Modern history of Dubai

One of seven semi-autonomous provinces within the United Arab Emirates called Dubai has turned out to be a lifting force in the Middle East. Half a centaury ago Dubai was merely a focal point were a few thousand weather afflicted people somehow pushed and pulled their life in front roll uping picking day of the months, plunging for pearls, or sailing in wooden dhows to merchandise with Iran and India, Dubai was every bit hapless as any small town in Somalia or the Sudan. It was in 1971 the six provinces viz. Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Dubai, Ajman, Umm al-Quwain, and Fujairah were united. And in1972 Ras Al-Khaimha joined the fusion, The United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) were therefore officially established with declaration from H.H Sheikh Zayed that the UAE was established as an Independent State with the purpose of keeping Independence, stableness and co-operation. Dubai has a alone new exciting narrative of more than 50 old ages. The metropolis has emerged from a hapless fishing small town to the fastest turning metropolis in the universe. Traveling back to the history, instruction was given precedence in the different Emirates prior to the alliance. The Emirate of Dubai started educating it kids in 1954. A few facts about the simplest rudimentss of the state are work forces out figure adult male in the male to female ratio of the state. All university tuitions are paid for by the provinces. All books stationary and study stuffs provided free of charge to the pupil. If the pupil works and surveies, he/she is paid the wage for the occupation. From this, the concern and substructure success narrative of Dubai is non difficult to set up. ‘In the 1990s the three fastest turning metropoliss in the universe were Dublin, Las Vegas and Dubai. This has accelerated in the twenty-first century with 23 % population growing in Dubai in the past four old ages. The present existent estate roar is obvious plenty, peculiarly in the Jebel Ali-Dubai corridor. Today Dubai is the trading, concern and progressively fiscal hub of the Middle East, and for parts of Africa, the CIS and even the Indian subcontinent. It ‘s a huge backwoods for such a little topographic point ‘ ( Peter J. Cooper 2006 ) . In the 1970s oil wealth turned the UAE from a desert land to a modern city, and its swayers took a acute involvement in this development. Not for them the idling and corruptness that afflicted some states blest with oil wealth. While the oil wealth can be considered as one of the grounds for the growing of Dubai, there are besides other factors which could be considered as the cardinal factors in developing the metropolis province to be one of the best in the universe. In Dubai the late Sheikh Rashid developed his bantam emirate into a trading hub with the timely development of port substructure and a impulsive aspiration to put oil wealth back into the local economic system. Again this was aggressively at discrepancy with the policy of puting oil wealth abroad pursued in many states ( Peter J. Cooper 2006 ) . In a yet another move towards the success, Dubai was to go the concern and commercial hub of the Middle East. The Dubai Government and the taking local households invested even more into the physical substructure of the emirate and pursued more and more ambitious programs. ‘Surprisingly, to many perceivers, most of them succeeded, normally better than expected. Possibly it was because the Government could move resolutely, extinguishing red-tape and shortening the planning procedure to a simple ‘build it there ‘ determination by the CEO of Dubai Inc. as Sheikh Mohammed is frequently known ‘ ( Peter J. Cooper 2006 ) .The Modern History of Dubai in BriefWithin recorded history, Dubai started as a fishing small town likely some clip in the eighteenth century. It was a dependence of the sheikdom of Abu Dhabi and its dwellers were likely largely Bani Yas. In 1833 a group of about 800 people of the Al Bu Falasah subdivision of the Bani Yas seceded from Abu Dhabi and settled in Dubai. The leaders of the hegira, Ubaid bin Saeed and Maktoum bin Buti, remained joint leaders until the decease of the former in 1836. Maktoum bin Buti ruled until he died in 1852, set uping the dynasty of the Al Maktoum swayers in Dubai. Maktoum and most of his replacements normally followed a policy of good apprehension with the British governments in the Arabian Gulf ( DTCM 2005 ) . The existent history of Dubai begins in 1930 when colony started and began impulses in growing. At that clip neighbouring Sharjah was the chief trading Centre on the Trucial Coast, and for the remainder of the nineteenth century Dubai was merely a pearling small town with a merchandiser community. In fact there were three distinguishable colonies around the Creek and one of them called Bur Dubai was an Arab fishing small town on the western side. ‘The Dubai Creek provided one of the few safe anchorages along the southern seashore of the Arabian Gulf and served as a oasis for dhows despite its risky entryway. It was the starting and finishing point for pearling expeditions which, until the innovation of civilized pearls in the 1930s, formed the chief portion of the economic system after the 1820 British understanding prevented ship-building. The bend of the nineteenth century was considered the aureate age of the pearl industry. Three 1000 vass were employed in the trade, go for thing seaport in May and non returning until mid-September. Fishing, excessively, was an of import business. The Arabian Gulf ‘s warm and shallow Waterss supported a broad assortment of marine life and dhows were built on the foreshore of Dubai Creek ‘ ( DTCM 2005 ) . Dubai had sufficiently grown to pull colonists from the 3rd universe states viz. India, Iran and Baluchistan and so on. The bend of twentieth century saw Dubai going popular in the modern concern universe as safe and comfortable port. Dubai was really speedy to set up itself as a natural Eden for merchandisers as the installations for trade and free endeavors were great. ‘Meanwhile a booming Indian population was settling in Dubai and was peculiarly active in the stores and back streets of the souq. In fact a major factor in the growing of Dubai in the early post-war old ages was the re-export of gold to India. The cosmopolite ambiance and air of tolerance began to pull other aliens excessively. Some old ages subsequently the British made their Centre on the seashore, set uping a political bureau in 1954 ‘ ( DTCM 2005 ) . However, being the most developed country in the part did non merely supply for the equal substructure of Dubai. In malice of the repute Dubai had by the center of the twentieth century, the metropolis merely did non hold adequate roads, electricity, cloacas or telephone. The substructure edifice had started in Dubai even before the find of oil in 1969, but one time the gross from the oil began to flux in the edifice procedure gained impulse. ‘Trade remained the foundation of the metropolis ‘s wealth, whilst other undertakings were developed over the following 20 old ages. The airdrome became one of the busiest in the country, a big dry-dock composite was developed, the largest unreal port in the universe was built at Jebel Ali and Dubai Aluminum Company ( DUBAL ) , which has become one of the emirate ‘s largest non-oil related industry, came on-line in 1979 ‘ ( DTCM 2005 ) .Economic Sustainability through Tourism Industry‘In the 1980s and early 1990s, D ubai took a strategic determination to emerge as a major international-quality touristry finish. Investings in touristry substructure have paid off handsomely over the old ages. Dubai is now a metropolis that boasts matchless hotels, singular architecture and first amusement and featuring events ‘ ( Government f Dubai 2010 ) . Dubai has undergone modernisation and urbanisation since the 1960s when the country was described as one of waste coastlands mostly populated by mobile folks where the lone businesss were angling and pearling ( Clements, 1998 ) . The inside informations of Dubai ‘s tourer reachings right from the twelvemonth 1982 shows the fact that the metropolis has turned out to be one of the fastest turning finishs. Stability in economic, societal and political spheres is indispensable for touristry as terrible perturbation and volatility will discourage many tourers, investors and the industry of circuit operators and travel agents in bring forthing states. Dubai is portion of the UAE and conditions there are shaped by both federation and emirate authoritiess ( Joan C. Henderson 2006 ) . ‘Income from oil made Abu Dhabi the economic human dynamo and moneyman of the federation, supplying the smaller emirates with a criterion of life and grade of security that would otherwise be unavailable to them. The other emirates meanwhile provide Abu Dhabi with a demographic and geographic corporate strength that it would miss moving entirely ‘ ( EIU, 2005a, p. 5 ) . Dubai now began to move as the fiscal and commercial link of Gulf. The successful economic returns from the investing made on touristry in any state depend on the convenience of conveyance chiefly the entree through air. Dubai has do ne every thing to be an air conveyance hub. The place air hose company called emirates flies really long routes to about all the states and finishs of the universe. The company helps to convey tourer from the far off topographic points such as 15 hr mob to Sao Paulo, so 17 hr trips to Los angels and San Francisco, so the 14 hr flight to Sydney. It besides flies to most of the major metropoliss in Europe which provides Dubai with a batch of tourers. It flies to all the major metropoliss to Africa, Middle East and South Asia. Most significantly all this mobs are being highly profitable ( Jim Krane 2009 ) . A US $ 4.1 billion upgrading is afoot which will enable the airdrome to manage 40 million riders by 2010 and 100 million by 2025 ( Matthews, 2003 ) . Owning the largest Arab Airline Emirates has made it possible for the authorities of Dubai to win in developing and keeping stable inputs to its economic system. ‘Accounts of Dubai normally comment on the fondness of functionaries and developers for the pretentious, which is manifest in adjustment undertakings and attractive forces such as the US $ 5 billion Dubailand subject park. This will busy two billion square pess of land and take 15 old ages to finish under the auspices of the Dubai Tourism Development Company ( DTDC ) , an operating arm of the Dubai Development and Investment Authority ( DDIA ) . The declared intent is to do Dubai the ‘ultimate merriment and leisure Centre of the Middle East ‘ augmenting the supply of indoor attractive forces, which are independent of conditions and have all twelvemonth round e ntreaty to multiple markets, non least households with kids. In another illustration, Ski Dubai opened in 2005 within the Mall of the Emirates, reportedly the largest shopping infinite outside of the USA, and sells skiing and snow related chases in a ‘winter wonderland ‘ of sub-zero temperatures. The Crown Prince has said that merely 10 % of his visions for Dubai have been enacted, connoting other such ambitious ventures are likely ‘ ( Joan C. Henderson 2006 ) .An Unparallel WorkforceAnother ground for Dubai to be on the top in footings of infrastructural growing and development is its odd work force which gets the least part from the locale flock. ‘Numbers may be keys to the nature of Dubai ‘s work force and its economic system. Harmonizing to a 2005 authorities study, 97.13 per cent of Dubai ‘s entire labour force is foreign. The 2nd figure – largely likely unknown – is the per centum of those foreign workers who have come to see D ubai as place or would wish to do it their lasting place. Many of these exiles came to Dubai 15 to 20 old ages ago for a biennial stretch, liked it and stayed. The 3rd figure, besides from the authorities, is that merely five per cent of Emiratis are employed in the private sector ‘ ( Rod Monger 2007 ) . Almost every one in a company, get downing from the administrative degree to the last 1 on the lower degree labour, is imported and the positive facet of this phenomenon is the advantage Dubai gets on modeling its work force in a manner the metropolis needed with the lowest cost. At the same clip, the work force of Dubai is an enthusiastic batch, it turning in footings of trueness and committedness, in malice of the fact that they are treated with substandard installations for the cost control ( Jim Krane 2009 ) . This committedness had played an of import portion in doing the metropolis look one of the best finishs in the universe.Building LandmarksThe Chicago Beach Hotel, wh ich continuously recorded 80 % tenancy in back-to-back old ages, was a money doing machine in Dubai in 1990s. British technology house called W.S Atkins forwarded a proposal for another beachfront hotel to be named as the Jumeirah Beach Hotel. The company was given permission to continue with the undertaking which had to include a tower excessively on blessing. The company has hired an designer named Tom Wright who barely had any experience in edifice hotels. But every bit thoughtful as he is Tom new that the Sheikh needed something tall and iconic, discoursing on this construct he came up with a elephantine arch in the Islamic manner. Sketching it out, the drawings showed a immense canvas shaped edifice of 1300 pess tall, ‘jutting from the sea floor waves lapping at its base. The edifice leaned over the sea and a overseas telegram auto ran from shore to its extremum. The other entree came from an submarine tunnel. The construction was more Iconic than demanded but it was impo ssible. Wright straightened it up moved it from seafloor to a little adult male made island and traded the overseas telegram auto for helipad. A causeway span replaced the tunnel. They scaled back the tallness to a 1000 pess ‘ ( Jim Krane 2009 ) . The work began in 1994. When people thought of it as a new Beach Hotel, to the Sheikh the iconic edifice was much more than that. The tower was the symbol of his pride as an Arab. The edifice was to be ‘The Tower of the Arab'- Burj Al Arab. The budget was unlimited, even when Sheikh Mohammad knew that the hotel will ne'er pay for itself. He ne'er let that range of net income spasm the construct of Burj Li Arab. The thought of turn uping the edifice on a semisynthetic island was thought over once more by the Sheikh. He imagined it both on island and mainland. The Island was much more clip consuming and dearly-won where as there was nil unique about it is being located in the mainland. At last Sheikh opted for it to be in the Island ( Kim Krane 2009 ) . By 1999 Burj was a admiration around the universe. The sight of the blue and white tower is a mind-bending sight. Burj Al Arab turned out to be precisely what the tribal sheik Mohammad wanted an icon easy recognizable. Burj attrac ted quiet a batch of tourer who would pass extravagantly. Furthermore, a genius series of publicity followed like Andre Agassi and Roger Federer were found whaming fusillades on the helipad. Subsequently on Tiger Woods drove ball from the same topographic point. Tourism made up about a one-fourth of the metropolis ‘s economic system $ 8 billion in 2006. The Emirates purpose is to host about 15 million tourers a twelvemonth by 2015 ( Tim Krane 2009 ) . Though the economic scenario at big indicates that end may fall a small short of. The growing and success of Dubai is undeniable.Burj DubaiThere was already a manus full degree Fahrenheit edifice and a formidable substructure when the Burj Dubai undertaking came up. But the Wlter Landors believed in their ain guiding rule that â€Å" Merchandises are made in the mill, but trade names are made in the head. † At this point, the â€Å" merchandise † did n't be. Still they invited prospective bidders to see the trade na me. ‘They fashioned a multisensory presentation Centre, wrote books and designed web sites, had invitations etched, aromas con ­cocted, and parties thrown. A blaze Dubai Sun eventually rose on the first twenty-four hours for flat commands. There was no 2nd twenty-four hours. In less than 24 hours, every apartment-to-be was spoken for, sacking more than half a billion dollars. Even by the judicious criterions of the part, the stigmatization of the Burj Dubai was away to an exceeding start ‘ ( Landor 2008 ) . Emmar had it in head through the undertaking of Burj Dubai non merely the metropolis but the full part which is frequently neglected by the media, was traveling to be in the spotlight. There was a sophisticated additive attack that was extended into a comprehensive design manner to reenforce the trade name ‘s construct of pre-eminence. The word grade, typography, expression and feel, voice and imagination, and even color pallet reflect prestigiousness. In cont rast to the extraordinary golds and bright colourss prevalent in other Dubai premier develop-ments, Landor chose unostentatious tones repeating the edifices ‘ coatings of chromium steel steel and aluminium and put them off with a crisp green speech pattern inspired by the carpenters ‘ degrees found in the custodies of 100s of designers, applied scientists, and craftspeople constructing the tower ( Landor 2008 ) . The undertaking fundamentally was a multi-use development tower with a entire floor country of 460,000 square metres that includes residential, hotel, commercial, office, amusement, shopping, leisure, and parking installations. The undertaking was designed to be the centrepiece of the big graduated table Burj Dubai Development that rises into the sky to an unprecedented tallness that exceeds 700 metres and that consists of more than 160 floors ( Ahmad Abdelrazaq 2008 ) . At the bend of the century no 1 truly had thought about such a building. Coming from a metropolis were the building industry was in the babyhood, the Burj Dubai undertaking has shown to the universe that tall edifice system development is ever straight related to the latest developments in stuff engineerings, structural technology theories, wind technology, seismal technology, computing machine engineerings, and building methods. The Burj Dubai undertaking capitalizes on promotions in these engineerings, progressing the development of ace tall edifices and the art of structural technology ( Ahmad Abdelrazaq 2008 ) .The Booming Growth Is Boosted.In the twelvemonth 2000, the Burj Al Arab was already being a host to the excited affluent tourer from around the universe. The Arab state was still overwhelmed in the astonishing aesthetics of the new building, the universe witnessed one of its toughest times. The economic system at big shuddered under heavy recessions. The money firing dotco m companies ran out of hard currency and went out of concern. Gulf foreign investors were keeping crumbling assets and in the West and around the universe. Adding to the economic back bead of the US, 19 Arabs crashed riders jets into the World Trade Centre, Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. This caused the US stock market a further down slide. The freshly elected president George W. Bush who found himself in the white house with disputed elections consoled the people America stating the terrorists might hold been successfully shaken the foundations of some of the mightiest constructions in the United provinces, but they would ne'er win in agitating the foundations of the mightiest state on the face of the Earth. Still the fact remains true that the state has non yet abated the fright and economic concern the September 11 onslaught has brought upon the state. The station September 11 United States was non an ideal topographic point for puting every bit far as the Arabs were conce rned. On the contrary, in Dubai, September 11 onslaught started the beginning of the old ages long economic roar. In fact the onslaught played a function in hiking this economic investing and viability in the gulf part. The fury toward Arabs in America increased and the state fought many wars after. The Arabs who had invested in US pulled back one million millions of dollars and direct back to their Home state. No 1 was interested and dared to put in state which was at war. Cash poured into Dubai, as the studies say before September 11 onslaughts every bit much as $ 25 billion a twelvemonth was put into US investing. Where as, the figures came down to merely $ 1.2 billion between 2001 and 2003. Most of the losing money has been made to play itself in Dubai where the potency was felt to be really high. Further, in 2001 Dubai ‘s urban country was a narrow strip along the sea shore. By 2008 Dubai was about every bit large as Huston. With adult male made Island lifting from the sea and buildings sprawling deep into the desert.The Two Fold Advantage of Dubai ‘s labour market OutsourcingDubai is non a metropolis with huge industrial substructure. This diverse multicultural metropolis has an international community of about 1.5 million people from about 170 states. This committed work force contributes to the turning economic system which chiefly derives from trade, fabrication and chiefly touristry. The scheme of labour market outsourcing helps th e 3rd universe states merely as it help their ain state. When many rich states claim to be in the concern of economic development, they seldom allow hapless states to play by the same regulations that richer states use to advance growing. Above all, traveling back to the beauty and singularity of Dubai, Dubai is a modern costal metropolis located at the bosom of the Middle East. It is capturing and sophisticated ; ‘the beautiful Burj Al Arab hotel presiding over the coastline of Jumeira beach is the universe ‘s lone hotel with a seven star evaluation. The Emirates Towers are one of the many constructions that remind us of the commercial assurance in a metropolis that expands at a singular rate. Standing 350 metres high, the office tower is the tallest edifice in the Middle East and Europe. Dubai besides hosts major international featuring events. The Dubai Desert Classic is a major halt on the Professional Golf Association circuit. The Dubai Open, an ATP tennis tourney, and the Dubai World Cup, the universe ‘s richest Equus caballus race, pull 1000s every twelvemonth ‘ ( Government of Dubai 2010 ) .MentionsAhmad Abdelrazaq ( 2008 ) Brief on Construction Planning of the Burj Dubai Project Ã¢â‚¬Ë œ CTBUH 8th universe Congress.Clements F. ( 1998 ) . United Arab Emirates. Clio Press: Oxford.DTCM ( 2005 ) , Dubai-Modern History ; Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing.EIU. 2005a. United Arab Emirates Country Profile 2005. The Economist Intelligence Unit: London.Government of Dubai ( 2010 ) Dubai History ; The official Portal of Dubai Government hypertext transfer protocol: //www.dubai.ae/en.portal? subject, Article_000240,0, & A ; _nfpb=true & A ; _pageLabel=homeJoan C. Henderson ( 2006 ) Tourism in Dubai: Get the better ofing Barriers Destination Development Nanyang Business School, Nanyang technological University. Singapore.Peter J. Cooper ( 2006 ) , Why Dubai? : Anatomy of a Business Success narrative. AME Info ; the Ultimate Middle East Business resource.Jim Krane ( 2009 ) The Story of the universe ‘s Fastest City: Atlantic ISBN 9781848870086 Landor ( 2008 ) Burj Dubai the Building of an Icon ; Landor Associates, April 2008.Mathews N. 2003. Expansion flin g: airdromes in the Middle East will be constructing new tracks and terminuss through 2015. Aviation Week and Space Technology 159 ( 22 ) : 42.Rod Monger ( 2007 ) Sculpting Dubai ‘s Workforce ; Special to Gulf News hypertext transfer protocol: //gulfnews.com/business/features/sculpting-dubai-s-workforce-1.171750

Developmental Competencies And Challenges For Late Adulthood

IntroductionLate adulthood is the term describing the period in an individual’s life beginning at ages sixty or seventy and ending in death. This life period is one of continuing change and adjustment in physical and psychological realms.Major concepts and distinctive features of various social rolesSocializationThe family is the first social institution for the children. They are taught how to fit into the community and the various social institutions. The children learn the society’s social values and culture. This in the long run helps in creating a cultural identity for the children (Russell, 2004).EducationChildren start their education the moment they are born. This includes both formal and informal. They are taught basic survival skills such as speech, interaction and hygiene. They later proceed to formal schools where they expand their knowledge on a wide variety of areas which later ends up in career specialization.DisciplineThe child is taught respect, and per forming of household chores. This helps them to grow into mature and responsible adults. Discipline should be taught with compassion, reason and patience without argument, yelling and spanking. The parents should learn to respect the children’s growing independence in order to build self esteem.ProtectionThe family offers protection and security to the children. They should be made to feel safe both within the home and without. They should be protected from any form of physical or psychological abuse.ClothingClothing is one of the basic needs that the family provides alongside food and shelter. Children should be provided with adequate and the right clothing depending on the environment.Nutrition and food securityIt is the responsibility of the family to provide nutritional requirements for the children. They should always ensure that the meals are balanced and meet the various needs of the children.ShelterThe family provides a warm and secure place for the children’s development. It should protect the children from any harsh environmental conditions that may affect their development.Emotional stabilityThe family should satisfy the child’s emotional needs thus enhancing their emotional stability. The parents and children should become friends. The parents should create an atmosphere where the children can confide in them.HealthThe family should ensure the children are healthy through proper nutrition and medication.Contribution and influence of social roles and how they influence individuals and families in the situationIn our case study, the social roles above are not adequately met due to various inadequacies on the part of the grandparents.The grandchildren’s socialization needs were not fully met. The grandparents generally had little interest in developing the children into a whole person. There was distance between them mainly due to the generation gap.There grandchildren’s education was also inhibited. This is because the grandparents did not value formal education so much since they did not have any of it themselves. They had limited resources since they are not working. They were therefore unable to give their grandchildren good quality education.The grandparents were found to be lax in terms of instilling discipline in their grandchildren. They did not have the necessary energy to follow up on their grandchildren’s activities.The grandparents were frail and sickly and could not offer enough protection to their grandchildren. There were various cases of attacks on their homestead.Clothing is one of the basic needs that the family provides alongside food and shelter. This was mainly due to financial constraints since the grandparents weFood and nutrition needs of the grandchildren were not adequately taken care of due to limited resources of the grandchildren. They were also not very keen to ensure a balanced diet.The grandchildren’s medical needs were not given to their due seriou sness since the grandparents had to take care of their own.The large age difference made it hard for the grandchildren and the grandparents to form a bond necessary in a normal family setting. The grandchildren could therefore not confide in their grandparents and share their emotional needs (Gilbert and Kristin, 2005)ReferencesRussell, R. (2004). Social Networks Among Elderly Men Caregivers; Journal of Men’s   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Studies 13(1): 121Gilbert, R. & Kristin C. (2005): When Strength Can’t Last a Lifetime: Vocational Challenges of Male Workers in Early and Middle Adulthood. Men and Masculinities, 7(4), April, pp. 424-433.Spector-Mersel, G. (2006). Never-aging Stories: Western Hegemonic Masculinity Scripts. Journal of Gender Studies, Volume 15, Number 1, March, pp. 67-82.

Analysis Of The Indian Jewellery Industry

Analysis Of The Indian Jewellery Industry Role in Indian Economy The Gems and Jewellery (G it is also the processes 90% of the diamonds by pieces (55 percent by value of the global market) – largest consumer. The Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) is responsible for sustaining the new initiatives in the sector(Public enterprise). The industry holds prominent significance as it is a net exporter and provides employment to 1.3 million people directly and indirectly. India is also emerging as the world’s largest trading centre for gold targeting US$ 16 billion by 2010. GJ market contributes 16 per cent of total exports, making it a significant foreign exchange earner for the country. Growth Potential Jewellery Retail Sourcing from the skill to the ability to innovate and develop. Currently, India’s G&J industry is highly unorganized and fragmented with 96 percent of the total players being family owned businesses. The gold processing industry has around 15,000 players, with only 80 having revenues over USD 5 million. India is also home to around 450,000 goldsmiths, 100,000 gold jewelers along with 6,000 diamond processing players and 8,000 diamond jewelers. Consumers have started shifting towards branded jewelery, which offers higher quality and saves the consumers from unfair trade practices in the industry. The emergence of jewelry retail chains provide customers with convenience and assurance of quality. The organized gems and jewellery sector is expected to progress with a good pace in near future, and should hopefully account for nearly 8% of the total gems and jewellery market by 2009-10. The Branded jewellery segment is also expected to have a high growth rate. The key drivers for the industry growth are raising disposable income, conscious marketing efforts, rising young population with urge to spend and jewellery being increasingly regarded as fashion accessory. The entry of foreign players is also likely to increase competition and provide consumers with g reater choice. As Indian gem and jewelry exports have grown to $17 billion, the industry has witnessed an annual average growth rate of about 15-20 percent. EXPORTS The gems and jewellery industry provides a shining example of achieving international competitiveness. The bulk of the Indian GJ exports comprises import of rough diamonds, their cutting and polishing in India, and re-export. CPDs(Cut-Polished-Diamonds) accounted for 71.1% of India’s GJ exports during FY2006, followed by gold jewellery (23.2%), rough diamonds (3.4%), coloured gemstones (1.4%), and non-gold jewellery (0.9%). Thus, these two items-CPDs and gold jewellery- accountrd for around 96% of India’s GJ exports.

The size of a company is not important for global trade nowadays Essay

The size of a company is not important for global trade nowadays - Essay Example But currently lot of other substitute electronic products with superior quality and cheaper price, from different parts of the world are available in almost every local market in the world because of globalization and free trade policies adopted by many countries. For example, Chinese products are causing immense damages to the reputed brands because of the cheaper prices. Global trade have big impacts on employment, community and the economy of a country. It is difficult for a country to stay away from global market at present because of the inter-linkage of global economies because of globalization. Any problems occurred at some part of the world can cause problems in other parts as well. For example the American financial crisis has resulted in many people losing their jobs including those from overseas countries. The persons returns from America will be a burden for other countries and those countries need to spend heavy amounts for the rehabilitation of such people. Global trade can impact other communication media also. Internet media (blogs, message boards, podcasts, and video sharing), radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines all are part of global trade. Globalization boosted the global trade and communication with the help of integration of regional economies, societies, and cultures. For example, reality shows were earlier popular in America and UK like countries. But the increased awareness about the western culture because of global trade activities resulted in exchange of cultural values and reality shows like television programs are nowadays popular in India, Pakistan and Middle Eastern countries. â€Å"The greater financial interdependence of national economies can also increase insecurity among rural populations† (Winkels). Rural population mostly concentrate on agriculture for finding their livelihood. The prices of their crops are

Food security in Eritrea Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Food security in Eritrea - Essay Example Eritrea is a sovereign state, which has been faced with numerous cases of conflict within itself and with its neighbours, especially Ethiopia, due to border demarcation issues, a factor which has resulted to internal displacement of people. Reports indicate that more than 10000 out of the original 70000 internally displaced persons still live in temporary camps, waiting to be resettled by the government (Tesfa, 2008). Apparently, this has been one of the major factors contributing to food shortages due to the fact that these people have no cultivatable land as the war pushed them out of their homes and as such, they can only depend on aid from well wishers and the government. It is estimated that more than 2 million people are affected by food insecurity, translating to approximately 40% of the total population (Tesfa, 2008). The fight for freedom, which lasted for approximately 30 years, left the country in a state of destruction especially in the agricultural sector. This is due to the fact that most of the lands which could be used for farming are littered with unexploded ordinances, which pose a security hazard to the farmers (Rena, 2007). In this context, any person trying to cultivate in these lands risks the possibility of triggering the explosion of land mines, which were buried during the war, but failed to explode. Tensions that continue to exist between Ethiopia and Eritrea have contributed to more installation of these landmines as a defensive mechanism at the expense of the farming communities (Zwi, 2005). The temporary security zone, which is considered to have been the most productive agricultural land measuring approximately 25km2 remains unutilized as a result of these landmines, which have kept away more than 50000 inhabitants, who were displaced by the war, regardless of the fact that n o more fighting takes place in this area (Zwi, 2005). With these developments, food production is deemed to remain low and as such, more people will continue to be affected by extreme hunger. This is also due to the fact that the government has continued to spend a lot of the already scarce resources to finance and facilitate the war with Ethiopia. For instance, it is estimated that more than 300 000 men and women are serving in the army instead of letting them engage in farming activities (Gebre, 2009). Human resource in the agricultural sector is a crucial necessity since activities such as cultivation, planting, and weeding as well as harvesting among others requires to be done in order to guarantee quality harvest. In Eritrea, this has not been the case as it has been observed that there have been limited human resources hence high labour costs. As earlier stated, poor diplomatic relations between the country and its neighbours, i.e. Ethiopia and Sudan, have led to the closure o f the respective borders. This means that no movement is allowed in and from the country, which has continued to impact the economy negatively. It is true to say that if this was not the case, citizens of these nations would have had a chance to interact economically through trading in imports and exports thereby increasing the amount of foreign exchange as well as revenue collected

Focus Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Focus - Essay Example As a result, there was mass migration as they sought settlement to countries that they could live, achieve and participate as equal citizens. America offered such opportunities welcoming all immigrants owing to its developing industrial capabilities. There was a surge of Jewish immigrants from in mid-nineteenth century following a new era of violence and anti-Jewish sentiments in most regions of Europe. The interactions between Americans and immigrants was characterised by inclusion and assimilation where the immigrants adopted a new culture in order to fit into the new country (Klinger n.d).This was guaranteed by the American legal system, which acknowledged that all men were created equal and as such, they deserved equal opportunities in America. This is as opposed to the European version that described Jews by appearance, cultural, social and religious positions. Moreover, legal impositions in Europe by the majority Christian population were vastly strict against the Jews. However , the tranquillity that existed ceased in its roots as a court case legally established that the separation and discrimination were synonymous. This established ground for open discrimination against fellow Americans based on the colour of their skin as opposed to what they can do. In other words, the court assertion made discrimination legal thus legalising bigotry. This marks the beginning of racism and discrimination against Jew living in America (Foner, 2012). Arthur Miller’s novel is set in New York as the Second World War ends to be a direct confrontation to American anti-Semitism. The book focuses on Lawrence Newman, an American of English descent, and the personnel manager in large company who quits his job citing mistreatment. This owes to his resemblance to Jews after acquiring glasses, a sentiment shared by his mother. He shares prejudices of his neighbours who seem determined to confront a Jewish candy storeowner until he is on the receiving end of similar prejudi ces. Miller highlights discriminatory acts against Jews living in America in his time, which involves hiring procedures, residential places, political participation among others. Jews were denied employment opportunities in most establishments and applicants had to under vigorously screening to edge out Jewish candidates. The tactics used in denying such opportunities include exclusion, tokenism and quota system especially private industries with executive and management levels (Glock, 1979).As such, the Jews had difficulty in obtaining or maintaining positions in places of employment. This is echoed in Focus as Miller, describes how Newman has difficulty in landing a new job following his resemblance to Jews. Ironically, when he gets one, he is employed in a Jewish establishment that seems to embrace all. Similarly, the public generated negative sentiments towards the presence of Jewish residents within their neighbourhood. As such, extreme groups such as the Christian Front sought to engage violently their Jewish neighbours in a bid to scare them off the neighbourhood. The negative attitude towards Jews left no room for tolerance, which saw residents attached for their religious beliefs. This is no different in Miller’s book when alliances are forged against Jews ‘elements’ in the Focus neighbourhood. Jews were also not admitted in social clubs such as country clubs among other public places on a regular basis. This can be attributed to the social status of the members who were accorded respect depending on the company

Psychology (peoples behaviour) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Psychology (peoples behaviour) - Essay Example 1 This is one approach of personality theory. Personality is normally referred to as the thoughts, emotions and behaviour pattern that every person has. Personality trait can have immense variations between individuals. Many research hypotheses concur that personality has aspects that are prominent. They are very stable across situations that are referred to as shamone traits. Eysenck 1967 says that personality can be reduced to three traits that are quite major. Other scholars however, say that personality can be reduced to five traits. According to the 3F model, there are traits like psychoticism, neuroticism and extraversion. Other scholars say that personality can be reduced to the following five traits, that is, neuroticism, agreeableness, extraversion, conscientiousness and openness. All these are based on factor analysis which is a statistical technique. In fact these traits are the highest level factors in the hierarchical taxonomy of this technique. This method is well known to produce bipolar and continuous factors. All these actually describe one's individual differences. The trait theory is based on various assumptions. One of them is that people are normally born with traits that are inherited. The trait theory asserts that these traits are quite different fro one person to another though some people may have similar traits that they inherited from parents or even grandparents etc. Some of these traits that are inherited can be suited for carrying out leadership responsibilities. In this case a person finds that he or she can easily handle leadership tasks without having any prior knowledge in the field. According to the trait theory, people who naturally make good leaders just have sufficient or the right combination of these traits. Inherent traits can be diverse such that one person may have many different traits. There are people who may have minimal traits that are inherited while others may have so many. Early researches that were done concerning the trait theory used successful leaders as the audience. So the attention was majorly based on discovering the inherent traits that made them to be successful. There was the assumption that if other people were found with the same traits then it meant that they had the potential of becoming great leaders too. One of the scholars called Stogdill (1974) noted that the following skills and traits were very critical to leaders; Traits Skills Adaptable to situations Alert to social environment Ambitious and achievement-orientated Assertive Cooperative Decisive Dependable Dominant (desire to influence others) Energetic (high activity level) Clever (intelligent) Conceptually skilled Creative Diplomatic and tactful Fluent in speaking Knowledgeable about group task Organized (administrative ability) Persuasive Source; Stogdill, R. (1974): Handbook of leadership; a survey of the literature; New York; Free Press Eysenck (1997) asserts that majority of extroverts have got low levels of cortical arousal as compared to introverts who have higher levels. According to the 3F model, individual differences in neuroticism and extraversion have physiological and genetic antecedents.2 Psychodynamics theory This is actually

Determine if there are similarities or differences with respect to the Essay

Determine if there are similarities or differences with respect to the treatment of Aboriginal youth by the governments of Canada and Australia, - Essay Example It is reported that the indigenous people have the highest incarceration rates in both countries as compared to any other lots. It is realized that the two governments treats and victimized offenders in the similar manner resulting from highest number of criminal activities undertaken by these indigenous groups. In Australia, statistics shows that 15.1 percent of the homicide victims are felt by the indigenous groups despite their less population of 2.2 percent of the Australian population and 15.7 percent of victimized offender’s results from same indigenous groups according to the 2011 Mouzous research (In Chall,& ProQuest Firm,1953, p.123). Aboriginal are also found in police custodies mainly because of violent and justice offences as compared to other lots who mainly being in custody for drug and traffic offences. Governments in both countries are thus find it necessary to detain more number of Aboriginals with Australian figure rated at 26 percent of all the people detained calculated to be 17 times that of non-indigenous persons. Australian government differs in terms of Aboriginal policing with that of Canada in the sense that indigenous policing systems seen to be relatively centralized divided into eight main police services with one attached to each state and territory and federal department. Unlike in Canada where there is correctional institutions and absence of federal-state split in sentences, Australian states are mandated to enactment of criminal laws and the policing programs are only within the state jurisdictions. Australian aboriginal have found themselves tasks with self-policing as well as hired as police officers after the discussion erupted on the failure of the government to include indigenous in such services but to use police services throughout course of Australian history in which police were universally expected to apply government policies to Aboriginal which led to Aboriginal

Human traficking Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Human traficking - Assignment Example Women and young girls may engage in prostitution in their accord and is mostly not a mandatory involvement(Kligman & Limoncelli, 2005). Another type of human trafficking is immigration purposes where many people wished to join other countries. Countries in Europe like German are prime countries, and many people want to enter the (Kligman & Limoncelli, 2005). Statistics shows that over thousands of people were trafficked to and away ofEastern Europe. Most countries that had less Visa regulation made more people be trafficked into the country because trafficker could freely roam across the countries border. Poverty and low economic level in our society mostly faces women. From a statistic carried out it showed that the number of women being unemployed keeps raising this had pushed women to search for low paying jobs. Most women, therefore, are exploiting new ways of making the ends meet leading them to be victims of human trafficking. Push and pull factors are like gender discrimination where women are discriminated and seen as lesser beings. Pull factors like human trafficking are profitable businesses in many European countries (Kligman & Limoncelli, 2005). There should a complete shutdown of human trafficking in Europe. All underground ready markets for human trafficking are illegal. The United Nations define human trafficking as the process of using threat, deception, fraud or coax people so that they can be recruited and transferred to the individual country. Trafficking is mostly due to the greed of money by traffickers so that they can have people to work as slaves, laborers or slaves in their host country. The humans trafficked are prone to be exploited so that their body organs can be removed and sold or given to an influential person (Kligman & Limoncelli, 2005). In Eastern Europe, socioeconomic factor links to vulnerable people in a number of ways. Vulnerable individuals in societies face challenging life

Eassy 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Eassy 1 - Essay Example The theory of speciation can basically be traced back to a type of understanding of basic evolutionary processes. In this way, speciation is a way in which one can describe the way that different groups with innately different characteristics can arise from groups of a similar species that share a common split ancestry (Singh 2010). Such a theory can help to explain how animals such as ducks and other livestock first became domesticated and presented a clear shift from the common ancestry of the non-domesticated duck that has resultantly helped the domesticated duck to evolve to what can be noted today; a nearly flightless animal that carries a great deal more weight than its naturally occurring relative. In much the same way, environmental agents of selective pressures means that key environmental factors can influence the way that creatures adapt to the environment, or particular way of life that is most suited to the furtherance of their species within the given construct in question. This of course denotes the Darwinian theories of natural selection and can be evidenced by the way that certain species of fish have adapted to their respective environments as a way to better provide themselves and their offspring with the chance of increased survival. Conversely, an environmental agent of selective pressures denotes the ways in which certain environmental factors act upon creatures to adapt them to the particular way of life that is necessitated within their environment. Evidence of this can of course be seen in the giraffes of the savannah as they were increasingly necessitated to have longer and longer necks as a function of reaching the flora at the top of the tree canopy. In this way, environmental agents of selective pressures can alternatively be read as a type of natural selection. Lastly, with regards to the dispersion theory, this

Marlboro cigarettes Essay Example for Free

Marlboro cigarettes Essay Marlboro cigarettes has not responded to the importance of Social responsible by developing and implementing socially responsible, sustainable, strategies and practices. Although Marlboro was directed by law makers and authorities to take actions in order to limit their marketing strategies and define measures to reduce sale of cigarettes to teenagers, but so far, the company has not been able to take any concrete step or action regarding these directives. Although the company plans to implement one of the worlds largest marketing plans in line with corporate social responsibility, however, nothing practical has been to date. Introduction The purpose of this report is to basically look upon to the matter of corporate social responsibility hat tobacco companies have towards the environment and the consumer. For this report, we will specifically target Marlboro, a renowned cigarette brand that is marketed by Phillip Morris. In this report we will see what Phillip Morris has done in order to assume, realize and act upon its corporate social responsibility along with the argument on areas where it still does needs to work in order to assume its responsibility to the fullest. The report will start with a brief introduction of the company, Phillip Morris, followed by a brief paragraph of information on how bad is smoking for health and what are the diseases that generate in a human body due to smoking. Phillip Morris Phillip Morris is an international company that markets tobacco products, mainly cigarettes in over 160 countries worldwide. The share of this company in the international market extends to 15. 6% outside America which makes it one of the biggest tobacco marketing companies around the world. With revenues shooting up to 22. 8 billion dollars, Phillip Morris employs over 80000 employees around the world. Marlboro is one of the major brands that are marketed by the company along with LM, Phillip Morris, Morven Gold and Virginia Slims. However, of all major brands mentioned above, Marlboro is world best selling cigarette brand with customers all over the world. Besides being the best tobacco marketing company in the world, Phillip Morris is also the world’s third best company with respect to profitability in international consumer goods category (Bianco 2003). Marlboro has over 23 different verities of cigarettes under its brand in order to cater to different customers with different tastes and preferences. Marlboro is also one of the brands which spend huge amounts of money for its sponsorships and advertisements as it is evident by the fact that it sponsors one of the most expensive motor sport events along with brands like Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and BMW. Smoking Injurious to Health Around 1. 1 billion people around the world smoke daily which include one third of the entire adult population of the world. Other then US and EU, hen we go towards Asia, we see that people who are habitual of smoking smoke so excessively that most of them are known as chain smokers. The moment they put off a cigarette, they light a new one instantly. Although it is not the case that people are not aware of the fact that smoking is injurious to health, they do know this, but the fact is that most of the people know only this much. By this we mean that the technicalities and the diseases related to smoking are mostly ignored by smokers who only know that it is injurious to health and they do not bother to take into account the seriousness of diseases that are caused by smoking. In this part of the paper we will discuss what the diseases that are caused by smoking (Kelder 2005). Before stating the harmful deceases that smoking causes first we need to realize hat there are around 4000 different chemicals that are used to make single cigarette. Some of the chemicals out of these 4000 and their function in daily life are listed below: Nicotine: It is a deadly poison Arsenic: this chemical is used in poisons for killing rats Ammonia: A chemical that is used to make Floor Cleaners Carbon Monoxide: this is one of the emissions from car exhausts Cadmium: a chemical used in daily use batteries Methane: a fuel component Butane: Used to fill lighters Now, a consumer good, that contains all of the above chemicals and goes inside the human directly, no wonder how deadly it would be for health. Smoking actually kills the air sacks in the lungs every time the smoke goes in. The more you smoke, the more your lungs are damaged because these air bags are limited in quantity and they are not produced again. Excessive smoking causes lungs to turn black because of the fact that tar that comes out of the smoke is deposited on the lungs which also blocks arteries that go to the blood. The heart and lungs both get weak and the stamina of a smoker is manifold lesser then a non smoker. Tar also gets deposited on teeth and mouth walls which causes infections and increases the chances of mouth cancer. The stains that are left on teeth damage the teeth and smokers have a high rate of getting dental cavities as compared to a non smoker. T. B and cancer are on of the most common and deadliest diseases that are found in excessive smokers. Cancer is a disease which cannot be cured in many parts of the world today. Even if it can, the treatment is so expensive and difficult, that a cancer patient looses all his fitness, his brain cells get damaged and the patient looses all signs of hair on the body (Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Health Committee 2000). Radiations and therapies have to be daily in order to remove cancer from the blood, however, studies show that once a patient gets cancer, it is very difficult to cure him. Moreover, a smoker has many times more chances of getting cancer then a non smoker. Studies show that out of all those who have lung cancer, 90% of them are smokers. Thus smoking not just only damages your health to a great extent, but, it also ensures that you also live way shorter then a normal non smoker human being. CSR assumed by Philip Morris According to news, Phillip Morris is intending to come up with a new advertising campaign which will be in line with the corporate social responsibility that is required by law makers and authorities for the company to assume. According to Phillip Morris this new advertising campaign will be the world’s largest campaign that will be in line with the corporate social responsibility with respect to tobacco marketing and the corporate world as well. In this marketing campaign, the company would not focus on the benefits of smoking and associating it with different icons in the leading sports and Media industry. Moreover, the company also intends to stop marketing campaigns which are directly promoting youth to consume cigarettes and also it intends to raise prices as required by authorities aim order to control the sale of cigarettes. These are responsibilities that the company should have assumed on its own rather then regulatory authorities imposing them on the company. CSR ignored by Marlboro in the current marketing campaigns. Marlboro along with many other tobacco brands has till date ignored there corporate social responsibility in order to discourage or at least not motivate new consumers to start smoking. Like all other consumer brands, Marlboro has also found to be promoting its brand and motivating consumers to start smoking Marlboro cigarettes as they are the leading brand in the world (Hilts 1996). For this purpose, Marlboro is using different techniques to capture different markets by differentiating its products with the need of the consumer in order to increase sales. However, it does not realizes the fact that the more the company promotes the sale of cigarettes, the more it plays with the consumers lives because it is a proven fact as discussed in the above discussion that smoking cigarettes is an activity that is seriously harmful for human health and excessive use can also be fatal in the form of Lung Cancer. Little information about ingredients on Packets As required by authorities, all Tobacco companies are required to print the ingredients that are used to make a cigarette from paper, to filter and the ingredients of tobacco as well. As discussed above the number of chemicals that are used in cigarette manufacturing is very large, thus the companies are require to at least print the most harmful ingredients of them all in order to provide full information to the consumers about the product that they are consuming. However, when we look at the packaging of Marlboro, none of the chemicals listed above are found in the ingredients section which is against their corporate social responsibility. Surveys suggest that a number of people will at least think of quitting or reduce smoking cigarettes if they find these ingredients on the packing. Controversy of Filters Marlboro along with all the other brands manufacturing cigarettes project to their consumers that the filters that are present at the tip of the cigarette actually prevent a large amount of tar from going into the lungs (Feldmen 2004). However, studies show that the filters only make the smoke smoother for throat and prevent only a small amount of tar from going inside, thus, they ma be taken as useless. The fact about the manufacturing of these filters is that they are made of ammonia which is used for cleaning floors and toilets in domestic use. Moreover, when the smoke goes into lungs after passing through these ammonia filters, they actually reutilize the vaporized fumes of nicotine in the lungs which increases the dosage of nicotine as much twice. Variations in the same brand In order to cater to all segments of the society, Marlboro has a portfolio of around 23 flavors which are designed for consumers of all backgrounds, mentality, tastes and gender. From light to hard, short to long, red to black, Ferrari packs to Marlboro slims for ladies, Marlboro tries to attract smokers from all segments of the society by showing them that Marlboro has all the reasons for them to smoke the cigarette of their choice. Surveys predict that the more the simple a company keeps its tobacco products, the lesser it will attract new smokers, but Marlboro is actually doing the opposite. People are given choices and motivations to smoke and this is one of the reasons why teenage smoking has been increasing drastically. Teenagers are immature enough to try all of the variants that are marketed by Marlboro because every variant offers them something different then the previous one. The roasted tobacco tastes different then the fascinating and attractive Ferrari pack. Marlboro doesn’t realizes the fact that it has to think that the way the number of teenage smokers are increasing due to its marketing campaigns, the count of people having cancer 20 years down the lane would triple the present count today. Exchange of Packs Campaign As far as marketing to that consumer who already smoke is concerned, Marlboro’s latest technique of making non Marlboro smokers to switch to Marlboro includes activities such exchanging packets of non-Marlboro smokers with a brand new special pack of Marlboro cigarettes so that they use Marlboro from then onwards. This activity not only promotes them to consume more cigarettes, but also, this activity requires the consumers to recommend more people about the taste of Marlboro (Michaels 2008). The representatives of the company do not at all inform the consumer about the harms that the consumption may cause to their health; rather, all they take about is the finest tobacco blends and the fresh new taste that Marlboro brings to them. Pricing Also as required by the law makers, Marlboro is required to increase its costs so that the sales of the product can be reduced as it is a demerit good which does not has any benefit of the consumer but it poses a cost to the society and the environment as a whole. However, Marlboro has not taken any such step in this regard; in fact, Marlboro along with many other brands is actually marketing its sale offers online at different forums and portals in order to increase its sells. The special packs that include a special lighter and a fabulous cigarette case are also one of the ways that Marlboro uses to attract more customers. Largest Sponsor of Formula 1 Marlboro is the largest spending sponsor of formula one as it is one of the most watched motor sport event on all sports and TV channels. People from around the world watch this event on television and online, thus Marlboro does not leaves any chance to let go this opportunity and spends heavy sums of money to sponsor the fastest cars like Ferrari and McLaren. The cars are all painted with the brand logo of Marlboro along with the crew which has Marlboro written on them from head to toe (Givel 2000). All across the track and the stadiums, Marlboro tries to fill out every bit of space available with its logo in order to reiterate its logo and brand in the consumers mind. Conclusion Funny as it may seem that many believe on the statement that governments might use smoking as a tool to control population growth in several countries. However, if we look at this matter closely, governments which are not taking serious actions on companies who are not assuming their corporate social responsibility are exactly doing what the statement suggests. The more their approach is lenient towards cigarettes and their marketing, the higher are the chances that the average life of the population will be low as the cases of cancer will grow rapidly and thus the population will reduce. Thus, governments and authorities should look up to this matter more loosely and seriously in order to stop or limit the marketing campaigns of cigarettes for the benefit of the society. Work Cited: Bianco, E (2003). Tobacco industry marketing strategies and women. Womens Health Journal Feldmen, E (2004). Unfiltered: Conflicts over Tobacco Policy and Public Health. Harvard University Press Givel, M (2000). The public health undermined: The tobacco industrys legacy in Missouri in the 1990s. Institute for Health Policy Studies, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Health Committee (2000). The Tobacco Industry and the Health Risks of Smoking: Report and Proceedings of the Committee v. 1 (House of Commons Papers). Stationary Office books Hilts, P (1996). Smokescreen: The Truth behind the Tobacco Industry Cover-Up. Addison Wesley Publishing Company Kelder, G (2005). The tobacco industry under fire. Trial Michaels, D (2008). Doubt is Their Product: How Industrys Assault on Science Threatens Your Health. Oxford University Press

Vision and Mission statement of Mauritius commercial bank

Vision and Mission statement of Mauritius commercial bank Abstract This paper attempts to analyse the vision and mission statement of The Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB) Ltd. A brief description of the organisation is given, followed by the vision and mission statements, where the statements are analysed thoroughly and critics have been made. Those critics have been identified while reading the Vision and Mission statements respectively, it can also be seen that we have applied the SMART criteria in order to analyse the vision statement and concerning the mission of the group we have analysed it through the various steps that the company is undertaking to achieve its goals and objectives. Keywords: Banking,Vision Statement, Mission statement, MCB Ltd, Introduction The Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB) Ltd, one among the leading bank that exist in Mauritius and which was incorporated since 1838. At present, MCB ltd has its branches all around the island. The Bank came across serious financial difficulties on many occasions during its first hundred years of existence. In spite of various national and international financial crisis, cut throat competitions over the years from ten other commercial banks, two world wars, and natural calamities, The Mauritius Commercial Bank Limited succeeded in expanding its activities, trebled its capital and in 1920 in Curepipe opened its first Branch. Nowadays, the bank plays a vital role in the economy of the country by expanding its unflinching support to trade, agriculture, the textile industry, tourism and other sectors as well as individual customers, at its head office and also throughout its 42 branches and counters in Mauritius and in Rodrigues. The MCB ltd is said to be a bank with a heart, for this purpo se as every successful business has a vision and mission statement, so do the MCB Ltd. The Vision of MCB ltd is to be the obvious choice for financial services in the region and beyond. The vision statement triggers the desires to launch the MCB ltd as the touchstone position for the provision of financial services in the state and even further, in order to meet the increasing needs of its customers operating in the global economy. For this to be possible the general public must have full confidence on the bank, for example the recent case of MCB/NPF could have been fatal for MCB ltd but that was not the case as the bank managed to reduce and nearly eliminates all the risk associated with. The Mission statement is to pursue the voyage towards excellence. The mission statement gives evidences to the unrelenting loyalty to best practices in the provision of financial services throughout the group against the backdrop of creating shareholder value. The MCB has a tradition of being a leader of getting use to modifications and innovating to suit customer needs, therefore, its vision, mission and corporate values are aligned to maintain this position. They know that their future success will depend on their capacity to deliver a broad variety of services quicker, cheaper and in a more professional manner to their increasingly sophisticated and global customers. To achieve this, the bank is investing massively in technological and as well as human resources. Objective and Purpose of study To analyse and understand the meaning of vision and mission statements of a company. To analyse and understand the vision and mission statements of MCB and its implementation. To suggest improvements that can be brought to the vision and mission statements of MCB. Literature Review Each and every organisation has their own vision and mission statements which are set according to the companys actual performance and objectives that it want to achieve in the future. Vision: Defines the desired or intended future state of an organization or enterprise in terms of its fundamental objective and/or strategic direction. Vision is a long term view, sometimes describing how the organization would like the world in which it operates to be. For example a charity working with the poor might have a vision statement which read A world without poverty (Wikipedia, 2010). Mission: Defines the fundamental purpose of an organization or an enterprise, succinctly describing why it exists and what it does to achieve its Vision (Wikipedia, 2010). Organizations usually summarize goals and objectives into a mission statement and/or a vision statement. Others begin with a vision and mission and use them to plan for the goals and objectives. While the existence of a shared mission is very useful, many strategy specialists question the requirement for a written mission statement. However, there are a lot of models of strategic planning that begin with mission statements, so it is useful to examine them here (Wikipedia, 2010). Forest (2003) analyses the mission statements and defines them as enduring statements of purpose that distinguish one organization from other similar enterprises. It suggests that a well-crafted mission statement can provide advantages or benefits to a company. Also it states that the mission statements have to be longer than a phrase or sentence, but not a two-page document, and not overly specific with regard to values, percentages, numbers, goals, or strategies. Hence, it concludes that better mission statements will give rewarding payoffs, meaning enhanced personal and business performance Studying how to merge people and resources together in harmony to achieve a common goal remains one of the most difficult tasks facing management today. The importance of developing a corporate mission statement with a glowing vision to enhance and create organisational purpose is addressed and how different organisational cultures affect the employees vitality is examined. From the vision springs a parallel view of all the employees in the organisation towards the companys goal. Contribution from both the companys customers and employees ensures adoption of the purpose and keeps the purpose dynamic and fresh. This leads to innovation, co-operation, and success of the organization (Reyes and Kleiner, 1990). In addition, executives members should try to promote or motivate its employees in order to achieve its vision. As per Eigeles (2003) he has conducted an analysis thats represents the structure method helping organizational facilitators to work efficiently with their clients. Though it is not possible to motivate and encourage top executives team efficiently to willingly generate true vision and mission and implement these in the organization for achieved both improved performance and harmony. Tarnow (1990), introduces a method to enhance existing mission and vision statements. The set-up of the initial statement is changed to (1) suggest an action, (2) identify this action only vaguely, and (3) include a social categorization. He also, discusses some consequences of the Unifying Action Declarations, including examples from experiential group events and from a high tech consulting firm. The resulting Unifying Action Declarations agrees leaders to use group formation forces to help motivate task performance. Nowadays, all developing businesses experience difficulties during organizational transitions (Churchill and Lewis 1983). The evolution from a small entrepreneurial organization to a mature business organization is characterized by a large amount of important internal and external changes (Hambrick and Crozier 1985; Churchill and Lewis 1983). The small business frequently finds that success attracts the attention of others; new small start-ups and/or large competitors may enter the market (Porter 1980). Rises in growth may call for increase into overseas markets. Internal changes comprises of the introduction of professional management to handle the increasingly complex organization; the introduction of outside equity to finance growth (Welsh and White 1981); and the introduction of organizational systems and procedures. Internal changes such as rises in sales volume, in employees, and in organizational formality and complexity require small business operators to change their role within a changing organization (Hambrick and Crozier 1985). The quest of growth usually requires the owner/manager to learn new skills and change from a doer to a manager (Churchill and Lewis 1983). Small businesses often fail to grow because the manager fails to make this transition (Willard, Krueger, and Feeser 1992). Through the growth process, the small business manager becomes increasingly eradicated and distant from employees (Hambrick and Crozier 1985; Churchill and Lewis 1983), and discovers that his or her strong entrepreneurial vision is no longer shared by new staff, new professional managers, and new investors. One of the survival strategies is to introduce financial and strategic planning and control systems into the organization (Gable and Topol 1987; Bracket and Pearson 1985). Vital to these planning and strategic management systems in large organizations is the introduction of a mission statement. In their much orientated work, Pearce and David (1987) argue that the mission statements of higher performing large companies are more comprehensive than those of less successful firms. The idea behind this article is to explore whether high growth small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ireland are characterized by more comprehensive mission statements. However, there is a lack of new evidence for the acclaimed and assumed positive effects of mission statements. A few studies have provide limited empirical support to the idea that mission statements are valuable and contribute to higher profits (Rarick and Vitton 1995; Klemm, Sanderson, and Luffman 1991; Germain and Cooper 1990; Falsey 1989; Pearce and David 1987). These studies totally assume that mission statements are a determinant of success, before addressing the possibility that successful organizations are more likely to adopt formal systems and procedures that involve the writing of a formal mission statement. Another research base on SMEs is that of Analoui and karami (2002), who said that developing a mission statement has been considered a crucial factor in the formulation of business strategy in organisations. The mission statement encourages a sense of shared expectations in employees and, not surprisingly, it has recently been regarded as increasingly important in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the electronic industry. One major motive for this is the growing involvedness and energetic competitive environments in which these enterprises have operated and managed to find them. Mission statements have become a managing instrument most commonly used by chief executive officers (CEOs) over the last decade. One exercise that both academics and practitioners have judged strategically serious to the success of an enterprise is the development of a meaningful mission statement. This article discovers the awareness of CEOs of their mission statement in SMEs. The study, between investigating the existence and content of the mission statements and, as a result, it determines the relationships (if any) between a SMEs development of a meaningful mission statement and selected performance outcomes of the firm. Also, from Mullane (2002) perspective, managers are divided in their allegiance to the firms mission. Some mangers swear by their mission statement while others swear at theirs. Facts from two firms, with existing research indicate that this disagreement originates in the mangers view of mission statement. Mangers that see mission statement as tools that can influence the inner working of the organizations are likely to understand the missions usefulness. Mangers that put their mission statement on display and expect them to magically transform organizational behavior are likely to be frustrated and see them as an exercise in futility. It has been found that insight from two managers who take the first view provides specific steps mangers can utilize to harness the benefits of their mission statements. Wickham (1997), states that a sense of mission can be a powerful force in shaping and guiding an entrepreneurial venture. He has discussed how it focuses the entrepreneurs vision and gives it a real strategic direction. Clear as an official mission statement it can be used to bring together disparate stakeholder groups within the organization. Imagines that it also acts as an aide-mà ©moire for communicating what the scheme has to offer customers, suppliers, and potential employees. He also, states that a clear mission can also help in attracting investment. It catches the attention of possible investors and proposes professionalism in management approach. However, if it is to be successful, the mission must be right for the scheme developed with sympathy to the organization and be communicated effectively. Moreover, another search had been done on how corporations project their corporate philosophy through `Mission Statements. Despite linguistic and textual analysis of such statements drawn from a sizeable quantity, it allows us to typify the texts as constituting a non-routine, organizational genre, and one that has recently become of some significance. This discussion serves as a basis for a contextual and intertextual analysis of Mission Statements from two well-known US companies. By detailing the history, underlying principle and role of these Mission Statements that have been indicated of how the texts are rhetorically designed in order to ensure maximum employee `buy-in. In one case the Mission Statement appears as an authorized historical vision to be protected and nurtured; in the other case, the rewriting of the Mission Statement emerges as a collaborative response to crisis. Hence, they discuss on the implications of such findings for contemporary approaches to discourse and genre analysis within institutional linguistics (Rogers and Swales, 1995). At the same time, Bart (2001) stipulates that mission statements symbolize the cornerstone of most organizational strategies. While much research has been conducted on what the (human intellectual capital) HIC construct might contain, none has attempted to understand the link between mission statements and their impact on the HIC construct. The uncertain results reported in this study begin to fill the invalid one. They illustrate that, mission statements may certainly have a convincing place in the measurement and reporting of an organizations intellectual capital and they demonstrate the need for more research in this regard. Mission statements by themselves are of very little value. Some organisations have good mission statements, but their management teams frequently lack a sense of purpose. In some companies, management teams have a clearness of vision and interest that is remarkable, without having a mission statement. Mission statements are in themselves not important since they create a management team with a sense of mission which is crucial (Campbell, 1993). Company Profile The MCB was incorporated by the Royal Charter in 1838 and Lloyds Bank became the first shareholder of the group. The MCB was the first bank to install ATMs in Mauritius and was the first bank to issue credit cards and till now the MCB has been the most performing listed company with the highest market capitalization on the official list of the Stock Exchange of Mauritius. The MCB has been engaged in promoting various key financial products and services including mobile banking, retail banking product, corporate banking, private banking, international banking, internet banking service and providing American Express services. The MCB was the first Mauritian commercial bank to launch the revolving credit loans on the international market. The MCB group has even set up branches in Seychelles, Mozambique, Madagascar, and France amongst others. Present in eight other countries through its subsidiaries, associated company. The MCB group in Mauritius employs around 2,600 employees and over 18000 local and foreign investors. The MCB group observe the highest degree of standards concerning integrity and ethical conduct towards its dealings to its stakeholders. Furthermore, the MCB group has been diversifying in various sectors of the economy behind the philosophy of risk pooling and also providing the highest level of service quality to its customers. Likewise the MCB group is separated into two main parts, namely the bank itself and local and foreign subsidiaries. The MCB group has a very diligent and highly qualified and devoted board of directors who work toward the satisfaction of different stakeholders and maximising the overall profit of the group. The MCB group has a very high view on corporate governance practices and in regards to this the MCB group has been consequently been conferred the bank of the year and because of extensive corporate governance practices, the bank is able to fulfil effectively its vision. Analysis of the MCB Vision The vision of the MCB group is to be the obvious choice for financial services in the region and beyond, whilst its mission is pursing the voyage towards excellence. The MCB vision is obviously what the company wants to become which is the ideal aim of the group. The MCB has had a tradition of being a leader adapting to changes and innovating to satisfy customer needs, this is basically the corporate philosophy of MCB. The group has clearly set down this vision as they believe in the fact that the future success will depend on the ability a comprehensive range of services quicker, cheaper and in a more efficient manner so that there is an increase in local customers and foreign sophisticated customers. This vision of MCB is to build on the competitive axis for further product differentiation and regional diversification. The vision of the company is to offer a broader range of financial services, shifting from the traditional areas of banking through more complex services including asset financing, leasing, investment financing and brokerage services. That is the goal of the group is to serve as a single window to offer a full fledged set of financial services. The aim of the vision statement is to maximise customer satisfaction and increase customer loyalty. The other arm of this vision is to fully maximise the diversification strategy whereby it involves strengthening and deepening the presence of the group in international markets which offer substantial investment opportunities which basically help in promoting the image of the group in the international market. Basically the gist of the competitive strategy and the aim of this vision statement are to substantially increase the contribution of subsidiaries abroad to the overall profit of the group. Ultimately the group believes that more and more the philosophy behind the vision statement is behind achieved this will lead to a better competitive edge and a successful entrenchment of strategies being adopted which could lead to better customer satisfaction and an increase in service quality. The key of course lies in an appropriate balance between the strategies and the vision philosophy. MCB wants to be a benchmark in the provision of banking services as well as non banking services so that other financial services providers can refer to as MCB as being the Lion in the banking business in the local market as well as in the regional market. The MCB believes in provision of financial services which maximises customer satisfaction and bridging the gap between customer perception and customer expectation, that is ultimately bridging the service quality gap. The cutting force that drives MCB to achieve its vision philosophy is innovation. Innovation is one the values that the MCB adheres to in its strategies. MCB believes in innovation at all managerial levels which ultimately will help the group to achieve its objectives. A deduction can be made from the vision statement whereby there is a close link in regard to the corporate philosophy of the group which is to the leader of financial services locally and regionally. The vision statement of the MCB is all about the following: Partnerships Relationships Innovation Genuiness Attitude to risk Passionate banking. Partnerships whereby without the help of various investors the group will not be able to become a leader and relationships whereby the bank undertakes long run prospects for both partners. Innovation is all about the values of the group to be the leader and genuiness is to offer differentiated financial services. Likewise attitude is the willingness for the group to take risk so that to enjoy new ventures and passionate banking as the group believes in privileged banking relationships which will help to increase business and word of mouth publicity as well as service quality and customer satisfaction. The MCB believes in that it is the leadership job to set the vision, which is where the group wants to go. That is why the bank believes in enhancing human resources especially at the board level also so that the vision is clearly defined and met. The group believes in management skills to be able to clearly define the vision philosophy of the group Vision statement is usually rooted in values that are what drives the organisation to move ahead. The values that are rooted in the vision of the MCB are as follows: Integrity Customer care Team work Innovation Knowledge Excellence These six values are deeply rooted in the vision of the group. As the group wants to become the obvious choice for financial services in the region and beyond, these values would help the company to archive it. Are integrity, customer care, team work, innovation, knowledge and excellence found in the vision of the group? For the group to achieve its vision it is obvious that integrity should be within it and it is a fact for the MCB as for most people is a bank which is known to be of utmost integrity ranging from its staff to senior level management. Hence this value would definitely help the group to satisfy its corporate vision philosophy. Concerning customer care, the bank believes in the assurance of quick, dedicated and unrivalled services to its customers. The bank believes in its level of service quality and customer satisfaction. Hence the bank places a lot of emphasis on customer satisfaction. The bank believes in the approach of collective working and a shared vision together so that different synergies from people can combine together which will give a cutting edge to the group. Likewise, this is to help leveraging individual competencies and skills to various people within the group. Innovation had been an in-house tradition for the group at various managerial levels which all ultimately help to the product differentiation of financial products offered by the group. Knowledge philosophy of the group is all about the strong commitment to nurture the human capital through lifelong development and learning towards to achieve the vision of the group. Excellence is what the group believes to be very important in helping to become the leader in the provision of financial services and also, excellence in all about the mission of the group which is pursuing the voyage towards excellence. Criticisms of the vision statement The vision is the corporate aspiration of the group, which describes the long term ambitions and the ideal goal of the group. But, in the vision statement the values are being met but it should satisfy the SMART criteria, that is, Specific, Measurable, Appropriate, Realistic and time bound. Specific- the vision stalks about to be the obvious choice for financial services in the region and beyond. It is adequately the clear message as to what needs to be accomplished, but the word beyond is restricted. Does beyond means in the international market or in African region or others. Hence it should be clear. Measurable- The bank will have to develop and assess how the bank is becoming the obvious choice for financial services. Is there any comparative analysis which is done in comparison with other banks? Appropriate- The vision statement is somehow in accordance with mission as only through excellence the group will be able to be the choice for financial services. Realistic- the vision statement of MCB is very challenging and high challenging to provide a boost for management to satisfy the corporate philosophy of the vision. Time bound- in regards to the time frame, no indication has been provided in the vision statement about till when the bank wants to become the obvious choice for financial services. The vision of the group should be able to be quantified as in the case of the MCB group, will the bank quantify it through the market share or market capitalisation. The vision of the group to be able to be effective should be a shared vision, that is the vision should be common at various levels of the group and uniformity must apply so as to allow the group to meet its values and when values are met, ultimately this will help to satisfy the vision of the group as visions are deeply rooted in values. Mission statement analysis of the MCB Pursing the voyage towards excellence The mission statement of the group testifies the fact that there is a willingness to adopt best practices in the provision of financial services so that shareholder value increases as well as helping in satisfying the vision statement. The mission defines the fundamental purpose of the group. It is the philosophy of why the group exists and how it will conduct its affairs to achieve its vision. The mission statement plays an important role for the group as is the basis for motivating the use of resources within the group. It also develops a basis or a standard for allocating organisational resources and generally develops a shared organisational climate working towards the vision of the group. It also attracts employees who share common set of goals and values to work for the purpose of enhancement of the vision. The mission statement can be used as a strategic tool for enhancement of the business process. At the MCB group the mission is deeply rooted to the top executive to the middle management level. The mission of the group is to focus on best practices so that the vision is met. The MCB has been for several years the bank of the year and is one where best practices are highly implemented, that is why the bank is ranked first in corporate governance practices. These best practices help the group to achieve its vision a many people would opt for the MCB in their needs of financial products. Hence it can be seen that there is a link and there are interrelated components between the vision and mission statement of the group because the mission of the group, which is working towards excellence, will help to achieve the vision of the group. However the mission of the group should not be static, that is it should change when conditions in the groups environment change, in which case, the MCB should change its mission. Just focusing on excellence is not enough as there are various intrinsic and extrinsic factors affecting the group. Hence redefining the mission statement becomes a must as the group is growing at a rapid rate and various competitive factors are in the banking business with the entry of new service providers in the field of financial services and retail banking. The mission statement of the group should include more shared values as they are deeply rooted in the vision of the group. Internal and External analysis should be performed so that the mission is closely aligned to the vision of the group. Criticism of Mission Statement The mission of the MCB for the past few years has been mainly in the quality of its staff so that with a dedicated staff and well trained staff this will lead to customer satisfaction and increasing the level of service quality. This will help to create a better image of the group and helping towards its commitment toward excellence. The MCB believes in the quality of human resources, as it customers are satisfied with the staff and through a dedicated service this will help to make the bank the obvious choice for financial services and help meeting the vision statement. Likewise, MCB has been investing loads on best practices so that excellence is achieved and ultimately leading to the corporate philosophy satisfaction. Hence, with the adoption of international best practices, the bank has been gaining a positive image in the region and hence again the bank is working towards meeting of its vision. Furthermore, the bank invests massively in innovating products which all ultimately help in achieving the vision of the group and even through the partnerships of international partners like American Express amongst others is helping the group to build a more positive image in the regional market and the international market. Recommendation The Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB) is a successful Financial services provider. It has been able to provide quality financial product and services to its customers and it is today the largest and oldest banking institution of Mauritius and has made a name in the region. But as it is said Nothing is permanent except change and thus for the MCB to continue to be the pioneer in the Financial Services sector of Mauritius, it needs to continue changing and innovate according to what the customer wants and demands. A Mission Statement is a declaration as to why an organization exists and defines the business the organization is currently in. Mission Statements concentrate on the present and are a reflection of an organizations core competencies. The mission statement of MCB is that it wants to move toward excellence. What was excellence years ago is definitely different from what is excellence in the financial sector today. Since the creation of MCB the economic environment around the world has changed. Moreover there have been changes in technologies that have radically changed the way financial products and services are being provided to customers. The working environment itself has changed and so has the behavior of employees and employers. At the same time new legislatives have been introduced in the financial sector and this has resulted in an alteration in the way financial institutions functions and recently due to the financial crisis around the world a lot of financial institutions hav e been encouraged to change the way they carry out their activities. During the last decades Mauritius itself and its society has evolved. Nowadays people view the financial sector differently to what they used to years ago. Consequently the MCB must consider all these changes and accommodate its mission around them so as the MCB can grow alongside with its economical, political, legal, cultural and social environment. A Vision Statement focuses on the future. It states what you want the organization to be. Vision Statements come from the heart as well as the head. A Vision Statement represents a realistic dream for an organization and forces it to take a stand for a preferred future. To be the best choice of everyone is the vision of the MCB. But there may be other things that that can become the aims of the MCB. It can be easily proved with the market share valu

Rogers Communications Analysis

Rogers Communications Analysis Currently Rogers has competition with companies like Bell Canada, TELUS and Shaw Communications. There are also new providers in the industry that are offering products and services at low prices. Rogers is a company that has the best technology in comparison of other providers. It is the only company that operates on both GSM and HSPA technology. 1Rogers operates in three areas. The first one is Wireless, which includes wireless voice and data communications services. Rogers is Canadas largest wireless provider. The second one is Cable. Rogers is one of Canadas largest providers of cable television services as well as high-speed Internet access, telephony services and video retailing. The third and the last one is media, which includes radio and television broadcasting, televised shopping, magazines and trade publications, and sports entertainment. Its backbone is its distribution channels, which includes 3,600 Rogers-owned, dealers and retail outlets. Rogers provides valuable customer services to its customers. Its goal is to maximize its subscribers and become the best communication and media provider. There are 70 subscribers out of 100 (2010) in comparison of 25 per 100 (2000). Furthermore,  [2]  in the time of recession, Telecom industry is one of the industries that have been able to survive and make profit margins. Thus, Telecom industry is an industry where consumers go first which means that consumers would reduce their spending on other goods and services in comparison of telecom services. Therefore, if Rogers has brand image and the market is full of opportunities then why let new entrants capture the market share. The second issue that Rogers face is regarding its financial position. If we see the table below, companys sales growth in 2007 was 14.54% and cost of goods sold was $961 million. In 2008, sales growth reduced to 11.97% but cost of goods sold was more ($1303 million). If we see the last year that is 2009, sales growth was just 3.49% and cost of goods sold was $1380 million. This concludes that, if sales growth has been decreasing every year, cost of goods sold has not been decreasing with proportionate to sales growth. In other words, profit margin has been decreasing and companys operation is not able to increase its sales growth and minimize its cost of goods sold. Morever, if we see the debt to equity ratio, it is increasing every year. In 2007, it was 1:2.3. In 2008, it was 1:2.61 and in 2009 it was 1:2.98. This concludes that Rogers is using a lot of debt to finance its operations. But on the other side, Rogers has good return on assets of 8.67% in 2009 in comparison of 6.18% in 2008, which means Rogers is earning more money on less investment this year. In order to overcome current challenges, Rogers should use overall low cost provider strategy. Rogers should apply this strategy to solve its business and financial issues. The advantages of this strategy are customer satisfaction, moving towards its rivals, prevail market conditions and strengthen its market position. What else can Rogers do to maintain its market share and presence? Rogers can include features and services in packages that are essential to its consumers. It can find ways to achieve competitive advantage that would be hard for the current rivals and new entrants to match. Though the industry did have the slowest growth in 2009 from 2000, the analysis shows that there is a lot of room to grow. When Rogers would use lower pricing for its products and services then there would be less competition and more accessibility to local market that would increase its sales and revenues. By doing this, Rogers is completing its mission strategy, which is to add great value to its customers lives by offering new and reachable products and services. When companies raise prices of their products and services, they dont realize that by doing this they are far away from their customers but new entrants are putting themselves in their customers shoes. In other words, they are thinking like their customers. This is what Rogerss strategy should be, to think like its customers and add value to their lives. If Rogers would think like its customers then there would be brand loyalty and there is less risk of loosing its market share and presence. If customers would feel that Rogers has understood them, then they would definitely contract with Rogers. This would lead to Rogers implementing its financial strategy, which is to maximize profit and return on investments. In regards to reducing Rogerss cost of goods sold, Rogers should invest more money on new technologies to improve its companys operations. This would decrease its cost of goods sold and increase business efficiency. In addition, Rogers can outsource some of its operations as it has been doing with its physical IT infrastructure. Rogers has been outsourcing its physical IT infrastructure to IBM to make capital expenditure efficiencies. Rogers can do the same with some of its operations but one thing to consider is that Rogers should have strict quality standards for its products and services while outsourcing. Furthermore, cost of goods sold increases when there are high designs or services that is neither seen nor valued by customers. Rogers can simplify its products and services and reduce cost of goods sold. In conclusion, Rogers, to become the best telecom company in Canada should apply all the recommendations above. This would help Rogers to increase its subscribers and reduce its cost of goods sold. A) INDUSTRY INFORMATION: 1. What are the Industrys Dominant Economic Features? Market Size   [3]  In 2010, there are 70 wireless subscriptions for every 100 Canadians in comparison of 25 wireless subscriptions per 100 in 2000. Market Growth Rate (Product Life Cycle) Maturity. There is competition between different companies. Growth Cycle   [4]  Real gross domestic production increased from $25,559 million in 2007 to 26,775 million in 2009.   [5]  2009 and 2010 are the slowest years of production growth in two decades. Scope of Rivalry   [6]  Low barriers of entry. New entrants are providing same services that big players do at low prices. Type of Distribution Channels   [7]  Dealers, retail outlets and advertisement. Pace of technological change   [8]  Internet connection giving access to television entertainment. Level of Product Differentiation -Low. All companies offer same products or services. Ease of Entry Exit   [9]  Low barriers of entry due to deregulation of telecommunications service providers and advancement in telecommunication system. Industry Profitability   [10]  Profit margin has decreased to 12.8% in 2009 from 13 % in 2007. Summary- Telecommunication Industrys market size and real gross domestic production has increased but profit margin has decreased. There are low barriers of entry but competition is high. 2. Competitive Analysis Summary The 5 Forces Model The Rivalry among competing sellers in the Industry Intense. Companies try to attract customers with more discounts, promotions and benefits in comparison of their competitors. Firms in other industries offering substitute products Weak. Customers have no option or substitute for services offered by companies in telecommunication industry. The potential entry of new competitors -Weak. Low barriers of entry  [11]  due to deregulation of telecommunications service providers and advance in telecommunication system. Entrants enter the market but do not survive unless they offer low prices because companies ruling in telecommunication industry have brand equity and customer loyalty. The bargaining power of suppliers   [12]  Weak. Small Internet resellers get a very small share of the market, and their share has been declining in recent years. The bargaining power of buyers -Moderate. There are not many companies that offer all the products and services but still customers switch to rivals when they offer huge discounts and promotions. Summary- Suppliers share has been decreasing. There are no substitutes and buyers have very less options. There are low barriers of entry but competition is high too. 3.Drivers of Change Industry Growth Rate   [13]  Real gross domestic production increased from $25,559 million in 2007 to 26,775 million in 2009. Product Innovation   [14]  Smartphone, high speed Internet and digital TV. Technology Change   [15]  Fiber optics, improved computer technology and the Internet. Regulatory/Government Influence   [16]  Business rules are regularly changing which is giving small Internet providers access to the large companies networks. Summary- The main driver of change is the new technology introduced every time that excites customer to purchase products and services. 4.Competitive Position Quality of Services and Network Less More Few Many Coverage Who is favorably/ unfavorably positioned why? -Bell Canada occupies the most favorable position among the rivals because of being first Canadian telecom company and occupying more coverage. The closest competitor to Bell Canada is Rogers that offers large variety of products and services and has a wide geographical presence in the market of telecommunication industry.   Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   5.Key Success Factors Technology Related   [17]  HSPA+ 21 Mbps wireless network and DOCSIS-3.0 50 Mbps high-speed Internet service. Organizational Capability   [18]  Knowledgeable staff that would develop newer, better, and faster ways to deliver what customers want, while also delivering attractive returns for shareholders. Distribution Channel   [19]  Diversified distribution channels such as dealers, retail outlets and advertisement. Other -Brand image. Widely recognized and accepted by customers. Summary- Key success factors in telecommunication industry are technology, well-trained staff, distribution channels and brand image. 6.Industry Attractiveness -The industry is at maturity level. There is a lot of room to grow and profits are high. Whenever, new technology is introduced, customer demand increases. Low barriers of entry makes it easy for new entrants to enter the industry but it is hard to survive unless they offer low prices because there are big players in the industry. There are no substitutes. Competition is intense as companies try to attract customers with more discounts, promotions and benefits in comparison of their competitors. B) COMPANY RESOURCES: AN INTERNAL ASSESSMENT 1. The Strategic-Making Process Vision Statement stated/implied   [20]  To grow in the business while taking care of corporate social responsibility. Mission Statement   [21]  To add great value to customers lives by offering new and reachable products and services. Strategic Objectives Business Maximize the number of subscribers and become Canadas best communication and media provider. Organizational   [22]  Achieve highest standards of business conduct among all employees. Financial Maximize profit and return on investments. Current Strategy-  [23]  Launched Long Term Evolution (LTE) so that customers can anywhere, anytime access to information, communications and entertainment. Strategic Performance Indicators Qualitative Measures-   [24]  High-quality network coverage. -Customer satisfaction. HSPA+ 21 Mbps wireless network and DOCSIS-3.0 50 Mbps high-speed Internet service. Quantitative Measures-   [25]  7% growth rate in Wireless Network and Cable Operations businesses in 2009.   [26]  1.5 million Smartphone customers in 2009. 2. Financial Analysis Conclusion- The Company has issue with its cost of goods sold. Comparing all years, sales growth is decreasing but cost of goods sold is increasing .If this continues then soon the company would loose its financial well -being. Therefore, the company should increase its sales growth but decrease its cost of goods sold. High debt to equity ratio indicates that the company is using a lot of debt to finance operations, which might be reason for company to have more earnings than it would have without debt. Rogers have 1: 2.98 in 2009.  [27]  Rogers has also generated a 29% increase in free cash flow growth in 2009. Return on assets provides information on how effectively company is utilizing its money to convert it into sales. Rogers has good return on assets of 8.67% in 2009 in comparison of 6.18% in 2008, which means Rogers is earning more money on less investment this year. In total asset turnover, the figure indicates how much is generated in sales from every dollar worth of assets. Rogers has 68.80% in 2009 in comparison of 69.9% in 2008.This means that Rogers has been less efficient at using its assets in generating sales this year. In current ratio, the conclusions cannot be drawn before considering other factors. However, when the current ratio is higher than 1, it is normally considered acceptable. It indicates how quickly current assets can be turned into cash. Rogers is in less good position by having 1:0.80 in 2009 in comparison of 1:0.84 last year. 3. The Company Value Chain Operations   [28]  Rogers is the only one operating on both GSM and HSPA technology.   [29]  Outsources its physical IT infrastructure to IBM to make capital expenditure efficiencies. Distribution   [30]  Powerful national product distribution network consisting of more than 3,600 Rogers-owned, dealer and retail outlets. Sales and Marketing   [31]  Activated 1.5 million Smartphone customers. Service   [32]  Created a dedicated team who would engage with customers looking for help in online forums and micro blogs.   [33]  Created the Rogers Customer Commitment to help customers understand what they can expect when they contract with Rogers. Summary- Rogers have the best technology, outsource, distribution network and customer service that makes its way to success. 4.Competitive Strength Assessment Model 5-8 KSFs weighted Conclusion- Bell and Rogers have close competition. TELUS and Shaw are behind Rogers. Bell has 10 rating for reputation image because of being the oldest and trusted company in Canada. Rogers is trying its best to grab Bells market presence and has been successful in doing that. In terms of technology, Rogers has 10 rating because it is the only one operating on both GSM and HSPA technology. 5. SWOT Analysis Internal (S)trengths -Brand recognition.   [34]  Powerful national product distribution network.   [35]  Dedicated team for customers. (W)eaknesses -Internal inefficiency that increased cost of goods sold. -Dependent on debt. External (T)hreats -Bell, TELUS and Shaw Communications.   [36]  New entrants are entering the market. (O)pportunities   [37]  Attract new clients.   [38]  $900 million total principal amount of 4.70% Senior Notes due in 2020. Summary- Rogers has internal strength in its brand recognition and distribution channels. Its weakness lies on increased cost of goods sold and debt. Competition is intense with current rivals and new entrants. Opportunities are bright with new and existing customers. 6. Strategic Issues that merit Managerial Attention Business Issue   [39]  Would it be a good strategy by Rogers to lower price of its products and services due to high competition from new entrants? Financial Issue -How should Rogers decrease their rising costs? 7. Criteria for Strategic Solution(s) Able to maintain high quality network coverage, HSPA+ 21 Mbps wireless network and DOCSIS-3.0 50 Mbps high-speed Internet service, 7 % growth rate in Wireless Network and Cable Operations businesses, 1.5 million Smartphone customers and reduce cost of goods sold. Work Cited Canadian Industrial Outlook. (Autumn 2010). Canadas Telecommunications Industry. The Conference Board of Canada Retrieved from http://www.conferenceboard.ca.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/temp/f191b447-0cc1-43f8-89cd-a7d54518d917/11-146_CIOS-Telecom_Autumn10_WEB.pdf. Investor Relations. Rogers. Retrieved from http://www.rogers.com/web/Rogers.portal?_nfpb=true_pageLabel=IR_LANDING Corporate Social Responsibility. Rogers. Retrieved from http://your.rogers.com/aboutrogers/csr/overview.asp About Rogers. Rogers. Retrieved from https://www.rogers.com/web/Rogers.portal?_nfpb=true_pageLabel=about_landing PRNewswire. (October 6, 2010). Rogers Announces First Lte Technical Trial in Canada. Yahoo finance. Retrieved from http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Rogers-Announces-First-Lte-prnews-2287777662.html?x=0.v=62 Guides to Occupations. Working in the Telecommunication Workers Industry. Skilled Immigrant Infocentre. Retrieved from http://skilledimmigrants.vpl.ca/index.php/guides/industry/telecommunication_workers Defining Next. ROGERS COMMUNICATIONS INC. 2009 ANNUAL REPORT. Rogers. Retrieved from http://www.rogers.com/cms/investor_relations/pdfs/2009_Annual-Report.pdf Bringing Your World Together. ROGERS COMMUNICATIONS INC. 2008 ANNUAL REPORT. Rogers. Retrieved from http://www.rogers.com/cms/investor_relations/annual_html/2008/html/HTML2/default.htm The Americas Intelligence Wire. (Sep 22,2010). Rogers Communications Prices $900 Million Senior Notes Offering. Ryerson. Retrieved from http://galenet.galegroup.com.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/servlet/BCRC?rsic=PKrcp=COvrsn=unknownlocID=rpu_mainsrchtp=cmpcc=1c=136mode=cste=72tbst=tsCMtab=2ccmp=Rogers+Communications+Inc.tcp=rogersn=25docNum=A237731531bConts=13119