Read a story and analyse Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Read a story and analyse - Essay Example One of the interesting aspects of this case is the other characters mentioned in the story. For instance, Mary left Alison (her six-month-old daughter) in the house and went to see her mother. Was the mother not aware that Alison did not accompany Mary? Is there a possibility that her mother was not aware of Alison’s existence? This case covers a large number of light issues, but avoids some of the details that would have assisted the judges to determine if Mary was insane or mentally incapacitated, or if she was sane but just careless. Mary also went to her fiancà © and lived there for a while before realizing that something was not right. Didn’t her fiancà © question Mary of Alison’s whereabouts? Is there a possibility that her fiancà © was not aware of Alison’s existence? With the parties being witnesses in the case, such questions would have assisted in gauging the awareness and Mary’s mental capacity. As part of the judiciary, trying to understand Mary’s reality would be the first assessment. Her levels of prioritization are completely wrong. She considers pursuing her individual interests and forgets any other parties in her life, including her daughter. In the first case, the case presents Mary as to have intentionally killed Alison. She says that she had left Alison in the house knowing that she would be dead in a few days. Whatever the case, most people might argue that Mary was not mentally capacitated to raise a child. Most people who abandon their children would have at least the courtesy to leave the baby at a location where another person might take care of the child. However, Mary would opt to leave the baby in her house with a stranger who was disabled, rather than have the child survives. However, she also says that while she was in California with her fiancà ©, she began to feel that something was wrong. It is evident that her testimony is rather conflicting. For instance, the case above indicates that Mary might have intended to kill

Framing Decisions Essay Example for Free

Framing Decisions Essay Millhouse on his situation came up with his conclusion upon relying on the structure contained by how the selling was presented to him. No matter how, it is possible that Millhouse had been into a great deal of confusion when he was deciding. It was present in his mind that the company is in need of that supplementary part and is in search of materials that are of good quality. And that this seller has been instinctively conscious of the probable framing Millhouse could have in mind. At the same time, this seller has this skill to do sales talk and persuading a customer was indeed an easy thing on his part. He was capable to handle the situation. A good offer from the salesman was initiated and the selling price was specified: less than 40 cents a day just like the price of a soda. It was presented positively that at the end, the company would be satisfied by a high service utility by just spending likely of only a soda a day. The soda became the entity of assessment and it helped Millhouse comprehend the gains more gamely than the losses. He was also glad that he was not alone to see the benefits of purchasing these goods. He ended up deciding with this framework to buy them because he was swept away by the promises of the benefits presented by the salesman. In looking on the alternative sense, what if Millhouse thought of looking out for better material possible? What if he conducted first price comparison of same material? What if he made calculations in the aggregate expenditure upon purchasing them and rather compares it with the benefits it can give and or with some? The alternative frame could have come up with other results depending on how an individual reacts on a certain presentation of a problem. Factors affecting the alternative framework greatly molds our way of decision making. Also, group decisions may be at variance thoroughly from a one person decision in provisions of endings and/or procedures. So, it states clearly that one can strongly influence the other and by that, moral considerations are being deserted for one’s own good. References Framing. February 05, 2008 retrieved from http://framing. behaviouralfinance. net/

Sustaining Competitive Advantage Of Nestle Marketing Essay

Sustaining Competitive Advantage Of Nestle Marketing Essay Sustainability can occur in two ways: firms may differ with respect to resources and capabilities and the differences persist and isolating mechanisms analogous to barriers to entry may work to protect the competitive advantage of firms. 6.1 Resources and Capabilities A firms resource identifies its capabilities. Resources are the productive assets owned by the firm. Capabilities on the other hand refer to a companys ability to make use of its resources in a highly productive manner. Individual resources do not confer competitive advantage, they must work together to create organizational capability. It is capability that is the essence of superior performance. 6.1.1 Resources Tangible Resources Basically, there are three types of a firms resources: tangible, intangible and human resources. Tangible resources are the easiest to identify and evaluate: financial resources and physical assets are identified and valued in the firms financial statements. According to Nestle Annual Report 2011, Nestle Group reported sales of CHF 83.6 billion and 7.5 percent organic growth on top of good growth in recent years. The net profit on a continuing basis was CHF 9.5 billion, up 8.1 percent. At December 2011, Nestles property, plant and equipment were valued at CHF 9041 million. Intangible Resources Resources may also be intangible, such as reputation or a stock of patents and copyrights. Brand name is the most important resource among the intangible resources. Brand name and other trademarks are form of reputational assets: their value is in the confidence they instill in customers. The brand valuations involve estimating the operating profits for each brand, estimating the proportion of net operating income attributable to the brand, and then capitalizing these returns. The value of companys brands can be increased by extending the product/ market scope over which the company markets those brands. Nestle has eight product  lines or categories overall. The strategy used by Nestle is the  family branding  or  corporate  branding in which word Nestle is attached to all  the brands  in all categories. In 2001, Nestles brand value was more than 13000 million US dollars and it has became the largest producer of consumer packaged beverages and foods in the world, which has claimed the 23rd position in the Interbrands list of 100 most valuable brands in the world (Nestle Brand Strategy, 2012). Human Resources The human resources of the firm are the expertise and effort offered by its employees. For example, the combination of Nestles knowledge of biotechnology in coffee with the expertise, Nestle has on the ground in Mexico which will help to achieve sustainable Robusta coffee production in the region (The Nestle People Development Review). In addition, Nestle has a great research and development team. James Gallagher and Andrea Pfeifer were the masterminds behind the research on the La-1 cultures in the LC-1 yogurt. They were also the two that decided on selling LC-1 as a functional food. This enabled Nestle to position the product in a way that differentiated it among the other products in the market (Nestle LC1, 2005). 6.1.2 Capabilities Capabilities are what a firm can do. Organizational capability requires the expertise of various individuals to be integrated with capital equipment, technology, and other resources. For instance, in Asia, Nestles strategy has been to acquire local companies in order to form a group of independent regional managers who know more about the culture of the local markets than Americans or Europeans. The strong cash flow of the company enabled it to engage in wide-scale foreign direct investments and sufficient flexibility for takeovers of local firms able to provide the company with a stronghold in the market. Apart from that, Nestle has employed a wide-area strategy that involves producing different products in each country to supply the region with a given product from one country. For example, Nestle in Indonesia specializes in soymilk products because of the cheaper and easy access to soymilk in the country with soymilk products for distribution in other Asian markets (Nestle LC1, 20 05). Furthermore, Nestle provides an example of a company that has a strong configural advantage in the marketing, distribution and manufacture of food products. Nestle has developed an explicit international brand architecture that consists of 10 worldwide corporate brands, 45 worldwide strategic product brands, 25 regional corporate brands, 100 regional product brands, 700 local strategic brands and approximately 7000 local brands. On the production side, it has 522 factories in 81 different countries providing manufacturing capabilities in key markets. The broad geographic coverage allows Nestle to realize sales from industrialized countries as well as the increasingly important emerging market countries and to transfer information and experience from one market or region to another (Craig and Douglas, 1999). In addition, Nestle has become the first major confectioner to remove artificial colors, flavors and preservatives from its entire range. The company, which is behind leading bran ds including KitKat, Smarties and Quality Street, has changed the recipe of 79 products to remove suspect chemicals. In total, more than 80 ingredients have been replaced with alternatives, mostly from natural sources such as carrot, hibiscus, radish, safflower and lemon (Poulter, 2012). 6.2 Isolating Mechanism Isolating mechanisms limit the rivals from eroding a firms competitive advantage. There are two different types of isolating mechanism which are (1) impediments to imitation and (2) early mover advantage. 6.2.1 Impediments to imitation Impediments to imitation are the mechanism that impedes the existing firms and potential entrants from duplicating the resources and capabilities of the incumbent firm. There are four important types of impediments exist which are legal restrictions, superior access to inputs/customers, market size and scale economies and intangible barriers. Legal Restrictions We are going to look at the legal restrictions and superior access to inputs/customers of Nestle. Firstly, the legal restrictions such as patents, copyrights and trademarks, as well as governmental control over entry into markets through licensing, control rights and certification can impede imitation. Nestle has files over 250 patent applications per year and manages a global patent portfolio of about 20,000 patents. Nestle has now entered the top 100s World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) list and is the top patent applicant for the food and beverage industry. Leading edge technologies and highly differentiated products, solutions and benefits are key to Nestles four growth drivers and its global brands such as Nespresso, Nan, Nescafe, Nido and Purina. Protecting these technologies, products, solutions and benefits significantly contributes to sustaining the competitive advantage coming from Nestles unmatched  RD  capability and product and brand portfolio. For exampl e, on 22 February 2006, Nestle had applied for a patent on genetically modified coffee plants with a blocked enzyme, designed to improve the solubility of the coffee powder. The patent covers the technical process, genetically modified plants as well as the use of coffee beans for the manufacture of soluble coffee. With this patent, coffee growers will become even more dependent on Nestle (Greenpeace, 2006). Superior Access to Inputs/Customers Secondly, superior access to inputs/customers means that the firms can obtain high quality or high productivity inputs, such as raw materials or information than its competitors will be able to sustain cost and quality advantages that competitors cannot imitate. With every bite or sip of a Nestle product, Nestle has to assure the highest possible standards all along the supply chain from raw materials via manufacturing, packaging and distribution, to the point of consumption. Every Nestle factory has a laboratory that systematically analyses raw materials and ingredients. Nestle products are checked on the production line and in their finished state to ensure that they meet the company strict standards, as well as national and international regulations (The World of Nestle, 2006). 6.2.2 Early Mover Advantage Early mover advantage is the benefit produce by being the first to enter a market with a new product or service. Early mover advantages include; becoming a market leader in a new; establishing a new leading brand; being able to charge a premium until competitor products appear enhanced reputation, design, and copyright protection and possibly setting an industry standard to which other competitors may have to aspire. There are four different isolating mechanisms fall under the category of early mover advantage which is learning curve, reputation and buyer uncertainty, buyer switching costs and network effects. Reputation and Buyer Uncertainty We are going to discuss the reputation and buyer uncertainty and network effect on Nestle. For experience goods, a firms reputation for quality provides a significant early mover advantage. Once the firms reputation has been created, the firm will have advantage competing for new customers, increasing the number of customers and further strengthening its reputation. The motto of Nestle is Good Food, Good Life, so delivering the qualitative products to the customer is their main objective. Nestle Pure Life (NPL) was first offered in Pakistan by Nestle Pakistan Limited in 1998. People felt need of Pure, safe and clean water because of impurities in water especially in the industrialized cities like Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad etc. Nestle identified this opportunity and launched NPL that satisfied the customer needs and Nestle become market leader in the water industry. The customers of NPL showed interest on NPL because of trust on Quality of Nestle, at the heart of which there are qua litative products and its long term commitment to deliver better products to consumers. Being the market leader, the market share of NPL is 78 percent that is much higher than its competitors (Ahmad, 2011). Network Effect The network effect is the result of word-of-mouth testimonials where the customer values the product depending on how many others are using the product. There is many ways for the customers to get the information about a companys product. Actual networks are where the consumers are physically linked. Nestle, the 144-year-old Switzerland-based food company created a Fan Page on the social media site, Facebook, where its millions of customers can get information and discuss the company and its products. While a simple and seemingly begin move, the company demonstrated foresight in opening a new channel to better communicate with their customers (A Business Lesson, n.d.).

Confucius Essay -- Confucius Philosophy

As Confucius' philosophy still remains in the heart of many Chinese people, his images of the greatest professional teacher of all time, the greatest philosopher in Chinese history and his influence toward the future and the past 2000 years of Chinese civilization has made his thought the essence of the Chinese culture. He always said the importance of teaching could change the future of the civilization. And he also encouraged his students to explore the various things to learn, but be very selective and careful. The purpose of Confucius' teaching was practical and designed to help each person improve his character and conduct, and perhaps become prepared for an official position in the court. According to one passage in the Analects, Confucius taught four things: culture, conduct, loyalty, and truthfulness.1 Culture consisted of literature and music. Confucius suggested the value of each: "Let a man be stimulated by poetry, established in character by the rules of propriety, and perfected by music. â€Å" These pursuits were means by which one may achieve the higher ideal of following the Way.†2 The gentleman extensively studies literature and restrains himself with the rules of propriety. Thus he will not violate the Way. "3 And also " Set your heart upon the Way. Support yourself by its virtue. Rely on goodness. Find recreation in the arts."4 Confucius put the moral duties before the arts as the essential activities of the gentleman. "A young man's duty is to behave well to his parents at home and to in love to all, and to cultivate the friendship of the good. If, when all that is done, he has any energy to spare, then let him study the cultural arts."5 Confucius taught many topics around these subjects, but the most importance of these is the propriety, ritual and the Way of being a Gentleman. From these to achieve the Jen. Confucius had one overwhelming message: if we are to achieve a state of orderliness and peace, we need to return to traditional values of virtue. These values are based entirely on one concept: Jen, which is best, translated as "humaneness." This humaneness is a relatively strange concept to Western people, because it is not primarily a practicable virtue. The rules of propriety offered a code of accepted behaviour that demonstrated to themselves and others tha... ...ragement of personality development will never be forget. As the Chinese people and the world stepping into the next millennium, Confucius will be in the minds of many people, as they think of the greatest teacher in Chinese history. Bibliography Notes 1. Analects 7.24 Cf. A. Waley, The Analects of Confucius (London, 1938) 2. 2. Analects 8.8 3. Analects 6.25 4. 4. Analects 7.6 5. 5. Analects 1.6 6. 6. Analects 1.12 7. 7. Analects 8.2 8. 8. Analects 3.4 9. Analects 6.16 10. Analects 3.18 11. Analects 13.5 12. Analects 13.13 13. Analects 15.32 14. Analects 8.13 15. Analects 12.19 16. Analects 14.8 17. Analects 1.5 18. Analects 17.23 19. Analects 2.15 20. Analects 9.24 21. Analects 16.4 22. Analects 16.5 23. Analects 3.3 Confucius, Raymond Dawson (Oxford University Press, 1981) 24. Analects 12.1 Confucius, Raymond Dawson (Oxford University Press, 1981) 25. Analects 17.9 26. Analects 3.23 27. Lin Yutang, Wisdom of Confucius, p.81-82 28. 28. Ibid. p.82 29. 29. Ibid. p.83 30. 30. Ibid. p.67-68 31. Hsu, Cho-Yun, Ancient China in Transition p.161,163 32. 32. Analects 12.4 33. 33. Analects 16.7 34. 34. Analects 16.10

Alternative education Essay

One of the world’s issues of today is on context of education. Many education conventions have been organized to discuss on matters relevant on the development of educational goals and programs. Education should be considered as one factor in the development of man as the most significant since it brings all breakthroughs in all walks of life. From the time of primitive education to the medieval period, education has been playing a great role in the lives of every citizen and the state in general. The very first task of educational contenders was and is to set educational development goals. The challenge of all educational institutions today is to produce a curriculum that will earn high productivity as in lifelong education. The institution should be more focused on creating opportunities where learners can exercise their abilities and potentials. There must be that sense of self-education in order for them to perform better jobs in the real world because their education is gained not only by mere transfer of learning but through applying their skills into the real life setting. Today, people are conscious of searching for breakthroughs be it scientific, cultural, or educational, in order to improve the quality of life. This is one goal in education that must be taken in to account from time to time because it is through this that improvements and developments take place. Along with these breakthroughs, rapid changes in the society’s way of life bring a lot of conflicts in the human life. By conflict, man faces several challenges that will test his true capacity and knowledge in resolving his own issues. That is, by inculcating in the learners the culture of being sensitive to the needs of the people and the nation brings a lot of pressure in our educational today. People are not trained to satisfy themselves but to see to it that the whole nation can benefit what one person is enjoying out of something. However, in the advent of various educational programs and projects, long term education program is still best to be implemented. This is in response to different curriculum reforms to attain quality delivery of instruction. The national government through the education department, has been looking for ways and means in order to help sustain these long term programs in order to provide a standard and suitable curriculum for every Filipino and attain progress in the academe. Moreover, the Department of Education has laid the three millennium development goals to help attain the Education for All by the year 2015. These goals include accessibility, quality, and sustainability. These goals will help improve the number of Filipino children to be in school and complete their education as prescribed by them of their age and as mandated by the constitution of which education is a right. These millennium development goals of the Education for All (EFA) enable schoolchildren to harness their faculties in improving their way of life and participate in the development process in educational reform and societal progress. According to the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education, Russian Federation, education will become a social institute providing people with various educational opportunities. With this end in view school and university curricula should be diversified to enable everyone to make up their own educational trajectory in compliance with their aptitudes, thus creating the basis to implement the principle Education for all. Thus, in the Philippines various projects have been undertaken in order to qualify the implementation the Education for All. These projects include MADRASAH (for Moslem schoolchildren), Education for Indigenous Peoples, inclusion of values education in the curriculum, strengthening the higher order thinking skills type of questions in every learning area, the implementation of National Achievement Test (a standardized test), the participatory school improvement planning, the integration of information and communications technology in education (ICT4E), the decentralization of management including the downloading of maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) to specific schools, and the conduct of various trainings and national competency examinations. These are some of the approaches in order to carry out the implementation of Education for All. Nevertheless, Article XIV of the 1987 Philippine Constitution cited that the Department of Education as the only agency in the Philippine government, responsible for education and manpower development. It further stated that the state shall protect and promote the right of every citizen to quality education at all levels and shall take appropriate steps to make education accessible to all. This is still in line with the context that education is a right and is for all. Whether a schoolchild is in the formal or non-formal education, what matters most is his assumption of his respective role in the society, the virtues he shall live with, and the use of his capabilities in attaining the long term goal in education that contributes to the total progress and development of the nation. At the end of the day we do realize that the search for an adequately structured educational system, is to secure our lives from the many challenges of the outside world at all sorts. Hence, education in the new society shall be within the context of national development and value formation in order to help build a nation other than ourselves. —oo0oo—

Three Major Sources of Interpersonal and Intergroup Conflict

Three Major Sources of Interpersonal and Intergroup Conflict Introduction Interpersonal and intergroup conflicts have varying sources. Interpersonal conflicts arise from different sources key among them which include incompatibility, personalization and cognition, and behavior. In that context, the elements identifies above have varying implications on interpersonal and group conflicts.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Three Major Sources of Interpersonal and Intergroup Conflict specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Incompatibility Incompatibility can either be due to communication or group structure. Here, communication is a key component for conveying meaning and eliciting action in response to a message. Incompatibility because of communication results from misunderstandings, sematic difficulties, and noise in communication channels. Semantic difficulties results from phrases, words, symbols, and signs and the express meaning communicated using the signifiers. That is in addition to selective perceptions, differences in training, and lack of adequate information. In this case, messages should be communicated succinctly to ensure the correct meaning is conveyed. When messages are not communicated clearly, the meaning is obliterated causing the intended audience not to get the precise meaning. Other sources of conflicts because of communication problems include use of jargon that deprives a message its true and precise meaning and different word connotations and noise which adds external elements to a message in a communication channel. In addition to that, structure is an additional element that influences the level of conflicts, acting as a source of conflict in a group or individual. Here, structure is defined in the context of the level of leadership style, member goal compatibility, the degree of dependence enjoyed by team members, the degree of specialization, and the size of a group. In that context, the group turnover increases with young members, the potential for conflicts increases when the messages are communicated ambiguously, and when group members have diverse goals. In that case, leadership increases conflict when it is of the close style nature, and when one group depends on another group. Here, personal variables such as personal characteristics and individual value systems which results in differing opinions with varying perspective. On the other hand, personalization and cognition are additional sources of conflicts.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Cognition and Personalization Conflicts can be generated in a group by antecedent conditions if group members are aware and affected. On the other hand, it is possible to personalize conflicts in the event group members develop emotional involvement. With emotions contributing to the level of conflicts in a team, it becomes possible to produce oversimplif ied issues that lead to emotions. Emotion related conflicts lead to lower levels of trust and negative interpretations of the behavioral characteristics of individuals in a group. It is possible to understand the fact that conflicts generate influence on the perceptions of group member, leading to the deficiency of the lack of innovation and other positive actions within a group. In that case, cognition and personalization underlies the influence due to behavior. Behavior Conflict can be initiated because of behavioral characteristics of group members based on statements made by group members resulting in negative behavior. In this case, negative behavior leads to dynamic group process interactions into lower levels of continuum. In the process of rising up the continuum, conflict is seen to rise significantly. Conclusion In conclusion, the source of conflict, which includes incompatibility, personalization and cognition, and behavior provide the core sources of conflict. In this ca se, the functional and dysfunctional outcomes can be overcome by introducing measures which include conflict resolution into the groups which includes the win-win approach, the lose-lose approach, or the win-lose approach.