Adult Development – Summary

Adult Development Brian Carter West Georgia Technical College Adult Development ABSTRACT This paper explores and details the biological, cognitive, and social development of the author during the stages of infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. It will compare the author’s experiences and developmental milestones with the theories presented in the textbook.The combination of all of these factors, combined with the reactions and actions taken by the author in response to his environment and experiences, are what make him the person he is today. Adult Observation During an individual’s lifespan development, he passes through several developmental stages, each with its own physical, cognitive, and social milestones. Whether the individual is an infant, child, adolescent, or adult, he is continually developing in almost every aspect in response to life, environmental, and physical demands.It is how the individual reacts to these change s that determine the direction and quality of the individual’s life in the future. The way an individual participates in social activities, engages himself in educational opportunities, and takes time to self-reflect on his experiences all interact to form the direction the individual’s life take. The social, cognitive, and physical aspects of the author’s lifespan development thus far will be described and discussed in detail.The author is a thirty-five year old Caucasian male who lives in a suburb of Atlanta. He was born into and raised in a mostly suburban middle-class household in Louisiana, where he lived until age 23, when he moved to metropolitan Atlanta. He is currently married for the second time, and is expecting his first son to be born in the next week. He has one younger sister who is also grown and married with one stepson. The author’s parents were born and raised in rural West Virginia.His father is college educated. His mother attended co llege, but did not graduate. He is a college graduate, and his wife has a graduate degree in Education. Both are employed full-time. INFANCY The author was born an eight-pound, four-ounce baby in August of 1975. During the first months of his life, he followed the general outline described in the textbook for breastfeeding and his introduction to solid foods (Dacey 2009). He also developed normally, in physical, cognitive, and social aspects.Aside from a short stint of high fever as a baby, the author experienced no major physical ailments as an infant. EARLY CHILDHOOD As the author progressed into early childhood, he began to exhibit traits of increased intelligence. Thanks to highly involved parents and support group, he was always encouraged to participate in educational activities, rather than playing idly. REFERENCES Dacey, John S. , John F. Travers, and Lisa B. Fiore. Human Development across the Lifespan. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.

Business and the air we breathe

In December of 2008, the government’s environmental watchdog, the Environmental Protection Agency, decided that new power facilities are exempted from the requirement of installing mechanisms that will decrease the amount of carbon dioxide the plants emit into the atmosphere (David Fahrenthold, Steven Mufson, 2008).This action was adopted despite the resistance from environment oriented organizations (Fahrenthold, Mufson, 2008).The ruling, signed by EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson, is anchored on an old statute that could be pivotal in the future operations of the power plants under the ambit of the Clean Air Act (Fahrenthold, Mufson, 2008). In the administration of former President Bush, the EPA has been inclined to dismiss the idea that greenhouse gases can be lumped together with soot, smog triggers and various types of air pollution (Fahrenthold, Mufson, 2008).The case for the classification of carbon dioxide in the category of an air polluting element began in the is suance of a permit for the construction of a power plant in Bonanza, Utah (Fahrenthold, Mufson, 2008). An environmental group, the Sierra Club, had challenged the permit for the plant (Fahrenthold, Mufson, 2008).In its motion, the group argued that the plant must first undertake mechanisms to decrease its emissions of carbon dioxide (Fahrenthold, Mufson, 2008). In a hearing of the EPA’s Appeals Board, a body tasked to hear issues regarding rulings and procedures of the body, the group made its case against the plant (Fahrenthold, Mufson, 2008).The group cited a statute that would require that the power plants must avail of the optimum technology to make the plants regulate the emission of all monitored pollutive substances (Fahrenthold, Mufson, 2008).This is parallel to the reminder of the group to the decision of the April 2007 ruling of the Supreme Court (Fahrenthold, Mufson, 2008). In that decision, Massachusetts vs. EPA (549 U.S. ___ (2007) (The Oyez Project, 2009), the S upreme Court ruled on the question whether the EPA has the power to monitor carbon dioxide and other pollutants (Oyez, 2009). In a 5-4 decision, that power was affirmed by the Supreme Court (Oyez, 2009). The case mainly stemmed from the action of the EPA in a seeming abrogation of that power (Environmental Defense Fund, 2008).In the majority decision with Justice John Paul Stevens as ponente, or author, the court ruled that the agency cannot abandon its responsibility and duty under the law to monitor the emissions of air pollutants into the air (Linda Greenhouse, 2007).Court litigations have been put on hold among them the earlier case of emissions from power facilties (Greenhouse, 2007). Stevens, joined in the decision by Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Breyer and Stephen Souter, decided that the EPA did not do anything in court than just present a list of items that the agency will not monitor (Greenhouse, 2007).The ruling of the Supreme Court however does no t order that the Federal government conduct and enact programs to combat pollution emission (Environmental, 2008). But it is inferred that the United States Congress enact legislation to found a program for the purpose (Environmental, 2008).Massachusetts, among the parties, that did have a legal standing before the Court, was vindicated in its appeal against the EPA (Environmental, 2008). It is in the opinion of the Court that the matter be sent to Congress for final disposition (Environmental, 2008).In their opinion, air pollutants, as those emitted by the power facilities as well as motor vehicles, on which the Massachusetts case hinged, did not qualify as such under the ambit of the Clean Air Act (Environmental, 2008). In their decision, the Court ruled that it is within the scope of the powers of the EPA to regulate such pollutants (Environmental, 2008). The only exception is that if the pollutants do not contribute to the crisis of global warming (Environmental, 2008). But the EPA decided otherwise.This in complete defiance of a ruling by the United States Supreme Court in April of 2007 that carbon dioxide can be classified as an air pollutant that should be monitored under the Clean Air Act (Fahrenthold, Mufson, 2008). In the same way, the EPA granted the same exemptions to power plants emitting mercury beyond the lawful regulations (Fox News, 2008).In a decision handed down by a Federal Appeals court, the court overturned the policy of the Bush administration that stated that the government can let power plants exceed limits set for emission of the poisonous mercury element (Fox News, 2008).About a dozen state authorities had opposed the EPA regulation, saying that if the regulation had pushed through, it would release notoriously high amounts of mercury into the atmosphere (Fox News, 2008).

Listening And Writing In Esol Planning And Teaching Education Essay

Talking, listening, reading and composing are considered to be reciprocally mutualist upon one another in linguistic communication acquisition. Although talking coherently and clearly is by and large recognised as the most of import end for 2nd linguistic communication ( L2 ) talkers, peculiarly ESOL talkers ( Murphy 1991:52 ) , competency in reading and composing finish a scholar ‘s proficiency in L2. Speaking and hearing may be described as the major accomplishment countries of interpersonal communicating ( Murphy 1991: 52 ) . Whether through synergistic or teacher-instruction, the hearing accomplishment will find how scholars develop eloquence and competency in the linguistic communication being learnt ( Nation and Newton 2009 ; Ellis 2003 ) . Listening is cardinal in linguistic communication acquisition because it non merely aids competency in speech production, but besides in reading. Ellis ( 2003 ) has noted that research workers and instructors have their ain purposes in prosecuting hearing as a linguistic communication accomplishment. For research workers, listening provides agencies for look intoing scholars ‘ ability to treat specific lingual characteristics ( Ellis 2003: 37 ) . In position of this, he suggests that focused undertakings can be devised by ‘seeding ‘ the input with the targeted characteristic and planing the undertaking in such a manner that the merchandise result can merely be achieved if the scholars are successful in treating the targeted characteristic. Therefore, listening undertakings provide an first-class agencies for mensurating whether scholars have acquired the characteristic in inquiry. On the other manus, listening accomplishments can be devised to ease the acquisition o f the targeted characteristic ( Ellis 2003: 37 ) . This essay discusses how the four linguistic communication accomplishments of hearing, reading, speech production and composing are mutualist in assisting a scholar achieve competency in larning English as a 2nd linguistic communication. As we already know, synergistic linguistic communication larning depends a batch on listening and talking accomplishments ( Ellis 2003 ) . However, a good balanced linguistic communication class which consists of four approximately equal strands of learning/instruction in the linguistic communication schoolroom ( Nation and Newton 2009 ) , known as meaning-focused input, meaning-focused end product, language-focused acquisition, and eloquence development, conveying out the common dependence of the four linguistic communication accomplishments. The four strands methodological analysis as described by Nation and Newton ( 2009:1 ) may be summarised as follows: larning though meaning-focused input, that is, larning through hearing and reading where the learners'attention is on the thoughts and messages conveyed by the linguistic communication larning through meaning-focused end product, that is, larning through speech production and composing where the learners'attention is on conveying thoughts and messages to another individual larning through deliberate attending to linguistic communication points and linguistic communication characteristics, that is, larning through direct vocabulary survey, grammar exercisings and account, through attending discourse characteristics and consider acquisition and pattern of linguistic communication acquisition and linguistic communication usage schemes, and larning through developing fluid usage of known linguistic communication points and characteristics over the four accomplishments of hearing, speech production, reading and composing Second linguistic communication acquisition shows that suitably focussed attending to linguistic communication points can do a really positive part to acquisition ( Doughty 2003 ; Doughty & A ; Williams, 1998 ; Ellis 2005 ) . A well-planned linguistic communication class has an appropriate balance of these four strands. Through these four strands the scholars achieve the learning ends of a linguistic communication class, viz. fluid control of sounds, spelling, vocabulary, grammar and discourse characteristics of linguistic communication, so that they can be used to pass on efficaciously. A justification of the four strands is the time-on-task rule, that is, learning-to-read by reading or learning-to-write by composing ( Nation & A ; Newton 2009:2 ) . The more clip one spends making something, the better they are likely to make it. Those who read a batch, for case, are better readers ( Cunningham & A ; Stanovich 1991 ) , and those who write a batch normally become better writes. The grounds for the four strands draws on a big and turning organic structure of research into the functions of input, end product and focussed direction on L2 acquisition and on development of speech production and reading eloquence ( Nation & A ; Newton 2009:3 ) .Meaning-focused input: acquisition through hearing and readingThe meaning-focused input strand involves larning through hearing and reading, that is utilizing linguistic communication receptively. It is called ‘meaning-focused ‘ because in all the work done in this strand, the scholars ‘ chief focal point and invol vement should be on understanding, and deriving cognition or enjoyment or both from what they listen to and read. Typical activities in this strand include extended reading, shared reading, listening to narratives, watching Television or movies, and being a hearer in a conversation ( see Hinkel 2006 ) .Meaning-focused end product larningMeaning-focused end product involves the scholars bring forthing linguistic communication through speech production and composing were the scholars ‘ focal point is on others understanding the message ( Nation & A ; Newton 2009 ) . It occurs when scholars write essays, and assignments, when they write letters, dairies, direct electronic mail and text messages to each other and when they write about their experience. As spelling is peculiarly of import in authorship, holding to compose can do scholars cognizant of the spreads in their spelling cognition ( Nation 2009:18 ) . Writing activities that can assist with spelling are copying, delayed copying, read and compose from memory, command, the assorted signifiers of guided authorship, composing with the aid of a dictionary and free authorship.Language-focused acquisitionLanguage-focused acquisition has many names ; concentrate on signifier, form-focused direction, deliberate survey and consider instruction or acquisition as opposed to acquisition, or knowing acquisition ( Nation & A ; Newton 2009:7 ) . It involves calculated acquisition of linguistic communication characteristics such as pronunciation, spelling, vocabulary, grammar and discourse. A assortment of activities may be used, such as pronunciation pattern, utilizing permutation tabular arraies and drills, larning vocabulary from word cards and intensive reading. Other activities may be interlingual rendition, memorizing duologues an acquiring feedback about authorship. There are legion techniques for giving calculated attending to spelling, for illustration. . The critical factor is doing certain that there is an appropriate balance of each of the four strands so that there is some calculated attending to spelling but this attending does non go inordinate. Deliberate attending can include a figure of activities such as screen and recover, utilizing analogies, utilizing word parts, articulating the word the manner it is spelled and visualizing. There is need to look at each of these techniques:Cover and RetrieveThe scholar writes a list of hard to spell words down the left-hand side of the page ( state 2009:19 ) . The first missive or two of each word is written following to it, for illustration: yacht Y happening O The words are studied and so covered and each word is written from memory utilizing the first missive hint. The first missive is written once more so that the activity can be repeated. yacht yacht YUsing analogiesWorking with the instructor or in little groups, the scholars think of known words that portion similar spelling characteristics to words that they have trouble in spelling. For illustration, if larning to spell ‘apply ‘ , the scholars think of the known words ‘reply ‘ , ‘supply ‘ which are words with similar spelling characteristics and sound ( Nation 2009:19 ) .Using word partsWord parts may be helpful in pulling attending to word constructing units. This may be peculiarly utile with progress scholars. For illustration, the word ‘separate ‘ contains the root ‘par ‘ which is besides in ‘part ‘ . Therefore, the spelling is ‘separate ‘ non ‘seperate ‘ .Pronouncing the word the manner it is spelledTeaching spelling is one of the great challenges of linguistic communication instruction. As a guideline, Nation ( 2009 ) encourages that students may be encouraged to i ntentionally misspeak a word like ‘yacht ‘ /yaect/ as a sort of mnemonic for spelling. Learners may besides be encouraged to look at a word, close their eyes and seek to ‘see ‘ the spelling of the word in their head. This is what is called ‘visualising ‘ a word.The instance for incorporating linguistic communication acquisition accomplishmentsAlthough a big figure of traditional methods of linguistic communication larning continue to be utile, current surveies encourage incorporating linguistic communication accomplishments in the linguistic communication schoolroom. For case, learning reading can be easy tied to instruction on authorship and vocabulary, and unwritten accomplishments lend themselves to learning pronunciation, listening and cross-cultural linguistic communication interaction ( Hinkel 2001 ; Lazaraton 2001 ; McCarthy & A ; O'keeffe 2004 ) . Task-based instruction of L2 accomplishments has built-in chances for more accurate and complex utilizations of linguistic communication ( Ellis 2003 ) . For illustration, narrations and description undertakings in fluency-focused instruction, arguments and problem-solving undertakings promote increased grammatical and lexical complexness in learner linguistic communication. Through these undertakings a significant betterment in the sum of spoken discourse and in grammatical, lexical and articulative competency is enhanced. English linguistic communication has become more internationalised, and hence, instruction of accomplishments such as pronunciation has shifted from aiming native-like speech patterns to aiming intelligibility ( Tarone 2005 ) . In this respect, instruction has to turn to issues of segmental lucidity, that is, the articulation of specific sounds, word emphasis and inflection and the length and timing of intermissions. The current attack to learning pronunciation is by and large based on three principled standards. First, pronunciation and modulation are taught in context and in concurrence with specific accomplishments. Second, direction in pronunciation serves broader communicative intents, and eventually but non least, the instruction of pronunciation and modulation is based on realistic instead than idealistic linguistic communication theoretical accounts ( Chun 2002 ) . The 1980s saw a displacement from the position of L2 listening every bit preponderantly lingual to a schema-based position, and listening teaching method moved off from its focal point on the lingual to the activation of scholars ‘ top-down cognition ( Hinkel 2006:9 ) . Emphasis now, is on the incorporate instruction of listening for communicating and in concurrence with other L2 accomplishments such as speech production, socio-pragmatics, grammar and vocabulary. The lingual and schema-driven strands of learning listening have found a niche in current incorporate attacks, such as task-based or content-based direction ( Snow 2005 ) . The design of listening pattern, for case, can integrate a figure of characteristics that make the development of L2 listening abilities relevant and realistic. Listen-and-do undertakings, for illustration, stand for a flexible beginning of listening input for get downing o intermediate scholars. The content of undertakings can be easy controlled in respect to their lingual and conventional variables, such as frequent happenings of mark syntactic and lexical constructions in the context of meaning-focused undertaking ( Ellis 2003 ) . This is done in countries of grammar buildings, words and phrases or colloquial expressions.Recent research has shed a great trade O visible radiation on the procedures and acquisition of L2 reading. As in hearing, L2 reading involves both top-down and bottom-up cognitive processing. Eskey ( 1988:95 ) suggests that the strongly top-down prejudice neglected scholars weak Aress of lingual processing. the bottom-up processing of reading involves a wide array of distinguishable subskills, such as word acknowledgment, spelling and phonological processing, morpho syntactic parsing and lexical acknowledgment ( Eskey 2005 ) . The reader needs to garner ocular information from the written text, place the significance of words, and so travel frontward to the processing of the construction and significance of lager syntactic units, such as phrases or sentences. Ocular processing of words and letters represents a cognitively complex undertaking ( Koda 1999 ; Chikmatsu 1996 ; Shimron & A ; Savon 1994 ) . Readers whose L1 writing systems are markedly diffrent from the that of L2 may be slowed down in their reading procedure by the demand to achieve fluid L2 word acknowledgment before geting text-processing accomplishments. The findings of L2 reading research on the cardinal function of bottom-up processing, word acknowledgment eloquence, and the acknowledgment of the morphophonemic construct ion of words and phrases have led to substantial displacements in reading and literacy direction to immature and big L2 scholars likewise. As an illustration, in 1999, the National Literacy Strategy in the UK introduced work on phonics, word acknowledgment, and in writing cognition primo to sentence and text degrees of direction ( Hinkel 2006:13 ) . In teacher instruction, current methodological analysis text editions reflect the alteration in positions on learning L2 reading, literacy and authorship. Most influential L2 instruction and larning publications have seen the demand to include at least a chapter on the instruction of bottom-up reading accomplishments normally followed by direction in top-down and strategic reading ( Celce-Murcia 2001 ; Carter & A ; Nunan 2001 ; Mckay 1993 ; Nunan 1999, 2003 ; Wallace 1993 ) .

One of a Kind Experience Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

One of a Kind Experience - Personal Statement Example The purpose of writing this essay is to narrate this unforgettable experience in the researcher's life, once if a person achieves something big in life, he/she obviously feels like telling the people about it, so that the researcher have written this with the very same feeling. After reading the essay the researcher wants the people to feel that so many things may happen for the first time in the life of an individual, but with planning the risks of the future can be reduced. Like the researcher had a good plan, which was of course plan B, but it’s always good to have a backup, so that if a person does not pull off what he/she is trying to achieve, he/she should at least have a backup which can help that particular individual. Planning is imperative and can reduce the risk to a great extent. Eliminating various risks, that were discussed in the essay entirely is just not possible, but the best thing which can be done is planning. The researcher also states that the most diffic ult part of the paper was putting the experience into words or in other words, finding the suitable words to put across the experience because many a time the right words just eludes a person and it's very difficult to narrate an experience because that experience can be taken in some other sense because of the words used in the experience this goes to show the importance of the words used in the experience. The strengths of the paper is basically how interesting the story is, its a dream come true for many young kids.... The trail began and it was a very fine day for me and I quickly adjusted myself to the conditions and ended up scoring two goals and with it I also secured a place in the squad of the Club. The purpose of writing this essay is to narrate this unforgettable experience in my life, once if a person achieves something big in life, he/she obviously feels like telling the people about it and I have written this with the very same feeling. After reading the essay I want the people to feel that so many things happen for the first time in the life of an individual but with planning the risks of the future can be reduced. Like I had a good plan, which was off course planB but it's always good to have a backup so that if a person does not pull off what he/she is trying to achieve, he/she should at least have a backup which can help that particular individual. Planning is imperative and can reduce the risk to a great extent. Eliminating various risks entirely is just not possible but the best thing which can be done is planning. The most difficult part of the paper was putting the experience into words or in other words finding the suitable words to put across the experience because many a time the right words just eludes a person and its very difficult to narrate an experience because that experience can be taken in some other sense because of the words used in the experience this goes to show the importance of the words used in the experience. Words decide what impact the same will have on readers and careful and appropriate use of the words can make an experience a treat to read. The same goes to show the importance of appropriate words. The strengths of the paper is basically how interesting the story is, its a one of a kind

Team Model Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Team Model - Assignment Example Workers may be indistinct in respect to what strengthening implies in substantial terms. The assignment includes the task to others of the power for specific capacities, errands, and choices. Strengthening is giving representatives the ability to make their employment. The idea of strengthening is nearly interfaced to inspiration and client administration. Representatives need to feel that their activities tally and strengthening are about getting this going (Boynton & amp; Fisher, 2005). Imparted choice making can enhance the quality and acknowledgement of choices, support specialist inspiration and respect toward oneself, expand the feeling of possession and enhance interpersonal relations with representatives (Lencioni, 2002). It is not simple to delegate. A rancher asked why his laborers came specifically to him with their issues and inquiries, skipping directly over the foreman. Upon further reflection, this cultivator understood that he was empowered this conduct by noting inquiries and tackling issues for the representatives. Rather, he required to help his foreman by having workers go to him with these matters (McConkey, 1974). There is a dubious equalization, here, on the other hand. While specialists ought to feel the need to work out normal issues straightforwardly with the ranch foreman, the entryway ought to be left open for laborers to sense that the rancher can hear them out, as well. In one homestead operation, the cultivator made it clear to the workers that his entryway was interested in listening on the off chance that they ever required talking. When the agriculturist would leave the field, be that as it may, the foreman would close that entryway, by advising workers that they were not to ever trouble the producer (Webb, 2002). The only way good team effectiveness can be felt is when the team work as a group to develop individual strength to maximize their

Scholarship essay for wsu personal stmt Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Scholarship for wsu personal stmt - Essay Example iven the opportunity for holistic development of physical and mental skills; as well as a balanced honing of spiritual, emotional, ethical and moral values. Through these abilities and skills, I have manifested belief in ethics of reciprocity that assisted in conflict resolution, negotiation and problem-solving over time. As a validated and proven leader, I was recognized through various academic and civic awards. Knowledge or creativity in a field: Describe any of your special interests and how you have developed knowledge in these areas. Give examples of your creativity: the ability to see alternatives; take diverse perspectives; come up with many, varied, or original ideas; or willingness to try new things. Being physically active is a very important commitment in my life. The various sports that I actively participated in over the years are football, basketball, soccer, track and baseball. From among the special activities I do for fun in the summer are hiking, wakeboarding and water skiing; as well as snowboarding and skiing in the winter. I enjoy playing the piano and drums and I play the trumpet in band and quad toms in the parades. Further, I work in our family apple orchard, especially at harvest time in the fall maintaining and driving equipment. Among these, a family trip Stehekin in our boat is a cherished thing to do. Dealing with adversity: Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to address this challenge. Include whether you turned to anyone in facing that challenge, the role that person played, and what you learned about yourself. The challenging experience of having to go through a series of surgeries due to spinal curvature was the most memorable. I had to go through two major surgeries, a brain and spine surgery to address the chronic dilemma. My greatest fear then, aside from recovering from all the pain is the thought that I could no longer participate in any strenuous physical activities because

Article Rebuttal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Article Rebuttal - Essay Example as Anthony Watts have found flaws in the Muller study because his theory does not add any value to the controversy since he does not focus on finding out whether humans are critical variable causing global warming. Global warming is a hot business topic because the governmental environmental regulators are getting stricter as time passes and are imposing new regulations that increase the costs of the company in order to implement the EPA mandates. During the 1990s when the topic of global warming became mainstreamed it was discussed as a threat to society and the government propaganda focused on blaming pollution from cars and industrial activity as the main cause of this phenomenon. Since then society has also realized that deforestation is a major contributor to global warming. The world is using too much paper and they a cutting down trees at an alarming rate. There are technological solutions on the way to lower the dependence of wood to create paper. An innovative company called Papyrus Australia invented a patented technology to produce paper out of the trucks of banana trees. Banana plants are a renewable source. The article lacked substance and critical solutions to the problem of global warming. The author’s arguments were irrational and they failed to bring any relevant new information to the table. The effect of the problem on humanity was not clearly identified. In my opinion the author should have focus more on finding solutions to the problem and stating the types of behavioral changes that have to occur from humanity to lower the effect of global warming and possibly eradicate the problem in the near future. Despite my criticism of the article there was some information that added some value to the discussion of the global warming topic. The author used some historical perspective on the topic which is always a good writing technique. I learned about the existence of a little Ice Age that occurred between 1300 A.D. and 1900 A.D. There were also

Russia`s Motives in Relations with Central Asia and the Caspian Region Essay

Russia`s Motives in Relations with Central Asia and the Caspian Region - Essay Example This essay discusses the relevance between economic power and military power of Russia in relation to the its interests in maintaining good relationship with Central Asia and the Caspian Region. To secure Russia’s economic and political influence over the Caspian region, the Russian government is preparing and maintaining its military power in the Caspian region Considering the economic and military power of Russia, this study discusses the history behind the Caspian Flotilla. As part of going through the main discussion, some real-life current events that are taking place between Russia, the Caspian region, and the central Asia are used as concrete evidences in proving the point of the research. Located on the northern part of Iran and surrounded by the Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and the Turkmenistan, the Caspian Sea is a point of political argument and fight between the Azerbaijan, Britain, and Russia because of its 20 to 40 billion barrels of proven oil reserves Similar to case of the Caspian region, one of the main reasons why Russia is maintaining a good relationship with the Central Asia is because of the oil business. Since most of the Russian oil pipelines are controlled by Moscow, the Russian government has to maintain its political partnership with Central Asia to keep the flow of oil business transaction between Russia and other nearby countries in Asia normal. Since a lot of countries in Central Asia have weak political power in the world market, Russia is also enjoying a lot of economic and political advantages there.

Theories of FDI Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Theories of FDI - Essay Example According to US, FDI is the "ownership or control of 10 percent or more of an enterprise's voting securities, or the equivalent interest in an unincorporated business" (Pustay & Griffin, 2006) Foreign Direct Investment can either be inwards or outwards. In the inwards flow, is where the foreigners take control of the host country's assets (Razin & Sadka, 2001). Governments of third world countries usually encourage such investment since it is beneficial for the country as higher currencies come in the host country. They usually give tax holidays, subsidies, low interest loans, grants, lifting of certain restrictions etc. to foreign investors to encourage them further. In the outwards flows, the residents of the host country take control of the foreign assets. This can happen through either purchasing available resources in the foreign country or by making investments in new buildings, lands and equipment in a foreign country or by leading a joint venture with a local partner in a for eign country (Razin, 2002).3. Why to opt for going abroad - An investment abroad can be to gain profits found due to lower costs, capitalize on the market opportunity or get the knowledge of host countries operations to reduce costs and increase efficiency.John Dunning, professor at the University of Reading (UK) and Rutgers University (US) provided the Eclectic theory of FDI which is also known as OLI paradigm. This paradigm is a combination of three concepts which helps to answer some of the questions asked in the preceding section. 1. Ownership Advantages The ownership advantage addresses the "WHY" question of reason for going abroad. A firm trying to go abroad either sees a market opportunity where it can gain profits or it sees a chance for it establish itself and survive in the long run. It gives firm specific advantages in either a costs cuts or higher revenues. China has emerged as a very lucrative place for investment due to lower manufacturing costs. Many of the industry giants including Sony, Honda, Apple etc. have started to manufacture their products in China after staring in Japan. Although the foreign firm (or individual) would be outsider with limited knowledge about the internal systems of the host country, the benefits resulting from the FDI will be far greater than the costs incurred to gain local market knowledge and to communicate and operate at a long distance. (Enderwick, 2005) (Dunning, 1993) (Dunning, Kogut & Blomstrom, 1990

Theories in phsychology of business Essay Example for Free

Theories in phsychology of business Essay Television advert and website are the devices of promoting that have an extensive variety of achieve and they have been overlooked to a greater degree. Individuals have an idea that TV adverts are for those rich individuals and website advert are for who have a machine or the individuals who oftentimes have sufficient energy to visit a digital or can get to machine. In no time, advancing and progressions on the World Wide Web are essentially conventional. Associations are making Web pages now and again just to show exceptional. Using the Web for publicizing requires certain supplies and authority, including getting a machine, getting an Internet organization supplier, acquiring (for the most part renting) a Website name, arranging and presenting the Website delineations and diverse limits as needed (for example, an online store for e-exchange), propelling the Website (through distinctive web hunt apparatuses, inventories, et cetera.) and keeping up the Website. Various people dont much consider TV advancements because of the inclination that the commercials are greatly extravagant. They are more extravagant than an extensive share of noteworthy sorts of publicizing. In any case, with the extending number of telecom organizations and stations, associations may find incredible game plans for setting attachments or diverse sorts of plugs. Television notices regularly are assessed with near considerations to radio advancements, that is, the amount of advancements, the length of advancements and when they are placed reporting progressively. Television types of publicizing can be utilized to reach numerous gathering of people at once and regardless of where demographic the crowd fall, there is a system airing fitting projects together with advertisements. Website ad have an extensive variety of achieve and they are not confined to topographical obstructions and regardless of where the group of onlookers is in any piece of the world and have admittance to web joined machine they can get the advert. Maslow`s theory                  Maslows pecking order of requirements is a hypothesis in psychology proposed by Abraham Maslow in 1943. It is referred as hypothesis of human inspiration. Maslow broadened his thought in including his perception of humans inherent interest Maslows chain of importance of necessities is regularly depicted fit as a fiddle of a pyramid with the biggest, most key levels of requirements at the base and the requirement for self- completion at the top. Maslows hypothesis recommends that the most fundamental level of requirements must be met before the individual will firmly want the auxiliary or more elevated amount needs. Maslows hypothesis is utilized in both TV advert and site in that when advert is continuously made the most imperative things are highlighted initially emulated by the needs that need self-completion. In site the needs that the business needs to promote are sorted from the most essential to the paramount ones and they are posted on the organiza tions site or any partner showcasing. Hertzberg’s theory                  Two- factor theory essentials otherwise called HERTZBERGS theory has mentality and their association with modern mental wellbeing are identified with Abraham Maslows hypothesis of inspiration. As per Herzberg, people are not content with the fulfillment of lower-request needs at work; for instance, those needs connected with least pay levels or sheltered and average working conditions. Rather, people search for the delight of more elevated amount mental needs needing to do with accomplishment, distinguishment, obligation, progression, and the way of the work itself. Herzberg added another measurement to this hypothesis by proposing a two-component model of inspiration, in view of the thought that the vicinity of one set of employment qualities or motivators prompts specialist fulfillment at work, while an alternate and separate set of occupation attributes prompts disappointment at work. Subsequently, fulfillment and disappointment are not on a continuum with one expanding as alternate lessens, yet are free phenomena. This hypothesis recommends that to enhance work disposition and benefit, heads must perceive and go to both sets of attributes and not accept that an increment in fulfillment prompts diminish in unpleasable disappointment. Two –factor hypothesis basics is not utilized in either the TV advert and website since this hypothesis is essentially planned for workers and not clients. Vroom expectancy theory                  It accepts that conduct results from cognizant decisions among plan B whose reason it is to expand delight and minimize torment. Together with Edward Lawler and Lyman Porter, Victor Vroom proposed that the relationship between individuals conduct at work and their objectives was not as basic as was initially envisioned by different researchers. Vroom understood that a workers execution is focused around people components, for example, identity, aptitudes, information, experience and capacities. Vroom anticipation hypothesis is based to look the certainty of the workers, feelings and view of the organization. This hypothesis is not utilized in TV commercial and the web ad. Freudian theory                  As per Freud psychoanalytic hypothesis, all psychic vitality is created by the drive. Freud additionally accepted that much of human conduct was roused by two driving senses: the life impulses and the passing impulses. The life impulses are those that identify with a fundamental requirement for survival, propagation and joy. They incorporate such things as the requirement for nourishment, haven, love and sex. He additionally proposed that all people have an oblivious wish for death, which he alluded to as the demise impulses. Self-dangerous conduct, he accepted, was one interpretation of the demise drive. In any case, he accepted that these demise senses were to a great extent tempered by the life impulses. This hypothesis is nearly utilized in the television and site advert since the adverts made are regulated to individuals with fixation at specific stages and with obsession at specific purposes of advancement. The organizations needs to comprehend thei r customers’ charisma they are planning to draws in consideration. Behavioral Theory                  Behavior argues that concepts like conflict, anxiety and fixation do not explain behavioral of an individual. Behavior of individual is guided by punishment one receive or rewards given that reinforce the behavior and increase the chances of behavior occurring. Behavioral belief that observable stimuli in the environment causes organisms to act in a particular way. This theory is related to Freudian theory and is basically employed in both form of advertisement in this paper. The anxiety of people is capitalized by most of the TV broadcasting station and when audience are longing to continue with their favorite programme there is a break for adverts to be made. For website it happens when a client visits a certain website and before it opens there are some adverts that pops there. In both cases advertisers capitalizes the behavioral theory in concepts of anxiety. Cognitive theory                  This theories emphasizes mental processes in development such as logic and memory. Piagel proposed that each of us begin life with a small repertoire of sensory and motor scheme such as looking , tasting, touching and hearing we use each scheme becomes better adapted to the world. We possess mental scheme as well and most developed in childhood and adolescence. Mental schemes allows us to use symbols and thinking logically. Cognitive theory is much employed in advertising and much in TV and website advert. Advertisers have to use the logic while advertising in abide to capture the attention of the clients or audience. In cognitive theory, the audience are not passive learners and the audience development has to be taken in to consideration before advert is made as shown by Freudian theory. Comparison                  Both covers extensive variety of group of onlookers over any demographic dissimilar to other type of showcasing like magazines They both covers all race of gathering of people particularly channels like BBC and CNN although their group of onlookers needs to comprehend the dialect utilized as a part of show. Contrast For television adverts there are those one planned for adult individuals and they are brought when certain system is broadcast. For Website anybody can get to the advert despite the fact that they were not expected for that age. My recommendation is that there the installment made to each advert in TV and site ought to be publicized possibly in a week or a month to make individuals have boldness to promote with them. The correspondence commission of each nation ought to meet up and draft the principle to be followed in making adverts that will reach anybody on the globe. References Farmer, W. (2001). 5. In Latent trait theory analysis of changes in item response anchors: Final report (2nd ed., Vol. 2, p. 95). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, Office of Aviation Medicine ;. Gardener, L. (1972). Theories in phsychology of business. In Attitude and motivational in languages learning (1st ed., Vol. 1, p. 211). Rowley: Newbury house. Kandoyan, N. (2002). Theories in phsychology of business. In A study of performance efficiency in public and private sector organizations (1st ed., Vol. 2, p. 47). Baltimore: John Hopkin University press. Laban, J. (2003). Phychology of thoughts. In Phsychology of customer in business (1st ed., Vol. 1, p. 37). Newyork: Jameson publisher. Martin, S. (1990). Business and people. In Learned optimism (1st ed., Vol. 1, p. 101). Newyork. Maslow, A., Hoffman, E. (1996). Future visions: The unpublished papers of Abraham Maslow. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Maslow, A. (1999). Maslows theory. In Toward a psychology of being (3rd ed., Vol. 2, p. 120). New York: J. Wiley Sons. Orlando, F., Orlando, F. (1978). Freudian theory. In Toward a Freudian theory of literature: With an analysis of Racines PheÌ€dre (1st ed., Vol. 1, p. 143). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Source document

UK Tour Operators Analysis

UK Tour Operators Analysis A tour operator combines tour and travel components to create a holiday, it designs travel routes for tourists and offer perfect arrangements of the airlines and hotels. In a word, a tour operator offers package holidays. A travel agent is a kind of retail business which is a buyer of tour operator, it sells travel-related products and services to customers on behalf of tour operators, airlines, hotels and other entities. Nowadays, tour operators and travel agencies are closely related to each other. Some tour operators own the distribution channel, they set up retail shops selling products and services directly to the final customers, or they establish close relationships with travel agencies under contracts. The development of the industry should be attributed to the development of transportation in the early age. With the invention of aircraft, the demand for travel increased rapidly. But in recent years, situations become more complex than ever before in such a changeable economi c climate, UKs tour operator industry are fluctuated in growth. This part of report focuses on the market and development during the year 2005-2008. The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) was formed in 1950 by 22 leading travel companies, now represents over 5,300 travel agencies and nearly 1000 tour operations. Its Members range from small, specialist tour operators and independent travel agencies through to publicly-listed companies and household names; from call centres to internet booking services to high street shops, occupy more than 90% of the British market. Thus statistics of ABTA can be used to conduct this report. According to the annual report of ABTA, during the year 2005-2006, bookings through ABTA members were 6% down on the prior year. The package holiday market continued to decline but specialist holidays, cruise tours and flight-only bookings all grew significantly. Company failure level rose substantially from 33 in the previous year to 47 this year. The industry structure changed a lot: independent agents turned to favour dynamic packaging with concentration on niche markets including long-haul, cruising, UK holidays and self-packaging. Big operators drove bookings online and through their own retail networks. 2006 is one of the most challenging years in the industrys history, with traditional business model under great pressure and uncertain future for many others. During the year 2006-2007, 32.8  million overseas visitors who came in 2007 spent  Ã‚ £16.0  billion in the UK, the volume remained stable but spending fell in cash terms for the first time since 2001. Financial statuses of ABTA members were quite positive: total net current assets of  £5.11 million (6% up) and total income of  £5.70 million (13% up). Company failure levels fell dramatically from 47 to 32 compared to the previous year. Several weaker players in the industry have been winnowed out of the market but the figures are still very enco uraging. The industry remained in good health. Consolidation and merger activity has been a key feature of the outbound tourism market in 2007. New business models had made that the differences between the tour operator and travel agency become increasingly blurred. 2008 is again a challenging time for the industry: at one time the fuel price had reached $150 a barrel which is the double of the price in 2007; sterling lost a large amount of its value against most currencies; what makes things worse is that the credit crunch caused the worlds economic downturn, consumers changed their spending patterns, companies struggled to survive. In spite of these factors, UK outbound visits remained increase by 1.5 million from 69.2 million last year to 70.7 million this year. The number of company failures fell from 32 to 30 compared to the previous year. But unfortunately, because of the high cost of fuel, the UKs third largest travel group-XL Leisure Group collapsed on 12 September 2008 leav ing 85000 passengers still on their holidays. This failure resulted in one of the most extensive repatriations in the UK travel industrys history with 85,000 passengers being flown home in a joint action by TUI, Thomas Cook and Virgin orchestrated by the CAA. Another important issue happened in 2008 is the merger of ABTA and the Federation of Tour Operators (FTO) which represents the continuing integration of travel agency and tour operator within the industry. The industry will benefit greatly from the combined different strengths that both organisations offer. The FTOs experience and expertise in operational issues fit ideally with ABTAs traditional functions. PEST analysis of the remote environment (P)olitical/Legal 3.1.1 Political instability and Terrorism Political instability is described as a condition of a country where a government has been toppled, or is controlled by factions following a coup, or where basic functional pre-requisites for social-order control and maintenance are unstable and periodically disrupted (Cook 1990). It is clear that the political instability in a certain country is negatively influencing travelers decision making with prospective travelers seeking substitute travel plans. It will reduce the demand for travel significantly as tourists concern about the safety first and nobody wants to travel in a dangerous environment that strikes, wars and terrorists attacks happen. Among all the factors influencing political instability, terrorism is the most significant one that affecting tourism in UK in recent years. After the heart-broken event of terrorist attack on 11th September 2001, the concern about safety in travelling is increasing rapidly. A series of coordinated suicide bomb attacks on Londons public tra nsport system during the morning rush hour happened on 7th July 2005. The discovery of two car bombs set to detonate in Londons bustling theater and nightclub district Friday, June 29th, 2007 has encouraged residents to remain alert. Following that case, a jeep rammed into a Scottish airport in Glasgow on June 30th, forced Britain to raise the threat level to Critical -the highest alert status. All of the events listed above had negative influences on tourism in UK and businesses of UKs tour operators. Report said that 15% of the advanced bookings were cancelled during the summer peak travel time in 2007. Government and Tourism Government always participates in tourism activities through several kinds of ways: government makes policies for the development of tourism industry; government makes policies that will have impacts on tourism industry. In this part, the report will address issues like the carbon tax influences on the industry, VAT effects on the industry and financial incentives government used on the industry. According to Conservatives 2007, aviation contributes just 5.5% of the UKs CO2 emissions but emissions from UK aviation increased significantly by more than 90% between 1990 and 2004. Government urged to take measures to reduce the negative impact of carbon emissions on environment: from 2001 to 2007, the original APD which is at a rate of  £5.50 on flights from the UK to elsewhere in the European Union and the European Economic Area and  £22.00 for other flights was introduced; a new tax which doubled these charges was introduced from February 2007. These changes in carbon taxation would result in changes in prices of travel products using aviation and finally affect the demands for travelling and sales for tour operators. According to Karen Mayor and Richard S.J. Tol, due to the changes in February 2007, countries near the UK would see a small drop in visitor numbers, and the UK itself would see a larger drop (1.2%). The recent doubling of the boarding tax will reduce arrivals by some 528,800 people in 2010, this is a 1.3% reduction (Karen Mayor, Richard S.J. Tol, 2007). UK government applies a rate of 15% VAT (Value Added Tax, temporary cut from 17.5%) which is the standard rate on tourism products, while most other EU countries apply reduced rate of VAT around 5% on tourism products. Report said that a cut to the 5% UK reduced VAT rate on tourist attractions admission and accommodation will boost employment and result in gains of up to  £760 million savings in increased income and corporation tax. It also predicts an additional  £440 million will be injected into the industry supply chain. The Government had announced an 18% cut in funding for VisitBritain over the next three years on October 2007. Tourism Alliance Chairman, Ros Prichard OBE, stated This cut in funding means that, in real terms, the Government will have reduced VisitBritains funding by around 50% between 1997 and 2011. That is a catastrophe for UKs tourism industry, VisitBritain will be lack of funding to advertise and promote UKs attractions, financial incentives to the industry had been withdrawn and other capital allowances had been reduced, while funding for VisitBritain had been cut back just at the time when they were needed the most, the growth in sales of the industry will suffer. (E)conomic 3.2.1 National economy and disposable income (impact of economic recession) The world is now suffering from the economic downturn caused by financial crisis, businesses collapse, jobs are destroyed, UKs economy is significantly influenced by the crisis. According to National Statistics Online, UKs GDP contracted by 1.6% in the fourth quarter of 2008 when the crisis started. It is now 2% lower than the fourth quarter of 2007. For the year 2008 as a whole, GDP rose by 0.7 per cent with a down trend of 3% in the previous year. UKs economy is experiencing the worst recession in over a century. The recession is a disaster for employment in UK, unemployment rate rose to 6.7% (0.6% higher than the last quarter and 1.5% on last year). 29.3 million people were in work in the period December to February according to the labour force survey (LFS). The number of people employed fell by 126,000 this quarter and down by 227,000 on the last year. All the situations listed above lead to the decrease of national income and disposable income. Tourism is sensitive to economic uncertainty and downturn: most travel activities involve disposable income, as total income drops, disposable income drops, people would conserve their money to cover the cost of life essentials, food, shelters and family necessities. The demands then decrease making tour operators suffer. 3.2.2 Fuel price Fuel cost is a major cost of airline companies, the cost will be paid by customers as fuel surcharge. Tour operators will raise the price of their products, especially for long-haul products when fuel price goes up. The travel enterprises will then be in danger of losing customers. When international crude oil price hit the record of $148 a barrel in September 2008, both airline companies and travel enterprises struggled to make ends meet. The fuel surcharge of some long-haul flights was even same as the ticket price, this might change customers behaviour at some degree, people may stay closer to their home or switch to other entertainments. The economic crisis UK encounters leads to a substantial decrease of oil price which could possibly boost travel industry to some extend though the major influence is negative. 3.2.3 Exchange rate The exchange rate, or the value of the British Pound relative to the currencies of other countries, has had a significant effect on both inbound tourism and outbound tourism. In 2007, the weak dollar makes UK accommodation and food more expensive for visitors from America, the exchange rate put London 15th in its popularity table in July 2007 down from number seven a year earlier according to Cheapflights. Due to the recent Pound depreciation, visitors from other European countries or America can expect to pay around 30% less than they would have done a year ago. British Tourist Authority (BTA) produced a study on The Price Sensitivity of Tourism to Britain, the findings show that overseas visitors are highly sensitive to changes in the cost of staying in Britain: for every 1% movement in the exchange rate which increases the cost of staying in Britain, the UKs international tourism earnings will decrease by 1.3% ( £160m). Research also found that more fixity in the exchange rate arrangements generates a positive effect on tourism and the more fix the exchange regime is, the greater the impact on tourism (Marà ­a Santana-Gallego, Francisco J. Ledesma-Rodrà ­guez, Jorge V. Pà ©rez-Rodrà ­guez, 2007). (S)ocial Social factors like age, changing life style affect the industry through changing consumer behavior. 3.3.1 Age and tourism According to United Nations Statistics and National Statistics Online, for the whole world, since 1950 the proportion of older persons has been rising steadily, passing from 8 per cent in 1950 to 11 per cent in 2007, and is expected to reach 22 per cent in 2050; For UK, the percentage of the population of state pensionable age exceeded the percentage of the population under 16 for the first time in history in 2007. The industry now is facing an older growing society due to rising life expectancy, marketing of the industry should focus more on older persons: the advertising and products should target more at older persons. 3.3.2 Changing lifestyle There is a growing trend of buying online which could reduce a persons shopping trip frequency, the access to the worlds products through internet reduces the flows of shopping tourists from one city to another or cross countries. More and more people tend to prefer clubs or watching TV at home rather than going out for a trip at weekends. 3.3.3 Growing concern about environment Tourism is one of the largest industries in the world with incredible developments each year, it contributes a lot to the worlds economy while the huge infrastructural and resource demands of tourism (e.g. water consumption, waste generation and energy use) can have severe impacts upon local communities and the environment if it is not properly managed. A concept: sustainable tourism which is defined as tourism which leads to management of all resources in such a way that economic, social and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life support systems by World Tourism Organisation becomes more and more popular. People concern more about the environment, they tend to favour ecotourism products. When developing new tourism products, tour operators should design their trips to be environmentally, culturally and socially friendly. (T)echnological 3.4.1 Technology development of transportation With the development of piston engine aircraft, the mass tourism boomed in 1950s. Transportation technology is always regarded as crucial in the development of tourism, places inaccessible before by car or train can be accessed swiftly by air. It is largely due to the improvement of transportation that tourism has expanded. The highlight of a trip is usually the experience in destination, visitors often neglect the process of getting to the destination. In this case, the faster the visitor can reach the destination, the more attractive the destination will be. The development of transportation especially the speed of the transportation tool will have a major impact on long-haul travel. 3.4.2 Internet and the industry The world enters a new information era with the development of internet technology. The worlds internet users are increasing sharply. According to Internet World Stats, there were 43,800,000 internet users in UK in March 2009 which represents 70.9% of the population, that is a 180% growth from the year 2000. Internet has become an essential part of peoples life. For tour operators, internet provides tour operators platforms of advertising and transaction, which can make their products more accessible to the customers thus bring more sales and profits. Moreover, it is cost-effective and time-efficient using the internet. For customers, internet makes it easier for them to browse the products and make bookings. More and more people are now booking their holidays on the internet, tour operators need to focus on the website design as well as the security of the transaction system. The internet technology makes it possible for meetings online, different companies can communicate or negotiate with their counterparts more efficient through videoconference. Face to face contact is not compulsory anymore. Business travel will suffer from that, there might be a decline in business travel sales for tour operators. 3.4.3 Virtual Tour Another developing technology which will have a strong impact upon tourism is virtual reality (VR), which is a technology allows a user to interact with a computer-simulated environment. Most current virtual reality environments are mainly visual experiences, displayed either on a computer screen or through special stereoscopic displays. According to Chemistry Industry technology news (March 2009), recently, Mobile aroma recreation system (MARS) devices, developed by researchers at the University of Warwick, UK, could be used to recreate these detected odours for VR users in real-time with the help of electronic noses. Electronic noses could one day be incorporated into virtual reality (VR) systems to add realism to simulations of holiday experiences. The new technology will make VR much more real than ever before, enable customers to experience the whole live holiday at home. On one side, virtual reality leads to the risk of diminishing the interest for travel; On the other side, V irtual Reality can be used to recreate historic sites and events for such purposes as education, special project commissions and showcase features at national and World Heritage visitor centres. VR technologies are also being used to provide a means of protecting the fragile state of some heritage sites, helping to educate visitors not so much about their history but in how to explore, interpret and respect them, says Professor Bob Stone, Scientific Director of Virtual Presence Limited, based in Manchester, UK. Though tour operators cant change the remote environment, they should change their strategies to adapt to the environmental changes. Porters 5 forces Analysis of the competitive environment UKs tour operator market is a quite mature market with four major players. After a long history of consolidation, Thomson Holidays (part of The World of TUI group), Thomas Cook, MyTravel Group (formerly Airtours) and First Choice dominate the tour operator market in UK. The industry is full of vertical and horizontal integration, vertical integration includes forward integration-acquisition of the retail network namely travel agencies, backward integration-acquisition of suppliers like airlines, hotels and transportation companies. Horizontal integration includes mergers between big companies and mergers between big and small tour operators. Michael Porter (1980) developed a framework for industry competitive analysis, consisting of five different competitive forces which refer to microenvironment. The frame work is shown in the figure below: 4.1 Threat of new entrants Tour operator industry is an industry which has relatively high entry barriers. UKs tour operator market is quite mature and its vertical integration had finished in the 1990s. Today all major tour operators in UK are highly vertically integrated and operate their own travel agencies, airlines, hotels and resorts, transportation companies and so on. Some of the tour operators become quite large multinational enterprises, they can reduce transaction cost due to large amount of orders, they enjoy the benefits of quantity discount and economies of scale. They always have esteemed reputation for organizing good tours. When people have demands for travel, they turn to those tour operators, people recognize their brand thus will be loyal to the companies. All of the factors mentioned above reduce the threat of industry entry, however, the threat still exists. With the individualistic change of demands and the changeable nature of tourism environment, new players are entering the tour opera tor industry focusing on niche markets. They supply special products designed for customers with special needs. The new players always rely on product quality to gain competitive advantage as well as filling gaps between new demand and supply. Ecotourism and adventure tourism was introduced by those new players. In order to expand the market share and cope with the threat new player had brought, major player began to purchase the niche operators, series of mergers happened within the industry: Headwater is a tour operator specialized in organizing cycling holidays and walking holidays which enables customers to explore at their own pace. Simply Travel is a leading specialist tour operator in UK offering an off-the-beaten-track alternative to the package holiday, creating inspirational holidays and providing a high-level of personal service. Thomson acquired both of the two companies as departments of Thomson Holidys; Panorama used to be the largest tour operator in Ireland for Winte r Sun departures from Ireland and Irish Ski holidays, it became one part of MyTravel Group and was given the responsibility of managing Manos Holidays after it was also acquired by MyTravel; First Choice took control of Meon Holdings specialized in villa holidays and Sunsail which is a tour operator specialized in watersports clubs, Yacht charter and Flotilla sailing. Large players can enhance their brand name attractiveness and achieve a long-term sustainable competitive advantage through acquiring new specialist players. 4.2 Rivalry among existing competitors The industry competitive environment has changed due to industrys horizontal integration, which is a tour operator offering one or several travel products takes over another that offers very similar travel products or services. The industrys competitive environment among existing competitors used to be full of disordered competitions, players competed with each other focusing on low price, they cut their price as much as possible to gain market shares, the whole industry became profitless and all the players suffered from that. In addition, their product quality was quite low due to the reduction on cost, they tried to keep their profits at a certain level while the prices they offered must be low. After industry horizontal integration, situation has changed: mergers and take-overs not only take place among small and large tour operators but also happen among large tour operators. According to Air Travel Organisers Licensing (ATOL) 2007 figures, the four big players in the industry o ccupy more than 80% of the tour operator market shares: Thomson accounts for 28% of total market shares while MyTravel Group has 21%, followed by Thomas Cook with 19% and First Choice with the proportion of 17%. All the four big tour operators offer full-range products from domestic holidays to outbound holidays, from business travel to leisure travel, from normal sight-seeing holidays to specialist holidays, differences among the four players are not significant. Companies compete with each other mainly based on brand identity and creating brand loyalty, a good brand offers distinctiveness and consistency to its target customers, thus branding strategy becomes dramatically important in companies marketing strategy to expand market shares. MyTravel Group launched freedom card-a kind of bonus card offers its members discounts bonus points and upgrades in order to maintain customer purchase and loyalty; Thomson also sought a way to keep their customers loyal to the company by setting up Founders Club new shareholders were given membership in the Thomson Founders Club which offered a 10% discount on Thomson holidays. Exit barriers of the industry are high due to some reasons listed below: Though investments on non-transferable fixed assets are quite low, redundancy costs are very high because those large travel companies often have a large number of employees thus it costs a lot to dismiss employees, in addition, there will be significant social problems if such large companies go bust. Those large tour operators usually have close relationships with their suppliers and buyers under restricted contracts, the penalty costs would be significant if they break the contracts. 4.3 Threat of substitutes The development of information technology especially internet has brought new opportunities and threats to the tour operator industry. Through using computerized reservation system (CRS), tour operators can obtain efficient information distribution systems and networks. Internet plays an important role in purchasing holiday products in terms of provision, accessibility and flexibility. With the emergence of internet technology, a kind of online holiday booking website was created. It can be seen as a kind of substitute to the traditional tour operators. Online holiday booking websites like Expedia.co.uk and Lastminute.com offers designed holiday routes, air tickets booking, hotel booking and so on just like what traditional tour operators do but in another much more efficient way. Customer can gain great benefits through using the new technology on booking, they have more choices and have easier access to the holiday products. The major tour operators are not resistant to the technology and are now investing heavily on their own virtual networks: MyTravel Group announces its intention to launch a new interactive digital television channel to be called Going Places TV and finally it was launched on channel 669 in February 2003; Thomson, recently enhanced its main website with a series of new features and content, in an attempt to retain customers and encourage them to book through the site. It also introduced additional editorial content to help consumers, as well as to enable the site to be picked up by Google in natural searches. Takeovers and merger are quite common: MyTravel Group acquired WorldChoiceTravel.com (WCT), a fast growing, US based provider of travel reservation services in March 2001; Thomson acquired a teletext operator Travel House in order to gain control of the virtual marketplace. The technology of internet makes information shared much easier and more widely than ever before, people can gain knowledge about the destination, the way to get there and accommodations there by easily clicking on the relevant websites. Information asymmetry no longer happens in recent years, the usage of tour operator becomes less and less. Cheap budget airline companies and online hotel booking websites provide travelers opportunities to get low-price air tickets and accommodations, these are really threats to tour operators. People tend to organize their own trips, they choose their own destinations, drive their own cars, book hotels from hotel websites or booking websites or even live in their own houses, they will experience more freely holidays through doing that. There is a growing trend of using this do-it-yourself (DIY) approach in travelling which could be a substitute of tour operators. Most travelers concern about price when making decisions, when there is no price advan tage booking from tour operators, travelers tend to favor DIY travel. Major tour operator like Thomson, MyTravel, Thomas Cook, First Choice offer a range of products featured with free concept, with only air tickets and hotel bookings at a low price with their popular trusted brand names. 4.4 Bargaining power of suppliers The bargaining power of the industrys suppliers should be described as low. On one hand, there are few tour operators in the industry to bargain with: suppliers like independent hotels and airline companies widely exist in recent times while only few tour operators are operated due to the consolidations within the industry, the suppliers dont have too much power bargaining with the major tour operators but still have certain degree of bargaining power on smaller tour operators. On the other hand, vertical integration with the hotels, airline companies and other transportation companies makes the bargaining power of suppliers at the lowest point. The backward integration enables tour operators to establish close relationships with their suppliers by signing contracts of cooperation or even the purchase of the suppliers: First Choice launched its own airline quite early in 1987 which represents the beginning of forward integration, in 2000 a joint venture with Royal Caribbean Cruises L td is announced and later a company called Island Cruises was set up and put into operation in 2002; MyTravel Group acquired Europes biggest resort complex, the Bellevue Hotel in Majorca, which comprised of 17 blocks of apartments and 8 swimming pools in January 2000. In June 2001 the company announced strategic alliance with Aqua Sol Hotels Limited, a leading hotel group in the Eastern Mediterranean. The Groups in-house airlines Airtours International and Premiair begin to trade as MyTravel Airways in May 2002. Thomas Cook owns Thomas Cook Airline and has a fleet of 45 aircrafts, the company has a partnership with SENTIDO Hotels Resorts the international hotel chain based on a franchise concept with 4-star plus beach hotels. The major tour operators all participant in the dynamic areas of tourism, there are few needs to bargain with suppliers, in a simply word, tour operators are self-sufficient. 4.5 Bargaining power of buyers The bargaining power of buyers should also be described as low. The buyers being discussed here stands for travel agencies not the ultimate customers due to the nature of the industry. The most important factor that affects bargaining power of buyers is forward integration between tour operators and travel agencies. According to Bloomsbury Business Library Business Management Dictionary, forward integration is a means of guaranteeing distribution channels for products and services by building relationships with, or taking control of, distributors. Forward integration can free the supplier from the threat or influence of major buyers and can also provide a barrier to market entry by potential rivals (Business Management Dictionary, 2007). Through forward integration, major tour operators take control of the distribution channel, they can sell their products in a more efficient and cost-effective way. Forward integration of tour operators and travel agencies makes it increasingly di fficult for smaller independent tour operators who cant reach their customers through high street travel agencies. As major tour operators all have their own travel agencies, independent tour operators rely on independent travel agencies. The number of independent travel agencies is declining because they cant offer customers the same discount as the integrated chains, in this case, independent tour operators cant compete with major tour operators on price, the number of smaller independent tour operators also decreases. The development of internet technology also has an important impact on the bargaining power of buyers, it has changed the pattern of traditional distribution, shocking the market by the rapid transformations which it generates across the whole industry. These days, the online travel market is experiencing a profound evolution. Trends in overall online travel market size are shown below: Now the bargaining power of buyers is being threatened by disintermediation the elimination of intermediaries, for example, the wholesalers found in traditional retail channels, in favor of direct selling to the consumer (Bloomsbury Business Library Business Management Dictionary, 2007). The disintermediation is caused mainly by the development of internet. Major tour operators have embraced the growth of online travel systems and the need for fast and efficient distribution systems and networks, they have built their own online distribution channels like websites and

The importance of information systems

The importance of information systems 1. Executive Summary In business world there is no substitute for right information at right time. It is evident that in last couple of decades attempts has been made to develop systems which make information more precise, readily available and easily accessible throughout the organisation. The development and use of information systems is a modern trend which is primarily concerned with the collection, process and dissimilation of useful information that directs an organisation for better planning, better decision making and ultimately the better results. Information systems and information management is a vast subject. In order to discuss the importance of information systems for an organization, the fundamental concepts like what is information, how it can be managed must be acknowledged. In this essay there will be brief introductions of these fundamental concepts and then there will be a case study of Volvos Knowledge Management System, the VPS which highlight the importance of information system and information management in an organization. Furthermore, it is not always without a hitch to adopt and appreciate a new concept and information systems are no different. There are some issues and problems in installing and using such systems which again vary one organisation to another. This essay will also touch upon those difficulties as well. 2. The concept of information in Organization The world information has different usage in different contexts but in organizational context it becomes more complex and difficult to comprehend. Zorkoczy (1981) defines information â€Å"as the meaning that a human expresses by, or extracts from, representations of facts and ideas, by means of the known conventions of the representations used†. On the other hand in organizational context, Stonecash (1981) defines information by stating that â€Å"information is simply symbols (data, text, images, voices, etc.) that convey meaning through their relative ordering, timing, shape, context, etc. information is the raw material for making decisions for creating knowledge and fuelling the modern organization†. In organizational context, information becomes more like a basic resource similar to men, material and money. Information is the binding element that holds an organization together. On the contrary, since it is intangible, information is quite different for physical resources and is often difficult to interpret and utilize in efficiently in order to achieve desirable outcomes from the oragnisation. Nevertheless, it is an integral part of organization and should be properly managed to achieve goals and objectives of the organization (W.B. Adeoti-Adekeye, 1997). Hence, it is importance to acknowledge the importance of information in the organizational performance. 3. Information Management in Organizations Many scholars have recognized the fact that right information and its flow with in the organization can drastically improve the performance and achieve stipulated objectives with ease. But at the same time it is important to note that there is no point of having information which is not relevant to the organisaton. This is the point where information management comes in to play. The prime objective of information management is to make relevant information readily available for the organisation in precise and comprehensible format. Langemo,( 1980) has defined Information management as the â€Å"organization-wide capability of creating, maintaining, retrieving and making immediately available the right information, in the right place, at the right time, in hands of the right people, at the lowest cost, in the best media, for use in decision making.† Also Best (1988) defines information management as â€Å"the economic, efficient and effective co-ordination of the production, control, storage and retrieval and dissemination of information from external and internal sources, in order to improve the performance of the organization.† 4. The concept of Information Systems Ever since its invention, computers are becoming integral part of humans and humans are becoming more and more dependent on the services offered by them. In words of W.B Adeoti-Adekeye (1997)â€Å"the advancements in computer technology have escalated mans desire to obtain computer assistance in solving daily chores and more complex problems: problems which were considered solely in the domain of mans intuitive and judgmental processes, particularly in organizations, a few years ago. Therefore, information systems are becoming area of interest in progressive and dynamic organizations. The need to obtain access conveniently, quickly and economically makes it imperative to devise procedures for the creation, management and utilization of databases in organizations.† Duff and Assad (1980), has defined the information system as â€Å"a collection of people, procedures, a base of data and (sometimes) hardware and software that collects, processes, stores and communicates data for transaction processing at operational level and information to support Management decision making.† In general terms, Information Systems can be defined as a set of interrelated components which accept data or information (meaningful data) as a raw material store and then process it to generates information as a product to assist and support in decision making and controlling activities of the organization. The Information System contains information about the organization and its surrounding environment as well. The surrounding environment includes customers, supplies, competitors and other stakeholders of the organization. The basic three activities input, processing and output generate the meaningful information that organization need. There is another essential element of system known as feedback. It is output returned to appropriate authorities in the organization to evaluate input (Laudon and Laudon 2006 9th Ed.). It can be represented in figure as follows; through one or more transmutation processes It comprises the following functional elements which relate to the organization and its environment 5. Importance of Information System in Organizations Managers must have relevant information that increases their knowledge of internal processes and external business environment. This knowledge reduces the degree of uncertainty and makes managerial decisions more rational and practical. Without relevant information most of the decisions made by managers will be like trial and errors, which in turns decrease the efficiency and profitability and increase the uncertainty with in the organization. The main benefits if an information system can be discussed as follows: 1 Economic Importance: Even though the cost of installation and maintenance of an information system quite high (depends upon kind of system) in the beginning, but in due course the costs drops and appears fair deal when compared to kinds of benefits enjoyed with the help of it. Also with the passage of time cost of information systems tends to decrease, whereas, costs of its substitutes (for instance labour) has been historically tends to rise (Laudon, 1990). Furthermore, information systems use networks, which help an organization to reduce the transaction costs, by making it worthwhile for organization to contract external suppliers instead of using internal resources. For instance, the Chrysler Corporation reduces costs by obtaining more than 70% of its parts from other supplier by using computer links ( Laudon and Laudon, 9th Ed. ). 2. Information Systems Improve Performance: Information Systems are designed to improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of a process. The information systems speed up the process and reduce the time by removing non-value adding steps in the operation. For instance, Citibank developed the Automatic Teller Machines and Bank Debit Cards in 1977( Laudon and Laudon 9th Ed.). It made financial transactions easy and was a huge success. Further, banks continued to innovate and these days with the help of reliable and secure information systems from TEMENOS, Infosys, Oracle etc, most of the customer can do majority of transaction from their home computer or even from mobile telephone. Moreover, information systems provide real time information which reduces the scope of errors, hence, increases the quality of the output of the process. 3. Importance in Decision Making: Information Systems provides the tools for managers enabling them to monitor, plan and forecast with more precision and speed then ever before. They also enable managers to respond more rapidly and adapt swiftly to the fast changing business environment. The Decision Support Systems can significantly improve results both on quantitative and qualitative fronts. For instance, there are around 142 million employees working in United States generating $12.2 trillion of Gross Domestic Products. If the decision making quality of these employees could be improved by just 1% in a year the GDP might be expand substantially. â€Å"This implies for any organization the ability of manager or employees to make right decision at right time with the help of right information can have extraordinary business value† ( Laudon and Laudon 9th Ed.). 4. Organizational Behavior Change: Behavioral researches illustrate that information systems facilitate flattening of hierarchies by broadening the distribution of information to empower lower-level employees. It pushes the decision making rights to the lower level in the organization as the lower level employees receives the information they need to make decisions eliminating the need of middle managers(Laudon and Laudon 9th Ed.). This also leads to the reduction is the administrative costs of the organisation. For example, after installing ERP system Knust-SBO Precision Machining1 of Texas, reduced the administrative staff by 50% and at the same time improved the accuracy of on -time deliveries from56.5% to 95%. 6. Case Study Illustration The efficient performance of an organization is dependent very much on the performance of the internal resources of organization and their synchronization with external environment. To illustrate the use and importance of a management information system in organizational performance the following example of Volvo from Managing Knowledge in MNCs-The case of the knowledge management initiative in the Volvo Group by Sona Gevorgyan and Boban Ivanovski (2009) will demonstrate that how Volvo achieved superior performances by deploying their Knowledge management system. 6.1 Volvo Group and Knowledge Management The Volvo Group is one of the leaders in its industry with production facilities in 19 and sales in more than 180 countries. In 2008 it employed more than 90,000 employees worldwide majority located in Sweden, France, USA, Japan, Brazil, China, and South Korea. The industry in which Volvo Group operates is highly technology driven and knowledge intensive. Its product range comprises construction equipment, trucks and buses, aircraft engine components, drive system for marine and industrial applications. Since it operates globally the Group is comprised of numerous subsidiaries, known as product related Business Areas (BA) and supporting Business Units (BU). The major function of Business area is to manufactures products, whereas Business Units are responsible for procurement, product plannings and financial aspects of the business. As the Group continued to grow, it recognized that the diversity that the subsidiaries represent could serve as opportunity to utilize all the knowledge within the Volvo Group. The group acknowledged need of the global Knowledge Management System which could help in eliminating waste of resources in terms of recreating knowledge in one subsidiary, while already possessing it in another. Furthermore, such initiative could potentially serve as means of discovering new synergies in the Group that may lead to smooth and efficient operation of the Groups activities. Hence, the Volvo Production System Academy was launched in 2008, aiming to undertake and support such a common group Knowledge Management initiative ( Gevorgyan Ivanovski ,2009). Knowledge Management Systems are designed to store and process the knowledge available in organizations (Wickramasinghe, 2003), and simultaneously support contextualized application of that knowledge (Maier, 2004). Workers are meant to use this technology in sharing information about past experiences and making sense of this information, while performing their tasks (Wickramasinghe, 2003). Volvo Production System Academy (VPSA) is the centre for research, development and innovation in the Volvo Group. The Academy is meant to represents a central research and development unit which provides the fundamentals for the KM initiatives. It developed the Knowledge Management System for the Group, the Volvo Production System. The assumption is that operational excellence, sustainable profitability and customer satisfaction is more likely to achieve if the workers operate in accordance with the VPS guidelines. The VPS model is described in detail through internal documents known as Reference Material, stored in central database and provided through the VPSA Intranet portal. The database and the Intranet portal on which the information from the database is available, represents the core of the KMS provided by VPSA. The ‘good example of VPS model is an essential part of the feedback and learning aspect of the model. It is represents a visual illustration of exceptional execution of a specific module described in the VPS model, this acts as a communication tool to encourage employees to repeat the desirable behavior. Good examples from various factories are stored in the central database in addition to the principles, and available on the Intranet portal. The good examples are either submitted by the factories and then quality-proofed by VPSA, or spotted in the assessments that VPSA conducts. By sharing them through the Intranet portal, good examples are meant to serve factories from different subsidiaries to locally implement the VPS modules by exploiting mutual synergies and learning from each others knowledge and experiences.( Gevorgyan Ivanovski ,2009) Discussion The Knowledge Management Systems are one of the most complex information systems. The Volvo Group has realized that their product and services are not limited to physical resources but also on the intangible assets i.e. knowledge. Since it operates globally and most of its business unit are geographically, demographically and culturally dispersed, therefore it was utterly important for the Group to synchronies its knowledge and make it available wherever and whenever it is needed to support the business processes and managerial decisions. The Group achieved it with the help of an information system, the Volvo Production System. However, installing an information system does not automatically result in success, unless continuous participation of all individual workers in processes is ensured. In this case workers have struggled initially to cope up with the changes the system brought in, but the strong organizational culture motivated them to get involved in the process. Problems with Information Systems There might be different reasons, but despite of many success stories there are examples of great failure of implementing information systems in organizations. For instance (web resource1); Hershey Foods The leading chocolate manufacturer in United States accounted 19 % drop in earnings was caused by an incompetent SAP ERP installation that caused distribution disorder during one of its most profitable seasons.   FoxMeyer Drug s The pharmaceutical distribution company was forced to declare bankruptcy after an unsuccessful ERP implementation. NASA -. The ERP system was not able to close year-end books on a Cal Tech contract which results in generation of inaccurate financial reports. Bang and Olufsen In 1999, the Danish Hi-Fi audio- video maker claimed that SAP systems has damaged relation with its retailers It is often argued that most of the issues in ERP systems disasters were not technical but were mainly related to employee and organizational culture of the firm. Many of the failures can be attributed to poor managerial practice in the form of inadequate training (Pang 2001). The resistance to change from with in the organization, lack of high flexibility in terms of customization of information system and inadequate IS implementation strategy may be considered as the major factors for such a drastic failure of the information systems in certain cases. Conclusion It is important to note that information management and information systems are the means not the end of the process. Both are the powerful tools in the hand of management, which when deployed appropriately can bring dramatic change in the way an organization perform and achieve its objectives. Appropriate utilization of information systems benefits both the organization and its employees and its stakeholders. But when misapplied, they can waste tremendous amounts of time, effort, and money. To accomplish successful information management and reduce the chances of failure in future, an information system must be designed and operated with due regard to organizational culture as well as technological factors. There should be an equal contribution from both the business management and the information professionals while designing and implementing a new information system. There is no doubt that better exchange of thoughts between organizational management and information professionals has the potential to develop information systems which will entirely change the outlook how we run business today. References; Best, D.P. (1988), â€Å"The future of information management†, International Journal of Information Management, Vol. 8 No. 1, March, pp. 13-24. Duff, W.M. and Asad, M.C. (1980), Information Management: An Executive Approach, Oxford University Press, London, p. 243 Langemo, M. (1980), â€Å"Records management/word processing a needed team effort†, Records Management Quarterly, Vol. 14 No. 4, pp. 10-14. Maier, R. (2004). Knowledge management systems: information and communication technologies for knowledge management. Zugl.: Regensburg, Univ., Habil.-Schr., 2001. Pang , L. Managers Guide to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems information Systems Control Journal, Volume 4, 2001 Sona Gevorgyan and Boban Ivanovski (2009) Managing Knowledge in MNCs-The case of the knowledge management initiative in the Volvo Group Stonecash, J.C. (1981), â€Å"The IRM showdown†, Infosystem, Vol. 28 No. 10, pp. 42-8. W.B. Adeoti-Adekeye (1997) â€Å"The importance of management information systems† Library Review, Vol. 46 No. 5, page 318-327. MCB University Press, 0024-2535. Wickramasinghe, Nilmini (2003). â€Å"Do We Practice What We Preach? Are KnowledgeManagement Systems in Practice Truly Reflective of Knowledge Management Systems in Theory?†. Business Process Management Journal, 9(3): 295-316. Zoikoczy, P. (1981), Information Technology: An Introduction, Pitman, London, p. 157 1The New ERP System Halves the Administrative Staff, Modern Machine Shop, Feb2002, Vol. 74, p142

My Personal Philosophy of Education Essay -- Philosophy of Education

Education is not a group of classes containing a series of facts to be used on a test and then forgotten. Education is a series of tools that students use every day in the classroom and in the real world. The English language is the primary language of the United States and people use it to communicate throughout the world. Yet, many students have difficulty using the language properly. As an educator, I would like to make a difference and help students write better and use proper grammar and punctuation. All students are capable of learning and learning about language does not mean students simply learn a series of rules. Using the language is the key to understanding it. Like many teachers, I prefer an eclectic approach. I see rows and columns of seats, filled with students. The rows would be changed into small circles for group work, which would be a part of my approach to teaching. Signs on the wall address the rules for the classroom and the consequences for those that break the rules. I would use a combination of essentialism and progressivism in the classroom, as defined by Teachers, Schools, and Society, written by Myra Pollack Sadker and David Miller Sadker. Lectures, textbooks, and written assignments would be part of my teaching style. Certain subjects lend themselves to progressive assignments, but English should be taught so that students learn the rules of the language and how to apply them. This would be essentialism in action. Writing is undervalued in many English classes. Instead of writing a report about a short story, students could write a short research paper on a topic that interests them. By using proper grammar, they would be learning to use the rules of the language and become stronger writers. A... ...y during the summer of 2014 and I observed in Education 210 and 305 during the fall of 2014, so not much has changed about my methods or my expectations. I still believe an eclectic approach is best in the classroom because different students require different approaches to material. A wonderful observation I did gain during my experiences teaching lessons was the light bulb flicking on in students’ minds when they understand material and the joy of experiencing this. My observations affirmed my decision to go back to college and become a teacher and I sawmodels of instruction put into practice by my supervising teachers. It is good reinforcement when students can experience what books teach in a real classroom. My philosophy may yet change and evolve and if so, that is good. A philosophy that does not change means the person who wrote it has not experienced growth.