McDonald's Corporation Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

McDonald's Corporation - Case Study Example Still, the organization has increasingly experimented with foods on the fringe of its menu, including health options such as salads and snack wraps, as well as regional specific restaurant items. Company History Founders Richard and Maurice McDonald in San Bernardino, California established McDonald’s in 1940 as a barbeque restaurant. In 1948 the brothers stopped serving barbeque and began a hamburger and fries based approach, implementing streamlined production methods (Sowell, 2009). While McDonald’s would ultimately experience the most long-lasting gains as a result of the implementation of these production methods, they was first established in 1928 by the White Castle food chain (Sowell, 2009). For McDonald’s the switch resulted in tremendous success for the small company and it was not long before they experienced demand for expansion. In 1955 Ray Kroc would join the company as the first franchise agent. Kroc would establish a McDonald’s in Des Plain es, Illinois and kick off the organization’s staggering growth numbers (Sowell, 2009). While Kroc was not an organization founder today he is perhaps most recognized as the revolutionizing organizational force. Building on the original restaurant model, Ray Kroc would establish many of the elements that continue to the present day. Most prominently Kroc would establish the rigid standards for franchises, ensuring that the McDonald’s experience was uniform throughout every restaurant. The 1960s would witness many of these innovations including the establishment of the iconic ‘Golden Arches’ logo in 1961 (Sowell, 2009). Kroc would go on to institute the first-large scale advertising campaign this year with the slogan â€Å"look for the Golden Arches† (Sowell, 2009). A year later the organization would introduce the Ronald McDonald character as an advertising spokesman. In large part these early advertising efforts, an approach that would come to be ch aracteristic of the McDonald’s empire, greatly contributed to the organization’s long-term success. In 1965 McDonald’s would go public on the New York Stock Exchange the ticker symbol MCD. Throughout the years small but significant contributions would be made to the organization, including the introduction of the now seminal Big Mac in 1968 and the Happy Meal in 1979 (Sowell, 2009). Organization There are a number of prominent organizational elements within McDonald’s Corporation. While McDonald’s is a multinational corporation they retain a centralized organizational structure, headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois. In terms of supply chain management procedures, all McDonald’s stores receive products from the same vendors, ensuring uniformity among supplier stores. All corporate decisions are made in the United States headquarters. The organization’s chief executive officer is Jim Skinner ("Organizational chart mcdonald's," 2011). Sk inner is responsible to McDonald’s board members, the chairman of whom is Andrew McKenna ("Organizational chart mcdonald's," 2011). Skinner oversees a number of structural divisions, including brand, cfo, human resources, legal and secretary, restaurant, supply chain and franchising, coo, Europe, and APAC and MEA ("Organizational chart mcdonald's," 2011). These organizations have further oversight on a variety of other prominent structural elements.

Les Misérables Essay Example for Free

Les Misà ©rables Essay Victor Hugo – Les Miserables BACKGROUND : Victor Marie Hugo was the son of a general in Napoleon’s army, and much of his childhood was therefore spent amid the backdrop of Napoleon’s campaigns in Spain and in Italy. The first three years of his life were spent in Elba, where he learnt to speak the Italian dialect spoken in the island in addition to his mother tongue. Victor got a little education in a small school. At the age of eleven, Hugo returned to live with his mother in Paris, where he got a little education in a small and where he also became infatuated with books and literature. By the time he was fifteen, he had already submitted one poem to a contest sponsored by the prestigious French Academy. There he learnt much from an old soldier, General Lahorie, who, obnoxious to Napoleon for the share he had taken in Moreaus plot, lived secretly in the house, and from an old priest named Lariviere, who came every day to teach Victor and his two brothers. In 1815, at the age of thirteen, he was sent to a boarding school to prepare for the Ecole Polytechnique. But he devoted himself, even at school, to verse-writing with greater ardour than to study. He wrote in early youth more than one poem for a prize competition, composed a romance which some years later he elaborated into the story Bug Jargal, and in 1820, when only eighteen, joined his two brothers, Abel and Eugene, in publishing a literary journal called Le Conservateur Litteraire. Hugo published his first novel the year following his marriage (Han dIslande, 1823) and his second three years later (Bug-Jargal, 1826). By the end of 1822 Victor Hugo was fully launched on a literary career, and for twenty years or more the story of his life is mainly the story of his literary output. Because of his successful drama Cormwell, the preface to which, with its note of defiance to literary convention, caused him to be definitely accepted as the head of the Romantic School of poetry. The revolution of 1830 disturbed for a moment his literary activity, but as soon as things were quiet again he shut himself in his study with a bottle of ink, a pen, and an immense pile of paper. For six weeks he was never seen, except at dinner-time, and the result was : The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831). During the next ten years four volumes of poetry and four dramas were published in 1841 came his election to the Academy, and in 1843 he published Les Burgraves, a drama which was less successful than his former plays, and which marks the close of his career as a dramatist. In the same year there came to him the greatest sorrow of his life. His most famous poem was ‘Demain, des l’aube’ in which he describes the crucial moment where he visits his daughters grave. As Hugo grew older, his politics became increasingly leftist, and he was forced to flee France in 1851 because of his opposition to the monarch Louis Napoleon. Hugo remained in exile until 1870, when he returned to his home country as a national hero. He continued to write until his death in 1885. He was buried with every conceivable honor in one of the grandest funerals in modern French history. The Book – Les Miserable : Hugo began writing Les Miserables twenty years before its eventual publication in 1862. His goals in writing the novel were as lofty as the reputation it has subsequently acquired; Les Miserables is primarily a great humanitarian work that encourages compassion and hope in the face of adversity and injustice. It is also, however, a historical novel of great scope and analysis, and it provides a detailed vision of nineteenth-century French politics and society. By coupling his story of redemption with a meticulous documentation of the injustices of France’s recent past, Hugo hoped Les Miserables would encourage a more progressive and democratic future. Driven by his commitment to reform and progress, Hugo wrote Les Miserables with nothing less than a literary and political revolution in mind. Les Miserables employs Hugo’s style of imaginative realism and is set in an artificially created human hell that emphasizes the three major predicaments of the nineteenth century. Each of the three major characters in the novel symbolizes one of these predicaments: Jean Valjean represents the degradation of man in the proletariat, Fantine represents the subjection of women through hunger, and Cosette represents the atrophy of the child by darkness. In part, the novel’s fame has endured because Hugo successfully created characters that serve as symbols of larger problems without being flat devices.

Economic Effects of Terrorism in the UK

Economic Effects of Terrorism in the UK Terrorism has deep history science the cold war but this issue become most salient after terrorist attacks in September 11 2001. This incident affected the UK and international business community in various ways. On one hand the world business community was affected financially, the other hand it suffers due to legal and security issues. The international business between countries was most seriously affected due to security and safety concerns and legal issue. Especially UK, US and other developed countries were compulsion to protect their territory and people on the cost of business with the rest of the world. Many businesses found themselves floundering financially in the months after the terrorist attack on world Trade Centre, while businesses located in world trade centre lost their personal and business locations. According to U.S department of state (2002) more than 3000 people of different nationalities were killed in the terrorist attacks only in the United States in Septemb er 11, 2001. The attacks were the conspicuous example of terrorism on global level. According to the overview of European commission (2001) this was the one of the major event in the past decades which diversifies the viewpoint and outlook of people around the world. Terrorism affects both the long term and short term perspectives of the businesses around the world. Czinkota (2002) cited that terrorism influenced long term karma of entire industries, for example tourism, retailing and manufacturing industries. In this competitive age, the business environment is changing dramatically. The international business has culminated in a global economy, with diverging cultures. But, there are strong protests against globalization echoing its destabilizing effects from many corners of the world. Terrorism can be seen, in substantial part, as a result of this backlash to the businesses. There are number of definitions of terrorism, in the world of Alexander et al (1979) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“terrorism is a threat or use of enforcement and inclemency to achieve a political goal by means of intimidation fear, and coercionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. In the present world context, the European Union (2001) define the terrorism relevant to international business in the following words. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Terrorist offences are certain criminal offences set out in a list comprised largely of serious offences against persons and property which, given their nature or context, may seriously damage a country or an international org anisation where committed with the aim of: seriously intimidating a population; or unduly compelling a Government or international organisation to perform or abstain from performing any act; or seriously destabilizing or destroying the fundamental political, constitutional, economic or social structures of a country or an international organisationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. In UK terrorism is not new phenomenon but businesses were highly affected due to September 11, 2001 and July 7, 2005 incident. Although the economic impact on UK businesses has not been detrimental as initially feared but it is very important not to diminish the impact of even small unforeseen costs can have on businesses in particular. However many UK businesses were relived that tangible impact of terrorist attacks had been very small but business confidence is the key and has inevitably been affected in short term. The biggest economic impacts of past twenty years terrorist attacks is the damage to confidence in the UK businesses and people. This study is another attempt to research and investigates the impacts of terrorism on the UK businesses activities and we will also discuss different approaches for reducing and handling the terrorism threats. 1.1 Research Aim: The aim of this research is to analyse and explore the economic effects of terrorism on businesses in the United Kingdom. The second part of this research is to critically analyse and recommend the most appropriate strategies for management to deal with the terrorist threats or scrutinize the different business strategic views to avoid and minimise the impact of terrorism on UK businesses. 1.2 Research Objectives: This research has the following individual objectives: Critically analyse the economic impact of terrorism on UK organizations and the entire economy in UK. Evaluate the managerial performance in organizations, before, during and after the happening of the terrorist attacks and in uncertain environment. 1.3 Research Questions: What are the economic effects of terrorism on business? How to development strategy for managers or adopt a better approaches to deal with above mentioned issues? 2. Literature Review: In this era terrorism is arguably one of the biggest threats to the business around the world. It can take many shapes and forms. The last twenty years have seen a dramatic rise in terrorism. Terrorism did not begin in 21st century after World Trade Centre terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001. The terrorism history is as old as humansà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ willingness to use violence to affect politics. Europe, United States and other continents have a very long and sad history of terrorist attacks. In past century IRA in UK, ETA in Spain, Brigate Rosse in Itely, Rote Armee Fraktion in Germany, 7 November in Greece are the few worse examples of terrorist groups in Europe. In United States we remember the bombing in Oklahoma City in 1994, World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks. But September 11 2001 attacks have changed the world, as UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has said, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“none of the issue that faced us on 11 September 2001 has beco me less urgentà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. Now the terrorism has grown to an unprecedented limit and in multiplicity. As we know that, even terrorist without the use of weapons of mass destruction can kill thousands of people and destroy businesses (Gabriele G.S. Suder 2004). According to Blomberg et al 2004 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“terrorism is associated with a diversion of spending from investment to governmentsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ expenditureà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. To fund these government expenditures, they borrow from foreign financial institutions and governments. The develop countries with less volatile currencies normally issue long term debts to cover the deficit and less developing countries confronting terrorism by government spending through sale of foreign reserves, printing more currency and increasing inflation. Gupta Clements (2004) reached the same conclusion, that the terrorist activities severe impacts on less develop countries than developed from monetary policy perspective. Terrorism has its massive effects on economy and business activities. It effects deleteriously on marketing strategies, buyer demand and market supply effect immensely. Most firms operating in the affected area gets impact from the thrust of government policies to quell terrorism. This kind of wide-spread results predict an escalate attractiveness of terrorism, as part for that group which assume to develop the core of businesses. It is impossible to secure all of the targets of terrorism at the same time. In the number of attacks done by small terrorist groups with least resources the loss was massive. If costs of an attack be measured by the loss which businesses faced, the businesses always paid far great amount than the cost to terrorist group. Hoffman (1998) cited that the cost of the bomb was not more than $400, which was the reason of the loss of $550 millions in the blast of World Trade Centre 1993. The amount which is sending to protect the world from terrorism is many billi on dollars, while the terrorist cost nothing in front of it. This threat of terrorism attacks poses a continuous threat and create atmosphere of risk for the businesses. This risk itself creates extension for treatment of risk in management theories. The majority of management literature theories adopt term à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"uncertaintyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ as a factor of unpredictable environment which may influence the performance of firms in certain ways. The environment effected by terrorism also has a factor of unpredictability in it. Businesses internationally and locally particularly affected by terrorism because when some thing happen it disrupt the supply chain and business activities in addition to interrupt information flows, and effects on the demand for industrial side as well as consumer side. Every year more than trillion dollars are spent on combating terrorism. This along with billons dollars lost in property damage, loss of human resources and decrease in key industries potential profit. It is a plague on global economy and affects on everyone from entire countries to all the way down to individual. Terrorism in recent years has sparked, increase in fear and demand higher level of security. The cost of terrorism can be broken down into number of areas and come down to direct effects, response costs and negative effects on key industries. For example, Manchester bombing was carried out by IRA in 1996 targeted the city centre infrastructure and economy caused widespread damage. According to the BBC News (2004), over 400 businesses within the half a mile of the blast were affected and 40% of which did not recover. Another example of terrorist attack on businesses is Baltic Exchange bombing 1992, which damaged the Exchange and surrounding buildings and caused  £800 millions worth of damage. The latest terrorist attacks in UK was July 7 London bombing, which had massive effects on UK businesses. According to the LCCI (2005) report, business confidence in London had slumped to the lowest levels not seen since the start of Iraq war. Because, terrorist attacks disrupt supply chain and other business activities. Alexander (2004) says in his book Business Confronts Terrorism, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“terrorismà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s implication on business merits closer scrutiny given its relation to economic security. Terror metamorphoses business causing business to deal with current threats and craft plans to reduce future challenges. Terrorists weaken society and business through their mani pulation of economic systems componentsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. Terrorism interrupts information flows and effects on the demand form both business and consumer side. This falling demand may have different outcomes which may comprises of losses of customers contracts, customer trust, reduces market share, decline in turnover and profitability and also result business failure. For example according to the LCCA report, UK tourism industry badly effected by July 7 terrorist attacks. The Guardianà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s research shows that after July 7 Bombing, Londoners themselves who are leaving the centre in the evening rather than the tourists. Within a month after these attacks, it has been estimated that terrorism cost UK tourism industry in excess of  £300 million. According to U.S Department of state (2002) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“terrorist select businesses for attack compare to other targetsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. The most kind of attack is bomb blast, although armed attacks and kidnapping are also some kinds of terrorist attacks. According to Council of Foreign Relations (2002) report, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“the majority of victims in terrorist attack are civilians and the relatively large number of business may not prepare to face these kinds of risksà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. Managers and decision makers remain confident about handling unexpected risk. However the scenario has changed as it was at the time of terrorist attack in 9/11. Kunreuther et al (2003) cited that during the days of terrorist attacks in 9/11 a common feeling came into mind of people that it could be me. But with the passage of time this may give way to may be it will not à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"meà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ next time. This kind of behaviour is more common now a day in south Asia. But it is a common thinki ng that it is extremely easy for terrorist that to attack any where in the world. Even in low cost and low tech attacks terrorists achieve to disrupt the world economy. After the September 11 terrorist attacks many UK international organisations have badly affected legally because new laws introduced and they struggle to keep up with new rules and regulations imposed by international community in the effort to prevent further terrorist attacks. Anne Slaughter (2005) cited that new international laws restricted the companies for shipping goods across international borders and requires them to keep proper track of their activities. The anti terrorist laws have made very complicated for organizations to conduct their business activities across the international borders as a result many organisations have restructured theirs companies to allow them to meet demands of international anti terror laws. Another major issue that effect the international organizations is security and they have to invest huge amount of money to improve both internal and external security. External security is most important because terrorist target organizations to achieve thei r targets. Internal security also need to improve to ensure that organisation have financial records, employees records and ensure that employees do not have any criminal backgrounds or involved in terrorist activities in the past. It is vital for all organizations that they protect themselves and their stakeholders from terrorist activities. The international organizations should not underestimate the impact of terrorism because they make billions dollars each year and provide employment millions of people around the world. In this modern era, it is very easy for terrorist to attack international organizations in such a way that they would stop them from operating in an effective manner. It is very difficult to explain, why terrorism has become the major problem for big and international organizations. Modern terrorism is particularly onerous, because of characteristic of its impact. The impact of terrorism on macroeconomic is crucial, customers feel themselves in stress and some kind of continuous fear which definitely effects the spending patterns. Managerial behaviour in macro economy also feels consequences of terrorism. Media have its vital role in ending fear among the society but very often it fails. Many of times, because of the irresponsible reporting it generates scenes of ever present possibility of terrorist act. According to Crenshaw (1990) the new and fastest ways of communication allow people to know about happens in the other part of the world within minutes about any terrorist attack. On the other hand terrorist groups are adopting the latest techniques to communicate with each other and even sometime just for spreading fear with in the specific community to achieve their targets. Czinkota et al (2004) cited that terrorist also using old traditional ways to communi cate which are unable to penetrate. The latest ways of transportation system gives terrorist groups better way to move around. The impact of terrorism can be calculated from a number of ways. According to Czinkota et al (2004) the micro level research is a moderate degree of research. It help to analyze effects of terrorism on specific regions, value chain or cross industry level, but can be determine and examine more specifically than those of macro level. When terrorist events happens if effects businesses direct and indirect way and disrupt the economic process. To make the effects of the terrorist activities stronger terrorist groups try to make businesses their direct targets. Business are more attractive target for those groups as their presence is everywhere and their aftermaths are more deep on society and on the economics. 2.1 Conclusion: Terrorism effects business activates deeply. This threat compel almost every department of business which cause decline in the profit of firm and on the other side the whole economy has to bear the cost of every single act of terrorism. According to LCCI (2005) report, after 9/11 terrorist attacks, majority of organizations fear high risk of terrorist attacks and they have contingency plan in place to deal with uncertainty. As globalization integrates multinational organizations and financial markets, events like terrorism which spurn economic uncertainty have increasingly international consequences. Terrorism causes unpredictable political and economic consequences, infuses the public with fear and prevents the free flow of capital, labour, and free market principles. Because of their disastrous impacts, occurrences of terrorism have serious implications on the performance of international and UK organizational. Immediate responses are felt in financial markets and the effected industry sectors. These sustained reactions can be observed through macroeconomic impacts, economic policy responses and investor confidence. As world move towards more liberal economies and democratic political structures, organizations must have the ability to adapt and respond to terrorist events. In order to do so, decision makers and policy makers need a more complete picture and understanding of the deleterious effects of terrorism on organization. 3. Research Methodology: The main proposed research methodology is secondary research which is based on the critical and comprehensive analysis of the existing published literature related to the specific area of research. Books, published journal articles, published research reports, surveys, organizational records, qualitative research and internet (websites and search engines) will be used to collect secondary sources data. I think these sources will help me to complete my research work. I will use all the above mentioned secondary research methods for my research work and I am highly interested to use the deductive method because it is more logical and authentic way to prove my research. Moreover I will use both quantitative and qualitative techniques to critically analyze my collected data and to reach the conclusion. But in this research work, I will prefer to use more qualitative method of data collection. According to Lincoln and Guba (1985) a qualitative method captures a more complete picture of individual lived experience instead of a narrow perspective of generalizations. The qualitative data provide me an opportunity to study the material of the recent or more distant past to gain the more insights information for methodological and theoretical purposes. 3.1 Advantages of secondary research methodology: This kind of research helps in examining large scale trend. It is easy to accessible so researcher can consume most of its time in critically analysing data rather than collecting it. Sometime primary data collection is not necessary for the research, because of the available secondary data is completely suitable to draw a conclusions and answers of the questions and sufficient for solving problem. The collection of secondary data is far cheaper than the collection of primary data. For the same level of research budget secondary research definitely gives relatively more information than the primary research can give. The time consumption is much less in the collection of data and conducting results in comparison with the primary research. The results obtain from secondary source of information may more precise than the result obtain from the primary data collection. It may not happen all the time but if research is about at large scale. 3.2 Problems of Secondary Research: In secondary research the researches have to be careful about authenticity of secondary resources. Because at the same type of data or idea two different types of department or persons have different type of opinion. Some time material available for research is too old and out dated, so it may difficult for researcher to interpret results. The source of the data and material may not reliable each time, so it may impact the reliability and authenticity of results of the research. Sometimes secondary research has lack of firmness of perspective. If data and material collected from non authentic sources it is difficult to check its biasness and inaccuracies. The published material and statistics often raise more questions than answers. 3.3 Limitations: There are some limitations the data may have and the problems that could arise if these limitations are ignored. The verification of existing data is difficult. Secondary data can be general and vague and sometimes it may cause difficulties in decision making. It is possible that data could be out dated and the sample used to generate the secondary data maybe small. The data publisher company may not be reputable. While keeping in mind those limitations of secondary data, I will use data for my research from reputable academic websites and published literature. 3.4 Conclusion: A use and search of secondary data should be preceding any primary research activity. Secondary data definitely helps to solve and understand the problem and gives valid answers. The process of collecting secondary data for research is far cheaper and quicker in compare with primary data at in some cases it could be more accurate. There is always a need of evaluation about data and its source before using it for research. Where possible it is better to take same data from different sources so the biasness and errors can be double check for the more accurate results. 4. Research Structure and Design: This research consists of six chapters. It begins with chapter 1, which reveals the need, aim and objectives for this research to be attained. Chapter 2 of my research will discuss the methodology, which enables me to fulfil the requirements of this research. Chapter 3 is an extensive and deep interpretation of literature review about terrorism. Chapter 4 of this research will explore the impacts of terrorism on businesses. Chapter 5 of this research evaluates performance and adaptation of suitable strategy by management on different kind of business activities and also scrutinize the different business strategic views which a business can adopt for minimizing the effects of terrorism. Finally chapter 6 of this research is the conclusion and recommendation chapter which will answer all the key questions, aim and objectives of this research seek. 5. Research Implementation Plan: Research Plan Week beginning Date. 23-10-2010 No. Of Weeks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Background reading and literature review x x Research design and plan x Choice of methodology x Gathering data x x Data analysis and refine x x Writing up draft x x x Editing final document x x Produce final document x Document passed to supervisor to read x 6. Research Ethics: While carrying out the research, the most important thing to keep in mind and practice is the ethical considerations. And in my research work this is very critical and of prime consideration. I will follow all the ethical considerations and guidelines. As my research work is based on secondary research, so what ever the secondary data I will use to achieve my research objectives, I will follow the all terms and conditions of ethical considerations. Throughout my research I will practice honesty in processing and reporting all the data, this will be my own work and I will not copy the other researcher data or work, I will not be bias in my research while collecting or processing the data. I will try my utmost to avoid the omissions and errors while analysing the data and will keep all the record of the data and their valid sources. I am fully aware that the plagiarism is a serious academic crime, so I will not plagiarise my research. I will quote all the citations and that will be ful ly referenced. Economic Effects of Terrorism in the UK Economic Effects of Terrorism in the UK Terrorism has deep history science the cold war but this issue become most salient after terrorist attacks in September 11 2001. This incident affected the UK and international business community in various ways. On one hand the world business community was affected financially, the other hand it suffers due to legal and security issues. The international business between countries was most seriously affected due to security and safety concerns and legal issue. Especially UK, US and other developed countries were compulsion to protect their territory and people on the cost of business with the rest of the world. Many businesses found themselves floundering financially in the months after the terrorist attack on world Trade Centre, while businesses located in world trade centre lost their personal and business locations. According to U.S department of state (2002) more than 3000 people of different nationalities were killed in the terrorist attacks only in the United States in Septemb er 11, 2001. The attacks were the conspicuous example of terrorism on global level. According to the overview of European commission (2001) this was the one of the major event in the past decades which diversifies the viewpoint and outlook of people around the world. Terrorism affects both the long term and short term perspectives of the businesses around the world. Czinkota (2002) cited that terrorism influenced long term karma of entire industries, for example tourism, retailing and manufacturing industries. In this competitive age, the business environment is changing dramatically. The international business has culminated in a global economy, with diverging cultures. But, there are strong protests against globalization echoing its destabilizing effects from many corners of the world. Terrorism can be seen, in substantial part, as a result of this backlash to the businesses. There are number of definitions of terrorism, in the world of Alexander et al (1979) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“terrorism is a threat or use of enforcement and inclemency to achieve a political goal by means of intimidation fear, and coercionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. In the present world context, the European Union (2001) define the terrorism relevant to international business in the following words. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Terrorist offences are certain criminal offences set out in a list comprised largely of serious offences against persons and property which, given their nature or context, may seriously damage a country or an international org anisation where committed with the aim of: seriously intimidating a population; or unduly compelling a Government or international organisation to perform or abstain from performing any act; or seriously destabilizing or destroying the fundamental political, constitutional, economic or social structures of a country or an international organisationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. In UK terrorism is not new phenomenon but businesses were highly affected due to September 11, 2001 and July 7, 2005 incident. Although the economic impact on UK businesses has not been detrimental as initially feared but it is very important not to diminish the impact of even small unforeseen costs can have on businesses in particular. However many UK businesses were relived that tangible impact of terrorist attacks had been very small but business confidence is the key and has inevitably been affected in short term. The biggest economic impacts of past twenty years terrorist attacks is the damage to confidence in the UK businesses and people. This study is another attempt to research and investigates the impacts of terrorism on the UK businesses activities and we will also discuss different approaches for reducing and handling the terrorism threats. 1.1 Research Aim: The aim of this research is to analyse and explore the economic effects of terrorism on businesses in the United Kingdom. The second part of this research is to critically analyse and recommend the most appropriate strategies for management to deal with the terrorist threats or scrutinize the different business strategic views to avoid and minimise the impact of terrorism on UK businesses. 1.2 Research Objectives: This research has the following individual objectives: Critically analyse the economic impact of terrorism on UK organizations and the entire economy in UK. Evaluate the managerial performance in organizations, before, during and after the happening of the terrorist attacks and in uncertain environment. 1.3 Research Questions: What are the economic effects of terrorism on business? How to development strategy for managers or adopt a better approaches to deal with above mentioned issues? 2. Literature Review: In this era terrorism is arguably one of the biggest threats to the business around the world. It can take many shapes and forms. The last twenty years have seen a dramatic rise in terrorism. Terrorism did not begin in 21st century after World Trade Centre terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001. The terrorism history is as old as humansà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ willingness to use violence to affect politics. Europe, United States and other continents have a very long and sad history of terrorist attacks. In past century IRA in UK, ETA in Spain, Brigate Rosse in Itely, Rote Armee Fraktion in Germany, 7 November in Greece are the few worse examples of terrorist groups in Europe. In United States we remember the bombing in Oklahoma City in 1994, World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks. But September 11 2001 attacks have changed the world, as UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has said, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“none of the issue that faced us on 11 September 2001 has beco me less urgentà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. Now the terrorism has grown to an unprecedented limit and in multiplicity. As we know that, even terrorist without the use of weapons of mass destruction can kill thousands of people and destroy businesses (Gabriele G.S. Suder 2004). According to Blomberg et al 2004 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“terrorism is associated with a diversion of spending from investment to governmentsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ expenditureà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. To fund these government expenditures, they borrow from foreign financial institutions and governments. The develop countries with less volatile currencies normally issue long term debts to cover the deficit and less developing countries confronting terrorism by government spending through sale of foreign reserves, printing more currency and increasing inflation. Gupta Clements (2004) reached the same conclusion, that the terrorist activities severe impacts on less develop countries than developed from monetary policy perspective. Terrorism has its massive effects on economy and business activities. It effects deleteriously on marketing strategies, buyer demand and market supply effect immensely. Most firms operating in the affected area gets impact from the thrust of government policies to quell terrorism. This kind of wide-spread results predict an escalate attractiveness of terrorism, as part for that group which assume to develop the core of businesses. It is impossible to secure all of the targets of terrorism at the same time. In the number of attacks done by small terrorist groups with least resources the loss was massive. If costs of an attack be measured by the loss which businesses faced, the businesses always paid far great amount than the cost to terrorist group. Hoffman (1998) cited that the cost of the bomb was not more than $400, which was the reason of the loss of $550 millions in the blast of World Trade Centre 1993. The amount which is sending to protect the world from terrorism is many billi on dollars, while the terrorist cost nothing in front of it. This threat of terrorism attacks poses a continuous threat and create atmosphere of risk for the businesses. This risk itself creates extension for treatment of risk in management theories. The majority of management literature theories adopt term à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"uncertaintyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ as a factor of unpredictable environment which may influence the performance of firms in certain ways. The environment effected by terrorism also has a factor of unpredictability in it. Businesses internationally and locally particularly affected by terrorism because when some thing happen it disrupt the supply chain and business activities in addition to interrupt information flows, and effects on the demand for industrial side as well as consumer side. Every year more than trillion dollars are spent on combating terrorism. This along with billons dollars lost in property damage, loss of human resources and decrease in key industries potential profit. It is a plague on global economy and affects on everyone from entire countries to all the way down to individual. Terrorism in recent years has sparked, increase in fear and demand higher level of security. The cost of terrorism can be broken down into number of areas and come down to direct effects, response costs and negative effects on key industries. For example, Manchester bombing was carried out by IRA in 1996 targeted the city centre infrastructure and economy caused widespread damage. According to the BBC News (2004), over 400 businesses within the half a mile of the blast were affected and 40% of which did not recover. Another example of terrorist attack on businesses is Baltic Exchange bombing 1992, which damaged the Exchange and surrounding buildings and caused  £800 millions worth of damage. The latest terrorist attacks in UK was July 7 London bombing, which had massive effects on UK businesses. According to the LCCI (2005) report, business confidence in London had slumped to the lowest levels not seen since the start of Iraq war. Because, terrorist attacks disrupt supply chain and other business activities. Alexander (2004) says in his book Business Confronts Terrorism, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“terrorismà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s implication on business merits closer scrutiny given its relation to economic security. Terror metamorphoses business causing business to deal with current threats and craft plans to reduce future challenges. Terrorists weaken society and business through their mani pulation of economic systems componentsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. Terrorism interrupts information flows and effects on the demand form both business and consumer side. This falling demand may have different outcomes which may comprises of losses of customers contracts, customer trust, reduces market share, decline in turnover and profitability and also result business failure. For example according to the LCCA report, UK tourism industry badly effected by July 7 terrorist attacks. The Guardianà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s research shows that after July 7 Bombing, Londoners themselves who are leaving the centre in the evening rather than the tourists. Within a month after these attacks, it has been estimated that terrorism cost UK tourism industry in excess of  £300 million. According to U.S Department of state (2002) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“terrorist select businesses for attack compare to other targetsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. The most kind of attack is bomb blast, although armed attacks and kidnapping are also some kinds of terrorist attacks. According to Council of Foreign Relations (2002) report, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“the majority of victims in terrorist attack are civilians and the relatively large number of business may not prepare to face these kinds of risksà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. Managers and decision makers remain confident about handling unexpected risk. However the scenario has changed as it was at the time of terrorist attack in 9/11. Kunreuther et al (2003) cited that during the days of terrorist attacks in 9/11 a common feeling came into mind of people that it could be me. But with the passage of time this may give way to may be it will not à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"meà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ next time. This kind of behaviour is more common now a day in south Asia. But it is a common thinki ng that it is extremely easy for terrorist that to attack any where in the world. Even in low cost and low tech attacks terrorists achieve to disrupt the world economy. After the September 11 terrorist attacks many UK international organisations have badly affected legally because new laws introduced and they struggle to keep up with new rules and regulations imposed by international community in the effort to prevent further terrorist attacks. Anne Slaughter (2005) cited that new international laws restricted the companies for shipping goods across international borders and requires them to keep proper track of their activities. The anti terrorist laws have made very complicated for organizations to conduct their business activities across the international borders as a result many organisations have restructured theirs companies to allow them to meet demands of international anti terror laws. Another major issue that effect the international organizations is security and they have to invest huge amount of money to improve both internal and external security. External security is most important because terrorist target organizations to achieve thei r targets. Internal security also need to improve to ensure that organisation have financial records, employees records and ensure that employees do not have any criminal backgrounds or involved in terrorist activities in the past. It is vital for all organizations that they protect themselves and their stakeholders from terrorist activities. The international organizations should not underestimate the impact of terrorism because they make billions dollars each year and provide employment millions of people around the world. In this modern era, it is very easy for terrorist to attack international organizations in such a way that they would stop them from operating in an effective manner. It is very difficult to explain, why terrorism has become the major problem for big and international organizations. Modern terrorism is particularly onerous, because of characteristic of its impact. The impact of terrorism on macroeconomic is crucial, customers feel themselves in stress and some kind of continuous fear which definitely effects the spending patterns. Managerial behaviour in macro economy also feels consequences of terrorism. Media have its vital role in ending fear among the society but very often it fails. Many of times, because of the irresponsible reporting it generates scenes of ever present possibility of terrorist act. According to Crenshaw (1990) the new and fastest ways of communication allow people to know about happens in the other part of the world within minutes about any terrorist attack. On the other hand terrorist groups are adopting the latest techniques to communicate with each other and even sometime just for spreading fear with in the specific community to achieve their targets. Czinkota et al (2004) cited that terrorist also using old traditional ways to communi cate which are unable to penetrate. The latest ways of transportation system gives terrorist groups better way to move around. The impact of terrorism can be calculated from a number of ways. According to Czinkota et al (2004) the micro level research is a moderate degree of research. It help to analyze effects of terrorism on specific regions, value chain or cross industry level, but can be determine and examine more specifically than those of macro level. When terrorist events happens if effects businesses direct and indirect way and disrupt the economic process. To make the effects of the terrorist activities stronger terrorist groups try to make businesses their direct targets. Business are more attractive target for those groups as their presence is everywhere and their aftermaths are more deep on society and on the economics. 2.1 Conclusion: Terrorism effects business activates deeply. This threat compel almost every department of business which cause decline in the profit of firm and on the other side the whole economy has to bear the cost of every single act of terrorism. According to LCCI (2005) report, after 9/11 terrorist attacks, majority of organizations fear high risk of terrorist attacks and they have contingency plan in place to deal with uncertainty. As globalization integrates multinational organizations and financial markets, events like terrorism which spurn economic uncertainty have increasingly international consequences. Terrorism causes unpredictable political and economic consequences, infuses the public with fear and prevents the free flow of capital, labour, and free market principles. Because of their disastrous impacts, occurrences of terrorism have serious implications on the performance of international and UK organizational. Immediate responses are felt in financial markets and the effected industry sectors. These sustained reactions can be observed through macroeconomic impacts, economic policy responses and investor confidence. As world move towards more liberal economies and democratic political structures, organizations must have the ability to adapt and respond to terrorist events. In order to do so, decision makers and policy makers need a more complete picture and understanding of the deleterious effects of terrorism on organization. 3. Research Methodology: The main proposed research methodology is secondary research which is based on the critical and comprehensive analysis of the existing published literature related to the specific area of research. Books, published journal articles, published research reports, surveys, organizational records, qualitative research and internet (websites and search engines) will be used to collect secondary sources data. I think these sources will help me to complete my research work. I will use all the above mentioned secondary research methods for my research work and I am highly interested to use the deductive method because it is more logical and authentic way to prove my research. Moreover I will use both quantitative and qualitative techniques to critically analyze my collected data and to reach the conclusion. But in this research work, I will prefer to use more qualitative method of data collection. According to Lincoln and Guba (1985) a qualitative method captures a more complete picture of individual lived experience instead of a narrow perspective of generalizations. The qualitative data provide me an opportunity to study the material of the recent or more distant past to gain the more insights information for methodological and theoretical purposes. 3.1 Advantages of secondary research methodology: This kind of research helps in examining large scale trend. It is easy to accessible so researcher can consume most of its time in critically analysing data rather than collecting it. Sometime primary data collection is not necessary for the research, because of the available secondary data is completely suitable to draw a conclusions and answers of the questions and sufficient for solving problem. The collection of secondary data is far cheaper than the collection of primary data. For the same level of research budget secondary research definitely gives relatively more information than the primary research can give. The time consumption is much less in the collection of data and conducting results in comparison with the primary research. The results obtain from secondary source of information may more precise than the result obtain from the primary data collection. It may not happen all the time but if research is about at large scale. 3.2 Problems of Secondary Research: In secondary research the researches have to be careful about authenticity of secondary resources. Because at the same type of data or idea two different types of department or persons have different type of opinion. Some time material available for research is too old and out dated, so it may difficult for researcher to interpret results. The source of the data and material may not reliable each time, so it may impact the reliability and authenticity of results of the research. Sometimes secondary research has lack of firmness of perspective. If data and material collected from non authentic sources it is difficult to check its biasness and inaccuracies. The published material and statistics often raise more questions than answers. 3.3 Limitations: There are some limitations the data may have and the problems that could arise if these limitations are ignored. The verification of existing data is difficult. Secondary data can be general and vague and sometimes it may cause difficulties in decision making. It is possible that data could be out dated and the sample used to generate the secondary data maybe small. The data publisher company may not be reputable. While keeping in mind those limitations of secondary data, I will use data for my research from reputable academic websites and published literature. 3.4 Conclusion: A use and search of secondary data should be preceding any primary research activity. Secondary data definitely helps to solve and understand the problem and gives valid answers. The process of collecting secondary data for research is far cheaper and quicker in compare with primary data at in some cases it could be more accurate. There is always a need of evaluation about data and its source before using it for research. Where possible it is better to take same data from different sources so the biasness and errors can be double check for the more accurate results. 4. Research Structure and Design: This research consists of six chapters. It begins with chapter 1, which reveals the need, aim and objectives for this research to be attained. Chapter 2 of my research will discuss the methodology, which enables me to fulfil the requirements of this research. Chapter 3 is an extensive and deep interpretation of literature review about terrorism. Chapter 4 of this research will explore the impacts of terrorism on businesses. Chapter 5 of this research evaluates performance and adaptation of suitable strategy by management on different kind of business activities and also scrutinize the different business strategic views which a business can adopt for minimizing the effects of terrorism. Finally chapter 6 of this research is the conclusion and recommendation chapter which will answer all the key questions, aim and objectives of this research seek. 5. Research Implementation Plan: Research Plan Week beginning Date. 23-10-2010 No. Of Weeks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Background reading and literature review x x Research design and plan x Choice of methodology x Gathering data x x Data analysis and refine x x Writing up draft x x x Editing final document x x Produce final document x Document passed to supervisor to read x 6. Research Ethics: While carrying out the research, the most important thing to keep in mind and practice is the ethical considerations. And in my research work this is very critical and of prime consideration. I will follow all the ethical considerations and guidelines. As my research work is based on secondary research, so what ever the secondary data I will use to achieve my research objectives, I will follow the all terms and conditions of ethical considerations. Throughout my research I will practice honesty in processing and reporting all the data, this will be my own work and I will not copy the other researcher data or work, I will not be bias in my research while collecting or processing the data. I will try my utmost to avoid the omissions and errors while analysing the data and will keep all the record of the data and their valid sources. I am fully aware that the plagiarism is a serious academic crime, so I will not plagiarise my research. I will quote all the citations and that will be ful ly referenced.

sunday too far away :: essays research papers

Sunday Too Far Away is set on an Australian sheep station in 1955. It shows the life of a shearer, Foley (played by Jack Thompson), In the hardships of living through the union action of that year and the consequences of age in the demanding and competitive world of the shearers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   the film traces the actions of Foley . Foley is a long time gun shearer who has returned from retirement for one last season to make the most of a pay rise to shearers. Though out shawn by a new comer Foley is the uncontested leader of the shearing gang. Through him and scenes like the unmotivated break down in front of the owner's daughter, the only feminine aspect of the film, the audience receives the emotion of the film. His predicament and the feel of the film are emphasized with the parellelism of the older alchoholic Garth and his young clumsy counter part. Foley is the most active character initiating brawls and jeering the arriving scabs. Director Ken Hannam uses the eclectic character range of the film to demonstrate the masculinity and mateship of Australian culture in the era. The competitiveness, alchoholism, gambling and distain for the daughter reak â€Å"Aussie† maleness and provide a bleak but relative humour to the film. Through out the film speech is kept to a minimum and the feel of the film is replaced by actions such as the scene where Foley and his â€Å"mate† compete in washing clothes while naked. Through similar scenes it seems that Ken Hannam is showing the nessecity and pain of masculine culture through the characters and situations presented. sunday too far away :: essays research papers Sunday Too Far Away is set on an Australian sheep station in 1955. It shows the life of a shearer, Foley (played by Jack Thompson), In the hardships of living through the union action of that year and the consequences of age in the demanding and competitive world of the shearers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   the film traces the actions of Foley . Foley is a long time gun shearer who has returned from retirement for one last season to make the most of a pay rise to shearers. Though out shawn by a new comer Foley is the uncontested leader of the shearing gang. Through him and scenes like the unmotivated break down in front of the owner's daughter, the only feminine aspect of the film, the audience receives the emotion of the film. His predicament and the feel of the film are emphasized with the parellelism of the older alchoholic Garth and his young clumsy counter part. Foley is the most active character initiating brawls and jeering the arriving scabs. Director Ken Hannam uses the eclectic character range of the film to demonstrate the masculinity and mateship of Australian culture in the era. The competitiveness, alchoholism, gambling and distain for the daughter reak â€Å"Aussie† maleness and provide a bleak but relative humour to the film. Through out the film speech is kept to a minimum and the feel of the film is replaced by actions such as the scene where Foley and his â€Å"mate† compete in washing clothes while naked. Through similar scenes it seems that Ken Hannam is showing the nessecity and pain of masculine culture through the characters and situations presented.

Paragraph About Elasticity and Inelasticity

Elasticity is the degree to which demand for a service or a good varies from its price. What happens most of the times is that when there are price decreases, sales increase and viceversa. This is known as elastic demand. For example, bicycles, sodas, jeans, cars have elastic demand because when they are cheap everyone wants to buy them, but when the price increases, people stop doing so (demand depends on the price). This happens with products such as this because they are not totally essential on people? s lifes (one can live without it); instead of gas (which is a product classified in inelastic demand) because people will always need it.Elasticity is important because it helps organizations decide on the best course of action regarding the service or the product. Also, it helps the government impose a new tax (when a new tax is imposed, the prices rise). If the demand is very elastic it will considerably fall when the price has risen and the government will not be able to earn ex pected revenue. Affects monopoly as well, If demand is very elastic, the effect of monopoly on prices is quite limited. In contrast, if the demand is relatively inelastic, monopolies will increase prices by a large margin.Hence, elasticity helps both companies and government understand is what is being done produces results or not. In order to measure the rate of response of quality demanded due to a price change, there is the Price Elasticity of Demand (PEoD): (% change in quality demanded)/(% change in price). Factors that can influence this calculation include costs of switching between products, and the importance of the good (is it necessary? ). Moreover, we have what is known as price elasticity of supply, measuring the relationship between change in quality supplied and a change in price.The formula for calculating: is (%change in quality supplied)/(%change in price). There are also factors that can influence this calculation, such as spare capacity, stocks, time periods, etc . Therefore, the income elasticity of supply is the response of quantity demanded and supplied due to a change in consumer disposable income. Also, it is very important to have in mind the cross elasticity of supply. This is the acceptance of the supply of good A to the change in price of the good B. For example: a farmer grows potatoes and carrots.The cross elasticity of supply of carrots against potatoes is how much supply of carrots will change is the price of potatoes changes. Furthermore, inelasticity is a situation where the supply and demand for a good are unaffected when the price of that service or product changes. Even if the price goes higher, the demand will remain the same because people need of thee in order to survive. As I mentioned before, this is the case of gas since people need it, even if they complain about it prices they would, still need to buy it. Other examples of products with inelasticity are bread, medicines, milk and water (most of them are recurring).

CanGo Corporation Essay

CanGo does not seem to have any legitimate process flow charts, especially for its operations facility. Two floor plan layouts were drawn up. One for the current operation processes and one which shows the operation facility if CanGo invests and implements an ASRS (automated storage and retrieval systems). These two floor plans were referred to as flow charts. Flow charts consist of shapes and connectors which are labeled stating the flow of the processes, the decisions that can be made at specific stages, and outcomes of those decisions. Accompanying a flow chart would be the floor plan and written documentation outlining and explaining the entire process. Recommendation Classes Consulting recommends that CanGo draws up an actual flow chart, as well as the floor plans and written documentation explaining the processes in their operations facility. In addition, costs, financial effects (both current and future), and other details should be included for both the current operations system and the proposed ASRS and barcoding system. Having all of this documentation will show where improvements can be made and where costs can be cut. It will show and explain in detail the actual processes used for receiving, picking, and shipping. A floor plan will not take into account the actual details such as how long it take to pick books, how crowded it is on the operations floor, nor how the employees feel about the possible change. If, after creating this documentation, CanGo decides to go ahead with the new barcode and ASRS the flowchart will help in the creation and setup of the new systems. In addition, if financing is needed to install the new systems, having this documentation will show the lenders that CanGo has thought it through and can give details.