What, if anything, is wrong with the World Trade Organisation Essay

What, if anything, is wrong with the World Trade Organisation - Essay Example The WTO has been cited by some as not taking a proactive approach to evaluating the health issues affected by its agreements, lacking a formal in-house body to regulate the impact of trade on global health (Kimball 2006, p.189). This pertains especially to issues when dealing with imports of beef that have contained traces of mad-cow disease or simply when products are questioned by participating members as being linked to a potential health hazard. The suggestion of WTO critics is that the World Trade Organisation merely relies on its Dispute Settlement process that is only effective after a health situation has arisen and does not have a system in place that scientifically examines potential health consequences of trade agreements to the indigenous population that is receiving goods. This could be true of the WTO, but contributing literature suggests that the WTO consists of several regulating bodies that do, indeed, maintain particular expectations for notification of trade modifications. For example, the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Committee within the WTO aggressively analyse animal and plant safety using internationally-developed standards to assess potentially hazardous trade items. After carefully examining the World Trade Organisation website, it would seem that the core of the WTO consists of a multitude of regulating committees that are each assigned a specific task, often dealing with proactive issues. It is often the practice of humans to attempt to locate an entity with which to point the proverbial finger when it comes to assigning blame for health issues. In the case of the WTO, it would seem that these allegations for taking a less-proactive stand on health issues in global trade are virtually unfounded. The WTO has also been criticised for its inability to enforce its members agreements. When China ( a rapidly emerging

Tourism Essay Example for Free

Tourism Essay Tourism is a complex topic, which involves most of the human and scientific elements such as economics, social, environmental, cultural, religious and others. For this reason, there are many different definitions depending on the purpose of the person, subject or research. One of the first simple definition appeared 200 years ago; Leiper defined the tourism as a ‘person engaged in a decadent style of travel’ (Leiper 2004, p.39). However, the definition has been evolving seeing that the tourism keeps growing, which has been affecting all authors definitions. At the same time, authors have different perspective of the tourism, and for this reason have been difficult to create a universal and standard one. Despite the differences, most tourism definitions share a common perspective, ‘they attempted to define tourism in terms of who is a tourist’ (Smith 1988, p.182). Hall said (2007) definitions are essential for any discipline and each one identifies the foci of study. In tourism studies encountered with four interrelated concepts and are the core of this subject: tourism, tourist, tourism industry and tourism resources. To ensure a better understanding, the following essay will describe and analyse four main authors definitions, including their strengths and weakness in order to select the most suitable one. Body The definitions have been divided in two helpful characteristics: conceptual and technical. The conceptual is a broad definition; embrace a general definition as a whole, where non-researchers and non-specialize people are able to understand identifying the essential characteristics of tourism. Technical definition is more specific, providing particular information for industrial, legislative and statistical purposes. Author 1: World Tourism Organisation (WTO) Tourism has different concepts depending in the authors interpretation. Holloway addresses his definition from the World Tourism Organisations, which is: ‘tourism comprises the activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business or other purposes’ (Holloway 2009, p.8). Smith explained (1995) that the usual environment it is the first criteria to distinguish the tourism from travel. Exist two elements for this, frequency and distance. The frequency is the regularity of times the person visit the place. The distance, as most of the countries have different view of this it is difficult to defined. However the WTO established that the 160km must be the standard distance. In one hand, some strengths to consider is that this definition covers the three main evaluation aspects of the tourism, which are the purpose, distance and duration of travel. The definition specifically addresses the motivation of the tourists and is classified as holidays, business, religious, academic and health treatment. For the WTO (1995) it is clearly define that the distance can vary from 0 – 100 miles and people are not considered as tourist if it is less of these miles. Additionally the duration of travelling need to be at least one overnight of stay to be a tourist. On the other hand, the weaknesses are the focus of tourist’s definition. The WTO’s technical definition (2004) just engages the economic sector: a tourist is a business traveller, a student, a sick person who visit for health treatment and a person visiting a family member. All these elements are focusing on how much money visitors spend. Exist particular situations that tourists are not considered as tourists, which this led that every year the tourist definition change and misleads many people from being tourist, affecting as well the statistic evaluation of the tourism. It is important that the definition requires a difference in between transit and tourist people. For some countries, still not clear when do these definitions applies, at the same time the distance of travel do not follow the WTO standard. A clear example of this is United State Travel Data (1995) suggested that travelling one way of 100 miles are considered as tourists. However, for the Canadian government (2005) it is around 25 miles away of the person’s residence. This indicates that WTO needs to be firm on implementing the standards in order other countries follows them. Author 2: Leiper, Neil For Leiper, the tourism it is examined on a system approach. Being a system means a ‘set of interrelated groups coordinated to form a unified whole and organized to accomplish a set of goals’ (Goeldner 2009, p. 25). Under this approach, the tourism is ‘the system involving the discretionary travel and temporary stay of persons away from their usual place of residence for one or more nights, excepting tours made for the primary purpose of earning remuneration from points enroute. The elements of the system are tourists, generating regions, transit routes, destination regions, and a tourist industry. These five elements are arranged in spatial and functional connections. Having the characteristics of an open system, the organization of five elements operates within boarder environments: physical, cultural, social, economic, political, and technological with which it interacts’ (Smith 1988, p. 181). The main strengths for Leiper’s definition is that creates and examines the tourism and tourist on a competitive way, join all the approaches and elements that interact or are related to the tourism into a complex and extended definition. As well, the definition includes the consumer and the interaction of all the industries involved with the consumer. As per Leiper’s framework, ‘such approaches would facilitate multidisciplinary studies of particular aspects of tourism and more significantly would give interdisciplinary studies of various facets and perspectives a common point of reference’ (Leiper 1979, p. 395). It is clearly noticed that the definition covers the tourism as a whole including individual, organisations and business to reach the same goal, which is to provide service and deliver the experience to the tourists. The main weakness to consider is the complexity of this definition, which covers all the elements and approaches and sometimes might affect the main objective of the definition. At the same time, Leiper’s (2004) still creates confusion for the tourist’s definition and people have different perception of this. One person think that group of people are tourists, a second one might perceive sightseers as tourists, a third one might regard the cruise people as tourists. Because of this range of concepts and connotations, what delimits the boundaries between tourists and other visitors is difficult to define in a order that suits everybody. Author 3: Smith, Stephen On this section, Smith focuses on a supply side definition, which focuses on the commodities as the core element of the tourism. Most of the authors defined it in terms of goods and services, which is the demand side, not the characteristics or motivations of their consumers. Smith perceives the tourism as ‘the aggregate of all businesses that directly provide goods or services to facilitate business, pleasure and leisure activities away from the home environment’ (Smith 1988, p.183) The strengths of Smith’s goal is to develop a tourism definition based on tourists’ and characteristics that can be comparable with other industrial definitions. Other important characteristic is the inclusions of business and pleasure activities. Smith tries to make it explicit that ‘the motivations of a traveller are unimportant to the definition, although they are extremely important to the marketing sector of the industry’ (Smith 1988, p.183). At the same time, clarifies the distance or duration of the stay from a technical perspective. In addition, Smith developed a supply side definition in order to allow meaningful comparison with other industries. On the other hand, one of the weaknesses of this technical definition is a scale of tourism businesses, these are hotels, restaurants, airport, souvenir shops, transport and to mention others. The tourism has two types of businesses: the ones that ‘would not be able to survive without tourism (Tier 1) and businesses that could survive without tourism (Tier 2)’ (Coope 2005, p.9). Some clear examples for Tier 1 are hotels and airports; for Tier 2 would be transports and restaurants. Some businesses are not direct elements of the tourism as they can survive without it. This can create a conflict if should be part of the tourism business or not. Author 4: Burkart and Medlik On this case, Burkart and Medlik developed a holistic or conceptual definition adopted by the International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism (AIEST): ‘tourism is the sum of the phenomena and relationships arising form the travel and stay of non-residents, in so far as they do not lead to permanent residence and are not connected to any earning activity’ (Burkart 1981, p.40). One of the main strengths is that a various range of international organizations has recognized this definition. All its features recognises that tourism goes around the principal one, which is the tourist. At the same time, for the reason that it is not part of an academic discipline, allows interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches study the tourism. As well mentioned the time or duration element stating the permanent residence is not a tourist. An essential weakness to be considered is that it is a holistic definition and creates a difficult link in between other industries because describes the tourism as a whole essence of a subject. Certainly, as Leiper’s mentioned (1979) it is an ambiguous meaning and does not specify methodical applications. Furthermore the definition was developed long time ago and tourism has been evolving since then, which this definition creates just a general idea of the tourism and imprecise meaning. In terms of boundaries, this definition does not include the business people, it is focusing for people travelling under leisure and pleasure purposes. Conclusion Several meanings of tourism were identified and analysed. Tourism is a complex, vast and multifaceted, which it is necessary to have different approaches to study the specific field that suits everyone. It is important to clarify distinctions between basic definitions and the elements and characteristics involved in order to have a better perception. These definitions are a guide in order to have a better understanding of the tourism and from which sector people wants to be and understand. To conclude, the WTO should be consider as the standard definition for the reason is an international organisation and includes the main tourism elements: purpose of travel and time element. Furthermore it is a clear definition where everyone can have access and better understanding.

Strategies for Loan Repayment Rates

Strategies for Loan Repayment Rates INTRODUCTION AND MOTIVATION Lack of access to the formal credit facility through formal banking and financial institutions has been one of the major hurdles faced by the poor people of the developing countries. There are two main reasons widely discussed. Firstly, the commercial banks and institutions think that the loan demanded by the poor people are in very small amount and it is not economical for the banks to grant these loans. Secondly, these poor people often failed to provide any collateral, this makes their loan requirements risky, and conventional banks and institutions avoid entertaining these types of loans (Secondi, 2008). The solution to these problems was provided by microfinance programs. The primary objective of microfinance programs around the world is to reduce the poverty by providing small loans to the neglected poor people without the condition of collateral. Microfinance has gained a considerable appreciation over the past three decades due to its mechanism of providing the credit access to the neglected poor people. In pursuit of the fight against poverty, small loans were provided by the microfinance institutions (MFIs) to the poor people so that they may utilize them to establish small businesses or expand their existing business and achieve self sufficiency. However, there has been considerable differences in the rate of interest charged on these loans by the various MFIs, repayment rates and level of self sufficiency achieved by the borrowers around the different regions of the developing countries (Ahlin et al 2011). MFIs normally use group lending methodology to expand the credit access to the poors. This methodology helps the microfinance clients to keep a check on the proper utilization of the loan amount and also allowing only those individuals to be the part of the group who possess a good moral and financial reputation in their society. Eventually, much of the lenders responsibility of the supervision is shifted on to the group members. This helps the group members to effectively control the problems arising from incomplete information on the financial health of the individuals intending to join the group (Armendariz and Morduch, 2005). It has been viewed that the group loan given under joint liability lending contracts play an effective role in enforcing the contract conditions of loan repayments through peer monitoring by the group members. Under the joint/ group liability contracts, each group member is responsible for the repayment of the loan in case of any member reports default. Ther efore, each group member act as guarantor for the others. It had been argued by various researchers that in a joint liability contracts the group members are well informed about their fellow group members compared to the MFIs or banks. Therefore, this peer monitoring by the group members is much more effective and a cheaper than the MFI’s (or bank’s) monitoring (Varian, 1990: Stiglitz, 1990 and Banerjee et al 1994). There are a number of studies[1] suggesting that the group liability programs work better in addressing the problem incomplete information faced by the lenders and banks, as much of the responsibility has been shifted to the group members, resultantly lowering the cost faced by the MFIs. Some studies such as Tassel, 199 and Ghatak, 1999 argued that the in group liability loans, the self selection of the group members helps in reducing the problem of incomplete information and can generate higher repayment rates. There are various laboratory experimental studies tried to investigate the group liability loans and effects of peer monitoring on repayment rates. Such as, Cason et al (2009) in their study found that even the monitoring was a costly activity and subjects were required to pay the cost of monitoring, but still the group partners preferred to monitor each other. They also observed that when the cost of monitoring paid by the group members was less than the cost paid by the len der, the group liability programs performed better than the individual liability programs. They also pointed out that in the absence of difference in monitoring cost (among group monitoring cost and lender’s cost), the repayment behavior of the subjects remained almost similar in both group and individual lending cases. In another study conducted by Kono (2006) in Vietman, reported that even in the presence of monitoring and imposition of penalties to the defaulters, the default rates were higher in group liability cases compared to the individual liability cases. There are few studies explaining the importance of social ties between the group members towards effective monitoring and loan repayment rates. There are a number of ways the social ties can be effective, one of the most important factors is the full information about the group members. This complete information makes it is much easier for the group members to monitor their fellow partners, and if required they can enforce the contract terms (Besley and Coate, 1995, Abbink et al 2006). However, we were interested in investigating the effect of peer monitoring and choice of microfinance contracts on the loan repayments. The peer monitoring has been discussed extensively in the literature, however, the evidence on the choice of microfinance contracts (i.e. The choice among the interest and non-interest based microfinance contracts) is non existent. We do observe studies addressing the choice among the individual and group lending contracts by the microfinance lenders (Gine and Karlan, 2008, Bhole and Ogden, 2010, Madajewicz, 2011). We conducted laboratory experiments with the students of the University of Sydney, Australia during October, 2013. In our study, there were four treatments and the subjects were offered the loan under the group liability scheme. A pair of two subjects constituted a group and there were 74 groups in total (148 subjects). In the first treatment, subjects can choose to monitor their partner’s repayment actions, then they were required to choose a contract from the given two contracts (PLS and IB). After choosing the contracts, they were recording their repayment actions. In the second treatment, subjects were allowed to go for monitoring, but they were not allowed to choose the contracts rather the experimenter had allocated the both PLS and IB contracts randomly and evenly. With the third treatment, there was no monitoring choice available to the subjects, but they were allowed to choose from the PLS and IB contracts. In the fourth and last treatment, subjects were neither allowed to monitor, nor allowed to choose from the PLS and IB contracts, the contacts were allocated by the experimenter in a randomly and evenly way. There were five rounds for each treatment and after every round the subjects were swapped randomly and it was ensured that the same subject should not be the matched with the other more than once. The subjects were able to identify their group partner through their roll numbers, but they cannot see and talk to him. There was a monitoring fee[2] for all those subjects who were opting to monitor their group partner. Yet, while monitoring they can impose penalty on to their defaulted partner. The decision of monitoring or otherwise was a common knowledge for both the group partners. This experimental study was conducted to address the following research questions. Whether peer monitoring and peer pressure (imposition of penalty) affect the repayment rates positively? Are there any choice preferences for PLS and IB contracts? How choice of the contracts affects the repayment rates? Are there any gender specific differences in repayment rates? Whether the degree of religiosity affects the repayment behavior of the subjects? In summary, our results indicated that the monitoring had a significantly positive effect on the loan repayment rates in both with and without choice of contract cases. There were significantly higher proportion of subjects, choosing the PLS contact against the IB contract. Although, there was a high preference for PLS contracts, but at the same time we did not notice any change in repayment rates for both PLS and IB contracts. Moreover, we noticed lower repayment rates in no monitoring with no selection of contract treatment. We did not observe any gender related differences. Also the results revealed that the degree of religiosity was not affecting the repayment behavior of the subject. For the empirical analysis of this experimental work, we used the percentages to analyze the repayment rates. Paired t-test and McNemar’s test were also applied to examine the differences in behavioral responses of subjects across treatments. Finally, we applied panel logit regression methodo logy to check the significance of monitoring choices against the no monitoring cases and PLS contract against the IB contract in the presence of demographic and other control variables. The rest of the chapter continues as follows. Section 2 gives a literature overview. Section 3 describes the experimental contracts, design and execution. Results are discussed in Section 4 and in Section 5, we analyze the results and concluded the study. RELATED LITERATURE Microfinance gained popularity and appreciation over the past three decades for its mechanism of offering small loan to those poor people who were generally excluded from the provision of formal credit facilities. The microfinance use its innovative lending methodology in the presence of incomplete information of the clients and non availability of physical collateral. Generally, lending techniques adopted by the MFIs were individual or group lending. The group lending can be used as screening tools whereas, the joint liability could work as the monitoring device within the group. Nevertheless, the group lending and joint liability programs of micrfinance are considered as efficient instruments in the expansion of credit facility to the poor (Morduch, 1999: Armendariz and Morduch, 2005). Under the group lending strategy, all the members of the group were provided with the micro loans in their individual capacity. All the group members were then made jointly responsible for the repayment of the each other’s loan in case of default, also future they were denied from any loan facility by the MFIs (Morduch, 1999 : Ghatak and Guinnane, 1999). It had been argued that the success of the group lending strategy has been the outcome of various reasons. Firstly, the screening of the clients by the group members, this helps in selecting the credible and trustworthy persons in the group. Secondly, the group members keep a proper check on the utilization of the loan and also they keep on observing the efforts of each of their partners have exerted in order to make his investment project successful. Lastly, each group member faces a peer pressure from his partner which forces them to comply with the repayment conditions of the loan, along with peer pressure the group members have to face social pressure from their society they were living which enforces the contract conditions of loan repayment. In this way it became possible for the lenders to shift their burden on to the borrowers and the problems occurred due to incomplete information can be handled at the borrowers end (Microcredit Summit Compaign, 2005). In the existing literature, there are a number of works explaining the positive impacts of microfinance programs for the small line and investment activities. It has also been pointed out that the implications of microfinance programs kept on varying from borrower to borrower and repayment behavior was not same across the borrowers (Cr ´epon et al. (2011); Banerjee et al. (2010)). On the other hand, there are studies focusing on the merits and demerits of group/joint-liability loans and stressed that the joint liability loans were successful in increasing the repayment rates (Banerjee et al. (1994); Van Tassel (1999); Wydick (2001)). Entirely the same, it had also been mooted by a number of researchers that the espousal of a group or joint liability loans may lead to increase the risk loving behavior among the borrowers. They may put in a much riskier projects because the repayment responsibilities had been portioned out among the group member. The building of this attitude potenti ally invites the free-riders (Gine et al. (2010); Fischer (2010); Barboni et al. (2012)). There have been a number of factors addressed in the literature which could involve the repayment behavior of the individuals positively. Such as monitoring either by the lender or by the group members, peer pressure and peer sanctioning, social affiliations among the group members, opportunity for future loans, group size and lower tier of interest rates (Floro and Yotopoulos, 1991, Wydick, 1996, Wydick, 1999). Gin and Karlan (2010) conducted randomized field experiments in the Philippines over a point of three years found that group liability affected the development and advancement of the microfinance program exerting extreme social pressure on the group members, resulting in discouraging the good willing clients to adopt. They likewise did not notice any difference in repayment rates for both individual liability and group liability cases. Ghattak and Guinnane (1999) has given a comprehensive analysis on the effect of screening, monitoring and enforcement in group lending. They also observed that the lender’s cost of group screening, monitoring and enforcement can be reduced if they follow the group liability strategy. It has also been argued that in a group or joint liability cases where the default or failure to repay the loan will affect all the group members, including the defaulting member (as everyone in the group has to pay back the loan) and the whole group will stand disqualified for the future borrowing will encourage the group members to monitor each other. In this way, the group lending has the potential to increase the repayment rates. However, it has been viewed that even in the group lending case the monitoring and enforcement through imposition of penalties are costly, but at the same time effective in reducing the lender’s risk, due to shifting of responsibility on to the group members (S tiglitz, 1990: Varian, 1990). The researchers have consistently argued that the controls or restrictions like peer monitoring by the group members, restriction on further loan payment to the defaulter, social pressure from community through close knit social ties and effective monitoring by the MFIs on the individual as well as group borrowers could potentially increase the chances of loan repayment (Abbink et al., 2006a; Gine and Karlan, 2010; Cassar et al., 2007; Karlan, 2007). In a recent study by Al-Azzam et al., (2012), inferred that peer pressure on the fellow counterpart within a group could result in a higher rate of payment. [1] For example, Armendariz , 1999 and Rai and Sjostrom, 2004. [2] See Section 3.2 for details.

The Andromeda Strain Essay -- essays research papers

In the book, The Andromeda Strain there is a problem that faces mankind. This problem is a strange virus that comes to Earth from an unmanned satellite, which was in space. This satellite crashes into a small town in Arizona, which has a population of 38 people.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When this satellite crashes into the Earth, it kills everyone, except for an old man and a two-month old baby. There are two scientists who have the job of going to the crash site and gathering up the remains from the satellite. While the two of them are attempting to do their job, they are mysteriously killed. The last thing that people on the other end of their radio heard was a loud scream, then static.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The government, which was listening to what all was going on through the radio, thought that this was very strange. In the past, they had thought about there being a time when strange organisms from outer space would come to Earth, and try to take over. They decided that they would design a building that could be used to research the different things that they might come across in the future. This building would have to be very sterile so that the organisms couldn’t contaminate anything and destroy the Earth. The building was five stories high and each level was more sterile than the previous one. The building was located in the middle of nowhere underground, so that no one would know about it, unless they were on one of the teams that would be doing the r...

Chitizenship Coursework

On the Monday 19th January we decided to go to Meadow Primary School, which is mine and Katie's old primary school, to talk to a class of year 4 children about why we need trees. The group of children where specially selected by the Headmaster as they had recently been on a trip that had a lot to do with nature and involved many nature based activities. Our presentation included a short PowerPoint presentation on the topic we had chosen which was â€Å"Why we need trees†, and asking the children to answer some questions at the end on the topic, using the information that was provided in the presentation and some booklets that we had also made and provided. These included some information, questions and other activities, as well as a web site where they could get more information. We where originally going to plant a tree with the children as well, but because of unfortunate rainy weather we where not able to as the ground was to muddy and slippery. Describe your Role As my part I introduced who we where, why we where here and what we had come to talk about. I also talked about the contents of slides 1-8, as we decided to talk about the slides that we made, mine being about why trees are important to our and other animals survival. The slides did not only have information on but also some questions that I asked them to see how much they knew already and to get them involved to interests them more as I did not think they would be to interested with us just talking for about half an hour as the children between ages of 8 and 9. As we where early finishing I also took part in quizzing the children on the presentation, which was actually quite a good method to find out what they learnt, which in turn helped see how interesting and helpful our presentation was. Planning Stages We decided to do our presentation when we where looking through a booklet in our PSHCE lesson, that had suggestions in of what we could do for our coursework. We decided this could be fun for both the children and us and be an opportunity to see how well we can interact with children. We discussed a school that would be appropriate for us to go to and then got in contact with the head master by writing a letter. After he replied saying he would like us to go and see him, me and Katie went to see him to tell him in more detail about our intensions. After he said we would be allowed, we started preparing our presentation. We told him about the woodlands trust, and asked them if it would be ok to set up a school planting program. This would mean they would get tree, plants, and shrubs sent to them, which they could plant on the school grounds. This was also, where we got the trees that we would be planting from. After we finished the presentation and booklets, Katie and I went back to Meadow to arrange a date when we could go, and the group of students we would be presenting it to. Many different factors affected this as we where hoping to do it on a Monday afternoon when we had PSHCE as then we would not have to miss any of our other lessons, but it also had to be appropriate for the school, as we could not do it before Christmas as they had school plays and where doing other activities. The Headmaster also had important meetings, and wanted to see us do the presentation as well. My Contribution My contribution to the planning was helping to write the letter to the headmaster of Meadow Primary School telling him of our intensions and asking if we could go and see him to explain in more detail and hopefully get his permission to prepare and give a presentation on our chosen topic. When he replied I went to see him along with Katie to explain in more detail and get permission to give the presentation, and to arrange a group of children who we would be giving our presentation to. Once we knew this I started making slide 1-8 of the presentation. To do this I looked on the tree for all website to get some ideas and information about what I could include, along with various other websites that provided information about our chosen topic. Contribution of Others The rest of my group done very similar work to me as we wanted to make sure the work was split equally between us, and that we where all happy with what we where doing. As I mentioned before we all contributed to helping write the letter as we knew it would be important to get a reply. Katie came with me to see the headmaster to organise dates etc and explain in more detail about what we wanted to do. She also created the next part of the power point which was slides 9-16 which where about what problems where being caused due to there being less trees, and why they where being cut down. She also researched information on the internet a created slides 17-22 which where about what we could do to help and also a slide on the woodlands trust website as they played an important part I our talk. Kelly made the booklets that we gave to the children using the information that we put on the power point, and also finding pictures and activities that would help make the booklet more interesting. As we also wanted to plant a tree we got together to talk about where we could get one from, and decided that we talk to the headmaster of meadow about getting involved with the tree for all program which meant they would be sent boxes of trees, hedges, shrubs etc that would be at a suitable size to plant. He said that they where interested in doing this and was sent the box of plant life, and allowed us to plant one of them each instead of having to buy our own. Activity Log Activity Group/Individual Date Writing a letter to the headmaster Group 3/11/08 Meeting the headmaster to organise details Group 14/11/08 – 9/01/09 Researching information for the topics we where doing Individual 14/11/08 -06/12/08 Creating slides in the PowerPoint or booklets Group/Individual 14/11/08 -06/12/08 Talking about the presentation Group/Individual 19/01/09 Asking questions Group/Individual 19/01/09 We thought educating children about the value of trees would be a good idea because there where lots of things to talk about especially as issues such as global warming are now becoming a problem. We decided to talk to a group of younger children as we felt it would be more interesting for them and they would be more likely to listen and get involved. I also feel it is important to educate the children at an earlier age, so they will interested in helping by recycling, turning of lights etc at an earlier age, and get into a routine of it so it will carry on when they are older. Even though there was quite a bit of work involved I am still glad I decided to do the project because both the group and the children found it fun, although it was a bit disappointing that we did not get to plant the trees. When the headmaster replied to our letter, me and Katie went to see him which although was a bit daunting, it was also very helpful as he gave us some ideas and tips that could help us prepare the presentation and improve our work, which soon made us feel much better about going to see him again. Going to see the headmaster also helped me to see what it would be like in the future going to see an employer as I now know what its like to be questioned about what I want to do. I was so relived when he said yes because it was a school I was familiar with and also one of the easiest to get to, which made everything a lot easier to organise. It took quite a long time to prepare the presentation as we had to fit it all together, and find times when we all could get together at the end to edit the power point and make sure we all thought it was informational, yet not to complicated for the children to understand. We also had to make sure the booklets where informational yet fun so the children will take interest in them. A lot of the information we included we thought of ourselves, but researched facts that we could include to show them more clearly how bad problems like global warming and deforestation where getting, but telling them other things like what we can do to help we came up with ourselves from things we already knew. Team work played an important part in our project as we had to all do equal parts in order to make it fair, but we also had to be happy with the part we where given which we where. On my own it would have taken me much longer to do and also would have been more scary to do the presentation, so I'm glad I was able to work in a team as it made the experience more enjoyable. List of Supporting Evidence We have kept a copy the letter we wrote to the headmaster as proof of our visit, and we have also kept copies of the power point presentation and booklets. We where also given some copies of the letters that the headmaster sent out to the parents of the children to make them aware of our visit and our intentions, which has his signature and contact details of the school. There where also other documents that where created whilst organising dates etc which the headmaster, but we have not included them as they where just notes as a reminder of the date and time and other details like what age the children where. The power point was really just a background that would help us to give our speeches by showing facts and other details, and it also make the talk more interesting for the children, as we used bright colours and pictures. We choose a green theme as we thought that would be the most appropriate colour, and included pictures of animals as we told of how they could be affected if all the trees where cut down, because I think it is important the children know the effects global warming and deforestation has on the animals, as well as ourselves. I think creating the power point was the hardest part, because we had to make informational, but complicated to understand, which meant we had to be careful about what we talked about and our vocabulary, because if we mentioned something or said words that the children did not understand they would become confused, so we asked other people like our parents what they thought before we went back to tell him it was finished. The booklets where something we made as an extra for the for the children and consisted of activities like dot to sots and bullet pointed some information and facts that where mentioned during the presentation. We made them as an encouragement for children to do something more, like convincing their parents to recycle more etc, as they would be able to remember facts and what they can do to help better. We also included the Tree for All website on them, so they will be able to go on there and get more information and ideas. Use of Supporting Evidence I think writing the letter to the headmaster was the most important part of our work, because without it we would not have been able to do our presentation, and may have ended up doing something else, which would have been really disappointing. The power point was also important as it helped keep the children from getting bored, as well as reminding us what to say by showing facts and information, as without we would have had to memorise a speech which would have been hard to remember and probably quite boring for the children, which would have made it quite nerve wrecking and probably not as enjoyable. I also think it was better that we made booklets for them even thought they where not necessary, as it meant the children would be more likely to get involved as they had something that could tell them how, and them doing something like, turning of lights, recycling, etc would still be and achievement as our aim wasn't just to inform, but to try and convince them to get involved. Once we finished the presentation we questioned the children on what they had learnt, and this proved that we where successful in capturing their interest, as we where afraid of none of them getting involved and putting their hands up, but many of them did which was very pleasing as it meant our visit has had some kind of effect. Doing this presentation has also taught me some new things, especially when we where creating the power point, for example I now know that the Amazon Rainforest gives us more than 20% of our oxygen, and that nearly half of it has been cut down. I found this quite shocking, and it made me realise just how bad things are getting environmentally, and made me think more about what could be drastic effects that these damages could have, like more illnesses due to less trees removing the air pollution. I am really disappointed that we did not get to plant the trees as it would have been nice to give them and example, and it would have been a new experience for me, and a lot of the children who have never planted a tree before, although hopefully they will get chances in the future now that the school is getting trees to plant from the woodlands trust. I hope that they will enjoy doing this and that our visit will encourage them to do things outside of school and suggest ideas to any outer school clubs they go to, or get involved with activities and events that go on within the community. Evaluation of my Own Contribution I think I done my role within the group well because I created my faire share of slides for the power point, and helped organise the presentation, which meant going to meadow primary after school, as well as working on the slides. I also helped put the power point together and improve other slides that may have been a bit complicated. I think the amount of work we done was all fair and equal and I think we done it quite well, and I was especially pleased with how the presentation went as I was really nervous in case they found us boring or would not listen and where badly behaved, but luckily we managed t interest them as they where eager to answer the questions, although they could sometimes get a bit chatty when we started discussing things, although I am still really with how well behaved they where. Evaluation of Others Contribution I think everyone in my group worked really well, and I think we functioned well as a group, as we shared the work equally and had now arguments or disagreements about what we where doing , or over who was doing what. I think it was our good teamwork and cooperation that made everything go so well. I think Emma and Katie done a really good job of creating their slides for the power point and explained them in a calm yet interesting way. Kelly also did a really good job with the booklets and finding and creating activities for them. She was also very good with her timing during the presentation as she gave us enough time to do each slide, and also made sure we switched at the right point and stayed within time. I really enjoyed working with my friends and am really happy that everything went so smoothly because of our hard work and motivation. For my PSHCE project, me and my friends Kelly, Katie and Emma, wanted to do something to help the environment. We choose to do a project based around trees, as they are an important part to the survival of living things as they provide us with oxygen. They also provide homes and food for animals and resources for us. Due to the air pollution that is given off from transport vehicles, burning fossil fuels to make electricity, etc, as more carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, and traps heat emitted by the sun. This is called the greenhouse effect, and trees reduce the problem as they take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and give off oxygen. Cutting down the trees therefore speeds up the process and can lead to devastating effects like flooding that will be caused by the sea levels rising from the polar ice caps melting from the hotter temperatures. We thought the best way to help, would be to inform younger people as hopefully it would interest them at an early age to recycle, turn off lights and electrical appliances when there not being used, etc, and they would also encourage their parents and brothers and sisters to do the same. We decided the best way to do this would be to go to a primary school and give a small presentation and give out some booklets about trees, why they are important, what is happening and what we can do to help. We also thought that planting a tree with them would be a fun example and reminder of what they can do to help, as they would then see the trees everyday. The school we decided to contact was Meadow Primary School because it was near by and mine and Katie's old primary school, so we already knew the headmaster and the contact details. We decided the best way to contact him would be through a letter so we wrote one together explain what we wanted to do, why and what it involved. I put my phone number on the letter, and a couple of days later, he phoned us saying that he would be happy to let us give our presentation, and that we should go and see him after school to arrange some details. Me and Katie went because it was inconvenient for Emma and Kelly as they lived quite far away. Once there we talked about the details like when we should visit, which was preferably Monday afternoon as that is when we have PSHCE and so we would not be missing any of our other lessons. We also discussed which class we would be talking to and decided that our talk would fit in best with a group of year fours who had recently been on a school trip which had involved them learning about nature. Over the next week we created a power point presentation and some booklets. We decided to split the power point presentation into three sections, and we would each speak about the part that we done. I would be talking about why trees are important and where they are being cut down. Katie was talking about the problems cutting down trees was causing, and why they where being cut down, and Emma talked about what can be done to help. I got information of various websites which helped me to include some facts and figures, like who the Amazon Rainforest gives us 20% of our oxygen. As we where talking to children between the ages of we had to be careful of the language we used and how we phrased things, as they would not know as many words as us, and so may not understand if we said something that we had been taught in our lessons at school. I found this a bit difficult as when I am usually describing something, I like to use a wider vocabulary and try to make it very detailed, but as I had to do the opposite of this, I found I had to keep asking people for their opinion of whether the children would be able to understand, as although we did want to teach them something new, we thought it would be difficult and confusing for them to learn too many new words. When everyone had finished their part, we fitted the power point together and changed everything so it matched. We also read through it editing and adding in bits, like questions each part offered ideas from all of us making it better. When we where finished we gave Kelly the presentation so she would have the information she needed to create the booklets, which I think she done really well, as she found and created lots of activities for the children to enjoy. When we where happy with our final editing, me and Katie went back to Meadow to arrange a date for our visit, but due to the time we had some trouble, as we where doing exams, and they had Christmas plays, so we went back after Christmas and arranged the date for the 9th January. On the day we left our fourth lesson early, to get to Meadow before half two so we could prepare the presentation. While we where talking, the children where very quite and didn't talk at all, which although this was really good as showed they where listening, I did worry that they may be too shy or uninterested to answer the questions, but this was not the case. We found the children answered the questions with a lot of enthusiasm which was really pleasing as it showed they where interested in helping the environment, and capturing their interest was something we wanted to achieve. As it was to wet to plant the trees, instead we decided to spend the last 15 minuets questioning the children about the presentation, which I think went really well as like before, the children where all enthusiastic to answer the questions we asked, and gave us many of the points that where included in the power point. This was great as it showed that they had been listening and showed they where interested in the environment. I think that everything was really well although it was really disappointing that we did not get to plant the trees as it would have been fun and a great experience for us and the children, but we did get the satisfaction of knowing that they would be planting them some other time, and that they had learnt something. They also seemed to be really interested in the booklets that we made which was pleasing as hopefully they will have taken them home and done the activities and even tried some of the activities we recommended. I also hope that they will have tried to influence their parents and their siblings to help by turning of lights and recycling, as this could spread out through out the community and encourage many more people to start helping, which could have an impact on the amount of trees that are being planted and cut down.

Motorola Case Study Essays

Motorola Case Study Essays Motorola Case Study Paper Motorola Case Study Paper Case Study Analysis: Motorola, Inc. Upon analysis of the Motorola Corporation, many opportunities have been identified in the external environment to both boost Motorola back into elite status in terms of the phone industry and further extend its long history of technology advancement and innovation. WiMax and the potential market surrounding it present the most promising business venture for Motorola. Heavy investments have been injected into WiMax , which has enabled Motorola to have the technology readily available for vendors to roll out. With the exponential growth and need for high speed communication, especially in rural or undeveloped areas, this venture holds the potential to for a dynamic impact on the technology world. This would play a key role for industries which outsource to other countries for cheaper labor in providing the necessary communication capacity needed for efficient business operations. In the American market alone, given the federal push to provide high-speed communication to out of reach environments, the potential for success is very high. With the respective partnership with Sprint-Nextel communications and Verizon TV, it can be a major player in the market by rolling out the technology on a broad scale using the existing market base. The rapidly growing cell phone market, specifically in the Asian market, holds another strong opportunity to re-penetrate the market and once again become the leading player. The exponential growth of users opens avenues to meet different consumer need, creating niche markets with the potential to secure a large sector of the market. Improved television and sound is yet another opportunity Motorola can capitalize on. Quality transmission of digital information is one of the heaviest researched sectors in today’s market. New improvements are constantly being sought and developed to keep a competitive edge in the highly competitive industry. Some of the same opportunities pose threats if not carefully executed. Because of the rapidly changing technology environment, Motorola can be left in the shuffle by not being a front runner, essentially resulting in being viewed as a lackluster company that â€Å"once was. In the same sense, Motorola can possibly make faulty investments based off projected market favor, only to have the technology become obsolete given the rapid turnover rate of new technology. Regarding high speed data communication, the cost of technology and implementation may not prove beneficial if the areas invested in do not pick up on the technology. It becomes a gamble when new options enter t he market competing against various technologies. The loyal customer base of Apple is one of the single most threats that affect Motorola. Apple’s market share has steadily increased since the introduction of the iPhone, which counters the possibility of gaining significant momentum in the mobile communications sector. Apple has also ventured beyond computing and is currently exploring HDTV, internet, data storage, to name a few, which further adds to the threat level Apple poses. One of the most prudent strengths of the Motorola is the brand itself. Motorola has a history of innovation, competitive market presence, and resourceful business ties. The introduced what without debate one of the most popular phones of the last decade, and arguably of all time. The name has become synonymous with technology across the board. The name still holds its weight, which in turn keeps the possibility of market dominance alive. Motorola’s two-way communications technology is highly recognized and used across many industries. It has by far become the industry standard with the advanced technology, which has been incorporated into Sprint-Nextel. The strength of the company lies in its ability to create marketable products that appeal to consumers across a broad spectrum. It has being a considerable major player in the technology based sector since the technology boom began. Additionally, Motorola possess a gift for is strategically acquiring partnerships. This keeps Motorola in the front line of technology, even if it is not a direct venture by the company. Motorola’s promotional techniques have also proven to be one of their strongest attributes. The have successfully pushed multiple products into the spotlight and have secured significant market share as a result. Motorola’s weakness is its pace of technology introduction. They have slipped from being the â€Å"first† to simply being a â€Å"worthy competitor† down the line. With the RAZR, Motorola was the first to bring a slim, stylish mobile communicator with an early version of web browsing. Now, the company is taking existing technology and is using it to gain market share. The lack of recognition for uniqueness is one weakness that has kept them from there once held throne. The incorporation of the new technology smart phone and the existing two-way communications capabilities can lure buyers, specifically the corporate market, who wants the best of both. One advantage of Motorola’s strategic options is that a competitive edge can be gained by focusing on customer need. Refocusing on the customer would put Motorola in the position to directly address the needs of their customers, which in turn establishes loyalty and a â€Å"culture† with the customers. Another advantage is seeing and addressing the need for high speed data communications. The WiMax provides a viable solution, without adding the expense and time involved in installing hard lines across a vast area to meet the needs of few. Limiting the number of operating systems also helps the company, by preventing oversaturation of the brand, and having lackluster software on the devices causing brand damage. The disadvantages of the strategic options are loss of potential market because of limited operating system dealings and possible overinvestment in a product that may not take to the mass or may become obsolete by introduction of an improved product. The corporation’s strategy and organizational structure should be designed to incorporate innovation and customer needs in a sense of where it’s going or where it can be taken to as opposed to where it exist. It should be designed to take the company’s proven technology, incorporated with new technology, to create products that are stand-a-part from the current market. The company should have â€Å"heads† of the sort for each operational branch of the company. This design would allow Motorola to better isolate the successful and underachieving sectors in order to eliminate non-productive parts of the business.