Market segmentation and marketing mix of LG and SAMSUNG

Market segmentation and marketing mix of LG and SAMSUNG Definitions Market segmentation The dividing of all possible customers into groups based on their needs, age, income, education etc. (Cambridge Business Dictionary, n.d.) Marketing mix The combination of actions a company uses when selling a product or service. These are often described as the four Ps: Product, price, promotion and place. (Cambridge Business Dictionary n.d.) Aims This piece of work aims to analyse and assess the market segmentation and marketing mix characteristics of and potential for Samsung compared with LG. Due to the very broad market sectors and product ranges of both companies, this report will concentrate on the relatively new product sector of fitness monitors when considering both market segmentation and mix. Interest in these products has grown due to the availability of ‘wearable devices’ and the suitability of technology, particularly Smartphone apps, to assist in this pursuit. There has also been increased awareness and concerns about keeping fit and healthy. According to Vecchione (2012) the market for self-monitoring functions such as high blood pressure and blood glucose levels using wireless wearable devices is growing faster than Telehealth (the official NHS version of technology to monitor patients remotely in their own homes). The proportion of wireless devices used to monitor health conditions is predicted to increase from a low level of 5% in 2011 to as high as 80% by 2016 (Ibid), with the resulting readings being stored and analysed on smart phones. Company background An Introduction to Samsung Samsung was founded in Suwon, Korea in 1969. Its vision 2020 is stated as being â€Å"Inspire the world, create the future† (Samsung website, n.d.) Samsung Electronics is a global leader in semiconductors, telecommunications and digital media technologies with sales of 143.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2011 and 221,730 employees spread across 72 countries (Ibid.) Samsung has been the worlds largest television manufacturer since 2006 and is the worlds largest producer of LCD panels. The company also has the greatest share of the global market for memory chips. With the introduction of the Samsung Galaxy S mobile, the company has taken the lead in global sales figures for smart phones as of 2013. Samsung has also established a prominent position in the tablet computer market with the Android-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab offering strong competition against the iPad from Apple. The headquarters of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. are situated in Suwon, South Korea and this is also the flagship company of the Samsung Group. In 2013 the president of Samsung Electronics was Boo Keun Yoon; and the goals of the company encompassed both quantitative ($400billion global sales and number one spot in the global IT industry); and qualitative (design products that enrich people’s lives and contribute to a socially responsible future). This is a real sign of the times as organizations increasingly have to demonstrate corporate responsibility and contribution to social or shared value, i.e. doing well by doing good; an approach which can provide additional competitive advantage (Kramer, 2011). Roy (2013) explains this further as being the next stage of business thinking, embedding contributions to wider society as an integral part of corporate strategy. Samsung operates in Western Europe, the Far East, and the United States; increasing its share of the mobile phone market in Western Europe over the past three years at the expense of companies such as Apple and Nokia. In 2011, for example, Samsung had only a 14% market share in Western Europe (compared with Apple at 21% Nokia at 20%). By 2013, Samsung’s had increased its share of the Western European market to 45%; Apple’s share dropping to 20%, and Nokia’s market share plummeted to just 5%. Other competitors including Blackberry fared even worse, losing practically its 17% market share to Samsung and Apple. HTC’s Android smart phones also struggle to compete with the two market giants, especially Samsung, who managed to generate more income than Apple in 2013 (please see Figure 1 below). Figure 1 – Samsung and Apple profits 2011-2013 ($ billion) Source: Statista Thirteen Samsung products have held the number one spot for market share including televisions, semi-conductors (the first product which the firm originally manufactured) and mobile phones (Samsung, n.d.) Samsung is continuing to research and develop new innovative products such as LCDs and semi-conductors. An introduction to LG There is some resonance in the LG story compared with Samsung: LG is also a Korean company and it too was founded about half a century ago in 1958, originally known as Goldstar. It was founded on the ethos of creating a happier, better life (LG website, n.d.) Since 1958 it has progressed into the digital age through technological development, originally of home appliances such as washing machines and radios. Then in 1995 the company was renamed LG Electronics, acquiring the United States based company Zenith (Ibid.), hence opening up the vast American market. This was followed in 1997 by LG developing the first digital mobile handset and being the first company to be certified for the production of digital television sets. In 1998 the company developed the 60 inch plasma TV followed by a joint venture with Phillips to create LG Phillips LCD (Ibid.) 2002 sees LG export GPRS1 colour mobile phones to Europe and in 2003 achieve monthly export volume of 2.5 million units. By 2005 LG had become the fourth largest supplier of mobile handsets worldwide; plus the firm was the pioneer of notebook computers (LG website, n.d.) 2008 sees the company launch a new global identity: â€Å"stylish design and smart technology, in products that fit our consumers’ lives† (LG website, n.d.). In 2009 LG becomes the third largest supplier of mobile phone handsets worldwide, and 2010 saw the company launch the world’s first 3D LED TV. According to their website LG brand identity focuses on self expression and a promise of satisfaction to its customers; using the phrase â€Å"delightfully smart† as its strapline. The LG logo itself is said by the company to represent a circle around the customer epitomising the corporate value of establishing a lasting relationship with and achieving highest satisfaction for customers. This is the basis of relationship marketing and is key to attracting and retaining customers in a world where consumers are bombarded with sales messages. Market segmentation As Drucker neatly put it, â€Å"the purpose of business is to create customers† (Swaim, 2010, p.14) and to do this requires looking from outside the company from the customer’s point of view and answering questions about market segmentation, including â€Å"what does the customer buy† and â€Å"what is value to the customer†? Samsung and LG market segmentation Information to guide segmentation can be collected through carefully planned market research; and the analysis of questionnaire surveys. Here are some market segments that will be most relevant to the fitness monitor market: Students tend to be the most technology-literate and represent a well defined segment in terms of the early adoption and use of new technologies. They also assist in promoting and recommending products through the social media methods; plus can be helpful in co-production and the development of the product. The importance of the use of social networking sites (SNS) in the consumer buying process must not be underestimated; seeking opinion from other consumers is now a pre-requisite of the purchase decision-making process. Interbrand (2012) suggests this may always have been the case but a feature of the past few years is the increase in the speed with which opinions and consumer influence can be spread. Nielsen (2010) discovered that most internet users seek out reviews and consider the brand recommendations of fellow consumers before finally deciding on a purchase (Figure 2). The graph illustrates that recommendations from friends and family are the main source of information most trusted. A key factor to note here, however, is that official brand websites can be as influential as online consumer opinions but they have to be more than just promotional messages. In comparison, advertising in newspapers and on radio and TV are less trusted by consumers. Figure 2 – Percentage of consumers who have trust in different forms of advertising Source: Nielsen, 2010 Young professionals are another market segment for these types of products; the main difference with the student sector is the considerably higher income and hence greater willingness to spend more on the product. This group is arguably carrying on the great tradition of early adopters too; the UK market has always been at the forefront of adopting new technology, including broadband, digital TV and Smartphone take-up (Ofcom, 2010). Wireless technologies such as these fitness monitors have been no exception with the digital age being fully embraced by the early adopters in the UK as soon as the new products have been released by the major manufacturers including Samsung and LG. There is a third key market segment for fitness monitors revealed by research evidence and that is young women who tend to be more interested in health and using exercise as a way to keep slim as much as keeping fit (Clohessy, 2014). The functionality of the new generation of fitness monitors includes features such as the number of calories being burnt off as exercise progresses, with different consumption rates depending on the type and intensity of activity. These last two market segments also have the advantage of containing a greater proportion of working people who are consequently much less influenced by the absolute price of the product. They are also proactive Twitter and Facebook users and contributors, reading reviews and providing comment as part of the consumer decision-making process. Marketing mix The marketing mix, or four Ps (product, price, promotion and place) is a tool integral to the development of marketing strategy; the specific tactics for the major parameters of the product or service can be defined. In more recent literature, the marketing mix has been expanded to include the seven Ps (Kotler, 2012,) encompassing more elements as shown below in Figure 3. The basic four mix elements remain but are joined by the new criteria of ‘people’, ‘physical evidence’ or ‘environment’, and ‘process’; these are considered by some to better describe the marketplace influences. Kotler (2012.p.31) describes it as: ‘holistic marketing’ which â€Å"recognizes and reconciles the scope and complexities of marketing activities†. Figure 3 – the seven Ps of the Marketing Mix Source: Kotler, 2012 However, this report will be concentrating on the four core marketing mix elements of product, price, promotion and place. Samsung marketing mix In the case of Samsung, the tactics adopted to satisfy some of the marketing mix elements might be considered to be: Product – The Samsung fitness monitor is called ‘Gear Fit’ (Figure 4) and is designed for the wrist; it has a curved display and several apps including a built-in heart rate monitor and work out management system. Promotion – Celebrity endorsement is not a new concept and has a long history dating back to the early 1900s. For example, according to Ketcham (2001), Buffalo Bill Cody was pictured on a trade card and supplied a testimonial for the back of the card, in which he praised the benefits of Kickapoo Indian Oil. Another trade card depicted the image and name of Sarah Bernhardt, connecting her with Carters Liver Bitters (Ibid.) Samsung has already successfully used celebrity endorsement to promote its products, using the sportsmen and women at the Sochi Winter Olympics (Samsung, n.d.) This philosophy can be extended to engage the younger sports-oriented consumer, with the careful selection of sports stars providing a strong enticement for consumers to try the product. It might be a footballer or tennis player, perhaps connected with a major sporting event. Price – If a premium price is to be charged for the product, Samsung needs to provide a strong competitive advantage for the Gear Fit over the competition, particularly LG. A good way of securing willingness to pay a higher price for a product is to add value through additional features or extra services. Samsung is well regarded for its innovative products and is number one in the smart phone market currently. This kudos will most probably rub off onto the fitness monitor too provided the right approach is adopted in terms of engaging the consumer through the social media focusing on Facebook and Twitter. Place – With its domination of the Smartphone and tablet computer markets, Samsung will be able to exploit not only its on-line presence for sales of the Gear Fit monitors but also capitalize on the goodwill and very strong presence in the high street. All the mobile phone network companies will be keen to stock the innovative Samsung products including fitness monitors, as will the supermarkets and electronics stores. Samsung already produces medical monitoring equipment for the hospitals and clinics; this fitness monitor could be added to the product range for healthcare too. LG marketing mix The marketing mix tactics adopted by LG could conceivably include: Product – In terms of the fitness monitor, LG has developed a couple of complementary products; the Lifeband wristband (Figure 5), with a touch screen; and the heart rate earphone monitor. The Lifeband plays music, receives calls and texts, has a three axis accelerometer and altimeter for recording exercise effort, and can track the route of the wearer using a Smartphone app. Promotion – aligning a brand with major events to create and maintain an identifiable profile is central to the promotion strand of the marketing mix. The natural target events for the promotion of the Life band will include the London Marathon and the Great North Run; monitoring the heart rate during a marathon event assists with pacing and avoids straining the heart (Sinha, 2014). Price – maintaining a premium pricing policy would be possible with such an expanding market, but LG needs to ensure the consumer is willing to continue to pay that premium through constant product enhancements such as the music functionality and GPS capability. These enhancements need to be communicated and discussed with consumers through engagement through social media hopefully developing that relationship with the customer central to the LG ethos, as depicted in the encircling logo. Place –Apart from the company website there must be considerable scope for collaborating with franchise/nationwide gyms; and exercise equipment companies to promote the LG Life band. There will also be increasing potential in tendering for Clinical Commissioning Group contracts for Telehealth2 and telecare 3 products; the wearable fitness monitor providing a cost-effective and simple to use way for patients to monitor their own condition and feel more in control of their health. Conclusions * Both Samsung and LG Electronics have identified the fitness monitor market as a potential area for considerable growth over the new few years. * They have both developed attractive products to promote to the particular market segments highlighted in this report, including students, women interested in staying fit through calorie counting as well as exercise, and young professionals. * Pinkse and Slade (2004) remind us that competition is greatest amongst brands that are most similar and it seems that these two large Korean electronics firms need to distinguish themselves from the other in order to create a unique selling proposition (USP) for their product(s) and to generate a desire for the product and organisations. Recommendations 1. It would be beneficial to take a longer term view of demographic trends, particularly in view of the ageing demographic, to predict any change in the potential market for fitness monitors. Such information is supplied by the Office for National Statistics Census 2011 data and population projections (ONS 2011). 2. Exploiting the potential of social media to promote the brand identity through taking advantage of the buzz around the social side of fitness and exercise; which exists particularly amongst younger target market segments. 3. Celebrity endorsement is a really effective way to promote products that are the subject of culture and desire, particularly amongst the youth and young adult market. Samsung used sports men and women at the Sochi Winter Olympics to promote their products (Samsung, n.d.); perhaps they can continue this and maybe LG could find their own set of celebrity endorsers for their products? 4. However, considering the increasing life expectancy combined with the ageing demographic (a greater percentage of the population being aged over 55, 65 and particularly 75 there is a considerable untapped market for promoting fitness monitors to this group of consumers. The lengthier retirement periods experienced by many people nowadays provide considerable potential for promoting a regular exercise regime to be built into their daily routine. The fitness monitor is well suited as an aid to a healthier old age as it is simple to use, portable and wearable, and can be promoted as positively reducing the likelihood of long term illness or disability. This is backed up by the evidence that highlights regular physical activity as the single most important lifestyle behaviour change for keeping healthy (Colberg et al, 2010) preventing type 2 diabetes, reducing high blood pressure and vastly reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease and increased mortality. 5. Pursuing the fitness monitor market and expanding it into the Telehealth sector will have considerable potential too as the NHS and healthcare professionals are increasingly encouraging people with long term conditions to be more proactive about self-care and management. The Department of Health (2011) estimates there are around 15 million people in the UK with long term conditions; and that as many as 80% of these people could be supported to manage their own condition including though the use of effective self-monitoring. Not only will this reduce pressure and costs on NHS services, including keeping people out of hospital; but there is evidence that outcomes for patients are improved too with people more confident and experiencing a better quality of life (Challis, 2010). Word count = 3,093 References Colberg, S., Sigal, R., Fernhall, B., Regensteiner, J., Blissmer, B., Rubin, R., Chasan-Taber, L., Albright, A. Braun, B. 2010. Exercise and Type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care;Dec. 2010; 33(12) pp.147-167. Cambridge Business Dictionary. N.d. [On-line] Available @ http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/business-english [Accessed 11/10/2014]. Challis, D., Hughes, J., Berzins, K., Reilly, S., Abell, J., Stewart, K. 2010. Self care and case management in long term conditions: the effective management of critical interfaces. London: HMSO. Clohessy, K. 2014. The best heart rate monitor for weight loss. [On-line] Available @ http://www.livestrong.com/article/380969-the-best-heart-rate-monitor-for-weight-loss/ [Accessed 13/10/2014. Department of Health. 2011. Ten things you need to know about long term conditions. London: Department of Health. Fournier, S. Avery, J. (2010) The Uninvited Brand. Boston: Boston University. Interbrand. 2012. Branding in the post-digital world. London: Interbrand. Ketcham, S. (2001) Celebrity Endorsements are a thing of the past (and Present) [on-line]. Available from: theoldtimes.com. [Accessed 11/10/2014]. Kotler P. et al. 2012. Marketing Management (2nd Ed). Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. Kramer, M. 2011. Corporate Social Responsibility vs. Corporate Social Value – what’s the difference? [On-line] Available @ http://www.fsg.org/KnowledgeExchange/Blogs/CreatingSharedValue/PostID/66.aspx [Accessed 12/10/2014]. LG website [On-line] Available @ http://www.lg.com/uk/about-lg [Accessed 11/10/2014] Nielsen. (2009) Global advertising consumers trust real friends and virtual strangers the most. [On-line] Available @ http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2009/global-advertising-consumers-trust-real-friends-and-virtual-strangers-the-most.html [Accessed 11/10/2014]. Ofcom. 2010. UK consumers revealed as early adopters of new technologies. [Online] Available @ http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/news/uk-consumers-revealed-as-early-adopters-of-new-technologies [Accessed 12/10/2014]. Office for National Statistics (ONS). 2011. 2010-based national population projections. [On-line]. Available through ONS website @ http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/npp/national-population-projections/2010-based-projections/rep-2010-based-npp-results-summary.html [Accessed 09/10/2014]. Pinkse, J. Slade, M. (2004). Mergers, brand competition and the price of a pint. European Economic Review: 48 (2004) 617-643. Roy, S. 2013. Corporate shared value – the new competitive advantage. [On-line] Available @ http://www.triplepundit.com/2013/01/corporate-shared-value-new-competitive-advantage [Accessed 12/10/2014]. Royal College of Nursing website. N.d. Telehealth and telecare. [On-line] Available @ http://www.rcn.org.uk/development/practice/e-health/telehealth_and_telecare [Accessed 11/10/2014]. Samsung. 2013. Samsung Electronics Annual Report. Suwon: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. Samsung website [On-line] Available @ http://www.samsung.com/us/aboutsamsung/samsung_group/history [Accessed 09/10/2014] Sinha, A. 2014. Heart Monitor Training. [On-line] Available @ http://www.marathonguide.com/training/articles/heartmonitortraining.cfm [Accessed 13/10/2014] Swaim, R. 2010. The Strategic Drucker: Growth Strategies and Marketing Insights from the works of Peter Drucker. Singapore: John Wiley Sons. The King’s Fund. 2013. Transforming our healthcare system: Ten priorities for commissioners. London: The King’s Fund. Vecchione, A. 2012. Health monitoring devices market outpaces Telehealth. Information Week [On-line] Available @ http://www.informationweek.com/mobile/health-monitoring-devices-market-outpaces-telehealth/d/d-id/1104636? [Accessed 11/10/2014]. 1 GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) is a technology enabling phones to transfer data quickly, whilst still allowing telephone calls to be made. 2 Telehealth (or telemedicine) is defined as the remote monitoring of physiological functions including blood pressure, temperature and blood sugar levels, particularly as an aid to the self-management of long term conditions by patients in their own homes (Source: RCN website, n.d.) 3 Telecare covers a number of systems of sensors and alarms which monitor the safety of the living environment enabling people to remain living at home who otherwise would require care in a community hospital or care home. Examples of telecare devices include fall detectors, personal alarms, flood detectors and extreme temperature detectors (Source: RCN website, n.d.)

Public Transportation | Construction Essay

Public Transportation | Construction Essay Public transportation is an essential service that must be provided by the government to its citizen. Yet, it still an issue faced by most of developing countries all over the world including Malaysia. As it begins to transform itself to become a developed country in 2020, it is a crucial to have comfortable, reliable and affordable world-class public transportation system to meet the target. According to Ministry of Transportation (2012), by having efficient transport network, several main transport issues faced by urban populations such as high traffic congestion during peak periods, cancellations and frequent delays of service and poor access to public transport services and network can be solved immediately. As part of government commitment to develop better system for public transportation, Malaysia has invested in many public transportation planning and development program over the years. For example under 9th Malaysia Plan (2006-2010), RM 31.8 billion was allocated to improve the public transportation performance. (Government of Malaysia, 2006). An additional RM 35 billion was further allocated under Budget 2009 (2009 2014) to enhance the public transportation services in Malaysia, for the allocation of new buses and provision of better infrastructure facilities (Bernama, 2008). However, the utilization rate of public transportation is still poor and the use of private vehicles is continuously rising. This scenario indicates that there are probably several flaws within the previous and current approach (PEMANDU, 2012). Since public transportation is very important to the social and economic life of the citizens, a new plan of massive improvement under Government Transformation (GTP) Program, the National Key Result Area (NKRA) has been launched in November 2009. There are 6 initiatives under this program and one of them is UPT-NKRA. It stands for NKRA Urban Public Transportation. The objective of UPT-NKRA may different based on the phase of its implementation. Below are several objectives that need to be achieved in 2010 and 2012. Improving the public transport modal share from 11% to 15% by the end of 2010 and to 25% by the end of 2012 during the morning peak period of 7am to 9pm in the Klang Valley and will subsequently adapt and apply successful initiatives to Penang and Johor Bahru; Improving reliability and journey times;   Enhancing commuters comfort and convenience; and   Improving accessibility and connectivity so that the percentage of the population living within 400 metres of a public transport route increases from 63% to 80% in 2012. (Source: Ministry of Transport Malaysia 2012) In the real world, government policies may not achieve the target and the actual needs. Most of developing countries have contributed so many efforts towards providing better public transportation. However, the implementation always faced with many difficulties. In Pakistan for instance, it was found that, factors like overstated role of the private sector, lack capacity among public transport organizations, negligence in the development of high-capacity public transport, failure to use existing land and integration difficulty had been identified as major problems led to the unsuccessful of their policies (Imran, 2009). The continuous failure to serve the demand of citizens to enjoy better public transportation service is not good for a developed country to be. In Malaysia, proper planning and significant improvement only had been seen in several main cities such as Kuala Lumpur, Klang Valley and Penang. On the other hand, Kota Kinabalu, the capital city of Sabah that is experiencing rapid population growth and tremendous economic activities still have to depend on bus to bring them into their destinations. This research will try to analyse the impact of public transportation policy on public bus transportation in Kota Kinabalu. Government policy at federal, state and local level will be analysed together with several issue in public transportation. Besides, the feedback of various stakeholders mainly from the government and respective authoritative body, private bus-operators as well as the public users will be taken into account. PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IN MALAYSIA Kota Kinabalu and its Public Transportation Kota Kinabalu is the capital city of Sabah which is populated by people from various ethnics, races and religions. It is located within the rapidly developing West Coast Division  [1]  . Over the years, this city is experiencing several infrastructure developments. Many shopping complexes and commercial buildings had been erected and these have encouraged more business and trade activities. Kota Kinabalu is considered as an urbanizing city due to its economy and population growth. In 2010, the total estimate number of population in Kota Kinabalu is 452, 058 (Statistics Department, 2011) with average household income RM 2487 per month (Economic Planning Unit, 2011). Apart from becoming a centre for education, business and social activities, Kota Kinabalu also have a number of attractive destinations for the local and international tourists. It was reported that, domestic and foreign visitors entered Sabah through Kota Kinabalu is 100,000 in 2004 and increased to 600, 000 in 2010 ( Sabah Tourism Board). To date, bus (includes express bus, minibuses and vans) still served as the main mode of public transportation to the local residents of Kota Kinabalu. The public bus system is operated by various private companies featured with variable quality. They provide travelling network and service in the urban, sub-urban and intercity areas. The main terminal is located in front of Wawasan Plaza Building where the urban and suburban buses pick and drop their passenger all over again. Another terminal is located in Inanam provides intercity buses service towards long distance travels such as Kudat, Ranau, Sandakan, Tawau, Lahad Datu and Semporna. Taxicabs also still operate in this city but the service focus at the several main areas only such as at the airport, hospitals and terminal bus. Besides, a railway system known as Sabah State Railway also operated in this city. However, the destination coverage is limit to several areas where it connects Kota Kinabalu with Tenom and several other to wns in between this railway it provides daily services for commuters, travelers, as well as for cargo transportation. Players in Public Transportation: Government Entity Government entity is the important stakeholders in public transportation. Any policy formulated by the government will affect the whole public transportation system in our country. Based on the interpretation provided by Land Public Transport Act 2010, government entity defined as the federal government, or any state government, state authority or local government; and any ministry, department, office, agency, authority, commission, committee, board, council or other body, corporate or unincorporate, of the Federal Government, or of any State Government or local government, whether established under written law or otherwise. In Malaysia, federal government is most responsible party to ensure the better performance of public transportation throughout the country. Only this level of government able has the power to approve and grant funding to any plan and project suggested by the subordinates governments. This is clearly mentioned in the Laws of Malaysia (1997) where the responsibilit y for financial allocation to regional authorities or local authorities lies with the central government (Vigar et al, 2000). Not only responsible in allocate money to be distributed to the subordinates government but also federal have the power to approve or disapprove any project and program proposed by the lower governments. As transport matters are a federal listed responsibility under the Constitution of Malaysia., the improvement of the public transport system can only be carried out with central governments approval since the Transport Ministry holds absolute power over transport planning (Laws of Malaysia, 1997). There are several department and unit under the federal administration works for public transportation namely Land Public Transport Commission, Road Transport Department Commercial Licensing Vehicle Board in Sabah and Sarawak and many more. Land Public Transport Commission (LPTC) Land Public Transport Commission is established on 3 June 2010 after the formulation of Land Public Transport Commission Act 2010 by Parliament in May 2010. This commission gained its full powers under the Land Public Transport Act 2010 and coming into force on 31 January 2011. By the establishment of this commission, the functions of Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board, Department of Railways and the tourism vehicles licensing function of the Ministry of Tourism in Peninsular Malaysia have been made inapplicable. However, LPTC only have jurisdiction power over peninsular Malaysia. The commercial Vehicles Licensing Board, Department of Railways and the Ministry of Tourism still continue to exercise their respective powers in Sabah and Sarawak. The table shown below summarize the power description of LPTC. Powers Descriptions Planning Master plan to ensure comprehensive, integrated and sustainable infrastructure development. SPAD shall propose policies and plans in relation to or affecting land public transport, and develop strategies in line with the approved policies and plans with a view to achieving a safe, reliable, efficient, responsive, accessible, planned, integrated and sustainable land public transport, while ensuring the provision of affordable services for the carriage of passengers and competitive services for the carriage of goods.(The Land Public Transport Act 2010) Regulatory Monitoring and regulate standard of performance of operators through licensing. Regulating all matters pertaining land vehicles such as train, bus and taxi services as well as road and rail-based freight transport Enforcement Enhanced powers encompassing powers to audit, investigate, suspend/revoke license, seize vehicles, and penalise operators. Carry out with close cooperation with other enforcement agencies such as the Royal Malaysian Police and the Road Transport Department. Source: Land Public Transportation Commission Official Website, 2012 Road Transport Department This department is established on 1 April 1946 with the purpose to synchronize all aspects related to transportation all over the states. In line with the establishment of this department, various acts relating to land transportation had been formulated for example Road Traffic Ordinance 1958 and Land Transportation Act 1987. Both aim to uniform and standardize the national transportation law as well as to provide guideline to the department officers in exercising their duties. This department is under the Land Unit of Ministry of Transportation in Malaysia. It is responsible to provide counter service for vehicle and driving licensing as well as to enforce Land Transportation Act 1987 to ensure well behaved drivers and safety of the roads users. Commercial Licensing Vehicle Board Sabah (CLVB) Commercial Licensing Vehicle Board in Sabah is established under Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board Act 1987. As stated in the act, the member of the board in Sabah must be appointed by the Minister and shall consist the a chairman, a deputy chairman, a representative of the State Ministry charged with the responsibility for transport, a representative of the Road Transport Department, a representative of the Federal Ministry charged with the responsibility for matters relating to the licensing of commercial vehicles and not more than six persons who in the opinion of the Minister have had wide experience or special knowledge in matters relating to transport. CVLB is set up to assist the development of commercial transport industry by establishing policies to ensure a sufficient and efficient commercial transport service (ww.malaysia.gov.my) Local Government The position of local government in Malaysia is stated in Federal Constitution. By virtue of items 4 and 5 of Ninth Schedule of Federal Constitution, local government outside the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya is a subject under the State List. All local authorities outside the Federal Territories will be under the exclusive jurisdiction of States Government. There are 146 local councils in Malaysia made up of city councils, municipal councils, district councils, and special authorities and Kota Kinabalu City Hall is among of them. KKCH is only responsible to provide bus terminals, provide road lighting in their territory Problem Statement Since the last three decades, government at the federal and state as well as at the local level had created various policies and plans to improve public transportation especially in urban areas. To date, significant improvement on public transportation had only been seen in several main cities such as Kuala Lumpur. The difference of this city from the others is that, apart from having various mode of modern transportation such as Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Monorail System, Kuala Lumpur also have an integrated public bus system namely RapidKL which is characterized with attractive appearance, safety, standardization and reliable schedule of journeys. Kota Kinabalu, one of the developing cities in Malaysia relies predominantly on buses for public transport since the past until present time and it will likely to continue to be so for years. However, it is still not well-developed and people still perceived it as inadequate, less comfortable, less physically-attractive, non-punctual an d unsafe. The only noticeable changes is the introduction of city bus service in 2009 which is still not give big implication to the performance of public bus transportation. As an effort to make continuous improvement on public transportation, UPT-NKRA is then launched in 2009. After almost 3 years of its implementation, certain cities begin to show the improvement on their public transportation services. Based on the GTP Annual Report 2011, 470 RapidKL buses were introduced, which increased the frequency of buses across the Klang Valley. As of 31 December 2011, up to 4.04 million more passengers used the RapidKL bus service in comparison to the preceding year. According to the prime minister, Dato Seri Najib Tun Razak, results of the NKRA of improving urban public transport have been promising as more people are taking the bus as their mode of transport (Bernama, May 18, 2012). Recently, the coordinator of the working group on public transportation in Malaysia, Mr. A. Sivarajan urged the government to re-evaluate national public transport policy in order to provide a more effective and efficient system to consumers (Bernama, October 25, 2012). According to the working group, several main problem as the concentration of bus service within Kuala Lumpur, the unsafe locations of bus stops, the non-passing of bus at certain bus stops area and poor network connectivity had been identified. The above-mentioned scenario convinced the researcher of the need to analyse the government public transportation policy. Based on the assumption that the public transportation policy is vague and implicit to the other states and cities, there is a need to critically assess the policy in the context of public bus transportation in Kota Kinabalu. In trying to critically analyse the policy, it is equally important to explore the issues in public transportation and to examine the feedback of the various stakeholders regarding government effort to improve public transportation though its policy implementation. Research Objectives To analyse the public transportation policy regarding the public busin Kota Kinabalu To scrutinize the public transportation policy at federal, state and local level To examine the feedback of main stakeholders regarding government policy and public bus improvement in Kota Kinabalu To explore the issues associate with public transportation To recommend solutions for policy improvement purpose Research Questions In respond to the listed objectives, several questions had been formulated and will be answered through the research. The questions that take into account are: What are the government policies regarding public transportation in Kota Kinabalu? What is the position of bus in public transportation policy? How public bus transportation in Kota Kinabalu develops from the policy implementation? What is the stakeholders feedback towards the implementation of public transportation policy in Kota Kinabalu? How the issues affect the implementation of public transportation policy in Kota Kinabalu? Scope of Study This study will be conducted in Kota Kinabalu. The focus is to analyse how the government policy affects public bus transportation in Kota Kinabalu. For the purpose of policy analysis, it will cover the period since 1990 to present. The respondents of this study will be the representative from government and other authoritative bodies such Kota Kinabalu City Hall (KKCH), Road Transport Departments, Commercial Licensing Vehicle Board (CLVB), and private bus-operators as well as public bus users. This study would be conducted from February 2012 to June 2013. Limitation of Study The first obstacle that will be confronted by the researcher is limited accessibility to the desired data. Since this research employed historical method, the access to some existed data may not be granted. For example, government documents such as budget and policy plan that is perceived consist of confidential information will not be easily given. Besides, some of required data may not be available due to poor record system such as ineffective newspaper cutting service. The absence of these sources creates difficulty in tracing the chronology and meaningful trend of the public transportation policy and progress in Kota Kinabalu. Therefore, in order to get sufficient information, the data findings will not focus to one single area only. Several places need to be visited and more key actors need to be interviewed. The second obstacle is the availability of the key person (respondent). In qualitative research that used interview method to collect the data, difficulty will arises when the respondents cancel the interview appointment due to other commitments. Some of the respondents especially those at the top level management usually busy and often going outstations. This situation will possibly caused the problem to collect and analyse the data within the time framework. Therefore, the researcher must always follow up with the respective respondents and plan the interview schedule in organized manner together with the backup plan. Significance of Study The finding of this research is important for future planning purpose. It acts as a feedback to the current public transportation policy. The policy makers will be able to decide whether to change or to maintain the status quo of the policy based on the information provided. Besides, it also will contribute to the body knowledge of public transportation literature especially in the context of Sabah. It was found that here were few studies done to analyse the public transportation policy and none of them found to discuss the topic in regards with the public bus transportation. Thus, it creates difficulty to the researchers to find convincing and strong statement to support the findings. At the same time, it will serve as a source of reference to the future researchers who seek information regarding this topic. The findings also will offer valuable information to public users as they will get cleared pictures and more understanding about the policy progress and how to improve the public bus transportation in Kota Kinabalu. Definition of Terms and Concepts Policy According to Dye (1984), public policy is defined as whatever government choose to do or not do. Dye definition is too broad to be really meaningful but by defining policy in such a way, it is possible to determine the actual or working policy of a government based on what government do or not do (Gunggut, 2006), As for him , it is not enough to look at the written documents such as laws and cabinet decisions but what is actually being done or not being done by the government. In this paper, policy refers to any action and effort the government want to do and not to do including any program, plan and project that being formulated to serve the public interest. Policy Analysis Dye (2000: 4) defined policy analysis as the description and explanation of the causes and consequences of government activities. For him, an analysis of a public policy should be exhibit a primary concern with explanation rather than prescription which is means the policy analyst should attempt to develop or test general propositions about the causes and consequences of public policy and to accumulate reliable search findings of general relevance. Public Transportation Public transportation is defined as transportation by a conveyance that provides continuing general or special transportation to the public (Tran Kleiner, 2005). It excludes school buses, charter and sightseeing service and includes various modes such as buses, subways, rail, trolleys and ferry boats (Ibid) Unilever Case Study Analysis: SWOT Unilever Case Study Analysis: SWOT INTRODUCTION: There are many kinds of business everywhere; where there are many issues related to the growth of the company and Different strategies will enable different companies to reach those goals. Unilever is a company started in 1930 formed of Dutch Margarine Company and British based lever brothers. Unilever holds a wide range of products which include food, personal care, beverages, canned foods, ice creams and many more which are worlds best consumer brands. The case study describes a lot of information regarding Unilevers business strategies, key elements of Unilevers path to growth, how they rejuvenated and restructured the companies slow moving performance to wide range of brands across the world. BRIEF CASE STUDY: Unilever was created in 1930 as an outcome of merger with dual chairpersons and headquarters one in Netherlands and other in United Kingdom. This is of one the giant and best competitors in the industry which holds wide range of products. The two chairpersons have launched a strategy in early 2000 to recover the companys performance which was said to be lackluster. With the new strategies the company showed a significant progress and has gone through many dealings over the next years, this made the company to open 20 new acquisitions worldwide and increased the sales of the company. Thus the companys business was restructured, renovated and improved through its acquisitions. Then their came companies likes nestle which effecting the growth of Unilever. Unilever then started efforts to attract and motivate young, talented and innovative managers from outside its company. TASK 1: SWOT : A planning technique which is used for summarizing the key issues and evaluates the Strengths (S), Weaknesses (W), Opportunities (O) and Threats (T) in any business is called an SWOT analysis. Analysis is the brief study of any case how they are going to be obtained, who are responsible for causing it and solving it by planning which involves internal and external factors of a business or an organization; internal factors are classified as strengths(S) or weaknesses (W) and external factors are classified as Opportunities (O) or Threats (T). Strengths are those characteristics of a person or a company that are useful to achieve the goals. Weaknesses are the characteristics of a person or a company that is destructive to achieve the objective. Opportunities and threats are the external factors that are helpful in achieving and damaging the business performance respectively. The figure1 show the illustrative diagram of SWOT analysis. The internal factors include personal, finance, manufacturing capabilities, etc and the external factors may include technological changes which may cause changes in products and processes that is inventing a new product or making the product better which include quality of the product and the consumer desire, market influences due to unemployment rates effect the company and price factors is one of the important thing to keep in mind , market place is one more thing which is very important that is the company or a business should be located in a convenient environment to the consumers to attract and the product should be user friendly. Another important factor is that its external appearance the packing and the name of the products should be eye catchy. At last he customer relations should be friendly and consumer satisfaction is very necessary. Other than these there are some more factors which may be changing due to econ omic and social factors and competitive positions which may create new opportunities or threats. SWOT analysis is useful in decision making when most wanted these include nonprofit organizations, individuals. It is the only method for classification and has its own weaknesses. A SWOT which produces no strategies is of no use whereas which generates important strategies is useful. Unilever had a very tough competition during that time when it was bringing about the changes it was probably at this stage that these companies had moved forward with there various strategies. Skills, assets, finance, facilities are the resources which are used in any business to compete in the industry. In the same way Unilever used their own resources to grow as giant company. They have implemented SWOT analysis and implemented new business strategies and rejuvenated their company from lack lust to significant progress in sales. It has concentrated on marketing and advertising its business and gained increased pricing with supermarket vendors. Unilever was lagging in sales when compared with nestle, Procter Gamble, Kelloggs etc its path of growth strategy which met considerable uncertainty which made Unilever to undertake a series of actions by cutting the companies profile to reach corporate goals and introduced 20 new acquisitions worldwide and restructured the company into two divisions one includes all food products and other household and personal care. Then started other two new businesses across the world. The external market factors such as technological changes, social factors, and other companies growth made a very big impact on the consumer preferences and Unilever had to cut its revenue growth. Later it continued to obtain more products across the world and these products gave managers to make their own decision making to set priorities by introducing new initiatives. Unilever has even motivated and attracted young talented managers from outside the company to join their company. According to Unilevers SWOT analysis the strengths of the company are recognized as it is a global company with strong brand profile with worlds best brands and maintains strong relation with its retailers. But coming to its weaknesses it has insufficient management of brands and doesnt not connect with customers. And inability to maximize acquisitions has reduced spending for R D. Thought it has got many opportunities by introducing many products by changing customer preferences and increase in productio n of quality goods. There are threats equally which cause decrease in revenues with high market competition, increasing the number brands and exchange rates. There are many growth expectations, risks, profit margins in food and house hold industry which is composed of many sectors and sub sectors by challenging the change of customers preferences with challenging rival firms to gain market shares. Then with competitive achievement by creating attractive products through acquisitions and with capability of growing sales of the brands which existed and improve margins. For all this the many key to success was advertising the products. By improving the profits of the company not only included shifting sales of the products but also boosting efficiency and unit costs. There were three factors which worried in 2000, the consolidation pressures in food industry which bothered were slower growth rates in food industries, rapid consolidation among grocery markets that is between branded manufactures and private manufactures for good self space in the grocery stores. In the United States for several years the food industry was miserable and was expected to continue for few more years due to more women working and decreasing house hold sizes, single parents and singles. But the food industry in Europe, Asia, Africa and other less developed countries were attractive. Thought the competition between branded and private manufactures was a never ending issue, private manufactures improved their quality of products by growing market shares. Then there came many giant super markets and gave an opportunity for private brands with attractive prices below branded products and even provided checkout scanners to help the customers know price difference which tempt them to BRIEF SWOT ANALYSIS OF UNILEVERS CASE STUDY STRENGHTS WEAKNESSESS Global company. Reduced spending for R D. Best Brands. Inability to maximize acquisitions. Strong relation with retailers. Insufficient management of brands. Dual Leadership. OPPURTUNITIES THREATS Increasing in need of quality products. Decrease in revenues. Changing customer preferences. Strong competition. Increase in brands. shift to the private brands. Due to the heavy competition among them manufactures had to cut down the costs of the products, number of versions of the products and weed out weak brands and concentrate on those brands which were popular among the customers and those could develop into global brands. Introducing dual headquarters by dividing the food industry which consisted of 6 categories and household industry which consisted of 8 categories there were many benefits such as improving food and household industry by focusing more on them regionally and globally. Accelerating decision making and successful integration of R D though there were some critics that Unilever has been paying more for some of its acquisitions such as acquire Amora Maille. Unilever as of then in 2003 had been seen as a growing organization which probably had all the necessary requirements to make it a force to recon with, during the Path to Growth strategy many aspects of the company had come out some of them included the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Strengths, probably the biggest strength that the company had at that time was the correct selection of the brands and the products it had in store unilever had done many researches and had to make many decisions to get the right combinations products that where to be sold it also had the right ideas to increase the sales and all the leading brands to help its cause. Unilever was very good at that time even if the financial aspect was taken into consideration it could experiment with various aspects of its store cause had the financial backup which was required at that time to help it implement various ideas and deal with the market pressures, for any company to improve its sales marke ting always plays a very important role this was probably there biggest strength as the marketing strategy applied by them managed to grab peoples attention as they easy to be connected to and much more simplistic and realistic. Unilever did manage all its clients very well considering that during a phase when they where cutting on the brands it would have been a risk to out anything at that time but it was very well managed by the company. Mainly the fact that unilever was now looking to make the higher range or the brands which where more famous as there core brands which made it much easier for them to advertise considering that it is much easier to promote a very well known and a trusted brand rather than a normal or new brand to increase the sales. Weaknesses, though unilever had a very good policy and all the right objectives to make a difference in the industry it couldnt happen basically due to the lack of proper organization, it was actually much like a bureaucratic organization where things where divided between too many people and it had become difficult to get the ideas moving due to the lack of proper organization, it probably all started with the fact that the company had to deal with too many brands in the first place it would obviously have the impact when the Path to Growth strategy came up cause of the then 1600 brands only 400 brands where retained and rest all where either removed or replaced, that shows that due the lack of proper organization and too many brands being part of it didnt help it in making the changes it wanted to in a better and quickest way. The organization was probably one field in which the company was lacking because it was felt that at the top of the company as there were too many people mak ing decisions and these decisions had to be put forward and this delayed the process of improvement for the company. Opportunities, during this phase of development and renewing it content and upgrading of the stock it turned out to be very fruitful as it provided many working opportunities for people it was at that time that many people where starting to get full time work, during this phase a lot of acquisition also took place with the major brands which resulted in some alterations in plans to that which were planned. SlimFast which is a private company is another acquisition of Unilever after implementing path to growth strategy in 2000 the company bargained an agreement to purchase slimfast diet foods. It had strong sales and network and has a special space in every super market and drugstores these products were made from natural ingredients and added vitamins and minerals to provide good nutritional profile. It also maintained a very good relationship with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other agencies. Unilever has concentrated more on this Slimfast since the company was growing fast and attracted the customers to buy more of it for healthier and long living life .Management of Unilever utilized the opportunity to globalize the product in other countries like Europe, Australia due to increase in the percent of obese. According to the world health organization percent of the obese was increasing gradually. UNILEVERS TOP COMPETITORS ? Figure: Competitors Performance Comparison http://finance.aol.com/company/unilever-plc-amer/ul/nys/top-competitors Ben Jerrys acquisitions which produces one of the finest ice creams anywhere in pint cartons and wholesale at groceries. Their sales slogan was Vermont finest All Natural Ice cream. They never use any artificial flavors thought the cost is little more it is worth the price. According to the time magazine Vermont makes the best ice cream in the world with 29 flavors in pint cartons and 45 flavors in bulk cartons. There products were distributed throughout the world. On demand Ben jerry operated three manufacturing plants where Vermont plant produces super premier ice cream and frozen yogurts where as spring field produces ice cream, lot fat ice creams in bulk, pint cartons and half gallons. Dreyers and Haagen-Dazs were the two major competitors of Ben jerry and other competitors were Colombo frozen yogurts, Kemps ice cream and star bucks. Ben Jerry produces a wide range of ice creams products like sticks, bars, frozen yogurt pops etc. Though Haagen- Dazs was the global market leader followed by Ben jerry it had an insignificant market share in United States where as Haagen- Dazs was more significantly sold in foreign markets. Both Ben jerry and Haagen-Dazs produced ice creams with cookies and candies in it. Bestfoods was a global company across the world almost in 60 countries which was busy in manufacturing and marketing the food products. Bestfoods profits are almost from outside of the United States that is almost 60 percent of its profits. It is one of the best managed food companies among United States who has much number of employees working with in their company in which half of them were at non US locations. The company increased payments for 14 successive years has its revenues grow by7.8 percent annual rate and suddenly slow downed during the period of 1997 and 1999. Then the company introduced a strategy with four core elements. Globalization of the companys core consumers: Products which are new in the market are needed to be globalized that is the products which are less popular among the consumers, are needed to be advertised and market those products to increase its sales and profits of those products. Few such products are knorr product line, salad dressing and food service operations. The advertising of such kind of products was done very well in order to get those products globally recognized and be accepted among many big brands and soon they became household names. Improvement in cost effectiveness: With changing customer preference the quality of the products must be improved and therefore there should also be improvement in cost effectiveness as the quality improves cost increases. Cost effectiveness is nothing but it is a way by which you show to a customer that a certain is product is worth using or is better than other product or the money u spend on it is worth it. Cost effectiveness in simple would be defined as showing the worth of the product. Looking for new market opportunities: Extending the product sales all over the world via new product introductions and extending sales of the products which are existed in the market. It is very important for any company to be always alert and look for opportunities to extend the business to a large scale and see it in a bigger picture based on the opportunities it gets. Using free cash to make new acquisition: With expanding the products and brands company has created 60 acquisitions in the global market. After struggling a lot in June 2000 best foods agreed to be acquired by Unilever. Best foods were the largest acquisition undertaken by Unilever by as far as concerned and which makes a largest combination of food companies in 12 years. Management of Unilever believed that combining and assimilating bestfoods would result in pre tax cost saving, better efficiencies in business process, synergy in distribution marketing, reformation of general and administrative functions and improved economies of scale. By creating robust business in United States market, increasing strengths of Unilever and best foods in Europe, building of best foods in Latin America to speed up the growth of Unilever brands, by distributing strengths in Asia- pacific to grow and sped up Bestfoods brands and increasing the sales of Unilever products by food service channel of Bestfoods. The work culture was so casual to make the atmosphere fun and lively with communication between the management and employees. The company respected the employees suggestions and respected them even paid the employees a reasonable salary Finally Unilever has announced sale of Bestfoods Backing Company to Canadian food and super market group known as George Weston for $ 1.76billion though Unilever declared to divest Bestfoods Baking Company and Unilever other products and bakery products does not exit any more at Unilever. Bestfoods has 19plans across the United States with a strong management team and was entirely US based. It was one of the best distributing for delivering the baked products which are really baked fresh and sent directly to the retail stores. With its dedication and hard work Bestfoods sales has increased its profit margins by 8 percent. Later again Unilever announced to sell 19 Bestfood brands across North America to ACH food companies which is a supplementary of Associated British Food. By successfully combining the operations of bestfoods with Unilever by the year end of 2003 the two companies had been merged in 63countries across the world TASK 2: Path to Growth: Path to growth strategy was initiated in 2000 and was restructured for several years for better and significant results. The key elements of this Unilevers path to growth strategy were cutting down its brands from 1600 brands to 400core brands to achieve top line sales and increase profits by advertising the brands which are more popular and leading brands across the world and concentrating on R D. Another important key element was divesting underperforming brands and theirs companies and introducing more innovated things to enhance the internal development of the organization and making new acquisitions. Unilevers years of slow performance and its lack of corporate strategy in the competition industry with low number of brands and ordinary performance in growing markets with a little global presence made to create a path to growth strategy which was a 5 year growth plan which made them to concentrate on more brands and product innovations for internal and external growth of the company. And made the company to grow with acquisitions. According to FitzGerald and Bergmans path to growth strategy they predicted to manufacture double digit wages per share growth and superior positions. Focusing on the key brands by advertising and marketing made business grow higher and build brand value and increased brands prices. The case study shows Unilever as a global company according to SOWT analysis after introducing the path to growth strategy the company had really increased its sales and with introducing more number of acquisitions and cutting down the cost of revenues. As the acquisitions like Slimfast, Ben jerry and best foods were rapidly growing their market across the world building a very strong profile and providing customers attractive products and offers. Slim fast has 20%anual growth rate with strong sales and distribution all over the world and also maintained good customer relation. Where Ben jerry was worlds giant ice cream products and yogurt maker with strong brand equity. Bestfoods was USs 10 largest foo d products company with a strong global position. The two key elements of the Unilevers new business strategy was to cut down on the number of brands that were being sold or being marketed by the company, at that time Unilever was operating with as many as 1600 brands and much more products due to this the cut down on the number of products and brands was considered, the 1600 brands that where part of the company were cut down to as many as 400 core brands, the core brands mostly included all the famous and popular brands which are generally very popular among people, this idea came up as to make sure that the products where sold and by doing this it would not be much of a problem for the marketi8ng of these products as most of these brands where already day to day and very famous brands which people would generally prefer buying, which would mean that it would take much less an effort to connect to the people and more over the marketing was also done in such a way that people where able to connect to it very easily, the other key e lement of the unilevers strategy was to remove all the underperforming companies or brands and introduce some other new brands or companies in order to enhance the internal development of the organization and make new acquisitions which would enhance the sales of the company and make it more likable for the people this strategy was designed to increase the sales of the company and get rid of the companies which where not much in demand . Weaknesses according to SWOT analysis showed the company has dual leadership, insufficient management of brands and reduced R D after all this slow performance and small global presence the management has introduced path to growth strategy, which increased the company sales with cutting down it costs and introducing more acquisitions resulted in globalizing the company. As a result there were few expectations to achieve a double digit growth and securing a better position in global market for food and household products by increasing the quality of the product to gain pricing power and attract more customers. But according to the strategy plan the targets which were set was really high that is top line sales growth of 5-6 percent annually, increasing profits, and plan to complete by the end of 2004. If we look and analyze the path to growth strategy we can tell whether the strategy is working or not, we can say that it is working by its success rates and increase in profits and increase in brands and acquisitions that is the consumer preferences have changed due to which the products quality has changed and prices have changed the leading brands sales have increased from 75 percent to 93 percent. Food and personal care industry have increased its profits consistently. Operating assets have also improved by 9 percent. Acquisitions like slim fast, Ben jerry and best foods have gradually improved its growth and established its acquisitions all over the world. But the other side it is completely not yes, Unilever was gaining profits significantly after introducing new strategies but it was losing too yes it reported a net loss of $318M as the competitions was increasing and new brands were coming in to the market and rivals were introducing new strategies to compete Unilever. In th e year 2004 sales grew only by .4 percent leading brands by .9 percent so this proves that Unilever was lagging behind competitors in terms of innovation and advertising. Unilevers lack of advertising and marketing failed to improve sales. The company was small and not globalized. In this case Unilever attracted the new young talented manages to join their company with innovated ideas to increase its company profits by new methods of advertising and marketing. To justify Unilever strategies it maintained dual headquarters and dual chairpersons which reduced effective thinking and slow downed the decision making. Unilever is divided into Unilever Plc and Unilever NV. This made Unilever to focus on the needs of the customers and increase its sales profits in various industries like food, personal case, and household industries all over the world. As customers demand the products which are of the best quality and branded but at the same time convenient, cheap and attractive. The market for household products have been decreased its profits as the numbers of single parents have been increased and the rate of females working out have been increased and the demand for the healthy and high quality food has been increased. The consumers preference of the products such as its look, quality of the product and nutritional values has been increased by providing a strong competition against its giant competitors and private manufactures. This allows Unilever to focus on the need of its customers by increasing its sales. In 2003 Unilever executing its path to growth strategy by increasing its operating margins to over 15percent, but the sales of the leading brands growth as slowdown and raised questions among the investors and retailers that whether company brands could deliver some 5-6 percent of growth in revenues in the next coming years. TASK 3: Unilevers current business Strategies: Ever since the ‘Path to Growth strategy ended in 2005 there has been a 15% increase in the sales and development in the overall progress of Unilever. After the ‘Path to Growth came to an end a new process was developed by Unilever called as the Brand Imprint which helped the marketing teams in understanding how the business could face risks as well as opportunities from the social, economic and environmental issues. In this process each brand was scrutinized by a team looking into various aspects of it such as the direct as well the indirect impacts of the product, it also checked how the brand would go ahead in the future looking at the products possibilities of growth both from a customer and a stakeholders point of view. The outcome of the Brand Imprint is that the process has helped in making important decisions for the company keeping the future in perspective it also developed in addressing social missions, social and environmental issues. The Brand Imprint provided a perfect experience to find some systematic and measurable ways to explore different brands and improve the brands by addressing social issues, helping people the product well and reducing the environmental issues. When the S.W.O.T analysis was done on the ‘Path to Growth strategy many different aspects of the strategy where scrutinized using the SWOT analysis in which it dealt with many aspects such as the strength, weakness, opportunities and the threats that are being faced. After the analysis it came out that it had been very useful to determine the various aspects attached to it. Unilever for years had been a slow developing company, though the company had the right infrastructure and the capital but it couldnt utilize it properly that was basically the reason why the path to growth and various other strategies where starting to come up to help the company to increase the sales of the products and improve the business. Path to growth played a major part in the development of the company. The Path to Growth strategy did prove to be quite a useful thing considering the fact that during this period almost all of the unsuccessful brands where removed or replaced and the brands which where trusted and kept managed to increase the sales by 75% to 93%. Unilevers growth was considerably slow during this phase because the company was at that stage making very drastic changes and for these changes to come up and make a difference was something unexpected but the companys growth was obvious in certain fields thanks to the new strategies that had come in to improve the sales of the company so as to improve the business of the company. It was due to the fact that the company probably took way too much time u started and implement its plans that it caused the success to be not as higher as expected. Many business analysts and commentators felt that most of the strategies of the path to growth where working fine but there was always a speculation that what ever progress was talking place was happening too slow considering the competition the market was in with at that time, it was also felt that as the basic functionality of the business was spread among way too many people made the management way to complex and it would have been better off if it was simpler. It did work out fine when it came to the advertising of the product and getting it known to the people as it was more public oriented and it used the sources to the full extent to connect to the people. It did experience a drastic growth during that period as the analysis had proved that the company had the highest growth percentage as compared to any other company during that period it did bring in high profits to the company but looking at the whole picture it did prove to be a huge loss for the company considering the fa ct that they faced a countable loss in the revenue margin and that proved to be the difference, though it did have the right amount of sales and customers due to the slowness of there analysis to sort out and remove or replace the stuff did make a difference to analysis in the larger picture. But the company did grow during that time which might as well have effected the revenue cause many new store where started and large number of employees where starting to be employed on a full time basis. It did do quite well on the international market as well. By looking at the way the company had grown during this stage is quite remarkable many business analysts and commentators had felt that they probably had the right scheme of action because during that time they where handling 1600 brands and which was way too much and among those were quit few brands which hardly made any diff to the company so then the whole idea of brands cut based on the market outlook and sales reports was looked into to classify as to which of the products or brands where fast selling and which had the scope to sell more. It was that idea to cut down on the number of brands and start promoting only few brands which where much easier to be marketed and which where more likable by the people by which it would increase the sales and also make the marketing of these products easier cause when you are promoting bigger brands which are often very well known to public would mean that u don have to spend much on the marketing. Did the company experience growth during this period? Yes, would be the right thing to say voiding the minor things which might effect the outcome but it did see the light of success though slowly and there process and ideas where starting to get implemented in a better way and in a more successful way to deal with the growth of the company, the process of cutting down on the under selling companies was probably the decision that started to turn the tide for the company as it was when the losses where starting to be covered and it was mor

Noras Discovery of Self in Ibsens A Dolls House Essays -- Dolls Hou

Nora's Discovery of Self in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House         Ã‚  Ibsen's play, "A Doll House," involves a woman who begins the play as a common housewife and through a series of joyous occurrences and catastrophes becomes a self-liberating woman.   Nora Helmer is transformed and decides to abandon her family and home in search of her true self.   She arrives at this point because of several factors.   Her refusal to submit to her husband and her self-realization is brought on by the way she has been taught to act by her husband and her father, and the contradicting demands the situations that she has had to deal with gave her.   Her true devotion to herself is discovered because of the false devotion she felt towards her husband and her role in her family.   In "A Doll House," Henrik Ibsen uses the character of Nora to show that the way in which a woman is treated and her assumed role in society can actually lead to her discovery of her own true humanity.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Though it seems contradictory, it is actually Torvald Helmer, Nora's husband, who cause Nora to refuse to submit to him.   Torvald holds a very low opinion of Nora's ability to handle things for herself, and allows her almost no responsibility relating to the family outside of the trivial things in the home.   His incessant use of his pet names, "songbird" and "squirrel" for example, trivialize her place in their home.   However, when Torvald becomes ill, it becomes Nora's responsibility to provide for his recovery.   Of course, Torvald, mustn't know anything about Nora borrowing money for his sake, which the situation demands.   So Nora is thrown into a dilemma.   Here her first decision to disobey her husband's wishes, in point of fact for the sake of her love for hi... ...e would long ago have told him about her troubles."   (294)    Works Cited: Gray, Ronald. "Henrik Ibsen." European Writers:   The Romantic Century.   New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1985. Vol. 7, pp.1428-1430 Hardwick, Elizabeth. "A Doll's House." Drama Criticism.   Detroit:   Gale Research Inc., 1992.   Vol. 2, pp. 294-295 Harris, Laurie Lanzen. "Henrik Ibsen." Characters in 20th Century Literature.   New York: Gale Research Inc., 1990.   p. 183 Huneker, James.   "Ibsen." Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism.   Detroit:   Gale Research Inc., 1979. Vol. 2, pp.222-223 Ibsen, Henrik. "A Doll House." Perrine's Literature.   Forth Worth:   Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1998.   pp. 967-1023    Works Consulted Shaw, Bernard. "A Doll's House Again."   Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism.   Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1979. Vol. 8, p. 143   

Postmodernism in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran

Where does truth lie? Postmodernism is a literary movement of the twentieth century that attempts to show that the answer to this question cannot be completely determined. Characteristics of postmodern works include a mixing of different genres, random time changes, and the use of technology that all aid in presenting a common postmodern theme that truth doesn’t lie in one story, place or person. The novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer encompasses these postmodern characteristics combining together show how the truth cannot always be attained. Intertwined within the novel is the presence of many different genres including letters, articles and magazine clippings, and pictures. At first sight there is the whole book, a novel written in Oskar’s point of view, which tells of his trials and tribulations growing up in a post-September eleventh world. After closer examination, numerous letters from different characters are found placed within the story to provide an insight into the feelings of other characters. There is a letter from Oskar’s grandmother, letters from prisoners and other people for handwriting samples, and letters from Stephen Hawking among many. Also within the book are magazine and newspaper articles that relate to the story in different ways. For example the article about Chandra Levy parallels Oskar’s story of loss and continuous search. The other articles are apart of the game Oskar played with his dad. Oskar’s dad circled newspaper articles in red as clues to the answer to a se arch for item. Finally tactically Foer placed pictures relating to the novel throughout the book. The picture of the â€Å"Sixth Borough† (or lack of it) complements the story of the sixth borough and the picture ... ...of others. In today's society, the Internet is the primary means by which people search for "truth†. Foer tries to point out that in the society based on the truth still cannot always be found. Through the use of many postmodern characteristics Foer has created a book that concerns with the questions, where does the truth lie? And how does someone obtain the truth? At the end of the novel Oskar never really finds what he was looking for, His questions are all left unanswered. By ending in this manor Foer suggests that the truth can’t be found not every question has a yes or no answer. People can choose to go through life constantly attempting to achieve the answers to life or they can choose to accept things for what they are. Truth can be defined as the body of real things, events, and facts. But knowing the definition still leaves the question does truth exist?

Basic Business Concepts

Business: It is the act of manufacturing, producing or buying and selling of goods and services whose aim is to make profit. A product may be defined as the output which could be in terms of services or goods within the normal business transaction.Generally, the fundamental goal of business if to make profit through optimization of its costs and revenue. However, business organizations are the entities that are ideally driven by the profit motive. Non profit making organizations does not aim atmaking profit. 2. Every business activity involves various participants/stakeholders.They include producers/manufactures, distributors, consumers and legal entities (John, 2006). Producers/manufacturers make the goods and services for use in the business process. Consumers are involved in using the products that are manufactured and produced in business processes. Distributors create channels of goods and service transfers from the manufactures to the consumers. Legal entities/government create s the legal layout of conduct between the other three participants. Studying business in the today’s American society is ideally an important aspect that provides information on the aspects that ensure strong business functionality.It provides the most rational knowledge that would help to succeed in any business process. However, business process is affected by various aspects such as international forces of demand and supply, income of the consumers, government regulation, availability of raw material, and economic systems (John, 2006). 3. Economics is the study of fundamentals of incorporating the scarce resources in processes that yield the highest benefit to the community. There are various economic systems which include; Traditional economy is that characterized by techniques and models based on social foundations.It involves resource inheritance and brings a passive sense of togetherness and community. It has low technology and no competition. Command economy is that w hich is controlled and planned by the central government. It is shaped by the will of the government. The means of economic production are owed by the people. It can be found in Vietnam. Market economy is controlled by forces of demand and supply. Government rarely fixes the prices. Private corporations govern the control of distribution and exchange. Example is United Kingdom.Mixed economy compliments both market and command economy. There are both the hands of government and corporations. It is governed by high freedom in its activities. An example is in US (John, 2006). 4. Supply is the total amount of goods and services offered in the market by the produces. Demand id the total quantity of goods and services required for consumption in the market. Price is the single cost paid for a unit of goods or services. Competition refers to the interactive process between suppliers and consumers within the market to yield an equilibrium quantity and price.In America, the competitive natur e of the market ensures the interaction between the quantities of goods and services supplied and demanded to produce an equilibrium price and quantity for the supplies and demands levels (John, 2006). 5. There are four types of competitions. Perfect competition is where we have many suppliers and consumers who interact cohesively with one another to yield an equilibrium quantity and price. Example is the hotel industry. Monopoly competition is where there is one supplier against many consumers. He/she controls the pricing of the goods and services.Example is the development in new communication technology. Duopoly competition is the competition between two suppliers. It may include the development in mobile phone technology between two manufactures. Oligopoly competition is where there are few sellers and many buyers. It may include the market of electronics. 6. The government uses various attributes to measure the state of economic development. They include; Inflation: This is the subsequent increase in the price of commodities. GDP: It is the sum total of all goods and services produced within a country within one year.Unemployment: It is the relationship between the workforce that is willing and also able to work and is in the process of finding a job compared to the number that is absorbed in the employment industry. Consumer Price Index: This is relative changes in the prices of consumer goods within the economy. The rate of unemployment is relative to the level of GDP. Higher unemployment implies lower GDP. This is because, there are low levels of income earned by the household and consequently law levels of aggregate demand within the economy. Economic fluctuations are usually desirable in the economic functionality theory.This is ideally because such fluctuations are detrimental in clearing the various markets within the economy. The federal government in America performs the role of ensuring both strong fiscal and monetary policies which ensure a str ong economy (John, 2006). 7. Service economy is the economy endowed with product output that is governed by services rather than goods. In America, service economy refers to the economic domains implied by the supply and demand of services as product outputs. Reference John Robert (2006) Economic Theory: An Introduction. New York, Prentice Hall

Reflection paper

Reflection Paper: Zombie Apocalypse Myths have been around in all parts of the world for thousands and thousands of years. All religions have their own myths on how the world was created and dealing with the evil spirits in the world and much more. Over the years there were different myths created making society believe in them along with others wanting the historical facts behind these myths. Making many of us develop a sense of fantasy with these myths. For example, the zombie apocalypse.The word Zombie comes from the Haitian and New Orleans voodoo origins. It refers to a human dead body which serves the undead, but what makes people so crazed over it? Is it the mysterious way the illness or â€Å"bite† first started? Why is it continually being spoken about on the websites and on the television? Many people have their own interpretation on this. Many of it deals with the preparedness for the end of the world. This ties into the entertainment of peoples minds since people ar e bored in the world wanting to create a new myth. Let me elaborate on this farther.When It comes to the zombie type of apocalypse many people have created movies, video games, and books on It. This type of apocalypse have given some people the â€Å"adrenaline rush† in video games for they can use violence to kill these zombies. Other people search the facts in order to prepare for disasters in the world. It can be tough to get people thinking about emergency preparedness before disaster strikes. Hollywood created these zombie movies, video games, television series, and books to spark our attention and get people Involved in preparing before a true natural disaster strikes.Because of these many movies and books In the world It made people question this zombie apocalypse. Will it really happen? How do you prepare for it? Many people in the world have said to have an emergency plan and survival kit set up. But who would want to believe this? Is it a myth or fact? Many people h ave then thought of this apocalypse as another contribute to the humans who are â€Å"living† whom, without the threat of law, would contemplating to rape and kill you Just to take what you have, and to enjoy whatever sick twisted fantasy they cook up on the spot.This Is the type of facts people have to add to this myth. As signs go on with the facts other than trying to survive and kill the zombies, people would get depression. Depression will lower your immune system, causing the stress and making you tired constantly which can add to your death or becoming a â€Å"zombie. † Even if there is not a zombie attack, the government might be more prepared for an earthquake or any other type of disaster which is more common than an actual zombie apocalypse. I personally do not believe In the typical zombie apocalypse movies and videotapes and such.I do believe in other myths and such but with this type it is more fantasy than anything else. I would need to be given factual and solid scientific evidence explaining how and why this would occur. I refuse to acknowledge this as a valid warning. However I do have respect for some of the CDC government opinions, as they are entitled believe whatever they may want to. Even if it Is scientifically based To me it ties in with someone wanting the entertainment and excitement due to their boredom or preparing for the true natural disasters.The idea is to get the attention of people who would otherwise not prepare for real, actual emergencies, like natural disasters by getting the attention of people and getting them to seriously think about an emergency kit, in order to save us money. In any survival situation you must have food, water, shelter & protection. However, if a zombie apocalypse were to occur, you would not only have to have the supplies to survive, but would also have to have the ability to protect the supplies and your family.Most likely, you would need to have enough supplies for a minimum of three months. Then have a plan for either how to grow or produce your own supplies. This is another factual to needing to prepare. Personally, I would like to know why everyone thinks that they would be trying to survive. With the likely percentage of infection across the world in all the scenarios e imagine, there is a 99 percent chance that you would be a zombie too. What makes one think that it could not â€Å"happen to me? Why would one assume that they would be fighting them? Chances are they would be stumbling and moaning as well. These are questions that I face with this type of myth and why people could possibly be into this. Other people would use this as another way to get closer to their faith. For example, people would think that the zombies are Satin's demons and the â€Å"living† are God's children trying to escape Satin's grasp. To me this seems a very possible way to lead to their myth and fantasy in their minds.As other people believe, like me, that the zombies a re far-fetched, they do however look at the facts like the deadly flu in 1918 making people afraid to leave their homes. To me it is one way to use this apocalypse as entertainment to fill their boredom, but to end up believing this could possibly be an outcome in the world is bizarre. As, you can see many people use this as a way to prepare for the real disasters in the world, to have emergency kits and plans on how to survive. But then other people see it as actually happening. What do you believe in? Myth or fact? Why are you into this? Reflection paper This chapter focuses on the principles of biology. Biology Is the scientific study of life. A notable contradiction to science Is pseudoscience which Is something that sounds selecting but Is not based on complete evidence. Life encompasses a wide variety of things, but all life has a set of seven characteristics which are order, regulation, growth and development, energy processing, response to the environment, reproduction, and evolution. Life exists in many levels ranging from the exosphere to molecules and atoms.A cell is the lowest structural level that can sustain the activities required for life. Cells exist in one of two categories: prokaryotic or eukaryotic. A prokaryotic cell is simple, small, and lacking a nucleus while a eukaryotic cell is larger and more complex, containing many membrane-enclosed organelles. Biological domains further differentiate between kinds of cells. There are three major biological domains, two of which are classified for prokaryote and the other f or eukaryote. They are Domain Bacteria, Domain Archie, and Domain Eukaryote.Evolution Is also a major theme In biology. Evolution Is the concept of life evolving over the course of time. Charles Darwin Is responsible for the concept of evolution through natural selection. His idea of natural selection was about the adaptation to the environment over time by populations in order to survive. Discovery science and hypothesis driven science are the two main processes of science. Scientists follow the scientific method to test their findings. Theories and scientific saws sometimes result from many repeated experiments.A theory is a comprehensive explanation while a law is a more a generalized description. The basis of science requires that experiments be repeatable, as scientists repeat each other's experiments to check for verification. This is why It Is very important for scientists to be honest with their observations and results. Correlations occur when events occur together In time and space. It Is very Important to know that correlation does not always equal causation. A controlled experiment Is needed to prove a relation.This includes a control and experimental group. As science has advanced, technologies have advanced as well to help us apply or take advantage of said scientific advances. Positive and negative things have come about from the mix of science and technology. A positive result has been the use of DNA in criminal court cases. A negative result has been the deforestation and toxic wastes caused the growth in population. The information regarding the resistance that certain bacteria may be developing towards antibiotics is particularly interesting to me.This will also be relevant to me not only as I may probably be more careful with any future antibiotic Intake but also as I will be entering the health field and will need to be aware of this. As a nurse I might need to administer antibiotics or monitor or read patients bacterial count. By the time I become a nurse, In a couple of years, this has the possibly of becoming a larger Issue (hopefully not! ) and their might need to be extra precautions that I will need to inform patients of as well as general health. Reflection Paper Across Cultures Reflection Cross-cultural literacy and experiences are playing an Increasingly important part In developing a global management team particularly In a cultural-diversity team or organization. Building an effective global business team by Governance and Septa's told us that multinational corporations looking to exploit global economic of scale, transfer of knowledge etc needs to master managing global business teams. And the Dam's presents three culturally determined strategies for resolving conflict between organizational members from different cultures.For the past peer reviewed presentation, the purpose of this presentation is to help us gaining more experiences by working in a multicultural team. This teamwork exercise has given me an opportunity to develop my cultural learning and improve my understanding of the concept of culture. Be more specific about the part of communication, there Is Individualistic versus collectivist In the cultural aspect. The collective require consensus on decisions and the Individual view this as lower priority. Our group was In the prevalence of collectivism which has pros and cons.In a positive way, our team members can put forward different ideas then put them all together to achieve our goal. Furthermore, our team members select the best ideas to present and arrangement the points without any questions. During the discussion, we had different personal opinions due to the shortage of individualism so some conflicts arisen. To solve this problem, we tended to continue the ideas then discussed which one is most accepted. Therefore, there aren't many diverse ideas until finished the discussion.Next time, I will think out more Ideas then try to communicate with my team members more. At same time, I will listen to others about their opinions clearly and try to compare different Ideas then choose the best Idea. The communication Is the Important factor In the multinational cooperation. MAGGOT'S Reflection Paper BY h eptanes Cross-cultural literacy and experiences are playing an increasingly important part in developing a global management team particularly in a cultural-diversity team or organization.Building an effective global business team by Governance and Septa's Be more specific about the part of communication, there is individualistic versus collectivist in the cultural aspect. The collective require consensus on decisions and the individual view this as lower priority. Our group was in the prevalence of will think out more ideas then try to communicate with my team members more. At different ideas then choose the best idea. The communication is the important factor in the multinational cooperation. Reflection Paper Teachers, parents, and peers can all assume who is a good student and who is not by their reparation for the class, in-class behavior, and how they manage their classes on their free time. It is permanently vital to be prepared for class not only for yourself but to show the professor what kind of student you are. This means that the student should have read the material beforehand to get a clear understanding of the theme of the following lecture and prepare any questions.Also, being on time and bringing the proper necessities to class will show your professor that you are ready to learn. Being prepared for class is the first impressions students show their professors. I complete my reparation the day before the class. Do this to refresh my memory of the new course material. In addition, if I have a question, jot it down in my note book so will not forget it the day of class. I always keep my needed supplies in my backpack and double check before every class.If you are not prepared, your professor may think down upon you, which is an undesirable way to prove your self-worth. Behavior inside the classroom is correspondingly important. Just like being prepared, showing up to class on time can increase your chances of having a great first impression. Classroom etiquette involves tying throughout all of class while being involved and taking notes. Although am very shy and quite, give my professors clues that I am paying attention and am interested in their class.To do this, sit in the front of the class, look at the teacher while he or she is talking, and ask any questions that may come up. In addition, I try my best to keep small group discussions on topic. However, I know that I can greatly extend these tactics to prove how interested I am in the class. After class many students forget to do their assignments and procrastinate until the last possible moment. This will result in terrible work and prove to the professor that their class is not one of your prioriti es.The best way I show my professors that I am interested in class is by taking the time with my homework and papers. Will complete the assignment but will continue to recheck what have done up until I am completely pleased with my work. By doing so, I am communicating that I actually care about the class. In Sociology 201 , I put in my best effort to impress my professor. Although I am not asking many questions and do not talk as much as other students, do try my best to prove my interest and give great impression by the work I do produce. Reflection Paper Teachers, parents, and peers can all assume who is a good student and who is not by their reparation for the class, in-class behavior, and how they manage their classes on their free time. It is permanently vital to be prepared for class not only for yourself but to show the professor what kind of student you are. This means that the student should have read the material beforehand to get a clear understanding of the theme of the following lecture and prepare any questions.Also, being on time and bringing the proper necessities to class will show your professor that you are ready to learn. Being prepared for class is the first impressions students show their professors. I complete my reparation the day before the class. Do this to refresh my memory of the new course material. In addition, if I have a question, jot it down in my note book so will not forget it the day of class. I always keep my needed supplies in my backpack and double check before every class.If you are not prepared, your professor may think down upon you, which is an undesirable way to prove your self-worth. Behavior inside the classroom is correspondingly important. Just like being prepared, showing up to class on time can increase your chances of having a great first impression. Classroom etiquette involves tying throughout all of class while being involved and taking notes. Although am very shy and quite, give my professors clues that I am paying attention and am interested in their class.To do this, sit in the front of the class, look at the teacher while he or she is talking, and ask any questions that may come up. In addition, I try my best to keep small group discussions on topic. However, I know that I can greatly extend these tactics to prove how interested I am in the class. After class many students forget to do their assignments and procrastinate until the last possible moment. This will result in terrible work and prove to the professor that their class is not one of your prioriti es.The best way I show my professors that I am interested in class is by taking the time with my homework and papers. Will complete the assignment but will continue to recheck what have done up until I am completely pleased with my work. By doing so, I am communicating that I actually care about the class. In Sociology 201 , I put in my best effort to impress my professor. Although I am not asking many questions and do not talk as much as other students, do try my best to prove my interest and give great impression by the work I do produce. Reflection paper Asian Stereotypes It's human nature to create stereotypes. Humans are Judgmental beings that always seem to Judge something before they get to know them. Whether Its fear of the unknown, or Just because of bias. Stereotypes can be seen in almost every race. From white people being considered â€Å"trailer trash,† to Hispanics being known as â€Å"lazy. † Another group that has stereotypes are Asians. Asian people are those who originate from Asian. This group Includes both Indians, Japanese, and Chinese people. To begin, there are many different stereotypes about Asians.First of all, Aslant men are considered to be chauvinistic. Males are considered to be very disrespectful towards women. They are also seen as against the liberation of people. Furthermore, Aslant parents are portrayed as conservative and strict. Especially In the movies they are seen as dictators with their children. Thirdly, Asians are considered to have better bad English. As many movies have also sho wn, Asians are shown as having a very broken English and being unable to say â€Å"L† sounds. Moreover, religion is also something that people stereotype.For example, Sikhs are all considered to be Muslims. Also that Asians are not very good athletes. The one that is most common is that all Asians are great at mathematics. This is more of a nurture and less of nature when it comes to mathematics. I believe this is where the whole all Asians are doctors idea came from. This is all untrue. All in all, stereotypes are Just made up ideas about others. We tend to group people up with what we believe they represent. It's an unfortunate part of life but it seems to happen more and more. Reflection paper Asian Stereotypes It's human nature to create stereotypes. Humans are Judgmental beings that always seem to Judge something before they get to know them. Whether Its fear of the unknown, or Just because of bias. Stereotypes can be seen in almost every race. From white people being considered â€Å"trailer trash,† to Hispanics being known as â€Å"lazy. † Another group that has stereotypes are Asians. Asian people are those who originate from Asian. This group Includes both Indians, Japanese, and Chinese people. To begin, there are many different stereotypes about Asians.First of all, Aslant men are considered to be chauvinistic. Males are considered to be very disrespectful towards women. They are also seen as against the liberation of people. Furthermore, Aslant parents are portrayed as conservative and strict. Especially In the movies they are seen as dictators with their children. Thirdly, Asians are considered to have better bad English. As many movies have also sho wn, Asians are shown as having a very broken English and being unable to say â€Å"L† sounds. Moreover, religion is also something that people stereotype.For example, Sikhs are all considered to be Muslims. Also that Asians are not very good athletes. The one that is most common is that all Asians are great at mathematics. This is more of a nurture and less of nature when it comes to mathematics. I believe this is where the whole all Asians are doctors idea came from. This is all untrue. All in all, stereotypes are Just made up ideas about others. We tend to group people up with what we believe they represent. It's an unfortunate part of life but it seems to happen more and more.