Friday, January 31, 2020
Course reflection Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Course reflection - Assignment Example While studying this course, ‘International Food and Beverages’ team work has been so helpful to me. Two heads are better than one. Working in a team always makes work easier. It’s a bond which promotes unity, reliability and support. Team work means a sense of unity, of enthusiasm for common interests and obligations, as developed among a group of people closely associated in a task. The oxford dictionary defines teamwork as the joint action of a group of people, especially when successful and efficient (Annet 2000). Team work has supported my more empowered way of working, it has removed limitations which might have prevented me from doing my job properly, it has Encouraged multi-disciplinary work where teams cut across organizational divides, enhances flexibility and awareness, especially the ability to respond to change and also Promoted the sense of attainment, equity and camaraderie. When managed properly, team work is a better way to work (Weyn, 2002). Despite the benefits of working in a team, it has not been easy. I have encountered different challenges. At times, Members could not feel mutually accountable to one another for the team’s objectives. There was a lack of commitment and effort, conflict between team goals and members’ personal goals, or poor collaboration. Secondly, decision making have been difficult. Team members would be rigidly adhering to their positions during decision making or making repeated arguments rather than introducing new information. Thirdly, poor communication has been another problem. Team members would interrupt or talk over one another. There would be consistent silence from some members during meetings, allusions to problems but failure to formally address them, or false consensus (Jone 2005). From my team work experience, team work can be effectively managed through; first, building trust among team members. If trust is lacking it must
Thursday, January 23, 2020
Marketing Analysis of Ecovers Current Position in the Market Essay
Marketing Analysis of Ecover's Current Position in the Market 1. Introduction The assignments mainly consists of the following parts: Firstly, an analysis of Ecover’s current position in the market. Secondly, how Ecover is changing its competitive strategy. Thirdly, consumer behaviour towards detergent. Finally, an outline for new marketing strategy for Ecover to enter the supermarket. 2. Background Ecover was founded in 1979 by Frans Bogaerts.It was a modest little detergent company in Malle in northern Belgium. Pierres Magnin a successful Swiss businessman dealing with pharmacies and health food stores, suggested Bogaerts to develop an eco-friendly detergent free of harmful chemicals (which was to be banned by the Swiss government as a part the proposed environmental regulations). Thus they entered the detergent market in Swiss and other key markets. Environmental disasters have made more and more people aware of the urgent need to protect the natural environment. 3 Marketing Audit Marketing audit give a picture of where the company is, how did it get there and where is it heading. It goes through the through the strength, weakness, opportunities and threat of the company. This analysis is called the SWOT analysis. It is divided into two major parts: External Factors and Internal Factors Strength and weakness are concerned with the internal factors and opportunity and threat are concerned with the external factors. 3.1 External Factors Here only opportunities and threats are analysed as these are supposed to be listed as anticipated events or trends outside the business that have implications for performance. These factors are not controllable by the company. Some of the factors discussed here are: 1.     Macro environment 2.     The Market 3.     Competition 3.1.1Macro Environment Macro Environment consists of Political (P), Economical (E), Social (S) and Technological (T) factors that affect the Company. Continuous monitoring of these variables is an important marketing function. As Corporations today, Ecover is also sensitive to Macro Environmental changes. Some of the PEST factors that affected Ecover are discussed below. Political: Marketing strategy is deeply affected by political trends. Issues like new laws, regulations, change in foreign policies etc brings change to t he bus... ...entalists to recommend its products. 9.Appendix Appendix 1: Survey of consumer attitudes:      Australia     Canada     Germany     Italy     Japan     Holland     Spain     Switzerland     Pay 10-15% more for green products     69     72     68     79     42     87     85     80     Boycott others     82     -     76     79     43     74     86     75     Give up 10-15% quality for environmental safety     65     -     62     80     45     74     64     78     Pay more even if its hard to make end meet     43     -     47     65     46     46     64     64     Source: David Jobber, 1998,Princilpes and practice of Marketing, 2nd Edition. Appendix 2: Table showing Ecover’s competitors ’ market share: Market Share Competitors in Germany& Austria     More than 50% Competitors in Swiss & Germany     Almost 50% P&G and Unilever together (in 1980s)     Almost 80% Private brands (by 1990)     10-30% 10. Bibliography 1. David Jobber, 1998, Principles and practice of Marketing, Second edition. 2.Subash.C.Jain, 1997, Marketing Planning & Strategy, Fifth Edition. 3.Wayne D.Hoyer, Deborah J.Maclinns, 1997, Consumer Behaviour.
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
A Network Enterprise Management System for Shopping Malls Essay
Background GICEL Shopping Mall is just like an advanced supermarket that sells mostly home products such as home appliances and cosmetics. It provides other services like selling ice creams, beverages and most food items used at home. The Mall sells products to customers categorized from children to adults. A Brief study of an Existing System During my decision to present this project topic, I surveyed several shopping malls, studied their daily operations and realized there was a need for a more reliable and cost-effective system. Below are a few things I studied: * GICEL shopping mall is more into selling home products and other items either for eating or wearing. The mall has an automated system that keeps the daily transaction records, employees’ detail, product records i.e. prices, stock level etc. all on a spread sheet (EXCEL). * There are about five or six counters where the employees sit to key in price of products bought. After each day and week the employees make a total amount of product bought with the sum of money they collected. * During a transaction, the customer takes a product he/she wants to purchase to one of the attendant who is sitting behind a computer with Microsoft Excel installed on, keys in the product with its corresponding price the customer pays and a receipt is issued to the customer. * All products in stock are recorded, records are taken for daily transactions on the spread sheet and at the end of the week reports are drawn even when they expected an ad-hoc report. * A special employee has to visit each o f the computers in the mall to draw those reports every week. Read more: Essays About Shopping Malls Problem In the case study, there was a problem of bad record keeping. The spread sheet (Excel) platform finds it difficult to combine records since purchases made by the customer are kept separately on individual sheets and on different computers. This makes it difficult to provide ad-hoc reports to managements of the shopping mall. In situations where a single customer is buying different types of products there is a problem of data redundancy. These makes the total amount that a customer needs to pay miscalculated and this has created loss of income and low productivity. Within four (4) months managements has fired about 3 employees due to incorrect account reports made. Managements of the Mall wanted to create accounts for regular customer but are frighten of bad customer records keeping. The special employee who oversees the other employees behind the counter mostly get fatigue by moving from one computer to the other. He has to copy all excel sheet of the records to his computer tally them and make accounts of it. There is also a problem of system security since data abstraction is not invoked in the system to prevent some unauthorized persons (employee) from making changes to some records. They easily lose their data since there is no backup system in place. The Proposed System The proposed system will provide satisfying interfaces to be used basically for keeping records of all employees and regular customers, tracking the daily transactions made, tracking the daily fiscal/monetary issues of the mall and giving GICEL shopping mall the opportunity to get the best out of the system satisfactorily. With the proposed system, services will not change but method of record keepings will change. A special/particular employee (administrator) will use this system to take care of all recordings while other employees provide the actual services. There will be a network between all the computers that will enable the special employee to sit in his office and monitor the other employees. The special employee does not need to move from his desk to draw inferences from the daily and weekly sales. He/she will also provide passwords to the attendants and make sure they are limited to specific forms only. Business Need This project has been identified to better keep record of products, easily update of stock and create accounts for regular customers and provide speedy services, security, reliable and adequate reports at the end of each day. Business Requirements * The system will help cut down the time spent on tracing the Mall’s monetary issues as well as calculations. The system will help keep the records of all purchases made by the management to stock the mall in order to know how much profit the mall is spending. Payments for products sold are also going to be recorded and the system is eventually going to give a supposed picture of how much money the mall is making or losing. The system will take care of the basic accounts of the mall, thus, providing the mall with its cash analysis. * Since there is a network additional counters can be provided to reduce customers queuing to pay for their products thereby satisfying customers which will increase customer population. * The system will help in the preparation and issuing of receipt (after customers have brought product to the counter and charges have been accepted and payments have been made). * The system should be also to keep records of employees, products with their prices, update and preview of stock level and record information on regular customers with their bank details. * The system should have a backup utility. * The system will also provide special features to help GICEL Shopping Mall have an easy access to certain tasks or certain programs found/installed on their operating system, without having to close this system. These will include some various programs that they use frequently such as notepad, calculator, word, etc. * The system will eventually help the mall to operate much faster and more efficiently, thereby improving productivity and customer satisfaction. Project Plan Given thorough supervision, I look forward to completing the development of this system by the end of the academic year. Methodology The methodologies for collecting data for the development of the system include observation, conducting interviews and giving out questionnaires. Special Issues Since this is the first version of such a system, I consider it a prototype which could be built upon in the future. I therefore recommend other students to take up from where we will leave off and improve upon our work. I hope future developments will include; * Smoothly run on web (internet). * Able to use a Barcode reading system. * Ability for customers to use ATM card to pay for products. * Standalone systems at special points in the mall where the customer will search for location of product with its prices to limit customer from asking attendants were to locate products. Conclusion I hope to provide a system suitable to be used by Shopping Malls. The system will be made flexible enough to provide users the ability to use it the way they want it for their desired results.
Tuesday, January 7, 2020
What Happened to Shakespeares Skull
An examination of William Shakespeare’s grave in March 2016 suggested that the body is missing its head and that Shakespeare’s skull may have been removed by trophy hunters some 200 years ago. However, this is just one interpretation of the evidence found in this excavation. What really happened to Shakespeares skull is still up for debate, but we do now have some important evidence concerning the famous playwrights grave. Shakespeare’s Grave For four centuries, William Shakespeare’s grave sat undisturbed underneath the chancel floor of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. But a new investigation conducted in 2016, the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, has finally revealed what lies beneath. The church has never allowed an excavation of the graveâ€â€despite many appeals from researchers over the centuriesâ€â€because they wanted to abide by Shakespeare’s wishes. His wishes were made crystal clear in the inscription carved into the ledger stone above his grave: Good friend, for Jesus sake forebeare, To digg the dust enclosed heare; Bleste be the man that spares thes stones, And curst be he that moves my bones. But the curse is not the only unusual thing about Shakespeare’s grave. Two more curious facts have bothered researches for hundreds of years: No name: Of the family members buried side by side, William Shakespeare’s ledger stone is the only one that doesn’t carry a name.Short grave: The stone itself is too short for a grave. At less than a meter in length, William’s ledger stone is shorter than the others, including that of his wife, Anne Hathaway. What Lies Beneath Shakespeare’s Tombstone? The year 2016 saw the first archaeological investigation of Shakespeare’s grave using GPR scanning to produce images of what lies beneath the ledger stones without the need to disturb the grave itself. The results have disproved some firmly held beliefs about Shakespeare’s burial. These break down into four areas: Shallow graves: It has long been asserted that the Shakespeare ledger stones covered a family tomb or vault beneath. No such structure exists. Rather there is nothing more than a series of five shallow graves, each aligned with the corresponding ledger stone in the chancel floor of the church.No coffin: Shakespeare was not buried in a coffin. Rather, the family members were buried simply in winding sheets or a similar material.Disruption at the head: Shakespeare’s mysteriously short ledger stone corresponds to a repair that has been made underneath the stone floor to support it. Experts suggest that this is due to disturbance at the head end of the grave which has caused significantly more subsidence than elsewhere.Interference: The tests conclusively proved that Shakespeare’s grave is not in its original state. Stealing Shakespeares Skull The findings correspond to a rather incredulous tale first published in an 1879 edition of the Argosy Magazine. In the story, Frank Chambers agrees to steal Shakespeare’s skull for a wealthy collector for the sum of 300 guineas. He hires a gang of grave robbers to assist him. The story has always been disregarded because of the (presumed) inaccurate details of the actual digging of the grave in 1794: The men had dug to the depth of three feet, and I now watched narrowly, for, by the clogging of the darker earth, and that peculiar humid state–small I can hardly call it... I know we were nearing the level where the body had formerly mouldered.No shovels but the hands, I whispered, and feel for a skull.There was a long pause as the fellows, sinking in the loose mould, slid their horny palms over fragments of bone. Presently, I got him, said Cull; but he’s fine and heavy.†In light of the new GPR evidence, the details above suddenly seemed remarkably accurate. The established theory up until 2016 was that Shakespeare was buried in a tomb in a coffin. So the following specifics in this story have piqued the interest of archaeologists: Details of the shallow three-foot graveDetails of the body buried directly in the earth with no coffinDetails of soil disruption at the head end of the grave Where Is Shakespeares Skull Today? So if there is truth in this story, then where is Shakespeare’s skull now? A follow-up story suggests that Chambers panicked and attempted to hide the skull in St. Leonards Church in Beoley. As part of the 2016 investigation, the so-called â€Å"Beoley skull†was examined and â€Å"on the balance of probability†was thought to be the skull of a 70-year old woman. Somewhere out there, the skull of William Shakespeare, if it has actually disappeared, may still exist. But where? With intensified archaeological interest sparked by the 2016 GPR scans, this has become one of the big historical mysteries and the hunt for Shakespeare’s skull is now well and truly on.
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