Describe the Factors to Take Into Account When Planning Healthy and Safe Indoor and Out Door Environments and Services

Support Children And Young People’s Health And Safety 1. 1 The Factors To Take Into Account When Planning Healthy And Safe Indoor And Outdoor Environments And Services There are a number of factors that must be taken into account when planning for health and safety. *The individual needs of the child – These must be considered along with the age and ability so when planning for the children make sure the resources used are age and stage appropriate and they carry the safety marks. There must be specialist equipment for children with specific needs Specific risks – For a child who has a hearing impairment you would need to provide visual aids for them or sign language so they are aware of the health and safety for example if the child was running indoors you could show them a visual aid of a picture where it’s made clear that you walk not run. Placing pictures of hands being washed near the toilets also teaches them to wash their hands when they have been t o the toilet. Make sure you are always within sight of the child whist also allowing them to enjoy their environment. Parent and carers – You need to take into account the needs of parents and carers so give them information on health and safety or if they can’t read, hold meetings. For those where English is not their first language give out information written in their home language. *Function and purpose of the environment – When planning an activity make sure it’s the right environment for the activity. If you were using bikes and scooters you would ensure they were used in the correctly and with plenty of space so in my setting we would not use them indoors as there is not enough space, they would only be used outside. When using the environment its important the children have the space that is required for the planned activity. When using outdoor environments make sure the plants and garden furniture do not pose a threat. Also make sure there is no dog or cat mess in the garden and that rubbish is removed on a daily basis. A varied environment supports children learning and development, it gives them confidence to explore and learn in safe and secure yet challenging indoor or outdoor space. Duty of care – The children’s health and welfare is always paramount when doing any planning and we have a legal obligation to ensure they are safe at all times. Risk assessments should be carried out for all activities and regular checks should be carried out around the setting daily. The toilet area should also be checked to make sure it is clean and has toilet paper and soap available for the children to wash their hands. Support Children And Young People’s Health And Safety 1. 1 The Fac tors To Take Into Account When Planning Healthy And Safe Indoor And Outdoor Environments And Services Outcomes for children and young people – It is important that the activities we provide have clear aims and objectives and that whilst the children and young people enjoy the activity they also feel safe and secure and that no unnecessary risks have been taken. *Lines of responsibility and accountability – Everyone working in a setting should be aware of the health and safety policies and that they have a responsibility for the safety of the children and staff. Risk assessment must be carried out and the risks assessed and introduce measures to manage the risks. Any equipment must be removed if it’s broken or has sharp edges. All staff must take reasonable care for the health and safety of themselves and others when undertaking their work, they should check all areas are safe, check equipment and ensure safe working procedures are followed. *Comfort of the children – Make sure you have enough space for the children to carry out activities safely. The temperature of the setting needs to be comfortable and sufficient lighting and air, there must always be fresh drinking water.

The Crucible Diary

I cannot believe that John Proctor! Why has he chosen his sniveling wife over me? I am more of a woman than Goody Proctor. Goody Proctor does possess of the qualities needed of a good wife. She is naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve, simple, and talented. However, I possess the qualities of a lover. I am intelligent, able, and adventurous. To be blatantly honest, I think any man would be lucky to call me his wife. Diary, why am I good enough for any man, but I am not good enough for the man I desire? I know why. It is because I want a married man. Diary, do you agree that John should leave Goody Proctor and marry me? Do you think I am better than she is? I believe I would be a much better wife. Think about it, if Goody Proctor were good to John would he have come to me? I do not believe so. To me, it is the duty of a wife to keep her husband satisfied and in line. However, if John had not strayed from his wife, John would have never sought me. If John had never sought me, I would have never felt love. John may have sought me, but he is still married to Goody Proctor. She is keeping me from my John. Because of that, I loathe her. There is not a single thing in the world that she can do that I cannot. She can cook, clean, and pray. I can do all that, and even more! I am willing to do anything to be with my John. All I want is to be with him. Diary, do you have any ideas to cause the end of the Proctor marriage? I believe I do. I will receive vengeance on Goody Proctor. I will claim that Goody Proctor is a witch! It is a brilliant idea. When Salem village hears of this, the village people will believe it and order her hanging. It is genius! I would be overcome with joy to see the body of Goody Proctor hanging. At last, I would be with my beloved John! Oh Diary, I know it is a terrible to wish death upon someone, but in this case, Goody Proctor's death is necessary in order for John and me to be together. Diary, I need to be with John. He loves me and I love him. I know we are destined to be with one another. Diary, I thank you for listening to me. You have always been a faithful friend. Besides John, no one seems to want to listen to me, Oh, how I miss my John! Oh no, I fear Uncle has arrived home. I must go. He will be expecting me. I promise I will write again soon. Love, Abbey

Against tithing in the modern-day christian church Essay

Against tithing in the modern-day christian church - Essay Example Tithing should not be practiced in the modern-day Church. There are several reasons for this, five good ones being the following: God does not dwell in churches made with human hands; the old Covenant cannot justify men through works and righteousness anymore; there would be less prosperity churches as well as their propaganda; the church can have a different approach towards giving than tithing; and the practice of tithing ended with the last book of the Old Testament in Malachi. These are just a few of the many reasons why tithing should not continue to be practiced in the modern Christian church. Tithing is an outdated notion which only serves to place a burden upon the people who have very little already—and casts a pall over the church as an organization that is only motivated by money and getting congregation members to handily donate or give to the Church. II. God’s New Covenant Dwells in a Body of Believers, Not a Physical Building Under the new Covenant, God do es not dwell in churches made with human hands—but rather dwells within a temple that is made of the body of believers. This is significant because Christians should not be focusing entirely on the revenue that a church creates through tithing, but rather make it a situation where people can donate or give openly or anonymously—in whatever fashion they see fit that is in line with church standards. Additionally, now believers under the new Covenant are now God's temple—and as such, the issue of tithing and giving 10% of one’s income is not an option.... , and—while people should still be encouraged to give freely to the church if it is within their power to do so—people should not be bullied into giving such a large portion of their income over to the Church, an obvious fact. III. Christ’s Appearance Abolished the Necessity for Tithing People used to tithe in the church in order to ensure that the Levirate (the priests who were descendants of Levi) were taken care of in order so that they could serve the church. Therefore, ten percent of the peoples’ offerings went to the priesthood. To continue such a practice by supporting pastors with ten percent of one’s income is not only based on a Biblical concept that is now out-of-date, but also unnecessary. The old Covenant cannot justify men through works and righteousness anymore, as Christ has already come. Since Christ came to the world because he loved the world—God having given ‘His only [begotten] son’ to pay recompense for the sins of the world—it no longer became necessary for the old rule of tithing to continue to stay in place.1 Christ died in order to bring the new Covenant into fruition, thus becoming the fulfillment of the law. People no longer had to abide by doing good works and seeking righteousness in order to secure their place in heaven. That is not saying people should not do good works or continue to live righteously—but works and righteousness are evidences that a Christian is still practicing the faith. These are the fruits of righteousness, which ever Christian should display. This is more important than some fabricated obligation to â€Å"give God 10%.† Christ should be the focus in the Church’s congregation, with every church appropriately divining God’s message as the churches’ missions are developed into full-fledged

Innovation & Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Innovation & Change - Essay Example On the other hand, it is wrong to say that Wright brothers discovered aeroplane or Charles Babbage discovered computer. These things were not existed in the world earlier and these scientists were able to make entirely new things with the help of existing resources. An invention is a private property till the inventor decides to make it public. Since innovation is an entirely new thing, it may bring change. For example, when computer was innovated, it brought revolutionary changes in the human life. This paper briefly analyses the importance of innovation and subsequent changes in the human life. â€Å"Any time you change the world, you create risks† (FREUDENHEIM). As mentioned earlier, innovation often results in huge changes in the world which may change the activities of the natural world. For example, the introduction of automobiles brought many revolutionary changes in the world. Many people considered the invention of automobiles as one of the greatest innovations of all time; however, currently we are aware of the environmental problems caused by the automobiles. In other words, even though innovations often change the human life it is not necessary that these changes may affect the human life positively alone. The Industrial Revolution is a story of great inventions. In fact it is difficult for the business or industrial people to stay in the market with conventional products alone. Innovations change the human life drastically and the business people should adapt themselves to these changes in order to stay in the market. For example when Apple, introduced the innovative touch screen mobile phone (iphone) in to the market, Nokia and other competitors also started to introduce similar products in the market. This is because of the fact that iphone has changed the traditional concepts about mobile phones among the consumers. â€Å"Radical innovation is crucial

'Teamwork is a method for organising activities in the workplace that Essay

'Teamwork is a method for organising activities in the workplace that offers undeniable advantages'. Discuss this statement - Essay Example The adoption of agriculture and the subsequent rise of farming communities likewise showed the importance of group work, when it comes to planting, irrigating and finally, harvesting the crops. Group work lightens the load as well as hastens the task completion when it is crucial to finish the work before adverse weather conditions set in, such as the coming of winter. Discussion This brief paper explores some of the theories involving teamwork in organizations and provides some examples to illustrate the importance of teamwork to group performance in achieving overall corporate strategy as one of its competitive tools. In this paper, teamwork is discussed within the context of a modern corporate organization. Previous ideas of teamwork entailed mostly primitive activities like hunting and planting, but in the modern setting, it is a teamwork that is anchored in an industrial setting in the post-Industrial Revolution period. In this context, teamwork ideas are anchored on mostly proj ect-based work but it also has other varied applications which are discussed as the paper progresses. Participative management, co-determination, worker representation in management teams, quality improvement circles, and small-group activities, are just some of the fine examples of teamwork (Kandula 124). Organizing activities around teamwork in a corporate setting offers advantages that cannot be attained by someone working individually; some distinct advantages are: Employee involvement – people become more committed when they are involved in the business, when they are consulted, and given a chance to share their inputs. Organizational success is better assured when all people get involved, rather than just a select few or elites. A good way to involve people is to make them join a team for an equitable participation. Conducive to new ideas – people can become more creative when they are exposed to various ideas, suggestions, and comments of other people within a t eam setting. Although it is sometimes the originality and brilliance of one individual which can make a difference, it is more often the case that an exchange of good ideas in a team that produces the most brilliant insights because data, information, knowledge, and wisdom are shared together. Enhances communications and relationships – the nature of group work requires all people within the team to work together, share their ideas, and communicate frequently such that in the process, they become more interdependent and thereby build stronger relationships. Organizational performance is enhanced when there is effectiveness in good teamwork. Improvements in quality levels – whether it is a product or a service an organization is selling, teamwork raises the level of quality because people supplement and complement each other when quality consciousness is embedded in each employee as a team concept. Raises the learning process – teamwork promotes the learning proc ess in socializing, when people are doing a common task assigned to them, and given a group objective. The idea is an entire organization learns in the process, not just the individuals (Marquardt 52). Reinforces individual strengths – most work today is multi-disciplinary in nature, so no one person can be expected to do it all alone. Teamwork can likewise mitigate weaknesses, enables more rapid adaptation to changes, and saves resources by doing more with less. Various theories have

The Super Continent Cycle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Super Continent Cycle - Essay Example This has been made possible by plate tectonics, the system driving Earth's continents slowly around the globe. Plate tectonics is the study of the movement of the huge plates of the landmass beneath the earth surface which results into drifting of the continents. This hypothesis of drifting continents was proposed by German scientist Alfred Wegener for the first time in 1912. He used many types of evidence available in abundance on the earth's surface. Some of the evidences pointing out such supercontinent cycle are; Fossil Remains: Similar types of plant and animal fossils were found in different areas of continents which were studied to be connected. For example, the fossil remains of a small reptile found both in Africa and Latin America. Rock Formations: In the coastal regions, the rocks were found to be matching even in areas which were widely separated. To prove this point Wegener came out with the proof suggesting the reconstruction of an ice cap radiating from South Africa, whose marks were traced across the southern continents. Climatic Conditions: Some climatic patterns were observed which were not in conformity with the normal climate of the region/s, thus suggesting that these climatic conditions could have been affected by the climatic conditions at some other places or regions. Wegener's hypothesis therefore led us to believe that while on the one hand the some of the western African regions have similarities with the eastern part of South America; the northern part of African continent had similarities with the southern regions of North America. Similarities were also found in the southern part of Asian region and the western part of African continent, thus giving the thought an impetus. Initially though Wegener's hypothesis was not taken seriously, but gradually, as the theory of plate tectonics developed in 1960's, more and more studies took place, the notions of supercontinent gained wider acceptance. The plate tectonics theory believes that the surface of earth is divided into a number of shifting plates with an average thickness of around 50-80 km. African, American, Antarctic, Eurasian, Indian and Pacific regions have all been assigned huge plates while smaller landmasses with smaller plates are identified as Arabian, Caribbean, Cocos, Nasca, Philipp ine and Scotia regions. In fact scientists have identified about 15 major tectonic plates. Earthquakes help in identifying the plates. The supercontinent theory suggests that during the Paleozoic Era, there was a huge continent named Pangeae, which included all the continents. The name Pangaea is derived from the Greek word "pan" meaning "all" and Gaea or Gaia i.e. the Greek name of the divine personification of the Earth. Pangaea, therefore, means "all land." During the Triassic Period, the Pangeae started fragmenting thus resulting in the existing number of continents. This process is said to be continuing even now. The supercontinent theory suggests such occurrences have also happened in the past, thus the name 'supercontinent cycle'. Canadian geologist John Tuzo Wilson also provided an insight into the hypothetical supercontinent cycle, who described the fragmentation of continents, opening and closing of the ocean basin and subsequent reassembly of the continents. This theory suggests t

The Munich Agreement Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 8500 words

The Munich Agreement - Dissertation Example Chamberlain’s role was central to the appeasement process as a committed person in response to the public opinion. But this was not without criticism. Left wing-writers under a pseudonym Cato published guilty men in 1940, which accused Chamberlain of taking undue advantage of public opinion and giving unrealistic hopes of peace with Germany.   They sought to point out that Chamberlain underestimated the British capacity and overestimated the German’s capacity of war. They have painted Chamberlain as a great deceiver . Because of the outbreak of the Second World War in spite of the cession of the Sudetenland, Chamberlain stood exposed to criticism for having slowed down the rearmament program after the First World War. Historical research on this episode has these writers as the first phase. In what can be called the second phase of historical research, Taylor in his 1961 publication †The Origin of Second World War†, remarked that the role of appeasement in the outbreak of Second World War was;   â€Å"The cause of war was therefore as much the blunders of others as the wickedness of dictators themselves.†Ã‚   In 1963, The Appeasers, Martin Gilbert and Richard Gott maintained that Chamberlain deceived the public by showing the bogey of another war which the British could not afford. However, since the 1960s, revisionist historians argued for the compelling reasons for appeasement as that was the only viable policy for the British in the 1930s. The Nation had a weak economy drained of resources after the needs in the war just ended. Historians such as Patrick Finney agreed that appeasement was the inevitable result of British decline. They also argued that public opinion prior to 1937 could not be easily dismissed. Maurice Calling in his 1975 publication, The Impact of Hitler: British Politics and British Policy 1933-40, maintained that the appeasement policy was compelled by domestic considerations. Chamberlain, motivated by the state of the country’s economy and political stand of his Conservative party, took the appeasement decision that was expected to become popular with the British public. Chamberlain changed his stand in response to the public opinion after Germany occupied Prague in 1939. R.A.C Parker, in his Chamberlain and Appeasement (1993), argued that Chamberlain deliberately used the reasons of weak economy and weak military, to shape the public opinion, as he was deeply committed to appeasement for the sake appeasement and not due to weakness.5 From looking at the historiography relating to the Munich agreement it is clear to see that there is an ongoing debate relating to the issue. Throughout this piece I intend to

Regression Analysis & T-Test Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Regression Analysis & T-Test - Assignment Example Based on a thorough analysis of the data provided do you think that there is evidence to support the company’s current patterns of spending? That is, do you think either radio or newspaper adverts have a sufficient impact on income to justify the expense? What recommendations would you give regarding future spending? Once again, support these recommendations with appropriate statistical outputs such as correlation coefficients, fitted line plots and regression output and perform appropriate hypothesis tests. Explain and discuss the output and analysis and give appropriate advice.The correlations matrix shows that there is a strong positive relationship between profits and radio expenditures (that is, the higher the radio expenditures the higher the profits made); with a coefficient of 0.802, this shows indeed a strong positive relationship that exists between the two variables (profits and radio expenditure). The relationship between profits and newspapers expenditure is howev er negative; that is the higher the newspaper expenditures the lower the profits.From the regression table above, we observe the value of R-squared to be 64.4%; this implies that 64.4% of variation in the profits (dependent variable) is entirely explained by the two independent variables (radio and newspaper advertisements). The p-value of the overall model is 0.000 (a value less than ÃŽ ±=0.05), leading us to reject the null hypothesis thus concluding that the overall model is appropriate and fit and that the two independent variables.

IS TAX-SUPPORTED HIGHER EDUCATION JUSTIFIED Term Paper

IS TAX-SUPPORTED HIGHER EDUCATION JUSTIFIED - Term Paper Example This paper seeks to establish arguments and reasons why tax-supported higher education is justified based on Immanuel Kant’s principle. Immanuel Kant: On Good Will, Moral Worth and Duty According to this philosopher, the term â€Å"good will† is characterized by the ideas of â€Å"person with good will.† To understand this, it is better to take a deeper analysis on what makes a person good (Johnson, 2008). Kant states that a person is good because of his possession of a good will, in a way, that his decisions are determined by on the basis of the moral law. In addition, he believes that anyone would say that his actions are morally clean and and  considered  it as reasons for guiding his  behaviors. Further, he points out that a good will is a will whose decisions are determined entirely by what he called as the Moral Law. There must be no circumstance in which moral goodness would be regarded as worth forfeiting just to exchange it for something desirable. Say for example, desirable qualities like courage or cleverness would be demeaned and sacrificed as to lay it aside if injustice requires, or, will be discarded if cruelty demands, thus, making good will not be good at all. Further, he explains that duty, has moral worth if the actions are not derived with motivations, in particular, self-interest, self-preservation, sympathy and happiness. However, it may be dutiful but does not express a good will. For instance, the government has the main duty, according the law of the land--the Constitution to serve and protect its constituents, and abide to the norms and standards, for the welfare of all. Also, duty performed out of motivations like love and friendship is a duty of good will. Furthermore, if a duty is done in the respect for moral law, then it is a motivation of respect. For instance, Maria in her being a member of an organization, by which rules and regulations are strictly implemented, would follow the said policies because it is her duty. To that effect, Maria thinks that she is respecting laws pertaining to her. The Categorical and Hypothetical Imperatives Kant formulated the Categorical Imperative in which he explains, â€Å"ought never to act except in such a way that I could also will that my maxim should become a universal law.† According to him, this motivates a good will. It is imperative because it is a command. For example, â€Å"Take me away from him.† This shows that Categorical Imperative, exactly, commands us to act on our wills. It is not conditional and does not have willed ends. Unlike Hypothetical Imperative, it requires a certain degree of condition. Hence, it is imperative but to the extent that in doing a particular action or duty, there is an underlying motivation such as condition. Hypothetical imperative is one that requires an exercise of wills, only, to certain degree of condition--a command of unconditional form. For example, â€Å"If you want to pass from this subject, then buy me a pair of shoes.† This shows a conditional imperative. The Formula of the Universal Law of Nature As stated above, categorical imperative denotes that an act done in accordance to this maxim can and will become a universal law. Suppose, in a democratic country, the legislator made a law prohibiting all constituents from getting an education. Such law is invalid because it simply violates the principle of freedom

Questionnaire results Essay Example for Free

Questionnaire results Essay The questionnaire is an essential part of our research it gives us an insight to what people think. The questionnaire was randomly given out to males and females. More females had answered our questionnaire which does not matter as long as we have the views of the males as well. It can be seen that a variety of ages were asked to do the questionnaire. This shows us we will get a variety of results. We asked Do you eat Ice cream? 85% of the people said Yes. This question was vital for us because we are selling Ice Cream. The outcome of the results is good because we had more than 50% saying Yes. The question How often do you eat Ice Cream? was asked so we can see if Ice Cream is popular within people. Most people said they eat Ice Cream once a month. This is not good as we would like people to come to our Ice Cream parlour. We would have to promote our business to get customers to come to our Ice Bar. We had asked a variety of flavours. The most popular flavour was chocolate this shows us which flavours we can order and how many litres we would need to buy. We had also asked people if there were any other flavours they like; we did get a few people with more flavours. These flavours do not seem popular but we can try them. We asked Do you visit Ice Cream parlour? majority of the results were No. This is not good for our business, but it can be understood that there are not a lot of Ice Cream parlours. In the area we are to open Ice Bar there are none at all. So this is good for us but then there is a lot of competition due to a lot of food businesses. We will need to advertise our business to let people know we are open and we sell Ice Cream. We got more promising results when we asked Would you visit your local Ice Cream parlour. A majority people of people said Yes. So this is good for our business. At least we can see from the results that people would visit an Ice Cream parlour if available to them. Every business needs a name. We came up with a few ideas for our business but could not decide which one to have because four of the ones we chose we liked. As we are partners we could not agree on the same name so we decided to let the public decide which name is better suited. It can be seen Ice Bar was the popular name. So we had decided to go with this name for our business. By researching which areas are better to locate our business with the help of the above criteria, we decided to locate on Ecclesall Road as this is close to the city centre with a high density of both residential and business premises. Ecclesall Road is a predominantly student area. This will start of with a good client base from which we can build from. It is vital that the Ice Bar has both a shop front facing on the main street, and a visible separate entrance. The premises we have found is located on Ecclesall Road as intended to. The property details are as follows on the next page. The property is easily accessible, public transportation is available as it is on a main road Plan of Ice Bar The layout of the area of the Ice Bar must be made easy for customers and waiters/waitresses to move freely. The kitchen must comply with all the Health Safety requirements, but at the same time all implements should be set out within easy reach of preparations areas. Food prepared in advance must be stored in the freezer, which should also be in easy reach of the preparation area. In the plan you can see this is done. To enter the parlour there are double doors which will make easier access for people and more space for people to get in and out. This will be most necessary when Ice Bar is going to be busy. We have a main bar in the parlour which designed to for a modern and different look. As there was more space we decided to place another bar which faces the window. So it will also show the parlour is big and welcomes a lot of customers. As we are in a student area we decided to have a corner in the room where people of any ages to come and relax with a table could do some work if wanted to? Behind the main bar is a worktop where we are to make the ice creams. We cannot make the ice creams on the main bar as this would make the customers feel we were intruding into their privacy. There is more space on the worktop and jus in case of any spills this could be helpful. On the worktop there are to be placed a few of the glasses to show the customers the size of them. It would be quicker an all. There is an entrance to the store room where all the ingredients to make Ice Cream Sundaes are. The shelving is used for storing the toppings and sauces and spare Ice Cream glasses. The large freezer is to be placed in the store room. The reason for this is that there is not enough space to keep it on the shop floor. The freezer is an industrial freezer so the appearance of it will be unattractive. Quality Assurance Quality assurance is a planned and well-organised pattern of all actions necessary to provide sufficient confidence that the product or service meets the customers expectations. Training Our quality assurance will consist of a course of training for all our staff. Each staff member will be taken aside and informed of all the information they will need to learn. They will then be tested on this and their score will be recorded on a training record card. All staff will also be trained in how to create the sundaes and present them to a high standard. Staff must complete a basic food hygiene course before they can participate in making the desserts.

Link Between CSR and HRM

Link Between CSR and HRM Corporate social responsibility (CSR) prevails in the past four decades. A great number of companies embed CSR principles into their daily business practices. The CSR practices are always subject to debates. Some researchers agree with the benefits of CSR for organizations, whereas others question the nature of CSR and argue that it conflict with business profitability. Definition of CSR has been developed by various researchers; it varies in different context. World Business Council for Sustainable Development (1999 cited in Viljanen and Lahteenmaki, 2009) defined CSR as is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as the local community and society at large. Furthermore, CSR is defined as treating the stakeholders of the firm ethically or in a responsible manner (Hopkins, 2003, p.1, cited in Fenwick and Bierema, 2008). Similarly, in the study by Melynyte and Ruzevicius (2008), CSR was regarded to meet economic, social, environmental and ethical requirements of stakeholders. Moreover, Syed and Kramar (2008) cited the definition of CSR by EU: a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with stakeholders on a voluntary basis. Based on the definition by previous researchers, the author understands CSR from three aspects: 1) Voluntary actions. 2) Concerns of stakeholders, local community and society. 3) The economic, ethical, social and environmental (positive) impacts of business operations. Melynyte and Ruzevicius (2008) summarized CSR activities on the basis of previous research, including ensuring staffs health and safety at work, developing equal rights, providing continuous trainings, being responsible for consumers and customers, decreasing negative impact in environment, generating ecological products and services as well as participating in society activities. In this paper, the author will illustrate two points of views: HRM should be linked to CSR; such a link is still realistic in the current tough economic climate. Both of standpoints are explained on the basis of different perspectives and arguments in previous literature. Part Two: Link between HRM and CSR 2.1 literature debates In this part, four debates are identified, namely, feasibility of such link versus impossibility, classical views versus stakeholder theory, benefits from CSR actions versus CSR without returns, as well as soft HRM versus hard HRM. Winstanley et al (1996) indicated that ethical concerns, such as job insecurity and insufficient regard for the autonomy of staff, should be expressed when criticizing contemporary HRM; it is also important that HR professionals engage with ethical issues. However, some researchers think that the ethical treatment of employees is impossible. Claydon (2000) explained it on the basis of the Marxist perspective on capital and labour relations. He thought that fundamental contradiction exists between capital and labour, so it is impossible to make working conditions more ethical. In addition, Legge (2000)- from the perspective of utilitarianism- indicated that even though it is likely that ethical HRM will be found among the core workers, it is difficult to be found among sub-contracted or agency workers. The study by Friedman (1970 cited in Greenwood, 2002) suggested that business has sole responsibility of making profit for its shareholders and should maximize its profits. He believed that the social responsibility is fundamentally contrary to the principle of free-market economy. This classical view emphasized the sole benefit of shareholders, which was related to ethical egoism; it implies that corporations should pay little attention to building CSR into management system. This classical view was countered by stakeholder theory, which not only presents a conceptual framework of analysis of HRM (Ferrary, 2009), but also offers corporations a new way of thinking organizational responsibilities (Jamali, 2008). The stakeholder theory was defined by Freeman (1984) that managers have a responsibility to attend to all who has a stake in organizations. Similarly, Greenwood and Cieri (2007: 128) indicated managers must act in the interests of stakeholders and management must engage stakeholders in decision-making. Freeman (1984) also gave the definition of stakeholder as any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of organization objectives, consisting of shareholders, employees, customers and suppliers. In addition to traditional interest groups, local communities and environment- regarded as silent stakeholders- should be included (Simmons, 2004 cited in Jamali, 2008). This theory suggested that corporations should turn attention to considerations beyond direct profit maximization, because the needs of shareholders cannot be met without satisfying to some degree the needs of other stakeholders (Jamali, 2008). Since employees are regarded as key stakeholders, corporations must be responsible for staff and take them into consideration to large extent in managerial decision making. It implies that HRM should be linked to CSR. Papasolomou et al (2005) illustrated CSR actions to employees, such as building family-friendly work environment, sharing information with staff, offering equal reward and pay, administering diversity management in terms of selection and promotion, providing training and long-term development to all staff as well as encouraging staff engaging in social activities. Moreover, some researcher (such as Friedman) emphasized that companies should put the profit object first (Woodall and Winstanley, 2000), so CSR actions are minimized. It seems that primacy of the profit motive becomes a primary reason why researchers and managers oppose to connect HRM with CSR or minimize CSR activities. Some researchers questioned whether the company can obtain returns when adopting CSR initiatives (Heugens and Dentchev, 2007). On the contrary, many researchers hold that CSR can offer potential profits and improve long-term corporate profitability. Brammer et al (2007) indicated that it pays off when HRM is linked with CSR, on the ground that CSR is beneficial to the attraction, retention and motivation of employees. Similarly, Bohdanowicz and Zientara (2008) considered that corporations can get payoff in the long run if they treated ethically to employees. In addition, CSR play a critical role in enhancing employees job satisfaction and further organizational comm itment, both of which affect employees performance and workplace behavior (turnover and workplace deviation). Melynyte and Ruzevicius (2008) also hold similar views: the combination of CSR and HRM does indirect positive influence to the organizations financial results through influencing staffs morale, job motivation and loyalty to organizations. Furthermore, in the study by Michie and Sheehan-Quinn (2001 cited in Viljanen and Lahteenmaki, 2009), soft HRM approach, named as high-road HRM, regards employees as resource, which is valuable to continuously develop, and makes efforts to increase employee commitment. On the contrary, hard HRM, called as low-road HRM, is lack of organization promise to job security and pay little attention to the staff training. It seems that soft HRM advocate HRM should be linked to CSR whereas hard HRM do not take CSR into account. However, Legge (1995) indicated that even though some corporations make a display of soft HRM, it is hard in reality. 2.2 HRM should be linked with CSR On the basis of analysis of previous academic debates, the author personally supports that HRM should be linked to CSR. It will be explained from four aspects. Above all, it is possible to integrate HRM with CSR, although some writers explained the impossibility of this kind of integration (as mentioned above, Claydon and Legge). In the study by Vuontisjarvi (2006), sub-themes of CSR, which refer to the integration of CSR and HRM, were identified: training and development, employee involvement, job security, employee health and well-being, equal opportunities, work-life balance and diversity management. Many corporations took on a series of HRM practices which is linked with the principle of CSR. In the case of PSA Peugeot Citroen, which is a famous French car manufacturer, diversity management was adopted. This company not only sought diversity workforce through recruiting a ration of non-French employees and secondary school graduates in the local city, but also ensure the equal treatment of each staff and non-discrimination. In 2003, the company recruited 129 non-French employees (including 45 women), who are in position of engineers and managers, which account for 10% of new staff. In addition, age issue also was taken into consideration. In 2003, 60% of new staff were younger than 30; 13% of new staff were older than 40. Furthermore, all employees had equal rights to be informed what vacancies are available because all the information was publicized on the company intranet. Further measures also include offering apprenticeships to people who were difficult to find job. (Syed an d Kramar, 2008) In addition to PSA Peugeot Citroen, many cases- such as retraining programme offered to staff by Deutsche Bank in the climate of redundancy (Syed and Kramar, 2008)- prove the feasibility of integration of CSR and HRM practices. Secondly, according to stakeholder theory, firms not only meet the requirements of shareholders but also satisfy employees. A series of responsible HRM practices- such as work-life balance (offer female employee childcare support or flexible working time) as well as initiatives mentioned above- meet the requirements of staff. Moreover, in addition to money, employees are also provided the the feeling of meaningfulness and possibility to take responsibility for quality of future generations life (Melynyte and Ruzevicius, 2008). That companies offer chance to staff to join social activities meet the psychological needs of employees. Given these reasons, HRM should be linked with CSR. Thirdly, the issue of business profitability becomes the bones of contention. Some researchers refuse to build CSR into HRM practices because of consideration of the corporation profits. However, a lot of research (as mentioned above) indicates that potential profits can be obtained if companies effectively incorporate CSR rules into HRM practices. In the case of Scandic (Bohdanowicz and Zientara, 2008), a famous hotel in Scandinavia, CSR was embedded into HRM, which is a part of Omtanke programme. Scandic strives for treating equally all staff. For instance, when the company planed to design new working clothes, different nationalities of employees were taken into consideration. As a result, headband, a part of uniform, is not compulsory to wear. Moreover, all staff were congregated to discuss what CSR actions to community should be adopted. Employees were offered opportunities of information sharing as well as rights of participation of decision-making. In addition, with regard to employee health, the hotel propagated the information about cancer to employees in the form of lectures; the company also assisted staff to quit smoke through offering guidance. Scandic showed that the firm indeed cared for its staff by implementing these initiatives (equal treatment, information sharing as well as health of employees). The outcome of this study revealed that these responsible HRM practices were beneficial to enhancement of employees job satisfaction (employees feel that they are cared), thereby affecting work performance and behavior. As a result, employees performance well, namely offering the high quality of service for customers and the turnover has decreased, all of which are regarded as potential profits of corporation. Therefore, CSR principles should be integrated into HRM practices because it benefits for company by improving job satisfaction, enhancing organizational commitment, advancing employees performance and decreasing the turnover. Finally, even if CSR is sometimes described as window-dressing, it actually helps corporations to establish good image and reputation, which is conducive to HRM. The company who takes CSR measures is more attractive to candidates (Greening and Turban, 2000, cited in Brammer et al). In modern times, CSR has become the trend, potential employees, especially new graduates, prefer to work in the corporation which has strong social responsibility and good reputation. Likewise, Bohdanowicz and Zientara (2008) indicated that socially responsible company can more likely attract and retain employees who care about green issues. In addition, since the company which integrates HRM with CSR advertises the equal treatment and non-discrimination during recruitment and promotion, potential staff are more likely to apply for this kind of company. Therefore, CSR help the corporation to have competitive edge over other firms which pay little attention to CSR initiatives during recruitment Furthermore, employees are always proud of working in socially responsible firm which has good reputation, thereby they have more loyalty and commitment to the organization, which makes employees stay longer in this company (Bohdanowicz and Zientara 2008). In the case of Babyfood which is famous for socially and environmentally responsible food company, a good reputation is considered as the primary factor enhancing staffs loyalty and motivation. The research show that although employees satisfaction is not pronounced compared with other food companies, and salaries are even lower than average in this industry, staff are still willing to work in this company due to its good reputation. Babyfoods rate of turnover is 20% lower than food industry average. (Lamberti and Lettieri, 2009) In sum, Since CSR, leading to good image of company, is beneficial to recruitment and retaining of employees, CSR should be embedded into HRM. Additional advantages of integration of HRM and CSR were identified in the study of Melynyte and Ruzevicius (2008): establishing partnership environment, increasing customers satisfaction and trust as well as attracting external investments. All in all, HRM should be linked to CSR because of its feasibility and positive effectiveness. 2.3 Links between HRM and CSR HRM refer to the issues in people management and treatment of employees; many CSR approaches stress the significance of meeting the requirements of employees who are regarded as key stakeholder. Therefore, how to deal with employees becomes a key point when analyzing the link between HRM and CSR. In addition, Syed and Kramar (2008) indicated that the integration of HRM and CSR can be achieved when they get support from employers, investors as well as institutions. Melynyte and Ruzevicius (2008) reviewed previous research about links between HRM and CSR and then summarized three forms of links. 1) CSR functions identical to HRM functions (interdependent link). 2) HRM functions making impact on CSR (SR activities emerging from HRM). 3) CSR functions making direct or indirect impact on HRM (how SR activities make impact on HRM). The first one includes removing child and enforced labor, establishing healthy and safe work environment, safeguard individual rights, offering job security, producing the process of justice, ensuring equal treatment of staff and diversity management, designing reasonable and flexible working hours (e.g. holiday time and work at night) as well as equal pay and welfare benefits. Secondly, HRM functions can influence CSR. Many practices can be identified. a) HR manager can plan and initiate CSR activities, such as mobilizing employees to recycle paper. b) The process of recruitment, selection and dismissal can be judicial and transparent. c) Managers share information with employees and staff participate in decision-making. d) When companies are faced with changes, HR manager still need to take social responsibility into consideration and ensure staff rights. e) Corporations provide continuous training to employees. f) Employers strive for meeting staff needs, such as addressing the issue of work-life balance and providing medical insurance. Finally, CSR functions also influence HRM. For example, while recruiting, CSR activities are advertised in order to attract competent candidates. In addition, social responsibility issues are introduced to staff. Moreover, employees engage in the CSR activities initiated by companies they work in. Furthermore, CSR can be used as an element of the system of appraisal, reward and promotion (Syed and Kramar, 2008). Part three: the link between HRM and CSR in the circumstance of global financial crisis In the current social-economic environment, global financial crisis is ongoing, thereby leads to mass restructuring and redundancies. A number of HR actions are conducted to react to the economic crisis. Many debates about CSR or ethics and HRM emerge. Based on different perspectives in precious research, the author will explain her own view: in the climate of global financial crisis the link between HRM and CSR is still realistic. Mankelow (2008) indicated that responsible HRM are adopted because employees are regarded as key resource to maintain competitive edge in market. The purpose of CSR actions to employees is to improve work efficiency and increase business profitability. It implies that although the importance of CSR is admitted, it after all services for the business profits and is inferior to the significance of corporation benefits. In the current financial crisis, it is no doubt that companies fight with survival firstly and CSR may be neglected. In addition, He suggested that socially responsible activities to staff are subject to certain conditions. It seems that CSR should base on appropriate economic conditions; it is a challenge to connect CSR with HRM in the face of tough economic environment (Mankelow, 2008). Although the link between HRM and CSR is questioned in current environment (can company can afford CSR in global financial crisis? Or CSR should be subject to business benefit, and the current condition does not permit the implementation of CSR), some researchers indicate the possibility that CSR is embedded into HRM in the environment of financial crisis. For example, In the study by Jones et al (2000), good image and reputation, established through CSR actions and other initiatives, can protect corporations from the decline of market in the chaotic economic environment; the stock price of firms with good image fall less than those without good reputation. Schnietz and Epstein (2005) held a similar view. Therefore, CSR is conducive to financial performance even in such tough circumstance. Furthermore, some researchers consider that it is costly to embed CSR principles into HRM practices. For instance, many employers are unwilling to notify downsizing plans in advance, which is a responsible HRM practice, on the ground that the productivity will decrease, employee will lose morale and turnover increase, all of which is costly (Leana and Feldman, 1992, cited in Forde et al, 2009). On the contrary, Hopkins and Hopkins (1999, cited in Forde et al, 2009) suggested that advance notification virtually minimize the costs, because it alleviates the pressure of post-layoff through retraining employees and offering counseling. It implies that some actions comprising CSR principles can be helpful to cost-saving. In current climate of global financial crisis, redundancy and restructuring is inevitable. However, it does not mean that the link between HRM and CSR is unrealistic. Socially responsible restructuring is identified, which embed CSR principles into restructuring. It was defined as the use of one or more approaches to consciously take into account the interest of all the organizations stakeholders- managers, owners/shareholders, workers, as well as the large community (International Labour Organization, 2002, cited in Forde et al, 2009). Since restructuring and redundancies are also parts of HRM functions (Redman and Wilkinson, 2001), socially responsible restructuring can be regarded as special integration of HRM and CSR in special economic circumstance. Forde et al (2009) proposed that- from the perspective of business case- socially responsible restructuring are implemented because it can be beneficial to the competitiveness of company. However, Heller (2009 cited in Forde et al, 2009) argued that with the intensity of global financial crisis and increases of redundancy, fewer corporations take up socially responsible restructuring. In fact, Legislation and labor market policies are enacted and implemented to advance companies to adopt socially responsible restructuring measures. For example, Trade Adjustment Assistance Act is used to promote social accountability when redundancy and layoff increase (Office of the US Trade Representative, 2009, cited in Forde et al, 2009). Therefore, with the support of legislation and government policies, the link between HRM and CSR is realistic even if it is faced with deepening economic crisis. Viljanen and Lahteenmaki (2009) analyzed different HR reactions to global financial crisis from two HRM philosophies: hard and soft. Hard HRM is in pursuit of maximal short-term saving and obtain cost efficiency by direct personnel cuts. On the contrary, soft HRM seek for the maintenance of business in the long run. The HR actions according to this kind of approach include dismiss employees temporarily, implementing pension plans as well as offering support to staff in the face of redundancy (such as outplacement services and retraining). Legge (2005 cited in Forde et al, 2009) concluded that in order to seek for profits, companies are forced to take hard HRM actions, such as direct personnel cuts. Moreover, collapsed market also compels employers to strive for cost-saving by directly cutting headcounts of employees. It seems that HRM actions easily turn hard in the circumstance of global financial crisis. It is indeed a challenging for company not only to strive for survival in tough environment and make the balance of short and long term profits, but also to maintain its good reputation and performance reliable employer. Although these activities appear to be hard in common situation, when they are located in the climate of economic crisis, HRM seems not to be hard. It is possible to integrate CSR with HRM during global financial crisis. (Forde et al, 2009) It is impossible that companies can meet requirements of all stakeholders (including shareholders and employees). In the tough economic environment, what firm can do is to strive for minimizing the loss of benefits of all stakeholders and avoid direct personnel cut (hard HRM). Therefore, CSR can play a potential role in restructuring, on the ground that socially responsible restructuring minimize negative influence of layoffs and redundancy. whilst at present we do not have a viable CSR tool for the successful anticipation and management of corporate change, there are a range of possibilities for connecting restructuring to CSR (Forde et al, 2009). It affirms the viability of the link between HRM and CSR. Indeed, considering that in the environment of financial crisis CSR is beneficial to financial performance, that some actions comprising CSR principles can minimize the costs and that socially responsible restructuring are promoted by legislation and government policies, it is realistic and feasible to integrate HRM with CSR in current economic environment. Three case studies will be illustrated to prove that such link is possible in the face of tough economic environment. In the case study of steel industry in the UK (Corus and ASW), previous to the declaration of layoffs, both Corus and ASW offer high level of training which enhances the employability of employees and help them adapt to changing environment. In addition, ASW held a formal meeting to notify employees in advance that company will lay off staff because of unstable financial situation. During the period of announcement of layoffs, Corus did not put layoff planes into action immediately. Instead, it offered 90-day consultation time. Moreover, in the period of implementation of layoffs, companies establish equitable criteria to choose employees who should be laid off. At Corus plants, workers who were voluntary to leave were hunted prior to the adoption of compulsory redundancy; early retirement schemes were implemented, namely employees, in the age of fifty and above, can retire early with sufficient pension. Furthermore, Corus offer criteria for the selection of redeployment. In addition , many support activities were administered, such as offering information about job opportunities and career advice, providing retraining programme as well as offering counseling. Deutsche Bank also did well in combining CSR with HRM practices in the climate of restructuring. Many HRM actions were devised to help staff whom the bank laid off to find another job. Vocational retraining and job coaching (e.g. advice for job applications) were offered. Staff were redeployed by internal temporary work agency. Both internal (e.g. HR advisers) and external counseling were provided. In addition, the bank also offer part-time working and have outplacement activities (Syed and Kramar, 2008). Another case is Hotel Villa Magna-Park Hyatt. In 2007, the hotel implement redecoration programme which lasted for 14 months rather than lay off employees. The company showed that it truly care for staff by providing chances for employees to participate in all activities (Bohdanowicz and Zientara, 2008). In a sense, the integration of HRM and CSR is realistic by insert CSR principles into redundancy and restructuring, even though it is different from the responsible HRM practices in normal circumstance (such as job security and work-life balance). Part Four: conclusion In this research, the author demonstrated that HRM should be linked to CSR. It was explained with references to academic debates from four aspects. Firstly, such link is feasible on the ground of reality that responsible HRM actions are actually adopted by many companies. Secondly, according to stakeholder theory, corporations should strive for meeting the requirement of all stakeholders (including shareholders and employees). CSR actions can meet the psychological needs of employees. Next, the integration of HRM and CSR can bring about potential profits by improving job satisfaction, enhancing organizational commitment, advancing employees performance and decreasing the turnover. Finally, CSR is conducive to establishment of good reputation of companies, thereby help employers recruit and retain employees. In addition, socially responsible restructuring is regarded as the special links between HRM and CSR in such tough economic climate. The researcher also proposed that such link is still realistic in the current climate of restructuring and redundancies on the ground that it helps companies set up better reputation, which can alleviate the economic loss of firms in collapsed market, that it can be beneficial to cost-saving in the face of redundancy and that it is supported by legislation and government policies. Although restructuring and redundancy are considered as hard HRM actions, such link seems to be soft in current tough climate.

The Masque of the Red Death Essay -- Literary Analysis, Allen Poe

Have you ever read a story where fantasy is the reality and things do not quite make sense? This is true for â€Å"The Masque of the Red Death† by Edgar Allen Poe. In it is a version of the black plague, which is called the â€Å"Red Death†. Prince Prospero secludes a thousand friends and himself from the death around them, but finds that he cannot avoid the inevitable. The author uses many literary devices to create an interesting and meaningful story. One of the devices used is imagery, which evokes the events of the story clearly in the reader’s mind. Another is allegory, which is used by Poe to create another story within his, as it is filled with double meanings. Lastly, Poe utilizes symbolism to give the story meaning. Edgar Allan Poe uses imagery, allegory, and symbolism to add dimension to his story and to express the theme that one cannot escape death, no matter how hard one tries. Poe uses imagery to paint a picture in readers’ mind, create a mood, and emphasize the significance of certain objects. One can envision the amazement of the chambers, which had â€Å"†¦a tall and narrow Gothic window†¦of stained glass whose color varied in accordance with the†¦hue†¦of the chamber into which it opened† and was lit up by â€Å"†¦a brazier of fire that projected its rays through the tinted glass† (421). One can also imagine the way the crowd slows down to a pause when the â€Å"†¦chiming of the clock... [causes] disconcert and tremulousness and meditations† (423). These descriptions keep readers’ attention throughout the story. One can feel the terror of the â€Å"Red Death†, which â€Å"†¦had long devastated the country† and whose â€Å"†¦Avatar and seal [was] the redness and horror of blood† (420). The fact that blood represents the disease makes it recognized as deadly a n... ...th that of the last of the gay [a]nd the flames of the tripods expired† (427) to show that the tables have already turned and there is no going back. Edgar Allan Poe uses imagery, allegory, and symbolism to give allegorical meaning to his story â€Å"The Masque of Red Death†. He employs imagery to keep readers interested by creating an image, feeling, and significance. Poe also uses allegory to express some underlying meanings within his story through Prince Prospero, the Red Death, and the chambers. Likewise, Poe utilizes symbolism to convey certain ideas through the blue and black room, the clock, and midnight. Poe also uses these literary devices to impart the idea that death is unavoidable and that it is futile to try to stop it from occurring. When people go through their daily lives, they may not know it, but many things around them could have a double meaning.

A Comparison of Hamlet’s Gertrude and Ophelia Essay -- William Shakes

A Comparison of Hamlet’s Gertrude and Ophelia      Ã‚  Ã‚   Queen Gertrude and Ophelia, the main female characters in Shakespeare’s dramatic tragedy Hamlet, have a variety of personal qualities and experiences in common. This essay, with the help of literary critics, will explore this commonality. In the Introduction to Twentieth Century Interpretations of Hamlet, David Bevington enlightens the reader regarding the similarities between Gertrude and Ophelia as the hero sees them: Yet to Hamlet, Ophelia is no better than another Gertrude: both are tender of heart but submissive to the will of importunate men, and so are forced into uncharacteristic vices. Both would be other than what they are, and both receive Hamlet’s exhortations to begin repentance by abstaining from pleasure. â€Å"Get thee to a nunnery†; â€Å"Assume a virtue if you have it not.† (9) As Bevington says, both Gertrude and Ophelia are â€Å"tender of heart,† motivated by love and a desire for quiet familial harmony among the members of their courtly society in Elsinore. At the first social function in the play, Gertrude is motivated out of love for her son to advise: Dear Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. Do not for ever with thy vailed lids Seek for thy noble father in the dust. (1.2) Likewise does she ask that the prince remain with the family: â€Å"Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet, / I pray thee stay with us, go not to Wittenberg.† Later, when the hero’s supposed â€Å"madness† is the big concern, Gertrude lovingly sides with her husband in the analysis of her son’s condition: â€Å"I doubt it is no other but the main, / His father’s death and our o’erhasty marriage.† Later she confides her family... ...NJ: Hayden Book Co., Inc., 1973. Jorgensen, Paul A. â€Å"Hamlet.† William Shakespeare: the Tragedies. Boston: Twayne Publ., 1985. N. pag. http://www.freehomepages.com/hamlet/other/jorg-hamlet.html Kermode, Frank. â€Å"Hamlet.† The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1974. Pennington, Michael. â€Å"Ophelia: Madness Her Only Safe Haven.† Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from â€Å"Hamlet†: A User’s Guide. New York: Limelight Editions, 1996. Pitt, Angela. â€Å"Women in Shakespeare’s Tragedies.† Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Rpt. from Shakespeare’s Women. N.p.: n.p., 1981. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http://www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html   

Capital Punishment - The View of International and National Courts :: Argumentative Persuasive Topics

Capital Punishment and International and National Courts    Around the world we travel in this paper, which reviews the attitude of courts worldwide regarding the death penalty.    By way of international courts, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC), in a judgement which may have far-reaching consequences on death penalty cases in the English-speaking Caribbean, commuted the death sentences of six convicted prisoners in Jamaica on 12 September. The JCPC which serves as the final appeal court for English-speaking Caribbean countries such as Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and the Bahamas, ruled that it is unlawful to execute prisoners whose appeals are pending before international bodies such as the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Committee.    The JCPC also ruled that the Jamaican Privy Council (Mercy Committee) when considering whether to exercise the prerogative of mercy, must provide prisoners with an effective and adequate opportunity to participate in the mercy process, including notification of the date on which the Mercy Committee will consider the case and the opportunity to make informed representations to the Committee and to challenge any inaccurate information before it. This judgement overrules previous decisions of the JCPC and other Caribbean courts, including the 1996 decision from the Bahamas, in which the JCPC had held that a condemned prisoner had no rights before the Mercy Committee.    The International Court of Justice (ICJ) held public hearings in the LaGrand case (Germany v the USA) from 13 - 17 November in The Hague. For the first time in its history, the ICJ has been asked to determine what remedies are required under international law when arrested foreign nationals are not informed of their consular rights and are then sentenced to death.    German nationals Karl and Walter LaGrand were sentenced to death in Arizona, USA, for killing a bank manager during a robbery in 1982. Although the local authorities were aware of their nationality, the two brothers were arrested, tried and sentenced to death without being advised of their right to consular notification and assistance, as required under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Germany maintains that the treaty violation contributed to the death sentences by preventing consular assistance in the gathering of mitigating evidence for presentation at the sentencing stage of the trial. German consular officers only became aware of the case 10 years after the trial when they were contacted by the LaGrands, who had finally learned of their right to consular assistance, not from the Arizona authorities but from other prison inmates.

Dumping in our Waters Essay

Water is probably one of the most important resources we have. People can survive without food for several weeks but without water we couldn’t live for more than a week. Millions of liters of water are needed every day worldwide for washing, irrigating crops, and cooling industrial processes, not to mention leisure industries such as swimming pools and water sports centers. (Internet Source) Despite our dependence on water, we use it as dumping ground for all sorts of waste, and do very little to protect the water supplies we have. There are several threats to our water resources. Oil spills kills thousands of seabirds and can wreck water desalination plants and industrial plants drawing their water from affected coastline. (EBSCO CD-ROM source) Poor management of existing water resource can lead to these resources running out or at least shrinking. Much of the pollution in the rivers and seas comes from chemicals, mainly from agriculture. Another pollution issue, which is not brought up often, is thermal pollution. As you can see we have many problems in our waters and we need to protect the waters. In the long run water pollution is going to harm us more than we now it, because a little bit of our ocean is dieing and sometime in the future its going to kills us. The thing that’s worries me the most is the animals. The animals in the ocean are dieing everyday in the ocean because of the bad pollution we have right now. Every year millions of animals dies because of the water pollution we have and 65% of the sea animal’s die because of the pollution. (Internet source) Companies, industries and people litter in our waters and for sure that is not a good thing. We need to learn that we are not going to live very long if we keep doing this. Every year it has gotten worse, the water pollution has gone about 3% every year and that a whole lot more litter and killing that we do. (Internet source) People like us cause water pollution. Dumping our trash into the ocean is one thing that causes this problem. Another is an oil tanker spilling oil in the ocean or not recycling our trash is seriously destroying the waters even more. The effect by all this water pollution is killing the waters but also a big part is killing our animals. Sea animals are very important to our lives. One of the main problems is the oils spill we have every year. People call this â€Å"oil slicks† a common name for oil spills. One of the hugest media surrounding oil spills was Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War. (Internet Source) He caused many oil spills during the war and that serious killed many of the animals in the ocean. Although measures have been taken to prevent spillage from oil tankers, there will still be accidents as the world use oil, and there is always the possibility of oil being spilled in war or by terrorist activity. (EBSCO CD-ROM source) Oil also gets into the sea from many other sources. On a graph 37% of oil pollution comes from industrial discharges and urban run-off. 33% from vessel operation, 12% on tanker accidents, 9% on atmosphere, 7% on natural sources, and last 2% from exploration production. (Internet source) Oil pollution is a major problem in water pollution and there is really no simple solution to this problem but what we can do is try to prevent, come up with ideas to stop the pollution and protect our waters. For many years has been used as coolant in industry, especially in power stations. It was never though of as a problem back in the day, because nothing was actually added to the water. However, higher temperatures can cause enzymes and microbes to speed up, and can eventually kill sea animals. Change in temperature can cause fish to migrate to regions where the water is best for them, but kill any species, which cannot move away. (Internet Source) Recently people have realized that only small changes in temperature are need to have considerable environment impact. One possible solution is to use the excess heat from industry to heat home. (Internet Source) In the book Water is everyone’s business it says this might sound very attractive but it is only practical when the homes are fairly close to the power station, and even promise cheap heating is not enough to persuade many people to live next door to a power station. (Behrman A.S. 121) This subject brings me up to my next one, which is a world without trout. If water temperatures keep rising such possibly thing might happen. Unless something is don trout and salmon will be eventually killed because of thermal pollution. The primary cause of this warming water trend and cold water fishery decline is by carbon dioxide. Although transportation produces whopping amounts of atmospheric pollution, fossil fueled power plants alone  generate 40% of the carbon dioxide in our air. Ways to prevent this is to find other sources to light up our houses. Now a days companies and industries have found other resources and it has been helping a little bit at a time. Last of all Drugs in the waters has cause many problems as well. Most drugs are in local streams, rivers, and perhaps even farms, as sewage bio solids used as fertilizer. Most drugs that are not used or have been used are being trashed in our oceans. Now what kind of people does that? This is serious is harming the waters, animals, and even us. Chemicals that come from drugs float around in the water and you don’t even now about this. How does that make you feel because, many people have gotten sick of this pollution and even died. If people have gotten sick of this it takes a while before it kicks in but for sure you get a good dose of sickness. This serious is a big problem that we can easily prevent. Its so simple just don’t trash the waters with the drugs, anywhere than the waters that we so need. This student from West Torrance high school sponsored a poll asking the students whether they think water pollution wills damage our ocean in the long run? 96% of the students think it would. The other question was do you think we should take care of the ocean more because of all the pollution? 87% of the students said yes and 13% said no. (Poll) This poll shows you that we should take care of our waters and think about what pollution is going to do to us in the long run. In conclusion all these problems that we have in the world should try to be prevented or stopped. We all can be a part of this by not littering because you really don’t now where that trash is going. Most of it goes to the ocean and it kills the waters. Slowly and slowly the waters are going to be destroyed and we really need it. Water is probably the most important that we need to live. Without water we would die, animals would die and everything would die. This essay should be consider by all of the people because in the long run we are not going to live very long if we still pollute the waters. We need water in many different ways and we cannot live without it. Also the animals that we have should not go through the pain of dieing because we are polluting the waters. They have not done anything to  us so we shouldn’t do anything to them. Prevent the water pollution in the world as little but as you can because you never now what possibilities it can do.

Fashion and Zara Store

Colour case This case contains colour exhibits which will be affected by the user’s screen and printer resolution. Therefore, to ensure optimum colour quality multiple copies must be ordered directly from ecch. This colour case cannot be supplied as a permission master in either paper format or as a sealed pdf file. However, please contact ecch to check availability of a black and white version which can be supplied for reproduction. ecch the case for learning ecch UK Registered Office: Cranfield University, Wharley End Beds MK43 0JR, UK t+44 (0)1234 750903 f+44 (0)1234 751125 e [email  protected] om w www. ecch. com ecch USA Registered Office: Babson College, Babson Park Wellesley MA 02457, USA t+1 781 239 5884 f+1 781 239 5885 e [email  protected] com w www. ecch. com Responsive, High Speed, Affordable Fashion This case was prepared by Sophie Linguri under the supervision of Professor Nirmalya Kumar as a basis for classroom discussion rather than to illustrate either eff ective or ineffective handling of a management situation. Copyright  © 2005 London Business School. All rights reserved.No part of this case study may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without written permission of London Business School. London Business School reference CS-05-037 ecch the case for learning Distributed by ecch, UK and USA www. ecch. com All rights reserved Printed in UK and USA North America t +1 781 239 5884 f +1 781 239 5885 e [email  protected] com 305-308-1 LBS-CS-05-037 Rest of the world t +44 (0)1234 750903 f +44 (0)1234 751125 e [email  protected] om – 2 -305-308-1 LBS-CS-05-037 Zara: Responsive, High-Speed, Affordable Fashion In 1975, the first Zara store was opened in La Coruna, in Northwest Spain. By 2005, Zara? ’s 723 stores had a selling area of 811,100 m2 and occupied ? â€Å"privileged locations of major cities? † in 56 countries. With sales of ?â‚ ¬3. 8 billion in financial year 2004, Zara had become Spain? ’s best-known fashion brand and the flagship brand of ? â‚ ¬5. 7 billion holding group Inditex. Inditex? ’s stock market listing in 2001 had turned Amancio Ortega, its founder and a self-made man, into the world? s 23 richest man, with a personal fortune that Forbes magazine estimated at $12. 6 billion. Zara strived to deliver fashion apparel, often knock-offs of famous designers, at reasonable costs to young, fashion-conscious city-dwellers. Zara used in- house designers to present new items of clothing to customers twice a week, in response to sales and fashion trends. Thus the merchandise of any particular store was fresh and limited. To produce at such short notice required that Zara maintain a vertically integrated supply chain that distributed the clothes through a single state-of-the-art distribution centre.Unlike its competitors, 70- 80% of Zara garments wer e manufactured in Europe. In 2005, Pablo Isla was appointed the new Inditex chief executive. With plans to double the number of its stores by 2009, the rapid pace of growth was necessitating changes. First, Zara had opened a second distribution centre to increase capacity. Second, expanding into more distant markets meant that the number of items carried had increased to 12,000. Would Zara? ’s business model be able to scale up? Or would the resulting complexity compromise its speed advantage?Would Pablo Isla be able to maintain the focus that Zara had established? – 3 -305-308-1 LBS-CS-05-037 THE RETAIL APPAREL INDUSTRY AND COMPETITORS The apparel industry was one of the most globalised industries, with 23. 6 million workers in over 20 countries. As labour costs in Western European countries had risen, labour-intensive manufacturing operations had become increasingly outsourced to less developed countries. Hourly wages in the textile industry could be as low as 60 cen ts in India and China, compared with $2 in North Africa, $3 in Eastern Europe, $8. 50 in Spain, and around $15. 0 in Italy. The 1974 Multi-Fibre Arrangement, which placed import quotas on garments and textiles from developing countries to the industrialised world, had expired on 1 January 2005 for all members of the World Trade Organization. This was amplifying the relocation of textile and garment manufacture to countries with lower labour costs, especially China. For example, in 2004, 400 Spanish textile groups went out of business, due to competition from Asia, resulting in the loss of 15,000 jobs. The Spanish textile guild predicted a loss of another 72,000 jobs by 2009. The apparel retail channels had consolidated during the 1990s, with a few large players dominating most major markets. Competitors included department stores, mass merchandisers (e. g. discounters and supermarkets) and specialty stores. Department stores were usually national players, like Marks & Spencer in the United Kingdom or Federated in the USA. Typically, they had lost market share in recent years. Mass merchandisers such as Target, Tesco and Wal-Mart had increasingly added private label clothes to their mix over the years to become major players.There were many successful specialty chains like Benetton, C&A, Hennes & Mauritz (referred to as H&M), The Limited, Mango and Next. The traditional apparel industry model worked on long lead times (see Exhibit 1). The industry average was around nine months, around six months for design and three months for manufacturing. As a result, 45-60% of production was committed in the six-month pre-season period, with 80-100% committed by the start of the season. Only the remaining 0-20% was generally manufactured in-season in response to sales patterns.Excess inventory was marked down at the end of the season, and typically accounted for 30-40% of sales. Despite their best efforts, Zara? ’s closest competitors, H&M and Gap, still took around five months to produce new clothing lines. H&M Swedish clothing chain H&M was founded in 1947. By 2005, it had close to 32,000 employees, just under 1,100 stores in 20 countries. In 2005, it planned to open 155 new stores in Europe and the US. Its 2004 sales were ? â‚ ¬6 billion, which yielded a profit of 1. 24 billion. With close to 30% of its sales, Germany was H&M? s largest market, while the US generated only Iman for H&M Germany – 4 -305-308-1 LBS-CS-05-037 6. 4% of its 2004 sales. It manufactured 60% of its clothes in Asia. H&M? ’s business concept was to offer fashion and quality at the best price. In order to offer the latest fashion, H&M had its own buying and design department. It claimed to achieve the best price by: Few middlemen Buying in large volumes Having a broad, in-depth knowledge of design, fashion, and textiles Buying the right products from the right market Being cost conscious at every stage Having efficient distribution H&M? ’s c lothing lines in men? ’s wear, women? ’s wear and children? ’s wear, as well as its cosmetics range, targeted cost-conscious shoppers. Within H&M women? ’s wear were different sub-brands: Hennes (women aged 25-35), L. O. G. G. (casual sportswear), Impuls (young women? ’s trends), BiB (plus-size line), Woman (classic), Clothes (current trends), MAMA (maternity) and Rocky (youth fashion). There were also different sub-brands within the men? ’s and children? ’s lines.H&M stores generally had a somewhat chaotic, marketplace feel, with clothes packed tightly onto racks, frequent markdowns, and queues at the cash register. H&M devoted 5% of its revenues to advertising. Its high-profile ad campaigns featured celebrities, such as Claudia Schiffer, Johnny Depp, Naomi Campbell and Jerry Hall, wearing its low-cost clothes. Dedicated collections by star designers Karl Lagerfeld and Stella McCartney in 2004-5 continued to create buzz among its cus tomers. The Gap Gap opened its first store in San Francisco in 1969, where it sold mainly Levis jeans.In 1991, Gap announced its decision to sell only private label brands. With around 3,000 stores and 152,000 employees worldwide, Gap positioned itself as a provider of high quality, basic items, such as jeans, khakis and t-shirts. In addition to Old Navy and Banana Republic, Gap? ’s chains included GapBody, GapKids, and babyGap. Its 2004 sales were around ? â‚ ¬12. 5 billion, with a profit of $1. 4 billion. Nearly all of Gap? ’s products were manufactured outside the US, with 18% of its collection made in China. Gap? ’s stores were spacious, with stock well spaced Madonna for Gap and neatly presented.There was an emphasis on service, with a call button in fitting rooms for customers requiring assistance with clothing sizes. Television advertisements featured hip music and dance sequences, with appearances by celebrities such as Madonna, Lenny Kravitz, Sarah J essica Parker and Joss Stone. – 5 -305-308-1 LBS-CS-05-037 INDITEX HISTORY Spanish entrepreneur Amancio Ortega Gaona started a firm manufacturing lingerie and nightwear in 1963, after quitting his job as a runner for a shirtmaker in La Coruna. He founded Confecciones GOA in 1972, and opened the first Zara store in 1975, to sell stock after a customer cancelled a large order.Ortega founded the Inditex group in 1985. After floating 26% of its shares on the Madrid stock exchange in 2001, he remained its majority shareholder, with 61% of the company? ’s shares. Ortega retained a low profile, rarely making public appearances (apart from during the run-up to the IPO in 2000), and had never given an interview. Jose Maria Castellano Rios joined Inditex in 1985 and became its Chief Executive in 1997. Castellano had previously been IT manager of Aegon Espana SA, and had a doctorate in economics and business studies. In 2005, Inditex developed a five-year plan, which included a b oard restructure.As part of the restructure, Pablo Isla Alvarez de Tejera was appointed as Chief Executive in May 2005. Isla came from the Franco-Spanish tobacco group Altadis, where he had been co-chairman. Isla was chosen for his experience in international distribution. Ortega stayed on as the group? ’s Chairman, and Castellano remained the Deputy Chairman. Portfolio of Stores Besides Zara, which was targeted at trendy city youngsters, Inditex grew its portfolio of apparel chains throughout the 1990s. Each chain was targeted at a specific segment (see Exhibit 2): Massimo Dutti ? – Young businessmen Pull & Bear – Elegant male clothing Berksha ? – Elegant fashion for young women Brettos ? – Trendy young suburban women Oysho ? – Lingerie Stradivarius ? – Youthful fashion Kiddy? ’s Class ? – Trendy children In 2003, Inditex opened a home furnishings chain called Zara Home. By 2005, Zara made up close to 70% of Indit ex sales and led the group? ’s international expansion (see Exhibit 3). While, as a group, Inditex had about twice the number of stores as H&M, Zara? ’s 700 stores were fewer in number than H&M? ’s. Inditex was aggressively expanding, and planned to increase its 2,000 stores to 4,000 by 2009, in Europe, Asia, and the U.S. (see Exhibit 4). In terms of profits, Inditex was performing well compared with its main competitor, H&M (see Exhibit 5 and Exhibit 6). Aamancio Ortega Gaona Inditex Chairman – 6 – 305-308-1 LBS-CS-05-037 THE ZARA STORE 91% of Zara stores were company-owned; the rest were franchises or joint ventures. Customers entering a Zara store on Regent Street in London, Rue Rivoli in Paris, Fifth Avenue in New York or Avenidas das Americas in Rio de Janeiro generally found themselves in the same environment: a predominantly white, modern and spacious store, well-lit and walled with mirror.The latest fashions hung from the store racks around them. A long line of people typically waited at the cash registers to pay for their purchases: a few select items. Shop Window of Zara, New York In comparison with other clothing retailers, who spent 3-4% of sales on advertising, Zara spent just 0. 3%. The little it did spend went to reinforce its identity as a clothing retailer that was low-cost but high fashion (see Exhibit 7). Instead Zara concentrated on creating compelling store windows and to the design of its shops, which had won awards.It relied on its shop windows, which were dramatically lit and used neutral backgrounds, to communicate its brand image. The shop windows of Zara stores were changed regularly, according to display designs sent by headquarters, and were critical for Zara to remain visible and entice customers. Store locations were carefully researched to determine that there was a sufficiently large customer base for Zara2, and as such were generally busy, prestigious, city centre shopping streets. Zara was a fashion imitator.It focussed its attention on understanding what fashion items its customers wanted and then delivering them, rather than on promoting predicted season? ’s trends via fashion shows and similar channels of influence, that the fashion industry traditionally used. Its 200 in-house designers were trend-spotters who kept their finger on the fashion pulse, and translated trends into styles that were universally accessible. At Zara headquarters in La Coruna, store specialists (who were responsible for a number of stores in a region) worked closely with designers to develop styles that would work for different arkets. Collections were renewed every year, with an average of 11,000 styles produced annually, compared with the more typical collections of 2,000-4,000 produced annually by rivals H&M and Gap. Production and distribution of new clothing pieces was favoured over replenishing existing items, contributing to the perception of scarcity cultivated in Zara stores. Customers returned frequently to stores, to browse new items. The global average of 17 visits per customer per year for Zara was considerably higher than the three visits to its competitors. Visitors were also more likely to purchase, as one senior executive explained: Zara? ’s objective is not that consumers buy a lot but that they buy often and will find something new every time they enter the store. 4 – 7 -305-308-1 LBS-CS-05-037 Comments by Luis Blanc, and Inditex director, illustrated how Zara stores fostered an environment of immediacy: We want our customers to understand that if they like something, they must buy it now, because it won? ’t be in the shops the following week. It is all about creating a climate of scarcity and opportunity. Affordable prices helped to encourage purchases, and Zara? ’s offering was often referred to as clothing to be worn six to ten times. Zara? ’s pricing differed across country markets. It set prices accordin g to individual market conditions, rather than using cost plus margin as its basis (which was the formula used by most of its competitors). In Spain, Zara products were low-cost, while in the US, Japan and Mexico, they were priced as a luxury fashion item. Prices in France were somewhat higher than in Spain, since the average French consumer was willing to pay more for fashion than most other European consumers.For example, in 2003, the price of jeans in Zara stores in France was $34. 58 compared with $24. 87 in Spain and $54 in Japan. 6 Until 2002, Zara had used one price tag listing the price in different currencies, to simplify tagging of items. In 2002, however, it implemented a system of local pricing, using a bar code reader that printed the correct local price for items. Compared with its competitors, Zara generally priced its products somewhat higher than C&A and H&M, but below Gap, Next and Kookai. For example, a similar shirt cost $26 at Zara, compared with a price of $29 at Gap and $9 at H&M. Store Management Store managers were encouraged to run their store like a small business. Salespeople were well trained, and Zara promoted its people from within as much as possible. Store managers? ’ remuneration was partially dependent on the accuracy of their sales forecasts and sales growth. 8 Each evening a handheld PDA displayed the newest designs sent by headquarters, which were available for order. Order deadlines were twice weekly, and were issued via the handhelds. Store managers who failed to order by the deadline received replenishment items only.Store managers regularly spoke with store specialists, who also received real time sales data from stores, to discuss which items were selling well or if customers had requested Zara Store, Barcelona specific items. This information was then fed back to the design process. 9 Deliveries arrived at stores twice per week from Zara headquarters, a few days after the order was made, and contained both rep lenishment items as well as – 8 -305-308-1 LBS-CS-05-037 new products. Headquarters also sometimes included products that had not been ordered, which stores expected to receive.If demand of an item exceeded supply, some stores did not receive the product they had ordered. Zara also tested some of its products in limited numbers in its test stores, before introducing them on a wider scale. Failure rates of Zara? ’s new products were reported to be just 1%, considerably lower than the industry average of 10%. 10 Technology was a key part of enabling communications and information flow. While information technology was fundamental to its business, its IT infrastructure was relatively simple (even dated by some standards), which meant that Zara? s IT expenditure was significantly lower than its rivals (as much as five to ten times lower). 11 Deputy Chairman Jose Maria Castellano explained the key role played by technology: Technology in this company is important and will b e more important in the future. The technology we use is mainly information technology and [enables] the communication between the shop managers and the design team here in headquarters. 12 THE ZARA SUPPLY CHAIN Around 50% of Zara? ’s garments were sourced from third parties. Unlike its competitors, Zara? s outsourced production came for the most part from Europe (60%), with just 27% coming from Asia, and another 10% from the rest of the world. The products sourced from Asia were basic collection items or wardrobe ? â€Å"staples,? † with minimum fashion content, such as T-shirts, lingerie and woollens, and where there was a clear cost advantage. Formal contracts were kept to a minimum, and Zara was generally a preferred customer due to its order volume and stability. 13 Externally manufactured items were shipped to Zara? ’s distribution centre. Zara intended to source more of the collection from Asia in the future, as commented by Castellano: ? In the next few years, we will source more basic items from China and Vietnam, but the high value added fashion items will continue to be made closer to home.? †14 The other 50% of Zara? ’s garments, those that were more fashion-dependent, were manufactured in-house, in more than 20 Zara factories located in nearby Arteixo. 15 For its in-house manufacturing, it purchased fabric from Comditel, a subsidiary of Inditex. Half of this fabric was purchased grey (undyed) to enable Zara to respond to changes in colour trends during the season. Dye was purchased from Fibracolor, in which Inditex held a stake.A team of 200 young, talented yet unknown designers were hired (often recent graduates of top design schools) to create designs, based on the latest fashions from the catwalk and other fashion hotspots, which were easily translatable to the mass market. 16 Working alongside the market specialists and production planners, designers for each of Zara? ’s collections (Woman, Man, Child) kept in-touch with market developments, to create around 40,000 new designs per year, of which around one-quarter were manufactured. 17 The design and – 9 -305-308-1 LBS-CS-05-037 production working environment was consistent with Zara? s flat hierarchical structure, in which prima donnas were not tolerated. 18 Illustration: Fast Fashion Computers were used to guide the cutting tools, using patterns made from selected designs. Zara tried to keep its offering of any style simple, usually in three sizes and three colours only. The labour intensive sewing of the garments was outsourced to around 500 local subcontractors, who used seamstresses in cooperatives. Zara was usually their sole client, and they worked without any written contracts. Zara paid these subcontrators a flat fee per type of garment, (e. g. , ? 5 for a pair of trousers and ? â‚ ¬15 per jacket) and they were expected to operate on short lead times and fast turnaround. Subcontractors picked up the prepared fab ric pieces from Zara, and returned them to the 500,000 m2 distribution centre. 19 At the Zara distribution centre, optical reading devices were used to sort and distribute over 60,000 items per hour. The garments were then picked up and transported by truck to different destinations all over Europe (which made up about 75% of deliveries). Products for more distant destinations were transported by air (about 25%).Throughout the process, garments were tracked using bar codes. Shipments tended to have almost zero flaws, with 98. 9% accuracy and under 0. 5% shrinkage. 20 Since Zara? ’s garments were produced in-house, it was able to make a new line from start to finish in just three weeks (see Exhibit 8). This varied somewhat depending on the type of garment: new garments took about five weeks from design to store delivery, while revamped existing items could take as little as two weeks. As a result Zara could be responsive to fashion items that were selling well during the seaso n, and to discontinue those that were not.By constantly refreshing the collection, and manufacturing items in high-intensity, Zara was a master of picking up up-to-the- minute trends and churning them out to stores around the world in a matter of weeks. ?†¢After Madonna? ’s first concert date in Spain during a recent tour, her outfit was copied by Zara designers. By the time she performed her last concert in Spain, some members of the audience were wearing the same outfit. ?†¢In 2003, when the Crown Prince of Spain announced his engagement to Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano, she wore a white trouser-suit for the occasion (pictured left).In just a few weeks, the same white trouser-suit was hanging from Zara? ’s clothes racks all over Europe, where it was snatched up by the ranks Crown Prince Felipe of Spain and Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano of the fashion-conscious. – 10 -305-308-1 LBS-CS-05-037 short-runs, Zara was able to prevent the accumulation of non-saleable inventories. It was estimated that Zara committed just 15-25% of production before the season began, 50 to 60% at the start of the season, and the remainder manufactured in-season. Percentage of Zara sales consisting of markdowns was 15-20%. In some cases, stores ran out of stock.However, this was not viewed as a negative since it contributed to customers? ’ perception of the uniqueness of their purchase: ? â€Å"Customers are actually satisfied to see items out of stock as they are then confident that there is little chance that many other customers will wear the same dress.? †21 Castellano explained the rationale for this departure from industry norms: We don? ’t want to compete in the bottom end of the market. We offer fashion with a high design content. If I tried to source my collections in Asia, I would not be able to get them quickly enough to our stores.By manufacturing close to home, I can scrap collections when they are not selling. And without this ra pid response, I would not be able to extract a good relation between quality, price and fashion which is what our customers have come to expect. 22 A study in 2000 estimated that Zara managed to generate 14. 7% operating margins as a percentage of sales, compared with 10. 6% for Gap and 12. 3% for H&M. Additionally, the same study put Zara? ’s inventory turnover at 10. 67 outpacing Gap at 7. 18 and H&M at 6. 84. 23 THE FUTURE Following Zara? ’s success, competitors sought to reduce their own lead times.The competitive advantage achieved by Zara? ’s vertical integration appeared to be eroding. With its highly centralised structure and its rapid growth, Zara was producing around 12,000 different items per year by 2005. As it opened stores in increasingly distant markets, would Zara be able to retain its flexibility in adjusting production to accommodate differences in local trends? Would the increase in complexity result in a need to create regional production fac ilities? How would this affect the advantage Zara gained from its centralization?Might Chinese clothing manufacturers prove to be a competitive threat to Zara, with their high capacity and continuous improvements in quality? Castellano discounted this threat: ? â€Å"Being a Zara or Gap is not just about designing fashionable clothes and manufacturing them cheaply. You must also make the transition to being a retailer. It is a big step from manufacturing to distribution. There is also the question of managing the location and presentation of stores, training staff and so on.? †24 The Zara model seemed to work better in markets where customers had an appetite for fashion (such as France, Italy, Japan and the UK).However, in countries such as France and Italy, Zara had received bad press for copying – 11 -305-308-1 LBS-CS-05-037 designs from couture labels, and the French Fashion Federation had called for limited access by reporters to fashion shows to minimize imitation by copycatters. In other markets, where consumers were less fashion-focussed (e. g. Germany and the U. S. A. ) Zara seemed somewhat less successful. Would Zara be better served in the long run by increasing penetration in these fashion- sensitive markets, or by extending its global reach through increased presence in more markets? – 12 -305-308-1 LBS-CS-05-037Exhibit 1: Traditional Season for a High Street Store Adapted from Dutta, 200425 – 13 – 305-308-1 LBS-CS-05-037 Exhibit 2: Inditex Stores and Sales Sales, by Division (2004-5) Zara Home Kiddy? ’s Class Pull & Bear 6. 7% Massimo Dutti 8. 5% Bershka 9. 1% Zara 67. 4% Stradivarius 4. 3% 1. 3% Oysho Source: Handelsbank, 2005 Source: Financial Times, 2005 Percentage of Stores (2005) 0. 7% 2. 1% Zara Home Kiddy? ’s Class 3% Oysho 5% Stradivarius 10% Pull & Bear 16% 6% Zara 31% Dutti 15% Bershka 14% – 14 – 305-308-1 LBS-CS-05-037 Exhibit 3: Number of Zara Stores by Country (31 March 20 05) Russia Slovenia2 2Hungary Czech Rep.Lithuania1 Asia Pacific = 21 Japan14 Malaysia3 Europe = 576 3 Sweden Denmark Finland Iceland 2 2 1 1 4Romania 3Estonia 1Latvia1 Singapore Hong Kong Mexico Venezuela Brazil Argentina Chile Uruguay El Salvador Panama Dominican Rep. 1 Spain244 Portugal41 France83 Greece30 UK34 Belgium17 Germany34 Italy23 Eire4 Turkey11 Cyprus3 Holland6 Switzerland 6 Poland7 Austria6 Malta1 Andorra1 Luxembourg 2 3USA16 1Canada12 Americas = 98 Middle East & Africa = 40 Saudi Arabia Israel UAE Kuwait Lebanon Jordan Qatar Bahrain Morocco 13 13 4 4 2 1 1 1 1 34 8 13 5 5 2 1 1Adapted from Inditex, 2005 Exhibit 4: Inditex Store Formats ZaraKiddy? sPull & Bear Class – 15 -305-308-1 LBS-CS-05-037 MassimoBershkaStradivariusOyshoZara Home Dutti 2004 2003 2004 2003 2004 2003 2004 2003 2004 2003 2004 2003 2004 2003 2004 2003 No of stores723626 Turnover* 3,820 3,220 129103371350 121 90 379 288 22 18. 0 56 19 12. 8 13. 4 30. 5 31 2. 11. 96. 76. 3 61% 80% 44% 16% 32729730 2 481 389 516 75 60 83 41. 9 40. 9 35. 7 8. 58. 59. 1 50% 56% 52% 253227191104 395 242 162 72 57 394 16 33. 8 15. 4 16. 6 31. 5 8. 64. 33. 51. 3 46% 43%5% 52% 766226 45 40 11 2 0. 3 (0. 5) 35. 1 12. 7 8. 5 10. 70. 2 7%2%– Operating Income* % international sales 648 476 65. 8 63. 5 67. 470 % of Inditex ROCE 38% 33% in millions of Euros, rounded off. Source: Inditex press dossier, 2005 – 16 -305-308-1 LBS-CS-05-037 Exhibit 5: Key Indicators of Gap, H&M and Inditex (Financial Years 2003 & 2004) GapiH&MInditex 29 29 30 30 31 31 Reporting Date Sales (millions ? â‚ ¬) Gross Profit (millions ? â‚ ¬) Operating Profit (millions ? â‚ ¬) Profit (millions ? â‚ ¬) Profit after tax (millions ? â‚ ¬) Total Assets (millions ? â‚ ¬) Inventories (millions ? â‚ ¬) January 2005ii January 2004iii November 2004iv November 2003v JanuaryJanuary 20052004 12,47012,6966,0295,3305,6704,599 4,8924,7803,4492,9943,0342,306 1,5981,5221,1981,019925627 1,4351,3491,2361,062886613 88 2826817706628446 ,7038,5793,1592,8474,2093,510 1,3901,365577558514486 Stores Employees 152,000150,00031,70128,40947,04639,760 Countries 56 20185648 2,9943,0221,0689452,2441,922 Total square3,3993,3931,364vin/a metres (thousands) 1,175988 Source: Inditex, H&M and Gap, 2005 i Gap Inc? ’s stores include Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic. Gap? ’s sales were ? â‚ ¬5. 6 million, with 1643 stores, and 1. 43 million square metres. ii Exchange Rate of 29 January 2005 is used for all currency calculations: 0. 76660 USD = 1? â‚ ¬ iii Exchange Rate of 29 January 2004 is used for all currency calculations 0. 80080 USD = ? 1 iv Exchange Rate of 30 November 2004 is used for all currency calculations 0. 11230 SEK = 1? â‚ ¬ v Exchange Rate of 30 November 2003 is used for all currency calculations 0. 11050 SEK = 1? â‚ ¬ vi Estimated (Adapted from Datamonitor, 2005). Exhibit 6: Iniditex vs. H&M (1998-2004) Sales, Inditex vs H&M (Millions, ? â‚ ¬) – 17 – Indit ex H&M 305-308-1 LBS-CS-05-037 Number of Stores, Inditex vs H&M (1999-2004) 7,000 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 22244 66029 5670 1922 55,058 5330 1558 11284 682771 99451068 IInditex H&M 44599 1080 613 44,196 3,980 3,250 922 8844 33,255 1,614 2,035 3,508 2,615 ,631 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 NNumber of Countries, Inditex vs H&M (1999-2004) 60 50 40 30 20 10 556 11998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 44 14 448 330 12 339 33 1414 118 220 IInditex H&M 0 0 11999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 AAdapted from Inditex and H&M, 2005 – 18 -305-308-1 LBS-CS-05-037 Exhibit 7: A Zara advertisement The Cheap Frock coat (119) White shirt (25) ZARA Black necktie (65) HACKETT Woollen Trousers (45) and Black boots (55), both ZARA The Expensive Black cashmere frock coat (950) White tuxedo shirt (190) Black necktie (86) and Woollen Trousers (380) both RALPH LAUREN Black boots (500) are by UNGARO 19 -305-308-1 LBS-CS-05-037 Exhibit 8: Zara Season Adapted from Dutta, 200 4 Endnotes – 20 -305-308-1 LBS-CS-05-037 1 Crawford, L. (2005) ? â€Å"Inditex sizes up Europe in expansion drive,? † Financial Times, 1 February 2005, p. 30. 2 Ferdows, K. J. , A. D. Machuca and M. Lewis (2003) ? â€Å"Zara,? † CIBER Case Collection, Indiana University. 3 D? ’Andrea, G. and D. Arnold (2003) ? â€Å"Zara,? † Harvard Business School Case 9-503-050, p. 7. 4 ? â€Å"Zara, la deferlante de la mode espagnole,? † Interview with Stephane Labelle, MD of Zara France, Enjeux-Les Echos, February 1996. 5 Crawford, L. (2000) ? Inside Track: Putting on the style with rapid response,? † Financial Times, 26 February 2000. 6 D? ’Andrea, G. and D. Arnold (2003) ? â€Å"Zara,? † Harvard Business School Case 9-503-050, p. 19. 7 D? ’Andrea, G. and D. Arnold (2003) ? â€Å"Zara,? † Harvard Business School Case 9-503-050, p. 18 8 Ferdows, K. J. , K. M. Lewis and J. A. D. Machuca (2003) ? â€Å"Zara,? † Supp ly Chain Forum 4(2): 62. 9 Ferdows, K. J. , A. D. Machuca and M. Lewis (2003) ? â€Å"Zara,? † CIBER Case Collection, Indiana University, p. 6. 10 Ghemawat, P. and J. L. Nueno (2003) ? â€Å"Zara: Fast Fashion,? † Harvard Business School Case 9-703-497, p. 10. 11 ? The Future of Fast Fashion,? † The Economist, 18 June 2005, p. 63. 12 ? â€Å"Zara: A Retailer? ’s Dream,? † from http://www. fashionunited. co. uk/news/archive/inditex1. htm 13 Ferdows, K. J. , A. D. Machuca and M. Lewis (2003) ? â€Å"Zara,? † CIBER Case Collection, Indiana University, p. 7. 14 Crawford, L. (2005) ? â€Å"Inditex sizes up Europe in expansion drive,? † Financial Times, 1 February 2005, p. 30. 15 Fraiman, N. , M. Singh, L. Arrington and C. Paris (2002) ? â€Å"Zara,? † Columbia Business School Case, p. 5. 16 Ghemawat, P. and J. L. Nueno (2003) ? â€Å"Zara: Fast Fashion,? † Harvard Business School Case 9-703-497, p. 0. 17 Fraiman, N. , M. Singh , L. Arrington and C. Paris (2002) ? â€Å"Zara,? † Columbia Business School Case, p. 5. 18 Ferdows, K. J. , A. D. Machuca and M. Lewis (2003) ? â€Å"Zara,? † CIBER Case Collection, Indiana University, p. 6. 19 Fraiman, N. , M. Singh, L. Arrington and C. Paris (2002) ? â€Å"Zara,? † Columbia Business School Case, p. 6. 20 Ferdows, K. J. , A. D. Machuca and M. Lewis (2003) ? â€Å"Zara,? † CIBER Case Collection, Indiana University, p. 8. 21 Interview with Anthony Pralle, Senior Vice President of Boston Consulting Group, Madrid, 13 July 1999, as quoted in Harle, N. , M. Pich and L.Van der Heyden (2002) ? â€Å"Marks & Spencer and Zara: Process Competition in the Textile Apparel Industry,? † INSEAD Case 602- 010-1. 22 Crawford, L. ?â€Å"Inditex sizes up Europe in expansion drive: Rapid design, manufacture and distribution keep pressure on rivals,? † Financial Times, 1 February 2005. 23 D? ’Andrea, G. and D. Arnold (2003) ? â€Å"Zara ,? † Harvard Business School Case 9-503-050. 24 Crawford, L. (2005) ? â€Å"Inditex sizes up Europe in expansion drive,? † Financial Times, 1 February 2005, p. 30. 25 Dutta, D. (2004) ? â€Å"Brand Watch: Zara,? † Images Fashion Forum Presentation, New Delhi, 12 February 2004.