TEXTBOOK-Brinkley, American History, Connecting with the Past, Volume Essay - 2

TEXTBOOK-Brinkley, American History, Connecting with the Past, Volume II, McGraw Hill CHAPTER 15 - Essay Example Presidents Lincoln and Johnson were of varying opinions that the war was to restore the stateliness of the mess up states. Due to the challenges faced in this process, Lincoln employed the military to not only reconquer the states, but also to regain the status of these states. The treacherous citizens were pardoned in that case, and Lincoln made voters take the oath of Liberation Proclamation (445). Andrew Johnson, an ex- slave possessor was of a low opinion on the blacks and that they should hold the low positions in the society. In this case, Johnson planned to restore the South by proclaiming reprieve on certain classes in the society, those of high class (444). Nothing much maturated from the 13th amendment on abolishing slave trade. Later, the Congress was to design its own plan of reconstruction that touched on the 14th amendment. This amendment according to Brinkley defined citizenship, and was to allow the African Americans part of the state (421). The blacks were also protected from the interference from the state and advocated for reduced representation in the states with disfranchising future supporters. In regard to this amendment, the State and federal nationality for all persons was in simple terms reinstated in spite of an individual’s race either born or naturalized in USA (438). Analysts and researchers argue that the process of reconstruction would have been easier if President Johnson would have accepted the amendment’s measures. However, Johnson was of the opinion that the constitution and the white supremacy would be in subordinated. He, therefore, worked towards defeat of the southern states and establishing a radical Republican Party (415). Historians are justified in calling this period the darkest period of American History since the move by Johnson not only undermined human existence, but also deprived them the right to be at liberty like other humans. If I was in power, I would have definitely put in place

Good vacations Essay Example for Free

Good vacations Essay Each year, thousands of people throughout the United States choose to spend their vacations camping in the great outdoors. Depending on an individuals sense of adventure, there are various types of camping to choose from, including log cabin camping, recreational vehicle camping, and tent camping. Of these, tent camping involves roughing it the most, and with proper planning the experience can be gratifying. Even with the best planning, however, tent camping can be an extremely frustrating experience due to uncontrolled factors such as bad weather, wildlife encounters, and equipment failures. Nothing can dampen the excited anticipation of camping more than a dark, rainy day. Even the most adventurous campers can lose some of their enthusiasm on the drive to the campsite if the skies are dreary and damp. After reaching their destination, campers must then set up camp in the downpour. This includes keeping the inside of the tent dry and free from mud, getting the sleeping bags situated dryly, and protecting food from the downpour. If the sleeping bags happen to get wet, the cold also becomes a major factor. A sleeping bag usually provides warmth on a camping trip; a wet sleeping bag provides none. Combining wind with rain can cause frigid temperatures, causing any outside activities to be delayed. Even inside the tent problems may arise due to heavy winds. More than a few campers have had their tents blown down because of the wind, which once again begins the frustrating task of setting up camp in the downpour. It is wise to check the weather forecast before embarking on camping trips; however, mother nature is often unpredictable and there is no guarantee bad weather will be eluded. Another problem likely to be faced during a camping trip is run-ins with wildlife, which can range from mildly annoying to dangerous. Minor inconveniences include mosquitos and ants. The swarming of mosquitos can literally drive annoyed campers indoors. If an effective repellant is not used, the camper can spend an interminable night scratching, which will only worsen the itch. Ants do not usually attack campers, but keeping them out of the food can be quite an inconvenience. Extreme care must be taken not to leave food out before or after meals. If food is stored inside the tent, the tent must never be left open. In addition to swarming the food, ants inside a tent can crawl into sleeping bags and clothing. Although these insects cause minor discomfort, some wildlife encounters are potentially dangerous. There are many poisonous snakes in the United States, such as the water moccasin and the diamond-back rattlesnake. When hiking in the woods, the camper must be careful where he steps. Also, the tent must never be left open. Snakes, searching for either shade from the sun or shelter from the rain, can enter a tent. An encounter between an unwary camper and a surprised snake can prove to be fatal. Run-ins can range from unpleasant to dangerous, but the camper must realize that they are sometimes inevitable. Perhaps the least serious camping troubles are equipment failures; these troubles often plague families camping for the first time. They arrive at the campsite at night and haphazardly set up their nine-person tent. They then settle down for a peaceful nights rest. Sometime during the night the family is awakened by a huge crash. The tent has fallen down. Sleepily, they awake and proceed to set up the tent in the rain. In the morning, everyone emerges from the tent, except for two. Their sleeping bag zippers have gotten caught. Finally, after fifteen minutes of struggling, they free themselves, only to realize another problem. Each family members sleeping bag has been touching the sides of the tent. A tent is only waterproof if the sides are not touched. The sleeping bags and clothing are all drenched. Totally disillusioned with the vacation, the frustrated family packs up immediately and drives home. Equipment failures may not seem very serious, but after campers encounter bad weath er and annoying pests or wild animals, these failures can end any remaining hope for a peaceful vacation. These three types of camping troubles can strike campers almost anywhere. Until some brilliant scientist invents a weather machine to control bad weather or a kind of wildlife repellant, unlucky campers will continue to shake their fists in frustration. More than likely, equipment will continue to malfunction. Even so, camping continues to be a favorite pastime of people all across the United States. If you want camping to be a happy experience for you, learn to laugh at leaky tents, bad weather, and bugs, or you will find yourself frustrated and unhappy. You can also write an essay like this one that maintains a clear sense of purpose and clear explanation from beginning to end. You will have to practice to develop this skill, but you can write effectively if you remember to state a main idea, support it with relevant reasons and examples, and emphasize your main point in your conclusion. You will also need to understand that almost no one can write an essay without several drafts or revisions. The reason is that a person cannot always think of what to say and how to say it at the same time. Revision is necessary to make sure that paragraphs provide enough explanation and that they are arranged in a logical order.

Joseph Stalin :: Essays Papers

Joseph Stalin Joseph Stalin was born on Dec. 21, 1876 in Gori, Georgia. Joseph Stalin’s original name was Iosef Vissaronovich Ozhungashvili, but he adopted his name to Joseph Stalin which means, â€Å"man of steel† (World Book 825). His fathers’ name was Vissarion Ivanovich Djugashvili. His father was a drunk and had a job being a shoemaker. Since Joseph’s father didn’t make much money Joseph’s mom, Ekaterina Gleladaz Djugaholi, who became a washerwoman to help support her family. The Stalin’s lived in a small shack, and Joseph was an only child. When Joseph was a young boy Stalin’s father left him. In 1888 Stalin was sent to a church school in Gori (World Book 825). He spent 5 years there and was a brilliant student. Stalin received a scholarship at the religious seminary in Tbilisi. To a surprise, Stalin entered his school to study priesthood in the Georgian Orthodox Church in the year 1984 (World Book 825). In 1898, Stalin joined a secret Marxist revolutionary group (World Book 825). Stalin got expelled from his school for not appearing for an examination. Stalin joined a Marxist movement and when it split in 1903, he went with more radical Bolsheviks. In 1904 he married but his wife died of tuberculosis after 3 years (World Book 825). He married again in 1919, but his 2nd wife killed herself, leaving Stalin with a son and daughter (World Book 825). The son became an alcoholic and his daughter defected to the United States During Stalin’s underground career he was arrested at least 6 times and spent time as an exile in Siberia. He engaged in robbery, murder, labor agitation, and served as editor and writer for various newspapers, where he first used the name â€Å"Stalin† (The Red Tsar http.go2net.com). When the communist come to power in 1922 Stalin got a great position as a Secretary General of Communist Party (World Book 826). Before Lenin died he thought that Stalin was too vicious of a man. Lenin wrote a note to Leon Trotsky to succeed him. Stalin had Lenin’s note suppressed and joined with two other members the Poliboro to defeat Trotsky. Then Stalin turned on the two who helped him defeat Trotsky and by 1928 had made himself the dictator of the Soviet Union (The Red Tsar http.go2net.com). With power in his hand Stalin began his â€Å"five-year plan.† The plan was to industrialize the country, a program that went hand-in-hand with a plan to bring all agriculture under state country.

Information Systems Increases Revenue Essay

According to a research project completed by CFO Research Services, a Senior Vice President of a large U. S-based global services firm stated, â€Å"The CFO should always allow IT organization to innovate, to experiment, and [should] understand that there is financial risk associated with innovation. Not every IT investment will have an ROI, but allowing IT to be thought leaders is imperative in today’s evolving technology landscape. † Therefore, technology and IT is central to building relationships with customers’ thereby increasing revenue for the company. The research project also noted that business intelligence, mobility, and cloud computing will be the most important technologies for business over the next three years. Using technology is difficult in today because it is constantly evolving. According to the research conducted by CFO Research Services, it states that â€Å"old models based on enterprise silos are giving way to a new hybrid – business technology – as IT organizations, finance functions, and business operations alike acknowledge you can’t have one without the other. By increasing the integration of advance technology to its fullest potential a company can accurately and effectively meet the customer’s needs and operate efficiently, thereby increase revenue. In order for companies to build relationships with their customers they must be able to gain the customers trust. According to Jean-Pierre Lauzier of Jean-Pierre Lauzier Communications, â€Å"trust is based on a feeling, in impression or a perception – meaning something intangible – and is not based on anything rational or logical. Studies have shown that 15% of a customer’s trust in [a company] comes from the [company’s] technical competency, and 85% from the [company’s] human qualities†¦ To build trust it must be natural and authentic. † In order for a company to effectively build trust with a customer they have to make the customer feel that they know them and are sincerely interested in helping them. One great way for a company to do this is through the use of Customer Relationship Management software (CRM). According to Dr. Ruth N Bolton, â€Å"CRM is a strategic approach concerned with creating improved shareholder value through the development of appropriate relationships with key customers and customer segments. CRM unites the potential of relationship marketing strategies and IT [information technology] to create profitable, long-term relationships with customers and other key stakeholders. CRM provides enhanced opportunities to use data and information to both understand customers and co-create value with them. This requires a cross-functional integration of processes, people, operations and marketing capabilities that is enabled through information, technology and applications. † Therefore it is the CRM system that makes it possible for a company to effectively and efficiently communicate with any number of customers so that each customer feels unique. At a high level companies interact with their customer in four ways: Strategic Marketing, Pricing and Revenue Optimization, Tactical Marketing, and Customer Experience Management. Successful companies are efficient and effective in all four categories. Customer Relationship Management software make this possible. CRM provide detailed information about a customer’s interactions with the company as well as analytical information geared to enable the company to successfully provide tactical marketing and enhance the customer experience. They do this by allowing a company to track and record all of the customer’s interaction with the company so that the company can customize their interaction with the customer based on the customer’s previous behavior. According to a Computerworld survey in 1996, companies implement CRM systems in order to 1) increase customer retention, 2) respond to competitive pressures and 3) improve customer service. CRM systems are able to also reduce company costs by reducing employees time spent with customers by eliminating repetitive tasks that might be required if the company did not have a CRM system. For example, when a customer is transferred from one customer service representative to another the CRM system would transfer all customer information and conversation notes so that the employee does not have to waste time asking all the same questions that the first representative asked before being able to attempt to help the customer. However, CRM’s primary focus is to create higher revenue by helping companies build a larger percentage of loyal customers through the use of building trust and relationships with their current and future customers. Acquiring new customers is extremely costly for a company. Surveys have shown that it could cost a company six times more to acquire a new customer than to keep a current customer. Not only that, but if a company is able to build a loyal customer base those loyal customers are worth much more than their own personal purchase volume. A loyal customer is likely to share their experience with others about companies that they are very loyal to and have a close relationship with. Therefore, the company is able to acquire repeat sales to the current customer and able to obtain new customers without any additional cost required to try to attract a new sales and customers. In addition, it has also been shown that it is 16 times easier to sell to an existing customer than it is to sell to a new prospective customer. Therefore, CRM systems recognize the long-run value in potential and current customers. Building customer relationships also require companies to communicate effectively with customers in a multitude of different methods. In today’s environment people are constantly connected and on the go. Companies need to be able to meet the customer’s needs when and how the customer want their needs met. Therefore, it is imperative for companies to offer multiple avenues for customers to communicate with them. Some of those methods include the ways for the older generation such as via the telephone and letters know now days as â€Å"snail mail†. However new technology methods are now being required such as through the company’s website, e-mail, and Social Customer Relationship Management system (SCRM). According to Chris Bucholtz of CRM Outsiders, Social Customer Relationship Management is â€Å"the response of businesses to the advent of social media and the eager adoption of the new communications channels by B2B [Business to Business] and B2C [Business to Customer] buyers alike. It creates a new environment for customer conversations, a new opportunity to learn about customers, and a new opportunity to engage, build peer-to-peer relationships and strengthen brand perception. † He goes on to state that SCRM is more of a strategy than a process or product. It can include many different technology platforms and tools. CRM is the foundation of SCRM and not a replacement for CRM. A company must have a good CRM in place in order to effectively utilize SCRM. According to Bucholtz, the definition of Social CRM â€Å"is a philosophy and a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules, workflow, processes and social characteristics, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted and transparent business environment. It’s the company’s response to the customer’s ownership of the conversation. This definition simply states that it is about people (customers) interacting with people (businesses) and not people (customers) interacting with machines. Due to new technology and people having unique styles of communication, SCRM is about businesses using social media in order to best meet the needs of the customers in the best style of communication for each unique customer. Social media comprises of various online technology tools and can include: text, audio, video, podcasts, and various social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Google+. Social Media can increase revenue and growth of a company by 60% versus only 8% for companies that do not use social media, according to Daya Baran on PRWeb. com. The article goes on to state that â€Å"consumers are spending more time and conducting more business online and businesses that have incorporated social media are reaping the benefits as they are gaining visibility with the consumer across the entire online purchase cycle. Social media technologies are fundamentally changing the sales, marketing and operations process. It is redefining the way businesses acquire customers, generate leads, creates competitive differentiation, customer response, branding and manage crisis. † Therefore, Social CRM’s aim is to enhance the customer’s experience and relationship thereby building loyalty with the company. And as we have already discussed, a customer’s loyalty is worth much more than their customers’ individual value thus increasing revenue for the company. Another customer relationship building mechanism is Customer Experience Management. The e-zine, Customer Experience Exchange, states that companies sometime have a hard time seeing what they look like in the customer’s eyes therefore companies have to invest in technology tools to inject that accurate outside-in view from customers. In the past, companies spent much effort on ensuring the share holders were happy rather than customers. Now with new social media outlets customers are able to make themselves heard to companies much easier than ever before. Take for example the recent backlash that millions of Bank of America customers showed when Bank of America announced they were going to implement a new $5. 0 debit card fee. Never before have we seen customers be able to so quickly pull together and force big corporations to think twice before acting. Bank of America was in jeopardy of losing over 300,000 customers if they did not listen closely. Another company that needed to listen to their customers was Netflix. Netflix issued a price increase of 60% to subscribers that wanted both online streaming of movies and home DVD’s. This cause Netflix to lose more than 200,000 subscribers which in turn made Netflix CEO offer a public apology to customers and eliminate their original plan of separating the two companies. With all this being said, it can be seen how imperative it is to a company to be able to attentively listen to their customers. Without an attentive ear and without a company being focused on Customer Experience Management, a company will have difficulty growing and increasing revenue. Anna Fiorentino, of Customer Experience Exchange stated that in order to develop the best customer experience through CEM systems companies not only need to listen as shown in the Bank of America and Netflix examples, but they must also measure and monitor customer conversations and feedback. Through the use of CRM systems a company is able to analyze customer satisfaction. She stated that Coca Cola, Inc. established a customer reward system called My Coke Rewards. This system enables Coca Cola, Inc. the ability to not only listen to their customers but to also measure customer satisfaction and â€Å"deliver real time results creating value for its members as well as internal and external partners. † Kaitlyn Dennihy a strategist at Engauge, the social media agency of record for My Coke Rewards states, â€Å"Measurement is key. Translating business goals into measurable actions within social has allowed us to track the impact of our communities as well as manage and exceed expectations for the social space. Every content piece in social must include a call to action for the user that can be measured. My Coke Rewards provides insight into areas such as customer service, product merchandising and exclusivity. † ING Direct, an online-centric bank that is part of Netherlands-based ING, also believes that meeting customer needs is the basis for creating a thriving social media campaign. ING Direct was able to increase their evenue by listening to online consumer conversations with the help of a program called Radian6. Radian6 is a social media monitoring platform that allows companies the ability to know what’s being said about their brands, industries and competitors online, but to also help them measure, analyze and report on their social CRM efforts. There are many tools on the market now that provide business the ability to obtain statistical information on company website visitors, Google analytics for summarizing search trends, as well as the ability to summarize searches for tweets known as text mining. Radian6 tells companies such as ING Direct who is saying what and whether customers are communicating through a news site or blog and what percentage of influence the customer will have on the company based on web traffic. Gloria Chik, social media lead at ING Direct stated, â€Å"If we get a client complaint, it’s been fantastic to get a full profile of that person. † Companies should be prudent in privacy issues when handling confidential client financial information, making sure to look at each client complaint or compliment individually. No matter what method companies use to track return on investment on Customer Relationship Management, one thing is certain, business must focus on providing excellent customer satisfaction and when faced with unsatisfied customers they must listen. Without satisfied customers a company will have a much more difficult and sometimes impossible climb toward growth and increased revenue. In todays technologically advance world business must constantly be evolving in order to meet the customers’ needs. No longer are businesses able to simply dictate what customers will pay for a product or service. With the today’s generation companies must be diligent in building strong lasting relationships with their customers. Business should look at their customers’ relationships like a marriage. Just as in a marriage a couple must communicate and listen to each other so should a business communicate and listen to their customers. When a company does this they will be able to reap the rewards by having increased revenue and growth. In order to reap these rewards companies must effectively utilize a CRM system and also incorporate SCRM as well as a myriad of other platforms such as mobile apps, mobile websites, QR Codes and much more. By utilizing technology business are able to develop stronger customer relationships by knowing the customer better. Research Comments When I started this research project I struggled at first trying to find enough information on the subject I had chosen. However, once I got started and finally developed an outline and thought process as to what I was going to talk about, I was able to find all kinds of information. Some of the websites listed below were uncovered during the research phase but not necessarily used. Some of the websites were not used because I found the information redundant and others had to be eliminated due to the need for limiting material so that it did not go over the stated maximum for the paper.

A Photograph-Shirley Toulson Essay

What does the word ‘cardboard’ denote in the poem? Why has this word been used? In the poem, the word ‘cardboard’ stands for the frame that supports and borders the photograph. The photograph shows the poet’s mother as a twelve-year-old girl with two of her cousins, Betty and Dolly. The word ‘cardboard’ has been used to depict that the photograph is many years old. The use of cardboard as a photo frame was common in old times. What has the camera captured? The camera has captured a happy moment from the childhood days of the poet’s mother. The photograph was taken when the poet’s mother (at the age of twelve or so) went to a beach holiday with two of her cousins, Betty and Dolly. The captured picture serves as a preserved memory both for the mother as well as the poet. What has not changed over the years? Does this suggest something to you? The lines, ‘and the sea, which appears to have changed less’ depicts that the sea have stayed the same over the years. It has not changed at all. These lines suggest a sharp contrast to the mortal human life. Human life is transitory and temporary whereas the sea symbolizes permanence, immortality and eternity. The poet makes use of the phrase ‘terribly transient feet’ to highlight the ephemeral nature of human life. The poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot. What did this laugh indicate? The poet’s mother laughed while recalling a moment of her past captured in the photograph. She looks back at her childhood days with nostalgia and recollects her innocent joys. Looking at the picture years later brings in her mind the fond memories. She laughs at the way they were dressed up for the beach holiday. But in the midst of these pleasant memories, lies the pain of loss. The pain comes from the acknowledgement that the lovely days of her childhood will never come back to her. What is the meaning of the line â€Å"Both wry with the labored ease of loss†? The context of the above lines is the mother’s recollection of her childhood days and the poet’s recollection of her mother’s laughing face. The mother has fond memories of her past but there is a sense of loss in recalling those moments as they make her realize that the good old times of her childhood will never come back. For the poet, the ‘loss’ refers to the loss of her mother. She has fond memories of her dead mother but she misses her laughter and her presence that will never return to the poet. Thus, both remember their pasts with a laugh that conceals sadness as none can re-live those lost moments. The three stanzas depict three different phases. What are they? The first stanza refers to the childhood days of the poet’s mother when she was twelve years old or so. The stanza depicts a photograph of her mother when she went for a beach holiday with her cousins and uncle. The second stanza refers to the poet’s childhood days when her mother had become an adult. It depicts her mother recalling her childhood days while looking at the old photograph of hers (mentioned in the first stanza). In the last stanza, the poet’s adult life is described in which her mother is not with her anymore. She has been dead for almost twelve years. The stanza depicts the poet’s looking at the same photograph and recollecting her mother’s laughter. The loss of her mother puts her in utter grief. She has no words to describe the terrible pain of her mother’s death.

Fiber Optic History essays

Fiber Optic History essays Our current age of technology is the result of many brilliant inventions and discovers, but it is our ability to transmit information and the media we use to do it, it that is perhaps most responsible for its evolution. Progressing from the copper wire of a century ago to todays fiber optic cable, our increasing ability to transmit more quickly and over longer distances has expanded the boundaries of our technological development in all areas. Toadys low-loss glass fiber optic cables offer almost unlimited bandwidth and unique advantages over all previous developed transmission media. The basic point-to-point fiber optic transmission system consists of three basic elements: the fiber optic cable and the optical receiver and the fiber optic cable. Optical communications date back two centuries to the opical telegraph that French engineer Claude Chappe invented the 1790s. His system was a series of semaphores mounted on towers, where humans operators relay messages from one tower to the other. It beat hand carried messages hands down, but by the mid-19th century was replaced by the electric telegraph, leaving a scattering of Telegraph Hills as it almost visible legacy. In the intervening years a new technology slowly took root that would untimely solve the problem of optical transmission, although it was a long time before it was adapted for communications. It depended on the phenomenon of total internal reflections, which can confine light in material surrounding by other materials with lower refractive index, such as glass in the air. In the mid 1840s, Swiss physicist Daniel Collodon and French physicist Jacques Babinet showed that light could be guided along jet of water for fountain display. British physicist John Tyndall popularized light guiding in a demonstration he first used in 1854, guiding light in a jet of water flowing from a tank. By the turn of the century, inventors realized that bent...

Free Essays on Children And Death

Introduction: Children and Grief Children can only conceive of death according to their stage of development. The children’s emotional understanding is not based entirely on their age. Therefore, children who have come into contact with the death of a loved one may have a greater understanding of the concept of death than other children their age. As Children Grieve Children’s interpretation of death will depend on the amount of knowledge they have acquired emotionally, physically, and intellectually. Children must learn that death is a final and last act, instead of one that can be reversed or avoided. Children’s ability to understand death happens through their experiences and their social interactions with others; therefore, children express grief differently. Thus, their actions and reactions are closely related to their developmental stage and understanding. Very young children often view death as temporary. This belief is reinforced through television, especially through cartoon characters that die then comes back to life. As children get older they begin to understand the concept of death, but they think it will never happen to them or the people they know. Death should be explained to a child with an example that can be understood. A good example would be a flower and how long it last, then continue in accordance with the child’s ability to comprehend, since children response to death is different than adults. Therefore, a child sometimes believes that the deceased family member is still alive; however, long-term denial of death and grief can surface as psychological problems at a later time. A child frightened to attend a funeral should not be forced to, but participation on some small scale is healthy. The act of saying a prayer or saying a soft good bye at the gravesite will help the child accept the death. After the child learns to accept the death,... Free Essays on Children And Death Free Essays on Children And Death Introduction: Children and Grief Children can only conceive of death according to their stage of development. The children’s emotional understanding is not based entirely on their age. Therefore, children who have come into contact with the death of a loved one may have a greater understanding of the concept of death than other children their age. As Children Grieve Children’s interpretation of death will depend on the amount of knowledge they have acquired emotionally, physically, and intellectually. Children must learn that death is a final and last act, instead of one that can be reversed or avoided. Children’s ability to understand death happens through their experiences and their social interactions with others; therefore, children express grief differently. Thus, their actions and reactions are closely related to their developmental stage and understanding. Very young children often view death as temporary. This belief is reinforced through television, especially through cartoon characters that die then comes back to life. As children get older they begin to understand the concept of death, but they think it will never happen to them or the people they know. Death should be explained to a child with an example that can be understood. A good example would be a flower and how long it last, then continue in accordance with the child’s ability to comprehend, since children response to death is different than adults. Therefore, a child sometimes believes that the deceased family member is still alive; however, long-term denial of death and grief can surface as psychological problems at a later time. A child frightened to attend a funeral should not be forced to, but participation on some small scale is healthy. The act of saying a prayer or saying a soft good bye at the gravesite will help the child accept the death. After the child learns to accept the death,...

Nueva México or Nuevo México

Nueva Mà ©xico or Nuevo Mà ©xico Both Nueva Mà ©xico or Nuevo Mà ©xico  are in fairly common use, and an argument can even be made for a third spelling, Nuevo Mà ©jico. But, the strongest argument rests with Nuevo Mà ©xico, for two main reasons: Nuevo Mà ©xico is the spelling used by the Diccionario de la lengua espaà ±ola, the Royal Spanish Academys dictionary and the closest thing there is to an internationally accepted standard for the language.Nuevo Mà ©xico is the spelling that appears to be preferred by the New Mexico state government. While the feminine form can be found occasionally on state-run websites, the masculine form is far, far more common. Both the masculine and feminine forms have a long history. The first well-known book about the area - an epic poem and travelogue - was Historia de la Nueva Mà ©xico written by Capitn Gaspar de Villagr in 1610. Indeed, many older writings use the feminine form, while the masculine form predominates today. The default gender for place names is masculine for place names that dont end in an unstressed -a. But the New place names are a common exception - for example, New York is Nueva York and New Jersey is Nueva Jersey. New Orleans is Nueva Orlens, although that can be explained by its derivation from the French name, which is feminine. Both Nueva Hampshire and Nuevo Hampshire are used in referring to New Hampshire. Theres a Nueva Londres in Paraguay, and the city of New London in Connecticut is sometimes referred to by that name as well in Spanish-language texts. Perhaps it is the influence of the many Nueva place names that encourages continued use of Nueva Mà ©xico in popular speech and writing. As to the use of  Nuevo Mà ©jico (the pronunciation is the same as for Nuevo Mà ©xico, where the x is pronounced like the Spanish j, not as in English), its considered an acceptable spelling by the Academy. Its the spelling used in state law for the pledge to the state flag and in the Spanish-language state song. However, there is also a bilingual state song, and it uses the spelling Nuevo Mà ©xico. So take your pick.

Formative Assessment Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Formative Assessment - Research Paper Example In this paper, I describe how I will create a formative assessment for a class I will be teaching and the role the psychometric models will play in my creation of the assessment. Moreover, I explain how I will use observation situation in my assessment and discuss the challenges I expect to encounter during creation of my assessment. 1. Creating a formative assessment for my class According to Brookhart (2010), it is necessary to organizing a formative assessment as a regular part of a learning instruction. The formative assessment will be organized in such a way that it will be incorporated into my teaching instructions. Before creating it, I will first decide what its purpose will be by selecting a formative assessment strategy that will serve my intended purpose better. I will then apply the formative assessment strategy I have selected to choose particular learning goals I will be assessing in my formative assessment. In addition, I will select what I will look for as my students undertake the assessment. Together we will think about how this assessment will help us in improving the learning process. Formative assessment chain consists of four activities which are: taking student response, monitoring the response, diagnose this response, share feedback based on this diagnose, helping student to use this feedback to learn better (Tuttle, 2010). In designing my formative assessment, I aim to consider all the four activities. I will first put into consideration the students’ responses based on what I suspect their learning skills and abilities are when selecting what to assess and how to assess it. After this, I will design a method that I can use to diagnose their response so that I can be able to determine their strength, weakness, and abilities. Then I will share the feedback from diagnose with my students and lastly using my knowledge and experience I will help my students to use this feedback to improve their learning. My formative assessment will have three components that are the feed-up, feedback and feed-forward. The main aim of feed-up will be to ensure that my students will always understand the purpose of the assignments, tasks, and lessons in use as part of my assessment. According to Frey and Fisher (2010), purpose drives both feedback and feed-forward. Thus, by ensuring that my students understand what they do and what they come across, I am certain I will be able to obtain accurate feedback that will be easy to implement in my feed-forward. I will use the feedback to obtain the information about the strengths and needs of my students. I will also use them to provide my students with this information. My main source of feedbacks will be assignments outcomes, observing how my students undertake the tasks, and assessing those tasks. I will observe how they learn during lessons. Most of this feedback will be in data form and, thus, they will require analysis and interpretation. I will use my statistical analysis and st atistical modeling to enhance my understanding of this data to give my students feedback that is as accurate as possible. I will use my feed-forward to guide my students’ learning based on the feedback I obtain from their performance data. In this component, I will put into consideration the students’ strengths, needs and weaknesses to design a teaching framework that can improve the learning of my students. In addition, I will be helping

The relationship between leadership styles and employee empowerment Dissertation

The relationship between leadership styles and employee empowerment and the impact on job performance - Dissertation Example By analyzing the results of employee and administrator surveys, the research will prove that positive relationships between management and the workers are mutually inclusive of increased job performance and employee retention. An Abstract of The Interaction Effect of Empowering Employee Work Behavior and Leadership Style on Job Performance By Student Name Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Economics The University June 2013 Recruitment, retention, and the motivation of high performing employees have been ongoing challenges faced by employers. In the past, business entities have relied upon the principles of their predecessors to structure human resource management plans through traditional styles of leadership. Today, diversity in the workplace has evolved into one of the most significant aspects for the management of human capital in all organizations. Workplace diversity can cause conflicts with regard to communication and the attainment of the best fit in human resource management. Behavioral theorists have used psychoanalytic research to identify the proven methods to obtain positive and productive behaviors. When an organization’s leadership styles promote employee empowerment, the level of the job performance will increase. Competitive compensation and other incentives for superior performance are some of the strategies that empower employees and promote collaboration. Successful management strategies underscore the importance of employee satisfaction and professional development. This dissertation will address the integration of effective leadership styles, employee empowerment, and methods of job performance assessment as well as the resultant outputs. The purpose of this study is to establish the importance of a positive relationship between leadership approach and employee empowerment with regard to job performance and the attainment of corporate goals. TABLE OF CO NTENTS COPYRIGHT†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦....2 SIGNATURE†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 3 PREFACE†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..4ABSTRACT†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã ¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦5TABLE OF CONTENTS†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦6 LIST OF FIGURES†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...10 LIST OF TABLES†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.....11 CHAPTER 1 NATURE OF THE STUDY†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...12 1.1Backgrou nd of the problem†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦

The Summer of Sam Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Summer of Sam - Essay Example The film then cuts to a car driving through New York. In these opening scenes great emphasis is placed on the juxtaposition off sonic and visual elements to create impact and viewer interest. As the film advances it begins to assume more of a traditional linear narrative format. As it follows a man and his wife as they go into a nightclub, and the follows the man as he leaves and engages in intercourse with a woman he picked up there; they are ultimately interrupted by a mysterious car. The next scene at 7:32 includes another murder. It’s clear that while the narrative appears to be centered around these characters, in reality the viewer has in part been placed in the position of the mysterious murderer, who hovers in the background throughout these narrative developments. The film then cuts back to the man in who has returned to the nightclub. These characters, in contrast to the murderer, represents the film’s first developed parallel narrative structure. At 13:00 the film introduces the third narrative element, considering the life of Richie, a punk rock youth. At 20:25, the film then combines these parallel narratives as Richie and the man from the nightclub meet-up. At 30:00, the narrative then seamlessly gives way to an encounter between two cops and perceived Mafioso.

A WalMart Monopoly Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

A WalMart Monopoly - Case Study Example Growth accelerated by takeovers and buyouts of other retail chains also fuel the power of the corporation to grow bigger. The study analyses three articles on Wal-Mart to assess their role in various economic scenarios. The author contends that a rural community where Wal-Mart has entered has had adverse effects. Wal-Mart is another stage in a long process where the retailers business has shifted from the local stores. Sears catalog was one, increased prevalence of the automobile giving access to local towns was another. The shopping malls changed the way America shopped. In the 1960s discount supermarkets made their entry, including among them Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart's strategy was to open a large store in a small town, within easy distance of its distribution centers. It took them 30 years to go national. The author has studied Wal-Mart and its impact extensively to devise strategies for his clients, Iowa retailers. The study has spanned 34 towns in Iowa, all of which has had a Wal-Mart store for at least 10 years. General merchandise stores in towns with no Wal-Mart suffered immediately when Wal-Mart opened. It is generally believed that people in towns with no Wal-Mart traveled out to towns that did . The effect has also been seen on eating and drinking places, which had been more frequented in Wal-Mart towns. Home furnishing sales in non Wal-Mart towns declined. The study has also unearthed that stores carrying similar lines as merchandise stocked in Wal-Mart, probably loses sales. Apparel sales in other stores fell by around 28% in the year in which Wal-Mart opened in a town. Retailers in Smaller towns with less than 5000 population lost most when a Wal-Mart opened. Vermont state officials had tried to keep Wal-Mart away to protect its small traders, but found that the entire sales shifted to New Hampshire and New York where Wal-Mart opened. The author concludes that loss of retail trade for small stores has accelerated in the past two decades. The author then proceeds to suggest a few ways in which retailers can coexist with Wal-Mart. They include stocking merchandise lines, which Wal-Mart does not handle, handle complementary merchandise, go for upscale merchandise etc. A b etter customer profiling, extended working hours, no hassle return policy etc, special order capability which large discount supermarkets don't possess etc are essential. Summary of Article # 2 Author: Hallsworth, Alan and Evers, David Topic: The steady advance of Wal Mart across Europe and changing government attitudes towards planning and competition. Source: Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 2002, Volume 20, pages 297-309 Date 2002 The authors focus on retail internationalization and the ability of EU states and their regulatory mechanism to handle the same. Since 1994, the Wal-Mart format has been creating a systemic change in the retail environments of a number of countries. Planning regulations in many countries are at odds with other policy developers who look forward to encourage competition in order to develop national competitiveness. Netherlands had a tight policy against big box development, but consequent policy decisions could make the market a

Weight Loss Programs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Weight Loss Programs - Essay Example t quickly, but, as seen in many follow up studies on a diet’s success rate, the long-term results are further weight gain and possible health side effects. In essence, the very word ‘diet’ implies a short-term effort rather than a long-term commitment. In this case, the program that will be discussed today should not be thought of as a diet, but a lifestyle plan that is easy to follow, realistic in its requirements and expectations, and accessible to all people regardless of their income levels. The program is the Zone Diet. This program is in the category of â€Å"right-food-combination† diets that base their eating plan on the belief that, in certain healthy combinations, the body will lose extra fat and return to a health body weight (Nathan & Delahanty, 150). The Zone Diet, created by Dr. Barry Sears, was introduced in 1995. Dr. Sears is a certified biochemist who argues that people gain weight due to unstable blood sugar levels and hormonal imbalances. The type of food and the quantities in which we eat certain foods contribute significantly to these issues. Unlike other low-carbohydrate diets, the Zone Diet is not as restrictive as the Atkin diet that prohibits the consumption of carbohydrates. Our body needs carbohydrates like our cars need gasoline; carbohydrates are the fuel for our bodies that provide us energy. However, what Dr. Sears highlights is that people’s daily diets are too high in carbohydrates, which is causing weight gain. The best example for why we keep gaining weig ht is to compare our high-carbohydrate diets to the high-carbohydrate diets of livestock. Cows fed on a diet rich in grass, food they are meant to eat, stay relatively thin; however, cows fed on a diet rich in carbohydrates, such as corn, become much fatter and in a shorter amount of time (DrSears.com). This example clearly demonstrates that, if consuming the proper foods in the proper quantities, all living things will return to and remain at a health body

A WalMart Monopoly Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

A WalMart Monopoly - Case Study Example Growth accelerated by takeovers and buyouts of other retail chains also fuel the power of the corporation to grow bigger. The study analyses three articles on Wal-Mart to assess their role in various economic scenarios. The author contends that a rural community where Wal-Mart has entered has had adverse effects. Wal-Mart is another stage in a long process where the retailers business has shifted from the local stores. Sears catalog was one, increased prevalence of the automobile giving access to local towns was another. The shopping malls changed the way America shopped. In the 1960s discount supermarkets made their entry, including among them Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart's strategy was to open a large store in a small town, within easy distance of its distribution centers. It took them 30 years to go national. The author has studied Wal-Mart and its impact extensively to devise strategies for his clients, Iowa retailers. The study has spanned 34 towns in Iowa, all of which has had a Wal-Mart store for at least 10 years. General merchandise stores in towns with no Wal-Mart suffered immediately when Wal-Mart opened. It is generally believed that people in towns with no Wal-Mart traveled out to towns that did . The effect has also been seen on eating and drinking places, which had been more frequented in Wal-Mart towns. Home furnishing sales in non Wal-Mart towns declined. The study has also unearthed that stores carrying similar lines as merchandise stocked in Wal-Mart, probably loses sales. Apparel sales in other stores fell by around 28% in the year in which Wal-Mart opened in a town. Retailers in Smaller towns with less than 5000 population lost most when a Wal-Mart opened. Vermont state officials had tried to keep Wal-Mart away to protect its small traders, but found that the entire sales shifted to New Hampshire and New York where Wal-Mart opened. The author concludes that loss of retail trade for small stores has accelerated in the past two decades. The author then proceeds to suggest a few ways in which retailers can coexist with Wal-Mart. They include stocking merchandise lines, which Wal-Mart does not handle, handle complementary merchandise, go for upscale merchandise etc. A b etter customer profiling, extended working hours, no hassle return policy etc, special order capability which large discount supermarkets don't possess etc are essential. Summary of Article # 2 Author: Hallsworth, Alan and Evers, David Topic: The steady advance of Wal Mart across Europe and changing government attitudes towards planning and competition. Source: Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 2002, Volume 20, pages 297-309 Date 2002 The authors focus on retail internationalization and the ability of EU states and their regulatory mechanism to handle the same. Since 1994, the Wal-Mart format has been creating a systemic change in the retail environments of a number of countries. Planning regulations in many countries are at odds with other policy developers who look forward to encourage competition in order to develop national competitiveness. Netherlands had a tight policy against big box development, but consequent policy decisions could make the market a

Research mothodology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Research mothodology - Essay Example The qualitative method is founded on a sound theoretical basis whereby a comprehensive literature review aimed at exploring the research topic is included. The theoretical aspect of the research in turn focuses on two key aspects, which include formulating a typology and analysing the current approaches and processes, employed by small firms. The deduction of the typology is used to help in embodying the findings and conclusions observed from previous research studies on similar topics. The observations made therefrom are likely to contribute immensely in arriving logical conclusions. The quantitative method, which is based on empirical data, includes collecting primary data through survey method, which involves collecting the necessary data through questionnaires. These include semi-structured questions aimed at managers of SMEs in the UK. The effectiveness of any research methodology is based on the philosophical underpinnings with regard to the approaches adopted. It also depends on the appropriateness of the research methods implemented and the level of accuracy of results derived therefrom against the knowledge required for the given study. Hence, the key assumptions made of crucial significance for conducting and for achieving effective evaluation of the data collected. This chapter aims to discuss the philosophical assumptions, the design strategies, research approaches and strategies used for the purpose of this study. Furthermore, this chapter also discusses the research instruments used, the methods of data collection and methods of analysis of the data used in this study. A research approach comprises of detailed plans and processes that elaborates on the broad assumptions with regard to the research topic and the detailed methods applied for data collection, analysis as well as interpretation (Crewel, 2013: p. 3). For the purpose of this study, different

Contract Laws In China and America Essay Example for Free

Contract Laws In China and America Essay I.Concepts and Features of Contract and Contract Law I.Concepts A.Concept and Features of Contract 1. Concept of Contract According to the provision of Article 2 of the Contract Law of Peoples Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as Contract Law), contract is the agreement in which natural persons, legal persons or other organizations with equal status declare a common intention to establish, alter and terminate civil rights and obligations. Contract was once divided into agreement and contract. Agreement refers to the civil legal act established by both parties consensus with regard to opposite intentions, such as sales agreement. Contract refers to the civil legal act established by two or above three parties’ consensus with regard to collateral intentions, such as partnership contract. However, such division can no longer be seen in our current laws and the two are collectively referred to as contract. Contract has its broad and narrow meanings. In the broad sense, contract refers to all agreements generating rights and obligations, such as labor contract, administrative contract, civil contract, etc. Furthermore, civil contract may also be divided into creditor’s right contract, real right contract, intellectual property contract, identity contract, personality right contract, etc. In the narrow sense, contract refers to the agreement for involved parties with equal status to establish, alter and/or terminate civil rights and obligations. The contract adjusted by the contract law is generally confined to the contract of creditor’s right, real right and/or intellectual property, etc. 2. Features of Contract It can be seen from the concept of contract contract is the agreement in which natural persons, legal persons or other organizations with equal status declare a common intention to establish, alter and terminate civil rights and obligations that, contract has the following legal features: Contract is a kind of civil legal act implemented by natural persons, legal persons and/or other organizations with equal status. As the most important legal fact, civil legal act is the lawful act implemented by civil subjects, which can generate, alter or terminate civil right and obligations. Since contract is a kind of civil legal act, it is different from fact behavior in nature. Fact behavior refers to the act which does not take the declaration of intention as an essential condition and cannot generate the legal effect expected by the party involved, such as infringing act, picking up lost property, etc. In nature, contract as the civil legal act belongs to lawful act. That is to say, only under the circumstance that the declaration of intention made by the contracting parties is lawful, the contract is legally binding and protected by national laws. On the contrary, in case contracting parties make illicit declaration of intention, the agreement, even already reached, may not have the effect as a contract. As contract is a kind of civil legal act, general regulations of civil law concerning civil legal acts, such as essential condition of civil legal act, the ineffectiveness and revocation of civil act, are all applicable to contract. 3 Contract is the civil legal act in which two or more parties declare a common intention. The establishment of a contract shall have two or more parties who declare intention to each other and achieve a consensus. If such declared intentions are not consistent, no contract will be formed. Even though â€Å"one party cheats or threats or take advantage of the other party’s precarious situation to make such other party to conclude a contract which violates its real intention†, the party suffering damages is entitled to request people’s court or arbitration agency to alter or revoke the contract (Article 54.2 of the Contract Law. For similar notes cited in the following text, Contract Law will be omitted). Contract is the civil legal act with a view to establishing, altering and terminating civil rights and obligations. Establishing civil rights and obligations refers to that after parties involved conclude the contract pursuant to the law, civil rights and obligations thus emerge between; altering civil rights and obligations refers to that after parties involved conclude the contract pursuant to the law, the previous civil rights and obligations between them is changed and new civil rights and obligations are formed; terminating civil rights and obligations refers to that after parties involved conclude the contract pursuant to the law, the civil rights and obligations previously existing between them are abolished. â‘ £Contract is a civil legal relationship generated on an equal and voluntary basis by parties involved. That is to say, the subjects concluding the contract have equal legal status and no party may impose its will on the other party. â€Å"Parties of a contract have equal legal status and one party may not impose its will on the other party† (Article 3); â€Å"Parties have the right to conclude a contract voluntarily according to law and no unit or individual may intervene illegally† (Article 4). â‘ ¤Contract is the civil legal act which is legally binding. â€Å"The contract concluded according to law is legally binding upon parties involved. Parties shall perform their obligations as agreed and may not alter or terminate the contract with no consent†; â€Å"The contract concluded according to law is protected by law† (Article 8). Unless otherwise specified by law such as force majeure, the party who fails to perform the contract or whose performance of obligations does not conform to that prescribed in the contract shall assume the liabilities for breach of the contract to continue to perform the contract, adopt remedial measures or compensate losses. B. Concept and Features of Contract Law 1. Concept of Contract Law Generally speaking, the concept of contract law may be comprehended in the broad and narrow sense. In the narrow sense, given contract is the consensus of parties to the contract in nature, contract law is deemed as the law implementing the promise and agreement of parties involved. â€Å"The core of contract law is the exchange of promise†. However, the concept of contract law in the narrow sense confines the contract law to normalizing the establishment, effectiveness, performance and default liability of the contract, but excluding the non-establishment, ineffectiveness and revocation thereof. Therefore, the scope contained is not comprehensive. Just as Bayless stated, â€Å"The contract law pays attention not only to enforceable contracts and   agreements, but to adjusting the result of no contract or agreement concluded†. Therefore, the concept of contract law in the narrow sense is not suitable to apply. The concept of contract law in the broad sense proceeds from the object normalized thereby, namely the transaction relation, and defines the contract law as â€Å"the law relating to the individual transfer of property or labor service†. Most scholars in our country also consider that contract law is the law adjusting the dynamic property relations. Both contract law and real right law adjust the property relations, however, â€Å"the real right law stipulates and adjusts the static state of property relation while the contract law stipulates and adjusts the dynamic state of property relation†. Given that the contract law comprehensively adjusts the transaction relation and the establishment of a contract equals to the formation of a transaction, the performance, alteration, cancellation and termination of the contract constitute the transaction process. Consequently, it’s necessary for the contract law to stipulate the procedures to conclude the contract by parties involved, ineffectiveness and revocation of the contract, remedies upon the failure or part failure to perform the contract, various specific contracts, etc. In a word, any and all transaction relations may be adjusted by the contract law. The definition of contract law as the law adjusting the transaction relation precisely summarizes the nature and fu nctions of the contract law. 2. Features of Contract Law The contract law takes adjusting the transaction relation as its content and is applicable to various civil contracts, which determines the contract law has the features different from those in other departments of civil law (such as personality right law). These features are: Contract law has strong randomicity. Under the condition of market economy, the transaction development and property growth require the market subjects to be independent and fully express their wills. Laws shall leave broad space for the transaction activities of market subject and the intervention of government in economic activities shall be limited to the extent prescribed in the contract. The requirements put forward by the market economy against the law which endow parties with freedom to act as far as possible are thoroughly expressed in the contract. Therefore, the contract law mainly regulates the transaction through random norms rather than mandatory norms. For example, though the contract law stipulates various contracts with certain titles, it does not necessarily require parties to design the contract content precisely in accordance with the provisions prescribed in law concerning the contract with certain title, but parties may negotiate to determine the contract articles freely. As long as the articles negotiated by parties don’t violate the prohibitive regulations of laws, social public interest or public morality, the effect of the contract is acknowledged by law. Notwithstanding law stipulates the contracts with certain titles, parties are not prohibited from creating new contract forms. Although the form to establish a contract is stipulated by law, unless otherwise specially prescribed about the contract form, parties are allowed to freely choose the contract form in principle. In short, a majority of norms of the contract law may be altered by parties through agreements. The contract law also takes the freedom of contract as its basic principle; therefore, the contract law can be called as law at will in this connection. â‘ ¡Contract law emphasized the principle of consultation on an equal footing and compensation of equal value The object normalized by the contract law is transaction relation, which requires the principle of consultation on an equal footing and compensation of equal value in nature. Just as Marx indicated, the commodity is â€Å"equal by nature†. In the exchange of commodities, â€Å"only the owners of commodities with equal status stand at opposite sides, and the means of occupying others’ commodities may only be used to alienate their own commodities.† The exchange of commodities inevitably requires conforming to the law of value so as to carry out the exchange of equivalent labor, which determines that the contract law attaches more importance to the principle of consultation on an equal footing and compensation of equal value than other laws of civil law. â‘ ¢Contract law is a uniform property law. Market economy is an open economy, which demands for the integration of domestic market with international market, domestic trade and international trade. As the basic law of the market economy, the contract law should not only reflect the requirements for a uniform market with a set of uniform rules, but also integrate with international conventions. â‘ £Contract law is the law producing social wealth. Market economy is a developed credit economy, with all credit systems established on the basis of contract relations. A developed credit economy needs promise and agreement. At the same time, the more solid and universal the promise and agreement are, the more developed the credit economy is. II. Comparison of Development History and Textural Difference between Chinese and American Contract Laws A. Different Development Histories of Contract Legal Systems in China and US 1. Emergence of Contract and Contract Law Contract is the result of commodity economy, which emerges along with the emergence of commodity economy and develops along with the development of commodity economy. The contract law is accompanied with the emergence and development of the contract. In later period of clan society, due to the emergence and accumulation of private property, the exchange of products among people was becoming increasingly extensive and certain rules came into shape gradually. In the beginning, these rules were guaranteed by oaths, customs and other ways. When the oaths, customs and other ways were incapable to guarantee the implementation of trading rules, the social community emerging as the times required (organ of state power) thus formulated legal norms to supersede the foregoing. The earliest contract law of human society was developed from customs, so it’s called as customary law. However, the continuous development of society, especially the development and change of social   imbalance, made the customs different in various regions and groups, which resulted in customs here and now being inconsistent with those there and then, thus leading to transaction disputes. This determined that the written law would gradually substitute the customary law. The Code of Hammurabi promulgated by ancient Babylonian Empire in the 18th century BC is the most ancient and most well-preserved written law discovered so far in the whole world, which has 282 articles in total, among which over 120 stipulates contract norms directly. The Twelve Tables and Corpus Juris Civilis promulgated by ancient Rome have more complete legal norms about contract, acting as the most complete and typical law reflecting the production and exchange of commodities among ancient laws and playing an important role in the legislation of capitalist countries in later ages. The French Civil Code in 1804 was based on Roman law. The civil laws in European countries, except Britain, mostly originated from Roman law and formed the so-called â€Å"Roman Law System†. Along with the colonial expansion of these countries, the impact of Roman law was further extended to more regions of the world. After the Second World War, the contract law of early modern period was properly modified to become the modern contract law. 2. Development History of China’s Contract Law The ancient laws in our country had some regulations about the contract. According to the records of Rites of Zhou, there appeared written contracts such as â€Å"panshu (bamboo or wooden slips on which the texts of borrow and loan are written)†, â€Å"zhiji (sales contract)†, â€Å"fubie (borrow and loan contract)† in Zhou Dynasty. â€Å"Where any party asks for the government authority to deal with any dispute arising from debt borrow and loan, the case may only be accepted with the â€Å"panshu† previously co ncluded present†. â€Å"Where any dispute arises from a borrow and loan contract, the official in charge of trying such dispute should make a judgment according to the articles specified in fubie†. â€Å"Where any dispute arises from a sales contract, the official in charge of trying such dispute should make an award according to the articles specified in zhiji†. All these written contracts were main basis for government authorities to judge right and wrong and determine the debt liabilities. In the following dynasties of Qin, Han, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing, laws had several regulations about contract and contract system. However, in ancient times, our country was always with the agricultural economy which was self-sufficient and self-supporting, and the commodity economy was not developed. As a result, the norms of contract law centering on trading rules was also not developed, with no specialized civil code. Even in the collection of various laws such as Tang Code and Great Qing Legal Code, articles pertaining to contract and contract system are also rarely seen. Since the founding of the Peoples Republic of China, the contract law of our country has achieved significant development. In the initial stage of new China, the Financial and Economic Committee of the Government Administration Council under Central People’s Government promulgated the Interim Measures for Organs, State-owned Enterprises and Cooperative societies to Conclude Contracts or Agreements on September 27, 1950, and the Trade Department formulated the Decision Pertaining to Earnestly Concluding Contracts and Strictly Implementing Contracts as well as the norms relating to various specific contracts such as sales contract and contract labor agreement of capital construction in the same year, all of which ascertain the legal norms of contract system and contract in the new China. Needless to say, due to the impact of wrong course and wrong trend of thought, the legal nihilism was rampant and the contract system was once cancelled in late 50s. Especially in the period of the â€Å"Great Cultural Revolution†, all the contract systems, relevant laws and regulations were discarded. In the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party, the wrong policy of â€Å"taking the class struggle as the outline† was abandoned, the focus of work of the Party and the nation was shifted to developing economy, and the strategic decision of reform and opening up to the outside world was made in the session. All of these opened up a promising prospect for the development of contract legislation . The Economic Contract Law, Economic Contract Law Involving Foreign Interest and Technology Contract Law were successively approved by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on December 13, 1981, March 21, 1985 and June 23, 1987. It is especially worth mentioning that the General Principles of the Civil Law approved in the Fourth Session of the Sixth National People’s Congress explicitly regulates the system of civil rights and the system of civil liabilities, playing a very important role in perfecting the system of contract laws in our country. Through more than a decade’s legislation, our country has formed the legal system of contract laws which is guided by the General Principles of the Civil Law, backboned with Economic Contract Law, Economic Contract Law Involving Foreign Interest and Technology Contract Law, and based on the contract norms in specialized laws such as Maritime Law, Civil Aviation Law and Copyright Law and a set of administ rative laws and regulations normalizing contracts. All these laws have greatly promoted the economic development and the establishment and development of socialist market economy in our country. However, along with the establishment and development of socialist market economy, this legal system gradually presented new defects. In order to adapt to the requirements of economic construction and development, it’s necessary to proceed from the actual situations of our country, summarize the experience of ten years’ contract legislation and borrow general international practices to formulate a uniform and relatively complete contract law. On October 1993, the Commission of Legislative Affairs of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress embarked on drafting the contract law on the basis of the legislation program approved in the Eighth Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. According to the advice from all sources, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress further modified the draft for many times to form the Contract Law of People’s Republic of China (Draft) and submitted it to the Second Session of the Ninth National People’s Congress for deliberation. Through serious and earnest deliberation by people’s representatives, this important law was finally approved on March 15, 1999, which is a glorious page in the legislation history of the Republic, marking that the legislation of our country’s socialist market economy is ushering a new phase. 3. Development History of American Contract Law As a whole, the American laws are developed on the basis of inheriting British laws. Although American laws are influenced by British laws at different levels in different fields, the contract rules formed in the British common law and equity law have a significant impact on American contract law. Therefore, when investigating the historical evolution of American contract law, it’s necessary to review the early development history of British contract law. a. Lawsuit of Promise in Early Britain In the medieval period, British law had not formed the concept of contract. The earliest to emerge was the so-called lawsuit of promise, namely, when the promisor violated his/her promise, the promisee might file a lawsuit with the court to force the promisor to implement the promise. The principle pursued by common court when trying such lawsuit was: only making a promise cannot generate a right of action; under normal conditions, promise doesn’t have the effect of compulsory ex ecution, exceptional situations excluded. In contrast to the practice of common court as mentioned above, other courts showed more active attitude towards accepting the lawsuit of promise. First of all, ecclesiastical court regarded the promise with oath as an irreversible one according to canon law and rendered the implementation. Secondly, in the court of equity, the Chancellor decided that since one party suffered loss because of the other party’ failure to perform his/her promise, such party shall obtain the compensation. However, till the 16th century AD, common court won the battle with the court of equity and ecclesiastical court striving for jurisdiction. In this process, the jurisdiction of common court was increasingly enlarged and the common law became the main part of British law. The opportunity for the contract law to develop through the judgments of ecclesiastical court and court of equity was always limited. From the 15th to the 16th century, along with the development of the relations of commodity production within the feudal society, to develop a kind of general basis for enforceable promise within the previous lawsuit procedures of common law was the urgent task to be resolved which was confronted by common court. At the beginning, common court just confirmed more exceptional situations under which the promise may be executed mandatorily. However, this didn’t change the basic principle that promise doesn’t have the effect of compulsory execution under normal conditions. Since the second half of the 12th century, common court started to confirm the enforceable effect of sealed covenant, which was a kind of written promise with a seal on. Some people considered, if common court could loosen its requirements about the form of this written document, such document may also be mandatorily executed even with no seal on. The existence of such covenant might become the general basis of the compulsory execution of promise, while till the 14th century, this possibility disappeared. Common court considered, the seal not only proved that one party had already made a promise, but also indicated that the promisor had seriously expressed that he/she would perform the promise for the promisee. Therefore, a covenant which was not sealed couldn’t be compulsorily executed. At the end of the 12th century, common court started to confirm the debt of a borrow and loan relation as the cause of action: In case one person borrowed an   amount of money from another person, the borrower should pay back the money to the lender. If not, the lender might file a lawsuit with the court to force the borrower to pay back money. Later on, common court further expanded the scope of lawsuit of debt repayment: Once a person granted a kind of material interest to another person, such person might lodge a lawsuit of debt r epayment against the latter one, no matter the interest provided was a valuable thing or personal service. However, the existence of such debt also didn’t become the general basis of the compulsory execution of promise for this debt was only confined to the interest which was already granted to others. If a promisee just accepted a promise from the promisor while obtained no actual interest from the promisor, he still couldn’t lodge a lawsuit of debt repayment. In the beginning of the 15th century, common court developed such a principle in its judgment: If someone made a promise of undertaking some kind of obligation to another one, and the promisee suffered damages in the process of the promisor’s performance of the obligation, the promisee might lodge a lawsuit to require the promisor to compensate. This is called the Action of Assumpsit for Misfeasance, whose basis was the theory of law of torts then already approved. In this kind of lawsuit, if the promisor didn’t perform the obligation it undertook, the promisee couldn’t obtain the remedy. In the second half of the 15th century, the judges of common court realized that, in order to win the battle for jurisdiction with other courts, the scope of lawsuit of commitment must be expanded. New legal precedent rule in this period was: If the promisor changed his status due to his dependence on the promise and the non-performance of the promisor made the promisee suffer damages, the promisee might also obtain the remedy. Till the 16th century, the previous scope of lawsuit of commitment was newly expanded, namely, when two persons made promises to each other and the promise of one party constituted the transaction object promised by the other person, even if no party of the two performed his obligation, the promise to be carried out shall have the effect of compulsory execution. The reason to adopt such rule was that, once the promise was made, the promisee has an expectation for the implementation of the promise, which should be protected, even if the promisee didnt perform the corresponding obligation, nor suffered â€Å"damages†. Generally speaking, the 17th and the 18th centuries were the period during which British contract law slowly developed. b. Evolution of American Contract Law in Modern Society The American historian Henry Maine said in 1861 that, â€Å"till now, the movement of this developing society has always been a movement from identity to contract.† This sentence indicates the profound revolution undergone by western society from the feudal times of middle ages to the times of â€Å"laissez-faire capitalism†: In the feudal society, human relation was determined by their identity; in the period of â€Å"laissez-faire capitalism†, human relation was determined by the agreement reached between them. The whole 19th c entury is regarded as the century of contract by western historians. The United States, just independent from the colonial domination of the Great Britain, entered in such a century soon after its establishment. In this period, main systems of British and American contract laws were both confirmed. With regard to the main body, American contract law remained consistent with British contract law. In this period, the consistency of American contract law with that of western countries was: The contract concluded by parties involved was generally considered as having the effect of compulsory execution. Once confirmed, such effect shall become absolute, and may not be changed by state will. In the second half of the 19th century, as the laissez-faire economy developed toward an extreme orientation, to safeguard individuals right to freely conclude contracts had become the primary goal of laws. In the eyes of Americans at that time, â€Å"in nature, justice is to safeguard lawful contracts†. The freedom of contract in the 19th century gave a full display of personal â€Å"independent will† and made private economy taking the â€Å"struggle for existence† as the motive power obtain rapid development with no government restraint and intervention. However, in late 19th century and early 20th century, the defects caused by this unlimited freedom of contract had fully appeared. In this period, contract laws of western countries underwent a new round of modification. The result was, the previous social movement â€Å"from identity to contract† started to turn to the social movement â€Å"from contract to identity†. In the US, since this century, especially since the Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 30’s, personal freedom of contract has received more and more restrictions. Today, the â€Å"identity† is playing an important role in determining the relation of rights and obligations among people for the second time: Workers are protected by â€Å"workers compensation law† due to their identity, and the article of employment contract preventing the employer from undertaking the compensation liability for industrial accidents is no longer legally binding. Similarly, the lessee of rental agreement, the insurer of insurance contract and the demanders of various contracts of public service are all protected by certain laws due to their special identities. It can be seen from the aforementioned change that, in modern American contract law, to provide special legal protection for the vulnerable party of a transaction has already become a consistent policy. Another feature displayed by American contract law in the process of its modern development and evolution is that, the impact of traditional British common law and systems and principles of other laws is decreasing, which is fully reflected from the fact that the Uniform Commercial Code abandoned and modified the traditional system of British contract law. B. Textual Difference and its Reasons between Chinese and American Contract Law Systems Given the development history of contract and the difference between Chinese and American political systems, there are following features when comparing Chinese contract law with American contract law: First, the contract law in our country is a uniform contract law applicable to all regions of China, whether in capital Beijing or western provinces. Second, this contract law is drafted with a round axis structure. Basic principles  are firstly stipulated, and then some specific contracts, such as sales contract, lease contract, etc. In this way, the basic principles are regarded as the axis, and many specific contracts are radiated to satisfy different transaction requirements. For example, the transport contract has the problem which cannot be covered by basic principles. This problem can be resolved by combining the axis and the excircle. American political system is different from Chinese political system, and the development history of American contract law is also different. In America, it’s impossible for the legislative body to approve a law with the two features as mentioned above. America has no uniform contract law, nor state contract law. The international contract laws, such as the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) and New York Arbitration Treaty are commonly used in all used in the whole United States. However, with regard to the contract among American individuals, no law is promulgated by the federation. Consequently, there is no federal legislation with a round axis structure in America. Basically, each state has its own contract law and is responsible for developing basic principles of such law. The contract law of one state is not only applicable to the court of the state, but also binding on the federal court sometimes. In other words, as long as the state contract law exists, the federal court shall apply it. Of course, when 50 different contract laws are adjusting the same legal fact, the court will be confronted with a problem, namely, how to achieve the consistency of application of law? It’s also necessary to notice that American contract law is developed by the court rather than the legislative organ. You must be familiar with the concept of common law, which was formed in Britain and then introduced to America. The contract concept of the common law is formed th rough a long time. Their judges make the judgment and give opinions on the judgment. Now, in this connection, the greatest exception is the UCC. American UCC is a uniform law. In America, every state has its own laws, but these laws cannot cover all transactions. Some are involved with transaction of several properties, such as the transaction and lease of products and some are related to bank business, security trading, e-commerce, etc. However, the construction contract and real estate contract are adjusted by commercial law. Since different state laws may result in different court judgments, if the Congress can approve a law with the round axis structure, these problems will be soon resolved, because doing that can get all transactions under the adjustment of one law. C. Summary The development histories of Chinese and American contract law systems are different. Chinese culture has a long history and the contract law system was born very early. On the contrary, the US is a new country breaking away from the colonization. Although American economy is developing rapidly, its legal systems are mainly inherited from the Britain; especially the American contract law is significantly influenced by the contract rules formed in Britain common law and equity law. In short, China has a uniform contract law applicable to the whole nation, while America has no uniform contract code other than international contract laws. In addition, the difference of Chinese and American political systems leads to a great difference in the textural structures of Chinese and American contract law   systems: Chinese contract law system is based on basic principles which guides various specific contract law systems so as to form a complete set, while America has neither guidance of basic principles in the contract law nor uniform contract law applicable to the whole nation. All in all, the development history and political system of a country influence its legal system. III. Conclusion The economic globalization and political polarization are two trends of the world development. Since China has joined the WTO, how to coordinate our laws is the central issue in the field of law. Nowadays, the world has ushered in the era of knowledge economy and the advancement of science and technology is crucial to the economic development. However, the development of economy as well as the development, transfer and application of technology will inevitably require reforming the traditional contract law system. Some countries have already been reforming the current contract law systems quietly. The birth of China’s new Contract Law is confronted with the era of knowledge economy rather than that of planned economy or the transitional period from planned economy to market economy. The development of science and technology in the era of knowledge economy is so vigorous that it’s probable that difficulties in application will soon emerge after the implementation of new contract law, or even some regulations are already outdated. This situation may be considered as normal because law is the superstructure, which is always behind the economic development. Therefore, any law has to be continuously reformed and perfected. Bibliography 1. http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com 2. Wilmot et al, 2009, Contract Law, Third Edition, Oxford University Press 3. Ewan McKendrick, Contract Law Text, Cases and Materials (2005) Oxford University Press 4. P.S. Atiyah, The Rise and Fall of Freedom of Contract (1979) Clarendon Press 5. Randy E. Barnett, Contracts (2003) Aspen Publishers 6. Scott Fruehwald, Reciprocal Altruism as the Basis for Contract, 47 University of Louisville Law Review 489 (2009).

Sales and planning activities

Sales and planning activities Introduction Sales and planning activities are type of sales and operation planning processes. These activities are type of integrated management process of business according to which it is a responsibility of leaders and the managers to continuously see various objectives to focus on. There is a proper alignment of the processes or the activities included under such plans. It is very much important formally align all the process of these activities in a routine because it keeps synchronization among all the people of the organization. Sales and planning activities are about forecasting the capabilities of various department of an organization. Planning is required for every department whether it is technical department, software building or software selling department. These kinds of activities provide an exact view of information flowing in the company. Sales plan is entirely a different thing. Sales activities are related to selling any thing from the company. There are planning phases for sa les activities as well. Sales activities require a proper research about the market that what type of market, people and up to which extent the sale will be profitable. There should be an appropriate analysis about each and every aspect for performing sales activities. There are several challenges that organizations face in case of performing sales activities. These business challenges are as follows: (Sales Planning Forecasting) Ø There has to have limited view of the sales and various programs related to marketing of the product or the company itself Ø There are situation in which it becomes difficult for the company to manage sales cycles in order to neglect surprises or various drawbacks that come because of the sales cycle Ø There is no idea to the company that what is the reason behind breakdown of sale in the industry Ø It is difficult for the company to prepare an excess inventory because there is no accurate forecast with the company which basically is an effect of manufacturing various products for the people which in actual they do not want Ø It is very important for any organization to take care of the sales plan because manufacturing, scheduling and planning activities Ø Effectiveness of various activities required for this purpose Body The Aggregate Operations Plan Aggregate operation planning basically works for converting a business plan which is made for annual quarterly basis into a form of border labor plan or output plan of around six months to eighteen months. Main objective of this aggregate plan is to meet various demands required to that respective period of time. It is very much required to convert a long term plan into an operational plan because it gives a view that how come operations of the company goes around. This is done in order to ensure that all the supplies made are done in the lowest cost possible. Hence it is necessary to make an aggregate operational plan. There are different types of plans used for this aggregate operational planning, like one year plans; they are called long range plans. With long range plans there are short range plan as well which talk about short period of time. There are some middle range plans as well which are of a period of six month to eighteen months depending about the requirement of the pla n. Purpose (how it seeks optimal combination of production elements) This part will discuss various purpose of aggregate operational plan. Purpose of the plan means that how can we make different combinations of different elements of production. This is an important issue because at the starting it is very much necessary that we require an exact knowledge about what is required in the plan and what do we have to do. The main purpose of the aggregate operational plan is to convert various long range plans into middle range plans and middle range plans into shorter range plans. Aggregate operational plans are important in solving various purposes because it talks about all the operations going on in the company or the organization. The main purpose of aggregate operational plan is that it links various strategic activities like strategic plan of the company and also activity and the capacity plan with bigger categories that come into planning activities like workforce in the organization, labor force, size of the organization and also the level of produ ction in the company. As the purpose of aggregate operational plan is important, as decision rule for making plans of various activities are selected then it is an important role of the aggregate demand plan for managing the things and this how inventory of all the activities in the company are maintained. (Aggregated Sales and Operations Planning) There are other purposes of aggregate operational plan as well. Aggregate operational plan will talk about how the management in the company is organized. It gives a proper scheduling of all the activities to be done in the company. There are various projects that are run in the companies for which there are different techniques to follow; there would be different number of work force required for the particular operation. Hence it becomes obligatory for the company to make operation plan in order to get the exact view of what are the requirements of each plan. Production Planning Environment Product planning environment talks about planning to done for the company in any kind of environment. We can talk about two different kinds of environments in this. They are product planning under dynamic environment and product planning under fixed environment. In both the cases, we are doing product planning but the environment under planning to be done is absolutely different. Situation under which plans are to be made for the company are of different types. First we will talk about production planning to be done in dynamic environment. There are various productions planning that we can see in the day to day life. An example of production planning in dynamic environment is done. We can take an example of any electronic product. When we talk about product planning activities, there are two steps that take most important place like fabrication and equipment assembly. These are the two important process of production planning. It is very important to have different environmental scanning of production planning environment because demands of the customers are really uncertain. None of the companies can expect what they can want. Only they know about that. High level of services has to be provided to the customers in order to get success in the market and for this purpose it is important to have production planning activities. Production planning environment is a significant thing of operation plan. A production planning environment gives suggestion to the planning of any activity about what needs to be done in order to get success. Planning is very important because without planning any thing would not be that easy because the numbers of activities to be running in a company at a time are infinite and it would be really difficult to carry on all the activities simultaneously without making operational plans or aggregate operational plans. (Stephen C. Graves, 1985) For production planning, there are various techniques that are used in any company. It is important to use techniques for planning activities because these techniques make work very easy for the company and it can spend more time in thing about these plans are orally making the plans so that plans are made with an efficiency. Production planning environment help in making this plan more efficient because these are reason behind changing plans for the same activities for different situations. There might be possible that for example company has to product a product in a city with a particular population. Let us suppose that population of the company does not increase in six months. After six months, there may be possible that the company is manufacturing lesser number of quantities of the product for same population. Reason could be Season Change. Hence we can not predict the environment so easily hence production planning is required according to the environment of the company. Relevant Costs Relevant costs of the aggregate planning vary according to the range of the plan or we can say bigger the plan higher would be the cost. Aggregate Planning Techniques There are various types of aggregate planning techniques that a company can adopt. They are as follows: Intuitive Aggregate Planning technique: In case of Intuitive aggregate planning technique we always use intuitive management, experience of various official of the company and thumb rules in order to get successful planning in the company. In case of intuitive planning technique, there are graphical methods and spreadsheets analysis is used for the planning activity. There are various advantages as well as disadvantages of this technique. The biggest advantage that we can see of intuitive aggregate planning is that it is very much easy to explain and there would not any difficulty to the higher management in order to explain planning phases of any activity. With easy in explanation, it is easier in use as well. Any one can use this technique and make the required plans. If we talk of the disadvantages of intuitive aggregate planning technique as well, main disadvantage we see is that there are various solutions which mean more than one solutions possible for the strategy or strategic planning not just one. Hence it become very much difficult to search for the optimal solution required for making the best plan. LEVEL PRODUCTION STRATEGY: Another strategy that we can talk of that is other technique is level production strategy. In this level product strategy, it is necessary to find various requirements about time that plan would take it always will keep a track on the schedule of the plan. With this it will give average time that will be required to make any plan. According to level product technique of aggregate operational planning Avg. requirements = total requirements opening inv. + closing inv. Number of periods Steps which is used in the level production aggregate planning technique are as follows: Entry of production data is done Determination of the production level at an instant. For this, firing or hiring needs to be done Inventory level is updated then If inventory level is out of the expected then recalculate the average level production which will be needed and again go to step no. 1. This acts as a recursive process For each of the categories on which we are working, calculate total for each requirement, inventory, hiring and firing and finally we get entire total In the last step we calculate the final cost Intuitive Mixed Technique: Under this technique, hit and try method is used for getting the solution for the planning activity. In this technique Excel is used in order to model the problem and in order to investigate which solution is most effective. An appropriate structure is used in order to find optimal solution. Excel Solver technique is used. Chase Technique: Chase technique is said to be one of the best techniques of aggregate planning. In this technique capacity of the company is adjusted according to the demand of the customers. Planning horizon is set so that work force and production schedule is adjusted according to the plans that are made. There are various advantages as well as disadvantages of this technique. Advantage of chase technique of aggregate planning is that in this kind of planning anticipation inventory is not necessary for the company while planning and investment in the inventory has a lower range. With this advantage there is another advantage that full utilization of resources and labor takes place in this technique If we talk about the disadvantages of chase technique of aggregate planning, money spent on adjusting various capacities like work force and others is very high which is not affordable by all the companies. Hence they try to avoid this technique. Another disadvantage is that it goes for a proper disaffection of the workforce. These are the two main disadvantages of chase technique of aggregate planning Level Approach: Level approach of aggregate planning is again the second best approach of aggregate planning. Under this technique, capacities like workforce, schedule of production and rate of outputs are constant for the entire period of the planning horizon. There are various advantages and disadvantages of this technique Advantage of level approach of aggregate planning is that there is an absolute stability in the rates of output and level of workforce Disadvantages are that investment for the inventory management is more than other techniques. Overtime for any job or idle time for nay work is more than normal techniques. There is variability in the resource utilization which means that there are times when resources are maximum utilized by the company but there are several situations when resources are not utilized by the company up to a mark able extent (AGGREGATE PLANNING) The necessity to balance between the Aggregate Demand the aggregate production capacity) This is necessary that there has to be a proper balance to be maintained between aggregate demand and aggregate production capacity. We will explain these terms of two different scenarios as examples. First we can give an example, let us suppose that aggregate demand in the market is more than what is produced by the company. In this scenario, it is true that company will not be able to satisfy the needs of the customers. Hence there will be fight for the products or services. Problems that occur because of this situation would be black marketing. Company will take an advantage of this scenario and will sell the product or services are a higher cost. Company will take more money for the same product which it used to take earlier. And problem would be that customer will have to pay the amount if it would not have the alternatives for the same. In the other scenario, we take an example where aggregate production is more than what ever is expected by the customers or what is needed by the customers. In this situation, company will produce more and market or the customers will require less because of which company has to stop the production or there may be possibility that product that has already been used by the customers and rest of the product will get wasted. This will give loss to the company. Hence it is necessary that aggregate demand and aggregate production should be same for best possible result of the aggregate planning The difference in aggregates sales and operation planning in different industries An aggregate sale is the term that is associated with the factor of aggregate planning in different possible modes. This can either be defined in long-range planning, intermediate-range planning, or short-range planning. This process is entirely dependent on the type of organization that is being taken into consideration. This is due to the fact that its predecessor, i.e. operations planning will be highly influenced by the type of organization and the industry it is operating. Also the fact that aggregate sales is the final outcome that is dependent on a number of variables and can be maximized by improving the efficiency of all the operating units in a well coordinated manner. Operations planning and sales are the two aspects that are related with each other to a core extent. Thus various facets of operations like MPS (Master Production Schedule), MRP (Material Requirements Planning), Rough cut Capacity Planning, Capacity Requirements Planning, and Ordering Scheduling can be held responsible for enhancing the aggregate sales of an organization, thus making it possible to gain an upper edge over its competitors. This can be explained with the help of IT industry and Telecommunication sector. An organization operating in Information Technology sector mainly considers human resource as its most important asset. Thus most of the aspects of operation are related to this particular factor only without taking any other feature into consideration. This makes Human Resource Manager as one of the highly influential authority in operations management and planning procedure that in turn is liable to raise aggregate sales of the company while in case telecommunication sector there are certain changes. In this case employees working in the organization plays an important role, but not as crucial as in previous case. In this particular industry, technological perspective that is a part of inventory is one major part required in this sector from operations point of view. This can also be understood from the fact that aggregate sale is the outcome that is generated by offering a specific or diversified service or product to its customers by an organization. Thus it has to be understood that it is just acting as a front end and should possess high end coordination with its source that is operational units and it entirely responsible for taking care of the production associated with the service or product of the company. (Frequently Asked Questions About Sales and Operations Planning) This can further be clarified by taking into account textile industry. Textile industry is one of its kind as for this particular industry it is highly inevitable to maintain quality standards at different sections of production. Various sources of raw material act as an elementary part for the operations management to be taken appropriate care. Its aggregate sales are quite difficult to retain as compared to many other industries as it is highly prone to external problems which may result in loosing fate in the competitive scenario. Due to this extremely high inter-dependency, aggregate sales and operations planning seems to be same but they are highly different from each other that have to be taken proper care in best possible manner for overall development of the organization. In this particular case factors like production rate, workforce level, inventory on hand, and production planning will be the factors that will be acting as prime contributors in making operational part to b e a successful implementation for the organization operating in this domain. It will further be taking supply of raw material sources like polyester, etc for making it possible that operations are carried out in best possible manner without creating any ambiguity in the vicinity. While aggregate sales will take relevant costs associated with all the above mentioned parameters into account so as to maximize this particular feature and define proficiency of the company among its rivals. This can be explained further with the help of a characteristic adopted by certain companies following JIT (Just in Time) approach. This approach laid its prime focus over inventory management in order to make sure that operational aspects of the company are handled in best possible manner and minimum possible time. This saves a number of expenses of the company which otherwise it has to carry like warehousing, etc. This approach can be applied in any organization working in any domain but it will be s uccessful only when different departments working together are present in highly close vicinity. This has to be made sure that this meticulous prerequisite is satisfied in every possible manner otherwise this approach will fail deliberately. This approach is generally followed Japanese companies because of readily available material in the market and will probably fail in case it is applied in UAE because of completely different scenario. This define difference in the operation planning and aggregate sales in an explicit manner as aim to maximize aggregate sales remains same for all the companies while operations planning depends on a number of factors. As for example, region in which that particular organization is operating makes an intense affect on the type of market and clientele it is serving. There is also a possibility that different industries are entirely reliant over its operational part while rest of them makes very minute dependency over its operational aspects, which d emonstrate main difference between these characteristics in a well defined manner and cannot be ignored. Echelon of difference may vary from low to high extent and should be taken care appositely as it is one of the most important features for an organization regardless of its industry. The importance of choosing the right strategy to plan operations The function of operations plan or strategy is to provide a map for the operations task so that it can build the most excellent use of its assets and resources. Operations strategy states the plans and policies for utilizing the firms resources to hold its long-standing competitive strategy. The figure provided below shows this association. It is to keep in brain that the operations task is accountable for managing the resources required to create the companys services and goods. Operations strategy is the map that specifies the plan and use of assets to bear the business strategy. This comprises the location, dimension, and type of facilities obtainable; employee skills and talents necessary; utilization of technology, special equipment, special processes needed; and quality control techniques. It is necessary that the operations strategy of the firm must be associated with the firms business strategy and facilitate the firm to attain its long-term goals. Now as different companies has different values to parameters like size, location, skill requirement of workers, types of facility for production and goals to be achieved, it is clear that both the appropriate selection of operation strategy and industry specific selection of operation strategy is necessary for the firm. For instance, the business strategy of a company called FedEx, the globes largest provider of accelerated delivery services, is to fight on time and reliability of deliveries. Talking about the operations strategy of the company, the operation strategy of FedEx formed a plan for resources to hold its business plan or strategy. To provide pace of delivery, the company acquired its personal convoy of airplanes. To provide reliability of deliveries, the company invested in complicated bar code machinery to footpath all packages. The significance of choosing right Operations Strategies: Operations plan did not come to the vanguard until the early 1970s. Till that time, companies in United States highlighted mass manufacturing of standard product intends. Till that time, there were absence of any grave international rivals, and companies in United States were pretty much free to sell anything they created. Yet, that altered in the year 1970s and 1980s. Japanese firms entered the market and began presenting products of better quality at lesser cost, and U.S. firms lost market capture to their Asian counterparts. In an effort to stay alive, many U.S. firms copied Japanese techniques. Unluckily, just copying these techniques often proved ineffective; it took time to actually understand Japanese techniques. It became obvious that Japanese companies were extra aggressive since of their operations strategy; which is, all their assets and resources were exclusively designed to openly support the firms general strategic plan. In a review, Michael Porter, a professor at Harva rd Business School says that firms often do not recognize the dissimilarity between strategy and operational efficiency. Operational efficiency is doing operations tasks fine, even superior than opponents. On the other hand, Strategy is a map for staying in the marketplace. A likeness might be that of organizing a race capably, but it might be the incorrect race. Strategy is crucial in kind of race you will triumph. Strategy and Operational efficiency must be united; otherwise one may be very competently performing the incorrect task. The function of operations plan or say strategy is to make certain that all the odd jobs performed by the process function are the correct tasks. Think about a software business that freshly invested thousands of dollars in budding software with features or services not provided by opponents, only to determine that these were services customers did not predominantly desire. Now that we recognize the sense of operations strategy and business strategy and their significance, it is clear that the software firm introduced here has performed the operation of developing new features very professionally but is not the correct task as people are not very interest ed in the new features developed. Inputs required to the production planning process: The production planning process is an aggregate process which depends on a number of factors internal and external to the organization. If we define these factors, they are basically the manpower, technical planning like engineering and maintenance planning, information of marketing, quality control, investment planning and distribution planning, These factors can be categorized into two parts: internal and external to the organization. Talking about the internal inputs to the production planning process, it may include manpower availability, machinery, and technology. Talking about the external requirements of the planning process, this includes factors like financial availability, demand/marketing estimation, distributors, customer expectation of quality and distributors. The correlation between these variables and production planning process can be shown by the following diagram. It is clear form the diagram that both internal and external factors and say internal and external inputs defined above are essential parameters of production planning process. Strategies to meet demand Cut and Try Method: Cut and try method can be seen as one of the popular and easy to handle methods for the aggregate planning. This strategy helps the company to analyze the status of the project planning under different consideration. The basic structure of the plans assists the analysts to come to a conclusion to what plan could be successful under which circumstances. The various aspects of the project planning are highlighted and it becomes more effective for the management to take decision regarding the planning. The working of the cut and try method can be studied as four different strategies deployed in the aggregate plan work sheet. These are as follows: Production Plan 1 or The Chase strategy: This particular section of the method employs two very significant parameters namely, workforce and production. It analyses the situation under the condition when the exact production is given but the workforce is varying. It checks the ratio between rate of production and the order rate. In other ways, it could be said that it studies the effect which could be caused on this ratio by hiring employees and by laying them off as per requirement varies. Production Plan 2 or the Stable Workforce strategy: This method of the cut and try involves the constant workforce. In this the case the factor which varies includes inventories and stock-outs. The variation in output is caused because of variation in the working hours the employees due to the non-rigidity in the time schedules allowing overtimes and an altering number of hours of work. Production Plan 3 or the Level strategy: This technique employs low workforce which is constant in nature. This is realized with the help of Subcontracting. In this strategy, output rate or the production rate is constant and the workforce is also invariant. All the shortages or excess or in other words surpluses are absorbed by the fluctuations caused in the various levels of the inventory, backlog in the order and the sales which were lost. Production Plan 4 or the mixed strategy: Overall objective of this method is to optimize cost which it does by employing multiple strategies mentioned previously, two or more, together. It schedules overtime and also the workforce is kept constant. Now let us consider the example of The CA J Company. Generally a company which has a pronounced seasonal variation plans its production for whole one year. This is so that the extreme demands of the busiest and slowest months can be captured altogether. In this, companys plan for six months has been illustrated. Similarly data[i] for remaining parameters is taken as: Materials: Rs. 100.00/unit Inventory holding cost: Rs. 1.50/unit/month Marginal cost of stock-out: Rs. 5.00/unit/month And so on. Software like, Microsoft excel make the calculation more convenient. However, it should always be taken care that cut and try method might not always give optimum solution Software available nowadays can give more optimized results as they are more sophisticated. Aggregate Planning Applied to Services: Tucson Parks and Recreation Department Aggregate planning can be applied to various services so as to get the optimum and the most beneficiary solution. These can be implemented using charted techniques or methods involving the graphical representations of the plans. Such techniques are employed by the Tucson parks and recreation department. The main objective of this firm is to demonstrate the citys department of parks and recreation can be involve alternatives of the employees working full-time as well as the part time employees and also utilizing benefits of the subcontracting techniques in order to fulfill its commitment to provide a useful service to the city. This institution is required to maintain and produce open spaces, gardens, tennis courts, pools, all recreational centers and so on. The data used in the example is as follows: The total budget is allocated of Rs. 9,760,000. The number of the full time employees is 336. Among these 336, 216 employees are such that they are full time permanent personnel who involved with working of maintenance all the year round and are responsible for the administration. The remaining 120 full time employees are divided into two sections. They are staffed with part timers. About three-quarters of these are deployed in summers and the remaining one-quarter work in spring, fall, and winters seasons. The three fourth or 90 full time employees turn up about 800 part time jobs of summers like those of lifeguards, instructors in some children schools or training programs and baseball umpires, etc. Part time jobs last for a month or two while full time employers last for whole one year. Hence considering many other factors and the data, we can conclude that the department is open to the following three options regarding the development: The present method is continued. According to which, they have to maintain full time employees at a medium level and hence schedule work in the off seasons ( such reconstructing baseball fields in the months of winters) and then use them as a part time assistance during peak seasons. Second option is to maintain a low level of the staff around the year. Whenever there is a requirement of more staff, technique of subcontracting could be used. All additional works currently done by full time employees with the assistance of part time employees. Third option is to hire only administrative staff and subcontract all the remaining work with the help of the part time staff people. This technique will consequently result in contracts to various landscaping firms and companies responsible for maintaining pools and will also give