Don Quixote

Joseph Andrews is Fielding's first novel. It is a classical example of a literary work which started as a parody and ended as an excellent work of art in its own right. The work Fielding intended to parody was Richardson's first novel Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded which had taken England by storm in the years following 1740 when it was first published. In his novel Fielding intended in the beginning to show how Lady Booby (aunt of â€Å"Lord B. † in Richardson's novel) attempts the virginity of Joseph Andrews, described as the virtuous Pamela's brother but in the end discovered to be different. The whole intention was comic. But after Chapter IX Joseph Andrews seems to break away completely from the original intention. Parson Adams, who has no counterpart in Pamela, runs away with the novel. He â€Å"is one of the most living, lovable, comical bundles of wisdom and simplicity in all literature. † In the words of Edmund Gosse, â€Å"Parson Abraham Adams, alone, would be a contribution to English letters. † He indeed is the hero of the novel, and not Joseph Andrews. Fielding was aware of giving a new literary form with Joseph Andrews which he called â€Å"a comic epic in prose. † Fielding is a great master of the art of characterization also. Fielding's broad human sympathy coupled with his keen observation of even the faintest element of hypocrisy in a person is his basic asset as a master of characterization. He laughs and makes us laugh at many of his characters, but he is never cynical or misanthropic. He is a pleasant satirist, sans malice, sans harshness. He gives no evidence of being angry at the foibles of his characters or of holding a lash in readiness. His comic creations resemble those of Chaucer and Shakespeare. Parson Trulliber and Falstaff, if they were to meet, would have immediately recognized each other! Fielding is one of the greatest humorists in English literature. The same comic spirit which permeates his plays is also evident in his novels. As he informs us, the author upon whom he modeled himself was Cervantes; it is not surprising, therefore, that comedy should be his method. Fielding's humor is wide in range. It rises from the coarsest farce to the astonishing heights of the subtlest irony. On one side is his zestful description of various fights and, on the other, the grim irony of Jonathan Wild. Higher! than both is that ineffable, pleasant, and ironic humor that may be found everywhere in Tom Jones but is at its best in Joseph Andrews where it plays like summer lightning around the figure of Parson Adams-an English cousin of Don Quixote. Fielding's very definition of the novel as â€Å"a comic epic in prose† is indicative of the place of humor and comedy in his novels and, later, those of many of his followers. It may be pointed out here that Richardson had no sense of humor; he was an unsmiling moralist and sentimentalist. Comparing the two, Coleridge says: â€Å"There is a cheerful, sunshiny, breezy spirit that prevails everywhere strongly contrasted with the close, hot, tfay-dreamy continuity of Richardson. † Fielding's humor is sometimes of the satiric kind, but he is never harsh or excessively cynical.

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain juxtaposes Huck’s adventurous and liberating journey along with Jim on the raft down the river Mississippi with the corrupt life that allows unconscious acceptance to the values of society on the shore. The novel unfolds Huck’s inner mind and records his learning and moral development as he encounters morally corrupt and crooked people on his journey to freedom. The novel contrasts between the constricting life on the shore and the freedom offered by the journey on the river.   Though Huck’s raft follows the river towards its downward journey, he goes against the stream in his life learning on his own the hard realities of life. Huck finds the two wealthy sisters Widow Douglas and Miss Watson, who adopt him, as the true representatives of the society that is based on hypocritical religious and ethical values. Though Widow Douglas is more patient and gentle towards Huck, he finds her care and concern quite restrictive. When she puts him in new clothes he could do nothing but feel cramped sweating a lot. He does not find any meaning in prayer before the dinner and in the stories of Moses and the Bulrushers who were dead long time ago. Though the life in the care of Widow Douglas is decent and dignified, cozy and comfortable, Huck does not like it much. He feels his old ways of living are the best. Living in a house and sleeping in a bed pulled on me pretty tight mostly, but before the cold weather I used to slide out and sleep in the woods sometimes, and so that was a rest to me. I liked the old ways Best. (Twain 13) He finds Miss Watson’s attempts to ‘sivilize’ him most annoying. For him, she is the best example of severe and unforgiving laws of Christian life which are against his individual freedom. He feels â€Å"Miss Watson she kept pecking at me, and it got tiresome and lonesome†.   He is so vexed with the ways of living under the care of Miss Watson that he feels one night quite depressed and feels â€Å"I felt so lonesome I most wished I was dead.†   (Twain 5) When Miss Watson insists that he should pray he can not find any reason to pray when his prayers are not answered by God. When he asks her to try for him she calls him a fool. Huck tries several times in his own way asking God for the things he wanted, but he could not find any response from God. He finds it quite impractical. He does not find any advantage for him in praying for others as told by Widow. He finds a lot of difference between Widow and Miss Watson who both pray and teach the same things to him about Providence. The following lines best illustrate his understanding of his two guardians who differ a lot in their attitude. I judged I could see that there was two Providences, and a poor chap would stand considerable show with the widow’s Providence, but if Miss Watson’s got him there warn’t no help for him any more. (Twain 11) Huck’s father, Pap, an incorrigible wreck with his disgusting and ghostlike appearance in tattered clothes, represents the generally debased white society and the failed family. Pap, who is always after the money earned by Huck, feels jealous of his son’s education when his son is living with Widow Douglas and going to school. He not only kidnaps his son but also virtually imprisons him in a cabin in the woods and beats him completely drunk. In fact, he proves dangerous and provides the immediate and most potent cause for Huck’s escape from the society on the shore. On the contrary, he finds a trusting and caring surrogate father in Jim who accompanies him in his escape from the shore. Jim, a runaway slave from the house of Miss Watson, stands for strong family relationship, nobility and loyalty. He takes the extreme step of running away from Miss Watson’s house as he suspects he would be sold for another master which will eventually separate him from his family. Though he seems superstitious and ignorant, he is an intelligent man with a deep understanding of human life. Jim he was right; he was most always right; he had an uncommon level head for a nigger. (Twain 55). There is a strong bond of friendship and understanding between Huck and Jim on the raft. Both are desperately in need of protecting themselves from the selfish people in the society. The raft on the river Mississippi provides them an opportunity to save their lives. It offers them the much needed freedom. The following passage aptly conveys their dire need to run away from society. I was powerful glad to get away from the feuds, and so was Jim to get away from the swamp. We said there warn’t no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft. (Twain 83) The life on the raft is different in many ways from the life that is found on the shore. The raft provides them not only as escape from the corrupt and selfish people, but also an opportunity to be what they are and to do what they like. It gives them a unique opportunity to explore their true identity and their stand in relation to many things in life. They are closest to their true nature on the raft in the lovely and mighty presence of the river and the woods. It offers them unrestricted and uninhibited freedom. Huck feels happy and liberated on the raft and expresses the same in the following words: It’s lovely to live on a raft. We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made or only just happened. (Twain 84) Twain has brilliantly contrasted the plight of a white boy with that of a slave Jim. The story of the novel revolves around these two characters that are almost in the same boat with similar problems. As luck would have it, they share the same raft in their escape for freedom. Huck finds Jim’s presence on the raft comforting and supportive as Jim is practical, intelligent and trustworthy though, at times, he seems sentimental. Jim not only cooks food for Huck but also protects him from dangers. Jim’s acts of selflessness and his longing to meet his family have left an indelible impression on Huck. Huck is very determined till the end to save Jim and to get him free. However, the life on the raft is not without its share of dangers and threats. Huck and Jim get separated when their raft is hit by a steamer in the river. Huck’s encounter with the family of Grangerfords exposes him to pretentious importance that people attach to their family’s honor or prestige. Huck suspects behind the kindhearted and gentle people in the family, there is an unreasonable feud between them and the Shepherdsons. It makes no sense to Huck. Many of the people belonging to these families die in a bitter gun fight from which Huck luckily escapes. After facing many challenging situations Huck and Jim once again continue their journey on the raft further towards the south. The two con artists who ask for help and seek refuge on the raft prove dangerous to Huck in the end. The two con artists involve in various crimes at times claiming to be the descendants of royal family and sometimes, pretending to be great actors and evangelists. They once again remind the crookedness of the people in the society on the shore. The raft has proved an excellent place to enjoy the perfect freedom and bliss without any interference. Though Jim is there with him all the time, he is silent and provided a good company with his accommodating nature. Huck enjoys Jim’s company and the journey most. He expresses his happiness saying, It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big, still river, laying on our backs looking up at the stars, and we didn’t ever feel like talking loud, and it warn’t often that we laughed — only a little kind of a low chuckle. (Twain 47) The long journey on the raft has provided Huck with many opportunities to learn new things and develop his own logic. Every challenge he faces presents him with an opportunity to think about it deeply and to come to a conclusion which he feels right. His association with Jim on the raft has given him opportunity to think clearly and form his own opinion without any interference. He prefers to follow his own instinct and logic than to accept the unquestioned conventions of the society.   Huck’s determination to save Jim when he is caught demonstrates his maturity and broadness of understanding. Huck has to undergo an internal struggle to overcome some of the notions that have been ingrained in him by the society. Every time Huck faces a problem he applies his mind and comes out with a decision what he feels right, though it might look wrong and offending to the white community. He takes help from Tom Sawyer in rescuing Jim finally. Huck loses his faith in the society that has failed to protect him. Though the Widow tried her best to give him what he has missed, it has proved imperfect to mould him. His growing distance from the society makes him skeptical about it. His natural intelligence and his ability to think through a situation have enabled him to form his own right conclusions. Thus, he creates his own rules and develops his character throughout the journey. Twain depicts the society around Huck with people who are degraded in their values. The actions of these people defy logic and commonsense. For example, when the judge allows Pap, the wreck and disgusting drunkard, to keep custody of Huck, he gives more importance to the right of ownership than to the welfare of the innocent boy. It clearly depicts the social system that has fallen in its moral standing. It highlights the white man’s rights over his property whether it is a slave or a son. The Mississippi River plays the most important role in the novel providing freedom and refreshing experience to Huck and Jim who are in their quest for freedom. They travel from their home town St. Petersburg, Missouri, north of St. Louis, hundreds of miles into the Deep South.   The odyssey down the river lends the story a mystic element offering contentment to the people who come in search of freedom. The river with its power and grandeur sets a meaningful background to the story that contrasts life on the river with the life on the shore. The river plays the role of liberating influence on the two characters Huck and Jim. It is the only place where they can feel at home though they are on a raft. Huck arrives at the conclusion that the idyllic life, peace and brotherhood of himself and Jim have given him more satisfaction and a sense of freedom and understanding as opposed to the inhumanity, the feud and the degenerated values of society. Thus, it is a journey in search of understanding and freedom leaving behind the so called ‘sivilization’ that destroys innocence and enslaves human beings. In short, Huck’s journey is from unthinking acceptance of received values and knowledge to an independently achieved understanding of what is right. It is journey from boyhood to manhood, from servitude to freedom. T. S. Eliot, the great English poet and critic of the twentieth century who also grew up on the banks of the same river says, â€Å"the river makes the book a great book† It has fired the imagination of the boy Huck and became the only real home for him. Reference Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn < http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/twain/huckfinn.pdf   >

Comparative Commentary on Global Warming Essay

â€Å"Taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions† (â€Å"Text A†), an international newspaper advertisement from Exxon Mobil and â€Å"An Agenda for Climate Action† (Text B†), a speech by Eileen Claussen, the President of Pew Center on Global Climate Change were both written in 2006 with the focus on global warming. The author in both commentaries strives to bring out the message that as human beings, we must take action to stop the worsening of climate change. Text A is a published article by a company that emphasizes that everyone in the world should be able to take part in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and that illustrates the range of actions, in particular technological advances the company has taken to address the problem. As for Text B, it is a speech delivered to university students that identifies the ultimate cause of the problems of climatic change the world is facing now. Even though the message of the two texts is the same, the way th ey convey it differs, in terms of the structure and content, language usage, purpose, and narrative perspective. The structure and content of the two texts are very similar even though there are some obvious differences. First, the introduction of the two texts is very similar in terms of the message their text strives to bring out. Text A starts with â€Å"We’d like to use this space to share our thoughts on actions to address the risk of climate change† while Text B is slightly different as it opens with a courteous introduction first but what follows is this, â€Å"I am here today to talk about what climate change solutions might entail†. This clearly shows that even though the two introductions i.e. the words used and the focus area are not the exact same, but without doubts, they are intended for the same purpose, to persuade people to take action. As for the sentencing and paragraph style, both are written in small paragraphs with long sentences, each having a specific point to make. In Text A, the 4th paragraph is about the need to develop new approaches that are suitable for consumers and to improve the present economic situation and current living standard. The 7th paragraph is about the company improving energy efficiency and having reduced a lot of emission. In Text B, the 3rd paragraph states the major cause for climate change, which is environmentally unfriendly actions done by humans. In the 5th paragraph, it talks about how the rate of mountain glaciers melting is increasing rapidly. These examples show that each paragraph from the two texts has a specific point to make and is clearly structured. Differences can also be found due to the different nature of the texts, Text A being an international newspaper advertisement that promotes their company, Exxon Mobil while Text B is a speech by Eileen Clausen in the Yale University with the aim to raise awareness of global warming to ring the bell that everyone must come together and take a â€Å"comprehensive approach†. First, they use different ways to inform their audiences.†¯ Text A is presented with descriptions and actual statistics of the actions the company have been taking so as to promote their company while Text B is a speech that strives to deliver the message to the audience that climate change is a serious problem, so uses more examples and easy-to-understand facts and information such as how the natural phenomenon that are occurring now is just â€Å"the tip of an iceberg†. Second, the way they start differ. For instance, Text B starts with a sentence in the very beginning that Text A does not, which is â€Å"Thank you very much. †¯It is grate to be here at Yale University†. This is because Text B is a speech so it must show some kind of gratitude for being able to give out a speech. In contrary, Text A is only an advertisement, which does not need to show gratitude that way, however, it has more to do with tone. The tone of†¯Text A is very formal and serious but not demanding because they are trying to promote their company. Although the tone in Text B has a certain level of seriousness, it is more towards the friendly-conversation kind of feeling. It is presented like how close the audience and Eileen Clausen are, this is so that the audience would be more interested and take account of the global issues more. The data of the two texts are not the same. Text A talks about solutions to reduce green house gas emissions, â€Å"Working with vehicle manufacturers and engine makers on programmers that could improve fuel economy by as much as 30% while significantly reducing emissions† and â€Å"improving energy efficiency at our facilities Steps taken since 1999 resulted in CO2 emissions saving of 11 million tones in 2005†¦Ã¢â‚¬  In Text B†, it talks about the risks that human activities have brought upon climate change. For instance,† what they showed is that the second largest land-based ice sheet in the world is losing ice twice as fast† and â€Å"we know that hurricanes are becoming more intense, not just in the Atlantic which gave us Katrina and Rita†¦Ã¢â‚¬ The information used in each of the texts to convey its message is different. Since Text A is an advertisement for its own company, it would be very uncommon for it not to pressure its audience into buying its products. Exxon Mobile does this by firing all the actions it has taken to tackle the problem of climatic change, creating the impression that using or buying their products is one of the ways to save the planet. However, since Text B is only a speech with no special interest, it only needs to address the seriousness of the situation without pressuring the audience that â€Å"these, if I may say this, are just the tip of the melting iceberg†, implying that what was said is not all that there is to it, there are many more risks out there. With and without the pressure, it shows how different the texts are and their impacts on the audience. As between the two texts, one focuses on solutions while another one on risks. Text A focuses on the solutions the company has come up with while Text B talks about the risks caused by human activities. In addition to that, Text A focuses on economics solutions while Text B focuses on geographic problems. For instance, in â€Å"Text A†, phrases such as â€Å"allow continued economic growth and improvements in living standard. Technological advances will be critical†highlight the economic aspects and developing technology to improve living stand requires money, so it is indirectly asking its customers to use or buy the company’s products. In Text B, the risks talked about are all related to the changes geographically not economic risks, such as â€Å"loss of mountain glaciers†, â€Å"but in all oceans where hurricanes occur† and â€Å"One study found that 130 species-both plants and animals- have responded to earlier spring warming over the last 30 years.† In addition to that, Text A focuses on achievements while Text B on problem.†¯ In Text A, the sentence, â€Å"working with vehicle manufacturers and engine makers on programmes that could improve fuel economy by as much as 30% while significantly reducing emissions† shows an achievement because by working with other manufacturers and company, Exxon Mobile would be able to benefit the fuel economy as well as reduce emissions. In Text B, the sentence,† we also know that we are experiencing a worldwide loss of mountain glaciers, a trend that is accelerating. By mid-century, most mountain glaciers may be gone,† reveals a problem. Hence, the focus of each Text is different although they bring out the same message. Although both texts talks about reducing emissions, Text A, â€Å"Our scientists and engineers are working to reduce emissions today and in Text B, â€Å"We need to move from an economy based on burning of fossil fuels to one based on energy efficiency.† Text A is more prone to the side of benefiting their consumers â€Å" and Text B is prone to talk about the cause of global warming â€Å"The impacts of climate change across the globe are occurring in patters that can only explained by human activities and not by natural variations in regional climate.† The ultimate message that the two texts have differs, Text A if to promote their company and to persuade customers to do something therefore buy their product. Text B is to persuade people that we must take action to prevent the worsening of climatic change. This is shown by the conclusions which it also includes the use of technical words, even though both texts use 1st person as narrative perspective to express their information, at first in Text A, the use of â€Å"we† was to represent the whole Exxon Mobil â€Å"We’d like to use this space to share our thoughts on actions† but it changed to a â€Å"we†, which meant the society and themselves â€Å"We all have a role to play.† Initially, in Text A, the use of â€Å"I† was to represent the speaker, the president of Pew Center on Global Climate Change â€Å"I am here today to talk about what climate change solutions might entail† but it literally changed to â€Å"We†, again it includes everyone â€Å"We need to act now to cone up with ways to limit emissions growth without.† The switch of the technical words emphasizes the message that wants to be sent across so they make everyone as a whole, make them think they are involved and would have consideration on whether to act or not. The people targeted by each commentary are different. For Text A, since it is a published advertisement of a company, a profit-making company, to be specific, the targeted audience undeniably would be its customers (the public) in the sense that buying their products would amount to saving the planet. In contrast, â€Å"Text B† has a narrower focus on university students â€Å"It is great to be here at Yale University†, people of high intellect and education, so explanation is not needed, therefore the message are more straightforwardly expressed. However, on a more in-depth analysis of the content of their commentary as discussed above, it may be that Text B is able to reach a wider audience than Text A. The reason is that the language used in Text B is easier to understand, contains more common, day-to-day language, for example â€Å"The earth is warming; the impacts-once only predictions- are now upon us and are likely to worsen,† whereas almost half of the Text A in fact involves technical language, for example â€Å"Exxon Mobil is the lead sponsor and study areas include solar, hydrogen, biofuels and advanced transportation,† which can be thought to be targeting at people such as professors, university students, climate change ambassadors, engineers, surveyors, etc. In conclusion, Text A and Text B have many similarities and differences between the content and language usage, for example the ultimate message, talking about risks or solutions, geographical problems or economy problems, technical language and tone etc. There are also many other differences and similarities that haven’t been mentioned such as the Text A inform in present continuous, Text B is repetitive and does not patronize, scope (broad or limited, modern or historical) etc. Lastly, the two texts clearly convey the same theme through the description of solutions and risks, to take action for climate change.

Free Trade Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Free Trade - Essay Example e with the organizations of developed world since they have access to better technological tools that allow them to produce goods and services in much cost effective manner. Free trade discourages a nation to attain self-sufficiency since the nation only produces those goods and services that they can produce in a much effective and efficient manner as compared to producers of other nations. Free trade is only healthy when both the importing and exporting countries have not levied trade restrictions. 2. Government may restrict free trade with the use of tariffs which refers to the imposition of taxes on the amount of goods that can be imported. Government can restrict import by imposing quotas which are restrictions on the quantity of a particular good or service that can be imported. They may provide subsidies such as tax benefits to exporters. The government may adopt these policies for several economic and political reasons. They may do so in order to motivate industries to develop and produce locally and this in turn will benefit the local economy (Jones, 2001). They may impose these restrictions to provide support to industries that have just been set up within a nation. They may do so in order to correct the issue of balance of payment which may be created due to excess of imports over

Project of Activity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Project of Activity - Essay Example S to maintain her confidentiality. Mrs. S is an elderly lady aged 60; she has undergone a total right hip replacement for neck of femur fracture. My patient is being diagnosed with seizure activity (ITU-HDU), Thyrotoxicosis, R THR, early onset dementia. She is under normal diet and fluids which she is being supervised. Mrs. S only requires minimal assistance as she can use the Zimmer to support herself as stated in the doctor’s assessment. I conducted my activity, bed bath with Mrs. S on the 29th March 2012. I did this activity in the presence of a nurse who has been monitoring Mrs. S’s health condition. The main objectives of conducting this activity, bed bath was to ensure my patient’s hygiene is maintained, ensure that the activity is documented, and ensure that my patient operates within a clean and health environment and to report any signs of possibility of deterioration of my patient’s heath. Making the patient more comfortable is imperative by ensu ring that patient centered approach is upheld. It is my responsibility to ensure that my patient stays safe from any risks which may come as a result of her condition. It is an obligation to ensure that the legal and ethical code of conduct is adhered to while conducting my activity with my patient, for example, maintaining confidentiality and respecting the views and suggestions of the patient. As part of ensuring that individual centered approach is applied, providing Mrs. S with a favorable environment makes her more comfortable and encouraged. My activity ensures that all dirt and soiled hospital dressing are dumped in a safe place; the incinerator which ensures that all is burnt without emitting gases into the atmosphere which could pollute the air, therefore, air pollution related health problems are reduced. According to the Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, Mrs. S requires emotional, physical and psychological needs in order for her health to improve. Mrs. S has a daughter who frequently visits her to provide emotional support as well as physical support. Her daughter is very charming which while she is around; Mrs. S is seen to be very happy and seems to have forgotten anything about her illness. Sutcliffe states that it is the role of the family to ensure patients, particularly the elderly, are shown love, care and support (2011 p.36). Physically, Mrs. S is willing be supported to stand using the Zimmer frames which are readily available within the hospital although it is quite challenging. The nurses are in a position to assist Mrs. S through guidance and counseling because she is ready to listen and develop a positive attitude. Murphy, Gretebeck and Alexander (2007, p.1068) illustrate that communicating with the patient is a fundamental need while taking care of elderly patients. My ability to communicate with Mrs. S made it easy for me to know how she wanted to be handled. The fact that Mrs. S could not stand on her own needed proper communicati on when she wants support. Mrs. S, is a strong woman since she does not let her condition affect her feelings, she is very open to share with the nurses about her experiences and is very wiling to immediately report any developing pain. Documentation of any activity done with a patient is mandatory, which is part of my aim in doing the bed bath. Cooney, et al. explains that the Roper-Logan-Tierney model of nursing requires that nurses keep records of care given

Things I Would Mostly Miss about US Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Things I Would Mostly Miss about US - Assignment Example The assignment "Things I Would Mostly Miss about US" presents the opinion of the author regarding moving abroad. The author tells what things he would most miss about the United States of America like the personal interaction, having advanced technology, efficient transport systems, US civil rights, etc.America has a state of art public infrastructure including better roads and offices. Therefore, I would mostly miss efficient transport systems that have no congestions. Security with a more advanced system that limits crime rate. There is crowd civilization in the US in cases of the demonstration when problems arise. US civil rights that are lost once you are in a foreign country. General hygiene high standard levels maintained in the US compared to India. Weather that does not reach an extreme level as those experienced in India. Living away from family and friends who have always been around will be hard. Have American lifestyle that allows wearing of anything.I would feel highly e xcited to learn Indians culture for a better understanding of the people in the country. Learn a new language from the native community during the assignment period. It would be most interesting to develop international friends to improve personal and work profile. Experience working with people from different cultures. Get a large compensational package that comes with working on overseas. Get promotional opportunities through posts available abroad. Receive cheap medical cover from Indian medical centers compared to the US.

EFFECTIVE THINKING Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

EFFECTIVE THINKING - Essay Example E-learning, aided by technology, seeks to prepare learners and equip them with skills conversant with 21st century through continuous learning activities. Kong and his peers embarked on researching the issues and changes needed to achieve the goals of eLearning. With a similar goal, all three articles seek to unmask the opportunities and challenges of technology-assisted learning. The rapid change of technology creates both opportunities and challenges for education in school. Some of the opportunities are the increased access multimedia content and availability of online classes. At the same time, schools have to deal with the challenge of catching up with the digital innovations and changes taking play now and then. According to Kong et al., â€Å"technology plays a crucial role in supporting schools on realizing the desirable learning goals and learning process (71)†. But is this statement really valid? There is a universal perception that implementation of technology in schools improves learning, teaching, and student achievement. People, however, fail to recognize it comes with complexities and challenges. As stated by Beynon, â€Å"how computing technology is conceived may seem to have less practical relevance.† In order to evaluate the worth and benefit of technology, there is need to evaluate some variables embedded in it. The variables are such as access, student background, curriculum content, and teacher preparation. It is necessary to have a computing perspective that integrates human integration with systems in a holistic manner (Beynon 94). In rethinking computing technology, there is no doubt that the current state of technology is inadequate to engage important issues that affect human learning. Educators need to have a comprehensive strategy for a technology-rich future and create an intimate relationship to human cognition if it is to assist learners. It is, however, unfortunate that the current technology strategies are ill-equipped and cannot

Read instruction below; Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Read instruction below; - Research Paper Example Starbucks has the most recognizable brand in coffee industry business and that the experience they provide to their customers is irreplaceable makes the main strengths harnessed to be successful (Lussier, 131). The other strengths are sound, visionary, and capable leadership of Howard Shultz leading Starbucks to greater success and growth from its beginning to be a global leading it is currently. Owing to the Starbucks experience, the company has loyal customers who are willing to pay premium prices for the company’s coffee increasing the profit margins and revenues for the firm. Starbucks also has the soundest financial statements in the speciality coffee industry and is a respected employer having been named among Fortune Top 100 Companies to work for due to the offer of medical insurance, fair remuneration, as well as good working conditions. Starbucks has developed a strong ethical culture and values, and this is well depicted in the mission statement. Other strengths are ability to developing and innovating new products, and customers are guaranteed of getting high quality taste at Starbucks (Lussier, 131). The main weakness at Starbucks is the inability to control the prices of coffee globally. Starbuck’s businesses are affected by fluctuation in coffee prices that occurs due to changes in global demand and supply, as well as weather conditions and climate affecting the profits and revenues of Starbucks. Starbucks cannot be able to change the prices of coffee hence is the main weakness at Starbucks. The second weakness is pricing of Starbucks coffee in Chin with the belief that it is highly priced loosing the market share in the region to McCafe. The other weakness has been a loss in the customer experience from the high rate of expansion experienced at Starbucks. Negative publicity on the health implications of consuming coffee, high fat content, and high calories in the products offered

Business Process Transformation in Catmart Co Case Study - 24

Business Process Transformation in Catmart Co - Case Study Example The changes can affect stakeholders such as product development specialists, inventory control specialist and the buyers mostly (Tà ¸nnessen, 2014). Catmart intends to merge with TLP for enhancing the process of new product development. TLP is a United States (US) based e-commerce company, which is involved in selling used products. Catmart expects that the marketing tie-up will leverage the strength of both companies and generate mutual benefits in the long run. The merger can help in the business process transformation effectively. After the merger, the company will be equally involved in purchasing and selling products. The merger can entail effective cost savings and help Catmart to grow (Tà ¸nnessen, 2014). It can enhance business opportunities for the company. A compact business model can thoroughly help in the proper understanding pertaining to the effectiveness of the BPR. The business process reengineering model that can be suitable for Catmart in order to sustain in the online marketing business is laid down below. Catmart should ensure that the adaptation of a new form of service is conveyed to all individuals who would be affected by the change. All stakeholders must be reported about variations in the process of business through proper meetings (Tà ¸nnessen, 2014). Extensive meetings with the distributors are essential. They are the lifeblood of a business and neither Catmart nor TLP can operate successfully without them. Besides the existing distributor, the tie-up will introduce a new one. So, informing the distributors of both the companies about the tie-up is important (Tà ¸nnessen, 2014). The workflow between the distributors should be divided equally. Catman should secure that the profitability of the distributors does not diminish and in turn, de-motivate them to remain associated with the company.  

Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 423

Assignment Example As much as this is a sad state, news organizations actually knew that the digital movement would come by some day and this should thus not appear shocking at all (Naquin, 2015). In that light, although news organizations may seek government’s help in making newspapers still viable, many are of the opinion that this will not be possible since they are now obsolete in nature (Naquin, 2015). In the course of gauging effectiveness or rather the impact of advertising campaigns over the internet, there are various challenges that managers face. One of the challenges is that the various digital channels possess different effectiveness and thus relying on one particular channel may give a false reflection of an advertisement’s impact (Fisher, 2012). Another challenge is that most marketers still rely upon the native metrics such as the click-through-rate or looking at page views over the internet to gauge success yet Agencies in the USA contend that such acts as the intent to buy or recalling of a brand are actually the most successful methods that one would use to gauge online success (Fisher, 2012). Therefore, if I were a manager I would rely upon sales metrics as the most efficient way of gauging efficiency of my campaigns and as well incorporate the traditional metrics so that I can have a 360 degree view of the performance (Fisher, 2012). Fisher, L. (2012).Quantifying Digital Brand Ad Effectiveness: Finding the Right Mix of Meaningful Metrics. e-Marketer.Retrieved from Naquin, C. (2015). â€Å"Newspapers: towards the end of the traditional  medium?† Culture Exchange. Retrieved from

Supporting Children Essay Example for Free

Supporting Children Essay â€Å"The Human Rights Act 1998 came in to force in October 2000 and had a big impact on current legislation in UK.† (Tassoni. P, 2007, pg. 115) Although this Act was not created specifically for the protection of children, It does ensure that children have the same rights as adults, for example the right to dignity. It also ensures they are given respect and fairness in the way theyre treated. This led to settings not being able to use any type of physical punishment, like slapping or caning despite gaining the parents consent to do so or not because it is seen as a violation to a childs right as it is degrading. The United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child 1989 was also signed by the UK as an addition to The Human Right Act 1998 as it gives children under the age of 18 their own set of rights. This particular piece of legislation was separated into five separate strands; reinforcing the importance of fundamental human dignity; highlighting and defending the familys role in childrens lives; making sure children are respected; supporting the principle of not discriminating children; as well ensuring that the legal framework of the UK complies with the Convention. Within this piece of legislation are many articles which focus on difference parts of childrens rights, but there are a specific few that have an impact on practice. For example: Article 2 – which talks about the right to be protected against any discrimination – means that practitioners have to treat all children fairly and settings must give equal opportunities; Article 3 – says that the best interest of the child should always be considered in actions where they are concerned – this means that practitioners have to ensure the child has the care they needs and that all their needs are being met, whether the practitioner agrees with the way its done; Article 12 – states that children have a right to express their views freely, and be listened to – which means that all childrens opinions, likes, dislikes etc. are taken into consideration at all times; Article 13 – Talks about children having freedom of expression and exchange of information regardless of frontiers – this means children should be able to ask questions and be answered with things that concern them; and Article 28 – A child has the right to education with a view to achieving – which is why children in the UK from the age of around 5 must attend some kind of educational setting. Another piece of legislation used in the UK is the Children Act 1989 which was created after the UNCRC was adopted, it was made to bring other pieces of legislation together into one Act, but this meant that it covered a wide range of things from child protection to the inspection of settings to parental responsibilities. As a result of this act settings now have to make sure they view parents as partners as they are the childs main carer and have a right to know and help with their childs development, this is done by regularly updating the parents and sharing all information. It also stated that the welfare of the child is paramount and that children and young peoples views should always be taken into consideration during any decision making about their future care within all settings. After the Children Act 1989 came the Children Act 2004 which was made as an addition and provided for a childrens commissioner as well as allowing the government to ensure that the Every Child Matters scheme had a legal framework to go with it. This scheme is now used through out appropriate childcare settings and ensures that the services at hand for children work together more effectively. The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 was made so that discrimination against children and their families was prevented, this is because the act made it illegal not to provide access for disabled people to their settings whether this meant providing wheelchair access, or having things printed in large fonts for parents/carers or ensuring children are given the opportunity to join in all activities and experiences regardless of their disability. E3 – In order to safeguard children, all settings have many policies and procedures in place to ensure that practitioners know what their roles and responsibilities are at all times. Other wise, the children would be at risk from many different things. Policies like; Health and Safety; Child Protection; Anti Bullying; Behaviour; Fire Procedures; Partnership with Parents; Anti-Discrimination; Food Hygiene/Avoiding Cross-infection; Whistle blowing; Confidentiality and a Signing in/out Policy all help to keep children healthy, safe and secure and avoid putting them in any danger or harm. The signing in/out policy means that any visitor or volunteer who comes into the setting should wear proof of identification that shows that they are a member of staff especially in larger settings. It is also crucial to check the adults coming in, are allowed to be in the setting, (for example parents who are not allowed to pick up their child) and all visitors should sign in and out of the setting which not only provides the setting with proof of identity but also lets the staff know who has entered the building and when, which helps to protect children as it means no one who may put the children at risk are allowed around the children, and that in the case of any child being abused by a visitor or someone entering the building, it is possible to look back and have access to important information like names and dates. A whistle blowing policy is for someone within the organisation or setting that wants to report inappropriate actions of another practitioner by alerting someone in a higher position to them e.g. room supervisor who then deals with the report and helps to prevent any abuse from those employees working directly with the children which in turn helps to prevents the allegations of abuse in future. The Food hygiene or Cross infection policy was implemented to avoid any children (or staff) becoming ill and catching infectious illnesses. Using this policy means that all staff who prepare and cook food which is served to others, have to be trained in food handling procedures, as well cleaning of resources, toys and equipment of there is an outbreak of infectious illness within the setting. This is to avoid any germs spreading causing other children and staff to have poor health. E4 All settings have specific policies to ensure that children and their families feel welcomed and included at all times during their time at the nursery. One of the policies which does this is the Equal Opportunities policy which means as a practitioner you have a duty to ensure that children as well as their carers are valued and not discriminated against either by adults or by other children. This policy also helps to prevent discrimination because every one is entitled to join in all activities, regardless of their age/stage or ability. This is because the policy says that every activity or experience provided at the nursery must be easily adaptable for everyone to participate in. By having a settling in policy, this also makes parents/carers feel more welcomed into the setting and more reassured about their child starting at the nursery, because it shows them you understand that each child is different in the way they adapt to new situations, some fit right in, and others take time to get used to the new people and activities. The behaviour policy which can be found in all childcare settings also helps to prevent any children or families being discriminated against, because by having this policy parents/carers understand that the practitioners are being fair if a situation occurs where a child behaves inappropriately, this means that allegations of discrimination are less likely to be made against practitioners and parents understand that behaviour policy applies to ALL children, and any other child would be treated equally. E5 – As children, we depend on adults a lot, but the older we get, the more independent we become. If adults give children the chance to be self-reliant, and independent, they become confident in themselves and their ability to do certain things, which means they feel empowered. To do this, children must be given choice in lots of things they do, and encouragement to do things by themselves where choice is not available, for example getting dressed or going to the toilet. One way to offer children choice as part of their daily routine, is through food, as all children have to eat, but all children are different and enjoy different food. If a practitioner gives the child choice between two types of vegetables or drinks, for example then the child will learn to make simple decisions, and the more they do it the more confidence they will gain as they know what they like and dislike, and this will make them feel grown up and help there self-esteem grow rather than someone telling them what they are eating and them doing so. One other strategy for helping children to feel empowered through choice, would be in play, this is done by setting up various activities and letting them choose between them, this is a more child-led approach, as they are able to find an activity most suited to their interests, instead of being told they are doing a specific activity and not enjoying it. By letting them choose, again they will feel more independent and if they enjoy the activity they will also become more confident because they will feel like they made the right choice for themselves giving them a sense of achievement. D2 – By giving children choice in both food, and in play, you are encouraging them to be independent, even if they dont realise it. However, it is important that children are allowed to change there mind in play as this helps them learn what they enjoy doing, children might not understand what kind of things they like or dislike they just know what they want to do. By giving them choice, and asking why they made that choice, they should learn and understand their preferences helping them to make simple decisions in the future, leading them to make more complicated ones later on. It is important that practitioners ensure they are using choice-giving as a way to empower children, rather than getting them to do what the practitioner wants. For example, it is not helpful to the child, if you say you can either choose to apologise to this girl, or you are not going outside the child is being given a choice, rather than understanding their actions were unkind. You need to be clear on what is right or wrong and explain consequences and give choice through other activities, and as a practitioner, it is unfair on the child if you tell them they made a bad choice, instead you should ask them to evaluate their own choice and the consequences so they can make a better choice for them in future. By doing this, they have confidence in themselves because they will feel good after making a choice which is suitable for them, for example being kind to another child, will mean they are praised and shows they know how to respect others, not only encouraging them to be kind more often, but also easing decision making for them helping them to feel empowered. E6 – During a childs life, they will have to go through many transitions, most children will go through the transition of moving class, or school, some children may move house or city, and other children may go through bereavement. Most of these transitions, practitioners can help prepare for by doing many things. For example, most childcare settings have a settling in policy that they can refer to for new children. This is because If a child is moving from nursery to reception in a completely separate building with new teachers, they will find it very distressing if it is quite sudden. However there are many things settings can do to help the child settle in steadily, like: Meeting the teacher/key worker a few times before they start, where the practitioner will introduce themselves and get to know the child, this is so they know a familiar face, and know that they can trust the teacher/key worker. Having half days is also an important way of introducing a child to a new situation, especially if they are going from half days to full days in a new place. Other wise the child will be overwhelmed, they will feel uncomfortable being in a new place with new people for longer than they are usually left without their parent/carer. Once they have started at a new place, it may be reassuring for them to have their previous teachers or key workers visit, as they are likely to trust them, and notice that if they feel comfortable here, then it is okay for the child to feel comfortable too helping them feel reassured. Some places may offer for the child to come once or twice for short sessions and participate in activities like stories, this gets them used to the place in small doses and that way when they officially move, they will be used to the building and the people, making it less distressing for them. E7 – Unfortunately in some settings discrimination may occur, against some children and families. Which is why it important to ensure that you are fair and treat everyone as a unique individual. Discrimination can occur when people have stereotypical attitudes, this means that they see a group of people with one characteristic in common and think they are all the same, for example, disabled people cannot live by themselves. Some stereotypes can lead to practitioners making assumptions about what children can do. Prejudice is also another cause of discrimination, as it stems from stereotyping. If someone is prejudice then it means they are pre-judging someone without knowing anything about them, due to a specific stereotypical view a practitioner may hold. For example, if a child is over weight, they may assume the child doesnt want to take part in physical activities. Which is unfair on the child, as this is not necessarily true. If a child or there family, is discriminated against, they will start to pick up on the actions of the practitioner, and it will have an affect on their self-esteem, and self-worth, as by the age of 3 or 4 a child will have developed their sense of identity and understand racial and gender differences, and the way people treat each other. A child will understand the differences in the way the people they look up to treat others especially if it because they are a different race, age or gender. If they feel discriminated against, they will have a lower self-worth and self-esteem, they may grow up feeling inferior to others because of different characteristics like colour, they may fear failing new activities, leading them t achieve and succeed less at school, or have difficulty in developing emotionally/socially in order to form relationships in the future. D1 Gathering information to support the child would be a good way to prepare children for transitions because practitioners often feel the need to reassure children by talking about the new setting they are going to, whether it is a hospital, new school etc. but often the children are given misinformation, leading them to expect certain things or do things in a particular way, this can make their first experiences within a setting more difficult. Therefore it is important that practitioners find out information for themselves before sharing with the children, this can be done through websites, particularly for schools, brochures, prospectus or leaflets about certain procedures, talking to other people who may have already been through the same transition, e.g. older siblings. Or possible letters and phone calls where you can directly find out about certain enquiries you or the children may have. By doing this you can successfully answer childrens questions and support them and hopefully they will then feel reassured about the change. Working in partnership with parents is crucial for a child to succeed in calmly changing settings. This is because we can only do our best for the children in our care if we involve their parents and families. We need to listen to what parents can tell us about their children and accept that as their childs main carer they hold a lot information, practitioners could use to help support the child. Firstly, children may confide in their parents/carers about things troubling them linked with the transition, and whilst parents may not have the answers, practitioners may be able to help, therefore it is essential that communication between the two is continuous. There are many other ways to help children communicate their expectations and fears, some more subtle than others. For example, Role play, using an object or toy, drawing, changing activities and promoting the development of self-help skills. One way to encourage children to talk about their worries or questions, is bringing an object or toy, for example using a teddy, explaining that he is going through a transition just like the children and asking them what they think the teddy may be worried about. This strategy often brings up their subconscious thoughts. Using drawing activities can also be helpful, as you could ask them to draw scenarios they predict will happen at the new setting. Changing activities and promoting self help skills is particularly important, if the child is moving in education, as they will have to be more independent, have the ability organise themselves, particularly if they are in charge of their own lunch money, or transport, and need to be responsible for their own possessions. Helping them to prepare for practical activities, like getting a bus on their own, will give them confidence as they feel more grown up and independent, although in this case it important that the child is given accurate information so they know what to expect. C1 – A lot of childcare settings have modelled their techniques after Vygotskys principles, allowing children to have a supportive learning environment and empowering them to develop their personal strengths. Experiences that students have at school contribute to learning both inside and outside of the classroom. Vygotsky says that children need to be taught using structured education where a teacher can give clear instructions to help children learn as well as social interaction between children. Vygotskys theory suggests that there are three ways in which children learn; firstly, imitative learning, where the child copies the actions of others; Instructed learning comes second, where a child acts out what the teacher tells them to do and they learn through activities, and; the third is collaborative learning. Collaborative learning happens when a group of children work together in order to achieve a specific goal which helps them as they are working to understand each other. Teachers and carers, want to get the most from students, challenging them to reach their highest potential and once they do they will feel confident in their own abilities and have a higher self-esteem. Vygotskys belief that social interaction leads not only to easier learning for the child, but that it actually changes a childs thoughts and behaviours. Vygotsky believed that exposing children to various cultures meant that they would be more knowledgeable about the world and themselves. Learning through this means that children develop their own self-worth as they will evaluate how much knowledge they can put forward into a group and how helpful they are. The more experiences that a child has, the more about other people and cultures they find out, and the more they learn the more independent they should become as experiences such as these will help them to form their perceptions of the world which all leads to children feeling independent and therefore empowered. B1 An equal opportunities policy means as a practitioner you have a duty to ensure that children are valued and not discriminated against either by adults or by other children. Equality of opportunity means ensuring children in a setting’s care are seen as being individual and special. However, this does not mean treating all children exactly the same as some children may need more adult help and support than others or even special equipment to undertake and participate in activities. Equality of opportunity means ensuring that children are equally valued and given the same opportunities to fulfil their own potential.

Nasa Research Paper Essay Example for Free

Nasa Research Paper Essay The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, more commonly known as N. A. S. A, was started after the Soviet Union sent a satellite named Sputnik into space the year before. They are a government agency in the United States of America that has taken on the task of researching science and technology related to space and air [1]. NASA has gone from one amazing accomplishment to another year after year since the space race. NASA’s goal is â€Å"to reach for new heights and reveal the unknown so that what we do and learn will benefit all humankind†[1]. For over 50 years NASA has been trying to answer the questions all of mankind has about the vast wonders of space. In the beginning of NASA applications for space technology were being developed by use of weather and communication satellites. After the first steps on the moon by Neil Armstrong during the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969 NASA concentrated on developing a reusable ship for access to and from space using the vessel known as the space shuttle [1]. The first launch of the space shuttle was in 1981 and it flew over 130 flights before being retired in 2011. A multinational project in 2000 representing the 16 nations work was started, the Russia and the U. S. established constant human presence aboard the International Space Station [1]. NASA research peaked again in 1997 when the mission to mars began. The Mars Pathfinder was a spacecraft sent to explore Mars within the next ten years so scientist can determine if life ever existed there. As the new century turns about, NASA reaches across the universe. The Rover is still currently exploring Mars after its arrival with his brother Spirt in 2004. While Cassini orbits around Saturn, Juno will trek his way to Jupiter. The Hubble Space Telescope examines and discovers the innermost workings of the universe. NASA is in the business of science, human exploration and operations, and aeronautics research. In order to complete these goals NASA has sent satellites, space shuttles, and everything imaginable into space to further America’s knowledge of the great abyss all while still studying on earth through telescopes and sensors. NASA is a government owned, operated, nd funded association. NASA’s budget from years past starting from 1958 till 2012 has been, in total, around $560 billion. Unfortunately, due to current economic crisis, President Obama has granted NASA a mere $17. 7 Billion for 2013 which is $59 million less than last year [2]. NASA is by far the most respected, revered, and well known agency in the world. NASA’s accomplishments is a very long list but there are some more notable than others. The first and most stunning would be when NASA entered America in the Space Race in 1958 with Explorer 1 which was used to study the earth’s orbit [3]. 961-Freedom 7, Alan Shepard was the first American to orbit Earth. This mission set the precedent for future manned missions. A true milestone in humankind most likely the most important of them all Apollo 11, the moon landing, One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Some time passed than the true power of mankind’s ingenuity was shown when the crew of Apollo 13 landed back on earth safely in 1970. The Hubble telescope was a huge success when they first started getting detailed photos of the cosmos in 1990 [3]. Years later Chandra Telescope used X-Ray rather than light to record images.

Business Plan for Record Label

Business Plan for Record Label Business Planning Introduction to unit eight coursework In this unit, I have the opportunity to structure a business plan for a business proposal, which I will have the opportunity to create. For this segment of the assignment, I will clarify the main activities of the business, in addition to its aims and objectives. The assignment will also be focusing on the marketing and financial planning of my chosen business, notwithstanding, the operations and financial planning of the proposed business proposal. At the end of it all, I will be evaluating my business and its viability. However, to start a business I will need a business plan. A business plan is essentially a plan of a business that is to be set up; this is usually a written piece of statement about the business (think of it as a blueprint). This is a useful document to have because; firstly, it outlines the business itself and outlines what the business is essentially about, and secondly, it allows the owner/manager of the business to work towards the success of the business by spotting and avoiding failures. In general, a business plan will have the following statements; what the business is all about (i.e. the nature of the business), the aims and objectives of the business (What they hope to achieve and expect in the future) and how the individual plans and will o about creating the business. This can be illustrated in a majority of ways however; a financial planning of the first six months or perhaps even a year would be ideal or information about how the investments are to be raised for the business. A business plan is a very indispensable piece of document to have if someone is considering starting their own business, this is because a business plan outlines/predicts what the business will be like after setting up that gives a clear understanding of how the aims and objective are to be obtained as well as defining them. Furthermore, a business plan will also help to plot any pitfall along the way, i.e. a detailed cash flow of a businesss first six months will be able to suggest if the business will have a higher cost when compared with the profit they make, even before the business has started, and this can prevent major loss of profitability. Not only does a business plan outlines and spots major flaws in the business, but many businesses and entrepreneurs use it as a source of motivation; a backdrop to compare their current performance against. Further adding more, a business plan would be beneficial to establish or to re-evaluate the businesss competitive position within the market place by conducting a thorough analysis of the competition. This would involve finding out the strengths and weaknesses of the competition and how the business can be taken advantage of. In conclusion, as mentioned above, a business plan is important for a business because it helps to clarify the vision of the business and decide whether to forge ahead with the idea. Without a business plan, it would be very difficult to convince external investors to invest the business. Not only that, a business plan will also help the business determine their target market that they want to aim their product at, which is always useful to know. The Business Proposal For my chosen business proposal, I have decided to create a music label, and have named it P.K. Media. Generally, the term â€Å"Record label† is something that is associated with the music industry. A Record label is a brand and a trademark, which is associated with the procedure of marketing and distributing musical recordings and music videos of their signed artists. A record label is also the company that manages the artists/bands and coordinates, manufactures, promotes and distributes their productions i.e. music/videos. Record labels are also responsible for the enforcement of copyright protection on the media that they distribute such as CDs and DVDs, so that their content (such as music), cannot be copied and sold as pirated versions of their work to the customers by other individuals. The business I intend to propose will primarily focus on the production and the promotion of the music of its artists/bands in the local area, the Midlands. The reason for this is that there is a much lower cost of setting up a music label for the local area as there are less promotional activities which the label would have to finance and carry out, thus reducing the start up cost of the business compared to if it was a nationwide business. The main services/products that P.K. Media will provide to its consumers and music acts are as follow: * Music sold using online services such as iTunes and the business website. Some music will be available for free download as a promotional activity. * Provide live performances by its artists and bands as a secondary service. o Commissions from artist will be charged on this, depending the amount of tickets sold by the act. * Offer promotional services for unsigned artist and band acts and charge commission depending on their popularity, music sold, the amount of record deal they receive etc. o Free promotional services will also be available for unsigned artists on the businesss website for uploading their work to display to the internet audiences. o Manufacturing CDs and DVDs will also be available for artists wishing to use for promotional use, however it is highly likely that there will be a fixed cost for this service. * Record deals will be available for artists; majority of the aforementioned services will available with this, as the business will undertake the sole responsibility for the promotion, distribution, production and the sales of the artist/bands music signed to P.K. Media. * Recording facilities and personnel will be available to customers who wish to record their own music that will be mixed by a professional studio engineer. Customers will be charged on an hourly basis or perhaps special offers upon depending upon how much music they wish to record. Live performance are a good way of raising additional profit other than selling CDs because with live performances, My business can charge commission from the local pubs/bars to supply the live performances with beverages, as a result the pubs and bars will also get some promotion of their products and services which will benefit their businesses as well. Furthermore, the business will also be able to make profit through selling tickets for the live performances. The location of this business will be varied and may not be based in a single location, the reason being that if my business is organising the performances, then it will have to be located at the performances to manage the bands and other aspects of the performance i.e. selling the tickets. However, P.K. Media will need facilities to record the band/artists music and venues for live performances, for this it will be a necessity to have access to a recording studio and to be able to rent a venue in the local area. Having acce ss to a studio can be done in a number of ways such as renting a recording studio in the local area or purchasing the equipment and setting up the recording studio at home or other location, such as a youth centre or other rented location like flats or houses. The cost of the musical equipment such as; mixing boards, computers, mics, instruments, audio processing hardware and sound proofing the location can add up to a significant amount and as a new business the cost of starting up should be kept at a minimum. Ultimately, a more convenient option would be to rent a recording studio, which is pre-provided with all the equipment needed (as described above). Another issue which may arise would be that if my business had to purchase the musical equipment I would have to purchase the low-end equipment as the high-end (studio quality) equipment can cost thousands and upwards and as a small independent music label there would be limitations for the finance. In addition, the low-end equipm ent could also reduce the quality of the recording, and as a record label that will not be beneficial for the artists because consumers would not want to purchase bad quality products especially if the product is aimed at entertainment purposes. Imagine listening to ones favourite song with hissing noisiest, crackle and static noises, it would not be pleasant to listen to which is why quality of the audio is a substantial element of a record label. Reason for choice of business? The idea of a record label interested me because; with a record label, there is no need to purchase stock; it is a service-based business, which means that a record label does not have to manufacture or purchase anything other than to sign the artist and record CDs. A record label is basically, the intermediate service between audiences/customers and the artist. In essence, while the artist makes the product, the record label simply delivers it to the customers, almost like an intermediary. Another thing which seemed interesting is that the possibility of a sole ownership of the business. Since a record label is a service-based business, it is not necessary to have partners (as with any other businesses). It can be set-up with a moderately low cost, which mean that there is no need to invite external investors to invest in the business and hold a percentage of shares in the business, leaving room for more creative control over the business. Personal interest is another factor that may have influenced my choice to pick a record label for a business proposal. Unqualified amateur musician myself, I find that music is the greatest past time for all ages which is why I liked the idea of providing people with good quality of music to listen to which is easily accessible and is at moderately low price. Overall, I believe that a record label should be a viable business proposal for this assignment because like many businesses it requires marketing strategies, target consumers and a product. A further consideration is that almost everyone listens to music (to some extent) whether it is purchased from store or downloaded from the web and it is because of this that music is considered as one of the major immersed art form, which hints of a profitable market sector. What are Aims and Objectives? It is imperative for a business to have a basic requirement and have clear aims and objectives in order to prosper and move forward in their field. Aims and objectives are frequently used together to set/represent a certain achievement which is why they can often be mistaken to having similar meaning, however, they have a significant different to each other. Aims, to summarise, are essentially a brief statement, which majority of the time are short sentences; for instance, ‘maximise profit or ‘increase customer growth. Aims are most commonly use to identify the overall target of a business, states their intentions, and what they hope to achieve in the future of the business. On a different note, objectives are more complex and ‘to the point than aims. Objectives, unlike aims, are more detailed and can be longer depending on the objective itself. For example, if a company wanted to increase their market, they could set themselves and objective of ‘increase employee productivity by 20%, within in the next six months. As you can see, an objective is more complex, and more detailed. Furthermore, the detail in objectives tends to be numerical details such as specific dates, time frame, percentages etc. This is because objectives are a follow-up of aims. An objective is set merely set to accomplish or to achieve an aim. To illustrate, if a businesss aim is to ‘maximise profit, then they may decide to set themselves the objective of ‘increase sales from 15.7% to 20%, within six months period. By increasing the sales of the business from 15.7% to 20%, a business can ensure that they are retaining their customers and increasing their profi t within six months. However, some businesses may decide to have a sub-objective to this which could be something like ‘increase employee productivity by 2% in 30 days, to ensure that the business is getting the most out of their employees. This also proves the fact that individuals who either own the business or are in charge of the business are the ones who normally make aims. They may decide that their business should be making more profit so they pass it down to the managers who would look at it and perhaps add more detail to it, and as aims are passed down from person to person they become more detailed and complex, thus being objectives. There are a numerous reason as to why a business should set itself aims and objective;, the most obvious one would be that aims and objectives sets a goal for the business and gives some a target to work for, for many businesses this is a good source of motivation. Aims and objectives can also help a business realise their progress because aims and objective provide a backdrop for achievement in which a business can compare their current or previous progress with their aims or objective and calculate what is required to be done in order to meet those targets they have set for themselves. A controversial use of aims and objectives is to use them as a publicity device, in unit one, I had to investigate Tesco as a business and what I found was that Tesco had use their objectives as a publicity device by having economical objectives such as ‘reduce carbon footprints to gain good publicity from the media and their customers. Nevertheless, businesses have to be careful how they use or establish their aims and objectives because if they set objectives for their employees which are not applicable or achievable for the business then the business could face some pitfalls. The employees may feel under-pressure/ stressful and could de-motivate them which would evidently lead to a low productivity rate and could in some circumstances affect the businesss income. S.M.A.R.T Targets SMART targets or sometimes called SMART Objectives, are considered to be a sub-division of objectives, SMART targets are a method to ensure that the objectives which are set by a company are actually achievable by the business and the employees; it is a method of measuring the credibility of an objective which has been set. SMART is an acronym that stands for: Specific objectives, which are set, need to be specific and state exactly what the business wants to achieve. The reason an objective needs to be specific is because the manager/supervisor and the employee need to know what is expected of them and perhaps the time frame if that is applicable. Measurable most often, when objectives are set they need to be able to measure how much an individuals or a business have progressed towards those targets. Measuring a target is often very crucial towards the success of achieving that target because by measuring a target, businesses can estimate how much work is underway and how much additional effort needs to be exerted in order to achieve certain objectives. Achievable when objectives are set, one of the major issues, which a business must realise is that the target is achievable for the business. The business needs to think about; whether they have the required skills, recourses, investments, tools, human recourses etc. If the objectives are unrealistic or not achievable by the business then (as mentioned above) it can affect the productivity of employee and de-motivate them, and low productivity would surely affect the businesses activities and profits. Realistic or relevant objectives should also be relevant to the businesses aims. For example, if a business wants to increase market share, it would be irrelevant for them to set the target eliminate competitors products from the market; it would be very unrealistic. An objective needs to be relevant, they need to be something, which the business can take an action upon or have access to. Timely normally, when objectives are set, they have a timescale such as ‘increase the growth and the market share of the business by 2010. Setting timescale within an objective is beneficial as it gives a business a deadline as t when the objective needs to be achieved by, so the business can move onto their other objectives, which needs to be completed towards their aims. Aims for my business Just like any other modern businesses, my business needs to have aims and objectives, which it should be able to accomplish. Setting aims and objectives will help determine investors as well as myself the main goals of my business, and along the way, it could also help my business spot the potential target market hic hi should aim my business at in order to achieve some of businesss targets. ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit. One of the major aims of my business would be to minimise the costs of the business, which goes into the production of the products (i.e. music albums and singles) and therefore must be kept at a minimum range. The reason behind this is that, if I were to start the business as a sole trader, there would be a limited amount of investments, which I could have access to and since my business is a record label there arent any need of purchasing any kind of stock or manufacturing materials in the sense of hard labour. As a newly set up business, it would be most advantageous to reduce the cost of the business to reduce the chances of getting into a cash flow problem such as over-budgeting or not having enough sales of the product where the costs would out-weigh the profit. It is because of this issue that leads to many businesses failing within the first year because they run into cash flow problem such as these; however, a good cash f low analysis should be able to determine any issue such as these that may arise. As well as reducing costs, my business also needs to be considering maximising its profits because without profit there will be no business to operate. Maximising profit is a necessity for any business, because it is what influences/motivates their day-to-day operations and their employees, without profit a business would not have the funding to employ employees or rent premises or other necessities. Furthermore, another crucial reason for a good profit for a business is that if a business is backed-up by inventors then the business (Owner) needs to prove to the investors that the business is worthwhile investing in because if the business starts to show a decline in profits then the investors are going to be the first ones who will back-out from the investments because they will not to make a loss themselves. As a summary, if there is no profit, there is no business. In my businesss quest to maximise profit; there could be a number of challenges/issues that could affect my business achieving the aim of ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit, and the following explains; One of the most significant issues that my record label business would have to deal with is the recession, which was caused by the financial crisis during the year 2007 and the year 2009. The financial crisis was the reduction in the availability of loans (credit) and to some extent; tightening of the condition required to obtain a loan from the banks, this evolved into the interest rates being incredibly high. The definite caused behind the credit crisis is highly doubtable, however, one reason might be that UK bought many mortgage debts from the U.S. (this might have been directly or indirectly) therefore when U.S. mortgage default rose, preponderance of the UK banks lost money. Because interest rates rose dramatically, many individuals in the population had to pay more for their loans and mortgages, which meant that individuals and many businesses had less disposable cash to spare and consequently, many businesses found themselves being either bankrupt or making employees redundan t to prevent bankruptcy. The reason why I believe that the recession may affect my business is because many individuals are un-employed, which means that they may be on some sort of limited income (either through council or jobseekers allowance). Ultimately, this would mean that many individuals would have less disposable income to spend on CDs and DVDs for personal entertainment and if my business is not selling many products, it will be in a high risk of having very high costs that could out-number the total sales of the business. This could put my business in a potential risk of being bankrupt, as you can see from fig.1, it is estimated that the recession will only get worse. In contrast, the recession may not be disastrously bad for my business. The reason behind this would be that because of the recession more people would be un-employed and have a whole lot of spare time on their hands as less people would be working nine to five shifts, this would mean that individuals would be looking for activities to pass their time. This could mean that people will be more reliant upon entrainment such as the cinemas, movies, theatre, music etc. This could potentially excel my business because more individuals would be interested and looking to escape from reality through the financial crisis, similarly to people who went through the Great Depression in the United States during 1929, which saw the rise of movie sales. To conclude, the recession is something that is known as an external factor, which no business has a control over. The recession could have a big impact on my business; however this factor could prove to be advantageous for my business as mentioned earlier, there are a lot more people with more spare time on their hands, and as a result they will be looking for something to entertain themselves and if marketing is done correctly for the business, it will prove to be beneficial. As one can see above, regardless of the recession and the credit crisis that started in 2007, the sales of digital music increased dramatically through the years and the digital music industry is more profitable than ever in the US with industry profit of 2.9 Billion dollars, a 15% from 2004 which was only 0.4 billion profit being made. One of the major issues that my business will have to confront other than the recent financial crisis is the piracy of music through the internet. In essence, music piracy the violation of copyright infringement (copyright), this means the unauthorised use of materials that is covered by the copyright law. For electronic and audio-visual media, this is normally referred to as piracy. Piracy is a factor that could have the biggest impact at my businesss aim to ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit. As one can see in the article opposite, the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) has predicted that music piracy has risen by thirty-six percent, which has cost the UK music industry twenty-six million pounds, which is a tremendous amount of load-sum. Music piracy is a factor which could directly affect my business because if my business released a single which was popular (Music hit) then the probability is that a lot of customers will be reluctant to purchase the single or the album in order to save money and they would perhaps download the product through an illegal download website or through the use of torrents (which is a peer-to-peer download service provided free from the internet). This is the most likely event to occur because as mentioned previously, the recession has left a lot of people un-employed which means that they may have a very low inco me and have limited amount of disposable cash to spend on entertainment. Because a lot of my businesss target consumers will be getting my product (music) through the internet without pay for it, this could result in my business have a major decline in profit because although the products my business offer may be very popular amongst the target consumers but because they are not paying for the goods my business will have no way in which they can financially benefit from. Many of the bi names in the record label business like ‘Universal Music or the ‘Sony BMG group do tend to copyright the CDs and DVDs that they manufacture and distribute, however, recent technological development has given an regular computer user to copy content from these copyrighted disks (using free software from the internet) from a single click of a button, and if that individual uploads the content of the disk to the internet then the content of that disk will be exposed to thousands if not millio ns of users on the internet which is why the modern music industry is suffering from million of pounds and dollars of damage from piracy and it is very unfortunate for my business as there is no method to battle the rising issue of music piracy because if my businesss products were copyrighted, many consumers or users will be able to find a way to copy content. In addition, copyrighting thousands of disks would prove to be a very costly task and evidently, this will prevent my business in achieving my aim to ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit. However, not all is tenebrous, my business could still prevail if it turned to a more digitals means to provide the products to the customers, such means could be; having free web player on the businesss website to play the hit singles; free selected music downloads of popular songs; and most importantly selling products through the internet. Most of these solutions would eliminate the cost of producing CDs because a lot of teenagers nowadays are using things like their mobile phones, mp3 players and devices such as the iPod for playback of their music. If the popular products of my business (songs) are being provided free from the companys own website, then the business will have more exposure from the public, which, in the end, could work out to be beneficial. As the businesss website generates more viewers, the chances are internet companies like Google; YouTube; Amazon etc. who will want to advertise their services on my businesss website, which the business could generate some i ncome from as well as gaining public interest and recognition as business. Music piracy most definitely will affect my business and the corporate aim to ‘Minimise costs and maximise potential profit. Internet nowadays is available to almost every house, office and schools/college in the country that millions of people have access too, and the internet is too big to have control over. Nevertheless, good marketing and internet advertisement may fill in the lacunae of profit that may be lost due to music piracy. ‘Increase/attain good public relations with the local community and customers. In my opinion, good public relations with customers should be an imperative aim for abounding businesses. After all, businesses depend on their customers satisfaction and support by which if they did not have good relationship with customers then it will be highly likely that the business will not be able to retain their customers. This issue could lead to a decline in their profit margins or worse gain an incredible amount of bad publicity or a bad reputation as a whole. A record label is not a publicly noticeable business because a record labels product is what gains notoriety as publicity rather than a business as coherent whole. This is because customers are mainly attracted to the stars and the music they make rather than the service that provides them the service. This can be beneficial or a drawback, consider which way one looks at it. From my personal perspective, it is a benefit because it means that my business will not be in the public eye and will not attract major interest if my business were have an issue, this could be a number of things like mistakes (which a lot of businesses make) or redundancy of a major band or artist etc. So in order to gain good public relations with the local community and customers will be a very laborious task to conduct. Nevertheless, with dubious tasks, there are always strategies, and my main strategy to in achieve this aim to ‘Increase/attain good public relations with the local community and customers, will be to organise youth activities and perhaps cultural events, the next page will explain this. As one can see in 4 (Next page), an extract from BBC news website, the level of youth crime has increased dramatically over the past decade in the United Kingdom. Teenage knife crime has increased so much that law enforcements had to enforce harsh laws upon teenage delinquents in order to keep crime at a minimum. The articles below states that boys from the age of eleven to eighteen are likely the ones to be carrying knifes, and are the most likely culprits in the rise of such crimes. The article also states that most of these young offenders have been; excluded, dropped out of school or have already had been given time to serve under law custody. So ultimately, these are the age groups which are been targeted by the law to tackle such crimes. How does this issue help my business to achieve good customer relationship one may wonder? Well to start with, teens that have been expelled, excluded, dropped out etc. from school have nothing to do other than wonder around with friends on the streets and cause trouble to the society and the individuals in the local community. This leads me to believe that, organising local youth music activities and providing creative services such as recording facilities and musical guidance for youths free of charge may be a very beneficial factor not only for my business but also to the local community. Having to organise such events for young people will be very beneficial to a majority of people youths, local community and my business. This is because firstly, by providing youths will free services and activities will encourage them to stay off the streets and be passionate and involved in something creative for their time, and secondly, by having lees teens on the streets in the local community will prevent crime and hopefully reduce the crime rate locally, so older generation who may be intimidated by teens will feel much more safer. Personally, I believe that teens only resort to crime as a recreational activity as well as to gain attention to themselves; this is only an opinion of course. However, by giving teens, facilities to be in and express themselves artistically through music may help to make a productive use of their time; also, it could be a place where teens can get attention that they desire from other like friends, other social groups or even the community. Knife sentencing not effective A selection of knives found by police The study found young people were living in constant fear of attack Longer jail terms are not an effective way of persuading teenagers to stop carrying knives, research suggests. Pentonville Prison governor Nicola Marfleet interviewed 14 to 17-year-olds who had either been excluded from school or were serving time in custody. She found most believed tough sentences were only meant to scare them, and they were more likely to be tagged. The Home Office said the government was using a combination of deterrence and education to tackle the problem. Rival gangs The study found that some boys were carrying knives from the age of 11. Ms Marfleet concluded that knife-crime prevention work must be targeted at this age group in order to be effective. She interviewed about 24 boys in focus groups at pupil referral units in Hackney and Haringey, north London, and four boys one-to-one at Feltham Young Offender Institution in west London Possession of a knife carries a maximum jail term of four years, but most of the teenagers did not believe they would receive such a harsh punishment. Two of those interviewed said that regardless of the possible penalty, they would not stop carrying a knife because they needed one for protection. Almost all of the teenagers said they could not rely on par Business Plan for Record Label Business Plan for Record Label Business Planning Introduction to unit eight coursework In this unit, I have the opportunity to structure a business plan for a business proposal, which I will have the opportunity to create. For this segment of the assignment, I will clarify the main activities of the business, in addition to its aims and objectives. The assignment will also be focusing on the marketing and financial planning of my chosen business, notwithstanding, the operations and financial planning of the proposed business proposal. At the end of it all, I will be evaluating my business and its viability. However, to start a business I will need a business plan. A business plan is essentially a plan of a business that is to be set up; this is usually a written piece of statement about the business (think of it as a blueprint). This is a useful document to have because; firstly, it outlines the business itself and outlines what the business is essentially about, and secondly, it allows the owner/manager of the business to work towards the success of the business by spotting and avoiding failures. In general, a business plan will have the following statements; what the business is all about (i.e. the nature of the business), the aims and objectives of the business (What they hope to achieve and expect in the future) and how the individual plans and will o about creating the business. This can be illustrated in a majority of ways however; a financial planning of the first six months or perhaps even a year would be ideal or information about how the investments are to be raised for the business. A business plan is a very indispensable piece of document to have if someone is considering starting their own business, this is because a business plan outlines/predicts what the business will be like after setting up that gives a clear understanding of how the aims and objective are to be obtained as well as defining them. Furthermore, a business plan will also help to plot any pitfall along the way, i.e. a detailed cash flow of a businesss first six months will be able to suggest if the business will have a higher cost when compared with the profit they make, even before the business has started, and this can prevent major loss of profitability. Not only does a business plan outlines and spots major flaws in the business, but many businesses and entrepreneurs use it as a source of motivation; a backdrop to compare their current performance against. Further adding more, a business plan would be beneficial to establish or to re-evaluate the businesss competitive position within the market place by conducting a thorough analysis of the competition. This would involve finding out the strengths and weaknesses of the competition and how the business can be taken advantage of. In conclusion, as mentioned above, a business plan is important for a business because it helps to clarify the vision of the business and decide whether to forge ahead with the idea. Without a business plan, it would be very difficult to convince external investors to invest the business. Not only that, a business plan will also help the business determine their target market that they want to aim their product at, which is always useful to know. The Business Proposal For my chosen business proposal, I have decided to create a music label, and have named it P.K. Media. Generally, the term â€Å"Record label† is something that is associated with the music industry. A Record label is a brand and a trademark, which is associated with the procedure of marketing and distributing musical recordings and music videos of their signed artists. A record label is also the company that manages the artists/bands and coordinates, manufactures, promotes and distributes their productions i.e. music/videos. Record labels are also responsible for the enforcement of copyright protection on the media that they distribute such as CDs and DVDs, so that their content (such as music), cannot be copied and sold as pirated versions of their work to the customers by other individuals. The business I intend to propose will primarily focus on the production and the promotion of the music of its artists/bands in the local area, the Midlands. The reason for this is that there is a much lower cost of setting up a music label for the local area as there are less promotional activities which the label would have to finance and carry out, thus reducing the start up cost of the business compared to if it was a nationwide business. The main services/products that P.K. Media will provide to its consumers and music acts are as follow: * Music sold using online services such as iTunes and the business website. Some music will be available for free download as a promotional activity. * Provide live performances by its artists and bands as a secondary service. o Commissions from artist will be charged on this, depending the amount of tickets sold by the act. * Offer promotional services for unsigned artist and band acts and charge commission depending on their popularity, music sold, the amount of record deal they receive etc. o Free promotional services will also be available for unsigned artists on the businesss website for uploading their work to display to the internet audiences. o Manufacturing CDs and DVDs will also be available for artists wishing to use for promotional use, however it is highly likely that there will be a fixed cost for this service. * Record deals will be available for artists; majority of the aforementioned services will available with this, as the business will undertake the sole responsibility for the promotion, distribution, production and the sales of the artist/bands music signed to P.K. Media. * Recording facilities and personnel will be available to customers who wish to record their own music that will be mixed by a professional studio engineer. Customers will be charged on an hourly basis or perhaps special offers upon depending upon how much music they wish to record. Live performance are a good way of raising additional profit other than selling CDs because with live performances, My business can charge commission from the local pubs/bars to supply the live performances with beverages, as a result the pubs and bars will also get some promotion of their products and services which will benefit their businesses as well. Furthermore, the business will also be able to make profit through selling tickets for the live performances. The location of this business will be varied and may not be based in a single location, the reason being that if my business is organising the performances, then it will have to be located at the performances to manage the bands and other aspects of the performance i.e. selling the tickets. However, P.K. Media will need facilities to record the band/artists music and venues for live performances, for this it will be a necessity to have access to a recording studio and to be able to rent a venue in the local area. Having acce ss to a studio can be done in a number of ways such as renting a recording studio in the local area or purchasing the equipment and setting up the recording studio at home or other location, such as a youth centre or other rented location like flats or houses. The cost of the musical equipment such as; mixing boards, computers, mics, instruments, audio processing hardware and sound proofing the location can add up to a significant amount and as a new business the cost of starting up should be kept at a minimum. Ultimately, a more convenient option would be to rent a recording studio, which is pre-provided with all the equipment needed (as described above). Another issue which may arise would be that if my business had to purchase the musical equipment I would have to purchase the low-end equipment as the high-end (studio quality) equipment can cost thousands and upwards and as a small independent music label there would be limitations for the finance. In addition, the low-end equipm ent could also reduce the quality of the recording, and as a record label that will not be beneficial for the artists because consumers would not want to purchase bad quality products especially if the product is aimed at entertainment purposes. Imagine listening to ones favourite song with hissing noisiest, crackle and static noises, it would not be pleasant to listen to which is why quality of the audio is a substantial element of a record label. Reason for choice of business? The idea of a record label interested me because; with a record label, there is no need to purchase stock; it is a service-based business, which means that a record label does not have to manufacture or purchase anything other than to sign the artist and record CDs. A record label is basically, the intermediate service between audiences/customers and the artist. In essence, while the artist makes the product, the record label simply delivers it to the customers, almost like an intermediary. Another thing which seemed interesting is that the possibility of a sole ownership of the business. Since a record label is a service-based business, it is not necessary to have partners (as with any other businesses). It can be set-up with a moderately low cost, which mean that there is no need to invite external investors to invest in the business and hold a percentage of shares in the business, leaving room for more creative control over the business. Personal interest is another factor that may have influenced my choice to pick a record label for a business proposal. Unqualified amateur musician myself, I find that music is the greatest past time for all ages which is why I liked the idea of providing people with good quality of music to listen to which is easily accessible and is at moderately low price. Overall, I believe that a record label should be a viable business proposal for this assignment because like many businesses it requires marketing strategies, target consumers and a product. A further consideration is that almost everyone listens to music (to some extent) whether it is purchased from store or downloaded from the web and it is because of this that music is considered as one of the major immersed art form, which hints of a profitable market sector. What are Aims and Objectives? It is imperative for a business to have a basic requirement and have clear aims and objectives in order to prosper and move forward in their field. Aims and objectives are frequently used together to set/represent a certain achievement which is why they can often be mistaken to having similar meaning, however, they have a significant different to each other. Aims, to summarise, are essentially a brief statement, which majority of the time are short sentences; for instance, ‘maximise profit or ‘increase customer growth. Aims are most commonly use to identify the overall target of a business, states their intentions, and what they hope to achieve in the future of the business. On a different note, objectives are more complex and ‘to the point than aims. Objectives, unlike aims, are more detailed and can be longer depending on the objective itself. For example, if a company wanted to increase their market, they could set themselves and objective of ‘increase employee productivity by 20%, within in the next six months. As you can see, an objective is more complex, and more detailed. Furthermore, the detail in objectives tends to be numerical details such as specific dates, time frame, percentages etc. This is because objectives are a follow-up of aims. An objective is set merely set to accomplish or to achieve an aim. To illustrate, if a businesss aim is to ‘maximise profit, then they may decide to set themselves the objective of ‘increase sales from 15.7% to 20%, within six months period. By increasing the sales of the business from 15.7% to 20%, a business can ensure that they are retaining their customers and increasing their profi t within six months. However, some businesses may decide to have a sub-objective to this which could be something like ‘increase employee productivity by 2% in 30 days, to ensure that the business is getting the most out of their employees. This also proves the fact that individuals who either own the business or are in charge of the business are the ones who normally make aims. They may decide that their business should be making more profit so they pass it down to the managers who would look at it and perhaps add more detail to it, and as aims are passed down from person to person they become more detailed and complex, thus being objectives. There are a numerous reason as to why a business should set itself aims and objective;, the most obvious one would be that aims and objectives sets a goal for the business and gives some a target to work for, for many businesses this is a good source of motivation. Aims and objectives can also help a business realise their progress because aims and objective provide a backdrop for achievement in which a business can compare their current or previous progress with their aims or objective and calculate what is required to be done in order to meet those targets they have set for themselves. A controversial use of aims and objectives is to use them as a publicity device, in unit one, I had to investigate Tesco as a business and what I found was that Tesco had use their objectives as a publicity device by having economical objectives such as ‘reduce carbon footprints to gain good publicity from the media and their customers. Nevertheless, businesses have to be careful how they use or establish their aims and objectives because if they set objectives for their employees which are not applicable or achievable for the business then the business could face some pitfalls. The employees may feel under-pressure/ stressful and could de-motivate them which would evidently lead to a low productivity rate and could in some circumstances affect the businesss income. S.M.A.R.T Targets SMART targets or sometimes called SMART Objectives, are considered to be a sub-division of objectives, SMART targets are a method to ensure that the objectives which are set by a company are actually achievable by the business and the employees; it is a method of measuring the credibility of an objective which has been set. SMART is an acronym that stands for: Specific objectives, which are set, need to be specific and state exactly what the business wants to achieve. The reason an objective needs to be specific is because the manager/supervisor and the employee need to know what is expected of them and perhaps the time frame if that is applicable. Measurable most often, when objectives are set they need to be able to measure how much an individuals or a business have progressed towards those targets. Measuring a target is often very crucial towards the success of achieving that target because by measuring a target, businesses can estimate how much work is underway and how much additional effort needs to be exerted in order to achieve certain objectives. Achievable when objectives are set, one of the major issues, which a business must realise is that the target is achievable for the business. The business needs to think about; whether they have the required skills, recourses, investments, tools, human recourses etc. If the objectives are unrealistic or not achievable by the business then (as mentioned above) it can affect the productivity of employee and de-motivate them, and low productivity would surely affect the businesses activities and profits. Realistic or relevant objectives should also be relevant to the businesses aims. For example, if a business wants to increase market share, it would be irrelevant for them to set the target eliminate competitors products from the market; it would be very unrealistic. An objective needs to be relevant, they need to be something, which the business can take an action upon or have access to. Timely normally, when objectives are set, they have a timescale such as ‘increase the growth and the market share of the business by 2010. Setting timescale within an objective is beneficial as it gives a business a deadline as t when the objective needs to be achieved by, so the business can move onto their other objectives, which needs to be completed towards their aims. Aims for my business Just like any other modern businesses, my business needs to have aims and objectives, which it should be able to accomplish. Setting aims and objectives will help determine investors as well as myself the main goals of my business, and along the way, it could also help my business spot the potential target market hic hi should aim my business at in order to achieve some of businesss targets. ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit. One of the major aims of my business would be to minimise the costs of the business, which goes into the production of the products (i.e. music albums and singles) and therefore must be kept at a minimum range. The reason behind this is that, if I were to start the business as a sole trader, there would be a limited amount of investments, which I could have access to and since my business is a record label there arent any need of purchasing any kind of stock or manufacturing materials in the sense of hard labour. As a newly set up business, it would be most advantageous to reduce the cost of the business to reduce the chances of getting into a cash flow problem such as over-budgeting or not having enough sales of the product where the costs would out-weigh the profit. It is because of this issue that leads to many businesses failing within the first year because they run into cash flow problem such as these; however, a good cash f low analysis should be able to determine any issue such as these that may arise. As well as reducing costs, my business also needs to be considering maximising its profits because without profit there will be no business to operate. Maximising profit is a necessity for any business, because it is what influences/motivates their day-to-day operations and their employees, without profit a business would not have the funding to employ employees or rent premises or other necessities. Furthermore, another crucial reason for a good profit for a business is that if a business is backed-up by inventors then the business (Owner) needs to prove to the investors that the business is worthwhile investing in because if the business starts to show a decline in profits then the investors are going to be the first ones who will back-out from the investments because they will not to make a loss themselves. As a summary, if there is no profit, there is no business. In my businesss quest to maximise profit; there could be a number of challenges/issues that could affect my business achieving the aim of ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit, and the following explains; One of the most significant issues that my record label business would have to deal with is the recession, which was caused by the financial crisis during the year 2007 and the year 2009. The financial crisis was the reduction in the availability of loans (credit) and to some extent; tightening of the condition required to obtain a loan from the banks, this evolved into the interest rates being incredibly high. The definite caused behind the credit crisis is highly doubtable, however, one reason might be that UK bought many mortgage debts from the U.S. (this might have been directly or indirectly) therefore when U.S. mortgage default rose, preponderance of the UK banks lost money. Because interest rates rose dramatically, many individuals in the population had to pay more for their loans and mortgages, which meant that individuals and many businesses had less disposable cash to spare and consequently, many businesses found themselves being either bankrupt or making employees redundan t to prevent bankruptcy. The reason why I believe that the recession may affect my business is because many individuals are un-employed, which means that they may be on some sort of limited income (either through council or jobseekers allowance). Ultimately, this would mean that many individuals would have less disposable income to spend on CDs and DVDs for personal entertainment and if my business is not selling many products, it will be in a high risk of having very high costs that could out-number the total sales of the business. This could put my business in a potential risk of being bankrupt, as you can see from fig.1, it is estimated that the recession will only get worse. In contrast, the recession may not be disastrously bad for my business. The reason behind this would be that because of the recession more people would be un-employed and have a whole lot of spare time on their hands as less people would be working nine to five shifts, this would mean that individuals would be looking for activities to pass their time. This could mean that people will be more reliant upon entrainment such as the cinemas, movies, theatre, music etc. This could potentially excel my business because more individuals would be interested and looking to escape from reality through the financial crisis, similarly to people who went through the Great Depression in the United States during 1929, which saw the rise of movie sales. To conclude, the recession is something that is known as an external factor, which no business has a control over. The recession could have a big impact on my business; however this factor could prove to be advantageous for my business as mentioned earlier, there are a lot more people with more spare time on their hands, and as a result they will be looking for something to entertain themselves and if marketing is done correctly for the business, it will prove to be beneficial. As one can see above, regardless of the recession and the credit crisis that started in 2007, the sales of digital music increased dramatically through the years and the digital music industry is more profitable than ever in the US with industry profit of 2.9 Billion dollars, a 15% from 2004 which was only 0.4 billion profit being made. One of the major issues that my business will have to confront other than the recent financial crisis is the piracy of music through the internet. In essence, music piracy the violation of copyright infringement (copyright), this means the unauthorised use of materials that is covered by the copyright law. For electronic and audio-visual media, this is normally referred to as piracy. Piracy is a factor that could have the biggest impact at my businesss aim to ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit. As one can see in the article opposite, the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) has predicted that music piracy has risen by thirty-six percent, which has cost the UK music industry twenty-six million pounds, which is a tremendous amount of load-sum. Music piracy is a factor which could directly affect my business because if my business released a single which was popular (Music hit) then the probability is that a lot of customers will be reluctant to purchase the single or the album in order to save money and they would perhaps download the product through an illegal download website or through the use of torrents (which is a peer-to-peer download service provided free from the internet). This is the most likely event to occur because as mentioned previously, the recession has left a lot of people un-employed which means that they may have a very low inco me and have limited amount of disposable cash to spend on entertainment. Because a lot of my businesss target consumers will be getting my product (music) through the internet without pay for it, this could result in my business have a major decline in profit because although the products my business offer may be very popular amongst the target consumers but because they are not paying for the goods my business will have no way in which they can financially benefit from. Many of the bi names in the record label business like ‘Universal Music or the ‘Sony BMG group do tend to copyright the CDs and DVDs that they manufacture and distribute, however, recent technological development has given an regular computer user to copy content from these copyrighted disks (using free software from the internet) from a single click of a button, and if that individual uploads the content of the disk to the internet then the content of that disk will be exposed to thousands if not millio ns of users on the internet which is why the modern music industry is suffering from million of pounds and dollars of damage from piracy and it is very unfortunate for my business as there is no method to battle the rising issue of music piracy because if my businesss products were copyrighted, many consumers or users will be able to find a way to copy content. In addition, copyrighting thousands of disks would prove to be a very costly task and evidently, this will prevent my business in achieving my aim to ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit. However, not all is tenebrous, my business could still prevail if it turned to a more digitals means to provide the products to the customers, such means could be; having free web player on the businesss website to play the hit singles; free selected music downloads of popular songs; and most importantly selling products through the internet. Most of these solutions would eliminate the cost of producing CDs because a lot of teenagers nowadays are using things like their mobile phones, mp3 players and devices such as the iPod for playback of their music. If the popular products of my business (songs) are being provided free from the companys own website, then the business will have more exposure from the public, which, in the end, could work out to be beneficial. As the businesss website generates more viewers, the chances are internet companies like Google; YouTube; Amazon etc. who will want to advertise their services on my businesss website, which the business could generate some i ncome from as well as gaining public interest and recognition as business. Music piracy most definitely will affect my business and the corporate aim to ‘Minimise costs and maximise potential profit. Internet nowadays is available to almost every house, office and schools/college in the country that millions of people have access too, and the internet is too big to have control over. Nevertheless, good marketing and internet advertisement may fill in the lacunae of profit that may be lost due to music piracy. ‘Increase/attain good public relations with the local community and customers. In my opinion, good public relations with customers should be an imperative aim for abounding businesses. After all, businesses depend on their customers satisfaction and support by which if they did not have good relationship with customers then it will be highly likely that the business will not be able to retain their customers. This issue could lead to a decline in their profit margins or worse gain an incredible amount of bad publicity or a bad reputation as a whole. A record label is not a publicly noticeable business because a record labels product is what gains notoriety as publicity rather than a business as coherent whole. This is because customers are mainly attracted to the stars and the music they make rather than the service that provides them the service. This can be beneficial or a drawback, consider which way one looks at it. From my personal perspective, it is a benefit because it means that my business will not be in the public eye and will not attract major interest if my business were have an issue, this could be a number of things like mistakes (which a lot of businesses make) or redundancy of a major band or artist etc. So in order to gain good public relations with the local community and customers will be a very laborious task to conduct. Nevertheless, with dubious tasks, there are always strategies, and my main strategy to in achieve this aim to ‘Increase/attain good public relations with the local community and customers, will be to organise youth activities and perhaps cultural events, the next page will explain this. As one can see in 4 (Next page), an extract from BBC news website, the level of youth crime has increased dramatically over the past decade in the United Kingdom. Teenage knife crime has increased so much that law enforcements had to enforce harsh laws upon teenage delinquents in order to keep crime at a minimum. The articles below states that boys from the age of eleven to eighteen are likely the ones to be carrying knifes, and are the most likely culprits in the rise of such crimes. The article also states that most of these young offenders have been; excluded, dropped out of school or have already had been given time to serve under law custody. So ultimately, these are the age groups which are been targeted by the law to tackle such crimes. How does this issue help my business to achieve good customer relationship one may wonder? Well to start with, teens that have been expelled, excluded, dropped out etc. from school have nothing to do other than wonder around with friends on the streets and cause trouble to the society and the individuals in the local community. This leads me to believe that, organising local youth music activities and providing creative services such as recording facilities and musical guidance for youths free of charge may be a very beneficial factor not only for my business but also to the local community. Having to organise such events for young people will be very beneficial to a majority of people youths, local community and my business. This is because firstly, by providing youths will free services and activities will encourage them to stay off the streets and be passionate and involved in something creative for their time, and secondly, by having lees teens on the streets in the local community will prevent crime and hopefully reduce the crime rate locally, so older generation who may be intimidated by teens will feel much more safer. Personally, I believe that teens only resort to crime as a recreational activity as well as to gain attention to themselves; this is only an opinion of course. However, by giving teens, facilities to be in and express themselves artistically through music may help to make a productive use of their time; also, it could be a place where teens can get attention that they desire from other like friends, other social groups or even the community. Knife sentencing not effective A selection of knives found by police The study found young people were living in constant fear of attack Longer jail terms are not an effective way of persuading teenagers to stop carrying knives, research suggests. Pentonville Prison governor Nicola Marfleet interviewed 14 to 17-year-olds who had either been excluded from school or were serving time in custody. She found most believed tough sentences were only meant to scare them, and they were more likely to be tagged. The Home Office said the government was using a combination of deterrence and education to tackle the problem. Rival gangs The study found that some boys were carrying knives from the age of 11. Ms Marfleet concluded that knife-crime prevention work must be targeted at this age group in order to be effective. She interviewed about 24 boys in focus groups at pupil referral units in Hackney and Haringey, north London, and four boys one-to-one at Feltham Young Offender Institution in west London Possession of a knife carries a maximum jail term of four years, but most of the teenagers did not believe they would receive such a harsh punishment. Two of those interviewed said that regardless of the possible penalty, they would not stop carrying a knife because they needed one for protection. Almost all of the teenagers said they could not rely on par