Cadbury Schweppes free essay sample

In late October 2002, Sir John Sunderland, chairman and CEO of Cadbury Schweppes, contemplated the future of his global confectionery and beverage company. Over the previous decade, the company had made several acquisitions to complement its portfolio of chocolate, soft drinks, sugar confectionery (candy), and gum. Now it was considering a bid for Adams, the number two player in the worldwide gum business and, with its Halls brand, a leader in sugar confectionery. After researching the acquisition for many months, his Chief Strategy Officer Todd Stitzer and the Adams deal team were approaching the point of no return. Sunderland knew that they would have to bid more than $4 billion to have any chance of winning Adams. Should they go ahead with the offer and if so, was all debt financing of the bid appropriate? At this lofty price, how certain could the Cadbury Schweppes’ team be that they could create value? He wondered, was the strategy behind the acquisition sound, and could the leadership team successfully execute an acquisition and integration plan of this magnitude? History of Cadbury Schweppes Cadbury Schweppes was formed by the 1969 merger of a beverage company started by Jacob Schweppe in 1783 in Geneva, Switzerland and a chocolate business started by John Cadbury in Birmingham, U. We will write a custom essay sample on Cadbury Schweppes or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page K. in 1824. While Schweppes was best known for its mixers, such as tonic water, the firm was the number three competitor in the beverage business after Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. Cadbury Schweppes was the number four player in the global chocolate business, having exited related businesses such as biscuits (cookies) in a restructuring in the 1980s. This had focused the company on its core beverage and confectionery brands, the former of which was fortified by the acquisitions of carbonated soft drink (CSD) brands Canada Dry and Sunkist (1986), Dr. Pepper and Seven-Up (1995), and Orangina (2001) while also expanding in non-CSD beverages including Mott’s (1982), Hawaiian Punch (1999), and Snapple (2000). In confectionery, the firm acquired non-chocolate businesses such as Trebor (1989), Bassett (1989), and Hollywood, its first chewing gum acquisition (2000). (Exhibit 3) Early in 2002, Cadbury Schweppes ventured deeper into gum with the $307 million acquisition of Danish company Dandy. Although many of these acquisitions were regarded as successes, Snapple and Orangina were publicly perceived as management integration challenges, and Cadbury Schweppes was eager not to repeat its mistake of leaving newly acquired companies alone for too long. In fact, even in 2002 the headquarters of two of the three U. S. beverage businesses were within 20 miles of each other and had not yet been consolidated. Geographically, the beverage business was focused on North America, Europe, and Australia, having sold off beverage brands in 160 other markets in 1999. Since the acquisition of Dr. Pepper and Seven-Up in 1995, the business had increased steadily due to good sales growth and delivery of cost synergies. However, by 2001–2002, growth was slowing—Cadbury Schweppes remained a distant third in the U. S. soft drink business, with 9. 5% of total volume, and had lost market share to leaders Coca-Cola (27. 1%), Pepsi (26. 4%), and Nestle over the previous two years. The company was seventh in the much more fragmented Western European soft drink market. [ii] Cadbury Schweppes was slightly ahead of Pepsi in terms of market share in Australasia, but was dwarfed by Coca-Cola which had five times its share. iii] While Coca-Cola and Pepsi had attacked with an â€Å"unprecedented number of recent product launches† such as Vanilla Coke and Sierra Mist, Cadbury Schweppes had launched only a single new Dr. Pepper product, Dr. Pepper Fusion, during the previous seven years. Despite the new product introduction, Dr. Pepper growth was slow and as Pepsi bottler’s delisted Seven-Up in favor of Sierra Mist, Seven-Up’s volume fell 5%. Moreover, analysts expected volumes to fall by double digits during the next year. [iv] In confectionery the firm had a wide geographic scope covering Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia as well as Canada and Argentina. The exception was the U. S. where Cadbury Schweppes had sold the rights to its confectionery brands to Hershey in 1988. [v] As a result, royalties for Cadbury products were capped in the U. S. except for the sale of Cadbury Creme Eggs, which did most of their volume at Easter. Overall, operating margins in confectionery had declined from about 13% in 1998 to 12% in 2002.

The Tragedy of King Lear Essay Example

The Tragedy of King Lear Essay Example The Tragedy of King Lear Essay The Tragedy of King Lear Essay Essay Topic: King Lear A Comparison of Psychological and Physical Deceit and Disguise In many of Shakespearean works, he suggests that appearances are not reflective of reality and uses this idea to develop many subplots in his works. He is notorious for constructing these false identities to advance the plotting and create unsuspecting twists. As his plays progress, different characters employ different strategies to promote their actions, with some opting to psychologically deceive their targets while others select to physically disguise themselves as someone else. Shakespearean King Lear, Is no exception; he portrays this theme through the various disguises of an array of characters that utilize deceit to reach their goals, which range from being supportive to being sinister. This element of deceit and disguise is first established in the opening scene when the reader discovers that King Lear Is planning to delve his kingdom between his three daughters. He tests his daughters by demanding them to proclaim their love for him, with the intentions of awarding the daughter who displays her love to him the best with the largest share of his kingdom. The play as Just begun and Shakespearean theme of fake appearances has already arisen, as the outside appearances that each of the sisters displays for their father is not in accordance with their actual thoughts. General and Reagan, King Learns two oldest daughters, both spin verbose and grandeur explanations about their deep love for him with General starting off by stating, Sir, I love you more than word can wield the matter Beyond all manners of so much I love you (1. 1. 60-67). Reagan then plays off of her sisters lead and begins to say, l am made of that self mettle as my sister And mind I am alone felicitate / In your dear Highness love (1. 1. 76-84). This psychological ploy they use on King Lear seems to work, as he becomes frustrated and dissatisfied with his youngest daughter, Cordilleras, answer. As King Lear waits for her to match her sisters responses, Cornelia refuses to make such comments, asserting that, Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave / My heart into my mouth. I love your Majesty / According to my bond, no more nor less (1. 1. 100-102). As a result of this, King Lear disowns Cornelia, abolishes her from the kingdom and splits the kingdom between the other two sisters. Following this incident, the Earl of Kent, who is the Kings most loyal nobleman and servant, while attempting to reconcile the King about his brash decision to banish Cornelia, is also hastily exiled from the kingdom for giving his opinion on the matter. Here, you can see that King Lear has let his emotions get the best of him as he tells Kent, Five days we do allot thee for provision To shield thee from disasters of the world, And on the sixth to turn thy hated back Thy banished trunk be found in our dominions, The moment is thy death. Away! By Jupiter, This shall not be revoked. (1. . 197-203) Not only has the plans of obtaining the power of the kingdom gone according to their plan, but General and Reagan were also able to unexpectedly rid the kingdom of two of their potential obstacles to the throne: one being Learns favorite daughter, Cornelia, and the other being his most loyal servant, Kent. The aftermath of this sequence of events turns out to play a large role in the future, as the King will soon learn that he made a mistake. Even though this is only the start of psychological deception in the play, the importance of its presence sets the tone for the play and makes it clear that everyone is susceptible to such trickery, even the almighty King. As the plot of King Lear and his daughters begins to develop in the opening scene, we are simultaneously introduced to another one of King Learns nobleman, the Earl of Gloucester. Early on, we learn that Gloucester is an adulterer and has a bastard son, Edmund. In contrast to Edmund is Edgar, Gloucester oldest and legitimate son. At the beginning of the second scene of the Act One, Edmund gives a soliloquy on the lack of respect and class he has received for being a bastard, stating that Thou, Nature, art my goddess Now, gods, stand up for bastards (l. I. 1-23)! Here we learn of Edmunds plan to betray Edgar, by means of a forged letter, which documents Edgers plan to kill his own father. When Gloucester reads the letter, he barely questions the authenticity of the letter and lets his emotions overcome him, O villain, villain! Abominable villain! (l. Ii. 79). Afterwards, Edmund meets up with Edgar and alerts him of the news that Gloucester is livid at Edgar and that he is chasing him. Pretending to be of assistance to Edgar, Edmund suggests that he avoid Gloucester as much as possible and to remain armed in case Gloucester finds him. Here, Edgar naively mistakes Edmunds plan to protect his own brother as a sign of sincerity because of Edmunds ability to swiftly talk coupled with his deceptive nature. This makes it easy for Edmund to take advantage of the trusting and gullible personality of Edgar. In reality, Edmund is merely setting the bait for Gloucester to fully turn his back on Edgar so that Gloucester will anoint Edmund as the next heir to the throne. Edmund succeeds in accomplishing the next step of his plan when he convinces Edgar to flee Gloucester castle as their father approaches the room. Right when Edgar flees, Edmund intentionally wounds his arm, affirming Some blood drawn on me would beget opinion / Of my more fierce endeavor. I have seen drunkards / Do more than this in sport. / Father! Father (11. 1. 36-39)! By framing Edgar for his wounds as he fled the scene, Edmund has now secured Gloucester trust which has led him to the condemnation of Edgers death. As the two plots continue to unravel, more disguises begin to unfold, with one of them being Kent after he was expelled from Learns Kingdom. Instead of double crossing his friends and family like Edmund had, Kent chose to return to Learns kingdom, disguised as an ordinary peasant, even though he had been wronged by Lear. When asked by King Lear who he was, Kent simply replied, A man, sir (l. V. 1 1). Lear seemed to be content with the mans answer and allowed the newly disguised Kent to become his new servant. Even after that Kent was using was not of any importance, his characteristics lead him to be different than almost every character in the play. His role and physical disguise of being a random, selfless person who cares about the well-being of the King over his win safety Juxtaposes the psychological disguise the two sisters, Genera l and Reagan, displayed back in Act One. Even though Kent has no familial relations to the King, he cared more about the King than the Kings own two daughters did. Not only did the two sisters deceive Lear into dividing his kingdom amongst them, but they both treated Lear with disrespect and banished him from their respective kingdoms. One cannot simply put a price Kens loyalty to King Lear, even after being expatriated by the King. Much like Kent, Edgar was also forced away from his kingdom ND was required to disguise himself as a means of protection. Under the name of Poor Tom, Edgar disguised himself as a beggar; however, unlike Kent, Edgers entire persona changed. In an aside, we learn that throughout Edgers time as a homeless man, there was no possibility that life could have been worse for him And worse I may be yet. The worst is not / So long as we can say This is the worst (IV. I. 30-31). It is only during his time as a homeless man that he knows that life couldnt get any worse. Such logic would make sense in this situation because it is only at a mans utmost lowest point where he becomes the true essence of what he is. With that being said, by spending time as a beggar and being homeless, Edgers body is stripped away to the very pith of his being and it is there that he finds what he is truly made of. When Edgar has almost fully adjusted to his new life as a homeless bum, he then sees his father, Gloucester, walking towards him, but without any eyes. Here, Gloucester believes that Edgar is Poor Tom and also divulges that he knows that Edgar is innocent and that it was Edmund who was behind everything. Gloucester hen asks Edgar to lead him to Dover, where There is a cliff, whose high and bending head / Looks fearfully in the confined deep shall no leading need (IV. Ii. 83-88). At this point in the play, I was puzzled as to why Edgar did not disclose his real identity to his father, but I believe that it all boiled down to his father condemning him to death, which would always be hard to forgive. Edgar would eventually deceive Gloucester by not letting him commit suicide and Jump off of the cliffs of Dover, but instead Jump onto flat ground. This means of deception was a necessity to prevent Gloucester from killing himself which was easily diverted. After experiencing so many life-altering events, Edgar had finally grown into and found his new identity. Having become encapsulated in this new physical disguise that he had finally developed into, it ultimately gave him the strength and mental fortitude to face and defeat his brother in the final scene. By creating and interweaving these deceptions and disguises amongst all the characters, Shakespeare is able to more effectively develop the characters of the play. Much like the formal title, The Tragedy of King Lear, it was tragic and quite ironic that at the end of the play neither Kent nor Edgar got a chance to adequately reveal their true identities that were hiding beneath their disguises to both King Lear and Gloucester. Lear was far too delusional to understand Kens explanation that he was the Kings new servant due to the combination of his uneasy mental state along with Cordilleras corpse in his arms, whereas we learn that Gloucester died from shock when Edgar attempted to reveal Shakespeare ends the play with only three surviving characters, leaving the reader to contemplate the mystery of their futures.

'Leases' and its impact on the financial position and performance of Essay

'Leases' and its impact on the financial position and performance of companies - Essay Example Exposure Draft ED/2013/6 'Leases' and its impact on the financial position and performance of companies Financial accounting Standards Board (FASB) and International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has revised the Exposure Draft that outlined some proposed changes in the accounting rules for leases. The reason behind such a proposal is just to improve the comparability and quality of financial reporting, by increasing the transparency related to leverage. This signifies the use of assets in the organization in its day to day operations and the exposure to risk by entering into a lease contact. The Exposure Draft has proposed a dual approach through which identification, measurement and presentation of the cash flows and the expenses related to lease can be made. Apart from this, the board has proposed some disclosure that would facilitate the investors and other users of the financial information to understand the uncertainty of cash flow, amount and timing arising from leasing (IFRS Foundation, 2013a). This study focuses on the impact of new revised accounting standards that are fra med for leases, on the financial performance and position of the organization. Delta Airlines is a major airline, which is operating in America. It is headquartered at Atlanta, Georgia. It has an extensive network serving both domestic and international location in almost every continent except Antarctica. The organization along with its subsidiaries is operating with more than 5000 flights everyday and has approximate employee strength of about 80,000. Many of its aircrafts along with some ground facilities are taken on lease (Delta Air Lines, 2013; Delta Air Lines, Inc. 2013a). Thus, following section of the reports deals with how the revised accounting standard is going to affect the company. Lease Contacts by Delta Airlines Operating lease may act as an attractive option for the airlines industry as it increases the flexibility of the fleet, reduces the residual risk related to the aircraft for the aircraft industry and requires lower amount of capital commitment for the airline company. During the year 2012, Delta Air lines have entered into contact with T he Boeing Company and Southwest Airlines, to lease eighty eight B-717-200 aircraft. In the later part of 2012, these aircrafts were delivered. In the first fleet, 16 aircrafts were delivered and thirty six aircrafts will be delivered in 2014 and 2015 respectively. The B-717-200 aircraft that has been leased by the company will have advanced features like new and fully upgraded interiors, total seats of 110 that comprises of 15 Economy Comfort seat and 12 First Class seat, along with in-flight Wi-Fi (Delta Air Lines, Inc. 2013b). Thus, it can be expected to generate more income. Apart from this, most of the ground facilities of Delta are also on lease. Most of the lands and building that are occupied by the organization are on lease. The largest base for aircraft maintenance, principal offices, training facilities, kitchens, cargo and

Research paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 5

Research paper - Essay Example The banjo can have four or five strings and is made from a gourd, used as the sound box, covered with hide or plastic. The instrument developed from African instruments (banjar, bandora, banza) that were introduced by slaves (Banjo). The banjo’s predecessor was played in seventh century Africa (Mazbrow). In the seventeenth century, the instrument consisted of a long pole and attached gourd with three or four strings, made from horsehair, catgut, or hemp plant. At first it was played by West African wandering musicians, but by the eighteenth century was played by slave musicians in the West Indies. Knocking and beating was the style used. Notes began to slide and bend once tuning pegs and a flat board for fingering was added (Banjo). This â€Å"banjar† instrument was played in Maryland and Virginia from the mid-eighteenth century. It had a skin head, pegs, and a short thumb string. In Africa, the banjar was played with the talking drums but, in response to a slave uprisi ng in South Carolina, drums and horns became illegal, and the traditional way of playing was adapted to banjar solos (Banjo). The combination of banjo and fiddle, at the core of Appalachian music, was played exclusively by black musicians for about 100 years, before white musicians adopted it (Mazbrow). Just as spirituals were used to communicate escape plans, black banjo songs communicated subversive methods to survive slavery. Many of these songs used cunning animals, like foxes and snakes, to camouflage their message (Banjo). Black banjar music began to have a strong influence on the fiddle playing of Appalachian immigrants from Scotland and Ireland. Soon, white Appalachian musicians were playing the instrument in the same thumping style as the black Appalachian musicians. For some time, white banjo players depended on black banjo players, not only for rhythm and style, but even for acquiring a banjo in the first place (C. Conway 146). Mutual interest and instrument design collab oration soon modified the banjar, replacing the gourd with a wooden rim and open back. Sweeney, an Irish American added a fourth melody string, and the short drone thumb string was kept, so now the banjo had five strings (Banjo). Although African-American Appalachian musicians played the banjo throughout the nineteenth century, white Appalachian musicians dominated the emerging radio and recording technology (Banjo). The first white banjo player to achieve fame for his music, Joel Walker Sweeney, learned how to play the banjo from a neighboring plantation slave, and mid-nineteenth century white banjo players usually performed in black-face (Mazbrow). It was white performers whom people connected to hillbilly music, even though white banjo players had adopted a black musical tradition (Mazbrow). In fact, there has always been a lot of white pride in fiddle and banjo music, by those whose tradition came from Appalachian ancestors, and would never conceive of any black African American contribution to their musical heritage (Mazbrow). Appalachian fiddle and banjo music is popularly thought to be Irish and Scottish, but is syncopated and polyrhythmic, showing African history (Mazbrow). Polyrythm is alien to European music and central to African (Mazbrow). The typical way of strumming the banjo is to brush down with the backs of the fingernails while the thumb plucks the

Discourse Analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Discourse Analysis - Assignment Example Through investigation of three paradigms: empirical, interpretive and critical, the research uncovered that the dominant discourse is that such bias is not present in the health services sector and that perceptions of discrimination is a product of pre-existing lack of self-esteem and lack of resiliency as a result of cultural inadequacies prevalent in aboriginal cultures. It was discovered that power is maintained in the health sector while deliberate or unconscious marginalization against aborigines dominates the Canadian social and professional sentiment about aborigines. The study concludes that while the researcher has personally observed these biased attitudes, culpability for negative health outcomes on aborigines may be attributable to these populations themselves. Despite the fact that the Canadian health care system provides a legislative framework for ensuring equity of care provision for all members of Canadian society, discrimination seems to be still prevalent in the nursing profession. Bias can be oftentimes observable when providing care to aboriginal members of society, namely against those sharing ethnic characteristics of Indian, MÃ ©tis and Inuit native peoples. Anti-aboriginal discrimination manifests itself through stereotyping, which stigmatizes these society members even in the health care environment. Long-standing stereotypes often portray aboriginals as being pervasive drug users, violent and incessantly unemployed (de Leeuw, Kobayashi & Cameron, 2011). The most prominent label marginalizing Canadian aboriginals is that they are highly dependent on welfare programs and incompetent to the degree that their affairs should be fully supervised by the Canadian federal government (Erickson, 2005). In the health care sector, Canadian aboriginals seek health services, though disproportionate in frequency to non-aboriginal patients.

Development Needs in Human Resources

Development Needs in Human Resources Human resource management is defined as the operation within the organization, which has the main objective of recruitment, management and providing direction to the people, who work in the organization. It is an organization function that deals with the issues associated with employee of the organization i.e. performance management, administration of the resources, organizational development, safety, benefits, hiring labor force and providing training. It is also regarded as a necessary and global approach to manage people and workplace environment present in the organization. A good Human Resource management helps the company to improve its productivity and efficiency and also aids in achieving the goal and objectives of the organization. The main aim of HRM is to maximize the productivity and efficiency of the organization by effectively using the capabilities of the employees. (Human Resouce Management) Development Needs The following point emphasize on the development needs required by HR in a company for the expansion of the organization: The presence of curiosity in an individual is the reason for his regular development. It adapts him to react and learn by his internal and external work environments and shows the willingness of the individual to learn and enquire. The person should have the ability to analyze and understand the data and information effectively. And by his judgments is able to use the information, intuitions and knowledge in a sequential order to make reasonable and powerful decisions. The person should have the ability to influence in a difficult situation, to inherit necessary support, liability and consent from a wide range of different stakeholder to attain benefits for the organization. Set goals according to the capability of the person for achieving it. A skilled person would achieve a big task easily compared to a weakly trained one. Continuously plans, priorities and monitor performances to very that other are able to complete a specific task. It is the most significant ability of the HR manager to work co-operatively and effectively with the colleagues, clients, customers, stakeholders, teams and individual within and outside the organization. As a personal credible, a HR manager should keep a track of record of all the consistent and beneficial delivery using the respective technical knowledge and experience and do the job by taking honor in it and with an impartial attitude. A HR manager should be having courage and confidence to speak his thoughts even the circumstances are unfamiliar or faces resistance. The manager should be able to perform his duties even the circumstances are against him. The Hr manager should be a role model for the other employee, by leading them by example and performing his duties impartially, acting with integrity, independence and giving perfect judgments in the organization. (Behavoiur in HR profession) Three Options to Meet the Development Needs Strategy, Insight And Solution This professional area characterizes the use of deep understanding of the business activities and strategies and plans to execute them and the barriers which are not allowing them to perform with full efficiency, and understand the requirements of the customers and employees and having a unique insight that can maximize the performance of the business and transmission of strategies and solution of business. Manager should understand what is the structure of the organization and in which way teams can work together for achievement of companys objectives. And co-relates the data and statistics obtained and having the strategy of the organization and in-year operating plans. Reveals the quality of products or services the company provides and which are the target customers identifies the goal of the organization. Recognize the importance of the ten human resource professional areas and how they combine together to develop humans resource offering for the company. Management of time efficiently and reorganization of priorities .Puts light on how interpersonal skills and credibility is important in developing confidence among the human resources which includes the manager and the employees of the organization. The objective of the HR manager should be understanding the external factors in which the organization operates and the find the factor which can be responsible to bring about change. What potential impact on business can be brought down by changing the environment of the organization and should be favoring a leadership team to explain the response from the employee or the consumers. Identify the stakeholders which are involved in the project which is leaded by you. When the support or assistance from the colleague or senior staff, search for some common grounds. Leading And Managing The Human Resource Function This profession area describes the purpose of HR function that is to lead and manage the organization by having the operational excellence and a deep knowledge of organizational requirement. HR manager has to ensure that the function is capable and has the capacity, and organization design, and the HR employee are deeply engaged and working collaboratively and attains a thorough knowledge of the organization for enlarging the profits of the organization. The HR manager should focus on accomplishment and error less delivery of the task given, and it skillful advice is expected regarding to the human resource strategy and operating plans in the organization. Human resource functions organization design programs should be effectively delivered. Should give stress on effective delivery of resources and management programs prevailing. Monitor the results obtained by performance indicator which measures effectiveness of resource and talent management programs. The skill and the information that is required in this professional area are the capability to build an HR, team activity planning and method to implement it and knowledge of HR budget management. Keep a record of progress attained in all objectives. Query about how your objective is suited with teams or organization objective Employee Relation In this professional area the HR manager has to ensure that the relationship between the staff and the organization is managed properly by an honest and clear framework established by practices and policies of the organization and subsequently by appropriate employment laws. The entire employee related policies and practices should be well informed to the employees. The relation advisors and managers leading the resolute of employee relation issues must be provided with the exact and timely information. Achieving the consensus legally and ethically by managing and facilitating the potential conflicts situation is necessary. Give a helping hand to human resource and managers who are resolving and investigating employee relation issues, such as grievances and disciplinary, and also keeping the appropriate record of the occurrence of the event. They should collect informal and formal feedback from the employees on employee relations, such as communication among the employee, team work, transfer of knowledge and skills. The knowledge required for this professional area is knowledge about the formation of trade union , how are they formed and what are their objectives, hardship related to the employee and disciplinary rules and maintain the health and safety of the employees and the environment they are working in. be accustomed to meet the customer on regular basis so that they should feel free to contact you for any problem they face and so that you able to contact the person for any essential information that is required. Become familiar to HR models with the help of case studies and business literature available. Make sure that your main objectives are attached to the criteria mentioned in the service-level. (Professional Areas) Advantages Of These Option Support and assistance from the senior staff or priors to develop better strategies and plan. Team activity planning Help to provide a better solution through discussion to the problem w.r.t Strategy, Insight and Solution function. Interacting with other Employees in organization helps in developing good relation w.r.t Employee Relation function Helps in the effective use of resources available in the organization w.r.t Leading and managing the human resource function Training and Coaching Develop skills and knowledge, sharpens the mind of employee to plan sophisticated strategies with respect to Strategy, Insight and Solution function. Interaction occurs during the classes and gets to help each other in difficult situation which inculcates good relation among the employees with respect to Employee Relation function. It helps to develop leadership skills and operational excellence with respect to Leading and managing the human resource function Disadvantages Of These Option Besides having advantages these procedures can have several disadvantages which are listed below: Team Activity Planning People may disagree with their ideas to solve the problem which will thus result in poor solution of the problem with respect to Strategy, Insight and Solution function. Conflict can occur due to lack of communication with respect to Employee Relation function. Teams made should have appropriate skillful employees with a common understanding among themselves, if not; it would be unfruitful with respect to Leading and managing the human resource function. Training and Coaching Training would be based on particular stream which could help to develop strategies and would be wastage of money with respect to Strategy, Insight and Solution function. People might have a feeling of incompetency to other employees with respect to Employee Relation function. Would not be able to develop managing qualities as they are self possessed with respect to Leading and managing the human resource function. Development Plan What do I want/need to learn? What will I do to achieve this? What resources or support will I need? What will my success criteria be? Target dates for review and completion Structure of the organization Deep knowledge about the companys strategies and solution. Accessibility to human resource Operational excellence 5 10 days Inspirational leadership Knowledge about the organizational requirement Support from the other employees and colleagues regarding the task Collaborative Working and deeply engaged in performing the task 10-15 days Strategy development and motivator to other employees Capability to build HR, team activity planning Access to business literature and case studies Function has the capacity and organizational design 5-10 day Manage and facilitates conflict situations Formation of trade unions development of the honest and clear framework of the organization Policies and practices prevailing in the organization and information by employee relation advisers. Maintain the health and safety of the employee further helps in satisfaction of the employees and greater work productivity.

Free Essay on Conrads Heart of Darkness - Human or Humane? :: Heart Darkness essays

Heart of Darkness: Human or Humane?  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Upon reading Heart of Darkness we are immediately struck with the issue of the â€Å"nature of man†, and what it means to be human or humane. To be human means to have a mind, to be living, and function as a primate. To be humane on the other hand means to be tender, compassionate, affectionate, kindhearted, and empathetic. It is often assumed that to be human means to be humane, but as Marlow learned on his excursion through the dark jungle of the Congo, one has nothing to do with the other. Marlow’s first taste of man’s true self as he saw it, began when he saw the six man chain gang, as was referred to in the book, six black men chained together obviously being treated as inferiors, almost as slaves. â€Å"I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope;each had an iron collar on his neck, and all were connected together with a chain whose bights swung between them, rhythmically clinking.† (Conrad, pg. 81) Upon seeing this atrocious sight of men being treated as savages, Marlow compares the white men who are leading these chained up men, to devils, by remarking that he had seen devils, but never devils who drove other men like cattle. Men who were no different then themselves, except in the color of their skin. As Marlow continues down the Congo, he begins to reflect upon the river, as the river of truth and reality, because as he transcends down it, his ability to find the truth in any situation grows. With every turn, he learns that mans inhumanity to his own kind is man’s greatest sin. On page 106 Conrad talks about how Marlow felt when he was proceeding towards Kurtz’s station, and he explains that he{Marlow} can feel the past, among the overwhelming realities brought upon by the river, the trees, and the silence. â€Å"There were moments when ones past came back to one, as it will sometimes when you have not a moment to spare to yourself;but it came in the shape of an unrestful and noisy dream,remembered with wonder amongst the overwhelming realities of the strange world of plants,and water, and silence....When you have to attend to things of that sort, to the mere incidents of the surface, the reality- the reality, I tell you-fades.

Contemporary World Culture “Why Women Go Into Porn”

There are quite a few reasons why men and woman enter into the porn industry, but by far it’s all about the money and many porn stars have said it’s because of the money. Porn is a billion dollar industry as money is made through the selling of pornographic magazines and movies. With the advent of the internet, porn has catapulted into an even bigger money maker for the porn industry and not only in the U. S. but world wide. Porn is literally everywhere and there are thousands of websites that offer pornographic videos, pictures and even stream live web-cams. Depending on what you wish to see you can watch live footage of people having sex or engaging in other sexual acts. But what about the actors or actresses that are in porn, how and why do they really get involved in such an industry? For the women more so than the men society asks why women get themselves involved doing sexual acts on film or live. The porn industry makes it seem like the porn actresses love sex and that they want you to think that they enjoy being degraded by all kinds of repulsive acts. The truth about porn actresses is that they showed up on the set not knowing about certain requirements and were told by porn producers to do it or leave without being paid. Work or never work again. Some of these women don’t have a choice because they need the money bad, so some were manipulated and coerced and even threatened. Throughout their career some of these women have caught HIV, Herpes, or some other kind of sexually transmitted disease from that coercion. Other porn actresses have gone home after a long night of numbing her pain, puts a pistol to her head and pulls the trigger. Now she’s dead. It’s safe to say most women who turn to porn acting as a money making enterprise, probably didn’t grow up in healthy childhoods either. In fact, many actresses admit they’ve experienced sexual abuse, physical abuse, verbal abuse and neglect by parents. Some were raped by relatives and molested by neighbors. When they were little girls they wanted to play with dollies and be mommies, not have big scary men get on top of them. The same horrible violations they experienced then, they relive it through as they perform in front of the camera and quite a few of them hate every minute of it. Despite the fact that some people look down on and frown at women working in the porn industry we as a society must realize that it is their choice and their choice alone to work in this industry. Some women who are struggling to become models or actresses will do porn films so they are not forced to live on the streets. The biggest reason for women and even men in porn is the money, and several female porn stars have made millions of dollars in the porn industry. The porn industry can be a stepping stone to other things in life, whatever the case may be. But we all start somewhere and the porn industry is where some women and men choose and want to be. I tried to find some official statistics online from sites like The Department of Justice, but all they had was child pornography statistics. Here are a few from a Christian site that is involved in a program to help those women get out of the porn industry.

Data Mining in the Pharmaceutical Industry Essay Example

Data Mining in the Pharmaceutical Industry Essay Example Data Mining in the Pharmaceutical Industry Essay Data Mining in the Pharmaceutical Industry Essay A Look at Data Mining in the Pharmaceutical Industry Topics Covered: 1) What is Data Mining and why is it used? 2) How is Data Mining used in the Pharmaceutical Industry? 3) Recent debate in the legality of Data Mining and the Pharmaceutical Industry Pharmaceutical companies are taking advantage of the growing use of technology in the healthcare arena by using data to enhance their marketing efforts and increase the quality of research and development. The process of data mining allows companies to extract useful information from large sets of individual data. This process provides a knowledge that is vital to a pharmaceutical company’s competitive position and organizational decision-making. â€Å"Data Mining enables firms and organizations to make calculated decisions by assembling, accumulating, analyzing and accessing corporate data. It uses variety of tools like query and reporting tools, analytical processing tools, and Decision Support System (DSS) tools† (Rangan, 2007). 1) What is Data Mining and why is it used? Data mining is the practice of automatically searching large stores of data to discover patterns and trends that go beyond simple analysis. Data mining uses sophisticated mathematical algorithms to segment the data and evaluate the probability of future events. Data mining is also known as Knowledge Discovery in Data (KDD)† (Oracle, 2008). As stated, data mining is used to help find patterns and relationships stored within large sets of data, these patterns and relationships are then used to provide know ledge and value to the end user. The data can help prove and support earlier predictions usually based on statistics or aid in uncovering new information about products and customers. It is usually used by business intelligence organizations, and financial analysts, but is increasingly being used in the sciences to extract information from the enormous data sets generated by modern experimental and observational methods. Data mining is being increasingly used in business to help identify trends that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. There are several different opinions on the exact â€Å"steps† of data mining, but they all agree on these basics: planning, modeling and extracting information. Oracle defines 4 steps in the data mining process: 1) problem definition, 2) data gathering and preparation, 3) model building and evaluation, and 4) knowledge deployment. The first step of data mining is to understand the purpose, scope and requirements of the project . Once the project is specified from a business perspective, it can be formulated as a data mining problem and a preliminary implementation plan can be developed† (Oracle, 2008). The data gathering process takes a look at how well the data serves the purpose of the project. In this step many changes can be made to the attributes of the data so that they better serve the objective and requirements of the project. This process can play a large part in the value of the knowledge and information derived from the data. For example, you might transform a DATE_OF_BIRTH column to AGE; you might insert the average income in cases where the INCOME column is null† (Oracle, 2008). The third step of data mining is to build and evaluate the model. The model should be tested and evaluated to make sure that it will answer the question and stay within the requirements of the business objectives stated in the first phase of the process. The final phase includes knowledge deployment which is where actual information and realization comes from the data. Here is where the relationships and patterns are turned into something meaningful that meets the objective of the project. There are several techniques used for data mining, some of them have been used for decades prior to the information technology boom that has changed the system dramatically. According to (Alex Berson, 2000), these â€Å"classic† techniques include Statistics, Neighborhoods and Clustering while the â€Å"next generation† techniques include Trees, Networks and Rules. In the end the purpose of each of these techniques is to explore data (usually large amounts of data typically business or market related) in search of consistent patterns and/or systematic relationships between variables, and then to validate the findings by applying the detected patterns to new subsets of data† (StatSoft, 2011). As stated above, data mining is often used to solve business decision problems, â€Å"it provides ways to quantitatively measure what business users should already know qualitatively† (Linoff, 2004). A growing number of industries are using data mining to become more competitive in their market by primarily focusing on the customers; increasing their customer relationships and increasing customer acquisition. 2) How is Data Mining Used in the Pharmaceutical Industry? The pharmaceutical industry has copious uses for data mining which include increasing the efficiency of research and development, contributing to drug safety information and to increasing the effectiveness of their marketing efforts. Understanding that the benefit of data mining is allowing for the extraction of useful information from large sets of individual data, it is evident that the pharmaceutical industry has a need for this process. The abundance of diseases prevalent in the world, the multitude of drugs available for each disease, and the variety of patients that take the products, produces massive amounts of information available in the industry. Pharmaceutical companies have begun to use this data to benefit patient safety, physician knowledge and their own marketing efforts. Data mining can be used while companies are researching and testing new products. â€Å"Scientists run experiments to determine activity of potential drugs† (Rangan, 2007). They are able to use process that produce results and relationships much faster, they can quickly determine activity on â€Å"relevant genes or to find drug compounds that have desirable characteristics† (Rangan, 2007). â€Å"By relating the chemical structure of different compounds to their pharmacological activity, [data mining] can bringing a degree of predictability to drug screening procedures that, until now, have tended to be a bit hit and miss† (Results, 2009). That should help scientists and pharmaceutical companies identify more effective compounds to treat different diseases, allowing them to find drug leads in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost of current methods. † The earlier methods of experimentation was very time consuming and had to be done over and ov er again each time a new drug was being researched, none of the old information was every used to help with speedier development. Data mining allows the past research to be used when picking compounds as opposed to just randomly choosing and testing. As a drug gets further into the development and into the clinical trial stages, data mining can help predict which diseases and patients will benefit from the drug. Based on past information data mining will provide a correlation between the new molecules, disease states and patients. For example, Pfizer is â€Å"turning to sophisticated data mining techniques to help improve the design of new trials, to better understand possible new uses for existing drugs, and to help examine how drugs are being used after they have been approved† (Salamone). During trial phases they are able to â€Å"understand safety and efficacy profiles within the patient population by tackling the question of patient selection within the framework of demonstrating groups that are most responsive. Data mining framework enables specialists to create customized nodes that can be shared throughout the organization† (Rangan, 2007). Additionally, one of the greatest benefits of data mining in the pharmaceutical industry and the healthcare world is the discovery of adverse events and drug toxicity in patients. It could help determine the adverse reactions associated with a specific drug and still go a step further to show if any specific condition aggravates the adverse reaction for eg age, sex, and obesity (Novartis Business Intelligence report, 2004). Data mining is useful in almost every stage of drug discovery and can aid in toxicity detection, side effect profiles and can work to uncover responsiveness in certain patients. â€Å"The patterns that emerge from data mining this information will not only improve our understanding of this disease, but could give practitioners new insights into prevention and treatment. (Rangan, 2007). As addressed above, a limiting factor in past and current pharmaceutical data is the sheer amount of data and lack of information that exists in the industry. Knowledge and information is being slowed at even a physician and patient level, for example the FDA estimates that only 1% of serious adverse events are actually reported to the companies after they h appen because most practicing healthcare providers do not have the time or means to report the adverse events and have no need for the data at a later time. There is a strong need for data mining techniques within the pharmaceutical industry to understand and detect possible adverse events before they happen to patients. Outside of product research, development and safety, pharmaceutical organizations are using data mining techniques to increase their marketing efforts directly to the consumer as well as to the prescribing physician. They are able to see a better return on the investment of resources based on mining the prescription data released by pharmacies. As discussed earlier, many businesses are using data mining to increase their customer relationships nd encourage product growth. They are able to use the data to gather knowledge and information in order to create more effective and efficient sales strategies. â€Å"Data mining can be used to supplement the pharmaceutical companies marketing efforts by market segmentation, measuring return on investment (ROI) and understanding profitable managed care formulary status. â€Å"A p harmaceutical company can analyze its recent sales force activity and their results to improve targeting of high-value physicians and determine which marketing activities will have the greatest impact in the next few months. The data needs to include competitor market activity as well as information about the local health care systems. The results can be distributed to the sales force via a wide-area network that enables the representatives to review the recommendations from the perspective of the key attributes in the decision process. The ongoing, dynamic analysis of the data warehouse allows best practices from throughout the organization to be applied in specific sales situations. † (Alex Berson, 2000) Market segmentation allows for tailored messaging and information to be given to appropriate customers where their need is specifically met. Prescribing information allows the sales representatives to spend appropriate time and resources on customers that have the most need for individual products based on their patient population and historical prescribing trends. â€Å"Supplemented by survey data, patient and physician interviews, information gleaned from epidemiological studies and managed care organizations, questionnaires on web sites, and other market research, a quite detailed picture of a customer base can be identified, with marketing strategies devised accordingly† (Cohen). This is critical at the launch of a product, in order to determine the â€Å"early adopters† that will drive a product use and share their success with professional peers. A successful product launch to the right market segment can allow a product to surpass its competitors in the field. Especially in the era of â€Å"me-too† products with similar efficacy and slightly lower side effects than earlier competitors, the effectiveness of a product launch is vital to the career of the product. Identifying the early adopters and focusing tailored promotional efforts on this segment (as opposed to broadcasting a general message to all physicians) can be crucial to the success of the product† (Cohen). Measuring the ROI of certain programs and resources the organizations use, can help save time and money by making sure the resources are being put in the most favorable places to produce the most amount of business and patient satisfaction. Data mining allows pharmaceutical companies to get an idea of how their field promotions and direct to consumer promotion programs are driving business results. The promotional efforts of these organizations are tremendous and indlude field promotions: representative sales calls, peer-to-peer dinner meetings, exhibits at conventions, promotional samples, and direct to consumer advertising which include: commercials, websites, patient education materials the companies spend billions of dollars on the promotion of a single product. Data mining can help stream line the customers that are targeted for these promotional events and help make more accurate decisions on where to spend their resources so that they make sense for the physician, patient and the organization. The formulary status of a specific drug is very dependent on the location and area in question. The managed care market dynamics are very critical to effective targeting and marketing of pharmaceutical companies. Physicians are generally unaware of specific prescription coverage on certain health care plans, especially if a pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) is used in lieu of the actual healthcare benefits to manage prescriptions. For this reason it is important that each organization have the data to support the needs of the various customers and plans to help physicians overcome the obstacles they encounter while prescribing certain drugs to their specific environment. There are many facets of the pharmaceutical industry, including patient care and marketing that can widely benefit from utilizing decision support systems and data mining. The process is revolutionizing early drug discovery and increasing the speed and effectiveness that scientists have in uncovering new molecules to treat various disease states. It has a place in patient safety by providing early detection of drug-on-drug interactions, toxicity and adverse reactions. Finally it is widely used to supplement the marketing efforts in the field and increase the business acumen and accuracy of the promotional side of the industry. 3) Recent debate in the legality of Data Mining and the Pharmaceutical Industry In the past 10 years, the pharmaceutical industry has been scrutinized for various activities that have lawmakers on the watch and uncertain about the agenda these organizations have when promoting their products. With the blatant need for healthcare reform and a slow demise of the American healthcare industry this scrutiny of the pharmaceutical industry has steadily increased and the reputation of these organizations has increasingly plummeted. Within this scrutiny, authorities have begun to question the lawfulness of data mining and the use of prescription-drug records used in promotional efforts. Some argue that the data-mining is purely to grow market share for money-hungry companies and has little relation to the care or need of patients and physicians. As recently as 2011 the Supreme Court heard a case assessing the legality of prescription-drug records being used to promote pharmaceutical products. After a patient fills a prescription â€Å"pharmacies can sell the other information in those prescriptions to data-mining companies (they cannot sell patient identification information), who sift through all this information, spot trends and patterns, and then sell that to, as in this case, drug companies, who can then have their sales representatives do targeted marketing of brand-name drugs to doctors† (Coyle, 2011). Drug makers buy prescription records that reveal the prescribing practices of individual doctors from data mining companies and, based on the information, practice a type of marketing called detailing, in which sales representatives, who already know which doctors prescribe certain kinds of medications, pitch information about new drugs they think will be of interest to the doctor† (Lewis, 2011). The discrepancy existed in the State of Vermont where lawmakers made it unlawful to sell this information without the prescribing physicians consent, however this law was ruled unconstitutional in the lower federal appellate court, bringing the decision to the Supreme Court. The following is an excerpt from an interview done after the hearing. Vermonts purpose in enacting the law was to protect the privacy of the doctors information, to encourage prescription of generic drugs, which would help lower health costs in the state, and also to protect the public health, which it felt could be endangered by drug companies sales representatives presenting one-sided information to the doctors. Then, on the other side, you have the drug companies and other businesses concerned that if the court restricts access to this kind of information then, that they wont get the kind of information they say they need to make important business decisions, ot just marketing decisions, research decisions, ot her decisions that they think could be beneficial to consumers† (Coyle, 2011). The Supreme Court ended up over-ruling this decision based on the First Amendment right and gave pharmaceutical industries a big victory in their use of Data Mining. â€Å"The Supreme Court handed down a 6-3 majority decision and ruled that the law interfered with the pharmaceutical industrys First Amendment right to market its products (Lewis, 2011). † Despite the controversy, it is evident that there is a wealth of knowledge and information to be gained by the use of data mining in the pharmaceutical industry. It is a process that allows an organization to streamline the massive amounts of data and make educated research developments and business decisions based on the information. Alex Berson, S. S. (2000). Building Data Application for CRM. McGraw-Hill. Cohen, J. (n. d. ). Data Mining of Market Knowledge in the Pharmaceutical Industry. Data Mining of Market Knowledge in the Pharmaceutical Industry. Coyle, M. (2011, April 26). National Law Journal. (R. Suarez, Interviewer) Lewis, N. (2011, Januray 24). Drug Prescription Data Mining Cleared by the Supreme Court. Retrieved August 09, 2011, from Informtion Week: informationweek. com/news/healthcare/security-privacy/231000397 Linoff, G. (2004). Data Miners. Retrieved July 31, 2011, from Data Miners Inc. : data-miners. com/resources/SUGI29-Survival. pdf Oracle. (2008, May). Data Mining Concepts. Retrieved July 31, 2011, from Oracle: http://download. oracle. com/docs/cd/B28359_01/datamine. 111/b28129/process. htm Rangan, J. (2007). Applications of Data Mining Techniques in the Pharmaceutical Industry. Journal of Theoretical and Implied Information Technology, 7. Results, I. (2009, Feb 3). Data Mining Promises to Dig Up New Drugs. Retrieved August 9, 2011, from Science Daily: sciencedaily. com/releases/2009/02/090202140042. htm Salamone, S. (n. d. ). Pfizer Data Mining Focuses on Clinical Trials. Retrieved August 09, 2011, from Bio. It. Com: bio-itworld. com/newsitems/2006/february/02-23-06-news-pfizer StatSoft. (2011). Statsoft: Data Mining Techniques. Retrieved July 31, 2011, from Statsoft: statsoft. com/textbook/data-mining-techniques/#eda

How to Write in APA Style

How to Write in APA Style On this episode, we discuss how to write and format a paper in APA style, which is most commonly used in scientific writing and social sciences writing in subjects like criminology, anthropology, and psychology.Specifically, we address the following topics:What is APA style?Why do we use APA style?What are the basic formatting rules? For example, it should be written in 12-point font, be double spaced, and have 1-inch margins all around.What are some APA abbreviation rules? For example, do not put periods in between letters of abbreviations unless its a Latin abbreviation or the words U.S. or U.K.How should I use charts and graphs in APA style? For example, text within charts and figures must be Sans Serif and be between 8 to 14-point font in size.What should my title page look like? For example, it should include the papers title, authors name, and institutions name centered and in title case.What is an abstract and what should it look like? For example, the Abstract paragraph is in 12-point font and is double spaced.What should in-text citations look like? For example, in-text citations should include the authors last name followed by the year of publication.How should the references page be formatted? For example, References should be centered at the top, without bold, italics, or underlining.

OLPC Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

OLPC - Essay Example The idea of OLPC came to his mind in a deprived village called Reaksmy in Cambodia (MARKOFF, 2005) which needed a 5-hour drive from the nearest city. The people there do not even have electricity, drinking water and the people are mostly very poor. Negroponte established a school there 8 years ago. He also placed a satellite dish to send and receive signals and generators as power supplies. Then they gave a laptop to each child. Immediately, school got a lot more popular and modern as a school in a developed country. Kids who had never had the idea of what a computer looks like before were now a part of the modern world. Nicholas Negroponte was really impressed since the children who did not even have a TV before, had a high speed internet connection now. Negroponte's idea was that children should not have any need for anyone to teach them how to use a computer. He had the idea of designing a laptop computer which they could experiment the way to use it on their own or with a little assistance from a friend. Negroponte says the idea of One Laptop Per-Child is complete... team of engineers and programmers to design and implement a personal computer which could be usable for a child in a Third World conditions, an advanced computer with many innovations. For example, it's the first laptop computer with can be used in open air and in full sunlight. Water may be dropped on the keyboard and it will not be damaged at all. Sand and dust cannot enter the system and this level of protection, keeps it safe for a long time. Recently the OLPC project is facing with a new challenge which is competition and there is a question regarding this goal, If Negroponte's idea is absolutely humanitarian and kids are proposed to be the only persons to benefit from it, why there are companies which want to do the same work Perhaps the large number of needed laptops for children is the reason. With such a big number of cheap laptops going to be distributed around the world, these companies will face with loss of revenue. Intel for example is a company which Negroponte believes is doing an effort to prevent him from achieving his goal for example by giving a laptop to every child in a school in Mexico (IWAP, 2007). But Intel describes this effort as a part of the goal of giving any child a laptop and giving them the access to the most affordable computers. These laptops are now just models and they are not in the process of mass production. It is estimated that at least 3 million laptops is needed to be needed to be produced (OLPC, 2007). Negroponte is sure about getting these orders, even with the increasing amount of competition as other companies are trying to produce cheap laptops. Even considering these competitions, it is believed that the OLPC program will finally result in more kids getting laptops. This is at the end, what Negroponte wanted the

The organisation in it's Environment Case Study

The organisation in it's Environment - Case Study Example There is an Executive Team which includes the Chairman and Chief Software Architect, the CEO, the General Counsel and Secretary, the Chief Financial Officer, senior and group vice presidents from the business units, the CEO of the Europe, the Middle East and Africa regions; the heads of Worldwide Sales, Marketing and Services; Human Resources; and Corporate Marketing. 1) Microsoft is one of the leading brands and one of the top companies featured in Fortune 500 list of companies. The operating system Windows, provided by Microsoft, is one of the most favorite operating systems of most of the people across the world. Apart from this, the office suit supplied by Microsoft which includes MS Word, MS excel etc. can be found on almost all the computers across the globe. Not only does it provide software for home and office computers, laptops and mobile devices but it also is one of the leaders in the Market of servers, gaming products and hardware devices. 2) Creating a Brand Name is one of the toughest jobs for a company. Microsoft has been very successful in creating a Brand Name for itself and is therefore increasing the names in the list of its customers every single hour. 1) The on-line support provided by Microsoft is not... Even the support available on phone is not available 24*7. It should be not that after delivery support for the softwares is an important criteria for the customers making any purchase and the lack of best quality support can definitely has a negative influence in the mind of the customer. 2) It is generally seen that the software products offered by Microsoft have compatibility problems when installed on operating systems other than Windows. Moreover, even Windows does not support many softwares provided by other Vendors. This comes as a hindrance to a consumer intending to buy products from different vendors. 3) Microsoft does not disclose the source code for its product which causes a lot of pain to the end user if he/she desires to do some minor modifications to the product obtained by him in case of any bugs found or some extra features needed to him. 4) Microsoft having its presence across the globe has to be very cautious of its legalities, patents, trademarks, codes, products etc and has to keep a close watch on any development in the legal policies for any country throughout the world. Opportunities: 1) Microsoft has started to capture opportunities in attracting the tech savvy youths in developing countries by introducing softwares in their native language rather than English. Microsoft has also given discretionary authority to the respective government to ensure tight vigilance on malpractices such as eavesdropping and phishing emails. 2) Microsoft has made a smart move by venturing into entertainment segment which is the need of the 21st century youngsters by production of game consoles such as XBOX. Threats: 1) As Microsoft has a wide market share in developing and developed nations,