Inventory System for Gamot Publiko Drugstore Document Essay

1.1Background of the Study It has been disclosed during the interview that Gamot Publiko Drugstore needs a computerized inventory system. The company’s current inventory monitory system though works for them has to automate. A simplified computerized inventory system will be very helpful to the company since this will expedite its inventory workflow as well as generate very timely reports needed by the management for its evaluation and review and overall decision making. An inventory control system is a process for managing and locating objects or materials. In common usage, the term may also refer to just the software components. Modern inventory control systems often rely upon barcodes and RFID tags to provide automatic identification of inventory objects. In an academic study performed at Wal-Mart, RFID reduced Out of Stocks by 30 percent for products selling between 0.1 and 15 units a day. Inventory objects could include any kind of physical asset: merchandise, consumables, fixed assets, circulating tools, library books, or capital equipment. Inventory Systems help companies with huge inventories to easily and accurately monitor their stocks. With the use of a database, information will be readily available to the user and can be easily updated without having to scroll through spreadsheets. 1.2Statement of the Problem As business has grown rapidly , inventory monitoring becomes significant factor in managing overall business operation. The company had humble beginnings in terms of sales. From a few easy to handle flow of inventory stocks, the company had to handle large volume of stocks due to sales demand. The stock cards used as inventory monitoring sheets , were transferred to MS excel type control sheets. As sales and purchase volume increased, sales returns and inventory claims were inevitable. The process of updating inventory files became slow .Though reports are generated, they were usually delayed. The need for timely inventory reports is necessary in assessing business performance . A more convenient, easy to monitor, easy to access inventory monitoring system will ease the problem on unaccounted inventory and delayed inventory reports. 1.3Objectives of the Study 1.3.1General Objective To develop a computerized inventory system for Gamot Publiko Drugstore that will make its inventory monitoring convenient, efficient and timely. 1.3.2Specific Objective †¢To develop a module that will automate the monitoring and updating of the company’s inventory. †¢To develop a module that will provide a timely and convenient report generation. 1.4Significance of the Study The company currently maintains inventory level at three months of its sales requirements. Before the company’s inventory turns low of its inventory level requirement, an order needs to be placed through a Purchase Order duly approved by the company’s responsible approving officers. This Purchase Order is then sent to suppliers for acceptance and delivery. Sometimes, the company does bulk order as negotiated between the supplier for bigger discounts and low pricing. So far, the company has never encountered any problem among its supplier . Goods were so far been delivered in good condition and on time . 1.5Scope and Limitation For the company Our System would help the company to make easier to store and retrieve all the data file. I will allow the management to check and closely monitor the data file transaction and status of their stock. For the user This System lessens their time of work in checking and updating all the files and protecting of the files are included in this system so the user might open the file without concern of something happen to it. Transactions Stock Ordering A stock order simply means the ordering of new stock to refill the inventory, replenish shelves or when a large order has been made etc. The warehouse will be contacted and the delivery will be made. Customer Purchase A Customer Purchase simply means that the customer will buy what they want or what they need in the company.

Brand Equity to Customer Loyalty Essay

An examination of brand equity leading to customer loyalty in the clothing industry using the Loyalty Ladder model. Abstract Purpose – The aim of this paper is to examine if there is a correlation between brand equity and brand loyalty. The author will research the sources of brand equity for three international clothing companies: Abercrombie & Fitch, Marks & Spencer, H&M and apply each company to the Loyalty Ladder. Methodology – Secondary literature was used throughout this study, mainly including; Annual Reports, Academic Journals & Datamonitor reports. Findings – All three companies have a strong brand image and they do have many customers’ who are loyal to their products. All companies experienced growth in revenue in 2010. The companies examined are now in the process of growing their businesses in emerging markets. The loyalty of customers does remain but it is mainly due to the companies innovative marketing strategies, which have resulted in increased revenues within the companies. Constant brand re-enforcement is extremely important to keep customers loyal to a brand. 1.0 Introduction Keller (1993) recognised two reasons to study brand loyalty; for financially based reasons and to improve marketing productivity. Tolba & Hassan (2009) studied the correlation between brand equity and customer loyalty which has seen significant research over the years. The authors conducted an in-depth study of 17 brands within the automobile industry. The findings showed that loyalty and satisfaction were the strongest predictors of brand preference and intention to purchase. The research was broken down into three areas; those who had never tried the brand, those who had tried once and those who had purchased the product. (See Figures 1.0-1.2). For those who had never tried the brand, they would not have been satisfied or loyal to a brand as they had never tired it. Perceptions of the brands image and value towards the brand impacted the results, therefore branding is fundamental in creating a personality and image of the brand that the customer can relate to. Patwardhan & Balasubramanian (2011) have taken brand equity one step further and discuss consumer â€Å"attraction† to brands. The authors believe that attraction and romance with a brand will increase loyalty to a higher level; a deeper and more intense level. The customer will experience security and trust the brand. â€Å"We define brand romance as a state of emotional attachment (evoked in response to the brand as a stimulus) that is characterized by strong positive affect toward the brand, high arousal caused by the brand, and a tendency of the brand to dominate the consumer’s cognition. Brand romance is subject-specific. Different consumers may enjoy different levels of romance with respect to the same brand†. Pawardhan & Balasubramanian conducted a study on numerous undergraduate students and asked them specific questions in relation to brand loyalty. The outcome of the study found that brand romance did exist even though the feelings and emotions behind the romance were not explained. There were a certain brands which kept re-occurring as brands with which students felt romantic about. These were Nike, Ford, Coca Cola, Dr. Pepper, Cingular, Sprint and Abercrombie & Fitch. The author of this paper believes that if marketing managers could harness this idea and â€Å"connect† customers’ emotions and feelings to their brands, it may increase loyalty; especially in such a competitive market it could help to retain more customers. If a customer experiences â€Å"romance† they may have a longer lasting relationship with a brand. Marketers have created the concept of the â€Å"The Loyalty Ladder†. The rungs on the ladder represent; prospect, customer, client & advocate. (See Figure 2.0).The idea of the romance being that a customer would remain on the top rung of the ladder for longer if the relationship was on a deeper level. 2.0 Abercrombie & Fitch Aaker and Mc Laughlin (2007) highlight the sources of brand equity (See Figure 3.0); brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality & brand loyalty. Brand awareness relates to the presence of the brand in the mind of the customer. Brands with high visibility tend to be purchased more frequently and also need to be maintained in the marketplace to re-enforce the brand awareness. As stated above, Abercrombie & Fitch is a brand name which people felt strongly about; it has international brand awareness and brand association. The brand is perceived as high quality, trendy and â€Å"American†. Abercrombie & Fitch have a huge loyal customer following. Lane (2007) describes the brand as being targeted at 18-22 year olds, mainly college students. The company was established in 1892 and went bankrupt in the 1970’s. The company was re-branded in the 1980’s to become a huge success. The annual report states that â€Å"The Company considers the in-store experience to be its primary marketing vehicle. The Company’s marketing strategy emphasizes the senses to reinforce the aspirational lifestyles represented by the brands. ..The Company also engages its customers through social media and mobile commerce in ways that reinforce the aspirational lifestyle of the brand†. Abercrombie & Fitch Annual Report 2010. Abercrombie & Fitch advertisements are all very consistent; black and white, topless men, beautiful males and females and often very sensual. (See Figure 4.0).Abercrombie and Fitch are famous for having had many controversial pieces of clothing and advertisements in the past but this has added to their brand image and increased media awareness. When the recession threatened many companies, Abercrombie & Fitch did not reduce sales prices, as they did not want to take away from the brands image and perceived high quality. The company did suffer a reduction in sales, however, to overcome this, management opened stores in new and emerging markets as the American market was maturing. Abercrombie & Fitch opened their first store in London in 2007 and have opened their doors in Japan to a new loyal market of young advocates. (They also sell online to the Chinese market). In the past few years there has been a shift in Chinese and Japanese culture. Teenagers in particular have become â€Å"Americanised†. Abercrombie & Fitch is a very popular brand in these countries as it represents the â€Å"American way of life†. In a study conducted by Parker et al (2004) it was found that the three most important aspects to a teenager were style, look and fit. Abercrombie and Fitch certainly contain these three elements. Tully (1994) supports the idea that it is relatively easy to form a â€Å"global teen strategy† & suggests that it is â€Å"†¦easy to form a global teen strategy, as teens around the world tend to have similar attitudes†. The research conducted by Parker et al (2004) showed this to be slightly untrue as US and Japanese teenagers tend to have more similarities towards the Chinese teenagers, as teenagers in China have less disposable income. However this is changing as China is an important emerging market. The Abercrombie & Fitch annual reports state that stores across China and Hong Kong are due to open in 2012. The author of this paper believes that the Abercrombie and Fitch brand is a perfect example of a brand romance. There are no loyalty cards or personal accounts to entice customers to climb the ladder. The famous brand and its image is enough to create an intense and emotional feeling within teenagers and young adults to become advocates of the brand. The loyal advocates (mainly 18-22 years old) of the brand remain perched on the top rung of the ladder until the next generation takes its place. The loving relationship lasts for approximately four years, until the customer topples from the top rung of the ladder. Abercrombie and Fitch also have other brands (Hollister & Gilly Hicks), which are not discussed in this article. What is different about this brand is how the company do not offer cards, accounts etc. like many other companies. Through their website they offer the chance to work in their stores and become a â€Å"store model†. Another perfect example of how aspirational this brand really is. (Abercrombie & Fitch official website) 3.0 Marks & Spencer (M&S) As mentioned earlier Aaker and Mc Laughlin 2007 highlight the sources of brand equity (See Figure 3.0); brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality & brand loyalty.. Marks and Spencer (M&S) were famous for their fleeting sales even before the recession and were faced by a takeover bid by Sr. Philip Green. M&S did not reduce their premium prices and instead invested heavily in a marketing campaign which eventually proved to be a success. (Marketing Society UK 2010). The net profit was  £526.3 million in the financial year ending 2010, an increase of 3.6% over 2009. (See Figure 5.0) Campaigns to re-enforce the M&S brand included the â€Å"125 years campaign†, taglines included â€Å"quality worth paying for† and â€Å"quality worth every penny† (See Figure 6.0). These campaigns also feature famous celebrities such as Twiggy, Mylene Class & Danii Minogue. (Marketing Society UK 2010). Walshe (2008) discusses M&S in the marketplace (See Figure 7.0). He describes the market as â€Å"weak†, the business as â€Å"ok† and the brand as â€Å"strong†. If a marketing strategy can successfully increase awareness of the brand then sales will increase. M&S experienced a lot of volatility in the marketplace and discusses how it was the business that was â€Å"temporarily broken† and not the brand. Through a strategy of changing product ranges, motivating employees and reminding customers about the brand and what it stood for, the company increased its profits. Throughout the marketing campaigns, the message of quality and good value was kept consistent so the brand association remained the same. Different forms of advertising have been researched to identify which types can affect brand association. The discussions are mainly broken into two categories; price and non-price advertising. (Kaul et al 1989, as cited by Clayton & Heo 2011). Non-price advertising can be described as differentiation or reminder advertising (Mitra and Lynch 1995, as cited by Clayton & Heo 2011). In a study conducted by Clayton and Heo (2011) on whether advertising affects brand association, the study concluded that promotional based messaging lowers the brand image, attitudes and perceptions of the brand. The authors do state that value-oriented messages have the ability to deteriorate brand associations. M&S have also created their brand as an association to corporate social responsibility, including expenditure in areas of climate change, sustainable raw materials and waste. (Datamonitor 2011 (a)). Customers perceive M&S to be a brand of high quality which the company constantly communicate in advertising campaigns. Tresidder (2010) in an article discussing a food campaign by M&S describes how the slogan is â€Å"This is not just food†. The advert ‘‘directs perception’’ by creating/reinforcing ‘‘signposts’’ of the M&S experience. â€Å"Thus, the text directs perception while guiding the social and cultural significance of the images used;, a conversion process takes place in which meaning is guided by changing perception through various techniques such as the use of text, changes in context and the meaning of the gastronomic experience† (Marshall, (2005) as cited by Tresidder (2010)). As stated earlier the loyalty ladder consists of four components; prospect, customer, client and advocate. In Tolba and Hassan’s (2009) research discussed earlier, the research showed that people who never tried a brand based their assumptions on which brands they preferred based on the image and attitude. In relation to M&S, a prospect customer will rely on advertisements, word of mouth, physical outlook of store and any other media surrounding the brand. M&S are opening new stores in emerging markets and will have many more prospect customers as opposed to the maturing domestic market. Once prospect customers have stepped up the ladder from prospect to customer, M&S offer a M&S credit card which gives the cardholder points. A premium card is also available got frequent shopper who are clients and advocates which offers treble points. (marksandspencer.com). Clients and advocates of M&S tend to be of a mature age and trust the M&S brand. More recently M&S have used celebrities in their adverts to gain a younger market share. The company is also the leading department store retailer in the UK. The clothing and fashion segment is estimated to have led to such leadership. (Datamonitor 2011(a)) . Huang & Huddleson (2009) conducted a study on own brand products and concluded that own-brands can often have a product advantage over competition which creates a competitive advantage because the retailer is creating their own products, they put more effort into the production and image of the product. Marks and Spencer have launched an internet channel through â€Å"M&S Direct†. Customers can shop online and a new facility called â€Å"Shop your Way† enables customers to order online, in stores or over the phone. Products are delivered free of charge to the nearest store. Through M&S direct, customers can join discussions and see what is happening in their local stores. March and Quinton (2009) discuss viral communities and how they impact the on loyalty ladder. They state how impostant social networks are for marketers and how they act as a â€Å"conduit for intra customer dialogue†.The authors posited the idea of a â€Å"social network contributor ladder† for online users. â€Å"This understanding will enable marketers to communicate more effectively with both the influencers and other members of the social network ladder†. (See Figure 8.0) March and Quinton (2009) 4.0 Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) A prime example of a strong own brand image is the Swedish company H&M. Mc Coll & Moore (2010) conducted a study to examine own brands and product brands. It has been increasingly competitive in the past few decades with companies setting up stores internationally. The authors discuss that own brands such as H&M will be more successful if they reflect the corporate brand image which must also be strong in the marketplace. Own brands have more control over products which gives them a competitive advantage. (Mc Coll & Moore 2010). H&M is a global brand based on its â€Å"value creating retail concept†. H&M have built their powerful brand based on a business model of fashion and quality at the best possible price. (Ilonen et al 2010). H&M mainly create brand awareness through television, internet,and mobile phone. H&M have an iphone application and online game â€Å"Mytown†, where players can view â€Å"virtual goods†. (WARC news Sep 2010). In April 2011 H&M launched it’s free Android application. This enables customers to browse clothing, check out offers and watch exclusive videos. There is a huge international brand awareness of H&M, with stores operating throughout Europe, South Korea & Israel. The company is now focusing on new emerging markets such as Romania & Croatia and opened their first stores in these countries in 2011. H&M have sponsored celebrities in the past to create a strong brand association. They chose those who they perceived were most suitable to position H&M as an upscale fashion retailer offering clothing at best price, Roberto Cavalli, Jimmy Choo & Madonna are examples of celebrities who endorsed the H&M name. (Datamonitor 2011 (b)) H&M has a fast retail policy & quickly follows market tends to deliver merchandise to its outlets daily. The loyal customers of H&M tend to be young and fashion conscious. H&M has kids, women and men’s clothing shoes and accessories. The company has experienced revenue growth year on year even throughout the recession ( See Figure 9.0). In relation to the loyalty ladder, as discussed earlier by Tolba & Holsan (2009) a prospect customer will purchase based on perception and image of the brand. There is no doubt that this brand has a strong market presence. Also, as most of the customers are younger there will be more of an influence by friends, peers and the fashion industry to conform to trends. (Parker et al 2004) . Some companies’ have reduced mobile marketing communication during the recession but as mentioned earlier, H&M rely heavily on mobile marketing. They use technology to communicate discounts etc. very often people who receive these messages send them on to friends, this results in a usually a 50% increase of people in-store. H&M see this as a success in creating massive â€Å"footfall in their stores. (Carter 2008).This form of marketing is also useful as when people send on these messages, it can draw prospect buyers into the stores. Once the prospects have climbed to the next rung of the ladder and become customers, H&M offer an account. This account allows customers to have limited access to the â€Å"virtual dressing room† and other benefits such as communication via internet, mobile phone applications and offers which draw the customers back in-store time and time again, to eventually become clients and advocates of the H&M brand. 5.0 Conclusion All three companies discussed in this paper have strong brand images which are constantly communicated to the public. Customer loyalty does remain as a result of strong marketing strategies and constant brand re-enforcement. In relation to M&S and A&F, sales have slowed down as their domestic markets are maturing and people have less disposable income due to the recession. However, both companies have weathered previous recessions. Many customers still desire to buy these brands and the strong brand image will help increase sales in emerging markets. Both M&S and Abercrombie & Fitch had an increase in 2008, which dropped in 2009 but increased in 2010 again. H&M has a steady increase year on year. Abercrombie & Fitch is due to open in Dublin at the end of this year and also due to open in Paris and Milan. All three companies are concentrating on new and emerging markets as their domestic markets mature. (See Fig 10.0) The author of this paper has posited a new loyalty scale as opposed to the loyalty ladder, see (fig 11.0). The loyalty ladder does not account for customers who are dissatisfied or â€Å"anti† a brand. Customers begin as prospects and can go up or down the scale depending on their experience with the brand. The internet plays a crucial part in communicating with customers and creating relationships to strengthen bonds with them through social networking sites and discussion fora. With so many global brands in society, it is important to keep re-enforcing brands to keep customers firmly perched on the top rungs of the loyalty ladder.

Is It Fair to Criticise General Haig as a Donkey Who Led Lions

Is it fair to criticize General Haig as a donkey who led lions? Douglas Haig was a General during World War One. There is much controversy over General Haig’s reputation due to the high level of losses during his battles in command. Many people agree with David Lloyd George’s attitude of Haig and many other British Generals of World War One. They are said to be â€Å"donkeys†, incompetents who sent the â€Å"lions† (the soldier) into futile bloody battles. Many popular books, films and television programs also agree with David Lloyd George.The sad truth, however, was between two evenly matched opponents, that there was no other way of solving the conflict. There is sufficient evidence to indicate that that Douglas Haig was a poor General, or a donkey. The evidence is that General Haig, along with many other Generals, were used to handling small-scale forces in colonial warfare. They had a lot to learn about this type of warfare, for which they were very un prepared. Furthermore, communications were poor, and armies were too big and dispersed to be commanded by a General himself.Haig should have, however, made sure that all his soldiers knew what the plan was before they set off, and Haig should have planned how he was going to communicate with them. Moreover, if the infantry and artillery did manage to hit the enemy Haig lacked a fast moving force to use the situation effectively. Additionally, General Haig’s 1914 tactics had yet to catch up with the range and effectiveness of modern artillery and the latest machine guns. Likewise, Haig learnt the wrong lesson from previous attacks, instead of persisting with short times of extreme amounts of fire.Haig used heavier guns and longer bombardments that just churned up the ground and eliminated the element of surprise. Haig was not able to accept information passed on to him, a great example of this was when it was suggested that much of the barbed wire on the Somme was not cut, he admitted that himself, but he still continued with the attack. Another example of this was during Aube Ridge, when he also knew the wire was not cut in 1915, but he insisted the attack should continue and 1,000 men lost their lives for no gain.Not to mention, Haig’s ordering of successive attacks on the Somme during October and November 1916, with the ground reduced to a boggy area that gave way underfoot, achieved nothing but a degradation of morale and manpower. In 1917 other Generals were telling Haig that it was pointless to continue. No matter, Haig continued to hammer away for a further three months. Haig consistently told his soldiers that German morale and manpower were on the verge of collapse and that just one more push could break the enemy.To Haig’s defense it can be said that his army played a main part in defeating the German forces in the crucial battles of 1918. Furthermore, the Somme and Passchendaele, which are battles that have been known as unnecess ary murder of British troops, had sensible strategy, not least in the amount of damage they inflicted on the Germans. Moreover, Haig was not given a professional force; he was given a citizen army, which had less training and preparation for the battles. Additionally, the French tended to decide what to do during the battles, even though Haig was an independent commander.Besides, Germany had been working on placing high tech weapons onto the battlefield (quick-firing artillery and machine guns) and also low-tech defenses (trenches and barbed wire), which made Haig’s job considerably harder. At the battle of Loos, Sir John French wanted personal control of reserves. He therefore didn’t allow Haig (commander on the spot) to have them until it was too late, and the attack consequently failed causing thousands of casualties. Not to mention, at the battle of Neuve Chappelle, poor communications hampered the ability of Haig and the British Commander Sir John French, to send in reserves where they were needed.Also, when General Haig wanted to attack in Flanders, around Ypres, where the British army was closer to supplies and also to strategic targets just behind the German’s lines (coastal ports and coal mines). However, for the sake of unity in the alliance with France, the politicians at the time decided that the attack must come on the River Somme simply because this was where the British and French armies met in the trench line. The blame for the slaughter cannot, therefore, be placed entirely on Douglas Haig himself, simply because it was not his plan to attack on the River Somme.In addition, the German commanders would be fighting on ground they knew well, they also had the advantage of telephone cable which was deeply buried and therefore harder to cut. The German generals would therefore be able receive information far more quickly than their British counterparts. In conclusion, I think it is fair to criticize General Haig as a donkey who led lions. This is justifiable because Haig was often unprepared for the battle where he was responsible for thousands of men.Communication was a big problem for Haig; he did not insure that his soldiers were able to communicate messages during battle, which meant that soldiers were left confused, not understanding what there next plan of action was. Furthermore, General Haig’s had not been able to catch up with modern artillery and machine guns, which meant his battle tactics were often old fashioned and ineffective. Moreover, Haig was not able to accept intelligence that was passed on to him which meant he made drastic decisions, which would lead unsuspecting men to their deaths.

Cross-cultural gender differences in the UK and Japan business Essay

Cross-cultural gender differences in the UK and Japan business - Essay Example Assessment of cross-cultural gender differences in business environment is extremely important due to a number of practical reasons. Apparently, the ways organizations value their employees determine a number of key business parameters, i.e.: organizational behavior and environment, communication, leadership, yet business performance. According to Hall culture serves a â€Å"silent language† which the parties need in addition to the language they are speaking in order to find a common ground for communication and mutual understanding. Business culture apparently serves a kind of â€Å"social glue† that binds people and provides them a clear identity as a community. Naturally, culture may also serve â€Å"social dissolvent† giving people a sense that they are different and belong to brand different communities. Cross-cultural gender differences bring the fundamental diversities into the business environment. According to Hofstede cultural dimensions, masculinity vs. femininity are the key factors that describe organizational culture in different states. In terms of gender differences Japan and the UK represent almost different poles. While Japan is the world’s most masculine society, the UK is masculine-feminine society. However, both countries are characterized as the societies with the growing role of women in business. The roles of women in business in Japan and the UK depend on anthropological issues significantly. While women in Japan have always been considered as mothers and housewives their counterparts in the UK have traditionally occupied the offices in business and governance. The cross-cultural gender differences reflect in the business practices of both states. ... Apparently, the ways organizations value their employees determine a number of key business parameters, i.e.: organizational behavior and environment, communication, leadership, yet business performance. According to Hall (1959) culture serves a "silent language" which the parties need in addition to the language they are speaking in order to find a common ground for communication and mutual understanding. Business culture apparently serves a kind of "social glue" that binds people and provides them a clear identity as a community. Naturally, culture may also serve "social dissolvent" giving people a sense that they are different and belong to brand different communities. In this survey I will evaluate cross-cultural gender differences in businesses in Japan and the United Kingdom, assess the impact of these differences on business practices and organizational effectiveness as well as evaluate the case studies of Japanese Toyota Corp. and the UK British Airways. Cross-cultural gender differences in the UK and Japan Nowadays there are at least several globally-recognized and influential frameworks of cultural differences assessment. Most of these frameworks have been designed specifically for business environment and include gender aspects (Inkeles and Levinson, 1969; McGregor, 1957; Hofstede, 1980; 1997; 2001). Among the models of cross-cultural gender differences Hofstede's framework seems to be most influential. Geert Hofstede was a Dutch organizational scientist employed by IBM in 1960s. Hofstede (1980) who was able to monitor organizational differences in cross-cultural perspectives assumed that there might be universal and culture-related variables that contribute to these differences. During 1968-1972 Hofstede analyzed the cases of 116.000 IBM

Hospital Administration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Hospital Administration - Essay Example One of the main differences between a profit and non-profit company is that a non-profit company is not allowed to issue stocks or pay dividends. They also are not allowed to enrich the people on the Board of Directors. Non-Profit organizations are also allowed to apply for tax exempt status, which levies all taxes from the organization. This makes it easier for some non-profit organization to collect donations as well, as it allows donors to claim back any donations on income tax forms. The non-profit organization I have picked is St. John's Mercy Hospital, Washington. This hospital offers comprehensive faculties for various field included medicine, surgery, pediatrics, gynecology and obstetrics, all well working under their no profit headline. The facility is able to offer inpatient, outpatient and critical care services, all without making a profit for themselves. More than 150, 000 people benefit from St. John's Mercy Hospital. More than 1000 healthcare workers including 150 physicians function in the hospital. For about half a decade, this hospital has been within the top 100 hospitals in the US. On about 57 hospitals in the US have been able to stay in the top 100-status for 5 years. In the year 2005, the hospital was presented with a prestigious quality award as the 'Primaris Hospital Quality Award'. This award means that the hospital is ensuring high performance and committed to bringing about quality care in the state of Missouri. This award is a testament to the quality of care that is offered at St. John's, and even though it is a non-profit hospital it is still able to offer the best services out of almost anywhere in the United States. St. John's Hospital is really supported by the St. John's Mercy Foundation, which is a not-for-profit organization led by a volunteer board or local leaders and community members. The Foundations Web Site claims that "Your support of the Foundation will help St. John's Mercy Hospital continue to fulfill the promise of our mission as a not-for-profit health care organization to serve our community 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and provide for those unable to pay for care and those in need of services not provided elsewhere in our region. The Foundation is dedicated to helping St. John's Mercy Hospital remain a leading edge health care facility and ensuring our communities have access to vital health care resources. With your support, the Foundation will help St. John's Mercy Hospital to fund new health care services, equipment, community outreach programs, and care for the indigent. Every donation to the St. John's Mercy Hospital Foundation makes a lasting contribution to our community. Your contributions ensure quality health care for those who seek care at St. John's Mercy Hospital today, tomorrow and always"(St. John's Mercy Foundation). The Foundation's Website offers no information regarding what it does with excess funds, or how much annual income it makes, but it does include much more important numbers; how many people the organization helps. This is perhaps the most important thing to judge a non-profit by, as it shows how effectively they manage their money, how well they spend it, and how well they are able to help the public.

Environmental Health Assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Environmental Health Assessment - Essay Example The purpose of this paper is to outline the concept of risk, the processes of risk assessment and risk management, two issues that may affect the city’s policy in relation to risk management, and the differences between risk assessment and risk management. Nuclear technology provides a means to produce electricity in a safe, less expensive and environmentally sustainable way. It also helps in developing a number of essential industrial and medical products and uses (Knief, 1991). On the other hand, the highly advanced, complex technology involving thousands of crucial mechanisms, lack of adequately trained personnel to operate the facility, and potentially dangerous raw materials and by-products of the processes, are capable of inflicting high levels of fatalities and illnesses among the population. By means of epidemiology or the study of the causes, distribution and control of illnesses in populations, the â€Å"causal relations between environmental exposures and impaired states of health† are determined (Merson et al, 2004: 383). Accordingly governmental policies are regulated, for identifying levels of exposure to environmental health hazards, ensuring reduced risks to health and for evaluating the effectiveness of interventions. Risk perception by the public is greatest in relation to nuclear power, as indicated by research studies (Sjoberg, 2003; O’Riordan, 1982; Thomas et al, 1980). Nuclear power was found to have nearly all the characteristics associated with high perceived risk: that hazards are involuntary, with delayed consequences, â€Å"unknown, uncontrollable, unfamiliar, potentially catastrophic, inequitable and certain to be fatal† (Ricci et al, 1981). Further, conflict situations regarding nuclear power are largely based on values and goals that may overwhelm issues of health and safety. In view of these risks, public opinion is

The effectevnice of the green building evaluate & labing system Article

The effectevnice of the green building evaluate & labing system - Article Example ilding formulated the green building evaluation and labeling system (GBELS) which uses nine indicators to evaluate if a building project is environmentally viable. After implementation in 1999, the government mandated that all state building should undertake the green building design. Green building labels were awarded to building fulfilling at least four indicators. Differing feedback have been received with some claming that some GBELS indicators cant be used at the initial design stages, neglects the designer, clients and contractor needs and is not effective. However, some positive feedback indicates that GBELS helped in power conservation, improvement of project life cycle and promotion of green building. In light of these, this research work evaluated GBELS by examining its effectiveness, implementation, application, scope, current practice as well as reveling its merits and demerits for the purposes of recommending on the methods of improving it and using it internationally. ( Chinese architecture and building center, 2007; Lin et al, 2006 and Vivian, 2007) The main aim of the research work was to evaluate and analyze the effectiveness and implementation of GBELS its terms of its applicability, suitability as compared to other environmental assessment tools, its merits and limitations as well as its applicability on an international level. After collecting the data, selection was done to discard wrongly filled questionnaires. For the comparative analysis the author compared GBELS with BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method), HKBEAM (Hong Kong Building Environmental Assessment Method) and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) (CET, 1999). Where W was the weight given by each factor by the respondent {1(least important)-5(most important)}, A was the highest weight, N was the total number of the sample and was the relative importance index. Administering of questionnaire provides for an adequate means of

Research Critique - Dapagliflozin Trials Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Critique - Dapagliflozin Trials - Research Paper Example This paper reviews various aspects of a medical trial study carried out in Japan. The critique evaluates issues of human protection, data collection, analyses and management as well as the final findings. The study by Boulton et al. (2011) highlights the comparative use of dapagliflozin on two treatment groups consisting of diabetics with type II diabetes (T2DM) and healthy subjects. The research paper was published in the fourth issue of the Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism Journal in 2011. The main objective of the research was to investigate the tolerability and safety of dapagliflozin in the Japanese participants. Evaluated aspects included the pharmacodynamics (PD) and pharmacokinetics (PK) of the drug on both treatment groups. Protection of Human Participants The implicitly implied benefits of this research included the ability to determine the tolerability and safety of the drug for Japanese subjects, and thus offer a reliable, non-insulin dependent therapeutic option for T2DM management. This would be beneficial because it would save patients with T2DM from regular insulin injections and costs if it would be established as an efficient mono-therapy option or improving add-on to other diabetic therapies. The authors of the research recognized drug allergy as a potential risk and possible aggravation of cardiovascular and diabetic ketoacidocis. As such, precautionary measures were taken to exclude subjects with such conditions or a history of such conditions. In addition to the highlighted benefits, the researchers failed to note that dapagliflozin’s effectiveness does not depend on the dysfunction severity of beta cells. Unlike most other therapies, its effectiveness will not decrease with beta cell failure advancement or with higher severity of insulin resistance. This would be a major benefit in the T2DM therapy. Additionally, they also failed to identify other risks such as possible aggravation of polyuria, which may results from the diuretic e ffect of dapagliflozin. The research was conducted after acquisition of informed consent from subjects as stated within the material and methods section, and as such it is expected that all participants consented to participation after full information. The research process and procedures adhered to GCP (â€Å"Good Clinical Practice†), and â€Å"Japanese Pharmaceutical Affairs Law† both of which define standards of clinical pharmaceutical trials (Boulton et al. 2011). The adherence to these standards as asserted within the paper implies that indeed the participants must have voluntarily accepted participation in the study. This is because voluntary participation is one of the stipulations under these standards, and adherence confirms willing participation. As part of ensuring adherence the researchers also sought approval from the local ethics committee/ IRB (â€Å"Institutional Review Board†). From these facts it can be inferred that ethical, procedural adheren ce was upheld as required in any drug trial cases. Data Collection Data collection in the study was done through the bio-analytical

West antarctic ice sheet Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

West antarctic ice sheet - Research Paper Example The irony is that the human species has only one earth to live on and in case the environment of earth degrades beyond a certain level, it could positively jeopardize the very survival of the human species. The thing that needs to be understood is that environment stands to be a closely interconnected and integrated system, and it relies for its well being on a range of biological, geological, geographical and physical systems and features like animal and plant species, weather systems, water currents, atmospheric phenomena, water bodies, mountain ranges, air currents, glaciers, ice sheets, etc (Johnson 167). In that context, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet stands to be an important constituent of and a major determinant of the environmental health in the current times. Varied experts and research groups are urgently pointing to the fact that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which is one of the Earth’s salient ice sheets, could eventually collapse going by the augmenting pace of glo bal warming, thereby leading to drastic climatic and environmental changes (Plimer 9). Simply speaking, an ice sheet happens to be a large mass of glacial land ice with a span of more than fifty thousand square kilometers (Allaby 79). During the ice age, many important ice shields covered large expanses of land in North America, Europe and varied other parts of the world. However, in the current times there are only two surviving ice sheets that are the Greenland ice sheet and the Antarctic ice sheet (Allaby 79). Ice sheets are formed only in those areas where the snow accumulated during the winters does not totally melt during the summers (Allaby 79). Over a long period of time spanning across thousands of years, this snow gives way to large masses of ice which further get compressed and packed as the new snow presses the snow from previous years (Allaby 80). One important thing

International Relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

International Relations - Essay Example Each of these actors behaves in a certain way when they participate in international politics both individually and together. International relations comprises of the study of the behaviour of these actors (Mingst, 2010). There have been many key issues in the last 25 years that have been very significant with respect to international relations. This paper discuses two main issues, namely, armed conflicts and human rights. The paper describes why these issues have been very significant when it comes to international relations. It also identifies the major sub-issues, developments, controversies and problems regarding the issue. The paper also points out how the two issues have been linked to each other in international relations and then proposes possible solutions or resolutions to the issues. Armed Conflicts Armed conflicts across the globe have been one of the most significant issues that have affected the whole world. It has been the most important issue when it comes to Internat ional Relations. ... t of the armed conflicts in the recent times, mainly in the Middle East, have been internal conflicts which have been triggered due to issues of religion, ethnicity, identity and possession (competition) of resources. Mineral and oil wealth has been one of the main reasons for armed conflicts. On the international front, global terrorism has lead to major armed conflicts. One of the most prolonged armed conflicts has been the Israel-Palestine conflict. It will be discussed in detail later. An armed conflict leads to numerous sub-issues and problems. It has a profound effect on the population of the region. It becomes a major hindrance to the development of the region. The resources that could have been invested in the developmental activities such as education, business development, tourism, etc are diverted towards developing armaments. The direct and most immediate impact of armed conflicts are the disruption of food supplies, loss of human life, psychological distress, gender-base d violence, physical injuries, health hazards, etc. The effect that armed conflict has on children is very damaging as it influences their emotional, physical and mental development. These issues and problems become an interest of international politics. Global powers and organizations such as UN are required to resolve the issues and restore world peace. Global economic relations are also affected by armed conflicts as they affect trade, tourism, etc. International relations of numerous countries are affected by armed conflicts as questions of support and interests are raised. An example of this is the troubled alliance between US and Pakistan as a result of differences on support to Afghanistan and Taliban. Hence, armed conflicts anywhere in the world are very sensitive and gas an effect

Oman Telecommunication Company Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Oman Telecommunication Company - Case Study Example There is a 49%cap on foreign ownership in Omantel.However no single party can hold more that 5% of the company's shares currently. The telecom landscape is primarily dominated by the state owned incumbent operator Oman Telecommunication Company (Omantel) It is the sole licensed operator of public fixed lines, telecommunication services including local, long distance and international telephony besides data communication and value added services, dominates the telecom landscape in Oman. It has launched its digital cellular network in 1996 and was the only mobile service provider in Oman until 2005, when new entrant Nawras telecom forayed into the market.Nawras won the tender for a second cellular license in June 2004 and received it in Feb 2005.Omantel's cellular subsidiary, Oman Mobile was given a the formal cellular license in Feb 2004.Both the players operate in the cellular market under a three year period of exclusivity that will expire next year. For the year ending Jan 2006,there were an estimated 1,78,000 internet users in the sultanate, out of which a vast majority accounted for Omantel's subscriptions. Howver since it's launch in March 2006,second mobile license holder Nawras has claimed 20% of the market share and has added over 3,00,000 new subscribers In the current scenario, there is no schedule for awarding the third generation (3G) universal mobile telecommunication system (WMTS... The Telecommunication Regulatory Authority(TRA)expects to license a second national public fixed line network operator as well as a second national public data operator in the near future but has not yet set a schedule for the endowment of the license. Market Potential. Statistics from the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority reveal the following: Mobile phone subscriptions: 1.5 million Fixed phone lines: 2, 69,000. Out of this Omantel's subscriber base amounted to 1.242 million (all services) in June 2005.For mobile services its market share was a staggering 91.7% for the same period. There has been a significant rise in the number of internet users, yet the penetration rates in Oman are low compared to other regions in GCC. Most of the internet users are concentrated in and around the capital region of Muscat. Despite persistent attempts, little progress has been made in other parts of the country, particularly in regard to the access of high-speed ADSL services. Therefore, it maybe inferred that there is a lot of untapped market potential in Oman. The Arab Advisors group forecasts that by the end of 2009 increased penetration figures, greater account usage and multiplier ratios might account for as many as 5,08,000 internet users in the sultanate. The installation and access charges are plunging, therefore the internet and data services market is promising. In recent times, Nawras has introduced wireless EDGE broadband services. High-end business users constitute a major chunk of the clientele, but it is a small segment of the market and nearing saturation. In this context, the under twenty-five market segment is likely to drive growth. In markets like Europe and East Asia

The Things They Carried Discurse Essay Example for Free

The Things They Carried Discurse Essay â€Å"The Things They Carried† displays men in the heart of war trying maintain some sort of semblance of their normal lives.   The main character of the story, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, spends a good deal of his time thinking about his love interest back at home.   In fact, the story opens by saying that he â€Å"carried letters from a girl named Martha†¦They were not love letters, but Lieutenant Cross was hoping, so he kept them folded in plastic at the bottom of his rucksack† (PAGE #). Immediately the reader is thrust into this world of war, and what is important to the men who live it.   There are countless different clichà ©s/sayings regarding how one can tell a lot about a man by X or Y (by the way he dresses, by the way he treats his mother, etc.); in this story, we can tell everything at the heart of a man by what he carries with him trekking through the jungles of Vietnam. Jimmy Cross is a dreamer; he spends his time fantasizing about building a life with a woman who hasn’t really expressed the same kind of interest in him, and who maintains a great deal of emotional distance from him.   But it is this idea of a â€Å"normal† life, a life in which he can focus on marriage and children and just life, a life he hopes to return to after the war.   The thought of Martha, as well as her letters, acts as a beacon of normalcy for him, and it is what he feels he must cling to for his own survival. Jimmy ultimately ends up shunning his own need of maintaining some sort of focus on life outside of the war because he feels his own incessant daydreaming was the cause of another soldier’s death; in a great symbolic gesture, he burns her letters and her pictures, turning his back on any hope he clung to of a normal life and vowing to be the solider he failed to be: â€Å"Henceforth, when he thought about Martha, it would only be to think that she belonged elsewhere.   He would shut down the daydreams.    This was not Mount Sebastian, it was another world†¦a place where men died because of carelessness and gross stupidity†¦He was not determined to perform his duties firmly and without negligence† (PAGE #).   Jimmy is so shaken by the experience of witnessing one of his men’s death that it forces him to become a different person—in a sense, to adapt, and to become hard and cold.   As much as his daydreaming was for his own survival before, his hardened personality after the death of Ted Lavender is as well. The use of Ted Lavender’s name and story is the dominant theme throughout the story.   O’Brien uses Lavender’s tragic demise as a constant reminder of the horrors of war.   Throughout the whole story, in the middle of what might seem to be a casual description of various items being â€Å"humped† by the men, O’Brien drops Lavender’s name attached to a reminder of how he was shot.   This occurs towards the beginning, when the narrator is describing the different things the men carried: â€Å"Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried tranquilizers until he was shot in the head outside the village of Than Khe in mid-April† (PAGE #). His name is brought up repeatedly throughout with this same kind of cryptic reminder of his death.   When referring to how everyone had to carry a poncho, it is noted that it â€Å"weighed almost two pounds, but it was worth every ounce.   In April, for instance, when Ted Lavender was shot, they used his poncho to wrap him up†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (PAGE #). This name-dropping of Ted Lavender throughout the story is an effective tool that O’Brien utilizes the emphasize the point that this man died.   The deeper-lying message behind the use of Lavender’s demise as a running metaphor is that people die in war; it is terrifying; these men are children (with the Lieutenant being a mere 22 years old) and they’re scared and they want to go home, and these things they carry they keep because it makes them feel safe and reminds them a little of home. There is emphasis in the story about how their constant marching and their humping of endless items from village to village seemed pointless to them—as pointless as Ted Lavender’s life ending.   â€Å"By daylight they took sniper fire, at night they were mortared, but it was not battle, it was just the endless march, village to village, without purpose, nothing won or lost†¦They had no sense of strategy or mission.   They searched villages without knowing what to look for†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (PAGE #). These men, who have to hump a great many number of items (of both the personal and the protective nature) from one place to the next to the next, are being shipped off to war without a clear sense of what it is they’re doing there and are sacrificing their lives without really understanding what their lives are being sacrificed for.    They do what they are told because they are told to do it, and because they are too afraid not to: â€Å"Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to.   It was what had brought them to the war in the first place, nothing positive, no dreams of glory or honor, just to avoid the blush of dishonor.   They died so as not to die of embarrassment† (PAGE #).   These young men were dying for little other reason that they knew of besides that they felt that they had to. O’Brien’s message throughout this story is clear: war is terrifying.   O’Brien uses the lists of what they had to carry with them to illustrate the heavy burden each of them had to hump around everywhere they went, with the underlying theme that the things they carried physically were nothing in comparison to the things they each carried around with them emotionally.    All of them were scared for their lives; all of them wanted to go home.   Much of their personal belongings were things that would remind them of home, that would possibly allow them to escape for brief moments (like Jimmy Cross did with Martha’s letters) and fantasize about the lives they could and did have outside of this war, reminding them that there is still another world outside of Vietnam.   Many of the men carried with them the hope of a safe return; many more carried with them the fear that there wouldn’t be one for them. O’Brien is very careful to allow these characters’ lives (and one death) speak for themselves.   He uses their example of their experience in war to speak for a greater number of young men across the country who had been shipped off to Vietnam to die without understanding why.   Part of O’Brien’s message is that these experiences—the hopes, the fears, the daily terror and the struggle to combat it—are universal, and can universally be applied to anyone who has been through war.   The bottom line is that war is hell, it is terrifying, and no amount of pride or glory can change that, and whether or not the war was being fought for the â€Å"right† reasons (a big debate during the Vietnam conflict) couldn’t change that either. O’Brien is largely concerned with the pointlessness of all of it, and he succeeds in making his point effectively by using these very poignant lists of things the men carried and for what reasons to hammer his point home.   He is able to do so without being preachy or pedantic; the story is so simple that the message becomes just as simple.   Whether or not you support war, you cannot deny that the men fighting it are forced to live through things that the rest of us would rather not know about.   We would rather remain in our self-deluded bubble in which we understand war only as far as its being for freedom, for honor, for the greater good†¦we would rather be spared the knowledge of the blood loss and the body counts.   Not to mention the terror.   We would rather not hear the story of the Ted Lavenders, but O’Brien insists that we have to. Works Cited O’Brien, Tim.   â€Å"The Things They Carried.†Ã‚   (1986) [NAME OF ANTHOLOGY.] Ed. [NAME OF EDITOR(S) OF ANTHOLOGY.]   (DATE OF ANTHOLOGY’S PUBLICATION.)

Economics Essays Financial System Banking

Economics Essays Financial System Banking Capital Adequacy Directive Abstract In the recent years, it seems that the supervisors have increased the attention on the capital adequacy of banking intuitions in order to enhance and maintain the stability of financial system. The purpose of the present paper is to investigate into the merits as well as disadvantages of the Capital Adequacy Directive implementation in the Switzerland economy for the behaviors of Swiss banks and shed some light on whether and how Swiss bank react to constraints placed by the regulator on their capital. The analysis and evidences given will clarify the finding is that while the Swiss banks enjoy the typical merits that have been brought by this innovation, some drawbacks they might endure could not be neglected, which implies the need for good policy guidelines of Government and Central Bank. Chapter 1 Introduction We do realize there are better moments to introduce substantial increases in capital requirements. Nout Wellink (April, 2008), head of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision During the last 30 years, a wide range of countries have introduced the formalized capital requirement. This innovation seemed to be spearheaded by the adoption of minimum capital requirement in some particular states (for instance, the US and the UK in 1981). However, with the first introduction of Basel Accord in 1998, the common minimum capital requirements were actually adopted by G-10. To date, the Accord has been implemented by over 100 countries world-wide (Allen, 2004). The implementation process of Capital Adequacy Directive (CAD) on the one hand produced many successes in practice as it helps to limit risk-taking relative to capital and to prevent systemic instabilities arising from large-scale banking failures, thereby enhancing the productivity, efficiency, safety and soundness of domestic banking system, in general, global financial system. On the other hand, it also has generated several important failures and unintended consequences as it might reduce the lending ability of commercial banks which in turn directly influences to their competitiveness relative to other forms of intermediation. This study attempts to measure the cost and benefits of Capital Adequacy Directive and apply it to the population of commercial banks that operated in Switzerland. The result suggests that even though some negative impacts of CAD is obviously seen, the implementation of CAD in Swiss banking system is essentially and truly needed. As the matter of fact, the advantages that Swiss commercial banks have achieved due to the effectiveness of capital adequacy regulation outweigh the disadvantages they might suffer. The paper is divided into 4 sections. Chapter 2 introduces the historical review and general theory of Capital Adequacy Directive. Chapter 3 provides firstly the analysis on the both benefits and costs of CAD, followed by the statistic evidences from Swiss commercial banks’ behaviors. Finally, the summary of the main findings of this study and conclusion will be mentioned in the last section. Chapter 2 Capital Adequacy Directive: Historical Review and General Theory 2.1 Historical review The Capital Adequacy Directive was firstly and officially introduced as the core part of the 1998 Accord, referred to as Basel Accord (International Convergence of Capital Measurements and Capital Standards) issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (henceforward Basel Committee) in July 1998 (Hall, 2004). This accord is not formal treaty nor a binding legal rule, however due to the practical effects conveyed with it, the guidelines of this accord have been implemented not only by signatory countries at the beginning but also by over 100 countries world-wide (Lastra, 2004). Nevertheless, the 1988 Accord has been criticized for its crude assessment of risk and for creating opportunities for regulatory arbitrage (Blum and Hellwig, 1996). Therefore, at the end of June 2004, the â€Å"New Capital Accord† (henceforth call Basel II) was finally issued after the endorsement conducted by G10 banks supervisor in order to replace the original accord (now termed â€Å"Basel I† agreed in 1988) and solve the problems occurred as the result of Basel I implementation in banking system. 2.2 General Theory of Capital Adequacy Directive The genesis of Capital Adequacy Directive as well as the capital regulation could be traced back to the concern that bank might hold less capital than is socially optimal â€Å"relative to its riskiness as negative externalities resulting from bank default are not reflected in market capital requirements† (Rime, 2001). In the 1988 Accord, the Basel Committee provided a ratio of capital to risk-weighted assets. In this Basel formula, Capital is divided into Tier 1 (equity capital plus disclosed reserves minus goodwill) and Tier 2 (revaluation reserves, undisclosed reserve, general loan loss reserves, and subordinated term debt). Specifically, Tier 1 capital must to constitute at least 50% of the total capital base. In addition, the denominator of this Basel formula is the sum of risk-adjusted assets plus off-balance sheet items adjusted to risk. (Lastra, 2004) According to (BIS, 2008) the 1998 Accord in essence prescribed that banks hold capital of at least 8 % of their risk-weighted assets. Although there is no strong argument for the â€Å"target† ratio 8%, it still was considered to be â€Å"sufficient† due to the empirical application from previous policy applied in some states such as the US/UK bilateral agreement of 1986 regarding capital adequacy (Rime, 2005). Eight percent were the median in exiting good practice at that time: the US as well as the UK around 7.5 %, Switzerland 10%, France and Japan 3 % (Lastra, 2004). In fact, data from a wide range of banks from the Fitch IBCA database and national supervisors as well as the Basle Committee denote increasing trend with the average capital ratio rising from 9.3% in 1988 to 11.2% in 1996. â€Å"Most countries experienced increases in their capital ratios although those countries, which were close to, or below, the Basle minimum capital adequacy ratio of 8% in 1988 evidenced a much higher overall increase than those, which had historically high capital ratios†. (Jackson, 1999) Recently, in the new approach, often referred to as Basel II, specifically in the First Pillar ─ Minimum Capital Requirements, the overall level of regulatory capital currently held by banks is not set to rise or to be lower. The capital ratio is calculated using the definition of regulatory capital and risk-weighted assets and the total capital ratio must be no lower than 8%. In addition, the tier 2 capital is limited to 100% of Tier 1 capital (BIS, 2004). However, it is set to be more risk sensitive (Blum and Bichsel, 2004). Chapter 3 Costs and Benefits of Capital Adequacy Requirements: The Analysis for Switzerland 3.1 Understanding the Swiss banking system: To date, the Swiss banking system is typically depicted as one of the leading universal banking system around the world since this type â€Å"universal banking† was firstly allowed at the Banking Law of 1930 (Stiroh and Rime, 2003). In reality, like the most continental European countries, Swiss bank legislation does not distinguish between the commercial and investment banks. In principle, Swiss banks are able to offer a wide range of financial services such as: lending and deposit-taking, underwriting, brokerage, trading and portfolio management (Swiss Bankers Association, 2006). Furthermore, the Swiss banks might vary in the way they use their options to engage in all types of financial activities as the â€Å"truly universal banks co-exist with the institution specializing either in traditional banking or financial market activities†. According to Swiss Bankers Association (2006) the Swiss National Bank (SNB) classifies the banks in Switzerland into ten major categories: big banks, cantonal banks, regional and savings banks, Raiffeisenkassen banks, commercial banks, consumer loan banks, stock exchange banks, other banks, foreign, and private bank. These bank categories differ with regard to their size, business focus, geographic scope of activities and legal form. Within the banking sector, the big banks maintain a dominant position in every respect. As the matter of fact, the Swiss economy is characterised by a comparatively large banking sector by international standards, and by the dominance of two banks, Credit Suisse and UBS. At the end of 2006, the banking sector’s total assets exceeded CHF 4,500 billion or nearly ten times the size of Swiss GDP. This is by far the biggest ratio among the G10 countries, followed by Belgium and the Netherlands where total bank assets are five times the size of GDP. Measured in absolute terms, the US has the largest banking sector. However, total assets of all banks are less than US GDP (Swiss National Bank, 2007) 3.2 Advantages and Disadvantages of Capital Adequacy Directive towards Swiss banks’ behaviour In this paper’s context, instead of taking assessing advantages as well as disadvantages of CAD for all the participants of financial market, I would like to take the point of view to this issue from the one particular party of market – the banks. Merits Almost all financial experts hold the opinion that though capital generally accounts for a small percentage of the financial resources of banking institution; it plays a crucial and important role in their long-term financing and solvency position, which directly influence to their public credibility and reputation. The inverse relationship between the capital adequacy requirement and bank risk taking has been found in the research of Avery and Berger in 1991. In order to meet the 8% target ratio of Basel formula, banks have not been encouraged and limited to take the high risky activities, which always promises the high payoffs, thereby reducing the likelihood of failures. In addition, it is undeniable that the implementation of Capital Adequacy Directive leads to the more powerful ability of banks at the event of financial crisis as the more reasonable the capital ratio is set up, the higher the probability that a bank will not fail to pay back its debts. This fact tends to justify the existence of capital adequacy regulation in order to avoid bankruptcies and negative externalities on the financial system. In other words, it could be said that Capital Adequacy Directive is needed to maintain and enhance the financial stability of banks, generally, for economics. In the case of Swiss banking system, Switzerland welcomes that the Capital Adequacy Directive has been adopted as an important means to preserve the financial soundness of the Bank and its triple A rating. According to Swiss Banker Association (2008) the Swiss banks are well capitalized by international standards and as an additional safety measure, Swiss law demands capital adequacy standards even higher than those required by the Basel Accord. Swiss banks can therefore certainly be counted amongst the safest in the world. The following table will display the marked-rise in risk-weighted in all bank categories in Switzerland at the year-end of 2006 As been shown from the graph, in 2006, the risk-weighted capital ratios rose in all bank types as it increased from the 13.1 % to 13.9 % in terms of the entire banking sector (exceeded the G-10 countries’ average by more than 2.5% point at the same time). This increase was particularly pronounced at the big banks (from 11.5% in 2005 to 12.4% in 2006). Specifically, let take UBS – one of two largest banks in Switzerland as a typical example for the benefits of Capital Adequacy Directive in order to maintain the financial stability. The capital that UBS is required to hold based on Swiss Federal Banking Commission (SFBC) regulations, which differ in some certain respects from the calculation under the Basel Capital Accord (BIS guidelines). As a result of the differences in regulatory rules, UBS’s risk-weighted assets are higher, and its ratios of total capital and Tier 1 capital to risk-weighted assets, are lower, when calculated under the SFBC regulations than under BIS guidelines. However, UBS has always had total capital and Tier 1 capital well in excess of the minimum requirements of both the BIS and the SFBC. Capital adequacy The success of USB in doing business as well as maintaining financial stability has been measured and confirmed by the largest and most famous credit rating agency such as Fitch Ratings, Standard Poor’s and Moody’s. In February 2006, the rating agency Standard Poor’s affirmed UBS’s AA+ long-term and A-1 + short-term ratings and commented: â€Å"The key strengths of USB business profile are the strong cash flow, high returns, and the sound capital base.† In which, the last one has been brought by the presence of successful implementation of Capital Adequacy Directive. Not surprisingly, to date, the capital base of the Swiss banking sector appears to be sound as all banks reported excess capital at the end of 2006 ( Swiss National Bank, 2007) To sum up, the Capital Adequacy Directive framework is truly needed for Swiss banks in order to avoid bankruptcies and negative externalities on the financial system, enhancing and maintaining the financial stability. Disadvantages Despite what has been shown, nothing could be further from the truth that capital adequacy might affect the banking system’s ability to extend credit. Under the circumstance that the regulatory are set too high, that might leads to the risk-adjusted market return on bank loans will be insufficient so as to cover this artificially high cost of capital, therefore decreasing bank-lending activities. This so-called credit-crunch, which will directly impact not only to the financial stability of banking system but also the aggregate level of economics activities (Allen, 2004). Furthermore, there are various concern have been raised over whether the presence of capital requirement directive undermine the long-run competitiveness of banks. Jackson at the year-end 1999, and Blanco and Barrios in their research at 2003 have shown that these concerns could be separated into two types: (i) Whether banks have been disadvantaged compared with securities markets or securities firms (ii) Whether the overall profitability of banks has been affected and their competitiveness has been harmed According to Jackson (1999), there is a controversial issue that whether banks, due to the capital adequacy regulation have found it difficult to compete against the securities markets as provider of funds. Many countries have witnessed â€Å"a shift from provision of funding to prime corporates by banks to provision of funding by commercial paper markets or securities markets more generally† but it is difficult to assess how much of this shift was driven by the capital requirements of the banks and how much by innovation and greater sophistication of the borrowers. Furthermore, there is no strong theory as well as empirical evidence to conclude from the profound changes in banks’ long-term share of various markets that they have been driven by the influences of capital requirements on banks’ competitiveness. In the case of Swiss banking system, by using the empirical methods and model to evaluate the relationship between the capital adequacy regulation and the share prices of banks as well as using the data come from 4 big banks, 25 cantonal banks and 125 regional banks in existence from 1989 to 1995 which represents 82% of Swiss banking system, Rime (2001) has shown that there is no evidence about capital adequacy requirement implementation reduce the Swiss banks’ share price. Moreover, Wagster revealed the same result at 1996 when he did the research in the situation of Switzerland, Germany, and Netherlands. It is possible that the introduction of minimum regulatory capital requirements may have harmed the competitiveness of the banking industry. If capital standards require a bank to maintain an equity position in excess of what it would hold voluntarily, or in response to market pressure, then these standards constitute an external constraint on a bank’s operations. In theory, any kind of external interference with the activities of a business firm could harm its short-run profitability or growth and possibly undercut its long-run viability (Jackson, 1999). However, it does seem that the exactly answer for this question whether implementation of capital adequacy regulation harms the competitiveness of banks has not been found yet because the long-term competitiveness of banking is driven by a wide range of factors. As been shown in the above part, the implementation of CAD has been conducted successfully in terms of Swiss banking system. That helps banks to enhance the financial stability not only in their own system but also for entire economy. Hence, the Swiss banking system are now depicted as the universal banking system, being classified amongst the safest and highest profit all over the world. Conclusion In this study, we have just investigated into the costs and benefits of Capital Adequacy Directive towards Swiss banks’ behaviors. Our main message is that Capital Adequacy Directive is truly desirable as it provides an extremely efficient financial mechanism for maintaining the financial stability as well as prestige for Swiss banking system. However, despite the typical merits that have been conveyed by Capital Adequacy Directive, some drawbacks it might create such as unexpected credit crunch phenomenon, is obviously seen. This does require the act of Government and Swiss National bank with more caution as the more efficiency CAD present the more benefits that Government and Swiss banks can achieve. Bibliography Allen (2004), The Basel Capital Accords and International Mortgage Markets: A Survey of the Literature. Avery and Berger (1991), Risk-Based Capital and Deposit Insurance Reform, Journal of Banking and Finance BIS (2008) [www.bis.org] [Internet] [Assessed 15 April 15, 2008] Blum (2003), The Impact of Capital Requirements on Banks’ Incentives to Monitor and to Hold Excess Capital, Journal of banking and finance Blum and Hellwig (1996), The macroeconomic implications of capital adequacy requirements for banks, Journal of banking and finance Blum and Bichsel (2004), The relationship between risk and capital in Swiss commercial banks:a panel study, Journal of banking and finance Blanco and Barrios (2003), The effectiveness of bank capital adequacy regulation: A theoretical and empirical approach, Journal of banking and finance G34 International Banking and Finance materials by Prof D.H.Gowland G33 International Banking: Regulation and Supervision materials by Prof D.H.Gowland Hall (2004), Basel II: A panacea or a missed opportunity? , Journal of banking and finance Jackson (1999), Capital requirements and bank behaviors: The impact of Basel Accord, Journal of banking and finance Lastra (2004), Risk-based capital requirements and their impact upon the banking industry: Basel II and CAD III, Journal of banking and finance Quotation database, [Internet] [Assessed 15 April 2008] Rime (2001), Capital requirements and bank behaviors: Empirical evidence for Switzerland, Journal of banking and finance. Rime (2005), Will Basel II Lead to a Specialization of Unsophisticated Banks on High-Risk Borrowers? , Journal of banking and finance Sheldon (2001), Costs and Benefits of Capital Adequacy Requirements: an Empirical Analysis for Switzerland, Journal of banking and finance Stiroh and Rime (2003), The performance of universal banks: Evidence from Switzerland, Journal of banking and finance Swiss National Bank, (2008), [Internet] [Assessed 15 April 2008] Swiss Federal Banking Commission (2005), Basel II Implementation in Switzerland Summary of the explanatory report of the Swiss Federal Banking Commission Swiss Bankers Association (2008), Swiss Bankers Association press release, [Internet] [Assessed 15 April 2008] Wagster (1996), Impact of the 1988 Basle Accord on International Banks, Journal of Finance,

SWOT Analysis of Fosters Group Strategy in Greece

SWOT Analysis of Fosters Group Strategy in Greece Fosters Group is focusing on better strategy to acquire profit in the liquor industry after being saturated in the domestic market. In this assignment I mentioned all the main factors of Fosters for entering in new market. I have selected the Greece market for the assignment . Greece is a big alcohol market; Fosters planned to export Penfolds Bin 407 wine to Greece. This assignment covers all the internal and external analysis done with the help of PESTLE analysis etc. Another tool is SWOT analysis which covers Fosters companys information about the strength, weakness, opportunities, threats. The another main part of this assignment is marketing strategies which have all the information how Fosters product exported to Greece and which strategies implemented and how consumer behaved in that particular market .Swot analysis was conducted to check the assumption and forecasting sales to be made once the product is launched in the Greece. Contents INTRODUCTION: Fosters Group is a top multi-beverage company which delivers a selection of beer, wine, spirit, cider and non-alcohol beverages. Penfolds is famous brands for dry red table wine of Fosters Groups. The product which selected for exporting to Europe is one of the Bin range- Bin407. The Penfolds Bin-407 Cabernet Sauvignon is a multi-district mixture mostly from the south east to South Australia- specially, the Limestone Coast (including Connemara and Robe) and Bordertown. With a portfolio of over 100 brands, operations on five continents and a history stretching back 160 years, weve built something unique at Fosters. We are a global premium branded drinks company, delivering beer, wine, spirits and ciders to millions of consumers every day. From Penfolds to Beringer, Fosters Lager to Victoria Bitter, we produce the labels that consumers have learnt to trust since the 1840s. Our winemakers and brewers are today developing the innovative new products that will tap consumer trends in the years ahead. Headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, and listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, Fosters employs over 6,000 people and our products are sold in more than 155 countries worldwide. The market which has been selected is Greece and aiming all the wine drinkers especially people whose age are above 25. The reason behind choosing wine for exporting to Greece which is known as the market of alcohol is very large and as there is no age limit of drinking, wine can be very handy product for export. Greece is one of the worlds great tourist destinations. Greece is frequently welcoming arround 12.5 million visitors a year. Total wine consumption in Greece is14,919 million litres. Consumers are quite open-minded about innovation and new products and this is providing costant growth for New World Wine. (group, 2010) SWOT ANALYSIS: STRENGTH Brand name is the main strength of Fosters. Every alcohol consumer in whole world knows what Fosters is, in other word Fosters is internationally very well-known brand and Penfolds is one of the famous brand of Fosters in the market. Fosters has huge range of product such as beer, wine, spirits, cider, pre-mixed product and non alcoholic, with its differentiates group of interested Fosters tend to spread its awareness and now have acquired 30 different trademarks under its name. Fosters is the one of the largest companies which delivers its products and services to more than 150 countries. Exporting to so many countries is hard task but having an operative distribution channels gives strength. As exporting to more than 150 countries Fosters has retained strong turnover in current years with high market shares in comparison to its rivals. Growing at this rate, Fosters will soon acquire no. 1 position in alcohol industry. One of the key strengths of the Fosters is its differentiated price range. Having almost at all prices Fosters have targeted all segments of the market from medium class to premium class, anyone and everyone can enjoy Fosters product. (synodinou, 2003) Political issues are strongly affected marketing decisions.These include environment consists of laws, government agencies and pressure groups that influence and limit various organisations and individuals in given society (Kotler, et al, 2001:138). political environment are enjoyed at very early stage and its growing economy has enhanced business assurance over the last decade, leading to significant overseas investment.(refers to APPENDIX) The economic environment contains elements that affect consumer purchasing power and spending patterns (Kotler, et al, 2001:132). Current income, Consumption, Savings and Credit are buying strength of a human. GDP of Greece is à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬117 billion or à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬11.700 per occupant, which is ex.treme below average to European nations which in turns gives devolpment level weak. Economically, National level as well as on an individual level,they have a limited(weak)IST. Greece has entered the European Monetary Union (EMU) since January 2001, the actual flow of the common currency before one year, and this in turn affect profit by probably exchange rate, this indicate economical issues which diversify its exchange rate which are control its import and export activities (synodinou, 2003). WEAKNESS: The major weakness for fosters is that they have not lime lighted their other product as beer. Even today mostly everyone knows fosters name because of its very famous beer. Other product like wine, spirit is not encouraged well. The wine club and services of Fosters were not recently performed well, this cause negative impact on the profitability of its wine business. Fosters have very good name in the world but it still lack to get a position amongst international competitors as they mainly focused on brand building and marketing in latest years, Fosters lack brand names amongst its competitors such as EJ Gallos eponymous Californian wines. Fosters serve more than 150 countries but study shows that they have not determined on a particular market in recent year to export premium wines. (synodinou, 2003) OPPORTUNITIES: By evaluating the pestle framework (refer to appendix) of Foster the following opportunities were evaluated which are described as follows, refer to appendix: Although Fosters have certain weakness but they have lot prospects to cover all these weakness. As alcohol and food goes accurate on all the occasions. They can serve peanuts, nut etc. with the beer and make the combination to get bigger market share, so entering in food industry is main opportunity for Foster The wine intake in Greece is increasing in preceding years. Per capita feeding is 26 litres with 86% of the Greek people drinking wine 3.2 times per week. The character shows a big prospect to export the wine to Greece. Once the export of Penfolds is on youth stage the other opportunity for Fosters is to start shipping its other goods to Greece. This helps in increasing the gross revenue ratio and will capture the maximum market. Another opportunity for fosters is to create an awareness in health issues as research shows that red wine is good for health for ex.- improve coughs, low blood pressure etc, as making this an opportunity Fosters can promote their wine in Greece as Greeks are very health conscious. Greece is small wine producer. The local production is limited and the production cost is high, so Fosters can look for better exportation in Greece. Greek consumers take interest in imported wines. If the production goes higher then the whole setup will be developed in Greece and wine will be sold straight through Fosters retail where as 81% of wine imported into Greece is through wholesalers. Fosters Penfolds is good quality cabernet sauvignon wine where as it can be positioned between low prince and high quality. Penfolds can come in the range of middle price ranges products where anyone and everyone can buy the product. Wines are very economical in Greece. (RBrown, 2005) THREAT: By doing a competitive analysis of Foster with its competitors the following threat were evaluated:, Domaine Skouras, Emery S.A, Protopapas Winery, Minos cretan wines S.A, Santo greek wines. High rate of local rivals is the main threat of Fosters in Greece, fortunately the current production of wines in Greece is dropped but other players trying to make a position in the alcohol industry. Economy of the Greece is another main factor and the exchange rates which varies with the international act which straight affect the financial outcomes. In Greece, the entrance of new exporters can be a threat. As other companies from various countries can research on the market and can export products to Greece, a well-planned business strategy and plan can be very effective to overcome these threats. (Group, 2007) CONCLUSION: After all the analysis and the research it can be concluded that there are number of different area findings regarding fosters group to enter Greece market. The report is about macro environment factors of Greece. It also included the background of the Greece market. The report discusses the wine industry their major competitors and company analysis. Tools like SWOT analysis details the summary of Fosters strength weakness and analysis. This tool also helps in defining the advantages and disadvantages in entering the new market the new market. The major another part of the report is marketing strategies which cover all the information of the market selected and how fosters are going to enter into the market. In the last part of the forecasting and the profitability with the backup plan and how Fosters is going to monitor all this action plan. Hence it can be concluded that if fosters export Penfolds wine to Greece it will do extremely good and will increase the goodwill of Fosters in Greece. REFERENCES: Anon., n.d. Drinking in greece. [Online] Available at: http://www.greeklandscapes.com/travel/food_drinking.html. Fletcher, 2007. GMD euromonitor international. Group, f., 2007. global market information data base euromonitor. group, F., 2010. [Online] Available at: www.fostersgroup.com/about/overview.aspx. Ian Johnston, 2006. Relocating to greece. [Online] Available at: http://uk.businessesforsale.com/uk/relocating-to-greece.aspx. NARAYNAN, R.K., 2005. www.justgreece.org. greece travel guide. RBrown, 2005. GMD euromonitor international. Resnick, E., 2008. wine brand. palgrave macmillan. synodinou, D., 2003. Ag exporter.

Stroke Mortality Among Alaska Native People :: Article Review, Ronnie Horner

My article review is on, â€Å"Stroke Mortality Among Alaska Native People†, by Ronnie Horner. The Alaskan Natives have been suffering with the vast number of mortality rates caused by strokes. This article was written to successfully understand the Alaskan’s stroke problem or factors that contribute to this problem, and eventually find strategies that will aid in its prevention. The only problem that exists with trying to come up with strategies for prevention is the sparseness of the epidemiological data of the Alaskan Natives. It is hard to categorize the Alaskans in one separate group, the Horner states, â€Å"to its failure to consider Alaska Native People as one distinct cultural group, one among the many that comprise the American Indian/Alaska Native designation†(Horner 1). This creates a problem because it puts limitations on the efficiency of the epidemiology of the Alaskan Natives. With this being said, patterns have arisen in the number of stroke vict ims that are Alaskan Natives, â€Å"Stroke Mortality appears to be significantly elevated among relatively younger American Indians/Alaska Natives compared to US whites of similar age† (Horner 1). This shows that there must be an unknown factor that has led or caused the younger Natives to have a stroke. Something must had to change because the word â€Å"elevated† is used which indicates recently increased to what it normally was. It seems that Alaskan Natives are the number one ethnic group that is impacted by Stroke Mortality, Horner points out, â€Å"Of note, data for the 1990’s indicate that stroke mortality has decreased in all racial ethnic groups except for American Indians/ Alaskan Natives†(Horner 1). In detail this article attempts to figure out what factors are causing these elevations in stroke mortality that is not seen in any other ethnic group. Methods/Results/Conclusion The doctors had to first gather the death certificate data of the Alas kan Natives, Horner states, We conducted an analysis of death certificate data for the state of Alaska for the period 1984 to 2003, comparing age standardized stroke mortality rates among Alaska Natives residing in Alaska vs. US whites by age category, genders, stroke type, and time† (Horner 1). This will allow the doctors to examine the data to really conclude that Alaskan Natives were more prone to strokes than whites. With this data the doctors also need a population of Alaskans that they could carefully examine and study, Horner explains, â€Å"the study population was defined as all Alaskan residents who self-identified as Alaskan Native People.

Does CSR Work? Essays -- Business Essays

Does CSR Work? Adam Smith founded the modern study of economics on the premise that all businesses are driven by the invisible hand to seek as much profit as possible while society will take care of itself. However, as the public’s opinion of big business has steadily declined in the recent decades, big business has developed a social conscience to improve all aspects of society from worker compensation to protecting the environment to helping the needy. As Stephen Cook indicates in the January 2003 edition of Management Today: â€Å"Everyone cares these days. You can hardly walk through the door of a major company in the western world without tripping over stacks of glossy reports telling you how they care for the environment, their community, their stakeholders.† John G. Ruggie believes that the increase in corporate social responsibility (CSR) stems from three reasons: 1) companies have made themselves targets by doing â€Å"bad† things in the past (Shell in Nigeria; N ike in Indonesia), 2)public perception that the global marketplace is more police-able and international rules and standards are more enforceable, 3) companies large growth as made them the only ones capable of policing themselves in a global capacity. However, two questions arise from this new branch of the corporate hierarchy: 1) does CSR produce results? And 2) does the public care about CSR. Gereffi et al. and John G. Ruggie both indicate that the social pressure has pushed corporations to act: Under increasing pressure from environmental and labor activists, multilateral organizations, and regulatory agencies in their home countries, multinational firms are implementing â€Å"certification† arrangements—codes of conduct, production guidelines, and monit... ...ally responsible, only a minority will punish socially irresponsible companies. Cook indicates similar trends in the UK where only 20% of the people would be prepared to boycott a product on social grounds. Cook, goes on to indicate, however, that the number of people who care is steadily increasing: â€Å"there’s been a 40% surge in UK purchases of ‘fair trade’ products giving a better deal to third world farmers.† As more and more of the world’s population becomes aware of the growing need for corporations to maintain a strong sense of social responsibility, corporations are adopting self-regulatory policies to please the public and enhance their own reputation. All this benefits both the consumers and corporations until a company makes another Enron-like blunder. Then all the good credentials these pacesetting companies have accumulated disappears instantly.

How Far Is Odysseus Motivated by Nostos?

â€Å"Odysseus is motivated only by his desire to return home (nostos). † How far do you agree with this view? In your answer you should: * Consider how Odysseus behaves on his journey home; * Include an analysis of his motives; * Support your answer with evidence from The Odyssey. On his journey home, Odysseus encounters many obstacles which he attempts to overcome swiftly so that he may arrive home as soon as possible; however, it can be argued that nostos is not his only motive throughout his journey, though it may be the most significant.In Book 5, Homer presents Odysseus for the first time, and we find him weeping for his â€Å"lost home† and discover that he has been doing so for the past seven years every day. This shows how much he longs for his nostos and that this is his main aim in life. However, despite his apparent pain and homesickness, he has not yet attempted to leave the island, nor does he hate Calypso for keeping him here, as he sleeps with her every night and shows no aversion to eating and talking with her.Of course, if he did try to escape he would die immediately, so his motive for not doing so is self-preservation rather than nostos; on the other hand, if he died he would never achieve his nostos, so perhaps his sole motive is nostos. Furthermore, he declines Calypso’s offer of immortality as he claims his â€Å"never-failing wish† is to achieve his nostos. In Book 9, Odysseus tells the Phaeacians that he and his men raided Ismarus when they left Troy.Odysseus’ motive for this could either be a desire for booty (in which case he wants kleos rather than nostos) or a desire for supplies (in which case he does want to achieve nostos, and so is preparing himself for the journey). Also, he is anxious to leave Ismarus as soon as possible which shows a desire for nostos; however, he allows his men to overrule this decision, which either shows that his motive is to please his men, or that his desire for nostos is not very strong at this point.If it is the former, his sole motive his not nostos. (Incidentally, when he drags two of his men away from the Lotus-eaters, his motive is to please his men as well as to be a good leader, not nostos, which shows that his sole motive is not nostos at this point). In Book 9, Odysseus explains how he tried to escape the Cyclops’ cave as he and his men were in â€Å"mortal peril†; thus, his motive was self-preservation and good leadership (as he wanted to save his men as well).Furthermore, the reason they were trapped in the cave in the first place was because Odysseus desired booty; though his men tried to urge him away, he wanted â€Å"gifts† and would not leave without them. In addition to this, he called out his true name to the Cyclops as he wanted kleos and thus provoked the Cyclops to curse him (which hindered his nostos). At this point in his journey, he was motivated more by kleos than by nostos. In Book 10, we find out tha t Odysseus stays with Aeolus for an entire month, thus fulfilling the laws of xenia by not rushing away, so piety seems to take precedence over nostos here.When he has left Aeolia, however, he is certainly anxious to reach Ithaca swiftly and even takes complete control of the â€Å"sheet of the ship† in his â€Å"anxiety†. He does not relax until they are finally in sight of Ithaca. Furthermore, when the winds blow him back to Aeolia, he does not attempt to linger once more but immediately requests Aeolus to assist him in reaching Ithaca as soon as possible and feels â€Å"deep distress† when the request his denied, showing how important nostos is to him.In Book 10, Odysseus also relates how he stayed with Circe for a year simply finding â€Å"pleasure in living† and enjoying himself. He does not feel any pressing need to return to Ithaca, and it is his men who finally remind him that they need to go home. This shows that he is not motivated solely by nos tos on his journey. On the other hand, when his men urge him to leave Circe’s island, he is quick to agree and they leave the next day, showing his eagerness to return home – however, despite nostos being the significant motive it is clear that it is not the sole motive at this point.In Book 12, Odysseus encounters the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis and the island of Thrinacie. Here it is very clear that his motive is not nostos; he listens to the Sirens rather than putting wax in his ears, motivated by kleos and curiosity; he attempts to kill Scylla rather than sailing swiftly past, again motivated by kleos; he easily gives in to his men and lands on Thrinacie despite knowing that their â€Å"deadliest peril† (and greatest obstacle to nostos) lies there, claiming his motive is that he cannot go against the majority vote.Although he does pray to the gods for a â€Å"way of escape† from Thrinacie, he can also be motivated by wanting supplies and self-preserv ation, so his sole motive is not nostos. On Scherie, Odysseus states that â€Å"All I seek now is my passage home†. The use of â€Å"all† shows that it is the only thing he wishes for and therefore his sole motive since he has left Calypso’s island. It can be argued, however, that it is only because Odysseus has achieved kleos (his name is known even in the heavens) and no longer has the responsibility of his men that his sole motive is now nostos.Also, he has now been away from home for twenty years, and is now truly homesick. Odysseus’ arrival in Ithaca is quite anti-climatic: although he is â€Å"overjoyed† and kisses the earth, Homer does not linger on the moment but relates how Athene and Odysseus proceed to make a plan. The killing of the Suitors is much more significant, as it is described in great detail and Books 14 – 23 concern mainly this matter.Then again, perhaps this is because Odysseus has not achieved his nostos simply by arr iving at Ithaca: he must regain his position as well, in which case the killing of the Suitors is far more significant. However, it can be argued that the killing of the Suitors is not solely motivated by nostos but also a desire for revenge, especially since Odysseus does not spare any of them and kills his disloyal servants as well, and would have killed the Suitors’ families if it had not been for Athene’s interference: it does not seem like the sole motive for all of this killing could have been nostos.In conclusion, Odysseus is motivated by many things throughout his journey, including kleos, revenge, curiosity, the desire to please his men, good leadership, leading a comfortable life and nostos. Before he lands on Calypso’s island, nostos is not the most significant; however, it becomes his sole motive for the rest of his journey. Once he lands in Ithaca, it can be argued that he is also motivated by revenge, but nostos is still a significant motive even i f it is not the sole motive.