Alternatives for the decision regarding the high lead found in the whistles Essay

The situation of determining how to handle the recently discovered high lead content in the large whistles order is a difficult one that will in some way affect the company. Three alternatives have been made to allow options for this decision. Alternative 1: Say nothing; allow the whistles shipment to go without notifying the customer. Alternative 2: Replace the customer’s order by providing whistles that meet the appropriate company standards. Alternative 3: Contact the customer and explain the situation, offer them a discount for on the whistles that are lower than the company standard. Decision Process The process for choosing the three alternatives began by identifying the decision to be made. The decision at hand is what to do with the information discovered about the order of whistles going to a school in South America. This is a big decision that will affect the company in each alternative. The next step of the process is listing options possible for the situation, and then studying those options by listing advantages and disadvantages of each. Then the decision was made by choosing the best overall solution for the decision. And lastly the decision was evaluated to determine if the results were what was expected. The three options for this decision are listed above; say nothing to the customer, replace the order, or try to make a deal for the customer. Each option is motivated by a result that will benefit the company financially, ethically, or a mixture of both. The idea behind the alternative 1 decision was to save money upfront and not bother with order changes and other inconveniences for the company. In studying this option the advantage of this would be to save money and time for the company. The disadvantage would be a possibly unhappy customer, an unethical move which could make employees see the company as being unfair; giving a poor product that could be hazardous to children. The legal ramifications of this alternative would be risky if the a child became ill from the use of the whistles and the company was blamed, sued, etc. The idea behind the alternative 2 decision was to replace the customers order with whistles that are not potentially hazardous and meets the company standards. The advantage of this option is not putting the company in an unethical situation of trying to pass products that are under par for high quality. This will help set a standard of ethics in the company that could motivate employees to do good work. The disadvantage of this option is that it will cost the company $100,000. The financial loss could take a long time to recover from, the positive influence on employees won’t immediately compensate for the loss. There would not be a legal issue with this option. The idea behind the alternative 3 decision was to try and contact the customer and explain the situation and let them decide if they would like the whistles replaced or to take the hazardous whistles at a discount. The advantage of this alternative is that the customer could decide to keep the original whistles which would still save the company a considerable amount of money cutting the losses to a much smaller amount. Also it would show that the company had the customer’s best interest in mind. The disadvantage of this option is that it could reflect negatively on the company still because we can’t really determine how the customer will feel about the whistles that are potentially hazardous. They customer might think that the company is trying to cut corners and save themselves money. This would be bad for future business. Legally the customer would probably not try and sue the company, but there is still the potential issue of the company being reported as manufactur ing products with too high of a lead content. This would kill the company’s reputation and the customer relationships of other clients. Recommendation Alternative 2 is the recommended decision; replacing the customer’s order by providing whistles that meet the appropriate company standards. This decision was made by both ethical and financial decisions. Ethically this alternative is the most appropriate. The customer contacted the company to provide a product to be used in the South American schools. It would be unethical to provide the customer with a product that is below the company and country standards even though they are not violating the South American standard. The customer chose this company over a foreign company to give a quality and safe product. This recommendation will positively affect the company because they will possibly become more favorable in the eyes of the customer, with the possibility of more business in the future from them and their business relations. This option was chosen not only for company recognition, but also to save children from a potentially hazardous experience. This option will be a great cost to the company, but the positive experience from both the customer and employees. By creating a culture of â€Å"wanting to do what is right† will help future sales and the company will gradually earn the loss in funds back over time. Customer relationships Considering the outcome on the customer relationship is an important part of the decision making process. We have to ask ourselves how will the customer feel about our decision, how will it influence them and how will it influence the company? By choosing alternative 2, to replace the whistles, the company will look favorably to the customer, being the school buying the whistles. Though the company will merely be providing the product that was originally agreed upon for the initial sale, the customer will realize that the company is sacrificing to replace the whistles and they will go away with a positive relationship with the company. This experience is sure to foster future business from the customer because of the positive experience they experienced. They will also be more likely to recommend the company to their peers and the company could gain substantial business from the experience. The children who would be ultimately affected by the quality of the whistles will feel good about receiving a quality, non-hazardous product, and the parents of the children will be grateful knowing that the company behaved ethically. This could also create future business for the company by providing the children and parents with a positive experience from the company. The company employees will see the standard of ethics portrayed by the company and it will reflect in their work. By giving an example of a high ethical standard it is likely that employees will take greater pride in their work which will affect the company in a positive way. The company’s decision will affect multiple stages of people, their feelings, thoughts, and behaviors will help the company in the long run to regain the loss taken from replacing the whistles. The financial gains will be gradual yet immeasurable in the long run of creating a company with a superior ethical standard. Social Responsibility In a corporation, social responsibility is behaving ethically as individual workers and together as a company to be sensitive toward social, cultural, economic and environmental issues. This means that the company doesn’t always do what’s best for its self but rather do what is best for their environment, customers, employees, culture, etc. Social responsibility is a big part of the decision making process because decisions made by the company not only affect the company alone, it affects employees, the economy, the customers, and the environment. These decisions and methods are important when considering long-term business operations. The decision making process for the situation had many factors involved. The most noticeable factor was the cost of replacing the lower quality whistles with a product that is up to the company’s standard and isn’t potentially hazardous. There was multiple ways of looking the problem; ignoring it, saving the company money and hoping there was not issues with the product, or there was the option to replace the product with something the company could be proud of, a product that had no hazards for use by children, and doing what was appropriate ethically for the situation. Social responsibility played a major part in the decision to use alternative 2 and replace the order with whistles that didn’t have high amounts of lead. The choice to do what is best for the customer, environment, and the kids of the schools outweighed the option to save the company time and money.

John Rawls’ Theory of Justice: Contribution to Solve Some Political Issues in the Philippines

John Rawls is perhaps the most significant intellectual in philosophical ethics to have written in the past hundred years. It is nearly impossible to address ethics in contemporary philosophy without saying something about John Rawls. Central to his theory of justice are the concepts of fairness and equality from behind what he terms a â€Å"veil of ignorance†. Rawls's veil of ignorance is a component of the way people can construct society. He refers to an â€Å"original position† in which a person is attempting to determine a fair arrangement for society without any preconceived notions or prejudices. In this original position, people are behind what Rawls calls a â€Å"Veil of Ignorance† and do not know where they will fall in the social hierarchy in terms of race, class, sex, disability, and other relevant factors. Rawls is a Kantian liberal in that he believes that principles of justice should be universalizable, and so the only way to ensure that people will select fair principles of justice is to be certain that they do not know how the principles they select might affect them as individuals. A person behind the â€Å"veil of ignorance† does not know which side of a social contract he or she will be on, does not know his or her race, class, sex, or status in society. You can read also  Justice System Position Paper A person who does not know what privileges he or she will be born with (or without ) is, in Rawls' view, more likely to construct a society that does not arbitrarily assign privilege based on characteristics that should have no bearing on what people get. Rawls believes that a society cannot be just without fairness and equality and believes this veil of ignorance both reveals the biases of current society and can help to prevent biases in establishing future social arrangements. Rawls is often thought of as a liberal philosopher given his position emphasizing fairness regardless of social status. His philosophy can be used to justify programs like affirmative action but has also been used by the more politically conservative to argue that the American political system allows each person a fair chance and that most people would choose the American political system from behind a veil of ignorance. Source: John Rawls-A Theory of Justice

Nokia Swot Analysis

Nokia SWOT Analysis Strengths Strong brand image is Nokia's core asset. The company continues to strengthen its brand equity through various marketing campaigns. Nokia's brand was the fifth most valued brand in the world according to the top 100 best brands list compiled by InterBrand in 2009, and was the only mobile phone manufacturer in the top 10 best brands list. A strong and highly visible brand enables the company to command a premium for its products and differentiate itself from competitors. The company has been the leading player in the global mobile devices market since 1998.The company's strong market position, besides enhancing the brand image, provides economies of scale in operation. Nokia has the unique production technology, strong technical strength, perfect quality control system. Nokia has an great advantage over other rivals. Nokia, as a company with a 150-year history, has abundant marketing experience, first-class customer service and outstanding large-scale pur chasing skills. Nokia’s mission is simple: Connecting People. Its goal is to build great mobile products that enable billions of people worldwide to enjoy more of what life has to offer.Its ideas of the new products are from the consumer's needs, expectations and dreams, based on detailed market analysis and classifications of consumers. The Nokia-Microsoft partnership brings together two global businesses with highly complementary sets of assets and competencies. The strategic partnership sees Nokia smart phones adopting the new Windows 7 operating system, with the Symbian platform gradually being sidelined. The goal is to establish a third ecosystem to rival iOS and Android. Weaknesses The company's high-end product portfolio is weak compared to its competitors.The company's high-end products are mainly offered through the N-series range of multimedia computers. While, the company's multimedia products feature music players, cameras, pocket computers, gaming consoles and na vigation devices, it lacks appealing touch screen functionally and sleek designs compared to products of its competitors. Nokia also faces significant price competition in this market as phones are being offered at lower price or free, when purchased with a contract. Although the company has been the leading player in the global mobile devices market, the market shares in its other industries are being reducing.Opportunities The company launched Ovi Life Tools (Nokia Ovi Sheng Huo Tong), which offers a range of information services covering healthcare, agriculture, education and entertainment. Launch of new innovative services will enable the company to enhance its customer base thereby increasing its revenues in the coming years. The company made several strategic acquisitions in the recent years. The company's strategic acquisitions enhance its offering and enable it to record revenue growth from new offerings, while providing competitive advantage.It allows high bandwidth applica tions, is expected to increase with the growing need for advanced data and video services. New growth markets where cell phone adoption still has room to go, including India and other countries. Threats Nokia faces intense competition in all the segments of the communications market it operates. In the low-end mobile devices segment, the company has been facing competition South Korean mobile device companies such as LG and Samsung, while it continues to compete with Motorola and Sony Ericsson, among others.In the high end mobile devices/smart phones segment, the company is facing intense competition from Apple, RIM, HTC, and Samsung. The company operates in more than 150 countries across Europe, Americas and Asia Pacific and is exposed to risk from changes in foreign currency rates. Nokia’s business and results of operations are from time to time affected by changes in exchange rates, particularly between the Euro, the company’s reporting currency, and other currencie s such as the US dollar, the Japanese yen and the Chinese Yuan.And European debt crisis brings great impacts on the world, especially Europe where Finland located. Late in the game in 3G creates a risk to be displaced by leaders like Motorola, LG, NEC and others. The market is fast changing, the consumers’ expectations vary. The development tendency of mobile phone is big screen, high resolution, touch screen, intelligent system. But NOKIA touch screen support software is very few. Besides its intelligence system needs to be further ascent. Trapped in the fluidity of the mobile phone business, and missed the latest innovation and trendy design.

Bush Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Bush - Article Example t this program successfully, Bush directed the Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to set up the National Health Information Technology Coordinator (Thomson, 2014). In 2005, the HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt took initiative to establish American Health Information Community, a federally chartered commission, with intent to accomplish President Bush’s aim of having majority Americans using interoperable electronic health records within 10 years. Although this initiative started off strongly during the term of Bush, it has gradually fallen off for the recent years. As per Duane Morris report (2009), privacy and security concerns were the most potential barriers to the implementation of this initiative. Issues related to unauthorized access to records and privacy concerns prevented the implementation of technology. Some other security concerns include trespassing by an outsider, theft or loss of devices like laptop or mobile phone, or theft while transmitting information through a wireless network. In order to address the General Accounting Office’s concerns regarding information privacy, HHS initiated several projects including the commission that strategically determines the certification criteria for electronic medical records. According to GAO, it is essential â€Å"to establish the high degree of public confidence and trust needed to help ensure the success of a nationwide health information network† (Psych iatric news). In addition, unresolved debates over whether to employ an individual’s Social Security number hampered HIPAA implementation standards. Issues associated with general security practices also have weaken the scope of this policy. The higher costs related to this policy also became a barrier to the implementation of the proposed change. The concerned officials indicate that hardware and software maintenance throughout the organization involves higher costs. According to the Harvard researchers’ findings (cited in

Strategy Plan for Ikea Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Strategy Plan for Ikea - Research Paper Example The new invented idea grew up very well compared to other companies whereby they used emails in giving orders. Giving orders by mail help them sell more than they used to do there earlier. The main challenges faced by the company were generating awareness in new countries, being able to make target ,ensuring the company do not go at a loss, creating new customers and ways of getting them, other competitor selling the same product at a cheaper price and getting new employee who is willing to comply with the company rule. Generating awareness in a new a country is a very expensive task whereby you need unique techniques to make the community or the different tribe to know IKEA company and know the product sold by it. The methods that used in most of the time were quite expensive. The mostly used methods used were tv and radio advertisements, sending marketers to the markets to do the market one on one with the customers or the buyers in the community and by putting billboards and posters around the urban areas. In different countries they speak different language whereby they had to train an employee who have been working for the company for several years and a person who is experience and know the products well and make the person know to read, write and speak the foreign language. The idea will help the company be able to venture into the new country and do the marketing. The decision is perilous whereby the company could just trust the employees trained the new foreign language that they are doing the right thing (Kim and Mauborgne 1). In this case the senior management in Sweden did not know what was happening in the foreign country and the could wait until the sales and this is the time they get an explicit feedback if the markets have done a smart job or not. New employees have to be employed with a nationality of the country, at least to have people who have the foreign language as their mother tongue. This was to ensure that the marketers will

Technological, Designs & Art Developments Assignment

Technological, Designs & Art Developments - Assignment Example Art is an aspect that is intertwined with culture and traditions and as culture and traditions changed towards civilization so did art. Significant inventions in history changed the approached towards art as artists sought to embrace emerging technologies to be able to portray their art more effectively while at the same time improving on aesthetics. According to Kleiner (2010), developments in art have always occurred roughly during similar periods in history as developments in other fields such as science, philosophy and politics. Therefore, the general realization is that art is an aspect that is intertwined with developments in other areas due to the need for artists to respond to these developments either by critiquing or seeking to highlight important aspects of these developments. The following timeline project will conduct an analysis on the developments in art and design from the 15th to the 20th century with a specific emphasis on four genres. The four genres of focus will be sculptures, drawings, paintings and architecture. The timeline has revealed that art was significantly influenced by historical periods and advancements in the fields of science, politics and philosophy. Moving from the Gothic era to the modernism era, there is the realization that art is a significant part of the society and that art responds to societal changes. During the Gothic era when the Catholic Church significantly influenced most aspects of life, art basically responded to this influence by concentrating on religious designs. The renaissance art on the other hand sought detachment from the church and sculptures could be evident in streets. Baroque art was significant in introducing the use of oil paints. During the enlightenment era, the Catholic Church sought to regain its popularity through art but in vain due to the protestant influences. The Romantic era depicted art not as it is but as it ought to be with regard

Business and Corporate Law Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Business and Corporate Law - Case Study Example In this assignment the business, which has been trading successfully as a partnership for many years, has decided to become a private company limited by shares. As such, they will be incorporated and registered under the Companies Acts, the main one of which is the Companies Act 1985. Under this act, the company must have a registered office1, which Lorraine and Brenda wish to have at Chancery Lane, London. The Act allows two or more persons to form a company with limited liability for any lawful purposes by following the formal requirements of the Act2. A memorandum and articles of association, which are the rules that govern the running and relationships of the company must be provided to the registrar as part of this process.3 Before getting into the details that regulate insolvency under the act I would like to just review the basics which you may already be aware of. As you have been acting under a partnership for some years you will have a general idea of how your business is performing and the likelihood of its future success. I do not see the change from partnership to limited company effecting your trading prospects materially. Therefore, if you have been successful as a partnership there is every reason to expect this success to continue after the change to company. You will have been used to operating under the partnership in a situation of unlimited liability. This means that in the event of the business failing, you both personally would have been liable for all of the debts of the business and stood to lose your homes and all of your personal assets. Fortunately, under a company, you will be protected by limited liability and this means that your personal assets will not be used to pay off the debts of the company unless some kind of fraud or wrong dealing is at play. However, all the assets of the business will be available to creditors of the business, and therefore, you should be very aware that any assets you transfer to the business will not be protected by the principle of unlimited liability and will be available to creditors should the business fail. Therefore, one way to minimize the risk of such loss is to avoid transferring unnecessary assets from the partnership to the

Female education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Female education - Essay Example What will be the impact on the efficiency and life style of the female faculty staff if they are provided with the massage facility in order to reduce the level of stress in imparting their too heavy pedagogical duties H3. The holistic participation in the health alternative practice of therapeutic massage treatments improve a lot the quality of life of female faculty working in the Teacher Education program at this (Name) University. The population for this study will consist of thirty female faculties working in the Teacher Education program at a (Name) University. The group of thirty female faculties will participant in a pretest and posttest Perceived Stress Scale of 10 items. Fifteen female faculty participants, randomly selected from the group of thirty, will receive three therapeutic massages over a six-week period. The massages will be designed to reduce stress, and to relax and revitalize the body, mind, and spirit. The fifteen female faulty participants receiving therapeutic massage will become the experimental group, whereas, the remaining fifteen participants of the original group of thirty will become the control group. To acquire the necessary data regarding stress, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthurs' Perceived Stress Scale of 10 items will be administered to thirty female faculties working in the Teacher Education program at a (Name) University. The Perceived Stress Scale is available at http://www.maces.ucsf.edu/research/Psychosocial/notebook/PPS10.html. Permission for use of this scale is not necessary when used for academic research or educational purposes. Data Collection Approval to conduct the study of quality of life of higher education female faculty working in the Teacher Education program at a (Name) University to determine what if any difference the effects of therapeutic massage designed to relax and revitalize the mind, body, and spirit has on stress reduction and management, and overall quality of life will be sought from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Capella University and at Minot State University. Approval from both institutions will allow the primary investigator to conduct the study in fairness and good faith. Return of the surveys will imply consent on the part of respondents to participate in the study. The survey will be mailed from the Office of the Secretary of Teacher Education on the (Name) University campus. The survey will be returned in a pre-addressed, postage paid envelope to (Name), independent investigator, data collector and analyzer. (Name's) office is located in the Math and Computer Science Building on the campus the (Name) University. The independent investigator will code response envelopes to identify respondents for follow-up purposes. Instruments and envelopes will be separated upon receipt by the independent inv

Research paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Research paper - Essay Example The value and importance of IT field in any economy is also brought forward in this paper. The UAE, United Arabs Emirates, lies on the South-eastern side of Arabian Gulf. It occupies eighty three thousand six hundred square kilometers in the East of Arabian Peninsula. Some of the countries it shares boarders with include Qatar (north-western side), Saudi Arabia (Western and Southern sides) and Oman (Eastern and North-Eastern sides). The United Arabs Emirates, which is a federation of 7 emirates which were known as Trucial States, was established in 1971. The name â€Å"Trucial States† traces its roots from a perpetual Treaty of Maritime Truce signed by their rulers and the British In the eighteen fifties with its main aim being to keep and maintain peace at the sea especially during the pearling season. There was some uniqueness with the treaties they signed in that the British undertook their foreign affairs responsibilities and external defense while agreeing not to intervene in their internal affairs. There were some disputes and differences between the rulers o f the emirates. In 1971 British terminated the treaty having not treated the Trucial States like its other colonies and aiding nothing to the economic development of the country. UAE was therefore as a result of the rulers of the emirates realizing they could accomplish more united rather than divided hence they formed a federal state. Thirty years ago, there were very few tarmac roads. High rising buildings were virtually unknown. The larger part of the country was under developed. In the education sector, those living in major town were the only one accessing education. The illiteracy level was so high to an extent that out of a UAE population of about 180000, only 46 nationals had a University degree (Kirkwood, 1995), most of which had been acquired in

SOCIAL, CULTURAL and ECONOMIC CONTEXT OF HEALTH Essay - 1

SOCIAL, CULTURAL and ECONOMIC CONTEXT OF HEALTH - Essay Example , we cannot delink and conceptualise public health and health care separately since both focus on the improvement of the health of the entire population, in a country or a region, although health care focuses on individual care while public health care focuses on a part of the population, or the entire population (Gostin et al., 2011). However, the type of the health care that the nation provides is determined by the quality of care offered and the outcome of care provided by practitioners in the health care sector. In this case, the quality of care is the most important aspect as it determines the health of the entire population. Various research studies identify the importance of the quality of care in determining the outcome of care with the outcome of care provided being the most important aspect in the determination of the effectiveness of a nation’s health care system (Hermann et al., 2006; Parish et al., 2011; Pincus et al., 2007; Shih et al., 2013). To achieve effectiveness in the health care sector with the aim of achieving quality care, it is important to ensure that there is sufficient allocation of resources that are consequently utilised in an approach that was effective. In this case, allocation of resources should not only be done without following their implementation and utilisation in every level and organisation of the health care system in which the resources are required. This implies that the efficiency of the health care sector is determined by various factors with the amount of resources allocated determining the implementation of services in ensuring that the health care sector met the needs of the nation. In line with this, Kluge (2007) identified resources as critical in setting the priority in the health care sector. Stakeholders face a challenge related to the setting of priorities in an environment whereby the resources allocated are not sufficient to implement a health care system that addresses the needs of all stakeholders in the

Reflection of the Films Every Child Is Special Essay Example for Free

Reflection of the Films Every Child Is Special Essay We all know that there’s a difference between special children and normal children but both have similarities. For instance, they both have talents and perspective towards life. They can play and have fun in their own. Both need attention and discipline from their parents to avoid any misconception while they are growing and guide them from learning. Special children need more attention and extra help to develop their social skills. Parents must be extra careful with their special children because they have special needs to be attended. Also, they need to be understood by their family and everyone around them to gain more confidence about themselves and can interact well. On the other hand, normal children can develop their social skills on their own and can gain friends. They can play with another child and gradually learning to share and take turns. They can join in groups and enjoy group experiences. Their needs are easily observe and directly accommodated but still need guidance. These children are part of the society, whether they have disabilities or just normal ones and they must be respected. see more:every child is special reflection Every one of us has rights in the society we are in and that includes them. They have the right to choose whoever they want to become and whatever they want to do but with a proper given guidance and attention. The happiness and joy they brought will never be unmatchable especially to their parents. The story of the film Every Child is Special is a kid suffering from dyslexia and with the help of an understanding teacher he overcomes it against all odd. There’s a scene when the protagonist runs away from school and loiters on the road for the whole day for the fear of being punished for not having done his homework. It never happened to me and I never did a thing like that in school but I didn’t say that I’m not lazy rather than I’m not like the protagonist of the story who runs away and would not do anything. The comparison might not be warranted but this is just one of those scenes which made me realize the importance of guidance and understanding of parents. Unlike the protagonist who suffered from learning disabilities such as reading because for him the letters are dancing, his writing don’t match the right spelling of words and dealing with numbers with difficulty, I learned quite fast and I also helped myself from learning the things that must be learned while in starting years in school. In spite of his learning disabilities, there’s a person who willingly teaches him and knows best for him because of his illness. His new art teacher, also a teacher of a child school with disabilities found out the reasons why he’s not active and always down.

In Broad Daylgith Essay Example for Free

In Broad Daylgith Essay â€Å"In Broad Daylight† is about Mu Ying, nicknamed Old Whore. She has affairs with different men and is publicly denounced and paraded before the community by the Red Guards who travel from another city and happen to know her bad name. Her dwarf peddler husband Meng Su tries to rescue her from the public humiliation, only to be humiliated himself by the Red Guards, the spectators and his wife as well. Finally, he is found crushed by a train, and Mu Ying lies alone at bus stop, deranged. Written from the point view of a naive boy, nicknamed White Cat, Ha Jin intends to portray through untainted and authentic lens a Chinese woman with a self-awakening feminist consciousness who stands up for her sexuality. Turning point number one in the story is when the questioning of Mu Ying has started and has to confess her crimes of adultery with three other men. She then comes to the point where she explains the feeling of wanting a man holding her with his strong arms very detailed. After Mu Ying describes this feeling of sexual need, a woman who is the mother of Bare Hips speaks from the front of the crowd and says â€Å"You have your own man, who doesn’t lack an arm or a leg. It’s wrong to have others’ men and more wrong to pocket their money† (Jin 156). And on this moment Mu Ying is still recovering from a punch of the Red Guards and still replies with a smirk on her face looking down on her husband â€Å"I have my own man? † (Jin 156). â€Å"My man is nothing. He is no good, I mean in bed. He always comes before I feel anything† (Jin 156). As a central focus of the public denunciation, Mu appeared to be rather calm when she was caught at home. She neither protested nor said a word, but followed the Red Guards quietly. In her eyes, these Red Guards were only a group of children. She did not expect that the join forces of the Red Guards and the revolutionary masses in the town would be tremendous enough to put her in destruction; more importantly, she did not think that her behavior had violated any rule or law. When her husband appealed to the Red Guards, she stared at him without a word, and a faint smile passed the corners of her mouth. In her yes, the behavior of her impotent husband is pedantic and ridiculous. When the Red Guard asked her why she â€Å"seduced men and paralyze heir revolutionary will with your bourgeois poison† (156), she responded rather calmly with a rhetorical question, â€Å"I’ve never invited any man to my home, have I? † (Jin 156). When several women hissed in the crowd, she even tried to persuade them by citing her own experience: â€Å"Sisters,† she spoke aloud. â€Å"All right, it was wrong to sleep with them. But you all know what it feels like when you want a man, don’t you? Don’t you once in a while have that feeling in your bones? Contemptuously, she looked at the few withered middle-aged women standing in the front row, then closed her eyes. â€Å"Oh, you want that real man to have you in his arms and let him touch every part of your body. For that man alone you want to blossom into a woman, a real woman—† (Jin 156). As a group of juveniles, White Cat and his companions know little about the adult life. This limitation makes their participation a journey of discovery. When adults burst out laughing at Mu Ying’s assertion of her husband’s impotence, the teenagers appeared to be puzzled. The dialogue between them shows this point clearly: â€Å"What’s that? What’s so funny? † Big Shrimp asked Bare Hips. â€Å"You didn’t get it? † Bare Hips said impatiently. â€Å"You don’t know anything about what happens between a man and a woman. It means that whenever she doesn’t want him to come close to her he comes. Bad timing. † â€Å"It doesn’t sound like that,† I said (Jin 157). Obviously, Bare Hips does not know any more than Big Shrimp though his impatient tone tries to conceal this ignorance. Ignorant as he is, Bare Hips makes so bold as to cry at Mu Ying, â€Å"Shameless Old Whore! † (Jin 154). Impossible to perceive, the innocent children are acting the role of accomplice in the public denunciation against Mu. Their thoughts and behaviors manifest the influence they have taken from their parents. In this sense, the innocent teenagers have degenerated from lovely angels to dreadful demons. This is a turning point because when the red guards pulled Mu Ying out of her house and started patrolling her through the city streets to get her to the school yard to sentence her, her husband came running from a street corner begging to let Mu Ying go â€Å"Please don’t take her away. It’s my fault. I haven’t disciplined her well. Please give her a change to be a new person. I promise, she won’t do it again† (Jin 155). And even though I have a feeling Mu Ying does not take the Red guard’s judging protocol as a serious punishment at that point, once she has confessed everything it all gets to her. That is when she gets the feeling that she really has humiliated and hurt her husband, because she is looking for him after she got hit with an ink bottle, only to find that he suddenly left the scene. That is the point she says she does not want to be punished after all and promises to better herself. What I saw as turning point number two becomes clear in the last paragraph, which means I did not see that really as the conclusion. It is the scene where Mu Ying is lying alone at the bus stop, saying: â€Å"Take me home. Oh, help me. Who can help me? Where are you? Why don’t you come and carry me home† (Jin 156). It is a perfect example of â€Å"You don’t know what you have until it is gone. † The second train that used its steam horn killed the husband of Mu Ying and made her a widow and truly alone. What I mean with that is that Mu Ying already felt alone because her man was not good enough for her. This feeling of loneliness combined with her husband’s underachieving partly lead to her committing adultery. Now with her husband dead, she finally exactly knows what it actually means to be alone. But moreover the story clearly shows that her husband saved her live once, after she was raped and now he again tries to get her â€Å"off the hook,† by taking the blame. Her grudge against men because of this rape is probably the other part of why she turned to adultery. It is almost shocking to observe that Mu Ying herself is not punished as the â€Å"Old Whore,† where Meng Su did not only try to take the blame, but also gets himself punished like in Old China. While the Red Guards only make her walk down every street saying the words â€Å"I am an evil monster† (Jin 160), instead of burning her alive, Meng Su is beheaded like in the old days. I strongly felt a parallel between the â€Å"blare of horns† announcing the beheading of Mu Ying’s husband. In Ha Jin’s story, the rough death of Meng Su, the husband, constitutes an â€Å"unscheduled event,† which brings White Cat and his companions to the violence of the adult world. The public denunciation of Mu Ying was no longer a thrilling scene, but something that touched them to their souls, evoking their introspection or maybe disillusion about the world. Bare Hips’s vomiting is a strong signal, indicating the shocking effect that the violence may have brought to him. After the shocking experience, they are no longer innocent adolescences, but adults struggling at the verge of understanding. This whole story turned out like a gruesome, tragic circle of misery and unanswered love to me. I think Meng Su loved Mu Ying dearly, but couldn’t take her grudge against men away that she got from the rape by the Russians. Imaginably, as a victim of the gang rape, she must have experienced a hard time of being treated with disdain. Instead of being hit to death by the accident, she has walked out of the shadow of the concept of chastity, and began to enjoy the pleasure of the flesh as well as economic benefits brought about by men, the invader of her virginity. The bitter time she has experienced has actually hardened her heart and paved the way for her further self-liberation, both physically and spiritually. Meng Su couldn’t cope with not saving her from the shame that the Red Guard trial put on her and killed himself, leaving his beloved Mu Ying really alone and helpless at the bus stop.

Organisational Flexibility | Literature Review

Organisational Flexibility | Literature Review This chapter reviews the literature on organisational flexibility, the different types that exists, and the different forms commonly seen in different organisations. The different forms of flexibility are discussed in section 2.2.3 using the classification provided by Looise et al (1998) Major studies reviewed, particularly the work of Atkinson (1984) focused on the fact that there are 2 main groups of workers within a firm: the core group and the peripheral group. The theory of the flexible firm made by Atkinson is at the centre of this literature review. It is discussed in section 2.2.4 followed by some empirical evidence of the use of flexibility in section 2.3 Theory An overview of the different types and known forms of flexibility used in organisations is discussed in this section. After that, an illustration of Atkinson model of the flexible firm is also provided in section 2.2.4 Definition of flexibility As defined by Looise et al, 1998 and Blyton and Morris, 1989, flexibility is the ability to adjust under fluctuating and uncertain circumstances. The concept of the flexible firm itself was originated by Atkinson in 1984 where he argues that there is a growing trend for firms to seek various forms of structural and operational flexibility. Searches he made at that time demonstrate that flexible working can provide an elastic and less rigid approach within most functions in an organization, through the use of strategies such as flexitime working, flexible labour rotations, multi-tasking, production flexibility and delivery flexibility. Flexibility strategies can also improve a companys competitive position on the basis that the meaning of flexibility is the ability to respond to changing market circumstances effectively. Types of flexibility According to Atkinson (1984), there are three main types of flexibility areas and they are as follows: Functional Numerical Financial Functional flexibility It is the ability of managers to extend the range of tasks a worker can perform. With functional flexibility, employees are said to be multi-tasking or multi-skilled. They are able to perform different tasks and functions within the same company as required by the management. It requires a well trained workforce with in-depth knowledge of the different areas of the company, its processes, and its prevailing culture. This practice is said to benefit both the employees in terms of job enhancement and the organization which avails a multi-skilled workforce at its disposition and ready to face rapid changes. An example in the hotel sector, a receptionist can check in/out guests in the morning and also cleans guests rooms as a chambermaid after the morning rush. This demonstrates the extent to which companies are given greater flexibility to act quickly and smoothly as a means of reacting to the problem of staff shortage. According to Atkinson (1985), functional flexibility may imply the same labour force changing its activities within the organization in both short term and medium term. Numerical flexibility Numerical flexibility can be defined as the ability of organizations to increase or decrease employment quickly in line with fluctuations in business demand, and to improve competitiveness of firms through adopting this flexible policy (Atkinson1984; Looise et al 1998; Ruiz-Mercarder et al 2001). With numerical flexibility, companies can easily increase or decrease its total number of workers in the short term to accurately achieve an exact coincidence between the needed workforce and that effectively employed. It is normally achieved through the use of different types of contracts and variations in the distribution of working time. When organizations use numerical flexibility policies, they tend to predict the requirements for human resources and then adjust their human resource supply accordingly. For this type of policy to be more effective and in order to achieve greater success in balancing demand and supply, organizations must imperatively have the ability to use employment and deployment. For example, in most hotels nowadays, the accounting and finance department tries to predict the number of tourist arrivals during different periods by using budgeting systems and then pass it on to the Human Resources department which decides whether there is a need to employ more workers on contract in order to meet the budgeted demand. Financial flexibility It is defined as the policy of adjusting employment costs in line with the demand for labour in the organization, and reflecting the supply of labour in the external labour market. It is therefore obvious that financial flexibility and numerical flexibility are closely associated which implies that certain forms of numerical flexibility inevitably lead to greater financial flexibility for the employer. More specifically, in terms of setting wage levels, financial flexibility means moving from uniform and standardized pay structures towards individualized pay systems. Financial flexibility usually involves a sort of performance based element of pay or simply based on merits. Sources of labour Between these three broad types of flexibility, that is functional, numerical and financial, Looise et al (1998) further classify flexibility strategies into a two-by-two matrix based on two considerations, the source of the staff (that is the acquisition of man power internally and externally) and the involvement of different skills (that is the requirement for staff to have one specific skill only or be able to work more than two positions). This two-by-two matrix is illustrated below. Table I Labour flexibility matrix Internal External Overtime Agency staff Quantitative Variable working time Short-term contracts Part-Time Flexible contracts Shift working Exchange of labour Labour pool Qualitative Job Rotation Detachment Multi-tasking Consultancy Multi-functioning Source: Looise et al (1998) Internal quantitative source of labour: Internal quantitative source of labour implies numerical flexibility. It represents the different ways a company can obtain a numerical increase in its labour force by looking within the organisation itself. (a) Overtime From Table I overtime is said to be an internal quantitative source of staff. Overtime is the term used to describe work undertaken on top of an employees normal contracted hours. Employees are normally paid at an enhanced rate for their overtime (usually one and a half time the normal hourly rate or even double time). Overtime is usually done voluntarily by employees as it is seen as a means of supplementing their basic wage. However, in some circumstances, it is compulsory. For many workers, particularly in white collar jobs and especially amongst professionals and managerial grades, there is no additional overtime payment, even working after normal contracted working hours. (b) Variable working time It refers to a situation where the employee is free to choose his or her working time. Usually, employers accept to make workers choose between variable working time as long as they attain a certain quota in their work as targeted by the management. (c) Part-time It denotes jobs where the number of hours is less than the standard working week. However, there is a problem when talking about part-time jobs. There is no general agreement on what constitutes a standard working week, although there are sometimes industry or establishment norms. It implies that the term part-time can be used to denote someone working a three hour week as well as someone working thirty hours a week. (d) Shift working Shift working is another internal source of quantifying labour. It allows establishments to work continuously by deploying a large workforce across three segments in the working day: early shift, late shift and night shift. In many instances, employees will rotate across these shifts from week to week. Internal qualitative source of labour Internal qualitative source of labour is more likely to be linked with functional flexibility. It encloses the different ways a firm can get working within the company itself to do different tasks. (a) Job Rotation Job rotation means that employees within a particular work area have the ability to perform a variety of tasks and will move from one to another at various times within the working day or the working week. This means that employees have to be fully flexible and able to perform different tasks when necessary during the working day. (b) Multi-tasking and multi-functioning Multi-tasking or multi-functioning implies that a worker can do other jobs apart from those assigned to him. For example, in the hotel sector, a person can work as barman and prepare cocktails and also work as cook in the kitchen. External quantitative source of labour External quantitative source of labour refers to the different ways a firm can become numerically flexible and get an increase in labour force by looking for workers outside the firm. (a) Agency staff Staffing agencies co-ordinate and engage with corporations, organizations and other clients, size up their  human  resources  needs and match their staff needs according to specific requirement. This implies that agency staffs are those persons who are registered to a staffing agency which in turn try to place them in certain specific jobs according to their qualifications. For example, if a hotel is looking for a cook with 2 years experience, it may contact the staffing agency which will look in its data base system for a cook with the experience necessary. (b) Short-term contracts Short-term contract jobs are jobs that have a definite end date. The length of the contract is specified in the contract itself. Short-term or contract jobs could last for one month, three months or even twelve months, depending on the nature of the job. Some people choose short-term jobs because they dont want to feel like they will be stuck in the same job for a long time. (c) Flexible contracts Flexible contract is another quantitative source of labour. It implies employing persons through agency staffs, employing freelance workers or casual workers or even outsourcing the work to specific agencies in the particular field of work required. An example in the hotel sector, instead of employing someone permanently to do gardening or cleaning, there is a gardening agency that provides workers for a certain time period. These workers would be paid directly by the hotel itself but will leave when the job is over. (d) Exchange of labour Exchange of labour is a system where an organization does not need to any recruitment and selection to obtain the necessary labour. Instead it looks within other companies most of the time within the same group of companies and take the best candidate according to requirements. In the hotel sector for example, lets say La Pirogue Hotel need a chef cook. Instead of recruiting one, the hotel will try to find one within the other hotels in the group, i.e. the Sun Resorts Ltd. (e) Labour pool Labour pool refers to a source of trained people from which labour can be hired. It is another external quantitative source of labour where companies can find trained people required for a particular job. The University Of Mauritius is a labour pool. When, for example, a finance company needs ten persons to work in a particular department, they may come to the University of Mauritius and choose the ten best finance students that fits their requirements. External qualitative source of labour It implies functional flexibility but the source of labour this time is outside the firm. (a) Detachment Professional detachment is about doing a task when you dont like it very professionally.  If a person is affected by the way the customers talk and that affects the way he or she is doing the job, then the latter are not professional in his work.  Professionalism is manifested when someone carry out the job when he does not like it at all.   Professional detachment paves the way for achieving excellence and avoiding a lot of unnecessary headaches that one will get from personal involvement. (b) Consultancy Consultancy is an arrangement where a specialist firm sells its services to other firms. For example, KPMG offer advice about matters like taxation or investment or management to other firms. Consultancy is therefore an external qualitative source of labour as the consulting firm will send workers to the other company and provide advice which may benefit the company in terms of better quality work. John Atkinson model of the flexible firm In the 1980s, debates around flexibility were focused on the model of the flexible firm proposed by Atkinson (1985). The most distinctive feature of Atkinsons model was the suggestion that firms started dividing their workforce into CORE and PERIPHERY workers. The model is illustrated in the figure below. Figure 1: The flexible firm Source: Atkinson (1985) The core group According to Atkinson, the most important part for a flexible firm is its core group. Core workers are full time, i.e. permanent employees who benefit of job security and high earnings. In return, they perform different tasks and work as flexible workers across different traditional skills boundaries. They are functionally flexible. The firm invests in these workers in terms of training and they develop new skills which make it possible for them to perform different tasks. Typical members of the core group include managerial and professional staffs and multi-skilled workers. The first peripheral group Outside the core group there is a great variety of peripheral workers. However, the first peripheral group is composed of full-time workers. As compared to the core group, these workers enjoy less job security and inferior career prospects. They are hired to do specific jobs usually of semi-skilled nature. Because workers within the first peripheral group are easily recruited and easily fired, firms can vary their number according to different levels of activity and hence become numerically flexible. In the hotel sector, a typical example could be a waiter or waitress. When there is too much work, more waiters are recruited and when the load of work goes down, again some are fired. The second peripheral group The second peripheral group is made of part-timers, people on job share, and a variety of temporary workers such as workers from agency staffs, people on short term contracts and also those on government schemes. These workers perform the same type of jobs as the first peripheral group and also give the firm numerical flexibility depending on fluctuating activities and hence allow to cope with uncertain growth. The only difference between these two groups is that the second peripheral group is made of part time workers whereas in the first peripheral group, workers are on a full time basis. Outside the firm (Self-employment/ sub-contracting/ increased outsourcing/ agency temporaries) There is a variety of external workers outside the firm who perform either routine tasks such as cleaning and security or very specialized ones. For example many firms employ external workers to do cleaning jobs or ensure the security. There are also sub contracts, agency staffs and home-workers. Home workers may be those working in areas of computing or networking and who can work also through long distances. With these external workers, firms are able to cope with predictable changes in their activities and therefore become financially flexible rather than numerically flexible as they enable the firm to limit financial commitment. Empirical evidence In this section, different studies pertaining to flexibility are illustrated. Some figures are provided to demonstrate the use of different forms of flexibility in organisations. The evidence for flexibility When Atkinson make the study, be based his model on evidence from case studies and surveys including the NEDC (1985) survey of 72 firms in the food and drink, engineering, retail and financial services industries. The NEDC, National Education Data Center, is a U.S agency responsible for providing policy-relevant analysis and reports derived from education data and indicators. It was created in the 1980s by combining offices from several federal agencies. The surveys and case studies identified widespread increases in numerical flexibility in the early 1980s. Surveys also included the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service survey the ACAS (1988). The latter demonstrated that there was also a slight increase in different forms of numerical flexibility. For example, it argues that sub-contracting was the most common and has increased in the manufacturing sector, in larger organisations and in parts of the public sector, such as health and civil service whereas job sharing was on an increasing trend in sectors such as banking where there are problems of balancing staffing and workload. Studies made also provide the evidence that the number of flexible employees increased. They were divided into two particular groups: part-time employees and self employed. In 1981 there were over 4 million people working part-time and in 1993, the number of part-time workers has nearly reached 6 million. The studies demonstrate that the increase in part-time workers occurred at the expense of full-time workers. In 1993 when the number of part-timers increased by 227,820 to a total of 5,998,112, full-time jobs declined by 275,464 to a total of 14,889,977. Over the period 1981-1993, the number of part-timers rose by 1.25 million while full-time jobs declined by 0.5 million. The proportion self employed in the U.K workforce also increased substantially throughout the 1980s at a faster rate than the increase in part-time employees. In the 1990s there were nearly 3.4 million self-employed, approximately 1/8 of the total workforce. Hunter and MacInnes (1991) study Hunter and MacInnes made a study in 1991 on a survey carried out by the Employers Labour Usage Strategies (ELUS). The results progressively focused on workplaces having the most marked tendency to employ peripheral workers. ELUS visited 877 workplaces which made use of peripheral workers of various kinds. Hunter and MacInnes then took a sub-sample of 39 of these establishments. They identified three groups of workers: First there was a set of skilled professionals and technical occupations comprising large numbers of freelance, agency staffs and self-employed workers. Second there was a group of manual and non manual workers who were seen by their employers as having a low level skill or as easily transferable. Not much learning and training were required to do their jobs. Some were on a temporary or a part-time basis Finally, there was a smaller group between the two others which covered both skilled and unskilled jobs that were dependent in some way on limited contracts. The conclusion made by Hunter and MacInnes was that employees have started extending their use of non-standard contracts and this demonstrate the progression of different forms of flexibility in organisations. Conclusion Researches on flexible work are relatively well established and at least since the work of Atkinson (1984) there has been much attention to the concept of flexibility in organisations. Flexibility is seen as a means to improve a firms competitiveness by lowering labour costs. The 2 most important types of flexibility that will be considered within the rest of the project are numerical flexibility and functional flexibility. These two concepts are very important as numerical flexibility tries to make the firm able to cope with increases in work by changing the amount of labour quickly in response to changes in the market and on the other side, functional flexibility make it possible for employees to carry on different tasks and hence reducing company labour costs. Evidences in Europe proved that many companies are more flexible since the 1990s and are actually looking for more and more better ways to be flexible and efficient both in terms of costs and productivity.

Poverty in Edith Whartons Ethan Frome Essay -- Ethan Frome Essays

Poverty in Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome Poverty is defined as deficiency, or inadequacy. It can be used to represent more than just the lack of money. Poverty is constant throughout the novel, Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton. Poverty is evident in almost every area of Ethan's life. First of all, obviously, Ethan lacked money. His farm squeezed out just enough money to keep him and his household going. On page 133, Ethan is thinking of selling his property, but then he remembers its condition... "Farm and mill were mortgaged to the limit of their value, and even if she found a purchaser- in itself an unlikely chance- it was doubtful if she could clear a thousand dollars on the sale... it was only by incessant labor and personal supervision that he managed to draw a meager living from his land..."  Ã‚   The town in which he lived was also quite poor. It snowed most of the time, so it was a bad area for agriculture. Another type of poverty evident in Ethan's life was that he had little happiness. He was forced to quit his career to aide his sick father. His father th...

Essay --

1. NAME OF THE SYSTEM E-Cab is a service of mobile Taxi application via online. 2. SUMMARY OF THE SYSTEM TO BE DEVELOPED E-Cab is a JoBa company, provide a complete taxi services using the latest equipment and technology to facilitate the travel of individuals in and around the Johor Bahru area. The value proposition is straight-forward for confirm your pickup point and order your cab with the press of a button. In seconds you’ll receive confirmation of the name, photo and car model/plate of your driver, and will be able to follow the vehicle’s location in real-time as it approaches you. You can save favorite addresses, check ride history and use many more features constantly being added. Since drivers are checked for compliance before joining the network, passengers do not need to worry about their safety and can simply enjoy their ride. E-Cab gives customers the opportunity to pay with a multitude of payment instruments. So, our customers can pay through debit and credit cards, account vouchers and also coupons. Other products being introduced are university student debit cards, private label cards, account cards, pre-paid single event cards and specialty payment cards. Our company pays our drivers and gives our customers a full account of their taxi transactions. As an added safety measure for both drivers and passengers, E-Cab cabs are fitted with Global Positioning Systems (GPS), which enable the cabs to be tracked or located in an emergency. All E-Cab taxi will be clean, well maintained, and inspected regularly for safety and comfort. E-Cab’s has a unique Global Positioning System (GPS) that pinpoints the nearing driver thus allowing the driver to give an accurate estimated time of arrival. The GPS will enable the company ... ... clean and tidy taxi, friendly and polite drivers, careful driving, most practical route taken, and drivers know more about maintenance/repair services. â€Æ' REFERENCES Easy Taxi. (2013). Easy Taxi: Your Taxi in One Clicks! Retrieved October 20, 2013, from Easy Taxi Web site: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=br.com.easytaxi Softusvista Inc. Venture. (2010-2013). Malaysia Taxi Auto Fare. Retrieved October 20, 2013, from Taxiautofare.com: http://www.taxiautofare.com/my/Default.aspx The Atlantic Monthly Group. (2013). The Atlantic: Why You Can't Get a Taxi. Retrieved October 20, 2013, from The Atlantic Web site: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/why-you-cant-get-a-taxi/308942/ Wikipedia. (2013, June 25). Taxicabs of Malaysia. Retrieved October 20, 2013, from Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxicabs_of_Malaysia

The Brewing Process of Beer :: Brewery Alcohol Beer Essays

The Brewing Process of Beer The first and most important step in brewing is cleanliness. "Brewing is ninety percent janitorial," said Frederick Bowman, founder of Portland Brewing. (Bowman) The first step in the actual brewing process is malting. Malting is what is done to the barley to prepare it for brewing. The steps of the malting process release the starches that are contained in the barley, while minimizing haze and off-flavors. Grain is allowed to soak in 60Â ° F. water to increase the moisture content of the grain to about 40-45%. The grain is usually spread out on the floor of the germination room, or some other container. These grains are kept at a temperature of about 60Â ° F. The germination is complete when the sprout has grown to about 3/4 the length of the grain and the hard part of the grain, or the shell, has turned soft. The goal for germination is for the starches within the grain to break down into shorter lengths. At this shorter length stage, the grain is called green malt. Kilning is t he next stage after the grains have sprouted. Kilning is the process of drying the grain in the kiln where the temperature is slowly raised during the 30-35 hour period. After kilning, the result is finished malt, with soluble starches and developed enzymes. These grains each have a different and distinct flavor depending on how long they are cooked in the kiln. (Porter) After the malting, the grain is ready for milling. Milling is the cracking, and crushing of the grain. This procedure is controlled carefully so as to break the grain while keeping the husk as large and as intact as possible. Milling allows the grain to absorb the water it will be mixed with later as the water will extract sugars from the malt. The malt will now be mixed with warm water in the mash tun. This vessel holds the grain and water mixture for a period of time. Two important things will take place in this step. One is to break down proteins to the more soluble and usable amino acids, providing food for the yeast and foam for a nice head on the beer. The second thing is to break down the starch to simple sugars so yeast can convert them to alcohol and carbon dioxide. (Porter) Mash filtration consists of filtering the converted mash by gravity or pressure in a lauter tub or mash filter to separate the insoluble matter in the malt from the soluble sugars and nitrogen compounds.

Rationale for Ptlls

Rationale My topic will be based around Employability Skills: Why is a CV so important, what should it include and how to put your CV together. I am currently not in a teacher/tutor role right now but I work in recruitment and I find and place suitable candidates within the training and WBL arena. As this is what I currently do for my job I am comfortable delivering this subject to a group of learners. My aim is for my learners To Understand the Importance of Putting Together a Good CV and How to Do it.My learners will make up of 3 of my fellow colleagues from my PTLLS course and will be delivered on the 26th November in a classroom at college. Prior to the session I will prepare a PowerPoint presentation which will include aims and objectives of the session, the CV examples, the group task and the final outcome. I will back up this presentation on a USB stick. I have chosen this resource to enable the learners to engage immediately and digest the subject matter whilst I am introduci ng myself, the aims and objectives.By having a visual resource at the beginning of the session the learners can start to digest the information whilst I am delivering it aurally. This will appeal to the two preferred learning styles and gain interest and engagement from the start. The PowerPoint will keep me and my delivery on track and not veering off the subject. The aim and objective will also be written on my white board or flip chart which will remain up during the whole session. This is to remind the learners of the subject and they can refer to it during the group work task.I will arrange the room so the group can sit together and can see the presentation and can see the whiteboard. I will ask the group to leave their bags and coats at the back of the room to avoid any trip hazards or distractions. As the group already know each other I will not need to introduce an ice breaker. I do not yet know whether they have any special requirements. In preparing for my micro teach I dr aw on information and research around my current employment.I will research the criteria that are needed for a CV, what the prospective employers want to see a CV and the most effective format to use. I will prepare in advance a handout of a good and bad example of a CV. I will also prepare a list of key descriptive words to use in a CV in case we finish too quickly. I will begin my session by introducing myself, my aims and objectives. I will ask if anyone has any previous experience in putting together a CV and if so how long ago it was. The objectives of the session: 1. To listen to the introduction and information about the session. . Understand the importance of a good CV 3. Discuss the good and bad aspects of a sample CV 4. Identify skills and abilities when writing a CV 5. Answer questions and recap. I will introduce the subject by asking questions about their previous experience of writing a CV, was it short, long, bulleted or paragraphed? I will ask them why a CV is so impo rtant and how they can create a good first impression. By asking these open questions I will be drawing on the learner’s previous experience and getting them involved.I can introduce English functional skills here as they will need to ensure it’s written and presented properly with no grammar or spelling mistakes. I will explain that the next task is a group work session where they will be given a copy of a poorly written CV as a handout. They will need to identify the good parts of the CV that are relevant and the parts that are not needed. After this period I will ask them to present their findings which I will write up on the flip chart. I will display on my presentation the layout of the preferred style of CV and ask the group if they have any questions.This will enable them to clarify any information or offer any ideas they may have. I will then handout a formatted copy of the original CV and how it should look. I will ask the learners to discuss what is different with this version relay back to me. This will appeal to the different preferred styles of learning, written, aural and reading. I will use everyone’s name when asking or answering a question, I will make eye contact equally and if someone is not involved I will ask them direct or hypothetical questions.I will use the 7 W processes in asking my questions. If I overrun I will use the last previous CV version as a handout for the learners to take with them, if I run out of time I will introduce my Use of Descriptive CV Words doc. I will summarise the session by relating to the aims and objectives on the flip chart and by referring to the handouts for future reference when putting together a CV. I will thank them for their time and tell them the session is over.

Studying Deviance from a Socio-cultural Stance

Robert K. Merton describes deviance as a unaccepted means of attaining socially important goals. His term innovation requires the person to obtain such goals (wealth, power, etc†¦) in socially unacceptable means, therefore placing the person in the category of a deviant. The strengths of looking at deviance in criminology are the boundless resources of sociologists and other social scientists such as Merton, Emile Durkheim, and George Herbert Mead.Their works are timeless and to the point as they do not need to reflect the current state of societies and instead only the underlying conflict theories from that school of thought that they represent. They are complimentary to current studies, but herein lies the weakness and that is the ever-changing actors and states in societies that need to be studied. The most important factor is the socio-cultural root of socially important goals that deviancy holds many times for the criminal.Those born into poverty and those whose ethnicity o r other minority status puts them into societal disadvantage may innovate ways to achieve simple survival when economies fail them. These socio-cultural roots need to be further explored. The past decade has shown more minority arrests on the part of women and black men, for example. A research study done by the National Institute of Justice suggests that rates of violent crimes by women is on the increase and the term â€Å"marginalized† is used to possibly explain that the most vulnerable women (those who are victims of crimes perpetuated by others) are most likely to commit crimes themselves.But the weakness is the absence of explanation as to why now this is a growing problem as women have always held minority status, but have not shown this level of deviancy. Black men are another group that is disproportionately incarcerated in relation to whites. The question may be of what is the rate of arrest vs. conviction? Is it that these minority populations are being arrested a t higher rates and inevitably convicted due to the financial strain of defense and, in fact deviancy has not changed, arresting attitudes have changed?Research is of the utmost importance in revealing these answers. At any rate these are socio-cultural issues, as is the issue of the images and glamorization of crime in some groups. Pierce and Singleton (1995) suggest that in young African American youth achieving is related to a sense of competence and that that competence represents a sense of control over their possibly out-of-control environments.Innovation then is transformed into deviancy when control and competence is the desired outcome. Looking at conflict theory and economics is the key to understanding this, but it does make it difficult for the Criminologist, as he or she must look to the current state of affairs in a society and look back to theories; sometimes in other disciplines to comprehend deviancy. Studies must be done on motivation and perception, which are highl y psychological.Organizational Behavior offers insight into, such deviant topics as gangs and recruitment, etc†¦Political Science may be utilized to look at other comparable societies to one’s own and the crime rate in relation to regime/regime change and other political factors. Theology (and the Protestant Ethic, for example) may offer insight into deviancy of past and present, as well. But, most importantly a Criminologist must understand the socio-cultural roots, stereotypes, and cultural bias that exists in his/her own community of interest to understand deviancy as innovation and the roots of all this. References Eitzen, D. S.   Phi Delta Kappan. April 1992.   â€Å"Problem Students: The Sociocultural Roots†.   p.587. Mead, G.H. (1918) â€Å"The Psychology of Punitive Justice†, American Journal of Sociology 23: 577-602. National Institute of Justice.   (1999).   â€Å"Research on Women and Girls in the Justice System: Plenary Papers of the 1999 Conference on Criminal Research and Evaluation-Enhancing Policy and Practice Through Research†. Volume 3. Pierce, W.J. & Singleton, S.M.   (1995).   â€Å"Improvisation as a concept for understanding and treating violent behavior among African American youthâ€Å". Families in Society. 76(7).   pp.444-450.

Cow and Pig Manures Essay

While cows eat many of the same plants eaten by horses, weed seeds do not survive in a cow’s digestive system. Cattle (along with goats, sheep, deer, and some other animals) are ruminants that have a system of two stomachs to double-digest their food. Cattle manure is often collected as a slurry, does not have bedding materials mixed in with it, and will break down easily. For these reasons, cow manure is better than horse manure in a compost pile. Nitrogen level is lower than that for horse manure. Pig (hog) manure is collected as a slurry. Its high odor level will diminish when it is combined with dry carboniferous materials. Its nitrogen and other nutrient levels are similar to cow manure. Chicken Manure Chicken manure has long been a favorite of gardeners. Its high nitrogen content makes it ideal to â€Å"fire up† a compost pile that has a lot of carbon, but it also means that it should not be added to the soil directly around plants—it may burn the roots. The strong ammonia smell of chicken manure almost disappears when it is mixed with carboniferous materials such as dead leaves. As a general rule, it is best to compost chicken manure rather than add it directly to the soil. Read more: The Best Manure for Compost | Garden Guides http://www.gardenguides.com/87499-manure-compost.html#ixzz29JgQHQSP Materials and methods Location, soil and climate The experiment was conducted in the experimental farm of the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine Faculty of Nong Lam University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. This area is in Southeastern Vietnam, and has a tropical monsoonal climate, with a rainy season from May to October and a dry season from November to April. The characteristic of the soil is sandy. The average temperature is 28 °C with high humidity. The duration of this study was 120 days, from February to May, 2011. Treatments and experimental design The experiment was a completely randomized design (CRD), with 5 treatments and 3 replicates. Each replicate in the experimental field was a plot with about 110 plants grown on the surface of 4.5m2 (1.5m Ãâ€" 3m) and 20 cm high (Figure 1). The treatments were: †¢ Chicken manure (CM): 68g total Nitrogen from chicken manure †¢ Cow manure (COM): 68g total Nitrogen from cow manure †¢ Pig manure (PM): 68g total Nitrogen from pig manure †¢ Inorganic fertilizer (IO): 68g total Nitrogen from inorganic fertilizer †¢ No manure (NM): No manure is applied when sowing and planting

Professionalism in the Army

A soldier is measured by his ability to do his job successfully, tactfully, and professionally. Being a professional at everything you do will help you succeed in every aspect of your life. The definition of professionalism as by Merriam-Webster is the conduct, aims, or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or professional person. Being in the Ranger Regiment we are considered professionals. How we train, perform, and even hold ourselves to the Army Values and Ranger Creed make us the elite fighting force we are.In this essay I will talk about what professionalism is, what professionalism means to me as well as what it means to this unit, 75th Ranger Regiment. In any profession there are many attributes accompanied with professionalism. In the 75th Ranger Regiment, like all professional jobs, in order to be successful experience, communication, and moral ethics will make any individual succeed. Experience can help save time and effort. Learning from ones past mistakes and accomplishments can be very valuable in any work place.Being able to effectively communicate is key. As an intelligence professional knowing what to say and how to get into peoples minds can prove to help a great deal on the battle field. Ethics is knowing the difference between right and wrong from good from bad, this is what being a professional is. Every single person’s morals and values of life are different. To me professionalism means to lead by example, to try your best and give it your all no matter who is watching.As well as to put in the time and effort, to act on your best behavior and to get any task presented done giving one hundred percent. These are all traits of what professionalism means to me. No matter if your a private or a commander being a professional within this unit is the standard we all should live by. What Professionalism means to the 75th Ranger Regiment is simple. If you follow and uphold the Ranger Creed you will always be successful within this unit.Giving one hundred percent even when no one is watching. Being the best at ones job giving one hundred percent, these are all traits of a professional within this organization, and what the Ranger Creed stands by. In conclusion, being a profession will help you succeed in life. Leading by example, or giving it your all when no one is watching. This is what I believe professionalism means to me as well as this unit. These are the conduct, aims, or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or professional person.

Analisis Bimbo

Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility The most important thing in a firm is its people, because investors give what they have, but people give what they are. — Lorenzo Servitje, Grupo Bimbo founding partner By 2008, Grupo Bimbo was the leading baking company in the Americas and one of the largest in the world. It had annual sales of over $7. 4 billion, more than 100 brands and more than 97,000 worldwide associates—as Bimbo liked to call its employees. It manufactured more than 5,000 SKUs (stock keeping units) from 83 plants located in Mexico, the United States, Central and South America, Europe and Asia. Bimbo distributed its products to more than 1 million sales outlets in 18 countries. Each of these points of sale was visited by more than 36,000 route salespersons. Its products ranged from sliced bread, buns, cookies, snack cakes, pastries, sweet baked goods, packaged food, tortillas, salted snacks, confectionary goods and goat milk sweet or â€Å"cajeta,† among other products. Bimbo was the largest Latin American-based food company and the second largest bread company in the world. For eight years in a row, Bimbo had been honored with the Socially Responsible Enterprise Award from CEMEFI, the Mexican Center for Philanthropy. Moreover, Grupo Bimbo was ranked in the 9th position of the Reputation Institute for best corporate reputation in the world. 1 The next Mexican ranked firms in the study were Grupo Modelo and Cemex in the 112th and 119th spot, respectively. Grupo Bimbo had set ambitious growth objectives beyond 2010. It wanted to become the world leader in the baking industry and one of the best food companies in the world. In order to achieve those objectives, it had embarked on an aggressive program of acquisitions in overseas markets, starting with the United States across the border, and going all the way to China. Even as we pursue an ambitious growth agenda, we cannot forget our core values and who we are as a company,† stated Don Lorenzo Servitje, the now retired 90 year old founder of the company. As Figure 1 shows, Bimbo captured its core values along the seven attributes of passion, profitability, effectiveness, team work, trust, quality, with the â€Å"person† coming at the ce nter. Under its second CEO, Roberto Servitje (now chairman of the board) and its current CEO, Daniel Servitje, the company had grown spectacularly and gained an international footprint. See Exhibit 1 for its revenue growth. â€Å"Yes, indeed we have grown ur business, not at the cost of our responsibility to society, but because of our investments in it. Going forward, however, we are a far more complex company than the one founded and 1to ensure that our values and strategy are in alignment,† asserted Daniel Servitje. Figure 1 Source: Grupo Bimbo. (In the figure above, the expression â€Å"efforts and illusions† under â€Å"profitability† is best interpreted as â€Å"efforts and aspirations. †) Mexico By 2008 Mexico was the second most populated country in Latin America (behind Brazil) with 105. 7 million inhabitants, 76% of them living in urban areas. In 2007 Mexico’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was $893. 4 billion –-the second largest in Latin America behind Brazil’s GDP of $1,286. 7 billion but ahead of Argentina’s $262. 3 billion, Venezuela’s $228. 1 billion and Colombia’s 2 Instituto Nacional de Estadistica, Geografia e Informatica, INEGI, www. inegi. gob, last viewed August 11, 2008. 2 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility 509-025 $172 billion. Mexico was the 14th largest economy in the World. 3 Mexico’s GDP per head in 2007 was $8,219. However, Mexico was a country of contrasts: the lowest 20% of the population accounted for only 3. % of total income and the Gini coefficient was 0. 508. 4 Forty percent of Mexico’s population was considered poor, and 18% lived in extreme poverty. 5 Due to deficiencies in the public education system, the unskilled and low skilled labor pool was large and around 40% to 60% of the workforce worked in the informal sector. Mexico was ruled for 71 years by one single party, the Partido Revolucionario Insitucional, or PRI. The PRI led Mexico through a stabilizing development from 1958 to 1971 where the country industrialized and GDP grew at annual rates of 6%. From the 1970’s to the end of the 1980’s the PRI policies became very nationalistic and interventionist. This period was characterized by high inflation rates and frequent financial crises, where GDP plummeted, real incomes dropped, with high external debt and soaring interest rates. During this period, Mexico’s economy was heavily dependent on oil exports. In the 1990’s the PRI embraced free market and liberalization policies that included privatization of hundreds of state-owned firms, trade liberalization that culminated in the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, in 1994, and deregulation of various industries. After NAFTA, Mexico’s economy diversified and changed from being dependent on oil exports to manufactured goods exported mainly to the United States. After the Tequila crisis that started in 1994—where GDP plummeted 6. 2% in real terms and inflation rose above 52%—the PRI was historically defeated in the year 2000, and since then two presidents from the Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) had been in power: President Fox from year 2000 to 2006 and Felipe Calderon—who by 2008 was in his second year of presidency. Despite high hopes for President Fox’s administration, his political effectiveness was severely hindered by a divided congress, and economic reforms that were needed to improve the competitiveness of the country, such as fiscal and energy reforms, were not able to pass through Congress. Felipe Calderon, at his second year of term, faced similar obstacles. He proved to be a better negotiator than President Fox. His administration had been able to pass pension reform and a mild fiscal reform. However, one of the most important reforms needed for boosting Mexico’s competitiveness and growth—energy reform—had not been able to pass. High energy costs—along with high labor costs—were limiting Mexico’s ability to compete with other exporting countries such as China. Strengthening of fiscal and monetary policies since the end of the last century had translated into macroeconomic stability but growth was not catching up with the country’s needs. Average annual growth rates since year 2000 had been 3%, insufficient to alleviate poverty and reduce inequality. 6 Constraints for growth were high-cost labor and energy inputs, a weak non-oil tax base, continued dependence on US markets for exports, weak skill base and a shallow credit market. Calderon was struggling to pass the energy reform but it was hard to boost growth given high input costs and Mexico’s dependence on the slowing US economy. 3 World development indicators database, World Bank, July 2008, www. worldbank. org last viewed August 12, 2008. 4 Source: World development indicators, www. worldbank. org, last viewed 8/13/2008 and Mexico Country Profile, Economist Intelligence Unit. A high Gini coefficient indicates a high level of income inequality, 0 corresponds to perfect equality and 1 to perfect inequality with one person having all the income. Worldwide Gini coefficients range from 0. 49 in Japan to 0. 707 in Namibia (www. wikipidia. org last viewed 8/13/2008). 5 Mexico Country Brief, World Bank, www. worldbank. org, last viewed August 13, 2008. 6 Source: Banco de Mexico, www. banxico. gob, last viewed August 13, 2008. 3 509-025 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility Grupo Bimbo: History The Servitje family started doing business in the baki ng industry early in the 20th century. When Lorenzo Servitje was 18 years old, his father—who had a well-known bakery called El Molino—died from a stroke. Lorenzo had to leave behind his accounting career in order to attend to his father’s bakery. On taking over, Lorenzo wanted to make the bakery something bigger and more ambitious. He wished to start a bread production and distribution business. On December 2, 1945, Bimbo was founded. It had five founding shareholders, all family members: Lorenzo Servitje and his younger brother Roberto Servitje among them. The logo, the Bimbo bear, was drawn by the wife of one of the founders. Bimbo started with only one brand, 38 workers, and 10 trucks to deliver the bread made in one plant in Mexico City. The first products were white boxed bread and toasted white bread. The production process was completely manual and rudimentary. Bimbo bread was quickly accepted by Mexico’s households because it was packed in transparent cellophane paper—instead of the traditional wax paper—which kept it fresh and also because its quality was easily seen. Another key to Bimbo’s success was its huge publicity campaign in newspapers, radio and the movies. Never before had so much been paid to publicize bread. 7 In the next few years, Bimbo quickly incorporated more products into its product line, such as whole wheat bread, sweet breads, cakes and sweet loafs. Its distribution network, however, only reached Mexico City and cities nearby. To reach other cities, Bimbo expanded its distribution system in a way similar to how newspapers were distributed at the time. By 1956, Bimbo had commissioned its first plant outside Mexico City. Having successfully built the company from scratch, in 1963, Don Lorenzo Servitje took on the role of CEO of Grupo Bimbo and his brother, Roberto Servitje, became CEO of Bimbo breads division. Over the next 15 years, the two brothers rapidly grew Bimbo’s sales to $425 million and 16,125 associates. At the beginning of the 1970’s, Bimbo opened the largest bread factory in Mexico and Latin America and one of the 10 largest factories in the world. In this factory, bread production was completely automatic. The factory produced one-and-half, big boxed bread, per second, which was completely unprecedented in Latin America. In 1979, Lorenzo Servitje handed over Grupo Bimbo’s presidency to his brother Roberto and he assumed the chairmanship of the board. In 1980, Bimbo went public with 15% of its stock in the Mexican stock exchange. The company was then valued at $12. 5 million dollars. The successful IPO gave the company confidence to expand into the United States. Bimbo sent its first trucks with bread to the U. S. to explore the possibility of catering to a burgeoning population of Hispanic consumers just north of its border. Satisfied with the existence of demand for its products, in 1987 Bimbo started to distribute products in Houston and Los Angeles. By the end of the decade, Bimbo had expanded to Central and Latin America as well. In 1997, Daniel Servitje, Lorenzo’s son, at the age of 39 with an MBA from Stanford University, became CEO of the group and continued to lead Bimbo’s internationalization effort through important acquisitions. Roberto Servitje took on the chairman’s position and Lorenzo stepped down from all formal positions. Daniel Servitje continued with the growth strategy of his predecessors, and in the year 2000, Grupo Bimbo expanded to Europe by acquiring two plants –one in Austria and the other in the Czech Republic- and in 2001 it expanded into Brazil. See Exhibits 2 and 3 for the company’s historical financial performance, and regional indicators. By 2007, the company had a sales turnover of Ps 72,294 million (or $6. 65 billion) and a net 7 â€Å"Bimbo: A 60-year History of Believe and Create† Source: www. rupobimbo. com. mx/admin/content/uploaded/Historia% 20Grupo%20Bimbo. pdf. Last viewed: July 8th, 2008. 4 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility 509-025 profit of Ps 3,914 million (or $360 million). 8 Of its total sales, 67% were in Mexico, 22% in the U. S, and 11% from twelve Latin American countries. While Roberto Servitje at age 80 served as the chairman of t he board, Lorenzo Servitje at age 90 was still active in its social responsibility affairs. Products and Brands Through the years, Bimbo grew in its bread production and also added many new products and brands. With nearly 5,000 items in its portfolio, and the nearly 100 new products being added every year, the company offered something for every taste and every occasion. Many of these additions came through acquisitions of different firms and brands. Its Bimbo bread division was undoubtedly the flagship of the company, accounting for nearly 50% of all its revenues. Of its main brands, Marinela produced all sweet breads, buns and cakes. Its star product was the â€Å"gansito† or â€Å"little duck,† which was a cake filled with marmalade and covered with chocolate. By 1975, one million â€Å"gansitos† were sold daily. Barcel started off by producing candies, but by 1977 it had begun to produce a wide range of salted snacks. Production of candies was transferred to a new firm called Ricolino. By 2007, Bimbo dominated the market in the packaged bread segment in Mexico. In the salty snack category, Barcel was second to its main competitor Sabritas, owned by PepsiCo. Other important brands were Tia Rosa, which produced specialty sweet breads and flour tortillas, Milpa Real, which produced corn tortillas and Lonchibon, which made ready-to-eat food and snacks. Most of Bimbo’s internationalizations efforts were carried out through local acquisitions. Bimbo looked to acquire firms in regions and segments that provided a platform for growth. It also looked for strong brands that were complementary to its existing portfolio of products and brands, and also provided opportunities that could enable Bimbo to scale up and achieve cost savings. Exhibit 4 provides a summary overview of its various brands, the associated product lines, and their country of operation. Sales and Distribution System Bimbo had one of the largest and most complex distribution networks in the country—second only to Coca-Cola. With time, Bimbo’s distribution system had become more sophisticated and larger but qualitatively, it was essentially the same as when Bimbo started 63 years ago—products were delivered fresh directly from Bimbo depots to the retail store, there were no intermediaries in between. Bimbo products were distributed in to three different channels: supermarkets, convenience stores and through what was called the detail channel to mom pop stores (MPs). The importance of the detail channel was diminishing as MPs found it harder every day to compete with expanding supermarket chains and convenience stores that offered other services such as ready-to-eat food. In the last 10 years, the supermarket chains had grown considerably and the traditional MP channel was losing share (see Exhibit 5). Convenience stores especially, were showing strong growth as they expanded into suburban and rural areas. Moreover, large chain retailers such as Wal-Mart and Chedraui were offering banking services to their customers, thus making it harder for MPs to compete. The total grocery retail market in Mexico was estimated at $125 billion in 2007. 9 8 Foreign exchange as of December 28, 2007 was 10. 8662. Source: Diario Oficial de la Federacion. www. dof. gob. mx. Last viewed July 3rd 2008. 9 â€Å"Retailing Mexico: Country Market Insight,† Euromonitor International, May 2008 and â€Å"Top 5 Retailers in Mexico,† Planet Retail, September 2008. 5 509-025 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility All Bimbo products—from all brands and from all plants—were taken to depots from where they were distributed to all channels. In Mexico, around 40% of Bimbo’s total workforce consisted of route-sales associates. Its flagship brand, Bimbo bread, was distributed in large trucks serving metropolitan cities and towns. The rest of the brands were distributed in smaller trucks by independent sales forces. The distribution system was highly programmed. A handheld computer contained all the information on customers, their average orders, product assortments, and their detail route. That information was synchronized with Bimbo’s server at the end of each day. Mexico has nearly 1 million sales outlets, of which Bimbo reached nearly 750,000. Salesmen arrived at the depot around 6:30a. m. to load their trucks. Thanks to the handheld, they knew which products to load depending on the routes they were assigned that day. Trucks were randomly inspected to cross-check the information in the handheld with the actual physical stock in the truck. Salesmen started their routes around 7:00a. m. At each sales point, salesmen delivered products that they booked and took back products before their â€Å"shelf life† had expired. This practice was necessary to insure that consumers had access to fresh product in the market at all times. All sales information was entered into the handheld for control of daily sales. At the end of their route, salespeople returned to their appropriate depots, where stocks were checked and the recalled products were readied to be sent to an â€Å"expendio† or discount store. Salespeople had sales’ goals that they could attain through increasing sales in each store or increasing the number of clients in their â€Å"route. † Daily wages to salesmen consisted of a base salary plus commission, which was a percentage of their daily sales. Commission, on average, was more than double the base salary. On average, a Bimbo salesperson earned slightly more salary than the one usually offered by food industry for similar positions. The traditional or detail channel was the most important channel for Bimbo because it represented its largest source of sales. Bimbo supervisors were always trying to encourage their team to expand their sales points to include nontraditional outlets such as gas stations, beauty parlors, internet cafes, among others. A large fraction of low-income people, who lived in rural areas or small towns, depended on the traditional MPs to buy their groceries. 0 See Exhibit 6 for a view of three semi-urban outlets. MPs usually sold at higher prices than supermarkets but lower than convenience stores. Most MPs had a very close relationship with their clients who often relied on the credit given by the store owner for their purchases. Most of the time customers cleared their accounts by pay day. Such credit was usually not offered by convenience stores or supermarkets. In spite of its service levels, the traditional channel was slowly disappearing. It was becoming increasingly difficult for the small MPs to compete with convenience stores and supermarkets. Their stores were smaller, the product range more limited, and the layout and management of the stores less professional. MPs had to pay for most of their inventory in cash. They received almost no credit from suppliers—some distributors such as Coca Cola, Sabritas (PepsiCo. ), had only recently started to offer credit to MPs. Moreover, because their purchase volumes were relatively smaller, they received no quantity-discounts such as those offered to convenience stores and supermarkets. As a response to the needs of the MPs but also as a way of maintaining Bimbo’s most important channel, in 2004 Bimbo initiated a bold new program called â€Å"Pesito. † 10 From field visits, the case writers estimated their size to be about 250 to 500 square feet. The owners reported average daily sales of between $200 and $450, of which sodas, juice and water accounted for 50%, food-30%, and tobacco-20%. Larger stores also carried cleaning and some health and beauty products. Some carried beer. Margins varied widely by product, averaging about 20%. 6 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility 09-025 Pesito During the course of their daily route selling, salesmen offered credit on purchases of Bimbo products. Store owners wanting the credit paid a flat fee of 2 pesos (20 cents) regardless of the size of the order placed. The sales person entered the credit information on to his handheld so the record of each credit could be uploaded into Bimbo’s central system once the sales person ended his daily route. At the next visit to the store—which could be anytime between two days to one week, the store owner had to pay the credit to the sales person. The sales person would then give the store owner a receipt, which was printed from the handheld and the transaction was closed. If the store owner was unable to repay the credit, for a payment of 2 pesos the credit could be rolled over, but no new transactions would be made. Many Bimbo clients recognized that â€Å"Pesito† was a way to increase their income, without having to invest in inventory, helping them to grow their business. Consequently the default rate was very low. Bimbo had different sales forces for different brands, thus there were separate Pesito programs for each brand. For example, a store could have outstanding credit with Bimbo, Marinela, Tia Rosa and Barcel. The store would appear in the Pesito accounts under four different identifiers. There were limits to the amount of credit that a sales person could give per client, in most cases the equivalent of one week’s order; and then there were overall limits per route as well. Through steady efforts by Grupo Bimbo’s route sales people, approximately 350,000 of the small store owners participated in the Pesito program and paid on time, and Bimbo’s goal was to further increase that in the coming years. Microfinance for Store Owners Don Lorenzo Servitje had, among many other of his social concerns, the idea of helping the poor through micro credits. Don Lorenzo was particularly interested in the MPs store owners because, through Bimbo, he had noticed how they lived day by day solely with the income from their store. They had no health or life insurance and Don Lorenzo noticed how many times MPs had to close due to sickness or death in the family. Store owners also had no access to the formal financial system so they had to rely on money lenders, especially to make capital improvements in the store. They seldom had resources to invest in their store to make it more productive or more attractive to customers for example by installing new equipment, refrigerators, meat cutters, or a PC to access the internet. Thus in 1994, Bimbo started an alliance with Fincomun, a microcredit institution with the goal of providing further financial services to its MP clients. The loan process with Fincomun was simple. A Bimbo salesperson could recommend a client to Fincomun. Bimbo salespeople knew their clients quite well, their business model, their cash flow, and their credit reputation. If the client accepted the offered credit, Fincomun agents visited the store and gave them a check that could be cashed at a bank. If the Bimbo sales person assisted in the follow-on collection, they were paid a small fee for the effort. Only a very small proportion of Bimbo’s clients, however, were Fincomun customers (less than 5%). By June 2008, Fincomun also offered Life and Hospitalization insurance and had 400 clients in the pilot stage of the insurance program. History of Bimbo’s Corporate Social Responsibility From its very beginnings, Bimbo prided itself on its commitment to social causes and Mexico’s development. In 1954, not even 10 years after its founding, Bimbo opened a school for workers’ 7 509-025 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility children. Since then, a percentage of Bimbo’s pre-tax profits were earmarked for social and educational causes. â€Å"I wanted to dedicate myself to something more than just making cakes and bread. I aspired to serve others,† Don Lorenzo was reputed to have said in a newspaper interview. 11 Even in hard times, Bimbo had avoided firing people and reducing the CSR budget. Roberto Servitje used to say, â€Å"Entrepreneurs are meant to create and grow, not to destroy. Over time, Bimbo’s portfolio of CSR programs had grown both in size and in sophistication. At the beginning, the programs were more geared internally, toward Bimbo’s associates. Over time, they expanded externally as well. Bimbo’s CSR programs were divided into a matrix (for a detailed description of programs see Exhibit 7). Daniel Servitje asser ted, â€Å"Our CSR programs are divided into six categories that overlap with each other. We have internal and external programs, and then we have economic, social and environmental programs. When Bimbo was founded, CSR was neither structured nor formal. It was something that we did because we believed in it; because the values of social awareness were embedded in all of us since we were children. † Martha Eugenia Hernandez, head of institutional relations and CSR and who had been at Bimbo since 1981, recalled â€Å"Don Lorenzo used to say, ‘Your left hand should never know what your right hand is giving. ’ And that was the philosophy behind CSR at that time; it was low key. † Roberto Perez Gomez, head of labor relations and a 20-year-old veteran of the company added, â€Å"With Don Lorenzo, Bimbo was a small and privately held firm; contact with associates was very personal. Even though Bimbo has grown rapidly and is now a public company, the social responsibility philosophy is still the same. Contact with associates is still personal. Daniel Servitje visits each plant every year and has annual meetings with associates of different areas. † The company’s CSR budget was determined as a percentage of its profits. This percentage was decided by a CSR committee comprised of five members of the board. The committee also decided which programs to support and to what amount. The profit percentage varied from year to year, and was determined independently for each country. Bimbo’s CSR programs were divided into four areas of commitment: Employees or Associates, Health, Environment, and the Community. Associates Since the beginning, one of our greatest concerns was our relationship with associates. We wanted people to work happily, we wanted them to identify with the company and we wanted them to be respected, having a non instrumental view of people; we wanted relations with personnel to be harmonious and cordial. With the years, the view of a highly productive firm that could also be a profoundly humane company consolidated. Profit sharing with our associates was higher than that required by law and many of our associates purchased shares with their monthly savings. 12 (Don Lorenzo Servitje13) 11 â€Å"Lorenzo Servitje: Sonar y Realizar,† Reforma, Club section, May 16, 2008. 12 Legal profit sharing in Mexico was 10%. Profit sharing in Bimbo was linked to productivity and could go from 11% to 13. 5% of profits depending on the results of the company. Source: Company information. 13 â€Å"Bimbo: A 60-Year History of Believe and Create. † Source: www. grupobimbo. com. mx/admin/content/uploaded/ Historia%20Grupo%20Bimbo. pdf. Last viewed: July 8th, 2008. 8 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility 509-025 In 2005, Bimbo hired a Canadian company to analyze Bimbo’s competitive advantages. They concluded, â€Å"We have analyzed their technology. They have the best in the world. They are leaders in the markets where they are present and have a great distribution network. However, what strikes us the most is that people are committed far beyond what is normally seen in other companies. People identify with the company. We see all workers, at all levels, seeking to give the best in them. That is what truly makes them special. 14 Bimbo was rated one of Mexico’s best places to work during the last eight years. In September 2008, Grupo Bimbo as a whole had more than 97,000 associates, of which around 60,000 worked in the baking division in Mexico. Around 25% of them were international associates and 13% were women. Right from the beginning, Bimbo’s top management did not merely perceive t heir associates as a labor resource, but rather as people who were partners in Bimbo’s mission to create value. They were treated with care, and provided opportunities to grow and learn and advance their quality of life. Grow and innovate was the motto driving Bimbo’s relationship with its associates. Javier Millan, head of Human Relations, put it simply: â€Å"Our competitive advantage lies within our values, outstanding among which is the person. Viewing a person as an individual is the small difference that makes all the difference. Once they are treated that way people get involved, they become interested in the company’s objectives. † Bimbo’s programs for its associates were divided into two areas of support: economic or development. Within economic benefits, Bimbo had health assistance, support for home improvement, and help with wills and deeds. It strongly encouraged long-term retirement savings among its associates. Roberto Servitje said: â€Å"What you truly gain is what you save and invest. † Under personal development, Bimbo offered its associates various courses that covered much more than just training for the workplace. Many courses addressed personal development opportunities such as, improving communication skills, raising healthy families, and so on. There were also educational offerings that enabled associates to complete a high school program, online and on-site English proficiency courses, and a mandatory course on how businesses work and contribute to the economy (to see a description of Bimbo’s programs for its associates, see Exhibit 8). Roberto Servitje said, â€Å"The firm is what its people are, and the people are what their leaders are. † From among the many benefits provided to associates, the health and education offerings were highly valued. Mexico’s public health system was known to be inefficient. It often took long hours to be seen by a doctor and receive treatment, and many visits to the doctor before one could see a specialist. Moreover, few people had access to preventive medicine. Bimbo tried to bridge the gap by providing free complete medical exams to all associates over 40, once a year preventive medical exams for cardiovascular illnesses at Bimbo facilities and follow-up checkups for those identified as needing further monitoring and care. All Bimbo associates were covered by the Mexican government’s health plan, to which Bimbo made a contribution, as did the associates through payroll deduction. In order to enable its associates circumvent the poor system of public care, Bimbo made available its facilities for the government to operate its clinics. Because of their location most of these operated as exclusive clinics for Bimbo employees. Moreover because these clinics were on Bimbo premises, the company was able to offer better infrastructure than what would normally be available to such clinics. 14 â€Å"In Grupo Bimbo, People Make the Difference,† presentation given by Javier Millan, head of Human Relations, 2007. 9 509-025 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility Health and Nutrition Within Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries (OECD), Mexico had the dubious reputation of being second in obesity rankings after the United States. 15 Recent studies16 showed that obesity in Mexico within the total population had increased during the last 60 years, but that this growth had accelerated at an alarming pace in the last 20 years. Obesity growth rates accelerated 10% to 20% in children, 30% to 40% in adolescents, and 60% to 70% in adults. The increase in obesity was most worrying in children (see Exhibit 9). The same study linked the reasons for the increase in childhood obesity to changes in eating habits, to diets high in calories, refined carbohydrates and sodas, and decrease in consumption of fruits and vegetables. This same study stated that the increase in obesity was also related to a decrease in physical activity. In Mexico, the obesity risk for children 9 to 16 years old increased 16% for each hour that they watched TV or played videogames. On average, Mexican children watched TV or played videogames 4. 1 to 6. 3 hours daily. 7 To counter the varied causes of obesity, in 2007 Bimbo launched a health program called Committed to Your Health. The program had many different components roughly divided into five areas: improving product healthiness, education in health and nutrition, promotion of physical activity, research, and being an exemplary firm in terms of health and nutrition (for details of the programs see Exhibit 10). The company published Nutrinotas, which reached 1 milli on print and online subscribers, and distributed sports and nutrition materials for 21,000 students. As part of its efforts to promote physical activity, the company staged a nationwide soccer tournament for children, Futbolito Bimbo Stars. In 2007, 46,000 children aged 9 to 12 participated in the program and the winning team travelled to Venezuela for the America’s Cup soccer tournament. In 2008, more than 50,000 children attended, winning a trip to Disney World. In its 2007 annual report, the company affirmed its commitment to health: The millions of people who enjoy our products each day count on them for quality, consistency and taste. The success lies in staying attuned to consumer tastes and trends. That means enhancing the nutritional value of our products and introducing new, healthy options. In this regard we follow the guidelines of the World Health Organization on reducing fat, salt and sugar content, and decreasing portion sizes†¦We are also innovating by adding functional ingredients to numerous products, for example, to lower cholesterol or enhance mineral absorption. We have created a range of products with less than 100 calories each; and just as importantly, we are investing in mass-market educational campaigns to encourage active, healthy lifestyles. In order to create the necessary research and development infrastructure, Grupo Bimbo had built four Innovation and Nutrition Institutes (‘Institutos de Investigacion y Nutricion de Grupo Bimbo’), two of them located in Mexico, one in the United States and one in South America. 15 World Health Organization, www. who. org last viewed July 8, 2008. 16 â€Å"Obesidad Infantil,† Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica, Nov. 2006. www. insp. mx/Portal/Centros/ciss/nls/boletines/ PME_14. pdf. Last viewed July 7, 2008. 17 â€Å"Obesidad Infantil,† Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica, Nov. 2006. www. insp. x/Portal/Centros/ciss/nls/boletines/ â€Å"PME_14. pdf. Last viewed July 7, 2008. 10 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility 509-025 Environment Bimbo’s programs in terms of environment protection were divided into five areas: emission reduction, saving water, saving energy, solid waste management and CSR on environmental matters through an institution dedicated to forest conservation and reforestation called â€Å"Reforestamos Mexico. † In the words of Martha Eugenia Hernandez, â€Å"we want to be a Green Company, both inside and outside. † See Exhibit 11 for the impact of its natural resource conservation effort. In 1998, Mexico suffered extensive fires in its forests; Mexico lost 800,000 hectares of forests. The government invited companies to participate in recovering lost forests. Bimbo responded speedily. Its associates raised money, and each peso donated by them was matched by Bimbo. As a result of the company’s (and its associates’) efforts, 1 million trees were planted and 8 natural areas were targeted for improvement. After that impressive achievement Bimbo’s directors decided to extend their commitment to Mexico’s forests on a more permanent basis. As a result, in 2002 Bimbo created a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the forests and trees of Mexico and named it â€Å"Reforestamos Mexico. † The administrative costs of Reforestamos Mexico was entirely borne by Bimbo, while the costs of the various projects were shared by Bimbo and other firms such as Wal-Mart, Banco Santander, Hewlett Packard, as well as individual donors. Twenty percent of Bimbo’s saving from energy conservation was used to fund Reforestamos Mexico. All Reforestamos’ employees, including the director, were independent. Its director, Ernesto Herrera, had worked for Bimbo prior to this appointment and was passionately committed to its mission. â€Å"I have worked for the environment for 10 years. For me, Reforestamos Mexico has been a dream-cometrue. I work in something that I passionately care about, and in one of the most committed companies in the world. I envision Reforestamos Mexico expanding into Latin America and working along with some of America’s most important environmental NGOs. † From the 27 people that constituted Reforestamos Mexico’s advisory board, only 3 worked for Bimbo. In addition to its Reforestamos Mexico activities, in August 2008, Grupo Bimbo announced that it had begun the use of degradable polyethylene packaging for its products, which made it the first Mexican company to use a 100% environment-friendly material. Ramon Rivera, Operations Director of Grupo Bimbo, commented, â€Å"the products packaged in degradable wrapping preserve their freshness and all of their characteristics exactly the same as those using traditional wrapping, and therefore consumers can have total confidence that the product will continue to be exactly the same. With the technology known as â€Å"d2w,† the degradation of the plastic began as soon as its useful life was over and the plastic discarded. The plastic was programmed to be consumed by bacteria and fungi in the soil, through an additive that reduced its molecular structure. This process of degradation would take a maximum period of 3-to-5 years, in comparison to the normal process that could take as lo ng as 100 to 400 years. 18 Community Bimbo was acutely aware of its close linkages to the community, and therefore had instituted various programs in support. It worked jointly with the National Development Bank for the small and micro enterprise (Nacional Financiera or NAFIN) to help its suppliers with working capital needs. Bimbo also supported many educational programs for both its suppliers and its store owners. For suppliers, Bimbo provided a course that helped them improve their business skills. The topics included cost reduction, quality improvement, and tracking operations online. For store owners, 18 Grupo Bimbo Incorporates Degradable Packaging 100% Environment Friendly, http://www. grupobimbo. com. mx/ salaprensa/index. php? fuseaction=home. oletinlangID=2bolID=212. 11 509-025 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility Bimbo developed a course jointly with local universities called â€Å"the store-owner university† or â€Å"la Universidad del tendero. † This course covered basic management tools such as accounting, marketing, customer service, operations planning and control, and some basic computer skills among other things. By June 2008, Bimbo had delivered 38 classes to almost 1,000 store owners. In 2007 and 2008, through Televisa Foundation, an institution that sought the development of children and young people of Mexico, Grupo Bimbo istributed 550,000 copies of a Values Calendar and Teacher’s Support Guide, to almost all Mexican elementary schools. Each year the company invited 1 million children to visit its many plants and learn about the food industry. The company had long been a supporter of the Papalote Museo del Nino (children’s museum), providing the funding support for a school program for children from low-income communities to visit the museum. Over 4,500 children visited the museum every year as part of the program. In addition the company directly supported Crisol, an elementary school for low-income children. In addition, Grupo Bimbo supported the activities of the Mexican Foundation for Rural Development (â€Å"Fundacion Mexicana para el Desarrollo Rural†), an organization with more than 40 years of experience that promoted the development of the agricultural sector, and low-income rural families. The company also supported the Center for Integrated Development of the Countryside, A. C. , (â€Å"Centro para el Desarrollo Integral del Campo, A. C. †), which benefited one of the poorest populations of Mexico in the Nayar zone. In a similar vein, the company supported various development programs for indigenous communities in areas such as health, nutrition, and education, through workshops coordinated by Foundation Mazahua Region (â€Å"Patronato Pro Zona Mazahua†) benefiting more than 20,000 people from the Mazahua area of northwestern Mexico State. All-in-all, Bimbo supported many different projects and organizations (for a list of institutions supported by Bimbo, see Exhibit 12), leading Martha Eugenia Hernandez to conclude, â€Å"We have lots of requests for help and we would love to help everyone. We want to be Santa Claus but we just cannot! It is hard to say no, but it is hard to say yes to everything. † Going Forward There was no question in Daniel Servitje’s mind that the internationalization of Bimbo’s business was important for its growth strategy. In addition to increasing Bimbo’s presence in markets such as the United States or Latin America, he also wanted to penetrate markets where Bimbo was not present or where it was just entering, such as China. An important challenge was to improve international profitability, which was lagging behind Mexico’s operations. But the leadership position it had gained in the domestic market and indeed in many markets of Latin America was something that Daniel Servitje did not want to lose sight of. He recalled the passion and commitment with which his predecessors, his father Lorenzo Servitje, and then his uncle, Roberto Servitje, had led the company. They were able to blend the company’s strategy development and its mission and values. He wondered what he could do for an encore. Bimbo was undoubtedly one of the most respected companies in Mexico. How should he go about continuing the tradition in Mexico and rest of the markets it had entered? 2 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility 509-025 Exhibit 1 Historical Bimbo Sales 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 1980 82 84 86 88 1990 92 94 96 98 2000 02 04 06 2008 Historical Bimbo Sales (1980 =100) Source: Company information. Exhibit 2 Consolidated Income Statement (million dollars) 1980 426 225 201 150 51 (4) 1 47 24 24 0. 4 23 12. 3% 9. 1% 1997 2,302 1,123 1,179 966 214 11 (14) 211 90 121 5 126 10. 3% 7. 3% 2000 3,279 1,435 1,844 1,506 338 (8) (13) 317 130 187 5 192 12. 0% 7. 5% 2006 5,851 2,724 3,127 2,588 539 (27) 12 524 194 330 3 333 15. 6% 8. % 2007 6,653 3,138 3,515 2,926 590 (22) (36) 537 177 366 6 360 14. 0% 8. 7% USD MM Net sales Cost of sales Gross profit Operating expenses Operating income Integral financial result Other income or expenses, net Income before income taxes Income tax expense Net income before participation in partner companies Equity in income of associated companies Net income ROE ROA Source: Grupo Bimbo, 1980, 1998, 2000 and 2007 Annual report, www. grupobimbo. com, last viewed June 5th, 2008. 13 509-025 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility Exhibit 3 Financial Information by Region (million dollars) Mexico 1998 NET SALES OPERATING INCOME EBITDA 1,923 266 338 Mexico 2000 NET SALES OPERATING INCOME EBITDA 2,431 356 443 Mexico 2006 NET SALES OPERATING INCOME EBITDA 4,110 510 634 Mexico 2007 NET SALES OPERATING INCOME EBITDA 4,575 542 686 USA 364 11 23 USA 599 (9) 12 USA 1,399 21 52 USA 1,524 19 51 Latam 238 (32) (14) Latam 249 (9) 9 Latam 490 4 25 Latam 699 25 55 Total 2,524 245 348 Total 3,279 338 463 Total 5,851 539 714 Total 6,653 590 796 Source: Grupo Bimbo, 1980, 1998, 2000 and 2007 Annual report, www. grupobimbo. com, last viewed June 5, 2008. 14 509-025 -15- Exhibit 4 Bimbo’s Products and Brands Division Bimbo Mexico Mexico United States Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela China Barcel Bimbo Bakeries USA Bimbo Latin America Bimbo Asia Country Mexico Brands Bimbo, Marinela, Tia Rosa, Wonder, Milpa Real, Suandy Lara, Lonchibon, Gaby, El Globo, among others Barcel, Ricolino, Coronado, La Corona, among others Oroweat, Mrs Baird’s, Bimbo, Entenmann’s*, Thomas*, Tia Rosa, Marinela, Francisco, Old Country, Boboli*, Weber’s*, among others Bimbo, Marinela, Plus Vita, Pullman, Ideal, Holsum, Trigoro, PyC, Bontrigo, Cena, Fuchs, among others. Bimbo Source: Grupo Bimbo 2007 Annual Report. www. grupobimbo. com, last viewed Sept. 9, 2008. * Under license. Example of products 509-025 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility Exhibit 5 Grocery Retailers Market Share 1999 Wal-Mart Safeway Soriana OXXO Comercial Mexicana Gigante Carrefour Chedraui Costco Casa Ley Comextra 7-Eleven HEB Comercial VH Almacenes Zaragoza Casa Chapa Controladora y administradora de pastelerias Grandes superficies de Mexico Others ( Mostly â€Å"Mom Pops†) Total 0. 8 1. 4 0. 5 0. 2 0. 2 0. 3 0. 2 0. 2 0. 1 0. 9 78. 8 100. 0 6. 6 1. 5 2 1 2 2. 4 0. 9 002 6. 1 3 1. 2 2. 6 3. 2 0. 9 2 0. 6 0. 3 0. 3 0. 3 0. 2 0. 2 0. 1 0. 9 78. 1 100. 0 2004 10. 2 4. 7 2. 6 3. 4 3 1 1. 9 0. 6 0. 3 0. 3 0. 3 0. 2 0. 2 0. 1 0. 9 70. 4 100. 0 2005 11. 5 4. 8 2. 9 3. 4 2. 6 1. 5 1. 8 0. 6 0. 3 0. 3 0. 3 0. 2 0. 2 0. 1 69. 4 100. 0 2006 12. 7 5. 2 4 3. 5 2. 4 2. 1 1. 7 0. 8 0. 5 0. 3 0. 3 0. 2 0. 2 0. 1 66. 1 100. 0 2007 14. 6 5. 7 4. 5 3. 6 2. 4 2. 2 1. 8 1 0. 5 0 . 3 0. 3 0. 2 0. 2 0. 1 62. 7 100. 0 Source: Retailing Mexico, Country market insight, Euromonitor International, May 08 and Retail planet. 16 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility 509-025 Exhibit 6 Views of Semi-Urban MPs Source: Casewriters. 17 509-025 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility Exhibit 7 Bimbo’s CSR Programs Source: Company information. 18 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility 509-025 Exhibit 8 †¢ Bimbo’s Programs for its Associates †¢ Development benefits: ! Development courses for associates o Personal development course: 3 day course on meditation on oneself and life. The topics ranged from ones ideals, work as a means of personal development and community contribution, the company, health and spirituality, role in society, among others. Leadership course for bosses where the motto was: The firm is what its people are and the people are what its boss is. o What is a firm: one day course on the firm? Topics were savings, investment, work, CSR and profits. The firm was explored so that associates would learn the need to have profit and how in a successful firm everyone benefited. o Family integration workshops for associates and their spouses ! Education courses: o Open schooling to associates so that they could finish middle and high school. Online English proficiency courses and on-site English courses o Support for elementary to masters education for associates in Mexico and the United States o Intensive mandatory training course on driving for all sales personnel. o Many production associates wanted to become sales people because wages were higher. Bimbo offered training in sales and driving to production associates so that they could become sales people. o Bimbo offered, in some of its production facilities, summer camps for associates’ children during the summer vacations. ! Savings: Voluntary saving program where 1 to 2% of associates’ wages were kept for a long term etirement savings program. Economic assistance: ! Health: o Bimbo organized a health week where social security came to Bimbo to do preventive medicine tests on associates such as sugar level tests, cholester ol, blood pressure, among other things. o Associates that came out bad in any of the tests were given follow-up checks up throughout the year. o Bimbo had mandatory health checks for associates over 40. o In case of severe health problem, Bimbo helped by putting pressure into the social security system so that the associate got adequate treatment. Bimbo also got private labs to make specialized tests to associates at very low prices. ! Home improvement: o Bimbo organized a home improvement fair through the Mexican institute for home equipment, IMEVI, so that associates could get home improvement credits and better prices on home improvement materials. ! Wills and deeds: o Bimbo got associates special prices with public notaries so that they could regularize their land or home by making deeds as well as wills. Bimbo also helped associates by allowing them to pay for their will or deeds procedures in a monthly basis instead of in a lump sum. Nutritionist and doctor in Bimbo offices to help associates keeping a healthier diet. Company information. Source: 19 509-025 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility Exhibit 9 Obesity and Overweight Prevalence in Mexican Children 1999 5. 3% 5. 9% 1999 18. 6% 2006 9. 4% 8. 7% 2006 26. 0% % Change 77. 0% 47. 0% % Change 39. 7% Obesity in children 5 to 11 year olds Boys Girls Overweight and obesity in children 5 to 11 year olds Boys and girls Source: Compiled by casewriters using data from Encuesta Nacional de Salud y Nutricion 2006, Instituto Nacional para la Salud Publica, http://www. nsp. mx/ensanut/resultados_ensanut. pdf, last viewed July 7, 2008. Exhibit 10 †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Health programs in Bimbo Social marketing campaign advocating 30 minutes of daily exercise through television commercials, billboards, radio announcements and packaging. Futbolito Bimbo Stars Tournament: Bimbo invited 46,000 children to a soccer tournament where they were given information on the need for physical activity and healthy diet. Mail and e-mail distribution of nutrinotas, an information brochure on health and nutrition, to more than 1 million people annually. Distribution of posters promoting good nutrition in 21,000 public and private schools. Distribution of the book â€Å"Living a Healthy Lifestyle† to all Bimbo’s associates throughout the world and to MPs owners. Elimination of transfats from its products. Reduced portion sizes and created products with only 100 calories Decreased fat, sugar and salt in 8% of all Bimbo’s product portfolio Fortified products with iron that was five times easier to absorb. The Public Health National Institute, in its Nutrition and Health 2006 census showed that children in Southern Mexico had an important iron deficiency. Bimbo developed products that appealed to children and met 20% of their daily iron needs Created a new bread that helped reduce cholesterol Participated in the Alliance of the Heart with Pfizer and Lala where 200,000 people were diagnosed and tested, at no cost, for cardiovascular diseases based on indicators such as cholesterol, glucose and blood pressure levels. Bimbo also made efforts to be an exemplary firm by giving talks to associates on health and nutrition, providing nutritionists for consults, having healthy menus in its cafeterias and recommendations to have physical activity in the workplace. Bimbo gave founding to many health organizations such as The Mexican Foundation for Health (FUNSALUD), The APAC foundation –providing rehabilitation for people with cerebral palsy, the Ronald McDonald Children’s Foundation –supporting programs that directly improve the health and well-being of children around the world, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund, the March of Dimes –health education for pregnant women and promotion of folic acid supplements in bread and the Mexican Red Cross. Company information. †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Source: 20 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility 509-025 Exhibit 11 †¢ Impact of Natural Resource Conservation at Bimbo Since 2003, Bimbo decreased its vehicle fleet fuel by 3. 6 million litters and increased their average kilometer per liter by 15% by improved carburetion technology engines and fuel types Since year 2000, Bimbo decreased its energy index per ton produced by 13% and the thermal energy index per ton produced by 34%. Since year 2000 Bimbo had saved 194 million liters of water or 23% of its consumption by water treatment, installing water-treatment systems in plants, collecting water from rain, among other things. By 2008 Bimbo was recycling 85% of their solid wastes through recycling policies. †¢ †¢ †¢ Source: Company information. 21 509-025 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility Exhibit 12 Organizations and Institutions Supported by Bimbo, among others †¢ Educational Institutions: o Instituto Tecnologico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESEM) o Escuela Bancaria y Comercial (EBC) o Universidad de Monterrey (UDEM) o Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) o Instituto de Fomento e Investigacion Educativa (IFIE) Other foundations or institutions: o Televisa foundation o UNICEF o Junior League Mexico City o Papalote Children Museum: from the Support given to the museum, in 2007 4,500 children from public schools and 30,000 children from marginalized communities visited the museum o Fundacion Pro Empleo Productivo o Impulsa o Fundacion Mexicana para el Desarrollo Rural o Patronato Pro-zona Mazahua o Fundacion Tarahumara o Fundacion CIE o Amigos del Museo de Arte Popular: which benefits more than 8 million Mexican artisans Relief efforts: o After the 2007 floods, Bimbo made a campaign to help associates that were damaged by the flood. Over 33,000 associates donated and donations were matched by Bimbo. o In the United States, Bim bo contributed to food drives for the tornado victims in Texas and Kansas International foundations: o Project leaders of the 21st Century (Colombia) o National Park Foundation (United States) o Toys for tots (United States) o United Way (United States) o Junior Achievement (United States) o Institute of the Americas (United States) o Amigos de las Americas (United States) o Young Women Association (YWCA) †¢ †¢ †¢ Source: Social Responsibility Report 2007, Grupo Bimbo. 22