Poem of Harlem Renaissance

In the poem Song of the Son, Toomey is turning to the origins of slavery, saying slavery alone has made him a son of this Earth. Song of the Son† is a five stanza, rhyming poem. Each stanza has five lines. The poem in the first stanza talks about the correlation between nature and song. The second stanza talks about the son and his correlation with nature. Both the first and second stanza collaborates to make the title of the poem Song of the Son.The last two stanza talk about the how the society during that time depicts slaves, â€Å"O Negro slaves, dark and purple ripened plums. † The narrator also talks of the sun setting on he slaves who frequently used songs as a form of expression. The narrator expresses an interest in remembering and figuratively staying connected with the slaves who had worked the land in previous generations. It seems to me that a poem which effectively expresses the spirit of Harlem Renaissance poetry is â€Å"From the Dark Tower,† by Co unter Culled.The first stanza open up the poem with the idea of struggle. Culled states in these first lines, we see a man planting, yet not reaping, his own rewards. Instead, the fruits of that labor will simply be plucked away by others, resalable by white men who take what the black men sow. Culled is also saying that the oppressed black people of his day will not always Just sit and watch their people and heritage be enslaved. Culled uses the image of a â€Å"sable†, (meaning black), night sky that relieves the harsh, grim, barren day (stark) as a metaphor.Culled is referring to young African Americans as â€Å"buds† ( lines 13 Even though they are alive, they are so limited by being a black person in America that they will never come close to realizing their full potential A Black Ban Talks of Reaping is a poem that focuses on the oppression and racism in America. This poem describes the trial and hardships of the African American people. The poem also talks about the little children that weren't around for the planting, but still have to taste the bitter fruit.This could mean that future generations still have to face the discrimination between the races. Stanza 1, he has been plating for many years against fear of losing the harvest and the extenuate that he wont. Stanza 2, He has plated a lot of seeds, but has only harvested very little of what he sowed. Stanza 3, The speaker is saying that no matter how hard he works, his son will have the same fate he does. The author's tone is harsh and sad: harsh for having to work and sad for his son. The mood of the poem is disappointing for the feeling of failure for his sons.This poem is important because it sends out a message to all blacks and speaks about how every black was treated. In conclusion, the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance has opened doors for today's African- American writers. The Harlem Renaissance was the internal spring for African-Americans branching out into the world on their own desire. The renaissance opened a new dimension for African-Americans and brought about the legalization of â€Å"l can do it, and do it with dignity, grace, and style. This time period in history was not Just a national movement, but an impact creating a revolution of sorts. Harlem saw a never-seen-before work per excellence, in various fields, which gave African-Americans a renewed image and a fresh outlook. Harlem Renaissance has been the breeding ground for creative endeavors by authors, poets, and artists. Harlem, in itself, was an idea of cultural excitement that progressed throughout the twentieth century. Black visual artists experienced an explosion in ideas and energy during Harlem Renaissance.The Harlem Renaissance produced novelists, poets, artists and musicians who are today considered some of the finest that America ever produced, regardless of race. In conclusion, the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance has opened doors for today's African- American writers. The Har lem Renaissance was the internal spring for African-Americans branching out into the world on their own desire. This time period in history was not Just a national movement, but an impact creating a revolution of sorts. Harlem Renaissance has been the breeding ground for creative endeavors by authors, poets, and artists.

Real Estate Bubble in China: the Present and the Future

The concern over whether China is experiencing a real estate bubble has increased, especially after Dubai crisis happened. The construction area of both residential and commercial properties has increased by almost 6 times since year of 2000. China has enjoyed a sharp increase in property price since 2006. Especially, after 2009, due to the large stimulus package, majority of the money went to construction and real estate industry. It further pushed up the property price, leading to a lot families became the â€Å"slave of the property† who were struggled to pay the mortgage. Not only the high price has affected most people‘s lives in China, it could also greatly affect Chinese economy and even the global economy. Domestically, the prosperity of real estate industry is fuelled by local investment and easy band loan. According to MSN Money, there is an increase of 38. 2% from 2010 in property market , mainly from developers and speculators. The scale of loans goes to property market is even more scary, up to $1. 3 trillion. People have compared the real estate bubble of China to the United States. The question is will Chinese property bubble has the similar effect? Fortunately, the difference between China and the United States are quite striking. The factors lead to the collapse of property market in United States will unlikely to happen. In China, a country with high saving rate, people used to buy property in cash 4 or 5 years ago. Even in the heyday of residential mortgages, the loan is not as easy as in the U. S. Down payment amount is much higher than in the U. S. A decline of 20 to 30 % in prices will not let the bubble burst in China. In conclusion, the burst of real estate bubble is not easy in China and, if happened, will have limited effect to the world economy. In this paper, I will try to present the whole picture of Chinese real estate market from the current situation to how it evolves, and will touch on the future as well. This will be achieved with the help of some data and the explanations of ratios. Section II: A Real Estate Bubble in China? The first question needs to be answered is that is there a real estate bubble in China? Since government tries to avoid this sensitive word â€Å"bubble†, and data are not reliable. People have to figure them out and estimate how large the bubble is. Bubble is believed to exist in many major cities of China. For example, in Beijing, real estate prices rose by 350% to 900 % only in 7 years from 2003 to 2010(Figure 1). Other indicators of real estate bubble have reached an alarming status in China in many major cities, including Beijing, Shanghai , Nanjing , Hangzhou and so on. The even striking fact in China is that you can hear stories about â€Å"empty cities† very often. China has the second largest mall empty in southeast China, and modern empty city in Ordos. These are only the cases that you know and easy to identify. However, more empty streets or blocks are in the cities, waiting for people to move in. Ghost City Ordos: the famous empty city in China is Ordos, which is located in the north part of China. Ordos is the second richest city in China, followed by Shanghai, even richer in term s of per capita than Beijing. The city is rich because of abundant natural resources. One –sixth of China‘s coal reserve, one –third of it is natural gap reserves. The GDP has increased at 25% per year, much higher than the national level. With such a huge amount of money, local government wants to attract more people to stay in Ordos. This is how the empty city comes from. The new city was designed to accommodate 300, 000 people, with a capacity of holding 1 million people. Currently, you can hardly see any people on the street, even though most of the properties have been sold out. Surprisingly, the city is still under construction. The local government still believes that they can fill in the new city soon. Unfortunately, the stories about empty cities have been repeated on and on in China. This has been interpreted as a sign of over investment and real estate bubble. In the case, the apartments have all been sold out, even though nobody moves in. ecause most people believe that property will grow definitely. For investment purpose, most of them prefer to buy one. This kind of behavior has contributed to the high vacancy rate in China, High Vacancy Rate: since official data are not reliable, the concrete number of vacancy rate is not available from official sources. The reason for this has been that government officials said that, they don't know what vacancy rate means. Obviously, government is trying to avoid knowing the fact. Somehow, people have provided a rough estimate on the vacancy rate. They are using how many electric meters that have no readings for 6 months as an indicator of vacancy rate. Overall, we got a number of 65. 4 million apartments. It is estimated that the vacancy rate is as high as 36%. With such a high vacancy rate, people are wondering how large the real estate bubble in China will be. James S. Chanos, one of the first foresee the collapse of Enron and earn large profit from hedge fund, gave the answer, it will be Dubai times 1000. A growing number of economists and hedge funds managers have been believed that Chinese economy is a big bubble. Others argue that China is definitely not a bubble, the development is real. There is overheating in some area, but infrastructure construction is still necessary to a country like China with such a huge population. Still, a lot people live in area without roads. The demand of properties is still more than the supply of apartments, due to the urbanization and economic growth. The pent up demand from city dwellers for better living condition, in the future, will convert to real development in economy. Even in 2009, when residential property prices enjoy a high fluctuation, the construction area has increased by 40. 7%, largely due to the central government‘s stimulus financial package. Figure 4 Section III , What are the forces that push up the price? In China, it is more than market demand and supply that determine the price . Local government, individual investors, and central banks are also involved, which make the issue more complicated. Recent years’ increase in property price has created an impression that real estate market will keep growing in the future. Unfortunately, this is also the belief in the U.  S. real estate market which, ultimately, results in economic recession. Thus, almost everybody bet on the future of real estate market. In this section, I will analyze both the market reasons and social factors that contribute to present situation in China. In terms of market demand, the demand for property comes from two kinds of groups. One is from the new migrants from rural places in China. Another is from local residences who want better living condition. Due to the urbanization process and economic growth in recent years, the demand will increase in the long term. This has been part of the reason why investors bet on the market growth. At the same time, governments and real estate developers have made an effort to supply enough apartments to meet the increasing demand. According to Macroeconomic principle , it seems that these have been enough to explain the fact. In an emerging country, political issues are unavoidable in any sense. Land sales have become an essential resource of local government’s revenue which means high property price shares the burden of high land-use right. In China, people don't buy land instead they are renting land for a certain amount of time. Normally, it is 70 years. In this sense, you are renting the land or buy the right to use the land for 70 years. Because of the conflict of interest, local governments are not enthusiastic in applying the central government’s price control policies. In order to facilitate the transaction, local governments even requires very low upfront. Question concerning this will be further mentioned in the next part. It has shown that in Beijing and Hangzhou, land sales have accounted for more than 30% of tax revenue. Thus , local authority has less incentive to tackle the problem. Only average home buyers bear the cost of high property price. Individual investors and state-owned companies made things worse as well. Since state-owned companies normally have much solid financial foundations than private companies, they are more likely to win the land sales bid. It was shown in Beijing that 82 % of land auctions are won by SOEs. These large firms are owned by central government, so in turn, if SOEs didn't win the auction or real estate market suffer a big crisis , both the SOEs and central authority will be affected. This has encourage local government to cooperate with SOEs. For individuals, they store apartments, waiting for a moment when real estate price goes even higher. Earning quick money is all their purpose. High vacancy rate can explain the situation. Section IV, How Real Estate bubble will affect China’s economy? Unlike other industries, real estate industry affects not only the industry itself but also social safety, political stability and financial stability in China. There are mainly two types of risk that will threaten the development of China’s economy, namely, loose mortgage policy for individuals and corporate. Mortgage loans are relatively new to Chinese residence. Most people pay cash to buy property instead of real estate loans. However, it grows almost 50% per year. The proportion of mortgage loans in nominal GDP has increased by 5 % in just one year. When big fluctuation of property price happens, it is likely that majority of property owners’ benefit will be affected from two perspectives. First of all, it will mean the shrink of the value of lifetime saving. As property is the largest investment of most families, the decline of price is also the shrink of their wealth. Secondly, households will become more conservative in investing in the future. People will spend less money on consumption and put more money into banks instead. On the other hand, individual and corporate mortgage loans will also pose a threat to the banking system. For individuals, mortgage loans are relatively new. Chinese used to pay cash for their properties. Nowadays, mortgage loans have enjoyed a 50% increase in just one year. When property price declines, the majority of loan owners will have difficulty in paying the mortgage. When it comes in a large scale, private banks can go bankrupt. Due to some negotiation between different groups, real estate developers don't need to pay the full amount of bidding price, instead they only need to pay a small portion to get the right to use the land. To be specific, if a firm wins a bid which worth 5 billion RMB, only one-tenth of the full amount need to be paid initially. What‘s more, firm can get a loan from banks by using the land as a collateral at the amount of 2. 5 billion. It is clear that firms don't take as much risk as we thought and they can use the extra money to invest in biding for more land. Whenever there is market fluctuation or crisis, these firms and banks will definitely have a difficult time. Conclusion: Opinion diverts in interpreting overheating in construction industry. Some believe that China has a real estate bubble and it will burst soon. Others disagree, thinking this is an exaggeration of the problem of overheating investment in real estate industry in some areas. Personally, with the evidence mentioned above, real estate bubble does exist in China. However, the real demand is there as well. Most of the problems come from over investment in some areas. Resource misallocation leads to the unreasonable increase in property value. More market liberalization and less state-owned companies compete in the industry will help solve the problem. The importance of property even relates to marriage. There is an article in New York Times, titled† In China, Money can buy Love†. Owning a property has become the condition for marrying to somebody. If property price jumps dramatically, not only the economy will be affected, but also social well-being.

Managing Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Managing Change - Essay Example With change always altering the functionality of organizations, Todnem (2005) proposes the eight step model in an effort to employ change in the association. According to Todnem (2005), this begins with the creation of a sense of urgency for the need for change in the organization that needs to motivate the employees to heed to the crisis that is present in the organization. Change is resultant from a myriad of factors such as proper customer relations, competition with the existing business persons amongst others. After the identification of the change factors, it is the role of the management to come up with a team that would see the implementation of the policies put in place. Next in line should be coming up with a vision that underlies the functionality of the change by the employees, and then communication of the vision must be upheld. Todnem (2005) continues to argue that the process cannot be successful without empowering the employees to overcome the obstacles to change. Sub sequently, the management must come up with methodologies for exulting the accomplishments so as to motivate the employees towards further changes in the organization. Finally, the change can only be of utility through stamping the adopted changes to the culture of the organizations. The example of Wal-Mart can be described as a good example of change well accepted in the company. In as much the company faced a lot of resistance from its employees due to low wages and denial to join the labor union, the management has been making tangible decisions that would see implementation of the company’s decisions. The management has seen the inclusion of employees in improving their skills. According to the founder of the company, Mr. Walton, empowered employees are the major change agents in the organization. In this case, the employers endeavoured to train its employees, after that listened to their suggestions that allowed the company implement the set objectives. In this case, the company has managed to deal with to instil in the workers, the slogan that all is possible with the motivation of the employees. The management has also managed to come up with new technology that has seen the employees have an easier time whilst dealing with the pressures in the company. These programs and moves by the management can be credited to the reasons behind the success of the Wal-Mart stores over decades, due to an established organizational culture (Tcherpokov, 2006). References Tcherpokov, M., 2006. The Eight-stage Managing Process of Major Change. A Quality Management Perspective. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.freequality.org/documents/knowledge/ManageChange_MiniTutorial_MT%20_2_.pdf. [Accessed on March 29th 2012]. Todnem, R., 2005. Organisational Change Management: A Critical Review. Journal of Change Management, Vol. 5, No. 4, 369–380. Reflective Journal 2 Week 13 The case of the NHS is another example that has led to a study of the need for change in the o rganizations. In light to the NHS case, a lot of changes have been witnessed. The inclusion of the National Health Service in the quest to reduce the costs of delivery of health services can be described as a fallacy that created a situation whereby the consumer spent a lot of money to access the services. With the government aiming at reducing the costs a lot of individuals have incurred whilst accessing healthcare,

Drug testing in the public sector Research Paper

Drug testing in the public sector - Research Paper Example In this context we can refer to the research by the Ulster protestant, Brian Mawhinney, who was extremely against the application of mind altering drugs and considered it as highly immoral to provide syringes and needles for the purpose of treating the drug users. Mr. Mawhinney therefore conducted a survey for gathering data about the positive sides of those services and their role in preventing the infections from spreading. The research delivered results proving that genuine health related advantages can be gained through such services and consequently he started supporting the program. iFor further discussions on this issue it is necessary to go through the various thoughts and perceptions of the various researchers and their researches regarding drug testing particularly in the public sector. ... iolence, accidents and often lead to suicidal attempts that might give rise to long term absence from job, dropped level of performance, accidents and subsequently unemployment. Further the usage of illicit drugs causes psychiatric impairment and the injections used during drug intake can eventually spread communicable sickness like HIV and Hepatitis B and C.iii Illicit drug abuse proves to be a serious spoil for the health and safety of the drug addicts as well as the non addicts along with the society at large. For instance, the one who is driving a car and is under some drug influence, tends to cause accident to the passengers, pedestrians and the drivers of the other cars, and for this reason Drug Testing at the office especially in the public sectors must aim at trimming down the costs with respect to absenteeism, employee’s work life and productivity. According to the Quest Diagnostics director Barry Sample, â€Å"We all know how devastating a single accident can be whe n an impaired driver gets behind the wheel,†iv not only this, the work place should also try to eradicate drug abuse for the safety and security of the community.v The practice of drug testing is most widespread among the employees in responsive designations within the public sector, private transportation organizations and those dealing with the federal government.vi Role of Government CICAD plays a major role in the drug abuse eradication program specifically in the regions of Latin American and the United States. viiGovernment plays a crucial role in this regard since it is their duty to maintain and protect the society from any kind of abuse. In the year 1988, the Drug-Free Workplace Act had been passed by the congress government that ultimately gave rise to the Federal Workplace Drug Testing

Which Of The Chinese Minorities Influenced The Han Chinese The Most Essay

Which Of The Chinese Minorities Influenced The Han Chinese The Most - Essay Example Table 1 listed the top 40 chinese minorities. According to Table 1, the most notable ones are the Mongolians and Manchus who conquered China and set up the Yuan dynasty and Qing dynasty respectively. Even though they became the rulers of China, the influence of them on the Han Chinese was not as strong as the reverse. This is because the foreign ethnic rulers adopted the appeasement policy in an attempt to please the Han Chinese people, the majority which formed 98% of the population in China. They in turn, adopted quite a few customs of the Han Chinese. As such, in this paper, we analysed the type of influences the Manchus had on the Han Chinese people. The Manchus first conquered China in 1644 by over throwing the Ming dynasty, marking their first political dominance and forming the Qing dynasty. The Qing dynasty, which was the last dynasty ruled by a non-Han Chinese emperor, lasted for less than 300 years and ended in 1911. The influences of the Manchus on the Han Chinese were then inevitable, as they became the rulers of the country.1 Since the Qing dynasty was longer than the Yuan dynasty (set up by the Mongolians), the direct impact by the Manchus on the life of the Han Chinese and the development of China was naturally larger than the Mongolians. In this paper, we also analysed mainly on the major events during the Qing Dynasty whereby the Manchus had influenced the Han Chinese both directly and indirectly.... 2.1 Origin of Manchus The Manchu are the tungusic people who originated in Manchuria (today's Northeastern China). It is believed that they are descended from the Jurchens who in turn, are decended from one of the tribes of the Mohe, the Heishui tribe. 2.1.1 Economic The economic influence of the Manchus on the Han Chinese is in the late era of the Qing dynasty. During the later part of the Qing dynasty, the Manchu emperor adopted a closed-door policy which indirectly led to the lack of the technological advances in China and in turn caused the fall of the Qing dynasty and invasions by the western powers2. The Mongolians was the exact opposite. When Kublai Khan became the first ruler of the Yuan dynasty in China, he encouraged the Silk Road trade network, allowing the transfer of Chinese technologies to East Europe. The chinese technologicies included gunpowder and paper, etc. This was the first centralised economic system. If he had not implemented the policy and spread the technology, the honour of discovering gunpower and paper might not have been given to the Han Chinese. He also allowed foreign merchants to travel in China without any restrictions. One good example of foreigners is Marco Polo, a native Italian from Venice. The expansionist policy during the Yuan dynasty also saw more cultural exchanges due to its large continuous territory under their control. Its territory included Eastern Europe, China, India and Tibet. Amounts of spices and medical materials were imported from Arabia, Persia and India. Silk and porcelain were exported to Eastern Europe. If the Manchus had adopted the same economic policy as the Mongolians, the history of China would be changed and the Han Chinese might not

Computers and technology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Computers and technology - Essay Example Through technology, ill-intended people have been able to steal the identity of others and orchestrate terror attacks amongst other crimes. For example, someone can misuse the internet, impersonate a public personality, and tarnish their reputation in the process (Anderson & Goodman, 2002). On the other hand, computers and technology have helped in globalization of trade and other important economic activities. Similarly, information technology has been assimilated in business activities through systems such as supply chain management systems, inventory management systems, and customer relationship management systems (Atkinson & McKay, 2007). According to Egbu and Botterill (2002), information technology can be defined as the software, hardware and management database amongst other technologies used to process, distribute and store information. This technology is responsible for electronic business operations, management of business models and improved efficiency in commercial as wel l as personal operations. Information technology is enabling many establishments innovate ways of increasing their competitiveness and profitability as well as managing their business processes (Atkinson & Mckay, 2007). Many activities in most companies are now conducted electronically with the use of information technology. This requires less effort and the technology can be used to link similar institutions located in different areas. Therefore, different bureaus and offices around the world can be linked with software technology and improve efficiency in their operations (Anderson & Goodman, 2002). Literature Review The use of technology has been integrated into many aspects of business such as sales and advertising. Technology has become an instrument of value for the maintenance and development of prolific business-customer relationships. However, the issue of ethics in the utilization of technology has been overlooked for a long time now (Anderson & Goodman, 2002). According B ush, Bush, and Orr (2010), many users find no need to conduct ethical procedures on the use of technological products; as a result, it causes ethical loopholes and weaknesses in technological platforms. Technology is perceived as an instrument for changing business operations, whereby there is a substantial integration of various business activities with technology (Egbu & Botterill, 2002). For instance, inventory in a company is no longer managed using books and files, instead, managers are able to track inventory by use of technological devices such as barcodes scanners, thereby managing inventory effectively. Therefore, it is through some of these changes that technology has been able to dominate activities in industry and trade amongst other significant sectors of the economy. Galimberti (2009), states that technology has not only taken over the economical domain of many countries and organizations but also dominated the political arena. A good example is the political revolutio ns that occurred in countries such as Tunisia and Egypt, whereby some citizens mobilized others using social media (Safranek, 2012). Therefore, through technology, different solutions are formulated to solve problems and innovate new ways of doing things such as detecting fraudulent activities in bank systems or monitoring sales trends for a given product to avoid excess production,

Is Globalization a Challenge to or Confirmation of Realism In What Essay

Is Globalization a Challenge to or Confirmation of Realism In What Ways - Essay Example In this paper, globalization will be investigated as an IR topic with reference to the implications of realism. The main body of this paper begins with a conceptual description of both realism and globalization. Next is the section of discussion. In this section, four dimensions are considered for analyzing globalization as a pervasive IR process. In conclusion, it is reiterated that globalization is indeed a confirmation of realism since the core values of this international process are based on maximizing the national benefits in the long run in a cooperative way. Realism is a school of political philosophy and thought that establishes the concept of self seeking behavior where a number of international actors are involved. According to realists, a country always attempts to maximize the benefits it can draw when it comes to the matters like power struggle and conflict of interests (Yilmaz 2010). This is basically an amoral approach to international relations (IR) where ground realities around power politics are more important that the lofty ideals of ethical behavior (Russell 2000). While realism is a theoretical outlook on IR and world politics, globalization has emerged as a major worldwide process that is dynamic and evolving with the lapse of time. Lechner (2001, paragraph 1) has defined globalization in the following words: â€Å"Globalization broadly refers to the expansion of global linkages, the organization of social life on a global scale, and the growth of a global consciousness, hence to the consolidation of world society.† Of late, scholars like Morgan (2013) have attempted to find correlations between realism and globalization with the help of triangulated research meaning that the need of conducting both quantitative and qualitative studies is to be emphasized. Furthermore, the basic core of the process of

Case study on BMP DDB advertising company Essay

Case study on BMP DDB advertising company - Essay Example e consumers throughout the day, allows the researcher to identify why an individual's habits may vary according to unsystematic factors such as their mood, the time of day, and the weather. It critically shows the peculiarity in the customers’ behaviour that market researchers are desperately searching. For instance, a customer’s store purchase data may reveal that they buy foodstuffs, but cannot tell the combinations of the stuff the customer eats (Agbonifoh, 2002:97-116). The company’s first marketing research put ethnographic research into prospective. This approach was tested with a family group. The results obtained were then compared with more traditional approaches of profiling buyers. It was then established that the outcomes of the research revealed something about the buying behaviour of the family, using their lifestyle and buying patterns. The outstanding concern that the research needed to answer was whether this behaviour bore any authenticity (Bake r and Bass, 2003:90-210). The amount of data gathered by the researcher regarding the family’s behaviour, within the research period, depicted a lot about the family. However, the recorded information about the family, although exhaustive and often precise, did not completely capture the habits and information that comprise the personality of the family. The research identified that the family held high value of money than the average people. On the contrary, though the data on family properly suggested that they enjoy lavish goods like high-quality foods and foreign holidays, it could not reveal any presence of life factors that influenced their purchasing decisions. Moreover, the information about the family clearly showed that though the family liked quality foodstuffs, they diverse their purchases... This essay "Case study on BMP DDB advertising company" outlines the research of the consumers' behavior which was conducted by the BMP DDB advertising company. The amount of data gathered by the researcher regarding the family’s behaviour, within the research period, depicted a lot about the family. However, the recorded information about the family, although exhaustive and often precise, did not completely capture the habits and information that comprise the personality of the family. The research identified that the family held high value of money than the average people. On the contrary, though the data on family properly suggested that they enjoy lavish goods like high-quality foods and foreign holidays, it could not reveal any presence of life factors that influenced their purchasing decisions. Moreover, the information about the family clearly showed that though the family liked quality foodstuffs, they diverse their purchases between superstores and local discount shops (Baker and Bass, 2003:90-210). This suggested that the family also went shopping for products whose prices were discounted and cheaper. The family was able to show the researcher one of the products brought from the discount store. The family explained the reasons for such option, and the cost that could be incurred had they shopped from the supermarket. The family was able prided on their ability to hunt down bargains, and sometimes went shopping for luxurious goods when their financial muscle was adequate (Baker and Bass, 2003:90-210).

Recruitment and Selection Essay Example for Free

Recruitment and Selection Essay The hiring process can be draining and drown out. Searching for the right candidate to fill the position can be compared to finding a needle in a hay stack. Many employers have an idea/visual of how the replacement of what qualifications the new employee should acquire before the training process take place. With employee selection, assessment and decision making process should be carefully assessed to ensure that there are no laws broken were potential law suits can be filed. This paper will discuss the legal issues that may arise if the above processes are not handled with precaution. Legal Issues With the increase of lawsuits that are being established in the workforce over the past years they have been an increase in the number of lawyers and firms that specialize in employment law. With the economy in the shape that it’s in, more companies are having to law off employers, some that have been there for years. Their selection process is being questions on how they are choosing the employees that are to permanently/temporary laid off. Therefore this is caused an increase in the number of cases the firms are taking in more cases at least 15% more than the previous years. This is because many feel that employers are firing those that can benefit from staying employed and receiving their full benefits, in some cases retirement. To decrease organizations from being forced to participate in lawsuits brought about them, an article stated the best alternative would be to develop a strategy for the company that involved at least three of the following steps: 1) â€Å"Draft good policies and revise them frequently ) Train employees to follow procedures utilizing scenarios that prompt open discussion, development of issue awareness and recognition of employer and employee responsibilities 3) Insist on effective consultation and communication among managers, human resources professionals and legal staff (in other words, the team approach)† (McDowell Leavitt 2011). Discrimination Issues The process of hiring new employees for a position within an organization. With this process, the major legal issue that the employer needs to keep in mind is not to discriminate. Discrimination is a big factor due to the employer has in mind what it takes for a person to perform the duties of a certain position. There are several laws that the organization must keep in their mind when screening employees, such as; the Civil Right Act of 1964, Disability Act, Age Discriminating Act, and many more. Each of the acts and laws prohibits employees to discriminate against employees or new hires based on their race, sex, disability and religion. In today’s time, employees have to have a firm or an attorney working for them to ensure that that they are not breaking the as many With given employees assessments, most employers are given them the assessments to point out their skill sets. But some assessments identify other issues within the employees. Some assessments identifies whether or not people have a mental illness, learning disabilities, or any other illness that may prevent them from performing their job duties. As a result, many those assessments are being said to discriminate against the employee, thus violating their rights. If an employee has a mental health illness the only way a company/organization can terminate them from a position is if that illness will prevent them from performing their job duties. In fact, many executives stated that they are reluctant to hire people with disabilities due to the accommodation’s they may need. But with all the baby boomers retiring they are going to have to look into that area. In 2005, statistics showed that â€Å"21,455,000 (12. 6%) of the 169,765,000 working-age individuals reported one or more disabilities† (Lengnick-Hall, Gaunt, Kulkarni 2008). Executives were also asked is it a main priority to hire people with disability? They responded with the following; â€Å"trying to hire someone with a disability, the main concern is . . . having the skills you would need to be on the air to be able to do those things that would actually apply. I think it would be the perception that people with disabilities don’t have communication skills and wouldn’t be able to problem-solve at a faster pace, wouldn’t be able to independently problem-solve† (ibid). Conclusion  With larger organizations, it will be best to have a lawyer working hand and hand with the human resource department to ensure that they don’t discriminate against employees. Since discrimination is the major issues within the workforce. It could cause the company millions and most likely close the doors if they don’t have enough revenue to pay the lawsuit. Discrimination, especially if the executives of the organization are making statements as the ones is the survey, mention that it’s not a main priority because they may not be able to communicate as others do. That’s a perception and basis.

The Operating Budget Essay Example for Free

The Operating Budget Essay Write a four to five (4-5) page paper, titled Part I: The Operating Budget for the (Selected Agency) in which you separate the content into sections: 1. Provide background information about the agency, mission, goals, objectives, departments, and strategic plan. (Title this section Introduction.) 2. Describe the budget of the agency by addressing the following items: (Title this section Budget Overview.) a. Financial Summary, including Revenue and Expenditures b. Department Budgets c. Funding d. Capital Projects e. Debt Administration 3. Perform a Cost Analysis. (Title this section Cost Analysis.) The costs should include the following: a. Fixed Costs b. Step-fixed Costs c. Variable Costs 4. Identify and explain one to two (1-2) challenges you will have in managing the budget. (Title this section Budget Challenges.) 5. Recommend two to three (2-3) strategies the agency should review regarding new initiatives and budget cuts over the next five (5) years. (Title this section Budget Recommendations.) 6. Include the agency’s most recent budget or financial plan. 7. Provide the agency’s Website name, URL, and any other sources used to support the assignment’s criteria. Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements: †¢ Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA. Check with your professor for any additional instructions. †¢ Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

Value Chain Analysis Toyota Motor

Value Chain Analysis Toyota Motor Toyota Motors vision is to be the most successful and respected company that can created the happiness for customers. Toyota also wants to be the best solution of the automobile industry with the variety of its products, and the best quality of its people and technology. Mission of Toyota motor is to provide customer with safe and sound journey. Because of Toyota concern with the environmental-friendly is the first and most important issue for its working, so it developed many new technology for energy saving and diversify energy source while Toyota also concern for creating a good and clean society. Meanwhile, Toyota Motor Thailands vision is to be the leader of Toyota Asia Pacific and Toyota motor network around the world that be the most respected and admired company in Thailand. For the mission, it wants to strengthen its production and support the collaboration in the Asia Pacific area that can achieves the high customer satisfaction and market share. Moreover, Toyota Thailand focuses on the safety with the first issue for its working and also wants to create social quality through many useful society activities. 2. Value Chain Analysis ( focus on Toyota Motor Thailand ) Toyota uses a Cost Leadership as its generic strategy. Toyota has been trying to reduce their costs in every stage of value chain but still, they need to maintain the high-quality standard. So, each stage of the analysis will show how it links the cost leadership strategy to the value chain. 2.1. Inbound logistics In this stage, Toyota receives parts from both local and international suppliers. They ship components from international suppliers by ships then deliver to production plant by trucks and for local suppliers in Thailand, trucks with full-loaded are used. This way they can buy components at cheaper price. Toyota makes suppliers making a commitment that they will share any innovation in the suppliers group that produces similar products. This will make suppliers produce better quality parts, more efficiently. Also they use Just-in-time and Milk run. (see appendix) Just-in-time is a part of lean management. It reduces lead time, inventory level, so holding cost decreases. In this stage, by applying JIT, we will receive parts from suppliers at the right time and right amount. Because we will order parts at the amount the production plants really need. For this method, you offset holding cost with ordering cost. Milk run is the method you use logistics providers to get auto parts from all suppliers in the routes and deliver to production plants. This method can reduce traffic at the production plants. There will be fewer trucks because sometimes many suppliers used to deliver their supplies to the plants but now only logistics providers truck with full-loaded of parts from different suppliers. Also, this will make inventory level decreases, because you will receive the parts many times a day, instead of getting a big lot once in a while. So cost in traffic management and holding cost decrease. 2.2 Operation After receiving components from suppliers, now production plants put all the parts together at their own production plants in Sum Rong, Gateway and Baan Poh. This can be called as Lean manufacturing which involve of Just-in-time, Jidoka and Kaizen. (see appendix) For Just-in-time, Kanban has been used to help achieving. Kanban tells you what to produce, when to produce and how much to produce by handing cards along in the production process. So you wont produce if the previous production process has not passed you the card, which also could not get started if there is no demand from customers. Also it could reduce lead time, which satisfies customers, because it can respond to customer demand immediately. Furthermore, no stocking occurs in the production plants. Jidoka can reduce defective goods by detecting the production process closely, so if any problem occurs in the assembly line, the production line will be stopped immediately, fixed and make sure that it will not happen again. When less defective goods occurs, the production system becomes more reliable, higher quality, the chance that customers will get defective goods will decrease, satisfaction increases. Kaizen is used to improve all functions continuously. It starts with idea generations, then tests the best with the standardized process, if it is good, they will apply that idea to the old process. The key in this method is to keep improving, never stop generating ideas and test to see whether it is a good idea. By Kaizen, it creates value to customers because they will get better and better product from the improvement in production process. For Toyota, it has worked on improving their lean manufacturing system in order to spread their fixed costs more over production. They have surpassed Ford and GM in production and costs. They can produce 15 cars per worker which is far more than the 4.7 vehicles per employee Ford can produce. By creating more cars to sell, Toyota has effectively spread their fixed costs over more production. 2.3 Outbound Logistics After products are finished, production plants need to delivery its finished goods with the full-loaded truck of cars directly to its own showrooms following the demand order of each showroom. Toyota Motor Thailand manages its own showrooms around the country. It helps customers to find Toyotas product easily. In the distribution process, Toyota will wait for the customers demand. Most of the car will be parked at the parking lots in which they are waiting for the purchasing orders from the dealers. For the cars that already have been placed purchasing orders from customers, they will be parked at the point of exchange and will be sent to the customers as fast as possible. And around 15 % of the cars that have been parking in the park lots will be sent to the near parking lots for further sending to the dealers In Thailand, there are 119 dealers with 319 showrooms that Toyota production plants in Thailand have to serve. For this outbound logistics in Thailand, Toyota has developed a system called Vehicle Logistics which is a cluster deliver. In the past, one truck can carry 3 large-sized cars and 6 small-sized cars. In nowadays, it is improved so that one truck can carry 4 large-sized cars and 8 small-sized cars. This also helps save the transportation cost for the company as well as reduces carbon dioxide emission to protect the environment which is one of the Toyotas purposes. 2.4 Marketing and Sales At this stage, Toyota communicates their cars by focus more on local area and specific lifestyle to satisfy the different need in each area by using below the lines marketing. It is because Toyota found out that auto market expanded more than 50% from the previous year and only mass media cannot build up attention of its target. So, Toyota decided to offer more of its events through segmenting lifestyles of its customers such as for people who love racing, Toyota offers the Toyota One Make Race which the event is for racing Toyota cars and to show quality of Vios and Yaris, around the country. For sport market, Toyota offer itself to be a sponsor in many sports that popular in Thailand, boxing and football, such as the Toyota Thai boxing marathon Vigo smart and the Toyota premier cup 2010. Toyota also provided 100 cars for the prize of short film competition in the Film Expo Asia 2010. However, Toyota tries to expand its events in every part of Thailand which Toyota will not control all of those events but local dealer to be the one who manage each event. This method can make Toyota get more attention from people in different lifestyle and help to increase the impulse purchasing from customer. Environmental friendly is the one that Toyota considers as its first issue for working. Therefore, Toyota pushes many CSR activities for save environment and improve the society such as the White Road Campaign to teach children about traffic regulations and safety through fun and practical lessons Toyota also communicates and updates its news through electronic media such as its website, www.toyota.co.th. Moreover, direct mail is a tool for people who want to receive news through e-mail from Toyota by register on its website. Brand ambassador also another tools that Toyota use for gain more attention from people by using celebrities who popular in at that time for promote its cars such as it used Joe-Wan AF to be brand ambassador for New Toyota Vios in concept of Make it happen. Even though Toyota focus more on below the line advertising but it also communicate its cars through Mass media such as Toyota launch its advertisement of New Toyota Vios, which has Joe-Wan AF to be a presenter, through television, radio, newspapers, magazine, and billboard. As a result, people aware that Toyota has new Vios in the market because mass media can communicate in wide area. Besides Toyota communicated its cars by advertisement and promotion for its current targeted, it tries to catch new target customer which is a teenager with in-trends lifestyle by building a place for hanging out, learning, and show up their creative of student at the center of teenager, Siam Square. This place was called The Style by Toyota which has the concept of Edutainment that people can come to this place to have fun with many entertainments and can also learn new technology or news of Toyota in the same time. Moreover, Toyota also launch a new model of its cars, Yaris beà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Groovy, to satisfy its new targeted which are teenager from 18-25 years old with fashionable lifestyle. Toyota change its Yaris to be superior and fashionable with its new technology ,such as engine start, from its Vios and Honda Jazz which is a main of its competitor. Therefore, the price of Yaris beà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Groovy also higher than the main competitor which is Honda Jazz for make customer s value its Yaris to be high quality than Honda Jazz. 2.5 Services After customers make a purchase of automobiles, the most important thing they need is customer service, which are check service. Toyota provides its customers a guarantee after purchased by 36 months or 100,000 km. depends on an offer. For this guarantee, if there is any defect components or any activity that affects from the irresponsible of an assembly line. Toyota will replace and fix those for free. This guarantee could also pass along through different ownerships but within 36 months or 100,000km. Express Maintenance is after sale service for car checking. They can give customers a fast service, normally within 1 hour or the given exact time by having 2 technicians check on your car and a boss to make sure that your car meets their standards. Also, they provide a very comfortable waiting room for customers or if you can ask the technicians about problems you have with your car, you can. From the room, you can see the place where all the cars are being checked. There are magazines, TV, snacks, soft drinks for customers to enjoy. Toyota Sure is a Certified Used Cars center. It is the place where you can sell, buy or exchange your used Toyota car with a better deal. They buy at a standard price. They make sure that the cars they are selling meet the same standard, with high quality. About 176 points need to be checked before they sell those cars. Every car that has been purchased, they offer a 1-year warranty or within 20,000. And they offer a wide service with more than 50 Toyota Sure across Thailand. 3. Porters Five Forces Analysis on Automotive Industry 3.1 Threat of new entrants: Barriers to entry Economies of Scale: High If we take a look at a big players in this industry; Toyota, Ford or GM, that sell the products to many countries all around the world. We could see that they are producing in the large amount. And of course, this is in the advantage of economies of scale. For automobile industry, it is very large and of course economies of scale must have been successfully reached. In order to compete in this big industry, a manufacture must be able to achieve economies of scale. It is generally valued to be a low-cost producer, sales of over four million vehicles a year are necessary. For this to happen, manufacturers have mass-production of the automotives so that the price of product will be affordable to the customers. This also implies that, the more the company produces the lower cost per unit. This means in term of the fixed cost like the rent, the electricity, the overhead cost, etc. The company can save the advertising cost and the transportation cost as well. As once they pay for the advertising cost or transportation cost, the cost per one unit is less if there are more units produce to sell. Therefore, for this industry, it requires high economies of scale for the businesses to compete. Product differentiation: High For the automobile industry, for sure there will be high product differentiation. As we can see in daily lives, many brands of cars are in the roads and even if in the same brand there will be many models available for customers to choose. Nowadays cars demonstrate a variety of features in which they differ from their predecessors that an entrant has to spend big amounts on safety, motor management, comfort, design, and numerous electronics functions. However, the innovative technology can also be one of the tools that established firms use to make their differentiation in products as well as create brand identification and customer loyalties. For example, Toyota has been introduced the hybrid technology in many models of their cars. This also helps save the environment. However, Ford also comes up with a new model called Ford Fiesta that inventing the new technology that uses drivers sound to control the cars. Therefore, in the present day technology and design can be use to create the differentiation between brands and this helps to satisfy the needs of customers as well. Capital Requirement: High The investment in capital is another barrier to entry that it keeps the difficulty and inconvenience for the new entrants to enter in the industry, since it takes a marvelous amount of capital to manufacture the automobiles. It takes an extreme amount of capital not only to be able to manufacture the products but also to keep up with the Research and Development (RD) cost that is necessary for the innovation requirements and product development. So, in order to start the business, it requires quite a high investment. There must be an investment in term of the factory, machines, warehouses as well as other supporting facilities like service facilities. Lets take a look at the example of Toyota, in the year 2010 Toyota has invested its fund for the development of environment technologies, maintenance and replacement of manufacturing facilities, and the introduction of new products. And the net cash used in investing with these activities was  ¥2,850.1 billion for fiscal 2010. Therefore, in starting or existing in the automobile industry, high investment in capital is substantial. Switching Cost: Low For the automobile industry, the switching cost is low. Lets say if you would like to change from buying a Honda car to a Toyota one, this would take you a little bit higher or smaller amount of money for you to pay. As there are many competitors for customers to choose and there are in competitive price, the price for each brand is not largely different. However, the switching cost is not only mean in term of the money or the amount you have paid, but this also involves your time, energy, and other costs that have been used to search or learn for the information base on the new brand you want to purchase. Since people get familiar with the car and they can also listen from the words of mouth from their family or friends so, they might not have to pay a large amount of time or energy to search for information. Therefore the switching cost from one brand to others is low and the gap of price among brands is not largely different. Access to distribution channels: High Access to distribution channels is another high barrier to entry. A company must find a dealership to sell their automobiles or consider having their own dealership. Also, considering with dealership, since space in the dealerships lots is quite limited. This makes it difficult to have a wider variety of inventory. And of course, to find a dealership is not that easy regardless of brand awareness Limited capacity within distribution channels (e.g., brand reputation), risk aversion by dealer ship, and the  ¬Ã‚ xed costs associated with carrying an additional product can result in retailers being reluctant to carry a new manufacturers product Government policy: High Local content requirement is one of regulation that government set to protect the local automobile companies to get hurt from the foreign automotive manufacturer that access to invest in lower cost countries. It is a regulation, that automotive manufacturer, especially on Toyota which is the biggest firm from Japan have to follow, that required manufacturer to use some parts of car that come from local country. In Thailand, the government required that about 85% of local parts are for picks up cars production, almost 70% are for passenger cars, and around 100% are for motorbike. Imported car tax requirement is one major of regulations that control the quantity of imported finished or unfinished cars to target countries. In Thailand, the imported cars tax are charged around 200-300% of car values while the cars that produce in Thailand are charged only 40-70% of cars values. Even with the same brand, same series would be more expensive if it is imported. Therefore, the government policy of automaker in Thailand is high because government issued the law for protect the local firm intentionally. Which mean its really hard for new entrants to import their cars or invest production in Thailand because regulations that government required, new automotive manufacturer need to have good relationship of suppliers to send the parts for productions and if some parts of productions need to import from oversea, it will effect a lot for new manufacturers to face the high cost of tax. In conclusion, the threat of new entrants for automotive industry is high. 3.2 Threat of substitute products: Low Transportation system such as buses, trains, motorbike, sky train, subway, ferries, and airplane are consider as one major of substitute products of automobile. Because transportation system can satisfy people need that for transport people from one place to another, similar to automobiles. Moreover, nowadays the oil price is rising continuously due to the hedge of world price of oil; it tends to motivate more people to use transportation system which can save their money. Environmental effect is also one reason that makes people turn to transportation system because of the driving more cars, the more Co2. So, people concern more of the earth and environment that make them try to change their lifestyle. As people take more interest on time than before especially on working time in urban people so instead of get stuck on the road from traffic jam and wasting time, people turn rely on sky train and subway for saving time and cost. In Bangkok, even though it has the rate of using sky tr ain slightly increased from 132,071,000 people to 146,964,000 people in 3 years, but the rate of cars on the road also high more than 2 times when it compare with the sky train using rate in same period of time. Moreover, for Thai people, car is more than a vehicle. It also shows the image and social status of the driver. That is why Thai people value cat as social materialism and they do not want to go by public transportation like bus to show lower social status. (see table in appendix) Walking, riding bicycle is other substitute product for using car because these activities can also bring people to other place without tax paid like taxes of imported car, and it can benefit more for personal health and environmental advantages. But concerning with Thai weather which is quite hot, therefore it is quite impossible for a person to go by bicycles in a far distance. Therefore, threat of substitute products of automobile is low. As well as, the management of transportation system in Thailand is lower than the standard that should be. In addition, Thailand do not have good city plan system for transportation so people in Thailand willing to pay more of cost and time for private cars more than using transportation system. Moreover, the weather in Thailand is not suitable for walking or riding a bicycle for other place because it too hot and wet. So even though there are many ways to transport people from one place to another place but private car also offer people more personal and comfortable. 3.3 Suppliers Power: Low As there are about top 49 vehicle manufacturing groups (by volume), range from big players like Toyota, General Motor, Volkswagen Group to local groups such as, Ashok Leyland from India, Navistar International Corporation from USA which produces trucks, internal frameworks, Diesel engines, buses, and school buses. For suppliers, there are about thousands suppliers around the world. When talking about suppliers, it means to supply from very small components such as battery boxes, battery switches, electrical fuses, etc. to bigger components, such as wheels and tires because normally car makers outsource those components and out together those components in their own manufacturing plants. So, suppliers power in automobile industry is low because they are lots of suppliers with very few top vehicle manufacturing companies. This means automakers have a high bargaining power over the suppliers; the suppliers rely much on those auto makers. If the supplier does not meet auto makers expectations or rules in terms of standard, price, lead time, etc., they can just switch to a new supplier. 3.4 Bargaining Power of Buyers: Moderately high The buyers can purchase almost all of the industries output since there are many brands for them to choose. The manufacturers depend on them to stay in business. The buyers also are a significant portion of the industries revenue. If they cannot keep their buyers with satisfaction then they are in risk to lose them to their competitors. However, the buyers may go for the other brands if they are not satisfied. All the buyer do is sell the car they own and purchase a new one. For example, like I buy a car from Toyota and I am not satisfy with it I can sell it and purchase a new Honda. The reasons why the power is not completely high is that the buyers are not large and few in number. The buyers do not have the ability to integrate backwards into the industry. If they want a car then they have to purchase it from a dealership. 3.5 Intensity of rivalry among competitor: High In Thailand, Toyota holds almost half of the market share, along with 2 big holders which are Isuzu and Honda. So we could say that automobile industry is a consolidated industry, which means it has few big players who hold major control within the industry. For car industry, they compete in the similar target market, price, and product innovation. When one company comes up with one of those techniques, other companies tend to follow. For example, Toyota Yaris launched the first generation in 1999; two years later Honda Jazz had been introduced to the market and in 2007 Mazda launched Mazda2 to the market. These 3 cars, Jazz, Yaris and Mazda2 are segmented as a hatchback subcompact car. They target same group of people who are looking for affordable transportation with fuel efficiency, young and energetic. They all come with slightly different prices with slightly different options, performance and promotion. (see appendix ) For automobile industry, the intensity of rivalry is high because there are few big players where 1 product innovation encourages other companies to launch the same type of product, either with the same or better function or more valuable. They could not let anyone take a step ahead for so long, because they would lose a high market share to the product leader. 5. Implementing Strategies Lean Manufacturing failure and Vertical Integration Toyota had to recall millions of Prius, Tundra and many other models during the past years, from their gas-paddles, floor mats, fuel-pressure sensor, etc. These results from Toyota tried to cut their unnecessary costs too much, to reduce any waste as it said in Lean Manufacturing strategy. The reason why many models of Toyota had been recalled is because Toyota used the same model of those defective goods from suppliers in many models, to gain more Economy of Scale, for company to reduce cost and get a higher margin. These recalls caused sales of Toyota to decline by 16% last year. As we can see that the problem arises from defective goods from a supplier, so we could apply the Vertical Integration to supply components, instead of outsourcing. This way we can control and maintain a standard of Toyota cars, protecting a companys image and creditability. Push and Pull Strategy As Toyota has been implementing the Pull Strategy, which mean they usually wait for the demand to come then produce, as applying the Kanban tools. But sometimes, this results a long lead time for customers. From this situation, Toyota should integrate Push and Pull strategy together to balance customer satisfaction and cost. For Pull strategy, they already gained a benefit from producing less excess inventory, reduce cost, and flexibility of products increases. But for Push Strategy, they can use for high-stable-demand products. For example, applying push strategy with the popular car color, features and model. So if you already have those high-demand cars for customers, customer satisfaction will definitely increase, due to less lead time. Normally, people tend to buy more cars during the Motor Show session because they get a better deal. In this case, after having a demand forecast, we could produce cars in advance. Centralized distribution system This strategy is used to respond to Push Strategy because when finished goods are waiting for demand, they will need a space for cars to store. By using this system, fixed cost, renting cost, overhead cost, electricity and water, etc. reduces; also inbound cost because instead of delivering goods to many distribution centers, you only deliver to fewer centers, risk decreases but outbound cost increases, comparing to cost that incurred from decentralized distribution system. Time Postponement Toyota has been implementing the Manufacturing Postponement, which directly links to Kanban, wait for demand to start producing, but if Toyota would apply the Push strategy and centralized distribution system, they should apply Time Postponement Strategy too. Because it means that the finished cars would be kept in central location and wait for demand to deliver the orders to customers. Demand Driving Strategy As we want to implement the Push Strategy along with the Pull Strategy, Toyota can use this strategy to forecast demand for Push Strategy from historical data to develop an expected demand from customers. But also demand could change, due to marketing, advertising campaign on your products, trends (about color for example), economic condition, etc. So as you forecast, these factors should be include under your consideration, in order to get the most accurate forecast. And the more accurate your forecast is, the fewer inventories you have to hold, the more cost reduction and the more customer satisfaction. Graph1: the comparison of using Sky Train and cars from 2007 to 2009 in Thailand. Table1: The table shows the specification of Toyota Yaris, Honda Jazz, Mazda2, and Suzuki Swift. Toyota official website www.toyota.com Toyota Thailand website www.toyota.co.th/th/toyota2009_home Figure 3: Milk Run delivery system Figure 4: The differences between doing business as usual and practicing Lean Manufacturing Figure 56: Toyota Production System including Just-in-time, Jidoka and Kaizen Guarantee after sales Express maintenance Toyota sure Below the line Mass media Vehicle logistics Deliver directly from plants to dealer Just-In-Time Milk Run Just-In-Time Jidoka KaiZen Figure 2: Strategy used in Toyota Motor Thailand Value chain Appendix A Figure 1: Toyota Motor Thailand Value Chain Appendix B Toyota Innovative Technology Hybrid Technology What is hybrid technology? A hybrid system combines different power sources to maximize each ones strengths, while compensating for the others shortcomings. A gasoline-electric hybrid system, for example, combines an internal combustion engines high-speed power with the clean efficiency and low-speed torque of an electric motor that never needs to be plugged in. Are all hybrids creating equal? There are several ways in which electric motors and a gas/petrol engine can be combined. Toyota perfected the series/parallel or full hybrid to deliver the energy-saving benefit of a series hybrid together with the acceleration benefit of a parallel hybrid. Two key technologies the power split device and sophisticated energy management make this possible. They constantly optimize the flows of mechanical power and electric power for safe and comfortable vehicle operation at the highest possible efficiency. The Full Hybrid Toyotas unique hybrid system combines an electric motor and a gasoline engine in the most efficient manner. It saves fuel and reduces emissions while giving ample power. For more information: www.toyota.global.com/innovation/environmental_technology/hybrid/ THE TOYOTA PRODUCTION SYSTEM Toyotas approach to automobile production, with its inherent quality controls, revolutionized the industry. Its just-in-time supply-chain concept has become a model for manufacturers around the world, and not just for automakers. The Toyota Production System (TPS) calls for the end product to be pulled through the system. This means the right parts reach the assembly line at the right place, just as they are needed, and with no excess. This approach represented a radical departure from conventional manufacturing systems, which require large inventories in order to push as much product as possible through production lines, regardless of actual demand. The idea of TPS, the contrary, is to produce only the products required in the precise quantities desired at a given point in time Focus on flexibility By basing production on demand rather than simply on capacity, Toyota manages to keep inventories, both of parts and of finished goods, to a strict minimum. But this is only one of the more obvious advantages of Toyotas unconventional approach. By focusing on smaller production lots and producing only what customers require when they require it, Toyota has developed a flexibility and responsiveness that continues to set the standard for the industry. With its attention to continuous improvement (Kaizen), Toyota has attained die-changeo

Engineering Plan :: essays research papers

Engineering Plan We plan to implement the basic multi-cycle processor design as shown in the textbook, as well as pipelining and â€Å"jump and link†. The toughest part of this design will be the datapath control, for which we will be using a FSM. The ALU will implement add, sub, and, or, sll, and slt functions – though a separate block is typically used for shift operations, we felt that putting sll and srl in the ALU would simplify our design. All other basic functions (lw, sw, lui, beq, bne, j) will be implemented as show in the textbook. The processor will have two main stages: load instructions into memory and execute instructions. Special instruction codes will be defined as â€Å"stall† and â€Å"stop execution† to work in conjunction with the FSM. The global reset will set all memory and registers to 0, and put the FSM in â€Å"load instructions mode†. We would like to use one memory module to store both instructions and data (with instructions starting at 0 and going up, and memory starting at the highest address and going down), however this design would present some addressing headaches so we will most likely use separate memory modules for instructions and data. The main part of the pipelining implementation will be the hazard detection unit. We plan to have this work independent of the datapath control FSM as so to simplify FSM design. The hazard detection unit will control muxes to drive register forwarding and will issue stall instructions directly to the instruction register when needed. â€Å"Jump and link† will make use of a specially designated register (most likely one of the upper registers, since those aren’t used in the provided test function). Muxes will be used to feed the PC+4 into the regfile and the regfile output into the PC register. The datapath control FSM will control these muxes.

A Comparison of Sei Shonagon and Marie de France Essay -- comparison c

A Comparison of Sei Shonagon and Marie de France         Though more than two hundred years have separated Sei Shonagon and Marie de France, the scene is much the same. A courtly lady sits in a candle-lit room, with her writing hand poised above a book of parchment. Her face brightens in an instant of inspiration and she scribbles furiously onto the paper. This woman is closely associated with the royal court and is something of an anachronism, a woman author in a male-dominated world. The scene pictured here could have taken place in either Shonagon's late tenth century Japan or the twelfth century France of Marie de France. The differences that exist between these two authors are a result of their differing cultures and personalities. Marie de France writes as a product of her time, expressing herself through her characters, while keeping in mind the mandates of the church. Sei Shonagon is ruled by no such mandates and as a result wrote with merciless honesty. Accordingly, the structure, diction and imagery used by each author r eflects her own distinct personality and values.    Sei Shonagon is most well known for her Pillow Book, a collection of her personal thoughts and observations during her time at court. The structure, or lack thereof, in this work gives the reader a peek at Shonagon's personality. She writes in short bursts, giving the mini-chapters such titles as "The Sliding Screen in the Back of the Hall," "Hateful Things," and "Oxen Should Have Very Small Foreheads." The titles are representative of her tendency to write at length on subjects that may seem inconsequential, or as the author admits in the last segment of the Pillow Book, "most trivial." In fact, these so-called trivial observations provide a s... ...es and cultures. One author is governed by her strict faith and adherence to the church, the other by her own strongly-held opinions. Each woman's writing clearly reflects her own distinct personality and temperament: Marie de France, more eager and spiritual, Sei Shonagon, more satirical and opinionated. Both courtly ladies seem faithful to their own beliefs and reflective of their time and culture.       Works Cited    Sei Shonagon. The Pillow Book. Trans. Richard Bowring. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Expanded Edition. Ed. Maynard Mack. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. 1995. 2191-2218. All quotations are from this text.    De France, Marie. "Eliduc". Trans. John Fowles. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Expanded Edition. Ed. Maynard Mack. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. 1995. 1680-1692. All quotations are from this text.   

Police Training Essay

Nowadays professional training is paid more attention as it is one of the best ways to increase job commitment and enhance performance. I think that all police officers should have free access to formal and informal courses, seminars devoted to violent death investigation, interrelations, and criminal laws. The training programs should cover also the principle of supervision and civil liability. Training plays crucial role in today’s police work because training ensures not only organizational efficiency, but also increases effectiveness and productivity of all police departments. It goes without saying that it is hardly possible to except effective work from untrained police officers. Moreover, community doesn’t feel safe if they realize that their police officers aren’t skillful and experienced enough to defend them when necessary. Nevertheless, state funding isn’t enough to solve training dilemma because of lack of money assigned to support training programs. Without money and proper funding it would be difficult to solve the problem. The purpose of training is to promote occupational and professional development of police department through specialized job-related programs. Nevertheless, training differs significantly from education because training is so-called study in the process. Education provides only theoretical background of the particular situations, whereas training develops practical skills and acquirements in real situations. However, I think that training is the second step after education as the officer should firstly realize the aspects of actions and only then should master his skills. Harry More defines training as â€Å"something like an inchoate crime†. He means that training is continuous process and can’t be ever fully accomplished. Training is always a process. Education provides knowledge and training applies it to specific situations. The goals of trainings are: To improve police officer’s performances and job commitment; To develop the sense of responsibility in police officers. It is necessary to underline that training is designed to help individuals to cope better with challenging duties and responsibilities. Simply saying, training helps to perform job better. Training is claimed to be unique because it suggests unity within particular organization. According to More and Miller, modern police training is based on the following philosophical foundations: Positive action is ensured when accompanied by acquired skills and motivation; Learning process depends not only motivation and personal abilities, but also on the instructional methods, behavior of the trainers and the climate within department; Training is considered tripartite responsibility; Training is continuous process requiring constant updating of skills and knowledge. Finally, it is important to document all formal and informal training because it helps to identify what type of training is actually needed. Documenting is defined as task analysis aimed at ensuring the relevance of training. While documenting it becomes possible to identify the tasks performed by the person who holds the position. Also documenting ensures easy assessment of training programs. Tasks analysis helps police officers to determine whether the training program is professional enough to provide skills and knowledge required for particular job. In conclusion it is necessary to note that training develops the following professional skills in police officers: interpersonal communication skills, perception and awareness, decision-making ad critical thinking, adaptability and definitiveness, oral and written communication skills.

How Does Music Effect Human Emotions?

Music is any sound that is artistically created and presented. It is said that we need food so that our body may survive, but we need pleasure that so that our mind may survive. And no one gives you more pleasure and peace than music. When we listen to music, not only hear it, we establish a spiritual connection with any one who is a part of creation of music. All the time we hear any piece of music we feel that its creators are a part of us. It is one the most powerful medium that quite effortlessly is able to influence our emotions. Interpretation of music Those who listen to music can interpret a piece of music in different ways. Even it is a same piece of music, it will convey different message, a different sentiment and it is totally dependant upon the message that its creator wants to convey. A glimpse of the past It is a well known fact that right from time historical immemorial, people have been using music to increase the glory of war. Music has been used to motivate people to fight for their freedom and win wars as well. Almost every country has their own music/ anthem for their country and army. Music has its own merits Ask any doctor, consult any health expert, you will be told, music helps to increase concentration, memory. It is an essential aspect of curriculum in the schools. Practicing music helps to increase brain power. It increases their IQ level, reasoning and logical skills. So the next time someone says that they used to take some piano lessons and found it easier to concentrate in their studies, trust me, they are speaking the truth. A knowledge base named music Knowledge of music brings in a lot of awareness about people ,cultures , history and even societies. For example, if you want to learn Asian music, it will be impossible to do so without understanding the concerned culture.

Hsc Belonging Peter Skrzynecki and Ben Heine

Individuals may feel a sense of belonging to many people and places. This sense of belonging can enrich the individual, becoming a positive influence on his or her life. Ben Heine is the skilled photographer behind the photograph titled ‘Home’. This photograph uniquely explores ideas about belonging as to provoke thought in regards to the viewer’s perception of what it actually means to belong. Likewise, these ideas surrounding a connection to people and places are expressed in Peter Skrzynecki’s Immigrant Chronicles.Belonging is the central theme throughout the photograph ‘Home’ which is clearly represented through the caricature of a child girl establishing herself in a fantasy world she is depicted drawing herself into. Ben Heine’s image represents reality versus fantasy which could also be viewed as not belonging and belonging. He has accomplished this through holding a pencilled sketch over a section of adjoining photograph to make something real into a distorted fantasy. Unlike novels, poetry or songs, images cannot be expressed using a considerable amount of words. Instead images must display visual techniques to convey ideas.Heine has incorporated numerous visual techniques into his photograph to achieve such complexity in depth and meaning. As the title of the photograph suggests, this image displays images of home, which provokes emotive thoughts towards the people depicted in the image. Within the salient image is a vector where your eyes are drawn towards and then follow a path to where the artist wishes you to look. In the image ‘Home’ Heine has drawn a vector stemming from the centre of the young girl, which is then followed up the girl’s arm where she has written the simple word ‘Home’ as a logo upon the singular house.This provokes thoughts as to whether the child and her mother standing to her left actually have a place to call ‘Home’. In ’10 Mar y Street’, it is the house that provides a literal and psychological place to belong. It signifies the Skrzynecki’s’ search for security, identity and safety and is a refuge from the new and strange environment. The family invests too much in its importance, however, and the personification of the house’s ‘China blue coat’ reveals its fragility and that the nature of belonging to a place is transitory.This reveals the poet’s recognition of the position of vulnerability the family are in at the hand of their rigidity and exposes the dangers of relying on a place to belong. In ’10 Mary Street’ the Skrzynecki’s’ have a home, unlike the little girl portrayed in ‘Home’ who has to draw a fantasy which includes a house and family to belong. The entire photograph ‘Home’ depicts reality versus fantasy. The reality in the image is exemplified by the use of colour whereas the fantasy is shown in black and white sketching.The fantasy is a perfect illusion which would easily be concealed as reality if it weren’t for the obvious contrast between the colour palette, and lack of it. The pencilled fantasy is a perfect world however it is clearly a child’s fantasy. The girl’s mother standing next to her seems oblivious to the girl’s imaginative world. She is absorbed in what is right in front of her; reality. This is similar in ‘St Patrick’s College’ as Peter’s mother is oblivious to her son’s wishes. In the last paragraph the poet states â€Å"prayed that someday mother would be pleased†¦ hat the darkness around me wasn’t â€Å"for the best†. The repetition of this negative phrase â€Å"wasn’t for the best† reinforces Skrzynecki’s negative attitude to his mother’s choice of education for him as she was initially merely â€Å"impressed by the uniforms of her employers sons†. It implies some criticism for his mother’s choice of school based on the ideas and attitudes of others and perhaps not on what is best for her son’s personality and happiness. The God-like hand stemming from the right hand side of the image ‘Home’ is holding the sketch.It is as though he is giving the girl opportunities, foresight into what her life could be like, a guiding hand making dreams come true. In the fantasy is a simple home and at its base lays a car, happy smiling people united by held hands. It is a wealthy area which is clean, unpolluted and uncrowded. This description is juxtaposed by the reality which is a poor, dirty, polluted, crowded looking area. The people in the fantasy holding hands are a representation of family, happiness, familiarity, safety and acceptance. Interestingly in reality there is just the girl and her mother without a father figure present.However, sketched in the child’s fantasy world there is a fam ily; a mother, a father and a daughter who are united by held hands. This representation of belonging in the fantasy contrasts the reality as in the reality there is a large distance between mother and daughter where the mum and she are separated. This is shown by the tilt of the mum’s head away from the girl. The transition between childhood and adulthood often leads to a distancing between parents and their children. In the poem ‘Feliks Skrzynecki ‘ this idea is evident ‘as like a dumb prophet watched me pegging y tents further south of Hadrian’s Wall’. The simile, ‘like a dumb prophet’ and the metaphor ‘further south of Hadrian’s Wall’ emphasises the gap between Skrzynecki and his father because of different life experiences. Feliks is both dumb and prophetic as he portrays a certain lack of knowledge of the English language; whereas Skrzynecki’s English grows and Feliks is powerless to speak up about his son’s movement away from him. He is prophetic as he can foresee that his son will come to value his heritage in later years at the expense of his dislocation from it in youth.The image ‘Home’ is like a story. Firstly, you look through the vector into the girl’s fantasy then your eyes are drawn towards the mother who is clearly at peace with her culture and third world. She has accepted her life, unlike her young daughter who is metaphorically represented reaching up for more than what she has. Then your eyes are drawn to the bottom of the picture where both the mum and daughter are being supported by their third world structure. This is a metaphor as they need their country; this is their ‘Home’. They are ‘citizens of the soil. ’

Gibson Insurance Company

Overview Gibson Insurance Company has tasked Rebecca Hampton, the controller, with reviewing the company's allocation of corporate support costs in order to better assign the cost attributed to product lines and business units. This is important because it would help to provide better information for pricing decisions, sales compensation, and focus on areas in cost improvement. Gibson sells two categories of financial products: annuities and life insurance. They are both sold by in-house sales agents.Gibson decided to start purchasing other corporations in order to quickly grow the company’s customer base and its assets under management (AUM). GIC acquired Compton Insurance Services and Midwest Mutual Insurance Company, and although they all sold the same services, the prices and features were different. Gibson had a decision to make: keep the new acquisitions as separate legal entities, or completely absorb them into its corporate system. GIC chose to keep them as separate le gal entities, and treat them as wholly owned subsidiaries for legal and financial reporting purposes.Rebecca decided to re-evaluate the cost allocation structure. She chose to list them under 4 categories: Policy Acquisition, Customer Service, Sales and Marketing, and Corporate Overhead. All Relevant Issues Gibson Insurance main issue is its cost allocation system that allocates support costs to its various product lines based on total number of policies. This provided for an inadequate application of resources for each business unit and product line. For example, selling a new policy takes more resources and effort than maintaining an in-force policy.Another concern is a decline in profitability although the sales volumes are increasing. This is possibly due to hidden cost problems or incorrectly set prices. After a breakdown of support cost, Gibson also had a issue with possible inefficiency of processes. Hampton felt as though they used to many resources with selling new policies . Relationships Among Important Issues GIC’s current cost allocation system provides for a inadequate allocation of cost. With the true costs for each division and product line mis represented Gibson is unable to accurate set prices to match expenses of products.This also does not allow them to identify problem areas, or inefficient processes, in need of attention. With those two issues secretly effecting the books, GIC profitability has suffered. Relationships of Case Issues to Aim of the Company Gibson’s poor cost allocation and lost in profits has it wanting to develop a new allocation method. With this new method they will be able to more accurately apply resource cost and pricing to specific business units and products. After implementing the new drivers they will be able to streamline processes to lower costs.Making these changes will allow Gibson to get to gain control of costs and by affect its profitability. New Problem Statement Resulting from Case Analysis G ibson is concerned about its current allocation of corporate support costs. Currently it feels the resources of various business units are not properly assigned. Rebecca Hampton, the controller, must come up with a new allocation method to obtain a better handle on profitability, product pricing and agent compensation, and current costs. Objectives – verifying the old or developing new based on analysis Gibson Insurance main objective is to improve profitability.Its second objective is to better control pricing and resource allocation. To control pricing and resources, Gibson third objective is to develop a new cost allocation method based on different cost drivers. Finally Gibson aims to streamline its processes in the future to further lower cost to increase profit. Statement of Alternatives After analyzing the case we have come up with five possible alternatives for Gibson Insurance company. First, Gibson can choose to use the new cost drivers, developed by Hampton, to rea llocate costs to provide a more accurate picture of indirect costs.Second, Gibson can choose to reanalyze cost to come up with different cost drivers also to provide a more accurate picture of indirect costs. Third, they can redivide the support services to individual business units. This will help eliminate the simple allocation issue. Only the cost incurred in each department of the business entity will be attributed to the operations of the business entity. Fourth, Gibson can separate the individual product lines support. They can have have four separate departments for new and in-force insurance and annuities.This will dial in the cost not only to individual product cost but what status these products use the most resources. It can turn much of the indirect cost into direct costs. Lastly, Gibson can choose to do nothing. It can continue to use current method of allocation and make educated guess on what costs are incorrect and what prices are set correct. This option is not an i deal one because Gibson is currently losing money. After choosing and implementing one of the above options, Gibson can begin to work on underlying issues.They can use the new cost allocation analysis to see if any area of business is in need of adjustment. It can then decide if price meets the cost demands of division and product line. Action Plan We agree with Gibson’s controller that the new way of allocating costs is the best plan of action for Gibson. Under the old system, costs were broken up by separate legal entities and product lines. Using the old method, Midwest has $5,087,166 in total support costs, while Gibson has $5,080,997 and Compton has $3,751,837 totaling $13,920,000.The new method calls for the allocation of costs based on cost drivers, which Hampton divided into four categories: policy acquisition, customer service, sales and marketing and other corporate support. Each cost account is driven by a cost driver. Policy acquisition is driven by the number of steps required to move a new policy application to an in-force status. Customer service costs are driven by the number of incoming calls. Sales and marketing costs are driven by the number of solicitation needed to sell a product. Lastly, other corporate costs are determined by the dollar value of AUM.The total support costs of $13,920,000 is broken up into $4,375,000 in policy acquisition costs, $2,426,000 in customer service costs, $4,552,000 in sales and marketing costs and lastly $2,567,000 in other corporate support costs. The new cost allocation system allows Gibson to identify where the costs are emanating from. It helps them identify where they can cut costs and where to focus their resources to meet their aim. By employing the new system, the per units costs for each cost-driver is as follows: $42. 20 per step, $44. 06 per customer service call, $10. 2 per sales solicitation call and $14. 92 per policy for the overhead costs. Under the new system it was found that Compton h as the support highest costs, as opposed to the old system where Midwest had the highest cost. The costs for new life insurance policies makes up 40% of the total costs, which is $5,609,243. However, the new life insurance policies bring in $19,200,000 in AUM for Gibson. Yes, it is costing Gibson more to bring in new policies, but new customers are expensive because they take away from the profit. Therefore, we do not see any problem with this plan.Moreover, the new plan allows them to see that the in-force policies are not costing them anything, which tells them to focus their resources on the new-policies for both the product lines. By analyzing we decided that it is definitely costing Gibson more to bring in life-insurance policies than annuities. For example, it takes five steps to complete a policy acquisition for life insurance compared to only two steps for annuities. Also, it takes them 10 extra sales solicitations per policy for life-insurance compared to annuities. We also feel that 20 solicitation calls for one life-insurance is expensive.It costs $881. 22 to make 20 calls and the AUM for a new life-insurance policy is only $1500, so the profit margin is less than 60%. Perhaps they can train their sales employees to better perform each call and sell a policy with less number of calls. By doing this they will be able to cut their sales and marketing costs by 50% and increase their profits. Their total sales and marketing costs will go from $4,552,000 to $2,276,000 and it brings down the new life-policy costs from $5,609,243 to $4,326,989, which will make their product line more profitable and bring in more profits for Gibsons Inc.Knowing Constraints – Potential Problems Gibson Insurance Company also has to deal with potential problems. If they break up the costs into individual processes, they could possibly spend a lot more money and time than they need to. By gathering the data and breaking it up into many costs accounts will eventually cost them more in terms of management compensation, rather than helping them save. Also by implementing a new training program we may have resistance from current employees because they may feel that they are doing their job correctly without needing more training.Analysis’ Presentation Leads to Definition of Problem By analyzing the cost structure and re-allocation the costs with the new cost drivers, we have determined that the problem is the cost of sales solicitation and, possibly, the price that Gibson is charging for its insurance policies. Develops, Justifies, and Rank Objectives Gibson has five objectives. Their primary objective is to improve their profits, which requires that they prioritize other objectives, which will help them reach their goal of maximizing profit.By developing a new cost allocation method based on different cost drivers helps them to find places where they need control costs and resources, which helps them maximize profit. Develops and Weighs Altern atives We have listed five different options for Gibson to choose from. First option is to go with Hampton new cost drivers and reallocate cost on that basis. By choosing to go with the controller’s numbers we will save time and money on research vs Option 2. After we do that we will have a more accurate picture of cost and resource allocation. This will allow Gibson to work on specific reas of cost that may be hindering the company such as the number of sales solicitations. By implementing the new training program we can reduce sales and marketing by 50% by cutting the contacts needed in half. Second, Gibson can choose to reanalyze cost to come up with different cost drivers also to provide a more accurate picture of indirect costs. By going back and re-evaluating the drivers it would take more management resources. We would need to pull department heads off jobs and waste time possibly to return to the with same drivers that are already presented.So by choosing the first al ternative we can get the new cost implemented faster and begin work on fixing problems sooner. Third, they can redivide the support services to individual business units. This will help eliminate the simplify allocation issue. Only the cost incurred in each department of the business entity will be attributed to the operations of the business entity. This will not be ideal because it would require additional spending on recruiting new personnel including management. Fourth, Gibson can separate the individual product lines support.They can have have four separate departments for new and in-force insurance and annuities. This will dial in the cost not only to individual product cost but what status these products use the most resources. It can turn much of the indirect cost into direct costs. This will prove to be an inefficient method of allocating cost. Gibson would need to assign more resources to hiring personnel and restructuring processes. Gibson would possibly have to redesign it entire operating process to separate its departments and consolidating its different products line from different companies under one business entity.It would also have to deal with the backlash of current customers who may run into problems during the shift. Lastly, Gibson can choose to do nothing. It can continue to use current method of allocation and make educated guess on what costs are incorrect and what prices are set correct. This option is not an ideal one because Gibson is currently losing money. Selects Appropriate Alternative After analyzing the alternatives, we decided pick the first alternative that calls for to use the cost drivers developed Hampton.The costs are divided into four different costs namely, policy acquisition, customer service, sales and marketing and other corporate support. Each cost has cost driver, which decides the total cost for that cost account. Policy acquisition costs are driven by the number of steps required to move a new application to in -force status, which is two steps for annuities and five steps for life insurance. Number of incoming customer calls drive the cost for customer service while the number of sales solicitation drives the cost for sales and marketing costs.And finally, corporate overhead costs are driven by the dollar value of AUM. This plan will facilitate the decision process for the management because it helps them see where the costs are emanating and where they better turn their resources. For example, by allocating the costs differently they were able to see that Compton has the highest support costs at $5,100,202. 17 as oppose to the last plan where Midwest had the highest cost. It also allowed them to see that the in-force policies are not costing them anything in terms of policy acquisition and sales and marketing costs.This tells them which product line is more profitable and which is not, so they focus their resources accordingly. By finding where the costs are stemming from, they will be a ble to better control the costs thereby increasing their profits, which is their primary objective and that is that the first alternative is appropriate alternative for Gibson. Probability of Success This action plan will be successful for Gibson because it will help the managers realize where the majority of their costs stem from. It will also help them determine where they should be focusing their attention to.