Is Education The Key For Global Empowerment - 1053 Words

Is Education the Key to Global Empowerment? Unlike what is the case in the US, globally primary education is far from a guarantee. Every year, millions of children are going uneducated, stripping the intellectual capacity of many impoverished nations. No segment of the global population does this more acutely effect than girls. While many societies feel a strong cultural push educate boys, the same pressures are often absent when it comes to girls. Insert link to article on Michelle Obama Why is this important? Increasing access to education not only increases the intellectual ceiling of a region, but it has the power in revolutionizing the lives of millions. Each additional year of schooling will increase future wages of an†¦show more content†¦Contrast this to other areas of the globe where entire segments of the population are not allowed to drive, vote, travel, or even work. Their agency is dramatically restricted due to a host of governmental and cultural structural issues. I have been aware of this issue for some time now by gleaning information through isolated news articles and speakers. I must admit, however, I did not understand the full scope of the problems faced by this universal underclass of citizens until I read the book Half the Sky, written by married New York Times reporters Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. I picked up this book on the recommendation of my girlfriend and found myself unable to put it down. Insert picture of book The book is an account of the wide range of structural issues faced by women in third world nations. The couple has traveled the globe as reporters and share their findings along with a list of action steps they believe should be taken. They did a phenomenal job both in detailing the horrors faced by women around the world and also the reasons to be optimistic about a brighter future. There is no need to mince words, women across the globe are subject to horrible, unthinkable situations: rampant human sex trafficking, forced child prostitution, honor killings, public gang rapes, genital mutilation, hunger, childbirth complications, lack of access to medical care, and lack of

The Body Shop Marketing Essay Free Essays

string(49) " inherent to the overall design of the BS shops\." 1) Anita Roddick created the body shop in 1976 with the objective of opening an environmentally conscious cosmetic store. Today, the Body Shop (BS) has grown from being a single â€Å"hippie† store in England to a multinational company with over 2265 stores in 50 countries enjoying sales of ? 820,000 in 2006/2007 period. (mintel 2006) People say that â€Å"one person cannot make a difference† but Anita Roddick proved it wrong by sticking to here ideals and ideas of doing business. We will write a custom essay sample on The Body Shop Marketing Essay or any similar topic only for you Order Now This extract from the Body Shop’s mission statement ‘to dedicate our business to the pursuit of social and environmental change’ (www. thebodyshop. co. uk), shows us how she created a new way of dealing with customer needs and wants. She saw it as a better option to put customer and society in the first place and by doing so, gain sales for good conduct. This way of doing business was not only proved to be extremely successful but many marketers followed the BS concepts, attempting to maximise potential profit by imitating Dame Anita Roddick’s set of ideals or values. Throughout this essay, we will investigate how Anita Roddick successfully used marketing tools to promote her chain of shops and her strong principles and see how today’s businesses can follow Roddick’s footsteps in successfully targeting the emergence of new consumer groups in the organic food market. Anita Roddick’s BS has not been an immense success for no reason. An explanation of the BS general success in world markets is that she was one of the pioneers in developing a more ethically based business. We will have a look at how she maximised the 4 P’s (product, place, promotion and price) to promote her chain of shops and strong principles. Product The BS sells and produces cosmetics and toiletries made from natural ingredients all over the world targeting principally women with a medium to high income and with deep social conscience and commitment. Its product range can be divided into eight categories each including a range of quality products. Each body lotion, shampoo, bath shower gel, etc. comes in different sizes in recycled, recyclable or biodegradable packaging. The Product Life Cycle of the BS is still in the growing stages as competition is still increasing due to an increase in interest in the industry’s potential. Furthermore, the market is continuously evolving as more and more people become more ethically aware. Branding is very important as it differentiates the company from other skincare companies. Anita Roddick managed to create a brand which positioned itself as promoting good environmental ethics at a time where Europe was becoming â€Å"greener†, strongly differentiating itself from companies looking to increase profits at any legal cost to the environment and to society. But since the French cosmetic giant L’Oreal bought the BS, BrandIndex measured a drastic drop in the ratings of BS reputation. Even though, the company promised to keep its ethical cosmetic brand intact, the public’s opinion on the BS did not take long to change. (http://www. brandrepublic. com) Price The Body Shop has been able to set premium prices because of the assumption that people would be willing to pay more for a product which they think is contributing to social and ethical issues. The fact that the BS is involved in issues such as fair trade, animal testing and has strong environmental views gave them the competitive advantage of product differentiation. But since competitors such as Boots or Bath Bodyworks in the states have started their own natural product range at prices below the BS, profits have decreased in comparison to previous years. From 2002 to 2003 sales grew by only 5% compared with competitors whose sales rose by 27% in the same period. It could also be said that the BS prices are in the mid market pricing range as there are products more expensive such as for example Boots natural-based products but much cheaper than Chanel or Estee Lauder beauty products. Furthermore, the cost of production of the BS products may be higher because of fair trade issues with local communities. But critiques say that the â€Å"Trade not Aid† projects are simply a marketing tool and that not even 1% of the sales go to the projects. (www. mcspotlight. org) Promotion The BS way of advertising has mostly been done through indirect advertising. Indeed, by associating themselves to Greenpeace or the save the whales project or by doing fare trade with indigenous communities for example, journals, newspapers and magazines have written about the company’s products, campaigns and beliefs without the company actually carrying out or spending any money into promotion campaigns. The BS believes that beauty is reality and strongly disagrees on the advertising campaigns trying to glamorise their products – ‘We’re saying our products will moisturize, cleanse and polish; they will not perform miracles. (Mrs Galanti, 1997). This was stated in 1997 after the release of a rare mainstream campaign called â€Å"Love your body† due to increased competition in the marketplace. The Body Shop also makes extensive use of its web site, delivery lorries and shop windows to communicate its campaigns and beliefs. Packaging is also a way of promoting a product. By showing consumers that the BS is involved in recyclin g plastic bottles used in the packaging of a product for example, it positions itself furthermore in the customers mind as being an environmentally caring organisation. It also tried to push consumers to use refills but the impact of this campaign was minimal. Furthermore the BS also called for more people to recycle their old mobile phone. (Mintel, 2004) Place The BS looks closely at the store location, as customer accessibility to the store is very important. They are usually located on high streets, in department concessions depending on important factors of accessibility such as parking, visibility or even public transport. Stores are usually arranged as a boutique layout with products arranged according to their function. The atmosphere of the BS retail outlets is relaxed and sympathetic, inherent to the overall design of the BS shops. You read "The Body Shop Marketing Essay" in category "Best marketing essays" There is plenty of information on ingredients and the origin of the product available to the customer. Furthermore the BS rapid growth and international expansion was helped through franchising. Finally, the rise in demand for ethical products has provided many opportunities for marketers. Dame Anita Roddick, was one of the first to point that out and through product innovation and brand reputation, she managed to build a multinational company from virtually nothing. However, today’s cosmetic market has highly evolved and is far more competitive than it used to be. The challenge for the company is to revitalise its retail outlets, improve their product offer and brand communications in order to grow store sales and invest in employee development and customer service. 2) Markets within an economy rapidly change offering opportunities for companies to increase profit and to expand. The marketer’s job is to react to these changes and put the company in the right direction. The organic food market for example has grown rapidly with consumers increasing spending on â€Å"ethical† food by 800 million to approximately ? 5. 6 billion in 2006 (â€Å"Ethical consumerism report 2006†- Co-operative bank). Furthermore, most developed countries are seeing a rise in organic produce, ‘The organic market has boomed in recent years, growing by 25% annually on average’ – (www. timesonline. co. uk). These figures show us that the organic movement is moving on a global scale with an increase in consumer interest in how and where food is produced. It could be said that the rise in the demand for organic products is due to the rising average age and due to media spotlight. Indeed, media are constantly focusing on the consequences of climate change and on how the earth’s resources are being depleted pushing fellow human beings to act more responsibly and ethically in what food products they buy. This has lead people to believe that by eating organic food, a person will stay healthy – ‘studies in 2006 and 2007 have found higher levels of Vitamin C in organic fruit and 68 per cent higher levels of omega-3 in organic whole milk than non-organic whole milk. (www. bbc. co. uk). On the other hand, with more elderly people in the UK after the baby boom of the early 50’s, the market is likely to see people buying organic/healthy food rather than GM food offering new opportunities to marketers in terms of how to advertise and promote their products. This could be done through promotional campaigns aimed at elde rly people, informing them of the availability of organic food in their respective supermarkets or by associating the organisation to environmentally friendly associations such as Greenpeace and beneficiate of indirect advertising. To be the first to come into a customers mind as being an organisation which cares about the environment would definitely give the company a strong competitive advantage. Two of the major leading supermarkets such as Tesco and Sainsbury have both recognised these changing consumer needs and have introduced organic food and organic policies within their stores – ‘To meet this growing demand Sainsbury’s has re-launched its organic range as Sainsbury’s SO organic and is committed to broadening the appeal of and extending its comprehensive range of organic foods. ’ (www. jsainsburys. co. uk). Additionally, Sainsbury has recently ‘banned the use of palm oil from unsustainable sources in its own-brand products’ which has been argued by Greenpeace as a â€Å"positive first step† towards the end of the destruction of the Indonesian rainforest (www. marketingweek. co. uk). Another way of promoting the organisation could be to introduce fair trade products in our supermarkets aisles. This would not necessarily be done in a profit objective scheme but instead to show customers the organisation’s involvement in helping local communities even though profits could be made if an appropriate marketing strategy was applied. Another important factor to consider is packaging as it can be used for promotional purposes. This could give them an advantage over rival companies that may not sell organic food. Additionally, organisation could also concentrate on creating â€Å"greener friendly† packaging – ‘A UK company has launched a new range of convenience food packs manufactured from biodegradable plastic. ’ – showing their awareness of the influence they have on the environment and their dedication to play a role in conserving the planet. (http://www. foodanddrinkeurope. com). The difficulty for the marketer will be to set attractive and adequate organic packaging at the lowest possible prices. This brings us to price considerations. Organic food is without a doubt more expensive to produce and sell than non-organic food giving the marketer the difficult challenge of setting a competitive price with rivals and at a level that still sees the company being profitable. It is also important that marketers are aware of how much people are willing to pay for organic food in order to maximise profits. Moreover, prices are set to increase as ‘exceptionally high market growth rates are causing demand to outpace supply. (http://www. organicmonitor. com) On the other hand, The Food Standard Agency and scientists still believe that organic food as a whole, is not necessarily healthier for a person than GM food – ‘there is no scientific evidence to suggest organic food is healthier’ (www. guardian. co. uk). Furthermore, Chefs such as Gordon Ra msay argue that organic food is overpriced and questions its authenticity ‘The problem with organic food is that it has become hip and trendy, overhyped, overpriced and inconsistent. Unfortunately there is now a snob factor attached to it. ’ (www. timesonline. co. k) On this point, marketers will have to make sure that they undertake effective advertising campaigns as well as detailed branding and packaging to promote their products as being healthier than other foods in order to maintain high sales. The reason the organic market has grown so much in the last decade is definitely due to a rise in ethical consumerism. Indeed, after some companies were exposed by the media to how they really operated – i. e. illegal sweatshops for example- and the constant media coverage on the damage caused by humans to the earth, saw consumers take a more ethical approach to purchasing. This why it is so important to show consumers that the organisation is active in sustaining the earth and its resources. Today, the image of the company should be of first importance to marketers. Tesco and other supermarkets have already revised their strategy and offer for example to use plastic bags more than once- â€Å"Tesco claimed that shoppers had used one million bags less than they would normally expect. † (www. recycling-guide. org. uk). J Sainsbury’s reacted by cutting back on carbon emissions produced by their outlets- â€Å"We are currently looking at the big picture regarding carbon emissions and the part Sainsbury’s play in that. We have been extremely proactive over the last 10 years on all aspects of energy efficiency. † (Alison Austin, 2007). All these supermarket behaviour changes are done in the objective to remain competitive. Marketers understand that if their company is seen to be â€Å"green† then it is likely to be successful in the market. Finally, whichever strategy marketers do choose to adopt, it will eventually determine their level of success in an ever changing society which now focuses on being ethical and more aware of the environment. Bibliography Anon. , November 2007, â€Å"Food matters†, BBC. Anon. , March,2006, Body Shop at a glance, FT. om, London, pg 1. Anon. , June 2003,Anita Roddick, Director, London, Vol. 56(11), pg. 60. Anon. , August 2007, Growth opportunity for organic market, Retail world, Vol. 60(16), pg. 22. Brassington F. and Pettitt S. , 2003, Principles of Marketing. 3rd ed. , Pearson Education Limited. Callan E. , May 2006, L’Oreal says it is c ontent with Bady Shop’s ethics GENERAL REATILERS; 1st Ed. , Financial Times, London (UK), pg. 17. Coles A. , Harris L. , 2006, Ethical Consumers and e-Commerce: The Emergence and Growth of Fair Trade in the UK, Journal of Reasearch for Consumers, Crawley: (10), pg. , 6 pgs. Guthrie J. , September 2007, Activist who inspired a business generation; [LONDON 2ND EDITION], Financial Times, London (UK), pg 21. Marketing Week, September 2007, Ehtical consumerism: Lacking in green conviction, London: pg 28. Marketing Week, January 2007, Market research: Unlock the power of brands, London: pg 23 Jack L. , November 2007, Greenpeace backs Sainsbury’s palm oil ban as a ‘first step’, London, Marketing Week. Hofman M. , April 2001, Anita Roddick: The Body Shop International, established in 1976, Inc. Boston: Vol. 23, Iss. 5; pg. 61, 1pgs. Mintel, 2004, Body Shop campaigns for mobile recycling Mintel, 2006, Company report Mintel, April 2007, Impact of the Environment (The) – UK. The Body Shop International PLC. 2006. Annual report and Accounts. Sample I. , October 2007, Organic food is healthier: study, The Guardian Zink W. , February 1996, The impact of recycling on the cosmetic industry, Drug Cosmetic Industry, New York: Vol. 158 (2); pg. 42, 4pgs. Web sites Elliot S. , The Body Shop’s campaign offers reality, not miracles. [WWW] [Accessed 21 November 2007] The Body Shop. 2005. The Body Shop values report. [WWW] lt; URL: http://valuesreport. thebodyshop. net/pdfs/bodyshop_valuesreport_2005. pdf; [Accessed 22 November] Bidlake S. 2006. Body Shop reputation is battered by sale to L’Oreal. [WWW] [Accessed 22 November] London Greenpeace, What’s wrong with the Body Shop [WWW] [Accessed 18 November] Anon. , 2007, Product news. [WWW] ; URL: http://jsainsburys. co. uk/index. asp? PageID=419==200 5=583; [Accessed 23 November] Anon. , 2006, Tesco Ads Result in Re-Using Plastic Bags. [WWW] [Accessed 22 November] Organic Monitor, 2006, Global Organic Food Industry Facing Supply Challenges. WWW] [Accessed 25 November] Ungoed-Thomas J. , 2007, Eat your words, all who scoff at organic food. [WWW] [Accessed 22 November] Anon. 2007, Company news [WWW] [ Accessed 23 November] Horne M. , 2006, Ramsay lays into organic food snobs. [WWW] http://timesonline. co. uk/tol/newspapers/sunday_times/ireland/ article625714. ece [Accessed 25 November] ElAmin A. , 2006, Biodegradable food packaging launched in UK. [WWW] http://foodanddrinkeurope. com/news/ng. asp? n=69464-natureworks-rpc-bebo-biodegradable-pla [Accessed 22 November] Anon. , 2006, The Body Shop- Body and soul. [WWW] [Accessed 23 November] How to cite The Body Shop Marketing Essay, Essays

Benefits of Understanding Business Processes Sample for Students

Questions: 1.What are the Benefits of Understanding Business Processes?2.What makes it Difficult for Organisations to Understand Business Processes?3.What Difficulties Might an Organisation Experience if it does not Fully Understand its Business Processes? Answers: Introduction Business process management is considered as a field in operations management that would be helpful in improving the performance of the business and hep in managing the processes prevailing within the firm (Jeston and Nelis 2014). It is considered as a process optimization process. It is often stated that business optimization process is considered as an efficient way to manage the processes of the firm with better implementation and achievements of the targets than the traditional hierarchical manner. Handling the internal and external issues of the firm efficiently with the utilization of such management processes would enable the firm to incur low costs and higher profits on behalf of the firm. This would affect the productivity of the firm, positively (Rosemann and vom Brocke 2015). The aim if this report is to analyse the advantages that could be attained by the firm by following a process perspective with the use of business process management. In order to analyse this aspect, a brief detail has been provided regarding the business process management. It help in getting a clear view of this methodology. The report then frames the advantages of understanding the business process by a firm, the disadvantages created when the workers of the firm do not understand the prevailing business process and the issues that may be faced by organization by being unable to process the business process tactfully. These aspects would help in analysing the benefits that could be attained by analysing a process perspective of the firm. Business process management business process management aims at controlling the processes of policies and plans being conducted within a firm. it is quite effective for the firm to analyse the processes through which efficiency in the productivity of the firm could be achieved. the term business process management is considered as an important aspect of the firm that helps them to study, identity and analyse the change that has been subjected in monitoring the business. The basic goal of the firm is to discover, model, analyse, measure, improve and optimize the business processes. The process should coordinate the behaviour of the employees, system of the business and the information within the firm thereby supporting the outcomes of the business strategy that has been framed. The processes that has been framed by the firm could be structured and repeatable or unstructured and variable in nature. Business process management is aligned with the informational technology to business strategies (Conger 2015). 1.Benefits of understanding business process In todays world, the firm faces an intensified competition among each other. The competitors may be both small and big. The leaders of such organizations are under immense pressure that would be competitive in nature and would be efficient enough to reduce their costs and raise their productivity in order to improve the business processes. In order to overcome the business provisions prevailing in the environment, it is quite vital for the firms to manage their business process management that would be beneficial in improving and enhancing their operational efficiency, improve the customer service and increase the product and service innovation (Trkman et al. 2015). The business process management helps the firms to prepare the global competitions by enabling the business leaders in improving their organizational performance through analiszation, designing, implementation, monitoring, control and modifying he operational business processes. This helps the managers in measuring, responding and controlling the business processes prevailing within the firm. Application in the information technology solutions is adhered with the use of business processes directly. Business processes coordinated the improvement of staff productivity prevailing within the firm. Implementation of quick responses to challenges and opportunities is quite easily agreeable by the organization through implementing the effective business processes. Business process management incorporate the continues process improvement techniques and further uses them in the conjunction with the technologies in order to optimize the processes. The management process acts as an initiator to accelerate the processes of the methodologies in the system. The organizational efficiency is increased within the firm that would be efficient enough in enhancing the processes of business within the firm by focussing on three element of business known as agility, visibility and efficiency (Dumas et al. 2013). Agility refers to the constant state of change prevailing in the organization. It is quite vital for the business processes to adapt into new methodologies and business processes. These business processes would make the processes prevailing within the firm more agile in nature. It requires rigorous documentation of the steps in the business process thereby providing a detailed structure of the plans to be undertaken by the firm. Business process mana gement is implemented with the usage of various sophisticated software programs that are beneficial in automating the process and monitoring their performances. Process automation reveals how the process is functioning without requiring labour intensive manual monitoring techniques (Trkman 2013).The organizations employ various business process management principles that would implement various implemented ways in which the costs and raise the productivity of the firm. The benefits that are associated with the formulation of such process would be efficient in performing and implementing controls to monitor the process of the future output. 2.Difficulties in understanding business process The business proceedings have to follow some discipline in order to maintain and regulate their operations. In fact, there are several discrepancies and miscommunications, which take place within the organizational structure that leads to a major consequence and disrupts the proper flow of operations. The significance of business processing management is necessary to incorporate so that the emerging imparts on the business procedures are not drastic harmful to the business. Moreover, the concerns, which are essentially important to consider while complying with the strategies of the operational plan, are based on the characteristics of business processing and operation. Primarily the proposals and operational plan of the organization gets suspended if the correction if the operations are not properly interpreted. Accordingly, a number of factors are associated with the chain of events that are required by the management in order to execute several functions. The poor implementation o f the processing management causes damages to the internal structures of the business. The relative aspects of business processing management involve factors, which have consequently have an effect on the procedures of the theories of organizational effectiveness. The enterprise has to incur damages and cover losses due, as they do not follow the formal structure, which is responsible for inspecting the correct appropriation of all the resources. Processing all the relevant action involves carrying out a number of function, which has minimal impact over the following set of actions, and functions. The declining accounts can be a detrimental factor for the organization if they do not abide by the regulations of the formal structure that is ensured in the processing module. Generally, a suitable combination of a supporting hardware-software enables the best flow of practices, which are responsible for the current determining and predicting the evaluations of the business structures. T he best practices and methods are responsible for maintaining the culture of work and operations of the suggested situation. The necessity of following a formal plan will enable in the best of the result, which can enhance the working policies and outcome, liken increasing the productivity and financial statements that are involved in comprehending the impact of contingency and risks. Often the suggested risk factors are not indicative of any thrust of the operation which will have a drastic impact on the objectives and planned structure goals of the organization. The operational infrastructure that determines the books of account, the gains, expenditure, and finance along with the relevant opportunities of the organizations is determined by the business processing apparatus, which keeps a check on the specifications of the business phenomenon. The coalition in the processing managements well the structures will assign the sustainability of the resources. In this case it is necessar y to ascertain the circumstances the innovations and the processing structure of the business. 3.Issues faced by organization So far it could be stated that business process management works as an important role for the organizations in order to enhance their growth in the market. It is quite beneficial for the firms to use upgraded technologies in overcoming the discrepancies that might have existed within the firm. It helps in acknowledging certain strategies that would be efficient in gaining the market power for the firm among its competitors. Yet, it could be stated that the firms do not always understand the implementation of business process management (Becker, Kugeler and Rosemann 2013). The complexity of the programs is not always easy to be implemented and promoted within the internal framework of the firm. Business process management is complicated in nature and time consuming. It adhered to the transfer of business processes that involves the identification and sorting the processes which is a complex as well as time-consuming task. It needs to be assessed and the companies need to invest a lot of capital in the formulation of the processes. The business process management systems face difficulties in training the employees of the firm that would rather operate with the advanced technical skills. These skills and abilities is not result interpreted (Van Der Aalst 2013). Hence, it could be stated that the companies need to incur additional costs in training their employees for the formulation of such processes. Improper provisions of training within the system would hamper the flow of the program within the system. This would indirectly affect the productivity, which may also lead to high turnover rate due to the implementations of complex systems. Hence, if the firms do not understand the processes properly, it would be quite difficult for the smooth formulation of the processes to be conducted. Conclusion Business process management system is a unique technology that is highly efficient in generating and developing the productivity of the firm. Bpm systems are modern and advanced technological outcomes that organizations are using to keep up to date with the environmental changes. The application of bpms has different opportunities. This makes organizations flexible to the environmental changes. In addition the system makes the organization activities process entered as a result, it speeds up the general business activities. Speeding up of the business processes will in turn improves the decision making process so that customers satisfaction can increase. In general business process management systems improves the performance and efficiency of organizations towards business activities. Reference Becker, J., Kugeler, M. and Rosemann, M. eds., 2013.Process management: a guide for the design of business processes. Springer Science Business Media. Chang, J.F., 2016.Business process management systems: strategy and implementation. CRC Press. Conger, S., 2015. Six sigma and business process management. InHandbook on Business Process Management 1(pp. 127-146). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Dumas, M., La Rosa, M., Mendling, J. and Reijers, H.A., 2013.Fundamentals of business process management(Vol. 1, p. 2). Heidelberg: Springer. Jeston, J. and Nelis, J., 2014.Business process management. Routledge. Krajewski, L.J., Ritzman, L.P. and Malhotra, M.K., 2013.Operations management: Processes and supply chains(Vol. 1). New York: Pearson. Rosemann, M. and vom Brocke, J., 2015. The six core elements of business process management. InHandbook on business process management 1(pp. 105-122). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Talk, O.M., 2016. Operations management. Trkman, P., 2013. Increasing process orientation with business process management: Critical practices.International Journal of Information Management,33(1), pp.48-60. Trkman, P., Mertens, W., Viaene, S. and Gemmel, P., 2015. From business process management to customer process management.Business process management journal,21(2), pp.250-266. Van Der Aalst, W.M., 2013. Business process management: a comprehensive survey.ISRN Software Engineering,2013.