Augmentative Alternative Communication Intervention Health And Social Care Essay

Children and young person who sustain a traumatic encephalon hurt ( TBI ) and/or spinal cord hurt ( SCI ) may hold impermanent or lasting disablements that affect their address, linguistic communication and communicating abilities. Having a manner to pass on can assist cut down a kid ‘s confusion and anxiousness, every bit good as enable them to take part more actively in the rehabilitation procedure and therefore, retrieve from their hurts. In add-on, effectual communicating with household, attention staff, equals, instructors and friends is indispensable to long-run recovery and positive results as kids with TBI and SCI are integrated back into their communities. This article describes how rehabilitation squads can utilize augmentative and alternate communicating ( AAC ) and assistive engineerings ( AT ) to back up the communicating of kids retrieving from TBI and SCI over clip. 1. Introduction Children and young person who sustain a terrible traumatic encephalon hurt ( TBI ) and/or a spinal cord hurt ( SCI ) frequently experience sequealae that can impact their ability to pass on efficaciously. In early stages of recovery, many kids with TBI and SCI are unable to utilize their address or gestures for a assortment of medical grounds related to their hurts. As a consequence, they can profit from augmentative and alternate communicating ( AAC ) intercessions that specifically address their ability to pass on basic demands and feelings to medical forces and household members and inquire and react to inquiries. AAC attacks may include holding entree to a nurse ‘s call signal ; schemes to set up a consistent â€Å" yes † â€Å" no † response ; techniques that help a kid â€Å" oculus point † to simple messages ; low-tech boards and books that encourage interaction with household members and staff ; communicating boards with images or words ; and speech bring forthing devices ( SGDs ) with preprogrammed messages, such as â€Å" I hurt † â€Å" Come here, † â€Å" Help me delight! † â€Å" When ‘s ma coming? † As kids with TBI and SCI recover from their hurts, many no longer will necessitate AAC. However, some kids face residuary motor, address, linguistic communication and cognitive damages that affect their ability to pass on face-to-face, write or usage mainstream communicating engineerings ( e.g. , computing machines, electronic mail, phones, etc. ) . A few may necessitate AAC and assistive engineering ( AT ) throughout their lives. Having entree to communicating through AAC and AT enables these kids to take part actively in the rehabilitation procedure and finally, in their households and communities. Without an ability to pass on efficaciously, kids with TBI and SCI will confront unsurmountable barriers to instruction, employment, every bit good as set uping and keeping relationships and taking on preferred societal functions as grownups. All AAC intercessions aim to back up a kid ‘s current communicating demands while be aftering for the hereafter [ 2 ] . However, the class of AAC intervention for kids who sustain TBIs and SCIs is different because of the nature of their hurts is different. In add-on, the focal point of AAC intercessions will differ for really immature kids ( e.g. , shaken babe syndrome ) who are merely developing address and linguistic communication and for those who were literate and have some cognition of the universe prior to their hurts ( e.g. , 16 year-old involved injured in a motor vehicle accident ) . For immature kids, the AAC squad will concentrate on developing their linguistic communication, literacy, academic, emotional, and societal accomplishments, every bit good as guaranting that they have a manner to pass on with household members and rehabilitation staff. For older kids, AAC intercessions build on residuary accomplishments and abilities to assist rectify address, linguistic communication and communicating damages every bit good as provide compensatory schemes that support face-to-face interactions and finally communicating across distances ( phone, electronic mail ) with squad members, household and friends. AAC intercession ends seek to advance a kid ‘s active engagement in household, instruction, community and leisure activities and purpose to back up the constitution and care of robust societal webs [ 4, 18, 25 ] . While a assortment of AAC tools, schemes and techniques are available that offer communicating entree, successful AAC intercessions for kids with TBI and SCI besides require that medical staff, household members and finally community forces know how to back up the usage of AAC schemes and engineerings because the demands of these kids change over clip. Speech-language diagnosticians, nurses, occupational healers, physical healers, physiatrists, baby doctors, and rehabilitation applied scientists work collaboratively with the kid ‘s household and community-based professionals to set up, keep and update effectual communicating systems. Ultimately, the end is for kids to take on coveted grownup functions ; AAC can assist them recognize these ends. 2. Pediatric TBI and AAC AAC intercession for paediatric patients with TBI and terrible communicating challenges is an indispensable, complex, on-going and dynamic procedure. AAC is indispensable to back up the alone communicating demands of kids who are unable to pass on efficaciously. It is complex because of the residuary cognitive shortages that frequently persist and because many kids with TBI have co-existing address, linguistic communication, ocular, and motor control deficits [ 11, 10 ] . AAC intercessions are ongoing and dynamic [ 12 ] because kids with TBI experience many alterations over clip and undergo multiple passages. Light and co-workers [ 17 ] described the on-going, three-year AAC intercession of an stripling who progressed through several AAC systems and finally regained functional address. DeRuyter and Donoghue [ 6 ] described an person who used many simple devices and a sophisticated AAC system over a seven-month period. Extra studies describe the recovery of natural address up to 13 ol d ages post onset [ 15, 29 ] . 2.1. AAC Assessment and Intervention Appraisal tools can assist place and depict the cognitive, linguistic communication and motor shortages of patients with TBI and supply a model for AAC intercessions. The Pediatric Rancho Scale of Cognitive Functioning [ 26 ] is based on the Ranchos Los Amigos Scale of Cognitive Functioning [ 13 ] . Table 1 describes general degrees of recovery, based on the Pediatric Rancho Lost Amigos Scale, and gives illustrations of AAC intercession schemes that rehabilitation squads can use across the degrees as described below. Levels IV and V. AAC Goal: Determining responses into communicating In the early stage of recovery, paediatric patients at Levels IV and V on the Pediatric Rancho Scale are frequently in the PICU, the ICU, acute infirmary or acute rehabilitation environment. At Level V ( no response to stimuli ) or Level IV ( generalized response to stimuli ) AAC intercessions focus on placing modes that kids can utilize to supply consistent and dependable responses. For illustration, staff can utilize simple switches ( e.g. , Jelly BeanA ® , Big RedA ® and Buddy Button from AbleNet ) , latch-timers ( e.g. , PowerLinkA ® from AbleNet ) and individual message devices ( e.g. BIGmackA ® and Step CommunicatorA ® from AbleNet ) to back up early communicating ( see Table 1 for some illustrations ) . Because kids ‘s early responses may be automatic instead than knowing, the household and medical/rehabilitation squad can besides utilize AAC engineerings to promote more consistent responses. Families provide valuable input about the sorts of music, games and f avourite toys a kid finds actuating. The squad can so utilize these points to arouse physical responses from the kid. For illustration, if the household identified the battery-operated plaything ElmoA ® from Sesame StreetA ® , the rehabilitation squad might show Elmo singing a Sesame Street vocal and so detect to see if the kid ‘s responds. If the kid begins to turn her caput when ElmoA ® sings, the squad might attach a switch with a battery interrupter to the plaything and inquire the kid to â€Å" hit † the button and â€Å" play the ElmoA ® vocal † . In making so, the squad can larn several things. For illustration, the squad may observe that a kid is able to follow bids, bespeaking cognitive recovery. The squad may besides get down to see alternate entree methods for kids with terrible physical damages, i.e. , head motion may go a dependable manner to run an AAC device or computing machine in the hereafter. It is hard to foretell whether a kid will re trieve natural address during early phases of recovery. 2.2. Middle Levels II and III: AAC Goals: Increase ability to pass on with staff, household and friends and support active engagement in intervention Pediatric patients at Levels III ( localized response to centripetal stimulations ) and II ( antiphonal to environment ) go more occupied in their rehabilitation plans as they recover some cognitive, linguistic communication and physical abilities. During this stage, long-run shortages that affect communicating become evident ( e.g. , dysarthria, apraxia, aphasia, attending, induction, memory, vision, spasticity ) . Dongilli and co-workers [ 7 ] and Ladtkow and Culp [ 16 ] besides report natural speech recovery in grownups after TBI at the in-between phases of recovery. Continued trust on AAC schemes and engineerings is typically due to relentless motor address and/or terrible cognitive-language shortages ensuing from the hurt [ 12 ] . AAC intercessions at these degrees focus on utilizing a kid ‘s most consistent and dependable response to pass on messages, promote active engagement in the rehabilitation procedure and increase interactions with household and staff. AAC intercessions ever take into history the kid ‘s developmental degree and involvements. Table 1 gives some illustrations of AAC engineerings employed during these Levels III and II. For illustration, Jessica was admitted to the infirmary at 18-months with jolted babe syndrome. At Level II, she began reacting to her parents by smiling and express joying and besides began to pull strings playthings with her non-paralyzed manus when staff placed a plaything within her integral field of vision. However, she did non exhibit any address or imitative vocal behaviours and her speech-language diagnostician noted a terrible verbal apraxia. Nursing staff and household members noted that Jessica seemed frustrated by her inability to show herself. Prio r to her hurt, she could call over 30 objects ( playthings, pets, favourite sketch characters ) and was get downing to set two word sentences together ( Momma adieu, Daddy place ) . AAC intercessions included the debut of a BIGmackA ® , a single-message address bring forthing device ( SGD ) that enabled the staff and household members to enter a message that Jessica could so â€Å" speak † during her day-to-day activities ( e.g. , â€Å" more † , â€Å" adieu † , â€Å" turn page † ) . Because the BIGmackA ® is a colourful, big and easy to entree SGD, Jessica was able to â€Å" press the button † despite her upper appendage spasticity and important ocular field cut. Within a month, Jessica had progressed to utilizing a MACAW by ZygoA ® , an SGD with eight-location sheathing that staff programmed with words she had used prior to her hurt ( e.g. , mommy, daddy, more, bottle, book, adieu ) . Staff besides designed extra sheathings to promote her linguistic communication development by supplying vocabulary that enabled her to build two-word combinations ( e.g. , â€Å" more crackers † ) . Jessica began to show herself at a developmentally appropriate degree, but she had residuary memory shortages that required cuing and support from her communicating spouses. For illustration, ab initio, she did non remember how to utilize her AAC system from session to session so staff needed to re-introduce it each clip. However, after several months, Jessica began to â€Å" seek † for her SGD to pass on. Jessica, like many kids with TBI at this degree, was able to larn processs and schemes with repeat and support [ 30 ] . 2.3. Level II and Level I. AAC Goals: Support passages, recommend AAC schemes and engineerings for usage at place and in the community As paediatric patients passage from Level II ( antiphonal to environment ) to Level I ( oriented to self and milieus ) , they frequently move from an ague rehabilitation installation to an outpatient scene, place or a attention installation. Thus, before discharge, AAC squads will carry on a formal AAC appraisal and supply long-run recommendations for AAC schemes and engineerings that can enable kids to be integrated successfully back into community environments. Table 1 illustrates the types of AAC engineerings and schemes employed at Levels II and I, as described below. For kids who continue to utilize AAC and AT when they return to their communities, the rehabilitation squad identifies a long-run communicating advocator. This individual, frequently a household member, becomes actively involved in AAC preparation and collaborates with rehabilitation staff to fix the kid ‘s educational staff, extended household and other health professionals [ 9 ] . Having a nexus between the rehabilitation squad and community professionals is indispensable because most instructors and community-based clinicians have limited experience working with kids with TBI and may necessitate support to pull off the cognitive and physical shortages frequently associated with TBI. For illustration, McKenzie, a 12 year-old with a terrible TBI secondary to a auto accident, was quadriplegic with terrible spasticity and no upper appendage control. She besides had cortical sightlessness and important communicating and cognitive damages. As she recovered, McKenzie used a assortm ent of AAC systems ( e.g. , thumbs up/down for â€Å" yes † â€Å" no † , two BIGmacksA ® to pass on picks, and a scanning Cheap Talk by Enabling Devicess with four messages to take part in structured activities ) . Prior to dispatch, the rehabilitation squad conducted a formal SGD rating and recommended the Vmax by DynaVox Mayer-Johnson, a voice end product device. McKenzie was able to entree the device via a caput switch mounted to the side of the head restraint on her wheelchair. Using audile scanning, she could make and recover messages. Because she was literate anterior to her hurt and could still spell, the staff set up her device to include an alphabet page every bit good as several pages with pre-programmed messages incorporating basic/urgent attention demands, gags and societal remarks. Family and friends participated in her rehabilitation and learned to utilize tactile and verbal prompts to assist her participate in colloquial exchanges. Due to her residuar y cognitive shortages, nevertheless, McKenzie had trouble originating conversations and retrieving where pre-stored messages were in her device. When prompted, she would react and originate inquiries and could prosecute in conversations over multiple bends. Over clip, she began to take part in meaningful, societal interactions, frequently spelling out two-three word novel phrases utilizing her alphabet page While her parents were restituting their place to manage her wheelchair, McKenzie transitioned to a regional attention installation that specialized in working with immature people with TBI. The ague rehabilitation squad identified McKenzie ‘s aunt as her AAC advocator because she had participated actively in earlier stages of McKenzie ‘s recovery, was adept with the care ( bear downing, set-up and basic trouble-shooting ) of the Vmax and could custom-make and plan new messages into the system. The attention installation staff met with McKenzie ‘s aunt weekly so they could larn how to back up McKenzie ‘s usage of the SGD. Specific developing aims included care and basic trouble-shooting, set up, switch-placement and how to plan new messages to utilize in specific and motivative activities. Staff learned how to modify the arrangement of her switch when McKenzie became exhausted or her spasticity increased. Additionally, McKenzie ‘s school staff ( particul ar instruction coordinator, speech-language diagnostician, occupational healer, and one of her regular schoolroom instructors ) visited McKenzie at the rehabilitation and the attention installations to assist fix for her return place and learned how to back up her in school, given her physical and cognitive restrictions. 2.4. AAC subjects in TBI When working with paediatric patients with TBI, three AAC â€Å" subjects † emerge. 1. Recovery from TBI is dynamic and takes topographic point over clip. In early phases of recovery, most kids with TBI have physical, address, linguistic communication and cognitive shortages that affect their communicating accomplishments. Depending on the nature and badness of their hurts, nevertheless, most recover functional address, although some will hold life-long residuary address, linguistic communication and communicating shortages. Acute rehabilitation squads can use AAC intercessions to back up communicating, every bit good as proctor the kid ‘s altering communicating abilities and needs over clip. 2. The cognitive-linguistic challenges associated with TBI make AAC intercessions peculiarly disputing for rehabilitation staff, every bit good as for households, friends and school forces. Because of the complex nature of the residuary disablements caused by TBI, coactions among rehabilitation specializers, household members and community-based professionals are indispensable. Some kids with TBI require AAC supports throughout their lives. Family members, friends and school forces seldom know how to pull off their terrible memory, attending and/or induction shortages that can impact long-run communicating results. 3. There is a demand to be after carefully for passages. Children with TBI will undergo many passages. While research depicting these passages in kids is non available, studies of the experiences of grownups with TBI describe multiple passages over clip. Penna and co-workers [ 22 ] noted that grownups with TBI undergo a important figure of abode passages peculiarly in the first twelvemonth following hurt and Fager [ 9 ] described the different passages ( acute attention infirmary, outpatient rehabilitation, skilled nursing installation, place with grownup day care services, and finally assisted life ) for an grownup with terrible TBI experienced over a decennary, documenting important alterations in his cognitive abilities, every bit good as his communicating spouses and support staff. Children with TBI are likely to see even more passages over their life-times. 3. Pediatric SCI and AAC Pediatric patients with SCI frequently have integral cognitive accomplishments and terrible physical disablements that can interfere with their ability to talk. In add-on, they frequently have important medical complications and may be left with terrible motor damages that make it hard, if non impossible, for them to compose, entree a computing machine or take part in the gambling, online and remote societal networking activities embraced by today ‘s young person ( e.g. , texting, electronic mail ) . A subgroup may besides show with a attendant TBI sustained as a consequence of the autumn, auto accident or other traumatic event that has changed their lives. For them, AAC intervention must reflect guidelines that take into history both SCI and TBI. As with TBI, the growing and development inherent in childhood and adolescence and the alone manifestations and complications associated with SCI require that direction be both developmentally based and directed to the person ‘s particular demands [ 27 ] Initially, AAC intercessions typically focus on guaranting face-to-face communicating when address is unavailable or really hard ; over the long term, nevertheless, enabling kids to compose and prosecute in educational, recreational and pre-vocational activities utilizing computing machines and other mainstream engineerings becomes the focal point. 3.1. AAC Assessment and Intervention The ASIA standard neurological categorization of SCI from the American Spinal Injury Association and International Medical Society of Paraplegia [ 1 ] is a tool that rehabilitation squads often use to measure patients with SCI because it identifies the degree of hurt and associated shortages at each degree. This can assist steer the rehabilitation squad ‘s clinical decision-making procedure for AAC intercessions. As shown in Table 2, kids with high tetraplegia ( C1-C4 SCI ) have limited caput control and are frequently ventilator dependant. They frequently require oculus, caput, and/or voice control of AAC devices and mainstream engineerings to pass on. While switch scanning is an option for some, it requires higher-level cognitive abilities, endurance, and watchfulness and may be inappropriate for really immature kids and those who are medically delicate [ 28, 19, 23, 14 ] . Children with low tetraplegia ( C5-T1 SCI ) demonstrate limited proximal and distal upper appendage con trol. If fitted with splints that support their arm and manus, some are able to utilize specially adapted mouse options ( e.g. , control stick mouse, switch-adapted mouse, trackball mouse ) , big button or light touch keyboards and switches to command engineering. These kids are besides campaigners for caput trailing and voice control of AAC devices due to the weariness and physical attempt involved in utilizing their upper appendages. For illustration, a multi-modal entree method to AAC engineering and computing machines may include voice control to order text, manus control of the pointer with an adaptative mouse to execute other computing machine maps ( e.g. , unfastened plans ) , and an adaptative keyboard to rectify mistakes that are generated while ordering text. This multi-modal attack can be more efficient and less thwarting than utilizing voice control entirely for these kids. Table 2 provides illustrations of appropriate entree options to AAC and mainstream engineerings. 3.2. Supporting face-to-face communicating For kids with high tetraplegia, being dependent on mechanical airing is scaring particularly when they are unable to digest a speaking valve [ 21 ] . Thus, supplying these kids with a manner to pass on is indispensable to their recovery and sense of wellbeing. As kids with lower degrees of hurt are weaned from a ventilator, they may see decreased respiratory control and be unable to talk [ 2 ] . Medical specializers can supply entree to AAC schemes and engineerings, which enable these kids to pass on their wants, demands and feelings throughout the twenty-four hours. This allows them to interact with direct attention staff, participate in their rehabilitation procedure, and keep relationships with household and friends. Pediatric rehabilitation squads may utilize a scope of AAC schemes and engineerings to back up face-to-face communicating in kids with SCI. Some illustrations include low tech communicating boards used with oculus regard or oculus pointing, partner-dependent scanning, an electro voice box with intra-oral adapter, or laser light indicating to a mark message or missive on a communicating board [ 2, 3 ] . Introducing AAC and AT engineerings early in the recovery procedure, peculiarly for kids who demonstrate high tetraplegia, will besides get down to familiarise them with attacks they may necessitate to trust on extensively throughout their lives, even after address returns. For illustration, Jared, a 17-year-old high school senior, sustained a SCI in a skiing accident at the C2 degree. In add-on to his hurts, he developed pneumonia and a terrible tail bone lesion during his hospitalization, which lengthened his infirmary stay. He was unable to digest a one-way speech production valve due to the badness of his pneumonia and reduced oxygenation during valve tests. Although Jared had minimum caput motion, he was able to command an AccuPointa„? caput tracker to entree his place laptop computing machine and spell out messages he could so talk aloud utilizing speech synthesis package. He used his AAC system to bespeak his medical demands to health professionals and subsequently reported that holding the ability to pass on helped relieve some of the anxiousness he experienced due to his status and drawn-out hospitalization. After Jared recovered the ability to utilize a speaking valve, his work with the AccuPointa„? focused on computing machine ent ree to run into written and societal communicating demands. Once his lesion had healed, he was able to return place 11 months subsequently. At that clip, all of his schoolmates had graduated. Using the AccuPointa„? , Jared was able to finish his GED at place and enrolled in on-line categories at the local community college. 3.3. Supporting written communicating and instruction At the clip of their hurt, some paediatric patients with SCI are pre-literate, others are developing literacy accomplishments, and others have extremely developed literacy accomplishments. However, most kids with tetraplegia will necessitate the usage of assistive engineerings to back up written communicating because their hurts preclude them from utilizing a pencil and/or typing on a traditional computing machine keyboard. In a study depicting the educational engagement of kids with spinal cord hurt, 89 % of the kids with tetraplegia relied on AAC to back up written communicating demands [ 8 ] . For illustration, Max, a 6-year-old male child who suffered a C6 SCI after an All Terrain Vehicle accident, was reading age-appropriate sight words and developing his ability to compose individual words prior to his hurt. After the initial recovery period, formal testing revealed that Max had no residuary cognitive or linguistic communication damages. However, he faced important barriers non merely to his continued development of age-appropriate reading and composing accomplishments, but besides to his ability to larn and make math, societal surveies, scientific discipline, drama games, use a cell phone, etc. Due to his tetraplegia, he needed ways to entree text and write, calculate, draw and so on. Max learned to entree a computing machine utilizing a big button keyboard, control stick mouse, and adaptative hand-typers ( turnups with an affiliated stylus that fit on the ulnar side of the manus and let the user to press the keys of a keyboard ) to back up composing activities and com puting machine entree. During rehabilitation, he was able to go on with his school assignment by developing the accomplishments to utilize the engineering and maintain up with his schoolmates. He returned place during the summer and participated in an intense place tutoring plan. By the autumn, he was able to fall in his schoolmates and was able to execute at grade degree in all categories. Essential to Max ‘s future educational success and development, every bit good as his future employment, may good depend on his ability to compose, calculate and possibly even pull utilizing a assortment of assistive engineerings that support communicating. 3.4. Support societal engagement and pre-vocational activities Entree to assistive and mainstream engineerings non merely facilitates engagement in instruction, but besides has deductions for future employment as these kids passage into maturity. Assistive and mainstream engineerings are now available at modest cost that can assist persons with SCI to counterbalance for functional restrictions, overcome barriers to employability, heighten proficient capacities and computing machine use, and better ability to vie for paid employment In add-on, these engineerings besides provide entree to life-long acquisition, recreational activities and societal networking activities. Specifically, computing machines are described as â€Å" great equalisers † for persons with SCI to prosecute in employment chances and distant communicating [ 20 ] . Social engagement in the current technological age includes more than face-to-face communicating. Social engagement has expanded with the popularity of societal networking sites ( e.g. , Facebook a„?and MySpacea„? ) , video web-based communicating ( e.g. , Skypea„? ) and instant communicating and messaging ( e.g. , Twittera„? ) . Progresss in the field of AAC have allowed persons with the most terrible hurts entree computing machine engineerings to prosecute in these societal communicating activities. For illustration, Crystal was a 10-year-old who sustained a C1 SCI due to a autumn. Crystal ‘s hurt left her with no head/neck control and her lone consistent entree method to computerise engineering was through oculus trailing. With an ERICA oculus regard system from DynaVox Mayer-Johnson, Crystal rapidly became independent with computing machine entree. She emailed and texted her friends and household daily, communicated via her Facebooka„? history, and engaged in on-line gambling plans with her friends and siblings. This engineering allowed her to get down to pass on once more with her school friends while she was still undergoing acute rehabilitation. Keeping these societal webs is an indispensable constituent to emotional accommodation kids with SCI go through after prolonging a terrible hurt [ 8 ] . Additionally, Crystal ‘s friends began to understand that while her damages were terrible, she was basically the same individual with the same involvements, wit, ends, and outlooks as before her hurt. 3.5. AT/AAC subjects in SCI When working with paediatric patients with SCI, three AAC â€Å" subjects † emerge. 1. For those with high tetraplegia, AAC may ease face-to-face every bit good as distant and written communicating demands, depending on the developmental degree of the kid. Introducing AAC engineering early, when face-to-face communicating support is needed, helps the kid become familiar with the engineering they will necessitate to trust on after natural address has recovered. 2. Return to an educational environment is a primary end with many kids with tetraplegia returning to school within an norm of 62 yearss post discharge [ 24 ] . Development of written communicating accomplishments is an indispensable constituent to successful educational completion and future vocational chances [ 20 ] .. 3. Introduction to methods of written and electronic communicating provides an chance for patients with SCI to prosecute in societal webs through electronic mail, texting, and societal networking sites. As these kids with terrible physical disablements face a life clip of possible medical complications [ 5 ] , the ability to keep and develop new societal connexions via electronic media allow them to remain connected during times when their medical conditions require them to be house or hospital-bound. 4. Decision Communication is indispensable for continued development of cognitive, linguistic communication, societal, and emotional accomplishments. Children with TBI and SCI have physical and/or cognitive-language shortages that interfere with typical communicating abilities. Their communicating demands are supported through AAC schemes and engineerings. A myriad of engineering options are available that non merely back up face-to-face interactions, but every bit of import distant societal networking and educational activities. AAC intercessions in the medical scene that non merely back up communicating of basic medical demands, but besides facilitate battle in societal, educational, and pre-vocational activities will ensue in successful passage to place, school and community environments for these kids.

Mktg 2101 Red Bull Case Study

MKTG 2101 Consumer Behaviour Case Study -Red Bull: Rampaging through Global Markets 1. What segmentation base has Red Bull adopted to target customers? How should Red Bull further segment the market in the future? Red Bull have adopted a segmentation base strategy relating to market demographics. In particular the company has targeted young active people aged 16 – 29 years. Red Bull also use geography, identifying mainly university students and urban professionals who needed an ‘energy boost’ throughout their busy schedules and activities.Mateschitz’ strategy aimed to target opinion leaders, believing that â€Å"the authority of one alpha bee can influence the buying habits of hundreds†. The Red Bull segmentation strategy also has an important psychographic component, particularly focussing on young people with attitudes, perceptions and lifestyles that are consistent with risk taking, fast paced and energetic behaviours; highlighted with the company motto â€Å"No Red Bull, No Wings†. In order to continue to succeed, I believe that Red Bull must optimise opportunities in the growing economies of India and China.With greater economic freedoms and increased population growth in the middle class there are millions of young people falling into an attractive demographic for the Red Bull product. These young people will be the opinion leaders of the future in their countries, therefore holding the key for a success. Ways in which the company can expand its current activities to begin the process will lie in the correct marketing strategies; in particular I believe that the continued sponsorship of extreme events in these regions will be the perfect way to introduce young people to the product in an exciting new way. . How does Red Bull arouse the motivations of customers to purchase its energy drinks? Red Bull and Mateschitz explain â€Å"we are always looking for a more creative, different point of view† (Dolan 2005) to promote and present the product to the customer. This attitude is consistent with the brand personality and the image of its customers. It is for this reason that the company aligns itself with the young male – fast paced and energetic, interested in extreme sports, risky behaviour and never satisfied with the last thrill.The company too, is never satisfied, continuing sponsorship of extreme sports, owning Formula 1 racing teams and even developing its own sports such as BMX bike riding, Kite Boarding, Freeskiing, paragliding and more! The company is able to continually satisfy the needs of the market, arousing the customer with exciting new promotions and events which challenge the limits of human belief. For example, the Red Bull sponsored BMX events where the riders are attempting and completing unseen tricks and ‘death defying’ acts on a weekly basis.The company has also attempted a viral marketing strategy, in order to get the product to the consumer in a cheap and effective way. However, these efforts are also well calculated, for example, the drivers of the Red Bull VW Beetle are generally extremely good looking females aged 19 – 28 years, attractive and corresponding for the targeted young male. 3. Describe the brand personality of Red Bull. Why do you think the concept of brand personality is so important to Red Bull?Brand personality allows the consumer to develop a meaningful attachment to the product. People do not develop meaningful, long lasting relationships with the thing itself, it is when the consumer is able see the product with a certain persona, with feeling and meaning; it is then that the relationship develops and potentially blossoms. Red Bull and Mateschitz understand this and have created a brand personality that embodies excitement, energy and exhilaration, â€Å"Red Bull isn’t a drink, it’s a way of life†.People are overwhelmed with the image, the amazing aura around the events and the excitement created by the athletes. Young people feel the product, the brand and the colours when they see these competitors doing the amazing things that they aspire to, enshrouded with the simple colours of silver and blue. A clean, refined image burned into their brain, connected to the memories of thrilling moments when their heart was pumping, hands were sweating and adrenalin was frantically pulsating through their bodies.By creating these experiences for their consumer Red Bull are facilitating the development of important relationships with their product. In my opinion, maintaining brand personality and relationships is imperative for Red Bull. Mateschitz himself states, â€Å"We don’t bring the product to the people. We make it available and those who love our style come to us† highlighting his acknowledgement of the importance of people aligning themselves with the brand personality and developing a meaningful and long lasting relationship with the Red Bu ll productReferences * Dolan, K. (2005). The Soda With Buzz. Forbes. com http://www. forbes. com/global/2005/0328/028 print. html * Sciffman, L. , O’Cass, A. , Paladino, A. , D’Alessandro, S. and Bednall, D. 2011. Consumer Behaviour, 5th Edition. Pearson Prentice Hall: Australia * Gschwandtner, G. (2004). The Powerful Sales Strategy Behind Red Bull. Selling Power. September. http://www. sellinpower. com Mktg 2101 Red Bull Case Study MKTG 2101 Consumer Behaviour Case Study -Red Bull: Rampaging through Global Markets 1. What segmentation base has Red Bull adopted to target customers? How should Red Bull further segment the market in the future? Red Bull have adopted a segmentation base strategy relating to market demographics. In particular the company has targeted young active people aged 16 – 29 years. Red Bull also use geography, identifying mainly university students and urban professionals who needed an ‘energy boost’ throughout their busy schedules and activities.Mateschitz’ strategy aimed to target opinion leaders, believing that â€Å"the authority of one alpha bee can influence the buying habits of hundreds†. The Red Bull segmentation strategy also has an important psychographic component, particularly focussing on young people with attitudes, perceptions and lifestyles that are consistent with risk taking, fast paced and energetic behaviours; highlighted with the company motto â€Å"No Red Bull, No Wings†. In order to continue to succeed, I believe that Red Bull must optimise opportunities in the growing economies of India and China.With greater economic freedoms and increased population growth in the middle class there are millions of young people falling into an attractive demographic for the Red Bull product. These young people will be the opinion leaders of the future in their countries, therefore holding the key for a success. Ways in which the company can expand its current activities to begin the process will lie in the correct marketing strategies; in particular I believe that the continued sponsorship of extreme events in these regions will be the perfect way to introduce young people to the product in an exciting new way. . How does Red Bull arouse the motivations of customers to purchase its energy drinks? Red Bull and Mateschitz explain â€Å"we are always looking for a more creative, different point of view† (Dolan 2005) to promote and present the product to the customer. This attitude is consistent with the brand personality and the image of its customers. It is for this reason that the company aligns itself with the young male – fast paced and energetic, interested in extreme sports, risky behaviour and never satisfied with the last thrill.The company too, is never satisfied, continuing sponsorship of extreme sports, owning Formula 1 racing teams and even developing its own sports such as BMX bike riding, Kite Boarding, Freeskiing, paragliding and more! The company is able to continually satisfy the needs of the market, arousing the customer with exciting new promotions and events which challenge the limits of human belief. For example, the Red Bull sponsored BMX events where the riders are attempting and completing unseen tricks and ‘death defying’ acts on a weekly basis.The company has also attempted a viral marketing strategy, in order to get the product to the consumer in a cheap and effective way. However, these efforts are also well calculated, for example, the drivers of the Red Bull VW Beetle are generally extremely good looking females aged 19 – 28 years, attractive and corresponding for the targeted young male. 3. Describe the brand personality of Red Bull. Why do you think the concept of brand personality is so important to Red Bull?Brand personality allows the consumer to develop a meaningful attachment to the product. People do not develop meaningful, long lasting relationships with the thing itself, it is when the consumer is able see the product with a certain persona, with feeling and meaning; it is then that the relationship develops and potentially blossoms. Red Bull and Mateschitz understand this and have created a brand personality that embodies excitement, energy and exhilaration, â€Å"Red Bull isn’t a drink, it’s a way of life†.People are overwhelmed with the image, the amazing aura around the events and the excitement created by the athletes. Young people feel the product, the brand and the colours when they see these competitors doing the amazing things that they aspire to, enshrouded with the simple colours of silver and blue. A clean, refined image burned into their brain, connected to the memories of thrilling moments when their heart was pumping, hands were sweating and adrenalin was frantically pulsating through their bodies.By creating these experiences for their consumer Red Bull are facilitating the development of important relationships with their product. In my opinion, maintaining brand personality and relationships is imperative for Red Bull. Mateschitz himself states, â€Å"We don’t bring the product to the people. We make it available and those who love our style come to us† highlighting his acknowledgement of the importance of people aligning themselves with the brand personality and developing a meaningful and long lasting relationship with the Red Bu ll productReferences * Dolan, K. (2005). The Soda With Buzz. Forbes. com http://www. forbes. com/global/2005/0328/028 print. html * Sciffman, L. , O’Cass, A. , Paladino, A. , D’Alessandro, S. and Bednall, D. 2011. Consumer Behaviour, 5th Edition. Pearson Prentice Hall: Australia * Gschwandtner, G. (2004). The Powerful Sales Strategy Behind Red Bull. Selling Power. September. http://www. sellinpower. com

Do Aircraft Engineer of Oman air believe Inadequate training in Research Proposal

Do Aircraft Engineer of Oman air believe Inadequate training in aircraft Engineering sector of Oman is the main cause of low standards in maintenance of Oman Air aircraft - Research Proposal Example For example, training and development lead to the development of new skills and expertise of employees. However, in some sectors, training and development are necessary for performing the regular activities. Training and development activities present prime opportunities to expand and enhance the knowledge base of the employees. Even so, some employers find the same to be expensive and hence, financial loss of the company. For example, employees often miss out on work timings while attending the training and development sessions and this might delay the completion of project (Kenny & Reedy, 2007, p.121). Despite the potential drawbacks of training and development activities, companies consider these to be a core functional activity (Burke, 2010, p.13). Some of the key benefits of training and development are addressing weaknesses of the employees, improving performance level of the employees, managing consistency in the performance levels of employees and enjoying increased level of employee satisfaction. The significance of training and development cannot be distinguished on the basis of the sector. Hence, irrespective of the nature of business or size of the organization, the significance of training and development is the same all over (Burke, 2010, p.15). This study seeks to investigate the importance of training and development in the aviation sector of Oman. However, the prime thurst will be on the rational behind standard of maintainence. The topic that will be evaluated is: An assessment of the drivers of low standards in the maintenance of Oman Air aircraftin relation to training provision. Therefore, the principal aim of this project is to get an insight into the perception of Aircraft Engineers of Oman, pertaining to inadequate training in aircraft engineering sector, which is responsible for low standards in maintenance of Oman Air aircraft (FICCI, 2012). The objective of the study will be fulfilled by conducting a questionnaire survey among the

None Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 6

None - Essay Example Similarly, the same theme is portrayed in Elizabeth’s fiction; â€Å"No One’s a Mystery† in the form of boredom. Persistence of boredom in the characters’ lives results to desperation. The old man and the older waiter tend to find nothing satisfactory in life while according to Elizabeth; Jack seems to no longer value his marriage life as it has become extremely predictable and monotonous. Life seems to have lost its meaning from all spheres; religion is described as nothing giving people no place to take refuge. The characters try to find places or things where they can forget about the boredom, but these sanctuaries seem only to last for a short while. In A well-lighted room, time limits the duration in which the old man and the waiter can stay in the well-lighted clean cafà © because the restaurant will eventually be closed (8). Time is also highlighted by Tallent. Jack gives his young lover a five-year diary (10; par. 1). This desribes the limited tim e their romance might last. Jack is bored with his wife and tries to find some happiness in the relationship with an 18-year-old woman. He seems convinced that the relationship won’t last even to the second year yet ironically he gives his girlfriend a five-year diary. In both stories, the characters seem to have found something that they get comfort from, but only for a short time. Ernest description of the theme of despair is apparent to the reader because his two characters tend to be experiencing the same emptiness (Becnel and Bloom 148). Alternatively, alcoholism features in both stories. The old man in a clean well- lighted room is a good customer at the cafà ©, and he is always the last customer to leave the cafà ©. Similarly, Jack is an alcoholic as implied from the tequila they have been drinking with the girlfriend (Tallent 10). Loneliness and unhappiness tend to be the main course of the alcoholic tendencies of both

Role Model Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Role Model Review - Essay Example Money and Career For Bill Gates, his profound and innate passion for computers actually made him decide to drop out from Harvard to possibly pursue a career in law. This same drive for computers, particularly software development, catapulted him to fame and fortune. Being pegged as the second wealthiest man by Forbes in 2010, Bill Gates was revealed to have a net worth of $53 billion (Kroll & Miller, 2010). His life manifested an entrepreneurial spirit focusing on doing things that he loved the most. In so doing, his efforts were repaid in multitudes. According to Net Industries (2011), â€Å"Gates’ competitive drive and fierce desire to win have made him a powerful force in business, but have also consumed much of his personal life. In the six years between 1978 and 1984 he took a total of only two weeks’ vacation† (Net Industries, 2011, par. 12). Sexuality, Family and Friends Information about views on sexuality was revealed in Top Synergy (2003) as quoted: â⠂¬Å"Bill's emotional life seems to be overly intense and his sexuality is very strong. Bill Gates is likely to make many demands of his partner and he has to guard against possessiveness, jealousy and a tendency to force someone to love him† (Top Synergy, 2003, par. 7). ... . "I think we've got the right set-up for them. They have a lot of close friends... they have a lot of close family. I think we're doing the best we can at providing them with a normal environment" (Stritof, 2011, par. 23). Bill Gates, from an interview by David Allison of the National Museum of American History revealed his close friends as school friend, Paul Allen, Steve Ballmer, and Kazuhiko Nishi, from Japan (Bill Gates Interview, n.d.). Suffering and Death Spouses Bill and Melinda Gates, through their foundation, seek to alleviate poverty, improve the health of people from diverse cultural orientation hoping to minimize the incidents of suffering and death. As averred, their program on â€Å"the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases is working to end global suffering and death from neglected tropical diseases by expanding access to low-cost and proven treatments. While most of these diseases have little name recognition in industrialized countries, together they cause severe disability in the world's poorest countries and result in billions of dollars of lost productivity. The new grant announced today aims to end the suffering of more than 1.4 billion people worldwide who live on less than $1.25 per day† (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2009, par. 4). Comparison to Christianity According to Stritof (2011), â€Å"Melinda is Catholic. Bill's family was Congregationalist† (par. 17). In the website Jesus is Savior, David Frost who interviewed Bill Gates in 1995 revealed that â€Å"I'm not somebody who goes to church on a regular basis.   The specific elements of Christianity are not something I'm a huge believer in.   There's a lot of merit in the moral aspects of religion.   I think it can have a

How has information technology changed the daily lives of enlisted men Research Paper

How has information technology changed the daily lives of enlisted men and women serving in conflict zones overseas - Research Paper Example With the aid of academic literatures, this paper also aims to define information technology as used in this paper to provide a background as to how information technology relates to the US military, and provide a historical background of the utilization of IT in the US military forces to probe on how technology has affected military forces across different eras. 2.0 Information Technology (IT) Generally, Information Technology or IT is the processing of information by the computer systems which are greatly used for communication, data security and storage (Stoyles, Pentland, & Demant, 2003, p. 4). Thus, information technology helps the people in gathering, sharing and storing of data in a convenient and fast manner. Moreover, according to Yadav (2006, p. 2), information technology includes television sets, published works, computers and the Internet (which are common technologies used at home and offices) and any other media platforms where people can acquire information. In the cont ext of the military forces, information technology relates to the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) wherein information technology is used for weaponry, surveillance mechanisms, processing of information, and organizational transformations of different military units (Goldman, 2005, p. 1). These benefits center on the organizational advantage of the force. Part of the utilization of information technology of the US corps is also to provide personal benefits to the military soldiers as privatization of housing through IT, skills development and telemedicine programs. 3.0 IT and the Military: History In the early days of war fighting, various nations have adopted new technologies that brought radical changes in fighting. The end of World War II has marked the birth of atomic bombs where it was later developed to hydrogen bombs (Perry, 2004, p. 235). As people become more knowledgeable on the use of technology, the weapons and war instruments have also metamorphosed to a more advanc ed state. Furthermore, as the Soviet Union and the United States of America are creating war technologies based on fatal situations, both countries have developed missiles (Perry, 2004, p. 235). War weaponry continuously evolved which now includes new systems as satellites, smart sensors and new aircrafts to name a few. However, during the 1990s, as information technology slowly shapes the American society, and likewise, the US military has also acknowledged the importance of such technological advancement to further develop its strategies and principles that will ensure the dominance of the forces of the US military (Dombrowski & Gholz, 2006, p. 1). As information technology in the military forces centers on the war fighting improvement, they have implemented â€Å"network-centric warfare,† thereby providing a centralized infrastructure that allows communication, detection mechanics, commanding and controlling systems, combat information and battleground bearings among other s that can be accessed by various military personnel (X. Wang, Wei, & H. Wang, 2012, p. 573). From the mechanical war instruments, the advent of more advance technologies paved way for the

Market research analyst Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Market analyst - Research Paper Example The market research analyst is elementarily responsible for the formulation of data, its interpretation, and drawing recommendations based on the findings of a research. This paper will present the key responsibilities of market research analysts as well as their educational requirements and other legal aspects related to the career. It is the responsibility of a market researcher to maintain an effective communication with clients to comprehend and document the objectives of the business. They also formulate the analysis plans that will require client sign-off. It is the task of a market research analyst to design or aid in the formulation of questionnaires and guides to ensure that only the necessary data is captured. After data are collected, it is the role of the market research analyst to conduct an in-depth analysis of the data gathered using either the traditional or the advanced methods. After this course of action is complete, the market research analyst then authors reports containing feasible recommendations. The market research analyst also makes presentations on their drafted reports, answering questions and instilling confidence in consumers. Notably, â€Å"Market research analysts work primarily in professional environments, either as independent consultants or as employees of consulting firms, c orporations, or government organizations† (Pritchard). Market research analysts, â€Å"obtain consumer or employee data through one-on-one interviews, focus group meetings, questionnaires, and polls† (Pritchard). Notably, market research analysts work to ensure that companies understand their target market effectively. With the increasing need for companies to understand the needs of the customer, their psychographics, and demographics, the duties of a market research analyst come in. Practitioners in this career undertake a close analysis of the target

Purchasing and supply management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Purchasing and supply management - Essay Example purchasing. After 6 months, she faced a genuine problem in discharging her duties. One of the highest paid senior most medical staff and substantial revenue generator Dr. Spiller, almost negotiated and finalized an X-ray processor with New Age regional manager Mr. Jarvis. After finalizing the product and rate and he only called Rose silver to place a final order to purchase the X-ray processor from New Age. Now being in-charge of purchase, Rose tried to explain the things but he is not willing to listen her views at all. He was just explaining to Rose that the firm and person, whom he has finalized is the right company /person and only the said supplier will be able to supply the product as well as it’s a right kind of product. He even told Rose that companies (Supplier) regional manager Mr. Jarvis assured him that all the details has been taken care of by himself. Now Rose Silver is facing a kind of situation in which she could not use her expertise in the interest of hospita l as well as she could not be able to discharge her responsibilities properly. Dr. Spiller had tried to bully her. Now she is in dilemma about her future course of actions. Discussions: (1) Lysons (2000, P.1) defines purchasing as: â€Å"Purchasing is the function responsible for obtaining by purchase, lease or other legal means, equipment, materials, components, suppliers and services required by an undertaking for use in production or resale†. Organizational purchasing decisions are therefore far more significant in today’s competitive situation and can play a significant part in determining company’s profitability. Purchasing is critical when it represents such a large proportion of the cost. Purchasing activities involves buying decisions to ensure that the right goods are in the right place, at the right time, at a right price, at the right quality and at the right quantity. Information is an important resource to

ITA evaluation report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

ITA evaluation report - Essay Example The views in MVC can be nested. For instance, a control panel of buttons can be implemented as a complex view containing nested button views. The user interface for an object inspector can have nested views that may be reused in a debugger. MVC offers support to nested views that have the Composite View class, a subclass of View. Objects in the Composite View perform as View objects; a composite view can be applied where a view can be used, but it also has the ability to contain and manage nested views. The user can take this as a design that lets them treat a composite view just like we treat one of its components. But the design is used to a more general problem, which occurs whenever we want to group objects and treat the group like an individual object (Bucanek 2009, p.256). This more general design is described by the Composite design pattern. It lets the user create a class hierarchy in which some subclasses define simple objects like Button and other classes define composite o bjects Composite View that groups the simple objects into more complex objects. MVC also allows the user to change the way a view reacts to user input without changing its visual presentation. The user might want to change the way it responds to the keyboard, or set it to use command keys in place of the normal pop-up menu or vice versa. MVC encapsulates the response mechanism in an object known as the Controller object. There is a chain of commands of controllers, so a user can create a new controller as a variation on an existing one. An occurrence of a Controller subclass is used by a View to implement a particular response strategy; to implement another dissimilar strategy; the user has to replace the occurrence with a diverse type of controller. It is also possible to change a controller of a view at run-time to let the view change the

Political And Economic Globalization Essay Example for Free

Political And Economic Globalization Essay Globalization in whichever form has received different view from different people all over the world. It has always portrayed two faces in any field in which it was applied. Generally, globalization has its roots in economic and political concerns. These two areas are key factors which touches the lives of people in any country, hence, globalization in either economic or politics will most if not always affect the ways of life in any given country. The consequences of economic and political globalizations are thus paramount in the induction of particular changes in the cultural ways of these communities. The economic and political globalization has an impact on culture while at the same time the cultures have enormous impacts on the globalization of both. This is because there is an intimate interrelationships and integration of the three human activities which builds the human life. Thus, from the historical view of the three things, they have gone hand in hand for complete human life existence. Globalization of politics and economic are two key factors which are affecting the culture of modern world bringing about cultural homogeneity rather than cultural diversity. In reality, this has made crowds of people to remain perplex on which ways is these economic and political globalizations is driving the culture. (Mudimbe-boyi, 2002) Meanwhile, globalization has also allowed the cultural diversity tpo surface as countries started to accept the globalized views and ways of life. The more global influences get in the culture, the more chance that the community acknowledges the uniqueness of its culture. First and foremost are that many people having experiences obstacles of understanding what is culture and the compositions of culture. Michael Amaladoss gave any efforts of defining culture. He said â€Å"culture is the way of a life of a people through which they humanize and socialize nature. † In his further elaboration, he mentioned that it implies the world-view, a value system and a network of social relationships. There are key areas in which during economics and political globalization, they are obviously affected. The effects are felt when many people changes their values system and the original products which were once used by their forefathers. This phenomenon is not rare in most parts of the world where many people have gone under the transition of economic and political globalization. There are numerous alarming cultural practices which the world’s leaders are now struggling to ban as result of this two globalizes factors. (Cowen, 2002) In some instances however, globalization becomes a driving force for people to realize how cultural affinities are being ignored. As people in different communities strive to adopt into the globalized world, they start to be more keen on its effects in the culture, thus the rise of groups concerned with protecting and/or preserving the cultural heritage. It has also served as the venue for countries to showcase the unique culture to the entire world. Globalization of economy and politics are not bring along with cultural diversity. Generally, each globalization processes are working ways out to have homogeneity of cultures. For instance, in terms of economic globalization in the sectors of agriculture sectors, the world’s organizations which deal with the problems of foods shortages do not address the problem from root cause of the shortages. Their models hardly emphasizes on the available establishment of these local food stuff in the particular countries. Instead, they widely and vast get involved in the use of imports to solve the problems of hungers. Through such means the cultural foods products of the native communities in these states are set into extinction as the local are encouraged to embark on sowing new types of crops. This portrays that there is expansion of the culture from one point of country to another through these aids creating a homogenous cultures. (Adam, 2002) But because of the uniqueness of the cultures of each country, cultural differences will most likely affect how a country reacts to a globalized world, or how a country respond to globalization. Globalization can sometimes tend to be too Westernized that countries from Asia or from other part of the world will find it hard to adopt, thus resulting to further cultural diversity rather than homogeneity. Their global information infrastructures which as come on the ways of technology and industrialization has made trade increases. In addition, to trade many countries have been subjects to comply with unnecessary economic condition. This has especially affected those developing countries where resources and job opportunities are limited. The unfavorable economic environments in those states have created a loophole for the exploitation of the people. The people are being forced by worse survival means to adapts the foreign culture so that they can attain their goals in life. As the adage goes â€Å"power and wealthy and there to conquers and dominates the weak†. (Cowen, 2002) Meanwhile, globalization has also helped developing countries. An example is for developing countries in Asia such as Philippines and India who have become an ideal venue for the support needs of the economies of the US and other countries in Europe. This has paved the way for the booming business processing outsourcing (BPO) industries in these countries due to globalization. The political globalizations are largely affecting the culture of these different communities of the world in the pretence of fighting for human rights. The politics from the westerns and Americans have spreads in all corners of the worlds in which the Americans are fighting to have democratic political area. Political globalists has intervened in issues of marriages and other matters which touches family affairs. Argument such as homosexuals and other related family matters have been widely politicized debates which have been accelerated by political globalization. The consequences of this embarked in the developments countries which are majority pro- globalisms. The final result is that, the continued interaction of the people in the economic dispersions in the trades industries wits such peoples has enables the spreading of the vices to thousands of countries in other continents. Gayism and lesbians are two vices which did not exist in African continents in date of the previous two centuries back. The perpetual globalization on economic and politics has spread this scourge disease to the continent in the last four to five decades. This vividly demonstrates, that the cultures which had rooted values in the continent has been absorbed creating some support of homogeneous culture rather than cultural diversity. (Mudimbe-boyi, 2002) In the same way, the share of culture had also positive effect on other communities. People become more informed of how things are done in the other parts of the world, and thus they are able to establish benchmarks. These will then become a basis of the right way of doing things by using these as models on how to successfully deal with political and economic concerns. Reference: Adam, D. (2002): Community, Culture and Globalization: Rockefeller Foundation Cowen, T. (2002): How Globalization is changing the Worlds Culture: Princeton University Press. Greenaway, D. (2005): Adjusting to globalization: University of Nottingham Mudimbe-boyi, E. (2002): Histories, Identities, Cultures, and the Challenge of Globalization: University of New York Press

Starbucks Strategies for Profitability

Starbucks Strategies for Profitability 1. Introduction Major objective of this study is to shed light on the strategies and efforts made by Starbuck to solve its problems related to profitability. In order to do a careful analysis of internal initiatives is undertaken to have an idea about the success of these initiatives to return to a stable pace of profitability growth by Starbucks. To have growth in profitability Starbucks needs to generate competitive advantage among the rival firms. Starbucks will have to take into account overall trends of industry, so that long run profitability growth can be assured. Both the internal and external factors faced with the firm are analyzed separately in order to have a reliable future position. 1.1. Positive Aspects related with Starbucks and Recommended Strategy Starbucks provides healthy working environment to its employees and have detailed and employee friendly stock option plans. Moreover, the major strengths of Starbucks lie in the attractive shop design and comfortable shop environment. Starbucks aims to become a top coffee outlet not only at regional level but also at international level. So the strategy of globalization will help Starbucks to increase its profitability. In order to successfully implement this strategy performance targets for managers will have to be set so that they are provided with the incentive to improve their performance. 1.2. Objectives of Starbucks Clean supply of coffee. Create readily happy clients all the period. Provide an incredible work place and handle pride and one another with respect. Accept diversity being an important element in the manner we do company. Make use of the greatest requirements of quality towards the buying. Lead positively to the towns and our environment, and notice that success is important to our potential success. 2. Issues faced by the Firm 2.1. Internal Issues Limited Product Range: Starbucks offers a product range comprised of single source and approximately thirty products , Coffee machines, advanced candy, coffee cups, coffee accessories card, a stored value card, coffees, containers frap-puccino caffeine products, coffees, coffee liqueurs, type of ice creams, audio, publications, movies, house Starbucks and gifts. Limited Advantages provided to Employees: Many conflicts among workers have been observed since in various outlets of Starbucks all over the world and the main reason was low-pay and extended work hours. As the burden of work remains high the employees feel overworked and hence they find it difficult to continue working at Starbucks. 2.2. Insufficient Growth of Alternatives Available When the business was started there were just 17 coffee shops but now the outlets are running in 39 nations all over the world having almost 12,240 outlets. The worldwide rate of growth associated with coffee shops is too high as compared to that of Starbucks. This fact leads to create a severe anxiety for Starbucks and limits the growth opportunities available to the firm. 2.3. Customer Relationships The clients of Starbuck are not that much diversified and belong to almost similar group. On the other hand it not the case with other international coffee brands. Another consideration is attached with the Starbucks connection with their clients. Starbucks is regarded as very awesome coffee brand when consumer considerations are concerned. In the region of Beijing where Starbucks recently closed an outlet due to ethnic differences among manufacturers can also be regarded as a threat to the future growth of a business. Some revolutionary anti-capitalism activists left the Starbucks becoming former clients, but additionally Starbucks and especially small people even not approved within the company’s feel uneasy or shops. Because of Starbucks rapid development, the manufacturer so dropped its unique hospitality for customers and continues to be commoditized. Major Issue Faced by Firm On the basis of above discussion it is found that major issue for Starbucks is limited growth opportunities which may be result of weak customer relationships. 3. Analysis of Financial Ratios Liquidity ratios: Tells us about the ability of a firm to pay its short term debt obligations. The most commonly used liquidity ratios are current ratio, quick ratio and cash flow ratio. Current ratio (Cr) = Current Assets/Current Liabilities Current ratio shows that how much of current assets a firm has in order to be able to pay its short term debt. For the year 2009 Cr =403.60 / 309.30 = 1.30 For the year 2010 Cr =476.10 / 318.50 = 1.49 Conclusion: The current ratio is 1.30 in the year 2009 which shows that the firm had current assets of $ 1.30 in order to pay liability of $1. In the year 2010 the firm had $ 1.49 to pay the liability of $1. The improvement in current ratio is indicating that the position of firm in the form of current assets to finance its debt has been improved. Quick ratio ( Qr)= (Current assets-Inventory-Prepaid) / current Liabilities Quick ratio shows that how much of convertible assets a firm has in order to be able to pay its short term debt. For the year 2009 Qr =403.60- 119.20-44.30 / 309.30 = 240.3 / 309.30 = 0.77 For the year 2010 Qr = 476.10 115 – 47.30 /318.50 = 313.8 / 318.50 = 0.98 Conclusion: The current ratio was 0.77 in the year 2009 which shows that the firm had convertible assets of $ 0.77 in order to pay liability of $1. In the year 2010 the firm had $ 0.98 to pay the liability of $1. The improvement in quick ratio is indicating that the position of firm in the form of convertible assets to finance its debt has been improved. Cash ratio (Chr) = Cash/ Current Liabilities Cash ratio shows that how much of cash a firm has in order to be able to pay its short term debt. For the year 2009 Chr = 54.50 / 309.30 = 0.17 For the year 2010 Chr = 76.70 / 318.50 = 0.24 Conclusion: The cash ratio was 0.17 in the year 2009 which shows that the firm had cash of $ 0.24 in order to pay liability of $1. In the year 2010 the firm had $ 0.24 to pay the liability of $1. The improvement in cash ratio is indicating that the firm has more cash to pay back its debt has been improved in 2010 as compared to 2009 which is a good sign for Starbucks. Leverage Ratios: These ratios tell us about financial structure of company. The sources of fiancà © of a business are shown by leverage ratios. It shows the components of debt financing, equity financing and self financing of a firm. Debt to equity ratio = Total Debt / Total equity. It shows the components of debt and equity in firm’s capital structure. For the year 2009 (DEr) = 1827.80/ -1033.60 = -1.76 For the year 2010 (DEr) = 1783.10/ -696.40 = -2.56 Conclusion: negative value of equity is showing that the value of an asset used to secure a loan is less than the outstanding balance on the loan. The value of assets is far below the outstanding balance on the loan used to purchase those assets which is sign of possible financial distress of the firm. Debt to equity ratio is greater than 1 showing that the component of debt is much higher than that of equity in firm’s capital structure. The debt component has been decreased in 2010 as compared to 2009. Debt to asset ratio (DAr)= Total asset / Total assets. It shows how much of firm’s assets are financed through debt i.e. components of debt and equity in firm’s capital structure. For the year 2009 ( DAr) = 1827.80/ 794.20 = 2.30 For the year 2010 (DAr) = 1783.10/ 1086.70 = 1.64 Conclusion: The ratio of 2.30 in 2009 is showing that component of debt in total assets is almost two and a half times that of equity. However this ratio is decreased in 2010 which is showing that equity level of debt has been decreased in firm’s capital structure as compared to 2009 which is a good sign for this firm as there is a risk of financial distress and bankruptcy associated with high levels of debt burden. 4. Diagnosis of Firm Performance Profitability Ratios: Profitability ratios reflect the performance of a company it shows that whether firm performance is improving or deteriorating. Return on Assets = (Net profit / total assets) * 100. This ratio shows that how much profit is being generated by firm’s assets or what is the contribution of firm’s total assets in its profitability. For the year 2009 ROA = (48.80 / 794.20) * 100 =6.14 % For the year 2010 ROA = (327.30 / 1086.70) * 100 = 30.1 % Conclusion: ROA of 6.14% in the year 2009 is showing that every $ 100 invested generates $ 6.14 as profit. ROA has been improved in the year 2010 as now each $ 100 invested will generate 30.1 as profit. So the profitability is improved in the year 2010 which is a good sign. Net Profit Margin = Net Profit / Sales It reflects the amount of each sales dollar left over after all expenses have been made. This ratio helps a company determine how much actual profit is made from each sale earned. The higher the net profit margin, the better the company is doing at turning sales into profit. For the year 2009 NPM = (48.80 / 1295.90) * 100 = 3.7 % For the year 2010 NPM = (327.30 /1321.40) * 100 = 24.76 % Conclusion: Net profit margin has been greatly increased in the year 2010 as compared to that of 2009 which is a strong positive signal. The improvement may be because of strong sales or decreased costs and overhead. On the basis of above calculated ratios it can be concluded that overall financial position of the firm has been improved in 2010 as compared to 2009. However there is high risk of financial distress due to heavy debt burden. 5. Solutions for Issues faced by Starbucks Changing associated with an exterior atmosphere of the organization led to cause various problems related to the business and contributed to to the closing of the shops of the organization within the USA. These problems are mainly related to the businesses connection, the critique firm’s fair-trade guidelines and the additional governmental problems affecting the business. To cope up with these problems the organization requires a detailed strategy to resolve these issues. Major solutions for problems faced by Starbucks are as follows: Steps to face numerous current competitors, or to minimize the risk of fresh competitors entering the marketplace Revolutionize the political and financial atmosphere. Adjustments in consumer preferences or styles Selection of Best Alternative available Among the above mentioned solutions the most feasible one is to make adjustments in the products offered by the firm, to best suit the tastes of consumers. For this purpose Starbucks will have to keep in view the products sold by other firms of same industry because these products are substitutes of those offered by Starbucks. The firm will have to introduce more differentiated products because differentiated and unique products always remain successful to attract more and more customers. 6. Conclusion Keeping in view the above discussion it can be concluded that Starbucks severely needs to boost the worldwide reputation of the company in order to achieve its growth targets. Pursuing a careful strategy related to the enhancement of growth opportunities, Starbucks may become able to return to a profitable growth path as they have available opportunities for continued growth of their business. Coffee business is growing all over the world including US industry, a market is growing more saturated and hence the competition is rising at international levels. References CEO, S. (2004). HOW STARBUCKS WORKS WITH NGOS.California Management Review,47(1), 92. Thompson, C. J., Arsel, Z. (2004). The Starbucks brandscape and consumers’(anticorporate) experiences of glocalization.Journal of Consumer Research,31(3), 631-642. Gallaugher, J., Ransbotham, S. (2010). Social media and customer dialog management at Starbucks.MIS Quarterly Executive,9(4), 197-212. Grundy, T. (2006). Rethinking and reinventing Michael Porters five forces model.Strategic Change,15(5), 213-229.

Invention of Standardized Money :: essays research papers

There were many reasons for the invention of standardized money. First, nobody wanted to carry 30 pounds of barley to the trade city that could have been 100 miles away. Second, it was difficult to determine the true cost of different goods. For example, if somebody wanted to buy milk for his family, it would almost be impossible to figure out a fair exchange for grain. Finally, the barter system limited the people who would trade with each other. Not everybody would want to purchase milk or grain. In sum, there were too many complications and inefficiencies in a barter economy. People in ancient times developed the concept of money around the year 2500 B.C. Some historians argue that it may have been even earlier. The first form of ?money? was silver in Mesopotamia. Silver functioned just like the money we use today. It had a standard, it was weighed in shekels so that one could determine the value of the silver in relation to its weight. Today, the way we determine the value of our money is by looking at the number in the corners of a bill. Like our money today, silver was easily portable compared to goods like milk and grain. The flaws with the early silver money system were evident. Somebody could easily take another alloy metal and tell the merchant that it was silver. In other words, counterfeiting was relatively easy. As a result, a merchant would want know person that was offering their silver in order to prevent fraud. There were other standards of money in different places. There were different clay tokens. People who were not as wealthy as those who paid in silver paid in less valuable metals like copper, tin, and lead, but mostly barley. Eventually, merchants thought of an idea. If most of their customers paid in a certain currency, then they would therefore take only that specific currency. This idea started to slowly kill off other currencies. By killing off currencies they were making silver the dominate currency. Invention of Standardized Money :: essays research papers There were many reasons for the invention of standardized money. First, nobody wanted to carry 30 pounds of barley to the trade city that could have been 100 miles away. Second, it was difficult to determine the true cost of different goods. For example, if somebody wanted to buy milk for his family, it would almost be impossible to figure out a fair exchange for grain. Finally, the barter system limited the people who would trade with each other. Not everybody would want to purchase milk or grain. In sum, there were too many complications and inefficiencies in a barter economy. People in ancient times developed the concept of money around the year 2500 B.C. Some historians argue that it may have been even earlier. The first form of ?money? was silver in Mesopotamia. Silver functioned just like the money we use today. It had a standard, it was weighed in shekels so that one could determine the value of the silver in relation to its weight. Today, the way we determine the value of our money is by looking at the number in the corners of a bill. Like our money today, silver was easily portable compared to goods like milk and grain. The flaws with the early silver money system were evident. Somebody could easily take another alloy metal and tell the merchant that it was silver. In other words, counterfeiting was relatively easy. As a result, a merchant would want know person that was offering their silver in order to prevent fraud. There were other standards of money in different places. There were different clay tokens. People who were not as wealthy as those who paid in silver paid in less valuable metals like copper, tin, and lead, but mostly barley. Eventually, merchants thought of an idea. If most of their customers paid in a certain currency, then they would therefore take only that specific currency. This idea started to slowly kill off other currencies. By killing off currencies they were making silver the dominate currency.

Censorship Essay -- essays research papers

Censorship Without the history of Censorship, what type of things would children be watching? Without the unique methods of Censorship, what kinds of films would be being released into the public? Throughout this essay I will be explaining the steps taken to achieve the level of Censorship, that we have now.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In 1900-1950 every movie in the world was rated before being released. The government, of the country in which the movie was made always did this. In 1956 the rules were changed. Each movie’s script was now required to go before a Film Board, before being produced. If approved the company was allowed to go on with production. In 1968 the Film Board of the Motion Picture Association of America adopted a new classification system. Instead of the scripts being read, the movies were made, rated by the Board and then put into a category. In 1968 the motion Pictures Association, the National Association of Theater Owners, and the International Film importers all gathered for a meeting about an organization called CARA (classification and rating administration). The main objective of this organization was to educate parents on the films and television that their children watch. This rarely changed any movies or television shows it just put an age limit on the people to be able to wat ch them. Anyone over seventeen years of age was allowed to watch anything they chose.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There were four categories: 1. G-General 2. PG...

Look again at the three seventeenth century poems, To His Coy Mistress,

Look again at the three seventeenth century poems, To His Coy Mistress, The Flea, and Shall I compare thee. In what ways have the three poets used, or departed from, the conventions of their time and why do you think they have been successful in ... Look again at the three seventeenth century poems, â€Å"To His Coy Mistress†, â€Å"The Flea†, and â€Å"Shall I compare thee†. In what ways have the three poets used, or departed from, the conventions of their time and why do you think they have been successful in entertaining their readers? â€Å"To His Coy Mistress†, â€Å"The Flea† and â€Å"Shall I Compare Thee† are all poems written in the 17th century. Marvell, Donne and Shakespeare who were the authors of the poems, departed from conventions of that time. Marvel and Donne wrote metaphysical poetry and invented a new genre, whereas Shakespeare wrote a sonnet which appeared to be written in the style of that time but with twists. They have achieved these poems by taking a unique approach to writing them and by keeping the readers entertained through amusement, dismay and excitement. â€Å"To His Coy Mistress and â€Å"The Flea† are very similar in context and purpose. They are metaphysical poems which reflect wit, obscure comparisons of objects and the reality of love and sex. The purpose of both poems was to get the speaker’s mistress to sleep with him, using strong imagery in an act of persuasion. The poems were written to entertain and would have been passed round the writer’s friends in order to amuse them. â€Å"Shall I compare thee† however, stood out because the writer chose a convention already in use. The purpose of this sonnet was to flatter his loved one and in an unexpected twist at the end, also himself. â€Å"Had we but world... ...ent awareness to the poet from the loving and affectionate one we once felt. He comes across proud and slightly arrogant about his work, and puts a different slant on what was once a conventional love poem. In conclusion I think the 17th day reaction would have been entertaining and funny and therefore quite different to the reaction I would expect now. People today would find the poetry quite shocking and distasteful and they would not be considered politically correct. â€Å"To His Coy Mistress† is successful because it is entertaining, wheras â€Å"The Flea† is successful because it’s fascinating and slightly confusing at times. â€Å"Shall I compare thee† however is totally different because it has departed from it and the overall result was very successful. The poet went from delighting the audience then to twisting their opinions of him keeping them entertained.

Reparations: African Americans Justice Essay

The United States authorities should pay reparations to African Americans as a agency of acknowledging their wrong-doing and doing damagess. The amendss African Americans have sustained from White America’s policy of bondage have been agonising and inhumane. Therefore. I am in favour of reparations for African Americans. The consequence of bondage has been an digesting issue within the African American community. Many of us are aware of the injury racism brought to the African American race. conveyed through bondage. racial segregation and favoritism. African Americans suffered many atrociousnesss. but the greatest harm done to them was the devastation of they’re original individuality. African Americans no longer hold a native linguistic communication or any African imposts to link them to Africa. Today. African Americans are connected together because they all portion a common foundation-the awful experience of slavery-and the great attempt to suppress its lingering consequence. ( World Wide Web. AcedemicLibrary. com ) Americans should recognize the magnitude of slavery’s effects on African Americans as a whole. Blacks were brainwashed and stripped of self-esteem and taught to be ashamed of dark colour of their tegument. Many African Americans have effortlessly tried to recommend â€Å"Black Pride† . seeking to re-instill self-worth and being proud of our distinguishable facial and organic structure characteristics. and darker skin colors. African Americans had zilch to get down with after the abolition of bondage in 1865. Slaves were promised a â€Å"mule/ and 40 acres† and they didn’t unrecorded to have it nor did coevalss to follow ; because the American authorities has yet to populate up to its word. The fruit of the slaves’ labour was stolen from the â€Å"land of the free† . The victims of the White people’s African slave trade ne'er experienced such freedom. This race deserves compensation for the mistreatment Pongee Bryant it has suffered and continues to digest. Paying reparations to the posterities of African American slaves would convey about a enormous betterment for the promotion of Black America. ( Douglass. Fredrick. 1845. Narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass ) . White Americans have profited from instruction. life experiences. wealths that were handed down by their ascendants. As good. African Americans have been handed down the adversity of race-related issues. poorness. and the unknown history of their yesteryear. African Americans have invariably been inflicted with the societal position of their low-income degree in contrast with that of White Americans. America should be ashamed for their mistreatment of a race that did non inquire or even want to shack in this state. Yet. they still wear their ugly face of racism. and favoritism. and merely seek to segregate African Americans. as if they were at mistake. Americans may reason Blacks shouldn’t be kicking. whining. and to draw themselves up by their boot straps. Well. Martin Luther King one time said â€Å"White America wants us to draw ourselves up from our boot straps. but we don’t have any boots† . ( Shuttlesworth. Fred. 1999. A Fire You Can’t Put Out ) . The U. S. authorities has a moral duty to this race of people to counterbalance. African American’s because they were denied their heritage. faith. household. and civilization. America alleges it is a religious-based state and their religion resides in God. The bible says: â€Å"If a adult male bargain an ox. or a sheep. and kill it. or sell it ; he shall reconstruct five cattle for an ox. and four sheep for a sheep. † This state systematically contradicts itself in the manner it wants to be perceived. If America has any belief in God. they should experience an duty to counterbalance the African American posterities of slave ascendants. ( Exodus 22. Bible ) . Pongee Bryant White Americans may reason that the state did plenty when it passed the Civil Rights Act in 1960. They may besides province America has adequate resources and equal chance for each person of every race to win. However. there is a immense wealth spread in societal position among inkinesss and Whites largely because of subjugation. favoritism and racism toward the modern twenty-four hours modern-day black. Whether anybody wants to acknowledge it. there is still a glass ceiling ( i. e. . a position barrier ) against African Americans. Reparations would convey African Americans justness and economic power in this state. There are legion black reparation organisations which could have the money and administer it equally among African Americans. to integrate black-owned concerns. place ownership. and better instruction selective for immature and old inkinesss. These reparation organisations could besides put money into smaller black-owned concerns. and other industries that would foster the African American race. and guarantee a rapid growing of African American middle-class and beyond. ( Robert J. Brym/ John Lie. Sociology ) The development of African Americans in this state took on many signifiers through decennaries. The centuries of bondage in this state laid the foundation of our current relationship to America. From cotton Fieldss to constructing America’s most important edifices African Americans have helped construct the wealth in this state. Yet. the African American race has endured the most terrorist act from the Ku Klux Klan. lynchings. plantation gaols. constabulary anguish and slaying. and poorness. Slavery was a offense against humanity ; and it still is in being in many other ways and signifiers. America has created a system with. elector favoritism. drugs. and drug sentences to maintain the African Pongee Bryant American adult male enslaved. The authorities should counterbalance the African American race and put an terminal to a ceaseless subjugation rhythm. The authorities of the United States of America was instrumental in holding pressured the German and Nipponese authoritiess into the payments of reparations to the people who suffered and survived the offenses and bequest of bondage endured during World War II. The authorities of the United States has besides already paid reparations to the Japanese-Americans who were detained in concentration cantonments during World War II. America calls herself a just state: a civilised state which respects civil and human rights. encourages chance for and wellbeing of all her people. and can be trusted by other states as a county whom honors her word. Well. America promised African Americans 40 estates and a mule and didn’t live up to her promise. America’s attitude and silence on reparations malodors of lip service. ( X. Malcolm. Biography of Malcolm X ) . America should besides pay reparations to African Americans because they systematically want us to labour for their work and take all the recognition. For case America is at mistake for African American dead and injured work forces who served and were drafted in the Vietnam War. America put immature black work forces on the front-line of a war they had nil to make with nor helped lend to. America wanted a race that was non yet â€Å"capable† of voting but was competent plenty to contend in a war. A race that did non hold the option of imbibing from any fountain. sitting anyplace on a coach. utilizing any bathroom. nevertheless we were fit for contending. The point is America invariably benefits from African Americans. but refuses to counterbalance African Americans for their parts to this state. ( World Wide Web. AcedemicLibrary. com ) .

New businesses Essay

Consistent findings have imperatively indicated that the correlation between firm entry and survival is negative. Out of every one hundred new businesses introduced in the UK, 50 percent of them become obsolete before their third anniversary. Such high attrition levels are not only evident UK in alone but also in most modern economies and can be said to be a generic ‘rule of thumb’. Just why is it that so many nascent firms end up accomplishing little or nothing before they finally become extinct? Is it that their owners do not put enough efforts into the business development or are there other internal and external causes of this prevalent occurrence of business failure? Many theories have been put forth to explain the possible causes of the high rates of new business failure. It is not surprising that major diagnoses of the root causes of low survival rate in new businesses identify management inefficiency as one of the causes of the high attrition levels. Policy makers have also been blamed for recommending entrepreneurship as the solution to rejuvenating the economy yet little is done to educate people on what to expect amid globalization pressures, competition and technological changes that are likely to impact on the business survival. Other theories put forward include the supportive environment thesis, nature of activity and industry theory. Firm survival can however be properly classified in three explanatory dimensions: The firm’s specific characteristics; Operational factors and the business cycle. This paper explores the characteristics of business failure under these three dimensions and at the same time introduces a discussion on how entrepreneurs can enhance their business’s chances of survival by providing possible solutions to the low levels of survival witnessed in infant businesses. II. Analysis a) Definitions Birth of the firm: The introduction of a business marks the birth of a firm. This may actually start when the idea of the business is borne. Consequent activities such as registering the company, acquiring premises and capital are secondary elements in the birth of a business. Survival of the firm: Survival of the firm refers to its ability to withstand internal and external pressures to meet the objectives for which it was established. Survival determines whether a firm makes it through its lifetime or whether it fails and consequently exits the market. Death of the firm: This denotes the final stage in a business at a point where nothing can be done to revive the business and the only solution is complete closure. Termination of the firm as a legal entity: This means that the business is no longer recognized by the law. It means that a business in the context of the law is no longer operational and it is therefore not liable to debts, taxes among other liabilities to stakeholders. b) New Firms Survival Literature New businesses in the UK have in the past shown high levels of business failures witnessed within the first three years of inception. According to Caliendo and Fossen (2009: 154) at least fifty out of every one hundred new businesses introduced did not make it to their third birthday. A study by the DTI Small Business Service from 1995 to 2004 reveals that these failures are actually vary with industries which could be attributed to the various conditions that exist in these sectors (DTI, 2007: 13). On average, 82% of new businesses established survived the first year in business. Improvement has been recorded and by 2004, an average of 58% of new businesses survived the first three years over all the sectors. Detailed survey results are shown in table 1 and 2. c) Why Half of Nascent Firms Fail: The Survival Explanatory Dimensions 1) Firm Specific Characteristics i)Managerial Organization Discernible management errors and high incidents of poor management highly contribute to the low survival rates of newly established firms. The death of many firms is mostly characterized by management which has turned out to be reactionary. Inefficient decision making and inadequate or non-existent planning will have contributed to the failure of the business in at least 30 percent of nascent firms (Phillips, 2004: 68-70). Veronique and Wever (2000: 138) note that manager’s inability to react to various forces affecting the business operations such as competition, technological advancements, economic trends and money issues could lead to the ultimate downfall of a business. Inadequacy in management expertise is essentially attributable for the business’ failure to explore alternative financing options leading to bankruptcy. ii)Inadequacy of Cash Reserves Inadequate financing comes in as a close second after poor management. New owners with little or no prior experience in business may fail to effectively predict cash flow. Miscalculation of amounts required to sustain the business before it picks up and underestimation of the costs associated with borrowing money are the major causes of financial strain (Lane and Schary, 1991: 101-103). Exhaustion of cash reserves is also likely to be influenced by poor pricing, over-investment in fixed assets and uncontrolled growth. Uncontrolled growth occurs when the owners want to take up every opportunity that comes so that at the end of it all they cannot satisfy all their customers. In this case, firms end up borrowing large amounts to meet the high demand and when the loans cannot be paid effectively, what results is collapse of the firm (Audretsch and Keilbach, 2004: 423). Other causes include over dependence on a few customers, fraud and uncontrolled drawings by the owner. iii)Poor debt management and Over-borrowing This is closely associated with cash inadequacy and it results where managers are ill-equipped in financial management. Small business owners are likely to obtain the wrong type of financing and worse still take more than the business can afford to pay (Jostarndt, 2007: 139). This may lead to borrowing loans to clear existing ones which is not a good debt management strategy. Inability to pay debts on time and lack of coordination between incoming cash and outgoing cash may lead to the business finally going bankrupt and consequently causing its death. iv)Ownership Status There are two ways of looking at this perspective: the legal ownership and the reasons for starting the business. A sole proprietorship business is more likely to fail due to financial and management problems than a partnership or a limited company. The reasons for starting the business can highly influence a firm’s survival. Moore and Gooderl (2008: 8-10) name two types of entrepreneurs: the opportunity entrepreneur and the necessity entrepreneur. The former establishes a business to exploit available business opportunity while the latter may start up a business for the purpose of sustaining himself probably if he cannot find a job. According to Moore and Gooderl (2008: 16-17) the opportunity entrepreneur is likely to succeed while the necessity entrepreneur may not exert enough efforts towards the business. The increased number of necessity entrepreneurs in the UK has highly increased the failure levels in new businesses. v)Personal Characteristics of the owner This mostly has to do with the attitude of the owner and the manner in which he or she applies these in the business context. Owners make a mistake of taking up all responsibilities without making use of delegation to junior employees as a result of fearing that they may not do it perfectly. Jensen (1976: 335) describes this as the ‘challenge of letting go’. Owners normally find themselves exhausted from overwork and yet do not find time to address important issues facing the business. Use of business funds by the owner can also cause detrimental effects on the business. Personal attitudes such as aggressiveness and lack of concern for the employees may cause high rate of employee turnover as well as keep away customers (Daily et al, 2002: 398-343). vi)Innovation and reaction to technological changes The world is advancing at a high rate and technology is one of the areas that a business needs to keep up with. Many new businesses fail due to being left behind in technological advancements such that they are overtaken by their competitors who take with them all the customers (Agarwal, 1996: 103-106). Innovation is one of the major tools for a successful business and this is one area that new businesses have not been able to address mainly due to lack of enough capital to come up with new products and services. viii)Poor knowledge of the market Most business owners enter the market with little knowledge about what to expect. Failing to conduct market feasibility studies limit the owner’s knowledge on the competitors in the market and their influence; the customers’ characteristics and behaviour and various market fluctuations they are likely to encounter (Covin et al, 2000: 199-206). 2) Operational factors i) Competition New businesses are often overwhelmed by the efforts required to counter competition from already existing firms. This is considering that these firms have already established their customer base and winning loyal customers could prove quite a challenging task for new businesses. Usually, dominant competitors may even device ways of putting new entrants out of business such as lowering prices and offering discounts (Covin et al, 2000: 200). Their aim is to push the new competitors until they cannot keep up with the situation such that they eventually quit. ii) Location The location of a business is a major determinant for its survival. New businesses in rural areas are likely to fail due to limited local markets and isolation. On the other hand high costs, presence of large firms and regulatory barriers pose challenges to businesses located in the urban areas (Sutaria and Donald, 2004: 250-253). 3)Changes in Business Cycle i)Macroeconomic growth and economic pressures New businesses are usually unable to handle economic shocks that may result from high interest rates, fluctuations in exchange rates and general inflation. According to David and Mahmood (1995: 89-93) not many businesses survive an economic surge or a recessionary period which may lead to skyrocketing of supply prices and high costs of borrowing. ii)Entering Cohorts’ exit rate Cohorts refer to groups with similar characteristics. The result of exit of similar businesses can either have a positive or negative effect on a new business. Exit may mean less competition which is an advantage. New firms however rely on one another for inspiration. A person operating a business where everyone is quitting due to one reason or another is bound to get disillusioned and have the attitude that his business may fail too (Phillips, 2004: 69-71). iii)Changes in legal environment When the laws of a country change, new businesses are likely to suffer since they are not yet stable enough to cushion themselves from such changes. Amendment of tax laws and business requirements may cause a new business to go bankrupt. d) Increasing Survival Chances Strategies to increase the chances of survival for a business entail addressing the leading causes of failure. The most fundamental requirement is the improvement of the management capabilities. When there is good management in a firm, other factors will follow suit because every operation of the business is determined by the management (Sutaria and Donald, 2004: 253-255). Improvement of communication within the business and proper sharing of duties are skills that the owners of the business need to acquire. This can be done through attending management and entrepreneurial seminars and conferences so as to learn secrets of firm survival from professionals. Proper planning is the ideal solution to financial problems. Veronique and Wever, 2000: 139-141) refers adequate anticipation of cash flow as the secret to overcoming financial problems for starters. This could be done through the help of an expert if the owner is not in a position to do so. Finding alternative sources of finance apart from the usual ones is key in preventing the collapse of a business due to lack of funds. There are many available sources of finance including bank loans, credit card advances, sale of assets among others (Moore and Gooderl, 2008: 298-299). Care should then be taken to make sure the finances are properly utilized. The firm should avoid relying on a few customers because huge losses can be felt if the customers suddenly withdraw. Instead, they should aim at a large customer base. Over-borrowing can be reduced through making proper cash forecasts and using the limited resources that the business has. In essence, the firm can adopt a steady growth over time instead of rushing to expand at once (Daily et al, 2002: 399-401). Finally, the management should be keen in managing the debts of the business keenly balancing the income and expenditure so as to cover all liabilities and debts in time. A business must clearly identify its customers and establish whether they can sustain the business effectively considering the level of competition. This can be done prior to the business establishment through a market feasibility studies while answering the following questions: How many competitors are in the area you plan to establish your business? Who will be the business’s customers and what are their buying habits? What is the level of loyalty of these potential customers to the current suppliers? Are they likely to buy your product? Is the product seasonal? Is it possible to make profit out of the business? Once these questions are answered, the likelihood of failure can be minimized as specific strategies to address the issues can be formulated (Audretsch and Thurik, 2007: 113-141). Business owners must realize that they cannot do everything by themselves. Employers can delegate and allow employees to make certain decisions. Consequently, owners will have ample time to concentrate on more important business issues such as finding new customers, getting more funds for the business as well as solving the current issues facing the business (Daily et al, 2002: 403-405). The need for long-term planning is inevitable. This involves planning for growth and transition in the future. It also involves planning for uncertainties such as loss of employees, customers and suppliers. In the wake of the high global trade advancement and changes in the market, businesses should always be alert to avoid being taken unaware by advancements in technology, innovation and changes in customer preferences and culture (Zoltan, 1988: 321). Legal changes and changes in tax systems should be catered for in the long-term business plan. The state of the economy is bound to change from time to time which is why firms must anticipate for any future economic shocks through investing in stocks, futures, options among others. Insurance is also an option for more larger firms. III. Conclusion No environment can be said to specifically favour new firms in all angles hence the need for those starting new firms to be overly cautious. Firms are most definitely exposed to numerous risks that may lead to their extinction as indicated in this discussion. Management is identified as the root cause of low survival rates among nascent firms and its improvement could work to solve the predicament presently being witnessed in new firm survival. Proper balancing of the firm’s cash reserves; being generally alert to any changes in the business environment; making informed decisions to deal with these changes coupled with excellent management practices is exactly what is needed to save young firms from their predicament and promote their longevity.