Deathography Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Deathography - Essay Example The patient remained in palliative care for approximately four weeks before he passed away. It is his passing away that left a deep impression on me during my stint in palliative care and the reason fro my choice on reflecting on death and my experiences with death as a part of experiential learning that will be very useful to me in my career as nursing professional (Fowler, 2008). The significance of handling death and its implications to a nursing professional lies in the understanding that among all the health care professionals it is the professionals that are most immediate to the patients in end of life situations and can provide the care, comfort and counsel to such patients and their families (Dickinson, 2007). I had met the Catholic priest for the first time, when he was admitted into palliative care. Thoughts run through my mind, as to why this brief period of knowing and caring for the priest was to affect me so much. The most probable answer that I can find lies in the understanding of this provided by Tan et al, 200g. According to Tan et al 2006, p.17 â€Å"Nurses are at the forefront of caring for dying patients in hospices, nursing homes, acute-care hospitals, and patients’ homes† and â€Å"felt it reminded them of their own mortality, made them treasure life However, the passing away of the Catholic priest was not the first time that I was deeply affected by death. This occurred in my late teens, when my cousin, who was also my best friend and companion, passed away. This was not my first experience of death and my first brush with death did not leave me with grief and a sense of loss, as the death of my cousin did. My first experience of death in my family was the passing away of my grandmother, when I was five years old. I have hardly any memories of interaction with my grandmother, as she was quite sickly. Her passing away created no sadness in me. I cried when

If a man has the means to feed himself and protect himself he is free Essay

If a man has the means to feed himself and protect himself he is free. In your opinion, to what extent is this statement relevant for the 21st century - Essay Example The objective of this essay is to analyze the relevance of this statement n the 21st century. Considering the ethics of the discussed statement, it must have relevance at given time. The ideology of freedom suggested here is non-competitive and sharing in nature. However, in the globalised 21st century, where freedom is defined in terms of economic and social competence and people compete with each other for materialistic achievements, food and protection won’t satisfy the needs of men. Hillary Rodhan Clinton, The Secretary of States has stated three essential elements of a free nation which includes a â€Å"representative government, a well-functioning market, and civil society† (Clinton, 2011). Taking this policy of the government into account, it can be assumed that the discussed statement is not given importance in today’s market driven society. However, further analysis of the current policies will reveal that the materialistic objectives ultimately lead to the basic need of food and protection for men. For example, a representative government, func tioning market, and civil society are all indicators of a food secure and protected society. Ironically, the process of achieving the materialistic objectives, most times results in denying the larger objective of food and protection for fellowmen. Bradley J. Birzer , The Commonwealth Men and the American Revolution, Thursday, June 30, 2011, The Imaginative Conservative, Retrieved on 26 September 2011,

Marketing principles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Marketing principles - Essay Example Nike's core business is in the research design and marketing on a global scale of shoes, equipment, apparel and related services, with a special focus on athletic apparel as well as athletic footwear. Present in more than 190 nations around the world, Nike utilizes a variety of distribution channels, including the Internet, Nike-owned stores, and retailers, even as the Nike stores are either owned by the company directly or are franchised to others. Aside from athletic gear, Nike is also present in the segment of recreational wear, and there is an overlap in the categories as they pertain to the sale of specialized sports and leisure apparel for different sports, including cricket, American football, wrestling, baseball, lacrosse, walking, golf, activities in the outdoors, volleyball and tennis. It is heavily present too in the major team sports globally, including football,.soccer and basketball. The seven categories around which the Nike business are organized, meanwhile, are as fo llows: Action Sports, Basketball, Nike Sportswear, Soccer, Running, Women's Training and Men's Training. The company has a line of products for children, and its product lines also include other accessories as well as bags. It's IHM subsidiary is a direct to customer distribution channel, and it is via this channel that Nike is able to tap into a network of non-affiliated entities to produce and market goods under the Nike name, including devices, apparel, and software applications together with all sorts of other equipment. The company owns Converse as a wholly-owned subsidiary, through which the company manufactures and markets products under certain key brands, including Chuck Taylor and Jack Purcell. The company also owns the Hurley International, through which it markets apparel as well as accessories for young people and for those engaged in action sports activities. On the other hand, it has disposed of its Cole Haan and Umbro brand, the latter a marketer of soccer-related ap parel, accessories and general merchandise (Google; Reuters). There is no better way to gauge the performance of the company and the overall success of its marketing strategies than to look at how the share price of Nike has fared historically. Looking at the financial performance of the firm in this respect, one sees that the company has done well crafting and executing on its marketing strategies and marketing mixes. The chart below shows that Nike's stock has done well over the past ten years, indicating such success. The stock price chart shows that the company's shares have consistently been on an upward trajectory by way of stock price trends, and generally doubling over the past three to four years on the back of a successful overall business strategy and marketing strategy(Google) : Graph Source: Google II. The 4 Marketing P's as they Apply to Nike The above discussion points us to the various brands, product lines, and product categories or segments where Nike has chosen to compete, and it is clear that the focus on athletic apparel and athletic wear in general is a major company focus that has contributed to much of its success.

Urbanization increases Essay Example for Free

Urbanization increases Essay Golf courses also use fertilizers and chemicals in watering and maintaining the area which also contribute to the contamination of water. According to 1FAOs estimate of changes of forest area cover in developing countries, the world’s forest area had significantly decreased during the period of 1980 to 1995 largely brought about by development and the demands of urbanization. The developing countries have contributed to the natural forests as much as 25%, an average of 12% in Latin America, 5% in Asia and 8% in Africa (FAO, 1997). It has to be stressed that the figures correspond to only 15 years span. Gornitz and colleagues also found that vegetation clearing accounts for a one percent reduction of annual stream flow and an average of 10% decrease in the annual volume of freshwater used by humans (Gornitz et. al, 1997 page 148). The most direct physical impact of urbanization to the interruption of the water cycle is the general increase in the impervious cover (IC). The increase in IC due to urbanization affects the water cycle in these ways: 1. Urbanization increases impermeable land covers such as sidewalks, roads, roofs and parking lots. These urban structures decrease the amount of water to be absorbed by the soil as infiltration process is hardly possible to occur in these areas. In highly urbanized areas, more half of the volume of rainwater flows as run-off (Center for Watershed Protection, 2003). Studies also reveal that in cases where impervious cover is less than 10%, streams to where run-off flows remain protected. On the other hand, if IC is above 10% run-off that goes to the streams will cause the ecosystem to be degraded (American Society of Civil Engineers, 1996). Center for Watershed Protection said some of the evidences of this damage are bank erosions, sedimentation and the loss of stream bank tree covers. 2. Urbanization significantly increases annual floods. As infiltration and transpiration is reduced much of the surface precipitation is diverted to the drainage system. In a pre-urban setting, precipitation is intercepted by the natural vegetation through the process of absorption. Ground cover and forest canopy naturally absorbs rainfall through their roots. The wider the ground cover and the denser the forest canopy, infiltration and transpiration of precipitation are held in its natural state as more water is stored in the water table. This way water storage deep down into the ground as reservoir. With the clearing of vegetation and deforestation, urbanization becomes directly liable for the increase in annual floods. Because of the increase in the volume of run-off water in highly urbanized areas, the construction of drainage systems have been the nearest possible solution made by the government. Such drainage systems were designed to regulate the flow of run-off directly to the watercourse. However localized flash flooding seemed aggravated the problem with the construction of such sewage systems. The problem with this development projects is that the volume that watercourse and the drainage systems can contain is limited. The speed or velocity of runoff brought about by high peak storm water. Another vital factor is time which is relatively not enough for water to be absorbed and contained by the drainage systems and so flash floods are always possible. With flash floods, water contamination is highly possible because the excess water that runs in the streets catches much of the contaminants in the land surface which will then be carried to the bodies of water as flood find its way to leave the area. Because highly urbanized areas do have little ground cover like trees to absorb storm water, run off will likely stay longer in the surface as infiltration is hardly possible. Because imperviousness is directly related to water dynamics, highly urbanized areas have the high risk of containing high peak storm discharges. In urban areas, collection in combined sewerage systems may impose increased hydraulic and pollutant loads on conventional wastewater treatment facilities (Perry and McIntyre 1986).

Cooperate And Strategic Management At Asda Commerce Essay

Cooperate And Strategic Management At Asda Commerce Essay This essay will critically analysis and evaluate the strategy of ASDA. With the analysis I will evaluate what strategy they are using, with the purpose and what type of intention they looking to develop for the future of the supermarket. ASDA is a supermarket that is owned by an American company that is called Wall-Mart. I choose this company because firstly I am a loyal customer and secondly Ill be a good company to evaluate the business analysis on it. It is a big company that requires different types of marketing strategy analysis for it to be as successful as it is today. First am going to be concerned with the role of the external environment of the business. The environment of the business includes PESTLE, five forces and the opportunity and threats strategy. These tools will show us the competitive side of the company to create competitive advantage in ever more crowded markets and with increasingly demanding customers. (Graham Hooley 2004). The second part of this essay will be on cultural analysis. Culture analysis is the way the management assembles combinations of values, rituals, languages and myths. This tool is used as a key factor in successful commitment and passion of employees of the business. These factors are found in corporate culture, will show how they improve their performance of management and as a whole by looking in detail the culture of the surroundings of the business. For the third part of the essay I will look into the portfolio analysis to see weather or not the business is looking attractive, in growth and has substantial profit margin for the size of the company. The most basic and importance of being in business is making profit and this will show us the situation of the company in the market place. Finally I will conclude my essay with a conclusion on how the business will be changing in the market for future strategies based on the firms ability to adopt the market and take benefit of the nature of the company to optimise their growth and attractiveness. External Analyses Lets start with the first strategy management that gives full detailed and creative assessment on the environment of the company, which is called PESTLE. The analysis was done and shown below. Social forces Branding advantage for company, it brings trust to companies. Disadvantage may be a dislike of a product and may not buy it again. Lifestyle changes disadvantage for company, as it can be costly to change like cloths. Advantage would be that keeping with fashion could bring more money for the company. Political forces Employment law can be seen as good view to employees as ASDA needs to be aware of health and safety and other laws but can be source of complications for the business. Taxation disadvantage for company, it can be costly for business like ASDA because they need there individual accountant and as a whole. The benefit would be the provision of the public goods. Economic forces Inflation disadvantage for company, people will have less money to spend on luxury goods. Economic Growth is an advantage for the company as living standard is higher however interest rate will be changed that will cause to be more volatile and susceptible to change. Technological forces Web site for company to keep it up-to-date can be costly but the benefit will make people buy online which will decrease manpower. Stock control can automatically count the stocks sold and reorder however the disadvantage would be unable to count the stolen/broken goods. Legal Current legislation is important for the companies to know the status of the environment it is situated to keep its benefits and drawbacks in check for the future. Environmental Environmental issues is required for the local, national, and international to keep commitment in environmental protection. The benefit will increase loyalty of brand as they seek increase better environment. Customer values -can target a segment of a market for the company to guide towards and is a key to sustainable competitive advantage. A PESTEL analysis considers the most important external factors that impacts ASDA. This analysis will reflect on ASDAs brand name by merging all the factors in one to create a guide strategic decision-making. If the PESTEL analysis done correctly and accurately, it would make the organisation of ASDA to keep up with the change of the environment and it will be better placed than its competitors to respond to change. For example Wal-Mart decided on a smart decision by merging with ASDA as both company benefited from it by having more leverage on each other. As ASDA has many franchises in Briton every single one of the PESTLE analysis are different to each other as they are located in a different region. This means that every single franchise companys manger would use this tool for their area to create value for money, loyalty and trust. Although the environment is different in each location, the main goals and objectives of the original company stays, and managers aim to achieve. One of the ways managers seek in achieving their objectives is using another analysis on the external environment. This will plan and helps ASDA to focus on key issues of the external environment. The two key elements are opportunity and threats of the company, which is shown below. Opportunity -The opportunity ASDA is able to do is to expand globally by strategic alliances with other retailers. -Second market share leader has the opportunity of reduction of effective food prices for consumers through economies of scale. -Consumers are likely to change and trends endlessly change so there is always opportunity for ASDA to act upon the next trend which requires good strategic marketing. Threat -As shown in the market share graph in the next page, it shows that ASDAs market share comparison to Sainsbury is not that much far apart (0.5 share difference) an Tesco in the lead. -Technological are also highlighted as threat as cheaper products can be found online or better quality by competitors. -Tescos advertisements on television, communicates about how many products it has cheaper than ASDA. Supermarket shares Identifying theses forces for ASDA are simple and it will be hard to plan the correct strategy with just these to guide the company. To be able to understand better of the external environment of ASDA I need to introduce another analysis to conduct a plan of good strategy for the company, which is called Porters five forces as shown below. Porters five forces element focuses on the circumstance of other elements. For example the supplier power would be increased if there were a high scale of rivalry between companies trying to obtain the supplies. This analysis would show the bargaining power it has upon the elements to increase awareness and create a better business potential for the company. Using this analysis it will look at ASDAs power in the market and allows you to see the gap between where the company is and where it should be, and furthermore, what strategies should be applied. This helps the bottom line of the company as it considers profitable rivalry to be a base significance and it should concentrate on the factors affecting the companys profit. With the combinations of the three analyses shown above, the external environment should be kept equal or increase competitive advantage over their rivals. Cultural web analysis The name of ASDA on its own represents different behaviour and values for people. The relationships all people have with ASDA are different depending on their situation or cultural point of view. Corporate culture is the way people do things in an organisation, which sets beliefs, attitudes, core values and behavioural patterns that is shared by the people in the company. The culture of web is used to analysis the elements that influence the performance and determine the future of the change. Analysing the culture as it is now in ASDA, then look what Ill be in the future and to find the differences in between them to calculate the change in tomorrow will achieve the high-performance culture that any business wants. Below is the cultural web diagram and each section is described in appendix 2. (Johnson and Scholes (1999); P. 74) IT will be imposable for Multi-national Corporation like ASDA to have no conflicts between the local national culture and the imported corporate culture. These conflicts are hard to manage as there are to many to please or have a skilled manager to multi-cultural management. For the ideal strategy for ASDAs culture should be multi cultured and managers should have an open mind when working with employees to manage the organisation more effective and efficiently as culture differ. For example in the middle east family values are very important and an employee wouldnt dream of staying late to finish work if this conflicted with a family duty. This does not mean that their work ethic is poor, it is just expressed differently and a western manager would find it offence by suggesting otherwise. ASDA has large group of people to identify across the whole organisation. Instead managers tend to identify the culture with smaller sub-groups. So ASDA would have a mixture of sub-cultures some th at may even be abnormal. Again there is a high certainty of conflict between the different sub-cultures as business is rarely simple. It is said the collection of beliefs, expectations and values shared by the corporations members and transmitted from one generation of employees to another (Wheelen and Hunger, 1986) which will bring prosperity and growth of the company. Portfolio analysis Next is the portfolio analysis of ASDA as it represents the attractiveness, balance, fit, manageability and synergy of the company. The business portfolio is the collection of products that make up the business. The best portfolio is one that fits the companys strength and helps develop opportunity. ASDA will need to do a set of analyses and decide which businesses needs more or less investments, and conducting growth strategy for adding new products/services and businesses to the portfolio. Additionally work out the time limit of a product or businesses should no longer be retained. There are three types of portfolio planning however the two best known ones are from the Boston consulting group that the description been added to appendix 3 and by General Electric. In each method the company needs to identify the various strategic business units. The Strategic business units have all have separate mission and objectives and that can be planned independently from the other businesses. The strategic business unit can be dividing the business, for example a product line or individual brands. When ASDA classifies its strategic business units in the portfolio, then it must decide what to do with them. The diagram in appendix 3 shows a cash cow, a dog, starts and question marks. New strategic thinking indicates there are four types of strategies, which is shown in appendix 3. Depending on the strategic business units it will have a different type of strategy as explained before to suit its needs. Conclusion Finally to conclude my essay I would start of saying that at this moment that cultural web is essential for ASDA as Culture is something which makes members of an organisation behave more like each other than non-members! ASDA uses culture to hunt for steady growth within the market, through very detailed planning and control systems. It is good for ASDA to understand culture as they can implement new strategies and adopt culture with them. I will explain the reasons and do a summary of how environment analysis affects on ASDA. Any company must seek to understand the nature of its competitive environment in order to be successful in achieving its objectives and in setting up appropriate strategies. If a company fully understands the nature of the environment analysis it will be in a stronger point to defend itself against any threats and to influence its strategy. By strategising through how each force affects the company it will identify the strength and direction of each force that will provides opportunity to identify the strength of the situation and the ability to make a continued profit (Mind Tools, 2006). To broaden my analysis feather I could have used STEEPLED which allow for a dedicated Ethical section however they can be included in the original four. It is the shape and simplicity of a four-part model is also somehow more strategically appealing and easier to manipulate and convey. There is also the sixth forces (relative power of other stakeholders) that I could have analysed however is not as popular. If I had more time I could have been able to do more analysis to find new and more of competitive advantages for ASDA. Although using strategic planning it is not always precise. No tool is fixed. Its a matter of practical choice as to what helps best to identify and explain the matters at hand. Neither resources nor market are fixed and keep changing every day. The new processes of marketing will require us to learn new ways of doing business in unfamiliar organisations. We may by now be well used to the idea of market needs changing over time and the need to monitor those changes for the success of the business. For success of growth for ASDA they need to constantly to examine and develop their resources and capabilities over time to be able to have a completive advantage in the long run. At the same time it should look at their current set of capabilities and assets to create new opportunities for the short run. Fundamentally ASDA needs to widen its resources to increase profit and deeper relationship with customer to ensure long-term value through the relationships between them. With the new millennium, there is infinity number of ways of competing with rivals. It is an exciting period for competitive marketing. PESTLE analysis is used to measure the growth or decline of a marketplace, as such the position, potential and direction for the business. References Haberberg, A. and Rieple, A. (2001) The Strategic Management of Organizations, Essex: Pearson Education Limited. Kippenberger, T. (1998) Strategy according to Michael Porter, The Antidote, Vol. 3 Issue 6, pp. 24-25. Luffman, G., Lea, E., Sanderson, S. and Kenny, B. (1996) Strategic Management, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Inc. Porter, M. (1980a) How Competition Forces Shape Strategy, Harvard Business Review, September-October, pp.137-145. Porter, M. (1980b) Competitive Strategy, New York: Free Press. Porter, M. (1998) Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors, New York: Free Press. Sanderson, S. (1998) New approaches to strategy: new ways of thinking for the millennium, Management Decision, Vol. 36 issue 1, pp.9-13. Thurlby B (1998) Competitive forces are also subject to change, Management Decision London Wheelen, T. and Hunger, J. (1998) Strategic Management and Business Policy, 6th ed., Reading: Addison-Wesley. Johnson G. and Scholes K. (1999), Exploring Corporate Strategy, 5th Edition, Prentice Hall, London. Greenley G.E. (1989), Strategic Management, Prentice Hall, London Certo S.C. and Peter J.P. (1997), Strategic Management, 3rd Edition, Austen Press / Irwin, Illinois.

krista bradford :: essays research papers

People running around with underwear on their head, a fake suicide over the Niagara Falls, forest rangers who are positive they seen Bigfoot, and sheriffs who make x-rated videos on a rented video camera and forget to take the tape out. These are some of the wacky stories Krista Bradford experiences during her career as an anchor on tabloid television. She tries to convince the reader that TV tabloids are trashy in the article â€Å"The Big Sleaze published in Rolling Stone magazine in 1993.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Bradford writes the article in a unique fashion. She writes it as a story. Everything in the article is an experience, which make this article more interesting and convincing. Her first an anchor job was at the age of 18, she was an intern for Joan Lunden at KCRA-TV in Sacramento, California. She lost that job 10 years later so she met with Peter Brennan, the producer of A Current Affair, and he gave Bradford a job as an anchor. 6 months later they wanted her to portray a bimbo rape victim in a reenactment. She refused and went on with her life. After she was done at A Current Affair, she worked at The Reporters. She ended her career with a show hosted by Geraldo Rivera named Now It Can Be Told. She worked in tabloid TV for five years and has a lot of experience with it and that helps to make this article convincing.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Bradford is very negative towards television tabloids. Her tone towards everything in the article is strong and negative. She uses profane and Informal language, like tits-and-ass raunchiness and rubbernecking at the oddities of American life. Her language has a lot of trashiness to it. She also says TV tabloids do not mature the mind, they mutate it. In the article, Bradford doesn’t make the mistake on using too big of words. She uses words that everyone can understand, not just her colleagues. For instance, she uses the word â€Å"bigwigs,† basically everyone knows what that word means. She also uses the phrase â€Å"Joe six-pack.† A lot of what has to do with articles are the race of a person their attractive ness and their sexual orientation. The truth is TV tabloids discriminate against people of different race, gays, and unattractive women. They also use racial slurs and that will upset a lot of people. These are some of the negative points she uses against tabloid television.

Carson Mccullers The Member Of The Wedding: Summary :: essays research papers

Carson McCullers' The Member of the Wedding: Summary The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers is the story of an adolescent girl who triumphs over loneliness and gains maturity through an identity that she creates for herself in her mind. It is with this guise that twelve year old Frankie Addams begins to feel confident about herself and life. The author seems to indicate that one can feel good about oneself through positive thinking regardless of reality. The novel teaches that one's destiny is a self-fulfilled prophecy, seeing one's self in a certain light oftentimes creates an environment where one might become that which one would like to be. The world begins to look new and beautiful to Frankie when her older brother Jarvis returns from Alaska with his bride-to-be, Janice. The once clumsy Frankie, forlorn and lonely, feeling that she "was a member of nothing in the world" now decides that she is going to be "the member of the wedding." Frankie truly believes that she is going to be an integral part of her brother's new family and becomes infatuated with the idea that she will leave Georgia and live with Jarvis and Janice in Winter Hill. In her scheme to be part of this new unit, she dubs herself F. Jasmine so that she and the wedding couple will all have names beginning with the letters J and a. Her positive thinking induces a euphoria which contributes to a rejection of the old feeling that "the old Frankie had no we to claim.... Now all this was suddenly over with and changed. There was her brother and the bride, and it was as though when first she saw them something she had known inside of her: They are the we of me." Being a member of the wedding will, she feels, connect her irrevocably to her brother and his wife. Typical of many teenagers, she felt that in order to be someone she has to be a part of an intact, existing group, that is, Jarvis and Janice. The teen years are known as a time of soul-searching for a new and grown up identity. In an effort to find this identity teens seek to join a group. Frankie, too, is deperate for Jarvis and Janice's adult acceptance. Frankie is forced to spend the summer with John Henry, her six year old cousin, and Berenice Brown, her black cook. It is through her interactions with these two characters that the reader perceives Frankie's ascent from childhood. Before Jarvis and Janice arrive, Frankie is content to play with