Harper: Cost and Attractive Markets Essay

How good is the product? The product in theory has great potential able to save costs in two major industries, ceramics in paints. Looking at both individually: 1) Paints: Potentially 12 – 18 cents of savings to original estimations, however research with client has shown great difficulty. Was not working well due to suspension problems, was unable to have the right shine for use in white paints. Furthermore, once quality of end product was acceptable, savings was found to be 3cents per a gallon, which was deemed not worthwhile. However more wear on tear on machinery due to abrasive properties of domimite. 2) Ceramics: Huge initial investment to switch over the dies but estimated to be a large number of advantages: a. Strength of tile improves b. Minimal moisture expansion c. If used more than 20% thermal expansion goes down reducing tile mfg time. d. Low temperature in kiln e. Reduces Variable cost of tile by 17% through the above mechanisms. Tile industry Fixed cost is huge due to machinery, labor etc. However actual tests have not been so conclusive. While advantages of them are seen, there have been issues with warping and with cracks. Penetration with smaller suppliers but failed to interest medium and large manufacturers. What obstacles has Harper encountered in developing the market for Dominite? Single source player, very unattractive to large customers Testing has been inconclusive Failed to find right mixture Failed to sale the higher grade material Penetrated the wrong market segment Should Harper try to sell the Dominite operation? It Depends ï Å  How much for? For the right price, certainly. It comes down to how realistic are the new projections that came out in 1985. Can we really meet those targets? I doubt it. How much do we need to sell to break even? Assuming we use 1985 costs for 1986 we would need to sell? Doing the math I assumed everything was a fixed cost except for the 35% of the plant cost(if I took anything else as a variable cost it would go more than the price)giving us a VC of 48. There fore we would have needed to sell 54 thousand units which is way way way more. I do feel that selling costs and admin costs should be part of variable costs, but when I calculate it that way our VC is more than our price which is fucked up. Basically we really need to sell more or sell the entire division. If the decision is not to sell the Dominite operation, what changes should be made in the current sales program? What are the most attractive markets? What offer should be presented in terms of value proposition and price? Basically our sales are not doing too well. Take one look at the original projections and our current sales data. Stuff of nightmares. The question is how can we improve it? We have been using trade shows, industry magazines and cold calls. They have gone as far as to leverage their contacts within the pain industry but it is still not clicking. I think we need to spend some serious R&D time. Our sales pitch so far has been hey, use some dolomite and shit will get better. My recommendation would to actually figure out what formula works for which application and actually sound like we know what we are talking about when we go to the customer. The most attractive markets are obviously paint and ceramic given our product. Let us look at each one of those individually: 1) Ceramic: 33% of market is 4 big guys, this is key. Any one of them will buy 40 – 60 thousand tons a year and we will be able to break in. At all costs we must try and get to one of these customers. 33% is medium players amounting to 12 companies. The customer trying to buy us out is in this category. No data on how much they buy but I find it to be a lot less than what we need to even break even 33% left are all small which we have been hitting. 2) Paint: 25% of the market is with big guys and 75% with the small guys. Again we have to target the big players. The small guy stratergy is not cutting it. Though given the technical difficulties with paint and the minor margins we make, I am wondering if we should save on those sales resources and move them to ceramics. Our valuation offer is basically price saving and reduced time for manufacturing. Our price is competitive with talc which is the product we directly compete with, however we are barely making it. It’s a hard call and I want to discuss with you guys in the meeting tomorrow. Are any changes needed in the Dominite sales organization? First of all we are cannibalizing our own sales resources with the introduction of superfine. I think we need to dedicate resources solely to dominite to make an impact. Second of all all the above points I made about hitting the right market segments.

Pillow Method

Do children apologize to each other? Apology events in young Israeli peer discourse ZOHAR KAMPF and SHOSHANA BLUM-KULKA Abstract Children’s apologies are greatly under-researched. Though there is wealth of information available on the pragmatics of apologies generally, we know much less about whether and how children apologize. Our study explores modes of remedial work by Israeli children in peer discourse. The data were collected through ethnographic observation of Israeli preschool and preadolescents, and consist of 57 (taped and transcribed) apology events identified in natural peer interactions.The analysis of children’s apology events revealed a rich range of apology strategies used by 4 6 year old children, indicating the acquisition of remedial competencies for face management at a relatively early age and showed that with age, a richer range of potential violations is identified, and more elaborate forms of repair are being used, indicating a growing sensitivity to the other’s face needs. Furthermore, we found that adult intervention in children’s conflictual situations serves to model remedial strategies, but is not necessarily effective for conflict resolution.Importantly, peer talk apology events index the centrality of friendship in young children’s social world: breaches from expected behavior in play are taken as face threatening to the core of friendship, namely the children’s shared face as friends, and hence can function to end (even if temporarily) the friendship. Consequently, in such cases, the restoration of friendship becomes a necessary precondition for the felicitous realization of an apology. Keywords: apology, remedial work, remedial competencies, pragmatic development, peer talk, social norms 1. IntroductionThe apology as a speech act has recently received a great deal of attention in a variety of disciplines philosophy, sociology, psychology, law, Journal of Politeness Research 3 (2007), 11 3 7 DOI 10. 1515/PR. 2007. 002 1612-5681/07/003 0011 Walter de Gruyter 12 Zohar Kampf and Shoshana Blum-Kulka political science, international relations, communication and discourse studies and through diverse methodologies. Nevertheless, there are still surprising lacunae in this field, such as the lack of knowledge on the pragmatic development of children’s apologies in natural discourse.The pragmatic study of apologies to date has been mainly adult-usage oriented, whether conducted within the framework of gender differences (Holmes 1989, 1993; Tannen 1994), cross-cultural (for example, Olshtain 1989, Suszczynska 1999; Rieter 2000) or interlanguage pragmatics ? (Trosberg 1987; Garcia 1989; Bergman and Kasper 1993). Children’s apologies have been most frequently studied from the standpoint of social psychology, using mainly experimental methodologies.In this approach the experiments conducted focused primarily on judgments of the perception and effectiveness of apologie s (Meier 2004). As Meier stresses in her brief but exhaustive review, the study of children’s apologies has been â€Å"developmental in nature, precipitated by an interest in the overall socialization process. Focuses have thus been on apology production as it relates to cognitive maturation and concomitant changes in perceptions of responsibility, intentionality and self. † (Meier 2004: 5).However, as far as we are aware, no study to date has examined the speech act realization of apologies in natural child discourse (in both peer and adult-child interactions). Thus, research is needed to address questions such as strategy choice in relation to contextual and social factors; the types of violations triggering apologetic behavior in children’s social worlds; and face-management as related to face-threat and remedial work in the sequence of interaction. The dearth of research concerning children is puzzling, particularly in view of the importance of apologies fro m a developmental perspective.Mastering the ability to apologize indicates the maturation of the child as an independent agent (Hickson 1986), who is accountable for his/her deeds. This development also implies the emergence of the awareness of negative face wants (Brown and Levinson 1987). The realization of apologies further indicates the emergence of positive face wants, since by its realization the child manifests his/her ability for appropriate behavior in the social world, complying with basic norms.In fact, the familiarity with the apology script, in its narrow sense as remedial work for a misdeed (Goffman 1971), demonstrates familiarity with two different norms: the norm violated which threatened the face of the offended party, and the norm by which it is appropriate to apologize in such circumstances (Tavuchis 1991). Thus, by using the appropriate form in the appropriate settings, abiding by the basic felicity conditions, the child is manifesting his/her acquired competence to restore equilibrium to social relations, utilizing an efficient tool for conflict resolution, and Apology events in young Israeli peer discourse 3 thereby fulfilling the main social function of the speech act of apology (Edmondson 1981; Leech 1983). Beyond acquiring the basic features of the apologetic script, children also need to learn a multiplicity of forms and functions for the speech act in order to achieve full pragmatic competence. Apology forms can be used as a means to save the face of the other or that of the self as well as to threaten them (see Lakoff 2001 for a review on the forms and functions of the speech act), and, as such, they index children’s competencies of face management in interactions with peers andor adults.In this paper we closely examine apologies observed during natural peer interaction of Israeli children with the following issues in mind: What is the scope of strategies used by children for apologizing? Is there a developmental line in apol ogetic behavior over the years? What types of offenses trigger an apology? What can they tell us about the norms of the social world of Israeli children? And lastly, what are the roles of adult mediators both in socializing children in the practice of apology and to the practice of conflict management and resolution? . Method The apologies analyzed here were detected in child discourse during ethnographic observations of peer interactions in Israeli preschool children in the preschool and at home, and Israeli young adolescents at home and at a diner1. These observations are part of a larger longitudinal project aimed at tracking the development of genres of extended discourse2. Within the overall framework of the project, we followed two cohorts of 20 Israeli children each young preschoolers and fourth graders for duration of three years (2001 2003).The children were observed and taped in three types of speech events: natural peer interactions; family mealtimes; and semi-structured adult child interviews. The data for this paper come from the transcripts of natural peer interaction of both preschoolers and fourth graders in free play during the first and the third year of the project, when the mean age of the younger group was 5 and 7 respectively, and that of the older group 9 and 11. We analyzed 1362 minutes (22 hours and 42 minutes) of transcribed interaction, using two different methods.First, by using a key word search, we located all the explicit apologies that contained IFID’s (Illocutionary Force Indicating Device) in our data. We considered all expressions containing variants of the conventional forms of apologies in Hebrew: hitnatclut (apology), slixa (literally forgiveness, or pardon, can function as ‘excuse me’), and ca’ar (sorry or regret). For each occurrence, we analyzed the full interactional sequence of the apology event from the initial violation through the realization of the apology and later reac- 14 Zohar Kampf and Shoshana Blum-Kulka tions to it in order to characterize the pragmatic strategies and social ontexts in which they were uttered. After ensuring through these procedures that we did not miss any conventional form of apology in our data, we reviewed the transcripts to locate conversational sequences that were likely to invite remedial work and analyzed the instances of the indirect apologies identified. The children’s apology events were analyzed with several goals in mind. First, in terms of their form, namely the main strategies used by the speaker: type of IFID, admittingavoiding responsibility, types of accounts, the presence of a promise of forbearance, offers for repair, minimizations and maximizations (see Blum-Kulka et al. 989 for details). Second, in terms of their function, namely by noting the interactional goal of the apology (whether it functions apologetically or nonapologetically as in a challenging or sarcastic keying) and, more broadly, by noting the way it functions and develops in the specific context and co-text in which it appears. Close consideration of the local co-text and context also takes into account the violations that trigger apologies and the â€Å"keying† (Blum-Kulka et al. 004) of the apologies, namely whether the apology was sincere, casual, challenging or sarcastic (see Deutschmann 2003 for details), and whether realized within a pretend-play frame. Thirdly, we further explored the strategies and functions of apologies in Israeli children’s peer talk from a developmental perspective, looking for differences in the use of strategies with age. We also considered the role of mediators, mostly institutional figures, in the socialization of apologetic behavior. And lastly, we analyzed the preschool children’s sholem (lit. eace) ritual; a cultural alternative for apology manifested by signaling performatively the restoration of a â€Å"peace† state. Our most surprising finding was the richness o f the range of apology strategies used by young children (4 6 years old); a finding that indicates the acquisition of remedial competencies for face management at a relatively early age. 3. Children’s remedial work How frequently do people apologize? Since most research on apologies has been carried out with the use of written questionnaires, role-play or anecdotal data collection during ethnographic observations (Butler 2001), the actual ate of apologies in natural talk remains a puzzle (Holmes 1990). Our observations of 22 hours and 42 minutes of children’s interactions yielded an apology event on average every 23. 9 minutes, (0. 042 apologies per minute, 57 apology events in 1362 minutes of talk: see Table 1). Apologies were the least frequent at the first observation of the younger cohort. When the children were age 4 to 6 years, the rate Apology events in young Israeli peer discourse 15 Table 1. Mean of apology events per minute for each age group. Preschool year 1 (4 6) Number of apology events Length of transcription (minutes) ean of apology events per minute Preschool year 3 (6 8) preadolescents year 1 (9 10) preadolesN cents year 3 (11 12) 12 11 15 19 57 377. 5 235. 5 321 428 1362 0. 032 0. 046 0. 047 0. 44 0. 042 of apology events is one every 31. 5 minutes (12 events in 377 minutes. ). Two years later the rate goes up to one apology every 21. 4 minutes (235/ 11). This is also the rate for apologies in the talk of the older cohort: every 21. 4 minutes the first year (321/15), when the children were age 9 to 10, and every 22. 5 minutes two years later, when the children were age 11 to 12 (428/19).The 57 apology events contained 82 occurrences of IFIDs (different Hebrew specific illocutionary force device expressions used for apologizing): an apology expression for every 16. 6 minutes of talk, 0. 06 per minute. The ratio of IFIDs per words is surprisingly similar to the rate found for British English spoken by people of varied ages and ba ckgrounds. As calculated by Deutschmann (2003), the rate of IFIDs in British English was 59. 7 per 100,000 words, (3070 tokens in 5,139,083 running words), while in our small corpus of 157,666 running words (and 82 IFIDS) the rate found was 52 per 100,000 words3. . 1. Apology events: Types of violations and remedial work We defined an â€Å"apology event† as a conversational sequence including at least one remedial utterance indicating a violation. Further remedial actions with regard to the specified violation were considered as part of the same event. The event might further include complaints, a demand for an apology and negotiations over the acceptance of the apology and its meaning. 3. 1. 1. Violations By â€Å"violation† we mean an act or event that breaches a norm or a behavioral code; a breach the offender is expected to be accountable for to the offended party.In politeness theory terms, a violation is a face-threatening act the offender is expected to repair, supporting the offended party’s 16 Zohar Kampf and Shoshana Blum-Kulka Table 2. Types of violations over age (N Preschool year 1 (4 6) A. Accidents B. Mistakes and misunderstandings C. Breach of expectation D. Lack of consideration E. Talk offences F. Social gaffs G. Requests H. Hearing offense I. Offense involving breach of consensus J. Unidentified N i 57)i. Preschool year 3 (6 8) 3 preadoles- preadoles- Adult N cents year 1 cents year 3 all groups (9 10) (11 12) 3 3 1 4 4 3 1 3 1 5 3 3 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 2 1 8 1 13 1 8 3 4 2 3 1 11 9 15 7 8 19 1 3 57 One violation was coded for each apology event. The distinction between child and adult violation is in the question â€Å"who is the violator? †. face without a threat to his/her own (Chen 2001). Violations are at the core of the apology event. Exploring the types of violations children consider accountable allows us a glimpse of a child’s notion of what acts or words are considered face-threatening and how these notions change with time. In other words, it allows us to assess the children’s system of politeness from their own point of view.The distribution of types of violation identified (following Deutschmann’s 2003 classification) is presented in Table 2. Despite the small numbers, some tentative patterns emerge: the most salient type of violation is lack of consideration (13), followed by mistakes and misunderstandings (8), breach of expectations (8), talk offenses (8) and accidents (7). Except for accidents (which mainly have to do with unintentionally physically hurting another child), these categories all relate to children’s social worlds, and testify to children’s norms and expectations from their peers.Interestingly, the categories are not evenly distributed: while children in the younger cohort realized apologies with regard to only four types of violations, the children in the older cohort realized apologies with regard to seven types at the age of 9 to 10, and nine types at the age of 11 to 12. Hence as children develop, they seem Apology events in young Israeli peer discourse 17 to identify a richer range of potential violations, refining their sensitivity to the positive and negative face needs of the other, while concurrently developing more elaborate forms of repair4.Lack of consideration is the most salient type of violation attended to. Example 1 illustrates how the style of directives in play may become an issue of face-threat and trigger an indirect demand for an apology. The two girls, Liat and Nofar are enacting the roles of salesgirls in a dress shop scenario of pretend play. Liat, who takes on the leading role, issues a series of detailed direct instructions to Nofar in a machine gun style, which apparently Nofar finds irritating. Example 1: Annoying instructions5 Participants: Liat, f, (9;5); Nofar, f, (9). Date: 2. . 2000 Place: Liat’s room. Situation: The girls play free-play, â€Å"clothing store†. The first indication for considering the instructions as a threat to Nofar’s face is her refusal to cooperate (turn 131). The second indication is more explicit: following yet another instruction in 134, she repeats her refusal in an angry voice, adding a tag for emphasis (turn 135). This time her companion begins her turn overlapping Nofar immediately after the first two words â€Å"I can’t† beginning yet another directive but cutting herself 18 Zohar Kampf and Shoshana Blum-Kulka ff to insert a repair â€Å"ok sorry†, thereby indicating that she must have sensed the angry tone in Nofar’s mid-turn. Yet she continues with still another attempt to pull Nofar back into her â€Å"instruction taking† role by the use of â€Å"but† (â€Å"but look, let’s say you finished. †) The attempt fails, and Nofar continues to protest (turn 137). It is noteworthy that while all of Liat’s turns are uttered within the pretend play frame, it is not clear whether Nofar’s turns (except for 133) are uttered within that frame, testifying to the salesgirl’s state of mind, or are uttered outside the frame, indicating real annoyance.Other types of salient violations, with 8 occurrences each, were mistakes and misunderstandings, talk offenses and breach of expectations. The first type, mistakes and misunderstandings, happened mainly during play, and only in the preadolescent’s talk. The explicit apology uttered referred to violations such as mistakes in operating a toy cashier or not putting an item in its place during a â€Å"clothing store† play (see example 1). Talk offenses, attended to through self repairs, occurred in our data first at the age of 6.Conversely, breach of expectations was attended to mainly in the young cohort6. Another salient type of violation was accidents (7), which were mainly violent acts against a member of the peer group, and occurred chiefly between boys. 3. 1. 2. Remedial strategies Do remedial strategies correspond to types of violation? We found no indication in our peer talk data that, as argued by Darby and Schlenker (1982), the nature and severity of the violation affects the form of the apology. The distribution of IFIDs (Illocutionary Force Indicators) and apology strategies is presented in Tables 3 and 4.Of the three forms, only mitnacel (apologize) is a uni-functional IFID used for apologies only; both micta’er (sorry) and slixa (forgive, excuse, pardon) are pragmatically multi-functional and can be used with other speech acts, with varying force of the apology function (e. g. , sorry, you have to clean the room now). The results confirm previous findings with regard to young children’s basic understanding of the notions of culpability and responsibility (Weiner and Handel, 1985) and their capability for providing violation targeted accounts (Much and Shweder, 1978).The lexeme slixa (literally ‘pardon’ derived from the verb ‘to forgive’, lisloa’x, often used for ‘excuse me’) is the most frequent item in all ages, followed by micta’er (I’m sorry) and finally by ‘apologize’, which is more formal and appeared only once in our corpus and was realized by an adult. From among the various strategies identified in adult discourse (Olshtain, 1989; Deutschmann, 2003), three did not show up in the children’s Apology events in young Israeli peer discourse 19 Table 3. Distribution of Common Hebrew apology IFID types across age groups (N 82).Preschool year 1 (4 6) A. Apologize or apology (mitnacel ) B. Sorry (micta’er) C. Forgive, Excuse, Pardon (slixa) N Preschool year 3 (6 8) preadoles- preadoles- Adult N cents year 1 cents year 3 all groups (9 10) (11 12) 1 1 5 2 3 4 4 16 20 7 14 15 9 65 17 (18 with 19 adult realizations) 14 82 25 (32 with 7 (13 with adults readult realizations) alizations) Table 4. Distribution of Is raeli children’s apology strategies across age groups (N Preschool year 1 (4 6) Responsibility Excuses Justification Promise for forbearance Repair Minimization Maximization 4 N 9 Preschool year 3 (6 8) 28). preadolespreadolesN cents year 1 cents year 3 (9 10) (11 12) 2 1 1 8 9 2 8 1 1 4 2 1 9 14 3 28 discourse: promise for forbearance; repair; and minimization. Taking on responsibility by naming the offense (I’m sorry for what I did ) occurred in both age cohorts, as did excuses. Contrary to the claim made in the literature (Graybill 1990; Schadler and Ayers Nachamkin 1983), preschool children did externalize causes for wrong doing via the use of excuses (by mistake/not because of me/I didn’t mean to/I don’t hear so well ).On the other hand, maximization (by intensifiers like very much, really) occurred only in the speech of the older cohort, and might indicate a growing recognition with age of the importance of sincerity in the realization of apologies. This finding is in line with Darby and Schlen- 20 Zohar Kampf and Shoshana Blum-Kulka ker’s (1982) argument that older children (9 12 years) perceive elaborated apologies as expressing deeper regret, and are also more able than younger children (5 6 years) to realize such apologies. 3. 2. The keying repertoire of children’s apologiesOne aspect of children’s growing sophistication in mastering the forms and functions of apologies is expressed through variations in â€Å"key†, the interpretative frame of the utterance marked often through tone of voice in terms of its â€Å"color† or mood, such as ironic, sincere, playful or subversive (Blum-Kulka et al. 2004). A somewhat similar notion is proposed by Deutschmann (2003) in marking apologies on a scale for sincerity, such as casual, sincere, challenging or sarcastic. Adding the category of â€Å"pretend† we adopted Deutschmann’s terms to classify all the apologies used by type of keying .As can be seen in Table 5 the major cutting line between the two cohorts is in the absence of the sarcastic and the scarcity of challenging keying from the younger children’s discourse. All other keyings are realized by all age groups. Casual keying (such as in sorry after stepping on somebody’s foot) appears in the younger children’s talk during joint activities, like drawing (Silver? Silver? Sorry, I don’t have silver color ) and is used by the preadolescents on various occasions, including for having made an error of speech.Marking apologies as sincere (lexically by repetition as in I’m really really sorry or by tone of voice) is common practice for all children. These two keyings are linked to apologies proper, namely with utterances that carry the illocutionary force of the ‘apology’ speech act. On the other hand, the use of the challenging and sarcastic keying (both less common) can be associated with a range of speech acts, som etimes mitigating the challenging key of the upcoming act, and sometimes underscoring it.Thus such forms can be used to pre-empt an FTA (as in directives excuse me, could you †¦), indicating the speaker’s Table 5. Distribution of apologies by keying over age (N Type of Keying Casual Sincere Challenging Sarcastic Pretend Preschool and Grade 1 Preadolescent 8 13 2 1 8 (2 challenging; 6 (all sincere) 6 sincere) Adults 3 8 19 29 57). 3 4 N 11 25 2 (4) 1 14 (2 challenging; 12 sincere) 57 Apology events in young Israeli peer discourse 21 reluctance to impinge on the hearer’s negative face and thereby redressing that impingement (Brown and Levinson 1987).Deutschmann (2003) argues that in adult discourse, when such use of apology forms occurs in response to violations having to do with deviations from the consensus and in an aggressive tone, usually during heated debates, it is hard to see how they can be considered a mitigating device. Similarly, in situations of behavio r control, the apology forms used by adults in interaction with the preschoolers serve a different purpose (Teacher: Excuse me?! You take your bag and you go in, no going wild. Please, don’t put chairs here).Such apology forms act in fact as directives to control behavior, and are in concert with and actually underscore the challenging key of the main control act. We found no instances of such use among the preschoolers, but it does appear in the talk of the preadolescents. On one occasion, when Ronen (9. 9) and Sa’ar (10) are playing with nylon bubbles, Ronen reacts to Sa’ar snatching the nylon with an indignant, excuse me sir, sir sir. Here again the apology form is used in the service of another function, namely to express an indignant objection.On the whole, the sarcastic keying is quite common in the talk of preadolescents, and is used with a variety of speech acts (Blum-Kulka et al. 2004), yet appeared only once with apologies. Example 2: ‘Sorry for Sa’ar’s momentary insanity’ Participants: Sa’ar, m, (10); Ronen, m, (9;9) Orly (9;9). Date: 22. 2. 00. Place: Sa’ar’s room. Situation: The children are talking to the microphone. In pretend play children learn to abide by rules and regulations, and their behavior in the play frame includes attending to minor and major 22 Zohar Kampf and Shoshana Blum-Kulka violations.Minor violations might be an error in naming one of the characters in play, or mistakes in the ways in which toys are operated. Major violations have to do with acting out of character in play, as in a case of a fight between two Pokemon characters, in which one of the children is offended by what seems to him as undue force having been used towards him by the other. The category of ‘pretend’ keying encompasses instances which are doubly keyed: first, for being uttered within the play frame; and second, for their specific function within play as sincere, sarcastic o r challenging.Interestingly, apology forms associated with a challenging key appeared only in the third observation period for the preschoolers, when the children were 6 to 8, and only within the play frame. The following example illustrates such a case of slixa (sorry) uttered within the pretend play frame, in which Idit is enacting a dissatisfied pupil complaining to her ‘teacher’. The use of slixa here can be seen to function both to express indignation in response to the content of the previous turn (with no trace of its apology meaning), as well as to apologize for and thus mitigate in advance the upcoming FTA (you are a bad teacher ).Although she is ostensibly using the voice of a child, the style and adversarial tone of her delivery seems to echo adult parlance, perhaps that of a dissatisfied parent or teacher. Thus the play activity, by bringing in multiple roles and voices, allows for the development of pragmatic competencies by widening the repertoire of apolo gy forms and functions. Example 3: ‘Excuse me teacher. Don’t speak with me about them’ Participants: Idit, f, (6;8); Shirley, f, (5;10). Date: 14. 3. 02 Place: Idit’s living room. Situation: The children are playing with dolls. Apology events in young Israeli peer discourse 3 4. Resolution: Adult mediation vs. child negotiation Adult intervention in children’s conflicts may provide potentially important socializing input to the development of the pragmatics of apologizing. One adult strategy observed in the preschool is to attend to both parties in a conflict in the same breath, admonishing the offender on the one hand and stressing the need to accept his or her apology on the other (You have to accept his apology). Adult interventions in the children’s conflict may also function to model behavior, and to achieve conciliation through mediation (Tavuchis 1991: 64 68).We do not know of course the extent to which the use of apologies by the chil dren is the direct outcome of adult modeling, but echoes of adult usage in peer talk, as when quoting the speech of one’s mother to a disruptive child visitor at home (she said to him Nadav, sorry, you are exaggerating! ), show that children can be highly attentive to adult speech. Children’s acknowledgement of the role of adult as mediator and conciliator finds its expression in the preschool in situations of conflict through quite frequent threats ‘to tell’ (ani agid otxa (lit. I’ll tell on you)).Yet children’s conflict management does not necessarily benefit from adult intervention. In the following examples we shall consider cases when a) children locally solve a conflict by themselves (example 4); b) cases when adult intervention is partly successful in modeling apology behavior, yet does not solve the conflict (example 5a and 5b); and c) cases when adult intervention is non-felicitous the adult imposes collective punishment without goin g to the root of the matter, while the children find sophisticated ways to negotiate a conciliation (example 6).In the episode below, the children have been enacting Pokemon characters in pretend play, and Dani, playing the good Pokemon, declares having killed the bad Pokemon played by Oren, apparently enacting the â€Å"killing† with undue force and hurting Oren physically. Oren shows he is hurt by emphatically opting out of play (32: I’ m simply not playing with you, really, I won’t play with you at all, Dani ). Dani reacts first by countering Oren, but seems to cut himself off to apologize briefly (34: sorry)7.Oren obliquely refuses to accept the apology by declaring his intention to hurt the offending party, using third person singular to mark re-entry to the pretend frame (35: I’ll hit him). The elaborate apology proffered by Dani next, containing both an IFID and the taking on of responsibility, (36: I’m sorry for what I did. Sorry) seems to satisfy Oren, who concedes that the hitting was done ‘gently’.The repair sequence lasts 4 turns, and includes repair, threat, elaboration of the repair, and acceptance of the repair through re-framing of the violation as non-grave. The full success of the repair sequence is evident 24 Zohar Kampf and Shoshana Blum-Kulka Example 4: ‘It was done gently’ Participants: Oren, m, (6;1); Dani, m, (5;11); Alon, m (5). Date: 6. 4. 00. Place: â€Å"Einit† preschool, Jerusalem. Situation: The children are playing Pokemon. n the next two turns (39 and 40), in which the two children resume cooperation in enacting in play different Pokemon characters, and Oren proceeds to tell Dani, (with Dani’s willing cooperation as active audience), a complicated tale which serves to explain why he even shouldn’t have been considered the enemy and been hit in the former stage of the pretend play (see Blum-Kulka 2005, for a fuller transcript and analysis of this in teraction).This episode, which follows immediately the previous one, lasts over 76 turns, and illustrates how adult mediation might enhance the learning of strategies of conflict management, but does not necessarily lead to conflict resolution. The event builds up to a crisis when more children join Dani and Alon in the Pokemon based pretend play, with the children enacting various Pokemon characters (wearing imaginary space suits) having a fight. At some point Erez kicks a sand ball which hits Dani’s face; Dani is physically hit, spits and sneezes, and calls out Erez’s name.Erez apologizes briefly (slixa (lit. ‘forgive’)) but his apology is emphatically rejected by Dani (No, I’m not forgiving you, turns 321 324). Next, Dani uses the opportunity of the student-teacher addressing him on another matter (Daniele, did you have a drink) to try and register a complaint (YES BUT EREZ, shouting in anger) and is cut off by Erez apologizing again (also shouti ng, turn 327). The student-teacher, apparently inferring from this Apology events in young Israeli peer discourse 25Example 5a: â€Å"You have to accept his apology†: The role of the mediator Participants: Erez, m, (5;11); Dani, m, (5;11); Alon, m (5); Student (Assistant). Date: 6. 4. 00. Place: â€Å"Einit preschool, Jerusalem. Situation: The children are playing Pokemon. 26 Zohar Kampf and Shoshana Blum-Kulka Example 5a: (continued) brief exchange that there must have been a fight and that Dani is the offended party, attempts to appease Dani by convincing him to accept Erez’s apology (328: What happened? , uttered as a rhetorical question, He is apologizing).But Dani won’t have any of it and continues to recount the details of the incident in a shouting voice that indicates his emotional stress (329 335), ignoring Erez’s attempt for finding an excuse (but I didn’t see). At turn 334, the student takes on the role of the mediator in earnest. She a llocates turns, (using explicit meta-pragmatic comments) as in a political debate, allowing each of the parties to present his side. First ensuring Dani’s speaking space (Let him speak and then you tell me) and then allocating speaking rights to Erez (Let’s hear what Erez has to say).Dani uses his speaking rights to complete the description of the violation (the act of kicking the sand in his face) and its consequences (I have sand in my mouth ) (335 336). Erez uses his space to provide a confused account of the happenings that led to the incident (including reference to previous unclear violation, when someone threw something on him)8 and goes on to minimize his responsibility for the incident through a series of excuses that embed the offense in the pretend play frame: accusing the other party (they shot at me first ), describing the unintended consequence of an action (I wanted to shoot and it flew the sand ).This sequence includes ‘positive excuses’ (W einer et al. 1987) indicating that the skills needed for engaging in image restoration (Benoit 1995) and self facesaving (Chen 2001) are already activated by children in the preschool. In turn 338, the student tries to clarify if there has been any bad intention behind the offense. We can see her efforts as an attempt to socialize the children to the conventional norm for assigning blame; full responsibility applies only if the deed was fully intentional.After clarifying with Erez (in courtroom highly coercive interrogative ‘yes/no questions’ style) that the acts were not intentional, she announces her verdict as mediator, carefully attending to both parties, asking Erez to be more careful next time, and urging Dani to accept the apology (turn 342)9. Apology events in young Israeli peer discourse 27 Example 5b: ‘I don’t forgive you and I’m not your friend’ Participants: Erez, m, (5;11); Dani, m, (5;11); Alon, m (5); Date: 6. . 00. Place: †Å"Einit preschool, Jerusalem. ((22 turns omitted) Does Dani accept the mediation? Though there is no verbal indication that he does, the resumption of normal communication between the two children (Erez declares that he is going, Dani asks him to bring him his Pokadur) seems to suggest that the incident has been resolved. But actually, as the next extract shows, this is not the case at all. In the part omitted, Dani and Alon continue playing without Erez.When Erez returns, Daniel does not mince words to tell him not only that his apology has been in vain, but also that he has drawn the necessary conclusions: ‘Erez, Erez, Erez, I, I don’t forgive you and I’m not your friend anymore’ (368). We can see that despite all her efforts, the adult’s attempts at mediation and conciliation had no visible impact on the offended party, and the conflict remains unresolved. It is interesting to note the supportive part played in the conflict by Alon, Dani’s younger friend.First, Alon is the one who stays to play with Dani, after Erez leaves; second, he aligns himself with Dani by offering a moral to the incident that supports Dani (369: The one who is bad goes to hell, the one who is good goes to Heaven); third, he continues in his efforts to appease Dani and make him feel better for several minutes after the play is over by making new suggestions for a joint activity (would you like to continue with me the picture my dad drew for me of Pikachu? ). All to no avail, until he finally manages to make him join in laughter around a funny speech error10.In the next episode, the children are playing in a wooden structure in the yard called â€Å"the boys’ structure†. The structure contains an old cupboard, some tools and several big pillows. Preceding the episode quoted here they prepare an â€Å"insects cake† from sand (and ants) for one of the children’s imaginary birthday, present it to the birthday child who 2 8 Zohar Kampf and Shoshana Blum-Kulka pretends to taste it, and then pour its content into the sand box at the other end of the yard and run back to the â€Å"boys’ structure†.The confrontational event begins when Ariel asks Yoav to hand him the stick Yoav is holding, claiming it as his, and when Yoav refuses, tries to grab it by force. During the fight that develops, Yoav receives a blow from Ariel. At first one of the children justifies the act (38: Golan: Because you didn’t give me the stick’) but as they realize the seriousness of the blow and Naor threatens to tell the staff (43: ‘I’m going to tell on you Ariel ’) both Ariel and Golan begin to apologize profusely with Ariel repeating ‘sorry’ (slixa) no less than 14 times.This intensity, as suggested by Darby and Schlenker (1982), is possibly motivated by the threat to involve an institutional figure in the conflict. The male Teacher-Aid who appears on the scene makes no attempt to mediate for reconciliation. Instead, he threatens to impose collective punishment, I’ll take (it) apart, because, there is too much violence there (turns 60, 62), and indeed proceeds to take the stick from Ariel and dismantle the structure. When a few minutes later Ariel approaches Yoav with a new idea for play and Yoav concedes (77 78: Ariel: Let’s have a picnic; Yoav: Let’s have a party).At first the previous incident seems to have been completely forgotten, but Ariel’s reference to the unpleasant incident in turns 81 and 83 I didn’t mean to do it to you and I didn’t mean at all to do it to you (meaning, to hurt you) sheds a new light on the whole exchange, turning it into a carefully planned remedial action, performed in stages. The first stage consists of an attempt to re-establish mutual trust as friends by proposing a joint play, using solidarity politeness markers (‘let’s’) that suggest common ground. It is only after the offer is fully embraced by the other child, and a shared commitment to renewed friendship is firmly established, that reference is made to the previous incident. The renewal of friendship, which is expressed verbally through each child echoing the other’s ‘let’s’ utterance, underscoring their new togetherness, seems to work here to build the trust needed for allowing for the apology to come forward in a context that enhances its chances for being accepted as sincere.In this mutually supportive context, Ariel’s repeated denial of intent (see turns 81 and 83) stands a better chance of being accepted than in the confrontational context preceding it, and we can indeed witness its success through the two children’s full collaboration in the new play frame11. The renewal of friendship between Ariel and Yoav stands in sharp contrast to the outcome of the previous incident, in which Dani refuses point blank to renew his friendshi p with Erez.What we can see here is that the children’s norms for face threat and remedial action are driven by local, child world specific concerns: friendship is the central motivating force for interpersonal relations, and there are (mostly) unspoken norms governing appropriate behavior between Apology events in young Israeli peer discourse 29 Example 6: ‘Let’s do a picnic party’ Yoav, m, (4;8); TEACHER-AID, Teacher Assistant (m); Golan, m, (5;6); Ariel, m, (4;11); Amichay, m, (4;10); Amit, m, (4;11); Naor; Date: 05-06-00, Place: â€Å"Einit† kindergarden, Jerusalem.Situation: The children are playing in the recycled junkyard consisting of small structures; they are in the â€Å"boys’ play structure†. 30 Zohar Kampf and Shoshana Blum-Kulka Example 6: (continued) ((continued: the boys are playing peacefully and keep on planning their picnic. )) friends. Breaches of this behavior (like causing physical damage to your friend) are taken as face threatening not only to the offended party, but also to their shared face as friends.Since it is friendship that is jeopardized, such confrontational episodes can have either of two outcomes: (temporary) end of friendship or successful remedial action that leads to its full resumption. Apology events in young Israeli peer discourse 31 5. Other means of reconciliation In this section we discuss the sholem (literally ‘peace’) ritual as one salient indirect way of negotiating reconciliation in the children’s world12.The sholem ritual is an important cultural practice of appeasement in Israeli children’s peer world. The word sholem denotes being in a friendly state, and its antonym brogez, (in anger) denotes being in antagonistic state. The terms can be used both to denote being ‘in peace’ (sholem) or the opposite (brogez, ‘in anger’) as well as performatively, to bring such states into being (Katriel 1985). Through the shole m event children declare and mark performatively the end of conflict; sholem events put an end to a period of brogez.They provide speakers with indirect means for appeasement, circumventing the need to apologize explicitly and thereby minimizing the threat to the self’s negative face. Similar to apologies, sholem rituals presuppose that a violation has taken place, has led to a state of brogez (a severance of relationship), a situation which is being remedied through the performance of the ritual which allows for the resumption of relations and reestablishment of the normal social matrix. The initiation for a sholem ritual can be rejected, which is face-threatening for the initiator.Our next example illustrates one way to minimize the threat to negative self face. By engaging in a pre-sholem-ritual move, querying the state of the relationship (are you brogez/sholem with †¦? ) rather than attempting to change it, the speaker can find out if the necessary preparatory condi tion for the ritual holds without actually risking its performance. In the following extract, the three boys are talking about their forthcoming lunch, and Ben expresses concern that one of the boys (Eitan) will not share his bagels with his friends.Apparently bagels are a coveted item, but to have them shared necessitates that both receiver (s) and donor are in a friendly relationship. But Eitan (the potential donor) is considered a ‘non-friend’ throughout the exchange, in which the other boys keep telling him that they are in a state of brogez with him. Ben’s question to Eli (turn 92) refers to Eitan (the potential donor) in the third person, suggesting that he is an unratified participant; one with whom the others are in a state of ‘not friends right now’ (brogez).This is a state Eli’s proposes to remedy through the sholem ritual of peace making. But instead of following up this suggestion, Ben, speaking on behalf of the group, minimizes th e threat to Eitan’s positive face caused by his exclusion by claiming that it was not in earnest (94: we teased you, teased you, okay? ), and then goes on to query rather than state the collective wish to make peace. In the next example the pre-sholem-ritual query is used as a sophisticated indirect strategy for gaining play entry (Blum-Kulka, in press). 2 Zohar Kampf and Shoshana Blum-Kulka Example 7: ‘Make now sholem’ Participants: Ben, m, (4;9); Eli, m, (4;6); Eitan, m (4;11); Date: 2. 2. 2000. Place: â€Å"Dganit† kindergarden, Ashdod. Situation: The children are talking about their forthcoming lunch. This extract is a small part of a long episode in which Dalit and Adi, best friends, engage in pretend play based on Pokemon characters, while a third girl, Shirley, makes repeated failed attempts to join in.This extract represents a failed attempt at appeasement. Shirley’s preritual-query in turn 22 (are you (plural) sholem with me? ) queries the status of her friendship with the two other girls in an attempt to establish the necessary precondition for play entry. As noted by Corsaro (1985), children in this age group use ‘claims of friendship in an attempt to gain access, and the denial of friendship as a basis for exclusion’ (p. 168). Example 8: The ‘sholem-brogez’ incidentParticipants: Dalit, f, (5;0); Adi, f, (4;7); Shirly, f, (4;0). Date: 4. 5. 2000. Place: â€Å"Dganit† kindergarden, Ashdod. Situation: The children are playing freely outside. Apology events in young Israeli peer discourse 33 Shirley’s indirect request to join in systematically rejected by Dalit (see turns 25 for an indirect denial of friendship and 28 for reference to arbitrary rules as a way for denial), while her friend, Adi, acts as the gobetween, speaking up for Shirley while also placating Dalit.The failure to reach reconciliation is encapsulated in Shirley’s move in turn 26: she declares a new state of personal dispute, singling Dalit brogez itax (singular ‘you’), thereby countering Dalit’s move of exclusion by reclaiming the initiative for herself. In principle, this should rule out any further attempts by her to join the game, but in practice she does continue with her efforts to negotiate entry, efforts met every time with direct yet grounded refusals on the part of Dalit13. Several points about children’s concept of apologies that we saw earlier are illustrated here: first, the centrality of friendship as a necessary recondition for all social relationships (be it for sharing food or joint play); second, the vulnerability of ‘friendship’ as a shared face construct; and third, physical damage as well as acts of exclusion constitute grave face-threats that sever friendships and hence need to be remedied in ways that ensure the re-institution of the relationship in full. 6. Summary The analysis of apology events in peer interaction as pr esented here suggests that the children’s system of politeness for apologies contains a rich repertoire of verbal formulae and apology functions, and is largely driven by the deep interests of childhood peer culture.The verbal formulae manifest in the children’s talk echo adult usage: both the young and the older cohort used the formulaic slixa (literally, ‘forgive’, used as ‘excuse me’) and ani micta’er (‘I’m sorry’), for a number of functions and in different keyings. Thus ‘I’m sorry’ is being used formulaically (I’m sorry, I don’t have †¦ ) and sarcastically (I’m sorry for his momentary insanity †¦ by 10 year old boy), and ‘forgive’ is used both in a challenging key (excuse me teacher, don’t speak †¦ ) and in earnest (I’m sorry for what I did, excuse me).We also saw that the pragmatic repertoire for apologies includes the ability to detect a complaint realized indirectly, to use various excuses to minimize responsibility and to deny intent Comparing the two cohorts, we saw that with age, the range of forms and functions increases, as does the repertoire of acts considered as violations requiring an apology14. Thus, while apologies made by younger children are often conventional in nature and focus mostly on ‘breach of expectation’ type of violation, (as in Silver? Silver? Sorry, I don’t have silver color’, in response to a request for a silver color from a 6 year old girl).Preadolescents vary their use of forms and keyings to address di- 34 Zohar Kampf and Shoshana Blum-Kulka verse types of offenses (as in the case of Iris, 10, personifying the microphone by ‘eh forgive me, don’t be offended, don’t be offended ’). Concurrently, the need to apologize often arises in situations of play, in cases when a momentary violent act by one of the children threatens wh at Corsaro (1985) calls â€Å"the fragile interactive space† shared by a group of playmates. Corsaro argues that the concept of friendship in the preschool years is mainly built on the concept of collaboration in play.Your friends are the children you play with, and since peer interactive spaces are difficult to enter yet easily disrupted, ‘children develop relation with several playmates as a way to maximize the probability of successful entry’ (Corsaro 1985: 186). Our observations suggest a broader concept of friendship in the preschool years. Friendship as such seems to be conceived as the major precondition for gaining access to play: being ‘in peace’ (sholem) indexes being friends, and declaring a state of ‘in anger’ (brogez) indexes a grave threat to face because it means the denial of friendship.Hence disruptive acts during play are interpreted as threatening the very foundation which makes play possible, namely presupposed friend ship. The negotiation over the remedial action that follows, successful or not, has to do with re-instating the relationship. Interestingly, when adults intervene, the focus shifts to the clarification of intent (TA: you have to accept his apology because he did not do it on purpose) whereas among the children, intent gets mentioned only after mutual trust and solidarity have been re-established through the acceptance of a new play frame (Yonatan: I didn’t mean to).The study of children’s apologies, as undertaken here, is exploratory in nature and does not claim to represent the full pragmatic system for children’s notions of face threat and remedial action at different ages. Yet because it is based entirely on natural discourse, it allows us a glimpse into the way that children’s politeness systems are being shaped in their daily interactions, and how they are driven by local immediate concerns of childhood culture, like friendship, while concurrently co nstantly adopting the forms and conventions of the adult world. Notes 1.There are only few apology studies that have relied on transcribed natural discourse. The two recent studies that did rely on natural spoken data (Deutschmann, 2003 from a politeness theory perspective; Robinson, 2004 from a CA perspective), focused on adult usage only. 2. See Blum-Kulka et al. (2004) and Blum-Kulka (2005) for more information on the project. 3. Obviously, more research is needed for reaching any cross-cultural or age related conclusions from such comparisons. 4. The findings also indicate some gender differences in the types of offenses which precede apologies.Whereas most of the boys’ apologies were realized after a vio- Apology events in young Israeli peer discourse 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 35 lent conflict (which fall mainly to the accident category), girls apologized mainly after lack of consideration or talk offenses. See Sheldon (1993) and Sheldon and Johnson (1994) for the broader picture of gender differences in conflict talk. Transcription Conventions: word emphasis Wo::rd stretch WORD loud volume ?word? low volume AB pitch changes slow rhythm >words< fast rhythm #words# unique tone (0) pause [words] overlap word overlatch word- cut-off word) transcription doubt ((comment)) comments (†¦. ) unclear talk. Turn numbers reflect the original numbering in the full recorded session the excerpt is taken from. The English translation follows the Hebrew text closely; cases where Israeli norms or strategies are culture specific are commented on in the body of the paper. Deutschmann (2003) includes in this category offenses such declining offers or requests, forgetting agreements etc. For example, when Dafna (6;2) asks for the silver color during a joint drawing activity, Daniela (5;9) apologizes â€Å"Silver? Silver? Sorry, I don’t have silver color†).It is not perfectly clear from the tape who is uttering the first â€Å"sorry† i n this sequence. The second IFID realization in turn 36 is made by Danni, who is also the offender in this apology event. Because of technical problems the sequence was only partly transcribed, a matter which makes it difficult to characterize the violations in detail; thus we do not know what the TA is referring to when she talks about â€Å"falling†. This is the only occurrence of the word â€Å"apology† in the corpus. Nine turns later (382) the children started to play with an iron which warmed up in the sun, and later sat on it.Prompted by the heated metal, they started a verbal play with a distortion of the utterance â€Å"my butt is boiling†, which made them both laugh and finally succeeded in cheering up Dani. Ariel’s moves seem to resemble the â€Å"confidence building measures† diplomats talk about in the context of international conflict resolution. We have also noted other indirect ways of appeasement, such as humor, narratives and expla nations, but will not elaborate on these for lack of space. There were 32 â€Å"brogez† utterances and 17 â€Å"sholem† utterances in the young cohort’s data, and not a single occurrence in the older cohort’s talk.We can see that the â€Å"sholem† ritual is replaced with age by the conventional apology formula of the adult world. A caveat is in order here. More data is needed to confirm our developmental observations, since some of them might be due to the different circumstances in which peer talk took place in the two cohorts: during free play in groups for the younger children, and during a meal in a fast food restaurant in pairs of two for the older cohorts. 36 Zohar Kampf and Shoshana Blum-Kulka References Benoit, W. L. (1995). Accounts, Excuses and Apologies: A Theory of Image Restoration Strategies.Albany: State University of New York Press. Bergman, L. M. and G. Kasper (1993). 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(in press). ‘If it’s my size, would it be possible to wear it a bit? ’ Israeli children’s peer talk requests. In Studies in Language and Education: Essays in Honor of Elite Olshtain, A.Stavans and I. Kupferberg (eds. ). Jerusalem: New Vistas in Education and Society Series, Magnes Press. Butler, C. D. (2001). The role of context in the apology speech act: A socio-constructivist analysis of the interpretations of native English-speaking college students. Dissertation. The Humanities and Social Sciences (DAIA), Ann Arbor, MI. Chen, R. (2001). Self politeness: A proposal. Journal of Pragmatics, 33: 87 106. Corsaro, W. A. (1985). Friendship and Peer Culture in the Early Years. Norwood, N. J. : Ablex. Darby, B. W. and B. R. Schlenker (1982). Children’s reactions to apologies.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 43: 742 753. Darby, B. W. and B. R. Schlenker (1989). Children’s reactions to transgressions: Effects of the actor’s apology, reputation and remorse. 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Interview with leaders or managers in any organization Essay

Interview with leaders or managers in any organization - Essay Example As a unit manager, she reports directly to the department manager of nursing. Her responsibilities include planning, organizing, directing and controlling all aspects of operations pertaining to the two units: cardiovascular and telemetry. Aside from the nurse managers who are directly involved in governing nurses for patient care and for the delivery of health care services, as unit manager, she performs all responsibilities involving administration and governance of the units. These responsibilities include performance appraisals and evaluation; scheduling of vacation leaves and monitoring of sick leaves; monitoring the upkeep and maintenance of supplies and equipment for the units, as well as the general functioning of the patients’ rooms and amenities and the emergency cart; completion of reportorial requirements of staff nurses; and monitoring the upkeep of cleanliness and maintenance of the units’ facilities to ensure maximized operations of the units with minimal costs. When asked what the meaning of management was in her personal opinion, Ms. Rodgers replied that the term management actually involved compliance with functions of planning, organizing, directing and controlling all aspects or areas being governed. Managers create an environment for effective performance. They have the responsibilities of integrating tasks, structure, technology, resources and people into a productive and performing configuration. As revealed, Ms. Rodgers indicated that managers achieve goals through the efforts of people and they have to design strategies to influence the behavior of the people they govern. In this regard, managers have to be leaders, as well. Leadership was noted as the process of influencing people so that defined goals are effectively achieved. Leaders focus on influencing behavior towards the attainment of an identified objective. They could or could not necessarily be managers in organizations. On the other hand,

Web portal. Solving environmental issues in the society Essay

Web portal. Solving environmental issues in the society - Essay Example This research proposal is about the web portal. A web portal is a very effective tool to inculcate knowledge about the environmental science. People connect with one another to form a learning community using web portals. The portal serves as platforms where all the information, resources, and expert in the field of environmental science can be accessed. The portal is a full time available source of information that helps in the growth of the learning community as they engage in discussions, exchange views, and conduct activities that promote environmental learning. Online document libraries available in the portal are constantly updated with latest research findings. Simulation of real life environment is also made available through the web portal. Introduction The research proposal is aiming at establishing a web portal that will be accessible to the students and the community. The portal is aimed at solving basic environmental issues that affects the society. The portal will conta in social services for people to interact and provide their views concerning environmental degradation and means of improvement. The portal will also contains graphs, maps, and pictures of the surrounding community to help understand environmental challenges affecting the society. There will be need to locate areas of collecting relevant data and information for the portal. Institute for Sustainable Resources (ISR) has previously engaged in managing a Nitrous Oxide research database that was made available to the community for research purpose on its effects on grains. The project was delivered by use of open source research data and management system that allowed people to post tier comments concerning Nitrous Oxide. To date ISR has managed to deliver comprehensive data management systems to the public that helps in dealing with environmental issues in Australia. Statement of the Problem There have been increased environmental concerns about the sharp decline in environmental care and preservation. People are cutting down trees hence destroying water catchment areas. Human are also responsible for draining toxic substances and chemicals in rivers, lakes, and other lager water bodies hence leading to destruction of aquatic life. There is also the habit of human encroachment on gazetted forests due to increasing human population. There has also been evidence of global warming that have changed weather patterns in the world due to heavy production of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. These are just but few problems that affect the environment. For this purpose, this research proposal aims at solving the following researchable questions. How to design a web portal that will highlight all the environmental problems and provide solutions Where to collect and receive relevant data and information on environment for the web portal How the portal management will be able to deal with diverse large and high speed data How the site will be able to conduct large researc h from diverse and multiple origins and on how much larger spatial and temporal scales Purpose of the study The research is about designing an educational web portal that will give interactive insights on how to tackle environmental issues in the community and the world at large. The web portal will be designed with the help of ISR who have experience in managing data bases for environmental issues. Their design will incorporate ability to provide relevant updates and methods of collecting and conducting research on multiple and larger temporal scale. Objectives The following are the objectives for the research proposal Provide the fastest means of communication to students and the society concerning environmental science Provide history and background on environmental science especially on land degradation Provide accessible data bases with a lot of data that is raw and collected on up to date basis Provide simulations to enable the students to make their own comparisons and come u p with their own conclusions Hypothesis The

The Council of Nicea Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Council of Nicea - Term Paper Example The council discussed and came into an agreement, in the church of Alexandria, concerning the terms of Jesus in relation to the Father. In addition, the council came into an agreement concerning the date for Easter, which is the most documented event in the Christian history. This assignment will discuss the reasons for Nicaea council, the agendas discussed, Nicene Creed and the effects of the Nicaea council. Reasons for Nicaea Council Different reasons led to the gathering of the Nicaea council in 325 AD. Earlier, in 313 AD, Christianity was practiced without fear of persecution by any group. Since there was no persecution, Christianity spread and grew enormously. As Christianity grew rapidly, there emerged many church heretics. These false church heretics made it difficult to explain the correct teachings about Christ since there was a mix up in teaching; different church leaders had different views regarding Christ teachings (Wordsworth 37). This difference in teachings about Chri st made the council seek the correct teaching. Hence, with this confusion in Christ teaching, the council of Nicaea gathered in order to discus the correct teachings of Christ. One such false teaching about Christ was that Jesus had no relationship with the Father, which taught that Jesus was a superficial creature. This teaching caused chief controversies within the church and was condemned by the council of Nicaea. With the gathering of the council, Bishops and Constantine were able to come up with a common teaching of Christ through the formation of the Nicene Creed, which contained the statement of faith for the Christians (Wordsworth 40). The other chief reason for the council assembling; was to discuss and set the date for Easter. The council of Nicaea discussed the issue of Easter and came up to a conclusion that Easter should be celebrated by all Christians in the first Sunday after Equinox. The council resolved the issue raised by various individuals regarding the nature of Jesus. Although some people argued that Jesus had no relationship with God the Father, the council concluded that Jesus has a connection with the Father (Davis 40). Agenda of the Council of Nicaea The council’s gathering was not without an agenda and procedure. The council gathered in order to discuss agenda such as the Arian question. The Arian question entailed the relationship that existed between Jesus and God (Wordsworth 56). Those who supported the Arian argument claimed that Jesus was the first creature to be created by God, and there existed no connection between Jesus and God. According to their argument, those who supported the Arian argument, Jesus was a superhuman. On discussing the agenda, the council ruled that Jesus and God were one in being. The second agenda discussed by the council concerned observation of the Paschal or better known as Easter. Christians differed on the actual date of celebrating the Easter. On discussing the agenda, the council concluded that all Christians should celebrate Easter on the first Sunday after Equinox. The third agenda discussed by the council of Nicaea was the Meletian schism. The council decided that Meletius should not ordain new clergy. He could not go out of the town for the purpose of ordaining Melitian leaders. The fourth agenda to be discussed by the Nicaea council comprised the validity of baptism (Davis 43). The council condemned the argument of heretics that baptism was not necessary. The council conclud

Manifest Destiny Concept Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Manifest Destiny Concept - Essay Example The Manifest Destiny concept tremendously influenced the United States policy. This enhanced the American expansion to the West. The idea was largely put forward by posters, newspapers and other avenues. Despite the fact that it was not a formal policy of the government, it facilitated the passing of legislation like the Homestead Act, which promoted colonization and acquisition of areas in the West (Robinson 2010, 21). Additionally, the idea was a factor in the thought of America. Movement into the West regions provided a prospect for self-development. To be familiar with the concept of Manifest Destiny, it is essential to comprehend the desire and need of the United States to expand. This paper will look at how issues around it affected the U.S, how the views of Americans on the issue changed over the period, and will also mention some events as examples. How the Issues Affected the U.S John O'Sullivan, a U.S newspaper editor writing on the planned occupation of Texas, was the firs t to use the term in 1845. He asserted that it was America’s â€Å"manifest destiny to spread to the whole continent.† The newspaper issue recommended that through expanding, America could turn out to be a renowned superpower. According to O'Sullivan, the United States had been exclusively selected for the mission of Westward expansion. This would push out the wilderness and bring civilization. Between independence and 1920, the government passed land laws that were favorable for people to migrate. The federal government also persuaded people from Europe to come and inhabit. It used the military to protect the settlers from natives. It further put money into explorations, such as that of Clark and Lewis. Wherever there was sufficient water, homesteading was practiced by people from the Midwest to the Pacific regions. Cheap and available land, high birth rates and immense population formed the basis of the expansion. Imperialism was used to facilitate the Manifest Desti ny. There was a perception that mission and God was the path to Manifest Destiny.  Ã‚  

Intellectual Property Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Intellectual Property Law - Essay Example (Harpwood 2008:408). Due to the absence of any direct or specific provisions in law to sue for intrusion of privacy by press, any claimant has to seek for limited and indirect legal proceedings like the breach of confidence. Customarily, this lies on the proof of existence of any special kind of association of confidence. In UK, relief is available when there is a breach of confidence. For instance, if information leaked during the course of professional or confidential relations like a barrister and a client where information passed on by the client should be treated as confidence, and if there is any misuse of any information or publication of the same, then it may result in a claim of infringement of confidence. These principles were laid down in cases like Prince Albert v Strange2 , Saltman Engineering Co Ltd v Campbell Engineering Ltd3 and this principle was again reconfirmed in AG v. Guardian Newspapers No 24 . Since, there is no specific law or regulation of privacy in the UK, it seems that UK is shifting towards more effective and a comprehensive privacy law immediately after the introduction of the Human Rights Act, 1988. In McKennit v Ash5, where Loreena McKennit, the folk singer succeeded against an appeal filed by an author of a book which she claimed that it infringed her privilege to privacy. It was held in this case that the claimants’ privilege to privacy was upheld by the court under the Article 8 of the ECHR, and the same was overridden by the Art 10 which offers right to the freedom of expression. (Harpwood 2008:409). In 2001, the Mirror Newspaper in UK published a news item about celebrity Naomi Campbell and the Mirror reported that Campbell was a drug addict, and she was actually receiving medical treatment by regularly visiting Narcotics Anonymous. The news item in the Mirror magazine contained some photos, which showed Ms Campbell in a NA meeting and some exhaustive information about the medical treatment received by Ms Campbell, a nd some news items appeared were claimed to be malicious. Vexed with Paparazzi, Campbell initiated legal action against MGN. The trial judge in the case of Campbell v MGN, found for the appellant. The Trial Judge was of the view that publication of confidential news by the Mirror was an infringement of Ms Campbell’s privileges under the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the laws of confidence. Aggrieved by this, MGN appealed and the Court of Appeal annulled the trial court’s findings. However, the House of Lords turned down the verdict of the Court of Appeal and upheld the trial court’s order of ?3,500 as damages to the appellant. The decision in Campbell case is of much significance as the Law Lords were of the view that there are yet no over-arching reasons for invasion of privacy in the UK. The House of Lords’ decision in Campbell case seems to have increased the present action for infringement of confidence by safeguarding the unfair usag e of personal information without the necessity to create a confidential association. (Ajmal & O’Hare 2004). In UK, the law of privacy has been entirely established by the courts and it is growing case by case basis as the Parliament has not yet accorded its serious thought about it. (Davis J 2008). However, the right to

Onset Ventures Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Onset Ventures - Case Study Example Early-stage ventures are very young firms with limited operational resources and are usually in the development, startup or survival stages. The seasoned firms are usually in rapid-growth or maturity stages (Leach & Melicher, p.21-22). Seed financing is represented by the funds required to determine if an idea can be a viable business opportunity. This is usually necessary at the development stage of a venture. Other sources of financing are startup financing, first-round, second-round, liquidity stage, mezzanine and seasoned financing, depending upon the ventures life cycle stage. Onset Ventures is a top-tier seed investor which has raised three funds till now. The partners at Onset have analyzed and set six principles, based on which they provide seed financing to a startup venture. The principles address the skill set and experience of the entrepreneur, continuously evolving business model, validation of business model followed by hiring the CEO, the funds spent only to add value perceived by the capital providers, product’s Unique Selling Proposition and the skills of personnel hired. These principles have been refined over time and lead to the development of incubation process through which the company develops, refines and pursues or rejects business ideas. During the first phase, pre-seed phase of incubation process, Onset analyzes if the business concept can be an attractive investment. Based on the outcome of the pre-seed phase, it proceeds to the seed phase and provides seed financing to the business. Onset analyzes the possible risks and tries to address those risks during this phase. The five risks are market, technical, operating, pricing risks, as well as the risk related to the operational capability of the business team. Onset has a comprehensive process of screening the ideas and identifying profitable ventures but it has lost the opportunities of making more profits due to tight funding of the ventures and by being too careful and risk- averse. II. Facts of the Case A. Stated Facts Onset Ventures was set-up with an initial $5 million fund in 1984 and subsequently raised $30m (Onset I) and $67m funds (Onset II). Out of these funds, two-thirds have been invested in seed and follow-on investments, and the rest is kept as reserves in Onset II. In 1996-97, the size of an average VC fund increased by 40% to $71 billion. The company plans to raise $80m-$95m fund, it’s the largest fund till now. Onset has provided seed financing of $1m for the company TallyUp to develop a viable software product. Onset operates on a model of five business principles and a specific incubation process of pre-seed phase and seed phase to screen the business ideas. The company’s minimum target IRR of a fund is 30% over 12 year cycle. Onset puts in a company around $1m in seed round, $1.5m in the next round, and $2m in the third round. Onset I gave positive IRR within 4 years of its inception (appendix 1) and Onset II took only th ree years to give positive IRR (appendix 2). The average number of investment has increased in subsequent funds, i.e. $2.5m in Onset I, $3.5m to $4m in Onset II and expected $4.5m to $5m in Onset III. B. Implied Facts Over the last 13 years, Onset has invested mainly in seed-stage and early-stage financing. Onset II has performed better than Onset I (appendix 3). III. Problem Definition A. Source Problem How many funds must be raised for Onset III? Whether Onset should invest an additional $1m into TallyUp for

The Relevance of Employee Engagement Indices as a Performance Measure Dissertation

The Relevance of Employee Engagement Indices as a Performance Measure and Indicator in Institutions - Dissertation Example This dissertation seeks to establish the relevance of employee engagement indices as performance measures and indicators with practical use in organizations. It examines the effectiveness of employee engagement indexing as a common practice among institutions in measuring organizational performance. The study found that employee engagement indices bore significant relationship to certain aspects of companies’ operational performance, to degrees that vary among the scale and type of the organization. Human resources aspects of operations that are significantly related to EEI are the line manager’s actions, the degree to which employees believe management will take action based on the EEI survey, the employees’ workload, their pay, the team with which they work, and the organizational policies and practices that impact upon their working conditions. Overall, the employee engagement index is an effective tool in improving performance, provided the EEI is formulated according to firm-specific factors and conditions, and provided they are analysed consistently and refined strategically over the long term. Table of Contents Abstract 2 List of Tables 7 Chapter 1: Introduction 8 1.1Chapter overview 8 1.2 Background of the problem 8 1.3Purpose of the Study 10 1.4Aim and Objectives 10 1.5Research questions 11 1.6Assumptions 12 1.7Rationale and significance of the study 12 1.8 Chapter summary 13 Chapter 2: Literature review 15 2.1 Chapter overview 15 2.2 Concept of employee engagement 15 2.3 Engagement as a driver of productivity 18 2.3 Practices in measuring employee engagement 24 2.4 Identified drivers or measures of employee engagement 26 2.5 Chapter summary 27 Chapter 3: Research methodology and methods 28 3.1 Chapter overview 28 3.2 Research approach and strategy 28 3.4 Research methods and techniques 29 3.5 Methods of data gathering 31 3.6 Methods of data analysis 32 3.7 Hypotheses 33 3.8 Description of population and sample 33 3.9 Limitations o f the research methodology 34 3.10 Ethical and Political Considerations 36 3.11 Chapter summary 36 Chapter 4: Data Analysis 38 4.1 Chapter overview 38 4.2 Respondent profile 38 4.3 Respondents’ perceptions based on mean scores 45 Table 15: MNE, LDC, and SME Mean scores and standard deviation 53 4.4 Correlational study 58 4.5 Regression analysis 62 4.5.1 Overall Sample 62 4.5.2 Multinational Enterprises 68 4.5.3 Large Domestic Corporations 71 4.5.4 Small and Medium Scale Enterprises 73 4.6 Qualitative information provided by respondents 77 4.7 Chapter summary 78 Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations 80 5.1 Chapter overview 80 5.2 Summary of findings 80 5.3 Conclusion 86 5.4 Recommendations 87 5.5 Directions for future research 89 Bibliography 90 Appendix 92 List of Tables Table 1: Frequency distribution according to age 38 Table 2: Frequency distribution according to gender 39 Table 3: Frequency distribution according to education 39 Table 4: Frequency distribution accord ing to position in the company 40 Table 5: Frequency distribution according to scale of company 41 Table 6: Frequency distribution according to employment status 42 Table 7: Frequency distribution according to length of stay 43 Table 8: Frequency distri

Poverty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 15

Poverty - Essay Example The study is also relevant to the general concept of poverty since it is hard to separate child poverty from poverty in general. In addition, its particular and unique dimensions are rarely recognized. According to Duncan, Ziol†Guest andKalil (2010), children experience poverty as a situation that is detrimental to their emotional, spiritual, mental and physical development. Their article argues that poverty can drastically impede the ability of a child to learn. As a result, child poverty contributes to behavioral, social, and emotional problems to such children. The authors also state that child poverty not only contributes to the general ill health of the affected child, but also to poor mental health of the victim. This implies that there are greatest risks for children who encounter poverty at their tender age. This risk is even intensified if these children experience persistent and profound poverty. According to these researchers, poverty is the only greatest threat to the well-being of children (Duncan, Ziol†Guest & Kalil, 2010). The article concludes by suggesting that active public policies can have an upper hand in creating a difference. It mentions making w ork pay for those parents with little income, providing high-quality learning experience and early care for children as the necessary steps to eradicate child poverty. In addition, the article advocates for investment in the most poverty stricken children as a critical step in fighting child poverty. According to Sumner (2010), children experience a state of poverty with their minds, hands and hearts. Explaining about material poverty in the article, for instance, he argues that the emotional capacity and bodily growth of a child are hindered when the kid starts a day without taking a meal. He adds that when a minor lives in an environment that offers little emotional support to him or her, most of the positive effects of a child growing up in a

Marketing and Soft Drink Concentrate Essay Example for Free

Marketing and Soft Drink Concentrate Essay The brand Rasna is owned by Pioma Industries that introduced the concept of Soft Drink Concentrate (SDC), a segment that had been created and nurtured by the company in the Indian beverages Market. The brand was originally launched by the name of ‘Jaffe’ in 1976 and marketed with the help of Voltas, but was renamed to ‘Rasna’ in 1979. When the product did not do as well as it was expected, in 1983, the advertising was handed over to an advertising agency named Mudra Communications Ltd. Pioma Industries Limited is perhaps not a familiar name for the average Indian consumer. But Pioma’s brand Rasna is very well known. In fact, the name Rasna is almost a generic name for soft drink concentrates in Indian beverages market. Rasna’s extremely popular advertisements with the tagline â€Å"I love you Rasna† had become an integral part of the Indian advertising folklore. In March, 2002, Pioma announced a radical overhauling of its strategies for the Rasna Brand. This development was rather unexpected, as the brand had been lying dormant since long. Rasna is the market leader in the 250 Crore Indian soft drink concentrate industry. The SDC industry is miniscule compared to the 5000 crore carbonated soft drink industry (CSD). The powdered soft drink concentrate industry is worth around 90 crore. During the ‘80s, Soft Drink Concentrate (SDC) was not a known concept. For the consumers, Soft Drinks were just the aerated drinks which could be purchased in bottles and were usually consumed outdoors. Rasna came, and changed the whole mind set. COMPETITORS IN THE MARKET As the pioneers in Concentrated Soft Drink Industry in India, Rasna, never had to face any threatening from any of its competitors, be it a global player or a small local company. Powder concentrate occupy 85% of the total soft drinks concentrate market. Here, in this study, we are considering both Powder and Syrup CSD as competition for the Brand Rasna. Following are some of the competitors who tried to make their mark in the 250 Crore Indian soft drink concentrate industry: 1. Tang- Kraft Foods. 2. Sunfill- Coca Cola. 3. Fanta Fun Times- Coca Cola. 4. Sugarfree D’lite- Zydus Cadila. 5. Kissan Mr Fruit- Hindustan Unilever. The journey of a brand is not always easy. The market is very dynamic and a brand needs to keep a track of the changes in the market. Rasna had to face such challenges too. But it is the resurrection this brand has shown, through strategic marketing, in all instances that makes it stand out and lead the market. MARKET SHARE Rasna has always been recognised at large for Brand and Company. It ranks No. 1 in the beverages category as â€Å"Most Trusted Brand of India†. It is listed among the top 15 brands in the country. It was awarded as the most preferred brand in the SDC category at the FMCG Most Preferred Awards 2003 and 2004 and Consumer World Award 2004. It has pioneered not only with its strong marketing strategies but also with its proper scaled distribution chain. Rasna has always concentrated on its marketing and brand building and has achieved an expertise in flavour technology. Its efficient management in production and market environments has harnessed to bring to the global consumers, technologically superior products in fruits, vegetables, beverages and confectioneries and to stand as the leader in processed food industry. Rasna has adequate and in-depth knowledge and information on Market sizes and behaviours, Growth prospects, Project Viabilities, Government Policies, Finances etc.and access to more, enabling the company to respond fast to any proposal with suitable recommendation. It believes that there is a huge and emerging market for Rasna’s kind of product range, all over the world. Rasna is capable of managing global sized manufacturing set-ups working on the most advanced technologies to cater to the huge markets, locally and globally. Rasna has managed to dominate the colossal SDC market because of its massive International operations. One of Rasna’s biggest strength is its marketing and sales set-up, through which millions of customers worldwide is experiencing the flavour of satisfaction. It provides a strong and pro-active marketing support to its distributors and importers around the world- just so that their products stand out and apart on the shelves. Timely delivery schedules of its products anywhere in the world are what have helped them to reach a strong position in the global market. Rasna has its offices in the following countries: * USA and Canada * UK and Europe * Saudi Arabia * Russia * Fiji This strong chain of distribution to large number of countries within a stipulated period of time has helped the brand gain a reputation in the market. It has also helped Rasna in creating enormous business relations all over the globe. The countries which imports Rasna products globally are as under: In recent years, the brand has had to face off challenges, though not from its direct competitors. International soft drink giants like Coca-Cola (Sunfill) and Kraft Foods (Tang) have introduced competitor products in the market. PepsiCo India too is gearing to launch a glucose-based ready-to-drink beverage under the Lehar brand that will be sold at price point of Rs. 5 for a 200 ml stock-keeping unit. All of them have deep marketing pockets and standard products to lure customers away from Rasna. Even the profile of Rasna’s target audience is changing. Kids today are a lot more aware, and their parents don’t mind buying more expensive ready-to-drink products, which the MNCs have. But, true to its entrepreneurial spirit, Rasna is not about to give any ground to its rivals. Though some analysts feel that Rasna has been slow to react to the competition, Piruz Khambatta, Chairman, Rasna, still dismisses the challenge saying â€Å"water is our only competition. † According to the 2010 data, Rasna leads the SDC market. The market shares of Rasna and all the competitors are as follows: * Rasna- 97. 2 % * Coca-Cola’s Sunfill 2% * Sugarfree D’lite- 0. 2% * Kissan Mr Fruit- 0. 1% and * Tang- 0. 5%. COMPARTIVE STUDY ON 4 Ps SCALE The Marketing Mix: Here in this study of the Brand Rasna, we are comparing the brand with its competitors available in the market on the scale of the 4 Ps. The 4 Ps of the marketing mix are: 1. Product. 2. Price. 3. Promotion. 4. Place. Product Line of Rasna: Rasna began with 9 flavours in 1982, and added the 10th in the year 1987. The company was revamped in the year 2002. * In 2002, Rasna changed its look and came up with a new logo. * The tagline of the company was also changed and with a new tagline â€Å"Relish a Gain†, Rasna has tried a deep penetration in the rural and semi-urban market. The recent product line of Rasna is as follows: Name| Pack Size| Flavour| Price ()| Rasna Frootfun| 32 glasses| Orange, Mango, Lemon, Pinaple| 35| Rasna Frootfun| 12 glasses| Orange, Mango, Lemon| 10| Rasna Freshfun| 32 glasses| Shahi Gulab, Keshar Elaichi, Kool Khus, Cola Cola| 35| Rasna Freshfun| 12 glasses| Shahi Gulab, Cola Cola| 10| Rasna 1 ka 2| 2 glasses| Orange, Mango, Lemon| 1|. Rasna FrootPlus Jar| 500 grams| Orange, Mango, Lemon| 85| Rasna FrootPlus Pouch| 750 grams| Orange, Mango, Lemon| 105| Rasna FrootPlus Pouch| 500 grams| Orange, Mango, Lemon| 75| Packing Details: The operating product line of Rasna consists several sku. The company follows different pack size on carton basis. These pack sizes may vary depending on local market demand. The following table will give a general idea of the pack sizes. Sr. No. | Product| Units per Carton| 1| Rasna Instant Drink (powder beverages)| | | Laminate Pouch Packings| | A| 3 gm pouch pack| 50*60|. B| Single Serve pouch pack (12 gm pouch-orange)| 10*12*6| C| 25 gm single serve sachet| 12*2*12| D| 250 gn refill packs| 36| E| 500 gm refill packs| 24| F| 750 gm standby refill packs| 15| G| 1 kg standby refill pack| 15| H| Litro packs 1 ltr| 12*10| | Glass Jar Packings| | A| 250 gm glass jar| 40| B| 500 gm glass jar| 20| C| 750 gm sleek glass jar| 15| | Plastic jar packing 1 kg| 15| | OTS tin Packing| | | 900 gm tin| 15| | 1. 5 kg tin| 6| | 2. 5 kg tin| 6| 2| Litro Pack Instant Drink| | | Pouch suitable to make 1 litre| 12*10| 3| Gofrut Instant Drink (5gm pouch)| 72*10| 4| Shakeup Instant Drink| |. | 25 gm single serve pack | 24*30| | 150 gm standby pouch| 108| 5| Rasna Lite 250 gm jar | 15| 6| Rasna Soft Drink Concentrate| | | 32 glass pack| 200| 7| Rasna Single Serve Iced Tea 9 gm | 14*24*20| Whereas Rasna has so many different varieties of drinks (flavours) and in so many different sized packets its competitors are lacking behind in both flavours and availability of different quantity packs. The Price of Rasna: Accessing all socio-economic class: Rasna’s sole goal has been always to make profit with the volume sale. The pricing strategy has always been the key of Rasna’s success. It targeted the mass rather than the class. * Rasna has always made its products in such a way that it can be accessible to all socio-economic classes. * Its volume sale starts at as low as 1 popular in the name of 1 ka 2. * The added sugar product Rasna Frootplus starts from 2 and goes up to 105 for the family pack. * The box pack has a starting price of 10 which can make 12 glasses of drink and is known popularly as 10 ka 12. * The family box pack is available at 35 which is enough for 32 glasses of water. * Rasna has some skus which are very interesting for regular use. The air tight jar has different pack size with price range starting from Rs. 75. The company is constantly focussing on the rural market of India. So, accurate pricing is very important for the company’s growth. For Rasna, accurate pricing has been the key growth driver. They understood that the Indian market is highly segmented. And making products targeting each segment has helped a lot. Whereas pricing has been the key growth factor for Rasna, the competitors have not been able to enjoy that benefit of pricing. Only Tang is available at a sachet of 2 which is again meant for making 1 glass of drink. Likewise, the other competitors cannot even come close to the pricing strategy of Rasna. Promotion: Adding an Emotional Touch: Rasna has from its inception relied heavily on advertisement. The famous mass media campaign, â€Å"I love you Rasna† was one of India’s longest running TV ad. * The promotion of Rasna always highlighted a strong connection with its customers through brand association. * Rasna has always created a brand value by emotionally attaching the customer to their brand. * Focus of the promotion is always to promote the quality of Rasna. * Rasna spends a lot on Research on the target audience, and promotes there products accordingly. * Rasna has used child characters in their advertising campaigns, and through them the company emphasised on the quality of products which was an effective way of promotion. * Rasna has done a great deal to understand the pain of summer and to deliver a product which will ease the pain. This kind of unique and innovative marketing ideas and campaigns made Rasna the monopoly in the Soft Drink Concentrate industry till the time the competitors entered the market. Even now, no brand has been able to beat the promotional campaigns of Rasna. Going by the set standards of Rasna, we can say that the competitors have spent very less time and money understanding the Indian market and the promotional activities that works in the India. Place: Distribution Channel of Rasna: The distribution channel of Rasna follows 3 to 5 tier architecture. It follows the Super-Sub concept of distribution. The steps are as follows: 1. First the product produced in a factory which is strategically located to minimise the transportation cost. 2. The packed product is sent to various company depots across the country to distribute and meet the respective market demand. 3. From the company depot, the product is delivered to the different super stockists according to their previously placed order. 4. Then the goods are sent to the sub stockists or in some cases to the wholesale store. 5. The secondary sale from the super stockist or the sub stockist is ensured by the constant monitoring by the company personal. Rasna follows different distribution channel model according to local market demand. But for every model the end goal of the company is to deliver a quality product to the end user. With a distribution channel consisting of 35 depots across the country and 1. 8 million retail outlets Rasna is bound to be the leader. Among the competitors the only one that has a good and competitive network of distribution is Sunfill by Coca Cola, but still they are not able to compete as availability with retailers is not as widespread as Rasna. COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE The competitive advantages of Rasna are listed below: * Being the Pioneer in the market Rasna is well known and very much trusted in the Indian market. * Being in the market for a long time, Rasna knows the Indian taste the best. * Having 7 state of the art production units across the country, the production is never disturbed for any reason. * Because of the widespread distribution network, it is more close to the public. * The marketing strategies used by the company are of superior standard. * Last but not the least, the pricing of the product, which is so low that it is affordable by the lowest segment of the pyramid also. The competitive advantages of Tang are: * Being one of the largest brands of the world, Tang has the sustainability even if it is hit at the beginning. * Tang is available in variety of flavours based on local consumer’s preference. * Tang is fortified with vitamins and minerals. * It is available as powdered and ready to drink bottles. * The powdered Tang is available at low cost. The Competitive advantages of Sunfill are: * Being a brand owned by Coca Cola, the distribution cost is cheaper, so can offer the product at a low and competitive price. * The taste is superior compared to other competitive brands. * Setting up of a production unit close to the target customer segment will help in better marketing. * The company can spend substantial amount on advertising and promotion. The Competitive advantages of Sugarfree D’lite are: * It is a brand owned by a medical company, so people have trust in the product. * It contains no sugar, so it is healthier. * Has medicinal advantages. * Helps in controlling blood sugar level, at the same time gives the pleasures of a soft drink. The Competitive advantages of Kissan Mr.fruit are: * It is there in the market for a long time, so knows the customer taste and preferences. * Tastier than many of the competitor products. * Supply chain is quite strong as it’s a product owned by Hindustan Unilever. SUGGESTIONS FOR GAINING UPPER MARKET SHARE As we conclude the study on the No. 1 Soft Drink Concentrate in India, Rasna, I have the following suggestions to make so that the company can gain more market share and continue to be the leader of the industry: Product- In terms of product, the following can be done: 1. Try to minimise waste in production, so that the cost of production comes down further. 2. Venture into new products, like ready to drink bottled drinks. 3. Try producing sugar free products so that even a diabetic patient can enjoy the drinks. 4. Health drinks and energy drinks is another field where the company can venture into. 5. Backward integration is another option that can be suggested to minimise the cost of production. Price- the Company can be more price effective and in turn can gain more market share if, 1. More products are offered in the lower price category. 2. Price be reduced for the larger quantity cartons or bottles. 3. New and introductory products are sold for lesser price so that people are interested in trying the new things. Promotion- In terms of promotion, the company can follow the following suggestions: 1. Use newer and cheaper modes of advertisement, like the social networking sites. 2. Spend more on Banners, posters, Hoardings. 3. Stop the use of sportspersons and celebrities, as the same doesn’t have a long standing effect on the general public. 4. Remove the time lag between the promotion and the availability of new products in the market. Place- Place plays a vital role in the success of a company or a brand. The following are my recommendations for improving the market share: 1. Go to the newer potential places which have not been tapped earlier. 2. The untimely dispatch of goods from the depot to the super stockist needs to be taken care of as it may lead to cancellation of order bookings. 3. Unavailability of goods at certain periods needs to be taken care of with a proper distribution control. 4. Promotional events along with the distribution of brochures, stickers and leaflets should be done through sub-stockists and retailers which will help in increasing the brand value. References: During the preparation of this project, help and references has been taken from many web sites and blogs and articles. They are mentioned here: -Rasna Pvt Ltd. Official site. -Wikipedia-the free encyclopaedia -Puneet Tandon Blogs -Economic Times -Times of India Articles -4psbusinessand marketing. com.