An Artwork of Modern Realism Essay

Edward Hopper’s painting called ‘Portrait of Orleans’ pictures the town of Orleans back in 1950. The painting shows the point of intersection of a town road at daytime, with the viewer standing a little to the right in the middle part of the road. There are buildings on the further right side of the viewer, and a section of foreboding trees on the left side, which extends to the further end and curves backward to the right, straight to the area of buildings. Main Body The seven formal elements of art design are the following: (1) line, (2) shape, (3) form, (4) space, (5) texture, (6) light, and (7) color (School of Art, Design and Art History n. d. ). Going over Hopper’s Portrait of Orleans, we analyze it based on these seven elements: Line. Hopper’s painting is filled with either vertical lines or two congruent lines that converge at the middle to form a sort of triangle, which lead the eye upward to space (a cloudless sky). Curves were used to lead the eyes to the motion aimed by the painter. The curve of the looming trees, for example, extends vertically to the end and then curves backward to arrive at the right side of the road where the buildings are. From there, the horizontal lines of the road lead the eye to the right to extend beyond the picture. Shape. Shapes that were used were usually squares, circles, rectangles, and triangles. The shapes were usually connected through the use of perpendicular angles and right angles that lead one shape to the next. In the trees, for example, angles lead the eye from the rectangular trunk to the circular leaves above the trunk. Form. There are forms in the 2-dimensional items in the painting, as it creates depth, width, and height. The circular forms in the trees accentuate the form by using the right shade that darkens as the color progresses to the bottom. This creates depth, width, and height, which is emphasized also by the shadows that the looming trees are projecting. Space. The use of space is more apparent on the nearer portion of the intersecting road as well as the cloudless sky. Space gives huge impression on a painting, such as this one by Hopper. Because of the huge amount of space, it projects a feeling of isolation on the side of the viewer†¦ quietness, stillness, and a little of the feeling of alienation. Texture. Texture contrasts from the rougher ones on the trees, roofs, and tires to the smoother ones on the buildings, road post, and traffic light. Texture, together with shades and use of color, gives an added depth that makes the picture more realistic. This can be seen in Hopper’s painting, wherein texture makes the viewer feel the reality attached to the scene. Light. Light here was used basically to give emphasis to other elements like texture, shape, and form. It was also used to exaggerate the mood, as it gives a more isolated projection by emphasizing empty space, which cannot be made possible with the use of a dimmer light. The effect of the scene cannot also be made possible proper use of light. Color. The type of colors that was used here can be described as light, luminous, and realistic. The harmony does not develop a mood that is heavy, although it does not develop one that is happy and gay either. The use of colors (e. g. , tangerine), as well as the other elements, forms a sort of mysterious aura, creating a sort of tension on the side of the viewer. Conclusion Arthur McDowall wrote in 1918: â€Å"At the bottom of realism, in all its variations, seems to be the sense of actual existence; an acute awareness of it, and a vision of things under that form† (3). The ‘Portrait of Orleans’ is nothing different from this: it is art applied for a sense of existence, with a vision of how reality appears in mystery, tension, and motion. Appendix: Edward Hopper’s Portrait of Orleans (1950), available at Works Cited McDowall, Arthur. Realism: A Study in Art and Thought. London: Constable, 1918. Portrait of Orleans. 2008. Allposters. com. 21 May 2008 . School of Art, Design and Art History. ART BASICS: The 7 Formal Elements of Art Design. N. d. San Diego State University. 21 May 2008 .

Life Cycles, Standards and Best Practices Life Cycles Essay

This paper will outline the systems development life cycle as it pertains to both the development of a custom application and the selection of proprietary systems. The major types and classifications of health care information standards and specific organizations that develop and regulate standards will be explained. The need for security information systems will be revealed and the methods to accomplish security of these systems will be addressed. Three best practices for effective IT alignment and strategic planning will be outlined. Running head: Life Cycles, Standards and Best Practices 3 Description of Systems Development life Cycle as it Pertains to Both the Development of a Custom Application and the Selection of Proprietary Systems The Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC), is a six step project development process that was designed to help the development team develop the end product. The players involved are the users, systems analysts, programmers and technical specialists (Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC), 2006-2013). In the first step of the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC), an examination of the economic, technical, behavioral or organizational aspect of the business is reviewed. A determination will be made as to what needs to be done during this step (Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC), 2006-2013). In the second step, the organization examines any identified problems that need to be corrected. Proposals may be drafted outlining the solutions that must be satisfied. The third step identifies how the system will accomplish the tasks. The physical and logical designs come together in this step of the process; the computer hardware is joined with the communication and security issues (Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC), 2006-2013). In the forth step, the new system is actually developed. Once all the necessary components are received and programs installed, then all the users of new system must now be trained. Once the system is up and running and users are using and becoming acclimated to the new system, the system’s performance must also be tested. Adjustments will be made accordingly and respectively (Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC), 2006-2013). During the fifth step, the system is now being used. Either the old system is going to be shut down completely and the new system used immediately, or the new will be implemented Running head: Life Cycles, Standards and Best Practices 4 and the old system will be gradually phased out (Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC), 2006-2013). During the sixth step, the system has been in operation for a while and has been evaluated many times over. It is important that the users are kept in the loop regarding any changes to the system (Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC), 2006-2013). After the six steps have been completed and accomplished, the system must go on, therefore, it is important to maintenance the system accordingly ensuring updates, are being done, new features installed properly and debugging when necessary (Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC), 2006-2013). Description of Major Types and Classifications of Health Care Information Standards and the Specific Organizations That Regulate These Standards The Standards Development Process consists of four methods: Ad hoc, De facto, Government mandate and Consensus. ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is and organization that oversees the flow of documentation and the international approval of standards developed by its members. The members of the organization hale from many different countries. ANSI (American Nation Standards Institute) is the United States body of the ISO (International Organization for Standardization). ANSI (American Nation Standards Institute) as stated is the United States body of the ISO (International Organization for Standardization). The ANI (American Nation Standards Running head: Life Cycles, Standards and Best Practices 5 Institute) oversees the work of SDO (Standards Development Organization) and publishes the SDO (Standards Development Organization) standards. SDO (Standards Development Organization) must be accredited by the ANSI (American Nation Standards Institute) and must follow strict guidelines to develop standards within the ANSI (American Nation Standards Institute) criteria. There are well over two hundred fifty SDOs (Standards Development Organization) which represent many industries to include health care. It is noteworthy to point out that recently within the last ten years, the IT industry has moved away from the formal process of development standards through the SDO (Standards Development Organization). The route that IT is taking is a less formal approach. The Linux is an example of IT establishing a standard with little formal input (Wager, Lee, & Glaser, 2009). There are many types of vocabularies and to date there is still no one single vocabulary. Common coding and classifications systems include ICD-9, CPT and DRGs. The International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) is used in the United States for the purpose of coding diseases and procedures. The federal government publishes an update each year and it can be used by virtually everyone. It is also noteworthy that many companies also republish the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9), creating a more user-friendly version. Initially it was created to compare illness and death all over the world but then it took a role in hospital reimbursement (Wager, Lee, & Glaser, 2009). Current procedural Terminology (CPT), introduced in 1966, is published and updated each year by the American Medical Association (AMA). Originally the Current procedural Running head: Life Cycles, Standards and Best Practices 6 Terminology (CPT) was used in the medical field as a source for uniform language to describe any type of medical and surgical services. Currently the Current procedural Terminology (CPT) is being used as standard for reimbursement services in doctor’s offices, facilities offering outpatient services and also ambulatory care (Wager, Lee, & Glaser, 2009). Diagnosis related Groups (DRG) are used for insurance purposes for determining inpatient reimbursements. The Diagnosis related Groups (DRG) is a classification scheme that basically identifies the types of patients a hospital treats in relation to what said treatment cost the hospital. Diagnosis related Groups (DRG) are divided into twenty major systems and then they are further subdivided into over five hundred subdivisions the Medicare reimbursement (Diagnosis-related group (DRG), 2013). Discuss the Need for, and Identify Methods of, Accomplishing the Security of Information Systems Threats the health care information systems come in many forms, such as technology malfunctions and tampering. Human nature, which we have no control over, can also cause threats to security information systems in the form of floods, fires or power outages (Wager, Lee, & Glaser, 2009). Whether the threats are caused by internal, external, intentional or unintentional factors, the organization has to safeguard itself from all types of threats. Internal threats can be caused by employees logging on to inappropriate websites. External threats can be caused by someone outside the company such as a hacker. Intentional threats can be caused by an employee who was terminated. Because of the termination, the employee may sabotage documents, files or the hardware on the computer itself. For this reason, employers do not allow employees to return to Running head: Life Cycles, Standards and Best Practices 7 the work area after they have been terminated. If the employee is permitted to return, it is with a security officer and then only long enough to collect personal effects. Another more serious example of an intentional threat is computer viruses. They can pose serious damage to patient information (Wager, Lee, & Glaser, 2009). Unintentional threats are also very serious and these are the threats that occur when the employee logs on to a website or checks his personal email from work and that website attaches a virus. Computer viruses as stated above are considered intentional, but in this respect, I believe that the employee is not thinking about viruses when he or she is checking personal email or going on websites such as Facebook, but the virus can be critical to the organization. For this reason, most employers have the employee sign an Affidavit stating that the employee understands and agrees with the organizations policies about computer and even phone use. The necessity for a security information system is a must as this can be vital to the success of the organization. The organization’s information must be protected. The company needs to ensure that there is no unauthorized disclosure of classified information. In order to do this, the organization must put administrative, physical and technical safeguards in place (Wager, Lee, & Glaser, 2009). Administrative safeguards come in the form of risk analysis which is an eight part process designed to identify risks and threats that can cause vulnerability in any area within the organization. Risk analysis is quite new to the healthcare industry. It has also established policies and procedures and specific consequences for all employees that do not adhere to these policies and procedures (Wager, Lee, & Glaser, 2009). Running head: Life Cycles, Standards and Best Practices 8 Physical safeguards are necessary to protect all equipment and computer hardware and software. Certain employees may be assigned to specific duties to ensure the safeguard of computers and workstations (Wager, Lee, & Glaser, 2009). Technical safeguards are vital as the organization must protect patient information. It is important for employees not to share passwords. All computers must be logged off or shut down appropriately after use. The organization should do audits often to ensure the safeguard of data and files. The internet is used commonly in all organizations. In an effort to further safeguard the organization, firewalls are built between the organization’s network used in house and the internet (Wager, Lee, & Glaser, 2009). One of the most common problems with computers in general is viruses. Virus can come in many forms and can be fatally destructive. The most typical type of virus is the worm which can come in the form of an email. The unsuspecting person opens the email; the worm stores itself on the computer and then starts to duplicate itself over and over again. This type of email usually is mass produced to many email addresses and each person may be subject to this virus. This is why people are encouraged not to open suspicious looking email or email from unknown parties. To help prevent becoming victim to such viruses, antivirus software is recommended. Create at Least Three (3) Best Practices for Effective IT Alignment and Strategic Planning In an effort to reach the goal of IT alignment and strategic planning, there must be a sound relationship between what IT invest will cost and the organization’s goals. Both the alignment and the organization’s strategy must be understood by the organization and both meet the organizational needs. Running head: Life Cycles, Standards and Best Practices 9 The three best practices for effective IT alignment and strategic planning I found that will be suffice in creating the relationship between IT and the organization’s goals are diversity within the groups, looking at the big picture and open dialogue among senior management of all levels. In order to achieve the set goals, the organization must realize that excluding areas in the organization may be harmful to the success and some people may feel slighted. This is why it is imperative for the company to include people from all areas of the company. Those people included in the group should also include all types of managers from lower level management all the way up to senior an executive managers. Including all types of managers provides the diversity among the group. They understand the day to day operations of the organization and each area, each manger can bring something viable to the table (Strategic Communications, 2010). No one should be stifled. Everyone should have a voice. This open dialogue should be encouraged and it should be understood from the beginning that no one is there to criticize and because there is diversity among the group, there will be times that something is said that may not set well with another department or perhaps a manager. It should be understood that all dialogue should be constructive. Strategic planning is not an easy task and everyone should realize that it is for the betterment of the organization that everyone works together in an effort to accomplish the goal (Strategic Communications, 2010). Everyone in the organiztion must keep their eyes on the big picture. The organization’s misison, vision and values must be kept in the forefront of everyone’s mind. During the strategic planning process, there will debates as everyone will not agree, but it is important for the goup to Running head: Life Cycles, Standards and Best Practices 10 remember why they are holding the planning process and also what goal they are attempting to achieve. In summary, the organization must include all the key players, but it must not forget about the key stakeholders. The key stakeholders are those people that will be charged with implementation of the plan. The orgaziniation may also find it beneficial to give these stakeholders a voice along the way as well. With open dialogue, management at all levels and a sound plan, the organization will most likely stay on the path to success.

Help Desk Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Help Desk - Essay Example The frequent responses are irritation, tension, lack of concentration, headache and palpitation among others. .There is vital distinction in the way that people interact with their surroundings and as a result, it has extensive consequences in terms of survival. Stress is an implication that the pressures of the outside world are disturbing a person. The response to stress by an individual is often in such a way that it influences not only him/her but the surrounding as well. Due to the excessive stress in today's lifestyle, people usually perceive stress to be a harmful experience, whereas biologically, stress may be positive or neutral, not just negative. (Panzareno, 1) It is a natural response from a human that upon encountering a danger, the body starts to gear up by handling it through 'Fight or flight' principle. As a result of this, certain purposeful modifications take place in the body. Consequently, these changes continue until the danger continues. After the threat is gone, the body resumes its normal state and functioning. Such instantaneous, transitory effects are the 'short term effects of stress'. But when stress is constant or recurring, the body continues to secrete pertinent hormones as a result of which, the blood level stays constantly at an above normal point and thus the related modifications continue. The body then goes through stress along with an overburden which is because of the side effects of the steadily high level of stress hormones. As a result of this mechanism, certain irretrievable physiological costs in the brain and relevant physical indications such as organ damage take place. The long term symptoms among others include chronic head ache, mood swings, anxiety disorder, memory disturbances, heart attack, stroke, weight loss and sleeplessness. After the stress factor vanishes, it often happens that the manifestations of stress continue till the time that treatment is done for it. (SF, 1) Stressful Environment in Support Centre Users contact support centre very now and then with their technical issues. The anger and irritation of the users' often find Help desk agents as their targets, where they are vented out. Due to experiencing technical issues, users require a channel for their stress since it can't be taken out on a computer or a software. As a result, either deliberately or subconsciously, users victimize those who are assigned the task of making efforts to find solutions for their problems. This makes the agents, recipient of the stress to which they are exposed to. This situation is worsened even more when the help desk agents objectify the user while finding a technical problem solution; agents forget the fact that usually a "difficult" user is behaving in such a manner due to the stress which they are facing, it may often be termed as temporary insanity. When faced with moments of stress arising due to technical breakdown, users turn impolite and misbehave with the agents, even though their anger is about the problem

Critical Thinking Steps Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Critical Thinking Steps - Essay Example 19), an issue can be described as a question or a controversy that is responsible for a conversation or discussion that is taking place. It can further be described as the stimulus for whatever that the communicating parties are saying (Brown and Keeley, p. 19). The authors suggest that there are basically two types of issues namely the prescriptive and descriptive issues. The descriptive issues refer to issues that raise controversies or questions concerning past, present or future descriptions. On the other hand, prescriptive issues have been described as those issues which issues that raise concerns as to what is wrong or right. The case in the PDQ memo is a descriptive issue since the PDQ memo expressly states that â€Å"Specifically, the question is whether the compensation level for PDQ’s CEO is appropriate to the position with respect to current industry standards† (Mark Headlee, personal communication, October 1,2011 ). This clearly shows that the issue in the m emo questions whether it is right to pay the sum provided for the CEO after considering the current standards in that industry. According to Brown and Keeley (p.21), a conclusion can be described as the message that speaker or author wants you to accept as viable. The PDQ memo concludes by saying that, â€Å" Our finding is that the compensation of the chief executive is not appropriate to the current industry standards for a company the size of PDQ because it is maligned† (Mark Headlee, personal communication, October 1, 2011).

Discipline in the Public Schools Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Discipline in the Public Schools - Assignment Example The principal disregarded Jame’s claim and subjected him to corporal punishment and on the account of this punishment, he and his parents went to US Supreme Court for justice. The kid and the parents lost the case and the case was ruled in the favor of the school. The judge ruled that the prohibitions that have been levied by the constitution of US in case of harsh punishment towards children were not applicable in the case of corporal punishments that take place in public schools. Case 2: Student Suspension Goss v. Lopez In case of Goss v. Lopex, the US Supreme Court established that students had a right to a hearing before they are subjected to suspension from the public school as if a hearing is not conducted; the student’s right to due process is violated (Osborne, 2009, p.33). In this case, nine students including Dwight Lopez experienced suspension for around 10 days as a result of school property destruction activity. Before this case, public schools principals h ad the authority to suspend students for a period of 10 days along with a notification sent to their parents within the 24 hours of the incident. Secondly the law did not allow students to appeal to the board of education in case of suspension. This law was written off as the judges ruled that such laws violated a student’s 14 amendment right of due process and a hearing before suspension was necessary. The judge even ruled that suspensions have the ability to harm a student’s ability to gain employment and career advancements. Case 3: Expelled Fuller v. Decatur Public School Board Of Education In the case of Fuller v. Decatur Public School Board Of Education, Fuller along with a number of children was expelled from the school for a period of 2 years on the account of fighting that occurred between students (Osborne, 2009, p.33). Due to being expelled, Fuller appealed to the court stating that his and his associate’s expulsion from the educational institute was on the basis of racial profiling and they were regarded as gang members and their expulsion was not justified since they did not use any weapons. Even though no weapons were used, the fighting was very severe in nature and bystanders were even injured. The court ruled the case in the favor of the school because students failed to prove that any form of racial profiling had occurred and the expulsion was justified. Opinion in Case of Corporal Punishment In case of Ingraham v. Wright the court ruled in the favor of corporal punishment being used to discipline students. Corporal punishment is a term used to refer to the act of using severe measures in order to discipline individuals and especially students in schools. Corporal punishment in any case should be completely disregarded and the constitution should put a stop to such punishments. One of the main reasons for stopping corporal punishments is that teachers and educators are socializing agents for children and children tend to o bserve and imitate the behavior of their teachers (Nanjunda, 2008, p.23). If educationalists use corporal punishment for mistakes made by students, students will even start accepting that hitting someone or spanking another individual is a way to deal with their wrong doings and they themselves will use similar methods in their life. Corporal punishment should even be abolished in US schools because no individual can make

Questions based on trade adjustment assistance program Assignment

Questions based on trade adjustment assistance program - Assignment Example The amount goes up to $150,000, and the organization provides substantial assistance towards finances to offset project costs that ensure that operations and competitiveness are strengthened and sharpened consecutively. The assistance is handy when it comes to a number of projects including information technology, engineering, and marketing. The main purpose for the remittance of these funds is to help manufacturers who are affected negatively with import expenditure. The funding of this TAA federal program needs to be enhanced in order to stand in for companies that by chance experience high import expenditure. This will ensure that imported goods are not sold at expensive prices in bid for the companies to fill the gap for the loss. To the contrary, this funding does not need more funding or continued support from the financial sources behind its operation. The main reason for this is the fact that by dishing out cash, the federal does not benefit directly from this. Secondly, they are prone to impersonations and the federal government can lose a lot of money to firms that are not so beneficial to

Individual marketing strategy and plan for launching Starbucks in Essay

Individual marketing strategy and plan for launching Starbucks in India - Essay Example The aim of the paper is to identify strategies for Starbucks so as to enter the Indian market and capture the major chunk from its existing players. The paper has certain limitations which include availability of data and time available to complete the paper. The timing of Starbucks to enter the market has approached as out of 1.2 billion of population majority of it consist of youth which is the target market for coffee houses therefore the market is huge and is already being attracted and loyal to existing players. Plus the existing players are expanding to its fullest highlighting that market is yet to be saturated but currently have lot of potential. Because Starbucks have what is needed to enter such tea drinkers market it is the right time for them to launch their product in India especially when they are already experienced with facing a tea drinker nation and capturing market there. Conducting a brief market analysis it can be seen that competition is tough due to players being in market since a long time, on the same time buyers and suppliers have strong say in the market because of suppliers being limited in number and buyers having lot of options. Moreover, the potential of new entrants is also high but those with excessive cash can enter easily and lastly the substitute’s availability which is also there in form of fast food restaurants providing highly processed coffee. The suitable location for Starbucks would be Mumbai and New Delhi due to the target market which is the youth and bother these cities have lot of big companies’ offices and call centers plus are hot spots to tourists (Paunikar 2004). To capture the market the coffee maker needs to come up with innovative ideas such as bank with in cafà © of Barista coffee or co-branding with banks for credit cards, etc. (Tribhuvan, 2007) Furthermore, because the customers are extremely price sensitive proper pricing strategy needs to be placed so as to be successful in this

Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Psychology - Essay Example On the other hand, the human needs are classified by McClelland into three and these involve achievement, affiliation and power. These needs are what motivate people in their jobs and in areas where they are in. McClelland’s theory is also known as ‘three need theory’ or ‘learned needs theory’. In my workplace where power seems to motivate the higher rank, there is no reason to believe that McClelland was not right about his theory. Finally, Herzberg’s motivation theory is widely known as motivation-hygiene theory or two-factor theory. For Herzberg, there must be two essential factors that affect people’s performance especially in their jobs. Those factors that lead them to satisfaction are called motivation factors and those that cause them dissatisfaction are hygiene factors. Herzberg identified six top factors that will lead to dissatisfaction: company policy, supervision, relationship with boss, work conditions, salary and relationsh ip with peers. On the other hand, the identified top six factors that will lead to satisfaction among people are achievement, recognition, work itself, responsibility, advancement and growth. These are specific factors but in reality, this is real and existing in my work place because many employees were actually dissatisfied with the management due to poor company policy and low standard supervision. When these three theories are to be compared, there is one single commonality that can be identified in them. These three try to consider the human needs. These needs are assumed to be what will motivate human in the most possible way. The three theories are all able to pinpoint the basic and general human needs in life and they all imply satisfaction when experience to the fullest. This satisfaction in general results to motivation to work and continue doing things that fulfill satisfaction. In short, the three theories do not eliminate the possibility of experience as tantamount to i dentifying what seems to be pleasing and ensure satisfaction. What differentiates these three theories from each other is their level of identification of the human needs. The identification of Maslow seems to be specific and hierarchical while the idea of Herzberg is two dimensional and involves great deal of clustering human needs. Finally, the idea of McClelland seems quite general but it still encompasses the all level of human needs. It is therefore clear that the difference lies on how these three theorists try to substantiate the issue of satisfaction and motivation. Figure 1. The three theories develop and overlap in my work Part II. Cultural dimension of motivation definition When humans arrived in the planet, everything did not start in an instant. Man required to understand his experience in order to perfectly create a series of normal pattern on how to live. It is also through experience he was able to understand his needs. It is clear therefore that the development of c ulture is based on the idea that experience has to exist prior to the creation of lifestyle, food to eat, occasions to celebrate, language to use and more. Amazingly, all of these are encompassed by culture. By looking at it from the perspective of Maslow, apart from self esteem and self-actualization, other needs are substantially defined and influenced by culture. These needs are all externally defined

Company Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 2

Company Law - Essay Example This manifest prominently amid the utilization of any assets, opportunity, or information and fails to link to a clash of interest flowing from a transaction or pact with the company or in the events in which the subject has been permitted by the company’s directors (Davies 2012, p.8). Highlighting conflict of interest impacting on the director demands exploring whether the director engaged will obtain a substantial gain from the manifest conflict of interest. Background The decision that the directors’ duties should be codified was accompanied by the debate centring on the â€Å"stakeholder question.† This relates to the question on whose interests that companies should be run (whether the interests of the shareholders, the community, or employees). This debate centred on two approaches: The first school of thought detailed pluralism, which details that the role of the company centres on serving the interests of the multiple interest groups of stakeholders. As s uch, the duties of directors should be broadened to ensure that the directors respond to a broad collection of stakeholders other than shareholders (Lowry 2012, p.2). The second school of thought inclines towards the enlightened model maintaining that the function of the company hinges on generating value for the gain of shareholders while, simultaneously, matching the laid long-term objectives of the company, and associations that the company enjoys with other stakeholders inclusive of suppliers, community, employees, and others (Lacy 2002, p.154). At the height of debate, the Company Law Review settled for the enlightened shareholder approach, which appreciates the premise that it is the interests of the shareholders that should be placed first (Lowry 2012, p.3). The enlightened shareholder approach also recognizes that the company’s possibility for success anchors in maximizing on the relationships that the company enjoys various stakeholders groups. Discussion The orienta tion of the directors’ obligations embodies one of the most critical features prominently highlighted by the Company Law. The statutory scheme recognizes the directors’ roles outlined in C.2, Part 10 of the Company Act 2006. The title of â€Å"director,† in this case, is broadened to embrace shadow directors. The directors are required to conduct their duties as per the provisions detailed in C. 2, Part 10 of the Company Act 2006 to the company, instead of doing so for the shareholders and other stakeholders within the company (Arden 2007, p.162). The roles handed to the directors encompass aspects such as an obligation to act as per the applicable provisions of his/her powers detailed by the company’s constitution; a role to promote the long-term achievement of the company as perceived to be in good faith; an obligation to employ reasonable care, meticulousness, and skill; an obligation to manifest independent judgment; an obligation to evade conflict of interest where it may arise; an obligation not to acknowledge gains flowing from incidences such as secret commissions and bribes; and, an obligation to clarify on the interests amid the transactions (Calder 2008, p.59). Directors’ Duty to Act as per their Powers A company embodies a person and as such, ought to proceed as per the

Comunity Pharmacy Practice Experience Assignment

Comunity Pharmacy Practice Experience - Assignment Example Having learned in class that this is the most important part in pharmacy work, I approached it with some fear and apprehension. The Manager, Cashier Meg and the other Staff were very encouraging, comforting and supportive. As I obtained the prescription and confronted the computer, I was relieved to know that the NexGen Computer System was easy to use. I went through the entire process of the Data Base Searching- Name of the Patient, Prescriber Search, Medication Search; clicking the appropriate information; and finally, printing the label. Determining the appropriate information and clicking it became easy because of my prior knowledge of medical terminologies, an exposure gained from POP 1-3 Classes; and, Methodologies in Patient Communication and Information Data Collection, as discussed in POP 6 Class. The handouts or materials distributed in POP 6 Class on the Legal Requirements of Prescription, Profile and Label; Ohio State Manner of Issuance of a Prescription; and, Labeling of Drugs Dispensed on Prescription really was a great help. The use of the computer and a computer system made the entire process very easy, fast and fun. The least enjoyable and most boring part of the Internship was the re-counting of tablets or pills, bagging, shelving and doing the inventory. I kept on thinking that I can do other things that were more important. Now, looking back I realize that I was doing an important task. I was being part of the team. If I didn’t do the work well, the pharmacy would suffer. I also realized that the tasks of making the inventory; and, shelving or returning medicine bottles to its proper shelves was only boring because I was already familiar with the generic and brand names. Knowledge I learned through the Listing of the Top Medicines distributed in Classes of POP 4-6. As to the re-counting of controlled medications before bagging; I had no difficulty identifying the controlled medications as I

Development from Conception to Age 16 Years Essay Example for Free

Development from Conception to Age 16 Years Essay One being the ability to use numerous limbs for example throwing a ball, the other being everyday movements e. g. walking as well as running. Fine motor corresponds; the term describes minor movements that engage smaller muscles to work. This is yet again broken down into two key sections; Fine manipulative skills- the minor movements that are needed when doing puzzles, drawing, painting or writing. Along with fine motor skills- the combination of hand plus wrist actions for e. g. pening a door The combination of hand-eye coordination, Foot-eye coordination and balance are additionally found in both gross and fine motor to help the child develop. Which can be linked to brain development . This is because â€Å"Maturation of the nervous system is linked to brain growth and development. In term of physical development, this growth effects the development of gross and fine motor skills†. (CASHELevel3ChildCareAndEducation/PennyTassoni/pg40)As a child grows with age coordination and balance should become natural given that the brain develops and becomes more intricate. Birth to three years period is a very significant time in the child’s life, during this time they will progress as well as absorb lasting skills. They will learn to develop in many different areas along with numerous milestones they should achieve according to their age. These milestones are set into the gross and fine motor category, examples of the major steps a child from birth to three years should achieve are; †¢lifting up head and chest †¢Sitting up unsupported †¢Crawling †¢self feeding †¢Walk without any help †¢Draw simple dots and shapes †¢Complete a simple puzzle †¢kick a ball Physical development is an on going progress, between the ages of three to seven years movements and activates will become a lot more difficult, compared to the birth to 3 years category. This is because the brain is widening its skills and knowledge. Examples of milestones that are aimed to child from three to seven years are; †¢can ride a tricycle †¢use scissors to cut easy shapes †¢use one foot to hop †¢knows how to right their name †¢can use a skipping rope †¢precisely cut out shapes †¢has good balance for skipping, hopping or jumping Another significant development that I have chosen is language development. The acquisition of language though the gradual expansion in complexity and meaning of symbols and sounds perceived and understood by the individual†( http://www. earlytolearn. com/glossary-of-terms/). This means that language development is not only about speech itself but referrers to the multiple ways to interact along with communic ate. For example listening abilities, the knowledge of reading along with writing, signs and symbols for the hard of hearing, or even the babbling of babies. These are all ways in which children express their emotions, putting across their view as to what they are thinking. Communication is set in many stages it may take a child a generous period of time to use words in which are politically correct. However by communicating with sounds, actions and broken vocabulary mothers or other people close to the child will soon understand what the child is intending. It is also the adults responsibility to correct their children along with educate them in the correct grammar and meanings of words. Language development is set according to age the stages indicate how well a child should communicate depending how old they may be. From the ages of birth to 3 years and 3 to 7 years the expectations of language development becomes more complex. From birth to 3 years a baby will develop continuously, it will start at the pre-linguistic stage, some examples are; †¢Expresses itself by crying †¢Start to make cooling noises †¢Uses the combination of constant and vowels to make sounds †¢ starts making babbling noises †¢Has some meaning to what they are saying †¢Say their first word †¢Often repeats the same word Although children from 3 to 7 years do not develop as far spread a children from birth to 3 years. Their development becomes increasing complex: †¢Increase in words †¢Sentences become longer and clear †¢Still make various grammar mistakes †¢Can socialize with other children their age †¢Often ask the same question multiple times †¢Fluent in the English language but may make a few mistakes along the way For both physical and language development I have incorporated the norm age of stage according to megett. However in some scenarios a child may not exceed in the milestones set according to their age. Evidence behind this may be factors which effect their progression. Examples of factors which may both types of devlopoment are; the child’s genetics or the environment in which they are in. Genetic influence can strongly affect the way in which a child may develop physically. Hereditary genes are passed from our parents, which can have multiple influences on our lives. Some can give us physical traits as to what we look like or the height in which we may grow to. Others can cause serious illnesses. â€Å"Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is one of many debilitating hereditary diseases that leads to early death (Gelbart et al. , 2002) (Figure 1)† (http://www. learn. ppdictionary. com/physical_development. tm) DMD is a genetic illness which affects a child’s physical achievements. Children with DMD lack in achieving the norms of development, usually resulting in them being wheelchair bound by the late teenage years. Genetic factors may also affect language development. For example a common heritable disorder is dyslexia. Studys sh ow ‘According to a yale study 1 out of 5people suffer from dyslexia’(http://dyslexia. learninginfo. org/dyslexia-facts. htm)Dyslexia restricts the ability to process both written and spoken language, symptoms often include having difficulty with spellings, handwriting as well as reading. Although genetics do play a large part in development, Factors of the environment can also influence the way in which a child grows. For example if a child is living under poor conditions unable to get access to a sustainable amount of food or water it can lead to malnutrition. On the other hand if a child is given too much food along with limited access to exercise they may become obese. Both health conditions can affect how a child physically develops, which can often put them behind the norm stage of development. Language development may also be affected by the environment â€Å"Evans’ research reveals significant reading delays for children living near airports and exposed to airport noise. †( http://www. human. cornell. edu/hd/outreach-extension/upload/evans. pdf). This evidence shows that the constant impact of loud noises can affect a child’s listening abilities along with reading skills. This may be because the child is drowning out the continual loud noise finding it hard to retain certain information, which can put the child behind in their development. One important aspect to remember is each and every child develops at their own pace. For instance one sibling may have walked earlier then another. No one child should become compared to another. If a child is not achieving the specific milestone for their age ,on most occasions the child is categorically fine and should catch up in no time. The affecting factors link to the theoretical debate on nature vs nurture. This debate focuses on the conflicting options within development. One theoretical perspective is that our development is natural because it is determined from the heredity genes transferred from our parents. Another option is that we develop along with learn according to the environment we subsist in, learning from past experiences from how we have been brought up and nurtured. Jean piaget was a famous Swiss theorist who studied psychology along with human intellect. Piaget had an interest in child physiology, resulting in the nurture theory. His intentions were to see the world through the eyes of children to fully understand their thoughts, from this he invented the intelligence test. Piaget observed children asking them undemanding problem questions to then analyses their response plus determine the logic behind the answer. Focusing more in-depth towards the wrong questions. The term ‘schema’ was used to conclude a childs answer. This put forth a theory, Piaget came to think that as children retained new information the schema’s would change, becoming more complex. His research found that children’s answers differed from adults. â€Å"he proposed that children’s limited life experiences meant that they had not amassed enough information about the world to come to the same conclusion as adults†(spotlight, Julie smart, practical pre school august 2012,page21) This shows that piaget believed nurture benefited the way in which children develop. Concluding that children should explore different situations as well as stages within themselves however have a guide to encourage them along the way. This however also links into physical along with communication development. Not only did piaget attempt to comprehend the thought process of children, but also has a theory on the stages in which a children should develop according to age. Piaget mainly focused on cognitive development but also links this between physical and language communication development. His theory consists of four stages; Sensori-motor, Pre-operational,Concrete operations, Formal operations. Two of which link into the mentions developments above. Sensori-motor is the opening stage within piagets theory. He believed this stage acres between the ages of 0-2 years. This phase relates to physical development, for the duration of this stage the child is ought to increase the control over their movements. One of the first movements that should be detected is reflex’s. A baby uses this movement at a very early stage of life in reason to survive. The way in which a baby/child learns to development along with maintain movement is by continually repeating itself until fully corrected. To endorse his theory, piaget invented the ‘object permanence’ test. Research shows that children under 8 months will acknowledge as well as believe the disappearance of an object, this may be because children only concede things which are visible. However between 8 to 9 months the child should recognized that the object is somewhere even though it may not be physically in front of them. The pre-operational stage also links briefly into language along with communication development. This stage frequently happens between the ages of 2-7 years. For the duration of this stage children often begin to use symbolic references in a way to communicate http://voices. yahoo. com/what-factors-contribute-various-areas-development-487563. html child care and education tina bruce

How Do Financially Distressed Companies Overcome Decline Economics Essay

How Do Financially Distressed Companies Overcome Decline Economics Essay The present paper analyzes the recovery process of 526 US firms facing an initial financial distress situation in order to determine the variables of influence on their final survival status. The proposed model of this recovery process implies that severity and reaction capability should be understood as initial conditions that will impose restrictions in the selection of strategies which will drive the performance during recovery, thus, determining the final resolution of long term financial distress process. We found that these variables have an impact on i) the ability of a company to overcome decline; ii) the efficiency of the selected strategies and iii) the results of these strategies on post-distress fit position. Keywords: Recovery process, financial distress, severity, Data Envelopment Analysis Introduction Every organization is inevitably exposed to ups and downs during its lifecycle (Krueger and Willard, 1991; Burbank, 2005) and failure is not a sudden event (Agarwal and Taffler, 2008). The ecological theory of organizations states that in a continuous process of firms, those who survive are better capable to compete. Kahl (2001) defines fittest firms as the ones that have greater chance to survive. In this way, the financial distress process should be understood as a selection mechanism by means of which good performers survive and bad performers do not. In this same line, Sheppard and Chowdhury (2005) consider that failure is a firms misalignment with its environment. Failure is a reversible process and not necessarily degenerative if the company is able to detect signs of underperformance and to achieve an effort in its economic performance. Firms facing a distressed financial situation usually share a series of common patterns which make it difficult to estimate a possible outcome of this situation (Barniv et al., 2002). Among the distressed firms, there are little divergences in the financial weakness indicators in the different failure processes (Ooghe and Prijcker, 2008). The dissimilarities between the failure stages and the turnaround effectiveness as well, become evident on the how quickly the indicators evolve and on the ability of the management to react when distress signals are detected. Ignoring these alert signals may lead to a continuous decline process which may end up in failure without even trying any recovery strategy (Burbank, 2005). Managing a crisis situation is a fundamental issue as it is not a spontaneous process. Moulton and Thomas (1993) affirm that the reorganizations during a financial distress situation are not a simple matter and the probability of a successful exit is very low. However, the percentage of firms that succeed in getting through decline cannot be disregarded. Barniv et al. (2002) found that 50% of the sample firms which filed bankruptcy from the Office of the General Council of SEC resolved their situation as emerged firms. One third of the financially distressed firms in Kahls (2001) study survived as independent companies. Moreover, Gonzà ¡lez-Bravo and Mecaj (2011) found that 22.5% of sample firms presenting a strong crisis situation were still active in the market 10 years later. Yet, we should consider that the exit from a difficult condition, as Moulton and Thomas (1993) sustain, is only the beginning of the story. Not all the successfully exiting firms manage to keep the new situa tion stable. For some firms, operating in a crisis situation constitutes their normal state of environment with crisis periods that can attenuate or loose up. Anyway, being able to maintain this kind of condition is also a manner to survive. In this sense, Kahl (2002) states that the financial distress should be considered a long term process that makes firms end up debilitated even after having recovered from decline. This weakness is observed in poor performance that inevitably may again drag the firms to a new financial distress situation. Hotchkiss (1995) attested that during the first five years after exiting a bankruptcy, 35 to 40% of firms show negative operating income and up to one third of the firms that manage to ease their distress through debt restructuring re-enter a financial distress situation a few years later. Several studies have shown that different factors may determine the exit from a crisis situation. These factors may have a direct influence on the recovery process or on the capacity of the company to develop appropriate redirection strategies. The initial severity degree is considered an important hurdle in implementing successful actions. In this line, Smith and Graves (2005) found that, among all variables of the study, severity and firm size were the only variables significantly important during a turnaround process. Other authors (Robbins and Pearce, 1992; Pearce and Robins, 1993; Harker and Harker, 1998) state that strategies oriented towards cost reduction and efficiency improvement were safe bets for a favorable outcome. However, Castrogiovani and Bruton (2000), Sudarsanam and Lai (2001) or Smith and Graves (2005) affirm that no positive relation could be found between certain strategies and successful outcome. These results indicate that severity, through its influence on th e selected strategy, could be an indirect factor in the turnaround process (Robbins and Pearce, 1992). More consensual results were obtained when stating that the performance in-distress is fundamental for the outcome of the difficult situation. In particular, it is observed that successful companies show better returns when compared to unsuccessful firms (Routledge and Gadene, 2000; Pearce and Doh, 2002; Kahl, 2001). The present paper analyzes the recovery process of 526 US firms facing an initial financial distress situation in order to determine the variables of influence on their final survival status. The proposed model of this recovery process states that severity and reaction capability should be understood as initial conditions that will impose restrictions in the selection of strategies which will drive the performance during recovery, thus, determining the final resolution of long term financial distress process. These variables have an impact on i) the ability of a company to overcome the difficult situation; ii) the efficiency of the selected strategies and iii) the results of these strategies on post-distress healthy position. The proposed model considers that final survival status measures the welfare quality of a firm based on its risk to re-enter in distress, so it discriminates well performers and best performers during the management of a crisis process. Overcoming a financial distress: Determinant factors Even though some weak crisis situations tend to show a natural evolution throughout the exit and may be solved by simply making routine decisions (Gonzà ¡lez-Bravo and Mecaj, 2011), recovery process is not a spontaneous event. The distressed firms will face a long term scenario involving a continuous effort of adaptation to the diverse situations through which a firm passes during the upturn. The effort invested in this process will allow the reestablishment of stakeholders trust, while the variables related to solvency and profitability gain stability (Burbank, 2005). Companies that do not have a long term orientation and just adopt patch strategies do not usually reach successful exits (Pretorius, 2008). However, certain initial conditions may affect the reaction capacity as well as the effectiveness of the measures taken by managers. Severity Similar to a disease process, the gravity of the initial crisis position not only conditions the measures to take but also their success possibilities. Firms that face worse starting situation need to make greater efforts. In this sense, Robbins and Pearce (1992) affirm that there exists a relationship between retrenchment strategies and performance in firms having a severe starting situation while this relationship is not observed in firms facing a weak crisis state. Although Smith and Graves (2005) indicate that the gravity of the starting situation is strongly associated with the probability of recovery, Kahl (2002) sustains that the financial distress diagnosis is an imperfect indicator of the economic feasibility of a firm. In the same line, Gonzà ¡lez-Bravo and Mecaj (2011) affirm that the severity of the initial situation, observed in widely accepted indicators, does not have to be a crucial factor in the outcome of the crisis. Perhaps, following Moulton and Thomas (1993), th e initial gravity status has an influence over the process of recovery more than on the final resolution. Thus, severity determines the rate of recuperation, so that the harder the severity, the greater the effort to react and the slower the process of healing the levels of solvency and profitability. This effort during the process, and not the starting situation, may be the main determinant of the final outcome. Moreover, solvency and profitability indicators such as continuous negative results, inability to generate income by means of operating activity, continuous solvency and/or liquidity problems or incapacity to generate cash flow which reflect problems in the health of the company, are widely accepted as measures of severity degree (Mutchler and Williams, 1990; Gilbert, Menon and Schwarz, 1990; Ponemon and Shick, 1991; Poston, Harmon and Gramlich, 1994; Geiger, Raghunandan and Rama, 1995; Raghunandan and Rama, 1995; Davydenko, 2007). Reaction capability The possible effect of severity on the initial state may be mitigated if the firm counts on appropriate resources which increase the probability of a successful recovery. The structural reaction capability may ease the recovery process to a safe position cushioning the possible actions to implement. The capacity to obtain additional funds or generate additional incomes to implement treatment strategies can soothe the prior pressure imposed by a deteriorated financial distress position. In this sense, Barker and Duhaime (1997) associate successful turnaround processes with increases in sales that make companies have more options to undertake change strategies. Similarly, Pearce and Doh (2002) affirm that firms in distress that used debt and supported their sales to improve profitability successfully solved their difficult situation. They also state that changes in activity and in leverage level are associated with different phases of a turnaround process. In turn, Jostarndt (2006) ide ntifies three factors which could be helpful to measure the risk of becoming financially troubled. An excessive leverage level, a poor firm performance, and an industry downturn may inhibit firms from obtaining the right amount of cash flow to operate normally. Firm operating performance trend dominates as the reason causing financial distress showing that a firm may fail but not only for financial reasons. This allows the author to consider an association between financial distress and economic distress. These results are comparable to the patterns evidenced by Gonzà ¡lez-Bravo and Mecaj (2011) when distressed firms with remarkable financial reaction capacity and/or a solid financial structure evolve mainly toward a healthy zone. However, concerning debt structure Kahl (2001) did not find evidence on if the debt level or the debt structure of a firm influences the final outcome of a crisis situation. Severity Status and Reaction Capability, as initial restrictions, could be moderated by firm size when considering the exit from a crisis situation (Moulton and Thomas, 1993; Barniv et al., 2002; Schutjens, 2002). Altman and Hotchkiss (2006) found that one of the most obvious factor that discriminates between firms that successfully restructure and those that liquidate, after being classified inside Chapter 11, was the firms size. Nevertheless, other works observe that this variable did not present any clear relation with the survival chance (Kahl, 2001; Ooghe and Prijcker, 2008). Possibly, firms size does not determine the final resolution of a distress situation but it influences the reaction capability to confront it, moderating /strengthening the drawbacks when additional support should be guaranteed and restructuring decision must be made. Performance in-distress Regardless of the initial state restrictions, the adopted strategies and the behavior of companies during a financial crisis are crucial for the exit process (Sun and Li, 2007). An inappropriate diagnosis of the firms weaknesses in order to act and react quickly may lead to a fast deterioration of the financial indicators (Barker and Duhaime, 1997). Beaver (1966) already stated that if a difficult situation was properly detected, measures that lead to an improved position could be taken, avoiding so a state of ultimate failure. A series of strategies and action plans should be implemented aiming to reduce the detected weaknesses of the company (Smith and Graves, 2005; Krueger and Willard, 1991, Robbins and Pearce, 1992; Pearce and Robbins, 1993; Arogyaswamy et al., 1995; Castrogiovanni and Bruton, 2000, Pearce and Doh, 2002 and Pretorius, 2008). The operating performance during the recovery process drives a successful evolutionary route towards a new healthy scenario (Kahl, 2001; Routledge and Gadenne, 2000). Improving efficiency through some actions like cost cutting and/or asset reduction is crucial in this sense, having a positive impact on firms performance despite the underlying weaknesses (Robbins and Pearce, 1992; Pearce and Robbins, 1993; Harker and Harker, 1998). Firms facing a distress situation and carrying out a retrenchment strategy are more likely to survive, even though the performance was statistically not greater than that of not retrenched firms (Castrogiovanni and Bruton, 2000). In this sense, Sudarsanam and Lai (2001) showed that the strategies applied by firms successfully recovering were not that different from the strategies applied by firms that did not recover. So, the implementation efficacy was the cause of these differences, even though more intensive restructuration was done by firms that could n ot redirect their situation. The effectiveness of efficiency oriented strategies is supported by the results showing that firms resolving a situation of financial distress are statistically more profitable than those who did not settle (Campbell, 1996; Routledge and Gadenne, 2000; Pearce and Doh, 2002). These authors found that operating efficiency was the only variable used in distinguishing successful turnarounds from unsuccessful ones that significantly persisted during the recovery process. Kahl (2001) also stated that, in-distress, operating performance has a strong positive relation with the survival prospect. In particular, the author shows that an improvement in the standard deviation of ROA during a crisis period can increase the survival probability up to 0.62. In the same line, Gonzà ¡lez-Bravo and Mecaj (2011) found evidence that the companies positioned in a safety zone, starting from a situation of failure status, are characterized by a strong managerial action measured by ROA ratio, generating fu rthermore higher operating cash flow. However, other authors such as Barniv et al. (2002) or Laitinen (1993) found that the ROA coefficients were statistically not significant in predicting the outcome of a crisis situation. The post-distress status The main objective of a firm facing a distress situation is to heal the crisis state. Some researches, oriented to modeling the variables that influence a recovery process, identify the final stage of this process when a firm objectively exits a failure situation emerging as an independent firm, leaving Chapter 11 classification or keeping a defined period of positive income (Smith and Graves, 2006; Barniv et al., 2002; Altman and Hotchkiss, 2006; Kahl, 2001). However, the accomplishment of this objective should have one necessary quality condition. The new post-failure position should be achieved in suitable conditions that would permit an appropriate and continuous growth and performance rate. A financial distress process could place a firm in a weak position, even if it had managed to solve its difficulties, inciting a poor performance that inevitably makes it enter again in an emergency situation (Kahl, 2002). If a firm does not emerge profitably in the restructuring phase, in order to achieve a long term success, the probability of a successful exit process is very low (Burbank, 2005). In this sense, Hotchkiss (1995) showed that up to one third of the firms that relieve their conditions by means of debt restructuring tend to go into a financial distress situation few years afterwards. With regard to post-distress position, Robbins and Pearce (1992) affirm that industry indicator variations should be considered in order to better identify the good performers or the exceptional good performers during turnaround. Despite of the assessment of Altman and Hotchkiss (2006) stating that the firms overcoming a Chapter 11 situation perform below firms of the same industry that di d not pass through that same situation, Kahl (2001) found that the post-distress operating performance of firms getting through a crisis situation is similar to the industry performance. The model of recovery When a firm is facing a distress situation and considering all the above analyzed dimensions, severity and reaction capability should be understood as initial conditions that will impose restrictions in selecting the strategies which will drive the performance during recovery, thus, determining the final resolution of long term financial distress process as shown in Figure 1. (Figure 1 here) The left side of the diagram gathers the initial determining factors to initiate the recovery process, outlining the firms ability to improve its future and overcome the difficult situation. Severity Status offers valuable information about the initial degree of gravity of a firms situation. This degree will condition the actions to be taken in a deteriorated situation and the possible outcome as well. Reaction Capability measures the firms capacity to apply such actions through: i) the possibility to obtain further resources without worsening its position, ii) the capacity of debt negotiation or iii) the ability to generate additional incomes which may facilitate the application of strategy changes. The right side of the above Figure 1 defines the final subsequent status of firms, once specific actions have been taken. Post-distress Status shows the effectiveness of the management effort in a crisis situation, not only because the firm solves the initial state, but also since the new position is reached evidencing a well performance to set a suitable continuity in the new balanced situation. Accordingly, Post-distress status assesses the quality of firms welfare accounting for the risk to re-entry into distress discriminating well performers and best performers in a crisis management process. In a distress context, a well-performer just achieves the objective (i.e. exiting the crisis situation) while best-performers are located in a new healthy scenario minimizing the likelihood to reenter in distress. Hence, considering the above model, the following hypotheses will be tested: H1: Severity degree of financially distressed firms is likely associated with the post distress status. H2: Reaction Capability of distressed firms is positively related to a fit final position after recovery process. H3: Performance in-distress is positively related with the welfare of the post distress status. H4: Retrenchment strategies have a positive influence on the outcome of a distressed situation. H5: Size of financially distressed companies is associated with the final position after recovery process. Methodology, sample and variables To test the hypothesis we use the financial data of US firms derived from the Compustat Database in an eight year period: 1993-2000 which is considered to be economically appropriate for the analysis. Smith and Graves (2005) affirm that in an economic expansion context distressed firms could easily perform a successful turnaround. Particularly, the US economy experienced an economic expansion during the analyzed period. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research (2001), a peak in business activity occurred in the U.S. economy in March 2001. A peak marks the end of an expansion and the beginning of a recession  [1]  . So, the year 2001 was marked by events like the Dot-Com Bubble, Stock Market Crash, the loss of investors confidence in the Stock Market or the emergence of corporate fraud and corporate governance. The September 11, 2001 attacks also, may have been an important factor in turning this decline in the economy into a recession. The financial data for the year s after 2000 would be, to a greater or lesser extent, influenced by all these external factors. From a total of 1721 companies that offer complete data in their financial statements during all years, only the ones that presented a crisis situation in the first year of analysis, 1993, were selected. We consider a crisis status as a variety of enterprise adversity situations that threaten the future viability of the company (Turetsky and Mcwewn, 2001; Graveline and Kikalari, 2008), which show some incapacity to generate resources and/or to fulfill the payment of debts in time. This incapacity can be transitory and of a major or minor gravity and it can be observed through a series of symptoms alerting that the health and the future of the company are at risk. Considering this general approach and following Gonzà ¡lez-Bravo and Mecaj (2011), we classify a firm as financially distressed if, in the first year of our analysis, it presented one or more of the following criteria: Negative Net Income, Negative Operating Income, Negative Retained Earnings, Negative Working Capital, Negative Cash Flow, Negative Operating Cash Flow and Negative Shareholders Equity. In agreement with Gilbert, Menon and Schwartz (1990), to prevent the selection of firms that only had a poor performance in t he starting year firms presenting merely a Negative Net Income for the year 1993 were not selected. This criterion made possible that poor performers were selected only when they also showed a continued instable situation such as losses in previous years or solvency problems. As a result, our study is performed on a total of 526 companies that satisfied all the previous conditions. Table 1 shows the principal features of the analyzed sample. (Table 1 here) The number of observed symptoms permits an objective a priori classification based on the gravity of the starting situation. A firm would experience a weak crisis if it presents three or less criteria and, on the contrary, a strong crisis if it shows 4 or more. Following this further, in the first year of the analysis 77.38% of the firms encounter a weak crisis while 22.62% are facing a situation of strong crisis. Variables Severity Status, Reaction Capability and Fitness Status, as representative indicators of post-distress position, in the above proposed model (Figure 1) are built by gathering information given by some individual variable-indicators according to the features evaluated. The complete picture integrating the model and variables is showed in Figure 2. (Figure 2 here) Severity status (SEV_STAT) should be understood as an index assessing the degree of severity distress by seven financial ratios. These ratios correspond to the 7 symptom-indicators used to classify a firm as being in financial distress previously described, all divided by Total Assets in order to eliminate the size effect. Ratios such as: Net Income/Total Assets, EBIT/Total Assets and Retained Earnings/Total assets, representatives of the economic performance, are also commonly used to determine the existence of a decline phase in turnaround and recovery research (Pearce and Robins, 1993; Arogyaswamy et al., 1995; Smith and Graves, 2005). Negative Operating Cash Flow is also an indicator of liquidity deterioration and of financial distress probability (Anandarajan et al. 2001; Bell and Tabor, 1991; John, 1993). These seven indicators should be considered in a negative direction with respect to financial distress. That is, the lower value of the indicators, the worse the starting situ ation of the firm. In the same way, the more the number of negative indicators in a firm, the higher the crisis severity degree will be. Reaction capability is evaluated through three indicators: Sales/Total Assets (TURNOV), Shareholders Equity/Total Liabilities (FIN_AUT) and Current Assets/Current Liabilities (SOLV). The first one reflects the capacity of the company to enhance profitability while the other two indicators are linked to the financial structure of a firm and enable us to value its self-sufficiency and solvency. Together, these three variables measure the capacity of a firm to obtain external and additional funds or to reorganize its debts, the short term response capacity and the ability to generate resources. Fitness status (FIT_STAT) is defined as an index measuring the final health position on an objective and on a quality base as well, by means of 4 variables. Final Position is a categorical variable which indicates the existence or not of a crisis situation, when the firm still presents any symptom of distress. This variable takes value 0 if the firm exits successfully and doesnt present distress signals or value 1 otherwise. Additionally, to measure the health quality of this position, we follow the approach of Jostarndt (2006) when he identifies three factors that could cause financial distress: excessive leverage, a poor firm-specific operating performance and an industry downturn. These factors could be interpreted as indicators of the incapacity of a firm to generate cash flow which may influence a continuous economic and financial deterioration. The variables are defined as follows: (For further details on all variables calculation refer to Appendix B): Debt payment level: it permits the evaluation of the effects that a higher debt level of a firm has on cash flow generation, with respect to the industry where it operates. It indicates the level of interest payment the firm is paying compared to the median of the sector. If the level is above the median, the firm is paying more than other firms, so it should reduce it. Firm Performance: It measures the effects that a poor performance, lower than the median of the industry, has on cash flow generation. It measures the operating income of a firm compared to the median of the sector. It indicates if the firm is performing above or below the median of the sector. Sector performance: it allows analyzing to what extent the trend of the performance of the sector where the firm operates influences its capacity to generate cash flow if it behaved as the industry average. This item measures the improvement or the deterioration of a sectors performance, compared to its performance the year before. These three variables measure the risk of distress which could be the consequence of leverage problems or economic issues, including the downturn of the industry. The former three defined ratio-indicators should be understood in a negative sense, thus, the higher the three ratios are, the worse the quality position of the firm and the greater the probability of financial distress. Therefore, Fitness Status variable measures the position of a firm t years after the financial distress has been detected, allowing to evaluate the performance in managing a difficult situation. Severity Status and Fitness Status indexes could be interpreted as two composite indicators gathering the information of 7 and 3 individual ratios, respectively. To overcome some of the drawbacks of aggregated indexes, such as the degree of subjectivity in attribution of weights to each individual component (Munda, 2005; Messer et al., 2006; Munda and Nardo, 2009; Ramzan et al., 2008), we decided to use Data Envelopment analysis to summarize the complex information in just one index (Nardo et al., 2005a; Cherchye et al. 2008; Dyckhoff and Allen, 2001). DEA is a non-parametric performance measurement technique, based on a productivity approach, widely used to evaluate the relative efficiency of Decision Making Units (Cooper et al., 1999; Seiford, 1997; Gattoufi et al. 2004; Sherman and Zhu, 2006). However, this methodology has also been used to create indexes combining different components by means of an optimization process, when the structure of weights of these components is not kn own, and without making any assumption concerning the internal operations of a DMU (Cherchye et al., 2006; Zhu, 2000 and 2001; Puig-Junoy, 1998; Sexton and Lewis, 2003). Thus, both Severity Status and Fitness Status scores are obtained applying a DEA model without explicit inputs, called DEA-WEI models by Liu et al. (2011). This formulation, discussed by Lovell and Pastor (1999), considering a model with only outputs and a single constant input, has been used by Chen (2002) and Cooper et al. (2009), and it is similar to other approaches as DEA-R (Despic et al., 2007) or DEA-Index composite (Cherchye et al. 2008). Fitness Status use as DEA variables a series of indicators that measure negative features of a firm and they are also linked to the possibility of presenting a marked financial distress situation. This consideration is in agreement with the called pessimistic DEA approach, where the efficiency frontier contains, using Azizi and Ajirlu (2011) terminology, the worst-practisers as efficient in being poor-performers. In this way, DMUs scoring unity or close to unity levels will be the ones with higher degree of severity in their financial distressed situation. Furthermore, Fitness Score DEA manages a categorical variable Final Status indicating the existence or not of distress symptoms. In this sense we follow the approach of Banker and Morey (1986) concerning the treatment of exogenously fixed data. To measure the strategies and the behavior of firms during distress, profitability and downsizing actions have been included in the analysis. With regard to profitability, we use ROA in the last year of the analysis (ROA) and the average of its variations in the previous years (ROA_AVG) to measure the impact of efficiency oriented strategies to the final post-distress position. Concerning downsizing actions, variations in total assets during previous year are included to measure the impact of retrenchment strategies (RET_STG) Finally, to control the size effect (SIZE), natural logarithm of sales [ln(sales)] is included in the analysis in order to assess the influence of size on the possibility to return on a healthy scenario. Methodology The DEA score Fitness Status will be treated as a dependent variable in order to analyze to what extent post-failure position could be explained by issues such as severity, reaction capability or certain strategies implemented by the firms. Many different approaches can be found in the literature when a DEA score is used as a dependent variable of a regression to relate efficiency to the factors and study their influence on the former. The consideration of the DEA score as a censored variable (showing values between zero and unity) has been the argument for using regression censored models such as Tobit. On the other hand, Mancebà ³n and Molinero (2000) do not share this opinion and affirm that efficiency takes natural limits of zero and one and they estimate a model of the log type to explain inefficiency. In the same line, Puig-Junoy (1998) considers that DEA scores do not fit the theory of sampling censoring for Tobit models explaining inefficiency by a multiplicativ

Value Chain Process Of Rak Ceramics Commerce Essay

Value Chain Process Of Rak Ceramics Commerce Essay This is an assigned project of the course Business Strategy the aim of which is to enable us to learn about the overall value chain process of an organization. RAK ceramics is fully backward and forward integrated. This study is providing us with valuable practical knowledge about business strategy in respect to the value chain activities of RAK Ceramics as it is the market leader in ceramic business in Bangladesh at present. Reason for choosing RAK Ceramics: The reason for choosing RAK Ceramics is to learn about value chain process of RAK ceramics which can give us a practical overview of the whole value chain process. Objective of the report: The main objective of the report is described below: An over view on RAK Ceramics Overall value chain process of RAK Ceramics Primary activities of RAK Ceramics (like starts from supply chain management to delivering products to the end user) Support activities of RAK Ceramics( like RD, general administration and human resource management) Scope: The report only focuses on RAK ceramics tiles production Limitation: The limitations are given below: Information unavailability due to confidentiality Inconsistent information Methodology: The research methodology is given as followed: Primary Data: Primary data is collected by visiting RAK ceramics production plant, interviewing office personnel. Secondary Data: Secondary data is collected by visiting relevant websites and published journals. Company overview: RAK ceramics UAE: RAK a global ceramic multinational is in the Ras Al Khaimah. It is a public shareholding company with H.H. Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qassimi. He is the Crown Prince Deputy Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah as the Chairman and Dr. Khater Massaad as the Chief Executive Officer. It has worldwide sales of over USD one billion. To build a world standard for quality and beauty, the company basically starts manufacturing. They start their first production in 1991. Within 19 years it became a world class organization. 2, 27,000 sq meters of tiles and over 8500 pieces of sanitary ware is producing per day by Ras Al Khaimah alone. It has operation in China, Sudan, Bangladesh, India and Iran. The global production of RAK Ceramics is over 3, 60,000 sq meters of tiles and 11,500 pieces of sanitary ware per day. These huge production of tiles making RAK Ceramics one of the largest multinational ceramic and porcelain tiles and sanitary manufacturing in the world. More than 150 countries across 5 continents, they are now exporting. In the Far East, Australia, USA Canada along with European countries they sells a large quantities of RAK ceramics with regular shipments to all those countries. Among those countries, they have independent agents to fulfill the marketing efforts. With the subsidiaries in Germany, UK, Italy, Belgium, Georgia, Australia, China, India, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Bangladesh Iran, RAK Ceramics plant capacity stands as follows- China 11 million square meter per annum, Sudan 6.5 million square meter per annum, Â   India- 7 million square meter per annum 250,000 pieces of sanitary ware per annum, Iran- 3.0 million square meter/annum and Bangladesh 6 million square meter and 250,000 pieces of sanitary ware per annum. In terms of their model, they also have wide range of variation. They regularly add several new designs in almost every week. Not only in production and design, RAK has wide range of size variety in their products from 10 cm x 10 cm up to 125 cm x 185 cm. They also has 125 x 185 slabs which are the largest Gres Porcellanato slabs in the world and used for a variety of internal and external applications. RAK Ceramics is a ISO 9001: 2008 (ISO 9001:2008 Quality management systems Requirement is a document of 30 pages which sets standards for organizations management ) ISO 14001: 2004 (ISO 14001 is a standard which is provided by international organization for standardization for reducing the negative impact on environment ) certified organization. RAK Ceramics (Bangladesh) Limited: RAK Ceramics (Bangladesh) was incorporated in 26 November, 1998. It is a joint venture company with UAE. It was first incorporated as a public limited company. Now it is public limited company and changed its name from RAK Ceramics (Bangladesh) Private Limited to RAK Ceramics (Bangladesh) Limited on 10 June, 2008. They are now manufacturing ceramics tiles, bathroom sets and all types of sanitary ware. They basically came to this position of producing products in some steps which are given below- From 12 November, 2000 they started Commercial production. From 10 January, 2004 they start the production of sanitary ware within their own plant. Further expansion of tiles and sanitary plant ware in the year of 2007. With 90% portion of ownership of RAK Ceramics by RAK Ceramics PSE and its nominees they basically start their business in Bangladesh. Rest 10% is owned by S.A.K. Ekramuzzaman. Within eight years RAK has become one of the leading manufacturing companies with an annual turnover of over BDT 3248 million. They basically produce high quality wall, floor tiles, gres porecellanato and sanitary wares products in Bangladesh. RAK is financed by IFC Bangladesh other than Lafarge Surma Cement Ltd, the only two company financed by IFC. With over 1000 models active ceramics and porcelain they have huge collection of design. Moreover, their R D are adding more new design into their portfolio to meet the preference of the customers. They have more than 40 models of exclusive range of sanitary ware like wash basins, water closets, bathroom sets, bath tubs, shower trays, bathroom cabinets, accessories and decorated sets. . They not only emphasized in the designing part of the RAK Ceramics, but also they emphasized in the size of the tiles. They have different types of tiles from 13 cm * 13 cm to 60 cm * 60 cm. The manufacturing plant has a production capacity of 24,000 square meter tiles and 2,500 pieces of sanitary ware per day. This total production is consumed by local market. RAK Ceramics (Bangladesh) Limited is certified by ISO 9001:2008(ISO 9001:2008 Quality management systems Requirement is a document of 30 pages which sets standards for organizations management). RAK ceramics also have a future plan to expand their operation by setting a new production plant in Hobigonj to fulfill the rising domestic demand for tiles. For their reputation and good brand image they have been awarded as Superbrands in 2009-2011 Competitors: RAK is the market leader of the ceramics industry in Bangladesh. RAK has approximately 35% market share in the industry. The major competitions of RAK ceramics are: Fu-Wang Ceramic Industry Ltd: Fu-Wang Ceramic Industry is one of the major competitors of RAK ceramics. Fu-Wangs main emphasis is on the quality of the product and also they are focus on designing also. They are also focused on achieving customer satisfaction by providing standard product with innovation. Fu-Wangs market capital is 2025.375 million BDT (http://dsebd.org/displayCompany.php?name=FUWANGCER). The main production plant of Fu-Wang ceramic industry is in Hotapara, Gazipur. China-Bangla Ceramic Industry: Another major competitor is China Bangla Ceramics Industry. They focus mainly in the quality of the product. For these they basically use machine imported from SACMI, Italy and specialized people recruit from china to operate production process, technology and R D. Great Wall Ceramics Industries Ltd: Great Wall Ceramics Industries has a factory in Gilarchala, Sreepur, Gazipur, Bamgladesh. From Italy and China they basically bring their machines which are being used to make their products. Great Wall Ceramics Industries Ltd is also focused to improve their quality of their products. RAK is not facing any major competition from the local producers. RAK ceramics market capital is 46635.898 million taka (http://dsebd.org/displayCompany.php?name=RAKCERAMIC). But they are facing competition from Chinese Tiles. The main Raw material for Tiles is different clays. And among those clays China clay is a major element. China has an advantage over the cheap raw materials which helps them to reduce their production cost and gain advantage over other competitors. Whereas RAK have to purchase raw materials at a high price and also pay tax for those raw materials. However RAK established them as market leader by providing superior quality product and good brand image which enables them to compete with the competitors effectively. SWOT Matrix analysis of RAK Ceramics: RAK Ceramics is the market leader in ceramic industry. They have huge advantages which differentiate them from other competitors ex: advanced production facility, focus on quality, and huge investment in RD, customization option in product designing etc. These are the major strengths which is helping RAK ceramics to be the market leader. They also have a major weakness in control of sub dealers. RAK ceramics have the opportunity to go for exporting after meeting domestic demand and they can also expand their product line by producing ceramic plates, salt and pepper pots. RAK ceramics is facing threat on competition for the growing Chinese ceramic companies. This is the overview of the SWOT analysis of RAK ceramics, brief explanation and SWOT matrix analysis is given in Appendix 3. The Value Chain Process: RAK ceramics value chain process follows the traditional value chain process which starts from supply chain management to delivering its products to the end users and supporting activates like: RD program, general administration and human resource management. RAK ceramics is fully backward and forward integrated. The value chain process of RAK ceramics is described below in details. Primary Activities: Chapter: 01 Supply chain management: RAK ceramics supply chain management is very strong and fully controlled for getting efficient supply for their production process. The basic raw material of ceramics is different types of clay. RAK ceramics select the best quality clay for their quality floor covering. RAK use different types of clay for their tiles production. The types are: Indonesian Clay Malaysian Clay Indian Clay China Clay Bangladeshi Clay Czech Republican Clay For glazing or coloring there are several raw materials that RAK use to give an edge in color of the tiles. This material arrives from Italy and Spain. The materials are: Color Pigment Cerfrit: a company specialized in the manufacture of frits, glazes, serigraphic printing powders and ceramic colors Adhesive and Chemicals for stabilizing color Raw material Suppliers: 90% of raw materials of RAK ceramics is are imported from outside the country. The main raw materials supplier of RAK is Global Business Association (GBA) and the supplies are dealt in ordering process. GBA is a sister concern of RAK and it also supplies raw materials to other companys also. RAK places an order of the list of raw materials and GBA supplies the raw materials. Cerfrit a company from Spain supplies cerfrit for using in colors. Color pigment is supplied by GBA which is collected from Italy. Shipment of Raw materials: After placing the order to GBA, raw materials are sent by ship to Chittagong port and sometimes in Naryanganj from Chittagong port. From there Cargo trucks are used to carry the clay to their production plant. Spare parts for their machineries are collected from SACMI which is a giant of manufacturing machines and completing plants and its an Italian company. These spare parts are sent by air. Packing Raw Materials: The packets which are used to pack the final products are supplied by KEA Printing and Packaging Company which is also a company of RAK. They provide cartoons that are used to package tiles. KEA Printing and Packaging is situated right in front of RAKs manufacturing plant in Sreepur, Gazipur. Therefore its really easy to collect the cartoons from there. Inventory Management: The inventory management job is mainly assigned to Store department and accounts department. Accounts department is in charge of raw materials inventory. Raw materials are purchased and stored in the amount of 6 to 7 months of production. Store department is in charge of the management of finished goods inventory. RAK takes extra precautions for not damaging or wasting raw materials and extra security for preventing the risk of theft. Utilities: They main utility for RAK is production plant is Electricity. RAK ceramics spent over 50 crore taka for planting an electricity plant which produces 6 Mega Watt electricity inside their production plant. RAK uses 4 Mega Watt and 2 Mega Watt of electricity is given to local people for their usage with an exchange of a small amount of money. Chapter: 02 Manufacturing Process: RAK ceramics have the most advanced production facility for producing tiles and sanitary ware. They have one production plant for tiles which covers all the production activities. RAK also have a Design Development Program under RD department which helps to create new design for the customers. In this department, RAK have invested a huge amount to gain advantage over competitors in designing. They are using SACMI technology in their production plant which comes from Italy. SACMI is the most advanced technology used is ceramics production. RAKs production plant is fully automated and computer operated which helps to reduce the chance of error. SACMIs machineries are sensor based in which it is assigned the specific tasks to be performed with minimum error. In every step of production there is a parameter that is being checked for insuring good quality by ensuring size, moisture; pressing power etc. Step1: RAKs tiles manufacturing process starts from Laboratory There is a miniature version of the whole production plant. In lab master sample of tiles with different shapes are made on the basis of moisture, pressing power, density etc. This master sample is the benchmark of tiles which is used to maintain the standard and quality of tiles. This master samples readings are set into Master CPU for quality assurance of tiles. If the quality of any tiles doesnt meet the standard of master sample, it is destroyed by Master CPU by using a hammer. Step2: Quality assurance department composes the composition of raw materials, which means the percentage of different clay will be used to produce the body of tiles. This composition list is given by lab on the basis of the composition used in Master Sample. Step3: Body preparation sector calculates the weight of different clay which will be used to make the tiles. Step4: Raw materials are given input in BOX FREEDER by the help of wheel loader. Driver of wheel loader checks the list and weight of each clay and inputs in the machine. There is an operator who monitors this procedure. Figure: BOX FEEDER Step5: From BOX FREEDER by the use of conveyr belt, raw materials are passed to BALL MILL. Step 6: In BALL MILL the raw materials are mixed with water to create slip, this procedure is called milling. Figure: BALL MILL Step5: From BALL MILL the present form of clay which is also called slip is stored into SLIP TANK. Step6: From SLIP TANK, slip is moved to SPRAY DRYER, which forms the slip into powder or granule. This powder or granule is stored into SILO or vertical tank. Sttep7: This powder will be passed into PRESSING MACHINE through SILO. In PRESSING MACHINE the powder is given five bar pressing which converts the powder or granule in to raw tiles. Figure: SILO Step8: In PRE-FIRING the raw tiles are taken through 200Â ° degree Celsius, to reduce the moisture of the raw tiles. Step9: The raw tiles will now go through the DISC Glazing BOOTH machine, where it will be covered by the first coat of Coloring or Glazing. Figure: DISC Glazing BOOTH Step10: After the DISC Glazing BOOTH process the tiles will go through the PRINTING MACHINE and there it will get the necessary designs on top. Step11: From the PRINTING MACHINE the tiles are loaded into LOADING CAR by a conveyer belt, and then the LOADING CARs take the tiles to BT KILN LOADING MACHINE. Figure: Loading Car Figure: PRINTING MACHINE Step12: BT KILN LOADING MACHINE is basically a firing machine which gives huge heat on the tiles to increase the hardness and reliability. It is a 75 meter long oven also known as Figure: 75 meter BT KILN LOADING MACHINE firing zone. The tiles is taken through a sequence of temperature starting from 400Â ° to 800Â ° to 1200Â ° to 800Â ° to 400Â ° Celsius. The temperature sequence is kept like this because after reaching to 1200Â ° if the temperature suddenly falls then the heated tiles will break down. To ensure continuous supply of power the kiln machine is connected with a generator to avoid any kind of accident. Granite tiles are kept in firing machine for 41 to 42 minutes, Porosa is kept for 39 to 40 minutes and Red Body tiles are kept in firing zone for 35 to 36 minutes. The time kept in firing zone is the determinant of hardness, reliability and water absorption. Granite tiles are used in floor which has high reliability, hardness and water absorption to 0.5%. On the other hand, Red Body tiles which are wall tiles has less reliability and hardness then Granite but have high water absorption up to 10%. Step13: Master CPU plays a major role in the tiles production. Master CPU is provided with the reading of master sample for quality assurance of the tiles production. Master CPU approves those tiles which match with master tile. If not then Master CPU uses a hammer to destroy the tiles with below quality reading. After passing tiles from BT KILN LOADING MACHINE every tile have to pass through Master CPU and it also checks the level of tolerance for error. ISO 10545 is a British Standard for tiles production which gives approval for 5% error. But RAK ceramics accepts 3% level of error for ensuring more quality for their product. Step14: After checking by Master CPU, the tiles which have 0% error are categorized as Class A tiles and those tiles which have 3% error are categorized as Class B tiles. These two types of tiles are sorted differently in different sorting machines where tiles are placed vertically in numbers for packing which starts from: 4 pieces of tiles to 25 pieces of tiles. Step15: Tiles are packed by PACKAGING MACHINE attached with sensors. These sensors detect Class A and B tiles and uses different packages for both. For Class A tiles white box and for Class B brown boxes are used. Then it is tagged by another sensor using OCRCS system. This system is used to track the type, quality, size and other parameters by which they can track the operator who checked the tiles if there is any complain form dealers or customers. The operators main job is to ensure the quality of the tiles by checking them from 3 feet distance to see whether there is any problem with tiles that can be detected from 3 feet distance. If there is any problem likes this, operator is held responsible. The OCRCS refers: Operator: Number of Operator Choice: A grade or B grade Reference: Model Number Caliber: Accurate size Shade: Color of Shades This OCRCS is used to give customers full guarantee of the quality of the product and also helps to prevent fraud attempt by sellers. Step16: After packaging, the finished goods are stored in warehouse by Stock Department and dealers arrive with order papers of tiles to receive the delivery of the tiles for Stock Department. This is the total manufacturing process of RAK ceramics. Chapter: 03 Distribution Process: RAK ceramics follows simple distribution process to get products to end users by minimizing complications. They follow 4 level distribution channels which consist of manufacturer, dealers, sub dealers, consumers. RAK follows selective distribution which means they distribute products only few distributors. They dont have their own distribution channel; they use dealers to distribute their products. Currently RAK has 32 dealers all over Bangladesh. They directly control their dealers through 4 state managers in six divisions. Dealers are allowed to appoint sub dealers to sell RAKs product but RAK does not control them. RAK ceramics distribution process starts from stock department. Stock department stores finished goods in the warehouse. Dealers are informed from the warehouse that their goods are ready for delivery and they arrive to receive the delivery from warehouse for distribution. RAK ceramics have full control over their selective dealers. They pick dealers from location according to their geographical planning of market capturing. RAK ceramics conduct an in depth analysis before selecting dealers. RAK ceramics first analysis their portfolio ex: capabilities, currently which products they are distributing, control, coverage, continuity and also they are given 3 months evaluation period by which RAK tries to find out if they are appropriate or not. These 32 dealers have sub dealers who are directly under control of dealers which they use to capture more market depth and to cover more geographic coverage. Dealers pick the product from RAK ceramics by huge delivery trucks with good protection for not damaging tiles. By the help of dealers and sub dealers RAK ceramics distribute their product to the end user and also they maintain a strict control for reducing error. Chapter: 04 Marketing, sales and service: RAK ceramics is the market leader in ceramics production in Bangladesh.RAK ceramics mainly emphasize on commercial production for meeting domestic demand but they also have industrial production which is not in massive condition due to low demand and huge affordability issue by industries in Bangladesh. But if a company places order for industrial tiles they fulfill their demand. RAK have a good marketing department for marketing which is in the main headquarters in Uttara. RAK ceramics sales force is mainly used to convince owners of industry firms to use RAK ceramics because industry productions of ceramics product have high durability and price. To provide good support to these buyers, the sales force is mainly used for any complaining and ordering and also providing important information. The process mainly starts from industry placing order with specifications to dealers of RAK, sales force contacts with the buyer to provide more specific informatio n and details along with pricing and choice, sales force confirms their specifications and sends it to RAK. RAK ceramics go to the production and send their product via dealer to the desired person. This is the role of sales force which plays a vital role in selling industrial products. RAK ceramic doesnt use any direct selling in marketing, if a customer place order from RAK head office where they have a showroom, then instead of selling directly to them RAK provides reference of nearby dealers to their location for providing convenient support. As it is mentioned before, RAK ceramics uses sales force for industry buyers and dealers reference for normal customers. Marketing Research and Planning: RAK display new design of tiles and sanitary wares in their main head office for getting feedback from customer about the new design. This new design mainly is the reflection of ongoing global trend around the world or the new design of RAK UAE which is a great success worldwide. This new design is placed in the main showroom for 6 months for gathering customer feedback. After getting feedback and doing market analysis they go for production on those new designs. RAK provide huge emphasize on marketing research to identify new style trends on the basis of global trend and customer preference. Because of their advanced marketing research they are able to visualize the demand of customers. For their good market research, analysis and reading, they are able to respond quickly to the changing customer demand and preference which made them the market leader. Advertising and Promoting: RAK ceramics doesnt follow massive advertising technique for promoting because of their superior position in the market and huge demand helps to promote their product itself. But RAK still do some advertising via billboards and some promotional activities in Boishakhi TV by sponsoring some shows, because the Managing Director of RAK ceramics is the 25% owner of Boishakhi TV. Support from Dealer: RAK ceramics have 32 dealers around the country which are handpicked by them after judging their portfolio. These dealers provide great support to RAK for capturing and enabling the product to get available in market. RAK ceramics tries to give full support on their activities for making them more flexible and dealers also provide support for making the product more available in market. From RAKs point of view, by the support, help and loyalty from these dealers have helped them to spread the product in whole country and they also played a huge role for their current market position. Service: RAK ceramics doesnt have a specialized service center for customers because it isnt required in that extend. But they provide full support to the customers by providing information and details of tiles before purchasing to avoid deceptive selling. Supportive Activities: Chapter: 05 Product RD, Technology and Systems Development: RAK makes a huge investment on RD. They are the only ceramic company in Bangladesh to spend 150 crore in RD. To make continuous innovation on design they have a dedicated Laboratory which focuses on designing new tiles and sanitary wares. RAK use SACMI manufacturing machines and complete plants for the Ceramics making which is the best technology for making ceramics. RAK uses Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) to reduce environmental hazard. RAK ceramics factory have computer controlled guided vehicles which transfers semi finished good from station to station, all of the machines are controlled by laser sensors, skilled technician to operate sophisticated operations. RAK ceramics emphasize more on designing on tiles. For this purpose the MD of the company attends different Ceramics fair to get idea of overall new technology innovation and new design trends. These designs are submitted to Design Development Program which falls under RD depa rtment; they conduct in depth research and develop the design. RAK also has soil scientist who conducts research and test on various types of soil to create quality composition of clay for creating quality tiles. Purchase managers visit to Indonesia, Malaysia, India, China and Czech Republic to monitor Class A and B raw material (clay) and check quality report and sent it to laboratory more researching on clay about the quality. An active team of ceramist is dedicated to find more cost effective solution for gaining competitive advantage over competitors. Due RAKs huge investment and dedication on RD, enables them to compete with competitors and gain competitive advantage. Human Resource Management: Recruitment and Hiring: In RAK Ceramics, HR department is fully co-ordinate according to their standard. The whole recruitment process is described below step by step. Step 1: To recruit employee for RAK Ceramics, they basically go through- Newspaper BD jobs