Product Evaluation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Product Evaluation - Essay Example good thing about this product is its added features and benefits such as affordability above all, while ensuring quality, availability of spare parts, customer support and more added values. Starting with affordability, other brands such as those from Apple Incorporated, Sony, Acer and others are becoming expensive because of the higher rating they obtained from customers and third parties. In general this is the bottom line of highly influential marketing activity, which is an integral part of creating significant needs for certain product or service offerings – the essence of advertising or promotion (Boone and Kurtz 482). Once these needs are created, it would now become easy to take control of the price on the part of the producers or manufacturers because of their higher or strong market power (Porter 4). This is evident in the case of Apple brands and others which substantially take hold at the top of the competition even though their prices are relatively higher. The case of Dell is different because it tries to create its market share by ensuring affordability while maintaining high value for customer support and availability of spare parts, which would result further to opportunity for long-term usage (Dell Official Site). All of these based on experience could be justifiable and are substantially met by Dell as it continues to cater price-conscious customers who also want to get something more at remarkably cheaper price. Dell is a good brand of choice among customers who are substantially looking forward to cheaper price but would also want to get something more. This is the area where Dell is making out the most of its market opportunity. It continuously seek to cater market segments where the basic criteria they considered is affordability at high level of functionality and including value-added features such as quality, availability of spare parts, and reliable customer support. In other words, Dell has what it takes to have something more

Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Pfizer Pharmaceuticals - Research Paper Example (MIOTTI, 2009). It thumps a few for the most part acknowledged plans on the head, for example, the cost of standardization. In excess of 66% of the organizations questioned expressed that standardization helps the era of benefits, demonstrating that it has a positive effect on an organizations worth. (MIOTTI, 2009). An alternate for the most part acknowledged thought is cleared aside by this study: it is not only the substantial organizations, prepared to do assembling impressive assets in the standardization process, which consider voluntary standards valuable for their exercises; (MIOTTI, 2009) littler structures, for example, SMEs with 250 representatives or less likewise discovered them helpful. Accordingly, 69.3% of organizations consider standardization to have a positive effect on their action. Given the current state of the budgetary markets, this study gives an opportune showing to backing French organizations getting more included in voluntary standards work. (MIOTTI, 2009). Improved working edges and †¢ Strong money stream growth fuelling expanded money comes back to shareholders through expanded profit pay-out proportions and offer repurchase projects. (Stirling, 2011) Pharmaceutical organizations are liable to far reaching regulation by national, state and neighborhood offices in the nations in which they work together. Of specific vitality is the FDA in the U.s. (Cvetkovs, 2011) It has purview over our human pharmaceutical business and oversees prerequisites coating the testing, security, adequacy, assembling, naming, showcasing, promoting and post-advertising observation of our pharmaceutical items. The FDA additionally directs our creature wellbeing items, alongside the U.S. Division of Agriculture and the U.S. Ecological Protection Agency. (Cvetkovs, 2011)Whats more, large portions of our exercises are liable to the ward of different

Cubas Transformational Leader Fidel Castro Cultural Studies Essay

Cubas Transformational Leader Fidel Castro Cultural Studies Essay Inspirational Leader During my involvement with issues like leadership and management, I must admit that real leaders are the ones that implement their vision with efficiency and make people feel trusted and inspired. People can be inspired and find their meaning of life by align their needs and desires with the vision of their chosen leader. The history has shown that few individuals can be thought as real leaders. As Ronald Heifetz and Donald Laurie state , the leaders main responsibilities are to direct people by defining the problems of a situation and identify the adaptive challenge. In this way the leader can be considered as protector since he or she can shield people and organizations from external threads. Apart from this an inspirational leader must have self knowledge, must be authentic and devoted to his passion and vision. Great leaders as Goffee and Jones discovered, share unexpected qualities such as they empathize passionately and realistic with people. In addition th ey manage employees with something they call tough empathy. Early Life An important personality and an inspirational leader can be considered Fidel Castro. Fidel was born in Biran and he is connected with the revolution of Cuba for its independence. His father was an immigrant from Spain that succeeded in sugar industry. His mother was a household servant. It is said that Fidel was an intellectual student that was more interested in sports and spent many years of his life in private Catholic schools. He entered the University of Havana and he began his political careers by being a recognized figure in Cuban politics. It is important to mention that Castro was considered to be one of the primary leaders of Cuban Revolution. At that time Castro enrolled with the politics of the country by being the Prime Minister of Cuba in 1959-1976 and then he took over as the President of the Council of State of Cuba until 2008. By being a transformational leader Castro tried and manage to overthrow the dictator Batista, and led the transformation of Cuba into a one party socialist republic. Values Castro tried to pass the message to Cubans of social justice, honest government and political freedom. He believed that freedom and economic independence are two of the most important elements and principles that a person should fight for. His beliefs and his vision were highlighted by the Cuban Revolution, where he managed to make his followers believe in his thoughts and sustain their freedom and equality. He and his followers tried to attack Batistas government. Although this attack proved to be a disaster and caused the death to many people, Castro managed to escape. His people were totally devoted to him and he assured that freedom will arise. It is of great importance to mention that Castro believed that his failure came from the fact that his car encountered serious problems and that the operation was lost. This, tell us that he never gave up the fight and that nothing else could be a fine reason for his failure! Castro went to prison for fifteen years. During his trial he delivered his famous defense speech History will absolve me a speech that can be considered as the expression of the personality of the leader. Leaders Traits and Style According to this speech we can highlight some core concepts from the Rhetorical Tradition. Fidel had the ability to Adjust ideas to people and people to ideas. His speeches had ethos and character along with pathos. His listeners and audience were engaged in his ability for talking for hours, always remaining devoted to his words. He repeatedly made rhetorical questions to its audience making his speeches lively and enthusiastic. Fidel held totally and absolutely incommunicado, in violation of every human and legal right. He states, emotionally, that only one who has been so deeply wounded, who has seen his country so forsaken and its justice trampled so, can speak at a moment like this with words that spring from the blood of his heart and the truth of his very gut. He was very self confident of his competencies where he stated that: taking advantage of my professional rights as a lawyer, I would assume my own defense. In an interview in 1995 he express that Today, I feel I am more a revolutionary than ever because everyday I am more convinced that what we did was right. In an attempt to support his subordinates he said: The rest of the accused, the minority, were brave and determined, ready to proudly confirm their part in the battle for freedom, ready to offer an example of unprecedented self-sacrifice and to wrench from the jails claws those who in deliberate bad faith had been included in the trial. Fidel was proud of himself as we can see from his own word: to inform you that if to save my life I must take part in such deception (of being ill), I would a thousand times prefer to lose it. He seems to be ironic and sarcastic in some part of his speech: What unbelievable crimes this regime must have committed to so fear the voice of one accused man! This in fact tells us that he never lies and he expresses his feelings (negative or positive). A leader is important to have specific traits that will help him in his mission. According to Kirkpatrick and Locke traits alone are not sufficientà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Leaders who possess the requisite traits must take certain actions to be successful. Among these traits are certainly drive, leadership motivation, integrity, self confidence, and cognitive ability, traits that can be identified to Fidel Castro personality and leadership characteristics. Fidel Castro can be considered as an effective leader that combines a task-oriented behavior along with relations-oriented behavior. He is task oriented since he has the ability to plan and schedule his people, coordinate his subordinates activities. He tried to overthrow his enemies by setting high but realistic performance goals. In addition he can be though for his relations-oriented features due to the strong supportive and helpful role he maintained through his political career. At a point of his speech he addresses his people: my brave comrades, with unprecedented patriotism, did their duty to the utmost. Yes, we set out to fight for Cubas freedom and we are not ashamed of having done so,. Being a charismatic leader, Fidel was being change-oriented, possessing a compelling vision. According to Bycio behaviors associated with transformational leadership include giving a high degree of attention and support to individual followers and offering followers intellectual stimulation and engendering a high degree of respect from them. Fidel as we can see, was able enough to gain the respect of thousands of Cubans and thousands of people around the word. On the other side he respected them also. As he states: I am grateful for the polite and serious attention they give me. His vision was correlated with his followers needs, beliefs and values, and this was of extreme importance for the achievement of Fidels goals. His vision of freedom was aligned with his followers dreams! This can be seen from his own speech The fact is, when men carry the same ideals in their hearts, nothing can isolate them neither prison walls nor the sod of cemeteries. For a single memory, a single spiri t, a single idea, a single conscience, a single dignity will sustain them all. Fidel employed a range of change management styles. He can be considered an Effective Leader since he was totally committed to his believes and to the goods such as freedom, faith. As he states in an interview identity with the fatherland, with sovereignty, with independence, and with the Revolution save it, help to save it, among all of us. Many, many things can be done. I hope that you are convinced. Moreover he possessed a vigorous pursuit of a clear and compelling vision. In that sense it is important that he managed to stimulate his people with high standards as he tried to pass the message of freedom to its community and its country in general. Moreover we can distinguish in its face a competent manager and leader where he managed to organize people and resources toward its effective objectives. Fidel engaged in intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration and inspirational motivation, making himself being recognized as a transformational leader. He possessed the charisma in order to transform the whole society. It is clear that this variety of leadership styles had been used concurrently. According to trait approach, Fidel was intelligent and confident. Moreover he was sociable and this can be seen from the way that he handled his people in his speeches, his jokes etc. According to R.Duane Ireland and Michael A.Itt, Fidel managed to develop a great group that has accepted their responsibilities, which are fulfilled with involvement and commitment, understand the significance of their duties. As Fidel says: You must know your duty; I certainly know mine. Fidel can be seen as a visionary Leader with many characteristics of a strategic leader as these are described by Glenn Rowe. As a visionary leader Fidel Castro was proactive with shaped ideas. He had the ability to influence attitudes and opinions due to his strong character and personality. Moreover he was concerned about the future of his society and his people and he kept finding ways of ensuring the freedom and justice. He was making decisions based on values, such as freedom, justice, virtue, trust. Moreover we can find characteristics that justify the fact that Fidel is considered to be a strategic leader. He had strong positive expectations of the performance he expected from his subordinates and itself. His choices made a difference in the whole society. Can Fidel be considered as an authentic leader? I believe that Fidel managed to convince his people and his subordinates that he is capable of achieving great things for his country. His words where consistent with his deeds, as his vision of liberation of his society from the injustice and poverty became a reality. He never said that he was an authentic leader! As Goffee and Gareth assumes, authenticity is largely defined by what other people see in you and, as such, can to a great extent be controlled by you. For these reasons he can be considered authentic. Fidel maintained a helicopter view of his society with strategic thinking, strategic management and leadership. He was able of doing the right things for his people. The Alchemist The leaders voyage of development is not an easy one. Some people change little in their lifetimes; some change substantiallyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Few may become Alchemistsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ David Rooke and William R. Torbert In their survey on the Seven Transformations of Leadership, David Rooke and William R. Torbert, demonstrate seven ways of Leading. Fidel can be considered as a strategist since he generates societal and personal transformations. Apart from this we can justify that Fidel combines also characteristic of an Alchemist, where he generates social transformations, integrates material, spiritual and societal transformation, making himself one of his kind. As they state, alchemists are typically charismatic and extremely aware individuals who live by high moral standards, while they focus intensively on the truth. As Fidel says: I had nothing to hide, for the truth was: all this was accomplished through sacrifices without precedent in the history of our Republic. Moreover he as a leader had the ability to speak to peoples hearts and minds. Fidel ´s personality and paradigm could be extremely important in the todays globalizing world. Companies should be recruited with this kind of minds in order to sustain the competitive advantage and be more wealthy and profitable. Strategic alignment, agility and sustainability are the most important values in a business context. A transformational leader like Fidel can maintain the effectiveness of the performance of every business or society.

Genetic Screening Will Not Put Limits on Equal Opportunity :: Science Biology Biological Essays

Genetic Screening Will not Put Limits on Equal Opportunity Introduction Genetic screening is a pressing issue in today's public policy forum, research and industry. Genetic screening provides enormous opportunities and is an incredible advance in science. However, genetic screening poses problems that are not and can not be easily overlooked. These are the following two issues dealt with in this paper. What can genetic screening offer people that currently is not being offered and at what cost to the people will this advance be? Genetic screening was devised to offer people a service and more important, to essentially, protect them from themselves. Genetic screening involves the screening of persons' genotypes to determine if they (1) are already associated with disease or are predisposed to disease, (2) may pass on disease to their descendants, or (3) produce other variations not associated with disease. (NAS 1975) Genetic screening is used as a means to prevent the onset or provide control for genetically inherited diseases. This in the long run is economical and treatment is effective. Screening of this type involves the detection of genetic disease and must first be defined to assure an understanding in the objectives of screening. Carriers of a genetic disease appear normal and are not affected except if the trait is expressed quantitatively across a population. In this case, the individual will have some disease characteristics however, not as severe as those with the disease. Individuals that have a genetic disease are almost always homozygous recessive for that gene meaning that there is an insufficiency in its ability to perform the correct function. One must not mistake a genetic screening test with a genetic diagnostic test. The difference is great and can be easily confused. A genetic screening test is not a definite confirmation of disease presence. It only gives an alert or signal to the possible presence that could affect the health of an individual. A genetic diagnostic test can tell with greater certainty if a disease is present in an individual. (Blatt 1996) Testing-Methods There are different times throughout the life span of a human in which genetic tests, both screening and diagnostic, can be preformed. The most popular and recognizable are the prenatal tests and testing of newborns. The genetic screening tests currently available for pregnant women are maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein (MSAFP) screening, enhanced MSAFP, amniocentesis, chorionic villus sampling (CVS), percutaneous umbilical blood sampling (PUBS), fetal biopsy and fetal cell sorting.

Decisions: Good and Bad

Decisions: Good and Bad Introduction In the news today, it seems as though everything we hear is negative. While I was searching for an organization that recently made a good decision, it appears that most of the things we read and/or hear about these days are the bad. I found plenty of information on bad decisions made recently, however talk about positive decision-making seems to be scarce. In this paper, I will discuss my views of a former CEO of a global conglomerate and the positive decisions he has made, as well as a recent poor decision made by another large corporation.A Good Decision For decades, we have heard the brand names Apple or Macintosh. If one were to judge the decision-making skills of Steve Jobs based on the success of Apple, one would have to say that he had to possess some of the best decision-making skills possible. Over the past few years, we have seen the MacBook, iPods, iPhones and the iPad. With the competition of Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Compaq and Microsoft to name a few, the Apple organization has made great strides to maintain its place at the top of the consumers list.One of the best decisions ever made by Steve Jobs was to return to Apple as CEO and take the market by storm with innovative technology and a selection unsurpassed by any other company. Through dedication, hard work and a vision, he has brought technology to a completely new level and others are left to catch up. With the desire to provide consumers with products that they were not even sure that they wanted, Jobs has made his place in corporate America.Through his decisions to take the world by storm and develop the ideas that seemed nearly impossible, he has left quite a challenge in trying to surpass the advancements in technology that he has achieved. A Bad Decision Over the past few years, there has been a vast growth in technology and the variety of products offered to consumers. One of the most popular novelties in entertainment today is the services offered by Netflix. The company began as a mainstream DVD rental provider and later transformed into an online movie-streaming leader.Recently, Netflix experienced an exceptional growth in subscriptions and demonstrated a high customer demand. However, due to terrible management decisions, the image of the company would soon become tarnished. It seems as if the decision-makers of the company misunderstood the reason behind its success and imposed a steep increase in price for the DVD plus streaming subscribers. Offering no rational explanation behind this decision, Netflix quickly experienced a momentous downfall.They did not have content that would make the company indispensable, and since most customers used the services because of the low subscription rates, stock prices would fall and consumers were looking elsewhere. This has now opened up a window of opportunity for newcomers such as Blockbuster, Amazon and Redbox. Conclusion While decisions are made within organizations each day, the l evel of research and the motive behind the decision may be the most important factor.The good decision that I described above was driven by the desire to succeed and to create innovative products and making them available to a large group of consumers. The bad decision seems to have been made out of greed and should never be a factor in making decisions at such high level. I believe that as long as the people making decisions stay focused on what is truly important to the organization, major pitfalls or obstacles may be avoided.

Applied Assignment: Self-Managed Work Teams

Identify and discuss the four most common forms of work teams. Give an example of each and what they do Problem solving teams: This type of team is composed of five to twelve employees. They meet weekly to focus on improvement, whether it is in quality, efficiency, or the work environment. An example of this could be all department heads in a firm that meet on a weekly basis to exchange ideas on how to improve productivity.However, they only make suggestions to the higher-ups, who will then be the one to implement their ideas. Self-Managed work teams: A self-managed team is a group of employees that take the responsibility of a supervisor. Different from the problem solving teams, In that they are the ones that come up with the ideas and are also the ones to Implement them into the work place. They often chose their own members and evaluate each other with in the group.This type of group has not always shown to be positive. In one study It showed higher absenteeism and higher turnove r rates. They have also shown to lack In conflict resolution with in the work place. An example of this type of group could be, student workers in an apartment complex that are hired without a â€Å"manager in place to maintain their schedules and the way they organize their office. They are given a goal or an objective and together they decide how to reach that goal or objective.Cross- Functional teams: This team is composed of employees at a similar hierarchical level that come together to come up with innovative ideas. A cross-functional team is good to come up with new products or new ideas, because having employees from different apartments allows many points of view to be expressed about the success or Implementation of the Idea or product. An example might be the coordination of the marketing department, the accounting department, and the production department, meeting to come up with a new marketing campaign.This way the accounting department can express monetary restrictio n, the marketing department can show its ideas, and the production department can provided input on how much increase in production it can handle. Virtual teams: These teams are comprised of members that are not geographically close but use genealogy to communicate and achieve a common goal. These teams sometimes suffer from lack of social rapport and direct interaction among members. They also tend to share less information, because of that, low levels of virtually in teams results In higher levels of information sharing, but high levels of virtually hinder It.For these teams to work they need to be monitor to make sure that; trust Is established among members, team progress Is monitored closely, and the efforts and products are publicized throughout the organization. An example of this could be, an international company that has members work together to create a universal What are defensive behaviors? Provide three examples of defensive behaviors and explain why an employee would engage in the behavior. Defensive behaviors are reactive and protective behaviors to avoid action, blame, and change.The defensive behaviors of avoiding action include, over conforming, buck passing, playing dumb, stretching, and stalling, The defensive behaviors avoiding blame include, buffing, playing safe, Justifying, scapegoat, and misrepresenting. The defensive behaviors to avoid change are, prevention and self-protection. Defensive behaviors seem to employees to be the way to protect their self-interests, however over time it wears them down. Eventually they know this as the only way to behave and begin to lose trust in other employees, bosses, and even clients.An example of behavior to avoid action, stretching, includes prolonging the progress or the start of an assignment. For example an employee is given the task of creating a proposal that would normally only take a couple of days, they appear to be occupied n other things and take a week to complete. An employee might do this if they do not agree with the idea or process they are producing the proposal for, or if they do not agree with the supervisor's way of asking for the task to be completed.One of the ways a defensive behavior is displayed to avoid blame is scapegoat. This is blaming a negative result on external factors that re not entirely blameworthy. They might take the icy weather for not being able to complete a report. While the weather may have hinder their productivity, most likely one day of bad weather should not eve been the reason that more work was not put into it prior to the bad weather or after the bad weather to still insure that the project was completed on time.To avoid change some employees will act in a way to prevent the action from happening. Maybe the boss is implementing a new computing system that could replace one of the employees. In order prevent it, an employee may act defensively and provide reason after reason why this will not work. They may also act as if they are having a lot of difficulty with the new program to make it seem that the program is hard to use.

Iagos play Essays

Iagos play Essays Iagos play Essay Iagos play Essay Iagos play BY Cdubya623 Iagos Play O, beware, my lord, of Jealousy! It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock/ The meat it feeds on (1226). Before this unit, I would not have known that this quote came from one of Shakespeares plays. I would even not have understood what it meant, nor how it could set the tone for all of the tragic events that would occur to the characters in his play. Although I first read this work in middle school, I feel that I have read a completely new story reading it years later. This time around, the play as about the reasons the characters behaved the way they did, emotions, and sex, In middle school, the only thing I understood about my constantly-changing emotions was that I didnt understand them. I knew what it was like to impulsively manipulate things to work out for me, but it never came close to the depth and care that Iago took in his master plan. Iago thought far ahead in order for his deceptions to come to pass. He patiently waited for everything to unfold the way that it did. Although his antics irked me the entire play, at the end I could not help but feel omething I hadnt expected. The first time, I mindlessly hated him and was prepared to hate him again. However, instead I was able to step back and see how he masterfully put all of the mismatched pieces of the puzzle together. And this time, I felt admiration for his work. On Thursday, my group tried to focus on the reasoning behind why the characters acted the way they did. For me, it was the first time that I really began to understand Iago and his affect on the other characters. The magic of Iagos persuasiveness lay in his words and reputation. He was commonly referred to as honest Iago and never forgets to remind the one he is trying to deceive that he loves them at crucial moments throughout the story (1202, 1225). How can one who hates those he surrounds himself with hold such a reputation among them? Personally, I believe he didnt always hate them. Love and Jealousy are some of the most common causes of erratic and impulsive behavior. I believe that Iago did enjoy the others, but he is first and foremost a narcissist and advocate for himself. He wants things to go his way nd needs the attention to be upon him. When Othello became happily married and Cassio was promoted, it leaves Iago without the attention he craves. In consequence of this, he feels that he must manipulate the situation in order to get the control back. Now that I have gotten older, I understand how it feels when another is promoted over you, and how it feels when someone is too content in their love life to pay any mind to your friendship. I also understand what it feels like when I believe that a lover prefers the company of another. These experiences cause me to understand Iago more than I had ever before. Iago was a simple case of a man who needed to be alpha male and the only way that was possible was to take out the other characters in the play. However, it is better to be content and not let your mind or emotions control your deeds. Although Iago is the most interesting and multi-dimensional character, I learned in class that it is important to also question why the other characters never flawless, Shakespeare twisted their lives around in fates that we, as readers, feel that hey do not deserve. Throughout the story I wondered if he related more to Othello or Iago. My group-member RJ believed that he related more to othello. Although Othello was honest and passionate, he was manipulated by his trusted and beloved assistant, and it led to his undoing. Shakespeare was surrounded by those in the theatre world. Perhaps he felt that his fate was more controlled by those around him, and that they also pretended to care about him. However, like Othello, they were simultaneously trying to make sure that he wasnt successful in his life. On the other hand, I believe he related more to Iago, who was a mastermind and loved to control things. As a playwright/director, one must love to make things happen that should never occur and change the fates of others. It was his way of controlling the world without the whole messy death and Jail time part. Another thing that I did not understand before now were the allusions to sex. When Iago and Roderigo are outside of Brabantios house, Iago puts out a vivid picture to Desdemonas father. He explains that an old black ram/ is tupping your hite ewe and that Desdemona is making a beast with two backs (1189-90). This reading is the first time that I have ever laughed throughout one of Shakespeares plays. Perhaps the next time I read Othello, I will understand the scene with the clown on the musician (1220). Othello is a story of passion and of emotion so raw that it completely runs the characters lives. Iago was fueled by what he felt to be injustice and Jealousy, Desdemona was fueled by love and the need to please her husband, Othello by jealousy so much so that he could not think straight, and Cassio was fueled by his eed for reputation and the shame he felt. Had any one of these character ignored what their heart was telling them and instead listened to reason, the story and outcome would have been completely different. However, we are human and emotions twist us and make us who we are. So, although this story is a love story, lets remember it for what it was: a tragedy of too much heart, but not enough thought. A mistake we can all learn from. Meyer, Michael, ed. The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. 9th ed. Boston: 1187-1267s. print.

Life At the Bottom Of The Pyramid

Life At the Bottom Of The Pyramid Free Online Research Papers Life of poverty is like life in imprisonment. When you are in imprisonment you do not enjoy the freedom that those outside the jails enjoy. Imagine someone whose mother was convicted for a certain crime. The mother was convicted while she was still pregnant. Then later on she gave birth in the cells. From thereon the child lives in imprisonment. Such an enclosure. That is what poverty is to millions of people the world over. Probably the saying of one great philosopher holds water. The saying that,† men are borne free but everywhere they are in chains†. Maybe one of the chains would be poverty or the effects of poverty. Think of many people in the developing world where basic services such as clean water, electricity, proper clothing and accommodation are in scarcity. These are the people that Prahalad referred to as the bottom of the pyramid. The use of the word pyramid must not be taken for granted. The bottom of a pyramid is the widest of that structure or shape. And w hat Prahalad wanted to put across is the fact that the majority of the people in the world are the poor. According to his definition the bottom of the pyramid refers to the more than two and a half billion people who are in abject poverty. This discussion will look at the distribution of global wealth, how to eradicate poverty, how to find sustainable ecological solutions to ecological problems as well as how to make the private sector assist the poor and the vulnerable. The current distribution of wealth shows amazing inequalities. The first thing to note is that the wealth, when we talk of the usable for of it, is more concentrated in the developed world. Generally the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is far much higher in the developed world than in the developing world. The current figure shows that in most developing countries the average income which a person uses per day is US $2.50. But as a person who lives in one of the developed countries I would assure the rest of the world that the figure could be as pathetic as less as US $1.00 per day. The average of US$2.50 is in relation to another component of those that make the bottom of the pyramid. Wikipedia.org says, â€Å"In economic terms the BOP is the largest socio-economic group. This is 2, 5 billion people who live on less than $2.50 (US Dollars) per day.† However a number of people in the developed world also live below the datum poverty lines of their respective nations. From the above discussion there is a question that emerges? The question is now how the poor could be saved. And who should assist them? There are several ways in which the poor can be assisted. Before answering these questions let’s identify some of the main problems which the poor face. These include: illiteracy, hunger, natural catastrophes, diseases, traumas, lack of basic facilities among others. The natural calamities that worsen the poor’s plight currently include; HIV/AIDS pandemic, floods, hurricanes, and earth quakes, among others. There are, however, more diseases other than HIV/AIDS. Some common disease includes cholera, malaria, tuberculosis, tetanus, measles and many others. There are also some new disease, such H1N1 Influenza, and Ebola that are affecting millions of people in developing countries. Some of the basic facilities the poor don’t usually access include, clean supply of water, clothing, decent accommodation electricity and medication. Th e cost of these is beyond the reach of many poor people. This is supported by the Indian case study, where at least half the population was illiterate; half the population had no clean water, no electricity, among other basic facilities. Let’s look at the main global problems that have been noted by the United Nations. The choice of the United Nations has great significance as it is a global organisation that tries to bring peace, stability, equity, social justice and development through out the whole world. The assumption in choosing the UN here is that it has records of major global problems and developments. In one of its report quoted in Poverty Reduction and The World Bank: Progress in Operationalizing The WDR 2000/2001 (2001: 2) it says, â€Å"Attacking persistent poverty in low-and middle- income countries is the greatest challenge facing global development community as the world moves forward in 21st century† In passing this statement the united Nations knows the challenges ahead. The following problems were identified in the same report. These include: â€Å"Over half a million women continue to die each year during pregnancy or child birth, The poor people every where continue to suffer from unacceptably low social conditions and lack of access to services, Malnutrition rates are systematically higher for the poor than the better off The AIDS crisis is having a devastating impact on developing countries, especially in Africa Life expectancy in the region (Africa) fell from 50 years in 1987 to 47 in 1999, Child mortality rate increased from 155 per 1000 in 1990 to 161 in 1999 in Sub Sahara Africa.† Unfortunately the UN’s report on some of these issues is even outdated, the new figures recently reviewed, even paints a gloomier picture than this. For example, in Zimbabwe, with the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of 25%, the latest report shows that the expected life expectancy has dropped down to 37 years. What a calamity, poverty has put humanity into! How could such dehumanizing conditions be overcome? The only answer lies in poverty reduction. Before getting into how poverty could be reduced, let us look further at what exactly poverty is. Poverty is when a person, family or country fails to have its basic human needs. In the above quoted report (2001:2) the World Bank defines poverty as,† income level below a socially acceptable minimum.† It adds that, â€Å"the condition of poverty has been interpreted conventionally as one of lack of access by poor household to assets necessary for a higher standard of income or welfareeducation, financial† Poverty reduction is not an aspect that can be achieved by an individual, one company or a small group of people; it requires large conceited action from various stakeholders, who use various strategies or interventions based on the cultural, political and economical needs of a particular people or society. The following groups and agencies must be involved among others: the local community, rural institutions, the government, the private sector, local government, donor agencies and non-governmental organisation; using various strategies and mechanisms including changing the basic assumptions, innovation, partnerships, venture capital and micro-financing among others. The rest of this discussion will look at these aspects. One key to poverty reduction is community involvement. The community is made of all the people in a geographical area. Usually a community is a group of people who share a lot in common. This may include the problems they have, their aspirations as well as shared resources and vision. To alleviate the problem of poverty in an area, the people in that area must be involved in finding ways to alleviate it. The people must be actively involved. One way to do that is to form community committees. In, Zimbabwe a group of about one thousand household make what is called a ward. All the community development projects are done at ward level. The ward has a ward committee that is headed by a councillor. The councillor liaises with the headman who is the traditional leader in that area. So any proposed projects and funding comes through the ward committee. The ward committee holds meetings with all the residents to identify immediate problems to be solved, proposed developmental projects, and how to source funding. Most non-governmental organisations bring developmental project funds through that basic community committee, whom they sit down with and discuss how to carry on with the projects. So the use of such participatory activities means that the community is involved. Sabburao (2004: XVI) says,† The broad conclusion is that community driven interventions at the household level appear to be the most cost effective way.† This means the coming together of various stakeholders would assist in making the running of projects less expensive. For example if it is a farming community they can buy their inputs in bulk and they get discounts. They can have a cheaper transporter to carry their inputs and produce as may be compared to how expensive it could be for individuals to buy and transport. Another essential aspect of community involvement is to find local solutions to their problems. If a consultant has to come all the way from New York to a local community in Zimbabwe to find a solution to a problem it would be both expensive and time-consuming. After all, the solutions may fail to work due to some cultural and political barriers which a foreign consultant might not know. For example if there is poor agricultural production in a certain area, it is the local people who should come together and search for solution, they may know the rivers around, they may know some traditional crops that are disease and drought resistant in their areas. That can not be known by some one who comes from a far away place. Tamsin (2006) says, â€Å"A participatory approach ensures the full involvement of all groups in the development process†. Again if the people are involved in the planning and implementation stage, they become emotionally involved. With emotional involvement it m eans that they are motivated to achieve what they set out to achieve. If the community comes together and succeed more than once, soon a culture of togetherness, hard work and success develops. These are the ingredients of future prosperity and ultimately the reduction of poverty. There is one thing that will affect the people once they begin to experience success in what they do as a group. Ultimately their self esteem and self confident develops .People who have self esteem and self-confidence will definitely do much more than before and later achieves excellence. The concepts of self realisation, self-fulfilment and self actualisation, at that stage can be seen to be at work, and new personalities and a new community that is success- driven develops. From that point, on the road to poverty- eradication starts and extends. With success in a few areas, more success stories come as they introduce more projects. One projects lead to the next. In a certain community, in Zimbabwe the community introduced a garden project that ran successfully. From there, they introduced poultry project which in turn succeeded, they again introduced diary farming. Now they have developed into one of a successful venture in Zimbabwe. Poverty reduction in that area came about du e to the income generation as well as employment creation. It is important to note that these developments were as a result of the community coming together and come up with some solutions. The innovation was a community based and run. One essential facet that enhances development is innovation. McAdam and Moffett (2010:2) define innovation as, â€Å"the creation of any product, service or process which is new to a business.† It is important to note for it to be called an innovation it should have a positive and measurable impact on the community. From this definition we have to look at the types of innovation. The first one is a process innovation. It means there is a new way of doing an activity. For example in an account department of a company if the procedure for processing voucher papers was that the vouchers are written by a clerk, checked by a senior clerk, then passed on to the Accounting Technician and then to the assistant accounting. There can be change in the process or procedure. For example the completed voucher papers, completed by a junior clerk would be directed straight to the Accounting Technician; it means there have been a paradigm shift and a process innovation. Process innovation coul d be in the processing of farm products. At Makandi Estates, in Zimbabwe, where macadamia nuts are grown. They used to send the shelled nuts to their export market. However they had to change the process, whereby they had to dry the nuts and roast them in their own plant and they, now, send out as ready products for consumption. It means there was a change in the process. The other form of innovation is called technological innovation. This means the introduction of new technology or technical way of doing things. This type of innovation usually takes place in manufacturing sectors. One example of innovation is the introduction of cable tractors in agricultural sector. At Chipinge Banana Company, harvested bananas used to be carried by tractors from the fields to the Pack shed. But the new system was introduced where overhead rail lines were introduced and cable tractors ferry bananas from the fields to the Packshed. This led to the improved quality of bananas, which have less bruises and it is faster and more efficient. This is an example of a technological improvement. It means more production comes about and more income is generated. If this was done as community project then there would be increased income generation and subsequent poverty reduction. The other innovation could be product innovation. This is where a completely new product is introduced. The communities could come up with new products. It may not necessarily the introduction of a new product, but an improvement on an existing product. An innovation recently introduced in the area was the manufacturing of flour and animal food from bananas. This is an innovation, as bananas were not used for making flour in our country. Since there are a lot of bananas in the area, the people in the local community started making flour and animal feed from bananas. A lot of buyers are flocking the area in search of such products and the local community has an improved inflow of income which has impacted positively on their lives. Such a development at community level, which has been an initiative of the local people means their monthly per capita has increased, with regard to the involved community. With respect to poverty reduction, another useful innovation could be in terms of marketing. This may deal with the introduction of cheap and more affordable products to the people. An example could be in terms of beer products in my country. Beer has been a very expensive product that used to consume a large amount of income from the residents .For example the normal price of a 250 ml of imported spirits is about US $3.00. This has been the price for a long time. However recently new imports of a brand of beer has been introduced that is coming in from the nearing Mozambique. The cost of the new spirits (250ml) is US $1.00. These new imports have a higher content of alcohol. Whereas individuals could consume beer worth $9.00 per day they now consume beer costing $3.00 per day. So a change in marketing strategy and introduction of new products can be an innovation. From the above example of beer it has shown that about $6.00 is now being saved from alcohol consumption per day per ind ividual, just because of the new type of beer. That extra $6.00 per day per person can now be channelled to other usage. If there is an influx of products with that money saving impacts then poverty reduction could be achievable, over a longer period of time. Hang (2010) emphasise that the introduction of cheaper goods for the rural communities would assist in the community members having to spend their current income on more goods and services. Another necessary innovation is the introduction of affordable units of products. It may be necessary to alter the packaging side, so that the consumers choose the quantity that is in line with the amount of money which she/he has. We have several such innovations in Zimbabwe. Traditionally the packaging of fertilizer used to be 50 kg packs. Until recently some fertilizer vendors started to repack the fertilizers. They would buy a 50 kg bag of fertilizer and repackage these into two kg packages. This became very viable. As a result the fertilizer manufactures realised the new developments. And now they have introduced new packs from 2kgs, to 5 kg, 10 kg and 50 kg. The consumers choose the amount they want. Previously if you needed 10 kg of fertilizer you could be forced to buy a 50 kg of fertilizer, after using the 10 kg you would put the rest in store, but you could have pumped out the money which you could be used to buy other products and services. At Chipinge Banana Company, we run a tuck-shop for the workers and we have realized that they buy the smallest units in most cases. The area is a farming community where the workers income is very low. Most employees earn US $30.00 per month. The best they could do is to buy the smallest unit around. This also applies to the local community around. Most of them are communal farmers and their incomes are very low. The other necessary thing is to introduce a variety of brands of the same product in an area. Most low income earners are branding conscious. They do not get worried about the quality that they buy but the prices. Even if two products have a difference of ten cents in prices they would go for the cheapest. So it would assist the BOP consumers if variety of a product type is introduced. The other important tool for fighting poverty is the use of micro-finance in poor communities to start income generating products.Wikipedia.com defines micro-finance as, â€Å"the provision of financial services to low income clients or solidarity lending groups including consumers and the self employed, who traditionally lack funds.†In simple terms that is where someone or a company wishes to give out small loans to would be investors. Those people or small enterprises that need funding borrow the funds to develop their small businesses. This is a noble idea and most people have gained from this facility. In Zimbabwe, there are lot of these micro-financing businesses, and they have assisted many people to start their own businesses. Many entrepreneurs have started small welding businesses, carpentry shops, tailoring shops, candle making business, vending business, and small scale agricultural operations. Many people who have been very poor at least have something to live on. The government has also come in to give soft loans to their employees. A lot of small to medium businesses have grown up in Zimbabwe since 1999. The re has been a huge growth in the informal sector due to such cash injection. There has been a lot of development in the communication sector. Many people who accessed such funds started phone shops, internet cafes, among other small businesses. Hossam and Tonya (2008) said that micro-finance has been a poverty alleviation mechanism. This is an acceptable observation, if we follow the current trends in many developing countries. Ford (2007) concurred with the above observation when he commented that although the sum disbursed to individuals may be small but that has managed to make a massive difference on small traders. The Zimbabwe economy for the past ten years depended heavily on the small scale investors and informal trading, including cross-boarder traders. In the past ten years most industries collapsed in Zimbabwe. The rate of une mployment rose sharply. It is currently unbelievable that the unemployment rate in the country is about 90%. Most people started self-employment projects. These are the ones that sustained the country for a long time. However whereas microfinance seems to be a noble and ideal instrument for poverty reduction it has its own problems , which if not addressed means the exploitation of the poor, which can even bring the conditions of these poor to even worse levels. Some of these problems according to Hossam and Tonya (2008) are, difficulty in repayment of loans, high interest rates, exploitation of women borrowers, unchanging levels of poverty and failure to cater effectively to target group. From the experience in Zimbabwe I can concur that the problems of high interest rates and failure to cater for a target group are serious ones. Related to micro-financing are other financial services that can assist tremendously in poverty alleviation. There has been an increase in rural finance institutions in strategic alliances with small entrepreneurs, whether as individuals or as a group or as cooperatives. There has been the emergence and growth of credit unions, cooperative financial institutions, agricultural banks, postal financial services. Additional facilities that have assisted in poverty alleviation are payment facilities such as ATM, VISA cards, increased use of checks and smart cards. These are among the innovations that have revolutionised the way business is done in developing countries by ensuring that quick transaction is concluded. For example with a VISA card a person in Zimbabwe can make a quick transaction with some in the United States. It shows as well the impact of globalisation as a means to eradicating poverty. The other trend that has been very vital in poverty alleviation has been the use of partnership. The poor, as individuals and particularly at community level have been able to forge partnerships as a means to harness funds and expertise that is essential for developmental drives. Gallardo et al (2006:2) says, ‘Strategic alliances comprise a new theme in rural finance† He cited the example of Guatemala where alliances were very helpful in poverty alleviation through partnerships. These were partnership to overcome obstacles and barriers. These alliances as well assisted in introducing new products, expansion of market coverage. Such developments were also significant in India and Ghana, according to Gallardo (2006). He further says (2006:2), â€Å"the alliances and partnerships enabled the rural finance institutions to access significant capital resources, manage transaction costs, and acquire technical and management skills, linking up with banking technology and infrast ructure.† This partnership included engaging rural finance institutions, cooperative financial institutions, postal services, credit unions and rural banks. In Zimbabwe there has been a great development and introduction of rural banks. These rural banks have been in partnership with various groups and individuals involved in certain projects. For example Agriculture Bank of Zimbabwe has been working with small scale farmers in providing capital to buy farming equipment and inputs. The People’s Own Saving bank (POSB) has been loaning out, money to all government workers who want to start their businesses. Some Non –governmental organisations are also involved in starting partnership. For example the International Organisation for Migration has been assisting rural communities by sending their representatives to be trained in farming through out the country. Those who were trained have come back and started agricultural projects that have assisted in sustaining co mmunities. Poverty alleviation in a country could not be completely achieved without the involvement of the government. The government assists in several ways. One of the ways the government assists is in developing policies and guidelines on how, NGOs, government departments should operate in order to achieve sustainable development. The government acts as a coordinative and monitoring agency in the process of poverty alleviation. Cabbello (2008:421) says, â€Å"Policy change is presented as an ongoing process in which the choices available for agents are heavily influenced by contextual factors.† In this discussion he was referring to the policies that are created by the government. By government we also include the local government. Hong (2010) cited the examples of legislation that could be put in place by the government. He cited the statutory changes that were put in New York. These include; ‘Smart Growth and Flexible Zoning Techniques (FN7)’ ‘Codification of cas e law and modernization of Basic Enabling Statutes (FN8). These are example of laws where the local authorities have introduced to affect economic growth and the citizen’s welfare. Bach (2010:239) says, â€Å"State targeting has taken different forms, for example the creation of a legislative commission or issuance of reports†. According to Bach, in 2006 the State of Minnesota in USA created a commission to end poverty† and in 2006 Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in New York convened the commission for Economic Opportunity. The commission was composed of business and community leaders. The point here is to illustrate how government can be involved in poverty alleviation. The better policies and legislative frame work they make the better investment and poverty reduction initiatives are done. The government is also involved in infrastructure development. Among these is the construction of roads, airports, boarder posts, among others. The government can also appoint the p ersonnel who monitor rural development and poverty eradication initiatives. This includes establishing ministries to deal with such issues. In Zimbabwe we have ministries such as, Ministry of Economic planning and Development, Ministry Of Commerce and Investment, Ministry of Child welfare and social services, Ministry of Empowerment as well as Ministry of Urban and rural planning and Development. These are the government agencies to assist in development, growth and poverty alleviation. When we look at the government’s role in poverty alleviation, one main thing to emphasise on is on its political role. The government is probably the main actor in promoting peace and political stability in the country, which will subsequently affect investment. Without an unstable political system there is no development, there is no economic growth and poverty sets in. Political stability and its impact on development and on poverty reduction do not require much detailed written case studies. Probably not! What is necessary to look at is the current state of countries in political turmoil. Somalia, in Africa, probably is a country that has political instability for a long time, and the effect is that there is abject poverty. People are dying from malnutrition. There is no proper education system; the health system is almost now non-existent .In countries like Iraq, despite being naturally rich there is a lot of suffering and the state has been reduced to a begging state. Pe ople in Afghanistan, Pakistani and Democratic Republic of Congo are in a sorry state. The reason being political instability. In other words the governments, there, have failed to create political stability. Poverty alleviation can also be dealt with through the involvement o fAid agencies and NGOs. Aid agencies and NGOS usually have their roots in developed countries. There are many aid agencies in Africa and Zimbabwe in particular. We have international organisations such as Red Cross society, World Vision, Care International, Plan International, OXFAM, among others. They have initiated and developed community projects such as toilet construction, building schools, building roads, starting projects in rural areas and child feeding programs. These NGOs have done various other projects. In Zimbabwe currently such organisations have assisted in paying salaries for government departments to ensure that there is sufficient delivery of public services such as education and health care. We also have the United Nations and its agencies such as UNICEM, UNICEF, ILO, and UNESCO among others. These have done a tremendous job in alleviating the suffering of the poor. Then there is the role of the private sector in poverty alleviation. The private sector plays an influential role. Firstly the private sector is a major employer in any country. Thousands of people are employed and earn a monthly income. This assists them to have decent medication, educating their children and providing other basic necessities. What most private companies however fail to is paying their employees an amount that is above the poverty datum line. For example in Zimbabwe the current poverty datum line is $500.00, however most employees are paid between US $30 and $150.00. This means although the people are working they are not able to move above the poverty line. It also means individuals can not set aside a small amount of money for investment. The private sector is also the one that have micro-finance firms. Some private organisations also donate money towards community development projects. For example in the year 2010 Chipinge Banana company assisted in renovating sc hools and donated funds towards road construction. An estimated US $2000.00 has been set aside towards community development projects. A lot of companies are doing the same. The other ways in which some companies assist the community is through doing joint projects with the local communities, in business partnerships. Many agricultural companies in Zimbabwe have out grower’s projects. The out growers project is whereby the company assist the local communities to start some agricultural projects, similar to what the company does. For example Chipinge Banana Company has out grower’s schemes with local residents. What the companies does is to assist with technical expertise required in growing bananas, it also provides seeds, fertilizers and chemicals to the community. When the banana is ripe and ready for selling the out growers sell their produce to the company. The company deducts what it has expended towards the out growers ‘project. So out grower farmers are as sisted. With five or more years the farmers will be able to farm such crops without the assistance of the company. In Zimbabwe there are a lot of out growers in citrus fruits, gum tree projects, coffee and tea growing as well as in sugar cane production, among others. So the private sector, the agricultural sector in particular gets in partnership with the local communities. Other partnerships are in the mobile phone business, where mobile phone operators have the money cards sold by vendors on commission. Vending commissions are also found in sale of stamps, newspapers and magazines, soft drinks and agricultural projects, such as fresh fruits. These are all ways in which the private sector can assist in poverty reduction. Venture capital is another way which can be very important in poverty reduction. Wikipedia. Com says, â€Å"venture capital is financial capital provided to early stage, high potential, and growth start up companies.† Therefore it is essential in assisting very small companies to raise the required money to start businesses or even to increase viability and cash flow, if it is already a going concern. Usually venture firms operate as partnership. Venture companies own equities in the companies in which they invest. Wikipedia.com says,† venture capital firms are typically structured as partnerships, the general partner of which serve as the manager of the firm and will serve as an investment advisor. † Venture funds usually comes from some companies that have excess funds, these are especially from pension funds and insurance firms. According to recent reports venture capital has assisted in many nations world-wide including the first world countries. The following statistics come from Wikipedia.com: In the United States Of America the venture capital for the third quarter of 2006 only was $6, 6 billion and 797 deals were made. The report was quoted from Money Tree Report Pricewaterhouse, coopers, data having provided by Thompson Financial. In the same report, in Europe in 2005 the venture capital exceeded 60 billion British pounds. Whereas Israel had a venture capital of $1.9 billion in 2008. These are just a few examples of how much venture capital is used. Using the principle of the multiplier effect it means the benefits reaped in these countries were tremendous. If a global trend of venture capital is maintained and even increased the poverty reduction goal stated in the United Nations Millennium plan will be met by the year 2020. Another vital element that can assist in bringing growth and stability, and ultimately reducing poverty is the need to change basic assumptions on several issues, ranging from governance system, investment methods, social trends, economic outlook among others.Wikipedia.com defines an assumption as ,† a proposition that is taken for granted, as if it were true-based upon presupposition without preponderance of the facts.† Assumptions can be like blinkers, as they can make you fail to realise the reality and the surrounding facts. So people must develop an inquiry mind when faced with issues that they have done for a long time. Each aspect of business or aspect with great political, social or economic significance must be scrutinized to find as to how workable those long standing practices and view points are. Tamsin (2006:140) argues that,† the new approaches must be found that focus on listening to the diversity of needs that exist in any community† There an e mergence of is a new approach based on the need and importance of having to listen to the generality of the people involved. Presently most governments and companies still hold on to a lot of bureaucracy. This means that to implement positive changes it takes a lot of time and effort. There must be a paradigm shift in terms of governance and participation of the majority. Sharma (2008: XV) says, â€Å"along with economic liberalisation, austerity programs, privatization and participatory governance, empowerment is now an accepted part of the development orthodoxy.† This statement emphasizes the need for shift in thoughts and assumption. The first issue is on participatory governance. To be very honest participatory governance is still a dream in many spheres of life. How many fledgling democracies are in the world, with political leaders not willing to involve people at the grassroots level just for a simple reason to hold on to power and to abuse the people and squander res ources?. The other concept of empowerment, although is a new development is not easily accepted in organisations that range from corporate, to educational ,social institutions and even in the religious circle. The reason is that there are a few people who place themselves in aristocratic organisational or political system whose interests need to be protected at all cost, even at the expense of the majority. From a personal perspective this is the area where development is hampered. Until a time that people and organisations and nations accept to involve all the stakeholders at the fullest level can we expect meaningful development and further reduction in poverty. This participation must not be on a superficial level, it must be practical and with a lot of sincerity from all those involved. So there is need to have a shift in the way people do things. They need to run away from the traditional way to pragmatic approaches to deal with problems and new challenges. Bach (2010: 341) say s,† Accompanying shifts in policy are radical shifts in governance.† With that, the vision for poverty reduction by 2020 may be realised in those areas where there is paradigm shifts in certain fundamental areas. To conclude at this matter let us quote the words of Bach (2010: 240), who says, â€Å" through a process of deep democratic participation and continual experimentation and redesignthe governing enterprise will produce a set of policies that are more responsive to real needs of those in poverty.† Finally Cabelb (2008:3) says, â€Å"The main hypothesis that this article raises is that, implementing successful economic reform is not a technical process but a political process.† Before we look at the final issue of globalisation let us deal with the issue of ecological sustainability. For the goal of real poverty reduction to be achieved there is need for sustainable development. Tom wells through his BlogSpot, the philosopherbeard.blospot.com says, â€Å"sustainability concerns the relationship between humans and their natural environment.† â€Å"Sustainability means not to harm.† Gro Brundtland’s influential report (1987) suggests that sustainability deals with the need to meet the current demands and yet not compromise the future generations’ needs. What we do today must not be detrimental to the human race tomorrow. If what we do today compromises what the world will be tomorrow in a negative way, it means it is not sustainable. We can not reduce poverty today to create even greater poverty tomorrow for our grand children. So in order to reduce poverty in a real sense we must be ecological friendly. This means that we must no t damage the environment. About sustainable ecology ezineArticles.com says that there is need to have,† ecological production that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles, soil biological activity. It is based on minimal use of farm in puts and on management practices that restore, maintain and enhance ecological harmony. So our poverty reduction strategies must not be at the expense of environmental degradation. In our business activities we must evaluate the activities that we carry and find out if they are ecological friendly. Those activities that can damage the environment now or in the future must not be carried out. That is why, where there is need for huge developments that can affect the environment there is environmental assessments from experts. There is also the need too use renewable resources so that we can not deplete the non of renewable resources is that of solar energy or wind energy being used as source of energy in industries or at home. This will mean that development will continue for a long time or for ever, without compromising future prospects. The final issue to be discussed is the issue of globalisation and its impact on poverty reduction. Before expanding further it is important to note that most of all the other things that we have discussed in this paper are related to globalisation or has a link to it. All the issues discussed in here have a global focus and are a part of a global trend, hence are linked to globalisation. To show the global spectrum, were the examples that were cited from across the entire worlds of such things include the internet, the cell phones, the existence of micro-financing, commercial banks, agricultural banks; internationalisation of the education system through e-learning, medical methods among others Globalisation is a great invention to fight poverty. The increasing influence of globalisation means that all inequalities will one day be overcome. Imagine how the inequalities in education system has been reduced through online education, the use of VISA cards means a person can buy medicati on anywhere in the world. If the medicine is bought in United States it can be in Zimbabwe within six days due to fast courier services such as DHL or FedEx. The use of internet and mobile phones means people anywhere in the world can easily communicate and facilitate business. International migration has also been made easy due to some agencies that now can process required documents. An example of how globalisation will assist in poverty reduction can be a case of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe went through a period of economic melt down since 1999 up to date. Because of global access to information, infrastructure and institutions many people left Zimbabwe. Many are now working in America, Europe, and Australia and in other African Countries, mainly in South Africa. Those who work in United States send money home through the new inventions such as money grams, bank transfers and western union. What it means is that a lot of things could be bought from abroad, anywhere in the world and transp orted into Zimbabwe. Through that system a lot of people who work outside the country have invested in a lot of businesses and some have build a lot of infrastructures, particularly houses. So wealth is now being externalised from developed countries into the developing countries. With these few examples it can be verified that globalisation has a positive impact in poverty reduction. However it must be noted that globalisation has its own serious negative effects. These effects include, environmental degradation, spreading of diseases such as HIV/AIDs, H1N1 influenza, it can assist in causing global financial crisis, and it does bring about alienation, family disintegrations, moral decadence and cultural integration. Although there seems to be so many problems related to globalisation it can be concluded that globalisation is a necessary devil as it is vital for the global reduction of poverty. The writer’s final perception is that globalisation is instrumental for poverty reduction. There is transfer of expertise through the globalisation of the education system. Wealth can be transferred from one country to the other. There is a new trend in international migration. The existence of NGOs and the arms of the United Nations mean that there is internationalisation of problem solving, innovation and standard of living. There is now the introduction of a global legislative framework for problem solving through The Hague International court. The World Bank is a serious instrument that is driving poverty reduction through the harmonisation of financial regulation, policies and procedures. The existence of international economic blocks furthers the globalisation agenda and poverty reduction. We have powerful economic blocks such as The European Union, ECOWAS, COMESA and SADC. Of all these SADC seems to be weakest of them all. Doing away with globalisation will no longer be an achievable goal. Globalisation is here to stay, because it was not created at a conference table or a political forum; it is a result of evolutionary state that can not only be linked to economics but to the social, political and technological developments, the world over. BIBLIOGRAPHY BOOKS A McAdam, R and Moffett, S(2010)University Of Ulster Innovation. Shirley Ann Hazzlet: Belfast Tamsin, B( 2006). Challenging NGOs: Women, Religion and Western Dialogues in Indian York I.B: New York Sharma, A (2008)Logics of Empowerment: Development, Gender, and Governance in Neoliberal India. Minneapolis University: Minnesota World Bank(2001) Progress in Operationalizing The WDR 2000/2001.World Bank: Washington D .C. Weiss , J(2005) Poverty Targeting in Asia. Edward Elgar Publishing: Northampton. Subbarao, K(2004) Reaching out to Africas Orphans: A Framework for Public Action. World Bank: Washington D. C MAGAZINES Atkins, M. Five Key Concepts For Sustainable Innovation. India Week 259 No 7 July 2010. Penton Media: Cleveland Bach, A: Accountability and the New Poverty Agenda.Winsconsin Law Review 2010 No 2 Cabello, M. G. Merilee Grindle and the Reform of Financial Institutions: The Micro-finance Regulation in Elsavado. International Development Review 30 No 4 (2008) Finn, N. Mission: Sustainability: Local Industry Takes on Green Hue. New Orleans Magazine No 4 July 2010. Ford, N The Grameen Experience in Africa. African Business No 330. April 2007 Gallardo, J .S et al.Strategic Alliances to Scale up Financial Services in Rural areas. World Bank Paper No 76. world bank, 2006. Hang, C. C .Developing Disruptive Products For Emerging Economies: Lesson From Asian Cases. Res Technol Manage 53 No4 July/ August 2010. Industrial Research Institute: Arlington. Hossam, F and Tonya, K: Can Micro-finance Credits Improve the Livelihoods of the Poor and Disadvantaged: Empirical Evidence From Bangladesh. International Planning Review 30 No 2 (2008) Katz, R. Community E-banking : An Online Service Model for Not-to-Profit Sector. Journal os Internet Banking and Commerce 15 No 1. April 2010 Magada, D Madagascar: Path to Self-sufficiency. African Business no 330 (2007) Zach, F.Beyong Philanthropy. Eoromoney. Euromoney publications. (2006) WEB PAGES Paradigm shift www. Aswers.com/topic/ paradigm shift. Globalisation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/globalisation Tom wells. Department of Philosophy. (Erasmus University. Rotterdam. http://thephilosopherbeard.blospot.com/ environmental friendly http://EzineArticles .com/?Expert=Joan baston Research Papers on Life At the Bottom Of The PyramidPETSTEL analysis of IndiaInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesPersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyDefinition of Export QuotasThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationAssess the importance of Nationalism 1815-1850 EuropeStandardized TestingMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductCapital PunishmentAnalysis Of A Cosmetics Advertisement

CBA Leads Bank Share Price Correction

The article is entitled â€Å"CBA leads bank share price correction† is analysed in this report. The article primarily discuss how share price has plunged deeper in the major banks into correction territory following a weak trading update arising from Commonwealth Bank disclosing increasing costs, narrowing margin of profit and escalating loan losses. It indicates that CBA has agonized its sharpest day-to-day share price plunged ever since global financial crisis. CBA’s shared price plummeted 5.9% to 82.98 dollars culminating to a further worsened investor sentiments. This followed a third-quarter unchanged profit report by CBA remain constant at $2.2 billon. This plunged has adversely affected CBA’s competitors including Westpac, NAB, and ANZ Banking Group. The article concludes that the next immediate teething problem for the sector is profit result for NAB merged with 3 big 4 trading ex-dividend over the following week. The accounting theory used in this analysis is Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH)-semi strong form (SSF). EMH describes an investment theory that posits it is not possible to ‘beat the market† due to stock market efficiency that makes available share prices to incorporate as well as reflect every relevant information. Stock trade always at their fair value on stock exchanges which make it an impossibility for investors to buy undervalued stocks and sell stocks for exaggerated prices (Chi, Tripe & Young, 2014). Hence, it remains an impossibility to outperform the entire market via expert stock selection and market timing. The investor can solely likely to acquire higher returns through the purchase of riskier investments. SSF implies every public information is computed into current share price of stock implying neither fundamental nor technical examinations can be utilized to accomplish superior returns. Hence, solely information hidden from the public is suggested to benefit the investors looking to earn abnormal ROI as every other information remains accounted. There is a direct relationship between the share price plunge and the information availed to the public by the Commonwealth Bank (CB) which is what SSF posited above. The plunge in shares in leading banks plunged deeper into correction territory only following a weak trading update given by the CB. This indicates that the public had the information that costs were rising, profit margins were narrowing and the loans losses were rising. According to SSF, every information available to the public is accounted for in the stock prices and no amount of technical or fundamental analysis gives superior returns. This describes why the investors used CB’s update to punish the shares in CBA thereby plunging 5.9%. Indeed, CLSA Brian Johnson confirmed this hypothesis by stating that investors had already seized on the bad news of CBA relating to margins, bad loans and costs. Moreover, the David Ellis confirmed the SSF hypothesis by stating that the investors used the information thereby flocking to banks to exploit their huge dividends as bank shares were being sold off due to increasing yields hence ‘yield trade’. It is also believed that investors could be starting to question whether the fundamentals could justify the hideously expensive valuation, anchored on measures like price-to-earnings as well as price-to-book ratios. This means that the investors are aware of the SSF hypothesis that takes into calculation all public information into present stock share price and hence fundamental analysis cannot be applied to achieve gains by banks (Leuthold & Hartmann, 2013). Due to EMH, the investors behaved in the manner above because they believed that the market remains ubiquitous and, therefore, no quantity of analysis could assist them achieve alpha returns (Groenewold, 2012). Thus, because market is a reflection of its participants, the market is, therefore, all knowing, and becomes unbeatable. It knows the right value to assign to a given stock as stated by EMH. This explains the above plunges in bank share prices (Aitken, Almeida & McInish, 2013).   Ã‚  Ã‚   From the above information, it has been demonstrated that the share prices have extremely plunged due to the update by the Commonwealth Bank. This supports the EMH-semi strong form which posit that all publicly available information is accounted for and hence no degree of technical or fundamental analysis can help investors acquire alpha returns (Schenone, 2014). Aitken, M., Almeida, N., & McInish, T. H. (2013). Financial analysts and price discovery. Accounting & Finance, 48(1), 1-24. Chi, J., Tripe, D. W., & Young, M. R. (2014). Do exchange rates affect the stock performance of Australian Banks?. Available at SSRN 965599. Groenewold, N. (2012). Share market efficiency: tests using daily data for Australia and New Zealand. Applied Financial Economics, 7(6), 645-657. Leuthold, R. M., & Hartmann, P. A. (2013). A semi-strong form evaluation of the efficiency of the hog futures market. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 61(3), 482-489. Schenone, C. (2014). The effect of banking relationships on the firm's IPO underpricing. The Journal of Finance, 59(6), 2903-2958.

Ethical dilmma Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Ethical dilmma - Assignment Example Let us take an example to clarify the importance of ethics in marketing. Classic Technologies is a firm, which manufactures electric products, such as, washing machines, microwave ovens, and juicers. The company is based in Philadelphia and for the time being carries out its business operations only in Philadelphia. A few months ago, the company launched its marketing campaign for a comparatively low priced newly manufactured washing machine. To attract the customers, the managers of the company introduced a one get one free scheme. The scheme was that if a customer buys a washing machine, the company would provide the customer with a free juicer machine of the same quality. A large number of customers opted to buy the washing machines. However, the company could not live up to the expectations of the customers because the juicer machines, which the company used to provide to the customers, were of very low and compromising quality. The customers trusted the company’s words, b ut they were hurt badly because of the quality, which the company provided to the customers. The ethical issue involved in this example was that the company should have provided the customers with excellent quality as promised but the company went against marketing ethics, which not only resulted in customer dissatisfaction but also affected the image of the company. Works Cited Smith, Scott.

Discuss the role agriculture plays in modern society with its Essay

Discuss the role agriculture plays in modern society with its implications on the environment - Essay Example However, agriculture is said to be one of the biggest contributing factors in the climate change, so here is the dilemma; we need to double our food production in order to feed billions of people and even the spiraling population growth of the world in the future. Regarding this, here's the very basic point of Dr. Jonathan Foley, director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota, "How do we feed the world without destroying it?† (TEDxTalks 1; University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment 1). This is a great area of concern considering that agriculture is absolutely linked with environmental issues, but on the other end, people need it as absolute necessity in order to survive. Agriculture in modern society According to Dr. Foley, â€Å"Feeding nine billion people in a truly sustainable way will be one of the greatest challenges our civilization has ever faced† (Gillis 1). This emphasizes the fact that the world’s populatio n growth is inevitable and the ultimate concern today is on how to feed billions of people in the future with great consideration of sustainability. Dr. Foley accepted the fact that it is only through agriculture people will be fed, but in line with sustainable way doing it, the answer remains to be created in great detail knowing the fact that there are various concerns that need to be taken into account. As the society becomes modern, people around the world also think differently and become health conscious at some point. Thus, complex diets are rising to the extent that people are looking forward to more healthy diets. This means enhancing modern agriculture is a must in order to meet the prevailing needs and demands of the society. After all, healthy diets are remarkably in line with agriculture as far as food production is concerned. Society at the top end are rich enough with food supplies due to their ability to produce them and avail their distribution, but the impoverish g roups continue to experience malnutrition and even starve to death (Gillis 1). The answer may be certain that appropriate food distribution and regulation is the key, but in order to address health concerns in a more efficient way, food modification and research need to be integrated with food production with agriculture. In fact, the rise of biotechnology and the breakthrough of genetically modified crops to enhance food diets have become integral components of modern agriculture in the modern society. Furthermore, the occurrence of energy crisis paved the way for enhancing or improving agriculture practices or techniques in order to provide maximum production of raw materials. These raw materials at some point may be staple food requirements which in this case using them as raw materials to answer energy crisis competes against the humans’ absolute necessity for food. One basic example is the possibility of biofuel as an alternative source of energy to answer the prevailing energy crisis. In addition, animals compete with humans on certain types of foods. This requires doubling or increasing production of these kinds of foods. In order to meet this, the answer still boils down to how agriculture should be maximized up to its full potential. However, the real issue is that the available land for agriculture needs to be increased while globalization and population increase continue to limit

Doing Business in Europe, Asia and the Americas Research Paper

Doing Business in Europe, Asia and the Americas - Research Paper Example Typically, these consisted independent operations in the handle of an expatriate. In its proliferation, the facilitation of information flow prompted the creation of offshore headquarters which functioned isolate of the local core group (Barber, J. P. 2002, pp.1-5). However, these international structures had about one third of the offshore venture in the form of shared ownership (Casseres 2006, p. 4). What firms manifest these days is cognizant of the global outlook. Less differentiation is placed on the local operations vis-a-vis the international division. Strategic structures shift authority and responsibility to the central domain, without the former 'single line authority' in force, rather a multiple lines responsibility (Barber, J. P. 2002, pp.1-5). Sheer size is given importance in the new corporate international strategy (Egelhoff 1988, p. 1-14). These firms have similar and complimenting features, when combined can operate more competently. They are alike because each is an industry icon that spells out of a history of corporate prestige. In the same way these firms compliment, having pursued a different market position in product lines such as novelty brands Oreo cookies over dairy milk chocolate. Cadbury and Kraft supplement one another in geographical footprint, thus distribution lines are less redundant, if not broadened (Beaudin, 2010). In the context and analysis of industry, a pair of firms can operate more competently when combined. In fact, dissimilar capabilities are often synchronized in the manufacture of opposite goods (Casseres 2006, p. 8-12). Acquisitions improve efficiency by seizure of synergies between firms (Crosoni, Gomes, McGinn, & Noth 2004, p.481-512). When put together, Cadbury-Kraft becomes an industry powerhouse. Both sum up an unrivalled portfolio of tremendous potential (The Independent 2010, sc. 2-4). The long term forecast revenues are estimated at a strait annual 5% upward trend in revenues and company growth at 9-11%. On its own, Kraft revenues rises at about 4% with company growth of 7- 9%. A prolonged growth in revenues determines annual cost savings of $625 million (Value Expectations 2010, sc. 1-3). It is argued that such transformation creates larger economies of scale higher and larger geographical markets (Lambrecht 2000, p.1-4). The takeover is meant to reshape market competition, imposing influence on emerging markets. The industry for chocolate and sweets is quite gaping and loosely split between international conglomerates: Mars, Wrigley, Kraft, Hershey, Ferrero and Nestl (Beaudin 2010, sc. 1-4). By the acquisition of Cadbury, Kraft assumes to suppress rivalry by the bundle of capabilities (Casseres 2006, p. 8-12). In other words, the industry turns out to be less competitive and too concentrated (Crosoni, Gomes, McGinn, & Noth 2004, p.481-512). And why global shares are expected to rise by 5% points from the estimated 20% holding for both firms (Value Expectations 2010, sc. 1-3). Takeovers can reduce production costs at minimal or result in

Automobile Workers vs Johnson Controls Inc Case Study

Automobile Workers vs Johnson Controls Inc - Case Study Example Eight employees of a battery manufacturing company who were pregnant exhibited increased lead quantities in their blood – more than what OSHA approves to be a considerable amount (Rehnquist, Kennedy, & Scalia, 1991). The company later barred all women from working in lead related departments except those who could not have children, though after passing clinical tests to ascertain their conditions. This prompted a group of employees to file a case in the District Court. They argued that the policy discriminated against the female gender and violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Rehnquist et al., 1991). The District Court and the Court of Appeal granted the respondents a summary judgment on grounds that their fetal protection policy is reasonably necessary to further the industrial safety concern. The petitioners claimed that excluding fertile women from lead-exposed jobs, the respondent's policy creates a facial grouping based on gender besides marginalizing them under 703(a) of Title VII (Rehnquist et al., 1991). They claimed the policy is not neutral because it does not apply to males despite evidence that lead exposure poses great harm to their reproductive system. They cited that provided that the fertile women performed their duties as expected, the company has no right to segregate them. However, the respondents argue that they are concerned about the other coming generation’s status regardless of the law exclusively being for the parents (Rehnquist et al., 1991). Ethical Issues Is the company in line with professional work ethics and fair gender opportunities law by passing the policy discriminating fertile and infertile women from working in the lead related departments? No, the company does not satisfy its expected moral and ethical standards as required in the society by passing a policy that stigmatizes the female gender. Additionally, it also violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that protects all genders fro m discrimination. By so doing, the company would be creating a facial categorization that utilizes gender to segregate women (Rehnquist et al., 1991). The policy is not neutral and fair to both genders and how lead affects them either. According to the company, lead affects only the female gender despite concrete evidence that it poses adverse effects on the male reproductive organs. The law also cites that unless the pregnant employees differ from others in their expertise, they must all get both equal treatment and opportunities (Rehnquist et al., 1991). In addition, legislative history and case law bar an employer from discriminating against pregnant women or their pregnancy capacity unless their condition prevents them from performing the expected duties. The employees’ fetuses are neither customers nor employees whose safety is a concern of the company’s management (Rehnquist et al., 1991). In this context, the respondents should get rid of their policy as the fem ale fertile employees participate in manufacturing lead batteries similar to other peers. Alternatives Would getting rid of the policy of the company not tarnish the company’s image and still keep the fertile female employees’ comfortable working for the company? Yes, this move by the company would motivate fertile females in the company besides prompting them to work more comfortably and harder than before. This would also be a means of enhancing good publicity of the company in the society because the policy adheres to the female discriminatory law, which contradicts with business ethics (Rehnquist et al., 1991). However, by taking this move, the company would be putting the fetus, the fertile mothers and their future families at great risks. This is because lead exposure to fertile women

British Tort Law Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

British Tort Law - Case Study Example For any one party to be held responsible for violation of the tort law, the claimant must establish that there is a duty of care and that there has been a breach of that duty to cause damage or loss to the claimant that needs to be compensated by an award of damages. There is a breach of the duty-of-care principle if the defendant is proven to have failed to do what a reasonable person will do in the situation presented. Francesca was a chambermaid of good standing at Hulton hotel until a regular hotel guest stormed into the manager's office one day to accuse her of theft. The hotel regular Manon complained that he asked Francesca to redeem a ring worth 20,000-pound sterling from a downtown jeweler where it was taken for repairs. He never saw the chambermaid and the ring again. Obviously, Francesca kept the ring for herself and avoided Manon while continuing her duties at the hotel. In March, the hotel management dismissed Francesca for cause and brought a court case against her. She was convicted in August on several counts of theft after subsequent investigations revealed that she had stolen from other hotel guests before, although mostly involving items of smaller value. The hotel guest Manon, insisting that the hotel management shares responsibility for Francesca's misdeed, is intent on suing the hotel, saying the establishment should answer to the law as well. Question: Is the Hulton hotel management accountable for the loss of Manon's ring to the thieving Francesca Answer: Yes, the hotel management shares the blame for Francesca's acts under the British tort law. However, this judgment depends on the circumstances surrounding the theft. The Occupier's Liability Act in UK expressly provides that any person like a shop owner who admits people into his premises owes a minimum duty of care to protect these people's safety (MRL, 2003). This statutory tort applies to health and safety regulations across the workplace (Honore, 1995). In the case simulation at bar, the Hulton hotel management admitted the man Manon into its premises as hotel guest. The hotel here is a workplace where health and safety regulations are to be strictly observed. It follows that the hotel management is duty-bound to care for its guest's safety from "trespassers" against his goods. Therefore, Manon's loss of his ring can be traced to the hotel's breach of its duty of care by failing to detect the presence of a potential theft among its employees as a safety precaution. For this reason, it is reasonable to ask the hotel to recompense the loss. The management, however, may argue that Manon had it coming because he entrusted his ring to Francesca as an individual presumably enjoying his confidence, and not as an adjunct of the hotel who entered the arrangement with the full knowledge of management. It should be noted that Manon's act of personally requesting Francesca to redeem his ring from the jeweler's shop in his behalf involved an element of trust. If that were so, common sense dictates that the theft was a result of Manon's

Health Finance 2 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Health Finance 2 - Assignment Example 14). The revenue in such practices and clinics is usually received after the service is delivered and after a treatment session is over. Patients may opt for a single session or sitting or they may decide to take a full course of the treatment that can extend for a few weeks. First time visitors must pay a consultation fee and subsequent visits are charged an hourly fee or a per session fee. Different types of revenue types available for healthcare in general are Discounted Fee-for-Service, Fee-for-Service, Managed Care, Medicaid Program, Medicare Program and Payer Mix. Chiropractors are not eligible for any of the managed care system and so the revenue group followed is fee for service. This choice of service cannot be avoided since the Chiropractor is recognised as an alternative medicine. In some cases, when a patient agrees to take a course of treatment, the doctor may agree to receive payment after the sittings are over. Some patients can then refuse to pay saying that they have not been cured. Since this treatment does not base the treatment on the results of blood and other medical tests, it is difficult for the Chiropractor to prove the efficacy of the treatment. In addition, since the treatment is not paid by insurer, liability of receiving payment is with the Chiropractor. This reduces overcharging and instances of false assurances by the doctors and a customer with legitimate grievances can protect himself. Therefore, this fee for service is better than other revenue formats (Andrew, p.