Coffee and Starbucks free essay sample

In 2000s, Starbucks became a public traded company. Starbucks trended to international that has more than 15,000 locations in over  40 countries. Starbucks never stopping on selling coffee, they initiated several other product and brand extensions. For instance, to distributed whole bean and sold coffee to supermarket. Nowadays, Starbucks is the leader in the coffer industry, and it is almost monopoly the while coffee marketing. Starbucks is like fashion and culture in the society, and it is good place to gather. In our project, they are seven topics what are vision, mission, strategies, and goals; structure including its use of teams; External environment; management of change; culture and ethical values and practices; management of training and workforce diversity and leadership styles. We are going to explain how successful Starbucks it is because it is almost prefect without any improvements. Key word: Mission, principle, strategy, organizational structure, change management, leadership. Mission and Principles For each organization, having a purpose is very important. China will be a key part of its global expansion as the company looks to grow the store count in the nation to 1,500 by the end of 2015 (Forbes 2013). Starbucks utilises license agreements, strategic partnerships, and many other business activities and agreements. Starbucks’ latest acquisition of La Boulange and Evolution Fresh play some role in the company’s growth as there is more food for breakfast and lunch including more baked goods coming soon. Starbucks also agreed to purchase tea retailer Teavana Holdings Inc. for $620 million. It is its largest acquisition to date. When it comes to buying, Starbucks is well known for its commitment to quality products. The company increased their purchases to 40 million pounds, making it the largest purchaser of the Fair Trade Certified coffee in the world (Starbucks Corporation). 3. 1 Starbucks’ current position in the world market A recent survey by American Express/SAP ranks Starbucks 49th among the Top 100 global retailers (Forbes 2013). Starbucks Corp. raised its profit forecast for the current fiscal year after sales in its top market U. S. topped expectations. The company set its new earnings per share forecast for fiscal 2013 at $2. 06 to $2. 15, up from $2. 04 to $2. 14 per share, previously. It also raised its target for global net new stores to 1,300 from 1,200 on accelerated expansion plans for China. 3. 2 Starbucks and its main competitors Starbucks’ primary competitors are quick-service restaurants and specialty coffee shop. Starbucks’ major competitors are Dunkin Donuts and McDonald’s. McDonald’s recently introduced McCafe campaign in which it sells coffee beverages at a slight discount to Starbucks. McDonald’s priced their drinks between $1. 99 and $3. 29. By comparison, Starbucks’ comparable drink versions were priced between $2. 65 and $4. 15, a premium of approximately one-third. Dunkin Donuts uses its donuts and the rest of their menu as the attraction. By 2006, Dunkin Donuts was the top selling retailer of coffee-by-the-cup in America at 2. 7 million cups a day, close to one billion cups a year (Dunkin Donuts, Press Release 2006). 4. 0 Environmental factors 4. 1 Micro environment The following section of this deals with some of the main factors within the Starbucks companies’ micro environment. More specifically, the following headings will be explored: 1. Main Competitors 2. Customers 3. Suppliers 4. 1. 1 Main Competitors The field of coffee market is strongly competitive, including with respect to product quality, service, suitability, and price. Although Starbucks faces significant competition in the markets, it is still ahead of its competitors. 4. 1. 2 Customers Starbucks’ main target market is men and women aged 25 to 40. They account for just about half (49%) of its total business. Starbucks attract this particular age group through hip, contemporary design that is compliant in its advertising and decor and working to keep its products current as status symbols. Customers are likely to be urbanites with moderately high income and professional careers. Another 40% of Starbucks’ sales are creating young adults, aged 18 to 24. To appeal to this age group, Starbucks positions itself in colleges where students can hang out, and also appeals to them through technology focusing on social networking where it is actively producing a ‘cool’ image. 4. 1. 3 Suppliers â€Å"Aside from extraordinary coffee, Starbucks has made a business out of human connections, community involvement and the celebration of cultures. † (Starbucks) Starbucks is seeking for diverse-owned businesses to purchase from. In addition to their buying practices, they support supplier diversity outreach projects sponsored by various organizations such as: The National Minority Supplier Development Council and the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council. These projects include opportunity fairs, business development roundtables and supplier development projects. The Supplier Diversity helps to identify and deliver high-quality products and services. Starbucks is committed in creating a workplace that values and respects workers from diverse backgrounds. The company works with overseas suppliers to maintain a workplace that does not abuse workers. Therefore African farm groups selling coffee beans are getting more valued, they are paid better wages including benefits and are provided with resources that help to lower the cost of production, reduce fungus infections and increase the production of premium coffee. 4. 2 Macro Environement This section will examine some of the key Macro Environmental factors that face Heineken. More specifically, the following subjects will be discussed: 1. Economic Factors 2. Technological Factors 3. Political Factors 4. 2. 1 Economic Factors 4. 2. 2 Technological Factors As stated by Kotler and Armstrong (2010, p. 106), technological advances are possibly the strongest forces affecting current marketing strategies. The explosion of social media and the emergence of innovative technology in the last decade has seen new marketing and promotional media develop, and has given new opportunities to companies. Some of Starbucks’ uses of technology to market its’ product are as follows: 1. Starbucks continuously uploads pictures and statuses on sites such as facebook, instagram, twitter and pinterest, where most of the people in today’s world have daily access to. 2. The introduction of Starbucks card had improved customer service. 3. Starbucks launched a free nationwide mobile payment app. 4. The free, unlimited Wi-Fi in the stores serves as makeshift office and a meeting place. 5. Starbucks has its own official website, where you can see the menu, purchase gifts, read about all the information of their products and Starbucks contribution to the environement as well as the ethical sourcing. You can also top up your Starbucks card online. There have also been technological developments in agriculture. Agricultural technology has been a primary factor contributing to increases in farm productivity in developing countries. Although there is still widespread food insecurity, the situation without current technology development would have been inconceivable. Food prices are lower because of technology, but the benefits between consumers and producers depend on the nature of the local economy and trade patterns. 4. 2. 3 Political Factors Political factors that affect Starbucks include the level of stability within the countries in which Starbucks buy its coffee from. They get their coffee beans from countries all around the world in which some countries have a lot of natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis and wars. These natural disasters can affect Starbucks’ business because the countries will not be able to supply them with any of the coffee beans and they will have no coffee to sell. Starbucks also claims to be environmentally friendly, so they have to consider how to protect the brand aspect in everything they do. Another very important factor is the relationships between the countries between which the exchange of products is taking place. 5. 0 SWOT Analysis 5. 1 Strengths 1. Commitment to quality 2. Large expansion worldwide 3. Ethical sourcing 4. Largest coffeehouse chain in the world 5. Supporting farmers and their communities 5. 2 Weakness 1. Product pricing 2. Negative publicity 3. Coffee beans price is the major influence over firm’s profits 5. 3 Opportunities 1. Increase in product variety 2. International expansion of retail operations 3. Technological advancements 4. Joint ventures 5. 4 Threats 1. Competitors with similar offerings at lower cost 2. Rising prices in coffee beans and dairy products 3. Trademark infringement 4. Emergence of new competitors 6. 0 Products and branding strategy According to Louis E. Boone and David L. Kurtz (2010, p. 379) marketers recognize the powerful influence products and product lines have on customer behaviour and they work to create strong identities for their product and protect them. Branding is the process of creating that identity. 7. 0 Pricing Strategy Starbucks is the leader of the coffee market. As a distinct company, it controls a number of times more market share than any of its competitors. Starbucks sets its costs on a simple idea: high value at moderate cost. When people feel like they are getting a good deal for their money, they are more likely to pay a higher cost. Quality is the key. Sometimes when Starbucks introduces new products at higher cost, the costumers are willing to pay the extra money because they relate the Starbucks name with high quality. Although the risk still exists that more customers will prefer the lower-priced items, by presenting higher-priced items alongside lower-cost substitutes, Starbucks is mitigating the higher price through comparison. 8. 0 Promotional Strategies Starbucks has a strong presence on a number of social networks. When it comes to engaging its customers, Starbucks has definitely set a high bar. Instead of only focusing their effort on new costumers, it cultivates its current ones. Whenever Starbucks takes a photo, it shares it on instagram, twitter, facebook or pinterest. Promotion through networking is more valuable, as the world becomes more digitally concentrated. A proof its success can be seen on Facebook, where Starbucks has already over 35,5 million ‘likes’ and the numbers are keep going up. Starbucks also increased their advertising in radios, televisions and billboards from 1. 4% to 3% by 2009. Starbucks uses push-pull strategy : Push tactics are taking the product to the costumer. Pull tactics are getting the costumer to come to you. 9. 0 Distribution Channels Kotler and Armstrong (2013) describe a distribution channel to be ‘a set of interdepended organisations that help make a product or service available for use or consumption by the consumer or business user’. Moon and Quelch (2004) outline that Starbucks sold coffee products through non-company operated retail channels. These â€Å"Specialty Operations† accounted for 15% of net revenues. About 27% of these revenues came from North America food-service accounts, that is sales of whole-bean and ground coffees to hotels, airlines and restaurants. Another 18% came from domestic retail store licences. The remaining 55% of specialty revenues came from a variety of sources, including international licensed stores, grocery stores and warehouses clubs, online and mail-order sales. Starbucks also had a joint venture with Pepsi-Cola to distribute Frappuccino beverages, as well as partnership with Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream to develop and distribute a line of premium ice creams. 10. 0 Summary This report has looked at Starbucks, both as a brand and as an international manufacturer. It has investigated the methods of marketing that Starbucks uses to develop and promote, and also to distribute and sell its’ brands. Through comparisons with Starbucks’ main competitors, the companies’ standing in the market place has been explained.

The Great Gatsbys green light and American optimism Essay Example For Students

The Great Gatsbys green light and American optimism Essay Metaphorically, one’s life is a navigable boat, in working against the innumerable currents physical: inertia and entropic disorder; existential: the reality of death; and social: family (genetic and relational), race and class, along with the educational access which can define the dynamics of economic opportunity – they define, or have defined for them, their own green light. Such opportunities purportedly thrive on myths of meritocratic pluck and ingenuity, especially within the milieu of pseudo-capitalistic competition, as workers, entrepreneurs, speculators, and the like strive toward their attendant Green Lights. We will write a custom essay on The Great Gatsbys green light and American optimism specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now However, the complexities of these â€Å"currents† that Nick mentions intersect as the tremendous opportunity some call â€Å"American Exceptionalism†; in that the first new nation in the new world rooted on expressed, but illusory, concepts like individualism, egalitarianism, and laissez-faire (â€Å"American Exceptionalism†). These green light ideals are foundative elements in the novel. This milieu furnishes optimism and audacity, in that Gatsby â€Å" invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end† (98). It’s within this observation that the American ideal of â€Å"starting over† is found. To generalize, the original seventeenth century settlers of North America were the old world’s Euro-Anglo rejects, those looking for a better Puritanical life in a â€Å"land o’ plenty†. This â€Å"starting over†, from the outset, was an antecedent that encapsulates the American idea of the Westerner. Colonialists moved west across the Atlantic, much like the trailblazing pioneers would, looking for opportunity, prosperity, and ultimately, identity and security, within a purposeful adventure. This is alluded to by Nick when he considers each of the characters, Daisy, Jordan, Gatsby, and himself, pondering their compulsion to recklessly hope as a geographic designation, â€Å" we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life† (176). In venturing forth, one has to hope and dream, uniting a sense of pragmatism that leverages the initial inspiration provoked by the Green Light. This, in a sense, is the Westernized cowboy clarity that not only discerns the Green Light, but never sees it extinguished. At the risk of sounding like promotional material for the spirited innovation of American business magnates and technophiles, the green light may dim or flicker, but it remains the principal glimpsed beacon of American dreamers In post Great War Long Island, we find the same obligatory hope throttling within each of Fitzgerald’s characters. Such romanticized optimism is dangerous in that it can also be found in the post-World War II era of baby booming prosperity, which brought on the Pax Americana trappings of empire, decadence, and constant wealth pursuit that was the seedbed of the counterculture’s reaction to conformity. These parallels aren’t unusual, as The Great Gatsby’s themes are distinctly present throughout certain undulations of American history. The hope Nick’s left with at novel’s end isn’t the peppery certainty that seemingly defined the post-civil war Gilded Age tales of Horatio Alger. Within the fantastical social mobility and grandiose dreams of Alger’s world is a commodified unreality. Nick has found the shallow and reactive chimera of Gatsby’s world bankrupt, and in the aftermath, he surveys America and experiences empathy. â€Å"I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed things up and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made† (179). One finds the roles of American financiers and the cultural and governmental endorsements that brought the world to financial ruin four years ago. .u0c80eaa927cc35a62ebcdb5a86628302 , .u0c80eaa927cc35a62ebcdb5a86628302 .postImageUrl , .u0c80eaa927cc35a62ebcdb5a86628302 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u0c80eaa927cc35a62ebcdb5a86628302 , .u0c80eaa927cc35a62ebcdb5a86628302:hover , .u0c80eaa927cc35a62ebcdb5a86628302:visited , .u0c80eaa927cc35a62ebcdb5a86628302:active { border:0!important; } .u0c80eaa927cc35a62ebcdb5a86628302 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u0c80eaa927cc35a62ebcdb5a86628302 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u0c80eaa927cc35a62ebcdb5a86628302:active , .u0c80eaa927cc35a62ebcdb5a86628302:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u0c80eaa927cc35a62ebcdb5a86628302 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u0c80eaa927cc35a62ebcdb5a86628302 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u0c80eaa927cc35a62ebcdb5a86628302 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u0c80eaa927cc35a62ebcdb5a86628302 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u0c80eaa927cc35a62ebcdb5a86628302:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u0c80eaa927cc35a62ebcdb5a86628302 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u0c80eaa927cc35a62ebcdb5a86628302 .u0c80eaa927cc35a62ebcdb5a86628302-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u0c80eaa927cc35a62ebcdb5a86628302:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Economic Reasons For American Independence EssayAnd yet despite such calamity, the green light embodies a human relation to memory and history, the limits within an individual and without. These limits are best embodied by Gatsby’s death and its relation to doomed business ventures (a cautionary tale? ), not to mention Daisy’s disappearance. The Green Light shines to Nick from its distant vantage, providing a meaningful meditation on life and death that only came as a result of the novel’s journey. At the risk of producing New Age brochure fodder, there’s a distinct futility within the ceaseless craving and striving that defines not just Americans like Gatsby, Nick, and Daisy, but humans everywhere. But especially Americans, in that the environment encourages an incessant drive to reach and realize an idyllic elsewhere of plenty, constancy, and prosperous, envious security that Fitzgerald understood and may have succumbed to. As for the rest of us humble and voracious Americans, the Green Light is a reminder that we can always compensate for past deprivations with the glow of our forgiving futures. Works Cited Declaration of Independence. Ushistory. org. Ed. Thomas Kindig. Independence Hall Association, N. D. Web. 29 June 2012 http;//www. ushisory. org/declaration/document/ Fitzgerald, Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 1925. Print American Exceptionalism. Wikipedia Foundation. 7 June 2012. 29 June 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/american_exceptionalism.

Free Essays on Cowboys

â€Å"Should have been A Cowboy†, a popular kit country song of the mid 90’s, broke out on the charts making people think back on their lifestyles. But in fact, do people view cowboys as the hero who has no trouble or worry, or the real cowboy lifestyle as rugged and dirty, struggling to survive. Cowboys were mounted herders hired by cattle owners in the United States to look after their livestock. Cowboys kept the cattle together, guided them to pasture, prevented their being mixed with other cattle, protected them from thieves, branded them, and drove them to shipping points. The long trips across the west seem to people today as a long horse ride with occasional campfires and beautiful scenery. This is the image I have always had about cowboys, but boy was I wrong. Between stampedes and Indians a cowboy had hardly enough time to enjoy the scenery. Nights were cold and lonesome. They were dirty and mean which seemed to be the key to their survival. Cowboys were faces with many hardships such as thievesfe tended to develop rough-and-ready virtues, as well as extraordinary skill in horsemanship and marksmanship. These qualities have acquired an almost legendary character in numerous tales and songs, making the cowboy a symbol of a hero in the United States and abroad.... Free Essays on Cowboys Free Essays on Cowboys â€Å"Should have been A Cowboy†, a popular kit country song of the mid 90’s, broke out on the charts making people think back on their lifestyles. But in fact, do people view cowboys as the hero who has no trouble or worry, or the real cowboy lifestyle as rugged and dirty, struggling to survive. Cowboys were mounted herders hired by cattle owners in the United States to look after their livestock. Cowboys kept the cattle together, guided them to pasture, prevented their being mixed with other cattle, protected them from thieves, branded them, and drove them to shipping points. The long trips across the west seem to people today as a long horse ride with occasional campfires and beautiful scenery. This is the image I have always had about cowboys, but boy was I wrong. Between stampedes and Indians a cowboy had hardly enough time to enjoy the scenery. Nights were cold and lonesome. They were dirty and mean which seemed to be the key to their survival. Cowboys were faces with many hardships such as thievesfe tended to develop rough-and-ready virtues, as well as extraordinary skill in horsemanship and marksmanship. These qualities have acquired an almost legendary character in numerous tales and songs, making the cowboy a symbol of a hero in the United States and abroad....

Graduate Admissions Interviews with Current Grad Students

Graduate Admissions Interviews with Current Grad Students Graduate school interviews are challenging and make even the most qualified applicants nervous. Interviews are most common in graduate programs offering doctoral and professional degrees. Dont fret if a few weeks pass after the application deadline and you have heard nothing from the graduate program. Not all graduate programs interview applicant finalists. If you are invited for an interview, however, remember its dual purposes. Interviews offer graduate programs the opportunity to meet you, consider you as a person apart from your application, and evaluate your fit to the program. Many applicants focus so much on pleasing the admissions committee that they forget that interviews serve a second purpose - to determine if the graduate program is right for you. Keep your own interests in mind as you visit the campus and participate in the interview. Evaluate the graduate program to determine if it will meet your training needs. Prepare for a Range of Interviewers As you prepare for your interview consider the various people you will meet and plan accordingly. For each, consider what they are looking for. We have discussed common questions to expect from professors and admissions committees as well as appropriate questions to ask them. Many applicants, however, do not realize that graduate students  usually have a role in admissions decisions. Certainly, they do not make the decisions themselves but they provide input and faculty usually trust and value their input. Graduate students might interview applicants one-on-one or in groups. They will ask about your research interests, with which faculty youd most like to work, and your ultimate career goals. Prepare Questions for Current Graduate Students Its easy to forget your dual purposes in interviewing, but keep in mind your goal of learning whether the graduate program is a good match to you. Current graduate students are a very important source of information. Ask questions to learn about the following: About Coursework: What is the coursework like? Do all entering graduate students take the same classes? Are enough classes offered? About Professors: Who are the most active professors?  Who works with students? Do one or two professors take on a great many students? Are any professors only on the books? That is, do any professors travel so extensively or teach classes so infrequently that they are unavailable to students? Take care in asking this. Living Conditions: Where do students live? Are there adequate housing opportunities? Is housing affordable? What is the community like? Do students need cars? Is there parking? Research: Ask grad students about their research interests (theyll likely enjoy talking about their work). How much independence are they afforded? Do they work primarily on faculty research or are they encouraged and supported in developing their own lines of research? Do they present their work at conferences? Do they receive funding to travel and present at conferences? Do they publish with faculty? How do students acquire mentors? Are mentors assigned? Dissertation: What is the typical dissertation like? What are the steps to completing a dissertation? Is it simply a proposal and defense or are there other opportunities to check in with the dissertation committee? How do students choose committee members? How long do most students take to complete the dissertation? Is there funding for dissertations? Funding: How do they fund their studies? Do most students get funding? Are there opportunities for assistantships, research or teaching? Do students work as adjunct instructors at the college or at nearby colleges? Do any students work outside of school? Is outside work permitted? Is there an official or unofficial ban on graduate students working off-campus? Climate: Do students spend time together after class? Is there a sense of competitiveness? Remember Your Place Remember that graduate students might not be able to answer all of these questions. Tailor your questions to the situation and the openness of the students with whom you are interviewing. Above all, it is critical to remember that your graduate student interviewers are not your friends. They will relay most or all of the conversation to the admissions committee. Avoid negativity. Dont curse or use vulgar language. Sometimes applicants may be invited to a social event, such as a party or gathering at a bar. Consider this an opportunity to learn about relationships among graduate students. Remember, however, that they are not your friends. Dont drink. If you must, one. Youre being studied and evaluated even if theyre friendly. Not to make you paranoid but the reality is that you are not yet peers. There is a power differential that you need to recognize and respect.

Phrmceuticl Indutry Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4750 words

Phrmceuticl Indutry - Case Study Example t the me time, product lifecycle re hortening becue of increing competition within the different therpeutic ctegorie. In 1998, in the UK, phrmceuticl R&D expenditure w 3.54bn, lmot third of totl UK expenditure on R&D. The bpi clim tht the UK phrmceuticl indutry invet more thn 20% of it totl turnover in R&D nd i reponible for over 70% of phrmceuticl reerch within the UK. (Coyne , 2005, pp.88-121) The increing cot of drug R&D, coupled with increing cot rtionlition nd control in helthcre ytem throughout the world, h fuelled the huge mount of cquiition nd merger ctivity within the indutry, which h now reched nother tge. The greement to merge in Jnury 2000 of the UK indutry leder Glxo Wellcome with mithKline Beechm, to form Glxo mithKline in $76bn meg-merger, will hve n enormou impct on the UK mrket, not let on indutry employment the compny rtionlie opertion. lmot ll the other mjor phrmceuticl compnie operting in the UK hve undergone or re in the proce of undergoing merger nd cquiition, including trZenec, Pfizer nd Wrner Lmbert, hire nd Robert, nd Celltech with Chirocience nd Medev. The mrket i divided into two ector: precription-only medicine (POM) nd over-the-counter (OTC) medicine. POM re obtined only with precription from qulified medicl profeionl nd dipened only by regitered phrmcit in licened phrmcy outlet. Promotion of precribed phrmceuticl i extremely limited, being confined to dvertiing in profeionl journl. The vt mjority of precribed phrmceuticl in the UK re precribed through the Ntionl Helth ervice (NH). ccording to the bpi, UK expenditure per peron on precription medicine, t round 88 per yer, i low in comprion to other mjor Europen countrie - only round hlf tht of Frnce or Germny. However, the proportion of expenditure on drug in the NH i riing, in pite ttempt to contin cot. It roe from 8.7% of the totl NH budget in 1980 to 12.7% in 1997. The proportion of people exempt from NH precription chrge h lo rien tedily, from 60% of ll precription in the 1970 to more thn 85% in 1998. (Coyne , 2005, pp.88-121) In recent yer, the NH h been in n lmot contnt tte of finncil crii, which h led to evere budgeting problem. There h been widepred reporting of o-clled rtioning' of certin drug, leding to lottery of cre' where the vilbility of tretment cn be dependent on the ptient' helth uthority. The UK i reported to be the highet uer of cheper generic drug in Europe, well being the lowet uer of new drug - with the proportion of generic drug precribing hving rien from 41% in 1991 to more thn 60% in 1997. (Coyne , 2005, pp.88-121) In contrt, the mrket for OTC phrmceuticl i conumer orientted. Certin product, deignted phrmcy-only product, do not require precription but cn only be old t licened phrmcy under the uperviion of regitered phrmcit. Other product, deignted generl le lit (GL), cn be obtined t wide vriety of retil outlet with no requirement for phrmcy or phrmcit. Multimedi promotion of GL product i widely permitted. Min medi dvertiing expenditure for OTC phrmceuticl (excluding vitmin nd upplement nd medicl good), roe from 97m in 1998 to 116.8m in 1999, n incree of 20.3%.(Mrci , 2004, pp.109-111) The NH will continue to be under preure for the foreeeble future, with the demnd of n increingly geing popultion on one hnd nd the introduction of new therpie on the other. The OTC mrket will be fuelled by the increing number of drug (often well known) entering the OTC

Competitive Advantage Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Competitive Advantage - Research Paper Example While there exists competitors that constitute operational threats for Tim’s Coffee Shoppe, the coffee shop has managed to outperform its competitors in various aspects. In its line of operation, Tim’s Coffee Shoppe remains committed to the goal of satisfying its customers. This is in line with the primary objective of capturing a substantial market share in the industry within which the company operates. By comparing Tim’s Coffee Shoppe with the two identified competitors in the matrix above, the strengths and weaknesses that characterize the company’s operations are highlighted. Tim’s Coffee Shoppe’s operational quality is not the best in town. However, this matches Queequeg’s Coffee quality level, but it is outperformed by Tim Hortons. In general, the quality associated with Tim’s Coffee Shoppe is desirable. It accounts for a given level of the coffee shop’s strengths. Although the strength therein is relatively limited, there is room for improvement. By evaluating the outperformer’s operations and quality management practices, Tim’s Coffee Shoppe can enhance its quality strength. The outlets owned and managed by Tim’s Coffee Shoppe constitute a substantial strength for this coffee operator. In fact, this strength outperforms that of its competitors. Tim’s Coffee Shoppe is located in close proximity with busy and high demand areas like railways and universities. While both competitors have more locations than Tim’s Coffee Shoppe, their locations are not as strategically placed as those of Tim’s Coffee Shoppe. In this respect, Tim’s Coffee Shoppe enjoys an operational advantage over its competitors. Employees are essential drivers of the operations undertaken by any given company. Even with the need for Tim’s Coffee Shoppe to outperform its competitors, the company has not adequately addressed employee issues. Employee reorganization and the observance of management dynamics are vital from time to time, as an

Music and Brain Development Essay Example for Free

Music and Brain Development Essay There are three major perspectives on the positive impact of music education to the core curricula in school. The study on how music shares value to brain development has opened new views for all educators. According to the study of Neurological Research in February 1997, music develops abstract reasoning skills needed for the learning process of children in math and science. It was proven that training in music is more efficient than computer learning for teaching math and science skills (Peretz and Zatorre, 2005).   It was reported that music training could be more effective than computer instruction for teaching these skills. The findings were the result of a two year experiment with preschoolers by Rauscher et. Al. Wriht et al in 1997, compared the effects of musical and non-musical training on intellectual development as a follow-up to their studies on music can enhance spatial-reasoning. They concluded that music enhanced brain functions that were required for learning mathematics, science and engineering (Brust, 2003). Several studies have suggested that beginning music training early corresponds to greater growth in certain areas of the brain (Schlang et al, 2003). For example, researchers in Germany identified the planum temporale, a part of the left hemisphere as the region of the brain responsible for the perfect pitch and speech. This term used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to look at the planun temporale in non-musicians and professional musicians, some with perfect pitch and some without it. They discovered that the planum temporale in those with perfect pitch was twice as large as the other groups. Also with perfect pitch has started a music lesson before age seven. Rauscher et al. (1997) found that musicians had thicker nerve fibers in the corpus callosum, the part of the brain that carries signals between the two hemispheres, if they started keyboard training before the age of seven. Babo (2001) discussed, researchers, work at the University of Konstanz in Germany which focused that exposure to music helped to rewire neural circuits. They concluded that the brains of pianists were more efficient at making skilled movements than the brains of others. These findings suggested that musical training could enhance brain function (Trainor and Schmidt, 2003). Schlaug et al. (1995) used MRI to discover that musicians who started studying music before the age of 7 had regions in their brains (the corpus callosum and the right motor cortex) that were larger than corresponding regions in both non-musicians and musicians whose training began at a later age. However, in response to questions about his study, Schlaug et al preferred not to recommend when music should be taught, since some very skilled musicians began performing in their twenties or thirties. Schlaug et al. also reported that most musicians who have perfect pitch started music lessons before the age of seven. However, according to Diamond and Hopson (1998), early music training is associated with more growth in this one particular brain region. if training starts later or is absent altogether, perfect pitch rarely shows up (p. 4). Zatorre (2003) reported evidence that infants are born with nervous systems devoted exclusively to music. Studies are showing that early and ongoing musical training can help organize and develop children’s brains. In a study to determine the effect of systematic prenatal musical stimulation by observing musical behaviors exhibited between birth and 6, Fujioka et al (2006) found that infants who received systematic prenatal musical stimulation exhibited â€Å"remarkable attention behaviors.   Those infants could imitate accurately sounds made by adults (including non-family members), and appear to structure vocalization much earlier than infants who did not have prenatal musical training (p. 21).   Only quite the researches focused on the prenatal musical training of the fetus. Personal Reflection I believe that musicians have more active contribution to brain development because they are required to perform in more complex sequences of finger movements. Musicians are regularly adapting to decisions on tempo, tone, style, rhythm, phrasing and feeling-training the brain to become incredibly good at organizing and performing a lot of activities all at the same time. Musicians in my point of view, exercise orchestration that have better payoff for lifelong attention skills, intelligence and skills in self-knowledge and self-expression. In my own opinion, there is a significant relationship between music and brain development. There is an interrelationship between music and education because of the eight basic intelligences:   linguistic; logical-mathematical; spatial; bodily-kinesthetic; musical; interpersonal; intrapersonal; and naturalist. Although, these intelligences are different from musical intelligences:emotional, spiritual and cultural than the other kinds of intelligences. Most importantly, he assumed that music could help some organize the way they think and work by helping them develop in other areas, such as math, language, and spatial reasoning. Gardner criticized school districts that sacrificed music in children’s education, calling them â€Å"arrogant and ignorant about the value of music education† (p. 142). Essay 2-The Mozart Effect Rauscher et al. (1993) used the term Mozart effect to describe the results of their study on the relationship between music and spatial task performance. It is based on the ears role in the development of movement, balance, language and pre-verbal communication as well as the integration of neurological responses stimulated by music The Mozart effect also refers to the way music is used to enhance the quality of life. For example, music helps children in obtaining good health, education, and creativity (Cjabris, 1999).   Rauscher et al. (1997) gave a group of college students three 10-minute-long sets of standard IQ spatial reasoning tasks: listening to a Mozart sonata for two pianos, listening to a relaxation tape, and sitting through silence. The results showed that the individuals who listened to Mozart had a distinct advantage in spatial task performance. Steele et al (1999) noted that students performed better on the abstract/spatial reasoning tests after listening to Mozart than after listening to either the relaxation tape or to nothing† (p. 2). Although conditions differed significantly between music, silence, and relaxation, Shaw and his colleagues were careful to qualify the study results. Although spatial reasoning test scores rose as a result of listening to Mozarts piano sonata in D major (K488), the effects were temporary. Jenkins (2001) noted that the enhancing effect of the music condition is temporary, and does not extend beyond the 10-15 minute period during which subjects were engaged in each spatial task (Rauscher et al., 1993, p. 2). The authors posed several questions for further research: â€Å"Could varying the amount of listening time optimize the Mozart effect? Could listening to Mozart also enhance other intelligence measures such as short-term memory, verbal reasoning, and quantitative reasoning? Would other kinds of music have an effect on IQ performance† (p. 2)? Though the answers to these questions were unclear, the authors concluded that music lacking in complexity failed to enhance performance. They also concluded that the complexity of Mozarts music was responsible for its enhancing effect. Rauscher et al. replicated and extended these findings in 1995. They used the same tasks used in their first experiment but extended the types of listening examples used. College students were divided into 3 groups: those exposed to silence, the same Mozart music used in the 1993 study, and a piece by Philip Glass. As before, the Mozart group showed a significant increase in spatial IQ scores. Tomatis, a French physician, psychologist, and educator, researched the connection between early childhood development in the 1960s and the music of Mozart (Jenkins, 2001). College students listened to a Mozart sonata, then performed complicated visual tasks involving cutting and folding paper. However, there was no difference in the way these tasks were performed by either the students who listened to the sonata or the control groups who just relaxed before taking the test or listened to other kinds of music. Schellenberg (2006) pointed out that the studies on music instruction insubstantial overall because researchers only tried to repeat and extend their findings. For example, no one knew exactly which kind of musical training produced results and which kinds did not, who benefited most from it, and how long any intellectual gains resulting from music training lasted. In another study, Chabris (1999) reviewed previous studies and compared the effects of the Mozart recordings. Results revealed a statistically insignificant increase in the ability of individuals to complete tasks requiring spatial visualization skills and abstract reasoning. Chabris noted that if listening to Mozart improves cognitive performance at all, its by improving overall cognitive arousal and concentration. It shouldnt be viewed as an intellectual miracle drug (p. 1). Steele (2001) agreed with Chabris, by stating that â€Å"there is a problem with the concept of classical music as Gatorade for the brain† (p. 1). A number of other researchers (Crncec et al, 2006) supported the belief that classical music does not increase basic intelligence. Rauscher, et l (1995) noted that because many researchers only measured the effect on general intelligence instead of on spatial-temporal abilities, they failed when they tried to repeat the original experiment. In 1995, Rauscher et al. replicated this study and again found that spatial-temporal reasoning improved after listening to the Mozart Sonata. Though daily exposure to Mozart’s music produced daily increases in scores, this effect did not apply to all styles of music or to all areas of intelligence. For example, Phillip Glass’ minimalist music did not enhance spatial-temporal reasoning. Further, the students’ scores did not improve when they performed a short-term memory task after listening to Mozart. Rauscher et al. (1999) concluded that â€Å"although the Mozart effect is intriguing and holds great promise for further explorations into the transfer of musical processing to other domains of reasoning, merely listening to music probably does not lead to lasting enhancement of spatial-temporal intelligence. Listening to music is a passive experience for most people, and does not require the involvement that actively creating music does† (p. 2).   This observation led researchers to suspect that actively creating music has greater benefits for spatial temporal intelligence than simply listening to it. Combining separate elements of an object into a whole or arranging them in a specific order are spatial-temporal operations. They require successive steps, which are dependent upon previous steps. Spatial-logical operations also require recognition of similarities or differences among objects and are generally one-step processes. For example, a child who is asked to classify objects according to their color or shape would be performing a spatial-logical operation. The Rauscher et al. (1999) model predicted that music training may increase spatial-temporal task scores, but not necessarily spatial-logical tasks. These studies did suggest casual relationships between music and spatial task performance. The authors concluded that music education was helpful for maximum cognitive development by demonstrating that music could improve the intellectual functioning of children. Personal Reflection In my own opinion, the study in Mozart effect is a new proof of music’s education and its importance. Since it is believed to development a child’s IQ, schools must offer music programs to help their students in a very substantial way. Music educators should work towards the inclusion of music education in the curriculum of public education. Also, the publics perception of music education must be altered so that policymakers in education are forced to provide for conditions where music education may thrive. Many educators and researchers posit that music should be a more central part of   the school curriculum in light of studies that demonstrate a relationship between music and intellectual growth. Also, tentative research findings in support of music education have shown that people believe that there is an essential value to learning about music. Diamond (1998) argued that learning to play an instrument could increase a childs capacity for voluntary attention (p. 7), while Porter (1998) concluded that music can teach â€Å"discipline, care, concentration, and perseverance† (p. 7). Music Learning and Memory for Music When memory for a sequence of visually presented letters is tested, the marked recency effect that characterizes studies of the PAS system is absent. Nonetheless, clear evidence of phonological coding is found in the form of a marked effect of phonological similarity ( Schlkind et al, 2003). auditory input. Further evidence for the interaction between self-generated phonological codes and auditory input is, of course, offered by the irrelevant speech effect. Performance is impaired by unwanted spoken material, with the crucial feature of the material being its phonological rather than its semantic characteristics, again suggesting that the interaction is occurring at a common phonological level ( Dowling, 1994). It should be pointed out at this stage, however, that the nature of the irrelevant sound is crucial. While speech in a foreign language is quite disruptive to performance, white noise is not, even when the intensity of the noise is pulsed so as to resemble the intensity envelope of the speech signal that has been shown to disrupt memory ( Dowling et al, 1995). The fact that memory is more disrupted by vocal than by nonvocal music might seem to suggest that the system is essentially speech based. It is possible, however, that the greater disruption by speech reflects the nature of the primary task, namely remembering digits, a task that is likely to operate principally in terms of the spoken names of the digits. It is entirely conceivable that a different primary task would lead to a different degree of disruption. One possibility then might be to look at studies investigating memory for environmental sounds. Unfortunately, the evidence in this area seems to be relatively sparse. Deutsch (2004) showed that their patient was better at remembering environmental sounds than spoken digits, but, unfortunately, it is possible that the task was done by first identifying the sounds and then remembering them semantically. Personal Reflection . Thinking of music memory as schematic is probably accurate for many of the interactions that both trained and untrained people have with music. However, recently I have become interested in the nature of representation when memory for music is essentially perfect. Whereas it appears that the majority of work in music cognition has examined short-term memory, I would like to examine longterm memory. By this I mean that I am interested in the way well-learned music is represented. People are able to remember a large repertory of music and retain it for many years. What kinds of codes make this retention possible? Clearly, proposing verbal codes in the traditional sense is impractical when trying to understand memory for melody (as opposed to the lyrics in vocal music). Even if we assume that a small minority of musicians can encode tunes in terms of musical structure, motor commands, or musical notation, the successful retention of music by untrained people suggests the existence of other types of durable codes. The explication of those codes has been the goal of my current program of research References    Blood, A., Zatorre, R. (2001). Intensely pleasurable responses to music correlate with activity in brain regions implicated in reward and emotion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,98, 11818-11823. Brust, J. (2003). Music and the neurologist: A historical perspective. In I.Peretz, R. Zatorre (Eds.) The cognitive neuroscience of music (pp. 181-191). New York: Oxford University Press. Chabris, C (1999). Prelude or requiem for the ‘Mozart effect’? Nature, 400, 6747, 826-7. 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