Organising An Event: Market Research Essay

INTRODUCTION There is a proverb that says ‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.’ This is very true, I will support this theory. Planning is an essential part of everyone’s life. I will look at a time schedule of a typical school child. For instance, a school pupil will set his or her alarm clock to go off at 7.30am. This is so that he or she can give him or herself around half an hour to use the shower and get ready for school. He or she will then be ready to have breakfast and leave for school around 8.30am in time for school at 9am. The pupil’s time has been valued and organized in such a way that he or she can make it on time for school lessons, otherwise if the pupil did things in their own time, he or she would never make it on time for school and miss out in what the teacher has already taught (This is the negative consequence and therefore in this case, failure). Even school lessons are planned. For example, a student may be in school from 9 to 3pm i.e. 6 hours. Therefore, the school may plan the students’ timetable in such a way that the student gets half an hour for break, an hour for lunch and about 50 minutes for each subject. This way, the tutors can plan what they want to say in the 50 minute interval and not spontaneously run into other tutors time and students’ breaks. Similarly when holding an event, in this case a business conference, it is important that every aspect of the event is well managed, analyzed, rehearsed and assessed to ensure that everything goes according to plan. Some of these aspects can include the consumers. The consumers are the ones who are going on the trip to the conference so firstly, their safety is the trip administrators’ top priority. For example all aspects of the consumers’ health and safety have to be reviewed like if they have any medical histories, current/past allergies and many more. This is the nature of things that have to be carefully considered in order for trip to go well. The intentions of this essay is to successfully report upon all stages of the business conference planning process from the start i.e. whether the event has the potential and the required resources to enable it to go all the way to the end, i.e. giving an account on personal experiences from the trip and future recommendations. Simply it will be divided into three parts: a beginning, middle and an end. These three stages will be: 1. Market Research: This will lead to whether the event has the potential to go on at all or not. 2. Planning: If it is confirmed that the event can go on, it will then be safe to proceed. Planning and analyzing all aspects of the event from start to finish can then occur. 3. Finalizing the event, the event and finalizing the report: Once the event is flawlessly planned, it can successfully take place. Once the event is over, post-event experiences and remarks can be included in the report to conclude it. STAGE 1: MARKET RESEARCH- VIABILITY & FEASIBILITY OF THE EVENT CONSUMERS The people who are going to use the service (i.e. the AS level business studies students who could potentially want to go on the trip) need to be aware of this upcoming event. Therefore it is important that they are aware of the reason for the event being held at the first place, to let as many people as possible understand why they need to come to this conference trip. In order to find out this information from people, a survey will need to be carried out focusing on the target population researching whether or not anybody will be interested in coming on this trip. This target population is the AS level Business Studies Class of Marlborough school in St. Albans. However, this can be time-consuming to carry out and the decision of whether the AS level students can travel abroad for the business conference trip is down to their parents. So waiting for the students to ask their parents to grant them permission and give them the green light can waste time especially when they forget. Also, if the students cannot find the survey researcher to answer whether or not they can go on the trip can throw away even more precious time. Therefore it can be deduced that, an even more tangible, more effective method of communicating this message and obtaining this information as soon as possible without hesitation would be required. FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS Previously before the school summer vacations i.e. 18th June 2007, the event organizers of the year thirteen business studies students decided on a financial aim at the meeting. This was to obtain the most cheapest yet superb value for money costs going towards the trip. Therefore, they brainstormed capitals of the world that would meet their goal, also which would offer a great diversity of businesses, for the year twelve business studies class to obtain case studies from. Capital destinations which were suggested and seemed suitable included Prague, Cape Town, Budapest, Rome, Barcelona and New York. Due to Travel and Tour companies including â€Å"European Study Tours,† language barriers can be prevailed over, meaning that the trip could still be feasible in any of these locations, making the short listing and elimination process a little more difficult. Theoretically, the further the location from Marlborough school, the more expensive the trip will cost to travel too. This meant that destinations such as New York will have to be eliminated from the potential choices list automatically since it is the furthest away from the United Kingdom, although the city has a wide range of medium to large sized organizations. As a result, the choices of destinations were narrowed down to those either in Asia or Europe. Budapest, as opposed to Prague and Rome which were all located in Europe, did not seem like they had much to offer in terms of business diversity. Therefore, it remained Europe: Prague, Rome and Barcelona. Since these three locations were large cities and also located in Europe, them being the nearest to England, they all seem convenient. However, due to the costs the travel and tours companies would offer for them, as well as the length of stay the trip required and the dates, Prague was selected. This was the most affordable and convenient at two hundred and twenty- nine pounds for three nights offered by â€Å"European Study Tours.† Therefore, the event organisers had obtained a budget covering the compulsory costs including travel to Prague, accommodation and the conference event. At first meeting back after the school summer vacations i.e. 24th September 2007, the event organizers of the year thirteen business studies students decided that the Prague trip should take place in the spring term. This will be at the middle of the 2007-2008 academic years i.e. February 22nd 2008, where the gaps between the spring season will be occupied by some examinations mainly taken by the target consumers of the trip i.e. The lower sixth form business studies students. Financially, this is ideal. If the trip was to take place in the Autumn/Winter term, due to the Christmas Holidays, the costs of the travel to Prague by air travel will rocket up due to popularity. Likewise, if it were to take place in the summer term, costs of air travel will, again shoot up because of the long summer vacation approaching just around the corner. Therefore, by selecting Prague, travel costs have been minimized. FEASIBILITY OF THE EVENT Quotes have been obtained from â€Å"European Study Tours,† and so it is safe to reveal the news about the Prague conference trip to the lower sixth form business studies class. It was needed to know the popularity of the event, despite the budgets. Also, on the 24th September 2007, the event organisers discussed revealing this news to the target consumers. Notice was given to the whole group by the event head organiser, that the lower sixth form business studies students were divided into two separate classes at two different times; an afternoon class and a morning class due to their great size in total. Therefore, the event head organiser proposed that three group members must inform the morning class and another three people must inform the afternoon class. The reason being was for a confidence boost since making a speech to a large number of people can possibly intimidate some of the event organisers. So, group members without assigned responsibilities at the time, volunteered to reveal the news concerning the Prague trip to the lower year business studies students. To inform the morning class were the assigned informants: Laura Port, Adam Mead and Sunil Rajput. Also, to inform the afternoon class were the assigned informants James Dillon, Joe Medlin, and Adrian Daniels. In addition, unexpected informant, Louise Conyard, also joined the other three informants. As a result, the morning class informants reported that â€Å"a majority of the wanted to go.† (I.e. Laura Port, Adam Mead and Sunil Rajput). Also, the afternoon class informants responded that â€Å"the whole class put their hands up to go on the trip. † (i.e. Joe Medlin, James Dillon, Adrian Daniels and Louise Conyard). Therefore, it can be deduced that the conference event trip to Prague is highly feasible in terms of popularity. SMART AIMS AND OBJECTIVES Therefore, it was now necessary to establish SMART (i.e. specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound) objectives. These objectives will act as a guide for the whole group of event organisers, to monitor their progress on meeting certain deadlines. These are: * To provisionally book sixty-five year twelve business studies students including the supervision staff and the year thirteen event organisers with ‘European Study Tours’ by Monday 15th October 2007: This will secure places for the approximate number of people who would like to go, but not certain can afford to go on the Prague trip. * To plan and implement all fundraising activities by Wednesday 31st October 2007: The current travel and accommodation budget of two hundred to two hundred and sixty pounds is not affordable by everyone. So, therefore the bar needs to be raised as much as possible before informing the parents of the final cost of this in the letters. * To have raised sufficient funds to pay for the coach fees by Tuesday 20th November 2007: Funds will need to raised, to pay for the coach. This is a fixed cost and not variable, so including it among the travel and accommodation costs will be difficult and it will make the trip seem even more expensive. It is difficult because it cannot be calculated exactly how much the coach will cost per student, since at the end of the day, the number of students going on the Prague tip can vary. * To have all letters to the Parents of the year twelve business studies students concerning the Prague trip, by Wednesday 30th November: The parents need to be aware of the cost of the trip at this time as the holiday ‘Christmas’ is rapidly approaching. Some people spend money to purchase Christmas gifts in advance, and so informing them about the year twelve business studies students Prague trip a month before, can encourage Parents, guardians or whoever will want to pay for the trip, to monitor their finances carefully. * To have all sixty-pound deposits in by Thursday 20th December 2007: As the Prague trip will be a couple of months away, the number of students going will have to be certain by paying deposits, so the planning process of the trip can proceed. * To have secured by Monday 15th January 2008, four guest speakers (ranging from medium to large sized organizations), to share their perspective of business planning and a typical day for them: People in Businesses have tight schedules, and so most people need to be conscious of things in advance otherwise they may make other plans to fill up their schedule. In this case, the potential guest speakers will need to be contacted and arranged for suitable dates, to give their inspirational speeches to the year twelve business studies students. * To have arranged an evening for Parents to discuss matters concerning the Prague trip for the year twelve business studies students, by Thursday 31st January 2008: As around this time, the trip will be rapidly approaching with only two to three weeks to go. Therefore, final preparations will have to be made including the parents of the year twelve business studies students, to discuss any problems they have concerning the trip, as well as hearing the Prague trip’s programme in detail. * To have designed and printed out guest speakers’ programme and evaluation and feedback sheets by Monday 11th February 2008: The year twelve business studies students will need to be aware of what the guest speaker is going to emphasize on, so that they will know what to listen out for when taking notes, making it easier for them to organise them. At the end of the conference, the year thirteen students will need to obtain remarks based on the event, and so the easiest way to do it, instead of asking everyone who participated later, is to hand out feedback sheets for them to fill in straight after the event. Since the ‘SMART objectives’ have been established, the ‘SMART aims’ can now be stated as well, as all the objectives contribute towards these. These aims are: * To plan and execute the Prague Trip (from start to finish) within twenty-seven weeks. * To ensure that the Prague Trip is feasible in terms of the year twelve business studies students. * To ensure that the Prague Trip is viable in terms of the year twelve business studies students. * To provide the year twelve business studies group with an abundance of case studies to apply in their end of year examinations. * To arrive in Prague to run conference event safely, and to return to Marlborough School safely. VIABILITY AND FURTHER FEASIBILITY OF THE EVENT Since that a majority of the lower sixth form Business Studies students wish to take part in the trip. This may mean that fixed costs will be more difficult to meet; compared to having a few consumers i.e. the lower sixth form business studies students. However, having numerous consumers can be advantageous when it comes to bulk purchase of the â€Å"European Study Tours† service, as this could qualify for a discount eventually reducing the costs per person. Although there is a possibility of a discount from the travel and tours, it is not worth taking a risk and waiting till all the finances are in before finding out. Pressurizing the consumers i.e. the lower sixth form business studies students, to pay within an unreasonable deadline is unethical. This will not be fair on them since the event organizers who have proposed the idea of the trip are the ones convincing them, and their parents or guardians. In the long run, this will only put the chances of the consumers deciding to go into jeopardy. This will only aggravate the state of the situation, eventually repelling the consumers. Moreover, analysing the potential scenario situation in a deeper perspective, the inter-relationship of the consumers’ parents and the school will be affected. Also, this may even heavily influence the decision the parents make, regarding giving permission to let their child go on future trips with Marlborough school. Most significantly, the year twelve business studies students are less likely to have suitable case studies resources to use in their examinations, and the event organizers may have to consider the event unviable, thereby calling it off entirely. As a result, time is a very important element in this trip to Prague. Any mistakes or situations that could arise during the administration of the trip cannot be undone because it is impossible to go back in time. It is crucial that everything is organised carefully by the event organisers. Therefore, in conclusion, at the 1st October 2007 meeting, the event organisers reached a verdict to hold a fundraising event. Here, the bar can be lowered to make it easier and faster to meet the deadlines of the variable costs finances, thereby reducing time constraints. This is as there are time constraints to when all the finances can be collected by. Also, at this meeting on 1st October 2007, all of the event organisers proposed fundraising events to investigate into its feasibility and viability. James Dillon and Joe Medlin suggested a school taxi service transporting students to various destinations like parties, outside school in return for a reasonable fee to raise money. Sunil Rajput and Adam Mead came up with a cake stall to raise money. James Wardy and James Flaherty came up with the idea of a football tournament. Louise Conyard, Laura Port and James Lindsay decided into bag packing at a local supermarket. Laura Port and James Lindsay is employed with the supermarket giant â€Å"Sainsburys,† a contact which would be very useful for this fundraising activity for the whole group. Finally, Adrian Daniels and Michael Garvis looked into Muj’s idea of a â€Å"Halloween† themed disco, as the holiday was only a few weeks away making it more sense to do it. At the following week’s meeting i.e. 8th October 2007, all the event organisers reported upon their idea’s feasibility and viability. Adrian Daniels and Michael Garvis reported on the Muj’s idea, which was also included in the investigation, into a â€Å"Halloween† themed school disco. Michael Garvis calculated an estimated budget if this ideas was to be chosen and become a reality. However, plenty of students were required to turn up for the event and to pay the price of around three pounds per person for admission to break-even and produce profit. But this was not for certain to happen, so the even needed to be inviting as possible and promoted as much as possible to ensure that a lot of people turn up. In addition, Adrian Daniels found out that the school hall was not free of charge, although all the event organisers were part of the Marlborough School Students. By the fact that the hall is being used for profit-making reasons, money will be required to be able to hire. Therefore, another fundraising activity would be required to raise start-up capital to be able to afford the hall, which would not require start-up capital. The school hall is the venue of the disco, so it would be essential to run the disco. However, this was not going to be necessary as Muj looked into sponsoring of the event. He asked his local costume store in Watford for sponsorship in return of customers. Through sponsoring, another fundraising event would not be necessary anymore, since the costume store will cover the hall costs in exchange for giving them plenty of customers. Alternatively, Adrian Daniels carried out some secondary research. He interviewed the student â€Å"Elke Cooper† a current year thirteen student with previous experiences with organising a similar event, a â€Å"Valentine Day’s† Ball. She mentioned several essentials to consider. However, she emphasized on the fact that â€Å"the advertising of the event had to be very effective to the target audience as much as possible, including the Marlborough School Newsletter.† Also, in terms of the event taking place, she pointed out that the event cannot be carried out during half term since the school hall facilities will be booked and used by local sports clubs. In addition, the school students may have other arranged plans and might prefer doing something other than going to the Halloween Disco. On the other hand, she also explained that the event could not happen after half term on the actual Halloween day. Halloween Day on the 2007 calendar is on a Wednesday, which is on a weekday. Unfortunately, for the event organisers, Halloween day is not a national holiday but a normal school day for students, meaning the only available time to run the event would be after school. Marlborough School starts at nine in the morning and closes at five past three in the afternoon. After a long day of hard work, the students will feel exhausted and would want to go home to relax. They would want to get rest, so later in the evening they can go â€Å"trick or treating.† However, due to the winter season, the sky gets dark very fast. So, students can bring their costumes to school and after school, they can get ready whilst the disco hall gets prepared. Finally, the event can take place when it is slightly dark, some students catch the coach to school in the morning and back from school, so running this event after school on Halloween Day may not be an option at all. As a result, the event is neither feasible nor viable. James Dillon and Joe Medlin reported back on their text service idea. They suggested that services income is estimated to be around a hundred pounds, due to students who may require a ride to various upcoming parties over Friday and Saturday night. However, it is not certain that these students will require rides to parties that may or may not take place, since they can always be cancelled at the last minute. Therefore, this fundraising method may not seem very reliable in producing over a hundred pounds, thereby not worth doing since there are other potential fundraising methods more likely to bring in more income. Moreover, at the meeting i.e. 8th October 2007, Joe Medlin and James Dillon suggested that they may require more drivers within the trip organizing group. This is so that the event organisers would not have to raise extra capital to pay drivers outside this group, which can lead to less net profit. So, in addition to Joe Medlin, Sunil Rajput, James Wardy and Adam Mead all volunteered to help, who are also qualified drivers over the age of seventeen. However, relying on all these drivers to be present when needed to give rides is not a risk worth taking. As a result, although this fundraising method may be feasible, it is certainly not viable. Alternatively, James Wardy and James Flarherty gave feedback based on their research into a football tournament. This fundraising method seemed feasible due to similar past fundraising methods†¦ â€Å"Hamza Bhandari,† a previous year thirteen business studies student was contacted on 6th October 2007 by Adrian Daniels, one of the event organisers. Hamza was interviewed about his past part in the participation in the school fundraising events. He replied that â€Å"a penalty shootout was run to raise money, eighty pounds was raised in total.†It was successful as a substantial amount of money was raised i.e. eighty pounds. Therefore, it can be predicted that the football tournament is very likely to succeed, due the very similar â€Å"penalty shootout† used to raise funds. It can be predicted that the football tournament is very likely to succeed, due to the very similar â€Å"penalty shootout† used to raise funds. It can be deduced that the event is feasible. As a result, to ensure that the event was viable, James Flaherty and James Wardy spoke to a Physical Education department member, Mr. Lucas, about availability of the school gym facilities to carry out the fundraising event. However, similarly to the â€Å"Halloween School Disco†, the hall must be hired again due to the fact that it is after school hours and the event is held purposefully to make profit. However, it was said also that there would be no time available during school, on break and lunch times. Therefore, the only time to carry out the event would be after school, meaning far less people would be available to stay and also willing to take part, particularly because there is a fee involved for participation and some people may prefer to go home instead. Consequently, this event is considered to be not very viable. Another potential fundraising event was bag packing, which was investigated by Laura Port, James Lindsay and Louise Conyard. James Lindsay was given permission by Sainsbury’s to do the bag packing on the Saturday of 20th October 2007, and the Saturday of 3rd November 2007. However, a disadvantage of this date is that unfortunately most of the event organisers (i.e. the year thirteen business studies students) work on this day. This means that it will be difficult getting everybody to take time off work successfully to take part in bag packing. Although not every single event organiser is working on a Saturday, but having only a few people to help out can significantly reduce the amounts of profit made. And so, the numbers of people present to help need to be maximised, in order to maximise the profits made from the bag packing. But the bag packing activity will not be for the whole day. So, if the event organisers working on a Saturday morning and sacrifice their time after work to help out, their work will not clash with bag packing, and therefore both can occur with no problem. On the other hand, those working afternoon shifts on Saturdays can help out in the mornings to contribute their share of bag packing. This flexibility even enables those without employment on a Saturday, to choose whenever shift (i.e. in the morning or afternoon) they feel is more suitable for them on the day. Previously, the last year thirteen was successful working twelve ‘o’ clock to five ‘o’ clock in the afternoon, and producing eight hundred pounds according to ‘James Flaherty’ on the 8th October meeting. Therefore, a similar time to do the shift can recreate the success last year. Another situation arising from selecting this fundraising event is that, the Sainsbury’s that gave James Lindsay permission is based in Garston. Marlborough school is based in St. Albans and so theoretically, this is where most people live and so a local Sainsbury’s branch will be more convenient. This also applied to the event organisers, where the majority was found to reside in St. Albans. This can be a problem because those who do not live near or in Garston will have to commute with a cost which may include paying train fare, arranging lifts or even using own car’s petrol and also paying for a parking ticket for the long hours of bag packing. Ultimately, this will add up towards the overall costs that each event organiser would have to pay to go on the Prague trip. Nevertheless, Laura port one of the event organisers, devised a solution to the problem. Fortunately for the group, she is in contact with the St. Albans Sainsbury’s branch, and so found out about doing bag packing over there. Laura found out that she needs to appeal with a letter to this branch convincing enough to let the bag packing event happen over there. As a result, it can be deduced that this fundraising event is very feasible as ‘James Lindsay’ was granted permission to do it at his local branch at ‘Garston’, and very viable due to last year’s profits from the event, told by ‘James Flaherty’ i.e. eight hundred pounds. Finally, Sunil Rajput and Adam Mead commented on their research in doing a Cake Stall to raise money. Adam Mead informed the manager and found out that he had to obtain the canteen staff’s full approval before running the event. The canteen staff responded that the event can take place during break time and lunch time. After the entire assigned event organisers contributed their research into potential fundraising activities to increase the finance available for the Prague trip, a vote was made by the organisers to decide the top two activities that should be used for fundraising. Each organiser wrote their top two choices on a piece of paper, and folded it up to prevent any organiser from seeing this so that it would not influence their choices. The majority votes won which were the ‘Cake Stall’ and ‘Bag Packing.’ More votes were made to decide which activity was going to be the fundraiser, this time the whole group votes by hand. Majority votes ruled, and the ‘Cake Stall’ was chosen. Without delay, plans were made to achieve and end this fundraising as soon as possible; to meet the Prague trip aim was ‘To complete fundraising events by the end of October’. Therefore, Sunil Rajput and Adam Mead were assigned to confirm to the canteen staff that the fundraising event was going to happen. James Lindsay was assigned to write up a brief column in the Marlborough School newsletter concerning the Cake Stall and the reason for doing it. Toyosi Akinola was also assigned, to write a letter to the school head. Tinashe J. was assigned to inform the school office about the cake stall, asking if the school reception can be a collection point for the cakes. On the other hand, everybody needed to decide on a date to carry out the event. As a result, the whole group selected ‘Friday 19th October 2007’. On this day of the week, year thirteen have plenty of free time, since that there is a free period in the morning (i.e 9.00am- 10.00am) , plus a one and a half period (i.e. one hour thirty minutes) of General studies, which also leaves plenty of time to spare before the sixth form lunch time (i.e. 12.25am- 1.05pm). This schedule will enable the event organisers to serve cakes during the lower/higher breaks (i.e. 10.00am- 10.20am and 11.00- 11.20am respectively) and the lower/higher lunches ( i.e. 12.20am- 1.05pm and 1.20pm-2.05pm respectively). Also, with this day being the following week, sufficient time was created to advertise the upcoming cake stall to the school effectively. One of the main methods use to promote the cake stall was the posters that the group were asked to design, and assess at the next meeting before duplicating them to put around school . An example of one of the posters put around the school grounds was: (see next page) The cake stall needed cakes to sell for profit in the cake stall. This was not included in the poster because it might put people off buying cakes from the cake stall. Therefore, the whole group came to a decision to bring in as many cakes, biscuits and other related confectionary such as cookies, whether cooked or purchased. Also, in the newsletter column that ‘James Lindsay’ was assigned to compose, included that The following meeting was on Monday 15th October 2007. Toyosi Akinola was successful in convincing the head to permit the cake stall sell to happen with his fantastic letter. And so this was the official confirmation to let the cake stall take place on the upcoming Friday. As a result, the promotion of this stall had to be more effective. So, the event organisers all contributed in phrasing a memo to all teachers in the school. This is how the memo turned out: CAKE SELL Please read this out to the class (Teachers) As part of their A-level Business Studies course, the year thirteen business studies students need to organise an event. They need to hold a cake sale on Friday. And to reduce the costs of this event, they need to hold this in Pascal Hall in 19th October during both breaks and lunch time. The teachers informing the students about the cake stall will ensure that they are all aware of it, even if they do not spot the posters being posted up around the school. However, those who were absent to hear this memo may find out about the cake stall through the posters or their friends through word of mouth as ‘gossip is a great traveller’. Also, the event organisers brought in their poster designs and showed each other. Then the whole group decided what could be done to improve them before putting them up around the whole school. This is what one of the posters looked after amendments have been made: The more improved versions of the poster did not include the fact that the event for was for the profit-making purpose to raise funds for the Prague trip. This part of the poster was not necessary and it had to be brief and straight to the point for people to read the whole message. However, if it was made long some people would be put off and walk away from the poster, thereby missing out on the essential message that the cake stall is on the upcoming Friday. James Lindsay failed to submit the memo to all of the teachers concerning the Cake stall. However, the newsletter column composed by the event organiser head was released by Friday, at the end of the school week. This backed up James Lindsay and the message concerning the upcoming Cake Stall got through to all of the students who picked up a newsletter in their form rooms. These newsletters are usually handed out by the students form tutors, and so the chance of them receiving the newsletter was very high. The event organiser chair decided that all of the event organisers needed to a break time and a lunch time each, be it a lower or higher one. The lower and higher break and lunch time shifts had to be evenly distributed to all the event organisers, to make it fair on everyone. So everybody volunteered to do combinations of lower/higher breaks and lower/higher lunches to suit their own flexibility. When it seemed that too many people were in one group, (i.e. a lower/higher break or a lower/higher lunch) then event organisers such as ‘Adrian Daniels’ changed group for the sake of fairness, by changing from a lower lunch to an upper lunch. As a result, this was the outcome for the Cake Stall schedule for Friday 19th October 2007: Lower Break Upper Break Lower Lunch Higher Lunch (10.00-10.20) (11.00-11.20) (12.20-13.05) (13.20-14.05) Adam Lindsay Lindsay Adam Laura Wardy Laura Adrian Louise Dillon Wardy Joe Adrian Toyosi Dillon Muj Michael Flaherty Toyosi Tinashe Muj Joe Flaherty Louise Tinashe Tinashe Michael The Cake Stall schedule was put together in a a way, that there will be sufficient ratio of event organisers selling and supervising, to the consumers (i.e. the school years on break or lunch time, like the years seven, eight and nine out for upper break). This way, there would not be too many event organisers at the Cake Stall at one time, or too little event organisers at the cake stall to cope at one time. Although there was an equal number of event organisers out for each cake stall except the ‘upper lunch’, it did not matter because any body free at the time of the ‘upper lunch’ can give additional help if needed. So even if one person turned up to help the ‘upper lunch’ and make all the cake stall time schedules equal, it was adequate and fair. Thursday 18th October was the date set for the event organisers to hand in their cakes. There were various ‘cake hand-in points’ to take the cakes too, because the canteen would only hold the cakes for the day of the cakes stall. Some of these points were the school ‘reception’ and the ‘business studies department office’. These places were selected so that the cakes could be kept secure. Preservations were not a situation as all the cakes and other confectionary had expiry dates displayed on them. This date was also the day before the big cakes stall sell, so if anybody forgot to bring in the cakes on the actual day (i.e. Friday 19th October 2007) they could bring them in, in advance. However, if anybody forgot to bring them in on Thursday, the following meeting on Thursday acted as a reminder. The finances concerning the cake stall were also discussed at the 15th October 2007 meeting. The following meeting was on Thursday 18th October, the day before the cakes stall sell. Laura Port was assigned by the event organisers’ chair to collect ten pounds worth of change from the bursar. Change was required for the cake stall to start-up with, otherwise waiting to make adequate money through the cake sells in order to give the consumers (i.e. school students) change can be time consuming. The school students break or lunch time is for a limited time only. So the school students would want to be able to buy their cakes, have their break or lunch, and then finish in time for their next lessons. The event organisers also agreed that the cakes will sell from prices ranging from twenty-five to fifty pence. The prices of the cakes and the other confectionary were to be confirmed for the next meeting. ‘Michael Garvis volunteered to bring in some margarine containers to collect the money made from the cake stall in. ‘Petty cash’ or coins will mainly be used by the customers to pay for the cakes and other confectionary, so there would not be a need for a cash register. The ratio of event organisers to customers will also be sufficient enough for them to supervise the money right in front of them. The ‘year eight’ group was due to be absent for the day, which could possibly affect the rate of sales, and more significantly, the rate of sales. ‘Joe Medlin’ and ‘Adrian Daniels’ volunteered to collect the money made from the cake stall at the last sell, at upper lunch, to the treasurer. He or she can calculate how much has been made and keep the funds safe for future use i.e. costs going towards the trip such as coach fees. The finance issues concerning the cake stall had been discussed and sorted. So next were the health and safety concerns for the sale: The event organisers agreed to arrive ten minutes early before the cake stall sell. This would allow enough time to setup the cake stall in the hall before any commotion is caused by the consumers (i.e. the Marlborough school students). Also, it was agreed between the event organisers that the cake stall queue had to be organised, to prevent the consumers pushing each other about to get into the line. However, if the cake stall was not so popular and only a few students turned up, it may not be necessary to create a queue barrier. Since there is a chance of fights arising from the queue, a risk assessment is to be created to evaluate how severe incidents could potentially become during the cake stall. Then suitable health and safety measures can be carried out to protect the consumers and customers, (i.e. the school students) the cakes and other people like the teachers. As the cake stall is a business, the Government’s health and safety procedures have to be observed: http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/EnvironmentalServices/HealthAndSafety/hs_riskassessments.pdf Therefore according to the ‘Health & Safety at Work Act 1974’, employers are to take â€Å"reasonably practicable† precautions in various areas to safeguard employees. In this case, the event organizers are to consider suitable safety measures in the cake stall to protect all the stakeholders, which include the customers and the teachers. To do this it must be ensured that good judgment is made about the extent of risks that could happen at the cake stall, and its consequences. In regards to the legal governmental health and safety Governmental requirements, the ‘Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1992/1999’ has also been considered. It states that: â€Å"Every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of: à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ The risks to the health and safety of his/her employees to which they are exposed while they are at work; and à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ The risks to the health and safety of persons not in his employment arising out of or in connection with the conduct by him or his undertaking: For the purposes of identifying the measures he needs to take to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed upon him by or under the relevant statutory provisions†. The findings must be recorded if five or more are employed. In this case, a risk assessment must be drawn up by all the event organisers for the cake stall, in order to produce health and safety solutions for the event. Therefore, a risk assessment will be carried out. CAKE STALL RISK ASSESSMENT LOCATION: ACTIVITY: SELLING CAKES PASCAL HALL, AT STAND, AND OTHER MARLBOROUGH CONFECTIONARY SUCH AS SCHOOL COOKIES PEOPLE AT RISK: MARLBOROUGH SCHOOL STUDENTS, CUSTOMERS, CONSUMERS, TEACHERS, CANTEEN STAFF. POTENTIAL HAZARDS: FIGHTING (E.G QUEUE PUSHING) EXPIRED CAKES AND OTHER CONFECTIONARY EXCITED CUSTOMERS NOISE NUTS IN CAKES, COOKIES, MUFFIN, ETC TABLE LEG WET ADJUSTMENTS FLOOR MOPED BY CLEANING STAFF POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES: SLIPPING TRIPPING OVER STAIRS FOOD ALLERGIES TOE INJURY BLINDING FOOD CONTAMINATION EXISTING CONTROLS: FRESHLY BAKED CAKES/BISCUITS CAKES AND OTHER CONFECTIONARY PURCHASED WITH A VALID EXPIRY DATE RISK RATING WITH EXISTING CONTROLS: HIGH MEDIUM ? (Major Injury: Fighting) LOW NEW CONTROLS REQUIRED: QUEUE BARRIERS (To be improvised with chairs) TEACHER SUPERVISION ENSURING THAT THE HALL FLOOR IS COMPLETELY DRY BEFORE CAKE SELLING BEGINS CAKE STALL TABLES TO BE KEPT FIRMLY TOGETHER IN POSITION RISK RATING WITH NEW CONTROLS: HIGH MEDIUM LOW ? (Major injuries: tripping over stairs, food allergies {all cakes that are purchased from stores like ‘Asda’ are not 100% certain to contain traces of nuts in them) ASSESSOR NAME†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦JOB TITLE†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. SIGNATURE †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. DATE†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦DATE TO BE REVIEWED†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. The cakes and other confectionary prices were also decided on at the meeting: (i.e. Thursday 18th October 2007) Fixed Costs à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Hire of Hall 0 Ten pounds worth of change 10 Cake Stand Tables (school property) 0 Money containers (complimentary of ‘Michael Garvis’) 0 Cakes and other confectionary (donated) 0 Napkins ( Complimentary of ‘James Lindsay’) 0 Total 10 Variable costs (per customer) à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Little Muffins 0.25 Plain Cupcakes 0.30 Cupcakes with icing 0.40 Big muffins 0.55 Big Cookies 0.40 Biscuits 0.20 Mini Fairy Cakes 0.20 Flapjacks 0.20 Small Cookies 0.20 The cake stall took place on Friday 19th October 2007. No incidents/accidents happened due to the new improved controls introduced from creating and making risk assessments. The follow-up meeting was 29th October 2007. The cake stall sale was reviewed. The event organisers discussed that the ‘plain cupcakes’ were not so popular during the break times, and therefore were not selling well. As a result, ‘Louise Conyard’ took initiative and sprinkled some icing on top of all of them to add value and sped up sales. This simple action helped to sell all of them. There were certain cakes that were selling well and not selling so well. And so, it was discussed between the event organisers that more of these high in demand cakes could have been purchased during the day of the cake stall to boost sales. This would have also have boosted profits. Also, it was mentioned during the meeting that the cake stall was not as popular as anticipated. This may have been due to the fact that promotion was not as effective as required, and that insufficient posters may have been posted up around the school. In future, marketing of the event would need to be more effective if another fundraising event had to take place, to raise additional funds. However, some of the Marlborough school students may have preferred bringing their own snacks to school or buying other snacks in school, and bringing their own packed lunch to school or buying school dinners from the canteen. This competition between the canteen and the cake stall during the break and lunchtimes could have definitely hindered sales. Not all of the cakes sold at the end of both breaks and lunches, so event organisers including ‘James Dillon’ and ‘Toyosi Akinola’ discussed their idea of how they went round the school trying to boost sales with a tray of cakes and other related confectionary. This was highly successful since all of them were sold! As a result, two hundred and twenty four pounds in total was produced from the event. It was considered that this could be used to pay off the trip’s fixed costs, including the coach fees. However, this was insufficient capital to meet these costs. ‘Adrian Daniels’, one of the groups of event organisers contacted the ‘South Mimms Coach travel service’, a very good, long-term coach supplier for Marlborough School. The quote that Adrian received was that: â€Å"Two coaches including baggage space to transport approximately eighty people would cost five hundred pounds. This will include parking spaces and waiting time at the Luton Airport and Marlborough School.† – A South Mimms Coaches representative From the look of the amount of funds raised from the cake stall, around half of the coach fees have been raised. Therefore, an additional fundraising event will be required and the objective â€Å"to implement all fundraising events by Wednesday 31st October 2007† would have to be extended the maximum an additional month, otherwise it could clash with the deadline to have all the letters to the parents concerning the Prague Trip out. As a result, the second place fundraising event chosen was ‘Bag Packing’, and this alternative will also be used to boost the current funding towards the Prague Trip of two hundred and twenty-four pounds. Laura Port volunteered to get in contact with the Sainsbury’s branch in St. Albans, whilst James Dillon also agreed to get in contact with his local Sainsbury’s branch too, at Garston. Therefore, in order to meet the next objective, this event would have taken place by the end of November. Since at least two Saturdays are required for the whole group to carry out bag packing, and the first fundraising event (i.e. the cake stall) has taken place before the end of October, So far accomplishing the objectives to date, the Prague trip is proved feasible. Since the critical parts of the event organisation process are out of the way, it is possible to proceed with planning the rest of the event and careful monitoring; that everything goes to plan and progress is monitored vigilantly. Most significantly, the finances will have to be watched, since they determine whether or nor the trip will take place entirely. Therefore, a letter to the parents will need to be released by the end of November, making them aware of the upcoming deposit deadlines and other details relevant to the Prague trip. At the first meeting back after the school summer vacations i.e. 24th September 2007, the event organizers of the year thirteen business studies students decided that the most appropriate solution to communicate the message about the Prague trip to the parents would be to write a formal letter as soon as possible. This would explain to the parents as well as the students: > What the event is about > Why they should go on the trip > What is required for the trip to occur > When it will take place and end > What the trip co-coordinators’ are aiming to attain for the students who go on the trip > The eventual benefits > Keeping both parents and the student up-to-date with the most recent news regarding the conference trip. At the end of the letter, an optional ‘cut-out’ permission slip can allow for the student and the parents to agree on whether or not he or she can go on the trip, backed up with their individual signatures. All the event organisers agreed to design a letter being addressed to the parents of the year twelve business studies students concerning the Prague Trip. All the best aspects of the whole groups’ letters’ were to be combined in fashioning the perfect letter. An example of a letter design of one of the event organisers was: Re: Educational Trip to Prague Dear Sir/Madam, We are proud to inform you that the Year 13 Business Studies students are organizing a business conference that will be great benefit to your child’s education, particularly in AS level Business Studies. At the end of the course, students must write a Business Studies exam based on ‘people at work.’ In this exam, they will have to apply that knowledge of what they have learnt during the year, including applying and referring it to real- existing business firms. The exam is worth 33.3% of their final AS grade in the course, so the information they can obtain from companies to apply in case studies to fulfil their exam specification requirements is vital. Various guest speakers representing the different business firms will come in and give an inspirational talk to the students about what their job role is on a typical day as well as their personal experiences. The students will be given plenty of opportunities to take notes and questions, so they will most definitely make the most of their stay their. They will also visit businesses like a beer factory and also have time to do some Prague sightseeing while they are appreciating the scenery of places like the ‘Prague Castle,’ etc. The trip to Prague, the capital city of Czech Republic will take place on Thursday 21st February till Sunday 24th February 2008. Coaches will arrive and depart on time to their airport, so please ensure that your child gets to the departure point at a suitable time. We will ensure that you will be informed about most recent news regarding this trip, so we will keep you updated. Communication is very important, especially when there are time constraints. Therefore, it is vital that when it comes to communicating, it is done effectively so that all the event organizers are motivated to persevere to accomplish the Prague Trip objectives. Time could be constrained even more if they are demotivated to meet these goals, which makes communication crucial for the event to succeed. Although all the event organizers may have the potential to succeed as a unit (i.e. a ‘pseudo’ team), but however if they are all not organized well enough and fail to contribute to the team where they may specialize, for example bringing in imaginative concepts to which everyone going to the Prague trip can alert each other whenever when in Prague, then the whole group is at risk of collapsing. Therefore, the event organizers need allocate one another job roles where each other fits in or works best. But before this can happen, the whole group needs to be aware of the Prague trip schedule from start to finish, so that everybody will realize at which point in this schedule they can take an active role in. As a result, a Gantt chart will be created to meet this need.

Pride of Baghdad

Saddam Hussein: The Power is down Pride of Baghdad, drawn by Brian K. Vaughan and Niko Henrichon, tells a story of group of lions escaping from the zoo after the U. S. army starts invading Baghdad. In order to show how cruel consequences that the war brings, the authors try to portray humans by drawing the lions, the bear, and other animals. Due to its gorgeous drawing style and its concise dialogues, the novel only has 100 pages but contains various meanings.In 2003, the Iraq war was triggered because of Hussein's violent suppression on the people, who have their own political views, but also his possession of the large amount of illegal weapons. The novel not only presents the consequence of dictatorship, but also satirizes the interference of U. S. army because the public opinion says that the reason of U. S. involving the war is impure since no evidence has been found to prove that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. The main purpose of U. S. army invading is the oil resources in Iraq; however, by coincidence, Hussein is on the reign, which causes the U.S. ’s excuse to invade. In this book, the authors stand at Bagdad’s civilians’ point of view to tell the story until they get shot by the U. S. army. More specifically, a fighting scene between the lions and the bear is not interpreted as the surface meaning but is created because the authors want to embody that even though the civilians overthrown the power of Hussein, the U. S. army is the one who eventually takes over their government power and causes the war. The lions and the bear both represent the civilians and Saddam Hussein.Towards almost the end of the story, referring to a specific page, a bear who shows up trying to block the lions’ way to freedom says â€Å"Don’t get up†(where the page’s background is the huge bear standing up with Noor and Safa looking up). The authors purposely creates a giant black bear when the story almost reaches the end t o show the power that Hussein holds during the his presidency. By looking at the expression on the bear’s face, readers can clearly see the anger through its bloody eyes and sharp teeth with opening mouth.The shrewdest part of this graphic novel is its drawing style, using animals to portray humans. Throughout the idea of visual images, when readers first look at the bear, a sense of fear is emitted from its giant black body; however, the lions, comparing the size with the bear, are much weaker. The authors apply not only the visualized details, but also the literal ones in every single character. For instance, the names of the bear and the lions who is prisoned, Fajer and Rashid are both originated from Arabic language, which is also the official language in Iraq.Fajer means wicked and Rashid means rightly guided, which are opposite to each other; however, the justice can’t beat down the evil since Fajer already kills Rashid. According to the previous page, the author s purposely use special-effects lettering, a method of drawing attention to text of highlighting the words, on some of the words while the bear is speaking, â€Å"PET†, â€Å"HIS†, â€Å"FAJER†, and â€Å"MAN†(the page where the bear first shows up with only its eyes and mouth).The â€Å"PET† represents the weakness of the justice under Hussein’s dictatorship, and oppositely, the â€Å"MAN of the house† implies the formidable power that Hussein holds. In addition, in order to describe the difference between good and evil, the authors use graphic weight to focus on the drawing of colors between the bear and lions, which are black and white.Even thought this particular page only contains one panel, it really embodies the representations between the civilians who are under suppressed and Saddam Hussein. Nonetheless, as the story reaches the end, the lions successfully kill the bear, but the U. S. army shot all of the lions. The authors a re trying to indicate the idea of how the civilians play the most important role during the war. Millions of lives are lost because of the war, and most of them are innocent civilians.

Research Methods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Research Methods - Essay Example An effective research process is characterized by detailed basic steps undertaken with caution to prevent errors that can affect the results. The first step is identifying the research problem. The problem is normally the issue being identified by the researcher or a concept that requires more information or clarification (Blankenship 2). Research problems are normally the common issues that affect the community and form the focus of the whole process. The second step involves the review of literature which enables the researcher to learn more about the problem under investigation. Reviewing documented literature about the problem provides the foundational knowledge that shapes the whole process. Literature review informs the researchers on how the earlier studies related to the research topic were conducted and the conclusions earlier formulated. The knowledge attained through literature review guides the researcher when narrowing down the research topic and clarifying the problem. The third step is clarification of the problem whereby the scope is narrowed down from the broad initial topic. The concepts gained through literature review offer guidance on the relevant topic under focus by addressing the stated problem. After clarification of the problem, the researcher should define the terms and concepts applied when describing the study. This helps in minimizing the confusion that may emanate from the readers of the study. This is because the interpretation differs depending on the person reading the project. Definition of terms and concepts should be followed by the definition of the population or group to be involved in the study. The research question and study purpose determine the population. Defining the population enables the researcher to know the population they are supposed to deal with and the target group. Once the population is identified, the plan for the study is developed. This serves as the framework for the entire study. Data is then collect ed among the identified population. Data collection involves surveys, questionnaires and observation of literature (Blankenship 2). The stated steps provide data that undergo analysis to answer the research question. Data is analyzed according to the stated instrumentation plan. Analysis involves breaking down the notes into categories of topic themes and making a decision on how these categories relates to the theme. The researcher identifies the loopholes in the research process and repeats the process to look for any missing information. The information is then synthesized through refining the thesis in relation to the earlier information compiled and read in the literature review. The results are reviewed and summarized according to the research questions. This is occasionally followed by communication or presentation of the results. The research should be communicated in the format required by the professor with proper use of citations to avoid plagiarism. Research process enab les researchers to inform action. The defined steps also negate any loopholes that may result to errors and eventual distortion of the conclusion drawn. Explain the Advantages and Disadvantages of Adopting the Case-Study Research Design. ADVANTAGES Case study is used to build upon the existing theory, formulate a new theory or challenge an existing theory. This provides the foundation for applying solutions to problems or during the description of a phenomenon. Case study is a

Racial Bias in the Media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Racial Bias in the Media - Essay Example Some bias is expected. It can not be argued that children's networks have a bias towards showing children, that women's networks show women, and that African American networks show African Americans. As consumers, it is rare to question this phenomenon. But what about networks that are for everyone Is there still a bias in what they show, and who are they biased towards When it comes to mainstream media and news, there is a particular bias towards racial minorities, one that falsely creates stereotypes and undermines the fight for equality. Black men are often portrayed as aggressive, angry, and unwilling to compromise. Latino/Latinas are portrayed as unwilling to learn English, and as drug smugglers. Native Americans are portrayed as lazy, and alcoholics. Asians are portrayed as quiet and hardworking. Are these images real While all stereotypes are based loosely on some reality, the stereotypes created by the media are even more false then those created through actual human interaction. These images are created from the very small representations of minority available in the media, most of which are already negatively slanted to begin with. But how do we know the media is creating these images There is an easy answer. Turn on the television, or open a newspaper. The vast majority of what is being seen is white, heterosexual men. The next most common group White, heterosexual women. They are seen in percentages that far outweigh the actual race percentages in the United States. In a society so passionate about equality, how does racial bias remain so strong in the media Like most forms of equality, racial equality is a long, hard battle. While the need for equality is clear, most people feel a sense of ennui if the battle takes too long. Why keep trying, when the worst battles have already been fought Does the media bias really hurt anyone Yes. Racial bias, and racism, directly affect and hurt everyone. They hurt the people who are being ignored, or being portrayed only negatively, by creating unrealistic stereotypes which they have to fight, and also by limiting the positive role models young children of color have available. Racism affects the media majority, because those same stereotypes create an unnecessary fear and a separate between races. Racism that is so clear affects society, because it limits the exposure of different cultures and groups, making understanding each other and working together for equality that much harder. Racism creates an underlying fear and tension that the United States would be much better without. However, it is important to note that not all racism, at least portrayed racism, is intentional. Even today, what is shown on television and what is read in newspapers is controlled by a very small group of people. White, upper-class, middle aged, heterosexual men. There is no direct attempt to be racist in what they put out in the media, there are no manuals telling them how to be racist. But, like all groups, they are more comfortable with a familiar face. That face is a white man, not a black woman, or an Asian child. Some, however, is intentional. By using racially unequal language, a negative image can be portrayed, only by changing one or two words. Stanford Professor Geoffrey Nunberg points out the difference between using refugee and evacuee during the Katrina crisis. By using

The effects of the credit crisis on the UK and US financial systems Essay

The effects of the credit crisis on the UK and US financial systems over the past two years - Essay Example f bailouts, in which major industries are saved by the government from financial ruin, after which they either can pay the government back, or become partially or completely owned. In my perspective as a consultant, I advise both governments that the situation has changed somewhat due to these bailout reactions. No explicit mention of macroeconomic factors is made, and the report focuses on policy. In the last two years, policy changes have taken place superficially, although the UK and US financial systems remain fundamentally unchanged. New public scrutiny may continue to change this trend to emphasize a more mandatory nature of releasing financial disclosure reports, thus easing anxiety. As a consultant, I would state that US and UK leaders may or may not pay close attention to disclosure and transparency in business operations. â€Å"The imploding British economy has set off deflation in key asset classes, particularly real estate. Unemployment is skyrocketing, having reached an official figure of 6.7 %, or 2.1 million jobless† (Financial, 2009, 1). The basic assumption of the current report is that the fundamental financial system has not changed in the wake of financial crisis, in either the UK or the US, when looking at the long-term rather than the short-term. The US and UK financial systems are very similar in terms of basic policy; much of US law and other systems were changed only slightly after the American Revolution, and many systems in the US retain UK and European roots, including the economy. The root of the financial systems of both countries is the commercial bank. Historically, commercial banks have been around since the beginnings of history, during the development of monetary systems in early trading between kingdoms and empires. Banking is a very old institution, and most of the commercial banking rules and regulations in place in the US, as mentioned, are actually inherited from European systems of banking from the colonial era,

Outline an activity that will promote creative engagement using Essay

Outline an activity that will promote creative engagement using electronic educational games.You can choose an electronic game f - Essay Example Education has developed over the years into a highly intricate developmental activity for humans in all civilized locations of the world. Set patterns of curricula and defined standards have to be met in order to qualify for the desired and specific professional goals. Modern education involves the usage of electronic media which can be either in the form of informative multimedia presentations or interactive activities using a computer interface. The following paragraphs illustrate an educational activity planned for 12 year old children. By the age of 12 years most children have acquired basic language and mathematical skills and are well aware of themselves and the surroundings they live in. However, the real world is quite different from the narrow confines of a classroom or home and there is a need to increase the awareness of children about other places of economic importance to humans, like factories, farms, markets and industries. Students in cities usually are isolated from such places and rarely visit them until advanced age. They can however, now be given a virtual experience of any environment using interactive electronic media like computers and interactive games. Instead of going to an actual place, children can now visit virtual farms, factories, etc. on a personal computer through role playing games which are available freely on the internet. Some examples are HP (Hewlett Packard games) which come bundled with their PCs (personal computers) or other online interactive game sites like Shidonni, Runescape and Roblox (Respective websites) Activity The purpose of this activity will be to familiarize children with farm life through a role playing game, ‘Farmscapes’, available for trial download from the Hewlett Packard (HP) website (HP website). Children will be assisted by the teacher to sign up for role playing games’ available at the HP website which offers free (trial) as well as paid games for online subscribers (HP website). Co branded as Wild Tangent games, these are thoroughly well designed, interactive and attractive games for children (Wildtangent website). To play the game, a person has to register with a valid email and the teacher can assist the students in doing so. As the students’ may not be aware with the intricacies of downloading and installation of the game, the teacher will download, install and assist the child to initiate the game on a desktop PC. For this particular activity, the children will be asked to choose the game ‘Farmscapes’ and familiarize themselves with various farming operations. The main character of this game is ‘Joe’ who owns a ranch. Children will assist Joe in various farm activities like sowing, fertilizing, growing, harvesting the crops and selling them to reap profits for the rancher. They will learn how to run a dairy, a chicken farm, a beehive, etc., and indulge in interactive activities on the computer screen akin to actual farm operations. The children will learn to cope with natural disasters and farm operations necessary for running a profitable agricultural business. There are hidden treasures and mysteries which attract the children to the game and sustain their attention. Children can spend the allotted time on the game and leave the rest for the next day, on which they can resume activities on their farm. This takes away the strain on children from having to complete an activity in a single instance. Ability to resume on the next day provides adequate rest to the

Advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing Essay

Advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing - Essay Example Various functions of the business can be outsourced. The function which are most popular in outsourcing are IT functions, customer care, human resource, financial functions, marketing function etc. Nike the famous sports accessories company had outsourced the work of manufacturing shoes to countries like India and China as this will reduce the cost is an example of outsourcing. Off shoring is also a type of outsourcing. When a company outsources its work to other companies which are situated in different countries is known as off shoring. The main off shoring companies are Price Waterhouse Coopers, HSBC, TCS, Wipro, IBM, Capgemini, Genpact etc. the various type of outsourcing are business process outsourcing, knowledge process outsourcing, finance and accounting outsourcing, legal process outsourcing, human resource process outsourcing etc. Outsourcing has resulted in increase in the number of employment. The process of outsourcing mainly consists of four stages they are 1) identifyi ng whether outsourcing is required by the company 2) identifying and selecting the activities which can be outsourced 3) developing the contract 4) delegating the authority to the service provider so that the working can be smooth. The contract contains mainly three things they are the price at which the service will be provided, the legal terms and condition and the service level agreement. Outsourcing can be done by function, region and industry. 2. Growing Importance of Outsourcing With every passing day outsourcing is becoming popular. As per a study conducted by Capgemini more than 70% of executives think that in today’s competitive world outsourcing is important for survival. About 70% executives feel that savings made by outsourcing can be used for growth and 60% feel that flexibility can be achieved through outsourcing. Companies in manufacturing sectors prefer outsourcing more than the companies in service sector. The decisions of outsourcing are taken after assessin g the profitability and companies, ability to grow. Companies who do outsourcing can invest their savings for future growth and innovation. Thus these companies are in better position than the companies who do not do outsourcing as they can save less than the former ones (Brady, 2011). Outsourcing helps the company not only to save money but also to achieve expert service. The firms who do the outsourced work have the human resource who are specialised to do that particular work. In this way the company can utilise expert skill that to without making any capital investment. Thus through outsourcing companies achieve reduction in cost as well as quality service. This is the main reason of growing popularity of outsourcing. Outsourcing is becoming a major business activity which has the potential of becoming an industry. In figure 1 we can see the growth of outsourcing in different sectors. As per the figure about 61% of outsourcing is done in software development, 58% in website and e- commerce, 55% in hosted application, 53% in disaster recovery service and 32% in data centre operations. The use of outsourcing has been increased most in software development organisations. There is almost 14% increase in outsourcing in website and e-commerce sector. The second largest increase in outsourcing is in hosted applications sector. In help desk activities there is no decrease in outsourcing. Thus one can find that every sector is involved in outsourcing. The activities outsourced ranges from

Workplace Law Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Workplace Law - Case Study Example Hence all the laws and regulations related to awards, state or federal industrial laws are applicable and can be enforced, in case of such contracts (CCH Australia, 2010). For the purpose of this case study, the contractual true nature of contractual relationship of Jane Jones and TMMS will be studied from the perspective of Common Law, and the various legal issues pertaining to the case will be discussed, by application of principles and facts of the said case. The various legal issues, as pertains to the Common Law, related to this case are listed below: 1. Breach of implied duty of mutual trust and confidence In accordance with the proceedings and decision arrived at by the Supreme Court of Australia, in the McDonald v State of South Australia, it was established that the elements such as mutual trust and confidence are an integral and inevitable part of employment contracts. The judiciary in Australia uses the implied term of trust and confidence in order to create an obligation on the part of the employers so as to instill an interest of fairness. It is described as "an implied obligation of good faith". It was observed in the case of Concut Pty Ltd v Worrel, that "the ordinary relationship of an employer and employee at common law is one importing implied duties of loyalty, honesty, confidentiality and mutual trust" (Aras, Crowther, 2010, pp. 517; Brodie, 2010, pp. 166). In this case, TMMS summoned Jane and made sudden changes in the contract, which included terms and conditions which were unfair to her, and did not seek to protect her interests at work. One of the implied rules of common law states that the employees be treated in a fair manner, while the terms and conditions and the abrupt changes made, were both unfair and unjust for Jane. The employer in this case had an implied obligation to treat their employees fairly and be honest and truthful to them. Furthermore, the employer is also required to practice and apply the elements of confidentiality and strive to maintain mutual trust. But in this case, TMMS decided to restructure its organization and did not take their employees into confidence prior to making any changes to their employment terms, and instead added clauses which were unjust and unfair to them. 2. Refusing to sign, negotiate, extend or vary an AWA Under Common Law, neither the employer nor the employee has the right to unilaterally alter the terms and conditions of an employment contract. Any such alteration must be done through mutual discussion and agreement, else it would be deemed illegal. The employer must obtain a valid consent of the employee prior to changing any of the terms of the employment contract and cannot do so just by serving a notice. Furthermore, it has also been stated under the Common Law, that the courts and tribunals will consider an agreement received by the employer, as illegal if the consequence of non-compliance or non-acceptance to sign the renewed contract is dismissal with immedi ate effect. In such a situation, the courts will deem such changes to the contract / agreement as unfair and adverse to the interest of the employees (Lewis & Sargeant, 2004, pp. 136). In this case, the employer TMMS, not only changed the terms of contract unilaterally, but also failed to discuss or negotiate the newly added terms with the employee. Furthermore, when specifically asked for more time to consider the said changes, TMMS openly stated that it is a â€Å"take it or leave it† situation, and implied that refusing to accept the said changes, would automatically result in termination of the contract. Such harsh terms and conditions not only broke the implied rule of mutual trust and

My Philosophy of Education Leadership Personal Statement - 1

My Philosophy of Education Leadership - Personal Statement Example Proper administration and leadership of schools becomes important in this perspective. To be specific, according to the 21st century view point, there are certain values which a school administrator should follow in order to ensure that the education is being imparted properly and also to make sure that the knowledge lines are kept up to date. The leader of a school must have a clear picture about the educational system and he must be able to provide the environment for effective impartment of knowledge to the students. The proverb says, â€Å"Leader knows the way and leader shows the way.† In other words, the administrator must be able to properly guide the teachers so as to ensure the proper learning of the pupils, and, at the same time, he must be a source of positive vibrations for the students. He must be able to encourage them to learn their topics well and to teach them to pursue their own good careers. He must be dedicated to inculcate a good character in every pupil while making one a knowledge-rich person. There is an opinion that â€Å"the practice of educational leadership is a form of philosophy in action, that is an area of philosophical practice† (Codd, 1989, p.157). The administrator should have a clear picture about what is being taught and how things must be taught. Proper knowledge in these areas is essential to impart education in a proper way. You can guide someone only if you know the right way. Therefore, thorough knowledge about the curriculum becomes an essential requirement as far as a school administrator is concerned. He should also have subtle knowledge about modern teaching methodologies which inevitably incorporate technology in education. The administration and staff of an educational institution must work as a team in order to provide proper knowledge to the children. The administrator must be keen in enhancing the skills and subject knowledge of the teachers and keep them updated. Seminars and workshops should be arranged

Common Difficulties Encountered in Academic Writing Essay

Common Difficulties Encountered in Academic Writing - Essay Example For me, writing can be really difficult at times because the act itself is solitary. It comes from within us. We concentrate on planning and thinking on how to transform our complex thoughts into an organized written text. For instance, when I write argumentative essays, there are abstract concepts that I need to explain using my own words and this makes writing difficult for me. Sometimes, I would find myself staring at a blank paper for hours because I do not know how to start the topic I am working. I would have difficulty in coming up with solid arguments for my essay topic. Even though I have read a lot about the theme of the essay, I still have trouble translating what I have read into writing. Worse, when I get to start writing, I would it difficult to end the topic. It is as if I am going nowhere when I start my writing task. Moreover, in the middle of the work, I would get distracted because sometimes I would be confused in grammatical rules especially when I construct complex sentences. Also, the rules in punctuation and spelling would confuse me a lot, especially when I would try to write longer sentences. Indeed, I am very conscious of all the technicalities in grammar, punctuation, and vocabulary when I start to write. However, amidst all these difficulties I encountered in writing, I have remained patient in re-writing and editing my drafts to come up with a presentable essay. I have learned that there are methods that would make writing easier for beginning writer and that is to have a plan. In this class, I have learned the process of pre-writing, writing, revising, and editing in order to get my essays done. Prewriting would mean that I have to jot down all the ideas I have, regardless of my ideas are correct or not. Writing an outline would then help me in organizing my thoughts and ideas.

Seamus Heaney’s poem “Blackberry Picking’ Essay Example for Free

Seamus Heaney’s poem â€Å"Blackberry Picking’ Essay In Seamus Heaney’s poem â€Å"Blackberry Picking’ the poet vividly recreates a seemingly unimportant event in which he goes blackberry picking as a child. However by the end of the poem this experience acquires increased significance. Throughout Heaney’s description of this event we are made aware of the theme, Heaney’s childhood hopes and dreams in contrast to the harsh realities of life. This theme is effectively conveyed through the tone of excitement and anticipation in the first stanza while picking the berries, which transforms into an atmosphere of disappointment and regret in the second stanza as the berries have rotted. Heaney is able to develop this supposed insignificant event using techniques such as language, sentence structure, imagery, contrast and tone in order to create sympathy within the reader and allow them to reflect upon the transient nature of childhood ideals. During the first half of the poem Heaney makes no attempt to sentimentalise the event that is Blackberry picking, as we can tell when he writes, ‘Our hands were peppered with thorn pricks,† the recurring plosive ‘p’ sound in this sentence allows us to hear the skin of his hands being punctured yet still we can tell that young Heaney was enthralled by Blackberry Picking. The first stanza of the poem also has numerous examples of youthful imagery. The boy anxiously awaits the first glossy purple clot,’ almost jewel like, conveying how significant and majestic these berries were to the young Heaney. He uses this metaphor in order to compare the blackberries to blood, a live-giving force that is full of goodness. Some of the blackberries are green, hard as a knot and this image portrays the boy himself, young and innocent, not yet mature himself. The blood imagery continues throughout the poem with summers blood illustrating a dominance of the colour red t hroughout. The reader associates these images of vibrant red with vitality and life, as is Heaney’s intention, to accurately portray to the reader the sheer excitement of childhood, in stark contrast with the reality to come in the second stanza. The second half of the poem describes how the blackberries rot and there is a noticeable change in tone from youthful exuberance to frustration and disappointment. The image of the boy finding the rotting blackberries is described using alliteration; we found a fur a rat-grey fungus, the harsh fricative f sound illustrates the tone of frustration and disappointment within Heaney which is also transferred to the reader through this shocking visual image which everyone can identify with. The fungus is likened to the fur of a grey rat, an image that is not appealing and directly contrasts with the previous descriptions of thickened wine where the flesh was sweet. Heaney uses visual imagery such as this in order to immerse the reader in a sensual experience so that they almost feel as if they are there in the moment with Heaney and will thus be subject to feeling the same disappointment Heaney feels in the last stanza. Towards the end of the poem we are made aware of how significant this memory is to Heaney. Heaney conveys an emotional reaction when the berries rot: â€Å"I always felt like crying,† Heaney’s tone at this point shows his absolute devastation as it is such a simple sentence, made emphatic by the fact it has been put at the start of the line. This line is also the first time Heaney has used ‘I’ which personalises the statement, making the reader feel closer to the author, as if he is confiding in us. Using the word â€Å"always† suggests that this great excitement followed by disappointment is an annual occurrence for Heaney and so the reader must also feel disappointment when presented with the idea that this disappointment is part of a cycle. In the final line of the poem Heaney’s character conveys the significance of his childhood experience picking blackberries. He introduces an air of naivety when he says, â€Å"Each year I hoped they’d keep, knew they would not.† Heaney uses a paradox here to highlight his sense of naivety as he continuously hopes for a way to make the berries last each year, through this line we can tell that, although aware the poem was an elegy throughout, â€Å"knew they would not,† allows the reader to understand that this is not a traditional Christian elegy in that there is no consolation for Heaney, he is aware that as an adult he cannot recapture his halcyon days, but he cannot accept it, which is evident through the abrupt finality of his last statement. In conclusion, it is evident that Heaney uses a variety of contrasting ideas, imagery and sentence structure in order to his feelings of disappointment to the reader in this poem. Through the contrast between the ripe and rotting blackberries and the youthful enthusiasm transformed into bitter disappointment, Heaney manages to convey the reader, the idea of the transience of the halcyon days during childhood which are never seen with the same excitement through an adult’s eyes and although we are led to acknowledge this disappointment, we are not encouraged by the author to accept it, thus the final tone and lasting impression of the poem is one of disappointment that the ideals of childhood cannot be reclaimed and that with age, comes an unwanted but realistic perspective.

Religion Essays Anselm and Descartes

Religion Essays Anselm and Descartes Anselm Descartes Religion Anselm and Descartes The debate regarding the existence of God has lasted for centuries. Man’s quest to establish the validity of God’s existence remains ongoing till this day. Saint Anselm and Rene Descartes were two thinkers who left a lasting impression from their philosophical works on the existence of God. Both men strived to prove the existence of God using rational and logical argumentation. Stylistically they differ, yet both share a cohesion of interest in which their common objective is to use philosophical reasoning to derive an â€Å"Ontological Argument† which favors the existence of God. Saint Anselm lived during 1033-1109, the prime of the Middle Ages. He was a devoted Christian who contributed significant works in theology and philosophy. As a faithful Christian, he yearned for a rational interpretation that proved the existence of God. The Augustinian phrase sums this idea; â€Å"faith seeking understanding† (Baird 322). In Anselm’s â€Å"Proslogion† he develops the â€Å"Ontological Argument† attempting to prove God’s existence. Anselm states that God is a being â€Å"in which nothing greater can be conceived.† He significantly quotes, the Psalms 13:1; â€Å"the Fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ He addresses this issue because he wants to prove the relevance of his prior statement, â€Å"we believe you to be something greater than which nothing greater can be conceived.† The Fool described in Psalms can comprehend this statement even if he is unsure that what he understands exists. Therefore, a major distinction is drawn by Anselm; â€Å"it is one thing for something to be in the understanding and quite another to understand that the thing in question exists† (Baird 325). Thus, the â€Å"Fool† can be convinced by his understanding that there is â€Å"something than which nothing greater can be conceived.† Anselm goes even further by arguing that â€Å"something in which nothing greater can be conceived† not only exists in the understanding, but can also be thought as existing in reality. Consequently, Anselm maintains, â€Å"without a doubt then there exists both in understanding and in reality a being greater than which nothing can be conceived† (Baird 325). Anselm develops his argument further by claiming that because such a thing exists, that thing cannot be thought of as not existing. Moreover, an interesting point is made by Anselm when he says, â€Å"It is possible indeed to think of anything other than you as nonexistent.† In other words, Anselm is trying to say that all other things can be thought of as not existing, but God has a perfect existence in which it is impossible to claim nonexistent because then it would be paradoxical. The measure of Gods existence supersedes all others because nothing greater can be conceived. Anselm once again discusses the fool who says in his heart that there is no God. Reason being, he wants to illustrate the connection between â€Å"to say in ones heart† and to think. The fool said in his heart that God did not exist, yet the same fool conceived a being greater than any other. Therefore, to say in ones heart is equal to thinking because to say in ones heart, one must first think. This also holds true for the reversal, if he does not think, than he does not say it in his heart. Thinking is initiated in two senses according to Anselm. In the first sense, thinking is signaled by a word that describes the thing. In the second sense, thinking is created when one thinks of the actual thing itself. Thus, from the perspective of the first sense it can be true that God does not exist. From the second sense, the denial of the existence of God is impossible because the thing itself has been thought or conceived. Since Descartes’ â€Å"Fifth Mediation† was written many years after Anselm’s â€Å"Ontological Argument† it becomes apparent, at least in one sense that Descartes refers indirectly to arguments established in Anselm’s â€Å"Ontological Argument.† This relationship or connection can be seen in both arguments as the idea of God’s â€Å"perfect existence.† Descartes however, in my opinion delves into the concept of perfect existence candidly. Whereas Anselm, attributes this perfect existence in his statement â€Å"we believe you to be something greater than which nothing grater can be conceived.† Regardless of the methods used they both attribute perfection to this supreme, eternal Being. Additionally, Descartes argument regarding the existence of God is not presupposed by faith like Anselm’s. Rather, Descartes begins his argument in a different manner then Anselm, speaking nothing about prior faith in God’s existence. He begins the â€Å"Fifth Meditation† by explaining how he has the ability to conceive in his mind a vast array of different shapes and dimensions. Even if these figments which he has created within his mind do not actual exist outside of his mind, they still contain immutable and eternal properties. A triangle is used by Descartes to elaborate upon this issue. He argues that even if the triangle did not exist outside of his mind it still contains indisputable properties. Therefore, once these properties are conceived clearly and distinctly they must be completely true. Like the triangle, the idea of a supremely perfect being exists in both our mind and Descartes. This idea does not differ from that of the triangle in any sense because each contains a nature or property. Descartes clearly and distinctly observes that Gods existence belongs to his nature, like a figure or number whose nature belongs to that figure or number. Descartes agrees that God can be thought of as not existing. This means, one can segregate his existence from his essential properties. Furthermore, this ability to separate existence and essence is also present within all other things examined according to Descartes. However, with closer inspection and with greater attention given to this notion Descartes discovered that, â€Å"we can no more separate the existence of God from his essence than we can separate from the essence of a rectilinear triangle the fact that the size of its three angles equals two right angles† (Baird 430). In other words, with other things we can separate the existence from the properties because the other things are not of a perfect being like God. Both Anselm and Descartes both use the premise of God as not existing, to prove his existence. They formulate their argument in this way because with closer inspection they refute the thought of God not existing because God has a perfect existence, and to claim that a perfect Being does not exist in reality would be â€Å"self contradictory† (Baird 430). Thus, according to Anselm and Descartes, a perfect Being must exist in both the mind and in reality since its existence is eternal, immutable, and perfect. In addition, Descartes maintains that he cannot think of God without existence any more than he can think of a mountain without a valley. Even though a necessary characteristic of a mountain is that it be contiguous to a valley, â€Å"it doesnt follow that any mountains or valleys exist.† Similarly, even though a supremely perfect being possesses certain attributes, it does not coincide with the existence of that being. Consequently Descartes says, â€Å"From the fact alone that I cannot conceive God except as existing, it follows that existence is inseparable from him, and consequently that he does, in truth, exist† (Barid 430) This acknowledgment of Gods existence is made by Descartes namely because God â€Å"possesses all sorts of perfections†, existence being one of them. Descartes then continues addressing an objection in regards to his prior argument. Consequently, he says that it is not necessary for him to suppose the thought of God, yet once he does think of God, then existence is necessary. This follows and is no different from it not being necessary for one to suppose something that is false. Descartes uses the inscription of a rhombus into a circle to illustrate this issue. â€Å"It is not necessary to think that all four sided figures can be inscribed in a circle; but if we suppose that I do have this idea, I am forced to admit that a rhombus can be inscribed in one, since it is a four sided figure, and by this I will be forced to admit what is clearly false† (Baird 431). Therefore, to Descartes one must not say, that even though it is not necessary for one to think of God, when one does think of the idea of a supreme being you are necessarily attributing an array of perfections. Thus, once it has been recognized that existence is perfection, one must conclude that this Supreme Being actually exists. Therefore, a distinction has been made by Descartes; there are many differences between false assumptions and true innate ideas, namely the thought of God. According to Descartes, this idea is not â€Å"imaginary or fictitious† because God is the only thing that can be conceived as having a â€Å"true and immutable nature.† There have been many attempts to refute the arguments of Anselm and Descartes. However, because of the rational and logical sequence that both follow in their arguments it has become increasingly difficult for others to prove these claims erroneous. Regardless, both men have provided invaluable documentation regarding the possibility of God’s existence in our minds and in reality. Even atheists find these arguments hard to refute because both thinkers cleverly used the thought of God as not existing, to prove that God, in his perfection does actually exist in our minds and in reality. Work Cited Baird, Forrest E., Walter Kauffmann. From Plato to Derrida. Forth ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2003.

The issues faced by Greyhound Lines

The issues faced by Greyhound Lines Greyhound Lines, Inc. is the one and only countrywide contributor of intercity bus service in the United States. Its task force of 2,400 buses brings further than 22.5 million travelers every year in excess of a road system that lengthen for further than 75,000 miles. Greyhound schedule to further than 2,600 destinations, with 18,000 on a daily basis leaving. Additionally to its programmed traveler services, the corporation suggests charter bus service, express package service in the course of Greyhound Package Express, and food service at a number of its workstation. Greyhound is also caught up in cross-border bus service throughout joint ventures with Mexican transportation businesses. The bus company that develops into Greyhound was created in 1913 by Carl Earl Wickman. The secret to Wickmans early on achievement was making best use of ridership, which took the appearance of padding 18 miners into a seven-passenger Hupmobile. Wickmans revenues start on to boost, and he took on bus iness buddies who lend a hand for him in supply funds in bigger bus SUMMARY Greyhound Lines is the nations largest bus company. However, they face a big problem when they start to introduce computerization system in the business. The problem became a major problem to their company because they took the wrong part in making decision just to increase profit and customer service. The top level manager face financial problems by introducing computerize system in their business without taking into the middle level managers opinion. Greyhound was facing non-programmed decision problem where the top level managers take a precise solution for an exceptional problem. The software called Trips software. There were problems such as the customers dont have credit card or telephone to make use of Trip software. Furthermore, the software sometimes not working and it take time to print the ticket out, this make the customer frustrated for waiting in line for so long. Was the decision facing Greyhound executives programmed or non-programmed? Programmed decision means resolution previously obtainable from earlier period knowledge to resolve troubles that are well-known, clear-cut, and obvious with value to information requirements. These judgments relate finest to problems that are subject of custom, even though it is not unsurprising but they can predict. However, non-programmed decision means relate precise way out ability for an only one of its kind problem. the majority problems handle by advanced rank manager are of this kind, with the problems frequently concerning alternative of tactic and purpose in situation of some doubt. Therefore, Greyhound is facing non-programmed decision. There are three type of non-programmed decision such as re-organization, computerization, and improve customer services. Firstly, re-organization means a renovation of a company business, as well as a obvious transform in resources formation, over and over again subsequent a disappointment and receivership or liquidation trusteeship. Greyhound Lines face re-organization when they introduced computerize system in their business. Some of their customers dont know how to use a credit card or telephone to call to book a ticket for them. This have cause the operators receive many calls from their customer about they dont know how to use the software and they cant get access to the Trip software. Secondly, computerization is a factor of non-programmed. Computerization means to control, perform, process, or store (a system, operation, or information) by means of or in an electronic computer or computers. The customer cant access to the software so they customer directly come to the ticket selling place to buy the ticket. However, when the customers try to buy the ticket, they have to wait for 5 minute and 45 second to the computer to process and print the ticket. These causes the number of customer wait to buy ticket decrease because they feel angry to wait for so long to buy a ticket. Thirdly, Greyhound also has to improve customer service to solve the problem that the company is facing now. Customer services means expanding our thinking about customer service; if were going to consistently exceed customers expectations, we have to recognize that every aspect of our business has an impact on customer service, not just those aspects of our business that involve face-to-face customer contact. Greyhound has been overwhelmed by plentiful customer criticism, as well as constantly not on time buses, impolite employees, unhygienic services, insecure environment, mechanical breakdown and accidents. Buses have been recognized to get there quite a lot of hours after their programmed arrival time and employees have been unconcerned and even orally insulting of passengers who ask over for assist. This is one of the reason that the top level decide to introduce computerize system. In conclusion, There are three type of non-programmed decision such as re-organization, computerization, and improve customer services. Greyhound can learn from the experiences of others to solve this problem. Two very common mistakes company make when breakdown organizational change are they try to manage on their own and they fall short to advantage from the knowledge of others. Thousands of bus organizations maybe have faced circumstances similar to Greyhound. So they can try to have a discussion to these knowledgeable people. Pick their intelligence. Discover out what other people in Parallel Corporation are responsible to deal with downsizings or development. They also can study books and articles about these problems. QUESTION 2 Do you think Greyhound should have used the classical, administrative, or political model to make decision? Which do you believe it used? Discuss. Provide examples to justify your answer. The classical management approaches focal point on budding general standard for applies in a variety of organization circumstances. However, administrative management approaches means center of attention on human being requirements, the work group and the position of community feature in the place of work. In the other hand, political management approaches means focus on put into operation mathematical method for administration of crisis solving. Greyhound uses classical model then the other two models. There are three types of classical approaches such as scientific management, administrative principle, and bureaucratic organization. Firstly, scientific management means highlight cautious selection and training of workers, and decision-making support. This management is found by Frederick Taylor and Frank and Lilian Gilbreth. There four guiding action principles that Greyhound have used to improve their business. First of all, develop for each job a science that contain regulations of movement, consistent work progression and appropriate working circumstance, then they have to choose workers with the exact skill for the occupation, cautiously coach workers to do the job and offer them the suitable encouragement to work together with the job science, and maintain workers by carefully scheduling their job and by level the method as they go regarding their jobs. Greyhound should plan properly for the employees to what have to be done in specific given time. Greyhound should make the employees feel like home in their working place so that the employees do the work in time. Secondly, administrative principle is based on effort to file and be aware of the skill of victorious managers. This principle developed by Henry Fayol and Mary Parker Follet. There five important point in this principle. First of all, Greyhound have to foresight which means they have to complete a plan of action for the expectations where they should have plan A and plan B so that if one plan fail then they can go for the second plan. Then, Greyhound has to offer and assemble resources to implement the plan. So Greyhound has to be preparing in financial way and equity way to achieve their future plan. Furthermore, Greyhound has to control to guide, decide on, and appraise workers to get the most excellent work towards the plan for example employees is one of the most important source that going make these idea into reality so Greyhound has to very careful in choosing their employees so that Greyhound can move into future plan then just sit around worrying about employees attitudes t o customers. Moreover, coordination and control can make sure the work goes according to the plan. Thirdly, bureaucratic organization is a balanced and well-organized structure of organization establish on common sense, regulate and lawful power. There are five factors in bureaucratic such as clear division of labor, clear hierarchy of authority, formal rules and procedures, impersonality, and career based on merit. Greyhound have to define very clearly what the employees have to do then the worker have to report to higher level people after that the higher level people have to a report of the work. If the employees follow the rules and regulation properly and did their work then the managers have to reward the employees to boost the employees to do better than now. In conclusion, Greyhound has to plan properly, if they want to invent computerization in the company. Employees is one of the most important people in making the company success internal so Greyhound have to give time to for the employees to celebrate their accomplishments. Futhermore, there are Christmas festivity in December to do party and the yearly corporation picnic in the summer for the employees to enjoy their movement with their higher level people. This can be surprised for Greyhound on how a great deal of a difference this can create. QUESTION 3 Analyze the Greyhound case in terms of the steps in the managerial decision making process. Do you think top executive paid adequate attention to all the steps? I f you were a Greyhound, what would you do now and why? Decision making means the procedure of making selection among other path of action. There are five stepladders in decision making which is very important for business. This decision creation representation in five steps is a common but extremely successful outline for making decisions and put an end to problems. This discipline will help prevent Greyhound from receiving unfocused on a number of small elements of the significant steps leading to a decision. Firstly, Greyhound has to identity and defines the problem that they are facing. In anticipation of Greyhound have an obviously thoughtful of the dilemma or decision to be made, it is worthless to continue. If the problem is stated the wrong way or indistinguishably then Greyhounds result will be incorrect. Greyhound didnt consider what the middle manager is thinking such as the employees are very rude to the customer, then Greyhound implement computerize system to solve the first problem, however, the top level didnt think about the customer who dont know how to use the software and Greyhound didnt test the software before implementing which cause the customer cant buy ticket in that software. Moreover, after everything being computerizes the customer have to wait so long in queue to buy ticket for their journey. Secondly, Greyhound has to generate and evaluate possible solution to solve the problem that they are facing. Greyhound should have know that there is possible whether to do it or dont do it when they want to implement something new in the business. Most of the time Greyhound should know that there will possible substitute for their decision. It is worth for Greyhound doing research to ensure whether they have as many good alternatives as possible. For example, Greyhound implement customer service to take care of the customer problem with the employees or Greyhound can send the entire employee to a course which teaches them how to be polite to customer. Furthermore, if Greyhound wants to implement computerize system in their business then they should test all the software available in market before choosing one of the software which is the best one. Thirdly, Greyhound has to choose a solution to solve the problem. Then main problem is the employees treated the customer very badly and implementing computerizes system so Greyhound can have a department especially for the customer to complain about their dissatisfaction and Greyhound has to do research first before choosing software. Then Greyhound has to implement the solution which means they have to put their plan into work. Finally, they have to evaluate the result whether it satisfied the customer. Greyhound can do survey whether the customer satisfied with the service that they provide. As customer is the most important people in helping the business increase their revenue. CONCLUSION In conclusion, although Greyhound faces a serious problem in introducing computerize system in their business especially Trip software which cause Greyhound suffer losses in their business. However, they still manage to overcome the problem by changing high-speed Kodak scanners are used to scan the large volume of data. This optimized high-speed scanning software was developed by Combined Computer Resources, Inc which helps Greyhound overcome their problem and increase the business profit. Being creative is one of the most excellent habits to deal with managerial transform is to rev up the managers natural powers for creative intervention. Most problems are amenable to creative, innovative solutions. The only things that frequently persist in this resolution from occur is the Greyhounds own inner obstacle and nature obligatory boundaries. Creative crisis resolve all the time contain jeopardy. Suggesting fresh thought summons disapproval from others. What if the plans not succeed? Wha t if business losses take place? What if things wind up worse than previously? They got to be enthusiastic to understand such risks if they are going to be free to think creatively. (1800 words)