The Short and the Tall Essay Example for Free

The Short and the Tall Essay We are made aware of the patrols attitudes in Act one of The Long, The Short, and the Tall, towards the Japanese prisoner from their speech, tone of voice and actions. Johnstone, member of the patrol, shows he has a harsh attitude towards the prisoner. We can see this, as when the prisoner enters the cabin, unaware of the waiting patrol, Johnstone is the first person to grab him. He calls to the others to kill the prisoner as he holds him still. He says Get him! Quick! Do for him! Give it hump! Will you just ram it in? These are very short phrases and are said quickly and in a sharp tone of voice. He also uses allot of colloquial language and never actually says kill him. This emphasises Johnstones urgency and professionalism, but also shows that he has a hard image. Because Johnstone can say all this it proves to us that he has a harsh attitude towards the Japanese prisoner and just wants him out of the way. He says We should have done him when e first turned up. In other parts of the act Johnstones attitude stays the same. He still shows no respect for the prisoner or compassion. He still believes that the Japanese prisoner should be killed and doesnt trust him. He says You think that hed have second thoughts about putting the mockers on the lot of us? This rhetorical question shows his distrust of the prisoner. He also shows that he is jealous of the prisoner for all the attention he is now getting from the patrol. He says Two minutes ago you wouldnt touch him with a barge pole. None of you! He also said Not one of you had the guts to give me a hand. This shows he still thinks the prisoner should have been killed. It shows how he has a ruthless and barbaric attitude towards the prisoner. Also later in the play he has a fight with Bamforth over the prisoner. He is horrible to the prisoner and treats him unfairly. Mitchem has a very different attitude towards the prisoner. He has no feelings for the Prisoner but sees that he can be useful. Mitchem says I want this one alive. This makes it clear to us that Mitchem has plans. However he still shows no respect towards the Japanese prisoner. We can tell this from the way he tries to speak to the prisoner. He says Trust me to cop a raving lunatic! This refers to the prisoner and emphasises the lack of compassion and respect for the prisoner. Later in the act he shows that he had only one reason to keep the prisoner. Mitchem sees it as an everyday thing. He wants to keep the prisoner so he can be used later. He says to Bamforth Hes in your charge. Look after him. This proves he still has plans and his attitude is the same. When he realises that the patrol is in danger and is behind enemy lines he decides to ditch the prisoner. He says Were ditching him. This again proves his lack of compassion for the prisoner but also his professionalism. Bamforth has a very similar attitude towards the Japanese prisoner to Johnstone. When no one can bring themselves to kill the prisoner Bamforth steps up as if it was an everyday event and says Its only the same as carving up a pig. Hold him still. This is a simile and shows us that Bamforth also has no respect for the prisoner but it also shows us that Bamforth is learned of the gang-life in London. This is because of the colloquial language used. He also uses racist language that reflects on the time the play was set. As in the 1940s racism was not an issue. Also soldiers used racist language towards the enemy so as to feel better when killing them. He calls him an Asiatic glet. Johnstone and Mitchem also use this sort of language when they say Wog grub and Tojo. As Mitchem had put Bamforth in charge of the prisoner he began to talk to him. He said Get your hands up on your head! Like this! See! He then speaks to Evans and says Hey Taff! See that, he did it like I said! This shows that he has no respect for the prisoner and sees him as an object or pet almost. Bamforths attitudes completely turn around though. As he is looking after the prisoner he begins to get friendly with him and talks to him as a mate or one of the lads. He offers him a cigarette and looks at the prisoners photos with him. This disgusts Johnstone and when he leans in to give the prisoner a light he knocks the cigarette out of his mouth. Bamforth then stands up for his new mate and has a fight his own man, Johnstone for him! Bamforth calls the prisoner a bloke, he says to Johnstone I dont have to ask you before I give a bloke a fag! This shows he sees him as a human. He then beats Johnstone until Mitchem has to interrupt. Evans has a different attitude towards the prisoner as he shows he has compassion for other humans and cant bring himself to kill an unarmed man, at least. He steps up to do the job but then changes his mind. He says I I cant do it corp. This shows of his compassion for other human beings. It also shows how scared he was for killing someone, hence the stuttering. When he says this, his voice is scared and his whole body is tensed up! He often takes the situation light heartedly and humorously. He says to Bamforth, I always knew you were an oriental creep at heart man. This shows how Evans is a friendly and funny person. He has a compassionate attitude towards the prisoner. He actually sees the prisoner as a decent human being. We see Maclieshs attitude towards the prisoner in this section. He treats the situation with humour at first but then argues with Johnstone about what should have been done to the prisoner. For humour he says He isnt exactly what you would call a handsome bloke! This shows that he hasnt got much respect for the prisoner but he still isnt as bad as some other members of the patrol. When he is arguing with Johnstone he argues by saying You cannot order men to put a bayonet into an unarmed prisoner. He also says Havent you heard of the Geneva Connection. This shows how he is professional in his job and sticks to the rules. It also shows that he may not have the same intentions as Mitchem but still believes the prisoner should be kept. Because the prisoner has been stripped of his arms by the patrol they cannot kill the prisoner. If they were to kill him it would be illegal, murder. Because the patrol have already found out that they are behind enemy lines the prisoner is no longer of any use to them. This links to inter-relationships between the groups of characters in the play. The professional soldiers, with the higher ranks (Mitchem, Macleish and Johnstone) talk about the delicate issues while the others (privates) seem to have a bit of a laugh and mess around while not on duty. The professionals talk about the problem they have with the Japanese soldier. They decide they have to kill him! They discuss this important issue while the other members of the patrol become mates with the prisoner. Mitchem says Were ditching him! What will the prisoners new friends think about this? It is illegal to kill the prisoner as he has become a prisoner of war and has no arms, however he will be a danger and a burden to the patrol! The rest of the patrol hardly show interest in the prisoner, they are interested but forget about it after they are told to carry on with there business. They arent main characters in this part of the play.

Manchester City Swot Analysis Marketing Essay

Manchester City Swot Analysis Marketing Essay INTRODUCTION The project is basically about the two football teams from different football clubs. The idea is to make a strategic comparison between the two teams. The names of the football teams that have been taken for comparison include the Manchester City Football club and Barcelona Football club. The team Manchester city is basically from the English premier league whereas the team Barcelona is from the Spanish Division (Barcelona Soccer Institute, 2012). Both the teams have a good reputation in the Football industry around the Globe. The aim of the project is to analyze the mission and vision statements of both these clubs and compare them to analyze the comparative effectiveness of the two. This will provide more information as to who is the better side of the two of them. On the other hand SWOT analysis of both teams will also be conducted and compared to see which team has the most strengths and opportunities available. BACKGROUND AND HISTORY Manchester City Football club is basically an English premier league football club located and based in Manchester. It was founded in 1880 and was initially called West Gorton. Then in 1887 they became Ardwick Association Football club and then they became Manchester City in 1894. Thisclub has played at the City of Manchester stadium since the period of 2003, and have also played for Maine Road from 1923 as well (Wikipedia, Manchester City F.C., 2013). the most cherishing and successful period for the club was in the late 1960s and the early part of 1970s when they managed to win the league championship, League Cup, FA Cup and the European Cup Winners Cup under the management of Malcolm Allison and Joe Mercer. After being defeated in the FA cup final of 1981, the cup actually went into the phase of decline, totally culminating in relegation towards the third tier of English football in 1998. This was the only time in their history that they went so down. After having regained the sta tus of premier league, the club was eventually purchased by the Abu Dhabi United Group and the club became one of the wealthiest in the world. In the year 2011 the Manchester city club managed to qualify for the champions league and was able to win the FA cup. In the year 2012 the club managed to win the premier league, which is also referred to as their first league title in the past forty years. On the other hand Futsal Club Barcelona is there from the emergence of their football club in 1899. FC Barcelona, which is also known as merely Barcelona or Barca is actually based in Barcelona Catalonia in Spain (Wikipedia, History of FC Barcelona, 2011). The team was actually founded by a group of English, Spanish and Swiss footballers, and this group was actually led by Joan Gamper. The club has been known to play amateur football in the early years until 1910 in various competitions that were regional. It was also in 1910 that the club participated in the first of their European competitions, and since that time the club has been able to win 10 UEFA trophies and a sextuple. By the year 1928 Barcelona co-founded La liga which is the top tier in Spanish football, and they also found some small string of football clubs as well. Barcelona has never been relegated from La liga and share the same record as one of their competitors known as the real Madrid. CORPORATE GOVERNANCE Corporate governance is basically a system of rules, processes and practices by which the company is controlled and directed. The concept actually involves balancing the interests of the various stakeholders in the company. Looking at the structure of both the football clubs, both are very similar and follow a business format of a public limited company. Manchester city Football club has been having a good time with the management and all the stakeholders of the company are satisfied (Corporate Info, 2012). The main reason behind this is that the management of the football club aims to motivate the football players and fans for the company, on the other hand the players believe in continuous and quality. The main aim of this football club is to fulfill the expectations of their fans and people. On the other hand Barcelona is one of the most successful clubs of the world. The club believes in total quality and promotes many core values like healthy diet, tolerance, and sports for the disabled. On the other hand the club also speaks against racism (Pont, 2011). The management of the company and the players has been facing some problems; therefore Barcelona fails to balance the interests of various stakeholders of the company. SWOT ANALYSIS BARCELONA FOOTBALL CLUB STRENGTHS Barcelona has a strong local Brand name and the best club in Europe and Spain. The Camp Now stadium of Barcelona has a seating capacity in excess of 100000 Barcelona has the best players in the world that are playing for their Team. The brands known as the UNICEF, Qatar Foundation and Nike are associated Brands with the Barcelona Football Club. This means that the team has one of the best brand endorsements in the world. WEAKNESSES The team is known to have a lot of controversies in the football matches. It is basically from the lesser popular and famous clubs as compared to the clubs that are English OPPORTUNITY The club has the opportunity to increase their fan bases from the countries like china, USA and India. If the Barcelona football club is able to focus on more advertising and promotions then this will help the club a lot in building brand equity. THREATS The other clubs that are prevalent in Europe are buying out the good players out of Barcelona. This can be fatal for the club if they do not stop this from happening The club has reported a lot of internal problems between the players and management which can also pose a threat to the wellbeing of the club in the future. The club has been known to have a lot of financial debt because it has been involved in the player transfers of expensive players. This can cause liquidity problems to the club in the future. MANCHESTER CITY SWOT ANALYSIS STRENGTHS The Manchester city football club has a local positioning within Manchester The club has a lot of openness and innovation in the department of culture. They allow players from all cultures to prove their worth and join the club. The club has some of the richest sponsors as compared to other clubs. WEAKNESSES The club has a weak presence in the city of Manchester because many other competitors are also popular over here. The name of this club is not very well established as compared to other clubs. Most of the players playing in this club are average players. OPPORTUNITIES The club should higher better players and make use of the rich sponsors that they have. This will improve of the performance of the club in the future. The club should get more brand endorsements to improve the brand image of the club. The club can higher some of the best coaches around the world given the fact that the club is rich. THREATS Manchester United Football club is better than Manchester City and is more popular in Manchester than any other football club. As the case with other clubs internal problems are prevalent in this club between the management and the Coach. The club should ensure that the problems do not get worse in the future. ICEBERG PRINCIPLES THEORY The iceberg is basically a model that not only considers the visible logical level of the subject, but also explains the invisible emotional level of the subject (GmbH). The logic level of the subject which includes the strategy, structure, functions and processes usually accounts for 10% of the overall human capacity whereas the cultural level amounts to 90% of the human capacity. Following is the sketch for a typical Iceberg Theory. The structure of the iceberg principle and its 5 process levels STRATEGIC LEVEL At the strategic level Manchester city FC aims for delivering the best quality football to its fans. They are basically concerned for high performance and value for the shareholders of the company. On the other hand the Barcelona football club claims to be one of the best in the world and they claim that they are not just a club; they are more than a club. STRUCTURAL LEVEL The management performance for Barcelona has been poor at the structural level because the company has incurred many losses because of expensive player contracts. On the other hand Manchester city has one of the richest management team. The management team rewards its players very well and their goal is quality performance for the fans. PROCESS LEVEL Manchester city claims that its core values include serving the fans of the football club by portraying excellent performance. Their main aim is to create continuous value for its fans and the shareholders of the company. On the other hand Barcelona aims to work about by following the core values including the treatment of sports as the focal point, supporting the strategic plans of the club and exploring the new areas of financing for the club. The club also aims at bringing the members closer to the club in terms of activity and communication. FUNCTIONAL LEVEL The performance level of the employees or the players of Manchester city has been very high in the present. This is because they have recently won the premier league for the first time in the past forty years. Therefore, the performance level of the players has been excellent. On the other hand Barcelona has been struggling recently because of some clashes between the management and players of the club. On the other hand there have been many player transfers from this team in the recent years which has affected the team chemistry to some extent. However the team has the potential to bounce back from such problems because it is one of the best clubs of the Spanish league. CULTURAL LEVEL At the cultural level Barcelona football club has been committed to promote the society as much as possible. They see children and young people as their main beneficiaries and are also known to promote values and education. The club has also organized many sporting activities for the civilians of the country. On the other hand Manchester city is known to play for the fans. They have highly praised the fans of the football club for their never ending support. On the other hand Manchester city has Donated 500000 pounds to the Royal Manchester Childrens hospital recently and has also been known to perform charity work for the people. Therefore both the clubs have a good relationship with the fans and the society at the cultural level CONCLUSION After all the analysis that has been conducted for both Manchester city and Barcelona, it is true to say that there are some considerable differences in the results. Considering the SWOT analysis of both the clubs, it is evident that Barcelona is no doubt a better side than Manchester City by all means. This is because they have the best players from around the world, and some excellent brand endorsements as compared to Manchester City who are usually ranked as an average side overall. However Barcelona has been facing a lot of internal problems such as the problems between players and management, the frequent transfer of expensive players, and their recent financial crises. Manchester city does not have any such problems and are a more stable side because they have one of the richest clubs in the world. On the other hand the Vision and mission statements of both the football leagues are good. The mission statement of Manchester city is more thorough than that of Barcelona. The corporate governance of Manchester city is better than that of Barcelona, and the Iceberg principle also looks more favorable for Manchester City overall. Therefore Manchester City is surprisingly a more stable side as compared to Barcelona despite the fact that Barcelona has a better football club.

Reflection of Independent Learning in the Classroom

Reflection of Independent Learning in the Classroom Reflecting on the approaches around the development of pupils independent learning and evidence and evaluate application in the classroom. Independent learning is when pupils set goals, monitor and evaluate their own academic development, so they can manage their own motivation towards learning (Mullings 2015). After looking into the research, one of the determining factors when it comes to independent learning, is getting a child to work on their own, with minimal direction and confidence. As I want my pupils to be able to manage their own learning and make independent decisions, I need to take a back seat and critically think about whether or not I need to intervene. Depending on the circumstances and the appropriateness of the situation, I will need to judge the relevance of my scaffolding, give students options and choices to encourage independency, and allow them to take responsibility for their own learning by also offering effective formative feedback. However, this cannot be done until I establish where they already are in their learning and how they actually learn. Knowing a childs zone of proximal development, will enable me to intervene at the most appropriate and effective stage. As Vygotskys theory implies, it is what a child can achieve by themselves and what they can achieve in collaboration with others (Vygotsky, 1978). According to Haring and Eastons instructional hierarchy (Fig 1), there are four phases of learning (Haring et al., 1978).   Ã‚   Fig 1. Most of the children I get to support are either at the acquisition stage or at the halting fluency stage, which determines the type of intervention they receive. Even if the intervention is set in line with the pupils ZPD, there is no guarantee that their work is appropriately differentiated back in the classroom, leading to a zone of anxiety. When I deliver Mind-the-Gap tutoring, the pupils I work with are at the acquisition stage and lack confidence. With sessions of repetitive practice and instructional techniques I am able to build upon their accuracy. I then focus on training the pupils to become more fluent. This is supported via precision teaching (e.g. times-tables) constant encouragement and instructional feedback to aid their self-motivation. Once the fluency is achieved and being maintained, I need to ensure it is being applied back in the classroom. The focus is then teaching them how to either apply the skill into meaningful contexts or not to confuse it with other similar skills. Finally, pupils can then be scaffolded on how to know how to adapt the target skill to and apply it to new challenges and situations. Communication is paramount and teamwork essential to ensure work is set at the right level by the teacher and that the newly acquired skills are being uitilised. the teacher should work closely with th e TA to planinterventions to how they can be linked to classroom teaching (SEN Code-of-Practice 6.52). I have started to introduce additional resources, such as a math mat and progressive success criteria to help promote independency. If successful, I will suggest it to other support staff within my year group, with the view to it being rolled out to all. I will need the full support of the SENCo and SLT to make sure this is consistently implemented. Carol Dweck deals with the theory that people view their intelligence in one of two ways; fixed and growths mindsets (Fig 2). Her findings also show that, rather than focusing on intelligence and innate achievement, it is far more important to reward effort, creative strategies, and perseverance. Becoming is better than being (Dweck 2006).    Fig 2. Upon reflection, I observed two children from the perspective of determining what type of learner each child was (Appendix 1). Initiating the change of learned helplessness to that of self-scaffolding with the SEN child will not happen overnight. I always aim to support pupils to become more independent. Van de Pol implies a key principle of scaffolding on which a TAs role should be based, is fading to develop the independence of the learner by reducing support and hand over responsibility to the child (Van de Pol et al., 2010). This is a strategy I have started to use with the pupils I work with, alongside roaming and roving around the classroom. My intention is purely to divorce myself from their learned attachment and their needing constant reassurance. I want them to adopt the concept of being able to assess what they can do independently first, before I intervene at the appropriate level (Fig 3). Blatchford defines the heuristic role as using a method of teaching that encourages learners to discover solutions for themselves (Blatchford et al., 2012). Fig 3. If there is any uncertainty, I encourage my pupils to ask a partner, throw their question out to the rest of the table or see what resources are available to help, before even thinking about asking an adult. Even then, I need to be aware of my questioning techniques. The more open ended questions that are asked, then the more emphasis is redirected back onto the pupil to provoke their own critical thinking skills. The cognitive domain involves knowledge and the development of intellectual skills (Bloom, 1956). Fig 4. Using Blooms Taxonomy questioning for critical thinking as a bench mark (Fig 4), I have tailored a more child friendly set of questioning cards as a pupil resource, helping to build upon their dialogic talk. I plan to share these with other support staff, with SLTs approval. Additionally, my school has implemented Talk 4 Learning strategies, which although at the early stages, have started to have a positive effect. Within one year group I observed, children were only provided with a learning objective and modelled WAGOLL. This seemed to be just enough to get by on with a majority of the class, but the lower attainers had no differentiated input, with the hope that the TA would offer that much needed support. The lower attainers had been given very little direction, so straight away looked to the TA for guidance. The TA aimed to guide the pupils through a series of open ended questions, praising when giving a correct answer. Some were prompted further with the aim of trying to refer back to previous lessons, but without the correct scaffolding and feedback little progress was made. John Hattie, famously analysed the effects of various educational innovations and methods and determined that feedback ranked highest, with an effect size of 1.13, whereas most innovations in schools sit around 0.4. Feedback needs to be formative to identify what pupils have achieved, what has been preventing them from achieving their learning goals and what they can do to improve further. It also needs to be progressive, done whilst pupils are still able to reflect upon the decisions they made. This can be effectively delivered when roaming and roving or fading in and out during a lesson, but after realising my own lack of informative feedback (appendix 2), I intend to ask SLT about CPD on feedback for TAs, as I see this as a needed area of improvement for us all. It has become quite apparent that processed success criteria is a much needed determiner when it comes to initiating the first stages of independent learning for the SEN child. I have recently been given a small group of lower attaining students to support with their maths work. After observing how these children were faltering when working their way to achieving the learning intention (appendix 3), I have now started to use process success criteria to help plug the gaps within their learning, which has been hindering achieving their overall objective. I not only aim to help break down their steps to success in written format but also where applicable, visually (Fig 5). Fig 5. So far, this has proved a successful strategy and has been fully embraced by the pupils, as they are now actively making progress independently, albeit resource supported. I will be trialing this as part of their assessment for learning, as success criteria should be linked to the learning, not the activity. Introducing AFL sheets will allow teachers to close the gap between current knowledge and new learning. Not only do they help clarify the learning objective and promote self-evaluation, they also act as a form of feedback. I have already liaised with an SLT member regarding the introduction of processed success criteria as a pre-requisite for all our lower attainers, to which he was in full agreement. Ironically, not long after our conversation, it was announced that as part of our high focus for this term that the school will be addressing how success criteria will be differentiated, so that they are appropriate for all children, and so that all groups make improved progress. It has been said that some people think that we have created a nanny state thats contributed to promoting fear of failure. John Cridland states that the education system must better prepare young people for life beyond the school gates. We need to take a step back to see the big picture and create a system that better reflects how well a schools culture nurtures the behaviours and attitudes young people need. This cannot be judged by exam results alone (Cridland 2014). I do agree, however, my concern is, given the expanding national curriculum and the focus on increased testing as a way to measure both teaching ability and pupil progression, how can time be found for the implementation of such productive concepts. Schools need to build a stronger foundation and utilise their support staff appropriately. I gave a copy of my first assignment on the role of the TA, to a member of SLT. The feedback I received initially was that it was very informative and provoked food for thought, so mu ch so, he planned to take it along to the next SLT meeting. I eagerly await further comment. Appendix 1 A always relies on the support of an adult to supply her with the answers. The first thing that she does is to look directly to the supporting adult in the room to come and work with her, without even attempting any independent work. A will always try to copy from whoever sits next to her, lacks confidence and fears making mistakes. She has a firm fixed mindset of learned helplessness which has resulted in her reliance on being spoon-fed. Z is self-initiated and not afraid to make any mistakes. He can work independently or collaboratively within a group. Z draws upon prior learning His growth mindset allows him the confidence to persevere, seeing any setbacks as a mini hurdle he needs to overcome, choosing which learner disposition he takes on board to aid his learning. His positive attitude feeds his hunger for knowledge. Appendix 2 Recorded Conversation After a basic skills assessment of using visual arrays, mastery questions on applying the written grid method were required for their next steps in multiplication. E:Miss, Im not sure how to do the grid method. TA:So, written method. Same scenario, but we are not going to draw the arrays. What is the calculation? E:13 x 9. TA:OK. What do you need to do first? E:Break the 13? TA:How? E:Into place value. TA:Correct. Show me how youll do that. E:One 10 and three 1s. TA:Good. Now what? E:First you times 3 by 9, then 10 x 9. TA:OK, off you go. E:(writes) 3 x 9 = 27 and 10 x 9 = 90. TA:Good, now what do I do with those two answers? E:Add them together. TA:See. You know what to do. What do we need to remember when we use column addition? E:Make sure everything is in line. TA:Yes. We need to make sure our place value is aligned correctly. Well done! Reflection: Upon evaluation, I believe that I succeeded when it came to asking the appropriate open questions to provoke their own thinking, which helped them achieve their learning objective but evidently lacked the necessary more informative feedback the child deserved to understand their next target. I hope that I will be able to address this better after some directed CPD training. Appendix 3 Child Y LO: To use the grid method to solve multiplication word problems. SC: R U C S A C CAN DO CANT DO Understood what had to be done for step 1 of question. Chose correct operation. Partitioned numbers correctly on the grid. Did not know all of 4x table. Used times table grid in classroom. Aware that all the answers had to be added together. Addition calculation was written incorrectly. (pv not aligned) Able to calculate once prompted to use correct pv alignment. References Blatchford, P., Russell, A., Webster, R. (2012) Reassessing the impact of teaching assistants: How research changes practice and policy. Oxon, UK: Routledge. Blooms Taxonomy Available at: http://www.bloomstaxonomy.org/Blooms%20Taxonomy%20questions.pdf Accessed: 1 January 2017. Cridland, J. (2014) Available at: http://31.222.129.40/media-centre/the-point/2014/07/jcs-education-blog/ Accessed: 07 December, 2016. Dweck, Carol S. Mindset: the new psychology of success New York: Random House, 2006. Haring, N.G., Lovitt, T.C., Eaton, M.D., Hansen, C.L. (1978). The fourth R: Research in the classroom (pg 23-40). Columbus, OH: Merrill. Hattie, J., Timperley, H. (2007). The Power of feedback. Review of Educational Research Mullings, C. (2015) Available at: http://blog.irisconnect.co.uk/9-tips-for-encouraging-students-to-become-independent-learners/ Accessed: 12 December, 2016. SEND Code of Practice (2015) Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/398815/SEND_Code_of_Practice_January_2015.pdf Accessed: 26 December, 2016. Van de Pol, J., Volman, M., Beishuizen, J. (2010) Scaffolding in teacher-student interaction: a decade of research. Educational Psychology Review, 22, 382-296. Vygotsky, L.S. (1978) Mind in society: The development of the higher psychological process. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Analysis of British Telecommunication :: GCSE Business Management Studies Essays

Business at Work Task 1: Introduction BT plc is British Telecommunication public limited companies (plc) registered in England Wales, with listings on the London & New York stock exchanges. The Business is well-known providers of telecommunications services and solutions for everybody in the UK. This business exists to supply telecommunications services, products and services, and IT solutions to corporate and residential customers. BT's Group plan is to increase the value for shareholders by increasing their performance rate by satisfying the customer’s want or needs and for corporate customers in Europe, achieving global reach through partnership which have the same motive of running the business, BT itself consists mainly of four lines of business: BT Retail, BT Wholesale, and BT Global Services and BT Open world. They focus on considered priorities to make a better world’s as a public limited company wants to deliver the uppermost levels of customer satisfaction performance and reduce the number of displeased customers each year which they've established a strategic target to do better than their competitors consistently and reduce the number of dissatisfied customers by 25% each year. BT wants to accomplish untreated gainful revenue growth, while constraining capital expenses enabling the company to be more financially controlled over the incoming / outgoing of cash flow. It also wishes to put broadband at the heart of BT, expand the market for broadband services so in the future the increasing of the usage of Broadband which will allow the BT to add value to the BT trademark. BT wants to find and provide solutions and other value-added services such as growing of BT’s brand by using different other pricing strategies of the product or services provided with the BT brand. As a well known business its aim is to place all UK networks under a single running structure and to control investment in charitable donations and data platforms, while transferring operations to new platforms. To use the strength of the BT brand to move into broadband services for consumers and also into connected markets, such as communications solutions and business mobility services for main business customers and information and finally to use different various combination of skilled and motivated people. From these objectives it indicates that the company wants to profit maximise by increasing market shares which has a big influence on profit. They want to expand their ability to reach into every home mainly in the United Kingdom. How successfully the business is meeting its objectives: The corporation known as BT plc it self is successful which is in fact meeting its objectives by the increase of the service given to other businesses and residential customers. Not only have they focused on

Computer System In The Context Of Retail Business :: essays research papers

Computer System in the Context of Retail Business Anthony Wu 11CS2 Today, retailing businesses have to had up to date technology in order to be successful. Accurate, efficient communication sending and receiving can affect the business. So it is very important that to have the latest technology such as computers and networks. Retailing on a local and global scale can also affect how successful is the business. Locally, efficient networking that retailing businesses had allow customers purchase goods more faster such as the new bar-code scanners in supermarkets helps customers reduce time waiting in order to purchase goods. Globally, such as trading, eg: a computer retailing store may like to purchase some stock from over seas, they can make contracts by using the Internet. Computer systems in retail trading on a local and global scale played an important role in today's society. Computer systems such as : the supermarket POS system, provides efficient and accurate calculations when customers purchasing goods. Absolut Software, provides a host of state-of-the-art capabilities vital for increasing sales and productivity. Absolut Software will easily reduce the number of operators and supporting hardware by 15 percent. Absolut Software provides a training mode for novices and a high-speed mode for the experienced. Features: * Complete mailing list management * Promotion tracking * Catalog and telemarketing * Importing sub-system * On-line order entry * Inventory control (multi-site, serialized, lot number, decimal quantities, and style-color-size) * Credit card billing * Computer-driven in-store POS with "Suspend and Hold;" availability displayed * Wildcard search * User-definable extended search * Unlimited text and binary (graphics) storage for key fields * A complete financial (A/R, A/P, G/L) sub-system * E.D.I. And the international network system which brought customers information, e-mail address, and contract forms of customers are interested. A retail computer system can do tasks such as: Stock control is the control and how much stock were around the business, and the price of the items. Eg: Such as the SMART System is a totally integrated and interactive retail business system that includes the following modules: Order Entry, Inventory Management, Sales Analysis, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Monthly Lease, Financial Accounting, Payroll, and Customer Mailing. Modules may be purchased separately if desired. An optional module for contracts and insurance calculation and form printing, known as EZYCALC, is also available and can be integrated into the system. The system was originally programmed for the Retail Furniture Industry but works equally well for any big ticket retail operation. All affected files are updated as each transaction is keyed providing real-time information and reports also the system will handle multiple and remote store operations. Personnel Management is the system which kept the record of employees

E-marketplace, E-mall, E-tailing Essay

There are various electronic commerce activities and mechanisms. E-Commerce Activities and Mechanisms include the following but not limited to: E-Market Place: It is an online market usually B2B where buyers and sellers exchange goods or services. EC transactions take place in the electronic equivalent of a mall called the electronic marketplace (e-marketplace). Electronic marketplaces utilize different tools (electronic shopping cart, e-catalog, fulfillment technologies, and checkout and payment mechanisms) to provide the equivalent brick and mortar shopping tools. Types of Electronic Market Places: 1. Electronic Storefronts: A single companys website where products and services are sold. Example: Walmart 2. Electronic Malls: An Online Shopping Center where many online stores are located. 3. Market Place: An Online market, usually B2B where buyers and sellers negotiate. Electronic retailing is a form of electronic commerce. E-Retailing — This type of e-commerce refers to the act of using internet by retailers to perform business activities. It covers retailing using a wide variety of technologies or media. E-Tailing — Selling of retail goods over internet. E-Tailing is short form of E-Retailing. E-tailing can be used as a synonym with business-to-consumer transaction. To keep it short, Online retailing can be referred to as E-Tailing. E-tailing has resulted in the development of e-tailware–software tools for creating catalogs and managing the business connected with doing e-tailing. A new trend is the price comparison site that can quickly compare prices from a number of different e-tailers and link you to them. Example: Bestbuy site provides a customer to select a product upto 3 or more varieties and compare them. Examples of e-tailing are Dell, Walmart, Amazon. Comparison: Following are some of the key differences between e-marketplaces, e-malls, e-tailing and physical marketplaces, malls, and retail outlets. 1.E-Marketplaces, E-Malls and E-Tailing is all about the business taking place in an online manner, nothing is physical. 2.There is a wide variety of selection available online when compared to the physical outlets or malls. More options available online. 3.Certain tools are provided to compare the prices between different products and services which lead to an easier desired selection process. 4.No need to drive to the physical location of the mall for purchases. Tools and Techniques for a successful E-Commerce presence: Tools: Few tools for successful e-commerce are listed below but are not limited to: 1. Analytics: Analytics gives the idea of the sales where they are originating from. It is not enough to know that our products and services are getting sold. We need to know how the customers are visiting our site, how the traffic is being redirected to our site and how the marketing efforts are done. Some ecommerce scripts have statistics built in or available through a plugin. Standalone packages such as Google Analytics also provide you with a way to thoroughly check your stats, and all you do  is place a line of code on your site for tracking. Analytics allows you to check all of your data online. You also have access to it whether you have access to your ecommerce servers or not. 2. Accounting Software: Having the right accounting software for your ecommerce store is essential to keeping you in the black. This simplifies the book-keeping process and cuts down on the chance of human error causing issues with accurate profit and loss numbers. 3. Cross Selling: Cross selling is an easy way of exposing additional products to the customer based on their search. For example, if a customer is visiting a site to buy a phone, the site will automatically recommend the customer to also take a look other available options such as phone accessories, headphones etc. 4. Currency Converter: Dealing with international shipping is a struggle for many ecommerce site owners. When your product has mass market appeal overseas, you want to make it simple for international customers to order. A currency converter is particularly useful, whether you have it as part of your script, or as an additional tool. Planet Management, a payment processor who offers international payments, reports that ecommerce stores who use their service to offer multiple currencies increase international sales by up to 25 percent. Techniques: According to Miller (2000), Business approaches and broad range of technology tools that are used to support collaborative product definition management (cPDm) initiatives are having a tremendous impact on the ways companies operate. A major change in enterprise computing is underway as companies apply best-practice processes in combination with a wide range of technologies including product data management, collaboration, visualization, collaborative product commerce, enterprise applications integration, component supplier management, and others. The pace of improvements in cPDm-related technologies continues to  accelerate, and companies use these tools to implement process change faster than ever. Whereas not long ago, companies were talking about three- and five-year plans for implementing data management systems; they now are asking what results to expect in six months or less. This represents a significant step forward in industry and a strong emerging movement that is becoming an essential element for companies to successfully compete in the 21st century (Miller, 2000). According to Shaun Ryan, CEO of site search provider SLI Systems (http://www.sli-systems.com) (NZX: SLI), the best retailers use different techniques and features to create an equivalent merchandising experience that help visitors identify brands, sales or seasonal promotions and to draw more attention to products. Shaun summarizes three primary steps – tuning, merchandising banners and reports – which can add significant value to your eCommerce efforts. Tuning rules are designed to help promote or demote specific products as the merchandiser sees fit. For example tuning rule places certain products on the top of the list where as certain products on the bottom of the list or even off the list. This way it helps the merchandiser to prioritize which products should be shown and which should be not. â€Å"Banners can be shown anywhere on the search or navigation page and can be triggered by a number of different rules. For example the banner could contain logos and other imagery associated with the keyword or facet. If someone searches for a TV or clicks on the TV category you could show a banner that displays a TV selection widget.† Reporting allows merchandisers to easily access key data about customers’ search behavior. The Top Searches report can give useful insights about the most popular keyword searches, showing you the language that your customers use and identifying some possible candidates for fine tuning or adding banners. References Turban, E., King, D., Lee, J., Liang, T. & Turban, D. (2012). Electronic Commerce: Managerial and social networks perspectives. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Miller, E. (2000). Survival Tools for an E-Commerce World. Computer-Aided Engineering, 19(6), 52. PR, N. (2013, December 5). Easy Techniques Fuel E-commerce Merchandising. PR Newswire US. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://blog.compete.com/2013/12/04/best-ecommerce-tools/ (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.yourdesignonline.com/4-tools-building-successful-ecommerce-site/

Effects of Globalization on the Micro Level

Globalization was generally derived from the assumptions of neo-classical economics. In order for a country to achieve economic development, it must open its economy to trade liberalization. Trade liberalization serves as a redistribution mechanism of capital and goods. Poor and developing countries can export unlimited volume of goods and services to developed countries. Added to that, the capital inflows from developed countries would serve as a stimulant for capital build-up in the recipient country (developing countries). Because developed countries usually experience labor shortages, labor immigrants from developing countries would serve as the compensating medium. Here economists assume that the â€Å"income† derived from labor migration would then serve as capital outlay. While for many economists globalization is a positive force of development, certain practical issues were laid exposing the bad effects of globalization on the micro-level (individual and communal). There are generally two negative impacts of globalization on the micro-level. The first impact focuses on the condition of the labor force of developing countries (exposed to globalization). It is generally noted while globalization aims for wealth redistribution between developing and developed countries, inequality in terms of income and capital increased (Goldberg, R.K., and N. Pavcnik, 2006). Skilled workers from developing countries are paid less than unskilled workers from developed countries. In China, for example, after opening to globalization, several multi-national corporations (which are based in developed countries) transferred a significant portion of capital to the country. The reason can be derived from the cost of labor in the country. It is estimated that the cost of labor in China is one-eight (on the average) compared to labor cost in developed countries (Goldberg, R.K., and N. Pavcnik, 2006). Multi-national corporations found it rational to shift a significant portion of their capital to labor-rich China. The economic assumptions are clear. Labor surplus would drive the market to realign wages. The more workers, the less average labor price. The inverse relationship between the number of needed workers and labor price pushed these corporations to increase their capital inflow to China. Needless to say, because labor costs are below the market price of labor, these multi-national corporations can increase their profit level, generating new capital (to be transferred to the â€Å"mother† country). Added to that, it was found out that after 10 years of exposure to trade liberalization, China experienced vast disparities in terms of income of its own citizens. Urban workers, on the average, have generally higher incomes than rural workers. Needless to say, these urban workers are generally better off than their rural counterparts. Thus, the vast disparity of income between developed and developing countries is mirrored out in the labor price of urban and rural workers. It can be said that the macro-level effect of globalization resulted to internal income disparities. This owes much to the economic rationalizing of multi-national corporations regarding the â€Å"proper† handling of labor costs. Exposure to longer working hours and poor working conditions are also major impacts of globalization in the workplace. These impacts severely decreased the labor productivity of developing countries. Stallings (2007, pp. 6-7) noted that in Latin America, the opening of several countries to trade liberalization and privatization led to capital build-up in the short-run. Foreign direct investment and other capital inflows contributed to economic growth as well as sustainability of the industrial sector. The labor sector though suffered. The expected level of employment growth as well as improvement in labor productivity in many sectors of several Latin American countries was not met. In fact, some industries like the garment and textile industries suffered from stagnation and high-costs of operations. Several governments were forced to implement longer working hours and tax incentives to several multi-national companies. The general effect: labor productivity decreased by half. Strikes became a common sight in the streets of major Latin American cities. Companies owned by local residents were forced to close as a result of the policy. Multi-national corporations though can easily shift their capital base to countries undeterred by political and economic debacles. We come now to the second general effect of globalization on the micro-level. Globalization requires that all national currencies be on a floating status. This would allow the efficient transfer of capital from developed countries to developing countries. As such, many economists assume that this policy would generally improve the overall economic standing of developing countries in terms of capital outlay and technology acquisition. This is though not the case. Akar (2007) noted that floating currencies would essentially alter the predictability of the market. Inflation, or in many cases stagflation, are usually the main economic problems in developing countries. Because developing countries only own a small percentage of the world’s total monetary reserve, they can easily be affected by price changes in the world market (Kasapidis, R, 1999). Price changes can destroy the predictability of the markets of developing countries. Inflation can become highly unpredictable. Thus, this puts financial institutions on a very high-level of risk. This high risk can be translated to low-level investment schedule of firms. Nonetheless, the overall interest rate increases as a result of monetary downfalls. Increases in interest rate causes inflation and concomitantly, low economic output. On the individual level, as inflation progresses, the present volume of goods and service that can be bought by the value of money is less than the previous volume of goods and services bought. In a simple relationship, globalization requires that national currencies be on a floating status. For developing countries, putting its national currencies on a floating status increases the risks on financial institutions. These risks are translated to high inflation and low economic output. The end: the current purchasing power of a consumer’s income is devalued. Bibliography Akar, O. (2007). Globalization. Available from: [Accessed 24 October 2007]. Goldberg, P.K., & N. Pavcnik. (2006). Distributional Effects of Globalization in Developing Countries. Available from: [Accessed 24 October 2007]. Kasapidis, R. (1999). The Opportunities and Dangers of Globalization. Available from:   [Accessed 24 October 2007]. Stallings, B. (2007). Globalization and Liberalization: A View from the Developing Countries. U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. Available from:  [Accessed 24 October 2007].