Principles of Statistics In-Module Assessment Coursework

Principles of Statistics In-Module Assessment - Coursework Example The period over which the exchange rate is observed is January, 1973 to January 2013. Annual observations are used; for each year, a single value of the exchange rate is observed. Thus, there are 43 annual observations on the exchange rate in the sample of data. Before turning to the specific characteristics of the series, it may be useful to note the significance of forecasting foreign exchange rates. For any economy that is open to international trade, the foreign exchange rates play important roles in deciding policies governing most of the important macro-economic variables in the economy. Particularly since the settlement of most international transactions occur within a short future horizon, the exchange rates likely to be applicable at the time of settlement assumes importance. The magnitude of the associated cash flows in terms of the domestic currency are evaluated by using foreign currency conversions. And these conversions are obtained by denominating the domestic currency by the foreign currency of the trade partner through the foreign exchange rate for the pair of countries (Taylor 1995). ... Since the natural logarithm is a monotonic transformation, all dynamic properties of the series are preserved, only the scale of the magnitude is smaller. Figure 1: The exchange rate between the Japanese Yen and the US Dollar The first and foremost point to be noted is that the price of the Dollar has exhibited a downward trend over the time horizon under consideration. Starting at slightly above 5.8 in 1971, the value of the series has ended at around 4.6 in 2013. However, the series has not continuously declined. It has exhibited periods of upward movements as well as downward movements. The length and magnitude of the downward movements however, dominate the trend. As a result, the overall trend of the series is that of a decline. A closer look reveals that the series exhibits a particular persistence: a downward movement continues for a few years as does an upward movement. That is, once a dip starts, it persists for a few years. Similarly, once an upward swing starts, it seems t o persist for a few years. This pattern of persistence will become important in the forecasting phase. It should also be noted that the average length of the persistence of upswings is visibly smaller than the average length of the downswings. This pattern is particularly clear for the years after 1985. The other pattern worthy of note is that the overall magnitude of increases in the exchange rate over periods of appreciation is smaller than the observed magnitudes of decline in the exchange rate during periods of decreases. Barring the years between 1977 and 1983, this holds true for every period of decline and period of increase. Therefore, the observed pattern of decline in the Japanese price of the US dollar is explained by two

Build-a-Bear Summary Analysis Essay Example for Free

Build-a-Bear Summary Analysis Essay Build-A-Bear workshop stores were first established in 1996 by Maxine Clark whose influence came from former CEO of May Department Stores who had stated, â€Å"Retailing is entertainment and the store is a stage when customers are happy, they spend more money† ( Dess, c261). Build-A-Bear’s intentions were to differentiate themselves by giving people the feeling of bringing their teddy bear to life. You could give it a heart, a name, a wardrobe and many other personal touches. Build-A-Bear is about two things, â€Å"entertainment and customization† (c261). At the time of its introduction, following their differentiation strategy, there was not much competition for customized children’s toys. However, after the concept of customization caught on they faced competition from companies such as American Girl and Vermont Teddy Bear. American Girl was marketed to young girls who could make dolls that look like them and even buy matching clothes that the girls and the dolls could both wear. One advantage that Build-A-Bear had against American Girl was the fact that they marketed to all genders and appealed to a wide variety of ages. Parents would bring their young children, both boys and girls in to make dolls and teenagers would bring their boyfriend or girlfriends in to make customized bears as presents. You could even build a bear for your parent or grandparent. As the Build-A-Bear company grew they faced problems, such as a changing industry and a changing market which left them losing edge in their financials. Environmental Analysis. Build-A-Bear started with a handful of stores and it grew to 150 by the end of 2003. They capitalized on the upward trending consumer demand around the holidays when they would rent space in busy malls for their pop up stores. These temporary stores brought increased revenue and gave the company the idea for its current corporate strategies of expanding to more permanent stores. They had 344 stores in the US, UK, and Canada by 2010. They set goals that would allow a Build-A-Bear store to be within 30 miles of 75% of the US population. Though these new permanent stores usually paid for themselves within the first year their â€Å"wow factor† and financial performance quickly diminished time and time again. This no loss expansion worked while saturating the market but was not cutting it when their market further matured. A main reason for the growth is because new stores brought in greater profits which gave the impression that rapid expansion was a wise strategy. They may have expanded too fast though. They lacked the necessary ingredient in producing repeat customers and this was becoming a major problem while strict reliance on overexpansion seemed to be clouding the fact they needed another competitive advantage in the quickly changing toy industry to stay competitive. The real question was how to increase repeat customers and/or increase profitability of their current operating stores. We devised two solutions that could help BearFinancials alleviate the problem of their not so attractive earnings beyond the first years. Strategic Alternatives Alternative Solution #1. One option to get the finances in line would be a retrenchment/turnaround strategy in which the underperforming stores would be closed freeing up resources to explore other options for expansion into different markets. Very similar to Subway and Starbucks, Build-a-Bear wanted a store close to a large percentage of the population and expanded too far and the companies saw it hurt their finances. Build-A-Bear has the unique features to be a thriving, profitable company for a long time but it needs to be careful not to expand too far where it cannot maintain its current culture and core competencies and this can be done by reducing costs through restructuring. Closing underperforming stores and exploring destinations like international airports where people from all over the world will see their product would be a good starting place. Since people do not frequent the airport so much as other retail establishments they could continuously capitalize on the â€Å"wow factor† because new people would be subjected to their stores every day. By reducing fixed costs and exploring new marketplaces Build-a-Bear should be able to boost financials immediately with little investment. Alternative Solution #2. The next solution would be to fashion a new line of accessories and programs that promote repeat consumer visits. Build-A-Bear needs to be viewed as a collectible and something worth traveling for. This was not the case which was why stores started to lacking performance after being open a certain amount of time. Accessories and maintenance programs could be a way to get people to continue to give Build-A-Bear business even f they are not actually purchasing a new bear. Implementing new programs such as wardrobe changes, where people would come back to get Bear-makeover, would bring repeat customers. These programs could offer matching apparel for the bears and the kids who own them. Children and their bears could then wear matching t-shirts which could also first time sales from consumers ‘marketing’ the product. Another idea would be a BearWash. Children can be hard on their stuffed animals and sometimes they end up getting dirty. They could set up a â€Å"bear wash† where people would bring their furry friends in for a fur-flush and get it back all nice and clean. All of which would be geared at upselling the consumer upon return in order to maximize on that repeat visit. Initial investment would be substantial due to acquiring clothing line and additional costs to provide repeat programs. Recommendation Alternative solution #1 would be the best choice for Build-A-Bear at this time. By cutting underperformers they will save millions in fixed costs alone. They could then use this money to expand into locations such as airports and hospitals where it will be easier to maintain that ‘new’ appeal that made the company so much money in the first place. This solution requires the least investment in a monetary sense. Underperforming stores should be closed immediately upon identification and new stores should be in operating order by the end of this calendar year. Build-a-Bear has the right ingredients for continued success they just have to strategically place themselves in markets with the most exposure to non-repeat customers in order to maintain high operating margins beyond the first years. By reducing number of stores in operation they can concentrate on staying profitable and advancing into the future where they will then have the means to pursue other avenues such as improving repeat customer sales described in alternative #2. The focus now should be to stop wasteful spending on underperforming stores as soon as possible in order to open up more possibilities and greater flexibility in the future.

Operation management and service analysis

Operation management and service analysis 1. Task 1 1.a Introduction The Waterlander hotel is a part of major international hotel chain world-wide. The hotel was running but was without satisfactory results. Customers did not seem to be satisfied with their services. It was the day when one corporate customer seriously had a problem and was noticed by the senior management. Everyone was blaming each others fault. It was Plastix International Plc, who asked for the service at Waterlander hotel but could not express exactly what they wanted and they were dissatisfied by the service of the hotel. It actually wasnt the satisfaction level that Plastix International expected but unfortunately that they did not meet. The line managers who were not internally satisfied with the hotel system couldnt give the highest level of satisfaction. Hence total quality management was the only medium for customers to get satisfied and then only they would meet their satisfaction level. Total quality management refers to all operations related from lower level workers till managers like operation management, gap analysis, time management. Total Quality Analysis would be extremely useful for this situation for an organisation like Waterlander hotel. Here in the case study of the Waterlander hotel shows different time gap, information gap and deficiency in operation management. Mainly we see few internal characters of hotel as general manager, line managers, conference managers, head chefs and headwaiters and external were electrician, vice president of global marketing, Plastix International Plc and the photographer. There was no proper information flow from one person to another, which was the main cause of the whole disaster. Every one seemed to be upset due to problems in flow of information. The vice president of Global marketing, Plastix International Plc was mostly upset due to the poor quality service and told that he would not pay excessive charger for that banquet and wanted a written apology for the upset caused by the service they received. The manager of Aalsmeer electronics was upset since they were asked to set up by 7 PM and so they started to do their jobs at 4.30 PM but they were forced to wait for the hotel staffs to clear them for it. Hotel service managers got upset since they were not informed about the colours of flowers that client ordered which were red and yellow. The red would not look good against the dining room dÃÆ'Â ©cor. Suddenly electricians moved all the arrangements. When they got the needed flowers, electricians completely the rearranged themselves. The conference manager was upset since he was not told that the client wanted to use the video equipment, which was sent for maintenance. He did not have the checklist for the conference hall by the client. He could have hired one if he had known about the video equipment. Head chiefs got upset because he did all according to the detailed schedule he received from headwaiter. He made every thing on time but was not served when it was ready. Waiters were also badly behaved by the customers. The headwaiter the upset since they were not informed about the set-up that had to be done by electricians for loudspeaker and amplifiers. Those electricians told them to clear all the tables that were now ready to be used and which they had put everything right within half on hour. The photographer was upset since he was scheduled to come at 10 PM and they needed only for half an hour during the speeches. When he reached inside the conference hall, every thing was late and had to rush for another concert hall at 11 PM. He would have arranged another guy to take photographs if he were informed to start the program late. So here we see every person is blaming each other. This would have been better if the flow of information was correctly done. 1.b Operation management in Hotel Waterlander: The operation management refers to the framework for understanding operations management and its organisation and manager context .the nature of operations may be goods or services. According to Samuel K M Ho Operations and Quality management, Operation Management can be defined as the deployment of effective and efficient methods for the reaction and delivery of goods and or services to satisfy the needs of the customers. Without an effective and efficient operation functions, no organisation can hope to stay in business. Since it will fail on the key dimensions of competition quality, speed or price. Here in the case of Hotel Wanderlander, every where there is operations management. In the kitchen chefs convert raw foods into meals, waiting staffs provide meals to customers. Process in operation management Heart The transformation process. The customer gets the final output and they are the only way to evaluate the quality of service. There exist different operations inside an organisation for a service to be delivered. So for the proper management operation, the proper flow of information is needed, According to the above figure A, customers are attracted using different business competitive strategies. Customer has the right to choose an efficient and cheap service available in the market. There must be a proper planning and control of resources inside the organisation. As we see inside the Waterlander Hotel, every where are disturbances in the flow of information among service providers. The general Manager of the hotel was supposed to transfer the information to the right person in the right time, but he seems to be not doing his job properly. He was the only person to meet with customers to know what they really wanted in their services. The transformation process is greatly effected by the transforming resources either they are staffs or material. It they are not unsatisfied with their management, the quality services can be poor which reflect to the bad operation management. When those transformed resources of staffs and materials are in sufficient enough, then the only flow of information and planning and control makes efficient service. The proper concept of improvements and design also effect the quality of service which are directed by the operational strategy of the organisation how they are processed to be served for the customers. 1.c Problems in Waterlander Hotel: There are different information gaps between every individual. Customer expects the highest level of expectation and is they dont get it, the level of satisfaction is lowered. This situation is the worst for any business firms to loose valuable customers and have to bear losses. An author sees lots of gaps in the case study of hotel Waterlander. It is mainly with the customer and the management, how the service performance is and how much skill was used to maintain the standards of quality. As a whole, gap is seen in every factor. A big gap can be seen between consumer Expectation and service performance when the customer dont meet the desired expectation., Service performance is wholly interrelated with service standards. Every service is categorised with some standards and is they do not has good standards then there exists a gap with service performance. If the manpower dont use their skill properly, then they cannot maintain their standards, which then create a gap between skill and standards. If the proper skills were used but there is not good management, there also exists a gap. The gap is also seen between standard of service and customer expectation while the consumer doesnt meet the level of satisfaction. The huge gap can be seen between customer expectation and the management. Expectations: Plastix Internal Expectations: They had a minimum expectation like others. They just expected red flowers on the table, dinner on time, no food on dresses, simple things, video equipment, photographer, lastly smooth performance. Service: There was no exclusive standard to be measured. It was informally agreed standards, which didnt work while working in a team. Finally the expectation were not relevant to customers satisfaction. Standards: The organisation seemed to under skill. There were too many issues with internal staffs and huge gap was seen with kitchen staffs and waiting staffs. Management: A huge was seen in between persons skill and management since a manager was not able to handle them properly. He was the only person who was responsible to flow the information to its juniors who work under him. 1.d Solutions: The problem with the Waterlander Hotel can be overcome by efficient training to its staffs and quality of service offered, to its customers otherwise it falls under its standards. The solution can be found with the four main key issues as * management and supervision * employee perception of specification and rules * customer needs and expectation * lack of technological support Management seemed to be irresponsible to the organisation and not supportive in quality behaviour and lack in quality specification. The problem in skills is the main issue and the attitude of the person who cannot adjust. Recommendations for Improvement: * Sort out the internal problem occurring inside the management. Till it wont be sorted tout then the same situation will definitely repeat again. * Consider the employee Reward System. It could be the encouraging point for a staffs to have some reward of they do best, which will let them to do better in every moments. * Arrange training to internal staffs of Hotel that aware the impact of performance * Improvement of the recruitment process so that highly skilled can be available who can perform better even without certain training. * The execution of the quality system specification of organization, to improve by training and internal marketing. 1.e Conclusion: Total Quality Management refers to a quality emphasis encompasses the entire organisation from the supplier to the customer (Heizer, Jay, Operations Management 1999). The only problem with the hotel was mis-communication. The hotel should stop depending on the inspections to find out the problems, and should think to improve quality and service. It is the fact that every organisation has different views on quality. It is also known fact that customers have their own attitude on quality rather than on organisation. However internal staffs may have different aspects and definition, which could harm on organisation a lot, which could lead to unsatisfactory service by an employee. Which could lead with customer dissatisfaction like what happened with Plastix International. 2. The Mystery Shop 2.a Introduction: The author tries to select the fast-food service in the UK like Starbucks, McDonalds, Burger King, Pret A Manger. When there are choices among the before stated names ten definitely a student would choose Starbucks because the principle customers are students itself. They have cafÃÆ'Â © society where they can use most of their time in reading. It is also need to replace alcoholic bars to non-alcoholic Starbucks society. Starbucks also have wifi zone, which attracts college students and businesspersons for research purpose and business meeting locations. Starbucks: Starbucks is the largest company in the world having more than 13,100 stores world-wide spreading over forty countries. The stores sells drip coffee, espresso drink, tea, blended drinks, coffee mugs and other coffee accessories. Starbucks has entertainment division selling books, music and film. Starbucks was founded in Seattle, Washington in 1971, since then Starbucks Company spent a minimal account on advertising to promote the brand concept. 2.b Service Analysis of Starbucks of Ealing Broadway An author was at the Starbucks Coffee Shop at Ealing Broadway on December 6th, 2009. He entered there at about 3 PM. There were three employees who were serving customers. An author now prepares questionnaires regarding the services and level of satisfaction to be received by their service. Did they give an author a value when he entered the shop? What was the first reaction while an author was entering Starbucks? How much does he need to wait in the queue to get the service? How many choices of items were there in the shop? How many staffs were there for the service? Were they smiling while serving? How was the taste? How long is the speed of Internet provided freely inside the shop? How long can we stay inside the shop? How was the toilet facility? Did they understand authors language? What did an author ordered? Did he find the product he ordered satisfactory? Was the content of espresso, steamed milk and a dollop of foam quite good enough to drink? What about the location of the shop? What about the price? Was it competitive of expensive? What were the advert strategies? Were they good at customer management? Were the staffs skilful so that they served quickly? What was the quantity of drink in the cup? How was the environment? How did an author saw the life in Starbucks? How did an author rate the standard of quality? Did an author find any scrap pieces around him? Where the tables and floor regularly cleaned? Did anybody ask how was the service? How did they behave while getting out, did they greet? The author tries to find out the answers of above listed questions. It was a Sunday at 3 PM so there ware 4 customers in front of an author while he was in the queue. It took around 5 minutes to get his turn to order for a cup of Cappuccino. There was a guy who was taking my order. He didnt even saw me well saying what do I want. Then an author replied with bid cup cappuccino. He seemed to be rude while talking and asked to wait for 30 seconds but he had to wait for around two minutes to get the drink. A beautiful lady was shouting Cappuccino. So an author hurriedly answered yeah it is mine. An author didnt find it so easy with how they treated with him. All the tables were almost packed and finally an author went to tall chair placed beside entrance door facing to the road. The cappuccino was very hot to drink but the contents of espresso and milk foam was very tasty but much little in quantity. There were one guy taking order but other was preparing drinks and serving and the other one was roaming around cleaning some tables and picking up some scraps around. Since the environment was quite good but the disturbance was allergic. The place was congested. It seem like they emphasis mostly in take away rather than come and eat strategy. An author could see some guys with their laptops doing their work. The WIFI facility of Starbucks could attract youths, which could be seen by an author. An author could see only youths ranging from 20-40 of ages but could not attract people older than that. This could be seen as a disadvantage of Starbucks. He could also see very little business class people and most of them seem to be college students. While an author was there for about half an hour, he could see the life in Starbucks tough as there were only three peop le working outside to serve customers. An author sees there was a need of one more staff that would be enough to serve customers easily without hassle. An author also saw some scrap pieces below his table. It showed that staffs were not responsible to work. An author visits a restroom and finds to be satisfactory but without handicapped accessibility also there was no baby changing station. An author then gets out of the Starbucks but there was no one to ask how was the drink neither greets saying, have a nice day. The drink was somewhat expensive as compared with the market price but the flavour was superb. 2.c Backgrounds and problems The main objective of Starbucks is to serve customers within three minutes has some how added customers a loyalty. Starbucks attracted mostly students who only wish to study. The problems, an author faced during the service. * No greetings while entering to Starbucks. * Had to wait for more than five minutes to order the drink, the timelines were beyond the expectation. * The guy at the reception looked rude enough to talk. * Service was not satisfactory but the drink was the best. * Staffs didnt look qualified since they acquired a bit long time in their service. * No one asked for any thing or after sales reaction, saying how was the drink. * Some scraps around showed that the staffs did not paid attention in the hygiene. * Could not attract people of older ages. * No accessibility for handicapped and no baby changing station. GAP Analysis: During the mystery shop analysis, an author finds few gaps, which could be filled up. GAP 1 is in between the customer expectation and the service performance which was seen while an author had to wait more time in the queue to get a cup of drink. If staffs were qualified enough, they would have served it very fast. GAP 2 is seen in between service performance and standards. While some scraps were found near an author, the level of standards did not meet the customer satisfaction. GAP 3 is seen in between standards and skill when Starbucks staffs served an author with very hot drink which was not drinkable, showed to the skills of staffs. GAP 4 is seen between manpower of skill and management. The manager could manage the staffs especially when the flow of customers were high, he have to think of extra one extra staff needed that could easily serve customers. If customers had to stay longer in queue then customers could find another coffee shops. GAP 5 is seen between customer expectation and standards when an author could not get the standard service as expected. GAP 6 is seen between customer expectation when the management could not serve its customer as they expect. An author had not expected expensive drink and had to wait for long for a service. 2.d Solution: The solution for the problem in Starbucks services analysis could be achieved using Marketing Mix of 7 Ps. Product: Cappuccino was very hot to drink while it was served to an author. Very hot to drink while served to an author. Espresso content was satisfactory but the quantity of foam of milk was little bit less. They also have other different varieties of coffees express cappuccino, beverages, and music. Place: Since Starbucks is near at Ealing Broadway station, it is centre for customers to visit. It is nice place and the surround is also pleasant. Though it is very near to the station, it has focused in take away coffee shop by congesting the place to sit and eat. It is seen that small and congested space inside Starbucks. Price: The price of the products in Starbucks is found to be expensive then that of other coffee shops. Though it is expensive but they have got varieties of coffee like express, cappuccino etc. The products bought by customers can achieve the value of price. Production: Starbucks is found to be the company with least advertisement in compare with its rivals like McDonalds, Pret A manager, Burger King. People: Starbucks staffs were not found to be so much skilled according to on author. Stuffs were very slow in serving for that reason, customers had to wait for long time to get service. Starbucks staffs were not very good at customer management as an author was going out from the coffee shop, there werent any response from the staffs. Process: The process at Starbucks was found to be simple. The staffs did not avoid customers. Physical Evidence: With the flow of customers inside Starbucks we can find that Starbucks lovers and in many. People still believes in Starbucks knowing it contains wide variety of coffees. The major customers were student rather then elderly people. Staff members were also very young and fresh faces. Since Starbucks has been a best place for student to start up their career, every individual seems to be students. Due to free WIFI, people find it luxurious to go and stay. 2.e The important of quality Standards: Quality Standards means for planning, designing, developing, implementing, maintaining and improving customers service quality and customer satisfaction issues are important as companion attempt to differentiate their services and complete effectively in the market place (Paracisuraman, Zenthaml and berry 1988, Brown and Schwartz 1980) According to the above statement it is clear that every companies should make a target to provide quality service by satisfying their customers. Total quality management is the only way to maintain service standards to the customers. Here total quantity management is combined the way of managing for the future and is for wider in its application then just assuring product or service quality .It is a way of managing people and business. Processes to ensure complete customer satisfaction at every stage, internally and externally. Total quality management is combined with effective leadership results an organisation doing the right things right, first time. Customer Supplier Interface: The heart of total quality might is this customer supplies interface where the internal and external lies with many process. Their foundations of Total Quality management surround the core of customer supplier, which are commitment to provide quality. Communication of the messages within and outside the foundation and lastly the culture of the organisations in creating total quality and these foundations are back supported by key roles of people, process and systems in any organisation. Quality as a whole bundle consisting of performance, appearance, delivery, reliability, availability, maintainability, price and cost effective. As we compare the definition of quality with quality achieved by an author in Mystery Shop analysis, performance was not satisfactory so do price, appearance was also not so very fine but others were found to be somewhat satisfactory. Bad practices: Bad practices could be recognised in most of organisations and also was seen in the mystery shop analysis. * Managers not giving clear direction * Each department working only for itself * Confusing quality with grade When customers get bad impression they are least likely to choose the same service in the future since they have Varity of choices. So if staff members of service providers did not respond in good behaviour they will definitely loose their valuable customers. 2.f Recommendations for Improvement: * Consider the employee Reward System Large number of the staff are near the age of twenty to thirty so if they are rewarded then company will benefit with its service outcomes including benefits package which focus on medical, dental, and vision care, as well as the employee stock options. * Site does not have handicapped accessibility Condition of restroom was satisfactory but had no baby changing area * Prompt staff meeting * Training to the staffs * Changing method of selection Action Plan For Improvement: * Focus on hiring older employees more appropriate with the high interest to work. * Develop and maintain a reward system for staffs * Develop a system of regular staff meetings * Improve site accessibility and cleanliness * Upgrade front door and restrooms for handicapped accessibility * Add a baby changing station * Enhance Starbucks wide or big atmosphere 2.g Conclusion: Customers are always right seems to be the final conclusion of the mystery shop analysis. Customers are free to choose services anywhere so they want to be cared by the service provider. This could be possible only if the services provider follows customer care quality standards keeping in mind that customers are always behaved properly from the time they enter to the shop. While answering, greeting providing services within time scales, welcome any complains or suggestion. The analysis of mystery shop comes up with the conclusion of unsatisfied the level of satisfaction. There must be good coronation of mangers and staff members. 3. References Heizer R, Barry; H, Jay H, 1999, Operations Management, Fifth Edition, Prentice Hall Inc, USA. Business Link, 2009, Quality management standards [online]. Available from http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?r.s=slr.lc=entopicId=1074431977 [24 November, 2009] De La Salle University, 2009, Total Quality Management [online]. Available from http://www.dlsu.edu.ph/library/pathfinder/business/tqm.asp [25 November, 2009] Starbucks UK Corporate site, 2009, Homepage [online]. Available from www.starbucks.co.uk/en-GB/ [25 November, 2009]

Chapters 1- 6 of To Kill A Mockingbird :: To Kill a Mockingbird Essays

The first five chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird introduce the setting, atmosphere, theme, and many different characters, who have unique characteristics. The theme of prejudice is also developed in this introductory section. The Finch family and some of their neighbours are introduced as well, along with important elements such as the Radley house.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Radley house is an important element of mystery in the beginning chapters. As Scout was describing the setting, she described the mysterious house by saying, â€Å"The Radley Place was inhabited by an unknown entity the mere description of whom was enough to make us behave for days on end,† (Lee 6). Dill, who was from Meridian, Mississippi, was fascinated with the Radley house, and would stare at it for long periods of time. The house had darkened to the colour of the slate-gray yard around it. Johnson grass and rabbit-tobacco grew in abundance on the front yard. Inside of the house, people said there lived a â€Å"malevolent phantom† named Boo Radley (Lee 8). He supposedly went out at night and peeped into other people’s windows. Scout also mentions, â€Å"When people’s azaleas froze in a cold snap, it was because he had breathed on them.† (Lee 9) Tall pecan trees shook their fruit into the schoolyard, from the Radley chicke nyard. However, the nuts would lay untouched by the children, as it was said that Radley pecans would kill anyone who ate them (Lee 9).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Different types of prejudice are evident in this chapter. For instance, Scout refers to Walter as a â€Å"Cunningham†, and this automatically places him in the poor class (Lee 20). Miss Caroline displays prejudice towards Scout because she can read. Scout is singled out after she reads to the class, and Miss Caroline accuses her of her father teaching her how to read (Lee 17). It seems as though more serious types and instances of prejudice will develop as the story progresses.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Atticus Finch is a respectable man and an example of his nature can be seen when Walter Cunningham is invited over to eat dinner. Atticus treated him with the same respect he would treat anyone else, even though Walter is poor (Lee 24). Another notable characteristic of Atticus is shown when he says to Scout, â€Å"We couldn’t operate a single day without Cal, have you ever thought of that? You think about how much Cal does for you, and you mind her, you hear?

Outsourcing in America

Outsourcing Is weakening the nation's Job-creation engine, and leaving thousands of newly unemployed workers here In the United States in search of work. With the number of companies outsourcing jobs continually Increasing, It becomes a much larger issue for the U. S. Workforce to find a job when so many are being outsourced overseas. Unfortunately this trend is likely to continue to cause serious harm in the United States if it continues to go unmonitored. Foreign and American governments have contributed to the problems caused by outsourcing in a number of ways.Some of the more visible ways are a lack of monitoring and data gathering, ceasing to enforce any pressure or penalties upon companies outsourcing Jobs, and U. S. Jobs being outsourced due to foreign Incentives. These three Issues are a large contributing factor to the current problem of outsourcing in the united States and its negative impact on the American workforce. The U. S. Federal and state governments are contributin g to the problems created by outsourcing due to their lack of monitoring and data gathering on the number of Jobs that are being exported.Without having the needed statistics on the number of Jobs that are being exported, the full Impact of Job loss cannot be properly quantified. The U. S. Commerce and Labor Departments claim that the lack of monitoring system to record the number of outsourced jobs in America is due to a lack of resources. This thought process seems contradictory as the federal government spends over $130 billion each year on research and development, and a fraction of this spending would be enough to grasp the full scale of this outsourcing issue (52). This prevents any meaningful understanding for the U. S. People on the scale of Jobs being outsourced, the business's and occupations being affected by outsourcing, and the economy potential responses to the negative impacts of outsourcing. With the absence of this data, corporations are able to continue concealing the number of Jobs that are actually being outsourced. In chapter four, Hair and Hair express that federal, state and local government Jobs are also being outsourced. They further discuss that almost every state government has relocated some form of business abroad through entrants with companies that commonly outsource the work for cheaper labor.For example, Washington State estimated that there were around 1 50 contracts that had contained at least $50 million worth of offshore outsourcing (50). Since there is no government or Labor Department monitoring, companies continue having no legal obligation to inform state governments of the contracted work that is being done offshore. The government Jobs that are being outsourced could have these needed services performed In the U. S. By the American workforce In order to help spur economic development and growth. Instead, American unemployment rates will continue to rise and further the negative impacts upon the U.S. Economy. As the U. S. Federal government ceases to enforce any penalties to protect the number of jobs companies outsource, they also fail to exert any pressure to slow down the outsourcing process. In chapter five, Hair and Hair point out that discipline or cost in doing so (76). With that in mind, companies will continue moving jobs offshore, and will have their lobbyists persuade U. S. Congress to have them lower their tax rates, and as well as defer taxes on future income indefinitely. The company's lobbyists succeeded in convincing Congress to allow them to pay the states no more than a mere 5. 5% tax rate, for which the funds would be used as investment towards Jobs creation (81). However, as the federal government continues allowing companies to extradite their money, there has been no evidence of any Job creation being done with those funds. Rather the U. S. Economy has been missing out on over 29. 75% of corporate tax rates, and the American workforce will continue to suffer. As companies co ntinue making cut-backs, this will impact both the assurance of the American workforces financial security, and also the finances used to maintain their communities.This happens as a result of the increasing number of people that are losing their Jobs, which leads to having fewer numbers of taxpayers to contribute to tax revenue and the funding of social programs. In order to make sure that there are enough taxpayers to maintain funding, more Jobs will have to be created. When Elaine Chaos, George W. Bush's Secretary of Labor, was asked for a statement on the failure of Job creation in America, she merely dismissed the question and concluded that the stock market was to blame for it (79).This response is troublesome in that the country's Secretary of Labor had exhibited what little knowledge or concern she had for creating Job opportunities. This statement portrays her failure in helping protect the future of the American workforce and highlights the failure to exert any pressure to reduce outsourcing. Lastly, foreign governments are actively pursuing offshore outsourcing of U. S. Jobs by offering an array of incentives as part of their national industrial strategy. Such incentives granted by foreign governments include tax breaks and leniency to operate without serious government control.In chapter nine, major policy changes were put into effect by the Indian governments in order to free up the markets in the software industry. The policy changes went through so long as it was maintained that there would be full cooperation with all levels of the Indian governments. Indian IT corporations receive tax rates that, when in comparison, are less than half to that of what the state and local governments are providing the American corporations. For instance, the Indian IT company, Astray Computer, has a tax rate of 14. 2%, as to the American IT company, Electronic Data Systems, with a tax rate of 35. 87% (179). The lower tax rates in India make it quite enticing for American corporations to outsource their work, and then utilize Indian IT companies to acquire the tax rate benefits. The Indian federal government key government actor in the growth of software has been the local Software Technology Parks. This allows companies to rely on the local STEP as it provides no restrictions on equity and has various benefits such as duty-free import, duty-free indigenous procurement, and deemed exports (178).Further proactive policies by the Indian government included offers to companies to set up a satellite-based communications infrastructure. Thus, this led the Indian IT sector to increase from $2 billion in 1994-95 to $40 billion in 2003 and employs over 1. 6 million people and will continue to increase (173-174). While the numbers of Jobs that are promote economic growth, they are doing so at the expense of the American workforce. The implementation of this proactive strategy in India has left a large chunk of the U. S. Record unemployed, and contin ues to contribute to a larger pool of Americans living off unemployment. As companies continue to outsource Jobs, the U. S. Will find it more and more difficult to reverse the trend. This will continue to leave fewer tax dollars in the U. S. System and leave more of the American workforce unemployed. This also will impact the amount of tax revenues required to fund education, health, infrastructure, and social security systems. There is no question that the American people would like their government to take a stand against companies that send Jobs overseas.The U. S. Governments, and citizens, should feel obliged to discover new ways of creating more opportunities and Jobs by regulating the amount of outsourced Jobs allowed in the United States. The issues caused by lack of monitoring and data gathering, the need to enforce pressure or penalties on companies that outsource Jobs, and regulation on the number of U. S. Jobs being outsourced due to foreign incentives must be addressed. This issue can't be addressed until the foreign and American governments take action on the contributing factors to the current problem of outsourcing in the U. S.

Victim of Boarding House

Nurbani Trisna Wardhani 10/297584/SA/15201 In this â€Å"Boarding House†, a short story form James Joyce, I think the character that becomes the victim is Mr. Doran. At the first the story tells about Mrs. Mooney who had been lived separated with his drunkard husband and built up a boarding house. She lived there with her two children, Jack and Polly. In another angle, we can see Mrs. Mooney boarding house is actually a ‘tool’ that was used by Mrs. Mooney to look for an ideal husband for Polly. Also read Boarding Schools Should Be AbolishedShe tried some ways to get a man with good financial to be Polly’s husband before. She sent Polly to be a typist in a corn-factor’s office in purpose to make bosses fell in love with Polly. Nevertheless, Polly was been flirted by a disreputable sheriff’s man, so Mrs. Mooney took Polly back to the boarding house and asked her to do house work. One day she thought to send Polly back to typewriting, but suddenly she knew that there was something between Polly and one of her guest in boarding house, Mr.Doran. Mr. Doran is a man in about thirty-four or thirty five of age. He is a religious man who worked in the Catholic wine merchant office. Mrs. Mooney used Polly’s innocent to become a bait to get Mr. Doran got into her trap. She had already known that Mr. Doran was a man who lived in religious culture in Dublin and always obeyed the church rules, so she set that Mr. Doran slept with Polly. By doing this, Mr. Doran had a religious sin and felt guilty.The only compensation for this sin in this society is marriage, and Mrs. Mooney utilized this. Mr. Doran was hesitated, would he marry her or run away. Nevertheless, he was afraid to lose his job and the church, this is one of reasons he would not run away. At last he chose to marry Polly, because in other hand he remembered by her kind to him. Although, in his thought perhaps he really loved Polly. He imagined they would have a happy life if they married perhaps.