Union revitalisation in Europe and North America Essay

Union revitalisation in Europe and North America - Essay Example Due to increased integration in EU and development of favorable legal infrastructure coupled with favorable governments allowed trade unions to grow and gain the influence within the region. In US, too, due to local as well as international factors, trade unions are gaining momentum again.Gradually as the shift occurred towards more service oriented industries supported by technological improvements, unions lost their traditional advantage because organizations were less reliant on the human force as the main source of producing goods and services. Unions are often considered as the source of low employee turnover which effectively helps organizations to concentrate on core issues rather than emphasizing on non-productive activities. Besides that, collective bargaining powers of unions provide them necessary influence and power to impact the performance of different productivity variables within organizations.There has been counter argument to this also which suggests that the produc tivity and presence of unions are negatively related with each other and as such unions do not contribute towards the productivity of the organizations. This argument developed so strong that unions started to loose their traditional position as collective bargaining agents and as such the movements, generally, lost its significance and influence within the organizations and as agents of productivity and industrial relations.... Before analyzing the question of revitalization of the union activities within EU and North America, it is critical that a critical look at the relationship between the unions and economy and how both interact and influence each other. One of the most critical tasks performed by Unions is the compression of wage differentials in the economy. The collective bargaining power of the unions gives them an advantage to negotiate the wages with the employers, and empirically it has been evaluated that wages of those employees who is part of the unions enjoy higher wage rates than those who is not part of the union activities. It is within this context that it has been argued that unions tend to reduce the shareholder value because higher wages result into lower profits. As such union activities are therefore viewed within the perspective of agents which have negative influence over the wealth which shareholders may drive from organizations in an absence of union. This argument is further consolidated by the fact that unions often wield their power in a way which can halt the production activities due to their conflict with the management of the organizations on any issue. Such behavior and attitude tend to result in lost productivity due to stoppage of production activities. Unions also often tend to monopolize the power structures within the organizations and as such give unions power to regulate and modify the labor market therefore changing the basics of competition within economy. This monopolization of power gives unions power to influence the wage rates therefore effectively can increase the total costs for the firm which may result into lost competitiveness. As such the role of unions within the

Spring Festival Essay Example for Free

Spring Festival Essay Spring Festival is the most joyful festival in China, and it is also the day of a family member reuniting. Do you want to know that Chinese how to celebrate this festival? Putting the spring festival scrolls up, hanging the lanterns, having the reunion meals, having dumplings, sitting up late and waiting for the ring of the New Year are all the Spring Festival’s custom. All the activities contain the nice blessings and willing. For instance, eating fishes during the festival express that they hope they are abundant every year, and giving oranges and apples express lucky and safety. Before the New Year comes, the people completely clean the indoors and outdoors of their homes as well as their clothes, bedclothes and all their utensils. Then people begin decorating their clean rooms featuring an atmosphere of rejoicing and festivity. All the door panels will be pasted with Spring Festival couplets, highlighting Chinese calligraphy with black characters on red paper. The content varies from house owners wishes for a bright future to good luck for the New Year. Also, pictures of the god of doors and wealth will be posted on front doors to ward off evil spirits and welcome peace and abundance. Burning fireworks was once the most typical custom on the Spring Festival. People thought the spluttering sound could help drive away evil spirits. However, such an activity was completely or partially forbidden in big cities once the government took security, noise and pollution factors into consideration. As a replacement, some buy tapes with firecracker sounds to listen to, some break little balloons to get the sound too, while others buy firecracker handicrafts to hang in the living room. The Chinese character fu (meaning blessing or happiness) is a must. The character put on paper can be pasted normally or upside down, for in Chinese the reversed fu is homophonic with fu comes, both being pronounced as fudaole. Whats more, two big red lanterns can be raised on both sides of the front door. Red paper-cuttings can be seen on window glass and brightly colored New Year paintings with auspicious meanings may be put on the wall. People attach great importance to Spring Festival Eve. At that time, all family members eat dinner together. The meal is more luxurious than usual. Dishes such as chicken, fish and bean curd cannot be excluded, for in Chinese, their pronunciations, respectively ji, yu and doufu, mean auspiciousness, abundance and richness. After the dinner, the whole family will sit together, chatting and watching TV. In recent years, the Spring Festival party broadcast on China Central Television Station (CCTV) is essential entertainment for the Chinese both at home and abroad. According to custom, each family will stay up to see the New Year in. Waking up on New Year, everybody dresses up. First they extend greetings to their parents. Then each child will get money as a New Year gift, wrapped up in red paper. People in northern China will eat jiaozi, or dumplings, for breakfast, as they think jiaozi in sound means bidding farewell to the old and ushering in the new. Also, the shape of the dumpling is like gold ingot from ancient China. So people eat them and wish for money and treasure.

Walmart Business Analysis

Walmart Business Analysis Contents (Jump to) Walmart’s Current Strategy Organizational structure, culture, and control systems SWOT Analysis for Walmart Porter’s Five Analysis of Walmart Key Strategic Issues at Walmart Personal SWOT Analysis Financial Analysis of Walmart Recommendations Walmart store Inc. is not only the retail giant, but also is the largest grocery chain in the world. Walmart store Inc. was founded in 1962. Samuel Walton and his brother J.L. Walton open their first Walmart Discount City in Rogers, Arkansas (Walmart History, 2010). For Walmart store Inc., their common mission is: Save people money so they can live better (Walmart corporate, 2010). Compared with their main competitors such as Target and K mart, Walmarts 2009 sales were almost 50% more. Because of its giant size and buying power, Walmart can buy its products at very low prices, exchanging high purchase volumes for low cost then passing the savings onto its customers (Wikinvest Walmart, 2010). Walmart has 8,900 stores around the world in three different business segments of retail stores that including: Walmart stores, Sams Club and Walmart international. All of them offer different kinds of merchandises including electronic appliances, groceries, furniture, apparel and health beauty stuffs etc. For their business segment, they have over 54% of the companys stores are located in the United States, and the others international stores are mainly located in central and south America and China. The company mainly focuses on offering the lowest prices to attract its consumers. Walmart totally earned $408 billion revenue in 2010, increase 1% compare to 2009 (Wikinvest Walmart, 2010). In 2009, Walmart earned $255.7 billion in the domestic segment of the companys revenue. For Walmart stores segment are further categories into three different formats including: Supercenters, Discount stores and Neighborhood Stores. For the Sams club, it is the second largest membership-only retailer club ( Costco is the first largest membership-only retailer) in United States belong to Walmart Inc., their main customers mostly are offices, convenience stores, motels, restaurants and schools etc. (Wikinvest Walmart, 2010). For now, Walmart has total 3,121 international stores all over the world including in Mexico, Japan, Canada, China and countries in central and South America. However, recently Walmart begins to slow down their growth rate in the United State and turn their main focus onto its international stores to develop growth. For international stores locations altogether earned total $98.6 billion revenue in 2009, compared to the sales of 2008, is increased 9.1% (Wikinvest Walmart, 2010). Strategic History of the Industry The whole retail industry in the United States has over $4 trillion annual revenue. The main retail companies are including Walmart, Home Depot, Kroger, Costco, and Target. Some of the large companies dominate some retail sectors such as mass merchandisers and grocery stores, other sectors like auto dealers and convenience stores are fragmented. However, retail industry still has many small and specialty retailers are single-store operations (Hoover, 2011). The economy deeply affects the retail demand. In other words, retail demand depends on the economy. Many different kinds of economic factors such as job growth, recession, personal income, consumer confidence and interest rates can strongly affect consumer spending behavior. When during recessionary periods, the bad economy can affect the retail sales growth rate slow drastically or even sales revenue decline. While the retail spending grows rapidly when in the period of strong economy growth, for example consumers will spend more on grocery when they have more income. However, the rising interest rates will affect consumer purchase behavior and consumer ability to finance large amount of purchase such as purchasing cars (Hoover, 2011). Strategic History of Walmart Store Inc. In the early stage of strategic history for Walmart, they always unchanged their vision always low price for their customers. Until 1990s, Walmart announced that they planned to go global. They wanted to look for international markets for the reasons as following: First of all, Walmart has facing very strong competition in United States such as Target and K mart. These two firms had aggressive expanding their business and had started sharing Walmarts market share. Secondly, the market in the United States is already saturated; it was becoming difficult for the company to continue its growth rate. Thirdly, the US population is accounted for only 4% of the worlds population and if they want to expand their global market, China had the potential massive growth due to their huge population of over 1.3 billion people. The last reason is, globalization opened up new markets in China and created opportunities for discount stores such as Walmart (Walmarts Cost Leadership Strategy, 2004). On the other hand, Walmart is using the strategy that cooperates with local suppliers to purchase their products, even though the organizational culture is standardized with the home country. This strategy is not only use to the products purchasing, but also adapted to the local cultures and stores decoration and designed are also changed to meet local taste all around the world (Walmarts Cost Leadership Strategy, 2004). Organizational mission statement As we know, the mission statement for Walmart is every day low price. In order to insist their mission, Walmart implemented three approaches in the market. First, it increased the local purchasing in order to reduce the purchasing costs and also suit consumers needs in different places. Secondly, it maintained a good relationship with their suppliers, satisfied them by paying within 3-7 days during its initial years. Thirdly, it established distribution centers (DC) and computerized its management system to improve efficiency and reduce costs (ICFAI, 2005). Business Level Strategy For these several years, Walmart has been trying hard on expand its stores outside the United States. It through two different to expand their international business market: new store construction and acquisition. Acquisition strategy of supermarket chains had been a part of Walmarts entry and  store expansion strategy in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, China and Great Britain (The Walmart Puzzle, 2008). Over all, the Walmart strategies were including: multiple store segments, lower daily prices, lots of name-brand merchandise, reduce operating costs, emphasized customers satisfied service, wide selection products, disciplined expansion into new geographic markets, and using acquisition to enter foreign market (Walmart Store Inc., 2010). However, no matter Walmart are in which foreign country, their company vision always low prices is never changed. The companys low distribution costs and cost-efficient supply chain management are the big reasons why Walmart is so success and at the same time reduce the products prices. Walmart has get into distribution efficiency compare with their competitors because of its rural store locations. Current strategy for the major operations/functions of the company Current strategies for Walmart are including low costs, high volume, increase customer satisfaction and expansion strategy. Walmart creates name recognition and customer satisfaction, and combined the retailer with the reputation of offering the best prices. They also expand their new business segments to different sectors such as pharmacies, automotive repair, and grocery sales to increase their sales revenue. Expansion strategy: The company realized that building a new store will allow for increase market share value. After their success in the rural areas, Walmart moved to urban areas and then moved to surrounding areas. The expansion strategy made Walmart the number one retail store in the United States. As Walmart continue its expansion domestically, the firm decided to go international. Furthermore, Walmart realized that acquiring an existing retail firm is necessary for expand domestic and international markets. Therefore, Walmart by acquire retail store which enable to expand locally and internationally. Always low prices make customers live better strategy is believed the strongest strategy used by Walmart. The firm developed the idea of dealing directly with the manufacturer and with the power control by Walmart will enable it to get the best deal from the manufacturers and suppliers. Organizational structure, culture, and control systems Saving people money to help them live better was the mission for Walmart. Hence, Walmart negotiates different suppliers and understanding their cost structure in order to reduce the price. Walmart has to be certain that the manufacturers were doing their best to cut down costs. Also, Walmart believed in establishing a long-term relationship with their suppliers. Walmart had 129 distribution centers located at different locations all over the US. Over 80,000 items were stocked in these centers. Walmarts own warehouses directly supplied 85 percent of the inventory, as compared to 50-65 % for competitors. Shipping costs for Walmart is about 3 % which is lower than its competitors, 5%. The distribution centers ensured a steady and consistent flow of products to support the supply function (Walmarts Cost Leadership Strategy, 2004). Walmarts logistics infrastructure was its fast and successful transportation system. The distribution centers were serviced by more than 3,500 company owned trucks. To make its distribution process more efficient, Walmart also uses a logistics technique called cross-docking. In this system, the finished goods were directly picked up from the manufacturing plant from suppliers, and then directly supplied to the customers. The system reduced the handling and storage of finished goods, eliminating the role of the distribution centers and stores (Walmarts Cost Leadership Strategy, 2004). SWOT Analysis for Walmart Store Inc. (S)trengths Reputation Brand Name: Walmart is a powerful brand and pioneer in the retail industry with the wide spread network of stores. It has a reputation for low price, convenience and a wide range of products all in one store for customers. Walmart has captured about 10% of the retail market in the U.S. and continues to expand. Walmart stores continue to open all over the country making Walmart a household name. Walmart has also been widely acknowledged for its social responsibility actions. The company has donated to a variety of charitable organizations and has been accredited for bringing jobs and wealth to less developed communities. Offer Low Prices: Walmart uses its enormous size and buying power to pressure its suppliers into extremely low prices, offering orders of high volumes of merchandise in exchange for low prices. The good thing about Walmart is that its shifts the low cost advantage to customers and available the products at lower prices. It has loyal customer base because it meets the expectation of customer by always delivering the goods at lower prices at compare to its competitors. Expand Global Market: Walmart has aggressively expands its international market over the past few years and has experienced global expansion. For example its purchase of the United Kingdom based retailer ASDA. Technology: Technology is strength to Walmart with its inventory control system that was recognized as the most sophisticated in retailing. The technology linked all the stores to the headquarters and the companys distribution centers. It also enables the warehouse of which the goods are ordered, and direct the flow of goods to the store and proper shelves. Supply chain and logistics management: Supply chain and logistics management are one of the strengths of Walmart. This allows Walmart to utilize the Just- in-time inventory concept and avoid the pilling up inventory to save the extra cost for maintaining inventories in the warehouses. Human Resource: Walmart always keen to provide training to their employees to improve the customer service level. The firm hire locally, provides training programs for its employees. Walmart also gets its employees involve and encourage them to make use of words like: we, us, and ours. It also provides stock ownership and profit sharing with great contribution from the H. R of the firm. Walmart was named one of the best 100 firms to work for. Cross-docking inventory system: Using the cross-dock technique, Walmart was able to effectively leverage their logistical volume into a core strategic competency. Walmart operates an extensive satellite network of distribution centers serviced by company owned trucks. Its satellite network sends point of sale (POS) data directly to 4,000 vendors. Each register is directly connected to a satellite system sending sales information to Walmarts headquarters and distribution centers. (W)eaknesses Employee turnover: Walmart has high employee turnover which costs more money and time for company to train the new employee. Bad publicity: Walmart is currently facing a gender discrimination lawsuit. Their female employees accuses that they were discriminated against in matters regarding pay and promotions. And also, Their female managers were accounted for the minority group in the company. Lock of flexibility: Walmart sell very wide range kinds of products for example like clothes, food, pharmacy or stationary which lack of flexibility compare with other more focused competitors. Other competitors may have the ability to make changes and improve on a certain product lines when the needs of their customers change. Walmart, however, may have too much merchandise and not be able to focus in on sectors that need to be improved. Some products have poor quality: Although Walmart provides low price of products, however, customers sometimes complain about the poor quality of few products. Facing difficulty in International market: It is hard for Walmart to expand their business out of US to totally different countries all around the world. Moreover, Walmart has to facing different culture and customer behavior in different countries, for example Walmart facing difficulty to expand the market in China. (O)pportunities Customers: Because Walmart provides low price to their customers, so they are able to attract more customers. Furthermore, customers basically are able to purchasing everything in one store that satisfied their needs. Walmart 24 hours stores also satisfied their customers. Diversified store types: Walmarts different store types and new locations provide more opportunities to exploit new market. Stores diversified from local, small-based sites to large super centers. International Expansion: No doubt that continued expand the international market is a huge opportunity for Walmart. Walmarts oversea stores have experienced significant growth. There are actually tremendous opportunities for future growth in developing countries and Asian markets than in the United States such as China and India. Creating strategic alliances and licensing agreements with other global retailers are ways to move into different countries. (T)hreats Competition: Walmart faces different strong competitions locally and internationally. Walmart main competitors are including Kmart, Target, Carrefour and Costco wholesale. In 2010, the Net Profit Margin for Walmart is 3.59%, Target 4.22%, Costco wholesale 1.69%, Carrefour 0.38%, respectively (Hoovers, 2010). Target is Walmarts direct competitor in the US, offering a range of general merchandise in a similar store format (Wikinvest, 2010). Economy Recession: The revenue for Walmart is affected by economy recession. Good economy is an opportunity for great business, because customers will have more money to spend. If the economy is great, there will be more jobs and people will shop more. However, if the economy is bad, there will be fewer jobs and people will shop less. Also, with the high price of gasoline and its effect on the economy, Walmart will certainly be affected the most. Strategy imitation: Walmart strengthens its competitive advantage on low-cost products. Other competitors may imitate their low-cost strategy to take over their market shares. Low Brand Loyalty: In the retail industry, customers would like to choose the product with the lowest price. In other words, customers do not care about the brand or which retail stores, if Costco has the exactly same chips that sell cheaper than in the Walmart, then customers will choose to buy the chips in the Costco not Walmart. TOWS MATRIX STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES Reputation Brand Name Bad publicity Offer Low Prices Lock of flexibility Expand Global Market Some products have poor quality Technology Facing difficulty in International market Supply chain and logistics management Employee turnover Human Resource Cross-docking inventory system OPPORTUNITIES OPPORTUNITIES-STRENGTHS OPPORTUNITIES-WEAKNESSES Customers Build on its already efficient distribution system to further expand in the U.S and globally. Walmart should be awareness and strict to control of the quality of the product in order to keep their customers basis. Diversified Store Types Expand diversified store types to International market in order to increase profit in International market. Set higher employment standards through enhanced training to keep their employees have best performance. International Expansion Duplicated the successful delivery logistic management and the distribution centers into International market. Continue to build on cost efficient pricing and production due to expansion. Go into new markets and buy out their local retailers to gain market share. THREATS THREATS-STRENGTHS THREATS-WEAKNESSES Competition Buy raw materials or products from local suppliers to hold a better political status within the local community further to compete with their competitors. Human resource department should set a benefits long-term promotion program or standard and training program for their employees in order to decrease the employee turnover. Economy Recession Create their own brand of products and increase the quality of products in order to establish customers loyalty. Establish joint venture partnerships or long-term relationship with local retail companies to get the advantages in the International segment. Strategy imitation Develop strong RD and technology to enhance the competitive advantage and avoid imitation from other competitors. Low Brand Loyalty Five Forces Analysis for Walmart Store Inc. Threat of entrances Low The threat of new entrance in the grocery and discount retailer industry is very low. New entrants have to face with the strong low-price competition among exist giant retail companies like Walmart, Costco and Target. New entrants need to invest large amount of capitals to establish their brand recognition, service, and variety of product offerings that Walmart, Target, and others competitors continue to improve on each day. In addition, existing companies can drop prices lower in order to force a new competitor out of the market. Therefore, the threat of entrances is low. Power of buyer-High Customers have many choosing opportunities and consider about products very details. They want the product now and they want it with the best service, best quality and reasonable price. Customers also enjoy increasing choice of products and choose one product that has the best quality and better price. For example, if customers find out Target sells an exactly product that has better quality and price than Walmart, and then they will choose to buy it in Target instead of Walmart. Power of Suppliers   Low The bargaining power of suppliers is very low. Walmart is very famous on giving pressure to their suppliers to cut their price lower and lower in order to offer the lowest price to their customers. On the other hand, become the supplier of Walmart is a very fierce competition. In 2004, about 10,000 new suppliers applied to become Walmart vendors. However, only about 200, or 2%, were ultimately accepted by Walmart (Gwendolyn Bounds, The Wall Street Journal). Therefore, the bargaining power of suppliers is low. Rivalry High The competition in the US grocery and discount retailer industry is very high. The main competitors for Walmart in the local market are Kmart and Target. These companies also have to face competition from wholesalers such as BJs, Costco and even the international market such as Carrefour. Walmart has adopted a cost leadership generic strategy. In the past, most companies have not been able to match Walmarts strategy everyday low prices. However, Walmarts barrier to entry (economies of scale) and strength (supply-chain management) can be easily imitated with sufficient resources. Therefore, retailers are in a fierce competition that see who can offer their customers the lowest price. Threat of substitute Low The threat of substitutes in this industry is low because only few companies have ability to offer such a variety of products available instantly and also low prices. One possible substitute is online shopping; however, customers usually do the online shopping for clothes or other stuffs but not for food or grocery shopping. Therefore, the threat of substitute is low. Key Strategic Issues Issue #1: Open too many new stores close to existing stores lead to new stores taking over the market shares from existing stores. Status Quo Wal- Mart depends on opens many new stores and expands into new market to increase the long-term sales and income growth. However, because of Walmarts large size of expansion, new stores are effects the sales on existing stores. For example, Walmart builds a store relatively close to an already existing store, the new store might take away customers from the old store thus decrease the sales in existing stores (Walmart, 2010). Evolutionary Change (Incremental Improvement) In order to solve this problem, Walmart expands their business segment into international market instead of domestic market. For example, Walmart opened 5 times number of stores in the international market in 2010 compared to domestic stores; most of stores are in Mexico, China, and Central America (Walmart, 2010). Revolutionary Change (Huge/Drastic Change) Walmart is also aggressively to open business segments in India if the country opens up the sector to foreign direct investment. India has retail market more than 1 billion; no doubt India is a huge opportunity for Walmart. However, retailers that carry multiple brands (like Walmart) are restricted to wholesale outlets in India. After Indias policy change, Walmart is allowed to expand superstores and generate revenue in India (Walmart, 2010). Specific tactics to implement the strategy Walmart needs to establish long-term relationship or joint venture with local retail company to get into the market in India. Although in 2006, Walmart announced that it had tied up with Bharti Enterprises Ltd. (Bharti) to get into the Indian retail sector. Bharti was a diversified company, and one of the biggest mobile telephone service providers in India (Walmart and the Indian Retail Sector, 2007). However, because of the government policy, the small retailers groups and the Left parties against allowing the company into India are all the barriers that Walmart has to face it. Issue #2: International competitors Status Quo In order to expand and improve the sales revenue for the economy recession especially in the domestic market, Walmart has been aggressively expand its business segment into international market. However, the local big retailers or small retailers groups are against Walmart to get into their market to take over the market shares because of its low price strategy (Walmart, 2010). Evolutionary Change (Incremental Improvement) Improve its supply chain, logistic and technology segment to lower its delivery and operation costs in order to compete with local big retailers such as Britains Tesco, Frances Carrefour, and Germanys Metro (Walmart, 2010). On the other hand, retail business segment is hard to create products differentiation, because commodity products are all the same for customers. The only way that gains the market shares for retail stores is not only low price but also quality of products. Therefore, Walmart should awareness of its quality of products to attract more customers even in the international market. Revolutionary Change (Huge/Drastic Change) Walmart should acquire and purchase the local retail companies in order to get into the international market. On the other hand, establish long-term relationship with local suppliers to have the win-win situation for their cooperation. Specific tactics to implement the strategy In the beginning of year 1, 2 and 3, Walmart should first focus on improving its supply chain, logistic and technology improvement in order to compete with local big retailers on its lower operation, delivery costs and high quality of products. For the long-term tactics, Walmart should deeply penetrate into the local market, understand different cultures and customers behaviors and then cooperate with local suppliers to establish long-term partnership. Personal assessment SWOT Analysis of myself in relation to the organization (What can I offer to the organization?). (S)trengths: International expansion (China): Walmart is extremely aggressively penetrated into the market in China. Also, no doubt that China has 1.3 billion populations which accounted for the most majority population in the world, creates a huge business opportunity for Walmart. Therefore, Walmart needs a manager who can speak fluently Mandarin and English, and really understand about Chinese culture and Chinese customers behavior. Hence, I can offer Walmart my knowledge to develop more opportunity in Chinas market in order to maximize the profits. (W)eaknesses: Lack of working experience: Even though I can speak fluently Mandarin and understand the Chinese culture and customers behavior; however, I still lack of working experiences. I do have some part time working experience such as working in starbucks, but do not have full time working experiences. (O)pportunities: Because of my professional knowledge (bachelor and master degree are both business management) are expertise on this field which can offer Walmart a professional employees or manager. Moreover, my family also has business in China, Hangchow, which makes me has understanding and interested about China. I can provide Walmart establish partnership with local suppliers and establish long-term relationship with them to compete with local retails competitors. (T)hreats: Many applicants around the world: There is still having many talented applicants around the world apply to get into this company. Some of the applicants have high education degree and business knowledge and also have ability to speak many different kinds of languages. Therefore, I am in extremely fierce competition. Not every business segment in Walmart is my expertise: I have weakened and lower advantages compared to local American because of the speaking and cultural differences. Furthermore, the company does business in many different retail formats, including supercenters, food and drugs, general merchandise stores, cash and carry stores, membership warehouse clubs, apparel stores, soft discount stores and restaurants. However, not every business segment in Walmart is in my field of expertise. Financial Analysis 2010 Annual Sales (Figure2-1) (Source: Hoovers, 2011, http://0subscriber.hoovers.com.leopac.ulv.edu/H/company360/competitiveLandscape.html?companyId=11600000000000) As you can see in Figure 2-1, this is 2010 annual sales for 4 main retail stores in the United States. They are including Walmart, Target, Costco Wholesale and Carrefour. Walmart has almost $400 billion sales in 2010. Compared to other competitors, annual sales for Walmart was much higher than other companies. Carrefour annual sale in 2010 was around $100 billion. Annual sales for Target and Costco were just around $50 billion in 2010. 2010 Net Profit Margin (Figure2-2) (Source: Hoovers, 2011, http://0subscriber.hoovers.com.leopac.ulv.edu/H/company360/competitiveLandscape.html?companyId=11600000000000) In Figure 2-2, net profit margin in 2010 for Walmart was 2.98%. Target was higher than Walmart which had 3.69% net profit margin in 2010. Other two competitors, Costco and Carrefour were both under 1.84% in net profit margin in 2010. Figure 2-3 (Source: Hoovers, 2011, http://0subscriber.hoovers.com.leopac.ulv.edu/H/company360/competitiveLandscape.html?companyId=11600000000000) The Return on Asset ratio is useful in measuring how efficiently a company uses its assets to generate profit. By definition, ROA is calculated by dividing the Net Income by the total asset of a company. Refer to Figure 2-3, ROA for Walmart from 2006 to 2010 are much higher than its competitors. Walmarts ROA were around 9% to 10% each year, compared to its competitors which were all much lower than Walmart. This basically means that Walmart utilizes its assets well enough to generate profit in comparison with their competitors. However, ROA in 2007 for Target is higher than Walmart, Target 9.29%, Walmart 9.05%. Targets major competitive advantage over Walmart lies in its customer base: the average household income for Target customers is about $50,000 a year, whereas the average yearly income for a Walmart customer is only $35,000 Figure 2-4 (Source: Hoovers, 2011, http://0subscriber.hoovers.com.leopac.ulv.edu/H/company360/competitiveLandscape.html?companyId=11600000000000) The return on Stockholders Equity (ROE) ratio measures the percentage of profit earned on stockholders investment in the company. In other words, return on equity  measures a corporations profitability  by revealing how much  profit a company generates  with the money shareholders have invested.  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   In Figure 2-4, ROE for Walmart were around 20% from year 2006 to 2010, compared to other competitors which are higher than others. Figure 2-5 (Source: Hoovers, 2011, http://0subscriber.hoovers.com.leopac.ulv.edu/H/company360/competitiveLandscape.html?companyId=11600000000000) Net profit Margin is an indication of how effective a company at cost control

BMW Essay -- essays research papers

BMW and Audi, two German automobile manufacturers, have a reputation for making some of the best cars in the industry. Not only are both companies superior in their production, but their financial statements also indicate stability and efficiency. Looking at financial ratios, we will compare both companies on a basis of management efficiency and debt status. As a bank analyst, we will make a recommendation as to which company would be better to approve a loan for. A recommendation will also be made regarding management effectiveness and which company would make a better investment. BMW has captured the attention of automobile drivers from all around the world with their â€Å"Ultimate Driving Machine.† The BMW Company was originally established in Germany and has extended nationally reaching over 12 countries. With Germany and the United States being the top two target countries, BMW has established their products as a combination of luxury, safety, and comfort with product lines to suit all styles of living. Revenues have been increasing each year since before 1996 with profits coming from product line of automobiles and motorcycles. In 2001, BMW came out with a new product group, the Mini. The Mini also contributed to the revenue increase in 2001. BMW has current developments in their sports cars, the Z8. BMW has created a trustworthy name for the automobiles they produce and has all the potential to continue their success in the future. Audi, one of Germany’s first automobile producers, has been designing and building cars since August Horch, its founder, completed his first car in 1901. Over the years following, a series of innovations and mergers have led Audi to the position it is in today. Audi’s subsidiaries include companies to facilitate international operations, part manufacturers, a vehicle customization company, a technology research company, and Lamborghini Corp, a successful sports car manufacturer. Audi’s current developments include its holding the EU Seal of Environmental Protection, and a number of technological advancements, including new car designs and a â€Å"seeing car† technology that has been nominated for the German Future award for Technology and Innovation.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  BMW  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Audi Profitability Ratios  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Return on Equity  ... ...reflects this. This again shows BMW’s less efficient cost management than Audi. Through Dupont analysis, we have been able to see the specific strengths and weaknesses of BMW and Audi’s management. BMW’s lower profit margin and asset turnover indicate less efficient cost management and asset management. Their debt multiplier indicates that they’re taking advantage of debt, but the benefit of this isn’t realized because of their problems with cost and asset management. Due to Audi’s more efficient use of their assets, and better cost efficiency, it can be said that their management has performed better than BMW’s over the past year. BMW and Audi both build cars that have a reputation for security, reliability and quality. These traits transcend into their financial statements, making both of them a good investment due to their debt status, and management effectiveness. Our recommendation as a bank loan analyst would be for BMW due to its superior liquidity and low risk. When evaluating management performance for equity investment, Audi is clearly a better investment. This is primarily due to its superior asset management, debt allocation, and inventory management.

Research Topics in Optometry

Postgraduate research topics Department of Optometry and Vision Science Postgraduate research topics The following is a list of research topics offered at the doctorate (PhD), masters and honours level.  » Honours  » Masters  » PhD Honours Research Topics| Affiliation – Faculty and Dept| Supervisor/s details| Comparison of animal models of age related nuclear cataract| Optometry and Vision Science| Professor Paul Donaldson p. [email  protected] ac. nz| Mapping antioxidant transporter expression in the front of the eye| Optometry and Vision Science| Dr Julie Lim j. [email  protected] ac. nz| Electron microscopy of protein trafficking in the lens| Optometry and Vision Science| Dr Angus Grey ac. [email  protected] ac. nz| Modelling of lens function  | Optometry and Vision Science| Dr Ehsan Vaghefi e. [email  protected] ac. nz| Exploring neural plasticity in the human visual cortex| Optometry and Vision Science| Dr. Ben Thompson b. [email  protected] ac. nz| Development of aids for colour deficient optometrists| Optometry and Vision Science| Dr. Misha Vorobyev m. [email  protected] ac. nz| Botox: as a tool for eye therapy? | Optometry and Vision Science| Dr Monica Acosta:m. [email  protected] ac. nz| Top Masters Research Topics| Affiliation – Faculty and Dept| Supervisor/s details| Developing functiuonal assays to study membrane protein function in the core of the lens| Optometry and Vision Science| Professor Paul Donaldson p. [email  protected] ac. nz| Chromatic and achromatic vision in reef fish| Optometry and Vision Science| Dr. Misha Vorobyev m. [email  protected] ac. nz| Colour preference in the honeybee| Optometry and Vision Science| Dr. Misha Vorobyev m. [email  protected] ac. nz| Clinical tests for colour vision defects| FoS (Optometry and Vision Science)| Assoc Prof Rob Jacobs r. [email  protected] ac. z| Defocus and visual function| FoS (Optometry and Vision Science)| Assoc Prof Rob Jacobs r. [email  protected] ac. nz| Visual characteristics of NZ population groups| FoS (Optometry and Vision Science)| Assoc Prof Rob Jacobs r. [email  protected] ac. nz| Assessment of refractive error in low vision| FoS (Optometry and Vision Science)| Assoc Prof Rob Jacobs r. [email  protected] ac. nz| Clinical research topics in optometry| FoS (Optometry and Vision Science)| Assoc Prof Rob Jacobs r. [email  protected] ac. nz| How does a cell die? Analysis of photoreceptor cells| FoS (Optometry and Vision Science| Dr Monica Acosta:m. [email  protected] ac. nz| Top PhD Research Topics| Affiliation – Faculty and Dept| Supervisor/s details| Functional characterization of glucose transporters in the lens| Optometry and Vision Science| Professor Paul Donaldson p. [email  protected] ac. nz| Visualization of cell signaling pathways in the ocular lens| Optometry and Vision Science| Professor Paul Donaldson p. [email  protected] ac. nz| Functional characterization of the cystine/glutamate exchanger in the lens: a potential therapy to delay age related nuclear cataract? | Optometry and Vision Science| Dr. Julie Lim j. [email  protected] c. nz| Functional mapping of purinergic signalling pathways in the lens|   Optometry and Vision Science| Professor Paul Donaldson p. [email  protected] ac. nz| Studying membrane protein function in the core of the lens| Optometry and Vision Science| Professor Paul Donaldson p. [email  protected] ac. nz| Antioxidant strategies to prevent age related nuclear cataract| Optometry and Vision Science| Dr Julie Lim j. [email  protected] ac. nz| Investigation of physiological mechanisms that regulate normal eye growth| Optometry & Vision Science| Dr John Phillips j. [email  protected] ac. nz| Investigation of methods for Inhibition of myopia progression in children. | Optometry & Vision Science| Dr John Phillips j. [email  protected] ac. nz| Harnessing neural plasticity for visual rehabilitation| Optometry & Vision Science| Dr. Ben Thompson b. [email  protected] ac. nz| Measuring the human visual cortex response to visual loss with fMRI| Optometry and Vision Science| Dr. Ben Thompson b. [email  protected] ac. nz| The relationship between native New Zealand flowers and vision of native pollinators  |   |   | Colour deficeincy and colour judgement|   | Dr Misha Vorobyev m. [email  protected] ac. z| Visual characteristics of NZ population groups| FoS (Optometry and Vision Science)| Assoc Prof Rob Jacobs r. [email  protected] ac. nz| Defocus and visual function| FoS (Optometry and Vision Science)| Assoc Prof Rob Jacobs r. [email  protected] ac. nz| Clinical tests for colour vision defects. | FoS (Optometry and Vision Science)| Assoc Prof Rob Jacobs r. [ema il  protected] ac. nz| Assessment of refractive error in low vision| FoS (Optometry and Vision Science)| Assoc Prof Rob Jacobs r. [email  protected] ac. nz| Research topics in clinical optometry| FoS (Optometry and Vision Science)| Assoc Prof Rob Jacobs r. [email  protected] ac. nz| Vesicular transport in eye disesases| FoS (Optometry and Vision Science)| Dr. Monica Acostam. [email  protected] ac. nz| Neurochemistry of an animal model of retinal degeneration| FoS (Optometry and Vision Science)| Dr. Monica Acostam. [email  protected] ac. nz | Modelling oxygen / CO2 circulation of the retinal cells| FoS (Optometry and Vision Science)| Dr. Ehsan Vaghefi  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  e. [email  protected] ac. nz| Modelling the electrical stimulation of the retina, using hexagonal electrodes| FoS (Optometry and Vision Science)| Dr. Ehsan Vaghefi e. [email  protected] ac. nz| Creating a full 3D anatomically correct model of the ocular lens| FoS (Optometry and Vision Science)| Professor Paul Donaldsonp. [email  protected] ac. nzDr. Ehsan Vaghefie. [email  protected] ac. nz| Top * FOR * ABOUT * Our department * Our research * Research groups * Publications * Postgraduate research topics * Our courses * Our staff * Careers and opportunities * News and events Apply now! 2012 Handbook Postgraduate Research University of Auckland Clinics SharePrintEmail Copyright  © The University of Auckland A to Z Directory  |  Site map  |  Accessibility  |  Copyright  |  Privacy  |  Disclaimer  |  Feedback on this page | |

Training and Development Essay Example

Training and Development Essay Example Training and Development Essay Training and Development Essay PART– A 1. Explain the difference between training and development. 2. How are training needs of an organization assessed? 3. What are the broad responsibilities of a trainer in a training programme? 4. What are the responsibilities of the management of an organization with respect to implementation of training programmes? 5. Write a brief note on recent trends in training. PART– B 1. Why is it necessary to evaluate training processes and activities? 2. Discuss the effectiveness of role playing as a training method. 3. What would be the training scheme for skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers? 4. What problems can an organization face if its training objectives have not been properly evaluated? 5. Write short notes on: a. Mentoring b. Counselling c. E-Learning PART – C 1. What factors does a training and development budget depend upon? 2. What are MDPs? Why they are required? 3. How should the personnel of an organization be trained in the event of market changes? 4. Discuss case study as a training method. 5. Write a note on Corporate University Model. CASE STUDY-1 IS RAJAT IN NEEDS OF REMEDIAL TRAINING? Rajat Sharma has been employed for six months in the accounts section of a large manufacturing company in Faridabad. You have been his supervisor for the past three months. Recently you have been asked by the management to find out the contributions of each employee in the Accounts Section and monitor carefully whether they are meeting the standards set by you. A few days back you have completed your formal investigation and with the exception of Rajat, all seem to be meeting the targets set by you. Along with numerous errors, Rajat’s work is characterized by low performance – often he does 20 percent less than the other clerks in the department. As you look into Rajat’s performance review sheets again, you begin to wonder whether some sort of remedial training is needed for people like him. Questions 1. As Rajat’s supervisor can you find out whether the poor performance is due to poor training or to some other cause? 2. If you find Rajat has been inadequately trained, how do you go about introducing a remedial training programme? . If he has been with the company six months, what kind of remedial programme would be best? 4. Should you supervise him more closely? Can you do this without making it obvious to him and his co-workers? 5. Should you discuss the situation with Rajat? CASE STUDY-2 One Monday morning Sanjay Nagpal, a recent recruit from a reputed management institute in Manipal walked into the sales office at Chennai as a new sales trainee. R aghavan, the Zonal Sales Manager for a large computer hardware firm was there to greet him. Raghavan’s job consisted of overseeing the work of sales officer, field executives and trainee salesmen numbering over 50 of three areas namely Chennai, Bangalore, and Trivendrum. The sales growth of computers, parts and other office equipment in his area was highly satisfactory, especially in recent years – thanks to the developmental initiatives taken by respective State Governments in spreading computer education in offices, schools, colleges, banks and other institutions. Raghavan had collected several sales reports, catalogues and pamphlets describing in detail the types of office equipment sold by the company. After a pleasant chat about their backgrounds, Raghavan gave Sanjay the collected material and showed him to his assigned desk. Thereafter Raghavan excused himself and did not return. Sanjay spent the whole day scanning the material and at 5. 00 pm he picked up his things and went home. 1. What do you think about Raghavan’s training programme? 2. What type of sale training programme would you suggest? 3. What method of training would have been best under the circumstances? Would you consider OJT, simulation or experiential methods?

How Social Media Listening Can Improve Your Content Marketing

How Social Media Listening Can Improve Your Content Marketing When producing content, your number one goal should be to add value for your community. That value might be sharing tactics to accomplish their goals, or lessons on how to make the best use of your product. Or it could be introducing them to tools that will make their lives easier, or even to the best restaurants in their city. No matter what your topic (aka value) is, your content is driven by your community. Listening to your community is an obvious first step to unlocking the power of your content marketing, but it’s one that goes tremendously overlooked. Here’s how you can lay the foundation of a strong and sustainable content strategy by  using social media listening  to hear what your community is saying. When producing content, your number one goal should be to add value to your community.Identify Relevant Topics  to Write About Gather invaluable insights by paying attention to what your community is saying to you, to your competitors, and to each other - problems they’re trying to solve, tools they’re using, and what it is about your brand/offering they like or dislike. Monitor specific key terms relevant to your brand with a media monitoring tool (like Mention) to pinpoint your community’s interests as they relate to the problem you’re solving or value you’re adding. Beyond monitoring your brand name, deciding on other keywords to track is as simple as choosing terms related to the problem you solve and mission of your product. For example, we know that our content can be valuable  to anyone looking to learn more about social media listening, social media strategy, community management, Twitter strategy, and content marketing, so we track all of those terms, among others. We recently noticed a trend in conversations around brand advocates  in our community management feed, so we wrote a post on how to convert five types of customers into brand ambassadors  using media monitoring, which performed significantly well. We chose brand ambassadors rather than advocates because from monitoring these conversations, we learned that both are important to a community ecosystem and often (but not always) theyre one in the same. Brand ambassadors also seemed to appeal to a larger marketing-focused audience. If you need more help deciding which terms to track, check out this  guide to keyword research. Identify Headlines with Viral Potential Swayy.co and Scoop.it are effective tools for discovering what stories your network or community is sharing on social media. You can monitor the content that’s most popular among your community as a whole, or based on a specific topic you track. Forums with upvoting capability such as GrowthHackers.com, Inbound.org, and Hacker News are also great places for discovering headlines that resonate with audiences, by tracking which trend. Additionally, Buzzsumo will show you the most popular posts (measured by social shares) on any specific topic. Use the headlines and topics you identify as inspiration for yours, but put your own spin on it by using your own unique case studies,  for example. Or, take a look at the comments and social shares from these articles and see which section resonates with the audience the most, then produce content that elaborates on that particular segment. You can also monitor the key terms used in these headlines to identify what other related topics your audience may be interested in. For example, weve recently seen a lot of content around the role of emotions and psychology in marketing. This happens to be a topic were interested in, so we will create an alert around it, research the topic further, and brainstorm topics that are unique to our offering. By taking this approach, weve seen our content perform well on these forums. Growthhackers is now the fourth  biggest driver  of traffic to our blog. Discover Where Your Audience Hangs Out Media monitoring and social media listening tools provide you with a vehicle for distributing your content directly to where your community is already sharing information. After all, in order to be heard over the noise that is the Internet, sometimes you have to hand deliver your content to where your community is finding information.

Definitions of Defamation, Libel, and Slander

Definitions of Defamation, Libel, and Slander   Ã¢â‚¬Å"Defamation of character† is a legal term referring to any false statement- called a â€Å"defamatory† statement- that harms another person’s reputation or causes them other demonstrable damages such as financial loss or emotional distress. Rather than a criminal offense, defamation is a civil wrong or â€Å"tort.† Victims of defamation can sue the person who made the defamatory statement for damages in civil court. Statements of personal opinion are usually not considered to be defamatory unless they are phrased as being factual. For example, the statement, â€Å"I think Senator Smith takes bribes,† would probably be considered opinion, rather than defamation. However, the statement, â€Å"Senator Smith has taken many bribes,† if proven untrue, could be considered legally defamatory. Libel vs. Slander Civil law recognizes two types of defamation: â€Å"libel† and â€Å"slander.† Libel is defined as a defamatory statement that appears in written form. Slander is defined as a spoken or oral defamatory statement. Many libelous statements appear as articles or comments on websites and blogs, or as comments in publicly-accessible chat rooms and forums. Libelous statements appear less often in letters to the editor sections of printed newspapers and magazines because their editors typically screen out such comments. As spoken statements, slander can happen anywhere. However, to amount to slander, the statement must be made to a third party- someone other than the person being defamed. For example, if Joe tells Bill something false about Mary, Mary could sue Joe for defamation if she could prove that she had suffered actual damages as a result of Joe’s slanderous statement. Because written defamatory statements remain publicly visible longer than spoken statements, most courts, juries, and attorneys consider libel to be more potentially harmful to the victim than slander. As a result, monetary awards and settlements in libel cases tend to be larger than those in slander cases. While the line between opinion and defamation is fine and potentially dangerous, the courts are generally hesitant to punish every off-hand insult or slur made in the heat of an argument. Many such statements, while derogatory, are not necessarily defamatory. Under the law, the elements of defamation must be proven. How Is Defamation Proven? While the laws of defamation vary from state to state, there are commonly applied rules. To be found legally defamatory in court, a statement must be proven to have been all of the following: Published (made public): The statement must have been seen or heard by at least one other person than the person who wrote or said it.False: Unless a statement is false, it cannot be considered harmful. Thus, most statements of personal opinion do not constitute defamation unless they can objectively be proven false. For example, â€Å"This is the worst car I have ever driven,† cannot be proven to be false.Unprivileged: The courts have held that in some circumstances, false statements- even if injurious- are protected or â€Å"privileged,† meaning they cannot be considered legally defamatory. For example, witnesses who lie in court, while they can be prosecuted for the criminal offense of perjury, cannot be sued in civil court for defamation.Damaging or Injurious:   The statement must have resulted in some demonstrable harm to the plaintiff. For example, the statement caused them to be fired, denied a loan, shunned by family or friends, or harassed by the media. Lawyers generally consider showing actual harm to be the hardest part of proving defamation. Merely having the â€Å"potential† to cause harm is not enough. It must be proven that the false statement has ruined the victim’s reputation. Business owners, for example, must prove that the statement has caused them a substantial loss of revenue. Not only can actual damages be hard to prove, victims must wait until the statement has caused them problems before they can seek legal recourse. Merely feeling embarrassed by a false statement is rarely held to prove defamation.  Ã‚   However, the courts will sometimes automatically presume some types of especially devastating false statements to be defamatory. In general, any statement falsely accusing another person of committing a serious crime, if it was made maliciously or recklessly, may be presumed to constitute defamation. Defamation and Freedom of the Press In discussing defamation of character, it is important to remember that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects both freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Since in America  the governed are assured the right to criticize the people who govern them, public officials are given the least protection from defamation. In the 1964 case of New York Times v. Sullivan, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that certain statements, while defamatory, are specifically protected by the First Amendment. The case concerned a full-page, paid advertisement published in The New York Times claiming that the arrest of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Montgomery City, Alabama, police on charges of perjury had been part of a campaign by city leaders to destroy Rev. Kings efforts to integrate public facilities and increase the black vote. Montgomery city commissioner L. B. Sullivan sued The Times for libel, claiming that the allegations in the ad against the Montgomery police had defamed him personally. Under Alabama state law, Sullivan was not required to prove he had been harmed, and since it was proven that the ad contained factual errors, Sullivan won a $500,000 judgment in state court. The Times appealed to the Supreme Court, claiming that it had been unaware of the errors in the ad and that the judgment had infring ed on its First Amendment freedoms of speech and the press. In its landmark decision better defining the scope of â€Å"freedom of the press,† the Supreme Court ruled that the publication of certain defamatory statements about the actions of public officials were protected by the First Amendment. The unanimous Court stressed the importance of â€Å"a profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open.† The Court further acknowledged that in public discussion about public figures like politicians, mistakes- if â€Å"honestly made†- should be protected from defamation claims. Under the Court’s ruling, public officials can sue for defamation only if the false statements about them were made with â€Å"actual intent.† Actual intent means that the person who spoke or published the damaging statement either knew it was false or did not care whether it was true or not. For example, when a newspaper editor doubts the truth of a statement but publishes it without checking the facts. American writers and publishers are also protected from libel judgments issued against them in foreign courts by the SPEECH Act signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010. Officially titled the Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage Act, the SPEECH act makes foreign libel judgments unenforceable in U.S. courts unless the laws of the foreign government provide at least as much protection of the freedom of speech as the U.S. First Amendment. In other words, unless the defendant would have been found guilty of libel  even if the case had been tried in the United States, under U.S. law, the foreign court’s judgment would not be enforced in U.S. courts. Finally, the â€Å"Fair Comment and Criticism† doctrine protects reporters and publishers from charges of defamation arising from articles such as movie and book reviews, and opinion-editorial columns. Key Takeaways: Defamation of Character Defamation refers to any false statement that harms another person’s reputation or causes them other damages such as financial loss or emotional distress.Defamation is a civil wrong, rather than a criminal offense. Victims of defamation can sue for damages in civil court.There are two forms of defamation: â€Å"libel,† a damaging written false statement, and â€Å"slander,† a damaging spoken or oral false statement.   Sources â€Å"Defamation FAQs.† Media Law Resource Center.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Opinion and Fair Comment Privileges.† Digital Media Law Project.â€Å"SPEECH Act.† U.S. Government Printing OfficeFranklin, Mark A. (1963). â€Å"The Origins and Constitutionality of Limitations on Truth as a Defense in Tort Law.† Stanford Law Reviewâ€Å"Defamation.† Digital Media Law Project

Literature Review Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Literature Review - Assignment Example After Chandra’s mother (Lillian) is bedridden, the difficult job of caring for her falls on her shoulders. She does this challenging work and the mother eventually dies in dignity. In traditional South African culture, caring for the sick fell on the wider members of the community and not just immediate relatives (Clark, 2008). This film portrays the breakdown of traditional African values in townships and their consequences for immediate relatives especially in trying moments. The film also dwells on the issue of belief in witchcraft. Traditionally, some African cultures always attributed any sickness or medical condition to black magic (Clark, 2008). Lillian is sent to a witchdoctor in the hope that the connotations she will get from the traditional doctor will heal her. Visiting the traditional doctor is a cheaper alternative to the expensive conventional treatment that is not affordable. Overall, the film shows how poverty leads to desperate

Camel racing and beauty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Camel racing and beauty - Essay Example These animals have been referred to as the ships of the desert, they have an irrefutable place of importance in the annals of the UAE history, and in fact, a camel fossil drawing estimated to be more than seven thousand was found on an island near Abu Dhabi. Nonetheless, writers have been quick to point out that the present camel racing tradition differs from the past, as the present traditional racing have been marked by a very fast form of camel racing, yet in the past camel racing was only practiced during weddings and special festivals. The beauty of camel training is that a camel must be trained for very many years for them to maintain an ungainly pace for a competition. At full speed, the legs of the camel kick in all manner of directions, a funny way of leaping that is very common for the animal. Sports are an important part of human interaction through ages, and it has formed one of the best forms of bonding. Sports have grown in leaps and bounds over the years to occupy the highest echelon in the society. Currently superstars in sports such as racing, football, basketball and others receive some of the highest income in the society. For instance, the amount top football players earn in Europe per week is more than the amount that the amount leaders of nations earn inform of income per month, and this means that Lionel Messi, the diminutive Argentine football great who plies his trade in Barcelona, Spain earns more than Obama per month. Similarly, sport occupies a very important place in the UAE, and in this region, big money sponsorships and top of the end events occur in every occasion from that range from football, cricket, golf, f1, and amongst others. However, unlike other types of sports, camel racing is very much a part of the Arabia culture without undue external in fluence that is common in other sports. This is a local people’s

One Hundred Years of Solitude Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Essay Example Ideally, Marquez was brought up by her paternal grandparents in Aracataca, Colombia. His childhood tales talks about a big home that are filled with ghouls, discussions in secret code, and relatives who could prophesy their own deaths (Villad 40-50). Through reading this book One Hundred Years of Solitude, one observes many elements of Marquez’s childhood. Conversely, the perspective for the book is Marquez’s own personal reminiscence for childhood, for his grandparents, for a big house overflowing with ghouls and endless laughter. Also, the context of the book is Marquez’s political viewpoint and the brutal realism of growing up in a predominantly turbulent developing country. Colombia has a long and tragic socioeconomic history, in which Marquez acquired knowledge about politics and economics. Intermittent absentmindedness, particularly of the critical happenings that shape Macondo town remains a structural persistent right through the novel, apparent in recurr ence and circularity. This repetitive behavior traits and names of the Buendia offspring; the outwardly endless civil wars; the succeeding refuge of annihilated Aureliano in the bare practice of making little gold fish, melting down and remaking them; the stages of dissatisfaction, lack of accomplishment and tragic death that curses pedigree. This novel appears to be suggesting that the failure to learn from one’s blunders, the lack of historical awareness, becomes the primary curse called upon Macondo’s history and therefore a critical element in the series of dealings surrounding the killing of the banana workers (Browitt 16-33). The chronological burden of wars, economic distress, consecutive ethical failures and political betrayal, ultimately leads to devastation. One Hundred Years of Solitude chronicles historical facts from the inside. Garcia Marquez adeptly avoids the melodramatic style of former socialist realisms by placing the storyline focalization within th e community of Macondo. He ingeniously permits the Colombian bourgeoisie to conceal its profligacy through its own dealings. Garcia Marquez’s technique around classical realists is basically to locate the story-telling height of popular culture, focalizing dealings in the course of their understanding of the townspeople, who through their discerning memory re-live the past. Furthermore, Garcia Marquez does not â€Å"problematise† the language of illustration; his magical realism changes the entity of representation itself, permitting the magical and superstitious world of oral folk mores to stand for itself. This novel makes use of eminent uniqueness of the Latin American modernist tradition (Browitt 16-33). The first thing the reader notices when reading Marquez’s novel is the mere quantity of dealings it covers, therefore making it a daunting task to provide a brief synopsis of the plot. Even though the novel rests on an impossible to read manuscript given to a family by a strange gypsy, there are many tangents and twirls as we realize the events of the Buendia’s in their home town of Macondo. This seemingly makes the novel a tad too difficult to follow, with family disputes, civil war, incestuous relationships and industrialization, tossing the story-line into many numerous directions. The political wars and quarrels in the novel reflect the taut relationship between the liberals and the conservatives throughout Colombian History, where the exertion for

BOEING Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

BOEING - Assignment Example The Boeing Company has a long history dating back to 1916, when the founder of the company, William Boeing launched a company Pacific Aero Products. The next year the company was renamed to Boeing Airplane and Transportation (MarketLine Advantage, 6). In 1929, the company’s name was changed again to United Aircraft and Transportation. By that time the company has significantly expanded its business operations and diversified into other business lines (such as airport’s maintenance and mail delivery (MarketLine Advantage, 6). In 1934 the antitrust legislation restricted ownership of mail-carrying airlines, and the company has divided its business into three entities: United Aircraft (manufacturing operations in the East of US), United Air Lines (air transportation) and the Boeing Airplane (manufacturing operations in the West of US) (MarketLine Advantage, 6). During the World War II, the Boeing Airplane Company concentrated on building of bombers. Since 1960’s the company has expanded its business significantly through numerous mergers and acquisitions, creation of new divisions, and expansion of business operations across the globe. Nowadays, the company serves customers in 150 countries across the globe and is recognised to be one of the largest defense contractors in the USA and one of the two major manufacturers of 100+ sear airplanes for commercial purposes (MarketLine Advantage, 4). The Boeing Company serves a broad variety of customers, among which are both government and commercial entities. Some of the major government customers of Boeing Company are: the US Air Force, the US Army, US DoD, US Navy, NASA, US Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Israel Aircraft Industries, UK Ministry of Defense, European Aviation Safety Agency, US Federal Aviation Administration, etc. (MarketLine Advantage, 4). Practically all major international airline companies use Boeing

Organizational culture is fundamentally about symbolic meaning and as Essay - 3

Organizational culture is fundamentally about symbolic meaning and as such cannot be managed. Discuss - Essay Example It is fundamental to note that the culture of an association varies from one organization to the next. This is for the reason that employees in the diverse organizations have disparate opinions and outlooks regarding different concerns in the organization. This essay will endeavor to assess the concept of culture and how the same is symbolic in the organization. Also, the essay will put into context the factors that culture is general, integrated, figurative, and adaptive. Body Organizational culture has been described as suppositions that are shared by a group of people as seen in the work of Schein1. This involves the adjustment of the organization to the outside world, and incorporation the internal concepts so as the association can invent a method in which the organization can adjust its members to the attainment of the organizational goals2. Champoux indicates that the members in the organization are able to be respond to the situation by coming up with plans towards solving th e same issues, in the event that an organization is faced with a setback3. Schein, on the other hand, indicates that an understanding of the psychology of people, their social aspect and generally human relations allows the organization evaluate them in the organizational culture4. ... At each faction, there is a deeper denotation of the entire concept, at times symbolic, at other times, cognitive. There are various major levels of organizational culture, according to Schein6. Foremost, is the discernible artifact, the adopted values by the organization and lastly, the major underlying suppositions7. In relation to the discernible artifacts, Schein refers to them as opinions, the actions taken by an organization, and the beliefs that an organization holds. It is through the observable artifacts that the organization establishes what is central and significant to be adopted in the organization8. The discernible artifacts are inclusive of the physical characteristics of the association- the buildings, the publications, pieces of art by the organizations, its products, as well as the technology applied in the organization9. The observable artifacts can be devised from the mission and vision statement of the organization, and its values. In addition, the same can be se en in the language by the affiliates of the organization, its accounts of the times, practices and the ceremonies conducted by the organization10. This is an obvious indication that organizational culture is unmistakable in the manner in which the organization adheres to the myths of the organization and upholds the rituals of the organization. Organizational culture can be said to be symbolic in that the values that are advocated by the organization are the ones that are campaigned by the leadership of the organization11. In the argument by Schein, the management team of the organization expects that the employees display an expected level of discipline as expected of them by the management12. In this case, the values portrayed by the employees are

Give an account of Jonathan Swift's citique of the'moderns' especially Essay

Give an account of Jonathan Swift's citique of the'moderns' especially as it is expressed in his'Tale of a Tub' (Sect.IX) and 'Gulliver's Travels (Bks III & IV) - Essay Example His satire has intensity and virulence which upset not only his intended targets but till today haunts critics who have at times simply ascribed it to Swift’s predisposition to misanthropy and depression. Though recent critical knowledge has moved away from this view, the perception of Swift as a misanthrope persists. Perhaps the vehemence of Swift’s satire can be attributed in part to the peculiar need felt by eighteenth century thinkers of the immense importance of their times. There is no other way to explain the huge output of satire in the eighteenth century. Daniel Defoe, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, John Dryden, Alexander Pope were some other eighteenth century writers who utilized satire in the various genres of literature. Certainly none troubled the eighteenth century conscience more than Swift himself who uses savage polemic to subdue what was anathema to him. It would be wise to take a look at eighteenth century English history to discover where Swift stood and the causes which drew his ire. The late seventeenth century had seen the vigorous emergence in print of ideas which, to put it simply, sought to foreground humanity without any reference to divinity or society. Foremost and most influential was John Locke who in his essay titled, Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) attributed the formation of human knowledge to the influence of external stimuli and experience. He rejected the notion that humans were born with certain innate ideas such as those concerning God, time, substance etc. He famously compared the human mind at birth to a white sheet of paper, a tabula rasa, which depended on experience and sense memory to form knowledge. Science emerged as an exciting new discipline that increasingly became a specialisation, cut off from society. Isaac Newton had published his Principia in 1687. The eighteenth century is therefore also termed as â€Å"The Age of Reason† and the â€Å"Age of Enlightenment†. However this

BOEING Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

BOEING - Assignment Example The Boeing Company has a long history dating back to 1916, when the founder of the company, William Boeing launched a company Pacific Aero Products. The next year the company was renamed to Boeing Airplane and Transportation (MarketLine Advantage, 6). In 1929, the company’s name was changed again to United Aircraft and Transportation. By that time the company has significantly expanded its business operations and diversified into other business lines (such as airport’s maintenance and mail delivery (MarketLine Advantage, 6). In 1934 the antitrust legislation restricted ownership of mail-carrying airlines, and the company has divided its business into three entities: United Aircraft (manufacturing operations in the East of US), United Air Lines (air transportation) and the Boeing Airplane (manufacturing operations in the West of US) (MarketLine Advantage, 6). During the World War II, the Boeing Airplane Company concentrated on building of bombers. Since 1960’s the company has expanded its business significantly through numerous mergers and acquisitions, creation of new divisions, and expansion of business operations across the globe. Nowadays, the company serves customers in 150 countries across the globe and is recognised to be one of the largest defense contractors in the USA and one of the two major manufacturers of 100+ sear airplanes for commercial purposes (MarketLine Advantage, 4). The Boeing Company serves a broad variety of customers, among which are both government and commercial entities. Some of the major government customers of Boeing Company are: the US Air Force, the US Army, US DoD, US Navy, NASA, US Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Israel Aircraft Industries, UK Ministry of Defense, European Aviation Safety Agency, US Federal Aviation Administration, etc. (MarketLine Advantage, 4). Practically all major international airline companies use Boeing

Give an account of Jonathan Swift's citique of the'moderns' especially Essay

Give an account of Jonathan Swift's citique of the'moderns' especially as it is expressed in his'Tale of a Tub' (Sect.IX) and 'Gulliver's Travels (Bks III & IV) - Essay Example His satire has intensity and virulence which upset not only his intended targets but till today haunts critics who have at times simply ascribed it to Swift’s predisposition to misanthropy and depression. Though recent critical knowledge has moved away from this view, the perception of Swift as a misanthrope persists. Perhaps the vehemence of Swift’s satire can be attributed in part to the peculiar need felt by eighteenth century thinkers of the immense importance of their times. There is no other way to explain the huge output of satire in the eighteenth century. Daniel Defoe, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, John Dryden, Alexander Pope were some other eighteenth century writers who utilized satire in the various genres of literature. Certainly none troubled the eighteenth century conscience more than Swift himself who uses savage polemic to subdue what was anathema to him. It would be wise to take a look at eighteenth century English history to discover where Swift stood and the causes which drew his ire. The late seventeenth century had seen the vigorous emergence in print of ideas which, to put it simply, sought to foreground humanity without any reference to divinity or society. Foremost and most influential was John Locke who in his essay titled, Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) attributed the formation of human knowledge to the influence of external stimuli and experience. He rejected the notion that humans were born with certain innate ideas such as those concerning God, time, substance etc. He famously compared the human mind at birth to a white sheet of paper, a tabula rasa, which depended on experience and sense memory to form knowledge. Science emerged as an exciting new discipline that increasingly became a specialisation, cut off from society. Isaac Newton had published his Principia in 1687. The eighteenth century is therefore also termed as â€Å"The Age of Reason† and the â€Å"Age of Enlightenment†. However this

Examining Visual Identity of logo example Essay Example for Free

Examining Visual Identity of logo example Essay Today’s business world is moving at a fast pace and is ever changing, strong corporate identity and corporate image is increasingly necessary to any organization to succeed by embracing this dynamism (Stevenson, Christensen, 2001, PP. 231). Our society is moving at a fast rate than ever witnessed on the globe and many businesses places the human capital and consumer at the center of success strategy. Therefore, to achieve this success effect to the business, effective visual communication through the use of static and dynamic graphics; typography, color, and symbols are used to convey facts, concepts and emotions to the consumers and other stakeholders. This make up systematic graphic design that is information oriented, which helps customer base understand complex information and identify the company’s products that can be translated to profits (Stevenson, Christensen, 2001, PP. 290). In this regard, the logo example in form of an apple fruit is to Apple Computer Inc. the logo is such a familiar one, since it is on the digital and music products that I have interacted with. These products are Cinema Display, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV which are dominant to the young persons, while other products where the logo is displayed are Apple software, Mac, Mac OS X, Mac OS X Server, iLife, iWork and AirPort. Apart from the products of the Apple Inc. company, the logo is placed on entrance of organization’s corporate headquarters in the middle of Silicon Valley, at 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California. Since it is founding in early 1976, Apple computer Inc. has revolutionized personal computing. Additionally, Apple has introduced amazing and wonderful products that have gone beyond technological boundaries. Thorough its attributing innovativeness in computer brands, Apple has become one of the world’s major computer brands in line with IBM, Microsoft, HP and Canon. Beneath Apple excellent brand performance and recognition globally, lies a powerful corporate identity facilitated by its well designed and unique logo. Apple logo is unique, in such a way that it does not bear any writings as many logos are and uses a bitten out apple fruit on the right side instead of a full fruit (Thomas, 2005). Yet, the Apple logo is one of the most recognized corporate symbols in the world of computer and digital business. Over the years since invention of the first logo in early 1976, Apple logo has undergone a revolution to capture the market corporate identity needs. Wayne and Jobs designed first Apple logo that depicted a graphic design of Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree with words inscribed stating that â€Å"Newton a mind forever voyaging through strange seas of thought† with ‘Apple Computer Co’ (table1. figure 1). This first logo to be used by Apple company, was designed by artistic skills of human person through hand as computers that are dominantly used in our present days were not yet invented. However, the company logo was later changed in late 1976 by designer Rob Janoff of the Regis McKenna Agency designed an iconic logo of an apple with the bite out on right side and with rainbow colors; simply rainbow apple (table1. figure 2). This design greatly relied on the attribute and commemoration to Isaac Newtons discoveries of the gravity (the apple), and the separation of light by prisms (the colors) in scientific technological world (Thomas, 2005, p. 225). The rainbow logo apple was used up to 1998, when the logo appeared in many bright colors; whereby the logo example presented in this case with aqua color scheme was famous among all brightly colored logos of Apple Inc. (table1. figure 3). This aqua color scheme logo was used up to the year 2005, when Apple Inc. discontinued the use of bright colors (Thomas, 2005, p. 204). At present the logo in use have white and raw-aluminum color schemes (table1. figure 4) that result to silvery chrome finish that fit ideally. After revamping the Apple Inc. logo design, the logo freshens up the icon and is consistent with the design scheme. Therefore, making the Apple logo acceptable and endorsed not only by me as a consumer of Apple music products, but also the consumer base and critics world wide. Ideally, the logo design of Apple computer Inc. fit with the services and products it offers to the digital market. This is in the sense that, iconic logo of an apple with the bite out on right side is linked by many visual communication scholars to mathematician Alan Turning who was the father of modern computer who committed suicide by biting into cyanide laced apple. Most significantly the bite is projection and indication of byte vs. bite (Thomas, 2005, p. 304). Furthermore, a rainbow colored Apple logo was used to advertise the color capability of the Apple II computer and the product ‘Macintosh’ refers to a particular variety of an apple. Indeed, the firm is one of a few success stories in the corporate world with Market capital of US$86.3 billion, Revenue of US$32. 48 billion, Operating income US$6. 28 billion , Net income US$4. 83 billion with 14. 88% profit margin and a capacity of 28,000 Employees as indicated by a quarterly financial rep[ort of year 2008. Table1. Apple Inc. logos Figure1: First design Figure2: Rainbow apple logo Figure3:Monochrome Figure4: Silvery chrome . Reference Stevenson, A. , Christensen, L. (2001). â€Å"Corporate identity and corporate image revisited†: European Journal of Marketing. Vol. 35, p. 292-328 Thomas, H. (2005). â€Å"Birth of the PowerBook: How Apple took over the portable market†: Low End Mac, 2005-11-23.

Introduction to natural gas

Introduction to natural gas Natural gas is one of the most important source of energy for reducing pollution and maintaining a clean and healthy environment we can call it as a future energy resource. In addition to being a domestically abundant and secure source of energy, the use of natural gas also offers a number of environmental benefits over other sources of energy, particularly other fossil fuels. This section will discuss the environmental effects of natural gas , interms of emission as well as the environmental impact of the natural gas industry itself. Natural gas is used over 60 million homes. In addition natural gas is used in 78 percent of restaurants, 73 percent of lodging facilities, 51 percent of hospitals, 598 percent of offices, and 58 percent of retail buildings. Natural gas is vital to world manufacturers, not only to power their operations, but also as an essential feedstock for many of the products we use daily- clothing, carpets, sports equipment, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, computers, and auto parts. It is also a primary feedstock for chemicals, plastics and fertilizers. Natural gas fuels our economy. It is a clean burning domestic energy source that powers our economy. It cools and warms our homes and businesses , is used to generate electricity, and helps maintain our quality of life. Natural gas is a gas consisting primarily of methane. It is found associated with fossil fuels, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is created by methogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, and landfills. It is an important fuel source and a potent greenhouse gas. Before natural gas can be used as a fuel, it must undergo extensive processing to remove almost all materials other than methane. The by products of that processing include ethane, propane, butanes, pentanes and higher molecular weight hydrocarbons, elemental sulphur and sometimes helium and nitrogen. Overview of natural gas: Natural gas is a fossil fuel source of energy, which represents more than one fifth of total energy consumption in the world. It has been the fastest growing energy souce fuel since the seventies. Due to economical and ecological advantages that it presents as well as its safety quqlities, natural gas is an increasingly attractive source oof energy in many countries. At present, natural gas is the second energy source after oil. According to energy information administration, natural gas accounted for 31% of world energy production in 2006. It has excellent perspectives for future demand. Natural gas is considered the energy source of this century , as petroleum was last century and coal two centuries ago. Natural gas presents a competitive advantage over other energy sources. It is seen as economically more efficient because only about 10% of the natural gas produced is wasted before it gets to final consumption. In addition , technological advances are constantly improving efficiencies in extraction ,transportation and storage techniques as well as in equipment that uses natural gas. Natural gas is considered as an environmentally friendly clean fuel , offering important environmental benefits when compared to other fossil fuels. The superior environmental qualities over coal or oil are that emissions of sulphur dioxide are negligible or that the level of nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide emissions is lower. This helps to reduce problems of acid rain, ozone layer depletion orgreenhouse gases. Although resources of natural are finite and natural gas is a non-renewable source of energy, these resorces are plentiful all over the world. Natural gas reserves are continuously increasing as new exploration and extraction techniques allow for wider and deeper drilling. The growing importance of natural gas as a major energy source is shown by the amount of investment devoted to the natural gas industry. The sector shows a great dynamism at the beginning of the new milleniuum. Increasing demand and prices in tje recent in the recent past have led to new expansion and exploration projects in the natural gas industry. New pipeline construction projects are developed and planned all over the world. Furthermore, most governments are progressively including natural gas in their energy policy agenda, by following liberalization policies(particularly after the energy shortages of 1970s), in order to open the markets to competition. More and more, energy final users are also showing a preference for using natural gas a clean, safe, reliable and economical source of energy. Natural gas is used for heating, cooling and several other industry uses, while it is increasingly becoming the favoured fuel for power generation. Natural gas is future of energy and fuel requirements as it is one of the most clean fuel the evidences for this is illustrated by following this data: Chemistry of natural gas: Natural gas, like all fossil fuels, is the remain of prehistoric living matter that existed million of years ago. In the marine environment, dead organisms came to rest on the ocean floor, where they were covered by layer after layer of mud or silt which over time became layers of rock. Buried beneath the sea bed, the hydroicarbons stored inside the once living matter were preserved , but their composition was altered by the heat and pressure from the rocks above. Millions of years later, deposits of these hydrocarbons can be found either in liquid form as petroleum, or as natural gas. Natural gas forms in porous layers of rock, with bubbles of gas trapped inside the rock. Gas fields occur when a layer of impervious rock, such as limestone, has formed above the layer of porous rock, preventing the gas from escaping. Deposits of natural gas are often found alongside petroleum deposits. Natural gas is colourless and odourless. It consists mostlyof methane, but mixed in with the methane are likely to be other hydrocarbon compounds and a few impurities. Natural gas is colourless odourless, tasteless, shapeless and lighter than air. It is gaseous at any temperature over -161 c. When it is at its natural state, it is not possible to see or smell natural gas. For safety reasons, a chemical odorant that smells a little like rotten eggs, mercaptan, is added to natural gas so that it can be smelled if there is a gas leak. Natural gas is a mixture of light hydrocarbons including methane, ethane , propane, butanes and pentanes. Other compound found in natural gas includes co2, helium hydrogen sulphide and nitrogen. The composition of natural gas is never constant, however, the primary component of natural gas is methane(typically, atleast 90%), which has a simple hydrocarbon structure composed of one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms(ch4) . methane is highly inflammable , burns easily and almost completely, while it emits very little air pollution. Natural gas is neither corrosive nor toxic, its ignition temperature is high, and its has a narrow flammability range, making it an inherently safe fossil fuel compared to other fuel sources. In addition , because of its specific gravity of 0.60, lower than that of air(1.00), natural gas rises if escaping, thus dissipating from the site of any leak. The carbon and hydrogen occurs from the remains of plants and animals (composition in natural gas) Which were inside the lakes and seas millions of years back. The organic material then mixed up with huge layers of sediments and then turned back to natural gas and crude oil as heat from the earths inside and pressure from the layers changed it. Natural gas is found all over the globe in resorviors deep inside the earth and in oceans. It is trapped in porous rock formations. Natural gas can be found in oil deposits, as associated natural gas. Natural gas when cooled ton a temperature of approx -260 f, it converts to a liquid naming liquefied natural gas(LNG). LNG has weight one half as that of water, or you can say 45% less weight then water to be exact. It is non corrosive, non toxic, odourless and colourless. For convenience in transportation and storing natural gas is liquefied to form LNG. Natural gas is practically free from sulphur and therefore does not produces so2 so considered as clean and environment friendly source of energy it also emits lower values os nitrogen oxides when compared with coal or oil. Power generation: Natural gas is now used widely in the generation of electricity by using gas turbines and steam turbines. By combining gas turbines with steam turbines we can increase efficiency of electric generation and this mode is called combined cycle mode. Natural gas produces less greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide for an equivalent amount of heat when compared to petroleum(30% less) and coal(45 % less) therefore combined cycle generation of electricity using natural gas is the cleanest source of power available using fossil fuels. Natural gas is used in power generation wherever we can obtain it at a reasonable price further fuel cells(discussed in detail below) can be used for power generation using natural gas but it is not economically a good deal. Fuel cells using natural gas: Fuel cells using natural gas for power generation are under development. Fuel cells are devices that uses hydrogen to produce electricity their working is approximately same as of batteries. It is one of the cleanest way of generating electricity as their is no emissions what so ever and as we know that natural gases are a rich source of hydrogen so it can be used in fuel cells. Fuel cells are still under development process as the process of using natural gas in fuel cells is very expensive but if they are used widespread all over the world then we can assure a very clean environment and can reduce emissions associated with the generation of electricity. Electricity generation and industrial application uses fossil fuels for generating electricity and heat . we can use natural gas for such type of operations as it can help to reduce the emissions associated with the generation of electricity. In transportation: Natural gas can be used as a fuel for vehicles, trains and air transport also it can be a very clean fuel as in the case of CNG (compressed natural gas) used in four and three wheeler vehicles . by 2008 9.6 million vehicles uses natural gas as their source of fuel supply. Its efficiency is slightly less then diesel engine but comparable to gasoline engines but if we make it compulsory for all public transport vehicles to use natural gas as their energy source supply we can led to a very clean world as the major source of air pollution is from the transport sector. In aerospace: Development processes are running to develop aircrafts that uses natural gas the source of their fuel supply Russian company Tupololev is trying to develop an aircraft that uses LNG and HYDROGEN as the source of its power supply it will also cost lower then normal aircraft and also with reduction in nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide emission reduction. The advantage of using natural gas as a fuel for aircrafts is that its specific energyis more than normal aircraft fuel(kerosene mixes) and one advantage is that it can can be used as a cooler for cooling air replacing a intercooler in engine. Natural gas can also be use for manufacture of plastics, paints, glass steel, fabrics and other useful products. Advantages and Disadvantages of natural gas: The main advantage of using natural gas over other fossil fuel as a source of energy is that it is a clean fuel and contributes very less effect on air and environment around us as there is no emissions, no residue, no smoke and no smell. Its growth of use as domestic fuel, for power generation , in industries is increasing rapidly day by day. From a survey it has been found that use of natural gas as a source for power generation nearly accounts for around 20% of our total energy source(world energy outlook 2000). But as every coin has two phases using natural gas is also not free from this comment, it is considered that natural gas is clean source of energy but this is not a true fact, it does affect the environment to some extent. Natural gas also produces carbon dioxide while burning like all other fossil fuels although it is very less as compared to coal and petroleum and also natural gas that is used as a energy source is always not free from impurities and this lead to emissions of unwanted particulates. Therefore it may be noted that it is not a complete clean fuel as it is not carbon neutral and also produces small emissions so from an environmental point of view it is not an complete ideal source of energy. Another disadvantage is that which is common to all fossil fuels is that their extraction leads to a process called mining and drilling which may lead to an ecological inbalance and also causes pollution which can be visualised. Future: Natural gas has many advantages over other energy sources but we cant depend on natural gas as a future source of energy the facts that ensures this facts are after a period of regular extraction one day all supplies will be exhausted or will be depleted to that extent that cost of extracting will overweigh the value of the value of the fuel we obtain this is a common fact to all fossil fuels. natural gas is considered to be a clean fuel but above we have discussed that it is not an complete ideal source of energy, so research work is going on to discover that future source of energy. Solar and hydel energy can also be the future source of energy. Natural gas will have a very bright future as compared to other fossil fuels as globally all government are encouraging use of natural gas in power stations in preference to other fossil fuel.