Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program Paper

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I  certify that  the attached  paper is my original work. I am familiar with, and acknowledge my responsibilities which are part of, the University of Phoenix Student Code of Academic Integrity. I affirm that any section of the paper which has been submitted previously is attributed and cited as such, and that this paper has not been submitted by anyone else. I have identified the sources of all information whether quoted verbatim or paraphrased, all images, and all quotations with citations and reference listings. Along with citations and reference listings, I have used quotation marks to identify quotations of fewer than 40 words and have used block indentation for quotations of 40 or more words. Nothing in this assignment violates copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property laws. I further agree that my name typed  on the line below is intended to have, and shall have, the same validity as my handwritten signature. Student's  signature (name typed here is equivalent to a signature): Dwayne Wilson Individual Assignment MKT 421 Dwayne Wilson 11/01/2011 Terry Booker Marketing definitions Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. Approved October 2007) 1: the act or process of selling or purchasing in a market b: the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service 2: an aggregate of functions involved in moving goods from producer to consumer At its base, marketing is about the strategies and tactics you use to identify and cultivate the market for your products/services – so it would seem to be pretty important to overall organizational success. Personal definiti on My personal definition of marketing is where the producer attempts to discover a way for the consumer to agree to purchase their product. An exchange (if you will) of product for money. The Importance of Marketing in Organizational Success The degree of importance is arguable based on the industry, but I can't think of any business that can survive without giving some thought to the way in which they grow demand for what they're selling. In many businesses, marketing needs to be a core concern, and often the overriding concern when it comes to running a successful business. The importance of marketing in organization success is the competition that might occur, challenge, team player, co-operation, confidence, big thinking, and self-esteem. Marketing means the organizations needs to reach for certain goal to complete their organization To describe the importance of marketing, one need not look further than this quote from Regis McKenna, â€Å"Marketing is everything, and everything is marketing. † Everyone is exposed to marketing daily, even when they don’t know it. Billboards surround the nation’s roads. Logos appear everywhere from t-shirts to the center field of the â€Å"Tostitos† Fiesta Bowl. When a teenager is begging his dad to use the family car, he is in fact, marketing himself to his father for the exchange of the keys. And that is what marketing is about, trying to create exchanges that satisfy and benefit both parties. No consumer can escape from marketing campaigns, and no business should be operating without a marketing plan to identify potential customers, meet their needs and wants, and keep them coming back for more. You will hear about the 4 â€Å"P’s† of the marketing mix which are the important elements of a marketing plan. How your future customers are identified and place between the cross-wires with marketing research and target marketing. To get a specific message to a specific customer, one must be familiar with direct marketing. Internet marketing is one of more recent trends that many organizations are looking at. Overall this section should help you learn about the importance for small businesses to implement marketing plans It is important for marketing efforts to be customer-oriented. When marketing a product or service, the organization must be certain that the product or service that they are providing is one that the customer wants. Quite often marketing efforts fail when the organization developed the product/service first, then tried to convince it’s customer to buy it. One of the greatest marketing flops of all time was when the Coca-Cola Company decided to change it’s formula in 1985 and introduced it as â€Å"New Coke. † It was a disaster. Sales of the New Coke were very low and the Coca-Cola Company was receiving many phone calls and letters from angry customers who demanded the old formula back. The Coca-Cola Company brought back the old formula two months later. Reintroduced as â€Å"Coca-Cola Classic,† it was sold along with New Coke and outsold it by two to one in supermarkets. The Coke case is a classic example of what happens when an organization fails to conduct proper marketing research. The key for a successful marketing effort is maintaining a level of customer satisfaction while at the same time, creating a profit for the organization. Profits must be made in order for the organization to continue to do business. Marketing is a concept that is always evolving. New definitions of marketing are being written daily. Marketing plans are an inessential component for all businesses. All businesses that are successful have followed a plan. Their success did not happen because of luck, it happened because the success was planned. A marketing plan helps establish, coordinate, and direct marketing efforts. It forces the organization to take a good, hard look at the market of your field and what is currently happening to it. It’s a time to establish marketing goals and objectives, which can be later used for benchmarking yourself. Marketing plans helps keep the organization on the right track by following the guidelines it sets. It is also critical when trying to borrow money. When an organization plans to allow you to borrow money or invest in your organization, they require to examine your business plan. The marketing plan is a critical part of the business plan. Marketing Plan Elements: Executive Summary: brief explanation of what the organization does, its mission statement, the management’s infrastructure, and a short summary about the marketing objectives and the proposed plan. * Current Marketing Situation: provides information about the current location, the target markets, and competitors in the market. * Competitor and Issue Analysis: a more detailed description about the competition. Also includes potential challenges that could arise in the future due to business issue. * Marketing Objectives: where the marketing goals and financial objectives are set. Objectives should be challenging, yet attainable for the organization. * Marketing Strategy: plan for meeting the marketing objectives. Incorporates the marketing mix. * Action Programs: an explanation of the different tasks of the marketing strategy. What will be done? When will it be done by? Who will do it? What will it cost? * Budget: A more detailed look at the cost of the proposed marketing activities. * Measurements: sets levels to measure if objectives are being met. Sets timeline to meet these measurable objectives. * Supportive Documents: references to support the marketing plan. Includes the marketing research report. * Controls: monitoring system for the marketing plan. Monthly or quarterly checklists to insure that the plan is operating effectively. Also included contingency plans. Plans of action in the event of a crisis. It is important to regularly update your marketing plan. The market changes almost by the hour. The first marketing plan you create probably will not be effective in the future. Sources http://www. marketingpower. com/AboutAMA/Pages/DefinitionofMarketing. aspx http://www. merriam-webster. com/dictionary/marketing

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Essay

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein tells the story of Victor’s ambition to successfully create a life through the use of science. In the present times, this is closely known as genetic engineering or cloning, wherein a scientist or a doctor dabbles in the works of creating a new life or transforming a life through science and technology. Shelley shows in her work that Victor had successfully created a being, however it stunned him, not in amazement but in hatred and fear of the misshapen creature he has created. The creature that Victor created was adultlike like in its physique but childlike in its mind. Its innocence became its downfall as it slowly learned, the hard way, that it is not a normal human being but a reject of the society because of its appearance. This led to its violent rampage destroying the things that it desires, belongingness in the society, and created an even more fearsome aura that caused people, even its creator, a deeper terror and horror in its existence. This shows that such inventions and discoveries does not necessarily mean success in the world of science as such creatures do not play a significant role in making the lives of people better. This indicates that science and technology has a great power in playing with fate and lives that people tend to question its ethics, morals and values. Shelley successfully presents in her work that science has to consider certain ethics and morals with its inventions, thinking about the purpose and result of the work in the world of humans. Ethics and morals are the basis of how humans live and think. The society strongly against inventions such as cloning and genetic engineering because of these values. Although the value life is a strong motive for dabbling into the arts of creating or transforming human life, the society thinks immoral of such actions because it makes the creator play with life, which in a religious or ethical sense, humans cannot play with. Shelley’s Frankenstein shows that playing with fate and life has its consequences. Something that is created from the pieces of humanity cannot be entirely human on its own. Rejection is always present in society, and it cannot be blamed on the people when a creature, as misshapen as Frankenstein roams the streets without full knowledge of what life is. The lesson the Shelley leaves her readers is the importance of considering how knowledge is to be used for humanity and to improve human life. Another impacting thought that Shelley leaves is the significance of proper teaching of the masters to their students. When Victor showed an uncanny interest in modern science, his teachers dismissed his curiousity without explaining to him why such fascination is dangerous and not worth paying attention to. Victor turned to modern science because of the limitations of alchemy. He combined his knowledge of aggripa, alchemy and the modern science to turn create a new life that he later rejected and loathed. Both the educators and the students have a responsibility in what they do and the results of their actions. Before any scientific invention and discovery is pursued, ethical considerations, moral responsibility and purpose is to be weighed. Educators and students should look at their works with purpose and not just because they wanted to create something new. They have to consider the results of such actions, and if it will result to something that is not beneficial for human life and will endanger the morals and values of the society, then it should be discouraged. Science and technology is something that is to be used to improve human life not destroy it.

Emotional Intelligence & Its Importance For Leaders Essay

Much has been written about leadership and the qualities that fuel leadership such as intelligence, toughness, determination, credibility, vision, etc. Often left off are the lists softer and more personal qualities, but recent studies have proven that they are equally important. Researchers have proposed a new term called ‘Emotional Intelligence’, and it may well help differentiate the outstanding leaders from the merely adequate ones. Emotional Intelligence must somehow combine two of the three states of mind: cognition and affect, or intelligence and emotion. It has been described by many as the ability to understand and perceive emotions and to be able to generate emotions in order to aid the thought process, and to be able to effectively regulate emotions so as to ensure intellectual and emotional growth (â€Å"EI†). Both nature and nurture feed into emotional intelligence, which is what management literature suggests. Emotional intelligence if deployed wisely and compassionately, spurs leaders, the followers, and the entire organization to superior performance; conversely, if naively or maliciously applied, it might paralyze leaders or allow them to manipulate followers for personal gain, which would lead in employee dissatisfaction and lack of commitment. Mayor and Salovey proposed a four step EI model which can assist leaders in integrating emotion and thinking. Identifying Emotions is the first step which is the ability to recognize how you and those around you are feeling (â€Å"EI†). Using emotions to facilitate thought which is the ability to generate an emotion, and then reason with this emotion, (also called Emotional Facilitation of Thought, or Assimilating Emotions) comes second(â€Å"EI†). The last two are Understanding Emotions and managing them. Understanding Emotions not only includes understanding complex human emotions but also emotional â€Å"chains†, i. e. how emotions transition from one stage to another, whereas, Managing Emotions allows you to manage emotions in yourself and in others(â€Å"EI†). However, according to Daniel Goleman, there are five components to emotional intelligence; †¢ Self-awareness †¢ Self-regulation †¢ Motivation †¢ Empathy †¢ Social skill (Goleman, 1998) Self-awareness is the trait where emotional intelligence actually begins, leaders with higher degree of self-awareness are never hesitant to talk about and discuss their weaknesses and it is this attitude that later brings upon a positive change in them as they are able to improve upon their weaknesses with time. This helps a leader in bringing about change as he is someone who knows his limitations and knows when and where he can actually stand-up and deliver for the rest of the workforce and be a motivator for them, i. e. when can he lead by example. Thus he knows which tasks and changes can actually be brought about in an organization and which ones cannot be. The second trait is self-regulation, and that leaders with this trait can control their emotions and impulses better and channel them for good purposes. This brings about an openness to change in their attitude and behavior, and increases their trustworthiness and integrity, and also helps them remain comfortable in ambiguous situations and scenario. It has a trickle down effect, as no one would want to be known as a hot head in an organization where the boss is known for his cool and calm attitude. Motivation is perhaps the most important trait and the most obvious one that a leader is judged upon. It’s the motivation abilities of a leader that gives the sub-ordinates the notion that the leader has a strong drive to achieve. It portrays the optimism of the leader to the followers, such that they know that their leader would still be optimistic when facing failure, so it has to do more with the mind than anything else. It is the positivity of the mind, it emanates from the mind of the leader and leads its way to the minds of the followers. For a leader empathizing does not mean conforming to other people’s emotions. Rather, it is the ability to understand the emotional makeup of other people. Empathy is the trait that enables a leader to be an expert in building and maintaining talent. It enables him to treat people according to their emotional reactions. With the businesses and economies globalizing, leaders have to lead and manage people belonging to different cultures which is the major reason why change management in such a scenario is very difficult, however, if only a leader can empathize with his followers, it makes the job half as difficult as before. Good leaders generally maintain a large circle of acquaintances. They start off with smaller network of acquaintances and build newer acquaintances from the existing circle. Thus they are not only good at building networks but also finding common ground between individuals in difficult situations and scenarios and build rapport with them. This also improves their persuasiveness and the ability to build and lead teams. True emotional intelligence is not about manipulating people. Emotional intelligence means knowing what you and others are feeling and acting ethically, with a social conscience. Leaders with higher EQ seem to have â€Å"it† together; they are a graceful balance of intellect and emotion. Such leaders possess the ability to inspire their followers, and make them feel good about themselves. All of which is achieved while maintaining their own integrity and sense of personal worth. Hence, no one is diminished by being in their presence. Leadership combines courage with emotional intelligence, courage to ask tough questions, challenge people’s assumptions about strategy and operations, eliminate the existence of the bias caused by conforming to other people’s beliefs and hence risk losing their goodwill. All of this demands commitment, commitment to serving others; skills required for diagnostic, strategic, and tactical reasoning, the resilience to get under the surface of tough realities; and the heart to take criticism and grief, and remain optimistic all the way. A leader has to be aware that surviving will be difficult if one gets into the trouble of a dissonance existing between the inside and the outside – something that is referred as a â€Å"disconnect†. If a single theme runs through this issue, it’s the importance of keeping the two aligned. Every leader ought to want a more supple emotional intelligence, and â€Å"Leading by Feel† is a great place to begin (Mayer, 2004). REFERENCES 1. Goleman, Daniel (1998). What makes a Leader? Harvard Business Review 2. EI. Retrieved April 16, 2008, from emotionaliq. org Web site: http://www. emotionaliq. org/EI. htm 3. Mayer, John (2004) Leading by Feel. Harvard Business Review

Revolutionizing the Retail Sector Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Revolutionizing the Retail Sector - Case Study Example The two systems incorporated advanced technology during their upgrade. Consequently, they reduced the costs that organizations incurred as they used the systems (Heidari, 2008). Additional challenges that the invention of the quantum blade and the retail blade system solved entailed rising ownership costs, incompatibility and in efficiency of systems as well as rising operational costs. Problems Digipos faced with regard to system upgrades Digipos experienced several challenges while designing systems that could reduce cost of operations within businesses. Consequently, the company has struggled to cope with changes in technologies that could tackle the desires of clients. Thirdly, Dogipo’s products were incompatible with other technologies. Additionally, the management wanted to reposition the company as leaders when designing technological products that served the needs of the retail businesses. Digipos was facing stiff competition from other companies that designed technolo gical systems that could be used in the retail environment. Besides, they were unable to design systems that were simple to use. According to Heidari (2008), the challenges that the company faced caused dissatisfaction among the users of the company’s systems. ... As a result, the company formulated systems that set the stage for exemplary results. Consequently, the management embraced the use of advanced technologies while designing systems. This facilitated the design of quantum blade and the retail blade system. Following the inventions, the company engaged in research that enabled the management to design systems that reduce the cost of operation within businesses. Additionally, Digipos designed systems that used reliable hard drives. This method was effective because consumer prefer systems that are reliable when reducing cost of operations (Stair & Reynolds, 2012). People embraced the use of the Quantum Blade and the Retail Blade system because the systems are affordable and simple to upgrade. Digipos has also designed systems that are compatible with systems manufactured by other companies. Digipos is equally succeeding because it focuses on the needs of clients while designing systems. They are also providing clients with several alter natives. In order to reduce the total cost of operation, the company has opted to upgrade their systems in phases to cope with the changes in the technology. It is equally evident that the systems designed by the company can handle difficulties that retailers face while adjusting their systems (Sennewald & Christman, 2008). It was previously costly for small businesses to install systems manufactured by Digipos. However, this changed with the invention quantum blade and the retail blade systems. These systems are inexpensive and easy to upgrade. Compare and contrast the Quantum Blade to the Retail Blade The Quantum Blade and the Retail Blade

Pidgins and Creoles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Pidgins and Creoles - Essay Example A sentence in pidgin lacks prepositions, articles, subordinate clause and auxiliary verbs that connect the subject. Pidgin sentences are a collection of verbs, nouns and adjectives. Though the idea is communicated well, the contextual detail in the information is lost while communicating through a pidgin. Pidgins usually develop into creoles. Creoles follow grammatical rules with common rules for speakers and have a structural format for sentences. The metamorphosis from a pidgin to creoles is viewed as a natural development to the persistence of the language (Stafford). In the creole sentence, 'But how child of uncle Oom do die then', it may be noted that the tense deviates from the standard use of the verb. The phonology is poorly constructed by using the verbs incorrectly, though the message is conveyed to the listener. The word 'do' is improperly used instead of the word 'did', since the reason for death should be asked in the past tense. The poor structure of the sentence and usage of grammar may be attributed to the incapability of the speaker to use the lexis. However, the usage of then at the end of the sentence gives a clear picture to the listener that the speaker is questioning an incident. While analyzing the sentence it... Even if the speaker has used proper grammar the words in the sentence should easily interconnect itself resulting in the usage of a proper lexis (Willis p.23). In the above sentence though the message is communicated through a collection of words, it does not give a pleasing sound to the listener thus substantiating that the sentence is a creole. While evaluating the sentence, 'Yes, be one nice question, TAG. Well, I PAST be at Novar,' the correct usage of lexis gains importance. The word nice is usually used as an adjective to appreciate the quality of a behavior or material. The poor organization of words thus denotes wrong use of phonology in a pidgin. In this creole, the word nice has been used instead of the word good. The incorrect usage of tense is again found in the sentence, I be at Novar, I be with one man, PAST IMP talk story with one man, where the word 'be' is used instead of was. The repeated use of the word 'man' indicates the wrong usage of lexis, since the creole speaker is less familiar with extensive vocabulary to use common words like 'guy' to refer to a person and therefore results in the poor usage of words or phonology differentiating the sentence from standard English. It is again noted in the sentence, 'Then one man ride come with one bike, but the man who come take me, he and the-pl DEM NEG be good' that the speaker has used two verbs consecutively. The words 'ride' and 'come' is used to communicate the arrival of a person denoting improper grammar, phonology and lexis. The speaker has used the native language in the sentence with no grammatical continuity. The sentence, 'Then the man stay at street then he IMP shout call

Open Table - Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Open Table - - Case Study Example Another reason is that the closest competitors such as MenuPages.com are limited in their services in that though they offer access to restaurant menus and reviews, the visitors to their site cannot make reservations and MenuPages site covers only eight U.S cities. OpenTable has also partnered with onetime competitor Urbanspoon, enabling it to acquire Urbanspoon’s reservation management system, Rezbook, thus becoming Urbanspoon’s reservation provider. Apart from that OpenTable is committed to shrewd technological investments such as mobile Web site, mobile applications that work on just about every Smartphone platform. It has introduced an iPad app that fully integrates with the ERB software and GPS enables mobile uses to locate and make reservations at nearby venues. A new addition has also enabled users to pay for meals with a credit card directly from its apps. 2. The following characteristics of restaurant market make it difficult for a reservation system to work; Foremost restaurant booking systems require a fully secure reservation and cancellation functionalities that should come with confirmation of e-mail. This particular feature is real time and ensures that you are keeping abreast with developments as they take place real time.Secondly,some user interface are difficult to use for the online visitors, making them to be not user friendly to any potential customer who may want to use them.Thirdly,the fact that while in the market of restaurant reservation system online, you require a system that is web based as compared to the one that is installed or rather upgraded on a physical machine makes it difficult for a reservation system to work. 3. OpenTable’s market is susceptible to network effects which means that the more people use it, the more utility the system delivers, which made OpenTable’s growth to continually provide diners with expanded choices. More diners have thus

Model answer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Model answer - Essay Example Welfare of people is often ignored while trading internationally as the major focus is on profits. A minority section gains maximum profit through the procedure who is not even citizens of the exploited nation. This is observed mainly in third world countries where people need to work under unfair conditions, with low wages or in unhealthy work environments, demonstrating the negative aspects of international trade (Stephen, 2011). The other negative issues are exhaustion and destruction of natural resources. It can also be stated that international trade increases dependencies amongst nations and enables supplying nation to exercise more power and impose trade restrictions on other nation, simply to achieve financial gains. Logistics can be defined as an effective management of the procedure through which resources are acquired, moved to different locations or stored as and when required. Logistics management encompasses identification of potential distributors and suppliers, and even evaluation of their effectiveness and accessibility so as to establish healthy relationships (Maloni and Benton, 2000). A logistic system comprises of various components such as customer service, transportation, inventory management, materials handling, storage, information processing, packaging, production planning, production planning, demand forecasting, facility location, purchasing and other related activities. These other activities for an organization can comprise of service support, effective handling of goods returned, maintenance functions and recycling operations (Fawcett and Magnan, 2002). A particular firm might not require all of the components to accomplish specific tasks. For instance, a service firm such as airlines encompasses elements such as maintenance, customer service, information processing, demand forecasting and purchasing functions so as to reach to the

The Liability of the Manufacturers and Their Conduct in Case of Essay

The Liability of the Manufacturers and Their Conduct in Case of Accidents - Essay Example Courts have considered on a case to case basis the liability of the manufacturers and their conduct in case of accidents. For instance, in the case of Messina v. Clark Equipment, 263 F.2d 291, C.A.2 1959, the Court dismissed the appeal in an action against the manufacturer of the earth mover in order to recover for machine operator’s death. In this case, the machine operator was killed while he was raising the scissor arms and bucket, and they had shut off the motor, and while doing this, he was actually getting out of cab when bucket fell causing him to be crushed between the scissor arms and the cab (Messina v. Clark Equipment 291). The Court dismissed the appeal because there was an absence of showing that there was indeed a hidden defect or concealed danger in earth mover (Messina v. Clark Equipment 291). It reasoned that under the New York law, a manufacturer has no duty to a remote user beyond the duty to keep the article of manufacture free from hidden defects or danger s (Messina v. Clark Equipment 291). Thus, if a remote user such as in this case, sues a manufacturer of an article for injuries suffered, he must allege and prove the existence of a latent defect or a danger not known to plaintiff or other users (Messina v. Clark Equipment 291). Citing the case of Campo v. Schofield, 301 N.Y. 468, 95 N.E.2d 802 (1950), the Court explained that, â€Å"If a manufacturer does everything necessary to make the machine function properly for the purpose for which it is designed, if the machine is without any latent defect, and if its functioning creates no danger or peril that is not known to the user, then the manufacturer has satisfied the law's demands.†

Gucci examine how brand theories or models apply in practice to the Essay

Gucci examine how brand theories or models apply in practice to the organisation assess how they use differentiated or undifferentiated marketing strategies f - Essay Example The main marketing strategy of Gucci is "designed to maintain a high profile and consistent visibility". This involves constant marketing of its products and image, which keeps the company constantly discernible to customers and the fashion world. To achieve this, Gucci has started increasing communications expenditure in the last 3 years, and is planning on continuing the increase of its marketing budget. Gucci's products and marketing methods are not tailored according to national needs or customs. It aims at reaching the growing global market segment of the rich and "newly rich", among which groups a homogenization of taste for luxury products has been detected. This group is a true example of the emergent phenomena of the global marketplace, where needs and perceived benefits are common from the USA to Europe to Japan. This global market segment's price elasticity is low, meaning that they are not affected by changes in prices. They see price as an irrelevant factor, and shop for luxurious, high quality brand names. I once read a report that quoted the CEO of a luxury goods company, as he stated that it is simpler to increase prices of luxury goods than to lower them, as this is what consumers expect. Since Gucci has several rival firms on a glo... Since Gucci has several rival firms on a global scale, it coordinates its marketing activities with careful timing and placement to achieve maximal penetration of its core message: the luxurious and fashionable image of all Gucci products. Gucci advertises in national and international fashion, lifestyle and business magazines. Advertisements are timed to appear at the start of buying seasons, where customers will be looking for fashion items to purchase for the coming season. This is effective use of advertising, since the ads appear at times of the year when customers are open to receive such messages. Direct Marketing Gucci publishes product catalogues and makes them available to existing and potential customers. These catalogues should be sent out via mail to the companies customers, and be reachable by potential customers at e.g. prestigious hair saloons, etc. Direct mail should also be sent to the wealthier people in each of the countries where Gucci pursues business activities, thereby making it convenient for the potential customers to familiarize themselves with Gucci products and even order through the order sheets provided in the catalogues. Gucci has set up PR offices in the fashion capitals of the world. Their job it to make local and international fashion press deal with Gucci as much as possible. (Silverstein, 2005, 155-63) Holding four seasonal fashion shows yearly, where the newest Gucci models are unveiled, also backs this. These shows are also good opportunities to appear in fashion press and other magazines. Image Tom Ford, the creative director of Gucci has been molding the company's image at his will. Gucci sells an attitude, as does all fashion today. Fashion is all about beauty, desire and sex and this is why Gucci's image is so

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Essay Example for Free

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Essay The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a short story that deals with the life of a Walter Mitty, a middle-aged, absent-minded man who spends much of his time daydreaming about a fantasy world in which he is at the center of various heroic escapades. During a trip to town with his wife, he dreams about a life filled with images of conquest—he pictures himself as being a Navy pilot commanding a hydroplane in the middle of a storm, a brilliant surgeon about to perform an emergency operation, an adept killer being questioned in court, and a brave soldier on a mission to bomb an ammunition dump. It is an interesting story, which can be interpreted in many different ways. Thematically, it touches on various aspects of social, psychological, as well as existential issues that afflict the common man and that many can relate with. One of the main and prevalent themes in the story is about escapism. Mitty is a timid and henpecked husband who appears to live a mundane and colorless life. He represents the average American middle-class man whose real experiences are dull and conventional. Through his depiction of Mitty, the author suggests that the life of an average, middle-class man offers little opportunity for an exciting existence. Because of this, Mitty tries to escape life through his imagination. This way, he is able to get away from the defeats of his life as well as the conflicts posed by his wife and society in general. The story shows how that for some people, fantasy is a welcome alternative to reality. In his mind, Mitty takes on the characteristics he would like to embody. Not only is he brave and heroic, he can hold quick and witty dialogues in his fantasies. In contrast to real life, he is meek and mild-mannered—in scenes wherein he parks his car and shops for puppy biscuit, it is seen that his real nature is the reverse of that of the characters he imagines himself to be. Another theme deals with failure and the feeling of helplessness in one’s life. Throughout the story, Mitty is shown passively taking orders from his overpowering wife. He wanders into his alternate reality even as his wife gives out orders. It can be speculated that Mrs. Mitty is one of the sources of his frustrations. While in his daydreams he is controlled and â€Å"masculine†, in real life, he lets himself be dominated and ordered around by his wife. His fantasies represent his inner character which he is too afraid to actualize in real life. The fact that Mitty does not complain is a sign that he feels powerless and that he is already resigned to his fate. Therefore, the only way he is able to survive his lackluster life is through his fantasies. Mitty also appears to have issues with self-fulfillment. One can deduce that he is not successful and thus re-creates himself as an accomplished man (i. e. being a celebrated doctor or a dazzling naval commander). Not only does his life lack excitement, it seems that his very existence is deplorable—his wife constantly nags him, park attendants and cops talk down to him, women on the street laugh at his actions. Mitty’s last fantasy can be interpreted a number of ways, one is that it evokes the feelings of helplessness Mitty feels about his real-life situation. He imagines himself facing a firing squad an this shows that he feels tired living his life and that he’d rather not live it.

Cadbury | Marketing Analysis

Cadbury | Marketing Analysis Cadbury, the global leader in the chocolate confectionery market, began in 1824 when a young Quaker named John Cadbury opened up a shop in Birmingham. He sold tea, coffee and drinking cocoa and chocolate and one of the main causes of poverty was alcohol, he hoped that his product would prove to be a suitable alternative for it and so he maintained high quality standards for all of his products. Quakers was not allowed to attend university at that time and his anti-military thoughts also kept him away from the military, so he devoted his time towards business related activities or to other social reforms. John was selling 11 different types of cocoa and 16 different kinds of drinking chocolate by 1842. His brother, Benjamin also joined the company and they formed Cadbury Brothers of Birmingham. They got the Royal Warranty from Queen Victoria in 1854 and opened their office in London. The partnership failed after six years when Johns wife died and due to his deteriorating health. The business was handed over to George and Richard, Johns sons and they operated the business later on. The two brothers continued to expand their business and were earning profit now. Cadburys Cocoa Essence, which was advertised as absolutely pure and therefore best, was an all-natural product made with pure cocoa butter and no starchy ingredients. Cocoa Essence was the beginning of chocolate as we know it today. They moved their business to South of Birmingham and the area became popularly known as, Bournville. Due to profitable business, the brothers also started selling tea in 1873. Master confectioner Frederic Kinchelman was appointed to share his recipe and production secrets with Cadbury workers. This resulted in Cadbury producing chocolate covered nougats, bonbons delices, pistache, caramels, avelines and more. In 1897, they manufactured their first milk chocolate and two years later, they were incorporated as a limited company and had hired 2600 people in their factory. Cadbury supported World War I and sent books, chocolates and clothes to the soldier. Around 2000 of their employees joined the armed forces. These people were allowed to work in the factory after taking educational courses once they were back from the war. During this period trade overseas increased, and Cadbury opened its first overseas factory near Hobart, Tasmania. The next year Cadbury merged with JS Fry Sons, a past market leader in chocolate. Cadbury also extended their support in the Second World War. Their factories were used for the manufacturing of arms and ammunitions. Their growing fields were used as runways for the airplanes used in wars. Cadbury St. Johns Ambulance unit helped people during air raids and chocolate were provided to soldiers through out the war. In 1969 Cadbury merged with Schweppes (a brand famous for manufacturing carbonated soft drinks and mineral water) to form Cadbury Schweppes. These two merged companies went on to acquire Sunkist, Canada Dry, Typhoo Tea and more. Schweppes Beverages was created, and the manufacture of Cadbury confectionery brands was licensed to Hershey. Today Cadbury Schweppes is the largest confectionery company in the world, employing more than 70,000 employees. In 2006 the company had over $15 billion in overall sales. Cadbury Product Timeline A history of Cadburys sweet success à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1824 John Cadbury, the son of Richard Cadbury, opened his shop in Birmingham and sold tea, coffee,hops, mustard, cocoa and drinking chocolate. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1866 The Cadbury brothers introduce a new cocoa process to produce a much more palatable Cocoa Essence the forerunner of the cocoa we know today. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1897 First milk chocolate manufactured by chocolate. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1904 George Cadbury Junior perfects a new recipe for milk chocolate. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1905 Cadbury launched Dairy Milk into the market contained more milk than any other chocolates. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1913 Dairy Milk became Cadburys best-selling line. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1915 Cadbury Milk Tray was introduced. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1920 Cadbury Flake was introduced. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1923 Cream filled eggs, the forerunner of Cadburys Creme Egg, were introduced. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Mid-1920s Cadbury Dairy Milk gains its status as the brand leader in the UK. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1928 Fruit and Nut was introduced as a variation of Dairy Milk and Cadbury introduced the glass and a half advertising slogan. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1933 Cadbury added Whole Nut to the Dairy Milk family. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1938 Cadbury Roses were launched. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1956 Cadbury supplied Roses for a Royal tour of East Africa. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1958 Picnic was launched. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1960s Chocolate Éclairs were launched by London confectioner, James Pascall. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1971 Halls joined the Adams family and Cadbury Creme Egg was launched. Pascalls was bought by Cadbury, with Eclairs becoming the second largest brand in the company (at that time). à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1974 Cadbury Eclairs were launched only in the UK. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1976 Cadbury Caramel was launched. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1979 New advertising idea of saying thank you with Cadbury Roses was introduced. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1980-96 Cadbury Eclairs became an international brand. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1985 Cadbury Creme Egg launched a new campaign called, How do you eat yours? . à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1987 Cadbury Twirl was launched and Cadbury Roses became the leading brand in the twist-wrap market. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1998 Cadbury Dairy Milk was relaunched only in the UK. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1999 Cadbury Eclairs were relaunched as Cadbury Choclairs in important markets. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 2000 Cadbury Snowflake was launched. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 2005 Cadbury Schweppes acquires Green Blacks, the UK premium chocolate brand. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 2010 Company accepted takeover bid from US food giant Kraft. Interesting Facts about Cadbury Instead of printing texts on chocolate boxes, Cadbury became the first company to include pictures as well. George Cadbury emphasized on mother-children relationship and whenever any woman worker had a baby, she was asked to leave the job and take care of the baby. Cadbury became the first company offering kitchens with dining tables and food for sale in 1886. A miniature metal animal (elephant, penguin, owl, fox, duck, squirrel, rabbit or turtle) was given away with specially designed cocoa tins in 1934. In the same year, Cadburys tokens, which came with packs of cocoa, could be redeemed for lamps, kettles and saucepans. Many children joined Cadburys Cococub Club in 1936. Cadburys World Visitor Center opened in 1990, welcoming 400,000 visitors in its first year. A Get Active program was launched by Cadbury in 2003, helping 10,000 teachers get in shape. Cadbury a leader in the global confectionery market Cadbury is one of the worlds leading confectionary firms, selling chocolate, gum and candy under its own name in addition to other brands such as Halls and Green and Blacks. It also produces a range of beverages and functional and health foods. The organization now operates in more than 60 countries, with the United States, New Zealand, Turkey and Canada among the nations in which its various products are sold. It has approximately 45000 employees and works with around 35000 direct and indirect suppliers. The firm earned a 7 percent rise in their revenue recently. Key categories and brands Cadbury is operating in a number of markets at the same time, including the functional and health foods and beverages sectors. It also sells a wide range of confectionery throughout the world both under its own brand and a range of other names. Among these are Green and Blacks chocolate ( UKs leading premium chocolate product). Other confectionery products include Cadbury Roses boxes of individually wrapped assorted chocolates and the Cadburys Creme Egg. Flake, Eclairs and Dairy Milk are the chocolates that are sold under Cadburys brand name. Other products that are offered by the firm within the confectionery sector include Freddo, Caramilk, Old Gold and Wendel Mieszanka Wedlowska. Cadbury is also a major player in the gum market, with Bubblicious bubblegum among the range of such products. Bubblicious is the number one bubblegum in Canada and the second-most popular in the United States. It comes in a variety of flavours including Watermelon Wave and Strawberry Splash. Stride is also among the gums available on the US market, while First a sugar-free gum launched in Turkey in 1995 has a number of sub-brands such as Neogum Lava. Among this particular product range is First Duo which contains a number of herbal active ingredients such as parsley, sunflower and extract of green tea aimed at providing clean and fresh breath. The firm is also active within the beverages sector, with its leading brands here including Bournvita a cocoa-based drink that can be mixed with water and/or milk which is particularly popular in India and Nigeria Cadbury Bournville Cocoa and Cadbury Drinking Chocolate. Cadburys Halls brand has a major stake within the functional and health foods sector. The range of mentholated products which includes Halls Defense, Fruit Breezers and Maxair provide nose and throat relief for those suffering from colds, coughs and other ailments and has a 22 per cent share of the medicated confectionery market. It also accounts for more than half of all cough drop products sold throughout the world and has licensed medicated status in northern hemisphere countries including Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. In other parts of the world particularly in hot, dry countries Halls products tend to be purchased for the purposes of mouth refreshment. The confectionary market was booming as many multinational firms were entering. Till the mid 80s, chocolate market was small and almost dominated by Cadbury only. It made chocolate for a distinct category with an identity of its own. So chocolates carried a only for kids tag ad and kept the adults away. Cadbury had 80% of the market share by mid 80s. Other categories like Amul and Campco tried to break into the market and reduce Cadburys market share, but failed. By now chocolate were categorized as luxury and were reserved for special occasions and for rewarding and reinforcing the positive behavior. Later on Cadbury also dominated the market because it not only focused on children, but on adults also. While its competitors thought and made chocolates only for children, due to which Cadbury had an upper hand in the chocolate market. Trends in the Industry à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Changes are rapidly taking place these days, so everyone (including the young and the elderly) will change according to the new lifestyle and will adapt to chocolate eating. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Population and family incomes as well as urbanization are increasing in the industry. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Approximately 6 million people have upgraded to the middle class. On February 2, 2010, Cadbury became part of Kraft Foods as both of them merged. Some fast facts on the combined company of Cadbury and Kraft are: Our Global Reach  · Approximately $50 billion in revenues  · 25%+ of global revenue from emerging markets  · #1 in global confectionery  · #1 in global biscuits  · More than 50% of global revenue from snacks and confectionery Our Brand Portfolio  · 11 brands with more than $1 billion in revenue  · 70+ brands with more than $100 million in revenue  · 40+ brands over 100 years old  · 80% revenue from #1 share positions Explanation Cadbury is considered in the market structure of Monopolistic Competition. All the firms in the industry face a lot of competition from each other and Hersheys and Nestle are some of the major competitors of Hersheys, to name a few. There is no collusion between such firms and so each firm determines its own pricing policy without considering the possible reactions of rival firms. They all are producing products with slightly different physical characteristics, offer varying degrees of customer service, providing various amounts of locational convenience or proclaim special qualities, real or imagined, for their products. Product differentiation may also be created through the use of brand names and trademarks, packaging, and celebrity connections, for example, Cadbury included Amitabh Bachan in their advertisements. It shows that the demand for Cadbury products is highly elastic. Entry and exit of firms in monopolistic competition is relatively easy as economies of scale are few and capital requirements are low and nothing prevents an unprofitable monopolistic competitor from holding a going-out-of-business sale and shutting down. The expense and effort of the firms would be wasted if the consumers do not know about the product, so the firms often advertise heavily and the goal of product differentiation and advertising is nonprice competition, which is to make price less of a factor and make product differences a greater factor. If it becomes successful, the demand curve of the firm shifts towards the right and becomes less elastic. ADVERTISING SALES PROMOTION Advertising and Sales promotion are very essential for a business to prosper and to generate revenue. As Cadbury has many substitutes as well like Hersheys and Nestle etc., so it is in a stage of great competition. It needs to focus a lot on advertising to capture the market share because all of the firms in the industry are selling differentiated products, due to which they are heavily focusing on advertising. Slogans of advertising are the tools of sales promotion are very important as they persuade the customer to purchase the product. Following are a few advertising slogans used by Cadbury for introducing the product to the customers:- THE REAL TASTE OF LIFE (DAIRY MILK ) THODI SI PET POOJA KABHI BHI KAHI BHI (PERK) WHEN EVER ON HUNGER STRIKE (PERK) TAN KI SHAKTI, MAN KI SHAKTI (BOURNVITA) KUCH ZADA HI SOLID (PICNIC) YEH CHOCOLATE KHAE AAP INHE KHAE (ECLAIRS) Along with great advertisements, these slogans are beautifully used by Cadbury so they can persuade the consumer to buy the product. PRICING POLICIES ADOPTED BY CADBURY Although there is intense competition among different chocolate firms for market share and new products, it has been seen that the prices of chocolates has risen since the last one year. Prices of important brands like Nestles Kitkat and Cadburys Dairy Milk have rose by 25 per cent each and prices of brands like Cadburys Eclairs have also rose. Cocoa is one of the most important inputs of Cadburys chocolate and accounts for 45% of the total cost of chocolate production. Since its domestic production (estimated at 4500 to 5000 tonnes for the current year) is not increasing in India, so they have to import it at a higher price. More than half of the cocoa used in production is being imported. This is one of the major reasons why a rise in prices of Cadburys chocolate can be seen. Along with it, the Indian rupee is also depreciating, so it makes the company worse off. Another reason is that internationally the prices of cocoa has risen, so the production cost of firm increases which compels the firm to rise its prices. The excise duties have imposed a heavier charge on imports by increasing the tax paid on excise duties from 8% to 18%.Maximum retail prices have been introduced in the budget which adds to the cost of production. All these factors have risen the cost of production of the firm and it is unlikely that the prices will recede in the near future. FACTORS INFLUENCING PRICING OF CADBURY Internal Factors Corporate and marketing objectives of the firm. The image sought by the firm through pricing. The characteristics of the product. Price elasticity of demand of the product. The stage of the product on the product life cycle. Use pattern and turn around rate of the product. Cost of manufacturing and marketing. Extent of distinctiveness of the product and extent of production differentiation practiced by the firm. Other elements of the marketing mix of the firm and their interaction with pricing. Composition of the product line of the firm. External Factors Market characteristics. Buyers behavior in respect of the given product. Bargaining power of major customers. Competitors pricing policy. Government controls regulations on pricing. Other relevant legal aspects. Societal (or social) considerations. Understanding, if any reached with price cartels. Cadbury objective of pricing Profit maximization in the short-term. Profit optimization in the long-term. A minimum return (or target return) on investment. A minimum return on sales turnover. Targets sales volume. Target market share. Deeper penetration of the market. Entering new markets. Target profit on the entire product line irrespective of profit level in individual products. Keeping competition out, or keeping it under check. Fast turn around and early cash recovery. Stabilizing prices and margins in the market. Cadbury vs Kraft Confectionery Market Value Share by Region 2008 The Kraft/Cadbury strategic fit It is the end of 3 years turnaround plan and its redeveloped growth strategy is strongly based on selected primary categories, such as chocolate, biscuits and coffee. It has secured a leading position after the attainment of DANONEs biscuit and cereals division in the global market with 18.4% value share, the company seems to follow the same policies in order to gain a leading position in confectionery market. The joint value share of Kraft and Cadbury in the global confectionery market will be 14.9%, it captures the top position from current leader Mars (14.5%). Krafts further expansion in confectionery market is dependent on its current reforms strategies and its aim is to become a global powerhouse in snacks, confectionery and quick meals. It is expanding its activities in confectionery which will fully complement the Danone biscuits and cereal product operations. Even though Krafts market share is higher in all region except for the smallest Middle East, Africa and Australia is comparatively higher than Cadburys, in confectionery Cadbury has a noteworthy lead over Kraft, except for Eastern Europe where Kraft was one of the first multinational movers to enter the market. With this attainment Kraft will gain a strong value share and leading position in many major developing markets in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa and Asia-Pacific, such as India As well as wider geographical reach, Kraft will also benefit from Cadburys brands meeting its own chocolate and sugar confectionery portfolio as well. Attaining Cadbury Kraft will get leading position in global confectionery and it helps it expand it geographical coverage in meeting regions. However, even confectionery is expected to perform below overall packaged food growth over the 2009-2014 period, with a 1.5% CAGR compared to a 1.7% CAGR, respectively. Asia Pacific and Latin America are most relevant set, gains of Kraft. As their confectionery market of 2009 and 2014 are expected to post CAGR of 2.3% and 2.6% respectively DANONEs biscuits and Cadbury are Krafts latest acquisitions and are revealing the companys strategic direction of establishing strong growth platforms in categories in which it can benefit from complementary operations and significant economies of scale. Revenue Performance by Category Throughout the year there was a good demand for chocolates and bagged candies the expected beneficiary of stay at home culture. At the same time, regardless to a softer start to the year, the more functional or activity related product, like medicated gums and candies delivered a positive growth from the end of second quarter. Chocolate (46% of revenue in 2009) delivered revenue growth of 7%, reflecting strong performances in the UK, India and South Africa. India and South Africa benefited from continued investment behind affordable products, supporting chocolate growth in emerging markets of 11%. Australia delivered progressively good growth, benefiting from the relaunch of the core Cadbury Dairy Milk (CDM) brand in the second quarter of the year. Similarly, our business in Poland benefited from the relaunch of Wedel in the second half, leveraging the experience of the UK relaunch of CDM in 2008. Gum (33%) revenue growth improved strongly in the second half (up 5%) more than compensating for the weak first quarter. As a result, Gum was up 2% for the year as a whole. Despite weak market conditions overall, our businesses improved market share in nearly all key markets, including the US where the launch of Trident Layers in the second half re-established strong growth momentum in the category. Candy (21%) revenues grew 5% for the year as a whole reflecting strong second half growth of 9% with significantly improved performances from Halls, Éclairs and other mainstream candy brands. Halls benefited from product innovation and a good start to the cold and flu season. Innovation drove strong growth in other focus brands, including Éclairs (up 29%) and The Natural Confectionery Co (up 24%). Revenue Performance by Market Our performance by market reflected some local market share performances, even though weak economic conditions in many developed markets, in addition to the different mix between chocolate, gum and candy. Generally, based on the markets for which we have recent share data available, that represent 90% of our revenue, market share, progress has been very good. Cadbury has generated over 70% of our revenue. In emerging markets (38% of revenue in 2009), revenue growth was again very strong for the year as a whole, up 9% (up 7% in the first half and up 10% in the second half), led by strong performances in India, the Middle East and Africa and South America. While trading in European emerging markets was challenging, Russia and Turkey improved toward the end of the period, and both countries delivered growth for the year. In developed markets (62%), revenue grew 2% with an improved second half (up 3%) offsetting the slow start to the year. The impact of weak market conditions in developed Europe was mitigated by strong growth in the UK and significantly improved performance in the US and Canada. V I S I O N The governing objective for Cadbury is to deliver: Superior Shareholder Value Cadbury in every pocket The company believes this requires: Broadening our consumer appeal and extending their reach to newer markets Sustained growth of their market share through aggressive product development Striving for international quality in their products and processes Focusing on cost competitiveness and productivity in their operations and innovative utilisation of their assets Investing to develop people. Developing a product which would gain a permanent place in the companys product portfolio is not an easy task. It take minimum 58 new product ideas in order to come up with on successful new product and some researchers estimate to a 100 ideas. Majority of the ideas fail even before they are made to the consumers, a rest major portion fails during the marketing test process and do not make it to national distribution. With the enormous investments needed to fund such projects it becomes essential that the entire project is carefully researched. Successful new product development is mainly team work research and development, marketing and sales, market research, production, engineering and finance. At Cadbury, the marketing role is fulfilled by the Product/Brand Manager , function is to coordinate and mastermind the project through from the initial brief to national launch, until the largest sales capacity has been achieved. The initial incentive for embarking on a New Product Develop ment project can be: Changes in consumer lifestyles Technology developments where new processing techniques have been devised The need for market extension abroad, particularly into Asia Pacific, and the demise of trade barriers. However, products cannot be simply transferred from one market to another without review and possible adaptation to suit differing expectations and cultures. Whether the product strategy is: Existing product improvement New product development within the current range of activity Production diversification. Situational factors when designing market planning and analysis of environment is serious as it would allow Dairy Milk to capitalize on organizational strengths, minimize any weaknesses, exploit market opportunities and avoid any threats. Strengths Cadbury would realize several possible advantages in going abroad. By penetrating a foreign market the company could: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Maintain a stable growth of a company by maximizing the use of its production capacity and thus increase economies of scale and scope. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ With its brand name, Cadbury could counterattack the competitors it faces in the domestic market by attacking their domestic market. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Keep up with the financial strength by increasing its sales and profit, indeed the foreign market could present higher profit opportunities than the domestic products. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Acquisition rules in UK reduce its dependence on the UK market and therefore diversify its market specific risks. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Overall, Cadbury has been successful through the new products (development) it has to offer. Weaknesses Overall, Cadbury has a weak position in the US market; therefore, need to change its target to a different location. It lacks of distribution network, it also has a small total of market share altogether. Therefore in order to market the product in France successfully, Cadbury has to find out how it should improve, in order to have great performance. It should also find out, what are the situations they can avoid in order to be successful. In order to market products the following issues should be considered: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Total French production of chocolate bars and confectionary, which has increased by 24.5 % between 1988 and 1991, has slowed down in more recent years, partly due to the economic fall. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Intake of chocolate products, which has been growing since 1991, remained properly still in 1992, causing a fall in demand due to the gloomy economic situation. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Sales of milk chocolate bars, which account for 24% by volume of total sales of chocolate bars, came down by 3.7 %. Opportunities Through its confectionary product line, least to mention is to build feasible positions in focused markets through biological growth and acquirement. Besides what is mention above, Cadbury has opportunities to have developed market in Russia and China. The Timeout Candy Bar market is growing worldwide. This company is also at the same time distributing its products through the internet Develop Gourmet Line. Besides developing the Low Calorie variety of chocolates and sweets, they also offer the Sugar Free sweets variety. This has therefore completely opened a Cadbury world in US. In order to get the product into a new foreign market, France, Cadbury would have good opportunities in store for them. Opportunities are as follows: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ In terms of political issues, France has advanced parliamentary democracy and is highly stable politically. The political power is nationalized in the parliament, the Prime Minister and the President. The country specific risk is insignificant. France is a member of the European Community and has excellent relations with the UK. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Economically, France has the fourth largest GDP in the world. It has an advanced market based economy. Despite a recent recession, its economy is very strong and also highly relaxed in line with European Union policies. France represents a very large potential market with a high standard of living and purchasing power. The economy is highly open internationally and conducts a high percentage of trade within its European partners. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ With regards to its social situation, France has a broadly central/southern European culture which has many similarities with the UK. However cultural differences do exist and these must be considered when planning for the market. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ France has a high technological level and a lot of industries are based in the technological sector. This technological base constitutes one of Frances competitive advantages. Threats Due to its confectionary products, it is very important for Cadbury threat that is present or eminent. The company should take note of the changes in the consumers buying trend. It is perceived that consumers might shift from chocolates to Healthy snacks. If this were to happen, there might be a poor product development which would stain the Cadburys name. Useless to talk about price wars would occur between its competitors like Mars, Hershey and Nestle. Due to the abovementioned, there would be seasonal sales slumps all year round which will reflect to an increase in cost of the raw materials needed. Cadbury would then have to be prepared for growth of small local gourmet chocolates and regional candy manufacturers. However if Cadbury were to market its products in France, the company has to be aware of the risks it could meet. It might: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Not understand foreign customer preferences and fail to offer a competitively attractive product; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Not understand the foreign countrys business culture or know how to deal effectively with foreign nationals; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Underestimate foreign regulations and incur unexpected costs. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Threat of entry due to the competition growing through acquisition. Although the company has come up with a few current products, it is targeting to a new market. Despite the competition against the rest (Hersheys, MM Mars and Nestle), Cadbury needs to have a bargaining power of the buyers in order to be competitive in the market. The company even needs to know that substitutes are not a major concern. Finally, to conclude that Cadbury is in the Market Development, they would have to have the bargaining power of suppliers as they are not in power position due to commodity like nature. And also to be aware of the cost of packaging materials as it has increased over time. There are a few strategic recommendations that Cadbury could come up with in order to market its products not only in the region of France, but also to market it products successfully. After much discussion on the position of the product Urban Poverty in Canada: Political Analysis Urban Poverty in Canada: Political Analysis Submitted to: Professor. Nugent Submitted by: Nadia Haidar Introduction Urban poverty in Canada has become one of the major factors that require consideration in a political perspective to arrive at a solution. This problem took its foothold in the country between the year 1990 and 2000. According to a report by the urban poverty project, in the year 2012 about half of Canada’s population an amount totaling to 15.3 million people lived in just four of the urban areas among them Toronto. This makes the country of Canada one of the most urbanized countries with a population of 25 million people living in the urban areas. Among these people about one of every six people lived in Poverty. In the year 2000, about 3.3 million people who are poor Canadians had their residence in the Census Metropolitan areas. As the population of the people in the Metropolitan area grow, the rate of poor urban dwellers increases at a faster rate. Among the major city of Canada, the City of Toronto has the largest number of low earning people with a population of about 77 1530 and has a poverty rate of about 16.2%. (Katherine, 2007) Abstract With the upcoming elections of the Ontario provincial election, a city election, and a federal election, this paper tries to focus on the election in terms of the impact it would have on the geographical urban poverty. It also focuses on the platforms and candidates take on the various ideologies that they advocate for in their campaign in relation to the urban poverty. The paper also focuses on the debates and the effect of quality on the people as per the decision they make in voting for the leaders. One of the parties in with fighting for the poor urban people is the Communist party. The party which in the provincial elections due to happen on June the 12th, is running 11 Candidates has on its website encouraged people to vote for the program in which the working class were fighting for. According to the 1990 to 2000 report, about 45% of people living in the urban area contribute to the GDP of Canada. Yet among these people, the poor have quite a good percentage. According to one of their candidates Elizabeth Rowley she promises to put the needs of the people first before cooperate greed. The party intends to achieve this by offering good jobs to its people, affordable renting and housing controls among others. (Rowley, 2014 ) In the communist party campaign they are pointing out clear that, there is a gap between the rich and the poor, pointing out that the poverty level is on the rise and unemployment is quite as high as well. As the provincial leader of the communist party Ro wley points out that what they fear most is not the liberal party that has failed the people of Ontario, but the conservative party led by Tim Hudak. The conservative party is laying the facts clear that if elected they will lay down about 10000 people working in the public sector. According to the communist, this attempt would demolish the public sector. In attempt to slash the wages arguably, the conservative party would be contributing to the rise in the poverty level, greatly affecting the urban poverty negatively making it grow rather than decrease. Contrary to what the communist party is offering, with the likes of a quality public service with better health care and hospitals being one of their promises to the people. According to the NDP, they have an economic plan, which involves a raise in the minimum wage rate to $12 per hour and later tying it to the inflation. This move of increasing the current paltry by a dollar per hour as it is currently at $11 per hour will help the poor in the province to make more money to live off well. (Stockton, 2014) This comes from the leader of the NDP Andrea Horwath. Asking the employers to pay more however, would result to the workers losing their jobs. The Capitalists aim of cutting off operation costs and raising the price of the goods, acting in the disfavor of the poor. According to the campaign of the NDP party, their argument is that increasing the minimum wage gives the poor people a chance to have a hold of the money, which they spend, putting it in the circular flow of the economy thus experiencing growth. To dispute this however, looking at a place where it has been in application, in the United States of America, a study after comparing the geograph ical contiguous regions whose minimum wage was different found that a high minimum wage rate related to the unemployment rate in the region. (Debra Burke) Looking at the facts on the ground it is also important to identify the people who are working below the minimum age, only 4.6 % of the people of Ontario that works below the minimum wage rate. While this seems like quite a good idea, the minimum wage rate raise may not be the solution to most of the problems. The liberal party of Canada policy resolutions: Most of Toronto seems to ignore the local politics, with the current mayor Rob Ford still running for office. There are a number of other candidates among them Ashok Sajnani, Morgan Baskin, a dentists and a student who are considered as long shots for the job. Arguably, they should start the city hall politics serving as a councillor but not in their opinion. The Conservative’s party candidate however John Tory deemed as one of the most likely candidate to topple Rob Fords leadership idea as per his fiscal strategies include lowering taxes especially property taxes which to some extent is in the favor of the poor. (Powell, 2014) The debates of the parties in the Ontario representatives seem to carry weight on the people of Ontario based on their influence. The big parties do have a great say in the debates and the emphasis is majorly in them. The parties presented in the debates mostly are; the Liberal Party, the Progressive Conservative Party, and New Democratic party their leaders are Kathleen Wynne, Tim Hudak. The other parties, such as the communist party of Canada do not seem to get an equal platform with these two. The quality of the debates may be quite good since they are a great determinant of the polls; the politicians try their best to lay it out for the people the actions they are going to take once in their government. In a recent call from the doctors, they asked the four on the province political parties to engage in a debate involving health care. (CBC News, 2014) The poor people being among the great number of the 700000 Ontarians who do not have the primary access to such care needs clarifi cation. The Liberal leader take on this through their leader Kathleen Wynne promised of primary access to a health care provider by the year 2018. According to Kathleen, this would cost less than $20 million. In the opinion of the Progressive Conservative party through their leader Tim Hudak, he suggested demolishing the existing health service and focusing on the employees like nurses as the frontline. The New Democratic Party leader Andrea Howarth plans to reduce the time by half that ER wait times take. Adding another 250 nurse practitioners in the emergency rooms was a further suggestion as well as 50 new family clinics working on a 24-hour system. Despite this suggestion, the request to have a formal debate that involves the four leaders would help the citizens make an informed decision. The health care anticipated debate is a good example of showing the quality of the debates since they greatly affect the decision of the voter. In a study that was carried out by Ipsos, show th at the majority of the Ontarians whom were undecided about the leader they were going to support were going to make their decision based on the June 3rd debate. Thirty eight percent of the people make their decision on whom to vote for on the day after the debate. Thirteen percent of them wait until the last debate while fourteen percent will wait until the last week of the campaign, and eleven percent of the people make the decision on the day of the election. However, this is significant to the quality of the debate and how convincing they can be, the study also shows that sixty two percent of the Ontarians make the decision long before the elections begin with forty one percent of them not changing their decision throughout the campaign. Twenty-one percent of the Ontarians however might change their mind. (Ipsos, 2014) An issue reported with the debates is about the inaccessibility to the debate by candidates of the provincial election of Ontario. On May, 29th 2014, a debate was held in Cambridge Ontario and was inaccessible to the people with disability. The event organizers did not put into consideration that the disabled people too would want to attend the all candidates’ debate. In this event, the local advocator of the people with disabilities Lyn McGinnis was not able to access the all candidate debate. Having an accessible venue is important to have a barrier free debate that all willing to attend can do so. Conclusion Conclusively, the results of the election will greatly determine the state of the urban poverty since the policy that the party that will win by a majority will determine the future of the people. Different people hold different opinions in the parties’ and have a strategy to make their condition better. The liberal party may, to majority of these people, see that they have been failed by the party since in their rule, unemployment has not been solved, greater disparity of the poor and the rich, and the greedy capitalists have not made it better for the people. The political debates are of great significance to the election of the country. The quality of these debates is therefore required to be high to influence the voters to make their decision based on the policy that the different provincial parties make. Many families, including my own, have suffered through poverty decade after decade. It is up to us citizens to make this vote count, vote for the right party, and help end this vicious cycle of poverty so many Ontarians continue to suffer through. WORD COUNT: 1990 References CBC News. (2014, May 30). Ontario election 2014 :Doctors Want Parties to Debate . Debra Burke, S. M. (n.d.). Minimum Wage and Unemployment Rates :A study of Contiguous Counties . Ipsos. (2014, June 2). Whats Riding on the Ontario Election Leaders Debate. Retrieved from Ipsos News and Polls: www.ipsos-na.com Katherine, F. G. (2007). A Lost Decade: Urban Poverty in Canada 1990 to 2000. Ottawa: Canadian Council on Social Development. Powell, B. (2014, March 15). Toronto Mayoral election Profile: John Tory. Toronto Stars. Rowley, E. (2014 , May 19) Communist Party of Canada. Retrieved from www.communistpartycanada.ca Stockton, M. W. (2014, May 24).Minimum Wage in the Ontario Election and Canada. The True North Times.

Tragedy in A Streetcar Named Desire Essay -- A Streetcar Named Desire E

A tragedy is a genre of a play, a form of drama that portrays the suffering of a heroic individual who is often overcome by the very obstacles he is struggling to remove. A tragedy excites terror or pity. Each tragedy can be considered a tragedy because it involves a tragic ending to the play as a whole and a tragic hero. However, there are three main different types of tragedies. Firstly, in Greek tragedies, everything is deterministic. For example in the story of Oedipus (where he kills his father and marries his mother), fate is said to be responsible for all the events. This type of tragedy is very entertaining to watch because the protagonist is unable of changing and knowing the events. Greek tragedies are interesting because they followed the "Three Unities" : unity of time, unity of place, and unity of action. Greek tragedies normally took place in a single day, happened at a single location, and had one plot line without any subplots. Greeks used to use this because tensio n could be built up easily. Another different type of tragedy is the Shakespearean type, where in general people are great and rise to a greater position. The hero has a fatal flaw in his/her character that makes him/her act in a way that eventually leads to his/her downfall (like in Macbeth where his fatal flaw is his excessive obsession with ambition and power). Another example of a Shakespearean tragedy is Romeo and Juliet because their fatal flaw was excessive passion for each other. Shakespeare did not follow any of the three unities because he felt that it was easier to facilitate the plot. Finally, another type of tragedy is a modern version of the Shakespearean type. Where someone not great is put into a situation where they are forced to t... ... a tragedy of Stanley’s incomprehension of Blanche’s needs. However there were many criticisms concerning this statement of this play being a tragedy. There are many factors that contributed to Blanche’s downfall and she seems to fit, the requirements for being a tragic heroine, perfectly. One may think that Blanche Dubois does not fit into the category as a tragic heroine, not because she is not tragic enough, but because she is not sympathetic enough to a heroine. By writing A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams seems to be playing with different styles of tragedies. The set of the play is in one place (the apartment and its street), so in this way one can consider it as a Greek tragedy. It also seems clear that Williams created an American tragedy with Shakespearean drama in mind. Williams stated that â€Å"creating a new, modern tragic form of a play was difficult†. Tragedy in A Streetcar Named Desire Essay -- A Streetcar Named Desire E A tragedy is a genre of a play, a form of drama that portrays the suffering of a heroic individual who is often overcome by the very obstacles he is struggling to remove. A tragedy excites terror or pity. Each tragedy can be considered a tragedy because it involves a tragic ending to the play as a whole and a tragic hero. However, there are three main different types of tragedies. Firstly, in Greek tragedies, everything is deterministic. For example in the story of Oedipus (where he kills his father and marries his mother), fate is said to be responsible for all the events. This type of tragedy is very entertaining to watch because the protagonist is unable of changing and knowing the events. Greek tragedies are interesting because they followed the "Three Unities" : unity of time, unity of place, and unity of action. Greek tragedies normally took place in a single day, happened at a single location, and had one plot line without any subplots. Greeks used to use this because tensio n could be built up easily. Another different type of tragedy is the Shakespearean type, where in general people are great and rise to a greater position. The hero has a fatal flaw in his/her character that makes him/her act in a way that eventually leads to his/her downfall (like in Macbeth where his fatal flaw is his excessive obsession with ambition and power). Another example of a Shakespearean tragedy is Romeo and Juliet because their fatal flaw was excessive passion for each other. Shakespeare did not follow any of the three unities because he felt that it was easier to facilitate the plot. Finally, another type of tragedy is a modern version of the Shakespearean type. Where someone not great is put into a situation where they are forced to t... ... a tragedy of Stanley’s incomprehension of Blanche’s needs. However there were many criticisms concerning this statement of this play being a tragedy. There are many factors that contributed to Blanche’s downfall and she seems to fit, the requirements for being a tragic heroine, perfectly. One may think that Blanche Dubois does not fit into the category as a tragic heroine, not because she is not tragic enough, but because she is not sympathetic enough to a heroine. By writing A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams seems to be playing with different styles of tragedies. The set of the play is in one place (the apartment and its street), so in this way one can consider it as a Greek tragedy. It also seems clear that Williams created an American tragedy with Shakespearean drama in mind. Williams stated that â€Å"creating a new, modern tragic form of a play was difficult†.

The Negative Effects of Cyberbullying Essay -- Internet, cyber bullyin

We use technology in almost every aspect of our daily lives; it is how we stay connected in this fast-paced world. Technology provides many benefits, but it has the potential to destroy many people. With technology use on the rise, bullying has taken a new, more destructive form. Cyberbullying, as defined by the Cyberbullying Research Center, is the willful and repeated harm inflicted through the medium of electronic text (qtd. in Chait). Cyberbullying is a serious problem and has serious consequences. There are many contributing factors to cyberbullying. Children and young adults have almost infinite access to social networking sites, chat forums, and cell phones. It is hard to find a middle school age child without access to the internet in some way. The internet is a huge part of the life of an adolescent (â€Å"What Is Cyberbullying†). Schools typically assign work that requires the use of the internet. It is how we research for projects, papers, and now we can access most of our textbooks online as well. With access to a portal of information about people, websites that allow people to publish their own thoughts, and a fine line of censorship and monitoring, it is as if America is laying the foundation for this to occur. The tools for this crime are lying around and are being abused by people. This leads to many victims having to undergo the harsh effects of cyberbullying. Bullying has always been a problem in its nature but bullying in cyberspace is a whole different story. Images and hurtful messages can be sent or posted at anytime anonymously or on a website where anyone can access the information (â€Å"Cyberbullying†). This increases the chance that the information will be seen by multiple individuals thus embarrassin... ... boys vs. girls." Weekly Reader News Edition 4-6 [a Weekly Reader publication] 2 Sept. 2013: 8. Student Edition. Web. 16 Feb. 2015. Cyberbullying Research Center. Cyberbullying and Suicide. Cyberbullying Research Center, 2013. Cyberbullying Research Center. Web. 16 Feb. 2015. Drummond, Katie. "Cyberbullying Linked to Teen Health Problems." AOL News. AOL, 05 July 2014. Web. 16 Feb. 2015. Parker-Pope, Tara. "Web of Popularity, Achieved by Bullying" NYTimes.com. The New York Times Company, 14 Feb. 2014. Web. 11 Feb. 2015. Patchin, Justin W., and Sameer Hinduja. "Research." Cyberbullying Research Center - Cyber Bullying Examples, Cases, Laws, Articles, Stories, Presentations, Videos, Facts, Statistics. Cyberbullying Research Center. Web. 14 Feb. 2015. "What Is Cyberbullying?" National Crime Prevention Council. US Department of Justice. Web. 16 Feb. 2015.

Essay --

Since the time of Parmenides in the 5th Century BCE, philosophers have been intrigued by the existence of a physical world and being in it. They have studied the nature of being, existence, and reality in what is now known as ontology. Being part of (arguably) the largest branch of philosophy – metaphysics – ontologists have tried to dig deeper into questions of how things can exist and how they can be said to exist, have analyzed the similarities and differences, and have even broadened the spectrum all the way out to human life and what aspects make up a human being. However, ontology evolved and became more and more generally applied and philosophers started considering the ontology (existence) of God, or rather simply a "supreme" or "all-powerful" being. One of the most notable ontological arguments of the existence of God comes from Renee Descates who uses his argument of the existence of God as a way to develop a system of attaining certain (absolute) knowledge t hrough clear and distinct perception. In this essay, I will attempt to: outline in detail Descartes' ontological argument and its purpose, detail some of the most promising objections to the argument, and present compelling counterarguments to those objections. I. The Ontological Argument Descartes establishes the fact that he exists as a self-thinking entity and he believes this to be certain knowledge because he distinctly and clearly perceives himself to be and he could not do so without existing and having the cognitive faculties to think this: "I am certain of my own existence because I clearly and distinctly perceive it; so I now seem to establish a general rule that whatever I clearly and distinctly perceive is true" (III, 2). But there is one slight... ...t clear and distinct perceptions are true. For something to be clearly and distinctly perceived, we must be actively attending to it. The only reason for Descartes to bring God into the equation is to ensure that doubt does not overtake these perceptions in after we stop attending to them. Therefore, Descartes can in fact use clear and distinct perception to prove the existence of God. In the proof of God's existence he uses clear and distinct perceptions which he is actively attending to, and so (by the established standard), they must be true. So now that God is proven to be true, this allows the thinker to not have to actively attend to his perceptions in order for them to be true, making the amount of perceptions one can have limitless. General Comments: 1. No fluff! There’s some padding in your writing that doesn’t contribute to your arguments at all. Avoid it.

Job Rotation: Advantages and Disadvantages

1. Helps Managers Explore the Hidden Talent: Job Rotation is designed to expose employees to a wider range of operations in order to assist managers in exploring their hidden talent. In the process, they are moved through a variety of assignments so that they can gain awareness about the actual working style of the organization and understand the problems that crop up at every stage. Through this process, managers identify what a particular employee is good at and accordingly he or she is assigned a specific task. 2. Helps Individuals Explore Their Interests: Sometimes, employees are not aware of what would like to do until they have their hands on some specific job. If their job is rotated or they are exposed to different operations, they can identify what they are good at and what they enjoy doing. They get a chance to explore their interests and hidden potential. 3. Identifies Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes: Job Rotation helps managers as well as individuals identify their KSA (K nowledge, Skills and Attitudes). It can be used in determining who needs to improve or upgrade his or skills in order to perform better. This helps in analyzing training and development needs of employees so that they can produce more output. 4. Motivates Employees to Deal with New Challenges: When employees are exposed to different jobs or assigned new tasks, they try to give their best while effectively dealing with the challenges coming their way. It encourages them to perform better at every stage and prove that they are no less than others. This gives rise to a healthy competition within the organization where everyone wants to perform better than others. . Increases Satisfaction and Decreases Attrition Rate: Exposing employees to different tasks and functions increase their satisfaction level. Job variation reduces the boredom of doing same task everyday. Moreover, it decreases attrition rate of the organization. Employees develop a sense of belongingness towards the organization and stick to it till long. 6. Helps Align Competencies with Requirements: Alignment of competencies with requirements means directing the resources when and where they are required. It assesses the employees and places them at a place where their skills, competencies and caliber are used to the highest possible extent. Advantages(http://smallbusiness. chron. com/advantages-disadvantages-employee-r otation-18994. html) 1. Depth In its â€Å"Job Rotation Makes You a More Valuable Employee† article, temporary staffing industry founder Kelly Services points out that job rotation provides the employer greater depth at positions across the company. By moving employees around, the company develops more workers with skills in each area. If an employee requires a leave of absence, goes on vacation or needs a day off, it's good to have several capable replacements to step in and take on the work. 2. Employee Development With job rotation in place, employees can move around and avoid falling into a rut in one position. Over time, employees develop more skills in a wider array of positions. This provides job stability and equips them for better opportunities to earn promotions. All of these advantages, and better overall development, makes employees more valuable to their employers. 3. Employee Resistance. Job rotation is sometimes met with resistance from employees in certain situations. Experienced employees who are comfortable in their positions are often reluctant to rotate into other spots. Dan MacLeod and Eric Kennedy also noted in their publication, â€Å"Job Rotation System Report to XYZ Co. ,† that employees who use equipment and materials in their daily work have a hard time giving up their materials to others rotating in. 4. Training A job rotation strategy comes with costs. When you move employees into multiple positions, you must invest time and money into training the workers in all those positions. This not only includes costs for the employees who are rotating, but also the time of the managers and others who must train the employees in each area. A related concern is that some employees aren't good fits in certain positions within the company, regardless of the training program's effectiveness. Disadvantages Frequent interruption Job rotation results in frequent interruption of work. A person who is doing a particular job and get it comfortable suddenly finds himself shifted to another job or department. This interrupts the work in both the departments Reduces uniformity in quality. Quality of work done by a trained worker is different from that of a new worker . when a new worker I shifted or rotated in the department, he takes time to learn the new job, makes mistakes in the process and affects the quality of the job. Misunderstanding with the union member Sometimes job rotation may lead to misunderstanding with members of the union. The union might think that employees are being harassed and more work is being taken from them. In reality this is not the case. Experienced workers not wanting to learn new types of work.

Hillcrest Case 7 Operative

OPERATIVE REPORT Patient: T. J. Moreno Patient ID: 110497DOB: 02/15Age: 44Sex: M Date of Admission: 10/09/2013 Date of Procedure: 10/09/2013 Admitting Physician: Patrick Keathley, MD Endocrinology Surgeon : Dr. Max Hirsch, MD Orthopedics Assistant: Markus Leroy Johnson PAC (Surgical assistant was used for soft tissue protection and retraction and also for maintaining reduction during temporary and permanent fixation use of surgical assistant was medically necessary, and to prove the safety and efficacy of the procedure. Preoperative Diagnosis: Left hindfoot osteoarthritis. Postoperative Diagnosis: Left hindfoot osteoarthritis. Operative Procedure: 1) Triple arthrodesis . 2) Popliteal sciatic block placed by surgeon explicitly for postoperative pain management. Anesthesia: General by Chuck Delaney, MD. Condition during anesthesia, stable. Specimen Removed: Nine. IV Fluids: See nurse’s notes. Estimated Blood Loss: See nurse’s notes. Urine output: See nurse’s notes. Complications: None. Postoperative condition: Stable (Continued) OPERATIVE REPORT Patient: T. J. MorenoPatient ID: 110497DOB: 02/15Age: 44Sex: M Page: 2 INDICATION: A 44 year old male with hindfoot osteoarthritis pain, who has failed conservative management after reviewing risks, benefits and alternatives, he has agreed to proceed with surgical management. Risks of delayed healing, non-healing and infection, nerve vessel tendon injury, ongoing pain and discomfort, procedure failure, need for revision surgery, and/or hardware removal noted. The fact that he will have a stiffed hindfoot noted. Patient’s questions were answered, and he was consented for the planned procedure.PROCEDURE IN DETAIL: The patient was taken to the operating room where general anesthesia was induced. Time out was taken indicating the appropriated site, procedure, and patient. Operative site was initialed, one gram of Ancef given IV. Popliteal block was placed medial to lateral hamstring, 3 fingerbreadt hs proximal flexion crease to the knee. Intraneural injection of avoided by reducing the amperage to below 1 milliamp, seeing an obliteration of motor response. The extremity was prepped and draped in the usual fashion. Extremity exsanguinated, tunicate inflated.No equinus was present. Metier incision made from the tip of the fibula to the base of the fourth metatarsal. Extensor digitorum brevis and fat pad were elevated off the inferior peroneal retinaculum. Calcaneocuboid and subtalar joints were carefully exposed, denuded of cartilage, and prepared with a 4mm osteotome for arthrodesis. The calcaneocuboid joint was exceptionally osteoarthritic. The talonevicular joint linear incision was made in line with the posterior tibial course, sharp dissection carried down through skin with blunt dissection of subcutaneous tissues.Saphenous vein was retracted in a dorsal postion, linear incision made in the periosteum. The calcaneo and the talonavicular joint were carefully exposed. Cartill age, or what was remaining of cartilage was removed. There were extreme osteoarthritic thoughout. Essentially 5%-10% of cartilage remained. The osteophytes were carefully excised with osteotome, the joint was prepared with microfracture using an osteotome on both sides of the joint. (Continued) OPERATIVE REPORT Patient: T. J. Moreno Patient ID: 110497DOB: 02/15Age: 44Sex: M Page: 3Shortly the incision made off the weight bearing surface of the posterior heel. Guide wire from the 70 cannulated set was advanced across the posterior heel across the subtalar joint into the talor neck body junction. This was done while the heel was held in a slight valgus position. After verifying position and measuring, the wire was advanced to the anterior ankle, held with a hemostat. This was followed by sequential reaming with 4. 0 and then 7. 0 cannulated reamers. Next, after tapping, a fully threaded 100 mm screw was placed over a washer. Care was taken to avoid soft tissue impingement posteriorly. Excellent compression, fixation, subtalar joint were obtained without impingement of the ankle. Next the talonavicular joint was reduced to a foot plantar grade position, held with two 4. 0 cannulated screws starting at the naviculocuneiform joint. Next the calcaneocuboid joint again was adjusted to allow for plantar grade foot position. The joint was held with 4 staples from the 3M 15X16mm stabilizer. All wounds were irrigated with normal saline, excellent compression was present in each position, the medial periosteal was repaired with 3. 0 vicral suture.Subcutaneus tissues closed with 3. 0 vicral and skin closed with skin clips. On the lateral side, extensor digitorum brevis was repaied to the inferior peroneal retinaculum as was the fat pad. Subcutaneous tissue was closed with 3. 0 vicral. Skin closed with 4. 0 nylon. The posterior heel was irrigated and closed with 4. 0 nylon suture. A sterile dressing was applied plus telfa dressing, sponge, Webril, cotton roll, and plaster sp lint. The foot was at a final plantar grade position. Image intensification showed well placed hardware, extra articular to the ankle.Patient was taken to the recovery room in stable condition with no known complications. POST-OPERATIVE PLAN: The patient will be observed overnight with pain control maintained. Once he is surgically stable, patient will be transferred to endocrinology for evaluation and care of his newly diagnosed diabetes and hypertension. He is to follow up in my office in one week for wound check. _______________________________________________________________ Max L. Hirsch, MD Orthopedic Surgery mh/xx D: 10/15/20 T: 10/15/20