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Affirmative Action Affirmative action in the United States is loosely defined as a policy that redresses the disadvantages of certain minority groups as a result of past discrimination, such as African Americans and Latinos, by giving them preferential treatment with respect to employment and university admissions. In particular, affirmative action has generated a great deal of controversy in university admissions, which has resulted in several Supreme Court cases. Proponents of the policy claim that affirmative action is permissible because a) certain racial groups have suffered from a long past of discrimination and b) there is evidence showing the educational benefits that result from a racially diverse student body reflective of the racial makeup of the United States. Although affirmative action may be a well-intentioned policy whose supporting arguments are based upon true historic facts, the policy as a whole is morally impermissible and only serves to perpetuate the issues it claims to address. In addition, the arguments in favor of affirmative action have several key issues, which include: a) not all groups that have suffered from discrimination benefit from the policy, b) using the two wrongs make a right fallacy to justify discrimination against nonminority groups, c) vague terms such as â€Å"critical mass,† d) assuming that an applicant is disadvantaged solely on the basis of race, e) stereotyping minority groups, and f) the contested definition of race in general. For centuries, African Americans and Native Americans have suffered from blatant discrimination, unjustified theft of land, grueling enslavement, death marches, cruel medical experiments, systematic lynchings, and genocide. Although most Hispanics never had to co... ... believe blacks can achieve in every avenue of American life without the meddling of university administrators.† Therefore, the solution to this issue of academic performance is bettering the education system in poverty stricken areas. If all racial and economic groups had access to equal educational opportunities, then they would all have the same capability to succeed in university admissions, given they are determined to do so. In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: â€Å"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.† Unfortunately, Dr. King’s dream has not yet come true, since African Americans are still judged (whether it be positively or negatively is beside the point) on the basis of their skin color when it comes to college admissions.

Managing challenges for the 21st century

â€Å"Drucker's ideas continue to display a force and resonance that leave him pretty much in a class by himself. It is impossible to read the man without learning a lot.† —Fortune Magazine Advent of globalization has reformatted the business principles and this book is a perfect guide to show the way to conquer new world which is more dynamic, confident and aggressive. Before Peter Drucker, most people thought about their businesses with a manufacturing mindset, defining a business based on what it produced. Today, the marketing mindset prevails. It was Drucker's critical insight that instead of buying a â€Å"product† the customer buys the satisfaction of a need. Drucker has reinvented the management principles to make them fit into the present world and can be proved more suitable in the current management framework. Drucker identifies new assumptions for the social discipline of management.  He has claimed that Management is NOT only for profit-making businesses but Management is the specific and distinguishing organ of any and all organizations. This revolutionary concept can bow the seed of future methods of business and can turn around the whole institutive scenario to create a completely different set of business leaders. Gone are the days when companies were making big profits and hence were focusing the management principles only towards profit earnings. Today’s world is flat and the competitions are monopolistic, in fact tends to perfect competition. In this scenario adhering to old management principles are like suicide. Second assumption is that never think that there is only one right organization which is again very relevant in present context. He has made a significant point over management of people. In Drucker’s view, One does not â€Å"manage† people. The task is to lead people. And the goal is to make productive the specific strengths and knowledge of each individual. Next assumption he made is that technologies and End-Users are NOT fixed and given. Increasingly, neither technology nor end-use is a foundation of management policy. They are limitations. The foundations have to be customer values and customer decisions on the distribution of their disposable income. It is with those that management policy and management strategy increasingly will have to start. Drucker’s book critically emphasizes the role of customer in today’s market scenario. He focuses on the point that now customer are the central point and business has to start and end at customer. Three things are important to run an effective business set up in present marketplace and that is customer, customer and only customer. Business has to be woven around the needs of the customer and ultimate goal should be customer satisfaction. He has quoted next assumption saying that Management's scope is NOT only legally defined. The new assumption on which management, both as a discipline and as a practice, will increasingly have to base itself is that the scope of management is not legal. It has to be operational. It has to embrace the entire process. It has to be focused on results and performance across the entire economic chain. He also said that Management's scope is NOT only politically defined. National boundaries are important primarily as restraints. The practice of management  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ and by no means for business only  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ will increasingly have to be defined operationally rather than politically. This assumption has to be adopted by new world immediately in light of the â€Å"open world concept† and â€Å"world is flat† concept. Seventh assumption he made on the organizational atmosphere. He explained that the Inside is NOT the only Management domain. The results of any institution exist ONLY on the outside. Management exits for the sake of the institution's results. It has to start with the intended results and organize the resources of the institution to attain these results. It is the organ that renders the institution, whether business, church, university, hospital or a battered woman's shelter, capable of producing results outside of itself. Lastly he declared the most important assumption that Management’s concern and management's responsibility are everything that affects the performance of the institution and its results – whether inside or outside, whether under the institution's control or totally beyond it. This way he brought the managerial concept at the core of all the issues whether be political or economical or anything. His point of opinion is that the new world will be a economic world where money will be the most important thing and managerial discipline are the most efficient organ of the nation which can help keeping the country self sufficient and create bonhomie everywhere. Therefore Drucker explains in a instructive tone that managers has to be responsible and they have to start thinking out of the box to consistently keep taking the extra steps in right direction. In the course of the discussions, Drucker also addresses the ultimate challenge of managing oneself while still meeting the demands on the individual during a longer working life and in an ever-changing workplace. He has always understood that people are deeply-and rightly-resistant to being â€Å"managed.† This point is especially relevant for knowledge workers, who know more about their jobs than their bosses do. For them, supervision is a special kind of hell. This is why good managers help people manage themselves by focusing consistently on performance and results and by teaching them, often by example, to think about what they are good at, how they learn, what they value. Such self-knowledge is essential to performance. Drucker has also introduced the effect of being a change leader. In the course of discussion he gives four requirements for change leadership:- 1. Polices to make the future. 2. Systematic methods to look for and to anticipate change. 3. The right way to introduce change, both within and outside the organization. 4. Policies to balance change and continuity. In chapter-4, Drucker has navigated through the concept of information technology. Information is no doubt the most important tool to create a successful business setups. Drucker describes the new information revolution that is gaining momentum as follows. So far, for fifty years, Information Technology has centered on DATA -their collection, storage, transmission, presentation. It has focused on the ‘T' in ‘IT'. The new information revolutions focus on the ‘I'. They ask, ‘what is the MEANING of information and its PURPOSE?' And this is leading rapidly to redefining the tasks to be done with the help of information and, with it, to redefining the institutions that do these tasks.† As long as the world continues to become more complex and specialized, information management is essentially a critical part of all businesses and act as blood and vein for industry. The last chapter of the book, managing oneself, is completely devoted to the individual. Drucker advises persons to work on their strengths in order to maximize performance. Conclusion: This book is highly recommended for tyros and young turks. This book is envisaging enough eye opener facts, which can help company grow to the maximum level by reinventing and managing the organizational principles and the level of knowledge workers who will face new challenges in the 21st century. Incisive, challenging, and mind-stretching, Drucker's new book is forward-looking and forward thinking. It combines the broad knowledge, wide practical experience, profound insight, sharp analysis, and enlightened common sense that are the essence of Drucker's writings, which are continuing international bestsellers and â€Å"landmarks of the managerial profession† (Harvard Business Review).            

Market Segmentation for Lawn Mowers Essay

Introduction In this document, we will analyse the current market of lawnmowers in Portugal. By recognising this market and its products with distinct characteristics, we will perform a customer segmentation, which will allow us to divide the market into small groups. Through the segmentation of the lawnmower market, it will be possible to achieve a greater proximity to the final customer; create advertising media that target the identified segments; facilitate the positioning of the product; and obtain the return on investment by the company. The developments and technological diversity provided by all the competitors operating in the sector has shown that this market is very competitive nowadays. Thus, it is imperative that a strategic shift is implemented, which is more focused on meeting the needs of the customer. The notorious falling sales in the sector since 2008 were of equal importance, although the explanation of this phenomenon lies in the national and international economy situation. To analyze the current market of lawnmowers in Portugal, we started to make a small market research. To get a concrete â€Å"shape†, we went to one of the biggest players in the market – Leroy Merlin, who kindly gave us some informations which served as basis for this assignment and which allow us to have a better vision of what is happening in the lawn care industry. GOALS By segmenting the market of mowers you can:  · Get a closer relationship with the end consumer;  · Create advertising media that are targeted to the identified segments;  · Facilitate the positioning of the product;  · And monetize coveted by the company. This last point is usually associated with Increase sales, Increase profits, Increase sales dealer channel. Segmentation There are several types of lawnmowers available on the market: manual, battery – powered or gas – powered models, are some of the options. There are ways to segment the lawnmower market : Customer characteristics †¢ Geographic ( region, city size, and so on ) †¢ Demographic ( gender, age, race, household size, and so on ) †¢ Socioeconomic ( income, education, occupation, and so on ) †¢ Psychographic ( lifestyle, personality, and so on ) Buying situation †¢ Benefits sought ( product features, quality, service, warranty ) †¢ Usage rate – quantity purchased during a specific period Based on the market research that we conducted, we restricted the types of lawn mowers to non-powered, powered and powered riding for three different market segments : urban, suburban and rural. (POR TABELA DE PERCENTAGEM) The percentages given are based on the literature, as well as the information given by the head of the gardening sector at Leroy Merlin, which we visited, in Alfragide. Against this backdrop, the most attractive segment seems to be that of the consumers who live in the suburban area and who use powered walk-behind lawn mowers. However, this segment may already be flooded with competition, it may be more beneficial to target a small segment of consumers, like urban consumers using non-powered or powered walking mowers. The smallest segment may be the most profitable and lucrative. Conclusion From our research we ​​can segment the market of lawnmowers in Portugal as: mainly directed to male gender, between 35-55 years old, who lives in the suburbs of large cities, in a house with a garden area between 1.000 to 2.150 square feet of grass; with a household of four people and average income between â‚ ¬ 20.000 and â‚ ¬ 30.000 per year. The most chosen mower for this kind of segment is the electric powered one, in spite of major disadvantage of requiring a wire plugged to work, which makes that their use is impractical for those who have large estates. It is noteworthy that one of the great advantages of an electric lawn mower is that it does not require extensive maintenance. With the displacement of many ex-urbanites to the most suburban areas of large cities, the growth of lawnmowers little by little began to live better days. With this segmentation, we believe that  the Finnish company will take advantage of this kind of market penetration. Faced with fierce competition (AKI Group, IZI-MESTRE MACO, LEROY MERLIN, BRICOMARCHÉ, BRICO LECLERC and also in many other customers in traditional market said: Garden Centres, Hardware Stores, Drugstores, Building Materials Stores and other sited North to South), the Finnish company will have to differentiate the products presented, as well as in the developed marketing campaigns, satisfying specific needs and desires of this kind of consumers. Bibliography: Market Segmentation: How to Do It and How to Profit from It, Malcolm McDonald Butterworth-Heinemann, 2012 Market Segmentation: Conceptual and Methodological Foundations, Michel Wedel, ‎Wagner A. Kamakura – 2000 Handbook of Market Segmentation: Strategic Targeting for Business and Technology firms, 3rd edition, Art Weinstein, PhD, 2004 Market Segmentation Success: Making It Happen!, Sally Dibb, ‎Lyndon Simkin – 2013 a

Crime Examined Through Four Theoretical Perspectives

Crime Examined through Four theoretical Perspectives Crime is defined as a breach of rules or laws that have been set by the government. Society has been given a set of rules that everyone who believes in good morals, follow. A crime would be anyone who has broken these set of laws for personal reasons such as greed. As of 2006, the crime rate of Toronto was 1,000 per 100,000. This has as shown a decrease since 2002. Crime has become an entity that is a part of society, without it, society would not function correctly. In the study of sociology, crime can be explained in four theoretical perspectives; Functionalism, conflict, interactionism, and feminism. Functionalism is a theoretical orientation which views society as a system of interdependent parts whose functions contribute to keep society alive and stable. Crime has been a part of society since the beginning and yet we have not done anything drastic to reduce or even remove it because it is needed for society to function normally. Crime has become the somewhat normal in society because of it creates employment opportunities for everyone. Law enforcement, lawyers and judges, security guards all have jobs built around the negativity of crime. People commit crimes for personal reasons such as to support family, themselves, and/or drug addictions. There are endless reasons to why people commit crimes. When a crime has been committed, it disrupts social by changing the normal function of society. The Conflict theory is a perspective that accentuates the social status, political, and discrimination in the social group. Society has a stereotypical view on those who commit a crime. Race and social status has played a large role in this discrimination. Crimes

Report style Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Report style - Essay Example One of the most important target audiences would be teens and adults that embrace a healthier lifestyle, and as such it is the case that a soft drink could be developed to match the needs of this demographic. A few considerations should be made as to what people would be looking for. Should a drink be made no-calorie, mid-calorie or standard-calorie? If designing a drink around health benefits one is naturally inclined to desire a no-calorie drink however this may draw attention from consumers who are opposed to using aspartame or other non sugar based sweeteners. Moreover the company does not want to draw comparisons with their last mid calorie drink launch ‘Coke Blak† which more or less was a ultimately withdrawn from the market owing to the fact that he company had a poor marketing strategy and the product generally had a displeasing taste. In this regard the company could look to a full calorie beverage but the question remains as to how a healthy image could be promo ted? In this regard, Coca-Cola should look to creating a natural version of its drink which has all of the same properties of its current beverage but without using high fructose corn syrup, preservatives, colouring and utilizing naturally sourced ingredients. From this perspective the company can compete head on with Pepsi-Raw but it can still be promoted as a healthy alternative to most soft drinks. Why this proposal would be successful is two fold. Firstly this product satisfies a need in the market owing to the fact that most soft-drinks and energy drinks are either saturated with standard sweetning agents or with sugar substitutes where there has been very little presence of a ‘all natural’ soft drink. Moreover this product could appeal to a generation of people that are still interested in treating themselves to a soft-drink yet do not want to drink all of the related chemicals assuming an effective marketing and promotion strategy is

Prepare an international marketing environment analysis report for Essay

Prepare an international marketing environment analysis report for Australia - Essay Example The benefits of adoption of technology are reduced costs, new products and higher quality. Australia has a strong financial regulations and institutions which makes the business environment healthy. Introduction Australia is a country which comprises of the mainland of Australian continent, Tasmanian Island and smaller islands. It is sixth-largest country in the world by total area. It is a developed country and also one of the wealthiest of countries in the world. It is presently the world’s 12th largest economy. Australia has achieved second-highest human development index globally. It has achieved good performance in many vital statistics like health, quality of life, protection of civil liberties, economic freedom and political rights. Australia has a high urbanized population. In terms of trade Australia has given major emphasis on exporting manufactured goods. For more than 50 years, Australia has been facing a large current account deficit. For more than 15 years their GDP has grown by over 3.6% which is satisfactory as compared to other OECD average of 2.5%. During financial downturn in 2008-2009, Australia was the only advanced economy which had not been affected. But being a global economy Australia faced the effect because their trades with other countries got affected. It was during 2012 to early 2013, Australia faced major recession in some non-mining states. Inflation rate in Australia has been under control averaging about 2-3%. The major sector which contributes to the GDP is tourism, education, economy, financial services. They contribute about 70% of GDP to Australia’s economy. Australia’s major export includes agricultural products, like wool, wheat, minerals etc. International marketing environment in Australia The important factors of International marketing environment of Australia are as follows: Political environment Australia is a liberal-capitalistic democracy. Through government interference, they can decide the a mount of importation taxes to be imposed to protect the domestic economy. They can also create an environmental protection laws to protect the natural heritage of the country. It will automatically affect the Australian economy, since it will affect the amount of trade which takes place and also the exchange rates faced by it. With the global financial meltdown the Australian economy slowed down. The Australian economy is expected to grow due to its demand for raw materials from China. Since Australia exports vastly in iron ore and other agricultural products, the recession had comparatively less effect on them. Economic Environment Australia is lies between Antarctica and Asia. It has Indian Ocean to the west, Arafura, Timor and Coral Seas to the north, The Tasman Sea and the Southern Ocean to its south and finally Pacific Ocean to its east. This shows that Australia is at a strategic advantage in terms of exports and imports. But much of the country is dry, low and flat. Due to th is harsh physical environment people live close to the fertile coastal areas. Everyone wants to own home, and hence the nation has a high number of home ownership rates (Mulligan, 1996, p. 453). Hence the real

XBRL Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

XBRL - Research Paper Example It allows semantic meaning that is required for reporting financial and non financial information of businesses. This technology uses XML based language. The main objective of XBRL is to prepare and exchange financial information for further usage of it like analysis of financial information for investment decision making. It is a standard way to communicate with the stakeholders of the businesses through sharing financial information. Specification of standardization of information is developed and published by XBRL International Inc. The information on the XBRL platform can be freely downloaded especially the financial statements can be downloaded as spreadsheet format so that it can be easily used for further analysis (AICPA. 2012, p.1). The information will also be available in multiple languages to meet the purpose of mass target audiences. The professional users of financial statements of business like the security analysts can analyze the company’s financial information by comparing with other competitors very easily. This will be assist by getting automating filling of business information which can be easily compared with the previous financial figures. Again this helps analysts to increase speed along with high level of accuracy of data. The XBRL platform also provides the relevant definition of each reporting concepts and the relationship among various financial parameters and reporting concepts. XBRL facilitates the preparers of financial information of the companies to utilize freely accessible software to tag quarterly and annual financial information within taxonomy. This information is accomplished in an Instance Document that can be easily accessible by the target audiences. This information can be electronically exchanged and also can be validated in computers and also can be readable by the users from any part of the world. XBRL has published guideline for the users in its websites to help the preparers of financial statements (FFIEC, 2006, p.2). What information is required to be provided in XBRL? Requirement of information XBRL has been revised but there is no major change in the basic format of disclosed information in the periodic report or registration statement for new XBRL requirement. One minor change is that the companies have to provide financial statements along with the statement schedule and footnotes. The companies do not need to provide information about executive compensation and statistical disclosure of financial performance in a specific financial year. The companies must have to provide quarterly earnings reports, transition reports and annual reports. XBRL wants to extend the contents of Form 8K which will be revised and updated version of the previous financial statements of the companies duly filled with only SEC. XBRL also needs registration statement of limited security act which will update information about change of price range at the time submitting quarterly or annual financial repor t by the companies. Previously the companies need to provide amended at each time of filling in XBRL platform. For merger and acquisition of business registered with XBRL, it needs the detailed information of revised financial structure of the company and details of the acquisition value. XBRL data need registration statement of securities act which must include financial statements like Form S1 and Form S3. This incorporates the financial information provided by the company (SEC, 2009, p.23). What are the perceived benefits of XBRL? Are there any risks and/or drawbacks? XBRL is perceived to be beneficial for both the preparers and the users of financial statements. Financial analysts, regulatory bodies and investors gain more efficient and faster access financial data. This information