The Step to a Civil Society as Mandatory Education

A civil society is one in which its citizens all get along and are happy with their situations. Just about everyone has a job and knows their place in the society. There are three ways to assure this. They are make education mandatory, upon school graduation give everyone a job even if it is menial and make everyone equal, no social classes. This can only be achieved when a new society is being started. The first step to a civil society is mandatory education. This is important because without education the members of the society would be ignorant. In school these people will be taught the basics – reading, math and how to write along with training for their future jobs. These jobs will be chosen by the age of 15 when every person is considered an adult. The second step is upon graduation putting these people in the jobs chosen for them by the school teachers. Each job will be considered equal. For example a doctor is equal to a trash collector. This way no one will feel inferior to anyone and everyone will understand how important they are to the society. These people will not be paid for their jobs. Instead they will obtain things, like food, depending on how hard they work. The harder they work, the more food they receive. The last step is to make everyone equal. This way no one can object to the way things are run. Also there won't be any slaves or servants and there won't be social classes because everyone will be getting paid the same. With these three steps any new society can become a civil society.It just takes the dedication of its people to get the job done.

Courage to Change

Courage to Change â€Å"In Balfour, where he landed early in the morning, he almost lost courage when he found out that nobody understood him. But at the hardware store a man- the same who had made him a present of the cap he was wearing-had made signs to him as if pitching sheaves, meanwhile talking to him, tentatively , in short monosyllables, apparently asking questions. / he thought that now he looked exactly like a Canadian. † (Frederick Philip Grove 21-22). Many people immigrate to other countries because they want a better life and future. However, it's often not an easy transition.Immigrants have to deal with problems such as the language barrier, discrimination, and alienation. In the story† The First Day of an Immigrant†, by Frederick Philip Grove, one of the characters named Niels Lindstedt, is an immigrant of Canada and faced similar problems when he moved. However, he was successful in overcoming the challenges of immigration because of his courage. Th is story demonstrates that immigrants cannot be afraid to work hard, make changes to fit in, and to seek help from others in order to be accepted into the society. When an immigrant arrives into a new place, one of the most difficult things is to find work.In order to look for a job, one has to be able to communicate with others. But as an immigrant, without knowledge of the local dialect, finding employers is rendered impossible. When Niels Lindstedt landed in Balfour, Manitoba, he only knew how to speak his native Swedish language. He almost lost courage as he was unable to talk to, or comprehend with others. But that didn't stop him from finding work. Niels Lindstedt began working on his own initiative when he saw the two men frantically lifting some load of bushel. He immediately set out to help them even though it was not his job.This sudden cause of action both confused and impressed Jim, the Scotsman. Jim was so impressed in fact that he relayed the presence of Niels to the b oss which eventually landed him the job. Niels Lindstedt is courageous as he volunteered himself without someone directing where he should work. Immigrants have to be brave in order for them to overcome challenges that could prevent them from achieving a better future. Immigrants make a lot of sacrifices in order to fit into their new home. In order for them to become part of society, they have to leave behind some of their beliefs and values.For instance, changing their appearance; to help adapt to the culture of their new country, immigrants usually have to exchange their traditional garments for those of what the general population wears. When you stand out as a foreigner, it might deter other people from working with you and wanting to talk to you. When Niels Lindstedt was dressed strangely â€Å"in a new suit of overalls, stiff with newness, his flaxen-haired head covered with a blue-denim cap† (Frederick Philip Grove 19), people judged him as â€Å"foreign and absurdâ €  (Frederick Philip Grove 19).His effort in trying to adapt himself to this new country seemed so obvious and unsuccessful because he tried too hard to look Canadian. This represents that he was not afraid to make changes although it did not necessarily work. Immigrants can sometimes feel lonely. When they go to a new country, they leave behind their friends and family and end up all alone. But there are people who can help. It's up to the immigrant to seek out these helpers and ask for their advice and take them into consideration.When Niels Lindstedt arrived in Balfour, Montreal, his plan was to look for work. There he met a hardware dealer and took the advice of changing his clothes because what he wore was unsuitable for working in the harvest field. This reveals that Niels is not afraid to make changes in how he appears and â€Å"he thought that now he looked exactly like a Canadian† (Frederick Philip Grove 22). The importance of acceptance by others is that you woul d not feel lonely and be left out. Soon the people around you become your friends or family that would accept you for who you are as an immigrant.Everyday people migrate into a new country to start a new life. Many immigrants face the same problems that Niels Lindstedt had to deal with when he immigrated into Canada. They encounter the problems of finding work and acceptance by others caused by not knowing the new language and not being able to communicate with people. Works Cited Grove Philip, Frederick. â€Å"The First Day of an Immigrant. † Making a Difference: Canadian Multicultural Literature in English. 2Nd ed. Ed. Smaro Kamboureli. Print.

Prevention Of Elderly Abuse Neglect And Exploitation Essay

There is a growing concern over elderly abuse, neglect and exploitation as it has been lately estimated that its occurrence has increased over the past few decades.   The first reported estimate of elderly abuse stated that approximately 3% of elderly individuals in the United States have been abused (Pillemer and Finkelhor, 1988), which may be equated to approximately 2.5 million elderly individuals. Elderly abuse is closely linked to medical problems such as physical injuries, mental health disorders, poor management of chronic illnesses and disabilities.   The effects of elder abuse have been determined to be damaging.   Most of the abused elderly people are often brought to the emergency room for immediate medical attention for physical injuries.   A recent study conducted by Shields et al. (2004) over a 10-year period has indicated that more than 50% of deaths among the elderly are due to homicidal acts, while a 25% of the deaths were possibly due to elderly neglect.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Amidst the increasing number of elderly individuals being abused and neglected, there is an insufficiency of reaction amongst medical practitioners, including physicians and clinicians.   It has been estimated that only 2 to 10% of cases of elderly abuse are actually reported to the appropriate authorities.   These cases of elderly abuse involve physical and psychological abuse as well as financial exploitation. Neglect is also another condition that an elderly individual goes through yet is left unable to report such hardship to the appropriate agencies concerned.   Specific risk factors have been determined to be strongly associated with elderly abuse, including living with other people, as well as impairment of the elderly individual’s functional ability.   In addition, depression and excessive alcohol consumption also strongly influence the occurrence of elderly abuse.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A promising prevention strategy for elderly abuse, neglect and exploitation would then be to impose mandatory reporting of cases of abuse in tandem with annual or biannual monitoring of the conditions of an elderly individual.   Such mandatory act of reporting would thus put the people who are responsible for the care of an elderly individual to be responsible for any physical, mental, social or financial burdens that the elderly individual would experience. The people involved with the care of the elderly individual would include the children of the elderly person, as well as the physician, counselor and therapist of the elderly person.   It would also be good if the amount of time spent by each person with the elderly individual were determined, so that it would be easier to determine who spends the most time with the elderly individual.   Another method that could be incorporated into the mandatory reporting of elderly abuse is to conduct interviews with the elderly individual in order to determine if he has succumbed to memory loss or not. If the elderly individual is still cognitive enough to interactive with the interviewing officer, it would be helpful to ask the elderly individual if he is aware whether he still keeps some of his financial resources in his bank or some other place.   It would also be helpful if the elderly individual knew approximately how much money and other valuable items such as jewelry, real estate properties and automobiles he has so that there is an estimate of the resources the individual has.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The comprehensive interview of the elderly individual should thus be conducted every year in order to monitor how the elderly person if doing as time goes by.   In addition, the interview will also provide the social worker or any other interviewing official of the government to determine that conditions of the place where the elderly individual is living.   The medical records of the elderly individual should also be checked every year in order to determine whether the physical and mental condition of the elderly individual has been maintained or is deteriorating.   Should the condition of the elderly individual be deteriorating, the main cause of this change of condition should be investigated in order to prevent further damage to the physical and mental health of the elderly individual.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The intense monitoring of elderly individual may be tedious, costly and time-consuming, yet it protects these senior citizens from further abuse and neglect.   Time has shown that mandatory reporting of elderly abuse is not as effective as expected because most of the medical professionals do not participate or are not serious enough in reporting such conditions and the elderly people will continue to suffer.   The tandem implementation of mandatory reporting of elderly abuse with regular monitoring of the conditions of an elderly individual thus seems more feasible in protecting the health of elderly individuals. In addition, the regular monitoring of elderly individuals lessens the burden of physicians in reporting abuse and neglect of these senior citizens.   This proposed prevention strategy also provides a way for elderly individuals to speak out for themselves if they still can.   It is actually helpful and enlightening if the elderly individuals are given the opportunity to express their concerns, issues and problems with regards to their senior lives.   Should this proposed strategy be tested and later implemented, it may be possible to save more elderly individuals from unnecessary pain, depression and exploitation.   These seniors deserve to spend the rest of their lives in peace and harmony. References Kennedy RD (2005):   Elder abuse and neglect: the experience, knowledge, and attitudes of primary care physicians. Fam. Med. 37:481-5. Pillemer K and Finkelhor D (1988):   The prevalence of elder abuse: A random sample survey. Gerontologist.   28:51-7. Shields LB, Hunsaker DM, Hunsaker JC (2004):   Abuse and neglect: A ten-year review of mortality and morbidity in our elders in a large metropolitan area. J. Forensic Sci. 49:122-127.

E-Commerce and E-Business Fundamentals (Business Report on WH SMITHS) Essay

E-Commerce and E-Business Fundamentals (Business Report on WH SMITHS) - Essay Example In addition, the corporations that cater to the requirements of media are more probable to obtain regular coverage as well as minimize the potential for errors in published stories. Moreover, the online press rooms are working as hubs for organizations, presetting the product information, latest news and visual elements to facilitate them better recognize products and services. In the scenario to enhance the online business corporations are now trying redevelop their business strategies. This report presents a detailed analysis of WH Smiths web based business re-development process and expected potential enhancements. Additionally, this report will offer a new and much better online strategy regarding the potential enhancement in the customary online business practice of the WH Smiths. This report will also present suggestions that can enhance the WH Smiths business and offer better competitive edge to the business. Business industry is by no means an exception to internet mania in view of the fact that, with the passage of time, the online business is turning out to be an exhortation. The online business means that people can buy and pay from home and even while sitting in their bedroom via an internet equipped PC or laptop. The universal wave of information technologies (ITs) development and implementation has turned out to be a driving force in approximately every part of human job. In this scenario, the internet that is a main element of this global wave has been transformed into a double-edged weapon offering a lot of opportunities, facilities, tools, and capabilities to individuals and corporations (Salifu, 2008). Liam (2009) stated that growing amount of people who make use of the internet is showing to be a boon intended for businesses that are interested in expanding their reach to the online community. Additionally, the huge number of internet clients shows a huge potential customer b ase that is there

Othello Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 5

Othello - Essay Example The heart of Othello is opened for Desdemona, but his mind remains closed. We can see that love is different with different characters of the play. The main hero Othello understands that trust is very important thing in marriage and it can’t be built in one day. However, his foes acted too rapidly and did not give him a time to build trust. The deep feeling of Othello and Desdemona appeared instantly and was built mostly on passion, but Desdemona managed to turn it into strong attachment not realized by Othello: "It cannot be true that she really loves me†¦if she loves me, then there must be something wrong with her" (Shakespeare). Desdemona succeeded to protect her marriage in the face of her family. She protected her choice before Brabantio and Gratiano, praising her husband’s best qualities. Othello was clever and purposeful. He proved to be a successful leader and commanded deep respect his people. Within the play, Desdemona’s character transforms gradua lly. Having married Othello, Desdemona acted against her father’s will and in the teeth of the Renaissance public opinion. She is â€Å"a woman who combines spiritual and physical love for Othello and who is courageous and independent in her judgments, often stubbornly so† (Hall, 1999: 67). Firstly, she had fully relied on her father, but in her married life, she had to submit to her husband. On Cyprus, she supported him in career making and dealt with household with pleasure. Othello really loved his wife, their marriage was concluded due to deep love and passion. However, this passion was too strong and he could not control its power. It captured him so deeply that he did not want to see the truth. Jealousy is the power that appeared to kill Othello. It was Iago who helped this destructive feeling occupy the soul of the mail hero of the play. Stupid Iago thought that he knows everything about jealousy but he did not take into

Money Laundering Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Money Laundering - Essay Example Money represents the lifeblood of a criminal or a terrorist organisation and it is for this reason that most countries and global institutions have an interest in detecting and preventing money laundering2. Researchers suggest that the estimated aggregate funds processed by money laundering activities from around the world range from US$ 590 billion to US$ 1.5 trillion3. However, approaches to regulation, implementation and enforcement of anti-money laundering legislation differ despite a consensus for global cooperation and affect the anti-money laundering efforts as nations try to balance regulation, cost of enforcement and rights4 . The major financial centres from around the world have presented a need for greatest vigilance and effort directed towards prevention and prosecution of those involved in money laundering because global flows of dirty money are either generated in affluent economies or flow through these centres. Thus, it makes sense to try to examine the nature, empha sis and implementation of the anti-money laundering regulation and efforts in London and the UK within a broader regional and global context involving other major financial centres from around the world. It is with the previously mentioned objectives of interest to all those with an interest in the topic of discussion that this dissertation attempts to examine critically the prevailing anti-money laundering regime in the UK. To try to examine the anti-money laundering approach in the United Kingdom from the perspectives of domestic concerns, rights, expenses incurred for enforcement and development of European and international law and regulation. To present an examination of the processes for money laundering, their evolution and the manner in which the United Kingdom anti-money laundering regime acts to effectively prevent and deter money laundering. To try to present suggestions for improvements in effectiveness of the anti-money laundering regime in the United Kingdom,

Avon Calls on Foreign Markets Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Avon Calls on Foreign Markets - Case Study Example 62). Avon’s marketing orientations For the US market, Avon has resorted to door to door selling via saleswomen who have been marketing the products via the word of mouth and establishing personal contacts with the customers and tapping a huge customer base. Globally Avon had resorted to country specific marketing, such as naming some of its products in the local language, when taking over a local company with a goodwill Avon kept certain names unchanged. For Asian regions, as customers tend to but products which are foreign, Avon kept their foreign names and prints instructions in the local language. It has also gone forward with the Hello Tomorrow campaign to signify a brand which is looking towards the future and also associated with breast cancer awareness (Daniels, Radebaugh, Sullivan, 2010, pp 622-624). Avon’s foreign operations The predicted growth for the company in the U.S. was low, since it had no new place to spread within the country to create a market for co smetics, toiletries and fragrances. The number of companies manufacturing these kinds of products in the US being large, Avon was facing considerable amount of competition. So Avon decided to expand its operations to other potential countries where it could register growth through increased sales. Also Avon’s lady representatives were the ones who sold Avon products, tapped customers and registered orders. This was cost saving for the company as this system required smaller number of employees and helped Avon to maintain low prices, a good image and a constant customer base. In the late 90’s, when US women started working in multinational companies fulltime, Avon found it difficult to get saleswomen. When the US market dried up, Avon found new ground in countries like Brazil and Philippines, where the women are usually do not leave their home. There was sufficient number of saleswomen available to reach out to the desolate areas to sell Avon products. (Daniels, Radebau gh, Sullivan, 2010, pp 621,622) Socioeconomic and demographic changes affecting Avon Socioeconomic changes involve the way society views a product. Demographic changes include aging customers. Both of these may affect the demand. From the socioeconomic point of view, a new type of conditioner may become important, whereas aging customers may want different age specific products according to their wants and needs. Accordingly Avon will have to come out with variants of the products and introduce new ones where necessary to maintain their customer base (Klepacki, 2005, pp 55, 56). Recession, a boom for Avon Every company and industry is affected by a recession as so many international aspects are related. The fields where Avon may feel the pinch are sales, suppliers and employees. Surprisingly when the recession hit in 2008 and the world felt the crisis deepening, the company recruited many saleswomen and men for their sales jobs. This happened because the recession led to massive lay offs, which in turn meant that more people were now available to do Avon’s door-to-door selling. Avon also took in male representatives, so as to allow men to be secure with a job, although it was traditionally reserved only for women (Daniels, Radebaugh, Sullivan, 2010, pp 622; Pauline, 2009). Avon’s Competitive Advantage Avon has a major competitive advantage over its competitors. It has an unparallel reputation in the beauty products market. Its main competition area had been the direct sales area,

Medical Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Medical - Essay Example She also reported difficultly in speaking resulting in slightly slurred speech. Her sister also commented on her facial appearance saying that her face seemed disfigured. While having breakfast she also noticed having excessive tearing in the right eye (Crocodile tears). These symptoms progressively worsened over the course of the next 8 hours and thus she decided to undergo evaluation for these complaints. She does not have any other existing comorbid conditions and has not had any similar complaints in the past. Her past medical history revealed that she had recently recovered from an episode of common cold and her family history was positive for diabetes, however, she herself is not a known diabetic. Social history was unremarkable. Physical Examination: On inspection of the face, it was observed that the nasolabial folds on the left side of the face were flattened and the patient was unable to completely close her left eye. When the patient was asked to forcefully close her right eye, inward and upward rolling of the eyeball was noted, i.e. demonstration of the Bell’s phenomenon (Monnell & Zachariah, 2009). When she was asked to raise her eyebrows and smile, weakness of the right facial muscles was noted.

One article analyses and make the Recommend marketing strategies to

One analyses and make the Recommend marketing strategies to the relevant cloths industry on your analysis of the chosen phenomenon - Article Example nds’ End were rated the best by the respondents primarily because these online retailers provided precise descriptions of the apparel and correct sizing information. Equally important in the superior ranking of these clothiers was the fact that they had an easy to browse, informative website. Majority of the respondents also felt that they got true value for money spent on online clothes-shopping. The survey also revealed the flip side of online clothes-shopping. There were major issues with size accuracy of the clothes, which impeded customers intending to buy clothes online. Returning clothes and costs associated thereon was considered a huge disadvantage by many respondents. 72 percent of the respondents complained about the lack of transparency in divulging shipping costs by online retailers. There were certain instances of billing mistakes and wrongly filled orders. In addition to these problems, consumers refrain from online shopping because of privacy concerns and issues regarding security of financial transactions. Some customers find online shopping very confusing (Colberg 2002). The analysis of the survey reveals that customers are not satisfied, among other things, with the process of exchange of goods purchased online. The online clothing retailers should make the process of returns trouble-free for the consumers. A straightforward and transparent policy regarding this aspect will provide a huge boost to their sales (Rosencrance 2000). Many consumers would be tempted by a generous returns policy that promises to exchange the item or simply return the item and take the refund of its purchase price. The retailers can provide the consumers prepaid U.S. Postal Service labels which are valid for a certain period of time. The customers can use these labels for returning the apparel with which they are not satisfied. This will make the process of returns simple and inexpensive for the unsatisfied customer. With an easy returns policy in place, customers

Pricing the Product Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Pricing the Product - Assignment Example As the new products are set to the market for commercialization it would be recommended to utilize a pricing strategy which maximizes the current profits. The company should estimate the demand and costs associated with alternative prices and choose the price that produces maximum current profits, cash flow or rate of return on investment. In emphasizing current performance the company may sacrifice long-run performance by ignoring the effects of other marketing-mix variables, competitors’ reactions and legal constraints on price. However as the product matures in the market and if the company is pursuing to keep the product in the market, it would be recommended to utilize the market-skimming pricing strategy as a sufficient number of customers would have a high current demand and high price communicates the image of a superior product. Beside the high initial price (cost to market) will tend to discourage the competitors to compete in the same product quality

Matlab problem Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Matlab problem - Assignment Example It is to see to it that the resistors used are not unnecessarily too many and that the value of resistance that they form in combination are the closest to the desired value of resistance. Problem statement Resistors are measured in SI units known as ohms. In a bid to ease the process of manufacturing in bulk, the manufacturers of resistors usually do it in some standard set measures. These standard resistors are known as E12 resistors. They are the resistors with the values 10 ?; 12 ?; 15 ?; 18 ?; 22 ?; 27 ?; 33 ?; 39 ?; 47 ?; 56 ?; 68 ?; and 82 ? Designers of electrical components who which incorporate the use of resistors usually design for some arbitrary resistance values which shall best suit the requirements of the component under design. Given that resistors are manufactured in the 12 standard values, this implies that the designer shall have make an appropriate combination of a number of the standard resistors to form a value that is as close to the designed value of resistan ce as is practically possible. The combination should use as few resistors as possible to minimize costs and this calls for proper optimization. In this task, resistors are to be combined in series since resistors combining in series have the total resistance being the sum of the individual resistances of each one of the resistors connected in series. In this problem the designer desires to get optimization modes of combining resistors in series to get the following values of resistances:- 20 ?; 100 ?; 200 ?; 1k ?; 2k ?; 50k ?; 100k ?; 2m ?; 20M ?; 150M ?. Method The method employed in solving this problem takes advantage of the fact that each one of the E12 resistance values form a geometric series, they are all approximately 21% larger than the previous value. The method employed also takes advantage of the fact that for resistors in series, the total resistance is given by summing up the value of each of the individual resistances of the resistors connected in series. i.e, RT = R 1 + R2 + R3 The method employed also targeted at making the program user friendly. It was to engage the user in a human like dialogue and hence be usable even by people who have no knowledge of programming. In this regard, the method employed was to write a program code that would ask for some two information from the user of the program. The first information to be inquired from the user is the desired value of resistance (target value). In this case the user would input one of the following as desired; 20 ?; 100 ?; 200 ?; 1k ?; 2k ?; 50k ?; 100k ?; 2m ?; 20M ?; 150M ?. The second information to be inquired from the user is the maximum number of resistors that can be combined. This was introduced in a bid to cut down on the cost of manufacturing. The method employed also involved the use of shorthand in which case, M, K and R were used instead of M ?; K ? and ? respectively. So as to make it possible for the universally accepted and used shorthand used by electrical engineers be in put in the program by the users. Results and discussion The program so formed is user friendly and able to ask for the two values from the user, i.e. the value of resistance desired and the maximum number of resistors to be combined. The program is also able to accept values of input written in electrical engineers’

“Archetypes for a Contemporary Audience” Essay Example for Free

â€Å"Archetypes for a Contemporary Audience† Essay Myths are an important cultural aspect that were, and are to this day, used commonly to help teach morals and life lessons. Strength, courage, and fortitude are just a few characteristics addressed in mythology. The archetypal layout of an exemplary story is composed of the Twelve Stages. The Twelve Stages of a hero’s journey are the steps every person must take in order to prove one’s self as a hero. Mythical heroes such as Theseus, Sigurd, and Beowulf clearly demonstrate the archetypal qualities of a hero. A typical hero is seen as a morally just individual, with a noticeably ethical intent. An archetypal quality of a hero is moral goodness. The hero is always opposing evil and wrong-doing, while attempting his best to halt it. The hero is selfless always willing to give his life in place of another. A villain, or monster, is the opposed force of the hero, whose intent is solely based around a malicious and self-centered motive. The shadow-self of a character is often portrayed as the villain, or monster, but it has a much greater importance. The shadow-self illustrates the two extremes of a personality. Since the shadow-self is the complete opposite of a character, the good and bad qualities of that character are shown, the shadow self of a character can have both good and bad aspects. When someone is able to control the good aspects of both characters, the individual is able to grow and learn from themselves. The shadow-self is often used in literature, because it is seen as the perfect challenge for the protagonist. An example in literature would be Beowulf and Grendel. Beowulf is a great hero driven by good morals and intentions, while Grendel is a soulless monster living only to cause pain and death. Another example would be Sigurd and Regin. Sigurd is somewhat naive and physically strong, Regin, being the opposite, is extremely intelligent and persuasive, but not physically robust. Monsters are often confused with the shadow-self, but the monster can share similar qualities, values, and goals with the protagonist. Most monsters are shown as creatures, or people, who are not bound by the conforming laws set in place for the average person. In many cases with monsters in literature, there is a figurative veil drawn over them; shrouding them in mystery and uncertainty. These aspects draw people’s fascination by providing the reader with a form of escapism. Thus, allowing the reader to break away from the dull, constant, day-to-day routine of  their lives, and discover a new unfamiliar world. By providing this new reality for the reader the monster’s role in the narrative is greatly enhanced. When combining heroic qualities with villainous attributes, a perfect balance is formed. Most literature contains some manner of conflict between heroes and villains. Without conflict, the story would have no distinguishable design or purpose. Without the purpose or design the story would ramble aimlessly, until a much desired conclusion is reached. This leads back into the balance between hero and villain, because the existence of a hero or villain depends greatly upon the existence of the other. The reason for this is simple, because there is no need for a hero if there is no villain, and the same applies to a villain, who has no hero to rise up against. The voyage and quest of a hero is often riddled with hardship and treachery: Then an old harrower of the dark happened to find the hoard open, the burning one who hunts out barrows, the slick-skinned dragon, threatening the night sky with streamers of fire. People on the farms are in dread of him. He is driven to hunt out hoards under ground, to guard heathen gold†¦ When the dragon awoke, trouble flared again. He rippled down the rock, writhing with anger when he saw the footprints of the prowler who had stolen too close to his dreaming head. So may a man not marked by fate easily escape exile and woe by the grace of God. (Heaney-155) This quote from Beowulf shows that quest for treasure is always challenging. The road to the treasure is filled with tests and confrontations that are put in place to challenge the hero’s skills and knowledge. When the location of the treasure is finally reached, there is always a final obstacle blocking the way of the treasure. A common example of this is a dragon in its lair, sleeping soundly, guarding its treasure from unwanted thieves. Beowulf’s final fight with the dragon is an obvious example. In the story, â€Å"Theseus and the Ariadne Thread† Theseus uses a thread given to him by Ariadne. â€Å"As may be imagined, he made no difficulty about that, and she gave him the clue she had got from Daedalus, a ball of thread which he was to fasten at one end to the inside of the door and unwind as he went on. This he did and, certain that he could retrace his steps whenever he chose, he walked boldly into the maze, looking for the Minotaur.†(â€Å"Theseus† 776) The thread was used to help Theseus remember where he had already been,  and to lead him back to his original starting position, and keep him from getting lost in the maze. A valuable lesson can be learned from this thread, as it symbolizes connection to a person, place, or thing that brings us back to reality, when we are in need of direction. The slaying of the dragon is seen as the overcoming of an obstacle: After what seemed minutes, he thought, I must risk it now. With that he straightened his knees and drove the sword upward with all his force. It tore up through the cloak, through the loose earth, and on with the force of his arm until it buried itself to the hilt. A great cry came from the monster. (Who Are You Quoting Here?) Being able to overcome an obstacle is important, because it allows the person to undergo change and growth. As a contemporary audience we are able to read this, and be able to apply the knowledge gained from reading, in our own lives. The heroic epic poem Beowulf is a remarkable example of archetypes in a story. Beowulf is centered on a Scandinavian hero who is both strong and cunning. Beowulf is the classic hero everyone envisions when they think of a hero. Grendel, Beowulf’s shadow-self, is an obvious archetypal villain. Beowulf’s many quests represent the typical hunt for treasure. Beowulf’s final adventure, which would lead to his death, was by far the most archetypal of all of his endeavors, completing the last few stages of the Hero’s Journey. The poem Beowulf has a lot of psychological depth contained within the story. In preparation for the battle with Grendel’s mother, Beowulf must sink to the bottom of a lake, to get to the underwater lair. Beowulf must sink for hours to get to the bottom, and in doing so, this event displays that Beowulf’s mental strength is just as robust as his physical strength. Once Beowulf reached Grendel’s mother’s lair, Hrunting, a sword that had never failed in battle, was broken when it attempted to pierce the monster’s skin. Beowulf was quick to disarm the sword and reequip with a giant’s  sword, which happened to be conveniently placed in the lair. The significance of this in the story demonstrates the idea that un-useful things should be quickly discarded, as they are only weighing you down. Letting go of things that only slow you down, or hold you back from your true potential, will free you to move forward in your lifes quest. Once an obstacle, or hindrance, in your life is gone, you are able to look for another alternative or way out. The last important archetypal piece in Beowulf is Beowulf’s final fight with the dragon. This fulfills two of the 12 stages: The Resurrection and the Return with the Elixir. When Beowulf defeats the dragon, but is also killed in the process, the resurrection is displayed when Beowulf comes to release his death. When Beowulf realizes his death is upon him he reminisces about his old heroic deeds, and comprehends the valor of his actions. The twelfth stage is exemplified when Wiglaf, the only one of Beowulf’s men who didn’t desert him, retrieves some of the treasure, won by Beowulf, and shows Beowulf the spoils. Finally, when Wiglaf returns to the people and tells them of Beowulf’s death, along with a prediction of the upcoming days, the people fully realize what their leader has done for them, and they feel sorrow and remorse. The works of literature Beowulf, â€Å"Sigurd the Dragon Slayer†, and â€Å"Theseus† still maintain relevance in today’s society. The heroic qualities of these heroes are still admired and sought after by the people of today. Reading these stories will provide the reader with a greater knowledge of how our society bases its morals. The morals of any society are based on the archetype of whom ever that society deems to be the ultimate â€Å"good† example. The age old battle between good and evil is still being fought out in everyday life, and each one of us is a character in the drama of human history. We all need heroes, because we all feel the threat of evil, or villains, in our lives.

Elecdyne An Electronic Company Economics Essay

Elecdyne An Electronic Company Economics Essay Elecdyne, an electronic company, which is located in Japan, is looking for an opportunity overseas as it is facing a fierce competition at home. This report analyses foreign nations with regards to labor costs, technology, market demand, culture and risks. The data that are collected from various sources analyzes the market potentiality for the products in other countries. The countries that are been chosen for expanding globally are USA, Russia and China the reasons are the following: USA known for the largest economy. Russia known for one of the fastest growing economy. China known for the aggressive economic growth in the 21st century and for the cheap labor cost. In order to analyze deeply into these countries, STEEP, PEST and FDI analysis are been chosen. STEEP Analysis: Socio Culture: Target Market, Age Range, Income Brackets, Technology: Technological infrastructure, RD, Advancement of new technology and Innovation Economic: Infrastructure, Labor cost, Exchange rates, inflation rates, interest rates, unemployment rates and wage level. Ecological: Global warming, Recycling, green energy, CO2 Omission and waste handling. Political: Unions, trade barriers, risk of war, laws and taxes and political stability. STEEP analysis is the method to evaluate the business opportunities in other countries. This analysis helps them choose the best out of three compared countries for expanding the business overseas. The socio-culture plays a vital role in segmenting the target market for their products. The market demands are different in different countries. The age groupings are considered very important in todays business world. In terms of Elecdyne, which is an electronic company producing products from televisions to CD players, mostly attracts the youth population. So, considering the youth population is other countries are important. Technological factors differ in other countries. Japan, which is considered to be an advanced country, could find other developing countries lacking such as China or Russia, but the market may be lucrative in terms of business. They may need to import technology from back home or from other advanced nation such as USA. For an example, technological infrastructure in China may not be that advanced as compared to Japan, so Japan would need to use its own RD infrastructure to target Chinese market, which in turn could raise the cost of production. Most of the time, political factors of the country affect the business policies. Business laws in Japan are different from other countries. Elecdyne performed in Japan under Japanese laws have to perform different in China, Russia and USA due to the local policies that they have, as this could affect or may lead to rethink of opening up businesses in those countries. Economic situation is the main factor that attracts foreign companies to look at the market, because of the raise in purchasing power among the citizens, but businesses look beyond purchasing power such as exchange rates, infrastructure, labor costs, inflation rates, unemployment rates and wage level. Elecdyne is attracted towards the labor costs and the local purchasing power. Ecological is the new factor that plays in todays world of being responsible towards an environment. We had seen world leaders gathering for the global warming situation and asking the entrepreneurs to take up the responsibility of promoting the green energy and eco-friendly products. These factors are forcing the companies to reinvent new strategy for their products, right from productions till the consumptions. Internal and External Analysis: Weakness Strength Wages are so low that they are fail to attract new employee Elecdyne has more than 20 years experience is japan Invention has been so under rated that they are no where near in the market Staff have been familiar with english language SWOT Analysis will be used to analyze internal factors and PEST Analysis for the external factors. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. PEST stands for political, economic, social and technological. External Analysis: Political USA Russia China Japan 1 2=10 3 -2=-10 3 -2=-10 2 0 War Risk (5) (ONDD, 2012) 1=good 7=bad 1 2=4 3 -6=-24 2 -2=-8 1 0 Political Risk(4) (ONDD, 2012) 1=good 7=bad 19 35=7 133 50-=10- 80 -40=8- 17 0 Corruption perception Index (5) (International, 2012) 10 (very high) to 0 (low) 1 4=12 2 -2=-6 3 -4=-12 1 0 Transfer Risk (3) (ONDD, 2012) 1=good 7=bad 61 -90 -70 0 Total Economic Japan China Russia USA GDP Growth rate (The World Bank, 2011) 5 -0.7% 0 9.3% 10=50 4.3% 6=30 1.7% 1=5 GDP per capita (The World Bank, 2011)4 $45,903 0 $5,445 -6=-24 $13,089 -8=-32 $48,112 2=8 GDP Purchasing Power (C.I.A, 2011) 5 $4.44 trillion 0 $11.3 trillion 8=40 $2.383 trillion -2=-10 $15.08 trillion 10=50 Unemployment rate (C.I.A, 2011) 3 4.6% 0 6.5% 4=12 6.6% 4=12 9% 8=24 total 0 78 0 87 Sociological Japan China Russia USA Literacy rate (C.I.A, 2011) 1 99% 0 92.2% -3=-3 99.6% -1=-1 99% 1=1 Life Expectancy (C.I.A, 2011)2 83.91 YEARS 0 74.84 YEARS -2=-4 66.46 YEARS -4=-8 78.49 YEARS -1=-2 Population (C.I.A, 2011)2 127,368,088 0 1,343,239,923 6=12 142,517,670 1=2 313,847,465 3=6 Average Death rate (C.I.A, 2011)1 9.15/1000 0 7.17/1000 1=1 14.1/1000 -2=-2 8.4/1000 2=2 Total 0 6 -9 7 Technology Japan China Russia USA RD expenditure (The World Bank, 2008) 3 3.45% 0 1.47% -3=-9 1.04% -6=-18 2.79% -1=-3 Internet Users (C.I.A, 2011)1 99,182,000 0 389,000,000 6=6 40,853,000 -5=-5 245,000,000 3=3 Mobile users (C.I.A, 2011)1 129,868,000 0 986,253,000 10=10 236,700,000 2=2 313,848,000 4=4 Total 0 7 -21 4 Cost Inflation rate (C.I.A, 2011)4 -0.3% 0 5.5% -4=-16 8.4% -6=-24 0.9% -1=-4 Interest Rate (The World Bank, 2011 3 3.7% 0 -1.1% 4=12 -6.4% 6=18 1.0% 1=3 Total 0 -4 -6 -1 PEST WEIGHTED AVERAGE Japan China Russia USA P 0 -70/4=-17.5 -90/4=-22.5 61/4=15.25 E(market) 0 78/4=19.5 0 87/4=21.75 E(cost) 0 -4/2=-2 -6/2=-3 -1/2=-0.5 S 0 6/4=1.5 -9/4=-2.25 -7/4=-1.75 T 0 7/3=2.3333 -21/3=-7 4/3=1.3333 Total 0 3.83333 -34.75 36.08 Summary of PEST Analysis: From the analysis, USA market looks attractive according to the situation faced by Elecdyne. USA has the fast growing economy and it is a great chance for the Elecdyne to grab the share of the market. USA also has great number of youths in the Country to buy the products. With comparison to other three countries in the table, they find USA as the best alternative for expanding internationally. USA also has a low labor cost as compared to other three countries and geographically nearer to Japan as well. It is highly competitive market, but it is lucrative once succeeded. Options of Internationalization: There are three options for Elecdyne to go International or establish business in China. The following options are: 1. Joint Venture 2. Acquisition 3. Greenfield Site Joint Venture with other existing firms in USA can help Elecdyne to merge into the market quickly. This venture is one of the most common strategies used by the foreign firms to enter into the country. The positive impact of this venture is that they can learn the consumers quickly and efficiently using the existing firms in USA. The negative side of the venture is that Elecdyne would lose its profit share to the local firm that is ventured with. Acquisition technic may look attractive, but have risk to it. It is always quite expensive to buy out the firm in USA and hope for profit out of it. It is risky, but once succeeded it is profitable. There are risk factors attached to it. It is always safer to look at the government policies for the foreign firms. FDI investment policies are different in different countries. Greenfield Site project are mostly used by very large corporation of developing the underdeveloped land. Risk involved with this strategy is very high especially in a country like USA. Political risk involved with it is higher. The government could seize the land if needed or may not be willing to make an agreement for a longer period of time.

Feature extraction using crossing number (cn) and ridge tracking technique

Feature extraction using crossing number (cn) and ridge tracking technique PROPOSED ALGORITHM: FEATURE EXTRACTION USING CROSSING NUMBER (CN) AND RIDGE TRACKING TECHNIQUE The various steps involved in feature extraction are as given below: 3.2.1 ADAPTIVE BINARIZATION The enhanced greyscale image is converted to a binary image using adaptive binarization [1]. Global thresholding is not used for binarization because of possibilities of non-uniform illumination on the surface of scanner. Thus using adaptive binarization with a window size of 91 x 91 (This size was finalised after a number of trial and errors). The algorithm can be outlined as follows: Algorithm: Adaptive binarization Input: Enhanced greyscale image e(x,y). Output: Binarized image bin(x,y). For each pixel (i) of e(x,y) Compute local mean (ml) in the 91 x 91 neighborhood of the pixel. If ml > e(xi,yi) then, bin(xi,yi) = white. Else bin(xi,yi)= black. End For. - 3.2.2. THINNING The binarised image is skeletonised using medial axis transformation (MAT)[1] to obtain a single pixel thin ridge structure. The thinning algorithm can be outlined as follows: Assumptions: Region points are assumed to have value 1(white) and background points to have value 0(black). Notations: 1. The 8 neighbour notation of a centre pixel p1 is as shown. p9 p2 p3 p8 p1 p4 p7 p6 p5 2. n (p1) is the number of non zero neighbours of p1. I.e. n (p1) = p2 + p3 + †¦. + p9. 3. t (p1) is the number of 0-1 transitions in the ordered sequence p2, p3,†¦p9,p2. Algorithm : Thinning Input: Binarized image bin(x,y). Output: One pixel thinned image th(x,y). Steps: 1. W.r.t the neighborhood notation a pixel p1 in bin(x,y). is flagged for deletion if the following conditions are satisfied; 2 ≠¤ n(p1) ≠¤ 6 . t(p1)=1. p2 V p4 V p6 = 0 p4 V p6 V p8 = 0 2. Delete all the flagged pixels from bin(x,y). 3. W.r.t the neighborhood notation a pixel p1 in bin(x,y) is flagged for deletion if the following conditions are satisfied; 2 ≠¤ n(p1) ≠¤ 6 . t(p1)=1. p2 V p4 V p8 = 0 p2 V p6 V p8 = 0 4. Delete all the flagged pixel from bin(x,y). 5. Go to step 1 if bin(x, y) is not same as the previous bin(x, y) (indicating that single pixel thickness is yet not obtained) 6. Assign the image bin(x, y) obtained from step 4. to th(x, y). Thus one iteration of the thinning algorithm consists of applying step 1 to flag border points for deletion deleting the flagged points; applying step 3 to flag the remaining border points for deletion; and deleting the flagged points. The basic procedure is applied iteratively until no further points are deleted, at which time the algorithm terminates, yielding the skeleton of the region. 3.2.3 ESTIMATING SPATIAL CO-ORDINATES DIRECTION OF MINUTIAE POINTS. Minutiae representation is by far, the most widely used method of fingerprint representation. Minutia or small details mark the regions of local discontinuity within a fingerprint image. These are locations where the the ridge comes to an end(type: ridge ending) or branches into two (type: bifurcation). Other forms of the minutiae includes a very short ridge (type: ridge dot), or a closed loop (type: enclosure). The different types of minutiae are illustrated Figure 1. There are more than 18 different types of minutiae [2] among which ridge bifurcations and endings are the most widely used. Other minutiae type may simply be expressed as multiple ridge endings of bifurcations. For instance, a ridge dot may be represented by two opposing ridge endings placed at either extremities. Even this simplification is redundant since many matching algorithms do not even distinguish between ridge ending and bifurcations since their types can get flipped. The template simply consists of a list of minutiae location and their orientations. The feature extractor takes as input a gray scale image I(x,y) and produces a unordered set of tuples- M = {m1,m2,m3mN}. Each tuple mi corresponds to a single minutia and represents its properties. The properties extracted by most algorithms include its position and orientation. Thus, each tuple mi is usually represented as a triplet {xi, yi, ÃŽ ¸i}. The crossing number (CN) method is used to perform extraction of the spatial coordinates of the minutiae points. This method extracts the bifurcations from the skeleton image by examining the local neighborhood of each ridge pixel using a 33 window. The CN of a ridge pixel ‘p is given as follows CN=0.5 { i=18pi-pi+1 } p(9) =p(1) . For a pixel ‘p if CN= 3 it is a bifurcation point. For each extracted minutia along with its x and y coordinates the orientation of the associated ridge segment is also recorded. The minutia direction is found out using a ridge tracking technique. With reference to figure 3.3 once the x and y coordinates of the bifurcation point are known, we can track the three directions from that point. Each direction is tracked upto 10 pixel length. Once tracked we construct a triangle from these three points. The midpoint of the smallest side of the triangle is then connected to the bifurcation point and the angle of the resulting line segment is found which is the minutia direction. Assumptions: Ridges are assumed to have value 0 (black) and background points to have value 1(white). Notations: The 8 neighbor notation of a center pixel p1 is as previously shown. The algorithm for extracting the minutiae using the crossing number technique can be outlined as follows: Algorithm: Crossing number Input: Thinned image th(x,y). Output: Image with (x,y) coordinates and orientation thita of each minutia. Steps: 1. For every pixel p in th(x,y) compute the crossing number (CN) ; CN=0.5 { i=18pi-pi+1 } p(9) =p(1) . 2. If CN= 3, the pixel p is declared as a bifurcation point and its x and y coordinates, i.e. p.x and p.y are recorded. 3. The orientation at the bifurcation points p.ÃŽ ¸ is calculated using tracking algorithm. Fingerprint matching Process:- Each minutiae may be described by a number of attributes such as its position (x,y), its orientation ÃŽ ¸, its quality etc. However, most algorithms consider only its position and orientation information. Given a pair of fingerprints and their corresponding minutiae features to be matched, features may be represented as an unordered set given by I1 = {m1,m2.mM} where mi = (xi, yi, ÃŽ ¸i) I2 = {m1,m2.mN} where mi = (xi, yi , ÃŽ ¸i ) Here the objective is to find a point mj in I2 that exclusively corresponds to each point mi in I1. Usually points in I2 is related to points in I1 through a geometric transformation T( ). Therefore, the technique used by most minutiae matching algorithms is to recover the transformation function T( ) that maps the two point sets . The resulting point set I2 is given by: I2 = T(I1) = {m†1,m† 2,m† 3.m†M} m†1 = T(m1) m† N = T(mN) The minutiae pair mi and m†j are considered to be a match only if (xi-xj)2+(yi-yj)2≠¤r0 min( |ÃŽ ¸i − ÃŽ ¸Ã¢â‚¬  j | , 360 − |ÃŽ ¸i − ÃŽ ¸Ã¢â‚¬ j | ) Here r0 and ÃŽ ¸0 denote the tolerance window. The matcher can make on of the following assumptions on the nature of the transformation T Rigid Transformation: Here it is assumed that one point set is rotated and shifted version of the other. Affine Transformation: Affine transformations are generalization of Euclidean transform. Shape and angle are not preserved during transformation. Non-linear Transformation: Here the transformation may be due to any arbitrary and complex transformation function T(x,y). The problem of matching minutiae can be treated as an instance of generalized point pattern matching problem. In its most general form, point pattern matching consists of matching two unordered set of points of possibly different cardinalities and each point. It is assumed that the two pointsets are related by some geometrical relationship. In most situations, some of the point correspondences are already known (e.g. control points in an image registration problem [5,4,6,7])andthe problem reduces to finding the most optimal geometrical transformation that relates these two sets. However, in fingerprints, the point correspondences themselves are unknown and therefore the points have to be matched with no prior assumption making it a very challenging combinatorial problem. There have been several prior approaches where general point pattern techniques havebeen applied. Some of these have been discussed here. Ranade and Rosenfield [8] proposed an iterative approach for obtaining point correspondences. In this approach, for each point pair mi, mj they assign pij , the likelihood of the point correspondence and c(i, j, h, k), a cost function that captures the correspondence of other pairs(mh,m_k) as a result of matching mi with mj. In each iteration pij is incremented if it increases the compatibility of other points and is decremented if it does not. At the point of convergence, each point mi is assigned to the point argmaxk(pik). While this is a fairly accurate approach and is robust to non-linearities, the iterative nature of the algorithm makes it unsuitable for most applications. The hough transform [9] approach or the transformation clustering approach reduces the problemof point pattern matching to detecting the most probable transformation in a transformation search space. Ratha et al [10] proposed a fingerprint matching algorithm based on this approach. In this technique, the search space consists of all the possible parameter under the assumed distortionmodel. For instance, if we assume a rigid transformation, then the search space consists of all possible combinations of all translations (Δx,Δy) , scales s and rotations and ÃŽ ¸. However, to avoid computation complexity the search space is usually discretized into small cells. Therefore the possible transformations form a finite set with Δx ÃŽ µ {Δ1x,Δ2x . . .ΔIx} Δy ÃŽ µ {Δ1y,Δ2y . . .ΔJy} ÃŽ ¸ ÃŽ µ {ÃŽ ¸1, ÃŽ ¸2 . . . ÃŽ ¸K} s ÃŽ µ {s1, s2 . . . sL} A four dimensional accumulator of size (I Ãâ€"J Ãâ€"K Ãâ€"L) is maintained. Each cell A(i, j, k, l) indicatesthe likelihood of the transformation parameters (Δix,Δjy, ÃŽ ¸k, sl). To determine the optimal transformation, every possible transformation is tried on each pair of points. The algorithm used is summarized below for each point mi in fingerprint T . for each point m_j in fingerprint I for each ÃŽ ¸k ÃŽ µ {ÃŽ ¸1, ÃŽ ¸2 . . . ÃŽ ¸K} for each sl ÃŽ µ {s1, s2 . . . sL} compute the translations Δx,Δy Explicit alignment: An illustration of the relative alignment using ridges associated with minutiae mi and mj ∆x∆y=∆xi∆yi-s1cosÃŽ ¸k -sinÃŽ ¸ksinÃŽ ¸k cosÃŽ ¸kxjyj †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦(1) d Let (Δix,Δjy) be the quantized versions of (Δx,Δy) respectively. e If T{mi} matches with m_j increase the evidence for the cell A[Δix,Δjy, ÃŽ ¸k, sl] A[Δix,Δjy, ÃŽ ¸k, sl] = A[Δix,Δjy, ÃŽ ¸k, sl]+1 3.The optimal transformation parameters are obtained using (Δ*x,Δ*y, ÃŽ ¸*, s*) = argmax(i,j,k,l) A[Δix,Δjy, ÃŽ ¸k, sl] References: Gonzalez, Woods, and Eddins. Digital Image Processing using matlab. Prentice Hall, 2004. D. Maltoni, D. Maio, A.K. Jain, S. Prabhakar, Handbook of Fingerprint Recognition, Springer, 2003, ISBN 0-387-95431-7. R.Thai, Fingerprint image enhancement and feature extraction. Australia. Anil Jain, Salil Prabhakar, Lin Hong, and Sharath Pankanti. Filterbank-based fingerprint matching. In Transactions on Image Processing, volume 9, pages 846-859, May 2000. Anil Jain, Arun Ross, and Salil Prabhakar. Fingerprint matching using minutiae texture features.In International Conference on Image Processing, pages 282-285, october 2001. L. Hong, Y. Wang, and A. K. Jain. Fingerprint image enhancement: Algorithm and performanceevaluation. Transactions on PAMI, 21(4):777-789, August 1998. L. Brown. A survey of image registration techniques. ACM Computing Surveys, 1992. A. Ranade and A. Rosenfeld. Point pattern matching by relaxation. Pattern Recognition, 12(2):269-275, 1993. R. O. Duda and P. E. Hart. Use of the hough transformation to detect lines and curves in pictures. Communications of the ACM, 15(1), 1972. N. K. Ratha, K. Karu, S. Chen, and A. K. Jain. A real-time matching system for large fingerprint databases. Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 18(8):799-813, 1996.

Commercials and Advertising Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Analyze This   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Did you ever sit and analyze the kinds of commercials that are played on the television? At designated times, different people are targeted. Or how about the ways the grocery stores are set up with the candy, soda, and magazines near the check out area. Items in a store are put in certain places for a reason. These are all clever selling techniques that manufacturers come up with to get people to buy their products.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Around 2:30 until about 5:00, the kids come home from school, and the cartoons and other kids shows are on. So why not show commercials for the latest Barbie doll or hot wheels playset. Children see this, remember it and figure out how to co...

The Importance of Motivation Essay examples -- Education Teaching

The Importance of Motivation Motivation is perhaps the most crucial element of a child’s education. According to Michael B. Brown, Ph. D at East Carolina University, an academically motivated student is a child that â€Å"wants to learn, likes learning-related activities, and believes school is important† (Brown, 1998). Thus a motivated student and a smart student are not categorically equivalent. While the correlation between intelligence and achievement is higher than the correlation between achievement and any other factor, the relationship is not perfect. For instance, 10 students with identical IQs will demonstrate variability in achievement on similar and dissimilar learning tasks (Andrews, 2003). Motivation is one of the primary causes of the range of scores. Thus, it is logical to conclude that in order to maximize a student’s potential, and in turn the educational experience, a student must be motivated. With the knowledge that motivation must precede success, it is clear that those in charge of educational planning should attempt to maximize motivation with the forthcoming technological advancements. The Nature of Motivation Before educators can begin to map out a plan to stimulate motivation via the use of technology, they must first have a sufficient understanding of the nature of motivation itself (Marlow, 1999). Motivation is not a static entity, but rather a constantly changing intrinsic essence that is continually being influenced by way of internal and external forces. As young children, we have a natural sense of motivation. This can be each time â€Å"a baby struggles to reach a toy, learn to walk or eat without help† (Brown, 1998). All of these are examples of motivation to learn. However, this natural inq... ... United States Department of Education. (n.d.). Technology and Education Reform. Retrieved April 6, 2004 from http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EdReformStudies/EdTech/index.html The site contains a very detailed description of the various changes in the classroom sparked by the advent of new technologies. Ysseldyke, J. (2002). Cooperative learning. University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development. Retrieved April 29, 2004, from http://education.umn.edu/research/ResearchWorks/coop-learning.htm Ysseldyke detailed the five externalities of cooperative learning. He also described how these attributes influenced motivation. Weiner, R. (2000). More Technology Training for Teachers. New York Times. Retrieved on April 22, 2004 from http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/22/technology/22EDUCATION.html?ex=1083211200&en=740fa1d60417ec03&ei=5070

Mother in law

Ever since ancient times, the relationship between a married woman and her mother-in-law has often been the butt of many jokes. Mother-in-laws generally view their daughters-in-law with suspicion and are not able to tolerate their mistakes. Is there a psychological explanation for the mother-in-law type of behavior? The mother might have an overwhelming sense of responsibility for her son. She might be a woman with no clear boundaries. She allows her son to be the focal point of her life and does not have a clear understanding of his life. Such a woman will often be an unwelcome intruder into her son’s life. There are other mother-in-laws who have the unnatural fear of losing their relationship with their son. A mother with this fear works hard at being what her son needs her to be. This makes her less honest and fearful. There are other mothers who think it’s their duty to protect their son from other bad people and sometimes, this might even include his father. This gives her a false sense of importance. There are women who never outgrow the idea that their son is a grown up man now. Such women tend to be over possessive mothers in law who continue to baby their son and even smother him with sweetness whether he likes it or not (Sadasivan, 2006). These abnormal traits in a mother in law can lead to conflicts with the daughter in law. It is possible that an aggressive mother-in-law who has difficulty in coping with her son’s wife may be suffering from Sons Detachment Disorder (SDD). The mother finds it difficult to detach herself from her son and allow him to live and independent life. Because of this attachment, she feels the need to control her daughter-in-law and any resistance by her is viewed with hatred and anger. Control, hate, and anger are the three main qualities of this disorder. Every human being desires freedom and in any relationship the threat to freedom is the greatest danger. In the case of mothers-in-law, there is a desire to control and this affects the freedom of the younger ones.   When there is an overwhelming desire to control, mothers are not willing to let go of their sons even when they get married. Mothers try to make decisions for their sons even after their marriages and control them by keeping track of their expenditure patterns, where they are going, what they are wearing and advising them even in matters such as where to buy a house. Many mothers feel more in control when they are able to predict the behavior of others and when others meet their expectations. Hatred and anger are often signs of insecurity. Here, the mothers might have a feeling that their sons are leaving them for another woman and this arouses a lot of hatred and anger towards her son’s wife. This is more compounded when the mother in law also happens to be a widow. Such anger and hatred can cause destruction not only to their sons and wives but also to her. Sometimes, the problem may lie with a daughter-in-law’s perception of her mother in law. When a woman gets married, she needs to cope with a new family with new rules. She often fears her mother in law even before knowing her because of her exposure to the image of a mother in law as evil personified in the media. A mother-in-law is often depicted as a dragon personified in TV serials and novels. Due to this stereotyping of mother-in-laws, the son’s wife enters her new life with a lot of doubt, anxiety and worry. In this case, even a small remark by her mother-in-law will be seen in an enlarged dimension. She might be so wary of her that she does not communicate much with her mother-in-law. This can lead to a huge gap between the two women and lead to mother-in-law based conflicts. In this case it’s easy for the mother in law to judge her incommunicative daughter in law as a careless and destructive person. Another reason contributing to this conflict is that the mother in law might be too dependent on her son for her self-esteem needs. She needs him so that she might get a sense of importance. When she sees her son beginning to rely more on his wife, she feels upset and might start feigning sickness just to get the immediate attention from her son. Apart from the reasons cited above there might also be the case of mothers-in-law hating their daughters-in-law due to their personal reluctance to accept another woman into the household. There are likely to be differences based on status, education, age and culture between a married woman and her mother in law. These differences might make the connection between the two women more difficult. However, no problem is so complex that it cannot be solved. Every relationship needs some time, patience and understanding and trust to develop. Once developed, it’s possible that the two most important women in a man’s life might become the best of friends. Source: Sadasivan, Padma (2006). The Mother-in-Law – Daughter-in-Law Syndrome. http://www.womenexcel.com/relati

Necessities for the party Essay

Cannery Row takes place in a small area that has sardine fisheries and is located in Monterey, California. The city Monterey is also known as Cannery Row. The novel Cannery Row is mainly about the people living in Cannery Row during the Great Depression and the affects of over-fishing which was one of the great biological disasters that wiped out the sardine harvest and focuses on Doc who is a dear friend of Steinbeck, the author of the novel. Because of Doc’s kindness and support, Mack and the boys want to do give a surprise party for Doc. Doc is an owner of a biological supply house on the Row. Doc is a friend and caregiver to everyone. However, he suffers from loneliness. Mack and the boys plan to give Doc a party and they are full of energy and good spirits as they obtain the necessities for the party. Mack and the boys prepare the party in Doc’s lab one night while he is gone on a trip to collect items for his lab. However, the boys start the party premature while they wait for him to return. Unfortunately, when Doc comes back late from his trip, his lab is totally trashed. After this incidence there was a bad sense of emotion that spread throughout the Row and lasted for a long time. It wasn’t long after the party that an influenza plague spread throughout Cannery Row and several other regrettable events occurred; however, later in the novel there was a turn around from all the bad events and the town began to heal. Again, Doc does something wonderful for Mack and the boys by curing their sick puppy. When Doc cured the puppy, Mack and the boys decided again to do something wonderful for Doc. They decided to throw Doc another party. However, this time Doc got a change to attend the party. The boys made sure to carefully plan the party well. The party was a success and after the party, the story ends with Doc feeling great about life. During the Depression, an influenza epidemic hits the small Cannery Row community. Doc through his concern for people even though he is not a real doctor, but a scientist, treats many of the poor people and influences Dora, a woman who manages a whorehouse and her whores to become nurses to families that are in need of help. Dora runs a whorehouse but she attempts to be â€Å"moral† by not selling hard liquor and by servicing her clients with a reasonable price and rate for the whores and she is very congenial to those who helped her during the Depression. For the people who survived the Depression, Mack was one of the leaders and a mentor to many of them who were in the same condition as he was having no family, no money, and no goals in life except for continually trying to find a way to get food to survive. Sometimes Mack had to steal or lie to get help for himself and the people. Mack has some guilt about lying, stealing and being deceitful but usually when he is doing these â€Å"sins† he is doing it for a good purpose and usually he is able to plead his case when doing these actions because he is doing it for the common good. Hazel, who lives with Mack and the boys, is a very loyal person. The way he influences others is by being a good communicator. He listens to people effectively and remembers everything that was told to him. The theme of the novel is more focused on the community itself and the results of individual behavior within the community because the environment is the main focus of the story. The environment is to a great extent dealing with the violence. In the first chapters, two people have already committed suicide. In addition, there are several other acts of aggression that occur when the Chinaman has an encounter with the little boys. The hidden cruelty in the narrative reveals the imperfection and evil nature of human beings. However, in order to generate the greater good in people, there is a need for violence to be balanced which is described in chapter two. Within the marine community, the problem with over fishing of sardines required a balance just as a balance is needed within the human community regarding violence and moral behavior due to not having enough food supply. Due to the over fishing problem, a lack of fish resulted in the local people not having enough food which they relied on for nutrition and survival. Within the marine community if there is not a balance of fish within the ocean, this result in an imbalanced production of various types of fish within the ocean resulting in the overproduction of some fish and the under production of certain other fish according to the food chain of sea creatures. In many cases, certain fish will become extinct due to a problem with over fishing. Over-fishing is really a main problem in the novel for the characters. Back in the post-depression, this really affected the people of Cannery County due to very low level success of reproduction of sardines. Fish is one of the main resources of the ocean and the ocean must stay balanced with the right amount of fish in order to have a healthy ecosystem. Over fishing destroys the ocean’s ecosystem. However, there is no limitation to how much a person should fish because there is no ownership of the ocean’s resources. Therefore, the more people continue fishing; it results in a lower production of fish. This is what the author is trying to convey as he uses Cannery Row’s sardine fishery as an example. In regards to the human community, Cannery Row is disturbed by known and unknown instances of violence and cruelty. In the novel, Doc finds a dead girl on the beach. Because of the depression, many people gave up and a retarded boy is sent to an institution for stealing a gift for a person he loves. The war only did so much for the people on the Cannery Row to end the Depression. Establishing a whorehouse, stealing, lying are all ways chosen by various people residing in Cannery Row to survive in a world with little resources during the Depression. The characters in Cannery Row show strength, courage, sadness and even happy moments even though they suffer through a Depression. In spite of everything, they still manage to throw parties in the mist of their â€Å"storm. † Doc was the main character who had the most character and integrity in spite of his own depression and loneliness. However, at the end, Doc looks at life in a whole new fashion and a new hope is created for in him after celebrating his party with Mack and the gang. Within the marine community, if the ecosystem is not completely destroyed, the ocean can be replenished and the balance restored within the ocean. Like so, within the human community, because the people came together and learned to survive against the odds, their community was also moving toward restoration. In conclusion, Cannery Row is a story about the over-fishing problem in Monterey, California. The story speaks about how it affected the ocean’s ecosystem and the people. It also shows the sadness and happiness of the people in that small community during the Depression and how the characters will come together to survive. However, they use stealing as a means to survive as well as working at a whorehouse, lying and various other dishonest means to survive during the Great Depression. Most of the characters were very good people just happened to be victims of a point in time of economic breakdown. John Steinbeck’s novel is scientifically and emotionally outstanding in the way he explicitly describe the terror in the community and the survival tactics used by the characters during the Depression. Works Cited Steinbeck, John. Cannery Row. New York: The Viking Press, 1945

Hr Term Paper

Table of Contents: Introduction to SME Recruitment and the process involved Challenges faced by SME’s Overseas challenges Suggestions to overcome challenges What are SMEs? Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are businesses that employ up to 250 people.No one is precisely sure how many of them there are because there are lots of companies that have limited liability status but are not trading and there are lots of businesses that are sole proprietorships that have escaped the official net of the tax man, the VAT man and the registrar of companies. We will see figures that range as high as 4. 3 million and as low as 3. 7 million, the best estimate being around 4. 0 million. Although the most usual definition of an SME is a company employing up to 250 employees, nearly all (over 99%) employ less than 50 people.In fact, three quarters of them don’t have any employees – they are sole operators. So, the emphasis really is on small rather than medium in the SME label. T he engine of economic recovery The significance of these small businesses is often overlooked. They are the ants in the ant hill rather than the more glamorous animals of the forest. And yet they make up a half of all the jobs in the UK and account for half of our GDP. Because they are small and tightly managed, decisions can be taken quickly and they are flexible in responding to changes in the temperature of the market.In the UK as in the rest of the world, SMEs are recognised as the most responsive engine of economic growth. Who are they? There are over 1,500 different classifications of SMEs. These are referred to as Standard Industrial Classifications by the Government and they are used to describe the nature of a company’s business. As might be expected, SMEs do not compete where large capital investment is required for process industries. Therefore, they do not exist in car assembly, steel making, cement manufacture and the like. They are found in profusion in the serv ice industries from vehicle servicing, hairdressing, retailing to the professions.There are manufacturers, of course, and they operate across most industries from complex electronics to traditional businesses such as metal bashing and wood turning. The SME shopping basket Every SME purchases goods and services in the pursuance of its business. They all have some basic needs such as telephones, stationery and they consume energy. Nearly all have office furniture and operate vehicles. They rent property and they buy legal and financial services. Depending on their industrial classification, they also will buy materials of one form or another.In total this adds up to over ? 1 billion of products and services per annum. Safety in numbers The most surprising thing about this huge shopping basket is that it is often ignored by marketers who have their sites on the larger corporations that appear to make easier picking. Whilst it is true that large buyers are easier to line up in the sight of a marketing rifle, they are not necessarily the most profitable. Slimma enjoyed being a main supplier to Marks & Spencer until M&S changed its buying policy and it lost the business. It not only lost the business; it went out of business.In contrast, RS Components has always seen the potential in SMEs and through its next day postal delivery service, it supplies a myriad of bits and pieces to businesses at premium prices and good margins. A simple decision making unit There are no complicated purchasing teams in SMEs. Very often it is just the boss who is tea person, book keeper, principal sales person and buyer. With all these duties, it is not feasible to agonise too deeply about the choice of a supplier. Decisions are made quickly and based on simple criteria such as the supplier is easy to buy from, it is good value, it is supported by the right kind of service etc.Once a purchase has been made, a relationship is established and very often a buying pattern is set up that wil l last for a long time. The B2B SME panel B2B wants to get to the hearts and minds (and purchasing patterns) of SME owners and has recently launched an online panel comprised of key decision makers within the SME sector. B2B has undertaken a rigorous panel recruitment programme to ensure a diverse and high calibre sample of thousands of SME decision makers throughout the UK, people who are notoriously hard to get hold of yet who buy hundreds of different services. In IndiaIn India, the Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) sector plays a pivotal role in the overall industrial economy of the country. It is estimated that in terms of value, the sector accounts for about 39% of the manufacturing output and around 33% of the total export of the country. Further, in recent years the MSE sector has consistently registered higher growth rate compared to the overall industrial sector. The major advantage of the sector is its employment potential at low capital cost. As per available statistics , this sector employs an estimated 31 million persons spread over 12. million enterprises and the labour intensity in the MSE sector is estimated to be almost 4 times higher than the large enterprises. In South Africa the term SMME, for Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises, is used. Elsewhere in Africa, MSME is used, for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. Size thresholds vary from country to country. The lack of a universal size definition makes business studies and market research more difficult. RECRUITMENT Recruitment is the process where the HR identifying the gaps to be filled, attracting the suitable person's cv's through different media ( like adds. n paper, approaching consultants, employee references, campus placements( when the requirement is huge), even u can verify active working employees in ur company through promotions/transfers) & etc. , upto receiving the cv's. selection starts from scrutining the received cv's, conducting the tests & finally ends with the HR round of interview for taking a desicion whether selected or not. Recruitment Process The recruitment and selection is the major function of the human resource department and recruitment process is the first step towards creating the competitive strength and the strategic advantage for the organisations.Recruitment process involves a systematic procedure from sourcing the candidates to arranging and conducting the interviews and requires many resources and time. A general recruitment process is as follows: Identifying the vacancy: The recruitment process begins with the human resource department receiving requisitions for recruitment from any department of the company. These contain: Posts to be filled Number of persons Duties to be performed Qualifications required Preparing the job description and person specification. Locating and developing the sources of required number and type of employees (Advertising etc).Short-listing and identifying the prospective employee with required chara cteristics. Arranging the interviews with the selected candidates. Conducting the interview and decision making Identify vacancy Prepare job description and person specification Advertising the vacancy Managing the response Short-listing Arrange interviews Conducting interview and decision making The recruitment process is immediately followed by the selection process i. e. the final interviews and the decision making, conveying the decision and the appointment formalities. CHALLENGES FACED BY SME’S FOR RECRUITING NEW ENTRANTSChallenge One – Find, recruit & retain high quality sales people   Organisations of all sizes and in all market sectors have a major challenge in finding and developing quality sales people. The impact of employing average or poor sales personnel can seriously hurt SMEs, as these companies rely on a smaller number of sales staff. They simply do not have the resources, systems and processes that exist within large corporations to effectively mana ge, develop or re-deploy underperforming sales people. Having high quality, reliable and consistent sales people can make our sales function and a lack of them will break it.Organisations are able to invest in Health Checks, which reviews how the sales function is performing in terms of people, processes and customers. This health check also highlights the areas within the sales function which need to be developed, which is a good starting point for SMEs looking to build or enhance their sales function. Challenge Two – Develop high quality, profitable, long-term customers The issue of quality sales people is the main cause of challenge two – Developing high quality, profitable, long-term customers.The definition of a high quality customer is one where: * To have a win-win, mutually beneficial relationship * The relationship exists at the highest possible level with the key stakeholders * They take a number of products or services from you * They see you as a key suppli er or integral to their success * They believe in your people, brand and product, they will not use a competitor * They will actively promote your people, brand and product (word of mouth advertising & referrals) Gaining high quality customers is the focus of any successful business over the longer term.Look at any industry or sector where individual key players have shown steady, sustainable, controlled growth and where they have outperformed their competitors. You will notice a number of similarities around the quality of the sales people, perception of the brand, and standard of the product or service. You will also note that in the majority of these organisations, a number of reports and statements focus on' The Customer'. What makes these organisations so special is that they have simply developed an effective sales, supply, customer management and retention system.This system runs like a well-oiled, high-performance engine, where all the cogs turn and interlink in a highly eng ineered way. In business, this is like having a successful, proven ‘How to' users-guide for all the key aspects of sales and client fulfillment. Whether we like it or not, every business has a system that covers all of these critical sales and client management areas. What is evident is that these systems don't necessarily interlink effectively.In fact, some of these systems seem to work against each other and slow down progress, creating roadblocks for sales and client management to cross. Interestingly enough, high quality sales people also have a system they use at an individual level to sell effectively. This system guides them like a missile to the target and covers all areas of attitude, skill and execution of their tasks. If an organisation wishes to overcome the two key challenges of high quality sales people and high quality customers, they need to develop an effective system that covers sales and client management.An effective selling system has a huge number of bene fits to any business – too many to list, however they can be summarised into the following: * Increase profitability per customer and per sales person * Reduce cost of sale * Reduce lead times * Increase win ratio * Improve internal communication and access to information * Increase control and focus * Improve forecasting and business planning * Improve customer relationships and retention * Reduce churn of quality people We do not need to find, recruit and retain high quality sales people, especially as they are expensive.Even small organisations can develop quality sales people themselves and realise the key benefits this brings by simply introducing a successful selling system. This means that the organisation is reliant on an effective, proven and sustainable system and not on individual sales people to perform. If the system works, then the sales people can use the system to work for them. The system will show the organisation very clearly who is performing well and who needs to be developed, and it can even show exactly where and how.To clarify the key point, however, we are not saying that you can or should employ low quality sales people and tell them what to do, and how to do it. What we are saying is that the quality of focus has changed, from finding high quality sales people who can work individually and do the numbers for you, to developing a high quality, repeatable sales system. This is not a new concept; every successful franchise is built on this very principle. If a business wants to realise these benefits, then it is undeniable that they need to have an effective sales team.It is also undeniable that they need to develop high quality customers. If your organisation needs to realise these benefits and you would like the opportunity to work with a specialist, then contact Enact Services. They have developed the ‘Complete Selling System'. This has been designed specifically to address the challenges faced by your sales team(s). Thi s system has been proven to positively impact on the sales results of SME and corporate organisations. CHALLENGE IN THE TALENT WARThe global phenomenon in talent shortage has led to a ‘talent war’ amongst organisations large and small, across all industry sectors throughout the world. This talent war is all about attracting, retaining, developing and engaging a quality workforce that plays a critical role in impacting the organisations bottom-line and growth. With such a struggle for the best talents, it is no wonder that the SMEs often lose out to the MNCs which typically invest millions of dollars in their recruitment and retention strategies.Given that SMEs may not have such ‘muscle’ to fight the talent war, nonetheless it is becoming clear to business leaders / entrepreneurs that an effective HR strategy is critical for its long-term survival. The following are some of the typical challenges faced by SMEs today: Talent Attraction Not maintaining an acti ve database of potential hires – adverts are placed each time there is a vacancy without harnessing past database effectively Not implementing comprehensive hiring channels such as referral, graduate, recruitment internal transfers etc.Lack of detailed job analysis which leads to ineffective recruitment (i. e. often it is not known what are the key criteria for hiring the personnel and key success factors on the job) Weak or no employer branding – candidates do not have a good knowledge of the overall organization OR do not have a good experience during their recruitment exercise Not able to offer higher than average starting salaries and having ‘standard’ benefits/rewards Talent Retention Lack of a comprehensive orientation programme or induction training Lack of clear career path development for individual staffLack of communication of corporate goals/vision Lack of job-rotation : often SMEs lose talents as they are not able to provide new learning oppor tunities within the organization by redesigning jobs etc. Minimum investment in training ; development. We have heard: finding and retaining top talent be it for large corporations, SMEs, associations and consultancies is fast becoming a major challenge. In many cases, the challenge has become a factor in the loss of competitive strengths, and consequent decline of market share.Some underlying reasons are well known: demographics (the â€Å"baby boomers† are beginning to retire and not being replaced by equivalent numbers of new entrants into the workforce); declining unemployment; sustained high demand for candidates with similar profiles in many sectors, such as IT and Telecom; shifts in employee attitudes to loyalty and their work/life balance. But another, less obvious factor is at play: employers' response (or non response) and in particular the adaptation of their recruitment and retention strategies to a rapidly changing labour force landscape.In fact, pragmatically, t his is perhaps the most important issue. Employers can't change demographics, but they can change the way they recruit. Until recently, most employers were in the enviable position of being able to pick and choose among a plethora of spontaneous candidacies to fill most, if not all their open positions. In those cases where â€Å"Mr. or Mrs. Right† was not at hand, word of mouth, and an advertisement would more often than not elicit a more than adequate number of qualified applicants. The biggest challenge was making the right choice!But today, employers are facing new realities. And, as in any rapidly changing environment, those who are the quickest off the mark in adapting their attitudes and strategies will reap the benefits of stronger, more stable, and more efficient human resources. The more senior and/or technical the positions, the more vital this becomes. New challenges and the need for specialised assistance With many or even most employers fishing for the same prof iles in the same pond, yesterday’s recruitment strategies are fast becoming inefficient and un (or even counter) productive.The bottom line is that most employers are rapidly (re) discovering the value and economic sense of retaining, and building long term relationships with Executive Search firms. The simple logic is that the quest for talent needs to be both broader, and deeper than ever before. Chances are the ideal candidates are not scanning the â€Å"want ads† or online recruitment websites nor talking to friends about changing jobs. They could come from a different industry (which has already faced the challenge an employer is up against today), and thus bring fresh thinking and new vision.They may bring talent that will enable an employer to embark in new, lucrative business ventures. And they need to be in a position to contribute to an employer’s strategic plan. Leading Executive Search firms will build a highly personalised strategy for each individu al recruitment taking these complex factors into account. Headhunters†¦. and headhunters Most leading headhunters accept the title with a smile†¦. they generally prefer to be known as Executive Search consultants. Perhaps to more clearly identify themselves as employer business builders (via human resources), as opposed to simple recruiters.Recruitment agencies tend to use large databases of names, rely on electronic/web technologies, and place cold-calls to potential candidates whom they might never have met before. While not eschewing these methodologies, executive recruiters use their specialised and often personal networks of contacts to attract individuals to opportunities and search for candidates for the most senior positions. In Brussels, as an example, the typical minimum annual salary for a position that an Executive Search firm is retained to fill is â‚ ¬100,000.Consultants specialise within given industries, and typically have long-lasting relationships with their clients. These relationships are key, because the recruiter knows the nuances of the internal culture within the client’s organisation, and is best prepared to offer candidates that would make a good fit. In addition, executive recruitment firms often offer guarantees for the candidates who are hired. That is, if the individual resigns, for example, within six months of the date of hire, the firm will mount a new search to find another candidate. Taking care of the detailsCompanies that decide to search for a senior candidate using a specialised recruitment firm find that they save time and resources. Following an exploratory meeting to learn more about the position and after participating in a thorough briefing session, the search consultant returns a written description of the employer, the competitive situation, the recruitment context, and the position to the client for approval. The description is a key step, and the client must share as much information as possib le in order to enable the recruiter to identify the best possible candidates.Of course discretion is paramount – privacy of the client, as well as privacy of the candidates. Building on his experience as Managing Director and Marketing Manager for L’Or? al, Howard Honick has been a senior consultant with Alexander Hughes, one of the leading recruitment firms in Europe, since 2000. â€Å"We believe every mission, every client, every candidate is unique†, says Honick. Our consultants spend whatever time is necessary to understand every aspect of the mission; we pay particular attention to soft skills, and matching client/candidate culture†.Confidentiality is of course crucial. And we only present candidates to our clients who we know could be an ideal match in terms of experience and personality, and therefore make a long-term fit. † It’s all about who you know Executive recruiters know their client’s industries and have many contacts bec ause they have worked in the sectors themselves. Anne De Greef, a senior consultant at Alexander Hughes previously worked for many years in executive positions in business development, operations, strategic planning and M;A for DHL, UPS and as COO for Fleetlogistics/Wheels.Combined with her additional management experience in the chemical and leasing industries, she is well-placed to identify potential candidates for clients in these businesses, because she knows – and has worked with – many individuals in those sectors. â€Å"This detailed knowledge of and ability to recruit high-level executives is what makes clients rely on our services. Clients realise that top-level recruitment is not an overnight process,† said De Greef. Strategic recruitment impacts the bottom-lineRecruits for top-level appointments will eventually have a role in shaping the future of a company. They will be a part of the team making strategic decisions about the organisation’s dir ection and developing and enacting its business plan. Thus, candidates must have extensive experience and the business sense to succeed in making the right decisions. â€Å"There’s a lot on the line when filling positions for our clients,† said Honick. â€Å"The positions we help fill are vital to the client company’s success, otherwise the company probably wouldn’t invest in our services. Costs for recruitment services usually are linked to the salary level of the position being filled. Firms typically charge a placement fee when the candidate they identified and recruited accepts a job. The fee can be set as a straight percentage of the salary, or negotiated as a retainer. For some companies with ongoing hiring needs, the retainer model is usually the most advantageous. Widening the gene pool Once recruitment profiles have been defined, there are several steps to finding the right candidates.One of the most important is to take a cross-sector approach. Companies must not depend only on the talent that is already employed within their sectors; to the contrary, employers must extend their search for candidates to include industries that they may never before have mined. â€Å"Our experience shows that more and more companies are taking this cross-sector approach. This is particularly true in the financial sector, where we are seeing an increasing demand for mathematicians and actuaries to manage hedge funds and private equities,† said Honick.For big and small Surveys of European executives indicate that three factors are hampering corporate expansion: increasing bureaucratic and administrative complexity (regulation, compliance issues); uncertainty, as it relates to top line growth; and the difficulty of finding the best people to grow the company. These issues hold true for small, mid-size and large organisations. Executive recruiters specialise in filling senior leadership positions, no matter what the size of the organisa tion.Perhaps for SME’s, it is even more critical to find not just â€Å"the right person† but â€Å"the best person†, since each new recruit will have a proportionally greater impact on the existing team as a whole. â€Å"In smaller companies, the quality of internal human interaction tends to have a more immediate effect on overall results,† said Honick, â€Å"Also, responsibilities in an SME can cover more than one functional area. A Finance Director will probably have admin duties, and also might oversee HR. So we would need to find a person who can positively impact all three areas. ————————————————- Recruiting ‘in-house’ is typically the first reaction of most HR directors. But for small and mid-sized companies searching to fill management positions, looking within is often not feasible. Most likely, for young and/or small bus inesses the required talent does not yet exist in-house. So for middle and senior-level hires who will have a significant impact on the top and bottom line, it’s becoming more and more common for organisations of all sizes to rely on a executive search firm to find the best talent out thereOverseas recruitment and challenges: The rules of engagement Overseas recruitment has gone mainstream. Once viewed as the last resort of vaguely treacherous corporate wage cutters, hiring foreign workers is the newest trend for small and medium businesses struggling to deal with an unprecedented skills shortage. But the popularity of overseas recruiting – and a few well publicized instances of abuse by rogue employers – has caught the Government’s attention.In April 2007 federal Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews declared his intention to â€Å"clean up the system† by introducing tighter policing and hefty new financial penalties for employers who breach migratio n laws. All this means that overseas recruitment now presents greater risks and rewards for Australian businesses than ever before. For an increasing number of SME owners, coping with the skills shortage means this is a gamble they must take if they are to find the staff their businesses need to survive. So much work, so few workersEach month, economic data confirms what SMEs are experiencing on the ground: the skills shortage is getting worse. With unemployment already at a 32-year low of 4. 4%, in May 2007 the number of new jobs ads surged 10. 3% to 251,996, a massive 40. 8% rise on a year earlier. While shortages are being felt across the board, the cupboard is particularly bare for employers in the resources, information technology, professional services and hospitality sectors. Andrew Stormon, the manager of Queensland SME Mt Isa Fleet Maintenance Services, tells a common story. We advertised for 18 months trying to find people for mechanic positions; we just found we got very few responses, and those we did get didn’t have the right skills and weren’t suitable for the job. † In a booming economy, not enough staff means lost work and lost profits. â€Å"We lost in the vicinity of $500,000 because we continually had to knock back work. We lost one of our clients worth $250,000 because we just didn’t have the people we needed to service their fleet for them,† Stormon says.It is this combination of commercial opportunity and labour shortage that is driving business to recruit from overseas in increasing numbers. Immigration Department figures show 97,430 skilled migrants came to Australia in 2005-06, up from 77,880 in 2004-05. This number is set to increase to 102,500 in 2007-08. By far the biggest increase in numbers has been in the s457 temporary skilled migration category, under which employers sponsor foreign workers with in-demand skills to work in Australia for between three months and four years.There are reported to be 105,000 foreign workers currently in Australia on s457 visas, a number that could increase significantly next year. Navigate the migration minefield Bringing a worker into Australia is not just a matter of filling out a few forms and sending a cheque for the processing fee. Although there is a lot of information available – the Federal Government and industry associations are good sources – the migration process is complex and requires knowledge of both Australian immigration rules and those of the country from which a worker is migrating.Added to that is the difficulty of finding eligible candidates for the position in the country of origin, an especially difficult and time-consuming task in countries where English is not the first language. Given the complications involved, it is no surprise recruitment and migration service providers have proliferated in recent years, encouraged by low barriers to entry and the big dollars desperate employers are prepared to pay for good staff.It generally costs about $4000 to $6000 to have an agency find an employee and bring them into Australia, although prices vary depending on where an employee comes from and how they are employed in Australia. Jo Burston, the managing director of migration services firm Job Capital, says the time-consuming nature of the process and the heavy penalties associated with breaches of migration legislation means agencies offer good value for money for many businesses. â€Å"The Department of Immigration has very strict guidelines and the penalties can be substantial, so it’s a process that allows very little room for error.Since most SMEs don’t have specialised immigration staff, hiring an agency allows them to get on with their core business,† Burston says. â€Å"Most SMEs would hire an accountant to give them tax advice, they wouldn’t just have their admin person do it, and this is really no different. † Even businesses that can afford to devote staff to recruitment tend hire professionals to help them navigate the process. Mike Smith, operations manager at IT services and integration firm Anatas, says he supplements his in-house resources by outsourcing difficult aspects of offshore recruiting process. We would just burn weeks and weeks of staff time doing it all ourselves. Even with staff working on the process it can be time-consuming just providing the information and vetting candidates. There is no way to short-cut the process, you just end up causing problems for yourself if you do,† Smith says. Traps for young players and what to do about them Contrary to popular belief, the vast majority of businesses who hire foreign workers are not motivated by the prospect of lower wages.Imported workers cannot be employed to perform cheap unskilled labour and must be paid above a legislated minimum standard annual salary of $41,850 ($57,300 for IT staff). These rules are not flexible. The desire to avoid any furthe r horror stories of foreign workers being paid a pittance or charged outrageous migration fees has caused the Government to allocate more than $80 million in this year’s budget to increasing the monitoring and investigation capacity of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship and to increase penalties for breaching migration laws.From August 17, employers can be personally fined up $13,200 or, in extreme cases, jailed for up to two years for employing a worker without the appropriate visa or referring a worker without an appropriate visa to another employer; while businesses can be fined up to $66,000 for each offending worker they employee. More severe penalties are applicable if workers are being exploited through slavery, forced labour or sexual servitude. The complexity and bureaucracy that governs the skilled migration process means planning ahead is also important.Finding an employee and bringing them to Australia generally takes three to six months, migration serv ice providers say, with even longer lead times workers with very specialised skills are sought. A more obvious problem employers of foreign staff have to deal with is culture shock. Even for people who come with all the good will in the world, the shock of finding yourself in unfamiliar territory far away from family and friends can be too much to handle.Australian Recruiting director David Young, who recruits Asian and UK workers for Australia’s mining and healthcare industries, says it is rare for foreign workers to cut short their time in Australia because of culture shock, but it does happen from time to time. â€Å"It can be for all kinds of reasons: sometimes it’s the climate, the food, often people who come here don’t realise quite how big Australia is and get a bit of a shock if they find themselves in a remote location.On the other hand, I was talking to a company the other day who brought in workers from Sweden: they were very skilled but it didn†™t work out because there was a big difference between the sense of humour of Swedes and Australians,† Young says. Small things like meeting new arrivals at the airport, help with accommodation and transport, opening a bank account and taking out medical insurance can help minimise homesickness. â€Å"We brought someone in the other day who was a great musician and we connected him up with a local band; things like that can make a huge difference,† Young says.Once these hurdles are overcome, it seems there can be real upside to taking staff from other countries into your workforce. Mt Isa Fleet Maintenance manager Andrew Stormon says after dealing with some â€Å"out-of-date† attitudes on the workshop floor towards the four skilled tradesmen he brought in from the Philippines, the new arrivals have now become an important part of the business. â€Å"These blokes have turned up and keen as hell, punctual, their English is excellent and they really get in and wo rk.And their skills are fantastic: I haven’t come across tradesmen as good as some of these blokes for many years,† Stormon says. Another advantage of bringing in workers from overseas can be loyalty. Anatas’s Mike Smith says in sectors such as IT, where highly skilled employees tend to be highly mobile, this is be a big plus. â€Å"We have found workers we bring tend to stick with us. Often they will be looking to become permanent residents in a couple of year or perhaps it’s just because we have developed with them, but we’ve found they stick with us for a bit longer than Australian staff,† Smith says.As long as Australia continues to enjoy the fruits of the China-led resources boom, economic necessity will continue to drive Australian businesses to hire skilled staff from overseas. ————————————————- The key to making overseas rec ruitment a good experience is to take advantage of the information available and obtain professional advice and assistance where necessary. By going into the process with eyes open, a business of any size can successfully navigate the migration minefield. ————————————————- ———————————————— ————————————————- SUGGESTIONS THAT CAN BE IMPLIMENTED____________________ Outsource Outsourcing non-core activities is increasingly becoming popular even for SMEs. Instead of incurring huge fixed costs in manpower to manage recruitment/ retention issues with sophisticated IT software, SMEs can reap the following benefits by outsourcing such functions to the experts in the field: Cost savings Technology (a simple HR IT software can cost from to $50,000 to $300,000) Experienced HR staff to manage recruitment/retention issuesAdministrative time (even with the HR software, lots of time goes in updating, maintaining a database etc) Focus on strategic functions By outsourcing these functions, the HR can focus on vendor management and on making sure that results are achieved. Access to world-class recruitment/retention strategies Service providers typically invest millions in the most updated systems and technology as this is their core business. Hence by outsourcing such functions, SMEs can leverage on the service providers’ world-class technology.Create employer branding The service providers function as an extended arm of the SME. Hence by running the entire hiring process (right up to orientation) effectively, a positive brand image is created for the SME. Measurement of hiring effectiveness The HR can extract useful indices such as ‘q uality of hire’, ‘cost per hire’, ‘days to fill job’, ‘candidate experience’ etc. from the service providers. This will enable the HR to focus more on strategic issues rather than administrative tasks of the hiring process. Quality of HireThis is of critical importance to any organization – whether is there a good fit between the job and person. By outsourcing the hiring to experts, it has been proven that the quality of hire will improve. This means that the new hire performing better on the job and eventually affecting the organisation’s overall operational effectiveness and profitability in a positive way. Employer branding Having mentioned outsourcing as one of the strategies in managing talents, the responsibility on employer branding still remains with the organization.Companies need to brand themselves as choiced employers just like how they brand their products and services. There are some distinct advantages of bei ng an SME which need to be communicated to job seekers and existing staff. Being small can be an asset in many instances. Having a staff strength of less than 300 makes an organization a lot more nimble, fast and flexible compared to larger MNCs which often wait for global initiatives before implementing changes in their HR policies and practices.THE FOLLOWING ARE SOME TIPS FOR SMES: Talent Attraction Employer branding – focus on key strengths such as â€Å"innovative†, â€Å"fast-growing† â€Å"regional exposure† Provide flexible and innovative benefits/rewards that cater to individual needs Measure the current hiring effectiveness – indices such as ‘cost per hire’, ‘days to fill a job’, ‘effectiveness of hiring channels’, ‘candidate experience’ are critical so that SMEs can track where there are bottlenecks and where the hiring process can be improved. Plan career path for individualsMore growth opportunities, regionalization – which is attractive to the younger workforce. Talent Retention Shift from being family-oriented to more performance-based Communicating the corporate goals, vision, direction (for a more engaged workforce) HR can afford to give personalized attention to individual’s needs in terms of benefits, rewards, career goals, training ; development needs Invest in meaningful training ; development that leads to job expansion for staff Once the SME has established themselves as a hoice employer with attractive and innovative HR policies, retention strategies and career advancement opportunities, it is only a matter of time that happy employees spread the word. There is nothing more powerful for an organization than happy staff who become their ‘ambassadors’ wherever they go! This inevitably does wonders for enhanced employer branding and attracting better talents over the years. ******************************************************* **********************BIBLIOGRAPHY http://www. eurofound. europa. eu/emcc/content/source/eu06025a. htm http://en. allexperts. com/q/Human-Resources-2866/Challenges-faced-HR-Manager-1. htm http://72. 14. 235. 132/search? q=cache:yyt4gJDUXlMJ:www. gmprecruit. com/pdf/KC/SMEchallenge. pdf+recruitment+challenges+faced+by+SMEs;hl=en;ct=clnk;cd=1;gl=in http://www. hrmguide. com/recruitmentsmanagers/+tasksfaced+SME.