Whats an Excellent SAT Score

What's an Excellent SAT Score SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips The SAT score is one of the most important parts of your college applicationsbecause it’s one of the only things that’s standardized. When all student applicants are taking the same exam, admissions officers can use it as a barometer to compare students that come from different backgrounds, educations, strengths, weaknesses, and intellectual abilities. If all students take the same exam, and all admissions officers look at those exam scores in the same way, then it should be easy to figure out what an excellent SAT score is, right? Not necessarily. Like most things, an excellent SAT score is all relative. In this post, I’ll talk about different types of â€Å"excellent† scores in relation to the entire US, your general peer group, your prospective colleges, and (maybe most importantly) yourself. A Note Before We Get Started: Percentiles When we discuss exam scores when compared to other groups - groups as big as the US student population or as small as your high school English class - we use percentiles. Percentiles are different from percentages. A percent scoretells you what portion of the exam you got correct, whereas a percentile score tells you how you did on the exam compared to everyone else who took it.For example, a percent score of 80% on an exam means that you got 80% of the questions correct. An 80th percentile score would mean that you scored better than 80% of the students who took thesame test. Percentile scores are more meaningful than percentages when we talk about SAT scores, because what’s important is how you score when compared to other students.To give another example, let's say you take a very difficult exam in a large lecture course and only score a 50%. You might be disappointed because you'd assume you scored poorly. If you learned that everyone else in the class scored lower than 50% on their exam, you'd know that you scored in the 99th percentile - that changes your perception of your performance, right? Same thing goes for SAT scores. Excellent SAT Scores for the General US Population Talk about a big comparison group. If you’re new to the SAT and are unsure what SAT scores actually mean, comparing your scores to those of the general population isthe best place to start. The SAT score range isn’t necessarily intuitive, like an exam scored out of 100 points. Seeing how you â€Å"rank† relative to all students is the best way to start understanding your own performance. As you probably know, the SAT is scored out of a total of 1600 points.The average composite SAT score is about 1000 points - around the 50th percentile. An "excellent" score relative to the general population will ultimately depend on your own definition of excellence. For the sake of this post, we'll say that an excellent score sits at about the 75th percentile. This means that if you score at or above the 75th percentile, your score is higher than at least 3/4 of all test-takers. So how do these (and other) percentiles translate into SAT scores? 25th percentile about 840 composite score 50th percentile about 1000 composite score 75th percentile about 1200composite score You can get more detailed information on SAT scores and percentiles here. Given this information, where do you think you would set your "excellence" cutoff? Excellent SAT Scores for Your Peer Group What matters when you apply to colleges isn’t necessarily how your performance compares to that of the rest of the high school students in the nation. What matters is how you compare to kids who are similar to you - similar in terms of background, geographical area, high school type, grades, extracurriculars. You’ll have to stand out against your peers, not necessarily against a student who lives across the country from you with different interests, passions, and activities. In order to determine what SAT scores are considered "excellent" amongyour peers, you need to have a good general idea of what your peers' scores are. SAT scores can be a sensitive topic, so here are some tips for getting information on this: 1. Get average SAT scores for your high school.Some schools have a report available where you can see aggregated SAT scores from past students. If you're not sure about how to access this information, check in with a guidance counselor. They may have their own thoughts about what they consider excellent SAT scores for your school. 2. Get average SAT scores from your classmates. If you want to narrow down your comparative peer group even more, you could consider the average scores of other students in your classes. SAT scores from peers in honors classes should give you an even better idea of excellent peer scores. If you feel comfortable asking around, make an effort to do that - just make sure not to pressure anyone into sharing scores. Excellent SAT Scores for College So now that you have a good idea of how you compare to your peers, you can start figuring out your best target schools based on SAT scores. Now, SAT scores are important for getting you into college, but people don’t tend to care about them once you get in. Your SAT scores don’t have to be at the top of the range (e.g. at the 75th percentile) for the schools you’re interested in attending - that would mean 75% of attending students were accepted with lower scores. Ultimately, they just have to be good enough to get your application considered. (Exception:if you anticipate that your application will be weak in other areas, higher SAT scores than other applicants will help your admissions case.) The best way to figure out what SAT score is likely to get you into a particular school is to look up the school's "middle 50" SAT scores. The middle 50 is the range of student scores between the 25th percentile and the 75th percentile - so if you ranked all the students in a college's class by SAT scores, this would be the score range for the 50% of students standing right in the middle. You can find detailed instructions on figuring out a school's optimal SAT score range. If your SAT is in the top 25% of scores for schools that you're considering (and your application is otherwise strong),you may want to consider applying to more competitive schools. By more competitive, I mean schools with higher average SAT scores and lower admissions rates.There are many benefits to attending a better-ranked school: it's likely to be more intellectually challengingand to have a stronger student body due to a more selective admissions process. A more prestigious school also sends a better "signal" to graduate programs and future employers, potentially leading to better income and career outcomes. If you'd like more information about optimal application strategies, check out our guides on reach and safety schools. Excellent SAT Scores for Yourself Time for some realistic self-evaluation. So you've considered what "excellent" SAT scores are relative to the country, your peers, and your target schools. Although these are all helpful comparison groups, there's one very important factor we have yet to take into consideration: your own abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Excellent scores by more objective standards may come easier to some students than others. Setting unrealistic goals for yourself based on these standards will be frustrating and unhelpful; setting "easy" goals for yourself based on these standards will mean that you sell yourself short. In order to come out of this process with both strong scores and your sanity intact, it's important to consider your own abilities when determining what SAT scores are "excellent." So how do you figure out what an excellent SAT score means for you? 1. Get a baseline score. Study for 10 hours in order to gain basic familiarity with the test and its content before taking a practice test. This will give you a baseline score to work from. Students can often improve 160+ points from baseline with additional test preparation. 2. Reach your own score maximum. Students usually reach a max limit after 40-80 hours of effective, focused studying. Getting that much prep in will mean you are dedicating yourself to excellence by your own standards. How Do You Prepare to Earn Excellent SAT Scores? You might have a roughrange in mind for those excellent scores you're hoping to earn. If not, you'll hopefully get a good baseline score to work from based on the guidelines above. Once you're ready to start working up towards that range, follow the guidelines here for an effective SAT preparation plan: 1. Set a timeline. If you're going to prepare for the SAT, you'll need a reasonable study plan based on how much time you have before the exam. Get instructions on how to do this here. 2. Set a goal score.You won't have anything to work towards if you don't set a challenging, but realistic, goal score for yourself. Start by looking up the "middle 50" SAT score ranges for target schools. You can get up-to-date information on these scores by Googling"[school name] PrepScholar admissions requirements." 3. Stick to a study plan. You can work from a study planspecifically for sophomores, juniors, or seniors, or you can come up withyour own. Try scheduling study sessions in your calendar ahead of time, or letting your parents in on your plan so they can hold you accountable. The better you stick to your plan, the more effective your studying will be. What's Next? Motivated to start bringing up those SAT scores? Here areguides to setting your timeline, SAT reading, SAT writing, and SAT math. If you are running out of time to improve your scores, not to worry - we have last-minute strategy guides as well! Disappointed with your scores? Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points?We've written a guide about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

The Use of Sociological Research in Public Debate Issues of Social Essay

The Use of Sociological Research in Public Debate Issues of Social Deviance - Essay Example On the other hand are the post modernists, who believed that these events are part of sociological change brought about by different factors, and thus, should not be remorsed but embraced. The two principles are governed by sets of reasons, but what drove them to stand is the information brought about sociological research. Sociological research on teenage pregnancy and co-habitation aims to transmit understanding to the people, in such a way that it would reconcile the traditionalist thought and modernist thought; however, it does not deny the possibility of widening the gap between the two principles. Sociology Sociology is the scientific study of the origins and development of organizations and the relationship of each person to their society. There is known to be an irrevocable relationship of an individual’s experiences to the whereabouts of his society; a person affects society as much as society affects the person (Newman, 2010, p. xxii). This seems to be a chicken-and- egg question, but truth remains that not one sociologist can pin point which affects whom and vice versa because society and people are two nondetachable elements. Sociological research’s use is to examine the problems of the society, the reasons of such problems, and if those problems are still considered problems in the modern world, especially that several factors are present influencing social issues. Plummer (2010, p. 3) sees Sociology as a â€Å"critique and wonderer† who continually thinks and appreciate the â€Å"complex patterns of social life.† Complex, in a sense that people’s social thoughts are evolutionary, and sometimes, more negative perspectives than the positive ones show, described by Plummer (2010, p. 4) as a â€Å"march of humanity’s inhumanity.† As varied as the cultures of people, sociological research respects cultural norms. The studies are helpful in beginning to end bigotry, and begin tolerance in understanding oth er cultures and stresses the importance of eliminating bias, although at times it may be unstoppable. Issues such as teenage pregnancy and cohabitation are two most common social deviants, where both are favorite topics of formal and informal arguments. Teenage Pregnancy and Early Motherhood as a Public Issue There are a number of factors which may contribute to the widespread of early sexual experience among teenagers. An alarming 41,329 girls under age 18 became pregnant in 2008 (Rogers, 2010). This statistical record is already around 3% lower than what the nation made in 2007 but the decrease is not really a significant number to rejoice about because it represents only a small percentage of the total pregnant teens’ population. Adding to the reckless potential of the media is the teenagers’ attitude itself towards sexual activities. In Liscio’s (2011) report, the issue holds a different case, mentioning about the brighter side of teenage pregnancy. Accordin g to the study, teenagers are more likely to â€Å"re-engage themselves at school once the baby is born.† This is probably due to a human’s parental instinct, that is one should have a child of his own, it is obligatory to give him or her brighter future. As education becomes a key of having better job opportunities, teenage parents do their best in academic performance. However, this does not make the issue at least acceptable because it is still an ongoing debate whether teenage pregnancy should be accepted as a part of change or should remain as a social taboo subject to restriction of discussion and adaption. Teenage mothers are forced to turn from single life’s luxury and face the responsibilities of motherhood

Memo to CEO on Eva Concept Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Memo to CEO on Eva Concept - Coursework Example What is EVA? The method for determining a company’s true financial performance pioneered by Stern Stewart & Co. adjusts financial reporting to include the cost of capital expenses. Stern Stewart & Co.’s economic value added metric deducts the cost of capital from the net profit after taxes. A company operating successfully, with no accumulation of excess capital or assets may not be performing as well as ratio analysis projects. EVA takes into account the cost of raising capital, as well as normal operating expenses, showing both the current financial health of the company and the economic impact on wealth generation for stockholders and other investors. EVA shows the total net worth of the company after subtracting operating expenses and expenses like dividends to shareholders and lien holders. The resulting numbers provide a solid depiction of the company’s current financial health, though not with the detail offered by ratio analysis. How to Calculate EVA Dete rmining EVA is much less involved than other financial performance tracking methods. The formula for producing a final numerical value is EVA = NOPAT - c * capital. NOPAT stands for net operating profits after taxes, and the â€Å"c† refers to the weighted average cost of capital. Using this simple formula, companies can get a quick glimpse at their total performance. Adding an EVA calculation to an existing financial report is quick, given the financial tracking already in place. Existing documents, tax return, profit and loss statements, ledgers and so on, provide all the needed information to generate a concrete number using the EVA formula. One of the benefits of incorporating EVA in financial reporting is the ability to gain a clear understanding of performance, divorced from any questionable accounting adjustments. Large companies like Enron managed to show positive numbers on financial ratio analysis, even when barely solvent. Including EVA removes that element of risk when generating financial reports. Another benefit to including EVA calculations is the ability to tailor compensation more closely to results. When used to show economic profit after a management change, taking into account the economic profit at the time of the switch, the change in final EVA from then and now show the amount of company profits attributable to the specific management employee or team. Of course, many other factors may influence the final profit outcome, but EVA gives upper management a way to quickly respond to clear improvements implemented on a department level. Showing the Company in the Best Light with EVA Although EVA does not allow for some of the accounting adjustments which make ratio analysis unreliable when used by unethical financial officers, there are still ways to improve the final number. Ultimately, when improving the EVA, a company must either increase total profits or lower total expenses. Restructuring debt can make a big impact on total econom ic profit. For example, if a company earns $7.8M net after taxes, with a weighted average cost of capital at 6.3% and a total invested capital of $26.3M. The formula would then read 7.8 - .0063 * 26.3 = $7.6, showing a company with very strong economic profit. Of course, the total for invested capital would typically be expected to be much higher. Included in that

Food Processing Industry Analysis

Food Processing Industry Analysis 1.0 Introduction A strategic management process like strategy analysis, strategy formulation, and strategy implementation are important for an organization. (Anthony H,2008) 2.0 Strategy Analysis Macro-environment can act as an analysis which provide early warning system for organizations to anticipate threats, opportunities, and develop appropriate responses (Ginter and Duncan,1990) in the discerning trends in general environment which may impact upon its industry and markets. Strategy analysis can make organization to focus on factors and conditions which influence a firms profitability within an industry and focus on predicting the dynamics of competitors actions, responses and intentions. (Anthony H,2008) This tool of analysis will discuss about PEST framework, Porters Five forces framework and SWOT analysis for BreadTalk in BreadTalk Group Ltd. 2.1.0 Analysis of food processing industry 2.1.1 PEST Analysis PEST analysis is a useful tool to help Breadtalk Group Ltd to help detect and monitor all weak signals to recognize the discontinuities or fractures to shape the environment. PEST refers to political, economic, social and technological. i) Political Factors The political factor encompasses all legal elements like legislation, taxation, deregulation philosophies, labour training and etc. (Anthony H,2008) All organization within the food processing industry are forced to innovate and cut costs to remain competitive to prevent new entrants as new entrants will enter the market with lower cost and more clearing understanding of consumer needs by offering more innovative products and services. Increasing globalization and trade barriers has created an opportunity and challenge to BreadTalk as BreadTalk can enter the market by emerging companies in political stable country to explore the new market especially in markets where bread could be luxury but at the same time BreadTalk will have to challenge with all type of sources to source for low cost high quality from world over. ii) Economic factors The strengthening of an economy will generally benefit industries but its effect will vary according to which factors are most affected. The economic factors include interest rate, disposable income, inflation, gross domestic product, unemployment rates, budget deficit and surplus, personal savings rate, business savings rates and exchange rates. (Anthony H,2008) The rise and fall of commodity and raw material and rise in fuel prices all over the world cause the rise of purchasing costs for BreadTalk and the extra cost has to pass over to consumers by increasing the prices of products. The credit crunch can impact BreadTalk as it might decrease the power of purchasing of consumer and BreadTalk may face competition from local small bread retailers who offer at more affordable prices though less delicious to cost conscious consumers. iii) Social factors Social factors include all cultural changes like social cultural within the environment or country and it would influence consumer spending patterns. Social cultural include traditions, lifestyles, values, attitudes, beliefs, tastes, and workforce diversity. (Anthony H,2008) BreadTalk forays into the markets of China and India and social factors come into understanding. Chinese and Indian customers have different culture in lifestyle, and they have different opinions and needs on the current products offered. iv) Technological factors No doubts that major changes taking place in the general environment that are impacting the competitive environment are technological. Technological factors include product innovation, applications of knowledge, new communication technologies and etc. The rapid rate of changes of technology has allowed new entrants to enter the market at a lower cost base. (Anthony H,2008) Modern processes and machinery with many communications devices now can now be used by BreadTalk to ensure the cost of labor and production are reduced and orders to process faster due to globalization and changes in technological factors. 2.1.2 Porters five forces framework The five forces of Porter are, threat of new entrants, bargaining power of buyers, Bargaining power of suppliers, threat of substitute product and intensity of rivalry Threat of new entrants The threat of new entrants is when new competitors decide to enter an industry and reduce profits being earned by incumbent firms and to decrease level of customers loyalty within the food processing industry. (Anthony H,2008) With BreadTalks product differentiation and high brand name recognition and customer loyalty, it will prevent new entrants to enter the market, so the threat of new entrants will be low. Bargaining power of buyers Buyers have the influence power for an industry to force down prices and offer higher quality as consumers purchase represents a sizable proportion of organizations overall sales. (Anthony H,2008) BreadTalk produced products that are potentially lower price for customers as they design its own products and have their own factories. BreadTalk enhance customer loyalty by enhancing existing customer and getting new customers by providing positive shopping experience through good customer services, so the buyer power is high. Bargaining power of suppliers Suppliers have the power of bear or apply in an industry by raising price or reducing the quality of products. (Anthony H,2008) The increase of supplier power is the mirror image of increase buyer power. BreadTalk uses a strategy of building greater loyalty and long-term relationships marketing with suppliers and retailers and then to result in improve performance in work and provide good service to customers. Threat of substitute products or services By having a products or services that meet similar needs will make customers switch to substitutes in response to a price increase on product. (Anthony H,2008) In Singapore, there are many substitutes for bread like hawker centers and restaurants like Delifrance and McDonalds are close substitutes in terms of pricing and perform the same function to sell food. Intensity of rivalry among firms in an industry When an organization exhibit a high level of rivalry, it will cause the industrys profits to reduce because of aggressive competition on price as when rivalry cut down on price, the other organizations will cut down price to sustain in their market positions. (Anthony H,2008) BreadTalk main competitors are Four Leaves, Prima Deli, Q-Bread, Sweet Secrets, Bengawan Solo, and so forth. BreadTalk is facing an intense rivalry competition from both small-scale production like small family-fun in the neighbourhood and large retailers like Sunshine and Gardenia which produce affordable products. Due to this intense competition, BreadTalk attempted to enter Chinas market for diversity purposes. SWOT analysis SWOT analysis refers to strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Strength and weaknesses refer to the BreadTalkss internal environment within the firms control while opportunities and threats refer to BreadTalks external environment which the firm has less control. Strength The BreadTalks concept is unique from the traditional bakeries in the market as BreadTalk has a wide menu of confectionery products like breads, buns, pastries and cakes which allows the menu change on daily basis to satisfy customers varied needs. BreadTalk will introduce new products every four months to cater customers changing taste.(competitive strengths,2009) Other than this, strategic locations is one of the competitive strength. BreadTalks retail outlets are mostly near the public transport systems like bus terminals, the Mass Rapid Transit Stations, and the Light Rail Transport stations.(competitive strengths,2009) Weaknesses There is very much reliant on Singapore with a small domestic market of five million and it is also underserved in the emerging economies of Asia, in result this might drag BreadTalks company performance in long term fairly saturated with little growth in local market. Although BreadTalk offers a wide range variety of products, it does not have halal certificate, so it is very hard and critical to penetrate into the Muslim market, Malaysia market and Indonesia markets. Opportunities BreadTalk oppose its main weakness by expanding and emerge its market in China, Vietnam and other Asian countries with its affordable, low-priced high volume breads. Other than this, the increase of popularity of online shopping has provided an opportunity to BreadTalk to lower expenses by expanding its business into the realm of virtual marketplace. Threats Existing bread related firms like Gardenia, Ya Kun and Sweettalk are also competing BreadTalk directly to offer bread with fillings and more variety of bread, this move will significantly effect on BreadTalks revenue of the sales of bread. If the health conscious alternative like Subway decides to sell low priced bread, BreadTalk will face a challenge. 2.2 Value Chain Analysis There are two analytical tools like Value Chain analysis and Benchmarking to asses whether BreadTalks costs are competitive with those of rivals as is a crucial part of company situation analysis. Value Chain analysis is more suitable for BreadTalk Group Ltd. A companys businesses are consists of all activities undertaken in producing, designing, marketing, delivering, and supporting its product and service which perform internally combine to form a value chain. Value chain analysis was devised by Porter (1985) which helps us to assess an organizations resources to determine its strengths and possible weaknesses. Value Chain contains two types of activities which are primary activities where most value for customers is created while support activities facilitate performance of the primary activities. For bakery goods maker like BreadTalk, its primary activities would be producing bread from raw material to semi finished products by the activities emulsifiers, enzymes, sourdoughs and yeasts, supply chain management, recipe development and testing, mixing and baking, packaging, sales and marketing and then distribution. For its support activities, it would be quality control, hu man resource management and then administration. Value Chain analysis has a few characteristic: To combine costs for all activities in a companys value chain to define the companys internal cost structure To compare a firms costs activity by the activity against costs of key rivals from raw materials purchase to and price paid by ultimate customer To pin point the source of cost advantage or disadvantage on its internal activities 3.0 Strategy Formulation Strategy formulation can be argued that it can constitute differential firm performance and allows BreadTalk to achieve sustainable competitive advantage and to accomplish their objectives and mission. An organization must be mindful of its ability before it can implement strategy during the strategy formulation stage. Business level and corporate level strategy will be discussed as BreadTalk Group Limited used these two strategies to improve the companys performance. Business Level Strategy Business level strategy can work as separating out and formulating a competitive strategy at the level of individual business unit and sometimes referred as strategic business unit (SBU) which focuses upon a particular market or markets for its products and services.(Anthony H,2008) Business unit is needed to devise a strategy to allow it compete successfully to the marketplace and contribute to corporate strategy. Business level strategy can be evaluated by using Porters generic competitive strategies as business strategy is always in pursuit of a sustainable competitive advantage.(Anthony H,2008) Porters seminal work on industry and competitor analysis (Porter 1980) argues that what will drives an organizations performance and differential firm performance and it is also referred as to the positioning of the firm within the industry to take advantage and the attractiveness or profitability of an industry is determined by his five forces framework. Generic Competitive Strategies Performing different activities or similar activities in different ways which will be recognized as being superior to its competitors can create a sustainable competitive advantage. Porter (1980) argues that competitive strategy develop a defendable position in an industry which enable the firm to deal effectively with the five competitive forces and generate superior return on investment for the firm. BreadTalk can achieve it by following these steps; first, BreadTalk can offer its products at a lower price than rivals but without sacrificing the quality of products. Second, BreadTalk can produce differentiated product with premium price for customers who perceive better value than from rival firms, third BreadTalk should choose which market segments to compete within. Porter (1980) developed three generic strategies to help organization to outperform rivals and position itself against the five forces within the industry which are Overall Cost Leadership Strategies, Differentiation Strategies and Focus Strategies. Overall Cost Leadership Strategies This strategy involves firm to be the lowest-cost producer within the industry and target its products and services at a broad market to outperform rivals within the industry as it charge lower prices and its lowest-cost-base can still earn superior profits where the rival simply cannot match. According to Porter, cost leadership strategy require organization to pursue aggressive construction of efficient-scale facilities, vigorous pursuit of cost reductions from experience, tight cost and overhead control, avoidance of marginal customer accounts, cost minimization in areas like research and developments, service, sales force and advertising. (Porter 1980, p.35) BreadTalk generate above-average profitability where intense competitions exist in Singapore. Its lower cost base allows BreadTalk to still earn returns after other higher cost direct main competitors like Gardenia, Four Leaves and my bread (CIMB research report,2009) to competed away their profit through rivalry. A low cost position allows BreadTalk to defend itself against buyers who can only price down to the next most efficient competitor. BreadTalk provide a hedge against any increases in their input prices when facing with the bargaining power of suppliers as BreadTalk is being a low-cost producer. BreadTalk is at advantageous position to compete prices to prevent the threat of entry and acts as barrier to entry. Differentiation Strategies Differentiation strategy means organization produce unique or different products or services at a broad market for consumers and it also acts as an opportunity to meet different customer needs. Customers willing to pay a premium price for unique products and services. The major benefit of this strategy is that rivals will find it difficult to imitate. Organization can differentiate their product offerings like design, brand image, market abilities, reliability, creativity, customer service and so on. BreadTalk different themselves from other bakeries with their open-concept design and space-age looking store facades which actually allowed customers to view the bakers while they are working and it also generated interest in customers of their products.(Unique Concept and Branding,2009) BreadTalk also offer wide range of baked products every four months to satisfy every customers. All the creative and innovative differentiation methods will set BreadTalk away apart from their competitor.(Wide Range of Products, 2009) Corporate level strategy Corporate level strategy can be defined as the scope of the industries and markets within which the organization competes in order to achieve its organizational purpose.(Anthony H,2008) The managers of business units have freedom of action to create their business level strategy with the knowledge of local markets, customers and competitors and show their business strategy ultimately to contribute to the corporate strategy. Corporate parenting exists when an organization is made up with multiple business units which those levels of management that are not part of customer-facing and profit run business within the multi-business organization.(Anthony H,2008) There are many strategies in corporate level strategies like Growth Strategies, related diversification, unrelated diversification and so forth. Growth Strategies Ansoft (1965) invented a matrix to analyze different strategic directions organizations can achieve and there are four strategies for organization to follow, market penetration, product development, market development, and diversification. i) Market penetration Market penetration will increase market share in existing markets by using existing products aiming to get new customers to maximize organizations profits. Organization will improve its products quality and level of service and add on with promotional spend before the firm will achieve market penetration. This strategy is relatively low risk as organization will use the existing resources and capacities to penetrate to the new market. (Anthony H,2008) In 2009, BreadTalk successfully penetrate new markets and also infiltrated in countries like Singapore, PRC, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand with 119 outlets and 182 franchise outlets in Indonesia, Philippines, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, India, Korea, PRC.(BreadTalk Financial Review 2009) ii) Market development Market development involves entering new markets with organizations existing products like targeting new market segments and new geographical areas. Certain social and cultural adjustments will be made to ensure the products will meet the needs of particular geographical market segments. (Anthony H,2008) BreadTalk increase their market share by penetrating their near existing market like Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Taiwan and India with their existing products. BreadTalk has good store locations in Chinas fast multiplying shopping malls which are easy to be found.(Daily Bread,2008) BreadTalk is trying to get halal certificate in order to fully develop its expansion in Malaysia and Indonesia. Other than this, BreadTalk had made some changes on its current existing baked products to fulfill the demand of china and India customer as they have different cultural beliefs and preferences in baked products Product development Product development will develop new products to sell in existing markets. A strategy of product development is necessary where organizations are faced with rapid changes in consumer markets and shorter product life-cycle. In food processing industries, organizations are forced to continually develop new products to keep competitors on the defensive and maintain and grow their market share. (Anthony H,2008) In bakery industries like BreadTalk, BreadTalk has to produce new products to maintain its position in the market to prevent its competitor to overtake it positions as customers will change to competitors products and services if BreadTalk never change its menu of serving. BreadTalk always produce with new baked products every four months to satisfy customer needs to sustain its position in the existing markets. The latest special was spring summer(fresh from oven,2009) Diversification Diversification can be defined as develop new products to serve new markets, in another word, organization that move away from its current products and markets to turn into new products and new markets to broaden its scope of activities are the steps of diversification for organizations. Broadening the scope of the organization can help to spread risk by reducing the reliance of any one market or product. (Anthony H,2008) Not only they offer convenient atypical of other typical bread stores, BreadTalk diversified their business by opening restaurants like Din Tai Fung targeting on family market as their priority market other than relying too much on the competition in the local food processing industries. BreadTalk diversify their operations in other countries like China to open a new market trying to dominate the new market and be dominant by importing the concept of smart food beverage retail and sells western-style baked goods.(Daily Bread,2008) BreadTalk now not only have Bakery business, they have diversified into Restaurant and Food Atria businesses. On 17 December 2007, BreadTalk Group Limited acquires and manages the franchise agreement with J.co Donuts coffee. 4.0 Strategy Implementation The best formulated strategy in the world would fail if the strategy is poorly implemented. In order to implement effective strategies, it requires organization to be sufficiently flexible in its organizational design and effectively communicated and properly resourced, the changes must be clearly understood and properly coordinated with stakeholders inside and outside the organization. Strategy implementation allocates resources for strategy-critical activities and establish strategy-supportive policies and to motivate people to pursue the 4.1 Management issues There are a lot of management issues in BreadTalk like annual objectives, policies, resources organizational structure, restructuring, rewards, resistance to change, natural environment, supportive culture, operations, and human resources to be implemented. BreadTalk has to manage conflicts in the management issues but not all conflict is always bad and no conflict may signal apathy. Conflicts can energize the opposing groups to action and also can help managers to identify problems. (Fred R. David, 2009) According to Chandlers (1962) strategy-structure relationship, he says when a new strategy is formulated, new administrative problems will emerge and cause the organizational performance to declines and then a new organizational structure will be established and finally organizational performance will improve and BreadTalk experienced this issue when they start implementing their formulated strategies. In order to let BreadTalk to be more effieciency, workers must be treated well in order for them to work willingly for the firm as employees are the greatest asset for company. Human resources strategic responsibilities are to assess staffing needs and costs, develop performance incentives, employee stock ownership plans, child care policies, work-life balance issues. (Fred R. David, 2009) By implementing all the extra benefits to workers, it will diverse workforce like improves corporate culture, improves employee morale, increases creativity, increases productivity, enables the organization to move into emerging markets, maximizes brand identity, leads to higher retention of employees, decreases complaints and litigation, decrease interpersonal conflict, reduces training costs and so forth. 4.2 Marketing strategies In a successful strategy implementation, organization will be in a good market and providing and experiencing well services and products and raise needed working capital. Marketing variable will affect success or failure of strategy implementation. Marketing issues like market segmentation and product positioning are centrally important to implementation. (Fred R. David, 2009) Marketing segmentation can be defined as company subdividing markets into smaller segments which can be reached more efficiently and effectively with products and services that match customers unique needs and buying habits while product positioning can be defined as the way of a product defined by customer on important attributes like the place of the product occupies in customers minds relative to compete products.(Kotler P, Armstrong G,2008) BreadTalk is facing problem of marketing segmentation around all its outlets around the world when implementing and formulating its corporate strategy level. 4.2.1 Marketing segmentation Marketing segmentation is linked to corporate level strategys growth strategy on market-development, product-development, market-penetration, and diversification. Market segmentation will directly affect the marketing mix variables like product, place, promotion and price. (Kotler P, Armstrong G,2008) Product Product means the combination of products and services offer by a company to their targeted markets. Product influence can affect on consumer behavior and it is important for the marketers to differentiate their products from competitors to create a perception to consumer that the product is worth purchasing.(J.Paul Peter and James H.Donnelly,2003) In order to sustain and maintain its strong brand name, BreadTalk has to offers more than 150 varieties of baked products, special occasions products and other services to provide more choices to customers and make its company to be different from its strong competitors like Gardenia in order to sustain in the market and success on its strategy formulation. Place Place means how the offer of product available to target consumers. Places of a product and services can influence on consumers buying power. A perfect location of a services or products should be in a convenient and strategic place to ensure consumers can find and buy them easily.(J.Paul Peter and James H.Donnelly,2003) In order to support to its strategy formulation and implement it, BreadTalk only open its outlet location near public transport systems like bus terminals, Mass Rapid Transit, and Light Rail Transport, departmental stores, supermarkets to attract potential customers and to mark down sales territories as having high customer traffic flow is crucial to Breadtalks success of retail outlets and avoid customers change their buying power to competitors offerings. Promotion Promotion means activities that communicate the merit of the product and persuade target customer to buy it. Promotions can influence consumers thoughts, emotions and experiences about purchasing and using the products.(J.Paul Peter and James H.Donnelly,2003) Every 4 months BreadTalk will offer special new baked products with promotion and for normal promotions with discounts for customers so that customers will not get bored and turn to alternative or competitors and inform consumers about products and services while creating favourable images and perceptions. Price Price is the amount charged on the products which need to be paid to obtain the products. The price of products and services often influence consumers whether to purchase them or not.(J.Paul Peter and James H.Donnelly,2003) BreadTalk has to offers affordable prices on their products even sometimes at loss to capture potential customers and capture the loyalty of existing customers as their local competitors are offering lower cost to compete with BreadTalk but at the same times, BreadTalk offers some offerings with higher prices but this will not deter customers to purchase as customer believe their products or services are higher quality or more prestigious . Market Segment Basis Organization must try different segmentation variables in alone and combinations to find the best way to view market structure and there are few major variables mostly used in segmenting consumer markets, the Geographic, Demographic, Psychographic and Behavioral. .(J.Paul Peter and James H.Donnelly,2003) Geographic Geographic can divide a market into different geographical units like region, country size, city size, density, climate and so forth. (J.Paul Peter and James H.Donnelly,2003) Although Singapores population is higher than Madium, singapores competitor is much higher and intense as it is a modern country, Madium has bigger field and resources and it is a potential opportunity for BreadTalks business. Demographic Demographic can divide a market into groups based on variables like age, family size, family life cycle, income or occupation, education, religion, race or nationality. (J.Paul Peter and James H.Donnelly,2003) Madiun is a small city in Indonesia and small population, despite small but there is no store that can satisfy their needs from south to west, but BreadTalk enter the market with its innovative and creative products and they understand what different cultured customer wants as they have been successful in all business wide, from small population to big. Once they obtained the halal certificate, they started to penetrate into muslim markets like Jakarta, Malaysia and then Madiun. Psychographic Psychographic can divide a market into groups based on social class, lifestyle and personality. (J.Paul Peter and James H.Donnelly,2003) Customers in Madiun likes healthy food, BreadTalk as offered four new varieties to compromise as healthy meal and giving the state in rice in their country. Behavioral Behavioral can divide a market into groups based on use occasion, benefits sought, user status, usage rate, loyalty status, readiness stage and attitude toward product. (J.Paul Peter and James H.Donnelly,2003) BreadTalk has developed a strong brand name and brand loyalty to customers, therefore customers are willing and they have the readiness to buy. BreadTalk sometimes will offer promotions to stimulate purchases. 5.0 Strategic Leadership Management issues can be solved by using strategic leadership. Leadership is concerned with creating a shared vision of what and where the organization is trying to aim and achieve, and formulate strategies to bring up needed changes to achieve this vision while management is about coping with the complexity to produce orderly and consistent results. Leadership activities are more to formulating strategy and then motivate and inspire employees while management activities implement strategy and control behavior and solving problems to ensure the strategy is implemented. (Fred R. David, 2009) The role of leader can help creating a learning organization and help to develop in shared vision and shaping the value of an organization. The learning organization can be defined as an organization which facilitates the learning of all its members and continuously transform itself and (Senge,1990) it comprises adaptive and generating learning. Adaptive learning is the ability to cope with change s in ones environment and generative learning is about creating change by being prepared to question the way we look at the world. (Fred R. David, 2009) The chairman of BreadTalk, Dr. George Quek, as known as the founder is a very good leader in leading its marketing team as he has 30 years of experience in the food and beverage industry. The chairman is always assisted by his senior management whom have vast experience in the food and beverage or retail industries, when a leader leads a team successfully, the performance rate will be maximum.

Black Swan Evaluation

Destiny palmer Professor Vicki Schwab 10/26/2012 English 101 Evaluation Essay The Black Swan Evaluation Essay Perfection is a dream chased by many, but only a few ever achieve it. More often than not, reaching that level of flawlessness requires great sacrifice. â€Å"The Black Swan†, directed by Darren Aronfsky, is a captivating psychological thriller set in the world of New York City ballet. The Movie received high ratings and Natalie Portman, who played the lead role of Nina, received praise for performing a majority of the dance scenes herself without much help from a stunt double.The real controversy comes a week after the movie is available on DVD when Portman’s stunt double, Sarah Lane, claims that it was actually she who did the majority of the dancing. According to Lane, Portman’s dramatic transformation into a ballerina – a story firmly at the center of her successful Oscar campaign- was not as impressive as the public was led to believe. â€Å" I mean, from a professional dancer’s standpoint, she doesn’t look like a professional ballet dancer at all and she can’t dance in pointe shoe. And she cannot move her body; she’s very stiff,† says Lane. Katrandjian) She claims that they [the directors and producers] only wanted for Portman to win an Oscar, and that’s their reason for falsely claiming that Portman danced. Otherwise it would not have been that effective of a movie. Others claim that it is not the dancing that won Portman an Oscar, but the way she portrayed an innocent, fragile, and sheltered adult-child who morphs into something perfect and unrecognizable at a fatale expense. â€Å"Black Swan† stars Natalie Portman as Nina Seyers, a featured dancer who is casted as the Swan Queen in the production â€Å"Swan Lake†.Nina is a quiet girl with an innocent demeanor, but also has hallucinations which are why her mother keeps her confined. She strives for perfection, but in order to get the part as the swan queen, she must show herself capable of playing the black swan. The black swan part requires her to not only â€Å"losing herself† but to be â€Å"seductive† in the dance. The audience is able to see the transformation of Nina throughout the movie. Nina’s life is a parallel to the production in which she is dancing. She is pure like the white swan, but later transforms into the polar opposite.She becomes the black swan towards the end of the movie and achieves perfection but only in death. Nina has a thirst for perfection, and it is this thirst that takes her to the edge and ultimately out of her innocence and into adulthood. Jen Chaney, a publisher for the Washington Post, noted â€Å"What impressed me the most about Portman’s work in â€Å"Black Swan†- and, I, suspect, most critics and Oscar voters- was the way she convincingly portrayed a fragile young woman descending into madness. The dance part of it nev er factored into my assessment of her performance†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Chaney).Elizabeth Vargas, an anchor on Good Morning America, hosted an interview with Sarah Lane and others concerning the controversy. Vargas asked Jess Cagle, managing editor of entertainment weekly, â€Å"Do you think that any of the people that voted for Natalie for best actor for the Oscars would not have voted for her had they known that she didn’t do all the dancing for the movie? † Cagle replied â€Å"I can guarantee that it would definitely hurt Natalie Portman, and there was a lot of great dancing that Sarah Lane did that enhanced this performance and helped Portman win an Oscar. (Natalie). The way that a stunt double works is that the director would cast someone of similar height and weight and they would dance in that scene, and later they would digitally graft the face of the actor/actress onto the body. Portman’s face was superimposed onto Lanes body through special effects called â €Å"face replacement† in crucial dance scenes to make it appear as if it were Portman performing the sophisticated moves. The stunt double signs a contract that explains that she might not be featured in the credits. I am unable to say if Lane completely understood the contract.It is possible that lane is unfamiliar with the film industry but slandering the film and actors in it could prevent her from ever being casted as a stunt double in any future major films. It was unprofessional and Lane was told when casted that she wouldn’t receive out right credit. Others feel differently, they feel that Lane should defend the honor and hard work that dancers put into their line of work. Nikol Klein, a professional Ballet dancer, coach, and blogger wrote on her website â€Å"Whoever did the dancing in the movie is not the reason it won anOscar. I understand {as a dancer] that some in the dance community feel that Natalie Portman won the Oscar for her â€Å"Upper Body† portrayal of a dancer, but if you truly watch the film you will see that it is far more than that. Natalie Portman received a much deserved Oscar for her work as an Actress, not as a dancer. In fact, if you watch the movie again you will see that there really isn’t much dancing in the movie at all. Has Lane seen the movie? So why the controversy? One thing that we dancers have is pride.Our profession feeds off of acknowledgement and acceptance. † A lot of what Lane is upset about is how she feels that Portman is claiming that you can become a ballerina in a year in a half. Although this is untrue and was never stated by Portman, actors and actresses do go through intense training for their part. For example, the movie â€Å"Walk the Line†, a film about the life and career about Johnny Cash, Reese Witherspoon actually had to learn to sing like June Carter Cash. Oscars like these are often handed out for full artist transformations.It is part of what acting involve s, which is why the audience saw Reese Witherspoon win an Oscar for â€Å"Walk the Line†. Anytime an actor can mold them into something they’re not, real talent is shown and Oscars are given. It’s been done time and time again. It has been said repeatedly that if Natalie had been honest about her lack of actual dancing, she probably would not have won. When did she ever lie though? In countless interviews I watched, Natalie has always acknowledged the fact that there was indeed a stunt double; they all had one. Needless to say, it was about the transformation that took place.Portman spent year and a half training for this part and had lost a significant amount of weight in order to show the actuality of a ballerina. Lanes statement were followed by a rebuttal in a March 23 2011 L. A Times article in which Portman’s then fiance (now husband), and Black Swan dance choreographer, Benjamin Millepied said Lane’s work in the film was far less significant . â€Å"There are articles now talking about her dance double that are making it sound like [lane] did a lot of the work, but really, she just did the footwork, and the fouett? , and one diagonal [phrase] in the studio,† he said, â€Å"honestly, 85% of that movie is Natalie. † â€Å"Black Swan† editor Andy Weisblum agreed to take a closer look for â€Å"20/20. † â€Å"There are about 35 shots that are full body shots in the movie. Of those 35 shots, 12 are Natalie, and then the rest are Sarah,† Weisblum said. â€Å"But over the overall film, Natalie did a lot more than that. I mean, she did most of the other shots. It was sometimes hard for me to tell the difference as the editor, it was so close. † (Zakarin).As I researched the background history, I came across this statement from Darren Aronofsky, â€Å"Here is the reality; I had my editor count the shots. There are 139 dance shots in the film – 111 are Natalie Portman untouched,â €  he said â€Å"28 are her dance double Sarah Lane. If you do the math, that’s 80% Natalie Portman. † (Zakarin). The point is this movie is one hour and 48 minutes long. Regardless of how many shots were of Lane or Portman, we all know for a fact that 100% of the acting was Portman which Is what makes â€Å"Black Swan† an Oscar winner.

The Crisis Of Mexico And The United States - 1484 Words

Once every 12 years there is a unique opportunity to reinforce the bonds between Mexico and the United States, when our presidential election cycles coincide. For Mexico, the July 1 elections will be a crucial moment that will set the tone for our future and define the US-Mexico relationship for generations to come. Undoubtedly, one of the main concerns that has caused social unrest today is that of security. At this time, violence has made an impact in Mexico and threatens to escalate and surpass the US border. This challenge transcends my country and could have far-reaching consequences for Central and North American security. Unless we act now to solve these common issues, we are placing the future competitiveness and prosperity of†¦show more content†¦In the last decade we have seen dismal economic growth of less than 2 percent per year on average. This is the worst record for Mexico in 70 years, particularly shocking when compared to double-digit growth in other developing countries. We need to quickly move onto a path of sustained growth that will increase investor confidence and provide stability for an eager workforce. The next step in furthering our agenda is to reform the judiciary process. We have to fight impunity and corruption by expediting the judicial process. It is imperative to give individuals and companies confidence in our legal system, which is now slow, unorganized, and unable to deliver justice impartially. This can be accomplished through a more professional investigative service that increases the state’s ability to mete out justice, and by accelerating the switch to a system based on oral trials in order to have an efficient and transparent judiciary. Furthermore, we must professionalize our police forces. We require well trained and equipped police, capable of investigating proficiently and using information and intelligence to perform surgical strikes against the organized mafias, tackling their structures from the top down. It is very telling that over the past 12 years, the corruption perception index in Mexico has worsened from 3.3 to 3 according to Transparency International. In order to fight corruption, we need to unify the

Science Reflection - 711 Words

In the past week, I have had an opportunity in our class to explore past, current, and future views on science curriculum and programming in the early childhood setting. Through our different readings, class discussions, and activities I have also gained some new insights to my own understanding about â€Å"science† as student and educator. For example, the readings from Worth and Grollman (2003) enhanced my perspective me about moving away from a narrow focus when thinking about teaching science. Worth and Grollman (2003) state, â€Å"Given the importance of community and family, and the individuality of each teacher and child, there is no single best science curriculum or program† (p. 3). What I took from this, is educators should avoid thinking†¦show more content†¦I found these suggestions by Worth and Grollman informative because I was previously unaware of these strategies in helping to create and structure science lessons. As someone who struggles with s cience content, this provides me with some helpful suggestions for my practice. I recognize it is tools and strategies like the ones offered by Worth and Grollman that can make a difference in my future science curriculum development. I understand I need to continue to develop my science content knowledge through searching out reading like Worth and Grollman. In addition, I also found two interesting points in the reading by White and Stoecklin (2008), I believe will inform my teaching of science to children. First, I found intriguing White and Stoecklin’s (2008) introduction of the concepts of biophilia and biophobia. These two concepts were completely foreign ideas to me. In other words, students have an inability to find comfort or pleasure in natural environments, experiences, wonders or things unless they are exposed to nature. I recognize this issue may have a more significant influence with the use of technology to teach science. 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