An Analysis of Blakes The School Boy Essay - 1745 Words

An Analysis of Blakes The School Boy The School Boy is a typical example of Blakes Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience in its themes and imagery. Like many of the other poems in this work it deals with childhood and the subjugation of its spirit and uses imagery from the natural world. While first published in 1789 as one of the Songs of Innocence there are strong reasons why Blake moved it to the Experience1 section of the 1794 edition. If we compare it to other poems in the collection it sits better with others in Experience than those in Innocence. On first reading The School Boy is the voice of a young boy complaining of being shut inside at his schoolwork instead of playing outside in the sun. When we†¦show more content†¦The contrast is heightened by the similarity of the opening lines, both ending in a summer morn and the way this forces a similar rhyme across the two, and the similar metre and beginning of O! what sweet company. ending Stanza I and O! it drives all joy away; in the second line of Stanza II. The similarities enhance the differences in the two images and show childhood in the two states of pastoral innocence and the experience in restrictive school days leaving the reader with a feeling for the loss of youth. The poet emphasises the oppression of the school room by offering the image Nor in my book can I take delight, nor sit in learnings bower in Stanza III reminding the reader that books and learning can be natural. In the illumination for the 1794 edition this is underscored by an image of a child enjoying a book atop a tree than can be seen at top right3. The domination of the natural and free is further enhanced by the analogy with a caged bird in Stanza IV. The poet uses the image of droop his tender wing, an echo of at times I drooping sit in the previous stanza which strengthens the image of children under a weight. We now have a distinct picture of crushed and destroyed life in the school room, the poet has successfully conveyed to the reader the loss and lassitude of the school boy. Stanzas V and VI are appeals to the alternate authority of the parents to realise the predicament of the child and the dangers in thisShow MoreRelatedEssay about The Voice of the Chimney Sweepers1180 Words   |  5 Pagesand other important Italian figures. Blake’s parents encouraged him to keep a record of all the masters he claimed to keep in contact with. Blake’s father, James Blake, gave him casts and engravings to keep this record. At the age of ten, Blake started at a drawing school named Henry Pars’ Drawing School. Three years later, he was apprenticed to a Master Engraver, James Basire. Blake worked with Basire for seven years, and then attended the Royal Academy School to further his study in drawing, paintingRead MoreWilliam Blake s Innocence And Experience Analysis Essay1529 Words   |  7 PagesIsha Fidai Amber Drown English 2323 14 September 2016 William Blake s Innocence and Experience Analysis The Romantic Era was a movement in literature that began in the late seventeenth century throughout the eighteenth century that was mainly influenced by the natural world and idealism. Romanticism was predominantly focused on emotion and freedom emphasizing individualism. Formed as an uprising against neoclassicism, romanticism was more abstract, focusing on feelings and imaginations, insteadRead MoreIn Many Ways, Poetry Has The Ability To Shape The Minds1226 Words   |  5 Pagesages, poets and writers have been a part of social and political change due to the written works presented to the public. One such poet was William Blake. His poetry has inspired much change in both the past and the present. An analysis of â€Å"The Chimney Sweeper,† one of Blake’s most popular works, can help many to understand the significance of his work in a time period when social riot was visible in the public’s eyes. By exploring the writing style, structure and imagery in this p oem, as well as identifyingRead MoreVideo Analysis on the Long Walk Home749 Words   |  3 PagesSociology Midterm - Video Analysis 1. Summary: The film I chose for this analysis is The Long Walk Home, directed by Richard Pearce. This film is about Odessa, an African-American maid in the Thompson family’s household in Montgomery, Alabama in the 1950s. On December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks ‘refused to obey bus driver James F. Blake’s order to give up her seat in the colored section to a white passenger, after the white section was filled.’ Ms. Parks was arrested and there followed the MontgomeryRead MoreLibrary Management204752 Words   |  820 PagesAutomation to Distributed Information Access Solutions Thomas R. Kochtanek and Joseph R. Matthews The Complete Guide to Acquisitions Management Frances C. Wilkinson and Linda K. Lewis Organization of Information, Second Edition Arlene G. Taylor The School Library Media Manager, Third Edition Blanche Woolls Basic Research Methods for Librarians Ronald R. Powell and Lynn Silipigni Connoway Library of Congress Subject Headings: Principles and Ap plication, Fourth Edition Lois Mai Chan Developing Library

Conventional Machining vs Non-Conventional Machining Free Essays

lConventional Machining VS Non-Conventional Machining Conventional machining usually involves changing the shape of a workpiece using an implement made of a harder material. Using conventional methods to machine hard metals and alloys means increased demand of time and energy and therefore increases in costs; in some cases conventional machining may not be feasible. Conventional machining also costs in terms of tool wear and in loss of quality in the product owing to induced residual stresses during manufacture. We will write a custom essay sample on Conventional Machining vs Non-Conventional Machining or any similar topic only for you Order Now With ever increasing demand for manufactured goods of hard alloys and metals, such as Inconel 718 or titanium, more interest has gravitated to non-conventional machining methods. Conventional machining can be defined as a process using mechanical (motion) energy. Non-conventional machining utilises other forms of energy. The three main forms of energy used in non-conventional machining processes are as follows : †¢ †¢ †¢ Thermal energy Chemical energy Electrical energy One example of machining using thermal energy is laser. Thermal methods have many advantages over conventional machining, but there are a few of disadvantages. Inconel 718, titanium and other hard metals and alloys have a very high melting point. Using thermal methods will require high energy input for these materials. Concentrating heat onto any material greatly affects its microstructure and will normally cause cracking, which may not be desirable. Safety requirements for thermal methods, especially la ser, are demanding in terms of time and cost. Machining large areas or many surfaces at the same time using thermal methods is not normally possible. †¢ †¢ †¢ The methods using electrical energy are electrodischarge machining (EDM) and nodic machining (AM), which are similar in practice. EDM, often refered to as spark erosion, uses pulsed voltage to remove material from a workpiece and a non-conductive medium to clear the debris. Because the medium is electrically inert the tool is a direct reverse of the workpiece and no complicated tool design criteria are required. But the shock of spark erosion can affect the microstructure on the surface of the workpiece. Also, EDM has a lower material removal rate than AM. The chemicals used in AM are non-toxic and the energy required is less than other nonconventional machining processes. It has no effect on the microstructure of the workpiece. The electrolyte can even be common sea water, enabling AM to be used in a sub-sea capacity. The hardness and thermal resistivity of the workpiece material do not matter therefore hard metals and alloys can be machined using tools made from softer materials. The only disadvantage is that tool design is a little more complex than that of EDM, but software is being developed to make this easier. The controllability, environmental versatility, speed, safety and absence of change in workpiece microstructure make AM a competitive manufacturing process. How to cite Conventional Machining vs Non-Conventional Machining, Essay examples

Should the United States take on more immigrants Essay Example For Students

Should the United States take on more immigrants? Essay Is the United States hurting from immigration problems? These issues have been debated on for generation.According to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, approximately 300,000 illegal immigrants enter the United States annually (Cozic 12). This large number of immigrants causes many different emotions. For some Americans, immigration is an adversity. Many Americans past and present have reacted to immigrants with fear: fear of unemployment and lower standards of living, fear of different religions and races, fear that immigration is spoiling the U.S. for those already here. The issues of immigration has three important topics: first, the understanding of the history behind immigration. Second, the effect immigration has on the United States. Third and finally, the economic issues associated with immigration today. The history of immigration in the United States is quite interesting. Between 1820, when the U.S. begin keeping count, and 1987, over fifty-four million people left their former homes and migrated to the U.S. (McClellan 12). With the exception of native Americans and African-American descendants of slaves, everyone in the U.S. today is an immigrant or is descended from immigrates. It is really quite interesting that Americans today feel so strongly against immigration when if fact they themselves are immigrants.Today the United States takes in more immigrants than all of the other worlds nations combined (Dudley 13). However, even though these facts are true, Americans seem to continue to fear immigration. During the late 1980 the government passed a immigration act called the Simpson-Rodio Act. This allowed all illegal immigrates living in the country since 1982, legalization. This allowed more than 3 million aliens to live here (Griffin, 363). It also gave employers strict fines for hiring illegal immigrants without documentation. The idea behind the employer sanctions was to diminish or eliminate the demand for undocumented workers, there b y reducing their incentives to enter the country (McConnell 731). This did in fact slow down the number of illegal aliens simple because their was no jobs that existed for them. However, some illegal immigrates were once legal, with a visa. This gave them the right to work in the United States; however, the visa expired making them illegal. Experts say roughly 40 percent of the 200,000 to 300,000 people who become permanent illegal residents each year are actually people who overstay visas (Griffin 372). Therefore, by legalizing !a large number of illegal immigrates didnt help the situation nor did the strict laws on business. In fact it only caused people to come up with better way to get around the system. The problem with immigration isnt that the United States doesnt allow it. Right now the United States accepts about 700,000 immigrants legally each year, more than the rest of the world put together (McConner 733).However, what possibly could happen if the United States closed all of its boarders. Ruben Bonilla, president of the 100,000-member League of United Latin-Americans Citizens, argues that undocumented workers, in addition to playing a positive role in the economy, actually increase tax revenue by paying for Social Security service they seldom use (McClellan 42). The problem with just outlawing immigration is that, Mexico especially would self destroy. The economy of Mexico would fall and the United States could run the risk of a Socialistic society coming in. So to just outlaw of immigration would not benefit the United States in the long run. Therefore, in what ways are immigration benefiting the United States. Obviously, legal immigration has profoundly influences U.S. soc iety. According to Rodman Griffin Numerous studies conclude that migrants enhance productivity in a number of ways (364). Legal immigrants take on seasonal jobs that most Americans wont do, immigrants work hard, and they pay taxes. All of these things are beneficial to the U.S. According to Dudley, author of Immigration; Opposing Viewpoints, Compared to natives, immigrants save more, apply more effort during working hours, have twice as great a propensity to be self-employed, have higher rates of participation in the labor force and are unusually self-reliant and innovation(81). However, their are the illegal immigrates that live a life of mystery. Meaning, that they dont benefit the economy in anyway. They usually get paid under the table and contribute no taxes in the system. In effect many of these workers find it hard to get work. Eventually they begin to strain public services. By Law, illegal immigrants are bared from receiving federal welfare payments and a range of other ben efits, including food stamps and unemployment compensation. However, in some states their are ways around the system. Whether Americans like it or not, once immigrants are here they have certain rights guaranteed by the Constitution. In earlier ears, however, some Americans assumed that undocumented aliens did not have any right whatsoever. Talk of a right to an American education , for example, would have been dismissed out of hand. According the Cozic in the Texas School Case, five of nine justices of the U.S. Supreme court ruled that children of illegal aliens had a constitutional right to public education (76). This ruling was justified by the Fourteenth Amendment statement about equal protection regardless of the citizen status. According to Dudley, author of Immigration; Opposing Viewpoints, the courts believed that education was a fundamental role in maintaining the fabric of our societyto deny children the right of education, would in the long run add to the problems and cos ts of unemployment, welfare, and crimes(367). However, in January of 1997 the court found that just because a child was born in the United States, it is not a citizen. This in effect would eliminate some of the benefits that the child would receive. This does provide some hope; however, their are many citizen children that allow illegal immigrates to receive benefits. Most of the time it is the legal child that allows the family to relieve federal aid. In effect, immigration ends up costing the U.S. large amounts of money for this very reason. For example, a study done in 1993 by Carrying Capacity Network, a nonprofit organization, found that $4.4 billion went into primary-secondary education for illegal immigrate children. .ue247deff32f7793c06f027911e3f37cf , .ue247deff32f7793c06f027911e3f37cf .postImageUrl , .ue247deff32f7793c06f027911e3f37cf .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .ue247deff32f7793c06f027911e3f37cf , .ue247deff32f7793c06f027911e3f37cf:hover , .ue247deff32f7793c06f027911e3f37cf:visited , .ue247deff32f7793c06f027911e3f37cf:active { border:0!important; } .ue247deff32f7793c06f027911e3f37cf .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .ue247deff32f7793c06f027911e3f37cf { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .ue247deff32f7793c06f027911e3f37cf:active , .ue247deff32f7793c06f027911e3f37cf:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .ue247deff32f7793c06f027911e3f37cf .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .ue247deff32f7793c06f027911e3f37cf .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .ue247deff32f7793c06f027911e3f37cf .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .ue247deff32f7793c06f027911e3f37cf .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .ue247deff32f7793c06f027911e3f37cf:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .ue247deff32f7793c06f027911e3f37cf .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .ue247deff32f7793c06f027911e3f37cf .ue247deff32f7793c06f027911e3f37cf-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .ue247deff32f7793c06f027911e3f37cf:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Causes of Childhood Obesity EssayImmigrates do receive other forms of governmental aid. For example all illegal have the right to apply for political asylum, a process that can take more than a year and effectively prolong their stay in the United States. Though relatively few illegals have a realistic hope of gaining asylum status, and increasing number are applying, knowing the system cant handle them. those awaiting a ruling on asylum requests often take jobs and meld into the underground economy. So what makes illegal immigrants so attracted to the United States?Fact of the matter is, the United States has more available jobs then most countries surrounding us because of more capital equipment and more advanced technologies which enhance the productivity of labor (McCall, 731). Because the United States wages are higher and therefore it is very beneficial for them to move. However, with these immigrates comes a problems with unemployment. According to Charles Cozic, author of Illegal Immigration, for each 100 working low-skilled immigrates their are 25 displaced U.S. low-skilled workers (75-76) So even though the cost for the immigrates to move to the United States is less then the large benefits they receive, some Americans feel the effects by unemployment. For these unemployed workers the government turns around and provides public services for displaced workers. In 1994 the government arrived at an adjusted total cost of $3.6 to $4.6 billion due to displa!cement. So just because the government isnt paying for the legal immigrates directly, it is paying for immigrations effects on American workers. On a different level, immigration today is causing many environmental and resource issues. Each additional immigrant, regardless of his or her personal qualifications and merits, swells our numbers and further increases the already dangerous level of environmental pollution. Each year the pollution problem is announced as getting worse, yet we continue to except more and more people into our all ready growing nation. For each additional immigrate, that this country legalizes, decrease the amount of natural resource available. For example, land is slowly become more scare. What use to be farm land has been developed, making society depend more on outside resource. The world is moving ever more deeply into the realm of shortages. Every increase in population brings an increase in the per capita cost of reducing pollution. The problem with population is increasing drastically. As the population increases so does the amount of vehicle on the road causing traffic gridlock!and carbon dioxi de pollution. Immigration problems can be better example through the example of the supply and demand curve. If one was to take a look at the percentage that our society demands in the labor force each year, they would discover that even without the legalization of immigrates Americans can well fit that demand. However, the United States keeps on supplying the county with more and more people making the supply of workers out way the demand. Another example is the extreme amounts of illegal immigrates on public services. When the Simpson-Rodio Act passed this caused illegal immigrates to lose their jobs. Which in effect, put more immigrates on public services. Right now in the United States the demand for public services is much higher then the supply of worker contributing to the system. The arguments for and against immigration has three important subject matters: first, the understanding of the history behind immigration. Second, the outcome immigration has on the United States. T hird and finally, the economic questions associated with migration today. Even though immagration can be a benifit to the United States it does bring the country down in others.

The Marketing Environment Report Essay Example

The Marketing Environment Report Paper This year, 2012, Apple launch their latest smart phone, the phone 5. This has the newest and most up-to-date technology that has ever been used on any of heir products with the launch of the ISO 6 software. The marketing environment will aid the launch of this product if used effectively. 2. Method Diagram 1. This represents the elements of the Macro-environment and I will use this diagram to show these elements in an effective way in relation to Apple’s phone 5. Geoff Primp. (2012). Intend to cover the macro-environment in terms of technology and social and demographic. I will not discuss the factors Of politics and legal or the economy as during research I found more significant evidence to suggest that technology and social and demographic changes affect Apple’s phone 5 rater. I will discuss the micro-environment in terms of customers, competitors and intermediaries in detail because these factors have a greater impact on Apple in comparison to suppliers and other stakeholders. Finally, will finish my analysis and interpretation by covering the internal environment in relation to the company’s responsibility and the importance of employee morale as these are more relevant than finance and resources. . Analysis and Interpretation The Macro-environment The macro-environment is comprised of the external factors that a company interacts with, directly or indirectly, states Palmer, A. 2000), 51 . It relates to trends and factors that may affect the relationship an organization has with its customers, suppliers and intermediaries. We will write a custom essay sample on The Marketing Environment Report specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Marketing Environment Report specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Marketing Environment Report specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Areas that consist in the macro- environment are shown in Figure 1 I aim to discuss two of these: Technology and Social Demographic. Technology is constantly being developed and is evolving rapidly, therefore it is essential for marketers to be aware of these developments taking place and how they may affect their organization. Coinage, G. (2006). Writes that when technology is developed it can affect customer demand for a company’s products or services. This shows that it is important for companies like Apple to use the most up-to-date technology, if they do not have the appropriate technology within their products; customers will not invest in them and will turn to competitors. Coinage, G. (2006). Also states that changing technology may bring forward new opportunities and threats that the company will face in relation to a products lifestyle. This suggests that Apple will have to evaluate new technology available in order to keep customer demand high and to gain competitive advantage by identifying opportunities and threats. Apple will have to ensure that their phone 5 meets he ever changing expectations of their consumers. Apple’s pod sales have gradually decreased as a result of their customers increasing demand for phones and pads instead of MPH devices. Theorizing, D. (2012). Therefore, Apple must analyses the technological changes occurring in the market and evolve to ensure that all products remain up-to-date and desirable to customers. Social and demographic changes in society will have an impact on an organization such as Apple due to the fact that they are constantly dealing with customers who are part of a changing population. Organizations must e able to deal with demographic changes such as the ageing population that we are in today. The section of the population aged 65 and over is expected to rise from 13% up to 20% over a 50 year period, states Paul Heathery. This shows that it is essential for companies to consider the older generation as they are a large segment of the market. Therefore, if companies are able to develop their products and services to suit elderly people, they will find themselves in a much better position in the market. Apple has been able to cater for this segment as they have the â€Å"App Store† which allows customers to unload a variety of APS from â€Å"Matcher†, to â€Å"Angry Birds†. Apple have allowed themselves to appeal to a mass market which enables them to deal with the demographic change of the ageing population and still keep their younger customers interested. The Micro-environment The micro-environment of an organization is the companies or individuals that affect the organization’s activities, directly or indirectly. In the micro- environment, the key groups are Customers; Competitors; Suppliers; Intermediaries; and Other stakeholders. I will discuss this environment in terms of Apple’s customers, competitors and intermediaries. For a company like Apple, it is important to be aware of customer markets and their needs as each market have distinct, separate needs. For example, consumer markets are individuals who will use Apple’s products for personal and leisure use. The needs of this market will differ noticeably from those of Business markets and Reseller markets who are essentially looking to make further profit/use from Apple’s products. Palmer, A. (2000) states that ideally, organizations should be able to predict what customers will want next rather than waiting to see before acting. From this, Apple must be aware Of their customers’ deeds as the success of the phone 5 will rely on how well the company know their customers. Apple is at an advantage as they have had huge success with several other products that has given them an established brand with a huge number of loyal customers. Steve M. Chain, former Apple Marketing Executive and Consumer Marketing Expert comments on Apples advertisements: â€Å"They are inviting you to experience the Apple lifestyle and to become part of the pod community. † This comment shows how Apple have created a ‘community’ that is associated with the company that customers want to be a part of, this will market their products in itself. As well as predicting what their customers may do/want next, companies must be aware of what their competitors might do next. A company can have direct competitors and indirect competitors. Direct competitors are similar companies who aim to meet customer needs in a similar way as they intend to. For example Samsung would be a direct competitor to Apple as they are in the same industry (mobile phones) and have similar customers who expect similar products and features within those products. Analysis’s predict that by the end of 2012 the phone 5 will have sold an estimated million phones, ND Samsung Galaxy SO is to sell around 30 million. Williams, A. (2010). This shows how competitive the mobile phone industry is and the success of a company depends on the loyalty of customers, modern technology in the product and how well the product meets customer’s expectations. Indirect competitors produce different products, but ultimately satisfy the same need. This type of competitor is hard to identify and therefore it is important for companies to research potential competitors fully in order to be able to respond quickly to changes. Intermediaries are companies such as retailers, distributors and wholesales. These are companies in which most organizations will be involved in and therefore it is important for them to be selling the right image of the organization. Carapace Warehouse would be a retailer of Apple. This could affect Apple because the employees selling an phone 5 directly to a customer will be able to project a positive image of the product to the customer. Similarly, if an employee appears lethargic and detached a customer is unlikely to want to purchase the product they are promoting. The Internal Environment The internal environment of an organization in relation to marketing consists f the organizational structure, its responsibility, finance and the development of its employees. If internal marketing is done effectively, it can help to create an ethos resulting in high quality services to customers. â€Å"Apple’s core mission: making the best products and experiences it can for customers. † Jog, E. (2012). Jog E also states that Apple have made their employees a priority as they have recognized that when their staff are happy, productivity is increased and therefore profits and revenue is increased in turn. Staff are encouraged and rewarded in order to keep motivation and job distraction at a high as this attitude reflects onto their customers and will give a positive image to the company. Due to the fact that they have implemented rewards such as sabbaticals for employees and â€Å"blue-sky’ (see Appendix 1), Apple should not have problems in regards to its internal marketing because of its clear organizational structure and its reward system ensuring employees are supported and happy.

Free Panera Bread Economics Essay

Free Panera Bread Economics Essay Panera Bread Strategy Panera ventured into a restaurant service known as fast food. This was after noting that customers were increasingly looking for special food, that which is a departure from the normal run-off-the-mill. The other thing was that the customers not only wanted the fast food affair, but also wanted quick service. The outcome of the findings was the conclusion that the consumers wanted a combination of fast food and high quality service (Barringer, and Duane, par 3). This made the owners of Panera adopt what we can now call Position Strategy. This is a characteristic of the restaurant industries that are called the First Casual. The terms are basically referring to speed and good quality. Their aim to harness the consumers through this has helped them become the leading bread caf companies in the USA. The table beloow explains this strategy well. The company hires well trained bekers with experience in baking.in all their chain of bekeries the bakers craft the bread from scratch to the end. They use the best ingredients to come up with high quality bread. The workers are also highly remunerated. They earn almost 30% higher than the closest competitor. Paneras services are very timely and they are also ready, or on hand. Swot Panera effectively identified its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and their after working on them to come up with the leading strategy. Its strengths are: Panera is leading in the country. It has also won the award for sourdough bread. In addition to those, its food is of high quality and it has plausible customer loyalty. The weaknesses that Panera has are the inconsistent soup quality, dinner time amounts to small profits, the brand is not well known in new markets and the brand is becoming too common in St. Luis. The opportunities that are available are the increasing health awareness among the customers, and enough room for expansion. The potential threat is the increasing completion in the market. Strategic Management Issues Panera bread still face strategic management issues. The main problem is the ever rising comeption. This is because food chains and dines are responding to demand of fast food. This causes a very stiff competition to the restaurant industry. Good examples are budger King and McDonalds who are now venturing g into the fast food. The other thing is the rising cost of production. This has imposed downward pressure on Paneras operating cost. Panera has a food menu that is dominated by carbohydrate food. This may cause the customers to look for alternatives that are healthier. Like many industres and restaurants, Panera has been affected by global recession. This is a challenge that it is trying to deal with. Financial state Panera income has increased steadily through the pas three years. However its operating ioncome has come down because of rising cost of production. Wiki analysis shows that: Panera reported a net income increase of 38% in Q3 (ended September 29, 2009), growing from $13.7 million in Q3 2008 to $18.9 million in Q3 2009. Total revenue grew 6% from $315 million to $335 million, for with operating margins growing from 7.2% to 9.5%. Over the third quarter, Panera opened 19 new bakery-cafes in Q3, increasing its total to 1,362 total stores in operation by the end of Q3. At the same time, comparable bakery-caf sales growth increased by 2.8% over Q3 2008 growth Panera attributes to the introduction of new products, successful marketing, and growth in its catering business (Panera Bread Company, par 4).

Causes and Correlates of Adolescent Drug

Experimentation with illicit drugs and substance use is common among youth population. This is the most common reason for early onset of drugs which exposes youth to developmental harm and risk of developing mental health problems. Early onset of drug is also associated with depression, anxiety, psychosis and educational under achievement among youth population. Due to such harm and health risk to youth population, it is necessary to evaluate how far policies and programs implemented for preventing early drug onset among youths have mitigated different   risk factors of drug abuse (Modesto-Lowe et al. 2008). The essay particularly evaluates the effectives of this program and preventive strategies to identify strength and weakness in approach. Based on this evaluation, it recommends possible steps to improve current strategies to delay the onset of drugs. As there is emphasis on early intervention to reduce the cost and harm associated with early drug onset among youths, it is necessary to evaluate education programs implemented for youths in Australia. The review of such school based educational programs for preventing alcohol and other drugs revealed that the school-based program has harm minimization goal and it mainly employed the principle of social influence approach or cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). By this approach, youth were taught to resist external pressure and strengthen their coping skills. CBT helped to analyse and modify the negative thinking pattern and behavior of school children. The CLIMATE program for alcohol and cannabis and other programs like SHAHRP, Life Education, Greenhouse project and Resilient Family Intervention gave mixed results. While CLIMATE, SHAHRP and greenhouse projects have significant effect in reducing risk, the other two programs gave no significant results. The main strength of these inter ventions was that the program was implemented by means of a computer-delivery method. This minimized the cost involved in recruiting and training the staffs for education and guaranteed flexible and consistent delivery of information. However, minimum efficacy was found for those schools which had minimum resource for internet based delivery of prevention and where teachers failed to adapt the program according to the needs of particular school (Teesson et al. 2012). Hence, in the future, it is necessary that resource of the school is developed to deliver internet-based educational program to promote efficacy. The key teachings of the educational program should also be supported by evidence (Bonomo and Bowes 2001). As the above evaluation suggested lack of resource regarding computer based program behind the reason for poor outcome of the program, this section particularly evaluates the effectiveness of the universal computer-based Climate School psycho-stimulants and cannabis module. In the randomized controlled study with secondary school children in Australia, students were randomized to computer-based Climate schools program and the usual health classes group. The Climate program was based on social influence approach to harm minimisation. The impact of the Climate Schools program on school children was that they decreased pro-drug attitude due to better awareness about the ill-effects of cannabis and psychostimulants. The frequency of experimentation use of drugs among children significantly reduced which resulted in subdued uptake. In comparison with children who received usual drug education, climate school group children had better used cannabis less often. The advantaged of computer-ba sed delivery was that use of cartoon story raised interest among children and they could recall the information very well. However, one limitation of the Climate School program is that although it reduced children’s intention to use meth/amphetamine among youths, it could not sustain these intention for longer time (Vogl et al. 2014). Hence, to sustain the long-term knowledge and preventive behavior related to early drug onset, it is necessary to continue ongoing intervention in a sequential and regular pattern. The feasibility of the program can be further increased by encouraging children to bring their own laptop to schools. Among all the alcohol education programs implemented in schools, the Climate Schools, All Stars and Project ALERT   was most effective in yielding positive results for children. Many other programs lacked efficacy because of poor quality of research and inconsistency in approach. The programs which gave evidence of good effect included revealed use of multiple peer-reviewed publications as the reason for good outcome in such programs (Roche et al. 2014). Similarly, the study regarding primary school drug education in UK indicated that impact cannot be measure as understanding of true effects requires long timescale. Therefore, the study suggested that those programs are successful that are long-term and intensive on their goals and employ interacting teaching styles and wider community to mitigate the early drug use (Lloyd et al. 2000). Hence, the review suggest that most effective alcohol education program is dependent on availability of effective resource such as managing accessi bility issues and training staffs in efficiently adapting the program in school setting. Furthermore, extension of supportive network is also essential to guarantee the success of the program such as collaboration with families and local community to bring a cultural change and reinforce preventive message not just in schools but at family and community level too. The National Drug Strategy (NDS) is one of the policies regarding the prevention of substance use, risk and harm in Australia. This was a supply reduction and harm reduction strategy to disrupt supply of illicit drugs, prevent uptake of harmful drugs and reduce drug related to harm to people. The National Drug Strategic Framework was implemented in Australia in 2004 which provided a balanced approach to reducing the supply and demand of drugs. Apart from training, monitoring and evaluation, the policy also focussed on research and other measures to prevent the harm associated with drug use (National Drug Strategy - National Drug Strategic Framework 2017). The goal of the national policy was to set an evidence based prevention agenda by means of strategic mapping of system and pathways that are interconnected with risk factors and outcome.   The strategy was effective as it dependent on extensive review of scientific literature to implement corrective actions for the community. Exte nsive research was done in all areas related to efficacy of different risk and protection model, cost-effectiveness of alcohol and drug interventions, legal status of drugs, patterns of use in early years and impact on individual and families (Butler 2005). There is strong implication of the efficacy of this policy. The developments and actions mentioned in this policy can guide public level action reducing the harm of drug use among youths. In future, there is a need to invest in early childhood development and maximize human potential to take full advantage of the protection and risk reduction approach to prevention of drugs. Cannabis is one of the drugs highly used by adolescent children and young adults. They intermittently use this drug till the age of 20 for experimentation purpose and very few of them proceed to long-term regular use. Considering the high prevalence of lifetime use among females in between 1995 to 2000, a vigorous campaign was launched to take action against this practice. To distinguish harm reduction as a policy goal, the main criteria was to include harm reduction as a primary goal and to plan strategies that can bring net-reduction in drug-related harm. Some of the issues found in the strategy of harm reduction is that lack of longitudinal research on adverse health effects delayed making causal inferences. Secondly, the irrational policy and drug law reform acted as an obstacle in evaluation of action for explicit harm reduction. This issue is widely found in raising awareness regarding harm reduction for cannabis. The most probable chronic harm of regular use include cannabis d ependence syndrome, cognitive impairment, respiratory distress and the harm related to acute use include psychological impact such as dysphoria, panic attacks and paranoia. As adolescents particularly belong to high-risk group for adverse effect of cannabis, there is a need to consider legal harm of preventive cannabis use among youths (Swift et al. 2000). There is a need to develop a balance between harm reduction approach and acceptable public message so that other issues are not exacerbated. A realistic and flexible approach will help to yield positive results. Recent research findings should also be included in the strategy to reduce the harm related to enhance health and well-being of society. There is great argument regarding the implementation of the harm reduction approach into an adolescent context. This debate exists due to the views on zero tolerance and legalization of certain drugs. Zero tolerance approach is also not ethically correct because abrupt ban or disruption may also harm addicted individual or youths. Zero tolerance promotes complete prohibition of any form of drug use. On the other hand, legalization and decriminalization of drugs involves removing criminal sanction for possession and sale of drugs. Many oppose these two steps as by this means drug use will further increase among youths (Bonomo and Bowes 2001). Harm reduction approach can balance these two extreme issues by means of implementing two forms of strategies. The first may focus on reducing harms among drug users and other may focus on those vulnerable to initiating drug use. For example, educational campaigns related to safely injecting drugs can reduce blood borne infection and educational strategies on social context can educate young children about the risk of this drugs in their development stage. This would be a rational and relevant approach to achieve better response and prevent drug-related harm. The review and evaluation of current program and strategies to delay the age of drug onset presents weakness in approach resulting in poor response or wide issues at public level. Although some programs were found to be highly effective in integrating right resource to reduce the use of drugs, other programs failed due to lack of adequate infrastructure and training in staff regarding implementing the program. This problem was mainly seen in educational program implemented at school level. For instance, Climate school program was highly efficacious in reducing drug related in harm in school children, however poor outcome was seen due to limitations in infrastructure and design of the program. To improve the performance of school-based educational program in reducing risk of drug use, there is a need to specifically target high-risk group adolescents. The advantage of focusing on high-risk group is that it will maximize preventive outcome for high-risk students as well as lead to positive health behaviour in other youths (Teesson et al. 2012). Secondly limitation found from the evaluation of approach was that educational programs and modules were prepared without integration of peer-reviewed intervention strategies to prevent drug use. This resulted in poor quality of prevention programs resulting in poor or moderate outcome. Hence, extensive research is required while preparing educational modules so that evidence based public intervention is delivered and the program has the potential to improve health behaviour in long-term too (Jenson and Fraser 2015). Improvement in primary prevention strategies for drug prevention is also necessary so and it should be based on theoretical foundation for prevention. For example, while designing educational programs, social determinants, risk and protective factors of health should be adequately covered (Munro and Ramsden, 2017). There are various public health system model available and selecting of these models should depend on the setting, context and severity of drug use issue in target group. Community based approach is necessary so that not just youths, but teachers, parents and local community groups are involved in curbing the menace of high drug use among children. To promote success of intervention, infrastructure and program should be tailored to the needs of the local community and keys actions should be consistent with overall program objectives (Spooner 2009). The essay focused on the public health issue of high prevalence and early onset of drug use among youths. Youths engage in this practice to experiment or gain the ecstasy of drugs. As many of them shift to lifetime consumption of drugs, it leads to many health related consequences such as drug dependency, psychological problem and paranoia. Hence, the evaluation of current educational program and policies was necessary to analyse the extent to which they are effective in delaying in early onset of drugs. This evaluation helped in the identification of limitations in the approach and proposed possible recommendation to yield better results and sustain them for long-term too. Bonomo, Y.A. and Bowes, G., 2001. Putting harm reduction into an adolescent context.  Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health,  37(1), pp.5-8. Butler, S., 2005. The prevention of substance use, risk and harm in Australia: a review of the evidence.  Drugs: education, prevention and policy,  12(3), pp.247-248. Jenson, J.M. and Fraser, M.W. eds., 2015.  Social policy for children and families: A risk and resilience perspective. Sage Publications. Lloyd, Ruth Joyce, Jane Hurry, Mike Ashton, C., 2000. The effectiveness of primary school drug education.  Drugs: education, prevention and policy,  7(2), pp.109-126. Modesto-Lowe, V., Petry, N.M. and McCartney, M., 2008. Intervening early to reduce developmentally harmful substance use among youth populations.  The Medical journal of Australia,  188(8), p.494. Munro, G. and Ramsden, R. 2017.  Primary prevention: preventing uptake of drugs. [online] Available at: https://file:///C:/Users/SONY/Desktop/Shopify/Shopify/1315953_80810843_DrugUseinAustralianSociety.pdf [Accessed 15 Apr. 2017]. National Drug Strategy - National Drug Strategic Framework. 2017.   Nationaldrugstrategy.gov.au.   [online] Available at: https://www.nationaldrugstrategy.gov.au/internet/drugstrategy/publishing.nsf/Content/national-drug-strategic-framework-lp [Accessed 15 Apr. 2017]. Roche, A., Battams, S., Cameron, J. and Lee, N., 2014.  Alcohol education for Australian schools: What are the most effective programs?. [online] Available at: https://nceta.flinders.edu.au/files/7914/1534/0597/EN556.pdf [Accessed 15 Apr. 2017]. Spooner, C. 2009.  Causes and correlates of adolescent drug abuse and implications for treatment. [online] Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09595239996329 [Accessed 15 Apr. 2017]. Swift, Jan Copeland, Simon Lenton, W., 2000. Cannabis and harm reduction.  Drug and Alcohol Review,  19(1), pp.101-112. Teesson, M., Newton, N.C. and Barrett, E.L., 2012. Australian school?based prevention programs for alcohol and other drugs: A systematic review.  Drug and Alcohol Review,  31(6), pp.731-736. Vogl, L. E., Newton, N. C., Champion, K. E., & Teesson, M. (2014). A universal harm-minimisation approach to preventing psychostimulant and cannabis use in adolescents: a cluster randomised controlled trial.  Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy,  9(1), 24.

Information system development Blog Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Information system development Blog - Essay Example Converse to the past technologies it is infrastructural based. Web 3.0 will add more value to users since the technology will be with human capabilities of accurately and precisely determining information required, translating to more relevant information. There will be a changeover towards metacomputing. This is expected to be brought up by the envisioned web 4.0 (2020) through Webos and internet operating software applications. These applications will enhance distributive search and use of intelligent personal agents. In addition it will lead to efficient utilization of computers connected by a network (Prabhu.8) The experience of surfing over the internet will be more efficient and effective. This will be attributable to the development of natural user interface (NUI). These will increase internet users satisfaction efficiently. Moreover, advancement of Smartphone which have more functionality in regard to internet will enhance mobile computing. It is highly likely that the next wave in computer interfaces will be envisioned in the speech technology. This will involve a process whereby the computer will have the capacity to transform sound speech to text. Moreover, when the speech-output technology whereby this will invigorate the blogging arena whereby, blog users will not be typing in response rather they will be talk blogging. Furthermore, photo-sharing sites and social sites will incorporate speech technology and video chats (Chen 324). Interactive systems have enhanced online markets. Through interactive systems, business people have had a chance to advertise their products and services where customers get a chance to view them and organize a purchase. In future there is a possibility that physical markets will be eliminated and e-bay (online markets) will be the talk of the day. People will no longer have to visit show rooms or avail themselves to service

The UK Motor Insurance Industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The UK Motor Insurance Industry - Essay Example The last few years have seen the major insurers cut costs and attempt to consolidate their market share with a wave of mergers and take-overs. The current state of the industry is marked by competition. The future will be driven by innovation, and will benefit the UK consumer. The private motor underwriting result deteriorated in 2005, as the market returned a loss of 232 million. The private motor underwriting loss has been increasing since 2001 when it approached the break-even mark with a loss of only 86 and the market has not made a profit since 1994. This has resulted in the consolidation of the industry as smaller insurers find it more difficult to compete. In both private and commercial motor insurers, the top 20 companies are responsible for over 95% of the business (The Association of British Insurers 2007). This trend is likely to continue as smaller companies continue to stand losses and are forced to merge, consolidate, or innovate. The Internet has offered brokers a new low cost outlet to offer competitive rates to consumers. According to Lee Mooney, Admiral motor product group manager says, "The Internet is growing in importance as a medium because of the savings it can offer big insurers"(Lorenz 2002 p.12). The obvious success of direct insurance companies prompted traditional insurance players to set up their own distinct direct insurance brands. It is forecast that by the end of 2007, 20% of the motor insurance will be sold over the Internet (The Association of British Insurers 2007). "The development of websites and of broadband Internet access is likely to lead to more integrated insurance purchasing, as consumers research the Web and then choose a direct supplier either online or through a retail outlet" (The Association of British Insurers 2007). One of the driving forces behind the need to lower costs through direct marketing has been the increased cost of servicing claims. The nature on motor insurance is such that the client is paying a fee now for a service to be rendered in the future (Abdelhamid 2005 p.214). Fluctuations in claims due to inflation and rising repair rates may exceed the premium value. This has forced insurers to become dependent on the value of the return on the invested premiums. When investment value drops, this places the insurer in jeopardy of taking a loss on the claim. This has had the effect of promoting lower cost Internet and call centre based sales activities. As direct marketing companies proliferate they also look to differentiate their products. In 2005, Admiral launched MultiCar. Drivers who have 2 or more cars in their household could get a discount of up to 23% on their motor car insurance (Cheap Car Insurance). Norwich, a division of Aviva since its merger with CGU in 2000, offers the pay as you drive program. They offer a black box telemetry system that bills you for the miles you drive (Could pay-as-you-drive insurance work 2004). Innovations in service and pricing will continue to drive the industry. Norwich Union, the largest automobile insurer in the Great Britain, has set up its own medical clinic to treat victims of car accidents involving its policyholders. They have their own clinics, doctors and therapists that treat people making claims. It quickens recovery, cuts costs, and limits the potential of future litigation. This is one more innovation that is driving the motor insurance industry. Motor insurance has gone through a revolution

Concepts of Social Responsibility Essay Example for Free

Concepts of Social Responsibility Essay Business organizations today are socially and ethically responsible for doing the right thing, exercising good judgment in their business activities with employees, stakeholders, customers and the community. Business organizations emphasis should not only be on profits, but also on how business decisions impact society. Company Q is a small grocery store chain located in a major metropolitan area. This company will be evaluated on its attitude towards social responsibility. Also, recommendations will be given in three areas indicating how the company could improve its position regarding social responsibility. First of all, Company Q’s decision to close stores in high crime areas will have an adverse effect on the communities where they conduct business, leading to disruption and hardship in the lives of many. This definitely demonstrates an irresponsible attitude toward social responsibility. In terms of social responsibility, Company Q could help enrich the lives of families in need by supporting local community centers. Community centers play an important role in addressing the comprehensive needs of individuals and families by providing a wide range of resources that are most needed. Moreover, a responsible business could initiate programs to help disadvantaged youths and adults in the community, build employable works skills and connect them to career opportunities. Without question, the more job opportunities and employability of the citizens in that community the lower the crime rate would be. Finally, if Company Q is to be socially responsible, it must not only be committed to making a profit, but also to the economic development of the community where it does business (Ravindran, N. 2008). Secondarily, Company Q’s reluctance to offer health conscience customers a wide range of organic and healthy foods because the products are considered high margin items, is socially irresponsible and bad for business. A growing number of consumers favor organic foods, claiming that it tastes better and is healthier. Why organic? Organic foods grown naturally in well-balanced soils, ripened by the sun are healthier and tastier than products with synthetic chemicals and growth hormones. Moreover, the growing number of conscience consumers was highlighted in a recent Bursen-Marsteller report; â€Å"people will more likely choose a product that supports a social cause when choosing between otherwise similar products† (Penn, Schoen Berland, 2010). These average consumers daily decisions are slowly but surely being influenced by social concern and responsibility. Finally, the critical issue for Company Q is the social responsibility to its customers, who looks to business to provide them with satisfying, safe products and respect their rights as customer. Lastly, Company Q decides to throw away food products, instead of donating it to the local food bank. Sadly, this behavior demonstrates a concern for profits before people attitude, which is socially irresponsible. Businesses can no longer ignore social issues because a business is a part of our society. For Company Q to become more socially responsible its sole objective must not only be to make a profit. But include concerns and responsibilities to the general welfare of the communities and societies in which they operate. Moreover, businesses should simply want to make their communities better places for everyone to live and work. The most common way that businesses exercise their community responsibility is through donations to local and national charitable organizations. Doing simple things like contributing to local food banks, may not be enough to change the world for everyone, but does alleviate some of social ills that abound in local communities.

Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar :: essays research papers

This book is basically following the gossip of the privileged, beautiful, and filthy rich teens. While many novels have a one-person view of their story, this one allows you to understand each character’s thoughts. Welcome to New York City’s Upper East Side, where teenagers have unlimited access to money and whatever else they could ask. This book begins when the girl everyone loved to hate, Serena van der Woodsen is back from boarding school. Everyone claims she was kicked out. Blair Waldorf and Serena were best friends until Blair knew what it was like to be in the light Serena used to take up. Blair’s mother, Eleanor Waldorf, and her soon to be step-father, Cyrus Rose, threw a dinner party when Blair met the her nightmare. This was the first time Blair had seen Serena in two years. Blair knows that if Serena is around Nate, her boyfriend, she’ll end up stealing his heart. The rest of the book follows Blair’s parties and new gossip heard over Serena. Blair is on the organizing committee for the Kiss on the Lips party, when she can’t seem to find someone to print the invitations. Jenny Humphrey agrees to make them if she can have invitations for herself and her brother, Dan. Serena tries to straighten up her life by doing more extracurricular classes at Constance school for girls. She decides she might join the Interschool Drama Club where they are doing a modern version of Gone With The Wind. She later blows that off and joins another drama group. A girl named Vanessa Abram is the director of her version of War and Peace. Serena was the best person for the part Natasha, but Vanessa doesn’t want Dan, as Prince Andrei, to swoon over Serena during the play. Jenny finally convinces her brother to take her to the Kiss on the Lips party. Serena blew off the party and called Vanessa to see if she would help her make her own movie. Vanessa agrees to help and invites Serena to a bar called The Five and Dime where her sister’s band would be playing.

Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Mesolithic Art Essay

The earth and the sky factor into Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Mesolithic art and monuments. Paleolithic means Old Stone Age and the art was mainly consisted of paintings in their caves and Venus figurines. Neolithic means New Stone Age and the art was consisted of the Stonehenge, figures, and pottery. Mesolithic means Middle Stone Age and the art consisted of some pottery, hand tools, and some figurines. In the Old Stone Age, (Paleolithic) their art was consisted of mainly paintings on cave walls. People painted animals because that was what they would see in the dark due to the prolonged time of being in darkness in the caves. They didn’t see much sunlight. As time went on, mathematical aspects started to rise from observational astronomy. Some cave paintings became known as an understanding of the path the moon takes around the sun. This is known as the ecliptic. The ecliptic lead to the discovery of the zodiac. Stars, moons, and planets in the Paleolithic culture are not the stars, moons and planets of modern time that we know. They are those whose habitat is the Milky Way and the celestial sphere now. Many of these paintings reflected images that were seen in the night sky. Such as the Bison that were painted in cave walls which is known as the Taurus in the zodiac sign today. The significance of their art was the astronomy and mathematical connections they made and how it created what we now know as the zodiac. The New Stone Age began to connect with the earth and the sun more by the use of famous monuments. In the New Stone Age (Neolithic) the people built villages that were built for family, life, and worship. They worshipped many gods, but their beliefs were strongly based on nature. They also built many walls that were used as a defense. The monuments they built was their main form art that had connection s to the earth and the sun. They created a giant stone monument that was known as Stonehenge. It was made out of earth, timber, and stones. By viewing this monument, it was observed that the Neolithic people had knowledge in architecture, mathematics, and astrology. The Stonehenge was created as an astrological observatory. It is known for this because of the rising and setting of the sun on the summer and winter solstice that can be seen through the monument. It was also considered to possibly have been used as an astronomical calendar. The significance of this monument is how these people had the mathematical and astronomy knowledge to build this in a way to be able to witness amazing views in the sky that come every year. The Middle Stone (Mesolithic) art consisted of mostly pottery and hand tools. During the Middle Stone age, the Mesolithic people made many hand tools because they began to gain more knowledge to be able to farm and capture animals more effectively. They created carved-engraved bone plates. These engraved or painted plates of stones were marked with dots. These dots were considered to be accurate lunar observations. The interpretation of the markings on many artefacts were considered to be marks that correlate with lunar or s olar motion. This showed that the Mesolithic people had some astronomical skills. The significance of these findings show that over time people were gaining skills on astronomy and were creating their observations through the use of art. Over time art has changed dramatically. It started off as just paintings on cave walls and lead to massive monuments that are still standing today. There is significance behind all of the art since the Stone Age times. These people from the stone ages used art to express their knowledge in mathematics and astronomy. They used it to better understand the earth, the sky, the sun, and the stars. They not knowingly created what is today the zodiac and proved they didn’t need any technology to create an astrological observatory.

Dollar General Essay

Dollar General is the leading dollar store retailer in the United States with 2011sales revenues of $13 billion. It evolved since 1939 from a family (Turner) owned business to a publicly-traded company to a de-listed private investor-owned company in 2007. In 2008 Mr. Rick Dreiling, the current CEO and Chairman of the Board, began to steer the company in new directions.  The operating priorities were to drive productive sales growth, increase gross margin, improve processes and information technology to reduce costs, and strengthen the Dollar General culture of serving others. Dollar General began to experience a decline in sales and store expansion as early as 2005, prior to the recession of 2007. As a leader in the industry, with its primary products being lower-priced consumables, Dollar General turned around under the new leadership and ownership structure to again begin increasing store expansion, sales and prospects for increased revenues and profits. At the present time Doll ar General make strategic use of its core competencies – leadership under the CEO, product selection expertise in merchandise sales, their organizational style and structure, the power of the retail store chain and distribution centers and a quality shopping experience to move forward towards achieving their operational priorities. However, Dollar General faces challenges that are both internal and external. They have strong leadership but with 10,000 stores leadership, culture, and values are hard to effectively trickle down through the whole organization. Improving the customer experience includes having highly motivate employees with a corporate culture of service. Dollar General has succeeded, in part, because they have sought out markets that the big box companies like Wal-Mart do not target, at least by a smaller scale easily accessible store in close proximity to consumer homes. This means, however, that the primary market of the company has tradtionally been in lower income neighbourhoods: it suits the price consciousness of consumers and aligns with lower priced commercial real estate. It is an irony that Dollar General has prospered during the recent recession. They must strategically align their core competencies with the external competitive environment, and this will include a need to possibly shut down poorly performing stores at the same time as they seek new store expansi ons. These priorities will be best served with a strategy of expansion of higher concentration of stores in existing successful markets, and setting up stores in new areas — new markets within existing states and new states with low or no current presence of Dollar General Stores. Introduction Dollar General Corporation is the largest discount retailer in the United  States, the company offers consumer staples merchandise in four categories: consumables, home products, seasonal, and apparel. As of February 25, 2011, Dollar General operated 9414 stores located in 35 states. Dollar General was founded in 1939 by J.L. Turner and his son as a whole-sale business. The first Dollar General store which is also the first dollar store in the States was opened in 1955 in Springfield, Kentucky. In the rest of this report, we will look at what happened to the Dollar General these years and have a comprehensive analysis of the company, which include the external, internal and SWOT analysis. Also we will provide several strategies recommendations to keep the company in the good path. Analysis of the External Environment In order to analyse the external environment of the discount retail industry, we conducted PEST analysis (see exhibit 1) and Porter’s Five Forces analysis (see exhibit 2) of the industry and these methods of analysis have allowed us to identify several most important opportunities as well as threats of the discount retail industry. First, there are several opportunities within the discount retailer industry. With the uncertainty of economy within the U.S., discount stores are getting more popular as consumers are facing the situation of lower purchasing power. Lower income neighbourhood would really be the ideal place for discount retailers to demonstrate their marketing strategies and to locate their stores. Also the use of technology can really improve their operational efficiencies. At the same time, there are several threats that the industry is facing. From the political aspect, there are trading issues between U.S. and countries where the retailers are importing merchand ises, higher tariff brings down the profits for companies. Also, the rapid growth of online-stores raised the competition within the discount retailing industry. Intensive competition within the industry resulted companies constantly reducing prices and profit margins. Analysis of the Internal Environment Value Chain: Primary Activities Dollar General (DG)’s inbound logistics consist of offering consumable, home products, seasonal and apparel merchandise from various suppliers. They also have stores located in many different states to take advantage of attracting  more customers. DG’s stores are either in freestanding building or in strip shopping centers to save on building costs. For outbound logistics, Dollar General hires third-party trucking companies to complete deliveries. The trucking companies transport the merchandise to a store from their nearest distribution center. DG also installed a voice pick system in the distribution centre, which allows employees to communicate with warehouse software systems by speech recognition. This would make the distribution costs go down for DG when the fuel cost increased. Dollar General operates its stores in leased space and also in their owned stores. This allows them to lowers their limited maintenance capital, low occupancy and operating costs. DG keeps building new stores and remodels its stores to make them easier to shop and increase store’s sale productivity. DG also tried to make its store’s look standardized across the chain. Dollar General has its own marketing which focuses on four variables: Price, Place, Promotion and Product to allow the company to attract existing and new customers. They create value through various products by increasing private labels products in consumables and non-consumables and through many stores across different regions to bring their reputation to their market. Having newspaper inserts and a web site allow DG to increase their brand image nationally. Dollar General’s service is done efficient and effectively by staff-scheduling model. This system would help to ensure the staff available at different times to the level of sales volumes during the week. DG provides training to their employees and focus on how to recruit and retain their high-performance employees. Value Chain: Support Activities Dollar General’s firm infrastructure has Richard Dreiling as CEO and chairman of the board. He previously was the CEO and board chairman of the largest drugstore chain in New York City. He is experience and knowledgeable in the food and drug retailer industry. Under his leadership, there are four important priorities identified by the managers, which are: driving productive sales growth, increasing gross margin, improving processes and information technology to reduce costs and strengthening the DG culture of serving others. Each typical store has one store manager, one assistant manager and three of more sales clerks. Dollar General has great human resource management. They employed more than 85,000 full-time and part-time employees. They have focus on how to improve recruiting, training and retained their employees. Dollar General has great technology and development. They installed a voice pick system in the distribution centre to decrease the distribution cost due to high fuel cost. They also installed new analytical and monitoring tools to assist with inventory shrinkage reduction efforts. This would avoid them from the loss of merchandise due to shoplifting, employee theft, damage and obsolescence and allow them to increase gross margin. Moreover, having a web site to allow customer to place orders online is another technology for DG to bring customer to store. Dollar General’s procurement is by purchasing merchandise through various suppliers, importers, agents, and other third parties. DG offers brand name, consumable merchandise and private label brands. DG also uses direct sourcing to get products to their store in order to control costs and increase its gross profit. They also held licenses to provide various trademarks and brands to the stores. Core competencies (Appendix C page Based on VRIS framework, we have identified five core competencies of Dollar General. These core competencies are Richard Dreiling (CEO), consumable merchandise, benchmark organizational styles and their retail stores chain. The separate evaluation of each of these competencies can be view in Appendix A. SWOT Analysis Strengths Dollar General is considered to be the largest retailed stores for selling merchandise mix priced at $1 or less in the US with more than 9400 stores in 35 states as of February in 2011. They sell consumable products at a very low price which attract more discount shoppers during recession. Their marketing strategy on 4Ps allows them to attract more and new customers. DG has the ability to catch market trends and adjust their product mix accordingly. They also create a fast and convenience shopping experience for consumer. They also have a very strong financial since they leased most of their stores and purchased leased stores during weak estate market period. Therefore, they have very low cost on capital expenditure. Their staff scheduling model allows them to make sure employees available during peak time. Also, the voice pick system in the distribution centres helps them to reduce distribution costs dramatically due to increasing in fuel cost. Moreover, the standard design in each of the retail store has helped them to increase sale productivity and easy to shop for customers. Weaknesses Dollar General has many weaknesses in its operations. They have to hire third party truck to deliver most of their merchandise, which could lead to delay in delivering merchandise to stores since they do not have control over the trucking company’s operation. DG has initiative to remodel and renovate their existing stores which could dramatically increase their debt because they have over 9000 stores. Also they are late on introducing online orders in 2007. As a result, they could lose on bringing more customers to know about their brand image. Their human resource management is problematic because they did not have clear policy on overtime pay and inequality salary due to gender. This could cause their reputation badly and financially hurt as there were cases where employees sued them over those issues. SWOT MATRIX: For the SWOT matrix, we have determined several things to be of importance in the following table: SWOT Matrix Strength 1. Low operating cost model 2. Large scale in term of retail stores 3. Strong finance Weakness 1. High cost on capital structure due to renovation 2. Late on introducing online order program 3. HR management is inefficient Opportunity 1. Economic uncertainty helps dollar stores 2. Low income Neighborhood 3. Use of technology 1. Entering global market(S3,O1) 2. Attracting more customers from different income groups(S2,O2) 3. Improvement on operational structures(S1,O3) 1. Opening new stores during economic downturns(W1,O1) 2. Upgrading online-order program(W2,O3) Threat 1. National trading issues 2. Rise of online-stores 3. Intensive Competition 1. Increased market share reduces the competition(S2,T3) 2. Financially healthy helps supporting online operations(S3,T2) 1. Redesigning online-store for better shopping experience(W2,T2) 2. Transferring cost on capital structure for merchandise mix(W1,T3) Assessments: (Appendix D page The mission statement at Dollar General is, â€Å"Serving Others. ‘For Customers: Convenience, Quality, and Great Prices. For Employees: Respect and Opportunity. For Shareholders: A Superior Return. For Communities: A Better Life’.† Based on our evaluation of this mission statement, we came up with a total quality score of 71% (Appendix B page †¦We felt in the mission statement that the purpose of Dollar General, services/ products offered, their competitive advantage, how they do to survived, how they treat  customers and positive public image to stakeholders are clearly outlined in the mission statement. Dollar General does not establish what their scope of operations is, does not create a shared sense of value among employees and does not explain the technology or innovation in their operations. Dollar General definitely has a strong mission statement, but could improve on a few aspects to make it better. Objectives of Dollar General are to increase mark et share in product and services, achieving high technology in operational processes and boosting company’s reputation by serving others. The company managers under CEO’s leadership drafted firm’s corporate governance principles. Dollar General has a board of directors and CEO is the chairman of the boards. Rick Dreiling, CEO, has extensive knowledge and experience in food and drug retailer. DG’s Top Managers are made up of local stores managers who allow firm to identify directions for the whole company. This helps for tighter unity among the upper and lower level managers within the firm. Strategic Alternatives 1. Uniform Branding and Functional/Facility Design Description: Create consistent signage, logo, brand uniformity, including greater internet presence. Apply across advertising and promotion mediums. Standardized store (floor & shelf) layout, and build private store products under improved branding efforts. Pro: Increase the square footage of sales (e.g. 10,000 sq ft building; 60,000 sq ft sales area) Pro: Create uniform, time-saving shopping experience Pro: Improve and standardize surveillance to reduce shrinkage from theft (large part of theft from employees) Pro: Increase sales per selling space Pro: Increase profitability through higher margin building of private store brand Pro: Store brands manufactured through low-cost East Asia manufacturers under private label Con: Most stores are leased – hard to find uniform size, shape, etc. Con: National brands still a consumer preference in many groups (such as higher income) Con: Private ‘branding’ or brand building may not be as important to value-conscious price-driven consumers 2. Human Resource Development – More Managers, Assistant Managers, Performance Bonuses Description: One of the goals of the company is to offer higher living standards to employees. More managers and assistant managers allows for non-hourly monthly wage, with base salary plus profit bonus potential. Pro: Reduces high staff turn-over Pro: Reduces shrinkage from staff theft Pro: Increases productivity and customer service (e.g. Staff more willing to rotate stock and presentation such as for seasonal goods or lowering and strategically placing stock that is shelved Con: May be perceived as offering a job title without wage increases Con: Increases expectations of staff Con: Could lead to higher wage costs, reduced net profits (if profit sharing), need to offer benefits (health insurance) Con: Less flexibility with part-time employees and cyclical/seasonal trends 3. Expansion to New States/More Stores Description: Plans are underway for expansion to states such as Connecticut, New Hampshire, Nevada. Presently they are in 35 states; states like Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Minnesota and Maryland all have less than 100 stores. A major business and population state like New Jersey only has 44 stores. New stores can be added to existing states because of local market (3 to 5 mile radius of stores) in all areas: city center, suburbs, rural areas. Pro: Resumes a past successful approach to expanded sales revenues and profits Pro: Shutting down of unprofitable stores, and new strategies, better suited to expand Pro: Recession has created many low-cost retail lease opportunities Pro: Many of the highest density states with most stores in ‘poor’ southern areas; major markets like New York state, Colorado and others are greatly under-served. Good opportunities. Pro: Regional distribution centers gain economies of scale and other efficiencies with enough stores; target areas wit h less-stores-per-distribution ratio Pro: Company has built high capability and advantage in low-cost store openings Con: Leases, even at lower prices, generally involve 10- to 15-year commitments Con: Recession still may be affecting employment, incomes and  sales patterns Con: Very low brand familiarity in new states Con: Threat, although small, of taking business away from other Dollar General stores if in higher per-city concentration 4. Target Higher Income Consumers Description: Higher income consumers have been shopping more at stores like Dollar General. This does not have to be solely for increasing purchasing power during recession. Many people of all incomes enjoy ‘value’ shopping. Increased focus on higher income consumers can be by increasing traffic to existing stores or new stores in more affluent areas. Higher income consumers may also have greater access to home computer, internet and preference for internet shopping. Pro: Increase per-customer total spending per visit, a main goal of current strategy Pro: Higher income consumers have means and ability to travel further – higher opportunity cost for their time though Pro: Allows for greater chance to sell national brands and higher price (closer to $10 range) goods Pro: Increased revenues and profits Con: Costs more to advertise/promotion to this new target audience Con: External advertising is more expensive and difficult to measure directly Con: Setting up stores in more affluent areas will have higher land, taxes, lease costs Recommendation: Alternative 3 — Expansion to New States/More Stores Implementation Plan The first step in the expansion plan is to identify the two paths of increased store numbers: (1) more stores per established markets and (2) new stores in new markets. (1) More stores in established markets Established markets have the advantage of useful sales statistics. Each area can be analyzed in terms of the total number of stores in an area, stores and sales revenue per population in the city/region, and total number of   stores, including competitors. These areas have already experienced within or intra-area exapansion. Impacts of higher concentration can be estimated. These patterns should be duplicated where possible seeking an optimum level of stores in a market. One of the great advantages the company enjoys is that most sales come from within 5 miles of an outlet. Even in cities with a high number of Dollar General stores, there remains a great deal of available market zones. (2) New Stores in New Markets Selecting new states to expand to and create new market presence can be guided by existing and planned distribution centers. Distribution centers are key to streamlining a uniform system of inventory and logistics. For example, relatively ‘new’ states with a lower density of Dollar General stores but with an existing under-utilized distribution center, with profitable stores, is the key criteria for new market selection. Other market analysis for new city/state markets can follow the patterns that have proven most successful in recent (past decade) expansions. Not all of the alternatives are mutually exclusive. The expansion to new stores and new markets more easily facilitates other goals such as improving store design and layout improving shopping speed, access to goods and higher density shelving use. These are tactics easier to achieve when selecting new properties than in remodelling existing buildings. Setting up new stores in new states may also be an opportunity to try out new labor-relations, including altering the mix between management (salary) positions and wage positions. However, to assure the most flexibility new stores and markets should begin with experienced store managers with wage employees. When new stores are in or near existing stores and markets it offers the chance for promotion of existing employees. The strategy is not simple expansion in terms solely of increased added store numbers. The strategic goal is to expand to new profitable markets and this includes the ancillary actions such as monitoring and closing poor performing existing stores. This blends opportunities while overcoming weaknesses towards higher profitability and sustainability. Implementation pace and schedule. With nearly 10,000 stores, and average expansion in the years between 2004-2009 inclusive being 354 stores, there are no simple decision criteria for selecting the best number for expansion. At the early part of the six year period (2004-5) expansion was by more than 600 stores per year. After a dip and slower growth in 2006-8, new store expansion grew to 466 stores in 2009. The bulk of this is higher concentration in existing state markets. Expansion to new areas should be in areas such as New Jersey, New York (state more than city due to high real estate costs in city) and other Northeast states which may be served by distribution centers. There is no current northeast distribution centers at all. Nearest regional centers are in Ohio (1229 stores) and perhaps Indiana (1000) stores. Over the next three years the pace and location of new stores in new markets should be 200 stores per year in the Northeast Atlantic coast area. Evaluation Criteria Through all stages the evaluative measure will be the extent to which performance matches the operating priorities: driving productive sales growth, increasing gross margin, improving processes and information technology to reduce costs, and strengthening the Dollar General culture of serving others. Conclusion Dollar General was the first mover in the discount consumer merchandise stores – an industry that has become mature, though continuing to find new ways to reshape itself or be influenced by world trends or forces. With a primary focus on low prices (many items in the $1 range and more established name brand products value priced with competitors like Wal-Mart) Dollar General has responded well to the low-cost production from countries like China and other emerging South-East Asia manufacturers. It has a high percentage of total products in national brands, but the majority of its products are private brands, including their own store brands. The strategic choices of Dollar General largely involves duplicating the sources  of their per-store success at a level encompassing nearly 10,000 stores in the United States. Dollar General has followed a strategy of rapid expansion of stores which has been successful except for a net closing of stores in 2007, and a slower pace of grow th in the years 2006 and 2008. Through the expansions, and restructured, and improved information systems and logistics, Dollar General is poised to achieve both increased number of sales and greater net profits. References: â€Å"Dollar General- Today’s Neighborhood Store† by Sue Cullers, Buene Vista University and S. Stephen Vitucci, Texas A&M University-Central Texas. â€Å"Dollar General 2013 Annual Report† by Dollar General. Exhibit 1 PEST Analysis Political – The level of political stability of the country is important to the consumer staples industry. Changes in government can lead to changes in taxation and legislation. The American elections may have an effect on the retailing industry as new legislation or new or existing government may bring in taxes. Also, trading issues between the US and other countries will affect retail companies when they are importing merchandises, higher tariff would resulted in decreasing profit margins for discount stores. Economic – The consumer staples industry is unique as it considered non-cyclical, which means it does not affected by traditional business cycles or economic downturns. The demand for consumer staples is always consistent as it has a low price elasticity of demand. Furthermore, discount stores often have recorded increased sales and income during recession. While their usual customers suffered from unemployment and lower purchasing power, people from higher income brackets found their way to dollar stores, looking for bargains. Social – Where income is distributed is an important factor that companies should look at as this also demonstrates the ideal place to aim their marketing or to locate their stores. Discount stores always targeted their merchandises assortment and store locations to meet the shopping needs of value-conscious customers. With the economy still remains weak and  uncertain, major dollar stores sought to keep their traditional customers and attract new customers. Technology – Use of upgraded technology of cashing machines can improve operational efficiencies. Also, integrated and sophisticated IT system would provide managements to manage their inventories efficiently and keep costs low. The rapid growth of on line-stores raised the competition within the discount retailing industry. Exhibit 2 Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis Threat of New Entrants (Low) The overall threat of new entrants in the discount retail industry is low. New entrants are facing many barriers in this industry. Top companies control the major portion of market share. Economies of scale play an important role in this industry as large companies have their cost advantage and offer their customers with lower prices products. New companies do not have much capital and resources to compete with them. Bargaining Power of Suppliers (Low) There is not much bargaining power for the suppliers include manufacturers and distributers. Large discount retailers purchase merchandises from many different suppliers so they are not relying on a sole supplier. Also most of the supplies are not rare or valuable. So the suppliers’ power in this industry is low. Bargaining Power of Buyers (High) The bargaining power of buyers is high within this industry, and this is due to customers are highly price sensitive, with low brand loyalty; customers are just seeking for products with the best values. Also, in the discount retail industry, the switching costs are very low, customers can easily switch between stores depending on which store has the cheapest products. Threat of Substitutes (Low) The threat of substitutes is low in the discount retail industry and this is due to products are already on the low end of pricing scale and the products offered by different dollar stores are almost the same, and the essential products are difficult to find substitutes. Rivalry among Existing Competitors (High) The competition within the discount retail merchandise industry is really high between several big players such as Dollar General, Family Dollar and Dollar Tree. Other than that, these companies are also competing with some giant retailers like Wal-Mart. Since the low-cost leadership is essentially the only competitive advantage within this industry, retailers are constantly reducing prices and profit margins to try to drive traffic to their stores and increase sales. Appendix C: Core competencies We have determined that Richard Dreiling is valuable, rare, costly to imitate, and non-substitutable. Richard Dreiling is valuable and rare because not many CEO’s have the leadership abilities to take Dollar General as far as he did. Further, Dreiling is costly to imitate and non-substitutable because a CEO of his caliber is very hard to find among CEO’s in the same industry. Consumable merchandise is very valuable because of the four categories that Dollar General offered, sales in consumable increased most rapidly during recession. This merchandise is not rare, costly to imitate and non-substitute because competitors can copy your merchandise by observing what your stores offer to consumers. Further, benchmark organizational style is another core competency. Benchmark organizational styles are valuable and costly to imitate because they represent an organizational structure that your competitors have difficulty mimicking. This organization style is not rare and is sub stitutable because competitors can copy your business model by observing how you operate as a firm. Retail stores chain is valuable and costly to imitate because Dollar has numerous of stores chain across the state, each store has been redesigned to specific standards to make it easier to shop and increase sale productivity. They also owned some of the leased store during the weak real-estate market, which is difficult for competitors nowadays to own its retail stores. These retailed stores chain are not rare and non-substitutable because competitors can copy their design and build their stores as same as DG did. Shopping experience is valuable, rare, costly to imitate and non-substitutable because Dollar General’s stores has provided  the marketing strategy 4Ps which allows them to differentiate from competitors on how consumers buy their products, how the stores designed and how the services they has to offered in such a fast and convenient way for consumer to shop. This experience is something that competitor cannot obtain by using money and copy from DG stores.

wilsons treaty of versailles essays

wilson's treaty of versailles essays After Word War I, the whole entire earth was in shambles over what was needed to punish the aggressor (Germany) and what was needed to prevent more wars like it. The U.S. senate found that the call for an alliance of all nations to settle the worlds disputes was unconstitutional and threatened the nationalism of the American people (document A). President Wilson felt that the League was an outlet to fulfill his promise to the soldiers of America, that this war would be a war against wars (document C) and bring peace. Both sides felt that the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh on Germany and disregarded Wilsons Fourteen Points to better please those of the French. This distrust of the League of Nations was one of the two main reasons that the senate did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles; the other was that Wilson called for it to be killed. Wilsons baby in the Treaty of Versailles was the League of Nations. But this perpetrated some problems back in the U.S. The Senate wanted too keeps the U.S.s affairs in no other countries but their own hands (document A). They felt that an institution in which all nations resolve conflicts between opposing nations was nothing more than unconstitutional (document E). Even the population of the U.S. was split. W.E.B. Dubois wrote that the League of Nations was the most forward looking event of the century but also warned that anyones attempt to handle the worlds affairs or to stay out of them completely, was foolish (document H). Jane Addams stated that The Womens Peace Party was divided on the issue (document I). But with the support of Herbert Hoover, Wilson kept fighting for the League of Nations. What Wilson wasnt happy with was the harshness the Treaty of Versailles imposed upon Germany, and felt that it would only spark more conflict (document B). Wilson, the Senate, and othe rs felt that the punishment upon German c...

In report format, prepare a services marketing mix (people, process, Essay

In report format, prepare a services marketing mix (people, process, physical evidence) for the service offering on which you based assignment one - Essay Example It will provide the firm opportunities and to reduce the impact of threats. In this case, Holiday inn Hotel has to make adjustment of the traditional 4Ps marketing mix that entails product, price, promotion, and place and adopt more Ps, which include process, physical evidence, and people to achieve its marketing objectives. Useful marketing objectives must be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely (SMART) (Wilson and Gilligan, 2004). The marketing objectives should be based on the situational evaluation of the environment of the company (Lambin, et.al. 2007). In this case, Holiday Inn should use its strengths to eradicate its weaknesses and respond to threats in the industry (Doyle and Stern, 2006). Moreover, marketing objectives should aim at exploiting market opportunities that will enable the company compete efficiently and attain a higher market share in the industry (Kotler, and Keller, 2011). The first marketing objective of Holiday Inn should be to enhance its presence in the upcoming markets such as China and Dubai by 15 percent in the next five years. The Asian market offers abundant growth and profitability opportunities due the high growth in consumer revenues, good infrastructure and growth in tourism numbers; therefore Holiday Inn should expand its presence in those markets. The hotel brand has huge financial resources and human talent thus it is possible to use its learning experience in the hospitality market to attain high market share in Asia (Ariffin and Maghzi, 2012). The second marketing objective for Holiday Inn is to increase the current bed occupancy by 25 percent in the next five years. The goal is specific and attainable since the global tourism travel numbers are increasing while the wealthy global economy will lead to a rise in international business travel. Previous research by Bowie and

JP Morgan Chase Proposal Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

JP Morgan Chase Proposal Analysis - Essay Example The essay "JP Morgan Chase Proposal Analysis" talks about the in-house software development process to solve one of JP Morgan Chase challenges in cyber security. Through research and development, the technology team at JP Morgan Chase will come up with a system that will use in protecting the intrusion of hackers. The process of developing software to deal with the problem of cyber security is as important as the outcome. Through the development of the system from scratch, the information and technology team will have a greater understanding of the functionalities. In designing the system, for instance, the description of the data flows help the development team to identify any potential weak point in the system. Through charts and diagrammatical explanations, other members of the organization can also easily understand the underlying processes in the system. In most organization, the introduction of new ideas and ways of doing business is often met with a degree of resistance. The r esistance will stem from the fact that the members of the organization have little or no understanding of the system. As such, implementing the change brings with it a high level of challenge. Through this process, JP Morgan Chase staff involved in the change to the new system will receive an in depth understanding that is crucial for the system’s successful implementation. As a direct result of the comprehensive understanding of the system, the employees involved in the development process can also easily troubleshoot the system.