The American epidemic of obesity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The American pestilence of heftiness - Essay Example This article The American pestilence of corpulence traces the risk of heftiness, its results and proposals how to forestall it. The nonappearance of steady strategies in key parts, for example, wellbeing, horticulture, transport, urban arranging, condition, food preparing and dissemination, advertising and training is additionally a reason for this change. For a companion who is overweight, I would prompt that they change their way of life. They should chop down their admission of standard soft drink as it is high in sugar and thus calories. Diet pop, elective most wellbeing cognizant soft drink buyers decide on is likewise answered to contain some fake sugars that have been connected to medical problems, for example, malignant growth and should, in this manner, be kept away from. I would advocate that they accept new organic product squeezes as they are a lot of lower in calories and have no added substances. They ought to likewise decrease their admission of quick nourishments as quick nourishments are high in calories and fat henceforth adding to overweight and stoutness. Admission of greens and natural products just as vegetables, entire grains and nuts ought to be expanded as they are low in calories and fat. It would be significant for the companion to improve her physical movement and make her eating routine more advantageous so as to guarantee that her wellbeing isn't in danger. This is on the grounds that stoutness and overweight lead to cardiovascular issues, for example, coronary illness and stroke. When there's an excessive amount of fat in the body, it might stop up veins prompting an ascent better than average in circulatory strain and may bring about a stroke.

Reflective research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Intelligent research - Essay Example Different models of reflection had been hypothesized to support nursing. Attendants achieved polished methodology by the idea of reflections. They broke down past events and encounters and gained from them. Reflection might be characterized as â€Å"the capacity to reflect into past encounters with the end goal of nonstop learning† (Schon, 1983). The intelligent procedures helped efficient critical thinking in a stepwise way. Intelligent nursing was a learning hands on where medical caretakers had the option to gain from past rates separated from the hypothetical information. Experience was deficient to give a learning procedure. The experience must be joined with reflection to bring out inconspicuous subtleties to improve the learning procedure (Boud et al in Horn and Freed, 2008). Journaling had been pushed for shutting the hole among hypothesis and practice (Horn and Freed, 2008) Writing down notes after a specific encounter or day by day reflections helped a medical attend ant build up the basic reasoning procedure. Nursing understudies could consider the involvement in every customer as interesting and record the involvement with the diary. Metacognition had been perceived as another strategy to alter the learning experience (Horn and Freed, 2008). ... Gibbs’ model of reflection (1988), John’s model of reflection (1994) and Kolb’s learning cycle (1984) were diverse learning models for nursing. Coming up next is Gibbs cycle. Figure 1 Gibbs Model of Reflection Description What occurred? Activity Plan Feelings If it emerged once more, What were you what might you do? thinking and feeling? End Evaluation What else would you be able to What was acceptable and have done? furthermore, awful about the experience? Investigation What sense would you be able to make of the circumstance Gibbs’ model helped medical attendants gain from reflections. The depiction of what had happened given the subtleties of the day’s occurrence. The feelings that went with the occurrence extended the conditions under which it happened and how one reacted. Positive or negative feelings could have went with the occurrence. The assessment of the episode contained the explanation behind it occurring. This could additionally be brok e down to induce how that occasion ought to have turned out had you been an accomplished medical caretaker and acted in another way Analysis empowered one to contend how the result could have been improved and made extraordinary. This prompted the end. Utilizing this end the medical caretaker could design the activity for whenever such an episode was rehashed. With that she could make an engraving in her brain which she could utilize later. At the point when the new episode occurred, it would comparatively help her through the means of the Gibb’s cycle and produce all the more learning. A fledgling medical attendant who utilized this cycle for her learning procedure could arrive at competency right off the bat in her life as an attendant. The occurrence which animated the exploration The memory of Mrs. Lopez, a multi year old grandma, recuperating in the restoration ward and who had a fall despite everything upsets me. It was a horrendous and avoidable

A Complete Guide to Market Segmentation

A Complete Guide to Market Segmentation © Shutterstock.com | ArthimedesIn this article, we analyse the topic of market segmentation. We start with 1) what is market segmentation, and continue then 2) types of market segmentation, 3) steps of market segmentation, and 4) conclusion.WHAT IS MARKET SEGMENTATION?DefinitionThe term segmentation indicates a process in which a large unit is divided or bifurcated into a variety of smaller units which have somewhat related or similar characteristics. When the complete market establishment is divided into smaller subsets constituting consumers who bear similar preference, demand, and taste, the concept is known as market segmentation. In other words, market segmentation divides the market into like-minded individuals with similar interests.Why do we need market segmentation?There are five primary reasons why firms go for market segmentation. They are:Competitive Advantage: Through segmentation of the market, competitive advantage is added to the service or product. In short, the fir m is specializing in an area which enables it to be more accurate and respond faster by reacting according to the opportunities available. For instance, Unisys has adopted a kind of market segmentation where the staff and customers think alike food service specialists cater to the package goods industry while bankers trade with bankers.New Market Identification: By segmenting the market, new market niches, which are not always obvious, come to the surface and become visible to the marketer. These new markets might be very small and specific, existing in very few locations.Cost Cutting: If firms reach the marketplace for a particular and relevant segment through careful selection, obviously the costs would come down. This applied to all marketing endeavors, including telephone and direct mail marketing. In the long runs, the firm is able to save on production and associated costs related to marketing such as paper, printing, time, people and so on.Reduction of Credit Risks: Through market segmentation, organizations can handle credit in an efficient manner through eliminating those customers or markets which cause credit issues. In turn, cancelations and bad debt ratios can be reduced considerably. On the other hand, those with a good credit rating as per the firm’s analysis can be rendered extended credit terms. In short, the consumers, markets, and overall business can be efficiently managed.Streamlining of Lists: Through elimination of suspects having a lower chance of purchasing from you at present or in the near future, and focusing on the major prospects who are the impending customers, the rewards of your marketing efforts would be greater and profit higher. Moreover, the opportunity for continual relationships also arrives at a faster pace.Factors affecting Market SegmentationMarket segmentation is affected by a range of factors. However, the factors can be broadly classified into four basic categories.Appropriate segment identification;Measurability of the effective size of the segment;How much accessible the segment is with the help of promotional efforts;The appropriateness of the segment with respect to the resources and policies of the company.TYPES OF MARKET SEGMENTATIONApproaches to market segmentationPractically speaking, market segmentation has two major approaches. If there is access to adequate database information and market research, organizations can go for the statistical technique called cluster analysis. Or else, the organizations may categorize the market on the basis of their understanding and knowledge, utilizing what is commonly called the segmentation tree.Criteria for market segmentationThe market can be broadly segmented according to the following criteria.Gender: The requirement for this segmentation arises from the fact that men and women have different preferences and interests. The marketing strategy for men would not work for women. This gender oriented segmentation is most important for industries such as jewelry, footwear, cosmetics, and apparels.Age Group: Another effective way of market segmentation is on the basis of the target market’s age group. The marketing strategies and products for kids would be different from those of teenagers, which would again be different from adults or aged people.Up to 10 years Prams, baby food, nappies, toys;From 10 to 20 years School bags, books, apparels, toys;20 years and beyond apparels, magazines, anti-ageing products, cosmetics, and so on.Income: This criterion is based on the monthly earnings of individuals. Broadly, there are three groups, namely, high-income, middle-income, and low-income. Thus, stores which target the high-income group would have different range of products and different marketing strategies compared to stores that serve the low-income group.Marital Status: Division is accordance with the marital status is most appropriate for travel agencies. Holiday packages for married couples would be different from that for bachelors.Occupation: One of the bases of segmentation is whether the target market is working or not. It goes without saying that preferences of professionals would be different from preferences of college goers within the same product category.For a market segment to be ideal, the following things need to be considered:It should be an adequately large segment.The segment must be measurable.The segment should have stability and exist over a period of time.The marketing activities should enable you to reach prospective customersThere should be a cost-effective way for conversion of prospects to buyers.In a segment, customers should prefer similar product qualities.In different segments, customers should prefer different product qualities.Marketing actions should have some effect on target consumers.For a particular segment, there must be adequate supporting data for devising a targeted sales approach.The Major types of segmentationWith good knowledge of the types of segmentation , it would be easier for the organizations to strive towards the business goals. Here are the major ways in which a market can be segmented.Demographics: Race, gender, income or age are great ways to differentiate your customer base. In this type of segmentation, you may go for your consumers’ actual ages or concentrate on things like the product’s life cycle. When customers are grouped on the basis of demographics, you can be more specific in directing your strategies.Lifestyle: This is somewhat related to demographics but concentrates more on the fact that families and people have diverse service and product needs throughout their entire life. Life style segment can have endless number of subdivisions, such as dividing households into single parents, seniors or married with children or the type of residence, like a townhouse, apartment or single family home. By defining interests and activities according to lifestyle, it becomes more convenient to develop services and products .Geographical Location: Location is a very effective tool in market segmentation. The markets can be broken up into local, regional, national or global, depending upon the services offered. Different regions might have different product requirements. For instance, parts of a country which always rain will have more requirements for umbrellas and raincoats that for outdoor pools and solar panels.Services or Products: The crux of this type of segmentation is to be as specific as possible so that you can reach out to specific groups of people and make them your customers. A broad category often becomes difficult to convert, so it is advisable to go for specific niches. For instance, you may consider a category as broad as auto repair and make specific niches such as brake distributors your target.Industry: Take the case of the agriculture industry; you may include everything to customized family farms to massive food producers. The products can be further segmented to organics, meat, d airy and the like. It is easier to define the market and track developments if you are specific enough.Profession: Customers can be divided on the basis of their profession, and specific segments can also be created within a certain profession. For example, in case of healthcare, there can be various segments like hospital administrators, nurses, doctors and so on. Again, lawyers can be segmented depending upon the particular branch of law, such as taxes, civil litigation, real estate, etc. This type of segmentation allows more focus on the value proposition.Interest: It might seem insignificant given all the other types of segmentation, but there are people who have exclusive hobbies such as grooming pets, collecting coins, and so on. Although this is a very small niche, if you can connect to these customers, they can become your long-term market.STEPS OF MARKET SEGMENTATIONMarket segmentation is a systematic process involving a series of steps. Below is a discussion of the five ma jor steps of market segmentation.Step 1: Distinct segments for key accounts and small accounts Every business has its customer segment. Even within the same business, all customers are not the same and hence should be treated accordingly. Companies, especially those catering to other businesses (B2B) possess key accounts, and these should be treated exclusively.According to the 80/20 principle applicable to any business, 80% of the turnover is accounted for by 20% of the customers. So, focus should be laid on these large or key accounts, on which the future of the business depends on. It is best when these customers are treated as individuals, with products or services designed to exactly meet their needs.On the other hand, the 80%, although dominating the customer populations, are comparatively smaller accounts. The treatment for these customers should not be similar to that of the key accounts. Since this bulk of customers can constitute a plethora of accounts, a separate segmenta tion is needed. If proper segmentation is not there, then this 80% of the customer population will either be treated like special accounts, consuming unwanted resources or be considered as all the same, leading to unsuitable offers. In short, segmentation allows grouping of customers with same needs, thereby enabling efficient service with limited resources.Step 2: Perform Market SegmentationA demographic or firmographic segmentationFor a company catering to consumers, demographic segmentation is the most advisable option. Again, a company catering to other companies should go for firmographic segmentation, wherein companies with similar physical attributes are grouped together. These attributes may include the region of operation, the industry these companies belong to, and the like. Such firmographic or demographic segmentation is of immense significance in order to understand the needs of the consumers or the companies.A company selling PTFE tubes should be well-versed with the f act that the requirement for the medical industry is not the same as a requirement for the electrical industry. This kind of segmentation is very useful in fulfilling the demands of the target market.The possibility of a need-based segmentationSegmentation based on the industry might have a couple of disadvantages. First, differences may not always exist on the basis of the industry. A seller of accountancy software will hardly find any difference between selling his product to a food company and selling it to a steel manufacturer. Secondly, almost all business will tend to do this kind of segmentation; as a result there is no competitive advantage.Keeping these things in mind, the requirement for need-based segmentation arises, wherein identification and satisfaction of the needs of the customers is the basis.Needs are not simple to recognize, so you need market research for finding out the same. Market researchers are capable of devising questions which ask people various aspects of their requirements. If it is a question of individual needs, users are asked their expectations from a product while, in case of company needs, a group of people is asked what they would like to have from their suppliers. Both at the individual level and at the company level, the needs must be addressed for the business to flourish.One major problem in identification of needs is that they frequently change depending upon various factors. But need-based segmentation is the best way companies can orient themselves to fulfill customer requirements.Behavioral segmentation for unrecognized needsWhen identification of needs becomes difficult, behavioral segmentation comes to the rescue in order to arrive at the hidden needs. For instance, certain customers prefer long-term relationship with an organization or brand while other might switch from one brand to another to avail discount deals. Given such behavioral aspects, behavioral segmentation is a potential option.Simpler needs of cus tomersIt is true that purchasing decisions are not as sophisticated as we think. People decide based on certain simple criteria such as quality products, high-end service, low prices, reputation of the organization or brand, and so on. Through general communication, the importance of these different criteria for the customers can be found out.Step 3: Cluster Analysis for customers with diverse needsOnce survey answers are obtained; cluster analysis is done using a statistical analysis tool, in order to group the respondents who have similar answers. Around one to five clusters are obtained, so that the supplier’s efficiency is maximized through meeting the market needs with minimal number of offers. New customers are also placed within the clusters as and when necessary. The questions are repeated with existing customers every six months to one year so that changing needs can be identified.Step 4: Coding of existing and prospective customersIt is best for a business to record cust omer details in the form of a spreadsheet, either within an effective customer relationship management system or simply an excel file. As the segmentation is being carried out, each customer must be placed against a definite segment within the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet may be prepared based on various parameters such as answers to survey questions. It may then be used to group customers for communications like mailers as well as to evaluate sales and profitability.     In other words, good segmentation should lead to a profitable business, wherein the spreadsheet acts as a control mechanism.Step 5: Implementation of Market SegmentationSetting up a market segmentation based on the behavior and needs of the customers is not an end in itself you need to implement the segmentation. Every segment has a distinct offering, more technically known as the CVP or Customer Value Proposition. It must be proved to the customers that the claims related to the CVP are true and what they are exp ecting would be realized.Next, the sales force should understand the reason behind the segmentation and its benefits so that they work successfully towards fulfillment of customer needs. In fact, the sales force should understand that the lowest price is not the only thing that draws customers.CONCLUSIONOn the whole, there is no right or wrong route to segment a market. It depends a lot on the business domain and also the creativity of the business owner. In fact, you may create numerous market segments, but it is advisable to keep the number of segments reasonable low for effective market penetration. In business, you always need to keep track of the latest development and changing needs of the target market, which would enable you to create your own segments to suit the business scenario in which you are operating.

Grandfather’s Love (Grandpas Love) Essay examples

My Grandfather’s Love As we neared the house I could see the front yard emerge amidst the hurricane-twisted pines that stood like sentinels guarding a castle. Pulling into the yard, I noticed that the grass looked like one of my great-grandmothers patchwork quilts. Old, but new in a way, shaded with varying hues of greens and browns seeming to be sewn together with sporadically mounted ant hills adjacent to a wondering dogs paw prints. We pulled into the driveway slowly as not to disturb dust that lay sleeping on the broken concrete. With my arm half hanging out of the window, I tried to catch the snowflake blossoms of the dogwood trees that danced on the gusts of wind like lovers at a ball. From the yard the smell of†¦show more content†¦Like a drone I walked methodically toward the back porch. The only place where I ever sought refuge from the stings of my mothers switch into the security of my grandfathers embrace, the porch seemed comfort to me. The back porch was where my grandfathers tales, soaked in history and V.S.O.P, held me captive through long balmy summer evenings and warm autumn nights. He always would listen to me as we got into comical debates over fifth-grade politics and sixth-grade loves. He made me feel equal, he made me feel special, and most of all he made me feel loved. My grandfather was a massive man whose arms seemed to be boulders hanging onto mountains weathered by time. His hair was jet black with small huddles of gray and my mother would rub her hands through it because she swore it was the softest thing next to my grandmothers smile. He had huge brown calloused hands that were impervious to the hard work he was required to do throughout his life. Because of his age the lines on his face seemed to twist and curve resembling a treasure map leading to his soul. I climbed into the old Sears and Roebuck recliner still being able to smell the comfortable aroma of his embrace. In my young mind I had already prepared myself for this day. Frank and honest, my grandfather would always let me know that he would not be with me forever, and that this day would be coming. Looking towardShow MoreRelatedJournal Entries for Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children920 Words   |  4 Pagesdoesn’t seem to want to work hard at anything. I really love how the author jumps right into the plot with Grandpa Portman’s frantic phone call while Jacob is at work. Very excited to read more! May 17, 2013 This book is already super intense! I am reading the part of the book where Ricky and Jacob go to Grandpa Portman’s house to see if he is okay, but find him dead, and Jacob sees a creepy monster-like creature in the shadows. I love the vivid descriptions and perfect imagery in this bookRead MoreDesicions Without Grandpa848 Words   |  3 Pagesand not speaking to a single person. Older folks knew him either as John and Nettie’s son or Peter’s grandson. Others knew him from school or shared activities. Almost everyone who passed by his Grandpa’s workshop, popped their head in the ever- open door to call out a greeting. He pictured his Grandpa’s workshop in the ivy-clad stone building attached to the family home. He could see the dust motes dancing in the sunlight streaming through the open door; Grandpa sitting in the chair he made forRead More Montana 1948 by Larry Watson - Metamorphosis from Child to Adult1061 Words   |  5 Pageshis own brother despite the fact that Wes saves Frank the humiliation of going to jail. David faces an even more intimidating threat when he notices that a few of the hired hands from his grandfather’s ranch come to his house to try and break Frank free. He comments, â€Å" These men must have figured, with Grandpa’s help, that Frank was in the basement, and that rear door was the way they were going in after him†¦; (132). David is close to being an adult because he realizes how he must act and the gravityRead MoreFamily History Projects : My Father Essay1509 Words   |  7 Pagesand generations to come. It is obvious that he wanted to creat e ample opportunities for his children, and because of this, my parents have been able to give me even more chances to do what I love and get an invaluable education. For this, I am extremely grateful. Similar to Small’s Voyages, my grandfather’s migration â€Å"†¦wasn’t about rejecting Tonga, nor about replacing Tongan values with American ones,† (47). but to gain opportunities and change one’s quality of life. Voyages explains the migrationRead MorePersonal Note On Family And Family1320 Words   |  6 Pagesfamily is someone who I can count on when times get hard. That person I can count on may not be a mother, father, brother, or sister. That person may be a teacher, coach, or a friend. 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My grandpa had a fake singingRead MoreDescribe My Grandmother Essay1368 Words   |  6 PagesI describe her the way I see her through my eyes. Most grandchildren may describe their grandparent as just an older person who probably they go to when they need something and hardly visit them, I am one who loves to be around my spirited, selfless, supportive, charitable, non-judgmental abuela everyday. My grandmother’s physical appearance is somewhat different from what you’d think a grandmothe r would dress. When she was youngerRead MoreNotes On Grandpa s Legacy 927 Words   |  4 Pages Grandpa’s Legacy My grandfather’s bass stood in a dark corner so quietly, just waiting to be played again. As I took the covering off the bass, dust danced its way to the floor, and its fire engine red coloring gleamed as brightly as ever. When it was finally time to clean out my grandparent’s house after their passing, my mother told me that the instrument was mine if I wanted it. I was so delighted to learn that he left it to me because this bass represented the one personal activity thatRead MoreSpeech On The Night Phone Calls Essay1258 Words   |  6 Pagesattempting to focus one the people around me. My flight landed just in time for the wake at my grandfather’s house and the subsequent round of praying the rosary at speeds that would make the Road Runner look like a tortoise. The exact moment the words of the Glory Bee fell out my mouth, people began arriving to give their condolences. It seemed like everyone in County Clare decided to cram themselves into grandpa’ s little one story bungalow and track down each and every one of Teresa MacMahon’s descendantsRead MoreCultural Values1541 Words   |  7 Pagesindividual. My personal ethics, morality, and cultural values have developed throughout the many life lessons that I have learned in my 29 years of life. I can still remember a specific Saturday afternoon at my grandparents house. I was sitting on my grandpas lap watching the Dodger game. In between innings my grandfather asked me the question, Aaron it is time you learn about values and ethics. I want you to grow up to be an upstanding citizen and not a society reject. While at that moment I was

The Kite Runner Forgiveness, Loyalty, and the Quest for...

The Kite Runner: Forgiveness, Loyalty, and the Quest for Redemption Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner is an award-winning novel and considered one of today’s most popular, contemporary classics. The story is one of familiar themes such as loyalty, forgiveness, betrayal, love, and redemption. It follows the tale of Amir and how he must atone for his sins and find a way to â€Å"be good again† (Hosseini 2). The quintessential message of this book relies on the idea of second chances. Themes of redemption, betrayal, loyalty, and forgiveness are not only shown without doubt through this book, but are also common among many literary works and religions. Hosseini is successful in showing the significance of these themes throughout the novel. The†¦show more content†¦Harvey Freedenberg in an online article titled â€Å"The Kite Runner,† says that Hosseini â€Å"demonstrates striking skill at melding a page-turning story with intensely involving characters and conflicts.† He says what makes people love the book so much is, â€Å" that it wrestles with themes†¦ [Of] friendship, betrayal, the relationship between fathers and sons, the quest for redemption and the power of forgiveness.† Erin Miller in an online article titled â€Å"Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini† complements Freedenberg’s analysis by saying that another reason why so many people love this book is that â€Å"The core story could be set in any culture because it deals with issues that are universal,† so readers can relate to the familiar themes. This view is carried out with the supportive character, Hassan, who plays a significant role in the novel by representing a Christ figure who is forever forgiving of Amir. Hassan is the, â€Å"harelipped kite runner† whose only friend is Amir (Hosseini 2). Hassan demonstrates the themes of second chances and forgiveness through his actions of kindness. For example, when Assef and his gang come to torment Amir, Hassan comes to the rescue with his slingshot. Although Amir never considers him to be his friend, Hassan proves to be a flawless servant to his half-brother, even after Amir betrays him. Throughout the story, Amir remembers Hassan by his kind-hearted phrase, â€Å"For you, a thousand times over,† which evidences how magnanimous andShow MoreRelatedThe Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini1695 Words   |  7 Pages The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini, is a famous novel for its honest portrait of betrayal, and redemption. The novel is narrated by fictional character, Amir, who starts a new life in America with his wife, Soraya, and is a successful author who tries to escape from his haunted childhood in Afghanistan.. Amir is the son of wealthy Afghan businessman, Baba. The opening chapters are told by an older Amir explaining about his childhood. As a reader, one will notice that every joy experiencedRead MoreThe Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini Essays1723 Words   |  7 PagesThe Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, follows the maturation of Amir, a boy from Afghanistan, as he discovers what it means to stand up for what he believes in. His quest to redeem himself after betraying his friend and brother, Hassan, makes up the heart of the novel. When Amir hears that his father’s old business partner, Rahim Khan, is sick and dying, he travels to Pakistan to say his goodbyes. Rahim Kha n tells Amir about Hassan’s life and eventual death; the Taliban murdered Hassan while he wasRead MoreThe Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini1770 Words   |  8 PagesRedemption within Friendship In Islam, the pomegranate tree is a representation of beauty and it is said that those who eat from it will encounter a prosperous future. To contrast, Christians believe that the pomegranate tree embodies traits that are parallel to the end of the world. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini exemplifies the beauty as well as the inelegance of Amir and Hassan’s friendship through the symbol of the pomegranate tree. At the prosperous times of their friendship, the tree beingRead More The Kite Runner Essay1632 Words   |  7 PagesKhaled Hosseinis novel, The Kite Runner. This is the story of a mans struggle to find redemption. The author illustrates with the story of Amir that it is not possible to make wrongs completely right again because its too late to change past. In this novel Hosseini is telling us that redemption is obtainable, and by allowing us to see Amirs thought process throughout the novel, Hosseini shows us that it guilt is the primary motivation for someone who seeks redemption. Hosseini also uses not onlyRead MoreCritical Analysis Of The Kite Runner 1899 Words   |  8 PagesCritical Analysis of The Kite Runner â€Å"It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (142). Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner unfolds the story of the affluent youth Amir and his servant friend Hassan, who are separated by a traumatizing sexual assault and the 1979 Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan. Despite a fresh start in San Francisco, Amir is devoured by guilt for failing to protect his loyal friend. Many years later

Curry Powder Indusrty Free Essays

INDUSTRY PROFILE India is a land of spices where many varieties are grown in the different regions of the country. The people of the country are fond of spicy food so the spices are the most important ingredient in any Indian dish. The nation is not just the big producer and consumer of spices but also a major player in international market, exporting the surplus and importing the deficit. We will write a custom essay sample on Curry Powder Indusrty or any similar topic only for you Order Now Spices play an important role in enhancing the flavor and taste of the processed foods. They are also used in the medicines because of their carminative, simulative and digestive properties. India produces almost all the known spices and is the largest exporter of this commodity. Ground spices are extensively used in all types of curried dishes in India and abroad. Although spices are traded chiefly in an unprocessed form, a small yet significant quantity enters international trade as spice powders. Curry powder is the foremost of those blends or mixes and sometimes consists of 20 or more spices designed to add the characteristic flavor of an Indian curry, which is appreciated all over the world. Apart from the overseas market, processed curry powder is becoming popular in the domestic market also. Hence the demand for unadulterated spices and curry powder in attractive handy packaging is fast emerging. FOOD INDUSTRY IN INDIA In India, agricultural and dairy sector have achieved remarkable successes over the last three and half decades. Besides being one of the world’s largest producers of food grains. India ranks second in the world in the production of fruits and vegetables and first in milk production providing much needed foods security to the nation. India is one of the world’s major food producers but accounts for less than 1. 5%of international food trade. The value of the Indian food industry has increased from 3. 09 trillion in 1993-94 to Rs. 3. 99 trillion in 2000-01. The segment with largest growth potential have been identified as dairy, fruits and vegetables and poultry. Food marketing is a highly regulated industry. Regulation in food marketing attempted regulates competition and monopolistic condition facilitates trade, protect consumers and directly influence food price and faster economic and social progress. India produces variety of spice products. No country in the world produces as much kind of spices products as India producing. The Indian spices and curry powder market plays an important role in the daily life of Indians. Now, curry powder industries have a prominent role in food product industry in India INDIAN SPICES India is the largest producers of spices in the world as the weather is apparently suitable for the cultivation of spices. Spices are cultivating in 28 states and 7 territorial provinces in India. As of now, India is producing around 2. 5 million tones of various spices valued approximately 3 billion US$ and holding a premier position in the world. Moreover India is the major exporters of spices in the world under the auspicious of India government owned â€Å"Spices board of India†, which is the apex body for the export promotion of spices in India. This was established in 1987. The board plays a far reaching and influential role as a development, regulatory and promotional agency for Indian spices. In early days Indian people were stored the various kinds of spices such as chilly, turmeric, coriander and so on, for preparing the various dishes and gravies. These spices were separately and blending depends on the nature of dishes. Spices used to flavor with the help of indigenous tools at home by women, as that was the custom during that period. In course of time situations are changed, people are forced to use electronic devices in order to reduce their domestic job. In turns, they used readymade curry powders at their home. Gradually they have fallen in to a habit of using instant curry powders from the open market. Taken stock of this situations several firms were came forward to launch curry powder industries. That is why curry powder industries were emerging immensely all over the country. As of now curry powder industries have a prominent role in Food industry in India. CURRY POWDER The name Curry powder today is synonymous with the Indian food. The word curry is believed to be delivered from the South Indian Tamil World ‘Karhi’. During the British Raj in India, â€Å"curry† evolved as the world described Indian food cooked in this spices sauce. Over the years, the foreigners, especially British who leaved or visited India . Slowly started to introduce the curry to outside the world. The good commercial curry powder was hard to find during the early days. People had to make curry powder from scratch if they wanted quality. However, now many good curry powders are easily found in India as well as western super markets. Curry powder is blend or mixture of the different spices, which defers according to geographic regions or personal preference. CURRY POWDER INDUSTRY In the scenario, economy exhibits high line of consumerism. The curry powder industry has witnessed the entry of many companies in the Indian market by pumping huge amount of capital in order to capture the market share. However many domestic companies have emerged with various attraction products with a view to overcome the country wide companies and capturing a large number of customers. On our observation most of the companies are performing satisfactorily for a particular brand to move fast in the market it has to meet the 4 A’s. That is the market customers should be aware of it, should be an acceptable, available and affordable. Obviously, the manufactures should understand the need and wants of the customer and provides total satisfaction in order to succeed in the business world. Curry powder is a well known name among the Indian people. It is the combination of finely powdered spices. For each dish there are different curry powder spices. For each dish there are different curry powders but the ingredients are more or less the same. Now a day’s most of the housewives are using this ready-made curry powder and so the quantity required is increasing day by day. So this is an industry by which a new entrepreneur can start without second though. But the manufacturers should give attention for capturing the market. Now days not only the urban people but villages also have a craze for these ready-made curry powders. There is a good market for curry powder in India and abroad. The major players in the curry powder in India are; Eastern, Melam, Mangala, Saras, etc. As Kerala’s largest producer of condiments, â€Å"Eastern Condiments (P) Ltd† has helped to keep the famous spice route alive. With an experience of over 30 years in producing spices, they have provided their consumers with consistently high quality powders and blends â€Å"Melam† the word means a multiple of musical instruments in harmony creating a fast of exotic and exquisite music. M. V. J. Foods (India) (P) Ltd. Cochin brings out a variety curry powder and spice powder under the brand name Melam. The melam range is vast and includes a great variety of perception. â€Å"devon, THE SPICE of life† deven foods gives a wide range of aromatic spice powders and curry powders for all culinary needs. They use only best quality spices and process them in appropriate condition. â€Å"Sara spice† is the condiment producing unit of the Anna group. Company is involved in the production and exports of Indian spices. Like curry powder, Masala powder, Indian whole spices since the past two decades. CURRY POWDER MARKET Although Indian spices have been in the world market for several centuries, the curry powder business, particularly curry masala (blender, spices) has not been exploited by the Indian entrepreneurs to a significant extent. Export of this product has not registered any significant growth producers in un organized sector have dominated the domestic market, for curry powder and curry masala . Obviously the curry powder growth industries brand promotion continues to be significant till recently. However, few manufacturers from the organized sector have been promoting branded products in Kerala market recently. Competition has turned to be aggressive with the stagnation in the international market. Producing of curry powder and curry masala are involving in marketing strategies to ensure significant market shares although in specific segment DOMESTIC MARKET The India market for curry powder is estimated at Rs. 500 Cr. This is account for 25% of world consumption of curry powders. The curry powder market is estimated to be around Rs. 150Cr, with approximate 35% of market in south India. The curry powder market in Kerala is estimated at Rs 70 Cr. The market can be categorized in to 3 groups. * The premium segment The medium segment * Un organized sector In the previous segment the major brands in the market are Everest, Melam Saras and MDH . the study done by various authorities revels that moast popular Brand in the premium segment is Everest with 30% market share . Melam had 50% market share, while other brads had a negligible share in the premium segment. However, the premium makes up only 30% of the total market of curry powder in Kerala. The medium segment consist 50% of total curry powder market, Easter is the market leader in the segment. The unorganized segment consists of 20% of the total curry powder market. INTERNATIONAL MARKET Exports of spices from India usually take place in bulk form. The export of value added products are few, as none competitive prices cannot survive in the International market. Curry powder is value added spice product. the world consumption of curry powder is estimated to be 20000 metric tons in 2004, 2005. Exports of curry powder from Indian keep fluctuating between 2500 to 3500 metric tons . An analysis of annual exports of curry powders from India reveals that the exports do not show much variation . in total value terms the figures have been increasing over the years . In Indian curry powder industries, there was a few curry powder industries were existed of the beginning of which the following firms were the main producers. * MDH * EVEREST In Kerala the following a few companies were existed in producing curry powders in early stages viz. * Techno curry powder * Ambika curry powder * Rani curry powder The following are the some of the manufacturers and exporters of curry powders in India. * Asha impex (P) Ltd * Alvel sales * Amas spices * Anand Exportes * Anil grover co * Aries Exports * B. M entrprices * Brahmins food products * C. B. R masala How to cite Curry Powder Indusrty, Papers

It is January 16, 1991, and the green light has be Essay Example For Students

It is January 16, 1991, and the green light has be Essay en given to move out, the Persian Gulf War is now for real. Mark Daniels is among the pilots with the first set of planes that are scheduled to attack Iraq. Mark is one of the top pilots in the Gulf at a young age of 23. Not only does Mark possess the intellectual skills that it takes to be a top fighter pilot, but he also has one of the toughest bodies. He is known to be able to handle more Gs than any other pilot in military history without passing out. Mark is one guy that the U. S. military is glad to have on their side. Mark completes the first air strikes against Iraq with ease. He would have several more days like this up to the 24th of February when the allied forces halted military actions. Kuwait was a mess, but it seemed as though the allies had done their job. There was also another reason to celebrate. The allies only lost 149 troops to Iraqs thousands and thousands. On April 6, it was officially over after Iraq agreed to a permanent cease-fire. Allied troops started hea ding home, including Mark. There were tears and laughs along with parades and other festivities to celebrate the wars end when troops returned home to their loving countries. As for Mark, he had done his job, he defeated the enemy and kept himself alive. His own personal joy and relief overwhelmed him to the extent of asking his girlfriend for her hand in marriage. She immediately said yes. Within a year and a half upon the years end, Mark and his wife had their first child. Their child was not born as healthy as they had hoped. Mark was devastated at his childs problems. Why did these things have to happen to his child? In the weeks to come, rumors were spreading that many babies of veterans were also born with problems. Veterans themselves were getting sick. Something was wrong, and people went to the government for answers. Those people didnt get what they expected. The governments only answer was that they had post-war stress. That didnt stop many though for trying to find out w hat was really going on. In reality, Mark Daniels only represents all of those who fought in the war. Just as he thought the government wasnt telling all they knew, so did real life people. Many reasons are now known to show that there is such a thing as Gulf War Syndrome (GWS) making people sick, and that the United States government is not telling the public all the facts. To understand the controversy surrounding Gulf War syndrome, its best to know a little bit about what it is. The problem with this unknown sickness is that the government doesnt believe it exists. The government believes that if GWS is anything, it is linked to post war stress, not chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons (4). Kenneth Bacon, a Pentagon spokesman states, The Pentagon has made some mistakes in its initial approach to veterans claims, but we still believe there is no such thing as Gulf War Syndrome (17). Studies on GWS, however, point to a different result. After the Persian Gulf War, veterans along with their families started to get sick. Symptoms include the following: muscle and joint pain, mood changes, concentration problems, headaches, insomnia, rashes, blisters, intestinal complaints, fatigue, visual problems, shortage of breath, hair loss, numbness in hands and feet, dental problems, chest pain, fevers, dizziness, sinus problems, sensitive senses, reproductive p roblems, and cancers. These symptoms alone are nothing to be worried about, but a large number of veterans were experiencing at least several of these problems at one time (Brown). Also, reports indicate that 70% of the troops that served in the Gulf War are no longer serving in the military, and 50% of those claim to have left because of medical problems. About 490,000 troops have gone to Veterans Administration (VA) hospitals because of GWS (ABDC). Studies also show that almost 67% of babies born to Gulf War veterans have birth defects that include Goldenhar Syndrome, missing limbs, chronic infections, failure to thrive,

Organisational Theory

Personal Experience Change is one of the forces in life which cannot be avoided. In most of the cases, many people find it difficult to accept change because of the fear of the unknown (Hargreaves Fullan, 2012). I have a personal experience of how challenging it may be to introduce change in an organisational setting. I was in my third year at the University of Melbourne when the management decided to digitise the library.Advertising We will write a custom case study sample on Organisational Theory specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This was a new technology-supported system where students were enabled to access all the materials within the library in a digital platform. The management made this decision because of the limited number of some critically important books. This new system was developed after a series of consultative forums involving the students, teachers, management, and other related stakeholders. The reading areas w ithin the library were fitted with personal computers connected to the database. The students would use their student identification numbers to login to the system and access all the relevant materials they needed. The chief librarian and other staff members took time to explain the reason this decision was made, how the system worked, and the benefits it had to the users of this library. At first, a number of students were sceptical about the new system introduced in the library. However, they slowly came to embrace the new system. It became very popular among the students, eliminating the need to have physical books in the library. Main Principles of Change Management According to Apple (2004), successful organisations are those that have learnt the art of managing change. In order to manage change successfully, it is important to know some of the principles of change management. Creation of a shared vision is one of the most important principles of change management (Hargreaves Fullan, 2012). With a shared vision, it becomes easy for all the stakeholders to accept change without any serious resistance. The case presented above about University of Melbourne’s new system in the library is a clear example of the relevance of developing a shared vision. The management involved all the stakeholders and ensured that they all understood the need to move to a new system. According to Apple (2004), communication is another important principle of change management. Change involves coming up with a new concept of addressing various tasks within an organisational setting. In most of the cases, it is always an idea of an individual who has visualised how a given process can be undertaken in a better way.Advertising Looking for case study on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In order to make other people understand and appreciate the relevance of such a new system, communication is very i mportant. The management should ensure that all the stakeholders understand the new system. Any question about the new system should be addressed to ensure that doubts and misconceptions are eliminated. This task was addressed satisfactorily by the chief librarian and other junior employees. Engagement of the stakeholders is another important principle of change management. According to Hargreaves, Lieberman, Fullan and Hopkins (2014), before introducing a new system or concept within an organisation, it is important that all the relevant stakeholders are engaged in the entire process. Engaging the stakeholders creates an environment where the stakeholders feel they own the new system instead of feeling that the management imposed it on them. This is what happened when the new digitised library system was introduced at the university. All the relevant stakeholders were involved. This way, the new system became acceptable among the students because they felt that they were part of it s formation. Jones (2012) says that another important principle of change is the development of enabling structures. The scholar says that before introducing change, the management must ensure that there are structures in place that can support the system. Change can only make sense when it is sustainable. The University of Melbourne decided to introduce a new system. This new system needed installation of personal computers in the reading areas. It also needed an IT system that would enable students to access information available in the database. The management had enough funds to install these structures. The entire reading area had fully equipped personal computers that were linked to the main database through an integrated communication system. These structures made it possible to have a functional system that supported operations of the firm. Culture cannot be avoided when managing change in an organisation. According to Jones (2012), this principle requires that cultural fact ors be put into consideration when managing change. Many organisations always ignore the role of culture in change management. There are cases where some stakeholders may reject change simply because it is not aligned to their cultural beliefs and practices.Advertising We will write a custom case study sample on Organisational Theory specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More It is, therefore, necessary that the management finds a way of aligning cultural values to change management principles. This is one area that was not given much consideration when this new system was introduced. According to Fullan (2014), for a long time, physical books have been a sign of knowledge, especially to student of higher learning. However, a time had come when this had to change. The school made a radical shift from the use of physical books to the use of digitised books. This transition should have been gradual. Strengths and weaknesses of the way in whi ch change was managed The digital library at the University of Melbourne was a new system that was meant to improve students’ experience every time they visited the library. One of the main strengths of the way in which this change was managed is that all the stakeholders were actively involved. This made it possible for the new system to be accepted among the stakeholders. The management also maintained a clear system of communication. The librarians were available to address any question that the library users had about the new system. The highly integrated communication system also enhanced information sharing. The library users made a number of suggestions on how to improve the system to make it user-friendly. Within the first few months, a number of adjustments were made in the system based on the suggestions of the users. This improved its efficiency. However, the major weakness that was witnessed in the way this change was managed was that it was implemented within a s hort time. Some student complained that the change was so sudden that they had to take several weeks to make proper use of the library. Summary Understanding how to manage change is very important in the current organisational setting. From the critique and review of literatures done above, it is apparent that communication is critical when managing change. It facilitates engagement of all the stakeholders to ensure that they understand and appreciate the relevance of the new system. References Apple, M. (2004). Creating difference: Neo-liberalism, neo-conservatism and the politics of educational reform. Educational Policy, 18(12), 12-44.Advertising Looking for case study on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Fullan, M. (2014). Positive Pressure in Second International Handbook of Educational Change. Chicago: Sage. Hargreaves, A. Fullan, M. (2012). Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School. Norderstedt: Books on Deman. Hargreaves, A., Lieberman, A., Fullan, M. Hopkins, D. (2014). Second International Handbook of Educational Change. New York: Cengage. Jones, G. (2012). Organisational Theory, Design, and Change. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin. This case study on Organisational Theory was written and submitted by user Wolver-dok to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

ESL and an Introduction to Suggestopedia

ESL and an Introduction to Suggestopedia This method was developed by Dr. Georgi Lazanov and is basically (very basically, this is all pretty new for me) on a teaching approach that seems to throw the traditional, grammar based - left brain approach out the window, and advocates a holistic, right brain approach. I wont try to describe the method in this feature. This approach is new for me (although I did write a short feature a while back based on some of its principles). I would prefer to lead you to some introductory articles on the Net discussing this technique as it is quite novel (at least for me) and, I think, has quite a lot of potential.To start off lets take a look at this introduction to using this technique in second language acquisition.Libyan Labiosa Cassone is President of the Society for Accelerative Learning and Teaching, and in this interview gives quite a detailed overview of how the teaching method works. This method can be employed for any type of learning. For more information regarding the various app lications of this technique take a look at the followingFinally, here is an article that discusses the use of suggestopedia in a classroom environment and more specifically in a language teaching environment: SummaryI find myself quite attracted to this method as it seems to reflect my own experiences with language learning. While learning German and Italian my best learning always seemed to take place while immersing myself in tasks that were less analytical and caused my brain to work on the language as an entire unit rather than in bits and pieces. Of course, Im speaking about the experience of living in the country where one doesnt have the time to analyze everything and therefore, begins to absorb and learn on a completely different level.The only reservation that I have about this technique is that the people I have come in contact with who use this approach tend to be rather fanatic about its being the only way. While conviction can be quite persuading, I find it difficult to throw everything overboard.

Communication, Ethics, and Society Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 4

Communication, Ethics, and Society - Assignment Example According to Forbes, in the last few years, GoDaddy.com has been a target for several unethical practices. One issue was when a CEO killed a wild elephant in Africa in 2011. Again, in 2011, GoDaddy underwent scrutiny by offering support for SOPA which was an example of people not being able to exercise a freedom of speech or what they wanted to do while online. GoDaddy pulled its support because people were going to boycott the company (Clay, K. 2012). The advertisement was simply controversial because it portrayed women as sex symbols, showing them partying in the workplace. It was an issue of sexism and since it was shown during the Super Bowl, it was a direct attempt at men that is the general demographic of people that watch football. Instead of offering an intelligent response, the company still maintains to show sexism in their ads, with one of their sexiest ads ever to appear during the 2013 Super Bowl where a â€Å"hot† model was in a deep lip lock with a nerdy man. This advertisement increased sales for GoDaddy.com tremendously (Huffington Post, 2013). It was uncomfortable to watch and still continued to use women as sexual objects that could use control over men to get what they want. In my opinion, viewers ignore it and find it humorous though the underlying message is disgusting. GoDaddy has not learned its lesson at all and seem proud to offend others. The public is desensitized to seeing women as sex symbols a nd it is a role that is reinforced through other companies such as Victoria’s Secret and Hooters. Feminists should be livid over these companies that use these examples and though Victoria’s Secret is geared at women to buy lingerie, every single one of these examples should issue an apology to women everywhere for depicting them as

Corporate governance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Corporate governance - Essay Example 12). This paper seeks to compare and contrast the theoretical framework of corporate governance, and explain how agency theory can be used to explain corporate governance arrangements in modern companies. The agency theory emanates from the separation of control from ownership such that professional managers manage the firm on behalf of the original owners. The theory draws strength in the rise of conflicts when the owner of a firm perceives that professional managers do not follow the best interests of the owners (Wong and Mwanzia, 2011, p., 2011, p. 16). The theory focuses on analyzing and resolving relationship between owners and shareholders of a firm and the agents or top management, this is based on the basic assumption that the role of a firm is to maximize the wealth and investment of its owners and shareholders. The agency theory works based on a form operating with limited information and uncertainty in its operations. As a result, the firm remains exposed to possibilities of agency issues such as adverse selection and moral hazard. Adverse selection in this case occurs when principals fail to determine, with certainty, whether an agent accurately portrays his or her ability to execute the duties with which they are charged. On the other hand, moral hazard refers to a condition under which a principal cannot ascertain the probability of an agent putting or giving their best towards the wellbeing of a firm (Wong and Mwanzia, 2011, p. 16). The theory also purports that availing superior information on a firm to professional managers gives an edge to agents over the owners. This is because the top managers of a firm may bear more interest in individual welfare than that of the firm or its shareholders and owners. This way, managers fail to act maximally towards the returns of a firm unless proper governance structures are out in place as a means to safeguard the interest of shareholders (Wong and Mwanzia, 2011, p. 16). As a result, the agency theory call s for curtailing the potential of managers to behave in ways that contradict the best interests of shareholders and owners of any given firm. In addition, the theory brings to light the strength of top management in having the stock of a firm held in a wide manner by many shareholders, and the composition of the board of directors being that of people with little knowledge on the firm. According to this theory, the management should be in a position to own stocks of the firm they manage in order to create a positive relationship between corporate governance and the amount of stock owned by the top management (Wong and Mwanzia, 2011, p. 16). This way, the agency managing the form can put the interests of the firm ahead of their own, and the conflict between ownership and agency can end. Thus, because of having a substantial amount of stock in their name, top management becomes more willing to take responsibility for the decisions it makes concerning the firm. In addition of concern, is the issue of generating rules and incentives

Business Plan for Record Label

Business Plan for Record Label Business Planning Introduction to unit eight coursework In this unit, I have the opportunity to structure a business plan for a business proposal, which I will have the opportunity to create. For this segment of the assignment, I will clarify the main activities of the business, in addition to its aims and objectives. The assignment will also be focusing on the marketing and financial planning of my chosen business, notwithstanding, the operations and financial planning of the proposed business proposal. At the end of it all, I will be evaluating my business and its viability. However, to start a business I will need a business plan. A business plan is essentially a plan of a business that is to be set up; this is usually a written piece of statement about the business (think of it as a blueprint). This is a useful document to have because; firstly, it outlines the business itself and outlines what the business is essentially about, and secondly, it allows the owner/manager of the business to work towards the success of the business by spotting and avoiding failures. In general, a business plan will have the following statements; what the business is all about (i.e. the nature of the business), the aims and objectives of the business (What they hope to achieve and expect in the future) and how the individual plans and will o about creating the business. This can be illustrated in a majority of ways however; a financial planning of the first six months or perhaps even a year would be ideal or information about how the investments are to be raised for the business. A business plan is a very indispensable piece of document to have if someone is considering starting their own business, this is because a business plan outlines/predicts what the business will be like after setting up that gives a clear understanding of how the aims and objective are to be obtained as well as defining them. Furthermore, a business plan will also help to plot any pitfall along the way, i.e. a detailed cash flow of a businesss first six months will be able to suggest if the business will have a higher cost when compared with the profit they make, even before the business has started, and this can prevent major loss of profitability. Not only does a business plan outlines and spots major flaws in the business, but many businesses and entrepreneurs use it as a source of motivation; a backdrop to compare their current performance against. Further adding more, a business plan would be beneficial to establish or to re-evaluate the businesss competitive position within the market place by conducting a thorough analysis of the competition. This would involve finding out the strengths and weaknesses of the competition and how the business can be taken advantage of. In conclusion, as mentioned above, a business plan is important for a business because it helps to clarify the vision of the business and decide whether to forge ahead with the idea. Without a business plan, it would be very difficult to convince external investors to invest the business. Not only that, a business plan will also help the business determine their target market that they want to aim their product at, which is always useful to know. The Business Proposal For my chosen business proposal, I have decided to create a music label, and have named it P.K. Media. Generally, the term â€Å"Record label† is something that is associated with the music industry. A Record label is a brand and a trademark, which is associated with the procedure of marketing and distributing musical recordings and music videos of their signed artists. A record label is also the company that manages the artists/bands and coordinates, manufactures, promotes and distributes their productions i.e. music/videos. Record labels are also responsible for the enforcement of copyright protection on the media that they distribute such as CDs and DVDs, so that their content (such as music), cannot be copied and sold as pirated versions of their work to the customers by other individuals. The business I intend to propose will primarily focus on the production and the promotion of the music of its artists/bands in the local area, the Midlands. The reason for this is that there is a much lower cost of setting up a music label for the local area as there are less promotional activities which the label would have to finance and carry out, thus reducing the start up cost of the business compared to if it was a nationwide business. The main services/products that P.K. Media will provide to its consumers and music acts are as follow: * Music sold using online services such as iTunes and the business website. Some music will be available for free download as a promotional activity. * Provide live performances by its artists and bands as a secondary service. o Commissions from artist will be charged on this, depending the amount of tickets sold by the act. * Offer promotional services for unsigned artist and band acts and charge commission depending on their popularity, music sold, the amount of record deal they receive etc. o Free promotional services will also be available for unsigned artists on the businesss website for uploading their work to display to the internet audiences. o Manufacturing CDs and DVDs will also be available for artists wishing to use for promotional use, however it is highly likely that there will be a fixed cost for this service. * Record deals will be available for artists; majority of the aforementioned services will available with this, as the business will undertake the sole responsibility for the promotion, distribution, production and the sales of the artist/bands music signed to P.K. Media. * Recording facilities and personnel will be available to customers who wish to record their own music that will be mixed by a professional studio engineer. Customers will be charged on an hourly basis or perhaps special offers upon depending upon how much music they wish to record. Live performance are a good way of raising additional profit other than selling CDs because with live performances, My business can charge commission from the local pubs/bars to supply the live performances with beverages, as a result the pubs and bars will also get some promotion of their products and services which will benefit their businesses as well. Furthermore, the business will also be able to make profit through selling tickets for the live performances. The location of this business will be varied and may not be based in a single location, the reason being that if my business is organising the performances, then it will have to be located at the performances to manage the bands and other aspects of the performance i.e. selling the tickets. However, P.K. Media will need facilities to record the band/artists music and venues for live performances, for this it will be a necessity to have access to a recording studio and to be able to rent a venue in the local area. Having acce ss to a studio can be done in a number of ways such as renting a recording studio in the local area or purchasing the equipment and setting up the recording studio at home or other location, such as a youth centre or other rented location like flats or houses. The cost of the musical equipment such as; mixing boards, computers, mics, instruments, audio processing hardware and sound proofing the location can add up to a significant amount and as a new business the cost of starting up should be kept at a minimum. Ultimately, a more convenient option would be to rent a recording studio, which is pre-provided with all the equipment needed (as described above). Another issue which may arise would be that if my business had to purchase the musical equipment I would have to purchase the low-end equipment as the high-end (studio quality) equipment can cost thousands and upwards and as a small independent music label there would be limitations for the finance. In addition, the low-end equipm ent could also reduce the quality of the recording, and as a record label that will not be beneficial for the artists because consumers would not want to purchase bad quality products especially if the product is aimed at entertainment purposes. Imagine listening to ones favourite song with hissing noisiest, crackle and static noises, it would not be pleasant to listen to which is why quality of the audio is a substantial element of a record label. Reason for choice of business? The idea of a record label interested me because; with a record label, there is no need to purchase stock; it is a service-based business, which means that a record label does not have to manufacture or purchase anything other than to sign the artist and record CDs. A record label is basically, the intermediate service between audiences/customers and the artist. In essence, while the artist makes the product, the record label simply delivers it to the customers, almost like an intermediary. Another thing which seemed interesting is that the possibility of a sole ownership of the business. Since a record label is a service-based business, it is not necessary to have partners (as with any other businesses). It can be set-up with a moderately low cost, which mean that there is no need to invite external investors to invest in the business and hold a percentage of shares in the business, leaving room for more creative control over the business. Personal interest is another factor that may have influenced my choice to pick a record label for a business proposal. Unqualified amateur musician myself, I find that music is the greatest past time for all ages which is why I liked the idea of providing people with good quality of music to listen to which is easily accessible and is at moderately low price. Overall, I believe that a record label should be a viable business proposal for this assignment because like many businesses it requires marketing strategies, target consumers and a product. A further consideration is that almost everyone listens to music (to some extent) whether it is purchased from store or downloaded from the web and it is because of this that music is considered as one of the major immersed art form, which hints of a profitable market sector. What are Aims and Objectives? It is imperative for a business to have a basic requirement and have clear aims and objectives in order to prosper and move forward in their field. Aims and objectives are frequently used together to set/represent a certain achievement which is why they can often be mistaken to having similar meaning, however, they have a significant different to each other. Aims, to summarise, are essentially a brief statement, which majority of the time are short sentences; for instance, ‘maximise profit or ‘increase customer growth. Aims are most commonly use to identify the overall target of a business, states their intentions, and what they hope to achieve in the future of the business. On a different note, objectives are more complex and ‘to the point than aims. Objectives, unlike aims, are more detailed and can be longer depending on the objective itself. For example, if a company wanted to increase their market, they could set themselves and objective of ‘increase employee productivity by 20%, within in the next six months. As you can see, an objective is more complex, and more detailed. Furthermore, the detail in objectives tends to be numerical details such as specific dates, time frame, percentages etc. This is because objectives are a follow-up of aims. An objective is set merely set to accomplish or to achieve an aim. To illustrate, if a businesss aim is to ‘maximise profit, then they may decide to set themselves the objective of ‘increase sales from 15.7% to 20%, within six months period. By increasing the sales of the business from 15.7% to 20%, a business can ensure that they are retaining their customers and increasing their profi t within six months. However, some businesses may decide to have a sub-objective to this which could be something like ‘increase employee productivity by 2% in 30 days, to ensure that the business is getting the most out of their employees. This also proves the fact that individuals who either own the business or are in charge of the business are the ones who normally make aims. They may decide that their business should be making more profit so they pass it down to the managers who would look at it and perhaps add more detail to it, and as aims are passed down from person to person they become more detailed and complex, thus being objectives. There are a numerous reason as to why a business should set itself aims and objective;, the most obvious one would be that aims and objectives sets a goal for the business and gives some a target to work for, for many businesses this is a good source of motivation. Aims and objectives can also help a business realise their progress because aims and objective provide a backdrop for achievement in which a business can compare their current or previous progress with their aims or objective and calculate what is required to be done in order to meet those targets they have set for themselves. A controversial use of aims and objectives is to use them as a publicity device, in unit one, I had to investigate Tesco as a business and what I found was that Tesco had use their objectives as a publicity device by having economical objectives such as ‘reduce carbon footprints to gain good publicity from the media and their customers. Nevertheless, businesses have to be careful how they use or establish their aims and objectives because if they set objectives for their employees which are not applicable or achievable for the business then the business could face some pitfalls. The employees may feel under-pressure/ stressful and could de-motivate them which would evidently lead to a low productivity rate and could in some circumstances affect the businesss income. S.M.A.R.T Targets SMART targets or sometimes called SMART Objectives, are considered to be a sub-division of objectives, SMART targets are a method to ensure that the objectives which are set by a company are actually achievable by the business and the employees; it is a method of measuring the credibility of an objective which has been set. SMART is an acronym that stands for: Specific objectives, which are set, need to be specific and state exactly what the business wants to achieve. The reason an objective needs to be specific is because the manager/supervisor and the employee need to know what is expected of them and perhaps the time frame if that is applicable. Measurable most often, when objectives are set they need to be able to measure how much an individuals or a business have progressed towards those targets. Measuring a target is often very crucial towards the success of achieving that target because by measuring a target, businesses can estimate how much work is underway and how much additional effort needs to be exerted in order to achieve certain objectives. Achievable when objectives are set, one of the major issues, which a business must realise is that the target is achievable for the business. The business needs to think about; whether they have the required skills, recourses, investments, tools, human recourses etc. If the objectives are unrealistic or not achievable by the business then (as mentioned above) it can affect the productivity of employee and de-motivate them, and low productivity would surely affect the businesses activities and profits. Realistic or relevant objectives should also be relevant to the businesses aims. For example, if a business wants to increase market share, it would be irrelevant for them to set the target eliminate competitors products from the market; it would be very unrealistic. An objective needs to be relevant, they need to be something, which the business can take an action upon or have access to. Timely normally, when objectives are set, they have a timescale such as ‘increase the growth and the market share of the business by 2010. Setting timescale within an objective is beneficial as it gives a business a deadline as t when the objective needs to be achieved by, so the business can move onto their other objectives, which needs to be completed towards their aims. Aims for my business Just like any other modern businesses, my business needs to have aims and objectives, which it should be able to accomplish. Setting aims and objectives will help determine investors as well as myself the main goals of my business, and along the way, it could also help my business spot the potential target market hic hi should aim my business at in order to achieve some of businesss targets. ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit. One of the major aims of my business would be to minimise the costs of the business, which goes into the production of the products (i.e. music albums and singles) and therefore must be kept at a minimum range. The reason behind this is that, if I were to start the business as a sole trader, there would be a limited amount of investments, which I could have access to and since my business is a record label there arent any need of purchasing any kind of stock or manufacturing materials in the sense of hard labour. As a newly set up business, it would be most advantageous to reduce the cost of the business to reduce the chances of getting into a cash flow problem such as over-budgeting or not having enough sales of the product where the costs would out-weigh the profit. It is because of this issue that leads to many businesses failing within the first year because they run into cash flow problem such as these; however, a good cash f low analysis should be able to determine any issue such as these that may arise. As well as reducing costs, my business also needs to be considering maximising its profits because without profit there will be no business to operate. Maximising profit is a necessity for any business, because it is what influences/motivates their day-to-day operations and their employees, without profit a business would not have the funding to employ employees or rent premises or other necessities. Furthermore, another crucial reason for a good profit for a business is that if a business is backed-up by inventors then the business (Owner) needs to prove to the investors that the business is worthwhile investing in because if the business starts to show a decline in profits then the investors are going to be the first ones who will back-out from the investments because they will not to make a loss themselves. As a summary, if there is no profit, there is no business. In my businesss quest to maximise profit; there could be a number of challenges/issues that could affect my business achieving the aim of ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit, and the following explains; One of the most significant issues that my record label business would have to deal with is the recession, which was caused by the financial crisis during the year 2007 and the year 2009. The financial crisis was the reduction in the availability of loans (credit) and to some extent; tightening of the condition required to obtain a loan from the banks, this evolved into the interest rates being incredibly high. The definite caused behind the credit crisis is highly doubtable, however, one reason might be that UK bought many mortgage debts from the U.S. (this might have been directly or indirectly) therefore when U.S. mortgage default rose, preponderance of the UK banks lost money. Because interest rates rose dramatically, many individuals in the population had to pay more for their loans and mortgages, which meant that individuals and many businesses had less disposable cash to spare and consequently, many businesses found themselves being either bankrupt or making employees redundan t to prevent bankruptcy. The reason why I believe that the recession may affect my business is because many individuals are un-employed, which means that they may be on some sort of limited income (either through council or jobseekers allowance). Ultimately, this would mean that many individuals would have less disposable income to spend on CDs and DVDs for personal entertainment and if my business is not selling many products, it will be in a high risk of having very high costs that could out-number the total sales of the business. This could put my business in a potential risk of being bankrupt, as you can see from fig.1, it is estimated that the recession will only get worse. In contrast, the recession may not be disastrously bad for my business. The reason behind this would be that because of the recession more people would be un-employed and have a whole lot of spare time on their hands as less people would be working nine to five shifts, this would mean that individuals would be looking for activities to pass their time. This could mean that people will be more reliant upon entrainment such as the cinemas, movies, theatre, music etc. This could potentially excel my business because more individuals would be interested and looking to escape from reality through the financial crisis, similarly to people who went through the Great Depression in the United States during 1929, which saw the rise of movie sales. To conclude, the recession is something that is known as an external factor, which no business has a control over. The recession could have a big impact on my business; however this factor could prove to be advantageous for my business as mentioned earlier, there are a lot more people with more spare time on their hands, and as a result they will be looking for something to entertain themselves and if marketing is done correctly for the business, it will prove to be beneficial. As one can see above, regardless of the recession and the credit crisis that started in 2007, the sales of digital music increased dramatically through the years and the digital music industry is more profitable than ever in the US with industry profit of 2.9 Billion dollars, a 15% from 2004 which was only 0.4 billion profit being made. One of the major issues that my business will have to confront other than the recent financial crisis is the piracy of music through the internet. In essence, music piracy the violation of copyright infringement (copyright), this means the unauthorised use of materials that is covered by the copyright law. For electronic and audio-visual media, this is normally referred to as piracy. Piracy is a factor that could have the biggest impact at my businesss aim to ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit. As one can see in the article opposite, the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) has predicted that music piracy has risen by thirty-six percent, which has cost the UK music industry twenty-six million pounds, which is a tremendous amount of load-sum. Music piracy is a factor which could directly affect my business because if my business released a single which was popular (Music hit) then the probability is that a lot of customers will be reluctant to purchase the single or the album in order to save money and they would perhaps download the product through an illegal download website or through the use of torrents (which is a peer-to-peer download service provided free from the internet). This is the most likely event to occur because as mentioned previously, the recession has left a lot of people un-employed which means that they may have a very low inco me and have limited amount of disposable cash to spend on entertainment. Because a lot of my businesss target consumers will be getting my product (music) through the internet without pay for it, this could result in my business have a major decline in profit because although the products my business offer may be very popular amongst the target consumers but because they are not paying for the goods my business will have no way in which they can financially benefit from. Many of the bi names in the record label business like ‘Universal Music or the ‘Sony BMG group do tend to copyright the CDs and DVDs that they manufacture and distribute, however, recent technological development has given an regular computer user to copy content from these copyrighted disks (using free software from the internet) from a single click of a button, and if that individual uploads the content of the disk to the internet then the content of that disk will be exposed to thousands if not millio ns of users on the internet which is why the modern music industry is suffering from million of pounds and dollars of damage from piracy and it is very unfortunate for my business as there is no method to battle the rising issue of music piracy because if my businesss products were copyrighted, many consumers or users will be able to find a way to copy content. In addition, copyrighting thousands of disks would prove to be a very costly task and evidently, this will prevent my business in achieving my aim to ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit. However, not all is tenebrous, my business could still prevail if it turned to a more digitals means to provide the products to the customers, such means could be; having free web player on the businesss website to play the hit singles; free selected music downloads of popular songs; and most importantly selling products through the internet. Most of these solutions would eliminate the cost of producing CDs because a lot of teenagers nowadays are using things like their mobile phones, mp3 players and devices such as the iPod for playback of their music. If the popular products of my business (songs) are being provided free from the companys own website, then the business will have more exposure from the public, which, in the end, could work out to be beneficial. As the businesss website generates more viewers, the chances are internet companies like Google; YouTube; Amazon etc. who will want to advertise their services on my businesss website, which the business could generate some i ncome from as well as gaining public interest and recognition as business. Music piracy most definitely will affect my business and the corporate aim to ‘Minimise costs and maximise potential profit. Internet nowadays is available to almost every house, office and schools/college in the country that millions of people have access too, and the internet is too big to have control over. Nevertheless, good marketing and internet advertisement may fill in the lacunae of profit that may be lost due to music piracy. ‘Increase/attain good public relations with the local community and customers. In my opinion, good public relations with customers should be an imperative aim for abounding businesses. After all, businesses depend on their customers satisfaction and support by which if they did not have good relationship with customers then it will be highly likely that the business will not be able to retain their customers. This issue could lead to a decline in their profit margins or worse gain an incredible amount of bad publicity or a bad reputation as a whole. A record label is not a publicly noticeable business because a record labels product is what gains notoriety as publicity rather than a business as coherent whole. This is because customers are mainly attracted to the stars and the music they make rather than the service that provides them the service. This can be beneficial or a drawback, consider which way one looks at it. From my personal perspective, it is a benefit because it means that my business will not be in the public eye and will not attract major interest if my business were have an issue, this could be a number of things like mistakes (which a lot of businesses make) or redundancy of a major band or artist etc. So in order to gain good public relations with the local community and customers will be a very laborious task to conduct. Nevertheless, with dubious tasks, there are always strategies, and my main strategy to in achieve this aim to ‘Increase/attain good public relations with the local community and customers, will be to organise youth activities and perhaps cultural events, the next page will explain this. As one can see in 4 (Next page), an extract from BBC news website, the level of youth crime has increased dramatically over the past decade in the United Kingdom. Teenage knife crime has increased so much that law enforcements had to enforce harsh laws upon teenage delinquents in order to keep crime at a minimum. The articles below states that boys from the age of eleven to eighteen are likely the ones to be carrying knifes, and are the most likely culprits in the rise of such crimes. The article also states that most of these young offenders have been; excluded, dropped out of school or have already had been given time to serve under law custody. So ultimately, these are the age groups which are been targeted by the law to tackle such crimes. How does this issue help my business to achieve good customer relationship one may wonder? Well to start with, teens that have been expelled, excluded, dropped out etc. from school have nothing to do other than wonder around with friends on the streets and cause trouble to the society and the individuals in the local community. This leads me to believe that, organising local youth music activities and providing creative services such as recording facilities and musical guidance for youths free of charge may be a very beneficial factor not only for my business but also to the local community. Having to organise such events for young people will be very beneficial to a majority of people youths, local community and my business. This is because firstly, by providing youths will free services and activities will encourage them to stay off the streets and be passionate and involved in something creative for their time, and secondly, by having lees teens on the streets in the local community will prevent crime and hopefully reduce the crime rate locally, so older generation who may be intimidated by teens will feel much more safer. Personally, I believe that teens only resort to crime as a recreational activity as well as to gain attention to themselves; this is only an opinion of course. However, by giving teens, facilities to be in and express themselves artistically through music may help to make a productive use of their time; also, it could be a place where teens can get attention that they desire from other like friends, other social groups or even the community. Knife sentencing not effective A selection of knives found by police The study found young people were living in constant fear of attack Longer jail terms are not an effective way of persuading teenagers to stop carrying knives, research suggests. Pentonville Prison governor Nicola Marfleet interviewed 14 to 17-year-olds who had either been excluded from school or were serving time in custody. She found most believed tough sentences were only meant to scare them, and they were more likely to be tagged. The Home Office said the government was using a combination of deterrence and education to tackle the problem. Rival gangs The study found that some boys were carrying knives from the age of 11. Ms Marfleet concluded that knife-crime prevention work must be targeted at this age group in order to be effective. She interviewed about 24 boys in focus groups at pupil referral units in Hackney and Haringey, north London, and four boys one-to-one at Feltham Young Offender Institution in west London Possession of a knife carries a maximum jail term of four years, but most of the teenagers did not believe they would receive such a harsh punishment. Two of those interviewed said that regardless of the possible penalty, they would not stop carrying a knife because they needed one for protection. Almost all of the teenagers said they could not rely on par Business Plan for Record Label Business Plan for Record Label Business Planning Introduction to unit eight coursework In this unit, I have the opportunity to structure a business plan for a business proposal, which I will have the opportunity to create. For this segment of the assignment, I will clarify the main activities of the business, in addition to its aims and objectives. The assignment will also be focusing on the marketing and financial planning of my chosen business, notwithstanding, the operations and financial planning of the proposed business proposal. At the end of it all, I will be evaluating my business and its viability. However, to start a business I will need a business plan. A business plan is essentially a plan of a business that is to be set up; this is usually a written piece of statement about the business (think of it as a blueprint). This is a useful document to have because; firstly, it outlines the business itself and outlines what the business is essentially about, and secondly, it allows the owner/manager of the business to work towards the success of the business by spotting and avoiding failures. In general, a business plan will have the following statements; what the business is all about (i.e. the nature of the business), the aims and objectives of the business (What they hope to achieve and expect in the future) and how the individual plans and will o about creating the business. This can be illustrated in a majority of ways however; a financial planning of the first six months or perhaps even a year would be ideal or information about how the investments are to be raised for the business. A business plan is a very indispensable piece of document to have if someone is considering starting their own business, this is because a business plan outlines/predicts what the business will be like after setting up that gives a clear understanding of how the aims and objective are to be obtained as well as defining them. Furthermore, a business plan will also help to plot any pitfall along the way, i.e. a detailed cash flow of a businesss first six months will be able to suggest if the business will have a higher cost when compared with the profit they make, even before the business has started, and this can prevent major loss of profitability. Not only does a business plan outlines and spots major flaws in the business, but many businesses and entrepreneurs use it as a source of motivation; a backdrop to compare their current performance against. Further adding more, a business plan would be beneficial to establish or to re-evaluate the businesss competitive position within the market place by conducting a thorough analysis of the competition. This would involve finding out the strengths and weaknesses of the competition and how the business can be taken advantage of. In conclusion, as mentioned above, a business plan is important for a business because it helps to clarify the vision of the business and decide whether to forge ahead with the idea. Without a business plan, it would be very difficult to convince external investors to invest the business. Not only that, a business plan will also help the business determine their target market that they want to aim their product at, which is always useful to know. The Business Proposal For my chosen business proposal, I have decided to create a music label, and have named it P.K. Media. Generally, the term â€Å"Record label† is something that is associated with the music industry. A Record label is a brand and a trademark, which is associated with the procedure of marketing and distributing musical recordings and music videos of their signed artists. A record label is also the company that manages the artists/bands and coordinates, manufactures, promotes and distributes their productions i.e. music/videos. Record labels are also responsible for the enforcement of copyright protection on the media that they distribute such as CDs and DVDs, so that their content (such as music), cannot be copied and sold as pirated versions of their work to the customers by other individuals. The business I intend to propose will primarily focus on the production and the promotion of the music of its artists/bands in the local area, the Midlands. The reason for this is that there is a much lower cost of setting up a music label for the local area as there are less promotional activities which the label would have to finance and carry out, thus reducing the start up cost of the business compared to if it was a nationwide business. The main services/products that P.K. Media will provide to its consumers and music acts are as follow: * Music sold using online services such as iTunes and the business website. Some music will be available for free download as a promotional activity. * Provide live performances by its artists and bands as a secondary service. o Commissions from artist will be charged on this, depending the amount of tickets sold by the act. * Offer promotional services for unsigned artist and band acts and charge commission depending on their popularity, music sold, the amount of record deal they receive etc. o Free promotional services will also be available for unsigned artists on the businesss website for uploading their work to display to the internet audiences. o Manufacturing CDs and DVDs will also be available for artists wishing to use for promotional use, however it is highly likely that there will be a fixed cost for this service. * Record deals will be available for artists; majority of the aforementioned services will available with this, as the business will undertake the sole responsibility for the promotion, distribution, production and the sales of the artist/bands music signed to P.K. Media. * Recording facilities and personnel will be available to customers who wish to record their own music that will be mixed by a professional studio engineer. Customers will be charged on an hourly basis or perhaps special offers upon depending upon how much music they wish to record. Live performance are a good way of raising additional profit other than selling CDs because with live performances, My business can charge commission from the local pubs/bars to supply the live performances with beverages, as a result the pubs and bars will also get some promotion of their products and services which will benefit their businesses as well. Furthermore, the business will also be able to make profit through selling tickets for the live performances. The location of this business will be varied and may not be based in a single location, the reason being that if my business is organising the performances, then it will have to be located at the performances to manage the bands and other aspects of the performance i.e. selling the tickets. However, P.K. Media will need facilities to record the band/artists music and venues for live performances, for this it will be a necessity to have access to a recording studio and to be able to rent a venue in the local area. Having acce ss to a studio can be done in a number of ways such as renting a recording studio in the local area or purchasing the equipment and setting up the recording studio at home or other location, such as a youth centre or other rented location like flats or houses. The cost of the musical equipment such as; mixing boards, computers, mics, instruments, audio processing hardware and sound proofing the location can add up to a significant amount and as a new business the cost of starting up should be kept at a minimum. Ultimately, a more convenient option would be to rent a recording studio, which is pre-provided with all the equipment needed (as described above). Another issue which may arise would be that if my business had to purchase the musical equipment I would have to purchase the low-end equipment as the high-end (studio quality) equipment can cost thousands and upwards and as a small independent music label there would be limitations for the finance. In addition, the low-end equipm ent could also reduce the quality of the recording, and as a record label that will not be beneficial for the artists because consumers would not want to purchase bad quality products especially if the product is aimed at entertainment purposes. Imagine listening to ones favourite song with hissing noisiest, crackle and static noises, it would not be pleasant to listen to which is why quality of the audio is a substantial element of a record label. Reason for choice of business? The idea of a record label interested me because; with a record label, there is no need to purchase stock; it is a service-based business, which means that a record label does not have to manufacture or purchase anything other than to sign the artist and record CDs. A record label is basically, the intermediate service between audiences/customers and the artist. In essence, while the artist makes the product, the record label simply delivers it to the customers, almost like an intermediary. Another thing which seemed interesting is that the possibility of a sole ownership of the business. Since a record label is a service-based business, it is not necessary to have partners (as with any other businesses). It can be set-up with a moderately low cost, which mean that there is no need to invite external investors to invest in the business and hold a percentage of shares in the business, leaving room for more creative control over the business. Personal interest is another factor that may have influenced my choice to pick a record label for a business proposal. Unqualified amateur musician myself, I find that music is the greatest past time for all ages which is why I liked the idea of providing people with good quality of music to listen to which is easily accessible and is at moderately low price. Overall, I believe that a record label should be a viable business proposal for this assignment because like many businesses it requires marketing strategies, target consumers and a product. A further consideration is that almost everyone listens to music (to some extent) whether it is purchased from store or downloaded from the web and it is because of this that music is considered as one of the major immersed art form, which hints of a profitable market sector. What are Aims and Objectives? It is imperative for a business to have a basic requirement and have clear aims and objectives in order to prosper and move forward in their field. Aims and objectives are frequently used together to set/represent a certain achievement which is why they can often be mistaken to having similar meaning, however, they have a significant different to each other. Aims, to summarise, are essentially a brief statement, which majority of the time are short sentences; for instance, ‘maximise profit or ‘increase customer growth. Aims are most commonly use to identify the overall target of a business, states their intentions, and what they hope to achieve in the future of the business. On a different note, objectives are more complex and ‘to the point than aims. Objectives, unlike aims, are more detailed and can be longer depending on the objective itself. For example, if a company wanted to increase their market, they could set themselves and objective of ‘increase employee productivity by 20%, within in the next six months. As you can see, an objective is more complex, and more detailed. Furthermore, the detail in objectives tends to be numerical details such as specific dates, time frame, percentages etc. This is because objectives are a follow-up of aims. An objective is set merely set to accomplish or to achieve an aim. To illustrate, if a businesss aim is to ‘maximise profit, then they may decide to set themselves the objective of ‘increase sales from 15.7% to 20%, within six months period. By increasing the sales of the business from 15.7% to 20%, a business can ensure that they are retaining their customers and increasing their profi t within six months. However, some businesses may decide to have a sub-objective to this which could be something like ‘increase employee productivity by 2% in 30 days, to ensure that the business is getting the most out of their employees. This also proves the fact that individuals who either own the business or are in charge of the business are the ones who normally make aims. They may decide that their business should be making more profit so they pass it down to the managers who would look at it and perhaps add more detail to it, and as aims are passed down from person to person they become more detailed and complex, thus being objectives. There are a numerous reason as to why a business should set itself aims and objective;, the most obvious one would be that aims and objectives sets a goal for the business and gives some a target to work for, for many businesses this is a good source of motivation. Aims and objectives can also help a business realise their progress because aims and objective provide a backdrop for achievement in which a business can compare their current or previous progress with their aims or objective and calculate what is required to be done in order to meet those targets they have set for themselves. A controversial use of aims and objectives is to use them as a publicity device, in unit one, I had to investigate Tesco as a business and what I found was that Tesco had use their objectives as a publicity device by having economical objectives such as ‘reduce carbon footprints to gain good publicity from the media and their customers. Nevertheless, businesses have to be careful how they use or establish their aims and objectives because if they set objectives for their employees which are not applicable or achievable for the business then the business could face some pitfalls. The employees may feel under-pressure/ stressful and could de-motivate them which would evidently lead to a low productivity rate and could in some circumstances affect the businesss income. S.M.A.R.T Targets SMART targets or sometimes called SMART Objectives, are considered to be a sub-division of objectives, SMART targets are a method to ensure that the objectives which are set by a company are actually achievable by the business and the employees; it is a method of measuring the credibility of an objective which has been set. SMART is an acronym that stands for: Specific objectives, which are set, need to be specific and state exactly what the business wants to achieve. The reason an objective needs to be specific is because the manager/supervisor and the employee need to know what is expected of them and perhaps the time frame if that is applicable. Measurable most often, when objectives are set they need to be able to measure how much an individuals or a business have progressed towards those targets. Measuring a target is often very crucial towards the success of achieving that target because by measuring a target, businesses can estimate how much work is underway and how much additional effort needs to be exerted in order to achieve certain objectives. Achievable when objectives are set, one of the major issues, which a business must realise is that the target is achievable for the business. The business needs to think about; whether they have the required skills, recourses, investments, tools, human recourses etc. If the objectives are unrealistic or not achievable by the business then (as mentioned above) it can affect the productivity of employee and de-motivate them, and low productivity would surely affect the businesses activities and profits. Realistic or relevant objectives should also be relevant to the businesses aims. For example, if a business wants to increase market share, it would be irrelevant for them to set the target eliminate competitors products from the market; it would be very unrealistic. An objective needs to be relevant, they need to be something, which the business can take an action upon or have access to. Timely normally, when objectives are set, they have a timescale such as ‘increase the growth and the market share of the business by 2010. Setting timescale within an objective is beneficial as it gives a business a deadline as t when the objective needs to be achieved by, so the business can move onto their other objectives, which needs to be completed towards their aims. Aims for my business Just like any other modern businesses, my business needs to have aims and objectives, which it should be able to accomplish. Setting aims and objectives will help determine investors as well as myself the main goals of my business, and along the way, it could also help my business spot the potential target market hic hi should aim my business at in order to achieve some of businesss targets. ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit. One of the major aims of my business would be to minimise the costs of the business, which goes into the production of the products (i.e. music albums and singles) and therefore must be kept at a minimum range. The reason behind this is that, if I were to start the business as a sole trader, there would be a limited amount of investments, which I could have access to and since my business is a record label there arent any need of purchasing any kind of stock or manufacturing materials in the sense of hard labour. As a newly set up business, it would be most advantageous to reduce the cost of the business to reduce the chances of getting into a cash flow problem such as over-budgeting or not having enough sales of the product where the costs would out-weigh the profit. It is because of this issue that leads to many businesses failing within the first year because they run into cash flow problem such as these; however, a good cash f low analysis should be able to determine any issue such as these that may arise. As well as reducing costs, my business also needs to be considering maximising its profits because without profit there will be no business to operate. Maximising profit is a necessity for any business, because it is what influences/motivates their day-to-day operations and their employees, without profit a business would not have the funding to employ employees or rent premises or other necessities. Furthermore, another crucial reason for a good profit for a business is that if a business is backed-up by inventors then the business (Owner) needs to prove to the investors that the business is worthwhile investing in because if the business starts to show a decline in profits then the investors are going to be the first ones who will back-out from the investments because they will not to make a loss themselves. As a summary, if there is no profit, there is no business. In my businesss quest to maximise profit; there could be a number of challenges/issues that could affect my business achieving the aim of ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit, and the following explains; One of the most significant issues that my record label business would have to deal with is the recession, which was caused by the financial crisis during the year 2007 and the year 2009. The financial crisis was the reduction in the availability of loans (credit) and to some extent; tightening of the condition required to obtain a loan from the banks, this evolved into the interest rates being incredibly high. The definite caused behind the credit crisis is highly doubtable, however, one reason might be that UK bought many mortgage debts from the U.S. (this might have been directly or indirectly) therefore when U.S. mortgage default rose, preponderance of the UK banks lost money. Because interest rates rose dramatically, many individuals in the population had to pay more for their loans and mortgages, which meant that individuals and many businesses had less disposable cash to spare and consequently, many businesses found themselves being either bankrupt or making employees redundan t to prevent bankruptcy. The reason why I believe that the recession may affect my business is because many individuals are un-employed, which means that they may be on some sort of limited income (either through council or jobseekers allowance). Ultimately, this would mean that many individuals would have less disposable income to spend on CDs and DVDs for personal entertainment and if my business is not selling many products, it will be in a high risk of having very high costs that could out-number the total sales of the business. This could put my business in a potential risk of being bankrupt, as you can see from fig.1, it is estimated that the recession will only get worse. In contrast, the recession may not be disastrously bad for my business. The reason behind this would be that because of the recession more people would be un-employed and have a whole lot of spare time on their hands as less people would be working nine to five shifts, this would mean that individuals would be looking for activities to pass their time. This could mean that people will be more reliant upon entrainment such as the cinemas, movies, theatre, music etc. This could potentially excel my business because more individuals would be interested and looking to escape from reality through the financial crisis, similarly to people who went through the Great Depression in the United States during 1929, which saw the rise of movie sales. To conclude, the recession is something that is known as an external factor, which no business has a control over. The recession could have a big impact on my business; however this factor could prove to be advantageous for my business as mentioned earlier, there are a lot more people with more spare time on their hands, and as a result they will be looking for something to entertain themselves and if marketing is done correctly for the business, it will prove to be beneficial. As one can see above, regardless of the recession and the credit crisis that started in 2007, the sales of digital music increased dramatically through the years and the digital music industry is more profitable than ever in the US with industry profit of 2.9 Billion dollars, a 15% from 2004 which was only 0.4 billion profit being made. One of the major issues that my business will have to confront other than the recent financial crisis is the piracy of music through the internet. In essence, music piracy the violation of copyright infringement (copyright), this means the unauthorised use of materials that is covered by the copyright law. For electronic and audio-visual media, this is normally referred to as piracy. Piracy is a factor that could have the biggest impact at my businesss aim to ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit. As one can see in the article opposite, the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) has predicted that music piracy has risen by thirty-six percent, which has cost the UK music industry twenty-six million pounds, which is a tremendous amount of load-sum. Music piracy is a factor which could directly affect my business because if my business released a single which was popular (Music hit) then the probability is that a lot of customers will be reluctant to purchase the single or the album in order to save money and they would perhaps download the product through an illegal download website or through the use of torrents (which is a peer-to-peer download service provided free from the internet). This is the most likely event to occur because as mentioned previously, the recession has left a lot of people un-employed which means that they may have a very low inco me and have limited amount of disposable cash to spend on entertainment. Because a lot of my businesss target consumers will be getting my product (music) through the internet without pay for it, this could result in my business have a major decline in profit because although the products my business offer may be very popular amongst the target consumers but because they are not paying for the goods my business will have no way in which they can financially benefit from. Many of the bi names in the record label business like ‘Universal Music or the ‘Sony BMG group do tend to copyright the CDs and DVDs that they manufacture and distribute, however, recent technological development has given an regular computer user to copy content from these copyrighted disks (using free software from the internet) from a single click of a button, and if that individual uploads the content of the disk to the internet then the content of that disk will be exposed to thousands if not millio ns of users on the internet which is why the modern music industry is suffering from million of pounds and dollars of damage from piracy and it is very unfortunate for my business as there is no method to battle the rising issue of music piracy because if my businesss products were copyrighted, many consumers or users will be able to find a way to copy content. In addition, copyrighting thousands of disks would prove to be a very costly task and evidently, this will prevent my business in achieving my aim to ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit. However, not all is tenebrous, my business could still prevail if it turned to a more digitals means to provide the products to the customers, such means could be; having free web player on the businesss website to play the hit singles; free selected music downloads of popular songs; and most importantly selling products through the internet. Most of these solutions would eliminate the cost of producing CDs because a lot of teenagers nowadays are using things like their mobile phones, mp3 players and devices such as the iPod for playback of their music. If the popular products of my business (songs) are being provided free from the companys own website, then the business will have more exposure from the public, which, in the end, could work out to be beneficial. As the businesss website generates more viewers, the chances are internet companies like Google; YouTube; Amazon etc. who will want to advertise their services on my businesss website, which the business could generate some i ncome from as well as gaining public interest and recognition as business. Music piracy most definitely will affect my business and the corporate aim to ‘Minimise costs and maximise potential profit. Internet nowadays is available to almost every house, office and schools/college in the country that millions of people have access too, and the internet is too big to have control over. Nevertheless, good marketing and internet advertisement may fill in the lacunae of profit that may be lost due to music piracy. ‘Increase/attain good public relations with the local community and customers. In my opinion, good public relations with customers should be an imperative aim for abounding businesses. After all, businesses depend on their customers satisfaction and support by which if they did not have good relationship with customers then it will be highly likely that the business will not be able to retain their customers. This issue could lead to a decline in their profit margins or worse gain an incredible amount of bad publicity or a bad reputation as a whole. A record label is not a publicly noticeable business because a record labels product is what gains notoriety as publicity rather than a business as coherent whole. This is because customers are mainly attracted to the stars and the music they make rather than the service that provides them the service. This can be beneficial or a drawback, consider which way one looks at it. From my personal perspective, it is a benefit because it means that my business will not be in the public eye and will not attract major interest if my business were have an issue, this could be a number of things like mistakes (which a lot of businesses make) or redundancy of a major band or artist etc. So in order to gain good public relations with the local community and customers will be a very laborious task to conduct. Nevertheless, with dubious tasks, there are always strategies, and my main strategy to in achieve this aim to ‘Increase/attain good public relations with the local community and customers, will be to organise youth activities and perhaps cultural events, the next page will explain this. As one can see in 4 (Next page), an extract from BBC news website, the level of youth crime has increased dramatically over the past decade in the United Kingdom. Teenage knife crime has increased so much that law enforcements had to enforce harsh laws upon teenage delinquents in order to keep crime at a minimum. The articles below states that boys from the age of eleven to eighteen are likely the ones to be carrying knifes, and are the most likely culprits in the rise of such crimes. The article also states that most of these young offenders have been; excluded, dropped out of school or have already had been given time to serve under law custody. So ultimately, these are the age groups which are been targeted by the law to tackle such crimes. How does this issue help my business to achieve good customer relationship one may wonder? Well to start with, teens that have been expelled, excluded, dropped out etc. from school have nothing to do other than wonder around with friends on the streets and cause trouble to the society and the individuals in the local community. This leads me to believe that, organising local youth music activities and providing creative services such as recording facilities and musical guidance for youths free of charge may be a very beneficial factor not only for my business but also to the local community. Having to organise such events for young people will be very beneficial to a majority of people youths, local community and my business. This is because firstly, by providing youths will free services and activities will encourage them to stay off the streets and be passionate and involved in something creative for their time, and secondly, by having lees teens on the streets in the local community will prevent crime and hopefully reduce the crime rate locally, so older generation who may be intimidated by teens will feel much more safer. Personally, I believe that teens only resort to crime as a recreational activity as well as to gain attention to themselves; this is only an opinion of course. However, by giving teens, facilities to be in and express themselves artistically through music may help to make a productive use of their time; also, it could be a place where teens can get attention that they desire from other like friends, other social groups or even the community. Knife sentencing not effective A selection of knives found by police The study found young people were living in constant fear of attack Longer jail terms are not an effective way of persuading teenagers to stop carrying knives, research suggests. Pentonville Prison governor Nicola Marfleet interviewed 14 to 17-year-olds who had either been excluded from school or were serving time in custody. She found most believed tough sentences were only meant to scare them, and they were more likely to be tagged. The Home Office said the government was using a combination of deterrence and education to tackle the problem. Rival gangs The study found that some boys were carrying knives from the age of 11. Ms Marfleet concluded that knife-crime prevention work must be targeted at this age group in order to be effective. She interviewed about 24 boys in focus groups at pupil referral units in Hackney and Haringey, north London, and four boys one-to-one at Feltham Young Offender Institution in west London Possession of a knife carries a maximum jail term of four years, but most of the teenagers did not believe they would receive such a harsh punishment. Two of those interviewed said that regardless of the possible penalty, they would not stop carrying a knife because they needed one for protection. Almost all of the teenagers said they could not rely on par