Managing Hospitality Resources Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Managing Hospitality Resources - Essay Example The premeditated use of technology in marketing services has created many opportunities in the hospitality and tourism industry. Consequently customers are always not satisfied with what they receive and desire innovative alternatives. Since the 1980s, the information communication technology has transformed dramatically, the management and outlook of many hospitality industries resulting into computer reservation systems, which later transformed into global distribution systems in the early 1980s and finally the currently used internet. The invention of the internet has caused a shift in many operations changing operational practices and a general paradigm shift in the market (Moutinho 2011, pp 108). It is in this regards that many hotels are developing computer systems to meet the demand of their customers. The Royal Garden Hotel is a five star hotel that need improvement in technology since technology is a driving force towards growth of many economies. In addition, technological advancement in a hotel facilitates efficient internal operations and improvement in service quality. Body When the Royal Garden Hotel develops technology and systems in their operations many services are likely to be improved. To start, the management will be able, to create automated guest histories. By having the guest history available, defining the customer mix to come up with the services salient for each customer will not be a challenging factor. From this perspective customer satisfaction gets enhanced, this leads to retention and in turn maintaining loyalty. Secondly, the development of the E- business strategy at the Royal Garden Hotel will provide transaction centric solutions (Shin 2003, pp 76). This leads to efficiency and proficiency in administrative procedures (property management systems) and internal operations. The core function behind the improvement of management is in the provision of guest folio, a factor important in the provision of services to the guest. In as much as this is not a primary goal of introduction of technology in Royal Garden Hotel, it is an indirec t benefit, which accrues to the net yield of the hotel. One means of using technology to reach customers is by websites. This is because customers are increasingly applying voice recognition mechanisms and call routing technologies. They access hotels through websites where they speak to computers routing their calls to relevant departments. A website proposal for the hotel, therefore, would target various audiences. For instance, various company executives can access the website and check various services offered by the Hotel. This is because company executives often have meetings in hostels with partners from overseas of internal customers (Leong 2001, pp 201). Tourists also remain a central segment of the targeted audiences who book online through various websites before arriving at their destinations. To prevent customers who access the site from being bombarded with run-of-the-mill products the website developed by the hotel, must meet all requirements as well as expectations o f customers to gain the competitive advantage. It is from this perspective that Royal Garden hotel management should employ the automated system, which can impart

Multiple Myeloma: Causes, Signs and Treatments

Multiple Myeloma: Causes, Signs and Treatments 1.0 Introduction Human body is consisting of so many of cells, almost uncountable. Normal human body cells are growing, dividing into new cell and dying in an orderly fashion. There are different how the body cell is growing between normal cells and cancer cells. Instead of dying, cancer cell continue to grow and form news and abnormal cells. Differ from normal cells; cancer cells can invade other tissue. The cancer cells are the cell that is growing out of control and invading the other cell. When cancer cells diffuse the blood vessel or lymph vessel, the process called metastasis can happen. It is a process where the cancer cells travel, grow out and form new tumors at the other part of the body but it is always named from its origin. Different types of cancer can act very differently like they growing at different speed and respond to different treatments. Not all tumors are cancerous. They are called benign tumor. This type of tumors cannot invade others tissues and cannot metastasize. This kind of tumors are almost never life threatening. Multiple myeloma is a cancer of plasma cells. It is malignant cancer cells. The other names for multiple myeloma are plasma cell myeloma or Kahlers disease. Plasma cell is a type of white blood cells that functioning as producer of antibodies. In the human body, the interference of the production of normal blood cells happened because of multiple myeloma, when the collection of abnormal plasma cells is accumulating in the bone marrow. The multiple myeloma usually started at the bone marrow. Bone marrow is the soft, spongy tissue that can be found inside the most bone in the human body. The breastbone, spine, ribs, skull, pelvic bones, and femur are rich with marrow. The myeloma cells that accumulate in the bone marrow can destroy the solid part of the bone. It is called multiple myeloma when more than on of the bone have the collection of myeloma cells. Besides that other tissue and organ like, kidneys can be affected and damaged by this disease. This is because the myeloma cells can produce antibodies that called M protein and other protein. They can be found and collected in the blood, urine and organs. 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 CAUSES The etiology of the multiple myeloma is poorly known to the physician. According to (Multiple myeloma 2011) although the exact cause is unknown, the one thing for sure is multiple myeloma is begin with one abnormal plasma cell and its started to multiple in bone marrow (Multiple myeloma 2011). 2.2 CLINICAL FINDING Usually the multiple myeloma is found out accidently when the patients do the routine blood test for another reason. The blood test result will indicate that patients have anemia, abnormal red blood cells, high serum protein level and how levels of normal antibody. In addition, when patients do the urine test, the results will show that the calcium levels is high and same to go to blood urea nitrogen levels and creatinine levels. If the kidneys are not functioning properly, then there is high level of urea and creatinines exist in urine because the kidneys cannot eliminate these substances properly. When the protein electrophoresis is carried out, the result will shows a large M protein spike, high concentration of monoclonal lg and the Bence Jones protein also detected. The marrow is examined by using bone marrow aspiration techniques. The multiple myeloma usually shows 10%-30% of the cells are plasma cells. 2.3 INCIDENCE OF MULTIPLE MYELOMA Incidence of multiple myeloma means the annual diagnosing rate, or the number of new multiple myeloma case being diagnosed each year. According to (Multiple myeloma quick statistics 2012) multiple myelomas are seldom affected children, teenagers and young adults. The incidences of multiple myeloma are increased with age (Multiple myeloma quick statistics 2012). In 50s, 60s and 70s the incidences of the multiple myeloma is the highest (Multiple myeloma quick statistics 2012). According to (Multiple myeloma quick statistics 2012) 65 years old and above is the onset age for this disease, with an incidence rate of 28.6 per 100000 versus 1.8 per 100000 people under 65 years old. In addition, multiple myeloma is common in men and in individuals of African descent (Multiple myeloma quick statistics 2012). In Asian, about 1/100000 population/year will get multiple myeloma, while in Caucasian, 4/100000 population/ year will get multiple myeloma but, for African descent, 8-10/100000 population /year will get multiple myeloma (Multiple myeloma quick statistics 2012). According to (General information about plasma cell neoplasm 2012) the incidence of multiple myeloma in United States in 2012 is 21700. While in Canada, according to (Canadian statistics for multiple myeloma 2013) about 2300 new case of multiple myeloma is recorded in 2011. 2.4 MORTALITY OF MULTIPLE MYELOMA The mortality rate for patients with multiple myeloma is high because the cure for this disease is still unknown to the people and physicians (Multiple myeloma quick statistics 2012). The median survival rate is approximately 3 or 5 years following a diagnosis of systematic multiple myeloma (Multiple myeloma quick statistics 2012). However, there are some patients that live 10 or 20 years following their diagnosing (Multiple myeloma quick statistics 2012). It is making things so unpredictable. According to (General information about plasma cell neoplasm 2012) 10710 of people have die from multiple myeloma in the United Stated. While in Canada, according to (Canadian statistics for multiple myeloma 2013) about 1370 people had die from multiple myeloma in 2011. 2.5 Risk factors The real causes of multiple myeloma is stil unknown. physicians hardly aware why someone get the multiple myeloma and why others do not but, one thing for sure is multiple myeloma is not contangious disease. There are several risk factors that can contribute to the multiple myeloma. Age over 65 years old As the age increase, the change of developing multiple myeloma also increasing (Multiple myeloma 2013). According to (Multiple myeloma 2013) most people are diagnosed with myeloma after the age of 65 years old. Race According to (Multiple myeloma 2013) the african americans have the highest risk to get multiple myeloma while the asian americanshave the lowest risk. The reason of why this happen is unknown (Multiple myeloma 2013). Gender According to (Multiple myeloma 2013) in the United Stated, the numbers of men that are diagnosed with multiple myeloma is higher compared to women. The reason of why this happen is unknown (Multiple myeloma 2013). Personal history of (MGUS) monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance MGUS is a benign condition in which abnormal plasma cell make M proteins. Usually, its assystomatic and by running the blood test to the pateint, the abnormal M protein level can be found out (Multiple myeloma 2013). Sometimes people who have MGUS can develop certain cancers, like multiple myeloma(Multiple myeloma 2013). Family history The risk of getting multiple myeloma is increased if a close relative had the disease(Multiple myeloma 2013) . 2.6 SIGN AND SYMPTOMS Usually, depending on how advanced the disease, the symptoms of multiple myeloma may be varies (What is multiple myeloma 2013). In the earliest stages, a person may be assystomatic (What is multiple myeloma 2013). When these symptoms present, its may be obscure and similar to those of other conditions also,it is kindly hard to diffrentiate whether it is multiple myeloma or other diseases. Sometimes not all patient have all these symptoms (What is multiple myeloma 2013). Kidney problem According to (What is multiple myeloma 2013) kidney damage can happen when the kidney filtering excess protein the blood and this may lead to renal failure. The symptoms like loss of appetite, fatigue, muscle weakness,conctipation, nausea and vomiting will appear when hypercalcemia overworks the kidneys (What is multiple myeloma 2013) . Pain One of the most common early symptom of the multiple myeloma is lower back pain or pain at the ribs area (What is multiple myeloma 2013). Because of accumulation of plasma cells and weakened bone structures, there is tiny fracture in the bone and it can leads to the lower back pain ot pain in the area of the fractures(What is multiple myeloma 2013). Fatigue According to (What is multiple myeloma 2013) the number of malignant plasma cells is increases in the bone marrow caused the growth and development of red blood cells in the bone marrow lessen it can lead to anemia. unusual tiredness and abnormal paleness is the common symptoms of anemia. Recurent infection According to (What is multiple myeloma 2013) myeloma patient have higher risk, about 15 fold than a healthy person to get infection, espeacially pneumonia. the immunity of patient is reduced from infections such as bacterial pneumonia, urinary tract infection and shingles and it is happened when the blood produces fewer white blood cell that functional to fight the infection , as the number of myeloma cell increases.(What is multiple myeloma 2013) . Nervous system disfunction Because of the bone structure is weakened and collapsed, it may encroach on thenerves, produce severe pain, tingling or numbnes (What is multiple myeloma 2013). Accoding to (What is multiple myeloma 2013) the abnormal proteins that have been produce by the myeloma cellswill contribute to the appearant of the symptoms and if it is produce in the large amounts, it will cause hyperviscosity. 2.7 PATHOPHYSIOLOGY B-lymphocytes are developed from the stem cell in the bone marrow, and from them the plasma cells is being produces. The antibodies that can recognize antigen are carries by the B-cells. Antibodies are responsible in recognizing and destroying material and organisms such as bacteria. As his antibodies recognize and want to destroy the antigen, they will proliferate rapidly and become mature plasma cells. These plasma cells are monoclonal. If there is damaged to the genetic materials when stem cell is develop to B cell, multiple myeloma will begin. This is because; it will lead to the development of plasmablast. The plasmablast will bond together inside the bone marrow because of production of adhesive molecule that allows them to do so. These myeloma cells are growing out uncontrollable and did not die naturally because of interference of a growth factor that called interleukin-6. Multiple myeloma patient have higher contain of plasma cells in their bone marrow compared to normal individual. In this disease, a plasma B cell is genetically damaged and proliferated uncontrollably (Immune cells and multiple myeloma 2013). The antibodies are overproduced by cancerous cell and accumulated in bone marrow. The bone cells named osteoclasts are stimulated by altered plasma cell. The bone structure is dissolved by the enzymes that be produced by the Osteoclasts, caused some of the symptoms associated with the disease, including pain and disfigurement (Immune cells and multiple myeloma 2013). Normally, B cell is move freely around the body, that is why the cancerous cells are available in the blood stream and metastasis is a common thing. Usually, multiple tumors are available in different bones (Immune cells and multiple myeloma 2013). The malignant myeloma cell will produce identical lg (immunoglobulin). The dysfunctional immunoglobulins that produce from myeloma cell are called paraprotein. They are called monoclonal because the myeloma cells are identical clones of a single plasma cell. Multiple myeloma will depress immune system because of action of paraprotein that destroy the functional lgs and other components of immune system. The malignant plasma cells also produce monoclonal light chain or incomplete lgs that call Bence Jones protein and secreted in the urine. 2.8 HISTOPATHOLOGY OF THE MULTIPLE MYELOMA According to (Tobias 2012), plasma cells from patients with myeloma are usually immature in appearance with centrally located nuclei, distinct nucleoli and perinuclear vacuolization. There are also often multinucleated plasma cells. Immunohistochemical analysis can verify monoclonality. The plasma cells produce monoclonal lgG or lgA that can be detected through a characteristic serum protein electrophoresis pattern. Eighty percent of the patients have a complete monoclonal lg in the serum and most of them simultaneously produce light chain in the urine (bence jones protein). The light chain concentration in the urine is often so low that Hellers urinary test is negative. 3.0 IMAGING MODALITIES OF MULTIPLE MYELOMA There are several imaging modalities that can be used to rule out multiple myeloma. According to (Healy et al. 2011) the function of medical imaging in multiple myeloma is crucial in the initial staging of disease, in detection and characterization of complication and to asses patient response toward the treatment. CONVENTIONAL RADIOGRAPHY A full skeletal survey is done in order to rule out the multiple myeloma. This skeletal survey is included a frontal and lateral view of the skull, the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine, a coned down frontal view of the dens axis, as well as frontal view of ribs cage, humeri, knees and pelvis (Healy et al. 2011). Advantages According to (Healy et al. 2011) the evidence of multiple myeloma can be seen on the radiograph of skeletal survey in 80% of patient. The radiological evidence of multiple myeloma can been seen on vertebrae in 66%, ribs in 45%, skull in 40%, shoulder in 40%, and pelvis in 30% and long bones in 25% (Healy et al. 2011). The advantage of plain radiography compare to MRI is in discovering the cortical bone lesions in the radiograph. It also has the advantage of being easily available and inexpensive compare to the other imaging modalities (Healy et al. 2011). Disadvantages One of the disfavor of conventional radiography is diffusion of bone marrow, which may or may not be associated with cortical bone destruction, is cannot be evaluated by the conventional radiography (Healy et al. 2011). Furthermore, the lytic lesions become clear and appear on plain radiography if only when 30-50% of the bone mineral density is already loss (Healy et al. 2011). In addition, the causes of the diffuse osteopenia that shown on the radiograph cannot be differentiate whether it is because of multiple myeloma or because of other reason such as osteoporosis (Healy et al. 2011). According to (Healy et al. 2011)because of plain radiograph required patient to be in varied positioning that is sometimes painful for the patients who are usually elderly and disable because of pathological fracture then this plain radiograph become disfavor for the multiple myeloma patients. COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY According to (Healy et al. 2011) CT is a sensitive imaging modality in evaluating the osteolytic effects of multiple myeloma and has a higher sensitivity than conventional radiography at detecting small lytic lesions. The characteristic of myeloma disease like punched out lytic lesions, expansile lesions with soft tissue masses, diffuse osteopenia, fractures and rarely osteosclerosis can be detected by the CT scan (Healy et al. 2011). Advantages If the CT, MRI and conventional radiography is being compared in patient with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, then CT was advance than conventional radiography at defining lytic lesion and in combination with MRI, aiding in staging the extent of the disease(Healy et al. 2011). CT is more accurate than MRI in the assessing of fracture areas. According to (Healy et al. 2011) in case where MRI is negative, CT is used in identifying bone destruction, hence complementary imaging information may be provided. Furthermore, the presence and extend of extraosseous lesions is demonstrated accurately by CT scan. In image guided spinal or pelvic bone biopsy of MRI defined focal lesions; CT is preferred (Healy et al. 2011). Furthermore, CT can be done quickly and comfortable for the patient as they just need to be lying stilly. Disadvantage According to (Healy et al. 2011) a disadvantage of CT is that it typically shows persistent bone lesions throughout the trend of the disease and unlike MRI and PET/CT, it cannot evaluate continued activity of myeloma in areas of anterior to bone destruction. WHOLE BODY MRI According to (Healy et al. 2011) in detecting diffuse and focal multiple myeloma in the spine as well as the extra axial skeleton, the whole body MRI is proven to be the most sensitive imaging modalities to do it. It is crucial to know that MRI preponderantly showing bone marrow infiltration, which may or may not be related with bone destruction (Healy et al. 2011). Advantages MRI has capability to visualize large volumes of bone marrow without producing radiation exposure and in shorten time, its suitable and favorable method to evaluate disease within bone marrow (Healy et al. 2011). In addition as the number and pattern of lesions detected on MRI is mutual related very well with treatment outcome and overall survival, which is means MRI has prognostic significance (Healy et al. 2011). In patient with extraosseous lesions, it is important to define the degree of involvement and to asses for cord compression so MRI can be the best choice to do it. Disadvantages According to (Michael 2011) ,although MRI is sensitive to the existance of disease, but it it not disease particular, that is why extra test such as direct aspiration of bone marrow and measurement of gamma globulin level to asses for plasmacytosis need to be taken. It is because the signal intensity profile and enhancement pattern produce by MRI is almost the same between any muscoskeletal tumor and myeloma.(Michael 2011). That is why, MRI may give worse or better result about the disease to the patients with myeloma, in the other word it may understage the disease or overstage the disease. (Michael 2011). NUCLEAR IMAGING Myeloma is a disease that is caused by overactivity of osteoclasts, with resultant liberation of bone and suppression of osteoblasts (Michael 2011). According to (Michael 2011) nuclear medicine bone scans are depended on osteoblastic activity for diagnosing. In addition, the extend and severity of the disease is underestimated by standard tecnetium -99m (99m Tc) bone scans. So, this bone scan should not be used mundanely. Advantages According to (Michael 2011) 99m TC-MIBI can demonstrated the extend and intensity of bone marrow infiltration equally as well as MRI and its may serve as subtituition to MRI in cases in which MRI is not convenient. Disadvantages According to (Michael 2011) the fast- negative rate of standard 99m Tc bone scintigraphy is high in diagnosing multiple myeloma. Additional test is required for the confirmation if the scan is positive with normal radiograph(Michael 2011). PET/CT PET/CT is a tomographic nuclear imaging tecnique that injected labelled radiopharmaceutical such as flouro-deoxy-glucose (FDG) into the patient then, followed by tomographic scanning 10-40 minutes later. Because of tumor cell have high metabolic rate and high glucose demand, then it can be differentiate from the normal cell by using thic tecnique. in detecting early bone marrow involvement with apparent of solitary plasmacytoma, PET/CT is used. Besides that, PET/CT also used in assessing the extent of active disease, detecting extramedullary involvement or evaluating treatment response given by the doctors to the multiple myeloma patient. (Michael 2011). Advantages According to (Michael 2011) the most substantial benefits of PET/CT imaging is it has ability to differentiate between active myeloma and monoclonal gammopathy of undetermine significance (MGUS) smouldering disease. Disadvantages According to (Michael 2011) the primary drawback of PET is it have limited spatial resolution, that can cause restriction in detecting subcentumetre lytic lesions seen on conventional radiography. 4.0 DISCUSSION Multiple myeloma is known as the disease that is incurable but treaterable,. This disease is also progression slowly and can be repeated again. If this disease is in stage 1, it is very hard to diagnose this disease by the imaging modalities. Usually, in stage 1, this disease have normal bone structure or only isolated plasmacytoma. Most patient are diagnosed at stage 3. As there is no clear cause of these disease, so there is no method for preventing multiple myeloma. 5.0 TREATMENT FOR MULTIPLE MYELOMA Though multiple myeloma is incurable, but with the good treatment the patient can be as normal as healthy person. According to (Multiple myeloma 2012) standard intervention options include: Bortezomib (Velcade) (Multiple myeloma 2012) It is administered intravenously. This drug will blocking the action of proteasomes and can lead to the death of cancers cell (Multiple myeloma 2012). For the people who are newly diagnosed and previously treated myeloma, this drugs can be useful and approvable. 5.2 Thalidomide (thalomid) (Multiple myeloma 2012) This drug is suitable for the treatment of newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (Multiple myeloma 2012). This drug is admitted orally. Lenalidomine (revlimid) (Multiple myeloma 2012) This drug is more potent and causes fewer side effects than thalidomide (Multiple myeloma 2012). It is given orally. This drug can be used for the patient who has previously treated with myeloma and the patient with newly diagnosed myeloma (Multiple myeloma 2012). Chemotherapy (Multiple myeloma 2012) It is involves using medicines that need to be taken orally as a pill or through intravenous injection to kill myeloma cells (Multiple myeloma 2012). Chemotherapy is carry out in a cycles over a period of months,and then followed by a rest period (Multiple myeloma 2012). melphalan, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, doxorubicin and liposomal dexoribicin are the most common chemothreaphy drugs that has veen used in treating myeloma (Multiple myeloma 2012). Corticosteroids (Multiple myeloma 2012) For decade the treatment of the multiple myeloma is using corticosteroids, like prednisone and dexamethasone (Multiple myeloma 2012). The corticosteroids are come in pill form. Stem cell plantation (Multiple myeloma 2012) This treatment is done by using high doses of melphalan, and the immature blood cells that have been collected are transfused to subtitute diseased or damaged marrow (Multiple myeloma 2012). The stem cell is derived from the patient or donor (Multiple myeloma 2012). Radiation therapy (Multiple myeloma 2012) This treatment applies high energy penetration waves to destroy myeloma cell and restrain their growth (Multiple myeloma 2012). In the purpose of to shrinking myeloma cells in a specific area quickly, radiation therapy may be the best choice (Multiple myeloma 2012). 6.0 PROGNOSIS OF MULTIPLE MYELOMA To see the posible outcome of a disease, prognosis is the right medical term for it. It is easy to apply the prognosis to a larger population of patients rather than to a single of patient. For example, it is easy to state that within one year, almost 35% of people in coma will be paralyzed, but its hard to accurately state when will a patient with multiple myeloma die or free from this disease because it is required a lot of patient research specifically. According to (Multiple myeloma prognosis 2011) in multiple myeloma cases by using the international staging system, the prognosis can be done. With the helps of this system, the survival of the myeloma patient can be predicted by depending on stages. The average survival of 62 months for stage one, 42 months for stage 2 and 29 months for a disease that have entered the stage 3 of the disease prognosis ranking is predicted by the international staging system (Multiple myeloma prognosis 2011). The differences of prognosis for multiple myeloma between one patient and others is the common thing. In this disease, 70 years old is the average age that people ussually get the multiple myeloma (Multiple myeloma prognosis 2011). Furthermore, based on the research, the older patient have low change of survival to be compared with younger patients as the older patient may have many other disease that can complicate the situation (Multiple myeloma prognosis 2011). 7.0 CONCLUSION As the conclusion, we can say that imaging modalities have played a big role in diagnosing and treating multiple myeloma patient. Without imaging modalities like plain xray, ct scan , MRI, and others it is hard to diagnose for sure that a patient have multiple myeloma. In addition, it is also hard for physicians to see the progression of the disease or the progression of the treatment without imaging modalities. So, we should be grateful to have so many efficient imaging modalities that can be useful to patients and physicians. By having many imaging modalities, that is mean the doctors will have several choice of use according the type of disease. Different imaging modalities is the best for different types of disease. In this assigment, I can know which imaging modalities is the best for multiple myeloma. Besides that, by doing this assigment, I can learn and differenciate between normal and abnormal appearance of anatomical structures on the radiological images.

Youth Representation in movies Ten Things I Hate About You compared to Stand By Me :: Papers

Youth Representation in movies Ten Things I Hate About You compared to Stand By Me From the very beginning of both films we can see there is going to be a big difference. At the very beginning of "10 things I hate about you" we see a big town, which I think is Seattle because in the background I can see the "CN Tower", and also there is a sort of modern U.S.A. high school rock being played which is kind of upbeat. Unlike "Stand By Me" which starts off with an adult sitting in a car, in a field, in the middle of nowhere, and there is slow old music being played in the background as the adult is reading a newspaper article about an attorney being killed (later on we realise that the attorney was once a very close friend). Also from the very beginning "10 Thing'sà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦." starts with very bright colours which shows us that its is going to be a cheerful, interesting and happy film, we can say this because that's the kind of feelings people get from bright colours. However "Stand by me" starts off with a quite dull colour scheme, because of the dull colour scheme we can say that it is going to be a sad film, as well as an emotional film. Also the youths in "10 Thing'sà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦." lifestyles are basically going to school which we can relate to and also, they date, get drunk and have lots of friends which we can also relate to. However the youths in "10 Thing'sà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦." are very privileged and we know this by all the places they can go and hang out, for example paint balling boating and all the sports that they are offered from school in which they can take part. Unlike "Stand By Me" which must be during the holidays because although the children mention school, we never see them in school, there lifestyle is completely different to the youths in "10 Thing'sà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.", for example Chris, Verne, Gordie and Teddy usually lounge

The Short Stories Of Haruki Murakami English Literature Essay

Within The Elephant Vanishes, an anthology of short narratives by Haruki Murakami, and The Outsider, a novel by Albert Camus, civilization is examined and the reader is invited to see civilization as following set regulations and modus operandis. Through the supporters, the reader understands that civilization observes these behaviors without inquiry and in making so are robotic. One of the ways this thought is reinforced through mentions to nutrient. Food is shown to fall in people ceremonially and who you portion your nutrient with reveals penetrations about the civilization in which you live. Through the action of the texts and first individual narratives the supporter is established as different to the civilization. In the short narrative, Sleep, the supporter noted, ‘I went to the life room, switched on the floor lamp beside the couch, and sat there imbibing a full glass of brandy ‘ ( page 84 ) . Although she enjoys intoxicant, she has to imbibe by stealing. She is restricted in her freedom to bask intoxicant because her hubby does non O.K. of it. Her hubby ‘s business as a tooth doctor precludes her from eating cocoas until an inadvertent reminder of old cocoa flakes wedged between the pages of the book ‘I found a few crumpling flakes of cocoa stuck between the pages ‘ ( page 90 ) . She was so inspired to liberate herself from the bonds of her hubby ‘s dental fraternity norms. She unashamedly indulged herself on this pleasance impetuously, ‘I felt a enormous impulse to hold the existent thing ‘ ( page 90 ) . In Sleep, clocking for tiffin is exactly at 11 40, â€Å" aˆÂ ¦ I looked at my ticker. Eleven Forty. Eleven Forty! † ( Page 91, Elephant Vanishes, Sleep ) . The typical type of nutrient was, â€Å" aˆÂ ¦minced scallionsaˆÂ ¦buckwheat noodlesaˆÂ ¦dried seaweedaˆÂ ¦tofu † ( page 91 ) . The mention to the exact clip and the type of tiffin indicate modus operandi. â€Å" aˆÂ ¦Cup of coffeeaˆÂ ¦two pieces of staff of life, spread them with butter and mustard, and had a cheese sandwich † ( Page 89 ) , something which the supporter wants to get away from. It is merely when she breaks with the conventional regulations that she feels as though she is populating. The hubby sitting on the couch reading the newspaper shows the cultural modus operandi of people in their mundane life, ‘While I cleared the tabular array, my hubby sat on the couch reading the paper ‘ ( page 92 ) . ‘I made my hubby his usual java ‘ ( page 89 ) . The supporter is cognizant of cultural outlooks of which her hubby tenaciously adhere to populating through the same everyday every twenty-four hours. ‘Anna Karenina lay there beside him, but he did n't look to notice. He had no involvement in whether I read books ‘ ( Page 92 ) . The hubby did non pay attending to his married woman ‘s involvements or in the fact that it was his ain book, which she was reading. It is the everyday and humdrum that he is occupied with the supporter lives through every twenty-four hours making whatever gives her pleasance. This rareness of freedom necessarily leads her to seeking nutrient for pleasance while the hubby, so ingrained in modus operandi, appears robotic. Although nutrient symbolically represents modus operandi in The Outsider, it besides establishes Meursault as an foreigner of the civilization. Both of Mersault ‘s friends, Masson and Raymond ‘s immoral behavior has the civilization sort them as foreigners. Due to their unusual behaviors, when these people meet to bask nutrient together, it demonstrates that they encompass similar features of personalities which are deemed unconventional from cultural outlooks. The protagonist drinks wine to attach to nutrient with Raymond and Masson ( page 53 ) . In this context, imbibing intoxicant is an acceptable pattern and civilization, both for work forces and adult females where it was observed by Mersault that Marie, his girlfriend â€Å" aˆÂ ¦she ‘d had a spot excessively much to imbibe † ( page 53 ) . However, the fact that when Marie, commented, â€Å" Do you cognize what clip it is? It is half past 11 † ( page 53 The Foreigner ) , a fact acknowledged by Masson when he responded, â€Å" aˆÂ ¦the clip to hold tiffin is when you are hungry † ( page 53 The Foreigner ) , indicates that for Masson, nutrient is an person ‘s pick non regulated by outlooks of a fixed agenda. At his place, Mersault appears to prefer â€Å" aˆÂ ¦ smoke, and eating chocolatesaˆÂ ¦ † during mealtimes ( page 26 ) The Outsider, while he watched the people below his flat from his gallery. In the text, Meursualt made brooding observations of people that were dressed otherwise within the local community that went passed the street, ‘He was have oning a straw chapeau and a bow tie and transporting a walking-stickaˆÂ ¦ I understand why local people said he was distinguished ‘ ( page 25-26 ) . This reveals the distinguishable behavior of Meursault alongside the normal behavior of the civilization. Similarly, Meursault was besides recognised by the persons that went passed the street, ‘The local misss, with their hair down, were walking weaponries in armsaˆÂ ¦ I knew several of the misss and they waved to me. ‘ ( page 27 ) . Later in the eventide Mersault â€Å" went down to purchase some staff of life and some pasta, did my cookery and I ate standing up † ( page 28, The Outsider ) , a position of which is non dictated by conformist pattern. Mersault ‘s behavior and penetrations uncover how persons within the community stand out by their mere visual aspect that are easy recognizable that identifies them to be ‘different ‘ or ‘distinguishable ‘ . In add-on, Meursault does repair his eating agenda by a peculiar clip. This farther confirms that he is an unplanned and disorganised individual unlike the ‘robot adult female ‘ ( page 45-46 ) The Outsider. The automaton adult female â€Å" aˆÂ ¦while she was waiting for her hors d'oeuvre she opened her bagaˆÂ ¦took the exact amount plus a tipaˆÂ ¦meticulous undertaking occupied her throughout the repast † ( page 46 ) The Outsider. The robot adult female contradicts Meursault ‘s character, in that he would instead follow his peculiarity with respects to most of his determinations about when, how, where and what to eat. The robot adult females on the other manus, showed the features of order and way when she ordered her repast, ‘She called Celeste over and ordered her whole repast at one time, talking exactly but quickly. ‘ ( page 46 ) of which afterwards she ‘dived into her bag once more and took out a bluish pencil and a maga zine which gave the wireless programmes for the hebdomad. One by one, she really carefully ticked about every programmeaˆÂ ¦ ‘ ( page 46 ) . From this rigamarole, the automaton adult female ‘s actions seem to follow a set of modus operandi. In the narrative, The Second Bakery Attack, the supporters were freshly married and did non pre-empt carrying nutrient in their house, ‘Our icebox contains non a individual point that could be technically categorized as nutrient ‘ ( page 37 ) . â€Å" aˆÂ ¦a bottle of Gallic dressing, six tins of beer, two shrivelled onions, a stick of butter, and a box icebox deodorizer † ( page 37 ) . This is a symbol of how empty their lives are. Although they work, go to bed at set times, conforming to the modus operandis of work, they are metaphorically, unsated. The twosome ‘s conformist behavior seems to put them to their ‘hunger ‘ . In order to happen a remedy to interrupt their hungriness, the twosome opposed convention by robbing Mc Donald ‘s, ‘Attack another bakeshop. Right off. Now. It ‘s the lone manner. ‘ ( page 43 ) . During the robbery, the director of the shop showed typical features of conventionality by the demands o f conformation from the upper authorization stating, ‘I ca n't make that. I ‘ll be held responsible if I close up without permission ‘ ( Page 46 ) . From this, it shows that the larger bulk of the civilization such as the director and workers are similar to the automaton adult female in that their lives are dictated by order and modus operandi and merely a really little proportion of people operate in a non-conformist manner. Finally, in The Wind-up Bird and Tuesday ‘s Women, the supporter cooks spaghetti for breakfast. He chooses to populate outside the modus operandi of the civilization and this is reflected by his pick of cookery and eating spaghetti in the forenoon, ‘ † Spaghetti? â€Å" aˆÂ ¦ ‘ It ‘s merely ten-thirty in the forenoon. What are you making cooking spaghetti at ten-thirty in the forenoon? † ( page 5, The Wind-Up Bird and Tuesday ‘s Women ) asked the adult female who telephoned place for 10 proceedingss of his clip. In both The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami and The Foreigner by Albert Camus, nutrient are focused as a symbol that represents modus operandi or an person ‘s desire to hold freedom. The function of the characters is reflected in the type of nutrient they chose to eat, where and when the repartee of nutrient takes topographic point. When any of these engagements of nutrient varies, one can spot that these characters may be far-out, bizarre or stand-alone in their relationship to the larger civilization. ( Word Count: 1428 )

Globalisation of GAP Essay

An investigation into how Gap inc. has expanded into global markets and to what extent has this been successful? Gap was founded in 1969 by Donald Fisher and Doris Fisher. The name came from the growing differences between children and adults, called â€Å"the generation gap. The Fishers had been frustrated with the lack of decent customer service and fashionable styles at other retailers. One of the original mottos of the company was â€Å"Levi’s for Guys and Gals.† Around 1982, Gap began focusing on its own private label clothing and by 1991-1992, the company had stopped carrying Levi’s. As of April 2, 2005, Gap Inc. had approximately 150,000 employees and operated 3,005 stores worldwide. Donald Fisher retired as Chairman of the Board in 2004 and was replaced by his son, Robert Fisher. The Fisher family collectively owns about 25% of the company. Since its founding in 1969, Gap has provided its customers with clothing and accessories that enhance their personal style. What began as one brand has grown to include Gap, examples of Gap brands are GapKids, babyGap, GapBody and GapMaternity. By providing great style, value and service, Gap has become one of the world’s most recognized brands with more than 1,450 stores in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan and France. Today, Gap Inc. is one of the world’s largest specialty retailers, with more than 3,100 stores and 2006 revenues of $15.9 billion. Gap operate five of the most recognized clothing brands in the world including Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Forth & Towne and Piperlime. The culture and ethics of Gap can be seen from the missions statement provided by Gap. Guided by a shared Purpose, we’re able to work together more effectively and contribute to Gap Inc.’s success in a more meaningful way. Inspired by the same Values, we reflect the character, spirit and beliefs of Gap in everything we do. Driven to exceed with the right Behaviors, we work purposefully as individuals, as teams, as a company, to be the best we can be and achieve our vision for growth. Our Purpose Every day, Gap Inc. honors the original reason for founding this company: We’re passionate that you be you. We make it easy for you to express your personal style throughout your life. Our Values To achieve our purpose, we create an environment that encourages our teams to act with integrity and live by the highest standard of ethics. We listen, we respect each other’s time, we value the contributions each of us makes. In a spirit of open-mindedness and trust, we are open to a diversity of ideas, approaches and points of view-across teams and across divisions. We believe in quality and delivering the best result possible, reflecting the realities of price, time and what customers truly value. We find ways to put into balance things that seem to be at odds-work and life, commerce and social responsibility, rapid response and a planful approach. One of the main aims for a business is to grow, once a business has achieved this in it’s own market expanding into foreign markets can be very expensive but profitable. Businesses which operate in more than one country are multi nationals examples of multi nationals are Coca Cola, Sony, Mcdonalds and Gap inc. these businesses have successfully expanded into foreign markets and are now a global brand which is enviable to any business. There are various reasons why companies want to expand into foreign markets. Firstly the world consists of over 6 billion people this is a huge customer base for companies to try to exploit. More potential customers could result in increased sales and revenue because of the larger target market. This could therefore increase profit and even further growth for the business. As a business grows economies of scale can be an essential tool for businesses to take advantage of. Economies of scale allow businesses to buy in bulk and so pay less for each unit, lowering costs for the business. On a global scale the economies of scale the business could benefit would be far greater than that if they just operate in their own domestic market. Also if a business operates in more than one domestic market the risk is spread over several markets. Therefore if one market is not doing well for the business other foreign markets could make up for this. Spreading the risk would be very beneficial as the business would not be reliant on one market. Finally, investing in emerging markets businesses would gain the opportunity to sell to people who’s income are growing strongest and fastest, creating a brand and customer loyalty which would benefit the company greatly when the country further develops. There are however drawbacks and disadvantages to entering into foreign markets. Firstly language can be a major problem in foreign markets. If the business is not familiar with the language of the new market it can cause problems in communicating with employee’s directors and employees. This could then lead to problems in making decisions and implementing any changes. Also setting up in a new market can have very high start up costs. This could include a variety of things ranging from buying land to building factories for production. These high capital costs could inhibit the company from expanding as they may be reluctant to borrow finance. Advertising in the new market can be very expensive, as the company tries to create a brand and gain a competitive advantage TV commercials or adverts in newspapers or the radio could cost the company millions as the advertising campaign may need to be a long term investment. In new markets research and development can also be very expensive as learning about the new market and customers is essential to do well in the market. The company must invest heavily in the research and development as it would be crucial to supply the market with what they need, not just relying on what has been provided in their own domestic market. The government in the new country can also pose a problem. Different laws tax and interest rates can cause a problem for the company. The business could have to pay higher amounts of tax or change some regulations in the company to comply with laws in the country. Decision making can be very difficult. If the head quarters of the business was in America and they had just expanded into China implementing decisions and making decisions would be made so much harder. Overall operating in another market can cost the company millions in a variety of areas. When making the decision the company must take into consideration the opportunity costs of the expansion and not neglect the domestic market. Entering into new markets involves a great deal of risk there are many problems associated with selling in an unknown markets. Businesses attempt to overcome some of these problems in a number of ways, Firstly the company could decide to use joint ventures. This involves the business working together with another company in the country they wish to expand into. Both businesses will expect to gain from the venture. The partnership includes the original company who then teams up with a local company in the foreign market who has the knowledge of the market and already has established distribution links etc. An example of joint ventures could be Coca Cola who have entered joint ventures with bottling companies. They trade brand power for local knowledge of the distribution system. Joint ventures can be very good for companies, they can gain local knowledge without having to spend millions of pounds on research and development. Also initial capital costs would be reduced because you wouldn’t have to build factories or buy land because of your partner company. There is a greater chance of success in the foreign market and the risk is reduced for the company. From the research I have done I have not found any evidence of Gap entering into joint ventures, this could be due to the following negatives of the concept, firstly having to work with another business could be problematic. You may not be familiar with new company and so trust would have to be built between the two businesses in order for the partnership to be effective. The cultures of the two businesses could also be different causing difficulties in situations such as ethics. Decisions would also have to be made together; coming to a collective decision could be difficult. Finally any profits would have to be shared between the two companies, whereas if the original business had set up alone it would receive 100% of the profits. Obviously Gap would have taken into consideration the positives and the negatives about joint ventures but found that the disadvantages were outweighing the advantages. The second idea the business could use would be franchising. For many businesses this is the best way into international markets. Franchises are legal agreements by which local businesses are allowed to set up using the name, logo and trading method of a well known company. They gain all the benefits of a strongly branded product in return they pay a lump sum, percentage of the annual turnover and provide local knowledge. Examples of franchising would be Mcdonalds who have allowed some of their stores to be franchised. I have found evidence relating to various franchised Gap stores around the world. Gap has entered the franchise industry in order to develop its growth in Asia. Gap has signed a franchise agreement with Singaporean group FJ Benjamin Holdings which will see stores opened in Singapore and Malaysia under the Gap and Banana Republic brands. Under the agreements, F J Benjamin will hold exclusive rights to operate Gap and Banana Republic branded clothing and accessories stores in Singapore and will hold exclusive rights to distribute Gap and Banana Republic products in Malaysia. This franchise agreement between Gap and F J Benjamin demonstrates the company’s first step toward expanding the Gap and Banana Republic brands via international franchises. F J Benjamin plans to open about 30 stores in Singapore and Malaysia by 2010, opening the first Gap store in 2006 and the first Banana Republic store in 2007. â€Å"We are bringing Gap and Banana Republic to more customers throughout the world,† Quote from Andrew Rolfe president of Gap inc international. Gap Inc. will gain F J Benjamin’s retail expertise but will provide access to Gap and Banana Republic’s world-renowned clothing and accessories. F J Benjamin will purchase merchandise from Gap Inc. or suppliers designated by Gap Inc. and must keep to Gap Inc.’s quality standards to protect the reputation of the Gap and Banana Republic brands. This year Gap has also brought more franchise partners on board in United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman, and plans to have 90 Gap and Banana Republic stores in Southeast Asia and the Middle East by 2010. The second franchising deal that Gap inc have signed is with the Al Tayer group-a leading business in the Middle East. Al Tayer will introduce Gap and Banana Republic brands into five key markets in the Middle East. The Group plans to open about 25 Gap and about 10 Banana Republic stores by 2010. The first Gap stores will open in the later part of 2006 and the Banana Republic stores are scheduled to open in 2007. Under its agreement with Gap Inc, Al Tayer Group will hold exclusive rights to operate Gap and Banana Republic branded clothing and accessories stores in United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and exclusive rights for Gap in Oman. Gap Inc. will again provide access to Gap and Banana Republic’s world-renowned clothing and accessories in return Al Tayer Group’s expertise in building retail outlets in the Middle East. Gap have entered two franchising deals already, if these were to succeed I would not predict against them entering them in the future. The advantages to gap for using franchise deals are as follows; any risk for the business is taken away as someone else will be running the business. The company will be provided with a lump sum and a percentage share of the annual turnover. This lump sum can be invested into other areas of the business such as advertising or research and development. The percentage of the annual turnover could also be retained profit. The business grows quickly and easily a global brand can be created effectively as long as people are willing to buy franchises in your business. Although there are various advantages the company could benefit from there are also disadvantages which could harm the business, actions by the franchised stores could harm the reputation of the company, because they have no control in the market they give full responsibility to the franchisee that could let you down. Also only some of profits are given to the company they have to share with the franchisee. This annual turnover they do receive would probably be significantly lower than the stores gross profit annually. The final growth strategy which could be used by Gap would be licensing, A license allows a business to make, produce and market a product or use the production method, which is protected by copyright or patent. This means that an innovative company can expand into international markets without actually having to invest in locally based production facilities. An example of licensing would be Heineken lager which is brewed under license by Whitbread’s in the United Kingdom. From research I have found that as well as franchising Gap have also entered licensing agreements. In 2006 Gap announced a licensing agreement between themselves and Safilo group. Safilo group are the leader in high-end and luxury eyewear. The agreement includes Banana Republic-branded prescription frames and sunglasses. The agreement includes the design, development, production and distribution of a collection to be launched by the end of 2007 in the United States and Canada. Terms of the agreement include a five-year commitment. The agreement represents the first time Banana Republic will sell its products outside its own distribution channels. â€Å"Their ability to transform eyewear concepts into luxury products is a great complement to our own expertise in extending the Banana Republic brand.† Quote from Marka Hansen president of banana republic, highlighting that both the companies entering into the licensing agreement will benefit from the others expertise in that relevant field. Banana Republic are not familiar with the design or production of sunglasses and so have taken the opportunity to find a leader in the sunglasses market to do this for them. Safilo will benefit from the well know brand identity of Gap inc and therefore the agreement should benefit both companies dramatically. These are not the only benefits that both companies could gain; capital costs of setting up in a foreign market are reduced because the licensee will have to produce the product. Also no local knowledge will be needed because the business will not have to sell in the area. This can save millions in research and development for the company. Finally the risk of setting up in a foreign market is reduced and the business grows quickly and easily, a global brand is created. Having these benefits would be great for both the companies involved in the licensing agreement, but as with all the strategies there are downsides to entering these agreements, somebody else will be running your business you have to trust others will the reputation and brand of your company. If the licensee does something to harm your reputation it could reduce sales. Finally the profits from the new market go directly to the licensee. The business only receives a lump sum for selling the license. This could prove disastrous if the market does very well and profits are alot higher than expected. Assessing which strategy will be best in order to be profitable and best for the business can be very difficult. Making the correct decision on which strategy to use when entering a foreign market could be the difference between success and profits in that market or complete failure. Gap inc. is a global brand, and owns stores around the world, as the table shows below. The company has entered into these markets using different strategies, and so therefore some have been successful and others have not. I will know analyze the strategies used by the company in order to create a global brand and then evaluate whether this has been successful. Country Total number of stores United Kingdom 240 Canada 236 France 54 Japan 153 Germany 20 Source, http://biz.yahoo.com/e/070402 Gap has entered various markets using company owned stores and deciding not to use any of the strategies above. This strategy was used in several European market such as Germany the UK and France. These markets however have not proved as profitable as had hoped, this lead to Gap exiting the German market. Gap has operated in the UK since 1987 and in France since 1993. Overall, Gap’s total revenue in the year ended in January, 2006, was $16.02 billion, down 1.5%. Last year, Gap’s sales in Britain and France combined fell 6.1%, to $825 million. Together, those two countries account for about 7% of Gap’s total revenue. Source- Gap inc Annual report 2006 Source – http://finance.google.com/finance?q=GPS The above diagram shows the share price for Gap inc. since 1987. The graph shows that the share price was relatively low until 1997 when there was a dramatic increase ranging until 1999. We can see that in 1987 when the Gap invested in stores in the UK the share price was $2.87. Even after entering such a mass market and increased possible customers which should inevitably lead to increased sales and therefore profit, in the following years the share price did not reflect this. After four years in the UK market the share price had only increased minimally to $3.37. A larger increase in the share price would have been expected if the sales had gone as predicted. The same can be said about the share price when the company expanded into the French market in 1993, the share price was $4.38 after three years in the market the share price had only increased minimally again to only $6.37. These figures show that there has been an increase in the share price of Gap after the introduction into new markets, but not the kind of increase that was expected. Because Gap was introduced into the new markets by company owned outlets, the start up costs would have been very high and so therefore the company would have expected to have high sales to try and regain some of these costs. The inevitable ending to the Gap stores in these markets would be similar to that of Gap stores in Germany were after years of poor sales the company withdrew from that market Gap was forced into selling shops in Germany to one of their main competitors, Swedish company H&M. The lack of profits and growth in the European markets is highlighted in the quote below. â€Å"Gap International store sales were negatively impacted by weak product acceptance in Europe. Our total store sales increase was due to the 130 new store openings, a majority of which occurred during the second half of the year.† Source – Quote from Gap’s annual report of 2006 This quote highlights the problems faced in the European markets. Gap may have used their experiences and lack of success in the European market to improve their chances in other emerging markets such as Asia. This may have played a part in swaying the decision to choose licensing and franchising as a source of international growth rather than try to go it alone as they did in Europe. Gap’s problems in this market could be down to a number of reasons, for example poor research and development not understanding what the consumer needs or poor pricing strategies. The two franchising agreements between Gap and F J Benjamin Holdings and Al Tayer group are relatively new. The franchises are not trading and so the extent to which this has been successful can not be evaluated. A leading competitor and one of Gaps main rivals in the clothing industry is Spanish company Zara a well branded company known all around the world, has successfully franchised it’s company and is now reaping the rewards. For example a franchised Zara in Helsinki was opened in April 2002 and sales got off to a flying start and were better than predicted. Spanish group Inditex owners of Zara have reported a rise in profits of 14.6 percent, thanks to â€Å"outstanding† sales at its Zara chain. Sales for the three months ended 31 July rose net income at à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½144.7 million, up from à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½123.6 million last year. These figures from Zara show the type of sales and net income Gap must achieve for there franchise to be a success. Gap can look at Zara’s success at franchising and take on board how they have achieved there success. Sources, http://www.stockmann.fi/portal/english/news_releases/?year=2002&id=880709 http://www.fashionunited.co.uk/news/inditex.htm Again as with the franchising agreements the licensing agreements Gap have entered are relatively new and in the start up phase with the Safilo group. The products are set to be launched towards the end of 2007 and so figures on how successful they have been obviously cannot be researched. Evaluation. Gap inc. have or are soon going to be using various growth strategies in order to try and increase sales and profits around the world. From my research I have found that the first main strategy used by Gap was to open company owned stores in Europe. I found that this was a partly bad decision. I found that Gap found entering into the European market very difficult finding it hard to please the customer and increase sales. As I said earlier Gap’s intention’s when opening stores in both France and the UK were positive however the share price does not suggest this. Both these markets can be potentially lucrative however in the following years the share price did not reflect this-it only increased minimally. Gap found both of these markets hard to enter, but there hardest task was the German market. Here poor product acceptance and poor sales lead to Gap closing operations in Germany and selling their stores to clothing rival H&M. This highlighted the problem for Gap in the European market and if sales continue the way they are at the moment drastic changes need to be put in place or operations in the UK and French market may also have to be closed down. Entering into foreign markets using company owned shops as Gap did, has positives and negatives, setting up can costs millions of pounds in start up costs buying land or having to buy retail shops in city centers can be very expensive. Research and development is also a major factor, because the company can not rely on treating every market as there own domestic market every country will have different tastes and fashions and will have a different view on how much they are willing to pay. Finding this out is crucial for the business to succeed. Even though there are negatives there are some positives all profits made in the new market go directly to the company it doesn’t have to be shared, and also the company’s risk is more spread out so that the company does not have to rely on only one market others can make up for one market doing poorly. From my research I can evaluate that the decision to go into the European market using company owned shops was a bad idea. All of the markets entered are struggling and Gap has already had to exit one of them. Using company owned shops has its advantages but I think that Gap has not benefited from these; this could be for a number of reasons. Even though two of the markets entered are still operating I would predict that if sales do not increase then Gap would be forced into exiting these also. I believe that the franchising agreements set up with both groups in the Middle East is a positive move for Gap. I think the area knowledge that the groups will bring will help Gap succeed in this market were it failed in the European market. Using the Zara case study I found that there previous franchises have been extremely successful and increased profits massively for the parent company Inditex. Gap needs to seriously consider how and why Zara’s franchise agreements have worked and why they have been successful and then implement this into there own agreements. Gap and the franchisee groups could benefit from the agreements massively for a number of reasons, any risk for the business is taken away as someone else will be running the business. A lump sum is received for the franchise and more importantly high capital costs will not be needed because someone else would have to invest the money. This makes this a positive because there are less opportunity costs as less money would have to invested into selling abroad. This money could be used to strengthen the foothold in the company’s domestic market as they cannot afford to neglect this whilst trying to expand. However there are also negatives of this strategy which Gap would have to consider mainly that Gap would not have any control over the franchised stores, the owner could tarnish the reputation of the company on a global scale through one action which would drastically affect the company. Gap would have to ensure the franchisee was the right person for the culture and ethics in the company and a partnership built on trust must be formed. Overall I think that franchising would be an excellent way of growing for Gap. I believe looking at the success of Zara using this strategy that Gap will succeed in the Middle East with the franchised agreements. Gap must be careful however that the Al Tayer Group and F J Benjamin are the right groups to push the Gap brand globally.

Meaning and Origin of the Surname Howard

Meaning and Origin of the Surname Howard The surname Howard possibly comes from the Norman name Huard or Heward which derives from German elements like hug heart, mind, spirit and hard hardy, brave, and strong. While the origins of the surname are unclear, it is theorized that it holds an English background from the Anglo- Scandinavian name Haward with derives from Ol Norse elements like h ‘high’ varà °r meaning guardian and warden. Huard or Heward is also thought to be one of the origins of the Norman-French personal name of the Norman Conquest of England in the 11th century. Additionally, there is a background of the surname Howard in relation to Irish with Gaelic notations. Howard is the  70th most popular surname  in the United States. One popular alternate surname spelling is Hayward. Discover genealogy resources, famous notable people, and three other possible surname origins aside from  English  below. Surname Origins Several possible origins for the Howard surname include the following: Derived from the Old Germanic name hugihard, denoting one strong of heart, or very brave.Derived from Germanic term howart, meaning high chief, warden, or chief warden.From hof-ward, the keeper of a hall Notable Persons Ron Howard:  American actor, producer, and director who got his start on The Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days.Dwight Howard:  American NBA basketball player playing center for the Houston Rockets.Bryce Dallas Howard:  Daughter of the film director Ron Howard and actress known for her role on the show Parenthood, directed by her father. Genealogy Resources 100 Most Common U.S. Surnames Their MeaningsSmith, Johnson, Williams, Jones, Brown... Are you one of the millions of Americans sporting one of these top 100 common last names from the 2000 census?Howard Family Genealogy Forum  Search this popular genealogy forum for the Howard surname to find others who might be researching your ancestors, or post your own Howard queryFamilySearch - Howard GenealogyFind records, queries, and lineage-linked family trees posted for the Howard surname and its variations.Howard Surname Family Mailing Lists  RootsWeb hosts several free mailing lists for researchers of the Howard surname.Cousin Connect - Howard Genealogy QueriesRead or post genealogy queries for the surname Howard, and sign up for free notification when new Howard queries are added.DistantCousin.com - Howard Genealogy Family HistoryFree databases and genealogy links for the last name Howard. To look for the meaning of a given name, use the resource First Name Meanings. If you are unable to find your last name listed, you can suggest  a surname to be added to the Glossary of Surname Meanings and Origins. References: Surname Meanings and Origins Cottle, Basil. Penguin Dictionary of Surnames. Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books, 1967.Menk, Lars. A Dictionary of German-Jewish Surnames. Avotaynu, 2005.Beider, Alexander. A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from Galicia. Avotaynu, 2004.Hanks, Patrick, and Flavia Hodges. A Dictionary of Surnames. Oxford University Press, 1989.Hanks, Patrick. Dictionary of American Family Names. Oxford University Press, 2003.Smith, Elsdon C. American Surnames. Genealogical Publishing Company, 1997.

Free Essays on Voluntary Delinquents

Article review of the Voluntary Delinquents: Parents, Daughters, and the Montreal juvenile delinquents’ court in 1918 by Tamara Myers. In her article, Tamara Myers explained that young delinquent that were introduced to probation officers who investigated their work histories social and sexual behaviors and the family relations have led historians to the notion that the juvenile court was a tool from the Bourgeoisie to control the social moral and sexual lives of the working class. She argues that the working class parents were actually at the core of the new juvenile systems and they had an influence over the definition of delinquent conduct. Also, parents brought to court their children and insisted in their rights to have the state discipline them. To prove her thesis, she analyzes the juvenile systems through an examination of the roles of parents, young delinquents’ girls, and court officials in 1918, Montreal. First of all, the author explains that the court depended on the reporting of young delinquents girls by parents and that it revealed a contradiction of opinion between the parents who favored incarceration ( reformatory schools) and Judges who preferred probation ( replace punishment by treatment). Therefore parents institutionalized them because they were faced with state resistance to incarcerate their children, particularly daughters. Then, there is another sub-thesis emerging in her article. She says that her study joins the growing literature on social welfare reforms as a way of controlling the working class, but that the â€Å"clients† and their families played an active role. She also says that the state wasn’t as predominant and diffuses as earlier historians argued. Instead, parents joined the state in regulating their daughters. But then she goes to explain that it is the judges who maintained the ultimate authority in sentencing. Sentences were based on the input of court officials, who were most... Free Essays on Voluntary Delinquents Free Essays on Voluntary Delinquents Article review of the Voluntary Delinquents: Parents, Daughters, and the Montreal juvenile delinquents’ court in 1918 by Tamara Myers. In her article, Tamara Myers explained that young delinquent that were introduced to probation officers who investigated their work histories social and sexual behaviors and the family relations have led historians to the notion that the juvenile court was a tool from the Bourgeoisie to control the social moral and sexual lives of the working class. She argues that the working class parents were actually at the core of the new juvenile systems and they had an influence over the definition of delinquent conduct. Also, parents brought to court their children and insisted in their rights to have the state discipline them. To prove her thesis, she analyzes the juvenile systems through an examination of the roles of parents, young delinquents’ girls, and court officials in 1918, Montreal. First of all, the author explains that the court depended on the reporting of young delinquents girls by parents and that it revealed a contradiction of opinion between the parents who favored incarceration ( reformatory schools) and Judges who preferred probation ( replace punishment by treatment). Therefore parents institutionalized them because they were faced with state resistance to incarcerate their children, particularly daughters. Then, there is another sub-thesis emerging in her article. She says that her study joins the growing literature on social welfare reforms as a way of controlling the working class, but that the â€Å"clients† and their families played an active role. She also says that the state wasn’t as predominant and diffuses as earlier historians argued. Instead, parents joined the state in regulating their daughters. But then she goes to explain that it is the judges who maintained the ultimate authority in sentencing. Sentences were based on the input of court officials, who were most...