Protection and Advocacy disparity for Mentally Ill Persons Research Paper

Guerrilla marketing and advertising Dissertation

Guerrilla showcasing and promoting - Dissertation Example erception of GM 4.2.3 Impact of GM on Consumers’ Intention to buy 4.3.4 Impact of GM on Consumers’ Purchase Behavior 4.3 Findings from the Interview of the Advertising Experts 4.3.1 Reasons for Using GM techniques 4.3.2 Some Examples of Successful GM Strategies 4.3.3 Success of GM for various kinds of Products 4.3.4 Strategies and Tactics that for Viral Marketing 4.3.5 Challenges of Using GM/VM 4.3.6 Advantages of Using GM/VM 4.3.7 Future Role and Trend for GM Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations 5.1 Summary of Research Findings and Conclusions 5.2 Research Limitations and Scope for Future Research. Rundown of Tables and Figures Table 1: Reasons for Using GM procedures Figure A: Diagrammatic Representation of the Research Methodology Figure 1: Customers’ Awareness of GM Figure 2: Consumers’ Perception of GM as Aggressive Figure 3: Consumers’ Perception of GM as Aggressive Figure 4: Consumers’ Perception of GM as Creating Insights about Their Needs Figure 5: Consumers’ Perception of GM as Creating Awareness about New Products Figure 6: GM as Creating Awareness of Non-Advertised Products Figure 7: GM as making more decisions for clients Figure 8: Impact of GM on Consumers’ Intention to buy Figure 9: Impact of GM on Consumers’ Purchase Behavior List of Appendices Appendix A: Survey Research Questionnaire Appendix B: Interview Research Questionnaire References Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Research Background and Overview While a lot of writing exists on the different focal points of Guerrilla promoting and furthermore on the systems and strategies identified with this sort of showcasing, there has been little research on checking the effect it has. Associations enjoy viral showcasing techniques with the target of making mindfulness for... This exposition Guerrilla promoting and publicizing traces and breaks down the impact of the GM and its recognition by the clients and the issues and openings that sponsors have with GM procedures. Guerilla showcasing It is non-ordinary as it doesn't bind itself to the standard media or channels of promoting and it utilizes content methodologies that might be progressively innovative or even strange. Guerrilla showcasing, as it name demonstrates, generally draws matches from the Guerrilla fighting techniques. On account of Guerrilla fighting, the methods for war are not clear and individuals don't battle by rules of ordinary fighting. The component of shock is utilized vigorously to lead short however profoundly mighty assaults on the adversaries. Similarly, Guerrilla showcasing follows the idea of shock and taking the client unguarded, and anticipating the promoted substance or message in a focused on way when the client least anticipates it or is least arranged to take oneself agai nst the effect (Tufel, 2004). The rationale behind utilizing the unexpected component is that most clients being presented to innumerous promoting messages during their time †through TV, the Internet, boards, papers, flyers, in shop purpose of procurement shows and so forth †are for the most part ready to safe themselves against these messages (Susca et al, 2008). There is a lot of messiness of publicizing messages and clients can block themselves good and gone when tormented by a colossal measure of data that encroaches on their faculties.

Steps for Validating Your Product Idea Cheap and Fast

Steps for Validating Your Product Idea Cheap and Fast Product idea validation is an essential step entrepreneurs must take before spending their time and money on a new product. While the process seems obvious, it can still be a bit of a mystery to entrepreneurs. © Shutterstock.com | LolostockThis guide will help you understand what product validation is all about and why it’s such an important part of launching a business. We’ll help you validate your product idea cheap and fast by focusing on the three essential steps: researching your market, sharing your idea, and selling your idea to others.WHAT’S PRODUCT IDEA VALIDATION?Product validation is essentially a process of using different procedures in order to check if a product meets customer requirements and fulfills its intended purpose. Product validation figures out whether the product will be something customers are looking to use. It validates the specifications of the product against customer needs. For product ideas, the process typically involves testing the product’s commercial success without necessarily building or deploying it on a large-scale.Product validation essentially involves three crucial validation processes.Feasibility testingFeasibility testing should answer the question ‘Can the product be built?’ If your product requires a lot of technical or technological expertise, it’s important to place feasibility testing at the core of the validation process.Cost calculations are an important element of product feasibility. While you might be able to build the product from a technical point of view, the production cost might be too high to sell it in the market.Usability testingUsability testing should answer the question ‘Can people figure out how to use the product?’ Depending on the complexity of the product, this can be crucial for success. If people aren’t able to understand how the product is used, they are most likely not going to love it.For usability testing to succeed, you’ll often need to have a product prototype at hand. It can be a simulated experience as well; the key is to ensure the use of the product feels as authentic to the user as possible.Desirability testingWith desirability testing, you’ll be answering the question ‘Is the product something people want to use?’ In other terms, you are evaluating the market for your product.For desirability testing, you don’t necessarily need an already manufactured product, although it can sometimes help with the process. The key is to research how the product can solve existing problems potential users might have and whether there is large enough market for the product.WHY PRODUCT VALIDATION IS IMPORTANT?When your business wants to launch a new product, you are essentially doing so based on the assumption people will love it and want it. You’re even assuming the product will work exactly as planned.Naturally, these assumptions can turn out to be wrong. The aim of product validation is to limit the risk of making wrong assumptions. As the above three testing processes showed, you are ensuring the product can be built, it will be easy to use and that customers want to use it.Limiting the risk means your business will:Save money â€" you won’t try things that aren’t cost effective or spend money building a product, which is bound to fail.Save time â€" you don’t end up focusing on unimportant aspects or talk to consumers that aren’t interested.Keep your business going â€" your product development won’t create a product no one wants.Furthermore, you’ll refine the product ideas you have without rushing into creating and launching a product. During product validation, you’ll receive direct feedback from potential users and you’ll be able to understand which features work and which don’t. This brings you on a more cost-effective route to solving the issues the product has to guarantee it is something customers will love.For example, you might not have thought about a certain user interface feature in your new app. During product validation, several customers might point this out, which allows you to include the feature in the launched product.Overall, product validation involves reaching out to the market. Shar ing your ideas with potential buyers can help create a buzz around the product. It can help you gather support and give you a boost of confidence knowing there are people liking the product. STEPS FOR VALIDATING YOUR PRODUCT IDEAStep 1: Research your marketThe first step you should take in order to validate your product idea deals with the potential market for your product. The following section will help you conduct desirability testing and partly touch on feasibility testing as well.Get an overview of the marketFirst, you should look into the potential market space. This helps you not only to understand the number of people that would want to use the product, but also whether the market is large enough to justify the costs of creating the product.When you are examining the market, find an answer to the following questions:What is the market size? Firstly, you need to analyze the size of the market. Think whether your product would fall into an existing market or whether you’d be looking to create a completely new market for the product. If so, what is your estimation for the market size? You also need to ensure the market is large enough to cover the costs of your product. You might be able to sell the product, but can you sell it to enough people? Industry reports can be a great help in validating the market size.Who are the major players? You’ll need to compete with other businesses and knowing who they are is crucial. Are you fighting in a fragmented market or does a company have a majority control? Use tools such as Google’s AdWords Keyword Planner and SimilarWeb to find out more about your competitors.What are the market entry barriers? Does the product require certain certifications in order to be launched? Are there any regulations limiting how the product is build? You should also consider any possible technical complications on your way. Furthermore, you also want to consider funding at this point. What does it take to attract funding, which c an help you launch the product? What are the pain points investors might have?Will it be easy to find suppliers? If you need suppliers to help launch your product, what does the market offer? Remember to consider foreign suppliers as well, but don’t assume going abroad will necessarily be cheaper.What sets your product apart? Naturally, you need to establish your products uniqueness. This is especially important in a crowded marketplace, as you need to analytically think why your customers might choose your product over the competitors. Remember simply answering ‘Because it’s better’ doesn’t mean anything to a consumer. You need to be able to highlight the exact reasons for your products superiority.Can a competitor replace your product? Finally, you should also think about your product’s chances of survival. The world is full of corporations, which have more resources to develop products and launch them on a mass-scale. What is stopping some of these corporations from d oing so when it comes to your product? It’s not enough to create a viable and great product; you should also know how to stop others from copying you.Understand potential demand and the mindset of a potential customerYou then need to dig deeper into the mindset of the customer. You don’t simply want to know there’s demand for the product you are making; you must understand why the demand exists.Examine who the potential clients would be? Do you have a large-scale customer base with different people interested in the product or are you operating in a niche industry? For example, if your product is a retail product, such as a food item, you will have a larger audience to scout for and you want to ensure you consider the right marketing tactics later. On the other hand, you might be operating in a niche sector, such as the arms industry, which means the customer-base is much smaller.While you are researching the customer-base, you must consider the purchasing power they have avai lable. For instance, if you are creating a food product, you must consider the price of your product and how this sits with the customers. Are you priced on the high-end and thus won’t be able to attract middle-class consumers?Map out the competition for an attractive marketOnce you’ve found a desirable market space for your product, you should take a closer look at the competition. Understanding the competition will be helpful in two different ways:First, it’ll help you figure out if a company has already done what you are trying to create. If companies are producing similar products, think carefully whether there’s room for one more player? Could you present the product better? How? If the market seems too small, consider developing your idea further. Perhaps you could tweak the product or consider a different idea altogether. Remember to research past attempts on the market. Has another business tried your idea before and failed? Understanding past failures can ensure you don’t repeat those mistakes.The second benefit deals with learning from your competitors. Companies already operating on the market would have gained insight into the market and product development. Try to analyze their business strategies and product development cycle to gain information on the best practices. This will be a great boost for your product’s feasibility testing. How have competitors solved feasibility issues? Again, research the flops and learn from those experiences.You should utilize tools such as Compete and comScore to analyze competitor website traffic. This can help understand both the potential market, as well as identify what attracts the customers.Examine the current market trendsDuring step one, you should also examine the current market trends. Yesterday’s successful companies might be suffering in today’s market. Understanding the reasons behind it can help you stay ahead.More importantly, where is consumer mood heading? Could you introduce a prod uct that is innovative and responds to customer needs bubbling under the surface? Use Google Trends data to find out about current trends and pay close attention to social media chatter.Overall, remember you don’t always need to invent a completely new product in order to succeed. Google wasn’t the world’s first search engine, but it managed to launch a product, which appealed to customers over the other alternatives already out there.Step 2: Validate your problem by sharing your ideaThe second step towards product validation is about sharing your idea with others. The focus is on usability testing and feasibility testing. But the following points will also help you with determining the desirability of your product further.Share your initial product ideaEntrepreneurs are passionate about ideas. Unfortunately, quite a few lack the conviction of taking these ideas further. We humans are quite adept at talking ourselves out of an idea, claiming ‘no one would like it’.Whether or not all of your ideas turn into reality, talking about them to others is an important part of the process. It is important because:It can help refine the target market more, as you build up your value proposition.It helps refine the product idea, as you’ll learn about the product desirability and feasibility.It helps you create a buzz around the product well before it launches.Create an effective experimentYou need to have a hypothesis for your product. This hypothesis could be something like: People are not interested in baking as it’s difficult. My product will make baking a cake easier and achievable in 15 minutes. The key is to design your product around this hypothesis. Collect feedback online with the hypothesis in mind both online and offline. In the online world, you could create a simple landing page for the product idea and analyze visitor traffic in different ways. For example:Analyse the visitors to the site and how long they spend time on the website. Measure you r social media impact.Allow people to sign up for further information.Drive relevant traffic to your website with marketing tools, such as Google Adwords or Facebook Ads. Social media is another great tool for directing traffic to a website and creating the initial buzz around the product.Note that insufficient traffic on the website will generally point out two elements:Your product doesn’t create enough interest in the marketYour marketing strategy isn’t efficientAdditionally, you could use survey websites such as SurveyMonkey and Survata for surveying potential customers. You can ask direct questions around the hypothesis and the possible problem points.Furthermore, offline feedback can be received by organizing interviews with potential customers. You can do so on the street, in supermarkets (other retail venues where your product might be sold) and different trade and retail shows.Whether you are asking for feedback online or offline, always ask for contact details of the p erson as well. This can help you create an initial list of customers, which you can use for selling the product after it’s ready to be launched.You can also share your ideas through your existing networks. If you don’t have any yet in the industry, connect with industry experts. You can find them via LinkedIn and social media sites. Creating your own consulting network, without paying a fortune, can be done. You just need to guarantee experts feel appreciated and be willing to help them in the future.Build a minimum viable product (MVP)Finally, depending on the product, you definitely want to consider building a MVP. The good news is that it isn’t as difficult anymore, thanks to technological advances such as 3D-printers. These can create realistic prototypes, which help you understand the feasibility of the product and give potential customers a more realistic view of the product.The crucial point to remember is to forget about making the perfect prototype. A MVP is not the a ctual end-product, so don’t try to force it into one. You want to receive feedback on the raw looks and the difficulties of manufacturing the product.Step 3: Selling the idea, not the actual productFinally, you should consider validating your product idea by selling your idea to the potential market, and indeed, investors. This is mainly focused on testing the desirability of your product.The key to selling the idea lies in understanding that you don’t need the product in order to sell the idea. In fact, if you are able to excite people with an idea rather than product, you have surely validated your product idea.The genius aspect of selling an idea is that you’ll end up saving quite a bit of money. In fact, you can generate enough money to kick-start your idea, before having to look for funding to create the product.How do you get people to buy into an idea rather than the finished product? You should definitely have done the previous two steps to understand your market and h ave a solid understanding of the feasibility of your product. You need to be able to paint a picture to people about the uses of your product and the benefits of the product.For selling the idea, you could either create a website for the product or use different crowd funding platforms. Either of these requires the same points: a wholesome description of the product and its benefits, together with certain guarantees of when to expect the product.Before you add a price tag to your product, you can even research what people might be willing to pay for the product. Present your idea and ask the customer to define what he or she would pay for the product. This can be an important part of feasibility testing, as you’ll be able to match what the product costs with what people would pay. It ensures you don’t end up pricing your product out of the market or end up with a product with horrible profit margins.CONCLUSIONProduct idea validation is an important step before a product launch. Considering that nearly 90% of startups fail, successful product validation can be the one element preventing your business from falling into this group. Of course, the high failure rate also tells us product validation isn’t easy. But the above steps have hopefully provided you with tools to get started. It’s important to direct your focus on ensuring you find the market for your product, test the feasibility and desirability of it, and find your audience without spending a fortune.

Emotional, Emotional And Emotional Intelligence - 757 Words

Emotional intelligence is described as the ability for one to know and understand their own emotions as well as the emotions of others. However, understanding or knowing your emotional state is only half of the skill, one must be able to use the emotional information to guide them in there thinking and behavior towards others. As a leader we often don’t take the time to stop and recognize our current emotional state before acting on the situation. I believe this is due to the fact that our emotions and reactions are used so frequently that it becomes a natural habit, much like breathing. Everyone breathes with out ever having to think about it, but when you perform yoga you are asked to control your breathing to help relax your mind and body. Much like yoga, emotional intelligence requires one to first stop and recognize their current state, then based on the current situation, a leader must act effectively, but not in haste. Personally I think this is an area of my leaders hip that I need to work on. Within the last 6 months at my facility we hired a new CNO and during a meeting last month he did a little test on all of the leaders. He told us that an employee was hired to sit with an emotionally unstable patient all night to unsure nothing happened and that the patient didn’t leave. However during the night the employee fell asleep and patient got up out of bed and walked out of the hospital. Our CNO then asked how the group what type of disciplinary actions weShow MoreRelatedEmotional, Emotional And Emotional Intelligence1666 Words   |  7 PagesEmotional intelligence is ‘the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth’ (Mayer Salovey, 1997). Emotional Intelligence is the ability to understand, accept and recognize our own emotions and feelings, i ncluding their impact on ourselves and other people and to use this knowledge to improve our own behaviours as wellRead MoreEmotional, Emotional And Emotional Intelligence1208 Words   |  5 Pages Emotional Intelligence Explained Emotional Intelligence is the capacity to assess, identify and influence the emotions of your own and everyone around you. 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Villegas Maria Dolores L. Comighod BEED- Content Course [ II-D ] Individuals have many similar characteristics but they too differ in many respects. One of these individual differences is the intellectual differences which also refers to the intelligence. Intelligence is the general capacity of a person to adjust consciously his thinking to a new requirement. ItRead MoreEmotional Intelligence2094 Words   |  9 PagesThe Five Competencies of Emotion Intelligence With the publication of Daniel Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence in 1995, the business world got an answer to a question that had been plaguing it for decades: â€Å"Why did some people of a high IQ struggle at managing teams while other leaders of lower IQ excel at it†? Goleman asserted that the traditional measurement of IQ (intelligence quotient) was not enough to determine a good leader. Schools and universities concentrated on developing the cognitiveRead MoreEmotional Intelligence. 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Based on the chart my scores for the four emotional dimensions are:Read MoreEmotional Intelligence ( Eq ) And Emotional Quotient Essay1537 Words   |  7 PagesBobby Lindsey Mrs. Ehlers CollegeNow Comp 151 18 September 2016 Emotional Intelligence Many people ponder about the question â€Å"What is Emotional Intelligence (EI) or Emotional Quotient (EQ) and how is it different from Intelligence Quotient (IQ)?† Many people know about Intelligence Quotient or IQ and they probably hope to have a high one, but they may not realize there is also something called EQ and it plays a role in people’s lives every day. EQ is an important concept to learn and understand

The History Of Prisons - 701 Words

I woke up to the loud thud of a police officer hitting the side of the rusty old white van we were sitting inside. I looked out the window and stared at the Helicoide, a frightening, spiral-shaped building cut into a mountainside where the headquarters of the Venezuelan political police reside. My mom tugged my arm abruptly as she dragged me out of the van and into the somber building, snapping me out of my momentary trance and back into reality. Fear began eating away at my stomach. The uncertainty of what lay ahead was killing me. As I walked inside, I could feel the walls of this dark and cold prison closing in on me, making it feel frightening like a morgue. The flickering lights deepened the shadows of the police officers as they†¦show more content†¦One of my favorite books, Man’s Search for Meaning, author Victor E. Frankl says â€Å"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any g iven set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.† These words resound in my head everyday. They remind me that positive thinking and a will to better oneself is all one needs to be free. I wake up everyday, thankful for being able to have my family with me. Thankful to be able to take care of my younger brother while my mom goes to college. Thankful to be able to see my father for more than just three hours every Saturday. Thankful for having the desire to keep bettering myself everyday. As I embark in the next face of my academic career, I have chosen to cherish every opportunity that comes my way. I have decided to not take anything or anyone for granted because I realized that I will never fully understand what may come my way, and what social, economic, or political challenges I will have to face in the future. Growing up, I saw how my father constantly fought for those who didn’t have a voice. His fight against injustice stirred up a feeling inside me, an urge to help others by bringing justice to those who are disadvantaged but not in the form of any type of law enforcement, or even a masked vigilante. I have decided that the best way to do this is to pursue a career in law, in order to make sure that the â€Å"little guy† is not takenShow MoreRelatedThe History of Prison Reform1631 Words   |  6 Pagesï » ¿The History of Prison Reform Introduction The evolution of prison reform is a reflection of societys changing attitudes toward crime and punishment. Prisons have progressed from simple places for incarceration where the primary purpose is to protect the public to instruments of punishment where the loss of freedom is penalty for breaking the law, to institutions for reform dedicated to mould the guilty to conform to societys norms. 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Each era had its own strength and weaknesses that influenced each subsequent era that came after. the idea of a prison system came about from the colonist desire for a more humane method of dealing with criminal offenders. It was a key move away from corporalRead MoreThe History of State and Federal Prisons463 Words   |  2 PagesWhat is the history of state and federal prisons? Two models of imprisonment existed during the early stages of the development of the prison system in America. The first was that of the Pennsylvania System, developed in the Quaker state and based upon a model of penance (hence the name penitentiary). Prisoners lived in a state of solitary confinement. They were encouraged to engage in individual reflection and Biblical study to reform their characters (Evolution of NYs prison system, 2012Read More History of Andersonville Prison Essay4617 Words   |  19 PagesHistory of Andersonville Prison When one turns on the television today they are made witness to all the crimes that are present in society. It is impossible to sit through thirty-five minutes of news without anger and rage becoming aroused. This is because society is bothered by infinitesimal paraphernalia. Society also believes in human rights and punishment for those who violate such rights. Yet what constitutes humanity? Ever sit there and watch the news and wonder just how far humanity reachesRead MoreEssay on History of the Prison System3187 Words   |  13 PagesPrison is an institution for the confinement of persons convicted of criminal offenses. 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In the larger area of Townson, the per capita income is about $32,000, but almost 10% of the populationRead MoreThe Effects Of Punishment And The History Of Prison Development1013 Words   |  5 Pagesand history of the correction system is necessary to recognize though we are trying to comprehend where the system stands today. The correction system today has appears to came long way from where it was countless years ago. This paper is going to discuss the history of punishment and the history of prison development. It will also discuss the Pennsylvania system and the Auburn system and how they compare. The final topic that will be discussed will be the impact and the involvement of prison laborRead MoreJails and Prisons History and Development Final1591 Words   |  7 PagesJails and Prisons History and Development Introduction Jails and prisons lay at the heart of the Criminal Justice System. These facilities helped forge the concept of rehabilitation. These institutions have changed over time and now reflect the modern methods of housing convicted individuals who need to be reformed or punished. Description of jails The clear concise difference between a jail and a prison is the time limit a convicted person is sentenced to and what offenses were committed. InRead MoreHistory of Prison Reform in the US Essay2067 Words   |  9 Pageshistorically is the Prison Reform movement. As the world shifted from 18th to 19th century ways of life, many key aspects of life underwent tremendous change. As the United States gained their independence from Britain and began to shape their own identity, the reforms and revolutions that occurred in this infantile stage of its history played an immeasurable impact on the future of the entire country, with the most notable and impact reform being the reformation of prisons from the 1820s until

Night World Black Dawn Chapter 5 Free Essays

string(36) " backto look at the redheaded girl\." Maggie woke slowly. And painfully. I must be sick, she thought. We will write a custom essay sample on Night World : Black Dawn Chapter 5 or any similar topic only for you Order Now It was the only explanation for the way she felt. Her bodywas heavy and achy, her head was throbbing, and her sinuseswere completely stuffed up. She was breathing through her mouth, which was so dry and glueythat her tongue stuck to the roof of it. I was having a dream, she thought. But even asshe grasped at bits of it,, it dissolved. Somethingabout †¦ fog? And a boy. It seemed vaguely important for her to remember, but even the importance was hard to keep holdof. Besides, another, more practical considerationwas overriding it. Thirst. She was dying of thirst. I need a glass of water†¦. It took a tremendous effort to lift her head and open her eyes. But when she did, her brain cleared fast. She wasn’t in her bedroom. She was in asmall, dark, smelly room; a room that was moving jerkily, bouncing her painfully up and down andfrom side to side. There was a rhythmic noise com ing from just outside that she felt she should be able to recognize. Below her cheek and under her fingers was theroughness of unpainted wood. The ceiling andwalls were made of the same silvery, weatheredboards. What kind of room is small and made of woodand†¦ Not a room, she thought suddenly. A vehicle. Some kind of wooden cart. As soon as she realized it, she knew what therhythmic sound was. Horses’ hoofs. No, it can’t be, she thought. It’s too bizarre. I am sick; I’m probably hallucinating. But it felt incredibly real for a hallucination. Itfelt exactlyasif she were in a wooden cart beingdrawn by horses. Over rough ground. Which ex plained all the jostling. So what was going on?What was she doinghere? Where did I go to sleep? All at once adrenaline surged through her-andwith it a flash of memory. Sylvia. The incense†¦ Miles. Miles is dead†¦ no. He’s not. Sylvia said thatbut she was lying. And then she said I’d never findout what happened to him. And then she druggedme with that smoke. It gave Maggie a faint feeling of satisfaction tohave put this much together. Even if everythingelse was completely confusing, she had a solidmemory to hang on to. â€Å"You woke up,† a voice said. â€Å"Finally. This kidsays you’ve been asleep for a day and a half.† Maggie pushed herself up by stages until shecould see the speaker. It was a girl with untidy red hair, an angular, intense face, and flat, hard eyes.She seemed to be about Maggie’s age. Beside her was a younger girl, maybe nine or ten. She was very pretty, slight, with short blond hair under ared plaid baseball cap. She looked frightened. â€Å"Who are you?† Maggie said indistinctly. Hertongue was thick-she was so thirsty.†Where amI? What’s going on?† â€Å"Huh. You’ll find out,† the redhaired girl said. Maggie looked around. There was a fourth girl inthe cart, curled up in the corner with her eyes shut. Maggie felt stupid and slow, but she tried togather herself. â€Å"What do you mean I’ve been asleep for a day and a half?† The redhaired girl shrugged. â€Å"That’s what shesaid. I wouldn’t know. They just picked me up afew hours ago. I almost made it out of this place, but they caughtme.†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ Maggie stared at her. There was a fresh bruiseon one of the girl’s angular cheekbones and her lipwas swollen. â€Å"Whatplace?† she said slowly. When nobodyanswered, she went on, `Look. I’m Maggie Neely. I don’t know where this is or what I’m doing here,but the last thing I remember is a girl named Sylviaknocking me out. Sylvia Weald. Do you guysknow her?† The redhead just stared back with narrowedgreen eyes. The girl lying down didn’t stir, and theblond kid in the plaid cap cringed. â€Å"Come on, somebody talk to me!† â€Å"You really doe t know what’s going on?† the redhaired girl said. â€Å"If I knew, I wouldn’t be asking over and over!† The girl eyed her a moment, then spoke with akind of malicious pleasure. â€Å"You’ve been sold into slavery. You re a slave now.† Maggie laughed. It was a short involuntary sound, and it hurt heraching head. The blond kid flinched again. Something in her expression made Maggie’s grin fadeaway. . She felt a cold ripple up her spine. â€Å"Come on,† she said. â€Å"Give me a break. Therearen’t slaves anymore!† â€Å"There are here.† The redhead smiledagain,nastily. â€Å"But I bet you don’t know whereyouare, either.† â€Å"In Washington State-† Even as she said it,Maggie felt her stomach tighten. â€Å"Wrong. Or right, but it doesn’t matter. Technically we may be in Washington, but where we really are is hell.† Maggie was losing her self control. â€Å"What are you talkingabout?† â€Å"Take a look through that crack.† There were lots of cracks in the cart; the palelight that filtered through them was the only illumi nation. Maggie knelt up and put her eye to a big one, blinking and squinting. At first she couldn’t see much. The cart wasbouncing and it was hard to determine what shewas looking at. All she knew was that there seemedto be no color. Everything was either phosphorescent white or dead black. Gradually she realized that the white was an overcast sky, and the black was a mountain. A big mountain, close enough to smack her face against. It reared up haughtily against the sky, its lowerreaches covered with trees that seemed ebony instead of green and swimming with mist. Its top wascompletely wreathed in clouds; there was no way to judge how high it was. And beside it was another mountain just like it.Maggie shifted, trying to get a wider view. Therewere mountains everywhere, in an impenetrablering surrounding her. They were†¦ scary. Maggie knew mountains, and loved them, butthese were different from any she’d ever seen. So cold, and with that haunted mist creeping everywhere. The place seemed to be full of ghosts, materializing and then disappearing with an almostaudible wail. It was like another world. Maggie sat down hard, then slowly turned backto look at the redheaded girl. You read "Night World : Black Dawn Chapter 5" in category "Essay examples" â€Å"Where is this?† she said, and her voice was almost a whisper. To her surprise, the girl didn’t laugh maliciouslyagain. Instead she looked away, with eyes thatseemed to focus on some distant and terrible memory, and she spoke in almost a whisper herself. â€Å"It’s the most secret place in the Night World.† Maggie felt as if the mist outside had reached down the back of her pajama top. â€Å"The what?† â€Å"The Night World. It’s like an organization. For all of them, youknow.† When Maggie just looked at her, she went on, â€Å"Them. The ones that aren’t human.† This time what Maggie felt was a plunging in her stomach, and she honestly didn’t know if it was because she was locked up in here with a loony, or if some part of her already accepted what the loony was saying. Either way, she was scared sick, and she couldn’t say anything. The girl with red hair flicked a glance at her, and the malicious pleasure came back. â€Å"The vampires,† she said distinctly, â€Å"and the shapeshifters and the witches – â€Å" Oh, God, Maggie thought. Sylvia.Sylvia is a witch. She didn’t know how she knew and probably part of her didn’t believe it anyway, but the word was thundering around inside her like an avalanche, gathering evidence as it fell. The incense, those strange purple eyes, the way Miles fell for her so fast and hardly ever called the family after he met her, and changed his whole personality, just as if he’d been under a spell, bewitched and helpless, and, oh, Miles, why didn’t I guess†¦. I’m not smart, but I’ve always been a good judge of character. How could I screw up when it counted? â€Å"They don’t normally have places of their own,† the redheaded girl was going on; and the wordswere somehow finding their way to Maggie’s earsdespite the chaos going on inside her. â€Å"Mostly theyjust live in ourcities, pretending to be like us. Butthis valley is special; it’s been here in the Cascades for centuries and humans have never found it. It’s all surrounded by spells and fogand those moun tains. There’s a pass through them, big enough forcarts, but only the Night People can see it. It’scalled the Dark Kingdom.† Oh, terrific,Maggie thought numbly. The namewas strangely suited to what she’d seen outside. Yellow sunlight was almost impossible to imagine in this place. Those filmy wraiths of mist held it ina shimmering silvery-white spell. â€Å"And you’re trying to say that we’re all †¦slaves now? But how did you guys get here?† When the redhead didn’t answer, she looked atthe little blond girl. The girl shifted her slight body, gulped. Finallyshe spoke in a husky little voice. â€Å"I’m P.J. Penobscot. I was-it happened to meon Halloween. I was trick-or-treating.† She looked down at herself and Maggie realized she was wearing a tan cable-knit sweater and a vest. â€Å"I was agolfer. And I was only supposed to go on my ownblock because the weather was getting bad. But myfriend Aaron and I went across the street and thiscar stopped in front ofme†¦.†She trailed off andswallowed hard. Maggie reached over and squeezed her hand. â€Å"I bet you were a great golfer.† P.J. smiled wanly. â€Å"Thanks.† Then her small face hardened and her eyes became distant. â€Å"Aaron got away, but this man grabbed me. I tried to hit him with my golf club, but he took it away. He lookedat me and then he put me in the car. He wasstrong.† â€Å"He was a professional slave trader,† the redhaired girl said. â€Å"Both the guys I’ve seen are pros.That’s why they looked at her face-they takepretty slaves when they can get them.† Maggie stared at her, then turned to P.J. â€Å"Andthen what?† â€Å"They put something over my face-I was stillfighting and yelling and everything-and then Iwent to sleep for a while. I woke up in this warehouse place.† She breathed once and looked at herthin wrists. â€Å"I was chained to a bed and I was allalone. I was alone for a while. And then, maybe itwas the next day, they brought in her.†She noddedat the girl sleeping in the corner. Maggie looked at the still form. It didn’t moveexcept when the cart shook it. â€Å"Is she all right?† â€Å"She’s sick. They left her there for a long time, maybe four days, but she never really woke up. Ithink she’s getting worse.† P.J.’s voice was quiet and detached. â€Å"They came in to give us food, but that was all. And then yesterday they brought you in. Maggie blinked. â€Å"To the warehouse.† P.J. nodded solemnly. â€Å"You were asleep, too. But I don’t know what happened after that. They putthe cloth over my face again. When I woke up Iwas in a van.† â€Å"They use those for transport on the other side,†the redhaired girl said. â€Å"To get up to the pass. Then they switch to a cart. The people in this valleyhave never seen a car.† â€Å"So you mean I slept through all that?† Maggieasked P.J. P.J. nodded again, and the redhead said, â€Å"Theyprobably gave you more of the drug. They try to keep everybody too doped up to fight.† Maggie was chewing her lip. Something had occurred to her. Maybe Sylvia hadn’t gone climbingwith Miles at all. â€Å"So, PJ., you never saw any other slaves besides that girl? You didn’t see a boy?† She fished in her jacket pocket and pulled out the photoof Miles. â€Å"A boy who looked like this?† P.J. looked at the photograph gravely, then shookher head. â€Å"I never saw him before. He looks likeyou. â€Å"He’s my brother, Miles. He disappeared on Halloween, too. I thought maybe†¦ .†Maggie shookher head, then held the photograph toward the redhaired girl. â€Å"Never seen him before,† the girl said shortly. Maggie looked at her. For somebody who likedto talk about scary things, she didn’t say much thatwas helpful. â€Å"And what about you? How’d you gethere?† The girl snorted. â€Å"I told you. I was getting outofthe valley.† Her face tightened. â€Å"And I almost madeit through the pass, but they caught me and stuckme in here. I should have made them kill me instead.† â€Å"Whoa,† Maggie said. She glanced at Pi., meaning that they shouldn’t frighten her unnecessarily.†It can’t be that bad.† To her surprise, the girl didn’t sneer or get mad. â€Å"It’s worse,† she said, almost whispering again.†Just leave it alone. You’ l find out.† Maggie felt the hair at the back of her neck stir. â€Å"What are you saying?† The girl turned, her green eyes burning darkly.†The Night People have to eat,† she said. â€Å"They caneat normal things, food and water. But the vampires have to drink blood and the shapeshiftershave to eat flesh. Is that clear enough for you?† Maggie sat frozen. She wasn’t worried aboutscaring P.J. anymore. She was too scared herself. â€Å"We’re slave labor for them, but we’re also a foodsupply. A food supply that lasts a long time,through lots of feedings,† the girl said brusquely. Maggie ducked her head and clenched her fists.†Well, then, obviously we’ve got to escape,† she said through her teeth. The redhead gave a laugh so bitter that Maggiefelt a chill down her spine. She looked at P.J. â€Å"Do you want to escape?† â€Å"Leave her alone!† the redhead snapped. â€Å"You,don’t understand what you’re talking about. We’reonly humans; they’re Night People. There’s nothingwe can do against them, nothing!† â€Å"BUt – 2) â€Å"Do you know what the Night People do to slaveswho try to escape?† And then the redhaired girl turned her back onMaggie. She did it with a lithe twist that left Maggie startled. Did I hurt her feelings? Maggie thought stupidly. The redhead glanced back over her shoulder, atthe same time reaching around to grasp the bottomof her shirt in back. Her expression was unreadable, but suddenlyMaggie was nervous. â€Å"What are you doing?† The redhaired girl gave a strange little smile andpulled the shirt up, exposing her back. Somebody had been playing tic-tac-toe there. The lines were cut into the flesh of her back, thescars shiny pink and only half healed. In thesquares were Xs and Os, raggedy-looking andbrighter red because for the most part they’d beenburned in. A few looked cut, like the strategic posi tion in the middle which would have been takenfirst. Somebody had won, three diagonal Xs, and had run a burn-line through the winning marks. Maggie gasped. She kept on gasping. She started to hyperventilate, and then she started to faint. The world seemed to recede from her, narrowingdown to a one-dimensional point of light. But there wasn’t room to actually fall over. As she slumpedbackward, she hit the wall of the cart. The world wobbled and came back, shiny at the edges. â€Å"Oh, God,† Maggie said. â€Å"Oh, God.They did thisto you? How could they dothat?† â€Å"This is nothing,† the girl said. â€Å"They did it whenI escaped the first time. And now I escaped againand I got caught again. This time they’ll do something worse.† She let go of her top and it slid downto cover her back again. Maggie tried to swallow, but her mouth was toodry. Before she knew she was moving, she foundherself grabbing the girl’s arms from behind. â€Å"What’s your name?† â€Å"Who ca-â€Å" â€Å"What’s your name?† The redhaired girl gave her a peculiar look over her shoulder. Then her arms lifted slightly under Maggie’s handsas she shrugged. â€Å"Jeanne.† â€Å"Jeanne. It’s got to stop,† Maggie said. â€Å"We can’t let them dothings like that to people. And we’vegot to get away. If they’re already going to punishyou for escaping, what difference does it make ifyou try it again now? Don’t you think?† Maggie liked the way that sounded, calm andcompetent and logical. The swift decision for ac tion didn’t blot out the memory of what she’d just seen, but it made the whole situation more bearable. She’d witnessed an injustice and she wasgoing to do something about it. That simple. Something so wicked had to be fixed, now. She started to cry. Jeanne turned around, gave her a long, assessinglook. P.J. was crying, too, very quietly. Maggie found her tears running out. Theyweren’t doing any good. When she stopped, Jeanne was still watching her with narrowed eyes. â€Å"So you’re going to take on the whole NightWorld alone,† she said. Maggie wiped her cheeks with her hands. â€Å"No,just the ones here.† Jeanne stared at her another moment, thenstraightened abruptly. â€Å"Okay,† she said, so suddenly that Maggie was startled. â€Å"Let’s do it. If wecan figure out a way.† Maggie looked toward the back of the cart.†What about those doors?† â€Å"Locked and chained on the outside. It’s no goodkicking them.† From nowhere, an image came into Maggie’smind. Herself and Miles in a rowboat on Lake Chelan with their grandfather. Deliberately rocking it while their grandfather yelled and fumed. â€Å"What if we all throw our weight from one sideto the other? If we could turn the cart over, maybethe doors would pop open. You know how armored cars always seem to do that. Or maybe it wouldsmash one of the walls enough that we could getout.† â€Å"And maybe we’d go falling straight down a ravine,† Jeanne said acidly. â€Å"It’s a long way down to the valley, and this road is narrow.† But there wasa certain unwilling respect in her eyes. â€Å"I guess wecould try it when we get to a meadow,† she said slowly. â€Å"I know a place. I’m not saying it would work; it probably won’t. But †¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"We have totry,† Maggie said. She was lookingstraight at Jeanne. For a moment there was something between them-a flash of understanding andagreement. A bond. â€Å"Once we got out, we’d have to run,† Jeanne said,still slowly. â€Å"They’re sitting up there.† She pointedto the ceiling at the front of the cart, above Maggie’s head. â€Å"This thing is like a stagecoach, okay?There’s a seat up there, and the two guys are onit. Professional slave traders are tough. They’re not going to want us to get away.† â€Å"They might get smashed up when we roll over,†Maggie said. Jeanne shook her head sharply. â€Å"Night People arestrong. It takes a lot more than that tokill them.We’d have to just take off and head for the forest as fast as we could. Our only chance is to get lostin the trees-and hope they can’t track us.† â€Å"Okay,† Maggie said. She looked at P.J. â€Å"Do youthink you could do that? Just run and keeprunning?† P.J. gulped twice, sank her teeth into her top lip, and nodded. She twisted her baseball cap around so the visor faced the back. â€Å"I can run,† she said. Maggie gave heranapproving nod. Then shelooked at the fourth girl, the one still curled upasleep. She leaned over to touch the girl’s shoulder. â€Å"Forget it,† Jeanne said shortly. â€Å"We can’t takeher.† Maggie looked up at her, shocked. â€Å"What are youtalking about? Why not?† How to cite Night World : Black Dawn Chapter 5, Essay examples

Terrorist Groups in Turkey

Overview There are small upcoming groups conducting terror in Turkey. However, the Turkish government fails to officially acknowledge them because there are inconclusive and barely cause substantially threat (Ker-Lindsay Cameron, 2009).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Terrorist Groups in Turkey specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Because of this, the Turkish National Police (2013) has only designated four groups as terrorist groups falling under three categories; separatists, left wing and terrorist groups that exploit religion. These terror groups include Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, DHKP/C and PKK/KCK. Although quite a few in number, these groups have caused increased terror attacks in Turkey by conducting bombings, kidnappings, road blockings, assassinations and illegal street demonstrations among other attacks. This has often necessitated the Turkish government to improve the local emergency response to save the increa sed number of life and property lost during the terror attacks. Markedly, in the year 2012 alone, besides innocent civilians, the government lost over 132 military personnel to terror attacks. According to Roach (2003), knowing a terror group’s goals, objectives or mission provides a strong basis for countering terror attacks because the government can anticipate and calculate the probable moves of the terrorists. With this in mind, this paper discusses the goals, objectives and missions of these terror groups to shed light on them and show the possibility of an effective strategy for countering terrorism in Turkey. DHKP/C or the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Font Sevinc (2008) notes that DHKP/C mission is overthrowing the regime that exists in Turkey aided by a violent revolution to set up a communist society using Marxist-Leninist principles as a guide. To become successful in its mission, the group, through a series of successful terrorism operations in Tu rkey has attained one of its goals, which is to establish a centre in European countries with dense Turkish populations. Another key goal to help it achieve its mission includes developing public riots led by armed struggle in rural and urban area. In addition to this, the group’s goal is targeting Israeli, European and American enterprises, which the group perceives as global imperialism advocates who sabotage communism. This also goes for targeting government officials to weaken the Turkish government, such as in the case of year 2009 Suicide Bombing, a failed bombing attack targeting the Minister of justice. The key objective of the group is attaining its goals through conducting assassinations, armed attacks and laying bomb traps for their presumed enemies.Advertising Looking for essay on political sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Al Qaeda As a religion motivated terror group, Al Qaeda’s mission is o verthrowing Muslim governments that it perceives as Western world puppets, and to setting up Islamist regimes. To attain its mission, Sevinc (2008) notes that the group’s key goal is attacking US and US allies whom it perceives as the enemies of the Islamic religion. By doing so, the group believes that it contributes to establishing an Islamist State in the county. To attain its goal, the group has several objectives, which are bombing and conducting suicide attacks on the US and its allies citizens and interests present in Turkey. For instance, the year 2003 saw Al Qaeda perform suicide attacks on 2 Jewish Synagogues and a British bank, HSBC bank that left 61 people dead and over 647 injured. Hezbollah Hezbollah, a religious-based terror group’s mission is to demolish Turkish presumed secular regime and establish it with strict Islamic religion rules through violent and forceful means. To attain this mission, the group focuses on its goal of initiating propaganda to help attract sympathizers or members who join the militia to help conduct violent and forceful terror activities or objectives. These include shootings, kidnappings, armed attacks, acid attacks on women deviating from strict Islamic dressing code, arsons and beatings. The group also applies premeditated brutal torture techniques methodologically (NATO Science for Peace and Security Series, 2008). PKK or the Kurdistan Workers Party As a separatist terror group, PKK mission is adopting a long-term public war to oversee the independence of the Kurds in areas where they are dominated, including Syria, Iran and Iraq. This is as guided by the Marxism ideology to help to end the Kurds oppression. Goals and objectives that help to attain its mission include trying to manipulate the world public opinion, society and political arena to fit its purpose and garner membership. This also goes for exploiting concepts, such as legal defense, democracy and civil disobedience to appeal to foreign sta tes to garner approval and funds. In addition, they focus on exploiting weak members of the society, primarily children and women by using them to conduct public violence. Some of the public violence involves demonstrations full of violent acts and conflicting with the police in the streets (National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Response to Terrorism, 2013). This also goes for using them to conduct suicide bombings, collect intelligence and target-reconnaissance.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Terrorist Groups in Turkey specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Conclusion Markedly, the terror groups have strong ideologies that form the basis of their missions. A terror group’s mission forms the basis of its goals and objectives, which over the years become predictable due to their repeated nature. Therefore, the Turkish government can predict the probable course of actions that the terror groups will take and probable targets. For instance, in Hezbollah’s case, they can predict that the terrorists may attack or kidnap women who do not conform to the Islamic dressing code. Therefore, they can monitor such terror attacks hotspots, such as public places to prevent such attacks and arrest the terror perpetrators. Such moves as guided by terror group’s mission, goals and objectives could help prevent terror attacks and weaken terror groups in Turkey. References Ker-Lindsay, J., Cameron, A. (2009). Combating international terrorism: Turkey’s added value. Web. National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Response to Terrorism. (2013). Terrorist organization profile: Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Web. NATO Science for peace and Security Series. (2008). Organizational and Psychological Aspects of Terrorism. Ankara: IOS Press. Roach, C. (2003).Terrorism: Turkey point. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse Inc. Sevinc, B. (2008). Participation in terrorist organizati ons: An analysis of left wing DHKP/C and religiously motivated Turkish Hezbollah terrorist organizations. Ann Arbor, MI: ProQuest.Advertising Looking for essay on political sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Turkish National Police (2013). Terrorist organizations in Turkey. Web. This essay on Terrorist Groups in Turkey was written and submitted by user Callie P. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Attachment Theory essays

Attachment Theory essays To begin to understand the attachment theory one must first understand and have a clear definition of what attachment is. From my point of view attachment is a lasting, secure and positive bond between a child and a caregiver, a reciprocal relationship. Attachment, as a behavioural system introduced by Bowlby (1969, 1973, 1979, 1980), is thus a set of behaviours (crying, smiling, clinging, moving, looking, etc) that function together to achieve proximity to the primary caregiver. The biological purpose of such an innate behavioural system is to keep the infant close to the mother and protect it during its early and most vulnerable years(http://psychology.about.com) 1 A baby who has formed an attachment responds well with the adult she has bonded with, this response makes the adult continue providing the care, nourishment, nurturing and stimulation the child needs to ensure a healthy well-rounded development. As the baby grows mechanisms are developed to allow this bonding to continue, traditionally a baby would have been carried around by the mother, usually in a papoose, till old enough to crawl around. Then when the baby could crawl it could follow its mother, reach objects on its own and explore, always being able to get to where mum is if and when needed. Babies are able to cry from birth, this cry is plaintiff and helpless, this makes us want to hold them and comfort them, a baby who knows she will be picked up when distressed becomes secure, trust develops and the baby understands that all she needs to do is cry and help is there. When a baby looks into our faces when we are feeding them we begin to speak to them, our voices soften and our tones become sweeter, almost saccharin, when they hold our finger and begin to make cooing noises it tugs the heart strings, we respond with more chatter, the content doesnt matter, what does matter is that we are bonding, an attachment is forming between us and the ...

How to Make Marketing Employee Performance Reviews Easy (Templates)

How to Make Marketing Employee Performance Reviews Easy (Templates) No one enjoys doing employee performance reviews. They’re often slightly uncomfortable conversations, and even in a best-case scenario, everyone involved feels relieved when they’re done. That isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement for their value, necessity, or how we feel about them. However, they are valuable, they are necessary, and when conducted with a thoughtful process, they can be something you approach with less anxiety. When you can repeat that process effectively with consistent results, you can spend less time planning for reviews, and more time working through them efficiently with the results  you want. In this post, you’ll learn: Why are performance reviews important for marketing managers and teams? What steps should they include and which questions should be asked? How can marketing teams develop a repeatable review process that works? Best of all, this is the actual process the team  uses, which has been time-tested and shown to work well. In other words, this post is geared specifically toward what marketing managers need to know most about this topic. Be a Better Manager With Free Performance Review + Evaluation Form Templates.Be a Better Manager With Free Performance Review + Evaluation Form Templates Employee reviews don’t need to be overly complex. However, you will need to keep documentation of your conversation so you have something to reference in the future, to ensure the important details of the review aren’t forgotten later. Youll also need to accurately evaluate performance before going into each meeting. To get started, download these two templates: Marketing Performance Evaluation Form (Word): Answer six simple questions to gauge performance. Marketing Employee Performance Review Template (Word): Then, use this sheet to document the meeting. Both are short and simple to streamline the process effectively. Grab them quick before moving on:How Can Help Evaluate Team Productivity? As a marketing project management platform, is purpose-built for managing busy marketing teams. That includes your tasks and workflows for all projects and making sure everyone is getting their stuff done on time. One way measures that last item is with Team Performance Reports. It measures who’s rocking it and who’s falling behind so you can actually know who’s hitting their deadlines. Here's a quick look at how it works: What Exactly is an Employee Performance Review? Here’s a short definition this post will work with: An employee performance review is an opportunity for team members and managers to assess what’s going well, what isn’t going well, and what’s necessary for future success with a company or organization. There are a few things to note about this definition: It shouldn’t feel like an interrogation. A good review shouldn’t focus solely on negatives. They aren’t one-and-done meetings. Feedback gathered in a review should be considered and implemented throughout the year. This should be a two-way conversation. They aren’t just about assessing the team member’s performance; they’re also an opportunity to get the employee’s take on how they’re doing and how the company is doing, too. Recommended Reading: The Best Way to Plan a Successful Marketing Performance Management Process What Are the Benefits to Running Employee Reviews for Marketers? First things first, it’s important to understand that these meetings are more than just an annual requirement that you have to fulfill to keep HR happy. Here are a few reasons why they shouldn’t be blown off or phoned in without careful consideration for their purpose. Your team members need an honest assessment of their performance. If they don’t know how they’re doing (positively or negatively) or where they need to improve, they’re unlikely to reach their potential. You need to know what your team members need to succeed. Likewise, you can’t help your team achieve success unless you understand what they need from you. If you don’t set up employees for success, someone else will (when they leave your company). The market for marketing talent is tight. Don’t let people leave because they didn’t feel supported. Help Your Team, Help Your Company (Before They Leave) As a case in point, according to Smart Insights, 54.9% of marketers switch companies in order to find a new challenge. Why not provide that challenge for them instead of leaving them to find it somewhere else? And if that statistic doesn’t have you convinced, these might: Who Should Be in an Employee Review Meeting? In most cases, a marketing manager, their supervisor(s), and the employee themselves should be sufficient. If possible, including the CEO too is a good idea (at , CEO Garrett Moon offers direct feedback to each employee in the company during reviews). Then, once the review is completed, human resources will likely need to approve review paperwork (and any pay raises the team member might be due). Work with your HR department if you’re unsure what your internal processes are there. How Often Should Reviews Be Conducted? Here’s a common misconception: staff reviews are a once-a-year deal where you get all your feedback out at once. This could not be more incorrect, but unfortunately, it’s a common attitude (particularly at large companies where one-on-one communication might be challenging to schedule, or just doesn’t happen organically). So, how often should feedback be scheduled? Consider the following: Weekly syncs: Set up a recurring one-on-one meeting with each team member to check in on how things are going. Quarterly check-ins: Then, schedule quarterly meetings to review how things have gone year-to-date and what’s needed for success over the long term. Annual reviews: Finally, these are holistic performance evaluations that take the entire previous year into consideration. For marketers, ongoing mentorship with leadership is invaluable for development. Also, this post will stress this point multiple times: an annual review should not be the first time an employee hears a given piece of feedback. This is a sign they don’t feel like they can be open and honest with how things are going outside of times allotted for feedback, and that’s corrosive for everyone’s productivity and happiness at work. Recommended Reading: 6 Things You Need To Know About Marketing Management (+ 4 Free Templates) Scheduling Your Review Meetings The best way to make sure your review meetings actually happen is to schedule them on a regular basis. Schedule the following using your company’s shared Google or Outlook calendar: Weekly meetings: Stick to a set time each week. Quarterly reviews: Stick as closely to a 90-day window as you can. Annual reviews: Same as with quarterly reviews, they should be close to their start date each year. Map these all out in advance so they don’t catch anyone off guard. If you’re a customer and use Google Calendar, you can even sync your calendar with with Zapier, so they’ll appear alongside all your other projects. Evaluating Employees Prior to Your Meetings Before heading into a review, you’ll need to know for yourself what you honestly think about each employee’s performance, both in terms of what they’re doing well and where they can improve. It can help to have some sort of checklist to run through when assessing each team member, especially if you have a large team. In order to keep your meetings focused and conversational, do this before meeting face to face. Here’s an outline of a checklist you can use: Does the team member demonstrate high level of job knowledge? Does the team member complete work accurately and on time? Does the team member work well with others? Does the team member communicate effectively? Does the team member demonstrate initiative? Does the team member consistent show up to work on time? These are basic performance-oriented questions you’ll need to assess, and running through them as an exercise might help you identify strengths and areas in need of improvement. If you’d prefer this in a Word doc, there’s one included in this post’s template bundle. You can jump back up to the top of the post here to download it quick. Here's what it looks like: Planning Your Review Questions Once you’re face-to-face for a review, what should you ask? It might be tempting to prepare a detailed list of questions to dig deep into the needs of your team members. That might work. After all, it stands to reason that more granular questions will get more detailed answers, right? Well, you might be able to have a more productive and insightful conversation by keeping your questions simple. There are only three you really need to ask: What’s going well? This can be an open-ended discussion around what’s going right for the employee, their work, and the company. What isn’t going well? Same as above, but for things that need improvement. What’s needed for a successful future? What should the employee keep doing? What should they change? And likewise, is there anything you or the company may need to consider as well? Generally, it’s best to keep this an open-ended conversation. But, as that conversation moves forward, how do you make sure it stays on track and the words you choose to maintain a productive tone?

Introduction to business Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Introduction to business - Assignment Example One of the key challenges which it reported lately is the resistance to its expansion in the urban areas. While the store is striving to gain market in the urban areas, it is facing many challenges and oppositions by companies, the government and also prominent individuals. The main reason as to why the store if facing so much resistance is due to its size and its control over the market. Wal-Mart can enter different markets in different countries through acquisitions, formation of joint ventures or even establishment of its own stores (Roberts & Berg, 192). Therefore, it poses a threat to the small scale businesses in the urban market. With Wal-Mart in the urban markets, many businesses fear that they may not be able to maintain the same market size as before. This is because; being a large store, it can acquire items at cheap costs and thus, charge cheap prices. On the other hand, the government resists Wal-Mart’s extension to the urban because the store is large and could p ose a competition to the government parastatals. Over the past years, study shows that Wal-Mart has been able to maintain excellent relations with different kinds of people. The store reported that all these nifty relationships between its buyers and all other institutions that it dealt with all arose out of trust (Soderquist, 165). It is through this building of trust that Wal-Mart was able to win the approval of zoning commissions and committees. The managers of the store also reported that they also won the approval through being a staunch and involved citizen in the United States of America. This was mainly through participation in the charitable giving and general caring of the communities (Soderquist, 190). Thus, the management of Wal-Mart changed its operations from entirely profit oriented goals to both service oriented and profit oriented objectives. A manager of the Store recently reported that the store creates a

General Principles of Law in the Eu Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

General Principles of Law in the Eu - Essay Example It has been said that there were two main aspects for achieving a common market; the first being "negative integration" which required removal of existing barriers and the second requiring "harmonization" of rules so as to be in compliance with the set community rules which require positive steps so that the products can move freely within the EU this is known as positive integration1. When making an analysis of free movement it is necessary to differentiate between monetary barriers which are illustrated under Art 23-25 or under Article 90, which is discriminatory taxation and other barriers which do not deal with charges which are covered under Article 28-30. There have been at time quantitative restrictions which have restrained either the quantity of exports or imports. A restriction can take the form of a ban, quotas, or the requirement of obtaining licenses. For the purpose of ascertaining what a good is the ECJ stated in Commission v. Italy2 that the provisions of free movement of goods applied to any produce which can be valued in money and can form the basis for a commercial transaction. It can be clearly stated from the fact that Synthostein is a good and so the provisions for free movement of goods do apply to it. By the facts it can be said that there has been a quantitative restriction placed by Loamshire Borough Council on the import of Synthostein and so Art28 will be discussed along with its interpretation to the facts. Article 28 states that 'quantitative restrictions on imports and all measures having equivalent effect shall be prohibited between member states'. In Geddo v Ente Nazionale Risi3 quantitative restrictions was said to be total or partial restriction on imports, exports or goods in transit. This tends to include a complete ban. (Commission v. Italy (Re Ban on Pork and Imports)4. It also includes quotas as stated in Salgoil SpA v. Italian Ministry for Foreign Trade5. Furthermore, even if it is found that the ban on imports is only on a certain or part of the member state, it would still be classified as a quantitative restriction. This was illustrated in the Ditle v. Bluhm6e case where a prohibition on import by Danish on a small island named Laeso of bees or reproductive material was found to be a quantitative restriction even though it was only for the island and for the purpose of protecting the Laeso brown bee. In order for the Article 28 to be applied it has been found necessary that a state measure should have been taken. This is what was found in the case of Commission v. Ireland 'Buy Irish' 7where it was found that the Irish Goods Council had the involvement of the state in the appointment of its Managing Committee and that it was run on state funding. However it has been seen that measures taken by state have been interpreted in the

“Thy eternal summer shall not fade”: Flower of all Seasons in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 :: Literary Analysis, Shakespeare

Shakespeare intertwines two characteristics of beauty, while at the same time subtly showing their differences, showing that inner transcends outer beauty. Beauty is rare and true beauty even more so; true beauty is beauty that’s on the inside, and is lacking in many, yet Shakespeare was able to find a woman who is beautiful from the inside out. Shakespeare, in sonnet eighteen, uses descriptions of nature, and imagery to imply, and directly compare them to a girl with true inner beauty, one which surpasses even her own outer beauty. The poet compares the imperfections of summer to contradict the iridescent outer beauty of the girl he loves. Even though the summer seems like the best season, it is always undesirably â€Å"too short† (4) and nature always has its faults but the girl does not. Sometimes it’s â€Å"too hot† (5) and sometimes on a beautiful day its gold complexion is even dimmed, the clouds overcast which is believed, by some, to foreshadow bad luck. But her beauty is never overcast by something else nor her â€Å"gold complexion dimmed† (6). However, all these imperfections are not natural for her. She, he praises, is â€Å"more lovely† and â€Å"more temperate† than a summer’s day (2). In praising her beauty he even emphasizes the word â€Å"more†. Both lovely and temperate are words that show effective use of diction. While he does choose words that accurately express his feelings they also have strong connotations lovely could imply high at tractiveness and exquisite beauty and temperate could imply that she is by nature a very strong, yet mild and self controlled person. Shakespeare also shows all of summer’s imperfections through the imagery of flowers. Another instance where summer’s beauty is cut short by nature and therefore is incomparable to the girls’ beauty is when the â€Å"Rough winds...Shake the darling buds of May† (3), May is a time in the year when the weather starts to warm up and flowers are in full bloom, beautiful at the very beginning of summer. But sadly nature comes and snatches the beauty away, the image of the winds of May coming and blowing petals off the beautiful flowers shows the â€Å"Rough† behaviors, and shortcomings that nature has to offer. At the same time the wind is also a metaphor for adversities or problems in life and how he praises the one he loves because she is not affected by obstacles. The poet also expresses and emphasizes that even though the buds and the flowers may wither with the rough winds, her beauty still holds intact; especially her inner beauty, her temperate n ature that ever endures adversity.

Ameritrade’s Cost of Capital Essay

Executive Summary After careful analysis of Ameritrade and comparable companies, I have estimated a 14.784% cost of capital that should be used to evaluate Ameritrade’s upcoming investments in technology and advertising. After analyzing the historical return on Ameritrade’s investments, I have concluded that if the firm manages this project at least as well as its previous investments, the return on the proposed project will exceed the cost of capital resulting in a positive NPV project. Based on the estimated cost of capital, relative to the company’s historical returns on investment, I recommend that Ameritrade undertakes this investment project. I believe that the estimated cost of capital is appropriate because it is partly based on a set of companies where the main source of revenue is similar to that of Ameritrade, deep discount brokerage companies. In addition, the nature of the project is to increase the customer base of Ameritrade, a frequent and archetypal venture for a deep-discount brokerage firm. Because Ameritrade has very limited data due to its recent IPO, I will be using the comparable data of Waterhouse Investors, Quick and Reilly Group Incorporated, and Charles Schwab Corporation to estimate Ameritrade’s levered beta using a bottom-up approach. I will be using these comparables because they are all characterized as deep-discount brokerage firms with similar sources of revenue. I used data from 1992-1996 because in my experience, I have found that five years of data provides a reasonable and precise measure of information. It should be noted that I consistently used the same amount of data from five calendar years for all of Ameritrade’s comparables. The key stakeholders involving this decision are management and those providing the capital, both debt and equity, for this new undertaking. For these stakeholders, priority lies in the return of the investment, the success of the company, and the ability to meet the financial obligations of the firm. These priorities can be best predicted with my provided estimation of the cost of capital in relation to the company’s historical return on investment. Market Overview As Ameritrade continues to grow and make investments in projects, it is important to realize the effect the market has on the brokerage. One thing I want to emphasize is the direct correlation between the deep discount brokerage market and the stock market. While the S&P 500 during the last two years (1995 and 1996) have had returns of 34.11% and 20.26% respectively, it is easy to be optimistic about the health of the economy and the performance of the company. In the case of an economic downturn, Ameritrade should be ready for a decrease in consumer activity and should consider diversification. Perhaps taking on other types of activities such as investment banking roles like mergers, acquisitions, and security underwritings would also be wise. This would diversify away some of the risk involved in strictly deep-discount brokers. Ameritrade should also be conscientious of the very price-sensitive nature of its consumers when evaluating this investment. My calculated cost of capital i s subject to a variety of factors affected by the uncertainty of the future. For instance, it is conceivable that the company’s beta will change over time due to the dynamic characteristics of the market and the economy. In addition, stakeholders could change their comfort regarding the degree of risk aversion, which would affect the market risk premium. In order to mitigate the risk, Ameritrade could place a premium cost of capital on top of my estimated cost of capital when discounting future cash flows. This would mitigate the risk of future cash flows that are too optimistic in potentially harsh economic times. I believe that this would be an appropriate way to help stakeholders feel more comfortable with investments, especially investments as large as this advertising and technology project. In order to estimate the cost of capital of Ameritrade, I had to determine standard parameters, such as beta, from comparable companies because of Ameritrade’s recent IPO and subsequent short track record of performance. I was able to obtain comparable companies’ betas by way of running a regression on the returns of the companies in relation to the return on the market, or the S&P 500. By applying Ameritrade’s capital structure to the comparable companies’ unlevered beta, I was able to approximate the beta of Ameritrade. I was subsequently able to estimate the cost of equity assuming the same capital structure prior to the prospective investment with the  Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). I used CAPM to find the cost of equity for this particular project, not to evaluate the potential change in the process. The capital asset pricing model can be used in evaluation of the cost of capital because it reflects the reward for postponing consumption, the relative amount of systematic risk, and the reward in the market for bearing systematic risk. Thus I can estimate the cost of capital using the true systematic risk. I believe that in the future, a capital structure consisting of more debt may lower the weighted average cost of capital and keep a larger proportion of the benefits of the project to the current stakeholders, while keeping in mind that Ame ritrade should abstain from taking on too much debt considering its sensitivity to the market. I used three comparable companies to estimate Ameritrade’s cost of capital: Waterhouse Investors, Quick and Reilly Group Incorporated, and Charles Schwab Corporation. These deep-discount brokerage firms, along with Ameritrade, source most of their revenues through transactions and net interest. Situation Overview The WACC is a measurement of the riskiness of the firm as a whole and can be applied to standard company projects. Ameritrade has been first movers on introducing features such as an automated phone trading service and an online trading platform in the deep discount brokerage market. Both of these investments are characterized by substantial investments in technology, as is the proposed project. Based on this, I consider the stated project as a typical project of the firm, yielding an average risk equal to that of Ameritrade’s nature. Therefore, I find that evaluating the stated project with WACC as a hurdle rate of whether to undertake the project is correct. One of the parameters that has a large effect on WACC is the capital structure applied in the calculations. In my calculations of the WACC of 14.783%, I assumed a debt to equity ratio of 0.261. I based this on the balance sheet numbers you provided me with for the two available years; it is a weighted? average of the two years of data. When looking to the market comparables Quick and Reilly Group Incorporated and Charles Schwab Corporation, one can see that the debt to equity ratio of Ameritrade is an industry standard. I decided to omit Waterhouse Investors for this comparison because of their atypical capital structure. In the calculation  of the WACC, debt has the advantage that it brings a tax shield since interest on debt is tax deductible. Therefore taking on more debt relative to equity can be profitable to a certain point where, cost of potential financial distress for undertaking that extra debt is less than the value of the interest tax shield. In addition, taking on too much debt carries the risk of major credit rating agencies downgrading the company, where eventually, debt becomes too costly because the cost of potential financial distress is greater than the value of the interest tax shield. Therefore, the management in the evaluation of the investment must have a clear focus on which capital structure is the optimal for Ameritrade in the future. Below I have done a sensitivity analysis of the WACC that should be applied in the evaluation of the investment project in relation to the capital structure. D% – E% 10/90 20/80 30/70 40/60 WACC 14.54% 14.32% 14.11% 13.89% Based on these calculations, I would recommend that management look into the optimal capital structure after the proposed investment. While keeping in mind the disadvantages of taking on too much debt, I would recommend a higher, though incremental, debt to equity ratio. I found Ameritrade’s after-tax cost of debt to be 7.28%. To find Ameritrade’s after-tax cost of debt, I collected the credit rating of Ameritrade’s outstanding debt through Standard & Poor’s credit rating agency. Ameritrade’s debt is currently rated at B+. The default spread on B+ corporate debt is listed at 5.01 on 10-year debt obligations. To find the cost of debt you add this number to the risk-free rate, which as of August 1997 is 6.69%, and multiply that number by 1 subtracted by the corporate tax rate of Ameritrade. The corporate tax rate of Ameritrade I found to be 37.7%, by averaging Ameritrade’s tax rates  over the two available years. It should be noted that the default-spread rate applied in my calculations are projected rates, not current rates (2014). The risk free rate of applied throughout my calculations is the annualized yield to maturity of a 20-year government T-bond has and has a yield of 6.69%. I have chosen to use this because I consider the proposed investment project a long-term investment. When choosing the risk-free rate, there can be no uncertainty about reinvestment rates in the calculations, meaning that one should use a zero-coupon bond with the same maturity as the project. The Market risk premium is defined as the difference between the expected return on the market portfolio and the risk-free rate; in other words, it is the compensation that risk adverse investors need to receive in order to invest in the market portfolio. I calculated the current market risk premium by finding the geometric average of the return on the market subtracted by a 20-year government T-Bond. I used the geometric average because we are valuing the average over a long period of time and the arithmetic average tends to overestimate the value. I then found the beta by using a bottom-up analysis. The bottom-up approach tends to make the standard error of the beta much lower than other types of analyses. In addition, the bottom-up approach can reflect the current and the expected future beta of the company. I looked at the beta of the comparable companies and found the average of the betas over the 1992-1996-time period. I then had to un-lever the beta and then re-lever the beta by Ameritrade’s capital structure to find Ameritrade’s levered beta. By using this beta, I was able to calculate Ameritrade’s cost of equity to be 16.06% by using the Capital Asset Pricing Model. In terms of the size of the investment, increasing advertising expenses to $155 million and technology expenses to $100 million is a huge undertaking for Ameritrade. If you look at your total assets at the end of 1996, you will see that it values at a little more than $400 million. Thus, the investments of this project would be 64% of Ameritrade’s total assets. When looking at the comparable companies Schwab, Quick and Reilly, and Waterhouse, a similar investment would only be 2%, 6%, and 21% of their total assets respectively. Because the investment is so large for Ameritrade, in comparison to its competitors, Ameritrade should be conscientious of the enormity of the project and require a higher proportional return. After consulting the database of Bloomberg Financial  Records, I found that your return on assets and return on equity exceeded my estimated weighted cost of capital. Thus, I conclude that Ameritrade undertakes this project with full-invested confidence in the m anagement. Conclusion My extensive research on Ameritrade and its comparable companies yielded an estimated 14.784% cost of capital for this project. Because of the nature of the proposed investment, I decided that the WACC would be applicable to the project. While this project may require a significant amount of resources, an optimistic return like the one you proposed and the historical average of your return on assets and equity would more than make up for the costs. Therefore my recommendation based on my calculations is that this is an attractive investment opportunity for Ameritrade, to grow its customer base and revenue, which the management should accept. However it must be taken into account that the beta and thereby the cost of equity I used to calculate the cost of capital were influenced by the comparable companies because I used data of these companies in my estimation of Ameritrade’s beta. Further the beta is estimated on historical return and not the future return. Consumer preferenc es and market conditions may lead to a change in Ameritrade’s beta over the projects lifetime. Since the future is unknown estimating a historical beta is the best guess of what the future beta will be. The market risk premium that I have applied in my calculations is also a subject to the changes of the future. The market risk premium is the compensation a risk adverse investor needs in order to invest. In periods of economic and financial depression, this market risk premium will increase resulting in a higher cost of capital. On the other hand, periods with good economic and financial conditions will lower the market risk premium. Further the market risk premium applied in my calculation is based on a projected default spread (2014) instead of the actual spread in 1996; this may be a source of variability. The capital structure of Ameritrade has a substantial effect on the cost of capital. In my calculations, I have applied the historical capital structure of Ameritrade. Increasing Ameritrade’s debt to equity ratio can bring down Ameritrade’s cost of capital. Therefore it would be in Ameritrade’s management best interest to look at the company’s future capital structure prior to this investment.  Ameritrade’s management should also look into the projected revenues of the investment. With projections ranging from 10% to 50%, only the most pessimistic forecasts are lower than the cost of capital of the project. However by cutting the transaction fees and thereby relying on a higher volume of executed trades can make Ameritrade even more susceptible to future economic depressions. As per my calculation, the size of the investment is proportionally large and must be treated in the most delicate manner. Ultimately, I suggest that management find the optimal capital structure before investing in this project. However, I do believe that with my calculated cost of capital in comparison to the average return on equity and return on assets, the investment will be a worthy venture.

The Story of the First Lawn Mower

Formal lawns made of short, well-maintained grass first appeared in France around the 1700s, and the idea soon spread to England and the rest of the world. But the methods of maintaining lawns were labor-intensive, inefficient or inconsistent: Lawns were first kept clean and tidy by having animals graze on the grass, or by the use of scythe, sickle, or shears to hand-cut the grass lawns. That changed in the mid-19th century with the invention of the lawnmower.   Machine for Mowing Lawns The first patent for a mechanical lawn mower described as a Machine for mowing lawns, etc. was granted on August 31, 1830, to engineer, Edwin Beard Budding (1795-1846) from Stroud, Gloucestershire, England.  Buddings design was based on a cutting tool used for the uniform trimming of carpet. It was a reel-type mower that had a series of blades arranged around a cylinder. John Ferrabee, owner of Phoenix Foundry at Thrupp Mill, Stroud, first produced the Budding lawn mowers, which were sold to the Zoological Gardens in London (see illustration). In 1842,  Scotsman Alexander Shanks invented  a 27-inch pony drawn reel lawn mower. The first United States patent for a reel lawn mower was granted to Amariah Hills on January 12, 1868. Early lawn mowers were often designed to be horse-drawn, with the horses often wearing oversized leather booties to prevent lawn damage. In 1870, Elwood McGuire of Richmond, Indiana designed a very popular human pushed lawn mower; while it wasnt the first to be human-pushed, his design was very lightweight and became a commercial success. Steam-powered lawn mowers appeared in the 1890s. In 1902, Ransomes produced the first commercially available mower powered by an internal combustion gasoline engine. In the United States, gasoline powered lawn mowers were first manufactured in 1919 by Colonel Edwin George.   On May 9, 1899, John Albert Burr patented an improved rotary blade lawn mower. While marginal improvements have been made in mower technology (including the all-important riding mower), some municipalities and companies are bringing back the old ways by using grazing goats as a low-cost, low-emission mower alternative.