronic devices like compu ter telephone, facsimile, etc. will go a long way to increase the speed of the cashiers’ work. Table 8: Effects of IT on cashiers’ work Question SD Computers really speed up 2. 7 cashiers’ work D 7. N 6. 9 A 37. 3 SA 45. 8 The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries, http://www. ejisdc. org Mean 3. 12 EJISDC (2002) 10, 2, 1-8 6 4. 8 IT and bank’s productivity From Table 9, 81. 5% agreed that the use of IT increases bank productivity in that with the use of IT, the bank can attend to a lot of customers since IT speeds up cashiers' work. The mean of 2. 98 shows that IT has a positive effect on the growth and productivity of the banks. There is no bank that can make use of one or combination of two or more of the IT systems listed in Table 1, which will not have effects on the productivity of the bank.Table 9: IT and the productivity of the bank Question SD D IT increases the bank’s productivity 0 4. 6 5. N 13. 8 A 37. 3 SA 4 4. 2 Mean 2. 98 CONCLUSION The study has dealt with the effects of IT as perceived by customers on selected commercial banks in Nigeria, which make use of IT in their operation. The study revealed that IT has appreciable positive effects on the bank productivity, cashiers’ work, banking transaction, bank patronage, bank services delivery, customers services, and bank services.These affect the growth of the banking industry in Nigeria positively because customers can now collect money from any branches of their bank. Also customers do not need to move about with large sums of money, and customers are being attended to within a short period of time. The study also revealed that telephones, computer systems, LANs, and Facsimile services are available in nearly all the banks making using of IT in Nigeria while WANs (Wide Area Network), Electronic File Transfer, and wireless phones are available in some of the banks. This finding confirms Alu’s (2002) claims on the IT devic es available in Nigerian banks.Research has shown also that IT is really helping these banks, so other banks in Nigeria that are not making use of the IT are encouraged to do so. From the study, the major hindrance to the use of IT in the banking industry in Nigeria is inadequate electric power supply. Electricity supply is not regular because of the limitation of the machine that is supplying electricity to Nigeria. Furthermore, the Nigerian government is finding it difficult to equip the NEPA (National Electric Power Authority) while the demand for electricity is increasing daily.Therefore, the situation will continue to worsen until the Nigerian government funds NEPA appropriately. So, for this nation to be effective in the use of IT in the banking industry and to make the banking industry grow in an appropriate way, there is a need for the Nigerian government to find a solution to the epileptic supply of electricity throughout the country, since NEPA is owned by Nigerian governm ent and there is no private company in Nigeria that provides electricity. The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries, http://www. ejisdc. org EJISDC (2002) 10, 2, 1-8 6. 7 REFERENCES Alu, A.O. (2000) Effects of Information Technology on Customer Services in the Banking Industry in Nigeria, M. B. A. Thesis in Management and Accounting, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. Coombs, R. , Saviotti, P. and Walsh, V. (1987) Economics and Technological Change, Macmillan: London. Ige, O. (1995) Information Technology in a De-regulated Telecommunications Environment, Keynote address, INFOTECH 95. First International Conference on Information Technology Management, Lagos, November 16-17. Levitt, T. (1992) The Globalization of Markets, in: Transnational Management: Text, Cases and Readings in Cross-Border Management.Richard D. Irwin. Smith, Adam (1776): The Wealth of Nations Ugwu, L. O. (1999): Assessment of Impacts of Information Technology on Selected Service Indust ries in South Western Nigeria, MSc. Thesis in technology Management, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. APPENDIX Dear Respondent, This questionnaire is designed for a research work from the department of Management & Accounting, OAU, Ife. Please, FILL IN correct information, all the information will be treated confidentially and the information will be used for this research work only. Thanks. Please tick [ ] or fill where appropriate.SECTION A 1. Sex : A. MALE [ ] B. FEMALE [ ] 2. Age: A. 18-25 ( ) B. 26-35 ( ) C. 36- 45 ( ) D. 46 & above ( ) 3. Educational qualification: A. WASCE( ) B. OND/NCE( ) C. Bsc/BA( ) D. Msc/PhD( ) E. Others Specify †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 4. For how long have you been using this bank? A. 0- 2yrs ( ) B. 3-5yrs ( ) C. 6- 8 ( ) D. 9 & above( ) 5. What type of account do you operate? A. Current( ) B. Savings( ) C. Others specify †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 6. My Account here is mainly for A. Business( ) B. Salary( ) C . Others specify †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 7. For how many hours do you spend on queue ? A.Less than1 ( ) B. 1-2 ( ) C. 3-4 ( ) D. 5 & above( ). The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries, http://www. ejisdc. org EJISDC (2002) 10, 2, 1-8 8 SECTION B Strongly Disagree 1. 13. Agree IT increases bank productivity 15. Neutral IT/Computer is really helping this bank I don’t think IT has effect on the bank’s operation I enjoy prompt and efficient service delivery I will encourage my colleagues to patronize this bank IT does not increase prompt and efficient service delivery To save or withdraw money is time consuming I was once delayed in the bank ecause the computer was down IT makes enquiry about the state of my account faster IT/computer has a great positive impact on the growth of this bank IT/Computer has reduced the interaction of the Cashiers with customers IT/Computer encourages customers to patronize this bank Computer really speed up cashiers’ work IT improves transactions 14. Disagree There is a need to improve the services rendered by this bank 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries, http://www. ejisdc. org Strongly Agree

Friday, August 30, 2019

Developmental Stage Theories Essay

Developmental psychology is the scientific study of changes that occur in human beings over the course of their life span. Originally concerned with infantsand children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult development, aging, and the entire life span. This field examines change across a broad range of topics including motor skills and other psycho-physiological processes; cognitive development involving areas such as problem solving, moral understanding, and conceptual understanding; language acquisition; social, personality, and emotional development; and self-concept and identity formation. Developmental psychology includes issues such as the extent to which development occurs through the gradual accumulation of knowledge versus stage-like development, or the extent to which children are born with innate mental structures, versus learning through experience. Many researchers are interested in the interaction between personal characteristics, the individual’s behavior, and environmental factors including social context, and their impact on development; others take a more narrowly-focused approach. Developmental psychology informs several applied fields, including: educational psychology, child psychopathology, and forensic developmental psychology. Developmental psychology complements several other basic research fields in psychology including social psychology, cognitive psychology, ecological psychology, and comparative psychology. Theories Attachment theory Attachment theory, theoretical frame work originally developed by John Bowlby, focuses on open, intimate, emotionally meaningful relationships. Attachment is described as a biological system or powerful survival impulse that evolved to ensure the survival of the infant. A child who is threatened or stressed will move toward caregivers who create a sense of physical, emotional and psychological safety for the individual. Attachment feeds on body contact and familiarity. Later Mary Ainsworth developed the Strange Situation protocol and the concept of the secure base. There are three types of attachment styles: secure, anxious-avoidant, and anxious-resistant. Secure attachment is a healthy attachment between the infant and the caregiver. It is characterized by trust. Anxious-avoidant is an insecure attachment between an infant and a caregiver. This is characterized by the infant’s indifference toward the caregiver. Anxious-resistant is an insecure attachment between the infant and the caregiver characterized by distress from the infant when separated and anger when reunited. [1] A child can be hindered in its natural tendency to form attachments. Some babies are raised without the stimulation and attention of a regular caregiver, or locked away under conditions of abuse or extreme neglect. The possible short-term effects of this deprivation are anger, despair, detachment, and temporary delay in intellectual development. Long-term effects include increased aggression, clinging behavior, detachment, psychosomatic disorders, and an increased risk of depression as an adult. [2][3] Constructivism Constructivism is a paradigm in psychology that characterizes learning as a process of actively constructing knowledge. Individuals create meaning for themselves or make sense of new information by selecting, organizing, and integrating information with other knowledge, often in the content of social interactions. There are two ways in which constructivism can occur: individual and social. Individual constructivism is when a person constructs knowledge through cognitive processes of their own experiences rather than by memorizing facts provided by others. Social constructivism is when individuals construct knowledge through an interaction between the knowledge they bring to a situation and social or cultural exchanges within that content. [4] Ecological systems theory The Ecological systems theory, originally formulated by Urie Bronfenbrenner specifies four types of nested environmental systems, with bi-directional influences within and between the systems. The four systems are microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem. Each system contains roles, norms and rules that can powerfully shape development. The microsystem is the immediate environment surrounding and influencing the individual (example: school or the home setting). The mesosystem is the combination of two microsystems and how they influence each other (example: sibling relationships at home vs. peer relationships at school). The exosystem is the interaction among two or more settings that are indirectly linked (example: a father’s job requiring more overtime ends up influencing his aughter’s performance in school because he can no longer help with her homework). The macrosystem is broader taking into account social economic status, culture, beliefs, customs and morals (example: a child from a wealthier family sees a peer from a less wealthy family as inferior for that reason). Lastly, the chronosystem refers to the chronological nature of life events and how they interact and change the individual and their circumstances through transition (example: a mother losing her own mother to illness and no longer having that support in her life). Since its publication in 1979, Bronfenbrenner’s major statement of this theory, The Ecology of Human Development[5] has had widespread influence on the way psychologists and others approach the study of human beings and their environments. As a result of this conceptualization of development, these environments—from the family to economic and political structures—have come to be viewed as part of the life course from childhood through adulthood. [6] Psychosexual development Sigmund Freud believed that we all had a conscious, preconscious, and unconscious level. In the conscious we are aware of our mental process. The preconscious involves information that though we are not currently thinking about can be brought into consciousness. Lastly, the unconscious includes those mental processes which we are unaware of. He believed that the conscious and unconscious had tension because the conscious would try and hold back what the unconscious was trying to express. To explain this he developed three structures of personality; the id, ego, and superego. The id, being the most primitive of the three functioned according to the pleasure principle. The pleasure principle states that the id’s motivation is to seek pleasure and avoid pain. Based on this he proposed five universal stages of development. The first is the oral stage which occurs from birth to 12 months of age, second is the anal stage which occurs from one to three years of age, third is the phallic stage which occurs from three to five years of age (most of a person’s personality is formed by this age), the fourth is called latency which occurs from age five until puberty, and lastly stage five is the genital stage which takes place from puberty until adulthood. 7] Stages of moral development Theories of morality that stem from Jean Piaget’s cognitive-developmental viewpoint emphasize shifts in the type of reasoning that individuals use in making moral decisions. Changes in the content of the decision they reach or the actions they take as a result does not occur. [dubious – discuss] Lawrence Kohlberg expanded on this issue specifically during adolescence. He suggested three levels of moral reasoning; preconventional moral reasoning, conventional moral reasoning, and postconventional moral reasoning. Preconventional moral reasoning is typical of children and is characterized by reasoning that is based on rewards and punishments associated with different courses of action. Conventional moral reason occurs during late childhood and early adolescence and is characterized by reasoning that is based on the rules and conventions of society. Lastly, postconventional moral reasoning is the stage during which society’s rules and conventions are seen as relative and subjective rather than as authoritative. [1] Stages of psychosocial development Erik Erikson became a child psychoanalyst like his mentor Anna Freud, Sigmond Freud’s daughter. He went on to reinterpret Freud’s psychosexual stages by incorporating the social aspects of it. He came up with eight stages, each of which has two crisis (a positive and a negative). Stage one is trust versus mistrust, which occurs during infancy. Stage two is autonomy versus shame and doubt which occurs during early childhood. Stage three is initiative versus guilt which occurs during play age. Stage four is industry versus inferiority which occurs during school age. Stage five is identity versus identity diffusion which occurs during adolescence. Stage six is intimacy versus isolation which occurs during young adulthood. Stage seven is generativity versus self-absorption which occurs during adulthood. Lastly, stage eight is integrity versus despair which occurs during old age. In each of these stages either one or the other crisis is developed. The ideal thing would be to have the positive crisis more developed than the negative crisis. [7] Theories of cognitive development Jean Piaget was a Swiss theorist who posited that children learn by actively constructing knowledge through hands-on experience. [8] He suggested that the adult’s role in helping the child learn was to provide appropriate materials or the child to interact and construct. He would use Socratic questioning to get the children to reflect on what they were doing. He would try to get them to see contradictions in their explanations. He also developed stages of development. His approach can be seen in how the curriculum is sequenced in schools, and in the pedagogy of preschool centers across the United States. Piaget believed that intellectual development took place through a series of stages which caused him to come up with his Theory on Cognitive Development. Each stage consisted of steps which the child had to master before moving on to the next step. He believe that these stages where not separate from one another but rather each stage built on the previous one, hence learning was continuous. His theory consisted of four stages; sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Though he did not believe these stages occurred at any given age, many studies have determine when these cognitive abilities should take place. [4] Zone of proximal development Lev Vygotsky was a Russian theorist from the Soviet era, who posited that children learn through hands-on experience and social interactions with members of his/her culture. 9] Unlike Piaget, he claimed that timely and sensitive intervention by adults when a child is on the edge of learning a new task (called the â€Å"zone of proximal development†) could help children learn new tasks. Martin Hill stated that â€Å"The world of reality does not apply to the mind of a child. † This technique is called â€Å"scaffolding,† because it builds upon knowledge children already have with new knowledge that adults can help the child learn. [10] Vygotsky was strongly focused on the role of culture in determining the child’s pattern of development, arguing that development moves from the social level to the individual level. 10] In other words, Vygotsky claimed that psychology should focus on the progress of human consciousness through the relationship of an individual and their environment. [11]He felt that if scholars continued to disregard this connection, then this disregard would inhibit the full comprehension of the human consciousness Nature/nurture A significant issue in developmental psychology is the relationship between innateness and environmental influence in regard to any particular aspect of development. This is often referred to as â€Å"nature versus nurture† or nativism versus empiricism. A nativist account of development would argue that the processes in question are innate, that is, they are specified by the organism’s genes. An empiricist perspective would argue that those processes are acquired in interaction with the environment. Today developmental psychologists rarely take such polarised positions with regard to most aspects of development; rather they investigate, among many other things, the relationship between innate and environmental influences. One of the ways in which this relationship has been explored in recent years is through the emerging field of evolutionary developmental psychology. One area where this innateness debate has been prominently portrayed is in research on language acquisition. A major question in this area is whether or not certain properties of human language are specified genetically or can be acquired through learning. The empiricist position on the issue of language acquisition suggests that the language input provides the necessary information required for learning the structure of language and that infants acquire language through a process of statistical learning. From this perspective, language can be acquired via general learning methods that also apply to other aspects of development, such as perceptual learning. The nativist position argues that the input from language is too impoverished for infants and children to acquire the structure of language. Linguist Noam Chomsky asserts that, evidenced by the lack of sufficient information in the language input, there is a universal grammar that applies to all human languages and is pre-specified. This has led to the idea that there is a special cognitivemodule suited for learning language, often called the language acquisition device. Chomsky’s critique of the behaviorist model of language acquisition is regarded by many as a key turning point in the decline in the prominence of the theory of behaviorism generally. [12] But Skinner’s conception of â€Å"Verbal Behavior† has not died, perhaps in part because it has generated successful practical applications. [12] Mechanisms of development Developmental psychology is concerned not only with describing the characteristics of psychological change over time, but also seeks to explain the principles and internal workings underlying these changes. Psychologists have attempted to better understand these factors by using models. Developmental models are sometimes computational, but they do not need to be. A model must simply account for the means by which a process takes place. This is sometimes done in reference to changes in the brain that may correspond to changes in behavior over the course of the development. Computational accounts of development often use either symbolic, connectionist (neural network), or dynamical systems models to explain the mechanisms of development. Research areas Cognitive development Cognitive development is primarily concerned with the ways in which infants and children acquire, develop, and use internal mental capabilities such as problem solving, memory, and language. Major topics in cognitive development are the study of language acquisition and the development of perceptual and motor skills. Piaget was one of the influential early psychologists to study the development of cognitive abilities. His theory suggests that development proceeds through a set of stages from infancy to adulthood and that there is an end point or goal. Other accounts, such as that of Lev Vygotsky, have suggested that development does not progress through stages, but rather that the developmental process that begins at birth and continues until death is too complex for such structure and finality. Rather, from this viewpoint, developmental processes proceed more continuously, thus development should be analyzed, instead of treated as a product to be obtained. K. Warner Schaie has expanded the study of cognitive development into adulthood. Rather than being stable from adolescence, Schaie sees adults as progressing in the application of their cognitive abilities. 13] Modern cognitive development has integrated the considerations of cognitive psychology and the psychology of individual differences into the interpretation and modeling of development. [14]Specifically, the neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development showed that the successive levels or stages of cognitive development are associated with increasing processing efficiency andworking memory capacity. In addition, children in higher-levels of cognitive development have been observed to have greater mathematical fluency in basic addition and subtraction problems. 15] These increases explain differences between stages, progression to higher stages, and individual differences of children who are the same-age and of the same grade-level. However, other theories have moved away from Piagetian stage theories, and are influenced by accounts of domain-specific information processing, which posit that development is guided by innate evolutionarily-specified and content-specific information processing mechanisms. Social and emotional development Developmental psychologists who are interested in social development examine how individuals develop social and emotional competencies. For example, they study how children form friendships, how they understand and deal with emotions, and how identity develops. Research in this area may involve study of the relationship between cognition or cognitive development and social behavior. Erik Erikson believed we undergo several stages to achieve social and emotional development. These stages were called the Erik Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development. The stages were trust vs. mistrust, attachment, parenting style, ego identity, role diffusion, generativity versus stagnation, midlife crisis, and ego integrity versus despair. Emotional regulation or ER refers to an individual’s ability to modulate emotional responses across a variety of contexts. In young children, this modulation is in part controlled externally, by parents and other authority figures. As children develop, they take on more and more responsibility for their internal state. Studies have shown that the development of ER is affected by the emotional regulation children observe in parents and caretakers, the emotional climate in the home, and the reaction of parents and caretakers to the child’s emotions. [16] Physical development Physical development concerns the physical maturation of an individual’s body until it reaches the adult stature. Although physical growth is a highly regular process, all children differ tremendously in the timing of their growth spurts. [17] Studies are being done to analyze how the differences in these timings affect and are related to other variables of developmental psychology such as information processing speed. Traditional measures of physical maturity using x-rays are less in practice nowadays, compared to simple measurements of body parts such as height, weight, head circumference, and arm span. 17] A few other studies and practices with physical developmental psychology are the phonological abilities of mature 5- to 11-year-olds, and the controversial hypotheses of left-handers being maturationally delayed compared to right-handers. A study by Eaton, Chipperfield, Ritchot, and Kostiuk in 1996 found in three different samples that there was no difference between right- and left-handers. [17] Memory development Researchers interested in memory development look at the way our memory develops from childhood and onward. According to Fuzzy-trace theory, we have two separate memory processes: verbatim and gist. These two traces begin to develop at different times as well as at a different pace. Children as young as 4 years-old have verbatim memory, memory for surface information, which increases up to early adulthood, at which point it begins to decline. On the other hand, our capacity for gist memory, memory for semantic information, increases up to early adulthood, at which point it consistent through old age. Furthermore, our reliance on gist memory traces in reasoning increases as we age.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Be true to thyself

Be true to thyself Essay â€Å"I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer.†-The Invisible ManBe True to ThyselfMany people travel through life on a constant search on who there are and how they fit into this world. Some maneuver through situations and issues that they are faced with never being true to themselves, but more so modeling the behaviors of others. It is not until one defines their self-image, obtain a healthy amount of self-esteem, and confidence can they execute decisions concerning their lives. Until then, their actions are merely mimics or derivatives of the thoughts or beliefs of another. In Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man, the nameless protagonist does not possess a definite sense of self, which results in his living his life for others. Primarily, the invisible man emulates his life after other people. The first example of this is how he behaves like his grandfather. On his deathbed the invisible man’s grandfather tells him to â€Å"to keep up the good fight†(Ellison16). Following this he was always doing what was right and was â€Å"considered an example of desired conduct—just as his grandfather had been†(Ellison 17). Once the invisible man goes off to college he begins to act in a manner to please Mr. Norton. Not only does Mr. Norton not identify with the invisible man racially, he views blacks as â€Å"a mark on the scoreboard of his achievement†(Ellison 95). Despite these two facts the invisible man allows himself to be a â€Å"do boy† by chauffeuring Mr. Norton to slave quarters. It is here that the protagonist can truly be identified as someone that is not in touch with himself because he sacrifices his education for a man that is not concerned about him or his race. Dr. Bledsoe tries to drive this concept into the invisible man when he tells him that â€Å"the white folks tell everybody what to think†(Ellison 143). Dr. Bledsoe expels the invisible man from school, hoping that he will learn how to survive and develop an identity that suits him. After being expelled from school, the invisible man begins a journey to make a living for himself. He ends up in New York where he is introduced to â€Å"The Brotherhood†. â€Å"The Brotherhood† quickly gives him a place to live, a job with a reasonable salary, and petty cash to spend on clothing. He adopts their ideologies, mimics their way of life, and indulges himself in their literature. After going through a rigorous tutorial program the invisible man emerges brainwashed and still lacking an identity. Never making his own decisions, the invisible man becomes â€Å"chief spokesman of the Harlem District†(Ellison 359) and finally begins to promote the ideas of â€Å"The Bro therhood† to the people of Harlem. Not knowing that â€Å"The Brotherhood† is using him to entice the people into following their doctrine and adopting their philosophies. He never decided where he would go or what cause he would speak against. He became a pawn for â€Å"The Brotherhood†. To them he was not an individual, but an inanimate object. Eventually the invisible man grows tired of â€Å"The Brotherhood† and their mannerisms. However, instead of trying to work on developing an identity, the invisible man begins to impersonate â€Å"Rine the runner and Rine the gambler and Rine the briber and Rine the lover and Rinehart the Reverend†(Ellison 498). Wearing a large hat and glasses tinted a dark green, he moves about the street with greetings of â€Å"Hey now!†(Ellison 485) and â€Å"daddy-o†(Ellison 484). He immerses himself into a youthful lifestyle with no prior knowledge of how it operates. His resemblance to Rinehart is advant ageous because it allows him to travel safely from place to place while in hiding from â€Å"â€Å"The Brotherhood†Ã¢â‚¬ . The invisible man moves through his life never really living for himself but for others. In addition, to adopting the behaviors expected of him, he also adopts the personalities of others. Both of these practices strengthen the idea that he is invisible â€Å"simply because people refuse to see† (Ellison 3) him because there really is not a concrete personality to see. Though the invisible man lives a life of emulation for some time, he eventually retreats from others to discover his identity. The invisible man’s first step to living a personally fulfilling life was realizing that his â€Å"future lies chiefly in his own hands†(Vanzant 1/15). Consequently, if he does not know what to identify himself with he will not control his future. To have an established identity one’s self-image, self-esteem and confidence must be asses sed and developed. Secondly he learns that â€Å"identification with an organization or a cause is no substitute for self-realization† (Vanzant4/29). He realizes that his relationship to â€Å"The Brotherhood† and his role in their activities was insignificant. He excepts the fact that he was not really a part of the group, but more so someone that ran errands. In addition, the invisible man discovers â€Å"In the solitude of your mind are the answers to all your questions about life. You must take the time to ask and listen†(Vanzant 1/17). This is seen when he says â€Å"I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer.† (Ellison 15). Taking time to think about morals, values and basic characteristics can prove useful in determining the qualities, which a person would like to exemplify. Knowing what he stands for will allow him to make better judgments in the future. In due time, he will begin to make judgments based on what his morals, ideas, and values reflect. â€Å"Nothing can dim the light which shines from within†(Vanzant 2/5), when you have a positive self-image you exude a confidence that surpasses even the most negative comments and corrupted situations. The invisible man begins to look at himself positivelyâ€Å"We must not wish to be anything but what we, are and to be that perfectly†(Vanzant 1/7). When we are satisfied with whom we are then we can begin to accomplish things. As the invisible man’s self-esteem increases so does his self-confidence. When someone begins to construct who they are they must realize that â€Å"If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With no confidence, you have won even before you have started†(Vanzant 2/7). The invisible man develops a self-definition, which makes him â€Å"visible† to others. READ: The Failures of Affirmative Action EssayFurthermore, retreating underground was the best decision the invisible man made. Underground is where he finally realizes that he has no identity â€Å"is the way it has always been† (Ellison 566) and that his life was merely a farce. He realizes that other people controlled his whole life: from his grandfather’s death; to driving Mr. Norton; to being expelled from college by Dr. Bledsoe; to being a member of â€Å" â€Å"The Brotherhood†. He understands that he was never given a chance to think for himself and develop an identity befitting him: My problem was that I always tried to go in everyone’s way but my own. I have also been called one thing and then another while no one really wished to hear what I called myself. So after many years of trying to adopt the opinion of others I finally rebelled. (Ellison 573)After years and years of portraying others thoughts and beliefs he accepts â€Å"That I am nobo dy but myself.†(Ellison 15). It took him years to understand that some people live their whole life never knowing who they are and he was one of those people. Happy and content with his subterraneous lifestyle the invisible man begins to live a life true to himself. Invisible Man is a dynamic novel that many people can relate to today. Myriads of people are on a continuous search for their identity and purpose. This process has been conquered by some; however, many never discover or develop to their full potential. The lesson of this novel, however, is that seeking a strong self-definition is essential, while keeping in mind to not let outside agents determine that definition. This novel is one that I would recommend to all of my friends because while following the path that the invisible man takes to self-discover, I realized that many of us are on the same trail of discovery. Invisible Man highlights and emphasizes the significance in having a strong self-identity to live a productive and satisfying life.

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Affects of the Cold War on the Middle East Essay - 1

Affects of the Cold War on the Middle East - Essay Example The effects of the Cold War on the socio-political affairs in the Middle East were very diverse and discursive in nature due to a number of economic, historical, political and religious causes such the Arab-Israel antagonism, the overt anti-religious nature of Communism, the vast reserve of furnace oil in the Middle Eastern countries, the non-democratic and most likely monarchic political systems in those countries during the Cold War and Islam as the religion of the majority of the people in the Middle East. Since most of the political governments of the Middle East were non-democratic and, to a great extent, monarchic after the Second World War up to 2000, the then rulers were forced to take shelter either in the US block or the Soviet in order to survive in the countries’ power with the support of any of the two superpowers. Also due to the vast reserve of oil, the Middle Eastern countries were strategically important for both of the superpowers. Therefore, the rulers of th ese countries needed backings of any of these two superpowers against the expansionist invasions of the others. Before the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan, the Arab countries were more or less neutral, though because of being geographically close to the Soviet Union and the overt US support for Israel in this region, the countries were more influenced by the Soviet Leaders. Because of the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan, the countries were alarmed; they began to feel the threat from the Soviet Union’s aggressive nature.

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Operational Analysis and Effectiveness (essay 2) Essay

Operational Analysis and Effectiveness ( 2) - Essay Example How an operations manager handles these challenges is manifested through a combination of the following four competitive priorities: cost, quality, time and flexibility. The optimal goal of any operations manager is to achieve low-cost operations in terms of cost. With regards to quality the objective is to develop high-performance designs and to manufacture quality products consistently. The operations manager’s time priority seeks rapid new product development, and on-time and reliable delivery of products. Finally, the priority of flexibility is to achieve mass customization albeit with flexible production volume capacity to profitably meet the changing consumer demands. In meeting the challenges facing operations management today, we find that the two key drivers are the role of information and of information technology within the firm and externally to it with the organizations that it has relationships with. Vonderembse and Tracey (1999) argue that more communication and interactions with suppliers, customers, and other functional areas within the firm are needed to ensure that capabilities, both internal and external, are employed in w ays that enhance overall performance. In this report we shall address the issue of how an operations manager should go about optimizing the operations and production of a manufacturing plant in the situation where the plant has too many suppliers which is causing major problems in terms of delivery levels; quality of products and raw materials; production scheduling and eventually to customer satisfaction. This problem is best resolved using the supply chain management concept found in operations management. With the advent of modern technology, manufacturing processes have become so sophisticated that a single quality characteristic cannot reflect the true product quality (Pana, Panb & Lee 2009). Management is responsible for developing, organizing, and

Monday, August 26, 2019

Contemporary Issues in Accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Contemporary Issues in Accounting - Essay Example Around the world, governments (typically following the lead of practice) have begun to take notice, putting new disclosure regulations on the book. Despite these new regulations, significant questions remain about whether, and, possibly more importantly, how corporate disclosures about their social, environmental, and economic practices should evolve." (Corporate Disclosure of Social and Environmental Data Mandatory Vs Voluntary. 2004). If a particular organization is operating with an appropriate emphasis on its environmental issues, it means that it is focused on sustainability as well as the well being of the particular society in which the organization exists. Nowadays, the accounting system requires the disclosure of environmental facts in respect of financial accounting reports. The main purpose of preparing the financial accounting report is that to provide useful information about the business to its ultimate users. Such categories of users shall be owners, shareholders, investors, employees, suppliers, creditors and the public as a whole. Moreover, the report so made should be more relevant, it should possess the quality of materiality, accuracy and comparability. Environmental performance and economics measurements relate to a certain extent, as far as the accounting policies and reporting procedures are taken in to consideration. "Environmentally driven innovation can create shareholder value by lowering cost, improving production processes and service delivery, and helping to find new markets. Increased process efficiency is an example of a proven sustainability strategy for decreasing cost and adding revenue, there by improving profitability." (Slater and Gilbert 2004). The users of accounting reports should have a thorough knowledge about the changes that take place within the organization as well as in matter of accounting standard context. The accounting report should disclose the environmental performances, for the purpose of easily identifying and evaluating whether the organization is running as per the requirements of the society. Moreover, this helps to develop the reputation of the organization by comparing various environmental data obtained from the annual accounts of the company. "Investors and users of financial statements need information about the impact of environmental risks and liabilities on the financial position of the company, as well as the company's attitude towards the environment and its environmental performance, to the extent that these factors may have consequences for the financial health and performance of the company. Regulatory authorities have an interest in monitoring the application of environmental regulations by companies and the costs incurred as a result. But companies' voluntary disclosure of environmental data in annual accounts and annual reports is low. Users of annual reports have an interest in ascertaining to what extent environmental protection is an integral part of the company's policies and activities and what costs and benefits are associated." (Accounting: Commission issues Recommendation on environmental issues in companies' annual accounts a

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Market Plan Group Project Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Market Plan Group Project - Assignment Example The process of how it cools, and how it warms the food should be well explained (Baaghil, 2010). There should be the product itself. The product description should have its functionality, its purpose and its activities. This is a combo product with two main functions. It is a freezer, as well as an oven. One important feature that makes this combination worth having by the consumer is its ability to warm food at a specific set time. Branding should also consider the perception of the product. This is the overall look and feel from the target audience’s view. Consumers will always consider culture’s trends and tastes when it comes to perceptions of new products. This autocookerator, has the advantage since similar products like it are already in the market. It belongs to the new trend of innovation in home automation; specifically, kitchen automation. This also forms part of the brand identity. It belongs to the automation category of home automation appliances (Baaghil, 2010). Brand position and culture: this product will be placed first after work. After work, most people would think of going back home cooking dinner. Even when in fun clubs or short breaks, people will always think of what to have for dinner. It therefore, seeks to be first after work. This information is very important for advertising; when advertising, the most appropriate time to influence consumers’ thoughts is after work. In the consumer market most manufacturers are building ‘smart’ home appliances. This is done based on market research results with the hope that these appliances will enable interaction with the owners, connection to smartphones, interaction with a repairman, interaction with each other, and even negotiation with the power company over rates. The manufacturers are focused on a more an efficient way of dealing with home appliances. This already development

Starting with approximately 1900 and going to the present, how has Essay - 2

Starting with approximately 1900 and going to the present, how has international relations changed over this period Identify the major changes. What do you think are the main causes of those changes - Essay Example This war changed the concept of sovereignty, concept of national interests, nature of international conflicts and means of achieving an end to conflicts. The first major change in international relations was changes in politico-geographic settings. The global politico-geographical environments have changed from the settings of the 1900s. Powerful countries such as England, Germany and France were involved in the division of continents in order to advance their interests (Griffiths and O’Callaghan 45). After the first and second world wars, these countries were faced with a challenge of managing their colonies. As the colonizers left their colonies, the emerging countries began to assert their influence. In addition, the political-geographic settings have changed because of exponential growth in global population. Before the First World War, Europe decided on the issues of global peace and war. European countries such as Germany, England, France, Portugal and Italy had the influential powers to determine the future of the world. International was dominated and centered in Europe. The Second World War led to a change in political dynamics after Italy, Germany and Japan were defeated. The international centers of political power shifted from their European base to the U.S and Russia. The European powerhouses were weakened and could no longer maintain and manage their overseas colonies. Because of decolonization, several states emerged in Africa and Asia. This also introduced a new dynamic in international relations because the number of member states to the United Nations increased from 51 to 155 (Griffiths and O’Callaghan 162). The character of current international relations was influenced by these changes. Currently, all states insist on active participation in international relations . The second major change in international relations is the democratization of

Saturday, August 24, 2019

In the Lizzie Borden trial, you will write the summation for both the Essay

In the Lizzie Borden trial, you will write the summation for both the prosecution and the defense - Essay Example Thus the trial started. However, the prosecution team led by District Attorney Knowlton and Thomas Moody  failed to prove their evidences to have sufficient value against the defense team’s presentations. The different evidences that the prosecution had to present before the jury included a blue dress that Lizzie had tried to burn, as said by witness, Alice Russell, followed by the contradictory statements made by Lizzie, the statement of the maid who had seen Lizzie in the blue dress, as well as Lizzie being the only person present in the home when the murders took place. The prosecution team also tried to focus on the fact that the relation between Lizzie and her step-mother, who was one of the victims, was not good. Witnesses had provided mixed responses in this regard while one was supporting a good relation and others clearly mentioning that Lizzie herself did not bother to accept her as her mother. Moreover, the team had got proofs that before the murder had taken plac e, Lizzie was found to purchase prussic acid that acts like a poison in the human body (Linder). Witnesses had also made statements for the team of prosecution stating that Lizzie was worried for her father and his wellbeing and that after the murders; Lizzie had doubts over the tenants with whom her father supposedly had some issues. Even regarding the dress that Lizzie had burnt, she had given an explanation that the dress was covered with paints. The prosecution team had tried to focus on the above mentioned issues and determine that Lizzie could be the only person who could be responsible for the murder of her parents. Her purchase of the poison, her being the only person present during the time of the murders, her not being able to explain about the whereabouts of her mother, her burning a dress, as well as her providing the investigation team

Friday, August 23, 2019

Sales Management - Roll Play Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Sales Management - Roll Play - Assignment Example Do the customers like your products? Do you have a variety of the golden jewelry? Based on your answers, I feel we can have a very productive discussion in so far as the golden jewelry products are concerned. Are you available on Friday for a brief presentation of about 10 to 15 minutes where I can give more insights into the products we deal with and have an extensive discussion together concerning the product? (The sales person is in the pre-approach stage). Sales person: It is my pleasure and once more I come from a Goldenberg investment company and we deal in jewelries made of gold. One of the major characteristics of the products we deal with is that they are genuine and original. Sales person: Wow! That is a very good question. The jewelries that we seek to provide for your company are unique and rare in the market. The various jewelries are modeled to suite everyone’s needs though they are fashionable and offers versatility to a greater extent. On the other hand, the jewelries are unisex in the sense that either of the gender can use them (Husain, 1). Sales person: Thanks once more for the question. When we offer the products to you, we will offer three months sales services to the company through our marketing vast marketing system. We will also recommend your company to a number of our know customers and retailers and sales boosting

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Thomas Hardys Beeny Cliff and After Essay Example for Free

Thomas Hardys Beeny Cliff and After Essay Two poems that discuss moments or situations where life can be celebrated are Thomas Hardys Beeny Cliff and After reading in a letter proposals for building a cottage (Cottage) by John Clare. The poets particularly discuss the beauty of life with regards to the natural world around them and their thoughts on interaction with other people. Nature and features of animals and plants play a large role in these poems displaying their love of life. In the first stanza of Cottage it is mentioned that grass plats grace the door. The use of the word grace is of significance here as this suggests that he feels that his home has been blessed with the presence of nature; or that at least he welcomes it. The positive impact of nature is also evident in the first stanza of Beeny Cliff as he describes the opal and the sapphire of that wandering western sea. The sea being described with the appearance of precious and beautiful gemstones shows he is impressed by it, as well the alliteration and personification of wandering western which rolls off the tongue paints an affectionate picture of the ocean. There are many other positive natural references with John Clare describing his small enclosed garden, flowers that blossom sweet and the sweeping swallows; while Thomas Hardy mentions the clear- sunned March day and how the sun bursts out again. All of these natural events are ones that the poets obviously enjoy and they have both included them to show the positive image of the times they are writing about. The relationship between the poets and other people has great significance and shows great difference in the way that they enjoy life. From the poems we can deduced that Thomas Hardys time on Beeny Cliff was much better because of the presence of the woman; while John Clare seems to enjoy his time spent alone without much in the way of company. There are several points in the poem where this is suggested. From the first line of Cottage the shed is described as my shed. If this was shared with a partner or companion it would read our shed which suggests he is living alone. In the second stanza his door closes tight as wells as locks being a wanted thing to keep thieves out at night; which shows that he wants his cottage to be secure which may seem obvious but as he has dedicated an entire stanza to this, it shows that keeping people out is a priority. The bulk of the poem discusses the presence of nature with no mention of people which alludes to his feeling that nature is enough of a companion for him; while the penultimate stanza mentions a cupboard for the books showing off another pass time which allows him to be entertained without company. In an unusual way he is celebrating life because he is describing what would be a perfect existence to him which is one of little human contact while he can revel in literature and nature. This is of course in contrast to Beeny cliff which would be an entirely different poem without the presence of Hardys female companion. Whereas Clare describes the need to keep a distance between himself and others, Hardy uses his words in describing the woman, painting her as the woman riding high above with bright hair flapping free. We know that he has strong feelings towards her as in the first stanza he describes her as the woman who I loved so, and who loyally loved me. He also mentions that the woman now is-elsewhere, showing that unlike Clare he cares about not having company of other people. For further evidence of love for life in Cottage, ostensibly there is language such as I love summer seat and two uses of the word sweet. In terms of structure it is laid out in symmetrical four line stanzas which match the neat and perfect picture portrayed in the poem. However if you look deeper into the language there are some subtle religious references. For example the word grace in the first stanza is used which is referenced frequently in Christianity. As well as this the line pin to the wall with nails in the third stanza which may be referring to Jesus Christ being nailed to the cross. There are many other examples which may allude to having religious links. The book cupboard may be for a bible and in the last stanza when he says Ill thank ye for the gift he may be thanking god for nature or life. However these poems are by no means only stating that life is perfect. Some of the images created show more negative themes such as how nature turns sour and the woman appears to leave Thomas hardy in Beeny Cliff as well as how John Clares images of solitude and desire control nature could be considered dark and abrasive. However yet another U-turn could be made and opinion could lie in the vein that these slightly darker elements could create a piece of work that resembles real life in the way that life is never perfect. Perhaps many positive images combined with some negative ones shows that life should be celebrated because of its challenges.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

The Meaning of Life -Opinion Essay Example for Free

The Meaning of Life -Opinion Essay My beliefs on the meaning of life in religion and interpretation of such things. In approaching the question of the meaning of life we have to examine the nature of meaning itself. Meaning, is by definition the point, or the intended goal. Consider the point of humans and the universe as seen from monotheistic religion. If life and the universe is some sort of toy or form of entertainment for some greater being, his point, his own entertainment, would then be the meaning of humans and the universe. Consider the goals of the deities of various cultures. Some strive for a balance between the forces of good and evil. This balance seems to simply be a choice of the deity, the way he thinks it ought to be. The concept of a greater being as a source of the meaning of life is flawed, because in talking about an actual point to absolutely everything, we are simply considering the goals of a being more powerful than ourselves who has chosen one of many possible goals that humans can conceive. This is to say that, if a god like this exists, his goal for life and the universe is not necessarily valid as a meaning of life, the universe, and himself. For instance, the Bible claims that the Christian deity created the universe and placed humans in it that they might be in awe of his power. If this is so, why is worship the correct response? The meaning of the universe as created by God is the entertainment of God, but what is the meaning of the larger system containing God and his creations? We could conceive of an even greater being, but that simply takes us all the way back into the wall of infinite regression. When I first read the Bible, it struck me as neutral on the idea of worship. The Bible flat out tells you that God created humans so that they would be in awe of him, which amounts to saying God created us to inflate his ego. We are to God as our pets are to ourselves, sources of unconditional love. In the book of Job, God essentially makes a gentlemans bet with Satan that Jobs worship is genuine and not inspired by Gods kindness. In other words, you throw a rock at my dog and Ill swing my arm so it looks I threw it, and well see if he still comes when I call him. In the end, Job is not simply the dog, because he questions Gods throwing of the rock. Gods response is consistent with his goal of inspiring awe. Even though the idea of a bet with Satan is well within Jobs grasp, God claims that his purpose was inconceivable to Job. God is simply fortifying the concept that is critical to the continuance of human worship: that with inconceivable power comes incredible intelligence and unknowable purpose. The narrator of the Bible, which is supposedly God himself, speaking through humans, never directly says that he should be worshipped. This is merely the interpretation of humans, who may be created in Gods image with one crucial difference, the need to worship. Perhaps then, God is after the meaning of life. Imagine a being so powerful as to be able to create and mold the universe, who, like Roman and Greek gods, is only marginally more intelligent than his creations. Perhaps God, in all his ridiculous power, cannot change himself. In order to find the meaning of his own existence he creates the human race so that we might evolve to an intelligence greater than his own, in much the same way that a computer programmer wishes to create true AI, an intelligence greater than human, which might evolve within a computer. We are given the title of pet and the instinct of worship while the creator waits for a companion in the search for meaning. Of course this is wrong, or I would have been struck by a lightning bolt during that last sentence and brought to Gods side. Or perhaps God is not aware of his own success yet, or perhaps I am not the first to uncover Gods purpose, and my predecessor is debating meaning with God as we speak. Or perhaps I am intended to continue to search from the perspective that has proved so useful. In any case, this may amount to Christianity being a giant misunderstanding. At the very least, it means I can walk up to a Christian, tell him I believe in God and everything in the Bible, and ask him what the candles and the cathedrals are for. Back again to the one and only point: if a meaning exists it is not necessarily the purpose of our creation or existence. It has a larger scope, and can refer to the meaning of the existence of the being or force creating us, if such a force exists. This whole essay may seem simply a chance to bash Christianity and give intelligence even more of a right to inspire ego. Yet is it not the egotistical nature that is present in celebrating the most God-like trait in man, his intelligence, more forgivable and less blinding than the egotististical nature of comparing the meaning of ourselves to the meaning of the universe?

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Nestle Marketing Plan Analysis

Nestle Marketing Plan Analysis Nestlà © S.A. is the largest nutrition and foods company in the world, founded and headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. Nestlà © originated in a 1905 merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, which was established in 1866 by brothers George Page and Charles Page, and the Farine Lactà ©e Henri Nestlà © Company, which was founded in 1866 by Henri Nestlà ©. The company grew significantly during the First World War and following the Second World War, eventually expanding its offerings beyond its early condensed milk and infant formula products. Today, the company operates in 86 countries around the world and employs nearly 283,000 individuals. Nestlà © S.A. is the largest food and beverage company in the world. With a manufacturing facility or office in nearly every country of the world, Nestlà © often is referred to as the most multinational of the multinationals. Nestlà © markets approximately 7,500 brands organized into the following categories: baby foods, breakfast cereals, ch ocolate and confectionery, beverages, bottled water, dairy products, ice cream, prepared foods, foodservice, and pet care. Nestlà © is often referred to as the most multinational of the multinationals with a manufacturing facility or office in nearly every country of the world. Nestlà © markets approximately 7,500 brands organized into the following categories: baby foods, breakfast cereals, chocolate and confectionery, beverages, bottled water, dairy products, ice cream, prepared foods, foodservice, and pet care. Nestle is a decentralized organization where responsibility for operating decisions is delegated to local units, which have a high degree of autonomy concerning pricing, distribution, marketing, etc. Nestle is organized into seven different worldwide strategic business units (SBUs). These have responsibility for high-level strategic decisions and engage in overall strategic business development, including acquisitions and market entry strategy. There is a regional organization that divides the world into five major geographical zones, such as Europe, North America, etc. The regional organizat ions are responsible for developing regional strategies and assist in the overall strategy development process. However, neither SBU nor regional manager gets involved in local operating decisions. Research and Development department is rather important for the company. Nestle spends around 1 percent of its annual sales revenue on RD and has 3,100 employees dedicated to this function. The RD function comprises eighteen different groups, which operate in eleven countries all over the world. For more than 30 years, consumers have been enjoying the healthy benefits of BEAR BRAND Filled Milk Powder. But now, Nestle has introduced a great innovation. Nestle has launched BEAR BRAND CHOCO. Moms and kids are the target market for this new product. Aside from its irresistible chocolatey taste, BEAR BRAND CHOCO has the goodness of milk. Just like BEAR BRAND Filled Milk Powder, it is fortified with resistance-building Zinc and Vitamin C. These are essential nutrients that help fight sickness and fatigue. Company Perspectives: Quality is the essential ingredient in all brands and the reason why millions of people choose Nestlà © products every day. Nestles consumers have come to trust in Nestlà ©s commitment to excellence and turn to Nestlà © brands to maintain nutritional balance in a fast paced world. Marketing Plan of Nestle In todays very competitive marketplace a strategy that insures a consistent approach plays an important role. It offers products and services to be competitive. However, marketing strategy must have a well defined methodology for the day to day process of implementing it. It is of little value to have a strategy if there is lack either in resources or the expertise to implement it. Marketing strategy must address some unique considerations. However, many are common to all marketing strategies. Marketing plan of nestle consists of the following framework: Purpose and Mission Situational Analysis Marketing Strategy and Objectives Additional Consideration This marketing plan is aimed at highlighting one of the product line extensions of Nestles. It mainly focuses on the internal and external environment of Nestle. Apart from that, this plan include the marketing strategies, brand promotion strategies, marketing mix involved and competitive strategies adopted by Nestle. SWOT analysis one of the major content which is included in this marketing plan. SWOT analysis helps in finding out the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. Apart from that it helps the organization to have a deep knowledge about the opportunities and threats which the organization is likely to face. Purpose and Mission The main purpose of this marketing plan is to analyze various aspects of product-line extension by Nestle. Here the chosen product-line extension is BEAR BRAND CHOCO. The mission of this plan is to find out whether this product-line extension has met Nestle-Corporations expectations before launching this product in the market. Situation Analysis To bring this product, Nestle has applied a lot of innovation in their existing production pattern keeping in view the tastes and preferences of target group mainly kids and moms. Kids mainly prefer tasty food and moms want their kid to be healthy. So, BEAR BRAND CHOCO is a mix of both taste and health. Thus, this product is creating value to its target group. Internal environment of Nestle Nestle has well satisfied employees, who strives to attain the goals of the organization with enthusiasm and hard work. They constitute a major part of internal environment of an organization. Resources of Nestle have been efficiently employed to the maximum extent. Nestle has created satisfaction among customer. Thus, it has a good reputation among customers. Nestle has good expertise who are capable of delivering their ideas which can achieves the organizations goals and objectives. External environment of Nestle Competition: Nestle is facing competition largely. Nestle has played a good role in facing the competition. Market: Nestle has very efficiently managed the market demand by proper market research. Technology: Nestle has adopted the best technology to produce its products. Thus, all these above mentioned aspects clearly indicate the internal and external environment in which Nestle has been situated. While launching a new product Nestle has to keep in mind all these environments. Nestle has to fore see the environment by adopting the opportunities which is prevailing in the environment. Nestle has to put effort in converting its weaknesses into opportunities and using strength to face the threats present in the environment. Marketing Strategies International Strategies adopted by Nestle: Nestlà ©s strategy has been to acquire local companies in order to form a group of autonomous regional managers who know more about the culture of the local markets than Americans or Europeans. Nestlà © has employed a wide-area strategy for Asia that involves producing different products in each country to supply the region with a given product from one country. For example, Nestlà © produces soy milk in Indonesia, coffee creamers in Thailand, soybean flour in Singapore, candy in Malaysia, and cereal in the Philippines, all for regional distribution. Another strategy that has been successful for Nestlà © involves striking strategic partnerships with other large companies. In the early 1990s, Nestlà © entered into an alliance with Coca Cola in ready-to-drink teas and coffees in order to benefit from Coca Colas worldwide bottling system and expertise in prepared beverages. Nestle employ local staff. Local employees better know and understand the local culture and business procedures. This can result in a more efficient way to respond adequately to local demand conditions, therefore increasing the companys market share and profitability. Nestlà ©s strategy for business development Nestle enters in an early stage the emerging markets, in order to establish a network there before competitors. Nestle simply purchases local brand names which the consumer is accustomed to. This helps the company to overcome cultural barriers and customer resentments to foreign brands. Nestles strategy is to establish a basis and then expand into more niches as demand rises. Other strategies adopted by Nestle: Nestlà © established its expatriate army which is a group of about 700 managers who have a lot of experience in doing management activities in foreign countries. These managers are highly educated and trained in order to enable them a worldwide field of operations. Another approach is to form SBUs. These units formulate the high level strategic decisions on a worldwide basis, while each of these SBUs focuses on a specific segment: chocolate, infant food, cereals, coffee etc. Overall strategy development such as acquisition and market entry strategy these SBUs form an important part of the companys decision making and operating process. Nestlà ©s marketing mix includes the following: Product Price Promotion Place Product Nestle has launched BEAR BRAND CHOCO which is a health drink specially for kids and moms. Aside from its irresistible chocolatey taste, BEAR BRAND CHOCO has the goodness of milk. Just like your trusted BEAR BRAND Filled Milk Powder, it is fortified with resistance-building Zinc and Vitamin C. These are essential nutrients that help fight sickness and fatigue. BEAR BRAND CHOCO is nutritious and delicious with affordable price. Price Customers directly relate price to quality, particularly in case of products that are ego intensive of technology based. Nestle, being a company that emphasizes product quality, it tends to sell its products with price affordable to all. Market Penetration Strategy Nestle has adopted market penetration strategy since they have to penetrate the market as much as possible and for them income is not so critical and rapid market penetration for eventual market control is desired Thus, the price for such product is very low. BEAR BRAND CHOCO is a budget friendly pack available in different pack size. BEAR BRAND CHOCO comes in two pack sizes, namely the 300g pack, which is good for 10 servings and the 60g pack, which contains 2 servings. A serving only costs P7.50*. Promotion Nestle is mainly focusing on advertisements which is considered to be a very good medium of promotion. It has a good reach among the customers. Moreover Nestle has adopted various other modes of promotion like magazines etc. The Push Strategy maximizes the use of all available channels of distribution to push the offering into the marketplace. The Pull Strategies involves direct interface with the consumers. It focuses in advertisement rather than various channels of distribution. Thus, Nestle is focusing on both Pull and Push Strategy. Place Nestle has targeted almost all the areas including rural areas and urban areas. In almost all the super-market and all other out-lets Nestle products are available. All the customers seem to be very happy with the availability of Nestle product in the market. Addition Consideration Based on the above mentioned information, a critical SWOT analysis can be made with the help of available information. SWOT analysis helps an organization to understand their strengths and weaknesses and also to have an idea about what the opportunities available to them outside and what are the likely threats they can face in future. Strengths Global food producer, located in over 100 countries. Consistently one of the worlds largest producers of food products, with sales in the USA in 2008 of $10 billion; sales and earnings in 2008 were better than expected, even in a downturned economy. Repeatedly ranked as the worlds largest bottled water company and have set up facilities to operate water resources in a responsible manner. Nestlà © was named one of Americas Most Admired Food Companies in Fortune magazine for the twelfth consecutive year. Nestlà © provides quality brands and products and line extensions that are well-known, top-selling brands including: Lean Cuisine, Yoplait, Maggi, Dryers/Edys, Haagen-Dazs, Stouffers, Boost, Dibs, Hot Pockets. Chocolate and Candy: Kit Kat, Toll House, Butterfinger, Baby Ruth, Crunch Bar, the Willy Wonka Candy line. Pet Products: Purina, Alpo, Cat Chow, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Tidy Cat. Drinks: Carnation, Perrier, Nesquik, S. Pellegrino, Nescafe, CoffeeMate, Tasters Choice, Juicy Juice. General Mills: subsidiary which makes Betty Crocker, Bisquick, Hamburger Helper, Pillsbury, Old El Paso, cereals, fruit snacks, frozen pizza, canned soups, frozen vegetables, ready-made frozen meals. Gerber: baby formula, prepared baby foods, baby cereals, water, juice, yogurt, foods for infants, toddlers and preschoolers. Professional brands sold to restaurants, colleges, hotels, and food professionals including Jenny Craig meals, Impact liquid meals for trauma patients, liquid meals for diabetics, and OptiFast weight loss products. Successful due in part to their unquestionable ability to keep major brands consistently in the forefront of consumers minds (and in their shopping carts) by renovating existing product lines, keeping major brands from slipping into saturation/decline and having superior access to distribution channels. Weaknesses Their LC-1 division was not as successful as they thought it would be in France. In the late 1980s, Dannon entered the market with a health-based yogurt, and become the top selling brand of yogurt; Nestlà ©s 1994 launch was behind the product life cycle curve in an already mature market and could not compete against a strong, established brand. Growth in their organic food sales division was flat in 2008, even though the industry grew 8.9%. Since 2004 the breakfast cereal industry has been under fire from the FDA and the American Medical Association, both of which say that false claims of heart healthy and lower cholesterol need to be removed from packaging and advertising. They have also been forced to reduce the amount of sugar in their products, as parents advocates groups claimed they were contributing to the diabetes epidemic among American children. General Mills is an experienced, established brand and are the market leader in the USA, however, they have been lacking in innovation, have not cashed in on the booming health food craze and have been behind in creating new, niche products, especially in their yogurt division, where Yoplait is the only brand making a profit. In 2008, although their products did not carry the recalled pistachios, several of their ice cream brands, Dryers, Edys and Haagen-Dazs, were still plagued with bad PR and loss of sales. Opportunities In todays health conscious societies, they can introduce more health-based products, and because they are a market leader, they would likely be more successful. Provide allergen free food items, such as gluten free and peanut free. They launched a new premium line of higher cacao content chocolates dubbed Nestlà © Treasures Gold, in order to cash in on the recession economy in which consumers cut back on luxury goods, but regularly indulge in candy and chocolate. Americans want luxury chocolates, and high-end chocolate is immune to the recession (so far), because it is an inexpensive indulgence. Opened Nestlà © Cafà ©s in major cities to feature Nestlà © products. Threats Any contamination of the food supply, especially e-coli. Their Toll House brand cookie dough was recalled in March of 2009 because of e-coli. Outbreaks were linked to 28 states and the product had to be recalled globally. Nestlà © has yet to find out how this happened, and is still investigating. They were affected by the pet food recall in 2007, in which 95 different brands of dog and cat food was recalled due to contamination with rat poison. Also in 2007, FDA learned that certain pet foods were sickening and killing cats and dogs. FDA found contaminants in vegetable proteins imported into the United States from China and used as ingredients in pet food. Raw chocolate ingredient prices are soaring; dairy costs alone rose 50% in 2008, this cuts heavily into their profit margins and often gets passed on to consumers, by shrinking the packaging in a way that is almost unnoticeable-therefore the consumer is paying the same prices for less product. They have major competitors, like Hersheys, Cadbury-Schweppes (owned by Pepsi), Lindt and Ghirardelli, Kelloggs, Post, Starbucks, Beech-Nut, Quaker, Kraft Foods, Dannon, Del-Monte, Iams, Earths Best, Heinz, Frito-Lay (owned by Pepsi). Conclusion Nestle can earn greater return from its distinctive competencies, i.e. unique strengths that allow a company to achieve superior efficiency, quality, innovation and customer responsiveness. By applying those competencies, and the products they produce, to foreign markets where indigenous competitors lack similar competencies and products, Nestle can realize enormous returns. Furthermore, Nestle can take advantage of location economies. Location economies arise from performing a value creation activity in the optimal location for that activity, anywhere in the world. The optimal location for a value creating activity lowers the costs of value creation therefore helping the company achieve a low-cost position. Nevertheless, Nestle must evaluate basic entry decisions before entering an emergent market. The company has to make a choice among different foreign markets on the basis of their long-run profit potential. Nestle has to balance the benefits, costs. INDIVIDUAL CRITICAL REFLECTION Nestlà © S.A. is the largest nutrition and foods company in the world, founded and headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. Nestlà © originated in a 1905 merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, which was established in 1866 by brothers George Page and Charles Page, and the Farine Lactà ©e Henri Nestlà © Company, which was founded in 1866 by Henri Nestlà ©. Nestlà © is often referred to as the most multinational of the multinationals with a manufacturing facility or office in nearly every country of the world. Nestlà © markets approximately 7,500 brands organized into the following categories: baby foods, breakfast cereals, chocolate and confectionery, beverages, bottled water, dairy products, ice cream, prepared foods, foodservice, and pet care. Quality is the essential ingredient in all brands and the reason why millions of people choose Nestlà © products every day. Nestles consumers have come to trust in Nestlà ©s commitment to excellence and turn to Nestlà © brands to maintain nutritional balance in a fast paced world. Nestle has always delivered high quality products with reasonable prices and in different quantities and sizes. This tells us the way it is marketing its products. Even consumers from low level can have access to the product. This is one of the best features of Nestle. Even though, Nestle has undergone various problems in the past with regard to the contamination of food product which has created bad impression in the minds of the consumers and has affected its reputation in the market. Still Nestle has put great effort in overcoming all its pitfalls by developing products of high quality and good nutritional value. Following are the sources which clearly determine the way in which Nestle has delivered value to the customers: Nestle has well satisfied employees, who strives to attain the goals of the organization with enthusiasm and hard work. They constitute a major part of internal environment of an organization. Nestle has good expertise who are capable of delivering their ideas which can achieves the organizations goals and objectives. Nestle has very efficiently managed the market demand by proper market research. Nestle has adopted the best technology to produce its products. Nestle has made available their products in all most all the geographic areas of the world. Suggestions for Nestle to have improvement in delivering the value to customer: Nestle can have improvement in its RD department, so that the products produced by them are efficient to satisfy the needs of the consumers and deliver maximum value to the consumers. Nestle should have a through market research and identify the changing pattern in the market so that it can ensure greater value to its customers. Nestle should strive to produce environmental friendly products which are totally harmless and are capable of giving value to customers. Applying the above mentioned suggestion help Nestle to create a good reputation in the market and deliver greater value to the customers. Value created by advertisement Advertisement plays an important role in promotion of products. It creates a direct link between the product and end users and there by deliver a long lasting impact on consumers. Consumers can feel the products with the help of advertisements. They can understand the feature of the products before buying. Nestle has used both channels of distributions and advertisement for the promotion and distribution of the products. Nestlà ©s marketing mix includes the following: Product Price Promotion Place Product Nestle has launched BEAR BRAND CHOCO which is a health drink specially for kids and moms. Aside from its irresistible chocolatey taste, BEAR BRAND CHOCO has the goodness of milk. Just like your trusted BEAR BRAND Filled Milk Powder, it is fortified with resistance-building Zinc and Vitamin C. These are essential nutrients that help fight sickness and fatigue. BEAR BRAND CHOCO is nutritious and delicious with affordable price. Price Customers directly relate price to quality, particularly in case of products that are ego intensive of technology based. Nestle, being a company that emphasizes product quality, it tends to sell its products with price affordable to all. Market Penetration Strategy Nestle has adopted market penetration strategy since they have to penetrate the market as much as possible and for them income is not so critical and rapid market penetration for eventual market control is desired Thus, the price for such product is very low. BEAR BRAND CHOCO is a budget friendly pack available in different pack size. BEAR BRAND CHOCO comes in two pack sizes, namely the 300g pack, which is good for 10 servings and the 60g pack, which contains 2 servings. A serving only costs P7.50*. Promotion Nestle is mainly focusing on advertisements which is considered to be a very good medium of promotion. It has a good reach among the customers. Moreover Nestle has adopted various other modes of promotion like magazines etc. The Push Strategy maximizes the use of all available channels of distribution to push the offering into the marketplace. The Pull Strategies involves direct interface with the consumers. It focuses in advertisement rather than various channels of distribution. Thus, Nestle is focusing on both Pull and Push Strategy. Place Nestle has targeted almost all the areas including rural areas and urban areas. In almost all the super-market and all other out-lets Nestle products are available. All the customers seem to be very happy with the availability of Nestle product in the market. Thus, Nestle has a good marketing mix, in which each component is capable of delivering value to the customers to the maximum extent. Marketing Strategies International Strategies adopted by Nestle: Nestlà ©s strategy has been to acquire local companies in order to form a group of autonomous regional managers who know more about the culture of the local markets than Americans or Europeans. Nestlà © has employed a wide-area strategy for Asia that involves producing different products in each country to supply the region with a given product from one country. For example, Nestlà © produces soy milk in Indonesia, coffee creamers in Thailand, soybean flour in Singapore, candy in Malaysia, and cereal in the Philippines, all for regional distribution. Another strategy that has been successful for Nestlà © involves striking strategic partnerships with other large companies. In the early 1990s, Nestlà © entered into an alliance with Coca Cola in ready-to-drink teas and coffees in order to benefit from Coca Colas worldwide bottling system and expertise in prepared beverages. Nestle employ local staff. Local employees better know and understand the local culture and business procedures. This can result in a more efficient way to respond adequately to local demand conditions, therefore increasing the companys market share and profitability. Nestlà ©s strategy for business development Nestle enters in an early stage the emerging markets, in order to establish a network there before competitors. Nestle simply purchases local brand names which the consumer is accustomed to. This helps the company to overcome cultural barriers and customer resentments to foreign brands. Nestles strategy is to establish a basis and then expand into more niches as demand rises. Other strategies adopted by Nestle: Nestlà © established its expatriate army which is a group of about 700 managers who have a lot of experience in doing management activities in foreign countries. These managers are highly educated and trained in order to enable them a worldwide field of operations. Another approach is to form SBUs. These units formulate the high level strategic decisions on a worldwide basis, while each of these SBUs focuses on a specific segment: chocolate, infant food, cereals, coffee etc. Overall strategy development such as acquisition and market entry strategy these SBUs form an important part of the companys decision making and operating process. Components of a professional marketing plan The Marketing Plan is a highly detailed, heavily researched and, hopefully, well written report that many inside and possibly outside the organization will evaluate. It is an essential document for both large corporate marketing departments and for startup companies. Essentially the Marketing Plan: Forces the marketing personnel to look internally in order to fully understand the results of past marketing decisions. Forces the marketing personnel to look externally in order to fully understand the market in which they operate. Sets future goals and provides direction for future marketing efforts that everyone within the organization should understand and support. Is a key component in obtaining funding to pursue new initiatives? The Marketing Plan is generally undertaken for one of the following reasons: Needed as part of the yearly planning process within the marketing functional area. Needed for a specialized strategy to introduce something new, such as new product planning, entering new markets, or trying a new strategy to fix an existing problem. Is a component within an overall business plan, such as a new business proposal to the financial community? In this project Following components are used: Purpose and Mission Situational Analysis Marketing Strategy and Objectives Additional Consideration Prior knowledge with regard to the learning outcomes If the market is very attractive and enterprise is one of the strongest in the industry you then the organization should invest best resources in support of their offering. If the market is very attractive and the enterprise is one of the weaker ones in the industry then it must concentrate on strengthening the enterprise, using their offering as a stepping stone toward this objective. If the market is not especially attractive, but the enterprise is one of the strongest in the industry then an effective marketing and sales effort for their offering will be good for generating near term profits. If the market is not especially attractive and the enterprise is one of the weaker ones in the industry then the organization should promote their offering only if it supports a more profitable part of your business or if it absorbs some of the overhead costs of a more profitable segment. Otherwise, the organization should determine the most cost effective way to divest the enterprise of this offering Comments on the learning process undergone While undergoing learning process, I was able to apply various concepts which were taught in the classrooms to the practical situations which Nestle has under went in their way of doing business. I could analyze the importance of various factors which were directly related to the success of the business like the appropriate mix of marketing components called product, price, promotion and place. I could relate various marketing concept which were studied in the text books like pull and push strategy and pricing strategies like price skimming and price penetration. I could understand the market mix in dept and it was a great experience to find out what happens when there is a slight change in the marketing mix of an organization. I could understand the strategies which Nestle has followed from time to time in order to sustain and gain competitive advantage. I could understand how organizations take strategic decisions in the long run and what the effects were if the strategic decision does not work well. Questions and answers with regard to the learning outcomes How will an organization develop a clear idea about the changes in the consumers change in tastes and preferences? Answer: An organization can have a clear idea of changes in the consumers tastes and preferences by having a detailed marketing research in all most all the aspects of market. How can an organization make changes in their marketing mix? Answer: An organization can make changes in their marketing mix by gaining a detailed idea about what consumers tastes and preferences are. How does an organization fix its pricing strategies? Answer: Organizations usually fix there prices as per the cost incurred to them plus the profit margin. Sometimes pricing strategy greatly depends on the target group for whom the product is produced. Thus, we can identify how different marketing functions and marketing concepts are inter-related and how a slight change in one affects the other.