Starting a Business: Musical Instrument Dealership

The Opportunity Music has power to attract almost all the people. In a country like Bangladesh historically people have practiced music for a long time. That implies that musical industry can get only bigger and bigger in the future which should increase the demand of the musical instruments. And with only a few competitors the opportunity in musical instrument dealership and selling musical instrument can be really huge. In our research we have observed that now day’s people are very brand conscious. Keeping that in mind we are introducing ESP Guitar for the first time in Bangladesh which is a very much renowned brand in the whole world. It is a Japanese brand who makes electronic guitars and basses. It is a very popular brand in many countries right now. ESP is well known for their stylist guitars and basses. Many popular rock and metal bands are using ESP recently and we believe it will be very popular in our country as well because there are number of rock and metal bands in our country now. We are introducing this new brand because according to our analysis it will give us a competitive advantage over our competitors and it will also differentiate our company from all the major players of the industry. Apart from launching ESP in Bangladesh we are also offering installment system which should attract more students who are the main target customers of our company. With the help of the technical and management team of EBS we are also offering free servicing of the musical instruments. Overall we can say that the opportunity in the music industry is huge. We believe we can capitalize this for our benefit. We intend to do that by our creative idea and meeting all the customers’ needs. Products and Services Tune and Play will sell new and used musical instruments and accessories. Our primary items will be electric and acoustic guitars, amplifiers and electronic keyboards, drams and some local instruments like harmonium, tobla and flute. In addition we will have a full service, on-site repair and customization department (band instruments, guitars and electronics). Tune and Play will offer several name brand instruments such as: †¢ Electric and acoustic guitars by ESP. †¢ Bass Guitar †¢ Keyboards †¢ Pianos †¢ Drums †¢ Amps †¢ Mixer †¢ Microphone †¢ Processor †¢ Sound-Card †¢ Foot-Pedal †¢ Violin †¢ Saxophone A very well stocked accessory department to support the above items. In addition to complete repair services for  our products, we will emphasize upgrades and customization items to develop other income streams our competitors have not considered. When carrying a brand name item conflicts with giving the customer the best all-around value, we will always pursue the product that best suits o ur client's interest. Marketing Analysis Target Market Our main target customers are musicians who are ready to pay anything for their desired instrument. However within that musician customer,  there are  different segments, ranging from professionals, to semi-professionals, to hobbyists and novices. We intend to target musical novices, hobbyists, and semi-professionals. These groups  include the largest percentage of musicians,  with the greatest amount of disposable income. These  market segments  can generally be approached with the same marketing techniques, and can be very loyal when treated properly. We are also targeting the students of those schools where ‘Music’ is offered as a mandatory course to them. Moreover there are many music school are present at Dhaka, and the numbers are in rise. Reasons for Buying our Product We are the only store in Dhaka who will offer ESP brand instruments for which musicians have a high demand. We will also offer the novice to semi-professional musician, the convenience of a wide selection, unique offers, experienced and reliable staff, and an educationally-focused community center; all in one location Again most musicians need support and service. The instruments that we sell can be difficult or impossible for end users to service. Potential clients tend to seek stores that can fulfill these services through word of mouth referrals or by using direct shopping experiences. These musicians come back time after time if they feel they are getting a fair deal. Therefore, we will ensure enough numbers of technicians for them always, so that they can find solution of their instrument’s problems any time. We will also provide one year warranty for the brand items. Analysis of Marketing Data: To know about the customer preferences and needs towards musical instrument, we conducted a market survey. After successfully completing the survey analysis, we had a more clear idea of what a potential buyer or musician desires from a music store. For our survey, we targeted people whose who are above 15 years old. We found that 53% people prefer rock music, 27% people prefer heavy metal and rest of the people like classical and pop music. 47% people like to buy Guitars from a music store, 27% 1ike to buy Keyboards, 13% like to buy Drums and others prefer to buy some local instruments like Harmonium, Flute etc. We found that people want both cash and installment payment available in the store. We found out, almost 40% people usually buy instruments for their learning purpose, 35% people buy because they are in band, and rest of the people buy by following their favorite artist. 80% people want lifetime free servicing if the instrument is not broken and rest of the people prefer stores should give year-end sales with 10%-15% discount. For people, Dhanmondi, Panthapath and Uttara as the most convenient place fir shopping. Industry Analysis Since the inception of Bangladesh, basic musical instruments were being manufactured by some local manufacturer. The department was being run by some minor players and import for marketing for international brands didn't exist at all. The market of musical instrument grew massively during late 70s and early 80s when many artists & bands were emerging. Demand of many international instruments like guitar, drums started to increase along with those regional instruments. From that time the need of importing instruments of various brand had became a lucrative opportunity for entrepreneurs. Further, with the technological advancement and immensely growing demand, more and more instrument seller were becoming available but there was not enough legal and economic support to install any authorized dealership or franchising for the provision of brand demand. Though 40 years back from now Melody & Co. , one of the musical instrument dealers, started their business in Old Town of Dhaka during the Pakistan era, they were just a dealer of regional instruments like harmonium, Tablas etc. Industry situation: Although enough growth has taken place in the musical instrument sector but most of it can be attributed to the random brand growth. Similarly Value Added Services have grown but are still a drop in the bucket. Now that the competition has been introduced in the instrument sector some very positive impact have been observed on the growth of the sector in a short span of time which is expected to continue to grow for at least next couple of years. Key Success Factors: †¢ Potentiality of music industry: As the music scenario in Bangladesh is improving and getting the touch of western influence, people are also getting interested in western instruments like electric guitars, drums etc. Emerging brand consciousness: Now days, musicians and artists are being more conscious about the brand. They now prefer brand over cost, as brand represent their image, style and quality. †¢ Globalization: Due to globalization the market in Bangladesh is also getting the attention of the rest of the world. MNC's from different side of the world also want to access this new market before any of their competitors. So internatio nal instruments brands will eagerly enter this market to diversify their risk. †¢ Economic stability: Though being a developing country, economic condition in Bangladesh is now days pretty much stable. So the buying power of Bangladeshi people is also healthy enough for these instrument businesses. Trends: Technological: Technologically Bangladesh is about a couple of years back dated from the developed countries. As a result of that technological advancement in musical instrument is not that significant for last few years. Due to lack of proper knowledge and equipments there is no authorized manufacturing sector for instruments, except those handmade instruments. Political: Politically Bangladesh is a very unstable country. But this specific business has no connection with politics at all. But considering the international DFI or Franchising, political assessment is necessary. Due to political corruptions and instability, Bangladesh is sometimes favorable or unfavorable country for MNCs depending on the situation. Considering the political aspect, this instrument business does not have much to care about. Societal: As this is related with culture and art, societal influence has tremendous impact over our business. Most societies of Bangladesh are conservative and they are attached with traditional Bangladeshi culture. These influence traditional Bangladeshi musical instruments like Harmonium, Tablas etc. But guitars & drums are more likely considered as western influence which is sometimes considered as a negative aspect by them. So to certain extent societal factors drive the industry. Assessment of Industry: By considering the five forces of an industry, we can assess our musical instrument industry from five different sides. Bargaining Power of Supplier: In this specific business sector, suppliers have enough power to dominate over instrument dealership business in country like ours. Because of the economic sloth advancement, the suppliers (the brands) do not usually that much care about authorizing dealership in our country. †¢ Also the brands that are more popular in Bangladesh will have a higher demand, any musical store will want to be a licensed dealer of them. †¢ Cost of selecting and switching suppliers is quite high. All these factors determine the supplier’s dominance over the industry. Bargaining Power of Buyers: †¢ Presence of a few numbers of stores and dealers. †¢ Cost of buying brand products from abroad is quite high and heavily taxable. These factors determine the buyer’s low power over the industry. Threat of new Entrant: †¢ High opportunity of profitable venture. †¢ The market is not saturated yet. †¢ Low burden of government rules and regulations So, the threats from new entrants are high in this industry. Threats of Substitute: †¢ Substitute products are limited and weak. †¢ Substitute products like other recreational products are not completely substitutable. So, threat of substitute products is quite low even do not exist at all. Rivalry among Competitors: †¢ A very few established stores and dealers are present. Most of the other stores are discrete and unstable, which usually sell those regional instruments like Harmoniums, Tablas. †¢ The cost of production is quite high. †¢ Products are rated at fixed price. †¢ Switching between products is costly. So rivalry among the existing competitors is moderate. It is not extreme because of less switching power of customers and fixed price, and also not much less because of the low number of dealers. Competition Analysis After doing some research we have come with some direct, indirect and also some future competitors of our music store. major ones are identified. 1. Existing huge music stores : In Dhaka city, there are 4-5 huge music stores which are OMNI, World music, Golden music and Music melody. They all have an approximate monthly sale of 10-15 lacs. Among our main competitor OMNI is our main concern. OMNI is the dealer of YAMAHA guitars and Pearl drums, which cost them a huge amount. Their initial investment was 2-3 crore, they business is mainly equity based, they didn’t take any loan because OMNI music store is a part of the huge business group. They reached their break even 4. 5 years. Demand for their music instrument is stable but on some special occasions their sales increase like on valentines day, pahela baishakh, independence day etc. Key success factor are commitment, honesty, right price quality and loyal customer. The other huge music stores mentioned earlier like golden music, music melody, world music whose business share is almost similar. They have a monthly sale of 10-12 lacs. They also bought many different brands that differentiate their music store. Music melody produce some local instruments but in a small scale. [pic] Competitors Position based on Sales 1. Existing small music stores: There are some small competitors in this market. They mainly get their product from the big competitors because investment costs need a huge amount of money to bring instruments. They also sale regionally produced instruments like harmonium, bahala etc. This kind of stores is also our concern because some of them may have the potential to grow as a huge competitor. 2. Future opening of music store: Music appeals everyone in the world. Music industry in Bangladesh is growing at a steady rate. Because now days Nokia, Benson & hedges etc are coming up with competition to bring out the talents from our country. This gives even small time musicians grow in confidence to buy some heavy instruments. Also music TV programs in all channels and music schools are establishing in Dhaka this also demand music instruments. So as demand for music instruments are growing, the more there will be openings of music store. Competitive advantage: In order to sustain and expand in this competitive marketplace we will take effective decision and implement them. Our store is providing the product of ESP. We will provide brand uniqueness. Also we will offer some after sale service to our customers who will buy expensive instruments costing more than 50,000tk. We are also providing some different service like: an exchange offer of your instrument with similar instrument but this would not be similar for everyone like we will check the instrument first that decide whether it will be profitable to exchange so that after repairing we can sell it again a good price also sometimes we may require some money with the instrument depending on the product. We will also repair different instruments in our store with a minimum charge of starting tk. 1000. Also we will provide customers with the service of customizing the instruments like color requirements, putting a tattoo or art, band logo on their guitar or other instruments charging differently depending on instrument. These services make our stores different from others. Marketing Plan Pricing Policy: For pricing, we divided our products in two segments. For ESP brand items, we are going to follow cost based pricing policy and for other products, we are going to follow competitor based pricing policy. These pricing strategies will help us sustain in the market, as well as make profit. Cost Based Pricing Policy: In this policy, we would consider all our expenses. These include transportation cost, utility cost, rental cost, promotional cost, storage cost etc. Once we find out all our expenses, we would divide it by the number of instruments kept in our store. This will give us expense per unit. After that, we would add the cost of the instrument itself with the expenses per unit. Then we will add 30% profit margin. An example is shown below: Selling price = Total Cost / ((100-margin) / 100) If Total Cost of a guitar is TK 70,000, then by applying this formula, we get: Selling price = 70, 000 / ((100 – 30) / 100) = TK 100,000 Competitor based pricing policy: This is a method where we will use prices of the competing products as a benchmark instead of considering own costs or the customer demand. This will be applicable for products that my competitors are offering as well. For example guitar accessories, amps, keyboard, piano, drums etc. The reason for selecting this strategy is because it would be really difficult to survive in price wars with my competitors. They have more experience and they are also in this business for a longer time. As a result they have already covered a lot of their investment. This means they can offer products at a lower price than us. Place: Our store will be located in Panthopath, Dhaka. It will be situated near Bashundhara City. Reasons for selecting this place are as follows: -some of my competitors are located here. This means customers will prefer this place, since they have many options. since our store will be outside Bashundhara City, we can operate at a comparatively lower rent. -Panthopath is lucrative place for conducting business. -as there is sufficient transportation facility, people can easily visit our store. -Since there are some jamming pads located near our store, people are likely to pay us a visit. After some years, we are planning to expand our business to some other locations. One of our priorities will be Uttara. This is because looking at the current market scenario, there are no musical stores in Uttara till now. Product: Our main focus is ESP guitars because ESP guitars are unique and are preferred by a lot of the younger generation. They like its exceptional designs. Some of the designs available are X-shaped, V-shaped etc. Besides that, the sound of ESP guitars is good for both riffs and lead guitar. For other guitars, it is tough to match the price of ESP, providing the same quality. Promotion Strategy Our  critical marketing program will be the grand opening, so we will place our initial advertising to give the greatest coverage. Our specific goal for the event is to create a big buzz for the local music community has ever seen regarding a new store. We will target our desired customer base using radio, newspapers, hand leaflet, banners and word of mouth. At present, radio is the easiest way to reach musicians for the simple reason that the love of music is what drives us to become musicians. Newsprint reaches a large portion of the public, letting them see what  we have to  offer before making a trip to the store. Large billboard and banners in different areas and hand leaflets are also very useful way to inform the people about our promotional activities. We will also have regular advertisement in different youth oriented magazines. Another promotional plan is to telecast our advertisements in different area based local cable channels. This is also a useful tool to inform people in economic way. Word of mouth is the one area we really hope to see develop, as a personal endorsement by a customer is worth more to us than what any advertisement can achieve. Distribution: We will follow the following strategies: 1. Direct purchases from manufacturers – generally the best price, but higher minimum orders. 2. Purchases from national distributors – large selections, good prices. 3. Purchases from regional distributors – small selection, average pricing. Management team We believe an efficient management team can increase the productivity of company. And a productive workforce can be an asset for a company and it can provide the company with a competitive advantage over the major players of the industry. We have started this business on the basis of partnership rules and regulation. There are seven partners and we all are the students of North South University. We know each other for a long period of time and we believe with our co operative effort we can make this company a very successful one. As we all are partners of the company and have contributed equally to the initial investment so all of us will be included in the decision making process. But for instant decision making we have prepared an organ gram. |Chairman |M. Riaz Mahmud | |CFO |M. Nahian Morshed | |Board of Directors |M. Faizur Rahman | |Board of Directors |Mustafa Waki Chodhury | |Board of Directors |Mohona Khan | |Board of Directors |M. Shahriar Firoz | |Board of Directors |Rizon Minhazur Rahman | We are hiring 5 sales executives, who will run our store. Our requirement is H. S. C. passed, fluent in English and have basic computer literacy knowledge. We will hire persons who are with good interpersonal skill and can convince the customers easily to buy instrument and behave well with the customer so that they remain loyal and happy with our service. Delivering Process Our business is an import oriented business. So, we’ll have to wholly depend on shipping for the delivery process and also container trucks will also be involved to deliver the instruments as the port is situated in Chittagong and we’ll have to transport the items to Dhaka. Customers will have the responsibility to transport their bought product to their favored destination. For payment to the parent company we will follow the Letter Of Credit (LC) system. In this system, we will get affiliated with an international bank which have subsidiary in Bangladesh. The international bank will have to be selected as the parent company might have trust issues and the international renowned bank will help us gain reliability. As soon as we receive the products, we will issue an LC. As our chosen company ESP is an established brand worldwide, they will take responsibility for the shipments. We had to get a license of ESP to get their permission of selling their product. The licensing took a great toll of our investment as we had to pay BDT. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ to ESP. According to the license, we need to achieve some requirements which are their benchmarks. †¢ We had to show projected sales and their requirement was to achieve an average of BDT. 50 lakh mark yearly within 5 years. †¢ We had to show them our work on balance sheet, income statement and break even analysis as they were looking into our business’ feasibility. †¢ Also they checked the location of the store to find out if enough demand will be generated from the â€Å"place† factor of four P’s. We reached an agreement that we will to train our servicing employees according to their training methods to create the same environment and to comply with their customer service. †¢ We also had to show them an overview of the demand of their brand ESP in Bangladesh. Financial Projections Income Statement Our income statement is initiated with finding out the sales of first month and it is utterly based on our surveys. We first found out the total market value in terms of BDT. We went through our surveys and found out the competitors’ yearly sales and the total represents the presumable market size. As we are in the initiation stage we are assuming to get a hold of no more than three percent (3%) of the market size. We did a sales forecast for every month. For starters, we assumed a growth rate of 0. 5 percent for the first three months which gradually increased to 1 percent and later we ended the first year with a growth rate of 2% in the last three months. The increasing growth rate will be as a consequence of our extensive marketing policies. The first year’s growth rate being only 12. 65% percent, we had to incur losses in every month. The econd year, the yearly growth rate we have assumed will be 12. 68% owing to the steady growth rate every month. And third year we expect a growth rate of 16% approximately. For our cost of goods sold, we presumed forty percent (40%) of our sales and we counted our sales discount to be 2. 5%. Another variable cost is sales commission of one percent (1%) of sales which is categorized as selling expenses. Fixed costs include both selli ng and administrative expenses. Selling expenses include store salaries of BDT. 20,000 per month, rent of BDT. 50,000 per month, advertising expenses of BDT. 5,000 per month, utility of BDT. 5,000 per month and depreciation expenses of BDT. 250 per month. The administrative fixed costs consist of salaries which is monthly BDT. 10,000, utility monthly 2,000, insurance monthly BDT. 2,000 and depreciation expenses of BDT. 200 per month. We expect to reach the break even in 6. 62 years and we have shown income statements for 10 years just for getting an idea of the net income in following years. Sensitivity: We have shown sensitivity analysis changing the sales revenue by five percent in both directions. For worst case scenario with 5% downfall in sales, our net loss in first year will rise by more than BDT. 70,000. In the most likely case, we also incur a loss of BDT. 105,000 approximately and best case scenarios with 5% sales increment, net profit will be almost BDT. 33,000. For 2nd year, most likely case scenario will produce a profit of BDT. 342,566 and worst case scenario will produce profit of BDT. 155,858. But, the best case scenario will generate less net income than most likely case because of tax rules. The 3rd year most likely case will see us earn a net income of BDT. 04,398. We have also assumed the worst case and best cases and if that happens we will have net income of BDT 508,314 and BDT 700,483 respectively. Cash-Flow Statement Cash flow statement is the way of constructing the cash inflows and outflows according to type of activities such as operating, investing and financing activities. It gives us the idea about if the company will be profitable over the years by generating sufficient cash and if it will be able to pay off its debt. We have done cash flow statements for 8 years and those will be included in the appendices. For our cash flows, we followed direct method starting with the operating activities which includes inflow from sales revenue and outflows from different expenses like cash paid to suppliers, salaries expenses, rent expenses, sales commission, advertising expenses etc. in investing activities, outflows includes BDT. 10,000,000 of purchasing of assets, other investment of BDT. 1,000,000 and purchasing of contract of rent BDT. 1,000,000 and there are no inflows. Financing activities has inflows form loan and owners investment worth BDT. 8,000,000 and BDT. 7,000,000 respectively. Cash outflows from financing includes loan payment of BDT. 171,438 per month. The payment of installment continues till year 7 when we paid off our debt. Our total cash flow will be negative till year 4, first quarter and since then its uprising. But we maintained a cash balance from the beginning generated from loan which will see us through these periods. From first year, our cash balance is reduced to BDT. 2,004,607 from BDT. 2,910,411 which is the starting balance of the first month. Second year it is reduce to BDT. 1,398,301 and by the end of year three the cash balance will be BDT. 20,853. Sensitivity: The sensitivity analysis of every year attached to appendices will show how much the expected cash flows can differ when we consider worst possible and best possible cases. The first year’s best case is likely to reduce the outflows by about BDT. 120,000 but the worst scenario will increase outflows by about BDT. 117,000. the second and third years’ sensitivity anal ysis shows the same effect reducing or increasing the cash outflows in best and worst cases respectively. Balance Sheet Our balance sheet shows how much the venture capitalist can depend on our business. In the balance sheet we tried to figure out the total asset each year as the first objective of a business is to maximize the value of its assets. We also showed if the assets matched the liabilities. Our total assets included cash, inventories, receivables, other current assets categorized as current assets and long term assets consists of non current assets, accumulated depreciation etc. Current liabilities are payables, short term debt and others while non current liabilities are long term debt and others and these two makes up the liabilities part. Equity has only common equity invested by the owners. For most of these items, we tried to maintain a specific percentage of sales such as for inventories, we maintained 20. 69% of sales, 40. 14% of sales as short term debt etc because we know these items are vulnerable to the change of sales and move in the same direction. Our first year’s total assets are BDT. 17,350,008 while the next two years it went down to BDT. 16,912,962 and BDT. 16,623,039. This can be associated with the increment in negative cash flows or increase in outflows. But it’s uprising from then as we expect it to rise as high as BDT. 5,481,609 in eight years. A significant change occurs in year seven as we reach break even; our total assets rises from about 20 million to above 24. 5 million. This is because of the rise in cash balance that year after recuperating the total investment. Sensitivity: By changing the sales by 5% positively and negatively, we found out the best and worst case scenarios which can contribute to the change of our total assets. Again, as we are looking to maximize the value of our assets, we have to be conscious about what the best and worst situations can do to our business. For the first two years, the worst case scenario doesn’t do much damage as the reductions in total assets are by about BDT. 50,000 from the most likely scenarios; BDT. 17,292,408 in first year and BDT. 16,846,620 in second year. While the best case scenarios in the first two years see our total assets to rise to BDT. 17,407,482 and BDT. 16,979,158. The third year the change about BDT. 75,000 in both cases as the best case scenario puts our total assets to BDT. 16,698,871 and the worst case to BDT. 16,547,041. For al these time, the increases and decreases in total assets are backed by the retained earnings portion of owner’s equity. Breakeven: |Pay Back | | | | | | | |Initial Investment | -15,000,000. 00 | | |Year 1 | 1,061,866. 91 | -13,938,133. 09 | |Year 2 | 1,450,954. 8 | -12,487,178. 20 | |Year 3 | 1,739,046. 20 | -10,748,132. 00 | |Year 4 | 2,119,043. 11 | -8,629,088. 89 | |Year 5 | 2,667,444. 37 | -5,961,644. 52 | |Year 6 | 3,328,314. 32 | -2,633,330. 20 | |Year 7 | 4,203,767. 76 | ,570,437. 55 | |Year 8 | 4,366,613. 47 | 5,937,051. 02 | | | | | | | 11,517. 17 | | | |228. 6438216 | | | |0. 26421429 | | |Pay back in years |6. 626421429 | | Exit Strategy: Our ongoing business is Musical instrument dealership. Our exit strategy is a mixture of liquidation and our own strategy. First we will liquidate some percentage of our assets. We are planning to sell those underperforming assets at a lower price and we will also invest some additional capital to establish a diversified service line. This will be actually a recording studio as we are planning to seize the opportunity created by lack of recording studio in Bangladesh. We are planning to open a recording studio which will contribute to the uprising music scenario in Bangladesh. Due to lack of quality music studios, we believe our exit plan from musical instrument dealership to recording studio will shift our position from decay to a growing stage in company life cycle. It will be our long term plan because we do not want to loose the face value of the product. Initial Investment: Rent (4 months)= Tk. 200,000 Equipments (Estimated Average per unit) Electric Guitar(5*30,000) |150,000 | |Bass Guitar(5*30,000) |150,000 | |Acoustic Guitar(20*3000) |60,000 | |Piano(2*100,000) |200,000 | |Keyboard(10*20,000) |200,000 | |Drums(5*30,000) |150,000 | |Mixer(3*50,000) |150,000 | |Microphone(5*10,000) 50,000 | |Processor(5*20,000) |100,000 | |Accessories(Strings, Cables, Tuners etc) |90,0000 | |Other Equipments |100, 000 | |Total |1,400,000 | Estimated Initial Marketing Cost=300,000 Furniture=100,000 Reserve For Cash Requirements=3,000,000 Dealership Cost=10,000,000 Total Initial Investment=15,000,000 Conclusion We have worked on this business plan for the last three months and gathered all the related information about the music industry. After analyzing all the data we have came up with the idea investing in this business can be really challenging but profitable. If we can survive through the initial trouble we can diversify our business by investing in different regions of Bangladesh. In the era of communication people are very fond of the creative ideas and we believe our business is creative and unique enough to attract the potential customers. Reference: www. google. com www. yahoo. com acct. tamu. edu/smith/acctwebs. htm Haque, Akkas & Ashif (2008) ‘Three taxes of Bangladesh’

Marco Polo The Travels – The Silk Road

This is the story of a great young adventurous traveler. At the young age of 21, he embarked upon and successfully completed, the tasks seemed practically impossible to achieve in the era to which he belonged.   He was not much educated in the academic sense, but till date he continues to be the research subject for the aspiring Doctorates.   He studied everything in the college of self-education, where his mind was his Principal. His initiative, his Professors! His hard work his tutors! A man who would decide! A man who would act! A man who would start and a man who would finish! God moulds souls like Marco Polo but rare, perhaps for the specific purpose of inspiring the younger generation!The Great Khan must have given him the brief, mostly from political angle, but the self-starter Marco Polo, brought along with him the comprehensive information and details that staggers the most fertile imagination.   Marco Polo is a trader-author; not an author-trader.   The latent writi ng ability in him of which perhaps he was not consciously aware, enthralled those who read his work. Volumes have been written and discussed about his travelogues. If Marco Polo were to appear for a test on criticism/appreciation about his writings, the syllabus would be so vast, Marco Polo would not be able to cover it in his life-time.   The critics have seen so much in his writings, made threadbare analysis, which the original author would have never imagined.Another reason for the popularity of the book was—the details highlighted in it were revealed to the outside world for the first time. They were so mysterious that the readers were enthralled by the descriptions. Many refused to believe his accounts. When Marco Polo lay on his deathbed, his priest, his friends and relations clustered around him to plead that he at last renounce the countless lies he had recounted as his true adventures, so his soul would be cleansed to Heaven. The old man rose up, roundly damned the m all and declared, â€Å"I have not told the half of what I saw and did!† Remember, the people who were attempting to cross him belonged to that generation which     argued that the Earth was flat and the sun rotated around the Earth! Marco Polo was much ahead of his times!I think Marco Polo provided the greatest inspiration to the younger generation of not only Italy, but the entire world, as for adventures and travels. He was the genius, who embodied the spirit of hard aspirations and their fulfillment, under most difficult conditions. His travel experiences have all-time significance, all over the world. I do believe that Marco Polo provided positive knowledge, information that was not known to the people. He was the first Westerners to travel through the Silk Road. (It is only named as a Silk Road, but in reality there is nothing silken about it; it is a rough, rugged, treacherous route.)He is hailed as one of the most important figures from Italy. His life span from 1254-1324, was quite eventful. He highlighted the differences between Europe and Asia.   During the medieval times, religion had the greatest impact on the lives of Kings and his subjects. Marco Polo explains how secularism was practiced then. â€Å"But concerning God and your own soul do what you will, whether you be Jew or pagan, Saracen or Christian, who live among Tartars.They freely confess in Tartarv that Christ is a lord; but they say that he is a proud lord, because he will not keep company with other gods but wants to be over all others in the world. So in some places, they have a Christ of gold or silver and keep him ensconced within a shrine and say that he is the great lord of the Christians.†(Polo, 1958, p.47).The concept of unity in diversity was clearly seen and appreciated by Marco Polo.Education and trade:To Marco Polo, it must be admitted, traveling and interest in trade is the family heritage. In 1260, Niccolo Polo, the father of Marco Polo, and his brot her Maffeo went across Black Sea in search of profitable ventures.   They brought from Venice sizeable quantity of extraordinary jewels and set out from Constantinople by ship to Sudak and onward to Barku. When Marc Polo was introduced to the Great Khan, he was just 21 years old. By then, he had possessed an excellent knowledge of the letters and customs of the Tartars.Khan took great fascination for this brilliant youth and soon he was the trusted lieutenant of Khan with whom he took counsel on important issues. Marco Polo was then sent on a mission to Kara-jang (Yunnan) in the far south west, as an emissary. The mission was a great success. The trader- instincts surfaced en route, Marco Polo made the detailed scrutiny of all the curiosities and novelties. On return, the Great Khan was given a brief, about the issues and business for which he was sent. The curious customs of the people were highlighted. This young lad impressed Khan on all counts.The Silk Road is—the trave l chronicles about the arduous three years journey from Venice to the abode of the Great Khan initially through the ancient trade corridor and blow by blow account of his wonderful experiences based on facts related to the peoples of Iran, Iraq, India, Tibet, Pamir, Mongolia and China. Marco Polo made it a point to record every aspect of the life that he encountered; they were so different, peculiar and interesting from region to region, country to country.   Therefore, Marco Polo is regarded as a great anthropologist. In addition, the book contains many areas which Marco Polo covered during his epic travels as an emissary for the Great Khan, when he was in China for seventeen long years.I think Marco Polo had a great eye for the details, and nothing escaped his attention. The emporiums en route, the construction of yurt in Mangolia as residential quarters( comparable to the mass cheap housing   colonies in the developing countries), fireworks, paper currency, printing and pasta , the treatment and honor provided for the dead, glass making, the introduction of ginger in various recipes, tea as a popular form drink, Marco Polo’s statement in Persia that he had chicken cooked in pomegranate juice, turmeric,(look at the style how he introduces turmeric –â€Å"here is also a vegetable that has all the properties of true saffron, as well as the smell and the color, and yet it is not really saffron.†).Marco Polo was responsible for transfer of scientific and technological innovations, such as gunpowder, ceramics, the magnetic compass, the printing press and mathematics,   along the Silk Road to the West. I also feel that Marco Polo won the trust of Kubilai (the sixth Khan in the Yuan dynasty) and retained it for 17 long years is one of his greatest achievements. He began his journey with an empty book and returned as an encyclopedia.To complete his mission, Marco Polo traveled by foot, on horse and boat. The Silk Road is not just an histori cal entity of the 13th century. In the modern times also, this route holds fascination for the travelers. As if to pay compliments and tributes to   History, during the summer vacation, people in large numbers traverse along the original route from Shaanxi Province east to Gansu and then to   Xinjiang. En route, one can see the traces and landmarks of the ancient glory—the religious art painted in caves by art-loving travelers.The ancient pagodas stand tall and majestic side by side with the new artistically and classically designed buildings. Traveling on this Silk Road is to study the pages of an historical book.   Actual travel and experiencing is more than to study a dozen books on the subject. Columbus treasured Marco Polo’s book as a reference guide for his adventures, not without reasons.   Marco Polo provided some amazing and accurate details relating to trade routes. He did his job of amassing details and making notes with the enthusiasm of a modern MB A research scholar. He was alone on his travel and other efforts, but he never hesitated to collaborate with the local populace and authorities regularly. Marco Polo had rare insight for minutest of the details regarding a particular product or activity.Marco Polo-the legend of a name:The name Marco Polo has assumed legendary significance. That was not a jet -set age where one can travel end to end of the world within a matter of days. Grit and courage were the domineering traits. That a 21 year young lad achieved the  Ã‚   intimate trust and became the emissary of the Great Khan is an inspiration to the modern youth. He was successful in all his political, trade and cultural assignments. His name has become a legendary trademark!   Marco Polo’s name was given to a children’s game, in a story in the science fiction series of Doctor Who. A ship with three masts clipper built in Saint John, New Brunswick, in 1851 was named Marco Polo.Marco Polo was the first ship to sail around the world in under six months. Many ships of the Italian name were named Marco Polo. The International Airport in Venice is named Marco Polo. In Hong Kong also at least there are 3 Marco Polo Hotels. He is the source of inspiration to many novelists like Donn Byrne’s Messer Marco Polo (Irish Writer), Gary Jennings’s novel The Journeyer (1984). Marco Polo is one of the important characters in Italo Calvino’s novel Invisible Cities.When he was 15 years old, John Goddard, who was also known as â€Å"the real life Indiana Jones,† and one of his expeditions, â€Å"the most amazing adventure of this generation† was to follow Marco Polo’s route through all of the Middle East, Asia and China. Marco Polo continues to be the perennial source of inspiration for adventure-seeking younger generation.References Cited:Polo, Marco (Author), Latham Ronald (Author) Book: The Travels of Marco Polo. Publisher: Penguin Classics (September 30, 1958) I SBN-10: 0140440577 ISBN-13: 978-0140440577

What the Best Form of Government Is?

The purpose of this essay is to examine how the philosopher Thomas Hobbes answers the question of â€Å"what the best form of government is† in objection to Plato's answer that philosophers should rule. In this paper, I will defend this statement by using the arguments Plato has made in The Republic on why philosophers should rule and responding to them with critics from Thomas Hobbes, explaining Hobbes belief in absolute monarchy, and using a real-life example of why Thomas Hobbes belief in absolute monarchy is the best form of government.To begin, we must understand the reason behind why Plato decided to make this argument for philosophers to rule. At the time, the Athenian democracy was very unstable; which is the main reason why Plato decided to write The Republic. He believed that he knew the answer to why this instability was happening; â€Å"no competent leadership† (501b), and that is why in the first couple books, Plato focuses on defining the term â€Å"justice† and the prevention measures that a state can take in order to avoid the tyrannies that occurred in the Athenian democracy. As we unravel more, he goes on to write about the importance a governing body has to the state; because it takes the best people found in society and allows them to become moral and political examples for the other â€Å"classes† of citizens. In the Republic Book VIII, he mentions five types of regimes starting off with the best form of government which is called â€Å"aristocracy†. Philosophers ruling in the aristocracy means this regime is funded from wisdom and reason according to Plato. For every regime in Plato's books, he has a man that illustrates what they stand for and are analyzed by Plato to advocate for his best form of government; philosophers as kings that rule. Plato has the aristocratic state divided into three caste-like parts: the ruling class, the auxiliaries, and the rest of people (majority.) Focusing on the ruling class, they are considered the â€Å"golden† ones because they have gold souls and are the only ones capable of ruling. Plato believes that a philosopher king needs to go through proper training from the day they were born in order to become â€Å"golden†. The philosopher kings go through an educational system that aims in training them to become selfless and upright, and they are taught â€Å"The Truth† based on Platonic ideas which allows their souls to become calm and aware of absolute Good. That brings us to an important question; what is absolute good? According to Plato, the absolute Good that philosopher kings can see is the metaphysical origin of all that is good, which includes happiness. Philosopher kings do not focus on personal interests or shadows of Good (such as money, fame) but instead shift their focus towards real happiness. Real happiness for philosopher kings is not to abuse the power given for his own selfish desires, but to dedicate his life into establishing Good in the state. Plato writes in The Republic that humans generally want what is intrinsically good, â€Å"even if the person does not realize the nature of what is good† (Plato 505d). This means that although each person has the ability to commit bad actions, it is general and not based off a fundamental law, but instead appetites and desires. Now we can mention philosopher Thomas Hobbes (who I feel answers this question best) who writes in the â€Å"Leviathan† with a similar belief of strong power and human appetites and aversions, but he does not agree with Plato's statement of humans wanting good necessarily, but rather wanting what protects them best. Hobbes goes on to write how a man in the state of nature living is at risk of a state of chaos because of his appetites and how humans will â€Å"provoke the rest† and create war and aggression. The way both Plato and Hobbes feel about what humans want shapes what kind of ideal society they feel would best work in order to prevent chaos. For Plato, the philosopher kings are the only ones who possess truth and therefore are the only ones who can show average people how to act in society. Meaning that people in society are going to obey the philosopher kings because at the end of the day; everyone wants the general good. However, Hobbes criticizes Plato's theory of this by writing how nobody can achieve the possession of truth and therefore will be uncapable of seeing the good for the state and not themselves. Hobbes feels because nobody can posses the truth; they also can not pass down moral understanding to something they lack and are not qualified in. Hobbes focuses more on ration and logic and does not consider religious aspects or morals when it comes to government which is more effective to this day. The reason he argues for this is that each person has different moral standpoints and it can not simply be summarized for the over all majority because it is simply not fair. Religion as well varies from person to person and a very common reason for civil war in a state comes from the church and the state, when people are having religious practices forced upon them. In an absolute monarchy, everyone must follow the rules placed upon them which are made to keep peace and avoid all these conflicts. Thomas Hobbes does not believe that morality has any importance when it comes to government. The purpose of government according to him is to protect every citizen by reinforcing the laws which keeps society at peace. Hobbes summarizes his theory in the Leviathan by explaining, â€Å"If two want the same thing and they both cannot have it, they become enemies and endeavor to destroy one another† (Hobbes 141). This becomes the political theory he stands for because it further means that unlike Plato, men are constantly in battle with other men due to the lack of satisfaction for what he already has. Hobbes believes because humans are selfish, the only proper form of government is absolute monarchy. In the Leviathan, he uses the argument that a civil society would not be subject to destruction within if it is constructed with an absolute monarchy. An absolute monarchy is a form of monarchy that has one ruler being the supreme power and that power is not limited to any laws that are written, legislations, or customs. He explains how any disagreements between state and church or rival governments or any factionalism in general within society can lead to civil war. He holds onto the concept that any form of civil government that all people of society submit to will maintain common peace because those arising conflict issues will not happen. The sovereign is in charge of running the government, this includes creating the laws, controlling the churches, determining first principles, and solving any conflicts that happen because of different philosophical beliefs. According to Hobbes, only this absolute sovereign can maintain a civil society, and avoid war from being entered into society. Equality also plays an important role in why Thomas Hobbes believes in absolute monarchy. Unlike Plato, he does not believe that anyone is better than anyone else, regardless of differences, no man can see ultimate truth and therefore are not so different after all. I agree with Thomas Hobbes belief in absolute monarchy because as he mentions in the Leviathan his main purpose of supporting absolute monarchy it to try to avoid destruction happening within the state. Civil war can occur in a state from any type of disagreement as Hobbes mentioned between church and state for example that can lead to destruction within, so he feels the best way to avoid that is to create an absolute monarchy so that people will be safe. A real-life famous example of a successful absolute monarchy is in Swaziland and goes way back to the seventeenth-century. Swaziland is the last monarchy left in Africa, but many middle-eastern countries in the world still have this form of government. The power an absolute monarchy has is still shown today when we look at the 1973 emergency act the king of Sobhuza II took declaring the state in emergency in the country is still in effect today. In Swaziland, the king had total authority over the cabinet, legislature, and judiciary of the country. In an absolute monarchy, the ruler can impose rules everyone must follow to aim at protecting the country and keeping peace within.Another real-life example from a more personal standpoint would be the country Jordan, which is in the Middle East and my home country. Jordan is one of the only countries in the Middle East that does not have conflict destroying their countries and does not have war going on. The reason behind this is simply their form of government which is an absolute monarchy. All the power lays on the Hashemite King of Jordan, his name is Abdullah and he is well loved and respected from all the residents living in Jordan. He has managed to keep the country one of the safest countries in the Middle East and has taken care of the general good of everyone in the country. King Abdullah has so much power to the point where there is no freedom of speech when it comes to the royal family, meaning anyone saying anything negative about the king is a crime and can be imprisoned. The reason for this law is that there are many great supporters and lovers of the king who would cause harm and start war with those who speak badly of him and for the general good of keeping everyone at peace; the king just puts those people away to prevent things from escalating. When you really think about it, in this kind of situation both the name of the King and the person who is speaking bad is being protected, which avoided a conflict from rising and creating civil war. Hobbes is right when he says humans are selfish beings who always want more because other countries in the Middle East who are not ran by an absolute monarchy are destroying one another through civil war within their country. In conclusion, Hobbes had a main concern regarding that the most effective form of government- whatever its form- must have absolute authority. He states that their powers must be neither divided nor limited. The reason he feels this as I had mention was for the general well being of the state in avoidance of conflicts occurring from civil disputes. The reason he emphasizes the need for absolutism is because once the authority opens room for limitation of their power, people will over step their limits and their selfish wants will come out and fear is the only way to keep the majority safe. The only uncertainty Hobbes is yet to explain is his treatment of religion. My paper was only looking at the Leviathan, where it becomes unclear how religion plays out in his whole political theory. In other books, Hobbes discussed his Christian religion in each revision for his political philosophy. Conflicting examinations from readers on whether Hobbes meant to use his core Christian commitments that come from absolutism, or if he just disregarded the readers religious beliefs by using irony. Regardless of how Hobbes intentions in Leviathan are understood, it seems to me that Hobbes is a rational thinker who only speaks the truth that many people only obey and treat people well due to fear from higher conquers. In a state of human nature, everyone would do whatever they please because there is no fear; meaning selfish humans will all destroy themselves.

Rewards Strategy Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Rewards Strategy - Assignment Example No matter how well the awareness campaign is planned, the role of line managers is most important in making the total rewards plan a success, hence it is important to take each line manager in confidence and explain the overall increased benefits to them along with the reasons for change. 9 Discouraging the Entitlement Mentality 10 Rewards Arrangement and Flexibility between divisions 11 Responsibility and readiness of Line Managers 11 Sequence or Timeline for implementation of a total rewards Strategy 12 Change Management 12 Total Reward Framework 13 References 15 Meyers, J. 2010, ‘How Does a Contingent Payment Work?’, Viewed 29 November 2012 15 Introduction The London Provincial Bank is undergoing the same phase of growth that every organization witnesses after it balances both the internal efficiencies and performance in the market. The concern now for the Bank is to retain, reward and develop their staff resulting in a competitive advantage in the banking industry. T o achieve this it is important for the bank to attain a consistency in the workforce performance with better retention techniques applied to prevailing workforce while attracting the best talent from the market. The Total Reward approach draws together all the financial and non-financial investments an employer makes for its workforce. It emphasizes all aspects of reward as an integrated and coherent whole, from pay and benefits through flexible working hours, learning and development, quality and challenge of the work itself (Manas & Graham, 2002). Total reward strategy includes everything the employee perceives to be of...To achieve this it is important for the bank to attain a consistency in the workforce performance with better retention techniques applied to prevailing workforce while attracting the best talent from the market. The Total Reward approach draws together all the financial and non-financial investments an employer makes for its workforce. It emphasizes all aspects of reward as an integrated and coherent whole, from pay and benefits through flexible working hours, learning and development, quality and challenge of the work itself (Manas & Graham, 2002). Total reward strategy includes everything the employee perceives to be of value resulting from the employment relationship. All of the tools available to the employer that may be used to attract, motivate and retain employees (Armstrong, 2010). The selected approach adopted for compilation of a total rewards policy is the Towers Perrin model of Total rewards, which explains the reward distribution in to communal and individual rewards with tangible and intangible nature, hence: Pay + Benefits + Learning and Development + Working Environment = Total Rewards Objectives †¢ Improved organizational performance – helping organizations balance their investment with employee expectations and needs, to source and retain high quality staff, winning their commitment by optimizing motivation and morale, and thereby securing better value for money and greater productivity (Armstrong, 2010).

Financial statement analysis project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Financial statement analysis project - Essay Example Depreciation of company property and equipments is done on a straight line method. Amortization is also deducted from the fixed assets. The longest life spun of equipment is five years which account for its useful life. Buildings are considered for 25 years. From the analysis, there are three things that are interesting about the company. Google Inc provides credit to its specified customers with no need for collateral. These are provided for in the allocation for bad and doubtful debts. More than 40% of revenue is received from unsecured receivables. The company has only class A and B shares in its portfolio. From the analysis, is that from the ratios analysis, strong companies like Google Inc have a current ratio of more than 1. The profit margin of the company goes more that 20% to prove its sustainability in the competitive global market. Application of international standards in financial reporting cannot be avoided even by independent multinationals. The share value continues to shore up in the stock market because of guaranteed return on equity. Treating financial vote heads in the universal standards is not

Network Infrastructure Planning Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Network Infrastructure Planning - Research Paper Example One of the key computer features of windows SharePoint is its unique and powerful way of executing applications. There are four key execution options; cloud services, websites, mobile services and virtual machines. The mobile services and the web sites for every execution module have options. Windows Azure virtual machines give a multiple purpose state of the art computing environment. It is the best option to solve scalability issues providing low cost administration applications. It facilitates diverse applications, templates and frameworks used to built huge and scalable applications and link them to the website (Londer et al 2009). The development test and operations in a company becomes very efficient with windows SharePoint. The windows Azure mobile services in the same way increases developments of applications running in mobile devices through provision of turnkey ways that stores data virtually ensuring effective authentication of users and forwarding push notification. Wild frontiers can apply these technologies either as a combination or separately to built effective foundation for the right application. Virtual machine as a solution to storage needs The virtual machine building capabilities of windows Azure is very significant. The advantage is the fact that the services are only paid for when it is running. This is referred to as infrastructure as a service. In infrastructure as a service, the company outsources the computing infrastructure to another company which offers infrastructure as a service services. Mostly, the services which are outsourced are those which support the business operations such as servers, storage and networking components. The service providers invest heavily on the computing infrastructure therefore house, maintain and run them. The customer subscriber or pays on what is called per-user basis. This is where the service provider charges for the service which the client gets. Some of the key feature of infrastructure as a s ervice includes: administrative tasks automation, desktop virtualization, dynamic scaling, internet connectivity and utility computing services. The service is called hardware as a service. When creating a virtual machine, the VHD and the size of VM are specified. The user then pays for specific times that the virtual machine is running. Windows virtual machine provides stock VHDs gallery which includes windows server 2012 and windows server 2008 that runs SQL server with Linux mirrors availed by Microsoft which lets the user to create VMS from one’s own VHDs. Windows SharePoint offers various performance benefits. First, virtual machine saves time. This is because by an organization relying on using installed software’s to meet their needs they stand the chance of spending more time procuring, mastering and managing their programs. (Venugopal, Broberg & 2009).) However a business saves time upon adopting cloud since some cloud vendors offer software as a service, henc e an organization is spared the inconvenience of managing their programs. Windows sharepoint can be implemented in various ways. It can be used to built cheap platform for test and development which automatically closes when you finish using them. Application that uses any language and libraries can be built can be created. These applications can implemented any form of data management method provided it is supported by windows Azure. The application can use

Warsaw Ghetto and The Pianist Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Warsaw Ghetto and The Pianist - Research Paper Example This essay focuses on description of the life and death in the WWII times in the Warsaw Ghetto, in Poland. The researcher analyzes the book written by a survivor of the events that are described in the book and then the movie, the Pianist. Wladyslaw Szpilman, who is an author and the main character of the book was a Polish Jewish man who lived through the Jewish Holocaust. He was a musician and his experiences were shown in the movie and the book, named The Pianist. The book was written by Szpilman and his son was able to get it published because he wanted people to know what happened to his father during WWII times. The Holocaust was a tremendously bad situation that happened to the Jews in Europe and reading a such personal account and memories was very difficult for the researcher at times. The Warsaw Ghetto in Poland was where most of Szpilman's experiences happened. The essay follows the book and describes The Warsaw Ghetto that was not a happy place or one where people were tre ated well. Life and war experiences of the main character were also described as well. To conclude, the researcher gives his own opinion on the book that he analyzed. The researcher thinks that this was an interesting time in history and it made him want to read some more about the Holocaust but it is also very difficult to read it at the same time. He also thinks that the movie was very hard to watch and he was in tears many times watching what people did. At the end, the researcher hopes that this never happens again to anyone.

Global scholars Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Global scholars - Essay Example The Global Scholars Programme As the world is becoming a global village it is very important to understand each other’s cultures and work together cherishing the power of diversity. Slippery Rock University (2013) Website states and I quote â€Å"Diversity is an educational, functional, and institutional resource that should be cultivated, enhanced, and leveraged for optimal learning†. The Global Scholars Programme is focused on linking the students of different cultures so that they can share experiences and explore new international opportunities that can help them in their future endeavors. Students enrolled under this Programme are given the opportunity to work with foreign students of partner institutes under the supervision of a staff member on social enterprise projects. This Programme offers the students an opportunity to meet business leaders in other areas to identify their future career development options. UK and Brazil Partnership To present our project, th e country we had to visit was Brazil. The whole idea of the project was to empower our targeted people and make them skilled so that they find themselves capable enough to gain employment during the Football World Cup 2014. Our target population mainly constitutes of marginalized community and Brazil Favelas was best to access these people. When we were in Brazil we met those people and shared ideas with them to understand their living conditions and take their opinion on this project. I had a variety of learning experiences and I gained several skills throughout my time in Brazil that are discussed in upcoming paragraphs. Skills Acquired through the Global Scholars Programme Global Scholars experience has polished my skills; although I am a confident person but most often I do not talk unnecessarily and take a passive role while in a team. However, with this experience I learnt that sometimes it is very important to be expressive and communicate ones opinions loudly. As a person, I do not take the role of a decision maker; I can well term myself as a ‘team worker’ who according to Belbin is a person who listens to others, care for other members and finds it more easy to implement decisions than taking decisions (Belbin’s Team Roles 2013). However, as I progressed I felt a positive change in myself; now I not only help others take their decisions but also, at times, assume the role of team leader where required. One of the most important skills I acquired during this project was time management. I can relate tis with our situation that how we realized the importance of being time conscious. One we were in Brazil, we had the specs of the project, we had the plans and we have visited different places that gave us insights into the issues we need to tackle to make our project viable; however, we hardly had anything structured. It was then we realized the importance of giving structure and shape to our ideas within the specified timeline. From this experience, I acknowledged how stress is reduced (Emmett 2009) and self-esteem is improved (Frings 2004) through time management. Another important area where I

International Adoption Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

International Adoption - Research Paper Example ts meet across lines of disparity involving not only in the biological factor, but also race, ethnicity, nationality, cultural heritage and socio economic class. Typically in international adoption, the adoptive parents usually belong to one of the richer countries of the world where they have a tendency to adopt children from a poor mother and belonging to less privileged ethnic and racial groups of poorer countries of the world. There are many countries that serve for the US couples who are planning to adopt (Bartholet, â€Å"International Adoption†). International adoption is a phenomenon of the last half century. The trend had begun after the First World War. The horrible outcome of the war led to predictable deaths and devastation. In most of the vanquished countries, the difficulty of parentless children had become evident to the world. Again Korean War also opened up an option for United States to adopt Korean child. Recently, dissolution of the U.S.S.R. and fall of the â€Å"Iron Curtain† have resulted in inclusion of the name of Russia, China and various new countries in that list. China’s one –child problem along with its overpopulation crisis resulted in the foreign adoption of thousands of baby girls (Bartholet, â€Å"International Adoption†). The two basic reasons namely the children in need of home and larger community issues make people in favor of the international adoption. Otherwise there is huge controversy regarding this subject. Again one who is in favor of international adoption defines it in context of the social science and child development expertise which refers that children placed in the international adoptive home grow up much better than those who brought upon the street or in institutional homes. In this regards, the opponents argued that children can be better served through remaining in the same community of their origin and become fortunate to enjoy ethnic and national heritage. Again the advocates of the international adoption

Personal Opinion on the Palsgraf Case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Personal Opinion on the Palsgraf Case - Essay Example Therefore, Palsgraf brought forward a personal injury complaint against the Long Island Rail road that made an appeal to courts judgment that was in favour of the plaintiff. The ruling was avowed on the appeal, and the defendant appealed (Farlex, 2013). Therefore, to my opinion, the railroad guards were wrong in relation to the individual carrying the parcel but not in regards to Palsgraf who was standing at a far distance. Additionally, no one was aware that the packages had fireworks and that they could cause harm if they were to be dropped. No one could also have thought that Palsgraf who was standing at a far zone was out of danger and that he could be harmed. On the other hand, an issue of negligence was also mentioned by Palsgraf as he tried to sue the guards involved in the incidence (4LawSchool, 2001). Personally, to spot the act of negligence, there should be a discovery that an obligation was first owed and contravened and that the damage could have been shunned in the case where the defendant was following that particular duty. The course of the peril or rather the risk associated with the danger is the one which a rational person would have foreseen. On the other hand, even though the guard had taken the package and thrown it intentionally, it would have not caused a threat on Palsgraf safety looking at it from the appearance of the circumstance to a rational person. The liability of the Long Island Railroad towards an inadvertent action would have not been greater than it was especially on the case where the act was deliberate. There is tendacy to argue that each and every individual owes to the world a duty of abstaining from the actions that may threaten the wellbeing of other people in an unreasonable manner. In the attempt to determine the approximate cause of the incidence, the court must have asked whether there was a natural or an incessant series between the effect and the cause. The court had the same pressure of not to argue whether the a ct was reasonably expected to cause injury to any individual (Manz, 2005). Additionally, the court was expected to consider the fact that the greater the distance existing between the cause and effect in both space and time, the greater the probability that the other grounds intervene to cause an effect to the outcome. In this case there was no kind of remoteness in terms of time and space and therefore injury was meant to take place in some form. It is also to my view that the issue of proximate cause is just a practical politics, which is not founded on judgment. Proximate cause implies that due to expediency of the public strategy regarding to an uneven sense of impartiality, the law subjectively declines to hunt for a series of happenings beyond a given level (Lawnix, 2008). The natural and the foreseeable outcomes of the negligent deeds influence the determination of deciding whether a given act can be termed as a proximate cause of the damages. It is paramount to adopt the pri nciple that states that negligent behaviour that ends up in injury results into being a liability in the case where the actor had the chance to reasonably foresee that the behaviour could result to injury. In the Cardozo opinion, the court decided that the defendant’s guards could not have predicted the likelihood of the injury on Palsgraf and thus no duty to him was breached either. The obligation to practice care is owed to everyone and thus the acts of carelessness will definitely put the actor to accountability to each and every individual who is approximately injured by the incidence. Whether the harm is

Cerebral Palsey Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Cerebral Palsey - Term Paper Example In addition to motor dysfunction, cerebral palsy may include learning difficulties, psychological problems, sensory defects, convulsive and behavioral disorders of organic origin’ (cited in Chauhan,1989; p.249). In short, cerebral palsy is a congenital defect and is of non progressive type caused due to developmental defects in the brain that occur immediately after birth, during birth, or before the birth. Usually, children presenting with cerebral palsy are normal but have special needs related to motor, cognitive, social, and psychological functions. Children with the cerebral palsy present with a variety of symptoms or manifestations. However, few symptoms are most common. Like, abnormal muscle tone makes the movement of muscles either extreme or nil. Reflex and postural abnormalities cause the child to have abnormal positions at rest. Delayed motor development causes a delay in the child’s ability to sit or stand on its own. Atypical motor performance such as abnormal gait, asymmetrical hand use, uncoordinated actions, difficulty in chewing, swallowing etc may also be experienced (Yamamoto, 2007). Based on these symptoms, cerebral palsy is classified into three types: spastic type which includes symptoms related to muscle tone; athetoid or dyskinetic that includes symptoms presenting involuntary or uncontrolled movements; and ataxia which includes symptoms related to balancing activities. Immense research and study have been carried out to identify possible risk factors and causes of cerebral palsy. These risk factors and causes have been identified at various stages before, after and during pregnancy. Some risk factors include delayed pregnancy, serial abortions, thyroid problems, seizures, difficult and/or troubled labor etc; infections and injuries during and after pregnancy period; and postnatal issues such as hypotension, sepsis, hyponatremia, nutrition, seizures, etc (Styer-Acevedo, 2008).  

Homelessness & state Essay Example for Free

Homelessness state Essay Homelessness is a state that people do not have to experience. It is the right of every human to live in a decent place and to have all the necessities in life. Homelessness is not merely being without a place to stay in. Homelessness reflects the lack of life’s basic essentials and the lack of decent means to secure it. Homeless people live under bridges, in parks, and in any other place that they can find temporary shelter. Shelter, that seems to be the word that most people associate with the state of homelessness. Sadly though, people tend to forget the homeless need more essential things that merely shelter. These people, just like everyone else, need and deserve food, water, and clothing. These are the essentials of life that both law and ethics consider as the right of every human being. It is the basic right of all humans. Every human being deserves the dignity of life. This does not mean affluent ways of living. It only means that the basic needs of daily life are provided or available. I do not speak of the luxuries for it is a fact of life that not everyone can have these. I only speak of the things that we need to survive. These are not hard to get, nor are they hard to give. However, it seems that the right to life’s basic essentials has become a forgotten right especially for those who are in the position to help the needy in acquiring these necessities fail to act. I speak of both the civil governments and private entities who possess the capability to help the homeless. The homeless live primarily from the excesses of other people. The scourge through dumpsters and garbage cans to find the things they need to survive. It puzzles me why these people need to wait for others to throw away their excesses before they can actually get a hold of them. If people can afford to throw away these things, why can’t we all just set these aside for the homeless? Why do we have to wait for food to rot or for clothes to become out-of-fashion for our taste to throw them away? Our excesses are valuable to other people. We do not have to throw them away. We can simply give it to those in need. It is not very difficult. In fact, it is very simple. Homelessness is a problem not just of the people who experience it but of society in general. It is just much of the homeless people’s right to have their basic needs as it is the duty of the government to provide these people with the means to acquire what they need. Employment opportunities must be given. Training programs to acquire the necessary skills to join the labor market must likewise be provided. Although these might not completely eradicate homelessness, these measures can help the homeless move up in life and to live a more decent and dignified life. Homeless shelters are not the answer to the problem for these place only serve as temporary spaces for the homeless. Once they step out of the shelter, they are right back in the state of homelessness. What the government needs to do is to give the homeless the means they need to provide themselves with their own needs. Lars Eighner is an exception for prior to becoming homeless, he actually had skills and talents to move up in the world. Other homeless people are not so fortunate. Thus, it is the duty of the government and of private corporations as well to give the homeless the chance to overcome the state of homelessness for no one deserves to become homeless.

A Biography Of Booker T Washington History Essay

A Biography Of Booker T Washington History Essay Birth, Parents and Family Life The well known clichà ©, bad beginnings have good endings, resonates in ones mind when this name is mentioned. Booker T. Washingtons life, undoubtedly encapsulate this well-known phrase as throughout his life evidence proves how he grew and became very successful. Booker Taliaferro Washingtons life began on April 5th, 1856 where he was born into slavery on the Burroughs Plantation in the rural, Hales Ford, Virginia. He had three siblings, one of whom was adopted. His mother Jane was an enslaved African American woman who worked as a cook on the plantation. His father was a white man, whom he knew very little about. His mother later married another slave, Washington Ferguson, who left to for West Virginia. Early Life Washingtons early life was that of a slave where he lived in a small cabin and slept on a dirt floor with only a pallet that was put on the ground for his comfort. Survival was a struggle as his mother Jane from time to time would take a chicken or an egg from her masters and cook them during the night just to feed her children. From an early age, Booker knew what labour entailed and began working quite young. One of his duties was to carry sacks of corn to the mill on the back of a horse. Sometimes when a sack fell on the ground he had to wait for hours for someone to come and replace it on the horses back. Washingtons discomfort of his living arrangement and hard labour as a child was mingled with the discomfort of his clothes and shoes. Until his shirt was worn for six weeks, Washington had to bear the pain from his flax material shirt which pricked his skin. The discomfort was so great that once his brother offered to wear his shirt until it got a bit softer. His shoes also were uncomfortable as his first pair of shoes had wood as its sole and coarse leather tops. Education Although he went to school while he was a slave, Booker T. Washingtons education only began when his family was freed of slavery. In Washingtons time, it was illegal for slaves to go to school and be educated. However, Washington went to school with James Burroughs daughter in Franklin County, not as a student but to carry her books. It was only when the Emancipation Proclamation in April, 1865, Washington now nine, was read to the jubilant slaves that Booker was able to spread his wings a bit. Washington, his siblings and mother soon left the plantation with a wagon that his stepfather sent for them to join with him in Malden, West Virginia. Because of the state of poverty that the family was faced with, Washington could not have had a normal schooling experience. Instead, at the tender age of nine, Washington was thrust into the world of work. His stepfather, who worked in the salt mines, found work for him and his brother at a salt mine that began at four in the morning and ended at nine. Sometimes they even worked at coal mines. One Mr. William Davis opened a school for coloured children. Bookers parents allowed him to go but on the condition that he maintain his job. As Booker worked in the morning period, he was now able to attend school later in the day but returned to the mine after school. After a few years, Booker had to leave the school in order to work fulltime in the coal mine; but his mother found him another job. He was taken in as a houseboy by a wealthy family, General Lewis Ruffner. The wife was very strict on him but very encouraging. He proved his trustworthiness to her while he stayed with her for four years and saw her as one of his best friends. It was at this point that Booker learned about a school, Hampton Institute, where black students can get an education, paying their way by working. He saved up some money from his labour at the mines and in 1872, at sixteen, when he had just about saved enough money, Booker left for Hampton. The road to Hampton was not an easy one. He walked the way but stopped for a few days, sleeping under a plank sidewalk during the night and loading a ship with food items during the day to raise more money to buy food. When Booker finally arrived at Hampton; he was first denied entrance into the school because of his appearance, but soon impressed the head teacher with his janitorial skills and continued doing these services to pay for his school expenses. It was during one summer of his studies that his mother died while he was on his summer vacation. He still went on to spend three years there, graduating in 1875 at age nineteen. Life as an Adult: His Marriages and Family Booker was married three times. The first of the three came just after moving to Tuskegee in 1882, when he married his childhood sweetheart Fannie Smith. From this marriage one daughter, Portia, came in 1883. Unfortunately, one year following the birth of their daughter, Fannie died unexpectedly. Washington remarried in 1985 to Olivia Davidson who was also working at the Tuskegee Institute as an assistant principal. The new couple had two boys, Booker Jr. and Earnest; however, Olivia only remained with him for four years before she also died. Washington soon got married again for the third time to Margaret Murray, a teacher at Tuskegee, in 1893 but the couple had no children however she helped with her stepchildren. Margaret died ten years after Washington in 1925. Washington credited each of his wives for their contribution to the Tuskegee Institute. Where he lived and worked By now, Booker T. Washington was developing into an adult, being able to sustain himself. Washington was a strong advocate of education and believed that through education, the quality of his people could be improved. Due to the strong belief that he maintained, when he graduated, Booker moved back to his hometown, Malden, to teach, but spent only a short time there teaching eighty to ninety children in the day, adults in the night and two Sunday schools. However, during the short time at the school, Washington encouraged students to attend the Hampton Institute and sent his two brothers, John and James, to school. Washingtons time at this school was soon up when he was hired by General Armstrong, the principal of Hampton, as a member of the faculty and a postgraduate student. Washingtons now taught classes at nights for students who could not attend classes in the day, teaching also a group of seventy five Indian boys. His Accomplishments Now at twenty five, in 1881, Washington was recommended by General Armstrong to a prominent white man in Tuskegee who wanted to establish a school for black children in that town. Mr. Armstrong recommended Washington for the position to spearhead the establishment however when he arrived in Alabama Washington found out that no provisions were made for acquiring lands or buildings. He also found that the only funding for the school was two thousand five hundred for teachers salary which was given by the state legislature as a favour to the black people who had supported a politician. Although throughout the early years, the institute was able to survive on gifts of individuals, Washington was still faced with the challenges maintaining the school even at the beginning where he had to locate an appropriate location for the school and building of the campus. However, Washington was soon able to purchase farmland that amounted to two thousand acres where he established the school. Two sm all buildings were converted; there were no equipment and hardly any money. All the students had to work in addition to their academic studies. Some of the activities the students engaged in were chopping of trees, making bricks, building furniture, clearing lands and constructing buildings. Classes were opened with thirty students and what was taught developed the students, teaching them both trades and professions. Ten years later in 1891, now 35, the institution had matured into a campus which boasted of over five hundred and forty acres of land, many well equipped buildings, thousands of students, over two hundred faculty members teaching thirty eight trades and professions. Booker T. Washington was taught the skill of public speaking by one of his teachers during his years at Hampton. The lessons Ms. Nathalie Lord taught him made him a very eloquent speaker and he used this to propel his efforts bringing many benefits to the Tuskegee Institution. To add to Booker T. Washingtons accomplishment, in 1895, Washington was asked to speak at the opening of the Cotton State Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia which was a major accomplishment for an African American. In his speech, later referred to as the Atlanta Compromise, Washington encouraged blacks and whites to work together and explained his idea that African Americans can secure their place in the society through their own economic and moral development and not by legal and political changes. Washingtons belief was not accepted by all African Americans as some feared that some may fight against them for their want of equal rights. However, the whites approved of his views and helped to bring the programs he envisioned to fruit. He was later given an honorary degree by the Harvard University in 1896. One year after his speech, in 1896, Washington was able to acquire funding for an extension of his institution. He opened an agriculture school with the help of the Slater Fund for Negro Education. At this extension school, George Washington Carver was entrusted to lead the school, many other people who were interested in the education of the blacks helped and the school flourished. Contributions to Society The Tuskegee Institute still educate people today, and in addition to this, Booker T. Washington also instituted a variety of programs for rural extension work. He also helped to set up the National Negro Business League. Although Booker was selected to be named to a cabinet post, he refused, stating that he preferred not to be involved in politics. It was not until 1901 that Booker T. Washington published his autobiography, Up from Slavery of which the profits were given towards strengthening the economic stability of the Tuskegee Institute. It was in this same year that Washington was invited to the White House by the president at the time, Theodore Roosevelt, the first African American to be recognized in this magnitude. He was also privileged to have tea with Queen Victoria during a visit to Europe. By1904 Washington was now forty eight and became very influential in many political decisions, becoming the advocate and key advisor to the African American community. Through the use of the black newspapers and other publications Washington was able to create good public relations for his causes. Washington however refused to be a part of a race relations conference that was the driving force for the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP). Washington was sceptical of the motives behind the conference fearing that it may be of a combative nature; however, the elections of Woodrow Wilson in 1912 caused Washington to change the way he spoke. After assuring in his campaign that he will fight for equal rights of the African Americans, Wilson never follow through on his promises. This caused Washington to surprise everyone when he published an article whose tone was similar to the militant black leaders of the time. Even with this change, many still believed that Booker had done more than he was credited for or that was recognized by others. How he was Renowned The key contributing factor that distinguishes Booker T. Washington from all other African American advocates was his approach. Although he believed in equality, the method in which he used to achieve it was quite different from any other. Washingtons approach was not confrontational, as was the approach of many at the time. He realized that being confrontational would only be to his disadvantage, and worked in a way to develop and maintain the support of the white people who were instrumental in fulfilling many of his ideas. He believed that success for blacks can only come through economic stability using mainly vocational training. Washington was unlike his critics such as Fredrick Douglass and W.E.B Du Bois who protested, challenged the political system and spoke up about the lack of equality. Instead he saw these militant actions as distractions to economic success and encouraged blacks to concentrate on developing industrial skills. Booker was also known for his capability to raise funds for the Institution, which when coupled with his ability to speak made many individuals give generously to Tuskegee because of his clarity of expression for how the school can help blacks make a better life for themselves. Through education, Washington, more than any other, helped to elevate his people. He is therefore best remembered for freeing African Americans from the economic slavery that kept them bondage even after they were physically and legally freed from slavery. His Death Even at the gates of his death, Washington remained a fighter as he continued to principal the Tuskegee Institute. Washingtons body was deteriorating. He collapsed in New York where he was sent back to Tuskegee. On November 14th 1915 his body could bear no more and he passed on. Although at first it was assumed that he died of heart failure due to exhaustion, it was later confirmed when in March 2006, with the permission of the descendants, the examination of his medical records showed that he died of hypertension with a blood pressure more than twice the normal range. Washington was finally laid to rest on the grounds of the Tuskegee Institute near to the chapel. Reason for my Choice In a society where there is s thirst for good male role models, I found it a pleasure reading about Booker T. Washington and making him my choice for my biography. Washington was an individual whose life I can emulate and imbibe. First of all he was a black man who started life by measly means; however, he did not allow him to hinder his determination. Washington pressed forward and at his death he was financially secure, had a family and was well renowned. He was very intelligent and used this ability for good causes. The exceptional qualities that surrounded Washington are those that I would like to portray in my life; hence my ultimate reason for my choice or Mr. Booker T. Washington. How he has affected my Life The life of Booker T. Washington has greatly affected me in many positive ways. I now look at life differently since his life is truly a testimony that it is not about how your life begins but how you decide to end it. I am also encouraged to face any challenges that are put before me. Washington faced a number of challenges, but although at times he may have been disappointed, he did not allow that to keep him down but instead rose from the challenge to become an even greater person. From his life I was also encouraged to look out for others and to show more humanitarianism to my fellowmen. For me it can begin at home, just as it began at home for Washington. When he started working, he was able to send his two brothers to school which to me if very commendable. Booker T. Washington has therefore proven to be a person worth emulating, and once this is done success would come my way.

Wedding Planning Needs Assessment

Wedding Planning Needs Assessment CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background Wedding is once-a-life event in peoples life. For most of families, they are willing to spend a considerable amount of money to ensure the wedding is organized as perfect as possible. According to Howard (2006), wedding today is a $70 billion business in U.S., and the average cost of wedding is $26,000 per couples. As a spinoff the larger discipline of event management, the business of wedding planning will provide business to a broad array of supporting industries, such as hotels, retails, and catering service. Comparing with the other personal events, such as birthday, anniversaries, wedding is more complicated, because it involves friends and families and a range of related service activities covering from catering to entertainments (Shone Parry, 2004). In order to make sure everything goes smoothly in the wedding day, most of the prospective couples would like to plan the wedding in sometimes year in advance. Both brides and grooms put much effort into the wedding preparation including the venue selection, honeymoon booking and dress design etc. However, not all of them have enough time and energy and knowledge in wedding planning to arrange everything themselves. They need someone to assist them in wedding planning, budget preparation, planning detail checklists, venue arrangement as well as onsite supervision and coordination on the wedding day. Wedding planners, the professional dealing with all the details of wedding, provide a one-stop service to potential couples by charging some considerable consultant fee (Wikipedia org, 2009). The role of the wedding planners is to save time, look after details, make couples dream come true, stay on the budget and save money. Wedding planners have become one of the outsourced labours in modern society (Blakely, 2007). With the rapid development of the society in the last decade, more and more couples prefer to go to college and start their own careers after graduation. Marriage is happening later in brides and grooms life (Mayling, 2002). This means couples have more disposable income to afford the wedding expenses; and they are more likely to look for some special unique wedding styles, such as theme wedding, green wedding etc., which probably involves different elements, such as ethic, religious custom, family tradition, class identity, regional practice and individual tastes and preference (Howard, 2006). As a result, wedding planners, who are providing professional advices and assistance to the couples from the moment of distributing the invitations, arranging the style of cake ceremony, table setting, and setting for banquet, are necessarily needed and developed dramatically (Markby, 2006). 1.2 Wedding in China In traditional Chinese culture, marriage was creating alliances between families. Therefore, it was strictly arranged by parents or elder people in families. Wedding should be planned strictly according to the customs. For example, people should choose a good year, a good month, a good day as well as a good time for wedding ceremony; and use â€Å"red† in the declaration for everything with the purpose of auspicious. Wedding is also one of the ways for Chinese families to present their social classes therefore the families are willing to spend a large mount of money on wedding, and much of which were supported by parents or relatives. Because of the reform and opening-up policy in the late 1970s, nowadays, the living standards in China have been dramatically increased. According to the China Statistic Yearbook 2008 (2009), the GDP per capita in Mainland China is increasing steadily and has reached 18,934 RMB in 2007. At the mean time, the social culture is becoming diversified. More and more Chinese people, especially the younger generation who have better education, began to accept the western culture. Most of the prospective couples would like to experience different types of weddings that can make their special day more measurable. For example, some people choose â€Å"white† wedding instead of traditional Chinese â€Å"red† wedding; some may prefer destination wedding instead of having wedding at home, which may require more time and professional planning and organizing throughout the wedding preparation. Therefore, wedding planners, as a new business in China, has developed rapidly during the l ast decade. According to the ministry of commerce of the PRC (2008), wedding service today has become a big business in China covering about 76 industries, such as matchmaking business, wedding planning as well as banquets, tourism industries etc. where the photographer has the highest profit that is above 30% while the wedding planner is 15%. The average expenditure for more than 3.7 million new Chinese couples in 2006 was about 126,600 RMB. Based on the statistics of Ministry of Civil Affairs of the PRC (2009), about 11 million couples got married in 2008 with the growth of 10.8% than 2007. All the statistics above show that wedding business in China has a huge market and potential. This research will focus on Pearl River Delta, the most economically dynamic region in southern part of China. PRD covers nine prefectures of Guangdong province including Guangzhou, Shenzhe, Zhuhai, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Foshan, Huizhou, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing; and has become one of the leading economic regions and a major manufacturing center of China, which accounted for 10.2% of Chinas GDP. People in PRD have more purchasing power than the other region. The per capita GDP in PRD ranges from 35,700 to 79,600 RMB which is much higher than the national per capita GDP (HKTDC, 2008). Because of the advantages of its location and open-door policy, PRD became the first region in China which allowed the foreign investments. Thus, apart from the economic strength, people in PRD were influenced by the western cultures earlier than the other places of China. 1.3 Research problem statements Due to the low entry cost in the wedding planning business, the number of wedding planners has increased rapidly in China in the last decade. Generally, two to three persons having relevant planning experience can establish a wedding planning company with around 100,000 RMB investments in China. They just need an office for meeting with clients and an official blog or website for promotion. Despite of the rapid development of the wedding business, the service/product offered by the wedding planners is similar. Comparing with the wedding photo service business, there is a lack of leading brand in the wedding planning business. With the growth of income level and education level, the couples in China are becoming more and more demanding towards the wedding service/products and face a problem that how to choose a suitable wedding planners who can provide excellent service/product. Thus, from the supply side, identifying and satisfying the important and unfulfilled needs of prospective c ouples is one of the ways for wedding planners to differentiate their products from the competitors, and make success in the competition. However, there is few studies indentifying prospective couples needs or attitudes toward products or service of wedding planner in Pearl River Delta even though in Chinese mainland, nor research about how well the wedding planners in China is meeting the needs of prospective couples. Therefore, this study will focus on the following questions to find out the needs of prospective couples (demand side) towards the wedding planners in PRD 1) Whats the reason for couples hiring wedding planners? 2) Whats the factors affecting the selection of wedding planners? Reputation? Price? Or other? 3) Do the needs of prospective couples toward wedding planners in Pearl River Delta vary according to the different demographical characteristics? 1.4 Research objectives: To find out the needs of prospective couples when hiring the wedding planners in the Pearl River Delta; To investigate the relationship between the needs for prospective couples and the choice of product/service offered by wedding planners in Pearl River Delta Region; To investigate how the needs of potential couples are influenced by their demographic profiles; To make recommendations to the wedding planners in Pearl River Delta. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW In this chapter, the previous studies related to wedding, wedding planners as well as the consumer purchase behavior will be reviewed. 2.1 Nature of wedding From the view of sociology, Edward (1987) defined that weddings are rites of passage, which belong to the class of rituals that everywhere mark the transition of a person or persons from one status to another. Wedding therefore becomes a private and highly-personalized event in peoples life. Event is held for a purpose that brings people together to share an experience and produce a measurable outcome no matter public or private, commercial or charitable, celebratory or commemorative (Silvers, 2003). Shone and Parry (2004) defined the wedding, together with the other personal events (e.g. birthday or anniversaries), as a type of special events. Their phenomenon arise from leisure, cultural, personal or organizational objectives which are set apart from the normal activity of daily life and their purpose is to enlighten, celebrate, entertain or challenge the experience of a group of people. The characteristics of special events include personal interactions, ritual or ceremony, intang ible, fixed timescale, labor intensive, ambience and service, perishability as well as uniqueness. Getz (2007) also defined wedding as a form of planned events because it is held in venues that cater to individual and small-group clients which may require professionals or be entirely arranged by the participants. From this point of view, Getz (2007) believed that the wedding is a multi-meaning experience in both personal and social aspects, and it is can be considered as celebrations in which a theme and emotional stimulation are essential. Although, wedding is usually defined as a type of small or personal events, it is still an area lack of study and research compared with meeting, exhibition, incentives or other events. There is quite a few academic book or journal devoted to the planning and design of weddings, parties or other private functions. 2.2 Wedding planners 2.21 The nature of wedding planner Arranging an event is complicated as it involves different elements such as the specialist sets, props, customers for participants or guests, and all the range of support requirements from special effects and lighting to music and entertainment. Event management companies are increasingly common in the events business in the last decades, which have specialized in providing of the complete event by careful planning and management. People can enjoy a number of benefits of having an EMC including the expertise, ideas and experience they can draw on (Shone Parry, 2004). Shone and Parry (2004) found that although there are some major companies in the event business, there are a wide range of smaller organizations and individuals that are willing to provide events-related service particular for the personal event market, which include the organization of parties, celebrations, weddings, anniversaries and many of similar events. Professional party planners or event organizers are those pr ofessional who deal with the nitty-gritty details of planning, organizing, operating and managing an event to ensure everything goes smoothly. According to Wikipedia (2009), wedding planners are the professionals who deal with all the details of the wedding, which includes planning, organizing, operating and management, to ensure everything goes smoothly and correctly. Ellis-Christensen (2008) defined that wedding planner as an event professional whose responsibility is not only to plan a memorable wedding, but also to give some professional advices to the couples including the venue selection, equipments preparation etc. They usually act as a wedding advisor, coordinator, supervisor, financial planner and mediator during the wedding (Brush Creek Weddings, 2008). Peters (2007) also stated that the range of service offered by wedding planner is widely. Some may prefer to offer consulting service only while some may prefer to provide comprehensive wedding package. At the meantime, Peters (2007) also pointed out that the global trend of the wedding business has been toward offering total coordination of the entire blessed even t from the beginning to the end, which includes identifying the needs of new couples, budget preparation, planning detailed checklist, venue arrangement, identifying the professionals (e.g. florists, photographers etc.) as well as on-site supervision and coordination on the wedding day. The consultant fee varies widely depending on different locations or different packages. The consultant fee may be higher in larger cities where disposable income of couples is higher than the other places. 2.22 The requirements of a wedding planner Having a strong organizational skills as well as an eye for details are necessary and basic requirements for a successful professional meeting planner because meeting process is both comprehensive and meticulous. Moreover, meeting planners must have the ability to work successful under pressure, to react calmly to constant change, and to make quick decisions (OBrien Shaw, 2002). Howard (2006) stressed that wedding planning is highly customer oriented as most of the couples are looking for special, unique and memorable wedding. Ethic and religious custom, family tradition, class identity, regional practice, and individual tastes and preferences certainly all played a role in shaping wedding consumption. Peters (2007) suggested that good communication skills, good organizational skills as well as good interpersonal skills are very essential for being a successful wedding planner, because wedding planners act as a middle person who deals with both clients and suppliers. The appearance of the professional wedding organization was an important benchmark in the rise of wedding planner business, indicating that wedding planning service today are more and more professional. These professional organizations help wedding planners naturalize particular customs and practices on a potentially national scale by sharing etiquette and customs. They provide some training course for wedding planners. Getting a certificate from professional organization has became one of the evidences for professional and made the customer confident with the service quality. Additionally, the organization also centralized and rationalized a consultants business, providing important resources and information regarding the markets as well as the trend (Howard, 2006). 2.23 Demand of wedding planners Wedding is an important event in peoples life that many people are willing to organize by themselves on the small and more intimate scale. However, not all of them have the time and wish to expend the effort on doing so and happier to pay a professional to come along and deal with all the details of planning, organizing, operating and managing to ensure everything goes smoothly (Shone Parry, 2006). According to Blakely (2007), the supply of commercial service increases dramatically along with the growth of demands for family jobs. Wedding planners are a form of outsourced labor in the modern society. These jobs which are transported from home to the public marketplace are responding to the time crunch produced by work-family conflict. From this point of view, Blakely defined wedding planners as commercial substitutes. Besides, Edwards (1987) conducted a research to examine the relationship between the weddings commercial development and its nature as a rite of passage. He found that the reason of the success of the wedding business was the convenience offered by the wedding planners and the demand from consumers for larger and more sumptuous celebrations. Consumers were looking for a wide range of wedding-related service (one-stop service) through a single organization. 2.4 The trend Firstly, the wedding today tends to be more customized than before. According to Hensdill (1996), because of the cultural exchange among the global village, traditional wedding customs are giving way to the trends of Western societies. Some new styles of wedding exist, such as theme wedding, destination wedding and green wedding, because more and more couples are looking for unique wedding. Destination wedding is a new wedding style that a couple decides to hold their wedding in a location where neither one of them resides (Daniels Loveless, 2007). There are several top destinations for wedding in the world, such as Caribbean, Las Vegas, Hawaii as well as Maldives. Generally, some special theme may be adopted into the destination wedding. For example, hotel in Las Vegas has organized Italian-style wedding for wedding couples (Stratton, 2001). Moreover, the destination wedding often merges into the honeymoon (Daniels Loveless, 2007). Secondly, the internet and e-commerce has shaped the modern wedding consumption and gave it a new immediacy and flexibility. As a result, the wedding planners can target different segments of the bridal markets through developing website that advertised their goods and services and allowed consumers to make agreement or shop directly through their online site (Howard, 2006). 2.2 Consumer purchase behaviors toward wedding â€Å"Consumer behavior is defined as the behavior that consumers display in searching form, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing of products and services that they expect will satisfy their needs. It focuses on how individuals make decisions to spend their available resources† (Schiffman Kanuk, 2007). 2.32 Factors affecting consumer purchases As people are willing to devote time and effort to the ritual occasions like Christmas and Thanksgiving, some researches regarding the types of purchases associated with ritual occasions have been conducted by researchers in consumer behavior (Lowery, 1994). According to some market analysis, consumer purchase behavior is strongly influenced by social, cultural and individual characteristics. a) Social factors According to Schiffman and Kanuk (2007), consumer behavior is influenced by two major groups, namely the reference group and families. â€Å"A reference group that is perceived as credible, attractive, or powerful can induce consumer attitude and behavior change† (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2007) Based on the traditional family life cycle, the prospective couples belong to the stage II, honeymooners, who have available a combined income that often permits a lifestyle that provides them with the opportunities of more indulgent purchasing of professions, which means that the honeymooners are happy to accept the professional products and service and willing to pay more money for them as they pursuit high quality of life. The reason hidden behind may be because they have more disposable income and more free time for themselves before the born of young children. Additionally, for the newlyweds, the advice and experience of other married couples (e.g. parents or friends) are likely to be important when they start-up their expenses to establish a new home (Schiffman Kanuk, 2007). â€Å"For many consumers their family is their primary reference group for many attitudes and behaviors. The members of a family assume specific roles in their everyday functioning; such roles or tasks extend to the realm of consumer purchase decisions. Key consumer-related roles of family members include influencers, gatekeepers, deciders, buyers, preparers, users, maintainers, and disposers. A familys decision-making style is influenced by its lifestyle, roles, and cultural factors.† (Schiffman Kanuk, 2007). Different social classes have different preferences in clothing, home decoration and leisure activities as well as saving, spending and credit habits. Based on the market study by Brides magazine, 20% of the buyers of the wedding products identified themselves as buyers of Brides magazine who were mainly middle class women employed in white-collar, professional and technical fields and had higher medium annual income, when combined with their future husbands. This means that the bride had more control over future consumer decisions that the couple would make (Howard, 2006). Another research about the division of wedding labor and its meaning for couples by Sniezek (2005) indicated that women complete the a disproportionate amount of wedding work just as women do more of kin-work, housework, childcare and managerial family work. He also pointed out that couples were not likely to label the unequal division of labor as unfair which may potentially put the relationship in a state of conflict. From this point of view, his statement highly support Blakelys study (2007) which stated that the wedding planning businesss targeted market is modern career women. Blakely also used the case study of wedding planning to confirm Hochschilds thesis (2003) that feminism plays and important ideological role in the expansion of the commodity frontier. However, after comparison of the emphases that brides and grooms place on artifacts selected for use in their weddings and reception, Lowery (1994) found out that the brides participating in the focus group had no difficulty describing artifacts that were important to them; while grooms had greater difficulty. They also suggest that the emergence of traditional or modern gender roles in wedding planning is partially determined by the attitudes of the bride and groom toward these roles. This is also proved by Schiffman Kanuk (2007) that wedding purchase is a joint-decision in the family where the couples may play different roles in the decision making procedure. b) Cultural factors â€Å"Culture is the sum total of learned beliefs, values, and customs that serve to regulate the consumer behavior of member of a particular society.† (Schiffman Kanuk, 2007) When explaining how culture affects the consumer behavior, Schiffman and Kanuk (2007) indicated that all phases of human problem solving are directed and guided by culture, which includes various ritualized experiences and behaviors. For instance, in practice, rituals accompany with people throughout the human life cycle form birth to death, including a host of intermediate events such as confirmation, graduations and marriage. Besides the culture, subculture also plays an important in consumers behavior which includes nationality, religion, geographic, location, race, age and sex. For example, when comparing the husband-wife decision making between United States and China, Schiffman and Kanuk (2007) found out that there were substantially fewer â€Å"joint† decisions and more â€Å"husband-dominated† decisions for many household purchases in China. Even in the same country, another research showed that in larger city like Beijing, couples were more likely than rural co uples to share equally in purchase decisions. c) Individual factors Apart from the social and cultural factors which affecting the consumer behavior, individual factors play an important role when people make decision (Dholakia, 1979). Schiffman Kanuk (2005) explained the influences of the individual factors through several categories: motivation, personality, perception, learning as well as attitudes. As a driving force within individuals that force them to take actions, motivation is produced by a state of uncomfortable tension unsatisfied needs. Liking to our topic, hiring the wedding planner may be motivated by the needs of couples, such as lack of time for preparation, looking for professional service etc. Personality determines and reflects how a person responds to his or her environment. Generally, people are looking for the balance between the perceived self-image and their behavior including the purchasing products or service. Some may prefer innovative wedding style (e.g. destination wedding, green wedding) while the other may choose trad itional wedding. Moreover, each individual has its own process when he or she selects, organizes and interprets stimuli into a meaningful and coherent picture of the world. This process is highly subjective and is based on what the consumer expect to see. There are several factors that can influence the perception including physical appearance, stereotypes, halo effects, irrelevant cues, first impressions, and the tendency to jump to conclusions. 2.3 Theoretical foundation- Consumer decision making process This research is based on consumer decision making process, which is one of the theories of consumer behavior. Decisions are about the selection of an option from two or more alternative choices. According to Kotler, Bowen and Makens (2006), consumer decision process consists of five essential stages: 2.31 Need recognition From the moment that the consumer recognizes a problem or need, the consumer buying process starts. The consumers needs can be stimulated by both internal and external factors. Advertisements, word-of-mouth, social cues from families, friends and anyone within the families can influence the customers need recognition. In the case of wedding planner, potential couples, their internal stimuli probably is lacking of time for preparation, looking for some unique and special wedding while the external stimuli may be the advertisement in the internet, the promotional events held by wedding planners, especially by the friends or families who have previous experience. 2.32 Information search Searching information about their needs or problems is the second step of buying process. How much information a consumer looks for will depend on the strength of the drive, and the amount of initial information, the value placed on additional information. Linking to the wedding planners, couples will take some time for information searching. This is a stage that couples can decide if they would like to hire a wedding planners or if the products/service offered by wedding planner can satisfy their needs. 2.33 Evaluation of alternatives After searching the relevant information, customers will use the information to arrive at a set of final brand choices. At this stage, potential couples may set up a personal comparison system through different attributes such as reputation, price, theme etc., in order to identify which would be the most ideal brand. 2.34 Purchase decision Subsequently, consumer will buy the most preferred brand based on their evaluation in the previous stage. This is the stage that potential couples choose which brand, what kind of services and check if the product/service is available. This is also the stage that potential couples decide if they would like to hire a wedding planner or not. 2.35 Post-purchase behavior Based on the performance of the service/products, the final stage determines whether the consumer satisfy the service/products or not. 2.4 Summary After reviewing the previous studies related to wedding and wedding planners, we can find out that most of the studies were conducted in the developed countries such as U.S or United Kingdom, while there is a blank area regarding this field in China. Moreover, there is little study regarding the consumer purchase behavior towards the wedding planners conducted before. This research will based on the theories of consumer behavior to conduct three in-depth interviews to find out the reasons for potential couples hiring wedding planners; and the factors affecting their decision. Then, a quantitative research will be conducted to express the findings in statistical terms. CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY This research will be designed as an exploratory, quantitative, cross-sectional investigation of prospective couples needs towards the service/products offered by wedding planners in Pearl River Delta. 3.1 Research Design The advantage of semi-structure interviews is that it can allow issues to be explored deeply while questionnaire survey is that it can collect information from a large number of people and express the findings in statistical terms (Jennings, 2001). As limited study regarding the needs of potential couples towards the wedding service has been conduced in China so far, for this research, the important variables are not clear and still need to be defined. In order to develop a more reliable questionnaire to conduct quantitative research at the second stage, the first stage is to explore the important variables through a qualitative research. In-depth interviews with three potential couples will be conducted, which will facilitate the identifying the different requirements made by potential couples when selecting the wedding planners. These in-depth interviews are critical for the whole research because the finding of these interviews will be used to develop the questionnaire. 3.2 Questionnaire design There will be four main parts in the questionnaire. The first part will be the screening questions with the purpose of screening the invalid sample through some questions. Then, the second part will include some questions regarding the prospective couples attitudes towards the service/products offered by wedding planners in Pearl River Delta. Respondents are required to indicate their personal opinions on each statement on a five-point Likert type scale: 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. In the third part, open-end questions will be included in order to examine the personal experience and intention of hiring a wedding planner. Finally, there will be a set of questions regarding the demographic characteristics of the respondents, which will include gender, age, income level, marriage status, and education level. In order to explain the purpose of the research to the respondents, a covering letter will be attached to the questionnaire. The covering letter will include the information that how the sample was selected, the time will take to complete the survey, contact person for questions and assuring the response would be kept confidential and only used for statistical purposes. 3.3 Sampling method The survey will use a convenience sampling method. Total 200 questionnaires will be distributed in 5 major cities in PRD, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Dongguan and Zhongshan. Both non-married and married couples will be the target respondents in this survey. In order to ensure that the relevance of information collected can reflect the populations opinion, females under 20-year-old (Minimum age of legal marriage for female in China) or males under 22 (Minimum age of legal marriage for male in China) will not be counted as a valid sample. 3.4 Data Collection The data will be collected from 5 major cities in Pear River Delta including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Dongguan and Zhongshan, through different ways including face-to-face interviews and self-completion questionnaires. 3.41 Face-to-face interviews In order to have higher response rate, in the first phase, the face-to-face interviews with potential couples will be conducted at the wedding service companies when they are waiting for the service or outside the Marriage Registries in those cities. 3.42 Self-completion questionnaires At the second phase, self-completion questionnaires will be sent out through e-mail or online survey link, which allows the participants to complete the questionnaires at their own space and at a time convenient for them. In order to secure respondent rate, 2 weeks later, a follow-up letter will be sent out. 3.5 Pilot tests Before the distributing the questionnaires to the targeted respondents, a