Matt Medeiros Interview - the Founder of Matt Report

Hey, so here we are again touching base with some inspiring WordPress people who are always ready to share their stories and keep us motivated! Today, were happy to welcome Matt Medeiros, best known for his podcast, Matt Report.By the way, if you missed our previous interview, check it out here (Jean Galea of WP Mayor).Matts show, Matt Report is one of the most popular WordPress podcasts on the air currently. The episodes touch on a number of different WordPress-related topics, including marketing, development, sales, community, and more.  If you havent checked out any of the episodes yet, you really should. Matts a great podcaster!Apart from the podcast, he is the  co-founder of Slocum Studio, a WordPress design and development business that he and his father started nine years ago. Matts also an active speaker, engaged member of the WordPress community, and a frequent WordCamp attendee.Heres our Matt Medeiros interview:Matt Medeiros InterviewWhen and how did you start working w ith WordPress? Is there an interesting story here?Matt Medeiros:I grew up in my familys car dealership. I was always the one to fix the computers, and help people with tech problems. When consumer internet hit in the late 90s I managed the website that was controlled by General Motors CMS. Fast forward some years later, I was working full-time as a product manager for a local Internet Service Provider.We acquired another ISP, which came with a Drupal development team. We evaluated Drupal (at the time version 4) and realized that it was too complex for this new business. Their designer really pushed us on WordPress, and I dove into learning as much as I could. The first commercial theme I bought was The Standard theme, and we used it on a few client sites.As that company wound down, I started Slocum Studio with my father, roughly 9 years ago.Whats your technique for staying productive throughout the day?Matt Medeiros:I do a lot of things, lots of irons in the fire. Theres always a bl og post to create, podcast to record or edit, customer to talk to, or support ticket to answer. Now that I have a child, time is even more compressed, so its imperative to get as much done as I can during my work time.How do you define being successful?Matt Medeiros:Being challenged, learning, discovering and helping new people every day. Finding a sense of purpose and integrity in the work that I produce. Enjoying all of it, even during the down times.Love the way you make money, not how much of it you make.What do you like to do when youre not WordPress-ing?Matt Medeiros:Being with my family, working out, playing the occasional video game.What do you wish more people knew about WordPress?Matt Medeiros:Customer facing: I wish people knew how flexible it was, and what kind of opportunity it affords their organization. That the ownership of content, and the platform you build, is paramount to the success of their efforts.Consultants: I wish they would spend more time educating themse lves on building a more sustainable business. On the financial side, and the technical side. I still see too many shortcuts, just to make a quick buck.Whos doing things that are just cutting-edge and incredible in the WordPress space right now?Matt Medeiros:Big players would be a handful of the leading web hosts and agencies. Pagely, WP Engine, 10up, and WebDevStudios come to mind. Those are the PR stories you read about, but theres a whole bunch of micro-awesomeness coming from a large amount of individuals and small teams, as well.Describe the WordPress community in one word.Matt Medeiros:Humans.Whats the main threat to WordPress these days? Other platforms like Ghost, or maybe things like Squarespace?Matt Medeiros:Theres market threats like Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify which are gunning for the consumer and prosumer users to build on their platforms. There will always be a tug of war and shift in market share between the popular DIY platforms.Theres outlier threats like Facebook , Google, and Medium, which look to create a monetized platform/network of content where you dont need to visit a WordPress powered website. Especially Facebook for businesses, folks seem to be spinning up their small FB Pages, putting in all of their contact information and calling it quits.WordPress faces a threat from within as well. What is WordPress? A blogging platform, website builder, web app framework? Why WordPress.com vs self-hosted? Easy to answer right now, but lines will be blurred as Jetpack matures especially to newbies. Why is the WordPress experience so fragmented? A theme wants you to built the site one way, while a page builder plugin decides on another way. Web hosts have 1-click installs with their own list of required themes/plugins, and on boarding walk-throughs.In my opinion, were going through a round of growing pains at the moment.Whats the one thing youd like to change about WordPress?Matt Medeiros:For me, it would be the theme + plugin repos. Id like to see better search features and some form of verified author program.What are your recommendations for a WordPress novice?Spend time learning the fundamentals of web publishing. Like basic formatting of a post, sharing content, and making your content as great as it can be. I see a lot of people start a WordPress site and give up, mainly because they dont see results. This sums up our Matt Medeiros interview. If you have any questions for him, please leave them in the comments section below. Also, who would you like to see interviewed next as part of Pirate Interviews?

Free Essays on White Collar

This essay, will discuss the topic of white collar crime. In this essay, I will describe to the reader what constitutes white collar. In addition, I will attempt to explain why white collar crime is often regarded as less servere, and why violaters may go unpunished. In this discuss of white collar crime, I will provide the reader with the various forms of white collar crime, and some of current legislation governing such crimes. The goal of this paper is get the reader to recognize the serousness of white collar crime, and its affects on society. White collar crimes are generally crimes occurring in the conduction of business. â€Å"White collar crime, is an illegal act or series of acts committed by an individual or business entity using some nonviolent means to obtain a personal or business advantage, usually committed in the course of a legitimate occupation,†( Cross and Miller, 2001, pp 146). This concept of white collar was originally theorized by Edward Sutherland, as a crime committed by a person of high social status and respectability in the scope of their occupation, (Shichor, Gaines, and Ball, 2002). There is a clear distinction that can be made when comparing white collar crime and street crime. Street crime or visible crime can include crimes such as robbery, murder, and theft. These crimes are regarded by the public as criminal, and the majority of law enforcement resources are used to deal with them, (Cole and Smith, 2004). On the other hand, white collar crime is largely invisible, (Shichor, Gaines, and Ball, 2002). Due to the fact the crime is usually interpreted as â€Å"visible† by most citizens, little or no attention is given to white collar crime. â€Å"The public viewed professional thieves as criminals. . . viewed white collar criminals as primarily as legitimate actors who strayed or made mistakes,† (Shichor, Gaines, and Ball, 2002, pp 62). Street crimes present an immediate sense of d... Free Essays on White Collar Free Essays on White Collar This essay, will discuss the topic of white collar crime. In this essay, I will describe to the reader what constitutes white collar. In addition, I will attempt to explain why white collar crime is often regarded as less servere, and why violaters may go unpunished. In this discuss of white collar crime, I will provide the reader with the various forms of white collar crime, and some of current legislation governing such crimes. The goal of this paper is get the reader to recognize the serousness of white collar crime, and its affects on society. White collar crimes are generally crimes occurring in the conduction of business. â€Å"White collar crime, is an illegal act or series of acts committed by an individual or business entity using some nonviolent means to obtain a personal or business advantage, usually committed in the course of a legitimate occupation,†( Cross and Miller, 2001, pp 146). This concept of white collar was originally theorized by Edward Sutherland, as a crime committed by a person of high social status and respectability in the scope of their occupation, (Shichor, Gaines, and Ball, 2002). There is a clear distinction that can be made when comparing white collar crime and street crime. Street crime or visible crime can include crimes such as robbery, murder, and theft. These crimes are regarded by the public as criminal, and the majority of law enforcement resources are used to deal with them, (Cole and Smith, 2004). On the other hand, white collar crime is largely invisible, (Shichor, Gaines, and Ball, 2002). Due to the fact the crime is usually interpreted as â€Å"visible† by most citizens, little or no attention is given to white collar crime. â€Å"The public viewed professional thieves as criminals. . . viewed white collar criminals as primarily as legitimate actors who strayed or made mistakes,† (Shichor, Gaines, and Ball, 2002, pp 62). Street crimes present an immediate sense of d...

Book Review of Aleph by Paulo Coelho

Book Review of 'Aleph' by Paulo Coelho Paulo Coelhos (The Alchemist, The Winner Stands Alone) novel takes readers on an adventurous journey that spans all 9,288 kilometers of the Trans-Siberian railroad from Moscow to Vladivostok, and a parallel mystical journey that transports its narrator through space and time. In his most personal novel to date, Coelho presents himself as a pilgrim seeking to regain his spiritual fire, much like Santiago, the beloved main character of his runaway bestseller The Alchemist. Paulo Coelhos books have sold more than 130 million copies and have been translated into 72 languages. Besides The Alchemist, his international bestsellers include Eleven Minutes, The Pilgrimage, and many other books whose characters grapple with seemingly simple spiritual themes: light and darkness, good and evil, temptation and redemption. But never before has Coelho chosen to place himself as a character so profoundly in the midst of that struggle - until now. In Aleph  (Knopf, September 2011), Coelho writes in the first person, as a character and a man wrestling with his own spiritual stagnation. Hes 59 years old, a successful but discontented writer, a man who has traveled all over the world and become widely acclaimed for his work. However, he cant shake the sense that hes lost and deeply dissatisfied. Through the leadership of his mentor J., Coelho comes to the conclusion that he must change everything and move forward, but he doesnt quite know what that means until he reads an article about Chinese bamboo. Coelho becomes inspired by the thought of how bamboo exists only as a tiny green shoot for five years while its root system grows underground, invisible to the naked eye. Then, after five years of apparent inactivity, it shoots up and grows to a height of twenty-five meters. Taking what sounds like the advice hes written in his previous books, Coelho begins to trust and follow the signs and live [his] Personal Legend, an act that takes him from a simple book signing in London to a whirlwind tour of six countries in five weeks. Filled with the euphoria of once again being in motion, he commits to a journey through Russia to meet with his readers and to realize his lifelong dream of traveling the entire length of the Trans-Siberian railroad. He arrives in Moscow to begin the journey and meets more than what hes expecting in a young woman and violin virtuoso named Hilal, who shows up at his hotel and announces that shes there to accompany him for the duration of the trip. When Hilal wont take no for an answer, Coelho lets her tag along, and together the two embark on a journey of much greater significance. By sharing deeply profound moments lost in the Aleph, Coelho begins to realize that Hilal can unlock the secrets of a parallel spiritual universe in which he had betrayed her five hundred years earlier. In the language of technical mathematics, Aleph means the number that contains all numbers, but in this story, it represents a mystical voyage wherein two people experience a spiritual unleashing that has a profound impact on their present lives. Sometimes throughout the story, Coelhos tendency to describe spiritual concepts in simple terms borders on clichà ©. A life without cause is a life without effect, he repeats, along with other pithy sayings such as Life is the train, not the station. These sayings take on greater depth, however, as this storys narrator travels back in time and returns to the present with experiences that give them new meaning.The tension in Aleph builds as the train nears its destination at Vladivostok, the final stop on the Trans-Siberian railroad. The narrator Coelho and Hilal have become entangled in a spiritual web that must be broken if they are to continue on in their separate lives. Through their delicate negotiations, readers will come to understand the interconnectedness of people throughout time and find inspiration in this story of love and forgiveness. Like many of Coelhos other novels, the story in Aleph is one that will appeal to those who view life as a journey. Just as Santiago of The Alchemist sought the fulfillment of his Personal Legend, here we see Coelho writing himself into the fabric of a novel that traces his own spiritual growth and renewal. In this way, its the story of Coelho, the story of his characters, and the story of each of us who read it. Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.

Seven Top Competencies of a Project Manager Essay

Seven Top Competencies of a Project Manager - Essay Example Role of the Project Manager The project manager has a significant role of ensuring execution of the project in different areas including planning, operation, monitoring, and control, as well as ending the project per se. Project managers coordinate activities of project team members to achieve the proposed objectives and the vision of the project. In their day-to-day functions, the projects managers have to focus on short and long-term activities. Conventionally, project managers focused on larger, more comprehensive projects. However, contemporary organizations give project managers the mandate to work with even smaller, less technical projects. The Project Management concept has received a lot of attention in the past few decades and has become a highly desired area in most of institutions and organizations. According to Muller and Turner (2010), one goal of a good project manager is to know how he/she is going to manage his/her project, know what to do if the implementation plan f ails, to accomplish the project objectives and ensure integration of the inputs of all of the project stakeholders. Further, the role of project managers is diverse. Turner and Muller (2005) highlight that they determine how the project should set off. By good Integrated Management they help in determining, developing and managing the direction of the project, as well as the scope of the project. A good and well defined project must include best scope management practices that include planning, defining and managing the scope of the project. Another issue is on-time and cost management. Managers should develop budget and a good time plan such as developing a schedule, allocating resources and managing funds for the project for effective results. A good process gives good output due to quality management. There must be a task force to take care of the quality of the process in question such that it meets or even exceeds various quality parameters set but the laid down standards (Camp us, 2002). Human Resource Management is vital and is the responsibility of the project manager. He/she needs to take care of his/her team, encourage and motivate members and make sure the team is on a pathway to success, which helps to ensure that the project implementation process moves in the right direction (Campus, 2002). Communication allows good information flow and hence communication management should be one of the critical aspects that project managers should strive to accomplish among senior and junior staff. The project manager needs to prepare a communication plan, communication technique and make sure that there is healthy communication, both internally and externally (Crawford, 2000). The manager is evaluated successfully against each of the factors affecting his/her communication skills. Risk and hazards are inevitable and, hence, there is need for project managers to establish strong risk management strategies. Various risks which exist in a project should be identif ied and a mitigation plan needs to be developed and implemented to ensure that the project is not affected at any point. A project manager determines success or failure of the project based on the work and procurement plans developed before ground breaking. The project manager has a role of ensuring that procurement plans are strategically positioned to enhance the accomplishment of the project objectives. Various materials needed during the project need to be procured and

Give a full summary of the movie Crash Assignment

Give a full summary of the movie Crash - Assignment Example Detective Waters, a black man, speaks of how people in Los Angeles almost assist upon getting into car accidents. Waters, who had been in the car involved in the accident, gets out of the car to inspect a crime scene in the immediate vicinity. Waters is told by a fellow police officer that a body had been discovered; however, what Waters sees at the crime scene is not immediately known to the audience, for the scene jumps to a lengthy montage of scenes that took place almost two days prior to the accident: Inside a gun shop, a Persian father, Farhad, and his daughter, Dorri, are purchasing a gun, but are hampered and hurried from the shop by the shop owner, who is against the two not speaking English; the defense attorney and his wife, Rick and Jean, are carjacked by two black men, Anthony and Peter; Jean is having the locks changed on her house, and the locksmith, Daniel, overhears himself being regarded as a gang member; in a diner where two Asians are conversing amongst themselves , a police officer, Ryan, is on the phone with a medical assistant, Shaniqua, who promptly hangs up when he makes a racist comment. After Ryan and his partner, Hansen, leave and begin their duties, they pull over a black vehicle on suspicions of sexual activity while driving. The black couple, Cameron and Christine, exit the vehicle when Ryan directs them to; Cameron is polite and cooperative, though Christine is drunk, which shows through her actions and speech. Ryan frisks Christine, though what he is essentially doing is sexually molesting her. After he finishes, he allows the couple to continue on their way. Another series of montages begins again, going off of the original scenes, continuing from the previous montages. Christine is beside herself with anger that Cameron did nothing to stop with Ryan had done to her, though Cameron firmly believes that he acted in the way that he was supposed to; Daniel is putting his daughter to bed

Slow Food Versus Fast Food Essay Example for Free

Slow Food Versus Fast Food Essay Introduction Most hotels at Victoria Falls have for decades prided themselves on a culture of serving leisurely, gourmet meals (especially dinners) prepared using local ingredients including a variety of game meat (e. g. buffalo, kudu, impala, warthog, crocodile, guinea fowl), local mushrooms and vegetable varieties, and ? sh from the nearby Zambezi River. Arguably, a signi? cant proportion of this food quali? es to be called ‘slow food’, because it meets the four criteria for slowlness (Rothermel, 2009). First, slow food must be freshly prepared from fresh ingredients, mostly vegetables, fruit and whole grains, and meat in small portions. Second, the food must be eaten leisurely in company. Third, it must be simple but varied in taste. Finally, it must be produced in an ethical and environmentally friendly manner. However, in recent years, fast food restaurants, led by Innscor brands such as Chicken Inn, Creamy Inn, and so on, have begun penetrating the market. Indeed the expansion of fast food chains in the last decade can be observed in several African countries. In South Africa, international chains such as KFC and McDonald’s are becoming virtually ubiquitous. Rapid growth of fast food restaurant chains has become a global phenomenon (Berta, 2003; Doherty and van Warner, 1995; Emerson, 1980; King, 2004; Lan and Khan, 1995; Parsa and Khan, 1989; Soeder, 1994; Walkup, 2008; Willging, 2008). In the resort town of Victoria Falls, most tourists have traditionally opted to eat at the hotels where they lodge. However, with recent entrance of fast food chains, hoteliers, facing the threat of losing market share, have been responding to the changing competitive forces. Victoria Falls has become a ‘slow food versus fast food’ battleground. The main aim of this paper is to explore how the contemporary slow food– fast food contention is enacted in an African tourist destination setting. An important point to make is that it is not suggested here that Victoria Falls hotels serve slow food exclusively. Indeed, most hotels in the resort, in addition to what would qualify as slow food, also serve items which could be labelled as fast food, such as Corresponding author: Muchazondida Mkono, School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Southern Cross University, P. O. Box 157, Lismore, New South Wales 2480, Australia Email: [emailprotected] edu. au, [emailprotected] Downloaded from thr. sagepub. com at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University on March 14, 2013 148 burgers, fries, and so on, typically as part of their ‘still room’ menus for lunches and snacks. At the same time hotels at Victoria Falls have always accepted that the majority of their guests spend the day undertaking a range of ‘tourist activities’ away from the hotel (for example elephant riding, over-the falls helicopter ? ights, bungee jumping, game safaris, white water rafting) and will often ? nd a quick snack elsewhere, or be provided with refreshments by tour operators offering these activities. Breakfast is generally consumed at the hotel, as most hotel rates are charged on bed and breakfast basis. Thus the real contention as to the tourist’s choice of either fast food or slow food is centred around dinner. Tourism and Hospitality Research 12(3) Warner, 1995; Emerson, 1980; Lan and Khan, 1995; Parsa and Khan, 1989; Soeder, 1994; Willging, 2008). Research has mainly focused on the health impacts of this trend (Allen et al. , 2007; Bartlett and Bartlett, 1995; Blanck et al. , 2009; Bowens, 1994; Chandon and Wansink, 2007; Chaudhry, 1992; Crowley, 2002; Dundes and Swann, 2008; Fitch et al., 2009; Grazin and Olsen, 1997; Gregory et al. , 2006; Hawkes, 2003; Hodges, 2003; Parker et al. , 2006; Rubin, 1996; Schreiner, 2007; Thornton et al. , 2009; Xu et al. , 2011), with the majority of authors corroborating the view that fast food poses signi? cant health risks. As such Slow Food Movement enthusiasts advocate a return to slow food habits. At the same time, there is a growing health conscious, market (Bartlett and Bartlett, 1995; Gray, 2004; Grazin and Olsen, 1997; Jonsdottir, 1998; Hwang and Cranage, 2010). In response to this trend, many hoteliers position their menus as healthier and wholesome. A closely related debate to fast food–slow food discourse pertains to the authenticity of menus. Authenticity is a central topic in tourism sociological debates, and re? ects a search for the Authentic Other in tourists (Beer, 2008; Chhabra, 2010; Cohen, 2007; Connell, 2007; Connell and Gibson, 2004; Daniel, 1996; Johnson, 2002; Wang, 1999; Warner, 2009; Wherry, 2006; White, 2007; Xie, 2003; Yang and Wall, 2009; Yu and Littrell, 2003; Zheng, 2011). Slow food, with its use of local ingredients and traditional cooking methods, has a stronger claim to authenticity, while fast food can easily be criticised as deauthenti?cation and MacDonaldisation of cuisine cultures; as Americanisation of traditional food cultures. A noticeable gap in the literature with respect to fast food chain expansion relates to the impacts on hotel food and beverage sales and pro? ts, as well as how (slow food) hotels have reacted to the trend to protect their market share. For African tourist destinations, hotels have long been an important part of the destination’s ‘authentic’ image, and the MacDonaldisation of the food culture in these areas might destabilise the desired image. The impacts therefore are far-reaching. Literature review While the concept of slow food has been received with a lot of interest among academics (Emerson, 1980; Gardner, 2007; Hodges, 2003; Jennings, 2006; Paxson, 2005; Peace, 2008; Piggott, 2001; Sassatelli and Davolio; Schwaner-Albright, 2007; Scoffer, 2008; Vaughan, 2008; Walkup, 2008; Waterhouse, 2008; Waters, 2006; Wong, 2009; Wright, 2007; Yee, 1999; Zuber, 2002), existing research has so far not looked at how resort hotels offering what could be described as ‘slow ? ne dining’ have been impacted by the expansion of fast food chains in Africa. Further, most research on fast food and slow food has been conducted in Western and Asian countries. African case studies are noticeably lacking (Emerson, 1980; King, 2004; Lan and Khan, 1995; Parsa and Khan, 1989; Soeder, 1994; Walkup, 2008; Willging, 2008). The concept of ‘slow food’ was borne out of the Slow Food Movement, founded in Bra, Italy, in 1986 by Carlo Petrini (Jones et al. , 2003; Petrini, 2001). The movement aims at safeguarding food and agricultural heritage around the world, and educating consumers about traditional foods (Nosi and Zanni, 2004). Formed to counteract the rapid globalisation of a fast food culture, the movement has evolved from being a protest against the erection of a McDonald’s restaurant in an Italian town to a formidable international organisation that has enthusiasts all over the world (Jones et al. , 2003). Interest in slow food has grown parallel to increasing criticism of fast food, although some authors question the movement’s ef? cacy in challenging the seemingly ‘all powerful’ fast food industry (Jones et al. , 2003). Fast food, according to Rothermel (2009), typically bland, chewy, cheesy, crunchy, salty, meaty, nutty, fatty, and sometimes spicy, captivates the palette quickly, repetitiously, and obsessively. As such, fast food is consumed by a growing population, particularly in developed countries (Doherty and van Methodology The goal of this study is to provide an exploratory, inductive analysis of the slow food–fast food contention as it has unfolded in recent times at the tourist destination of Victoria Falls. As a starting point for future research, the study highlights the perspectives of hoteliers, speci?cally food and beverage managers. The philosophical approach adopted for this study was hermeneutic (interpretive) phenomenology, which is also a research method (LeVasseur, 2003; Lopez and Downloaded from thr. sagepub. com at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University on March 14, 2013 Mkono Willis, 2004; Wojnar and Swanson, 2007). The approach was adopted to make sense out of a local situation by providing a thick description (Denzin and Lincoln, 1994). The localised focus resulted in small-scale theories that are situated in speci? c personal experiences and perceptions (Riley and Love, 2000). The paper employs a highly re? exive and multivocal methodology where no single voice is priviledged (Riley and Love, 2000). Hermeneutic phenomenology is a particularly appropriate method for capturing subjective perspectives and lived experiences (Hegel, 1977; Ingram, 2002; Ironside et al. , 2003; Jonsdottir, 1998; Knibbe and Versteeg, 2008; LeVasseur, 2003; Lopez and Willis, 2004; Murphy et al. , 2009; Pernecky and Jamal, 2010; Racher and Robinson, 2003; Ross et al. , 2007; Sherrod, 2006; Simpson, 2007; Sinico, 2008; Szarycz, 2009; Wilde, 2003; Wojnar and Swanson, 2007). However, only a few hospitality researchers have adopted this methodology (Ingram, 2002). Hermeneutic phenomenology accepts that both the researcher and participants cocreate an understanding of the phenomena under study, while bringing into the research their own frames of references drawing from their different backgrounds (Wojnar and Swanson, 2007). Researchers under this orientation will therefore often attempt to acknowledge whatever biases they brought into the study, through a process of ‘bracketing’ (LeVasseur, 2003), explaining ‘where they are coming from’. As such, the researcher here acknowledges her own previous work experience in the hotel industry in Victoria Falls as signi?cantly shaping her frame of reference throughout the study. As Lopez and Willis (2004) argue, in the interpretive phenomenological approach, the researcher’s presuppositions or previous knowledge are valuable guides to the analysis, and can make the inquiry more meaningful. Wojnar and Swanson (2007) explain that hermeneutic phenomenology is most useful where the goal is to explicate contextual features of a lived experience as derived from the researcher’s and participants’ backgrounds, as well as their subjective experiences and perspectives. However, the researcher is not absolved of the responsibility to minimise, or if possible at all, eliminating personal biases from the ? ndings of the study. It is often very dif? cult for researchers to demarcate between bias and fact, as bias can be very subtle. Data were collected from 11 hotel food and beverage managers. Food and beverage managers are the hands-on food and beverage operations decision makers who are directly responsible for the day to day and longer term strategy of a hotel’s food and beverage operations. Of course, other managers in the hotel, such as restaurant managers, executive chefs,149 guest relations managers and functions managers may also input into the food and beverage operations. The researcher however felt their input was minimal and in most cases, involved more strategy implementation rather than strategy formulation. Thus food and beverage managers, as primary strategists in the food and beverage department, were identi? ed as the key informants in the hotels. Out of a judgement sample of 18 hotel managers in 18 hotels (2 to 5 star) who were contacted by phone and asked if they were available for an interview, 16 agreed and appointments were set up. However, only 11 were subsequently interviewed. The other 5 could not avail themselves giving various reasons including emergency meetings or busy schedules. The researcher used an interview guide to maintain focus in the interviews. Questions were very open ended allowing interviewees to air their views freely. The research revolved around the two major research questions: the extent of threat posed by the emerging fast food competition (if any), and hotel management reactions. All interviews were tape recorded and transcribed manually, verbatim. Data analysis was performed manually, through several stages, drawing from Benner’s (1994) hermeneutical analysis model delineated in Wojnar and Swanson (2007). The process began with reading and rereading transcripts reread to gain an intuitive feel for the data. Next, repetitious themes were identi? ed. The researcher then identi? ed exemplary quotes to illustrate themes. Findings and discussion The extent of threat The majority of managers felt that fast food companies were becoming serious competition for hotel restaurants: ‘‘It’s become a bit of a war really. We have our appeal, but fast food restaurants have ‘‘street’’ appeal. We offer ? ne dining. Both concepts have their appeal, I guess. ’’ The ‘war’ referred to above is not unique to Zimbabwe. Restaurant wars have occurred in other places where fast food restaurants have entered the markets rapidly (e. g. Watson and Caldwell, 2004). Some managers reported that some of their guests were using their shuttle buses to ‘sneak out for a burger dinner at a fast food restaurant in town’. In addition, and more worrying for the hotel industry in Victoria Falls, hotel food and beverage sales were reported to have been reduced signi?cantly due to fast food entrance. This was a great concern as managers Downloaded from thr. sagepub. com at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University on March 14, 2013 150 reported the negative bottom line impact of fast food restaurant expansion. However, others were con? dent of the competitive strengths of their hotel restaurants, perceiving no real threat from fast food. ‘‘I think tourists in our hotel prefer to taste our full service men. It’s gourmet. Fast to me is bland and ordinary. Plus unhealthy. Our food is prepared by world class chefs.’’ Tourism and Hospitality Research 12(3) white water rafting on the Zambezi River, elephant back safaris, and so on) might not be consistent with a slow destination image, or a slow tourist segment. Another interesting comment made concerned the in? uence of age in preference for fast food: ‘‘It appears to me that it is our younger guests who might be particularly interested in fast food. The older folks are put off by the noise in the fast food places’’. The health implications in relation to fast food and slow food have been widely discussed (Hodges, 2003; Hunt, 2004; Mair et al., 2008; Wong, 2009). Indeed this could be the biggest selling point for hotel food over food in this context, especially if the market is predominantly health conscious. This requires further inquiry. One of the managers felt that hotels’ competitive strength with respect to food and beverage was in the uniqueness and authenticity of their menus: ‘‘We sell cuisines that they can’t get anywhere else, our kudu and impala steak, for example. Our cuisine is authentic Zimbabweanness. We bring out the best of Zimbabwean and African food. ’’ Future research could investigate further the validity of this observation in more causal, quantitative research. However, some existing research would suggest that more younger people tend to prefer fast food compared to older people (Dave et al. , 2009). One manager drew attention to the attention paid to ambience in hotel restaurants, arguing that this is an important source of differentiation from fast food restaurants: ‘‘Our hotel restaurants have a special ambience which fast food restaurants simply cannot provide’’. Authenticity is a core concept in tourism research, and it is signi? cant that hotel managers are engaged with this discourse in their re? ection of work lived experiences. But to ascribe Zimbabweanness lends to us to the complex questions of who authenticates food as Zimbabwean or otherwise, what criterion must be used, and consequently to the questions of identity and, for a multiethnic society that Zimbabwe is, ethnicity as well. Indeed, ethnicity has been a source of socio-cultural tension with regard to representing Zimbabwean identity. However, this point constitutes a highly convoluted debate that cannot be treated in more depth in an exploratory study such as this one. One manager felt that Victoria Falls was a destination for the ‘slow’ tourist, who preferred ‘slow’ products and services, so that there was no real threat for hoteliers posed by the entrance of fast food. The slow food–fast food contention is a topical issue in contemporary hospitality management as it resonates with a nostalgic yearning for the past in modern society. ‘‘I think Victoria Falls attracts more ‘slow oriented’ tourists, I think. ’’ The role ambience in in? uencing customer satisfaction is widely recognised. However some fast food restaurants have made some strides in managing the atmosphere in their restaurants. For example, the Rainforest Cafe chain’s restaurant interiors depict a tropical rainforest with detail such as plant growth, mist, waterfalls, animatronic robots of various animals and insects (Williams, 2002). Thus hoteliers cannot become complacent about their restaurant ambience as sustainable sources of competitive advantage over their fast food restaurant competition. The researcher asked whether the cheaper prices associated with fast food was a concern for hoteliers. Some managers agreed that price was in fact the major source of competition: ‘‘The trouble is that a burger at a fast food restaurants costs little, say three of four dollars. Our dinners cost them $30 dollars thereabouts. So if the decision is an economic one, especially where it’s a big family, the fast food restaurant is an inviting option. ’’ Slowness is a contested phenomenon, and it is not clear cut what constitutes slow. Further, it is questionable whether Victoria Falls is indeed a destination for slow tourists. Indeed, the adventure oriented activities that Victoria Falls is commonly known for (bungee jumping, helicopter ? ights over Falls, cruises and However, some felt that there was no logic in comparing hotel food prices with fast food prices; that doing so would be akin to comparing ‘oranges with bread’. It is clear then that hoteliers have varying perception of who their competitors are: whether competition refers to other hoteliers, or whether it extends beyond the hotel industry. De? ning competition narrowly, however, is likely to be detrimental to a hotel’s long term competitive strength. Downloaded from thr. sagepub. com at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University on March 14, 2013 Mkono It was also highlighted by some managers that their clientele was ‘upmarket’ and therefore not very pricesensitive: ‘‘Most of our guests are internationals. . . . and price is not their primary criterion for choosing where they are gonna eat. They do not travel on a tight budget’’. 151 Victoria Falls. Hotels would need to think on a longer term basis if their strategies should shield them from the competitive threat effectively. One manager expressed apprehension about the potential ef? cacy of any potential reactive strategies, citing that tourists from countries where fast food consumption has become ingrained in lifestyle ‘‘can’t resist a cheese burger’’. Thus to some extent, in this manager’s view, the war was already lost. Since for some managers the real competition was lay in the differences in price levels, it was not surprising that hotels were expected to bring down their prices. Indeed, this had already been done in some hotels: ‘‘We have had to bring our prices down a little bit’’. Hoteliers would need to address the question whether they intend to target only the upmarket, or whether their target market can be de? ned more broadly. Considering that the government’s Look East Policy launched in the early 2000s has attracted a lower spending, more price-sensitive Eastern market, limiting the target market to af? uent high spenders might not be particularly wise as a marketing strategy. Hotels therefore ? nd themselves in a crossroads decision regarding whether it makes more business sense to bring their prices down to become more competitive in the face of fast food restaurant penetration, and accept any compromises this might bring to customers’ perceptions of their product and service quality; or to keep their price levels as they are in the hope that this lures a more high spending, perhaps elitist market. A particularly important point was the reference to health conscious tourists. It was the belief of some managers that a signi?cant proportion of tourists was becoming increasingly health conscious, and was therefore inclined to avoid eating fast food: ‘‘Our guests in general are becoming very health conscious. They ask for low fat, sugar free etc. They ask if our menu is organic. They know they can’t get healthy options at the fast food restaurant. That’s a fact. ’’ However, some managers were concerned about the effect of price cuts on their image. There was apprehension that tourists could assume that this was accompanied by a reduction in product and/ or service quality. The relationship between price and quality has been investigated in many marketing studies, suggesting that customers perceptions of quality are indeed affected by price. The theme of image for some extended beyond an individual hotel. The image of Victoria Falls as a tourist destination was seen as impacted by the expansion of fast food supply. One of the respondents asserted that this would compromise the ‘luxury resort’ brand image that Victoria Falls held internationally: ‘‘Victoria is a high end market destination. We are about luxury hotels, class. No offence to fast food restaurants. ’’ Conclusion and suggested future research Hotel reactions Most managers believed that the competitive threat posed for hotels by the expansion of the fast food industry in Victoria Falls was serious enough to warrant reformulation of competitive strategies. Among the changes that hotels needed to make was to change shuttle buses’ routes so that they would not pass through fast food restaurant locations: ‘‘We might have to change the route for our shuttle. The current pick up points are not good for us at all because fast food shops are staring at our guest right there where they get picked up. ’’ However, such a change cannot offer a permanent solutions as tourists are not necessarily restricted to the use of hotels’ shuttle buses for transport within The study sought to investigate hotel food and beverage managers’ experiences with and perspectives of emerging fast food competition. As such, the paper adds to a growing number of phenomenological studies in hospitality. Managers’ perspectives re? ect several interesting issues. Many of the responses suggest a signi? cant level of complacency, a refusal to accord fast food the status of formidable competitor. Some managers seem to think it ‘beneath them’ to even worry about fast food, and even more ‘beneath’ to engage in a ‘face-off ’ with them. The more ‘digni? ed’ option seems to be to pretend that fast food restaurants either do not exist at all, or to feign indifference. This begs the question whether this attitude is sustainable in the long term. The study also con? rms the dynamic and volatile nature of the tourist market. In an African destination Downloaded from thr. sagepub. com at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University on March 14, 2013. 152 where fast food consumption has been a once-in-awhile affair, the entrance of fast food is set to rede? ne food and eating culture. It is no longer a Western phenomenon. What is also important to realise is that fast food consumption is not restricted to the tourist market; that locals are also a part of the market. Future researchers might investigate the impacts of fast food expansion on the local population’s food culture, which will further case study knowledge on the so called MacDonalisation of society. Hotels might have to start actively targeting ‘slow tourists’. However, research on the characteristics and means of engaging this potentially growing market segment is still lacking. It is hoped that more African context-speci? c studies will be carried out on the expansion of fast food and its business and sociological impacts. An inherent limitation concomitant to phenomenology is the lack of generalisability of research ? ndings. Owing to the small sample, the perspectives represented here are not representative of any other context, although some may be ‘transferable’ to similar resort destinations where fast food chains are beginning to enter markets which have previously been dominated by hotels. Future researchers might want to engage in similar studies with a larger sample of informants, and perhaps on a wider spatial scale. Such studies could employ quantitative methods to explain causal relationships and test hypothesis, such as whether fast food entrance into a traditional hotel dominated market poses signi? cant threats to hotel food and beverage pro? ts. To complete the supply side perspective for this study, fast food managers also need to be included in data collection in future perspectives. It would be interesting to investigate why fast food restaurants have decided to expand into the Victoria Falls now, how they perceive the competition from hotels, how they have tried to gain market share, and their views on slow food–fast food debate in an environment where fast food continues to be criticised as unhealthy. How are they building their defence against this onslaught? How do they continue to thrive despite this worldwide onslaught? What will be even more interesting would be to compare the ? ndings made in an African context with those found in other, perhaps very different contexts. This research took a supply side bias, and thus fails to capture the perspectives of tourists who in fact make the choice between fast food and slow food. Thus future researchers might want to pursue either a market oriented approach, or better yet an integrative approach, which combines both supply side and consumer perspectives. In addition, future researchers who carry out similar studies in tourist destinations Tourism and Hospitality Research 12(3) could utilise the broader concept of ‘slow tourism’ as an analytical framework. Thus food choice and consumption are not viewed simply as acts in dining, but perhaps as a microcosm of a much more complex ‘slow tourism’ phenomenon. References Allen KN, Taylor JS and Kuiper R (2007) Effectiveness of nutrition education on fast food choices in adolescents. The Journal of School Nursing 23(6): 337–341. Bartlett M and Bartlett M (1995) Turning points or wrong turns? Restaurants Institutions 105: 12. Beer S (2008) Authenticity and food experience- commercial and academic perspectives. Journal of Foodservice 19(3): 153–163. Benner P (1994) Hermeneutic phenomenology: a methodology for family health and promotion study in nursing. In: Benner P (ed. ) Interpretive Phenomenology: Embodiment, Caring, and Ethics in Health and Illness. California: Sage, pp. 71–72. Berta D (2003) Arctic Circle fast food comes to hot-growth Utah suburb. Nation’s Restaurant News 37(12): 80. Blanck HM, Yaroch AL, Atienza AA, et al. (2009) Factors influencing lunchtime food choices among working Americans. Health Education Behavior 36(2): 289–301. Bowens J (1994) Fat profiles of your favorite fast-food restaurant: how do they measure up to recommended guidelines? Journal of Nutrition in Recipe Menu Development 1: 47. Chandon P and Wansink B (2007) The biasing health halos of fastfood restaurant health claims: lower calorie estimates and higher side-dish consumption intentions. Journal of Consumer Research 34: 301–314. Chaudhry R (1992) Fast-food seafood chains sell health, variety. Restaurants Institutions 102: 12. Chhabra D (2010) Back to the past: a sub-segment of Generation Y’s perceptions of authenticity. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 18(6): 793–809. ? Cohen E (2007) Authenticity’ in tourism studies: Apres la Lutte. Tourism Recreation Research 32(2): 75–82. Connell J (2007) The continuity of custom? Tourist perceptions of authenticity in Yakel Village, Tanna, Vanuatu. Journal of Tourism Cultural Change 5(2): 71–86. Connell J and Gibson C (2004) World music: deterritorializing place and identity. Progress in Human Geography 28(3): 342–361. Crowley D (2002) A promise is a promise. Club Industry (07478283) 18(8): 12 . Daniel YP (1996) Tourism dance performances: authenticity and creativity. 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Downloaded from thr. sagepub. com at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University on March 14, 2013 Mkono Gardner S (2007) Slow changes in fast food. Foodservice Hospitality 39(12): 33–36. Gray MT (2004) Philosophical inquiry in nursing: an argument for radical empiricism as a philosophical framework for the phenomenology of addiction. Qualitative Health Research 14(8): 1151–1164. Grazin KL and Olsen JE (1997) Market segmentation for fast-food restaurants in an era of health consciousness. Journal of Restaurant Foodservice Marketing 2: 1. Gregory S, McTyre C and DiPietro RB (2006) Fast food to healthy food: a paradigm shift. International Journal of Hospitality Tourism Administration 7(4): 43–64. Hawkes C (2003) Heavy issue: food industry weighs down Americans with freedom of choice. Nation’s Restaurant News 37(6): 44. Hegel G (1977) Phenomenology of Spirit. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Hodges T (2003) Brandwatch: in praise of slow food. Locum Destination Review. p. 26. Hunt G (2004) Rough ride slow food. Food Manufacture 79(9): 139–139. Ingram G (2002) Motivations for farm tourism hosts and guests in the South West Tapestry Region, Western Australia: a phenomenological study. Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology 2(1): 1–12. Ironside PM, Scheckel M, Wessels C, et al. (2003) Experiencing chronic illness: cocreating new understandings. Qualitative Health Research 13(2): 171–183. Jennings L (2006) Andre Guerrero slows down fast food at newest restaurant. Nation’s Restaurant News 40: 32–32. Johnson J (2002) Liberalism and the politics of cultural authenticity. Politics, Philosophy Economics 1(2): 213–236. Jonsdottir H (1998) Life patterns of people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: isolation and being closed in. Nursing Science Quarterly 11(4): 160–166. Hwang JJ and Cranage D (2010) Customer health perceptions of selected fast-food restaurants according to their nutritional knowledge and health consciousness. 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the meaning of a friend Essays -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Never having any guidance, or direction, he has always seemed to work through all obstacles. Langston was a young man, roughly beginning his first year of medical school. Everyone he knew saw it a miricle that he ever made it as far as a bachelors degree, much less a Medical Degree.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Born a â€Å"mistake† never knowing his mother, or father he spent much of his childhood and adolescence running from foster homes east and west, he had never known unconditional love or the feel of a true family. At the age of 24, only one person in his life had ever before cared enough to keep in touch with him. She was a young woman he called Mams. Natalie Green Entered is life when he was around the age of four, as his â€Å"big sister†. She was only 18 and needed community service hours to receive a scholarship, never anticipating that such a loving relationship would grow with the young boy. Mams was an only child to a middle class black family, raised with a father that believe you must earn and work for everything you receive. Even then the nature and history, of Langston’s life, at the age of four, shocked her. For the 12 months they spent together, in St.Louis, every weekend, and twice during the week they escaped from their lives. She took him to plays, book readings, social events, anything she thought would open his eyes to the opportunities surrounding him. As a result Langston was well on his was to success. Even after she left for collage, and he moved to a new â€Å"home†, every birthday, Easter, Christmas, Halloween, and any other special event, Langston would receive a letter or post card with just enough words to make him keep trying. She was the main and only motivation in his life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  On a Sunny day, in the beginning of September, Langston hopped on his bike and hurried home to his apartment to change clothes and rush to work, his daily routine. The door flung open, his shoes flew across the room, he ran to the bathroom he turned on the shower, then ran into the kitchen, and was then brought to a paused when he noticed the mail he must have overlooked when first entering. The shower still running, he grabbed the mail, not expecting anything in paticular besides the usual junk mail. When suddenly he was suprised to see a peach envelope with purple ink writing, reading Langston Brown ... ...nishment Langston realized those were the closing words of Mam’s eulogy, Langston had been so greif stricken he totally zoned out the entire funeral ceremony, even the lasting momentos she left for him. Mams hadn’t forgotten him, nor not cared for him, for whatever reason she felt she had to die, she wanted Langston to know how much she was proud of him, and how much she believed he was capable of acheiving.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Such a small, yet overlooked aspect. Who knew how much these few words could change Langston’s life. Suddenly he felt powerful and ambitious once again. He no longer blamed himself, or questioned the ways of life, he learned to accept the past and prepare for the future. Though some people looked down on Natalie Green for her â€Å"cowardly† death, contrary, Langston still holds her in the highest respect, for she changed his life in ways he can never repay. She gave him hope and strength when there was no one else around to care if he woke up the next morning. She understood how much he needed her in his life. Natalie Green was his Mams, warm hearted, strong, independent; the most influential, loving person in his life.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

Male Teachers Perform Better in Schools Than Female Teachers (350 Words)

Title: Male teachers perform better in school than female teachers Female teachers in schools are getting more common than male teachers these days compare to last time when females were only taught to be housewives. However, schools without male teachers are prone to have disciplinary problems. Some of the reasons why male teachers performed better in schools than female teachers are male teachers are better discipliners, better leaders and better emotion controller than female teachers. Male teachers are better discipliners than female teachers. This is because females are recognised to have a softer side that can affect the discipline actions taken on naughty students. Besides that, rebellious students will take the motherly side of female teachers for granted and cause trouble. Therefore, male teachers are more suitable to discipline students as their strict personality can intimidate students. Another reason why male teachers perform better in school than female teachers are male teachers have better leadership than female teachers. This statement is supported by the fact that men usually play the dominant role in their family whereas women play the submissive role. Therefore, male teachers can lead a class better and be a role model to students especially to male students. Moreover, most of the well performed schools are lead by male principals. Male teachers can work more efficient than female teachers at all times. This is because men have better emotion control than most women and won’t get distracted by personal issues. They have better focus in their work than female teachers and have certain ego that makes them to do their best in their job. Therefore, the drive in male teachers to perform better is more than female teachers. In conclusion, male teachers can teach better than female teachers. Although female teachers are known to be like mothers in schools, schools still need male teachers to lead and run the school’s administration and system well to create better study environment for all students.

Managing resources and controlling budget costs Essay

Managing resources of a business can be hard for the business they have to maintain the resources by doing various checks over the years. For example maintaining a physical resource like a building, can be challenging, but in order to maintain it, a business has to insurance the building and the contents need to be in place, if the building needs repairs then they need to be repaired in time, the building needs to have security systems in place such as, entry codes, cctv, gated areas and areas maintained regularly; the person in charge to manage this resource can be the site manager, it’s his responsibility, to keep everything in order; if he doesn’t the do anything about the repairs, install security etc. The building can be in serious danger since the business will have to pay more in order to maintain it. Another resource the business should manage is ICT, a business, e.g. Paapapii’s in order to maintain resources they need to purchase the appropriate software package, in order to work efficiently, they also have to provide training of computer software to employer’s in order to facilitate the work for them, and also the have to safe storage their data, if anything bad happens they can get their work back so they don’t slow down their sales. The person responsible to maintain this resource is the ICT manager. Furthermore businesses should manage their human resources, in order to recruit people that are qualified for the job, some people might have the right qualifications but they don’t have the right experience, by improving the human resources, your business will develop a recruitment and hiring process that engages the manager and makes them responsible for the right hire, they can develop an employee performance process to evaluate and fairly reward employees for their work and create an employee file checklist for retaining the proper documentation for all employees. This will make the business work more efficiently so they can achieve their goals. Managing the resources of an organisation and looking closely at its  budgetary control is absolutely vital in business. It improves performance over every department and gives the business management team a clear view on where they can expand and develop in the future. Every public limited company that allows people to buy shares within their business must publish their accounts so that investors can see how well they are doing and judge whether or not to buy their shares on the stock exchange. All the multinational companies have a clear view on their resources and budgets; this is evident from Tesco who have lists of all their resources and a clear cash flow all on one financial statement. They made profits of over  £2 billion in 2005 and this tells us that managing budgets and resources well really does improve businesses performance. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4435339.stm- BBC News. Managing the budgetary control effectively helps improve the performance of an organisation as, if you can mark up the break-even point on a chart of business, you can identify the point where your business has sold enough products or service in order to cover your expenses. This is crucial information for any business trying to avoid losses, knowing the point that you break even is a good target to reach and keeps everyone in your organisation focused and therefore improves performance. Furthermore, the margin of safety can also be found in order to allow the business to work out the amount of units by which sales can fall before the business starts to make a loss. This improves the businesses performance in hard times such as the current recession as the management team know how much security they have until they start making a loss. An example of the margin of safety could be when John Lewis has 65 units and a break-even point of 50 units. This gives them 15 units of lee way until they start making a loss. Another example of how managing the budgetary control and resources within a business helps improve performance is the effect of changes in fixed costs. When running a business there is fixed costs that are always the same, these include costs such as rent, insurance and road tax. Knowing the changes of your ‘fixed’ costs could save a lot of time and keep a more clearly  financial statement and management decisions. For example the government orders all insurance on cars to increase by 15%, this used to be a fixed cost however on the odd occasion it can change. Applying close attention to changes within ‘fixed’ costs can be crucial and will improve the performance of management decisions in the future as you have valid data to hand. The pricing in times like the recession for rent could always be changing and product prices can go up or down according to competitors within the marketing environment, using invalid information for predictions on what will happen with the business is suicidal and managing resources and budgets can cover this problem and in turn improve the company’s performance by making accurate marketing decisions that will benefit the company. Also, in any recession businesses need to insure their safety by keeping reserves from the cash flow cycle for emergencies. An emergency could render anything from a downturn in the market to an offensive attack on your business premises, keeping reservations will help soften the effects of these situations. Business analysts recommend that reserves should be maintained which will allow the business to continue for at least three months in the event of an emergency. Also having a high liquidity figure helps, this is the ability to turn assets or stock into cash to be able to pay bills. Making reservations and emergency funds will improve performance in the long run in poor economic times and help see your business through, giving each department a limited budget to handle and giving limits on resources. The importance of costs and budgets is extremely high within any organisation that wants to do well. The advantages of managing your costs and budgets are that it is easier to have a constant cash flow, cash flow is vitally important within all businesses as it helps pay the bills whilst you await debtors to pay for your services. Another advantage of managing your costs and budgets is that it helps you avoid getting into debt as you always know how much you have to spend and whether you can afford certain assets or advertisements. If the costs and budgets are not monitored the company could be working at a loss, with the information in hand that you are losing money and not even making enough profit to cover costs you could, as a result,  start dropping staff and maybe selling assets such as computers and vehicles that are, not necessarily not needed, but aren’t useful without the staff operating them. The business value will eventually decrease significantly as a result of an unmonitored financial system not checking the costs and budgets effectively. An example of a company that manages its costs well is John Lewis. They manage their costs and budgets effectively by having a whole department of finance and numerous staff working under their command. Their job is to look at all the costs and budgets of the store that they are allocated to and to see whether an investment of new advertising or a new product is financially viable with their budget. This way they can avoid spending large amounts of money that the company doesn’t have. Also, it is clear that they manage their costs well as their financial statement for the half year leading up to August 2009 saw a profit of  £86.3 million profit. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/sep/17/john-lewis-profits-drop- Guardian. Conclusion To sum up, the management of costs, budgets and resources all work co-ordinately to improve overall business performance. This is done in many ways but mainly in that it increases the break-even point, the margin of safety and can reduce overheads significantly, this all results to greater profits which is the core of all non-charitable organisations therefore making the management of resources and budgets vitally important. In my opinion anyone who starts up a business is to make sure that right from the start you have an effective budgetary control and a well-managed resource department. Make sure that you stay up to date with your marketing environment that is relevant to your niche market to ensure you gather correct information in order to make accurate marketing decisions. Any business that doesn’t have a good budgetary and resource control system is deemed to fail sooner or later and, if this is relevant to you, then I would re-design your business before it starts maki ng a gaping loss and you’re  left wondering why, without any accurate information to go by.

Kylie Masshardt Essays (1647 words) - Education, Free Essays

Kylie Masshardt Essays (1647 words) - Education, Free Essays Kylie Masshardt Period 5 Mrs. Stephens 22 February 2017 How Standard is Standardized Testing Standardized testing costs billions of dollars a year while inaccurately measuring students' performance based on unfair and biased standards; This has not only caused the value of American education to decrease, but also cause the rise of the "creativity crisis" in the uprising American population. Although standardized testing allows students from across the country to be equally evaluated, many studies and test have proven that student's health, the value of teachers, as well as the student's future have been affected by these costly tests. All standardized tests are playing with what the creators of the test think is a "standard" and testing all students across America with the exact same questions. As standardized test become more prominent in the American school systems, the lack of individuality and creativity of students increases, "A 2010 college of William Mary study found Americans' scores on the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking have been dropping since 1990[] the blame [is] on the increase in standardized testing" (standardizedtests.procon.org). This is only one affect standardized tests have had on student's future. Furthermore, an excessive amount of testing may teach children to be good at taking tests, but does not prepare them for productive adult lives. Time spent on teaching students "proper" test taking strategies, could be better well spent by teaching students the importance of voting, how to do taxes, as well as how to properly manage money; All things that will prepare Americas future generations to be well-rounded citizens. An article on the pros and cons of standardized testing states," Standardized testing has not improved student achievement" (standar dizedtests.procon.org). In 2002, after the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act was passed, the US slipped from 18th in the world on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) to 31st place in 2009(standerdizedtests.procon.org). Again, proving that not only are these standardized tests failing to prepare students for the future, but also showing no improvement amongst the students' scores. Ultimately, there has been no evidence to prove that test incentive programs are working on benefiting students, their future, or education in general. The billion-dollar testing industry is notorious for making costly and time-consuming scoring errors, costing hard-working Americans billions of dollars in tax payer money. An article on standardized testing states, " NCS Pearson, which has a 254 million dollar contract to administer Florida's Comprehensive Assessment Test, delivered the 2010 results more than a month late" (standardizedtests.procon.org). Rather than spending the billions of dollars on ensuring students a fair and equal opportunity to have a valued education, billions of dollars are wasted on fixing the errors of companies such as Pearson. In 2009, Obama's Race To the Top initiative was signed into law, inviting states to compete for 4.35 billion dollars in extra funding based on the strength of their students test scores. This competition led teachers to help students, as young as 3rd grade, to cheat on these tests in order to receive this extra funding, " [] had students whose test papers showed high number of wron g-to-right ratios" ( Background of the issue, James Wallan). Teachers act as model for their students, and helping their students cheat to receive this extra funding is teaching young kids bad habits. In conclusion, each year billions of dollars are wasted on correcting the mistakes of large corporate companies when grading the standardized test, and when incentives are instilled, teachers are teaching their students that it is okay to cheat. Teachers prepare their students for these standardized tests all year long, and as the testing day approaches students become frantic and begin to develop testing anxiety. Around 16-20% of students, in a 2016 study, reported that they had high-testing anxiety before their tests, while 18% stated they had moderate-testing anxiety, making this the most prevalent scholastic impairment in the American education system. Not only are standardized tests causing unnecessary anxiety on students as young as third grade, but also robbing children of their childhood. Super-attendants, principals, and teachers have become fixated on preparing their students to ace these tests, they have begun replacing recess time with preparation activities for these tests. Recess plays a large role in the early development of

Learning disabilities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Learning disabilities - Essay Example The fundamental characteristics of students with learning disability are usually a lack in reading and written language comprehension. Lack these skills causes as inability to know and understand how the phonemes or speech sounds (omission, insertions, and revels) make a difference. An inability to decode unfamiliar words, poor comprehension and retention, and difficulty identify important themes is created. Also, difficulties in written language and performance usually occur in the areas of handwriting, spelling, productively, text structure, sentence structure, and inability to copy correctly from book or the blackboard. In addition, these students have difficulties with math performance, due to poor visual perception, memory, copying problems incorrectly from one line to anther, difficulty recalling the sequence of operational processes, difficulties comprehending word problems, and reasoning deficit. Students with learning disabilities have difficulties in time management, and ar e slow to start and complete tasks. There is a repeated, day-to-day inability to recall what has been taught, as well as difficulty following oral and writing directions. The lack of overall organization in written notes and composition, demonstrate short attention span during lectures, and significantly decreases the chance of the student performing well. Students with learning disability may have weaknesses in specific social skills. They tend to use less socially acceptable behaviors in certain situations, and perform verbal and nonverbal skills at a significantly lower level than their peers. They also exhibit inappropriate behaviors at higher levels than their peers, and misinterpret social cues. Much of the time, they are unable to predict consequences for their behavior. During a learning disability stimulation in the classroom, the instructor

Nervewire case study Introduction and conclusion only Essay

Nervewire case study Introduction and conclusion only - Essay Example They must also be able to solve conflict along the way without compromising the quality of the project. Nervewire Inc is a management consulting business that was created as a new business with the vision of doing this business differently than anyone else was. Their goal was to supply ideas to fortune 500 companies and Malcolm Frank had the vision to get there. His first goal was to hire a team that fit the culture of the company and people he knew he could work with. He also planned to bring together people with ideas and creativeness and those that were willing to dedicate themselves to the project. He hired Kirk Arnold as COO because of his prior success and his abilities to see the future. Frank was successful in his endeavor of building an effective team and his new business grew quite rapidly. This paper will discuss Nervewire, what was important about how they built their business and how the two personalities of Frank and Arnold drove their company to success, surviving and growing through a major recession. Nervewire is a new company that has survived the recession. Created with success in mind, they became and have remained successful. Malcolm Frank had a vision and hired a man name Kirk Arnold who helped fuel that vision.